Those who complain that Labours industrial relations policy is a throwback to the 1970s forget that living standards and security were way higher then than they are now.
It seems that there is a general consensus that wages and conditions should be held down, and people should be forever in financial misery.
Fuck, I am just so over this country.
Bring on National awards I say. The only people who think they are bad is those who want to pay only $2 an hour.
Because unlike most of the posters on here, I dont have a deluded fantasy that Labour is going to some how rocket back to Clark-era levels of support in the next 6 weeks and Labour will pull off an upset victory.
Labour are going to lose this November, and lose heavily. That is a FACT. Key needs someone who will give him a heck of the hard time from the opposition benches, and Winston is the man to do it. He actually puts some back bone into oppositon (though I wouldnt have him in government. He has a habit of selling out).
I have been accused of being a NACT supporter of actually daring to suggest this on here, so sometime I know where the rednecks and the latte drinkers at Public Address are coming from.
Finally went down to check out a temporary constructed party central and the waka on a windy rainy akl evening…..rugby ball shut, waka closed at 6, dodgy wet walkways on uneven wharf surfaces both in and outside and a very small area all up.
3 years in office and that’s the best muzza and sideshow can do….its no wonder our economy is where it is. At least Americas cup gave akl a viaduct region, this one will just leave a large bill.
Nope more interested in what my ratepayer/taxpayer money leaves for me to get value from once the RWC is over given you’re actualy constructing stuff…..looks like absolutely nothing.
Atmosphere comes with people and I’m not into Rugby, never have been, nothing polutical about that QstF…look beyond your own skewered views.
The bludgers are all at the top of the capitalist pyramid scheme. They’re probably more drug addled to.
There’s very very few people in the world who don’t want to work. The only reason why we have “unemployment” is because of a failure of society mostly because of the bludgers trying to keep as much of societies wealth to themselves rather than allowing it to be used.
If ever there were random drug (inc alcohol) of doctors, lawyers, politicians, bankers, etc. etc., they’d leave bennies for dead in proportion involved, and volume of consumption.
But that’s never going to happen because the whole motivation for calls to drug test benes is about humiliation and bullying those who can’t fight back, not any practical purpose.
KK So your against borrowing mountains of debt[$6billion in interest per year] bailing out private finance companies subsidizing multi billion dollars film firms.Subsidizing alcohol $ $5to$6billion a year it costs our country
But KKK your quite happy to fund foreign lenders that won’t spend any money in this country to the tune of $77 billion and rising interest rates on that $6billion per year plus which we will never see again . At least the bene’s you are bashing will be spending that money in NZ keeping wealthy landlords in tax free money as well as other services and retailers going in this recession . The last country to ditch benefits ended in misery Argentina cut all welfare and unemployment went from 6% to 38% redneck ape do some economics research before you start foaming at the mouth.
There’s actually very little “capitalism” or “free markets” left in the financial system of the world.
It’s now all highly centrally planned and controlled financial markets (where prices are computer manipulated and predetermined), as well as billionaire banksters who benefit risk-free from socialising their deriavatives casino losses on to the rest of society.
It’s not been real capitalism for roughly 30 years.
Today its the final evolutions of crony cartel capitalism, which players like Pete George don’t get in the slightest.
Meh. I think that it’s a reasonable opinion to hold, but unachievable without major technology advances, particularly in energy generation.
It shows that someone is intelligent enough to realise they’re being conned in a complex world, unlike someone who refuses to commit to any particular policy action.
And imagining a society without central government is again a reasonable “outside the box” thought – and shows someone is smart enough to know that a banal weathervane with a nice hairdo being in government is more damaging to society than no government at all.
is “SMASH CAPITALISM” a sign of their intelligence and competence?
Yes. Getting rid of capitalism may let us prevent an anthropogenic ELE. If we don’t then we will be forced to continue to ravage the planet eventually destroying the environment wiping out most life on Earth.
What is doing without any central government a sign of?
Anarchism of course, one of the older political philosophies.
Your blogpost seems to imply you’re startled (though somewhat ingenuinely I imagine) that political opposition to your ideas and methods exists and that since Occupy associate with those who are just like you (as far as supporting a hierarchical/class structure) anything they have to say is void owing to the inherent contradiction of stated ideal of Occupy. You want a ruling class, with you presumably near the top somewhere deciding what is good and bad. The socialists want to do the same, though with different “enemies”. Occupy say they aren’t political, but they have political friends. It’s all divisive politics, man.
“Is it collusion or coincidence that both Green and Mana party activists are fronting Occupy Dunedin?”
coincidence but i would be most happy with collusion because that is the future of the parliment with a strong Mana and Greens presence, working together to create a better nation for everyone – that doesn’t compute for a self serving political aspirant willing to use anything and everything to further their own agenda like pete and that is why, struggling for relevance, his ilk are doomed to oblivion.
The 99.9% of Dunedin people deserve to know who has really taken over their Octagon. The 0.1% who are occupying should be honest amongst themselves what their real aims are, and then be honest with Dunedin.
Replace “Octagon” with “Country” and you’re getting closer to it…
PG -People who think hierarchically and in terms of leaders and followers are having a hard time getting their head around Occupy. My understanding is that they are inclusive political protests but not party political. People can bring along whatever banners/placards they feel expresses their concerns, if the Occupy group has collectively decided that. So of course some will bring along party or union banners. You could even bring your UF placard if you were prepared to join them and justify that. That’s called inclusion.
exactly CV anything and anyone is useful for pete to get his simpleton message out there. Like the rena his heavy oil pollutes leaving toxic material splattered around the varoius threads – all so that pete can further his pathetic personal political ambitions.
Pete if you bothered to bone up on what the movement was before you strode in with puffed chest and feigned interest you might have realised that all your concerns are fully accounted for in the Occupy ideas. The movement is INCLUSIVE. i will gve you a minute to get a dictionary.
got it? good, here are some other words for you to investigate
humanity
humility
hubris
One of them describe who we are working for
one describes what it is all about
one describes the content of your comments
i will check back tonight to see if you managed to figure which was which. I am off to barter a day’s labour for some healthy food before your mates make it illegal to do so.
Pete,
Judging by the comments & articles in the ODT it is fairly relaxed about Occupy. The mayor & council seem prepared to let things play out for a while and not force confrontation with the occupiers at this stage.
The fact that the occupation stayed put during the heavy rain we had this week has shown Dunedin people that those involved are not ‘rent-a-mob’, they are determined motivated people with genuine concerns about the many things that are wrong with the current corporate controlled system.
The occupy movement is about many issues, social justice, inequality, environmental , how could it not be political? The idea is that if you want to be involved you participate, get involved in discussion, spend time there & listen to other people.
“The people of Dunedin have a right to know the motives behind those leading the occupation”
It’s a bit like the Dylan song ” there’s something going on here, but you don’t know what it is…….”
On Monday, representatives from Occupy Dunedin were invited by the Mayor and Chief Executive of the DCC to speak at today’s Public Forum. Representatives took their turn to speak at the meeting – but then they all walked out without giving the Council any opportunity to address their concerns.
The council have been co-operative and accommodating with the occupiers but if they keep getting fobbed off patience will wear even thinner.
The public have mostly remained muted but don’t expect that to last long if they think their city is just being used.
Occupy could do great things in New Zealand, or they could really stuff up their opportunity.
“I think a few people involved in Occupy might be having a hard time getting their heads around the fact that they are being used.”
