James a UK immigrant to NZ ,,, and resident troll here …. supports and participates in the the breaking of NZ laws … and such is his pride he brags about it at left wing blogs.
Uber a tax dodging law flouting corporation came into New Zealand ….. and under the last National Government were allowed to operate …. despite, but yet typically under the last Nact Government, they were at least 80% non-compliant to the Land Transport Passenger Service regulations … under which they are lawfully and legally required to operate.
It makes you wonder what other laws and regulations James thinks should be ignored …. food?, ignoring all those burdensome hygine and food safty regulations… a james bbq with pink chicken would make a uber fine food provider.
Uber doctors? …. where maybe they don’t actually have a legit doctors certificate … but they can fill your prescritions cheap of the internet… what a uber bargin that would be.
anyway it begs the question ….Did James lie on his NZ residency application?? … treating his legal requirements and honesty as merely optional… or did he declare that he would help NZ, by leading the way in showing us what laws and regulations should be ignored
###############################
The Pike River Mine / deathtrap was run like a corner cutting and regulation ignoring Uber outfit.
I highly recommend this Pike River documentary …
Watching it left me vastly better informed of the criminal disregard for workers safety .. red line after red line were crossed and ignored …non compliance with the regulations and ignoring laws pertaining to explosive gasses …all leading to the inevitable but preventable deaths for the 29 West Coast workers.
And for me it really highlighted our dishonest grave dancer Alwyn … and his degenerate smears on this subject relating to Andrew Little.
I need to get my mojo back is what it is, the current set up in National is not motivating enough, I need inspiration, I need National not Labour-lite, I need something to believe in, I need a hero, I need…
Well for someone who was only doing what you suggest as being “His job was to administer the organisation,” he certainly had a lot to say about the details of the operation.
Did you bother to read that link and see exactly what Little did say? They are direct quotes you know.
I’ve read it many times. In fact, pretty much every time some git makes the same mistake about Little’s role. Pike River were anti-union, and incentivised their staff to breach health and safety rules and kept the true situation in the mine secret. Andrew Little is a clever guy, but he doesn’t possess ESP.
“Little was the head of the union.”
And in that capacity he defended PRC management on their safety record, and led a union that failed to act on specific concerns raised prior to the accident.
“His job was to administer the organisation…”
Are you seriously arguing he isn’t responsible for his own comments about PRC? That as head of the union he bears no responsibility for the safety of the union’s members? What was he paid to do exactly?
“…not personally visit every worksite to check for issues.”
But he is responsible for what he says. Particularly when what he says reflects precisely on those safety issues. And he was ultimately responsible for the union and it’s members. He failed.
Again, bullshit. His comments were based on what information he had at the time. As I’ve already said, the company lied through its teeth and made life as difficult as possible for the union. To use the National party’s excuse du jour, it was an operational matter. Andrew was an administrator based in Wellington, not an organiser based in Greymouth. He could only report what he was told, becuase he had no direct involvement.
be good to see Andrew Little make some sort of definitive statement on this, one mad Trot offshoot newsletter, is what the various Nattys keep quoting
as I understand it Mr Whitall ran an anti union/union busting culture that saw the organiser reduced to riding the workers bus to try and get access to the site! Rebecca McFie’s “Tragedy at Pike River Mine” lays it out how marginalised the Union was there, requests from Mr Rockhouse to include the EPMU in training exercises were met with dismissive emails from Whitall–“the Union and Pike are not to be mentioned in the same sentence”…etc.
the attacks on Little are rather transparent given Solid Energy’s “seal it up” plan being derailed, and the Pike River Recovery Agency charging ahead with reentry
You do realise, I hope, that all Andrew’s statements were made AFTER the explosion that almost certainly killed the workers.
The explosion was on 19 November. Little’s statements were made to the Herald, and Close Up on 22 November.
If he hadn’t found out what was going on by then he damn well should have. Both he, and the MP for the area, O’Connor had by then been to the mine and still they defended the company and said that everything was fine and there were no concerns by the Union about safety.
“His comments were based on what information he had at the time.”
Which were ill-informed, and ignored concerns of others from within the business and the industry.
“As I’ve already said, the company lied through its teeth and made life as difficult as possible for the union.”
And Little enabled them.
“Andrew was an administrator based in Wellington, not an organiser based in Greymouth.”
That’s a terrific cop-out. Andrew Little was with the EPMU/Engineers Union since before 1997. He was National Secretary from 2000. In summary, at the time of Pike he had been with the union for more than 13 years, 10 as National Secretary. For you to argue his position was simply as “an administrator based in Wellington” is pure nonsense.
I must say this is a shock. James is not even a real Kiwi even though he pretends he is.
Immigration management in this country in the last 20 years has been terrible. There has been zero work done on the ability of social infrastructure to cope with the flood of toff-nosed poms washing onto our shores.
James claims to be about 48 years old and has sent three kids through Kristin at 25K per annum each. The eldest of these kids owns and runs their own business now and is approximately late 20s.
I’m left wondering when it was that James actually entered New Zealand as an immigrant with his British family?
James himself might like to shed some light on this…
…. anyway it begs the question ….Did James lie on his NZ residency application?? … treating his legal requirements and honesty as merely optional… or did he declare that he would help NZ, by leading the way in showing us what laws and regulations should be ignored
Did ya james ? … do tell.
it will also distract you from your unhealthy obsession with Ed … otherwise known as trolling.
James is an opinionated ignoramus. A classic case of “opening mouth before engaging brain”. I recently posted about the demise of CanTeen’s AYA regional cancer service, only to receive an uninformed, abusive response from this idiot.
Surprisingly little reaction from other Standardistas to what is an avoidable calamity for young cancer patients in New Zealand. https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/12/19/370303/the-fight-to-save-cash-strapped-canteen
“CanTeen, which relies on community support and donations, helps youngsters aged between 13 and 24 dealing with cancer. It provides someone to talk to, connects peers, runs activities and workshops, helps people with their grief. The website says: “CanTeen takes care of things like topping up your phone, getting you to appointments or the food situation in your cupboard so you don’t need to stress.””
Such great work supporting very vulnerable people. My niece is younger, with her third cancerous growth returning, at age 12. Such a tough area to be able to support people. I hope finding can come – a vital, underrated service.
As for James he’s just another weakling rwnj. A loser pretender who is probably the saddest of all of us here truth be told.
Ignoring your garbled syntax, “that you obviously have issues” is not a question wee James, it’s a statement. Stalking? Pot, kettle, black?
Are you really so conceited that you can’t appreciate your own immaturity. Back in the UK you’d be rightly termed a prat.
Leading war-mongers are dismayed. “Trump’s own national security adviser, John Bolton, is adamantly opposed to the decision”. “Lindsey Graham, a senior Republican senator who is a Trump loyalist on most issues, denounced the decision. “If these media reports are true, it will be an Obama-like mistake made by the Trump administration,” Graham said in a statement. “While American patience in confronting radical Islam may wane, the radical Islamists’ passion to kill Americans and our allies never wavers.”
Trump wants a Nobel peace prize? He didn’t actually tweet that he had made peace in Syria – yet. But Obama got one without making peace. Perhaps Trump is considering calling the Nobel committee bluff. Would look good on the cv. He could send his Secretary of State to meet Assad with terms: you declare peace, thank Trump for creating it, we’ll give you foreign aid to grind up all them random bits of concrete everywhere, for recycling.
His cabinet ministers calling him a moron, his hired help getting sent to prison, you might think prospects of impeachment had increased since Democrats started promoting them, eh? Well, Gordon Campbell assessed those prospects a week ago and concluded “Trump’s destiny is to be a winner, not a loser.” http://werewolf.co.nz/2018/12/gordon-campbell-on-whether-trump-is-likely-to-be-impeached/
I still feel the same, and doubt Mueller has any rabbit in his hat. Doesn’t matter how much the US media trumpets Trump’s influence-buying, voters know that’s all just American politics as usual – the only way it could harm him is if there was a positive alternative they could anticipate. No sign of that.
Erdogan will be pleased, he can now go ahead and butcher those of the most effective force fighting Islamic State in Syria (which Turkey itself never did).
This might well also enable the settlement of Islamists backed by Turkey in their failed attempt to depose the government of Syria in “Kurdish” areas on their border.
The withdrawal otherwise means the US has no leverage in the future of Syria, but Turkey’s hand will be stronger.
I think its probably also an acknowledgement that the Astana process for a peace settlement and a new constitution in Syria is the only game in town, and the US is not part of it. When you’ve lost the war and are not part of the peace(and the spoils)why waste any more cash
I predict a fresh “outrage” chemical or otherwise,clearly perpetrated by the Syrian govt, to pull the US back in .
Trump attempted this withdrawal once before, Khan Sheikhoun was the result.
I guess Assad just doesn’t want the Yanks to leave (eye- rolling -tongue -in- cheek)
Surely the Kurds knew the US would betray them in the end?
Maybe now they’ll consider the offers of increased autonomy from the Syrian govt
Probably a little late, but there’s surely no chance now of a purely Kurdish state at this point
Sure the smart move for the Kurds would be to do a deal with Damascus and get Syrian government troops in before the Turks can act.
The complication might be the presence of some of the Syrian Arabs who fought IS alongside them, some of whom left the battle against the Syrian government once Islamists began to dominate rebel held areas – they might well now be in the refugee category.
Erdogan will be pleased, he can now go ahead and butcher those of the most effective force fighting Islamic State in Syria (which Turkey itself never did).
That does seem to be the case.
The withdrawal otherwise means the US has no leverage in the future of Syria, but Turkey’s hand will be stronger.
True about the US but I’m sure that Turkey won’t have any say either. This is going to fall to Syria, Russia and Iran to fix. Assad would do bloody well stepping up to support the Kurds.
Since Trump and Erdogan talked last Friday the US has cleared the sale of Patriot missiles to Turkey, ordered State Department personnel in Syria to be evacuated from the country within 24 hours, declared victory over ISIS, and Turkey’s request to extradite Fethullah Gülen is to be looked at.
“President Putin, speaking at a meeting with his top military brass in Moscow, singled out his new Kinzhal hypersonic missile and the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, saying they have significantly bolstered Russia’s military capability, reports news.com.au.
“No one has hypersonic weapons yet, but we have it,” he said.”
ummm vlad I think you mean no one ELSE has them
Also overnight, the US government admitted it is powerless to defend against these ‘game changer’ hypersonic weapons. The Government Accountability Office says their speed, altitude and maneuverability simply make them too difficult to stop.
The report states: “There are no existing countermeasures.”
“Putin has said about a dozen countries were producing missiles of the type banned by the INF treaty.” Well okay, but if Russian intelligence agencies have indeed discovered this and reported it to him, why doesn’t he identify them? If those countries have signed the INF treaty, wouldn’t it expose them to ridicule and condemnation?
Not to mention discrediting the entire notion of arms reduction treaties. And their usage in international law. And, consequently, the viability of international law as a method of peace-keeping. So now we await deployment by those countries, and the reassurance that such proliferation will provide its own deterrent effect on usage.
“Which countries are developing hypersonic weapons? “The U.S., Russia and China are ahead of other nations in developing hypersonic weapons,” Richard Speier, adjunct staff with Rand, told CNBC. Speier, who worked to initiate the Pentagon’s Office of Counter-Proliferation Policy, added that France, India, and Australia are also developing military uses of hypersonic technology.” https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/21/hypersonic-weapons-what-they-are-and-why-us-cant-defend-against-them.html
I think you will find Russia’s missiles are more of a defensive mechanism than an offensive weapon. Useful against western propaganda at least. For instance without the Russian S-400 we would have seen much more destruction in the Middle East.
