Top chief executives are being paid up to 50 times as much as their average employees – and the gulf between boss and worker is widening.
The first annual survey by BusinessDay of pay rates at NZX-listed companies also found that the best-paid boss was receiving more than $4.7 million.
[..]
Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly called on well-paid bosses whose workers earned low wages to “reconsider their values”.
Employees needed access to better collective bargaining to bring about improved employment conditions, she said, and a law change should be introduced to allow collective contracts to be adopted across an industry as the standard.
[…]
“The pay gap is the moral question of our time. Not just the gap but the level of pay means many, many workers … are living in poverty.”
And I wonder how long it will take for this story to slip from the top of Stuff’s home page and out of view to the majority?
Orcusman, a good righty like yourself should know what I and every other employer knows…that the wages dont get disclosed unless they are over $100K on the company report. And we dont tell people. So on this issue you will either have to do the research or speculate.
By the way dont you just love it when a Telecom or power bill comes, from an organisation with 1000s of employees and wonderful systems and it si huge…you say where is their economy of scale, their added value, and most pertinently why am I paying huge wages to the rentier class runnning the enterprise? Wheres my discount. As a good righty you should be questioning the bill.
NEAL BOORTZ (7/6/2011): It is all-out war on the productive class in our society for the benefit of the moocher class.
JOHN STOSSEL (10/12/2010): The makers, and the takers.
BILL O’REILLY (10/12/2010): They want to take it from somebody else.
LAURA INGRAHAM (6/29/2011): Everyone’s jumping in the wagon, no one wants to pull.
NEAL BOORTZ (6/22/2011): … parasites we have out there depending on government …
NEBRASKA ATTY. GEN. JON BRUNING (8/18/2011): The raccoons, they’re not stupid, they’re going to do the easy way if we make it easy for them, just like welfare recipients all across America.
ANN COULTER (8/15/2011): Welfare will create generations of utterly irresponsible animals.
Yeah! Fuck those people… the poor. We’ll be right back.
In case you can’t stream on that link, here’s another link to Jon Stewart’s brilliant show about class warfare. Watch both parts to hear the foul beliefs about people on welfare. The US MSM give ever more air time to such aggressive, denigrating and poisonous views. We MUST do everything we can to counter this divisive trend in NZ.
Interesting -could lead the way to a completely different way of doing things democratically at all levels. And we sure need that. Catch this interview on Radnz this morning with Kim Hill. Remember the term ‘dynamic governance’ it has vitality and promise just in the reading of it and is being used successfully, still in its early days.
8:35 John Buck
John Buck is the chief executive of Governance Alive, part of an international consulting organisation headquartered in the Netherlands, and the coauthor of We the People: Consenting to a Deeper Democracy (Sociocracy.Info Press, ISBN: 978-0979282706). He is visiting New Zealand to run workshops about dynamic governance (known in The Netherlands as sociocracy), a sustainable system for organising and running organisations.
Architects and Engineers for 911 truth just released this video presenting their case to a wider public. I challenge anybody to watch this and give me one good reason as to why I should call all of these Scientists,Fire fighters, Demolition experts, Architects and Engineers “conspiracy nutters”.
One good reason based on real world science. Give it your best shot!!!
Autism and compulsive behavior. If it rains you don’t get angry, you don’t try to stop it
raining, you don’t create a trap for yourself and waste your own time. You expect the rain
and build a roof, or buy an umbrella. It is too be expected that all manner of brain
injuries lead to oddity. A pommy accept sudden appears on a true blue southlander women
after a heart attack. She can’t do anything about it. Criminalizing someone with a fascination
for light bulbs seems like trying to stop the rain falling, its like creating a trap that will
always snap close and criminalize a group of people. Police should have known better.
But Police are not the only ones who can made the mistake, just they have a duty not
to criminalize those who can’t help themselves (or can in ordinary circumstances but
when the light bulbs are so easy to get at and nobody else wants them…).
If we can learn anything, its to tolerate oddity and not get trapped in a self-manufactured
angsted.
@aerobubble – The police have a responsibility not to get spooked in emergencies and turn a trivial offence into a jail holding offence, they have ability to divert and don’t have only one option. Where are there brains, efficiency, and humanity in that part of Christchurch. The whole thing was a major fail for them. Then there is the understanding that there are far more vulnerable mentally challenged people out there in the community, now that the government has decided it doesn’t want to try and have high quality residential and support care.
After yesterday’s huffing, puffing, bluffing and posturing, the truth is starting to be revealed. Here’s some classic white anting from Phil’s backers:
…He furiously denied reports in political newsletter Trans-Tasman that he asked his frontbench MPs whether he should quit.
Several frontbench MPs backed Mr Goff, either describing the report as “bollocks” or insisting the discussion never took place. Others refused to comment.
But one senior Labour MP said the conversation did happen. “[Phil] did consult the front bench over whether he should go.”
Damned shame really. Phil’s the gift that keeps on giving for National…
Oh for goodness sake. I’d be surprised if the conversation had NOT taken place. Of course the Labour caucas would have talked about their options.
At the same time I believe Goff when he states that he never offered his resignation…. that seems deeply implausible as well for the obvious reason that no-one else wants the job at this point in time. Goff is the kind of man who if he could clearly see another contender who he believed would do a better job than him, he would quite possibly step aside. But that has not happened.
Nah … this is just Tracy Watkins being a tory toe-rag as usual.
The way I’m reading it Goff says he never offered to resign. That is a significantly different thing to exploring the options in which resigning and passing the leadership to someone else could have been an raised as an option. Given the circumstances I’d be surprised if they had not talked that possibility over.
But that is still very different to going the next step and formally offering to resign.
We need a new lefty party very quick I wreakon. Someone needs to do an Epsom in a poor electorate. I dont know about Hone. His appeal may be limited largley to maori.
I have some great policy ideas that Labour and National would not be interested in but a lot of people Ive talked to about them really like em.
Costs $300 to rregister a new party and applications close at the end of september. I’d do it but am in a dire financial mire right now. Unless anyone wants to back me to the tune of atleast the minimum wage plus expenses. I may not be the ideal candidate by way of appeal so would welcome anyone else using my ideas and doing this. I don’t really want ot waste those good ideas on a party that might not gain much support such as Mana. I hope they do well but we’ll have to see. It’l also be interesting to see how their policy direction and focus develops.
Please excuse if I disapear soon as I’ve got a big personal disaster going on right now.
In The House finally has video up from the day Key ran away like a chicken during Question Time.
The camera angles aren’t great, but you can see Key in the seat to the left of English when Peseta Sam Lotu-liga’s question begins, then he leans over to talk to someone, who obviously tells him that Phil is going to ask the scary question about youth unemployment, and he gets up and leaves.
You might be aware that National has failed to uphold many of their campaign promises. They’ve failed to close the wage gap with Australia for one, mainly because they had no intention of affecting business profits. This policy failure alone has been very detrimental to New Zealand. Under a National government, inequality has markedly increased because they’ve ensured inflation is high and wages are kept low. This means those lucky enough to be employed often still need welfare… effectively gifting billions of dollars in wage subsidies to private businesses…
It amazed me that Kiwi’s fell for Nationals promises/lies before the last electtion. National have always tried very hard to keep wages down as you say which only helps exporters. Businessess not involved in the export sector struggle when workers cannot afford to buy.
Compulsory unionism is a remedy to low wages. i.e. In hard times employment contracts force wages down as busnesses cannot afford to pay employees more than the competition to remain competitive. However with a nationwide based system all employers have to pay the same rate for certain skills thus keeping wages level rather than a corporate competition to get the lowest labour costs. The problem that flows from that is that lower wages means workers don’t spend and companies close due to that lack of spending. The tax take sinks lower and lower. This may be adding to Nationals deficit problems.
Free trade ofcourse undermines any wage increases as much of that money goes off shore. As long as we have free trade with slave labour economies wage increases here will be boosting China’s jobs and the chinese government’s tax take, instead of NZ’s local economy.
Unless this is addressed the New Zealand economy will continue to be swallowed up by vulture corporations who are behind the free trade scam being pushed on us by international bankers.
From http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1108/S00224/employing-young-people.htm
“Yet older people are surrounded by messages that age 65 is too young to retire. If a Labour-led government is elected in November, we even face the possibility that the age of qualification for New Zealand Superannuation will be raised, adding to the demographic logjam that is contributing to the problem of youth unemployment today. Indeed many Generation Xers, disadvantaged throughout their working lives, are already assuming that they will not qualify for a pension until they are aged maybe 70.
National are no better than Labour. They, with their program of welfare reform, are prioritising getting sole parents and disabled people into employment. This, in a low-spending environment, inevitably comes at the expense of young people. Indeed some sole parents and disabled people have advantages over new labour force entrants, because they have substantial work experience.”
I know that there has been debate about the possible need to increase the eligibility age of NZ Superannuation, but I had seen this as being led by National for cost cutting reasons (they also floated changes to the indexation basis, and make it partially or fully means assessed, and I think Peter Dunne proposed options for retiring later and getting higher NZ Super payments), but I had not heard of proposals to raise the eligibility age from Labour. Have I missed something?
Yup. Labour support it, alongside a fairly broad slice of the left. But what you missed was that it’s a con. There is no demographic time bomb. None.
The people retiring now were financially supported through their first 18? years of life. So if they could be supported then, they can be supported now. Some of those people have died. So there are fewer of them to support than when they were below 18. The average life expectancy is not beyond 83 (65 + 18)
And while they were being supported for those first 18 years, woment weren’t generally accepted into the workforce to the degree they are now. So 45 years ago, there was ‘half’ the working age population being supported as well as under 18s being supported plus retired workers being supported.
In other words, it would seem that in times gone by there was a far greater proportion of the population being supported than is ever likely going forward.
