….The Australian Border Force say that there is no mass hunger strike in Western Australia. But our sources inside are adamant that there is. And we’ve heard leaked audio that backs that up.
We’ve also asked for comment from the New Zealand Government. This is of course has been a diplomatic issue between the two countries for several years now. And one that Corrections Minister, Kelvin Davis, has been very vocal about in the past. But there is no word tonight from the New Zealand Government. And many detainees feel they could do more.
Kelvin Davis was “very vocal about this in the past”. That is true. But that of course was during the lead up to the last election, before he was returned to his seat in parliament as the member for Te Tai Tokerau.
Since then Kelvin Davis has been virtually silent on the issue.
“In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies … but the silence of our friends.”─ Martin Luther King
No one with any sense voted for Labour after 84. For the lack of choice , spoiled my ballot in 87.
It is a continuing theme of radical propaganda and back-tracking in power. Can someone suggest a good analysis of Lee’s ‘Simple on a Soapbox’. Definitely Lee had an ego but all the figures of that time appear conservative in his vista without the caucus’s voting. ‘We’ll be the laughing stock of the world’ said MJS about the 30 shilling old age pension.
Do you really expect the New Zealand government to tell Australia how it should run its prisons/detention camps?
The PM has certainly been quiet on the issue when she advocated the whole issue of detainees/illegal immigrants around 12 months ago. The pushback from Turnbull was quite severe. I think the (then new) government got the message loud and clear not to tell the Australians how to run their country.
One would have assumed someone with your experience Wayne would know the difference between telling another country what to do and standing up for your own citizens.
The latter being what one assumes Jenny was implying.
Fist point; The australians do run a first world justice system and expect New Zealand to understand that.
Second point, and really the key one I was making; the New Zealand government very quickly learned not to lecture Australia, and that seems to include Kelvin Davis.
The treatment and conditions resulting from this first world justice system is what is in dispute.
To not be seen standing up for your citizens (or to even bother to comment) will create flak at home. More so, if one was previously immensely vocal before being elected into power.
“The australians do run a first world justice system”
No – they run a two-tier system – a first worldish one for Oz citizens and a different one for everybody else. They do this unashamedly in order to deter backdoor immigration, because Australia is still a place that lots of people want to get to. With 2.5 to 3 degrees of warming it will be a place people are desperate to leave. That will be a grim sort of poetic justice.
“Do you really expect the New Zealand government to tell Australia how it should run its prisons/detention camps”
No – I expect it to kowtow to superior economic and military power. But while doing this, I don’t expect it to utter the sort of dull, grey, turgid, privilege and injustice-defending bromides that would make it sound like Wayne Mapp.
Do you really expect the New Zealand government to tell Australia how it should run its prisons/detention camps? Of course.
Why? So then the likes of those who say Davis is silent would be able to criticise him, accusing him of butting into Australian affairs and how he’s an embarrassment to our country for doing that.
Diplomatic issue? The issue is that Davis has to make a choice between being attacked mercilessly for outwardly putting the boot into the Aussies or for not overtly putting the boot into the Aussies. Attacked by the same people.
He isn’t in the headlines about it so he’s doing nothing. Let’s attack him about that too. And if he is in the headlines saying he’s doing something and there’s an outline of constructive steps towards some constructive resolution, lets attack the media outlet as a mouthpiece for the left.
And if constructive steps get the people put on planes to New Zealand and one of them does something wrong, stupid or bad, let’s blame Davis for getting them into the country and boot him again.
It’s a political issue. That’s when you get someone saying, “Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. The silence of Kelvin Davis.”
Hi Pete, I really can’t understand where you are coming from.
Without any evidence at all you slyly accuse, myself, and presumably others, of criticising Kelvin Davis when he is silent about the plight of the detainees, and also when he speaks up for the detainees, saying, “how he’s an embarrassment to our country for doing that”. This is a complete lying smear. For the record I was very much in support of Kelvin Davis’ early advocacy for the detainees, and would be very pleased to see him take up their cause again..
In future Pete, instead of engaging in broad smears, you need to say exactly who it is you claim is criticising Kelvin for standing up for the detainees, and who also criticise him for not standing up for the detainees. And provide some sort of evidence to back up your claims.
Do you really think the Australian Authorities are going to admit what is going on in their Detention Centres. The Australian Government has not had a good history of dealing nicely with indigeneous races, and come to think of it we have not been super good here in New Zealand as well IMHO ?
we must not forget who and what is waiting in the wings…
… Because we’re all so obsessed with Trump I don’t think we take enough time to reflect on how deeply terrifying Pence is. Trump may be a bigot, but Pence is a zealot – he believes his discriminatory views are justified by a higher power. Trump may not care about morals but Pence has a dangerous view of what morality entails. He refuses to eat alone with any woman who isn’t his wife, for example, because he apparently views women as nothing more than dangerous sexual temptations. And despite his beliefs about moral purity, he has no problem associating himself with Trump, a man who pays off porn stars. Also, he reportedly calls his wife “Mother” – which is just really creepy.
The Pences, of course, should be free to believe whatever they like. What they shouldn’t be free to do, however, is impose their bigoted views on everyone else, which is exactly what they’re doing. It is not entirely improbable that Pence might be president soon. If that happens then it seems clear he’ll do his best to turn the country into a real-life version of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Congratulations to Mariah (Carey) for having the best response to the nauseating #10YearChallenge that is currently everywhere on social media. “I don’t get this 10-year challenge, time is not something I acknowledge,” she tweeted alongside two identical pictures of herself. This will now be my go-to line for my editor every time I file copy late.
America, in a yet another public display of it’s new role as now unashamed authoritarian world bully boys and corporate enforcers which of course leads to it’s complete lack of regard for free press (when it suits them), has detained with out charge Press TV’ s journalist Marzieh Hashemi for over six days so far.
And while we are on the subject of free press, here is a piece well worth reading from Aaron Mate on The Nation dismantling more of the increasingly hysterical and unhinged ‘Russia Gate” conspiracies…
Of course you wouldn’t know that the whole Russia Gate conspiracy just one huge smoke screen reading or listening to msm, and unfortunately many on this site.
So while we have all had to hear endlessly week after week to this conspiracy theory (which is all it is at this point) that always goes nowhere, the Democratic party and Hillary Clinton have had to take exactly zero responsibility for losing to a half brain dead z grade TV game show host, why is that?
If you are a Russia gate believer, maybe this is the question you should start asking yourself…
Well, duh. If it was, Trump would be making a prison cell look even uglier than it already did, and we’d all be contemplating President Pence and thinking you really do need to be careful what you wish for. Most criminal investigations don’t feature a “smoking gun,” that’s why we have juries – and why they take longer than five minutes to reach a verdict. That doesn’t make those criminal investigations “conspiracy theories.”
And that’s an important point. Juries are often advised by the judge to arrive at a decision based on `the balance of probabilities’, aren’t they? Which is just as elegant way of saying `take your best guess, folks’.
So, in practice, courts decide more often on the picture painted by circumstantial evidence than on proof. Which is where Mueller III’s unprecedented breaking of media silence comes in.
“Cohen was sentenced in December to three years in prison for lying to Congress, campaign finance violations and financial crimes. He said he took full responsibility for his crimes, but said he acted out of blind loyalty to Mr. Trump, who he said “led me to choose a path of darkness over light.””
“During his nomination hearing this week to become attorney general, William P. Barr was asked if the president would have committed a crime if he had coached a witness to testify falsely — or not to testify at all. “Yes,” Mr. Barr said. “Under an obstruction statute, yes.”” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/us/politics/buzzfeed-cohen-russia-tower.html
The day before Buzzfeed reported evidence that Trump had committed that crime. Mueller III yesterday denied that was accurate. He obviously felt he had to – because of that bunch of calls for him to act by leading congressmen. Looks like he doesn’t have a basis to act against Trump. He’s been gathering circumstantial evidence to paint the picture for two years. Not enough.
As I presume you know “balance of probabilities” is about civil trials. Anything to do with impeachment/Russia collusion is on the criminal standard of “beyond reasonable doubt.”
Thanks Wayne. No, I’ve never studied legal process. Just have the view of the average layman – a general idea of how the system works picked up from long-term observation. Beyond reasonable doubt sounds like a requirement of proof to me.
