I am increasingly thinking that cities like Auckland are on the wrong track in moving towards a more centralised organisation. I want to link together comments from a couple of threads yesterday.
On the lost in suburbia thread, a couple of us argued for decentralisation:
I commented on the way the shift to Auckland supercity has meant more people traveling across and into Auckland, and more cultural establishments/buildings etc being situated in the centre of Auckland:
Penny Bright, on open mike last night, provides evidence of a conflict of interest involved in the buying of the ASB building by the Auckland Council, in order to make it a bigger HQ for the council:
It seems Peter George Wall is both one of 2 directors of the business, Brookfield Multiplex, that currently owns the building. He is also on the executive team of Auckland Council Property Ltd.
All this Auckland Council centralisation seems to be in the interests of the cultural and business elite in central Auckland. This is what those of us in west and South Auckland didn’t want when we voted Brown for mayor, rather than Banks. But it seems the crony capitalists of central Auckland are still getting their way, while a large proportion of the less wealthy and powerful languish in the suburbs.
I should temper this argument with acknowledgement that some local boards have significant plans to upgrade their areas as important living and working hubs (e.g. in New Lynn and Massey), but those boards have been created to have less power than the top of the Auckland Council pyramid.
It is the most spectacular legislated monopoly, and those characteristics get really evident within the CCOs.
In terms of supporting elites, my principle concern is that there is a helluvalot being spent on transport capex, but very little on social housing, directed toward softening the massive housing crisis.
Are there any structural changes proposed for this CCO setup from either the Greens or Labour?
Pretty unfortunate the way Brownlee squashed the Mayor’s ideas for alternative funding. The alternative funding package is the gap between business as usual and the Auckland Plan targets i.e. no alternative funding, probably no rail tunnel, probably no Avondale-Southdown line, probably no Harbour tunnel, etc etc. AucklandTransportBlog have been the best at holding Tranport CCO to account.
Could probably do with a property-focussed blog to scrutinize as well.
Here’s the problem for Len. He won. National had Rodney Hide ram through the Super City annexation through Parliament under urgency for one purpose and one purpose only, to ease and speed the sale of Auckland’s Assets.
The ridiculously named ‘Council Controlled Organizations’ were stacked with right wing appointees to quietly work on ‘asset rationalization’ far from public and SuperCity Council scrutiny.
[..]
Len is very good at bringing people to the table, but this is a fight, not a meeting of minds. Len has got to stop being the weak nice guy and actually throw some punches at the Government or else come election time he’ll be perceived to have stood for nothing more than siding with the Ports over their disgusting bullyboy tactics against the union.
Auckland is an isthmus. Cities like London grew out of villages that then grew and connected up, making rail much more efficient since they just place the stations under.
Auckland is an isthmus. Long ago Auckland should have been creating a line of town centers leading south, and have by now connected them with stations in the town centers, not a km off to the side.
NZ will be forever be shackled in its growth due to the Aucklands nature limitations.
Pro-democracy Labour Branches, LECs and Sector groups must have their Amendments to the NZ Councils proposed rules lodged by the end of August. They need to watch the four month rule.
Read the full Constitution carefully and look at where the rule changes remove or shrink many components of democracy. There is some erroneous guidance in emails from the Gen Sec as to what the NZ Council and the Conference can and cannot decide. Get stuck onto the nuts and bolts of how our party works. Much of the findings of the advisory group that visited all the regions (Rick Barker et al) has had the eyes picked out of it. The time has come for those who see the big picture to roll up their sleeves and to get stuck in. Otherwise the democracy of the Labour Party will be pulled from under your feet. BE ALERT.
It’s interesting isn’t it. We all have our barrows to push. Living where I do, I cannot understand why the park and ride at Silverdale was stopped, and Penlink put on the back burner.
Looking at the broader picture, the secrecy that can veil the CCOs is a real worry. In most jobs transparency is crucial, why is politics the exception?
Silverdale Park and Ride is waiting for the private developer to get their shit together.
Penlink just didn’t have the benefits to go in front of things like AMETI or Tiverton-Wolverton or such. It’s still in the RLTP, just a few years back.
Interestingly, upon CNN this am, discussion of wealthy Americans fleeing (my choice of action word) North America.
Fleeing to settle some place else. possibly the new frontier of the antipodean “wild, wild, west”
Well, theres a “new sherriff in town” and “this town aint big enough for the both of US”
(long memories and short, slow, boat to China)
But they sure do have some big guns on those battle-ships, settling further across the Pacific.
What happened to the investigation into The Living Wage? All gone quiet on that front. The more I read about the struggle to put food on the table and a roof over heads, the living wage seems a better and better idea.
Its okay to discriminate, as long as you don’t tell anyone why you are, and its not obvious.
You are bleeding kidding me, NZ is not about fairness, fairness only happens when the
politicians fear upsetting you. And that means only the rich at the moment gets them stressed.
You much remember that hopelessly stupid statement must be ridiculed if they come from
a poor person, but if Glen says wifes turn to seeking status, you cannot point out that his whole
purpose in working is to create status for himself. As we know, work is essential part of
a person identity, that’s the whole basis for the work testing, that the state has the right
to tell poor people to get work since work is good for them. Living wage, not going to happen
until we have mass movements that government shits itself rather than awaken from their apathy.
The title of this website: https://www.myopinioncounts.co.nz/home.php
purports to encourage people to express opinions, but it is possible that by signing in all that would happen would be to add to the number of people they would claim support smoking. Has anyone signed in and fund out whether it is possible to then express an opinion? Or see the opinions of others? Are any of those opinions against the Philip Morris views, or does my opinion not count?
It also enables the company to get hold of addresses so they can send out ‘newsletters’ – branded and colour-coded. Stealth marketing at it’s most cynical, I reckon.
The “information we share” section in the privacy policy gives a pretty open indication that their ‘affiliates’ will contact the subscriber.
Will those ‘newsletters’ breach any law, in fact it’s a perfectly legal product, tobacco that is, so what actual right have you or anyone else got to interfere in my or anyone else’s legal use of a legal product…
Kronic BS no body has died from that rubbish yet so it should be legalized according to your analogy.
If tobacco was a new product to the market it would immediately be made illegal and those pushing it would be locked up for a very long time.
All other illegal drugs used in NZ since have caused less than deaths in a 100 years less than 500 than tobacco does in one year. That’s less than 0.1%yet the laws against these illegal drugs are draconian by comparison.
Laugh, Yes if i read all the comments in the debate on ‘tobacco’ in today’s Open Mike it appears that there are more than a few that know what’s best for me,
So much so that when i ask a logical question like, IF as the produced stats say, tobacco use has declined by 6% since 1999, where in the health stats is the equivalent decline in the deaths from heart disease, there is no answer,
Heart disease is a biggy for the ASH fanatics to have included in the statistics of tobacco use caused deaths and as the ASH fanatics didn’t really get called on the Bullshit of ”tobacco use MIGHT cause heart disease”, on cigarette packets that has now graduated to the even bigger Bullshit of ”tobacco use CAUSES heart disease”,
In today’s debate i have been ”playing with a straight bat”,but, can anyone imagine the ‘Bizniss’ Government of National really going after the tobacco industry???,
Hardly, National have just seized upon a perfect means of revenue raising through tobacco excise tax which directly attacks the income of those mostly on low incomes who are the majority by far of tobacco users knowing that ‘the left’ wont object because the justification for such tax is coming directly from ‘professional lefty’s in the health system’…
who are the majority by far of tobacco users knowing that âthe leftâ wont object because the justification for such tax is coming directly from âprofessional leftyâs in the health systemââŚ
Yes, I have always seen it as a class thing! The uppers drink fine wine, and the lowers smoke.
I’m not interfering in your use of the product. However I’d prefer you didn’t use it in spaces we may share. I’m interested in whether the people who profit from that product continue to market it. Surely marketing has no effect on smokers – so there is no reason for you to be concerned if that is restricted.
When the stated aim of Government is to have ‘NZ smoke-free by 2020’ then everything Government does after making such a pronouncement is an attempt to curtail the legal rights of a certain section of society,
I have the legal right to use tobacco products as does a tobacco company wishing to sell the product to me,
I agree with your right to not have me use those tobacco products in a public space that you at any time might occupy…
Yes, you have a legal right to use a product that they legally sell. My comment above is not about that – it was about whether this site will be used as a marketing tool.
And yes, it may breach the law if marketed in NZ – hence my interest in the privacy policy affiliates. Who are they? where are they based will that get around legal restrictions?
How do you feel about the tobacco companies’ right to market their product given that established smokers (like established drinkers and alcohol) say it has no impact on their use of the product? – because they are marketing, just look at the publicity since they launched the site – Who are they marketing it to? And if it is young non-smokers is that ethical, in your opinion?
