Mike Feinberg from KIPP (Knowledge is Power Programme) is coming to New Zealand next week to promote charter schools for the ACT/National government. KIPP provides a hideous caricature of quality edcuation for kids from low-income communities in the US. Here is a snippet from a KIPP school which gives the flavour of what goes on provided by education researcher Howard Berlak after a recent visit to a KIPP school in San Francisco:
“When I was there children who followed all the rules were given points that could be exchanged for goodies at the school store. Those who resisted the rules or were slackers wore a large sign pinned to their clothes labeled “miscreant.” Miscreants sat apart from the others at all times including lunch, were denied recess and participation in all other school projects and events.
. . . . I’ve spent many years in schools. This one felt like a humane, low security prison or something resembling a locked-down drug rehab program for adolescents run on reward and punishments by well meaning people. Maybe a case can be made for such places, but I cannot imagine anyone (including the Times reporter) sending their kids there unless they have no other acceptable options. What is most disturbing is the apparent universal belief by KIPP staff and partisans that standardized tests scores are the singular and most important measure of a truly good education. ”
Remember this when you hear Feinberg the glossy salesman..
Thanks for that Tony. Of course some Nz teachers use a punishment/reward system though they don’t call it “punishment” but call it “consequences.” (Heard of Benching?) Not as extreme as the indefensible KIPP system of course.
“When I was there children who followed all the rules were given points that could be exchanged for goodies at the school store. Those who resisted the rules or were slackers wore a large sign pinned to their clothes labeled “miscreant.” Miscreants sat apart from the others at all times including lunch, were denied recess and participation in all other school projects and events.
run on reward and punishments by well meaning people. Earlier this week I mentioned the nasty authoritarian streak we have in this country: given the “poor are responsible for their own state” attitudes Feinberg will get a ready audience.
I had the misfortune this week (it was the only station the car radio would pick up whilst driving round Auckland) to listen to 15 minutes of Leighton (?dont know his name but “the Excrable” will do) rant about how we need to take responsibility and kill people who don’t have warrants and rego. FFS. To that we are reduced.
No. “Kill” is my metaphor for his desire to punish, he did say words to the effect of confiscate cars, fine $000s dollars etc. The whole thing centred on Leightons desire to make the citizen take “responsibility” whatever that means, and rather than being persuaded and enabled to do so the citizen was to be whipped into compliance. All very misanthropic and coercive.
Got into a major argument last night with a loved one who was regurgitating the talk-back hate-speech that she listens to practically all the time, and quoting from Ian frakking Wishart’s latest nasty, ignorant mixture of untruths and spin.
Probably shouldn’t have in the circumstances, but it’s not just talk but a means of aggression against targetted scapegoats, and I can’t always stay cool in the face of it.
Personal responsibility. The new metric of the right. Despite the recent
Law series on TV7 that clearly made the case against arguments of virtue.
The problem is the turd blossom. Which is a two step, any lie must be
two lies facing each other off.
Romney would not be as rich and as successful were it not for the
structure and nature of the peoples of the USA, so he makes out like a
Randian superhero that he never had to take no frigging handouts….
…then he shouts out that the other 50% are losers needing the
government. Exactly how long would Romney last in Haiti?
Yesterday in the welfare debate, a government MP declared that
the reforms to welfare will reduce criminality. Well actually he
said more like welfare reforms would do away with fraud.
The two lies, one that there is fraud, not the lapse in personal
responsibility of welfare recipients too many that is fraudulent,
and that the reforms which would see more lose entitlements
(like ACC model) would not create more crime and more costs on
the state from illhealth, etc.
Look I’m the first person who would welcome the goal of helping
people into work, but that’s not what the welfare reforms do, their
purpose is to lower the short-term costs of welfare, and raise them
in the medium to long term (when Key has left power).
Why do they hate so much? Why does Romney low America but
hate most Americans? Why does Key hate our grandkids, why
are we bequeathing the coming generations with a resource crisis,
climate crisis, social and debt crisises????
Personal responsibility is a core part of the NZ psyche. The only difference the Left needs to deliver is a social and economic environment where taking personal responsibility delivers substantial rewards.
100,000 NZers would start work on Monday if there were $15/hr jobs available. Its our failure as a society that they aren’t.
There’s plenty of work which desperately needs to be done in our community. But our current economic structures means fuck all of that work can be structured as paid jobs.
There’s plenty of work which desperately needs to be done in our community. But our current economic structures means fuck all of that work can be structured as paid jobs.
Our current structures means that things only get done if an owner is making a profit from someone else’s work. If that’s not happening then it doesn’t get done.
Psychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people. Thus, projection involves imagining or projecting the belief that others originate those feelings.
They probably don’t even realise that they’re projecting their own failings onto others.
The “hate” is twinned with “fear”… they hate so much because there’s so much they’re afraid of. The system peddles fear and hate for control… dense emotions that are easy to tap the group conscious into. “Fight or flight” and by the time TPTB have bashed your life around the block a few times… many have no fight left.
Radio New Zealand is reporting that NZ was one of only two countries to vote against protection measures (banning gill and trawling nets) for the endangered Maui Dolphin. Although the vote was confidential the New Zealand DOC representative apparently announced that they were under instructions from the Ministry of Primary Industries to oppose the proposal.
Mauis dolphins are iconic in New Zealand and are facing extinction. It seems the Government does not care.
When you add this to the recent cabinet decision to oppose antarctic protection proposed by the US you get the feeling of a regime that it belligerently opposed to environmental measures just because profitability may be affected.
Neil Abel describes Joyce, Carter and Brownlee as “the dark heart of the anti-environment policy.”
In a telling passage he states
“There is a spirit of anti-environmental policy in our present administration which is centred on an interpretation of economics that has lead to the mine, drill, frack, cut, sell, build-a-road-through-it and ‘let the devil take the hindmost’ strategies that are the extent of our Government’s development inspiration in nearly four years of power.
An economy that relies on the steady degradation, destruction and using-up of its natural resources cannot by definition bring lasting human prosperity. ”
The reserve bank has gone back wards on inflation control ( returning to the outmoded 2% target .our dollar will now remain higher than need the money speculators will have a field day as they already are we are one of the few dumb arse countries that don’t play the devaluation game the speculators know this so its easy money for them.
Also of concern is the change in culture at DOC in the last decade. There are still many good people working in DOC, but there is now an ingrained institutional problem, where conservation is segmented, and often takes second place to supposed economic priorities. I’m not sure how many people realise the shift that has happened.
Why is DOC taking instructions from the Ministry of Primary Industries?
Its environmental fraud by parliamentarians, when they degrade the future environment
for short term profits for a few private companies. Their lack of concern is a fraud
on the people of NZ who lose environmental wealth, future prosperity from tourism
and natural wealth (clean water, biodiversity)….
We are living through an age now typified by massive environmental fraud.
I have this song running in my head EVERY time I hear about the lack of environmental accountablity by this government: Midnight Oil put it nicely…
The tucker box is empty now
The heart of Kelly’s country cleared
The gangers on the southern line
Like the steam trains have disappeared
Pelicans glide
Miracles up in the skies
We vote for a government
With axes in it’s eyes
Mountains of Burma
The road to Mandalay
In the mountains of Burma
Light years away
Mountains of Burma
Will the sons of Solidarity
Still march on May Day ?
Will the sisters of the seventies
Still fight for equal pay
There’s no-one on the Reeperbahn
No more blankets handed out for land
We feed an economy
It’s got blood on it’s hands
Mountains of Burma
The road to Mandalay
Mountains of Burma
Light years away
In the mountains of Burma
The road to Mandalay
In the mountains of Burma
Hope you’re light years away
Pack your bags full of guns and ammunition
Bills fall due for the industrial revolution
Scorch the earth till the earth surrenders
Soldiers of armies
Storm empty fields
In a traveller’s trance
On the way to the high frontier
Sleepwalkers stumble
Cable cars run aground
Imaginary enemies
Form high above the clouds
It may be about the lucky country, but it is just as applicable here.
