According to Hosking in his column we’re travelling down an introspective, small-minded, closed shop road in stopping foreigners buying land here.
Apparently selling foreign land to rich Americans who want to escape their not introspective, small-minded, closed shop country will be great for us.
Don’t panic Mike , we’ve got you and the riches from that enhance our lives more than Julian Robertson, Peter Thiel, Barak Obama or a thousand American billionaires could ever do.
It also keep luxury house prices up, they might fall or sell less like hot cakes if the foreign sales are stopped.
As for US, I think soon it will be billionaires from Asian and Middle East vying for our bolt holes to join the American’s and keep the McMansions getting bigger and our best builders employed for years, in a building shortage.
Personally don’t mind a few foreign sales but clearly many in the world have WAY too much money to spend and countries to influence, and like UK, it just gets out of control.
That has now happened to NZ and places like Queenstown for example are being built for people who don’t live there and no accomodation for people who do.
Listening to that ridiculous stuffed shirt Grant Robertson dissemble and divert on RNZ over the issue of Air New Zealand’s abandonment of the provinces made my blood boil this morning. For Christ’s sake man, this should be a BREAD AND BUTTER issue for a left wing politician.
Robertson clearly has no interest in holding the Air NZ board to account. From that, i doubt he has any real intentions beyond what is in the coalition deal of helping Shane Jones and NZ First in their plan for regional renewal.
Robertson might as well fuck off to the National party for all the difference he plans to make as finance minister.
Sorry to restate the obvious but Roberston isn’t a left wing politician. It’s the same old dilemma for Labour (and Labour members and Labour voters). What can they do?
Draco – this has already been pointed out to you. The political compass is not evidence of anything.
It is the same as using an anonymous Stuff survey. There is no way to no who did it and how they answered. Basing anything on that is stupid and you should feel stupid
Draco – you can’t use an anonymous survey (because that is essentially what it is – an anonymous survey) which doesn’t state it’s methodology or who completed it, what they know about party policy or how they answered the question.
The overwhelming majority of political scientists, commentators and anyone else who puts their name to anything agree Labour is centre-left so how you can argue against that with an anonymous website which doesn’t disclose the methodology behind its results is an extremely poor argument indeed.
It’s like using a Stuff poll which asks “Is the government heading in the right direction” as evidence the government is/isn’t heading in the right direction.
And knock it off with the RW bullshit. I have told you several times I am not RW, never have been and can’t see any reason why I would. Pointing out your poor argument does not make one a RWinger
which doesn’t state it’s methodology or who completed it, what they know about party policy or how they answered the question.
Except that they do state their methodology and who completes it isn’t important. The latter is just an Appeal to Authority which is a logical fallacy.
The overwhelming majority of political scientists, commentators and anyone else who puts their name to anything agree Labour is centre-left so how you can argue against that with an anonymous website which doesn’t disclose the methodology behind its results is an extremely poor argument indeed.
[Citation Needed]
But that rings of another logical fallacy: Bandwagon
And knock it off with the RW bullshit. I have told you several times I am not RW, never have been and can’t see any reason why I would. Pointing out your poor argument does not make one a RWinger
“Except that they do state their methodology”
Not really no – they doesn’t really give us anymore information at all as to how they got the result they did.
And it isn’t an appeal to authority – it’s the exact opposite because I’m not appealing to any authority – I’m actually asking you where the Political Compass gets the authority to make the claims they are.
Do you really need a citation as to who thinks Labour is centre-left? Given is the leading paradigm I wouldn’t have thought it needed a citation. But fine – I can’t provide you with a list.
I’m not acting like a right-winger – I’m explaining to you why this Political Compass as evidence of Labour being centre-right is extremely poor scholarship for reason listed. Calling you out on that isn’t being right-wing
Relative to what? If we’re talking the Overton Window, then yes Robertson would be too far to the right of traditional left wingness. But in NZ today, on our own spectrum, centre left neoliberalism is a useful way to understand where we are at.
Btw, the political compass you linked to, how come the Greens have been moved to the right?
Btw, the political compass you linked to, how come the Greens have been moved to the right?
Because their policies have moved to the right. And they actually have done to some degree as they’ve become more ‘business friendly’ over the last few years.
I’ll take that to be some vague impression that the GP have moved right, but it’s not actual evidence of such.
The Greens building relationships with business has easily been counter balanced by them also building relationships with Māori and the underclasses. It’s also a way of moving business leftwards.
This is why the Greens don’t readily fit into classic L/R framing, but I’m not seeing anything obvious about their policies that account for them having been moved right on that particular compass.
The main one might be the BRR, but that appears to have been a compromise in order to work with Labour rather than an ideological or policy shift. Am open to some actual examples that show different.
Yes labour are a disappointment so far, but a negative poll may spur their lazy ways to actually get up and do the right thing they promised us all before the election or they may need to “waka jump”.
Robertson is a product of his time…he studied politics in the mid nineties and then worked for Foreign Affairs and Trade upon graduation….the height of the neolib era ….Overton window and all that.
I don’t think the Greens really fit or suit the label “left” for the same reason I have difficulties labelling myself “left”. But this is just my personal pedantry 😉
True. I think calling them left in this kind of conversation is useful but then it does cause a bit of confusion when we have the neither left nor right conversations.
Also, they’re not traditional left, which is what many people are still expecting Labour to be. Which begs the question of what the left does now given neither Labour nor the Greens are in that role.
Because there is no socialists to vote for. Especially party vote, the greens have made it abundantly clear they are not socialist. And the labour party threw out any pretence to social democracy in the 1980’s, and have never looked like taking it up again.
I’m broadly socialist and I vote. I party vote Green because I can see that if they have more power, they will take us in the direction of socialism. That’s what that whole movement wanted and had it been supported more by socialists and left wingers in the past 30 years we might be actually getting somewhere by now. Instead, the only way the Greens have been able to gain ground was by playing the long game and finding the balance point between influencing the mainstream and becoming more mainstream in order to do so.
Not voting doesn’t answer my question, it just cedes the power and the discussion to the Robertsons of the world.
I don’t think Labour/Greens will ever be left enough for many of the regular commenters at The Standard. They would need to abandon middle NZ to do so and struggle to secure 5% of the vote.
They have the votes of the regulars here in the bag. Growing their share of the votes requires being seen to move right, not left.
The Green’s greatest supporter/critics eg: The Chairman, every day he was taking a swipe at their lack of sliding left. It may well be with reluctance but I do feel that those that share his sentiment would never vote Nat/ACT.
I agree that there are those here for whom nothing short of revolution would be regarded as “right wing neoliberalism”, but there are also no shortage of tories who like to encourage those divisions with concern-trolling about whether party A or person B is “left wing enough”.
As for moving right to get votes, I’m not so sure. Arguing that there’s a pool of voters betwixt lab and nat is the same trap as others who attribute votes to policy or simple photogenic leadership.
People vote for complex reasons, and pivoting a party to chase that one thing which will work kind of leaves your dick on the anvil if that one thing turns out to have been a pipe dream.
At the risk of sounding like a damned hippy, the analogy of the Venn diagram constrains the discussion into the right/left/intersect argument you’re making, rather than simply illustrating it.
For example, the Greens are doing their thing, following through on their commitments as much as they can. Labour are doing their thing, following through on their commitments as much as they can. Actually having honest politicians will increase the pool of voters on the leftish side, not just suck some voters from the nat side. Having tories look like losers will disincentivise some tories from voting, lowering their pool of voters. So labgrn might increase their proportion of votes without ever approaching the middle ground with the tories.
Like most of us, his contribution stands testament to the life he has led. Grant has never been unplugged from the Mother Ship. I think he’d struggle to run a successful lemonade stall at the bottom of his drive.
Similar to English. He was never really a “farmer” (grew up on one but then I have a pool but am not thereby an olympic swimmer) but was a career bureaucrat and then politician but nary a peep from Nats about his lack of real world experience. Then there is the woodwork teacher turned politician who fucked over the people of Christchurch and then EQC and then giving Fletchers immunity from any poor repair work.
Aren’t there restrictions on the directions he can give the board because the govt isn’t sole shareholder? It has to run for profit unless we renationalise.
For a party that believes in democratic process, they FAILED miserably here just to gain a little notoriety, just hope they don’t go the same way the Aus Greens have, supporting conservative agendas, their polling is already fairly low.
Did Shaw ASK you if you thought it was a good idea to gift National their questions, my take is that it’s members only heard about this through the media, the strong Green supporters here defended the hell out of it, even though the reality is it is likely to see supporters drift away from an already diminishing base.
I hoped to see the Greens be very successful at promoting the core issues they stand for and put forward policies and ideas that all Kiwis can be proud of, instead they’ve poked a lot of supporters in the eye with a blunt stick to gain a few NEWs headlines.
For me, James Shaw has made some serious mistakes trying to be more relevant, some of the statements he has made in the past just don’t really support the true Values of the Green movement.
1. Shaw didn’t ask each individual member because that is not how the GP works democratically. They have tried and true processes that balance democracy with functionality. The caucus is empowered to make decisions without having to go to the membership each time. Think that through. The amount of work of running a democratic process with the membership on every decision, or even just this one, would be massive.
2. The GP didn’t give their questions to National, they gave them to the Opposition. Think about that.
3. Shaw didn’t do this, the Green Party did. But he fronted it and the rationales I have heard from him fit very well with the principles of the GP. That’s the whole point (which is being missed by many people). If you think that is wrong, please point to the specific values that have been undermined here and explain how they’ve been undermined.
So the caucus was well informed and approved about his intentions then?
OK, the opposition parties comprise of National and ACT, splitting hairs I think, are there any common policies between these two parties and the Greens?
So you’re still arguing that the Green Party did this but with out informing any of the members of the Green party that this is what they will do.
Weka, I read all the threads on the topic the other day and TBH, could see the search for a suitable reason to justify it (the announcement), and when one was found you all clapped your hands and said Yeah. I understand that improving democratic process is a good thing in a world where everything is skewed by vested interests, but as pointed out, there are many other things that could have been done to achieve a much better and enduring outcome without alienating members of the party.
I want the Greens to successful, but they need to recognize that their base is now only 5%, they need smart policies that the general public will support for the right reasons, staunch Green supporters do not like National, either do I, stop pandering to them, the public aren’t as stupid as some may think.
“So the caucus was well informed and approved about his intentions then?”
I think you really have no idea how the GP works. Shaw didn’t make this decision, the GP did. Which means that the caucus both discussed and made a decision about it.
“OK, the opposition parties comprise of National and ACT, splitting hairs I think, are there any common policies between these two parties and the Greens”
You miss the point. The Greens are offering it to the Opposition, because of the principle that the Opposition should be the ones holding the govt to account. That would apply to whoever was in Opposition including Labour.
“So you’re still arguing that the Green Party did this but with out informing any of the members of the Green party that this is what they will do.”
I’m not arguing that, it’s simply a fact. That’s how the party works, and it has processes built into to increase democracy without having to run extremely time consuming processes around involving the whole membership each time. Do you have much experience with consensus decision making? Or there other processes the Greens use?
“there are many other things that could have been done to achieve a much better and enduring outcome without alienating members of the party.”
Such as? You get that the GP has done some other things too, and has active plans for more in the future right?
“I want the Greens to successful, but they need to recognize that their base is now only 5%, they need smart policies that the general public will support for the right reasons, staunch Green supporters do not like National, either do I, stop pandering to them, the public aren’t as stupid as some may think.”
If you can’t see that this isn’t pandering to National, then I can’t help you. The Greens have a culture and a specific mandate based on core principles. They also have a problem with expressing that (and I’m critical of their comms generally and in this specific instance), but that’s also because of the general misunderstandings in the public about who they are and what they do. So I get that for many people, hating on National is core to the politics. That’s just not how it is for the GP, and for very good reasons.
I know what question time is like, but everyone seems to think that it’s just the Govt that needs to be held to account, all parties need to be held to account for their actions and statements, opposition parties should be held to the same high standard as the Govt otherwise it’s just a farce.
There are a lot of Green supporters who are a little dismayed at the policy, which is where this thread originated.
I don’t deny the Greens have a robust democratic process, but it still doesn’t mean the policies are palatable for all their members.
I think if you were go back and read ALL the threads on this topic from a few days ago, you might just see the bigger picture that emerged.
I’m going to leave at that, I just don’t see the Greens as a movement benefiting from this policy, either from a membership perspective or popularity.
I know what question time is like, but everyone seems to think that it’s just the Govt that needs to be held to account, all parties need to be held to account for their actions and statements, opposition parties should be held to the same high standard as the Govt otherwise it’s just a farce.
I agree, but how does that apply to QT? Are you saying that the Greens could have used their questions to hold National to account? I don’t think they are allowed to do that. There are other ways to hold the Opposition parties to account though.
“There are a lot of Green supporters who are a little dismayed at the policy,”
Yes. But that has happened before when they do something that lots of people don’t understand and where the MSM do a poor job of explaining it.
