Tracey Watkins gives her view, that the row between the two camps is just is not about politics. She is of the view that the dispute is all about the perceived performance of the two leaders rather than any major political difference.
The Labour caucus row is about performance, rather than policy.
While David Cunliffe has become the poster boy for the Labour Left, there are no obvious policy differences between him and leader David Shearer.
They both agree on big-ticket policies like the retirement age, capital gains tax, and monetary policy.
TRACEY WATKINS
In my view Watkins is wrong, performance is based on politics, one has got something to say, and one hasn’t.
Watkins left out one major policy difference between the two.
And it is the defining issue of our age.
David Cunliffe is the only parliamentary political leader to take Climate Change seriously. And he is being punished for it.
Even the Greens have given up talking about climate change, on the grounds that it will make them appear too radical and cost them seats. Also so as not to embarrass their future coalition partner, the current leadership of which, seem dead set on Ignoring Climate Change altogether.
This is a worldwide crisis but internationally most mainstream politicians have chosen if the can to put it in the too hard basket. Shearer is one of those. His deliberate ignoring of this issue is painful to witness. Instead he is moved to punish Cunliffe who openly faces the issue his honest appraisal of the threat is a spur to the opposition parties and the leader of the Labour Party opposition top make a stand..
I hope that David Cunliffe is not intimidated by the events of yesterday and continues to speak up on this and other issues.
People are not all about to vote for the left wing of the Labour party. Labour like National likes not having to lean on other parties for a mandate. So it seems entirely predictable in Feb next year that the party will back Shearer. Most people who might switch to Labour aren’t going to just throw their neo-liberal memes off as quickly as you hope. It takes time for people to change.
And good on Cunliffe for boosting his leaders standing, giving him a victory, and providing kiwis with a opportunity of putting meat on the bone so to speak.
What a load of old right wing rubbish. Shearer is a gonner as you will see. the fool cant string 2 sentences together unless he’s had a week to practice.
1. You make speeches with tacit but heavily coded inferences that if they made you the leader, you would introduce kick-butt policies that the incumbent is too gutless/politically unsound/incompetent to contemplate – carefully omitting specifics.
2. You tickle up edginess among the many anxious party supporters who are panicking at what they perceive is a lack of progress in the party’s profile and poll fortunes.
3. You agree to a live TV interview on the morning of the party’s annual conference debate about the rules for electing the leader at which you conspicuously avoid expressing support for the leader.
4. You do nothing to dispel the inference that dissatisfaction with the leadership, and an appetite for your ascendancy, is a big factor in the conference making sweeping constitutional changes about the leader’s election which appear to put a banana skin under the current leader’s foot.
5. You spend the conference wearing a smile that could power the California grid.
Smiling is now a crime!!! Is this schoolgirl gossip the best one of our senior political journo’s can come up with? This isn’t evidence; it’s inference and speculation fed to her by Mallard. (Direct and in person I’m led to understand.)
And who is Shane Jones, stepper-in on other people’s portfolios to talk about whares and huhu grubs and team players? When is he going to be disciplined for his comments on fisheries and reserves…
I guess with the gleeful dissing of Cunliffe means he’ll be back on the front bench in the reshuffle.
Yes, smiling is a fucking crime now. You’re not allowed to look happy or you’re plotting to overthrow the leadership.
You must remain determinedly po-faced throughout a great historic moment for Labour, modernising the party in the most significant set of constitutional changes in thirty years.
Dirty rotten little coupmakers. You can always tell them by the weird upturn of their mouths and the flash of white teeth that tells you they are planning espionage.
So Labour’s serial leaker strikes again. Details of what happened in yesterday’s Caucus meeting have been leaked to the Herald and the spin is obviously anti Cunliffe.
So Cunliffe’s freedom of Speech is removed by David Shearer “The Somali War Lord” really I would have thought under the bill of rights that a person any person had a right to ohh I dunno free speech’ wonder what the UN would think about it?
Well, is it not totally reasonable to get Trevett to reveal who it is she is quoting when she says an mp cescribed the dressing down as “sobering”. I mean that take is in quote marks, which means it isn’t ‘off the record’, no?
And on Edward’s piece, I agree that seeking mp’s intention on a future secret ballot is (constitutional matters aside) utter bullshit. That thing called democracy, you know, where mp’s are bound by the democratic will of their members – means it’s impossible for any democractically minded mp to say. That was, quite rightly in my opinion, Sue Moroney’s response when asked by the media which way she would vote in Feb.
edit: Besides all that, I think it’s time to focus on the hand within the (to be discarded by and by) glove puppet from here on in.
Who is lying here ? From MS’s NZ Herald link
“He later said he was not able to comment because caucus had decided that only Mr Shearer would speak on the matter.”
So how did the NZH hear about the goings on in caucus ? Either Shearer is the deep throat or someone is acting without following instructions. Do as I say not as I do !!!! Agreed with you Karol. I bet there will be no investigation done as to the source of the leak, and approp. action taken.
For an egalitarian party there appears to be “princeps civitatis”
Not sure who is the under performer of the following: Labour, National or the NZ cricket team. From what I have seen it is not NZC 🙁
Anyone else notice Joky Hen’s choice of shirt at his “Heads of state conference”. Was he trying to convince us all that his quip about shirt colour was just, you know, “weird.” Or was he wearing that shocking pink shirt so that he would stand out amongst the throng? Perhaps his family told him to wear it. Just wondering
An interesting and measured contribution from Greg Presland on RNZ a few minutes ago. Cunliffe’s LEC is considering a formal complaint about the treatment of Cunliffe over the last few days. Not so much the demotion (there was an acceptance that the leader has the right to pick his team), but the underhanded leaks and the public dissing from the likes of Hipkins, which, on the face of it, were more damaging to the party than Cunliffe’s cheesy grin could possibly do.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 6.1
I heard some guy just about in tears going in to bat for Cunliffe then immediately after Brent Edwards saying that this guy was actually one of Cunliffes smear merchants in the run up to the disastrous coup.
