You have to be a real political anorak to give a damn about some emails being released, but the longer Curran refuses to let her Prime Minister off the hook, the worse this is going to get. As Claire Trevett notes:
“The hiring of Handley and then scrapping his appointment before he even began is the messiest mishap of the new Government so far.
The best Labour can hope for is to deal with the fallout efficiently and without being cute about it.
Labour had no doubt hoped the Handley episode would be tidied away with the departure of Curran.
But as long as the contents of those emails remain a secret so too will the suspicion the Prime Minister is somehow involved, or there is something else damaging in there.”
Media should move on. Curren resigned. It’s the media stupid. Take Massay uni, a club wanting to invite Brash, the vc said no.NOt about bRushes freespeach since he got a gig quick smart, and how hilarious, 150 years at still fat in the head old white guy still thinks they are a victim like he has ever had a speach problem.
So M assay did not deny freespeach, just restricted association on their property, the stink would have been Brash meeting said club just outside the campus demanding his right of association, which of course expose how farfetched the whole story was. Farrier turdblossum fails to ignited and blows back on him.
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Mr Speaker, my office has received a number of Official Information Act (OIA) requests, including from the Opposition, and is working on a response to those. We will release that information in accordance with the provisions of the Act once it has been compiled and once it has been processed.
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The text that I received, again, as I said, was in April. I did not directly reply to that text message on that day or engage with him on the CTO role. On the CTO role, I did not engage with Mr Handley via text message.
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Mr Speaker, as I acknowledged the very moment I was asked this question, I have known Mr Handley for a number of years and have had correspondence with him for a number of years.
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Mr Speaker, as a consequence of the member’s question, I have had my office check. Mr Handley sent me an unsolicited email to my private email on 7 June, which I did not open and which I did not reply to. I’m advised by my staff that it informed me that he’d submitted an application for the role. But, again, it was not something I opened, saw, or replied to.
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Acting Minister of State Services): Mr Speaker, as I informed your office, this will be a slightly longer than normal answer. There are three email exchanges. The first: on 11 August, where Derek Handley emails Clare Curran about the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) position and questions about the role of the CTO, including resourcing for the role and potential conflicts of interest. On 14 August, Clare Curran replies to that email, confirming a call to discuss these matters. On 15 August, Derek Handley replies to that, confirming times for the call.
The second exchange: on 19 August, Clare Curran emails Derek Handley regarding logistics around the next step on the process of appointment, including the content of any public statements that might be made, and refers to contract discussions with the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA). On 20 August, Derek Handley responds to that email to Clare Curran about those issues, including the contact he has had with DIA and management of conflicts of interest.
The third exchange: on 21 August, Clare Curran emails Derek Handley regarding issues that would be on the work plan of the CTO and attaches some relevant background documents on those issues. On the same day, Derek Handley responds to Clare Curran, acknowledging the material and referring to the discussions that he is having with DIA.
I have sought and received an assurance from the former Minister that these email exchanges will be made available for release subject to the normal Official Information Act (OIA) processes.
So this saga is going to stretch out for a month or two at least.
or a political journalist who needs to create copy every day and who only has the 120 member unicameral parliament of small uncorrupt, and reasonably well run country to work with.
Seriously, these guys would publish an article on the meaning of a discarded chippies packet in the corridor if they thought they could get away with it.
Well, the corporate media could be addressing issues like child poverty, obesity, suicide, depression, unemployment, employment conditions, pay scales, foreign ownership A LOT MORE.
You know all the problems caused by the imposition of neoliberal capitalism on this country.
But they won’t.
They are paid puppets of the establishment.
That was very clear yesterday when the lamestream rated covering an odious ACT leaders right to speak above talking about our amazing suffrage history.
I’d be quite interested in the meaning of a discarded chippiespacket. Far more do than Currans emails which I am sure will bring the Govt down.Sarc. Would also be interested in an inquiry into Gerry Brownlees bullying phone call to young Accountant. Double standards from Dim SIM.
Big is good? Such fpp thinking is just silly when applied to an MMP coalition. He can’t seem to grasp the parity relation. We have a Labour PM and that’s the sole basis for any valid claim that Labour is leading, a claim that loses plausibility every time she doesn’t lead when necessary.
He makes this interesting point: “there is no doubt that Winston coming into 2020 will play the Māori card. You can put your money on it. The question is what will the Māori members of the Labour Party do?” Depends how he plays it.
He makes much of NZF’s wins in the budget, accuses Winston of dictatorship, and then “If Winston and Shane do not pull their heads in, there has to be a confrontation and Prime Minister Ardern will have to say enough is enough.” I agree, call their bluff when necessary, but she must be aware that Winston may have deliberately provoked her to get an early election. No grounds for this scenario currently!
“Tourism remains the saviour of New Zealand’s external accounts, which in June continued the trend of deterioration started in 2017.
In December 2016, the current account deficit hit a low of 2.2% of GDP. That has now climbed to 3.3% of GDP.
Without the services balance, particularly the tourism returns, the deficit would have climbed to 5.1% in the three months ended June, BNZ head of research Stephen Toplis said.
”The good news is we expect the services balance to remain solidly in surplus for the foreseeable future. The bad news is we do not see it growing significantly from here, particularly as growth in inbound tourism is increasingly capacity-constrained.”
Driving the balance further into the red had been the weakness experienced in New Zealand exports. By his estimate, goods export volumes were only 0.3% higher in the June quarter than they were a year earlier.
In stark contrast, import volumes soared 8.4%.” – BNZ Head of Research Stephen Toplis, quoted in ODT.
Capacity constraints are a welcome kind of challenge for the New Zealand government and for businesses to grapple with. (He also neglected to mention that dairy as a commodity set is unrecoverable).
It was also excellent to hear Otago cheery growers (RNZ this morning) will be doubling their production and don’t know where to get the future staff.
Among Prime Minister Ardern’s string of bon mots about the economy in her speech on the weekend, enhancing wealth while dealing with increasing constraints to whole industries was absent.
There lots of areas in which they are successfully working, but this is a real unaddressed biggie.
Once again @ Muttonbird – agree. Ross Bell is a very sensible chap, though I’m not sure his
“”This has been the biggest scam New Zealand has ever seen,” is exactly true.
Immigration scams leading to exploitation and what is effectively people trafficking are just as evil, and they’ve been the result of ten years of bad policy, its implementation and (lack of) enforcement. It’s only now its GRADUALLY being taken more seriously, although there are some pretty simple things that could be done immediately
Perhaps. Both are evil in any case. Summarily prosecuting, convicting, and sentencing social housing tenants without offering defence or recourse on the one hand, and encouraging a fearful, cheap workforce for the benefit of their business friends on the other.
Amazing that he’s untouchable yet Bridges is baying for the blood of Jan Thomas.
And let’s get this straight: Jan Thomas didn’t want a reactionary crank racist doing an unpaid gig on campus, and McKenzie kicked 800 social housing tenants onto the streets unlawfully.
Yep.
Once again, I was hoping Chris Hipkins review of the public service gets to cover issues such as these. So far I’m not that hopeful.
Sure as shit it ain’t what it used to be (in terms of ethical behaviour, codes of conduct, etc.) Sure – it was never perfect, but there are now so many departments and Munstries that are absolutely dysfunctional – they do not serve a public or a functioning democracy.
I doubt any of them (for example) have had any sanction over the use of Thompson and bloody Clark.
Just out of interest Chris do you feel sad re what the Salvation Army is saying about meth evictions and stat housing tenants? Or have you used up all your sadness on a name change?
I think the way the tenants were treated was disgusting.
The Nats had an excuse to start off with as that is the levels they were given to work with, but as it looked more and more like the levels at which it is dangerous were utter shit, there should have been a “Hang on a sec’. Stoppp!!! put all action on tenants on hold till we work this out”
It’ll be outside the terms. Hager’s lawyer appears to be focussed on uncovering police individuals who acted illegally. That’ll be where it stops – unless one of them tells all…
I seem to remember that Helen Clark once made a remark about the economy which caused a flare up in a similar way to that for which Jacinda was criticised the other day. Funny the things you remember in the middle of the night.
National made mistakes from time to time, including at least one that, while different, was arguably much worse than Ardern’s.
In 2011, shortly after the Christchurch earthquake, John Key told financial news agency Bloomberg that he expected the Reserve Bank would cut interest rates. “We’d certainly welcome it.”
The dollar plunged in a way which suggested financial markets believed Key was making the decision.
“Peters is a team player only if he’s in charge of the team. He might behave himself for a while, but in time his natural belligerence and contrarianism will assert itself.”
Which leads to this happening…
“NZ First has now jammed several sticks into the spokes of Labour and the Greens, to the teeth-grinding frustration of the Left. The Government is looking shambolic and there must be doubts about its ability to run a full term.”
Karl du Fresne has explained the dynamics well, and the reason Winston received his 7% on election night. And why going into coalition with him is like walking through a minefield.
Just more spin against the coalition govt by msm..
Anyway who gives a flying f about who Karl (I chose the wrong ice cream flavour boo hoo) voted for. He needs to be given a wheel barrow and do something useful for a change. Try to help out with the coalitions kiwi build building houses
Presumably this appeared here by accident as it appears to be a repeat of a reply to 11 below. Not a criticism; I was just confused for a moment until I realised the situation so thought I would clarify for others.
Being Karl du Fresne, I was not going to bother to read it as I have read his ‘work’ too many times in the past and he is highly predictable.
But I decided I would read it. I have, and my initial thoughts proved right. This article is predictable as always, several days behind the ace ball, out of date like Fresne, and a complete waste of time.
I did get one good laugh from a very quick look at the comments which were also predictably the usual Stuff comments. But the one that made me laugh said words to the effect that the writer voted for NZF in the hope NZF would get rid of those “part-Maoris”.
The writer should have checked who they were voting for. Of the nine NZF MPs, six (2/3rds) are part-Maoris. LOLs.
And this is the type of people that are coming here. Handley is out of a job (but at lease compensated). So in a country that could be attracting the best and brightest, nope we seem to be selecting for scammers and people who contribute to the scams and people with such low skills in areas like IT that they are not employable under normal measures. (IT is desperate for people with skills at the top end not bottom end, like everything bottom end skills are generally obsolete) .
In my view our future is pretty bleak in NZ for our kids of that continues (Auckland is already 50% migrants and more and more scammers being attracted here) because nobody is interested in stopping our country turning into one full of fucked up scamming parasites.
The really smart migrants go to the US and UK for study, NZ has developed a Rogernomics system to get the educationally challenged students here and their road to residency through Internet cafe style jobs and fake jobs.