Buzzfeed used the agreement of two ex-govt officials as basis for their claim that the proof exists. Mueller III denied that their claim was accurate. Sounds like the evidence is debatable: proof to some, not to others. This discord around evidence has long been a phenomenon in science: evidence can be interpreted as proof, but opinions often differ. Even between experts!
Uhhh, when it comes to impeachment and conviction, it’s whatever at least 218 House Representatives and at least 67 senators agree are impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanours”, to whatever standard of proof they agree on. Impeachment and conviction is not a criminal proceeding, and it’s different to a civil matter as well.
It is literally correct to say that if said numbers of Congresspeople agreed that what Individual-1 does with his ties are impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanours”, he’d be outta there. Article 1 of impeachment could be the way he wears them way too long to point at the wizened Toad lurking in his trousers. Article 2 of Impeachment could be the way he uses sellotape to vainly attempt to hold the two dangly bits together.
John Roberts as the presiding justice over the senate trial could put as much effort as he wanted to into pointing out how fkn ridiculous it was, but in the end, if 67 senators voted to convict. it’s a done deal. The more likely procedural way to protect Individual-1 would be for the Senate Majority Leader, aka Yertle McConnell, to refuse to even bring the matter to the senate floor for consideration.
“An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers to be at a given moment in history; conviction results from whatever offense or offenses two-thirds of the other body considers to be sufficiently serious to require removal of the accused from office.”
Funnily enough the powers that be seem to (so far) be entirely relying on the public believing the “smoking gun” theory.
You seem to not realise that “Smoking gun” refers to the strongest kind of circumstantial evidence, as opposed to direct evidence. ie…
The smoking gun theory is as follows….
“Trumps been to Russia and wanted to build a Russian Trump Tower;
There are Russians on the internet putting up adverts and #fake news supporting Bernie/Trump/Stein and these have been amazingly successful at…
getting disenfranchised whites in the rust belt all rilled up (which makes no sence ‘cos there lives/wages/housing/health and that of their children are getting better and better with each passing year)
and getting African Americans all rilled up and resentful (which also makes no sence ‘cos there lives are sweet as too);
Bernie and Trump did well;
Its simply not possible that the public no longer believe in the Corporate Democrats ability to deliver change and (cough) ‘Hope’, and that the public would willingly vote for the likes of Trump or Bernie or Stein, therefore……Trump is a Russian stooge.”
(The smoking gun theory also involves ignoring how much the Democrats/Hilary spent, because apparently the Russians are way way better at pushing their message than any of the agencies working for Hilary)
Oh it’s a conspiracy theory alright, and why any critical thinking person is still buying into it’s bullshit constructed narrative is for me the strangest part of the whole thing..quite disheartening really.
With that in mind I think we need tolay out the cards here and face the facts, Russia gate conspiracists are willing to accept, defend and support the narrative of Ex Bush FBI head Robert Mueller and his various (seriously) dodgy co conspirators over established truth tellers like Glenn Greenwald, Robert Fisk, John Pilger, etc etc….
Well as the old saying goes, ‘you make the bed you lie in’
But I guess on the bright side you always have the in depth hard hitting reporting of the liberal turned war hawk Racheal Maddow to keep you up to date ha.
Robert Fisk as an established truth teller? Isn’t he the discredited journalist who was found to have made up stories & treated them as investigative journalism? Maybe he now works for Buzzfeed ?
I remember reading in the NZ Herald quite a few years ago how Robert Fisk came in for some heavy criticism from other journalists, who said he always seemed to get a very detailed story, when others said they were always suspicious of him.
The first link is to an apology by Fisk for writing an article in 2011 in which he quoted from a forged document (unknown to Fisk at the time), hardly a reason to discredit a journalist with decades of solid war reporting.
BTW your linked source HonestReporting (Defending Israel from Media Bias) also defends Israeli violence against unarmed civilians..detaining children in prison..etc etc
HonestReporting’s Top 10 Posts of 2018 https://honestreporting.com/honestreportings-top-posts-of-2018/
As far as Idrees Ahmad’s (whom I admire) piece goes, that is more problematic, the Syrian conflict is so complex, that I personally try to stay at some distance from it, so i can’t really comment on that article.
But I can see your position re’ Fisk if that is your view on the Syrian conflict nonetheless.
Not sure about the Syrian conflict, but seems some people are now saying Fisk is a stooge of Assad & the Russians. Have no idea if this is even true & in the end all journalists have to be paid by someone. Truly being independent is maybe a difficult thing for journalists to achieve.
Difficult to know re Fisk, but I do remember a lot of journalists saying that he always seemed to get the perfect story which seemed to be embellished.
Tamati is right – we live in societies still struggling with their colonial past. In Aotearoa it is hard to appreciate that there was once a time when it was considered acceptable to exterminate indigenous people.
In Australia ‘Kriol’ is a relatively new Aboriginal language with upwards of 20,000 speakers in the Northern Territory and the neigbouring Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is a creole language – meaning it is a kind of emergency language with specific origin.
It arose early this century when surviving members of decimated language groups congregated at the Roper River Mission in order to escape killings being carried out by cattle station companies. Many adults were multilingual – but not in the same languages. Children had often not developed full language competence .
In this situation the only form of communication was a pidgin which had entered the Northern Territory a few decades before with the cattle trade.
It is easy to forget this history in urban centres but like an old coral reef it repeatedly resurfaces when conservative parties with a strong rural base hold sway in Canberra.
I notice the self-satisfied expression of the one young white man who stands in front of the American Indian (Nathan Philips of the Omaha Nation). His tight smile says you can’t make me move, and you can’t touch me.
I keep seeing the left criticize Trump for stating MAGA. Claiming he wants to bring back racism, slavery and segregation. What a bunch of cucks.
Let’s set the record straight. We are going back to a Great America.
An America where the people trust the government.
An America where we are proud of the USA.
An America where we don’t fear terrorist, but terrorist fear us.
An America where getting a job and livable wage is easy.
An America where we create wealth and prosperity.
An America with a tax surplus and not a multi-trillion dollar deficit.
An America where anyone can afford to go to the hospital.
An America where everyone can go to college.
An America where people aren’t afraid of police.
An America with more schools than prisons.
An America that upholds the bill of rights.
An America that spends money to fix itself before “fixing” the world.
An America where “Made in USA” is cheaper than “Made in China”.
An America that doesn’t have one way tarrifs.
An America that doesn’t allow threats of war from other nations. Looking at you North Korea.
An America that stands for Freedom and Democracy.
That’s the America we are going back to. That is the future. No more free rides for fake allies. No more fake diplomacy while Americans die to terrorist. No more corrupt secret deals. No more profit at the expense of American lives.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!!
FUCK YOU CLINTON, CTR, DEMOCRATS, AND ANY OTHER FREEDOM HATING TRAITORS!
Those thick youth look like cardboard cutouts compared to the native elders. Those young adults are nothing, not even dust, gone, evaporated back to their nothingness.
“The students, many of whom were wearing “Make America Great Again” caps, from private, all-male Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills were in Washington for an anti-abortion rally on Friday when they were filmed surrounding Nathan Phillips and mocking the Native American’s singing and drumming.”
Frankie the Pope has a message for the little shits.
Pope Francis on Friday addressed a video message to the world’s young indigenous people holding their World Indigenous Youth Gathering in Soloy, Diocese of David, Panama, from January 17 to 21. The young people will then move on to Panama city to join the World Youth Day (WYD) 2019, January 22-27, which the Pope is joining on January 23.
Speaking in Spanish, the Pope is encouraging the indigenous young people to hold on to their cultures and roots by fighting marginalization, exclusion, waste and impoverishment that is threatening them and build another world that is possible and that is more just and human.
[…]
Return to native cultures. Take care of the roots, because from the roots comes the strength that will make you grow, prosper and bear fruit. It must also be a way of showing the indigenous face of our Church in the context of WYD and of affirming our commitment to protect the Common House and to collaborate in building another possible world, that is more just and more human.