Mauis dolphins are iconic in New Zealand and are facing extinction. It seems the Government does not care.
This government doesn’t care about the environment or, indeed, life itself – they only care about getting more money for themselves and their rich mates.
An economy that relies on the steady degradation, destruction and using-up of its natural resources cannot by definition bring lasting human prosperity.
No respect for life, it will be a loss to NZ, and our souls.
They are beautiful creatures who understand, “All for one M8”.
And I will miss them if they go.
Serco – the company currently running one NZ prison in a PPP and contracted to do the same in the new prison being built in South Auckland, currently under scrutiny in the UK for falsifying data in relation to a contract for after hours medical treatment:
PROTEST AGAINST US SECRETARY OF DEFENCE LEON PANETTA!
TODAY! FRIDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2012
1 – 3PM
OUTSIDE GRAFTON RD ENTRANCE TO AUCKLAND DOMAIN (WAR MEMORIAL)
(ALONG FROM AK HOSPITAL ENTRANCE)
AT 2.45PM US SECRETARY OF DEFENCE LEON PANETTA WILL BE LAYING A WREATH INSIDE AT THE AUCKLAND HALL OF MEMORIES!
If YOU are opposed to this John Key National/ACT Government cosying up to the USA – BE THERE! (If you can!)
(Media have been alerted)
Penny Bright
[lprent: It might have to do with the capitals and repeated explanation marks. I know that when I see them my immediate response is to throttle the noise. I’m sure that if I were coding facebook, I’d get a bit of code to do it for me. ]
I suspect the wreath laying is not centre stage and that the main PR exercise is the powhiri & meeting at Government House with Coleman.
Key, in fact doesn’t meet up with Panetta until tomorrow for a barbecue lunch. How big a media event that barbecue is going to be I couldn’t say.
No doubt, America enjoys being referred to as No. 1.
As for terroism, perhaps your susceptible to the theory (which I’ve just made up) that the deliberate sinking of the Lexington (one of the missing carriers from Pearl Harbour) by a US destroyer 900 km NE of Rockhampton, was a “false flag” operation designed to inflame anti-Japanese sentiment in Australia & NZ. This then paved the way for the arrival of the 1st Marine division in NZ 3 months later.
(The marines then went on to Guadalcanal, & this being the 70th anniversary of that campaign, nicely brings us back to the wreath laying)
So, what’s your preference for the future?
Cut diplomatic ties?
Cut trade?
Ban American film & TV? (please exempt “Breaking Bad”)
Hi Penny. The post is up on fb. On the Stuff.co.nz fb page there is a ‘posts by others’ button. This takes you to a separate display of posts. There is also a ‘post by friends button’ More separstist behaviour in the media.
the lunartic is Off the grass( one week, researchers, and unsettling)
Corrections staff are identifying less staff ratio/increased physical and sexual assaults in Serco prisons.
“supported living” is preferable to in-valid; yet still more freakin labels upon people
Kapiti local bodies requesting Booze Barn be a “responsible’ corporate citizen;”oxymoron”.
(what is it about this government that they desire to keep facilitating the pouring of ethanol down our young people’s throats, clouding their brains and setting them up for failures and damage?)
let us not take our eyes of that which is above us-Fermi paradox (thanks DtB, had forgotten that one)
(He is everywhere and everything to me-Third Day,Öfferings)
-follow another human and u will only see their shadows on the cave wall
now, Kapital is ‘flying’ out of France (surprise, surprise) and yet the tax reforms only affect 1000’s
along with increasing suggestions of the challenges for demokracy by free speech
yet is speech free when cliches, platitudes and populist jingos etc are resorted thru?
Wittgenstein (in 90 minutes with a cup-a-tea)
I am about to commence “The Great Partnership”-Jonathan Sacks
after that? “Changing the World Through Kindness”
(gotta brace myself for the Anatomy of Human Destructiveness-Erich Fromm)
is it just a blog? may be a distributed mind..now,… there are a whole-lotta-thoughts Rosie
re telegraphing punches? Politics Is a dirty business (soiled) seeds fall where the may,
some on the path, some amongst rocky places, some amongst the thorns,
yet,
many fall on good soil (just saying)
-many of the “cats” have softened their look, yet cats still claw and bite
however, our glorious leader is still poncing about like some thing from The Great Gatsby/Vile Bodies
“When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice” Act 16:19
-years ago, when i was in treatment, WINZ staff acknowledged even then, that many people in New Zealand Aotearoa (thats one of my tells) would require supplementary redistributed income to flesh out what they earned through employment
The idiot editor is clearly basing her assumption that beneficiaries won’t be bashed by the government’s repressive welfare policy changes on nothing more than her own ivory tower ignorance…
Couldn’t agree more, I subscribed to the Listener for more than 30 years, gave it up prior to the 2008 election when it became overloaded with right wing apologists.
Bit harsh Dr T, it still has some good stuff that it probably copy’s paste’s from better outlets but it defenitely took a right turn politically some years ago with NACT spinsters like Billie (how to break a working engine) Ralston and Jane (you have diplomatic immunity) Clifton.
Most publications serving their masters interests did..
Anyone done some objective analysis on the publications the NZX swallowed up under Mr Smarmy boy Weldon’s watch to see if tone/direction has altered…..they were mainly rural publications that had some anti Fonterra listing angles at times… funny that.
You do realize that the Council OK’d the POAL policy to kick the Union workers in the guts captain hook? Any pretext of caring that Len Brown showed when it became apparent in the media that POAL are a bunch of nasty bastards was simply grandstanding. The mayor will do nothing!
He can’t bud, it’d be shareholder vote stuff, not a singular individuals’ call.
And while the actual definition of “Shareholder” remains ambiguous, everyone keeps missing the point.
It’s a power stuggle between the people who have that implied power and the ones they represent.
The Chasers crew returns to ABC on Oz TV monday with their “Hamster Wheel”
‘The timing of last year’s episodes turned out to be a gift, coinciding with another chapter in the long-running Julia Gillard-Kevin Rudd leadership saga, the circus of an anti-carbon-tax rally in Canberra led by Sydney radio shock-jock Alan Jones, and the appointment of blowhard conservative Paul Henry to lead Channel Ten’s (failed) assault on the breakfast-TV market.’
AND
‘If A Current Affair was the gift to us in 2006, Paul Henry is the gift to us in 2012,” Licciardello says. ”He’s an interesting media performer because he’s both intentionally and unintentionally funny.’
berny d I know that but the management have managed to convince themselves that they are the owners when they are not.
they need to be removed so that decent people with the public good at heart are installed.
this charade must stop and the thieves relieved of their positions.
Of course it is important that the company keep going because Auckland is a major entrepot but that does not mean that jumped up accountants can sit there and scheme on how to take it out of public ownership and into their own grubby little hands.
What the fuck is going on in this world?
basis for the “sun”: maybe it is all wind
btw, the reignited fatwa upon Rushdie may not be the Moor’s last sigh
“they” label the ‘left’ ‘thought police’: how about thought facilitators?
to the Social Security recipient ‘label-ers’; do ‘they’ consider all the voluntary intellectual and vocational services many recipients of Social Security provide to Their community??
Yep. 5 new State Houses for the Chathams. Are they considering Transportation as mentioned by an earlier poster?