“I think if you were go back and read ALL the threads on this topic from a few days ago, you might just see the bigger picture that emerged.”
I haven’t read every comment, but I’ve read most of them, and lots on twitter too. So I have a pretty good idea of the range of response, and the range of arguments for and against. I’m still trying to decide whether to write a post on this, but have been researching a lot in the past few days.
I’m going to leave at that, I just don’t see the Greens as a movement benefiting from this policy, either from a membership perspective or popularity.
I know this still comes as a surprise but the GP operate from principles first. This doesn’t mean they don’t take feedback or notice of dissent, they do. But that alone isn’t a good enough reason to recant on a policy let alone a principle. In this case I expect the party first and foremost to be listening to its active members but also people generally. I hope they take the time to see where the change leads and if people change their minds on it, but I am not supportive of the Greens informing their policies and actions from a ‘we hate National’ position.
true. This is why I suggest that to understand the Greens one needs to listen to them directly. One can still disagree but one is then disagreeing from an informed place.
A Guest Post would be welcome! (when the time is right)
Ah the threshold chestnut again. Go look at their record in every election and except when Labour was imploding they have always been around the threshold. Therefore being around the threshold is evidence of nothing other than that for nearly 20 years it has been enough to get Greens into parliament.
Read it right through and then think about whether it served any purpose at all.
If you were Golriz Ghahraman wouldn’t you be totally embarrassed by being required to ask these stupid questions? Wouldn’t you like to be able to refuse to do so?
Actually I quite admire the way she asked the last supplementary.
In case you haven’t seen this tool, it is the Oral Question Roster for the 52nd Parliament drawn up and approved by the Business Committee last Nov 2017 which sets out by sitting day, the number of primary Oral Questions allocated to each party making up the 12 Questions for the day.
The actual sequence of the 12 questions often changes but the numbers don’t. I doubt that this will be rejigged in light of the Greens decision as this is in essence an informal decision by the Greens and their arrangement with National is outside (but not contrary to) the current formal procedures and rules of the House.
Today is Sitting Day 31. This day number is always at the top of the Order Paper for each sitting day – helpful if you lose count as the allocation roster doesn’t state the date of each numbered day.
Today was to have been the only day this week that the Greens had an allocated question (#12) but this allocation seems to have been given to ACT today – whether by the Greens is not clear …
That is certainly a great deal easier than the way I found the questions.
I think you are wrong about being able to find the day on the list from the day on the order paper though.
As you say the day on the order paper is 31. The questions for today are however the ones for day 29 on the table you have linked to.
The questions for day 29 go L,N,A,L,N,N,L,N …….(L=Labour etc) The Greens were not going to have a question.
If you look at the list of questions for today you will see that they are in that same order as day 29. ACT has got question 3. https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/order-paper-questions/list-of-oral-questions/oral-questions-21-march-2018/
I hope what I am saying is clear enough to follow.
Thus the day number on the table you provide is only the days on which there is a Question Time. The difference between 29 and 31 caters, of course, for the fact that there was no Question Time on the first 2 days of the term. I guess keeping track would be like using one of those old desk diaries where you tear off and throw away the sheet for each day.
It would be embarrassing if a party got out of step with the right day wouldn’t it?
You’re right – good spotting. Your explanation makes sense and I should have spotted it.
The value of peer review, yet again. Thanks. Brain has had a bit of a workout this week. Will correct my post of last night on this for the record.
So in fact the Greens were allocated Q10 today and this was used by Nick Smith,Nat. Bit of a hot one today, that one! *
Did you go through Hansard to find those four questions? Do you ever use the Watch On Demand section? It was upgraded over the election break and IMHO is the quickest place to find who has asked questions, spoken on Bills etc as it now has a good filter system whereby you can filter by individual MP, subject, date period, Questions, Bill Debates etc https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand
For example, if you select Oral questions (rather than All) and then click on the MP box, the drop down box lists them by name, you select who you want, and then press the apply filters box and it will bring up all the questions (with videos) that MP has asked or been involved in with the latest first. Have only had one missed to date so not quite 100%.
Videos are now up very promptly – usually up in about 15 – 20 mins except after about 5pm when they slow, but then quicker again in the evening.
By my reckoning, today’s roster was No. 7 – would welcome you checking this for me. Based mine on the sequence of the videos using the Watch On Demand link above.
Cheers – just shows that people of different pol leanings can work well together when we have other shared interests and respect one another’s differences!
* From the videos on On Demand, I now see that Q10 was so hot that Smith came back later and made a Personal Explanation.
I would agree that it is Roster number7.
At least it has Seymour at position 7 of the 12 which is right. He only gets 3 turns in the 30 week cycle and the others are at 11 (in week 17) and 4 (in week 24).
That certainly makes him a pretty easy marker.
“Did you go through Hansard to find those four questions”.
I just looked at each day of the last 2 weeks of the questions that were going to be asked. The reference is in my comment above minus the specific date (here 21 March).
I was only looking for some samples and I wasn’t actually interested in the replies or the supplementary questions so it is only a single page per day. I just went until I had 4 from 2 weeks so it seemed a fair sample. It was only later that I bothered to look at the full debate for the last, Census, one.
Actually, while trying to edit it to be more readable I left in an erroneous statement. I said after the bit about the order that the Greens weren’t getting a question. They of course got Q10 as you say.. I left that comment in by accident after changing around chunks of the material.
Poor old Nick. “a” instead of “other”. Good on the Minister for spotting the chance and taking advantage of it. It was a great response. Pity Kelvin Davis isn’t as quick.
I shall have to have a look at some of the things you have suggested. I am just old fashioned and have to date stuck happily to the transcripts.
“people of different pol leanings”
My political leanings are generally right in the centre. I do not think that a Government should last more than 3 terms though, as long as there is someone else prepared to take over. Unfortunately I don’t think Labour were in that position last election which annoyed me greatly. Haven’t changed my mind about it either.
Since 1981 I have voted 7 times National, 5 times Labour and once did not vote. Pretty close to a swinging voter. Could have easily been 6,6,1 if Labour hadn’t, at least in my view, wasted 9 years of opposition.
I note that alwyn has given you the link to Hansard for the transcript of Question 6 on 1 March 2018 – but not the link to the video.
Here is the link to the video as this gives a much better feel for the demeanour of both Golriz Ghahraman and James Shaw in asking and answering both the primary question and the string of supplementary questions on the Census – and the attitude and reaction of the National Party MPs.
Do you see any embarrassment on the part of Golriz Ghahraman in asking the primary questions and her first supplementary questions?
I don’t. Nor do I see any embarrassment on Shaw’s part in answering them – initially.
IMO both seem quite eager and to be enjoying themselves. Golriz laughs at about supplementary question 2 and 3, and uses eye and facial expressions to emphasize parts of her questions. She is obviously a little taken aback that she has to wait for Brownlee to ask a question and also raise a Point of Order before she asks her final supplementary which she prefaces with “This is a good one.”
Shaw’s initial enthusiasm dwindles as the barracking from the National Party MPs increases with each question and answer, and he appears quite feed up at the end. Ghahraman’s laughter in the final moments could also be embarrassment.
I can understand that Shaw could well feel p. off that he was being landed with criticism of the Census system and processes set up under the previous National Govt well before he became Minister – and the problems with the process being experienced at the time. This would have been particularly galling coming from the very same National MPs that were previously involved in the setting up of the revised Census procedures etc.
BUT did anyone else make Shaw as Minister of Statistics and Ghahraman choose to use the Green Party Parliamentary Oral Question allocation to attempt to clarify the situation on the Census processes ?
No. That was entirely their decision.
And now they have decided to give some of their primary Oral questions to these very same people – ????
Here’s a message to the community I just wanted to share….
I’m really enjoying The Standard and engaging with everyone here. While we all have differences in opinion I am enjoying having some robust discussions and interesting conversations with everyone. While I have butted heads with some of the more… colourful individuals (Draco can never back down even when wrong; CV has gone completely round the bend and the less said about LPrent the better) I have also enjoyed these back and forths.
McFlock, Carolyn_nth, Tracey, Weka and Pyscho Milt – you guys are some of my favourite people to talk with and enjoy your contributions.
In due course I think you will change your mind about Draco and lprent. Their individual styles take a bit of getting used to, but they both have brilliant brains even if one doesn’t always agree with them.
Draco just comes out with some pretty easily disproven shit at times and LPrent is just very much in love with himself (yes I know he is the site owner – I’m just calling it like I see it). Also when he thinks he is being clever by insulting people it comes across very poorly.
I don’t think either of them are dumb however and don’t want nor expect them – or anyone for that matter – to change. It all makes up the rich tapestry of life….
Great Britain became great through trade – the whole fucking American Revolution started because of Britain’s trading practices and they owned well over half the worlds trade at one point.
No, they owned well over half the world’s theft at one point. They were wealthy because of stealing resources, not because they were trading fairly for their resources.
No, they became ‘great’ because they built up their local manufacturing and their war machine so that they could conquer other territories and steal the resources of those conquered territories.
I’m saying that we should do the first bit and build up our manufacturing capabilities, knowledge and skills so that we can support ourselves from our own resources rather than being dependent upon trade which actually leaves us poorer.
And to build the war machine they needed….trade! with the baltic states to get the wood needed for their ships.
This isn’t hard – the owned nearly every trade route in the world and traded extensively. It isn’t even disputed.
Your statement at the very beginning said they didn’t need trade when in fact they were the biggest trading nation the world have even seen and one British company, on it’s own, controlled half the worlds trade. These are facts.
If you want to believe Great Britain wasn’t a trading nation (the biggest trading nation of its time) despite everything to the contrary then fine. You’ll note I have provided about 5 – 6 different citations that disagree with your premise while you have provided none – just your opinion.
So despite owning over the half the worlds, opening trading posts all over the world, trading extensively with China, the baltics, the West indies, India and the Orient in general you still hold the position that they did it all themselves without the need for trade.
I stand by my original post – you can’t admit when you got something just plain wrong.
You don’t understand John.
You are arguing from just a small, say one thousand years of history. To disprove DTB’s credo you have to prove that Britain was the leading trading nation at all times and with all other countries.
They weren’t between 1121 and 1123 AD with Inner Mongolia.
Therefore you are totally wrong and you should bow down before the superior knowledge of DTB.
Know your place villein and don’t question the wisdom of your Lord, Baron Draco of Bastard.
Initially the British Empire grew from mercantilism within its borders but from the Industrial Revolution onwards “British control of the oceans proved optimal in creating a liberal free-trade global economy, and helped Britain gain the lion’s share of the world’s carrying trade and financial support services.”
Thanks (sarcasm) for screwing up Fonterra, cumulating a loss of $348 million.
Maybe next time they cap the salary at 1 million instead of 8 million plus – Fonterra might actually get someone who is less greedy and more interested in the company than screwing it up. Of course they are also giving him a consultancy role so he can keeping milking it…
Maybe think about a Kiwi at the helm too as we keep hearing how important Fonterra is for NZ and therefore needs TPPA, more environmental degradation and the country has to suck it up so they can post loses and pay execs 8 million.
Funny Fonterra is always a Kiwi company when it suits them, but an international one, when it comes to management and their decisions and salaries.
At least if they bother to appoint a Kiwi at the helm, they have to live with their decisions and hopefully have a more long term approach, than make cash and deliver losses… for the 8 million salary and then off to do it again, no doubt somewhere else in the world.
Dairy farming does not have to be toxic! Clearly getting someone in from Holland which intensively farms animals in barns and specialises in mergers was never a good fit with NZ farming practises. Has not worked out financially either.
Whose bright idea was it to hire him in the first place?
No net benefit? Tell that to the tens of thousands of farmers, farm staff, ancillary industries, and contractual staff who derive an income from the dairy industry.
Not to mention billions into the government’s coffers from the associated income and gst tax.
Local councils love rates income from dairy farms.
You can grizzle about farming and pollution but net benefit….hole in your head with that comment.
Yep, clearly Fonterra team are financial and overseas planning wizards.. (sarcasm)
“But in its interim results on Wednesday, Fonterra said net normalised profit after tax had fallen 36 per cent from its 2017 result, to $248 million.
While revenue was up 6 per cent, the company’s earnings before interest and taxes were down 25 per cent from 2017.
With the one-off payments to Danone, over the botulism contamination scare, and the Beingmate write-off factored in, the cooperative made a loss of $348m, a 183 per cent drop in net profit after tax from the 2017 interim result.”
With CEO Theo Spierings resigned, I sure hope Fonterra use this as an opportunity to get their shit together, stop losing money, and emphasise the Value over their Volume and Velocity drivers.
Can anyone tell me where the big election push for cleaner waterways went, now that they are in power?
Currently, other than through an oblique regulatory lens enabled through a change of legislation, I don’t see any government strategy for engaging with the dairy industry as a whole, let alone Fonterra as our largest locally-owned business.
Fonterra knew Beingmate sales were declining when they bought them due to on line sales increasing at a rapid pace. They overpaid because it was tipped they were buying them and also they were over valued in the first place, because on line sales were taking the business.
