Cunliffe
“David Cunliffe says his Queenstown ski holiday has left him “recharged” and ready to take the battle to Prime Minister John Key in the two-month countdown to election day.”
But the Labour leader threatens to be distracted by internal ill-discipline and criticisms over his judgment, including the holiday itself and a meeting last week with a prominent New Zealander given name suppression on charges of performing an indecent act.” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11296559
Key
“Leaving the country in the hands of deputy Bill English, Prime Minister John Key took a holiday “selfie”, posted on Instagram yesterday by son Max.
The photo was titled “pre-golf game”.
Mr Key has taken 10 days out from his pre-election schedule for an overseas holiday. It is believed he is staying at his holiday home on the Hawaiian island of Maui.”
A bit of context is missing from your analysis. Labour is not getting any traction in the polls and Cunliffe has not got as high a profile as Key. Labour may well have benefited from Cunliffe not going on holiday and working on the campaign. National has the flexibility not to have Key doing the same. Certainly there is disquiet amongst Labour MP’s and not amongst National. That is a story in itself.
Interestingly – informal polls in both Herald and Dom Post show majority of people thinking it okay for Cunliffe to take his holiday break. I think the media might have boobed on this issue – most people will think it sensible of him, and give him some sympathy/empathy on it.
there is disquiet amongst Labour MP’s and not amongst National. That is a story in itself.
Yeah. The persistent allegation of National paying their unwanted MPs off for $300k definitely needs looking at. It explains why so many of them have left so happily. But since it has been done as a backroom deal without the voters being involved, it does leave some questions about the role of the National party somewhat cloudy…
There is also the question about where National is finding the money for this and their other extravagances over the last decade. They seem to have far more money floating around than their sources of published sources of income suggest that they should have.
You seem to be assuming that they have paid off the retiring MP’s. I thought $300 k was quite excessive especially considering Kim Dotcom’s donation to IMP of around 4 million was meant to have made them the highest funded party in NZ. Of course by all means look in to these allegations but it would be churlish to complain the media aren’t doing so if the left is also not doing so.
Weird Gossman. What do you propose we do? Ring up National HQ and ask them “is there any truth to the rumour that retiring Nat MPs are being paid $300k to go?”
Oh please just take Keys word as gospel. Nothing he says needs any investigation, he’s the purist of the pure and when he says a senior Labour MP is upset with Cunliffe taking three days to recharge just believe him will you…
Ummmm… I believe I stated that this should be investigated and highlighted one way this could be done. Why doesn’t an Opposition MP ask a question about it?
Are questions that are purely to do with the internal organisation and running of a political party allowed in Question Time? I thought Question Time was about parliamentary business.
(NB: Brendan Horan alleged misuse of parliamentary resources by NZFirst)
How is National Party giving $300k donations to its own MPs anything to do with “funding of political parties”?
Sure, where did they get so much money to splash around like that, but the actual fact (or belief) that they are spending it in that manner, is a matter for the party, not the public (as much as I would like that to become public…).
persistent allegation? its only come up on left wing blog sites, from commentators dubious at best. i would be very surprised if this was going on and media commentators didn’t know about it.
I would be very surprised if this was going on and media commentators didn’t know about it, and were prepared to risk their future career by upsetting dear leader.
Err, no you didn’t. fixing would be taking someone with journalistic credibility and showing me where they “didn’t investigate because john key told them not too”
If this was actually true, like seriously and actually more than just bullshit presented by left wing bloggers, then at least Bomber, maybe gordon campbell, more likely nicky f$%#ing hagar would be all over it.
I take it you missed the subtitle which implies that “David Cunliffe spent his vacation meeting a sex offender”, despite the fact that only a few people in the press are aware of this person’s crimes due to name suppression.
There’s also the headline “Cunliffe upset” to make him look as if he was having a little cry about it. Why not the more accurate “Cunliffe angry” or “Cunliffe rebuts”.
They aren’t even trying to hide it now, and they will keep going until someone gives them a reason to stop.
This is really obscene. She is running a Cameron Slater smear line. Slater is spinning it for all he can. Cunliffe is of course not able to respond and the Herald itself is getting close to breaching the suppression order.
Quite obscene really. Yet another example of right wing black ops.
There is a website which has the information and it is available to view in NZ right now, what are the legal restrictions of linking to it? or referring to it by name?
We can’t speculate on the identity although Google normally provides an answer very quickly. What is appalling is the smear that is going on Cunliffe. Slater started it and the Herald have picked up on it. Absolutely obscene. Are we going to have to spend all campaign time on rebutting smears?
Not sure why you are surprised by who it is. If there is one sport in which there is a persistent ‘rape culture’ amongst a proportion of it’s players and supporters I’d have thought rugby would be it.
The ability of foreign websites to effectively publish into NZ raises all kinds of curly questions about what is publishing and where that takes place, but effectively they are outside thee reach of NZ law. But everyone in the southern lakes area knows exactly who this is, and you’ll certainly never see him on TV again. You wonder why fight suppression so hard when all it does is have the effect of having everyone focus on finding out who he is. 30 seconds on google is all that is needed.
Re the Cunliffe meeting – it is a beat up as you would expect in a political campaign. The real question is the judgement and political nous of Cunliffe and his advisors. For them not to know of this guys background is remarkable. This is like the photo of Brash walking the plank – not a big deal in itself but just unnecessary and adds to the distractions.
Audrey Young has written an irresponsible and unethical article today and she should be ASHAMED. She knows very well that this kind of display in this sensitive pre-election period is potentially very damaging.
A journalist of Audrey’s mature years should be one of the media playing a critical and positive role in a well-functioning democracy.
Instead she references an offender with ongoing name suppression. Cunliffe had no idea of this person’s history and nor should he. He did check with astute local politicians in Queenstown – but they also had no idea of this person’s history – that’s the effect name suppression has.
But what Audrey has failed to disclose is the strong links the offender has had to the National Party. As the daughter of a National Cabinet Minister she’d be better just to frankly disclose her conflict of interest than to pretend she is a professional journalist capable of writing in an unbiased way.
Today I cancelled my Herald and Sunday Star Times subscriptions. The Guardian Weekly will be it for me from here on as I’ve tired of the NZ trash.
Agreed. Meeting with this person is in no way indicative of support. It is the image and perception which is the problem especially given Cunliffe’s comments about sexual offending to Woman’s refuge.
For feck’s sake Gosman. Cunliffe said he was not aware. He is good but he is not omnipotent. It is a shame you do not apply the same expectations to Key. If you did you would be voting Labour without hesitation.
And Slater is the last one who should be writing about this stuff.
Ms @1.1.3.1 Its got Crosby Textor written all over it. And by the way for the comment below about Audrey’s father, her brother is the current National MP for New Plymouth.
What I would like to know is “Audrey, your point in bringing this up is????? How is this relevant to what Labour will do for NZders? There is a name suppression order against this. Is Cunliffe suppose to be a mind reader”.
Tom, It would be interesting to know the results of a poll among MPs on who knew this sexual predator’s name. I would be 99.9%. How do you know what the media knows or does not know? I and many others found out by various means including search engines and overseas websites. If Cunliffe did not know which is possible as he was sick and on holiday he was set up.
Gosman, the TV3 poll was not too bad all things considered. (Ignore Gower’s ravings).
Nats 49.4
Lab/Gr/IMP/NZF 45.7
Given that the Cons vote, 2.7%, is now likely to be wasted a 3% shift to the Left/NZF from the Nats would be enough to give that grouping power.
A 7% shift to Lab/Gr/IMP would give the Left power. I know this sounds a lot but these polls were taken during the ridiculous MSM’s attack on Cunliffe’s brave “man” speech and even Gower is starting to say that IMP is going “up and up” and they have only just started.
This election will go to the wire. I liked Cunliffe’s positive “we will come out fighting” on TV3 News tonight.
Gos, as I told you the other day Labours vote does not really matter. This is MMP, its the total vote of the Left or Right that matters. And you fekkers are in deep proverbial.
That is only partially and technically correct. The coalition needs to be led by a well supported party. Labour’s vote should go to at least about 33%. My party vote will definitely be for Labour.
Labour is a party with vast experience/history that works for a very BROAD section of the population, has well thought out costed and responsible economic.social and environmental workable non extreme policies rather than narrow (though may be important) agendas. I think it will be a mistake in the long term for all the progressives parties if Labour is weak and the minor parties, the Greens and the Internet-Mana are equal or more prominent in the coalition. In my opinion, it is imperative that Labour must have the most votes of about at least 33% in the coalition of the partnership parties.
While I agree that having a broad left party is important (and for the sake of conversation grant the assumption that Labour currently fits that bill – cue a self-loathing labourite to enter the thread 🙂 ), that doesn’t mean that broad left policies wouldn’t be followed by a coalition with a less-dominant labour party.
Broad policies are the common ground of the left, so even if Labour didn’t exist mana and the greens, for example, would have common policy areas around minimum wage and so on. Having a broad left party ensures that this common ground is remembered and helps prevent things like cabotage falling through the policy-development cracks.
Clemgeopin, consider Lab5, the winter of discontent scare campaign, and the subsequent timidity of Labour. A left Government comprising a Green Party in the 20%+ territory, Mana on 10%+ etc will be much less likely to buckle when faced with such tactics.
It’s not so much a lack of policy agenda on the left; the ability to withstand the juggernaut from the right after the election counts as well.
If you think that was a positive poll for Labour compared to others good luck to you
The latest 3 News Reid Research Poll was good for Labour in the context of the last 4 polls (ie those of July), and a fairly average poll for Labour in the context of the last 6 weeks.
More importantly, it was above average for both the Left Bloc and the broader Opposition Bloc (Left + NZ First) in the context of both the July Polls and the Polls of the last 6 weeks.
” Certainly there is disquiet amongst Labour MP’s and not amongst National. That is a story in itself.”
yeah – thats nonsense –
there is zero evidence that this is coming from a labour MP as opposed to slater, and i do hope your going to try and claim there arent factions in national
Your comment needs some adding to it, anger can be power, there is no point banging on endlessly about the ugly media’s attacks on Labour,
Anger can be power, use the anger at the media as fuel to campaign harder, when the enemy, in this case most of the high profile media ‘personalities’ in the country see that their attacks hurt they will naturally keep on doing just that,
Three days in Queenstown brings on this anti-Cunliffe fury ? For fuck sake ! While that poncey piece of shit for a man TheGodKey minces round Hawaii for ten days auditioning for the fucking E! Channel.
On top of the ‘seminal’ matter of an eleven year old standard form letter – not different in essence from probably 10,000 letters since written by MPs duty-bound to write them – what the fuck is this nation coming to ?
I’m stopping for petrol at 6.20 this morning – some RNZ wet behind the ears puppy journalist, for all money reading from a script like she didn’t even understand what she was reading – “Mr Cunliffe, do you really want to be prime minister ?” For fuck sake ! A weekend and a day ???
I nearly cleaned up the local Caltex I’ll tell you. On account of a sudden visitation by a staccato “WinstonMediaSlap” –
Three possibilities – (1) the faceless very powerful see Cunliffe PM as REALLY threatening, (2) TheGodKey’s power-celebrity lust is REALLY pathological, (3) we as a nation REALLY are but E! Channel.
If it’s (1) the question is “What rorts are they hiding ?”, if it’s (2) the faceless in (1) own the bitch, and if it’s (3) read ‘psycho-pathological’ in (2). And agree that we’re fucked I guess !
Bugger ! I was raised to believe we had a good country……
I saw susan wood last night getting herself in a snit over some un named MP who supposedly rang her up and told her that they were angry because DC was having a break.
It all comes back to her.
why didnt she check up with someone else.
name the person wooods!
Is she a reporter or just a tattler for the tories.
This style of conducting poltiics is getting creepier and creepier.
persons like woods seem to be in control of the discourse but not of it.
But could you identify a phone call from Key when he’s got his hanky over the receiver… would be just as hard as identifying Shane Jones calling you with his mouth full of caviar..
And i notice that IMP and NZF both had their meetings this weekend and NO negative press so it’s just a targeted and concerted attack on Labour and even more importantly Cunliffe him self so who’s scared of who??
I woke up this morning at 3am with a start. I had had vivid dream that Laila Harre had just been made Prime Minister.
In my Dream Laila Harre passed through Papakura in a train. Hundreds of people were gathered on the platform to greet Prime Minister Harre. As the train slowly pulled out of the station people ran beside the moving train. I was one of them. I ran beside the train window where Laila Harre was standing. I caught her eye, there were tears in her eyes. But steel in her heart.
Laila Harre is the future that New Zealand never had.
Yesterday while Lynn Prentice was attending the New Zealand First conference I attended the Mana Road show at the Kelston community hall.
If you get a chance, attend the Mana Roadshow when it comes to your town. If it was anything like what I saw, believe me it is something you don’t want to miss and will remember forever.
It was the old style barnstorming of the 1930s reborn, the hall was packed there was standing room only. The speeches were unmassaged, unvarnished, raw. None of the speakers had had a makeover Dotcom was still as large as ever, in tracksuit and trainers, speaking a thick German accent. Harawira was still the unrepentant Maori Nationalist.
But somehow the mix had become distilled into something greater than its parts.
Dotcom spoke of how as a teenager he had hacked NASA to find out if there really were aliens. And had hacked the bundesbank to five the German Prime Minister of the time, who he didn’t like, a zero credit rating. For these crimes he was convicted. It is these convictions that the government here is holding against him. But in Germany at his sentencing the judge said you have a gift, you should make something of this gift, perhaps you could tell these companies you hacked how to protect themselves. After the court case he wrote up a business plan and presented it to the authorities, imagine his surprise when the German government despite his convictions gave him a $million dollar zero interest loan for twenty years. This government loan was the basis of his current success. This $million dollars allowed him to hire staff and start his business and within two years even though he didn’t have to, he paid the loan back. Dotcom said, this is what we should be doing in New Zealand. We should be encouraging start ups, and innovators and this is what internet Mana proposes. A large part of the meeting was about the new smart and sustainable technology. Dotcom spoke of the Internet Mana committment to full free education. What is the point he said of lumbering our best and brightest with massive debts which they have to go overseas to pay off, where they start companies and make friends and contacts and maybe meet the love of their life and never return to help make this country grow into what it could be. Laila Harre’s speech was also devoted to education and the sustainable smart technology and the need to get away from fossil fuel use. She spoke of climate change three times. Unlike David Cunliffe the leader of the Labour Party who never mentioned it once in his inaugural election speech.
But the thing was, Laila Harre wasn’t the best speaker, nor was it Kim Dotcom, nor was it Hone Harawira or Annette Sykes. Not that their speeches were bad, they were great. But the best speech of the night was from John Minto. Talk about speaking truth to power, this man has been doing it all his life. When you hear John Minto speak you know everything he says has been researched, is accurate, is thoughtful and considered and because of that compelling. If you have never heard John Minto speak, be prepared to be inspired. Be prepared to be moved, be prepared to be shaken.
Be prepared to vote.
Both Minto and Harre need to be in parliament.
If you consider yourself Left and you don’t vote Internet Mana on the list then you will miss the chance to see Annette Sykes, John Minto and Laila Harre in Parliament and the future of this country will be very dark indeed.
Well written Jenny,(except for the swipes in your usual directions), did you get to hear of future dates for the InternetMana roadshow when it gets to travel the rest of the motu,
DotCom need not waste his data searching for evidence of aliens these days, apparently said aliens were gathered in an unnamed hotel this weekend for a discussion on world domination…
There is a short break for the Internet Party’s national music tour – the Party Party from July 23-26 . Internet MANA then hits the road again in the Waikato, Taranaki, Manawatu-Whanganui and Wellington. https://www.facebook.com/InternetPartyNZ/events
THE PARTY PARTY! [NORTH ISLAND] Wednesday, July 23 The Studio, Auckland + James Cabaret, Wellington 19:30
THE PARTY PARTY! [SOUTH ISLAND] Thursday, July 24 The Foundary, Christchurch – 10 Bar, Dunedin 19:00
ROAD TRIP RESUMES Tuesday, July 29 Rotorua Distinction Hotel, 390 Fenton Street 6pm
Wednesday, July 30 Hamilton Waikato University, PriceWaterhouseCoopers Lecture Theatre 6pm
Thursday, July 31 New Plymouth New Plymouth Boys’ High School 6pm
Saturday, August 2 Whanganui War Memorial Conference Centre 2pm
Sunday, August 3 Ratana Church Service, Waipounamu St 11am
Palmerston North Convention Centre 2pm
Monday August 4 Wellington Mac’s Function Centre 6pm
I found some links to where people can buy tickets online.
Disclaimer: I do not get any commission nor am I a member of IMP! But I will be at their event this week.
Btw, if someone connected with the IMP organisers is reading this, can that Facebook link for the South Island be fixed up?
It looks like the Christchurch event has been conflated with the Dunedin event (re: “Thursday, July 24 The Foundary, Christchurch – 10 Bar, Dunedin 19:00”)
And the online links for purchasing tickets, as I have noted, should be given wider publicity to attract greater numbers.
I have no connection to IMP, other than being on a mailing list as I am with many things, but know there has been contact made about the front page dates being clarified.
Over the weekend, the Dunedin venue was changed; from Sammy’s in the rundown warehouse part of town, to 10 Bar in the Octagon. Mainly to focus more on the student audience. This means that all the publicity (posters etc) has to be updated this week – the date is still the 26th, hopefully the Facebook page will be fixed soon.
The old tickets are still valid even if they do say Sammy’s. But it does mean that some poor volunteer will have to miss the gig and stand outside Sammy’s redirecting those who haven’t got the update – hope it’s not snowing for them!
Thank you Phillip. There is a lot more I could have said. Like for instance, Te Hamua Nikora the Mana Party candidate for Ikaroa Rawhiti who acted as MC.
Te Hamua described the Mana Party as a rugby team that ran onto the field to face the All Blacks and standing in bare feet. Te Hamua introduced Kim Dotcom as the man who supplied us with boots.
Kim Dotcom’s first comments were thanking New Zealanders for coming to his aid in his time of need. He mentioned the many thousands messages of support, he mentioned the person who lent him a car when he needed one, (his whole collection had been confiscated), he mentioned the people who gave him money and bought food to his house when he didn’t have a cent to buy groceries because all his funds had been completely frozen. He said that if it hadn’t been for this outflowing of support when he most needed it he would have given up.
Dotcom said that the founding of the Internet Party had nothing to do with his extradition. He said he founded the Internet Party in gratitude as his gift to New Zealand.
“Dotcom said that the founding of the Internet Party had nothing to do with his extradition. He said he founded the Internet Party in gratitude as his gift to New Zealand.”
That’s the biggest lol of this 1% lonies taking over the asylum day on the standard.
Thanks for that.
What Mathew Hooton neglects to mention in his rants against foreigners, is that New Zealand is not a state of US, but a sovereign country. One thing you will never from Mathew Hooton is a rant against those New Zealanders who willingly and illegally intercepted our communications and passed them on to this ‘foreign power’. Or complain about our Prime Minister who all but resides in a US controlled territory, who changed the law to make this illegal mass spying on us and the handing of our megadata over to the US legal.
This review sounds very similar to a review I read recently about someone who went to listen to Hitler in 1936.
I have no doubt that Internet/Mana is something new and will turn out to be bigger than many think – but when people like Jenny carry on like a many fell for Hitler I start to worry.
Decide for me Barry, i just cant quite place your comment in an appropriate category, (a) being a bit of a Godwin there do you not think, and (b), just a piece of abject stupidity considering that no-one will be voting for DotCom,
Hint: its the policies and the front runners on the InternetMana Party List that we will be voting for…
Goodness gracious me! Even John Armstrong sounds excited! If any spies from the Labour, Green or Maori parties infiltrated yesterday’s Internet Mana rally in West Auckland, they would have come away with very worried looks on their faces.
The Maori Party, in particular, should be afraid, very afraid. The main hall of the Kelston Community Centre was packed to the gunnels. There was not so much a buzz of excitement as a raging ferment of noise as the audience waited patiently for proceedings to begin.
Say what you like about Kim Dotcom. Say what you like about Laila Harre’s initially hard-to-understand decision to team up with the internet tycoon – all that paled into utter insignificance yesterday. There was instead a hint of history being made. The chance to fund and build a new movement of the left is not an opportunity to be squandered. The likes of Kim Dotcom do not come along very often. Neither is such a collective of credible activists always on hand to run such an outfit as is the case with Internet Mana.
John Armstrong will be on gardening leave if he keeps that up. It was definitely that kind of atmosphere, not something dreamed up by the usual suspects including me, here.
As the Roadshow heads South it leaves Hone country so it will be interesting to see if the full halls so far continue, I suspect the Rotorua event will be a good one too.
—Tuesday, July 29, Rotorua, Distinction Hotel, 390 Fenton Street, 6pm—
Isn’t that a strange piece of actual journalism from that old so and so Armstrong, not so much a factual portrayal of what the main players at the event had to say but a well thought through opinion piece on the mood of those who turned up in Auckland,
(i wish such journalists would deign to do some of the real work that should be their bread and butter, like querying attendees as to IF they voted in 2011 for instance so we can gauge where the obviously growing support is likely to be coming from),
ianmac’s comment above pretty much encapsulates the whole of Armstrong’s Herald piece on the InternetMana Parties Auckland leg of the roadshow, but, who would have thunk it, you wont find the article on the main page of the Herald’s online version,
You have to ‘click on’ Opinion at the top of the page where presumably the poor panicked a/hole that edits that particular piece of trash decided to bury it…
There must be two people with the name John Minto involved in New Zealand politics.
You describe one with the words
“everything he says has been researched, is accurate, is thoughtful and considered”
Perhaps you could tell me who the other one is the produced this totally laughable contribution for The Daily Blog? This was prepared by someone who claims to be the finance spokesman for his party.
Hint. If you think it has any relationship to being “accurate, thoughtful and considered” start by looking at the difference between average and marginal rates of tax. You can continue by trying to find anything at all that is sensible about the piece.
Alwyn, the fact that the ‘wing-nuts’ disagree with John Minto simply has me doubly sure that my vote cast for InternetMana will have all the better impact,
The stuff of your nightmares right, if John Armstrong is putting out the big hint of a 5% InternetMana vote at election 2014 just how big will it get…
Did you read the article I linked to?
If so do you really think it is valid to calculate the “total tax paid” in the way he does?
Do you really not see anything wrong with it, and would you try and justify his calculations?
If so I fear there is very little hope for you.
You can vote for him if you want to. However to say that everything he says has “been researched, is accurate” etc is a joke.
You really don’t get it do you? Minto puts in a column that is the MARGINAL rate of tax, adds an estimate of GST to it and then claims that that would be the AVERAGE rate of tax.
The average income is about $52,000/year. According to Minto you would pay income tax of about $16,500 from that (31.7%)
If you look at the tax calculation in the IR3 booklet you don’t pay that at all. What you do pay on $52,000 taxable income is $8,620. That is only about half the amount.
The silly fellow is quoting marginal rates and then treating them as average rates.
I suppose the true believers, such as yourself accept, his numbers so why shouldn’t he just continue to spout his fantasies.
This is fairly typical of his methods of course. You will note that in his article he makes no attempt to justify his claim that the very rich pay negligible tax. Why bother. His fans happily accept anything he says.