The liberalisation of retail (FDI) in Indian is very sad. How many times must the sub-continent be colonised?
interestingly, an Indian aquaintence informed me that many Indians go into Health Professions out of
Vocational Altruism
(Brahmen respect falling-maybe the Aryan taint)
Apparently live-stock thefts are ever-increasing in Hawkes Bay and gutted carcasses left near residential areas. Man, imo, this type offence is likely to get worse.
Max Keiser on RT continuously discusses the eventuation of Gold Standard-based currencies once more. May be why there are so many newspaper advertisements seducing people to relinquish theirs. (as is often stated, u cannot eat it though) Nom Nom!
John Bradshaw on “The Family”
Love? Agape`
Hookie! $13.50 may buy 1-6 second-hand books
i pray all these new educationalists serving masters are instilling Self-mastery
Can u own a “Gravitional Conflagration” ?, question of the day?
Go Winston Peters: At least he’s trying to contribute too informed debate.
Go Greens: They’re always civilised.
Go Labour: Their questions are designed to inspire constructive debate.
Go Mana: Their responses are designed too inform us and contribute too constructive debate
Go Everyone else: There’s a civilised debate happening.
Go Nats: We don’t debate, we “Lead M8”, (Pending debate)
to the Social Security recipient ‘label-ers’; do ‘they’ consider all the voluntary intellectual and vocational services many recipients of Social Security provide to Their community??
Compassion for other people is relatively easy, relatively speaking. Compassion for oneself, not so easy. Which person can love the other by not wishing to change them?
The labellers suffer from a deficit or lack of compassion for themselves. Which person can love themselves by not wishing to change anything?
Aspiration – to what? Imperfection? More perfect than perfection itself? “…do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” Mathew 6 :3
“Heaven arms with compassion those it would not see destroyed”.
The labelled need to understand that they can reject the label and stop the cycle. Though in our “christian times” the labelled have their work cut out. It won’t stop the hate banging on the windows, but at least it can be seen as outside banging on the windows, no need to invite it in.
“Sleep without dreaming, awake without anxiety.”
No one need do anything to make oneself worthy in the eyes of another; do only for the other, anything else is by-product, not focus.
“…do not worry …for the day is its own trouble.” Mathew 6 : 25 – 34
New Zealand is the only country to vote against further protection for the critically endangered Maui’s dolphins at the world’s largest conservation summit.
Well, we now know, without a doubt, where this governments priorities lie and it isn’t in maintaining life on this world.
The Antarctic Ocean Alliance released maps earlier today that show that New Zealand’s proposal will maintain the status quo, leaving the majority of the Ross Sea’s biodiversity hotspots and the most heavily fished areas open and vulnerable to exploitation.
I think we can assume that this government will say that they’re putting in place protections for the environment but what they will actually mean is that they’ll be putting in place protections for the fishing industry.
Does our vote against mean that the protection will not go ahead?
Well, I don’t think it was actual international law that was being voted upon so we’re not bound by it.
Strange new species discovered off South America, The Planet is still trying for us.
Speaks volumes about the Tenacity of the Life engine we live on.
She’d even work with us given a quantified chance.
But it has to be a real, future oriented request.
The will is obvious, life will continue.
If thats the spieces I think you are referring to, you can be reasonably assured that unless its some kind of hoax, that it came from a laboratory somewhere!`
paraphrased- “…the 21st Century conception of the world is one of 3rd Century before Christ;..the age of the Stoics, Sceptics, Cynics, and above all, the Epicurean.”
-The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning.-Jonathan Sacks.
(is shaping up to be a really helpful book, …if one is interested. consistency being the hobgoblin of the small minded and all that-Emerson)
nah.
kweewee doesn’t really understand what that word means.
as soon as the whole National Party realises that he and his gang only represent themselves then he is dead meat.
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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 ...
Winston Peters is in court today, suing a bunch of former Minister and civil servants over their pre-election leak of his superannuation repayment. He's characterised the leak as malicious, and said that it is repugnant that his information was passed on to Ministers to use for political advantage. And he's ...
Murray CoxDo I have to finish my favourite genome? That’s an often-asked question. Geneticists generally strive to produce high-quality genomes that sequence every last gene, making full use of the state-of-the-art technologies coming on stream. Sequencing DNA means determining the order of the four chemical building blocks – called ...
Transformative Politics: The idea is to turn each recipient into an unwitting accomplice in their own transformation. From interested observer to hyped-up activist, sharing our messages promiscuously with ‘friends’. You’ll be part of an ever-expanding circulatory system, Jennifer, for the ideas that will win us the election.”JENNIFER SKITTERED her chair ...
The boycott is a fundamental tool of protest. By choosing who we buy from, we can send a message, and hopefully change corporate behaviour. Historically, boycotts have been effective, for example over apartheid in South Africa and Israel, in forcing divestment from Myanmar, and in ending bus segregation in the ...
Jan Rivers spoke at the Abortion Legislation Select Committee in favour of the bill, but in opposition to calls from other submitters to exchange the word ‘woman’ for ‘person’ throughout the bill. Jan is a supporter of the feminist group Speak Up For Women and has recently written an excellent ...
I checked my traffic stats:I was intrigued by 'monica29' - who was this very dedicated individual? I clicked on the link, to be greeted with ...Ho, hum.Spreadin' the word, spreadin' the word. Doesn't matter who hears it, as long as it gets out there. ...
There have been three polls since the election was announced, and I will shamelessly steal YouGov / UK Polling Report's Anthony Wells' summary of them:Survation – CON 34%, LAB 26%, LDEM 19%, BREX 12%, GRN 1% Ipsos MORI – CON 41%, LAB 24%, LDEM 20%, BREX 7%, GRN 3% YouGov ...
The following article is translated from Lutte Ouvrière, the weekly newspaper of the organisation usually known by the same name in France. When, for the second time this year, Chilean President Piñera announced an increase in the price of Metro tickets from 800 to 830 pesos, students in the high ...
Today, a worker contacted me asking if she could go to the police over her employer stealing thousands of dollars from her in unpaid wages. The employer also did not pay this worker’s taxes or student loan which amounts to tax fraud. As a workers rights activist, who founded the ...
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, They're Yours: Is there any person more vulnerable than a jilted lover on the rebound? Or, anything more certain than that the charmer, the predator, the glib spinner of lies and promises will seek such broken people out? Yes, of course, he will love every one of ...
Though Jonathan Romain is a fairly high profile Rabbi, writing in several papers and popping up on TV and the radio, this story doesn't seem to have made it to the Guardian yet, so I'll take the unusual step of linking the Stephen Pollard edited Jewish Chronicle:Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain ...
There's an election afoot, and that is when noted opinion formers such as myself get to make wild fools of ourselves by pretending we have the faintest idea what will happen.So, here is my absurdly optimistic prediction:Labour - 285Conservative - 262SNP - 53Lib Dems - 20PC - 5Ireland - 18 ...
Image Credit:Increase Social Media Traffic & Website Traffic I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your ...
Belinda CridgeI was reading my son a story last night. A great tale of derring-do of five mountaineers scaling the Matterhorn for the first time. One in the party had tried six times previously and failed, this was the last attempt before winter closed another season. They tried a ...
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 ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence Minister of Defence Ron Mark will today launch the Advancing Pacific Partnerships 2019 Defence Assessment during a speech at Te Papa. The Assessment outlines how Defence will partner with our Pacific Island neighbours and invest in Pacific regional security architecture. The Plan aligns with the Coalition ...
A new Provincial Growth Fund investment could create about 80 new jobs in Gisborne over the next two years, turning a local small business into a “beacon of employment” in the process. Regional Economic Development Parliamentary Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau said the PGF’s Te Ara Mahi funding stream would provide $1.6m ...
“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 review of Oranga Tamariki practice around the planned uplift of a Hastings baby in May shows significant failings by the Ministry and that the planned and funded changes to shift from a child crisis service to a proper care and protection service need to be accelerated, Children’s Minister Tracey ...
