Are you sick and tired of hearing from blood thirsty arm chair generals and racist Isalamaphobes expound their views on the Middle East safe in the comfort of their New Zealand living rooms?
An Invitation to a Conference on Palestine
Auckland Town Hall with renowned Israeli author MIKO PELED.
From 6.30pm, This Sunday 23 June. FREE ADMISSION – all sessions open to the public – koha welcome.
ALSO:
A special screening of Oscar-nominated documentary ‘5 Broken Cameras’ at 4pm (same venue), and Palestinian speaker Yousef Aljamal – direct from Gaza.
Jenny since you support foreign islamic soldiers in Syria fighting against the locals, you are clearly one of these “blood thirsty arm chair generals”.
The Assad dictatorship as the Saddam Hussein dictatorship before them did, has garnered a lot of political capital by giving support to the Palestinian’s cause.
However recently despite their terrible need, the Palestinians refugees have been spontaneously rejecting or destroying aid shipments that have come from the Basha Assad allied Hisbollah, (Party of God) saying that they would rather starve than take charity from a butcher of the Arab people.
Apparently there is large part of an electorate in Auckland where the housing minister is going to be fast tracking rezoning and planning.
It starts around Massey and extends to Waimauku/Muriwai. That’s part of the MP for Helensville’s patch. Like Kim Dotcom, I’ll bet he hasn’t been briefed. Yeah right. Mums and Dads should try to get some shares in the development companies.
And the electrication of the Western line finishes at Swanson! Typical planning for public transport for an expanding area of Auckland, which has already started. When I first shifted to Swanson our home was right on the edge of the rural/urban divide, but a new housing division was soon commenced in the Crows Road area and is now in full swing.
LOL like these companies are open to public scrutiny let alone listed aside from the fletchers and big civil crowds who will do the initial work in one of those ‘national interest’ scenarios.
Alot of that around SH1’s road to JK’s beachhouse with backers and mates looking to do very nicely of now accessible ‘suburbia’ via a zoning tweak and a shiny new Holiday highway going through.
Some folk have been waiting years as the actual gov’t bodies who buy the land up weren’t given the funds, ah but that’s just annoying detail in the blighted future that those annoying public servants can tidy up….what’s left of them and whatever superdupster ministry they now belong to.
National ’08 45%, ’11 47.5% now 44%.
Labour/ Green ’08 41%, ’11 38.5% now 44.5%
NZ1 ’08 4%, ’11 6.5% now 6%
National has not been impacted by their own foul ups or by the efforts of the opposition.
Labour Greens have closed the gap with the Nats by 4 pc points. However Winston and his 6% will go Nat rather than share power with the Greens.
This is not a success for Labour given all that has gone on since ’08.
This is a failure given that an election could be called anytime ( due to self inflicted wounds by Natz&co) and that a full term election is a little over 12 months away.
Nothing in the Roy Morgan Poll to feel good about. . It is very chilling. All Labour people should be very very concerned.
…how is shifting support to the Greens going to increase the left’s share of the vote?
The left has to show alternative appeal to Key (and show it fast). New leadership is obviously a start.
It’s not just a new leader Labour needs, it needs a change in its internal parliamentary culture, and probably the wider party.
In the meantime, more votes for GP or Mana theoretically could increase the left vote by engaging current non-voters. There is also some evidence that some voters the right are shifting to voting GP, so the bigger the profile they have the better. The bigger the GP gets, the more credibility it gets and the more it has the power to shift the centre back towards the left again. I would be happy if Labour were doing this but they’re not, so fuck ’em. The more Labour voters that vote Green the better.
Cunliffe would have my vote in a heartbeat. Shearer , I doubt it!! The ABC gang’s being caught out, sitting in a corporate box courtesy of Sky City, shows their judgement is sadly lacking – they hate Cunliffe more than they hate being in opposition. What kind of weirdos are they?? At the trough for far too long, only concerned with stashing away truckloads of taxpayer money paid to them over many decades!! The membership of the Party’s wishes regarding the Leadership are not being considered in any way.
Absolutely right Paul – how long will it take for Labour to see the light. I have already stated that I will either become a non-voter next election or vote Green or even Mana (it takes a long time Labour voter like me to change stripes, but I’m being forced into it unless there is a change of leader sooner rather than later.
Indeed Hamie. If Cunliffe was head of the Labour Party. It would represent a sea change. Instead of telling the Greens how it is gonna be in coalition, as Shearer does. Cunliffe might actually start listening to them. This might encourage the Greens to stick with their principles. And see the Greens arguing for far more concessions over environmental issues particularly Deep Sea Oil drilling, which if achieved would avoid the inevitable clash with their members and supporters. Making the coalition much more stable.
Your statement that the Labour Party hate Cunliffe more than they hate being in opposition reminds me of Chris Trotter’s observation of the Labour Party, that they would, “Rather have control of the losing side, than lose control of the winning side.
Yes, The Greens good performance hasn’t converted to a rise in the polls and Labours atrocious performance hasn’t converted to a drop in the Polls…..yet. But when most people start focusing on the Election next year, and people start actively listening to Shearer versus Norman/Turei, Key versus Turei/Norman, I reckon we will see the Polls reacting.
I’m really keen to understand why you think Shearer is a good leader for Labour Te Reo?
I don’t! But he is good enough to scrape over the line. Frankly, I’d like to see Andrew Little lead the party. He’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but he can actually communicate with people, debate with opponents and lead a team. He’d be the difference between scraping home under Shearer and having a solid working majority.
True, but if it works for the AB’s in cup finals, it should work for Labour. I’m guessing studying rugby strategy was the real reason for the MP’s and Shearer being in the Sky Casino box and when Shearer wins by a single seat, we’ll be hailing him as a tactical genius. Or summat.
After a cup final, the AB’s have done their job. After an election the winner is just beginning theirs. In the first case, the one point win is enough, in the second, with the real job ahead, it does not bode so well for stability.
TRP a scrape over the line leaves an incoming government with precious little political capital and legitimacy to start with. For a Labour Govt that means 1 timid Labour term followed by 2 or 3 more Tory terms.
I don’t want to scrape over the line either and besides Andrew Little hasn’t done his apprenticeship as an MP, as David Shearer hasn’t either, whereas David Cunliffe is a seasoned MP.
I think Labour needs someone who can do more than scrape over the line. Someone who looks good on TV, is very smart and able to communicate clearly and effectively is needed, in other words, David Cunliffe is the man!!! Unfortunately for Andrew Little, he has ZERO charisma, even though he may be very capable. And charisma, especially these days with elections mainly fought for and won on TV, is a MUST!! That would definitely rule out Grant Robertson too. No charisma, always slightly dishevelled, and not popular except on the beltway. Coming third in the party vote in his electorate should tell people something!!
Interestingly Andrew Little despite his Engineering Union background has shown himself open to discussing the reality of Climate Change, whereas Shearer won’t have a bar of it.
I agree that Little does actually communicate with people, and debate with opponents and has shown he can lead a team. This would be completely different to the uncommunicative sulky autocratic type leadership displayed by Shearer. Personally I would prefer Cunliffe over Little as the Party leader. Which also is the Labour membership’s choice. But Little would be my second choice.
Indeed, though he’s fictional, Tywin Lannister speaks the truth:
“A man who says ‘I am the King’ is no true king.”
(And that’s what fiction does: it speaks the truth in the guise of lies)
That’s true: Little second choice, Cunliffe first, Shearer never. OK, Little then.
Shearer would have been a decent minister in Bill Rowling’s cabinet if he’d known his place. He wasn’t, he doesn’t and he’s not. That’s his tragedy and ours.
Funnily enough I agree with TRP. Why aren’t the Greens doing better?
Personally I think that the Greens aren’t growing the left vote, instead they are cannibalising Labour’s. I think that the figures above show this.
Instead of becoming more like Labour the Greens IMHO need to stay true to their environmental principles. When the crunch comes and the Greens find themselves in a Shearer led coalition government, determined to mine the Denniston Plateau and drill for Deep Sea Oil, and in direct opposition to most of their membership, and are destroyed in the resulting implosion, all that voter support taken from Labour will go flooding back. Resulting in a dramatically shrunken Green caucus returned in 2017. Maybe this is Shearer’s strategy, force the Greens into line to destroy them.
That is a pretty straight message from Manhire – but unfortunately I don’t think Shearer will listen to anyone other than those fellow caucus members* whispering in his ear, Anne.
John Hamilton from Arrowtown on the plan to put a tiny amount of affordable housing there
“We don’t need white or black trash renting cheap houses in Arrowtown,” he said.
“Arrowtown has a very low crime rate because poor people can’t afford to live here.”
My view is simple, “People are trash in hamilton’s view but don’t worry he’s not racist because both ‘white’ and ‘black’ people are equally trash, rubbish, thrown away and discarded. What a sad, sick individual hamilton is to have a view of people like that. He is the type that would let poor people die in the street and then complain they are making the place untidy. Personally I’d be quite happy if the hamiltons of this world left this country and never came back.”
Luckily some good people of Arrowtown have formed part of the 250 submissions on the plan and isn’t hamilton’s view a stark contrast to the recent Mana Housing policy where those in need are looked after.
God that is sick. John Hamilton is one sick and ugly puppy.