Firstly, as a smoker of some 43 years i have yet to see the health profession put a time line on the ‘smoking kills’ inflamation, (as opposed to information),
Second,and i have posted this a number of times on this web-site and others, IF any Government were serious about having people QUIT smoking and NOT allowing those under 18 to use and become addicted to tobacco products that Government only need declare Tobacco to be in the same category as ‘party pills’, make it’s continuing use a matter of doctors prescription to manage those presently addicted and disallow anyone presently under the age of 18 from being able to register as an addict,
The fact is that it is YOU, the likes of ASH, and various others who do not smoke who in fact are the TOOLS being used by Government to allow my legal rights to use a legal product to be continually infringed upon,
How do i feel about tobacco company’s being able to advertize, on one level i don’t give a toss,plain packaging will only restrict smokers with a taste,habit,addiction to a particular brand, the young when they smoke, mostly unable to afford whole packet purchases, will smoke any old tobacco that is available,
Having said the above, i come full circle, as tobacco is a legal product Government does not in my opinion have the legal right to restrict the products advertising anymore than it does any other legal product available to be sold…
So after an irrelevant 3 paragraph rant (I’ve not said anything that infringes your right to smoke, except that I’d prefer you didn’t smoke in places we might share), you finally [sort of] address the questions by basically saying you couldn’t give a toss if giant corporates market their addictive product to young people. Good-oh.
Being a tool of politicians and ASH loony’s seems to have it’s health side-effects like tobacco use, seems to have made you go both blind and lose any sense of comprehension at the same time,
In spite of all the current restrictions, in spite of the rack raising of excise tax on tobacco products, in spite of the only advertizing on TV concerning tobacco products being the anti- attempt at brainwashing, the young (and by that i mean under the age of 18), continue to take up tobacco use at the same rates they did prior to the concerted efforts to stop them,
In the young,and here i address college aged kids there is now a definite ‘black-market’ in tobacco products, it is not as yet confined in a ‘young criminal element’ it is a floating market in the nature of whomever can get their hands upon the product on any given day sells to their mates at the rate of 2 bucks a ciggy,
Such a growing black-market does not differentiate over product brands and tends to suggest that those under the age of 18, supposedly those who the plain packaging is aimed at, will not be effected one iota by such plain packaging as a deterrent…
Daily smoking rates for 14â15 year olds have declined considerably since 1999. Between 1999 and 2009, the prevalence of daily smoking declined by 65 percent for boys in this age group (from 14 percent to 5 percent) and by 63 percent for girls (from 17 percent to 6 percent).
I reckon it’s worth continuing to restrict advertising to until there is a clear picture on this – because the later people start smoking, the less likely addiction is to take hold. And seeing as advertising doesn’t affect your right to smoke one iota, I can’t for the life of me see why you have a problem with this. I mean if I had my way I’d restrict all advertising – consumer culture of whatever type does nobody, nor the environment, any good.
Or, because of the demonization of ‘smoking’ the number of young people willing to admit that they use tobacco products is declining,
My view= a bit of both…
Heres another for the statistically minded, if in 20 years the use of tobacco products has fallen by 6% where in the health statistics is the corresponding fall in the New Zealand rate of those who die of Heart Disease,(the use of tobacco products supposedly now a major cause of such)…
I reckon itâs worth continuing to restrict advertising to until there is a clear picture on this â because the later people start smoking, the less likely addiction is to take hold.
Utter nonsense! I started when I was 27, having spent all of my childhood and teens very a self-righteous anti-smoking prat. I quit a few years later, then started again when I was 37!
The snobbery element is very strong. The upper class kids I meet are all ‘Oh get that cigarette away from me, you scruffy old biddy’. The lower class kids smoke. If I were in any trouble, I’d far rather ask a smoker for help – a non-smoker would want to spend hours, days or weeks telling me why whatever problem I had was my own fault for being (a) old (b) a beneficiary (c) a smoker (d) poor and/or (e) unmarried.Â
This even if all I wanted them to do was help me change a lightbulb as I’m 1.5 metres tall and the ceiling is 2.5 metres! đ
Bad12 – I’m quite happy to leave extrapolating Japanese non-smokers’ heart disease with New Zealand smokers’ heart disease to you. Similarly the effects of increasingly poor diets and increasing rates of inactivity leading to rises in heart disease compared with reduced heart disease from reduced smoking rates.
Vicky32 – yeah, I had my first cigarette when I was about 12, gave up when I was 15 because it was no good for the baby đ But I do realise that individual experiences, while important, are not necessarily significant in terms of the overall population.
Vicky32 – it would appear that you are indeed no longer “anti-smoking”, but i for one would question whether you have moved on from being “a self-righteous prat”. Maybe you could add “classist” to this self-assessment?
make itâs continuing use a matter of doctors prescription to manage those presently addicted and disallow anyone presently under the age of 18 from being able to register as an addict,
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I quite agree bad, and I’d guess that when the govt gets to the point of banning smoking that that is exactly what it will do (as opposed to just making tobacco illegal).
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I don’t really see what the problem is. If you don’t mind sales being restricted in this way, and you are happy to not smoke around other people, then what’s wrong?
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Also, you use the term legal right as if you have free access to smoking. You don’t. Tobacco is already subject to a number of laws, including around sale, who can grow it, and where it can be used. Even when I smoked 30 years ago there were laws regulating tobacco. It’s been a long time since there was any degree of freedom around tobacco.
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Do you not tho see the arse about face nature of the present situation, we have a Government saying that in an effort to FORCE me to not use a product that is legally for sale across the nation i will be forced to pay more and more for that product through the addition of excise taxes,
IF tobacco products are able to be legally sold which they are where then does any Government have the legal right to try and force me not to use the product???…
Ok, that probably got lost in the ranting đ
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Yes, the first point makes completes sense. I would be highly annoyed if my drug of choice had increasing taxes put on it. And I also agree that there are social justice issues here.
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The second point I disagree with. Tobacco already has many restrictions on its legality, and the govt definitely has the right to increase restrictions where there is a public health risk (which there patently is).
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Instead of increasing taxes they should just go straight to prescription only. And people should be allowed to grow their own. But which govt is going to do that?Â
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btw, alcohol has a massive tax on it. Are you in favour of that being taken off?
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How about petrol?
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Road user charges?
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My point being that the Government is trying to force me to STOP using a legal product,
The intention as stated by Government is ‘for a smoke-free New Zealand by such and such a date’
Therein lies the difference between taxes on other products that you list, the stated intention for those taxes is to cover the additional cost to the community of those using those products,
No,no,no,tobacco has restrictions upon where and to who it can be sold to and from, these are not restrictions on tobacco’s overall legality as a product sold…
OK, so maybe it’s more akin to not allowing people to use woodburners in Chch anymore, or bringing in legislation to reduce car emissions. From a public health perspective, it makes sense and I don’t have a problem with the govt’s intention. I do have an ethical problem with taxing the poor though.
Do you have a link to the govts plant to enforce smoke free by 2020?
No idea, but they’re using some fairly manipulative copy on that site. For instance the visual saying Outdoor Smoking Bans? (read more), then slides across to show Behind Closed Doors? (read more). My immediate thought was it would be about plans to ban people smoking at home, but it’s merely that shops will no longer be allowed to display brands to customers.
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The only thing I can see that shows what joining does is this. It doesn’t really make sense though.
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From time to time, membership of this website will help you:
Stay informed about current and pending proposals
Share your views with politicians and other key decision makers
Yes to the first 2 questions,No to the 3rd, don’t know to the 4th, and on the 5th as it’s a web-site specifically set up by a tobacco company to gauge the opinion of those who use tobacco products i would guess it’s a big YES your opinion on that particular web-site don’t count,
The fact that from the Government on down to the ‘average wowzing wanker in the street’ want to prohibit me from using what is a perfectly legal product points to a serious case of the asylum of Western democracy definitely being taken over by the loony’s,
Tobacco company’s do not need to inflate the numbers of those who ‘support smoking’, there are approximately 600,000 of us and as the site is in it’s infancy, (the ASH fanatics having had a 20 year head start), it will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes from a ‘smokers web-site’,
Should this ”smokers web-site’ be able to bring together a large proportion of those who use tobacco products their will obviously be political ramifications and i would hope at least 1 high Court case testing the Government’s legality in it’s stated attempts to stop people from using what is a perfectly legal product…
Anyone else who posts to NZ Herald online comments noticed their annoying habit of removing links and references from posts.
It gives an entirely false impression of your posts.
It makes the post look like made up unsupported opinion instead of something based on research and study.
It makes quotes in the original appear as the writers own writing.
Anyway, it misrepresents the contributors actual posting.
Maybe it is because, so called, “reporters” do not like to give references in their own articles. I suspect so that it is harder to catch them out in their lack of research, knowledge and objectivity. To often I have managed to find the research or paper the News article is based on, to find the newspaper article oversimplifies or totally misrepresents the original.