Nowadays, fewer people are being born = less support needed for those under 18.
Women are now expected to be in the workforce = not being financially supported as in the past.
Retirees don’t (on average) live beyond 83 years of age (about 78.4 for men and 82.4 for women)
And how often do we hear that current parents and /or grandparents are going to outlive their children because of all types of maladies? So the number of retirees in the future will drop off sharply. (More people will die during their working life if health predictions are to be believed.)
Predictably, John Key’s extraordinary about-face at his afternoon press conference of July 20 – where he offered a series of blank denials, contradicting not only his own earlier assertions but also, unbelievably, those of the Israeli ambassador himself – all but killed the latest Mossad scandal.
Much of the media and blogosphere reacted in the same way: Key’s morning press conference was characterised as some sort of ‘gross misjudgement’, with some speculating he was ill-prepared and ill-informed, while his afternoon performance was widely touted as a welcome improvement, with the PM supposedly finally taking a full and frank approach to the matter.
For Danyl at The Dim Post, Key’s afternoon denials were “pretty comprehensive”. Indeed, “given the choice between believing the PM or an unnamed SIS source”, Danyl proudly asserted “I’m gonna believe Key every time.” Similarly, Pundit’s Andrew Geddis was almost giddy with excitement that his own doubts about the case had apparently been proven entirely justified by Key’s denials: “I’d like to say ‘I told you so’. But that would be immature and graceless. So I won’t say ‘I told you so’, even though I did. Tell you that is. That it was so.” Apparently, Key’s denial is supposed to be the end of the matter, in one stroke tying up all the loose ends and suggesting a round of grovelling apologies to the poor hard-done-by Israelis is called for.
Well, like John Roughan and others, I see all this as extremely naive. Certainly, Key’s morning performance could be considered ill-advised from a crisis-management perspective. But one would have hoped that the main interest of journalists, here, was not in how adept Key was at closing the story down, but rather in the actual veracity of the story itself.
Far from ill-informed and ill-thought-out, Key’s morning press conference of July 20 actually appeared quite honest, nuanced and revealing. He accepted some very specific points put to him by various journalists, while very carefully demurring over certain other facets, sometimes citing ‘the national interest’, sometimes asserting ‘I can’t confirm all of the details you presented are correct.’ I’d suggest all this revealed a good deal more than some journalists and bloggers apparently realised.
Then, in the afternoon, we suddenly get this extraordinary series of blank denials where he contradicts both himself and Israeli ambassador, Shemi Tzur.
So, what on earth was the motivation behind Key’s blank denials ? (see next two comments, below).
New Zealand’s latest Mossad Affair – Wider Context
Over the last few weeks, I’ve spent a bit of spare time reading about recent overseas Mossad scandals. Four basic themes keep reappearing:
(1) Mossad activity in western countires is normal/on-going/business-as-usual rather than some sort of bizarre “abberation” or unfortunate, one-off “mistake”,
(2) Following detection of Mossad activity, Israel frequently gives categorical assurances that it will never happen again, before rapidly resuming Mossad operations in the very same Country,
(3) More often than not – to avoid open conflict with both Israel and Washington – western governments in general (and Centre-Right administrations in particular) decide to handle Mossad espionage by sweeping it under the carpet – resolving things quietly, diplomatically, often with little more than symbolic gestures and, if possible, away from the public eye,
(4) Some degree of tension appears to exist within the intelligence services of various western countries between those who prioritise maintaining close links with Mossad and the western alliance (and are thus compliant to resolving things quietly and symbolically) and those who believe the priority should be to overtly defend their Country’s sovereignty and diplomatic integrity.
“I have a message to the people who attacked us, and those behind them. This is a message from all of Norway:
You will not destroy us.
You will not destroy our democracy nor our quest for a better world. We are a small nation, but we are a proud nation.
No one shall bomb us into silence or shoot us into silence. Nothing will frighten us out of being Norway.
This night we will comfort each other, talk with each other, and stand together. Tomorrow we will show the world that Norway’s democracy grows stronger when it is challenged. We shall find the guilty and hold them responsible. “
I still dont understand what Mossad objectives might be accomplished by operating out of ‘friendly’ countries. Whats more worrying is that Israel has roughly 300 nuclear warheads. About the same as China, and likely more than France and the UK.
Maybe Israel’s Mossad like America’s CIA are under the control of the International Bankers who are trying to establish a world order. Many of these bankers are Zionist Jews or just plain filthy rich. They want complete control and western democracy is a threat to that. At any stage democrcies can elect to not use their banking services and they could loose their corrupt little golden goose so those democracies must be curtailed. People must be impoverished or they might rise up. They seek austerity for us all so that they are not threatened by the massive throng of incredible talent that surrounds them, and might swallow them up.
It surprises me because globalisation is an inevitable failure. A hundred years from now, travelling from Auckland to London is going to again take three to four months, for the vast majority of people. Only a very few elite will be flying.
Youv’e read about Obama’s John Holdren and the radical environmentalist agenda then? And deindustrialisation which we are now in the throws of.
Anyone interested can search youtube with the search term “webster tarply, Ecoscience”
The talk is about Obamas apointment of John Holdren to a top post. Mr Holdren wrote a book called ecoscience which has some radical ideas which seem to be materialising in th form of policy coming from the National Party and to a differing and lesser degree labour.
Hmmmm after a quick Google it seems that Holdren is (was) a bit of an extremist wild card. I’d like to know who in the background it is who *nominates* these people to Obama.
Actually I didn’t pick my ideas up from Holdren; more like John Michael Greer’s Archdruid Report (which I highly recommend)
But there’s a further dimension to the dynamics of—well, let’s just call them cultural narratives, shall we?—unfolding in America today. When the shared narratives from the past break apart, and all you’ve got is popular culture spinning feedback loops in the void, what happens then?
What happens is the incoherence that’s become a massive political fact in America today. That incoherence takes at least three forms. The first is the rise of subcultures that can’t communicate with one another at all. We had a display of that not long ago in the clash over raising the deficit limit. To judge by the more thoughtful comments in the blogosphere, I was far from the only person who noticed that the two sides were talking straight past each other. It wasn’t simply that the two sides had differing ideas about government finance, though of course that’s also true; it’s that there’s no longer any shared narrative about government that’s held in common between the two sides. The common context is gone; it’s hard to think of a single political concept that has the same connotations and meanings to a New England liberal that it has to an Oklahoma conservative.
It’s crucial to recognize, though, that these subcultures are themselves riddled with the same sort of incoherence that pervades society as a whole; this is the second form of incoherence I want to address. I wonder how many of the devout Christians who back the Republican Party, for example, realize that the current GOP approach to social welfare issues is identical to the one presented by Anton Szandor LaVey in The Satanic Bible. (Check it out sometime; the parallels are remarkable.) It may seem odd that believers in a faith whose founder told his followers to give all they had to the poor now by and large support a party that’s telling America to give all it has to the rich, but that’s what you get when a culture’s central narratives dissolve; of course it’s also been my experience that most people who claim they believe in the Bible have never actually read more than a verse here and there.
John Michael Greer is on my bookmark toolbar right next to The Standard. And I know I’m not the only one here who regards him as required reading. No two thinking adults are going to agree 100% with each other, there’s something wrong if they do. But Greer always appeals to me, both rationally and emotionally… he’s got a great compass.
Good ideas and good prose. This statement, a few posts down, shows the pointlessness of Key’s stats fiddling:
“Politicians and ordinary people alike have taken to insisting, along these lines, that the solution to joblessness is to send people to college to get job training, on the assumption that this will somehow make jobs appear for them.”
Yep, I’ve been thinking lately that the solution to joblessness isn’t to create more jobs but to have a better distribution of the work and wealth available. Increasing productivity, which we have, should result in less work needing to be done to maintain present living standards. Instead we have decreasing living standards for the majority and an increasing transfer of the communities wealth to the already rich.
good article this morning in dompost on the idiocy of the ACT party and their wonky legislation.
See the thing is they dont really care what happens just as long as people are confused.
Pretty crummy I know but that is their schtick.
They know that they can afford to pay for no mistakes and supposedly the best quality but the rest can just wallow in the crap that they create.
Basically this is very nasty stuff wrapped up in a sugar coated pill of smarmy words they learned in America from other nutters.
New Zealand’s latest Mossad Affair – An example from Canada
Here I provide a summary/synthesis of some recent Mossad activity in Canada (the main points from a whole range of Canadian media reports).
When considering the motivation behind Key’s afternoon press conference (and his series of blank denials), it may be especially useful to look at the Canadian response to (2) the Leslie Lewis affair and (3) the Shehadeh Assassination (particularly given (a) the contradictions inherent in Key’s afternoon press conference performance and (b) the inconsistencies between Key and Tullet’s intelligence informants regarding whether or not SIS investigations had been fully completed or were still on-going).
(1) Botched Khaled Mashaal Assassination
Date: September 1997
Mossad Activity: Israeli agents, posing as Canadian tourists, are caught using fraudulent Canadian passports in the botched assassination attempt on Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Jordan.
Canadian Response: On this occassion, the Canadian Federal Government refuses to resolve things quietly, fearing the Mossad operation might prompt vigilante attacks against ordinary Canadians living in the Middle East. Canada expels the Israeli ambassador from Ottawa and recalls its own ambassador from Tel Aviv until receiving a promise that Mossad would stop using canadian passports for covert operations. Israeli PM Netanyahu subsequently apologises and gives “iron-clad assurances” that the spy agency will cease using Canadian passports in the future.
(2) Leslie Lewis Affair
Date: Late 1997
Mossad Activity: Yet only a few weeks later in late 1997, Israel allegedly broke this promise when a Canadian living in Israel was approached for his passport by a Mossad front organisation – The Bureau of Immigration Affairs.
