The opposition and other progressive forces in the country must maintain a sustained attack against the bias in the media.
Target the main puppets and always question their impartiality.
When being interviewed live make these accusations.
Control the corporate media, don’t let it control you.
It will never accept a progressive victory in the elections unless the opposition exists on its terms.
Follow the SNP and break your dependence on the corporate media.
Need to remain cautious, of course…could be just the usual cock-ups…long-time Labour Party activists, members, even former candidates being told their application to vote has been rejected.
But, read through the above stories – along with the Twitter accounts of both Owen Jones and JeremyCorbyn4Leader over the last 24 hours – and you’ll get the distinct impression that it’s specifically the known Corbyn supporters who are being rejected.
A lot of those being purged are young members who are the future of the party.
It just shows what the old guard of a dying party will do to hang on to their privileges and control. They’ll keep it out of office, they’ll trash every principle it once stood for, they’ll destroy its future, but God damn it, they’ll keep their expense accounts!
If that proves to be the case then it’s an extraordinary scandal.
Corbyn’s been packing out 1000+ venues throughout the UK for weeks (2000 at Newcastle a night or so back). They’ve had to move rallies to larger auditoria and set up overspill rooms. It’s a “democratic explosion unprecedented in British Political history”, as The Guardian’s Seumus Milne puts it.
He’s 32 points ahead of his nearest rival in the latest Leadership poll and 7 points ahead among the voting public. And he’s probably personally responsible for inspiring more than 100,000 new members / sign-ups.
The notion that this is all the product of some sort of nefarious Trade Union manipulation or Militant Tendency ‘Entryism’ is hilarious. What’s more it was the Blairite David Miliband who advocated this whole ‘3 Pound sign-up’ inclusiveness campaign to widen Party participation a few years ago and Tony Blair was reportedly highly enthusiastic (he welcomed it as “something I should have done myself”)……Right up, of course, until it all backfired a few weeks ago.
But the Entryism accusation does give New Labour establishment Grandees – its College of Cardinals – a motive to try and turn this election if they want to (doomed as such attempts may be).
It’s a real concern, though, that UK Labour announced a couple of weeks ago that it will: (1) continue to purge / reject voters even after they’ve voted in the leadership election – ie right up to the moment the results are ready to be declared (a decision that shocked the British Electoral Reform group whose commercial arm is overseeing the vote) (2) provide no details of the final vote (numbers/breakdowns) publicly. They will simply announce the winner.
Ample opportunity, perhaps, for A Very British Coup.
Even Le Pen in France has had to save the Party and break with Daddy who keeps rising like a zombie to utter something notable in the negative racist style he favours.
It all seems very very familiar.
Party apparatchiks actively working against the clear wishes of the people it purports to represent whilst distorting information, ignoring the public voice & openly manipulating the process of the candidacy selection. The name Henry A Wallace springs to mind.
Have often wondered what the US [& the world] might have overcome had the peoples’ choice won the 1944 nomination for President.
We all understand how private schemes and public dreams are different beasts in the political machinations of an election. We all know history is written by the winners. But one truth exists regardless of poll results, all societies get faced with diverging pathways now and again. 1944 America had its choice made for it. 21st Century Britain now faces a similar situation. Once again it seems the will of the people is powerless against the influence of the powerful.
Back in 1944, the World War was ongoing. It consumed whatever resources it demanded and devoured people as easily as oil and steel. Externally, the USA was seen as a cohesive strong society with a proud and longstanding belief in freedom for all the world.
Internally, the USA was in nothing short of social turmoil as the people were steadily and progressively forging their will for equality and stating clearly how the increasingly invasive influence of big business was destroying the country’s ability to deliver Lady liberty’s promises.
In the build up to the 1944 Convention Henry Wallace was Vice President. An intelligent experienced administrator with many years of public service under his belt. He was an editor, a mathmatecian, he meditated. He was a practicing statistician and had a degree in animal husbandry. A man from the land who who laid the groundwork for hybrid crop development. He was the Secretary of Agriculture and Wallace chaired the Economic Defense Board, the Supply Priorities and Allocation Board, and the Board of Economic Warfare as a member of President Roosevelt’s secret “war cabinet”. He was President of the Senate, and would lead several diplomatic missions to Latin America and Asia and the Soviet Union.
Truman sold socks. Yes that is a bit harsh but what had he actually done to equal the experience and the ability of Wallace? Truman had been a Senator of no real accomplishments for ten years and prior to his rise to the senate had spent time as a Presiding Judge on a County Court. He was not a lawyer. His biggest achievement prior to winning the ’44 nomination for Vice President was as head of the Truman Committee which was formed to expose waste fraud and corruption in wartime contracts. (the irony is palpable when one considers the unfettered growth in such activity once he was ceded the Presidency in 1945) Basically he was a small businessman, who was co-opted into public office with zero hands on experience of the complex issues facing a post-war world.