Ames takes a systematic look at the scores of rage killings in our public schools and workplaces that have taken place over the past 25 years. He claims that instead of being the work of psychopaths, they were carried out by ordinary people who had suffered repeated humiliation, bullying and inhumane conditions that find their origins in the “Reagan Revolution.” Looking through a carefully researched historical lens, Ames recasts these rage killings as failed slave rebellions.
I always read your links and I’m rarely disappointed.
Why do you think we have all of these “wage slave” and “temp slave” T-shirts and e-jokes around? Americans like to turn everything painfully true into a little quip, as if by quippifying the painful truth, as if by becoming self-aware of one’s shameful and intolerable existence, one partially nullifies one’s pain. This is what you’d call “slave humor.” Slaves did the same thing, turning their pain into quips.
Oh yes. I’ve worked in the past subcontracting into a US company working on several large projects. At first it’s like living in a 24hr sitcom. You really can’t keep up with their non-stop wisecrack, one-liners and put-downs… I recall my sides hurting from it.
Yet after a month or so it started to turn sour. While at one level they were good people and a lot of fun to be with, at another more personal, intimate level I found them very guarded and brittle. You could only get to know them so far… and that was it.
Under all the fun was a lot of hard-arsed bitterness.
And when people are put into an insane, inhuman culture and simply expected to try and cope, increases in mental illness and addictive behaviours can be fully expected.
I don’t intend to dimiss Ames’s analysis. But I think it’s only a contributory part of the problem. The increased sense of dislocation and stress etc, imposed on individuals in a neo liberal market environment doesn’t lead to random killings. It leads to psychotropic drug prescriptions. And those drugs often cause mayhem if they are stopped abruptly or not taken in a regular enough fashion.
Having put this line of argument out before, I know that some people will want to respond that the drugs are helpful and so on. But to be honest, I’ve had that discussion and don’t see much point in having it again.
Suffice to say, there is a body of thought within US psychiatric circles that claims all instances of random killings for no apparent reason (ie, killings like this Batman one) have psychotropic meds as a common underlying factor. From scanning some previous incidents, it appears to be true….at least so far and in relation to the incidents I’ve found and read press reports for. But I haven’t seen any mention of medication in this case.
So, what I would appreciate is if anyone comes across a news article that states James Holmes had recently been on psychotropic meds and had either stopped taking them or wasn’t taking them as prescribed, that they’d throw a quick link up here. Cheers.
It seems to me that Ames consistently ignores one thing most of these mass shooters have in common – that they are usually men. I can’t actually remember any such mass shooting by a woman.
Ames talks about the perps in non-gendered terms as “people”, “slaves” etc.
Why is it mainly men who respond this way? It doesn’t require a male’s superior strength to pull a trigger.
It seems to me that Ames consistently ignores one thing most of these mass shooters have in common â that they are usually men. I canât actually remember any such mass shooting by a woman
Gee sure looks like the timing will really put pressure on the Senate…I guess the next few days will tell us how much. Of course the Senate would not be swayed by the prepared MSM machine…
Correction: Women Against Rape did not criticise Julian Assangeâs legal team
On 16-17 January 2011, Women Against Rape was quoted in a number of papers as âcriticisingâ Julian Assangeâs legal team for including the names of the women making allegations against Mr Assange in their skeleton argument.
The articles gave a misleading impression of our views. We never criticised or even mentioned Mr Assangeâs legal defence in our comment to the Press Association. Following our complaint, the PA apologised for their mistake by circulating the advisory below with our full quote. Can you please publish and/or circulate this correction.
Press Association wire 19 January at 1635:
ADVISORY: In 1 POLITICS WikiLeaks (ASSANGE LEGAL TEAM UNDER FIRE AFTER ACCUSERS NAMED), sent at about 0245, on January 16, we reported that legal representatives of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had come under fire for inadvertently publicly naming two women who claim he raped them. Women Against Rape, which was quoted in the story, has asked us to make it clear that it did not criticise or even mention Mr Assangeâs legal team in their comment. The Press Association regrets that the story and its headline gave a misleading impression of the views expressed by Women Against Rape.
â¨For reference, the following is the full quote from Women Against Rape on the issue: âThe rape allegations against Julian Assange have become entangled with the politics centred on WikiLeaks. In the last few months this has led to the publication on the internet of the names of the women involved, and to a call for women who report rape to lose their anonymity. Rape victimsâ right to anonymity and defendantsâ right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, are both crucial. We oppose the use of rape for political agendas which undermine protection and justice for both rape victim and accused. We are appalled that rape allegations may be manipulated to facilitate Mr Assangeâs extradition or even rendition to the US where elected officials have called for his execution for his Wikileaks activities. Women Against Rape cannot ignore this threat. We oppose the death penalty for any crime, let alone when no charges have been brought.â¨end
Yeah, Whatever dude. Some women think it’s a CIA plot, and they’re practically lesbians what with being anti rape and all, so the criminal complaints don’t need to be investigated.
” âThe rape allegations against Julian Assange have become entangled with the politics centred on WikiLeaks.” – Yes they have, primarily by Julian Assange, who is worried about a rape conviction.
âThe rape allegations against Julian Assange have become entangled with the politics centred on WikiLeaks.â â Yes they have, primarily by Julian Assange, who is worried about a rape conviction.
You need to do some serious reading on this topic. At the moment, you are ignorant.
Well now its our turn to have EQC and insurers smack us in the head. Thought we were tootling through the queue for repairs only to get a copy of a report which is blatantly dishonest and incomplete. So much so that the main broken parts of the house were not even referenced in the report.
EQC’s approach is complete and utter bullshit. Our experience is that they are totally dishonest – for the purpose of avoiding their due liability. Which is in fact fraud – misrepresentation for the purpose of pecuniary gain.
Some words of advice: Never ever trust EQC or an insurance company. Do everything to your house to avoid ever having to make a claim.
The simple fact is that the insurance companies don’t have the money to pay out to have everything that’s covered fixed. That goes for EQC as well. There’s no way that they could have as: a) they planned around the normal earthquake risk which doesn’t include entire cities collapsing, b) they misestimated the actual costs involved for the rebuild and thus c) they then thought that they could set prices well below costs (See Fletcher’s dropping painting down from $25/m to $19/m).
C) is the direct result of capitalists thinking that workers don’t actually have costs to cover and thus can be paid as little as the capitalists want to pay
I hear that branch staff are being pressured to become sales people, being asked to literally go out door knocking to recruit new customers. If they don’t meet their targets they are being told that their jobs will be at risk.
And where is this high pressure sales drive coming from? Surprise surprise, we have a former Westpac senior banker now in charge of the former PSIS.
Alex Jones is not as enamoured by the Truth movement as you might think. He gets a certain level of respect for the years of exposing the media lies we all swallow and has tirelessy fought a good fight. He is also widely reagrded as a loud and often unstable voice with a tendancy to jump into rivers before checking their depth. His manner of attack and his willingness to throw baseless accusations into serious discussion and his ever growing ‘God is the way to truth!’ message costs him as many listeners as it wins him. There are also some great rumours that he is a deep cover co-intel operative….ooooh! For many who use InfoWars it is the excellent library of resources they offer and the very well researched articles by some of the staffers that have kept the place alive. It only took a few minutes for the first ‘it’s all a gov op’ stories to hit the wires. Then again Alex is not the only one throwing spurious accusations around on this story.
The media have as usual decided what they want you to believe. Early this a.m. NZ time, I watched a talking head breathlessly announce that an affiliate had spoken to the Mother of the shooter. It was reported at the time that the affiliate asked the woman if her son lived in Aurora Colorado? That was how it was reported. An inquiry to confirm the familial relationship. The Mother is reported to have said, “yes you have the right person”.
At the time this was reported as the mother simply confirming that her son lived in Aurora. This [most likely innocent] statement is now being reported twisted and corrupted by all networks as if the Mother was asked if she was aware that her son was the shooter and that her affirmation is stating she was aware her son was a sociopathic nutter. This thread of the story has already been so twisted and misrepresented that it has destroyed any possibility of the original broadcast ever being seen or heard of again.
PB, anyone who reads, thinks and forms opinions relying too much on any source, really is not in a good position to form opinions with any foundational basis, let alone cast them out in public.
If one is able to suspend bias and emotional attachments to reading matter, and reads enough variation over a period of time, it becomes very easy to spot BS at a distance.
The critical factor is being able to dethatch from bias, also known as pre conceived ideas, which explicitly requires the individual to know themself well.. Read from as many media sources as possible, left, right and centre from as many different angles as you can get. Speak with people you have some faith in, and check for people thoughts etc from decent blogs such as this site. Over time, if open enough, and free from bias, the words really will just reek of shit when you read them, or hear them,, its called using your intuition, which humans have had dulled/removed over the past decades, where they mostly believe what they are told, and that’s enough for them!