Alwyn, i will say this slooo–ooowly for you as you seem to be a little slow today, you know when on the ‘course’ you hear the yelled ‘four’, you are supposed to take cover, being struck repeatedly by objects moving at speed will leave you brain damaged,
The argument you put up comes down to this, you do not agree with John Minto, therefor my counter argument is i do agree with John Minto, you propose nothing else than this,
Bill Rosenberg the CTU economist did the actual research which pointed out the unfairness of the tax system, the circular argument has been going round and round ever since,
While i understand what both Minto and Rosenberg are on about such arguments can never become a ‘settled truth’ as both left and right continue to talk past each other using differing data to base their conclusions upon,
On a more visceral level i fully understand how the tax burden impacts on me to a far greater extent than those swinging from the income tree at a higher level than myself,
Directly addressing income inequality starting at the level of the beneficiary will of course resolve the issues John Minto and Bill Rosenberg canvas,
The imposition of the living wage for every adult currently not in receipt of such monies weekly, including beneficiaries, would be the ‘fix’ that i tend to see as the ideal…
Annette’s sharp ae, Marama Davidson of the Green Party also has such a sharp mind, i will suggest that when ‘the roadshow’ hits Rotorua that will be the start of the waiata starting the tangi for the Maori Party,
Polling 2.5% on my TV last night and from a Reid Research Poll at that, i am starting to sniff 5% for InternetMana and if i allow myself an ‘in my wildest dreams moment’ this could get Big…
3% to 4% on the day which counts would be a magnificent achievement. 4-5 MPs. Anything beyond that is really a dream, but they also have a tonne of challenges to get through first, esp Sept 15.
The zombie ‘living dead’ author of that opinion piece is trying to make the best out of a worrying situation for National.
He focuses exclusively about the Left in the piece but does not say that Nats are very concerned about the groundswell of support for IMP.
IMP is now the party that is cool and the Prime Puppet of the Nat Party is no longer cool. He has long given up his show of ‘smile and wave’ that is now replaced by the routine of lie and feck off to Hawaii.
At my workplace, the Nat parents are saying their kids who will be voting are supporting IMP. Good on them. Let’s wish them a good time at IMP’s “Party Party – The Global Movement”:
If the party party engages more young people politically, and gets them voting, then that’s a very good thing.
Armstrong opens his article by focusing on putting an IMP wedge into the left. You are right, Kiwiri, that JA is transferring his fears of IMP taking the momentum from right wing parties. Must be giving him a few sleepless hours.
You do know that the list and electorate votes never match up. And that Maori seats have a lot less voters and so exaggerate the effect. Basically Harra gets in if the Mana gets One MP and a large Mana list vote, but if Mana takes all the Maori seats the Harra needs a much greater list vote than she would have needed if those were the same number of general seats. i.e. the harder she worked, the more traction she gets is hurt by the more Moari electorate seats Mana wins!!!
Yet its worse!
KimDotCom is a rich white european, working general seater voters are not his natural supporters especially since he gave Banks donations!!! Banks being an ACT party leader!
Now your Maori voter has no such fear since the more Mana seats in the Maori electorate the more likely even Harra wont get into parliament, and so no Dotcom.
Party Vote Green, Vote Mana in the Maori seats, Labour in the general seats. And Key LOSES.
Notice that Key referred to a “Senior Labour MP.” Wonder where he got that from?
In any case it seems so unlikely that an MP would cut his own lifeline in a confidential chat to a journalist. I still think the source was someone like Cameron Slater.
In a different world Internet Mana would be duking it out with the Greens as the lead opposition party in this election because it is unequivocally left and embracing the new. Hard lefties have sniffed at the “libertarian” edge to the Internet Party but the mostly working class Westie audience had loud applause for free tertiary and universal internet access policies and online policy creation by members. Plus No to TPPA, Royal Commission on all the spooks, independent foreign policy, moratorium on extractive activities, tax free first $27,000 and so on.
The IMP Roadshow Kelston edition was exceptional for a political meeting from the set up with King Kapisi. Professionally staged but a live feel. The leaders and lead candidates complemented each other well, the body language said these people like each other and are having fun, sounds unbelievable doesn’t it in these sometimes turgid columns.
Te Hamua Nikora MC’ed in a stand up style aimed at including everyone while managing not to be condescending. As Laila reminded, the hall had seen the launch and conclusion of many successful political campaigns before during Alliance days including bringing a full hospital to Waitakere and fighting the sale of Ports of Auckland.
Best speaker for me was Annette Sykes, punchy style with a lawyers grasp of detail. Minto is widely liked too by the very people Key and torys spit on. IMP is a small player but will likely deservedly help decide the election result. Get to a Roadshow event if you can.
free tertiary and universal internet access policies and online policy creation by members. Plus No to TPPA, Royal Commission on all the spooks, independent foreign policy, moratorium on extractive activities, tax free first $27,000 and so on.
Pretty much all Green Party policies – may be slight differences in the finer details, but the GP have worked long on making the policies workable.
“]1] free tertiary and universal internet access policies and online policy creation by members. [2] Plus No to TPPA, [3] Royal Commission on all the spooks, [4] Independent foreign policy, [5] moratorium on extractive activities, [6] tax free first $27,000 and so on.”
[1] Great policy. If financially doable is an important question.
[2] That is jumping the gun blindly before we even know the details.
[3] Agree.
[4] With fair, just and friendly non aligned relations with all nations, guided by the UN principles.
[5] Dumb policy.
[6] (a) Reduces government income drastically affecting services (b) If not targeted to the
poor and low income families, will be a gift to everyone, including the wealthy.
[2] The TPPA has been irredeemably hi-jacked by US corporate imperialism. There needs to be another way that maintains NZ’s independence.
[5] It’s not dumb at all. It will put a break on overseas companies that the Nats have been empower into extracting NZ resources. It will create time for a clear and in depth look at the way forward.
[6] Both the Greens and Mana have other policies to offset the lost tax revenue. eg Greens favour Capital Gains and Tobin taxes, plus , for other reasons, and ecological tax. A tax free threshold is a smart and simple policy. Aussie has a tax free threshold and it works for them (albeit for a lower amount).
2). I’d say that having the government signing it without any input from the people of NZ is jumping the gun. In fact, it’s totally undemocractic.
4.) Agreed. Total neutrality is NZ’s best option
5.) Disagree. We need to keep that wealth for the following generations.
6.) (a) Only if it’s not offset by other taxes. (b) They’ve specifically said that they will be taxing the rich more and introducing a financial transaction tax.
Also as above Tiger, well written, same question, any intimation of future dates when the roadshow, after the announced break, continues down the motu…
Internet Mana Roadshow dates and venues are on this page bad and others; https://internet.org.nz/news/64
Will check some of the vids available from Kelston and post links later if suitable.
Cheers Tiger, befor i click on the link, every other time i have tried to get to the Internet Party website my computer hits a blank wall,(if you have the time publishing the dates would be a big help),
Just heard, again on my wireless, a fair and balanced report, sorry forgot the name of the reporter from the weekends event,
The audience was described as diverse, a plus in my eyes showing a wide cross section of support,(would have been nice if the reporter had of identified if those spoken to were ‘fence sitters’ in 2011),
They played audio of part of DotCom’s speech, hopefully He is included in the rest of the roadshow as He brings the human face to His supposed crimes which has the audience obviously warming to Him,
InternetMana putting a definite buzz into election 2014, they have my Party Vote…
Edit: yeah Tiger it is like i said above, i just get a blank white page with four purple squares…
That second line they put out on Facebook is a bit garbled.
The reference has conflated the Christchurch and Dunedin events.
The Christchurch event is at the Foundry (Bar), not Foundary, which I take it to be at 90 Ilam Road, that is a student bar on the Univ of Canterbury campus.
The Dunedin event will be taking place a couple of days later at the 10Bar (not Sammy’s as reported at some stage?).
The Christchurch event goes from 7pm-1am; the Dunedin one goes from 8:30pm-3am.
I found some info for buying tickets online and posted them at 2.1.2.2.1.
Their organiser should take another look at and double check the various info put out through their press releases, eg scoop.co.nz, their Facebook page and elsewhere online.
They moved the Dunedin venue to something nicer and more appropriate (thanks for the heads up, Pasupial). That is clever and a good call.
Yes, the weather might not be very nice and so perhaps they should have a shuttle outside the old venue to ferry people in case some turn up there. That would build up even more political capital and goodwill.
The Foundry in Ilam or the Foundry in Woolston? One is in the middle of Brownlees urban middle blue sinkhole, the other in the middle of touch-and-go Port Hills working class earthquake-forgotten hard arses (though the local Foundry occupied by Ilam types).
Lolz, and i thought i had Wellington sussed, Mac’s function centre, never heard of it, will Google it up later and post some reminders here in ‘Open Mike’ in the days leading up to the Wellington event…
Lower Taranaki St, Cable St intersection on the waterfront near Te Papa.
Big red brick building. Entry to function centre on Taranaki St side opposite Circa Theatre
Jenny, phil and others. Great to hear about the Internet Mana roadshow first hand. (Good to know I’m not the only who has political dreams) What a breath of fresh air they are!
May they sweep through our islands collecting the hearts and minds of the disenchanted, the young, the hopeful, and the forgotten.
May the fantastic line up of the party party shake the foundations of their venues with their sound. Wake the town and tell the people!
May Laila return to parliament, in power, with Annette and Hone at her side. ( I have a soft spot for Laila, she is a former employer. She is a determined, a quick and strategic thinker and has bucket loads of energy, I could never fathom where she got it all from. I’m guessing she’s in her element right now)
I like hearing about all the positive campaigning events happening around the country. Keep it up comrades.
Good to read the comments of the Internet Party’s second-ranked candidate, Chris Yong:
“In recent years, I’ve become quite disillusioned with our government. I feel they just don’t have the interests of New Zealanders at heart. Despite public concerns they pushed through state asset sales, are happy to risk our natural environment with deep sea oil drilling, and breached our right to privacy under the Bill of Rights with mass surveillance.
“Further to that, the cost of living especially in Auckland is crippling. An average income earner cannot afford an average priced home, financial stress is a huge problem affecting many people.”
Slippery the Prime Minister via my wireless this morning intimating that He will be announcing a decision on what National intend to do about the East Coast Bays seat next week,
Winston Peters, also via my wireless, strangely not being so certain today of contesting the above mentioned seat,
Colon the ‘honestly why don’t you believe me, we are not loonies, Conservative, also via you know what announcing not only that the Conservatives are fully transparent,(like P 🙄 G everyone sees right through them), but, the bottom line isn’t really a bottom line,(and apparently there’s lots of people out there that do not believe that the Conservatives are loonies, so there)…
And Slippery was nicely nailed by Espiner this AM on whether he knew about Dotcom earlier. Espiner said Coleman knew about Dotcom 2 years before Key and asked Key if Coleman had told him about Dotcom. Key came back saying that this was not true to which Espiner said it was true. Cue lots of panic blather from Key at that point, including Key saying he would refuse to resign even if he had lied about this.
Bearded Git, thanks for filling in the gaps, i caught the bit where Slippery the Prime Minister said He wouldn’t resign even if DotCom produces the smoking gun,
Between the pair of them, Slippery and Espinner, my ears had tuned out the salient points your comment addresses,
That FF-ing Espinner sounds more and more like a Manic that the shrinks have on the wrong brand of anti-depressants, His delivery is far more suited to the fare-welling of cadavers from a funeral home than addressing the nation via National Radio,
my poor old much verbally abused wireless is now in danger of suffering the further indignity of actual physical harm from having that Dee-rrrr droning at me for the mornings news hour…
To be fair he stated that they have investigated the matter and could find no evidence of any connection before when he stated he heard of him. He then said there might be something out there he was unaware of at this stage and if this came to light he wasn’t going to resign over it.
Hollow words from a Prime Minister who has stated repeatedly he cannot remember his view on the Springbok Tour, or when exactly he made trades for Andrew Krieger or that he promised not to raise G.S.T or that he will stand by the Pike River families or that no-one in Christchurch will face the struggle alone.
Why do you still stand behind the bunting, excitedly waving your little blue and yellow flags?
If in a couple of weeks the PM announces that they had to refuse entry to Greenwald for whatever reason, will you also refute he said the following about whether Greenwald would be allowed into the country?
“I don’t know actually, it’s a legitimate question but there’s nothing we’d be concerned with there,” Key said on Breakfast.
Wondered what Key’s line would be when he is finally snookered on Dotcom issues.
He could probably squiggle out if it was only about timeline “I had to choose Hobbits over nasty union members, I did it for you, so not lying, national interest ”. Sadistic torys would vote for him anyway with pleasure.
BUT, unfortunately for ShonKey this involves NSA, FBI, Five Eyes, US Corporates, MPAA, NZ security agencies and him as minister and Prime Minister. Mr Dotcom seeming to further delve into the Snowden haul may turn up something in that direction showing incontrovertibly that the NZ state security forces and government were used to directly intervene on behalf of offshore corporates.
If the Prime Minister of New Zealand undermining the countrys sovereignty, parliament, surveillance and labour laws on behalf of a foreign power is not of major concern to citizens then I don’t know what would be.
I believe that even if Dotcom has evidence of everything Tiger Mountain says it will not affect National’s vote. It might affect IMP’s turnout though.
The way to win this election is to put in the hard yards, not rely on magic bullets. Put it this way: Martyn Bradbury has predicted it will be a game changer.
I am sure if Mr Dotcom’s revelations involve external and internal spying agencies and a provable linkage to Key then he will have the PM well and truly screwed. However I doubt he has that level of detail.
When the following story broke the exclusion of any references to NZ agencies was commented on in social networks, with Greenwald’s network alluding there was ‘more to come at a later date’. September 15 qualifies as a later date. Who knows, maybe it’s all a big Dotcom conspiracy and the US and the UK and Canada never did any of what the extensive collections of released documents detail.
For those who want a bit more insight as to what makes Glenn Greenwald tick,
here is a blog which has an extensive archive http://utdocuments.blogspot.com.br/
Hilarious. Key and his office are laying the groundwork for being proved wrong on this. It will end up all being a paperwork mistake and the fault of some middle tier public service official.
This is exactly why Internet Mana have chosen a date close to the election, so that it resonates loudly when a lot of undecided will be listening most carefully. Key and his loyal media servants are all trying to force the information out earlier so they have more time to manage the fallout.
There must be some desperate calls from the ninth floor to Crosby Textor. Key is in danger of misreading the undecided vote on this issue. Trustworthiness is important to fair-minded New Zealanders (but not so much to existing right wing voters).
The biggest disadvantage now for Key is Dotcom’s alliance and access to Snowden and Greenwald who actually know much more about everything than Key or Crosby Textor ! This is a game-changer .. can’t wait for justice to breathe free once again in our little precious islands. Kia Kia, Kim !
lol Fender ! There would always be the option of Skyping him in, or similar. Oh, how small and tiny, plus internationally notorious the Shonkey govt will appear if they try to block a respected British journalist from entry !
Totally agree, this is collective punishment by the dirty filthy Israeli army. Surely the most blatant genocide style attack since the Tamil massacre in Sri Lanka.
Resistance and non compliance with the Zionist illegal occupation is defence.
I despair for the Palestinians and Arabs under Jewish occupation. To the state of Israel to perpetrate crimes against humanity in this manner is to ape and condone what was done to their forbears in Europe by another evil regime. They will of course deny it, label Arabs terrorists. If you want terror try being a child playing soccer on a beach being blown to shreds by a terrorist state.
The only way to stop this is for the Jewish adherents of the state of Israel to face truth with honour and say enough is enough to their people. It is to late for the dead: it is never too late for the living.
Because it’s effectively a treasonous organisation. It promotes the interests of a foreign state above the interests of the United States.
I would have thought that doctrinaire conservatives would oppose the existence of an organisation which is designed to get the US to funnel taxpayers’ money to a foreign state which then acts in ways which frustrate US interests in the region.
Hell, that same country was allowed to attack an American naval vessel and kill many of its crew with complete impunity. It spies on the United States and we have good reason to believe it has stolen nuclear materials from US labs.
And all of this just to indulge the far right racialist fantasies of a minority of American Jews. A fantasy that sees a third of the current ruling coalition of Israel comprised of openly racist parties (as opposed to the Likud, which is racist, but not openly).
“Even John Kerry has had enough (see his recent off mic outburst}”
Not yet quite enough though to challenge the status quo or his comfort zone. Airforce 2 is not exactly uncomfortable
Maybe a few more Net yer Nah Who? (I dunno – it’s all somebody else’s fault – WE’RE the victims here – besides I’m reading from a CroZTextor script) bloodied 4 year olds with the back of their heads blown off deserve it cos they’re the sons or daughters of tearists.
Even then though ? Not if there’s a plausible excuse and explanation that – either it didn’t happen; OR it was a proportional response.
Gawd that red blood is luvly ain’t it – we should ALL roll in it [Ooooo yea – it’s really really turning me on! gimme more MORE].
Obamarama roll and tumble (with Tacho Bell, KFC, a bit of Mick Chicken and some Black Water salad dressing on the side).
Luvly.
Oh … btw Ya ALL – we’re the good guys: we’re centrist – NOT fascist RW those “far left cunts” opposed to that MSM you muddle class subscribe to. If you’re not convinced – just consider how wonderful our weekly efforts are on Q+A, and the Nation, and Rinny Ryan’s fair and balanced Mondays.
We’re the fair and balanced, the average NewZulluner, the voice of the people, the in-touch, the 4h Estate even – AND we’re fukkin gorgeous with it. Why even our stance on that silly bitch Tania Billingsly says it all – we’re y’avrijde bloke.
Like I’ve said elsewhere – the tipping point is nigh – probably closer to 2017 though – and there’ll be a shitload of squeeling pigs and “wasn’t me’s” when it comes around.
Sadly – I probably won’t be around to witness it
You will find that every Labour party activist was putting up billboards on Saturday. Mana had the privilege of paying someone to put theirs up. Honest the Dotcom money is a boon for them but it is also a threat to them.
Not in Owairaka Auckland they didn’t Micky, Internet Mana candidate Joe Carolan had a crew of around a dozen out at a frozen 2am putting their signs up. Kelston Internet Mana Roadshow ads were put up by volunteers too. Can’t comment on other Mana branches yet.
People are stretched but a couple of people and a banner or sign should be able to be spared by all left parties for important events such as Gaza solidarity.
Hi TM. I and most members are fully opposed to Israel’s attacks on Palestine. You just have to see my own posts on the subject to see this. I am normally the first at a protest but Saturday was a busy day.
Apologies to Comrade Joe. I had thought that the speed that their signs had appeared meant that they had used paid help. I was still in bed at 2 am!
You will have to give up sleeping for the duration of the campaign. If it is good enough for the party leader to work 18 hours every day it is good enough for you to follow his example.
Unless David Cunliffe has a different definition of “working” to most people he clearly won’t be sleeping at all.
Tiger Mountain, I have a lot of respect for Internet Mana (as per enthusiastic post above) but I would question the wisdom of going about the neighbourhood at 2am banging away at a hoarding with a hammer.
A chronic insomniac like me finally gets off to sleep at 1 – 2am and who wakes at the slightest sound would be not well pleased to hear a hammer banging away outside. Nor would it please the sleep deprived mother who is catching a bit of sleep between feeds for her young baby, nor the shift worker who has to get up at 3.30am to get to work.
@kiwiri
LOL very satirical and ironical. They welcome bright people with alternative approaches at IMP – why not roll up to the Party that’s on its way up in the elevator.
National wouldn’t let you ride in its elevator, the Greens wouldn’t use it to encourage personal effort and save energy, Labour had an elevator but they lost it somewhere, and are waiting for it to come back dragging it’s tail behind it.. IMP could be the coalition for you.
Mickysavage – what evidence do you have that Mana paid people to put up their billboards? I’ve seen quite a few photos of ordinary Mana members making them, and erecting them.
Not a good look, micky. We really need a bit more cooperation against Key.
Internet Mana are rising. The Greens will be solid. Labour will go over 30% plus extra seats in Chch and elsewhere. NZ First will go over 5% easy. MP bye bye.
National will flounder in the mid-high 40%s. Act and Dunne are down the dunny.
The left bloc will have the numbers by at least two imo.
But this still wont be easy. The rest of NZ will scream from the top of their lungs about the mismatch of putting together so many small parties. The cries and wailing will be alarming. The left bloc will immediately be put on the defensive.
The left bloc must have a plan to combat this immediately on the night of the election – and come out fighting hard and strong for the people. No apology, no hand-wringing, no mutters of ‘it wont be that bad’, no backing down.
Agreed vto. IMHO no-mates apart from loonies National will poll 43/44%. That is good, but not good enough to stop Cunliffe from being PM. It’s called MMP.
For whatever it’s worth, iPredict has National on 43%, Labour on 32%, Greens on 11%. Minor parties combined come to 14%, with NZFirst on 5.3%. Weirdly iPredict is still largely in favour of a National win, despite the percentages above strongly favouring the left.
Personally I feel that if a govt can be formed from the four parties of the left it needs to have a greater majority than one or two seats. My fear been that if all four parties are needed things could become fractious and dysfunctional quickly. If NZs first experience with a full on coalition govt is a poor one long term damage could ensue. It is vital I would have thought that Labour poll at least 35% then forming a coalition with all left parties instead of leaving one or two out in the cold. Hopefully then there will be a big enough majority to allow the smaller parties to disagree with one another on occasion without causing major disruption.
Not nearly as fractious and dysfunctional as National trying to cobble something together, with, say NZ First – now that would be a circus!
But I agree – all the left parties need to be in there together – none of this cherry-picking I keep hearing
If NZs first experience with a full on coalition govt is a poor one long term damage could ensue.
It’s not. NZFirst’s one, and only, coalition collapse was with National in 1996 to 1998. Considering NZFirst’s policies they can’t go with National this time at all. They basically have two options: Sitting on the cross benches and voting issue by issue or going into coalition with Labour.
I like your 2 cents vto. I also agree their will resistance from the media and some sectors of society at a Left bloc win. They know such a win means no more same old same old instead something bold, something bold!
In such a case we have to collectively stand and be proud of the change we bring. No apologies.
Who knows! Just imagine that the National voters begin to realise that National will not be able to form a government and therefore decide to switch their votes to Labour for stability and collapse the National party vote to 30% minus and Labour vote to 52% plus! oops, just musing!
My dream has the Labour right defecting after the election to form a new group who will look at taxation policy and reduce income tax, increase GST and introduce a financial transactions tax that should have been done when GST was introduced in the first place. A UBI would be okay by me too.
I guess neither of us are going to wake up happy on 21 September 2014.
Wrote to Steve Kilgallon yesterday asking about the inaccuracies in his article, why it needed to be edited by another reporter, and what he was trying to achieve. This is his response.
(Weepus beard)
You’re confusing me with someone with an agenda. I have none. I just report interesting stories. The story is genuine and the source is real. Whether you like what they say or not is up to you. As regards my career and job prospects, you’re best directing such enquiries to my editor
All the best
Steve
It’s convenient for some journalists to hide behind claims of impartiality whenever they get a bit of flack for sloppy work. Does beg the question: if Steve is not someone with an agenda, is he not going to vote in September?
Interesting comment from Brent Edwards: Seems the consensus of opinion among his Caucus sources is that it was not one of the MPs who talked to the SST.
yep Anne, and I liked the text to Morning Report that said that nobody kicked up a fuss when Key went on holiday to Hawaii for 10 days, but when Cunliffe has 3 days off (among New Zealanders) with his young family suddenly this is an issue.
Maybe for the next 9 weeks we should bombard Morning Report with texts particularly where they are showing bias? It all helps.
On what basis would Radio NZ National be biased against Labour? The organisation is supposedly an independent State entity that doesn’t need funding from the ‘evil’ private sector.
Yeah supporting National Key doesn’t mean you are anti-Labour does it, but it sure helps avoid a throat-slitting gesture come your way and will ensure you get more work than Bradley Ambrose….
I think he was referring to the nasty/disgusting/uncouth/undignified throat cutting gesture that Key once made in parliament against a Labour leader.
Remember that?
The MSM did not even crtisise the dear leader then.
Just imagine if Mr Cunliffe had made that gesture to Key!
It was reported. Key was even asked what he was meaning by the gesture and he gave a response. You might not agree with his response but what do you want the media to do? Should they basically editorialise that it was a terrible thing despite his denial?
“You might not agree with his response but what do you want the media to do? Should they basically editorialise that it was a terrible thing despite his denial?”
If that’s the way they usually treat everything the Leader of the Opposition does, which it is, then yes.
let’s see – one incident involved our prime minister’s expression of concern for a chap who tried to leap from the parliamentary gallery, the other involved police raiding press offices just days before the election in order to shield government ministers from disgrace.