Everyone is being used. Ever heard of taxes? But what will really piss them off, is some guy coming from a white middle class perspective, treating them like they’re children. Pick your battles, aspiring MP man. You want votes, right?
So basically, you can break the law as much as you like and as long as you can write a big enough cheque the problem will go away.
They should not be settling these cases, no matter how much money the financial institutions offer them to make the case go away. How can they rebuild confidence in the system when they effectively let people get away with this sort of thing? $285 million is nothing to these guys.
It’s no different to a drug dealer paying off the cops to turn a blind eye. It’s corruption, pure and simple.
It is the criminals paying the police to turn a blind eye. Every single person who works there should be under investigation and the organisation itself closed down. You don’t get honest business by letting dishonest businesses continue.
In June the NBR reported: Treasury figures show the government’s borrowing of $380 million a week is about $80 million to $100 million a week more than it has to…
Jackal you figures are out of date the Govt debt is going to peak now at more than $77billion 2013 with no unexpected surprises , Debt is increasing by $1.5 billion a month now
The post states the borrowing figures are quoted from June. The $38 billion is the current net government debt.
Strange that National claim New Zealand will be back in black at about the same time your figures show we’ll be in debt by $77 billion. I wonder how much of the current $375 million per week National doesn’t need to be borrow?
Blinglish has done pretty well at getting the country in hock as an excuse to privatize. He’s still saying that the Christchurch Earthquakes, the Rena disaster and now the Maui gas disaster aren’t going to effect their projections… talk about delusional.
When any NZ business person is interviewed and asked what they would do to get the economy growing inevitably say they would remove “red tape” to make it easier to do business.
And yet, and not for the first time either, NZ has been rated as the 3rd easiest country in the world in which to do business….
New Zealand has ranked first as the world’s easiest place to start a business and third out of 183 countries for ease of doing business in a report from the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank.- Source
So what’s going on?
If they think that that is NZ’s problem then it shows they have no idea what the reality is – they should no longer be interviewed because they don’t have a clue.
If they think that that is NZ’s problem then it shows that they have no solutions to NZ’s growth woes.
If they think that that is NZ’s problem then it shows they are not engaging in original thought but are captured by the prevailing ideology of their group.
If they think that that is NZ’s problem then it shows how easy it is to get them to parrot whatever the speaker at the last business conference said.
It’s time we stopped, as the news announcers often say, “look at the markets [and the exchange rates] to see how well they reacted to the news of…….”
It’s time we stopped asking business people what’s good for NZ – they are just not qualified!
The research is fairly conclusive – NZ managers are the worst in the world and yet the prevailing paradigm insists that we need them to make NZ better.
It seems that migrants have no trouble in coming over and starting a business here – I dont hear them go on about red tape, but I suppose they are glad they dont have to bribe all and sundry to get started (nor do they have to pay protection money to the local crime overlord)
Eleven percent of people who voted for National in the 2008 general election say they will not do so when they head to the polls on November 26, because of the way the Government has handled the Rena disaster.
That’s gotta hurt although this is the interesting line:
The survey also found 46.8 percent of the 1,961 respondents rated Prime Minister John Key’s response to the crisis as ‘poor to very poor’.
The question had 5 options:
V. good
good
neutral
poor
V. poor
They don’t tell us how many were neutral giving the impression that a majority found Key’s response to be “good”. Of course, if they were doing proper reporting they would have given the figures for all 5 possible responses. More underhanded support from the MSM for this government.
From the article:“The RadioLive-HorizonPoll shows 11% of people who voted National in 2008 now won’t do so because of the disaster, which effectively drops National’s current support nationwide by 3%.”
Well, no, actually. The Nats got 44.9% at the 2008 General Election. Which surely means a fall of pretty damn close to 5 percentage points.
That 11% of 2008 National voters won’t vote National this time because of Rena, raises more questions than it answers.
1. How does that ‘integrate’ with people who voted for other parties in 2008 but now will vote National? That is, will such people off-set the ones who, apparently, are prepared to desert National over the Rena?
2. Is that 11% partly made up of people who voted National in 2008 but, actually, have been saying in other Horizon polls that they were going to vote for some other party this time anyway, and now are mentioning the Rena as a reason for their changed vote – or, is it an additional 11% of 2008 National voters (on top of those who had already got to the point of switching) who now have decided, solely on the basis of the Rena, to vote for someone else?
It’s hard to tell from the press releases quite what is meant.
“United Future Wigram candidate Ian Gaskin said he’d been given a clean slate by leader Peter Dunne to speak. He then variously stated that: We could solve our fuel needs by growing seaweed and turning it into oil, that DOC was not needed and should be folded into the Ministry of Agriculture or perhaps Tourism NZ
and that fracking Canterbury’s landscape with pressurised water and chemicals may not extract enough gas or oil so perhaps a nuclear device might assist. I wonder if these are official United Future policies?”
Maybe the headline, “Untied Future threatens to nuke Canterbury”
One thing’s for sure pete won’t be jumping up and down like he did against Hone yesterday.
UF candidates have been told they are free to express their own opinions and talk on local issues as they see fit, however you hope that clean slates don’t come with wet chalk.
No, I’m not a fracking fan, too much doubt at this stage.
UF don’t have a policy on it but my guess would be the party would be concerned about any possibility of water contamination as clean water (and retention of ownership of water) are strong party policy positions.
Too be honest, I cannot see UF getting any more seats than the one held by Mr Dunne. In any case, UF only got those seats in ’02 because thier leader performed so good with ‘the worm’, and got influence because the Greens threw their toys out of the cot over GE, driving Labour into the arms of United Future, and sending this country on a slow rightward drift. Thanks Greenies. Way to go guys.
“Too be honest, I cannot see UF getting any more seats than the one held by Mr Dunne.”
Yep, that would be my pick for an election result.
But I just thought that Pete George needed acknowledging for actually getting involved in the political process – such as it is.
I don’t expect that people’s efforts will (or should) necessarily be rewarded. But Pete has put effort where his ‘mouth’ is (whatever location that happens to be – I honestly can’t work out where that is, but that’s not my point).
I just think that effort should be acknowledged – purely at a human level.
“In any case, UF only got those seats in 02 because their leader performed so good with ‘the worm’.”
I tend to agree with former Alliance deputy leader, Sandra Lee, on this. It wasn’t so much the worm as the post-debate comments by TVNZ’s so-called panel of ‘experts’.
I taped that leaders’ debate and I can tell you that the worm was often as low as it was high while Dunne was speaking.
The ‘experts’ – clearly looking for some sort of interesting angle – decided to place total emphasis on those particular moments when Dunne charmed the worm and to hence declare him ‘the winner’. All very contrived. The print media, the next day, simply took their cue from the ‘experts’.
No, but I’d be happy if Doc found a way to chop their 1080 use.
I was talking to someone from Forest and Bird last week who admitted that 1080 killed a lot of birds (including protected natives) but they claimed the bird numbers recovered faster than predators. Very dubious about that especially with kiwi.
If a private company wanted to use some land and claimed that all the birdlife they killed wouldn’t matter because most species would eventually recover do you think they would get resource consent?
What would you do Peter? Possum trapping, just like in the Barry Crump novels? You just to have to remember that possum trapping, etc is more of a lifestyle than an occupation, so you couldnt hope to make a dent in umemployment with it. And a possum fur industry would never get beyond a niche market.
There’s no way to replace 1080 at the moment without getting an increase in predator numbers. Some methods like trapping and shooting (that’s how I do it) can be increased but nowhere near enough.
1080 is an easy solution for DOC to keep using but it hasn’t solved anything over decades of use.