This doesn’t surprise me though – recall Sam Neill a few years ago trying to do the same to stop people coming in with their average houses and “destroying” the rich peoples 10 acre blocks? Sam Neill was just as ugly with this approach.
It also doesn’t suprise me in another sense. Having spent some time in and out of that area over the years – it has changed from a vibrant, broad, diverse community to one which is sanitised and fucking boring. It is just rich baby boomers driving around in the their range rovers doing the same shit and keeping their lawns like bowling greens. And grimacing whenever someone of average clothes and car goes by.
These people put up these fences and gates around their homes and, without even realising it, around their minds. Boring boring boring. Oh, and wankers.
From what I know there are in fact loads of jobs in the wakatipu basin. All the cleaners and hospo and touro workers and drivers and, well, basically all the work that needs doing in the place, are done by low paid workers and for them finding an affordable house in that location is just impossible (because the wanker Sam Neill and his ilk are hell bent on keeping property values sky high).
Affordable housing would be jumped on quick smart.
Have thought for a long time that the entire basin will eventually end up being populated all to hell and the area littered with more and more housing, a bit like those Euro mountain resort valleys. But you know, people like John Hamilton and Sam Neill love that shit in Euroland and even go to the extreme lengths of flying halfway aroud the world to take their holidays in exactly that environment (and note those euro valleys have cheap housing areas for workers too). Then they come back here and say they don’t like it!
This attitude expressed here by Hamilton and Neill is ugly and unwelcome. It is also shallow and lacks basic human decency. These people should be shunned, not the workers.
Hamilton and Neil weren’t expressing the same sentiment at all. Neil was trying to stop the infil of rural areas, which is to be applauded. If anything he’s been proven right by your statement that the area is now dull and boring.
No no no no I disagree. That may have been Neil’s words but it was absolutely not the sentiment. This approach is seen all the time – people say “wah wah wah, these newcomers will destory the environment” while at exactly the same time having destroyed the environment to get their own piece of infill (recall the basin used to be large scale farms which have been infilled by 10 acre blocks. Same thing, just differnt scale). It is a pull up the drawbridge approach.
And it aint the “infill” that makes the place boring, it is the blandness of the range rover-driving, schist-clad mcmansion-owning baby boomer set. imhumbleo.
And John Hamilton has just brought it all to the fore again.
For me it’s the blandness of the recentish suburbs where all the houses are made out of ticky tacky. Queenstown has always had a high proportion of rich people with flash cars, *shrug*. IMO it’s been a long time since it’s been a culturally attractive place, but obviously lots of people still like living there.
I agree there are issues with what Neil and ilk do in terms of wealth and land prices, but he’s not in the same category as Hamilton and the other Arrowtown people who think that low income = wrong or criminal. I’d like to see you come up with something from Neil that shows he obviously doesn’t understand that the people who clean Queenstown’s toilets aren’t earning high wages, which is what Hamilton seems to have missed. Maybe on Planet Hamilton there are no toilets 😉
(recall the basin used to be large scale farms which have been infilled by 10 acre blocks. Same thing, just differnt scale). It is a pull up the drawbridge approach.
I guess it depends on where you think the limit should be. Or if there should be a limit at all. Queenstown is a very interesting example because it is demonstrates that we live on a finite planet better than most other places. Once they’ve filled in all the land between the Crown Range, the Kawarau Gorge, the Devil’s Staircase and Mt Aspiring Natinal Park, where do you propose the latest incomers should live?
And going into PO/CC/GFC, where do you think all those people are going to get their food from? You can actually grow food for the local population more easily and successfully on 10 acres blocks than you can on large sheep farms. It’s also possible to argue that lifestyle blocks are better for the environment because more trees get planted and there is more biodiversity than on larger farms.
You make fair points there weka. I have to fly out the door but in a quick nutshell, the nimby syndrome is something I have absolutely no time for.
“I guess it depends on where you think the limit should be.” — Yes. But when someone comes along and subdivides a property so they can have a home for themselves, and then objects to the next person coming along and subdividing the previous subdivision so they too can have a home I just see hypocrisy all over the whole place and a complete lack of credibility.
If people like Neil want a rural paradise then how about a covenant on their titles such that when they sell they can only sell to a neighbour who then has to amalgamate to reduce the population and restore true ruralness…..
I agree about your point with smaller farms being “more productive” – witness highly populated parts of the world.
Imo the wakatipu basin should give up on trying to remain like some sort of 1970’s golden poplar-treed sheep-clad paradise and embrace that euro mountain valley higher populated type enclave that works so well over there. There is enough land to house a massive population. I mean, that is the way it is heading. People would love it (except the elite 10 acre block owners and there are f-all of them, and they are just being selfish). People would embrace it. It would become more diverse, more vibrant, more cosmopolitan, more touristy. Imagine it. There are plenty of other rural paradises all around NZ if thats what people want.
If wakatipu people want empty rural then they should go live south of Kinsgton. Go on sam neill, go live south of Kingston if that’s what you want. What do you think weka – would the likes of Neill and Hamilton live there? Still plenty big mountains and scenes, maybe just no “mountain scene”, which seems to be their scene ….. hence cosmpolitanise it all even more ….
“But when someone comes along and subdivides a property so they can have a home for themselves, and then objects to the next person coming along and subdividing the previous subdivision so they too can have a home I just see hypocrisy all over the whole place and a complete lack of credibility.”
By that argument we should build as many houses as we want wherever we want and as high and dense as we want. Not only do most people not agree with that, but we have specific laws in place to prevent that happening.
“If people like Neil want a rural paradise then how about a covenant on their titles such that when they sell they can only sell to a neighbour who then has to amalgamate to reduce the population and restore true ruralness…..”
I’m not sure what the solution is, but I suspect in a sane world it would be a combination of nationally set guidelines and then local communities working democratically to decide how best land should be managed.
“Imo the wakatipu basin should give up on trying to remain like some sort of 1970′s golden poplar-treed sheep-clad paradise and embrace that euro mountain valley higher populated type enclave that works so well over there.”
Except it’s a fragile landscape. A big earthquake will be catastrophic for Queenstown. It’s not a good place for high density population.
“(except the elite 10 acre block owners and there are f-all of them, and they are just being selfish).”
Sorry, but you sound very bitter there, not to mention prejudiced. It’s true that lifestyle blocks have changed many places, for good and bad. But I don’t see the owners as being any more selfish than any other land owner generally.
“There are plenty of other rural paradises all around NZ if thats what people want.”
Not for very much longer, and not if your arguments were followed.
“If wakatipu people want empty rural then they should go live south of Kinsgton. Go on sam neill, go live south of Kingston if that’s what you want.”
I don’t imagine Neil would have a problem living there if he had to. It’s a beautiful landscape for sure. But I suspect that not all Kingston and surrounding people would be that happy with the descending hoards. Not sure if you are aware, but Queenstown workers already live in Kingston and commute because there is not enough accommodation in Queenstown (affordable accommodation I mean, there are obviously enough houses there). By your argument we should just fill the whole country with suburbs. What happens when Kingston is full? I guess we could just keep build suburbs all the way to Bluff. See where I am going with this?
Besides how are people going to afford the commute when petrol is $5/L?
There are only so many people that any given landbase can support. While I agree people like Neil have something to answer for in terms of wealth and land values, I think he did NZ a service. Basically he spoke of the value of open, natural, under-developped places. We need those. I like being able to go to a river or beach and find no-one else there at times. That’s not selfishness, it’s gratitude towards nature.
Hi weka, I appreciate all the points you have made there. Sure, controls are necessary for those reasons you mention and I agree with them to maintain certain intrinsic values around certain environments and stop them being overrun by masses of people and our wrecking ball ways.
The argument around never-ending subdivision is not something I follow and the argument was only made to highlight the hypocrisy of others in wanting to pull the drawbridge up to stop others doing what those who are already there have done themselves. This occurs in spades in this locality.
As for what “spoils” the environment more – lifestyle blocks or subdivisions….. the wakatipu basin (not the mountains which are not lived on anyway) is already completely modified from its natural state. All natural vegetation has been stripped in the areas where housing and lifestyle blocks are. So to put in a pink house and a golf course, or a vineyard and a schist house, to house one family is no better (and in fact worse given the low benefit for similar cost) than putting in 50 houses to house 50 families. Strip all natural features on, say, 20 hectares and house either 1 family or 50 families… see the cost-benefit ratio?
As for whether the basin is a fragile environment, I’m not sure in what sense you mean. It is no more fragile ecologically than pretty much the rest of the South Island mountain locales. And if it is considered that it is ecologically fragile then it must be seen in the context of this being the only such fragile locale in NZ to be used in this way. Then consider, re earthquakes, Wellington, Taupo area, Auckland (Rangitoto went up just a couple hundred years ago remember). I don’t know if your point here holds.
As for me sounding bitter – sorry, sometimes it seems my manner of expression comes out more harshly than intended. But, when it comes to the demands of 10 acre block holders in Wakatipu, yes, there is some displeasure at their manner, demands, and attempts to push away the “trash”, as John Hamilton has so eloquently puts it.
