“Everything” is behind liberalism’s (arguably) fascist drift. In politics, you don’t create a space unless you intend to fill it. Pushing the Republicans to supposedly untenable positions, surely means the “lesser evil” intends to occupy the space they’ve cleared out – which by the traditional way of viewing politics, is ever further to the “right”.
A cursory glance at the treatment meted out to the likes of Sanders, Corbyn or Melenchon shows various centres of power certainly don’t favour striking off in a social democratic direction.
And (in line with the “pied piper” strategy) the amount of oxygen and arm waving around the Le Penns and Farages of the world, that then scares the horses back to the status quo and its inexorable drift….
Footnote. Macron – the poster boy of liberalism – two of his body guards (Alexandre Benalla and Vincent Crase) disguised themselves as cops, and Benalla was filmed beating the crap out of protesters on May Day.
Imagine the furore if that had been Le Penn’s body guards? And yet, here we are, nearly two months later, and all we have is disapproving “tsks” that the guys retained their employment.
Why do we allow these disgraced wankers to come here and buy our country? – tell him to piss off I say – buy the land back – give it to Iwi and make the edges and tracks publicly accessible.
“Taxpayers could be forced to pay millions of dollars in compensation to disgraced TV host Matt Lauer to guarantee public access to his high country station.”
The lease will come up for renewal some time in the future…at this point the access available to the public can be improved by the government…lets hope the Greens are in government when the lease comes up.
Meanwhile a little birdy tells me Peter Thiel is about to start building his mansion…since the Nats changed the RMA this can no longer be publicly notified so doubtless his unsightly development will be waved through in the Outstanding Natural Landscape his property is situated within by the pro-rich pro-development Queenstown Lakes District Council.
Talking of Peter Thiel… is he still a close political associate of Donald Trump’s? If so, we don’t want him here thank-you. He qualifies to be of “undesirable character”.
I suppose he wasn’t known to be disgraced when he made the purchase.
What I am curious about is what does it take to fail the good character test?
From the article: November last year, the OIO is concerned about his character after being fired for alleged sexual misconduct and starts an inquiry.
June this year OIO is happy and he ‘passes the test’.
OIO probably should have been added to yesterday’s Open Mike 2.2 and below.
I can hear the “buzz” now from ‘officials’ along the lines “we follow international best practice”; and “we make comprehensive checks with our international partners going forward”; and “good faith” thrown in a few times, and “we’re satisfied we’ve abided by our legal obligations and in compliance with the points system’ etc etc etc rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb
money money money, foreign investment, what’s wrong with it, they can’t take the land with them (/sarc)
Oh, and ComCom that allowed a duopolistic supermarket supply chain that disadvantages the little players (such as the dairy producer also on RNZ Sunday this morning), or NZTA or or or.
Again, let’s hope Skippy’s wish for reform goes a little deeper than window dressing.
On the positive side, there are a few ministers who seem to be aware that they’ve been severely let down by various ‘deficiencies’ in our current ps model.
(you should hear what I really think though – and not just me)
Why did they not put in full access when the granted the lease? Again very bad advice and paper work by the NZ government! Too much sensitive land is being sold and leased without enough provision for public access, it is even worse if it is public land in the first place!
Although with public access there should be responsibilities for those using it, to behave reasonably and enforcement options strict, (no litter, no walking off paths, no noise and partying, fire risks respected, dogs under control, clear ideas on motorised use etc) and there should be instant penalties for those that can’t respect these public paths.
Overseas public access is completely normal and people behave reasonably.
In NZ there are problems of bad behaviour, hooning, dangerous and noisy ATV use with non licensed and registered vehicles destroying the sand dunes around Auckland and making forests dangerous to walk in with crazy ATV use and so forth. As Kiwis get more obese their ideas of public access are becoming motorised actually stopping people from walking with the amount of danger from this. People making fires and driving around drunk. Kauri forests and Kauri die back disease being spread. This is what frightens people about public access.
Public access needs to be protected for everyone that includes safety and enforcement of those who abuse the public access. It is normal overseas for people to enjoy full public access, in NZ there needs to be a bit more thought about why with such small population we seem to not be able to get this right.
Hopefully in remote areas people know how to behave, sadly around urban public areas many people don’t and the enforcement needs to be tightened as well as more access allowed.
Land access to the Hunter has always been severely restricted by the lessees going back a long way. The previous lessee (who’s still there as Lauer’s manager) was particuarly hard nosed about this. So there’s really been no change with the new ownership.
How it’s going to pan out going forward as the owner discovers that owning the lease over Hunter Valley Station becomes a cashflow negative undertaking, and tenure review may not work out on that lease.
I had a wee epiphany yesterday.
Listening to Venus Envy, a podcast from spinoff and RNZ.
Talking about identity and multi cultural feminism intersectionality in the workplace.
I must admit, in the past, to trying to understand and get my head around this and putting it in the too hard basket.
What emerged from the conversation was that it is the practice of manaakitanga.
“To how you bring people together, how you look after them inside a space, how you ensure that their mana, all peoples mana, is taken care of and looked after. Manaaki – to give mana to all sections. By the end of that a lot of people were a lot more comfortable with the term ‘Manaakitanga’, rather than intersectionalising their practice inside the workspace.”
This really helped, ensuring someone’s mana is looked after seems a lot easier.
human Rights Conference organisers denied visas to NZ. Thank goodness we have the Freeze peach Coalition to raise $90,000 to challenge these decisions!
Hearing you, but thinking a campaign against NZ Immigration’s apparent racism would be more in order. And given that, expect “nuffin happenin”. 🙁
From the link.
A woman who campaigns for sex education in Uganda was denied entry because Immigration NZ deemed her at risk of overstaying, and a man who is part of a group starting schools in Uganda is still waiting to find out if he will be granted entry, months after applying. The idea the members would overstay here, when they were heavily invested in projects overseas was laughable, Passmore said.
Nigerian Leo Igwe just finished a PhD in Germany, and arrived in the country this week. He said he was not given a reason his visa was declined initially, but after doing extensive international travel it was a surprise, and he believes it is likely because he holds a passport from a poor country.
Seems odd to me that Bridges has opposed the setting up of a Review system for doubtful court cases. He concedes that there are miscarriages of justice but is against a system for investigation. Will this help him win friends?
Bridges trying to be relevant, but just hot air behind it, zero substance. Also sounds like the National party and ACT has repeatedly halted the Nepata brother’s requests for defence compensation. Then Pike River, nothing for the Ellis case either over their decade of rule… the National party record is truely despicable.
“I know of a case he prosecuted that has many of the elements of the Ellis case.”
Intriguing.
Can you give another clue please.
By elements of the Ellis case I am keen to know what you mean.
Evidence obtained by leading questioning by ‘experts’- a discredited method from the ’80s?
Selective quoting of children?
The senior investigating officer having ‘relationships’ with the mother of the main witness?
An underworked, over excited police ‘child sex ring’ investigation unit, looking for its first scalp?
You could remove “The senior investigating officer having ‘relationships’ with the mother of the main witness?” The other aspects appear to be common.
The prosecutor’s personal beliefs may have clouded objectivity as well.
I don’t want to say too much here, the guy was convicted, served society’s sanction and now is trying to get on with some sort of life. I’ve only heard that side of it, but knowing both the accuser and convicted I am very sceptical.
The Ellis case would make an interesting interview topic for Mr Bridges, and leading into his time as a prosecutor.
More inequality in NZ
…now you need $60k for ‘experts’ to have your say in court under the new RMA rules trickled in by the Natz to stack the decks to keep the rich getting richer and creating an expensive system to have your say (only a micro amount of ‘issues’ are allowed to be considered all stacked towards industry and excess) .
Considering you can go to most tribunals in NZ like disputes tribunal for under $100 and get a ruling, interesting when it comes to land, taking from communities and plundering of our resources and pushing risks onto others, it’s now taking $60,000+ to have your say…. which is very revealing of where our power interest lie.
We are no longer an equal country but one that is wink wink, open for exploitation to the right sorts…and our legal system has been changed to allow for this.
“… interesting when it comes to land, taking from communities and plundering of our resources and pushing risks onto others, it’s now taking $60,000+ to have your say…. ”
The local activists who stepped up and spoke at the consent hearings in Kaitaia cost bugger all. The hard ground work was done by a few staunch locals who found and dug up their greatest assets. Long term locals with generations of living with the Aquifer. Locals with degrees and engineering experience. Locals who were wise and knowledgeable and one outstanding woman who had taken her legal qualifications around the world.