The main aim apart from trialling existing methods other than 1080 in select areas is to substantially increase research into alternatives.
There are alternatives. The fact of the matter is that 1080 is used because it’s cost effective, but it will not work to achieve eradication of pests or protection of native species. It is simply delaying the inevitable in many cases.
1080 is not the best way to eradicate pests while trying to protect endangered species. The alternatives take lots of man-hours, training and a very large budget. Extensive fencing projects, relocation, trapping and cyanide is the best solution if we want to keep a lot of our endemic endangered species.
I believe there has been some developments to increase hit rates and reduce cyanide shyness from possums that don’t initially receive a fatal dose. The advantage is that cyanide totally breaks down and has a lower secondary poisoning risk if applied correctly.
Unfortunately having a lot of people learning how to hunt and trap animals in the bush doesn’t fit well with the systems ideal of having everybody dependent on the state. That would be one reason why the government is willing to sacrifice many other species, the land and waterways in their failed use of 1080.
Same principle as chemotherapy – poisoning differentially. Works as well as 1080. More people surviving the unsurvivable. More bush and native fauna as well.
One would think that following the Sep 4 earthquake (and suspecting a bigger one was quite possible), you would want to know what was going on under Christchurch.
I don’t know who had the ultimate authority regarding funding (i.e. the commission or cabinet) but it seems to be that someone dropped the ball post-September earthquake.
GNS Science unsuccessfully pushed for more Government funding to investigate faults under Christchurch after the September earthquake last year, a hearing has heard.
GNS Natural Hazards Research manager Dr Kelvin Berryman today told the Canterbury earthquakes royal commission that he asked the now-defunct Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Commission for money to look at the possibility of a major aftershock near Christchurch.
“One of the proposals was to conduct additional work recognising the area of Christchurch and that some of these aftershocks were relatively close to Christchurch,” he said.
The request was made in December last year but no funds were provided.
Less than three months later, on February 22, a magnitude-6.3 earthquake, centred just 10 kilometres southeast of central Christchurch, struck killing 182 people……..
Elliot’s line of questioning has focused on whether GNS informed the public about the risk of a more devastating quake after September 4.
Under scrutiny yesterday, Berryman admitted GNS Science was aware of the possibility of a more devastating tremor striking near central Christchurch after the magnitude-7.1 shake on September 4, 2010.
However, in the first few weeks after the September quake the possibility of more devastating aftershock was intentionally not discussed. It was considered that it would be unhelpful for a “traumatised” public.
“It’s rather alarmist to say there could have been a bigger event.”
– Source
I don’t know what would have changed if we had known that a bigger quake was likely but it would have been in the interests of the people of Canterbury to be informed so they could make choices.
Like the parents of the toddler who was killed by the falling TV might have secured their furniture if they knew a bigger one was possible.
GNS Science made the decision not to tell the public….but they tell anyone?
Was the commission advised? Did cabinet know?
If then they did then they dropped the ball – I hope the MSM get of their perches and look into who knew what and when.
The commission was made up of:
They are retiring Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry director-general Murray Sherwin, Canterbury regional council commissioner Dame Margaret Bazely, earthquake engineer David Hopkins, social expert Arihia Bennett, Mayor Kelvin Coe, Mayor Bob Parker and [David Ayers] – David Ayer website
Of course we already know who the slack-jawed knuckle draggers that comprise our cabinet are.
What has really irritated me during the last year is the knowledge (yes, knowledge) that our geologists have had their public comments filtered – so as not to cause ‘alarm’.
For goodness’ sake. We are being treated as children by our ‘betters’. We are supposedly susceptible to ‘panic’ and they have decided that it is not in our (read ‘their’) interests for us to ‘panic’ (i.e., decide what we want to do in response to all the available information).
So anti-democratic, yet it comes so naturally to those with ‘positions of responsibility’. People seen as mushrooms.
We had a right to hear it all. Then we could, perhaps, ‘panic’, talk to each other and, who knows, maybe come to some sensible response collectively. That process was never allowed to happen and never trusted.
Why?
Because it would have disrupted ‘business as usual’. And that – more than anything else – is verboten.
I received a very interesting email today. It’s all about the poisonous substance known as Corexit 9500 that’s been used on the Bay of Plenty oil spill by Maritime New Zealand…
Naomi Wolf arrested by NYPD at OWS.
A must read for all those who still think we have the right to protest in a post-9/11, police state, surveillance society.
Apropos of nothing really. I was curious about Key’s middle name so I googled him.
From wiki I found this synopsis interesting
“Before politics
Key’s first job was in 1982, as an auditor at McCulloch Menzies, and he then moved to be a project manager at Christchurch-based clothing manufacturer Lane Walker Rudkin for two years.[7] Key began working as a foreign exchange dealer at Elders Finance in Wellington, and rose to the position of head foreign exchange trader two years later, then moved to Auckland-based Bankers Trust in 1988.[3]
In 1995, he joined Merrill Lynch as head of Asian foreign exchange in Singapore. That same year he was promoted to Merrill’s global head of foreign exchange, based in London, where he may have earned around US$2.25 million a year including bonuses, which is about NZ$5 million at 2001 exchange rates.[3][8] Some co-workers called him “the smiling assassin” for maintaining his usual cheerfulness while sacking dozens (some say hundreds) of staff after heavy losses from the 1998 Russian financial crisis.[4][8] He was a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from 1999 to 2001.[9]”
UNDER intense international pressure to lift banking secrecy, the first and biggest of the world’s “tax havens”—places that charge low or no taxes to foreigners—is ceding some ground. In a deal signed on October 6th, Switzerland agreed to tax money held in its banks by British residents (it had already done a similar deal with Germany). These customers face a levy of up to 34% as well as, from 2013, a withholding tax.
One News tonight. 8 minutes in.
Shivers are running through the finance markets tonight. … Greek debt … our Exchange took a hit – take a look at this …
Last night…
Shivers are running through the finance markets tonight. … Greek debt …
Earlier this week…
Shivers are running through the finance markets tonight. … Greek debt …
A couple of weeks ago…
Shivers are running through the finance markets tonight. … Greek debt …
Oh surprise, surprise. When are they going to give us more than a 30 second soundbite and give us an in-depth report on why? Otherwise only tell us when something new develops.
I can remember a time when the state of exchange rates and shares did not have a special time on television news. Since the Lange government, however, when the novices cashed up their pension funds and dived into stocks and shares, the preoccupation of news and the hooray/gloom moments has become a regular feature in this time-slot.
Easy, lazy journalism, and programming and to make matters worse, the weather has now claimed three slots in this section.
I wonder if, tonight, we will get an item where 2 gunmen held up a corner-shop in some remote African township and 3 guardsmen were seriously wounded in liberating the shop-keeper. (Who validates these reports, or are they fillers created in the back-rooms to make us believe that we have to be ever vigilant in the war on terror(ists)?
Perhaps they will save that story for another night, (when there is one massive high parked over the Tasman and the Pacific and Jimbo has nothing to tell us about the weather except that “It will hot and sunny everywhere (folks!”)).
More on the financial crisis in Greece as an important meeting at the weekend. There was an item on RNZ (think after 7 am) this morning which you probably can download on Greece.
I wonder what the percentage of wealth is which the top 1% earn in Greece?
In USA 1% earn 33% of the wealth.
In NZ 1% earn 16% of the wealth.
This was on TV 6 pm news last weekend, think it was TV 1.