And when you say this re Sam Neill … “Basically he spoke of the value of open, natural, under-developped places” you kind of nail the sticking point. He didn’t do that. All he did was do that in relation to his own pulled-up-drawbridge part of NZ. And further, that pulled-up-drawbridge part of NZ (the wakatipu basin living areas low down) is far from a natural, undeveloped place. It is completely and utterly modified. He spoke in those terms but he was not correct and it was all on the basis of self-interest imo.
You see these types of nimbys all over NZ – they get their piece of paradise and modify the environment all to hell, then pull out these arguments (which are falsely based) to preserve their piece just for themselves and in order to keep out the trash. This is exactly what the turd Hamilton is stating, just in more stark terms than Neill.
I must reiterate my personal view above re the best thing for Wakatipu into the future – that of a densely populated mountain community (there is no other in NZ) that throbs and pulses with a cosmopolitality that is not even matched by NZ’s big cities. It would be spectacular – picture it – snow-clad mountains lit up by moonlight and the sparkling lights of people-bustle in the low areas. It would go crazy. And the effect on the environment would be nil because the envornment has already been dealt a death blow by its development to date.
one more bit … “value of open, natural, under-developped places. We need those. I like being able to go to a river or beach and find no-one else there at times. That’s not selfishness, it’s gratitude towards nature.”
I agree 1000%. Best jam us humans up closer and leave more of those open spaces. Wakatipu is the mountain location for just that in NZ. Jam everyone in there (which is where they want to be too) and leave all other mountain locations empty and natural.
Now here’s a classic case of ‘foriegn ownership of a power company. In debt up to it’s eyeballs, all profits going to service debt to foreign bankers and hedge funds.
So is this what will happen to all of our power companies when they have been stolen and sold off
All’s going to plan.
April 1993: New Plymouth Energy (the electricity division of the New Plymouth District Council) merges with Taranaki Electricity (former Taranaki Electric Power Board) to become Taranaki Energy Limited
November 2004: It is now moving to compulsorily acquire the remaining shares and remove Powerco from the New Zealand stock exchange.
I think something that would boost labours chances of winning would be to appropriate Manas policy on no deposit, low interest rate home loans for Maori, its a vote winner 🙂
OK – I am curious – I have strong views about this (very much against), but genuinly am interested in what “lefties” think of the race based housing policy from Mana.
“Maori first-home buyers would be able to buy homes with no deposit, at the same interest rates that Government pays and with negotiable mortgage terms.”
James in the same speech this was the last couple of sentences
We know that housing is not just an issue that affects Maori; it affects every family on a low income. That’s why John Minto, will be announcing MANA’s wider housing policy on 23 July as a part of our MINTO FOR MAYOR Campaign.
It is, however, absurd to put into law that the houses can only be on-sold to other Maori. And I am flabbergasted why race is being prioritised over need. That’s not redress, that’s blatant divisiveness. And why can’t the iwi take the initiative? Kai Tahu are already doing that with their own money.
The Government has already funded it – the treaty settlements. I have no problem with Maori only development provided iwi use their own money – perhaps with a Government top up
Treaty Settlements were reparation for past theft and injustices, not to make up for failings in current social policy. Did you see marty’s quote about the different rates of home ownership between Maori and non-Maori? Why do you think that is?
“And I am flabbergasted why race is being prioritised over need”
That’s probably because you don’t understand the need and are confusing it with race. If Maori are disadvantaged in home buying compared to the rest of the population, then why not assist them?
You also don’t seem to understand ethnicity. If you target services at Maori and do this in a Maori way, it’s more successful ie it’s a better use of the money. That’s why ‘race’ based funding is important. It’s not because Maori are more special than everyone else.
(and you can argue it the other way – that services delivered the Pakeha way are race based ones that serve Pakeha, but not non-Pakeha).
“I have no problem with Maori only development provided iwi use their own money – perhaps with a Government top up”
Had Iwi been given fair settlements I might agree. But have you looked at the rather small amounts that many settlements entailed compared to the value of the lost assets and resources from since the Treaty was signed? One of the core points about the Treaty and everything that surrounds that is that Maori were severely undermined in the 1800s, in myriad ways, and until they are able to recover from that we cannot consider this a level playing field.
The dompost is getting better at being balanced lately, its normally quite left-leaning but now its starting to report fairly and without bias…bad news for the left though
seriously though – i dont think you would know “reporting fairly and without bias” if it came up, kicked you in the nuts and left a business card with a hand written note for a follow up meeting
the media arent really left or right leaning – they are lazy oppourtunists chasing sensationalism
editorials are of course different to news stories and regularly come out with a much more rightwards view (in terms of what could normally be considered a left or right viewpoint – not how you or i call it)
your really just showing up the shallowness of both your knowledge and opinion, of how the MSM operates in our contemporary, media saturated world
None of that is even close to balanced – it’s pure National Party propaganda.
As for National Standards? Research debunks internal assesment criticism
If you want to destroy education (and thus the children) in NZ then keep them. Otherwise, get a clue and start listening to the teachers.
Based entirely on the fact that when someone said the polls were making them seasick, I referred to gentle swells and suggested they watch the tides (i.e. trends rather than bi-weekly angst/elation sessions).
whatever. I know who I work for and who I am, so if you want to start seeing Robertson’s strategists in every shadow, feel free. It is unlikely to change my opinion of your grip on reality.
Gentle swells are Ok, McFlock- if you’re into fashion, and well-mannered foppery. It’s us northerly Gaels you have to watch out for- we can kick up a storm- though it can be a trifle breezy around the southern parts. Macs Go Bragh!
I watched MRP shares avidly for the first few weeks – not because I have any as I would not have bought on principle. Wish now that I had documented their “progress”, but in the first few weeks, there was massive trading with MRP shares the biggest trades on some days in terms of volume and, on one or two occasions, value. The average of those trades (Volume of shares divided by number of trades) was very, very high – ie, many thousands. . MRP directors were also able to buy up until 31 May, and they did – disclosure notices are on the NZX site.
By contrast, recently numbers of trades, volumes and averages have dropped back markedly.
For example, today so far (as of a few minutes ago), trades have only totalled 124 covering a volume of 421,863 shares, giving an average of 3402 shares per trade (price now $2.23).
I am no expert in the share market, but possibly this indicates that current buyers/sellers are smaller/newbie traders and the biggies are sitting it out at present. Happy to admit my assumptions are wrong if more experienced people can provide a more expert explanation.
Thanks CV. And I now note that MRP shares closed today at $2.20. Which was my (totally uneducated) prediction/hope for the end of the week. And for this time next week – how about $2.15?
While I last heard a couple of weeks ago that things were underway – ie thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ dollars were being paid out to consultants et – to prepare Meridian for sale in Oct, it seems to have gone very quiet….except for Tiwai Point revaluing themselves at basically zero.
After recent events, I presume National has gone on the war path to re-establish internal communications discipline. Making an example out of Dunne will be part of that.
That’s what it comes down to Hami Shearlie. And it’s not as though you’d be losing anyone promisingly Left at all.
Hope it’s not being rude or churlish, certainly not intended, but on television the guy always looks like he needs a shave. Puts me in mind of the final (?) Kennedy/Nixon presidential debate in 1960. It’s still widely expressed that Nixon’s five o’clock shadow look cost him enough to lose by what was a small margin apparently.
Anyway…….back to our sad reality. I doubt anyone can say hand on heart that Shonkey Python would NOT have been on the ropes for months and months now if Cunliffe had been at the helm.
Even if gratuitously The Left could have done with that……..couldn’t we ?
There’s a large pool of voters too disillusioned to vote. If they see a genuine alternative in the Green Party, they might start. I remain fairly sure that National will win the next election and the Greens will be the largest party at the one after that.
Typical of this National Party, hopeless….Meridian float is all over, it wont happen I reckon, who would want to buy it.
The only thing that this National Party gets right is its Crosby Textor inspired media strategy, disguising one of the most incompetent governments NZ has had since the 90’s.
“an allowance to reward experienced teaching staff to the Education Ministry in its pay negotiation round, asking for as many allowances as possible.”
“I think it could look like performance pay if you don’t take into consideration the development behind it and its intent.”
“A staff member at NZEI said its members would not see it as performance pay because teachers’ achievement wouldn’t be based on raw National Standards data.”
its the REPORTER making the logic jump to it being performance pay, its actually experience pay – theres a difference
also – you do realise that teachers already have performance based pay? It happens just the same way as any other employee. The employer evaluates their performance and rewards them accordingly.
What you’re cheering on is politicised pay and mob rule – if thats want you want, go nuts. No ones going to stop you – but at least understand what your arguing for
Yeah, like you’ve ever dealt with any. Your ignorance about union matters is one of your most endearing traits, WS. It’s like you’ve forgotten more than you ever knew.
Its the first step towards performance pay or performance by stealth whatever way you want to look at it.
No it’s not. It’s career enhancement which probably has something to do with hierarchies, i/e, there just isn’t that many places at the top.
You didn’t actually read past the first paragraph did you? You just read the bit about performance pay and left it at that – believing the misreporting.
Fat Tony’s one of my nicknames at footy. I kid myself it refers to Tony Soprano, (but really its the Simmos character). Gandolfini was also great as the hitman in True Romance, the best movie Tarantino never made.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 15.2.1
No, not “bugger”. Fuck. Phuque. Fuketty fuck fuck and feck. And bottoms.