Education Minister Chris Hipkins has wished students the best of luck for this year’s NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exams which start tomorrow. Around 140,000 students will have participated in 119 NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exams by the end of the exam period on 3 December. “I want to ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced the appointment of Bede Corry as New Zealand’s next High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. “The appointment of a senior diplomat to this important role underlines the significance New Zealand places on our relationship with the United Kingdom,” said Mr Peters. “The United ...
An innovative approach to boosting the number of frontline Police has seen 20 new officers graduate from one of the uncommon training wings in Auckland. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the graduation of 20 constables today means that 1,765 new Police officers have been deployed since the coalition government took ...
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says the 1.2 million hours of community work completed by offenders in the last financial year has helped local communities right across the country. “Community work sentences are a great way for people to pay something positive back to society. There is a massive benefit to ...
"A pathway for Police in leadership with Iwi Māori, to achieve the aspirations of Māori whānau." Police launch of Te Huringa o Te Tai, Pipitea Marae, Thorndon Quay, Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou. Hello everyone, warm greetings to you all. ...
Working New Zealanders are getting more in their back pockets under the Coalition Government’s economic plan. Stats NZ data today shows average weekly ordinary time earnings are up by $83 since the Government took office. This shows that working New Zealanders are getting higher take-home pay, and that employers are ...
The Period Poverty Solution Petition: The Health and Wellbeing Implications was presented by the Positive Periods campaign team, of which The Period Place is a part of, at a cross-party breakfast, thanks to Louisa Wall MP and Joanne Hayes MP in Parliament ...
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s.This week on the Great Kiwi Bake Off, it’s all about weird biscuits. Savoury biscuits. Mushroomy biscuits. Biscuits about cross fit. Who had the best biscuit art of them all? Why is Trev ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University Australia continues to experience unprecedented destruction from bushfires. Now is the time to harness our technological tools, and find innovative ways to help alleviate the problem, and also prevent future disaster. ...
The KickStart Breakfast programme will tomorrow celebrate 10-years as the only national breakfast programme of its kind in Aotearoa, serving more than 30 million breakfasts since 2009. ...
This is a rare public edition of The Bulletin World Weekly, an exclusive newsletter for The Spinoff Members that gets delivered every Thursday afternoon. Today’s edition focuses on the aftermath of Bolivian president Evo Morales being forced from office. Earlier in the week, the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, was forced out ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Tregear, Honorary Principal Fellow, University of Melbourne Review: Platform Papers 61: Criticism, Performance and the Need for Conversation, by Alison Croggon (Currency Press) “Pay no attention to what the critics say”, quipped the composer Jean Sibelius in 1937, because “there has ...
The recent decision to allow massive amounts of Otago’s Lindis River to be extracted for irrigation and intensive farming has been labelled environmental vandalism by a national angling organization. ...
Alex Casey goes on a journey to find out all there is to know about what a “normal” vulva looks like. Spoiler alert: there are many, many versions of normal. The funniest and most embarrassing thing anyone has ever said to me in my whole life happened during my very first ...
A political communications analyst says voters may be overwhelmed by the prospect of two referendums and a general election at the same time next year. ...
Auckland's booming industrial market is paying off for Goodman Property Trust (GMT), with a more than 10-fold increase in gains on the value its portfolio. ...
A review into Corrections' mail system identified multiple "deficiencies" and has recommended the department be given more powers to read, copy, and store letters coming in and out of prison. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Bushfires continue to burn across NSW and Queensland, the death toll has risen, and the damage to properties, wildlife and the environment is devastating. With conditions predicted to worsen over the summer, climate change has ...
New Chief Executive Dawn Baxendale says Christchurch City Council has moved swiftly to address concerns raised by the Chief Ombudsman about the organisation’s official information practices. ...
The Mental Health Foundation strongly opposes the introduction of armed police to Aotearoa New Zealand due to well-founded concerns that guns will disproportionately be used against individuals experiencing mental health crises. ...
The Chief Ombudsman says his latest report into official information practice at local authorities is a wakeup call for all council leaders about the importance of an open and transparent workplace culture-and their accountability for achieving ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Jade Tang-Taylor and Anna Guenther from Cheese Cartel.Cheese Cartel was the outcome of ...
An untimely leak to RNZ brought some clarity to the government’s plans for its media assets – yet left many questions unanswered. Duncan Greive analyses the latest revelations.RNZ’s flagship Morning Report programme today led its prime 7.10am slot with a bombshell about Radio New Zealand itself. Political editor Jane Patterson ...
The 2019 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards are just a few hours away and, believe it, we have reckons. Who will win? Who should win? Sam Brooks is ready for some prognosticating.It’s the biggest night in New Zealand music – the one that’s televised, the one that got (fake) Paula ...
The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry welcomes Judge Coral Shaw as its new Chairperson to lead it through the delivery phase of the Inquiry. Inquiry Executive Director Mervin Singham said Judge Shaw brings significant experience to her new ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jill Newby, Associate Professor and MRFF/NHMRC Career Development Fellow, UNSW It’s a busy day at the office and your left eye has been twitching uncontrollably. So, out of curiosity and irritation you Google it. Various benign causes — stress, exhaustion, too much ...
As whitebait season ends, Forest & Bird is calling for action to protect endangered native fish before it’s too late. Four of the fish species in the whitebait catch are in trouble. They are īnanga (at risk - declining), kōaro (at risk - declining), ...
The Prime Minister says doing nothing to address the challenges facing public broadcasting in New Zealand is not an option, after news of a proposal to replace RNZ and TVNZ. ...
A single public broadcaster would be "too powerful" and "bad for democracy", National leader Simon Bridges says, after news of a proposal to replace RNZ and TVNZ; ...
Thursday 14 November 2019 Independent review of prisoner mail management released The independent review into the prisoner mail system has today been released, with Corrections accepting all 13 recommendations and making a number of changes to strengthen ...
TVNZ boss Kevin Kenrick has moved quickly to reassure advertisers after this morning’s leak that the Government is considering setting up a new public service media organisation. ...
In the second part of our parenting series “What They Don’t Tell You”, Catherine Woulfe welcomes the daughter she fought for.The extremely strange thing about a planned c-section is that you get a text from the hospital booking in the birth, like it’s a dentist appointment. Text YES to confirm. Then ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that former Inspector Hurimoana Dennis unlawfully detained an Auckland teenager in 2015, and improperly influenced the outcome of a criminal investigation into his own son in 2014. Inspector Dennis ...
Police acknowledge the two reports released today by the Independent Police Conduct Authority in relation to misconduct by a now former Police officer and the unlawful detention of a young person. ...
A “best of luck” message should be extended to the good people of Tāneatua, who have waited patiently for a new police station. Our experience suggests that if or when they get their new police station, they should check the fine print regarding hours of operation. We make this suggestions ...
After Massey University in Wellington cancelled Feminism 2020 last month, the controversial event has found a new home in the parliament banquet hall. The controversial Feminism 2020 event cancelled last month by Massey University is scheduled to be held instead in the parliamentary banquet hall this Friday night. Billed as “the ...
The Migrant Workers Association says it is wrong to ask immigration officials to treat couples in culturally arranged marriages differently from other partnership cases. ...
A single public broadcaster would be too powerful and bad for democracy, National leader Simon Bridges says, after news of a proposal to replace RNZ and TVNZ. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ward, PhD candidate, University of Sydney The ABC has announced it will not provide live radio coverage of the Olympics for the first time in 67 years for budgetary reasons, and because Australians now have the “increased ability to access Olympics ...