On TV 3 at 6 pm 11 % of National voters said that they would not vote National due to how the Rena spill has been handled. Not sure about number of participants or area in the poll.
Also Banks is second with the polling in Epsom.
Sooner the RWC is over the sooner people can wake up to the shit which is hitting the fan big time concerning NZ politics and how this government ALWAYS talks about a rosy future forgetting about living in the present.
Thanks Treetop.
– may I make one observation regarding your percentages and wealth – for earn change to control. They don’t earn much at all. They accrue most of their wealth on the backs of the earners – usually while they sleep or are swanning off around the world.
Will look up the ReplayRadio item.
Meantime, “What’s a Grecian urn?” “Oh, about 20 drachmas a day.”
Sorry but have been waiting to get that one in …
The basic effect of capitalist free-market is to concentrate wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands. That, quite simply, is what it is designed to do. There’s no way such concentration could come about without the property rules that have grown with capitalism.
You’ll notice that the FTAs that get signed have very little to do with trade but with a hell of a lot to do with free money movement and foreign ownership.
World Debt Guide
Actually, that title that they proudly display is wrong. What it should be is Debt guide to some of the biggest economies.
Anyway, on with the show.
Both Britain and Japan are sitting close to 500% of GDP in debt. The lesson that some people seem to have learned since WWII is that to build an economy requires debt – lots of it. When we consider these debts in line with who probably owns most of them then we should probably be doing a massive investigation into how they came about.
National should, in light of their massive unnecessary borrowing over the last three years, be the first to be investigated.
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And I just hope that you can forgive usBut everything must goAnd if you need an explanation, nationThen everything must goSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Today, I’d like to talk about a couple of things that happened over the weekend:Brian Tamaki’s Library Invasion and ...
New reporting highlights how Brooke van Velden refuses to meet with the CTU but is happy to meet with fringe Australian-based unions. Van Velden is pursuing reckless changes to undermine the personal grievance system against the advice of her own officials. Engineering New Zealand are saying that hundreds of engineers ...
The NZCTU strongly supports the Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill. This Bill represents a positive step towards addressing serious issues around unlawful disparities in pay by protecting workers’ rights to discuss their pay and conditions. This Bill also provides welcome support for helping tackle the prevalent gender and ...
Years of hard work finally paid off last week as the country’s biggest and most important transport project, the City Rail Link reached a major milestone with the first test train making its way slowly though the tunnels for the first time. This is a fantastic achievement and it is ...
Engineers are pleading for the Government to free up funds to restart stalled projects. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 17 are:Engineering New Zealand CEO Richard Templer said yesterday hundreds of ...
It’s one of New Zealand’s great sustaining myths: the spirit of ANZAC, our mates across the ditch, the spirit of Earl’s Court, Antipodeans united against the world. It is also a myth; it is not reality. That much was clear from a series of speakers, including a former Australian Prime ...
Many people have been unsatisfied for years that things have not improved for them, some as individuals, many more however because their families are clearly putting in more work, for less money – and certainly far less purchase on society. This general discontent has grown exponentially since the GFC. ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 9, 2025 thru Sat, February 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report shows worsening food poverty and housing shortages mean more than 400,000 people now need welfare support, the highest level since the 1990s. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and ...
You're just too too obscure for meOh you don't really get through to meAnd there's no need for you to talk that wayIs there any less pessimistic things to say?Songwriters: Graeme DownesToday, I thought we’d take a look at some of the most cringe-inducing moments from last week, but don’t ...
Please note: I’ve delayed my “What can we do?” article for this video.The video above shows Destiny Church members assaulting staff and librarians as they pushed through to a room of terrified parents and young children.It was posted to social media last night.But if you read Sinead Boucher’s Stuff, you ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is sea level rise exaggerated? Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, not stagnating or decreasing. Warming global temperatures cause land ice ...
Here is a scenario, but first a historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world pretty much sat and watched as the ...
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
Comment: Crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are making it easier for people to invest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum without having to handle digital wallets or private keys. These allow investors to buy and sell cryptocurrency through their regular brokerage accounts.This has opened the door for billions of dollars ...
The New Zealand Government says the Cook Islands must share more information about the deals it has signed with China, following the release of an ‘action plan’ in the face of protests in the Pacific nation’s capital.The Cook Islands government has also revealed plans to spend $3 million on a ...
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Comment: The recent attack by Destiny Church front groups on a Drag science show at Te Atatū library crossed a line. This wasn’t the first time that Brian Tamaki, the multimillionaire self-appointed ‘apostle’, has ordered acts of aggression against the queer community. Last year, Drag Story Time events were targeted, ...
Martina Salmon is well versed in the fast-paced action on a netball court, but even she was caught by surprise with the speed at which her career changed tack last year.Staying in the fast lane is only part of her drive this season.Fresh off a nine-day camp in Sydney with ...
Last night I may as well have been in Taihape. Or, closer to home, for me at least, somewhere in the Wairarapa. Or Tūrangi, even – which is near where we used to spend the summer when I was a child. For there was that same gorgeous small town feeling ...
Having Auckland’s food scraps dumped onto your rural backyard sounds scandalous, but in the North Island town of Reporoa there’s no fuss about the thousands of tonnes carted here every week.From the same site as one truck drops the waste, another truck picks up fertiliser to spread on local sheep ...
Negotiating rights over freshwater in Treaty settlement negotiations could have extended negotiations a decade, a Ngāi Tahu leader says.Tribal leaders, and its umbrella body, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, have taken the Attorney-General to court in a bid to have the Crown recognise its rangatiratanga (chiefly authority) over wai māori ...
Analysis: Poor safeguarding of New Zealanders’ data could be a widespread practice within the public service and certainly within the health system, according to the findings of an independent inquiry into allegations of misused census and Covid-19 vaccination information.The Public Service Commission’s review, led by consultant Pania Gray and former ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Stone, Principal Research Fellow, School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock Having dense breasts is a clear risk factor for breast cancer. It can also make cancers hard to spot on mammograms. Yet you ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The National Anti-Corruption Commission will finally investigate whether six people referred to it by the royal commission into Robodebt engaged in corrupt conduct. This follows an independent reconsideration by former High Court judge Geoffrey ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Last week in Europe, the United States sent some very strong messages it is prepared to upend the established global order. US Vice President JD Vance warned a stunned Munich ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank has delivered the expected modest rate cut of a quarter of a percentage point, and we’re set for the predictable frenzy of speculation about an April election. The cut is unlikely to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank cut official interest rates on Tuesday, the first decrease in four years, saying inflationary pressures are easing “a little more quickly than expected”. However, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank has delivered the expected modest rate cut of a quarter of a percentage point, and we’re set for the predictable frenzy of speculation about an April election. The cut is unlikely to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allan Fels, Professor Allan Fels, Professor of Law, Economics and Business at the University of Melbourne and Monash University., The University of Melbourne Australia is creeping towards adding a divestiture power to its Competition and Consumer Act. Under such a law, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arjen Vaartjes, PhD Student, Quantum Physics, UNSW Sydney Dmitriy Rybin / Shutterstock What makes something quantum? This question has kept a small but dedicated fraction of the world’s population – most of them quantum physicists – up at night for decades. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch University Australia’s minister for home affairs announced on Sunday that the federal government has struck a deal with Nauru to “resettle” three non-citizens from what’s come to be known as the “NZYQ cohort”. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Fitzpatrick, Professor in International History, Flinders University (From left to right): Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano before signing the Munich Agreement, which gave the Sudetenland to Germany.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Ukraine ...
