So..how will the Nats reconcile their own policies with what Colin (Cray) Craig stands for:
1. wants to abolish the anti smacking law
2. wants to abolish the right to abortion
3. is against asset sales
4. wants to put higher taxes on alcohol
and some other big unknowns about CC’s policies and the people he may bring to Parliament with him?
The Opposition should start stacking up their ammunition…
I was talking to my mate, who grew up in the Herald island area and is a stalwart North Shore Tory hang-em’ high guy from way back, and he reckons that if Key tries an Epsom style deal to get Colin Craig into the new seat the locals won’t cooperate as their is no appetite for God-bother parties. If Labour has a half decent candidate they would have a real chance of winning the seat.
Not that I’m a supporter of CC but he denied his was a Christian party, which would be unlikely if they did have religion-based principles. Also said he hasn’t been to church in decades. Not much of a God-botherer if that’s the case.
My point is those who are devout are not inclined to deny their leanings. Saying its not a Christian party and he doesn’t attend church is at sending a message that a fundamentalist would not consider.
Well, weekly group prayers at businesses he owns suggests he does take it a bit far – same with the homophobia, pro-smacking and anti-abortion routine.
I totally agree with you. A fundamentalist christian would not deny their faith. Sacrilegious they will scream before they self-flagellate. Followed by a rosary bead’s worth of penance.
He is definitely a fundamentalist but of what kind I don’t know.
I know plenty of real Christians who enact in their deeds the teachings of Jesus. There are plenty of priests too who offer real moral guidance. Colon Craig simply wants doctrinal dictatorship and that’s why he shys away from real churches.
(Note: I had to edit “shys” – fucking autocorrect!)
Now thats interesting no reply button until I had logged in, and only on articles that were put up today. Now thats an excellent way to keep the Troll problem under control, well done Lynn.
Colin Craig on TV3 breakfast just running thru all the AK seats I reckon all the punters must be going “Oh hell here we go again they are going to turn us into another Epsom”
Look on the bright side,. Paula Bennett is dog tucker to whoever stands against her in the new Kelston seat. Which raises the question – who is the ideal candidate for that new seat? Carmel Sepuloni? Andrew Little?
Has to be Carmel she did such a good job last time only lost by 9 votes. Sorry but I don’t figure Little in there at all, or do Labour want to gift the seat to the Nats. Little has all the appeal of a toothache.
Absolutely vital that Labour and Greens get this right. The North Harbour seat is potentially winnable if the Greens step aside and enable National and the Conservatives to split each other off. This kind of opportunity won’t arise again for quite some time.
In return Labour could consider pulling out of the Waitakere Ranges area to enable the Greens to harvest higher party votes from the Blue-Greens up there in the forested hills. And their donations.
Similarly for specific areas like Waiheke Island which although not an electorate seat has a high Greens activist base. Labour could effectively not campaign there and leave the Party votes to the greens entirely.
In return the Greens could withdraw their candidate from Auckland Central to enable Labour an electorate win against National’s Member.
And while we are at it, be bold and put Grant Robertson on the list, and enable the Greens to get an electorate seat in Wellington. Thhis could conceivably make the whole coalition safer.
It’s not difficult. Just campaign. ‘Giving’ the Greens electorate seats they don’t need only justifies what National does.
In close seats. Labour candidates should be explicit about the fact that while they obviously want list votes as well, they are also the only electorate candidate that can beat National.
Appeal to voters, don’t do backroom deals and announce them to voters and expect them to fall into line. Left wing voters aren’t tories, they will not like you treating them like tories. Treat them like fucking citizens making choices.
And the objective is an increase in votes across the left – labour swapping votes with the Greens or Mana in various electorates (and vice versa) does absolutely nothing towards changing the government.
under mmp, there’s no such thing as a wasted vote.
edit: and the flipside for trading electorate votes of minimal value is to be seen to play voters for chumps, or divvying them up with an undeserved sense of entitlement.
and, being the astute political analyst that you have demonstrated, the proposition would be… (not avocado on toast, although, with a little cayenne and freshly-ground black pepper- Very Yummy indeed).
Nicky Wagner has admitted that the National Party has failed the east of Christchurch, which suffered by far the most and whose communities have been completely sacked and devastated by the earthquakes. Completely.
In The Press this morning she says that if the new boundaries of Christchurch Central, which she won last time by 47 votes, moves anywhere but west (towards the Ilam and Fendalton nether regions) then the seat will be unwinnable for National.
That is what she said (no link available yet).
Why is that Nicky? Why will it become unwinnable? You have just had one of NZ’s biggest ever disasters which devastated huge chunks of your electorate. That is surely an opportunity for the sitting MP to work to help the constituents through the disaster. Such help would of course be recognised at the ballot box with a return to the seat by the incumbent, namely you Nicky. But you yourself admit, unthinkingly, that that is not going to happen to you.
So why is it not going to happen to you? Why will it be impossible to win Nicky? Why? Surely, if you have helped these people then there is a chance at least you could win again? Yes?
But you aint going to are you. Because you aint done shit for the people of the east of Christchurch. They are about to tell you that aren’t they Nicky.
The people of the east and south of Christchurch are about to tell you to fuck right off because you aint done shit.
Excluding higher paid employees from personal grievances makes sense, says BusinessNZ.
A private member’s bill proposes that employees on salary packages over $150,000 should be able to contract out of the personal grievance provisions of the Employment Relations Act.
The bill, promoted by National’s Paul Goldsmith, would mean a higher paid worker would have to use the civil court to challenge a wrongful dismissal.
Going after high paid employees now. Big business must realise there isn’t a lot more they can take off the low paid.
The white collar professionals who thought that National was on “their side” have another think coming. National is the party of corporates, and the corporates don’t want any trouble from the $200K pa serf overseers that they use.
Titford to go away for a decent stretch for a nasty lot of violence against his wife and family.
I remember an article in North and South or Metro with him photographed against a beautiful background of Northland coastline. Poor little asperashunal businessman, his future projected profit of coastal development and sale of the rich, floating in the fluid around his eyeballs. He was afraid to cry in case his dreams washed away. But he hollered and moaned and complained to good effect and the government paid him out though apparently he didn’t get much out of it. Similar to the Crafar ambition of becoming very rich through land speculation.
And interesting to compare Titford and his anti-Maori rhetoric which the government had to quieten with money, and the poor farmers that the government virtually hounded off their farm. They were charged with negligence in the maintenance of a bridge on their property which collapsed resulting in the death of a beekeeper crossing it. The bridge was built by the Army but they did not warn of the likely problem that is well known with fungus-treated timber – when there is an entry through the outer seal, either from bolts, or a cut to reduce length, fungus can enter and rot it unless there is regular sealing with suitable paint. They were tried for manslaughter I think. Defended by a barrister who fought for years trying to prevent the case being brushed under the political carpet. Over that they had an enormous loss, Titford got his payout, they had to get off their farm. No consideration for them.
In the news about an art auction -Goldie painting a rare portrait, sold to a private buyer for $700,000 odd. Before photography got established, this was the equivalent of a family memorial. I hope that private buyer will now gift it to the relevant tribe if they have a safe place to house it, or allow it to be displayed there, and pay for insurance on it.
If there is a public interest in the Goldie portrait then a public institution should buy it for the public good. eg The Auckland War memorial Museum has a fine collection of Lindauers. Te Papa has a good few Lindauers and Goldies. All reverentially displayed.
Right, sorry. That did occur to me a bit later on… I didn’t hear about the case until his name was out there, I guess on its own it didn’t really rate as nationally news-worthy,
not the point, he says he is even handed in his crusades. According to his own “logic” this guy should have been outted to save the folks of the north from his abuse. Slater hasnt put thousands of his own money into anything… he has backers. Seems this guy didnt warrant outing. Just sexually assaulting women and children after all.
My avast! detected a malware infection on that site, fender.
Infection detected!
avast! Web shield has detected a threat
Infection: URL:Mal
URL: http://simplehitcounter.com/hit.php?
uid=1230609&f=16777215&b=0
It doesn’t mean a lot to me, but I’d hate to see anyone except the trolls pick up an infection.
Holy shit, now it’s philanthropy rather than his business. I’m sure the victims appreciate his generosity in spreading their personal information about the place for profit and prurience.
Hes already paid thousands and received criminal convictions in outing suppression orders
Check out the comments on this article in E-local (you might have seen it in your mailbox, it masquerades as a community newspaper, but pushes right-wing propaganda):
I see that pseudo-historian of Celtic New Zealand, Martin Doutré, is vigorously defending Titford as a political prisoner. I remember when the first book about that rubbish came out. It took me about 2 seconds to realise it was racist crap designed to delegitimise the Treaty. I wonder how long before WhaleSpew leaps on the same filthy bandwagon.
regrettably, Miss Otis had to decline the invitation to the ‘Young Nats Christmas Function’ (going as Hugh Hefner (lol) to another ‘do’ this year) just gotta rustle up a burghandi smoking jacket and a satin dressing gown before next Friday. 😉
Titford to go away for a decent stretch for a nasty lot of violence against his wife and family.
And don’t forget the nasty lot of violence against the local Tangata Whenua. You can be sure the media are studiously ignoring that, and concentrating on the family violence; we need to remind people at every chance that Titford’s rage was aimed at Maori as much as his own family.
An Auckland school, and communities, being sacrificed, sliced and diced, to make way for new motorway, east-west motoway decided on by Auckland Transport. It is a little example of the state that New Zealand is in. Education isn’t getting railroaded, but roaded, out from our prime consideration. It is expendable as roads are the priority. When I was in Naples around the 1970’s I was told that the Mafia made a lot of money building roads. They found them a good little earner, often not necessary going by the volume of users.
In NZ we have the same focussed thinking. It is now 2013 with peak oil and bad climate change developments leading to destruction of infrastructure and our past style of living. More education in the broad understanding, problem-solving, analysing skills are what is needed.
The young have to learn because it is their future that is being warped and wiped. Just as more animals and simple living entities are being lost, those are canaries warning about their possible future. It is sad for them to be raised to adulthood and reach understanding that irreversible conditions have degraded their world and future unfolding before them.
The old have got to a state where most refuse to face difficulties being caused by their present lifestyles that will compound in the future. In general the population is more likely to give active consideration to matters of sex, and personal behaviour especially it is obviously dysfunctional, than the deep structural problems that are very real but not immediately impacting them and contentious. And when the impacts become felt directly, there is surprise, shock and anguish – but still without the energy to address the problem except in band-aid and knee-jerk reaction.
and ‘waste management’ gw. We discussed the privileged response to some recent, local, young-teen “sudden deaths” today; one such response advising (deputy mayor), “having a positive future outlook”! (I am privy to an overview of the case-notes of these two tragedies, and really, they were well-fu#ked already, at such a young age; There was no ‘positive future outlook’! for them, or many others.
Indonesian/Australian bilateral relationship blowing up – Mark Textor not helping
The Indonesians are preparing to suspend all co-operation with Australia on military and immigration matters. Meanwhile, Mr Textor is looking to throw in a few bombs of his own.
In another, the opinionated Liberal insider asked: ”What sort of head of state communicates with a head of a neighbouring government by twitter FFS? SBY”.
Looks as though he forgot to counsel Mr Key re twitter…
Dear old Brian Edwards on te panel yesterday took an opportunity to jump on his bandwagon about comments from anonymous bloggers etc that are nasty and how he could not get away with it because he is known…. well go for it Brian – who do you want to be nasty to?
He really needs to get over this anonymous thing the silly fool…
He is known with his comments, and that carries some extra cred – take it and be happy.
People who are anonymous have less cred when they comment – that is fine. Their anonymity diminishes the value of their comments, at times, especially when flecked with personal nasties..
however, what the anons can do is, by stripping out all of the known and personal of the commentator, place bare facts on the table for objective evaluation, devoid of any issues and credibility around the person who made the comment. And that has additional value above Brian’s known position.
Is that what he cannot handle perhaps?
I wonder if he pokes around here under some nom de plums.
I wonder if he pokes around here under some nom de plums.
Unlikely.
a. I’d have probably have noticed. I’m hyper-aware of any IP that I have worked with, and I’ve helped him on his site from his home system a number of times.
b. Doesn’t fit his style anyway.
It is more of thing from people who haven’t been around online forums for any length of time. They tend to not understand exactly either how the law views everything (basically there is no particular difference between a name and a pseudonym) or how seriously people invest in their online personas.
Essentially the only benefits of using a real name are
1. It makes it easier to claim special knowledge by virtue of who you are.
2. It makes it easier to target people for retribution in the real world
The first is generally irrelevant because you have to demonstrate your effective breadth of knowledge anyway (there are a lot of smart people online). The second happens all of the time for many people outside of the media industry where some degree of legal protection exists which is why the vast majority of people commenting on political forums operate with psuedonyms.
Effectively BE is saying that he’d prefer that only media commentators have a public voice on politics or the media. Since that is never going to happen because of the legal position referred to above, it just becomes a rather useless club.
Yeah, Brian Edwards and Pete George like to rattle on about how personally brave they are with their pensions and lifestyle blocks, which only shows how cowardly and out of touch they really are. Those of us in the real world have bosses who trawl our comments – I’ve already had one who tried to out me.
They aren’t heroes by any definition, they only perpetuate the system that supports their privileges. There’s a golden quote by Danyl McLaughlan on Giovani Tiso’s blog (actually, it was in the replies to some Trotter bullshit about what martyrs “Willie” and “JT” are, but I’m not going to link to that):
‘we’re doomed to be hectored and talked down to by droves of reactionary bewildered old men’
That’s what Edwards has become.
I have to add, I did argue the point about employer surveillance with Edwards and he conceded, but he’s spouting the original bullshit again, which proves that he’s disingenuous at best or a lying bastard in other words.
There is a difference between anonymous and pseudonymous. After all, is Borat really anonymous? How about Woody Allen or Mel Brooks or David Bowie or Michael Caine? (Allen Koenigsberg, Melvin Kaminsky, Maurice Micklewhite and David Jones).
Or George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), for an historical precedent.
Or “lprent” for that matter?
People who use pseudonyms online build up avatar personas in which they have invested a lot of worth, and they keep using them and are willing to be held to their stated opinions at the risk of having to abandon their identities.
Edwards is disingenuously trying to blur the line between pseudonym and anonymity to pump up his own image as some sort of hero. He’s an old man, out of touch in the media in which he tries to make his money. If he doesn’t understand new media, then he’s not competent to serve his clients. I wouldn’t want to hire him if I needed someone to manage my image any more than I would want to use carrier pigeons to deliver mail.
And then we can compare people who use names that by sheer coincidence are the same as those on their birth certificates. “Matthew Hooton” for example is nothing but a brand – everything about him is as fake as Patrick Bateman.
A very workmanlike job. Nicely printed sign in clear font, appropriately sized and evenly cut, fit for its purpose. Quality zinc coated screws of modern type. 100% for meeting all requirements of test. Well done. signed Gerry Brownlee Physical Materials Trade Teacher (Woodwork).
a little over-rated, like The Road Less Travelled ; to be frank, by the time I finished the work of of maintaining the vehicles of consumption, trucks, forklifts, buses, dozers, loaders, I was interested in just riding and drinking piss!, and occasionally that which followed! 😎
I never actually read it. But I and a couple of my friends did our own (usually small) motorcycle maintenance. One or two of them liked the book. I just did the practicum.
