Auckland: the sow with multiplying nipples for gorging piglets.
Before selling the port I think we should be sitting lots of people down and asking them…
"Do you think the value you bring to Aucklanders would attract a $200k salary in the private sector?"
When in financial strife the first thing a shallow imagination turns to is 'What can we sell?'
This Covid thing will linger. If we can stay free in NZ and testing improves… Older people feel the Covid threat more than most, older people Cruise and the Covid stigma around Sea Cruises will linger. NZ Pure.
All of the Cruise line companies are desperate to set their floating assets free.
Auckland Central retail needs a shot in the arm. Cruise liners queuing up could be just the trick.
Ironclad, foolproof double-checked testing would need to be a rite of passage. Customers would be delighted to be subjected to such a comprehensive test regime. The 60+ crew are real keen to avoid the Wuhan Wheeze.
Tourists tying up in downtown Auck would grease the path for directing sea bound freight to Whangarei and a fast rail link to those blossoming suburbs in outer West Auck, Kumeu etc. Give those new suburbians a job that starts next door.
Events at the Canterbury DHB are very worrying. Between the lines, looks like a case of the board running the place like a business (and a hopelessly struggling business due to chronic underfunding) while the executive try to maintain patient services.
The solution is to just properly fund the thing and to reject the "austerity" model of public health that NZ has embraced.
Costs way more in the long run than just providing good health care. I have direct personal experience with several cases where the cost to both the individual and society has been massively increased by rationing of healthcare. Has caused long periods of disability and eventually much more costly interventions – and certainly zero actual savings. And it seems everyone you talk to has similar stories.
Are there any examples in NZ where adopting a business model to 'run' a public service has been at least a moderate success in the medium-to-long term? Such an approach in the NZ tertiary education sector has certaintly compromised the quality, if not the quantity of university 'product'.
It must be easier for CEOs/boards, and cheaper for governments, to run public services as businesses – we get what we pay for.
On a related manner, for my sins I listened to 5 minutes of Prof Gorman talking to Karen Haye on Radio NZ last night. Firstly I didn't think much of Karen's interviewing style. Questions with a negative assumption, that supported Gorman theory that our Covid response has been "egregious". Gorman wants to take the covid response out of the Govts hand and apparently the problem with the Govt and the Mof H has not been the strategies (which I assume will remain as contract tracing and quarantine) but the problem has been governance. He must have used this word 5 times in 5 minutes………he thinks our contract tracing services has performed extremely poorly. And his example went something like this "Karen if you and I had a car factory and we produced cars and the brakes didn't work and we were in a court of law it wouldn't be enough if we said, well we thought that the brakes were being made properly"……………….Hay didn't pull him up on this and any of his bullshit and it was bullshit.
I say hand the covid response over to gorman and his mate Horne now! Its great to know when the next case slips through the border that Gorman will say "I am accountable! This is what good governance looks like". NZers will so appreciate that.
I thought Gorman came across as an pompous arrogant arse
Was it only 5 minutes? it seemed like 10, but it was painful, yes he repeated the word governance every 30 seconds. I think he had a mini light-bulb moment towards the end, when he conceded that politicians were only good at …. governing! (I paraphrase) but it sounded like he almost destroyed his complete argument right there.
Again in Stuff (no link sorry) there is and interesting graphic showing breakdown of the current MIQ hierarchy of management. It does look complicated but anyone with half a brain can see that it would be very difficult with any restructuring, not to still have the need for the myriad of parts at the bottom requiring a number of people working collectively near the top. To use his own car analogy, the wheels of the car don't go round without fuel (and fuel systems) electricity (and electrical systems) oil (and oil systems) coolant (and cooling systems) pistons, valves, bearings, gears, shock absorbers, etc etc etc
And behind all this is Murray Horn whose ideological bent is ACT
Aj the interview was from memory 17 minutes, but 5 was all I could bare! Thanks for filling me in on how it panned out and yes I think it was about every 30 seconds he used the word governance!! Hilarious that he conceded in the end politicians are good at governing! What a dick………..and Horn is ACT eh? Well it all makes a lot of sense. Surprized old Gorman didn't start talking about Air bnbs Returnees isolating in air bnb scattered through out the land! What could possibly go wrong. I wonder if Act is trying to pick up the air bnb vote!
