I suspect that Cunliffe has put quite a bit of personal thought into these questions over the last 12 months đ
My take: a sense of elite entitlement and loss of accountability to ordinary members – indeed sometimes outright disdain of those members. quite similar to the Tory ‘born to rule’ conceit, in fact.
And now, after 30 years, we’re going to finish taking our party back this November, goddammit.
My take: a sense of elite entitlement and loss of accountability to ordinary members â indeed sometimes outright disdain of those members. quite similar to the Tory âborn to ruleâ conceit, in fact.
– We elect them when they do shit like this (both sides of the political spectrum) so why should they change?
– I mean Clark flagrantly breaking the law and dropping the cop in it and would anyone from Labour suggest she be gotten rid of? (at the time) and add any example you want of Key for the same thing
– We keep rewarding them so keep acting how they want to and so it goes…
Your use of Helen Clark as an example is petty and small minded. Key has fucked this country over to the tune of billions of dollars to his rich mates and eroded the civil rights of every NZer.
Bottom line is that MPs in each party need to be held more accountable to their membership. When is National going to do this?
When Prebble was Minister of State-Owned Enterprises in the 1980s, then yes; there was the sale of far too many assets. But I regard those dark Douglas days as being a perversion of Labour into an almost proto-ACT party, rather than the return to its socialist roots that I hope Cunliffe’s 6th Labour government will represent.
Nope sorry no matter the spin Douglas and Prebble were part of Labour which reinforces the point of ministers acting how they want with virtually nil ramifications
Douglas & Prebble were indeed members of the 4th Labour government. The leader of the soon to be 6th Labour-led government has stated that he refused in 1987 to be recruited by Treasury due to his opposition to their policies (in TDB interview last night). So the chances of his replicating their folly is hopefully minimal.
As for ramifications:
“Prebble retained his Auckland Central seat in the 1990 election, which Labour lost, arguably because of public dissatisfaction with the reforms. In the 1993 election, however, Prebble lost his seat to Sandra Lee-Vercoe, deputy leader of the left-wing Alliance. For the next three years, he worked as a consultant.”
Then in 1996 he became an MP for the ACT party started by his mate Douglas.
I remember back in the eighties when Lange won.We Labour party members were on a high,every thing and anything was possible, like the Kennedy years for the Americans.
Some months later i was at a meeting attended by Prebble,Caygill and De Cleene.The meeting was held at the local offices of various unions, and also the office of the local party.The meeting was a fiery one, with the local union orginisers and their sub branch members, along with the local Party members.The barny that ensued was about the direction that the government were taking us At the end of the meeting as the Parliamentarians were leaving were over heard to say Union officials, and they chuckled, as they went down the stairs..
It is without question that our elected, and more importantly, our list representatives, are out of touch with the every day rank and file and party members who vote for them, and the recent election has shone a glaring light on that.
Power to the Party members, and lets hope it continues.
My take: a sense of elite entitlement and loss of accountability to ordinary members â indeed sometimes outright disdain of those members. quite similar to the Tory âborn to ruleâ conceit, in fact.
In other words: a total absorption into the neocon mindset of the Beltway bubble (albeit a less harsh version of the Nat model) where members and affiliates cease to be of any importance. What’s the bet more than one ABCer reflected this week about… how much easier and better it would be if there were no members and affilliates in the Labour Party.
Yes even when the writing was on the wall they still persisted in voting for the wrong person
That would have given us
Goff
Shearer
and then RobertsonFFS
Unbelievable And as for unity the biggest attack lines the right and msm has been the disunity in caucus as evidenced by the vote. Did they not see this coming ? are they so out of touch they actually thought Robertson a stood a chance ? Did they not see the media narratives around such a split vote that would eventuate?
Someone should tell them that the biggest enemy is actually the Tories not Cunliffe et el.
The membership agreed with most of the caucus who voted for Robertson. Membership were not unanimously behind Cunliffe, by any means.
So I think the “disconnect” can be overstated.
And I also think that expecting different votes from different groups is reasonable.
So my conclusion is that Sanctuary is overstating the case when talking about a “deep divide”. But I note a couple of tories have been having fun stoking the debate, which is nice for them I guess.
item b is obvious. Build more democracy into the Party. Give the members more say on who represents them. Not sure why we would want the caucus should have a separate vote for leader they should get the same vote as any other member.
Also we need to get the party list process right. We have to decide if we should have open or closed list selection and ordering of the party list. I myself are leaning towards a fully open list where the public can have input into the list but would like to hear alternative views
The Greens do the list reasonably well
Delegates at election conference meet candidates and assess them
They report back to branches who put together list this is aggregated
And becomes the recommended list
This new list goes to wider membership who then can rank candidates in a stv type system
(with a couple of tweaks for gender and geographical balance)
Problems are that sitting MP ‘s have an advantage because of profile and name recognition
and better resourced candidates can visit branches to get there name out there more widely and enhance their profile. This has happened to great effect last time around with at least one of the candidates getting a much higher ranking then from the initial delegate list (members should have listened to the delegates đ
All in all it works quite well with a very strong competent united team. As can be witnessed by there strong performance in this last term.
Labour could learn from this
Really Claire? Just because Pinokeyo says it doesn’t make it true, and I really don’t need you to report his spin on his failures.
One of the main aims of Mr Key’s trip to Europe is to nudge the EU into trade talks – New Zealand is one of only about five countries yet to start negotiations.
He raised the issue with British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday, and told the media afterwards that the UK could be a powerful advocate for New Zealand’s case because it was a key figure in the EU.
A key figure? The country that hasn’t joined the Eurozone and is in holding a referendum on membership? If he was talking the Merkel or Hollande he would have a point.
“Europe is the biggest economy in the world, it’s a powerful economy notwithstanding the challenges it’s had. And if New Zealand could advance a trade agreement with Europe it would be quite important,” he said.
Last year Nact was calling the EU a basketcase and blaming this non-key trading partner problems for our continuing economic hole.
How about holding him up to his spin instead of hanging on to it? John Hartevelt did a better job of it.
An economy can be powerful and a basketcase at the same time. Those two terms don’t contradict each other.I would argue both the EU and US fit this category.
The article you link to doesn’t blame the non-key trading partner for our economic hole it blames the weakening US and EU economies for the strength of our dollar. That seems reasonable to me – also at the time of that article (October last year) Europe was a basketcase and it still is.
Finally, while the UK may not be as key as Germany it would still be considered a key member by most given the size of its economy – it is the second largest economy (if going by GDP).
Entropy. After three decades of cheap high density fuel flooding the western economies is it any wonder that society, economy, culture is in such chaos. Rebuilding requires that the right wing state gets off the backs of normal people who want to express and live their lives.
“An economy can be powerful and a basketcase at the same time”
Nah, a basketcase is a basketcase. It can be influential, but not powerful because other players can dismantle it if they choose to do so. E.g. the Greek economy is influential in EU economic decsion-making and a basketcase. It would take real spin to turn that situation into stating the Greek economy is powerful.
Key and English spent quite a lot of time blaming the New Zealand poor performing economy and trade deficits on conditions in Europe while ignoring the booming economies of our nearest trading partners Australia and China. Not much was asked about why the NZ economy didn’t get a boost from Aust and China but was impacted by Europe.
“Europe was a basketcase and it still is”
The periphery is in trouble. Core Europe is doing ok – the bit I live in is doing better than NZ in many ways.
And the UK has not the 2nd biggest economy, by GDP, in Europe since 2008 – austerity for the masses will do that to an economy – and any soft power the UK had was diminished by refusing to join the Euro and it’s referendum decision. It’s not committed and that seriously affects it’s power in the union.
The Court of Appeal chose yesterday to uphold last year’s decision by the Employment Court that employers paying the minimum wage had to pay their KiwiSaver contributions on top. This would give some minimum-wage workers an extra $540 a year.
Key was invited by Conservative Party leader and British counterpart David Cameron to a gathering of most of his MPs in Chipping Norton, a couple of hours northwest of London.
Key gave a speech to the MPs and strategists and joined in a “deeply political conversation” with high-ranking Cabinet ministers including Chancellor George Osborne and Home Secretary Theresa May.
Key also chatted with the controversial Australian political strategist Lynton Crosby, who advises Cameron.
Yes most interesting Tracey.Just what are they up too/
In fact its a bit scary ,120 Tory MP’s Crosby Textor smells a bit strong . In wonder if they are planning the next NZ election and how the UK Right would be able to help the NZ
Lets not forget that we were never told who payed for the ” Cossack adverts back in the 1970’s
Labour people need to keep a watchful eye on this . There was a good reason why they held this meeting with closed doors.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 7.2.1
Trying to watch the Live coverage of the yachting, but no, all I get is about 2 seconds and the stream just freezes. Every other site I use streams perfectly. So I figure TVNZ must have been sitting with fingers crossed that they didn’t get more then 20 people at once wanting to watch. This must be what happens when the govt strips all the cash out of the company, and they have to do it on the cheap\free!
They used to host some of the content (ad’s) out of Oz and nearly crashed the stn X cable when the ch ch earthquake had their site taking alot of hits….perhaps they still do and the site’s pulling content from outside NZ thus the performance.
It’s not so much the cash David, it’s the competance and general savvy and will to do things properly but when 7 Sharp and Best Bits is your idea of quality is it any surprise.