I can see how an ethically-challenged sociopath might not recall those events (let alone outraged), but what’s your excuse you tory shill – oh, fair enough then, no further excuse needed.
Why would what goes on air be biased against Labour though? Even if National has somehow infiltrated the organisation via political appointees at the senior level (something I have seen NO opposition politician complaining about it has to be pointed out) how they can influence the editorial decision of the news team is unclear. Does this mean the majority of the journalists working at Radio NZ National are suspect then? How will this be rectified unless you implement a politically inspired cleanse this time from the left?
I noted that The Fan Club made a brief comment yesterday after a lengthy absence. I seem to remember he/she may have been banned for bad behaviour, but still it’s interesting he/she should reappear on the post “Collective Renewal”. As a self-described “Labour insider” and Cunliffe hater, one has to wonder what he/she might know about the source of the SST story.
of course it wasn’t.
it was all fabricated by that creepy little hooton looking so smug as it went down on Q&A Sunday morning and susan woods is complicit.
WB @9.2.1 I also emailed Steve and said I didn’t believe the story and I thought he had made it up. He denied this and refused to name his source, so I asked him if had check out the story with the MP whom the senior advisor quoted.
@Weepus beard
Feed the Steve guy some interesting stories. He is obviously an open mouth at a fairground just waiting for a well-placed ball, or perhaps a trained seal waiting for a fish, and doesn’t care whether it’s smelly or not.
I see discussion in the Work Life Balance thread yesterday about denigrating comment from some within Labour against David Cunliffe being printed in The Hairy or somewhere like. Shocking – I hope that there is a Cluedo search with appropriate punishment meted, when it is seen where this arose.
And I noticed Guy Le Spinner this morning saying something about Labour MPs having a ‘crisis’ meeting and then there was a reasoned explanation given, that it was a replacement for the usual meeting which would have been time limited by other commitments.
this is all crap.
I suspect it is all concerted by boaghootoncrosbytext.
as somebody said earlier here it is time to start flooding switchboards with complaints.
if supposed reputable organisations start playing the partisan card then they must be held responsible for their actions.
grey-Kathryn Ryan repeated the “crisis” tab in the politics discussion on Nine to Noon, where as you say this description had already been shown to be rubbish on Morning Report.
Either Ryan is badly briefed or she is simply being her Tory self and getting it wrong on purpose.
I see the news is reporting that DC had lunch with the name suppressed sex offender. Whilst I have been heavily critical of him previously, I have a lot of sympathy for him on this one.
I have met this bloke once (I won’t say any thing that could identify him) when my ex wife and another couple were on holiday. He was totally sex obsessed, and insisted on showing us a sick video clip of a dominatrix kicking some restrained guy in the goolies. But he was also a high energy and engaging bloke. He would have no problem greasing his way into any setting, especially men of middle age or above.
This is one of the problems of the ridiculous name suppression laws, especially as in this case the victim wanted his name published.
Why didn’t his staff do the leg work to identify whether the person was dodgy or not? It should be easy enough to do and would have been the sensible course of action especially if you have lunch with them.
Agreed as fun as it is kicking Cunliffe when hes down and keeping the foot on his throat this is something that he has no control over rather its the dumb ass suppression laws we have in this country
I would think Audrey Young could be called to account for the fact that her story about the sex offender was hidden behind another innocent headline, I nearly didn’t click through, then wished I hadn’t because I spent some time in confusion trying to place the relevance of the second headline – had we gone back in a time warp of some sort ? Wish I knew how to access that protected person’s name – I am so burned up with curiosity now !
I know that Cunliffe wants all the votes he can get in his New Lynn electorate. But it sure is strange that he has his hoardings up in Phil Goff’s Roskill electric proclaiming “Vote Cunliffe for New Lynn” Look out Phil, the carpet bagger is about. An Labour thinks it could run the country?
[You are an idiot. Both electorates are contiguous. And the main roads have people travelling through Mount Roskill into New Lynn – MS]
It’s not on a main road. It’s on a through road in the centre of the Roskill electorate. I know I may be an idiot but I am also a swinging voter but not such an idiot that I do not know where the electorate boundaries are. 🙂
‘taint politics i know, but, i gotta give a big ups to Lydia Ko for Her latest winning round of golf,
i couldn’t play the game to save myself, what i try to hit hard as far as golf balls go pretty much turns out to be limp but i can drive a putt miles past its intended destination,
No such problems for that young lady and i had the pleasure of watching the free to air sports channel on my TeeVee one night which featured a whole tournament on the Asian circuit which Ko won just befor turning pro,
Relentless is the best description of the way She run down the front runner of that tournament who at the point where the final round started was 9 shots in front of Her…
At last! I had to read right through this series of posts to come to one that addresses the important things in life.
Everyone else is obsessed with the trivia of politics. You and I appear to be the only ones who appreciate the magnificent display by Lydia. She makes it look so easy doesn’t she?
Indeed, watching her play there’s nothing overly flash about how she goes about the game its just the consistency with which she puts herself in a position of maybe birdying the hole and Her ability when she is on Her game to do just that,
The tournament in Asia which i comment on above had me watching with fascination as all round Her there were some amazing golf shots by the other competitors but none of them could deliver a continual flurry of such golfing shots,
I was wrong!!! The Standard did post my comment. I enjoy putting a burr under the saddle on tunnel vision Labour people. I do the same for National on their site. Great fun. Have a good one MS.
Didn’t realise this was a Labour site. When did that change happen and can somebody let all the greens, IMPers and unaligned others who post the majority of comments here know?
I used today’s Open Mike to draw attention to what I regard as an excellent essay on the mess globalised capitalism has gotten itself into, including growing inequality. The ‘problem’ of democracy is addressed therein, vis:
” Only in the Cold War world did capitalism and democracy seem to become aligned with one another, as economic progress made it possible for working-class majorities to accept a free-market, private-property regime, in turn making it appear that democratic freedom was inseparable from, and indeed depended on, the freedom of markets and profit-making. Today, however, doubts about the compatibility of a capitalist economy with a democratic polity have powerfully returned. Among ordinary people, there is now a pervasive sense that politics can no longer make a difference in their lives, as reflected in common perceptions of deadlock, incompetence and corruption among what seems an increasingly self-contained and self-serving political class, united in their claim that ‘there is no alternative’ to them and their policies. One result is declining electoral turnout combined with high voter volatility, producing ever greater electoral fragmentation, due to the rise of ‘populist’ protest parties, and pervasive government instability.”
It’s a long essay but well worth the time if you have it:
[lprent: And it is completely off-topic for this post. So moved back to back to OpenMike. Don’t do a diversion comment again or I will ban you. At present the ban time is getting longer the closer we get to the election. ]
Thanks for that link. Politics is divorced from most people’s lives, which trundle on whichever party is at the helm. There is growing instability and eccentricity at the fringes, but with no big-ticket issue like asset sales, I would be surprised if 2014 doesn’t garner a lower turn out than 2011.
Caught up with an old friend recently, a teacher, who has never evinced much interest in politics. This election she will vote National, despite criticising the party for wrecking the public education system. Seems counter-intuitive in the extreme. National’s wrecking of education affects her career, and her family (she has children), while surely education is critical to the ‘standard of living’ she credits National with upholding. She will vote National to ensure continuation of the status quo; it was like there was no alternative. It’s disturbing, people seem inured to the damage being wrought in their own lives from National’s policies, let alone being able to grasp the big picture.
Not related but Cuncliffe is gonna be having a live chat on stuff in a couple of hours – http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10290443/David-Cunliffe-live-chat
He might need a little help fending of the assholes who are bound to show up and hassle him about the infamous ‘holidays’ and other bullshit news from the MSM.
[lprent: Off-topic. Moved to OpenMike. Banned for 3 weeks. ]
Really??? Are you stating half the workforce of a significant sector of the economy that was State owned has been forced to relocate offshore by a direct government decision? Which sector is that then?
Hillside is hardly a significant sector of the economy. It certainly was providing any major export income for the nation unlike the oil sector in Venezuela.
So it wasn’t affecting our exports then? Your argument could equally be used to support industries that we used to have here like television and car assembly. Do you think we should have continued to support those?
You must have been asleep, Gosman, over the last few years in New Zealand, as all our skilled young people left for Australia, our graduate students left to pursue study offshore as their funding was cut, and most of our best researchers, engineers and scientists, left for places where they are appreciated.
We have lots of “managers” accountants and lawyers, though……..
If you read the article you will find out it was the loss of those managers you seem to deride that have caused the problem of the stagnating oil industry in Venezuela.
the problem with Venezuela is that it is a criminal state.
New Zealand is heading down that path now under a national government.
New Zealand is also always under threat from conspiracy jobs, and other nutjobs who are against everything and ready and willing to resort to violence when they dont get their own way.
The country needs a proper makeover and its time for decent people to get back in charge.
“A public school turf war has broken out in the quiet Auckland suburbs of Greenlane and Remuera.
“Parents from two elite Auckland public schools are up in arms after learning of a proposal to put them in an overlapping zone with two lower decile schools.”
“Parent Matthew Hooton owns a house in the proposed overlap and says the consultation has been “wholly unsatisfactory”.”
“You live in this area because you pay $100,000 more for your house so you can access Epsom Girls Grammar and Auckland Grammar School,” he said.”
“Any perceived threat to these zones will be met with fierce resistance.”
What ? You mean the sons and daughters of the scum Matty ?
To the ramparts ye broken, abused, ill-treated Entitled. And no smirking. They won’t take us seriously !
Could be worse Matty – you might’ve just had your bennie slashed in half – no lunch for the kids let alone a school befitting your ‘station’.
Alwyn and bad12, yeah good on Lydia but golf is only a pastime, now try leading the whole Tour de France field for 20 metres short of 220kms. Thats hard work and heartbreaking. Good on you Jack Bauer, your day will come.
I’ve lost it with GT cycling – I’m fed up with watching riders cruise all day in the peloton or get towed along by teammates, and then put in a bit of an effort in the last 10 or 20k to pull off stage wins they really haven’t worked for.
And while Nabali is a good rider – all his possible contenders are out of the race. All he has to do is not fall asleep from boredom and fall off his bike.
Barry at 2.1,.4 (since a reply button is not forthcoming)
Can you tell me where and when that ‘something you heard’ was?
Please – can we engage with the fukwit Barry a bit more? As in get him to actually put his money where his mouth is? I’m intrigued.
i think the media are not conscious of their bias. they have a huuuuuuugggggeeeee. disconnect with the majority of nz. they are biased before the get go. they wont be kind to the left until the left becomes the right. to them socialism is debunked and the neo-lib way is the only way. and they assume this is the view of the whole country. its an issue of culture and sub-concious.
case in point was the commenter here “liam hehir”, who carries the same name as a columnist in a regional rag. The columnist said they didn’t write about labour’s positivies because it was a true reflection of Labour’s lack of positives, not because the columnist was biased.
Read the list of conditions published in the name of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and judge honestly whether there is one unjust demand among them.
Rafah Crossing
Palestinians from Gaza at the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing last week. One of Hamas’ demands is to have internationa… / Photo by Reuters
By Gideon Levy
Published 13:23 20.07.14
After we’ve said everything there is to say about Hamas: that it’s fundamentalist; that it’s undemocratic; that it’s cruel; that it does not recognize Israel; that it fires on civilians; that it’s hiding ammunition in schools and hospitals; that it did not act to protect the population of Gaza – after all that has been said, and rightly so, we should stop for a moment and listen to Hamas; we may even be permitted to put ourselves in its shoes, perhaps even to appreciate the daring and resilience of this, our bitter enemy, under harsh conditions.
But Israel prefers to shut its ears to the demands of the other side, even when those demands are right and conform to Israel’s own interests in the long run. Israel prefers to strike Hamas without mercy and with no purpose other than revenge. This time it is particularly clear: Israel says it does not want to topple Hamas – even Israel understands that instead it will have Somalia at its gates – but it is also unwilling to listen to Hamas’ demands. Are they all “animals”?
Let’s say that’s true. But they are there to stay, even Israel believes that’s the case, so why not listen?
Last week 10 conditions were published in the name of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, for a 10-year cease-fire. We may doubt whether these were in fact the demands of those organizations, but they can serve as a fair basis for an agreement.
There is not one unfounded condition among them.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad demand freedom for Gaza. Is there a more understandable and just demand?
There is no way to end the current cycle of killing, and not have another round in a few months, without accepting this.
No military operation, by air, ground or sea, will bring a solution; only a basic change of attitude toward Gaza can ensure what everyone wants: quiet.
Read the list of demands and judge honestly whether there is one unjust demand among them
_________________________
withdrawal of Israel Defense Forces troops and allowing farmers to work their land up to the fence;
release of all prisoners from the Gilad Shalit swap who have been rearrested;
an end to the siege and opening of the crossings
opening of a port and airport under UN management
expansion of the fishing zone
international supervision of the Rafah crossing;
an Israeli pledge to a 10-year cease-fire and closure of Gaza’s air space to Israeli aircraft;
permits to Gaza residents to visit Jerusalem and pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque
and an Israeli pledge not to interfere in internal Palestinian politics such as the unity government
opening Gaza’s industrial zone.
These conditions are civilian; the means of achieving them are military, violent and criminal. But the (bitter) truth is that when Gaza is not firing rockets at Israel, nobody cares about it. Look at the fate of the Palestinian leader who had had enough of violence. Israel did everything it could to destroy Mahmoud Abbas. The depressing conclusion? Only force works.
The current war is a war of choice, a choice that we had. True, after Hamas started firing rockets, Israel had to respond.
But as opposed to what Israeli propaganda tries to sell, the rockets didn’t fall out of the sky from nowhere.
Go back a few months: the breakdown of negotiations by Israel; the war on Hamas in the West Bank following the murder of the three yeshiva students, which it is doubtful Hamas planned, including the false arrest of 500 of its activists; stopping payment of salaries to Hamas workers in Gaza and Israeli opposition to the unity government, which might have brought the organization into the political sphere. Anyone who thinks all this would simply be taken in stride must be suffering from arrogance, complacence and blindness.
Terrifying amounts of blood are being spilled in Gaza – and in Israel to a lesser extent. It is being spilled in vain.
Hamas is beaten down by Israel and humiliated by Egypt.
The only chance for a real solution is exactly the opposite of the way Israel is going. A port in Gaza to export its excellent strawberries? To Israelis this sounds like heresy.
Here once again, the preference is for (Palestinian) blood over (Palestinian) strawberries.
Next year is an election year, and Labour needs money to fund its campaign. So naturally, they're selling access:Labour is charging wealthy business figures $1500-a-head to lunch with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at its annual conference later this month. [...] On the weekend beginning November 29th, around 800 delegates will ...
Yesterday the government announced its changes to tenancy laws, including an end to no-cause evictions, limits on rent increases, and anonyminity for tenants who defend their rights against bad landlords (sadly necessary because landlords are scum who maintain blacklists of "uppity" tenants). They're all good moves, and have resulted in ...
In 2003 New Zealand sent a Provincial Reconstruction Team to Afghanistan to support America's doomed war there. While there, they conducted regular weapons practice on local firing ranges, littering the landscape with unexploded ammunition. These ranges weren't secure - they're on land used by locals for animal herding - so ...
Green MP Gareth Hughes has announced he will retire at the election. Its understandable - he's been there ten years, and wants to actually see his children grow up rather than miss it while drowning in the toxic parliamentary sewer. But his departure is also a huge loss for the ...
Words and images by Jacqui GibsonGone are Auckland Museum’s days of doing science using a museum-centric academic approach, after Māori land rights holders Ngāti Kuri gave the museum an ultimatum.Tom Trnski holding a fossilised whale tooth from the Far North.Aussie-born Head of Natural Sciences at Auckland Museum ...
MediaWorks announced in October 2019 that it intended to sell off its struggling television business and cancel or cut back on several popular local programmes, including New Zealand Today, Married at First SightNew Zealand and 7 Days. Its radio and outdoor advertising arms are currently performing well, but MediaWorks’ ...
Westminster voting intention:CON: 44% (+3)LAB: 28% (-1)LDEM: 14% (-1)BREX: 6% (-)via @OpiniumResearch, surveyed this weekChgs. w/ 08 Nov— Britain Elects (@britainelects) 16 November 2019 This, of course, doesn't look good. Labour have been chucking big, headline grabbing policies left, right and centre ... Well, maybe not right. Left, left ...
Some readers may remember that I mentioned last year that I was applying for NZ citizenship. I filled out the paperwork and had my original citizenship interview in February. Everything went well until they discovered that, because I had spent five months in the US in 2017, I had not ...
by Deirdre O’Neill It is becoming quite acceptable for certain sections of the left to declare that people like me – women who are ‘gender critical’ – should not be allowed in leftist or anarchist spaces. Leaving aside the arrogance and implicit authoritarianism of this claim, its lack of critical ...
There is an article in The Conversation, written by Jeremy P. Shapiro (Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University), about what he sees as the psychologically-based underpinnings of three main matters that seem to vex people all around the planet. The article is titled “The Thinking ...
. . Blogger Martyn Bradbury has won his case against unreasonable search and surveillance against the NZ Police; and subsequent Police attempts to produce evidence in secrecy, in a closed Court. His case highlights a disturbing growing trend in Aotearoa New Zealand for State power to be used against ...
The Committee of Disobedient Women has intercepted an email from Dr Emma Eejut, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Massey University to the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Jan Thomas. Dear Jan, Thank you for your courageous move. I think 10 pages of blether** should tie any of the students game enough to try holding ...
That's the only response to the findings of the Ombudsman's investigation into LGOIMA practices at the Christchurch City Council:My investigation identified serious concerns about the Council’s leadership and culture, and its commitment to openness and transparency. In particular, Council staff raised concerns with me about various methods employed by some ...
NZ First seems to be nakedly trying to enrich itself from public office:A powerful New Zealand First figure helped establish a forestry company that then pushed for money from two key funding streams controlled by a New Zealand First Minister. An RNZ investigation has found Brian Henry, lawyer for Winston ...
Behrouz Boochani is an award winning author and journalist. He is also a refugee, who for the past six years has been detained in Australia's offshore gulag on Manus Island, and in Papua New Guinea. But last night, with the cooperation of the WORD Christchurch festival and Amnesty International, he ...
Different Strokes: If a multicultural immigration policy imposes no obligation on immigrant communities to acknowledge and ultimately embrace their host nation’s most cherished traditions and values, then how is that nation to prevent itself from being reduced to a collection of inward-looking and self-replicating ethnic and cultural enclaves?THE COALITION GOVERNMENT’S ...
Protective Zone: Reading the rules and guidelines released by Massey University, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that its governing body considers the whole concept of free speech a disruptive threat to the orderly imparting of orthodox academic knowledge.IN TRUE ORWELLIAN fashion, Massey University has announced its commitment to ...
Farmers held a hate-march on Parliament today, complete with MAGA hats, gun-nut signs, and gendered insults. While supposedly about a grab-bag of issues - including, weirdly, mental health - it was clear that the protest was about one thing, and one thing only: climate change. And specifically, forestry "destroying" rural ...
The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security released their annual report today, and I've been busy reading through it. In amongst the usual review of what they've been doing all year, there's a few interesting bits. For example, a discussion on "agency retention and disposal of information", which points out that ...
Recently more than 150 post-graduate students and young scientists presented an open letter to the Green Party via The Spinoff, encouraging them to reconsider their position on genetic modification. Their target is tackling climate change issues.[1] Can any party continue to be dismissive about genetic modification (GM) contributing to ...
by Deirdre O’Neill Under Thatcher and then Blair and continuing up until our contemporary moment, the working class has seen its culture slowly and progressively destroyed. The change from an industrial society to a service society produced a marked shift in focus from the working class as the backbone of ...
Since 2013, the Australian government has detained refugees without trial in Pacific gulags, where they are abused, tortured, and driven to suicide. The policy is not just an abuse of human rights and possible crime against humanity; it has also had a corrosive effect on the states Australia uses as ...
It seems fair to say that we currently live in a problematic political moment in world history. Democracies are in decline and dictatorships are on the rise. Primordial, sectarian and post-modern divisions have re-emerged, are on the rise or have been accentuated by political evolutions of the moment such as ...
Last month, Greenpeace head Russel Norman surrendered his speaking slot at an EPA conference to student climate activist Sorcha Carr, who told the EPA exactly what she thought of them. It was a bold move, which confronted both regulators and polluters (or, as the EPA calls them, "stakeholders") with the ...
The core principle supposedly underlying New Zealand's electoral finance regime is transparency: parties can accept large donations from rich people wanting to buy policy, but only if they tell the public they've been bought. Most parties abide by this, so we know that TOP was wholly-owned by Gareth Morgan, and ...
Today is a Member's Day, probably the second-to-last one of the year, and its a big one, with the Third Reading of David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. last Member's Day it was reported back from committee, after MPs voted narrowly to make it subject to a (rules TBA) ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzThe growth of the human population over the last 70 ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women In her excellent oral submission to the Abortion reform select committee on 31st October on behalf of Otago University’s Department of Public Health, historian and public health researcher Hera Cook stated: “We would ask that the committee not use the term ‘pregnant persons’ and ...
by Don Franks In 1957, E M Forster wrote, of his greatest work: “The India described in ‘A Passage to India’ no longer exists either politically or socially. Change had begun even at the time the book was published ( 1924) and during the following quarter of a century it ...
The Referendums Framework Bill was due back from select committee today. But there's no report on it. Instead, the bill has been bounced back to the House under Standing order 29593) because the Committee didn't bother to produce one. They probably tried. But given the membership of the committee (which ...
Two years into New Zealand’s Labour-led government, the long-delayed Zero Carbon Bill became law on 7 November. Passed essentially unanimously, the lengthy public debates and political manoeuvring faded away until the final passage was even anticlimactic: Flipping through the @nzstuff@DomPost I was starting to wonder if I’d dreamt ...
Now the Zero Carbon Bill is law, what's next? Obviously, the ETS changes currently before select committee are going to be the next battleground. But we're also going to get a good idea of where we're going, and if the progress the Zero Carbon Act promises is good enough, during ...
Grant PearceThe effects of the current Australian bushfires in New South Wales and Queensland (and also again in California) are devastating and far-reaching. To date, the fires have resulted in several lives being lost and many homes and properties destroyed. Here in New Zealand, the impacts have been only ...
A passing comment in a post the other day about the labour force participation rates of older people prompted me to pull down the fuller data and see what we could see about various participation rates over the decades since the HLFS began in 1986. As it happens, the ...
Distract And Divert: The rise of what we have come to call “Identity Politics” represents the ideological manifestation of the ruling class’s objective need to destroy class politics, and of the middle-class’s subjective need to justify their participation in the process.THE RELIEF of the ruling class can only be imagined. ...
"I saw a newspaper picture,From the political campaignA woman was kissing a child,Who was obviously in pain.She spills with compassion,As that young child'sFace in her hands she gripsCan you imagine all that greed and avariceComing down on that child's lips?" ...
Dr Matt Boyd, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Nick WilsonThe Global Health Security Index which considers pandemic threats has just been published. Unfortunately, NZ scores approximately half marks (54/100), coming in 35th in the world rankings – far behind Australia. This poor result suggests that the NZ Government needs to ...
The Zero Carbon Act is inadequate, with a weak methane target designed to give farmers a free ride. But it turns out it could have been worse: Climate Change Minister James Shaw was so desperate to get National on board, he wanted to gut that target, and leave it in ...
The Herald reprints an Australian story on a couple of tragic deaths in Bali from drinking cocktails that had methanol in them. The story argues that methanol is likely the result of home distillation. But what the young tourists were experiencing was far from a hangover. They’d consumed a toxic cocktail ...
Last month, the police announced a trial of specialist roaming armed units, which would drive round (poor, brown) areas in armoured SUVs, armed to the teeth. When they announced the trial, they told us it was about having armed police "ready to attend major incidents at any time if needed". ...
Spain went to the polls today in the second elections this year, after the Socialists (who had come to power in a confidence vote, then gone to the polls in April) rejected the offer of a coalition with the left-wing PoDemos, and instead decided to gamble n a better outcome ...