The $$$ spent by the opposition was from DOC, who sent in a Team to speak on behalf of the vulnerable Kaimaumau wetlands.
Those folk rightfully objecting to the Super Chook Farm need to take a breath or two before spending hard won $$$ on ‘experts’. They should go have a chat with others who have run interference on such plans without going into hock. NZ environmental activist history is peppered with cautionary tales of groups that have formed to fight this kind of shit who have ended up in financial crap because they have tried to fight the moneyed enemy with extremely limited resources.
I’ll be watching closely for when the hearing is….they need to make sure supporters know. So we can plan to be there.
How convenient for corporate interests.
1.3 million chickens in concentration camp conditions.
And Tegels profit from torture, misery and environmental degradation.
The dice are stacked folks.
So the torture and killing of the vast majority of chickens in NZ, the degradation of our environment, the dehumanising of some of our workers all occurs to make a profit for overseas owners.
It leaves you speechless.
We are owned.
And far too many New Zealanders are ignorant, apathetic and too self absorbed.
Ed, stinking out an entire community including Marae, having incinerators burning waste daily, needing copious amounts of water, clogging up and making the ratepayers pay to repair the roads between Dargarville and West Auckland as well as add to the Auckland congestion and increase risks like bird flu with intensive farming like we have never seen before in NZ , while destroying the tourist opportunities of a town so that a Chinese firm can profit, is all in a days work for our RMA, free “rich” market approach and their champions the ‘environmental’ lawyers NZ resource asset stripping.
“Tegel Foods Limited is a poultry company based in New Zealand. It employs approximately 1,700 people at locations across New Zealand. Pacific Equity Partners acquired the company from Heinz in 2005, and sold it to Affinity Equity Partners in 2011.
Affinity Equity Partners is one of the largest dedicated Asian private equity firms and focuses on leveraged buyout and growth capital transactions.
Affinity operates as a Pan-Asian firm focusing on investment opportunities in Korea, Australia and New Zealand, Greater China and Southeast Asia.
The firm is led by Kok-Yew Tang (Founding Chairman and Managing Partner), Young-Taeg Park (Chairman and Managing Partner) and Chul-Joo Lee (Managing Partner). It has over 60 employees with offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, South Korea, Sydney, Australia, Jakarta, Indonesia and Beijing, China“
Now I do.
Is anything in New Zealand still owned by New Zealand companies or New Zealanders?
Tegal is owned by Affinity Equity Partners which is one of the largest dedicated Asian private equity firms and focuses on leveraged buyout and growth capital transactions.
The Herald sinks to another new low, publishing this ignorant. Ill-informed piece of war mongering. The level of propaganda emanating from western media atm is McCarthyesque.
The Herald’s owners and editors should enlist for service in Lithuania as they are so keen for World War 3.
Invaded by Russia in 1918, again in 1940, and annexed in 1944 to endure Stalin’s reign of terror as tens of thousands were deported to the far east to make way for ethnic Russians.
So yeah, 50 years worth of oppressive Soviet rule gives Lithuanians a fucking good reason to be terrified by Putin’s posturing.
Dictators come and go and stalins brutality is well documented but its worth remembering it was that same brutality and that same dictators willingness to sacrifice millions of his countrymans lives that led to the eventual defeat of nazism in europe .What has that got to do with putin ?
A falling out between thieves [Molotov–Ribbentrop/Unternehmen Barbarossa] doesn’t change the fact that Putin believes he’s destined to make Russia great again by reunifying the Soviet Union.
You should join Stuart and enlist. Then grab your tin hat and race to the Suwalki Gap, where John Roughan and the rest of the Herald warmongers are scrambling to head off the Russian beast.
Sadly for you name calling, no.
Unlike you though, I support attempts for detente and lowering of tensions between nations.
Jaw jaw beats war war.
If the 2 countries with the biggest stockpiles of nuclear weapons sit down to talk , what is wrong with that.
Russia is not about to invade Europe. Get real.
And be honest about NATO.
It is the expansionist side. The west promised it would not move NATO east in the 1980s .
It lied.
How the Bill Clinton administration successfully meddled in Russia’s 1996 election, elevating Boris Yeltsin to the presidency.
Irony: Yeltsin would later appoint a successor – a then little known former KGB agent by the name of Vladimir Putin.
In 1996, not only did the Clinton team influence Russia’s election to Boris Yeltsin (who collapsed their economy and made the life expectancy go down by 5 years), they bragged about it in Time Magazine. “
Actually the government—-first Clark’s administration and then Key’s—-pretended we were over there “helping the Afghan people to rebuild.”
John Wayne killing Native Americans is in fact pretty much like it was, and is.
By the way, did you hear Paula Penfold on Mora’s show a few weeks ago calling out the retiring head of the “Defence” force? She reminded listeners of how he had consistently refused to answer questions about reports of New Zealand troops committing war crimes in Afghanistan. She called him a “coward”. To my knowledge, he still hasn’t answered the allegations.
Most of the world sees the US as the imperialist thug.
You are in the minority that regards Russia as a clear and present threat.
Does calling me ‘wee’ add strength to your argument?
You seem a very angry person joe.
Give peace a chance.
There is no Planet B.
Give peace a chance while encouraging people to go and kill and die in war is sorta creepily sick mate – you should reread some of 5the he heinous encouragement to war that you are doing – pull your head out your arse ed.
You need to refresh your understanding of McCarthy Ed – try this if books don’t appeal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Night,_and_Good_Luck McCarthy was domestic policy hounding moderates while ostensibly hunting down sympathisers like the Rosenbergs.
Resurgent Russian militarism is a problem for lots of countries. But they won’t lie down and let it happen again.
I provide my sources transparently.
To call Pilger, Chomsky, Greenwald, Fisk, Cockburn, Bartlett and Bealey uninformed is quite a statement by you Stuart.
What are your sources?
And again swearing doesn’t strengthen your argument.
You seem very angry.
Give peace a chance.
In your own world.
And the whole world.
I’m not telling them. They just seem so keen for war that these armchair warriors should back up theirs views rather than forcing others to die for their Russophobia.
I know you can barely read, but journalists produce a lot of material. Some of it is professional, it goes to multiple and original sources and takes care to uncover the position of local people.
And some doesn’t.
But you argue from authority – as if the journalist is an authority in their own right, rather than according to how assiduously they make sure that they have the real facts.
You might want to consider how it is with such a list of luminaries supposedly informing you, you consistently manage to be completely wrong on everything pertaining to Russia and Syria.
So that you – a self-styled progressive, have become a vociferous apologist for the murdering and invading Putin regime.
Resurgent Russian militarism is a problem for lots of countries.
And what about the militarism of the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., and Israel? And what about the Al Qaeda-linked forces they support in Syria?
Yeah You’re right – Chechenya, Georgia, the Ukraine – bordering Russia is a really dangerous place to be. Because of Russia, though of course the extremity of your biases won’t let you see that.
Russian murder is good, US murder is bad – politics according to Ed.
You seem to be implying that U.S. militarism is comparable to Russia’s. It’s far, far more widespread, and far more lethal. The U.S. is directly responsible for massive destruction in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Palestine and much of the African continent.
Russia’s aggression is, by comparison, negligible.
Not at all. That’s not what I said and not what I implied. What I did point out—and I’m sure you already knew it anyway—was that if Russia is bad, and I acknowledge that it is bad, then the United States and its vassals like the U.K. are off the scale.
And you won’t ever hear an admission of that from Stuart.
Humans rights and independence for the Ukrainians, the Latvians, the Poles, the Georgians…
Yemenis, Palestinians, Iraqis, Chileans……not so much.
Calm down.
Did you not read my last comment.
I agree with Morrissey on this statement.
“What I did point out—and I’m sure you already knew it anyway—was that if Russia is bad, and I acknowledge that it is bad, then the United States and its vassals like the U.K. are off the scale.”
So I guess what we would like to see a more balanced critique by you on joe. You seem to see the world In a simple goody/ baddy framing, whereas – even in the Ukraine, Lithuania etc its a lot more complex than that.
Crimea voted to rejoin Russia.
The present Ukrainian government was established by an anti democratic coup, aided by fascists.
NATO, not Russia, has expanded since the Reagan Gorbachev agreements.
