Winston’s going strong in a discussion with MPs from various parties on Pacific Viewpoint on Stratos right now. He’s called ational on not keeping their 2008 election promises, GST etc… Key’s Brighter Future is in Aussie. And he’s claimed he’s researched it and the new Conservative Party is really created by National, just like Act has become.
Winston is using gutter politics, because the Conservative Party is trying to take his patch. He’s scared his voters will forget what he’s done for them, when the Conservatives offer the first $25,000 tax free. That would make pensions tax free, something promised, but never delivered, not even by Peters.
This is disgusting, misleading and just plain wrong on so many levels. I think it is more likely to turn people off than turn them on to Labour, so I say “more please”. However, it is still evidence of how far into the sewer some Labour campaigners have got.
Here are some of my thoughts on this pamphlet.
1. The first page appears to make the ludicrous claim that people will die before they see the first year of their child. It is not until they read further into the body of the leaflet that they find its true message. Yet many people just look at the headline and trash the leaflet as junk mail.
2. It uses the National party logo without consent, which I assume breaches some law or another such as copyright infringement, or “passing off”.
3. It actually advertises the National logo to people who have a fleeting view of the leaflet anyway.
4. It is factually wrong. It claims that beneficiaries who become pregnant will have to go to work at one year after the birth of their child, when in fact the law will apply to only a limited class of beneficiaries. The semantics could be argued that it doesn’t specifiy all or some pregnant beneficiaries. But that is a fairly thin argument.
5. And, the requirement is for these people to be “work ready”, so they won’t lose their benefits if they can’t get a job. So the claim that they will be forced to find work is false. If it were true, then it would contradict the arguments Labour has been making that the jobs aren’t there. How can people be forced into jobs that, according to Labour, don’t exist?
So, IMO, a very shabby piece of gutter campaigning more likely to back-fire than fire up the voters.
What sort of comments do you expect? I’ve still got your spit in my face. So Whaleoil is full of wild indignation about someone’s anonymous bit of politicing. Gosh.
Nice try at diversion TVOR. Of course, these problems stem back into Labour’s nine years in office. So why would a vote for Labour change these outcomes?
To the best of my knowledge official autherised leaflets and flyers that are sent by the postal system are sent under a permit system and do not require a stamp.The upsidedown autherisation makes it look cheap and like a failed attempt at cut, copy and paste on a computer,
As usual your selective interpretation is at work,
1. “you won’t be around …” is a statement that the parent will be elsewhere, i.e. not at their child’s birthday,nothing more sinister than that. But you know that already and could not help the juvenile claim of sensationalist bs.
2. They have used the brand image, as is allowed for any representational presentation of an organisation in correspondence.
3. Yawn
4.” But that is a fairly thin argument. ” said it yourself
5. There are no jobs, there will be no jobs. The work referred to is the work for the benefit programmes that National are so keen to bring in. You know, the ones the Rebstock report custom wrote for National earlier this year.
overall a not very warm fuzzy pamphlet but your reaction is about as over the top as we would expect .
Goodness me! “It claims that beneficiaries who become pregnant will have to go to work at one year after the birth of their child, when in fact the law will apply to only a limited class of beneficiaries. “
And here was I thinking that Key/Bennett were making that the major selling point of their policy. You say ts that it is only for a few and then only work ready. Please tell your mates that they must be misleading or even lying to us.
TS, you really are a mean spirited, heartless individual if you think that this flyer is not only offensive but is important enough that you would go to battle over.
This country has so many real world problems that make the lives of its citizens a misery. The health, education, well-being, and future of our children are at stake.
And all you can do is bitch about some perceived offence in this letter.
The only people complaining about it that I can see are pro-National people who just couldn’t wait to ship it off to whaleoil – of all people! – you would think that for the average citizen whaleoil would not be the first person to come to mind when you wanted to complain. They would think of the MSM if they were genuine, unbiased recipients.
Unless of course you’re already a follower of His Magnitude as he leaves a trail across the mudflats of his miserable existence.
This is manufactured outrage – no more, no less.
Insider your leader has promised 170,000 jobs 3years ago
now 60,000 unemployed you must have some
insider information NO jobs now is it at least that’s closer to the truth than your leaders claims
Extrapolating Mankeys job figures 170,000 jobs = 60,000 more unemployed +100,000 to Aus
60,000new job next term of govt must given your leaders claims above = 170,000more unemployed + 300,000 to AUS
Insider trading thanks for insider info!
released 15 November 2011
Produced by Haz Beats
Raps by Tom & Tourettes
Guest vocals by Esther Stephens & Matthew Crawley
Recorded by Jyeah & DJ Substance
Mixed by DJ Substance
Polls show voters want an alternative to National sole rule, and see Labour as lost in bewilderment. Peters has surged on this sentiment but now voters will have a closer look at what that really means.
In difficult times (and if Europe crashes it could get much more difficult) that leaves a stark choice, Winston’s antics versus safe and reliable Peter Dunne and United Future.
Dunne would not know what to do. His answer to deficits is to give middle class tax cuts. He thinks his super policy will make super more affordable even thought it is defined as being cost neutral.
There is a third choice. Don’t waste your vote on United Follicles and vote for a real party of change. Labour or Greens will do nicely.
They get comfortable, get old, get scared, then sell out their kids. Normal Kiwi behaviour. Nothing can explain the sudden purposeful naivety of a politician believing Key will follow up his sweet nothings with commitment. She should ask herself, if Key gets a majority, will he still call her in the morning?
Anyone who’s worked in a corporate knows Key’s behaviour. There are two ways to expose his real intentions: try to get him to commit, set a formal meeting or even just discuss his plans in detail, or literally tell him to F-off. The result will be the same.
Nothing that involves a known sellout who’ll sidle up to whoever promises him power and merrily allies himself with the failed remnants of NZ’s religious right.
What I’d really like to understand – and I realise I harp on about this a fair bit – is how UF can use the tagline of “Fairness & Choice” while blocking any attempt to make changes to our (hideously failed) drug laws.
How is it “Fair” to criminalise people for electing to imbibe one mind altering chemical over another?
How can we have “Choice” when we don’t even have dominion over our own consciousness?
“Fairness and Choice” – as long as you play by our rules, and make your choices from the options we give you.
What a load of bollocks. It is a good tagline – most people support the concepts of fairness and choice – but it’s a complete lie (see also: “Fair and balanced.”).