A couple of days ago I attended (and spoke at) the University of Waikato’s “LearnFest” event. There were lots of talks and sessions on very diverse aspects of teaching, mostly at tertiary level. One was by Myra Williamson from Te Piringa Faculty of Law here at Waikato, on Contract Cheating ...
There will be a transit of Mercury – the planet Mercury will pass across the face of the Sun – taking place at sunrise in New Zealand on Tuesday, 12th November. It was by observing such an event 250 years ago that James Cook and his scientist colleagues were able ...
Since becoming the world’s first openly transexual mayor and member of parliament, Georgina Beyer has been recognised as a trailblazer for trans rights. Daphna Whitmore talks with her about where she sees the current trans movement We start out talking about legislation the government put on hold that would have ...
If FFNZ really put their faith in “Top Medical Journals” they would now be amending their billboards to recognise new research results. Image from FFNZ but updated to agree with the latest research. ...
National Messiah? Chris Luxon identifies himself as an evangelical Christian. If he is genuine in this self-characterisation, then he will take every opportunity his public office provides to proselytise on behalf of his faith. He will also feel obliged to bear witness against beliefs and practices he believes to be ...
I'm going to make a Reckless Prediction™ that the Tories have 'topped out' in the 'poll of polls' / Britain Elects multipoll tracker at about 38%, and in the next week we will start to see Labour creep up on them.In fact, we might just be seeing the start of ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Lizzie Marvelly: “I may have missed this… has @afterellen gone all terf-y? Or am I reading something incorrectly? “ https://twitter.com/LizzieMarvelly/status/1191840059105742849 After Ellen is a lesbian website that is unashamedly pro-lesbian, as you’d expect. So why is Ms Marvelly so bothered about lesbians having their ...
Did you know there once was a time when it was illegal to be a gypsy (aka Romani) in Britain?That was between 1530, when the Egyptians Act was passed, and 1856, when it was repealed.Amongst other things, the act forbade the entry of 'Egyptians' into England, ordered those already there ...
Some days I sit and think, “what will I write…?” What do you say when you get to 1000 posts? Maybe you just start where you are, diverge to where this all began, then offer a collection of reader’s favourite posts, and a few of your own? (And throw in ...
Counter-Puncher: The “activists” and “radicals” (his own words) from the Indian community who took such strong exception to Shane Jones’ remarks about Immigration NZ’s treatment of arranged marriages, may end up bitterly regretting their intervention. Jones is not the sort of person who turns the other cheek to his critics.SHANE ...
In the spirit of Remember, remember the fifth of November, let's keep this in mind FOREVER.
Oh dear. Extraordinary interview on PM with Andrew Bridgen and @EvanHD just now. Bridgen was defending Jacob Rees Mogg’s Grenfell comments. Evan asked him if JRM had meant to say he would have left ...
Collision Course? In conditions of ideological white-out, the international bankers’ “Woop-Woop! Pull Up!” warning may have come too late to save global capitalism.WHAT DOES IT MEAN when international bankers are more willing to embrace radical solutions than our politicians and their electors? At both the International Monetary Fund and the ...
Pertussis (whooping cough) is a conundrum. It is a disease that was described hundreds of years ago and the bacteria that causes it (Bordetella pertussis) isolated in 1906. We have had vaccines for about 80 years but this disease is defiant in the face of human immunity. I wanted to ...
The Zero Carbon Bill has just passed its third reading, uanimously. In the end, National supported it - but we all know they'll turn around and gut it the moment they regain power. Meanwhile, I guess ACT's David Seymour didn't even bother to show up. I am on record as ...
Dr Lindsay Robertson, Dr Jerram Bateman, Professor Janet HoekMembers of the public health community hold divergent views on how access to vaping products or electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) products should be arranged. Some believe ENDS should be as widely available as smoked tobacco and argue for liberal ...
When the Police were trying to cover up for the National Party over Dirty Politics, they went all-in with their abuses of power. They illegally search Nicky Hager's house, violating his journalistic privilege and invading his privacy. They unlawfully acquired Hager's bank records. They did the same to left-wing blogger ...
Last month, in response to a wave of protests by Extinction Rebellion, the British government purported to ban their protests from the whole of London. It was a significant interference with the freedoms of expression and assembly, and another sign of the country's decline into tyranny. But now, a court ...
Last year, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security reported on significant problems with the intelligence warrant system. While they were unwilling to declare any warrant "irregular" (meaning unlawful) due to the recent law change, they were also not willing to give the system a clean bill of health. Now, they've ...
The National Party has come out in support of encouraging greater vaccination uptake. But it sure isn’t the way I’d do it. National’s suggested docking the benefits of those on benefit whose kids aren’t keeping up with their vaccinations. Some in National have suggested extending that to payments under Working ...
Feeding The Flames: It is simply not enough to demand an end to “corruption”, or “inequality”, or the overbearing influence of the authorities in Beijing. These are just “lowest common denominator” demands: the sort of slogans that pull people onto the streets. They are not a plan.WHERE’S THE PLAN? Across ...
The labour market statistics have been released, and unemployment has risen to 4.2%. There are 115,000 unemployed - 11,000 fewer than when Labour took office. In that time the minimum wage has gone up by $2 an hour, which shows that the right's fears about increases causing unemployment are simply ...
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has called for submissions on Andrew Little's tyrannicalTerrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill. Normally I encourage participation in the democratic process. I am not doing so in this case. Instead, I encourage all of you to boycott this submissions process, and to post ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzIf tiny concentrations of carbon dioxide can hold enough heat ...
Aviation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and within it, one of the fastest sources is elite travel: billionaires flitting around the world in their private jets, spewing excessive pollution into the atmosphere just so they can avoid mixing with us dirty peasants. But in ...
That's what we face if we don't stop climate change, according to a warning from 11,000 scientists:The world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists. “We declare clearly and unequivocally ...
by Phil Duncan Here’s just a few of the kind of threats issued day in and day out against gender-critical women – feminists, marxists, etc – overwhelmingly by MEN (albeit men identifying as women). “Kill all Terfs”. “Shoot a Terf today”. “All terfs deserve to be shot in the head”. ...
This is the third of the synopses of parts of the opening chapter of John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century (New York, Monthly Review Press, 2016). The synopsis and commentary below is written by Phil Duncan. Unlike the humble cup of coffee and t-shirt that we looked at in ...
Tom MooreTraditionally a food source and cutting tool, freshwater mussels/kākahi are now widely valued as water filters that help clean our waterbodies and maintain ecosystem health throughout Aotearoa. The improvement they provide in water quality can make it easier for other animals to live in streams and rivers, as ...
And to think he gave all the potential goodwill away with that moronic, cult-like statement (repeated ad nauseam by many National hardliners) that Key is quite simply “the greatest PM we ever had”…Installation complete: this was nothing ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is back in the House today for its second reading. While this isn't the final stage, its still effectively D-Day for the bill. Because today, at around 5pm, is when we're going to find out if it has a majority, whether National will support it or ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First backs the public to decide on the End of Life Choice Bill via a referendum at the 2020 General Election. The Bill, with New Zealand First’s referendum provision incorporated, passed its final reading in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Justice New Zealand First is proud that a key Coalition Agreement commitment which will provide for a more transparent and effective criminal justice system has been realised. Legislation to establish the Criminal Cases Review Commission, an independent body focused on identifying and responding to possible miscarriages of ...
"Today we have made a choice that will leave a legacy... I hope that means that future generations will see that we, in New Zealand, were on the right side of history." - Jacinda Ardern, Third Reading of the Zero Carbon Bill ...
Darroch Ball, New Zealand First List MP A Member’s bill has been proposed that would provide income tax exemptions for all New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel while on operational deployment overseas. The Income Tax (Exemption for Salary or Wages of NZDF Members on Active Deployment) Amendment Bill proposed by New Zealand First ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have brought common sense to the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, which passed its final reading in Parliament today. Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters says months of hard work went into negotiating a balanced ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First has listened to calls to recognise paramedics as registered health professionals under the Health Practitioners’ Competence Assurance Act (the Act).Today, the Coalition Government announced plans for paramedics to be registered as health practitioners under the Act, and the establishment of a ...
We began the week by commemorating the New Zealand Wars and celebrating a major increase in the number of teachers. Then, we were busy supporting offenders into work and getting our rail back on track after years of underinvestment. And that's just the start! ...
In October I was sworn in as the Mayor of Lower Hutt.It’s the privilege of my life to serve Hutt people as their Mayor. There is something really special to be able to serve the community where I was raised, and where I live. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters met with Korea Racing Authority Chairperson Nak Soon Kim in Seoul today to discuss closer cooperation between the New Zealand and Korean horse racing industries. As part of the visit to the Seoul Racecourse, Mr Peters witnessed ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $10 million to establish Otago as the centre of New Zealand’s creative digital industry over the next ten years, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “The initiative will bring us closer to the vision of ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)’s skills and employment programme will help young Otago people into long-term forestry careers, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. Te Ara Mahi will invest $63,000 in the 2020 school year to support eight 17 and 18 ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) will support local plans to revitalise and stimulate economic development opportunities in Otago, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The four Regional Economic Development Ministers have approved an in-principle investment of $19.9 million towards the region’s ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is pleased to have received the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) report on the Coalition Government’s Mycoplasma bovis eradication efforts, which shows significant progress in the fight against the disease. New Zealand First Spokesperson for Primary Industries, Mark Patterson, says the report’s findings ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Hon David Parker, Minister for Trade and Export Growth The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing to support economic growth opportunities for Otago’s engineering and manufacturing sectors, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and Trade and Export Minister David Parker announced today. Almost $20 million ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters and his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, discussed in Seoul today opportunities to work more closely in the Pacific and the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Mr Peters and Minister Kang confirmed New Zealand and the ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Hon Nanaia Mahuta, Minister for Māori Development The three marae in the historic Parihaka Pa complex in Taranaki have been upgraded to high speed broadband with the support of the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF), Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Connecting the ...
***Please check against delivery*** Good morning everyone. It is a pleasure to be with you this morning to open this year’s New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Conference and AGM. Firstly, thank you Dr Alan Jackson, NZTR Chair for your introduction. And let us acknowledge also: The NZTR Board; Dean McKenzie, Chair ...
The Government has delivered on its promise to the over one million New Zealanders who now rent to make it fairer and more secure, Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing) Kris Faafoi has announced today. Both renters and landlords will benefit from the suite of practical changes to the Residential ...
A marine conservation milestone - the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Te Tapuwae o Rongokako Marine Reserve - is being celebrated today at a community event in Tairāwhiti/East Coast attended by the Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “The creation of this marine reserve in November 1999 was a game ...
The Government is asking the food industry to step up work to tackle obesity including reducing sugar, fat and salt in their products, better information for consumers, and tighter restrictions on advertising to children. Health Minister David Clark and Food Safety Minister Damien O’Connor have responded to a ...
ew, modern emergency department and outpatient facilities at Queenstown’s Lakes District Hospital mean better emergency care for the growing tourist mecca’s visitors and locals, says Health Minister David Clark. Today Dr Clark officially opened the hospital’s redeveloped Emergency Department and Outpatient facilities. The new facilities include: • An extended Emergency Department ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter says today’s release of sexual and reproductive health data reinforces the significance of the Government’s commitment to providing free or very low-cost contraception. The Ministry of Health today published statistics from the Ministry of Health’s 2014/15 Health Survey. “It is important people can make ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced that at the request of the Samoan Government, New Zealand will be providing further support to Samoa as it faces a worsening measles outbreak. “In response to a request from the people of Samoa, New Zealand is providing 3000 measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) ...
“The new Disability Action Plan 2019–2023 moves us towards the inclusive and accessible New Zealand that this government has committed to,” Minister for Disability Issues Carmel Sepuloni announced today. “The Action Plan was designed by disabled people, their family and supporters, the disability sector and government agencies. It will ensure ...
Third Singapore-New Zealand Defence Ministers’ Meeting 14 November 2019 Joint Statement 1. Defence Ministers Ron Mark and Dr Ng Eng Hen today conducted their third annual Singapore-New Zealand Defence Ministers’ Meeting in Singapore. 2. Building on the Enhanced Partnership signed between both countries in May this year, this annual meeting ...
A Bill to improve the court system’s response to sexual violence has passed its first reading in Parliament today. Justice Minister Andrew Little says the Sexual Violence Legislation Bill will reduce the trauma sexual violence complainants experience in court, while maintaining defendants’ fundamental rights and making sure the trial process ...
Streamlined payment practices are a step closer for Kiwi businesses with the formal launch of New Zealand’s e-Invoicing framework. Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says the government has now established the structure to enable automated and direct data exchange between the accounting systems of buyers and sellers. “The move to ...
Another 51 quarantine officers and four new biosecurity detector dog teams will help protect New Zealand from invasive pests and diseases this summer, says Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor. “The Government is delivering on its commitment to strengthen New Zealand’s biosecurity system and support our valuable primary sector “New Zealand’s flora, fauna ...
A new report has found New Zealand’s space sector contributed $1.69 billion to the economy in the last financial year and employs 12,000 people, Minister for Economic Development Phil Twyford announced today. The report by Deloitte was commissioned by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and shows New Zealand ...
Judge Coral Shaw has been appointed as the new Chair of the Royal Commission into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions, Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin announced today. "Judge Shaw, who is currently one of the inquiry commissioners, is extremely well qualified for the ...
The Government has confirmed its third major mental health facility upgrade since the Budget, this time at Palmerston North Hospital. The Prime Minister and Health Minister today visited MidCentral DHB to announce that $30 million has been allocated to upgrade its acute mental health facility. It follows earlier announcements in ...
The roll out of the National Bowel Screening Programme has reached the halfway mark, with 10 out of 20 District Health Boards now part of the programme. MidCentral DHB, which covers Palmerston North, Manawatu and surrounding districts, this week became the latest to DHB to offer free bowel screening to ...
The Government welcomes PHARMAC’s decision to fund a vaccine to protect young people from meningococcal disease from 1 December this year. “Meningococcal disease is a serious threat which people at higher risk should be protected from,” says Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter. “The combined pharmaceutical budget was increased by ...
Groups involved with innovative fisheries research projects are encouraged to apply for government support in the latest funding round from the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures programme. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash says the SFF Futures funding is designed to be flexible enough to support small or large projects across a ...
The Government has fixed an issue affecting how Immigration New Zealand has processed visa applications for culturally arranged marriages, which will now see a consistent process applied which ensures people with legitimate arranged marriages can visit New Zealand while also preventing any rorting of the system. Earlier this year Immigration ...
The Royal Commission into the Attacks on Christchurch Mosques will report back on 30 April 2020 to give it more time to hear submissions and consider information, Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The Royal Commission was originally scheduled to report back to Government by 10 December 2019. “There has ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Washington DC today to attend a ministerial meeting focused on defeating ISIS, and to continue pursuing New Zealand’s trade opportunities. Mr Peters will participate in a meeting of Foreign and Defence Ministers from key countries contributing to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. ...
The recently crowned Bird of the Year, the hoiho/yellow eyed penguin, is getting a much needed helping hand alongside more than 168 other community conservation projects announced Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage today. 168 community conservation projects throughout New Zealand are benefiting from $8 million in government grants, including $500,000 ...
Controls on assault rifles and semi-automatic firearms are to be broadened to include some types of pistols, under changes to a bill currently making its way through Parliament. Police Minister Stuart Nash has tabled a Supplementary Order Paper to the Arms Legislation Bill, which is currently before a Select Committee ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark will travel to Singapore today to conduct a counterpart visit and to co-chair the third annual Singapore-New Zealand Defence Ministers’ Meeting with his counterpart, Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen. “Singapore is one of our most important defence partners in the region, and our ...
Nelson’s Salisbury School is to be rebuilt, creating a modern and suitable learning environment for students at the residential special school, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The school for girls aged 8-15, in Richmond, was earmarked for closure by National until the process ...
The panel undertaking a comprehensive review of the Resource Management Act has identified the main issues to be addressed and options for reform and is calling for feedback to inform its final report. In July the Government announced the comprehensive review of the resource management system, including the RMA - ...
An important safety valve has been added to New Zealand’s criminal justice system with the third reading of the Criminal Cases Review Commission Bill today. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) will investigate claimed miscarriages of justice. “We’ve seen how our justice system can very occasionally get things spectacularly wrong, ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters welcomes the tabling of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) 2019 Annual Report in Parliament today. He says the 2019 Annual Report marks the point when New Zealand’s racing industry’s decline was arrested and a turnaround started. RITA’s 2019 Annual Report recorded an industry net profit ...
The New Zealand Government is today sending 21 firefighters to help fight the ongoing catastrophic Australian bushfires. “The fires in Australia are in some of the toughest, most challenging conditions ever,” says Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin. “As of yesterday morning, there were 100 active bushfire-related incidents across Queensland and ...
More frontline support for schools through a new education agency, as part of a redesigned Ministry of Education More support for principals and school boards including through a new centre of leadership and local leadership advisor roles New independent disputes panels for parents and students Management of school property ...
The Government’s reform of the Tomorrow’s Schools system is a watershed moment in education and an opportunity to create meaningful change for ākonga Māori and their whānau, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis said today. “Last year through Kōrero Mātauranga | Education Conversation, Māori teachers, parents, ākonga, whānau, hapū and iwi ...
Infrastructure Minister is welcoming the first of many updated project pipelines from the newly established New Zealand Infrastructure Commission today. The New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga, has released an expanded pipeline of major capital projects – another crucial step towards delivering better infrastructure outcomes. “The first iteration of the ...
Tougher gun laws designed to improve public safety through firearms prohibition orders are proposed in a new document released for public input. Police Minister Stuart Nash says firearms prohibition orders (FPOs) would give new powers to Police to ensure high-risk individuals come nowhere near firearms. “We have already prohibited the ...
Andy Coupe has been confirmed as TVNZ’s new Board Chair. “Mr Coupe has strong commercial and capital markets experience and TVNZ has benefited from his technical knowledge of business and finance, as well as his extensive governance experience,” the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Kris Faafoi said. Andy ...
Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter today officially opened a separated pathway, following the completion of the Kaiwharawhara Stream bridge, which will improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians along Hutt Road. The $6.8m Hutt Road project provides a separated path for cycling and pedestrians, the replacement of informal parking ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced the appointment of career diplomat Si’alei van Toor as New Zealand’s next Ambassador to Russia. “I’m pleased to appoint Ms van Toor to this position. She brings a wealth of experience to the role having previously served as Senior Trade Adviser to the ...
The Treasury’s 2019 Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) will be released on Wednesday December 11, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Coalition Government will publish the 2020 Budget Policy Statement at the same time, outlining the priorities for Budget 2020. Further details on arrangements for the release will ...
A new initiative to better support small businesses through hands-on mentoring and advice has been launched by the Minister for Small Business. The first event in the Kiwi Business Boost series of regional workshops and online tools has been launched in Wairoa by Stuart Nash. “The Business Boost initiative combines ...
The latest Quarterly Connectivity Report shows that more and more New Zealanders are moving to Ultra-fast Broadband (UFB), with Rolleston having the highest uptake at 74 per cent, as at the end of September. “This means that nearly three quarters of Rolleston’s households and businesses have moved to ultra-fast services. ...
The passing of the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill will help ensure a safe planet for our kids and grandkids, the Minister for Climate Change James Shaw said today. The landmark legislation which provides a framework to support New Zealanders to prepare for, and adapt to, the effects ...
The Labour-led coalition may have to generate a second wave of Jacindamania if it is to win another term in the Beehive. Re-election is not an impossible dream, despite the failure of Labour to deliver what many of those who voted for it in 2017 expected. Retiring Green MP Gareth Hughes ...
A corporate undertaker talks top tips for making sure you get paid, reining in rogue liquidators, and having a heart for those who’ve lost money.PwC’s John Fisk has handled high profile company failures from Pike River to Lombard Finance and the Ross Asset Management Ponzi scheme. He also chairs the ...
Armed police represent a serious cause for concern, especially for the most vulnerable, writes the chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation.The Mental Health Foundation has publicly condemned the police trial of special armed response teams patrolling three districts around New Zealand. We’re extremely worried these trials will result in ...
International crime rings are increasingly targeting New Zealanders’ bank accounts to launder proceeds from scams and fraud. Bronwyn Groot, Fraud Education Manager at the Commission for Financial Capability (CFFC) is highlighting the rising incidence ...
A just-released report shows that the food industry wants to stay in a business-as-usual mode with a few minor tweaks around the edges. In response, the New Zealand Government appeared comfortable with that approach, and provided no Government plans for comprehensive ...
New Zealand consumers will be left in the dark about foods grown in Australia that have been created using gene editing techniques. On the 13 November the Australian Senator Rice put up a motion to disallow, or overturn, the recently passed Gene Technology ...
As Aotearoa plans for festive season celebrations, The Salvation Army is preparing to make its house a home to hundreds of men, women and children who have nowhere else to stay. ...
Landlords say they feel under siege with the government planning to make it tougher for them to boot out troublesome tenants; and skilled immigrants waiting for a residents visa say its unfair officials are fast tracking applications for those on salaries over $105,000. ...
Standing with the farmers, New Conservative is committed to pushing back against the lunacy of the ETS and Carbon Zero commitments by this government. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tomas Trescak, Senior Lecturer in Intelligent Systems, Western Sydney University Just a few years ago, virtual reality (VR) was being showered with very real money. The industry raised an estimated US$900 million in venture capital in 2016, but by 2018 that figure ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rowena Maguire, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Institute for Future Environments, Queensland University of Technology Over the past two weeks, bushfires have raged across New South Wales and Queensland. While the narrative appears focused on potential causes and political point-scoring, what’s lost ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Davis, Chair of Women’s Health, Monash University At menopause, a woman’s ovaries lose their reproductive function. Eggs are no longer released and the production of the hormones oestrogen and progesterone falls. It’s the lowered levels of oestrogen after menopause that gives ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Bolleter, Deputy Director, Australian Urban Design Research Centre, University of Western Australia Around the world, the vast majority of people are flocking to cities not to dwell in their centres but to live in the new suburbs expanding their outer limits. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Natalya Saldanha, Academic, RMIT University Like any eight-year-old, Ryan Kaji loves to play with toys. But when Ryan plays, millions watch. Since the age of four he’s been the star of his own YouTube channel. All up his videos have gained ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kieran Wong, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Monash University Indigenous voices are finally being acknowledged as important voices in Australian galleries and museums. Since 2014, I have worked as an advisor to Western Australia’s New Museum, a A$450 million project and one of ...
Retiring Green MP Gareth Hughes says the pace of change in the current Government is not fast enough for his liking but that is not the reason he is quitting politics. ...
The Superdiversity Institute for Law, Policy and Business is releasing its latest report today on Culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse parties in the Courts: A Chinese case study . The Report’s author, Mai Chen, Chair of the Superdiversity ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Doubts emerge about Auckland port move, NZDF leaves death-causing material behind in Afghanistan, and laws around renting to be shaken up.Over the last week, the ramifications of moving most of the operations of Auckland’s port north to Whangarei have been ...
An ambitious new partnership between Sky Sports and more than 50 sports promises more free sport for Kiwis. Suzanne McFadden looks at how it will change the way we see female athletes ...
Catriona MacLennan helped conduct a survey of the top NZ companies to establish the ethnicity of their directors. The results were not surprising, but also far from encouraging. ...
Episode 1 in a series on the trials of injured animals as they’re rescued, rehabilitated and released back into the wild follows the rescue of a yellow-eyed penguin. ...
New Zealand Defence Force's failed to clean up properly after itself in Afghanistan - with the result that seven children have been killed and another 10 civilians injured. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Chinese embassy has lashed out at two Liberal members of parliament, Andrew Hastie and James Paterson, saying they would need to “repent and redress their mistakes” before they would be welcome in China. The ...
Tim Costley National’s new candidate in Otaki Local party members have selected Tim Costley as National’s candidate in Ōtaki for the 2020 General Election. Mr Costley is replacing retiring MP Nathan Guy, who is standing down after five terms. ...