The problem is, long term, what the fuck is gonna happen to the smart people who already can’t get a job with the low wages and scams – ummm leave and so whose gonna pay the taxes and support the unemployable in their 20’s?
… cos all these people on those fake Internet cafe jobs qualify for welfare eventually and what happens when the fake job ends and they have residency, but if they couldn’t get a legitimate job before, they clearly can’t after and the kiwis have to support and house yet fake employee whose given tens of thousands to another scammer for their expansion here which our government is completely uninterested in stopping and addressing, presumably because they agree with it.
Note the difference with human trafficking, migration fraud and so forth with no action from government compared to the swamp house owned by Aven Raj that has the council. all media and Phil Twyford rushing over to condemn it as third world….
It seems third world migration frauds don’t get the same headlines or attention…
I just have to say with regard to the argie-bargie currently going on in Parliament between the 2 sides in the House – minutiae!
Led by Bridges, the carefully framed and seriously delivered series of questions from the Nat side are in essence simply niggly and akin to a small dog snapping at the heels of someone it doesn’t like. There is no substance. There is no genuine expression of information required. These people are simply trying to bore holes below the waterline in the fond hope that this will be enough to scupper the coalition (Labour-led, of course).
It was my fond hope that, having been beaten and relegated to the opposition benches, National would hunker down, look for new policy, criticise the coalition for its policies which they don’t believe in and promote their own answers, through policy statements, to generate some support for what THEY would do if they were in power.
But oh no! They have turned into an aggressive little Pomeranian yap-yapping at the government’s heels about minutiae that are, in the grand scheme of things, quite irrelevant to bettering NZ for all its citizens. I know why they are doing it. It’s like the kid who can’t get a break, who has no ideas and resorts to foot-tripping or firing water pistols to get some reaction.
The National Party is devoid of ideas for improving the lives of ordinary NZers. They have a droit de seigneur attitude to governing – it’s their right, they have been cheated, this government should not be there, our 42% is more valid, etc, etc, etc.
Until they grow up, understand MMP, start talking about their own policies, and behave like adults in the House, then they won’t be 42% for much longer. The reason they are getting the traction they are is down to unthinking tribalism in part, and the rest is people who listen with half an ear, think with half a brain and take far too much notice of a slanted MSM that is not serving us a well as it might.
It’s time the government parties started badgering the Nats for the result of the leaking investigation on the grounds that it is in the public’s interest… since they accused Labour of doing the leaking.
Nice as that might be Anne, it would be stooping to their level, and the coalition (Labour-led, of course) is showing fine restraint in not doing so. I really hope they continue to be the adults in the room.
Hey, when the nats report back that they checked each other’s emails and did a proper investigation and found it probably wasn’t one of them, Mallard will have to start it up again.
Chris73 is a infowars viewer, his connection with reality is tenuous at best. Unless he has taken his BrainForcePlus™ nutraceutical supplement (contains Soy) then he can connect 3 improbable thing before breakfast.
Actually we don’t know that, thats the problem. I want to know the details so whoever did it (or helped) can suffer the consequences of their actions
Its similar to the NZ Labour Youth Sex Scandal. We all know the, alleged, perpetrator is linked to Labour possibly through family connections but until the truth comes out we can only speculate
Don’t you want to know who it is so they can be dealt with appropriately?
Court process will deal with offender at Labour Youth summit.
I must admit I have curiousity about which caucus member leaked, but beyond that I neither care, nor need to know. Why I was very skeptical about the mental health claims of the leaker, I rather err on the side of caution.
We don’t need to deal with the labyouth guy. Isn’t the matter before the courts? That is the appropriate course of action.
But as for the nat leaker – either a nat leaked to the media directly, or a nat leaked to someone else who leaked to the media. Between what happened in caucus and the expenses only going to the nats in that format, the root source is almost certainly within the nat caucus.
Yeah but Woodn’t be interesting if the, alleged, perp was related to someone high up because then it wouldn’t be a case of handling it poorly, it’d be a cover up
I’m not sure that “stopping salivating tories from speculating about coverups” is a reasonable or even achievable objective for breaching name suppression of a defendent.
Who do I think leaked nat caucus room secrets and the travel expenses?
Almost certainly a nat.
Beyond that, I don’t care. The knives are out in that room, and soimon shat himself into a corner. Long may it last.
Maybe I’m a bit rare in not being much of a panty-sniffer, poking my nose into random places in the guise of “transparency”. But I just don’t get the thrill. I’ve enough shit on in real life without speculating more into existence.
You don’t know for sure but you think its a Nat and thats why I want more transparency , not less so we can have less idle speculation
It’s not “idle speculation”.
At least one of the leaked pieces of information was privvy only to people in the nat caucus room. All pieces of information that were leaked were available to people in the nat caucus room.
Sure, you’re going for the hail Mary pass that the nats will exonerate themselves and Mallard will discover one of his staffers had done something naughty and repeated gossip to cover their arse. The other one has bells on.
Well said, Doog. Actually I am pleased that the Bridges-led National opposition are showing themselves for what they are – and I am sure that they will be losing voters through taking this approach.
I am also pleased that Ardern et al are not retaliating and instead, basically called their bluff over the last day or so with the Crown Maori agency agreement and announcement, the increased refugee announcement etc.
But just one thing … Last week we had Bridges et Co compared to Bichon Frise (h/t lprent) and this week, Pomeranians!
Please, please leave the dogs out of this – all dogs and their breeds are far, far better and more intelligent!
VV – Leader of the Coalition to Ban the Defamation of Dogs (CBDD) – (or any other animals).
Regionally interested people could catch hold of this tree planting plan and get their region going to have young people trained in horticulture, silviculture and fit and keen and ready to take on jobs in tree planting and care in the future.
A greater proportion of indigenous trees are to be planted in the Minster for Regional Economic Development’s plan, thanks to a $240m funding boost from the Provincial Growth Fund. MPI’s forestry service Te Uru Rākau is talking with industry body NZPPI about helping nurseries respond to the demand.
But NZPPI says while Shane Jones’ ten year programme is an exciting opportunity for native tree nurseries, the challenge will be scaling up.
Robert Guyton has worked as a young man planting on steep slopes and says it is very hard. The speaker in this radionz interview referred to some possible automation to assist in moving the project forward. I am sure it has some place in the chain of activity to getting the trees in the ground and beyond. Perhaps Robert you could give your comments or write a piece about what will have to be largely plantation-type planting for most of it, with steep and erosion prone land to be eternal forest (no cutting), what firebreaks, whether less resinous trees than pine would result in less fire risk etc. We should also be planting trees for harvesting for our own wood needs, utilising species from other lands with special properties (Tasmanian hardwoods I have heard of, stone pine? for pinenuts), mixed tree and crop or grazing paddocks on farms also. This would help conserve water from evaporation, give animals a tree and shadow for refuge from the hot sun (with the trunk protected, and of nontoxic type).
Following up on this ambitious and necessary project could be an ongoing feature for TS so that we apply our minds to both political theatre and the real-world problems we want dealt with at the ‘coalface’. Looking through information available about forestry on the internet there is info about pine and native forestry but to get the best results, a simple dichotomy on species like this would not give outcomes that were optimal.
And a pause to think about the cultural effect of trees on us and how practically our civilisation has been built using trees. Interesting thought, am I right in this?:
Paul Robeson’s beautiful voice –
Very interesting views on trees from Ecologist Suzanne Simard
“Her 30 years of research in Canadian forests have led to an astounding discovery: trees talk, communicating often and over vast distances. Trees are much more like us humans that you may think. They are extremely social and depend on each other for their survival. Communication is vital, and a massive web of hair-like mushroom roots transmit secret messages between trees, triggering them to share nutrients and water with those in need.”
“The body of the petition sets out the case for change. It takes as its starting point the almost incredible fact – one still contested by many supposed experts, although confirmed by detailed studies produced by the Bank of England and other central banks – that around 97% of our money has been created, not by the government, but by the commercial banks, which create the money by simply making a bank entry in the accounts of those to whom they lend money, usually on mortgage.
The banks, of course, charge interest on the money they thereby create ex nihilo (or out of nothing) and it is the interest they charge that produces their huge profits of billions of dollars which they then send back, in most cases, to Australia.
What is really astonishing about this state of affairs is that the money supply – one of the key elements in determining our economic success or otherwise – is almost entirely controlled, not by our government or the Reserve Bank, but by foreign-owned commercial banks which operate entirely for profit and are in no way accountable to the New Zealand public.”
I had a dream where Jacinda Ardern spoke about class issues last night. … I mean I knew it was a dream when someone from Labour was talking about poverty without using the word child before it, in my dream the coalition govt outlined a target, actual policies that were designed to lower inequality and share the wealth and a timeline. In my dream the people of New Zealand celebrated a government that was willing to lead on the issues and fight for the majority rather than a minority and the media reported on this fairly and balanced….
Only in a dream land would labour have transformational policies and the guts to implement them and the media be fair and balanced in their reporting.
Back to reality, virtue signaling, tweaks and vague promises
What policies do you think Labour need to put in to lower inequality and share the wealth, fight for the majority rather than a minority and how to get the media reported on this fairly and balanced?
Looks like is going to recommend a CGT, but will provide some options for how that will work in final report due next feb. Also looks like will recommend better environmental taxes, which is awesome, esp. in regards to getting the cost of using natural eco-systems into the cost of what we do and make. No finacial transactions tax, no sugar tax (unless the govt. really really wants it) and probably tweaks to the lower tax-rates and thresholds.
Seems all sensible stuff, nothing to outrageous and appears to be what most normal thinking NZers want…. a better, fairer tax system, not one designed for the benefit of the few
Pleased to see that the recommendation is that tax on income from realised capital gain should be integrated with normal income tax – no separate CGT at a fixed rate.
The equity argument for this is unassailable. Plus, it means that if we raise income tax rates on those with high incomes (as we should), we effectively raise the tax rate on their income from capital as well.
Excellent start – now if only they would recommend gradually dropping and ultimately eliminating the regressive GST.
So GDP up 1% for the quarter. In Mike Hosking’s language that’s 4% annually which has got to be better than anything John Key achieved.
Forestry bumped up agriculture 4.2% – must be all those trees being planted, eh? Seriously though, Kiwibuild and NZFs focus on reviving forestry in the regions is going to be massive for this sector in the coming years. And trees are nice – nicer than cows.
Mining down 20%. Well, boo hoo.
I see Amy Adams was all doom and gloom though, and Farrar will be avoiding this news like the plague.
And growth constraints might be infrastructure (National’s fault), workers (hordes of them are still falling out of the sky), and maybe the cessation of irrigation projects (boo hoo).