Truman was barely on the radar as a candidate until a few weeks before the Convention began. The stories of what happened at the ’44 Convention are varied but there are few who would dispute the final vote was a sham fuelled by career promises and crony deals. Overnight, after a dubious adjournment, the delegates supporting Wallace were effectively locked out. As is the way with politics, big business won out and Truman was elected as running mate for Roosevelt. A year later Truman dropped the first atomic bombs before going on to oversee the biggest growth in peacetime arms manufacture the world had ever seen.
Henry Wallace spoke freely with anyone and had a huge public following but once he delivered the ‘Century of the Common Man’ speech his big plans for a better world were quickly becoming thorns in the paw of big business. His comprehensive real world grasp of the post-war challenges was head and shoulders above any other candidates. His policies were plans for the very world that the War was supposedly being fought for. No wonder that some inside (& outside) his party became dedicated to derailing his nomination.
Wallace campaigned on better health care, better social services, fair pay for fair work, free education, progressive tax systems. He spoke passionately on peace as a means to progress, he saw opportunities for better race relations and most importantly wanted the US to lead a downscaling of the industrial military machine that had been borne in the battles raging across the globe. Wallace was an obvious threat. Is it any wonder he is a minor footnote rarely referred to in US politics.
Things are not much different today, in fact many arguments could be put forward to say things are far worse.
The post war world was a gold rush in waiting and claim jumpers were ready to fight for every scrap of power they could claw at. The social policies of Wallace were anathema to the avarice we now witness as the status quo. He believed in the potential of people, the rights of workers, the rights of minorities, the rights of all peoples of the world to have the opportunity to live in peace. Your basic left wing nutbar some would say. I hazard a guess that Corbyn would agree, it all seems very very familiar.
Thanks freedom. I suppose you have seen the comments I put up on Hiroshima Day. I found a detailed and apparently authoritative story in The Atlantic I think about the methods used to decide about dropping the two nuclear bombs. And whether their terror balanced fairly against some more war dead over months of face-saving negotiation as the USA held onto the bombs as a last resort.
With Truman out of his depth and people like Byrnes running around doing god knows what behind the scenes, it is little surprise that cool heads like Secretary of War Stimson resigned only weeks after the bombs were dropped. Then again, he was seventy three. But I am not so sure he would have left so quickly had Wallace been in the oval office instead of Truman.
As the information you pointed to shows, history does suggest there were many in the administration who were beginning to see a post war world of atomic threats as a very destabilising apparatus for global peace to be built upon. There were certainly some experienced bodies in the administration who appear to have become very uncomfortable with the direction their caretaker President was taking. These views were largely based on simple and sparse knowledge of the device’s existence, without even seeing the weapon in operation. It is not unreasonable to assume that after the Trinity Test the cacophony of protest behind closed doors was much louder than the historians can prove. We can only daydream about alternative decisions in the days that followed.
As far as the decision to drop, well, no matter what details emerge, what battle plans are uncovered, what meetings are declassified, I will forever hold the opinion that inviting the nations of the world to send representatives to further test firing of the weapons would have immediately achieved the desired peace. If peace was what the powerful desired.
2. Congress Is Sick of the Secrecy Around the TPP
And Senator Sherrod Brown is blocking a key Obama nominee to show it.
““The Administration would rather sacrifice a nominee for a key post than improve transparency of the largest trade agreement ever negotiated,” Brown said in a statement. “This deal could affect more the 40 percent of our global economy, but even seasoned policy advisors with the requisite security clearance can’t review text without being accompanied by a Member of Congress. It shouldn’t be easier for multinational corporations to get their hands on trade text than for public servants looking out for American workers and American manufacturers.”
Refinery and their boss strikes black gold then turns pipe off for the workers down below. Left to scrap over the occasional drop ‘a 0.5 per cent pay rise’.
This article by Mike Treen on Nationals legalisation of zero hours contracts is pretty much a must read
I believe that the government is vulnerable on this issue. Whatever the initial intention of Woodhouse and his advisers it is clear that what has come back from Cabinet is so watered down as to be less than useless. They law is a danger to workers and will legitimise practises that they government had promised to end.
Considering that this is a National government I don’t suppose we should be surprised by the attacks on the workers. What we should be is angry.
You do know that Key and NZ would be well to the left of centre from the USA political perspective. I also find it cute that some in NZ think the USA and multinationals spend their days trying to subvert NZ for their own evil needs.