“But lesser known are the (Monty Python) troupe’s other feature-length films, including 1983’s “The Meaning of Life.” Amidst a dinner party with Death and a machine that goes “ping!”, audiences are treated to one of the weirdest, most catchy astronomy tunes out there: The Galaxy Song…
… just how accurate is the science? Let’s take a look!
[What’s going on, cobber? Your last few comments look like you’ve walked away from the laptop and your pet hamster has tap danced on the keyboard. If you want to put a link up, please add a short explanation of its relevance. Don’t want to waste people’s time, ae? TRP]
Anyone watch Go South on Prime last night? Really awesome piece of TV. Hopefully this will manage to get on TV networks all round the world. Do more to promote NZ than anything else.
A predictable opinion piece in today’s Herald website by Lawrence Yule National MP for Tukituki and spokesperson for horticulture. Nowt, zip, yadda, nil, nothing about the orchidists paying their workforce a decent wage – but he reckons the Government has a role to play to help them out. Poor petals. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12193308
A leaked poll commissioned by the pro-EU Best for Britain campaign suggests that voters would be less likely to back Labour if the party was committed to stopping Brexit.
According to the poll, passed to the Guardian, almost a third of respondents said they would be less likely to vote Labour, a similar number to those who said it would not make a difference. Twenty-five per cent said it would make them more likely to back Labour, with the rest saying they did not know.
it is not cake and eating it too, rather it is combining representative democracy and direct democracy.
So with that in mind in this case: An election is held that combines the Tory platform with the favored brexit approach of it’s support base (which is looking for the maximum separations with the EU) & the Labour combines it’s platform with the favored brexit approach of it’s support base (which is looking for a continuation of partnership with the EU as much as possible).
Then the representatives of the election result, negotiate their balances to the differences and trade offs with the EU and their supoort base platform, so it remains a winning process for the electorate’s involvement in the process. And either way the election goes, there remains strong bargaining power for the British side.
And i believe, at heart, it is probably that simple in how to complete the process started with the referendum in a way that is diplomatic to all concerned.
Like everyone I’d always believed that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. And then I read this:
The Black Horse
When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!” (Revelation 6:5-6)
And realised that the The Black Horse wasn’t famine at all.
Good riddance to New Zealand’s Biggest Bogans
by E. KERR McROVI, The N.Z. Gerald, Sunday 20 January 2019
You would have to wonder what this country’s Biggest Bogans were doing when they chose the New Zealand taxpayer to fund their calumny from 2008 until we gave them the arse in 2017.
Did they think we were complete saps, willing to roll over and accept their appalling anti-social and criminal behaviour? That we were too primitive and unsophisticated to galvanise ourselves into a posse of right-thinking community policemen and women? A little bit of homework would have shown that we have spectacularly good form in bringing down even highly trained criminals, far less amateurs.
But just to recap … That bunch of foul mouthed, bribe-taking, snitching, backstabbing, housing expenses-rorting, cigar smoke-blowing, hairpulling louts made headlines on a daily – nay, hourly – basis. Since award-winning journalist Nicky Hager exposed to the nation in 2014 that their leader had allowed his office to be the command centre for an illegal, secret campaign of character assassination and vilification run by the infamous and disgusting Cameron FailAll Slater, assisted incompetently and pathetically by his stumble-tongued slave Jordan Williams, this gang of reprobates ran our country’s reputation into the ground with the same lack of concern as their dirty dairy friends foul the water the rest of us used to drink and swim in.
The gang of thugs parked up at the Beehive for nine terrible years quickly drew the attention of Kiwis thanks to their filthy language and their filthy behaviour. [1] When a local woman suffering from asthma asked one of them to stop smoking a cigar in their enclosed box at a football match, the feral fellow turned particularly nasty. Instead of ceasing to smoke, he walked up to the woman and blew smoke in her face. This led to the woman’s husband nearly knocking Coleman’s brains out. [2] And thus it began.
As a result of the publicity over the cigar fracas, a number of people approached the Herald with their own horror stories of encountering the nation’s Biggest Bogans.
A man who had the great misfortune to share a flight with one of these appalling humans recounted his bad behaviour at Christchurch Airport in 2014. It was hours of misery for everyone involved, when the fattest and most unpleasant of all the Bogans bumptiously bypassed security to board a domestic flight. He was fined $2,000 for that bit of idiocy. [3]
Next, a young waitress from Parnell came forward to complain about the leader of the Unruly Gang. She recognised the lout from his many appearances in the media and told how he and his people had come to her cafe and repeatedly pulled her hair while his wife just watched. [4]
Another of these antisocial and repulsive pests was caught by one of our leading artists in the act of befouling our waterways, along with his horrid dirty dairying amigos. [5]
This Unruly, Unholy Mob had no idea just how effective New Zealanders can be at monitoring aberrant behaviour. Those of us who are honest will remember that the gangsters who ran that vicious and secret campaign of character assassination from Wonky John’s office were exposed not by this country’s counter espionage agents or even our investigative police officers. The hapless bumbling tossers in charge of the operation were exposed thanks to a concerned computer expert (“Rawshark”) who had clocked a number of odd incidents and reported them to the renowned journalist Nicky Hager.
So this group of professional louts never had a chance of slipping under the radar. The reaction to these no-hopers was an excellent example of what can happen when we work together.
Spoke to my m8 yesterday who’s grandfather played for Liverpool, about the Liverpudlian gypsies touring New Zealand he reckons they are Northern Ireland protestants one of the worst breed of people on the planet.
‘ That bunch of foul mouthed, bribe-taking, snitching, backstabbing, housing expenses-rorting, cigar smoke-blowing, hairpulling louts made headlines on a daily – nay, hourly – basis. Since award-winning journalist Nicky Hager exposed to the nation in 2014 that their leader had allowed his office to be the command centre for an illegal, secret campaign of character assassination and vilification run by the infamous and disgusting Cameron FailAll Slater, assisted incompetently and pathetically by his stumble-tongued slave Jordan Williams, this gang of reprobates ran our country’s reputation into the ground with the same lack of concern as their dirty dairy friends foul the water the rest of us used to drink and swim in.’
M8’s name is Murphy not sure what his grandfather’s name was but I will ask him the next time I talk to him and let you know, probably feeding me B/S, never thought to ask.
Kia ora the am show There you go duncan kicking the poor vulnerable people.
Its a lollie scramble in the house building boom in Taungara that’s the capitalist way charge what ever one can get from the buyer.???????????????????????????????.
simon you way of running the country into the ground look at what has happened hundreds of people under the bridge and you spout about they way shonky run the country. national sold half of the power companys and in just 5 years the money raised buy the sales of those crown jewels has been losted in capital gain’s and dividend’s a gift to their wealthy share market m8 of 5 billion tipcal national kick the poor vulnerable people.
Alcohol related death’s in NZ IS 600 to 1000 how many die from weed can not find any from consumeing it enough said.
Jason its quite hot in Australia at the minute can cook a egg on the bonnet of a car and your prime minister wants to build more coal power plants that burns heaps of carbon and use heaps of WATER.
I say Michael Mosley diet will be good .Drop the sugar and have porridge in the morning is a good way to to stop the hunger pangs and lose weight it makes the body work to digets it to .
The biggest hitts the tax system’s get is fraud that comes from the white collar crime there was a figure of $1 billion in the media .Goverments and council’s fraud. I say that figure is the tip of the Iceburg.
Global warming it the biggest threat enough said Ka kite ano P.S Mahi ki hoariri
Unequal income distribution is what causes a lot of our society problems health crime slow economy low education levels also Unequal income affects Wahine the people whom raise our tamariki the most .
How unequal is New Zealand?
In New Zealand, income (and probably wealth) was being shared out more and more evenly from the 1950s up until the 1980s – but for the next two decades we had the developed world’s biggest increase in income inequality.
As the graph (at left) shows, in that time, the average income of someone in the richest 1% has doubled, from just under $200,000 to nearly $400,000 (adjusting for inflation). In contrast, the average disposable income for someone in the poorest 10% is only slightly higher than it was in the 1980s. (More details and the source of this graph can be found in Wealth and New Zealand, published by BWB.) That means many New Zealanders struggle to pay their bills and lead a decent life.
Another way to put it is that someone in the richest 10% used to earn five times as much as someone in the poorest 10%; now they earn eight times as much.