“Compelling research out of the UK reaffirms vaping’s life-saving role. Here’s hoping our Government’s pending legislation reflects vaping’s increasingly documented health benefits for smokers,” say Ben Pryor, co-owner of the largest Kiwi-owned ...
Government has announced a raft of changes to the Residential Tenancies Act. The Minister has said he does not want to be seen to unduly punishing landlords. These changes do more than punish landlords however. They will punish anyone living next ...
Democracy under Fire on Firearms Law Reform - COLFO SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2019 The Government supposedly wants to “hear from all New Zealanders” about firearms law reform – unless you happen to be a licenced firearms owner. ...
From Monday 18 November New Zealand women are working for free until the end of the year because of the gender pay imbalance between men and women. ...
Award-winning investigative team Stuff Circuit is releasing its most hard-hitting documentary yet, exposing a secret the NZ Defence Force doesn’t want Kiwis to know. ...
The government has announced a suite of practical changes to the Residential Tenancies Act in its bid to make renting fairer and more secure. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happening?A number of changes to the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) has just been announced by associate minister of housing Kris ...
US Trumpian Inspired Rhetoric From Anti-Trans Group Not a Good Fit with Nz Society Trans-rights support groups around the country have been dismayed by recent divisive and repellent comments by Stand Up For Women (SUFW), a group calling itself feminist ...
Sam Brooks reviews the third season of The Crown, a show that can’t decide whether it wants to humanise the monarchy or tear it all down.This review contains very mild spoilers for world history, 1964-1977.Three seasons in, there’s no doubt that The Crown is the, well, crown jewel in Netflix’s ...
An easy, flavour-packed noodle recipe from Bounty – Cooking With Vegetables, the new cookbook from national food education charity the Garden to Table Trust.The fresh flavours of these noodles are less complex than many Thai dishes, as the simple spice paste uses just a few ingredients. If you’d rather not ...
Part 2: In this excerpt from the evidence of Sir Maarten Wevers in the High Court case of Winston Peters over his superannuation leak, the former head of the Prime Minister's Department explains what ministers should be told by public servants ...
In this excerpt from the evidence of Sir Maarten Wevers in the High Court case of Winston Peters over his superannuation leak, the former head of the Prime Minister's Department summarises our governing arrangements. ...
With the 2020 cannabis referendum fast approaching, New Zealanders have a unique opportunity to let the government know what they want from drug reform. It will then be up to our policy makers to decide whether drug reform will focus on changing outcomes for those struggling under historically racist policy.By ...
It breaks my heart to think of young queer and trans people seeing this sign, and thinking there are no spaces where they will ever belong, writes Hadassah Grace. The first time I ventured into a gay bar, I vowed never to go back.It was a vulnerable time in my life. ...
It breaks my heart to think of young queer and trans people seeing this sign, and thinking there are no spaces where they will ever belong, writes Hadassah Grace. The first time I ventured into a gay bar, I vowed never to go back.It was a vulnerable time in my life. ...
Hayden Donnell looks for inspiration and innovation on how to house the city’s future.Auckland Council’s Unitary Plan has enabled a building boom. More than 14,600 building consents were issued in the city in the year to September. Despite that, houses remain extremely expensive and out-of-reach for many first home buyers. ...
Simon Shepherd: David Seymour's euthanasia bill passed this week, and next week he will be putting the finishing touches on his next bill. Is he just a very hard-working politician or is this the longest one-person election campaign known to mankind? ...
Simon Shepherd: It's Transgender Awareness Week, the same week a feminist group, Speak Up For Women, has brought Megan Murphy from Canada to speak in New Zealand. Murphy is a radical feminist who believes trans women aren't women, views that have ...
As a follow-up to our post about police station office hours for the public and in the cause of balance, we bring positive news – or rather, we are passing on the positive news which the police delivered in a press statement, It’s all about the productivity gains achieved – it ...
Books editor Catherine Woulfe follows Wellington author Lawrence Patchett into his extraordinary story of heat and humanity and history repeating. The Burning River begins like the best kind of yarn. “Someone had been there. Someone strange. In the centre of his camp, a new circle of sooted rocks. A campfire, with ...
SPECIAL REPORT: By Philip Cass in BrisbaneMelanesian Media Freedom Forum – Day two –The second day of the Melanesian Media Freedom Forum began with praise for the work of young Pacific journalists by Professor David Robie and ended with a warning that threats to journalism in the ...
In this special episode of The Real Pod, brought to you by Nando’s, we chat to the champions of My Restaurant Rules NZ 2019.In the afterglow of Rustic Kitchen’s historic win on My Restaurant Rules NZ, Duncan and Alex got on the blower with Tyson and Denise. Then we forgot ...
Hannah Kronast attends a women’s empowerment panel focused on the huge disparities in training and employment within science and technology. In the far back left-hand corner of a women’s equality and empowerment event, a male stuck up his hand. “What can men do to help?” he asked.It was at a panel ...
Our recent Spinoff Art survey provided a snapshot on gender equality in the local art scene, but it wasn’t the full story. Anna Knox continues the conversation by asking some gallery owners and directors for their responses to our findings.The Spinoff’s survey of gender bias in visual arts found that ...
Based on their study of trans wellbeing Aotearoa, the research team at Counting Ourselves find six data points that highlight the strength of our trans and non-binary community.Last month the first comprehensive national survey on transgender health and wellbeing in Aotearoa was published by the academics and researchers at Counting ...
The SpinoffBy Dr Jaimie Veale, Jack Byrne and Ahi Wi-Hongi
Ten thousand years ago, roasted hares and figs were flat-layed on Levantine flax leaves. Now, we drape prosciutto over strawberries on computer desks. Josie Adams mourns the death of the platter.Three days ago I stumbled on an accidental recreation of a 1950s platter: a giant ham, a cake that was ...
India’s decision not to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership promoted by China is politically significant. But its impact on trade and prosperity is more nuanced, as Bloomberg explains.It avoids some market opening on both sides (India to agriculture; others to services) that would have been economically beneficial. But ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Geoff Crisp discusses the the week in politics the government’s response to the bush fires as well as the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action. They also talk about ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The proposed acquisition of infant formula producer Bellamy’s Australia Ltd by China Mengniu Dairy Company Limited has been given approval by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Strict, legally enforceable conditions, have been set by the treasurer, which ...
The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) is condemning the All Saints Day evening raid on 31 October. With the arrest of over 60 union organisers, human rights defenders and activists in the Philippines province of Negros. The 16th of November is an international ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Assistant professor, University of Canberra What’s happening? Suddenly, at the level of central banks, Australia is regarded as an investment risk. On Wednesday Martin Flodén, the deputy governor of Sweden’s central bank, announced that because Australia and Canada were “not ...
SPECIAL REPORT: By Philip Cass in Brisbane Opening session – Day OneThe problems of operating in the Pacific and the impact of online news and the emergence of ‘citizen journalists’ were common concerns for all delegates to this week’s Melanesian Media Freedom Forum.The forum, held at Griffith ...
Standoff between protesters and the police at Yeung Uk Road, Hong Kong. Image by Studio Incendo – 20190825 Tsuen Wan March. CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81751531.The recent surge in social protests world-wide is quantitatively and qualitatively different than in previous ages. The advent of individualised mass communications technologies and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Livingstone, Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is going to start asking internet service providers to block certain offshore gambling websites. The decision follows former New South Wales premier ...
The Zero Carbon Act (ZCA) is over a week old, but it’s still being heavily debated and analysed. After all, depending on who you listen to, it’s the most significant new law of the year, of this Government, or even of some people’s lifetime. And it deals with a giant ...
Green MP and refugee Golriz Ghahraman was there last night when the former Manus Island detainee and acclaimed writer arrived in New Zealand.Last night, quietly and without fanfare a small group made up of human rights activists, literary folk, and just two journalists, came together at Auckland Airport to welcome ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sandra D’urso, Researcher, The Australian Centre, University of Melbourne To perform an exit is not as simple as it sounds. In fact, exiting a situation can be almost impossible for some. Exit Strategies is a new production by indie performer and theatre ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Niro Kandasamy, Tutor, University of Melbourne Sri Lanka’s presidential election on Saturday comes at a critical time for the country. The government has been in turmoil since President Maithripala Sirisena sacked the prime minister last year and replaced him with former strongman ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Hansen, Chief of Staff, The Conversation If you have kids, chances are you’ve worried about their presence on social media. Who are they talking to? What are they posting? Are they being bullied? Do they spend too much time on it? ...
New Zealand Police has won a prestigious World Class Policing Award for its ‘more street than station approach’ Mobility programme, which has saved millions of hours of officers’ time. ...
Open mike 21/07/2014 
Open mike is your post.
Next year is an election year, and Labour needs money to fund its campaign. So naturally, they're selling access:Labour is charging wealthy business figures $1500-a-head to lunch with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at its annual conference later this month. [...] On the weekend beginning November 29th, around 800 delegates will ...25 mins ago
Words and images by Jacqui Gibson Gone are Auckland Museum’s days of doing science using a museum-centric academic approach, after Māori land rights holders Ngāti Kuri gave the museum an ultimatum.
MediaWorks announced in October 2019 that it intended to sell off its struggling television business and cancel or cut back on several popular local programmes, including New Zealand Today, Married at First Sight New Zealand and 7 Days. Its radio and outdoor advertising arms are currently performing well, but MediaWorks’ ...7 hours ago
Some readers may remember that I mentioned last year that I was applying for NZ citizenship. I filled out the paperwork and had my original citizenship interview in February. Everything went well until they discovered that, because I had spent five months in the US in 2017, I had not ...24 hours ago
by Deirdre O’Neill It is becoming quite acceptable for certain sections of the left to declare that people like me – women who are ‘gender critical’ – should not be allowed in leftist or anarchist spaces. Leaving aside the arrogance and implicit authoritarianism of this claim, its lack of critical ...1 day ago
There is an article in The Conversation, written by Jeremy P. Shapiro (Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University), about what he sees as the psychologically-based underpinnings of three main matters that seem to vex people all around the planet. The article is titled “The Thinking ...2 days ago
. . Blogger Martyn Bradbury has won his case against unreasonable search and surveillance against the NZ Police; and subsequent Police attempts to produce evidence in secrecy, in a closed Court. His case highlights a disturbing growing trend in Aotearoa New Zealand for State power to be used against ...2 days ago
Different Strokes: If a multicultural immigration policy imposes no obligation on immigrant communities to acknowledge and ultimately embrace their host nation’s most cherished traditions and values, then how is that nation to prevent itself from being reduced to a collection of inward-looking and self-replicating ethnic and cultural enclaves?THE COALITION GOVERNMENT’S ...3 days ago
by The Council of Disobedient Women In her excellent oral submission to the Abortion reform select committee on 31st October on behalf of Otago University’s Department of Public Health, historian and public health researcher Hera Cook stated: “We would ask that the committee not use the term ‘pregnant persons’ and ...6 days ago
If FFNZ really put their faith in “Top Medical Journals” they would now be amending their billboards to recognise new research results. Image from FFNZ but updated to agree with the latest research. ... 1 week ago
And to think he gave all the potential goodwill away with that moronic, cult-like statement (repeated ad nauseam by many National hardliners) that Key is quite simply “the greatest PM we ever had”…
Installation complete: this was nothing ... 2 weeks ago
We're setting our young people up for success, investing in education around the country. ...4 hours ago
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First backs the public to decide on the End of Life Choice Bill via a referendum at the 2020 General Election. The Bill, with New Zealand First’s referendum provision incorporated, passed its final reading in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for ...4 days ago
***Please check against delivery*** Good morning everyone. It is a pleasure to be with you this morning to open this year’s New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Conference and AGM. Firstly, thank you Dr Alan Jackson, NZTR Chair for your introduction. And let us acknowledge also: The NZTR Board; Dean McKenzie, Chair ...56 mins ago
Air New Zealand has cancelled some of its international flights due to ongoing issues with its Rolls-Royce engines. ...59 mins ago
The Labour-led coalition may have to generate a second wave of Jacindamania if it is to win another term in the Beehive. Re-election is not an impossible dream, despite the failure of Labour to deliver what many of those who voted for it in 2017 expected. Retiring Green MP Gareth Hughes ...1 hour ago
A corporate undertaker talks top tips for making sure you get paid, reining in rogue liquidators, and having a heart for those who’ve lost money.PwC’s John Fisk has handled high profile company failures from Pike River to Lombard Finance and the Ross Asset Management Ponzi scheme. He also chairs the ...2 hours ago
International crime rings are increasingly targeting New Zealanders’ bank accounts to launder proceeds from scams and fraud. Bronwyn Groot, Fraud Education Manager at the Commission for Financial Capability (CFFC) is highlighting the rising incidence ...3 hours ago
Landlords say they feel under siege with the government planning to make it tougher for them to boot out troublesome tenants; and skilled immigrants waiting for a residents visa say its unfair officials are fast tracking applications for those on salaries over $105,000. ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tomas Trescak, Senior Lecturer in Intelligent Systems, Western Sydney University Just a few years ago, virtual reality (VR) was being showered with very real money. The industry raised an estimated US$900 million in venture capital in 2016, but by 2018 that figure ...4 hours ago
Retiring Green MP Gareth Hughes says the pace of change in the current Government is not fast enough for his liking but that is not the reason he is quitting politics. ...4 hours ago
Labour is charging wealthy business figures $1500-a-pop to lunch with Jacinda Ardern; and NZ First-linked forestry company pushed for govt funds. ...5 hours ago
An ambitious new partnership between Sky Sports and more than 50 sports promises more free sport for Kiwis. Suzanne McFadden looks at how it will change the way we see female athletes ...7 hours ago
Catriona MacLennan helped conduct a survey of the top NZ companies to establish the ethnicity of their directors. The results were not surprising, but also far from encouraging. ...7 hours ago
Episode 1 in a series on the trials of injured animals as they’re rescued, rehabilitated and released back into the wild follows the rescue of a yellow-eyed penguin. ...7 hours ago
Steve Braunias reviews the as-told-to book of All Blacks skipper Kieran Read, and fully expects it to suck. ...7 hours ago
The disastrous impact of banks selling risky financial derivatives to farmers is still being felt in rural communities more than a decade later. ...8 hours ago
New Zealand Defence Force's failed to clean up properly after itself in Afghanistan - with the result that seven children have been killed and another 10 civilians injured. ...8 hours ago
Green Party MP Gareth Hughes first entered Parliament in 2010. ...23 hours ago
Many fund managers are overconfident and the public buy the illusion. ...1 day ago
Part 2: In this excerpt from the evidence of Sir Maarten Wevers in the High Court case of Winston Peters over his superannuation leak, the former head of the Prime Minister's Department explains what ministers should be told by public servants ...1 day ago
In this excerpt from the evidence of Sir Maarten Wevers in the High Court case of Winston Peters over his superannuation leak, the former head of the Prime Minister's Department summarises our governing arrangements. ...1 day ago
New Zealand's coroners learnt lessons of cultural competency and communication from March 15. ...1 day ago
As a follow-up to our post about police station office hours for the public and in the cause of balance, we bring positive news – or rather, we are passing on the positive news which the police delivered in a press statement, It’s all about the productivity gains achieved – it ...2 days ago
"I rang the ambulance service then went to the shed": a new short story by a master of the form, Oamaru writer Owen Marshall. ...2 days ago
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How biased is the New Zealand media?
Cunliffe
“David Cunliffe says his Queenstown ski holiday has left him “recharged” and ready to take the battle to Prime Minister John Key in the two-month countdown to election day.”
But the Labour leader threatens to be distracted by internal ill-discipline and criticisms over his judgment, including the holiday itself and a meeting last week with a prominent New Zealander given name suppression on charges of performing an indecent act.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11296559
Key
“Leaving the country in the hands of deputy Bill English, Prime Minister John Key took a holiday “selfie”, posted on Instagram yesterday by son Max.
The photo was titled “pre-golf game”.
Mr Key has taken 10 days out from his pre-election schedule for an overseas holiday. It is believed he is staying at his holiday home on the Hawaiian island of Maui.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11292899
A bit of context is missing from your analysis. Labour is not getting any traction in the polls and Cunliffe has not got as high a profile as Key. Labour may well have benefited from Cunliffe not going on holiday and working on the campaign. National has the flexibility not to have Key doing the same. Certainly there is disquiet amongst Labour MP’s and not amongst National. That is a story in itself.
No one working long hours can perform at their best – their capability declines and their productivity diminishes.
Interestingly – informal polls in both Herald and Dom Post show majority of people thinking it okay for Cunliffe to take his holiday break. I think the media might have boobed on this issue – most people will think it sensible of him, and give him some sympathy/empathy on it.
Quite possibly so. I think they will be less sympathetic to him meeting with a sex offender though.
The sex offender isn’t in the Labour Party though, is he? Far from it!
I thought he met with an ex-National MP, if he met with anyone. Who was the sex offender, Gooseman?
Did you not read the article in question?
Yeah. The persistent allegation of National paying their unwanted MPs off for $300k definitely needs looking at. It explains why so many of them have left so happily. But since it has been done as a backroom deal without the voters being involved, it does leave some questions about the role of the National party somewhat cloudy…
There is also the question about where National is finding the money for this and their other extravagances over the last decade. They seem to have far more money floating around than their sources of published sources of income suggest that they should have.
You seem to be assuming that they have paid off the retiring MP’s. I thought $300 k was quite excessive especially considering Kim Dotcom’s donation to IMP of around 4 million was meant to have made them the highest funded party in NZ. Of course by all means look in to these allegations but it would be churlish to complain the media aren’t doing so if the left is also not doing so.
Weird Gossman. What do you propose we do? Ring up National HQ and ask them “is there any truth to the rumour that retiring Nat MPs are being paid $300k to go?”
Why doesn’t an Opposition MP raise it at question time?
Oh please just take Keys word as gospel. Nothing he says needs any investigation, he’s the purist of the pure and when he says a senior Labour MP is upset with Cunliffe taking three days to recharge just believe him will you…
Ummmm… I believe I stated that this should be investigated and highlighted one way this could be done. Why doesn’t an Opposition MP ask a question about it?
Nah, Keys word is enough for me and the media, how dare you!!
By the way, your absence at the airport to welcome dear leader back was duly noted, best keep your head up your ass and hide for a while…
Are questions that are purely to do with the internal organisation and running of a political party allowed in Question Time? I thought Question Time was about parliamentary business.
(NB: Brendan Horan alleged misuse of parliamentary resources by NZFirst)
Funding of political parties are fair game i would have thought. Certainly Winston Peters found this out over the Owen Glenn situation back in 2008.
How is National Party giving $300k donations to its own MPs anything to do with “funding of political parties”?
Sure, where did they get so much money to splash around like that, but the actual fact (or belief) that they are spending it in that manner, is a matter for the party, not the public (as much as I would like that to become public…).
The Speaker will no doubt use ‘no ministerial responsibility’ to stop any questions
persistent allegation? its only come up on left wing blog sites, from commentators dubious at best. i would be very surprised if this was going on and media commentators didn’t know about it.
I would be very surprised if this was going on and media commentators didn’t know about it, and were prepared to risk their future career by upsetting dear leader.
FIFY
Err, no you didn’t. fixing would be taking someone with journalistic credibility and showing me where they “didn’t investigate because john key told them not too”
If this was actually true, like seriously and actually more than just bullshit presented by left wing bloggers, then at least Bomber, maybe gordon campbell, more likely nicky f$%#ing hagar would be all over it.
Iprent,when donKey first become PM,it was reported that he donated his salary to charity.Is that still the case,an what charity.
Since then he has described the National Party as a charity, so I’ll let you come to your own conclusion over that one..
It was claimed he gave a “portion” of his salary to charity – well a portion could be .5 of a percent couldn’t it?
Yeah, then again it’s pretty hard to tell what he’s saying at the best of times, he may have meant it goes into the Porsche in’ golf cart kitty…
I take it you missed the subtitle which implies that “David Cunliffe spent his vacation meeting a sex offender”, despite the fact that only a few people in the press are aware of this person’s crimes due to name suppression.
There’s also the headline “Cunliffe upset” to make him look as if he was having a little cry about it. Why not the more accurate “Cunliffe angry” or “Cunliffe rebuts”.
They aren’t even trying to hide it now, and they will keep going until someone gives them a reason to stop.
This is really obscene. She is running a Cameron Slater smear line. Slater is spinning it for all he can. Cunliffe is of course not able to respond and the Herald itself is getting close to breaching the suppression order.
Quite obscene really. Yet another example of right wing black ops.
considering who has the name suppression,
you would think they would not be rolling the maul his way
Their tactic seems to be that if they smear the mud around then both sides get tarnished.
There is a website which has the information and it is available to view in NZ right now, what are the legal restrictions of linking to it? or referring to it by name?
We can’t speculate on the identity although Google normally provides an answer very quickly. What is appalling is the smear that is going on Cunliffe. Slater started it and the Herald have picked up on it. Absolutely obscene. Are we going to have to spend all campaign time on rebutting smears?
Apparently so.
Easy to find out who it was.
That’s an eye opener.
Not sure why you are surprised by who it is. If there is one sport in which there is a persistent ‘rape culture’ amongst a proportion of it’s players and supporters I’d have thought rugby would be it.
If asked to pick, I would have picked many before him.
The ability of foreign websites to effectively publish into NZ raises all kinds of curly questions about what is publishing and where that takes place, but effectively they are outside thee reach of NZ law. But everyone in the southern lakes area knows exactly who this is, and you’ll certainly never see him on TV again. You wonder why fight suppression so hard when all it does is have the effect of having everyone focus on finding out who he is. 30 seconds on google is all that is needed.
Re the Cunliffe meeting – it is a beat up as you would expect in a political campaign. The real question is the judgement and political nous of Cunliffe and his advisors. For them not to know of this guys background is remarkable. This is like the photo of Brash walking the plank – not a big deal in itself but just unnecessary and adds to the distractions.
Audrey Young has written an irresponsible and unethical article today and she should be ASHAMED. She knows very well that this kind of display in this sensitive pre-election period is potentially very damaging.
A journalist of Audrey’s mature years should be one of the media playing a critical and positive role in a well-functioning democracy.
Instead she references an offender with ongoing name suppression. Cunliffe had no idea of this person’s history and nor should he. He did check with astute local politicians in Queenstown – but they also had no idea of this person’s history – that’s the effect name suppression has.
But what Audrey has failed to disclose is the strong links the offender has had to the National Party. As the daughter of a National Cabinet Minister she’d be better just to frankly disclose her conflict of interest than to pretend she is a professional journalist capable of writing in an unbiased way.
Today I cancelled my Herald and Sunday Star Times subscriptions. The Guardian Weekly will be it for me from here on as I’ve tired of the NZ trash.
Try BBC’s “A History of the World in 100 Objects” podcasts.
Great for getting to sleep.
Otherwise I get up at 5am for 10k’s run just to deal with the stress of this election.
“Today I cancelled my Herald and Sunday Star Times subscriptions.”
Send an email to tell them what you think and also write to their ‘letters to the editor’ column also? Might as well leave with a loud bang.
Agreed. Meeting with this person is in no way indicative of support. It is the image and perception which is the problem especially given Cunliffe’s comments about sexual offending to Woman’s refuge.
For feck’s sake Gosman. Cunliffe said he was not aware. He is good but he is not omnipotent. It is a shame you do not apply the same expectations to Key. If you did you would be voting Labour without hesitation.
And Slater is the last one who should be writing about this stuff.
Has Slater got some sexual assault history in his backstory ?
Key meets with Economic Hitmen all the time, and the NZ Herald never pulls him up on it.
Exactly, it’s not the Labour Leader who should be embarrassed about that offender!
Ms @1.1.3.1 Its got Crosby Textor written all over it. And by the way for the comment below about Audrey’s father, her brother is the current National MP for New Plymouth.
What I would like to know is “Audrey, your point in bringing this up is????? How is this relevant to what Labour will do for NZders? There is a name suppression order against this. Is Cunliffe suppose to be a mind reader”.