I watched TVNZ ‘live’ without interruption but ran Herald blog at the same time .. TVNZ ‘live’ was 12 minutes behind the Herald blog. I checked time time the blog gave Peter Lester’s comment “like being at the dentist” against when it was webcast == 12 minutes !! no idea how or why .. maybe commercials ?? “Live” ? Yeah, nah.
The one I can’t stream from is TV3. It has to be the AD Blocker, but I can usually find the feed elsewhere, unless it’s Gower making shit up then I don’t bother with it.
Reading all the available resources it is not hard to come to the conclusion that the age of fossil fuel use is coming to an end.
Even here in New Zealand we can see this. Solid Energy is bankrupt, Denniston coal is also bust and can only go ahead with skewed legalisms that prevent climate change being taken into account. And large wind farms that could let us finally close down coal fired Huntly Power Station are prevented from starting through through lack of the barest legislation costing the taxpayer nothing. Meanwhile tens of $millions of tax payer subsidies are being shoveled into encouraging risky extreme deep water oil exploration, as conventional supplies run out.
It all signals one thing, the age of oil and coal is over. And if we keep desperately subsidising these failing technologies our civilisation will be over too.
Nothing is surer.
We need leaders of vision to prevent this catastrophe. (or at the very least soften the crash)
NZ has enough coal for at least 1200 years. Open cast is the way to go, and put the land back nice afterwards. The Coromandels and the Shotover river were extensively mined and are top tourist attractions now.
And then there’s fracking, which in NZ should allow us to put off nuclear power for many years until it is safe enough. The rest of the world can do with a lot of fracking too!
Those who don’t like fracking can stop opposing new hydro dams, especially on the West Coast.
Whatever happened to that wind farm that a councillor voted to allow on her farm at Waiuku, right where the noise would keep Waiuku awake?
In spite of the ranting by right wing weirdo’s about wanting Abbott as NZ’s PM its it’s taken all of five minutes in office for him to show his true colours:
You ain’t seen nothing yet, he’s dissolved the Climate change body also and is warming up into his role as a fundamentalist christian mysoginist homophobic with anger issues…..politics suits him well.
Barrister Julian Burnside writes about Australia’s refugee policy.
So here we are: Australia in 2013. We have forgotten our origins and our good fortune, we are blind to our own selfishness. In place of memory we cling to a national myth of a generous, welcoming country, a land of new arrivals where everyone gets a fair go; a myth in which vanity fills the emptiness where the truth was forgotten.
‘..national myth of a generous, welcoming country..’ It’s on record Oz favoured europeans re-settling there after WW2.
The Lib’s have tapped past the thin veneer of ‘ a fair go’ into an Oz that most who live there discover very quickly. Wander out of the CBD’s into suburbia or better still rural Oz and it’s rather old fashioned shall we say.
Garrett should reform the Oils now he’s left parliament, their material has never been so relevant.
Brisbane often reminds me of Auckland in the 80s. Some of the places in rural Queensland are just scary. The xenophobia and bigotry has a more overwhelming presence than sulphur in Rotorua. Newman in Queensland and Abbott federally will take it back even further. If they get their way, it’ll become a land that WhaleSpew would be proud to call home.
Rural Oz is scary, probably Tassie being the least scary with alot of foodie/produce/artisan diversity and a massive social welfare dependancy relative to other states.
A good interview : Cunliffe indicates his broad policy directions.
He joined the Daily Blog Editors Selwyn Manning and Martyn Bradbury to discuss what challenges New Zealand faces and what bis solutions are to those challenges.
A pity that Cunliffe made a perceived big booboo at his first great opportunity to impress the public with ‘caucus’ vs ‘Corus’. A bit of lost ground to make up there with the ‘general’ voters. Our stupid media concentrates on such simple errors as their information highlight unfortunately. They do a great injustice to real democracy and politics. [Less than 200 people have viewed Cunliffe’s daily blog interview so far, while hundreds of thousands watched his booboo highlighted by our stupid Main Stream Media!]
CP @ 13.1.1 – you really, really identify that slip of the tongue as something that’ll stick with Cunliffe right through to the last of the leaders’ debates in 2014 ? Unlike the now cemented tangible sense amongst how many tens maybe hundreds of thousands that ShonKey Python is, well, shonky ?
You think that we’re going to see an opinion poll in the lead-up to the election in which the greatest number of respondents are moved to mention as the tipping point “caucus/chorus” in September 2013 ? Whatever the unfortunately turned out weirdo Potty Gower might choose to say ?
There was a well attended meeting; about the dangers of deep-water oil drilling, in Dunedin last night with Gareth Hughes as key speaker (plus a couple of Otago university lecturers with Green mayoral candidate; Aaron Hawkins, moderating). Simon Hartly; who wrote this acticle for today’s ODT business section, obviously didn’t attend:
“…John Warren, the senior business development manager of Halliburton, covering Australasia.”
“On the question of the Deepwater Horizon seabed blowout and subsequent rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico, which became the United States’ worst environmental disaster, Mr Warren said it was a combination of human and technological error.
There was now more technology, reliability and competence in the workforce. ”
But there isn’t any real incentive for a Deepwater Horizon-style exploratory-phase disaster in NZ to actually be avoided (beyond the loss of their ship), or cleaned-up by the company responsible if it does. There is presently $10 million maximum liability under NZ law, plus $30 million mandatory insurance for the oil drilling. Deepwater Horizon cleanup costs are US$40 billion so far.
That’s a 0.02 cent on the dollar cost; to cut their losses and pay the fine, rather than stay and try to clean-up the problem (if you consider that the insurance premiums will already have been paid).
the “human error” was corporate middle managers fucking around with shortcuts in order to make more money and keep to budgets they had promised the board of directors.
And lets add in the captured and under-resourced regulators in the USA, where they had one inspector for every 40-50 rigs, and anyways the regulators would often be out partying with oil company staff, accepting big gifts from the corporates, accepting favours in the forms of prostitutes etc.
when is parliament going to be available to us proles with only an uhf aerial.
at the moment it seems to be restricted to disc users and sky subscribers.
has parliament become pay per view too?
“Nick Smith should resign. He is not the Minister for Conservation; he is the minister for large-scale dams; he is the minister for water pollution; he’s the minister for wiping out New Zealand’s native fish. He has no right to occupy the Minister of Conservation portfolio.”
He is the Minister of tents, caravans, sheds and ‘lean-tos’ and Minister for Property Developers’,” says Sue Henry, Spokesperson for the Housing Lobby.
“He should resign forthwith from the Housing portfolio.”
“It is a disgrace when State Housing tenants are forced out of their homes and along with others referred to sub-standard caravan parks and temporary ‘doss houses’ by Housing New Zealand, when thousands of State houses sit empty, and some have done so for well over over one year.”
“Vulnerable driven to caravan parks” (TV3 News !9 September 2013)
“It’s misleading and deceptive for Nick Smith to promote affordable housing when he’s delivering unaffordable housing, where $700,000 houses are being sold off the plans (eg: Apirana Ave, Glen Innes).”
“This of course, is after the forced removal of State housing tenants and their affordable State houses, which have been, and are being trucked out of the area.”
“This is being replicated in other parts of New Zealand, against the wishes of both the tenants and their communities in which some lived for decades.”
“This situation is becoming critical, and is totally unacceptable.”
“A moratorium to cease forthwith State house removals must be implemented immediately. ”
Sue Henry
Spokesperson
Housing Lobby
_________________________________________________________________________
No one in their eighties or at any age should be expected to trot 50 metres to use a toilet several times a night. This would cause me sleep deprivation as I would be awake just after one trip in the freezing cold.
I knew that HNZ was not performing. I have underestimated how despicable the government are regarding housing. I’d like to see how long they would last in a caravan park.
In an interview on âSquawk Box,â the founder of hedge fund Duquesne Capital said that the Federal Reserveâs policy of quantitative easing was inflating stocks and other assets held by wealthy investors like himself. But the price of making the rich richer will be paid by future generations.
âThis is fantastic for every rich person,â he said Thursday, a day after the Fedâs stunning decision to delay tightening its monetary policy. âThis is the biggest redistribution of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the rich ever.â
âWho owns assetsâthe rich, the billionaires. You think Warren Buffett hates this stuff? You think I hate this stuff? I had a very good day yesterday.â
Druckenmiller, whose net worth is estimated at more than $2 billion, said that the implication of the Fedâs policy is that the rich will spend their wealth and create jobsâessentially betting on âtrickle-down economics.â
âI mean, maybe this trickle-down monetary policy that gives money to billionaires and hopefully we go spend it is going to work,â he said. âBut it hasnât worked for five years.â
The U$ Home of NeoLiberalism and the inspiration of our RWNJ politicians:
“These individuals represent a social type. The saying of Balzac, âBehind every great fortune there is a great crime,â was never truer than for the American ruling class. The list is full of people* who made their money not through any contribution to the productive process, but through various forms of financial swindling, speculation and the impoverishment of working people*
âAccumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole,â wrote Marx. And so it is. The Census Bureau report, âIncome, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012,â showed that the income of a typical household in the US has fallen to the lowest level since 1989, while poverty remains at the highest levels in decades.”
There will always be people who need help from the community. Those who are already filthy rich, and presently get the most help, should not be among them. The economic system that we live under should not contribute to this number, but people will always have accidents, get sick, or have physical deficiencies. I want a system that means these people don’t miss out. I don’t want SSlands’ system, where even a dry spot on footpaths is denied to the needy.
amirite
I like this bit.