The purpose was to establish the facts and provide an independent assessment of government agency activity in relation to allegations that personal data may have been misused during the 2023 General Election. ...
Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster said he is carefully reviewing the referrals raised in the two reports. That work will be done in the context the Privacy Act and the need to ensure individuals’ rights to privacy is protected and respected. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bhavna Middha, ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University The average Australian household size has decreased from 4.5 people per household in 1911 to 2.5 people in 2024. At the same time, the average house size has increased, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Page Jeffery, Lecturer in Media and Communications, University of Sydney suriyachan/Shutterstock When the Australian government passed legislation in November last year banning young people under 16 from social media, it included exemptions for platforms “that are primarily for the purposes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leslie Roberson, Postdoctoral research fellow, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland If you’ve ever been stopped by quarantine officers at the airport, you might think Australia’s international border is locked down like a fortress. But when it comes ...
Duncan Sarkies’ latest novel, Star Gazers, is about the collapse of democracy in a society of alpaca breeders. Here are some things his intensive research revealed. 1 How greed works, psychologicallyYes, I guess I already understood greed, but I could never understand why people who already have everything they ...
The proposed cuts would see only two full time Telehealth data and digital roles, and one Planning, Funding and Outcomes (PFO) role remain, reduced from 17 Telehealth support roles (including vacant roles). Roles proposed to be cut include Telehealth ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling for Ministers to end funding for Te Kurahuna programmes and workshop grifters that have received millions in taxpayer funding, despite the Government’s supposed focus on cutting costs. ...
Those who complain that Labours industrial relations policy is a throwback to the 1970s forget that living standards and security were way higher then than they are now.
It seems that there is a general consensus that wages and conditions should be held down, and people should be forever in financial misery.
Fuck, I am just so over this country.
Bring on National awards I say. The only people who think they are bad is those who want to pay only $2 an hour.
So, why are you throwing away your vote on a Party (NZ First) that won’t make it back into Parliament, Millsy ?
Because unlike most of the posters on here, I dont have a deluded fantasy that Labour is going to some how rocket back to Clark-era levels of support in the next 6 weeks and Labour will pull off an upset victory.
Labour are going to lose this November, and lose heavily. That is a FACT. Key needs someone who will give him a heck of the hard time from the opposition benches, and Winston is the man to do it. He actually puts some back bone into oppositon (though I wouldnt have him in government. He has a habit of selling out).
I have been accused of being a NACT supporter of actually daring to suggest this on here, so sometime I know where the rednecks and the latte drinkers at Public Address are coming from.
Finally went down to check out a temporary constructed party central and the waka on a windy rainy akl evening…..rugby ball shut, waka closed at 6, dodgy wet walkways on uneven wharf surfaces both in and outside and a very small area all up.
3 years in office and that’s the best muzza and sideshow can do….its no wonder our economy is where it is. At least Americas cup gave akl a viaduct region, this one will just leave a large bill.
And a tuppa waka!
Should’ve gone down on Saturday or Sunday during the day – was a great day.
Or during a game. Brilliant atmosphere. Everyone I talked to was saying how great it was, as do the media reports
Must be very sad to be so ideological that you can’t even go somewhere like that without letting political views cloud (no pun intended) your vision.
Nope more interested in what my ratepayer/taxpayer money leaves for me to get value from once the RWC is over given you’re actualy constructing stuff…..looks like absolutely nothing.
Atmosphere comes with people and I’m not into Rugby, never have been, nothing polutical about that QstF…look beyond your own skewered views.
The whole RWC is political – WTF am I paying for something I don’t want?
I’m quite happy for my taxes and rates to go to local clubs to support them but I don’t see why I have to pay to subsidise a commercial operation.
And I dont want my taxes going to fund the drug addled lifestyles of dole bludgers.
I’m with you Draco, user pays.
The bludgers are all at the top of the capitalist pyramid scheme. They’re probably more drug addled to.
There’s very very few people in the world who don’t want to work. The only reason why we have “unemployment” is because of a failure of society mostly because of the bludgers trying to keep as much of societies wealth to themselves rather than allowing it to be used.
If ever there were random drug (inc alcohol) of doctors, lawyers, politicians, bankers, etc. etc., they’d leave bennies for dead in proportion involved, and volume of consumption.
But that’s never going to happen because the whole motivation for calls to drug test benes is about humiliation and bullying those who can’t fight back, not any practical purpose.
KK So your against borrowing mountains of debt[$6billion in interest per year] bailing out private finance companies subsidizing multi billion dollars film firms.Subsidizing alcohol $ $5to$6billion a year it costs our country
But KKK your quite happy to fund foreign lenders that won’t spend any money in this country to the tune of $77 billion and rising interest rates on that $6billion per year plus which we will never see again . At least the bene’s you are bashing will be spending that money in NZ keeping wealthy landlords in tax free money as well as other services and retailers going in this recession . The last country to ditch benefits ended in misery Argentina cut all welfare and unemployment went from 6% to 38% redneck ape do some economics research before you start foaming at the mouth.
Occupy Dunedin continues – but what’s really going on?
I’ve visited twice and talked to several protesters – all were happy to chat intelligently about what they were doing and what their ideals were.
But for a supposedly non-political protest there are some very political connections, including union banners.
And more. Who is occupying Dunedin? Mana and Greens?
Hold the front page … the Occupy protest is … gasp … POLITICAL!!!
FFS Pete of course it is political. It is addressing glaring weaknesses in the world’s economy and political system.
THe fact that the group may not have let you spout UF policy is a sign of their intelligence and competence.
MS, is “SMASH CAPITALISM” a sign of their intelligence and competence?
What is doing without any central government a sign of?
MS is “SMASH CAPITALISM” a sign of their intelligence and competence?
It is a point of view and one which some believe strongly.
But Petey do you realise how ridiculous your statement that the occupation is supposedly non-political is?
There’s actually very little “capitalism” or “free markets” left in the financial system of the world.
It’s now all highly centrally planned and controlled financial markets (where prices are computer manipulated and predetermined), as well as billionaire banksters who benefit risk-free from socialising their deriavatives casino losses on to the rest of society.
It’s not been real capitalism for roughly 30 years.
Today its the final evolutions of crony cartel capitalism, which players like Pete George don’t get in the slightest.
You haven’t answerd either question. What do you think?
Meh. I think that it’s a reasonable opinion to hold, but unachievable without major technology advances, particularly in energy generation.
It shows that someone is intelligent enough to realise they’re being conned in a complex world, unlike someone who refuses to commit to any particular policy action.
And imagining a society without central government is again a reasonable “outside the box” thought – and shows someone is smart enough to know that a banal weathervane with a nice hairdo being in government is more damaging to society than no government at all.
Capitalism and Central Government are not the same thing mate. Capitalism is a political philosophy – and you aspire to sit in the Beehive?
Yes. Getting rid of capitalism may let us prevent an anthropogenic ELE. If we don’t then we will be forced to continue to ravage the planet eventually destroying the environment wiping out most life on Earth.
Anarchism of course, one of the older political philosophies.
Your blogpost seems to imply you’re startled (though somewhat ingenuinely I imagine) that political opposition to your ideas and methods exists and that since Occupy associate with those who are just like you (as far as supporting a hierarchical/class structure) anything they have to say is void owing to the inherent contradiction of stated ideal of Occupy. You want a ruling class, with you presumably near the top somewhere deciding what is good and bad. The socialists want to do the same, though with different “enemies”. Occupy say they aren’t political, but they have political friends. It’s all divisive politics, man.