Uncooked S
I noticed a piece from an ex Treasury guy, Tony Burton, on the right hand feed last night and commented on it which I have pasted below.
I think it refers to your comment at 2.1.1 pasted here:
But I think it has a lot more to do with evidence-free ideology – the proponents just think it must be the best or only way, because. 2.1.1
Yesterday I pasted this at 35 on OM 21/8 in my comment:
...When I was part of the government machine I was struck by how little understanding even those receiving the eye-watering fees to teach “Masters in Public Policy” have of the way government operates. (If you want an example, look up “policy cycle” in a textbook on government where you will find a hamster wheel schematic and text describing how, apparently, government is run by hamster bureaucrats scuttling round it.)…
This is a one-eyed interpretation:- At its most extreme, a former Chief Executive of MSD commanded “no problems without solutions” so only problems that had already been solved could be presented to senior managers…
…Ministers very rarely talk to people at the front line. Their decisions are largely informed by meetings with people at the upper end of the hierarchy who are equally ignorant of what is happening where services are delivered.
DTB was thinking along similar lines at 15.3 OM 21/8 when he put:
"Climate change is proof that our economic system is uneconomic and, for the majority of people, that will be hard to swallow. For the economists and politicians its even harder as they've based their entire careers and life on it.
As the saying goes: Its difficult to get a person to understand something when their job depends upon them not understanding it."
Outsourcing firms miss 46% of Covid contacts in England's worst-hit areas
Serco and Sitel paid £200m to test and trace, but reach just over half of infected people’s contacts in some regions
….Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the system was not “world-beating”, as the prime minister had said. “The biggest mistake was making it a commercially run thing. That was never going to work,”
It must be easier for CEOs/boards, and cheaper for governments, to run public services as businesses
There's no must in there.
The whole reasoning for the shift from public service management is because of the myth that business runs things better than the public service model. Research is coming out now that shows that there's much of a muchness between the two (still just humans after all) but for public services, such as hospitals, the public service model is better in that its more efficient and produces better outcomes.
A lot of the time, it's not so much that it's easier as that they have a conceptual block. I've seen a number of nonprofit clusterfucks in Dunedin over the years, and the fault is either enthusiasts who dream big but can't run a pissup in a brewery, or managers who think their job is to say "we can't afford it, wind up" rather than working out, well in advance, how we can afford it.
Company directors who started it from the ground up because they love widgets, know everything about widgets, and have no interest in making anything other than widgets are the exception – their objective is to make widgets, the money is a bonus. They would be making widgets in their shed upon retirement.
Generally, though, in business the company directors don't really care what the company produces, as long as it makes money. They might dominate an industry, but if that industry dies they'll just as happily move on to something else. Nintendo used to make playing cards, Western Union used to send telegrams (until surprisingly recently), and so on.
So they cut underperforming units without realising what the units add to the body as a whole. They reward managers who waste resources by spending their time making petty savings on inventory – paperclips, towels, patient wifi. They ignore "friends of" groups that could raise tens of thousands of dollars if only someone told them about the financial difficulties before the winding-up meeting – or even told them about the winding-up meeting, at least. They don't ask the staff which managers are essential and which ones seem to have gained themselves a sinecure with no clear role. They hire consultants without bothering to ask the people they literally pay to know about that stuff.
You get a corporate exec who cares about the organisation's role, they bring the skills and the will and they can be fucking brilliant. They'll restructure finances to cut costs (e.g. rather than friendly businesses charging a cut rate, the non-profit can pay full rate and the friendly business makes a tax-deductible donation, so it actually costs them less to essentially give stuff for free), leverage their knowledge of the local wealthies to reach into their pockets, make damned sure everyone's legally compliant so there's no GST or liability surprise, and so on. But many don't get the point that they're there to help the organisation do its thing, not get in the way.