“The king earns an annual salary of around 825,000 euros ($1.1 million), though maintaining the Royal House â castles, parades and all â costs the government more than 100 million euros annually. ”
And he should be looking for a smaller throne. The one he was on is wide enough for two.
Austerity and cuts are helping the Dutch Government to shrink the economy so it will fit into a mini-size oil tanker which the pollies will then sail away to spend in a more deserving country leaving the rest of the country to run a participation society, i.e. where they all do their own thing and don’t have to pay any taxes at all as they just look after themselves. I think this is the unspoken end of this utopian, retrograde stumble.
WTF!!! Tax payer money has been spent in the Supreme Court to obtain a declaration that resource management law, as currently worded, excludes climate change considerations.
Just one more law for a new government to change. In the meantime, mass opposition to standard extraction practices needs to grow to the level where mining executives are thought of as being lower than pedophiles, and too embarrassed to show their faces in public.
I’m bloody gobsmacked!!I!!
There’s a documentary on TV3 at the moment about NZ SIS agents’ life and work and how they see themselves in the global economy.
I never thought our security intelligence agencies would – indeed COULD be that open.
I think its called ‘Johny English Reborn’ – or something like that.
It shows how important and competent our intelligence services are in contributing to our safety, and the protection of us all as a sovereign nation.
I’m still coming to terms with how open and up front our intelligence services are as they strive to protect us as NewZill citizens. There’s even one or two Murray radicals in there showing us that we’ve nothing to fear if we have nothing to hide.
God …. it’s such a relief to know – given all this GCSB, TICS, TPPA and other crap that’s going on in the background.
My God – there really are Mightier men than Me! (Geeeez – and I mean I’m pretty butch to start with, but God – I never knew!)
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It is not the school holidays yet at Kia Kaha Primary School!It can be any time when you are telling a story.Telling stories about things that happened in the past is how we learn from our mistakes.If we want to.Anyway, it is not the school holidays yet at Kia Kaha ...
Labourâs Chris Hipkins came out firing, in the leadersâ debate on Newshubâs evening programme, and most of the pundits rated him the winner against Nationalâs Christopher Luxon. But will this make any difference when New Zealanders  start casting their ballots? The problem for Hipkins is that voters are all too ...
Buzz from the Beehive Not long after Point of Order published data which show the substantial number of New Zealanders (77%) who believe NZ is becoming more divided, government ministers were braying about a programme which distributes some money to “the public” and some to “Maori”. The ministers were dishing ...
The D&W analysisMichael Grimshaw writes –Â Given the apathy, disengagement, disillusionment, and all-round ennui of this yearâs general election, it was considered time to bring in those noted political operatives and spin doctors D&W, the long-established consultancy firm run by Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. Known for ...
Kissy kissy. Cartoon credit BoomSlang. The BFD. JC writes-Â Allow me to preface this contribution with the following statement: If I were asked to express a preference between a National/ACT coalition or a National/ACT/NZF coalition then it would be the former. This week Luxon declared his position, ...
This re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Andy Furillo was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The California Legislature took a step last week that has the potential to accelerate the fight against climate ...
This is a cross post Adventures in Transitland by Darren Davis. I recently visited Brisbane and South East Queensland and came away both impressed while also pondering some key changes to make public transport even better in the region. Here goes with my take on things. A bit of ...
My daughter arrived home from the supermarket yesterday and she seemed a bit worried about something. It turned out she wanted to know if someone could get her bank number from a receipt.We wound the story back.She was in the store and there was a man there who was distressed, ...
New Zealand’s longest-running political roadshow rolled into Opotiki yesterday, with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters knowing another poll last night showed he would make it back to Parliament and National would need him and his party if they wanted to form a government. The Newshub Reid Research poll ...
Hi,As September draws to a close — I feel it’s probably time to do an Ask Me Anything. You know how it goes: If you have any burning questions, fire away in the comments and I will do my best to answer. You might have questions about Webworm, or podcast ...
The mediocrity who stands to be a Prime Minister has a litany.He uses it a bit like a Koru Lounge card. He will brandish it to say: these people are eligible. And more than that, too: These people are deserving.They have earned this policy.They have a right to this policy. What ...
Buzz from the BeehivePoint of Order has waited until now â 3.45pm – for todayâs officially posted government announcements. There have been none. The only addition to the news on the Beehiveâs website was posted later yesterday, after we had published our September 26 Buzz report. It came from ...
Alex Holland writes –Â In 2017 when Labour came to power, crown spending was $76 billion per year. Now in 2023 it is $139 billion per year, which equates to a $63 billion annual increase (over $1 billion extra spend every week!) In 2017, New Zealandâs government debt ...
Labour released its fiscal plan today, promising the same old, same old: "responsibility", balanced books, and of course no new taxes: "Labour will maintain income tax settings to provide consistency and certainty in these volatile times. Now is not the time for additional taxes or to promise billions of ...
The Facts has posted –Â Â Â Â KEY INSIGHTSOf New Zealanderâs polled: Social unity/division77%believe NZ is becoming more divided (42% âmuch moreâ + 35% âa little moreâ) 3%believe NZ is becoming less divided (1% âmuch lessâ + 2% âa little lessâ) ...
The centre-rightâs enthusiasm for forcing people off the benefit and into paid work is matched only by the enthusiasm (shared by Treasury and the Reserve Bank) for throwing people out of paid work to curb inflation, and achieve the optimal balance of workers to job seekers deemed to be desirable ...
New research shows that tenants in social housing - such as these Wellington apartments - are just as happy as home owners and much happier than private tenants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The election campaign took an ugly turn yesterday, and in completely the wrong direction. All three ...
Media awareness about global warming and climate change has grown fairly steadily since 2004. My impression is that journalists today tend to possess a higher climate literacy than before. This increasing awareness and improved knowledge is encouraging, but there are also some common interpretations which could be more nuanced. ...
If there’s one thing the mob loves more than keeping Māori in their place, more than getting tough on the gangs, maybe even more than tax cuts. It’s a good old round of beneficiary bashing.Are those meanies in the ACT party stealing your votes because they think David Seymour is ...
Labour kicks off the fiscal credibility battle today with the release of its fiscal plan. National is expected to follow, possibly as soon as Thursday, with its own plan, which may (or may not) address the large hole that the problems with its foreign buyers’ ban might open up. ...
While it may be unlikely to register in New Zealandâs general election, Britainâs PM Rishi Sunak has done something which might just be important in the long run. Heâs announced a far-reaching change in his Conservative governmentâs approach to environmental, and particularly net zero, policy. The starting point – ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Canada is in uproar after the exposure that its parliament on September 22 provided a standing ovation to a Nazi veteran who had been invited into the chamber to participate in the parliamentary welcome to Ukrainian President Zelensky. Yaroslav Hunka, 98, a Ukrainian man who volunteered for service in ...
The big screen is a great place to lay out the ways of the salesman. He comes ready-made for Panto, ripe for lampooning.This is not to disparage that life. I have known many good people of that kind. But there is a type, brazen as all get out. The camera ...
The following is a message sent yesterday from lawyer Stephen Franks on behalf of the Free Speech Union. I donât like to interrupt first thing Monday morning, but we’ve just become aware of a case where we think immediate and overwhelming attention could help turn the tide. It involves someone ...
The right-wing message calendar is clearly reading "cruelty" today, because both National and NZ First have released beneficiary-bashing policies. National is promising a "traffic light" system to police and kick beneficiaries, which will no doubt be accompanied by arbitrary internal targets to classify people as "orange" or "red" to keep ...
Buzz from the Beehive One Labour plan â for 3000 more public homes by 2025 â is the most recent to be posted on the governmentâs official website. Another â a prime ministerial promise of more funding for Pharmac – has been released as a Labour Party press statement. Who ...
As the National Party gets closer to government, lobbyists and business interests will be lining up for influence and to get policies adopted. Itâs therefore in the public interest to have much more scrutiny and transparency about potential conflicts of interests that might arise. One of the key individuals of ...
Voters are deserting Labour in droves, despite Chris Hipkinsâ valiant rearguard action. So where are they heading? Clearly not all of them are going to vote National, which concedes that the outcome will be âcloseâ. To the Right of National, the ACT party just a few weeks ago  was ...
Accusations of racism by journalists and MPs are being called out.Graham Adams writes –Â Â With the election less than three weeks away, what co-governance means in practice â including in water management, education, planning law and local government â remains largely obscure. Which is hardly ...
As the centre-right has (finally!) been subjected to media interrogation, the polls are indicating that some voters may be starting to have second thoughts about the wisdom of giving National and ACT the power to govern alone. Thatâs why yesterdayâs Newshub/Reid Research poll had the National/ACT combo dropping to 60 ...
ANZ has increased its forecast for house inflation later this year on signs of growing momentum in the market ahead of the election. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR:National has campaigned against the Labour Government’s record on inflation and mortgage rates, but there’s now a growing chance the Reserve ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Katie Myers. This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Pittsburgh, in its founding, was blessed and cursed with two abundant natural resources: free-flowing rivers and a nearby coal seam. ...
Today the AT board meet again and once again I’ve taken a look at what’s on the agenda to find the most interesting items. Closed Agenda Interestingly when I first looked at the agendas this paper was there but at the time of writing this post it had been ...
Continuing my series on interesting electorates, today it’s West Coast-Tasman.A long thin electorate running down the northern half of the west coast of the South Island. Think sand flies, beautiful landscapes, lots of rain, Pike River, alternative lifestylers, whitebaiting, and the spiritual home of the Labour Party. A brief word ...