Every account of him says that he was a wonderful guy – kind, generous, gentle. He once said that at home he was “a three hundred pound Woody Allen”. A lot of actors who play villains often are, and show skill at comedy (I’m thinking of Charles Dance, who always seems to play cold-hearted aristocrats and is incredibly warm and funny in interviews). You should see him in In the Loop
My views on that are fairly clear. Apart from the systematic fraud and security issues, if someone can’t be bothered to put aside 45 minutes on a Saturday every 3 years to go vote, they can frak off.
Fair enough. They can still get it wrong from the comfort of their own homes by not voting. It worked pretty well last time. (Only pulling ya leg – anyone who wants to vote under the current system and is housebound can do it, I know.)
Yeah, six months, then three, then 6 weeks, then 3 weeks, then 10 days, then a week, then a day, then an hour, then a minute, then a second, then a millisecond – don’t worry, he still has a microsecond to – God help us – “scrape by”!
Never underestimate the power of denial – or entitlement.
Here’s a funny thing. I just heard Na Raihania on the radio saying the reason to vote for him is that he’ll be “at the table” straight away, whereas none of the others can be “at the table” until National get the boot.
Same waffle that that old fool Pita Sharples comes out with every time he’s asked why anyone should pretend the maori Party are a serious political movement.
Couple of things about that. First, it’s a lie. The maori Party do not sit “at the table”.
John Key and National’s deal with the maori Party specifically excludes them from the cabinet table. The only table they’re allowed to sit at with Key is at the Green Parrot, and the chances of him remembering anything said there are slim to none.
So apart from being a tired old line, it’s also not even based on a fact. It’s the opposite of a fact. It’s a lie.
The second thing is that even if it were true that the maori Party sit “at the table”, which it isn’t, they already have their two token Ministers (outside Cabinet). Does Na Raihania think he’s going to be a Minister if he wins the seat? Pfffffft whatever.
Third thing is that Key doesn’t even know his name. And when asked why he endorsed a candidate who he couldn’t name, he said ‘cos I’ve heard good things about him’. Which means he knows so little about the guy that he can’t even make something up, and for a serial liar like Key that’s quite a fucking place to be.
So I hope people voting in the by election understand that that’s how much influence he really has. He’s never going to be allowed to sit at the table with the PM who wouldn’t recognise him anyway.
Ah…..The Green Parrot. Or “The ‘Arrot” as a mate of mine called it……….on account of the P on Parrot in the neon sign not glowing for ages, years. Fun days. Mid-to-late 70s Wellington.
When the Pig was in charge.
When Rob Campbell, serial corporate director including of late POA, was photographed in PYM regalia holding a bloody firearm.
Damn……..I’m having this bizo going on in my head……..”At least The Pig was emotionally centred in New Zealand……..”
Imagine if it wasn’t “Afternoons with Mora” but instead it was “Afternoons with Graham Norton” (which is my viewing right now on 3).
Sorry there Mensa Mora (Affable Cock), but Graham Norton muchmuchmuchmuchmuch cleverer than you, bro’. In all the ways that matter. Yeah……fair enough it’s a completely different genre but still……
I’ll never forget the anagram of “Tory Cunts”. And the Graham Norton delivery. In fact I do forget the anagram itself but since the root was his whole point, that’s what I remembered.
Clever and funny as hell ! Is there a link anywhere for that ?
Akshilly………..in recent times I’ve heard MM on one or two occasions give comment on “issues” in a way that acknowledges the real life depth and scope of the “issue”. Like maybe his immensity has finally cottoned on to a human vibe which involves at least trying to imagine walking someone elses’ mocassins.
As opposed to the irritating Gushing Hurrah Henry-Ness of the man and the vanity of his slip into foreign European language to make a point in English. Hhmm……….no facility I note in Polynesian or Maori language.
In fact I emailed him once to say, lightly of course, “Dear Jime-Mow-Ray…….listen chap, its not Hon-A Harawira, its Haw-Neh…….
Didn’t even get a response. Was expecting some sparkling eurocentric wit. Not a giggle and no improvement either.
Years ago worked in Mt Albert. Near to, I think it was Kelly’s Caltex, in the dip at the bend 300 metres east of Mt Albert lights on New North Road. Closed now.
Well, I pull in there to get some gas and who should be fluffing around putting gas in his pretty tawdry BMW, squinting embarrassingly through his spectacles, but Michael (What a Baaaad Speech) Bassett.
Honestly, it ran through my head to march up to him and denounce him as a simpering fucking scab.
Didn’t.
Doesn’t change the fact. Him and all the others. They did a bigger con-job than Crosby Textor could dream about. Paradoxically, riding the “Labour Bus” all the way to the scab launching pad.
While also using and abusing the fineness which resided in David Lange.
I was walking my dog once when we came across Roger Douglas and some rich pricks in a sidewalk restaurant on Jervois Rd. I loudly informed the dog that if she knew what an asshole he was, she’d bite him. A few people laughed, probably at me rather than with me, but that’s life.
I remember that petrol station North. Disappeared years ago. Just up the road (back towards the traffic lights) there was a small community hall – now the community constable’s office – where we held our monthly electorate meetings. Those were the days when we used to have as many as 25 to 30 people attend our ordinary business meetings. When Helen Clark became our candidate (1980) I recall her arriving on the noisiest motorscooter that I’ve ever encountered. We could hear her coming 1/2 a kilometre away – slight exaggeration. Fortunately she exchanged it for a car soon afterwards.
I never found out what exactly happened, but she had an almighty row with Michael Bassett and anyone who dared mention his name during the campaign period that followed invariably ended up with a flea in their ear. Those were the days when Helen was still able to be her natural self.
I miss her. I miss her stewardship of the country.
Btw, did you know that Bassett and Lange were related. Second cousins I think it was.
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
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Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
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Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
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It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
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Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
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Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
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Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
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Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
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Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
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Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
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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. ...
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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 ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Are you sick and tired of hearing from blood thirsty arm chair generals and racist Isalamaphobes expound their views on the Middle East safe in the comfort of their New Zealand living rooms?
An Invitation to a Conference on Palestine
Auckland Town Hall with renowned Israeli author MIKO PELED.
From 6.30pm, This Sunday 23 June.
FREE ADMISSION – all sessions open to the public – koha welcome.
ALSO:
A special screening of Oscar-nominated documentary ‘5 Broken Cameras’ at 4pm (same venue), and Palestinian speaker Yousef Aljamal – direct from Gaza.
Check out our website http://www.conferenceonpalestine.co.nz for more details.
Bring your friends & family. “Palestine is still the issue.”
– Roger Fowler, chair of Kia Ora Gaza
Recommend hearing what Miko Peled has to say. He is a very good speaker.
For those who can’t make it to Auckland there are some very good videos of his talks on YouTube.
e.g.
Miko Peled Part 1
Jenny since you support foreign islamic soldiers in Syria fighting against the locals, you are clearly one of these “blood thirsty arm chair generals”.
The Assad dictatorship as the Saddam Hussein dictatorship before them did, has garnered a lot of political capital by giving support to the Palestinian’s cause.
However recently despite their terrible need, the Palestinians refugees have been spontaneously rejecting or destroying aid shipments that have come from the Basha Assad allied Hisbollah, (Party of God) saying that they would rather starve than take charity from a butcher of the Arab people.
Your support of the Syrian proxy war is destabilising the entire region, and yes the Palestinans are now also in the firing line.
Yes that sounds genuine to me.
One cut-and-paster in Auckland is destabilising the entire Middle East? Awesome?
yeah on a re-read that was rather badly worded
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2013-06-17/sapping-assads-strength-israel-stirs-the-pot-in-syria/
Land for development.
Apparently there is large part of an electorate in Auckland where the housing minister is going to be fast tracking rezoning and planning.
It starts around Massey and extends to Waimauku/Muriwai. That’s part of the MP for Helensville’s patch. Like Kim Dotcom, I’ll bet he hasn’t been briefed. Yeah right. Mums and Dads should try to get some shares in the development companies.
Land bankers have been awaiting this for some years.
No thoughts of public transport and other important infrastructure.
And the electrication of the Western line finishes at Swanson! Typical planning for public transport for an expanding area of Auckland, which has already started. When I first shifted to Swanson our home was right on the edge of the rural/urban divide, but a new housing division was soon commenced in the Crows Road area and is now in full swing.
LOL like these companies are open to public scrutiny let alone listed aside from the fletchers and big civil crowds who will do the initial work in one of those ‘national interest’ scenarios.
Alot of that around SH1’s road to JK’s beachhouse with backers and mates looking to do very nicely of now accessible ‘suburbia’ via a zoning tweak and a shiny new Holiday highway going through.
Some folk have been waiting years as the actual gov’t bodies who buy the land up weren’t given the funds, ah but that’s just annoying detail in the blighted future that those annoying public servants can tidy up….what’s left of them and whatever superdupster ministry they now belong to.
National ’08 45%, ’11 47.5% now 44%.
Labour/ Green ’08 41%, ’11 38.5% now 44.5%
NZ1 ’08 4%, ’11 6.5% now 6%
National has not been impacted by their own foul ups or by the efforts of the opposition.
Labour Greens have closed the gap with the Nats by 4 pc points. However Winston and his 6% will go Nat rather than share power with the Greens.
This is not a success for Labour given all that has gone on since ’08.