You do understand that there’s nothing that they can do right?
Climate change is happening. This will result in mass migration. The target countries for that mass migration can’t support the migrants. This means that those target countries have to stop those migrants. Some of those migrants are going to be bloody well armed and so the target countries will also need to be well armed. There will be some well armed other countries trying to force the target countries to take the migrants despite knowing that they can’t afford them.
Countries have the right and the responsibility to defend themselves.
Just accepting reality an the simple fact that, when climate change truly bites, it’s going to leave a lot of people (measured in the billions) either facing death or looking to migrate an that the places that they can migrate to can’t afford them.
The UN really should have looked at curbing population growth back in the 1970s. They didn’t and most governments of the world still think that increasing population is the Bees Knees and so still won’t do it and so out younger generations are still fucked.
Yep. I especially liked one comment:
“Stuart Ward BREAKING NEWS !!!
The ‘national’ party has welcomed the news that they no longer have to worry about what their M.Ps and SUPPORTERS will use for brains if KFC needs the cabbages for coleslaw.
A new product on the hair care market, Control GX “the shampoo with brains” will provide a satisfactory alternative.
Consideration is being given to replacing Simon Bridges with either a “complimentary hotel bottle” of the shampoo, or his nearest contender, an adolescent tiger slug by the name of Slimey Norman”
Meanwhile here in NZ, trying to find out some information through an 0800 number about CourierPost’s processes, I have been taken through 4 options that don’t apply and left with 5 which seemed mostly related to NZPost, where shops are etc and tried that in the absence of other options. I got a repeat of the options from 1-5 again.
So NZPost apparently doesn’t know what it is doing, and proposes to keep customers on a loop running after their tails, while they decide.
Really a small example of the route the country has gone.
I find that true of many businesses and not just in NZ. Their attempt to get the customer to the right person via an automated system almost invariably ends up confusing the customer.
Some have called for New Zealand to be more involved in peace-making and arbitration, as per Norway and Sweden.
Neither of them (Norway is in NATO and Sweden is in the EU) have been involved in the matter of Ukraine. And we have our stalled FTA with Russia to consider. So this is one which we might well take up.
The issues are well known, Russia does not like former territories of the USSR joining NATO or the EU. It uses the presence of ethnic Russians in these territories as an excuse and economic dependence on gas as a means to intefere in their nations affairs politically.
The central issue is the tension that occurs when loyalty to nation state and ethnic identity patriotism (over the future of the Ukraine in the EU and NATO) is divided.
There are obvious paths to resolution, but the question is whether NATO and Russia would prefer the impasse to continue rather than realise one. So the first question that we would have to ask each party (before offering to mediate), do they want the matter resolved?
Does the EU actually want Ukraine?
Particularly now that Its economy has dive bombed. And its adherence to European “values”is seriously in question with the current Poroshenko govt at least
Tymoshenko won’t be much better
Of course Russia doesn’t want NATO on its doorstep, any more than the US would have accepted the Warsaw pact in Mexico
Ukraine can’t be in NATO while there is the war in Eastern Ukraine
Russia would need very strong assurances from NATO (and would they be worth the paper they’re written on) to withdraw their support for Donetsk and Lugansk
And what about the wishes of the people who live in those areas?
Very early on in Putin’s rule , he wanted to join NATO
Maybe this should be looked at again
Sure back in mid 2001 there was the option of a European security co-operation on the one hand and a united defence force for world peace-keeping at UN direction. Russia in NATO. But the later military intervention in the ME (choice of response to 9/11 soon ended the trust required for that).
At the moment the momentum is towards a EU defence force (ironically made possible by the US request for 2% GDP defence spending in the region), with independent relationships with both Russia and (possibly via a continuing NATO) the USA (and maybe UK depending on where that is headed).
The medium term issues – the nature of the EU and Russian gas supply agreements while sanctions continue and whether Russian pressure on Ukraine has any impact on its domestic politics.
Germany’s economic and industrial well being depends on Nord Stream2 ;any alternatives are too expensive. US imposed sanctions are only going to reshape how Europe does business, to the detriment of US control.
US gas, reliant on fracking, is never going to be cost effective against Russian gas, which doesn’t involve fracking, let alone the difficulties of transport.
Germany and Russia together…the horror!
After all NATO was to keep Russia out, to keep America in, and to keep Germany down
Does the EU actually want Ukraine?
Particularly now that Its economy has dive bombed.
Probably not any more. The Ukraine’s economy wasn’t all that good to start with which is why the USSR’s leadership gave it Crimea. Now that Crimean has left it’s back to being a basket case.
And what about the wishes of the people who live in those areas?
According to the US’s overturning of democratic governments – they can be ignored.
Afraid so. This could be even worse than the circumstances that led to the termination of his contract at that Swiss finishing school. More details when they become available.
Earth to Morrissey, are you reading?
Nice to have you back old bean. Squadron Leader and I were seriously, seriously concerned about your time in the brig.
Pip pip. Chin up, let bygones be bygones and we’ll all move forward what?
The country’s first crime and victims survey suggests almost two million crimes were committed last year, about seven times the number reported to police.
I don’t think they got everyone. S.S. trust wrongly exposed a criminal, and so frustrated the he’ll out of everyone who wants to know who these peolle are, it’s a crime surely to distract and misinfirm. Geez how can I be sure that anything the Sen.Sen.Tru. say!
Perhaps the Coalition of Losers will try and take New Zealand back to the situation in the late 1930’s.
Radio news broadcasts were written in the Prime Minister’s office and had to be read out on New Zealand radio stations exactly as they were written.
I’m sure that Tsar Winnie and his off-sider [Jacinda] would love to bring that back.
Then we wouldn’t get stories on the TV news about how they are going to halve the number of children in poverty, but not for at least a decade, book-ended by a story about the number of people needing food parcels from the City Mission having doubled during their first year in office and another story about how the number of homeless people and of drug users on Queen St having also risen greatly in the last year and how people working in shops are routinely assaulted these days.
I’m afraid that this current Government is offering only the promises that were described so well in the Union rallying song of 1911.
As the International Workers of the World put it.
“Work and pray, live on hay, you’ll get pie in the sky when you die.”
“do Facebook”?
Wash your mouth out. I looked at the way Facebook was designed to operate when it started. I decided that I would never, ever go on that crazy system.
Never have and never will.
Obviously I looked at how it would work with a great deal more care than those of you who rushed into it like lemmings running over a cliff and are now regretting it.
“I’ve never been on Facebook”.
I have obviously misjudged you in my assumption.
You are very sensible. I think their business case is a terrible one, particularly as it has become almost compulsory for teenagers to use it if they don’t want to be isolated from everything their friends are up to.
On the other hand I don’t really see how it can be safely “regulated” as you put it. That just puts someone else in a position of power over what people are allowed to see. I think I still prefer the glorious anarchy that was the original internet. The only regulation I would accept is that people should legally own their own data and they, and they alone, should have the ability to allow, or disallow, companies like Facebook from using it.
I think their business case is a terrible one, particularly as it has become almost compulsory for teenagers to use it if they don’t want to be isolated from everything their friends are up to.
Not quite, Facebook is now for Mums and Grandmothers.
All the younger people have bolted to Instagram , snap chat, twitter, what’s app etc.
I had heard that was happening but I didn’t realise that the decline started so long ago.
Those numbers are for the US I suppose. I wonder when it dived here?
Long-haired preachers come out every night
To tell you what’s wrong and what’s right
But when asked how about something to eat
They will answer in voices so sweet:
You will eat, bye and bye
In that glorious land above the sky
Work and pray, live on hay
You’ll get pie in the sky when you die.
That’s a lie
And the starvation army they play
They sing and they clap and they pray
‘Till they get all your coin on the drum
Then they’ll tell you when you’re on the bum:
You’re gonna eat, bye and bye, poor boy
In that glorious land above the sky, way up high
Work and pray, live on hay
You’ll get pie in the sky when you die
Dirty lie
What the PM told us has been achieved so far by this coalition government when she spoke yesterday in the adjournment debate.
“…… I could just say this about the last 12 months: 3.9 percent unemployment, a Budget surplus, 73,000 more jobs, 2.7 percent GDP growth including 1 percent in the June 2018 quarter alone, 111 Provincial Growth Fund projects, 60 million trees planted, $917 million contributed to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund after almost a decade of nothing, 384,000 families better of with the Families Package, 774,000 New Zealanders now receiving a winter energy payment, 4,000 KiwiBuild homes under contract, 1,200 new public housing places, more than 200 new or rebuilt classrooms, 1,500 new teachers, 600 new learning support coordinators, 600,000 New Zealanders with access to cheaper GP visits, and hundreds of new police officers already.”
” $917 million contributed to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund”.
That is a bit like saying that you contributed $100 to the TAB.
In October the return on the fund was -4.84%. That’s right it dropped in value by a couple of billion dollars. I suspect the same thing happened in November and will probably also happen this month. https://www.nzsuperfund.co.nz/sites/default/files/documents-sys/October%202018%20Monthly%20Report.pdf
“4,000 KiwiBuild homes under contract,”.
Really. It is rather more significant that they can’t even get offers on the houses that Twyford is buying, and that the sort of place that they are calling “homes” are studio apartments. Subsidies are now being made available to anyone who will buy a place.
Those places were meant to be for families who were locked out of the market. Instead they have sold to people like the Doctor/Marketing Manager couple we were told about.
Other stories tell us that the lottery winners who are offered the property refuse to buy them and that they are then sold on the open market for whatever they can get for them.
“Yes, I’m extremely proud of the actions we have taken this year as the Government, some of which include extending paid parental leave, stopping foreign purchasing of Kiwi homes, making the first year of tertiary study free, stopping the State house sell-off, building that first KiwiBuild home, restarting super fund contributions, increasing the minimum wage, passing the Child Poverty Reduction Bill in my name, implementing the Families Package, making GP visits cheaper for many New Zealanders, investing in fixing hospitals and schools, funding more teachers, beginning to plant one billion trees, investing in the regions through the Provincial Growth Fund, beginning to recruit 1,800 more police—”
I am trying to suppress the smugness, about 6 or 7 years ago a colleague made the observation that ‘ with Facebook, you are not the customer, you are the product’.
I wish I had thought of that wording. It very accurately, and succinctly, sums up what I thought when I first looked at the scheme.
I suppose I should also follow your example and try and suppress the smugness about never having gone near it.
I finally managed to get out of Facebook (it was like the bloody Hotel California …you can check in but never leave) but still had concerns about my profile being up , so thats a great piece of info there. Thanks for that Joe
Jim Mora apparently believes substandard content is acceptable as long
as he occasionally “balances” it with “the NYT, the Guardian, the Atlantic.”
On Friday 30 November this writer, and no doubt many other people, listened with disbelief and horror as Jim Mora abandoned all pretence to be running any sort of intelligent or reasoned discussion on his RNZ light chat show. The first two guests seemed designed to insult and provoke anyone who cared about anything. At 4:28 p.m. I sent the following email….
Kiwiblog?!!?? Bob McCoskrie?!! WTF?
Dear Jim,
You first quoted the extreme right wing Kiwiblog, then in the very next breath you quoted the even more extreme Bob McCoskrie. Ali Jones reacted the way that any sensible listener would have: “What a load of RUBBISH!”
What’s next? Are you going to approvingly quote the complacent right wing New York Times opinionist David Brooks, or some mad article from the Daily Telegraph, or the so-called “Sensible Sentencing Trust”, as you so often do?