NZ MoH web site defers and links to the CDC on many pagesof the web site, and takes direct inputs from the CDC when making decisions on multiple levels
Nz and USA only two countries which currently allow direct consumer marketing by pharmaceutical companies
As two examples of how NZ is the USA. There are more that involve the CDC, FDA & MoH which as a doctor you must surely be aware of
You’re being deliberately misleading or extremely ignorant
You can’t dispute the examples which showed up the stupidity of your “usa isnt nz” comment, so once again you come back with a facile imbicilic comment
butbutbut the MoH website taking direct inputs from the CDC when making decisions on multiple levels (or whatever the fuck BH was trying to say) is totally relevant to drug companies offering inducements to doctors who prescribe their drugs.
The funny thing is that all of the recent incidents in my opinion demonstrate that the police have the tools to deal with these incidents with the equipment they have.
Thus far they have aprehended all suspects with no injury to any officers or the public and without (so far) any of the suspects being killed either.
The US police would love this sort of a positive outcome. Of course they armed all their police long ago and we can see how that turned out.
I certainly have no love for the law but from from what I’ve heard about the incident here in Whanganui this was attempted murder.
Seems the offenders fired at arms length but missed because they were so pissed and stoned and when the cops legged it ditching their high-vis gear and headed off into a paddock Dolphy* and co spent considerable time staggering around in the dark trying to hunt them down.
(nice enough kid but never had a chance, unwanted, uneducated, dreadful family violence, institutionalised at fourteen etc etc..)*
Yeah but at the same time we don’t want it to turn out like the US, where some cops level lethal weapons at anyone poor or brown they pull over for minor traffic infractions.
Well folks, on a lighter note, I have just prepared a cheese/tomato tart ready for dinner this evening, I had just sat back, logged in to see the comments for the day and the darned phone goes, I thought typical – well would you believe it, it was a young woman asking for me by name, when confirmed, she then went on to say “this is a phone call from John Key ” – I interrupted her and said “I can’t stand the bastard” and hung up on her – my partner is chuckling away here – oh boy did it feel good – I am still chuckling away myself – the poor girl is probably still getting over it – it would be interesting to see how many of these cold callers are getting a tirade of abuse from people. Have a good weekend.
One “northshoredoc” asserts, without bothering to back up his assertion with any evidence, the following….
Key and NZ would be well to the left of centre from the USA political perspective.
On what basis does he/she make such a claim? I see that our friend Blue Horseshoe has already pointed out that northshoredoc is stupid, so I’ll resist hurling any further epithets at the poor fellow.
I am willing, furthermore, to allow northshoredoc the opportunity to redeem himself by explaining why he made such a remarkable, evidence-free statement.
If you can’t figure out how NZ even under the current government is well to the left politically of the Democrats I would suggest you concentrate on your job as a second rate stenographer.
NZ even under the current government is well to the left politically of the Democrats
You did not say that. You said: “well to the left of centre from the USA political perspective.” Key and his cronies may be “to the left” of the people that have been prosecuting illegal wars in the Middle East and Africa, jailing whistle-blowers and murdering and terrorizing political dissenters. But they are NOT “to the left” of mainstream political thought in the United States or New Zealand. The political establishment is far to the right of the general public in America, just as it is in New Zealand and Australia and the United Kingdom and Canada.
The two main political parties, which have a stranglehold on political institutions, are notoriously corrupt and do not represent the public’s views in any meaningful sense.
Your confused comments indicate that you have little or no understanding of the depth and complexity of political debate in the United States. Are you aware of how popular Bernie Sanders is? Have you even heard of him? Or Ralph Nader? Or Noam Chomsky? Or Elizabeth Warren?
I would suggest you concentrate on your job as a second rate stenographer.
Geezus mate, the US Democrats would be considered a war-mongering crony corporate right wing party of state sponsored terrorism and torture in most developed countries in the world.
Let’s invite Hilary to give us a speech shall we? It’ll only cost us US$275,000.
Meanwhile let’s not forget that it was Clinton who eviscerated social welfare for poor families and their children, and passed NAFTA which gutted the US blue collar working class and American industry.
“Geezus mate, the US Democrats would be considered a war-mongering crony corporate right wing party of state sponsored terrorism and torture in most developed countries in the world.”
Most people in the United States want a fully funded public health care system, and they do not want the poor to be punished for being poor. That’s been shown in poll after poll after poll.
You are conflating the stance of the political class, which serves the private medical lobby and the armaments lobby, with the views of the population, which it ignores. You can recycle the deranged rhetoric of the extreme right all you like, but that doesn’t change the facts of the matter.
The US websites I have been looking at are commenting how over the last 30 years both Democrat and Republican parties have moved so far to the right that Reagan and Nixon would these days be considered too left wing to be presidential material. So I guess Key must be “left wing” somewhere between Reagan and Nixon in his politics.
Fair comment Glenn. But, as the Professor picked up, the political parties are not representative of public opinion. Poor old northshoredoc confused the brutal policies of the political establishment with “the USA political perspective”.
