national said a report on their culture was ready in back in April. At the time they said they would wait until the bullying report about parliament was released, then they would release their own report.
Now that the parliament report on bullying has been released, all of a sudden nationals report on their party culture is not ready……. why is that? Sounds dodgy as to me.
Something like ‘how to turn a white-wash into something that vaguely resembles a damning report that is more credible given the other report that has just been released’.
Edit: which impartial third party has put their name(s) on the National Party report?
Editing probably advisable inasmuch as the party folk who work in parliament participate in the toxic workplace culture reported by the Francis review. Their in-house culture review therefore has a parliamentary interface component, which will be illuminated by yesterday's news.
Plus we heard Mallard telling NatRad this morning that he's under the impression that rape has happened in parliament in recent years. He's encouraging any victims to report to that police, and giving reassurance complainants will be supported in doing so. Sufficiently serious to make the Nats want to check if any of their people are involved, eh? Reasonable to postpone release of their review pending that check…
Not mentioned on any NZ news source that I am aware of, as I said in my official complaint to RNZ, all we ask for is fair and balanced reporting…is that too much to ask for from at least one news source in NZ?, and especially our state broadcaster.
Massive May Day March in Defense of the Bolivarian Revolution.
Yep RNZ's a wierd scene alright adrian , free to air funded by us and yet run exactly along the lines of a fully commercial station .The only sources it seeks are uk and us based cnn ( which they apparently have playing in the office )and bbc .Odd and out of all perspective also is the number of interviews of americans who seemingly are first choice to consult on almost anything happening arround the world buggered if i know why !!
Yes weston it is a damn shame alright, even our beloved Kim Hill has over time turned into a real reactionary, and I used to so look forward to her political interviews, she was one of NZ's greats, but unfortunately no longer.
Bizarrely one of the few places in MSM media that I know of that offer a critique to a lot of these stories is Tucker Carlson on Fox (and believe me I am no fan of Fox)…what a crazy situation we have ended up in.
Yeah, he also did a piece in support of Bernie and AOC's bill to bring the credit card industry into line on their interest rates, all very strange, I would never have predicted that Fox would be one of the few place in US main stream media to find a bit (and to be fair it is only a bit) of fairness and balance in reporting, but all the same it says volumes about 'liberal' media today.
Weston 3.1: Odd and out of all perspective also is the number of interviews of americans who seemingly are first choice to consult on almost anything happening arround the world buggered if i know why !!
You lay it on the line westie – we have found out why and now know we are buggered!
In the last week Paddy Gower on newshub and Seymour and Wallis on Q&A have all claimed that we have a white supremacist and race problem in NZ which was exposed by the terrorist attack in Chch.
Pardon me, but the attack was carried out by a foreigner attacking New Zealanders. New Zealand was a victim, not the perpetrator.
There is no evidence to support the contention made by Gower, Seymour or Wallis.
Sure, there may be a problem in NZ with white and other supremacies and with racism, but there is no evidence linking those problems to the attacks. Those problems exist in most every country on the planet so the logic isn't there.
We were attacked by a foreigner. We were a victim. NZ was not a party to the attack, as Gower, Seymour and Wallis state.
You're right. A reality check often reveals that folks are being driven by perceptions only. In the aftermath of the massacre I made a few comments to similar effect: we know there's been a skinhead subculture in Chch for yonks, with white supremacist culture seemingly attached. Yet no media report connecting the shooter to it ever showed up – just media reporting a speculative connection.
I also queried the others arrested in the vicinity of the massacre on that day, media-linked to it, yet lack of follow-through by police suggests no link to the shooter. I commented at the time that they may just have been regular viewers of tv crime shows. Media reports of those arrests said they were carrying guns.
Raises the question of what percentage of any random selection of Chch locals carry guns, eh? Hollywood syndrome: gun glamour. Brainwashed followers acting out fantasies produced by the mystique…
he is right insofar that the perpetrator of the crime was a "foreigner' and australian.
but he is not right with white male supremacy. The western/white world actually has a big issue with predominantly white blokes that have an issue with the loss of privilege, the fact that women will not go back to the kitchen and endless pregnancies without a fight, and that people of color will also not go and sit at the back of the bus without a fight.
So the issue is our culture, our white western christian culture is breeding these guys, and thanks to our privilege he moved here without issues, bought guns legally without issues, and then one day decided to kill 50 people.
And he did so out of stated reason, but then, because Ms. Ardern said so we were not allowed an open discussion on these reasons. No we have to not name him, not talk about him and simply pretend it did not happen the way it happend, and now VTO comes along and is trying to whitewash history.
The 50 people got killed because they were brown, of a different religion and are currently the one group of people that every one can demonise with nary a slap one the hand.; Hence why only murder charges when terrorism charges would apply.
Its like some saying we must 'End Iran' cause Iran is doing shit we are actually doing but its easier to blame Iran and besides they are brown and muslim so there. Just much smaller on the scale of things.
Anything to have a crack at white men eh sabine. Grab at those wispy leaves blowing in the wind wont you, try and tie them into something with substance eh, leverage other memes off those weak knots then. You are predictable, tedious, offensive and lack credibility.
Some time ago you demanded I not respond to your posts. How about you do the same with mine.
ummm hey buddy Sabine actually answered your question – how about listening – you may eventually get the answer that agrees with what you already have decided to believe.
its not my fault that there are a shit load of white men behaving like utterly depraved people like that white middle class boy from Australia with lots o money from Grandpa who migrated to NZ because he knew that as a white boy its the easiest thing for him to – also did i mention he is from OZ"?, buy a few guns, get some target training in and then rock up on a Friday at a house of prayer and shoot 50 men women children in the back like the fucking coward he is.
so there go whinge some more about how men are hard done by especially the white ones.
btw, i didn't "whinge about how men are hard done by eespecially the white ones" but the fact you think I did also betrays you and your agenda
In addition this wee white-man-hating gem also betrays you and your agenda "there are a shit load of white men behaving like utterly depraved people ". Delusional.
you wanted me to stay away from you, which is easily done and has been done as you asked. I ask you to stay away from me too. But if you don't then expect your extreme claims to be confronted.
Detail, specifics and accuracy are not your fine points are they marty. That was clearly a whinge at sabine and her white-man-hating ways, not at how white men are hard done by.
Sabine, NZ has a problem with all races killing their babies and/or partners. Domestic violence is rife. Weapons are carried by gangs which are of all races. I don't want to state the obvious but I think you need to do a fact check before you make these statements.
It is true that the world we live in was and still is designed by the wealthy upper class, in the majority men but certainly not whites only. But brutality is carried out by those who are fanatically inclined or emotionally disturbed with many shades of one or the other in between. I view it as a complete failure of society,communities and governments to have allowed mentally disturbed people to be "treated" by using the label "community care"which means nothing more than medieval methods of denial of care. It is an abdication of responsibility to leave such vulnerable group to their own devices and too many are becoming victims or perpetrator. Whether or not a deranged person has wealthy parents is irrelevant unless policy of envy is at play.
my post was in response to vto who spoke about the white man who killed 50 brown and white people in their temple.
nothing to do with anything else but that.
And i, as a white person don't feel entitled to speak about the way others live their lifes, or how they choose to break the law. What i know is that a lot of the issues Maori have in NZ is due to the discrimination suffered at the hands of the colonials that came first, then by the subsequent governments who took their language, their rights of passage (moko), their land, and replaced it with white mens clothes and hairdoes, alcohol, poverty, hunger and war fare for that land.
so while i don't disagree with you i also don't see the point in regards to what the original post was about.
And agin, even the wealth of the murderer has little to do other then it enabled him to travel to meet up with white supremacist in europe, get indoctrinated, travel to nz ( i migrated here and thus now what it costs and it is not cheap by any means) find a flat, buy guns, pay a gun club fee and train to shoot 50 predominantly brown people – men women and children – in their temple of worship because as he himself stated, it was the easiest country for him to do so. And one reason it was so easy was because he is a white australian with money and they have no issue migrating here – because we consider australians our neighbors.
And us white people will start to have to look at what is and not what we want there to be. And white supremacism, a fear of 'being replaced', a fear of loss of privilege is there and it is causing a whole lot of trouble and death. We have had no issue demanding all sorts of answers from muslims when they had their young ones commit terrorism, and we should not shy away from asking us the same question. Why does a young, average looking man, healthy, with some wealth go and kill 50 people. People who had no intend on doing any harm to him, who had no intend of replacing him, people who Greeted him "Welcome Brother'.
Maybe we should think about that, rather then find excuses that are rather flimsy. And i stand by that.
You know what those taggers-on were doing on the day of the massacres and the several days following? Was intentionally not reported much methinks..
They were the camo'ed survivalist and other nutters of various shades who came out thinking this was the time. That armageddon was here. Weapons locked and loaded, camo on, out they came. Not white supremacists. The Papanui High couple were out to help the coppers.. We had one with a samurai sword in our suburb.. there were reports of others elsewhere around the country.
The thin veneer of civilisation was peeling back there for a moment for us to get a peek…
It has been explained a few times to you when you asked the same question before. Why not write a letter to Jacinda and see what she says – you might get in the paper again lol
I think if you were genuine and sincere in your inquiry you would have, by now, gone out and found the answer to this burning question that troubles you so. But instead you use the question to sow seeds of distrust and doubt.
But why not ask the leaders and get your answer, why not? cos you already know the answer.
yep insincere – time for your real agenda eh – time for game playing to be over eh, time for fronting up to your REAL issue eh, time for vto to put up eh.
Those local white supremacist losers have been talking about killing others for decades, here in NZ. All because the bulk of them lack the conviction to carry through with their evil doesn't mean they aren't here cheering the shit on and trying to recruit loose cannons.
They are all part of global networking now, and as such are (an even bigger) real and present danger to society.
The supremacist/extremist issue within wider society was acknowledged wtb, no problem. The problem is linking the attack to NZ – the only evidence being pointed to which could link the attack to NZ society is the extremist element within society and as already pointed out, those local extremists exist in every society – 'white', muslim, african, maori. So the logic is missing. You need something more specific to link it to NZ. Otherwise your evidence links it to every society and not specifically NZ.
You need something more specific to link it to NZ. Otherwise your evidence links it to every society and not specifically NZ.
The white supremacist's attack against and murdering of innocent people at prayer happened in New Zealand, in fact it happened in your city Christchurch. THAT is your link and your evidence.
Why is this an issue for you – why not answer that instead of beating around the bush as you like to do – don't be scared – what's your fucken issue son.
I thought it was because we have extremists here? That is the point above. You have introduced a new element.
In addition you are ignoring the fact that it was not a New Zealander, it was a foreigner. Was New Zealand fingered when the Rainbow Warrior was blown up and a man killed by foreigners who came here for that purpose?
There is no need to link the NZ attack to NZ, as it occurred in NZ…
I get your point but it is merely semantics and you can do much better than semantics – I've seen it.
Fact is we have a lot of white supremacists here. These are not just the bike clubs and skinheads, but the business class who associate with them, or worse, the secret societies.
I've met a white power enforcer who worked for businessmen in Invercargill. His job was to beat up black people who got uppity with their affairs. It's not worth my life to expose the pricks, that is the Police's job, except, they're probably in the police force too.
I wish it were not so. We've got some absolute dirtbags in this country.
Interestingly, in Christchurch, when my mate tuned up a few National Front members, they hired a Maori hitman to get us. White power – lolz!
If some New Zealanders had dumped a pig's head on the Rainbow Warrior, hurled abuse at the crew and talked about getting Greenpeace boats out of our waters all prior to the event, you can bet they would have been implicated.
Plenty harboured and expressed such ill will towards greenpeace back then, and continue to today. But NZ did not sink the Rainbow Warrior. The point remains.
vto The point is well made. People mutter and utter words of extremes – 'I'll kill you you little bastard' might be shouted by some parent with a lack of controlled language. But it is very unlikely to happen.
Tuhoe apparently used to voice angry threats, and practice martial arts; the police spied and read intention and invaded their village. But they hadn't done anything except use wild launguage and perhaps they were practising stuff they might have learned from being in our Defence Forces,
The USA Forces carry out maneouvres with our Forces, and other countries', on our soil regularly. We haven't been attacked yet, though there may be willingness and intention, but so far no action to point at, except the deaths of a soldier or two.
yes grey, and I believe it is one of the fundamentals to whole of the terror attacks matter.
The matter is too large and significant to let this particular fundamental take on a life of its own (that NZ society is responsible for and led to the terror attack), when there is no evidence for it (as outlined imo above).
I agree 100% vto. It particularly upsets me that the Oz has dumped this on us. However Jacinda has turned it round and used the attention of the world on it to try and make improvements. If it had happened in Australia it would have vanished without a trace? Or would they have been exposed as harbouring some nasty behaviours and been shamed into releasing the Manus Islanders? I hear they are contemplating suicide again after Labour managed to shoot themselves in the foot.
He never imagined he would 'get away' with it; he fully anticipated being caught and imprisoned for the rest of his life. The only reason why he switched to a local target was that he belatedly realised they would be easier.
Since 9/11 I had always thought NZ would make an excellent target for terrorist attack. Reason being that we are perceived as the safest place in the world so if people aren't safe here then they aren't safe anywhere – terrorism aim achieved.
and then it was a white boy that came and killed people en masse and not the advertised threat of brown muslim boy.
And that is the issue here VTO, if it would have been a brown muslim boy we would not stop discussing the religion of 'hate', how they are all out to get us, and such, and finally how to prevent it.
Instead we are told to not discuss it, we are told to not name the men who did it, we are told to not show is ugly mug, we are told to not read/discuss and disect his manifesto, and above all we are told to never discuss why on earth he would choose a. NZ (and white people find it relatively easy to migrate here especially people from OZ – and to be fair NZ'lers get easily into OZ), why he would choose Christchurch (yeah, a town with Ersatz Nazis and wanna be white supremacists) for his attack, rather then say live in South Auckland and try it there.