It was on Morning report. And in order not to offend you, will re post in order to make it easier for you to read.
Oh, that’s who that was.
I heard a man in an interview on National Radio this morning strongly in support of Cunliffe. This man sounded like he was on the verge of tears.
Immediately after the article, Brent Edwards presented a piece which included reference to the previous interviewee being one of Cunliffes smear merchants in the run up to the disastrous coup.
How is the Labour Party membership supposed to give feedback to their local Labour MP on what has happened when we are all being kept in the dark? And DC and in fact the whole of caucus has been gagged?
Looks like the NZLP has opted for a Singapore Style Democracy. Lee Kuan Yew would be proud.
I gave my feedback about the process directly to Shearer (well, his PA) through the ‘contact us’ message option on the Labour Party website. Felt good, it did… I must send the same to my local MP – Grant Robertson – that will feel good too, I reckon.
R0b, the link you put above seems to loop directly back to the comment above that, where LP states I am on a ban, which was news to me. Generally I don’t lower the tone to “pointless abuse”, it serves no purpse, but my comments do attract some, which is water off a ducks back really.
I would accept that sometimes I a flippant with words, but “pointless abuse” is something I won’t lower myself to.
Would be good to understand where the “ban” originates from, and who issued it.
Sick of crappy search results? I just discovered Duck Duck Go which means search results are not personalised. (Yes….I do sound like an ad don’t I? The last few months have been searching hell for me dispite using ixquick, etc and Google results are so bad that I can’t find what I’m looking for sometimes unless I type the site directly into the search bar – how is that possible? Google is crap, that’s how.)
Thanks, will check it out. Google just goes from bad to worse. At the moment it returns multiple hits from the same site all in a row (sometimes taking up nearly all of the page). Can I turn that off somehow? And their new menu system means many more clicks to get what I want 🙄
Are the results different to the ones you get on google if you turn off their advertising, disable cookies and block tracking using tools provided by google? I don’t know, I’ll give it a try.
Result: yes they are. A far broader understanding of any particular search than offered on google, even with all the winkies turned off.
I think I might give that a go. Usually what I had to do on google was to search something then immediately click to page ten to find the interesting stuff.
Israel-Palestine – what is the U.S. national interest?
Posted November 20, 2012
By RALPH NADER
Israeli elections are coming up in January so it is Palestinian hunting season again. Israeli cynics call it a time “for mowing the grass.”
Out comes the well-worn playbook by Israel’s militaristic government that has worked to silence Israeli politicians and citizens who want a two-state solution. This is an opportunity to use and test advanced weaponry from the U.S., compliments of U.S. taxpayers, and squelch ongoing peace efforts, small and large, by Palestinians, Israelis and international peace advocates.
The playbook’s first chapter is provocation to upset a tense but workable truce with Hamas, the elected government of Gaza. Hamas was encouraged at its creation years ago by both Israeli and U.S. backers to counter the secular Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Bit of a blowback there.
Israeli government leaders are expert provocateurs when they wish to seize land, water or prisoners and upset any movement toward a peace that would create a viable Palestinian state back to the 1967 borders, which includes East Jerusalem. When Israel came into being in 1948, it soon broke a UN truce and doubled its territory by taking the large area known as the Negev desert, whose refugees ended up in the Gaza Strip. Now 1.6 million encircled and impoverished humans, blockaded and under siege by Israel, try to survive in an open-air prison little more than twice the size of the District of Columbia.
and to Britain France et al, when sitting on the Security Council of the UN an abstention is tacit agreement with the veto threat that provoked each and every abstention
In the UN, toast always falls butter side up for some
UNSC have further protracted their dithering by announcing the issue is to be discussed again in another meeting tomorrow. At this rate Gaza will be empty of living people before they decide to tell the truth. Like East Timor, Like Cambodia, Like Rwanda, genocide is a business and business keeps their gravytrain rolling. Maybe if the UNSC moved the meeting to Gaza, or to TelAviv, they would show a little urgency, a little humanity.
The Four Horsemen of the Economic Apocalypse
was watching Max Keiser on RT; he is one funny dude, anyway, there is an indie film about the above topic and Max was interviewing Ross Ashcroft of renegadeeconomist.com about the film;
-rapacious financial system
-escalating organised violence
-environmental resource degradation
-poverty of the billions (there are those pesky “billions” of people again)
Root cause-Neoclassical Economics
Time, to change cognitive maps
helpful antidote to rampant capitalism-The Co-operative (with a little peer-to-peer crowd funding)
support Debt Jubilee initiatives
(re sovereign debt; Max reported on how an Argentinian naval ship is being held by a hedge fund) 🙂
“this is not a love song…this is not a love song…may the road rise with you…may the road rise with you
I could be wrong…I could be right..Anger is an energy…Anger is an energy” Public Image Public Image
The search lags. It runs sphinxsearch on a cron job about 3 or 4 times per hour to pick up the delta’s. Now I have more headroom on the CPU I should look at increasing it again.
That may be what you are seeing. I’ll tag it for checking.
NZ population growth stalls, as more young skilled take up residence in Australia, and start growing the next generation of Kiwis. Offspring will either be so Australianized and won’t be connected to NZ, or worse will get criminal records and be sent packing back to NZ. So essentially Key’s and NZ policy is to grow Australian success stories, and take the also-rans back. Imaginative hey.