As a general rule, any political party that reduces it’s policy to a subjective fuzzy slogan means to apply the exact opposite of the positive interpretation of said slogan to all but their target demographic. For example:
A Decent Society
A Brighter Future
It will be a bright, decent, life for those in the top 5%.
There are also deceitful twists: “Balance the books sooner” actually means,
“get rich quick”
and like all those schemes, it’s theft in everything but name.
It is a strange and demoralising language with plenty of grey areas. Own your Future, is a fuzzy slogan too, but it is supported by the absolute of No Asset sales, so the chances of follow through are above 75%.
I’m just interested that I never get a response from Petey Boy on any point I raise regarding UF and Peter Done-His-Dash (hopefully!).
In my experience, failing to address a legitimate point is the behaviour of a coward. Even people who know their views are flawed will answer the question if they have any guts.
Once again Key refuses to front on RNZ this morning to debate Goff.
Listening now to Goff on his own in an extended interview – he is getting very passionate and is doing well
Wondered too but he will need to hammer his Labour/money line and now more urgently have a go at Winston and repeat the line as often as possible. Bet on Hooton doing the same this morning- last chance to manipulate us. Ha.
Ha! Hooton is using the whole time bagging Winston. Wow. They must be really scared of not getting an Election win. The Nat weakness/vulnerability can be grabbed by voting Winston.
A good interview – Goff came across clear and precise and on message. The interview approach was also reasonable for once – not so aggressive, negative as it has been to Goff in recent months.
At the start of the interview, the explanation given for Key not accepting was that he or his advisors said that he has/was participating in four leaders’ debates and that he did not have time to prepare for more than that – or words to that effect. Excuse me, but debating with the leaders of other parties in an election campaign should be his top priority!
Goff should make the point that any CGT is always going to have a ramp up period. If we don’t introduce the CGT and ramp it up now, then when it is eventually introduced it’ll have a ramp up period.
If they keep putting it off for this excuse, then it’ll never be implemented, when it clearly needs to be.
Investment in children is not being given enough of a priority, and that needs to change. Our fully costed plan will make that change happen over six years.
Labour’s policy for children
Draco, why will our children suffering now, have to wait 6 years (obviously) conditional on Labour being in power for two electoral cycles)?
Labour supporters like yourself should be ashamed of this deliberate and opportunist delay when children are suffering now.
Mana’s John Minto has slammed “Labour’s policy for children” as a non-promise.
One concrete measure to address child poverty that is mentioned in the Swedish example is providing free meals in schools.
Inside Child Poverty: A Special Report, set to air this week, Wellington documentary maker Bryan Bruce shows a Swedish doctor footage of sick, scab-ridden schoolchildren suffering from preventable diseases in Porirua and asks if he saw similar situations in his country.
The doctor shakes his head: “In the 70s, maybe.”……..
……..As part of the study, Mr Bruce visited Sweden – a country once considered similar to New Zealand – and found that children there received free healthcare, were provided a free meal a day at school and were free from diseases associated with poverty.
Mana have costed their policy for supplying free breakfasts and lunches for low decile schools.
From MANA Foreign Policy Spokesperson John Minto’s Foreign Policy release – Sunday 20 November
The headline point from the policy
1. Bring the troops back from Afghanistan and use the money to feed kids in decile 1 to 3 schools.
Our troops in Afghanistan are involved in an imperial war on behalf of the US. We are helping prop up an illegitimate government of drug barons and war lords. We are seen quite rightly as foreign invaders and our presence increases the possibility of New Zealand becoming a terrorist target in future.
The $40 million we would save would be used to kick-start our “feed the kids” program which would roll out for all New Zealand children at school to provide healthy breakfasts and lunches. We would start at decile 1 to 3 primary schools at a cost of around $38 million.
I’m not a Labour supporter. I was going to vote Green but I’ve seriously been considering voting Mana as their policies have filled out. They’re still talking about maintaining the capitalist ideology though. Of course, all the political parties are which just proves their complete misunderstanding of economics
To answer your question on Red Alert: Only the Greens have a policy plan to have rental properties rated for energy efficiency (mandatory), which includes insulation. They will extend the current scheme for insulating, but it will not stop slum lords operating. It will however give some people an insight into how it will be to live in a particular home.
They’re still talking about maintaining the capitalist ideology though. Of course, all the political parties are which just proves their complete misunderstanding of economics
I’m not a fan of free market totalitarianism either, but I think pragmatic left policy recognizes that capitalism isn’t so much about economics as it is about psychology and sociology. I’m inclined to Green but resent its bluishness as of now.
Sorry for mistaking you for a Labour Party supporter, Draco. I am kicking myself for being so insensitive. Sorry for the insult.
I thought you were touting Labour’s opportunistically conditional policy for dealing with childhood poverty and hunger in this country of extraordinary wealth.
I do not mean to answer for Draco, but to suggest Labour will do nothing for 6 years is incorrect. Their immediate push to improve the lot of struggling people is the increase in minimum wage and the $5K tax free threshold – which also applies to beneficiaries. Then there is the removal of GST on fruit/veges – small but useful. This is the first steps in lowering the cost of living to people who need a hand the most. It is not a silver bullet, but it is at least a firm commitment. Other measures such as free healthcare to under 6’s will phase in gradually.
This is becoming a real bug-bear for me*. The tax-free threshold is a benefit for all taxpayers, including multimillionaires like Key. The argument that the threshold is for the benefit of the poor simply on the grounds that the poor will appreciate the extra money more, is, to my mind offensive. If Labour had targeted all of the expenditure that this measure will cost to those in need, it would make a big difference.
Same with the GST off fruit and veges. Where does Labour get off saying that because there are people in dire need they will give everyone a small amount extra to address it rather than, you know, actually addressing the need. It would be like providing the equivalent of 5 cents to every human on earth as a response to an emergency affecting a much smaller number of people in Eastern Europe for example.
*Not directed specifically at you uturn, you are just the latest person to say this.
These are valid points and ones Jenny argues in her post above. Why don’t Labour, why don’t The Greens, why doesn’t anyone? Why don’t we all call a meeting of our local community and take back the problem? Why do we rely on the comfortable distance of redistributed income tax instead of getting up close and personal with the people we say we support, or for that matter, hate?