National leader Christopher Luxon yesterday morning conceded it and last night’s Newshub poll confirmed it; Winston Peters and NZ First are not only back but highly likely to be part of the next government. It is a remarkable comeback for a party that was tossed out of Parliament in ...
As this blogger, alongside many others, has already posited in another forum: we all know the National Party’s “budget” (meaning this concept of even adding up numbers properly is doing a lot of heavy, heavy lifting right now) is utter and complete bunk (read hung, drawn and quartered and ...
Everyone was asking, Are you nervous? and my response was various forms of God, yes.I've written more speeches than I can count; not much surprises me when the speaker gets to their feet and the room goes quiet.But a play? Never.YOU CAME! THANK YOU! Read more ...
Today's big political news is that after months of wibbling, National's Chris Luxon has finally confirmed that he is willing to work with Winston Peters to become Prime Minister. Which is expected, but I guess it tells us something about which way the polls are going. Which raises the question: ...
Buzz from the Beehive Under something described as a ârebalanceâ of its immigration rules, the Government has adopted four of five recommendations made in an independent review released in July, The fifth, which called on the government to specify criteria for out-of-hours compliance visits similar to those used during ...
Some of you might know Gerard Otto (G), and his G News platform. This morning he wrote a letter to Christopher Luxon which I particularly enjoyed, and with his agreement I’m sharing it with you in this guest newsletter.If you’d like to make a contribution to support Gerard’s work you ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes –Â While there will not be another quarterly release of benefit numbers prior to the election, limited weekly reporting continues and is showing an alarming trend. Because there is a seasonal component to benefit number fluctuations it is crucial to compare like with like. In ...
A close analysis of the Treasury assessment of the Medium Term in its PREFU 2023 suggests the economy may be entering a new phase.  Brian Easton writes – Last week I explained that the forecasts in the just published Treasury Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU 2023) was ...
Labour is in it for you. This election Kiwis will decide what kind of country they want New Zealand to be, who they trust to have their back, and how we can be better, together. This election matters. View our full Manifesto below. ...
The National Party's U-turn on water reform has left local councils high and dry and will drive up Kiwi's rates bills, Labour Party Local Government Spokesperson Kieran McAnulty says. ...
A re-elected Labour Party will continue to tackle discriminations still faced by members of the Rainbow community in areas ranging from surrogacy and adoption to blood donation. ...
Nationalâs fiscal plan has failed to fill the massive fiscal hole in its dodgy tax scheme, it will mean more cuts to public services, more children being put into poverty and an end to action on climate change. ...
New Zealand First Policy Announcement:Law and Order New Zealand First believes that keeping society safe should be the priority of law-and-order policies. Every New Zealander deserves to feel safe, secure, and have their person and property respected. That is why New Zealand First continues to fix the flaws in ...
In last nightâs leaders debate Labour Leader Chris Hipkins referred to a quote without giving any explanation of its content, which was about the âdisease of co-governanceâ that is perpetuated by the MÄori elite, and he said it was racist. Then, without even examining the content, National leader Christopher Luxon agreed with ...
In last nightâs leaders debate Labour Leader Chris Hipkins referred to a quote without giving any explanation of its content, which was about the âdisease of co-governanceâ that is perpetuated by the MÄori elite, and he said it was racist. Then, without even examining the content, National leader Christopher Luxon agreed with ...
After years of criticising the Government on law and order, National have embarrassed themselves by conceding they have no new ideas and instead copied Labourâs Police policy announced three weeks ago, Labour Police spokesperson Ginny Andersen says. ...
Labourâs fiscal plan will continue its focus on carefully managing the books while protecting critical public services like health and education and investing to deliver high wage jobs and a low carbon economy. ...
New Zealand First today is announcing a policy on adjusting the rules and restrictions around access to the Job Seeker Benefit.New Zealand Firstâs policy is to introduce a capped time-period for any person to access the Job Seeker Benefit during their lifetime. Any individual will have the ability to access the Job Seeker ...
New Zealand First today is announcing a policy on adjusting the rules and restrictions around access to the Job Seeker Benefit.New Zealand Firstâs policy is to introduce a capped time-period for any person to access the Job Seeker Benefit during their lifetime. Any individual will have the ability to access the Job Seeker ...
Nationalâs cuts to funding for beneficiaries will once again leave children and their parents with less, Spokesperson for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni said. ...
The Green Party will double the Best Start payment and make it available for every child under three years of age - and it will be paid for with a fair tax system. ...
Labour will fund more medicines for more New Zealanders by investing over $1 billion of new funding into Pharmac if re-elected, Chris Hipkins announced today. ...
Labour has just announced a policy to increase Pharmac funding by $1billion over four years to fund additional medicines.With the current Pharmac budget of $1.2billion per year and needing a further $213million, by Minister Verrallâs own admission, just to keep up with current costs - then this is nothing ...
Labour has just announced a policy to increase Pharmac funding by $1billion over four years to fund additional medicines.With the current Pharmac budget of $1.2billion per year and needing a further $213million, by Minister Verrallâs own admission, just to keep up with current costs - then this is nothing ...
This matter begins with the Pike River investigation being inadequate, inexplicably lengthy, and after millions of dollars, the evidence that should have been placed before the public still has not been. We have always believed that Pike River is a crime scene, and that a proper investigation would have come to that conclusion. Blue ...
This matter begins with the Pike River investigation being inadequate, inexplicably lengthy, and after millions of dollars, the evidence that should have been placed before the public still has not been. We have always believed that Pike River is a crime scene, and that a proper investigation would have come to that conclusion. Blue ...
New Zealand faces a stark choice this election â vote for Labour to continue to confront the climate emergency with eyes wide open or bury your head in the sand alongside Christopher Luxon. ...
Labour is supercharging its plan to solve the public housing shortfall created by National, promising another 6,000 homes on top of what has already been committed says Labour Housing spokesperson Dr Megan Woods. ...
Labour will back migrant working families by introducing a 10-year multiple-entry parentsâ and grandparentsâ Super Visa, and make good on the Dawn Raids apology by providing a one-off visa for overstayers who have been in the country ten years or more, Labourâs Immigration Spokesperson Andrew Little says. ...
The Green Party is today welcoming Labour coming to the table to ensure an amnesty for overstayers, but only the Greens will ensure immigration settings actually reflect the reality of people who have been failed by our immigration system. ...
The Green Party is calling on Auckland Council to do more to protect urban trees and housing developer Aedifice Property Group to restore and replant the native forest it cleared, and protect all the remaining trees on Ngahere Road in Pukekohe after a significant number of native trees were cut ...
Latest Police data shows monthly ram raids have hit a two-year low, laying waste to Christopher Luxonâs false claim that there are two ram raids a day says Labourâs Police Spokesperson Ginny Andersen. ...
Free and healthy school lunches will be here to stay if Labour is re-elected, guaranteeing food for our kids who need it most and significant cost saving for parents. ...
The next Labour Government will build a new hospital in Hawkeâs Bay, Labour leader Chris Hipkins and Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall announced. ...
The Green Party will keep up the fight to support exploited migrant workers, including pushing to end single employer visas, after the government picked up Green recommendations to improve immigration settings. ...
Green Party co leader James Shaw visited a home in Auckland today that has been upgraded with a wide range of energy improvements, similar to those that would be supported through the Green Partyâs Clean Power Payment. ...
The Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahutaâs presence in New York today at the United Nations General Assembly is a contempt of New Zealandâs âcaretaker governmentâ convention. Despite the long-standing caretaker convention, Minister Mahuta is today at the UN to sign a highly contentious âBiodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreementâ, delivering a ...
The Pre-Election Fiscal Update Changes EverythingWithin an hour of this speech there is going to be a debate between the political parties that the media, under MMP, still think are the only parties that matter in this campaign. Both of those parties are riddled with inexperience, as evidenced by ...
National and ACT's tax plans don't add up, and that means deep cuts to the public services New Zealanders rely on, says Labour Campaign Chair Megan Woods. ...
The public EV charging network has received a significant boost with government co-funding announced today for over 100 EV chargers â with over 200 charging ports altogether â across New Zealand, and many planned to be up and running on key holiday routes by Christmas this year. Minister of Energy ...
Tuvalu is in the spotlight this week as communities across New Zealand celebrate Vaiaso o te Gagana Tuvalu â Tuvalu Language Week. âThe Government has a proven record of supporting Pacific communities and ensuring more of our languages are spoken, heard and celebrated,â Pacific Peoples Minister Barbara Edmonds said. âMany ...
Seven more innovative community-scale energy projects will receive government funding through the MÄori and Public Housing Renewable Energy Fund to bring more affordable, locally generated clean energy to more than 800 MÄori households, Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods says. âWeâve already funded 42 small-scale clean energy projects that ...
The Government has approved new funding that will boost resilience and greatly reduce the risk of major flood damage across Te Tai Tokerau. Significant weather events this year caused severe flooding and damage across the region. The $8.9m will be used to provide some of the smaller communities and maraes ...
The largest public housing development in Napier for many years has been recently completed and has the added benefit of innovative solar technology, thanks to Government programmes, says Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods. The 24 warm, dry homes are in Seddon Crescent, Marewa and Megan Woods says the whanau living ...