Wealth is also very largely in the hands of a few. As the graph (below) shows, in New Zealand the wealthiest tenth own nearly a fifth of the country’s net worth, while the poorest half of the country has less than 5 per cent. That leaves many people in poverty, lacking the resources they need to participate in society and follow their dreams. (Again, further details are available in Wealth and New Zealand.)
What is the connection with poverty?
Inequality connects both ends of the spectrum, wealth and poverty, and argues that they have to be looked at together. The fundamental issue is distribution: how are the economy and society structured, and where do they deliver their rewards?
In other words, poverty doesn’t exist in isolation: people are poor, in part, because the economy directs much of the country’s resources to those who are already doing well. For instance, within a company, pay for ordinary staff can be low because so much of the company’s income goes to senior management and shareholders.
Wealth and poverty can’t be separated.Polling shows New Zealanders have consistently rated inequality as the single biggest issue facing the country since 2014. Over 80 per cent of the country say they are concerned or very concerned about income and wealth imbalances. Internationally, all the world’s major economic bodies – including the IMF, the OECD and the World Bank – have argued for some time that inequality is a major problem and must be addressed. Ka kite ano links below
Here you go the goverments don’t mesure the % of income that the people pay and in the poor peoples case with gst at 15 % we the poor pay the higest % of taxs to income ratio. And the rulers wonder why MAORI are so upset with OUR lot this system is dishing us up Ana to kai
Do the rich really pay the most in tax?
The rich don’t really pay that much in tax – and to the extent that they do, it’s because they get the biggest chunk of the income
The government likes to say that the richest 15% of households (those earning over $150,000) pay three-quarters of all the “net tax” .
The problem with this measure is that it isn’t really about tax. It does start with the amount of income tax paid by different groups – but it then does complicated calculations about how much those groups received in benefit payments, the accommodation supplement, paid parental leave and Working for Families. Those figures are subtracted from the amount of tax paid by each group, to arrive at a strange sort of “net financial contribution to the government’s books” measure.
More useful figures about income tax are in the graph below, which shows how much of our national income goes to each of the country’s ten income groups – and what proportion of the total tax take they contribute
None of these figures, of course, includes capital gains (income made from selling assets such as houses and shares), because we don’t for the most part either tax or record those capital gains.
If we did, since those capital gains will go largely to the richest tenth, the truth about tax in New Zealand is that the rich almost certainly pay less of their income in tax than the poor do. ka kite ano links below
You see people 4 % is what drips off the wealthy’s plates for maori to fight over and some still have the gaul to moan about what Maori/minority cultures get from the system . TIMES ARE GOING TO CHANGE.
Eco Maori say mandatory voting is what is need to get a fair representation for all Kiwis at the minute the pollies are to scared to tackle the big issues that will upset the retired babyboomers whom 98% vote . If everyone votes the politicians will listen to the poor people more.
Kia ora Newshub Some of those Wai falls around Auckland has some old Maori history.
House prices are expensive in Aotearoa at the minute all part of shonkys plan.
I saw that video of that old Native American that was being taunted by that boy so disrespectful those young people are Alot of people are disrespectful these days the old fella was a War veteran to. Public expenses in Aotearoa was one of the lowest in the world so was our grocery prices low as compared to the rest of the World 10 years ago.
If the trees are dangerous ie fall over in bad weather they should be felled but one would think the council would follow dew process after all they set the examples.
That was lucky that no one was hurt in that bombing in Ireland I smell something.
The Orca video under the artic ice is really cool see those Orca have smaller dorsal fins than the ones around NZ. I did not see much publicity on the marine sanctuary being set up around the Ross Sea??????????.
Ka kite ano.
Kia ora Newshub it’s good for our farmers that Jacinda has got a export deal with Britain I still say Britain should stay with the European Union. As for the Air forces Gropper its the same as the roast busters the state white coller people bending the laws to protect there m8. That’s why there is a status of limitations LAW to protect government people from getting held accountable for all the cheating they did while in power.A new government find there dirty deeds cannot litigate against the cheats. The man made drug problem the pills what ever man made drug problem is here and now because the state spent all its resources farcicaly fighting weed that is practically harmless when compared factual with other forms of drugs and ignore these other drugs that has killed many people shonkys the ring leader is the ring leader. duncan your a alt right red neck who thinks a Wahine place is behind a MAN your views change like your underwear. Like I have said the world’s laws are made to protect the ruling classes and hammer the poor people that’s a fact. I have all read put a post up about the gropper ropper CASE.
I won’t wait for shonky who should be hiding under a rock after the Big mess he has made of Atoearoa. Ka kite ano P.S to busy with our Mokopunas
Yea wealth is OK so long as shonky doesn’t have control of it and give it to the few while the many have to struggle to survive its OK if wealth is shared it is well documented that a equal society is much happier and healthier when your share the lollipops I get it wealthy people get a logical block from their $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Quite a common phenomenon around Papatuanukue that has caused all the ills of Papatuanukue don’t worry common people money is going to be a thing of the past we will have a currency that has a consciousness connection to it any cheating people will go broke. Ana to kai Ka kite ano
There you go shonky is a alt right trump supporter trump is ripping of the poor common people like shonky did and giving it to his rich m8 bullshiting about trumps popularity in America Ana to kai Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub It’s cool Jamie Lee Ross is OK more drama for national I see one of their biggest spin doctors is not in good shape.
A tree falling on people picnicking at the shot over river condolences to the people who were involved in the incident Tawhirirmate is a powerful force.
Jacinda is determined to keep Aotearoa exporters to Britain in the good tradition trading partners Ka pai.
Aotearoa is a haven but trying to sail hear in over loaded unsafe boat is a risk to great to make we get some big seas here in the Pacific.
national flogging the same horse weed benefit bashing sorry they won’t get anyone attention but there 25 %core voters 65 % of kiwis support weed laws reforms only fools and horses /bridges.
We seen The Marama /Moon last night at the Farm she was showing off her beauty.
That was awesome that lady Lee had her treasure returned to that were stolen she looked wrapped she was lucky the boys who found them found her Ka kite ano
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
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New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
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Asia Pacific Report Ngāti Kahungunu in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay region has become the first indigenous Māori iwi (tribe) to sign a resolution calling for a “ceasefire in Palestine”, reports Te Ao Māori News. Reporter Te Aniwaniwa Paterson talked to Te Otāne Huata, who has been organising peace rallies ...
By Dale Luma in Port Moresby “We want grants and not concessional loans,” is the crisp message from Papua New Guinea businesses directly affected by the Black Wednesday looting four months ago. The businesses, which lost millions after the January 10 rioting and looting, say they need grants as part ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Usmar, Lecturer in Critical Media Literacies, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images With the coalition government’s ban of student mobile phones in New Zealand schools coming into effect this week, reaction has ranged from the sceptical (kids will just get ...
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A new report on protecting journalism and democracy in New Zealand recommends a levy be charged on global platforms like Facebook and Google to fund media firms undertaking public interest reporting. It also calls for the reinstatement of a powerful Broadcasting Commission to distribute public funding for journalism and other ...
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Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.
The silence of Kelvin Davis.
Australian commentary begins at 3:00 minutes
Kelvin Davis was “very vocal about this in the past”. That is true. But that of course was during the lead up to the last election, before he was returned to his seat in parliament as the member for Te Tai Tokerau.
Since then Kelvin Davis has been virtually silent on the issue.
“In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies … but the silence of our friends.”─ Martin Luther King
Labour, the party the left can count on to let them down.
No one with any sense voted for Labour after 84. For the lack of choice , spoiled my ballot in 87.
It is a continuing theme of radical propaganda and back-tracking in power. Can someone suggest a good analysis of Lee’s ‘Simple on a Soapbox’. Definitely Lee had an ego but all the figures of that time appear conservative in his vista without the caucus’s voting. ‘We’ll be the laughing stock of the world’ said MJS about the 30 shilling old age pension.
Do you really expect the New Zealand government to tell Australia how it should run its prisons/detention camps?
The PM has certainly been quiet on the issue when she advocated the whole issue of detainees/illegal immigrants around 12 months ago. The pushback from Turnbull was quite severe. I think the (then new) government got the message loud and clear not to tell the Australians how to run their country.