The solution is to just properly fund the thing and to reject the "austerity" model of public health that NZ has embraced.
And get rid of the board.
Being voted onto a health board doesn't magically give people the necessary expertise to be in such a position and, really, its just more bureaucracy for no apparent gain.
Costs way more in the long run than just providing good health care.
Yep. Another example where cutting immediate running costs ends up costing far more due to the job not being done well enough in the first place.
NZ does cheap and nasty (which it seemingly inherited from Britain) and then wonders why everything costs more.
Local boards are a way of helping services meet the needs of the local population, rather than Wellington. But they can also become handy scapegoats for problems (like underfunding) that are caused by Wellington.
Boards also need to have significant representation from people who work in the organisation. If all the board members are accountants or lawyers with spare time, they run it like a business and harm the system. Their decisions might be right and proper, but they have an impulse to err on the side of winding services up, and have little knowledge or experience of maintaining connections with stakeholders within the community.
There is a belief that governance is fundamentally interchangable – that a board of company directors can run an opera company or a rescue helicopter trust. They cannot. But a frew out-of-sector directors can add strength through diversity.
I'm tending towards a rule of thirds: 1/3 industry practitioners (or employees for large organisations), 1/3 community stakeholders, 1/3 unrelated professionals.
I'm tending towards a rule of thirds: 1/3 industry practitioners (or employees for large organisations), 1/3 community stakeholders, 1/3 unrelated professionals.
I think I'd prefer sevenths: 3/7 for industry practitioners (or employees for large organisations), 2/7 community stakeholders, 2/7 unrelated professionals.
Just to give that little extra weighting to the industry practitioners.
It may be worth going for: 3/7 for industry practitioners (or employees for large organisations), 3/7 community stakeholders, 1/7 unrelated professionals.
Especially considering that some of the community stakeholders could also be part of the group of unrelated professionals.
Basically, if we look at a health board I'd expect "a chunk" to be doctors or other people who work directly for that board, another "chunk" being stakeholders like patient advocacy groups or primary healthcare. The remaining "chunk" can be lawyers and accountants, because they'll be better placed to see if the CEO is hoodwinking with the accounts – not fraud, just polishing the occasional turd.
A small theatre might conflate stakeholders and employees, but the result still needs to be that a hefty chunk of people on the board have practical experience in that industry (including the fact it tends to run from grant to grant and one bad or good show can dramatically change outlook).
A couple of token staff reps in a board of twelve is largely ineffectual. Having nobody who can read a set of accounts, knows the difference between operating expenditure and capital expenditure, and knows basic business law (especially conflicts of interest) is likewise asking for trouble.
The great Steven Joyce has a column in the Herald. Don't bother reading it. It is full of dodgy assumptions and dodgy lies. Scraping the barrel he is and offers no credible insight. Another failed old MP. (I can read Premium thanks to my son's workplace connection.)
Thanks for sparring us Ianmac. And thanks whoever gave the headsup yesterday that a link posted contained an article from Peter Dunne. Sometimes there is only so much crap you can read or listen to. Speaking of which I have just posted about listening to 5 minutes of Prof Gorman last night. So that is my contribution to filtering to save others from having to listen.
I can't help but wonder/hope that with Covid NZders start to get a little more critical and see through the bullshit. So whenever the media or whoever talk about the shambles that is our Covid response people can think well hold on a minute….UK has just borrowed something like 3 trillion pounds. 200+ cases in Victoria and everyday a tragic number of deaths………are we really that bad??????? this is why I think Trumps statements actually help us.
yes, trump spewing nonsense about NZ can only help the current gov . nats are associated with trump, and are trying to flick him off, but like snot on glass, he still leaves a trail.