We were lied to abt it chemical weapons in Syria by our western governments.
We were lied to about Salisbury.
It’s not that simple Stuart.
We are not living in a Bruce Willis film.
“You can support Trump talking with Putin and not be a sopportercof either.”
It’s certainly possible.
But you have established time and again that you are nothing more a lickspittle lackey of Putin without an independent thought in your head.
I’m for peace with Russia Ed – but that doesn’t license them to murder Chechens, Georgians, Ukranians, journalists, political opponents or former spys. Or Syrians come to that.
Your conspicuous silence on those issues looks a lot like guilt.
So, long time US allies Canada, Germany, and Japan’s aluminum and steel is lumbered with tariffs because national security threat, but Russia’s off the hook because…..oh, oligarch mates.
You couldn’t make this shit up.
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury is open to removing Russian aluminum producer Rusal from a U.S. sanctions list, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday, adding the objective was “not to put Rusal out of business.”
West Ukraine or East Ukraine.
They are quite different ethnically.
Most of the country voted for the government which was ousted by an anti democratic coup, supported by the CIA and fascist groups in west Ukraine.
“The attempt to lever Kiev into the western camp by ousting an elected leader made conflict certain. It could be a threat to us all
The threat of war in Ukraine is growing. As the unelected government in Kiev declares itself unable to control the rebellion in the country’s east, John Kerry brands Russia a rogue state. The US and the European Union step up sanctions against the Kremlin, accusing it of destabilising Ukraine. The White House is reported to be set on a new cold war policy with the aim of turning Russia into a “pariah state”.
That might be more explicable if what is going on in eastern Ukraine now were not the mirror image of what took place in Kiev a couple of months ago. Then, it was armed protesters in Maidan Square seizing government buildings and demanding a change of government and constitution. US and European leaders championed the “masked militants” and denounced the elected government for its crackdown, just as they now back the unelected government’s use of force against rebels occupying police stations and town halls in cities such as Slavyansk and Donetsk.
Ed, you’re in an environment now where reading and understanding something is a liability. This site is more and more being dominated by the sorts of people who would normally have only posted on Whaleoil or Kiwiblog, or spent their time ringing up Leighton Smith to agree with him.
I’m realising this.
Stuart Munro is an out and out bully boy.
He doesn’t debate, doesn’t actually read my links: he just attacks like a pit bull with lies about me.
I shall give up replying to him.
There is no point.
This excellent article I recommend to you Morrissey,
It is by Craig Murray. He is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010.
Oh, I SEE now! If you point out the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the Democrats and their media megaphones like Rachel Maddow, that makes you a Trump supporter.
What’s wrong with all these people?
Surely Iraq in 2003 made them start to look at what their governments, ‘intelligence’ agencies and media told them with a touch of critical thinking and skepticism.
You saw the link to US meddling in Ruusia’s elections in the 1990s.
Bill was so proud he bragged about it.
And of course US interference in other countries ‘ democratic processes – we ignore all that, don’t we.
And we beat the war drums……
Russia bad.
Putin bad.
Russia bad.
Putin bad.
Russia bad.
Putin bad……..
LONDON—Steve Bannon plans to go toe-to-toe with George Soros and spark a right-wing revolution in Europe.
Trump’s former White House chief advisor told The Daily Beast that he is setting up a foundation in Europe called The Movement which he hopes will lead a right-wing populist revolt across the continent starting with the European Parliament elections next spring.
The non-profit will be a central source of polling, advice on messaging, data targeting, and think-tank research for a ragtag band of right-wingers who are surging all over Europe, in many cases without professional political structures or significant budgets.
Bannon’s ambition is for his organization ultimately to rival the impact of Soros’s Open Society, which has given away $32 billion to largely liberal causes since it was established in 1984.
Over the past year, Bannon has held talks with right-wing groups across the continent from Nigel Farage and members of Marine Le Pen’s Front National (recently renamed Rassemblement National) in the West, to Hungary’s Viktor Orban and the Polish populists in the East.
He envisions a right-wing “supergroup” within the European Parliament that could attract as many as a third of the lawmakers after next May’s Europe-wide elections. A united populist bloc of that size would have the ability to seriously disrupt parliamentary proceedings, potentially granting Bannon huge power within the populist movement.
“The Useful Altruists: How NGOs Serve Capitalism and Imperialism
Global imperialism doesn’t just give NGOs a reason to exist, but involves them actively in the project of imperialist domination.”
James Renwick tweets with reference to an article about Arizona.
“The water that we can’t see, the groundwater, is quietly disappearing.”
Capitalism + disregard for environmental limits = disaster. Is the Mackenzie any different?”
A follows up tweet from Peter Harkess nail it.
“It’s almost as if our economic system will simply not allow humanity to avoid complete global catastrophe.”
We have a choice.
Capitalism or a sustainable planet.
The Wealthy business owner’s are having a tangi because there hoiho tripped up on the last leg of te race and ended up with ———- on there faces .
They poured te putea into backing this hoiho .
Business confidence has no correlation to economic performance its just a trick to get the .99% to let business get there way with employment laws that are inhumane.
The 90 day trial is a farce the employer can sack some one with no reason no paper work given .??????????????????? it could be because one is brown or many reason that have nothing to do with the employee work performance . It could be that the employer only wanted the employee for 89 days and did not tell the employee this because if he did the employee would not take the job as it would put them in hardship at the end of the job.
Employers think that employees are not human that they don’t deserve to be treated with respect and dignity . What they have to know is that employment is a major part of ones life and if one loses a job for bullshit reasons they are placing the employee in hardship they are placing the person whole whano in hardship. The hardship is even greater if your a Dairy-farm worker as you lose your house . But are it doesn’t matter they are not humans .
I my eyes employees should be treated like diamonds if you look after them and polish them the will make you putea if you don’t well you lose your daimond and your putea .
Yes I know there are some bad employees out there its up to the employer to find the correct employee and train them to be productive employees and a bit of polishing will go a long in improving the prospects of this relationship being positive for the employer and the employee. ANY WAY Eco Maori says the 90 day clause is a breach of the human rights act.
link is below ka kite ano
This is why I say the 90 day trial breaches the Human Rights ACT .
ACT 27 The rights to justices . When a employer can sack a employee without giving a written warning or reason in writing during the 90 day trial . This employment act breaches the employee rights to justice or a fair trial they can not defend there employment rights fairly if the employer does not give a written reason why they sacked the employee.
No written evidence and the employer can change the facts they uses to suit there dismissal of the employee employer wins case .Thats it in a karaka shell. link below. ka kite ano
Good evening Newshub Mike I will have to chose my words wisely .
Winston handles te media in his unique way he is Maori ka pai some will have
nightmares because of this fact. Who wants to get involved with that circus in America at the minute .
Condolences to the whanau of the boy who died in Tokomaru Bay of a heart attack .
With our homeless this is still the tsunami of the inhumane policy’s that national have imposed on us for the last nine years thats a fact . Helen Kelly will be smiling at the humane changes that the Coalition Government has made to our society ka pai.
One day our beaches could like the Cuban beaches if we keep putting our head in Papatuanuku on this subject of waste its everyones problem and we should all pay to get rubbish recycled in a sustainable way manufactures and consumers .
Ka kite ano
The Crowd Goes Wild James and Mulls Congratulations to our AllBlack 7 teams win in the Rugby Papatuanuku Cup Kia Kaha .
I will preform a Haka for one person I tautoko who is on the up.
Some people still have to learn to stop spraying on Eco Maori.
Mulls how the guys at the Rock Radio going I heard you when you first come back to the Rock you were a bit quite for the first 2 days then you got your hilarious mojoe going the first week I thought you were James till my Son in law corrected my mistake .
Ka kite ano i would not like those ear warmers
Good morning Newshub The block Mark is a unfair contest to be fair each team should have one person who is qualified In a trade in the construction industry per team the way it is at the minute you have two teams with a big advantage over the other teams.
And that creates tensions was that the plan.
Aotearoa produces some of the best meat in Papatuanuku grass feed Meat has properties beneficial to the consumer . The animals get to live a life close to what they would in the wild they are less stressed =better meat quality less stress = more humane way of farming. I see some organization is still scare mongering saying meat prouduction is going to wreck our environment YEA RIGHT .. These studys are conducted in country’s were the have to irrigate grow harvest and feed the stock in feed lots . 1 This is not a natural environment for the animals 2 they have to use alot of carbon to produce this meat they probably have to pump the water from hundreds of miles away as well’.