For mine, I am calling BS on this shooting spree, massive false flag, just like Norway, with too much else going on around the second amendment for years. See fast and furious, Eric Holder if you don’t know what I am talking about. This is all about attempting to disarm the American people, using the worst type of scare tactics you could imagine, and then bestowing to the UN even more sovereignty as the empowered authority in the global structure, once the treaty I linked to previously is signed!
Whatever the solution wanted by those in control actually is, could be varied from my thoughts around this event, but I still call false flag.
We have seen the “problem”, we are getting, and will get the “reaction” over the near term, as shaped by the MSM, which will lead to the “solution” being provided. Its really only once the solution is being offered forward that the agenda become clearer, but there is more than enough history around the second amendment to see where this event fits in.
Its tragic to see yet more innocent people used to create a desired outcome, but its standard MO, so its not in any way a surprise. The new “enemy” is being clearly defined, and was called some time back, its gone from “brown faces abroad” (even though they are still getting fucked), to “white faces” at home.
Just follow along the media narrative, as that will tell you much of the underlying intentions.
At the end of the day, we all get the society, and the puppet masters which we allow to create our environment for us, that society as a whole deserves!
Doesn’t look like the west deserves too much these days!
“Quite clearly analysing events without resorting to any pre-concieved ideas about whatâs going on there muzza. Yep.”
–Not at all, I read the early headlines, and some articles from this “shooting spree”, and drew my own conclusion, that it stinks.
Other statements above are my own conjecture on where this could tie in elsewhere, because little happens in silo. That does not mean one can’t evaluate something in silo, or not and still keep bias out. Just means you have to be prepared to factor various possibilities in as well.
“The new âenemyâ is being clearly defined, and was called some time back, its gone from âbrown faces abroadâ (even though they are still getting fucked), to âwhite facesâ at home.”
Yeah, they are clearly being oppressed. Here’s a list of them that have been disappeared by ZOG on obvioulsy trumped up charges following one of them there judicial activism rulings taking away their shootin irons. They’re probably all in FEMA camps.
SPLC, sponsored by “Hatewatch”…either way it illustrates nicely how the charade works in “media”.
Whatever this event, does or does not equal, is always going to be drowned in information of all, and every type imaginable, which of course is designed for no other reason than to misinform, and confuse.
Getting to opinion state is a matter of individual preferences, and a myriad of other factors, assuming people are putting a degree of effort into forming them!
And like I said, when the argument is made that guns protect your freedoms and liberties, ask why one or two incidents of voter fraud can be used to justify taking away the freedom and liberty to vote, yet graveyards full of dead fathers, mothers, sons and daughters are not justification to take away the liberty of gun nuts to stockpile weapons of mass murder and why Joe The Plumber gets to own a rack of bigger better guns than Paul The Policeman sent to stop him shooting his neighbours.
“sighâŚone a damning indictment and the other crackpot cynicism and dishonesty, Iâd certainly hope not muzza.”
–Thats a big sigh jo too much net time eh…. For mine an “unwell man” could be used as a false flag, quite easily in fact!
While not a big gun person myself, I will say that guns are not the problem. Simplistically its as bad as the article saying the Brits are capable of “adult conversation”, I almost snorted when I read that nonsense!
Lets just make sure that the “authorities and other assorted crooked officialdom” are the only tooled up people, I reckon society will be just peachy if that is achieved. / Gee, can you tell me another story papa!
Why do the Nats project so much of their own failings on to the opposition?
Paula Bennett – “social obligations”…. on parents on DBP? What about social obligations of the government to enable jobs that pay a living wage? To provide a livable society and environment?
Bill English – “planet Labour”…. as though NAct aren’t in their own neoliberal parallel universe that denies the reality of peak everything?
Steven Joyce – on Labour’s “fairytales” – and Joyce’s own little crony capitalist “reality” that denies the reality of the large numbers of people with low incomes and little power? And who believes in RONs as the road to prosperity?
Bill English 2008: “”No country can afford ongoing migration losses of this size relative to its total workforce. The problems are showing up most visibly in the professional workforce”.
Bill English 2012 : “What’s the point of standing in the airport crying about it?”
“In the immediate future, National’s infrastructure plan will create jobs and growth opportunities for businesses, while, in the medium-term, providing the conditions and assets needed to put our economy on to a strong growth path.
Away from the welfare changes, the economy dominated the day, with Finance Minister Bill English explaining the current economic downturn could last “a generation”.
âThe global economy is the dark cloud on the horizon and it’s not going away for a generation, certainly 15 or 20 years anyway,â says Mr English.
âWe’ve certainly had huge change,â says John Key. âIt will take some time to bounce back.â
If the 49% that the government plans to sell in MRP, GEN, MERI, end up in the hands of the community trusts that own the local network companies.
Then the companies can be run in the *genuine* interest of power consumbers, not private shareholders.
Solid Energy is one of the biggest employers on the West Coast. Imagine if the holding companies of Westland and Buller councils each purchased shareholdings?
The governments plan to dilute public ownership would be well and truly sunk.
Maybe you could add âclassistâ to this self-assessment?
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Locus, could you please explain what it is you mean by the above remark? Oh, by the whole posting? I am not a self-righteous prat, because I am not the one telling other people where they fail my high standards, and where they fall down…
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Governmentâs official website – arrived in Point of Orderâs email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive  Melissa Lee â as may be discerned from the screenshot above â has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Governmentâs 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: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes –Â 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 ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu â 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 ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
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 ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the governmentâs readiness to make urgent changes to âthe resource management systemâ through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes donât go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a âmedia summitâ to discuss âthe state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalismâ. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes –Â This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
 Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for âfast trackâ consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
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 â currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes-Â The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you arenât wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said âSince we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
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Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
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Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
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Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
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Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
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Two-thirds of the country think that âNew Zealandâs economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerfulâ. They also believe that âNew Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerfulâ. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
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âYou talking about me?âThe neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hallâs âGlide Timeâ caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Our two-tiered system for veteransâ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veteransâ affairs spokesperson Greg OâConnor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxonâs management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last yearâs severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labourâs environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our countryâs most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Governmentâs Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a âget out of jail freeâ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealandâs good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National governmentâs lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for TÄmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Governmentâs democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Governmentâs proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change thatâs great for the planet and great for consumers after her memberâs bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the countryâs books after Teanau Tuionoâs membersâ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his memberâs bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Todayâs advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Governmentâs newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealandâs urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Â Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. âOur Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealandâs hydrogen future, with the opening of the countryâs first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. âI 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 Zealandâs own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealandâs 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. âThe report shows that New Zealandâs emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,â Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where heâll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Governmentâs work to restore law and order. âAttending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealandâs human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the worldâs largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. âThe reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealandâs 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  NgÄ 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. âOur 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 Zealandâs overseas missions.  âOur diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealandâs interests around the world,â Mr Peters says.  âI 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. Â âOver 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. âIt 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. âOur coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
âChina remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,â 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. âRecently 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 Teachersâ 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.  âThe 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. âScience, 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 todayâs 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. âThe Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in TaupĹ as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the TaupĹ International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. âAnticipation for the ITM TaupĹ 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. âThe 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. âThis project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sectorâs productivity,â Mr Jones says. âThe project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Governmentâs plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. âBenefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Governmentâs commitment to doubling New Zealandâs 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 Zealandâs 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. âOur 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. âNew 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 Governmentâs intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. âThe introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Todayâs 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 Governmentâs plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. âInflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sectorâs role in the export-led recovery of the economy. âI am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Governmentâs support for the revitalisation the sector.  "New Zealandâs wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. âThe inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
PĹneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealandâs complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the RĂĄkĂłczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).SĂĄndor HegedĹąs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesnât really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didnât really want to, because of a war they didnât ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the publicâs democratic right to have âa fair sayâ and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard â in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
Iâm on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Heraâs help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener youâre likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
âNever again - No AUKUSâ was the message of the wreath laid at this morningâs national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now sheâs very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice â both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high schoolâs head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble. Â Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhireâs 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.  My World War I Poem  Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging.  Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihanâs gorgeous and sad debut KĹhine, Noelle McCarthyâs memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend NgÄhuia te ...
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Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australiaâs University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourneâs Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australiaâs inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and itâs now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this weekâs Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealandâs coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Leeâs spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammageâs Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australiaâs forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmersâs third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief â beyond the tax cuts â although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Leeâs recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmannâs defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Leeâs âforensicâ and ânuancedâ application of law ...
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The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayersâ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of âsix decades of treacheryâ over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazineâs 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish Iâd writtenIf I wish Iâd written a ...
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By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunalâs report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallaceâs debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that heâs always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe itâs something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. Sheâs ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whÄnau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
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A new survey says âoutlook not greatâ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoffâs morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, itâs not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The âfinancial sustainability targetâ, which was âallocatedâ to Waitaha, is consistent with whatâs happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous governmentâs affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: Whatâs KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertsonâs valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He ...