I don’t usually bother but I read Armstrong’s column on TVNZ online. He spent the whole column describing the ways that Judith is a train bearing down on a hapless Jacinda only to say in his summation that Jacinda’s current stratospheric polling means she’ll do fine on Election Day and the real casualties will be ACT, NZFirst and the Greens. It was a total crock of shit.
That is almost always true for those who put forward their beliefs and desires as fact which, unfortunately, seems to include nearly every reporter in the country.
An in-depth article on Stuff (no link sorry) about the Covid Card which is being trialled. A weakness that is not talked about, is that it won't help in cases of picking up the virus from surfaces. A person could touch a surface and leave virus on it and then move on. Minutes later half a dozen people could touch the same surface but their cards, or the original person's card, will never register with each other.
I'm still a fan of this card, but this article does reveal some of the concerns associated with it. For example it appears all the cards need to be around the same height above the ground to register with each other??
Consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith of Cambridge University and The Naked Scientists returns to digest emerging Covid-related science and research. This week, a new study suggests that children are an important vector for the virus, what sounds like some encouraging news about post-infection immunity, and could herd immunity really work when just 20 percent of a population test positive?
Skin cells could be a vector for the virus, possibly floating like aerosols. Russian announcement that their immunity producing vaccines will last for two years. Dr Chris Smith says that cannot be stated as a fact, as the virus has only been worked on for 8+ months. Proper trials need to be carried out over two years to verify the situation.
Agreed, in fact the article suggested they need to be outside clothing. If it won't work from your pocket/wallet I can't see it being a goer. The article did discuss social acceptance.
Just in case you have missed it..the DNC has quite literally told ( I am talking in political optics here ) the growing progressive wing of that party to fuck off! we are not your party and you have no place within it.
So sure Biden is marginally better than the walking talking disaster that is Trump, but let's just be honest with ourselves here…he is nothing more than a talking head for the same old US hegemonic exceptionalist neocon's along with wall st and US corporate interests that POTUS always represent at the expense of the rest of the world…and their own citizens….Yep Biden and the DNC is just as happy to let the planet burn as Trump and the RNC are and make no mistake about that…
DNC’s Flip-Flop on Fossil Fuel Subsidies Follows Deep Ties the Industry
"The DNC quietly removed language from the party platform yesterday that endorsed an end to fossil fuel subsidies, after voting two years ago to allow itself to accept fossil fuel PAC contributions."
Not really much point in us debating, if you can't see that the Biden administration will be just another Republican lite corporate/wall st/military and prison industrial complex circle jerk just like that shill Obama's was, despite all the actual evidence staring you in the fucking face then whats the point?…none.
I wouldn't hold it against anyone who voted Biden in the US, but to actually think he and the DNC will be progressive is just plain delusion..he and the DNC are nothing more than pro choice republicans, that is just a fact, and will probably prove to be even more hawkish in foreign policy than Trump.
Trump…Obama's legacy..who knows what Biden's will be?
The day after Biden is elected he and the DNC will be in meetings with Goldman Sachs and the rest of their corporate owners…but I guess you already know that.
Since when have you starting listening to Bernie?…since he scrubbed out his lines in the sand and became a toothless, trained dog who stopped barking and biting at the enemy at the gates…not surprising.
He was my second choice in the primaries behind Warren, so personal politics wise, we have a fair amount in common.
I do find it saddening how ultra, only lefty in the village types who once clung to his every word, now insult him as "a toothless, trained dog". That, to me, speaks volumes. Someone working on the inside to get policy wins, despite being roundly rejected at the polls, clearly plays the long game for the greater good, rather than just grandstanding wishes and reckons from the edge of the rim on the very outside of us politics.
Good to know you're not a Bernie bro, now. I guess you're looking for the next most un electable candidate to throw your support behind. Good luck.
I’d agree that they are often unfunny. But they specialise more in dark satire than simple humour. More Jonathon Swift satirising the pompous dimwits of his day than a Benny Hill play things for laughs.