Impressive. I have stripped down and rebuilt a bike engine or 2, but not built a whole bike. That was in the pre-digital era. I imagine they are a bit different now.
Talking of ‘personal nasties’ it is nearly beyond me to refrain after having watched the abysmal Paula Bennett on TV3’s 3rd degree last night decrying the rack-renting landlord who owns a ‘holiday park’ in Her electorate and then having the gall to call a public meeting about it,
Rack-renting landlords charging over the top for what are basically ‘slum-dwellings’ need two things to survive and thrive, a severe lack of affordable rental accommodation and the tenants effected by this and the Government that Paula Bennett is a minister of has for the past five years done everything in it’s power to provide the rack-renting landlords of Auckland with plenty of them,
Go round the ‘Holiday parks’ and boarding houses of Auckland and see just how many are trapped in slum conditions paying dearly to live in one room or a mouldering caravan and then count the number of HousingNZ properties this National Government has either knocked over and not replaced or simply flicked off because the property was valuable and the numbers look remarkably the same,
A big Cheer sis goes out to that young woman who stood up to Bennett at that public meeting first asking Her the rhetorical question of exactly where are the HousingNZ properties for the 300 tenants crammed into the slum-park and as there are none where does Bennett get off attempting to ferment trouble for them when that ‘slum’ and it’s rack-renting is all that stands between the tenants and life on the street,
A thought occurred to me this morning that perhaps ‘out on the street’ is where Bennett and National want to see these people….
Of course, such articles and other communications about the Ranui encampment expose the brutality of her social security reforms, so she is going on counter-attack. Of course, if such rack-renters are put out of business, many would just end up totally homeless.
Shameless, heartless, brutal Bennett. No wonder she prefers to move to Upper Harbour where there are little such parks to annoy her – will leave Ranui to Twyford, and other parks to other MPs.
They have no shame these Tory SCUM, in the week National passed under urgency Legislation that will see HousingNZ tenants re-applying en masse to be able to retain their homes and trumpeting the ‘fact’ that they plan to kick out 3000 tenants Bennett is doing a perfect act of ‘violin playing’,
Having cemented into place ‘rotational employment’ this National government will start playing musical chairs with the State’s housing stocks where we will have rotational housing,
As has been shown in Her Social Development portfolio there are plenty of mistakes made and in the rush to give the 3000 State tenants the kick there will be plenty more and guess where the last port of call will be for those mistakenly given the kick from their homes by the overly zealous minions of this particular Minister,
Not the rack-renting slum-lord of the slum-park that Bennett hypocritically decries by any chance…
The mealy mouthed Poorer Benefit – Social Development Minister makes out it is well in hand and anyway housing for others is everyone’s business, so get to tit and help her be the good husband to the homeless that she wants to be!
Paula Bennett says assistance is available.
“Those who are having housing and other social issues will be helped where possible,” she says.
“Rising rents in Auckland will no doubt present challenges but it is up to us as a community to come up with innovative solutions to resolve housing problems.”
The Caravan Park term got me to look for this item on closing a caravan park and dispersing needy people who needed drug and health treatment, some suitable work and income, and support and supervision. Instead they got a hell of a fright with heavy police presence and a clearing out of people who obviously had no or few options for homes and security.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm? c_id=1&objectid=10010412
Drug raid closes caravan park 10/2/2005
Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Neil Grimstone said Green Acres (Mangere) was a well-known drug supermarket and police had attended nearly everything from domestic disputes to sexual violations there in the past few years….
Just after 6.30am they
left for 142 Favona Rd in 45 police cars.
Intersections were closed to allow the huge convoy to arrive together. The police Eagle helicopter followed from above. By 7am, the caravan park – the subject of endless complaints from local residents – was raided…
Occupants – Yesterday there were about 60, some of whom were children. Manukau City Council environmental health and enforcement manager Kevin Jackson said the park had been operating since 1986 but did not have a camping ground licence. Nor did it have code of compliances or resource consent.
Mangere councillor James Papali’i said although there was an element of criminal activity there were also a lot of good people living at the park.
He said many tenants faced real hardships and his main concern was for their future if the park was permanently closed down.
Police found what could be expected –
* Hundreds of tinnies and “dealing amounts” of methamphetamine.
* Two shotguns, one sawn-off rifle and one handgun.
* 14 unregistered and two registered dogs, which were impounded.
* 12 arrests, possibly more to follow.
A lot of money was spent on this raid, and order was restored for the people around. The question is why couldn’t some of that money go into working with the good, stable people within that group, and helping to get people off drugs, etc, keeping the younger ones stable, and enabling them to stay in work. If selling drugs was not against the law, and the government didn’t choose to irrationally hate one set of drugs and embrace others, then protection from shotguns wouldn’t be thought necessary. Unregistered dogs are not usually a criminal offence and without drug illegality they would not be so important for protection.
The point is that the condition of that particular ‘slum’ had little to do with the criminal behavior of some of it’s occupants, having all been booted out of this particular ‘slum’ do the authorities or anyone else believe that such criminal behavior was curtailed for more than the time it took for the criminal element that that particular ‘slum’ housed to find new housing,
Only the brainless would draw such a conclusion,
This brings to mind the Housing Minister Nick Smith’s recent gloating song and dance over putting the bulldozers through a whole street of units in the Lower Hutt suburb of Pomare and then flicking off the land for private housing,
The street He said harbored a number of criminals, what He of course didn’t say,(nor care about obviously), was that the criminals who were housed there, if not in jail, are now housed somewhere else, i do not believe even Nick Smith is stupid enough to believe that kicking these people out of their houses and bulldozing the houses to the ground will for more than a moment have altered any criminal activity,( the point of Smith’s stupidity is of course debatable),
The effort put into kicking the ‘offensive’ tenants out of this particular street is said to have in the end cost the State at least a million dollars, the demolition of the houses and selling off of the land from where i sit looks simply like a Fascist retaliation against all State tenants by the Minister hell bent on extracting the cost of these evictions from within the portfolio He is tasked with managing…
Vto, what the fuck would you know about who is and who isn’t redeemable, well past redemption is simply right wing bullshit,
In the case of HousingNZ tenants there should be a ‘spelling out’ of the tenants resposibility surrounding their neighbour’s right to ‘quiet enjoyment’ of their tenancies without harrasment or standover tactics with the full knowledge of the consequences,(something HousingNZ still do not bother to do),
What or who is irredeemable??? i left Paremoremo Maximum security prison many years ago with a pre-release report which in part read, ”as the divisional Officer in charge of this individual and were it not for the fact that He is serving a finite sentence i would recommend that He never be released, He is one of the most dangerous individuals i have had custody of in 20 years of service”,
Theoretically irredeemable according to ‘an expert’, yet i have never served another term of imprisonment and have lived in this little street for 5 years without a single dispute with any neighbour and i piss on your ‘irredeemable’…
well that is a doozy and very honest of you. congrats. people like you are an asset to the community (i think? tell me). though quite how you would assume was talking of you I’m not sure.
and what would i know? that is immaterial and it would be a mistake to assume.
but rather than revert to the original point, maybe it could be moved on in order to grease-gun the nuts…. how does this happen to people? are they actually in that irredeemable position or is that the officer alone? what factors bring about the ‘redemption’ (terrible word)? some distinguishment may be of assistance.
but more importantly, what of those who must live with a ‘redemption’? Next door? While bringing in the milk….
“redemption – an act of redeeming or atoning for a fault or mistake, or the state of being redeemed.”
either way redemption seems to me to allow people to move forward and I think that is the way to do it. After all, stones and glass houses and the people who throw and all that.
Vto, yes you made the mistake in the earlier comment of assuming which is the only reason i ‘outed’ myself as one previously marked as irredeemable so as to disabuse you of such a notion,
There are very few people who with the right incentives and management i would consider to be irredeemable, and a far as the neighbours go i am sure when they realized who it was living next door they might have had the odd heart stopping moment but as i say i have been here for 5 years,
i will simply finish by saying that the less chances of redemption that there are then the less of it there will be…
a little non-fiction story: My neighbour is the Sergeant-Of-Arms, notorious throughout NZ. He has been (not a little) aggressive and intimidating to a particular dog for about a month, more than a little concerning considering the implications of where I have been ‘located’. Last night, after I had retired to bed with a book, there was a knock at the door…I allowed him in, and was a little surprised that he went on to apologise for (three times), and explain his behaviour: A Modern Miracle. Really, I do not understand where some folk on TS get-off, yet I usually just put it down to ignorance. Very sad.
Indeed – there have been a number of supposedly “irredeemable” people who’ve proven their accusers wrong.
It’s a shame there’s such a change in attitude over the years.
I wonder @bad12 whether you ever had the pleasure of meeting a lady called Ana Tia.
Her lessons seem to have been lost by those running our institutions these days – and of course the politicians driving it all
It’s not just National. I noticed boarding houses and caravan parks filling up shortly after the first ACT government sat their traitorous bums on the green leather. I think the situation has only worsened since.
Is there anyone in Labour or the Greens especially interested in keeping an overview of IT in NZ especially in Government and other connected entities. It seems to me that supplying substandard programs and probably soon, hardware, has become on the great scams of the 21st century. We can see roads and get an idea of what they are doing and costing by applying to the OIA if necessary. Computers and electronics and all their complexity, languages, redundancies, paradigms, algorhithms blah blah , cables, mirroring, peer something, off the shelf programs cf to bespoke ones. Sheesh. We need to have a Ringmaster (or Mistress and no S&M intended) for this Circus.
Who would be appropriate and knowledgable for this role either in left wing Government or well connected to give balanced unbiased advice, or if biased a revealed one. There are sure to be connections within the sector so I’m thinking pragmatically here.
The government should have its own IT department. It’s large enough to require work done all the time and it also requires compatibility between departments. This being true it’s actually massively inefficient (read: Costs a hell of a lot more) to bring in private contractors who would be unlikely to work to a set of standards and won’t have the IT dependent inter-departmental knowledge needed to make compatibility between departments both secure and cost effective.
DTB
Sounds like what I’ve heard. Not that I know all that much. But who in Labour and Greens would know enough to understand what’s going on and stop the waste of money and time now happening?
There are people who can talk the talk very impressively at present, but should be walking down a plank and being pushed off. But they aren’t and don’t. They leave at a certain crucial point in time, which is before they lose the chance of getting some great reimbursement.
What I read in the news and hear is disgraceful and there needs to be someone with an overview. I have a copy of an email which talks about the happenings in his area of expertise and it seems to make valid points that would relate to numbers of programs and sites.
I wonder who is going to take responsibility for technology in Labour and Greens. Because this is a black hole which we can’t keep dropping money into and getting trouble out of. It should not be a lucky dip that we reach into hopefully, luck is what we need though at present.
SSC has generic oversight. Each ministry *does* have its own IT department… very large in the case of MSD.
Backoffice work isn’t glamorous but seeing IT purely as a cost to be minimised is a typical management error which often leads to disaster, when critical systems become neglected.
Complex real world problems are only solved with sophisticated systems, and no technology lasts forever.
True but what they don’t have what I think the government needs is their own people developing their own software. At the moment they tend to go to private providers and we end up, seemingly more often than not, with a complete balls-up that costs far more than it should have. An internal government department tasked with providing all of the software (including the OS) that the government uses would, IMO, go a long way to eliminating those fuck-ups.
ropata
I see your points. But thinking about money spent. The effectiveness and efficiency thing once new systems are up and running I would think is far from what is expected. That costs money trying to fix.
Then there is compatability of systems which could help to keep costs down but there are limits on the ability to bring complex systems together.
And as you say not having sufficient staff to maintain systems, and control new add-ons and rotate the hardware, ageing out and updated in and incorporate the new fully into the system with firewall etc and check on the back-up batteries and the generators and… There is not enough money allocated to properly maintain systems, and more needs to be spent in the right place to get the best bang for each $. That’s an interested newbie outsider’s view.
Typical, useful information gets mixed up with gynaecological warped curiosity.
Decades ago when swearing in public and bad language, abuse etc was criminally punishable it was not allowed to be repeated in public, and the written words could not be legally carried within the postal system. A difficulty in gaining the facts and information for bringing a prosecution was caused.
Worse – rape is not a sex crime but an act meant to humiliate and destroy a person, so the Roast Busters page was an extension of their rapes… and the police, for “operational” reasons knowingly allowed their crimes to continue. The police didn’t just turn a blind eye to rape, they facilitated it… because the son of one of their own was doing it.
Now what’s the difference between saying that your hands were tied and hypocritically wringing them? There’s a question for Marshall.
Ooh, let me guess, in order to score a trivial point, are you pretending to some sort of sophistication and even – dare I say it, wit? You subscribe to the myth that there is some equivalence of power. If Marshall had shown up on my doorstep wearing his shiny hat with a box of chocolates and a bunch of roses, the real message that he would be delivering would be “We know where you live, matey”.
Jesus PR, you really are dumb, and trying to be “witty” you only make that more obvious.
As an aside, why is it that the most reactionary arselickers try to name themselves as “rebels” or “jesters”?
From China Weekly
Palestinians’ first ever UN vote symbolic yet historic http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-11/21/c_125736111.htm
English.news.cn 2013-11-21 03:53:53
RAMALLAH, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) — The Palestinians’ first ever vote at the UN General Assembly was symbolic but historic on their way toward the world’s full recognition of a Palestinian state, officials and analysts said here on Wednesday.
Almost a year after the UN General Assembly upgraded the Palestinian status to that of a non-member observer state, the chief Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour cast a ballot on Monday in an election of a judge for the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
The casting of the Palestinian ballot was accompanied with a loud applause in the 193-nation assembly, a matter that angered the Israeli envoy.
So Chris Tremain the obscure minister of Internal Affairs is worried that 414 people voted for the criminal Allen Titford when His standing as a candidate was illegal,
i would worry more that there are 414 people in Northland with the sanity,(lack of), to express a desire to have someone of Titfords ilk as their Mayor,
i would further worry about ‘birds of a feather’ and wonder what might be occurring within the families of the 414 who would choose a man,(a thing), of Titford’s ilk as their Mayor,
That small demographic of electoral support i would suggest is worthy of a serious dose of community mental health or perhaps more to the point worthy of bearing the brunt of the prying eyes of a criminal investigation…
Wouldn’t just the ‘politics of ‘it’ make you want to run a mile let alone knowing what the total amount of insanity He obviously has ensconced in His cranial cavity….
As we approach the fifth anniversary of the start of the first quantitative easing program, some are asking the thorny question about the so-called “distributional effects” of these unprecedented programs. Who really benefited since the first QE was launched? There is a great deal of debate on the topic, but here are a couple of facts. Financial asset valuations, particularly in the corporate sector have seen sharp increases. For example the S&P500 index total return (including dividends) has delivered 144% over the 5-year period. Those who had the resources to stay with stock investments were rewarded handsomely.
Instead of calling it Quantitative Easing it really should have been called Massive Stock Bubble and Gift to the already Wealthy
Oops, being a bit too honest there about your utter arseholeness, Brian. You’re supposed to be slicker than that. The same goes to everyone who’s drawing paycheques from The Herald.
Gosh, I wonder why newspapers are dying? Could it be because they’re becoming increasingly out of touch and irrelevant? Nah…
DTB 21.1 Whose rant do you mean? Brian Emerson’s I take it.