So we get the harder to deal with returning, who have been brought up Australian, who if they are successful, turn around their lives, get a degree with government loans, start a business even, who will jump back over the ditch at the first opportunity. Only the worst or the worst, stopped from ever returning, will pile up here, those with criminal records, with poor educational acheivements, etc.
But worse! The new kiwis citizens who know nothing of their homeland, will be educated to support the Australian economy needs, not the NZ, taught Australia history, skilled to build a deepening and wide economic base, and our kids in NZ will continue to be plagued by education politics.
here is one TPP article full of those pesky fact thingys that you won’t see in the local papers
“participants in the negotiations had to sign a memorandum of understanding which forbids them from releasing any “negotiating documents until four years after a deal is done or abandoned.”
Oops! Hey Lynn, (or another mod) I seem to have approved a ‘comment’ that wasn’t actually a comment that’s now come up on the comments sidebar. Don’t know what to do with it now. Meaning…don’t want to touch in case all sort of wierd and (not so) wonderful stuff starts to happen. Bloody phobia!
these links to topical articles on allied blogs are really helpful; we are not alone
anyway,
Herald
-health delivery delays
-insurance companies are gonna just love the predictive / actuarial potential of these telomere tests
-many Islamic activist groups in Syria do not support the “official” opposition grouping supported by the West
-another truck and trailer falls over
-Tolkein family interests place a line in the sand over inappropriate commercialisation
-wow, there sure is a demand for easy access sex at Hunters Corner
(used to be an excellent Indian restaurant on the road leaving Papatoetoe towards the eastern suburbs, and when one is a single man (or not, as I learn of all the married local Harley club guys hitting the knock-shops as soon as they are away out of town) ya just wanna stick ya dick in something sometimes)
On the back of bad publicity concerning the mistreatment of animals comes more bad news for the makers of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey movie just days out from its premiere at the Embassy Theatre in Wellington…
So tell me if I have read the postings wrongly.
The majority of posters here now hate Shearer and would rather see John Key win in 2014 than have the Quisling Shearer bring in a National- lite coalition government for 3 years?
If this premise is correct then the sole focus should be on kneecapping Shearer either before or after the election.
If Shearer loses in 2014 then he would be gone.
If Shearer wins in 2014 then he will stay.
If you cannot kneecap Shearer before election 2014 then you have to work to ensure that he loses.
Will we see embittered Leftists not simply transferring their vote to Green or Mana but strategically biting the bullet and voting National for once only.
I can’t speak for everyone else, but I don’t dislike Shearer, I just dislike how unelectable and incompetent he is.
Will we see embittered Leftists not simply transferring their vote to Green or Mana but strategically biting the bullet and voting National for once only.
WTF? You been smoking crack? Are you asking if lefties would rather vote for a party that would pull Labour into the direction that they think Labour should be heading in, or, vote for National?
Ask google about MMP
How about some focus now on the BIG issues folks? 🙂
Like the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiations which will be starting here in Auckland on 3 December 2012 – 12 December 2012?
What are Labour stalwarts doing on THIS issue?
Hopefully THOUSANDS of you will want the opportunity to show your opposition to the ‘pro-investor’ /’anti-public majority’ Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement?
(What sort of ‘partnership’ – excludes the public?
Why is the TPPA so ‘top secret’?)
Here you go!
SIGN ON HERE FOLKS TO SHOW YOUR OPPOSITION TO THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT! (TPPA)
MY COMMENT:
What’s good for big business it not usually good for the public majority.
The neo-liberal reforms have proven that FREE TRADE = PRIVATISATION.
Arguably the root cause of corruption is privatisation – how is it decided who gets the contracts?
Where’s the corruption-risk assessment of ‘Free Trade Agreements’ such as the TPPA?
(Haven’t been provided with any reply from MFAT on that question…… first asked it back in 2010 – at the last round of TPPA negotiations held in NZ).
Where is is the ‘cost-benefit analysis’ which proves that the private provision of public services is a more ‘cost-effective’ use of tax-payer and ratepayer monies, compared with when those services used to be provided ‘in-house’ at central and local government level?
How much public monies could be saved by CUTTING OUT THE CONTRACTORS (especially private consultants)?
I been wondering how many journalism and /or politics students and faculty read and write here.
There sure are some clever writers and analysts.stream of consciousnes teccnique may be effective and adopted by those possessing consciousness
The link to Gavin Ellis demonstrated his scholarship in propaganda; he would have adopted technique through study and would know about the sinful nature of man and hedonistic versus ethical decisions.
I have a small gardening job for the owner of my rental caravan tomorow. See, man writes about gardening and it happens, like The Death of God.
The local paper reported on the large number of local people living in caravans or inadequate housing.
Very compassionate of them. The editor is also a shill for the real estate industry.
Yet, in the letters to the editor they publish some very critical analyses of salient issues like the NZIER
proposal to increase the New Zealand population to 11M and the implications for the environment and resource use versus foreign export earnings.
the experience of “bipolarity” is both un-nerving and predictable but it can get a person in a lotta trouble until they understand it. (reading Lord of The Rings compulsively in the loo during apprenticeship and going to the gym before and after work on the big motorbike vroom vroom)
This “civics” proposal is interesting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civics
and this entry is interesting
yet I challenge the critics employment of the Aristotle assertion and the three freedoms.
recur the telos back into the sphere and maybe we will see a “kingdom on earth” or do we await our young people ending up in institutions, jail or dead.
Capitalist economic-rationalisation propaganda takes care of “freedom of choice” “freedom of action” and “freedom to” suffer.