First on the lists of why is that government is a balancing act within a corrupted system. You can’t simply take jillions of dollars from, say, infrastructure projects and build McDonald’s-esque food houses for card carrying poor people to patronise. To attempt such a thing would shake our culture of greed, earning and profit so severly it’s hard to imagine the unintended results/backlash.
Second on the list is that if we allow government to dictate how and when assistance happens, we’ll lose control of our communities every time there is a change of government, effectively undermining our goals.
Third would be that some people will be better suited to assist from a distance and some up close. At least intially. Not everyone is or can be the same, but then not everyone who is poor is the same. People are still people.
I think that in the end, poverty must be challenged face to face, one on one, at whatever the cost. As an intermediary step, people not in poverty need to think about everything they consume, everything they want to buy and streamline the things they have, but don’t use. Give excess away to people at a disadvantage who can use them. Don’t buy stuff no one needs – like the other day I saw a tool for taking chips out of the bag so you don’t get greasy fingers.
When choosing entertainment, try to find it in the company of others first, not on an X-box by default. Make conversation rather than listen to the distraction of TV, pop music and beer. Work on neighbourhood projects together. Share problems. Keep an eye on the fortunes of the people around you. If they’re doing fine, leave them be; if they are falling below the bread line, help them to regain their feet – for free. Learn about other people, learn about yourself – respect both. Listen to what others say, not just the response and ideas in your own head. Take time.
Small changes in atittude and reduction of waste will have a gradual indirect influence on poverty. Understanding why it is right will ease the pain of giving up the “getting ahead” mindset.
A: “Why do we rely on the comfortable distance of redistributed income tax B: instead of getting up close and personal with the people we say we support, or for that matter, hate?”
A: Because poverty is lack of resources just as scurvy is lack of vitamin C. The immediate need in both cases is what is lacking. B: Community korero is great and certainly not mutually exclusive. But it is no substitute for what is lacking. Funnily enough, poor communities have less material resources to share. We have enough resources in NZ, they don’t need to be rationed out of the hands of the poor. As for “up close and personal” speak for yourself.
“You can’t simply take jillions of dollars from, say, infrastructure projects …”
I specifically said that targeting help where it is needed instead of a big, sparse, lolly scramble, would make a huge difference. If the tax-free threshold is such small change that is is only the poor that get any benefit from it, don’t give a bit to everyone. Use the resources where they are needed most. In health we don’t give everyone a small proceedure regularly, regardless of need, and tell those needing heart surgery, for example, that they can have a free mole removal, like everyone else.
“McDonald’s-esque food houses for card carrying poor people to patronise…”
Are you taking the piss here, or is that as far as your imagination can take you?
A: Because poverty is lack of resources just as scurvy is lack of vitamin C.
No it’s not, it’s a misallocation of available resources caused by the capitalist free-market. Although it will turn into a lack of resources over time as all available resources are used up ASAP by the capitalist free-market.
Quick note to the moderator. My email address (and therefore my pictogram) has changed because I’ve changed server. I assume this is the reason my last comment went into moderation.
[sprout: correct, first comments from a new email are auto-moderated]
You can upload a pic and associate it with an email address and change the address when you change ISPs. You can also go get a gmail or similar account and so get a permanent email address.
Ta Draco.
I’ve moved to orcon (miles cheaper) and the email addresses are mine for life.
I think I will organise a gravatar though. Really don’t like my new pictogram.
Thanks to a federal ban on food stamps for people with felony drug convictions, people like McLemore are out of luck when it comes to getting assistance with putting food on their tables. Though states can opt out of the ban, those that don’t (like Mississsippi) deny food stamps even to individuals who have already served their sentences or overcome previous addictions. It’s true that McLemore’s past isn’t perfect — she has four felony drug convictions and one misdemeanor, which place her firmly in the category of people the federal government has declared unfit to receive public benefits. Hence, faced with the prospect of being unable to feed her family, McLemore lied on her application.
Welcome to the war on drugs, where once convicted you’re fucked for life, unless you’re rich that is.
Note also that loan fraudsters get far lower sentences for a crime that impacted negatively far more than one person lying so they and their kids could eat. Justice this is not.
Fucking awesome. although having mucked around with origin of life stuff in uni, sunlight isn’t entirely needed, as warm seeps can kick out a wide range of simple to complex organic molecules*, while black smokers provide various sulphates than can be oxidised to provide an energy source for life. Although what we need to do is send probes into the ice, and even into the black depths of Europa to find signs of “life”, which isn’t as straightforward as you’d think**
________________________
* In biochem land, this means multiple chiral centres.
** aka philosophy of biology fun land, or at it’s simplest “life is a heat engine, exploiting thermodynamic gradients for reproduction, thus creating more entropy”. I’d also argue it’s not time dependent, which causes all sorts of fun-times for the human mind…
[lprent: Sorry – been obsessed with correlations for e-day. I will have another look at this. Found and fixed. Moderators – if you’re going to do blacklist DO NOT tag the persons name. ]
People forget Peter Dunne was Labour MP THEN feel out of bed and ended up looking like Act with a red face
He seems to win the personality stakes for all time in NZ politics without a scratch
He almost fits the proposition that all MPs should be elected as independents to reduce the enormous drain on the voters sanity supporting the BS of party politicing
The shock of having to be standing and winning on their own may cause such a melt down of honesty that the people might even take it very seriously that we are a puppet state of the international corporations and have serious problems that will eventually drive us to join Australia so we can survive
Physically we are one of the most endangered island country’s in the world
The findings were released at a conference in Kampala, Uganda, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a high-profile United Nations body assigned to review and report periodically on developments in climate research. They come at a time of unusual weather disasters around the globe, from catastrophic flooding in Asia and Australia to blizzards, floods, heat waves, droughts, wildfires and windstorms in the United States that have cost billions of dollars.
“A hotter, moister atmosphere is an atmosphere primed to trigger disasters,” said Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton University climate scientist and a principal author of the new report. “As the world gets hotter, the risk gets higher.” …
The new report on extreme weather, one of a string of reports that the panel is issuing on relatively narrow issues, did not break much ground scientifically, essentially refining findings that have been emerging in climate science papers in recent years.
Indeed, the delegates meeting in Kampala adopted scientifically cautious positions in some areas. For instance, some researchers have presented evidence suggesting that hurricanes are growing more intense because of climate change, but the report sided with a group of experts who say that such a claim is premature.