One would have assumed someone with your experience Wayne would know the difference between telling another country what to do and standing up for your own citizens.
The latter being what one assumes Jenny was implying.
Fist point; The australians do run a first world justice system and expect New Zealand to understand that.
Second point, and really the key one I was making; the New Zealand government very quickly learned not to lecture Australia, and that seems to include Kelvin Davis.
The treatment and conditions resulting from this first world justice system is what is in dispute.
To not be seen standing up for your citizens (or to even bother to comment) will create flak at home. More so, if one was previously immensely vocal before being elected into power.
“The australians do run a first world justice system”
No – they run a two-tier system – a first worldish one for Oz citizens and a different one for everybody else. They do this unashamedly in order to deter backdoor immigration, because Australia is still a place that lots of people want to get to. With 2.5 to 3 degrees of warming it will be a place people are desperate to leave. That will be a grim sort of poetic justice.
“Do you really expect the New Zealand government to tell Australia how it should run its prisons/detention camps”
No – I expect it to kowtow to superior economic and military power. But while doing this, I don’t expect it to utter the sort of dull, grey, turgid, privilege and injustice-defending bromides that would make it sound like Wayne Mapp.
Do you really expect the New Zealand government to tell Australia how it should run its prisons/detention camps? Of course.
Why? So then the likes of those who say Davis is silent would be able to criticise him, accusing him of butting into Australian affairs and how he’s an embarrassment to our country for doing that.
The flaw in your logic is it’s not just an Australian affair.
With so many Kiwis affected, it has become a diplomatic issue between the two countries. Hence, a NZ Government response is largely expected.
Diplomatic issue? The issue is that Davis has to make a choice between being attacked mercilessly for outwardly putting the boot into the Aussies or for not overtly putting the boot into the Aussies. Attacked by the same people.
He isn’t in the headlines about it so he’s doing nothing. Let’s attack him about that too. And if he is in the headlines saying he’s doing something and there’s an outline of constructive steps towards some constructive resolution, lets attack the media outlet as a mouthpiece for the left.
And if constructive steps get the people put on planes to New Zealand and one of them does something wrong, stupid or bad, let’s blame Davis for getting them into the country and boot him again.
It’s a political issue. That’s when you get someone saying, “Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. The silence of Kelvin Davis.”
Hi Pete, I really can’t understand where you are coming from.
Without any evidence at all you slyly accuse, myself, and presumably others, of criticising Kelvin Davis when he is silent about the plight of the detainees, and also when he speaks up for the detainees, saying, “how he’s an embarrassment to our country for doing that”. This is a complete lying smear. For the record I was very much in support of Kelvin Davis’ early advocacy for the detainees, and would be very pleased to see him take up their cause again..
In future Pete, instead of engaging in broad smears, you need to say exactly who it is you claim is criticising Kelvin for standing up for the detainees, and who also criticise him for not standing up for the detainees. And provide some sort of evidence to back up your claims.
Do you really think the Australian Authorities are going to admit what is going on in their Detention Centres. The Australian Government has not had a good history of dealing nicely with indigeneous races, and come to think of it we have not been super good here in New Zealand as well IMHO ?
we must not forget who and what is waiting in the wings…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/19/president-pence-women-week-in-patriarchy
and some lightness from that article
Sometimes the worst that can happen is what is required to nudge people back onto the right path.
America, in a yet another public display of it’s new role as now unashamed authoritarian world bully boys and corporate enforcers which of course leads to it’s complete lack of regard for free press (when it suits them), has detained with out charge Press TV’ s journalist Marzieh Hashemi for over six days so far.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/american-journalist-iran-press-tv-jailed-190117085325166.html
And while we are on the subject of free press, here is a piece well worth reading from Aaron Mate on The Nation dismantling more of the increasingly hysterical and unhinged ‘Russia Gate” conspiracies…
The Manafort Revelation Is Not a Smoking Gun
Proponents of the Trump-Russia collusion theory wildly overstate their case, again.
https://www.thenation.com/article/manafort-no-smoking-gun-collusion/
Of course you wouldn’t know that the whole Russia Gate conspiracy just one huge smoke screen reading or listening to msm, and unfortunately many on this site.
So while we have all had to hear endlessly week after week to this conspiracy theory (which is all it is at this point) that always goes nowhere, the Democratic party and Hillary Clinton have had to take exactly zero responsibility for losing to a half brain dead z grade TV game show host, why is that?
If you are a Russia gate believer, maybe this is the question you should start asking yourself…
The Manafort Revelation Is Not a Smoking Gun
Well, duh. If it was, Trump would be making a prison cell look even uglier than it already did, and we’d all be contemplating President Pence and thinking you really do need to be careful what you wish for. Most criminal investigations don’t feature a “smoking gun,” that’s why we have juries – and why they take longer than five minutes to reach a verdict. That doesn’t make those criminal investigations “conspiracy theories.”
And that’s an important point. Juries are often advised by the judge to arrive at a decision based on `the balance of probabilities’, aren’t they? Which is just as elegant way of saying `take your best guess, folks’.
So, in practice, courts decide more often on the picture painted by circumstantial evidence than on proof. Which is where Mueller III’s unprecedented breaking of media silence comes in.
“Cohen was sentenced in December to three years in prison for lying to Congress, campaign finance violations and financial crimes. He said he took full responsibility for his crimes, but said he acted out of blind loyalty to Mr. Trump, who he said “led me to choose a path of darkness over light.””
“During his nomination hearing this week to become attorney general, William P. Barr was asked if the president would have committed a crime if he had coached a witness to testify falsely — or not to testify at all. “Yes,” Mr. Barr said. “Under an obstruction statute, yes.”” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/us/politics/buzzfeed-cohen-russia-tower.html
The day before Buzzfeed reported evidence that Trump had committed that crime. Mueller III yesterday denied that was accurate. He obviously felt he had to – because of that bunch of calls for him to act by leading congressmen. Looks like he doesn’t have a basis to act against Trump. He’s been gathering circumstantial evidence to paint the picture for two years. Not enough.
As I presume you know “balance of probabilities” is about civil trials. Anything to do with impeachment/Russia collusion is on the criminal standard of “beyond reasonable doubt.”
Thanks Wayne. No, I’ve never studied legal process. Just have the view of the average layman – a general idea of how the system works picked up from long-term observation. Beyond reasonable doubt sounds like a requirement of proof to me.
Buzzfeed used the agreement of two ex-govt officials as basis for their claim that the proof exists. Mueller III denied that their claim was accurate. Sounds like the evidence is debatable: proof to some, not to others. This discord around evidence has long been a phenomenon in science: evidence can be interpreted as proof, but opinions often differ. Even between experts!
Thank you, Wayne. I was about to ‘blast’ Dennis for that …. LOL.
Very best wishes and positive thoughts for your health battle.
Uhhh, when it comes to impeachment and conviction, it’s whatever at least 218 House Representatives and at least 67 senators agree are impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanours”, to whatever standard of proof they agree on. Impeachment and conviction is not a criminal proceeding, and it’s different to a civil matter as well.
It is literally correct to say that if said numbers of Congresspeople agreed that what Individual-1 does with his ties are impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanours”, he’d be outta there. Article 1 of impeachment could be the way he wears them way too long to point at the wizened Toad lurking in his trousers. Article 2 of Impeachment could be the way he uses sellotape to vainly attempt to hold the two dangly bits together.
John Roberts as the presiding justice over the senate trial could put as much effort as he wanted to into pointing out how fkn ridiculous it was, but in the end, if 67 senators voted to convict. it’s a done deal. The more likely procedural way to protect Individual-1 would be for the Senate Majority Leader, aka Yertle McConnell, to refuse to even bring the matter to the senate floor for consideration.
Or as Gerald Ford put it much more succinctly,
“An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers to be at a given moment in history; conviction results from whatever offense or offenses two-thirds of the other body considers to be sufficiently serious to require removal of the accused from office.”
Funnily enough the powers that be seem to (so far) be entirely relying on the public believing the “smoking gun” theory.
You seem to not realise that “Smoking gun” refers to the strongest kind of circumstantial evidence, as opposed to direct evidence. ie…
The smoking gun theory is as follows….