Fact is that there is a lot of terrorism that comes from white people. And us white people we now need to wonder and ask ourself and i have raised that question often, Why is a white boy, from one of the most desirable places on this planet, from a well to do family so hateful so fearful and so fucked up that he would migrate to a neighboring country ( he could have killed muslims in OZ) got himself plenty o guns and ammuniton, learned how to shoot real good, and then killed 50 people by shooting them in the back.
And that question we have repeatedly refused to ask, in fact we have been told by our PM to never ask to never speak about it. And that is also cowardice.
"The problem is linking the attack to NZ – the only evidence being pointed to which could link the attack to NZ society is the extremist element within society and as already pointed out, those local extremists exist in every society"
According to Gower's report, people from the Al Noor mosque believe the terrorist had help.
Probably best to wait for a completed investigation too before claiming New Zealand's innocence on this.
Maybe 'NZ' played no part in the 15 March acts of terrorism – maybe Muslims in places of worship in Christchurch are the (murder) victims of a foreign terrorist acting alone, and 'we' (wider NZ and all NZers other than the victims) are simply innocent, albeit naive, bystanders. Unfortunately, there are currently insufficient facts available to decide.
Maybe the terrorist plotted secretly in complete isolation and received no encouragement or assistance from any like-minded NZers. I fervently hope that's true, but agree with maui that it's prudent to at the very least suspend judgement on the complicity of any NZers, and (given the unprecedented seriousness of the events of 15 March) proceed with caution until the Royal Commission of Inquiry has reported.
The naivety of NZ's security and intelligence professionals regarding 'our' vulnerability to white supremacist terrorists was certainly a contributing factor.
This is the thing when you demand that a society does not discuss these things in public. You don't know what is, you leave lots of speculation and as we can see we already have apologists rock on up denying it was one of us, it was a Foreigner. Lol, cause Australians are foreigners. Yeah, right Tui.
The white first dudes of this planet are international, they meet, they greet they go to concerts, they go to readings/discussions etc.
Why do you think Bannon is hanging about in Europe? To sightsee?
The making any discussion of this criminal act essentially 'verboten' was so far – in my eyes – the single dumbest thing Labour and Ms. Ardern as PM could have done and they have done a few dumb things since they came to power.
But by essentially pretending it did not happen here, and this is not 'us' and such, they laid the groundwork for future deniers and also they laid the ground – most likely unwittingly (at least i hope this is the case) for it to happen again, cause we ain't learning and we still don't know – the public – with what we are dealing here.
Your comment @ 4 and Paddy Gower's claim "a white supremacist and race problem in NZ has been exposed by the Chch attack"…
I don't think he was suggesting a direct link with the perpetrator. Rather he is highlighting the fact that white supremacists and racists have been present in NZ for decades which is true because I knew a group of them.
They didn't roam the streets in leather jackets and boots waving swastika flags. Nor did they call themselves anything. It was back in the 1970s (and part of the 1980s) before social media was a thing and cell phones hadn't been invented. What they did do (among other things ) was roam around disrupting political gatherings and hoaxing individuals. Some of those hoaxes targeted persons of Catholic or Jewish persuasion and in the case of two of them… went on to have serious consequences for the targets and the political party they represented. That is, the Labour Party.
As a group they hated Maoris, they hated Jews and some of them hated Catholics. They hated Greenpeace and similar groups and they hated unions with a passion – at least in the case of two of them. If they were still around as a group today they would hate Muslims too. I see them now as the fore-runners to the alt right, white supremacists that exist throughout NZ today.
And here's the crunch: they were members of the Labour Party!
Yes, understand and appreciate all of that Anne and have seen them for years too. That is all explained in the points above re extremists like them in every society and how it interacts, or doesn't, with the terror attacks.
Want to know why the Aussie election went that way? It had nothing to do with Labour, or Liberals or any other party or any of their campaigns. It had nothing to do with the leaders and their charisma or lack of. It had nothing to do with the economy or the local factory or anything else.
The Aussie election went that way because western voters are now voting in preparation for conflict. And conservatives are where that voting goes.
That's it.
And the Christchurch terror attacks, perversely, would have pushed this along.
edit: this phenomenon has consequences for us in our elections next year…
The Liberal first preference tally actually fell by close to 1 per cent, according to Australian Electoral Commission counts posted at midday.
The Liberal vote was 3,293,099, a 0.91 per cent fall from the 2016 level. It’s barely moved over two years, and certainly was not a flood of support.
So it must have been a Labor decline that did it in. No so. Labor’s first preference vote fell even less than the Liberals’. The ALP had 4,016,676 primary votes, a drop of 0.87 per cent from 2016.
The lesson, as in all modern elections, is not how many votes a party gets, but where they are cast. The Liberals won 27.76 per cent of the primary vote and Labor 33.86 per cent. But we know who won the election.
Firstly, the polls indicated a Labour win, but that didn't eventuate. In other words, people were thinking left, but when push comes to shove and people have been put in fear, then they will vote along different lines – those of self-preservation. And there is plenty to put the people in fear – boat people, Trump NK and Iran etc, Chch.
Secondly, it is going on worldwide and has been for a few years now – brexit, trump, various euro elections, even the Ukraine comedian. It is a rising phenomenon.
But yes Red, the point made in your link above is also relevant. Next year's election here will be very interesting – maybe NZ is the last western holdout against the rising tide of conservatism and conflict.
True. I've repeatedly made the point that Australia electorate is not all that politically different to NZ, but their electoral system is. And this more than anything else has driven the result.
The Greens collected 10.04 per cent of the first preference vote, a total of 1,190,776. The Nationals had 4.89 per cent, or 579,457.
But the Nationals have won 10 seats and the Greens one. It depends where the votes land.
It was like that here, but it's the same or even worse, in the US, and the UK. Rural seats tend to be heavily favoured for conservative voters, and the "ruling class", whereas urban seats, with far greater numbers, get much less say in the electoral booth. It's not one person, one vote in such systems. The power of a vote in California, for instance, is only about 1/84 that of a vote in Wyoming.
Exactly. I guess what irks me more than a little is the rampant kiwi conceit that our Australian cousins are all six fingered redneck boofheads. No doubt some are, and there is a modest surplus of them in Queensland, but for the most part they're very much like us.
It's the quirks of their electoral system that make them look more conservative.
The OPCW in its final report refers to "experts" unnamed, rather than its own Fact Finding Team who visited the site
Newsworthy ,I would have thought.
The 15 page document is very thorough, and explores different scenarios, eventually concluding that the only plausible scenario was that the cylinders were manually placed rather than dropped by air
Could Putin and Assad have maliciously brain washed this senior, vastly experienced OPCW investigator?
Read the report yourself , it addresses elements of the Bellingcat findings (incidentally, unlike the OPCW engineering report,Bellingcat operatives did not visit the site. As always their investigation was conducted in front of a computer screen)
Yeah, but you would think that because you rate Consortium News above Bellingcat. Bellingcat have earned a reputation for finding out the truth by image analysis, Consortium News are just another Kremlin mirror site.
Have you read some of the columns allegedly written by Parry? They are not consistent with a PhD qualified native English speaking journalist. As of several years ago this site abandoned all pretense of journalistic integrity and became a purveyor of wildebeests of dubious provenance – your preferred kind of gnus.
Yet the conclusions are not robust. The report asserts that the gas cylinders were "more likely to have been placed than to have arrived by air". Ok – but open and shut, which would have required a stronger statement "could not have/were unlikely to have/did not arrive by air".
Nor, despite the use of OPCW forms, did this form the official report. These were minority views that were ultimately excluded.
Consortium News has recent form as a largely unreliable bunch of repeaters of proPutin bullshit. Bellingcat is open source – if moved to do so you can check their images and conclusions for yourself.
It may have been left out for good reason – lacking factual backing for instance. No surprise that a pack of Putin boosters like Consortium would dig it up and circulate it though – most "Independent News Sources" don't have agents in the OPCW however, and the question arises as to how an outfit as threadbare as Consortium manages to fund them.
"He said his reading of the report was that the offences were all committed by one person, and said he did not know who that person was. He admitted that having them tell their story over and over again was a problem with the court system, "which I know people are looking at, at the moment". "I'm not aware whether they're MPs or staff. Reading the report carefully I get the sense that the man is still on the premises … I don't know who it is, if I knew who it is I would tell the police.""
JLR triggered this, so many will assume he's the one. Ain't necessarily so. Lack of official rape complaints can be explained by perception that they are a bad career move, I guess. Confidentiality of the review process means crimes get disclosed, and all participants remain anonymous. Nonetheless, Mallard deserves credit for taking responsibility for his past parliamentary violence & trying to do what's right for current victims…
I don't know who it is, if I knew who it is I would tell the police.""
JLR triggered this, so many will assume he's the one.
You are crossing a line there imo – YOU may think that and I've never yet heard another person say it – own your shit dennis and it is shit – dirty and smelly.
Not sure what your problem is this time. If it's that you think I believe JLR is a rapist, you're dead wrong. He doesn't seem that kind of person. However, recalling what one of the women he had an affair with told the media last year, it's understandable some would jump to that conclusion.
So Marty, the shit is all in your mind! Wouldn't it be better to clean it out and dispose of it?? Projecting it onto others seems a waste of time and energy, eh?
There's absolutely no way any of us can own the comment made by that woman last year. Only she can do that. The impression formed in the minds of the readers of her comment is also theirs alone. Nothing to do with me whatsoever!!
You – i turned off game of thrones at the start – too full of american accents and isms.
BM – there was only 1 american actor in the first series
You – oh really? anyway, and so on
You've got opinions not based on reality and it behooves you not to extrapolate or tenuous connect too far because often you do so with little knowledge as you did with the tiny example I have given.
Reminding me that I'm just as human as everyone else isn't actually necessary, incredible though it may seem. My comment was about likely perceptions created in the minds of many, as the result of political developments. You tried to warp the thread into something about me, instead. Better to keep to the topic!
in case i'm wrong please put one link of anyone else saying what you said and implied – just one example of someone else and these 'likely perceptions in the minds of many' please.
Why? You believe other commentators on the Standard ought to do research for you? Why? Seems rather irrational. Isn't it obvious that we all have different values and priorities? Human nature!
Come on Rosemary, is there really any point in posing as simple-minded? You know that none of those women would have had affairs with him if they thought he was a rapist, don't you? Would any woman choose to have affair with someone they thought could be a rapist? Obviously they also believed "He doesn't seem that kind of person.
You are once again prattling on about things you know nothing about.
Did you know abused partners go back to an abusive spouse on average SEVEN TIMES before leaving for good.
"Would any woman choose to have affair with someone they thought could be a rapist?"
You are so ignorant it's incomprehensible you think you know stuff about this. Have something valid to contribute or just give it a rest for all the victims sake.
I struggled mightily not to hit you with strings of invective.
Your opinion about what you think I may or may not know is totally irrelevant to the political issues raised by the controversy. No, it is not all about me!! Why is that so hard for you to understand??
"Those women" aren't mind readers, and so might not have been able to determine ahead of time whether or not they were choosing to have an affair with a rapist.
Even some rapists might not be aware they would rape prior to first offense. 'Reckons' and 'seems' aren’t always on the money – it's not Rosemary who's being simple-minded.
So you're agreeing with me: people form impressions about the character of others, and identifying the rapist in parliament isn't a simple matter. Cool.
I agree with your contention that it's unlikely any of those women would have had entered into an affair with someone they thought could be a rapist.
"Would any woman choose to have affair with someone they thought could be a rapist?" – DF
Perhaps the nub of our disagreement is that you seem to believe that those women (and presumably, by extension, all women) can reliably identify a (potential) rapist prior to engaging in an affair (or whatever.) Now I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but wouldn’t that mean you think rape is the woman's fault, because she ignores the signals from her infallible ‘rapist radar‘, choosing to pursue the affair regardless!
If you believe something different then perhaps you should consider taking a course in Plain English! "Elliptical obfuscation" !! Praxis Dennis, praxis.
You're kidding! Why would anyone feel responsible for whatever impression someone else got?? Of course I don't have such unrealistic expectations of women! I have no idea why you hallucinated such a wacky notion…
Hi Dennis. Now I'm genuinely puzzled. English is my first language, but from your subsequent comments I am obviously misunderstanding the thrust of your comment @7.1.1.2.1.
Come on Rosemary, is there really any point in posing as simple-minded? You know that none of those women would have had affairs with him if they thought he was a rapist, don't you? Would any woman choose to have affair with someone they thought could be a rapist? Obviously they also believed "He doesn't seem that kind of person.
So it’s simply a matter of belief? You 'believe' that JLR isn't a rapist, and the evidence you cite in support of your belief is that it matches your view of the apparent belief of his multiple sexual partners (the ones we know about)? Is this really the sole basis of your belief?
Seems flimsy, but I bow to you superior reasoning and logic.
No, I would never claim "superior reasoning and logic". I don't recall claiming superiority ever, to be honest. And I too am puzzled. Beliefs about other people form in one's mind as the result of impressions they make. Doesn't everyone know that? Hardly contraversial, really! Reasoning doesn't even come into it. Just common knowledge about human nature.
'Would you enter into a business partnership with a person who you thought was a fraudster?'
I've never entered into a business partnership, but my (uninformed) answer to your hypothetical question is no. My answer might be representative, but I sincerely doubt it is universal.
P.S. Did I just believe/feel my potential business partner was a fraudster, or were my thoughts based on objective evidence? That would matter to me. If possible, I would prefer to have some objective evidence to support my thoughts/reckons/feels, but in the absence of such evidence I’d have no option but to follow DF’s lead and ‘go with my gut!
One in three women being sexually abused in some way in their lifetimes is met not with horror but with a stream of comments saying, “it’s more one in five!” or “What about men!” or “where do these stats come from?”
Every woman I know has been sexually harassed, abused, or assaulted. Every single one. If anything I think one in three is lower than the reality. We talk about victims, and how many attacks, because otherwise the question is:
Who is raping us?
The answer is your teacher, your mentor, the man whose book you kept next to your bed, your GP, your flatmate, your uncle, the police officer you asked for help, your dentist, your neighbour, your plumber, your best friend, your brother, your manager, your editor, the bouncer at your favourite club, the barista who makes your coffee, your Tinder date, a politician, the guy who fixed your sister’s computer, the bus driver, your cousin, your best friend’s brother, your ex-boyfriend, your husband, the waiter at that restaurant, your dad, your personal trainer …
That’s harder to ignore than:
A monster.