“Is it collusion or coincidence that both Green and Mana party activists are fronting Occupy Dunedin?”
coincidence but i would be most happy with collusion because that is the future of the parliment with a strong Mana and Greens presence, working together to create a better nation for everyone – that doesn’t compute for a self serving political aspirant willing to use anything and everything to further their own agenda like pete and that is why, struggling for relevance, his ilk are doomed to oblivion.
Replace “Octagon” with “Country” and you’re getting closer to it…
PG -People who think hierarchically and in terms of leaders and followers are having a hard time getting their head around Occupy. My understanding is that they are inclusive political protests but not party political. People can bring along whatever banners/placards they feel expresses their concerns, if the Occupy group has collectively decided that. So of course some will bring along party or union banners. You could even bring your UF placard if you were prepared to join them and justify that. That’s called inclusion.
I was told I was welcome to speak for myself but not for a political organisation. A banner is speaking for an organisation.
The people of Dunedin have a right to know the motives behind those leading the occupation.
are having a hard time getting their head around Occupy
I think a few people involved in Occupy might be having a hard time getting their heads around the fact that they are being used.
Yes they are being used: by you. You’re the political user of Occupy Octagon here, you cynical wanna-be politician.
exactly CV anything and anyone is useful for pete to get his simpleton message out there. Like the rena his heavy oil pollutes leaving toxic material splattered around the varoius threads – all so that pete can further his pathetic personal political ambitions.
Pete if you bothered to bone up on what the movement was before you strode in with puffed chest and feigned interest you might have realised that all your concerns are fully accounted for in the Occupy ideas. The movement is INCLUSIVE. i will gve you a minute to get a dictionary.
got it? good, here are some other words for you to investigate
humanity
humility
hubris
One of them describe who we are working for
one describes what it is all about
one describes the content of your comments
i will check back tonight to see if you managed to figure which was which. I am off to barter a day’s labour for some healthy food before your mates make it illegal to do so.
Pete,
Judging by the comments & articles in the ODT it is fairly relaxed about Occupy. The mayor & council seem prepared to let things play out for a while and not force confrontation with the occupiers at this stage.
The fact that the occupation stayed put during the heavy rain we had this week has shown Dunedin people that those involved are not ‘rent-a-mob’, they are determined motivated people with genuine concerns about the many things that are wrong with the current corporate controlled system.
The occupy movement is about many issues, social justice, inequality, environmental , how could it not be political? The idea is that if you want to be involved you participate, get involved in discussion, spend time there & listen to other people.
“The people of Dunedin have a right to know the motives behind those leading the occupation”
It’s a bit like the Dylan song ” there’s something going on here, but you don’t know what it is…….”
Viv, if you say the Channel 9 clip from last night on the DC meeting you would know that there’s growing frustration about what’s going on.
The council have been co-operative and accommodating with the occupiers but if they keep getting fobbed off patience will wear even thinner.
The public have mostly remained muted but don’t expect that to last long if they think their city is just being used.
Occupy could do great things in New Zealand, or they could really stuff up their opportunity.
BY attention seeking follicly challenged airheads like you PG
I passed the local occupy movement tonight and gave them a toot and shouted out that my support.
I would have stopped and talked to them but I couldnt find a parking place.
It would give them a boost, given that most of the time they would have been told to get jobs, haircuts, etc.
“I think a few people involved in Occupy might be having a hard time getting their heads around the fact that they are being used.”
Everyone is being used. Ever heard of taxes? But what will really piss them off, is some guy coming from a white middle class perspective, treating them like they’re children. Pick your battles, aspiring MP man. You want votes, right?
Heres some beats to cheer you fullas up…
http://pollywannacracka.blogspot.com/2011/10/for-my-peeps.html
Thank you just grabbin me a copy now. it’ll fit in nice with some Psytrance and some Shape Shifters at a reasonable volume…
US Cops use strobe lights to blind and confuse press cameras/protestors
http://www.youtube.com/user/RussiaToday#p/u/1/dVaCGHn8LnY
Listen to the sound…including protestors saying look at the nice stuff JP Morgan’s $4.6M has bought for the NY police!
And apparently some of the protestors also smell lol
In a word, why.
Citigroup to pay $285 million to settle fraud case: http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111019/bs_nm/us_citigroup_sec
So basically, you can break the law as much as you like and as long as you can write a big enough cheque the problem will go away.
They should not be settling these cases, no matter how much money the financial institutions offer them to make the case go away. How can they rebuild confidence in the system when they effectively let people get away with this sort of thing? $285 million is nothing to these guys.
It’s no different to a drug dealer paying off the cops to turn a blind eye. It’s corruption, pure and simple.
It is the criminals paying the police to turn a blind eye. Every single person who works there should be under investigation and the organisation itself closed down. You don’t get honest business by letting dishonest businesses continue.
National’s Election Hoarding’s 7
In June the NBR reported: Treasury figures show the government’s borrowing of $380 million a week is about $80 million to $100 million a week more than it has to…
Jackal you figures are out of date the Govt debt is going to peak now at more than $77billion 2013 with no unexpected surprises , Debt is increasing by $1.5 billion a month now
The post states the borrowing figures are quoted from June. The $38 billion is the current net government debt.
Strange that National claim New Zealand will be back in black at about the same time your figures show we’ll be in debt by $77 billion. I wonder how much of the current $375 million per week National doesn’t need to be borrow?
Blinglish has done pretty well at getting the country in hock as an excuse to privatize. He’s still saying that the Christchurch Earthquakes, the Rena disaster and now the Maui gas disaster aren’t going to effect their projections… talk about delusional.
When any NZ business person is interviewed and asked what they would do to get the economy growing inevitably say they would remove “red tape” to make it easier to do business.
And yet, and not for the first time either, NZ has been rated as the 3rd easiest country in the world in which to do business….
So what’s going on?
If they think that that is NZ’s problem then it shows they have no idea what the reality is – they should no longer be interviewed because they don’t have a clue.
If they think that that is NZ’s problem then it shows that they have no solutions to NZ’s growth woes.
If they think that that is NZ’s problem then it shows they are not engaging in original thought but are captured by the prevailing ideology of their group.
If they think that that is NZ’s problem then it shows how easy it is to get them to parrot whatever the speaker at the last business conference said.
It’s time we stopped, as the news announcers often say, “look at the markets [and the exchange rates] to see how well they reacted to the news of…….”
It’s time we stopped asking business people what’s good for NZ – they are just not qualified!
+1
The research is fairly conclusive – NZ managers are the worst in the world and yet the prevailing paradigm insists that we need them to make NZ better.
DTB And the failed ones end up as a career choice in the National party where they can get ahead no matter how bad they are!
It seems that migrants have no trouble in coming over and starting a business here – I dont hear them go on about red tape, but I suppose they are glad they dont have to bribe all and sundry to get started (nor do they have to pay protection money to the local crime overlord)
Voters swing from National after Rena disaster
That’s gotta hurt although this is the interesting line:
The question had 5 options:
V. good
good
neutral
poor
V. poor
They don’t tell us how many were neutral giving the impression that a majority found Key’s response to be “good”. Of course, if they were doing proper reporting they would have given the figures for all 5 possible responses. More underhanded support from the MSM for this government.
[lprent: added the http on the link. ]
Good news Draco!
Your link is a bit mangled. The poll is reported at http://www.3news.co.nz/Voters-swing-from-National-after-Rena-disaster/tabid/419/articleID/230207/Default.aspx
The Rena hasn’t played out yet.