Her brother is the current National MP for New Plymouth
Don’t think so. He’s the son of former Taranaki National MP, Venn Young.
She’s the daughter of former Miramar National MP, Bill Young.
Tom, It would be interesting to know the results of a poll among MPs on who knew this sexual predator’s name. I would be 99.9%. How do you know what the media knows or does not know? I and many others found out by various means including search engines and overseas websites. If Cunliffe did not know which is possible as he was sick and on holiday he was set up.
Gosman, the TV3 poll was not too bad all things considered. (Ignore Gower’s ravings).
Nats 49.4
Lab/Gr/IMP/NZF 45.7
Given that the Cons vote, 2.7%, is now likely to be wasted a 3% shift to the Left/NZF from the Nats would be enough to give that grouping power.
A 7% shift to Lab/Gr/IMP would give the Left power. I know this sounds a lot but these polls were taken during the ridiculous MSM’s attack on Cunliffe’s brave “man” speech and even Gower is starting to say that IMP is going “up and up” and they have only just started.
This election will go to the wire. I liked Cunliffe’s positive “we will come out fighting” on TV3 News tonight.
If you think that was a positive poll for Labour compared to others good luck to you.
Gos, as I told you the other day Labours vote does not really matter. This is MMP, its the total vote of the Left or Right that matters. And you fekkers are in deep proverbial.
That is only partially and technically correct. The coalition needs to be led by a well supported party. Labour’s vote should go to at least about 33%. My party vote will definitely be for Labour.
I’m not really sure that there needs to be a “first among equals” sort of party in a coalition.
No reason for a 20:20:11 coalition to be any better than a 30:11:10 coalition, as far as I can see.
Labour is a party with vast experience/history that works for a very BROAD section of the population, has well thought out costed and responsible economic.social and environmental workable non extreme policies rather than narrow (though may be important) agendas. I think it will be a mistake in the long term for all the progressives parties if Labour is weak and the minor parties, the Greens and the Internet-Mana are equal or more prominent in the coalition. In my opinion, it is imperative that Labour must have the most votes of about at least 33% in the coalition of the partnership parties.
While I agree that having a broad left party is important (and for the sake of conversation grant the assumption that Labour currently fits that bill – cue a self-loathing labourite to enter the thread 🙂 ), that doesn’t mean that broad left policies wouldn’t be followed by a coalition with a less-dominant labour party.
Broad policies are the common ground of the left, so even if Labour didn’t exist mana and the greens, for example, would have common policy areas around minimum wage and so on. Having a broad left party ensures that this common ground is remembered and helps prevent things like cabotage falling through the policy-development cracks.
A significant majority of people don’t appear to see it that way. So who is deluded?
Clemgeopin, consider Lab5, the winter of discontent scare campaign, and the subsequent timidity of Labour. A left Government comprising a Green Party in the 20%+ territory, Mana on 10%+ etc will be much less likely to buckle when faced with such tactics.
It’s not so much a lack of policy agenda on the left; the ability to withstand the juggernaut from the right after the election counts as well.
National plunge from 53% to 49.4%!!!!
John Key should resign! He should resign do you hear!?
Do you hear that John Armstrong? Are you listening?
If you think that was a positive poll for Labour compared to others good luck to you
The latest 3 News Reid Research Poll was good for Labour in the context of the last 4 polls (ie those of July), and a fairly average poll for Labour in the context of the last 6 weeks.
More importantly, it was above average for both the Left Bloc and the broader Opposition Bloc (Left + NZ First) in the context of both the July Polls and the Polls of the last 6 weeks.
FYI, the last poll the Conservatives were on 1.2%
” Certainly there is disquiet amongst Labour MP’s and not amongst National. That is a story in itself.”
yeah – thats nonsense –
there is zero evidence that this is coming from a labour MP as opposed to slater, and i do hope your going to try and claim there arent factions in national
The Herald is owned by big business corporates who support the National Party, wtf do you expect?
Your comment needs some adding to it, anger can be power, there is no point banging on endlessly about the ugly media’s attacks on Labour,
Anger can be power, use the anger at the media as fuel to campaign harder, when the enemy, in this case most of the high profile media ‘personalities’ in the country see that their attacks hurt they will naturally keep on doing just that,
Laugh at them…
Three days in Queenstown brings on this anti-Cunliffe fury ? For fuck sake ! While that poncey piece of shit for a man TheGodKey minces round Hawaii for ten days auditioning for the fucking E! Channel.
On top of the ‘seminal’ matter of an eleven year old standard form letter – not different in essence from probably 10,000 letters since written by MPs duty-bound to write them – what the fuck is this nation coming to ?
I’m stopping for petrol at 6.20 this morning – some RNZ wet behind the ears puppy journalist, for all money reading from a script like she didn’t even understand what she was reading – “Mr Cunliffe, do you really want to be prime minister ?” For fuck sake ! A weekend and a day ???
I nearly cleaned up the local Caltex I’ll tell you. On account of a sudden visitation by a staccato “WinstonMediaSlap” –
“WhatpuerileinterrogatorymediamakesahabitofitI’msickofitfranklyandsoisthepublicSLAP!”
Three possibilities – (1) the faceless very powerful see Cunliffe PM as REALLY threatening, (2) TheGodKey’s power-celebrity lust is REALLY pathological, (3) we as a nation REALLY are but E! Channel.
If it’s (1) the question is “What rorts are they hiding ?”, if it’s (2) the faceless in (1) own the bitch, and if it’s (3) read ‘psycho-pathological’ in (2). And agree that we’re fucked I guess !
Bugger ! I was raised to believe we had a good country……
I saw susan wood last night getting herself in a snit over some un named MP who supposedly rang her up and told her that they were angry because DC was having a break.
It all comes back to her.
why didnt she check up with someone else.
name the person wooods!
Is she a reporter or just a tattler for the tories.
This style of conducting poltiics is getting creepier and creepier.
persons like woods seem to be in control of the discourse but not of it.
But could you identify a phone call from Key when he’s got his hanky over the receiver… would be just as hard as identifying Shane Jones calling you with his mouth full of caviar..
His diplomatic title is “First Sealord”.
🙂
Well that’s an improvement on his previous lord semen title.
yee gawds man, a trigger warning would have been appropriate…
sorry mate 😈
First Sealord. Love it 🙂
Susan Wood
The epitome of everything that is wrong with NZ media.
And i notice that IMP and NZF both had their meetings this weekend and NO negative press so it’s just a targeted and concerted attack on Labour and even more importantly Cunliffe him self so who’s scared of who??
Check out the Dominions editorial this morning (aka blame Putin for everything)…with a balanced viewpoint
http://www.theautomaticearth.com/the-day-god-looked-away/
Now tell me if the MSM are worth listening to.
I had a dream
Not, “I have a dream” (not that I don’t)
But I had a dream.
I woke up this morning at 3am with a start. I had had vivid dream that Laila Harre had just been made Prime Minister.
In my Dream Laila Harre passed through Papakura in a train. Hundreds of people were gathered on the platform to greet Prime Minister Harre. As the train slowly pulled out of the station people ran beside the moving train. I was one of them. I ran beside the train window where Laila Harre was standing. I caught her eye, there were tears in her eyes. But steel in her heart.
Laila Harre is the future that New Zealand never had.
Vote Internet Mana.
So what sparked such a vivid dream.
Yesterday while Lynn Prentice was attending the New Zealand First conference I attended the Mana Road show at the Kelston community hall.
If you get a chance, attend the Mana Roadshow when it comes to your town. If it was anything like what I saw, believe me it is something you don’t want to miss and will remember forever.
It was the old style barnstorming of the 1930s reborn, the hall was packed there was standing room only. The speeches were unmassaged, unvarnished, raw. None of the speakers had had a makeover Dotcom was still as large as ever, in tracksuit and trainers, speaking a thick German accent. Harawira was still the unrepentant Maori Nationalist.
But somehow the mix had become distilled into something greater than its parts.
Dotcom spoke of how as a teenager he had hacked NASA to find out if there really were aliens. And had hacked the bundesbank to five the German Prime Minister of the time, who he didn’t like, a zero credit rating. For these crimes he was convicted. It is these convictions that the government here is holding against him. But in Germany at his sentencing the judge said you have a gift, you should make something of this gift, perhaps you could tell these companies you hacked how to protect themselves. After the court case he wrote up a business plan and presented it to the authorities, imagine his surprise when the German government despite his convictions gave him a $million dollar zero interest loan for twenty years. This government loan was the basis of his current success. This $million dollars allowed him to hire staff and start his business and within two years even though he didn’t have to, he paid the loan back. Dotcom said, this is what we should be doing in New Zealand. We should be encouraging start ups, and innovators and this is what internet Mana proposes. A large part of the meeting was about the new smart and sustainable technology. Dotcom spoke of the Internet Mana committment to full free education. What is the point he said of lumbering our best and brightest with massive debts which they have to go overseas to pay off, where they start companies and make friends and contacts and maybe meet the love of their life and never return to help make this country grow into what it could be. Laila Harre’s speech was also devoted to education and the sustainable smart technology and the need to get away from fossil fuel use. She spoke of climate change three times. Unlike David Cunliffe the leader of the Labour Party who never mentioned it once in his inaugural election speech.
But the thing was, Laila Harre wasn’t the best speaker, nor was it Kim Dotcom, nor was it Hone Harawira or Annette Sykes. Not that their speeches were bad, they were great. But the best speech of the night was from John Minto. Talk about speaking truth to power, this man has been doing it all his life. When you hear John Minto speak you know everything he says has been researched, is accurate, is thoughtful and considered and because of that compelling. If you have never heard John Minto speak, be prepared to be inspired. Be prepared to be moved, be prepared to be shaken.
Be prepared to vote.
Both Minto and Harre need to be in parliament.
If you consider yourself Left and you don’t vote Internet Mana on the list then you will miss the chance to see Annette Sykes, John Minto and Laila Harre in Parliament and the future of this country will be very dark indeed.
Well written Jenny,(except for the swipes in your usual directions), did you get to hear of future dates for the InternetMana roadshow when it gets to travel the rest of the motu,
DotCom need not waste his data searching for evidence of aliens these days, apparently said aliens were gathered in an unnamed hotel this weekend for a discussion on world domination…
Wish I’d been there! Is it available to view online?
Given the premise of the Internet Party they better have it up online!!!
Nope not on their Website or their You tube site either, most disappointing, if you can’t get to these events..
There is a short break for the Internet Party’s national music tour – the Party Party from July 23-26 . Internet MANA then hits the road again in the Waikato, Taranaki, Manawatu-Whanganui and Wellington.
https://www.facebook.com/InternetPartyNZ/events
THE PARTY PARTY! [NORTH ISLAND]
Wednesday, July 23 The Studio, Auckland + James Cabaret, Wellington 19:30
THE PARTY PARTY! [SOUTH ISLAND]
Thursday, July 24 The Foundary, Christchurch – 10 Bar, Dunedin 19:00
ROAD TRIP RESUMES
Tuesday, July 29 Rotorua Distinction Hotel, 390 Fenton Street 6pm
Wednesday, July 30 Hamilton Waikato University, PriceWaterhouseCoopers Lecture Theatre 6pm
Thursday, July 31 New Plymouth New Plymouth Boys’ High School 6pm
Saturday, August 2 Whanganui War Memorial Conference Centre 2pm
Sunday, August 3 Ratana Church Service, Waipounamu St 11am
Palmerston North Convention Centre 2pm
Monday August 4 Wellington Mac’s Function Centre 6pm
https://internet.org.nz/news/64
I found some links to where people can buy tickets online.
Disclaimer: I do not get any commission nor am I a member of IMP! But I will be at their event this week.
Auckland – July 23, The Studio http://tinyurl.com/lsdn4g9
Christchurch – July 24, The Foundry http://www.dashtickets.co.nz/?/event/pwgzmvhkj
Wellington – July 25, James Cabaret http://tinyurl.com/ptcy7jl
Dunedin – July 26, Sammy’s http://www.dashtickets.co.nz/?/event/m9yk8qz74
R18: $20+bf Students, $30+bf Public
(What is “bf”?)
Btw, if someone connected with the IMP organisers is reading this, can that Facebook link for the South Island be fixed up?
It looks like the Christchurch event has been conflated with the Dunedin event (re: “Thursday, July 24 The Foundary, Christchurch – 10 Bar, Dunedin 19:00”)
And the online links for purchasing tickets, as I have noted, should be given wider publicity to attract greater numbers.
I have no connection to IMP, other than being on a mailing list as I am with many things, but know there has been contact made about the front page dates being clarified.
All good, thanks, and may you live fully according to your chosen handle!
Looks like a ticket clipping $3 booking fee (“bf”)
Over the weekend, the Dunedin venue was changed; from Sammy’s in the rundown warehouse part of town, to 10 Bar in the Octagon. Mainly to focus more on the student audience. This means that all the publicity (posters etc) has to be updated this week – the date is still the 26th, hopefully the Facebook page will be fixed soon.
The old tickets are still valid even if they do say Sammy’s. But it does mean that some poor volunteer will have to miss the gig and stand outside Sammy’s redirecting those who haven’t got the update – hope it’s not snowing for them!
that is a good review jenny..
..i was there..and you have captured it well..
..the room was electric..
..internet/mana is like a just-woken tiger…
..getting ready to roar…
Thank you Phillip. There is a lot more I could have said. Like for instance, Te Hamua Nikora the Mana Party candidate for Ikaroa Rawhiti who acted as MC.
Te Hamua described the Mana Party as a rugby team that ran onto the field to face the All Blacks and standing in bare feet. Te Hamua introduced Kim Dotcom as the man who supplied us with boots.
Kim Dotcom’s first comments were thanking New Zealanders for coming to his aid in his time of need. He mentioned the many thousands messages of support, he mentioned the person who lent him a car when he needed one, (his whole collection had been confiscated), he mentioned the people who gave him money and bought food to his house when he didn’t have a cent to buy groceries because all his funds had been completely frozen. He said that if it hadn’t been for this outflowing of support when he most needed it he would have given up.
Dotcom said that the founding of the Internet Party had nothing to do with his extradition. He said he founded the Internet Party in gratitude as his gift to New Zealand.
“Dotcom said that the founding of the Internet Party had nothing to do with his extradition. He said he founded the Internet Party in gratitude as his gift to New Zealand.”
That’s the biggest lol of this 1% lonies taking over the asylum day on the standard.
Thanks for that.
hoots was sounding kinda desperate on rnz..
..first he was saying dotcom has got nothing..
..then he had an elongated whine about glenn greenwald coming to that town hall key-dump/roast…
..all about ‘foreign journalists’ coming here ‘to influence our election’..
..and hoots deserves a special award for the most use of the word ‘foreigner’ in a single sentence..
..(surpassing even peters at his most xenophobic/bellicose..)
..and i’m sure that in the studio..he was waving his arms around in an alarming manner..each time he said ‘foreigner’…
..his upper lip curled back up over his teeth..as he does when he gets particularly fraught…
..and likely flecks of foam involved..
..somewhere in the process..
..it was all quite a hoot…
What Mathew Hooton neglects to mention in his rants against foreigners, is that New Zealand is not a state of US, but a sovereign country. One thing you will never from Mathew Hooton is a rant against those New Zealanders who willingly and illegally intercepted our communications and passed them on to this ‘foreign power’. Or complain about our Prime Minister who all but resides in a US controlled territory, who changed the law to make this illegal mass spying on us and the handing of our megadata over to the US legal.
This review sounds very similar to a review I read recently about someone who went to listen to Hitler in 1936.
I have no doubt that Internet/Mana is something new and will turn out to be bigger than many think – but when people like Jenny carry on like a many fell for Hitler I start to worry.
barry, take your sodding racism elsewhere then you won’t have to worry about it here.
Decide for me Barry, i just cant quite place your comment in an appropriate category, (a) being a bit of a Godwin there do you not think, and (b), just a piece of abject stupidity considering that no-one will be voting for DotCom,
Hint: its the policies and the front runners on the InternetMana Party List that we will be voting for…
You do realise that armed black shirts went knocking down the door to Dotcom’s home, not the other way around?
What’s with the Godwin shite there Barry? Or are you just one of these Glass half empty sort of people.
he seems more akin to ‘instructions on toothpick packs are too complex’ sort of people
Lolz freedom, that a good one…
@ Barry,
I think Key’s popularity is far more a parallel of the review that you read.
Jenny, that is an excellent and inspiring post!
Good on you.
Goodness gracious me! Even John Armstrong sounds excited!
If any spies from the Labour, Green or Maori parties infiltrated yesterday’s Internet Mana rally in West Auckland, they would have come away with very worried looks on their faces.
The Maori Party, in particular, should be afraid, very afraid. The main hall of the Kelston Community Centre was packed to the gunnels. There was not so much a buzz of excitement as a raging ferment of noise as the audience waited patiently for proceedings to begin.
Say what you like about Kim Dotcom. Say what you like about Laila Harre’s initially hard-to-understand decision to team up with the internet tycoon – all that paled into utter insignificance yesterday. There was instead a hint of history being made. The chance to fund and build a new movement of the left is not an opportunity to be squandered. The likes of Kim Dotcom do not come along very often. Neither is such a collective of credible activists always on hand to run such an outfit as is the case with Internet Mana.
John Armstrong will be on gardening leave if he keeps that up. It was definitely that kind of atmosphere, not something dreamed up by the usual suspects including me, here.
As the Roadshow heads South it leaves Hone country so it will be interesting to see if the full halls so far continue, I suspect the Rotorua event will be a good one too.
—Tuesday, July 29, Rotorua, Distinction Hotel, 390 Fenton Street, 6pm—
Spot on…Rotorua, Hamilton, New Plymouth…if he pulls big crowds IMP could be on to something on Sept 20.
Isn’t that a strange piece of actual journalism from that old so and so Armstrong, not so much a factual portrayal of what the main players at the event had to say but a well thought through opinion piece on the mood of those who turned up in Auckland,
(i wish such journalists would deign to do some of the real work that should be their bread and butter, like querying attendees as to IF they voted in 2011 for instance so we can gauge where the obviously growing support is likely to be coming from),
ianmac’s comment above pretty much encapsulates the whole of Armstrong’s Herald piece on the InternetMana Parties Auckland leg of the roadshow, but, who would have thunk it, you wont find the article on the main page of the Herald’s online version,
You have to ‘click on’ Opinion at the top of the page where presumably the poor panicked a/hole that edits that particular piece of trash decided to bury it…
lol, you have in your possession such a deft turn of phrase!
There must be two people with the name John Minto involved in New Zealand politics.
You describe one with the words
“everything he says has been researched, is accurate, is thoughtful and considered”
Perhaps you could tell me who the other one is the produced this totally laughable contribution for The Daily Blog? This was prepared by someone who claims to be the finance spokesman for his party.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/05/21/who-pays-tax-who-pays-the-most-tax-and-who-doesnt-pay-tax/
Hint. If you think it has any relationship to being “accurate, thoughtful and considered” start by looking at the difference between average and marginal rates of tax. You can continue by trying to find anything at all that is sensible about the piece.
Alwyn, the fact that the ‘wing-nuts’ disagree with John Minto simply has me doubly sure that my vote cast for InternetMana will have all the better impact,
The stuff of your nightmares right, if John Armstrong is putting out the big hint of a 5% InternetMana vote at election 2014 just how big will it get…
Did you read the article I linked to?
If so do you really think it is valid to calculate the “total tax paid” in the way he does?
Do you really not see anything wrong with it, and would you try and justify his calculations?
If so I fear there is very little hope for you.
You can vote for him if you want to. However to say that everything he says has “been researched, is accurate” etc is a joke.
Nope, seems reasonable. It shows what percentage of income different groups of people are paying in tax.
You really don’t get it do you? Minto puts in a column that is the MARGINAL rate of tax, adds an estimate of GST to it and then claims that that would be the AVERAGE rate of tax.
The average income is about $52,000/year. According to Minto you would pay income tax of about $16,500 from that (31.7%)
If you look at the tax calculation in the IR3 booklet you don’t pay that at all. What you do pay on $52,000 taxable income is $8,620. That is only about half the amount.
The silly fellow is quoting marginal rates and then treating them as average rates.
I suppose the true believers, such as yourself accept, his numbers so why shouldn’t he just continue to spout his fantasies.
This is fairly typical of his methods of course. You will note that in his article he makes no attempt to justify his claim that the very rich pay negligible tax. Why bother. His fans happily accept anything he says.
Alwyn, i will say this slooo–ooowly for you as you seem to be a little slow today, you know when on the ‘course’ you hear the yelled ‘four’, you are supposed to take cover, being struck repeatedly by objects moving at speed will leave you brain damaged,
The argument you put up comes down to this, you do not agree with John Minto, therefor my counter argument is i do agree with John Minto, you propose nothing else than this,
Bill Rosenberg the CTU economist did the actual research which pointed out the unfairness of the tax system, the circular argument has been going round and round ever since,
While i understand what both Minto and Rosenberg are on about such arguments can never become a ‘settled truth’ as both left and right continue to talk past each other using differing data to base their conclusions upon,
On a more visceral level i fully understand how the tax burden impacts on me to a far greater extent than those swinging from the income tree at a higher level than myself,
Directly addressing income inequality starting at the level of the beneficiary will of course resolve the issues John Minto and Bill Rosenberg canvas,
The imposition of the living wage for every adult currently not in receipt of such monies weekly, including beneficiaries, would be the ‘fix’ that i tend to see as the ideal…
The two pics I took there:
First one: Taken just before it started. Still had many more people to come in.
Second one: Taken when Laila Harre was speaking.
Annette Sykes as PM would be something.
the speakers all impressed..in a major way..
..but both sykes and harre lifted the roof off…
Annette’s sharp ae, Marama Davidson of the Green Party also has such a sharp mind, i will suggest that when ‘the roadshow’ hits Rotorua that will be the start of the waiata starting the tangi for the Maori Party,
Polling 2.5% on my TV last night and from a Reid Research Poll at that, i am starting to sniff 5% for InternetMana and if i allow myself an ‘in my wildest dreams moment’ this could get Big…
with you on that Bad .. at least 5%. here be dragons.
3% to 4% on the day which counts would be a magnificent achievement. 4-5 MPs. Anything beyond that is really a dream, but they also have a tonne of challenges to get through first, esp Sept 15.
They’re talking the language that Labour should be.
I am gobsmacked! Did John Armstrong REALLY write this about the Internet Mana Kelston meeting?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11296565
The zombie ‘living dead’ author of that opinion piece is trying to make the best out of a worrying situation for National.
He focuses exclusively about the Left in the piece but does not say that Nats are very concerned about the groundswell of support for IMP.
IMP is now the party that is cool and the Prime Puppet of the Nat Party is no longer cool. He has long given up his show of ‘smile and wave’ that is now replaced by the routine of lie and feck off to Hawaii.
At my workplace, the Nat parents are saying their kids who will be voting are supporting IMP. Good on them. Let’s wish them a good time at IMP’s “Party Party – The Global Movement”:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1407/S00112/party-party-the-launch-of-a-global-movement-500-words.htm
If the party party engages more young people politically, and gets them voting, then that’s a very good thing.
Armstrong opens his article by focusing on putting an IMP wedge into the left. You are right, Kiwiri, that JA is transferring his fears of IMP taking the momentum from right wing parties. Must be giving him a few sleepless hours.
Cheers.
And was there a hint or whiff of anti-Maori slant from the zombied writer? He is a disgrace.
You do know that the list and electorate votes never match up. And that Maori seats have a lot less voters and so exaggerate the effect. Basically Harra gets in if the Mana gets One MP and a large Mana list vote, but if Mana takes all the Maori seats the Harra needs a much greater list vote than she would have needed if those were the same number of general seats. i.e. the harder she worked, the more traction she gets is hurt by the more Moari electorate seats Mana wins!!!
Yet its worse!
KimDotCom is a rich white european, working general seater voters are not his natural supporters especially since he gave Banks donations!!! Banks being an ACT party leader!
Now your Maori voter has no such fear since the more Mana seats in the Maori electorate the more likely even Harra wont get into parliament, and so no Dotcom.