An evil man.
A guy who was “a bit off”.
Someone who was “not right”.
And ignoring the issue of sexual violence is what we do.
It’s estimated that 90% of sexual violence is committed by someone known to the victim. They didn’t see something off, because there wasn’t anything off. There wasn’t any indication. No early warning system. No alarm. No red flag.
a very small one actually. Maybe 5 – 10 % are rapists. I would also venture that rapists are repeat offender.
And because we don't actually treat rape as the crime that it is, and we still put the blame on women and girls and lets not even go to the fact that men have their own issues – re toxic masculinity – in reporting this crime, the fact that the police is only sometimes happy enough to actually do its job – often times only when the victim is so bad that they can't really not do anything these rapists get away and do it again and again and again.
But, and this is important RL, us women we don't know who is going to rape us. When i went to bed that night as a preteen – sharing the room with my 6 year old sister – i did not know that my stepfather would come and rape me that night. And frankly i am sure that i was not the only one, but just one of many.
and that is the issue. We don't know who is going to rape us. We don't know who is going to sexually assault us. We don't know until they do.
so to me know it is simple. So as long as i don't know the bloke, i am not going to accept drinks, not going to drive in his car, not going without a weapon of sorts alone in a carpark, tell my friends where i go, with whom, and i as billions of other women do have a whole scenario that i follow so as to not get raped, assaulted, mugged, killed.
but maybe you want to read this, and then you might want to answer me my question, what did you think i will tell you, and what do believe?
David Richards, 41, was sentenced to 12 years in jail on Thursday in Knox County Tennessee for raping his adoptive daughter – 60 years less than the maximum term sought by prosecutors. As he handed down the lenient sentence, Judge Steve Sword cited Richard’s work as a pastor and the Bible study he began in jail as mitigating factors. Richards was found guilty of rape, incest, and sexual battery by an authority figure for abusing his daughter, Amber Richards, for two years beginning when she was 14, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Rosemary About coffee on your laptop, not sure. But I dropped quite a bit on my keyboard once. Turned it upside down over a towel and let it drip out then dried off, using a cottonbud for awkward places, and it was fine. It liked the blend. Hope this is helpful.
DF Better not have referred to JLR at all don't you think. Gathering in possible suspects on innuendo is not what I thought a practical man with principles would do.
I've made the point about the relevance of political psychology many times: these situations emphasise how relevant it is! Some commenters here try to shoot the messenger, but who cares?? Mass psychology drives public perceptions of political events, regardless how many commenters try to be puerile.
You think reminding people of the political context of Mallard's impression isn't good?? Would you like to explain why you believe historical context is bad to include in political discussion? Or do you believe JLR's affairs didn't trigger the review. Or both??
That's the bit to which I can't see any good side, but it's also the only bit that adds any information. "reminding people of the political context" is just you being patronising.
You could just have easily said "JLR triggered this, so perhaps some good has come out of that entire tawdry series of events: exposing the toxic culture of parliament".
"Tory grandee Michael Heseltine has said he will not be supporting the Conservatives in the European election, and will instead vote Liberal Democrat. The former deputy prime minister and lifelong pro-European said the party has become “infected by the virus of extremism” and he cannot endorse its support for leaving the EU."
"In an article for The Sunday Times, he said: “The reason for my experiment with the Lib Dems is, of course, the government’s position on Brexit. I cannot, with a clear conscience, vote for my party when it is myopically focused on forcing through the biggest act of economic self-harm ever undertaken by a democratic government.” His call for the Tories to reclaim the political centre ground was echoed by former prime minister Sir John Major."
I think the study of history generally and that of politics should include the cycles that occur where countries and large groups go into a spasm of self-harming behaviour. Is it a default position to go for some apparently pure and uncompromising method when times get hard and a certain level of anxiety is reached? Many countries or large social entities are definitely suffering from 'spasms' at present.
Speaking of those self identified Christians and regarding abortion laws Chris Hedges has
a reasoned piece;
"Ignore the religious rhetoric and moral posturing about abortion. This debate is not about the sanctity of life. It is about corporate capitalists who desperately need more bodies and intend to coerce women to produce them"
With regards to this report on bullying at parliament this from RNZ
"Now it has been laid bare in the report by independent reviewer Debbie Francis but still the elected representatives guilty of grossly abusing their positions remain anonymous and will likely never be publicly identified."
We have a right to know who these individual MPs are after all they are responsible for their behaviour as elected and appointed individuals.
Oh come on mosa. Just getting the information was important to build the picture, and complainants and informants were promised that it would be kept private. We do know it goes on. We cannot afford to go into a 'spasm' of blame and punishment over past practice when our attention needs to be on CC and international machinations. And it has happened, so our lagging attention to the future mustn't be dragged away again from facing forward.
So no it is not a cop out, that's just ignoring facts:
Informants were promised privacy.
It would be disruptive of the uneasy balance in Parliament and its efficacy for its big job.
If the victims of serious harassment and rape want to bring an action they should be assisted in this but need to understand that others who don't want to bring it to the light of day will unwittingly be exposed to public gaze.
The Labour government will again be going further than its mandate of running the country well, in wanting to be ideologically pure, instead of being both principled and practical. That part will be in establishing a sleaze-free approach to what we have been told is a government process that can be very demeaning and bullying to those not part of the in-group.
greywarshark sensitivities aside what i am arguing is that if these MPs remain hidden then how can the public and those wanting a career in parliament have any confidence that the house of representatives is dealing with the culprits and that people will take responsibility for their actions.
When you choose to serve the public and be paid by them how you conduct yourself is important and should be transparent.
This from No right turn.
The report of course refuses to name those MPs, meaning that the independent reviewer is effectively part of this conspiracy of silence as well. Which is not acceptable. Naming names is the first step towards accountability, and that needs to happen if anything is to change.
It's a difficult one. People who err so arrogantly should be brought to account. They are getting away with nasty stuff.
But then there has been a pact of privacy. We know that stats say that much sexual misbehaviour and crime is not reported so can't be taken further and justice meted. So BAU if nothing is done from this report.
And one lack of justice does not excuse another lack of justice and respect – to those who came forward. The Witchhunter Generals' opinions that purity and sanctimony will prevail if the victims are burned along with their perpetrators will, I am absolutely sure, not be agreed with by those most affected who will feel persecuted.
Sometimes there is no easy answer to achieving probity. Back off WG's and pour cold water on your hot breaths of retribution; put your simplistic interference to one side to avoid adding further trauma to this unhappy revelation.
The leaked report – from engineering firm Beca to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment – said the narrow, glass-fronted block at 230 High Street has:
piles that are about 10 times too weak
a support column that is overloaded by five times
steel frame fixings that are not strong enough
inadequate foundations
The report also said calculations underestimated the earthquake loading by 25%.
The Korean engineer assures us it is quite okay. And I am sure that his credentials are also as we have good standards in NZ and good surveillance of those standards.
This am on Radionz there was a report on the use of a computer check on social welfare call centre responses. This check was designed by a person at AUT. I am wary of computer paradigms being the deciding factor of people's entitlements. But the check on the program would help to establish if there had been racial bias I think. So it was helpful to run calls past it to see how it registered. They looked at calls that had been passed on for action and calls that were recorded and not actioned, to see if this resulted in further calls indicating real need for action.
Kathryn speaks with Stanford University Associate Professor of Medicine, Jeremy Goldhaber-Fiebert, who has evaluated the effectiveness of a predictive risk assessment tool developed by a New Zealand researcher and implemented for two years in the United States. The Ministry of Social development originally commissioned Professor Rhema Vaithianathan, Co-Director of the Centre for Social Data Analytics at AUT to develop the model. It uses data about children and their families to identify those at risk of physical, sexual or emotional abuse before the age of two. MSD stopped short of implementing the tool, but Allegheny County in Pittsburg, Pensylvania began using it in 2016, and commissioned Stanford University researchers to evaluate it.
Oranga Tamariki dispensed with this a year or so ago. I am concerned that we don't instead get into sanctimonious, pious territory of 'We know best' and judgmental rather than compassionate, appropriate support responses.
The rise of RW conservative women with an opinion of themselves as model cultural templates is noticeable, finding platforms such as anti-abortion and anything that is a change in societal norms. They adopt towards the precariat and women considered below their societal level, attitudes of derision, or patronising and officious power.
Their success in the anti-abortion measures in eight states of the USA will whet their appetite to fight here. The large response against the attempt to introduce a very mild euthanasia bill is an example of their reach and influence. A backgrounder on the citizen consultation held throughout NZ says that the 9 minute time allowed for oral submissions was applied for by thousands who often merely stated their disagreement. Nick Smith and Maggie Barry facilitated this process, though Ms Barry was accused of adopting a disrespectful tone to some.
The conservative religious, such as the conservative Catholic and conservative Pasifika congregations combined will be a force against rights that women hold dear. Choosing overseas people for appointments over NZs, may increase the type of conservative, neo-liberal official or CEO. We have Irish conservative Catholic Mrs Moss at Oranga Tamiriki for which a local person could easily have been found. We also have Dr Mary English who is conservative Catholic and has Pasifika roots, building relationships in health and welfare for Pasifika people. These are people in key roles. When the National Party stopped funding the suicide health line and gave the contract to Dr English's organisation, *The Daily Blog cried favouritism and nepotism for Bill English's wife. Many community organisations working at the coalface of welfare, with much experience have felt the cold winds of funding neglect. We need to watch where the funding goes, and that it is fairly distributed to those who do much with little, without much patronage.
Students strike today kia kaha it agree make it 0 carbon by 2040 moving the goal ahead by 10 years .
Banning sugary or big taxes is a know brainer it should have been implemented years ago the bad facts are all there to see WTF.
The big hole in the government balance sheat was created by joyce
Amanda that is a powerful tawhirimate in America tossing cars around like toys don global warming its staring you in the FACE.
Duncan Its good to see that you get it with the police chasers the people who are being chased are out of control.
The parents of these tamariki being chased could be working 2 jobs to survive with the low wages and high living cost take the glasses off Mark.
Geffory Rush I quite like the characters he has played its good to see him get JUSTICE.?????????????????????????????.
If the policys look like a Christian party it a Christian party why don't they run a Wahine up and lift Maori Wahine all Wahine mana up. Its good you want good changes. But I am protecting the left from the cheating rednecks who will strip the common persons wealth and give our powercompanys to the wealthy. I know who is pushing this I can see the consequences of your actions. I agree the housing situation is bad thanks to national this phenomenon has swept the western world I wonder why House less tangata. If this movement was logical and not emotional you would target the drugs that actually cause harm even target sugar.???????????
There you go judy a pauleen hanson you're views are very similar hence your toilet won't float in Aotearoa maybe you should go to Australia.
Don't compare Aotearoa to Venuzla it a total tug of war between the east and west that is tearing apart that country .
We should commit to reducing our carbon footprint as fast as possible.
Its the correct thing to do it is what humans have done for millions of years providing a better future for our tamariki.
What is happening now is not human or humane money is the root of these inhuman traits to rise to the top of humanity's way of doing things.
Some are totally focused on today and not on our mokopuna tomorrow's our futures well being the neanderthal are blinded by money they use this money to blind the common people of the world to believe there lies that are all about protecting the oil barons wealth and POWER.
Why you should take action on climate change
mpact on the environment because I want a future I can look forward to. And at the rate we're going, I know my hope is unrealistic, to say the least.
We are lucky, however, that we are so privileged to have the opportunity to stop it. We are the people who, in the future, will either be venerated for making the changes necessary to stop the full effects of climate change on the human race, or despised for ignoring the warning signs Ka kite ano links below
Humans causing shrinking of nature as larger animals die off
Average size of wild animals predicted to fall by a quarter in 100 years through extinctions
The researchers estimate that more than 1,000 larger species of mammals and birds will go extinct in the next century, from rhinos to eagles. They say this could lead to the collapse of ecosystems that humans rely on for food and clean water.
Humans have wiped out most large creatures from all inhabited continents apart from Africa over the last 125,000 years. This annihilation will accelerate rapidly in the coming years, according to the research.
The future extinctions can be avoided if radical action is taken to protect wildlife and restore habitats, and the scientists say the new work can help focus efforts on key species.
Animal populations have fallen by 60%since 1970, suggesting a sixth mass extinction of life on Earth is under way caused by the razing of wild areas, hunting and intensive farming. Scientists said this month that human society was in danger from the decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems, with half of natural ecosystems now destroyed and a total of a million species at risk of extinction Ka kite ano links below
Thanks to Nanaia and the Provenance growth fund giving 50 million over 5 years to assist Maori farmer whanau in the development of there whenua in te taiwhiti.
Pee is a shocking poison its just as bad in te taiwhiti it is making a mess of te tangata
I think is a awesome idea to combine studying papatuanuku and getting the Kaumatua knowledge on the subjects
The Pacific music awards were on last night was very good Eco Maori loves his music ka kite ano
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Speaker Trevor Mallard was left to look after Jones, while his usual caretaker, Winston Peters, underwent surgery. A truly adorable scene from Parliament yesterday has gone viral, after Speaker Trevor Mallard cradled an extremely drunk Shane Jones in his arms while the House was in session. Loud “awwww”s could be ...
Western media have defended their decision not to cover the fires so as not to give them any oxygen. Social media outrage continues to grow around the sentiment that mainstream western media is devoting too little coverage to an ongoing series of fires in the Amazon rainforest, and in doing ...
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This section builds on Part 1 of this series to provide a theoretical basis for the final instalment (part 3 – to come). Self-determination: law or resurgence — or both? International law promotes the principal of equal treatment and self-determination, which includes peoples’ rights to freely pursue their social, cultural and ...
Everyone was outraged yesterday to learn that the Christchurch shooting accused had been able to send mail from prison to his Nazi fans, apparently pushing more hate. "How could this possibly happen", people asked. Simple: because New Zealand is a civilised country, and so we let prisoners send and receive ...