Mistake after mistake.
Fonterra management are dinosaurs and out of touch with modern business.
Surely they could work out, that in a country of billions it is easier to order on line than go through traffic and have to travel in an enormous country to a few retail stores, to get your milk powder?
Surely????
When the evidence was before their eyes at the time in China, retail declining, on line sales increasing?
One would expect the chairman to resign also given that the CEO is presumably carrying out the boards wishes. The board and upper management need an extensive clean out.
Am I qualified to comment, yep, got family who work for them.
If they lower the salaries under 1 million with benefits for CEO under $500k for anyone else and set the board salary at NZ levels, hopefully clean out of the worst Greedies and certainly the board and upper management set the strategy and make the bad decisions so heads should roll.
The reality is that like in the famous add for pineapple lumps the world sees many Kiwis as yokels in business, with good reason and our ability to attract B and C grade overseas executives while thinking we have hit the jackpot seems to have become the new norm.
Fonterra were probably fed fake facts about Bestmate from the Chinese or someone got a backhander to make such a bad error in the first place and over pay. Unless it is just out and out stupidity and laziness?
Similar to treasury apparently blaming a 25% error on their child poverty on the IT guy.
Time also to actually improve the Kiwi business with Kiwi residents who actually understand the culture here and work for NZ and company interests.
Kiwi’s used to be renewed for their ideas and quality not the pen pushing lazies that expect the government to wipe their asses with policy friendly laissez-faire deregulation for short term profits and have an expensive board of ‘names’ to show they are part of the greedy club and have the appropriate nepotism and networking in place.
It’s kinda the opposite of what to expect from a functioning rural co operative in this country.
Well, you don’t seem to support the left and seem to get your information from sources like foxnews as well as supporting a right wing US political candidate.
I’m sorry if I have misinterpreted you – I am asking for genuine reasons and not to offend
John, CV works pretty hard at sustaining nuanced and well researched positions.
You will find plenty on here who don’t change their minds, are spectacularly narrow-minded, and spend most of their times in tiresome purity contests with each about how ultra-left and ultra-good they are.
What “Left” is there to support? The Greens? Labour?
Socialism (or perhaps Communism) as a political economic model?
Post-modern identity politics or perhaps a radical social liberalism which promotes the inversion/destruction of traditional social boundaries and social structures?
Or the Clinton Left which seems to believe that escalating tensions with Russia and proclaiming the sanctity of the FBI/CIA/New York Times as guardians of freedom and democracy is now “Left”?
Or maybe the environmental left which has spent the last week proclaiming that Climate Change is bringing on a global catastrophe of civilisation ending proportions – but the furthest we can possibly go is (an ineffective) ban on oil exploration, but not a ban on actual fossil fuel importation?
Or perhaps the Left which is breathless at the prospects of Hillary and Obama visiting NZ along with their congratulations that NZ Labour carried on with the implementation of the TPP that they championed while in office?
I’m not sure which left. I’m left in that I oppose right wing/social conservatism. Not having a party to always support doesn’t mean I don’t strife against it the right.
Does this mean you have given up on the left as being able to get their shit together rather than “joining the right” as it were?
I decided that a degree of social conservatism and also long standing cultural values have an important place in the every day running of society that too many people have taken for granted.
Arabs, Asians, Indians, Russians, Chinese, Persians, etc. place far, far more value on their own cultures and traditions than Anglo-Saxons do on theirs.
I also decided that both elements on the Left and the Right were far too busy trying to invert morality and present crappy BS as virtuous goods.
The left can’t get its shit together because with the exception of just a few, it doesn’t understand what fitness for the current age is, and it doesn’t understand that because it doesn’t understand the broader operating environment of the current age.
And to tack a footnote on that sentiment CV, I’m most interested in building trust across the whole range of people and communities in our society. Not just within New Zealand, but globally.
I understand this is a forbidding goal, but I’d sooner be moving towards a sense of human unity than away from it.
Very forboding especially when some people in some cultures have no concept of or buy in to this kind of openness, and indeed would take the degrees of freedom presented to them in such an open system to throw a spanner in the works for their own short term gain.
As a concrete example, Chinese nationals obtaining NZ citizenship for their elderly parents on family grounds then dumping them here for the Crown to pay for their care and healthcare as they themselves head back to do business overseas is only one example.
And the only answer to that is exactly as you outlined above; we need to value our own cultural values more, and be willing to defend them when we see them betrayed like that.
But of course every modest attempt to do so gets screamed down by someone frantically waving the ‘racist’ card. Depressing.
Unity isn’t about some beige, insipid ‘tolerance’; it’s about understanding who you are, what is important to you, and engaging the world constructively on that basis.
Arabs, Asians, Indians, Russians, Chinese, Persians, etc. place far, far more value on their own cultures and traditions than Anglo-Saxons do on theirs.
I also decided that both elements on the Left and the Right were far too busy trying to invert morality and present crappy BS as virtuous goods.
Or to put it more simply, you became an authoritarian nationalist. Thank you though, that explains the right-wing opinions and the support for Trump and Putin nicely.
[RL: 12 month ban for starting a flame war and wasting moderators time.]
I can’t help your delusional interpretations and poor reading comprehension.
[Read the first and second paragraphs of the Policy. I’m done with trying to explain this to a commenter who now has a 2 year history of causing multiple and serious problems on this site. I spent a lot of effort in the last week dampening down flame wars. Given how much moderation work you have taken up in recent years I am now done with spending any more time on you when, in returning from the past few short bans, you just revert back to the same behaviour and on and on it goes. I see no point in letting this escalate and cause problems in the commentariat. 12 month ban. – weka]
” I also decided that both elements on the Left and the Right were far too busy trying to invert morality and present crappy BS as virtuous goods. ”
This is why people get confused by you CV. You adopt the Rights memes designed to silence dissent and preserve the status quo…
Virtue signalling and identity politics and PC are just that and when you sneer them out as a substitute for counter argument and then bask in your superiority that you and some select others are the only ones who see the world for what it is and have all the answers you attract challenge. By all means have your worldview and champion it but it is still just an opinion no matter how fervently and firmly you hold onto it
“I decided that a degree of social conservatism and also long standing cultural values have an important place in the every day running of society that too many people have taken for granted.”
Totally agree with this statement.
Also, It still amazes me how many commenters on this and other sites, as well as within the MSM, believe that conservative = right wing. This is not the case. For example the working class are generally conservative and are (traditionally) mostly left wing leaning
This is why there is a massive disconnect between say the Green Party and the working class. The working class are too busy working to feed their families and trying to get their kids well educated to worry excessively about less important (to them) things.
Yet all they hear from the supposed left is post modernist, intersectionalist, non binary cis gender, virtue signalling, victim claiming, unscientific, fantasyland claptrap. They are looked down upon, discriminated against (in the name of getting rid of discrimination) , told they must feel guilty about their so called mythical white privilege, accept the ‘fact’ that their masculinity is toxic and they’re part of this massive conspiracy called the patriarchy which exists to dis-empower and discriminate against women.
Wonder why Trump won.
I could rant on and on, but I’ve got a family to feed.
How do you know many Green Party members/voters haven’t come from working class backgrounds?
I have certainly come across GP members who are women from working class backgrounds who went to Uni – probably the first in their family.
And I have known a few working class women, strong on class politics who are also explicitly feminists – while perhaps being critical of some middle class feminists.
There are also quite a few working class LGBTI people.
Sarah Smarsh comes from a poor US family – was the first in her family to go to uni, and writes a lot about class, and also feminism.
Working-class women might not be fighting for a cause with words, time and money they don’t have, but they possess an unsurpassed wisdom about the way gender works in the world.
Take, for example, the concept of intersectionality. The poor white women who raised me don’t know that term, but they readily acknowledge that the dark-skinned women they know face harder battles than they do, in many ways. They know this from working on factory floors and in retail stock rooms alongside women of color who they have watched endure both sexism and racism along with their poverty.
I wonder how many working class are Left voting though. Given the presence of Nat ACT and NZF it seems as though either the percentage in the working class has dropped or they are voting Right.
We constantly have a Nat Government because kwis vote conservatively. And while we have some social liberalism Nats last 2 leaders have been Christian and socially conservative
That mostly reads to me as a fairly reasonable exposition of, not the left, but liberalism.
That said, I’m not sure I understand what you mean by a socialist or communist political economic model, unless you’re referring to forms of authoritarianism that hi-jacked the terms “socialist” and “communist” for cynical (and somewhat successful) political gain.
Many disenchanted liberals are going to fall to the left or the right in coming years, where “left” is the non-authoritarian counter to various forms of authoritarianism (including some that will masquerade as being left) that will undoubtedly seek ascendancy.
Tradition is a tricky one in my mind. Some traditions are valuable and definitely worth defending and/or fighting for. Some have been forgotten or suppressed. Others simply aren’t worth shit, insofar as they run against our best interests and can easily be used to excuse and/or condone some fairly horrific political machinations. (eg – particularly useful in pushing some forms of authoritarianism).
I’d have liked to have carried on this conversation on the basis of “my reckons” – ie, that you tend to confound the liberalism you’ve become disenchanted with as “left” and so, seeing no space to maneuver, kind of default to the less compassionate side of liberalism.
“Left” and “authoritarian” are two mutually exclusive concepts.
“Liberal” and “authoritarian” aren’t.
And liberalism has this dirty habit of claiming to be of the left. Which it can never be in light of the fact it’s synonymous with capitalism – which as economic systems go, is the antithesis of anything “left” (whether in it’s state or command economy setting, it’s liberal market setting, or any point between those poles)
How do you see what you posted advance the interest of the labour movement?
There is no evidence from what you posted that it stopped them before they had actually shot someone. So the reality is a stopping took place. Indeed a school shooting did in fact take place, again.
There is no “labour movement” and even if there were, its not my job to advance its interests and agendas.
Yes, people were shot. Yes it was a school shooting. But the shooter was interrupted in his crime by an armed school resource officer before he could continue further.
So the reality is a stopping took place. Indeed a school shooting did in fact take place, again.
Sad attempt at spin man, sad.
You have a better idea for how this particular school shooting could have been prevented?
Hi adam, firstly I’d ask you to cease your attempts at putting words in my mouth.
Secondly, the armed school resource officer successfully stopped the continuation of the shooting and successfully stopped the perp continuing the shooting incident and his shooting.
I’m sorry that my original comment did not pass your requirements for pedantry.
So you don’t think this site is to improve the interests the labour movement and to question you on that is a pedantry argument. Interesting.
As for words in your mouth, “Armed school resource officer stops Maryland High School Shooting” just quoted you buddy. If that not what you said, I’m all ears.
As for a shooting, one happened. So not really a good propaganda piece for you is it.
How is it my problem if you don’t understand that “a shooting” can be both a noun and a verb, and can have meanings both in a present tense and a past tense?
So you don’t think this site is to improve the interests the labour movement and to question you on that is a pedantry argument. Interesting.
I have said zero about what I believe the purpose of this site is. Again I ask you to stop putting words into my mouth.
You have to realise your piece, is a piece of crap. People died and you want to claim a victory for violence and stupidity. Can’t put a price on people lives when people want to score political points on it can you. Oh wait, you already did.
Hi adam, every parent of that Maryland school will be sending gifts, cards and gratitutide to the armed school resource officer which stopped the shooter.
Yep – if society allows a situation where a very disturbed person can easily get a bunch of weapons and wander into a place where unarmed people are confined in classrooms and then shoot them up – then it might on average reduce the volume of carnage if there were well-trained sharpshooters in the school to take out the said disturbed person.
Probably lots of people killed still, probably a few innocent people taken out by mistake because the sharpshooter thought they had a gun (or maybe they were black and looked kinda suspicious?) when they didn’t have a gun at all. But it is entirely conceivable that the total body count over a long period of time would be less. Will they trial it and find out do you think?
And you know what? If Americans are still convinced that ease of access to guns is some sort of divinely-conferred right, maybe that’s exactly what they should do? The more the merrier really. I still think it’s nuts, but given that belief system it is possibly quite rational.
Rationality in an irrational environment appears as irrational. It’s akin to how do you know you’re in a bubble when you’re in a bubble. But it might just work… Clockwork Orange-like. Enough guns and carnage until everyone is just sick of it.
@ 7:43 “The concept of “Crooked Hillary” was promoted widely on social media including Facebook, Google, and YouTube. And then Nix boasts about how the online videos had 30,000,000 million views, but users would’ve been unaware they came from the Trump Campaign.
The Trump campaign was selling their own messages via social media and the Clinton campaign was selling their own messages via social media.
Leaves the Russians (who may only have been intermediaries themselves and nothing to do with the Kremlin), who spent a tiny amount of money on Face Book, and of that mostly after the election, in the dust.
The CEO is doing a continuous sales pitch on how powerful his company supposedly is and how valuable their services are. That’s what a CEO is supposed to do.
CA isn’t a real company as you or I would recognise one – it is merely a legally constituted shell company.