Leslie Lewis, a Canadian Hasidic Jew who had lived in Israel for several years, said Israeli agents approached him to hand over his passport just weeks after Netanyahu’s promise to Ottawa. They also asked for permission to fly his daughter to Canada where she would obtain a Canadian passport and then hand it over to Mossad on return to Israel.
Lewis refused and alerted the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv.
Canadian Response: In stark contrast to its attitude a few weeks earlier, Ottawa now displayed a marked reluctance to investigate, eventually ordering a probe into the allegations more than a year later in November 1998 (presumably after coming under sustained pressure to do so).
However, by August 1999, Canadian intelligence sources were telling the media that the investigation had been stopped prematurely because Ottawa wanted to avoid upsetting Israel. The Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry had quietly closed the file on the investigation with Minister Lloyd Axworthy announcing it had ended with the conclusion there was “insufficient evidence” to prove that Israel had broken its pledge. A Ministry spokeswoman said that Israel had given assurances that Mossad agents were not involved in such an operation and the Canadian Government had decided to accept these assurances.
The media, however, quoted a number of intelligence sources denouncing the investigation as “half-hearted”, “shoddy” and “incomplete”. The sources argued that Canadian officials, fearful of upsetting Israel and Washington, “got the answers they wanted from the Israelis and ended it right there”, failing to thoroughly check-out the explanations offered. “Some investigation !”, one intelligence official is quoted as saying. Or, as another put it, “It’s a farce”.
Mossad Activity: And then, 2 years later, explosive new allegations suggested Mossad agents had been posing as Canadians (using false Canadian identities) during a “false flag” operation that ultimately resulted in the July 2002 assassination of Hamas leader Sheik Salah Shehadeh (an Israeli F-16 fired a one-tonne missile at the Gaza apartment building, killing not only the Sheik but also 14 bystanders, including 9 children. Israel was widely criticised for the attack).
Knowing Canada was heavily involved in aid work in Gaza at the time, Mossad agents had posed as Canadians to lure a young Palestinian man into informing on the movements of both Shehadeh and other Intifada leaders in return for (false) promises of ressettlement in Canada. Once they’d revealed their true Mossad connections, the agents reportedly used sexual blackmail against the man (using fake photographs) to ensure his continued compliance.
Canadian Response: Once again, Ottawa seemed more than eager to accept Israeli denials, telling Toronto’s National Post they were satisfied the claims were false. Canada’s ambassador to Tel Aviv had asked Israel for an explanation of the incident and was told it did not happen.
Asked by journalists whether the Israelis could be hiding something in order to avoid another diplomatic firestorm, a Canadian Foreign Affairs spokesman replied: “They gave us their word and we take it as it is.” Indeed, journalists were assured that Ottawa had been convinced all along that the claims were false.
However, what Canadian government officials said in public and private were clearly two very different things. In December 2002, the Canadian media obtained newly-released official government documents showing that in the weeks following Ottawa’s September announcement of the end of the investigation, the matter had in fact continued to cause a good deal of official concern, resulting in on-going, behind-the-scenes diplomacy with Israel.
In a confidential report, officials expressed concerns that Israel was indeed “misusing Canada’s identity” and thus endangering Canadian travellers and undermining the integrity of the nation’s passports. This resulted in a Senior Canadian Cabinet official questioning the head of Israel’s Security Service as well as discussions between the Assistant Deputy Minister for Africa and the Mideast and Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Haim Divon.
Kate Wilkinson is now increasing the mining inspectorate despite repeatedly denying there was a problem. National has up until now been adamant that one mine inspector for the entire country was enough and they wouldn’t make changes until the royal commission reported…
There were rumors this week that the prime minister might be fake. Experts say his IQ was affected during the cloning process and that he’s no longer able to count how many youth unemployed there are or shares he holds with Transrail or the Bank of America. Unfortunately nobody knows where the real John Key is, although reports say that he’s all over the place…
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Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong story short, the Government’s myopia of only choosing transport policies that reduce travel times means we’re missing out on the health benefits of more cycling and walking, along with the health cost savings from fewer accidents, less pollution and mentally healthier ways of getting ...
The Health NZ rescue that seemed so simple back in July was presented to a Select Committee yesterday as a complex challenge that could take some years to sort out. In July, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Health NZ was on track to record a deficit of $1.4 billion for ...
Let us consider the utterances of Shane Jones.Let us consider the derogatory terms of abuseNow is not the time for Green Wombles, it's black and white decision making.We will stand with the energy industry and ensure they are not monstered by Green Termites nibbling away at our economic capital.The Green ...
There’s been a major setback for one Ukrainian-backed militia on the Russian border, after the group ordered a large shipment of pagers to use as improvised explosive devices. The plan was to litter the pagers throughout abandoned homes and buildings in hopes of wounding Russian soldiers. But upon arrival of ...
This is a guest post from Sydney reader Nik Clement After 2 years in Auckland I moved back to Sydney just over a year ago. While in Auckland, I went to the opening of Puhinui station and used it a fair bit, living in Manukau Central and being able ...
Kia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, September 18:Locals gathered in Woodville last night to protest at the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s decision to toll the new road linking the Manawatu and Hawkes Bay, saying ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew DesslerIn his last post, Zeke discussed incredible warmth of 2023 and 2024 and its implications for future warming. A few readers looked at it and freaked out: This is terrifying and This update really put me in a ...
The coalition government has issued a directive to Te Puni Kōkiri, the Ministry of Māori Development, instructing them that – in the interests of clear communication – they are to conduct this year’s Māori Language Week primarily or exclusively in English. The directive is in line with the Government’s policy ...
At yesterday’s post-cabinet press conference, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, flanked by his Health Minister Shane Reti and someone we can’t independently verify was a real sign language interpreter, announced that he had some positive news for the country. “Alright team, I’m just going to hand over to uh, Dr. Shane, ...
It’s 4:10pm in the morning, and you’re in the middle lane heading north on the great southern motorway of our nation’s capital, Auckland. There are no cars directly in front of you, but quite a few in the lane to your left. Suddenly, without warning, a black ute enters your ...
Following decades of controversy, the governing body of New Zealand rugby, New Zealand Rugby, has ruled that the team currently holding the Ranfurly Shield may once again use it in play during the National Provincial Championship (NPC). The ruling restores the utility of a prize that for many years was ...
I arrived home with a head full of fresh ideas about mindfulness and curbing impulsive aspects in my character.On the second night home I grabbed a piece of ginger and began swiftly slicing it on our industrial strength mandolin, the one I have learned through painful experience to treat with ...
Good morning, folks. Another wee note from a chilly Rotorua morning that looks much clearer than yesterday. As I write, the pink glow in the east is slowly growing, and soon, the palest of blue skies should become a bit more royal.A couple of people mentioned yesterday that I should ...
Last week, Matt looked at how the government wants to pour a huge chunk of civic infrastructure funding for a generation into one mega-road up North, at huge cost and huge opportunity cost. A smaller but no less important feature of the National Land Transport Plan devised by Minister of Transport ...
An open letter by experts about plans to raise speed limits warns the “tragic consequence will be more New Zealanders losing their lives or suffering severe injury, along with a substantial burden on the nation's healthcare and rehabilitation services”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkMy inaugural post on The Climate Brink 18 months ago looked at the year 2024, and found that it was likely to be the warmest year on record on the back of a (than forecast) El Nino event. I suggested “there is a real chance ...
Open for allYesterday, Luxon congratulated his government on a job well done with emergency housing numbers, but advocates have been saying it‘s likely many are on the streets and sleeping in cars.Q&A featured some of the folks this weekend - homeless and in cars. Yes.The government’s also confirmed they stopped ...
Hi,On most days I try to go on a walk through nature to clear my head from the horrors of life. Because as much as I like people, I also think it’s incredibly important to get very far away from them. To be reminded that there are also birds, lizards, ...
Declining trust in New Zealand politicians should be a warning to them to lift their game. Results from the New Zealand Election Study for the 2023 election show that the level of trust in politicians has once again declined. Perhaps it is not surprising that the results, shared as part ...
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster says that New Zealand’s police force will no longer respond to bomb threats, in an attempt to cut costs and redirect police resources to less boring activities. Coster said that threat response and bomb disposal was a “fairly obvious” area for downsizing, as bomb threats are ...
Since taking office, the climate-denier National government has gutted agricultural emissions pricing, ended the clean car discount, repealed water quality standards which would have reduced agricultural emissions, gutted the clean car standard, killed the GIDI scheme, and reversed efforts to reduce pollution subsidies in the ETS - basically every significant ...
Good morning, lovely people. Don’t worry. This isn’t really a newsletter, just a quick note. I’m sitting in our lounge, looking out over a gloomy sky. Although being Rotorua, the view is periodically interrupted by steam bursting from pipes and dispersing—like an Eastern European industrial hellscape during the Cold War.Drinking ...
I am part of a new team running in the Entrust election in October. Entrust is a community electricity trust representing a significant part of Auckland, set up to serve the community. It is governed by five trustees are elected every three years in an election the trust itself oversees. ...
In the UK, London is the latest of council groups to signal potential bankruptcy.That’s after Birmingham, Britain’s second largest city, went bankrupt in June, resulting in reduced sanitation services, libraries cut, and dimmed streetlights.Some in the city described things as “Dickens” like.Please, Sir, Can I have some more?For families with ...
The Government is considering how to shunt elderly people out of hospitals, and also how to cut their access to other support. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, ...
The so-called “Prince of the Provinces”, Shane Jones, went home last Friday. Perhaps not quite literally home, more like 20 kilometres down the road from his house on the outskirts of Kerikeri. With its airport, its rapidly growing (mostly retired) population, and a commercial centre with all the big retail ...