I had a look at this and came upon the Stuff Nation Assignment set-up. First time I’ve seen it.
They set some topics and if you are a dick capable of shooting your mouth off without rude words you can write a few paras and put them forward for consideration.
I had a look for Brian Emerson and the one that I came up with is someone in Gisborne who has a motor trade licence to repossess vehicles. Someone who would have strong understanding of the stresses of being short of money and not able to manage in today’s flash NZ economy! And getting flasher. Probably more work for B.E.
Brian Emerson is completely without understanding.
He says this … “The problem with New Zealand’s housing crisis is that everyone wants their own house but many did nothing in their lives to enable this to happen. ”
It doesn’t even come onto his radar that there are well established practices and beliefs in pretty much all societies throughout history that people don’t have to do anything but be born to expect a home. It is a baseline for human societal existence.
His rant there is incredibly narrow. Like looking out through a slit in the wall.
A while ago someone asked why we needed FttH. Well NASA, indirectly, answers:
Why Optical Communication?
The scientific instruments in near-Earth and deep-space missions increasingly require higher communication rates to transmit their gathered data back to Earth or to support high-data-rate applications (e.g., high-definition video streams). Optical communications (also referred to as ‘lasercomm’) is an emerging technology wherein data is modulated onto laser beams, which offers the promise of much higher data rates than what is achievable with radio-frequency (RF) transmissions.
In response to criticism from readers, the editor of “E-local” (see above) replies –
“elocal told Titfords story, one of a modern day land grab. As for your comment re conspiracy stories, I as editor don’t need to defend what we have presented. For one the authors put their names to their pieces not like you who hides like a coward under the title of anomymous. I doubt if you have half the accademic record or research under your belt to have a comment or article even to be considered to be published.”
(emphasis added)
So, just to be clear – the editor’s moral code says …
– commenting anonymously is bad
– decades of assault, rape, arson – and incidentally, cowardice – is not so bad
– and the editor isn’t responsible for his own work!
Feel free to e-mail them – I have (links in my comments above). This matters, because ‘E-local’ is not just a bigot blog, it’s a free magazine distributed throughout Auckland. You can find it in cafes, etc. It’s poison, spreading far and wide.
Thanks gobsmacked – submitted a pseudonymous comment – particularly querying the use of the pseudonym “editor” to criticise “anonymous comments.
The editor might be the female sub-editor mentioned at the top of the article, but who knows. And her name and the name of the author of the article mean nothing to me – they might as well be anonymous. Anyway the article stands and falls on its content.
Parliament is an adversarial chamber. As can be seen as the Speaker keeps taking sides against the opposition, but I think that’s not the purpose of the Speaker to sit around and listen (and laugh) with the government points. Take for example the way the speaker does not jump in to the highly political questions that National asks its own ministers, the more boring they are, the more irrelevant, the more parliamentary time they take up, the less useful parliament is. But its worse, the Speaker allows the government to spend minutes on ‘good news’ dross, statistics and governing nonsense.
Yet when the opposition put up in any way, a slight against the government the government are up on there feet giving renditions of opposition policy, and welll might they, as the Speaker has allowed government to preach its own policies off its own questions, letting the government preach wrongheaded views of opposition policies seems so justified.
Question time is a time used to hold the government to account, so the asking of patsy questions that appeal to the government is a waste of time and should be ruled out of order, I never get to hear opposition policies stated without contention from the Speaker.
Ministers have a ministry stacked with knowledge that oppositions do not have access to, so it seems quite wrong for the Speaker to argue that balance means equality. Opposition questions, without the wrap around of a minister office, or having never been in government, are likely to be politically tinged, whereas ministers have no such excuse. For the Speaker to be unbiased he needs a thicker left ear and a much more honed right ear. Where questions are not of a higher charged nature, where they do not hit home, then the Speaker has the duty to call into the questioners waste of parliamentary time (and eject government ministers who revere their own great leadership).
So the Speaker should ignore political questions where the underlying question is well purposed.
And the Speaker should eject Joyce, for his nonsense. Joyce has a problem with nuance. Greens correctly informed the market about power policy, and correctly point out that National power sell off is a failure yet Joyce does not believe those two acts of opposition can him are justifiable. That’s just nonsense, he may not understand that being principled can come across as contrary, he obviously has never done principled politics.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment released a major report today on Water quality in New Zealand: Land use and nutrient pollution. The core finding? Continued dairy expansion will pollute our waterways, rendering them unusable for recreation or drinking:
And yet National and several city councils want more of this. All they see is the money and fail to see the reality behind it.
Adams obscures 😉 Anadarko Oil Spill Risk of Kaikoura http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11160823
Report: 70% probability of a ‘reportable’ incident (not just spills) at Kaikoura well within a year of exploration opening; 7 Times more probable on a deep-sea exploration drill than an in-shore one. Bridges pours more slick on.
“When was the last time I lost the plot?”
Leighton Smith snarls at critic of deep sea oil-drilling
NewstalkZB, Thursday 21 November 2013, 9:10 a.m.
“Newstalk ZB is for ignorant louts, the intellectually challenged and the modern day version of the 1930s brown shirts.”—Anne, The Standard, 9 August 2013
As I was driving the Breenmobile around the East Coast Bays this morning, I chanced on the following brief encounter involving a caller (Mike) trying, unwisely, to talk intelligently with NewstalkZB’s most notorious loon, the race-baiting supercrank and science-denier Leighton Smith. Hatin’ Leighton spent a couple of minutes reflecting on the escapades of Toronto’s crack-smoking mayor Rob Ford, then came down from Mt Olympus to took his first call…..
LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmmm, ahhhhhhhh. Ummmmmm, it’s ten minutes past nine. Ummmmmmmmmmm. Mike is on the line. CALLER MIKE: Yes, Leighton, it’s quite amazing how these politicians can get away with behavior like that. LEIGHTON SMITH: Hrrrrumph. MIKE: It’s hard to get information out of politicians. They do their best to hide it from the public. LEIGHTON SMITH: Hrrrrumph. Ahhhhmmmmmm…. MIKE: I hear that Gareth Hughes is finding it very difficult to get information about deep sea oil drilling. LEIGHTON SMITH:[suddenly hostile] What’s THAT got to do with it? MIKE: This is the biggest issue of our time. LEIGHTON SMITH: WHAT? MIKE: Deep sea oil drilling off our coasts is the biggest issue in New Zealand at this time. LEIGHTON SMITH: You wouldn’t happen to be OPPOSED to it by any chance, would you? MIKE: I’m not opposed to all oil drilling. Just to dangerous oil drilling. LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmmmmm, ahhhhhhhh. You don’t think you should be concerned about your own state of mind, and possible depression? MIKE:[taken aback] I’m not depressed. You’re playing games. LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmm, ahhhhhhh. When was the last time you heard me being cranky? When was the last time I lost the plot? Thanks for your call. [Long pause.] He thought I was having a go at him, but I wasn’t. Was I? I just wanted to have a conversation with him. He’s actually put me in a good mood! Back in a minute!
……Advertisements, including this station promo: “From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed: NewstalkZB is one long conversation!” A montage of NewstalkZB voices, including Larry “Lackwit” Williams snarling, “This GARBAGE!” and Mike “Contra” Hosking ranting against state housing.
LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmmm, ahhhhhhh. Some of you have been very UNKIND about Mike! “This guy’s off the planet,” says one text. Here’s another one: “Please kill this call because I’m losing the will to live.” Leonie, you are VERY unkind! It is ahhhhhhh, ummmmmmmm, twenty-five past nine…..
“Newstalk ZB is for ignorant louts, the intellectually challenged and the modern day version of the 1930s brown shirts.”—Anne, The Standard, 9 August 2013
I did say that too. Nary a truer word hath been spoke. 😈
Once in a blue moon, an idle twisting of the dial lands me on the Leighton Smith Show. Every time within minutes of tuning in, the brown shirt in question launches into yet another climate change denying diatribe. To say he’s obsessed with, and ignorant of, the reality of the scientific evidence is an understatement.
Yes phil ure, we do need an answer to that question.
And what difference would it make to their ‘spying’ if they told us anyway? If they said “yes, we are recording everything you punch into a key board” then so what?
..did helen clark agree to the american request for their spooks to spy on new zealanders..? … do you think the americans would have given her the green-light/tick for her u.n. job..
Actually it was revealed a couple of years or more ago that Ban Ki moon had Clark in his sights for the job immediately following the 2008 election. She was approached by him (or an intermediary on his behalf) not the other way around. That is my recollection anyway. The US has no more influence on UN decision making than any other nation.
You should read Nicky Hagar’s book “Other People’s Wars” phillip ure. It concerns Afghanistan, Iraq and the war on terror. The Clark government was not informed about quite a few things that happened involving NZ Defence personnel in the name of those wars. I would expect that any spying by the Americans on NZers during Labour’s tenure in office did not occur with their knowledge and blessing. Certainly there would have been formal communications concerning a handful of citizens with suspect contacts in the above countries, but wholesale spying? Not with Clark’s approval – that’s a given!
They spied on Angela Merkel and German citizens without her knowledge. Why would Helen Clark be any different?
As for the British PM… Cameron is part of a very close relationship between the two countries. The UK and the US have been a terrible twosome for years. It’s not a belief phillip ure. I know Helen. I suspect you don’t.
Dare you to read “Other People’s Wars.” You might discover quite a lot of things. Might even change your mind.
In theory being one of the Five Eyes, NZ should have a higher degree of protection
HOWEVER this latest report shows that the UK govt gave away their citizens protection to the US…and the US were about to take it away from the UK anyways.
Snowden worked for a ?private? company with the govt contract?…. ….if you want conspiracy to believe why not choose greed, the dot come market had run its course, some arab terrorists were flagged training in the US to fly planes, the markets were due for a collapse (global derivatives company went bust).
Opportunity to sit on hands and be in front to move the new apparatus up into position.
Now the US has a global model of the world economy, and can drill down into any board room on the planet. This can now not be ignored by the US’s allies.
It was about the economy. And sure, TBTF and the other corporates are grabbing everything they can asap before they have to run out the door. It is of course, an insane, sociopathic game of building up points on electronic score boards (printed $) with the unrealistic assumption that its going to be worth a damn in real life after the ecosystem collapses and our fossil fuelled global civilisation starts grinding to a halt.
So it was about the economy. Now it’s primarily about the oligarchy maintaining power and control in the face of an increasingly restive homeland. Put it another way; we are well into the transition from Huxley to Orwell.
Oh well since your being honest I guess I’ll be honest as well…
I don’t expect that what I’m about to say will have any effect on you at all but for what its worth I respect courage, I respect people who take a stand, I may not agree with what they’re saying or doing but I respect the courage behind it
You in my opinion are a coward, in fact you’re cliche, you’re the type of blogger the media loves to portray, the type thats big and tough in front of a keyboard but in reality is nothing more then a scared little boy
When I type something on here or other websites I always think to myself “would I say this to the other person in real life”
Lie to me all you like I don’t care but what I know is if you and met in real life you wouldn’t say any of the things to me that you’ve posted on here and that makes you a coward and a liar
Look at it this way “fappity”… do you understand the nature of power? The cops have power and they routinely abuse it. I’ve a lot of friends whose experiences would in themselves be automatic Godwins because they have seen up close and personal Nazism and Stalinism. If you aren’t scared by that, you’re an arselicking fool.
What are you going to say? “It can’t happen here”? That’s the usual one.
Oh I would, no doubt about that. I’m worse in real life and apologise much less.
I’ve had students say to my face that they think I’m like Hannibal Lecter, the Joker and Tony Soprano and meant – judging by their expressions and tone of voice – to compliment me.
Again: If I love you, you can hurt me. Otherwise… nah.
Yeah……nah you’re just another sad internet blowhard…. a man of your age squawking about the police and calling them pigs then having a big cry, it’d be quite funny if it wasn’t so pathetic.
Oh “fappity” is back, pulling faces and blowing raspberries. I’m sorry, but I can’t reply in depth since there’s not even the remotest semblance of syntax or intimation of meaning.
“You’re sad”
Actually I have depression and take pills for it. Next insult please.
I tell all my mates in real life that right wing trolls are wankers, same as I say here. I don’t really get the point of this real life stuff. Does it prove something? On the internet, I’ve had to learn not to spit for emphasis. Makes a mess of the screen.
I tell all my mates in real life that right wing trolls are wankers, same as I say here.
– Good
I don’t really get the point of this real life stuff. Does it prove something?
– Its quite easy to say anything you like because of the protection of distance but its meaningless you’re willing to back it up face to face
– Thats why I tend to reflect other peoples attitudes back towards them ie if people are civil to me then I’m civil back if people are arseholes to me well then I’m an arsehole back etc etc
I didn’t see a coward. I saw a person full of empathy, worried about how legal protections are disappearing, being more worried than I would have been by an unexpected phone call.
We can’t all be as tough as you, piss73. I’m too scared to even wave my walking stick at people on the internet. I wish I had a huge e-penis like you, or are you just a dick?
He sounded off against Marshall
He freely entered his contact details
He chickened out of having a conversation via phone with Marshall
He left paranoid ramblings about his misadventures
and not that its that important but he also started talking about my penis first, tried to suggest I’m homophobic and that I have rape fantasies about elderly women
So if I’m a dick I’m going to out on a limb and suggest this guys a bigger dick then I
Odd things that have stayed in my mind – I will have to watch again.
How we are being undermined by the Right. In Italy Berlusconi and his system suspended rights and went into emergency powers and that might be that they could clear parks to prevent rape. It’s a mixing of left wing thoughts, with right wing domination.
Italy, he says it is like Duck Soup Groucho Marx film, having Berlusconi in power.
The left has concentrated on people’s rights gay, etc. and left the large core of left ideas for the Right to pick up. Now we are being subverted. Very interesting.
Point of view put forward by one speaker:
If capitalism had been able to work we wouldn’t be where we are today.
It’s government interference. If capitalism had been able to work everything would have gone down, and the cleansing system of capitalism would have got everything right. Zizek says that it is not the socialists that have brought this about its capitalism out of control. You never admit the system is wrong he says. He quotes the communists in Yugoslavia coming out with the very same thought.
SZ is interesting – agree with many things he says, but not all.
He was at a conference in Auckland a few years back. One of the things that sticks in my mind is him talking about how he avoids doing “office hours” – ie those hours when a Uni lecturer or tutor is meant to be available to talk with students. he really doesn’t like Office Hours.
To get around Low Equity Mortgages banks are, from my sources. approaching real estate agents and some potential new home owners with good earning capabilities, to increase their equity by offering extremely low credit cards (interest rates around 3%)Even though credit cards are unsecured (that is why we pay 19%interest rates), that should the debt be defaulted this would still be tied to the property.
Wonder how the authorities feel about such discrepancies of interest rates and how the banks can justify charging from 3% to some and 19+% for the rest. 🙁
Given certain posts and threads of comments over the last week or so, which to me are reaching a bit into the “bizarre” territory of discussion, and having dared to question some “slogans” and “sloganised” arguments, I will try to in future stay away from The Standard, apart from perhaps commenting now and then on Open Mike.
It is my strong conviction, that “the left” that chooses to express themselves here under various names and from various groups are representing certain views and positions, that I can partly accept, but I feel that most of society will not understand and accept. That is not my worry, so I leave it up to the democratic process for that to be dealt with.