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There’s relief for building owners bending under the weight of earthquake strengthening rules â and costs â that came into force seven years ago. Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced a scheduled 2027 review of the earthquake-prone building regulations will now start this year. Owners will also get ...
I am increasingly thinking that cities like Auckland are on the wrong track in moving towards a more centralised organisation. I want to link together comments from a couple of threads yesterday.
On the lost in suburbia thread, a couple of us argued for decentralisation:
I commented on the way the shift to Auckland supercity has meant more people traveling across and into Auckland, and more cultural establishments/buildings etc being situated in the centre of Auckland:
http://thestandard.org.nz/stranded-in-suburbia/comment-page-1/#comment-495847
Weka referred to “Australian sustainability expert David Holmgren” who argues for decentralising CBDs and creating more localised and accessible hubs.
http://thestandard.org.nz/stranded-in-suburbia/comment-page-1/#comment-495932
Penny Bright, on open mike last night, provides evidence of a conflict of interest involved in the buying of the ASB building by the Auckland Council, in order to make it a bigger HQ for the council:
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20072012/comment-page-1/#comment-495949
It seems Peter George Wall is both one of 2 directors of the business, Brookfield Multiplex, that currently owns the building. He is also on the executive team of Auckland Council Property Ltd.
All this Auckland Council centralisation seems to be in the interests of the cultural and business elite in central Auckland. This is what those of us in west and South Auckland didn’t want when we voted Brown for mayor, rather than Banks. But it seems the crony capitalists of central Auckland are still getting their way, while a large proportion of the less wealthy and powerful languish in the suburbs.
I should temper this argument with acknowledgement that some local boards have significant plans to upgrade their areas as important living and working hubs (e.g. in New Lynn and Massey), but those boards have been created to have less power than the top of the Auckland Council pyramid.
It is the most spectacular legislated monopoly, and those characteristics get really evident within the CCOs.
In terms of supporting elites, my principle concern is that there is a helluvalot being spent on transport capex, but very little on social housing, directed toward softening the massive housing crisis.
Are there any structural changes proposed for this CCO setup from either the Greens or Labour?
Pretty unfortunate the way Brownlee squashed the Mayor’s ideas for alternative funding. The alternative funding package is the gap between business as usual and the Auckland Plan targets i.e. no alternative funding, probably no rail tunnel, probably no Avondale-Southdown line, probably no Harbour tunnel, etc etc. AucklandTransportBlog have been the best at holding Tranport CCO to account.
Could probably do with a property-focussed blog to scrutinize as well.
Yes, the whole CCO set-up, and central government veto are at the heart of the problem. I see that bomber also blogged about it yesterday:
http://www.tumeke.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/lens-12-2day-monthly-11million-dinner.html
Auckland is an isthmus. Cities like London grew out of villages that then grew and connected up, making rail much more efficient since they just place the stations under.
Auckland is an isthmus. Long ago Auckland should have been creating a line of town centers leading south, and have by now connected them with stations in the town centers, not a km off to the side.
NZ will be forever be shackled in its growth due to the Aucklands nature limitations.
Ah, but there lies some of Auckland’s potential future transport…. just like Maori did way back then – water transport – sail etc.
Now was that a good thing or a bad thing đ
Well talk to Len and sort it out. what’s the problem? Just as well John Banks didn’t get in, isn’t it?
Pro-democracy Labour Branches, LECs and Sector groups must have their Amendments to the NZ Councils proposed rules lodged by the end of August. They need to watch the four month rule.
Read the full Constitution carefully and look at where the rule changes remove or shrink many components of democracy. There is some erroneous guidance in emails from the Gen Sec as to what the NZ Council and the Conference can and cannot decide. Get stuck onto the nuts and bolts of how our party works. Much of the findings of the advisory group that visited all the regions (Rick Barker et al) has had the eyes picked out of it. The time has come for those who see the big picture to roll up their sleeves and to get stuck in. Otherwise the democracy of the Labour Party will be pulled from under your feet. BE ALERT.
It’s interesting isn’t it. We all have our barrows to push. Living where I do, I cannot understand why the park and ride at Silverdale was stopped, and Penlink put on the back burner.
Looking at the broader picture, the secrecy that can veil the CCOs is a real worry. In most jobs transparency is crucial, why is politics the exception?
Well you can hardly claim to be an anonymous donor if everything’s done in public, can you?
laaarf.
Silverdale Park and Ride is waiting for the private developer to get their shit together.
Penlink just didn’t have the benefits to go in front of things like AMETI or Tiverton-Wolverton or such. It’s still in the RLTP, just a few years back.
Interestingly, upon CNN this am, discussion of wealthy Americans fleeing (my choice of action word) North America.
Fleeing to settle some place else. possibly the new frontier of the antipodean “wild, wild, west”
Well, theres a “new sherriff in town” and “this town aint big enough for the both of US”
(long memories and short, slow, boat to China)
But they sure do have some big guns on those battle-ships, settling further across the Pacific.
What happened to the investigation into The Living Wage? All gone quiet on that front. The more I read about the struggle to put food on the table and a roof over heads, the living wage seems a better and better idea.
Its okay to discriminate, as long as you don’t tell anyone why you are, and its not obvious.
You are bleeding kidding me, NZ is not about fairness, fairness only happens when the
politicians fear upsetting you. And that means only the rich at the moment gets them stressed.
You much remember that hopelessly stupid statement must be ridiculed if they come from
a poor person, but if Glen says wifes turn to seeking status, you cannot point out that his whole
purpose in working is to create status for himself. As we know, work is essential part of
a person identity, that’s the whole basis for the work testing, that the state has the right
to tell poor people to get work since work is good for them. Living wage, not going to happen
until we have mass movements that government shits itself rather than awaken from their apathy.
Who was doing an “investigation” into the living wage?
The title of this website:
https://www.myopinioncounts.co.nz/home.php
purports to encourage people to express opinions, but it is possible that by signing in all that would happen would be to add to the number of people they would claim support smoking. Has anyone signed in and fund out whether it is possible to then express an opinion? Or see the opinions of others? Are any of those opinions against the Philip Morris views, or does my opinion not count?
It also enables the company to get hold of addresses so they can send out ‘newsletters’ – branded and colour-coded. Stealth marketing at it’s most cynical, I reckon.
The “information we share” section in the privacy policy gives a pretty open indication that their ‘affiliates’ will contact the subscriber.
Will those ‘newsletters’ breach any law, in fact it’s a perfectly legal product, tobacco that is, so what actual right have you or anyone else got to interfere in my or anyone else’s legal use of a legal product…
Kronic BS no body has died from that rubbish yet so it should be legalized according to your analogy.
If tobacco was a new product to the market it would immediately be made illegal and those pushing it would be locked up for a very long time.
All other illegal drugs used in NZ since have caused less than deaths in a 100 years less than 500 than tobacco does in one year. That’s less than 0.1%yet the laws against these illegal drugs are draconian by comparison.
Tobacco= legal product….
Bad12, We know what is best for you.
Laugh, Yes if i read all the comments in the debate on ‘tobacco’ in today’s Open Mike it appears that there are more than a few that know what’s best for me,
So much so that when i ask a logical question like, IF as the produced stats say, tobacco use has declined by 6% since 1999, where in the health stats is the equivalent decline in the deaths from heart disease, there is no answer,
Heart disease is a biggy for the ASH fanatics to have included in the statistics of tobacco use caused deaths and as the ASH fanatics didn’t really get called on the Bullshit of ”tobacco use MIGHT cause heart disease”, on cigarette packets that has now graduated to the even bigger Bullshit of ”tobacco use CAUSES heart disease”,
In today’s debate i have been ”playing with a straight bat”,but, can anyone imagine the ‘Bizniss’ Government of National really going after the tobacco industry???,
Hardly, National have just seized upon a perfect means of revenue raising through tobacco excise tax which directly attacks the income of those mostly on low incomes who are the majority by far of tobacco users knowing that ‘the left’ wont object because the justification for such tax is coming directly from ‘professional lefty’s in the health system’…
Yes, I have always seen it as a class thing! The uppers drink fine wine, and the lowers smoke.
I’m not interfering in your use of the product. However I’d prefer you didn’t use it in spaces we may share. I’m interested in whether the people who profit from that product continue to market it. Surely marketing has no effect on smokers – so there is no reason for you to be concerned if that is restricted.
When the stated aim of Government is to have ‘NZ smoke-free by 2020’ then everything Government does after making such a pronouncement is an attempt to curtail the legal rights of a certain section of society,
I have the legal right to use tobacco products as does a tobacco company wishing to sell the product to me,
I agree with your right to not have me use those tobacco products in a public space that you at any time might occupy…
Yes, you have a legal right to use a product that they legally sell. My comment above is not about that – it was about whether this site will be used as a marketing tool.