Those GDP numbers must be incorrect. The government must me manipulating the figures, bribing officials or something, because Simon and Amy said GDP would slow and business has no confidence and and……..fuck it, I give up
I’m coming out in nostalgic songs – I don’t know whether it is catching but the tunes and words are. Muttonbird says – Why can’t these people be happy?
I want to be happy – here’s an old version and one we would love to sing if National could only settle to make the country happy and themselves try to be happy too.
We would even dance along with David Seymour (I think) if we could all get into line dancing (for the rural people), tangos (for the city slickers) or even the Gay Gordons for those embedded in the past.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aDJGvFSVOQ
Here is the Gay Gordons which looks a slightly tipsy image but a lot of fun.
Notice how the dancers cope with change and manage to dance with different partners all following the same steps and moving in the same direction. A good pattern for us in our politics I think. (If you go onto the Manchester Pride 2016 version you will enjoy the blokes getting stuck in to the Gay Gordons too. I’m impressed by their chutzpah.)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEmTLioBpi0
The corrupt and malevolent Judith Collins is on the attack again.
But
Mr Twyford called on Paula Bennett and the ministers responsible for HNZ at the time to apologise, saying Ms Bennett had “gloated” in the media about evicting tenants.
Sorry Phil. I can’t see that evil cow, Paula Bennett, apologising to anyone, ever.
Victims of wrongful eviction from Housing NZ houses are being compensated.
Which brings the expected sort of response from one of life’s true humanitarians.
Judith Collins said that with people on waiting lists it was “not the time to be saying come back and cook up your meth.”
The scummy behaviour of the initial action getting scummy support with scummy comments from a scummy politician.
Now what was that about being weak and distracted?
Clear decision and also showing compassion. Taken in a timely fashion.
Now what could that be contrasted with today?
Stupidity in Parliament from Ms Collins hating on P users and getting a lawyer’s rebuke from Minister Little about onus of proof and being innocent until found guilty – something Mark Mitchell is supporting in the House as a concept concerning military discipline as I write.
The Minister of Housing acknowledging that the previous government and department has got it wrong for years over the science and the consequential wrong treatment of Housing tenants for alleged “P” use, and making the appropriate apology and rectification.
Asinine questioning from the MP for Kaikoura to Minister Little, using that well-known tag to a question “And if not, why not” when asking the Minister whether he had wrongly briefed Cabinet on a contractual issue. Little dropped his jaw in astonishment at the stupidity of the tail to the question.
How to act appropriately, or not. What happens when standards are breached. A salutary day displaying a contrast in propriety and effective leadership.
Decisive = Ardern facing down Whaitiri at the time of the incident (look me in the eyes and tell me what occurred). A few days to a week at most for the decision to be made.
That is the fairness side of her character. C’mon Chuck, you’re usually a fairly reasonable rwnj who knows the difference between what is right and what is wrong.
It is only right she be given a chance to ‘rehabilitate’ herself. Other PMs on both sides of the house have exercised that prerogative over errant ministers. It usually works.
“It is only right she be given a chance to ‘rehabilitate’ herself.”
I may have agreed with you Anne if it was something out of the blue.
However, Whaitri has form…it has been a revolving door for staff at Whaitri office (I think 6 in less than a year). That tells me she has form and either cannot or will not change her personal trait to bully and intimidate.
Time will tell Chuck. I’ve known such people in the past and its true… some of them are sociopaths and can’t or won’t change. But she’s got to be given the chance and if she doesn’t… it’ll be curtains for her parliamentary career.
But but but he’s a man so he can’t be weak and distracted. And anyway we know Gerry didn’t mean it, And he thought he was talking to (sorry, abusing) someone else. And at least he didn’t “show her the stairwell”. And didn’t she know who he is? He’s Gerry the man.
He’s the guy who can breeze through airport security.
At least he’s met his match with the new Speaker, as he found today.
Kia ora The Am Show The Bird’s brand sustainable manufactured Shoes is great and there new product a bird shade to wear to block the light so one can sleep on planes .
They partnered up with Air New Zealand to make and sell there product’s ka pai.
We need more sustainable products when Te Papatuanuku turns to sustainable prouducts OUR products like wool and wood will commanded a hire price .
OUR carbon neutral goal’s will benefit Aotearoa farmer’s $$$$$$$$$.
When you are in another country one should respect there cultures and you will be treated with respect covering tattoos is there culture so be it .
Eco say’s the Japanese will host a awesome Rugby World Cup it’s been a few year’s in the making ka pai. You no that all of te tangata whenua cultures have been treated like dirt when another culture takes over the law of the whenua.
I say spending on a social media campaigne to educate the youth on diarydack and pee should be include in that youth are all on social media and this great idea will work .
I heard that jerry brownly treated some people the same an what there is no one talking about that should he be rolled judith what’s good for a whaine should be the same for te tane.
The tax working group is just resetting the taxs back to a simler mix to what we had before shonky’s I WILL NOT RAISE GST he did just that after he gave tax cut’s that benefited the wealthy the most will we have a happy society with that system NO.
There you go Sir Michael Cullen Grant Robertson and the tax working group are doing there homework to make sure any new tax’s are not going to have a negative effect on Aotearoa.
Mark so you think getting a sweet $1 million dollars a year in captial gain’s is fare mean while that housing shortage denial policy distorted our housing market to make huge gain’s for the wealthy a direct result from shonky’s policy pushed thousands of people under the bridge . Ka kite ano
Eco met this boy the other day he was nervous talking to much he own’s a few house’s he think’s he can fool Eco Maori but know I know that his action’s are being orchestrated by the muppet sandfly’s he is just a puppet of there’s only fooling himself
Ana to kai P.S I don’t shake people’s hand’s when I know they are puppets.
I see story’s like this all the time trying to change peoples reality on our History for one the settler’s wahine would not have liked it that Maori wahine could own land and they could not . That fact would have upset and influenced settler’s wahine in to protesting about the savages being able to own land that’s how the mind’s worked in those day This would have attracted other wahine to Aotearoa to seek the help rise number’s to get the stupid law’s that ban anyone from there right to vote .Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa Mana is growing to strong for the power’s than be .
Ka kite ano P.S When I unite Tangata whenua O Aotearoa & our Pacifica cousin’s into one VOICE we will be unstop able voice in Aotearoa Ana to kai link is below.
Kia ora Newshub Lets hope that the mokopuna’s of the Carterton school all survive that tragedy .
Some times one has to given the cold hard facts to get the reality to sink in.
I don;t put plastic bag in the recycling and we wash the plastic two reason one it smell if you only send it monthly and its easier to be recycled when cleaned .
There you go the way the court systems work in favour of the wealthy the sea bed mining could open another issue as well we must protect all our taonga from the wealthy money men’s greed.
trump need’s to get with reality trying to build wall’s in the year 2018 is not intelligent
he is only pandering to his core supporters and his ego.
Ka kite ano P.S It is not safe dropping poison out of the sky.
Kia ora The Crowd Goes wild Hope the Wahine Warriors have a good game on the weekend.
That was a mean game for the Bay’s Wahine Kia kaha
The keep or cut there hair is a good cause all the best to Brad I use to have wahine brushing my long hair in the fisherman’s refreshments place in Napier after work long time ago.
Kai pai Levi getting your hair cut on TV in support of Brad .
Ka kite ano P,S I keep it cut now
We have DOC & The Anti 1080 at WAR over the issues of 1080 being dropped in our forest . Now any intelligent person know’s that diplomacy and compromising on both side has a much better out come for both side than War as everyone has great losses in a WAR My tipuna new this and always tried to settle there differences with whiriwhiri.
Most of the Wars that Maori fought before the settlers arrived there was minimal loses of LIFE that’s a fact. .
So what Eco Maori would do is I would go back to that Great pukapuka The Art Of War and see what it says .
In this situation Eco say that the state & te tangata should compromise pay a bounty on all the tails in easy access terrain and use 1080 in all the hard place’s to trap right away from te tangata and in this situation they get the public on side the public get to make money and the state get’s its goal of controlling the pest .
I know that the state will never be able to eliminate pest in Aotearoa we all know the rural communities need more money to its clearly visible of this fact .
Eco still backs DOC good work with Papatuanuku and her Creatures Many thanks DOC.
But hay when I see some thing is wrong I will SPEAK up about it . Ka kite ano
craig heatly book no limits Eco Maori says he is just like shonky and they both have
NO LIMIT’s TO THE DIRTY LYING LOW DOWN THIEVING thing’s they will do to rip other people off .
He does not care that’s his M8 shonkys policy’s that were designed to full his hip pocket and push the lower classes in Aotearoa under a bridge people working 3 job’s in Auckland just to stay afloat .
Why is he launching a book to try and lift his m8 national party out of the gutter .
But sorry it won’t work We all know for someone to make a fortune in such a short time one has to be a big crook they make there own luck with back room deal’s that’s easy for Eco Maori to see.
He say’s Jacinda is inexperienced well she has been in politics for 9 YEAR’s .
She has all ready done a better job than shonky but craig find me some one that you think is perfect and Eco Maori will prove that person to be a liar
Ka kite ano P.S W e know that people who made million’s in the 1980 were ripping the state off buying state asset’s cheap as chips and selling the asset’s for huge mark up that’s a fact Michael fay did with our railway’s link is below
David Parker was in Southland having a meeting with Farmer’s about the environmental concerns he makes a statement that the farmer have not had enough correct laws put in place to stop the few ruining it for the many you see Southland Dairy started booming under shonky rule he did not care about the environment the economy is more important than the environment HOW ELSE CAN ONE EXPLAIN HIS ACTIONS
The thing about Southland’s topography is most dairy land there is just a few feet above the water level that cause problem’s there.
Also it’s cold so they have to put more urea on than up North to get there grass growing to feed there cow’s
A big amount of that ends up in OUR waterways that’s why the waterway’s got so bad so fast.
So lower the stocking rate lower the amount of fertliser put on farm’s GO Organic I say.
Fontrra has not delivered to farmer’s the return’s they were promised when it was formed .
It’s common knowledge that the people milking the cow’s make’s less than the person in a nice warm building pushing button’s with no skill’s get more like $30 a hour
$25 would be ok I say .
It would be good to have a pie chart to show how much of fontrra’s money goes into there salaries and management and how much ends up in OUR farmer’s pocket’s .
Fontrra has been turned into a gravy train for the wealthy executive.
6000 earn $100. k 24 earn A cool million there you go. Ana to kai.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub Cook’s Endeavour might have been found Is cool but now Te Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa Culture is rising up to its rightful Mana after having colonialist suppressing us for 200 years.