May be Confuscianism with a little Taoist leaning to the side while squeaking some decentralization through in a successful Left-bloc government.
The landlord, a self-employed man supporting his family comparitively comfortably, understood that people are aware of economic and climate implications yet they continue to walk into events.
“Conditioned” was his word.
AA is not for every one pointy one; long way round
Consider work, shopping, adrenaline consider new memories consider forgiveness
Great to hear of people digging up their lawn and planting veges. I have done it at few dwellings over recent years.I worked in the produce department of the local supermarket that came out the most expensive in recent nationwide survey; anecdotal support for how they screw the growers on price for access and then mark-up %%%%% sometimes.
Pak N Save are also local, have very friendly staff and often have fresh brocoli and other vegetables at reasonable prices.
An increasing amount of authorities are advising us of how much is determined;
freedom within determinism was how the issue of free-will has been considered;
plenty of nested
hierarchies
within
Evolutionary Biology (big thanks to Hamilton,Cosmides and Toomey)
A Little lightness ,away from the daily worries .
Who will be the man of the year? My choice a toss up,between Bernie Monk and Dr Lance O’Sullivan. . Woman of the year Helen Kelly . hands down !
A Little lightness ,away from the daily worries .
Who will be the man of the year? My choice a toss up,between Bernie Monk and Dr Lance O’Sullivan. . Woman of the year Helen Kelly . hands down !
“Roll over Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky the news”…
The NZLP is now a tertiary party not the sole opposition. So, pull your heads in. 30 years almost of neo liberalism is way too many. Jobs Jolt? Middle class WFF but not for bennies?
As a late 50s guy my partner tells me I am out of touch with where modern kiwis are at, heh, where is that though? Flat Screen Frenzy? Precarious minimum wage jobs you are meant to be grateful for?
I still do not trust most dudes in suits, which ever one it is, end of.
cool.
how ruthless are the beverage companies. Went for a carbonated soft-drink after the lawns
Seven tall fridges, some double, in the superette and not a drink that did not have sugar or caffeine in it
if sugar-free, they had caffeine. very few sugar-free options.ruthless
Has anyone seen the story on, ‘no right turn’ concerning John Banks, apparantley he has a
shareholding in Talent2 through a trust, he is also associate minister of education, (sorry
can’t link it),this is the same crowd responsible for novapay.
I’ve said for awhile that selling Telecom is the perfect example of the dead weight loss of profit. Well, The Greens went and put the real figures on it.:
Dividends lost due to sale in 2011$millions: 16826
So, if private business is so efficient and provides what the community needs without intervention then WTF are we paying Telecom another billion or so to put in place the network that they should have put in place with the ~$17b in dividends that they took from us?
C’mon DtB you know why we’re gifting them another billion, why pay for it yourself when you can get the taxpayer to pay for you to increase your profits.
The Greens need to pretty that data table up and get it out there.
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Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara Solomon Islands’ incumbent prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has been re-elected in the East Choiseul constituency. It is the opening move in the political chess match to form the country’s next government. Returning officer Christopher Makoni made the declaration late last night after ...
Headline: The moment of friction. – 36th Parallel Assessments In strategic studies “friction” is a term that it is used to describe the moment when military action encounters adversary resistance. “Friction” is one of four (along with an unofficial fifth) “F’s” in military strategy, which includes force (kinetic mass), ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
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 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
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Tracey Watkins gives her view, that the row between the two camps is just is not about politics. She is of the view that the dispute is all about the perceived performance of the two leaders rather than any major political difference.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7976341/Power-of-old-guard-part-of-leadership-tussle
In my view Watkins is wrong, performance is based on politics, one has got something to say, and one hasn’t.
Watkins left out one major policy difference between the two.
And it is the defining issue of our age.
David Cunliffe is the only parliamentary political leader to take Climate Change seriously. And he is being punished for it.
Even the Greens have given up talking about climate change, on the grounds that it will make them appear too radical and cost them seats. Also so as not to embarrass their future coalition partner, the current leadership of which, seem dead set on Ignoring Climate Change altogether.
This is a worldwide crisis but internationally most mainstream politicians have chosen if the can to put it in the too hard basket. Shearer is one of those. His deliberate ignoring of this issue is painful to witness. Instead he is moved to punish Cunliffe who openly faces the issue his honest appraisal of the threat is a spur to the opposition parties and the leader of the Labour Party opposition top make a stand..
I hope that David Cunliffe is not intimidated by the events of yesterday and continues to speak up on this and other issues.
People are not all about to vote for the left wing of the Labour party. Labour like National likes not having to lean on other parties for a mandate. So it seems entirely predictable in Feb next year that the party will back Shearer. Most people who might switch to Labour aren’t going to just throw their neo-liberal memes off as quickly as you hope. It takes time for people to change.
And good on Cunliffe for boosting his leaders standing, giving him a victory, and providing kiwis with a opportunity of putting meat on the bone so to speak.
What a load of old right wing rubbish. Shearer is a gonner as you will see. the fool cant string 2 sentences together unless he’s had a week to practice.
Amused too by Jane Clifton’s >whack job in the Listener:
Smiling is now a crime!!! Is this schoolgirl gossip the best one of our senior political journo’s can come up with? This isn’t evidence; it’s inference and speculation fed to her by Mallard. (Direct and in person I’m led to understand.)
This really like witch dunking.
And who is Shane Jones, stepper-in on other people’s portfolios to talk about whares and huhu grubs and team players? When is he going to be disciplined for his comments on fisheries and reserves…
I guess with the gleeful dissing of Cunliffe means he’ll be back on the front bench in the reshuffle.