And yes, it may breach the law if marketed in NZ – hence my interest in the privacy policy affiliates. Who are they? where are they based will that get around legal restrictions?
How do you feel about the tobacco companies’ right to market their product given that established smokers (like established drinkers and alcohol) say it has no impact on their use of the product? – because they are marketing, just look at the publicity since they launched the site – Who are they marketing it to? And if it is young non-smokers is that ethical, in your opinion?
Firstly, as a smoker of some 43 years i have yet to see the health profession put a time line on the ‘smoking kills’ inflamation, (as opposed to information),
Second,and i have posted this a number of times on this web-site and others, IF any Government were serious about having people QUIT smoking and NOT allowing those under 18 to use and become addicted to tobacco products that Government only need declare Tobacco to be in the same category as ‘party pills’, make it’s continuing use a matter of doctors prescription to manage those presently addicted and disallow anyone presently under the age of 18 from being able to register as an addict,
The fact is that it is YOU, the likes of ASH, and various others who do not smoke who in fact are the TOOLS being used by Government to allow my legal rights to use a legal product to be continually infringed upon,
How do i feel about tobacco company’s being able to advertize, on one level i don’t give a toss,plain packaging will only restrict smokers with a taste,habit,addiction to a particular brand, the young when they smoke, mostly unable to afford whole packet purchases, will smoke any old tobacco that is available,
Having said the above, i come full circle, as tobacco is a legal product Government does not in my opinion have the legal right to restrict the products advertising anymore than it does any other legal product available to be sold…
So after an irrelevant 3 paragraph rant (I’ve not said anything that infringes your right to smoke, except that I’d prefer you didn’t smoke in places we might share), you finally [sort of] address the questions by basically saying you couldn’t give a toss if giant corporates market their addictive product to young people. Good-oh.
Being a tool of politicians and ASH loony’s seems to have it’s health side-effects like tobacco use, seems to have made you go both blind and lose any sense of comprehension at the same time,
In spite of all the current restrictions, in spite of the rack raising of excise tax on tobacco products, in spite of the only advertizing on TV concerning tobacco products being the anti- attempt at brainwashing, the young (and by that i mean under the age of 18), continue to take up tobacco use at the same rates they did prior to the concerted efforts to stop them,
In the young,and here i address college aged kids there is now a definite ‘black-market’ in tobacco products, it is not as yet confined in a ‘young criminal element’ it is a floating market in the nature of whomever can get their hands upon the product on any given day sells to their mates at the rate of 2 bucks a ciggy,
Such a growing black-market does not differentiate over product brands and tends to suggest that those under the age of 18, supposedly those who the plain packaging is aimed at, will not be effected one iota by such plain packaging as a deterrent…
Smoking in young people is declining
I reckon it’s worth continuing to restrict advertising to until there is a clear picture on this – because the later people start smoking, the less likely addiction is to take hold. And seeing as advertising doesn’t affect your right to smoke one iota, I can’t for the life of me see why you have a problem with this. I mean if I had my way I’d restrict all advertising – consumer culture of whatever type does nobody, nor the environment, any good.
Advertising needs to be banned. Once it is we’ll have a hell of a lot more wealth with which to work.
Or, because of the demonization of ‘smoking’ the number of young people willing to admit that they use tobacco products is declining,
My view= a bit of both…
Heres another for the statistically minded, if in 20 years the use of tobacco products has fallen by 6% where in the health statistics is the corresponding fall in the New Zealand rate of those who die of Heart Disease,(the use of tobacco products supposedly now a major cause of such)…
Utter nonsense! I started when I was 27, having spent all of my childhood and teens very a self-righteous anti-smoking prat. I quit a few years later, then started again when I was 37!
The snobbery element is very strong. The upper class kids I meet are all ‘Oh get that cigarette away from me, you scruffy old biddy’. The lower class kids smoke. If I were in any trouble, I’d far rather ask a smoker for help – a non-smoker would want to spend hours, days or weeks telling me why whatever problem I had was my own fault for being (a) old (b) a beneficiary (c) a smoker (d) poor and/or (e) unmarried.Â
This even if all I wanted them to do was help me change a lightbulb as I’m 1.5 metres tall and the ceiling is 2.5 metres! đ
Bad12 – I’m quite happy to leave extrapolating Japanese non-smokers’ heart disease with New Zealand smokers’ heart disease to you. Similarly the effects of increasingly poor diets and increasing rates of inactivity leading to rises in heart disease compared with reduced heart disease from reduced smoking rates.
Vicky32 – yeah, I had my first cigarette when I was about 12, gave up when I was 15 because it was no good for the baby đ But I do realise that individual experiences, while important, are not necessarily significant in terms of the overall population.
Vicky32 – it would appear that you are indeed no longer “anti-smoking”, but i for one would question whether you have moved on from being “a self-righteous prat”. Maybe you could add “classist” to this self-assessment?
I quite agree bad, and I’d guess that when the govt gets to the point of banning smoking that that is exactly what it will do (as opposed to just making tobacco illegal).
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I don’t really see what the problem is. If you don’t mind sales being restricted in this way, and you are happy to not smoke around other people, then what’s wrong?
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Also, you use the term legal right as if you have free access to smoking. You don’t. Tobacco is already subject to a number of laws, including around sale, who can grow it, and where it can be used. Even when I smoked 30 years ago there were laws regulating tobacco. It’s been a long time since there was any degree of freedom around tobacco.
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Do you not tho see the arse about face nature of the present situation, we have a Government saying that in an effort to FORCE me to not use a product that is legally for sale across the nation i will be forced to pay more and more for that product through the addition of excise taxes,
IF tobacco products are able to be legally sold which they are where then does any Government have the legal right to try and force me not to use the product???…
Ok, that probably got lost in the ranting đ
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Yes, the first point makes completes sense. I would be highly annoyed if my drug of choice had increasing taxes put on it. And I also agree that there are social justice issues here.
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The second point I disagree with. Tobacco already has many restrictions on its legality, and the govt definitely has the right to increase restrictions where there is a public health risk (which there patently is).
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Instead of increasing taxes they should just go straight to prescription only. And people should be allowed to grow their own. But which govt is going to do that?Â
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btw, alcohol has a massive tax on it. Are you in favour of that being taken off?
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How about petrol?
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Road user charges?
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My point being that the Government is trying to force me to STOP using a legal product,
The intention as stated by Government is ‘for a smoke-free New Zealand by such and such a date’
Therein lies the difference between taxes on other products that you list, the stated intention for those taxes is to cover the additional cost to the community of those using those products,
No,no,no,tobacco has restrictions upon where and to who it can be sold to and from, these are not restrictions on tobacco’s overall legality as a product sold…
OK, so maybe it’s more akin to not allowing people to use woodburners in Chch anymore, or bringing in legislation to reduce car emissions. From a public health perspective, it makes sense and I don’t have a problem with the govt’s intention. I do have an ethical problem with taxing the poor though.
Do you have a link to the govts plant to enforce smoke free by 2020?
It’s been pushed to 2025.
No idea, but they’re using some fairly manipulative copy on that site. For instance the visual saying Outdoor Smoking Bans? (read more), then slides across to show Behind Closed Doors? (read more). My immediate thought was it would be about plans to ban people smoking at home, but it’s merely that shops will no longer be allowed to display brands to customers.
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The only thing I can see that shows what joining does is this. It doesn’t really make sense though.
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I joined, but more to piss off the self-righteous than for any other reason! đ
Yes to the first 2 questions,No to the 3rd, don’t know to the 4th, and on the 5th as it’s a web-site specifically set up by a tobacco company to gauge the opinion of those who use tobacco products i would guess it’s a big YES your opinion on that particular web-site don’t count,
The fact that from the Government on down to the ‘average wowzing wanker in the street’ want to prohibit me from using what is a perfectly legal product points to a serious case of the asylum of Western democracy definitely being taken over by the loony’s,
Tobacco company’s do not need to inflate the numbers of those who ‘support smoking’, there are approximately 600,000 of us and as the site is in it’s infancy, (the ASH fanatics having had a 20 year head start), it will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes from a ‘smokers web-site’,
Should this ”smokers web-site’ be able to bring together a large proportion of those who use tobacco products their will obviously be political ramifications and i would hope at least 1 high Court case testing the Government’s legality in it’s stated attempts to stop people from using what is a perfectly legal product…
Anyone else who posts to NZ Herald online comments noticed their annoying habit of removing links and references from posts.
It gives an entirely false impression of your posts.
It makes the post look like made up unsupported opinion instead of something based on research and study.
It makes quotes in the original appear as the writers own writing.
Anyway, it misrepresents the contributors actual posting.
Maybe it is because, so called, “reporters” do not like to give references in their own articles. I suspect so that it is harder to catch them out in their lack of research, knowledge and objectivity. To often I have managed to find the research or paper the News article is based on, to find the newspaper article oversimplifies or totally misrepresents the original.