That’s a shame that all those people in Tanzania have drowned in that ferry sinking Eco gives his condolence to the people who lost there love ones
Who could be so cruel spraying acid on any thing living a defenseless foul horse its awesome that some people care enough to treat the foul in Britain ka pai.
There you go the cop’s get it wrong all the time 27 years Dickson was locked up and the real killer confessed they still kept him locked up.
It took rich golf people to champion his cause and take his case back to court to get him released that’s the reality of the west justice system’s. The killer was most likely a informant
Wow those fire tornadoes are mean we will have to get use to them if we don’t change our culture and have a culture that thinks about our children’s future over short term profits
The Women in Black look’s like a AUSSE good film I seen a good TV series OffSpring it’s on Net flicks it give Eco A sore face Id give it a 8
Ka kite ano P.S Emma Te Ra was shining bright today
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Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
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by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
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By Johnny Blades of RNZ Pacific Protests are spreading in Indonesia-ruled West Papua in response to harassment of Papuans during explosive incidents in Javanese cities last week. Indonesia’s president has urged calm after some of the protests turned violent, but he’s been criticised for not directly addressing a festering ...
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the karaoke game that introduced an entire generation to the horrors of ‘Downtown’ by Petula Clark. Jordan Hamel ranks all 30 songs from SingStar v1, from worst to best.Before my generation was old enough to get smashed on reasonably priced Merlot and wander ...
After a decade of making music, Sons of Zion are still refusing to settle into a genre. They sit down to talk about the joys of pop music and te reo Māori, and why a “reggae” band can do both.In 2009 Sons of Zion released their debut album, a self-titled ...
The government is directing councils to loosen up their planning rules, allowing cities to grow both up and out, in a bid to solve the housing crisis. ...
New Zealand’s largest construction company and controversial owner of the disputed Ihumātao land near Auckland airport has made a $164m profit, a big turnaround from its losses last year. Business editor Maria Slade analyses what it all means.What has Fletcher Building announced?The construction and building products company with operations on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Australia will commit a frigate, an aircraft and some headquarters staff to an American-led freedom of navigation operation in the Middle East. Scott Morrison, announcing the long-expected commitment at a Canberra news conference on Wednesday, ...
The local sharemarket has taken an unexpected beating this morning driven by investor disappointment about the performance of the top stock - A2 Milk. ...
Sometimes, less is more. Even when it comes to Quentin Tarantino (Warning: Contains mild spoilers).Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is an impressive film. It’s got great acting, stunning visuals, and a twist ending, all laced with the sort of attention to detail you’d expect from the nuttiest of film ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Beeson, Professor of International Politics, University of Western Australia Populism and environmentalism are words seldom seen in the same sentence. One is associated predominantly with nationalists and charismatic leaders of “real people”, the other with broadly-based collective action to address the ...
Who makes up the royal ‘we’? Lana Lopesi reviews a massive show at ST PAUL St Gallery in Auckland that investigates questions of community, culture and conflict.How to Live Together at ST PAUL St Gallery could hardly have been better timed, opening just days before the protection of Ihumātao in ...
The first week of Celebrity Treasure Island had it all – mud, vomit and coconut brassieres. Alex Casey ranks the celebrity contestants vying to win $100,000 for their chosen charity. It’s 2019 and mostly everything is bad, so I am choosing to focus on the positives of Celebrity Treasure Island NZ. ...
The government is directing councils to loosen up their planning rules, allowing cities to grow both up and out, in a bid to solve the housing crisis. ...
Australia's big banks may have to make do with less money from their New Zealand operations, as Australia's banking regulator moves to improve their financial strength. ...
The anti-1080 lobby has made a martyr out of kea, but that ignores another salient fact: kea survival in large part depends on pest control. Dave Hansford explores on the challenge to balance pest control with conservation.In April this year, Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP) announced that two kea had died ...
Fletcher Building has posted a solid full year profit but continues to be dogged by a weak Australian housing market and underperformance in some of its businesses there. ...
Work obsessed drone Alex Braae assesses whether shutting himself up in a dark room will allow some semblance of normality on a day off.It is a sad fact of life that many of us spend alarmingly large chunks of it working. The relationship is like quicksand: as we spend more ...
Inspired by the ethos of food-rescue organisation Kaibosh, chef Kelda Hains looked to the past to champion unloved ingredients and showcase clever waste-minimising techniques at her All Taste, No Waste dinner during Visa Wellington On a Plate. Ever glanced at those supermarket bags of pre-cut broccoli florets and wondered what happens ...
Dr Bryce EdwardsCould the most interesting aspect of the current local government elections turn out to be generational change? At the moment, there is a surge of media and activist focus on younger candidates standing for office. It suddenly seems to be “cool” again to want to be a ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Petrol prices Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Don’t be surprised if petrol study ends in a deal, ...
Jacinda Ardern’s election campaign was high on hope but this Government should remember that those who encourage what cannot be achieved are quickly found out. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Professor Tim Bentley, Director of Research, professor of Work and Organisation, Massey University According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the workplace can be a positive force for improving mental health. But many workers are exposed to work environments that are damaging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne Alan Jones’s political power is to a large extent based on a self-fulfilling prophecy: politicians believe he can shift votes, so they pay homage to him, which adds ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rosemary Stanton, Visiting Fellow, School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Research Checks interrogate newly published studies and how they’re reported in the media. The analysis is undertaken by one or more academics not involved with the study, and reviewed by another, to make ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Associate Professor Ralph Brougham Chapman, Director, Environmental Studies, Victoria University of Wellington CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Salvatore Babones, Associate Professor, University of Sydney Australia’s leading universities are now looking to India in search of new sources of international students. This comes amid worries they may have reached a “China max” – no more room for growth in Chinese ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Couch, Senior Lecturer – Youth Work and International Development, Australian Catholic University One of the biggest challenges young people of refugee background face in their new country is finding safe, affordable and appropriate housing. Yet this is central to social inclusion ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Sheil, Visiting Senior Fellow in History, UNSW The results of the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics biennial survey of income and wealth met have met with an uneven response, perhaps in part due to a slipshod press release. Released with the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christina Lee, Senior Lecturer in Literary and Cultural Studies, Curtin University This story contains spoilers for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. While promoting Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at the Cannes Film Festival, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino was asked why Margot ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National cries foul over parliamentary costing unit idea, Ngawha Prison heavily criticised in report, and fuel market study confirms prices are high.The government have announced a recommendation to create an official, independent parliamentary costing unit, reports the NZ Herald.The aim is to ...
Phil Goff and John Tamihere are into round 10 of 23 debates planned before the mayoral election in October, and they're punching hard, not resting on the ropes or pulling eachother into dull political clinches. ...
Open Mike 20/09/2018 
That's the only way to describe the government's plans for a Parliamentary Budget Office to allow opposition parties to get an independent costing of their policies. When the idea was first floated back in 2016 as an office within Treasury, I thought that wasn't independent enough and argued that it ...12 hours ago
Television advertising has a huge impact on our lives. Even if we don’t recognise that, we know it has to be true, since otherwise why would advertisers spend so much on it? Its significance, however, is greater than simply the influence it has on what we purchase and consume. It ...18 hours ago
by Jan Rivers More than 30 years ago a Commission of Inquiry was held in New Zealand to investigate, amongst other things, whether women with cervical cancer were aware that they had been part of a research project and whether they were properly informed of the treatment options ...1 day ago
Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...2 days ago
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...3 days ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...4 days ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...5 days ago
6 days ago
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...6 days ago
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...1 week ago
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...1 week ago
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...1 week ago
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...1 week ago
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...1 week ago
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ... 1 week ago
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...1 week ago
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...1 week ago
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...2 weeks ago
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...2 weeks ago
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...2 weeks ago
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...2 weeks ago
A Cult, that many actors, politicians, and those with a low IQ are joining is sweeping across civilisation, with one main intention – ending humans reign on Earth. Starting as a well meaning though deeply flawed theory, that the Earth was warming due to mankind emitting greenhouse gasses, it was ...2 weeks ago
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...2 weeks ago
Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance and its nationwide sister group the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Auckland Mayor Phil Goff for his comments today that John Tamihere would need the Government’s support to ...9 hours ago
By Michael Andrew Journalists across Papua New Guinea have spoken out in support of EMTV news director Neville Choi after his “unacceptable” termination from a role he had held for six years. A public statement released on Monday listed the reasons for his termination, one of which was his ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Camellia Webb-Gannon, Lecturer, University of Wollongong Last weekend, the Indonesian police took 43 West Papuan students into custody for allegedly disrespecting the Indonesian flag during an independence day celebration (an allegation the students deny). Police stormed the students’ dorm and used teargas ...6 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natalie Klein, Professor, UNSW Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that Australia will lend military support to protect shipping in the Middle East. The commitment has been long expected, with Australia sending a frigate, an aircraft and some headquarters staff as part ...7 hours ago
Under the government's proposal, councils - particularly in the six high growth centres - will be given a clear direction to loosen their rules. ...7 hours ago
The Government's new urban development initiative will do nothing if councils don't receive more funding, mayors say. ...7 hours ago
By Johnny Blades of RNZ Pacific Protests are spreading in Indonesia-ruled West Papua in response to harassment of Papuans during explosive incidents in Javanese cities last week. Indonesia’s president has urged calm after some of the protests turned violent, but he’s been criticised for not directly addressing a festering ...8 hours ago
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the karaoke game that introduced an entire generation to the horrors of ‘Downtown’ by Petula Clark. Jordan Hamel ranks all 30 songs from SingStar v1, from worst to best.Before my generation was old enough to get smashed on reasonably priced Merlot and wander ...9 hours ago
DoC is using cloud-based tools to manage rare native birds, but has agreed to keep the kākāpō genome in NZ, reports Eloise Gibson from Canberra. ...10 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melanie J Woodfield, Clinical Psychologist and Health Research Council Foxley Fellow, University of Auckland Parenting young children is one of the most stressful times in a parent’s life. Toddlers and preschoolers are learning how to independently regulate their emotions. And parents are ...10 hours ago
The government is directing councils to loosen up their planning rules, allowing cities to grow both up and out, in a bid to solve the housing crisis. ...11 hours ago
The troubled KiwiBuild programme is losing another top boss with Helen O'Sullivan leaving at the end of the month. ...11 hours ago
The local sharemarket has taken an unexpected beating this morning driven by investor disappointment about the performance of the top stock - A2 Milk. ...12 hours ago
Sometimes, less is more. Even when it comes to Quentin Tarantino (Warning: Contains mild spoilers).Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is an impressive film. It’s got great acting, stunning visuals, and a twist ending, all laced with the sort of attention to detail you’d expect from the nuttiest of film ...13 hours ago
Who makes up the royal ‘we’? Lana Lopesi reviews a massive show at ST PAUL St Gallery in Auckland that investigates questions of community, culture and conflict.How to Live Together at ST PAUL St Gallery could hardly have been better timed, opening just days before the protection of Ihumātao in ...14 hours ago
The first week of Celebrity Treasure Island had it all – mud, vomit and coconut brassieres. Alex Casey ranks the celebrity contestants vying to win $100,000 for their chosen charity. It’s 2019 and mostly everything is bad, so I am choosing to focus on the positives of Celebrity Treasure Island NZ. ...14 hours ago
Specialty dairy company A2 Milk has stormed to a record profit on the back of surging demand for its infant formula. ...15 hours ago
Dairy prices have fallen fractionally in the latest fortnightly auction. ...15 hours ago
Australia's big banks may have to make do with less money from their New Zealand operations, as Australia's banking regulator moves to improve their financial strength. ...15 hours ago
Fletcher Building has posted a solid full year profit but continues to be dogged by a weak Australian housing market and underperformance in some of its businesses there. ...16 hours ago
Inspired by the ethos of food-rescue organisation Kaibosh, chef Kelda Hains looked to the past to champion unloved ingredients and showcase clever waste-minimising techniques at her All Taste, No Waste dinner during Visa Wellington On a Plate. Ever glanced at those supermarket bags of pre-cut broccoli florets and wondered what happens ...16 hours ago
17 hours ago
Jacinda Ardern’s election campaign was high on hope but this Government should remember that those who encourage what cannot be achieved are quickly found out. ...17 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rosemary Stanton, Visiting Fellow, School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Research Checks interrogate newly published studies and how they’re reported in the media. The analysis is undertaken by one or more academics not involved with the study, and reviewed by another, to make ...18 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Associate Professor Ralph Brougham Chapman, Director, Environmental Studies, Victoria University of Wellington CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d ...18 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Sheil, Visiting Senior Fellow in History, UNSW The results of the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics biennial survey of income and wealth met have met with an uneven response, perhaps in part due to a slipshod press release. Released with the ...18 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christina Lee, Senior Lecturer in Literary and Cultural Studies, Curtin University This story contains spoilers for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. While promoting Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at the Cannes Film Festival, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino was asked why Margot ...18 hours ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National cries foul over parliamentary costing unit idea, Ngawha Prison heavily criticised in report, and fuel market study confirms prices are high.The government have announced a recommendation to create an official, independent parliamentary costing unit, reports the NZ Herald. The aim is to ...19 hours ago
Phil Goff and John Tamihere are into round 10 of 23 debates planned before the mayoral election in October, and they're punching hard, not resting on the ropes or pulling eachother into dull political clinches. ...20 hours ago
An environmental group floats ideas for protecting the Mackenzie Basin’s landscapes. ...20 hours ago
You have to be a real political anorak to give a damn about some emails being released, but the longer Curran refuses to let her Prime Minister off the hook, the worse this is going to get. As Claire Trevett notes:
“The hiring of Handley and then scrapping his appointment before he even began is the messiest mishap of the new Government so far.