At NO TIME did I ever try to excuse or support “rape” or anything of such behaviour, and what came out of all that has disappointed me, yes shocked me, and it taught me, to stay well clear of certain commenters and bloggers here now.
As for what concerns me and some other personally, I am posting this to simply remind those that are interested, what deserves attention, analysis and resolution. I will NOT support any future party that does not address this, does not distance itself from this, and that keeps quiet on this:
I know the forum it has been posted on has received a bit of controversy re some “members”, but apart from that it was created and is being maintained for the purpose of informing persons on issues, and how they can find help, perhaps.
That is also where I and a few I know and have cooperated with are coming from, and hence we will maintain all said, written and posted, and push for this to get more public attention.
While this may disinterest certain more “politically minded” various persons here, I leave it to all others, and the many readers, to make use of and to judge or decide on.
Best wishes Standardistas, have a “happy new year” coming up!
“bad12”, with all respect, I accept that I am diagnosed as “mentally ill”, so perhaps understand some previous “songs” and “violins”. Being ill like this does not mean “insanity”, although at times I may have been close to it, but then again, it takes a genius to be bordering on insanity.
I have nothing more to say, but perhaps you may understand now, I do withdraw for my own mental health, and perhaps that of others. Besides of that, the information I provided remains to be valid, irrespective of my mental state. Good luck I appreciated always your smart thoughts, but sometimes against me. Life is a never ending journey, hopefully leading to some maturity and wisdom.
Lolz X, i thought you might take my little comment in the vein that you have, the violin overture i hint at has nothing to do with the useful information you provide and is simply a reference to your developing preference to indulge in the little ‘drama queen moments’ where you are leaving this site, restricting your comments on this site etc etc,
Having over the course of many year been diagnosed by the Doctors in charge as being afflicted with, depending upon ‘their moods’ it would seem, untreatable bouts of psychotic behavior to full on paranoid schizophrenia i will regrettably decline what i see as your open invitation to label myself a genius,(criminal madman in my case seems more appropriate),
Keep commenting X and learn that this is a little battlefield of ideas where if you believe in the content of the comments you post you fight with all and sundry without either a backward step or a moan about the comments of those who disagree with your point of view all the while realizing that all of us, even the self appointed genius, are wrong sometimes and only the bigger person is willing to admit that…
TV3 News saw The Cunliffe score an own goal with his oil hyperbole exposed for all to see again. Will he never learn. Each time he is on TV the Labour vote drops.
Will he never learn. Each time he is on TV the Labour vote drops.
Ummm I’m sure that if I wanted to make the effort of doing a search, then I could find you saying exactly the same thing in the same words about the previous two Labour party leaders. It also wouldn’t surprise me that if I looked into your IP pattern, I could find you making exactly the same observation about Helen Clark and Michael Cullen…
If I did make that effort, then I’d have to assist you to amend your behaviour. If you are going to troll, then at least do it so that I don’t get bored. Then I won’t feel like booting you off the site like a bad TV advertisement. It isn’t you opinion, it is your lamearse pisspoor excuse of a way of trolling. It is so frigging awful that neither I nor anyone else can be arsed listening to your appalling lack of originality. You are a wit that is just witless.
This is particularly the case incidentally when you jump from negative advertising to that rather horrible slavish purse-dog imitation you do whenever you mention the Great and Wonderful Leader.. You read like a Paul Goldsmith biography.
Here – try the mirror… Looks like Paula Bennetts purse..
Clear? I don’t think it will be long before I get moved to boot you off the site again.
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The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
A listing of 24 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 26, 2025 thru Sat, February 1, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is global warming ...
Our low-investment, low-wage, migration-led and housing-market-driven political economy has delivered poorer productivity growth than the rest of the OECD, and our performance since Covid has been particularly poor. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty this ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.As far as major government announcements go, a Three Ministers Event is Big. It can signify a major policy development or something has gone Very Well, or an absolute Clusterf**k. When Three Ministers assemble ...
One of those blasts from the past. Peter Dunne – originally neoliberal Labour, then leader of various parties that sought to work with both big parties (generally National) – has taken to calling ...
Completed reads for January: I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson The Black Spider, by Jeremias Gotthelf The Spider and the Fly (poem), by Mary Howitt A Noiseless Patient Spider (poem), by Walt Whitman August Heat, by W.F. Harvey Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White The Shrinking Man, by Richard Matheson ...
Do its Property Right Provisions Make Sense?Last week I pointed out that it is uninformed to argue that the New Zealand’s apparently poor economic performance can be traced only to poor regulations. Even were there evidence they had some impact, there are other factors. Of course, we should seek to ...
Richard Wagstaff It was incredibly jarring to hear the hubris from the Prime Minister during his recent state of the nation address. I had just spent close to a week working though the stories and thoughts shared with us by nearly 2000 working people as part of our annual Mood ...
Odd fact about the Broadcasting Standards Authority: for the last few years, they’ve only been upholding about 5% of complaints. Why? I think there’s a range of reasons. Generally responsible broadcasters. Dumb complaints. Complaints brought under the wrong standard. Greater adherence to broadcasters’ rights to freedom of expression in the ...
And I said, "Mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone"'Cause I can't go outside, I'm scared I might not make it homeWell I'm alive, I'm alive, but I'm sinking inIf there's anyone at home at your place, darlingWhy don't you invite me in?Don't try to feed me'Cause I've been ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ star is on the rise, having just added the Energy, Local Government and Revenue portfolios to his responsibilities - but there is nothing ambitious about the Government’s new climate targets. Photo: SuppliedLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
It may have been a short week but there’s been no shortage of things that caught our attention. Here is some of the most interesting. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt took a look at public transport ridership in 2024 On Thursday Connor asked some questions ...
The East Is Red: Journalists and commentators are referring to the sudden and disruptive arrival of DeepSeek as a second “Sputnik moment”. (Sputnik being the name given by the godless communists of the Soviet Union to the world’s first artificial satellite which, to the consternation and dismay of the Americans, ...
Hi,Back on inauguration day we launched a ridiculous RFK Jr. “brain worms” tee on the Webworm store, and I told you I’d be throwing my profits over to Mutual Aid LA and Rainbow Youth New Zealand. Just to show I am not full of shit, here are the receipts. I ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump over Gaza and Ukraine.Health expert and author David Galler ...
In an uncompromising paper Treasury has basically told the Government that its plan for a third medical school at Waikato University is a waste of money. Furthermore, the country cannot afford it. That advice was released this week by the Treasury under the Official Information Act. And it comes as ...
Back in November, He Pou a Rangi provided the government with formal advice on the domestic contribution to our next Paris target. Not what the target should be, but what we could realistically achieve, by domestic action alone, without resorting to offshore mitigation. Their answer was startling: depending on exactly ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guest David Patman and ...
I don't like to spend all my time complaining about our government, so let me complain about the media first.Senior journalistic Herald person Thomas Coughlan reported that Treasury replied yeah nah, wrong bro to Luxon's claim that our benighted little country has been in recession for three years.His excitement rose ...
Back in 2022, when the government was consulting internally about proactive release of cabinet papers, the SIS opposed it. The basis of their opposition was the "mosaic effect" - people being able to piece together individual pieces of innocuous public information in a way which supposedly harms "national security" (effectively: ...
With The Stroke Of A Pen:Populism, especially right-wing populism, invests all the power of an electoral/parliamentary majority in a single political leader because it no longer trusts the bona fides of the sprawling political class among whom power is traditionally dispersed. Populism eschews traditional politics, because, among populists, traditional politics ...
I’ve spent the last week writing a fairly substantial review of a recent book (“Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race”) by a couple of Australian academic economists on Australia’s pandemic policies and experiences. For all its limitations, there isn’t anything similar in New Zealand. ...
Mr Mojo Rising: Economic growth is possible, Christopher Luxon reassures us, but only under a government that is willing to get out of the way and let those with drive and ambition get on with it.ABOUT TWELVE KILOMETRES from the farm on the North Otago coast where I grew up stands ...
You're nearly a good laughAlmost a jokerWith your head down in the pig binSaying, 'Keep on digging.'Pig stain on your fat chinWhat do you hope to findDown in the pig mine?You're nearly a laughYou're nearly a laughBut you're really a crySongwriter: Roger Waters.NZ First - Kiwi Battlers.Say what you like ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Climate denial is dead. Renewable energy denial is here. As “alternative facts” become the norm, it’s worth looking at what actual facts tell us about how renewable energy sources like solar and wind are lowering the price of electricity. As ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to stand firm and work with allies to progress climate action as Donald Trump signals his intent to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Jon Kroll and Aimee McCammon have been appointed to the New Zealand Film Commission Board, Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “I am delighted to appoint these two new board members who will bring a wealth of industry, governance, and commercial experience to the Film Commission. “Jon Kroll has been an ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has hailed a drop in the domestic component of inflation, saying it increases the prospect of mortgage rate reductions and a lower cost of living for Kiwi households. Stats NZ reported today that inflation was 2.2 per cent in the year to December, the second consecutive ...
Two new appointed members and one reappointed member of the Employment Relations Authority have been announced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden today. “I’m pleased to announce the new appointed members Helen van Druten and Matthew Piper to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and welcome them to ...
Officially, they’re called ‘memecoins,’ but Kōura Wealth founder Rupert Carlyon says the crypto world has another name for them: ‘shitcoins’.In digital finance, that phrase is used for tokens that have no true value – in essence, a money-grab.A few days before his inauguration, US President Donald Trump launched his own ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. Guy Williams has made a whole show off the joke that he is a “volunteer” journalist. So getting publicly owned by David Seymour while trying to act as a journalist is a good and timely reminder not to underestimate the nuance and ...
Many of Sāmoa’s beloved dishes are the result of cultural collaboration, writes Madeleine Chapman. All photos by Jin FelletIf you ever find yourself at a barbecue in a Sāmoan home, there’s 99% chance that sapasui (chop suey) will be on the table. For the past century, sapasui has ...
The funnyman takes us through his life in television, including Jono and Ben mayhem, live Telethon flubs, and funnelling all those experiences into his new comedy Vince. There’s an inciting incident in Three’s new comedy Vince where morning television presenter Vince Walters (Jono Pryor) is visiting sick kids in hospital ...
People often claim they just want Waitangi Day to be a celebration. At Waitangi, away from the headlined political acrimony and the marae ātea, celebrating is what most people are doing. The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous ...
Is there anything more fashionable than a Māori get together? One of the best things about Northland is that nobody cares what they look like — probably because they’re all naturally more stylish than the rest of us, famously. Māori from the Far North, especially. In 27 degree heat, wearing ...
Books of Mana: 180 Māori-Authored Books of Significance, edited by Jacinta Ruru, Angela Wanhalla and Jeanette Wikaira has just been released by Otago University Press. In this essay, Books are Taonga, Jeanette Wikaira explores her personal relationship to books and their value.For me, books are taonga. The knowledge ...
I’ve been in love with him since last July, but it’s only now in this tepid hotel room that I find myself wondering why. The first thing he does when we arrive is smoke a cone in the bathroom – he emerges, hacking up a lung, fists thrust into his ...
MONDAY“Name,” barked a representative of the lower orders.I regarded him with a look of stern disapproval, and told him from up high, “May I remind you that I have name suppression. I shall also thank you to ask with more respect as befits a former president of the Act Party, ...
Get to know Tara, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Tara’s human for their support! Dog name: Tara Age: Two Breed: Mostly Border Collie and a little bit Catahoula Leopard dog If dog ...
Health NZ's CEO has resigned, but frontline healthworkers are sceptical that installing new leadership will make any difference to a system grappling with problems. ...
Gail Duncan, Chairperson of the St Peter’s on Willis Social Justice Group, one of the organisations invited to submit on the Bill, says the Government’s actions are unprecedented. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amani Kasherwa, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, The University of Queensland In late January, a rebel group that has long caused mayhem in the sprawling African nation of Democratic Republic of Congo took control of Goma, a major city of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yee-Fui Ng, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University An ad falsely depicting independent candidate Alex Dyson as a Greens member.ABC News/Supplied The highly pertinent case of a little-known independent candidate in the Victorian seat of Wannon has exposed a gaping ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland Nik/Unsplash You might have heard that eating too many eggs will cause high cholesterol levels, leading to poor health. Researchers have examined the science behind this myth again, and ...
Everything you missed from the third day of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard four hours of oral submission. Read our recaps of day one of the hearings here, and day two here. Parliament was quiet on Friday for the third day of hearings on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Jeffries, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology, Western Sydney University Tijana Simic/Shutterstock The news last week that three people in Sydney were hospitalised with botulism after receiving botox injections has raised questions about the regulation of the cosmetic injectables industry. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jens Blotevogel, Principal Research Scientist and Team Leader for Remediation Technologies, CSIRO Mino Surkala, Shutterstock Lithium-ion batteries are part of everyday life. They power small rechargeable devices such as mobile phones and laptops. They enable electric vehicles. And larger versions store ...
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So..how will the Nats reconcile their own policies with what Colin (Cray) Craig stands for:
1. wants to abolish the anti smacking law
2. wants to abolish the right to abortion
3. is against asset sales
4. wants to put higher taxes on alcohol
and some other big unknowns about CC’s policies and the people he may bring to Parliament with him?
The Opposition should start stacking up their ammunition…
Why do you think there is such a rush to sell everything thats not nailed down, before they speak to him.
As a property developer with strong Christian values, I’m sure he’d settle for gutting the RMA.
That’s the most cogent analysis of Craig I’ve seen yet.
lol
I was talking to my mate, who grew up in the Herald island area and is a stalwart North Shore Tory hang-em’ high guy from way back, and he reckons that if Key tries an Epsom style deal to get Colin Craig into the new seat the locals won’t cooperate as their is no appetite for God-bother parties. If Labour has a half decent candidate they would have a real chance of winning the seat.
Not that I’m a supporter of CC but he denied his was a Christian party, which would be unlikely if they did have religion-based principles. Also said he hasn’t been to church in decades. Not much of a God-botherer if that’s the case.
http://www.tv3.co.nz/CAMPBELL-LIVE-Wednesday-November-20-2013/tabid/3692/articleID/96511/MCat/2908/Default.aspx
could be one of the crowds that holds prayer meetings in each others’ homes – even more fundie.
His policies seem pretty OT.
Or at work:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6876016/Colin-Craig-preached-shortness-a-sin-claim
My point is those who are devout are not inclined to deny their leanings. Saying its not a Christian party and he doesn’t attend church is at sending a message that a fundamentalist would not consider.
depends on how much he wants to get some power tho doesnt it
even the most fundamentalist christian would realise that they would need to project a broader appeal to win votes
If you knew anything about fundamentalists you’d know that they ain’t gonna deny their faith. Peter with his denials of knowing Jesus, an’ all that.
It suggests Craig isn’t quite the looney religious freak the left are begging him to be.
Well, weekly group prayers at businesses he owns suggests he does take it a bit far – same with the homophobia, pro-smacking and anti-abortion routine.
Is the party running a jesus freak platform?
Nah – it’s just that the main funder and candidate is a jf. Does that affect the party’s position on issues? Well, phrases like ‘public space should be “G Rated”‘ give me the willies. The unicorns wouldn’t even be permitted to fart rainbows.
informative goat trail Flockie
Kiaora Seti
I totally agree with you. A fundamentalist christian would not deny their faith. Sacrilegious they will scream before they self-flagellate. Followed by a rosary bead’s worth of penance.