American people are much more serious and moral than the small elite that has control of the levers of power.
This is interesting as well. A fierce advertising effort has been launched by Saudi Arabia to convince U.S. lawmakers to oppose the nuclear deal with Iran, and they’ve recruited a cadre of former Senators to carry it out.
“I’m a big fan of tasers.”
Jim Mora’s light chat show is actually getting WORSE. The Panel, Radio NZ National, Friday 21 August 2015
Jim Mora, Andrew “Dire” Clay, Neil Miller
Incredibly, this dog of a program somehow continues to decline in quality. But then what else can we expect with guests of this calibre?
First discussion for the day: Should the police be armed or not? Miller opined that New Zealand is an “out-lier” on this issue, but that nothing will change until not only policemen, but members of the public start getting shot.
Of course, members of the public are getting shot—by the police. Sadly, however, neither Jim Mora nor Andrew “Dire” Clay had the presence of mind to remind him of this.
Miller then announced how much of a fan he is of police using tasers. Clay, who often refers to himself as a “liberal”, endorsed Miller’s view, burbling: “I’m a big fan of tasers.”
To introduce some informed comment on to the program, the producers had arranged for Mora to cross to Deakin University Associate Professor in Criminology Dr Darren Palmer, who quickly and eloquently showed that neither Clay nor Miller had a clue what they were talking about. Politely but devastatingly, he showed that every single point that they had made was fallacious.
Neil Miller had nothing at all to offer by way of counter-argument. However, once he had departed, Miller said: “Very cynical comments from an academic, I must say.”
It would be interesting to see if Clay and Miller maintained their enthusiastic pro-taser stance if either—or preferably both—of them were to be set upon and perhaps paralyzed by a gang of licensed thugs in police uniforms.
Neither of them has any discernible talent, as far as I can see. Clay has made some astonishingly ignorant comments on his many appearances on this chat show—-on one memorable occasion he expressed anguish at finding out “that the Khmer Rouge was SUPPORTED by the United States for political reasons! It just does my head in!” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-28032013/#comment-611053
That revelation of horrifying government cynicism has not stopped him from going to Afghanistan to “support our troops”, which is really, of course, supporting our government’s decision to send them there. His anti-war comments have ceased since his government-sponsored trip.
Thanks for that Gabby. Now I am totally embarrassed. I am a more abject human being than any of my critics here has rated me in the past, and Neil Miller is a far better human being than I have been portraying him to be.
I thought I heard him say “cynical”, but there you are—-another Breen mis-step.
What’s even more impressive is that Mr Miller made that generous comment after Dr Palmer had shown him to be utterly ignorant and out of his depth.
Well done, Neil Miller—and thanks for correcting my horrible misconstrual, Gabby.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
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1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
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TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
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About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
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Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
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I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
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NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
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Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
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The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
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History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
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The opposition and other progressive forces in the country must maintain a sustained attack against the bias in the media.
Target the main puppets and always question their impartiality.
When being interviewed live make these accusations.
Control the corporate media, don’t let it control you.
It will never accept a progressive victory in the elections unless the opposition exists on its terms.
Follow the SNP and break your dependence on the corporate media.
Is there a purge of Corbyn supporters currently underway in the UK Labour leadership election ?
The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-leadership-longtime-supporters-of-party-claim-they-have-been-barred-from-voting-in-purge-10464046.html
The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/20/labour-leadership-election-rejected-supporters-express-their-anger
Need to remain cautious, of course…could be just the usual cock-ups…long-time Labour Party activists, members, even former candidates being told their application to vote has been rejected.
But, read through the above stories – along with the Twitter accounts of both Owen Jones and JeremyCorbyn4Leader over the last 24 hours – and you’ll get the distinct impression that it’s specifically the known Corbyn supporters who are being rejected.
Snap, I was just about to post this:
https://opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/michael-chessum/great-labour-purge-is-underway
The author of this article is less equivocal.
A lot of those being purged are young members who are the future of the party.
It just shows what the old guard of a dying party will do to hang on to their privileges and control. They’ll keep it out of office, they’ll trash every principle it once stood for, they’ll destroy its future, but God damn it, they’ll keep their expense accounts!
If that proves to be the case then it’s an extraordinary scandal.
Corbyn’s been packing out 1000+ venues throughout the UK for weeks (2000 at Newcastle a night or so back). They’ve had to move rallies to larger auditoria and set up overspill rooms. It’s a “democratic explosion unprecedented in British Political history”, as The Guardian’s Seumus Milne puts it.
He’s 32 points ahead of his nearest rival in the latest Leadership poll and 7 points ahead among the voting public. And he’s probably personally responsible for inspiring more than 100,000 new members / sign-ups.