I have noted before that The Rings of Power has attracted its unfortunate share of culture war obsessives. Essentially, for a certain type of individual, railing on about the Wokery of Modern Media is a means of making themselves a online livelihood. Clicks and views and advertising revenue, and all ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, September 8, 2024 thru Sat, September 14, 2024. Story of the week From time to time we like to make our Story of the Week all about us— and ...
Yesterday, I ruminated about the effects of being a political follower.And, within politics, David Seymour was smart enough on Friday to divert attention from “race blind” policies [what about gender blind I thought - thinking of maternity wards] and cutting school lunches by throwing meat to the media. Teachers were ...
Far, far away from here lives our King. Some of his subjects can be quite the forelock tuggers, but plenty of us are not like that, and why don't I wheel out my favourite old story once more about Kiwi soldiers in the North African desert?Field Marshal Montgomery takes offence ...
These people are inept on every level. They’re inept to the detriment of our internal politics, cohesion and increasingly our international reputation.And they are reveling in the fact they are getting away with it. We cannot even have “respectful debate” with a government that clearly rejects the very ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with John Mason. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Does manmade CO2 have any ...
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Matthew 7:1-2FOUR HUNDRED AND FORTY men and women professing the Christian faith would appear to have imperilled their immortal souls. ...
Uh-uh! Not So Fast, Citizens!The power to initiate systemic change remains where it has always been in New Zealand’s representative democracy – in Parliament. To order a binding referendum, the House of Representatives must first to be persuaded that, on the question proposed, sharing its decision-making power with the people ...
Flatlining: With no evidence of a genuine policy disruptor at work in Labour’s ranks, New Zealand’s wealthiest citizens can sleep easy.PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN has walked a picket-line. Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has threatened “price-gauging” grocery retailers with price control. The Democratic Party’s 2024 platform situates it well to the left of Sir ...
The Beginning of the End:Rogernomics became the short-hand descriptor for all the radical changes that swept away New Zealand’s social-democratic economy and society between 1984 and 1990. In the bitterest of ironies, those changes were introduced by the very same party which had entrenched New Zealand social-democracy 50 years earlier. ...
Good morning all you lovely people. 🙂I woke up this morning, and it felt a bit like the last day of school. You might recall from earlier in the week that I’m heading home to Rotorua to see an old friend who doesn’t have much time. A sad journey, but ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on anything you may have missed. Street architecture adjustment, KolkataShare Read more ...
Despite fears that Trump presidency would be disastrous for progress on climate change, the topic barely rated a mention in the Presidential debate. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey ...
The abrupt cancellations and suspensions of Government spending also caused private sector hiring, spending, and investment to freeze up for the first six months of the year. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāThis week we learned:The new National/ACT/NZ First Coalition Government ignored advice from Treasury that it didn’t have to ...
Another week of The Rings of Power, season two, and another confirmation that things are definitely coming together for the show. The fifth Episode of season one represented the nadir of the series. Now? Amid the firmer footing of 2024, Episode Five represents further a further step towards excellent Tolkien ...
The background to In Open Seas: How the New Zealand Labour Government Went Wrong:2017-2023Not in Narrow Seas: The Economic History of Aotearoa New Zealand, published in 2020, proved more successful than either I or the publisher (VUP, now Te Herenga Waka University Press) expected. I had expected that it would ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts and talking about the week’s news with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on the latest climate science on rising temperatures and the climate implications of the US Presidential elections; and special guests Janet ...
1. Upon receiving evidence that school lunches were doing a marvellous job of improving outcomes for students, David Seymour did what?a. Declared we need much more of this sort of good news and poured extra resources and funding into them b. Emailed Atlas network to ask what to do next c. Cut ...
The Waitangi Tribunal has reported back on National's proposed changes to gut the Marine and Coastal Area Act and steal the foreshore and seabed for its greedy fishing-industry donors, and declared it to be another huge violation of ti Tiriti: The Waitangi Tribunal has found government changes to the ...
In 2016, the then-National government signed the Paris Agreement, committing Aotearoa to a 30 (later 50) percent reduction in emissions by 2030. When questioned about how they intended to meet that target with their complete absence of effective climate policy, they made a lot of noise about how it was ...
Treasury’s advice to Cabinet was that the new Government could actually prudently carry net core Crown debt of up to 50% of GDP. ButLuxon and Willis instead chose to portray the Government’s finances as in such a mess they had no choice but to carve 6.5% to 7.5% off ...
National continues to dismantle environmental protections in the interests of rushing through unsustainable development that will ultimately cost communities. ...
The economy has stagnated and the National Government is having to face the consequences of its atrocious lawmaking, as beneficiary numbers skyrocket past even Treasury’s predictions. ...
Today’s GDP figures combined with the injustice of our tax system will mean more pain for our lowest-income households while those at the top remain relatively unscathed. ...
Te Pāti Māori Member of Parliament for Tāmaki Makaurau is urging a full wraparound of services to intervene quickly with families affected by today's announced closure of the Penrose Mill. Seventy-five people are set to lose their jobs right on the eve of Christmas. "I want to extend my thoughts ...
Sentencing policy announced by Minister Paul Goldsmith today is anything but new, merely window dressing to make up for backwards violent crime statistics under the National Government. ...
Labour Leader Chris Hipkins will travel to the United Kingdom this week to attend the annual UK Labour Party conference in Liverpool and meet with members of the new Labour Government. ...
An imminent decision to increase the total allowable commercial catch (TACC) for snapper would be a direct violation of the first-ever Treaty Settlement and inevitably breach Te Tiriti o Waitangi, says Te Pāti Māori. Te Ohu Kaimoana has sought a High Court declaration to prevent the Minister of Oceans and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has cut grants helping overseas family of victims to attend the next phase of the Coronial Inquiry into the 15 March 2019 Christchurch Masjidain Attack. ...
The Waitangi Tribunal has released an Urgent Report on the Government’s proposed amendments to the Takutai Moana Act 2011. The report calls out Paul Goldsmith’s proposal for what it is: a “gross breach of the Treaty” and an “illegitimate exercise of kāwanatanga”. The Tribunal is recommending the Crown step down ...
The Government must abandon its Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act interventions after the Waitangi Tribunal found it was committing gross breaches of the Treaty. ...
The Government’s directive to the public service to ignore race is nothing more than a dog whistle and distraction from the structural racism we need to address. ...
Concerns have been raised that our spy arrangements may mean that intelligence is being shared between Aotearoa and Israel. An urgent inquiry must be launched in response to this. ...
Aotearoa’s Youngest Member of Parliament, and Te Pāti Māori MP, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, will travel to Montreal to accept the One Young World Politician of the Year Award next week. The One Young World Politician of the Year Award was created in 2018 to recognise the most promising young politicians between ...
The Greens welcome today’s long-coming announcement by Pharmac of consultation to remove the special authority renewal criteria for methylphenidate, dexamfetamine and modafinil and to fund lisdexamfetamine. ...
Mema Paremata for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, has reflected on the decisions made by the councils of the North amidst the government’s push to remove Māori Wards and weaken mana whenua representation. “Actions taken by the Kaipara District Council to remove Māori Wards are the embodiment of the eradication ...
On one hand, the Prime Minister has assured Aotearoa that his party will not support the Treaty Principles Bill beyond first reading, but on the other, his Government has already sought advice on holding a referendum on our founding document. ...
New Zealanders needing aged care support and the people who care for them will be worse off if the Government pushes through a flawed and rushed redesign of dementia and aged care. ...
Hundreds of jobs lost as a result of pulp mill closures in the Ruapehu District are a consequence of government inaction in addressing the shortfalls of our electricity network. ...
Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader and MP for Te Tai Hauāuru is devastated for the Ruapehu community following today’s decision to close two Winstone Pulp mills. “My heart goes out to all the workers, their whānau, and the wider Ruapehu community affected by the closure of Winstone Pulp International,” said Ngarewa-Packer. ...
National Party Ministers have a majority in Cabinet and can stop David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill, which even the Prime Minister has described as “divisive and unhelpful.” ...
The National Government is so determined to hide the list of potential projects that will avoid environmental scrutiny it has gagged Ministry for the Environment staff from talking about it. ...
Labour has complained to the Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission about the high number of non-disclosure agreements that have effectively gagged staff at Te Whatu Ora Health NZ from talking about anything relating to their work. ...
The Green Party is once again urging the Prime Minister to abandon the Treaty Principles Bill as a letter from more than 400 Christian leaders calls for the proposed legislation to be dropped. ...
Councils across the country have now decided where they stand regarding Māori wards, with a resounding majority in favour of keeping them in what is a significant setback for the Government. ...
The National-led government has been given a clear message from the local government sector, as almost all councils reject the Government’s bid to treat Māori wards different to other wards. ...
Tourism and Hospitality Minister Matt Doocey will meet with Trade and Tourism Minister of Australia Don Farrell and Fiji Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica in Rotorua this weekend for a trilateral tourism discussion. “Like in New Zealand, tourism plays a significant role in Australia and Fiji’s economy, contributing massively to ...
The Te Puna Aonui Expert Advisory Group for Children and Young People has presented its report today on improving family and sexual violence outcomes for young people, to the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, Karen Chhour. The presentation at the Auckland event was an opportunity for ...
The Government is putting more than $18 million towards improving the experience of the criminal justice system for victims, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Minister for Children Karen Chhour say. “No one should experience crime, but for those who through no fault of their own become victims, they need to ...
For the first time, schools can use a purpose-built tool to check how a child is progressing in reading through te reo Māori. “Around 45 schools are trialling a New Zealand first te reo Māori phonics check, known as Hihira Weteoro. It will help kaiako (teachers) focus on what ākonga ...