“Trumps been to Russia and wanted to build a Russian Trump Tower;
There are Russians on the internet putting up adverts and #fake news supporting Bernie/Trump/Stein and these have been amazingly successful at…
getting disenfranchised whites in the rust belt all rilled up (which makes no sence ‘cos there lives/wages/housing/health and that of their children are getting better and better with each passing year)
and getting African Americans all rilled up and resentful (which also makes no sence ‘cos there lives are sweet as too);
Bernie and Trump did well;
Its simply not possible that the public no longer believe in the Corporate Democrats ability to deliver change and (cough) ‘Hope’, and that the public would willingly vote for the likes of Trump or Bernie or Stein, therefore……Trump is a Russian stooge.”
(The smoking gun theory also involves ignoring how much the Democrats/Hilary spent, because apparently the Russians are way way better at pushing their message than any of the agencies working for Hilary)
…the powers that be seem to (so far) be entirely relying on the public believing the “smoking gun” theory.
Now, there’s a conspiracy theory. Who are these “powers that be,” and on what evidence do you make this claim about them?
Oh it’s a conspiracy theory alright, and why any critical thinking person is still buying into it’s bullshit constructed narrative is for me the strangest part of the whole thing..quite disheartening really.
With that in mind I think we need tolay out the cards here and face the facts, Russia gate conspiracists are willing to accept, defend and support the narrative of Ex Bush FBI head Robert Mueller and his various (seriously) dodgy co conspirators over established truth tellers like Glenn Greenwald, Robert Fisk, John Pilger, etc etc….
Well as the old saying goes, ‘you make the bed you lie in’
But I guess on the bright side you always have the in depth hard hitting reporting of the liberal turned war hawk Racheal Maddow to keep you up to date ha.
“People whose opinions I share” != “established truth tellers.”
Robert Fisk as an established truth teller? Isn’t he the discredited journalist who was found to have made up stories & treated them as investigative journalism? Maybe he now works for Buzzfeed ?
@Bazza64
Would you care to put up a link or links to support your claims re; Fisk please.
@Bazza64
Oh you must mean this discredited journalist…
Robert Fisk
27 December 2018
Trump vs Mattis: Watch out when men of war come to the rescue
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jim-mattis-donald-trump-mad-syria-israel-egypt-arafat-sharon-a8700276.html
10 January 2019
The US media has lost one of its sanest voices on military matters – so let’s hope William Arkin’s absence is brief
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/william-arkin-nbc-donald-trump-military-war-pundits-israel-media-a8719956.html
January 17, 2019
Lessons from the Armenian Genocide for Saudi Arabia in Yemen
https://mirrorspectator.com/2019/01/17/lessons-from-the-armenian-genocide-for-saudi-arabia-in-yemen/
3 January 2019
Judge Richard Goldstone suffered for turning his back on Gaza – but not as much as the Palestinians he betrayed
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/israel-gaza-war-judge-richard-goldstone-palestinian-conflict-a8709211.html
I remember reading in the NZ Herald quite a few years ago how Robert Fisk came in for some heavy criticism from other journalists, who said he always seemed to get a very detailed story, when others said they were always suspicious of him.
Googled a couple of things:
https://honestreporting.com/independent-admits-robert-fisk-story-was-false/
https://pulsemedia.org/2016/12/03/robert-fisks-crimes-against-journalism/
Definitely not an expert on Mr Fisk, but when I see his name I always remember this.
The first link is to an apology by Fisk for writing an article in 2011 in which he quoted from a forged document (unknown to Fisk at the time), hardly a reason to discredit a journalist with decades of solid war reporting.
BTW your linked source HonestReporting (Defending Israel from Media Bias) also defends Israeli violence against unarmed civilians..detaining children in prison..etc etc
HonestReporting’s Top 10 Posts of 2018
https://honestreporting.com/honestreportings-top-posts-of-2018/
As far as Idrees Ahmad’s (whom I admire) piece goes, that is more problematic, the Syrian conflict is so complex, that I personally try to stay at some distance from it, so i can’t really comment on that article.
But I can see your position re’ Fisk if that is your view on the Syrian conflict nonetheless.
Not sure about the Syrian conflict, but seems some people are now saying Fisk is a stooge of Assad & the Russians. Have no idea if this is even true & in the end all journalists have to be paid by someone. Truly being independent is maybe a difficult thing for journalists to achieve.
Difficult to know re Fisk, but I do remember a lot of journalists saying that he always seemed to get the perfect story which seemed to be embellished.
Thanks
What a breath of fresh air, thank you Adrian.
Tamati is right – we live in societies still struggling with their colonial past. In Aotearoa it is hard to appreciate that there was once a time when it was considered acceptable to exterminate indigenous people.
In Australia ‘Kriol’ is a relatively new Aboriginal language with upwards of 20,000 speakers in the Northern Territory and the neigbouring Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is a creole language – meaning it is a kind of emergency language with specific origin.
It arose early this century when surviving members of decimated language groups congregated at the Roper River Mission in order to escape killings being carried out by cattle station companies. Many adults were multilingual – but not in the same languages. Children had often not developed full language competence .
In this situation the only form of communication was a pidgin which had entered the Northern Territory a few decades before with the cattle trade.
It is easy to forget this history in urban centres but like an old coral reef it repeatedly resurfaces when conservative parties with a strong rural base hold sway in Canberra.
[Adapted from Balzer et. al., “Pidgin”, 2nd ed., page 149, Lonely Planet, 1999]
“Murica, where a group of vile, MAGA capped racists gleefully harass a Native American elder at an Indigenous Peoples March.
https://twitter.com/UncededClothing/status/1086677183458934784
I notice the self-satisfied expression of the one young white man who stands in front of the American Indian (Nathan Philips of the Omaha Nation). His tight smile says you can’t make me move, and you can’t touch me.
MAGA means – according to a Reddit? post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/5b6a7x/what_does_maga_mean/
The_Donald Rules.
This list is a wonder to behold for the USA.
What does MAGA mean?
I keep seeing the left criticize Trump for stating MAGA. Claiming he wants to bring back racism, slavery and segregation. What a bunch of cucks.
Let’s set the record straight. We are going back to a Great America.
An America where the people trust the government.
An America where we are proud of the USA.
An America where we don’t fear terrorist, but terrorist fear us.
An America where getting a job and livable wage is easy.
An America where we create wealth and prosperity.
An America with a tax surplus and not a multi-trillion dollar deficit.
An America where anyone can afford to go to the hospital.
An America where everyone can go to college.
An America where people aren’t afraid of police.
An America with more schools than prisons.
An America that upholds the bill of rights.
An America that spends money to fix itself before “fixing” the world.
An America where “Made in USA” is cheaper than “Made in China”.
An America that doesn’t have one way tarrifs.
An America that doesn’t allow threats of war from other nations. Looking at you North Korea.
An America that stands for Freedom and Democracy.
That’s the America we are going back to. That is the future. No more free rides for fake allies. No more fake diplomacy while Americans die to terrorist. No more corrupt secret deals. No more profit at the expense of American lives.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!!
FUCK YOU CLINTON, CTR, DEMOCRATS, AND ANY OTHER FREEDOM HATING TRAITORS!
No end of potential nominees for the Supreme Court there, by the look of it.
Those thick youth look like cardboard cutouts compared to the native elders. Those young adults are nothing, not even dust, gone, evaporated back to their nothingness.
“The students, many of whom were wearing “Make America Great Again” caps, from private, all-male Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills were in Washington for an anti-abortion rally on Friday when they were filmed surrounding Nathan Phillips and mocking the Native American’s singing and drumming.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/20/outcry-after-kentucky-students-in-maga-hats-mock-native-american-veteran
Christians sadly were participants in many colonisations where they tried to exterminate indigenous people.
Frankie the Pope has a message for the little shits.
Pope Francis on Friday addressed a video message to the world’s young indigenous people holding their World Indigenous Youth Gathering in Soloy, Diocese of David, Panama, from January 17 to 21. The young people will then move on to Panama city to join the World Youth Day (WYD) 2019, January 22-27, which the Pope is joining on January 23.