If we are to avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, we need to rapidly decarbonise our transport fleet. The good news: its starting to happen:The number of electric vehicles on New Zealand's roads have nearly tripled in the past two years. There are currently 15,453 registered electric vehicles (EVs), up ...
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Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
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So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
‘Original Sin’ of Land Confiscation at Ihumātao is a wrong that can be put right by Government says Justice & Peace Commission of Catholic Diocese of Auckland ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a press conference on August 19 that her government is likely to impose new restrictions on prisoners’ rights to send letters. She said the law could be changed in “weeks.” ...
Heart-warming images of House Speaker Trevor Mallard cradling a baby in Parliament have been welcomed around New Zealand, but the Public Service Association warns most families can only dream of such support in the workplace. ...
Applying New Zealand’s international human rights commitments, particularly those in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, can help in resolving the situation at Ihumātao, Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt says. ...
Climate campaigners impersonating bank staff have taken to the streets this week to expose ANZ Bank’s sponsorship of the fossil fuel industry. In the series of satirical actions in Wellington, Dunedin, and Auckland, the ‘bank staff’ promoted ...
Auckland Action Against Poverty joins the Children’s Commissioner , The Green Party , The New Zealand Drugs Foundation , Child Poverty Action Group and other organisations in the calls for an immediate end to the drug testing benefit sanctions. ...
Negotiations between Port Otago workers represented by the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) and the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) and management failed today and the unions have issued notice of an overtime ban from Saturday 7th September. ...
Queenstown Lakes District Council’s comments that it has applied for a consent to pollute waterways to avoid 'prosecutions by the Otago Regional Council' are unacceptable,’ Fish & Game New Zealand Chief Executive Martin Taylor says. ...
On March 15, the real world impact of online hate became abundantly, horrifically clear. As a shooter opened fire at two Christchurch mosques, the online image board 8chan anticipated, celebrated and amplified his killing spree. ...
Friday, 23 August: Government delegates from around the world, including New Zealand, are meeting in New York for the third of four meetings at the United Nations to agree a Global Oceans Treaty that could help to protect 30% of our oceans by 2030. Greenpeace ...
The excuses about a reportedly unwanted $57,000 payrise for Dunedin City Council CEO Sue Bidrose are laughable, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance has launched the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” committing to no more than 2% annual rate hikes over the next Council term, and has written to all Mayoral and Council candidates asking them to sign. The pledge will ...
This Saturday, Pakuranga Hunt Day at the Ellerslie Racecourse will see anti-horse racing protesters demonstrating at the corner of Ascot Avenue and Greenlane East. ...
Mayoral candidate John Tamihere will meet with Pacific Island leaders and community elders today at Puhunui Reserve in South Auckland to commit to a Pasefika Cultural Centre. ...
Cruel and invalid Forced Swim Tests carried out at Victoria University of Wellington, will be exposed at the University Open Day today, so prospective students can be warned about the flawed and unethical research being conducted at the institute. ...
The organiser of the annual YWCA Equal Pay Awards has expressed her disappointment with the latest Gender Pay Gap figure for New Zealand workers. The figure rose slightly from 9.2% in 2018 to 9.3% for the quarter ended 30 June 2019. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to pass on information to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques now that the period for submissions has been extended to 27 September. ...
An application was filed in the Employment Relations Authority in Wellington today, seeking an injunction to prevent the Board of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation from removing the President from office. ...
The Government’s commitment to support literacy and numeracy training in the workplace is a strong signal from Government on recognising the importance of upskilling, reskilling and increasing productivity alongside their commitment to address the challenges ...
“The infrastructure sector sees a major role for the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga in lifting the nation’s sagging infrastructure performance,” says Paul Blair, incoming CEO of Infrastructure NZ. ...
The AA is calling on the Government to bring forward critical highway projects while time is spent properly developing the plans for a rapid transit system in Auckland. ...
Between 2015/16 and 2017/18, DHBs spent $280 million treating patients due to adverse drug reactions, reveals the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union in its latest briefing paper on health productivity . ...
The Pay Equity Coalition Auckland (PECA) is pleased the gender pay gap has decreased slightly. Statistics released today show the gap is now 11.9%, nearly 2 percent less than last year. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to make sure they pass on any information they have to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques before submissions close tomorrow (Friday). ...
The big electricity companies consider solar energy “disruptive” and want pricing to suppress it. In contrast, advocates of local energy say that solar, energy efficiency, and other local energy solutions are the cheapest ways to reduce carbon emissions. ...
The Earthquake Commission and Shine Lawyers are delighted to announce that EQC has reached an agreement with the Gibling family, agreeing to cover the cost of repairs of remaining earthquake damage on their property. ...
Four months into the inquiry, the Royal Commission is gathering significant information and continues to receive valuable submissions from the public, from current and former State servants, experts and community groups. ...
While Fish & Game New Zealand is pleased to see Federated Farmers Environment Spokesperson Chris Allen say that 'we all want good, fresh water', he conveniently overlooks some key facts. ...
What: Wellington demo “Save the Amazon Forest/Salve a Amazônia!” When: Friday, 6 September 2019 from 12:30-13:30 Where: Embassy of Brazil in Wellingtona ...
Rt Hon Trevor Mallard, Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, welcomes the visit of His Excellency Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal. ...
A cross political Mental Health and Addictions Wellbeing group will be launched on Wednesday 28 August hosted by Sir John Kirwan and Moe Milne (ONZM) who have both been at the forefront of our country’s often difficult conversations about mental ...
Confirmation that the government will be progressing an independent Parliamentary Budget Office is great news for democracy and transparency, Federated Farmers says. ...
At first glance, Simon Bridges’ strident opposition to the government’s proposal to establish an independent office to cost political parties’ election spending plans looks childish and petty. ...
Euthanasia-Free NZ is appalled that Parliament spent so little time debating Part 2 of the End of Life Choice Bill and voted to leave it full of holes. ...
Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance and its nationwide sister group the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Auckland Mayor Phil Goff for his comments today that John Tamihere would need the Government’s support to ...
A ‘one size fits all’, inflexible and punitive regulatory regime for water quality just gets backs - and costs - up and most importantly will not work, Federated Farmers says. ...
Mediation yesterday between secondary principals and the government has resulted in a deal that the principals' negotiating team is recommending to its members. ...
Clubs New Zealand welcomes the decision of Justice Minister Andrew Little to put forward a bill amending the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to allow all licensed premises to remain open for Rugby World Cup matches. ...
The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation has ordered a review looking at labelling of added sugars in food and drinks. An option under investigation is ‘a pictorial approach applied to sugary beverages / sugar-sweetened beverages’ ...
Labour market data released by Statistics New Zealand today indicates that a gender pay gap persists in New Zealand, despite improvement in some areas. ...
In the midst of the 6th Great Extinction Event the coalition, STOP Trashing Our Planet is urging voters to take full responsibility for the legacy we are leaving our children. ...
LGNZ will carefully consider the proposed National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) to assess if it meets the Government’s aim of enabling urban development or simply adds more red tape to the planning process. ...
Statistics out today from the Government show that the gender wage imbalance, or gap, in the average wage is 11.9%, a strong 2 percentage point improvement from 13.9% last year. The gender pay imbalance in the median wage is 9.3%. ...
Newstalk ZB Drive host and Herald on Sunday columnist Heather du Plessis-Allan is taking on the challenge of keeping 2019 Auckland Mayoral contenders Phil Goff and John Tamihere in line and on point in tonight’s live NZ Herald Newstalk ZB debate. ...
Ahead of debuting her solo show at New Zealand Fashion Week, Korean-NZ couture designer Cecilia Kang talks about growing up ‘feminine’, being influenced by the LGBTQ+ community, and why an ‘administrative error’ at Fashion Week left her so shaken up. ‘I like something big,” says Cecilia Kang, gesturing to the giant ...
The Labour Party is distancing itself from one of its members who is strongly pro-Beijing and has caused controversy in the Chinese community by standing for local office in Auckland. ...
Faced with staff shortages, equipment failures, cancer risks, and a jump in critical calls that can leave them traumatised, some firefighters are wondering if it’s time to hang up the hose. Gareth Shute reports on the dissatisfaction inside Fire and Emergency New Zealand.The state of our nation’s fire service is ...
“She comes over. You’re my mother, she says. Yes, I say. I don’t know you, she says”: a mother and child seaside story by Wellington author Jan Pryor. Photo by Peter Black. ...
On Monday the government announced its new five-year strategy to reduce the Māori prison population. Emilie Rākete looks at another ‘kaupapa Māori’ prison initiative that degrades prisoners and asks if Corrections are capable of seeing it through.On August 19th, the Department of Corrections announced Hōkai Rangi, its new strategy intended ...
By Michael Andrew The Indonesian media is contributing to resentment and racism toward Papuans, according to a human rights researcher and former journalist. Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch Jakarta told Pacific Media Watch many Indonesian journalists either view Papuans as enemy “separatists” or deviants and their reporting tends to convey these ...
Analysis - The prime minister puts a stake in the ground over petrol prices, National balks at having its election promises costed and the government puts millions into helping the homeless. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danilo Ignacio de Urzedo, PhD candidate, University of Sydney Record fires are raging in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, with more than 2,500 fires currently burning. They are collectively emitting huge amounts of carbon, with smoke plumes visible thousands of kilometres away. Fires in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sean Docking, Post-doctoral researcher, La Trobe University Basketball fans around the world were recently sickened by the footage of NBA star Kevin Durant’s Achilles tendon rupturing during a game. But while many think it’s only elite athletes who suffer from Achilles tendon ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Mountain, Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Victoria University The possibility of blackouts affecting half of Victoria has attracted plenty of attention to a document once read only by industry insiders and policy wonks: the Electricity Statement of Opportunities. The Statement, updated ...
George Clooney sold his tequila company for a billion dollars – but is the stuff any good? The Spinoff finds out. Imagine being so stupidly sexy you sneeze and sell a billion-dollar booze company. That’s what George Clooney did last year, flicking off the tequila business he started accidentally with an ...
The departure of "two Pākehā men" from the government's justice reform group will not hurt the quality of its final report, another member of the team says. ...
Combatting internet-related harm is being stymied by inter-industry disagreement and a lack of information about the extent and nature of the problem, a new report says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, J.W. Nevile Fellow in Economics and host of The Airport Economist, UNSW Amid the tributes to former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer and the stories of his authenticity, courage and quirky interests – like trains and military history – what ...
Current leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges.Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Is Simon Bridges really trying to channel Donald Trump? Or is he taking his cue from Scott Morrison? Or is he looking to emulate Boris Johnson? Whatever the inspiration, there’s been a clear change in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]Michelle Grattan talks about the sad news of the passing of former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer with University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini. They also discuss Scott Morrison’s recent announcement about joining ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabriel Crowley, Adjunct Principal Research Fellow, James Cook University In February, about 600,000 cattle were killed by catastrophic flooding across north Queensland’s Carpentaria Gulf plains. The flood waters rose suddenly, forming a wall of water up to 70km wide. Record depths were ...
Simon Day dined alone at Monique Fiso’s Wellington restaurant Hiakai, and discovered it was the perfect way to appreciate the meaning of this special food. “Would you like a few more minutes with your phone?” the waitress at Hiakai asked sympathetically as I mashed a final goodbye text to my wife ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Willamson, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Monash University Australia’s gender pay gap is diminishing, says a new report, but some contributors to it seem harder to overcome than others. For me, the finding hit close to home. The report, by KPMG for ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Te Tiriti o Waitangi: The Treaty of Waitangi by Toby Morris with Ross Calman, Mark Derby, and ...
Honey producer Comvita has confirmed a full year net loss of $27.7m with China market access restrictions and tougher regulations locally affecting the company's sales. ...
James Elliott realises John Tamihere's uncosted bridge proposal wasn't actually a metaphor, but a fine example of 'folks is mighty generous with money what they ain’t got'. ...
A new poem by Oamaru-born poet Nick Ascroft.SupermanHalfway up the ascent zigzagging from Royal Terrace to upper Stuart Street carrying four too-heavy grocery bags I begin to understand that I will not make it. My huffing personage – from the fingers, white with the strain, to a face the colour of rhubarb – will ooze into the pavement and roll slowly ...
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s.Sound the alarm, because it’s time for another absolute chaos pod. We’re talking haunted dolls in Waipu, we’re talking giant hands taking over Wellington, we’re talking soft serve cones dipped in powdered Milo. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Press, Adjunct Professor, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania This week, the ABC revealed that the Australian Defence Force wants to roll out military technology in Antarctica. The article raises the issue of what is, or is not, ...
New Zealand teacher aides say their pay reflects an outdated idea of what they do. Elizabeth McLeod hears from four TAs, and one parent, about the classroom realities they face every dayCleaning up poo, defusing violent situations, copping physical and verbal abuse: these are the realities of a teacher aide’s ...
The lanky sidekick from Jono and Ben journeys around New Zealand trying to solve small town problems. Does he succeed?Guy Williams, hardly a shy, retiring type, has been screaming out for his own vehicle for years. A loud, lanky, fearless comic, he’s spent nearly a decade in MediaWorks purgatory, sat ...
Ballot Box.Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – The nature of New Zealand general election campaigns could be significantly changed with the proposed establishment of an “umpire” to adjudicate over political party manifesto policies. A suggestion has been put forward by the Government for the establishment of a parliamentary watchdog ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Ihumātao Delphine Herbert and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Tainui to buy Ihumātao land – sources Danielle ...