MÄori: Kua waitohua e Te WhÄnau a Apanui me te Karauna te Whakaaetanga Whakataunga Kua waitohua e Te WhÄnau a Apanui me te Karauna i tÄtahi Whakaaetanga Whakataunga hei whakamihi i Ĺ rÄtou tÄhuhu kerÄme Tiriti o Waitangi. E tekau mÄ rua ngÄ hapĹŤ o roto mai o Te WhÄnau ...
Regions around the country will get significant boosts of public housing in the next two years, as outlined in the latest public housing plan update, released by the Housing Minister, Dr Megan Woods. âWeâre delivering the most public homes each year since the Nash government of the 1950s with one ...
Judicial warrant process for out-of-hours compliance visits 2023/24 Recognised Seasonal Employer cap increased by 500 Additional roles for Construction and Infrastructure Sector Agreement More roles added to Green List Three-month extension for onshore Recovery Visa holders The Government has confirmed a number of updates to immigration settings as part of ...
Tangi ngunguru ana ngÄ tai ki te wahapĹŤ o Hokianga Whakapau Karakia. TÄrehu ana ngÄ pae maunga ki Te Puna o te Ao Marama. Korihi tangi ana ngÄ manu, kua hinga he kauri nui ki te Wao Nui o TÄne. He Toa. He Pou. He Ahorangi. E papaki tĹŤ ana ...
40 solar energy systems on community buildings in regions affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events Virtual capability-building hub to support community organisations get projects off the ground Boost for community-level renewable energy projects across the country At least 40 community buildings used to support the emergency response ...
The lifting of COVID-19 isolation and mask mandates in August has resulted in a return of almost $50m in savings and recovered contingencies, Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Following the revocation of mandates and isolation, specialised COVID-19 telehealth and alternative isolation accommodation are among the operational elements ...
Susie Houghton of Auckland has been appointed as a new District Court Judge, to serve on the Family Court, Attorney-General David Parker said today. Judge Houghton has acted as a lawyer for child for more than 20 years. She has acted on matters relating to the Hague Convention, an international ...
The Government has today confirmed $2.5 million to fund a replace and upgrade a stopbank to protect the Waipawa Drinking Water Treatment Plant. âAs a result of Cyclone Gabrielle, the original stopbank protecting the Waipawa Drinking Water Treatment Plant was destroyed. The plant was operational within 6 weeks of the ...
Another $2.1 million to boost capacity to deal with waste left in Cyclone Gabrielleâs wake. Funds for Hastings District Council, Phoenix Contracting and Hog Fuel NZ to increase local waste-processing infrastructure. The Government is beefing up Hawkeâs Bayâs Cyclone Gabrielle clean-up capacity with more support dealing with the massive amount ...
The future of Supercars events in New Zealand has been secured with new Government support. The Government is getting engines started through the Major Events Fund, a special fund to support high profile events in New Zealand that provide long-term economic, social and cultural benefits. âThe Repco Supercars Championship is ...
The economy has turned a corner with confirmation today New Zealand never was in recession and stronger than expected growth in the June quarter, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. âThe New Zealand economy is doing better than expected,â Grant Robertson said. âItâs continuing to grow, with the latest figures showing ...
The Government has accepted the Environment Courtâs recommendation to give special legal protection to New Zealandâs largest freshwater springs, Te WaikoropupĹŤ Springs (also known as PupĹŤ Springs), Environment Minister David Parker announced today.  âTe WaikoropupĹŤ Springs, near Takaka in Golden Bay, have the second clearest water in New Zealand after ...
Temporary package of funding for accommodation and essential living support for victims of migrant exploitation Exploited migrant workers able to apply for a further Migrant Exploitation Protection Visa (MEPV), giving people more time to find a job Free job search assistance to get people back into work Use of 90-day ...
An export boost is supporting New Zealandâs economy to grow, adding to signs that the economy has turned a corner and is on a stronger footing as we rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle and lock in the benefits of multiple new trade deals, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. âThe economy is ...
The Government has approved $15 million to raise about 200 homes at risk of future flooding. More than half of this is expected to be spent in the TairÄwhiti settlement of Te Karaka, lifting about 100 homes there. âTe Karaka was badly hit during Cyclone Gabrielle when the WaipÄoa River ...
The Government is helping businesses recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and attract more people back into their regions. âCyclone Gabrielle has caused considerable damage across North Island regions with impacts continuing to be felt by businesses and communities,â Economic Development Minister Barbara Edmonds said. âBuilding on our earlier business support, this ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little has turned the first sod to start construction of a new Maintenance Support Facility (MSF) at Burnham Military Camp today. âThis new state-of-art facility replaces Second World War-era buildings and will enable our Defence Force to better maintain and repair equipment,â Andrew Little said. âThis Government ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta will represent New Zealand at the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York this week, before visiting Washington DC for further Pacific focussed meetings. Nanaia Mahuta will be in New York from Wednesday 20 September, and will participate in UNGA leaders ...
Around 1,700 Te Whatu Ora employed midwives and maternity care assistants will soon vote on a proposed pay equity settlement agreed by Te Whatu Ora, the Midwifery Employee Representation and Advisory Service (MERAS) and New Zealand Nurses Association (NZNO), Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. âAddressing historical pay ...
Aotearoa New Zealand will provide humanitarian support to those affected by last weekâs earthquake in Morocco, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. âWe are making a contribution of $1 million to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to help meet humanitarian needs,â Nanaia Mahuta said. ...
The Government is investing over $22 million across 18 projects to improve the resilience of roads in the West Coast that have been affected by recent extreme weather, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. A dedicated Transport Resilience Fund has been established for early preventative works to protect the state ...
The Government has today confirmed a $2 million grant towards the regeneration of Greymouthâs CBD with construction of a new two-level commercial and public facility. âIt will include a visitor facility centred around a new library. Additionally, it will include retail outlets on the ground floor, and both outdoor and ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta will attend the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Foreign Ministersâ Meeting, in Suva, Fiji alongside New Zealandâs regional counterparts. âAotearoa New Zealand is deeply committed to working with our pacific whanau to strengthen our cooperation, and share ways to combat the challenges facing the Blue Pacific Continent,â ...
Economy to grow 2.6 percent on average over forecast period Treasury not forecasting a recession Inflation to return to the 1-3 percent target band next year Wages set to grow 4.8 percent a year over forecast period Unemployment to peak below the long-term average Fiscal Rules met - Net debt ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall proudly opened the Canterbury Cancer Centre in Christchurch today. The new facility is the first of its kind and was built with $6.5 million of funding from the Governmentâs Infrastructure Reference Group scheme for shovel-ready projects allocated in 2020. ...
Small crowds of mainly seniors have been gathering at public meetings in community halls to hear New Zealand First leader Winston Peters speak and ask him questions. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra Shutterstock Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are in dire straits. With the market in a severe downturn, itâs safe to assume the NFT bubble has well and truly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Strangio, Emeritus professor of politics, Monash University It was Robert Menzies, father of the modern Liberal Party, who famously remarked: âto get an affirmative vote from the Australian people on a referendum proposal is the labour of Herculesâ. Menzies knew ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tara Crandon, Psychologist and PhD Candidate, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute When we think of spring, we might imagine rebirth and renewal that comes with the warmer weather and longer days. Itâs usually a time to celebrate, flock to spring flower festivals ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Skarbek, CEO, Climateworks Centre This article is part of a series by The Conversation, Getting to Zero, examining Australiaâs energy transition. The marks of industry have forever changed the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, edged by the Blue Mountains ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judith Brett, Emeritus Professor of Politics, La Trobe University UnsplashThis article is part of a series by The Conversation, Getting to Zero, examining Australiaâs energy transition. When I was first asked to write an opening piece in The Conversationâs ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Penny Van Bergen, Head of School of Education and Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Wollongong Pixabay/Pexels With school and university exams looming, students will be thinking about how they can maximise their learning. Memory is a key part of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Harrington, Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of Canterbury SBS/Paramount+/Binge If youâve made your way through our September picks and are looking for something new, this monthâs streaming picks have something for everyone. There is a ...
A huge government-subsidised barge is being seen as a boon for mineral exports and coastal shipping The West Coastâs first bulk shipment of heavy mineral sands sets sail for Asia on October 3 marking a major milestone for the regionâs fledgling industry. The 26,000 tonnes of ore concentrate from Westland Mineral ...
With the third scheduled leadersâ debate up in the air as a result of Chris Hipkinsâ sudden Covid diagnosis, a senior National MP has suggested a possible alternative: could the deputy leaders debate? Hipkins and Christopher Luxon were meant to participate in The Press debate from Christchurch tomorrow night. Both ...
It really couldnât have come at a worse time, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoffâs morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Labour leader laid low by lurgy Thereâs no good time for a prime minister on the ...
The Labour Party is having to find new options on the campaign trail now that its leader Chris Hipkins is isolating with Covid-19. Follow the latest with RNZ's live blog. ...
The Wairarapa MP talks to Stewart Sowman-Lund about his commitment to the regions â and why he definitely doesnât want to be prime minister.Itâs a cold and blustery day in central Hawkeâs Bay, but Labour minister and Wairarapa MP Kieran McAnulty has still attracted a small group of prospective ...
The Wairarapa MP talks to Stewart Sowman-Lund about his commitment to the regions â and why he definitely doesnât want to be prime minister.Itâs a cold and blustery day in central Hawkeâs Bay, but Labour minister and Wairarapa MP Kieran McAnulty has still attracted a small group of prospective ...