Speaking in Spanish, the Pope is encouraging the indigenous young people to hold on to their cultures and roots by fighting marginalization, exclusion, waste and impoverishment that is threatening them and build another world that is possible and that is more just and human.
[…]
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-01/pope-francis-video-message-world-indigenous-youth-panama.html
…were in Washington for an anti-abortion rally on Friday…
Farkinell, it’s the trifecta…
https://twitter.com/dcpoll/status/1086666326033293313
https://twitter.com/riotwomennn/status/1086721329573830656
Look’s like a nice kid ?
Guess he would be a Republican Trump Supporter no doubt ?
Bye bye Good Friday agreement?.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/police-in-northern-ireland-report-suspected-car-bomb-in-derry-1.3764233
Bit more about the Russian girl and how she got there.
https://www.andrew-drummond.com/2019/01/19/so-who-did-the-dirty-on-oligarchs-girl-nastya-rybka/
Fun and learning. Puts it ALL into perspective.
http://www.astronomy.com/news/2018/08/fact-checking-the-galaxy-song
Manawatu river at Foxton
http://www.horizons.govt.nz/HRC/media/Data/WebCam/Foxton_latest_photo.jpg?ext=.jpg
[What’s going on, cobber? Your last few comments look like you’ve walked away from the laptop and your pet hamster has tap danced on the keyboard. If you want to put a link up, please add a short explanation of its relevance. Don’t want to waste people’s time, ae? TRP]
Anyone watch Go South on Prime last night? Really awesome piece of TV. Hopefully this will manage to get on TV networks all round the world. Do more to promote NZ than anything else.
of course.
https://www.google.com/search?q=askew&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b
You know, Ed got banished for that type of shit.
Where is Ed ?
Commiserating with Paul somewhere.
A predictable opinion piece in today’s Herald website by Lawrence Yule National MP for Tukituki and spokesperson for horticulture. Nowt, zip, yadda, nil, nothing about the orchidists paying their workforce a decent wage – but he reckons the Government has a role to play to help them out. Poor petals.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12193308
Essentially a copying and pasting of previous talking points.
Not exactly in full hiring mode only small producers who do not contract out.
https://www.trademe.co.nz/browse/categoryattributesearchresults.aspx?140=5&154=5015&144=-1&144=200000&search=1&sidebar=1&cid=5000&rptpath=5000-
Voters less likely to back Labour with ‘stop Brexit’ policy, leaked poll suggests
Can’t have your cake and eat it too.
it is not cake and eating it too, rather it is combining representative democracy and direct democracy.
So with that in mind in this case: An election is held that combines the Tory platform with the favored brexit approach of it’s support base (which is looking for the maximum separations with the EU) & the Labour combines it’s platform with the favored brexit approach of it’s support base (which is looking for a continuation of partnership with the EU as much as possible).
Then the representatives of the election result, negotiate their balances to the differences and trade offs with the EU and their supoort base platform, so it remains a winning process for the electorate’s involvement in the process. And either way the election goes, there remains strong bargaining power for the British side.
And i believe, at heart, it is probably that simple in how to complete the process started with the referendum in a way that is diplomatic to all concerned.
Like everyone I’d always believed that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. And then I read this:
And realised that the The Black Horse wasn’t famine at all.
It’s free-market capitalism.
I am not a Christian and don’t believe in the bible or sin so… nice symbolism though.
Neither am I.
But look at all the people who are.
Good riddance to New Zealand’s Biggest Bogans
by E. KERR McROVI, The N.Z. Gerald, Sunday 20 January 2019
You would have to wonder what this country’s Biggest Bogans were doing when they chose the New Zealand taxpayer to fund their calumny from 2008 until we gave them the arse in 2017.
Did they think we were complete saps, willing to roll over and accept their appalling anti-social and criminal behaviour? That we were too primitive and unsophisticated to galvanise ourselves into a posse of right-thinking community policemen and women? A little bit of homework would have shown that we have spectacularly good form in bringing down even highly trained criminals, far less amateurs.
But just to recap … That bunch of foul mouthed, bribe-taking, snitching, backstabbing, housing expenses-rorting, cigar smoke-blowing, hairpulling louts made headlines on a daily – nay, hourly – basis. Since award-winning journalist Nicky Hager exposed to the nation in 2014 that their leader had allowed his office to be the command centre for an illegal, secret campaign of character assassination and vilification run by the infamous and disgusting Cameron FailAll Slater, assisted incompetently and pathetically by his stumble-tongued slave Jordan Williams, this gang of reprobates ran our country’s reputation into the ground with the same lack of concern as their dirty dairy friends foul the water the rest of us used to drink and swim in.
The gang of thugs parked up at the Beehive for nine terrible years quickly drew the attention of Kiwis thanks to their filthy language and their filthy behaviour. [1] When a local woman suffering from asthma asked one of them to stop smoking a cigar in their enclosed box at a football match, the feral fellow turned particularly nasty. Instead of ceasing to smoke, he walked up to the woman and blew smoke in her face. This led to the woman’s husband nearly knocking Coleman’s brains out. [2] And thus it began.
As a result of the publicity over the cigar fracas, a number of people approached the Herald with their own horror stories of encountering the nation’s Biggest Bogans.
A man who had the great misfortune to share a flight with one of these appalling humans recounted his bad behaviour at Christchurch Airport in 2014. It was hours of misery for everyone involved, when the fattest and most unpleasant of all the Bogans bumptiously bypassed security to board a domestic flight. He was fined $2,000 for that bit of idiocy. [3]
Next, a young waitress from Parnell came forward to complain about the leader of the Unruly Gang. She recognised the lout from his many appearances in the media and told how he and his people had come to her cafe and repeatedly pulled her hair while his wife just watched. [4]
Another of these antisocial and repulsive pests was caught by one of our leading artists in the act of befouling our waterways, along with his horrid dirty dairying amigos. [5]
This Unruly, Unholy Mob had no idea just how effective New Zealanders can be at monitoring aberrant behaviour. Those of us who are honest will remember that the gangsters who ran that vicious and secret campaign of character assassination from Wonky John’s office were exposed not by this country’s counter espionage agents or even our investigative police officers. The hapless bumbling tossers in charge of the operation were exposed thanks to a concerned computer expert (“Rawshark”) who had clocked a number of odd incidents and reported them to the renowned journalist Nicky Hager.
So this group of professional louts never had a chance of slipping under the radar. The reaction to these no-hopers was an excellent example of what can happen when we work together.
[1] https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/l/f/i/z/s/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.1240×700.1lfi0o.png/1504501119377.jpg
[2] https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10413574
[3] https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/63297518/null
[4] https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/67949918/null
[5] https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/l/f/i/z/s/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.1240×700.1lfi0o.png/1504501119377.jpg
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12192586
Spoke to my m8 yesterday who’s grandfather played for Liverpool, about the Liverpudlian gypsies touring New Zealand he reckons they are Northern Ireland protestants one of the worst breed of people on the planet.
Who’s your mate’s grandfather, Tamati?
just wonderful..Morrissey.’👌
‘ That bunch of foul mouthed, bribe-taking, snitching, backstabbing, housing expenses-rorting, cigar smoke-blowing, hairpulling louts made headlines on a daily – nay, hourly – basis. Since award-winning journalist Nicky Hager exposed to the nation in 2014 that their leader had allowed his office to be the command centre for an illegal, secret campaign of character assassination and vilification run by the infamous and disgusting Cameron FailAll Slater, assisted incompetently and pathetically by his stumble-tongued slave Jordan Williams, this gang of reprobates ran our country’s reputation into the ground with the same lack of concern as their dirty dairy friends foul the water the rest of us used to drink and swim in.’
Wow that’s a mouth full but 100% correct.
Worse than the “Unruly Tourists” are these Yobs taunting them in Hamilton
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12191765
M8’s name is Murphy not sure what his grandfather’s name was but I will ask him the next time I talk to him and let you know, probably feeding me B/S, never thought to ask.
Thanks Tamati. Let us know!
Thread.
https://twitter.com/keith_ng/status/1086759055127924739
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1086759055127924739.html
Kia ora the am show There you go duncan kicking the poor vulnerable people.