Shane Jones – no electorate, just a list MP. Wonder just who actually listens to him (outside the press gallery).
you spend the conference wearing a smile
Was Jane Clifton at the conference, or is she doing another analysis based merely on photos from the event?
pillow talk
Yes, smiling is a fucking crime now. You’re not allowed to look happy or you’re plotting to overthrow the leadership.
You must remain determinedly po-faced throughout a great historic moment for Labour, modernising the party in the most significant set of constitutional changes in thirty years.
Dirty rotten little coupmakers. You can always tell them by the weird upturn of their mouths and the flash of white teeth that tells you they are planning espionage.
Clearly all these should be spelled out in a new little red book.
Of course smiling is only a crime if you throw in a wave as well.
“Of course smiling is only a crime if you throw in a wave as well.”
And it comes from a mean spirited class war general undertaking the theft of NZ and the rebirth of slavery for the poor.
So Labour’s serial leaker strikes again. Details of what happened in yesterday’s Caucus meeting have been leaked to the Herald and the spin is obviously anti Cunliffe.
When is the party going to deal with this person?
And why did the leader insist on MPs telling him who they were going to vote for in February when it is a secret vote and they are obliged to consult with their LECs before they make up their mind?
So Cunliffe’s freedom of Speech is removed by David Shearer “The Somali War Lord” really I would have thought under the bill of rights that a person any person had a right to ohh I dunno free speech’ wonder what the UN would think about it?
David Shearer “The Somali War Lord”
You know your freedom of speech? Think first, otherwise you might seem a bit … irrational.
Fuck sake.
Well, is it not totally reasonable to get Trevett to reveal who it is she is quoting when she says an mp cescribed the dressing down as “sobering”. I mean that take is in quote marks, which means it isn’t ‘off the record’, no?
And on Edward’s piece, I agree that seeking mp’s intention on a future secret ballot is (constitutional matters aside) utter bullshit. That thing called democracy, you know, where mp’s are bound by the democratic will of their members – means it’s impossible for any democractically minded mp to say. That was, quite rightly in my opinion, Sue Moroney’s response when asked by the media which way she would vote in Feb.
edit: Besides all that, I think it’s time to focus on the hand within the (to be discarded by and by) glove puppet from here on in.
So it’s OK for someone in the caucus to talk to the press about what happened, as long as they do it anonymously, and in support of Shearer.
What a bunch of hypocrits!
Give them enough rope…
Who is lying here ? From MS’s NZ Herald link
“He later said he was not able to comment because caucus had decided that only Mr Shearer would speak on the matter.”
So how did the NZH hear about the goings on in caucus ? Either Shearer is the deep throat or someone is acting without following instructions. Do as I say not as I do !!!! Agreed with you Karol. I bet there will be no investigation done as to the source of the leak, and approp. action taken.
For an egalitarian party there appears to be “princeps civitatis”
Not sure who is the under performer of the following: Labour, National or the NZ cricket team. From what I have seen it is not NZC 🙁
NRT has it right as usual.
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/an-act-of-self-mutilation.html
Shearer’s performance on TV1 last night was a shocker. Mumbling, complacent, vindictive…
‘Trust me, and we’ll sleepwalk to victory. Save your energy for the internal scrapping.’
Not good enough, guys.
Anyone else notice Joky Hen’s choice of shirt at his “Heads of state conference”. Was he trying to convince us all that his quip about shirt colour was just, you know, “weird.” Or was he wearing that shocking pink shirt so that he would stand out amongst the throng? Perhaps his family told him to wear it. Just wondering
I think it’s a subtle hint that he’s considering running for the leadership of the Labour Party in February.
I think he’s trying to undo his fuckups that have made him an international laughing stock.
Next he will wear an “I love the brainy Beckham” shirt.
An interesting and measured contribution from Greg Presland on RNZ a few minutes ago. Cunliffe’s LEC is considering a formal complaint about the treatment of Cunliffe over the last few days. Not so much the demotion (there was an acceptance that the leader has the right to pick his team), but the underhanded leaks and the public dissing from the likes of Hipkins, which, on the face of it, were more damaging to the party than Cunliffe’s cheesy grin could possibly do.
..thereby ensuring that this plays in the news for at least as long as it takes to consider that complaint. What a complete fucking idiot.
Oh, thats who that was.
I heard some guy just about in tears going in to bat for Cunliffe then immediately after Brent Edwards saying that this guy was actually one of Cunliffes smear merchants in the run up to the disastrous coup.
Yeah? Where did you hear that? It would also help if your sentence made grammatical sense.
It was on Morning report. And in order not to offend you, will re post in order to make it easier for you to read.
Oh, that’s who that was.
I heard a man in an interview on National Radio this morning strongly in support of Cunliffe. This man sounded like he was on the verge of tears.
Immediately after the article, Brent Edwards presented a piece which included reference to the previous interviewee being one of Cunliffes smear merchants in the run up to the disastrous coup.
Don’t let it get to you weka, nothing from KK makes sense.
How many of Shearer’s troops are list MP’s and not answerable to LEC’s.?
Include all the ones with majorities of 3000 or less.
All the ones that will be unemployed in 2014 if they don’t get their shit together smartish.
How is the Labour Party membership supposed to give feedback to their local Labour MP on what has happened when we are all being kept in the dark? And DC and in fact the whole of caucus has been gagged?
Looks like the NZLP has opted for a Singapore Style Democracy. Lee Kuan Yew would be proud.
I gave my feedback about the process directly to Shearer (well, his PA) through the ‘contact us’ message option on the Labour Party website. Felt good, it did… I must send the same to my local MP – Grant Robertson – that will feel good too, I reckon.