The best Labour can hope for is to deal with the fallout efficiently and without being cute about it.
Labour had no doubt hoped the Handley episode would be tidied away with the departure of Curran.
But as long as the contents of those emails remain a secret so too will the suspicion the Prime Minister is somehow involved, or there is something else damaging in there.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12128004
C’mon Curran, release the emails; you can’t fall any further.
Most open and transparent government ever.
Sure does look if they have something to hide.
And you don’t have to be a political anorak- people can see how unprofessionaly Cindys government is handling this – it matters.
Media should move on. Curren resigned. It’s the media stupid. Take Massay uni, a club wanting to invite Brash, the vc said no.NOt about bRushes freespeach since he got a gig quick smart, and how hilarious, 150 years at still fat in the head old white guy still thinks they are a victim like he has ever had a speach problem.
So M assay did not deny freespeach, just restricted association on their property, the stink would have been Brash meeting said club just outside the campus demanding his right of association, which of course expose how farfetched the whole story was. Farrier turdblossum fails to ignited and blows back on him.
It’s out of Curran’s hands.
So this saga is going to stretch out for a month or two at least.
The OIA is such a cowardly defence from the Labour team.
Curran is the receiver and author of the emails, so they are fully her gift to provide.
The Archives people have not even determined if they warrant being official information.
Curran needs to lance this pus out today.
You make it sound like Curran’s work-related e-mails are hers and hers only, which is not the case.
Anyway, Curran’s judgement cannot be trusted.
I agree. Release them.
Surely she’d have to get Handley’s permission first.
No she does not.
Most likely needs Winstons permission
Not if they include personal information.
“…You have to be a real political anorak…”
or a political journalist who needs to create copy every day and who only has the 120 member unicameral parliament of small uncorrupt, and reasonably well run country to work with.
Seriously, these guys would publish an article on the meaning of a discarded chippies packet in the corridor if they thought they could get away with it.
Well, the corporate media could be addressing issues like child poverty, obesity, suicide, depression, unemployment, employment conditions, pay scales, foreign ownership A LOT MORE.
You know all the problems caused by the imposition of neoliberal capitalism on this country.
But they won’t.
They are paid puppets of the establishment.
That was very clear yesterday when the lamestream rated covering an odious ACT leaders right to speak above talking about our amazing suffrage history.
I’d be quite interested in the meaning of a discarded chippiespacket. Far more do than Currans emails which I am sure will bring the Govt down.Sarc. Would also be interested in an inquiry into Gerry Brownlees bullying phone call to young Accountant. Double standards from Dim SIM.
“Would also be interested in an inquiry into Gerry Brownlees bullying phone call to young Accountant.”
It was not an accountant, the phone call was to a law firm and one of the lawyers there.
Tamihere reckons the govt is “Labour-led because they have 46 seats compared with New Zealand First’s nine.” https://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=12127921
Big is good? Such fpp thinking is just silly when applied to an MMP coalition. He can’t seem to grasp the parity relation. We have a Labour PM and that’s the sole basis for any valid claim that Labour is leading, a claim that loses plausibility every time she doesn’t lead when necessary.
He makes this interesting point: “there is no doubt that Winston coming into 2020 will play the Māori card. You can put your money on it. The question is what will the Māori members of the Labour Party do?” Depends how he plays it.
He makes much of NZF’s wins in the budget, accuses Winston of dictatorship, and then “If Winston and Shane do not pull their heads in, there has to be a confrontation and Prime Minister Ardern will have to say enough is enough.” I agree, call their bluff when necessary, but she must be aware that Winston may have deliberately provoked her to get an early election. No grounds for this scenario currently!
Ardern has already caved to Winston and started saying “Coalition govt” instead of “Labour lead govt” since his hissy fit.
Sad really
No more Labour government wiki pages
Seems like, at least for a while they will be all “## National government of NZ” or “## Mingle/Jumble government of NZ”
Chris what a sentimental thing you must be if a name change makes you feel sad.
I prefer to save my sadness for things that really impact people such as homelessness……………….but who am I to invalidate what you feel
In time it will be referred to as the Labour-led coalition, or the Labour-NZF coalition.
It has to be called something.
This excellent speech by Dame Anne Salmond should not go unnoticed here on TS!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/life/107210918/dame-anne-salmond-neoliberal-philosophy-is-toxic-and-a-tragedy-for-women
Thanks incognito, a good read indeed.
“Tourism remains the saviour of New Zealand’s external accounts, which in June continued the trend of deterioration started in 2017.
In December 2016, the current account deficit hit a low of 2.2% of GDP. That has now climbed to 3.3% of GDP.
Without the services balance, particularly the tourism returns, the deficit would have climbed to 5.1% in the three months ended June, BNZ head of research Stephen Toplis said.
”The good news is we expect the services balance to remain solidly in surplus for the foreseeable future. The bad news is we do not see it growing significantly from here, particularly as growth in inbound tourism is increasingly capacity-constrained.”
Driving the balance further into the red had been the weakness experienced in New Zealand exports. By his estimate, goods export volumes were only 0.3% higher in the June quarter than they were a year earlier.
In stark contrast, import volumes soared 8.4%.” – BNZ Head of Research Stephen Toplis, quoted in ODT.
Capacity constraints are a welcome kind of challenge for the New Zealand government and for businesses to grapple with. (He also neglected to mention that dairy as a commodity set is unrecoverable).
It was also excellent to hear Otago cheery growers (RNZ this morning) will be doubling their production and don’t know where to get the future staff.
Among Prime Minister Ardern’s string of bon mots about the economy in her speech on the weekend, enhancing wealth while dealing with increasing constraints to whole industries was absent.
There lots of areas in which they are successfully working, but this is a real unaddressed biggie.
Please add a link when you quote an article like that.
Another great example of how our exchange rate is set incorrectly. With such a massive and ongoing deficit the NZ$ should be dropping.
Wonder where the water’s coming from for that addy. Cherries be thirsty.
More evidence of the pure evil that is the National Party.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/09/dodgy-meth-tests-an-excuse-to-ridicule-state-housing-tenants.html
Once again @ Muttonbird – agree. Ross Bell is a very sensible chap, though I’m not sure his
“”This has been the biggest scam New Zealand has ever seen,” is exactly true.
Immigration scams leading to exploitation and what is effectively people trafficking are just as evil, and they’ve been the result of ten years of bad policy, its implementation and (lack of) enforcement. It’s only now its GRADUALLY being taken more seriously, although there are some pretty simple things that could be done immediately
Perhaps. Both are evil in any case. Summarily prosecuting, convicting, and sentencing social housing tenants without offering defence or recourse on the one hand, and encouraging a fearful, cheap workforce for the benefit of their business friends on the other.
C’mon man, due process is for finance company directors.
I see Andrew McKenzie still has his job too!
Amazing that he’s untouchable yet Bridges is baying for the blood of Jan Thomas.
And let’s get this straight: Jan Thomas didn’t want a reactionary crank racist doing an unpaid gig on campus, and McKenzie kicked 800 social housing tenants onto the streets unlawfully.
Yep.
Once again, I was hoping Chris Hipkins review of the public service gets to cover issues such as these. So far I’m not that hopeful.
Sure as shit it ain’t what it used to be (in terms of ethical behaviour, codes of conduct, etc.) Sure – it was never perfect, but there are now so many departments and Munstries that are absolutely dysfunctional – they do not serve a public or a functioning democracy.
I doubt any of them (for example) have had any sanction over the use of Thompson and bloody Clark.
Let’s not forget kicking people out for having a dog as well.
Andy does have an exceptionally shiny, well covered arse.