Nonetheless, the report predicted that certain types of weather extremes will grow more numerous and more intense as human-induced global warming worsens in coming decades.
“It is virtually certain that increases in the frequency and magnitude of warm daily temperature extremes and decreases in cold extremes will occur in the 21st century on the global scale,” the report said. “It is likely that the frequency of heavy precipitation or the proportion of total rainfall from heavy falls will increase in the 21st century over many areas of the globe.”
By the end of the century, if greenhouse emissions continue unabated, the type of heat wave that now occurs once every 20 years will be occurring every couple of years across large areas of the planet, the report predicted.
I caught this bit of the interview and I don’t think it’s been fairly represented in that story. The thing with Brash is that he’s not like other politicians – he’s quite politically naive. He’ll say what he thinks and is generally up-front about it. Other politicians (Key is a master at it and Goff does it as well) answer questions couched in ways that the listener thinks they’ve said something but they can later come back and ‘clarify’ or refute. Brash on the other hand just says it with little beating around the bush. Political journalists hear this from Brash and think that there really must be more going on behind his words than he’s letting on (as they would be with any other politician), but really in Brash’s case there isn’t any cloak and dagger skullduggery at all.
Contra argument: The hollow men.
He may not be much good at it, but he is dishonest.
On the other hand, Like Te Mana, representatives of parties that aren’t competing for Mr and Ms Middle seem to be far more able to be frank about what they believe.
Sounds like he’s confirmed some of the rumoured contents of the teapots, reaffirmed his consent to the Act/Nat plan, reaffirmed National are in trouble and signalled he is stepping away from the increasingly stinky dung heap it’s all become. He has inadvertently hung a closed for business sign on ACT too – nothing more than an organisation in name only for the machinations of National.
All the polls I’ve seen show that ~85% of people oppose asset sales, ergo, this must be Jonkey trying to rewrite reality so that it conforms with his ideology.
Just one day, sometime down the track, parents might be required to take a little bit more personal responsibility ensuring that they are sending their children to school, well rested, well fed, suitably attired and in the right frame of mind to learn.
It would appear that at the moment it’s the schools’ responsibility to attend to this and also deliver the curriculum to meet the standards.
As it is unlawful not to be enrolled to vote? What is the penalty and has anyone ever been convicted? Therer was reported 240k not currently enrolled for this election
Well there is one reason why John Key might undertake such an exercise… to ensure that New Zealand has to undertake asset sales to service the huge amounts of debt that National has mismanaged us into…
Ok. That eased the situation considerably… The main server is now handling the load. I have to find some time to get that wee editor working nicely with the cache.
Now it is spiking to very high CPU, not locking on 95+% CPU. Cache makes a lot of difference.
Is it not often noted that different ethic groups have defining body language ?
The striking similarities in our PM’s physical gestures to some of the history footage of the 1930’s&40’s of another politician known for lying and debasing the truth to gain political power .
Just an observation and a guide to the validity of the rhetoric being charged to the taxpayer
Like Ben what I’d really like to understand is how UF can use the tagline of “Family Friendly ”, want to have the Families Commission, try to split tax for the stay at home partner in the middle/ upper income brackets whilst cuddling up to the Nact party that spends it’s time slagging off the parent who takes the huge financial and emotional hit involved in bringing up the kids by themselves.(and this is all too often the parent protecting the kids from family violence.)
Another day, another record day. It hasn’t happened since Thursday last week. According to statcounter.
Top page views in a day
Top unique visits in a day.
Much of it in the hour after the debate when I’m sure we hit our highest page views per hour. Looked like 5000pv in a bit over n hour.
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Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
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Winston’s going strong in a discussion with MPs from various parties on Pacific Viewpoint on Stratos right now. He’s called ational on not keeping their 2008 election promises, GST etc… Key’s Brighter Future is in Aussie. And he’s claimed he’s researched it and the new Conservative Party is really created by National, just like Act has become.
Winston is using gutter politics, because the Conservative Party is trying to take his patch. He’s scared his voters will forget what he’s done for them, when the Conservatives offer the first $25,000 tax free. That would make pensions tax free, something promised, but never delivered, not even by Peters.
How many lefties here are proud of this little gem that has come to the attention of whale oil.
This is disgusting, misleading and just plain wrong on so many levels. I think it is more likely to turn people off than turn them on to Labour, so I say “more please”. However, it is still evidence of how far into the sewer some Labour campaigners have got.
Here are some of my thoughts on this pamphlet.
1. The first page appears to make the ludicrous claim that people will die before they see the first year of their child. It is not until they read further into the body of the leaflet that they find its true message. Yet many people just look at the headline and trash the leaflet as junk mail.
2. It uses the National party logo without consent, which I assume breaches some law or another such as copyright infringement, or “passing off”.
3. It actually advertises the National logo to people who have a fleeting view of the leaflet anyway.
4. It is factually wrong. It claims that beneficiaries who become pregnant will have to go to work at one year after the birth of their child, when in fact the law will apply to only a limited class of beneficiaries. The semantics could be argued that it doesn’t specifiy all or some pregnant beneficiaries. But that is a fairly thin argument.
5. And, the requirement is for these people to be “work ready”, so they won’t lose their benefits if they can’t get a job. So the claim that they will be forced to find work is false. If it were true, then it would contradict the arguments Labour has been making that the jobs aren’t there. How can people be forced into jobs that, according to Labour, don’t exist?
So, IMO, a very shabby piece of gutter campaigning more likely to back-fire than fire up the voters.
fuk you talk some crap idiot
get outside and do some exercise
I guess that means you like the leaflet, then. That wouldn’t surprise me.
wouldnt waste my time @ that slime site-i got banned hahahahah wayyyyy bk
why dont you go bk there and live?
free rent and all
Trolling on behalf of the fat man eh, or maybe that’s because its very close to your home……yawn.
Come on TS you can do better than that or has sideshow hit the panic button so all his minions react accordingly.
Your unwillingness to condemn this piece of trash says a lot about you IMO.
What sort of comments do you expect? I’ve still got your spit in my face. So Whaleoil is full of wild indignation about someone’s anonymous bit of politicing. Gosh.
Not anonymous. It is clear it is authorised. Have a close look at the leaflet.
Try a dose of reality, ts. Government policy is killing our kids. Now that’s really shabby.