That you cannot understand this even as I am patiently explaining it to you demonstrates how far behind the curve of these corporate operators you are.
Now adam – where did I say Hillary Clinton was pure and innocent? Show me anyone who is pure and innocent (apart from the new born) and I will show you Christ. She is however, far more pure and innocent than the men who smeared her.
If you are to tell me that she is far more corrupt than Trump, (and pizza gate has been shown to be a straight out fabrication) then you are a living example of just how effective the propaganda machine was!
For starters I never said that, all I said and let it sink in a second time.
“h.r.c had enough dirt that it stuck. Rightly or wrongly.”
I also said a long time ago h.r.c. was stupid choice becasue she came with a lot of baggage, and a history which could be used against her. I’m not sure if your one of the people who poo pooed me over that. But I was right, and h.r.c. was a bloody awful candidate on that, and on so many other levels.
trump is the twitter and chief, corrupt, self absorbed, making a village short of their idiot, and as close to a nightmare walking as humanly possible.
The elites lie, they lie with impunity and if you want them gone. Well supporting one faction of the elites over the other will never make that happen. That my take from the last USA election, what was yours?
I think you need to have a look at how strong female candidates from the centre left are treated adam. Not just in the US but almost universally world wide in the western world. Take for instance Julia Gillard in Australia or our own Helen Clark (“Aunty Helen” ring any bells?) – It’s happening now with Jacinda. In the US right now the Democrats Nancy Pelosi is under attack,
The first female speaker of the House has become the most effective congressional leader of modern times—and, not coincidentally, the most vilified.
yet she has been responsible for helping to advance many of the more progressive legislation in what was a Republican dominated Congress. Elizabeth Warren also – another case in point. Trump insulting her by calling her names because she dares to identify with a native American ancestor.
From the above link:
For a 2010 paper in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the Yale researchers Victoria Brescoll and Tyler Okimoto showed study participants the fictional biographies of two state senators, identical except that one was named John Burr and the other Ann Burr. (I referred to this study in an October 2016 article for this magazine called “Fear of a Female President.”) When quotations were added that described the state senators as “ambitious” and possessing “a strong will to power,” John Burr became more popular. But the changes provoked “moral outrage” toward Ann Burr, whom both men and women became less willing to support.
and
As the management professors Ekaterina Netchaeva, Maryam Kouchaki, and Leah Sheppard noted in a 2015 paper, Americans generally believe “that leaders must necessarily possess attributes such as competitiveness, self-confidence, objectiveness, aggressiveness, and ambitiousness.” But “these leader attributes, though welcomed in a male, are inconsistent with prescriptive female stereotypes of warmth and communality.” In fact, “the mere indication that a female leader is successful in her position leads to increased ratings of her selfishness, deceitfulness, and coldness.”
Hillary Clinton may not have been as left as you would have liked – nor was she a Bernie – whom I’m sure many here (including myself) would have preferred – however, when all is said and done, the present daily train wreck that is the current White House administration would never be happening under Hillary. The USA would still be active in the Paris Agreement, along with the rest of the world. Scott Pruitt would not be dismantling the EPA as fast he can rip up every piece of environmental regulation he can, and there would still be essential scientific work studying climate change progressing in the US instead of scientists having to up root and travel to France.
Women would be more safe and the poor would not be enriching the rich as much as the last “Tax reform” has done.
Look how Jill Stein was treated during the election. Some of the male democrats were the absolute worst.
Jill Stein is still being treated like crap in the press and by male democrats. Ask most people, and they will say Stein is crazy and emotional. Seen it here often enough.
As for h.r.c, I’d say the males around here were her biggest problem. Especially her husband with his rape allegations and sexual assaults.
As for her being better, a possum on acid would do better than trump. Not much of an upgrade, and the russio-phobia coming from the democrats is frightening. It’s like some of them have a thing for war, and killing of civilians. Oh wait, they voted to increase the military budget and increase spying powers.
Me I’m over these stupid elites, no matter what side they pretend to be on. I’m really not sure why your backing them.
When you don’t listen your baby sitters, they’re going to tell on you.
"DO NOT CONGRATULATE," national security advisers wrote in Trump's written briefing ahead of call with Vladimir Putin. Trump congratulated. The notes said to condemn the attack of an ex-Russian spy in London with a nerve agent. He did not. https://t.co/HjCkbdkbb4— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) March 20, 2018
Of course he ignored it. The Russian election was beset with ballot stuffing, delegitimising the opposition and weird balloons and the like getting in the way of the cameras. For a person (Trump) to congratulate Putin on one hand while screaming about election fraud in his own country (remember he set up the special commission, which has since disbanded, to investigate electoral fraud) is hypocritical in the extreme
News Hub some people don’t like a common brown man having influence I see it all Mike
The humanity star is a major achivement by Peter Beck and his Team at Rocket lab Kia kaha .
There is hope that Fonterra hires a CEO that understands the local cultures and people of our major trading partners .
Many thanks to DOC and all there staff for doing a great job in releaseing the Takahe into Kahururangi National park + all the other creaters they are bring back from the brink of extinction .Ka kite ano P.S Paddy looks happy
There you go News Hub another tragedy cause by alcohol the Australian punched and in a comer for months is happy to be a live
Many thanks to NZRU for including the Black ferns 7 lady’s rugby team in the Commonwealth Games Kia Kaha ladys .
Congradulations to the NZ Paralympics team Kia kaha people ka kite ano
The Project Mark when I had to take away a service from some people I set them up with another service provider . Eco Maori says Air New Zealand should work with other air lines to keep the flights going to Kapiti this is the way a national airline should behave ka kite ano
It’s disgraceful that moderation has become emotionally charged. Decisions to ban people for long periods could maybe be decided by all moderators having a back-end vote or something, because today’s fiasco reflects very poorly on moderators and TS IMO.
Good Morning the AM Show I use to read Andrew Horggards post years ago on Fencepost Fonterra web site hes cool.Theo was cool to he did a lot of good things for the Fonterra farmers but his main job is to deliver the best payout he can to farmers .
Farmers are still trying to get over the years of the low pay out they still have dept because of that I recon all councils could make money with a cut and carry system mowing the side of suitable roads they could unload the fresh grass straight into feed bins on farm this would create jobs and could be a ALTERNATIVE to Plam kernal as this is one solution to get our import budget down and there are other reasons but I don’t want to stir the pot we would be able to stack this valuable resource grass for times of drought it can keep for years in a good silage stack this would improve The Dairy Image and keep the bad publicist away. kia kaha Farmers Ka kite ano P.S Paddy good on you m8 the Cicadas sing the beautiful song of mother nature
Kai pai Duncan for promoting the Northen white Rino subspecies that is close to extinction and lets ban set-net fishing in those locations of the Hector and Maui Dolphin ban new oil drilling in those locations we have a objurgation to save OUR wild live just by changing the way we do things .It will be written in our history books as a big win when we save the Maui Dolphin and who ever makes the right choice to save these precious creaters will go into the history books as a Great person. ka kite ano P.S Efeso Colins is right if you can save a dollar its like saveing 2 dollars so every state or council employee should have this in mine taking Economy instead of business is not much to ask to save there people money and this teaches them not to waste anything Ka pai Efeso
The AM Show is it a coincident that the internet cable into Australia is cut broken when we have Obama here . We have to go to the Australian libraries to find the correct story’s on Ngati Porou .There have been some suspicious things going on with some of OUR major infrastructure there are some real raciest people around at the minute . Then there was the O missing in the Countdown sign at the Auckland Air port I won’t say to much except we are ONE RACE THE HUMAN RACE.
Kia Kaha
The Cafe the live below the line challange is a good way to show kiwis that we have it good Mike in Aotearoa compared to many other poor soles in poor countrys this should not be happening in OUR World this day and age .
Brett McGregor trying to feed himself on$280 a day also tells you that we need meat to raise healthy mokopunas full stop kia kaha
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Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
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RNZ’s Todd Niall takes Auckland Council to task for not handling official information requests properly: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/352910/lgoima-when-old-news-grows-ripe
Now if only a local activist was aiming at the right target ..
Related – the increasing use of OIA requests about the OIA process: http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2018/03/the-value-of-metaoias.html
According to Hosking in his column we’re travelling down an introspective, small-minded, closed shop road in stopping foreigners buying land here.
Apparently selling foreign land to rich Americans who want to escape their not introspective, small-minded, closed shop country will be great for us.
Don’t panic Mike , we’ve got you and the riches from that enhance our lives more than Julian Robertson, Peter Thiel, Barak Obama or a thousand American billionaires could ever do.
It also keep luxury house prices up, they might fall or sell less like hot cakes if the foreign sales are stopped.
As for US, I think soon it will be billionaires from Asian and Middle East vying for our bolt holes to join the American’s and keep the McMansions getting bigger and our best builders employed for years, in a building shortage.
Personally don’t mind a few foreign sales but clearly many in the world have WAY too much money to spend and countries to influence, and like UK, it just gets out of control.
That has now happened to NZ and places like Queenstown for example are being built for people who don’t live there and no accomodation for people who do.
Not exactly sustainable.
It has to stop and now.
Listening to that ridiculous stuffed shirt Grant Robertson dissemble and divert on RNZ over the issue of Air New Zealand’s abandonment of the provinces made my blood boil this morning. For Christ’s sake man, this should be a BREAD AND BUTTER issue for a left wing politician.
Robertson clearly has no interest in holding the Air NZ board to account. From that, i doubt he has any real intentions beyond what is in the coalition deal of helping Shane Jones and NZ First in their plan for regional renewal.
Robertson might as well fuck off to the National party for all the difference he plans to make as finance minister.
Robertson must go.
Any government strategy about government businesses would be good.
Any time you’re ready Grant.
Sorry to restate the obvious but Roberston isn’t a left wing politician. It’s the same old dilemma for Labour (and Labour members and Labour voters). What can they do?
‘broad church’ etc
In which case we should definitely stop calling Labour a left wing party (I don’t, to me they are centre-left neoliberals).
Labour are centre-right.
Draco – this has already been pointed out to you. The political compass is not evidence of anything.
It is the same as using an anonymous Stuff survey. There is no way to no who did it and how they answered. Basing anything on that is stupid and you should feel stupid
The political compass gives a indication of relative positioning between parties from a reasonably stable view point.
And that’s calling up the typical authoritarian fallacy.
They do it based upon the political parties policies.
Actually, that would be you as you continue to fail to address your ignorance – as all RWNJs do.
Draco – you can’t use an anonymous survey (because that is essentially what it is – an anonymous survey) which doesn’t state it’s methodology or who completed it, what they know about party policy or how they answered the question.
The overwhelming majority of political scientists, commentators and anyone else who puts their name to anything agree Labour is centre-left so how you can argue against that with an anonymous website which doesn’t disclose the methodology behind its results is an extremely poor argument indeed.
It’s like using a Stuff poll which asks “Is the government heading in the right direction” as evidence the government is/isn’t heading in the right direction.
And knock it off with the RW bullshit. I have told you several times I am not RW, never have been and can’t see any reason why I would. Pointing out your poor argument does not make one a RWinger
Except that they do state their methodology and who completes it isn’t important. The latter is just an Appeal to Authority which is a logical fallacy.
[Citation Needed]
But that rings of another logical fallacy: Bandwagon
Then I suggest you stop acting like one.
“Except that they do state their methodology”
Not really no – they doesn’t really give us anymore information at all as to how they got the result they did.
And it isn’t an appeal to authority – it’s the exact opposite because I’m not appealing to any authority – I’m actually asking you where the Political Compass gets the authority to make the claims they are.
Do you really need a citation as to who thinks Labour is centre-left? Given is the leading paradigm I wouldn’t have thought it needed a citation. But fine – I can’t provide you with a list.
I’m not acting like a right-winger – I’m explaining to you why this Political Compass as evidence of Labour being centre-right is extremely poor scholarship for reason listed. Calling you out on that isn’t being right-wing
“Labour are centre-right.”
Relative to what? If we’re talking the Overton Window, then yes Robertson would be too far to the right of traditional left wingness. But in NZ today, on our own spectrum, centre left neoliberalism is a useful way to understand where we are at.
Btw, the political compass you linked to, how come the Greens have been moved to the right?
“Btw, the political compass you linked to, how come the Greens have been moved to the right?”
because this political compass is flawed as evidence and is evidence for nothing
Because their policies have moved to the right. And they actually have done to some degree as they’ve become more ‘business friendly’ over the last few years.
Which policies?
Their pre-election welfare policy put them well to the left.
Generally statements and policies for supporting business.
I’ll take that to be some vague impression that the GP have moved right, but it’s not actual evidence of such.
The Greens building relationships with business has easily been counter balanced by them also building relationships with Māori and the underclasses. It’s also a way of moving business leftwards.
This is why the Greens don’t readily fit into classic L/R framing, but I’m not seeing anything obvious about their policies that account for them having been moved right on that particular compass.
The main one might be the BRR, but that appears to have been a compromise in order to work with Labour rather than an ideological or policy shift. Am open to some actual examples that show different.