Were as in Aotearoa most farms the wai falls from tawhiri for free the stock harvest the grass for free they get a wider variety of fodder . Producing meat in Aotearoa has a lot less carbon input and more humane that meat produced else were . And I know that Aotearoa farmers can reduce there carbon foot print they just need to be guided in correct direction to achieve that goal of lowering our farming foot print .
Its so hypercritical the Tsunami of home less people. people who are living in squalor mokopunas going hungry is still growing .This phenomenon has been created by nationals policy’s of the last nine years and they decide to kick sand in the common persons face who cares who these statements hurt so long as they mite get a lift in there poles so primitive .
The problem with OUR employment is wages to the common tangata has only risen by %50 in 30 years this is lower for contracted piece rates 30% mean while the cost of living has risen 300% .Rents were $60 now they are $400 to $600 so with these facts poking us in the eyes any intelligent person can predict from the math that there was going to be big problems but O tangata its better to rent than buy a house YEA RIGHT. Mark a common person most likely pays more tax than you they don’t have the fancy accountant that you have to minimizes your tax bill O we will not raise GST whose are those words . Ka kite ano .P.S I have been missing your right clawed guest Duncan I will sort them out in good time
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...
What Chris Penk has granted holocaust-denier and equal-opportunity-bigot Candace Owens is not “freedom of speech”. It’s not even really freedom of movement, though that technically is the right she has been granted. What he has given her is permission to perform. Freedom of SpeechIn New Zealand, the right to freedom ...
All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...
2024 is now officially my best-ever year for short stories. My 1,850-word dark fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens, has been accepted for the upcoming solstice edition of Eternal Haunted Summer (https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/), thereby making that six published short stories for the calendar year. As always, see the Bibliography page for ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...
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Noam Chomsky on Trump – a salutary listen for a Sunday morning! 24 minutes. Particularly the first minutes about the orange powder-puff.
The Republican Party the most dangerous organisation on earth!!!
Google search “Pied Piper Democracts”.
“Everything” is behind liberalism’s (arguably) fascist drift. In politics, you don’t create a space unless you intend to fill it. Pushing the Republicans to supposedly untenable positions, surely means the “lesser evil” intends to occupy the space they’ve cleared out – which by the traditional way of viewing politics, is ever further to the “right”.
A cursory glance at the treatment meted out to the likes of Sanders, Corbyn or Melenchon shows various centres of power certainly don’t favour striking off in a social democratic direction.
And (in line with the “pied piper” strategy) the amount of oxygen and arm waving around the Le Penns and Farages of the world, that then scares the horses back to the status quo and its inexorable drift….
Footnote. Macron – the poster boy of liberalism – two of his body guards (Alexandre Benalla and Vincent Crase) disguised themselves as cops, and Benalla was filmed beating the crap out of protesters on May Day.
Imagine the furore if that had been Le Penn’s body guards? And yet, here we are, nearly two months later, and all we have is disapproving “tsks” that the guys retained their employment.
Why do we allow these disgraced wankers to come here and buy our country? – tell him to piss off I say – buy the land back – give it to Iwi and make the edges and tracks publicly accessible.
“Taxpayers could be forced to pay millions of dollars in compensation to disgraced TV host Matt Lauer to guarantee public access to his high country station.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/105595864/controversial-tv-star-demands-millions-to-give-public-access-to-south-island-station
The land is still owned by NZ, he has the bought the lease,
BUT obviously the principle of access is not a problem, its ONLY the money.
AND why not cancel his visa as he is an undesirable.
From what I have seen allegations have been made but none proven legally. Innocent until proven guilty and all that.
Nots on the tellys anymores is he.
The lease will come up for renewal some time in the future…at this point the access available to the public can be improved by the government…lets hope the Greens are in government when the lease comes up.
Meanwhile a little birdy tells me Peter Thiel is about to start building his mansion…since the Nats changed the RMA this can no longer be publicly notified so doubtless his unsightly development will be waved through in the Outstanding Natural Landscape his property is situated within by the pro-rich pro-development Queenstown Lakes District Council.
Talking of Peter Thiel… is he still a close political associate of Donald Trump’s? If so, we don’t want him here thank-you. He qualifies to be of “undesirable character”.
I think his interest in young blood would be reason enough:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/08/peter-thiel-wants-to-inject-himself-with-young-peoples-blood#~o
I suppose he wasn’t known to be disgraced when he made the purchase.
What I am curious about is what does it take to fail the good character test?
From the article: November last year, the OIO is concerned about his character after being fired for alleged sexual misconduct and starts an inquiry.
June this year OIO is happy and he ‘passes the test’.
OIO probably should have been added to yesterday’s Open Mike 2.2 and below.
I can hear the “buzz” now from ‘officials’ along the lines “we follow international best practice”; and “we make comprehensive checks with our international partners going forward”; and “good faith” thrown in a few times, and “we’re satisfied we’ve abided by our legal obligations and in compliance with the points system’ etc etc etc rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb
money money money, foreign investment, what’s wrong with it, they can’t take the land with them (/sarc)
Interesting RNZ’s Insight this morning http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/2018654295/insight-money-laundering-in-nz
which kind of scratched the surface re the kinds of rackets going on
1000+
Oh, and ComCom that allowed a duopolistic supermarket supply chain that disadvantages the little players (such as the dairy producer also on RNZ Sunday this morning), or NZTA or or or.
Again, let’s hope Skippy’s wish for reform goes a little deeper than window dressing.
On the positive side, there are a few ministers who seem to be aware that they’ve been severely let down by various ‘deficiencies’ in our current ps model.
(you should hear what I really think though – and not just me)
Why did they not put in full access when the granted the lease? Again very bad advice and paper work by the NZ government! Too much sensitive land is being sold and leased without enough provision for public access, it is even worse if it is public land in the first place!
Although with public access there should be responsibilities for those using it, to behave reasonably and enforcement options strict, (no litter, no walking off paths, no noise and partying, fire risks respected, dogs under control, clear ideas on motorised use etc) and there should be instant penalties for those that can’t respect these public paths.
Overseas public access is completely normal and people behave reasonably.
In NZ there are problems of bad behaviour, hooning, dangerous and noisy ATV use with non licensed and registered vehicles destroying the sand dunes around Auckland and making forests dangerous to walk in with crazy ATV use and so forth. As Kiwis get more obese their ideas of public access are becoming motorised actually stopping people from walking with the amount of danger from this. People making fires and driving around drunk. Kauri forests and Kauri die back disease being spread. This is what frightens people about public access.
Public access needs to be protected for everyone that includes safety and enforcement of those who abuse the public access. It is normal overseas for people to enjoy full public access, in NZ there needs to be a bit more thought about why with such small population we seem to not be able to get this right.
Hopefully in remote areas people know how to behave, sadly around urban public areas many people don’t and the enforcement needs to be tightened as well as more access allowed.
Land access to the Hunter has always been severely restricted by the lessees going back a long way. The previous lessee (who’s still there as Lauer’s manager) was particuarly hard nosed about this. So there’s really been no change with the new ownership.
How it’s going to pan out going forward as the owner discovers that owning the lease over Hunter Valley Station becomes a cashflow negative undertaking, and tenure review may not work out on that lease.
Taxpayers aren’t “forced” to do anything. Change the law and tell him to fuck off.
I had a wee epiphany yesterday.
Listening to Venus Envy, a podcast from spinoff and RNZ.
Talking about identity and multi cultural feminism intersectionality in the workplace.
I must admit, in the past, to trying to understand and get my head around this and putting it in the too hard basket.
What emerged from the conversation was that it is the practice of manaakitanga.
“To how you bring people together, how you look after them inside a space, how you ensure that their mana, all peoples mana, is taken care of and looked after. Manaaki – to give mana to all sections. By the end of that a lot of people were a lot more comfortable with the term ‘Manaakitanga’, rather than intersectionalising their practice inside the workspace.”