Just out of interest Chris do you feel sad re what the Salvation Army is saying about meth evictions and stat housing tenants? Or have you used up all your sadness on a name change?
I think the way the tenants were treated was disgusting.
The Nats had an excuse to start off with as that is the levels they were given to work with, but as it looked more and more like the levels at which it is dangerous were utter shit, there should have been a “Hang on a sec’. Stoppp!!! put all action on tenants on hold till we work this out”
Don’t know why you bothered Muttonbird. Hardly news that National uses dirty tricks to manipulate public opinion. 🙂
But it is something that needs to be shown all the time else people will forget that National are evil.
Interested to know if there was any Political Involvement or Direction given with regards to the search of Nicky Hagar’s house by the NZ Police ?
The IPCA Police Enquiry should uncover whether there was any political involvement in this incident ?
It’ll be outside the terms. Hager’s lawyer appears to be focussed on uncovering police individuals who acted illegally. That’ll be where it stops – unless one of them tells all…
You have an interesting view of the purpose of the IPCA.
I seem to remember that Helen Clark once made a remark about the economy which caused a flare up in a similar way to that for which Jacinda was criticised the other day. Funny the things you remember in the middle of the night.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/107181017/prime-ministers-mixup-could-have-led-to-a-much-more-brutal-economics-lesson
No doubt Key anticipated the drop and bought a few million dollars while awaiting the dollar to rise up again. He was good like that.
“Peters is a team player only if he’s in charge of the team. He might behave himself for a while, but in time his natural belligerence and contrarianism will assert itself.”
Which leads to this happening…
“NZ First has now jammed several sticks into the spokes of Labour and the Greens, to the teeth-grinding frustration of the Left. The Government is looking shambolic and there must be doubts about its ability to run a full term.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/columnists/107201479/my-shameful-confession-i-voted-for-winston-and-now-i-apologise
Karl du Fresne has explained the dynamics well, and the reason Winston received his 7% on election night. And why going into coalition with him is like walking through a minefield.
Just more spin against the coalition govt by msm..
Anyway who gives a flying f about who Karl (I chose the wrong ice cream flavour boo hoo) voted for. He needs to be given a wheel barrow and do something useful for a change. Try to help out with the coalitions kiwi build building houses
Btw chuck 1055
100% Doug. Trouble is Nats have nothing.
Loved the comment by someone earlier about msm would focus on an empty chip packet
Msm = bunch of villagers + group think = gossip
Presumably this appeared here by accident as it appears to be a repeat of a reply to 11 below. Not a criticism; I was just confused for a moment until I realised the situation so thought I would clarify for others.
Being Karl du Fresne, I was not going to bother to read it as I have read his ‘work’ too many times in the past and he is highly predictable.
But I decided I would read it. I have, and my initial thoughts proved right. This article is predictable as always, several days behind the ace ball, out of date like Fresne, and a complete waste of time.
I did get one good laugh from a very quick look at the comments which were also predictably the usual Stuff comments. But the one that made me laugh said words to the effect that the writer voted for NZF in the hope NZF would get rid of those “part-Maoris”.
The writer should have checked who they were voting for. Of the nine NZF MPs, six (2/3rds) are part-Maoris. LOLs.
Another day another scam being exposed of fake jobs and residency applications.
Indian woman faces deportation after losing more than $30k to ‘parasite’ scammers
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/366859/indian-woman-faces-deportation-after-losing-more-than-30k-to-parasite-scammers
And this is the type of people that are coming here. Handley is out of a job (but at lease compensated). So in a country that could be attracting the best and brightest, nope we seem to be selecting for scammers and people who contribute to the scams and people with such low skills in areas like IT that they are not employable under normal measures. (IT is desperate for people with skills at the top end not bottom end, like everything bottom end skills are generally obsolete) .
In my view our future is pretty bleak in NZ for our kids of that continues (Auckland is already 50% migrants and more and more scammers being attracted here) because nobody is interested in stopping our country turning into one full of fucked up scamming parasites.
The really smart migrants go to the US and UK for study, NZ has developed a Rogernomics system to get the educationally challenged students here and their road to residency through Internet cafe style jobs and fake jobs.
The problem is, long term, what the fuck is gonna happen to the smart people who already can’t get a job with the low wages and scams – ummm leave and so whose gonna pay the taxes and support the unemployable in their 20’s?
… cos all these people on those fake Internet cafe jobs qualify for welfare eventually and what happens when the fake job ends and they have residency, but if they couldn’t get a legitimate job before, they clearly can’t after and the kiwis have to support and house yet fake employee whose given tens of thousands to another scammer for their expansion here which our government is completely uninterested in stopping and addressing, presumably because they agree with it.
Note the difference with human trafficking, migration fraud and so forth with no action from government compared to the swamp house owned by Aven Raj that has the council. all media and Phil Twyford rushing over to condemn it as third world….
It seems third world migration frauds don’t get the same headlines or attention…
I just have to say with regard to the argie-bargie currently going on in Parliament between the 2 sides in the House – minutiae!
Led by Bridges, the carefully framed and seriously delivered series of questions from the Nat side are in essence simply niggly and akin to a small dog snapping at the heels of someone it doesn’t like. There is no substance. There is no genuine expression of information required. These people are simply trying to bore holes below the waterline in the fond hope that this will be enough to scupper the coalition (Labour-led, of course).
It was my fond hope that, having been beaten and relegated to the opposition benches, National would hunker down, look for new policy, criticise the coalition for its policies which they don’t believe in and promote their own answers, through policy statements, to generate some support for what THEY would do if they were in power.
But oh no! They have turned into an aggressive little Pomeranian yap-yapping at the government’s heels about minutiae that are, in the grand scheme of things, quite irrelevant to bettering NZ for all its citizens. I know why they are doing it. It’s like the kid who can’t get a break, who has no ideas and resorts to foot-tripping or firing water pistols to get some reaction.
The National Party is devoid of ideas for improving the lives of ordinary NZers. They have a droit de seigneur attitude to governing – it’s their right, they have been cheated, this government should not be there, our 42% is more valid, etc, etc, etc.
Until they grow up, understand MMP, start talking about their own policies, and behave like adults in the House, then they won’t be 42% for much longer. The reason they are getting the traction they are is down to unthinking tribalism in part, and the rest is people who listen with half an ear, think with half a brain and take far too much notice of a slanted MSM that is not serving us a well as it might.
100% Doug. Trouble is Nats have nothing.
Loved the comment by someone earlier about msm would focus on an empty chip packet
Msm = bunch of villagers + group think = gossip.
It’s time the government parties started badgering the Nats for the result of the leaking investigation on the grounds that it is in the public’s interest… since they accused Labour of doing the leaking.
Give em a dollop of their own medicine.
Nice as that might be Anne, it would be stooping to their level, and the coalition (Labour-led, of course) is showing fine restraint in not doing so. I really hope they continue to be the adults in the room.
Not a good idea considering how much Labours fingers are, potentially, all over the Dirty Politics of the leaking
Chris 73…..Labour’s fingers are potentiallly all over the leaking…………..a party political broadcast from the National Party.
Thanks to T. Mallard we’ll never will we, thanks Trev
Hey, when the nats report back that they checked each other’s emails and did a proper investigation and found it probably wasn’t one of them, Mallard will have to start it up again.
Chris73 is a infowars viewer, his connection with reality is tenuous at best. Unless he has taken his BrainForcePlus™ nutraceutical supplement (contains Soy) then he can connect 3 improbable thing before breakfast.
I’d imagine Ed probably eats a lot of soy but I don’t, I do have a beard though
(Faith Goldie pops up as well 😉 )
You cling to that fantasy. We all know by now that the leak is from inside the Nats.
Actually we don’t know that, thats the problem. I want to know the details so whoever did it (or helped) can suffer the consequences of their actions
Its similar to the NZ Labour Youth Sex Scandal. We all know the, alleged, perpetrator is linked to Labour possibly through family connections but until the truth comes out we can only speculate
Don’t you want to know who it is so they can be dealt with appropriately?
Court process will deal with offender at Labour Youth summit.
I must admit I have curiousity about which caucus member leaked, but beyond that I neither care, nor need to know. Why I was very skeptical about the mental health claims of the leaker, I rather err on the side of caution.
Mental health claims indeed, trying to think of any Curran(t) MPs that’ve had a major meltdown lately…
Pullya seems a bit off her feed chrissy.
Well when you have bariatric surgery and basically bypass your stomach then yeah I’d imagine you would go off your food
Does it make you leaky chrissy? Even more than usual?
“Off her feed”
Very good. Made me giggle like a kid.🤣
I think it’s a pretty good assumption given how quiet Simon’s gone over it.
Well you know what they say about assumptions
We don’t need to deal with the labyouth guy. Isn’t the matter before the courts? That is the appropriate course of action.
But as for the nat leaker – either a nat leaked to the media directly, or a nat leaked to someone else who leaked to the media. Between what happened in caucus and the expenses only going to the nats in that format, the root source is almost certainly within the nat caucus.
Yeah but Woodn’t be interesting if the, alleged, perp was related to someone high up because then it wouldn’t be a case of handling it poorly, it’d be a cover up
I’m not sure that “stopping salivating tories from speculating about coverups” is a reasonable or even achievable objective for breaching name suppression of a defendent.
Thats what happens in the absence of transparency isn’t it
So who do you think the leaker was?
Obama and the Globalists
I’ve never heard of that group, are they any good?
This is a total farce. The police know and so do a lot lot of other people, I imagine, including Bridges.
Bridges’ daft enquiries are nothing but theatre and the longer it goes without a conclusion, the worse he is going to look.
And you can bet that if it were government related he would have said so by now. He’s that desperate.
Got any proof? No? Pure speculation
Pretty sure Paul Joseph Watson and PrisonPlanet.com have supplied the proof.
Who do I think leaked nat caucus room secrets and the travel expenses?
Almost certainly a nat.
Beyond that, I don’t care. The knives are out in that room, and soimon shat himself into a corner. Long may it last.
Maybe I’m a bit rare in not being much of a panty-sniffer, poking my nose into random places in the guise of “transparency”. But I just don’t get the thrill. I’ve enough shit on in real life without speculating more into existence.
“Almost certainly a nat.”
You don’t know for sure but you think its a Nat and thats why I want more transparency , not less so we can have less idle speculation
It’s not “idle speculation”.
At least one of the leaked pieces of information was privvy only to people in the nat caucus room. All pieces of information that were leaked were available to people in the nat caucus room.
Sure, you’re going for the hail Mary pass that the nats will exonerate themselves and Mallard will discover one of his staffers had done something naughty and repeated gossip to cover their arse. The other one has bells on.