Two new breakwater walls at Pākihikura (Ōpōtiki) Harbour will provide boats with safe harbour access to support the continued growth of aquaculture in Bay of Plenty, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Regional Development Minister Shane Jones say. The Ministers and leaders from Tē Tāwharau o Te Whakatōhea and other ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced an online platform to optimise the use of New Zealand’s science and technology research infrastructure and to link the public and private sector. “This country is home to world-class science, technology, and engineering expertise. Kitmap is set to empower Kiwi innovators, ...
The Government has launched the Low Emissions Heavy Vehicle Fund (LEHVF) to promote innovation and offset the cost of hundreds of heavy vehicles powered by clean technologies, Energy Minister Simeon Brown and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts say. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan ...
Replacing the RMA Hon Chris Bishop: Good morning, it is great to be with you. Can I first acknowledge the Resource Management Law Association for hosting us here today. Can I also acknowledge my Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Simon Court, who is on stage with me. He has assisted me in establishing the ...
Two new laws will be developed to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA), with the enjoyment of property rights as their guiding principle, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Simon Court say. “The RMA was passed with good intentions in 1991 but has proved a failure in practice. ...
Legislation passed through Parliament today will provide police and the courts with additional tools to crack down on gangs that peddle misery and intimidation throughout New Zealand, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “From November 21, gang insignia will be banned in all public places, courts will be able to issue non-consorting orders, and ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the rates for the redesigned levy that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) from July 2026. “Earlier this year FENZ consulted publicly on a 5.2 percent increase to the levy. I was not convinced that ...
The Coalition Government welcomes Police’s announcement today to deploy more police on the beat and staff to Gang Disruption Units. An additional 70 officers will be allocated to Community Beat Teams across towns and regional centres. This builds on the deployment of beat officers in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch CBDs ...
Proposals to strengthen the country’s vital biosecurity system, including higher fines for passengers bringing in undeclared high-risk goods, greater flexibility around importing requirements, and fairer cost sharing for biosecurity responses have been released today for public consultation. Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says “The future is about resilience and the 30-year-old ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says an Overnight Acute Care Service opening in October will provide people in Wānaka and the surrounding area with the assurance of quality overnight care closer to home. “When I was in Wānaka earlier this year, I announced funding for an overnight health service – ...
The Government is rolling out data collection vans across the country to better understand the condition of our road network to prevent potholes from forming in the first place, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is a key priority for the Government and increasing ...
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data for the quarter to June 2024 reinforces how an extended period of high interest rates has meant tough times for families, businesses, and communities, but recent indications show the economy is starting to bounce back, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ data released today ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay will host Fijian Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica and Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell for trilateral trade talks in Rotorua this weekend. “Fiji is one of the largest economies in the Pacific and is a respected partner for Australia and New Zealand,” Mr McClay says. Australia and New Zealand ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay will meet with Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting in Rotorua this weekend. “CER is our most comprehensive agreement covering trade, labour mobility, harmonisation of standards and political cooperation. It underpins an important trading relationship worth $32 ...
The Government is seeking the public’s feedback on two major changes to jury trials in order to improve court timeliness, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “The first proposal would increase the offence threshold at which a defendant can decide to have their case heard by a jury. “The second is ...
Local businesses and industries need to be front and centre in conversations about how regions plan to grow their economies, Regional Development Shane Jones says. The nationwide series of summits aims to facilitate conversations about regional economic growth and opportunities to drive productivity, prosperity and resilience through the Coalition Government’s Regional ...
The Government is investing $16.8 million over the next four years to extend the Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) Longitudinal Study. GUiNZ is New Zealand’s largest longitudinal study of child health and wellbeing and has followed the lives of more than 6000 children born in 2009 and 2010, and ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says that Charter Schools will face a combination of minimum performance thresholds and stretch targets for achievement, attendance and financial sustainability. “Charter schools will be given greater freedom to respond to diverse student needs in innovative ways, but they will be held to a much ...
New Zealand has voted for a United Nations resolution on Israel’s presence in occupied Palestinian Territory with some caveats, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand’s yes vote is fundamentally a signal of our strong support for international law and the need for a two-state solution,” Mr Peters says. “The Israel-Palestine ...
Suffrage Day is an opportunity to reaffirm New Zealand’s commitment to ensuring we continue to be a world leader in gender equality, Minister for Women Nicola Grigg says. “On 19 September, 131 years ago, New Zealand became the first nation in the world where women gained the right to vote. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is travelling to New York next week to attend the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, followed by a visit to French Polynesia. “In the context of the myriad regional and global crises, our engagements in New York will demonstrate New Zealand’s strong support for ...
“Today, on Aotearoa New Zealand Social Workers’ Day, I would like to recognise the tremendous effort social workers make not just today, but every day,” Children’s Minister and Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Karen Chhour says. “I thank all those working on the front line for ...
Minister of State for Trade Nicola Grigg will travel to Laos this week to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Ministers’ Meetings in Vientiane. “The Government is committed to strengthening our relationship with ASEAN,” Ms Grigg says. “With next year marking 50 years since New Zealand became ...
The Government has appointed four members to the Ministerial Advisory Group for victims of retail crime, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee say. “I am delighted to appoint Michael Hill’s national retail manager Michael Bell to the group, as well as Waikato community advocate and business ...
It’s my pleasure to be here to join the opening of the NZNO AGM and Conference for 2024. First, I’d like to thank NZNO Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku, NZNO President, Anne Daniels, and Chief Execuitve Paul Gaulter for inviting me to speak today. Thank you also to all the NZNO members ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says changes to the Public Lending Right [PLR] scheme will help benefit both the National Library and authors who have books available in New Zealand libraries. “I am amending the regulations so that eligible authors will no longer have to reapply every year ...
Police Minister Mark Mitchell congratulates Police for the outstanding result of their most recent operation, targeting the Comancheros. “That Police have been able to round up the majority of the Comancheros leadership, and many of their patched members and prospects, shows not only the capability of Police, but also shows ...
Environment Minister Penny Simmonds has announced a major refresh of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) board with four new appointments and one reappointment. The new board members are Barry O’Neil, Jennifer Scoular, Alison Stewart and Nancy Tuaine, who have been appointed for a three-year term ending in August 2027. “I would ...
Cabinet has approved an Order in Council to enable severe weather recovery works to continue in the Hawke’s Bay, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds and Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery Mark Mitchell say. “Cyclone Gabrielle and the other severe weather events in early 2023 caused significant loss and damage to ...
From today, low-to-middle-income families with young children can register for the new FamilyBoost payment, to help them meet early childhood education (ECE) costs. The scheme was introduced as part of the Government’s tax relief plan to help Kiwis who are doing it tough. “FamilyBoost is one of the ways we ...
The Government has today agreed to introduce sentencing reforms to Parliament this week that will ensure criminals face real consequences for crime and victims are prioritised, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. "In recent years, there has been a concerning trend where the courts have imposed fewer and shorter prison sentences ...
The first quarterly report on progress against the nine public service targets show promising results in some areas and the scale of the challenge in others, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. “Our Government reinstated targets to focus our public sector on driving better results for New Zealanders in health, education, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the appointments of Hone McGregor, Professor David Capie, and John Boswell to the Board of the Asia New Zealand Foundation. Bede Corry, Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has also been appointed as an ex-officio member. The new trustees join Dame Fran Wilde (Chair), ...
New Zealand’s largest contestable science fund is investing in 72 new projects to address challenges, develop new technology and support communities, Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins says. “This Endeavour Fund round being funded is focused on economic growth and commercial outputs,” Ms Collins says. “It involves funding of more ...
Thank you for the introduction and the invitation to speak to you here today. I am honoured to be here in my capacity as Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, and Minister for Children. Thank you for creating a space where we can all listen and learn, ...
The Government will provide a $5.8 million grant to improve water infrastructure at Parihaka in Taranaki, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka say. “This grant from the Regional Infrastructure Fund will have a multitude of benefits for this hugely significant cultural site, including keeping local ...
When Brian alerted Andy that an owl was caught in the netting, he had been puzzled, wondering how such a large bird could have got inside. Its talons had got caught on the outside. Andy guessed it was the morepork which he had heard most nights over the past year – ...
MONDAYMemo to all staff: Hope you all had wonderful weekends! Please send your encrypted messages with a detailed list of what you’re working on today and I’ll see you on an all-hands Zoom call at 0930.And just a reminder to please file your cash earnings in microwave ovens. There are ...
The first official copy books in te reo Māori; a map of Aotearoa labelled ‘New Munster’ and ‘New Ulster’; the original manuscripts capturing karakia and waiata for the first time; and a copy of The Cat in the Hat in te reo.All taonga that are part of a new exhibition, ...
Alex Casey visits the largest gemstone collection in the country, and meets the 85-year-old owner trying to Marie Kondo the lot. Despite its charming name, someone once warned me that Birdlings Flat was like a place from the Twilight Zone. Hang a right off the winding roads to Akaroa and ...
Local eateries using AI images may be at risk of duping their customers, but a lack of legislation means they’re not breaking the law. You notice something’s a bit off straight away. The macaroni looks too smooth, the miscellaneous herb is too miscellaneous and the sauce kinda looks like it’s ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. There’s something very funny about the word frick. Perhaps it’s the Christian undertones, popularised by kids who were too god-fearing to say the bad f-word (but probably just god-fearing enough to say the other bad f-word). It might sound like a milder version ...
Comedian Guy Montgomery takes us through his life in television, including a What Now nightmare and the comedic genius of Goldstein from the ASB ads. To the untrained eye, Guy Montgomery appears to be one of the busiest people in comedy right now. With both the local and Australian versions ...