Yes labour are a disappointment so far, but a negative poll may spur their lazy ways to actually get up and do the right thing they promised us all before the election or they may need to “waka jump”.
Robertson is a product of his time…he studied politics in the mid nineties and then worked for Foreign Affairs and Trade upon graduation….the height of the neolib era ….Overton window and all that.
Yep. And this isn’t just Labour’s issue, it’s an issue for the whole left.
But Labour is the only party in Parliament that is leaning left!?
You seriously believe the Greens are not?
The operative word is in italics 😉
as in the Greens are already left.
Labour leaning left but hanging onto the centrist Overton windowsill for all their worth. Leaning left, but not actually moving left.
Yep as far as Labour goes.
I don’t think the Greens really fit or suit the label “left” for the same reason I have difficulties labelling myself “left”. But this is just my personal pedantry 😉
True. I think calling them left in this kind of conversation is useful but then it does cause a bit of confusion when we have the neither left nor right conversations.
Also, they’re not traditional left, which is what many people are still expecting Labour to be. Which begs the question of what the left does now given neither Labour nor the Greens are in that role.
To answer your question weka.
Anyone who is a socialist, does not vote.
Because there is no socialists to vote for. Especially party vote, the greens have made it abundantly clear they are not socialist. And the labour party threw out any pretence to social democracy in the 1980’s, and have never looked like taking it up again.
I’m broadly socialist and I vote. I party vote Green because I can see that if they have more power, they will take us in the direction of socialism. That’s what that whole movement wanted and had it been supported more by socialists and left wingers in the past 30 years we might be actually getting somewhere by now. Instead, the only way the Greens have been able to gain ground was by playing the long game and finding the balance point between influencing the mainstream and becoming more mainstream in order to do so.
Not voting doesn’t answer my question, it just cedes the power and the discussion to the Robertsons of the world.
I don’t think Labour/Greens will ever be left enough for many of the regular commenters at The Standard. They would need to abandon middle NZ to do so and struggle to secure 5% of the vote.
They have the votes of the regulars here in the bag. Growing their share of the votes requires being seen to move right, not left.
The Green’s greatest supporter/critics eg: The Chairman, every day he was taking a swipe at their lack of sliding left. It may well be with reluctance but I do feel that those that share his sentiment would never vote Nat/ACT.
@David Mac
I agree that there are those here for whom nothing short of revolution would be regarded as “right wing neoliberalism”, but there are also no shortage of tories who like to encourage those divisions with concern-trolling about whether party A or person B is “left wing enough”.
As for moving right to get votes, I’m not so sure. Arguing that there’s a pool of voters betwixt lab and nat is the same trap as others who attribute votes to policy or simple photogenic leadership.
People vote for complex reasons, and pivoting a party to chase that one thing which will work kind of leaves your dick on the anvil if that one thing turns out to have been a pipe dream.
Hi McFlock, They appear to be aiming for concerns that sit where the left/right Venn diagram overlaps.
The environment, kids’ well-being and education etc.
I think it’s a strategy that makes sense if they don’t want to swap chairs again come 2020.
Leaves us wondering ‘So are they doing this to win the next election or because it’s whats best for NZ?’
Anyone who is a socialist, does not vote.
Putting aside “purity”, still not strictly true. I believe the World Socialist Party (affiliated with the SPGB) has an electoral presence in NZ. 😉
They stand candidates, have no platform, and would not enter parliament.
The idea is that a vote for such a candidate is a vote for oneself.
I guess there was a time when the thought was that a critical mass could be achieved and representative parliamentary democracy side-lined.
At the risk of sounding like a damned hippy, the analogy of the Venn diagram constrains the discussion into the right/left/intersect argument you’re making, rather than simply illustrating it.
For example, the Greens are doing their thing, following through on their commitments as much as they can. Labour are doing their thing, following through on their commitments as much as they can. Actually having honest politicians will increase the pool of voters on the leftish side, not just suck some voters from the nat side. Having tories look like losers will disincentivise some tories from voting, lowering their pool of voters. So labgrn might increase their proportion of votes without ever approaching the middle ground with the tories.
That’s been obvious for awhile. He’s a solid neo-liberal following the same failed policies that has always destroyed economies and societies.
Like most of us, his contribution stands testament to the life he has led. Grant has never been unplugged from the Mother Ship. I think he’d struggle to run a successful lemonade stall at the bottom of his drive.
stand
Similar to English. He was never really a “farmer” (grew up on one but then I have a pool but am not thereby an olympic swimmer) but was a career bureaucrat and then politician but nary a peep from Nats about his lack of real world experience. Then there is the woodwork teacher turned politician who fucked over the people of Christchurch and then EQC and then giving Fletchers immunity from any poor repair work.
Aren’t there restrictions on the directions he can give the board because the govt isn’t sole shareholder? It has to run for profit unless we renationalise.
As much as I like Obama I hate seeing the NZ media fawn over the trip. It is embarrassing
Rich turpitude. But he did the best he could. Not good enough.
The James Shaw Show of giving National the Greens’ questions has now reached Talkback Land and not in a complimentary way. Greens’ members not happy.
For a party that believes in democratic process, they FAILED miserably here just to gain a little notoriety, just hope they don’t go the same way the Aus Greens have, supporting conservative agendas, their polling is already fairly low.
How did they fail in democratic process here?
Did Shaw ASK you if you thought it was a good idea to gift National their questions, my take is that it’s members only heard about this through the media, the strong Green supporters here defended the hell out of it, even though the reality is it is likely to see supporters drift away from an already diminishing base.
I hoped to see the Greens be very successful at promoting the core issues they stand for and put forward policies and ideas that all Kiwis can be proud of, instead they’ve poked a lot of supporters in the eye with a blunt stick to gain a few NEWs headlines.
For me, James Shaw has made some serious mistakes trying to be more relevant, some of the statements he has made in the past just don’t really support the true Values of the Green movement.
1. Shaw didn’t ask each individual member because that is not how the GP works democratically. They have tried and true processes that balance democracy with functionality. The caucus is empowered to make decisions without having to go to the membership each time. Think that through. The amount of work of running a democratic process with the membership on every decision, or even just this one, would be massive.
2. The GP didn’t give their questions to National, they gave them to the Opposition. Think about that.
3. Shaw didn’t do this, the Green Party did. But he fronted it and the rationales I have heard from him fit very well with the principles of the GP. That’s the whole point (which is being missed by many people). If you think that is wrong, please point to the specific values that have been undermined here and explain how they’ve been undermined.
Weka
So the caucus was well informed and approved about his intentions then?
OK, the opposition parties comprise of National and ACT, splitting hairs I think, are there any common policies between these two parties and the Greens?
So you’re still arguing that the Green Party did this but with out informing any of the members of the Green party that this is what they will do.
Weka, I read all the threads on the topic the other day and TBH, could see the search for a suitable reason to justify it (the announcement), and when one was found you all clapped your hands and said Yeah. I understand that improving democratic process is a good thing in a world where everything is skewed by vested interests, but as pointed out, there are many other things that could have been done to achieve a much better and enduring outcome without alienating members of the party.
I want the Greens to successful, but they need to recognize that their base is now only 5%, they need smart policies that the general public will support for the right reasons, staunch Green supporters do not like National, either do I, stop pandering to them, the public aren’t as stupid as some may think.
“So the caucus was well informed and approved about his intentions then?”
I think you really have no idea how the GP works. Shaw didn’t make this decision, the GP did. Which means that the caucus both discussed and made a decision about it.
“OK, the opposition parties comprise of National and ACT, splitting hairs I think, are there any common policies between these two parties and the Greens”
You miss the point. The Greens are offering it to the Opposition, because of the principle that the Opposition should be the ones holding the govt to account. That would apply to whoever was in Opposition including Labour.
“So you’re still arguing that the Green Party did this but with out informing any of the members of the Green party that this is what they will do.”
I’m not arguing that, it’s simply a fact. That’s how the party works, and it has processes built into to increase democracy without having to run extremely time consuming processes around involving the whole membership each time. Do you have much experience with consensus decision making? Or there other processes the Greens use?
“there are many other things that could have been done to achieve a much better and enduring outcome without alienating members of the party.”
Such as? You get that the GP has done some other things too, and has active plans for more in the future right?
“I want the Greens to successful, but they need to recognize that their base is now only 5%, they need smart policies that the general public will support for the right reasons, staunch Green supporters do not like National, either do I, stop pandering to them, the public aren’t as stupid as some may think.”
If you can’t see that this isn’t pandering to National, then I can’t help you. The Greens have a culture and a specific mandate based on core principles. They also have a problem with expressing that (and I’m critical of their comms generally and in this specific instance), but that’s also because of the general misunderstandings in the public about who they are and what they do. So I get that for many people, hating on National is core to the politics. That’s just not how it is for the GP, and for very good reasons.
Weka
I know what question time is like, but everyone seems to think that it’s just the Govt that needs to be held to account, all parties need to be held to account for their actions and statements, opposition parties should be held to the same high standard as the Govt otherwise it’s just a farce.
There are a lot of Green supporters who are a little dismayed at the policy, which is where this thread originated.
I don’t deny the Greens have a robust democratic process, but it still doesn’t mean the policies are palatable for all their members.
I think if you were go back and read ALL the threads on this topic from a few days ago, you might just see the bigger picture that emerged.
I’m going to leave at that, I just don’t see the Greens as a movement benefiting from this policy, either from a membership perspective or popularity.
I know what question time is like, but everyone seems to think that it’s just the Govt that needs to be held to account, all parties need to be held to account for their actions and statements, opposition parties should be held to the same high standard as the Govt otherwise it’s just a farce.
I agree, but how does that apply to QT? Are you saying that the Greens could have used their questions to hold National to account? I don’t think they are allowed to do that. There are other ways to hold the Opposition parties to account though.
“There are a lot of Green supporters who are a little dismayed at the policy,”
Yes. But that has happened before when they do something that lots of people don’t understand and where the MSM do a poor job of explaining it.
“I think if you were go back and read ALL the threads on this topic from a few days ago, you might just see the bigger picture that emerged.”
I haven’t read every comment, but I’ve read most of them, and lots on twitter too. So I have a pretty good idea of the range of response, and the range of arguments for and against. I’m still trying to decide whether to write a post on this, but have been researching a lot in the past few days.
I’m going to leave at that, I just don’t see the Greens as a movement benefiting from this policy, either from a membership perspective or popularity.
I know this still comes as a surprise but the GP operate from principles first. This doesn’t mean they don’t take feedback or notice of dissent, they do. But that alone isn’t a good enough reason to recant on a policy let alone a principle. In this case I expect the party first and foremost to be listening to its active members but also people generally. I hope they take the time to see where the change leads and if people change their minds on it, but I am not supportive of the Greens informing their policies and actions from a ‘we hate National’ position.
I don’t think anybody can ‘delegate’ this to or rely on MSM least of all the Greens.
I’m thinking about a Guest Post on this too if only I find the time 🙁
true. This is why I suggest that to understand the Greens one needs to listen to them directly. One can still disagree but one is then disagreeing from an informed place.
A Guest Post would be welcome! (when the time is right)
I am a Green Party voter and I am not dismayed.
Ah the threshold chestnut again. Go look at their record in every election and except when Labour was imploding they have always been around the threshold. Therefore being around the threshold is evidence of nothing other than that for nearly 20 years it has been enough to get Greens into parliament.
Why don’t you have a look at Question number 6 on March 1, 2018.
This is the last question asked by a Green MP. It is absolutely typical of questions asked by Government MPs of any party. It was not specifically chosen to attempt to embarrass the Green Party.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20180301_052350000/6-question-no-6-statistics
Read it right through and then think about whether it served any purpose at all.
If you were Golriz Ghahraman wouldn’t you be totally embarrassed by being required to ask these stupid questions? Wouldn’t you like to be able to refuse to do so?
Actually I quite admire the way she asked the last supplementary.
alwyn, re our earlier conversations, yesterday I re-found this handy little tool on the Parliament website and posted in a reply to someone else.
https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/52SCBUDeterminations201711081/8711510daa40c86a56295e2b6e5cbece93abf7da
In case you haven’t seen this tool, it is the Oral Question Roster for the 52nd Parliament drawn up and approved by the Business Committee last Nov 2017 which sets out by sitting day, the number of primary Oral Questions allocated to each party making up the 12 Questions for the day.
The actual sequence of the 12 questions often changes but the numbers don’t. I doubt that this will be rejigged in light of the Greens decision as this is in essence an informal decision by the Greens and their arrangement with National is outside (but not contrary to) the current formal procedures and rules of the House.
Today is Sitting Day 31. This day number is always at the top of the Order Paper for each sitting day – helpful if you lose count as the allocation roster doesn’t state the date of each numbered day.
Today was to have been the only day this week that the Greens had an allocated question (#12) but this allocation seems to have been given to ACT today – whether by the Greens is not clear …
That is certainly a great deal easier than the way I found the questions.
I think you are wrong about being able to find the day on the list from the day on the order paper though.