He is definitely a fundamentalist but of what kind I don’t know.
the ‘wolf’ kind.
Adele, I think he’s a fundamentalist social and political conservative.
doesnt go to church doesnt mean he doesnt hold religious meetings at his home or in workplace thus avoiding the label church?
Might also be that the churches in his area are too liberal for him. That happens a lot in the states.
I know plenty of real Christians who enact in their deeds the teachings of Jesus. There are plenty of priests too who offer real moral guidance. Colon Craig simply wants doctrinal dictatorship and that’s why he shys away from real churches.
(Note: I had to edit “shys” – fucking autocorrect!)
um..!..if autocorrect was telling you ‘shies’..
..you might want to withdraw that algorithm-insult..
..eh..?
phillip ure..
lol (Ph.D in English, nonetheless)
Now thats interesting no reply button until I had logged in, and only on articles that were put up today. Now thats an excellent way to keep the Troll problem under control, well done Lynn.
Colin Craig on TV3 breakfast just running thru all the AK seats I reckon all the punters must be going “Oh hell here we go again they are going to turn us into another Epsom”
Look on the bright side,. Paula Bennett is dog tucker to whoever stands against her in the new Kelston seat. Which raises the question – who is the ideal candidate for that new seat? Carmel Sepuloni? Andrew Little?
Has to be Carmel she did such a good job last time only lost by 9 votes. Sorry but I don’t figure Little in there at all, or do Labour want to gift the seat to the Nats. Little has all the appeal of a toothache.
Waitakere BENNETT, Paula Lee National Party 13465 9 44.74% yes
http://www.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2011/e9/html/e9_part6.html
Absolutely vital that Labour and Greens get this right. The North Harbour seat is potentially winnable if the Greens step aside and enable National and the Conservatives to split each other off. This kind of opportunity won’t arise again for quite some time.
In return Labour could consider pulling out of the Waitakere Ranges area to enable the Greens to harvest higher party votes from the Blue-Greens up there in the forested hills. And their donations.
Similarly for specific areas like Waiheke Island which although not an electorate seat has a high Greens activist base. Labour could effectively not campaign there and leave the Party votes to the greens entirely.
In return the Greens could withdraw their candidate from Auckland Central to enable Labour an electorate win against National’s Member.
And while we are at it, be bold and put Grant Robertson on the list, and enable the Greens to get an electorate seat in Wellington. Thhis could conceivably make the whole coalition safer.
Forward thinking strategy.
Or will Labour stick with a 1980s FPP mindset: we must campaign to win in EVERY seat!
The LEFT vote will be energised by a smart, tactical, campaign.
But will it be in the same light as “cups of tea?” I suspect that’s the way the media will play it.
Of course it will, and rightly so.
It’s not difficult. Just campaign. ‘Giving’ the Greens electorate seats they don’t need only justifies what National does.
In close seats. Labour candidates should be explicit about the fact that while they obviously want list votes as well, they are also the only electorate candidate that can beat National.
Appeal to voters, don’t do backroom deals and announce them to voters and expect them to fall into line. Left wing voters aren’t tories, they will not like you treating them like tories. Treat them like fucking citizens making choices.
All of this “tactical” voting that we’re seeing is the reason why we should have preferential voting in the electorates.
In other words, you want a Labour campaign as per all previous – no consideration or quarter to be given to any potential allied parties.
It’s votes, not bullets they’re looking for.
And the objective is an increase in votes across the left – labour swapping votes with the Greens or Mana in various electorates (and vice versa) does absolutely nothing towards changing the government.
the MMP objective is not just to increase left votes, it is also to minimise wasted left votes.
That’s why the strategy needs to be refined. Just watch Key. He’s understands the subtleties of the MMP marketplace rules.
under mmp, there’s no such thing as a wasted vote.
edit: and the flipside for trading electorate votes of minimal value is to be seen to play voters for chumps, or divvying them up with an undeserved sense of entitlement.
I disagree but there you go.
and, being the astute political analyst that you have demonstrated, the proposition would be… (not avocado on toast, although, with a little cayenne and freshly-ground black pepper- Very Yummy indeed).
was thinking this very thing Pb
that is the way the people will see it and they will not like it, playing around with their vote like that, no matter how smart it is.
No sorry thats old thinking. We need to be tactical on this. As it didn’t work in 08, and it won’t work in 14.
+1..
i have this recurring nightmare of the tories getting a third term.
..just because/lab/grns/mana etc can’t get their shit together..
..on how to operate for the good of all..
..under mmp..
..how the tories must laugh..eh..?
..as the progressive parties camapign still locked into first past the post/ego-battles mentality..
..then at the end..whoever is left standing glares suspiciously at each other..
..and meanwhile the right gift craig a seat..
..and win re-election..
..the progressives return to their seperate bunkers..
..and point fingers at each other..
..f,f,s,,!
..grow up..!
..eh..?
..stop being so fucken stoopid..!
phillip ure..
And don’t forget an end run around Dunne as well, if the Lab Greens sort their shit out, Lab could take that as well.
Given the closeness of the result last time, I’m pretty certain Paula Bennet was going to lose anyway.
she will be high on the list so not gone. Gotta be Carmel.
Nicky Wagner has admitted that the National Party has failed the east of Christchurch, which suffered by far the most and whose communities have been completely sacked and devastated by the earthquakes. Completely.
In The Press this morning she says that if the new boundaries of Christchurch Central, which she won last time by 47 votes, moves anywhere but west (towards the Ilam and Fendalton nether regions) then the seat will be unwinnable for National.
That is what she said (no link available yet).
Why is that Nicky? Why will it become unwinnable? You have just had one of NZ’s biggest ever disasters which devastated huge chunks of your electorate. That is surely an opportunity for the sitting MP to work to help the constituents through the disaster. Such help would of course be recognised at the ballot box with a return to the seat by the incumbent, namely you Nicky. But you yourself admit, unthinkingly, that that is not going to happen to you.
So why is it not going to happen to you? Why will it be impossible to win Nicky? Why? Surely, if you have helped these people then there is a chance at least you could win again? Yes?
But you aint going to are you. Because you aint done shit for the people of the east of Christchurch. They are about to tell you that aren’t they Nicky.
The people of the east and south of Christchurch are about to tell you to fuck right off because you aint done shit.
Fuck off.
Now wait for English so spend some of the Asset sale money (for the 6th time) on lots of lollies to hoodwink the voters …
That’s telling her like it is vto
About time the opposition totalled up NACT’s lolly scramble promises against the actual proceeds now that AirNZ’s been sold down.
Swingers need to be woken up to the BS raining down when ever Key/Joyce/Blinglish etc open their mouths.
+1
People need to be shown that National think so little of everyone else that they make multiple promises with the same money.
Andrew Little has a private members bill proposing to limit personal grievance procedures to those earning $150k and under.
The man is a pillock.
[lprent: Incorrect – Paul Goldsmith private members bill – see here.
I’m unsure how you put Andrew Little into the frame.
But perhaps you are as much of a pillock as Goldsmith is? ]
Doesn’t sound right…are you sure of your facts? Well paid serfs can get shafted by the machine they help run as well as poorly paid ones.
I thought sounded a bit wrong as well. Turns out it’s a Paul Goldsmith private members bill
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1311/S00204/contracting-out-of-personal-grievances-sensible.htm
Going after high paid employees now. Big business must realise there isn’t a lot more they can take off the low paid.
The white collar professionals who thought that National was on “their side” have another think coming. National is the party of corporates, and the corporates don’t want any trouble from the $200K pa serf overseers that they use.
And here’s me thinking that National was the One Law for All party.
Turns out Goldsmith is the pillock, and I couldn’t agree with you more.
Obviously James Thrace is putting a lot of thought into his retraction.
😀
He’s possibly still frantically trying to work out how to delete his comment.
Should have been:
Typo, obviously.
you have given me a couple of good chuckles today sir.
Titford to go away for a decent stretch for a nasty lot of violence against his wife and family.
I remember an article in North and South or Metro with him photographed against a beautiful background of Northland coastline. Poor little asperashunal businessman, his future projected profit of coastal development and sale of the rich, floating in the fluid around his eyeballs. He was afraid to cry in case his dreams washed away. But he hollered and moaned and complained to good effect and the government paid him out though apparently he didn’t get much out of it. Similar to the Crafar ambition of becoming very rich through land speculation.
And interesting to compare Titford and his anti-Maori rhetoric which the government had to quieten with money, and the poor farmers that the government virtually hounded off their farm. They were charged with negligence in the maintenance of a bridge on their property which collapsed resulting in the death of a beekeeper crossing it. The bridge was built by the Army but they did not warn of the likely problem that is well known with fungus-treated timber – when there is an entry through the outer seal, either from bolts, or a cut to reduce length, fungus can enter and rot it unless there is regular sealing with suitable paint. They were tried for manslaughter I think. Defended by a barrister who fought for years trying to prevent the case being brushed under the political carpet. Over that they had an enormous loss, Titford got his payout, they had to get off their farm. No consideration for them.
In the news about an art auction -Goldie painting a rare portrait, sold to a private buyer for $700,000 odd. Before photography got established, this was the equivalent of a family memorial. I hope that private buyer will now gift it to the relevant tribe if they have a safe place to house it, or allow it to be displayed there, and pay for insurance on it.
If there is a public interest in the Goldie portrait then a public institution should buy it for the public good. eg The Auckland War memorial Museum has a fine collection of Lindauers. Te Papa has a good few Lindauers and Goldies. All reverentially displayed.
Did Slater breach Titford’s suppression order on his site or not?
Apparently his wife waived her own suppression, which in turn allowed his to be lifted.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/9421979/Titford-sentenced-on-rape-and-arson-charges
I know, but Mr Slater claims to be even-handed in his treachery but let this guy’s name stay safe from his crusade against name suppression…
Right, sorry. That did occur to me a bit later on… I didn’t hear about the case until his name was out there, I guess on its own it didn’t really rate as nationally news-worthy,
Yup, Slater might just have been saving victims of further abuse or giving victims a chance to come forward… nothing to see here aye Mr Slater.
Hes already paid thousands in outing suppression orders, didn’t see anyone from the left willing to put their hands in their pockets
not the point, he says he is even handed in his crusades. According to his own “logic” this guy should have been outted to save the folks of the north from his abuse. Slater hasnt put thousands of his own money into anything… he has backers. Seems this guy didnt warrant outing. Just sexually assaulting women and children after all.
I’d put money towards relocating him to Anchorage so he could be with his own kind.
Farr out fender
My avast! detected a malware infection on that site, fender.
Infection detected!
avast! Web shield has detected a threat
Infection: URL:Mal
URL: http://simplehitcounter.com/hit.php?
uid=1230609&f=16777215&b=0
It doesn’t mean a lot to me, but I’d hate to see anyone except the trolls pick up an infection.
Holy shit, now it’s philanthropy rather than his business. I’m sure the victims appreciate his generosity in spreading their personal information about the place for profit and prurience.
Fixed.
Check out the comments on this article in E-local (you might have seen it in your mailbox, it masquerades as a community newspaper, but pushes right-wing propaganda):
http://www.elocal.co.nz/view_Article~id~894%20%20%20%20%20%20%20.html
The article’s not worth reading, but the comments are!
chrs for the link to that rag..
..that pro-titford/anti-maori/racist crap was published in june this year..(!)
..it was written by a ross baker ..
..(and this is an example of the high-standards @e-local..)
“..- Sub editied Lisa Williams..” (incompetent at job..as well as being racist scum..)
..and yes..will they be issuing an apology/retraction..?
..and more interestingly..
..will those maori featured/named/slandered so in this article..
..will they sue the arses off the writers/publishers of this rag..?
..and thus close it down..?
..i fucken hope so/they do..
phillip ure..
Why all the fucken swearing today, phillip?
@ swearing..linguistic-laziness probably..
..(i’ll try harder..)
..tho’ i do defend the use of a resolute ‘fuck!’ here and there..
..as an emphasis-tool..
..(and the racist race-baiting from that rightwing-rag..
..deserves a string of expletives..)
..phillip ure
In 2009 Scott at Reading the Maps wrote about the Franklin E-Local. Great article and worth a read. They are a very mixed up crew that bunch.
http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2009/11/mykeljon-picks-another-loser.html
well, that was a waste of bytes.
I see that pseudo-historian of Celtic New Zealand, Martin Doutré, is vigorously defending Titford as a political prisoner. I remember when the first book about that rubbish came out. It took me about 2 seconds to realise it was racist crap designed to delegitimise the Treaty. I wonder how long before WhaleSpew leaps on the same filthy bandwagon.
regrettably, Miss Otis had to decline the invitation to the ‘Young Nats Christmas Function’ (going as Hugh Hefner (lol) to another ‘do’ this year) just gotta rustle up a burghandi smoking jacket and a satin dressing gown before next Friday. 😉
Titford to go away for a decent stretch for a nasty lot of violence against his wife and family.
And don’t forget the nasty lot of violence against the local Tangata Whenua. You can be sure the media are studiously ignoring that, and concentrating on the family violence; we need to remind people at every chance that Titford’s rage was aimed at Maori as much as his own family.
An Auckland school, and communities, being sacrificed, sliced and diced, to make way for new motorway, east-west motoway decided on by Auckland Transport. It is a little example of the state that New Zealand is in. Education isn’t getting railroaded, but roaded, out from our prime consideration. It is expendable as roads are the priority. When I was in Naples around the 1970’s I was told that the Mafia made a lot of money building roads. They found them a good little earner, often not necessary going by the volume of users.
In NZ we have the same focussed thinking. It is now 2013 with peak oil and bad climate change developments leading to destruction of infrastructure and our past style of living. More education in the broad understanding, problem-solving, analysing skills are what is needed.
The young have to learn because it is their future that is being warped and wiped. Just as more animals and simple living entities are being lost, those are canaries warning about their possible future. It is sad for them to be raised to adulthood and reach understanding that irreversible conditions have degraded their world and future unfolding before them.
The old have got to a state where most refuse to face difficulties being caused by their present lifestyles that will compound in the future. In general the population is more likely to give active consideration to matters of sex, and personal behaviour especially it is obviously dysfunctional, than the deep structural problems that are very real but not immediately impacting them and contentious. And when the impacts become felt directly, there is surprise, shock and anguish – but still without the energy to address the problem except in band-aid and knee-jerk reaction.
and ‘waste management’ gw. We discussed the privileged response to some recent, local, young-teen “sudden deaths” today; one such response advising (deputy mayor), “having a positive future outlook”! (I am privy to an overview of the case-notes of these two tragedies, and really, they were well-fu#ked already, at such a young age; There was no ‘positive future outlook’! for them, or many others.
Good to see David Parker and Poto Williams out pounding the streets in east Chch yesterday.
It’s like seeing coppers on the streets – very very good and provides an impression and reality of standing with the people.
Indonesian/Australian bilateral relationship blowing up – Mark Textor not helping
The Indonesians are preparing to suspend all co-operation with Australia on military and immigration matters. Meanwhile, Mr Textor is looking to throw in a few bombs of his own.
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/mark-textor-stokes-fire-with-indonesian-foreign-minister-porn-star-gibe-sack-him-says-malcolm-fraser-20131120-2xvy5.html
In another, the opinionated Liberal insider asked: ”What sort of head of state communicates with a head of a neighbouring government by twitter FFS? SBY”.