Waiata Anthems singers Mohi and Chase Woods share their perfect weekend playlist. Mohi (Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa) and Chase Woods (Waikato) are both friends and collaborators. Having previously teamed up on Mohi’s single ‘Hoki Mai Rā’ in July, the two will now ...
In a candid chat on When the Facts Change, Kiwibank chief executive Steve Jurkovich lays out his vision for the bank’s future – one where it can step up and truly challenge the big four Aussie-owned banks. But while he has high hopes, Jurkovich is quick to warn it won’t ...
To celebrate International Hobbit Day on September 22 (Bilbo and Frodo Baggins’ birthdays), we’ve decided who of all the furry-footed creatures is best.Concerning Hobbits and Spinoff rankings, it really feels like there is not a lot left to be said or ranked. Well, on International Hobbit Day, boy do ...
Hundreds of years ago, a man named Tara founded the first permanent human settlement in Wellington. The city still bears his name: Te Whanganui a Tara. But what do we actually know about him?If you look out at the right angle from Ray Ahipene-Mercer’s house in Breaker Bay, you ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Korver-Glenn, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Families on bikes at a July Fourth parade in Houston’s Northside neighborhood.Jimmy Castillo, CC BY-ND Gentrification has become a familiar story in cities across the United States. The ...
Regional councillors have voted to continue work on the plan, despite ministers suggesting they hold off until the government confirms its policy direction. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benny Zuse Rousso, Research Fellow, International Water Centre, Griffith University Pvince73/Shutterstock The Pacific Islands may evoke images of sprawling coastlines and picturesque scenery. But while this part of the world might look like paradise, many local residents are grappling with a ...
Censorship can be a natural impulse to things we don’t like, but it’s better to know when hateful or offensive ideas exist. Otherwise, they’re buried underground to fester and can crop up unexpectedly. We see this legislation no differently. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wenting He, PhD candidate of International Relations, Australian National University The skyline in Shenzhen, the city that is home to many of China’s largest tech companies.asharkyu/Shutterstock According to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Pony Ma, co-founder of Tencent Holdings, is once ...
RNZ Pacific The man behind the 2000 coup in Fiji, George Speight, and the head of the mutineers, former soldier Shane Stevens, have been granted presidential pardons. In a statement yesterday, the Fiji Correction Service said the pair were among seven prisoners who has been granted pardons by the President, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Wilson, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney JFontan/Shutterstock With the Paris Olympics and Paralympics wrapped up, and leading Australian sports codes coming to an end of their 2024 ...
The Courts have ruled the Crown must cover the costs of customary marine title claims, but where will the money come from? A landmark Supreme Court ruling could once again ensure Māori have adequate resourcing to pursue customary marine title claims, despite the government’s recent drastic raising of the threshold ...
Public broadcaster RNZ might be struggling to stem its falls in radio listenership, but the audience for its website rnz.co.nz is soaring.In the latest Nielsen online audience figures for August, RNZ hit 1.56 million unique readers for the month, up from under a million a year ago and less than ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hutchinson, PhD Candidate, International Relations, Australian National University Last month, the Taliban passed a new “vice and virtue” law, making it illegal for women to speak in public. Under the law, women can also be punished if they are heard singing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Green, Research Fellow, Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University When tickets for Green Day’s 2025 Australian tour went on sale, fans joined a queue – a ritual that has been practised for decades on footpaths, on phones, and now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David T. Hill, Emeritus Professor of Southeast Asian Studies, Indo-Pacific Research Centre, Murdoch University David T. Hill You don’t have to be in India long to appreciate just how dramatic its electric vehicle revolution is. Whether it’s electric two-wheelers or trucks, ...
In a rare decision, heavy with judicial and political implications, the country’s top court has told the Crown it must give advance financial support to a group of hapū challenging it over the Marine and Coastal Areas Act.The Supreme Court’s intervention, ahead of seven appeals scheduled before it in November ...
A new poem by Freya Daly Sadgrove. ???where you wake is black and very far back behind your eyesback past your whipping branches and backerfar backer than bone and blood ...
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 Greene Lyon by Alan Goodwin (Quentin Wilson Publishing, $38) An intriguing new local release. Here’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Henry, Physiotherapist and PhD candidate, Body in Mind Research Group, University of South Australia simona pilolla 2/Shutterstock One of the most common feelings associated with persisting pain is fatigue and this fatigue can become overwhelming. People with chronic pain can ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Uri Gal, Professor in Business Information Systems, University of Sydney Last month, OpenAI came out against a yet-to-be enacted Californian law that aims to set basic safety standards for developers of large artificial intelligence (AI) models. This was a change of posture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Fastnedge, Lecturer in Advertising and Brand Creativity, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Controversial advertising holds a mirror up to society. It can unite us in laughter or outrage, spark debates that shape our beliefs – and sometimes expose our ...
As Helen Kelly says the pay gap between many CEOs and the average pay of their employees is the moral issue of our time.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/5477450/Pay-gap-between-bosses-and-workers-widens
And I wonder how long it will take for this story to slip from the top of Stuff’s home page and out of view to the majority?
Just curious but what does she get paid?
NZ dollars, Chris. Any other pointless questions?
I was just curious as to her pay vs that of cleaners or something
But then I suppose no one would actually know that
Orcusman, a good righty like yourself should know what I and every other employer knows…that the wages dont get disclosed unless they are over $100K on the company report. And we dont tell people. So on this issue you will either have to do the research or speculate.
By the way dont you just love it when a Telecom or power bill comes, from an organisation with 1000s of employees and wonderful systems and it si huge…you say where is their economy of scale, their added value, and most pertinently why am I paying huge wages to the rentier class runnning the enterprise? Wheres my discount. As a good righty you should be questioning the bill.
Jon Stewart on right-wing class warfare.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-august-18-2011/world-of-class-warfare—warren-buffett-vs–wealthy-conservatives
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-august-18-2011/world-of-class-warfare—the-poor-s-free-ride-is-over
Kos has the transcript.
NEAL BOORTZ (7/6/2011): It is all-out war on the productive class in our society for the benefit of the moocher class.
JOHN STOSSEL (10/12/2010): The makers, and the takers.
BILL O’REILLY (10/12/2010): They want to take it from somebody else.
LAURA INGRAHAM (6/29/2011): Everyone’s jumping in the wagon, no one wants to pull.
NEAL BOORTZ (6/22/2011): … parasites we have out there depending on government …
NEBRASKA ATTY. GEN. JON BRUNING (8/18/2011): The raccoons, they’re not stupid, they’re going to do the easy way if we make it easy for them, just like welfare recipients all across America.
ANN COULTER (8/15/2011): Welfare will create generations of utterly irresponsible animals.
Yeah! Fuck those people… the poor. We’ll be right back.
As the good book says “To those that have will be given”….
In case you can’t stream on that link, here’s another link to Jon Stewart’s brilliant show about class warfare. Watch both parts to hear the foul beliefs about people on welfare. The US MSM give ever more air time to such aggressive, denigrating and poisonous views. We MUST do everything we can to counter this divisive trend in NZ.
Interesting -could lead the way to a completely different way of doing things democratically at all levels. And we sure need that. Catch this interview on Radnz this morning with Kim Hill. Remember the term ‘dynamic governance’ it has vitality and promise just in the reading of it and is being used successfully, still in its early days.
Twitterers – @RNZ_SatMorning on Twitter
It won’t be downloaded to audio yet but no doubt later http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday – I’m not sure how to give a direct audio link.
8:35 John Buck
John Buck is the chief executive of Governance Alive, part of an international consulting organisation headquartered in the Netherlands, and the coauthor of We the People: Consenting to a Deeper Democracy (Sociocracy.Info Press, ISBN: 978-0979282706). He is visiting New Zealand to run workshops about dynamic governance (known in The Netherlands as sociocracy), a sustainable system for organising and running organisations.
RNZ dynamic governance mp3: http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/sat/sat-20110820-0835-john_buck_dynamic_governance-048.mp3
@RobM – Thanks for link.
Well, here’s a surprise. Not what’s written but where and by whom.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100100708/the-moral-decay-of-our-society-is-as-bad-at-the-top-as-the-bottom/
Not for nothing is the Telegraph known widely in the UK as the Torygraph
Architects and Engineers for 911 truth just released this video presenting their case to a wider public. I challenge anybody to watch this and give me one good reason as to why I should call all of these Scientists,Fire fighters, Demolition experts, Architects and Engineers “conspiracy nutters”.
One good reason based on real world science. Give it your best shot!!!
Autism and compulsive behavior. If it rains you don’t get angry, you don’t try to stop it
raining, you don’t create a trap for yourself and waste your own time. You expect the rain
and build a roof, or buy an umbrella. It is too be expected that all manner of brain
injuries lead to oddity. A pommy accept sudden appears on a true blue southlander women
after a heart attack. She can’t do anything about it. Criminalizing someone with a fascination
for light bulbs seems like trying to stop the rain falling, its like creating a trap that will
always snap close and criminalize a group of people. Police should have known better.
But Police are not the only ones who can made the mistake, just they have a duty not
to criminalize those who can’t help themselves (or can in ordinary circumstances but
when the light bulbs are so easy to get at and nobody else wants them…).
If we can learn anything, its to tolerate oddity and not get trapped in a self-manufactured
angsted.
@aerobubble – The police have a responsibility not to get spooked in emergencies and turn a trivial offence into a jail holding offence, they have ability to divert and don’t have only one option. Where are there brains, efficiency, and humanity in that part of Christchurch. The whole thing was a major fail for them. Then there is the understanding that there are far more vulnerable mentally challenged people out there in the community, now that the government has decided it doesn’t want to try and have high quality residential and support care.