The notion that this is all the product of some sort of nefarious Trade Union manipulation or Militant Tendency ‘Entryism’ is hilarious. What’s more it was the Blairite David Miliband who advocated this whole ‘3 Pound sign-up’ inclusiveness campaign to widen Party participation a few years ago and Tony Blair was reportedly highly enthusiastic (he welcomed it as “something I should have done myself”)……Right up, of course, until it all backfired a few weeks ago.
But the Entryism accusation does give New Labour establishment Grandees – its College of Cardinals – a motive to try and turn this election if they want to (doomed as such attempts may be).
It’s a real concern, though, that UK Labour announced a couple of weeks ago that it will:
(1) continue to purge / reject voters even after they’ve voted in the leadership election – ie right up to the moment the results are ready to be declared (a decision that shocked the British Electoral Reform group whose commercial arm is overseeing the vote)
(2) provide no details of the final vote (numbers/breakdowns) publicly. They will simply announce the winner.
Ample opportunity, perhaps, for A Very British Coup.
Even Le Pen in France has had to save the Party and break with Daddy who keeps rising like a zombie to utter something notable in the negative racist style he favours.
It all seems very very familiar.
Party apparatchiks actively working against the clear wishes of the people it purports to represent whilst distorting information, ignoring the public voice & openly manipulating the process of the candidacy selection. The name Henry A Wallace springs to mind.
Have often wondered what the US [& the world] might have overcome had the peoples’ choice won the 1944 nomination for President.
We all understand how private schemes and public dreams are different beasts in the political machinations of an election. We all know history is written by the winners. But one truth exists regardless of poll results, all societies get faced with diverging pathways now and again. 1944 America had its choice made for it. 21st Century Britain now faces a similar situation. Once again it seems the will of the people is powerless against the influence of the powerful.
Back in 1944, the World War was ongoing. It consumed whatever resources it demanded and devoured people as easily as oil and steel. Externally, the USA was seen as a cohesive strong society with a proud and longstanding belief in freedom for all the world.
Internally, the USA was in nothing short of social turmoil as the people were steadily and progressively forging their will for equality and stating clearly how the increasingly invasive influence of big business was destroying the country’s ability to deliver Lady liberty’s promises.
In the build up to the 1944 Convention Henry Wallace was Vice President. An intelligent experienced administrator with many years of public service under his belt. He was an editor, a mathmatecian, he meditated. He was a practicing statistician and had a degree in animal husbandry. A man from the land who who laid the groundwork for hybrid crop development. He was the Secretary of Agriculture and Wallace chaired the Economic Defense Board, the Supply Priorities and Allocation Board, and the Board of Economic Warfare as a member of President Roosevelt’s secret “war cabinet”. He was President of the Senate, and would lead several diplomatic missions to Latin America and Asia and the Soviet Union.
Truman sold socks. Yes that is a bit harsh but what had he actually done to equal the experience and the ability of Wallace? Truman had been a Senator of no real accomplishments for ten years and prior to his rise to the senate had spent time as a Presiding Judge on a County Court. He was not a lawyer. His biggest achievement prior to winning the ’44 nomination for Vice President was as head of the Truman Committee which was formed to expose waste fraud and corruption in wartime contracts. (the irony is palpable when one considers the unfettered growth in such activity once he was ceded the Presidency in 1945) Basically he was a small businessman, who was co-opted into public office with zero hands on experience of the complex issues facing a post-war world.
Truman was barely on the radar as a candidate until a few weeks before the Convention began. The stories of what happened at the ’44 Convention are varied but there are few who would dispute the final vote was a sham fuelled by career promises and crony deals. Overnight, after a dubious adjournment, the delegates supporting Wallace were effectively locked out. As is the way with politics, big business won out and Truman was elected as running mate for Roosevelt. A year later Truman dropped the first atomic bombs before going on to oversee the biggest growth in peacetime arms manufacture the world had ever seen.
Henry Wallace spoke freely with anyone and had a huge public following but once he delivered the ‘Century of the Common Man’ speech his big plans for a better world were quickly becoming thorns in the paw of big business. His comprehensive real world grasp of the post-war challenges was head and shoulders above any other candidates. His policies were plans for the very world that the War was supposedly being fought for. No wonder that some inside (& outside) his party became dedicated to derailing his nomination.
Wallace campaigned on better health care, better social services, fair pay for fair work, free education, progressive tax systems. He spoke passionately on peace as a means to progress, he saw opportunities for better race relations and most importantly wanted the US to lead a downscaling of the industrial military machine that had been borne in the battles raging across the globe. Wallace was an obvious threat. Is it any wonder he is a minor footnote rarely referred to in US politics.
Things are not much different today, in fact many arguments could be put forward to say things are far worse.