This really helped, ensuring someone’s mana is looked after seems a lot easier.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/partner/are-we-there-yet/21-07-2018/people-would-always-compare-us-to-the-boys-we-came-out-on-top/
Filmic effects on Te Whanganui a Tara property values
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/1015078.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/whats-on/entertainment/10.
human Rights Conference organisers denied visas to NZ. Thank goodness we have the Freeze peach Coalition to raise $90,000 to challenge these decisions!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/105660382/humanists-conference-organisers-shocked-at-immigration-nz-denials-for-hero-members
Hearing you, but thinking a campaign against NZ Immigration’s apparent racism would be more in order. And given that, expect “nuffin happenin”. 🙁
From the link.
A woman who campaigns for sex education in Uganda was denied entry because Immigration NZ deemed her at risk of overstaying, and a man who is part of a group starting schools in Uganda is still waiting to find out if he will be granted entry, months after applying. The idea the members would overstay here, when they were heavily invested in projects overseas was laughable, Passmore said.
Nigerian Leo Igwe just finished a PhD in Germany, and arrived in the country this week. He said he was not given a reason his visa was declined initially, but after doing extensive international travel it was a surprise, and he believes it is likely because he holds a passport from a poor country.
Typical, human rights activists seem more ‘dangerous’ to immigration than the abusers of them, who are waived through.
Seems odd to me that Bridges has opposed the setting up of a Review system for doubtful court cases. He concedes that there are miscarriages of justice but is against a system for investigation. Will this help him win friends?
AND he has discovered the Ellis case from ChCh.
Shame he didn’t find it in the 9 years of Nat power.
Bridges trying to be relevant, but just hot air behind it, zero substance. Also sounds like the National party and ACT has repeatedly halted the Nepata brother’s requests for defence compensation. Then Pike River, nothing for the Ellis case either over their decade of rule… the National party record is truely despicable.
Maybe he’s a little concerned some of the work he did in his previous occupation might come under scrutiny.
I know of a case he prosecuted that has many of the elements of the Ellis case.
“I know of a case he prosecuted that has many of the elements of the Ellis case.”
Intriguing.
Can you give another clue please.
By elements of the Ellis case I am keen to know what you mean.
Evidence obtained by leading questioning by ‘experts’- a discredited method from the ’80s?
Selective quoting of children?
The senior investigating officer having ‘relationships’ with the mother of the main witness?
An underworked, over excited police ‘child sex ring’ investigation unit, looking for its first scalp?
Do share.
You could remove “The senior investigating officer having ‘relationships’ with the mother of the main witness?” The other aspects appear to be common.
The prosecutor’s personal beliefs may have clouded objectivity as well.
I don’t want to say too much here, the guy was convicted, served society’s sanction and now is trying to get on with some sort of life. I’ve only heard that side of it, but knowing both the accuser and convicted I am very sceptical.
The Ellis case would make an interesting interview topic for Mr Bridges, and leading into his time as a prosecutor.
Does Ministerial connivance fit into the picture as well?
Thanks Graeme for your response.
I’d be curious as to how much Mr Bridges would reveal and how clearly he would state his position or beliefs.
More inequality in NZ
…now you need $60k for ‘experts’ to have your say in court under the new RMA rules trickled in by the Natz to stack the decks to keep the rich getting richer and creating an expensive system to have your say (only a micro amount of ‘issues’ are allowed to be considered all stacked towards industry and excess) .
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/07/dargaville-group-falls-short-of-funds-to-oppose-tegel-factory-build.html
Considering you can go to most tribunals in NZ like disputes tribunal for under $100 and get a ruling, interesting when it comes to land, taking from communities and plundering of our resources and pushing risks onto others, it’s now taking $60,000+ to have your say…. which is very revealing of where our power interest lie.
We are no longer an equal country but one that is wink wink, open for exploitation to the right sorts…and our legal system has been changed to allow for this.
“… interesting when it comes to land, taking from communities and plundering of our resources and pushing risks onto others, it’s now taking $60,000+ to have your say…. ”
https://www.nzgeo.com/audio/avocado-growers-water-take-divides-northland-communities/
The local activists who stepped up and spoke at the consent hearings in Kaitaia cost bugger all. The hard ground work was done by a few staunch locals who found and dug up their greatest assets. Long term locals with generations of living with the Aquifer. Locals with degrees and engineering experience. Locals who were wise and knowledgeable and one outstanding woman who had taken her legal qualifications around the world.
The $$$ spent by the opposition was from DOC, who sent in a Team to speak on behalf of the vulnerable Kaimaumau wetlands.
Despite presenting a staunch opposition at the hearings (which were heavily weighted in favour of the applicants, with some seriously dubious shit going on) the consents were granted…https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/359123/suck-it-and-see-avo-water-consents-worry-conservationists
And after a pause for breath….DOC, bless them, are taking the bastards to the Environment Court.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/360455/doc-challenge-council-over-water-consent-for-growers
Those folk rightfully objecting to the Super Chook Farm need to take a breath or two before spending hard won $$$ on ‘experts’. They should go have a chat with others who have run interference on such plans without going into hock. NZ environmental activist history is peppered with cautionary tales of groups that have formed to fight this kind of shit who have ended up in financial crap because they have tried to fight the moneyed enemy with extremely limited resources.
I’ll be watching closely for when the hearing is….they need to make sure supporters know. So we can plan to be there.
How convenient for corporate interests.
1.3 million chickens in concentration camp conditions.
And Tegels profit from torture, misery and environmental degradation.
The dice are stacked folks.
Yes and they bought out Inghams.
So the torture and killing of the vast majority of chickens in NZ, the degradation of our environment, the dehumanising of some of our workers all occurs to make a profit for overseas owners.
It leaves you speechless.
We are owned.
And far too many New Zealanders are ignorant, apathetic and too self absorbed.
Ed, stinking out an entire community including Marae, having incinerators burning waste daily, needing copious amounts of water, clogging up and making the ratepayers pay to repair the roads between Dargarville and West Auckland as well as add to the Auckland congestion and increase risks like bird flu with intensive farming like we have never seen before in NZ , while destroying the tourist opportunities of a town so that a Chinese firm can profit, is all in a days work for our RMA, free “rich” market approach and their champions the ‘environmental’ lawyers NZ resource asset stripping.
I never knew that Tegel was owned by China.
“Tegel Foods Limited is a poultry company based in New Zealand. It employs approximately 1,700 people at locations across New Zealand. Pacific Equity Partners acquired the company from Heinz in 2005, and sold it to Affinity Equity Partners in 2011.
Affinity Equity Partners is one of the largest dedicated Asian private equity firms and focuses on leveraged buyout and growth capital transactions.
Affinity operates as a Pan-Asian firm focusing on investment opportunities in Korea, Australia and New Zealand, Greater China and Southeast Asia.
The firm is led by Kok-Yew Tang (Founding Chairman and Managing Partner), Young-Taeg Park (Chairman and Managing Partner) and Chul-Joo Lee (Managing Partner). It has over 60 employees with offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, South Korea, Sydney, Australia, Jakarta, Indonesia and Beijing, China“
Now I do.
Is anything in New Zealand still owned by New Zealand companies or New Zealanders?
Tegal is owned by Affinity Equity Partners which is one of the largest dedicated Asian private equity firms and focuses on leveraged buyout and growth capital transactions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinity_Equity_Partners
Yes just checked it out.
Has anything in New Zealand not been sold to foreign interests?
The smartest parts of the NZ economy have been strangled over recent years, says Global Innovation Index: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12091676
@Sacha, interesting stats. We seem to have been going towards a scary path under National hopefully the rot starts being reversed…
Can’t afford not to improve or we will just be a low-wage economy owned from overseas.
The Herald sinks to another new low, publishing this ignorant. Ill-informed piece of war mongering. The level of propaganda emanating from western media atm is McCarthyesque.
The Herald’s owners and editors should enlist for service in Lithuania as they are so keen for World War 3.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12093282
Invaded by Russia in 1918, again in 1940, and annexed in 1944 to endure Stalin’s reign of terror as tens of thousands were deported to the far east to make way for ethnic Russians.
So yeah, 50 years worth of oppressive Soviet rule gives Lithuanians a fucking good reason to be terrified by Putin’s posturing.
Dictators come and go and stalins brutality is well documented but its worth remembering it was that same brutality and that same dictators willingness to sacrifice millions of his countrymans lives that led to the eventual defeat of nazism in europe .What has that got to do with putin ?
A falling out between thieves [Molotov–Ribbentrop/Unternehmen Barbarossa] doesn’t change the fact that Putin believes he’s destined to make Russia great again by reunifying the Soviet Union.