For Amy Russell, ceasing deforestation of her lower limbs was a declaration of independence.When I wrote on The Spinoff recently about going barefoot everywhere, and then about being a fat runner, I got a lot more positive feedback than I expected, and a lot less criticism. So I thought clearly ...
Lecretia Seales would have been "incredibly proud" of last night's End of Life Choice vote, her husband says, while doctors continue to voice their opposition. ...
Dr Susan Wardell, a His Dark Materials fan who grew up to be a social anthropologist, reviews the much-anticipated sort-of sequel, The Secret Commonwealth.Is the world fundamentally dead, or alive? Philip Pullman asks in this new book, a thinly-veiled philosophical interrogation of “progressive thinking”. The book is rich in both human ...
The newly launched Sustainable New Zealand Party’s first and biggest challenge is to prove that it is in fact sustainable, and not just another flash in the new party pan. ...
The fate of RNZ and TVNZ may soon be in the hands of Cabinet ministers; and the chair of the Medical Association says it will be difficult to put safeguards in place to prevent people from being subtlety coerced into euthanasia. ...
New Zealanders now have the casting vote on whether to make euthanasia legal, after Parliament voted 69 votes to 51 in favour of the End of Life Choice Bill. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Euthanasia Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Euthanasia bill proves there’s power in a party-of-one Sam Sachdeva ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sally Wasef, Postdoctoral research fellow, Griffith University These days, not many Aussies consider the ibis a particularly admirable creature. But these birds, now colloquially referred to as “bin chickens” due to their notorious scavenging antics, have a grandiose and important place in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ward, PhD candidate, University of Sydney The ABC has announced it will not provide live radio coverage of the Olympics for the first time in 67 years for budgetary reasons, and because Australians now have the “increased ability to access Olympics ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Mosley, Research Fellow, Systems Neuroscience Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting one in 350 Australians. It’s caused by the loss of cells deep within the brain that produce a neurotransmitter called dopamine. Degeneration ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael James Walsh, Assistant Professor Social Science, University of Canberra The concept of “home” refers to more than bricks and mortar. Just as cities are more than buildings and infrastructure, our homes carry all manner of emotional, aesthetic and socio-cultural significance. Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lin Crase, Professor of Economics and Head of School, University of South Australia The deal to crank up Adelaide’s desalination plant to make more water available to farmers in the drought-stricken Murray-Darling Basin makes no sense. It involves the federal government paying ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona Andreallo, Lecturer in digital culture, University of Sydney When thinking of sexbots, companionship might not be the first word that comes to mind. But sexbot advertising promises more than sex toys. It is also selling emotional intimacy: robots marketed as if ...
Ahead of the 50 Shades of Green march on parliament today, Jon Pemberton – chairman of the Ag Proud NZ Trust – urges members of the rural community to avoid confrontation and focus on rebuilding the relationship with our urban friends. “Ag Proud NZ understands ...
Paula Bennett and Anne Tolley are financially off the hook after Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters accepted they did not leak his private information. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Another unexpected OCR move, NZ First Foundation donations under scrutiny, and End of Life Choice bill passes pending referendum.Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr seems intent on giving as many surprises as possible with the OCR. After slashing it in August when it was ...
The fate of RNZ and TVNZ may soon be in the hands of Cabinet ministers, with a proposal to disestablish both broadcasters and create an entirely new public media entity. ...
Electricity retailing is about to be changed by artificial intelligence and the move away from fossil fuels. Watch a video interview with Simply Energy's Murray Dyer. ...
Open mike 21/09/2012 
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 ...11 hours ago
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 ...19 hours ago
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 ...1 day ago
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 ...2 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 ...2 days ago
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. ...3 days ago
3 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. ... 5 days 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 ... 1 week ago
Today, a worker contacted me asking if she could go to the police over her employer stealing thousands of dollars from her in unpaid wages. The employer also did not pay this worker’s taxes or student loan which amounts to tax fraud. As a workers rights activist, who founded the ...2 weeks ago
Image Credit: Increase Social Media Traffic & Website Traffic I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your ... 2 weeks 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 ...18 hours ago
"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 ...6 days ago
“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 ...8 hours ago
Legislation aimed at making it easier for sexual violence victims to testify in court has passed its first reading today in Parliament. ...8 hours ago
National has proved it can’t be trusted on our climate or other environmental challenges. ...8 hours ago
In an over-stretched funding environment an more DHB-affiliated charities are plugging the holes. ...9 hours ago
The Period Poverty Solution Petition: The Health and Wellbeing Implications was presented by the Positive Periods campaign team, of which The Period Place is a part of, at a cross-party breakfast, thanks to Louisa Wall MP and Joanne Hayes MP in Parliament ...9 hours ago
It is economic necessity, not moral imperative, driving the Asian superpower's climate action - but others will benefit nonetheless. ...10 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University Australia continues to experience unprecedented destruction from bushfires. Now is the time to harness our technological tools, and find innovative ways to help alleviate the problem, and also prevent future disaster. ...10 hours ago
The space sector has contributed almost $1.7 billion to New Zealand's economy in the past financial year. ...11 hours ago
This is a rare public edition of The Bulletin World Weekly, an exclusive newsletter for The Spinoff Members that gets delivered every Thursday afternoon. Today’s edition focuses on the aftermath of Bolivian president Evo Morales being forced from office. Earlier in the week, the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, was forced out ...11 hours ago
The race is on as synthetics suppliers and manufacturers move to undetectable chemical compounds. ...12 hours ago
Auckland's booming industrial market is paying off for Goodman Property Trust (GMT), with a more than 10-fold increase in gains on the value its portfolio. ...13 hours ago
A highly paid Transport Agency senior manager's team has tripled in size in a year, with most of the spots taken by contractors, documents show. ...13 hours ago
A single public broadcaster would be "too powerful" and "bad for democracy", National leader Simon Bridges says, after news of a proposal to replace RNZ and TVNZ; ...15 hours ago
TVNZ boss Kevin Kenrick has moved quickly to reassure advertisers after this morning’s leak that the Government is considering setting up a new public service media organisation. ...15 hours ago
A “best of luck” message should be extended to the good people of Tāneatua, who have waited patiently for a new police station. Our experience suggests that if or when they get their new police station, they should check the fine print regarding hours of operation. We make this suggestions ...15 hours ago
Sanford's full year profit has failed to meet expectations as the company says climate change is the biggest risk it faces to its business. ...16 hours ago
The housing market's revival continues with the national median house price ticking over $600,000 for the first time. ...16 hours ago
Mysterious foundation loaning New Zealand First money; and Auckland ports' move to Whangarei: explained ...19 hours ago
New Zealand’s MPs yesterday stepped towards history as they debated the bill, which would hand the final decision on assisted dying to the public. ...19 hours ago
The fate of RNZ and TVNZ may soon be in the hands of Cabinet ministers; and the chair of the Medical Association says it will be difficult to put safeguards in place to prevent people from being subtlety coerced into euthanasia. ...19 hours ago
New Zealand baggage handling equipment maker Glidepath has been sold to a French company. ...20 hours ago
Philip Matthews celebrates two remarkble - and remarkably different - portraits of the great Colin McCahon. ...21 hours ago
Electricity retailing is about to be changed by artificial intelligence and the move away from fossil fuels. Watch a video interview with Simply Energy's Murray Dyer. ...21 hours ago
Arranged marriages where partners had the freedom to say no may not be included under a new partnership visa fix. Dileepa Fonseka explains. ...21 hours ago
National's education plans has some good stuff, but the promises that will resonate most could have come from Labour. ...21 hours ago
Elite female sporting events will ultimately speak for themselves to fans who need convincing they are worthwhile watching. ...22 hours ago
This was amusing:
(Nick Clegg apologising with subtitles)
Funny how satire can be so true.