Well surely after the first 20000 messages telling them they are morons maybe the message will get thru that they have royally screwed the pooch.
[deleted]
[lprent: You have a current ban for a pointless abuse comment. Doubling it for posting comments while banned. Puts you up to 2 weeks. ]
[RL: Sorry my mistake for approving it. I hadn’t spotted the ban.]
…care to suggest something better as an alternative to our current parliamentary system then?
I had no idea I was on a ban, or that I had been banned,
Would it be too much to ask which comment lead to this situation?
Ive been falsely banned on here once before, so excuse me if I don;t have much faith in where this has originated from!
[I wasn’t involved, but see here. I’ll let this through so you can see the link. r0b]
R0b, the link you put above seems to loop directly back to the comment above that, where LP states I am on a ban, which was news to me. Generally I don’t lower the tone to “pointless abuse”, it serves no purpse, but my comments do attract some, which is water off a ducks back really.
I would accept that sometimes I a flippant with words, but “pointless abuse” is something I won’t lower myself to.
Would be good to understand where the “ban” originates from, and who issued it.
here.
The “NO COMMENT” membership drive starts this Saturday.
It’s so refreshing that all that leadership nonsense is now behind us.
In completely unrelated news, can I commend the below documentary to readers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XrO72C1WQ0
!!
Sick of crappy search results? I just discovered Duck Duck Go which means search results are not personalised. (Yes….I do sound like an ad don’t I? The last few months have been searching hell for me dispite using ixquick, etc and Google results are so bad that I can’t find what I’m looking for sometimes unless I type the site directly into the search bar – how is that possible? Google is crap, that’s how.)
http://dontbubble.us/
Site above shows you WHY you can’t find what you are looking for anymore, then suggests Duck Duck Go as a search engine.
I only just found it, so hope it works. After previously having good search results this has turned into a surprisingly time consuming issue. *argh*
Thanks, will check it out. Google just goes from bad to worse. At the moment it returns multiple hits from the same site all in a row (sometimes taking up nearly all of the page). Can I turn that off somehow? And their new menu system means many more clicks to get what I want 🙄
dontbubble.us is a really good visual explanation of what is wrong with current search engines.
Are the results different to the ones you get on google if you turn off their advertising, disable cookies and block tracking using tools provided by google? I don’t know, I’ll give it a try.
Result: yes they are. A far broader understanding of any particular search than offered on google, even with all the winkies turned off.
I think I might give that a go. Usually what I had to do on google was to search something then immediately click to page ten to find the interesting stuff.
Small group of Israelis pretending to be scared…
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1353421901.html
Israel-Palestine – what is the U.S. national interest?
Posted November 20, 2012
By RALPH NADER
Israeli elections are coming up in January so it is Palestinian hunting season again. Israeli cynics call it a time “for mowing the grass.”
Out comes the well-worn playbook by Israel’s militaristic government that has worked to silence Israeli politicians and citizens who want a two-state solution. This is an opportunity to use and test advanced weaponry from the U.S., compliments of U.S. taxpayers, and squelch ongoing peace efforts, small and large, by Palestinians, Israelis and international peace advocates.
The playbook’s first chapter is provocation to upset a tense but workable truce with Hamas, the elected government of Gaza. Hamas was encouraged at its creation years ago by both Israeli and U.S. backers to counter the secular Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Bit of a blowback there.
Israeli government leaders are expert provocateurs when they wish to seize land, water or prisoners and upset any movement toward a peace that would create a viable Palestinian state back to the 1967 borders, which includes East Jerusalem. When Israel came into being in 1948, it soon broke a UN truce and doubled its territory by taking the large area known as the Negev desert, whose refugees ended up in the Gaza Strip. Now 1.6 million encircled and impoverished humans, blockaded and under siege by Israel, try to survive in an open-air prison little more than twice the size of the District of Columbia.
Read more….
http://nader.org/2012/11/20/israel-palestine-what-is-the-u-s-national-interest/
a handy reference list of the US veotes that co-incidentally allowed Israel to further dominate an oppressed people and continue to generate billions in weapons technology
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/UN/usvetoes.html
and to Britain France et al, when sitting on the Security Council of the UN an abstention is tacit agreement with the veto threat that provoked each and every abstention
In the UN, toast always falls butter side up for some
RT: US have blocked a UNSC statement condemning Israel’s violence (wasn’t rocket science)
UNSC have further protracted their dithering by announcing the issue is to be discussed again in another meeting tomorrow. At this rate Gaza will be empty of living people before they decide to tell the truth. Like East Timor, Like Cambodia, Like Rwanda, genocide is a business and business keeps their gravytrain rolling. Maybe if the UNSC moved the meeting to Gaza, or to TelAviv, they would show a little urgency, a little humanity.
Israel has the right to defend its citizens when under attack.
Palestine has the right to defend its territory when under occupation.
So what next?
The Four Horsemen of the Economic Apocalypse
was watching Max Keiser on RT; he is one funny dude, anyway, there is an indie film about the above topic and Max was interviewing Ross Ashcroft of renegadeeconomist.com about the film;
-rapacious financial system
-escalating organised violence
-environmental resource degradation
-poverty of the billions (there are those pesky “billions” of people again)
Root cause-Neoclassical Economics
Time, to change cognitive maps
helpful antidote to rampant capitalism-The Co-operative (with a little peer-to-peer crowd funding)
support Debt Jubilee initiatives
(re sovereign debt; Max reported on how an Argentinian naval ship is being held by a hedge fund) 🙂
this is not the correct link, but I gotta go pay the rent
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bill-buckler-presents-four-horsemen-financial-apocalypse
“this is not a love song…this is not a love song…may the road rise with you…may the road rise with you
I could be wrong…I could be right..Anger is an energy…Anger is an energy” Public Image Public Image
The search and links seems to be breaking on the
http://thestandard.org.nz/leadership-meeting-the-outcome/ atricle.