Lithuanians believe him, and so do I.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Europe_1815_map_en.png
There’s a name for folk who’re prepared to allow an imperialist thug to ride roughshod over anyone’s self determination and hard fought independence.
Supporters of the U.S. ?
Supporters of neoliberalism?
…..running dog….
You should join Stuart and enlist. Then grab your tin hat and race to the Suwalki Gap, where John Roughan and the rest of the Herald warmongers are scrambling to head off the Russian beast.
Or you could just stop talking utter crap.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12093282
Oh look, wee Eddies a cowardly appeaser of an imperialist thug.
I never supported the imperialist thuggery of the US in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Yemen, Laos, Chile,…….
Did you?
so you’re an inconsistent cowardly appeaser of an imperialist thug…
Sadly for you name calling, no.
Unlike you though, I support attempts for detente and lowering of tensions between nations.
Jaw jaw beats war war.
If the 2 countries with the biggest stockpiles of nuclear weapons sit down to talk , what is wrong with that.
Russia is not about to invade Europe. Get real.
And be honest about NATO.
It is the expansionist side. The west promised it would not move NATO east in the 1980s .
It lied.
Why are you so keen for war?
Are you mad?
Ed, just ignore him. Before you know it, he’ll be calling you an anti-Semite.
Some reading for him.
How the Bill Clinton administration successfully meddled in Russia’s 1996 election, elevating Boris Yeltsin to the presidency.
Irony: Yeltsin would later appoint a successor – a then little known former KGB agent by the name of Vladimir Putin.
In 1996, not only did the Clinton team influence Russia’s election to Boris Yeltsin (who collapsed their economy and made the life expectancy go down by 5 years), they bragged about it in Time Magazine. “
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dh9sJHhWkAA3Kt3?format=jpg
Russia has no further territorial demands in Europe? Good to know.
Edit: ed, the point isn’t that the US is wonderful and Russia is bad. The point is that Russia is as bad as the US, and maybe even quite a bit worse..
Shootin’ all the bad guys, one, two, three, four.
Too many Rambo films when young , I fear.
As for the Kiwi Rambo, spreading death and destruction in Afghanistan….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3255254/Apiata-picture-may-mean-changes-to-SAS-operations
Yes until Jon Stephenson investigated, we were given a John Wayne version of our involvement in another people’s country.
Actually the government—-first Clark’s administration and then Key’s—-pretended we were over there “helping the Afghan people to rebuild.”
John Wayne killing Native Americans is in fact pretty much like it was, and is.
By the way, did you hear Paula Penfold on Mora’s show a few weeks ago calling out the retiring head of the “Defence” force? She reminded listeners of how he had consistently refused to answer questions about reports of New Zealand troops committing war crimes in Afghanistan. She called him a “coward”. To my knowledge, he still hasn’t answered the allegations.
Penfold is another with courage.
I did hear that – but can’t temember how Mora coped.
I haven’t enlisted Ed.
That’s just another facet of your puerile fantasy.
Swearing really adds to the strength of your argument.
Anytime there’s mention of resisting the imperialist thug, Putin, wee Eddies loses his head, runs around squealing war! war!.
Yep this – ‘go to the front’ really shows the low calibre of the man. He’s done fuck all yet he’ll encourage people to war and death. Anti hero.
Most of the world sees the US as the imperialist thug.
You are in the minority that regards Russia as a clear and present threat.
Does calling me ‘wee’ add strength to your argument?
You seem a very angry person joe.
Give peace a chance.
There is no Planet B.
Give peace a chance while encouraging people to go and kill and die in war is sorta creepily sick mate – you should reread some of 5the he heinous encouragement to war that you are doing – pull your head out your arse ed.
Resistance against Putin? What’s he done this time? Apart from solving the west’s terrorism problem in Syria.
You need to refresh your understanding of McCarthy Ed – try this if books don’t appeal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Night,_and_Good_Luck McCarthy was domestic policy hounding moderates while ostensibly hunting down sympathisers like the Rosenbergs.
Resurgent Russian militarism is a problem for lots of countries. But they won’t lie down and let it happen again.
It’s Stuart, posting from the Donbass.
How’s your tin hat?
Geez Ed – you backward fuck.
Inform yourself on these issues – you’re an embarrassment.
Ed follows independent and decent journalists/commentators. You follow the corporate propamediaz.
I provide my sources transparently.
To call Pilger, Chomsky, Greenwald, Fisk, Cockburn, Bartlett and Bealey uninformed is quite a statement by you Stuart.
What are your sources?
And again swearing doesn’t strengthen your argument.
You seem very angry.
Give peace a chance.
In your own world.
And the whole world.
Tell him to go to war why dont you eh ed. Go on warmonger send another body to the front line to kill and die.
I’m not telling them. They just seem so keen for war that these armchair warriors should back up theirs views rather than forcing others to die for their Russophobia.
You are inciting killing – SHAME SHAME SHAME
I’m not actually.
I want Russia and the US to be at peace.
I can’t be bothered cutting and pasting all of your incitements – they are many and they are obvious.
They’re at war?
/
detentedeɪˈtɑːnt/nounnoun: detente; plural noun: detentes; noun: détente; plural noun: détentes
Ed follows third rate propagandists with no journalistic standards whatsoever. And he follows them inconsistently.
Cockburn.
Chomsky.
Greenwald.
Pilger.
Fisk.
Third rate propagandists?
Sometimes, yes.
I know you can barely read, but journalists produce a lot of material. Some of it is professional, it goes to multiple and original sources and takes care to uncover the position of local people.
And some doesn’t.
But you argue from authority – as if the journalist is an authority in their own right, rather than according to how assiduously they make sure that they have the real facts.
You might want to consider how it is with such a list of luminaries supposedly informing you, you consistently manage to be completely wrong on everything pertaining to Russia and Syria.
So that you – a self-styled progressive, have become a vociferous apologist for the murdering and invading Putin regime.
Love it Ed quoting Tin hats, the world is crazy
He’s a discerning connoisseur.
Resurgent Russian militarism is a problem for lots of countries.
And what about the militarism of the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., and Israel? And what about the Al Qaeda-linked forces they support in Syria?
A question joe90 and Stuart ignore.
For some reason the only places in the world to suffer imperialist advances are the Nations on Russia’s borders…..
I don’t understand their world view. Do you?
Yeah You’re right – Chechenya, Georgia, the Ukraine – bordering Russia is a really dangerous place to be. Because of Russia, though of course the extremity of your biases won’t let you see that.
Russian murder is good, US murder is bad – politics according to Ed.
Six year old stuff.
Extremity of your biases.. on the other hand I don’t think you’re biased at all Stuart.. though somehow I doubt it.
On the day that Ed begins to recognize ANY flaw whatsoever in his totalitarian crush I might entertain such critiques.
But he never has and probably never will.
Which is why I correct him with such frequency.
Although that’s a problem too, Russian militarism doesn’t make it go away.
“Although that’s a problem too”.
???
You seem to be implying that U.S. militarism is comparable to Russia’s. It’s far, far more widespread, and far more lethal. The U.S. is directly responsible for massive destruction in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Palestine and much of the African continent.
Russia’s aggression is, by comparison, negligible.
Just compare each country’s “defence” spending.
Right – so two wrongs eh?
You can ignore Putin’s murders because of America’s.
Actually both are a concern.
Not at all. That’s not what I said and not what I implied. What I did point out—and I’m sure you already knew it anyway—was that if Russia is bad, and I acknowledge that it is bad, then the United States and its vassals like the U.K. are off the scale.
And you won’t ever hear an admission of that from Stuart.
Humans rights and independence for the Ukrainians, the Latvians, the Poles, the Georgians…
Yemenis, Palestinians, Iraqis, Chileans……not so much.
Right back at you Putinella.
It’s fine for Putin to murder these people – Ed says so.
Ed is like a third rate Lord Haw Haw – a tireless promoter of murderous totalitarian dictators.
And with fuckwits like him contaminating the discourse, no discussion will ever get anywhere.
The Rohingya will never get a kindly word on the Standard because Ed will use that space to promote his murderous buddy Putin.
You’re a disgrace, Ed.
Calm down.
Did you not read my last comment.
I agree with Morrissey on this statement.
“What I did point out—and I’m sure you already knew it anyway—was that if Russia is bad, and I acknowledge that it is bad, then the United States and its vassals like the U.K. are off the scale.”