This is a failure given that an election could be called anytime ( due to self inflicted wounds by Natz&co) and that a full term election is a little over 12 months away.
Nothing in the Roy Morgan Poll to feel good about. . It is very chilling. All Labour people should be very very concerned.
Simple Labour …….get rid of Shearer and support Cunliffe.
Or switch your vote to Mana or Green.
…how is shifting support to the Greens going to increase the left’s share of the vote?
The left has to show alternative appeal to Key (and show it fast). New leadership is obviously a start.
It’s not just a new leader Labour needs, it needs a change in its internal parliamentary culture, and probably the wider party.
In the meantime, more votes for GP or Mana theoretically could increase the left vote by engaging current non-voters. There is also some evidence that some voters the right are shifting to voting GP, so the bigger the profile they have the better. The bigger the GP gets, the more credibility it gets and the more it has the power to shift the centre back towards the left again. I would be happy if Labour were doing this but they’re not, so fuck ’em. The more Labour voters that vote Green the better.
Cunliffe would have my vote in a heartbeat. Shearer , I doubt it!! The ABC gang’s being caught out, sitting in a corporate box courtesy of Sky City, shows their judgement is sadly lacking – they hate Cunliffe more than they hate being in opposition. What kind of weirdos are they?? At the trough for far too long, only concerned with stashing away truckloads of taxpayer money paid to them over many decades!! The membership of the Party’s wishes regarding the Leadership are not being considered in any way.
Absolutely right Paul – how long will it take for Labour to see the light. I have already stated that I will either become a non-voter next election or vote Green or even Mana (it takes a long time Labour voter like me to change stripes, but I’m being forced into it unless there is a change of leader sooner rather than later.
Indeed Hamie. If Cunliffe was head of the Labour Party. It would represent a sea change. Instead of telling the Greens how it is gonna be in coalition, as Shearer does. Cunliffe might actually start listening to them. This might encourage the Greens to stick with their principles. And see the Greens arguing for far more concessions over environmental issues particularly Deep Sea Oil drilling, which if achieved would avoid the inevitable clash with their members and supporters. Making the coalition much more stable.
Your statement that the Labour Party hate Cunliffe more than they hate being in opposition reminds me of Chris Trotter’s observation of the Labour Party, that they would, “Rather have control of the losing side, than lose control of the winning side.
I blame the Greens. Why aren’t they doing better? Time to get rid of the deadwood in their leadership.
Yes, The Greens good performance hasn’t converted to a rise in the polls and Labours atrocious performance hasn’t converted to a drop in the Polls…..yet. But when most people start focusing on the Election next year, and people start actively listening to Shearer versus Norman/Turei, Key versus Turei/Norman, I reckon we will see the Polls reacting.
I’m really keen to understand why you think Shearer is a good leader for Labour Te Reo?
I don’t! But he is good enough to scrape over the line. Frankly, I’d like to see Andrew Little lead the party. He’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but he can actually communicate with people, debate with opponents and lead a team. He’d be the difference between scraping home under Shearer and having a solid working majority.
Scrap over the line, now that’s a fine goal to aspire to.
True, but if it works for the AB’s in cup finals, it should work for Labour. I’m guessing studying rugby strategy was the real reason for the MP’s and Shearer being in the Sky Casino box and when Shearer wins by a single seat, we’ll be hailing him as a tactical genius. Or summat.
Lol. I still reckon you lot should defect to the GP or Mana 🙂
After a cup final, the AB’s have done their job. After an election the winner is just beginning theirs. In the first case, the one point win is enough, in the second, with the real job ahead, it does not bode so well for stability.
TRP a scrape over the line leaves an incoming government with precious little political capital and legitimacy to start with. For a Labour Govt that means 1 timid Labour term followed by 2 or 3 more Tory terms.
I don’t want to scrape over the line either and besides Andrew Little hasn’t done his apprenticeship as an MP, as David Shearer hasn’t either, whereas David Cunliffe is a seasoned MP.
Seasoned MP and seasoned Minister. Oversaw the break up of Telecom in the face of major corporate and moneyed opposition.
Never distributed mango skins to poor kids though, as far as I know.
I think Labour needs someone who can do more than scrape over the line. Someone who looks good on TV, is very smart and able to communicate clearly and effectively is needed, in other words, David Cunliffe is the man!!! Unfortunately for Andrew Little, he has ZERO charisma, even though he may be very capable. And charisma, especially these days with elections mainly fought for and won on TV, is a MUST!! That would definitely rule out Grant Robertson too. No charisma, always slightly dishevelled, and not popular except on the beltway. Coming third in the party vote in his electorate should tell people something!!
Hear hear, Hami – David Cunliffe is the man!!!!
You are seriously underestimating the NZ public if you think Shearer is good enough even to scrape.
Interestingly Andrew Little despite his Engineering Union background has shown himself open to discussing the reality of Climate Change, whereas Shearer won’t have a bar of it.
I agree that Little does actually communicate with people, and debate with opponents and has shown he can lead a team. This would be completely different to the uncommunicative sulky autocratic type leadership displayed by Shearer. Personally I would prefer Cunliffe over Little as the Party leader. Which also is the Labour membership’s choice. But Little would be my second choice.
Jenny-Much as I don’t want to harm Shearer & Labour my thoughts concur with yours.
uncommunicative sulky autocratic
Indeed, though he’s fictional, Tywin Lannister speaks the truth:
“A man who says ‘I am the King’ is no true king.”
(And that’s what fiction does: it speaks the truth in the guise of lies)
That’s true: Little second choice, Cunliffe first, Shearer never. OK, Little then.
Shearer would have been a decent minister in Bill Rowling’s cabinet if he’d known his place. He wasn’t, he doesn’t and he’s not. That’s his tragedy and ours.
TRP said:
2005 General Election
LAB 41.1%
GR 5.3%
2011 General Election
LAB 27.5% (-33.1%)
GR 11.1% (+109.4%)
Labour gave up 1/3 of it’s party vote between 2005 and 2011. The Greens more than doubled their party vote (from a small base) over that same time.
The performance of the Greens leadership looks fine to me mate.
Perhaps I should have put a smiley on my comment for the slower kids in class.
Funnily enough I agree with TRP. Why aren’t the Greens doing better?
Personally I think that the Greens aren’t growing the left vote, instead they are cannibalising Labour’s. I think that the figures above show this.
Instead of becoming more like Labour the Greens IMHO need to stay true to their environmental principles. When the crunch comes and the Greens find themselves in a Shearer led coalition government, determined to mine the Denniston Plateau and drill for Deep Sea Oil, and in direct opposition to most of their membership, and are destroyed in the resulting implosion, all that voter support taken from Labour will go flooding back. Resulting in a dramatically shrunken Green caucus returned in 2017. Maybe this is Shearer’s strategy, force the Greens into line to destroy them.
The Herald’s Toby Manhire gives his opinion on what Labour should do:
Labour checking all wrong boxes
Frankly, after the idiocy of his three “top performers” you would think Shearer might start listening to the rest of us…
That is a pretty straight message from Manhire – but unfortunately I don’t think Shearer will listen to anyone other than those fellow caucus members* whispering in his ear, Anne.
* Robertson, Mallard and co.
Give him another six months… I don’t think so.
Where’s ACT or United Future?
John Hamilton from Arrowtown on the plan to put a tiny amount of affordable housing there
My view is simple, “People are trash in hamilton’s view but don’t worry he’s not racist because both ‘white’ and ‘black’ people are equally trash, rubbish, thrown away and discarded. What a sad, sick individual hamilton is to have a view of people like that. He is the type that would let poor people die in the street and then complain they are making the place untidy. Personally I’d be quite happy if the hamiltons of this world left this country and never came back.”
Luckily some good people of Arrowtown have formed part of the 250 submissions on the plan and isn’t hamilton’s view a stark contrast to the recent Mana Housing policy where those in need are looked after.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8822832/Residents-vocal-in-opposition-to-housing-trash
http://mars2earth.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/white-and-black-trash.html
http://mars2earth.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/mana-in-house.html
God that is sick. John Hamilton is one sick and ugly puppy.
This doesn’t surprise me though – recall Sam Neill a few years ago trying to do the same to stop people coming in with their average houses and “destroying” the rich peoples 10 acre blocks? Sam Neill was just as ugly with this approach.
It also doesn’t suprise me in another sense. Having spent some time in and out of that area over the years – it has changed from a vibrant, broad, diverse community to one which is sanitised and fucking boring. It is just rich baby boomers driving around in the their range rovers doing the same shit and keeping their lawns like bowling greens. And grimacing whenever someone of average clothes and car goes by.
These people put up these fences and gates around their homes and, without even realising it, around their minds. Boring boring boring. Oh, and wankers.
(now, back to my self-imposed exile from you mm…)
I’m not sure what the point of the exercise would be anyway – there aren’t that many jobs in Arrowtown and everything costs a fortune.
From what I know there are in fact loads of jobs in the wakatipu basin. All the cleaners and hospo and touro workers and drivers and, well, basically all the work that needs doing in the place, are done by low paid workers and for them finding an affordable house in that location is just impossible (because the wanker Sam Neill and his ilk are hell bent on keeping property values sky high).
Affordable housing would be jumped on quick smart.