Looks as though he forgot to counsel Mr Key re twitter…
Dear old Brian Edwards on te panel yesterday took an opportunity to jump on his bandwagon about comments from anonymous bloggers etc that are nasty and how he could not get away with it because he is known…. well go for it Brian – who do you want to be nasty to?
He really needs to get over this anonymous thing the silly fool…
He is known with his comments, and that carries some extra cred – take it and be happy.
People who are anonymous have less cred when they comment – that is fine. Their anonymity diminishes the value of their comments, at times, especially when flecked with personal nasties..
however, what the anons can do is, by stripping out all of the known and personal of the commentator, place bare facts on the table for objective evaluation, devoid of any issues and credibility around the person who made the comment. And that has additional value above Brian’s known position.
Is that what he cannot handle perhaps?
I wonder if he pokes around here under some nom de plums.
Unlikely.
a. I’d have probably have noticed. I’m hyper-aware of any IP that I have worked with, and I’ve helped him on his site from his home system a number of times.
b. Doesn’t fit his style anyway.
It is more of thing from people who haven’t been around online forums for any length of time. They tend to not understand exactly either how the law views everything (basically there is no particular difference between a name and a pseudonym) or how seriously people invest in their online personas.
Essentially the only benefits of using a real name are
1. It makes it easier to claim special knowledge by virtue of who you are.
2. It makes it easier to target people for retribution in the real world
The first is generally irrelevant because you have to demonstrate your effective breadth of knowledge anyway (there are a lot of smart people online). The second happens all of the time for many people outside of the media industry where some degree of legal protection exists which is why the vast majority of people commenting on political forums operate with psuedonyms.
Effectively BE is saying that he’d prefer that only media commentators have a public voice on politics or the media. Since that is never going to happen because of the legal position referred to above, it just becomes a rather useless club.
Yeah, Brian Edwards and Pete George like to rattle on about how personally brave they are with their pensions and lifestyle blocks, which only shows how cowardly and out of touch they really are. Those of us in the real world have bosses who trawl our comments – I’ve already had one who tried to out me.
They aren’t heroes by any definition, they only perpetuate the system that supports their privileges. There’s a golden quote by Danyl McLaughlan on Giovani Tiso’s blog (actually, it was in the replies to some Trotter bullshit about what martyrs “Willie” and “JT” are, but I’m not going to link to that):
http://bat-bean-beam.blogspot.co.nz/2013/11/the-business-of-free-speech.html
‘we’re doomed to be hectored and talked down to by droves of reactionary bewildered old men’
That’s what Edwards has become.
I have to add, I did argue the point about employer surveillance with Edwards and he conceded, but he’s spouting the original bullshit again, which proves that he’s disingenuous at best or a lying bastard in other words.
The main thing I like about Brian Edwards is that he used to be worth listening to. But that was a long time ago.
There is a difference between anonymous and pseudonymous. After all, is Borat really anonymous? How about Woody Allen or Mel Brooks or David Bowie or Michael Caine? (Allen Koenigsberg, Melvin Kaminsky, Maurice Micklewhite and David Jones).
Or George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), for an historical precedent.
Or “lprent” for that matter?
People who use pseudonyms online build up avatar personas in which they have invested a lot of worth, and they keep using them and are willing to be held to their stated opinions at the risk of having to abandon their identities.
Edwards is disingenuously trying to blur the line between pseudonym and anonymity to pump up his own image as some sort of hero. He’s an old man, out of touch in the media in which he tries to make his money. If he doesn’t understand new media, then he’s not competent to serve his clients. I wouldn’t want to hire him if I needed someone to manage my image any more than I would want to use carrier pigeons to deliver mail.
And then we can compare people who use names that by sheer coincidence are the same as those on their birth certificates. “Matthew Hooton” for example is nothing but a brand – everything about him is as fake as Patrick Bateman.
I use my real name, does that magically mean my opinion is more valuable? Hardly.
A comment should rest upon what it says and not who said it.
“Brian Edwards” is a brand too. He’s trying to use it to lend authority to what he says, however nonsensical.
By the way, I have a PhD (Eng Lit, utterly useless), so you can call me Doctor… Who?
🙂
I see Gerry Brownlee is popular in Christchurch
Yeah. Saw that. Laughed.
BIG ups
A very workmanlike job. Nicely printed sign in clear font, appropriately sized and evenly cut, fit for its purpose. Quality zinc coated screws of modern type. 100% for meeting all requirements of test. Well done. signed Gerry Brownlee Physical Materials Trade Teacher (Woodwork).
Nice to see someone still appreciates a fine quality of work. Who does these days? (The art of maintaining motorcycles).
Ah the zen of some friends back in the day!
a little over-rated, like The Road Less Travelled ; to be frank, by the time I finished the work of of maintaining the vehicles of consumption, trucks, forklifts, buses, dozers, loaders, I was interested in just riding and drinking piss!, and occasionally that which followed! 😎
I never actually read it. But I and a couple of my friends did our own (usually small) motorcycle maintenance. One or two of them liked the book. I just did the practicum.
however, I have built, or rebuilt, a few bikes, one completely.
Impressive. I have stripped down and rebuilt a bike engine or 2, but not built a whole bike. That was in the pre-digital era. I imagine they are a bit different now.
‘pre-electronic’ era that may be; a woman after my own heart.
Love it!
would be great to see them popping up ALL over CHCHCH
Talking of ‘personal nasties’ it is nearly beyond me to refrain after having watched the abysmal Paula Bennett on TV3’s 3rd degree last night decrying the rack-renting landlord who owns a ‘holiday park’ in Her electorate and then having the gall to call a public meeting about it,
Rack-renting landlords charging over the top for what are basically ‘slum-dwellings’ need two things to survive and thrive, a severe lack of affordable rental accommodation and the tenants effected by this and the Government that Paula Bennett is a minister of has for the past five years done everything in it’s power to provide the rack-renting landlords of Auckland with plenty of them,
Go round the ‘Holiday parks’ and boarding houses of Auckland and see just how many are trapped in slum conditions paying dearly to live in one room or a mouldering caravan and then count the number of HousingNZ properties this National Government has either knocked over and not replaced or simply flicked off because the property was valuable and the numbers look remarkably the same,
A big Cheer sis goes out to that young woman who stood up to Bennett at that public meeting first asking Her the rhetorical question of exactly where are the HousingNZ properties for the 300 tenants crammed into the slum-park and as there are none where does Bennett get off attempting to ferment trouble for them when that ‘slum’ and it’s rack-renting is all that stands between the tenants and life on the street,
A thought occurred to me this morning that perhaps ‘out on the street’ is where Bennett and National want to see these people….
Ah, she’s talking about the Ranui Caravan Park.
I included stuff about it in this post.
Of course, such articles and other communications about the Ranui encampment expose the brutality of her social security reforms, so she is going on counter-attack. Of course, if such rack-renters are put out of business, many would just end up totally homeless.
Shameless, heartless, brutal Bennett. No wonder she prefers to move to Upper Harbour where there are little such parks to annoy her – will leave Ranui to Twyford, and other parks to other MPs.
They have no shame these Tory SCUM, in the week National passed under urgency Legislation that will see HousingNZ tenants re-applying en masse to be able to retain their homes and trumpeting the ‘fact’ that they plan to kick out 3000 tenants Bennett is doing a perfect act of ‘violin playing’,
Having cemented into place ‘rotational employment’ this National government will start playing musical chairs with the State’s housing stocks where we will have rotational housing,
As has been shown in Her Social Development portfolio there are plenty of mistakes made and in the rush to give the 3000 State tenants the kick there will be plenty more and guess where the last port of call will be for those mistakenly given the kick from their homes by the overly zealous minions of this particular Minister,
Not the rack-renting slum-lord of the slum-park that Bennett hypocritically decries by any chance…
The mealy mouthed Poorer Benefit – Social Development Minister makes out it is well in hand and anyway housing for others is everyone’s business, so get to tit and help her be the good husband to the homeless that she wants to be!
Paula Bennett says assistance is available.
“Those who are having housing and other social issues will be helped where possible,” she says.
“Rising rents in Auckland will no doubt present challenges but it is up to us as a community to come up with innovative solutions to resolve housing problems.”
The Caravan Park term got me to look for this item on closing a caravan park and dispersing needy people who needed drug and health treatment, some suitable work and income, and support and supervision. Instead they got a hell of a fright with heavy police presence and a clearing out of people who obviously had no or few options for homes and security.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm? c_id=1&objectid=10010412
Drug raid closes caravan park 10/2/2005
Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Neil Grimstone said Green Acres (Mangere) was a well-known drug supermarket and police had attended nearly everything from domestic disputes to sexual violations there in the past few years….
Just after 6.30am they
left for 142 Favona Rd in 45 police cars.
Intersections were closed to allow the huge convoy to arrive together. The police Eagle helicopter followed from above. By 7am, the caravan park – the subject of endless complaints from local residents – was raided…
Occupants – Yesterday there were about 60, some of whom were children. Manukau City Council environmental health and enforcement manager Kevin Jackson said the park had been operating since 1986 but did not have a camping ground licence. Nor did it have code of compliances or resource consent.
Mangere councillor James Papali’i said although there was an element of criminal activity there were also a lot of good people living at the park.
He said many tenants faced real hardships and his main concern was for their future if the park was permanently closed down.
Police found what could be expected –
* Hundreds of tinnies and “dealing amounts” of methamphetamine.
* Two shotguns, one sawn-off rifle and one handgun.
* 14 unregistered and two registered dogs, which were impounded.
* 12 arrests, possibly more to follow.
A lot of money was spent on this raid, and order was restored for the people around. The question is why couldn’t some of that money go into working with the good, stable people within that group, and helping to get people off drugs, etc, keeping the younger ones stable, and enabling them to stay in work. If selling drugs was not against the law, and the government didn’t choose to irrationally hate one set of drugs and embrace others, then protection from shotguns wouldn’t be thought necessary. Unregistered dogs are not usually a criminal offence and without drug illegality they would not be so important for protection.
The way we mishandle the drug situation must be the cause of much of the poverty and criminality in low socio-economic areas in NZ.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/9425456/Man-guilty-of-Rae-Portmans-murder
This item on the Portman murder case reads like an episode from the USA tv servies on drug making and dealing Breaking Bad. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad
Poverty creates a context where crime and dug peddling are very likely to occur.
karol
And vice versa!
The point is that the condition of that particular ‘slum’ had little to do with the criminal behavior of some of it’s occupants, having all been booted out of this particular ‘slum’ do the authorities or anyone else believe that such criminal behavior was curtailed for more than the time it took for the criminal element that that particular ‘slum’ housed to find new housing,
Only the brainless would draw such a conclusion,
This brings to mind the Housing Minister Nick Smith’s recent gloating song and dance over putting the bulldozers through a whole street of units in the Lower Hutt suburb of Pomare and then flicking off the land for private housing,
The street He said harbored a number of criminals, what He of course didn’t say,(nor care about obviously), was that the criminals who were housed there, if not in jail, are now housed somewhere else, i do not believe even Nick Smith is stupid enough to believe that kicking these people out of their houses and bulldozing the houses to the ground will for more than a moment have altered any criminal activity,( the point of Smith’s stupidity is of course debatable),
The effort put into kicking the ‘offensive’ tenants out of this particular street is said to have in the end cost the State at least a million dollars, the demolition of the houses and selling off of the land from where i sit looks simply like a Fascist retaliation against all State tenants by the Minister hell bent on extracting the cost of these evictions from within the portfolio He is tasked with managing…
What would be done though? For those well past redemption and just causing mayhem and pain ….
The constant harassment method works for rats, maybe it would work here too.
ktthhhhhhh…
Vto, what the fuck would you know about who is and who isn’t redeemable, well past redemption is simply right wing bullshit,
In the case of HousingNZ tenants there should be a ‘spelling out’ of the tenants resposibility surrounding their neighbour’s right to ‘quiet enjoyment’ of their tenancies without harrasment or standover tactics with the full knowledge of the consequences,(something HousingNZ still do not bother to do),
What or who is irredeemable??? i left Paremoremo Maximum security prison many years ago with a pre-release report which in part read, ”as the divisional Officer in charge of this individual and were it not for the fact that He is serving a finite sentence i would recommend that He never be released, He is one of the most dangerous individuals i have had custody of in 20 years of service”,
Theoretically irredeemable according to ‘an expert’, yet i have never served another term of imprisonment and have lived in this little street for 5 years without a single dispute with any neighbour and i piss on your ‘irredeemable’…
well that is a doozy and very honest of you. congrats. people like you are an asset to the community (i think? tell me). though quite how you would assume was talking of you I’m not sure.
and what would i know? that is immaterial and it would be a mistake to assume.
but rather than revert to the original point, maybe it could be moved on in order to grease-gun the nuts…. how does this happen to people? are they actually in that irredeemable position or is that the officer alone? what factors bring about the ‘redemption’ (terrible word)? some distinguishment may be of assistance.
but more importantly, what of those who must live with a ‘redemption’? Next door? While bringing in the milk….
“in order to grease-gun the nuts”
What does that mean?
“redemption – an act of redeeming or atoning for a fault or mistake, or the state of being redeemed.”
either way redemption seems to me to allow people to move forward and I think that is the way to do it. After all, stones and glass houses and the people who throw and all that.
it is not clear what point vto is making.
I meant cogs
Coming from you RT that is cryptic praise indeed….
very funny Red, are you having trouble navigating (just kidding).
@4000m I’m having trouble breathing….(work that one out)
Mt Cook 3754m in comparison…
Vto, yes you made the mistake in the earlier comment of assuming which is the only reason i ‘outed’ myself as one previously marked as irredeemable so as to disabuse you of such a notion,
There are very few people who with the right incentives and management i would consider to be irredeemable, and a far as the neighbours go i am sure when they realized who it was living next door they might have had the odd heart stopping moment but as i say i have been here for 5 years,
i will simply finish by saying that the less chances of redemption that there are then the less of it there will be…
a little non-fiction story: My neighbour is the Sergeant-Of-Arms, notorious throughout NZ. He has been (not a little) aggressive and intimidating to a particular dog for about a month, more than a little concerning considering the implications of where I have been ‘located’. Last night, after I had retired to bed with a book, there was a knock at the door…I allowed him in, and was a little surprised that he went on to apologise for (three times), and explain his behaviour: A Modern Miracle. Really, I do not understand where some folk on TS get-off, yet I usually just put it down to ignorance. Very sad.
Flesh, blood and bone
CV, I think there’s a message for you near the bottom of the Genesis discussion. Don’t know what to make of it. I’m inclined to send it to moderation.
as my (biological) father used to say… “same blood Son, runs through your veins as mine”.
Ahhh thx will take a look karol.
concentric rings
rippling Oaks
Here is The Proposition
Death, or Dishonour.
Indeed – there have been a number of supposedly “irredeemable” people who’ve proven their accusers wrong.
It’s a shame there’s such a change in attitude over the years.
I wonder @bad12 whether you ever had the pleasure of meeting a lady called Ana Tia.
Her lessons seem to have been lost by those running our institutions these days – and of course the politicians driving it all
It’s not just National. I noticed boarding houses and caravan parks filling up shortly after the first ACT government sat their traitorous bums on the green leather. I think the situation has only worsened since.