From John Minto
Mike Feinberg from KIPP (Knowledge is Power Programme) is coming to New Zealand next week to promote charter schools for the ACT/National government. KIPP provides a hideous caricature of quality edcuation for kids from low-income communities in the US. Here is a snippet from a KIPP school which gives the flavour of what goes on provided by education researcher Howard Berlak after a recent visit to a KIPP school in San Francisco:
“When I was there children who followed all the rules were given points that could be exchanged for goodies at the school store. Those who resisted the rules or were slackers wore a large sign pinned to their clothes labeled “miscreant.” Miscreants sat apart from the others at all times including lunch, were denied recess and participation in all other school projects and events.
. . . . I’ve spent many years in schools. This one felt like a humane, low security prison or something resembling a locked-down drug rehab program for adolescents run on reward and punishments by well meaning people. Maybe a case can be made for such places, but I cannot imagine anyone (including the Times reporter) sending their kids there unless they have no other acceptable options. What is most disturbing is the apparent universal belief by KIPP staff and partisans that standardized tests scores are the singular and most important measure of a truly good education. ”
Remember this when you hear Feinberg the glossy salesman..
Thanks for that Tony. Of course some Nz teachers use a punishment/reward system though they don’t call it “punishment” but call it “consequences.” (Heard of Benching?) Not as extreme as the indefensible KIPP system of course.
A genius like the late Gore Vidal would most certainly have been labelled a “miscreant” during his detested schooling days!
Ha, what do you mean “would most certainly have”? Her certainly was.
My giddy aunt! That’s insane…
run on reward and punishments by well meaning people. Earlier this week I mentioned the nasty authoritarian streak we have in this country: given the “poor are responsible for their own state” attitudes Feinberg will get a ready audience.
I had the misfortune this week (it was the only station the car radio would pick up whilst driving round Auckland) to listen to 15 minutes of Leighton (?dont know his name but “the Excrable” will do) rant about how we need to take responsibility and kill people who don’t have warrants and rego. FFS. To that we are reduced.
Did he really say kill? Or was it a general description of acts that would lead to someone not breathing?
No. “Kill” is my metaphor for his desire to punish, he did say words to the effect of confiscate cars, fine $000s dollars etc. The whole thing centred on Leightons desire to make the citizen take “responsibility” whatever that means, and rather than being persuaded and enabled to do so the citizen was to be whipped into compliance. All very misanthropic and coercive.
Got into a major argument last night with a loved one who was regurgitating the talk-back hate-speech that she listens to practically all the time, and quoting from Ian frakking Wishart’s latest nasty, ignorant mixture of untruths and spin.
Probably shouldn’t have in the circumstances, but it’s not just talk but a means of aggression against targetted scapegoats, and I can’t always stay cool in the face of it.
Personal responsibility. The new metric of the right. Despite the recent
Law series on TV7 that clearly made the case against arguments of virtue.
The problem is the turd blossom. Which is a two step, any lie must be
two lies facing each other off.
Romney would not be as rich and as successful were it not for the
structure and nature of the peoples of the USA, so he makes out like a
Randian superhero that he never had to take no frigging handouts….
…then he shouts out that the other 50% are losers needing the
government. Exactly how long would Romney last in Haiti?
Yesterday in the welfare debate, a government MP declared that
the reforms to welfare will reduce criminality. Well actually he
said more like welfare reforms would do away with fraud.
The two lies, one that there is fraud, not the lapse in personal
responsibility of welfare recipients too many that is fraudulent,
and that the reforms which would see more lose entitlements
(like ACC model) would not create more crime and more costs on
the state from illhealth, etc.
Look I’m the first person who would welcome the goal of helping
people into work, but that’s not what the welfare reforms do, their
purpose is to lower the short-term costs of welfare, and raise them
in the medium to long term (when Key has left power).
Why do they hate so much? Why does Romney low America but
hate most Americans? Why does Key hate our grandkids, why
are we bequeathing the coming generations with a resource crisis,
climate crisis, social and debt crisises????
Personal responsibility….likes J Banks takes for his actions, or P Bennett for hers, or sideshow john for the many lies he’s perpetrated etc etc.
They’ve got the hypocrasy so ingrained it’s second nature to them.
Personal responsibility, code for the desire to punish, subjugate and dominate.
Personal responsibility is a core part of the NZ psyche. The only difference the Left needs to deliver is a social and economic environment where taking personal responsibility delivers substantial rewards.
100,000 NZers would start work on Monday if there were $15/hr jobs available. Its our failure as a society that they aren’t.
There’s plenty of work which desperately needs to be done in our community. But our current economic structures means fuck all of that work can be structured as paid jobs.
Our current structures means that things only get done if an owner is making a profit from someone else’s work. If that’s not happening then it doesn’t get done.
++1 Draco
Psychological Projection
They probably don’t even realise that they’re projecting their own failings onto others.
“Vital Lies, Simple Truths”- The psychology of Self-Deception, is a populist paperback
-said the joker to the thief..
(not meaning u D.)
Why do they hate so much…?
The “hate” is twinned with “fear”… they hate so much because there’s so much they’re afraid of. The system peddles fear and hate for control… dense emotions that are easy to tap the group conscious into. “Fight or flight” and by the time TPTB have bashed your life around the block a few times… many have no fight left.
Radio New Zealand is reporting that NZ was one of only two countries to vote against protection measures (banning gill and trawling nets) for the endangered Maui Dolphin. Although the vote was confidential the New Zealand DOC representative apparently announced that they were under instructions from the Ministry of Primary Industries to oppose the proposal.
Mauis dolphins are iconic in New Zealand and are facing extinction. It seems the Government does not care.
When you add this to the recent cabinet decision to oppose antarctic protection proposed by the US you get the feeling of a regime that it belligerently opposed to environmental measures just because profitability may be affected.
Neil Abel describes Joyce, Carter and Brownlee as “the dark heart of the anti-environment policy.”
In a telling passage he states
“There is a spirit of anti-environmental policy in our present administration which is centred on an interpretation of economics that has lead to the mine, drill, frack, cut, sell, build-a-road-through-it and ‘let the devil take the hindmost’ strategies that are the extent of our Government’s development inspiration in nearly four years of power.
An economy that relies on the steady degradation, destruction and using-up of its natural resources cannot by definition bring lasting human prosperity. ”
A very apt description of this Government.
The reserve bank has gone back wards on inflation control ( returning to the outmoded 2% target .our dollar will now remain higher than need the money speculators will have a field day as they already are we are one of the few dumb arse countries that don’t play the devaluation game the speculators know this so its easy money for them.
Well, that’s going to push interest rates up which will make the banks happy – more money for them from printing the stuff.
Also of concern is the change in culture at DOC in the last decade. There are still many good people working in DOC, but there is now an ingrained institutional problem, where conservation is segmented, and often takes second place to supposed economic priorities. I’m not sure how many people realise the shift that has happened.
Why is DOC taking instructions from the Ministry of Primary Industries?
Its environmental fraud by parliamentarians, when they degrade the future environment
for short term profits for a few private companies. Their lack of concern is a fraud
on the people of NZ who lose environmental wealth, future prosperity from tourism
and natural wealth (clean water, biodiversity)….
We are living through an age now typified by massive environmental fraud.
I have this song running in my head EVERY time I hear about the lack of environmental accountablity by this government: Midnight Oil put it nicely…
The tucker box is empty now
The heart of Kelly’s country cleared
The gangers on the southern line
Like the steam trains have disappeared
Pelicans glide
Miracles up in the skies
We vote for a government
With axes in it’s eyes
Mountains of Burma
The road to Mandalay
In the mountains of Burma
Light years away
Mountains of Burma
Will the sons of Solidarity
Still march on May Day ?