Have you thought of quoting someone who actually writes in a thoughtful and balanced manner? Gordon Campbell perhaps?
You have a duty, surely, to assemble a credible and serious hour of broadcasting. Kiwiblog and Family First are anything but credible and serious.
Yours in concern at the standard of your program,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
At 5:10 p.m. Jim Mora replied:
I also quoted The Standard yesterday, Morrissey, I regularly quote the NYT, the Guardian, the Atlantic. Jim
And that is the core of the problem with Mora and his show: this spurious hypothesis that quoting something relatively sane makes up for treating the likes of Bob McCoskrie as a serious commentator.
Yesterday (Wednesday December 19th) Mora—or his producer Julie Moffett—was back at it. To discuss the planned Hamilton-Auckland rail link, they once again wheeled on the worst possible person. I sent off another email pronto…
Gary Mallett???!!!
Dec 19, 2018, 4:37 PM
Dear Jim,
A lot of people and organizations have spent a great deal of time and effort considering the pros and cons of the Hamilton to Auckland rail link. However, instead of bringing on someone who knew what he/she was talking about, you—or your producer—chose the extreme right wing Hamilton councillor Gary Mallett. He’s an ACT Party member notorious for, amongst other things, his unhinged attacks on Māori. His language in your interview this afternoon reflected his simplistic thinking: “absolutely pathetic….pathetic…absolutely no impact in reducing congestion…. costing mega-millions… this is people’s hard-earned money…I’m completely agnostic as to how we travel…”
Both Penny Ashton and Mike Rehu expressed their disapproval, but you joked that “Gary’s supporting some interesting arguments though!”
That’s five minutes of airtime wasted.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
So far, Jim Mora has not replied to that remonstration.
What is it with these husband and wife media “duos” you would expect they would have common interests but some impartiality surely goes with the job?
In a double dose today his wife, somebody Lambie, was “doing” the afternoon show on a “competing” station and doing her best to absolve the “Sensible Sentencing ‘Trust'” for their appalling and derelict behaviour. The result was her interviewing the (?) McVicar who immediately somehow to turn it round inextricably to the “trust” being the victim in all this.
Why are these tag teams insulting the people of NZ – that pair, Hosking etc, Soper etc it’s getting beyond tedious they’re everywhere like pack of “Stepford” wives”.
It’s as they say “all about the business” and by the look of it cases of not “what you know” but “who”, do they get two for the price of one?
I find it quite off-putting being harangued, I like something a bit topical or “newsy” while driving but this level of “opinion” will see me turn to the music stations. I’m still trying to work out how Lambie framed McVicar as the “victim” but she did with very little mention of what they had posted and how serious that was – it was found out about last March so that was kept quiet for a long time while donations were still being sought publicly.
Makes my head spin sometimes, but I can believe it – I live in Tauranga and while in lots of ways it is great, the divide in the way we think between me and some family members/aquaintances is sometimes surprising and I am hard pressed to understand how we can see things so differently.
Then I read this https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12180474 and conclude that there are some people in the world who are going quite mad.
Who is this “we” being referred to very often? I believe in the “village” much of the time but not one rigid mindset.
Is he one of these increasingly crazy people who think the public needs saving from itself and only he/we/they “peddle” the truth? It’s becoming quite bizzare.
That fool was nominally “in charge” of the NZRFU in 1999; most infamously, he allowed advertising lout Kevin Roberts to have an Air New Zealand jet “decorated” with a hideous distorted picture of the All Black front row on it. The players were mortified and embarrassed, and pleaded for them not to do it, but Moffett and Roberts didn’t care and the monstrosity was forced through.
Jacinda Ardern is not the first person to be dismissed rancorously by David Moffett. His harebrained “traitors” remark is just the latest in a long line of stupid insults. When he was NZRFU head creep, he angered Rugby League supporters by (accurately) scoffing at the sport as “five tackles and kick”. Later, the hypocrite took a job as CEO of the National Rugby League.
Another Australian whacko, Peter Scutts, was the CEO of the Auckland Blues while Moffett was running his ignorant mouth. Scutts, to show how “professional” the Auckland Rugby Union was, took it on himself to ban the Wellington Supporters Club from running onto the hallowed turf of Eden Park with their Leo the Lion mascot, something that they’d done for about a hundred years. Even worse than that little piece of meanness, in 1997 Scutts refused to change the playing strip of the Blues for the Super 12 final against the ACT Brumbies; both teams had almost identical strips. Scutts cited “the heritage of the Auckland Blues”—-the team was less than two years old. In the event, the final was a shambles, with two almost identically dressed teams on the field, and the game of rugby football reduced to a laughing stock.
I like Mr Farrar, and I appreciate the light hand he wields on his site. However, to pretend that anyone with his stridently anti-union and wildly pro-Israel views—he came back from a (guided) tour of the Occupied Territories a few years back and solemnly informed Jim Mora that he had seen nothing going on there—is not extremely right wing would be less than honest.
He’s certainly more civilized and personable than Cameron Slater, but there’s not a great deal of difference in their politics.
There are many Jewish (and wider related group of relatives) centrists blinded by nationalism and or religion into a pro Zionist position, this does not make them right wing, let alone extreme right wing. DPF would be in the former cateogry (though he is right wing all the same).
There are many Christian Adventists (Slater is one) whose support for Zionism is religious and part of some concept of a Judeo-Christian nationalism where Israel is a western Christendom colonial pet project.
This is right wing in that this Christian dominionism (American) uses the idea of end time Advent ending human self government/democracy to justify lack of human action on social justice (and climate change) in the USA or the wider world. It serves to enable the GOP to serve 1% mammon with their votes.
Tempting to file him in the `useful idiot’ category of rightists, but probably a tad unfair and I was inclining toward your more generous view when I realised a reality-check is probably a good idea. So I googled his political alignment and found this on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Farrar_(blogger)
“Farrar professes a classical liberal approach to politics, that is often compromised by his party affiliation with the liberal conservative National Party (for instance over state security powers vs individual rights) and identifies as a moderate of the center-right on the political spectrum. He was a co-chair of National’s Classical Liberal Policy Advisory Group at its formation in 2004. He supported the legalisation of prostitution and of civil unions in New Zealand. Farrar supports a New Zealand republic, and is on the National Council of the New Zealand Republican Movement. Economically his views are more in keeping with those of parties to the right of the National Party, such as the market fundamentalism of the minority ACT party.”
So socially liberal, economically dry, but the quote implies he self-identifies “as a moderate of the center-right on the political spectrum.” As a Republican, he seems progressive rather than conservative to us (but the contrary to Americans due to their early departure from monarchy).
Extreme right and extreme left is quite rare, so I would agree.
He is a liberal, but a right wing one, certainly no centrist.
The debate point is between centre right or simply right. I’d go with the latter – some confuse his being liberal with being centre right. No so for mine. Sure there is common cause between right wing and centrist and centre-left liberals from time to time but his vehemently anti-Green posts do not come from a centrist position, but a right wing one. The same with his involvment with the Taxpayers Union.
Like most of the right wing of the National Party they tend to hide in plain sight and manouvre to achieve the right wing change by both stealth and by increment.
I challenge anyone to condemn me for promoting a plant based diet.
After watching this 45 minute documentary from the UK.
It is not for the faint-hearted.
I condemn thee for the sin of hubris, nay even the of crime against all humanity in seeking us to forsake our own Judith-given right to the flesh, the delicious flesh, of farmed animals, to give up out culture, our beliefs, there is only one sentence:
Nope. I’ve already stated that the best path for NZ would be to make all sheep, beef, pork and chicken (and any other type of animal I’ve missed) farming free range
Whilst I have no issues with people choosing to follow a vegan lifestyle (usually this is done when a person has had a chance to challenge all the information put before them), I’m against people trying to force others to follow it as if there is no other dietary choice. The reality is that this world does not need overlords – especially vegan ones.
I’m not trying to force you to follow a plant based diet.
However I am asking that you actually look at what 21st century industrial farming looks like.
But all of you critics are too scared to confront the reality of what factory farming looks like.
Why lead with this then? “I challenge anyone to condemn me for promoting a plant based diet.” Should you have lead with, “I challenge anyone to support factory farming, after watching this.”
Just because he is pro Israel does not make him extreme right.
I would agree he is right rather than centre right. But if you think David is extreme right, then so is Simon Bridges. But maybe that is what you think.
“if you think David is extreme right, then so is Simon Bridges.”
Simon Bridges is far right, so is the current lot of all National MP’s, and i would include Bill English, the double dipper from Dipton in that lot too.
There is not one current man or women in the National Party that would not put themselves and Party above Country, Duty and Honor. A bit like the republican lot in the US.
The National party are extreme because their beliefs do no match up with reality.
Me, I’m all for living within the physical limits of the world. Which means to say that I’m not extreme in anyway, shape or form.
The problem that you, like many, is that you think that trying to live within those limits is extreme. And yet, the whole point of the market was actually to bring about living within those limits.
I don’t actually think how you think I do and we have more in common that you might realise. Particularly around how finite our resources are and how they need to be utilised.
But you can’t just say “National are extreme right” based upon your own metrics because it doesn’t work that way. They aren’t extreme right by any real political, economic or social methodology that is in common parlance or study. It’s no different to someone on Kiwiblog saying labour are extreme left because they are so far right themselves.
When you or the kiwi blogger say “extreme right/left” what I hear is “I don’t know what words mean”
I don’t actually think how you think I do and we have more in common that you might realise. Particularly around how finite our resources are and how they need to be utilised.
I have, occasionally, considered that we may be talking past each other.
But you can’t just say “National are extreme right” based upon your own metrics because it doesn’t work that way.
Reality isn’t my metric – it just is. It has physical constraints that we need to live within and we’re not doing that.
And compared to reality Labour is also extreme right-wing as they’re still following the same failed economics that National follow.
The question I have is: Why do so many econ students (or anyone else for that matter) not learn about the physical resources that the economy is based upon?
Given the greatly amplified role of professional economists at every level of policy making, the extent to which economics is disconnected from reality is becoming more alarming.
This is most telling point about modern economics that needs to said and repeated:
Modern economics is simply not connected to reality.
This article misses a bit though that may even be far more important than the fact that economics ignores actual human motivations. Modern economics misses the fact that economics is about the availability and distribution of scarce resources.
How much land do we have?
How much of that land can be used to support humanity?
How much is needed to maintain a healthy environment?
These are questions (and others of a similar bent) that modern economics not only doesn’t answer – it doesn’t ask. And so we have nations converting every square in of land to farms and the extinction rate increasing tilting the environment further to outright collapse. We’ve fished up so much fish that the ocean ecology is also close to collapse.
We do this for profit because its supposed to bring about the best outcome and yet all the evidence shows that the profit motive is bringing about the worst possible outcomes. Climate change and ecological collapse has been brought about by the drive for profit and the need to have a growing economy to feed that profit. A growing economy can only come about with a growing population.
All the evidence is that the carrying capacity of the Earth as far as humans go is about two billion. We’re presently at seven and climbing.
Economics, the stuff that the economists and politicians ignore, tells us that we need to live within physical constraints but we’ve gone way past those constraints chasing profit.
Labour is centrist, and the Green Party’s agreement with them to spend no more than 30% GDP declared their coalition government would be centrist. This is why they could and did include NZ First. They had to in any case to get a majority and that need gives them an excuse for their moderation – which is given again and again to their party members and all those in society who wanted more.
It’s not getting worse under them, it’s going to get better … slowly.