So I guess what we would like to see a more balanced critique by you on joe. You seem to see the world In a simple goody/ baddy framing, whereas – even in the Ukraine, Lithuania etc its a lot more complex than that.
Crimea voted to rejoin Russia.
The present Ukrainian government was established by an anti democratic coup, aided by fascists.
NATO, not Russia, has expanded since the Reagan Gorbachev agreements.
We were lied to abt it chemical weapons in Syria by our western governments.
We were lied to about Salisbury.
It’s not that simple Stuart.
We are not living in a Bruce Willis film.
If that were true we could be forgiven for misunderstanding you.
That’s exactly what Ed is saying, and you’re endorsing him.
Incorrect.
I am saying the same as Morrissey, whose views I respect.
Rubbish.
You’re just grasping at the only friendly straw you can find.
You need to straighten up, my little totalitarian fellow-traveler – you’re not fooling anyone.
Most people on this thread are for peace with Russia.
Absolutely correct, and we don’t work for the Tzar either.
You can support Trump talking with Putin and not be a sopportercof either.
“You can support Trump talking with Putin and not be a sopportercof either.”
It’s certainly possible.
But you have established time and again that you are nothing more a lickspittle lackey of Putin without an independent thought in your head.
I’m for peace with Russia Ed – but that doesn’t license them to murder Chechens, Georgians, Ukranians, journalists, political opponents or former spys. Or Syrians come to that.
Your conspicuous silence on those issues looks a lot like guilt.
Yet it seems to me that you and others seem to bleat only about one side, not both.
That would be because I’m not posting pro-US comments, I’m merely trying to contain Ed’s most egregious failures.
You’re a self avowed ‘russophobe’, Stuart..
You and J90 both…
Focus on containing your own egregious failures, eh…
Thanks for the support.
I have copped a lot abuse for simply pointing out the Herald’s propaganda this morning !
How about you lift your game One Two – instead of boosting Ed’s dysfunction.
I come here for progressive views and by golly Putin is not the revolution I’m looking for.
Any more than Stalin was. But you could excuse the Old Reds to some degree – they didn’t know what they were dealing with.
We do. There is no excuse.
+100
Juno’s 6,200 kilometre Jovian fly-by.
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia22426-16.jpg
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/high-altitude-jovian-clouds
“Democratic Institutions?” – 10 Lessons from history that will destroy your trust in the CIA”
https://off-guardian.org/2018/07/20/democratic-institutions-10-lessons-from-history-that-will-destroy-your-trust-in-the-cia/
So, long time US allies Canada, Germany, and Japan’s aluminum and steel is lumbered with tariffs because national security threat, but Russia’s off the hook because…..oh, oligarch mates.
You couldn’t make this shit up.
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury is open to removing Russian aluminum producer Rusal from a U.S. sanctions list, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday, adding the objective was “not to put Rusal out of business.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-argentina-mnuchin-rusal-exclusive/exclusive-u-s-open-to-lifting-sanctions-off-aluminum-giant-rusal-mnuchin-idUSKBN1KA2VS
The U.S. had no right to place sanctions on Russia in the first place.
Russian soldiers have no business being in the Ukraine either.
They have more right to be there than the U.S. and U.K. have to be in Iraq or Afghanistan or Yemen.
Russia should be sanctioned straight after the U.S. and U.K. are sanctioned.
I don’t think the Ukrainians would agree.
And it’s for the Ukrainians to decide.
West Ukraine or East Ukraine.
They are quite different ethnically.
Most of the country voted for the government which was ousted by an anti democratic coup, supported by the CIA and fascist groups in west Ukraine.
You see, it’s complicated Stuart….
Only if you need to reconcile the contradictory ramblings if RT.
Otherwise, it’s pretty simple: Russia sent Russian troops into part of the Ukraine.
To help you
https://welections.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/ukraine-2012.png?w=604
awww you’re sweet.
Thanks. The map is clearly labelled “ukraine”. where did Russia send it’s troops?
Here is some more help.
“Yanukovych was elected President in 2010, defeating Yulia Tymoshenko. The election was judged free and fair by international observers.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_presidential_election,_2010
Seamus Milne in 2014.
“The attempt to lever Kiev into the western camp by ousting an elected leader made conflict certain. It could be a threat to us all
The threat of war in Ukraine is growing. As the unelected government in Kiev declares itself unable to control the rebellion in the country’s east, John Kerry brands Russia a rogue state. The US and the European Union step up sanctions against the Kremlin, accusing it of destabilising Ukraine. The White House is reported to be set on a new cold war policy with the aim of turning Russia into a “pariah state”.
That might be more explicable if what is going on in eastern Ukraine now were not the mirror image of what took place in Kiev a couple of months ago. Then, it was armed protesters in Maidan Square seizing government buildings and demanding a change of government and constitution. US and European leaders championed the “masked militants” and denounced the elected government for its crackdown, just as they now back the unelected government’s use of force against rebels occupying police stations and town halls in cities such as Slavyansk and Donetsk.
https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/30/russia-ukraine-war-kiev-conflict
It’s not simple.
It’s complex.
So that map you supplied that was labelled “Ukraine”. Were Russian troops sent there?
Is that a map of part of Europe?
And you are not sufficiently informed to unravel that complexity Ed.
And neither is Putin, which is why he tried to unravel it with tanks.
By all means get into the complexities – astound us with something not pasted from RT for a change.
Have you read Patrick Cockburn on these matters?
I have.
Have you read John Pilger on these matters?
I have.
Have you read Robert Fisk on these matters?
I have.
Have you read Glenn Greenwald on these matters?
I have.
Have you read Eva Bartlett on these matters?
I have.
Have you read Craig Murray on these matters?
I have.
Have you read l Vanessa Beeley on these matters?
I have.
Ed, you’re in an environment now where reading and understanding something is a liability. This site is more and more being dominated by the sorts of people who would normally have only posted on Whaleoil or Kiwiblog, or spent their time ringing up Leighton Smith to agree with him.
I’m realising this.
Stuart Munro is an out and out bully boy.
He doesn’t debate, doesn’t actually read my links: he just attacks like a pit bull with lies about me.
I shall give up replying to him.
There is no point.
Good – on your bike you vile apologist for totalitarian dictators.
This excellent article I recommend to you Morrissey,
It is by Craig Murray. He is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/07/detente-bad-cold-war-good/
Have you talked to real Ukranians Ed?
Have you read anyone outside your RT circle-jerk?
Because you don’t come across as being well-informed so much as a blatantly ignorant and partisan supporter of Putin’s military ambitions.
And Russia had no place meddling in US elections.
And yes there is plenty of evidence.
No there’s not. You can’t supply us with it, any more than the hapless and doomed Democratic Party “leaders” can.
lol we’ve got another one who’s been watching too much Rachel Maddow and CNN.
The embarrassingly bad Rachel Maddow is, sorry to say, a conspiracy theorist.
Everyone knows it even your man t.rump. Didn’t you get the memo?
My man is Trump, is it? When did that happen?
Oh, I SEE now! If you point out the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the Democrats and their media megaphones like Rachel Maddow, that makes you a Trump supporter.
Got it.
Check out who i replyed to fuckwit and apologise again.
Why are joe90, Munro and mars so anti Russia?
Why are they so angry?
And why are they make things up up what we say.
And to prove my point, I receive this hate speeech from Munro.
“Good – on your bike you vile apologist for totalitarian dictators.”
How does one respond without being banned?
Change your behaviour and apply your cynicism to Russia as well as the west. That might help.
I was asking Morrissey.
Ah yes. You needed reassurance rather than an actual suggestion.
“How does one respond”
Learn, you ignorant muppet.
Learn from the people occupied by the last Russian empire.
I was asking Morrissey.
I tend not to listen or learn from people who routinely abuse people for a differing point of view.
So you don’t listen to yourself.
You abuse me all the time.
Lay off the Putin boosting. This is not a Putin fan site.
Learn to make real arguments and learn a bit of 20th century history. Your position is no better than that of neo-Nazis.
Yes another ghastly comment from Munro.
Another piece of empty Ed echoing from Maui.
Got anything intelligent to say?
I guess not.
Maui, how would you respond to the litany of abuse Munro throws at me? Quite a list today. The most recent being a neoNazi.
I wish to avoid being banned and I want to keep sharing well written articles by journalists I respect.
Sorry, I don’t feel like reliving the cold war right now.