Have thought for a long time that the entire basin will eventually end up being populated all to hell and the area littered with more and more housing, a bit like those Euro mountain resort valleys. But you know, people like John Hamilton and Sam Neill love that shit in Euroland and even go to the extreme lengths of flying halfway aroud the world to take their holidays in exactly that environment (and note those euro valleys have cheap housing areas for workers too). Then they come back here and say they don’t like it!
This attitude expressed here by Hamilton and Neill is ugly and unwelcome. It is also shallow and lacks basic human decency. These people should be shunned, not the workers.
Hamilton and Neil weren’t expressing the same sentiment at all. Neil was trying to stop the infil of rural areas, which is to be applauded. If anything he’s been proven right by your statement that the area is now dull and boring.
No no no no I disagree. That may have been Neil’s words but it was absolutely not the sentiment. This approach is seen all the time – people say “wah wah wah, these newcomers will destory the environment” while at exactly the same time having destroyed the environment to get their own piece of infill (recall the basin used to be large scale farms which have been infilled by 10 acre blocks. Same thing, just differnt scale). It is a pull up the drawbridge approach.
And it aint the “infill” that makes the place boring, it is the blandness of the range rover-driving, schist-clad mcmansion-owning baby boomer set. imhumbleo.
And John Hamilton has just brought it all to the fore again.
For me it’s the blandness of the recentish suburbs where all the houses are made out of ticky tacky. Queenstown has always had a high proportion of rich people with flash cars, *shrug*. IMO it’s been a long time since it’s been a culturally attractive place, but obviously lots of people still like living there.
I agree there are issues with what Neil and ilk do in terms of wealth and land prices, but he’s not in the same category as Hamilton and the other Arrowtown people who think that low income = wrong or criminal. I’d like to see you come up with something from Neil that shows he obviously doesn’t understand that the people who clean Queenstown’s toilets aren’t earning high wages, which is what Hamilton seems to have missed. Maybe on Planet Hamilton there are no toilets 😉
(recall the basin used to be large scale farms which have been infilled by 10 acre blocks. Same thing, just differnt scale). It is a pull up the drawbridge approach.
I guess it depends on where you think the limit should be. Or if there should be a limit at all. Queenstown is a very interesting example because it is demonstrates that we live on a finite planet better than most other places. Once they’ve filled in all the land between the Crown Range, the Kawarau Gorge, the Devil’s Staircase and Mt Aspiring Natinal Park, where do you propose the latest incomers should live?
And going into PO/CC/GFC, where do you think all those people are going to get their food from? You can actually grow food for the local population more easily and successfully on 10 acres blocks than you can on large sheep farms. It’s also possible to argue that lifestyle blocks are better for the environment because more trees get planted and there is more biodiversity than on larger farms.
You make fair points there weka. I have to fly out the door but in a quick nutshell, the nimby syndrome is something I have absolutely no time for.
“I guess it depends on where you think the limit should be.” — Yes. But when someone comes along and subdivides a property so they can have a home for themselves, and then objects to the next person coming along and subdividing the previous subdivision so they too can have a home I just see hypocrisy all over the whole place and a complete lack of credibility.
If people like Neil want a rural paradise then how about a covenant on their titles such that when they sell they can only sell to a neighbour who then has to amalgamate to reduce the population and restore true ruralness…..
I agree about your point with smaller farms being “more productive” – witness highly populated parts of the world.
Imo the wakatipu basin should give up on trying to remain like some sort of 1970’s golden poplar-treed sheep-clad paradise and embrace that euro mountain valley higher populated type enclave that works so well over there. There is enough land to house a massive population. I mean, that is the way it is heading. People would love it (except the elite 10 acre block owners and there are f-all of them, and they are just being selfish). People would embrace it. It would become more diverse, more vibrant, more cosmopolitan, more touristy. Imagine it. There are plenty of other rural paradises all around NZ if thats what people want.
If wakatipu people want empty rural then they should go live south of Kinsgton. Go on sam neill, go live south of Kingston if that’s what you want. What do you think weka – would the likes of Neill and Hamilton live there? Still plenty big mountains and scenes, maybe just no “mountain scene”, which seems to be their scene ….. hence cosmpolitanise it all even more ….
(now I’m running late)
for later vto 🙂
“But when someone comes along and subdivides a property so they can have a home for themselves, and then objects to the next person coming along and subdividing the previous subdivision so they too can have a home I just see hypocrisy all over the whole place and a complete lack of credibility.”
By that argument we should build as many houses as we want wherever we want and as high and dense as we want. Not only do most people not agree with that, but we have specific laws in place to prevent that happening.
“If people like Neil want a rural paradise then how about a covenant on their titles such that when they sell they can only sell to a neighbour who then has to amalgamate to reduce the population and restore true ruralness…..”
I’m not sure what the solution is, but I suspect in a sane world it would be a combination of nationally set guidelines and then local communities working democratically to decide how best land should be managed.
“Imo the wakatipu basin should give up on trying to remain like some sort of 1970′s golden poplar-treed sheep-clad paradise and embrace that euro mountain valley higher populated type enclave that works so well over there.”
Except it’s a fragile landscape. A big earthquake will be catastrophic for Queenstown. It’s not a good place for high density population.
“(except the elite 10 acre block owners and there are f-all of them, and they are just being selfish).”
Sorry, but you sound very bitter there, not to mention prejudiced. It’s true that lifestyle blocks have changed many places, for good and bad. But I don’t see the owners as being any more selfish than any other land owner generally.
“There are plenty of other rural paradises all around NZ if thats what people want.”
Not for very much longer, and not if your arguments were followed.
“If wakatipu people want empty rural then they should go live south of Kinsgton. Go on sam neill, go live south of Kingston if that’s what you want.”
I don’t imagine Neil would have a problem living there if he had to. It’s a beautiful landscape for sure. But I suspect that not all Kingston and surrounding people would be that happy with the descending hoards. Not sure if you are aware, but Queenstown workers already live in Kingston and commute because there is not enough accommodation in Queenstown (affordable accommodation I mean, there are obviously enough houses there). By your argument we should just fill the whole country with suburbs. What happens when Kingston is full? I guess we could just keep build suburbs all the way to Bluff. See where I am going with this?
Besides how are people going to afford the commute when petrol is $5/L?
There are only so many people that any given landbase can support. While I agree people like Neil have something to answer for in terms of wealth and land values, I think he did NZ a service. Basically he spoke of the value of open, natural, under-developped places. We need those. I like being able to go to a river or beach and find no-one else there at times. That’s not selfishness, it’s gratitude towards nature.
Hi weka, I appreciate all the points you have made there. Sure, controls are necessary for those reasons you mention and I agree with them to maintain certain intrinsic values around certain environments and stop them being overrun by masses of people and our wrecking ball ways.
The argument around never-ending subdivision is not something I follow and the argument was only made to highlight the hypocrisy of others in wanting to pull the drawbridge up to stop others doing what those who are already there have done themselves. This occurs in spades in this locality.
As for what “spoils” the environment more – lifestyle blocks or subdivisions….. the wakatipu basin (not the mountains which are not lived on anyway) is already completely modified from its natural state. All natural vegetation has been stripped in the areas where housing and lifestyle blocks are. So to put in a pink house and a golf course, or a vineyard and a schist house, to house one family is no better (and in fact worse given the low benefit for similar cost) than putting in 50 houses to house 50 families. Strip all natural features on, say, 20 hectares and house either 1 family or 50 families… see the cost-benefit ratio?
As for whether the basin is a fragile environment, I’m not sure in what sense you mean. It is no more fragile ecologically than pretty much the rest of the South Island mountain locales. And if it is considered that it is ecologically fragile then it must be seen in the context of this being the only such fragile locale in NZ to be used in this way. Then consider, re earthquakes, Wellington, Taupo area, Auckland (Rangitoto went up just a couple hundred years ago remember). I don’t know if your point here holds.
As for me sounding bitter – sorry, sometimes it seems my manner of expression comes out more harshly than intended. But, when it comes to the demands of 10 acre block holders in Wakatipu, yes, there is some displeasure at their manner, demands, and attempts to push away the “trash”, as John Hamilton has so eloquently puts it.
And when you say this re Sam Neill … “Basically he spoke of the value of open, natural, under-developped places” you kind of nail the sticking point. He didn’t do that. All he did was do that in relation to his own pulled-up-drawbridge part of NZ. And further, that pulled-up-drawbridge part of NZ (the wakatipu basin living areas low down) is far from a natural, undeveloped place. It is completely and utterly modified. He spoke in those terms but he was not correct and it was all on the basis of self-interest imo.
You see these types of nimbys all over NZ – they get their piece of paradise and modify the environment all to hell, then pull out these arguments (which are falsely based) to preserve their piece just for themselves and in order to keep out the trash. This is exactly what the turd Hamilton is stating, just in more stark terms than Neill.
I must reiterate my personal view above re the best thing for Wakatipu into the future – that of a densely populated mountain community (there is no other in NZ) that throbs and pulses with a cosmopolitality that is not even matched by NZ’s big cities. It would be spectacular – picture it – snow-clad mountains lit up by moonlight and the sparkling lights of people-bustle in the low areas. It would go crazy. And the effect on the environment would be nil because the envornment has already been dealt a death blow by its development to date.