Or they will not go further right, but they will not cross any centre lines moving back to the left at such a slow pace.
Dang !!! That’s a lot of expensive bureaucratic paperwork.
Has been suggested to give out credit cards, which would absolutely cut back processing costs for expenses.
I thought they would already have ministerial credit cards, then I remembered paula bennet, her staff member misused the office credit card.
Can someone clear up my confusion please, as it appears ministerial credit cards are not a new thing, were they scrapped at some stage? Or did they never exist?
Government Ministers still have credit cards, Cinny. They have not been scraped.
I don’t have time to go into detail as due out, but here are a couple of links re these Ministerial credit cards. All expenses etc relating to Ministers of the Crown are handled by Ministerial Services, part of the Dept of Internal Affairs.
I actually found that Newshub article confusing and questionable, but don’t have time etc at present to go into detail but MPs who are not Ministers also can claim expenses etc but this is done through Parliamentary Service – not Ministerial Services in DIA.
Up north the land of stupid people end their year will all the class one would expect of them.
May the great prevaricator, who takes procrastination to another level, has apparently reduced Corbyn, the great communicator, to whispering to himself “stupid woman” (no recording of this exists, he claims he said “stupid people”).
After recent attempts to pose a vote of no confidence in the PM, but not yet her government, this does not seem credible (the argument that either stupid woman and stupid people were statements of fact is a strong one, and one leads to the other, as these were the people that kept her on as leader of their party).
Apparently because May is a woman, noting that she is stupid while being a woman is seen as a sexist attack, or misogny. This is taking identity politics micro aggression to the next level, and given this is the Tory Party, it is obviously an attempt trying to divert attention from their own reality – May has chosen to delay the vote on her Brexit plan and leave it to the media to run a Brexit with no deal scare campaign over the holiday break to soften up the MP’s before the vote.
All ones eggs in one basket (she has said their will be not be another referendum to over-ride a parliamentary impasse).
So should the deal not get parliamentary approval, Corbyn will propose a vote of no confidence in the government over it facing a no deal Brexit (the media scare campaign will help him in this).
So will posing Corbyn as an anti-semite, and now as a misogynist, save the Tory Party from their own Brexit divisions. May needs the so called “Blairites” (while moderates and the May deal is the middle course between a no deal Brexit and staying in the EU, they mostly prefer going back to a referendum) to vote for the deal for fear of a no deal Brexit if they vote no. Thus the hard-line refusal to go to a referendum is to influence them.
Stupid people are playing chicken on the highway called Brexit in the UK parliament because they claim giving the people another say, is not respecting what they decided last time they were asked. This is a brain dead parliament that reigns as a tyrant for 5 years and treats it subjects for this period of incarceration as fools. Stupid people.
On the face to it, Corbyn has shown himself completely incompetent during the Brexit debates. His standing will have gone down (including among his moderate MP’s), though perhaps not enough to stop him becoming PM at the next election.
However, nothing he has done has either bought an election forward, or will result in a second referendum. He should have been able to achieve one of those.
Instead he has made it more likely May’s deal will get through. Maybe that is what he wants, hence his tactics to date. So an election, whenever it happens, can be fought in clear air.
His policy is to have the May deal fail in parliament.
A sort of alliance between the hard Brexit Tories and those who want a referendum facilitated by having a position based standards for a deal they would support not being met (maybe not possible).
If he is successful, May might resign rather than preside over a no deal Brexit – after all parliament could easily deny consent to a no deal Brexit government being in office.
Corbyn could however choose to play white knight – entice Tories against a no deal Brexit into supporting a parliamentary move to suspend Brexit and call for a new referendum, rather than a new election.
With a May deal, the government takes responsibility – most now favour remain in polls – and the Tory Party divisions (there are as many for a hard Brexit and remain as in favour in their caucus and party membership) are going nowhere. Nor is the Northern Ireland, Scotland and the LD (where will the pro remain Tories and anti Corbyn Blairites go?).
There is no way the Tories can win this game, whatever happens, Corbyn’s Labour has the advantage/all the cards.
101 stuff that UK labour or Corbyn haven’t found an answer to. The distraction that sticks
Parliament descended into chaos on Wednesday as angry Tory MPs accused Jeremy Corbyn of calling Theresa May a “stupid woman”, which the Labour leader vehemently denied.
I liked this bit: “While May was still in the house, the former Tory chair Patrick McLoughlin asked Bercow to censure Corbyn. “He muttered words which were quite clearly visible, accusing the prime minister of being a ‘stupid woman’,” he said, as MPs shouted “Shame!” and “Disgrace!””
Since the former Tory chair confirms that the words were clearly visible, they will show up on any video recording of Corbyn uttering them, so their inaudibility is no real problem. Sceptics just need to watch the recording to see those words hanging there in the air just after emerging from his mouth…
What he should have said was “I realise honourable members are looking for ways to take offence, and I now wonder whether they’d have preferred it if I’d said – Silly Lady boy, and “I’m offended you are offended just as you will be offended I am offended by you’re being offended”
Well it looks like Hummer’s an arsehole but not a workplace bully christy, and being an arsehole is pretty much de rigueur for high placed smootharse bureaucrats.
A new report (on the Funded Family Care system) commissioned by the Government points to a host of failings, but makes no recommendation for change.
A disability advocate says the report is a waste of time and the Government should simply get on with changes everyone knows are overdue.
There is concern the report will allow the Government to procrastinate.
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter said she expected the government would announce its plans to overhaul the Funded Family Care system in less than a year, but she wouldn’t commit to a specific time-frame nor give away any details. However, she acknowledged affected families have been waiting a long time for justice.
@Anne and Denis, and probably a few others:
You might be interested in this (as in when the PS started to go tits up with corporatisation): https://www.bbc.com/news/education-46608818
Kia ora Newshub One has to expect more accidents with all the exra cars and people in Aotearoa of late and not much investment in the road network in the last few years.
Those are huge hailstones in Australia hope not to many people have been hurt what a mess we have to get use to weather like that.
We need to pay a return on waste to save our wild life and enviroment that poor seal nearly lost its life paying a return on all waste is way cheaper than have to try and pull plastic waste out of the sea the size of the Pacific waste .
Ka pai Mark with your song we built this city on sausagerolls hitting number one in Britain lol
One must be real carefull when working in construction I have heard of some shocking accidents
Rob that’s the way Wellington showing you the aroha for being Maori santa . People in Aotearoa have expect maori are going to show there pride of being a tangata whenua.
Kate Wreck it Ralph will keep the mokopunas happy for a while.
ka kite ano P.S I have to use a new search ap and it has not got spell check loaded yet some one crashed the old one
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
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TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
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Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
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Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
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Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
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Uber Pike
James a UK immigrant to NZ ,,, and resident troll here …. supports and participates in the the breaking of NZ laws … and such is his pride he brags about it at left wing blogs.
Uber a tax dodging law flouting corporation came into New Zealand ….. and under the last National Government were allowed to operate …. despite, but yet typically under the last Nact Government, they were at least 80% non-compliant to the Land Transport Passenger Service regulations … under which they are lawfully and legally required to operate.
It makes you wonder what other laws and regulations James thinks should be ignored …. food?, ignoring all those burdensome hygine and food safty regulations… a james bbq with pink chicken would make a uber fine food provider.
Uber doctors? …. where maybe they don’t actually have a legit doctors certificate … but they can fill your prescritions cheap of the internet… what a uber bargin that would be.
anyway it begs the question ….Did James lie on his NZ residency application?? … treating his legal requirements and honesty as merely optional… or did he declare that he would help NZ, by leading the way in showing us what laws and regulations should be ignored
###############################
The Pike River Mine / deathtrap was run like a corner cutting and regulation ignoring Uber outfit.
I highly recommend this Pike River documentary …
Watching it left me vastly better informed of the criminal disregard for workers safety .. red line after red line were crossed and ignored …non compliance with the regulations and ignoring laws pertaining to explosive gasses …all leading to the inevitable but preventable deaths for the 29 West Coast workers.
And for me it really highlighted our dishonest grave dancer Alwyn … and his degenerate smears on this subject relating to Andrew Little.
Wow you really do have an unhealthy obsession with me.
Nice to see I’m in that little head of yours so early in the morning.
“And for me it really highlighted our dishonest grave dancer Alwyn … and his degenerate smears on this subject relating to Andrew Little.”
My, you really woke up with a hangover this morning, didn’t you.
I’m feeling a tad left out, don’t I even rate a mention?
You’re fully assimilated now, Pucky. Perhaps we should have said…a small ceremony, perhaps, maybe a badge…sorry!
I need to get my mojo back is what it is, the current set up in National is not motivating enough, I need inspiration, I need National not Labour-lite, I need something to believe in, I need a hero, I need…
https://i1.wp.com/www.whaleoil.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/1478989_561528227258268_120535684_n.jpg
There it is 🙂
I’m afraid you have gone over to the dark side.
Anakin Skywalker, better known as Darth Vader, seems to be more appropriate for you nowadays.
Well thats just mean 🙁
🙂
That’s not a documentary, it’s a dressed up presentation of opinions.
“and his degenerate smears on this subject relating to Andrew Little.”
I’m not aware of what James has said about Andrew Little and Pike River, but if it relates to Little’s time with the EPMU, then he may well have been referring to this http://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-andrew-little-failed-pike-river.html.
Andrew Little was asleep at the wheel.
Bullshit. Little was the head of the union. His job was to administer the organisation, not personally visit every worksite to check for issues.
Well for someone who was only doing what you suggest as being “His job was to administer the organisation,” he certainly had a lot to say about the details of the operation.
Did you bother to read that link and see exactly what Little did say? They are direct quotes you know.
I’ve read it many times. In fact, pretty much every time some git makes the same mistake about Little’s role. Pike River were anti-union, and incentivised their staff to breach health and safety rules and kept the true situation in the mine secret. Andrew Little is a clever guy, but he doesn’t possess ESP.
“Little was the head of the union.”
And in that capacity he defended PRC management on their safety record, and led a union that failed to act on specific concerns raised prior to the accident.
“His job was to administer the organisation…”
Are you seriously arguing he isn’t responsible for his own comments about PRC? That as head of the union he bears no responsibility for the safety of the union’s members? What was he paid to do exactly?
“…not personally visit every worksite to check for issues.”
But he is responsible for what he says. Particularly when what he says reflects precisely on those safety issues. And he was ultimately responsible for the union and it’s members. He failed.
Again, bullshit. His comments were based on what information he had at the time. As I’ve already said, the company lied through its teeth and made life as difficult as possible for the union. To use the National party’s excuse du jour, it was an operational matter. Andrew was an administrator based in Wellington, not an organiser based in Greymouth. He could only report what he was told, becuase he had no direct involvement.
be good to see Andrew Little make some sort of definitive statement on this, one mad Trot offshoot newsletter, is what the various Nattys keep quoting
as I understand it Mr Whitall ran an anti union/union busting culture that saw the organiser reduced to riding the workers bus to try and get access to the site! Rebecca McFie’s “Tragedy at Pike River Mine” lays it out how marginalised the Union was there, requests from Mr Rockhouse to include the EPMU in training exercises were met with dismissive emails from Whitall–“the Union and Pike are not to be mentioned in the same sentence”…etc.
the attacks on Little are rather transparent given Solid Energy’s “seal it up” plan being derailed, and the Pike River Recovery Agency charging ahead with reentry
Hi Tiger.
The claims regarding Little’s involvement with Pike stem from his own comments and his own inaction. The material in the post (http://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-andrew-little-failed-pike-river.html) is damning.