Will the sisters of the seventies
Still fight for equal pay
There’s no-one on the Reeperbahn
No more blankets handed out for land
We feed an economy
It’s got blood on it’s hands
Mountains of Burma
The road to Mandalay
Mountains of Burma
Light years away
In the mountains of Burma
The road to Mandalay
In the mountains of Burma
Hope you’re light years away
Pack your bags full of guns and ammunition
Bills fall due for the industrial revolution
Scorch the earth till the earth surrenders
Soldiers of armies
Storm empty fields
In a traveller’s trance
On the way to the high frontier
Sleepwalkers stumble
Cable cars run aground
Imaginary enemies
Form high above the clouds
It may be about the lucky country, but it is just as applicable here.
‘There is a spirit of anti-environmental policy in our present administration ..’ and anti democracy, anti evidence/fact based policy etc etc
It’s that Hollowman policy that’s never uttered in public, only in private gov’t, dining, golf, leisure, business settings etc etc
This government doesn’t care about the environment or, indeed, life itself – they only care about getting more money for themselves and their rich mates.
QFT
No respect for life, it will be a loss to NZ, and our souls.
They are beautiful creatures who understand, “All for one M8”.
And I will miss them if they go.
Serco – the company currently running one NZ prison in a PPP and contracted to do the same in the new prison being built in South Auckland, currently under scrutiny in the UK for falsifying data in relation to a contract for after hours medical treatment:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/sep/20/serco-nhs-false-data-gps
URGENT!!!!
(For some reason – can’t post this on facebook)
PROTEST AGAINST US SECRETARY OF DEFENCE LEON PANETTA!
TODAY! FRIDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2012
1 – 3PM
OUTSIDE GRAFTON RD ENTRANCE TO AUCKLAND DOMAIN (WAR MEMORIAL)
(ALONG FROM AK HOSPITAL ENTRANCE)
AT 2.45PM US SECRETARY OF DEFENCE LEON PANETTA WILL BE LAYING A WREATH INSIDE AT THE AUCKLAND HALL OF MEMORIES!
If YOU are opposed to this John Key National/ACT Government cosying up to the USA – BE THERE! (If you can!)
(Media have been alerted)
Penny Bright
[lprent: It might have to do with the capitals and repeated explanation marks. I know that when I see them my immediate response is to throttle the noise. I’m sure that if I were coding facebook, I’d get a bit of code to do it for me. ]
Penny, are you really surprised you can’t post that on Facebook?
It would be nice if you could show respect for the fallen by taking your protest somewhere else, like the consulate.
It would be nice if Key could show respect for the fallen by taking his PR exercise with a VIP from the world’s No. 1 terrorist state somewhere else.
+1
I suspect the wreath laying is not centre stage and that the main PR exercise is the powhiri & meeting at Government House with Coleman.
Key, in fact doesn’t meet up with Panetta until tomorrow for a barbecue lunch. How big a media event that barbecue is going to be I couldn’t say.
No doubt, America enjoys being referred to as No. 1.
As for terroism, perhaps your susceptible to the theory (which I’ve just made up) that the deliberate sinking of the Lexington (one of the missing carriers from Pearl Harbour) by a US destroyer 900 km NE of Rockhampton, was a “false flag” operation designed to inflame anti-Japanese sentiment in Australia & NZ. This then paved the way for the arrival of the 1st Marine division in NZ 3 months later.
(The marines then went on to Guadalcanal, & this being the 70th anniversary of that campaign, nicely brings us back to the wreath laying)
So, what’s your preference for the future?
Cut diplomatic ties?
Cut trade?
Ban American film & TV? (please exempt “Breaking Bad”)
I’d say all of the above, especially the last, but that’s just me!
+ 100,000!
Key and his lot are, as usual, hoping to have it both ways as concerns relations with the US and China. Again, a very dangerous bit of gambling!
Hi Penny. The post is up on fb. On the Stuff.co.nz fb page there is a ‘posts by others’ button. This takes you to a separate display of posts. There is also a ‘post by friends button’ More separstist behaviour in the media.
the lunartic is Off the grass( one week, researchers, and unsettling)
Corrections staff are identifying less staff ratio/increased physical and sexual assaults in Serco prisons.
“supported living” is preferable to in-valid; yet still more freakin labels upon people
Kapiti local bodies requesting Booze Barn be a “responsible’ corporate citizen;”oxymoron”.
(what is it about this government that they desire to keep facilitating the pouring of ethanol down our young people’s throats, clouding their brains and setting them up for failures and damage?)
let us not take our eyes of that which is above us-Fermi paradox (thanks DtB, had forgotten that one)
(He is everywhere and everything to me-Third Day,Öfferings)
-follow another human and u will only see their shadows on the cave wall
now, Kapital is ‘flying’ out of France (surprise, surprise) and yet the tax reforms only affect 1000’s
along with increasing suggestions of the challenges for demokracy by free speech
yet is speech free when cliches, platitudes and populist jingos etc are resorted thru?
Wittgenstein (in 90 minutes with a cup-a-tea)
I am about to commence “The Great Partnership”-Jonathan Sacks
after that? “Changing the World Through Kindness”
(gotta brace myself for the Anatomy of Human Destructiveness-Erich Fromm)
is it just a blog? may be a distributed mind..now,… there are a whole-lotta-thoughts Rosie
re telegraphing punches? Politics Is a dirty business (soiled) seeds fall where the may,
some on the path, some amongst rocky places, some amongst the thorns,
yet,
many fall on good soil (just saying)
-many of the “cats” have softened their look, yet cats still claw and bite
however, our glorious leader is still poncing about like some thing from The Great Gatsby/Vile Bodies
“When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice” Act 16:19
-years ago, when i was in treatment, WINZ staff acknowledged even then, that many people in New Zealand Aotearoa (thats one of my tells) would require supplementary redistributed income to flesh out what they earned through employment
Nice summary M8!
Am I missing something but Bryce Edwards Political Roundup seems to have stopped with Tueday 18 September “Tide Turns against Banks.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10834800
Maybe he’s waiting for some News.
Edwards said something last week about taking a bit of a break from daily round-ups.
I wonder how much currency trading John Key does these days.
I wonder what bets he’s taken on the NZD.
Listener editor government apologist
The idiot editor is clearly basing her assumption that beneficiaries won’t be bashed by the government’s repressive welfare policy changes on nothing more than her own ivory tower ignorance…
Nobody with a little intelligence would subscribe to the Listener.
Couldn’t agree more, I subscribed to the Listener for more than 30 years, gave it up prior to the 2008 election when it became overloaded with right wing apologists.
Me too, mismatched statistics, two of the top columnists in bed with top nats, Bill Railston raving on, etc, etc.
Me too. I read my sister’s copy of a Listener recently and had no regrets about my cancellation of the sub about 2 years ago.
Richard Prebble does a column every so often, too.
Bit harsh Dr T, it still has some good stuff that it probably copy’s paste’s from better outlets but it defenitely took a right turn politically some years ago with NACT spinsters like Billie (how to break a working engine) Ralston and Jane (you have diplomatic immunity) Clifton.
Most publications serving their masters interests did..
Anyone done some objective analysis on the publications the NZX swallowed up under Mr Smarmy boy Weldon’s watch to see if tone/direction has altered…..they were mainly rural publications that had some anti Fonterra listing angles at times… funny that.
so has Len Brwon got the intestinal fortitude to fire the management of P.O.A. L.
when is he going to do it?
You do realize that the Council OK’d the POAL policy to kick the Union workers in the guts captain hook? Any pretext of caring that Len Brown showed when it became apparent in the media that POAL are a bunch of nasty bastards was simply grandstanding. The mayor will do nothing!
He can’t bud, it’d be shareholder vote stuff, not a singular individuals’ call.