Is there anyone in Labour or the Greens especially interested in keeping an overview of IT in NZ especially in Government and other connected entities. It seems to me that supplying substandard programs and probably soon, hardware, has become on the great scams of the 21st century. We can see roads and get an idea of what they are doing and costing by applying to the OIA if necessary. Computers and electronics and all their complexity, languages, redundancies, paradigms, algorhithms blah blah , cables, mirroring, peer something, off the shelf programs cf to bespoke ones. Sheesh. We need to have a Ringmaster (or Mistress and no S&M intended) for this Circus.
Who would be appropriate and knowledgable for this role either in left wing Government or well connected to give balanced unbiased advice, or if biased a revealed one. There are sure to be connections within the sector so I’m thinking pragmatically here.
The government should have its own IT department. It’s large enough to require work done all the time and it also requires compatibility between departments. This being true it’s actually massively inefficient (read: Costs a hell of a lot more) to bring in private contractors who would be unlikely to work to a set of standards and won’t have the IT dependent inter-departmental knowledge needed to make compatibility between departments both secure and cost effective.
DTB
Sounds like what I’ve heard. Not that I know all that much. But who in Labour and Greens would know enough to understand what’s going on and stop the waste of money and time now happening?
There are people who can talk the talk very impressively at present, but should be walking down a plank and being pushed off. But they aren’t and don’t. They leave at a certain crucial point in time, which is before they lose the chance of getting some great reimbursement.
What I read in the news and hear is disgraceful and there needs to be someone with an overview. I have a copy of an email which talks about the happenings in his area of expertise and it seems to make valid points that would relate to numbers of programs and sites.
I wonder who is going to take responsibility for technology in Labour and Greens. Because this is a black hole which we can’t keep dropping money into and getting trouble out of. It should not be a lucky dip that we reach into hopefully, luck is what we need though at present.
greywarbler, Cunliffe is making IT his area. He has some background in the area of politics of ICT.
ta karol
greywarbler and DTB :
SSC has generic oversight. Each ministry *does* have its own IT department… very large in the case of MSD.
Backoffice work isn’t glamorous but seeing IT purely as a cost to be minimised is a typical management error which often leads to disaster, when critical systems become neglected.
Complex real world problems are only solved with sophisticated systems, and no technology lasts forever.
True but what they don’t have what I think the government needs is their own people developing their own software. At the moment they tend to go to private providers and we end up, seemingly more often than not, with a complete balls-up that costs far more than it should have. An internal government department tasked with providing all of the software (including the OS) that the government uses would, IMO, go a long way to eliminating those fuck-ups.
ropata
I see your points. But thinking about money spent. The effectiveness and efficiency thing once new systems are up and running I would think is far from what is expected. That costs money trying to fix.
Then there is compatability of systems which could help to keep costs down but there are limits on the ability to bring complex systems together.
And as you say not having sufficient staff to maintain systems, and control new add-ons and rotate the hardware, ageing out and updated in and incorporate the new fully into the system with firewall etc and check on the back-up batteries and the generators and… There is not enough money allocated to properly maintain systems, and more needs to be spent in the right place to get the best bang for each $. That’s an interested newbie outsider’s view.
Woman’s mastectomy photo’s taken off FaceBook overnight. RoastBusters rape boasts were on FB for 2 years.
Typical, useful information gets mixed up with gynaecological warped curiosity.
Decades ago when swearing in public and bad language, abuse etc was criminally punishable it was not allowed to be repeated in public, and the written words could not be legally carried within the postal system. A difficulty in gaining the facts and information for bringing a prosecution was caused.
*shakes head*
That’s typical Facebook behaviour. Trying to get a page on breast feeding on Facebook showing actual breast feeding was almost impossible for years.
Worse – rape is not a sex crime but an act meant to humiliate and destroy a person, so the Roast Busters page was an extension of their rapes… and the police, for “operational” reasons knowingly allowed their crimes to continue. The police didn’t just turn a blind eye to rape, they facilitated it… because the son of one of their own was doing it.
Now what’s the difference between saying that your hands were tied and hypocritically wringing them? There’s a question for Marshall.
Why don’t you ask him yourself?
Ooh, let me guess, in order to score a trivial point, are you pretending to some sort of sophistication and even – dare I say it, wit? You subscribe to the myth that there is some equivalence of power. If Marshall had shown up on my doorstep wearing his shiny hat with a box of chocolates and a bunch of roses, the real message that he would be delivering would be “We know where you live, matey”.
Jesus PR, you really are dumb, and trying to be “witty” you only make that more obvious.
As an aside, why is it that the most reactionary arselickers try to name themselves as “rebels” or “jesters”?
rather than “spectres”.
Perhaps a play on words – Ruckish Pogue. And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda.
From China Weekly
Palestinians’ first ever UN vote symbolic yet historic
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-11/21/c_125736111.htm
English.news.cn 2013-11-21 03:53:53
RAMALLAH, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) — The Palestinians’ first ever vote at the UN General Assembly was symbolic but historic on their way toward the world’s full recognition of a Palestinian state, officials and analysts said here on Wednesday.
Almost a year after the UN General Assembly upgraded the Palestinian status to that of a non-member observer state, the chief Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour cast a ballot on Monday in an election of a judge for the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
The casting of the Palestinian ballot was accompanied with a loud applause in the 193-nation assembly, a matter that angered the Israeli envoy.
So Chris Tremain the obscure minister of Internal Affairs is worried that 414 people voted for the criminal Allen Titford when His standing as a candidate was illegal,
i would worry more that there are 414 people in Northland with the sanity,(lack of), to express a desire to have someone of Titfords ilk as their Mayor,
i would further worry about ‘birds of a feather’ and wonder what might be occurring within the families of the 414 who would choose a man,(a thing), of Titford’s ilk as their Mayor,
That small demographic of electoral support i would suggest is worthy of a serious dose of community mental health or perhaps more to the point worthy of bearing the brunt of the prying eyes of a criminal investigation…
is it possible most of them didnt know what he had done?
Wouldn’t just the ‘politics of ‘it’ make you want to run a mile let alone knowing what the total amount of insanity He obviously has ensconced in His cranial cavity….
Five years of QE and the distributional effects
Instead of calling it Quantitative Easing it really should have been called Massive Stock Bubble and Gift to the already Wealthy
Lo, the magnificent thinking of one great philosopher/arsehole Brian Emerson on Stuff re home ownership ???
Profound !!!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/assignments/how-can-we-get-more-kiwis-into-homes/9426010/Can-t-afford-a-house-Tough-luck
Wow, now that’s a sociopathic rant if ever I heard one.
Who wakes up in the morning and thinks to themselves, “I know, I’ll out myself as a complete prick in front of the whole nation!”?
Actually, I know a couple of people who might do this, mainly due to a complete lack of self-awareness.
He could have written it better
No, I think he did quite well. Clearly put with no beating about the bush.
Oops, being a bit too honest there about your utter arseholeness, Brian. You’re supposed to be slicker than that. The same goes to everyone who’s drawing paycheques from The Herald.
Gosh, I wonder why newspapers are dying? Could it be because they’re becoming increasingly out of touch and irrelevant? Nah…
DTB 21.1 Whose rant do you mean? Brian Emerson’s I take it.
I had a look at this and came upon the Stuff Nation Assignment set-up. First time I’ve seen it.
They set some topics and if you are a dick capable of shooting your mouth off without rude words you can write a few paras and put them forward for consideration.
I had a look for Brian Emerson and the one that I came up with is someone in Gisborne who has a motor trade licence to repossess vehicles. Someone who would have strong understanding of the stresses of being short of money and not able to manage in today’s flash NZ economy! And getting flasher. Probably more work for B.E.
Brian Emerson is completely without understanding.
He says this … “The problem with New Zealand’s housing crisis is that everyone wants their own house but many did nothing in their lives to enable this to happen. ”
It doesn’t even come onto his radar that there are well established practices and beliefs in pretty much all societies throughout history that people don’t have to do anything but be born to expect a home. It is a baseline for human societal existence.
His rant there is incredibly narrow. Like looking out through a slit in the wall.
regarding ‘support’ Brian, life support will inconvenience your perspective, yet we’ll be there, smiling down on your comatose frame!
The odds are that he inherited his house. It’s quite common with loud mouth fools who preach the virtues of hard work and self reliance.
A while ago someone asked why we needed FttH. Well NASA, indirectly, answers:
The crazy gets more crazy …
In response to criticism from readers, the editor of “E-local” (see above) replies –
“elocal told Titfords story, one of a modern day land grab. As for your comment re conspiracy stories, I as editor don’t need to defend what we have presented. For one the authors put their names to their pieces not like you who hides like a coward under the title of anomymous. I doubt if you have half the accademic record or research under your belt to have a comment or article even to be considered to be published.”
(emphasis added)
So, just to be clear – the editor’s moral code says …
– commenting anonymously is bad
– decades of assault, rape, arson – and incidentally, cowardice – is not so bad
– and the editor isn’t responsible for his own work!
Feel free to e-mail them – I have (links in my comments above). This matters, because ‘E-local’ is not just a bigot blog, it’s a free magazine distributed throughout Auckland. You can find it in cafes, etc. It’s poison, spreading far and wide.
Thanks gobsmacked – submitted a pseudonymous comment – particularly querying the use of the pseudonym “editor” to criticise “anonymous comments.
The editor might be the female sub-editor mentioned at the top of the article, but who knows. And her name and the name of the author of the article mean nothing to me – they might as well be anonymous. Anyway the article stands and falls on its content.
Parliament is an adversarial chamber. As can be seen as the Speaker keeps taking sides against the opposition, but I think that’s not the purpose of the Speaker to sit around and listen (and laugh) with the government points. Take for example the way the speaker does not jump in to the highly political questions that National asks its own ministers, the more boring they are, the more irrelevant, the more parliamentary time they take up, the less useful parliament is. But its worse, the Speaker allows the government to spend minutes on ‘good news’ dross, statistics and governing nonsense.
Yet when the opposition put up in any way, a slight against the government the government are up on there feet giving renditions of opposition policy, and welll might they, as the Speaker has allowed government to preach its own policies off its own questions, letting the government preach wrongheaded views of opposition policies seems so justified.
Question time is a time used to hold the government to account, so the asking of patsy questions that appeal to the government is a waste of time and should be ruled out of order, I never get to hear opposition policies stated without contention from the Speaker.
Ministers have a ministry stacked with knowledge that oppositions do not have access to, so it seems quite wrong for the Speaker to argue that balance means equality. Opposition questions, without the wrap around of a minister office, or having never been in government, are likely to be politically tinged, whereas ministers have no such excuse. For the Speaker to be unbiased he needs a thicker left ear and a much more honed right ear. Where questions are not of a higher charged nature, where they do not hit home, then the Speaker has the duty to call into the questioners waste of parliamentary time (and eject government ministers who revere their own great leadership).
So the Speaker should ignore political questions where the underlying question is well purposed.
And the Speaker should eject Joyce, for his nonsense. Joyce has a problem with nuance. Greens correctly informed the market about power policy, and correctly point out that National power sell off is a failure yet Joyce does not believe those two acts of opposition can him are justifiable. That’s just nonsense, he may not understand that being principled can come across as contrary, he obviously has never done principled politics.
Yeah. I’m getting thoroughly bored with Question Time. it’s a farce and has little to do with democracy.
Dairy will destroy our waterways
And yet National and several city councils want more of this. All they see is the money and fail to see the reality behind it.
oops *snap*
Can’t reply on mobile. Cant imagine why I put in Andrew Little… stil Paul Goldsmith is a pillock. No one should be excluded from taking a pg case.
fair enough. Everyone makes mistakes. Take Mr and Mrs Goldsmith for instance 😉
that is extremely funny Tracey
Fair cop. Is Paul Goldsmith good for anything other than a little pulling-down-signs hilarity?
No. Not even employees of less than 90 days’ standing.
Another right wing hack on Mora’s show.
Josie Pagani.
I don’t mean to be mean but there were a few different planets spinning on that te panel with nary a near miss
Adams obscures 😉 Anadarko Oil Spill Risk of Kaikoura
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11160823
Report: 70% probability of a ‘reportable’ incident (not just spills) at Kaikoura well within a year of exploration opening; 7 Times more probable on a deep-sea exploration drill than an in-shore one. Bridges pours more slick on.
-He’s a Bright’on that David Cunliffe 😀
And the petrolobbyists reckon “reportable incident” includes a cut finger.
Why would you be seven times more likely to cut a finger 100km in the new spots rather than off Taranaki?
long way to sail band-aids.
Depends how rough the sea is.
it did come to mind, but do the trawlers and cargo ships suddenly get a sevenfold increase in injuries if they 70km farther out?
Almost an OSH issue.
…and that’s the effect of dairying; a zero-sum dirty game
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11160833
if only we all took the long view
Longview
“When was the last time I lost the plot?”
Leighton Smith snarls at critic of deep sea oil-drilling
NewstalkZB, Thursday 21 November 2013, 9:10 a.m.
“Newstalk ZB is for ignorant louts, the intellectually challenged and the modern day version of the 1930s brown shirts.”—Anne, The Standard, 9 August 2013
As I was driving the Breenmobile around the East Coast Bays this morning, I chanced on the following brief encounter involving a caller (Mike) trying, unwisely, to talk intelligently with NewstalkZB’s most notorious loon, the race-baiting supercrank and science-denier Leighton Smith. Hatin’ Leighton spent a couple of minutes reflecting on the escapades of Toronto’s crack-smoking mayor Rob Ford, then came down from Mt Olympus to took his first call…..
LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmmm, ahhhhhhhh. Ummmmmm, it’s ten minutes past nine. Ummmmmmmmmmm. Mike is on the line.
CALLER MIKE: Yes, Leighton, it’s quite amazing how these politicians can get away with behavior like that.
LEIGHTON SMITH: Hrrrrumph.
MIKE: It’s hard to get information out of politicians. They do their best to hide it from the public.
LEIGHTON SMITH: Hrrrrumph. Ahhhhmmmmmm….
MIKE: I hear that Gareth Hughes is finding it very difficult to get information about deep sea oil drilling.
LEIGHTON SMITH: [suddenly hostile] What’s THAT got to do with it?
MIKE: This is the biggest issue of our time.
LEIGHTON SMITH: WHAT?
MIKE: Deep sea oil drilling off our coasts is the biggest issue in New Zealand at this time.
LEIGHTON SMITH: You wouldn’t happen to be OPPOSED to it by any chance, would you?
MIKE: I’m not opposed to all oil drilling. Just to dangerous oil drilling.
LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmmmmm, ahhhhhhhh. You don’t think you should be concerned about your own state of mind, and possible depression?
MIKE: [taken aback] I’m not depressed. You’re playing games.
LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmm, ahhhhhhh. When was the last time you heard me being cranky? When was the last time I lost the plot? Thanks for your call. [Long pause.] He thought I was having a go at him, but I wasn’t. Was I? I just wanted to have a conversation with him. He’s actually put me in a good mood! Back in a minute!
……Advertisements, including this station promo: “From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed: NewstalkZB is one long conversation!” A montage of NewstalkZB voices, including Larry “Lackwit” Williams snarling, “This GARBAGE!” and Mike “Contra” Hosking ranting against state housing.
LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmmm, ahhhhhhh. Some of you have been very UNKIND about Mike! “This guy’s off the planet,” says one text. Here’s another one: “Please kill this call because I’m losing the will to live.” Leonie, you are VERY unkind! It is ahhhhhhh, ummmmmmmm, twenty-five past nine…..