This is only the second act out of four.
Aye that steady oozing of raw crude is going to go on for quite a while …
technically its bunker fuel (‘bunker c’) not crude oil 🙂
I remember that one and a whole heap of V Poor’s that I ticked lol
From the article: “The RadioLive-HorizonPoll shows 11% of people who voted National in 2008 now won’t do so because of the disaster, which effectively drops National’s current support nationwide by 3%.”
Well, no, actually. The Nats got 44.9% at the 2008 General Election. Which surely means a fall of pretty damn close to 5 percentage points.
Was wondering about that. The 3% did/does seem a little low but I hadn’t looked at the maths.
I was also wondering about that.
That 11% of 2008 National voters won’t vote National this time because of Rena, raises more questions than it answers.
1. How does that ‘integrate’ with people who voted for other parties in 2008 but now will vote National? That is, will such people off-set the ones who, apparently, are prepared to desert National over the Rena?
2. Is that 11% partly made up of people who voted National in 2008 but, actually, have been saying in other Horizon polls that they were going to vote for some other party this time anyway, and now are mentioning the Rena as a reason for their changed vote – or, is it an additional 11% of 2008 National voters (on top of those who had already got to the point of switching) who now have decided, solely on the basis of the Rena, to vote for someone else?
It’s hard to tell from the press releases quite what is meant.
The Horizon Poll press release on Scoop also gives a little more detail –
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1110/S00338/radiolive-horizon-poll-65-judge-rena-response-as-poor.htm
{Still learning how to do a short link] and oops this should be under the 11 comments. Please have patience with a new blogger!
Ah, that’s a much better write up – probably because it’s Horizons press release.
Sascha Baron Cohens latest character revealed as Lord Monckton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w833cAs9EN0
Comedy magic.
Ta for that
Brendon Burns puts a post up at Red Alert and this caught my eye
http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2011/10/20/the-full-monty/
“United Future Wigram candidate Ian Gaskin said he’d been given a clean slate by leader Peter Dunne to speak. He then variously stated that: We could solve our fuel needs by growing seaweed and turning it into oil, that DOC was not needed and should be folded into the Ministry of Agriculture or perhaps Tourism NZ
and that fracking Canterbury’s landscape with pressurised water and chemicals may not extract enough gas or oil so perhaps a nuclear device might assist. I wonder if these are official United Future policies?”
Maybe the headline, “Untied Future threatens to nuke Canterbury”
One thing’s for sure pete won’t be jumping up and down like he did against Hone yesterday.
Different league to Hone.
UF candidates have been told they are free to express their own opinions and talk on local issues as they see fit, however you hope that clean slates don’t come with wet chalk.
I agree it’s in a different league. Ian is actually being serious.
yes Hone has Mana – black and white really.
are you a fracking fan pete?
Slippery non-answer and diversion 5. 4. 3. 2…
No, I’m not a fracking fan, too much doubt at this stage.
UF don’t have a policy on it but my guess would be the party would be concerned about any possibility of water contamination as clean water (and retention of ownership of water) are strong party policy positions.
Petey
Does UF have a position on the use of nuclear devices under the Canterbury plains to assist with fracking?
“Retain New Zealand’s nuclear-free status” rules that out (phew). I agree with that.
I think I’ll have a drink to that 🙂
Congratulations, Pete, on your list ranking.
In 2002 that would have got you into Parliament (I think?).
All the best for the election. (Not an endorsement, but you know what I mean.)
Too be honest, I cannot see UF getting any more seats than the one held by Mr Dunne. In any case, UF only got those seats in ’02 because thier leader performed so good with ‘the worm’, and got influence because the Greens threw their toys out of the cot over GE, driving Labour into the arms of United Future, and sending this country on a slow rightward drift. Thanks Greenies. Way to go guys.
“Too be honest, I cannot see UF getting any more seats than the one held by Mr Dunne.”
Yep, that would be my pick for an election result.
But I just thought that Pete George needed acknowledging for actually getting involved in the political process – such as it is.
I don’t expect that people’s efforts will (or should) necessarily be rewarded. But Pete has put effort where his ‘mouth’ is (whatever location that happens to be – I honestly can’t work out where that is, but that’s not my point).
I just think that effort should be acknowledged – purely at a human level.
“In any case, UF only got those seats in 02 because their leader performed so good with ‘the worm’.”
I tend to agree with former Alliance deputy leader, Sandra Lee, on this. It wasn’t so much the worm as the post-debate comments by TVNZ’s so-called panel of ‘experts’.
I taped that leaders’ debate and I can tell you that the worm was often as low as it was high while Dunne was speaking.
The ‘experts’ – clearly looking for some sort of interesting angle – decided to place total emphasis on those particular moments when Dunne charmed the worm and to hence declare him ‘the winner’. All very contrived. The print media, the next day, simply took their cue from the ‘experts’.
That’s the nature of our world. Big things can swing on bugger all.
So Pete, do you think that DOC should be chopped as well?
No, but I’d be happy if Doc found a way to chop their 1080 use.
I was talking to someone from Forest and Bird last week who admitted that 1080 killed a lot of birds (including protected natives) but they claimed the bird numbers recovered faster than predators. Very dubious about that especially with kiwi.
If a private company wanted to use some land and claimed that all the birdlife they killed wouldn’t matter because most species would eventually recover do you think they would get resource consent?
What would you do Peter? Possum trapping, just like in the Barry Crump novels? You just to have to remember that possum trapping, etc is more of a lifestyle than an occupation, so you couldnt hope to make a dent in umemployment with it. And a possum fur industry would never get beyond a niche market.
There’s no way to replace 1080 at the moment without getting an increase in predator numbers. Some methods like trapping and shooting (that’s how I do it) can be increased but nowhere near enough.
1080 is an easy solution for DOC to keep using but it hasn’t solved anything over decades of use.
The main aim apart from trialling existing methods other than 1080 in select areas is to substantially increase research into alternatives.
BS, I remember when Rangitoto never used to flower. Does now but that only happened after the 1080 drops.
So why don’t you get yourself educated before you open your mouth you moron.
Yep, and I have never seen a GOOD alternative yet that keeps the trees flowering. Same when we were looking at our bush on the farm.
Quite simply no effective alternative.
Unless of course we want to get the Aussies invading to protect their damn pests.
There are alternatives. The fact of the matter is that 1080 is used because it’s cost effective, but it will not work to achieve eradication of pests or protection of native species. It is simply delaying the inevitable in many cases.
1080 is not the best way to eradicate pests while trying to protect endangered species. The alternatives take lots of man-hours, training and a very large budget. Extensive fencing projects, relocation, trapping and cyanide is the best solution if we want to keep a lot of our endemic endangered species.
I believe there has been some developments to increase hit rates and reduce cyanide shyness from possums that don’t initially receive a fatal dose. The advantage is that cyanide totally breaks down and has a lower secondary poisoning risk if applied correctly.
Unfortunately having a lot of people learning how to hunt and trap animals in the bush doesn’t fit well with the systems ideal of having everybody dependent on the state. That would be one reason why the government is willing to sacrifice many other species, the land and waterways in their failed use of 1080.
Same principle as chemotherapy – poisoning differentially. Works as well as 1080. More people surviving the unsurvivable. More bush and native fauna as well.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10760543
Nice to see you have convicted bank robbers on your list – if you get 5% will he be your law and order spokesperson?
One would think that following the Sep 4 earthquake (and suspecting a bigger one was quite possible), you would want to know what was going on under Christchurch.