As advance voting gets under way, the signs point to a significant drop in participation, reckons Toby Manhire.âIt seems to me from a distance,â said former Tory minister Rory Stewart, beginning a question to Chris Hipkins, âmaybe this is very unfair ââ Doubt it, Rory, carry on. âThat when ...
As advance voting gets under way, the signs point to a significant drop in participation, reckons Toby Manhire.âIt seems to me from a distance,â said former Tory minister Rory Stewart, beginning a question to Chris Hipkins, âmaybe this is very unfair ââ Doubt it, Rory, carry on. âThat when ...
Don't put those winter clothes away just because sunnier days are predicted â El NiĂąo blows both hot and cold A New Zealand summer with potential cold snaps and lots of rain, coupled with sun and hot, record-breaking temperatures. What, come again? That's what's forecast for this summer â if the ...
Aaron Smale goes back to his grandmotherâs home town and finds a community weighed down by weather disasters and decisions of the past that have a region broken. A series on the slow destruction and devastating impact of the pine industry on Tairawhiti. You know youâre there when you catch a ...
A lobby group went looking for arts policies. It's still looking. Election 2023 has provided a chance for political parties to launch an exciting new arts policy that would provide a welcome boost to New Zealand writing. But the opportunity has withered on the vine. A lobby group with ...
Both the Silver Ferns and Black Ferns pulled in crowds and took home the spoils in one frenzied day in Hamilton. But is there room in Kiwi hearts for both? Usually playing two internationals in two rival codes in the same city on the same day would spell disaster for one â if ...
The Greens are in the dispiriting position of having a good election campaign but facing years again in opposition watching climate and social equity gains undone. They're pitching forward, regardless. Sporting metaphors have been thoroughly overworked this campaign, but forgive just one more: the Greens find themselves as the in-form player of a ...
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If my managers were any guide yesterday, today will be a public holiday for the top 10% if ETNZ win the America’s Cup.
Oh and now that the leadership debate has died down, is now the time to ask:
a) how it came to pass that a parliamentary caucus was so fundamentally out of sync with it’s membership and affiliated unions, and
b) how to prevent such a deep divide from re-occurring in the future?
I suspect that Cunliffe has put quite a bit of personal thought into these questions over the last 12 months đ
My take: a sense of elite entitlement and loss of accountability to ordinary members – indeed sometimes outright disdain of those members. quite similar to the Tory ‘born to rule’ conceit, in fact.
And now, after 30 years, we’re going to finish taking our party back this November, goddammit.
My take: a sense of elite entitlement and loss of accountability to ordinary members â indeed sometimes outright disdain of those members. quite similar to the Tory âborn to ruleâ conceit, in fact.
– We elect them when they do shit like this (both sides of the political spectrum) so why should they change?
– I mean Clark flagrantly breaking the law and dropping the cop in it and would anyone from Labour suggest she be gotten rid of? (at the time) and add any example you want of Key for the same thing
– We keep rewarding them so keep acting how they want to and so it goes…
Your use of Helen Clark as an example is petty and small minded. Key has fucked this country over to the tune of billions of dollars to his rich mates and eroded the civil rights of every NZer.
Bottom line is that MPs in each party need to be held more accountable to their membership. When is National going to do this?
+100 absolutely agree.
*Cough* Labour sold off billions of dollars of assets, many more then the present National govt. have
PR
When Prebble was Minister of State-Owned Enterprises in the 1980s, then yes; there was the sale of far too many assets. But I regard those dark Douglas days as being a perversion of Labour into an almost proto-ACT party, rather than the return to its socialist roots that I hope Cunliffe’s 6th Labour government will represent.
Nope sorry no matter the spin Douglas and Prebble were part of Labour which reinforces the point of ministers acting how they want with virtually nil ramifications
Which is a plight on all parties
Very few disagree with the fact that it was the First ACT Government.
PR
Douglas & Prebble were indeed members of the 4th Labour government. The leader of the soon to be 6th Labour-led government has stated that he refused in 1987 to be recruited by Treasury due to his opposition to their policies (in TDB interview last night). So the chances of his replicating their folly is hopefully minimal.
As for ramifications:
“Prebble retained his Auckland Central seat in the 1990 election, which Labour lost, arguably because of public dissatisfaction with the reforms. In the 1993 election, however, Prebble lost his seat to Sandra Lee-Vercoe, deputy leader of the left-wing Alliance. For the next three years, he worked as a consultant.”
Then in 1996 he became an MP for the ACT party started by his mate Douglas.
ref Auckland Central
1″the 1993 election, however, Prebble lost his seat to Sandra Lee-Vercoe, deputy leader of the left-wing Alliance.”
I hope Ardern has woken up to the fact that she reaps what she sows. What she has sown for the past five years has not flowered.
She needs to get stuck into Auckland Central, develops a functioning LEC, show respect to members and to voters and get elected in her own right.
” Douglas and Prebble were part of Labour”
yes well sleeper agents do tend to look like those they are hiding amongst
I remember back in the eighties when Lange won.We Labour party members were on a high,every thing and anything was possible, like the Kennedy years for the Americans.
Some months later i was at a meeting attended by Prebble,Caygill and De Cleene.The meeting was held at the local offices of various unions, and also the office of the local party.The meeting was a fiery one, with the local union orginisers and their sub branch members, along with the local Party members.The barny that ensued was about the direction that the government were taking us At the end of the meeting as the Parliamentarians were leaving were over heard to say Union officials, and they chuckled, as they went down the stairs..
It is without question that our elected, and more importantly, our list representatives, are out of touch with the every day rank and file and party members who vote for them, and the recent election has shone a glaring light on that.
Power to the Party members, and lets hope it continues.
In other words: a total absorption into the neocon mindset of the Beltway bubble (albeit a less harsh version of the Nat model) where members and affiliates cease to be of any importance. What’s the bet more than one ABCer reflected this week about… how much easier and better it would be if there were no members and affilliates in the Labour Party.
Well, they are expected to be “followers” who donate money, deliver flyers, and organise electorate events for the MPs.
I booked my tickets for Christchurch on the Airline that I as a taxpayer will continue to own.
Yes even when the writing was on the wall they still persisted in voting for the wrong person
That would have given us
Goff
Shearer
and then RobertsonFFS
Unbelievable And as for unity the biggest attack lines the right and msm has been the disunity in caucus as evidenced by the vote. Did they not see this coming ? are they so out of touch they actually thought Robertson a stood a chance ? Did they not see the media narratives around such a split vote that would eventuate?
Someone should tell them that the biggest enemy is actually the Tories not Cunliffe et el.
Winston Churchill said something along the lines of “the opposition isn’t the enemy, the ministers behind are”
I think thats true then and still is today (on both sides of the house)
The membership agreed with most of the caucus who voted for Robertson. Membership were not unanimously behind Cunliffe, by any means.
So I think the “disconnect” can be overstated.
And I also think that expecting different votes from different groups is reasonable.
So my conclusion is that Sanctuary is overstating the case when talking about a “deep divide”. But I note a couple of tories have been having fun stoking the debate, which is nice for them I guess.
item b is obvious. Build more democracy into the Party. Give the members more say on who represents them. Not sure why we would want the caucus should have a separate vote for leader they should get the same vote as any other member.
Also we need to get the party list process right. We have to decide if we should have open or closed list selection and ordering of the party list. I myself are leaning towards a fully open list where the public can have input into the list but would like to hear alternative views
The Greens do the list reasonably well
Delegates at election conference meet candidates and assess them
They report back to branches who put together list this is aggregated
And becomes the recommended list
This new list goes to wider membership who then can rank candidates in a stv type system
(with a couple of tweaks for gender and geographical balance)
Problems are that sitting MP ‘s have an advantage because of profile and name recognition
and better resourced candidates can visit branches to get there name out there more widely and enhance their profile. This has happened to great effect last time around with at least one of the candidates getting a much higher ranking then from the initial delegate list (members should have listened to the delegates đ
All in all it works quite well with a very strong competent united team. As can be witnessed by there strong performance in this last term.
Labour could learn from this
Fukushima just had a 5.8 quake. Swell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhQhZyNKqhM
I expected to see just the link and not the whole media player thing.
If I mod wishes to delete, to avoid consternation, I wouldn’t be offended.
Updating Jetpack has this habit of enabling that feature.
It should clean out shortly when I get around to looking at it.
CV who is this shima guy that you are cussing?
lolzzz
drawing a line in the kif..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-michael/if-you-still-think-pot-sh_b_3907678.html
(excerpt..)
â..If You Still Think Pot Should Be Illegal â You Are an A**hole..â (ed:..or as we would say:..a***holeâŚeh..?..)
â..there are a slew of bellowing ignorant statements that you make when you support cannabis prohibition:
That you donât care about injustice;
That you mindlessly repeat propaganda so easily debunked –
– it belies the shallowness of either your intelligence â or your integrity;
That you are so averse to admitting that you were wrong about something –
(regardless of how bigoted â short-sighted â and stupid it makes you look)
– you donât even care what your stubbornness is saying about you.
For one â if you think cannabis should remain a Schedule I drug â one for which there is no accepted medical use â
– then you are scientifically illiterate. .â
(cont..)
(mm-kay..?..)
phillip ure..
Really Claire? Just because Pinokeyo says it doesn’t make it true, and I really don’t need you to report his spin on his failures.
A key figure? The country that hasn’t joined the Eurozone and is in holding a referendum on membership? If he was talking the Merkel or Hollande he would have a point.