Well said, Doog. Actually I am pleased that the Bridges-led National opposition are showing themselves for what they are – and I am sure that they will be losing voters through taking this approach.
I am also pleased that Ardern et al are not retaliating and instead, basically called their bluff over the last day or so with the Crown Maori agency agreement and announcement, the increased refugee announcement etc.
But just one thing … Last week we had Bridges et Co compared to Bichon Frise (h/t lprent) and this week, Pomeranians!
Please, please leave the dogs out of this – all dogs and their breeds are far, far better and more intelligent!
VV – Leader of the Coalition to Ban the Defamation of Dogs (CBDD) – (or any other animals).
Regionally interested people could catch hold of this tree planting plan and get their region going to have young people trained in horticulture, silviculture and fit and keen and ready to take on jobs in tree planting and care in the future.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018663348/native-trees-enough-to-meet-demand
Chief Executive of New Zealand Plant Producers Incorporated Matthew Dolan talks Kathryn Ryan through concerns over supplying enough native seedlings for the One Billion Trees programme.
A greater proportion of indigenous trees are to be planted in the Minster for Regional Economic Development’s plan, thanks to a $240m funding boost from the Provincial Growth Fund. MPI’s forestry service Te Uru Rākau is talking with industry body NZPPI about helping nurseries respond to the demand.
But NZPPI says while Shane Jones’ ten year programme is an exciting opportunity for native tree nurseries, the challenge will be scaling up.
Robert Guyton has worked as a young man planting on steep slopes and says it is very hard. The speaker in this radionz interview referred to some possible automation to assist in moving the project forward. I am sure it has some place in the chain of activity to getting the trees in the ground and beyond. Perhaps Robert you could give your comments or write a piece about what will have to be largely plantation-type planting for most of it, with steep and erosion prone land to be eternal forest (no cutting), what firebreaks, whether less resinous trees than pine would result in less fire risk etc. We should also be planting trees for harvesting for our own wood needs, utilising species from other lands with special properties (Tasmanian hardwoods I have heard of, stone pine? for pinenuts), mixed tree and crop or grazing paddocks on farms also. This would help conserve water from evaporation, give animals a tree and shadow for refuge from the hot sun (with the trunk protected, and of nontoxic type).
Following up on this ambitious and necessary project could be an ongoing feature for TS so that we apply our minds to both political theatre and the real-world problems we want dealt with at the ‘coalface’. Looking through information available about forestry on the internet there is info about pine and native forestry but to get the best results, a simple dichotomy on species like this would not give outcomes that were optimal.
And further on trees:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/366868/tolaga-bay-forestry-company-s-illegal-logging-history-revealed
And a pause to think about the cultural effect of trees on us and how practically our civilisation has been built using trees. Interesting thought, am I right in this?:
Paul Robeson’s beautiful voice –
And TED talk from dedicated forester Suzanne Simard
18+ mins
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un2yBgIAxYs
Very interesting views on trees from Ecologist Suzanne Simard
“Her 30 years of research in Canadian forests have led to an astounding discovery: trees talk, communicating often and over vast distances. Trees are much more like us humans that you may think. They are extremely social and depend on each other for their survival. Communication is vital, and a massive web of hair-like mushroom roots transmit secret messages between trees, triggering them to share nutrients and water with those in need.”
https://upliftconnect.com/ecologist-says-trees-talk-to-each-other-in-a-language-we-can-learn/
From Bryan Gould… food for thought.
“The body of the petition sets out the case for change. It takes as its starting point the almost incredible fact – one still contested by many supposed experts, although confirmed by detailed studies produced by the Bank of England and other central banks – that around 97% of our money has been created, not by the government, but by the commercial banks, which create the money by simply making a bank entry in the accounts of those to whom they lend money, usually on mortgage.
The banks, of course, charge interest on the money they thereby create ex nihilo (or out of nothing) and it is the interest they charge that produces their huge profits of billions of dollars which they then send back, in most cases, to Australia.
What is really astonishing about this state of affairs is that the money supply – one of the key elements in determining our economic success or otherwise – is almost entirely controlled, not by our government or the Reserve Bank, but by foreign-owned commercial banks which operate entirely for profit and are in no way accountable to the New Zealand public.”
http://www.bryangould.com/a-new-monetary-policy-needed/
I had a dream where Jacinda Ardern spoke about class issues last night. … I mean I knew it was a dream when someone from Labour was talking about poverty without using the word child before it, in my dream the coalition govt outlined a target, actual policies that were designed to lower inequality and share the wealth and a timeline. In my dream the people of New Zealand celebrated a government that was willing to lead on the issues and fight for the majority rather than a minority and the media reported on this fairly and balanced….
Only in a dream land would labour have transformational policies and the guts to implement them and the media be fair and balanced in their reporting.
Back to reality, virtue signaling, tweaks and vague promises
What policies do you think Labour need to put in to lower inequality and share the wealth, fight for the majority rather than a minority and how to get the media reported on this fairly and balanced?
The tax working group interim report is out
https://taxworkinggroup.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2018-09/twg-interim-report-sep18_1.pdf
Looks like is going to recommend a CGT, but will provide some options for how that will work in final report due next feb. Also looks like will recommend better environmental taxes, which is awesome, esp. in regards to getting the cost of using natural eco-systems into the cost of what we do and make. No finacial transactions tax, no sugar tax (unless the govt. really really wants it) and probably tweaks to the lower tax-rates and thresholds.
Seems all sensible stuff, nothing to outrageous and appears to be what most normal thinking NZers want…. a better, fairer tax system, not one designed for the benefit of the few
Pleased to see that the recommendation is that tax on income from realised capital gain should be integrated with normal income tax – no separate CGT at a fixed rate.
The equity argument for this is unassailable. Plus, it means that if we raise income tax rates on those with high incomes (as we should), we effectively raise the tax rate on their income from capital as well.
Excellent start – now if only they would recommend gradually dropping and ultimately eliminating the regressive GST.
“Cullen himself – to the frustration of some ministers I expect – has talked of”
“advantages and disadvantages”, shades of grey, and nothing in tax being a “no brainer”.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/107221853/tax-working-group-may-prove-a-frustration-for-labour
I don’t think the tax working group will be united in there final recommendation/s.
It will come down to how much political capital does Jacinda still have in 2020.
So GDP up 1% for the quarter. In Mike Hosking’s language that’s 4% annually which has got to be better than anything John Key achieved.
Forestry bumped up agriculture 4.2% – must be all those trees being planted, eh? Seriously though, Kiwibuild and NZFs focus on reviving forestry in the regions is going to be massive for this sector in the coming years. And trees are nice – nicer than cows.
Mining down 20%. Well, boo hoo.
I see Amy Adams was all doom and gloom though, and Farrar will be avoiding this news like the plague.
Why can’t these people be happy?
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/09/gdp-up-1-percent-largest-quarterly-rise-in-two-years.html
Oh, and the Reserve Bank channelling the National Party dooms-dayers in being out by 100%.
They’ll complain about growth constraints. As will the Reserve Bank.
Hope we get to 4.0% headline unemployment and push more wage and salary bumps.
Great news for nz and the government.
The Reserve Bank couldn’t hit the side of a barn.
And growth constraints might be infrastructure (National’s fault), workers (hordes of them are still falling out of the sky), and maybe the cessation of irrigation projects (boo hoo).
Looks all good to me.
boo hoo for irrigation projects – Ella Fitzgerald has it all worked out.
Cry me a River
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gn9A-kdsRo
(Great song – how they work plebeian in – that’s beyond the normal lexicon.)
Those GDP numbers must be incorrect. The government must me manipulating the figures, bribing officials or something, because Simon and Amy said GDP would slow and business has no confidence and and……..fuck it, I give up
I’m coming out in nostalgic songs – I don’t know whether it is catching but the tunes and words are. Muttonbird says – Why can’t these people be happy?
I want to be happy – here’s an old version and one we would love to sing if National could only settle to make the country happy and themselves try to be happy too.
We would even dance along with David Seymour (I think) if we could all get into line dancing (for the rural people), tangos (for the city slickers) or even the Gay Gordons for those embedded in the past.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aDJGvFSVOQ
Here is the Gay Gordons which looks a slightly tipsy image but a lot of fun.
Notice how the dancers cope with change and manage to dance with different partners all following the same steps and moving in the same direction. A good pattern for us in our politics I think. (If you go onto the Manchester Pride 2016 version you will enjoy the blokes getting stuck in to the Gay Gordons too. I’m impressed by their chutzpah.)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEmTLioBpi0
The corrupt and malevolent Judith Collins is on the attack again.
But
Sorry Phil. I can’t see that evil cow, Paula Bennett, apologising to anyone, ever.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/09/govt-compensating-crooks-national-doubles-down-on-state-house-evictions.html
Victims of wrongful eviction from Housing NZ houses are being compensated.
Which brings the expected sort of response from one of life’s true humanitarians.
Judith Collins said that with people on waiting lists it was “not the time to be saying come back and cook up your meth.”
The scummy behaviour of the initial action getting scummy support with scummy comments from a scummy politician.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/107248175/prime-minister-announces-decision-on-meka-whaitiri-inquiry
I’m impressed, its only Thursday
I get the distinct impression that the former minister followed the Gordon Ramsay/Malcolm Tucker school of staff interaction.
Totally unacceptable behaviour.
Indeed, its funny on TV but not so much in real life
Especially as they put work into new and original uses of the word “fuck” for the TV shows, lol.
Saw a list of Ramsay’s ones recently: “you’ve put so much fucking oil in this that the fucking yanks are going to invade it!” lol
Now what was that about being weak and distracted?
Clear decision and also showing compassion. Taken in a timely fashion.
Now what could that be contrasted with today?
Stupidity in Parliament from Ms Collins hating on P users and getting a lawyer’s rebuke from Minister Little about onus of proof and being innocent until found guilty – something Mark Mitchell is supporting in the House as a concept concerning military discipline as I write.
The Minister of Housing acknowledging that the previous government and department has got it wrong for years over the science and the consequential wrong treatment of Housing tenants for alleged “P” use, and making the appropriate apology and rectification.
Asinine questioning from the MP for Kaikoura to Minister Little, using that well-known tag to a question “And if not, why not” when asking the Minister whether he had wrongly briefed Cabinet on a contractual issue. Little dropped his jaw in astonishment at the stupidity of the tail to the question.
How to act appropriately, or not. What happens when standards are breached. A salutary day displaying a contrast in propriety and effective leadership.
“Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has fired embattled MP Meka Whaitiri as a minister.”
Seems that assaulting a staffer is not that high up in Jacinda’s list of naughty things to do.