Extinction Rebellion takes a tour of downtown Wellington to point out the coal industry stalwarts and ask why they’re still there in the face of a climate emergency. “There are coal companies in Wellington??”That’s the incredulous response every single time we mention taking the public on a tour of the biggest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel A. Ankeny, Professor of History and Philosophy, and Deputy Dean Research (Faculty of Arts), University of Adelaide The South Australian government recently announced its intention to lift the long-standing statewide moratorium on genetically modified (GM) crops, following a statutory six-week consultation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vicki Sentas, Senior Lecturer, UNSW Law, UNSW Being strip searched by the police can be intrusive, humiliating and harmful. Typically, strip searches involve being required to strip naked in front of police officers, who often give the direction to “squat and cough”, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louise Remond, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Hi, I was just wondering if something’s wrong with me because I’m never happy and never want to do anything and I’m getting really lazy and I really hate school. Thanks – Anonymous ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Zaphir, Researcher for the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project; and Online Teacher at Education Queensland’s IMPACT Centre, The University of Queensland From as early as Grade 3 teachers start teaching children how to put across their own points of view. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW It’s four years since then Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned Australia had been heading to “a Greek-style economic future”. He was referring to what he said had been happening under the previous Labor government. When Labor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samia Khatun, Senior Lecturer, SOAS, University of London Some 1,000 kilometres inland from Sydney, over the Blue Mountains, past the trees that drink the tributaries of the Darling River, there stands a little, red mosque. It marks where the desert begins. The ...
Online gambling is growing fast in New Zealand, but critics say new government ideas for regulating websites focus on what's good for the industry, rather than protecting people from harm. ...
An "extreme pro-Beijing" writer has caused controversy in the Chinese community and awkwardness for the Labour Party by standing for political office in Auckland. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Concern about slow progress for major transport projects, smoking researcher under pressure over funding, and hikoi marches from Ihumātao to Ardern’s office.NZTA is struggling to get spending out the door, so the money isn’t flowing through the economy, reports Thomas Coughlan ...
Open mike 22/05/2019 
. . Former Police, Corrections, and Justice Minister in the previous John Key government, Judith Collins, has been ridiculed on social media after posting a comment on Twitter that was patently untrue; . Wrong!! National did not remove Prisoners’ ability to vote. Parliament voted through a Private Member’s Bill ...32 mins ago
Speaker Trevor Mallard was left to look after Jones, while his usual caretaker, Winston Peters, underwent surgery. A truly adorable scene from Parliament yesterday has gone viral, after Speaker Trevor Mallard cradled an extremely drunk Shane Jones in his arms while the House was in session. Loud “awwww”s could be ...14 hours ago
Western media have defended their decision not to cover the fires so as not to give them any oxygen. Social media outrage continues to grow around the sentiment that mainstream western media is devoting too little coverage to an ongoing series of fires in the Amazon rainforest, and in doing ...15 hours ago
A Long Time Ago, In A Parallel Universe Far, Far Away: The political journalist scratched his head in confusion. Only then did he notice the name of the building: ‘The Jacinda Ardern Presidential Library and Public Resource Centre’. Making his way inside to the information desk, he asked the librarian ...20 hours ago
21 hours ago
Nothing from me tody - I'm off to Christchurch to pretend to be other people for a weekend. Normal bloggage should resume on Tuesday. ...22 hours ago
Spark is bracing for a customer backlash as rugby fans all across the country struggle to get a picture on their wireless router. With the Rugby World Cup fast approaching, an elderly Taranaki couple are furious after being told that they still won’t be able to watch the tournament, even ...1 day ago
Several explosions have been reported across Auckland, as well-meaning environmentalists have already begun purchasing too much petrol Starting from next week, customers will no longer need a car to purchase petrol directly from the pump, a development that two major fuel providers are billing as an opportunity to help fight ...1 day ago
A new study claims to find that a mother’s exposure to fluoridated water during pregnancy may decrease the IQ of male children – but is it correct? (Photo: Getty Images) Anti-fluoride campaigners are promoting ... 2 days ago
Television advertising has a huge impact on our lives. Even if we don’t recognise that, we know it has to be true, since otherwise why would advertisers spend so much on it? Its significance, however, is greater than simply the influence it has on what we purchase and consume. It ...3 days ago
by Jan Rivers More than 30 years ago a Commission of Inquiry was held in New Zealand to investigate, amongst other things, whether women with cervical cancer were aware that they had been part of a research project and whether they were properly informed of the treatment options ...4 days ago
Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...4 days ago
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...6 days ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...6 days ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...1 week ago
1 week ago
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...1 week ago
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...1 week ago
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...1 week ago
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...1 week ago
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...1 week ago
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...1 week ago
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ... 1 week ago
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...2 weeks ago
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...2 weeks ago
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...2 weeks ago
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...2 weeks ago
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...2 weeks ago
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...2 weeks ago
‘Original Sin’ of Land Confiscation at Ihumātao is a wrong that can be put right by Government says Justice & Peace Commission of Catholic Diocese of Auckland ...13 hours ago
Ahead of debuting her solo show at New Zealand Fashion Week, Korean-NZ couture designer Cecilia Kang talks about growing up ‘feminine’, being influenced by the LGBTQ+ community, and why an ‘administrative error’ at Fashion Week left her so shaken up. ‘I like something big,” says Cecilia Kang, gesturing to the giant ...32 mins ago
The Labour Party is distancing itself from one of its members who is strongly pro-Beijing and has caused controversy in the Chinese community by standing for local office in Auckland. ...32 mins ago
Faced with staff shortages, equipment failures, cancer risks, and a jump in critical calls that can leave them traumatised, some firefighters are wondering if it’s time to hang up the hose. Gareth Shute reports on the dissatisfaction inside Fire and Emergency New Zealand.The state of our nation’s fire service is ...2 hours ago
“She comes over. You’re my mother, she says. Yes, I say. I don’t know you, she says”: a mother and child seaside story by Wellington author Jan Pryor. Photo by Peter Black. ...2 hours ago
On Monday the government announced its new five-year strategy to reduce the Māori prison population. Emilie Rākete looks at another ‘kaupapa Māori’ prison initiative that degrades prisoners and asks if Corrections are capable of seeing it through.On August 19th, the Department of Corrections announced Hōkai Rangi, its new strategy intended ...3 hours ago
By Michael Andrew The Indonesian media is contributing to resentment and racism toward Papuans, according to a human rights researcher and former journalist. Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch Jakarta told Pacific Media Watch many Indonesian journalists either view Papuans as enemy “separatists” or deviants and their reporting tends to convey these ...8 hours ago
Analysis - The prime minister puts a stake in the ground over petrol prices, National balks at having its election promises costed and the government puts millions into helping the homeless. ...12 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danilo Ignacio de Urzedo, PhD candidate, University of Sydney Record fires are raging in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, with more than 2,500 fires currently burning. They are collectively emitting huge amounts of carbon, with smoke plumes visible thousands of kilometres away. Fires in ...13 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sean Docking, Post-doctoral researcher, La Trobe University Basketball fans around the world were recently sickened by the footage of NBA star Kevin Durant’s Achilles tendon rupturing during a game. But while many think it’s only elite athletes who suffer from Achilles tendon ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Mountain, Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Victoria University The possibility of blackouts affecting half of Victoria has attracted plenty of attention to a document once read only by industry insiders and policy wonks: the Electricity Statement of Opportunities. The Statement, updated ...15 hours ago
Internet freedom advocates have slammed the Government for proposing censorship of online gambling sites. ...15 hours ago
George Clooney sold his tequila company for a billion dollars – but is the stuff any good? The Spinoff finds out. Imagine being so stupidly sexy you sneeze and sell a billion-dollar booze company. That’s what George Clooney did last year, flicking off the tequila business he started accidentally with an ...15 hours ago
As Indonesia cracks down on protests in the disputed West Papua territory, the Government has declined to condemn the violence. ...15 hours ago
Combatting internet-related harm is being stymied by inter-industry disagreement and a lack of information about the extent and nature of the problem, a new report says. ...16 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, J.W. Nevile Fellow in Economics and host of The Airport Economist, UNSW Amid the tributes to former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer and the stories of his authenticity, courage and quirky interests – like trains and military history – what ...16 hours ago
17 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabriel Crowley, Adjunct Principal Research Fellow, James Cook University In February, about 600,000 cattle were killed by catastrophic flooding across north Queensland’s Carpentaria Gulf plains. The flood waters rose suddenly, forming a wall of water up to 70km wide. Record depths were ...17 hours ago
Simon Day dined alone at Monique Fiso’s Wellington restaurant Hiakai, and discovered it was the perfect way to appreciate the meaning of this special food. “Would you like a few more minutes with your phone?” the waitress at Hiakai asked sympathetically as I mashed a final goodbye text to my wife ...17 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Willamson, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Monash University Australia’s gender pay gap is diminishing, says a new report, but some contributors to it seem harder to overcome than others. For me, the finding hit close to home. The report, by KPMG for ...18 hours ago
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Te Tiriti o Waitangi: The Treaty of Waitangi by Toby Morris with Ross Calman, Mark Derby, and ...18 hours ago
Honey producer Comvita has confirmed a full year net loss of $27.7m with China market access restrictions and tougher regulations locally affecting the company's sales. ...19 hours ago
James Elliott realises John Tamihere's uncosted bridge proposal wasn't actually a metaphor, but a fine example of 'folks is mighty generous with money what they ain’t got'. ...19 hours ago
Fees for company directors are not keeping pace with their rising workload, according to a new survey. ...21 hours ago
New Zealand teacher aides say their pay reflects an outdated idea of what they do. Elizabeth McLeod hears from four TAs, and one parent, about the classroom realities they face every dayCleaning up poo, defusing violent situations, copping physical and verbal abuse: these are the realities of a teacher aide’s ...21 hours ago
The Warehouse Group has upgraded its full year profit expectations again. ...21 hours ago
New Zealand-owned Kiwibank says it is winning more customers, demonstrated by a strong increase in deposits and lending. ...22 hours ago
Dairy's huge role earning export dollars for New Zealand is facing a threat some say could bring it to its knees. ...24 hours ago
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national said a report on their culture was ready in back in April. At the time they said they would wait until the bullying report about parliament was released, then they would release their own report.
Now that the parliament report on bullying has been released, all of a sudden nationals report on their party culture is not ready……. why is that? Sounds dodgy as to me.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/05/22/597817/mixed-messages-from-national-on-culture-review
Maybe it’s being ‘re-calibrated’ as we speak …
Some hurried editing, for sure.
Something like ‘how to turn a white-wash into something that vaguely resembles a damning report that is more credible given the other report that has just been released’.
Edit: which impartial third party has put their name(s) on the National Party report?
Editing probably advisable inasmuch as the party folk who work in parliament participate in the toxic workplace culture reported by the Francis review. Their in-house culture review therefore has a parliamentary interface component, which will be illuminated by yesterday's news.
Plus we heard Mallard telling NatRad this morning that he's under the impression that rape has happened in parliament in recent years. He's encouraging any victims to report to that police, and giving reassurance complainants will be supported in doing so. Sufficiently serious to make the Nats want to check if any of their people are involved, eh? Reasonable to postpone release of their review pending that check…
Gnat report red-acting?
They just have to pencil in a guarantee of anonymity, you know, to safeguard the victims.
I wonder if it's gone the same way that Labour's Youth Camp investigation went. https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/08/labour-refuses-to-release-youth-camp-report.html
Not mentioned on any NZ news source that I am aware of, as I said in my official complaint to RNZ, all we ask for is fair and balanced reporting…is that too much to ask for from at least one news source in NZ?, and especially our state broadcaster.
Massive May Day March in Defense of the Bolivarian Revolution.
Yep RNZ's a wierd scene alright adrian , free to air funded by us and yet run exactly along the lines of a fully commercial station .The only sources it seeks are uk and us based cnn ( which they apparently have playing in the office )and bbc .Odd and out of all perspective also is the number of interviews of americans who seemingly are first choice to consult on almost anything happening arround the world buggered if i know why !!
Well, if you look between the lines… it's an old white boys club. Our news is the world according to old white boys.
Tokenism accepted begrudgingly.
@WeTheBleeple, You are right except is has now turned into more of a white boys and girls club I think…with tokenism accepted begrudgingly.
What we want is Tolkienism so the Hobbits get to be the centre of civilisation!
Yes weston it is a damn shame alright, even our beloved Kim Hill has over time turned into a real reactionary, and I used to so look forward to her political interviews, she was one of NZ's greats, but unfortunately no longer.
Bizarrely one of the few places in MSM media that I know of that offer a critique to a lot of these stories is Tucker Carlson on Fox (and believe me I am no fan of Fox)…what a crazy situation we have ended up in.
Tuckers reasoning as to why he'd block driverless trucks (to protect truck drivers jobs) is something I'm sure all lefties would agree on
Bipartisan anti-robot bias in the media? So what do we call this new syndrome – antiroboticism??
Yeah, he also did a piece in support of Bernie and AOC's bill to bring the credit card industry into line on their interest rates, all very strange, I would never have predicted that Fox would be one of the few place in US main stream media to find a bit (and to be fair it is only a bit) of fairness and balance in reporting, but all the same it says volumes about 'liberal' media today.
You can't trust johnny foreigner and his foreign jibberjabber to give the right facts westie.
I feel that we have a special deal with Voice of America for our news.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America
Weston 3.1: Odd and out of all perspective also is the number of interviews of americans who seemingly are first choice to consult on almost anything happening arround the world buggered if i know why !!
You lay it on the line westie – we have found out why and now know we are buggered!
In the last week Paddy Gower on newshub and Seymour and Wallis on Q&A have all claimed that we have a white supremacist and race problem in NZ which was exposed by the terrorist attack in Chch.
Pardon me, but the attack was carried out by a foreigner attacking New Zealanders. New Zealand was a victim, not the perpetrator.
There is no evidence to support the contention made by Gower, Seymour or Wallis.
Sure, there may be a problem in NZ with white and other supremacies and with racism, but there is no evidence linking those problems to the attacks. Those problems exist in most every country on the planet so the logic isn't there.
We were attacked by a foreigner. We were a victim. NZ was not a party to the attack, as Gower, Seymour and Wallis state.
You're right. A reality check often reveals that folks are being driven by perceptions only. In the aftermath of the massacre I made a few comments to similar effect: we know there's been a skinhead subculture in Chch for yonks, with white supremacist culture seemingly attached. Yet no media report connecting the shooter to it ever showed up – just media reporting a speculative connection.
I also queried the others arrested in the vicinity of the massacre on that day, media-linked to it, yet lack of follow-through by police suggests no link to the shooter. I commented at the time that they may just have been regular viewers of tv crime shows. Media reports of those arrests said they were carrying guns.