Its a lollie scramble in the house building boom in Taungara that’s the capitalist way charge what ever one can get from the buyer.???????????????????????????????.
simon you way of running the country into the ground look at what has happened hundreds of people under the bridge and you spout about they way shonky run the country. national sold half of the power companys and in just 5 years the money raised buy the sales of those crown jewels has been losted in capital gain’s and dividend’s a gift to their wealthy share market m8 of 5 billion tipcal national kick the poor vulnerable people.
Alcohol related death’s in NZ IS 600 to 1000 how many die from weed can not find any from consumeing it enough said.
Jason its quite hot in Australia at the minute can cook a egg on the bonnet of a car and your prime minister wants to build more coal power plants that burns heaps of carbon and use heaps of WATER.
I say Michael Mosley diet will be good .Drop the sugar and have porridge in the morning is a good way to to stop the hunger pangs and lose weight it makes the body work to digets it to .
The biggest hitts the tax system’s get is fraud that comes from the white collar crime there was a figure of $1 billion in the media .Goverments and council’s fraud. I say that figure is the tip of the Iceburg.
Global warming it the biggest threat enough said Ka kite ano P.S Mahi ki hoariri
Unequal income distribution is what causes a lot of our society problems health crime slow economy low education levels also Unequal income affects Wahine the people whom raise our tamariki the most .
How unequal is New Zealand?
In New Zealand, income (and probably wealth) was being shared out more and more evenly from the 1950s up until the 1980s – but for the next two decades we had the developed world’s biggest increase in income inequality.
As the graph (at left) shows, in that time, the average income of someone in the richest 1% has doubled, from just under $200,000 to nearly $400,000 (adjusting for inflation). In contrast, the average disposable income for someone in the poorest 10% is only slightly higher than it was in the 1980s. (More details and the source of this graph can be found in Wealth and New Zealand, published by BWB.) That means many New Zealanders struggle to pay their bills and lead a decent life.
Another way to put it is that someone in the richest 10% used to earn five times as much as someone in the poorest 10%; now they earn eight times as much.
Wealth is also very largely in the hands of a few. As the graph (below) shows, in New Zealand the wealthiest tenth own nearly a fifth of the country’s net worth, while the poorest half of the country has less than 5 per cent. That leaves many people in poverty, lacking the resources they need to participate in society and follow their dreams. (Again, further details are available in Wealth and New Zealand.)
What is the connection with poverty?
Inequality connects both ends of the spectrum, wealth and poverty, and argues that they have to be looked at together. The fundamental issue is distribution: how are the economy and society structured, and where do they deliver their rewards?
In other words, poverty doesn’t exist in isolation: people are poor, in part, because the economy directs much of the country’s resources to those who are already doing well. For instance, within a company, pay for ordinary staff can be low because so much of the company’s income goes to senior management and shareholders.
Wealth and poverty can’t be separated.Polling shows New Zealanders have consistently rated inequality as the single biggest issue facing the country since 2014. Over 80 per cent of the country say they are concerned or very concerned about income and wealth imbalances. Internationally, all the world’s major economic bodies – including the IMF, the OECD and the World Bank – have argued for some time that inequality is a major problem and must be addressed. Ka kite ano links below
http://www.inequality.org.nz/understand/
Here you go the goverments don’t mesure the % of income that the people pay and in the poor peoples case with gst at 15 % we the poor pay the higest % of taxs to income ratio. And the rulers wonder why MAORI are so upset with OUR lot this system is dishing us up Ana to kai
Do the rich really pay the most in tax?
The rich don’t really pay that much in tax – and to the extent that they do, it’s because they get the biggest chunk of the income
The government likes to say that the richest 15% of households (those earning over $150,000) pay three-quarters of all the “net tax” .
The problem with this measure is that it isn’t really about tax. It does start with the amount of income tax paid by different groups – but it then does complicated calculations about how much those groups received in benefit payments, the accommodation supplement, paid parental leave and Working for Families. Those figures are subtracted from the amount of tax paid by each group, to arrive at a strange sort of “net financial contribution to the government’s books” measure.
More useful figures about income tax are in the graph below, which shows how much of our national income goes to each of the country’s ten income groups – and what proportion of the total tax take they contribute
None of these figures, of course, includes capital gains (income made from selling assets such as houses and shares), because we don’t for the most part either tax or record those capital gains.
If we did, since those capital gains will go largely to the richest tenth, the truth about tax in New Zealand is that the rich almost certainly pay less of their income in tax than the poor do. ka kite ano links below
http://www.inequality.org.nz/understand/rich-really-pay-tax/
You see people 4 % is what drips off the wealthy’s plates for maori to fight over and some still have the gaul to moan about what Maori/minority cultures get from the system . TIMES ARE GOING TO CHANGE.
Eco Maori say mandatory voting is what is need to get a fair representation for all Kiwis at the minute the pollies are to scared to tackle the big issues that will upset the retired babyboomers whom 98% vote . If everyone votes the politicians will listen to the poor people more.
Why do you need mandatory voting? Can’t you convince people to vote just be explaining how it benefits them?
Kia ora Newshub Some of those Wai falls around Auckland has some old Maori history.
House prices are expensive in Aotearoa at the minute all part of shonkys plan.
I saw that video of that old Native American that was being taunted by that boy so disrespectful those young people are Alot of people are disrespectful these days the old fella was a War veteran to. Public expenses in Aotearoa was one of the lowest in the world so was our grocery prices low as compared to the rest of the World 10 years ago.
If the trees are dangerous ie fall over in bad weather they should be felled but one would think the council would follow dew process after all they set the examples.
That was lucky that no one was hurt in that bombing in Ireland I smell something.
The Orca video under the artic ice is really cool see those Orca have smaller dorsal fins than the ones around NZ. I did not see much publicity on the marine sanctuary being set up around the Ross Sea??????????.
Ka kite ano.
Kia ora Newshub it’s good for our farmers that Jacinda has got a export deal with Britain I still say Britain should stay with the European Union. As for the Air forces Gropper its the same as the roast busters the state white coller people bending the laws to protect there m8. That’s why there is a status of limitations LAW to protect government people from getting held accountable for all the cheating they did while in power.A new government find there dirty deeds cannot litigate against the cheats. The man made drug problem the pills what ever man made drug problem is here and now because the state spent all its resources farcicaly fighting weed that is practically harmless when compared factual with other forms of drugs and ignore these other drugs that has killed many people shonkys the ring leader is the ring leader. duncan your a alt right red neck who thinks a Wahine place is behind a MAN your views change like your underwear. Like I have said the world’s laws are made to protect the ruling classes and hammer the poor people that’s a fact. I have all read put a post up about the gropper ropper CASE.
I won’t wait for shonky who should be hiding under a rock after the Big mess he has made of Atoearoa. Ka kite ano P.S to busy with our Mokopunas
Yea wealth is OK so long as shonky doesn’t have control of it and give it to the few while the many have to struggle to survive its OK if wealth is shared it is well documented that a equal society is much happier and healthier when your share the lollipops I get it wealthy people get a logical block from their $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Quite a common phenomenon around Papatuanukue that has caused all the ills of Papatuanukue don’t worry common people money is going to be a thing of the past we will have a currency that has a consciousness connection to it any cheating people will go broke. Ana to kai Ka kite ano
There you go shonky is a alt right trump supporter trump is ripping of the poor common people like shonky did and giving it to his rich m8 bullshiting about trumps popularity in America Ana to kai Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub It’s cool Jamie Lee Ross is OK more drama for national I see one of their biggest spin doctors is not in good shape.
A tree falling on people picnicking at the shot over river condolences to the people who were involved in the incident Tawhirirmate is a powerful force.
Jacinda is determined to keep Aotearoa exporters to Britain in the good tradition trading partners Ka pai.
Aotearoa is a haven but trying to sail hear in over loaded unsafe boat is a risk to great to make we get some big seas here in the Pacific.
national flogging the same horse weed benefit bashing sorry they won’t get anyone attention but there 25 %core voters 65 % of kiwis support weed laws reforms only fools and horses /bridges.
We seen The Marama /Moon last night at the Farm she was showing off her beauty.
That was awesome that lady Lee had her treasure returned to that were stolen she looked wrapped she was lucky the boys who found them found her Ka kite ano