After yesterday’s huffing, puffing, bluffing and posturing, the truth is starting to be revealed. Here’s some classic white anting from Phil’s backers:
…He furiously denied reports in political newsletter Trans-Tasman that he asked his frontbench MPs whether he should quit.
Several frontbench MPs backed Mr Goff, either describing the report as “bollocks” or insisting the discussion never took place. Others refused to comment.
But one senior Labour MP said the conversation did happen. “[Phil] did consult the front bench over whether he should go.”
Damned shame really. Phil’s the gift that keeps on giving for National…
Oh for goodness sake. I’d be surprised if the conversation had NOT taken place. Of course the Labour caucas would have talked about their options.
At the same time I believe Goff when he states that he never offered his resignation…. that seems deeply implausible as well for the obvious reason that no-one else wants the job at this point in time. Goff is the kind of man who if he could clearly see another contender who he believed would do a better job than him, he would quite possibly step aside. But that has not happened.
Nah … this is just Tracy Watkins being a tory toe-rag as usual.
So you’d also be surprised then that Phil is furiously denying any such conversation might have taken place…
Nah… it’s a report of Phil Goff saying one thing and a senior Labour MP saying something completely different…
About par for the Goff course.
The way I’m reading it Goff says he never offered to resign. That is a significantly different thing to exploring the options in which resigning and passing the leadership to someone else could have been an raised as an option. Given the circumstances I’d be surprised if they had not talked that possibility over.
But that is still very different to going the next step and formally offering to resign.
Psychopaths and big money – it all adds up
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10746219
For some of us this isn’t news. Plenty of refs on Google Scholar. Glad the Herald has caught up
A Green friend shared it on Facebook, and I sent it to my son.. Good article!
Hi All
We need a new lefty party very quick I wreakon. Someone needs to do an Epsom in a poor electorate. I dont know about Hone. His appeal may be limited largley to maori.
I have some great policy ideas that Labour and National would not be interested in but a lot of people Ive talked to about them really like em.
Costs $300 to rregister a new party and applications close at the end of september. I’d do it but am in a dire financial mire right now. Unless anyone wants to back me to the tune of atleast the minimum wage plus expenses. I may not be the ideal candidate by way of appeal so would welcome anyone else using my ideas and doing this. I don’t really want ot waste those good ideas on a party that might not gain much support such as Mana. I hope they do well but we’ll have to see. It’l also be interesting to see how their policy direction and focus develops.
Please excuse if I disapear soon as I’ve got a big personal disaster going on right now.
I’d post these idea’s here but don’t want those crafty Nats to farm them out to their corporate and banker mates.
Someone else here might be interested in doing this so even if I can’t maybe some of you here would like to discuss the possiblity of doing this.
Political parties need 500 members before they can be registered. Alternatively you can stand as an independent.
In The House finally has video up from the day Key ran away like a chicken during Question Time.
The camera angles aren’t great, but you can see Key in the seat to the left of English when Peseta Sam Lotu-liga’s question begins, then he leans over to talk to someone, who obviously tells him that Phil is going to ask the scary question about youth unemployment, and he gets up and leaves.
“Political parties need 500 members before they can be registered. Alternatively you can stand as an independent.”
Thanks Lanthanide. 10 days to get 500 members maybe a tall ask but possible.
On Your Bike John Key
You might be aware that National has failed to uphold many of their campaign promises. They’ve failed to close the wage gap with Australia for one, mainly because they had no intention of affecting business profits. This policy failure alone has been very detrimental to New Zealand. Under a National government, inequality has markedly increased because they’ve ensured inflation is high and wages are kept low. This means those lucky enough to be employed often still need welfare… effectively gifting billions of dollars in wage subsidies to private businesses…
It amazed me that Kiwi’s fell for Nationals promises/lies before the last electtion. National have always tried very hard to keep wages down as you say which only helps exporters. Businessess not involved in the export sector struggle when workers cannot afford to buy.
Compulsory unionism is a remedy to low wages. i.e. In hard times employment contracts force wages down as busnesses cannot afford to pay employees more than the competition to remain competitive. However with a nationwide based system all employers have to pay the same rate for certain skills thus keeping wages level rather than a corporate competition to get the lowest labour costs. The problem that flows from that is that lower wages means workers don’t spend and companies close due to that lack of spending. The tax take sinks lower and lower. This may be adding to Nationals deficit problems.
Free trade ofcourse undermines any wage increases as much of that money goes off shore. As long as we have free trade with slave labour economies wage increases here will be boosting China’s jobs and the chinese government’s tax take, instead of NZ’s local economy.
Unless this is addressed the New Zealand economy will continue to be swallowed up by vulture corporations who are behind the free trade scam being pushed on us by international bankers.
From
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1108/S00224/employing-young-people.htm
“Yet older people are surrounded by messages that age 65 is too young to retire. If a Labour-led government is elected in November, we even face the possibility that the age of qualification for New Zealand Superannuation will be raised, adding to the demographic logjam that is contributing to the problem of youth unemployment today. Indeed many Generation Xers, disadvantaged throughout their working lives, are already assuming that they will not qualify for a pension until they are aged maybe 70.
National are no better than Labour. They, with their program of welfare reform, are prioritising getting sole parents and disabled people into employment. This, in a low-spending environment, inevitably comes at the expense of young people. Indeed some sole parents and disabled people have advantages over new labour force entrants, because they have substantial work experience.”
I know that there has been debate about the possible need to increase the eligibility age of NZ Superannuation, but I had seen this as being led by National for cost cutting reasons (they also floated changes to the indexation basis, and make it partially or fully means assessed, and I think Peter Dunne proposed options for retiring later and getting higher NZ Super payments), but I had not heard of proposals to raise the eligibility age from Labour. Have I missed something?
Yup. Labour support it, alongside a fairly broad slice of the left. But what you missed was that it’s a con. There is no demographic time bomb. None.
The people retiring now were financially supported through their first 18? years of life. So if they could be supported then, they can be supported now. Some of those people have died. So there are fewer of them to support than when they were below 18. The average life expectancy is not beyond 83 (65 + 18)
And while they were being supported for those first 18 years, woment weren’t generally accepted into the workforce to the degree they are now. So 45 years ago, there was ‘half’ the working age population being supported as well as under 18s being supported plus retired workers being supported.
In other words, it would seem that in times gone by there was a far greater proportion of the population being supported than is ever likely going forward.
Nowadays, fewer people are being born = less support needed for those under 18.
Women are now expected to be in the workforce = not being financially supported as in the past.
Retirees don’t (on average) live beyond 83 years of age (about 78.4 for men and 82.4 for women)
And how often do we hear that current parents and /or grandparents are going to outlive their children because of all types of maladies? So the number of retirees in the future will drop off sharply. (More people will die during their working life if health predictions are to be believed.)
Like I say. Demographic time bomb, my arse!
New Zealand’s latest Mossad Affair – Some Context
Predictably, John Key’s extraordinary about-face at his afternoon press conference of July 20 – where he offered a series of blank denials, contradicting not only his own earlier assertions but also, unbelievably, those of the Israeli ambassador himself – all but killed the latest Mossad scandal.
Much of the media and blogosphere reacted in the same way: Key’s morning press conference was characterised as some sort of ‘gross misjudgement’, with some speculating he was ill-prepared and ill-informed, while his afternoon performance was widely touted as a welcome improvement, with the PM supposedly finally taking a full and frank approach to the matter.
For Danyl at The Dim Post, Key’s afternoon denials were “pretty comprehensive”. Indeed, “given the choice between believing the PM or an unnamed SIS source”, Danyl proudly asserted “I’m gonna believe Key every time.” Similarly, Pundit’s Andrew Geddis was almost giddy with excitement that his own doubts about the case had apparently been proven entirely justified by Key’s denials: “I’d like to say ‘I told you so’. But that would be immature and graceless. So I won’t say ‘I told you so’, even though I did. Tell you that is. That it was so.” Apparently, Key’s denial is supposed to be the end of the matter, in one stroke tying up all the loose ends and suggesting a round of grovelling apologies to the poor hard-done-by Israelis is called for.
Well, like John Roughan and others, I see all this as extremely naive. Certainly, Key’s morning performance could be considered ill-advised from a crisis-management perspective. But one would have hoped that the main interest of journalists, here, was not in how adept Key was at closing the story down, but rather in the actual veracity of the story itself.
Far from ill-informed and ill-thought-out, Key’s morning press conference of July 20 actually appeared quite honest, nuanced and revealing. He accepted some very specific points put to him by various journalists, while very carefully demurring over certain other facets, sometimes citing ‘the national interest’, sometimes asserting ‘I can’t confirm all of the details you presented are correct.’ I’d suggest all this revealed a good deal more than some journalists and bloggers apparently realised.
Then, in the afternoon, we suddenly get this extraordinary series of blank denials where he contradicts both himself and Israeli ambassador, Shemi Tzur.
So, what on earth was the motivation behind Key’s blank denials ? (see next two comments, below).
New Zealand’s latest Mossad Affair – Wider Context
Over the last few weeks, I’ve spent a bit of spare time reading about recent overseas Mossad scandals. Four basic themes keep reappearing:
(1) Mossad activity in western countires is normal/on-going/business-as-usual rather than some sort of bizarre “abberation” or unfortunate, one-off “mistake”,
(2) Following detection of Mossad activity, Israel frequently gives categorical assurances that it will never happen again, before rapidly resuming Mossad operations in the very same Country,
(3) More often than not – to avoid open conflict with both Israel and Washington – western governments in general (and Centre-Right administrations in particular) decide to handle Mossad espionage by sweeping it under the carpet – resolving things quietly, diplomatically, often with little more than symbolic gestures and, if possible, away from the public eye,
(4) Some degree of tension appears to exist within the intelligence services of various western countries between those who prioritise maintaining close links with Mossad and the western alliance (and are thus compliant to resolving things quietly and symbolically) and those who believe the priority should be to overtly defend their Country’s sovereignty and diplomatic integrity.