As you say the day on the order paper is 31. The questions for today are however the ones for day 29 on the table you have linked to.
The questions for day 29 go L,N,A,L,N,N,L,N …….(L=Labour etc) The Greens were not going to have a question.
If you look at the list of questions for today you will see that they are in that same order as day 29. ACT has got question 3.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/order-paper-questions/list-of-oral-questions/oral-questions-21-march-2018/
I hope what I am saying is clear enough to follow.
Thus the day number on the table you provide is only the days on which there is a Question Time. The difference between 29 and 31 caters, of course, for the fact that there was no Question Time on the first 2 days of the term. I guess keeping track would be like using one of those old desk diaries where you tear off and throw away the sheet for each day.
It would be embarrassing if a party got out of step with the right day wouldn’t it?
You’re right – good spotting. Your explanation makes sense and I should have spotted it.
The value of peer review, yet again. Thanks. Brain has had a bit of a workout this week. Will correct my post of last night on this for the record.
So in fact the Greens were allocated Q10 today and this was used by Nick Smith,Nat. Bit of a hot one today, that one! *
Did you go through Hansard to find those four questions? Do you ever use the Watch On Demand section? It was upgraded over the election break and IMHO is the quickest place to find who has asked questions, spoken on Bills etc as it now has a good filter system whereby you can filter by individual MP, subject, date period, Questions, Bill Debates etc
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand
For example, if you select Oral questions (rather than All) and then click on the MP box, the drop down box lists them by name, you select who you want, and then press the apply filters box and it will bring up all the questions (with videos) that MP has asked or been involved in with the latest first. Have only had one missed to date so not quite 100%.
Videos are now up very promptly – usually up in about 15 – 20 mins except after about 5pm when they slow, but then quicker again in the evening.
Today was a General Debate day and I have now located a Roster for the General Debates as well.
https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/52SCBUDeterminations201711081/c6b688140efe9f486c64112523d39c2f4b40bf12
By my reckoning, today’s roster was No. 7 – would welcome you checking this for me. Based mine on the sequence of the videos using the Watch On Demand link above.
Cheers – just shows that people of different pol leanings can work well together when we have other shared interests and respect one another’s differences!
* From the videos on On Demand, I now see that Q10 was so hot that Smith came back later and made a Personal Explanation.
I would agree that it is Roster number7.
At least it has Seymour at position 7 of the 12 which is right. He only gets 3 turns in the 30 week cycle and the others are at 11 (in week 17) and 4 (in week 24).
That certainly makes him a pretty easy marker.
“Did you go through Hansard to find those four questions”.
I just looked at each day of the last 2 weeks of the questions that were going to be asked. The reference is in my comment above minus the specific date (here 21 March).
I was only looking for some samples and I wasn’t actually interested in the replies or the supplementary questions so it is only a single page per day. I just went until I had 4 from 2 weeks so it seemed a fair sample. It was only later that I bothered to look at the full debate for the last, Census, one.
Actually, while trying to edit it to be more readable I left in an erroneous statement. I said after the bit about the order that the Greens weren’t getting a question. They of course got Q10 as you say.. I left that comment in by accident after changing around chunks of the material.
Poor old Nick. “a” instead of “other”. Good on the Minister for spotting the chance and taking advantage of it. It was a great response. Pity Kelvin Davis isn’t as quick.
I shall have to have a look at some of the things you have suggested. I am just old fashioned and have to date stuck happily to the transcripts.
“people of different pol leanings”
My political leanings are generally right in the centre. I do not think that a Government should last more than 3 terms though, as long as there is someone else prepared to take over. Unfortunately I don’t think Labour were in that position last election which annoyed me greatly. Haven’t changed my mind about it either.
Since 1981 I have voted 7 times National, 5 times Labour and once did not vote. Pretty close to a swinging voter. Could have easily been 6,6,1 if Labour hadn’t, at least in my view, wasted 9 years of opposition.
Newsflash
I note that alwyn has given you the link to Hansard for the transcript of Question 6 on 1 March 2018 – but not the link to the video.
Here is the link to the video as this gives a much better feel for the demeanour of both Golriz Ghahraman and James Shaw in asking and answering both the primary question and the string of supplementary questions on the Census – and the attitude and reaction of the National Party MPs.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=198774
Do you see any embarrassment on the part of Golriz Ghahraman in asking the primary questions and her first supplementary questions?
I don’t. Nor do I see any embarrassment on Shaw’s part in answering them – initially.
IMO both seem quite eager and to be enjoying themselves. Golriz laughs at about supplementary question 2 and 3, and uses eye and facial expressions to emphasize parts of her questions. She is obviously a little taken aback that she has to wait for Brownlee to ask a question and also raise a Point of Order before she asks her final supplementary which she prefaces with “This is a good one.”
Shaw’s initial enthusiasm dwindles as the barracking from the National Party MPs increases with each question and answer, and he appears quite feed up at the end. Ghahraman’s laughter in the final moments could also be embarrassment.
I can understand that Shaw could well feel p. off that he was being landed with criticism of the Census system and processes set up under the previous National Govt well before he became Minister – and the problems with the process being experienced at the time. This would have been particularly galling coming from the very same National MPs that were previously involved in the setting up of the revised Census procedures etc.
BUT did anyone else make Shaw as Minister of Statistics and Ghahraman choose to use the Green Party Parliamentary Oral Question allocation to attempt to clarify the situation on the Census processes ?
No. That was entirely their decision.
And now they have decided to give some of their primary Oral questions to these very same people – ????
It impressed me.
Here’s a message to the community I just wanted to share….
I’m really enjoying The Standard and engaging with everyone here. While we all have differences in opinion I am enjoying having some robust discussions and interesting conversations with everyone. While I have butted heads with some of the more… colourful individuals (Draco can never back down even when wrong; CV has gone completely round the bend and the less said about LPrent the better) I have also enjoyed these back and forths.
McFlock, Carolyn_nth, Tracey, Weka and Pyscho Milt – you guys are some of my favourite people to talk with and enjoy your contributions.
Keep up the good work!
JS out…
In due course I think you will change your mind about Draco and lprent. Their individual styles take a bit of getting used to, but they both have brilliant brains even if one doesn’t always agree with them.
Their barks are worse than their bites.
Draco just comes out with some pretty easily disproven shit at times and LPrent is just very much in love with himself (yes I know he is the site owner – I’m just calling it like I see it). Also when he thinks he is being clever by insulting people it comes across very poorly.
I don’t think either of them are dumb however and don’t want nor expect them – or anyone for that matter – to change. It all makes up the rich tapestry of life….
No I don’t else you would have been able to disprove it.
Just yesterday you claimed the Great Britain wasn’t a trading nation when in fact they were the largest trading nation of their time.
That one was pretty easy to disprove.
But they weren’t always and their trade was more theft than trade.
Perhaps those centuries of theft is what makes people think that trade makes people wealthy.
Great Britain became great through trade – the whole fucking American Revolution started because of Britain’s trading practices and they owned well over half the worlds trade at one point.
No, they owned well over half the world’s theft at one point. They were wealthy because of stealing resources, not because they were trading fairly for their resources.
yes they stole goods but traded heavily – 3 examples being with China, the Baltic states and the new world/America.
They were a massive trading empire – it’s all available to read and study online and isn’t disputed (except by Draco for some reason)
Here are some links to enjoy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_timber_trade
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/china/guidesources/chinatrade/index.html
https://history.libraries.wsu.edu/fall2014/2014/08/29/what-allowed-the-british-empire-expand-rapidly-during-the-1600s/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/trade_empire_01.shtml
It’s all very black and white and not disputed
John where have you come from and would you consider going back there…you don’t appear to be bringing much of any worth to this site
Thanks!
Case of the pot – kettle syndrome, JS. Please ignore. I am enjoying your presence – and definitely think you are adding good value.
What a load of rubbish. Stick around John
No, they became ‘great’ because they built up their local manufacturing and their war machine so that they could conquer other territories and steal the resources of those conquered territories.
I’m saying that we should do the first bit and build up our manufacturing capabilities, knowledge and skills so that we can support ourselves from our own resources rather than being dependent upon trade which actually leaves us poorer.
And to build the war machine they needed….trade! with the baltic states to get the wood needed for their ships.
This isn’t hard – the owned nearly every trade route in the world and traded extensively. It isn’t even disputed.
Your statement at the very beginning said they didn’t need trade when in fact they were the biggest trading nation the world have even seen and one British company, on it’s own, controlled half the worlds trade. These are facts.
More info:
http://www.the-map-as-history.com/demos/tome05/Map-of-the-British-Empire-european-colonization.php
John, you bring a new view point to this site and it is refreshing, so much of the commenting here is SO predictable.
But you know what – fuck it.
If you want to believe Great Britain wasn’t a trading nation (the biggest trading nation of its time) despite everything to the contrary then fine. You’ll note I have provided about 5 – 6 different citations that disagree with your premise while you have provided none – just your opinion.
So despite owning over the half the worlds, opening trading posts all over the world, trading extensively with China, the baltics, the West indies, India and the Orient in general you still hold the position that they did it all themselves without the need for trade.
I stand by my original post – you can’t admit when you got something just plain wrong.
Good day sir
You don’t understand John.
You are arguing from just a small, say one thousand years of history. To disprove DTB’s credo you have to prove that Britain was the leading trading nation at all times and with all other countries.
They weren’t between 1121 and 1123 AD with Inner Mongolia.
Therefore you are totally wrong and you should bow down before the superior knowledge of DTB.
Know your place villein and don’t question the wisdom of your Lord, Baron Draco of Bastard.
Initially the British Empire grew from mercantilism within its borders but from the Industrial Revolution onwards “British control of the oceans proved optimal in creating a liberal free-trade global economy, and helped Britain gain the lion’s share of the world’s carrying trade and financial support services.”
The Poms basically invented international trade…
@Ropata “The Poms basically invented international trade”.
Huh? What was the Silk Road then? Pretty sure that could be defined as international trade.
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba had a good thing going on –
http://bibleandarchaeology.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/sheba-connected-to-israel.html
I thought the American revolution started because the colonists resented the tax that they had to pay.
As long as I don’t cower I’m for them.
Winter is coming.
LOL …. both in RL and GOT
Closing the Gaps was longer than 10 years ago.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Fonterra CEO Theo Spierings resigns
Thanks (sarcasm) for screwing up Fonterra, cumulating a loss of $348 million.
Maybe next time they cap the salary at 1 million instead of 8 million plus – Fonterra might actually get someone who is less greedy and more interested in the company than screwing it up. Of course they are also giving him a consultancy role so he can keeping milking it…
Maybe think about a Kiwi at the helm too as we keep hearing how important Fonterra is for NZ and therefore needs TPPA, more environmental degradation and the country has to suck it up so they can post loses and pay execs 8 million.
Funny Fonterra is always a Kiwi company when it suits them, but an international one, when it comes to management and their decisions and salaries.
At least if they bother to appoint a Kiwi at the helm, they have to live with their decisions and hopefully have a more long term approach, than make cash and deliver losses… for the 8 million salary and then off to do it again, no doubt somewhere else in the world.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2018/03/ceo-of-fonterra-theo-spierings-resigns.html
Fucking hell. The dairy industry has destroyed NZ’s rivers and sold off half of our farmland to foreign powers, for this.
Dairy farming is toxic, unsustainable, and has way too much political clout for no net benefit to NZ
Dairy farming does not have to be toxic! Clearly getting someone in from Holland which intensively farms animals in barns and specialises in mergers was never a good fit with NZ farming practises. Has not worked out financially either.
Whose bright idea was it to hire him in the first place?
No net benefit? Tell that to the tens of thousands of farmers, farm staff, ancillary industries, and contractual staff who derive an income from the dairy industry.
Not to mention billions into the government’s coffers from the associated income and gst tax.
Local councils love rates income from dairy farms.
You can grizzle about farming and pollution but net benefit….hole in your head with that comment.
Yep, clearly Fonterra team are financial and overseas planning wizards.. (sarcasm)
“But in its interim results on Wednesday, Fonterra said net normalised profit after tax had fallen 36 per cent from its 2017 result, to $248 million.
While revenue was up 6 per cent, the company’s earnings before interest and taxes were down 25 per cent from 2017.
With the one-off payments to Danone, over the botulism contamination scare, and the Beingmate write-off factored in, the cooperative made a loss of $348m, a 183 per cent drop in net profit after tax from the 2017 interim result.”
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2018/03/fonterra-raises-milk-prices.html
With CEO Theo Spierings resigned, I sure hope Fonterra use this as an opportunity to get their shit together, stop losing money, and emphasise the Value over their Volume and Velocity drivers.
Pure comedy gold Ad, pure.
Like cleaner waterways, it’s all just about the PR.
I knew you would get the shit reference.
Can anyone tell me where the big election push for cleaner waterways went, now that they are in power?
Currently, other than through an oblique regulatory lens enabled through a change of legislation, I don’t see any government strategy for engaging with the dairy industry as a whole, let alone Fonterra as our largest locally-owned business.