You do realise, I hope, that all Andrew’s statements were made AFTER the explosion that almost certainly killed the workers.
The explosion was on 19 November. Little’s statements were made to the Herald, and Close Up on 22 November.
If he hadn’t found out what was going on by then he damn well should have. Both he, and the MP for the area, O’Connor had by then been to the mine and still they defended the company and said that everything was fine and there were no concerns by the Union about safety.
Of course it’s conceivable he was lied to wally.
“His comments were based on what information he had at the time.”
Which were ill-informed, and ignored concerns of others from within the business and the industry.
“As I’ve already said, the company lied through its teeth and made life as difficult as possible for the union.”
And Little enabled them.
“Andrew was an administrator based in Wellington, not an organiser based in Greymouth.”
That’s a terrific cop-out. Andrew Little was with the EPMU/Engineers Union since before 1997. He was National Secretary from 2000. In summary, at the time of Pike he had been with the union for more than 13 years, 10 as National Secretary. For you to argue his position was simply as “an administrator based in Wellington” is pure nonsense.
I must say this is a shock. James is not even a real Kiwi even though he pretends he is.
Immigration management in this country in the last 20 years has been terrible. There has been zero work done on the ability of social infrastructure to cope with the flood of toff-nosed poms washing onto our shores.
James claims to be about 48 years old and has sent three kids through Kristin at 25K per annum each. The eldest of these kids owns and runs their own business now and is approximately late 20s.
I’m left wondering when it was that James actually entered New Zealand as an immigrant with his British family?
James himself might like to shed some light on this…
More fun to leave you wondering and obsessing.
There are honest commenters on this forum, and then there is you.
There are morons – then there is you who will never raise to that level of intellect.
…. anyway it begs the question ….Did James lie on his NZ residency application?? … treating his legal requirements and honesty as merely optional… or did he declare that he would help NZ, by leading the way in showing us what laws and regulations should be ignored
Did ya james ? … do tell.
it will also distract you from your unhealthy obsession with Ed … otherwise known as trolling.
Spill your 10 pound pom uber guts ….
Resin – if James trolls you, you are doing something right.
Remember Roosevelt’s words.
“I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.”
And are reasons statements true James?
Reason seems to think so. But then again he/she seems to have issues.
So you don’t deny them then.
Interesting to know.
I note that reason hasn’t denied having an unhealthy obsession with me – interesting to know.
So james. I will have to believe what Reason has written about you.
Sayonna
James is an opinionated ignoramus. A classic case of “opening mouth before engaging brain”. I recently posted about the demise of CanTeen’s AYA regional cancer service, only to receive an uninformed, abusive response from this idiot.
Surprisingly little reaction from other Standardistas to what is an avoidable calamity for young cancer patients in New Zealand.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/12/19/370303/the-fight-to-save-cash-strapped-canteen
I missed your post thanks for reposting.
“CanTeen, which relies on community support and donations, helps youngsters aged between 13 and 24 dealing with cancer. It provides someone to talk to, connects peers, runs activities and workshops, helps people with their grief. The website says: “CanTeen takes care of things like topping up your phone, getting you to appointments or the food situation in your cupboard so you don’t need to stress.””
Such great work supporting very vulnerable people. My niece is younger, with her third cancerous growth returning, at age 12. Such a tough area to be able to support people. I hope finding can come – a vital, underrated service.
As for James he’s just another weakling rwnj. A loser pretender who is probably the saddest of all of us here truth be told.
Your comments beg the question that you obviously have issues.
Do you stalk women on the internet publishing what you think you know about them?
Are you one of those creepy internet stalkers ?
Ignoring your garbled syntax, “that you obviously have issues” is not a question wee James, it’s a statement. Stalking? Pot, kettle, black?
Are you really so conceited that you can’t appreciate your own immaturity. Back in the UK you’d be rightly termed a prat.
I note that reason hasn’t denied staking women on the internet- interesting to know.
You stalk goats don’t you or is it just sheep? Come on geezer fess up.
You’re getting James confused with Bwaghorn.
He’s the sheep botherer.
Deleted.
I never bothered a sheep that didn’t deserve it.
You guys just dropped down too Kiwiblog speak.
Only the good looking goats.
And the occasional opossum.
Onya
So you live in the Americas to enjoy opossums, James?
We have possums in NZ, phalangeridae, the bushy-tailed phalanger.
Opossums are Amurrican.
This fact makes me doubt your assertion.
I import them.
You’re now worse than the Hawkes Bay slave trader, James……. I’d quit while you’re still out of jail!
About the only crime not committed here is treason, so I’d leave the corgis well out of it.
Trump tweeted that Isis is defeated in Syria: “Trump is reported to have ordered a full, rapid withdrawal of the 2,000 US troops in Syria, declaring victory over the Islamic State, and taking allies and his own advisers by surprise.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/19/us-troops-syria-withdrawal-trump
Leading war-mongers are dismayed. “Trump’s own national security adviser, John Bolton, is adamantly opposed to the decision”. “Lindsey Graham, a senior Republican senator who is a Trump loyalist on most issues, denounced the decision. “If these media reports are true, it will be an Obama-like mistake made by the Trump administration,” Graham said in a statement. “While American patience in confronting radical Islam may wane, the radical Islamists’ passion to kill Americans and our allies never wavers.”
Trump wants a Nobel peace prize? He didn’t actually tweet that he had made peace in Syria – yet. But Obama got one without making peace. Perhaps Trump is considering calling the Nobel committee bluff. Would look good on the cv. He could send his Secretary of State to meet Assad with terms: you declare peace, thank Trump for creating it, we’ll give you foreign aid to grind up all them random bits of concrete everywhere, for recycling.
His cabinet ministers calling him a moron, his hired help getting sent to prison, you might think prospects of impeachment had increased since Democrats started promoting them, eh? Well, Gordon Campbell assessed those prospects a week ago and concluded “Trump’s destiny is to be a winner, not a loser.” http://werewolf.co.nz/2018/12/gordon-campbell-on-whether-trump-is-likely-to-be-impeached/
I still feel the same, and doubt Mueller has any rabbit in his hat. Doesn’t matter how much the US media trumpets Trump’s influence-buying, voters know that’s all just American politics as usual – the only way it could harm him is if there was a positive alternative they could anticipate. No sign of that.
Erdogan will be pleased, he can now go ahead and butcher those of the most effective force fighting Islamic State in Syria (which Turkey itself never did).
This might well also enable the settlement of Islamists backed by Turkey in their failed attempt to depose the government of Syria in “Kurdish” areas on their border.
The withdrawal otherwise means the US has no leverage in the future of Syria, but Turkey’s hand will be stronger.
I think its probably also an acknowledgement that the Astana process for a peace settlement and a new constitution in Syria is the only game in town, and the US is not part of it. When you’ve lost the war and are not part of the peace(and the spoils)why waste any more cash
I predict a fresh “outrage” chemical or otherwise,clearly perpetrated by the Syrian govt, to pull the US back in .
Trump attempted this withdrawal once before, Khan Sheikhoun was the result.
I guess Assad just doesn’t want the Yanks to leave (eye- rolling -tongue -in- cheek)
Surely the Kurds knew the US would betray them in the end?
Maybe now they’ll consider the offers of increased autonomy from the Syrian govt
Probably a little late, but there’s surely no chance now of a purely Kurdish state at this point
Sure the smart move for the Kurds would be to do a deal with Damascus and get Syrian government troops in before the Turks can act.
The complication might be the presence of some of the Syrian Arabs who fought IS alongside them, some of whom left the battle against the Syrian government once Islamists began to dominate rebel held areas – they might well now be in the refugee category.
Next comprehensive Kurd massacre coming up.
That does seem to be the case.
True about the US but I’m sure that Turkey won’t have any say either. This is going to fall to Syria, Russia and Iran to fix. Assad would do bloody well stepping up to support the Kurds.
Since Trump and Erdogan talked last Friday the US has cleared the sale of Patriot missiles to Turkey, ordered State Department personnel in Syria to be evacuated from the country within 24 hours, declared victory over ISIS, and Turkey’s request to extradite Fethullah Gülen is to be looked at.
That’s one helluva phone call.
/
ummm vlad I think you mean no one ELSE has them
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12179868
Okay now I see a problem – facing a humanity wide crisis of climate change you toolboxes decide to build more deadly weapons – I curse you all.
“Putin has said about a dozen countries were producing missiles of the type banned by the INF treaty.” Well okay, but if Russian intelligence agencies have indeed discovered this and reported it to him, why doesn’t he identify them? If those countries have signed the INF treaty, wouldn’t it expose them to ridicule and condemnation?
Not to mention discrediting the entire notion of arms reduction treaties. And their usage in international law. And, consequently, the viability of international law as a method of peace-keeping. So now we await deployment by those countries, and the reassurance that such proliferation will provide its own deterrent effect on usage.
“Which countries are developing hypersonic weapons? “The U.S., Russia and China are ahead of other nations in developing hypersonic weapons,” Richard Speier, adjunct staff with Rand, told CNBC. Speier, who worked to initiate the Pentagon’s Office of Counter-Proliferation Policy, added that France, India, and Australia are also developing military uses of hypersonic technology.” https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/21/hypersonic-weapons-what-they-are-and-why-us-cant-defend-against-them.html
Mutually assured destruction, I remark cheerfully! What an oxymoron.
I think you will find Russia’s missiles are more of a defensive mechanism than an offensive weapon. Useful against western propaganda at least. For instance without the Russian S-400 we would have seen much more destruction in the Middle East.
Yeah nah.
We agree, great.
It’s most likely a bad translation.
Climate change is going to cause mass migration and resource wars. Given this fact responsible governments are gearing up to repel the invaders.
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/11/14/16589878/global-climate-change-conflict-environment
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/once-again-climate-change-cited-as-trigger-for-war/
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/377634/defence-force-sets-its-sights-on-climate-change
People in danger of dying tend to act in ways to protect their life.
Responsible governments wasting billions on stuff that won’t work while the things they could do go undone. That is irresponsible imo.
You do understand that there’s nothing that they can do right?
Climate change is happening. This will result in mass migration. The target countries for that mass migration can’t support the migrants. This means that those target countries have to stop those migrants. Some of those migrants are going to be bloody well armed and so the target countries will also need to be well armed. There will be some well armed other countries trying to force the target countries to take the migrants despite knowing that they can’t afford them.
Countries have the right and the responsibility to defend themselves.
Yeah you’re a real gunfight on the titanic type of guy – I’m not.
Just accepting reality an the simple fact that, when climate change truly bites, it’s going to leave a lot of people (measured in the billions) either facing death or looking to migrate an that the places that they can migrate to can’t afford them.
The UN really should have looked at curbing population growth back in the 1970s. They didn’t and most governments of the world still think that increasing population is the Bees Knees and so still won’t do it and so out younger generations are still fucked.
NZfirsts facebook page makes for interesting reading today
https://www.facebook.com/NZFirst/?ref=br_rs
They’re a pretty selfish vindictive bunch aren’t they puckers. Forget pulling up the ladder, just set that sucker on fire.
I agree, I’ve never voted for NZFirst and I never will
Yep. I especially liked one comment:
“Stuart Ward BREAKING NEWS !!!
The ‘national’ party has welcomed the news that they no longer have to worry about what their M.Ps and SUPPORTERS will use for brains if KFC needs the cabbages for coleslaw.
A new product on the hair care market, Control GX “the shampoo with brains” will provide a satisfactory alternative.