Nice try at diversion TVOR. Of course, these problems stem back into Labour’s nine years in office. So why would a vote for Labour change these outcomes?
So what do you think of the leafleat?
I back it 100%. What’s the problem?
Because Labour has children at the centre of its policies, whereas National has multimillionaires at the centre of theirs.
To the best of my knowledge official autherised leaflets and flyers that are sent by the postal system are sent under a permit system and do not require a stamp.The upsidedown autherisation makes it look cheap and like a failed attempt at cut, copy and paste on a computer,
Your facts are wrong. There is no free postage.
As usual your selective interpretation is at work,
1. “you won’t be around …” is a statement that the parent will be elsewhere, i.e. not at their child’s birthday,nothing more sinister than that. But you know that already and could not help the juvenile claim of sensationalist bs.
2. They have used the brand image, as is allowed for any representational presentation of an organisation in correspondence.
3. Yawn
4.” But that is a fairly thin argument. ” said it yourself
5. There are no jobs, there will be no jobs. The work referred to is the work for the benefit programmes that National are so keen to bring in. You know, the ones the Rebstock report custom wrote for National earlier this year.
overall a not very warm fuzzy pamphlet but your reaction is about as over the top as we would expect .
Since you are so concerned about people defending the actions of others, care to defend your great leader’s statements about the Police having spare time when crimes go uninvestigated
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/6002076/Thief-to-hand-herself-in-after-police-fail-to-act
Goodness me! “It claims that beneficiaries who become pregnant will have to go to work at one year after the birth of their child, when in fact the law will apply to only a limited class of beneficiaries. “
And here was I thinking that Key/Bennett were making that the major selling point of their policy. You say ts that it is only for a few and then only work ready. Please tell your mates that they must be misleading or even lying to us.
National desperate in New Plymouth. Orange add-on to billboard telling the blue-rinsed to be sure to vote on Saturday, ‘it’s “crucial”.
TS, you really are a mean spirited, heartless individual if you think that this flyer is not only offensive but is important enough that you would go to battle over.
This country has so many real world problems that make the lives of its citizens a misery. The health, education, well-being, and future of our children are at stake.
And all you can do is bitch about some perceived offence in this letter.
The only people complaining about it that I can see are pro-National people who just couldn’t wait to ship it off to whaleoil – of all people! – you would think that for the average citizen whaleoil would not be the first person to come to mind when you wanted to complain. They would think of the MSM if they were genuine, unbiased recipients.
Unless of course you’re already a follower of His Magnitude as he leaves a trail across the mudflats of his miserable existence.
This is manufactured outrage – no more, no less.
Insider your leader has promised 170,000 jobs 3years ago
now 60,000 unemployed you must have some
insider information NO jobs now is it at least that’s closer to the truth than your leaders claims
Extrapolating Mankeys job figures 170,000 jobs = 60,000 more unemployed +100,000 to Aus
60,000new job next term of govt must given your leaders claims above = 170,000more unemployed + 300,000 to AUS
Insider trading thanks for insider info!
So Key reckons that Peters will hold the country to ransom.
Oh yeah, and if Key is re elected, he will sell a king’s ransom (and more).
Oh that’s a good line. Winston will hold our country’s ransom. Key will flog it off first chance he gets.
What really worries Key is that he would have to back down from his clever unbending anti-Peters line and negotiate with Winston. Loss of face?
“a politically charged tune that will have left-leaners fist-pumping, and Key supporters frowning.”
from Home Brew, Tourrettes and Matthew Crawley
“5500 listens in 24 hours, we’ve run out of free downloads on Soundcloud… So here it is:
http://homebrew.bandcamp.com/track/listen-to-us-feat-tourettes
released 15 November 2011
Produced by Haz Beats
Raps by Tom & Tourettes
Guest vocals by Esther Stephens & Matthew Crawley
Recorded by Jyeah & DJ Substance
Mixed by DJ Substance
Polls show voters want an alternative to National sole rule, and see Labour as lost in bewilderment. Peters has surged on this sentiment but now voters will have a closer look at what that really means.
In difficult times (and if Europe crashes it could get much more difficult) that leaves a stark choice, Winston’s antics versus safe and reliable Peter Dunne and United Future.
Critical choice – Winsome’s ransom versus United Future. What sort of future do we want?
UF – where you are promised everything except good hair days.
Geez Petey where is your authoriser’s statement.
Dunne would not know what to do. His answer to deficits is to give middle class tax cuts. He thinks his super policy will make super more affordable even thought it is defined as being cost neutral.
There is a third choice. Don’t waste your vote on United Follicles and vote for a real party of change. Labour or Greens will do nicely.
His authoriser statement is down the bottom of the page.
Too many upper middle class Green committee members are ready to sell out to John Key. And it seems he is good with the idea.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/election-2011/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503012&objectid=10767544
They get comfortable, get old, get scared, then sell out their kids. Normal Kiwi behaviour. Nothing can explain the sudden purposeful naivety of a politician believing Key will follow up his sweet nothings with commitment. She should ask herself, if Key gets a majority, will he still call her in the morning?
Anyone who’s worked in a corporate knows Key’s behaviour. There are two ways to expose his real intentions: try to get him to commit, set a formal meeting or even just discuss his plans in detail, or literally tell him to F-off. The result will be the same.
Nothing that involves a known sellout who’ll sidle up to whoever promises him power and merrily allies himself with the failed remnants of NZ’s religious right.
What I’d really like to understand – and I realise I harp on about this a fair bit – is how UF can use the tagline of “Fairness & Choice” while blocking any attempt to make changes to our (hideously failed) drug laws.
How is it “Fair” to criminalise people for electing to imbibe one mind altering chemical over another?
How can we have “Choice” when we don’t even have dominion over our own consciousness?
“Fairness and Choice” – as long as you play by our rules, and make your choices from the options we give you.
What a load of bollocks. It is a good tagline – most people support the concepts of fairness and choice – but it’s a complete lie (see also: “Fair and balanced.”).
As a general rule, any political party that reduces it’s policy to a subjective fuzzy slogan means to apply the exact opposite of the positive interpretation of said slogan to all but their target demographic. For example:
A Decent Society
A Brighter Future
It will be a bright, decent, life for those in the top 5%.
There are also deceitful twists: “Balance the books sooner” actually means,
“get rich quick”
and like all those schemes, it’s theft in everything but name.