Last year Nact was calling the EU a basketcase and blaming this non-key trading partner problems for our continuing economic hole.
How about holding him up to his spin instead of hanging on to it? John Hartevelt did a better job of it.
An economy can be powerful and a basketcase at the same time. Those two terms don’t contradict each other.I would argue both the EU and US fit this category.
The article you link to doesn’t blame the non-key trading partner for our economic hole it blames the weakening US and EU economies for the strength of our dollar. That seems reasonable to me – also at the time of that article (October last year) Europe was a basketcase and it still is.
Finally, while the UK may not be as key as Germany it would still be considered a key member by most given the size of its economy – it is the second largest economy (if going by GDP).
Entropy. After three decades of cheap high density fuel flooding the western economies is it any wonder that society, economy, culture is in such chaos. Rebuilding requires that the right wing state gets off the backs of normal people who want to express and live their lives.
“An economy can be powerful and a basketcase at the same time”
Nah, a basketcase is a basketcase. It can be influential, but not powerful because other players can dismantle it if they choose to do so. E.g. the Greek economy is influential in EU economic decsion-making and a basketcase. It would take real spin to turn that situation into stating the Greek economy is powerful.
Key and English spent quite a lot of time blaming the New Zealand poor performing economy and trade deficits on conditions in Europe while ignoring the booming economies of our nearest trading partners Australia and China. Not much was asked about why the NZ economy didn’t get a boost from Aust and China but was impacted by Europe.
“Europe was a basketcase and it still is”
The periphery is in trouble. Core Europe is doing ok – the bit I live in is doing better than NZ in many ways.
And the UK has not the 2nd biggest economy, by GDP, in Europe since 2008 – austerity for the masses will do that to an economy – and any soft power the UK had was diminished by refusing to join the Euro and it’s referendum decision. It’s not committed and that seriously affects it’s power in the union.
The Court of Appeal chose yesterday to uphold last year’s decision by the Employment Court that employers paying the minimum wage had to pay their KiwiSaver contributions on top. This would give some minimum-wage workers an extra $540 a year.
Key was invited by Conservative Party leader and British counterpart David Cameron to a gathering of most of his MPs in Chipping Norton, a couple of hours northwest of London.
Key gave a speech to the MPs and strategists and joined in a “deeply political conversation” with high-ranking Cabinet ministers including Chancellor George Osborne and Home Secretary Theresa May.
Key also chatted with the controversial Australian political strategist Lynton Crosby, who advises Cameron.
OMG Key spoke to people!!!!!
Unlikely according to Tracey’s account.
Yes most interesting Tracey.Just what are they up too/
In fact its a bit scary ,120 Tory MP’s Crosby Textor smells a bit strong . In wonder if they are planning the next NZ election and how the UK Right would be able to help the NZ
Lets not forget that we were never told who payed for the ” Cossack adverts back in the 1970’s
Labour people need to keep a watchful eye on this . There was a good reason why they held this meeting with closed doors.
Fuck. Do you think maybe they were strategising about how to an election? That is concerning.
Trying to watch the Live coverage of the yachting, but no, all I get is about 2 seconds and the stream just freezes. Every other site I use streams perfectly. So I figure TVNZ must have been sitting with fingers crossed that they didn’t get more then 20 people at once wanting to watch. This must be what happens when the govt strips all the cash out of the company, and they have to do it on the cheap\free!
They used to host some of the content (ad’s) out of Oz and nearly crashed the stn X cable when the ch ch earthquake had their site taking alot of hits….perhaps they still do and the site’s pulling content from outside NZ thus the performance.
It’s not so much the cash David, it’s the competance and general savvy and will to do things properly but when 7 Sharp and Best Bits is your idea of quality is it any surprise.
I watched TVNZ ‘live’ without interruption but ran Herald blog at the same time .. TVNZ ‘live’ was 12 minutes behind the Herald blog. I checked time time the blog gave Peter Lester’s comment “like being at the dentist” against when it was webcast == 12 minutes !! no idea how or why .. maybe commercials ?? “Live” ? Yeah, nah.
LPRENT .. when I try to edit, takes me through to TS homepage in a box ?? very weird .. checked and it did same thing again ?? thx
yeah STD home page appearing as a window inside the edit dialogue box
The one I can’t stream from is TV3. It has to be the AD Blocker, but I can usually find the feed elsewhere, unless it’s Gower making shit up then I don’t bother with it.
pr, of note was he was meeting british mps and yet an australian political strategist was there and who he chose to speak with.
Extreme Oil and Coal.
Reading all the available resources it is not hard to come to the conclusion that the age of fossil fuel use is coming to an end.
Even here in New Zealand we can see this. Solid Energy is bankrupt, Denniston coal is also bust and can only go ahead with skewed legalisms that prevent climate change being taken into account. And large wind farms that could let us finally close down coal fired Huntly Power Station are prevented from starting through through lack of the barest legislation costing the taxpayer nothing. Meanwhile tens of $millions of tax payer subsidies are being shoveled into encouraging risky extreme deep water oil exploration, as conventional supplies run out.
It all signals one thing, the age of oil and coal is over. And if we keep desperately subsidising these failing technologies our civilisation will be over too.
Nothing is surer.
We need leaders of vision to prevent this catastrophe. (or at the very least soften the crash)
Oil will still be a dominant and widely available fuel for another 10-20 years; coal for another 50 years after that.
NZ has enough coal for at least 1200 years. Open cast is the way to go, and put the land back nice afterwards. The Coromandels and the Shotover river were extensively mined and are top tourist attractions now.
And then there’s fracking, which in NZ should allow us to put off nuclear power for many years until it is safe enough. The rest of the world can do with a lot of fracking too!
Those who don’t like fracking can stop opposing new hydro dams, especially on the West Coast.
Whatever happened to that wind farm that a councillor voted to allow on her farm at Waiuku, right where the noise would keep Waiuku awake?
In spite of the ranting by right wing weirdo’s about wanting Abbott as NZ’s PM its it’s taken all of five minutes in office for him to show his true colours:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/18999353/pm-seeks-legal-advice-on-act-marriage-equality-bill/
You ain’t seen nothing yet, he’s dissolved the Climate change body also and is warming up into his role as a fundamentalist christian mysoginist homophobic with anger issues…..politics suits him well.
Next – Abbott channels Mbeki.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/climate-sceptics-like-aids-deniers-scientist-nilay-shah-says/story-fnb64oi6-1226721777519#
Barrister Julian Burnside writes about Australia’s refugee policy.
So here we are: Australia in 2013. We have forgotten our origins and our good fortune, we are blind to our own selfishness. In place of memory we cling to a national myth of a generous, welcoming country, a land of new arrivals where everyone gets a fair go; a myth in which vanity fills the emptiness where the truth was forgotten.
http://theconversation.com/julian-burnside-alienation-to-alien-nation-18290
‘..national myth of a generous, welcoming country..’ It’s on record Oz favoured europeans re-settling there after WW2.
The Lib’s have tapped past the thin veneer of ‘ a fair go’ into an Oz that most who live there discover very quickly. Wander out of the CBD’s into suburbia or better still rural Oz and it’s rather old fashioned shall we say.
Garrett should reform the Oils now he’s left parliament, their material has never been so relevant.
Indeed, visiting Hay NSW last year was like stepping back into the seventies, late night Friday shopping and all.
Brisbane often reminds me of Auckland in the 80s. Some of the places in rural Queensland are just scary. The xenophobia and bigotry has a more overwhelming presence than sulphur in Rotorua. Newman in Queensland and Abbott federally will take it back even further. If they get their way, it’ll become a land that WhaleSpew would be proud to call home.
Rural Oz is scary, probably Tassie being the least scary with alot of foodie/produce/artisan diversity and a massive social welfare dependancy relative to other states.
Also most Taswegians don’t consider themselves Australians after having been shat on for many many decades by the Mainlanders
Scary, Cunnamulla is a real place.
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/review/film/s242728.htm
A good interview : Cunliffe indicates his broad policy directions.
He joined the Daily Blog Editors Selwyn Manning and Martyn Bradbury to discuss what challenges New Zealand faces and what bis solutions are to those challenges.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SHeFijl3js&feature=player_embedded
A good interview, but marred by technical difficulties. Hopefully they work the bugs out before next time. Definitely worth the effort though.
A pity that Cunliffe made a perceived big booboo at his first great opportunity to impress the public with ‘caucus’ vs ‘Corus’. A bit of lost ground to make up there with the ‘general’ voters. Our stupid media concentrates on such simple errors as their information highlight unfortunately. They do a great injustice to real democracy and politics. [Less than 200 people have viewed Cunliffe’s daily blog interview so far, while hundreds of thousands watched his booboo highlighted by our stupid Main Stream Media!]
CP @ 13.1.1 – you really, really identify that slip of the tongue as something that’ll stick with Cunliffe right through to the last of the leaders’ debates in 2014 ? Unlike the now cemented tangible sense amongst how many tens maybe hundreds of thousands that ShonKey Python is, well, shonky ?
You think that we’re going to see an opinion poll in the lead-up to the election in which the greatest number of respondents are moved to mention as the tipping point “caucus/chorus” in September 2013 ? Whatever the unfortunately turned out weirdo Potty Gower might choose to say ?
No, I don’t.
And also, I didn’t realise I said all that in my post.
No, you’re right, you didn’t say all that CP. Sorry about that. Me being too rhetorical I guess.