The post war world was a gold rush in waiting and claim jumpers were ready to fight for every scrap of power they could claw at. The social policies of Wallace were anathema to the avarice we now witness as the status quo. He believed in the potential of people, the rights of workers, the rights of minorities, the rights of all peoples of the world to have the opportunity to live in peace. Your basic left wing nutbar some would say. I hazard a guess that Corbyn would agree, it all seems very very familiar.
oops: “……. had the peoples’ choice won the 1944 nomination for Vice President.”
an inconvenient phone call made me miss the edit -sorry
Thanks freedom. I suppose you have seen the comments I put up on Hiroshima Day. I found a detailed and apparently authoritative story in The Atlantic I think about the methods used to decide about dropping the two nuclear bombs. And whether their terror balanced fairly against some more war dead over months of face-saving negotiation as the USA held onto the bombs as a last resort.
With Truman out of his depth and people like Byrnes running around doing god knows what behind the scenes, it is little surprise that cool heads like Secretary of War Stimson resigned only weeks after the bombs were dropped. Then again, he was seventy three. But I am not so sure he would have left so quickly had Wallace been in the oval office instead of Truman.
As the information you pointed to shows, history does suggest there were many in the administration who were beginning to see a post war world of atomic threats as a very destabilising apparatus for global peace to be built upon. There were certainly some experienced bodies in the administration who appear to have become very uncomfortable with the direction their caretaker President was taking. These views were largely based on simple and sparse knowledge of the device’s existence, without even seeing the weapon in operation. It is not unreasonable to assume that after the Trinity Test the cacophony of protest behind closed doors was much louder than the historians can prove. We can only daydream about alternative decisions in the days that followed.
As far as the decision to drop, well, no matter what details emerge, what battle plans are uncovered, what meetings are declassified, I will forever hold the opinion that inviting the nations of the world to send representatives to further test firing of the weapons would have immediately achieved the desired peace. If peace was what the powerful desired.
QFT
Oliver Stones Untold History of the U.S. tells the story of Wallace very well.
thanks freedom,
ive learnt something today,
well written.
Some recent articles on TPPA
1. “NAFTA countries reignite negotiations over TPP auto-parts dispute
Negotiators for Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are meeting in Washington to try to break a deadlock over autos – one of the biggest stumbling blocks to a massive Pacific Rim trade pact between 12 countries.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/nafta-countries-meeting-in-washington-over-tpp-auto-parts-dispute/article26029777/
2. Congress Is Sick of the Secrecy Around the TPP
And Senator Sherrod Brown is blocking a key Obama nominee to show it.
““The Administration would rather sacrifice a nominee for a key post than improve transparency of the largest trade agreement ever negotiated,” Brown said in a statement. “This deal could affect more the 40 percent of our global economy, but even seasoned policy advisors with the requisite security clearance can’t review text without being accompanied by a Member of Congress. It shouldn’t be easier for multinational corporations to get their hands on trade text than for public servants looking out for American workers and American manufacturers.”
http://www.thenation.com/article/congress-is-sick-of-the-secrecy-around-tpp/
3. Even Climate Change denier is convinced !!!!
Lord Christopher Monckton: TPP is Anti-Democracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk20WiYgp_4
4, http://www.bilaterals.org/ for news from several TPPA countries
Refinery and their boss strikes black gold then turns pipe off for the workers down below. Left to scrap over the occasional drop ‘a 0.5 per cent pay rise’.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/business/71289199/refining-nz-posts-strong-half-year-profit-of-652m-pays-dividend
Video from Wikileaks on TPP published 18 Aug 2015.
Includes Pilger and many other speakers.
+1
This article by Mike Treen on Nationals legalisation of zero hours contracts is pretty much a must read
Considering that this is a National government I don’t suppose we should be surprised by the attacks on the workers. What we should be is angry.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YQZ2UeOTO3I
John Oliver ‘- marketing to doctors
USA isn’t NZ.
Not yet, but if we give John Key enugh time and a TPP to back him then it may not be long until we are.
You do know that Key and NZ would be well to the left of centre from the USA political perspective. I also find it cute that some in NZ think the USA and multinationals spend their days trying to subvert NZ for their own evil needs.
Stupid response
NZ MoH web site defers and links to the CDC on many pagesof the web site, and takes direct inputs from the CDC when making decisions on multiple levels
Nz and USA only two countries which currently allow direct consumer marketing by pharmaceutical companies
As two examples of how NZ is the USA. There are more that involve the CDC, FDA & MoH which as a doctor you must surely be aware of
You’re being deliberately misleading or extremely ignorant
I quite agree that your response is stupid.
You can’t dispute the examples which showed up the stupidity of your “usa isnt nz” comment, so once again you come back with a facile imbicilic comment
If those examples had in fact exposed any stupidity you’d have a point.
butbutbut the MoH website taking direct inputs from the CDC when making decisions on multiple levels (or whatever the fuck BH was trying to say) is totally relevant to drug companies offering inducements to doctors who prescribe their drugs.