Party Vote Green, Vote Mana in the Maori seats, Labour in the general seats. And Key LOSES.
Cunliffe should ask his MP’s to sign a statement to the effect that they did not speak to the Dom Post journalist and then present it to the Dom Post.
And ask that the journalist confirm or deny to the editor and public that it was or was not an MP who spoke to them.
If all the MP’s sign and the Dom Post offer no response take them to the Press Council.
While published in the Sunday Star Times, it was also on the Stuff and Dom Post sites.
Notice that Key referred to a “Senior Labour MP.” Wonder where he got that from?
In any case it seems so unlikely that an MP would cut his own lifeline in a confidential chat to a journalist. I still think the source was someone like Cameron Slater.
he got it out of his arse, like his economic policies.
Could be Cameron Slater – Senior ‘Labour; Malignant Pathologist – as in specialising in spreading infectious rumours about Labour.
Good idea. You should email Mr Cunliffe and the Labour president your suggestion.
If they find the alleged MP, he/she should be sacked asap irrespective of the consequences..
In a different world Internet Mana would be duking it out with the Greens as the lead opposition party in this election because it is unequivocally left and embracing the new. Hard lefties have sniffed at the “libertarian” edge to the Internet Party but the mostly working class Westie audience had loud applause for free tertiary and universal internet access policies and online policy creation by members. Plus No to TPPA, Royal Commission on all the spooks, independent foreign policy, moratorium on extractive activities, tax free first $27,000 and so on.
The IMP Roadshow Kelston edition was exceptional for a political meeting from the set up with King Kapisi. Professionally staged but a live feel. The leaders and lead candidates complemented each other well, the body language said these people like each other and are having fun, sounds unbelievable doesn’t it in these sometimes turgid columns.
Te Hamua Nikora MC’ed in a stand up style aimed at including everyone while managing not to be condescending. As Laila reminded, the hall had seen the launch and conclusion of many successful political campaigns before during Alliance days including bringing a full hospital to Waitakere and fighting the sale of Ports of Auckland.
Best speaker for me was Annette Sykes, punchy style with a lawyers grasp of detail. Minto is widely liked too by the very people Key and torys spit on. IMP is a small player but will likely deservedly help decide the election result. Get to a Roadshow event if you can.
free tertiary and universal internet access policies and online policy creation by members. Plus No to TPPA, Royal Commission on all the spooks, independent foreign policy, moratorium on extractive activities, tax free first $27,000 and so on.
Pretty much all Green Party policies – may be slight differences in the finer details, but the GP have worked long on making the policies workable.
won’t it be great if the greens do really well..and internet/mana do really well..
..then together..
..they can persuade labour to return to its’ roots/original reasons for being..?
..and enact those left/green/progressive policies they hold in common..?
..doesn’t that have hints of a masterplan..of sorts..?
..and really..nobody has copyright on those/any ‘left/green/progressive’ policy ideas..
..just look at peters..with his ‘cool’ no gst on food policy..
..what’s not to love about that one..?
..a good idea is a good idea..
..something to be shared..and thus achieved..
..not something to be churlishly clung-to..
..thus ensuring less chance of that achieving..?
@ karol..
..do you recall just when the greens introduced ‘ online policy creation by members.’..?
..my memories are the greens being like most other political parties in this way..
..policy-creation being a few people pulling the policy together..(under direction of leadership..)..
..with the final policy being signed-off/approved by head-office..
..and then being presented to the party membership as a fait accomplit..
..when did this change..?
..and that is something the internet party is to be applauded for..
..for their policy being formulated in an open forum..
..in a total reversal of that usual top-down method..
..i am expecting members of other political parties to also demand this right/change..
..a change that can only enhance the democratic process..
“]1] free tertiary and universal internet access policies and online policy creation by members. [2] Plus No to TPPA, [3] Royal Commission on all the spooks, [4] Independent foreign policy, [5] moratorium on extractive activities, [6] tax free first $27,000 and so on.”
[1] Great policy. If financially doable is an important question.
[2] That is jumping the gun blindly before we even know the details.
[3] Agree.
[4] With fair, just and friendly non aligned relations with all nations, guided by the UN principles.
[5] Dumb policy.
[6] (a) Reduces government income drastically affecting services (b) If not targeted to the
poor and low income families, will be a gift to everyone, including the wealthy.
[2] The TPPA has been irredeemably hi-jacked by US corporate imperialism. There needs to be another way that maintains NZ’s independence.
[5] It’s not dumb at all. It will put a break on overseas companies that the Nats have been empower into extracting NZ resources. It will create time for a clear and in depth look at the way forward.
[6] Both the Greens and Mana have other policies to offset the lost tax revenue. eg Greens favour Capital Gains and Tobin taxes, plus , for other reasons, and ecological tax. A tax free threshold is a smart and simple policy. Aussie has a tax free threshold and it works for them (albeit for a lower amount).
2). I’d say that having the government signing it without any input from the people of NZ is jumping the gun. In fact, it’s totally undemocractic.
4.) Agreed. Total neutrality is NZ’s best option
5.) Disagree. We need to keep that wealth for the following generations.
6.) (a) Only if it’s not offset by other taxes. (b) They’ve specifically said that they will be taxing the rich more and introducing a financial transaction tax.
Tax free first $27,000?
Gosh, it looks as if Laila is stealing policies from the Conservative Party doesn’t it?
Even people who want to beat children might have a good idea once in their lives.
Also as above Tiger, well written, same question, any intimation of future dates when the roadshow, after the announced break, continues down the motu…
Internet Mana Roadshow dates and venues are on this page bad and others;
https://internet.org.nz/news/64
Will check some of the vids available from Kelston and post links later if suitable.
Cheers Tiger, befor i click on the link, every other time i have tried to get to the Internet Party website my computer hits a blank wall,(if you have the time publishing the dates would be a big help),
Just heard, again on my wireless, a fair and balanced report, sorry forgot the name of the reporter from the weekends event,
The audience was described as diverse, a plus in my eyes showing a wide cross section of support,(would have been nice if the reporter had of identified if those spoken to were ‘fence sitters’ in 2011),
They played audio of part of DotCom’s speech, hopefully He is included in the rest of the roadshow as He brings the human face to His supposed crimes which has the audience obviously warming to Him,
InternetMana putting a definite buzz into election 2014, they have my Party Vote…
Edit: yeah Tiger it is like i said above, i just get a blank white page with four purple squares…
Was reluctant to post list if poss as takes up space here but people are interested so…
Internet Mana Roadshow events
Tuesday, July 29
Rotorua
Distinction Hotel, 390 Fenton Street
6pm
Wednesday, July 30
Hamilton
Waikato University, PriceWaterhouseCoopers Lecture Theatre
6pm
Thursday, July 31
New Plymouth
New Plymouth Boys’ High School
6pm
Saturday, August 2
Whanganui
War Memorial Conference Centre
2pm
Sunday, August 3
Ratana
Church Service, Waipounamu St
11am
Palmerston North
Convention Centre
2pm
Monday, August 4
Wellington
Mac’s Function Centre
6pm
Chch?
They seem to be announcing dates and venues only about 10 days to 2 weeks beforehand, and have not yet announced South Island dates etc.
THE PARTY PARTY! [SOUTH ISLAND]
Thursday, July 24 The Foundary, Christchurch – 10 Bar, Dunedin 19:00
not sure of the Roadshow itinerary in the South Island, perhaps it has not been released yet.
That second line they put out on Facebook is a bit garbled.
I found some info for buying tickets online and posted them at 2.1.2.2.1.
Their organiser should take another look at and double check the various info put out through their press releases, eg scoop.co.nz, their Facebook page and elsewhere online.
Quite important, confusing or contradictory details are not a good look
They moved the Dunedin venue to something nicer and more appropriate (thanks for the heads up, Pasupial). That is clever and a good call.
Yes, the weather might not be very nice and so perhaps they should have a shuttle outside the old venue to ferry people in case some turn up there. That would build up even more political capital and goodwill.
The Foundry in Ilam or the Foundry in Woolston? One is in the middle of Brownlees urban middle blue sinkhole, the other in the middle of touch-and-go Port Hills working class earthquake-forgotten hard arses (though the local Foundry occupied by Ilam types).
Lolz, and i thought i had Wellington sussed, Mac’s function centre, never heard of it, will Google it up later and post some reminders here in ‘Open Mike’ in the days leading up to the Wellington event…
Lower Taranaki St, Cable St intersection on the waterfront near Te Papa.
Big red brick building. Entry to function centre on Taranaki St side opposite Circa Theatre
Jenny, phil and others. Great to hear about the Internet Mana roadshow first hand. (Good to know I’m not the only who has political dreams) What a breath of fresh air they are!
May they sweep through our islands collecting the hearts and minds of the disenchanted, the young, the hopeful, and the forgotten.
May the fantastic line up of the party party shake the foundations of their venues with their sound. Wake the town and tell the people!
May Laila return to parliament, in power, with Annette and Hone at her side. ( I have a soft spot for Laila, she is a former employer. She is a determined, a quick and strategic thinker and has bucket loads of energy, I could never fathom where she got it all from. I’m guessing she’s in her element right now)
I like hearing about all the positive campaigning events happening around the country. Keep it up comrades.
Good to read the comments of the Internet Party’s second-ranked candidate, Chris Yong:
“In recent years, I’ve become quite disillusioned with our government. I feel they just don’t have the interests of New Zealanders at heart. Despite public concerns they pushed through state asset sales, are happy to risk our natural environment with deep sea oil drilling, and breached our right to privacy under the Bill of Rights with mass surveillance.
“Further to that, the cost of living especially in Auckland is crippling. An average income earner cannot afford an average priced home, financial stress is a huge problem affecting many people.”
http://chrisyong.net/
Cheers for that freedom, will spread the word around the bro’s…
Will be trying to get to the Aug 4 event myself so might see you there, of course I won’t know if I do 🙂
Here’s your clue to picking ‘i’ head out in the crowd freedom, ”looks like a thug, could be a thief”, see you there…
Whatever you do, DON’T click on the purple dots! You never know what might happen!
Slippery the Prime Minister via my wireless this morning intimating that He will be announcing a decision on what National intend to do about the East Coast Bays seat next week,
Winston Peters, also via my wireless, strangely not being so certain today of contesting the above mentioned seat,
Colon the ‘honestly why don’t you believe me, we are not loonies, Conservative, also via you know what announcing not only that the Conservatives are fully transparent,(like P 🙄 G everyone sees right through them), but, the bottom line isn’t really a bottom line,(and apparently there’s lots of people out there that do not believe that the Conservatives are loonies, so there)…
Yep agreed bad12.
And Slippery was nicely nailed by Espiner this AM on whether he knew about Dotcom earlier. Espiner said Coleman knew about Dotcom 2 years before Key and asked Key if Coleman had told him about Dotcom. Key came back saying that this was not true to which Espiner said it was true. Cue lots of panic blather from Key at that point, including Key saying he would refuse to resign even if he had lied about this.
Worth a listen on Morning Report.
Bearded Git, thanks for filling in the gaps, i caught the bit where Slippery the Prime Minister said He wouldn’t resign even if DotCom produces the smoking gun,
Between the pair of them, Slippery and Espinner, my ears had tuned out the salient points your comment addresses,
That FF-ing Espinner sounds more and more like a Manic that the shrinks have on the wrong brand of anti-depressants, His delivery is far more suited to the fare-welling of cadavers from a funeral home than addressing the nation via National Radio,
my poor old much verbally abused wireless is now in danger of suffering the further indignity of actual physical harm from having that Dee-rrrr droning at me for the mornings news hour…
LOL! Very funny!
To be fair he stated that they have investigated the matter and could find no evidence of any connection before when he stated he heard of him. He then said there might be something out there he was unaware of at this stage and if this came to light he wasn’t going to resign over it.
Hollow words from a Prime Minister who has stated repeatedly he cannot remember his view on the Springbok Tour, or when exactly he made trades for Andrew Krieger or that he promised not to raise G.S.T or that he will stand by the Pike River families or that no-one in Christchurch will face the struggle alone.
Why do you still stand behind the bunting, excitedly waving your little blue and yellow flags?
If in a couple of weeks the PM announces that they had to refuse entry to Greenwald for whatever reason, will you also refute he said the following about whether Greenwald would be allowed into the country?
OR is our PM saying they would not be concerned if Greenwald’s entry was refused?
that is something a journo should get clarification on …
stopping greenwald from entering the country wouldn’t work for them…it wd get global-publicity..
..and he cd b streamed in on a big screen…
..lose..lose…
Wondered what Key’s line would be when he is finally snookered on Dotcom issues.
He could probably squiggle out if it was only about timeline “I had to choose Hobbits over nasty union members, I did it for you, so not lying, national interest ”. Sadistic torys would vote for him anyway with pleasure.
BUT, unfortunately for ShonKey this involves NSA, FBI, Five Eyes, US Corporates, MPAA, NZ security agencies and him as minister and Prime Minister. Mr Dotcom seeming to further delve into the Snowden haul may turn up something in that direction showing incontrovertibly that the NZ state security forces and government were used to directly intervene on behalf of offshore corporates.
If the Prime Minister of New Zealand undermining the countrys sovereignty, parliament, surveillance and labour laws on behalf of a foreign power is not of major concern to citizens then I don’t know what would be.
I suspect that the evidence KDC ha will be circumstantial, and not a smoking gun that delivers a knock-out blow.
Or there could be Snowden documents that show Dotcom was right.
Yeah, there’s got to be a reason why he’s got Greenwald coming.
as i said yesterday..i stood on the edge of that stand-up dotcom did with the corporate media at the harawira/harre/dotcom roadshow..
..where both tvone and 3 tried to run that ‘you’ve got nothing!;-line past him..
..and dotcom almost laughed in their faces..
..that they wd think he was so stupid as to say he had the goods on key..and then not to have those goods..
..i’d bet a pound to a pinch of horseshit that dotcom will deliver those ‘goods’ on the 15th of sept..
..it’ll be the best show in town on that nite…
I believe that even if Dotcom has evidence of everything Tiger Mountain says it will not affect National’s vote. It might affect IMP’s turnout though.
The way to win this election is to put in the hard yards, not rely on magic bullets. Put it this way: Martyn Bradbury has predicted it will be a game changer.
I am sure if Mr Dotcom’s revelations involve external and internal spying agencies and a provable linkage to Key then he will have the PM well and truly screwed. However I doubt he has that level of detail.
enjoy your doubt for now gosman, for you can be certain that Greenwald and Snowden do have ‘that level of detail’.
Even the bluest of the blue voters will not enjoy what is to come out at ‘that level of detail;, I am certain of it.
When the following story broke the exclusion of any references to NZ agencies was commented on in social networks, with Greenwald’s network alluding there was ‘more to come at a later date’. September 15 qualifies as a later date. Who knows, maybe it’s all a big Dotcom conspiracy and the US and the UK and Canada never did any of what the extensive collections of released documents detail.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/yes-paid-government-trolls-social-media-blogs-forums-websites/
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/07/14/manipulating-online-polls-ways-british-spies-seek-control-internet/
For those who want a bit more insight as to what makes Glenn Greenwald tick,
here is a blog which has an extensive archive
http://utdocuments.blogspot.com.br/
And check this out – Greenwald is a great speaker. With a few words of intro by none other than Jeremy Scahill.
Greenwald himself from 10:00mins in.
Here is the interview on Morning Report.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/20142432/john-key-repeats-he-didn't-know-kim-dotcom
Hilarious. Key and his office are laying the groundwork for being proved wrong on this. It will end up all being a paperwork mistake and the fault of some middle tier public service official.
This is exactly why Internet Mana have chosen a date close to the election, so that it resonates loudly when a lot of undecided will be listening most carefully. Key and his loyal media servants are all trying to force the information out earlier so they have more time to manage the fallout.
There must be some desperate calls from the ninth floor to Crosby Textor. Key is in danger of misreading the undecided vote on this issue. Trustworthiness is important to fair-minded New Zealanders (but not so much to existing right wing voters).
The biggest disadvantage now for Key is Dotcom’s alliance and access to Snowden and Greenwald who actually know much more about everything than Key or Crosby Textor ! This is a game-changer .. can’t wait for justice to breathe free once again in our little precious islands. Kia Kia, Kim !
Thanks Weepu … sharing hilarity with you 🙂
Is there any reason Greenwald could be denied entry to NZ?
Certainly, if Key deems it a threat to Nationals security….
LOl! National party security as opposed to National security!
lol Fender ! There would always be the option of Skyping him in, or similar. Oh, how small and tiny, plus internationally notorious the Shonkey govt will appear if they try to block a respected British journalist from entry !
Yes I’d say blocking his entry will be just as scandalous as the information he (hopefully) brings.
“I don’t know actually, it’s a legitimate question but there’s nothing we’d be concerned with there,” Key said on Breakfast
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10290609/Key-calls-Dotcoms-bluff
Let’s dissect that from the pathological liar:
I don’t know —> translates into: oh fk
actually —> fk fk darn fk
it’s a legitimate question —> even in lies there resonates an element of truth
but there’s nothing —> yeah right! nothing to see here! that is why he is on the media
we’d be concerned with there —> administer a lie detector for this phrase and he will come through with flying colours for that specific phrase
It is time to end the silly and stupid catch-me-if-you-can game that the Prime Twister likes to play.
Enough of the nonsense and lies from him.
VTBO.
The veneer of civilised behaviour is falling from the Israeli regime.
To shell a Gaza City suburb as an act of spite because a Hamas ambush killed 13 Israeli soldiers is one of the most cowardly acts in modern history.
The strongest condemnation for it should come from the international community.
While as strong a critic of Hamas as many, this is just appalling from the Israeli government.
It is sufficient to warrant a call to the Ambassador to offer some explanation to the PM.
Israeli State terrorism has always greatly exceeded anything carried out by Hamas.
swordfish +100
Jews for Justice who support Palestinian rights
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/origin.html
http://www.againstourbetterjudgment.com/
The deliberate killing of civilians by a national military is a war crime.
Totally agree, this is collective punishment by the dirty filthy Israeli army. Surely the most blatant genocide style attack since the Tamil massacre in Sri Lanka.
Resistance and non compliance with the Zionist illegal occupation is defence.
I despair for the Palestinians and Arabs under Jewish occupation. To the state of Israel to perpetrate crimes against humanity in this manner is to ape and condone what was done to their forbears in Europe by another evil regime. They will of course deny it, label Arabs terrorists. If you want terror try being a child playing soccer on a beach being blown to shreds by a terrorist state.
The only way to stop this is for the Jewish adherents of the state of Israel to face truth with honour and say enough is enough to their people. It is to late for the dead: it is never too late for the living.
Villification and stereotyping were powerful tools used by Goebbels.
Even John Kerry has had enough (see his recent off mic outburst).
But good luck getting anything done while AIPAC is still legal.
Never mind the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Join the boycott on Israel. Consumers can vote with their wallets with these very clever apps for Apple and Android (price–free).
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/buycott/id585933440?ls=1&mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.buycott.android
Boycotts no use? Read Naomi Klein’s view on why it is now time.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/naomi-klein-boycott-israel
Why shouldn’t AIPAC be legal? That is a very odd statement to make.
Because it’s effectively a treasonous organisation. It promotes the interests of a foreign state above the interests of the United States.
I would have thought that doctrinaire conservatives would oppose the existence of an organisation which is designed to get the US to funnel taxpayers’ money to a foreign state which then acts in ways which frustrate US interests in the region.
Hell, that same country was allowed to attack an American naval vessel and kill many of its crew with complete impunity. It spies on the United States and we have good reason to believe it has stolen nuclear materials from US labs.
And all of this just to indulge the far right racialist fantasies of a minority of American Jews. A fantasy that sees a third of the current ruling coalition of Israel comprised of openly racist parties (as opposed to the Likud, which is racist, but not openly).
“Even John Kerry has had enough (see his recent off mic outburst}”
Not yet quite enough though to challenge the status quo or his comfort zone. Airforce 2 is not exactly uncomfortable
Maybe a few more Net yer Nah Who? (I dunno – it’s all somebody else’s fault – WE’RE the victims here – besides I’m reading from a CroZTextor script) bloodied 4 year olds with the back of their heads blown off deserve it cos they’re the sons or daughters of tearists.
Even then though ? Not if there’s a plausible excuse and explanation that – either it didn’t happen; OR it was a proportional response.
Gawd that red blood is luvly ain’t it – we should ALL roll in it [Ooooo yea – it’s really really turning me on! gimme more MORE].
Obamarama roll and tumble (with Tacho Bell, KFC, a bit of Mick Chicken and some Black Water salad dressing on the side).
Luvly.
Oh … btw Ya ALL – we’re the good guys: we’re centrist – NOT fascist RW those “far left cunts” opposed to that MSM you muddle class subscribe to. If you’re not convinced – just consider how wonderful our weekly efforts are on Q+A, and the Nation, and Rinny Ryan’s fair and balanced Mondays.
We’re the fair and balanced, the average NewZulluner, the voice of the people, the in-touch, the 4h Estate even – AND we’re fukkin gorgeous with it. Why even our stance on that silly bitch Tania Billingsly says it all – we’re y’avrijde bloke.
Like I’ve said elsewhere – the tipping point is nigh – probably closer to 2017 though – and there’ll be a shitload of squeeling pigs and “wasn’t me’s” when it comes around.
Sadly – I probably won’t be around to witness it
Mana was the only political party represented at the peace march for Gaza in Dunedin. They have my vote.
You will find that every Labour party activist was putting up billboards on Saturday. Mana had the privilege of paying someone to put theirs up. Honest the Dotcom money is a boon for them but it is also a threat to them.
Not in Owairaka Auckland they didn’t Micky, Internet Mana candidate Joe Carolan had a crew of around a dozen out at a frozen 2am putting their signs up. Kelston Internet Mana Roadshow ads were put up by volunteers too. Can’t comment on other Mana branches yet.
People are stretched but a couple of people and a banner or sign should be able to be spared by all left parties for important events such as Gaza solidarity.
Hi TM. I and most members are fully opposed to Israel’s attacks on Palestine. You just have to see my own posts on the subject to see this. I am normally the first at a protest but Saturday was a busy day.
Apologies to Comrade Joe. I had thought that the speed that their signs had appeared meant that they had used paid help. I was still in bed at 2 am!
A picture from the IP Twitter feed of the first hoarding going up. Looks cold and dark!
https://twitter.com/roshnisami/status/490105853890928643/photo/1
All I can say to the Mana hoarding crews is RESPECT!
You will have to give up sleeping for the duration of the campaign. If it is good enough for the party leader to work 18 hours every day it is good enough for you to follow his example.
Unless David Cunliffe has a different definition of “working” to most people he clearly won’t be sleeping at all.
Tiger Mountain, I have a lot of respect for Internet Mana (as per enthusiastic post above) but I would question the wisdom of going about the neighbourhood at 2am banging away at a hoarding with a hammer.
A chronic insomniac like me finally gets off to sleep at 1 – 2am and who wakes at the slightest sound would be not well pleased to hear a hammer banging away outside. Nor would it please the sleep deprived mother who is catching a bit of sleep between feeds for her young baby, nor the shift worker who has to get up at 3.30am to get to work.
Not a criticism, just a thought.
May be the Internet Mana should put up virtual hologram sign boards! Wouldn’t that be cool!
Wot? Like a Princess Laila/Leia against the Evil Empire? Haha.
@kiwiri
LOL very satirical and ironical. They welcome bright people with alternative approaches at IMP – why not roll up to the Party that’s on its way up in the elevator.
National wouldn’t let you ride in its elevator, the Greens wouldn’t use it to encourage personal effort and save energy, Labour had an elevator but they lost it somewhere, and are waiting for it to come back dragging it’s tail behind it.. IMP could be the coalition for you.
Mickysavage – what evidence do you have that Mana paid people to put up their billboards? I’ve seen quite a few photos of ordinary Mana members making them, and erecting them.
Not a good look, micky. We really need a bit more cooperation against Key.