It is a strange and demoralising language with plenty of grey areas. Own your Future, is a fuzzy slogan too, but it is supported by the absolute of No Asset sales, so the chances of follow through are above 75%.
True, UTurn. Very true.
I’m just interested that I never get a response from Petey Boy on any point I raise regarding UF and Peter Done-His-Dash (hopefully!).
In my experience, failing to address a legitimate point is the behaviour of a coward. Even people who know their views are flawed will answer the question if they have any guts.
UF was in coalition with peters twice before no doubt will be again follicle!
Once again Key refuses to front on RNZ this morning to debate Goff.
Listening now to Goff on his own in an extended interview – he is getting very passionate and is doing well
Guess John Key’s continual no show is part of National’s SCAMpaign strategy
makes you wonder, will he show up tonight for the debate ?.
Wondered too but he will need to hammer his Labour/money line and now more urgently have a go at Winston and repeat the line as often as possible. Bet on Hooton doing the same this morning- last chance to manipulate us. Ha.
Ha! Hooton is using the whole time bagging Winston. Wow. They must be really scared of not getting an Election win. The Nat weakness/vulnerability can be grabbed by voting Winston.
Almost makes me consider voting NZ1st 😈
agreed.
a few less votes for Labour will not be as bad as NZ First soaking up 4.9% of wasted anti-government vote.
A good interview – Goff came across clear and precise and on message. The interview approach was also reasonable for once – not so aggressive, negative as it has been to Goff in recent months.
At the start of the interview, the explanation given for Key not accepting was that he or his advisors said that he has/was participating in four leaders’ debates and that he did not have time to prepare for more than that – or words to that effect. Excuse me, but debating with the leaders of other parties in an election campaign should be his top priority!
Goff should make the point that any CGT is always going to have a ramp up period. If we don’t introduce the CGT and ramp it up now, then when it is eventually introduced it’ll have a ramp up period.
If they keep putting it off for this excuse, then it’ll never be implemented, when it clearly needs to be.
Welcome to New Zealand, where kids die from poverty and no one cares.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6002311/Shock-look-at-NZs-child-poverty
We’d rather punish their parents than help them, and it’s only going to get worse when National starts ‘reforming’ the welfare system.
What will happen to these kids if their parents fail a drug test and get their benefit cut in half?
Grant Robinson has a post up at Red Alert about what Labour plan to do about this.
Draco, why will our children suffering now, have to wait 6 years (obviously) conditional on Labour being in power for two electoral cycles)?
Labour supporters like yourself should be ashamed of this deliberate and opportunist delay when children are suffering now.
Mana’s John Minto has slammed “Labour’s policy for children” as a non-promise.
One concrete measure to address child poverty that is mentioned in the Swedish example is providing free meals in schools.
Shock look at NZ’s child poverty
Mana have costed their policy for supplying free breakfasts and lunches for low decile schools.
From MANA Foreign Policy Spokesperson John Minto’s Foreign Policy release – Sunday 20 November
The headline point from the policy
1. Bring the troops back from Afghanistan and use the money to feed kids in decile 1 to 3 schools.
Our troops in Afghanistan are involved in an imperial war on behalf of the US. We are helping prop up an illegitimate government of drug barons and war lords. We are seen quite rightly as foreign invaders and our presence increases the possibility of New Zealand becoming a terrorist target in future.
The $40 million we would save would be used to kick-start our “feed the kids” program which would roll out for all New Zealand children at school to provide healthy breakfasts and lunches. We would start at decile 1 to 3 primary schools at a cost of around $38 million.
I’m not a Labour supporter. I was going to vote Green but I’ve seriously been considering voting Mana as their policies have filled out. They’re still talking about maintaining the capitalist ideology though. Of course, all the political parties are which just proves their complete misunderstanding of economics
To answer your question on Red Alert: Only the Greens have a policy plan to have rental properties rated for energy efficiency (mandatory), which includes insulation. They will extend the current scheme for insulating, but it will not stop slum lords operating. It will however give some people an insight into how it will be to live in a particular home.
They’re still talking about maintaining the capitalist ideology though. Of course, all the political parties are which just proves their complete misunderstanding of economics
I’m not a fan of free market totalitarianism either, but I think pragmatic left policy recognizes that capitalism isn’t so much about economics as it is about psychology and sociology. I’m inclined to Green but resent its bluishness as of now.
Sorry for mistaking you for a Labour Party supporter, Draco. I am kicking myself for being so insensitive. Sorry for the insult.
I thought you were touting Labour’s opportunistically conditional policy for dealing with childhood poverty and hunger in this country of extraordinary wealth.
I do not mean to answer for Draco, but to suggest Labour will do nothing for 6 years is incorrect. Their immediate push to improve the lot of struggling people is the increase in minimum wage and the $5K tax free threshold – which also applies to beneficiaries. Then there is the removal of GST on fruit/veges – small but useful. This is the first steps in lowering the cost of living to people who need a hand the most. It is not a silver bullet, but it is at least a firm commitment. Other measures such as free healthcare to under 6’s will phase in gradually.
This is becoming a real bug-bear for me*. The tax-free threshold is a benefit for all taxpayers, including multimillionaires like Key. The argument that the threshold is for the benefit of the poor simply on the grounds that the poor will appreciate the extra money more, is, to my mind offensive. If Labour had targeted all of the expenditure that this measure will cost to those in need, it would make a big difference.
Same with the GST off fruit and veges. Where does Labour get off saying that because there are people in dire need they will give everyone a small amount extra to address it rather than, you know, actually addressing the need. It would be like providing the equivalent of 5 cents to every human on earth as a response to an emergency affecting a much smaller number of people in Eastern Europe for example.
*Not directed specifically at you uturn, you are just the latest person to say this.
These are valid points and ones Jenny argues in her post above. Why don’t Labour, why don’t The Greens, why doesn’t anyone? Why don’t we all call a meeting of our local community and take back the problem? Why do we rely on the comfortable distance of redistributed income tax instead of getting up close and personal with the people we say we support, or for that matter, hate?
First on the lists of why is that government is a balancing act within a corrupted system. You can’t simply take jillions of dollars from, say, infrastructure projects and build McDonald’s-esque food houses for card carrying poor people to patronise. To attempt such a thing would shake our culture of greed, earning and profit so severly it’s hard to imagine the unintended results/backlash.