Raises the question of what percentage of any random selection of Chch locals carry guns, eh? Hollywood syndrome: gun glamour. Brainwashed followers acting out fantasies produced by the mystique…
he is right insofar that the perpetrator of the crime was a "foreigner' and australian.
but he is not right with white male supremacy. The western/white world actually has a big issue with predominantly white blokes that have an issue with the loss of privilege, the fact that women will not go back to the kitchen and endless pregnancies without a fight, and that people of color will also not go and sit at the back of the bus without a fight.
So the issue is our culture, our white western christian culture is breeding these guys, and thanks to our privilege he moved here without issues, bought guns legally without issues, and then one day decided to kill 50 people.
And he did so out of stated reason, but then, because Ms. Ardern said so we were not allowed an open discussion on these reasons. No we have to not name him, not talk about him and simply pretend it did not happen the way it happend, and now VTO comes along and is trying to whitewash history.
The 50 people got killed because they were brown, of a different religion and are currently the one group of people that every one can demonise with nary a slap one the hand.; Hence why only murder charges when terrorism charges would apply.
Its like some saying we must 'End Iran' cause Iran is doing shit we are actually doing but its easier to blame Iran and besides they are brown and muslim so there. Just much smaller on the scale of things.
Anything to have a crack at white men eh sabine. Grab at those wispy leaves blowing in the wind wont you, try and tie them into something with substance eh, leverage other memes off those weak knots then. You are predictable, tedious, offensive and lack credibility.
Some time ago you demanded I not respond to your posts. How about you do the same with mine.
ummm hey buddy Sabine actually answered your question – how about listening – you may eventually get the answer that agrees with what you already have decided to believe.
Sabine did not answer anything she just dropped a lot of stereo types and revealed her own bias
its not my fault that there are a shit load of white men behaving like utterly depraved people like that white middle class boy from Australia with lots o money from Grandpa who migrated to NZ because he knew that as a white boy its the easiest thing for him to – also did i mention he is from OZ"?, buy a few guns, get some target training in and then rock up on a Friday at a house of prayer and shoot 50 men women children in the back like the fucking coward he is.
so there go whinge some more about how men are hard done by especially the white ones.
your bitterness betrays you
btw, i didn't "whinge about how men are hard done by eespecially the white ones" but the fact you think I did also betrays you and your agenda
In addition this wee white-man-hating gem also betrays you and your agenda "there are a shit load of white men behaving like utterly depraved people ". Delusional.
you wanted me to stay away from you, which is easily done and has been done as you asked. I ask you to stay away from me too. But if you don't then expect your extreme claims to be confronted.
"Anything to have a crack at white men eh sabine"
that is what you said at 9.07am
"btw, i didn't "whinge about how men are hard done by eespecially the white ones" but the fact you think I did also betrays you and your agenda"
and then you said that at 12.59pm? looks like a whinge to me or have you forgotten what you wrote. Bit agenderary by you I fink.
Detail, specifics and accuracy are not your fine points are they marty. That was clearly a whinge at sabine and her white-man-hating ways, not at how white men are hard done by.
good grief, stop with the 'bitterness' bullshit. Seriously the one who is bitter is you.
I simply laid out the fact as they are. Nothing more nothing less.
And yes dear, you whinge a lot.
Sabine, NZ has a problem with all races killing their babies and/or partners. Domestic violence is rife. Weapons are carried by gangs which are of all races. I don't want to state the obvious but I think you need to do a fact check before you make these statements.
It is true that the world we live in was and still is designed by the wealthy upper class, in the majority men but certainly not whites only. But brutality is carried out by those who are fanatically inclined or emotionally disturbed with many shades of one or the other in between. I view it as a complete failure of society,communities and governments to have allowed mentally disturbed people to be "treated" by using the label "community care"which means nothing more than medieval methods of denial of care. It is an abdication of responsibility to leave such vulnerable group to their own devices and too many are becoming victims or perpetrator. Whether or not a deranged person has wealthy parents is irrelevant unless policy of envy is at play.
again, you miss the point.
my post was in response to vto who spoke about the white man who killed 50 brown and white people in their temple.
nothing to do with anything else but that.
And i, as a white person don't feel entitled to speak about the way others live their lifes, or how they choose to break the law. What i know is that a lot of the issues Maori have in NZ is due to the discrimination suffered at the hands of the colonials that came first, then by the subsequent governments who took their language, their rights of passage (moko), their land, and replaced it with white mens clothes and hairdoes, alcohol, poverty, hunger and war fare for that land.
so while i don't disagree with you i also don't see the point in regards to what the original post was about.
And agin, even the wealth of the murderer has little to do other then it enabled him to travel to meet up with white supremacist in europe, get indoctrinated, travel to nz ( i migrated here and thus now what it costs and it is not cheap by any means) find a flat, buy guns, pay a gun club fee and train to shoot 50 predominantly brown people – men women and children – in their temple of worship because as he himself stated, it was the easiest country for him to do so. And one reason it was so easy was because he is a white australian with money and they have no issue migrating here – because we consider australians our neighbors.
And us white people will start to have to look at what is and not what we want there to be. And white supremacism, a fear of 'being replaced', a fear of loss of privilege is there and it is causing a whole lot of trouble and death. We have had no issue demanding all sorts of answers from muslims when they had their young ones commit terrorism, and we should not shy away from asking us the same question. Why does a young, average looking man, healthy, with some wealth go and kill 50 people. People who had no intend on doing any harm to him, who had no intend of replacing him, people who Greeted him "Welcome Brother'.
Maybe we should think about that, rather then find excuses that are rather flimsy. And i stand by that.
You know what those taggers-on were doing on the day of the massacres and the several days following? Was intentionally not reported much methinks..
They were the camo'ed survivalist and other nutters of various shades who came out thinking this was the time. That armageddon was here. Weapons locked and loaded, camo on, out they came. Not white supremacists. The Papanui High couple were out to help the coppers.. We had one with a samurai sword in our suburb.. there were reports of others elsewhere around the country.
The thin veneer of civilisation was peeling back there for a moment for us to get a peek…
It has been explained a few times to you when you asked the same question before. Why not write a letter to Jacinda and see what she says – you might get in the paper again lol
no nothing was 'explained'. and certainly no evidence was provided. the question remains. despite your 'witty' one-liners again lol.
write the letter big boy and put the answer up BEFORE it makes the news – make sure you comb your hair before the TV people arrive lol
you love to make fun of people don't you.
is a poorly trait
I think if you were genuine and sincere in your inquiry you would have, by now, gone out and found the answer to this burning question that troubles you so. But instead you use the question to sow seeds of distrust and doubt.
But why not ask the leaders and get your answer, why not? cos you already know the answer.
too much muddle-headed assumption in there to waste more time
facts and evidence
so hard to keep to facts and evidence
yep insincere – time for your real agenda eh – time for game playing to be over eh, time for fronting up to your REAL issue eh, time for vto to put up eh.
answers
no
no
no
no
answer – bau
[Peace to both of you. Please calm it down – MS]
get off the drugs dickhead
[Peace to both of you. Please calm it down – MS]
Those local white supremacist losers have been talking about killing others for decades, here in NZ. All because the bulk of them lack the conviction to carry through with their evil doesn't mean they aren't here cheering the shit on and trying to recruit loose cannons.
They are all part of global networking now, and as such are (an even bigger) real and present danger to society.
You sir, are either ill informed or dishonest.
The supremacist/extremist issue within wider society was acknowledged wtb, no problem. The problem is linking the attack to NZ – the only evidence being pointed to which could link the attack to NZ society is the extremist element within society and as already pointed out, those local extremists exist in every society – 'white', muslim, african, maori. So the logic is missing. You need something more specific to link it to NZ. Otherwise your evidence links it to every society and not specifically NZ.
The white supremacist's attack against and murdering of innocent people at prayer happened in New Zealand, in fact it happened in your city Christchurch. THAT is your link and your evidence.
here is another if you care to read.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/05/revealed-how-white-supremacists-terrorised-new-zealand-for-decades.html
Why is this an issue for you – why not answer that instead of beating around the bush as you like to do – don't be scared – what's your fucken issue son.
"happened in New Zealand"
I thought it was because we have extremists here? That is the point above. You have introduced a new element.
In addition you are ignoring the fact that it was not a New Zealander, it was a foreigner. Was New Zealand fingered when the Rainbow Warrior was blown up and a man killed by foreigners who came here for that purpose?
Your evidence fails.
There is no need to link the NZ attack to NZ, as it occurred in NZ…
I get your point but it is merely semantics and you can do much better than semantics – I've seen it.
Fact is we have a lot of white supremacists here. These are not just the bike clubs and skinheads, but the business class who associate with them, or worse, the secret societies.
I've met a white power enforcer who worked for businessmen in Invercargill. His job was to beat up black people who got uppity with their affairs. It's not worth my life to expose the pricks, that is the Police's job, except, they're probably in the police force too.
I wish it were not so. We've got some absolute dirtbags in this country.
Interestingly, in Christchurch, when my mate tuned up a few National Front members, they hired a Maori hitman to get us. White power – lolz!
I dont consider the point 'semantics' at all – it is fundamental.
NZ society did not do this, despite having elements of the offending group in society.
In the same way NZ society did not sink the Rainbow Warrior, despite having elements of the offending group in society.
Plenty harboured and expressed such ill will towards greenpeace back then, and continue to today. But NZ did not sink the Rainbow Warrior. The point remains.
vto The point is well made. People mutter and utter words of extremes – 'I'll kill you you little bastard' might be shouted by some parent with a lack of controlled language. But it is very unlikely to happen.
Tuhoe apparently used to voice angry threats, and practice martial arts; the police spied and read intention and invaded their village. But they hadn't done anything except use wild launguage and perhaps they were practising stuff they might have learned from being in our Defence Forces,
The USA Forces carry out maneouvres with our Forces, and other countries', on our soil regularly. We haven't been attacked yet, though there may be willingness and intention, but so far no action to point at, except the deaths of a soldier or two.
yes grey, and I believe it is one of the fundamentals to whole of the terror attacks matter.
The matter is too large and significant to let this particular fundamental take on a life of its own (that NZ society is responsible for and led to the terror attack), when there is no evidence for it (as outlined imo above).
I agree 100% vto. It particularly upsets me that the Oz has dumped this on us. However Jacinda has turned it round and used the attention of the world on it to try and make improvements. If it had happened in Australia it would have vanished without a trace? Or would they have been exposed as harbouring some nasty behaviours and been shamed into releasing the Manus Islanders? I hear they are contemplating suicide again after Labour managed to shoot themselves in the foot.
You got to wonder why Shatpant thought he'd get away with it here don't you veety.
He never imagined he would 'get away' with it; he fully anticipated being caught and imprisoned for the rest of his life. The only reason why he switched to a local target was that he belatedly realised they would be easier.
I thought he'd anticipated being killed. Could be wrong but had the impression he failed in his plans when taken alive.
Well either way the notion of 'getting away with it because NZ just loves mass murderers’ seems a tad far fetched.
Since 9/11 I had always thought NZ would make an excellent target for terrorist attack. Reason being that we are perceived as the safest place in the world so if people aren't safe here then they aren't safe anywhere – terrorism aim achieved.
and then it was a white boy that came and killed people en masse and not the advertised threat of brown muslim boy.
And that is the issue here VTO, if it would have been a brown muslim boy we would not stop discussing the religion of 'hate', how they are all out to get us, and such, and finally how to prevent it.
Instead we are told to not discuss it, we are told to not name the men who did it, we are told to not show is ugly mug, we are told to not read/discuss and disect his manifesto, and above all we are told to never discuss why on earth he would choose a. NZ (and white people find it relatively easy to migrate here especially people from OZ – and to be fair NZ'lers get easily into OZ), why he would choose Christchurch (yeah, a town with Ersatz Nazis and wanna be white supremacists) for his attack, rather then say live in South Auckland and try it there.
Fact is that there is a lot of terrorism that comes from white people. And us white people we now need to wonder and ask ourself and i have raised that question often, Why is a white boy, from one of the most desirable places on this planet, from a well to do family so hateful so fearful and so fucked up that he would migrate to a neighboring country ( he could have killed muslims in OZ) got himself plenty o guns and ammuniton, learned how to shoot real good, and then killed 50 people by shooting them in the back.
And that question we have repeatedly refused to ask, in fact we have been told by our PM to never ask to never speak about it. And that is also cowardice.
yes the murderer of children, women and men knelt at prayer thought it through with cunning – a life behind bars is too easy imo
According to Gower's report, people from the Al Noor mosque believe the terrorist had help.
Probably best to wait for a completed investigation too before claiming New Zealand's innocence on this.
Maybe 'NZ' played no part in the 15 March acts of terrorism – maybe Muslims in places of worship in Christchurch are the (murder) victims of a foreign terrorist acting alone, and 'we' (wider NZ and all NZers other than the victims) are simply innocent, albeit naive, bystanders. Unfortunately, there are currently insufficient facts available to decide.
Maybe the terrorist plotted secretly in complete isolation and received no encouragement or assistance from any like-minded NZers. I fervently hope that's true, but agree with maui that it's prudent to at the very least suspend judgement on the complicity of any NZers, and (given the unprecedented seriousness of the events of 15 March) proceed with caution until the Royal Commission of Inquiry has reported.
The naivety of NZ's security and intelligence professionals regarding 'our' vulnerability to white supremacist terrorists was certainly a contributing factor.
This is the thing when you demand that a society does not discuss these things in public. You don't know what is, you leave lots of speculation and as we can see we already have apologists rock on up denying it was one of us, it was a Foreigner. Lol, cause Australians are foreigners. Yeah, right Tui.
The white first dudes of this planet are international, they meet, they greet they go to concerts, they go to readings/discussions etc.
Why do you think Bannon is hanging about in Europe? To sightsee?
The making any discussion of this criminal act essentially 'verboten' was so far – in my eyes – the single dumbest thing Labour and Ms. Ardern as PM could have done and they have done a few dumb things since they came to power.
But by essentially pretending it did not happen here, and this is not 'us' and such, they laid the groundwork for future deniers and also they laid the ground – most likely unwittingly (at least i hope this is the case) for it to happen again, cause we ain't learning and we still don't know – the public – with what we are dealing here.