Oh, and go Kingston!
one more bit … “value of open, natural, under-developped places. We need those. I like being able to go to a river or beach and find no-one else there at times. That’s not selfishness, it’s gratitude towards nature.”
I agree 1000%. Best jam us humans up closer and leave more of those open spaces. Wakatipu is the mountain location for just that in NZ. Jam everyone in there (which is where they want to be too) and leave all other mountain locations empty and natural.
servants’ quarters
yep.
Why isn’t the local MP, National’s Dennis Plant, speaking out about this?
lol
too busy with the monorail project
“Arrowtown has a very low crime rate because poor people can’t afford to live here.”
We have returned to the day’s of Dickens, when in Britain there was only two classes in society. The upper class and the criminal class
Uhhhh…no you got it the other way around. The basis of the upper class is the kleptocratic class.
“Eva Baloga said: “There are plenty of affordable homes in Timaru. No need to live in Arrowtown.”
There is a poll here where only about 28% of respondents agree with their point of view.
Now here’s a classic case of ‘foriegn ownership of a power company. In debt up to it’s eyeballs, all profits going to service debt to foreign bankers and hedge funds.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8822635/30m-loss-as-Powerco-hit-by-debts
So is this what will happen to all of our power companies when they have been stolen and sold off
All’s going to plan.
April 1993: New Plymouth Energy (the electricity division of the New Plymouth District Council) merges with Taranaki Electricity (former Taranaki Electric Power Board) to become Taranaki Energy Limited
November 2004: It is now moving to compulsorily acquire the remaining shares and remove Powerco from the New Zealand stock exchange.
I think something that would boost labours chances of winning would be to appropriate Manas policy on no deposit, low interest rate home loans for Maori, its a vote winner 🙂
The u-turn on that this morning must have given someone whiplash
OK – I am curious – I have strong views about this (very much against), but genuinly am interested in what “lefties” think of the race based housing policy from Mana.
“Maori first-home buyers would be able to buy homes with no deposit, at the same interest rates that Government pays and with negotiable mortgage terms.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10891862
Follow up question – do you think Labour should support this?
James in the same speech this was the last couple of sentences
http://mana.net.nz/2013/06/mana-housing-policy-announcement-for-maori-te-hamua-nikora-ikaroa-rawhiti-mana-candidate/
Only 45% of Māori own their own homes compared to 70% for pākehā and that inequity must be addressed imo.
Can they not afford homes because they are maori, or because they are poor?
It is, however, absurd to put into law that the houses can only be on-sold to other Maori. And I am flabbergasted why race is being prioritised over need. That’s not redress, that’s blatant divisiveness. And why can’t the iwi take the initiative? Kai Tahu are already doing that with their own money.
So you would be supportive of govt funding direct to iwi. Sounds a good plan to me.
And who would fund the government, so it could fund the iwi?
Surely you know how the NZ govt is funded Gormless.
The Government has already funded it – the treaty settlements. I have no problem with Maori only development provided iwi use their own money – perhaps with a Government top up
Treaty Settlements were reparation for past theft and injustices, not to make up for failings in current social policy. Did you see marty’s quote about the different rates of home ownership between Maori and non-Maori? Why do you think that is?
“And I am flabbergasted why race is being prioritised over need”
That’s probably because you don’t understand the need and are confusing it with race. If Maori are disadvantaged in home buying compared to the rest of the population, then why not assist them?
You also don’t seem to understand ethnicity. If you target services at Maori and do this in a Maori way, it’s more successful ie it’s a better use of the money. That’s why ‘race’ based funding is important. It’s not because Maori are more special than everyone else.
(and you can argue it the other way – that services delivered the Pakeha way are race based ones that serve Pakeha, but not non-Pakeha).
“I have no problem with Maori only development provided iwi use their own money – perhaps with a Government top up”
Had Iwi been given fair settlements I might agree. But have you looked at the rather small amounts that many settlements entailed compared to the value of the lost assets and resources from since the Treaty was signed? One of the core points about the Treaty and everything that surrounds that is that Maori were severely undermined in the 1800s, in myriad ways, and until they are able to recover from that we cannot consider this a level playing field.
Labour should not only support it they should make it one of their election pledges 🙂
The dompost is getting better at being balanced lately, its normally quite left-leaning but now its starting to report fairly and without bias…bad news for the left though
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/8821564/Editorial-No-return-to-fortress-NZ
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/8816279/Editorial-Teachers-in-way-of-standards
thats a good one WS – one of your better jokes
seriously though – i dont think you would know “reporting fairly and without bias” if it came up, kicked you in the nuts and left a business card with a hand written note for a follow up meeting
the media arent really left or right leaning – they are lazy oppourtunists chasing sensationalism
editorials are of course different to news stories and regularly come out with a much more rightwards view (in terms of what could normally be considered a left or right viewpoint – not how you or i call it)
your really just showing up the shallowness of both your knowledge and opinion, of how the MSM operates in our contemporary, media saturated world
None of that is even close to balanced – it’s pure National Party propaganda.
As for National Standards?
Research debunks internal assesment criticism
If you want to destroy education (and thus the children) in NZ then keep them. Otherwise, get a clue and start listening to the teachers.
Boadicea’s analysis of McFlock
I found this exchange last night fascinating.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20062013/#comment-651607
Based entirely on the fact that when someone said the polls were making them seasick, I referred to gentle swells and suggested they watch the tides (i.e. trends rather than bi-weekly angst/elation sessions).
whatever. I know who I work for and who I am, so if you want to start seeing Robertson’s strategists in every shadow, feel free. It is unlikely to change my opinion of your grip on reality.
Gentle swells are Ok, McFlock- if you’re into fashion, and well-mannered foppery. It’s us northerly Gaels you have to watch out for- we can kick up a storm- though it can be a trifle breezy around the southern parts. Macs Go Bragh!
OOOh! I thought I would check how MRP shares were doing.
They started the day at $2.26 and are now down at $2.22.
Volume of trades have also dropped off noticeably over the last week or so.
Great chance for the big hedge funds to acquire a few more parcels of shares on the quiet.
I just saw this Vv. I wonder how the newbie shareholders are feeling about things now?
I watched MRP shares avidly for the first few weeks – not because I have any as I would not have bought on principle. Wish now that I had documented their “progress”, but in the first few weeks, there was massive trading with MRP shares the biggest trades on some days in terms of volume and, on one or two occasions, value. The average of those trades (Volume of shares divided by number of trades) was very, very high – ie, many thousands. . MRP directors were also able to buy up until 31 May, and they did – disclosure notices are on the NZX site.
By contrast, recently numbers of trades, volumes and averages have dropped back markedly.
For example, today so far (as of a few minutes ago), trades have only totalled 124 covering a volume of 421,863 shares, giving an average of 3402 shares per trade (price now $2.23).
I am no expert in the share market, but possibly this indicates that current buyers/sellers are smaller/newbie traders and the biggies are sitting it out at present. Happy to admit my assumptions are wrong if more experienced people can provide a more expert explanation.
Great looking chart here for you VV
http://nz.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=MRP.NZ&t=3m&l=on&z=l&q=l&c=
Thanks CV. And I now note that MRP shares closed today at $2.20. Which was my (totally uneducated) prediction/hope for the end of the week. And for this time next week – how about $2.15?
While I last heard a couple of weeks ago that things were underway – ie thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ dollars were being paid out to consultants et – to prepare Meridian for sale in Oct, it seems to have gone very quiet….except for Tiwai Point revaluing themselves at basically zero.
After recent events, I presume National has gone on the war path to re-establish internal communications discipline. Making an example out of Dunne will be part of that.
Well I’m in it for the lomg haul so share price fluctuations dont really bother me…
The NZ govt will reacquire your shares at the right time.
That’s what it comes down to Hami Shearlie. And it’s not as though you’d be losing anyone promisingly Left at all.
Hope it’s not being rude or churlish, certainly not intended, but on television the guy always looks like he needs a shave. Puts me in mind of the final (?) Kennedy/Nixon presidential debate in 1960. It’s still widely expressed that Nixon’s five o’clock shadow look cost him enough to lose by what was a small margin apparently.
Anyway…….back to our sad reality. I doubt anyone can say hand on heart that Shonkey Python would NOT have been on the ropes for months and months now if Cunliffe had been at the helm.
Even if gratuitously The Left could have done with that……..couldn’t we ?
There’s a large pool of voters too disillusioned to vote. If they see a genuine alternative in the Green Party, they might start. I remain fairly sure that National will win the next election and the Greens will be the largest party at the one after that.
Typical of this National Party, hopeless….Meridian float is all over, it wont happen I reckon, who would want to buy it.
The only thing that this National Party gets right is its Crosby Textor inspired media strategy, disguising one of the most incompetent governments NZ has had since the 90’s.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10891965
Yes…its performance pay but the unions are too greedy to see it.
god – you make it so easy
“an allowance to reward experienced teaching staff to the Education Ministry in its pay negotiation round, asking for as many allowances as possible.”
“I think it could look like performance pay if you don’t take into consideration the development behind it and its intent.”
“A staff member at NZEI said its members would not see it as performance pay because teachers’ achievement wouldn’t be based on raw National Standards data.”
its the REPORTER making the logic jump to it being performance pay, its actually experience pay – theres a difference
also – you do realise that teachers already have performance based pay? It happens just the same way as any other employee. The employer evaluates their performance and rewards them accordingly.