Second on the list is that if we allow government to dictate how and when assistance happens, we’ll lose control of our communities every time there is a change of government, effectively undermining our goals.
Third would be that some people will be better suited to assist from a distance and some up close. At least intially. Not everyone is or can be the same, but then not everyone who is poor is the same. People are still people.
I think that in the end, poverty must be challenged face to face, one on one, at whatever the cost. As an intermediary step, people not in poverty need to think about everything they consume, everything they want to buy and streamline the things they have, but don’t use. Give excess away to people at a disadvantage who can use them. Don’t buy stuff no one needs – like the other day I saw a tool for taking chips out of the bag so you don’t get greasy fingers.
When choosing entertainment, try to find it in the company of others first, not on an X-box by default. Make conversation rather than listen to the distraction of TV, pop music and beer. Work on neighbourhood projects together. Share problems. Keep an eye on the fortunes of the people around you. If they’re doing fine, leave them be; if they are falling below the bread line, help them to regain their feet – for free. Learn about other people, learn about yourself – respect both. Listen to what others say, not just the response and ideas in your own head. Take time.
Small changes in atittude and reduction of waste will have a gradual indirect influence on poverty. Understanding why it is right will ease the pain of giving up the “getting ahead” mindset.
A: “Why do we rely on the comfortable distance of redistributed income tax B: instead of getting up close and personal with the people we say we support, or for that matter, hate?”
A: Because poverty is lack of resources just as scurvy is lack of vitamin C. The immediate need in both cases is what is lacking. B: Community korero is great and certainly not mutually exclusive. But it is no substitute for what is lacking. Funnily enough, poor communities have less material resources to share. We have enough resources in NZ, they don’t need to be rationed out of the hands of the poor. As for “up close and personal” speak for yourself.
“You can’t simply take jillions of dollars from, say, infrastructure projects …”
I specifically said that targeting help where it is needed instead of a big, sparse, lolly scramble, would make a huge difference. If the tax-free threshold is such small change that is is only the poor that get any benefit from it, don’t give a bit to everyone. Use the resources where they are needed most. In health we don’t give everyone a small proceedure regularly, regardless of need, and tell those needing heart surgery, for example, that they can have a free mole removal, like everyone else.
“McDonald’s-esque food houses for card carrying poor people to patronise…”
Are you taking the piss here, or is that as far as your imagination can take you?
No it’s not, it’s a misallocation of available resources caused by the capitalist free-market. Although it will turn into a lack of resources over time as all available resources are used up ASAP by the capitalist free-market.
Quick note to the moderator. My email address (and therefore my pictogram) has changed because I’ve changed server. I assume this is the reason my last comment went into moderation.
[sprout: correct, first comments from a new email are auto-moderated]
http://en.gravatar.com/
You can upload a pic and associate it with an email address and change the address when you change ISPs. You can also go get a gmail or similar account and so get a permanent email address.
Ta Draco.
I’ve moved to orcon (miles cheaper) and the email addresses are mine for life.
I think I will organise a gravatar though. Really don’t like my new pictogram.
a recurring thought, feel free to share it around,
No-one likes giving their money to a Banker, so why would you give your Vote to one?
Made this my Facebook status.
Me too! 🙂
I would imagine something like this.
Thanks to a federal ban on food stamps for people with felony drug convictions, people like McLemore are out of luck when it comes to getting assistance with putting food on their tables. Though states can opt out of the ban, those that don’t (like Mississsippi) deny food stamps even to individuals who have already served their sentences or overcome previous addictions. It’s true that McLemore’s past isn’t perfect — she has four felony drug convictions and one misdemeanor, which place her firmly in the category of people the federal government has declared unfit to receive public benefits. Hence, faced with the prospect of being unable to feed her family, McLemore lied on her application.
Welcome to the war on drugs, where once convicted you’re fucked for life, unless you’re rich that is.
Note also that loan fraudsters get far lower sentences for a crime that impacted negatively far more than one person lying so they and their kids could eat. Justice this is not.
throw away American citizens. Bet she votes Republican too.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/11/17/huge-lakes-of-water-may-exist-under-europas-ice/
Fucking awesome. although having mucked around with origin of life stuff in uni, sunlight isn’t entirely needed, as warm seeps can kick out a wide range of simple to complex organic molecules*, while black smokers provide various sulphates than can be oxidised to provide an energy source for life. Although what we need to do is send probes into the ice, and even into the black depths of Europa to find signs of “life”, which isn’t as straightforward as you’d think**
________________________
* In biochem land, this means multiple chiral centres.
** aka philosophy of biology fun land, or at it’s simplest “life is a heat engine, exploiting thermodynamic gradients for reproduction, thus creating more entropy”. I’d also argue it’s not time dependent, which causes all sorts of fun-times for the human mind…
Its not time dependent? Or rather can occur on scales so large (or small) that it appears not to be time dependent?
just commenting to see if it comes through.
[lprent: Sorry – been obsessed with correlations for e-day. I will have another look at this. Found and fixed. Moderators – if you’re going to do blacklist DO NOT tag the persons name. ]
People forget Peter Dunne was Labour MP THEN feel out of bed and ended up looking like Act with a red face
He seems to win the personality stakes for all time in NZ politics without a scratch
He almost fits the proposition that all MPs should be elected as independents to reduce the enormous drain on the voters sanity supporting the BS of party politicing
The shock of having to be standing and winning on their own may cause such a melt down of honesty that the people might even take it very seriously that we are a puppet state of the international corporations and have serious problems that will eventually drive us to join Australia so we can survive
Physically we are one of the most endangered island country’s in the world
Get a little unsettled NZ and WAKE UP
Metafilter: Our glorious new public/private partnership military industrial police complex.
joe90 : Any idea if the NZ police are affiliated with PERF?
Oh yeah, a familiar name and a regular mention.
NYT: U.N. Panel Finds Climate Change Behind Some Extreme Weather Events
The findings were released at a conference in Kampala, Uganda, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a high-profile United Nations body assigned to review and report periodically on developments in climate research. They come at a time of unusual weather disasters around the globe, from catastrophic flooding in Asia and Australia to blizzards, floods, heat waves, droughts, wildfires and windstorms in the United States that have cost billions of dollars.
“A hotter, moister atmosphere is an atmosphere primed to trigger disasters,” said Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton University climate scientist and a principal author of the new report. “As the world gets hotter, the risk gets higher.” …
The new report on extreme weather, one of a string of reports that the panel is issuing on relatively narrow issues, did not break much ground scientifically, essentially refining findings that have been emerging in climate science papers in recent years.