But then we can't upset dear white people.
Disclaimer, i am a white person.
@ vto.
Your comment @ 4 and Paddy Gower's claim "a white supremacist and race problem in NZ has been exposed by the Chch attack"…
I don't think he was suggesting a direct link with the perpetrator. Rather he is highlighting the fact that white supremacists and racists have been present in NZ for decades which is true because I knew a group of them.
They didn't roam the streets in leather jackets and boots waving swastika flags. Nor did they call themselves anything. It was back in the 1970s (and part of the 1980s) before social media was a thing and cell phones hadn't been invented. What they did do (among other things ) was roam around disrupting political gatherings and hoaxing individuals. Some of those hoaxes targeted persons of Catholic or Jewish persuasion and in the case of two of them… went on to have serious consequences for the targets and the political party they represented. That is, the Labour Party.
As a group they hated Maoris, they hated Jews and some of them hated Catholics. They hated Greenpeace and similar groups and they hated unions with a passion – at least in the case of two of them. If they were still around as a group today they would hate Muslims too. I see them now as the fore-runners to the alt right, white supremacists that exist throughout NZ today.
And here's the crunch: they were members of the Labour Party!
Yes, understand and appreciate all of that Anne and have seen them for years too. That is all explained in the points above re extremists like them in every society and how it interacts, or doesn't, with the terror attacks.
I have been a guest at 3 Lions Club meetings in the last decade.
Granted they were small town clubs but the national anthem was only sung in English.
Felt and feels jarring.
I don't know if other clubs have different anthem 'policies'.
Who is Wallis? Is that a surname? I hope it isn't Wallace Chapman.
Louisa Wall, sorry Wall, not Wallis
Thanks – that fits with past behaviour of Wall and Wallace.
Aussie oi !
Want to know why the Aussie election went that way? It had nothing to do with Labour, or Liberals or any other party or any of their campaigns. It had nothing to do with the leaders and their charisma or lack of. It had nothing to do with the economy or the local factory or anything else.
The Aussie election went that way because western voters are now voting in preparation for conflict. And conservatives are where that voting goes.
That's it.
And the Christchurch terror attacks, perversely, would have pushed this along.
edit: this phenomenon has consequences for us in our elections next year…
Then there is this interesting analysis:
https://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/raw-voting-figures-reveal-the-real-losers-in-saturdays-shock-election/news-story/8401c6ad677fae3ca6af0bd9a6ce161d
At the same time I’m not against the point your making; there is a real disquiet and the possibility conflict does tilt people towards being cautious.
A couple of things pointed to the point.
Firstly, the polls indicated a Labour win, but that didn't eventuate. In other words, people were thinking left, but when push comes to shove and people have been put in fear, then they will vote along different lines – those of self-preservation. And there is plenty to put the people in fear – boat people, Trump NK and Iran etc, Chch.
Secondly, it is going on worldwide and has been for a few years now – brexit, trump, various euro elections, even the Ukraine comedian. It is a rising phenomenon.
But yes Red, the point made in your link above is also relevant. Next year's election here will be very interesting – maybe NZ is the last western holdout against the rising tide of conservatism and conflict.
When's the wedding?
True. I've repeatedly made the point that Australia electorate is not all that politically different to NZ, but their electoral system is. And this more than anything else has driven the result.
Interesting statistics Red.
It was like that here, but it's the same or even worse, in the US, and the UK. Rural seats tend to be heavily favoured for conservative voters, and the "ruling class", whereas urban seats, with far greater numbers, get much less say in the electoral booth. It's not one person, one vote in such systems. The power of a vote in California, for instance, is only about 1/84 that of a vote in Wyoming.
Exactly. I guess what irks me more than a little is the rampant kiwi conceit that our Australian cousins are all six fingered redneck boofheads. No doubt some are, and there is a modest surplus of them in Queensland, but for the most part they're very much like us.
It's the quirks of their electoral system that make them look more conservative.
Aussies are mostly awesome, be prepared for mud slinging, fire it straight back. 😀
I now have a modest repertoire of sheep jokes for pre-emptive strikes; although sadly they seem to have gone out of fashion in recent times.
RL That points to an unsatisfactory Oz electoral system. A bit like the FPP that we changed to get a better measure of public sentiment.
Well Labour is cautious to the point of cowardice so they should be fine.
And still no mainstream coverage of the document leaked by OPCW staff to the group of UK academics who comprise The Syria Working Group
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/05/17/confirmed-chemical-weapons-assessment-contradicting-official-syria-narrative-is-authentic/
The OPCW in its final report refers to "experts" unnamed, rather than its own Fact Finding Team who visited the site
Newsworthy ,I would have thought.
The 15 page document is very thorough, and explores different scenarios, eventually concluding that the only plausible scenario was that the cylinders were manually placed rather than dropped by air
Could Putin and Assad have maliciously brain washed this senior, vastly experienced OPCW investigator?
Read the report yourself , it addresses elements of the Bellingcat findings (incidentally, unlike the OPCW engineering report,Bellingcat operatives did not visit the site. As always their investigation was conducted in front of a computer screen)
Yeah, but you would think that because you rate Consortium News above Bellingcat. Bellingcat have earned a reputation for finding out the truth by image analysis, Consortium News are just another Kremlin mirror site.
OK Stuart
Consortium news is out for you despite being founded and run until recently by an acclaimed US journalist , Robert Parry
Wikipedia ok for you ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Parry_(journalist)
Perhaps this source won't trigger you , it gets down to the nitty gritty.
https://opensociet.org/2019/05/19/truth-vanishes-beneath-a-cloud-of-poison-gas/
Have you read some of the columns allegedly written by Parry? They are not consistent with a PhD qualified native English speaking journalist. As of several years ago this site abandoned all pretense of journalistic integrity and became a purveyor of wildebeests of dubious provenance – your preferred kind of gnus.
Did you read the engineering assessment report by the OPCW ?
The conclusions (under multiple hypothesis analysis) suggest strongly the containers did not arrive from the air.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ayBv-nEOMTtIc-QOvejQBdCnZQXTuJ5z/view
Yet the conclusions are not robust. The report asserts that the gas cylinders were "more likely to have been placed than to have arrived by air". Ok – but open and shut, which would have required a stronger statement "could not have/were unlikely to have/did not arrive by air".
Nor, despite the use of OPCW forms, did this form the official report. These were minority views that were ultimately excluded.
Consortium News has recent form as a largely unreliable bunch of repeaters of proPutin bullshit. Bellingcat is open source – if moved to do so you can check their images and conclusions for yourself.
Its a probability analysis, it was not a binary problem.
It was an unpublished dissenting opinion.
It may have been left out for good reason – lacking factual backing for instance. No surprise that a pack of Putin boosters like Consortium would dig it up and circulate it though – most "Independent News Sources" don't have agents in the OPCW however, and the question arises as to how an outfit as threadbare as Consortium manages to fund them.
Seems you haven't read the links
OPCW staff leaked the report to The Syria Working Group, a group of UK academics who I predict you will say are deep in Putin and Assad's pocket
From there any media organisation was free to pick it up
Our very own Scoop did
Look I know you'll do absolutely anything to push Putin's lines. Why not cite Fancy Bear as evidence? They've attacked Bellingcat unsuccessfully too.
Strive to be evenhanded enough not to be dismissed for bias.
"Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard says it's his impression from the report on bullying at Parliament that people have been raped there, and he is urging the victims to go to police or support agencies." https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/389766/parliament-bullying-mallard-urges-rape-victims-to-seek-support
"He said his reading of the report was that the offences were all committed by one person, and said he did not know who that person was. He admitted that having them tell their story over and over again was a problem with the court system, "which I know people are looking at, at the moment". "I'm not aware whether they're MPs or staff. Reading the report carefully I get the sense that the man is still on the premises … I don't know who it is, if I knew who it is I would tell the police.""
JLR triggered this, so many will assume he's the one. Ain't necessarily so. Lack of official rape complaints can be explained by perception that they are a bad career move, I guess. Confidentiality of the review process means crimes get disclosed, and all participants remain anonymous. Nonetheless, Mallard deserves credit for taking responsibility for his past parliamentary violence & trying to do what's right for current victims…
You are crossing a line there imo – YOU may think that and I've never yet heard another person say it – own your shit dennis and it is shit – dirty and smelly.
Not sure what your problem is this time. If it's that you think I believe JLR is a rapist, you're dead wrong. He doesn't seem that kind of person. However, recalling what one of the women he had an affair with told the media last year, it's understandable some would jump to that conclusion.
So Marty, the shit is all in your mind! Wouldn't it be better to clean it out and dispose of it?? Projecting it onto others seems a waste of time and energy, eh?
it is not understandable at all – your mind thought that up – own it.
There's absolutely no way any of us can own the comment made by that woman last year. Only she can do that. The impression formed in the minds of the readers of her comment is also theirs alone. Nothing to do with me whatsoever!!
think on this
You – i turned off game of thrones at the start – too full of american accents and isms.
BM – there was only 1 american actor in the first series
You – oh really? anyway, and so on
You've got opinions not based on reality and it behooves you not to extrapolate or tenuous connect too far because often you do so with little knowledge as you did with the tiny example I have given.
Reminding me that I'm just as human as everyone else isn't actually necessary, incredible though it may seem. My comment was about likely perceptions created in the minds of many, as the result of political developments. You tried to warp the thread into something about me, instead. Better to keep to the topic!
in case i'm wrong please put one link of anyone else saying what you said and implied – just one example of someone else and these 'likely perceptions in the minds of many' please.
Why? You believe other commentators on the Standard ought to do research for you? Why? Seems rather irrational. Isn't it obvious that we all have different values and priorities? Human nature!
Yep – didn’t think I was wrong on this one. Thanks for the confirmation dennis.
He doesn't seem that kind of person.
Can anyone help with advice on removing the coffee sprayed on my laptop?
Pray tell, DF, what does a rapist look/sound like? Because if we knew, we wouldn't have to suspect all of you.
Come on Rosemary, is there really any point in posing as simple-minded? You know that none of those women would have had affairs with him if they thought he was a rapist, don't you? Would any woman choose to have affair with someone they thought could be a rapist? Obviously they also believed "He doesn't seem that kind of person.
You are once again prattling on about things you know nothing about.
Did you know abused partners go back to an abusive spouse on average SEVEN TIMES before leaving for good.
"Would any woman choose to have affair with someone they thought could be a rapist?"
You are so ignorant it's incomprehensible you think you know stuff about this. Have something valid to contribute or just give it a rest for all the victims sake.
I struggled mightily not to hit you with strings of invective.
But STFU!
Your opinion about what you think I may or may not know is totally irrelevant to the political issues raised by the controversy. No, it is not all about me!! Why is that so hard for you to understand??
"Those women" aren't mind readers, and so might not have been able to determine ahead of time whether or not they were choosing to have an affair with a rapist.
Even some rapists might not be aware they would rape prior to first offense. 'Reckons' and 'seems' aren’t always on the money – it's not Rosemary who's being simple-minded.
So you're agreeing with me: people form impressions about the character of others, and identifying the rapist in parliament isn't a simple matter. Cool.
So you're confirming how poor your comprehension is? Cool.
Oh, you intended a different meaning?? Perhaps delineating it explicitly could work better. Elliptical obfuscation only gets us so far…
I agree with your contention that it's unlikely any of those women would have had entered into an affair with someone they thought could be a rapist.
Perhaps the nub of our disagreement is that you seem to believe that those women (and presumably, by extension, all women) can reliably identify a (potential) rapist prior to engaging in an affair (or whatever.) Now I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but wouldn’t that mean you think rape is the woman's fault, because she ignores the signals from her infallible ‘rapist radar‘, choosing to pursue the affair regardless!
If you believe something different then perhaps you should consider taking a course in Plain English! "Elliptical obfuscation" !! Praxis Dennis, praxis.
You're kidding! Why would anyone feel responsible for whatever impression someone else got?? Of course I don't have such unrealistic expectations of women! I have no idea why you hallucinated such a wacky notion…
Hi Dennis. Now I'm genuinely puzzled. English is my first language, but from your subsequent comments I am obviously misunderstanding the thrust of your comment @7.1.1.2.1.
So it’s simply a matter of belief? You 'believe' that JLR isn't a rapist, and the evidence you cite in support of your belief is that it matches your view of the apparent belief of his multiple sexual partners (the ones we know about)? Is this really the sole basis of your belief?
Seems flimsy, but I bow to you superior reasoning and logic.
@DMK
'Would you enter into a business partnership with a person who you thought was a fraudster?'
I somehow doubt you have any trouble parsing this sentence.
No, I would never claim "superior reasoning and logic". I don't recall claiming superiority ever, to be honest. And I too am puzzled. Beliefs about other people form in one's mind as the result of impressions they make. Doesn't everyone know that? Hardly contraversial, really! Reasoning doesn't even come into it. Just common knowledge about human nature.
I've never entered into a business partnership, but my (uninformed) answer to your hypothetical question is no. My answer might be representative, but I sincerely doubt it is universal.
P.S. Did I just believe/feel my potential business partner was a fraudster, or were my thoughts based on objective evidence? That would matter to me. If possible, I would prefer to have some objective evidence to support my thoughts/reckons/feels, but in the absence of such evidence I’d have no option but to follow DF’s lead and ‘go with my gut!
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/30-01-2019/what-does-a-rapist-look-like/
@ Sabine
In your view what percentage men are rapists?
a very small one actually. Maybe 5 – 10 % are rapists. I would also venture that rapists are repeat offender.
And because we don't actually treat rape as the crime that it is, and we still put the blame on women and girls and lets not even go to the fact that men have their own issues – re toxic masculinity – in reporting this crime, the fact that the police is only sometimes happy enough to actually do its job – often times only when the victim is so bad that they can't really not do anything these rapists get away and do it again and again and again.