400+ comments wow 🙂
The search lags. It runs sphinxsearch on a cron job about 3 or 4 times per hour to pick up the delta’s. Now I have more headroom on the CPU I should look at increasing it again.
That may be what you are seeing. I’ll tag it for checking.
quote from NZ Herald , John Key
“I’ve never lied about Kim Dotcom and I don’t lie about anything”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10848948
Excellent – to deny is to lose.
He is on the ropes folks, get stuck in now
I seem to recall that he lied about how many rail shares he owned.
And what his opinion was on 1981.
oh wait, he just forgot… [tui]
NZ population growth stalls, as more young skilled take up residence in Australia, and start growing the next generation of Kiwis. Offspring will either be so Australianized and won’t be connected to NZ, or worse will get criminal records and be sent packing back to NZ. So essentially Key’s and NZ policy is to grow Australian success stories, and take the also-rans back. Imaginative hey.
So we get the harder to deal with returning, who have been brought up Australian, who if they are successful, turn around their lives, get a degree with government loans, start a business even, who will jump back over the ditch at the first opportunity. Only the worst or the worst, stopped from ever returning, will pile up here, those with criminal records, with poor educational acheivements, etc.
But worse! The new kiwis citizens who know nothing of their homeland, will be educated to support the Australian economy needs, not the NZ, taught Australia history, skilled to build a deepening and wide economic base, and our kids in NZ will continue to be plagued by education politics.
Interesting choice of words by the PM when questioned about Dotcom last night:
“If he’s miraculously going to find some person who he reckons whispered in my ear something, well, OK, prove the person and put them up.
“But I’ll tell you now, what difference would it make whether I’d heard about the guy six months earlier? Absolutely none.”
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/Dotcom-contractors-contacted-PMs-office/tabid/1607/articleID/277455/Default.aspx#ixzz2CnkBknT9
lies upon lies upon lies beginning to leak out…
here is one TPP article full of those pesky fact thingys that you won’t see in the local papers
“participants in the negotiations had to sign a memorandum of understanding which forbids them from releasing any “negotiating documents until four years after a deal is done or abandoned.”
http://www.nationofchange.org/trans-pacific-partnership-what-corporate-governance-looks-1353428537
Oops! Hey Lynn, (or another mod) I seem to have approved a ‘comment’ that wasn’t actually a comment that’s now come up on the comments sidebar. Don’t know what to do with it now. Meaning…don’t want to touch in case all sort of wierd and (not so) wonderful stuff starts to happen. Bloody phobia!
We’ll keep an eye out for it…..
these links to topical articles on allied blogs are really helpful; we are not alone
anyway,
Herald
-health delivery delays
-insurance companies are gonna just love the predictive / actuarial potential of these telomere tests
-many Islamic activist groups in Syria do not support the “official” opposition grouping supported by the West
-another truck and trailer falls over
-Tolkein family interests place a line in the sand over inappropriate commercialisation
-wow, there sure is a demand for easy access sex at Hunters Corner
(used to be an excellent Indian restaurant on the road leaving Papatoetoe towards the eastern suburbs, and when one is a single man (or not, as I learn of all the married local Harley club guys hitting the knock-shops as soon as they are away out of town) ya just wanna stick ya dick in something sometimes)
Jackson must be spewing
On the back of bad publicity concerning the mistreatment of animals comes more bad news for the makers of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey movie just days out from its premiere at the Embassy Theatre in Wellington…
splatter
So tell me if I have read the postings wrongly.
The majority of posters here now hate Shearer and would rather see John Key win in 2014 than have the Quisling Shearer bring in a National- lite coalition government for 3 years?
If this premise is correct then the sole focus should be on kneecapping Shearer either before or after the election.
If Shearer loses in 2014 then he would be gone.
If Shearer wins in 2014 then he will stay.
If you cannot kneecap Shearer before election 2014 then you have to work to ensure that he loses.
Will we see embittered Leftists not simply transferring their vote to Green or Mana but strategically biting the bullet and voting National for once only.
I can’t speak for everyone else, but I don’t dislike Shearer, I just dislike how unelectable and incompetent he is.
Will we see embittered Leftists not simply transferring their vote to Green or Mana but strategically biting the bullet and voting National for once only.
WTF? You been smoking crack? Are you asking if lefties would rather vote for a party that would pull Labour into the direction that they think Labour should be heading in, or, vote for National?
Ask google about MMP
great link yesterday (all my troubles seem to fade away) fatty; kiwipolitico is an interesting blog
More bad news, many of our estuaries are approaching environmental collapse.
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/sage-advice-for-saving-our-estuaries.html
How about some focus now on the BIG issues folks? 🙂
Like the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiations which will be starting here in Auckland on 3 December 2012 – 12 December 2012?
What are Labour stalwarts doing on THIS issue?
Hopefully THOUSANDS of you will want the opportunity to show your opposition to the ‘pro-investor’ /’anti-public majority’ Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement?
(What sort of ‘partnership’ – excludes the public?
Why is the TPPA so ‘top secret’?)
Here you go!
SIGN ON HERE FOLKS TO SHOW YOUR OPPOSITION TO THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT! (TPPA)
http://gpjanz.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/urgent-auckland-round-target-1-million-sign-ons-to-avaaz-petititon-to-stop-the-tpp/
MY COMMENT:
What’s good for big business it not usually good for the public majority.
