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 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOHekLZD5i4
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
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
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Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
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Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
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Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
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Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTSvLKY7HEk
(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 –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOHekLZD5i4
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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXu_32gLUr4&start_radio=1&list=RDDXu_32gLUr4
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 .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnVUHWCynig
Feel The THUNDER ka kite ano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKopy74weus
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