I don’t know who had the ultimate authority regarding funding (i.e. the commission or cabinet) but it seems to be that someone dropped the ball post-September earthquake.
I don’t know what would have changed if we had known that a bigger quake was likely but it would have been in the interests of the people of Canterbury to be informed so they could make choices.
Like the parents of the toddler who was killed by the falling TV might have secured their furniture if they knew a bigger one was possible.
GNS Science made the decision not to tell the public….but they tell anyone?
Was the commission advised? Did cabinet know?
If then they did then they dropped the ball – I hope the MSM get of their perches and look into who knew what and when.
The commission was made up of:
Of course we already know who the slack-jawed knuckle draggers that comprise our cabinet are.
A very good comment William Joyce.
What has really irritated me during the last year is the knowledge (yes, knowledge) that our geologists have had their public comments filtered – so as not to cause ‘alarm’.
For goodness’ sake. We are being treated as children by our ‘betters’. We are supposedly susceptible to ‘panic’ and they have decided that it is not in our (read ‘their’) interests for us to ‘panic’ (i.e., decide what we want to do in response to all the available information).
So anti-democratic, yet it comes so naturally to those with ‘positions of responsibility’. People seen as mushrooms.
We had a right to hear it all. Then we could, perhaps, ‘panic’, talk to each other and, who knows, maybe come to some sensible response collectively. That process was never allowed to happen and never trusted.
Why?
Because it would have disrupted ‘business as usual’. And that – more than anything else – is verboten.
QFT
In our present socio-economic paradigm, business is more important than life.
Corexit’s Deadly Legacy
I received a very interesting email today. It’s all about the poisonous substance known as Corexit 9500 that’s been used on the Bay of Plenty oil spill by Maritime New Zealand…
Naomi Wolf arrested by NYPD at OWS.
A must read for all those who still think we have the right to protest in a post-9/11, police state, surveillance society.
One more step towards overt fascism.
Apropos of nothing really. I was curious about Key’s middle name so I googled him.
From wiki I found this synopsis interesting
“Before politics
Key’s first job was in 1982, as an auditor at McCulloch Menzies, and he then moved to be a project manager at Christchurch-based clothing manufacturer Lane Walker Rudkin for two years.[7] Key began working as a foreign exchange dealer at Elders Finance in Wellington, and rose to the position of head foreign exchange trader two years later, then moved to Auckland-based Bankers Trust in 1988.[3]
In 1995, he joined Merrill Lynch as head of Asian foreign exchange in Singapore. That same year he was promoted to Merrill’s global head of foreign exchange, based in London, where he may have earned around US$2.25 million a year including bonuses, which is about NZ$5 million at 2001 exchange rates.[3][8] Some co-workers called him “the smiling assassin” for maintaining his usual cheerfulness while sacking dozens (some say hundreds) of staff after heavy losses from the 1998 Russian financial crisis.[4][8] He was a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from 1999 to 2001.[9]”
The Economist: Trouble Island.
UNDER intense international pressure to lift banking secrecy, the first and biggest of the world’s “tax havens”—places that charge low or no taxes to foreigners—is ceding some ground. In a deal signed on October 6th, Switzerland agreed to tax money held in its banks by British residents (it had already done a similar deal with Germany). These customers face a levy of up to 34% as well as, from 2013, a withholding tax.
One News tonight. 8 minutes in.
Shivers are running through the finance markets tonight. … Greek debt … our Exchange took a hit – take a look at this …
Last night…
Shivers are running through the finance markets tonight. … Greek debt …
Earlier this week…
Shivers are running through the finance markets tonight. … Greek debt …
A couple of weeks ago…
Shivers are running through the finance markets tonight. … Greek debt …
Oh surprise, surprise. When are they going to give us more than a 30 second soundbite and give us an in-depth report on why? Otherwise only tell us when something new develops.
I can remember a time when the state of exchange rates and shares did not have a special time on television news. Since the Lange government, however, when the novices cashed up their pension funds and dived into stocks and shares, the preoccupation of news and the hooray/gloom moments has become a regular feature in this time-slot.
Easy, lazy journalism, and programming and to make matters worse, the weather has now claimed three slots in this section.
I wonder if, tonight, we will get an item where 2 gunmen held up a corner-shop in some remote African township and 3 guardsmen were seriously wounded in liberating the shop-keeper. (Who validates these reports, or are they fillers created in the back-rooms to make us believe that we have to be ever vigilant in the war on terror(ists)?
Perhaps they will save that story for another night, (when there is one massive high parked over the Tasman and the Pacific and Jimbo has nothing to tell us about the weather except that “It will hot and sunny everywhere (folks!”)).
More on the financial crisis in Greece as an important meeting at the weekend. There was an item on RNZ (think after 7 am) this morning which you probably can download on Greece.
I wonder what the percentage of wealth is which the top 1% earn in Greece?
In USA 1% earn 33% of the wealth.
In NZ 1% earn 16% of the wealth.
This was on TV 6 pm news last weekend, think it was TV 1.
On TV 3 at 6 pm 11 % of National voters said that they would not vote National due to how the Rena spill has been handled. Not sure about number of participants or area in the poll.
Also Banks is second with the polling in Epsom.
Sooner the RWC is over the sooner people can wake up to the shit which is hitting the fan big time concerning NZ politics and how this government ALWAYS talks about a rosy future forgetting about living in the present.
Thanks Treetop.
– may I make one observation regarding your percentages and wealth – for earn change to control. They don’t earn much at all. They accrue most of their wealth on the backs of the earners – usually while they sleep or are swanning off around the world.
Will look up the ReplayRadio item.
Meantime, “What’s a Grecian urn?” “Oh, about 20 drachmas a day.”
Sorry but have been waiting to get that one in …
dunno if this was posted but…
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354.500-revealed–the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world.html
…makes for interesting reading
Note : Key’s old firm, Merril Lynch, is in the top 10 of what essentially equates to the ‘New World Order’
The basic effect of capitalist free-market is to concentrate wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands. That, quite simply, is what it is designed to do. There’s no way such concentration could come about without the property rules that have grown with capitalism.
You’ll notice that the FTAs that get signed have very little to do with trade but with a hell of a lot to do with free money movement and foreign ownership.
World Debt Guide
Actually, that title that they proudly display is wrong. What it should be is Debt guide to some of the biggest economies.
Anyway, on with the show.
Both Britain and Japan are sitting close to 500% of GDP in debt. The lesson that some people seem to have learned since WWII is that to build an economy requires debt – lots of it. When we consider these debts in line with who probably owns most of them then we should probably be doing a massive investigation into how they came about.
National should, in light of their massive unnecessary borrowing over the last three years, be the first to be investigated.
Author of “Disaster Capitalism” Naomi Wolf arrested by NYC Police
http://www.youtube.com/user/RussiaToday#p/u/5/P1mWnbOE8Qo
So much for the land of the free
The US is fucked. Naomi Wolf writes on her experience.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/oct/19/naomi-wolf-arrest-occupy-wall-street?newsfeed=true
That’s absolutely fucked, but you’ve got your Naomis mixed up. It was Ms Klein who wrote Disaster Capitalism, not Ms Wolf.
Yes, Ms Wolf has written feminist stuff, eg The Beauty Myth – associated wih “third wave feminism”
And also written on the process of erosion that transforms a free society into a police state, as in this book: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/read-the-introduction-to-_b_63779.html
and this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/24/usa.comment
*facepalm*
Thanks guys.
Makes the New York City police even more pathetic.
what a post