What you’re cheering on is politicised pay and mob rule – if thats want you want, go nuts. No ones going to stop you – but at least understand what your arguing for
Its the first step towards performance pay or performance by stealth whatever way you want to look at it.
Obviously saying its performance pay straight out is going to cause a ruckus so you call it something else and everyones happy.
Unions and their leaders arn’t that hard to deal with because the leaders are generally quite greedy and lazy
Yeah, like you’ve ever dealt with any. Your ignorance about union matters is one of your most endearing traits, WS. It’s like you’ve forgotten more than you ever knew.
Shucks you’ve got me blushing (which is making my co-workers give me some odd looks…)
Well then you’re a blushing fool……
The only reason this fool “Winston Smith” gets odd looks at work is no doubt because he says things as stupid and ignorant as he writes them.
I pity his poor co-workers.
No it’s not. It’s career enhancement which probably has something to do with hierarchies, i/e, there just isn’t that many places at the top.
You didn’t actually read past the first paragraph did you? You just read the bit about performance pay and left it at that – believing the misreporting.
James Gandolfini (aka “Tony Soprano”) died aged 51.
Damn shame, he had many of his best roles in front of him.
yep. Very sad.
Fat Tony’s one of my nicknames at footy. I kid myself it refers to Tony Soprano, (but really its the Simmos character). Gandolfini was also great as the hitman in True Romance, the best movie Tarantino never made.
True Romance. I love that movie. Hopper ft Walken alone worth the admission price.
“Fat Tony’s one of my nicknames at footy.” – dear god thats just ruined that favourite TV series for me. You sure it isnt fat fuk by any chance?
Kia Ora for that display Rob.
Cheers, North, didn’t spot Rob’s effort till now. Mindless bigotry comes in many forms, eh.
Bugger.
No, not “bugger”. Fuck. Phuque. Fuketty fuck fuck and feck. And bottoms.
Every account of him says that he was a wonderful guy – kind, generous, gentle. He once said that at home he was “a three hundred pound Woody Allen”. A lot of actors who play villains often are, and show skill at comedy (I’m thinking of Charles Dance, who always seems to play cold-hearted aristocrats and is incredibly warm and funny in interviews). You should see him in In the Loop
Man…….you cuss brilliantly there Rhino !
Where’d you learn that fine shit ?
Well Poos Bums Wees and Potties – he do too!
Ah, no wait – they’re the Labour Party people that need to get gone
Yeah, excellent in In The Loop. Favourite line is the one at the end of this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ijfrzTnydfU#t=89s
Fuck now I’m going to have to watch the whole film. Actually fuck that. I’m going to have to watch all four seasons and then the film.
Still more good news for National, must suck being a leftie and having to be on the back foot all the time
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/8825983/Consumer-confidence-holding-up
Stop being impatient and give Shearer 6 more months to gain traction please.
Is there a subtle message in there..?
the silent majority being silent again.
the silent stay at home majority.
All eight hundred thousand of them. Gathering recruits all the time…
Don’t worry, I won’t be painting my roof (I’m not a homeowner after all). I’ll vote.
Mr ‘crates 🙂
Are you Starbuck or Hot Dog?
Give em a chance at online voting. They can get it wrong from the comfort of their own homes.
My views on that are fairly clear. Apart from the systematic fraud and security issues, if someone can’t be bothered to put aside 45 minutes on a Saturday every 3 years to go vote, they can frak off.
Fair enough. They can still get it wrong from the comfort of their own homes by not voting. It worked pretty well last time. (Only pulling ya leg – anyone who wants to vote under the current system and is housebound can do it, I know.)
🙂
Yeah, six months, then three, then 6 weeks, then 3 weeks, then 10 days, then a week, then a day, then an hour, then a minute, then a second, then a millisecond – don’t worry, he still has a microsecond to – God help us – “scrape by”!
Never underestimate the power of denial – or entitlement.
Here’s a funny thing. I just heard Na Raihania on the radio saying the reason to vote for him is that he’ll be “at the table” straight away, whereas none of the others can be “at the table” until National get the boot.
Same waffle that that old fool Pita Sharples comes out with every time he’s asked why anyone should pretend the maori Party are a serious political movement.
Couple of things about that. First, it’s a lie. The maori Party do not sit “at the table”.
John Key and National’s deal with the maori Party specifically excludes them from the cabinet table. The only table they’re allowed to sit at with Key is at the Green Parrot, and the chances of him remembering anything said there are slim to none.
So apart from being a tired old line, it’s also not even based on a fact. It’s the opposite of a fact. It’s a lie.
The second thing is that even if it were true that the maori Party sit “at the table”, which it isn’t, they already have their two token Ministers (outside Cabinet). Does Na Raihania think he’s going to be a Minister if he wins the seat? Pfffffft whatever.
Third thing is that Key doesn’t even know his name. And when asked why he endorsed a candidate who he couldn’t name, he said ‘cos I’ve heard good things about him’. Which means he knows so little about the guy that he can’t even make something up, and for a serial liar like Key that’s quite a fucking place to be.
So I hope people voting in the by election understand that that’s how much influence he really has. He’s never going to be allowed to sit at the table with the PM who wouldn’t recognise him anyway.
LOL – I also heard Na on RNZ National and thought (well perhaps it is better that I don’t say what). Not a good look, and dreaming me thinks.
The only table they’re allowed to sit at with Key is at the Green Parrot, and the chances of him remembering anything said there are slim to none.
LOL. That is the Quip of the Week.
+1 – genius, Felix.
Ah…..The Green Parrot. Or “The ‘Arrot” as a mate of mine called it……….on account of the P on Parrot in the neon sign not glowing for ages, years. Fun days. Mid-to-late 70s Wellington.
When the Pig was in charge.
When Rob Campbell, serial corporate director including of late POA, was photographed in PYM regalia holding a bloody firearm.
Damn……..I’m having this bizo going on in my head……..”At least The Pig was emotionally centred in New Zealand……..”
This is for friend Morrissey:
Imagine if it wasn’t “Afternoons with Mora” but instead it was “Afternoons with Graham Norton” (which is my viewing right now on 3).
Sorry there Mensa Mora (Affable Cock), but Graham Norton muchmuchmuchmuchmuch cleverer than you, bro’. In all the ways that matter. Yeah……fair enough it’s a completely different genre but still……
I’ll never forget the anagram of “Tory Cunts”. And the Graham Norton delivery. In fact I do forget the anagram itself but since the root was his whole point, that’s what I remembered.
Clever and funny as hell ! Is there a link anywhere for that ?
Akshilly………..in recent times I’ve heard MM on one or two occasions give comment on “issues” in a way that acknowledges the real life depth and scope of the “issue”. Like maybe his immensity has finally cottoned on to a human vibe which involves at least trying to imagine walking someone elses’ mocassins.
As opposed to the irritating Gushing Hurrah Henry-Ness of the man and the vanity of his slip into foreign European language to make a point in English. Hhmm……….no facility I note in Polynesian or Maori language.
In fact I emailed him once to say, lightly of course, “Dear Jime-Mow-Ray…….listen chap, its not Hon-A Harawira, its Haw-Neh…….
Didn’t even get a response. Was expecting some sparkling eurocentric wit. Not a giggle and no improvement either.
Didn’t even get a response. Was expecting some sparkling eurocentric wit. Not a giggle and no improvement either.
You should have included a racist rant and signed it “Michael Bassett.” He would have read it then.
Bassett ? Bassett ??
Years ago worked in Mt Albert. Near to, I think it was Kelly’s Caltex, in the dip at the bend 300 metres east of Mt Albert lights on New North Road. Closed now.
Well, I pull in there to get some gas and who should be fluffing around putting gas in his pretty tawdry BMW, squinting embarrassingly through his spectacles, but Michael (What a Baaaad Speech) Bassett.
Honestly, it ran through my head to march up to him and denounce him as a simpering fucking scab.
Didn’t.
Doesn’t change the fact. Him and all the others. They did a bigger con-job than Crosby Textor could dream about. Paradoxically, riding the “Labour Bus” all the way to the scab launching pad.
While also using and abusing the fineness which resided in David Lange.
I was walking my dog once when we came across Roger Douglas and some rich pricks in a sidewalk restaurant on Jervois Rd. I loudly informed the dog that if she knew what an asshole he was, she’d bite him. A few people laughed, probably at me rather than with me, but that’s life.
I remember that petrol station North. Disappeared years ago. Just up the road (back towards the traffic lights) there was a small community hall – now the community constable’s office – where we held our monthly electorate meetings. Those were the days when we used to have as many as 25 to 30 people attend our ordinary business meetings. When Helen Clark became our candidate (1980) I recall her arriving on the noisiest motorscooter that I’ve ever encountered. We could hear her coming 1/2 a kilometre away – slight exaggeration. Fortunately she exchanged it for a car soon afterwards.
I never found out what exactly happened, but she had an almighty row with Michael Bassett and anyone who dared mention his name during the campaign period that followed invariably ended up with a flea in their ear. Those were the days when Helen was still able to be her natural self.
I miss her. I miss her stewardship of the country.
Btw, did you know that Bassett and Lange were related. Second cousins I think it was.