But, and this is important RL, us women we don't know who is going to rape us. When i went to bed that night as a preteen – sharing the room with my 6 year old sister – i did not know that my stepfather would come and rape me that night. And frankly i am sure that i was not the only one, but just one of many.
and that is the issue. We don't know who is going to rape us. We don't know who is going to sexually assault us. We don't know until they do.
so to me know it is simple. So as long as i don't know the bloke, i am not going to accept drinks, not going to drive in his car, not going without a weapon of sorts alone in a carpark, tell my friends where i go, with whom, and i as billions of other women do have a whole scenario that i follow so as to not get raped, assaulted, mugged, killed.
but maybe you want to read this, and then you might want to answer me my question, what did you think i will tell you, and what do believe?
https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/13/pastor-raped-daughter-14-gets-light-prison-sentence-man-god-9515582/
she is just lucky he did not impregnate.
Rosemary About coffee on your laptop, not sure. But I dropped quite a bit on my keyboard once. Turned it upside down over a towel and let it drip out then dried off, using a cottonbud for awkward places, and it was fine. It liked the blend. Hope this is helpful.
DF Better not have referred to JLR at all don't you think. Gathering in possible suspects on innuendo is not what I thought a practical man with principles would do.
I've made the point about the relevance of political psychology many times: these situations emphasise how relevant it is! Some commenters here try to shoot the messenger, but who cares?? Mass psychology drives public perceptions of political events, regardless how many commenters try to be puerile.
Utter gobshite of a man.
If it's a conclusion that many people would make by themselves, your connection between the report and a specific individual would be redundant.
For those people who hadn't made that (extremely unreliable) association, you have now made it for them.
I'm not seeing a good side to that aspect of your comment.
You think reminding people of the political context of Mallard's impression isn't good?? Would you like to explain why you believe historical context is bad to include in political discussion? Or do you believe JLR's affairs didn't trigger the review. Or both??
That's the bit to which I can't see any good side, but it's also the only bit that adds any information. "reminding people of the political context" is just you being patronising.
You could just have easily said "JLR triggered this, so perhaps some good has come out of that entire tawdry series of events: exposing the toxic culture of parliament".
edit: Stuff reports it was a staffer anyway. Thanks for your concern.
Glad it wasn't him. No, my concern for him doesn't need thanks, & I ain't nobody's patron.
DF has that unremitting unrepentant side. Being a rational man, everything he says is rational, it just follows.
British aristocrat resorts to centrism: "Lord Heseltine made clear he would resist any attempt to force him out of the party over his stance on the election on 23 May." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/european-elections-michael-heseltine-brexit-lib-dems-conservatives-a8920376.html
"Tory grandee Michael Heseltine has said he will not be supporting the Conservatives in the European election, and will instead vote Liberal Democrat. The former deputy prime minister and lifelong pro-European said the party has become “infected by the virus of extremism” and he cannot endorse its support for leaving the EU."
"In an article for The Sunday Times, he said: “The reason for my experiment with the Lib Dems is, of course, the government’s position on Brexit. I cannot, with a clear conscience, vote for my party when it is myopically focused on forcing through the biggest act of economic self-harm ever undertaken by a democratic government.” His call for the Tories to reclaim the political centre ground was echoed by former prime minister Sir John Major."
I think the study of history generally and that of politics should include the cycles that occur where countries and large groups go into a spasm of self-harming behaviour. Is it a default position to go for some apparently pure and uncompromising method when times get hard and a certain level of anxiety is reached? Many countries or large social entities are definitely suffering from 'spasms' at present.
Speaking of those self identified Christians and regarding abortion laws Chris Hedges has
a reasoned piece;
"Ignore the religious rhetoric and moral posturing about abortion. This debate is not about the sanctity of life. It is about corporate capitalists who desperately need more bodies and intend to coerce women to produce them"
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/americas-reproductive-slaves/
coercion – /kəʊˈəːʃ(ə)n/ noun
well that is a polite term to say – criminalise an act and remove it to the point were the only way to have an abortion is a self induced one.
but yes he is right.
With regards to this report on bullying at parliament this from RNZ
"Now it has been laid bare in the report by independent reviewer Debbie Francis but still the elected representatives guilty of grossly abusing their positions remain anonymous and will likely never be publicly identified."
We have a right to know who these individual MPs are after all they are responsible for their behaviour as elected and appointed individuals.
This is a cop out !
Oh come on mosa. Just getting the information was important to build the picture, and complainants and informants were promised that it would be kept private. We do know it goes on. We cannot afford to go into a 'spasm' of blame and punishment over past practice when our attention needs to be on CC and international machinations. And it has happened, so our lagging attention to the future mustn't be dragged away again from facing forward.
So no it is not a cop out, that's just ignoring facts:
greywarshark sensitivities aside what i am arguing is that if these MPs remain hidden then how can the public and those wanting a career in parliament have any confidence that the house of representatives is dealing with the culprits and that people will take responsibility for their actions.
When you choose to serve the public and be paid by them how you conduct yourself is important and should be transparent.
This from No right turn.
The report of course refuses to name those MPs, meaning that the independent reviewer is effectively part of this conspiracy of silence as well. Which is not acceptable. Naming names is the first step towards accountability, and that needs to happen if anything is to change.
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2019/05/a-toxic-workplace.html
It's a difficult one. People who err so arrogantly should be brought to account. They are getting away with nasty stuff.
But then there has been a pact of privacy. We know that stats say that much sexual misbehaviour and crime is not reported so can't be taken further and justice meted. So BAU if nothing is done from this report.
And one lack of justice does not excuse another lack of justice and respect – to those who came forward. The Witchhunter Generals' opinions that purity and sanctimony will prevail if the victims are burned along with their perpetrators will, I am absolutely sure, not be agreed with by those most affected who will feel persecuted.
Sometimes there is no easy answer to achieving probity. Back off WG's and pour cold water on your hot breaths of retribution; put your simplistic interference to one side to avoid adding further trauma to this unhappy revelation.
@greywarshark.
I've just had to drop EVERYTHING! Jesse had a bad experience in the RNZ lift.
(I'm thinking of the children of course – what IF the worst had happened? And fresh from going over some handlebars)
I really don't think I could cope
Huh. He should try commenting on TS. I've had and seen some bad experiences. What a wimp.
A new peril on high street.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/rnz/new-christchurch-building-has-serious-flaws-engineers
The leaked report – from engineering firm Beca to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment – said the narrow, glass-fronted block at 230 High Street has:
The report also said calculations underestimated the earthquake loading by 25%.
Time for some selective logging with council.
The Korean engineer assures us it is quite okay. And I am sure that his credentials are also as we have good standards in NZ and good surveillance of those standards.
This am on Radionz there was a report on the use of a computer check on social welfare call centre responses. This check was designed by a person at AUT. I am wary of computer paradigms being the deciding factor of people's entitlements. But the check on the program would help to establish if there had been racial bias I think. So it was helpful to run calls past it to see how it registered. They looked at calls that had been passed on for action and calls that were recorded and not actioned, to see if this resulted in further calls indicating real need for action.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018696159/can-a-computer-model-accurately-identify-kids-at-risk-of-abuse
Kathryn speaks with Stanford University Associate Professor of Medicine, Jeremy Goldhaber-Fiebert, who has evaluated the effectiveness of a predictive risk assessment tool developed by a New Zealand researcher and implemented for two years in the United States. The Ministry of Social development originally commissioned Professor Rhema Vaithianathan, Co-Director of the Centre for Social Data Analytics at AUT to develop the model. It uses data about children and their families to identify those at risk of physical, sexual or emotional abuse before the age of two. MSD stopped short of implementing the tool, but Allegheny County in Pittsburg, Pensylvania began using it in 2016, and commissioned Stanford University researchers to evaluate it.
Oranga Tamariki dispensed with this a year or so ago. I am concerned that we don't instead get into sanctimonious, pious territory of 'We know best' and judgmental rather than compassionate, appropriate support responses.
The rise of RW conservative women with an opinion of themselves as model cultural templates is noticeable, finding platforms such as anti-abortion and anything that is a change in societal norms. They adopt towards the precariat and women considered below their societal level, attitudes of derision, or patronising and officious power.
Their success in the anti-abortion measures in eight states of the USA will whet their appetite to fight here. The large response against the attempt to introduce a very mild euthanasia bill is an example of their reach and influence. A backgrounder on the citizen consultation held throughout NZ says that the 9 minute time allowed for oral submissions was applied for by thousands who often merely stated their disagreement. Nick Smith and Maggie Barry facilitated this process, though Ms Barry was accused of adopting a disrespectful tone to some.
The conservative religious, such as the conservative Catholic and conservative Pasifika congregations combined will be a force against rights that women hold dear. Choosing overseas people for appointments over NZs, may increase the type of conservative, neo-liberal official or CEO. We have Irish conservative Catholic Mrs Moss at Oranga Tamiriki for which a local person could easily have been found. We also have Dr Mary English who is conservative Catholic and has Pasifika roots, building relationships in health and welfare for Pasifika people. These are people in key roles. When the National Party stopped funding the suicide health line and gave the contract to Dr English's organisation, *The Daily Blog cried favouritism and nepotism for Bill English's wife. Many community organisations working at the coalface of welfare, with much experience have felt the cold winds of funding neglect. We need to watch where the funding goes, and that it is fairly distributed to those who do much with little, without much patronage.
*https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/08/02/hold-on-national-cut-suicide-helpline-to-give-contract-to-bill-englishs-wife/
Kia ora The Am Show.
Students strike today kia kaha it agree make it 0 carbon by 2040 moving the goal ahead by 10 years .
Banning sugary or big taxes is a know brainer it should have been implemented years ago the bad facts are all there to see WTF.
The big hole in the government balance sheat was created by joyce
Amanda that is a powerful tawhirimate in America tossing cars around like toys don global warming its staring you in the FACE.
Duncan Its good to see that you get it with the police chasers the people who are being chased are out of control.
The parents of these tamariki being chased could be working 2 jobs to survive with the low wages and high living cost take the glasses off Mark.
Geffory Rush I quite like the characters he has played its good to see him get JUSTICE.?????????????????????????????.
If the policys look like a Christian party it a Christian party why don't they run a Wahine up and lift Maori Wahine all Wahine mana up. Its good you want good changes. But I am protecting the left from the cheating rednecks who will strip the common persons wealth and give our powercompanys to the wealthy. I know who is pushing this I can see the consequences of your actions. I agree the housing situation is bad thanks to national this phenomenon has swept the western world I wonder why House less tangata. If this movement was logical and not emotional you would target the drugs that actually cause harm even target sugar.???????????
There you go judy a pauleen hanson you're views are very similar hence your toilet won't float in Aotearoa maybe you should go to Australia.
Don't compare Aotearoa to Venuzla it a total tug of war between the east and west that is tearing apart that country .
I'm still suspicious of your polls
Ka kite ano
We should commit to reducing our carbon footprint as fast as possible.
Its the correct thing to do it is what humans have done for millions of years providing a better future for our tamariki.
What is happening now is not human or humane money is the root of these inhuman traits to rise to the top of humanity's way of doing things.
Some are totally focused on today and not on our mokopuna tomorrow's our futures well being the neanderthal are blinded by money they use this money to blind the common people of the world to believe there lies that are all about protecting the oil barons wealth and POWER.
Why you should take action on climate change
mpact on the environment because I want a future I can look forward to. And at the rate we're going, I know my hope is unrealistic, to say the least.
One million species are threatened with extinction. Make that one million and one – the human race should be on there. We are already seeing the direct consequences of climate change on real people as natural disasters are exacerbated by heat rise and people are made to flee their homes due to the damage done by these catastrophes. It's no secret that climate change is already showing its claws to the human race.
We are lucky, however, that we are so privileged to have the opportunity to stop it. We are the people who, in the future, will either be venerated for making the changes necessary to stop the full effects of climate change on the human race, or despised for ignoring the warning signs Ka kite ano links below
https://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/112939231/why-you-should-take-action-on-climate-change
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
Humans causing shrinking of nature as larger animals die off
Average size of wild animals predicted to fall by a quarter in 100 years through extinctions
The researchers estimate that more than 1,000 larger species of mammals and birds will go extinct in the next century, from rhinos to eagles. They say this could lead to the collapse of ecosystems that humans rely on for food and clean water.
Humans have wiped out most large creatures from all inhabited continents apart from Africa over the last 125,000 years. This annihilation will accelerate rapidly in the coming years, according to the research.
The future extinctions can be avoided if radical action is taken to protect wildlife and restore habitats, and the scientists say the new work can help focus efforts on key species.
Animal populations have fallen by 60%since 1970, suggesting a sixth mass extinction of life on Earth is under way caused by the razing of wild areas, hunting and intensive farming. Scientists said this month that human society was in danger from the decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems, with half of natural ecosystems now destroyed and a total of a million species at risk of extinction Ka kite ano links below
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/23/humans-causing-shrinking-of-nature-as-larger-animals-die-off
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
It is cool that the environmentalist are being given honors and recognize for their hard work.
Environmental heroes: the environmental awards
On May 1, Princess Anne, patron of the Whitley Fund for Nature, presented the fund’s awards recognising community-based conservation projects
Ka kite ano links below. P.S I know one who deserves recognition.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2019/may/21/environmental-heroes-the-2019-whitley-award-winners
Kia ora Newshub
Kia kaha to the Students Strikes to much you give Eco Maori a sore face with the numbers that turn out today.
I say its good to make the banks hold more money in reserve for a 1 in 200 year financial crash the markets are all over the place .
Lloyd it doesn't look good for may .and it looks like the right necks have hacked the system again while the right and left were fighting.
It's a warm start to winter this year we have not even needed to light a fire yet that's usually for Vags
Mike I seen that Geffory Rush getting his JUSTICE he is a good actor.
I see the don through his toys out of his cot .
Ka kite ano
Kia ora te ao Maori news
Thanks to Nanaia and the Provenance growth fund giving 50 million over 5 years to assist Maori farmer whanau in the development of there whenua in te taiwhiti.
Pee is a shocking poison its just as bad in te taiwhiti it is making a mess of te tangata
I think is a awesome idea to combine studying papatuanuku and getting the Kaumatua knowledge on the subjects
The Pacific music awards were on last night was very good Eco Maori loves his music ka kite ano