Consideration is being given to replacing Simon Bridges with either a “complimentary hotel bottle” of the shampoo, or his nearest contender, an adolescent tiger slug by the name of Slimey Norman”
Well you won’t have to worry about Simon Bridges because it”ll be JC sorting NZ out when shes elected PM 🙂
Thanks, PR, for the peek into the abyss.
I probably should have added a warning to the comment 🙂
Do I sense another ode coming on.
There is something I’ve been working on but its not quite the right time yet 🙂
I do enjoy your odes.
“Shaken but not Stirred” An ode to the Collins
I took a look in th’ abyss,
Just a look, a little peek,
And what I saw will never miss
Down in the pits where she doth tryst-
Worse than the seven levels of Hades,
Where Tantalus strove in the Greek,
The Ban Sí in Eire’s green glades
Or the fell dwellings of the Shades-
The horror of her Gorgon gaze,
Too close e’en from the peaks
Of Darian- ‘mid the Centaur’s maze-
Where Judith eyes her prizéd preys.
Appropriate 🙂
Conservatives proving, yet again, just how bloody ignorant and stupid they are.
Add wilfully to the word ignorant.
And add selfish and greedy.
/agreed
Meanwhile here in NZ, trying to find out some information through an 0800 number about CourierPost’s processes, I have been taken through 4 options that don’t apply and left with 5 which seemed mostly related to NZPost, where shops are etc and tried that in the absence of other options. I got a repeat of the options from 1-5 again.
So NZPost apparently doesn’t know what it is doing, and proposes to keep customers on a loop running after their tails, while they decide.
Really a small example of the route the country has gone.
Try Spark.
They take the biscuit in this.
I find that true of many businesses and not just in NZ. Their attempt to get the customer to the right person via an automated system almost invariably ends up confusing the customer.
If you keep button mashing they machine gets fed up and you’l get a person. That’s what I have always found with the IRD at least. And ANZ
Some have called for New Zealand to be more involved in peace-making and arbitration, as per Norway and Sweden.
Neither of them (Norway is in NATO and Sweden is in the EU) have been involved in the matter of Ukraine. And we have our stalled FTA with Russia to consider. So this is one which we might well take up.
The issues are well known, Russia does not like former territories of the USSR joining NATO or the EU. It uses the presence of ethnic Russians in these territories as an excuse and economic dependence on gas as a means to intefere in their nations affairs politically.
The central issue is the tension that occurs when loyalty to nation state and ethnic identity patriotism (over the future of the Ukraine in the EU and NATO) is divided.
There are obvious paths to resolution, but the question is whether NATO and Russia would prefer the impasse to continue rather than realise one. So the first question that we would have to ask each party (before offering to mediate), do they want the matter resolved?
Does the EU actually want Ukraine?
Particularly now that Its economy has dive bombed. And its adherence to European “values”is seriously in question with the current Poroshenko govt at least
Tymoshenko won’t be much better
Of course Russia doesn’t want NATO on its doorstep, any more than the US would have accepted the Warsaw pact in Mexico
Ukraine can’t be in NATO while there is the war in Eastern Ukraine
Russia would need very strong assurances from NATO (and would they be worth the paper they’re written on) to withdraw their support for Donetsk and Lugansk
And what about the wishes of the people who live in those areas?
Very early on in Putin’s rule , he wanted to join NATO
Maybe this should be looked at again
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/853851/Putin-wants-NATO-to-let-Russia-join.html
I think he had a point
I would love NZ to be involved in mediation etc, but it would not be possible without serious “arm twisting” from our “special friend”over the ocean
Sure back in mid 2001 there was the option of a European security co-operation on the one hand and a united defence force for world peace-keeping at UN direction. Russia in NATO. But the later military intervention in the ME (choice of response to 9/11 soon ended the trust required for that).
At the moment the momentum is towards a EU defence force (ironically made possible by the US request for 2% GDP defence spending in the region), with independent relationships with both Russia and (possibly via a continuing NATO) the USA (and maybe UK depending on where that is headed).
The medium term issues – the nature of the EU and Russian gas supply agreements while sanctions continue and whether Russian pressure on Ukraine has any impact on its domestic politics.
Germany’s economic and industrial well being depends on Nord Stream2 ;any alternatives are too expensive. US imposed sanctions are only going to reshape how Europe does business, to the detriment of US control.
US gas, reliant on fracking, is never going to be cost effective against Russian gas, which doesn’t involve fracking, let alone the difficulties of transport.
Germany and Russia together…the horror!
After all NATO was to keep Russia out, to keep America in, and to keep Germany down
Probably not any more. The Ukraine’s economy wasn’t all that good to start with which is why the USSR’s leadership gave it Crimea. Now that Crimean has left it’s back to being a basket case.
According to the US’s overturning of democratic governments – they can be ignored.
I’m baa-a-a-a-a-aaackkk!
Eight days suspended, and I’m back.
Hopefully.
Testing….
Welcome back, cobber. I trust your loins are fully girded and you have a weeks worth of pent up commentary with which to handsomely entertain us.
PS, good on your former professor for staying away in solidarity 😉
The Professor is on “garden leave” at the moment, Te Reo.
Good Lord! Has he been accused of some impropriety?
Afraid so. This could be even worse than the circumstances that led to the termination of his contract at that Swiss finishing school. More details when they become available.
Great news.
Earth to Morrissey, are you reading?
Nice to have you back old bean. Squadron Leader and I were seriously, seriously concerned about your time in the brig.
Pip pip. Chin up, let bygones be bygones and we’ll all move forward what?
The country’s first crime and victims survey suggests almost two million crimes were committed last year, about seven times the number reported to police.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/378680/survey-reveals-volume-and-nature-of-crimes-committed-in-new-zealand-last-year
I don’t think they got everyone. S.S. trust wrongly exposed a criminal, and so frustrated the he’ll out of everyone who wants to know who these peolle are, it’s a crime surely to distract and misinfirm. Geez how can I be sure that anything the Sen.Sen.Tru. say!
Washington DC is sueing Facebook over Cambridge Analytica.
I’m hoping 2019 is the year all open societies legislate and regulate Facebook et al, as radio was in the 1920s and tv was in the 1950s.
Its corroding global democracy and must be controlled.
For those who want to join the stampede; a couple of tutorials on grabbing your data and deleting your account.
#DeleteFacebook
https://deletefacebook.com/
https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/how-to-delete-your-facebook-account-really-update/
I ‘ve thought it easier to just keep posting pics of nipples and tits till they delete it , seems easier.
Sorry FCC formed 1930s.
Hopefully if Trump gets angry enough with tv news he’ll reform the Act.
Perhaps the Coalition of Losers will try and take New Zealand back to the situation in the late 1930’s.
Radio news broadcasts were written in the Prime Minister’s office and had to be read out on New Zealand radio stations exactly as they were written.
I’m sure that Tsar Winnie and his off-sider [Jacinda] would love to bring that back.
Then we wouldn’t get stories on the TV news about how they are going to halve the number of children in poverty, but not for at least a decade, book-ended by a story about the number of people needing food parcels from the City Mission having doubled during their first year in office and another story about how the number of homeless people and of drug users on Queen St having also risen greatly in the last year and how people working in shops are routinely assaulted these days.
I’m afraid that this current Government is offering only the promises that were described so well in the Union rallying song of 1911.
As the International Workers of the World put it.
“Work and pray, live on hay, you’ll get pie in the sky when you die.”
[Don’t use belittling language, ta. TRP]
Radio and tv and advertising are already regulated.
Alwyn do you do Facebook on a Remington?
“do Facebook”?
Wash your mouth out. I looked at the way Facebook was designed to operate when it started. I decided that I would never, ever go on that crazy system.
Never have and never will.
Obviously I looked at how it would work with a great deal more care than those of you who rushed into it like lemmings running over a cliff and are now regretting it.
I’ve never been on Facebook and never will.
I can see from your clear comments you agree to the necessity of regulating Facebook and similar companies.
“I’ve never been on Facebook”.
I have obviously misjudged you in my assumption.
You are very sensible. I think their business case is a terrible one, particularly as it has become almost compulsory for teenagers to use it if they don’t want to be isolated from everything their friends are up to.
On the other hand I don’t really see how it can be safely “regulated” as you put it. That just puts someone else in a position of power over what people are allowed to see. I think I still prefer the glorious anarchy that was the original internet. The only regulation I would accept is that people should legally own their own data and they, and they alone, should have the ability to allow, or disallow, companies like Facebook from using it.
No other part of our information or broadcasting is unregulated.
The Washington v Facebook re Cambridge Analytica case I pointed to is exactly the kind of regulation you are seeking.
I think their business case is a terrible one, particularly as it has become almost compulsory for teenagers to use it if they don’t want to be isolated from everything their friends are up to.
Not quite, Facebook is now for Mums and Grandmothers.
All the younger people have bolted to Instagram , snap chat, twitter, what’s app etc.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/250172/social-network-usage-of-us-teens-and-young-adults/
Which is hardly surprising, you don’t want your mother/grandmother reading about all the bad shit you’ve been up to.
I had heard that was happening but I didn’t realise that the decline started so long ago.
Those numbers are for the US I suppose. I wonder when it dived here?
Context.
Long-haired preachers come out every night
To tell you what’s wrong and what’s right
But when asked how about something to eat
They will answer in voices so sweet:
You will eat, bye and bye
In that glorious land above the sky
Work and pray, live on hay
You’ll get pie in the sky when you die.
That’s a lie
And the starvation army they play
They sing and they clap and they pray
‘Till they get all your coin on the drum
Then they’ll tell you when you’re on the bum:
You’re gonna eat, bye and bye, poor boy
In that glorious land above the sky, way up high
Work and pray, live on hay
You’ll get pie in the sky when you die
Dirty lie
What the PM told us has been achieved so far by this coalition government when she spoke yesterday in the adjournment debate.
“…… I could just say this about the last 12 months: 3.9 percent unemployment, a Budget surplus, 73,000 more jobs, 2.7 percent GDP growth including 1 percent in the June 2018 quarter alone, 111 Provincial Growth Fund projects, 60 million trees planted, $917 million contributed to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund after almost a decade of nothing, 384,000 families better of with the Families Package, 774,000 New Zealanders now receiving a winter energy payment, 4,000 KiwiBuild homes under contract, 1,200 new public housing places, more than 200 new or rebuilt classrooms, 1,500 new teachers, 600 new learning support coordinators, 600,000 New Zealanders with access to cheaper GP visits, and hundreds of new police officers already.”
Good eating, that. Gourmet. Tasty. Healthy.
“including 1 percent in the June 2018 quarter alone”.
Well that didn’t last very long did it?
Latest quarter was 0.3%, the lowest number for 5 years.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz//business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12180129&ref=clavis
” $917 million contributed to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund”.
That is a bit like saying that you contributed $100 to the TAB.
In October the return on the fund was -4.84%. That’s right it dropped in value by a couple of billion dollars. I suspect the same thing happened in November and will probably also happen this month.
https://www.nzsuperfund.co.nz/sites/default/files/documents-sys/October%202018%20Monthly%20Report.pdf
“4,000 KiwiBuild homes under contract,”.
Really. It is rather more significant that they can’t even get offers on the houses that Twyford is buying, and that the sort of place that they are calling “homes” are studio apartments. Subsidies are now being made available to anyone who will buy a place.
Those places were meant to be for families who were locked out of the market. Instead they have sold to people like the Doctor/Marketing Manager couple we were told about.
Other stories tell us that the lottery winners who are offered the property refuse to buy them and that they are then sold on the open market for whatever they can get for them.
Try this one.