I thought that was HAARP. Oh well.
Greg O’Connor again calling for all police to be armed with firearms.
I wonder if he has shares in Glock…
The funny thing is that all of the recent incidents in my opinion demonstrate that the police have the tools to deal with these incidents with the equipment they have.
Thus far they have aprehended all suspects with no injury to any officers or the public and without (so far) any of the suspects being killed either.
The US police would love this sort of a positive outcome. Of course they armed all their police long ago and we can see how that turned out.
pretty much.
I certainly have no love for the law but from from what I’ve heard about the incident here in Whanganui this was attempted murder.
Seems the offenders fired at arms length but missed because they were so pissed and stoned and when the cops legged it ditching their high-vis gear and headed off into a paddock Dolphy* and co spent considerable time staggering around in the dark trying to hunt them down.
(nice enough kid but never had a chance, unwanted, uneducated, dreadful family violence, institutionalised at fourteen etc etc..)*
Yeah but at the same time we don’t want it to turn out like the US, where some cops level lethal weapons at anyone poor or brown they pull over for minor traffic infractions.
The dark side of low milk prices – heavily pregnant cows being sent off to the meat works – http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/71202444/Culling-of-dairy-cattle-increases-as-farmers-look-to-maximise-milk-profit-in-hard-season
So, the price of veal will be going down?
I am considering becoming a vegetarian.
News like this stengthens my resolve.
Well folks, on a lighter note, I have just prepared a cheese/tomato tart ready for dinner this evening, I had just sat back, logged in to see the comments for the day and the darned phone goes, I thought typical – well would you believe it, it was a young woman asking for me by name, when confirmed, she then went on to say “this is a phone call from John Key ” – I interrupted her and said “I can’t stand the bastard” and hung up on her – my partner is chuckling away here – oh boy did it feel good – I am still chuckling away myself – the poor girl is probably still getting over it – it would be interesting to see how many of these cold callers are getting a tirade of abuse from people. Have a good weekend.
Sweet as Barbara , thanks
One “northshoredoc” asserts, without bothering to back up his assertion with any evidence, the following….
On what basis does he/she make such a claim? I see that our friend Blue Horseshoe has already pointed out that northshoredoc is stupid, so I’ll resist hurling any further epithets at the poor fellow.
I am willing, furthermore, to allow northshoredoc the opportunity to redeem himself by explaining why he made such a remarkable, evidence-free statement.
Away you go, northshoredoc. The floor is yours….
Go away Morrissey.
If you can’t figure out how NZ even under the current government is well to the left politically of the Democrats I would suggest you concentrate on your job as a second rate stenographer.
Go away Morrissey.
?!!!???!?!?!?!?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLezV_FmX38
NZ even under the current government is well to the left politically of the Democrats
You did not say that. You said: “well to the left of centre from the USA political perspective.” Key and his cronies may be “to the left” of the people that have been prosecuting illegal wars in the Middle East and Africa, jailing whistle-blowers and murdering and terrorizing political dissenters. But they are NOT “to the left” of mainstream political thought in the United States or New Zealand. The political establishment is far to the right of the general public in America, just as it is in New Zealand and Australia and the United Kingdom and Canada.
The two main political parties, which have a stranglehold on political institutions, are notoriously corrupt and do not represent the public’s views in any meaningful sense.
Your confused comments indicate that you have little or no understanding of the depth and complexity of political debate in the United States. Are you aware of how popular Bernie Sanders is? Have you even heard of him? Or Ralph Nader? Or Noam Chomsky? Or Elizabeth Warren?
I would suggest you concentrate on your job as a second rate stenographer.
Oooohhh, now THAT hurts.
“Go away Morrissey.
?!!!???!?!?!?!?”
Your sock puppetry has been well outed in the past as has your putain de poulet.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17032014/#comment-787979
Ouch! A palpable hit, sir!
Touché!
Geezus mate, the US Democrats would be considered a war-mongering crony corporate right wing party of state sponsored terrorism and torture in most developed countries in the world.
Let’s invite Hilary to give us a speech shall we? It’ll only cost us US$275,000.
Meanwhile let’s not forget that it was Clinton who eviscerated social welfare for poor families and their children, and passed NAFTA which gutted the US blue collar working class and American industry.
“Geezus mate, the US Democrats would be considered a war-mongering crony corporate right wing party of state sponsored terrorism and torture in most developed countries in the world.”
Yes my point exactly.
I can confirm that I’d vote NZ National Party ahead of US Democratic Party any day of the week…heaven forbid those are the choices given to us.
The US political establishment would consider our healthcare, education and social welfare system a step away from communism.