Here’s an excerpt from a speech by Norways Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.
I found it in an article by blogger Winter Patriot which you might be linterested in reading at
http://winterpatriot.blogspot.com/2011/08/norways-911-horror-is-in-message.html
“I have a message to the people who attacked us, and those behind them. This is a message from all of Norway:
You will not destroy us.
You will not destroy our democracy nor our quest for a better world. We are a small nation, but we are a proud nation.
No one shall bomb us into silence or shoot us into silence. Nothing will frighten us out of being Norway.
This night we will comfort each other, talk with each other, and stand together. Tomorrow we will show the world that Norway’s democracy grows stronger when it is challenged. We shall find the guilty and hold them responsible. “
I still dont understand what Mossad objectives might be accomplished by operating out of ‘friendly’ countries. Whats more worrying is that Israel has roughly 300 nuclear warheads. About the same as China, and likely more than France and the UK.
Hello Viper
Theory
Maybe Israel’s Mossad like America’s CIA are under the control of the International Bankers who are trying to establish a world order. Many of these bankers are Zionist Jews or just plain filthy rich. They want complete control and western democracy is a threat to that. At any stage democrcies can elect to not use their banking services and they could loose their corrupt little golden goose so those democracies must be curtailed. People must be impoverished or they might rise up. They seek austerity for us all so that they are not threatened by the massive throng of incredible talent that surrounds them, and might swallow them up.
It surprises me because globalisation is an inevitable failure. A hundred years from now, travelling from Auckland to London is going to again take three to four months, for the vast majority of people. Only a very few elite will be flying.
Youv’e read about Obama’s John Holdren and the radical environmentalist agenda then? And deindustrialisation which we are now in the throws of.
Anyone interested can search youtube with the search term “webster tarply, Ecoscience”
The talk is about Obamas apointment of John Holdren to a top post. Mr Holdren wrote a book called ecoscience which has some radical ideas which seem to be materialising in th form of policy coming from the National Party and to a differing and lesser degree labour.
Hmmmm after a quick Google it seems that Holdren is (was) a bit of an extremist wild card. I’d like to know who in the background it is who *nominates* these people to Obama.
Actually I didn’t pick my ideas up from Holdren; more like John Michael Greer’s Archdruid Report (which I highly recommend)
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
Great link, this piece is a classic:
The Twilight of Meaning
That’s two great links today…thanks.
John Michael Greer is on my bookmark toolbar right next to The Standard. And I know I’m not the only one here who regards him as required reading. No two thinking adults are going to agree 100% with each other, there’s something wrong if they do. But Greer always appeals to me, both rationally and emotionally… he’s got a great compass.
Good ideas and good prose. This statement, a few posts down, shows the pointlessness of Key’s stats fiddling:
“Politicians and ordinary people alike have taken to insisting, along these lines, that the solution to joblessness is to send people to college to get job training, on the assumption that this will somehow make jobs appear for them.”
Yep, I’ve been thinking lately that the solution to joblessness isn’t to create more jobs but to have a better distribution of the work and wealth available. Increasing productivity, which we have, should result in less work needing to be done to maintain present living standards. Instead we have decreasing living standards for the majority and an increasing transfer of the communities wealth to the already rich.
good article this morning in dompost on the idiocy of the ACT party and their wonky legislation.
See the thing is they dont really care what happens just as long as people are confused.
Pretty crummy I know but that is their schtick.
They know that they can afford to pay for no mistakes and supposedly the best quality but the rest can just wallow in the crap that they create.
Basically this is very nasty stuff wrapped up in a sugar coated pill of smarmy words they learned in America from other nutters.
New Zealand’s latest Mossad Affair – An example from Canada
Here I provide a summary/synthesis of some recent Mossad activity in Canada (the main points from a whole range of Canadian media reports).
When considering the motivation behind Key’s afternoon press conference (and his series of blank denials), it may be especially useful to look at the Canadian response to (2) the Leslie Lewis affair and (3) the Shehadeh Assassination (particularly given (a) the contradictions inherent in Key’s afternoon press conference performance and (b) the inconsistencies between Key and Tullet’s intelligence informants regarding whether or not SIS investigations had been fully completed or were still on-going).
(1) Botched Khaled Mashaal Assassination
Date: September 1997
Mossad Activity: Israeli agents, posing as Canadian tourists, are caught using fraudulent Canadian passports in the botched assassination attempt on Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Jordan.
Canadian Response: On this occassion, the Canadian Federal Government refuses to resolve things quietly, fearing the Mossad operation might prompt vigilante attacks against ordinary Canadians living in the Middle East. Canada expels the Israeli ambassador from Ottawa and recalls its own ambassador from Tel Aviv until receiving a promise that Mossad would stop using canadian passports for covert operations. Israeli PM Netanyahu subsequently apologises and gives “iron-clad assurances” that the spy agency will cease using Canadian passports in the future.
(2) Leslie Lewis Affair
Date: Late 1997
Mossad Activity: Yet only a few weeks later in late 1997, Israel allegedly broke this promise when a Canadian living in Israel was approached for his passport by a Mossad front organisation – The Bureau of Immigration Affairs.
Leslie Lewis, a Canadian Hasidic Jew who had lived in Israel for several years, said Israeli agents approached him to hand over his passport just weeks after Netanyahu’s promise to Ottawa. They also asked for permission to fly his daughter to Canada where she would obtain a Canadian passport and then hand it over to Mossad on return to Israel.
Lewis refused and alerted the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv.
Canadian Response: In stark contrast to its attitude a few weeks earlier, Ottawa now displayed a marked reluctance to investigate, eventually ordering a probe into the allegations more than a year later in November 1998 (presumably after coming under sustained pressure to do so).
However, by August 1999, Canadian intelligence sources were telling the media that the investigation had been stopped prematurely because Ottawa wanted to avoid upsetting Israel. The Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry had quietly closed the file on the investigation with Minister Lloyd Axworthy announcing it had ended with the conclusion there was “insufficient evidence” to prove that Israel had broken its pledge. A Ministry spokeswoman said that Israel had given assurances that Mossad agents were not involved in such an operation and the Canadian Government had decided to accept these assurances.
The media, however, quoted a number of intelligence sources denouncing the investigation as “half-hearted”, “shoddy” and “incomplete”. The sources argued that Canadian officials, fearful of upsetting Israel and Washington, “got the answers they wanted from the Israelis and ended it right there”, failing to thoroughly check-out the explanations offered. “Some investigation !”, one intelligence official is quoted as saying. Or, as another put it, “It’s a farce”.
(3) Shehadeh Assassination
Date: 2001-2002
Mossad Activity: And then, 2 years later, explosive new allegations suggested Mossad agents had been posing as Canadians (using false Canadian identities) during a “false flag” operation that ultimately resulted in the July 2002 assassination of Hamas leader Sheik Salah Shehadeh (an Israeli F-16 fired a one-tonne missile at the Gaza apartment building, killing not only the Sheik but also 14 bystanders, including 9 children. Israel was widely criticised for the attack).
Knowing Canada was heavily involved in aid work in Gaza at the time, Mossad agents had posed as Canadians to lure a young Palestinian man into informing on the movements of both Shehadeh and other Intifada leaders in return for (false) promises of ressettlement in Canada. Once they’d revealed their true Mossad connections, the agents reportedly used sexual blackmail against the man (using fake photographs) to ensure his continued compliance.
Canadian Response: Once again, Ottawa seemed more than eager to accept Israeli denials, telling Toronto’s National Post they were satisfied the claims were false. Canada’s ambassador to Tel Aviv had asked Israel for an explanation of the incident and was told it did not happen.
Asked by journalists whether the Israelis could be hiding something in order to avoid another diplomatic firestorm, a Canadian Foreign Affairs spokesman replied: “They gave us their word and we take it as it is.” Indeed, journalists were assured that Ottawa had been convinced all along that the claims were false.
However, what Canadian government officials said in public and private were clearly two very different things. In December 2002, the Canadian media obtained newly-released official government documents showing that in the weeks following Ottawa’s September announcement of the end of the investigation, the matter had in fact continued to cause a good deal of official concern, resulting in on-going, behind-the-scenes diplomacy with Israel.
In a confidential report, officials expressed concerns that Israel was indeed “misusing Canada’s identity” and thus endangering Canadian travellers and undermining the integrity of the nation’s passports. This resulted in a Senior Canadian Cabinet official questioning the head of Israel’s Security Service as well as discussions between the Assistant Deputy Minister for Africa and the Mideast and Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Haim Divon.
Voting simulator for the proposed electoral systems in this years referendum. Clearly shows the benefits of MMP
Another Flip Flop
Kate Wilkinson is now increasing the mining inspectorate despite repeatedly denying there was a problem. National has up until now been adamant that one mine inspector for the entire country was enough and they wouldn’t make changes until the royal commission reported…
For everyone on Facebook – a group you should join – https://www.facebook.com/groups/252700100808/
I am delighted to say I’ve already joined, Ian! It’s a good group…
The Fake World Cup Tour
There were rumors this week that the prime minister might be fake. Experts say his IQ was affected during the cloning process and that he’s no longer able to count how many youth unemployed there are or shares he holds with Transrail or the Bank of America. Unfortunately nobody knows where the real John Key is, although reports say that he’s all over the place…
Ben Pleasewankme loses it in bar:
http://mobile.theonion.com/articles/drunken-ben-bernanke-tells-everyone-at-neighborhoo,21059/?source=patrick.net&mobile=trueong
Time for the hot bath and razor baldes Ben?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/expd/6028214757/
Yep.
Nice one.