Internet Mana are rising. The Greens will be solid. Labour will go over 30% plus extra seats in Chch and elsewhere. NZ First will go over 5% easy. MP bye bye.
National will flounder in the mid-high 40%s. Act and Dunne are down the dunny.
The left bloc will have the numbers by at least two imo.
But this still wont be easy. The rest of NZ will scream from the top of their lungs about the mismatch of putting together so many small parties. The cries and wailing will be alarming. The left bloc will immediately be put on the defensive.
The left bloc must have a plan to combat this immediately on the night of the election – and come out fighting hard and strong for the people. No apology, no hand-wringing, no mutters of ‘it wont be that bad’, no backing down.
2c
Agreed vto. IMHO no-mates apart from loonies National will poll 43/44%. That is good, but not good enough to stop Cunliffe from being PM. It’s called MMP.
For whatever it’s worth, iPredict has National on 43%, Labour on 32%, Greens on 11%. Minor parties combined come to 14%, with NZFirst on 5.3%. Weirdly iPredict is still largely in favour of a National win, despite the percentages above strongly favouring the left.
Personally I feel that if a govt can be formed from the four parties of the left it needs to have a greater majority than one or two seats. My fear been that if all four parties are needed things could become fractious and dysfunctional quickly. If NZs first experience with a full on coalition govt is a poor one long term damage could ensue. It is vital I would have thought that Labour poll at least 35% then forming a coalition with all left parties instead of leaving one or two out in the cold. Hopefully then there will be a big enough majority to allow the smaller parties to disagree with one another on occasion without causing major disruption.
Not nearly as fractious and dysfunctional as National trying to cobble something together, with, say NZ First – now that would be a circus!
But I agree – all the left parties need to be in there together – none of this cherry-picking I keep hearing
It’s not. NZFirst’s one, and only, coalition collapse was with National in 1996 to 1998. Considering NZFirst’s policies they can’t go with National this time at all. They basically have two options: Sitting on the cross benches and voting issue by issue or going into coalition with Labour.
I like your 2 cents vto. I also agree their will resistance from the media and some sectors of society at a Left bloc win. They know such a win means no more same old same old instead something bold, something bold!
In such a case we have to collectively stand and be proud of the change we bring. No apologies.
Who knows! Just imagine that the National voters begin to realise that National will not be able to form a government and therefore decide to switch their votes to Labour for stability and collapse the National party vote to 30% minus and Labour vote to 52% plus! oops, just musing!
In your dreams Clemgeopin.
My dream has the Labour right defecting after the election to form a new group who will look at taxation policy and reduce income tax, increase GST and introduce a financial transactions tax that should have been done when GST was introduced in the first place. A UBI would be okay by me too.
I guess neither of us are going to wake up happy on 21 September 2014.
I will be happy because I am CERTAIN that there will be a Labour led progressive coalition government.
Of you want to make a pole of cash on that, head to i-predict now when the iron has not yet heated up!
Wrote to Steve Kilgallon yesterday asking about the inaccuracies in his article, why it needed to be edited by another reporter, and what he was trying to achieve. This is his response.
It’s convenient for some journalists to hide behind claims of impartiality whenever they get a bit of flack for sloppy work. Does beg the question: if Steve is not someone with an agenda, is he not going to vote in September?
Interesting comment from Brent Edwards: Seems the consensus of opinion among his Caucus sources is that it was not one of the MPs who talked to the SST.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/20142419/analysis-from-our-political-editor
yep Anne, and I liked the text to Morning Report that said that nobody kicked up a fuss when Key went on holiday to Hawaii for 10 days, but when Cunliffe has 3 days off (among New Zealanders) with his young family suddenly this is an issue.
Maybe for the next 9 weeks we should bombard Morning Report with texts particularly where they are showing bias? It all helps.
@Anne
Probably it was a reporter (journalist) saying ‘what everybody is thinking’ and on that basis it wasn’t necessary to check the facts. Or fax?
Even 69% Herald readers happy with Cunliffe holiday-online poll today.
67% on the Stuff poll also say they are happy with it,
and the Stuff poll was a straight yes/no
On what basis would Radio NZ National be biased against Labour? The organisation is supposedly an independent State entity that doesn’t need funding from the ‘evil’ private sector.
Yeah supporting
NationalKey doesn’t mean you are anti-Labour does it, but it sure helps avoid a throat-slitting gesture come your way and will ensure you get more work than Bradley Ambrose….Eh???
you’ve got a short memory, there, gos.
Almost as bad as dunnokeyo’s.
Maybe some sort of amnesia is transmitted from toryboy to toryboy?
I am sure you have a perfect memory and as such can she’d light on what point fender was making.
The point is many journalists would be afraid of the consequences for attacking the
NationalKey Party.As evidenced by what exactly? Do you have examples of a journalist annoying National having their career impacted as a result?
As evidenced by journalists going easy on National, of course.
Put the goalposts back, there’s a good chap.
What an entirely circular argument. Do you really think that is terribly persuasive?
I think he was referring to the nasty/disgusting/uncouth/undignified throat cutting gesture that Key once made in parliament against a Labour leader.
Remember that?
The MSM did not even crtisise the dear leader then.
Just imagine if Mr Cunliffe had made that gesture to Key!
It was reported. Key was even asked what he was meaning by the gesture and he gave a response. You might not agree with his response but what do you want the media to do? Should they basically editorialise that it was a terrible thing despite his denial?
oh wow, your memory has partially returned. Good for you.
“You might not agree with his response but what do you want the media to do? Should they basically editorialise that it was a terrible thing despite his denial?”
If that’s the way they usually treat everything the Leader of the Opposition does, which it is, then yes.
let’s see – one incident involved our prime minister’s expression of concern for a chap who tried to leap from the parliamentary gallery, the other involved police raiding press offices just days before the election in order to shield government ministers from disgrace.
I can see how an ethically-challenged sociopath might not recall those events (let alone outraged), but what’s your excuse you tory shill – oh, fair enough then, no further excuse needed.
“On what basis would Radio NZ National be biased against Labour?”
what goes to air obviously
Why would what goes on air be biased against Labour though? Even if National has somehow infiltrated the organisation via political appointees at the senior level (something I have seen NO opposition politician complaining about it has to be pointed out) how they can influence the editorial decision of the news team is unclear. Does this mean the majority of the journalists working at Radio NZ National are suspect then? How will this be rectified unless you implement a politically inspired cleanse this time from the left?
“this time”?
Don’t you mean something more vague, like “the next time the Left is in government”?
Otherwise it sounds like you think the Left will win ths election. Thanks for the reassurance.
I noted that The Fan Club made a brief comment yesterday after a lengthy absence. I seem to remember he/she may have been banned for bad behaviour, but still it’s interesting he/she should reappear on the post “Collective Renewal”. As a self-described “Labour insider” and Cunliffe hater, one has to wonder what he/she might know about the source of the SST story.
of course it wasn’t.
it was all fabricated by that creepy little hooton looking so smug as it went down on Q&A Sunday morning and susan woods is complicit.
The question is whether the source was an MP or not.
I didn’t ask that directly, unfortunately. I believe what is left unsaid is important. Nowhere does Kilgallon say the insider is an MP.
WB @9.2.1 I also emailed Steve and said I didn’t believe the story and I thought he had made it up. He denied this and refused to name his source, so I asked him if had check out the story with the MP whom the senior advisor quoted.
I will update if I hear back.
@Weepus beard
Feed the Steve guy some interesting stories. He is obviously an open mouth at a fairground just waiting for a well-placed ball, or perhaps a trained seal waiting for a fish, and doesn’t care whether it’s smelly or not.
I see discussion in the Work Life Balance thread yesterday about denigrating comment from some within Labour against David Cunliffe being printed in The Hairy or somewhere like. Shocking – I hope that there is a Cluedo search with appropriate punishment meted, when it is seen where this arose.
And I noticed Guy Le Spinner this morning saying something about Labour MPs having a ‘crisis’ meeting and then there was a reasoned explanation given, that it was a replacement for the usual meeting which would have been time limited by other commitments.
this is all crap.
I suspect it is all concerted by boaghootoncrosbytext.
as somebody said earlier here it is time to start flooding switchboards with complaints.
if supposed reputable organisations start playing the partisan card then they must be held responsible for their actions.
grey-Kathryn Ryan repeated the “crisis” tab in the politics discussion on Nine to Noon, where as you say this description had already been shown to be rubbish on Morning Report.
Either Ryan is badly briefed or she is simply being her Tory self and getting it wrong on purpose.
RNZ news is going on about DC being under pressure balh blah blah.
Well it will show the voters that DC can take any crap that they throw at him.
I see the news is reporting that DC had lunch with the name suppressed sex offender. Whilst I have been heavily critical of him previously, I have a lot of sympathy for him on this one.
I have met this bloke once (I won’t say any thing that could identify him) when my ex wife and another couple were on holiday. He was totally sex obsessed, and insisted on showing us a sick video clip of a dominatrix kicking some restrained guy in the goolies. But he was also a high energy and engaging bloke. He would have no problem greasing his way into any setting, especially men of middle age or above.
This is one of the problems of the ridiculous name suppression laws, especially as in this case the victim wanted his name published.
If Key gets his pleasure by being kicked in the nuts, that’s his business…
Why didn’t his staff do the leg work to identify whether the person was dodgy or not? It should be easy enough to do and would have been the sensible course of action especially if you have lunch with them.
Gosman. We must call you Mr Sensible. You can’t get the ‘Commonsense’ term now Dunne is done as Winston has grabbed it. Hope it works for him.
Agreed as fun as it is kicking Cunliffe when hes down and keeping the foot on his throat this is something that he has no control over rather its the dumb ass suppression laws we have in this country
For those with the time and inclination over lunch or coffee I recommend:
http://newleftreview.org/II/87/wolfgang-streeck-how-will-capitalism-end
A long read, but IMHO an excellent and informative overview of the mess capitalism has created for itself globally.
I would think Audrey Young could be called to account for the fact that her story about the sex offender was hidden behind another innocent headline, I nearly didn’t click through, then wished I hadn’t because I spent some time in confusion trying to place the relevance of the second headline – had we gone back in a time warp of some sort ? Wish I knew how to access that protected person’s name – I am so burned up with curiosity now !
The SST reported this warning exists on an overseas website. I guess you could just google the text exactly as they published it ..
WARNING: It is illegal for this editorial to be accessed by New Zealand readers because of suppression orders in that country’
Apparently it’s not illegal to access it, but it is illegal to link to it on a NZ site.
Even if it were illegal to access it, the law is definitely an ass in this situation, as it’s pathetically easy to find it.
I googled with the words ‘sex offender Queens town’, read an article by Rodney Hide and soon was led to an Australian website and Hola!
[deleted]
[lprent: Breaks the suppression order. Banned permanently. ]
I know that Cunliffe wants all the votes he can get in his New Lynn electorate. But it sure is strange that he has his hoardings up in Phil Goff’s Roskill electric proclaiming “Vote Cunliffe for New Lynn” Look out Phil, the carpet bagger is about. An Labour thinks it could run the country?
[You are an idiot. Both electorates are contiguous. And the main roads have people travelling through Mount Roskill into New Lynn – MS]
It’s not on a main road. It’s on a through road in the centre of the Roskill electorate. I know I may be an idiot but I am also a swinging voter but not such an idiot that I do not know where the electorate boundaries are. 🙂
‘taint politics i know, but, i gotta give a big ups to Lydia Ko for Her latest winning round of golf,
i couldn’t play the game to save myself, what i try to hit hard as far as golf balls go pretty much turns out to be limp but i can drive a putt miles past its intended destination,
No such problems for that young lady and i had the pleasure of watching the free to air sports channel on my TeeVee one night which featured a whole tournament on the Asian circuit which Ko won just befor turning pro,
Relentless is the best description of the way She run down the front runner of that tournament who at the point where the final round started was 9 shots in front of Her…
At last! I had to read right through this series of posts to come to one that addresses the important things in life.
Everyone else is obsessed with the trivia of politics. You and I appear to be the only ones who appreciate the magnificent display by Lydia. She makes it look so easy doesn’t she?
Indeed, watching her play there’s nothing overly flash about how she goes about the game its just the consistency with which she puts herself in a position of maybe birdying the hole and Her ability when she is on Her game to do just that,
The tournament in Asia which i comment on above had me watching with fascination as all round Her there were some amazing golf shots by the other competitors but none of them could deliver a continual flurry of such golfing shots,
Normally i go ‘yawn’ at the mention of the game…
The NZ Herald has gone Te Reo in its name on its site. Pity it doesn’t support politics that would decrease inequalities.
Thought you would censor my comment and not post it. So much for “Open Mike” 🙂
[Guess again. But try and make your comments informative rather than attacking people, especially the good Labour activists in New Lynn – MS]
Ummm, don’t you mean ‘Yay for Open Mike‘ !
I was wrong!!! The Standard did post my comment. I enjoy putting a burr under the saddle on tunnel vision Labour people. I do the same for National on their site. Great fun. Have a good one MS.
Didn’t realise this was a Labour site. When did that change happen and can somebody let all the greens, IMPers and unaligned others who post the majority of comments here know?
Graham is a legend in his own mind. He doesn’t let reality get in the way of blows for freedom.
I used today’s Open Mike to draw attention to what I regard as an excellent essay on the mess globalised capitalism has gotten itself into, including growing inequality. The ‘problem’ of democracy is addressed therein, vis:
” Only in the Cold War world did capitalism and democracy seem to become aligned with one another, as economic progress made it possible for working-class majorities to accept a free-market, private-property regime, in turn making it appear that democratic freedom was inseparable from, and indeed depended on, the freedom of markets and profit-making. Today, however, doubts about the compatibility of a capitalist economy with a democratic polity have powerfully returned. Among ordinary people, there is now a pervasive sense that politics can no longer make a difference in their lives, as reflected in common perceptions of deadlock, incompetence and corruption among what seems an increasingly self-contained and self-serving political class, united in their claim that ‘there is no alternative’ to them and their policies. One result is declining electoral turnout combined with high voter volatility, producing ever greater electoral fragmentation, due to the rise of ‘populist’ protest parties, and pervasive government instability.”
It’s a long essay but well worth the time if you have it:
http://newleftreview.org/II/87/wolfgang-streeck-how-will-capitalism-end
[lprent: And it is completely off-topic for this post. So moved back to back to OpenMike. Don’t do a diversion comment again or I will ban you. At present the ban time is getting longer the closer we get to the election. ]
Thanks for that link. Politics is divorced from most people’s lives, which trundle on whichever party is at the helm. There is growing instability and eccentricity at the fringes, but with no big-ticket issue like asset sales, I would be surprised if 2014 doesn’t garner a lower turn out than 2011.
Caught up with an old friend recently, a teacher, who has never evinced much interest in politics. This election she will vote National, despite criticising the party for wrecking the public education system. Seems counter-intuitive in the extreme. National’s wrecking of education affects her career, and her family (she has children), while surely education is critical to the ‘standard of living’ she credits National with upholding. She will vote National to ensure continuation of the status quo; it was like there was no alternative. It’s disturbing, people seem inured to the damage being wrought in their own lives from National’s policies, let alone being able to grasp the big picture.
Rich people worried they might have to associate with poor people #1029146
These are the types Michael Cullen referenced when he spoke of his dislike for people kicking the ladder out once they’d reached the top.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/10291461/Proposed-school-zones-cause-upset
Hooton! Haha, he can’t keep out of the news.
What’s hilarious is that they seem to think that caveat emptor applies to everyone except them.
Socialist bailouts for the rich, please. Up to and including the sports stadiums they so seem to love advocating for.
Mallard? Cullen? Stadium New Zealand?
Not related but Cuncliffe is gonna be having a live chat on stuff in a couple of hours – http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10290443/David-Cunliffe-live-chat
He might need a little help fending of the assholes who are bound to show up and hassle him about the infamous ‘holidays’ and other bullshit news from the MSM.
[lprent: Off-topic. Moved to OpenMike. Banned for 3 weeks. ]
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10290443/David-Cunliffe-live-chat
Seems there is a Live Chat with David Cunliffe today at 4:30 , Questions open from 3:30
What happens when leftist policies lead to a brain drain of your best and brightest.
http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21607824-venezuelas-loss-thousands-oil-workers-has-been-other-countries-gain-brain-haemorrhage?zid=305&ah=417bd5664dc76da5d98af4f7a640fd8a
That’s interesting. A similar campaign against state workers has been waged in this country, and not by leftists, as you call them.
Really??? Are you stating half the workforce of a significant sector of the economy that was State owned has been forced to relocate offshore by a direct government decision? Which sector is that then?
http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/editorial/310009/has-it-been-worth-it
hillside workshops spring to mind…
Hillside is hardly a significant sector of the economy. It certainly was providing any major export income for the nation unlike the oil sector in Venezuela.
Duh, it was reducing our trade deficit by preventing the need to import Chinese trains.
So it wasn’t affecting our exports then? Your argument could equally be used to support industries that we used to have here like television and car assembly. Do you think we should have continued to support those?
Yes.
You must have been asleep, Gosman, over the last few years in New Zealand, as all our skilled young people left for Australia, our graduate students left to pursue study offshore as their funding was cut, and most of our best researchers, engineers and scientists, left for places where they are appreciated.
We have lots of “managers” accountants and lawyers, though……..
If you read the article you will find out it was the loss of those managers you seem to deride that have caused the problem of the stagnating oil industry in Venezuela.
the problem with Venezuela is that it is a criminal state.
New Zealand is heading down that path now under a national government.
New Zealand is also always under threat from conspiracy jobs, and other nutjobs who are against everything and ready and willing to resort to violence when they dont get their own way.
The country needs a proper makeover and its time for decent people to get back in charge.
This wouldn’t be ‘our’ favourite conceited wee MattyMatty prick would it ?http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/10291461/Proposed-school-zones-cause-upset
“A public school turf war has broken out in the quiet Auckland suburbs of Greenlane and Remuera.
“Parents from two elite Auckland public schools are up in arms after learning of a proposal to put them in an overlapping zone with two lower decile schools.”
“Parent Matthew Hooton owns a house in the proposed overlap and says the consultation has been “wholly unsatisfactory”.”
“You live in this area because you pay $100,000 more for your house so you can access Epsom Girls Grammar and Auckland Grammar School,” he said.”
“Any perceived threat to these zones will be met with fierce resistance.”
What ? You mean the sons and daughters of the scum Matty ?
To the ramparts ye broken, abused, ill-treated Entitled. And no smirking. They won’t take us seriously !
Could be worse Matty – you might’ve just had your bennie slashed in half – no lunch for the kids let alone a school befitting your ‘station’.
Stuff.co.nz still being little shits
questions open from 3:30 pm
“He’s back from holiday …”
Childish; puerile intimation of rank silliness dressed up as a controversy. Yet no doubt thought to be clever by the author of the tweet.
A mind wastes its time and we’re all that little bit the worse for it.
Alwyn and bad12, yeah good on Lydia but golf is only a pastime, now try leading the whole Tour de France field for 20 metres short of 220kms. Thats hard work and heartbreaking. Good on you Jack Bauer, your day will come.
what party is he standing for?
I believe he’s standing on the Cheney/Blackwater ticket.
I’ve lost it with GT cycling – I’m fed up with watching riders cruise all day in the peloton or get towed along by teammates, and then put in a bit of an effort in the last 10 or 20k to pull off stage wins they really haven’t worked for.
And while Nabali is a good rider – all his possible contenders are out of the race. All he has to do is not fall asleep from boredom and fall off his bike.
Barry at 2.1,.4 (since a reply button is not forthcoming)
Can you tell me where and when that ‘something you heard’ was?
Please – can we engage with the fukwit Barry a bit more? As in get him to actually put his money where his mouth is? I’m intrigued.
i think the media are not conscious of their bias. they have a huuuuuuugggggeeeee. disconnect with the majority of nz. they are biased before the get go. they wont be kind to the left until the left becomes the right. to them socialism is debunked and the neo-lib way is the only way. and they assume this is the view of the whole country. its an issue of culture and sub-concious.
case in point was the commenter here “liam hehir”, who carries the same name as a columnist in a regional rag. The columnist said they didn’t write about labour’s positivies because it was a true reflection of Labour’s lack of positives, not because the columnist was biased.
yeah, right.
FYI
What does Hamas really want?
Read the list of conditions published in the name of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and judge honestly whether there is one unjust demand among them.
Rafah Crossing
Palestinians from Gaza at the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing last week. One of Hamas’ demands is to have internationa… / Photo by Reuters
By Gideon Levy
Published 13:23 20.07.14
After we’ve said everything there is to say about Hamas: that it’s fundamentalist; that it’s undemocratic; that it’s cruel; that it does not recognize Israel; that it fires on civilians; that it’s hiding ammunition in schools and hospitals; that it did not act to protect the population of Gaza – after all that has been said, and rightly so, we should stop for a moment and listen to Hamas; we may even be permitted to put ourselves in its shoes, perhaps even to appreciate the daring and resilience of this, our bitter enemy, under harsh conditions.
But Israel prefers to shut its ears to the demands of the other side, even when those demands are right and conform to Israel’s own interests in the long run. Israel prefers to strike Hamas without mercy and with no purpose other than revenge. This time it is particularly clear: Israel says it does not want to topple Hamas – even Israel understands that instead it will have Somalia at its gates – but it is also unwilling to listen to Hamas’ demands. Are they all “animals”?
Let’s say that’s true. But they are there to stay, even Israel believes that’s the case, so why not listen?
Last week 10 conditions were published in the name of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, for a 10-year cease-fire. We may doubt whether these were in fact the demands of those organizations, but they can serve as a fair basis for an agreement.
There is not one unfounded condition among them.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad demand freedom for Gaza. Is there a more understandable and just demand?
There is no way to end the current cycle of killing, and not have another round in a few months, without accepting this.
No military operation, by air, ground or sea, will bring a solution; only a basic change of attitude toward Gaza can ensure what everyone wants: quiet.
Read the list of demands and judge honestly whether there is one unjust demand among them
_________________________
withdrawal of Israel Defense Forces troops and allowing farmers to work their land up to the fence;
release of all prisoners from the Gilad Shalit swap who have been rearrested;
an end to the siege and opening of the crossings
opening of a port and airport under UN management
expansion of the fishing zone
international supervision of the Rafah crossing;
an Israeli pledge to a 10-year cease-fire and closure of Gaza’s air space to Israeli aircraft;
permits to Gaza residents to visit Jerusalem and pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque
and an Israeli pledge not to interfere in internal Palestinian politics such as the unity government
opening Gaza’s industrial zone.
These conditions are civilian; the means of achieving them are military, violent and criminal. But the (bitter) truth is that when Gaza is not firing rockets at Israel, nobody cares about it. Look at the fate of the Palestinian leader who had had enough of violence. Israel did everything it could to destroy Mahmoud Abbas. The depressing conclusion? Only force works.
The current war is a war of choice, a choice that we had. True, after Hamas started firing rockets, Israel had to respond.
But as opposed to what Israeli propaganda tries to sell, the rockets didn’t fall out of the sky from nowhere.
Go back a few months: the breakdown of negotiations by Israel; the war on Hamas in the West Bank following the murder of the three yeshiva students, which it is doubtful Hamas planned, including the false arrest of 500 of its activists; stopping payment of salaries to Hamas workers in Gaza and Israeli opposition to the unity government, which might have brought the organization into the political sphere. Anyone who thinks all this would simply be taken in stride must be suffering from arrogance, complacence and blindness.
Terrifying amounts of blood are being spilled in Gaza – and in Israel to a lesser extent. It is being spilled in vain.
Hamas is beaten down by Israel and humiliated by Egypt.
The only chance for a real solution is exactly the opposite of the way Israel is going. A port in Gaza to export its excellent strawberries? To Israelis this sounds like heresy.
Here once again, the preference is for (Palestinian) blood over (Palestinian) strawberries.
Penny Bright
Man breaks woman’s back in domestic assault
Maybe someone can give this guy a cushy job in mainstream media next.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/10290926/Womans-back-broken-in-alleged-assault