Not sure Ed, it has turned into quite a harsh winter with all this rhetoric flying around. Maybe just hunker down and wait them out.
Ok. Thank you for your usual kind words and wisdom.
You are a breath of fresh air and enlightenment on this site.
“Why are they so angry?”
Half a million murdered Chechens Ed. Can you tell me how many Georgians?
I’ll bet you don’t care enough to find out.
Because all your pretensions to progressive values are empty.
What’s wrong with all these people?
Surely Iraq in 2003 made them start to look at what their governments, ‘intelligence’ agencies and media told them with a touch of critical thinking and skepticism.
Yeah they should go to war and kill people eh ed.
You saw the link to US meddling in Ruusia’s elections in the 1990s.
Bill was so proud he bragged about it.
And of course US interference in other countries ‘ democratic processes – we ignore all that, don’t we.
And we beat the war drums……
Russia bad.
Putin bad.
Russia bad.
Putin bad.
Russia bad.
Putin bad……..
The three times daily beat of the Cold War drum……..
Michelle Wolf’s recruitment video for ICE.
https://youtu.be/dNF6sVurAuI
ICE is
Soros funds Soros.
Who’s funding Bannon?
LONDON—Steve Bannon plans to go toe-to-toe with George Soros and spark a right-wing revolution in Europe.
Trump’s former White House chief advisor told The Daily Beast that he is setting up a foundation in Europe called The Movement which he hopes will lead a right-wing populist revolt across the continent starting with the European Parliament elections next spring.
The non-profit will be a central source of polling, advice on messaging, data targeting, and think-tank research for a ragtag band of right-wingers who are surging all over Europe, in many cases without professional political structures or significant budgets.
Bannon’s ambition is for his organization ultimately to rival the impact of Soros’s Open Society, which has given away $32 billion to largely liberal causes since it was established in 1984.
Over the past year, Bannon has held talks with right-wing groups across the continent from Nigel Farage and members of Marine Le Pen’s Front National (recently renamed Rassemblement National) in the West, to Hungary’s Viktor Orban and the Polish populists in the East.
He envisions a right-wing “supergroup” within the European Parliament that could attract as many as a third of the lawmakers after next May’s Europe-wide elections. A united populist bloc of that size would have the ability to seriously disrupt parliamentary proceedings, potentially granting Bannon huge power within the populist movement.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-bannons-plan-to-hijack-europe-for-the-far-right
Soros
Thought provoking and worthy of a post.
“The Useful Altruists: How NGOs Serve Capitalism and Imperialism
Global imperialism doesn’t just give NGOs a reason to exist, but involves them actively in the project of imperialist domination.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/20/the-useful-altruists-how-ngos-serve-capitalism-and-imperialism/
James Renwick tweets with reference to an article about Arizona.
“The water that we can’t see, the groundwater, is quietly disappearing.”
Capitalism + disregard for environmental limits = disaster. Is the Mackenzie any different?”
The New York Times article.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/magazine/the-water-wars-of-arizona.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fmagazine
A follows up tweet from Peter Harkess nail it.
“It’s almost as if our economic system will simply not allow humanity to avoid complete global catastrophe.”
We have a choice.
Capitalism or a sustainable planet.
Regional schedules out next week.
https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/film/merata-how-mum-decolonised-the-screen/
The Wealthy business owner’s are having a tangi because there hoiho tripped up on the last leg of te race and ended up with ———- on there faces .
They poured te putea into backing this hoiho .
Business confidence has no correlation to economic performance its just a trick to get the .99% to let business get there way with employment laws that are inhumane.
The 90 day trial is a farce the employer can sack some one with no reason no paper work given .??????????????????? it could be because one is brown or many reason that have nothing to do with the employee work performance . It could be that the employer only wanted the employee for 89 days and did not tell the employee this because if he did the employee would not take the job as it would put them in hardship at the end of the job.
Employers think that employees are not human that they don’t deserve to be treated with respect and dignity . What they have to know is that employment is a major part of ones life and if one loses a job for bullshit reasons they are placing the employee in hardship they are placing the person whole whano in hardship. The hardship is even greater if your a Dairy-farm worker as you lose your house . But are it doesn’t matter they are not humans .
I my eyes employees should be treated like diamonds if you look after them and polish them the will make you putea if you don’t well you lose your daimond and your putea .
Yes I know there are some bad employees out there its up to the employer to find the correct employee and train them to be productive employees and a bit of polishing will go a long in improving the prospects of this relationship being positive for the employer and the employee. ANY WAY Eco Maori says the 90 day clause is a breach of the human rights act.
link is below ka kite ano
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/105665923/minister-says-campaign-against-labour-law-reform-is-deliberately-misleading
This is why I say the 90 day trial breaches the Human Rights ACT .
ACT 27 The rights to justices . When a employer can sack a employee without giving a written warning or reason in writing during the 90 day trial . This employment act breaches the employee rights to justice or a fair trial they can not defend there employment rights fairly if the employer does not give a written reason why they sacked the employee.
No written evidence and the employer can change the facts they uses to suit there dismissal of the employee employer wins case .Thats it in a karaka shell. link below. ka kite ano
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/DLM225529.html?search=sw_096be8ed80b62589_27_25_se&p=1&sr=1
Good evening Newshub Mike I will have to chose my words wisely .
Winston handles te media in his unique way he is Maori ka pai some will have
nightmares because of this fact. Who wants to get involved with that circus in America at the minute .
Condolences to the whanau of the boy who died in Tokomaru Bay of a heart attack .
With our homeless this is still the tsunami of the inhumane policy’s that national have imposed on us for the last nine years thats a fact . Helen Kelly will be smiling at the humane changes that the Coalition Government has made to our society ka pai.
One day our beaches could like the Cuban beaches if we keep putting our head in Papatuanuku on this subject of waste its everyones problem and we should all pay to get rubbish recycled in a sustainable way manufactures and consumers .
Ka kite ano
The Crowd Goes Wild James and Mulls Congratulations to our AllBlack 7 teams win in the Rugby Papatuanuku Cup Kia Kaha .
I will preform a Haka for one person I tautoko who is on the up.
Some people still have to learn to stop spraying on Eco Maori.
Mulls how the guys at the Rock Radio going I heard you when you first come back to the Rock you were a bit quite for the first 2 days then you got your hilarious mojoe going the first week I thought you were James till my Son in law corrected my mistake .
Ka kite ano i would not like those ear warmers
Not my team, speak for yourself.
Good morning Newshub The block Mark is a unfair contest to be fair each team should have one person who is qualified In a trade in the construction industry per team the way it is at the minute you have two teams with a big advantage over the other teams.
And that creates tensions was that the plan.
Aotearoa produces some of the best meat in Papatuanuku grass feed Meat has properties beneficial to the consumer . The animals get to live a life close to what they would in the wild they are less stressed =better meat quality less stress = more humane way of farming. I see some organization is still scare mongering saying meat prouduction is going to wreck our environment YEA RIGHT .. These studys are conducted in country’s were the have to irrigate grow harvest and feed the stock in feed lots . 1 This is not a natural environment for the animals 2 they have to use alot of carbon to produce this meat they probably have to pump the water from hundreds of miles away as well’.
Were as in Aotearoa most farms the wai falls from tawhiri for free the stock harvest the grass for free they get a wider variety of fodder . Producing meat in Aotearoa has a lot less carbon input and more humane that meat produced else were . And I know that Aotearoa farmers can reduce there carbon foot print they just need to be guided in correct direction to achieve that goal of lowering our farming foot print .
Its so hypercritical the Tsunami of home less people. people who are living in squalor mokopunas going hungry is still growing .This phenomenon has been created by nationals policy’s of the last nine years and they decide to kick sand in the common persons face who cares who these statements hurt so long as they mite get a lift in there poles so primitive .
The problem with OUR employment is wages to the common tangata has only risen by %50 in 30 years this is lower for contracted piece rates 30% mean while the cost of living has risen 300% .Rents were $60 now they are $400 to $600 so with these facts poking us in the eyes any intelligent person can predict from the math that there was going to be big problems but O tangata its better to rent than buy a house YEA RIGHT. Mark a common person most likely pays more tax than you they don’t have the fancy accountant that you have to minimizes your tax bill O we will not raise GST whose are those words . Ka kite ano .P.S I have been missing your right clawed guest Duncan I will sort them out in good time
.