Most people in the United States want a fully funded public health care system, and they do not want the poor to be punished for being poor. That’s been shown in poll after poll after poll.
You are conflating the stance of the political class, which serves the private medical lobby and the armaments lobby, with the views of the population, which it ignores. You can recycle the deranged rhetoric of the extreme right all you like, but that doesn’t change the facts of the matter.
The US websites I have been looking at are commenting how over the last 30 years both Democrat and Republican parties have moved so far to the right that Reagan and Nixon would these days be considered too left wing to be presidential material. So I guess Key must be “left wing” somewhere between Reagan and Nixon in his politics.
Fair comment Glenn. But, as the Professor picked up, the political parties are not representative of public opinion. Poor old northshoredoc confused the brutal policies of the political establishment with “the USA political perspective”.
American people are much more serious and moral than the small elite that has control of the levers of power.
As are the people of the UK well to the left of Labour there.
Good point Paul. I note that the Labour Party’s Blairite establishment and its media parrots are working round the clock to smear Jeremy Corbyn.
Here’s an interesting fact. The second biggest shareholder in Rupert Murdoch’s parent company for Fox News is the nephew of the King of Saudi Arabia – http://bigthink.com/Resurgence/sharia-prince-owns-stake-in-fox-news-parent
This is interesting as well. A fierce advertising effort has been launched by Saudi Arabia to convince U.S. lawmakers to oppose the nuclear deal with Iran, and they’ve recruited a cadre of former Senators to carry it out.
A https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/08/20/wave-anti-iran-deal-tv-ads-organized-saudi-arabian-lobbyist/
“I’m a big fan of tasers.”
Jim Mora’s light chat show is actually getting WORSE.
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Friday 21 August 2015
Jim Mora, Andrew “Dire” Clay, Neil Miller
Incredibly, this dog of a program somehow continues to decline in quality. But then what else can we expect with guests of this calibre?
First discussion for the day: Should the police be armed or not? Miller opined that New Zealand is an “out-lier” on this issue, but that nothing will change until not only policemen, but members of the public start getting shot.
Of course, members of the public are getting shot—by the police. Sadly, however, neither Jim Mora nor Andrew “Dire” Clay had the presence of mind to remind him of this.
Miller then announced how much of a fan he is of police using tasers. Clay, who often refers to himself as a “liberal”, endorsed Miller’s view, burbling: “I’m a big fan of tasers.”
To introduce some informed comment on to the program, the producers had arranged for Mora to cross to Deakin University Associate Professor in Criminology Dr Darren Palmer, who quickly and eloquently showed that neither Clay nor Miller had a clue what they were talking about. Politely but devastatingly, he showed that every single point that they had made was fallacious.
Neil Miller had nothing at all to offer by way of counter-argument. However, once he had departed, Miller said: “Very cynical comments from an academic, I must say.”
It would be interesting to see if Clay and Miller maintained their enthusiastic pro-taser stance if either—or preferably both—of them were to be set upon and perhaps paralyzed by a gang of licensed thugs in police uniforms.
Masochists can read more about Andrew “Dire” Clay HERE…..
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04122013/#comment-738941
Miller-watchers might like to peruse the following….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10082012/#comment-505179
Miller and Clay sound appalling.
Do you know what they have done in life to get a platform to espouse their repugnant views?
Neither of them has any discernible talent, as far as I can see. Clay has made some astonishingly ignorant comments on his many appearances on this chat show—-on one memorable occasion he expressed anguish at finding out “that the Khmer Rouge was SUPPORTED by the United States for political reasons! It just does my head in!”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-28032013/#comment-611053
That revelation of horrifying government cynicism has not stopped him from going to Afghanistan to “support our troops”, which is really, of course, supporting our government’s decision to send them there. His anti-war comments have ceased since his government-sponsored trip.
While Clay comes across as well intentioned but a bit dim, Miller is an altogether nastier case. I’ve written about him before….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02122013/#comment-737424
As the late great Bruce Jesson used to say, a lot of people go a long way by being pushy and self-centred. That’s certainly the case with Neil Miller.
To be fair, he said “Very SENSIBLE comments”
Thanks for that Gabby. Now I am totally embarrassed. I am a more abject human being than any of my critics here has rated me in the past, and Neil Miller is a far better human being than I have been portraying him to be.
I thought I heard him say “cynical”, but there you are—-another Breen mis-step.
What’s even more impressive is that Mr Miller made that generous comment after Dr Palmer had shown him to be utterly ignorant and out of his depth.
Well done, Neil Miller—and thanks for correcting my horrible misconstrual, Gabby.
This is front page news in the Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/21/new-zealand-conservationists-apologise-over-accidental-shooting-of-endangered-takahe
Didn’t seem to get much attention over here and it’s our endangered species.
It’s been in the news all bloody day.