Do a post, you know you’ll get a smart ass response from me at least. 🙂
Yup. I bet if the Govt just implemented something we would suddenly hear the Rightcsquealing “what? No consultation? No Review? No Working group
Fonterra knew Beingmate sales were declining when they bought them due to on line sales increasing at a rapid pace. They overpaid because it was tipped they were buying them and also they were over valued in the first place, because on line sales were taking the business.
Mistake after mistake.
Fonterra management are dinosaurs and out of touch with modern business.
Surely they could work out, that in a country of billions it is easier to order on line than go through traffic and have to travel in an enormous country to a few retail stores, to get your milk powder?
Surely????
When the evidence was before their eyes at the time in China, retail declining, on line sales increasing?
One would expect the chairman to resign also given that the CEO is presumably carrying out the boards wishes. The board and upper management need an extensive clean out.
Am I qualified to comment, yep, got family who work for them.
If they lower the salaries under 1 million with benefits for CEO under $500k for anyone else and set the board salary at NZ levels, hopefully clean out of the worst Greedies and certainly the board and upper management set the strategy and make the bad decisions so heads should roll.
The reality is that like in the famous add for pineapple lumps the world sees many Kiwis as yokels in business, with good reason and our ability to attract B and C grade overseas executives while thinking we have hit the jackpot seems to have become the new norm.
Fonterra were probably fed fake facts about Bestmate from the Chinese or someone got a backhander to make such a bad error in the first place and over pay. Unless it is just out and out stupidity and laziness?
Similar to treasury apparently blaming a 25% error on their child poverty on the IT guy.
Time also to actually improve the Kiwi business with Kiwi residents who actually understand the culture here and work for NZ and company interests.
Kiwi’s used to be renewed for their ideas and quality not the pen pushing lazies that expect the government to wipe their asses with policy friendly laissez-faire deregulation for short term profits and have an expensive board of ‘names’ to show they are part of the greedy club and have the appropriate nepotism and networking in place.
It’s kinda the opposite of what to expect from a functioning rural co operative in this country.
Now even the holiday makers feel the need for a side line, to import drugs into NZ.
Canadian jailed for smuggling $8m meth into New Zealand
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/03/canadian-jailed-for-smuggling-8m-meth-into-new-zealand.html
Gotta love this day and age – In the USA they get to elect the aristocracy, and what charmers they are.
https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/paradise-papers-help-reveal-jb-pritzkers-offshore-connections/
Ah factory life, still utter rubbish. Big tanks to Meena for her story. Interesting how employers are getting around equal pay laws – the same in NZ?
https://libcom.org/blog/series-interviews-working-class-women-west-london-part-4-19032018
Good grief. So things haven’t a bit since 1970.
That my take as well Brigid.
Love to get some narratives like this from working women in NZ.
Armed school resource officer stops Maryland High School Shooting
A highly trained sherriffs deputy and school resource officer interrupts and stops a high school shooting.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-20/armed-resource-officer-stops-maryland-high-school-gunman
How did you turn from a left winger to a right winger?
Genuine question
Hi John, given the incorrect assumptions embedded in your question, I can’t provide you with any answer to it.
Well, you don’t seem to support the left and seem to get your information from sources like foxnews as well as supporting a right wing US political candidate.
I’m sorry if I have misinterpreted you – I am asking for genuine reasons and not to offend
John, CV works pretty hard at sustaining nuanced and well researched positions.
You will find plenty on here who don’t change their minds, are spectacularly narrow-minded, and spend most of their times in tiresome purity contests with each about how ultra-left and ultra-good they are.
CV is not one of those.
Cheers Ad 😎
+111111
Well said, sir – I second your entire comment.
I don’t think there’s a more narrow-minded commenter than CV on the whole board.
Every single comment is exclusively either anti-Clinton or pro-Trump rhetoric.
Can’t get much more narrow than that.
Yeah, I agree. And anything outside of pro-Trump or pro-Russia is a conspiracy of some kind
Ask him about immunisation……oh the laughs we’ll have !
Oh god, really?
yes…and also please don’t go there the threads always descend into madness.
What “Left” is there to support? The Greens? Labour?
Socialism (or perhaps Communism) as a political economic model?
Post-modern identity politics or perhaps a radical social liberalism which promotes the inversion/destruction of traditional social boundaries and social structures?
Or the Clinton Left which seems to believe that escalating tensions with Russia and proclaiming the sanctity of the FBI/CIA/New York Times as guardians of freedom and democracy is now “Left”?
Or maybe the environmental left which has spent the last week proclaiming that Climate Change is bringing on a global catastrophe of civilisation ending proportions – but the furthest we can possibly go is (an ineffective) ban on oil exploration, but not a ban on actual fossil fuel importation?
Or perhaps the Left which is breathless at the prospects of Hillary and Obama visiting NZ along with their congratulations that NZ Labour carried on with the implementation of the TPP that they championed while in office?
I’m not sure which left. I’m left in that I oppose right wing/social conservatism. Not having a party to always support doesn’t mean I don’t strife against it the right.
Does this mean you have given up on the left as being able to get their shit together rather than “joining the right” as it were?
I decided that a degree of social conservatism and also long standing cultural values have an important place in the every day running of society that too many people have taken for granted.
Arabs, Asians, Indians, Russians, Chinese, Persians, etc. place far, far more value on their own cultures and traditions than Anglo-Saxons do on theirs.
I also decided that both elements on the Left and the Right were far too busy trying to invert morality and present crappy BS as virtuous goods.
The left can’t get its shit together because with the exception of just a few, it doesn’t understand what fitness for the current age is, and it doesn’t understand that because it doesn’t understand the broader operating environment of the current age.
Ok – interesting.
I genuinely wanted to know your position without getting into a shitfight about Russia/trump/Putin so I think that answers it
Now…. back to the shit fights 😉
Yep got my gumboots on heh
And to tack a footnote on that sentiment CV, I’m most interested in building trust across the whole range of people and communities in our society. Not just within New Zealand, but globally.
I understand this is a forbidding goal, but I’d sooner be moving towards a sense of human unity than away from it.
Very forboding especially when some people in some cultures have no concept of or buy in to this kind of openness, and indeed would take the degrees of freedom presented to them in such an open system to throw a spanner in the works for their own short term gain.
As a concrete example, Chinese nationals obtaining NZ citizenship for their elderly parents on family grounds then dumping them here for the Crown to pay for their care and healthcare as they themselves head back to do business overseas is only one example.
And the only answer to that is exactly as you outlined above; we need to value our own cultural values more, and be willing to defend them when we see them betrayed like that.
But of course every modest attempt to do so gets screamed down by someone frantically waving the ‘racist’ card. Depressing.
Unity isn’t about some beige, insipid ‘tolerance’; it’s about understanding who you are, what is important to you, and engaging the world constructively on that basis.
If we want something recognisable left to pass on to our kids and grandkids, we better get the idea real quick.
Must be worth some purity points RL.
If only people saw and did the things you and CV and Ad think they should do what a wonderful world it would be.
Arabs, Asians, Indians, Russians, Chinese, Persians, etc. place far, far more value on their own cultures and traditions than Anglo-Saxons do on theirs.
I also decided that both elements on the Left and the Right were far too busy trying to invert morality and present crappy BS as virtuous goods.
Or to put it more simply, you became an authoritarian nationalist. Thank you though, that explains the right-wing opinions and the support for Trump and Putin nicely.
[RL: 12 month ban for starting a flame war and wasting moderators time.]
[this moderation is being reviewed]
I can’t help your delusional interpretations and poor reading comprehension.
[Read the first and second paragraphs of the Policy. I’m done with trying to explain this to a commenter who now has a 2 year history of causing multiple and serious problems on this site. I spent a lot of effort in the last week dampening down flame wars. Given how much moderation work you have taken up in recent years I am now done with spending any more time on you when, in returning from the past few short bans, you just revert back to the same behaviour and on and on it goes. I see no point in letting this escalate and cause problems in the commentariat. 12 month ban. – weka]
Thank you, Weka.
Sacha…Again…
Expressing your appreciation at the demise of another commentator…is weak and purile…
Perhaps you believe you’re a good person adding value in this life…
However with expressions such as that…in likelihood you’re calling out for a response on some level…
And I’m not referring to my comment..
Raise the bar…
Interesting what you choose to see. I am happy that a moderator has acted decisively before yet another post deteriorates into unreadability.
fuck that sucks , pm is one of the best here
bugger
I agree. He’s acerbic at times but his political insights are remarkable. 12 months is way too harsh in my view but there you go…
Agree – PM is one of the best
” I also decided that both elements on the Left and the Right were far too busy trying to invert morality and present crappy BS as virtuous goods. ”
This is why people get confused by you CV. You adopt the Rights memes designed to silence dissent and preserve the status quo…
Virtue signalling and identity politics and PC are just that and when you sneer them out as a substitute for counter argument and then bask in your superiority that you and some select others are the only ones who see the world for what it is and have all the answers you attract challenge. By all means have your worldview and champion it but it is still just an opinion no matter how fervently and firmly you hold onto it
“I decided that a degree of social conservatism and also long standing cultural values have an important place in the every day running of society that too many people have taken for granted.”
Totally agree with this statement.
Also, It still amazes me how many commenters on this and other sites, as well as within the MSM, believe that conservative = right wing. This is not the case. For example the working class are generally conservative and are (traditionally) mostly left wing leaning
This is why there is a massive disconnect between say the Green Party and the working class. The working class are too busy working to feed their families and trying to get their kids well educated to worry excessively about less important (to them) things.
Yet all they hear from the supposed left is post modernist, intersectionalist, non binary cis gender, virtue signalling, victim claiming, unscientific, fantasyland claptrap. They are looked down upon, discriminated against (in the name of getting rid of discrimination) , told they must feel guilty about their so called mythical white privilege, accept the ‘fact’ that their masculinity is toxic and they’re part of this massive conspiracy called the patriarchy which exists to dis-empower and discriminate against women.
Wonder why Trump won.
I could rant on and on, but I’ve got a family to feed.
How do you know many Green Party members/voters haven’t come from working class backgrounds?
I have certainly come across GP members who are women from working class backgrounds who went to Uni – probably the first in their family.
And I have known a few working class women, strong on class politics who are also explicitly feminists – while perhaps being critical of some middle class feminists.
There are also quite a few working class LGBTI people.
Sarah Smarsh comes from a poor US family – was the first in her family to go to uni, and writes a lot about class, and also feminism.
This article by her from last June last year: “Working-class women are too busy for gender theory – but they’re still feminists “.
The carer in whose name the equal pay challenge was made…
I wonder how many working class are Left voting though. Given the presence of Nat ACT and NZF it seems as though either the percentage in the working class has dropped or they are voting Right.
We constantly have a Nat Government because kwis vote conservatively. And while we have some social liberalism Nats last 2 leaders have been Christian and socially conservative
Trump was elected by Americans.
Equality can feel like Oppression to those who have benefitted from inequality mikes.
That mostly reads to me as a fairly reasonable exposition of, not the left, but liberalism.
That said, I’m not sure I understand what you mean by a socialist or communist political economic model, unless you’re referring to forms of authoritarianism that hi-jacked the terms “socialist” and “communist” for cynical (and somewhat successful) political gain.
Many disenchanted liberals are going to fall to the left or the right in coming years, where “left” is the non-authoritarian counter to various forms of authoritarianism (including some that will masquerade as being left) that will undoubtedly seek ascendancy.
Tradition is a tricky one in my mind. Some traditions are valuable and definitely worth defending and/or fighting for. Some have been forgotten or suppressed. Others simply aren’t worth shit, insofar as they run against our best interests and can easily be used to excuse and/or condone some fairly horrific political machinations. (eg – particularly useful in pushing some forms of authoritarianism).
I’d have liked to have carried on this conversation on the basis of “my reckons” – ie, that you tend to confound the liberalism you’ve become disenchanted with as “left” and so, seeing no space to maneuver, kind of default to the less compassionate side of liberalism.
Maybe in another space…
“where “left” is the non-authoritarian…”
Which planet is your ‘left’ on? Because it seems that the left these days is always authoritarian.
“Left” and “authoritarian” are two mutually exclusive concepts.
“Liberal” and “authoritarian” aren’t.
And liberalism has this dirty habit of claiming to be of the left. Which it can never be in light of the fact it’s synonymous with capitalism – which as economic systems go, is the antithesis of anything “left” (whether in it’s state or command economy setting, it’s liberal market setting, or any point between those poles)
This ^^^^ and the last 2 Nat leaders are NOT liberals.
Or perhaps the Left who aren’t the strong?
Or, for the strong.
Got pissed off his revolution failed and nobody noticed.
That’s gotta be worth 21 purity points ….
How do you see what you posted advance the interest of the labour movement?
There is no evidence from what you posted that it stopped them before they had actually shot someone. So the reality is a stopping took place. Indeed a school shooting did in fact take place, again.
Sad attempt at spin man, sad.