“Yes, I’m extremely proud of the actions we have taken this year as the Government, some of which include extending paid parental leave, stopping foreign purchasing of Kiwi homes, making the first year of tertiary study free, stopping the State house sell-off, building that first KiwiBuild home, restarting super fund contributions, increasing the minimum wage, passing the Child Poverty Reduction Bill in my name, implementing the Families Package, making GP visits cheaper for many New Zealanders, investing in fixing hospitals and schools, funding more teachers, beginning to plant one billion trees, investing in the regions through the Provincial Growth Fund, beginning to recruit 1,800 more police—”
PM Ardern Q 1 18 December 2018 to Simon Bridges
I am trying to suppress the smugness, about 6 or 7 years ago a colleague made the observation that ‘ with Facebook, you are not the customer, you are the product’.
Seems to be spot on.
I wish I had thought of that wording. It very accurately, and succinctly, sums up what I thought when I first looked at the scheme.
I suppose I should also follow your example and try and suppress the smugness about never having gone near it.
A variation of if it’s free, you’re the product.
I finally managed to get out of Facebook (it was like the bloody Hotel California …you can check in but never leave) but still had concerns about my profile being up , so thats a great piece of info there. Thanks for that Joe
Jim Mora apparently believes substandard content is acceptable as long
as he occasionally “balances” it with “the NYT, the Guardian, the Atlantic.”
On Friday 30 November this writer, and no doubt many other people, listened with disbelief and horror as Jim Mora abandoned all pretence to be running any sort of intelligent or reasoned discussion on his RNZ light chat show. The first two guests seemed designed to insult and provoke anyone who cared about anything. At 4:28 p.m. I sent the following email….
What is it with these husband and wife media “duos” you would expect they would have common interests but some impartiality surely goes with the job?
In a double dose today his wife, somebody Lambie, was “doing” the afternoon show on a “competing” station and doing her best to absolve the “Sensible Sentencing ‘Trust'” for their appalling and derelict behaviour. The result was her interviewing the (?) McVicar who immediately somehow to turn it round inextricably to the “trust” being the victim in all this.
Why are these tag teams insulting the people of NZ – that pair, Hosking etc, Soper etc it’s getting beyond tedious they’re everywhere like pack of “Stepford” wives”.
Mora introduced an ex-S.S. trooper this afternoon as “victims’ advocate Ruth Money.”
Another horrible media husband and wife team, by the way, is Bill Ralston and Janet Wilson. It’s not always plain sailing between them, obviously….
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22032013/#comment-607420
It’s as they say “all about the business” and by the look of it cases of not “what you know” but “who”, do they get two for the price of one?
I find it quite off-putting being harangued, I like something a bit topical or “newsy” while driving but this level of “opinion” will see me turn to the music stations. I’m still trying to work out how Lambie framed McVicar as the “victim” but she did with very little mention of what they had posted and how serious that was – it was found out about last March so that was kept quiet for a long time while donations were still being sought publicly.
She presented McSticker as a victim as smoothly and casually as she and her husband call him and his cronies “victims’ advocates.”
The dishonesty has its limits, however. In 2011 Noelle McCarthy was forced to interview McSticker. She could not hide her revulsion….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/noelle-mccarthy-swallowed-vomit-for-15.html
Makes my head spin sometimes, but I can believe it – I live in Tauranga and while in lots of ways it is great, the divide in the way we think between me and some family members/aquaintances is sometimes surprising and I am hard pressed to understand how we can see things so differently.
Then I read this https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12180474 and conclude that there are some people in the world who are going quite mad.
Who is this “we” being referred to very often? I believe in the “village” much of the time but not one rigid mindset.
Is he one of these increasingly crazy people who think the public needs saving from itself and only he/we/they “peddle” the truth? It’s becoming quite bizzare.
That fool was nominally “in charge” of the NZRFU in 1999; most infamously, he allowed advertising lout Kevin Roberts to have an Air New Zealand jet “decorated” with a hideous distorted picture of the All Black front row on it. The players were mortified and embarrassed, and pleaded for them not to do it, but Moffett and Roberts didn’t care and the monstrosity was forced through.
Jacinda Ardern is not the first person to be dismissed rancorously by David Moffett. His harebrained “traitors” remark is just the latest in a long line of stupid insults. When he was NZRFU head creep, he angered Rugby League supporters by (accurately) scoffing at the sport as “five tackles and kick”. Later, the hypocrite took a job as CEO of the National Rugby League.
Another Australian whacko, Peter Scutts, was the CEO of the Auckland Blues while Moffett was running his ignorant mouth. Scutts, to show how “professional” the Auckland Rugby Union was, took it on himself to ban the Wellington Supporters Club from running onto the hallowed turf of Eden Park with their Leo the Lion mascot, something that they’d done for about a hundred years. Even worse than that little piece of meanness, in 1997 Scutts refused to change the playing strip of the Blues for the Super 12 final against the ACT Brumbies; both teams had almost identical strips. Scutts cited “the heritage of the Auckland Blues”—-the team was less than two years old. In the event, the final was a shambles, with two almost identically dressed teams on the field, and the game of rugby football reduced to a laughing stock.
Morrissey,
David Farrar, who writes all the primary items on Kiwiblog (it is his blog), is not extreme right. You have confused him with Cam Slater.
I would agree that some of the commenters on Kiwiblog are extreme right. But not David.
Just as I would say that The Standard is not extreme left, though I certainly think a number of the commenters are.
I like Mr Farrar, and I appreciate the light hand he wields on his site. However, to pretend that anyone with his stridently anti-union and wildly pro-Israel views—he came back from a (guided) tour of the Occupied Territories a few years back and solemnly informed Jim Mora that he had seen nothing going on there—is not extremely right wing would be less than honest.
He’s certainly more civilized and personable than Cameron Slater, but there’s not a great deal of difference in their politics.
There are many Jewish (and wider related group of relatives) centrists blinded by nationalism and or religion into a pro Zionist position, this does not make them right wing, let alone extreme right wing. DPF would be in the former cateogry (though he is right wing all the same).
There are many Christian Adventists (Slater is one) whose support for Zionism is religious and part of some concept of a Judeo-Christian nationalism where Israel is a western Christendom colonial pet project.
This is right wing in that this Christian dominionism (American) uses the idea of end time Advent ending human self government/democracy to justify lack of human action on social justice (and climate change) in the USA or the wider world. It serves to enable the GOP to serve 1% mammon with their votes.
Tempting to file him in the `useful idiot’ category of rightists, but probably a tad unfair and I was inclining toward your more generous view when I realised a reality-check is probably a good idea. So I googled his political alignment and found this on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Farrar_(blogger)
“Farrar professes a classical liberal approach to politics, that is often compromised by his party affiliation with the liberal conservative National Party (for instance over state security powers vs individual rights) and identifies as a moderate of the center-right on the political spectrum. He was a co-chair of National’s Classical Liberal Policy Advisory Group at its formation in 2004. He supported the legalisation of prostitution and of civil unions in New Zealand. Farrar supports a New Zealand republic, and is on the National Council of the New Zealand Republican Movement. Economically his views are more in keeping with those of parties to the right of the National Party, such as the market fundamentalism of the minority ACT party.”
So socially liberal, economically dry, but the quote implies he self-identifies “as a moderate of the center-right on the political spectrum.” As a Republican, he seems progressive rather than conservative to us (but the contrary to Americans due to their early departure from monarchy).
He uses being liberal/progressive to assist with mainstreaming his right wing cause. The rich get richer, the state doing less …
Extreme right and extreme left is quite rare, so I would agree.
He is a liberal, but a right wing one, certainly no centrist.
The debate point is between centre right or simply right. I’d go with the latter – some confuse his being liberal with being centre right. No so for mine. Sure there is common cause between right wing and centrist and centre-left liberals from time to time but his vehemently anti-Green posts do not come from a centrist position, but a right wing one. The same with his involvment with the Taxpayers Union.
Like most of the right wing of the National Party they tend to hide in plain sight and manouvre to achieve the right wing change by both stealth and by increment.
I challenge anyone to condemn me for promoting a plant based diet.
After watching this 45 minute documentary from the UK.
It is not for the faint-hearted.
https://www.kinderworld.org/videos/animal-rights-documentaries/land-of-hope-and-glory/
Challenge accepted:
http://time.com/4252373/meat-eating-veganism-evolution/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131124231817.htm
https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/03/30/why-humans-started-eating-meat-critical-diet/
I condemn thee for the sin of hubris, nay even the of crime against all humanity in seeking us to forsake our own Judith-given right to the flesh, the delicious flesh, of farmed animals, to give up out culture, our beliefs, there is only one sentence:
Please don’t have a video duel. ffs
I recon a Naked and Afraid video of a starving urban vegetarian when a normal omnivore person catches a rat, priceless.
Did you watch the video?
Nope. I’ve already stated that the best path for NZ would be to make all sheep, beef, pork and chicken (and any other type of animal I’ve missed) farming free range
That would be a massive step forward.
Of course free range must mean free range.
Outdoors.
Veganism causes mental retardation:
https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2018/12/veganism-causes-mental-retardation-in-kids-top-danish-doctor-claims.amp.html
You did not watch the film about the animal farming industry.
Until you have the courage to look at it – your opinion is simply shrill and desperate.
Did you read the study about veganism causing mental retardation?
Unless you do you are a biased uninformed leaf eating shrill.
Stalking me again.
Creepy.
This is a discussion forum, Ed. Replying to comments is not stalking and if you don’t want to engage with other commenters, you do not have to.
Equally, you have no right to try to stop them commenting whenever they feel fit. If you post a comment, then folk have the right to reply.
Has all the fat in your arteries cut off the oxygen from your brain jimby?
The film Forks over Knives explains the health benefits of a plant based diet.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/sick-toddlers-parents-charged-for-her-strict-vegan-diet/news-story/65e2d8943184e1f3e798c848ce4d1edf
Whilst I have no issues with people choosing to follow a vegan lifestyle (usually this is done when a person has had a chance to challenge all the information put before them), I’m against people trying to force others to follow it as if there is no other dietary choice. The reality is that this world does not need overlords – especially vegan ones.
I’m not trying to force you to follow a plant based diet.
However I am asking that you actually look at what 21st century industrial farming looks like.
But all of you critics are too scared to confront the reality of what factory farming looks like.
Why lead with this then? “I challenge anyone to condemn me for promoting a plant based diet.” Should you have lead with, “I challenge anyone to support factory farming, after watching this.”
“I challenge anyone to condemn me for promoting a plant based diet.
After watching this 45 minute documentary from the UK.”
Just because he is pro Israel does not make him extreme right.
I would agree he is right rather than centre right. But if you think David is extreme right, then so is Simon Bridges. But maybe that is what you think.
you finally typed something that is correct
“if you think David is extreme right, then so is Simon Bridges.”
Simon Bridges is far right, so is the current lot of all National MP’s, and i would include Bill English, the double dipper from Dipton in that lot too.
There is not one current man or women in the National Party that would not put themselves and Party above Country, Duty and Honor. A bit like the republican lot in the US.
/agreed
The National Party is extreme right-wing.
Bullshit Draco. Extreme right is what we see in the US republicans.
Extreme right are starting to build in Europe also. National is NOT extreme right.
They only seem extreme to you because you are so far left that you’re not even left anymore. Just some weird authoritarian collectivist.
The National party are extreme because their beliefs do no match up with reality.
Me, I’m all for living within the physical limits of the world. Which means to say that I’m not extreme in anyway, shape or form.