More Leighton Smith nonsense….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20122012/#comment-565047
I did say that too. Nary a truer word hath been spoke. 😈
Once in a blue moon, an idle twisting of the dial lands me on the Leighton Smith Show. Every time within minutes of tuning in, the brown shirt in question launches into yet another climate change denying diatribe. To say he’s obsessed with, and ignorant of, the reality of the scientific evidence is an understatement.
so..did helen clark agree to the american request for their spooks to spy on new zealanders..?
..when they asked..?
..and if she had disagreed/said ‘no’..
..do you think the americans would have given her the green-light/tick for her u.n. job..
..’cos make no mistake..had they said ‘no’..clark would not today be in new york..
..so it would appear to have been ‘yes!’es all around..
..eh..?
..whoar..!
.eh..?
..and has john key just allowed that spying on us to continue/expand..?
..i think we all know the answer to that one..
..eh..?
phillip ure..
Yes phil ure, we do need an answer to that question.
And what difference would it make to their ‘spying’ if they told us anyway? If they said “yes, we are recording everything you punch into a key board” then so what?
don’t make no difference
don’t make no difference
except for what gets punched into a key board
Actually it was revealed a couple of years or more ago that Ban Ki moon had Clark in his sights for the job immediately following the 2008 election. She was approached by him (or an intermediary on his behalf) not the other way around. That is my recollection anyway. The US has no more influence on UN decision making than any other nation.
You should read Nicky Hagar’s book “Other People’s Wars” phillip ure. It concerns Afghanistan, Iraq and the war on terror. The Clark government was not informed about quite a few things that happened involving NZ Defence personnel in the name of those wars. I would expect that any spying by the Americans on NZers during Labour’s tenure in office did not occur with their knowledge and blessing. Certainly there would have been formal communications concerning a handful of citizens with suspect contacts in the above countries, but wholesale spying? Not with Clark’s approval – that’s a given!
and that’s a matter of faith on yr part..anne..not a ‘given’..
..the facts are that according to the latest snowden leaks..the americans spied on their five eyes partners..
..and in the case of britain..the prime minister was asked and gave permission..
..why would/should that be any different here..?
..to me..that is both the ‘given’..
..and the question that needs answering..
..i’m afraid i don’t share yr belief..anne..
..phillip ure..
They spied on Angela Merkel and German citizens without her knowledge. Why would Helen Clark be any different?
As for the British PM… Cameron is part of a very close relationship between the two countries. The UK and the US have been a terrible twosome for years. It’s not a belief phillip ure. I know Helen. I suspect you don’t.
Dare you to read “Other People’s Wars.” You might discover quite a lot of things. Might even change your mind.
anne..just because you ‘know helen’..
..does not mean she would necessarily share information such as that with you..?
..surely..?
..and do you believe key is letting the americans spook all over us..?
..and if so..
..do you think that spooking started with him..
..and not under clark..?
..phillip ure..
In theory being one of the Five Eyes, NZ should have a higher degree of protection
HOWEVER this latest report shows that the UK govt gave away their citizens protection to the US…and the US were about to take it away from the UK anyways.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/20/us-uk-secret-deal-surveillance-personal-data
Snowden worked for a ?private? company with the govt contract?…. ….if you want conspiracy to believe why not choose greed, the dot come market had run its course, some arab terrorists were flagged training in the US to fly planes, the markets were due for a collapse (global derivatives company went bust).
Opportunity to sit on hands and be in front to move the new apparatus up into position.
Now the US has a global model of the world economy, and can drill down into any board room on the planet. This can now not be ignored by the US’s allies.
Its the economy stupid.
Wrong.
It was about the economy. And sure, TBTF and the other corporates are grabbing everything they can asap before they have to run out the door. It is of course, an insane, sociopathic game of building up points on electronic score boards (printed $) with the unrealistic assumption that its going to be worth a damn in real life after the ecosystem collapses and our fossil fuelled global civilisation starts grinding to a halt.
So it was about the economy. Now it’s primarily about the oligarchy maintaining power and control in the face of an increasingly restive homeland. Put it another way; we are well into the transition from Huxley to Orwell.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11160823
– Is someone in Labour trying to trip up Cunliffe?
Hi chris73, been flashing your willy at any octogenarians lately (since you’ve said that was your favourite fantasy)?
Hi rhinocrates, I’d take your comments more seriously if you hadn’t outed yourself as a coward in real life
Why should you take me seriously? I don’t. And you talking about “courage”? Oh dear…
Yep, I’m a coward, I’m fat, I’m balding – I have all sorts of faults.
So tell us all about your enormous dick since you’re so proud of it.
Why?
You’re a big shiny red button and I just can’t resist pushing it. Go ahead please.
Oh well since your being honest I guess I’ll be honest as well…
I don’t expect that what I’m about to say will have any effect on you at all but for what its worth I respect courage, I respect people who take a stand, I may not agree with what they’re saying or doing but I respect the courage behind it
You in my opinion are a coward, in fact you’re cliche, you’re the type of blogger the media loves to portray, the type thats big and tough in front of a keyboard but in reality is nothing more then a scared little boy
When I type something on here or other websites I always think to myself “would I say this to the other person in real life”
Do you?
Push the button and he lights up…
OK, you’re missing the point, chew toy. Stop flexing your biceps and just go down to the beach and kick sand in your own face.
I would say what I say here to anyone in real life, and they’d get the joke.
The only people who can hurt me are those I love – go ahead and make me love you if you like.
… and anyway, I’m not a pervert who fantasises about sex with elderly women.
Lie to me all you like I don’t care but what I know is if you and met in real life you wouldn’t say any of the things to me that you’ve posted on here and that makes you a coward and a liar
Wow, a complete syntax breakdown – we might even be seeing a full scale tantrum here!
God I’m cruel. Sorry everyone.
Rhino might not, but i certainly fucking would…
No this is a full scale tantrum.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10112013/#comment-725131
Look at it this way “fappity”… do you understand the nature of power? The cops have power and they routinely abuse it. I’ve a lot of friends whose experiences would in themselves be automatic Godwins because they have seen up close and personal Nazism and Stalinism. If you aren’t scared by that, you’re an arselicking fool.
What are you going to say? “It can’t happen here”? That’s the usual one.
bad12
Oh I would, no doubt about that. I’m worse in real life and apologise much less.
I’ve had students say to my face that they think I’m like Hannibal Lecter, the Joker and Tony Soprano and meant – judging by their expressions and tone of voice – to compliment me.
Again: If I love you, you can hurt me. Otherwise… nah.
Yeah……nah you’re just another sad internet blowhard…. a man of your age squawking about the police and calling them pigs then having a big cry, it’d be quite funny if it wasn’t so pathetic.
Oh “fappity” is back, pulling faces and blowing raspberries. I’m sorry, but I can’t reply in depth since there’s not even the remotest semblance of syntax or intimation of meaning.
“You’re sad”
Actually I have depression and take pills for it. Next insult please.
Make me love you and then you can hurt me.
I tell all my mates in real life that right wing trolls are wankers, same as I say here. I don’t really get the point of this real life stuff. Does it prove something? On the internet, I’ve had to learn not to spit for emphasis. Makes a mess of the screen.
I tell all my mates in real life that right wing trolls are wankers, same as I say here.
– Good
I don’t really get the point of this real life stuff. Does it prove something?
– Its quite easy to say anything you like because of the protection of distance but its meaningless you’re willing to back it up face to face
– Thats why I tend to reflect other peoples attitudes back towards them ie if people are civil to me then I’m civil back if people are arseholes to me well then I’m an arsehole back etc etc
No doubt any face to face you engaged in would include your firearm for added emphasis eh Rambo/Shambo.
I didn’t see a coward. I saw a person full of empathy, worried about how legal protections are disappearing, being more worried than I would have been by an unexpected phone call.
We can’t all be as tough as you, piss73. I’m too scared to even wave my walking stick at people on the internet. I wish I had a huge e-penis like you, or are you just a dick?
He sounded off against Marshall
He freely entered his contact details
He chickened out of having a conversation via phone with Marshall
He left paranoid ramblings about his misadventures
and not that its that important but he also started talking about my penis first, tried to suggest I’m homophobic and that I have rape fantasies about elderly women
So if I’m a dick I’m going to out on a limb and suggest this guys a bigger dick then I
“He sounded off against Marshall”
Apparently disrespect for an incompetent police officer is a crime? Good to see your essential authoritarianism so plain.
“He freely entered his contact details”
In good faith, expecting due process, not intimidation.
“He chickened out of having a conversation via phone with Marshall”
I know too many eastern european and german friends who’ve had unwelcome knocks at the door not to be freaked by that.
You are the one who claimed to have raped my mother, scum.
Stop rolling about on the floor pretending to be a victim.
Slavoj Zizek – Listen to this terrific guy, if you can’t watch him, turn away or just listen to the audio.
http://www.reddit.com/r/lectures/comments/1r3vcu/living_in_the_end_times_according_to_slavoj_zizek/
Odd things that have stayed in my mind – I will have to watch again.
How we are being undermined by the Right. In Italy Berlusconi and his system suspended rights and went into emergency powers and that might be that they could clear parks to prevent rape. It’s a mixing of left wing thoughts, with right wing domination.
Italy, he says it is like Duck Soup Groucho Marx film, having Berlusconi in power.
The left has concentrated on people’s rights gay, etc. and left the large core of left ideas for the Right to pick up. Now we are being subverted. Very interesting.
Point of view put forward by one speaker:
If capitalism had been able to work we wouldn’t be where we are today.
It’s government interference. If capitalism had been able to work everything would have gone down, and the cleansing system of capitalism would have got everything right. Zizek says that it is not the socialists that have brought this about its capitalism out of control. You never admit the system is wrong he says. He quotes the communists in Yugoslavia coming out with the very same thought.
Thanks GW, always interested in SZ.
SZ is interesting – agree with many things he says, but not all.
He was at a conference in Auckland a few years back. One of the things that sticks in my mind is him talking about how he avoids doing “office hours” – ie those hours when a Uni lecturer or tutor is meant to be available to talk with students. he really doesn’t like Office Hours.
To get around Low Equity Mortgages banks are, from my sources. approaching real estate agents and some potential new home owners with good earning capabilities, to increase their equity by offering extremely low credit cards (interest rates around 3%)Even though credit cards are unsecured (that is why we pay 19%interest rates), that should the debt be defaulted this would still be tied to the property.
Wonder how the authorities feel about such discrepancies of interest rates and how the banks can justify charging from 3% to some and 19+% for the rest. 🙁
Wow, a complete syntax breakdown – we might even be seeing a full scale tantrum here!
God I’m cruel. Sorry everyone.
– Yes that is exactly what is happening here, you got me. I’ll say one thing for you and thats you don’t lack self-belief
Given certain posts and threads of comments over the last week or so, which to me are reaching a bit into the “bizarre” territory of discussion, and having dared to question some “slogans” and “sloganised” arguments, I will try to in future stay away from The Standard, apart from perhaps commenting now and then on Open Mike.
It is my strong conviction, that “the left” that chooses to express themselves here under various names and from various groups are representing certain views and positions, that I can partly accept, but I feel that most of society will not understand and accept. That is not my worry, so I leave it up to the democratic process for that to be dealt with.
At NO TIME did I ever try to excuse or support “rape” or anything of such behaviour, and what came out of all that has disappointed me, yes shocked me, and it taught me, to stay well clear of certain commenters and bloggers here now.
As for what concerns me and some other personally, I am posting this to simply remind those that are interested, what deserves attention, analysis and resolution. I will NOT support any future party that does not address this, does not distance itself from this, and that keeps quiet on this:
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15264-welfare-reform-the-health-and-disability-panel-msd-the-truth-behind-the-agenda/
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15463-designated-doctors-%e2%80%93-used-by-work-and-income-some-also-used-by-acc/
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15188-medical-and-work-capability-assessments-based-on-the-bps-model-aimed-at-disentiteling-affected-from-welfare-benefits-and-acc-compo/
Also of interest should be:
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/14923-health-and-disability-commissioner/
AND:
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/13301-what-to-do-if-you-are-required-to-see-a-winz-designated-doctor/
I know the forum it has been posted on has received a bit of controversy re some “members”, but apart from that it was created and is being maintained for the purpose of informing persons on issues, and how they can find help, perhaps.
That is also where I and a few I know and have cooperated with are coming from, and hence we will maintain all said, written and posted, and push for this to get more public attention.
While this may disinterest certain more “politically minded” various persons here, I leave it to all others, and the many readers, to make use of and to judge or decide on.
Best wishes Standardistas, have a “happy new year” coming up!
“Best Wishes” to you xtasy.
i think your violin need a tune up X, it seems to play this same song over and over again…
are you pluckin’ their strings.
“bad12”, with all respect, I accept that I am diagnosed as “mentally ill”, so perhaps understand some previous “songs” and “violins”. Being ill like this does not mean “insanity”, although at times I may have been close to it, but then again, it takes a genius to be bordering on insanity.
I have nothing more to say, but perhaps you may understand now, I do withdraw for my own mental health, and perhaps that of others. Besides of that, the information I provided remains to be valid, irrespective of my mental state. Good luck I appreciated always your smart thoughts, but sometimes against me. Life is a never ending journey, hopefully leading to some maturity and wisdom.
Illegitimi non carborundum, xtasy
Lolz X, i thought you might take my little comment in the vein that you have, the violin overture i hint at has nothing to do with the useful information you provide and is simply a reference to your developing preference to indulge in the little ‘drama queen moments’ where you are leaving this site, restricting your comments on this site etc etc,
Having over the course of many year been diagnosed by the Doctors in charge as being afflicted with, depending upon ‘their moods’ it would seem, untreatable bouts of psychotic behavior to full on paranoid schizophrenia i will regrettably decline what i see as your open invitation to label myself a genius,(criminal madman in my case seems more appropriate),
Keep commenting X and learn that this is a little battlefield of ideas where if you believe in the content of the comments you post you fight with all and sundry without either a backward step or a moan about the comments of those who disagree with your point of view all the while realizing that all of us, even the self appointed genius, are wrong sometimes and only the bigger person is willing to admit that…
TV3 News saw The Cunliffe score an own goal with his oil hyperbole exposed for all to see again. Will he never learn. Each time he is on TV the Labour vote drops.
Ummm I’m sure that if I wanted to make the effort of doing a search, then I could find you saying exactly the same thing in the same words about the previous two Labour party leaders. It also wouldn’t surprise me that if I looked into your IP pattern, I could find you making exactly the same observation about Helen Clark and Michael Cullen…
If I did make that effort, then I’d have to assist you to amend your behaviour. If you are going to troll, then at least do it so that I don’t get bored. Then I won’t feel like booting you off the site like a bad TV advertisement. It isn’t you opinion, it is your lamearse pisspoor excuse of a way of trolling. It is so frigging awful that neither I nor anyone else can be arsed listening to your appalling lack of originality. You are a wit that is just witless.
This is particularly the case incidentally when you jump from negative advertising to that rather horrible slavish purse-dog imitation you do whenever you mention the Great and Wonderful Leader.. You read like a Paul Goldsmith biography.
Here – try the mirror… Looks like Paula Bennetts purse..
Clear? I don’t think it will be long before I get moved to boot you off the site again.