Neoliberalism: the weaponisation of economic theory
This is a very very good synopsis of what is going on.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-07-20/weaponization-economic-theory
Following another mass shooting in the US this 2005 interview with Mark Ames joins a few dots.
A Brief History of Rage, Murder and Rebellion.
Ames takes a systematic look at the scores of rage killings in our public schools and workplaces that have taken place over the past 25 years. He claims that instead of being the work of psychopaths, they were carried out by ordinary people who had suffered repeated humiliation, bullying and inhumane conditions that find their origins in the “Reagan Revolution.” Looking through a carefully researched historical lens, Ames recasts these rage killings as failed slave rebellions.
joe…
I always read your links and I’m rarely disappointed.
Why do you think we have all of these “wage slave” and “temp slave” T-shirts and e-jokes around? Americans like to turn everything painfully true into a little quip, as if by quippifying the painful truth, as if by becoming self-aware of one’s shameful and intolerable existence, one partially nullifies one’s pain. This is what you’d call “slave humor.” Slaves did the same thing, turning their pain into quips.
Oh yes. I’ve worked in the past subcontracting into a US company working on several large projects. At first it’s like living in a 24hr sitcom. You really can’t keep up with their non-stop wisecrack, one-liners and put-downs… I recall my sides hurting from it.
Yet after a month or so it started to turn sour. While at one level they were good people and a lot of fun to be with, at another more personal, intimate level I found them very guarded and brittle. You could only get to know them so far… and that was it.
Under all the fun was a lot of hard-arsed bitterness.
Its a mistake to think that rats don’t realise that they have been caged and put on the wheel.
thanks joe
So true.
And when people are put into an insane, inhuman culture and simply expected to try and cope, increases in mental illness and addictive behaviours can be fully expected.
I don’t intend to dimiss Ames’s analysis. But I think it’s only a contributory part of the problem. The increased sense of dislocation and stress etc, imposed on individuals in a neo liberal market environment doesn’t lead to random killings. It leads to psychotropic drug prescriptions. And those drugs often cause mayhem if they are stopped abruptly or not taken in a regular enough fashion.
Having put this line of argument out before, I know that some people will want to respond that the drugs are helpful and so on. But to be honest, I’ve had that discussion and don’t see much point in having it again.
Suffice to say, there is a body of thought within US psychiatric circles that claims all instances of random killings for no apparent reason (ie, killings like this Batman one) have psychotropic meds as a common underlying factor. From scanning some previous incidents, it appears to be true….at least so far and in relation to the incidents I’ve found and read press reports for. But I haven’t seen any mention of medication in this case.
So, what I would appreciate is if anyone comes across a news article that states James Holmes had recently been on psychotropic meds and had either stopped taking them or wasn’t taking them as prescribed, that they’d throw a quick link up here. Cheers.
There are so many shootings in the US that we hear nothing about. I don’t know how many can be put down to rage, meds or anything else:
http://www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/pdf/major-shootings.pdf
It seems to me that Ames consistently ignores one thing most of these mass shooters have in common – that they are usually men. I can’t actually remember any such mass shooting by a woman.
Ames talks about the perps in non-gendered terms as “people”, “slaves” etc.
Why is it mainly men who respond this way? It doesn’t require a male’s superior strength to pull a trigger.
I expect that women tend to turn their anger and frustration against themselves, as compared to men.
Absolutely right Carol!
This is true – and unbelievable:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/07/departing-imf-economist-blasts-fund.html
The treaty seems unlikely to ever receive the two-thirds majority necessary to be ratified by the US Senate,
I wonder how the Senate might react after this latest “incident”, involving a white guy and guns…
Colorado shooting suspect James Holmes was in the process of withdrawing from a doctorate program in neuroscience at the University of Colorado Denver,
Gee sure looks like the timing will really put pressure on the Senate…I guess the next few days will tell us how much. Of course the Senate would not be swayed by the prepared MSM machine…
http://www.womenagainstrape.net/content/correction-women-against-rape-did-not-criticise-ju
Correction: Women Against Rape did not criticise Julian Assangeâs legal team
On 16-17 January 2011, Women Against Rape was quoted in a number of papers as âcriticisingâ Julian Assangeâs legal team for including the names of the women making allegations against Mr Assange in their skeleton argument.
The articles gave a misleading impression of our views. We never criticised or even mentioned Mr Assangeâs legal defence in our comment to the Press Association. Following our complaint, the PA apologised for their mistake by circulating the advisory below with our full quote. Can you please publish and/or circulate this correction.
Press Association wire 19 January at 1635:
ADVISORY: In 1 POLITICS WikiLeaks (ASSANGE LEGAL TEAM UNDER FIRE AFTER ACCUSERS NAMED), sent at about 0245, on January 16, we reported that legal representatives of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had come under fire for inadvertently publicly naming two women who claim he raped them. Women Against Rape, which was quoted in the story, has asked us to make it clear that it did not criticise or even mention Mr Assangeâs legal team in their comment. The Press Association regrets that the story and its headline gave a misleading impression of the views expressed by Women Against Rape.
â¨For reference, the following is the full quote from Women Against Rape on the issue: âThe rape allegations against Julian Assange have become entangled with the politics centred on WikiLeaks. In the last few months this has led to the publication on the internet of the names of the women involved, and to a call for women who report rape to lose their anonymity. Rape victimsâ right to anonymity and defendantsâ right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, are both crucial. We oppose the use of rape for political agendas which undermine protection and justice for both rape victim and accused. We are appalled that rape allegations may be manipulated to facilitate Mr Assangeâs extradition or even rendition to the US where elected officials have called for his execution for his Wikileaks activities. Women Against Rape cannot ignore this threat. We oppose the death penalty for any crime, let alone when no charges have been brought.â¨end
http://www.womenagainstrape.net/content/correction-women-against-rape-did-not-criticise-ju
Yeah, Whatever dude. Some women think it’s a CIA plot, and they’re practically lesbians what with being anti rape and all, so the criminal complaints don’t need to be investigated.
Yeah, Whatever dude.
Another brilliant rejoinder. You obviously win a lot of debates with such tactics.
I like the way you suddenly start fantasizing about lesbians.
Love your routine, my friend.
” âThe rape allegations against Julian Assange have become entangled with the politics centred on WikiLeaks.” – Yes they have, primarily by Julian Assange, who is worried about a rape conviction.
And more worried about serving time for a Swedish rape conviction at Guantanamo Bay.
or is using that as a nice, if far fetched, excuse to avoid a rape investigation.
Now I wish I’d bought that bag of burger rings from the supermarket today. It’s going to be a long night.
âThe rape allegations against Julian Assange have become entangled with the politics centred on WikiLeaks.â â Yes they have, primarily by Julian Assange, who is worried about a rape conviction.
You need to do some serious reading on this topic. At the moment, you are ignorant.
Well now its our turn to have EQC and insurers smack us in the head. Thought we were tootling through the queue for repairs only to get a copy of a report which is blatantly dishonest and incomplete. So much so that the main broken parts of the house were not even referenced in the report.
EQC’s approach is complete and utter bullshit. Our experience is that they are totally dishonest – for the purpose of avoiding their due liability. Which is in fact fraud – misrepresentation for the purpose of pecuniary gain.
Some words of advice: Never ever trust EQC or an insurance company. Do everything to your house to avoid ever having to make a claim.
The simple fact is that the insurance companies don’t have the money to pay out to have everything that’s covered fixed. That goes for EQC as well. There’s no way that they could have as: a) they planned around the normal earthquake risk which doesn’t include entire cities collapsing, b) they misestimated the actual costs involved for the rebuild and thus c) they then thought that they could set prices well below costs (See Fletcher’s dropping painting down from $25/m to $19/m).
C) is the direct result of capitalists thinking that workers don’t actually have costs to cover and thus can be paid as little as the capitalists want to pay
EQC (and ACC) have the money to pay all valid claims – they have an unlimited guarantee by government. Also, neither are insurance companies.
It does however appear that our current government has a desire to reduce claim payments – despite payments being set out in legislation.
Any Red Alert monitors on-line? The Constitutional debate should be there. The last post is 18th July!
Labour should have a members only space.
Oops the Place for Labour feedback is on Labour.org.nz/yoursay
Do they harvest your emails from that site?
Certainly not impossible. Do they have a privacy policy statement which might shed some light?
Ethos of Co-operative Bank being screwed with
I hear that branch staff are being pressured to become sales people, being asked to literally go out door knocking to recruit new customers. If they don’t meet their targets they are being told that their jobs will be at risk.
And where is this high pressure sales drive coming from? Surprise surprise, we have a former Westpac senior banker now in charge of the former PSIS.
http://www.interest.co.nz/news/59879/co-operative-bank-appoints-former-westpac-nz-acting-ceo-bruce-mclachlan-ceo-and-reports-f
And behind every CEO, we also have to remember the Board who appointed him and is giving him strategic direction.
oh well.