No worries, North. All good.
There was a well attended meeting; about the dangers of deep-water oil drilling, in Dunedin last night with Gareth Hughes as key speaker (plus a couple of Otago university lecturers with Green mayoral candidate; Aaron Hawkins, moderating). Simon Hartly; who wrote this acticle for today’s ODT business section, obviously didn’t attend:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/273950/deepwater-drilling-likely-grow
“…John Warren, the senior business development manager of Halliburton, covering Australasia.”
“On the question of the Deepwater Horizon seabed blowout and subsequent rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico, which became the United States’ worst environmental disaster, Mr Warren said it was a combination of human and technological error.
There was now more technology, reliability and competence in the workforce. ”
But there isn’t any real incentive for a Deepwater Horizon-style exploratory-phase disaster in NZ to actually be avoided (beyond the loss of their ship), or cleaned-up by the company responsible if it does. There is presently $10 million maximum liability under NZ law, plus $30 million mandatory insurance for the oil drilling. Deepwater Horizon cleanup costs are US$40 billion so far.
That’s a 0.02 cent on the dollar cost; to cut their losses and pay the fine, rather than stay and try to clean-up the problem (if you consider that the insurance premiums will already have been paid).
the “human error” was corporate middle managers fucking around with shortcuts in order to make more money and keep to budgets they had promised the board of directors.
And lets add in the captured and under-resourced regulators in the USA, where they had one inspector for every 40-50 rigs, and anyways the regulators would often be out partying with oil company staff, accepting big gifts from the corporates, accepting favours in the forms of prostitutes etc.
Was this also “human error”?
NZ could put rostered inspectors on every rig permanently as a condition of a drilling / extraction permit. All paid for by the company.
when is parliament going to be available to us proles with only an uhf aerial.
at the moment it seems to be restricted to disc users and sky subscribers.
has parliament become pay per view too?
I get Parliament TV with a UHF aerial. Channel 22.
You can also watch it online live – never tried so don’t know what the quality is like but the option is there.
Used to watch it on Parliament TV live on computer. Only small image though:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/about-parliament/see-hear/ptv/
Now watch on channel 22 Freeview.
The quality is good chris, but it has varied in the past.
Btw, you can enlarge the picture to full size ianmac.
Anyone with a UHF aerial plus a freeview box or TV with inbuilt freeview should be able to et Parliament.
Come December when Analog switches off, that’s what will be needed to get any free-to-air TV.
What’s a disc user? I don’t think I’m one of those, and neither do I subscribe to Sky.
I have a UHF aerial plus Freeview set top box for one old analog TV, & a myfreeview recorder for the small high def LCD TV.
FYI
__________________________________________________________________________
“RE: Greens call for Smith’s sacking
“Nick Smith should resign. He is not the Minister for Conservation; he is the minister for large-scale dams; he is the minister for water pollution; he’s the minister for wiping out New Zealand’s native fish. He has no right to occupy the Minister of Conservation portfolio.”
(Russel Norman, 19 September 2013).
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/222179/doc-defends-minister-over-dam-answers
___________________________________________________________________________
“Nick Smith is NOT the Minister of Housing.
He is the Minister of tents, caravans, sheds and ‘lean-tos’ and Minister for Property Developers’,” says Sue Henry, Spokesperson for the Housing Lobby.
“He should resign forthwith from the Housing portfolio.”
“It is a disgrace when State Housing tenants are forced out of their homes and along with others referred to sub-standard caravan parks and temporary ‘doss houses’ by Housing New Zealand, when thousands of State houses sit empty, and some have done so for well over over one year.”
“Vulnerable driven to caravan parks” (TV3 News !9 September 2013)
http://www.3news.co.nz/Vulnerable-driven-to-caravan-parks/tabid/423/articleID/313937/Default.aspx
“It’s misleading and deceptive for Nick Smith to promote affordable housing when he’s delivering unaffordable housing, where $700,000 houses are being sold off the plans (eg: Apirana Ave, Glen Innes).”
“This of course, is after the forced removal of State housing tenants and their affordable State houses, which have been, and are being trucked out of the area.”
“This is being replicated in other parts of New Zealand, against the wishes of both the tenants and their communities in which some lived for decades.”
“This situation is becoming critical, and is totally unacceptable.”
“A moratorium to cease forthwith State house removals must be implemented immediately. ”
Sue Henry
Spokesperson
Housing Lobby
_________________________________________________________________________
No one in their eighties or at any age should be expected to trot 50 metres to use a toilet several times a night. This would cause me sleep deprivation as I would be awake just after one trip in the freezing cold.
I knew that HNZ was not performing. I have underestimated how despicable the government are regarding housing. I’d like to see how long they would last in a caravan park.
Iâm feeling so much better now.
/
In an interview on âSquawk Box,â the founder of hedge fund Duquesne Capital said that the Federal Reserveâs policy of quantitative easing was inflating stocks and other assets held by wealthy investors like himself. But the price of making the rich richer will be paid by future generations.
âThis is fantastic for every rich person,â he said Thursday, a day after the Fedâs stunning decision to delay tightening its monetary policy. âThis is the biggest redistribution of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the rich ever.â
âWho owns assetsâthe rich, the billionaires. You think Warren Buffett hates this stuff? You think I hate this stuff? I had a very good day yesterday.â
Druckenmiller, whose net worth is estimated at more than $2 billion, said that the implication of the Fedâs policy is that the rich will spend their wealth and create jobsâessentially betting on âtrickle-down economics.â
âI mean, maybe this trickle-down monetary policy that gives money to billionaires and hopefully we go spend it is going to work,â he said. âBut it hasnât worked for five years.â
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/hedge-fund-billionaire-feds-move-fantastic-rich-4B11199524
The U$ Home of NeoLiberalism and the inspiration of our RWNJ politicians:
“These individuals represent a social type. The saying of Balzac, âBehind every great fortune there is a great crime,â was never truer than for the American ruling class. The list is full of people* who made their money not through any contribution to the productive process, but through various forms of financial swindling, speculation and the impoverishment of working people*
âAccumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole,â wrote Marx. And so it is. The Census Bureau report, âIncome, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012,â showed that the income of a typical household in the US has fallen to the lowest level since 1989, while poverty remains at the highest levels in decades.”
* John Key?
“The Looting of America”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36285.htm
The NL ideology has destroyed working and social America
In this country, if you’re rich you can get away with anything and you can keep on living the high life:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/crime/news/article.cfm?c_id=30&objectid=11126767
And this is where the neoliberal societies are heading to:
Dutch King Willem-Alexander declares the end of the welfare state
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/dutch-king-willemalexander-declares-the-end-of-the-welfare-state-8822421.html
Oh, the irony! The greatest bludger in Holland doesn’t mind other people’s taxes going for his upkeep.
Off with his head!
I would hope that we all want an end to welfare.
Yes, you would. Because you have the moral compass of Emperor Palpatine.
i have got news for you SSLands, think brand spanking new fridges and washing machines courtesy of your mate Paula,
And guess what, your paying for em…
There will always be people who need help from the community. Those who are already filthy rich, and presently get the most help, should not be among them. The economic system that we live under should not contribute to this number, but people will always have accidents, get sick, or have physical deficiencies. I want a system that means these people don’t miss out. I don’t want SSlands’ system, where even a dry spot on footpaths is denied to the needy.
I want an end to “welfare” and a return to “social security” for all.
amirite
I like this bit.
“The king earns an annual salary of around 825,000 euros ($1.1 million), though maintaining the Royal House â castles, parades and all â costs the government more than 100 million euros annually. ”
And he should be looking for a smaller throne. The one he was on is wide enough for two.
Austerity and cuts are helping the Dutch Government to shrink the economy so it will fit into a mini-size oil tanker which the pollies will then sail away to spend in a more deserving country leaving the rest of the country to run a participation society, i.e. where they all do their own thing and don’t have to pay any taxes at all as they just look after themselves. I think this is the unspoken end of this utopian, retrograde stumble.
Hi amirite
100% right! đ This Dutch parasite lives in an alternative reality.
So is T. Mallard coming back to NZ any time soon or is he a wee bit scared? Though I’d say its worth the money to keep him away from NZ đ
Whatever the “Silent T”(revor) does will probably cue if you have to put up with caucus acting like dorks.
‘
WTF!!! Tax payer money has been spent in the Supreme Court to obtain a declaration that resource management law, as currently worded, excludes climate change considerations.
Just one more law for a new government to change. In the meantime, mass opposition to standard extraction practices needs to grow to the level where mining executives are thought of as being lower than pedophiles, and too embarrassed to show their faces in public.
I’m bloody gobsmacked!!I!!
There’s a documentary on TV3 at the moment about NZ SIS agents’ life and work and how they see themselves in the global economy.
I never thought our security intelligence agencies would – indeed COULD be that open.
I think its called ‘Johny English Reborn’ – or something like that.
It shows how important and competent our intelligence services are in contributing to our safety, and the protection of us all as a sovereign nation.
I’m still coming to terms with how open and up front our intelligence services are as they strive to protect us as NewZill citizens. There’s even one or two Murray radicals in there showing us that we’ve nothing to fear if we have nothing to hide.
God …. it’s such a relief to know – given all this GCSB, TICS, TPPA and other crap that’s going on in the background.
My God – there really are Mightier men than Me! (Geeeez – and I mean I’m pretty butch to start with, but God – I never knew!)