There is no “labour movement” and even if there were, its not my job to advance its interests and agendas.
Yes, people were shot. Yes it was a school shooting. But the shooter was interrupted in his crime by an armed school resource officer before he could continue further.
You have a better idea for how this particular school shooting could have been prevented?
Then you have no interest in this site then? If you have no interest in advancing the interests of the labour movement.
So your comment “Armed school resource officer stops Maryland High School Shooting” is an outright lie then
Feel free to try another Gosman.
Hi adam, firstly I’d ask you to cease your attempts at putting words in my mouth.
Secondly, the armed school resource officer successfully stopped the continuation of the shooting and successfully stopped the perp continuing the shooting incident and his shooting.
I’m sorry that my original comment did not pass your requirements for pedantry.
So you don’t think this site is to improve the interests the labour movement and to question you on that is a pedantry argument. Interesting.
As for words in your mouth, “Armed school resource officer stops Maryland High School Shooting” just quoted you buddy. If that not what you said, I’m all ears.
As for a shooting, one happened. So not really a good propaganda piece for you is it.
How is it my problem if you don’t understand that “a shooting” can be both a noun and a verb, and can have meanings both in a present tense and a past tense?
I have said zero about what I believe the purpose of this site is. Again I ask you to stop putting words into my mouth.
You have to realise your piece, is a piece of crap. People died and you want to claim a victory for violence and stupidity. Can’t put a price on people lives when people want to score political points on it can you. Oh wait, you already did.
You write as if CV has any shame left.
Hi adam, every parent of that Maryland school will be sending gifts, cards and gratitutide to the armed school resource officer which stopped the shooter.
I can understand that even if you cannot.
Stalin got cards too
the verb would be “Y’all, I’m off a-shooting”.
Yay, only two innocent kids and the kid who opened fire got shot, the gun violence problem in the US has been solved!
pistol vs pistol.
Better odds than pistol vs AR15.
Maybe teachers should carry AR15s?
Don’t be stupid McFlock – if the shooter has an AR-15 then teachers need canons and grenades.
Only a matter of time before drones are patroling the US skies… in the name of chikd safety.
At five or six metres range it makes no difference.
Speaking from experience, are you?
Were you holding the AR15 or the pistol?
Let’s get real, you want heavier fire power to take down a AR15
Arm them with a FIM-92 Stinger, that will deal with the situation!
Or a tank, yeah a tank might help.
In a tank, I might feel safe enough to calmy intervene.
Maybe miniturise tankettes even further – armour some motorised wheelchairs for the school resource officers to roam the halls looking like Daleks…
Ah, the ideal school “resource” officer at work lol
hmmm bit dated that one McF – a more up market version here
Finally they gave the cops enough firepower to respond…
Yep – if society allows a situation where a very disturbed person can easily get a bunch of weapons and wander into a place where unarmed people are confined in classrooms and then shoot them up – then it might on average reduce the volume of carnage if there were well-trained sharpshooters in the school to take out the said disturbed person.
Probably lots of people killed still, probably a few innocent people taken out by mistake because the sharpshooter thought they had a gun (or maybe they were black and looked kinda suspicious?) when they didn’t have a gun at all. But it is entirely conceivable that the total body count over a long period of time would be less. Will they trial it and find out do you think?
And you know what? If Americans are still convinced that ease of access to guns is some sort of divinely-conferred right, maybe that’s exactly what they should do? The more the merrier really. I still think it’s nuts, but given that belief system it is possibly quite rational.
There’s lots nuts with their approach to this I agree, the question is as you pointed out what is rational given an irrational environment.
Rationality in an irrational environment appears as irrational. It’s akin to how do you know you’re in a bubble when you’re in a bubble. But it might just work… Clockwork Orange-like. Enough guns and carnage until everyone is just sick of it.
The concept of “Crooked Hillary”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy-9iciNF1A&feature=youtu.be&t=6m50s
I guess the “Russia Russia Russia” meme was falling down so Hillary needed a new scapegoat.
CA were selling the Crooked Hillary message.
@ 7:43 “The concept of “Crooked Hillary” was promoted widely on social media including Facebook, Google, and YouTube. And then Nix boasts about how the online videos had 30,000,000 million views, but users would’ve been unaware they came from the Trump Campaign.
The Trump campaign was selling their own messages via social media and the Clinton campaign was selling their own messages via social media.
Leaves the Russians (who may only have been intermediaries themselves and nothing to do with the Kremlin), who spent a tiny amount of money on Face Book, and of that mostly after the election, in the dust.
The CEO is doing a continuous sales pitch on how powerful his company supposedly is and how valuable their services are. That’s what a CEO is supposed to do.
Yeah, and after doing such a great job, CA have given him the arse.
?
No his firing/suspension is a purely PR move. (Did you think otherwise, given CA’s business?).
CA is only a shell company and the CEO’s work (and pay) continues unchanged for the parent organisation.
Nah, after big noting, and spilling the beans about CA’s shonky activities, he’s gone.
Link plz. I stand by my comments that the CEO’s suspension/firing is merely for show.
You reckon he gets to keep his when job when his big noting makes it likely CA is going to be dragged through courts on both sides of the Atlantic?.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/british-data-regulator-wants-to-raid-cambridge-analytics-2018-3?r=UK&IR=T
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-non-american-employees-political
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/20/david-carroll-cambridge-analytica-uk-courts-us-professor
CA isn’t a real company as you or I would recognise one – it is merely a legally constituted shell company.
That you cannot understand this even as I am patiently explaining it to you demonstrates how far behind the curve of these corporate operators you are.
h.r.c had enough dirt that it stuck. Rightly or wrongly.
“A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth”
Now who said that??
A kernel of truth, always help sell a lie.
But the lie was told 30,000,000 times (so we are now informed). It was always a lie, but now it is a “truth”
Are you trying to say h.r.c. is pure and innocent?
Good luck selling that lie.
Now adam – where did I say Hillary Clinton was pure and innocent? Show me anyone who is pure and innocent (apart from the new born) and I will show you Christ. She is however, far more pure and innocent than the men who smeared her.
If you are to tell me that she is far more corrupt than Trump, (and pizza gate has been shown to be a straight out fabrication) then you are a living example of just how effective the propaganda machine was!
For starters I never said that, all I said and let it sink in a second time.
“h.r.c had enough dirt that it stuck. Rightly or wrongly.”
I also said a long time ago h.r.c. was stupid choice becasue she came with a lot of baggage, and a history which could be used against her. I’m not sure if your one of the people who poo pooed me over that. But I was right, and h.r.c. was a bloody awful candidate on that, and on so many other levels.
trump is the twitter and chief, corrupt, self absorbed, making a village short of their idiot, and as close to a nightmare walking as humanly possible.
The elites lie, they lie with impunity and if you want them gone. Well supporting one faction of the elites over the other will never make that happen. That my take from the last USA election, what was yours?
I think you need to have a look at how strong female candidates from the centre left are treated adam. Not just in the US but almost universally world wide in the western world. Take for instance Julia Gillard in Australia or our own Helen Clark (“Aunty Helen” ring any bells?) – It’s happening now with Jacinda. In the US right now the Democrats Nancy Pelosi is under attack,
yet she has been responsible for helping to advance many of the more progressive legislation in what was a Republican dominated Congress. Elizabeth Warren also – another case in point. Trump insulting her by calling her names because she dares to identify with a native American ancestor.
From the above link:
and
Hillary Clinton may not have been as left as you would have liked – nor was she a Bernie – whom I’m sure many here (including myself) would have preferred – however, when all is said and done, the present daily train wreck that is the current White House administration would never be happening under Hillary. The USA would still be active in the Paris Agreement, along with the rest of the world. Scott Pruitt would not be dismantling the EPA as fast he can rip up every piece of environmental regulation he can, and there would still be essential scientific work studying climate change progressing in the US instead of scientists having to up root and travel to France.
Women would be more safe and the poor would not be enriching the rich as much as the last “Tax reform” has done.
Look how Jill Stein was treated during the election. Some of the male democrats were the absolute worst.
Jill Stein is still being treated like crap in the press and by male democrats. Ask most people, and they will say Stein is crazy and emotional. Seen it here often enough.
As for h.r.c, I’d say the males around here were her biggest problem. Especially her husband with his rape allegations and sexual assaults.
As for her being better, a possum on acid would do better than trump. Not much of an upgrade, and the russio-phobia coming from the democrats is frightening. It’s like some of them have a thing for war, and killing of civilians. Oh wait, they voted to increase the military budget and increase spying powers.
Me I’m over these stupid elites, no matter what side they pretend to be on. I’m really not sure why your backing them.
Tax criminal and banking regulation breacher Westpac Bank seeks a ‘softly-softly’ approach to enforcement against tax avoidance by multinationals.
Westpac loses massive tax case on all counts
‘Very disappointed’ RBNZ increases Westpac NZ’s capital requirements after ‘material failure’ to meet regulatory capital requirements
I sincerely hope they are roundly ignored.
When you don’t listen your baby sitters, they’re going to tell on you.
Of course he ignored it. The Russian election was beset with ballot stuffing, delegitimising the opposition and weird balloons and the like getting in the way of the cameras. For a person (Trump) to congratulate Putin on one hand while screaming about election fraud in his own country (remember he set up the special commission, which has since disbanded, to investigate electoral fraud) is hypocritical in the extreme
How many democracies have results of 70% ?
My guess is none. These kinds of figures are more common in regimes of oppressed opposition and silenced dissent.
Stuff have an opinion piece calling Jacinda Ardern the Helen Key of NZ politics.
To which Barnaby Bennett tweeted,
“If only she was the John Clark…”
https://twitter.com/mrbarnabyb/status/975985411817222144
😆
Yep he did that.
Giggling
On twaddle instead of on twitter… lolslols
News Hub some people don’t like a common brown man having influence I see it all Mike
The humanity star is a major achivement by Peter Beck and his Team at Rocket lab Kia kaha .
There is hope that Fonterra hires a CEO that understands the local cultures and people of our major trading partners .
Many thanks to DOC and all there staff for doing a great job in releaseing the Takahe into Kahururangi National park + all the other creaters they are bring back from the brink of extinction .Ka kite ano P.S Paddy looks happy
There you go News Hub another tragedy cause by alcohol the Australian punched and in a comer for months is happy to be a live
Many thanks to NZRU for including the Black ferns 7 lady’s rugby team in the Commonwealth Games Kia Kaha ladys .
Congradulations to the NZ Paralympics team Kia kaha people ka kite ano
The Project Mark when I had to take away a service from some people I set them up with another service provider . Eco Maori says Air New Zealand should work with other air lines to keep the flights going to Kapiti this is the way a national airline should behave ka kite ano
Just as the Olympics the NZU has to have a womens team to get their mens team in the competition.
It’s disgraceful that moderation has become emotionally charged. Decisions to ban people for long periods could maybe be decided by all moderators having a back-end vote or something, because today’s fiasco reflects very poorly on moderators and TS IMO.
Good Morning the AM Show I use to read Andrew Horggards post years ago on Fencepost Fonterra web site hes cool.Theo was cool to he did a lot of good things for the Fonterra farmers but his main job is to deliver the best payout he can to farmers .
Farmers are still trying to get over the years of the low pay out they still have dept because of that I recon all councils could make money with a cut and carry system mowing the side of suitable roads they could unload the fresh grass straight into feed bins on farm this would create jobs and could be a ALTERNATIVE to Plam kernal as this is one solution to get our import budget down and there are other reasons but I don’t want to stir the pot we would be able to stack this valuable resource grass for times of drought it can keep for years in a good silage stack this would improve The Dairy Image and keep the bad publicist away. kia kaha Farmers Ka kite ano P.S Paddy good on you m8 the Cicadas sing the beautiful song of mother nature
Kai pai Duncan for promoting the Northen white Rino subspecies that is close to extinction and lets ban set-net fishing in those locations of the Hector and Maui Dolphin ban new oil drilling in those locations we have a objurgation to save OUR wild live just by changing the way we do things .It will be written in our history books as a big win when we save the Maui Dolphin and who ever makes the right choice to save these precious creaters will go into the history books as a Great person. ka kite ano P.S Efeso Colins is right if you can save a dollar its like saveing 2 dollars so every state or council employee should have this in mine taking Economy instead of business is not much to ask to save there people money and this teaches them not to waste anything Ka pai Efeso
The AM Show is it a coincident that the internet cable into Australia is cut broken when we have Obama here . We have to go to the Australian libraries to find the correct story’s on Ngati Porou .There have been some suspicious things going on with some of OUR major infrastructure there are some real raciest people around at the minute . Then there was the O missing in the Countdown sign at the Auckland Air port I won’t say to much except we are ONE RACE THE HUMAN RACE.
Kia Kaha
The Cafe the live below the line challange is a good way to show kiwis that we have it good Mike in Aotearoa compared to many other poor soles in poor countrys this should not be happening in OUR World this day and age .
Brett McGregor trying to feed himself on$280 a day also tells you that we need meat to raise healthy mokopunas full stop kia kaha