Whaitiri should have been properly sacked. Weak and indecisive leadership by Jacinda.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/107248175/prime-minister-announces-decision-on-meka-whaitiri-inquiry
Ah well, she’s only a woman. Eh, Chuck?
Rubbish, Chuck. The PM got the report last night and acted today. The former Minister has already stood her down on August 30 pending the report.
Decisive, proper, timely, creditable, credible action by the PM.
All that mac1 plus due process of enquiry. Justice exemplar from our PM.
And what a gracious calm media meeting. Straight talking in spite of goading from reporters. Online:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12128751
Couldn’t agree more ianmac. In these situations she really shows her mettle.
Talent pool in parliament shown yet again to be a mere muddy puddle.
Allegedly! She is still denying it. Alleged until proven.
The report has served its purpose.
Decisive = Ardern facing down Whaitiri at the time of the incident (look me in the eyes and tell me what occurred). A few days to a week at most for the decision to be made.
Weak = Whaitiri is still a Labour MP.
Weak = Whaitiri is still a Labour MP.
That is the fairness side of her character. C’mon Chuck, you’re usually a fairly reasonable rwnj who knows the difference between what is right and what is wrong.
It is only right she be given a chance to ‘rehabilitate’ herself. Other PMs on both sides of the house have exercised that prerogative over errant ministers. It usually works.
“It is only right she be given a chance to ‘rehabilitate’ herself.”
I may have agreed with you Anne if it was something out of the blue.
However, Whaitri has form…it has been a revolving door for staff at Whaitri office (I think 6 in less than a year). That tells me she has form and either cannot or will not change her personal trait to bully and intimidate.
Time will tell Chuck. I’ve known such people in the past and its true… some of them are sociopaths and can’t or won’t change. But she’s got to be given the chance and if she doesn’t… it’ll be curtains for her parliamentary career.
There’s one in the White House but I don’t see Chuck calling for his resignation.
Hey Chuckie. What do you think about GBs abusive terrorising of a young Staffer over the phone in Accounting firm? That ok? Or alleged?
But but but he’s a man so he can’t be weak and distracted. And anyway we know Gerry didn’t mean it, And he thought he was talking to (sorry, abusing) someone else. And at least he didn’t “show her the stairwell”. And didn’t she know who he is? He’s Gerry the man.
He’s the guy who can breeze through airport security.
At least he’s met his match with the new Speaker, as he found today.
Kia ora The Am Show The Bird’s brand sustainable manufactured Shoes is great and there new product a bird shade to wear to block the light so one can sleep on planes .
They partnered up with Air New Zealand to make and sell there product’s ka pai.
We need more sustainable products when Te Papatuanuku turns to sustainable prouducts OUR products like wool and wood will commanded a hire price .
OUR carbon neutral goal’s will benefit Aotearoa farmer’s $$$$$$$$$.
When you are in another country one should respect there cultures and you will be treated with respect covering tattoos is there culture so be it .
Eco say’s the Japanese will host a awesome Rugby World Cup it’s been a few year’s in the making ka pai. You no that all of te tangata whenua cultures have been treated like dirt when another culture takes over the law of the whenua.
I say spending on a social media campaigne to educate the youth on diarydack and pee should be include in that youth are all on social media and this great idea will work .
I heard that jerry brownly treated some people the same an what there is no one talking about that should he be rolled judith what’s good for a whaine should be the same for te tane.
The tax working group is just resetting the taxs back to a simler mix to what we had before shonky’s I WILL NOT RAISE GST he did just that after he gave tax cut’s that benefited the wealthy the most will we have a happy society with that system NO.
There you go Sir Michael Cullen Grant Robertson and the tax working group are doing there homework to make sure any new tax’s are not going to have a negative effect on Aotearoa.
Mark so you think getting a sweet $1 million dollars a year in captial gain’s is fare mean while that housing shortage denial policy distorted our housing market to make huge gain’s for the wealthy a direct result from shonky’s policy pushed thousands of people under the bridge . Ka kite ano
Eco met this boy the other day he was nervous talking to much he own’s a few house’s he think’s he can fool Eco Maori but know I know that his action’s are being orchestrated by the muppet sandfly’s he is just a puppet of there’s only fooling himself
Ana to kai P.S I don’t shake people’s hand’s when I know they are puppets.
I see story’s like this all the time trying to change peoples reality on our History for one the settler’s wahine would not have liked it that Maori wahine could own land and they could not . That fact would have upset and influenced settler’s wahine in to protesting about the savages being able to own land that’s how the mind’s worked in those day This would have attracted other wahine to Aotearoa to seek the help rise number’s to get the stupid law’s that ban anyone from there right to vote .Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa Mana is growing to strong for the power’s than be .
Ka kite ano P.S When I unite Tangata whenua O Aotearoa & our Pacifica cousin’s into one VOICE we will be unstop able voice in Aotearoa Ana to kai link is below.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/107248007/why-new-zealand-was-the-first-country-where-women-won-the-right-to-vote You see in reality it is the Pacific Island cultures that will be the dominant culture in our near future as Maori are a Pacific culture tangata
I agree with this statement about Britexit link is below ka kite ano
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/20/europe/brexit-salzburg-theresa-may-summit-intl/index.html laws have to be made to benefit the many not the few bankers an there M8 like rupert murdoch
Kia ora Newshub Lets hope that the mokopuna’s of the Carterton school all survive that tragedy .
Some times one has to given the cold hard facts to get the reality to sink in.
I don;t put plastic bag in the recycling and we wash the plastic two reason one it smell if you only send it monthly and its easier to be recycled when cleaned .
There you go the way the court systems work in favour of the wealthy the sea bed mining could open another issue as well we must protect all our taonga from the wealthy money men’s greed.
trump need’s to get with reality trying to build wall’s in the year 2018 is not intelligent
he is only pandering to his core supporters and his ego.
Ka kite ano P.S It is not safe dropping poison out of the sky.
Kia ora The Crowd Goes wild Hope the Wahine Warriors have a good game on the weekend.
That was a mean game for the Bay’s Wahine Kia kaha
The keep or cut there hair is a good cause all the best to Brad I use to have wahine brushing my long hair in the fisherman’s refreshments place in Napier after work long time ago.
Kai pai Levi getting your hair cut on TV in support of Brad .
Ka kite ano P,S I keep it cut now
We have DOC & The Anti 1080 at WAR over the issues of 1080 being dropped in our forest . Now any intelligent person know’s that diplomacy and compromising on both side has a much better out come for both side than War as everyone has great losses in a WAR My tipuna new this and always tried to settle there differences with whiriwhiri.
Most of the Wars that Maori fought before the settlers arrived there was minimal loses of LIFE that’s a fact. .
So what Eco Maori would do is I would go back to that Great pukapuka The Art Of War and see what it says .
In this situation Eco say that the state & te tangata should compromise pay a bounty on all the tails in easy access terrain and use 1080 in all the hard place’s to trap right away from te tangata and in this situation they get the public on side the public get to make money and the state get’s its goal of controlling the pest .
I know that the state will never be able to eliminate pest in Aotearoa we all know the rural communities need more money to its clearly visible of this fact .
Eco still backs DOC good work with Papatuanuku and her Creatures Many thanks DOC.
But hay when I see some thing is wrong I will SPEAK up about it . Ka kite ano
I wonder what stupid intimidation game’s the sandfly’s and there puppet’s have planed for ECO MAORI today .
Feel The THUNDER ka kite ano
craig heatly book no limits Eco Maori says he is just like shonky and they both have
NO LIMIT’s TO THE DIRTY LYING LOW DOWN THIEVING thing’s they will do to rip other people off .
He does not care that’s his M8 shonkys policy’s that were designed to full his hip pocket and push the lower classes in Aotearoa under a bridge people working 3 job’s in Auckland just to stay afloat .
Why is he launching a book to try and lift his m8 national party out of the gutter .
But sorry it won’t work We all know for someone to make a fortune in such a short time one has to be a big crook they make there own luck with back room deal’s that’s easy for Eco Maori to see.
He say’s Jacinda is inexperienced well she has been in politics for 9 YEAR’s .
She has all ready done a better job than shonky but craig find me some one that you think is perfect and Eco Maori will prove that person to be a liar
Ka kite ano P.S W e know that people who made million’s in the 1980 were ripping the state off buying state asset’s cheap as chips and selling the asset’s for huge mark up that’s a fact Michael fay did with our railway’s link is below
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/107284044/millionaire-heatley-rates-ardern-at-book-launch-shared-with-key
David Parker was in Southland having a meeting with Farmer’s about the environmental concerns he makes a statement that the farmer have not had enough correct laws put in place to stop the few ruining it for the many you see Southland Dairy started booming under shonky rule he did not care about the environment the economy is more important than the environment HOW ELSE CAN ONE EXPLAIN HIS ACTIONS
The thing about Southland’s topography is most dairy land there is just a few feet above the water level that cause problem’s there.
Also it’s cold so they have to put more urea on than up North to get there grass growing to feed there cow’s
A big amount of that ends up in OUR waterways that’s why the waterway’s got so bad so fast.
So lower the stocking rate lower the amount of fertliser put on farm’s GO Organic I say.
Fontrra has not delivered to farmer’s the return’s they were promised when it was formed .
It’s common knowledge that the people milking the cow’s make’s less than the person in a nice warm building pushing button’s with no skill’s get more like $30 a hour
$25 would be ok I say .
It would be good to have a pie chart to show how much of fontrra’s money goes into there salaries and management and how much ends up in OUR farmer’s pocket’s .
Fontrra has been turned into a gravy train for the wealthy executive.
6000 earn $100. k 24 earn A cool million there you go. Ana to kai.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub Cook’s Endeavour might have been found Is cool but now Te Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa Culture is rising up to its rightful Mana after having colonialist suppressing us for 200 years.
That’s a shame that all those people in Tanzania have drowned in that ferry sinking Eco gives his condolence to the people who lost there love ones
Who could be so cruel spraying acid on any thing living a defenseless foul horse its awesome that some people care enough to treat the foul in Britain ka pai.
There you go the cop’s get it wrong all the time 27 years Dickson was locked up and the real killer confessed they still kept him locked up.
It took rich golf people to champion his cause and take his case back to court to get him released that’s the reality of the west justice system’s. The killer was most likely a informant
Wow those fire tornadoes are mean we will have to get use to them if we don’t change our culture and have a culture that thinks about our children’s future over short term profits
The Women in Black look’s like a AUSSE good film I seen a good TV series OffSpring it’s on Net flicks it give Eco A sore face Id give it a 8
Ka kite ano P.S Emma Te Ra was shining bright today