The problem that you, like many, is that you think that trying to live within those limits is extreme. And yet, the whole point of the market was actually to bring about living within those limits.
The market is there to restrict use of resources.
I don’t actually think how you think I do and we have more in common that you might realise. Particularly around how finite our resources are and how they need to be utilised.
But you can’t just say “National are extreme right” based upon your own metrics because it doesn’t work that way. They aren’t extreme right by any real political, economic or social methodology that is in common parlance or study. It’s no different to someone on Kiwiblog saying labour are extreme left because they are so far right themselves.
When you or the kiwi blogger say “extreme right/left” what I hear is “I don’t know what words mean”
I have, occasionally, considered that we may be talking past each other.
Reality isn’t my metric – it just is. It has physical constraints that we need to live within and we’re not doing that.
And compared to reality Labour is also extreme right-wing as they’re still following the same failed economics that National follow.
That’s what that article you posted is about. It’s a good article and shows up some of the failings of the economists.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DucIFuBU8AAAsIn.jpg
On a totally different topic but replying here to get your attention…
This might be of interest to you:
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/12/why-do-econ-classes-barely-mention-behavioral-economics/578092/
The question I have is: Why do so many econ students (or anyone else for that matter) not learn about the physical resources that the economy is based upon?
This is most telling point about modern economics that needs to said and repeated:
Modern economics is simply not connected to reality.
This article misses a bit though that may even be far more important than the fact that economics ignores actual human motivations. Modern economics misses the fact that economics is about the availability and distribution of scarce resources.
How much land do we have?
How much of that land can be used to support humanity?
How much is needed to maintain a healthy environment?
These are questions (and others of a similar bent) that modern economics not only doesn’t answer – it doesn’t ask. And so we have nations converting every square in of land to farms and the extinction rate increasing tilting the environment further to outright collapse. We’ve fished up so much fish that the ocean ecology is also close to collapse.
We do this for profit because its supposed to bring about the best outcome and yet all the evidence shows that the profit motive is bringing about the worst possible outcomes. Climate change and ecological collapse has been brought about by the drive for profit and the need to have a growing economy to feed that profit. A growing economy can only come about with a growing population.
All the evidence is that the carrying capacity of the Earth as far as humans go is about two billion. We’re presently at seven and climbing.
Economics, the stuff that the economists and politicians ignore, tells us that we need to live within physical constraints but we’ve gone way past those constraints chasing profit.
hear hear…well expressed
excellent article…well spotted
Somehow that got posted in the wrong place. It was about David Farrar, though I assume most people know that.
As for the comments, well if you think National is extreme far right, then I guess that makes Labour centre right or right.
Labour are Centre right.
National is right wing.
Labour is centrist, and the Green Party’s agreement with them to spend no more than 30% GDP declared their coalition government would be centrist. This is why they could and did include NZ First. They had to in any case to get a majority and that need gives them an excuse for their moderation – which is given again and again to their party members and all those in society who wanted more.
It’s not getting worse under them, it’s going to get better … slowly.
Or they will not go further right, but they will not cross any centre lines moving back to the left at such a slow pace.
How long have I been saying that the Labour Party is right-wing?
Parliamentary expenses and receipts.
Dang !!! That’s a lot of expensive bureaucratic paperwork.
Has been suggested to give out credit cards, which would absolutely cut back processing costs for expenses.
I thought they would already have ministerial credit cards, then I remembered paula bennet, her staff member misused the office credit card.
Can someone clear up my confusion please, as it appears ministerial credit cards are not a new thing, were they scrapped at some stage? Or did they never exist?
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/12/66-50-for-coffee-and-eggs-the-huge-cost-of-processing-mps-receipts-revealed.html
Think Shane Jones choice of movies
Government Ministers still have credit cards, Cinny. They have not been scraped.
I don’t have time to go into detail as due out, but here are a couple of links re these Ministerial credit cards. All expenses etc relating to Ministers of the Crown are handled by Ministerial Services, part of the Dept of Internal Affairs.
https://www.dia.govt.nz/Ministers-expense-releases
Actual monthly reports are here –
https://www.dia.govt.nz/pubforms.nsf/wpg_MCCE!OpenView
I actually found that Newshub article confusing and questionable, but don’t have time etc at present to go into detail but MPs who are not Ministers also can claim expenses etc but this is done through Parliamentary Service – not Ministerial Services in DIA.
Parliamentary Service is part of Parliament –
https://www.parliament.nz/en/footer/jobs/parliamentary-service/
https://www.parliament.nz/en/footer/about-us/parliamentary-service/about/who-we-are/
I know there is lots more on how MPs claim expenses etc through Parliamentary Services but must race out. Will try to get back to this later today.
Thanks so very much VV for the links, will have a good read and get my head around it. Much appreciated 🙂
Up north the land of stupid people end their year will all the class one would expect of them.
May the great prevaricator, who takes procrastination to another level, has apparently reduced Corbyn, the great communicator, to whispering to himself “stupid woman” (no recording of this exists, he claims he said “stupid people”).
After recent attempts to pose a vote of no confidence in the PM, but not yet her government, this does not seem credible (the argument that either stupid woman and stupid people were statements of fact is a strong one, and one leads to the other, as these were the people that kept her on as leader of their party).
Apparently because May is a woman, noting that she is stupid while being a woman is seen as a sexist attack, or misogny. This is taking identity politics micro aggression to the next level, and given this is the Tory Party, it is obviously an attempt trying to divert attention from their own reality – May has chosen to delay the vote on her Brexit plan and leave it to the media to run a Brexit with no deal scare campaign over the holiday break to soften up the MP’s before the vote.
All ones eggs in one basket (she has said their will be not be another referendum to over-ride a parliamentary impasse).
So should the deal not get parliamentary approval, Corbyn will propose a vote of no confidence in the government over it facing a no deal Brexit (the media scare campaign will help him in this).
So will posing Corbyn as an anti-semite, and now as a misogynist, save the Tory Party from their own Brexit divisions. May needs the so called “Blairites” (while moderates and the May deal is the middle course between a no deal Brexit and staying in the EU, they mostly prefer going back to a referendum) to vote for the deal for fear of a no deal Brexit if they vote no. Thus the hard-line refusal to go to a referendum is to influence them.
Stupid people are playing chicken on the highway called Brexit in the UK parliament because they claim giving the people another say, is not respecting what they decided last time they were asked. This is a brain dead parliament that reigns as a tyrant for 5 years and treats it subjects for this period of incarceration as fools. Stupid people.
I hope he did it in a cod French accent.
On the face to it, Corbyn has shown himself completely incompetent during the Brexit debates. His standing will have gone down (including among his moderate MP’s), though perhaps not enough to stop him becoming PM at the next election.
However, nothing he has done has either bought an election forward, or will result in a second referendum. He should have been able to achieve one of those.
Instead he has made it more likely May’s deal will get through. Maybe that is what he wants, hence his tactics to date. So an election, whenever it happens, can be fought in clear air.
His policy is to have the May deal fail in parliament.
A sort of alliance between the hard Brexit Tories and those who want a referendum facilitated by having a position based standards for a deal they would support not being met (maybe not possible).
If he is successful, May might resign rather than preside over a no deal Brexit – after all parliament could easily deny consent to a no deal Brexit government being in office.
Corbyn could however choose to play white knight – entice Tories against a no deal Brexit into supporting a parliamentary move to suspend Brexit and call for a new referendum, rather than a new election.
With a May deal, the government takes responsibility – most now favour remain in polls – and the Tory Party divisions (there are as many for a hard Brexit and remain as in favour in their caucus and party membership) are going nowhere. Nor is the Northern Ireland, Scotland and the LD (where will the pro remain Tories and anti Corbyn Blairites go?).
There is no way the Tories can win this game, whatever happens, Corbyn’s Labour has the advantage/all the cards.
While no expert on UK politics, I can’t help think that there is little to gain by acting too forthrightly currently.
Akin to being leader of the opposition.
101 stuff that UK labour or Corbyn haven’t found an answer to. The distraction that sticks
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/19/jeremy-corbyn-accused-of-calling-theresa-may-a-stupid-woman
It may have been better to say yep I said it and here’s why…
I liked this bit: “While May was still in the house, the former Tory chair Patrick McLoughlin asked Bercow to censure Corbyn. “He muttered words which were quite clearly visible, accusing the prime minister of being a ‘stupid woman’,” he said, as MPs shouted “Shame!” and “Disgrace!””
Since the former Tory chair confirms that the words were clearly visible, they will show up on any video recording of Corbyn uttering them, so their inaudibility is no real problem. Sceptics just need to watch the recording to see those words hanging there in the air just after emerging from his mouth…
Guilty of being seen as having a thought crime – which is apparently calling a stupid person, a woman.
Stupid old white man would’ve been fine.
Everyone in the Commons would have looked at each other – the comment could have applied to themselves or the first other man they looked at.
Bercow’s a silly moo.
What he should have said was “I realise honourable members are looking for ways to take offence, and I now wonder whether they’d have preferred it if I’d said – Silly Lady boy, and “I’m offended you are offended just as you will be offended I am offended by you’re being offended”
A concerned school teacher provides a critical take on the issue of transgender children and medical intervention: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/12/20/death-by-puberty/
Thanks Philip, an interesting and informative read.
Surprised no one has brought up the Haumaha report.
Would be interesting to hear justification for Ardern not sacking him.
To piss off Chris Basher Bishop christy.
She doesn’t consider the report serious to the point of using it to annoy someone?
Interesting
Well it looks like Hummer’s an arsehole but not a workplace bully christy, and being an arsehole is pretty much de rigueur for high placed smootharse bureaucrats.
A new report (on the Funded Family Care system) commissioned by the Government points to a host of failings, but makes no recommendation for change.
A disability advocate says the report is a waste of time and the Government should simply get on with changes everyone knows are overdue.
There is concern the report will allow the Government to procrastinate.
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter said she expected the government would announce its plans to overhaul the Funded Family Care system in less than a year, but she wouldn’t commit to a specific time-frame nor give away any details. However, she acknowledged affected families have been waiting a long time for justice.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/378613/report-highlights-discriminatory-disabled-care-system
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018676219/disability-advocate-says-new-report-treats-people-as-fools
Lets hope the Government gets their A into G on this one and comes up with a balanced overhaul that will appease concerns.
@Anne and Denis, and probably a few others:
You might be interested in this (as in when the PS started to go tits up with corporatisation):
https://www.bbc.com/news/education-46608818
For those of you with hair and wanting a new image, to present a new younger you what about this:
https://www.dufp.co.nz/headlines
Manus Island – too small and vulnerable to cope as a dumping ground for problems too big for Australia to cope with.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/378215/manus-island-s-social-fabric-broken
Kia ora Newshub One has to expect more accidents with all the exra cars and people in Aotearoa of late and not much investment in the road network in the last few years.
Those are huge hailstones in Australia hope not to many people have been hurt what a mess we have to get use to weather like that.
We need to pay a return on waste to save our wild life and enviroment that poor seal nearly lost its life paying a return on all waste is way cheaper than have to try and pull plastic waste out of the sea the size of the Pacific waste .
Ka pai Mark with your song we built this city on sausagerolls hitting number one in Britain lol
One must be real carefull when working in construction I have heard of some shocking accidents
Rob that’s the way Wellington showing you the aroha for being Maori santa . People in Aotearoa have expect maori are going to show there pride of being a tangata whenua.
Kate Wreck it Ralph will keep the mokopunas happy for a while.
ka kite ano P.S I have to use a new search ap and it has not got spell check loaded yet some one crashed the old one
Eco Maori video for the minute