The neo-liberal reforms have proven that FREE TRADE = PRIVATISATION.
Arguably the root cause of corruption is privatisation – how is it decided who gets the contracts?
Where’s the corruption-risk assessment of ‘Free Trade Agreements’ such as the TPPA?
(Haven’t been provided with any reply from MFAT on that question…… first asked it back in 2010 – at the last round of TPPA negotiations held in NZ).
Where is is the ‘cost-benefit analysis’ which proves that the private provision of public services is a more ‘cost-effective’ use of tax-payer and ratepayer monies, compared with when those services used to be provided ‘in-house’ at central and local government level?
How much public monies could be saved by CUTTING OUT THE CONTRACTORS (especially private consultants)?
Where is the TRANSPARENCY?
Where is the ACCOUNTABILITY?
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com
In between lawns
I been wondering how many journalism and /or politics students and faculty read and write here.
There sure are some clever writers and analysts.stream of consciousnes teccnique may be effective and adopted by those possessing consciousness
The link to Gavin Ellis demonstrated his scholarship in propaganda; he would have adopted technique through study and would know about the sinful nature of man and hedonistic versus ethical decisions.
I have a small gardening job for the owner of my rental caravan tomorow. See, man writes about gardening and it happens, like The Death of God.
The local paper reported on the large number of local people living in caravans or inadequate housing.
Very compassionate of them. The editor is also a shill for the real estate industry.
Yet, in the letters to the editor they publish some very critical analyses of salient issues like the NZIER
proposal to increase the New Zealand population to 11M and the implications for the environment and resource use versus foreign export earnings.
the experience of “bipolarity” is both un-nerving and predictable but it can get a person in a lotta trouble until they understand it. (reading Lord of The Rings compulsively in the loo during apprenticeship and going to the gym before and after work on the big motorbike vroom vroom)
This “civics” proposal is interesting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civics
and this entry is interesting
yet I challenge the critics employment of the Aristotle assertion and the three freedoms.
recur the telos back into the sphere and maybe we will see a “kingdom on earth” or do we await our young people ending up in institutions, jail or dead.
Capitalist economic-rationalisation propaganda takes care of “freedom of choice” “freedom of action” and “freedom to” suffer.
May be Confuscianism with a little Taoist leaning to the side while squeaking some decentralization through in a successful Left-bloc government.
The landlord, a self-employed man supporting his family comparitively comfortably, understood that people are aware of economic and climate implications yet they continue to walk into events.
“Conditioned” was his word.
AA is not for every one pointy one; long way round
Consider work, shopping, adrenaline consider new memories consider forgiveness
Great to hear of people digging up their lawn and planting veges. I have done it at few dwellings over recent years.I worked in the produce department of the local supermarket that came out the most expensive in recent nationwide survey; anecdotal support for how they screw the growers on price for access and then mark-up %%%%% sometimes.
Pak N Save are also local, have very friendly staff and often have fresh brocoli and other vegetables at reasonable prices.
An increasing amount of authorities are advising us of how much is determined;
freedom within determinism was how the issue of free-will has been considered;
plenty of nested
hierarchies
within
Evolutionary Biology (big thanks to Hamilton,Cosmides and Toomey)
back to the grass
oops forgot, when I had to rewrite from memory what I had just written spontaneously,
Flockie, I think your thoughts are often exceptional
😉
A Little lightness ,away from the daily worries .
Who will be the man of the year? My choice a toss up,between Bernie Monk and Dr Lance O’Sullivan. . Woman of the year Helen Kelly . hands down !
A Little lightness ,away from the daily worries .
Who will be the man of the year? My choice a toss up,between Bernie Monk and Dr Lance O’Sullivan. . Woman of the year Helen Kelly . hands down !
ooh, I know, I know 🙂 (any union member should do)
Wonder how long has John Banks been involved with Talent2?
“Roll over Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky the news”…
The NZLP is now a tertiary party not the sole opposition. So, pull your heads in. 30 years almost of neo liberalism is way too many. Jobs Jolt? Middle class WFF but not for bennies?
As a late 50s guy my partner tells me I am out of touch with where modern kiwis are at, heh, where is that though? Flat Screen Frenzy? Precarious minimum wage jobs you are meant to be grateful for?
I still do not trust most dudes in suits, which ever one it is, end of.
http://sphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/574603_10151532813403452_216392422_n.jpg
cool.
how ruthless are the beverage companies. Went for a carbonated soft-drink after the lawns
Seven tall fridges, some double, in the superette and not a drink that did not have sugar or caffeine in it
if sugar-free, they had caffeine. very few sugar-free options.ruthless
Has anyone seen the story on, ‘no right turn’ concerning John Banks, apparantley he has a
shareholding in Talent2 through a trust, he is also associate minister of education, (sorry
can’t link it),this is the same crowd responsible for novapay.
I’ve said for awhile that selling Telecom is the perfect example of the dead weight loss of profit. Well, The Greens went and put the real figures on it.:
Dividends lost due to sale in 2011$millions: 16826
So, if private business is so efficient and provides what the community needs without intervention then WTF are we paying Telecom another billion or so to put in place the network that they should have put in place with the ~$17b in dividends that they took from us?
C’mon DtB you know why we’re gifting them another billion, why pay for it yourself when you can get the taxpayer to pay for you to increase your profits.
The Greens need to pretty that data table up and get it out there.
Take from the cold bloody [hope they aren’t dead yet] hands of kiwis, and give to foreign owned corporations has been National policy for ages mate. 😉