And while the actual definition of “Shareholder” remains ambiguous, everyone keeps missing the point.
It’s a power stuggle between the people who have that implied power and the ones they represent.
The Chasers crew returns to ABC on Oz TV monday with their “Hamster Wheel”
‘The timing of last year’s episodes turned out to be a gift, coinciding with another chapter in the long-running Julia Gillard-Kevin Rudd leadership saga, the circus of an anti-carbon-tax rally in Canberra led by Sydney radio shock-jock Alan Jones, and the appointment of blowhard conservative Paul Henry to lead Channel Ten’s (failed) assault on the breakfast-TV market.’
AND
‘If A Current Affair was the gift to us in 2006, Paul Henry is the gift to us in 2012,” Licciardello says. ”He’s an interesting media performer because he’s both intentionally and unintentionally funny.’
berny d I know that but the management have managed to convince themselves that they are the owners when they are not.
they need to be removed so that decent people with the public good at heart are installed.
this charade must stop and the thieves relieved of their positions.
I hear ya, but like I said, who’s going to instigate the shareholder vote?
The workers union just needs to keep operating in good faith.
“Trustworthy” is a 2 way street, if the company itself has funding issues, it should be open about that at the negotiating table.
And as long as they keep paying, the workers are gauranteed too continue, it is their livelihoods afterall.
The company itself will continue to function. That’s the objective surely?
Of course it is important that the company keep going because Auckland is a major entrepot but that does not mean that jumped up accountants can sit there and scheme on how to take it out of public ownership and into their own grubby little hands.
What the fuck is going on in this world?
basis for the “sun”: maybe it is all wind
btw, the reignited fatwa upon Rushdie may not be the Moor’s last sigh
“they” label the ‘left’ ‘thought police’: how about thought facilitators?
to the Social Security recipient ‘label-ers’; do ‘they’ consider all the voluntary intellectual and vocational services many recipients of Social Security provide to Their community??
Yep. 5 new State Houses for the Chathams. Are they considering Transportation as mentioned by an earlier poster?
The liberalisation of retail (FDI) in Indian is very sad. How many times must the sub-continent be colonised?
interestingly, an Indian aquaintence informed me that many Indians go into Health Professions out of
Vocational Altruism
(Brahmen respect falling-maybe the Aryan taint)
Apparently live-stock thefts are ever-increasing in Hawkes Bay and gutted carcasses left near residential areas. Man, imo, this type offence is likely to get worse.
Max Keiser on RT continuously discusses the eventuation of Gold Standard-based currencies once more. May be why there are so many newspaper advertisements seducing people to relinquish theirs. (as is often stated, u cannot eat it though) Nom Nom!
John Bradshaw on “The Family”
Love? Agape`
Hookie! $13.50 may buy 1-6 second-hand books
i pray all these new educationalists serving masters are instilling Self-mastery
remember the is/ought fallacy too Tory Trolls
(John Key, the man who sold the world)
Can u own a “Gravitional Conflagration” ?, question of the day?
Go Winston Peters: At least he’s trying to contribute too informed debate.
Go Greens: They’re always civilised.
Go Labour: Their questions are designed to inspire constructive debate.
Go Mana: Their responses are designed too inform us and contribute too constructive debate
Go Everyone else: There’s a civilised debate happening.
Go Nats: We don’t debate, we “Lead M8”, (Pending debate)
Demotics Bud (Uturn to thank for that one) never forget a-muse
btw, let us all stare at the S(u)n.hee hee
Compassion for other people is relatively easy, relatively speaking. Compassion for oneself, not so easy. Which person can love the other by not wishing to change them?
The labellers suffer from a deficit or lack of compassion for themselves. Which person can love themselves by not wishing to change anything?
Aspiration – to what? Imperfection? More perfect than perfection itself? “…do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” Mathew 6 :3
“Heaven arms with compassion those it would not see destroyed”.
The labelled need to understand that they can reject the label and stop the cycle. Though in our “christian times” the labelled have their work cut out. It won’t stop the hate banging on the windows, but at least it can be seen as outside banging on the windows, no need to invite it in.
“Sleep without dreaming, awake without anxiety.”
No one need do anything to make oneself worthy in the eyes of another; do only for the other, anything else is by-product, not focus.
“…do not worry …for the day is its own trouble.” Mathew 6 : 25 – 34
all ways, compassion, moderation (work in progress) and humility (more work in progress)
-acculturated memory fades over time. U started it!
love your neighbour as yourself is easy-peasy; it is the hurtful, harmful Romans that lead me to want overturn the tables of the money-exchangers
Heke tipu oranga, he taonga tuku iho, ka pakanga ake, aue te aiotanga, te manawanui.
-Persist in the battle and journey for wellbeing, it is a treasure handed down from the heavens, then comes confidence and peace.
Te Mauri Ora!
As Parata releases the National Standards data she just reveals what was already known and her Government refuses to address the real causes of under achievement. Of course the cheapest solution is to just blame the teachers again.
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/natiional-standards-solve-nothing.html
People really need to watch this documentary. It’s about the level of extinctions going on right now.
Dolphin vote ‘tarnishes NZ’s reputation’
Well, we now know, without a doubt, where this governments priorities lie and it isn’t in maintaining life on this world.
Something is not right with this – Who else voted, where is the full list, and what does it mean in terms of the votes made supposedly from NZ.
Does our vote against mean that the protection will not go ahead?
More details required!
Well, considering this:
I think we can assume that this government will say that they’re putting in place protections for the environment but what they will actually mean is that they’ll be putting in place protections for the fishing industry.
Well, I don’t think it was actual international law that was being voted upon so we’re not bound by it.
Strange new species discovered off South America, The Planet is still trying for us.
Speaks volumes about the Tenacity of the Life engine we live on.
She’d even work with us given a quantified chance.
But it has to be a real, future oriented request.
The will is obvious, life will continue.
If thats the spieces I think you are referring to, you can be reasonably assured that unless its some kind of hoax, that it came from a laboratory somewhere!`
Breaking The Set is a new current affairs/news show on RT to replace the Alyona Show…worth a watch.
paraphrased- “…the 21st Century conception of the world is one of 3rd Century before Christ;..the age of the Stoics, Sceptics, Cynics, and above all, the Epicurean.”
-The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning.-Jonathan Sacks.
(is shaping up to be a really helpful book, …if one is interested. consistency being the hobgoblin of the small minded and all that-Emerson)
US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta is staying at Langham Hotel – 83 Symonds St Auckland City (close to K Rd)
http://auckland.langhamhotels.co.nz/locate/location_map.htm
PROTEST & SHOW THAT NOT ALL NZers SUPPORT COSYING UP TO THE U$A!
OUTSIDE LANGHAM HOTEL
83 SYMONDS ST
8pm – 10pm!
PLEASE FORWARD!
A few of us had an effective protest outside the entrance to the Domain (where Panetta laid a wreath at 2.45pm at the Auckland Hall of Memories).
The entourage could not miss these banners – both going into and coming out of the Domain.
(Got coverage on TV1 )
Will bring same banners tonight!
WHO CAN COME?
IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT!!!
Arguably the most significant US visit for 30 years?
Thanks
Penny Bright
National standards results out today don’t look too flash. John Key should be taking urgent steps to improve them.
Maybe Keys visit to the Chatham’s found that national could learn some new standards.
http://www.cic.govt.nz/community.html
nah.
kweewee doesn’t really understand what that word means.
as soon as the whole National Party realises that he and his gang only represent themselves then he is dead meat.
Nothing effective will be done.
PROTEST AGAINST U$A SECRETARY OF STATE LEON PANETTA, OUTSIDE THE LANGHAM HOTEL FRIDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2012!
Penny Bright