Indeed, the delegates meeting in Kampala adopted scientifically cautious positions in some areas. For instance, some researchers have presented evidence suggesting that hurricanes are growing more intense because of climate change, but the report sided with a group of experts who say that such a claim is premature.
Nonetheless, the report predicted that certain types of weather extremes will grow more numerous and more intense as human-induced global warming worsens in coming decades.
“It is virtually certain that increases in the frequency and magnitude of warm daily temperature extremes and decreases in cold extremes will occur in the 21st century on the global scale,” the report said. “It is likely that the frequency of heavy precipitation or the proportion of total rainfall from heavy falls will increase in the 21st century over many areas of the globe.”
By the end of the century, if greenhouse emissions continue unabated, the type of heat wave that now occurs once every 20 years will be occurring every couple of years across large areas of the planet, the report predicted.
Conflicts across the globe that don’t make the headlines: Wars in the World
Also, from Tidy Read: War nesw updates.
Here’s a little video mash up of the Teapot tapes footage: Teapot tape debacle
Poor Brash: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6005840/Brash-leaves-leadership-door-ajar-for-Isaac
I caught this bit of the interview and I don’t think it’s been fairly represented in that story. The thing with Brash is that he’s not like other politicians – he’s quite politically naive. He’ll say what he thinks and is generally up-front about it. Other politicians (Key is a master at it and Goff does it as well) answer questions couched in ways that the listener thinks they’ve said something but they can later come back and ‘clarify’ or refute. Brash on the other hand just says it with little beating around the bush. Political journalists hear this from Brash and think that there really must be more going on behind his words than he’s letting on (as they would be with any other politician), but really in Brash’s case there isn’t any cloak and dagger skullduggery at all.
Contra argument: The hollow men.
He may not be much good at it, but he is dishonest.
On the other hand, Like Te Mana, representatives of parties that aren’t competing for Mr and Ms Middle seem to be far more able to be frank about what they believe.
Sounds like he’s confirmed some of the rumoured contents of the teapots, reaffirmed his consent to the Act/Nat plan, reaffirmed National are in trouble and signalled he is stepping away from the increasingly stinky dung heap it’s all become. He has inadvertently hung a closed for business sign on ACT too – nothing more than an organisation in name only for the machinations of National.
Been away for a week, so this may be a repeat if somebody else has posted it, but this is a great election track from Avondale’s finest! Must listen.
http://soundcloud.com/homebrewcrew/home-brew-listen-to-us-feat
Are you a Kiwi? Am I a Kiwi? Are we Kiwis?
Well, John Key is now presuming to speak on your behalf:
“Key: Kiwis Support Asset Sales”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10767604
Will we be selling our assets?
Will you be voting?
Presumptuous twit. Punish the prick
All the polls I’ve seen show that ~85% of people oppose asset sales, ergo, this must be Jonkey trying to rewrite reality so that it conforms with his ideology.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6005657/Labour-flyer-threatening-mum
Yup, another good idea from the Labour brains trust.
It’s not Labour threatening mum but NAct.
No its labour telling porkies again…
The thuggery continues.
https://www.facebook.com/OccupyTahrirSquare/posts/142223339214886
http://twitpic.com/7h5os4
#OccupyTahrirSquare
#Tahrir
#Beleidy
#Ghonim
#Wa7damasrya
And no prizes for guessing who supplies the thugs with their weaponry.
Another excellent column from Tapu Misa:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10767482
You can see where NACT get their education policy. There is nothing new under the sun.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/nov/20/schools-michael-gove-behaviour-adviser
Just one day, sometime down the track, parents might be required to take a little bit more personal responsibility ensuring that they are sending their children to school, well rested, well fed, suitably attired and in the right frame of mind to learn.
It would appear that at the moment it’s the schools’ responsibility to attend to this and also deliver the curriculum to meet the standards.
As it is unlawful not to be enrolled to vote? What is the penalty and has anyone ever been convicted? Therer was reported 240k not currently enrolled for this election
Personal gain from privatisation?
Well there is one reason why John Key might undertake such an exercise… to ensure that New Zealand has to undertake asset sales to service the huge amounts of debt that National has mismanaged us into…
WTF, is John Key drunk? certainly looks like it
http://www.times-age.co.nz/news/key-drops-in-on-school-unit-and-visits-jnl-mill/982641/
What a fucking hypocrite Key is
This unit set up to catch these kids that fall through the cracks,has a 85 % pass rate is being closed by this government
Shame on you bastards
This has really pissed me off
Key lied to get into power by using this as a example, among many others
Absolutely disgusting
Act has apparently been a Stolid partner
Anonymous steps it up with the first release of their newly acquired database in response to Pepper spray incident..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyClUDfmdIM&feature=youtu.be
Sorry to those of you using the WSIWYG editor, I’m going to have to disable it so it doesn’t interfere with the caching system I just turned on.
Bit of a load tonight.
Ok. That eased the situation considerably… The main server is now handling the load. I have to find some time to get that wee editor working nicely with the cache.
Now it is spiking to very high CPU, not locking on 95+% CPU. Cache makes a lot of difference.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/6008050/Workers-in-55-job-roles-getting-paid-less-Survey
sort of dismisses Keys claim about wages going up dont it
Test message
Is it not often noted that different ethic groups have defining body language ?
The striking similarities in our PM’s physical gestures to some of the history footage of the 1930’s&40’s of another politician known for lying and debasing the truth to gain political power .
Just an observation and a guide to the validity of the rhetoric being charged to the taxpayer
Like Ben what I’d really like to understand is how UF can use the tagline of “Family Friendly ”, want to have the Families Commission, try to split tax for the stay at home partner in the middle/ upper income brackets whilst cuddling up to the Nact party that spends it’s time slagging off the parent who takes the huge financial and emotional hit involved in bringing up the kids by themselves.(and this is all too often the parent protecting the kids from family violence.)
Some parents are more equal than others ……
Another day, another record day. It hasn’t happened since Thursday last week. According to statcounter.
Top page views in a day
Top unique visits in a day.
Much of it in the hour after the debate when I’m sure we hit our highest page views per hour. Looked like 5000pv in a bit over n hour.
Comment load looks pretty high as well.