I was just going to post a link to the Truthers favourite newsman reacting to the denver shootings. But I see muzza beat me to the skinny on it.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/page/280878_Alex_Jones_Says_Aurora_Shootin
Alex Jones is not as enamoured by the Truth movement as you might think. He gets a certain level of respect for the years of exposing the media lies we all swallow and has tirelessy fought a good fight. He is also widely reagrded as a loud and often unstable voice with a tendancy to jump into rivers before checking their depth. His manner of attack and his willingness to throw baseless accusations into serious discussion and his ever growing ‘God is the way to truth!’ message costs him as many listeners as it wins him. There are also some great rumours that he is a deep cover co-intel operative….ooooh! For many who use InfoWars it is the excellent library of resources they offer and the very well researched articles by some of the staffers that have kept the place alive. It only took a few minutes for the first ‘it’s all a gov op’ stories to hit the wires. Then again Alex is not the only one throwing spurious accusations around on this story.
The media have as usual decided what they want you to believe. Early this a.m. NZ time, I watched a talking head breathlessly announce that an affiliate had spoken to the Mother of the shooter. It was reported at the time that the affiliate asked the woman if her son lived in Aurora Colorado? That was how it was reported. An inquiry to confirm the familial relationship. The Mother is reported to have said, “yes you have the right person”.
At the time this was reported as the mother simply confirming that her son lived in Aurora. This [most likely innocent] statement is now being reported twisted and corrupted by all networks as if the Mother was asked if she was aware that her son was the shooter and that her affirmation is stating she was aware her son was a sociopathic nutter. This thread of the story has already been so twisted and misrepresented that it has destroyed any possibility of the original broadcast ever being seen or heard of again.
PB, anyone who reads, thinks and forms opinions relying too much on any source, really is not in a good position to form opinions with any foundational basis, let alone cast them out in public.
If one is able to suspend bias and emotional attachments to reading matter, and reads enough variation over a period of time, it becomes very easy to spot BS at a distance.
The critical factor is being able to dethatch from bias, also known as pre conceived ideas, which explicitly requires the individual to know themself well.. Read from as many media sources as possible, left, right and centre from as many different angles as you can get. Speak with people you have some faith in, and check for people thoughts etc from decent blogs such as this site. Over time, if open enough, and free from bias, the words really will just reek of shit when you read them, or hear them,, its called using your intuition, which humans have had dulled/removed over the past decades, where they mostly believe what they are told, and that’s enough for them!
For mine, I am calling BS on this shooting spree, massive false flag, just like Norway, with too much else going on around the second amendment for years. See fast and furious, Eric Holder if you don’t know what I am talking about. This is all about attempting to disarm the American people, using the worst type of scare tactics you could imagine, and then bestowing to the UN even more sovereignty as the empowered authority in the global structure, once the treaty I linked to previously is signed!
Whatever the solution wanted by those in control actually is, could be varied from my thoughts around this event, but I still call false flag.
We have seen the “problem”, we are getting, and will get the “reaction” over the near term, as shaped by the MSM, which will lead to the “solution” being provided. Its really only once the solution is being offered forward that the agenda become clearer, but there is more than enough history around the second amendment to see where this event fits in.
Its tragic to see yet more innocent people used to create a desired outcome, but its standard MO, so its not in any way a surprise. The new “enemy” is being clearly defined, and was called some time back, its gone from “brown faces abroad” (even though they are still getting fucked), to “white faces” at home.
Just follow along the media narrative, as that will tell you much of the underlying intentions.
At the end of the day, we all get the society, and the puppet masters which we allow to create our environment for us, that society as a whole deserves!
Doesn’t look like the west deserves too much these days!
Quite clearly analysing events without resorting to any pre-concieved ideas about what’s going on there muzza. Yep.
“Quite clearly analysing events without resorting to any pre-concieved ideas about whatâs going on there muzza. Yep.”
–Not at all, I read the early headlines, and some articles from this “shooting spree”, and drew my own conclusion, that it stinks.
Other statements above are my own conjecture on where this could tie in elsewhere, because little happens in silo. That does not mean one can’t evaluate something in silo, or not and still keep bias out. Just means you have to be prepared to factor various possibilities in as well.
“The new âenemyâ is being clearly defined, and was called some time back, its gone from âbrown faces abroadâ (even though they are still getting fucked), to âwhite facesâ at home.”
Yeah, they are clearly being oppressed. Here’s a list of them that have been disappeared by ZOG on obvioulsy trumped up charges following one of them there judicial activism rulings taking away their shootin irons. They’re probably all in FEMA camps.
http://www.csgv.org/issues-and-campaigns/guns-democracy-and-freedom/insurrection-timeline/
Or maybe there are a bunch of right wing nutters with guns using their intuition too much and going a bit loco.
50/50 call I guess.
That list is mindblowing – thanks Pb
Yeah, it’s quite a trend eh?
The most shocking one to me was this one:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/12/white-supremacist-sentenced-to-32-years-for-mlk-day-bomb/1
Didn’t recieve much coverage at all compared to islamic plots that were, well nothing really.
The bomb was discovered by pure luck
A wee google search >> july 27 obama < http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2012/07/19/conspiracists-adopt-nra-talking-points-on-un-arms-treaty/
SPLC, sponsored by “Hatewatch”…either way it illustrates nicely how the charade works in “media”.
Whatever this event, does or does not equal, is always going to be drowned in information of all, and every type imaginable, which of course is designed for no other reason than to misinform, and confuse.
Getting to opinion state is a matter of individual preferences, and a myriad of other factors, assuming people are putting a degree of effort into forming them!
Otherwise its likely just follow along as usual!
False flag muzza or an unwell mans actions co-opted?.
Same thing are they not jo?
sigh…one a damning indictment and the other crackpot cynicism and dishonesty, I’d certainly hope not muzza.
Anyhoo, some on topic linky stuff.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/21/1112292/-Adult-Conversation
And like I said, when the argument is made that guns protect your freedoms and liberties, ask why one or two incidents of voter fraud can be used to justify taking away the freedom and liberty to vote, yet graveyards full of dead fathers, mothers, sons and daughters are not justification to take away the liberty of gun nuts to stockpile weapons of mass murder and why Joe The Plumber gets to own a rack of bigger better guns than Paul The Policeman sent to stop him shooting his neighbours.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/10/gun-crime-us-state
“sighâŚone a damning indictment and the other crackpot cynicism and dishonesty, Iâd certainly hope not muzza.”
–Thats a big sigh jo too much net time eh…. For mine an “unwell man” could be used as a false flag, quite easily in fact!
While not a big gun person myself, I will say that guns are not the problem. Simplistically its as bad as the article saying the Brits are capable of “adult conversation”, I almost snorted when I read that nonsense!
Lets just make sure that the “authorities and other assorted crooked officialdom” are the only tooled up people, I reckon society will be just peachy if that is achieved. / Gee, can you tell me another story papa!
Why do the Nats project so much of their own failings on to the opposition?
Paula Bennett – “social obligations”…. on parents on DBP? What about social obligations of the government to enable jobs that pay a living wage? To provide a livable society and environment?
Bill English – “planet Labour”…. as though NAct aren’t in their own neoliberal parallel universe that denies the reality of peak everything?
Steven Joyce – on Labour’s “fairytales” – and Joyce’s own little crony capitalist “reality” that denies the reality of the large numbers of people with low incomes and little power? And who believes in RONs as the road to prosperity?
So that they can hide those failings from themselves and thus blame everyone else for things going wrong.
And the latest from Steven “Intellectual Dishonesty” Joyce is about wanting “to do a few things that make us uncomfortable” …..
….. o … O …..
Bill English 2008: “”No country can afford ongoing migration losses of this size relative to its total workforce. The problems are showing up most visibly in the professional workforce”.
Bill English 2012 : “What’s the point of standing in the airport crying about it?”
National Party campaigned on building a brighter future in 2008:
http://www.national.org.nz/Article.aspx?articleId=28817
Bill English, 2012:
http://www.3news.co.nz/National-outline-welfare-reforms/tabid/1607/articleID/262127/Default.aspx
You know what would be awesome?
If the 49% that the government plans to sell in MRP, GEN, MERI, end up in the hands of the community trusts that own the local network companies.
Then the companies can be run in the *genuine* interest of power consumbers, not private shareholders.
Solid Energy is one of the biggest employers on the West Coast. Imagine if the holding companies of Westland and Buller councils each purchased shareholdings?
The governments plan to dilute public ownership would be well and truly sunk.
Locus, could you please explain what it is you mean by the above remark? Oh, by the whole posting? I am not a self-righteous prat, because I am not the one telling other people where they fail my high standards, and where they fall down…
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