I realise that distinction, that is perfectly obvious to me, may escape you. I tend to view your thinking as tending toward very straight line direct thinking than nuanced. But if you observe what they do closely, they tend towards using barbed similes – designed more to elicit a feeling of horror than those to elicit laughs.
Personally I find actual comedians rather boring and predictable. However I do like these two.
Trevor Noah is a deep and thoughtful commentator? When did that remarkable transformation occur?
By “dark satire”, do you mean Noah’s and Colbert’s three and a half years of grim but nutty fantasy about those dastardly Russian masterminds who have seized control of America?
It has been pretty damn obvious to anyone who is technically competent on the net. They have a tendency to be rather blatant about it. Approximately a fifth of the volume or hack attempts on this site come from Russian networks – some of which have very interesting network patterns. While US networks are our largest load of hack attempts. Most of them come from a relatively small group of dodgy server farms that anyone can rent for a dime or pretty obvious botnet captured machines.
It has been interesting over the years watching what some of the offshore hacks do after they fall into one of my honey traps (I set them up for Slater and co about 2013). About 8-10% aren’t commercial patterns (ie not spammers or obvious botnets) which I suspect is a lot higher than most non-political sites. Anyway if I want to drop the server loads, I usually just turn off access to bingbots, then I turn off access to the whole of easter Europe, and then exclude about 50 US server farms
However in this case Colbert and Noah were just repeating the reports of every security company or intelligence agency who looked the the raw data. The most recent was the bipartisan Senate report looking at pervasive Russian intelligence contacts with the Trump campaign – that look deliberate on both sides.
But basically I’d have to say that you’re a raving naive fool to think that there wasn’t a strong intelligence inspired influencer campaign in the 2016 election to get exactly the chaotic administration that Trump provides. It was less crude reprise of what has been happening in Russian border states for decades now.
I’m not particularly worried about it. The online tactic only really works for a short time. There was a limited real affect – probably actually less electoral effect than the daft electoral college system provided. And it warned every other state that they have to watch for it again (it was a very common pattern back in the 20th as well). The network system operators are now aware of it as well. They tend to being somewhat more abrupt about dealing with it.
Which is the long form of saying that I think, with what I consider is good reason, that you’re often rather deluded. However that is a personal opinion and doesn’t get fed into the moderator lprent role – who is more concerned with online behaviour.
BTW:
Trevor Noah is a deep and thoughtful commentator?
I couldn’t possibly agree with that – apart from anything else because I didn’t say it. I said that they were satirists.
Bad idea to try to put words into my mouth or anyone else. That is bad behaviour to lie about what someone else said.
It has been pretty damn obvious to anyone who is technically competent on the net. They have a tendency to be rather blatant about it. Approximately a fifth of the volume or hack attempts on this site come from Russian networks
Interestingly the small site I have also has a good number of "visitors" from Russia, including Leningrad.
The recently released Bi-Partisan Senate Intelligence Report into Russian interference in the 2016 election is highly damning (all 996 pages of it). It goes much further than the Mueller Report.
Manafort hired and worked closely with Russian national Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the committee definitively calls a "Russian intelligence officer" that served as a liaison between him and Deripaska.
On numerous occasions, Manafort sought to pass sensitive internal polling data and campaign strategy to Kilimnik. The committee was unable to determine why or what Kilimnik did with that information, in part due to the pair's use of encrypted messaging apps.
The committee did, however, obtain "some information" suggesting Kilimnik "may have been connected" to Russia's hacking and leaking of Democratic emails. The section detailing these findings is largely redacted.
They weren’t restricted to a criminal proprietorial standard – so they were able to say what their balance of probability said what actually happened.
Fortunately on this site, I’m not restricted to even that standard. I operate on any possible threat rather than probable. The constraining factor is resources (especially my time).
Thanks for asking, well I can't vote Labour here because they have given us the twin insults in the John Key loving Anna Lorke in Tukituki and if I registered in Napier, Stuart Nash who is probably ruing that he didn't drift to what is obviously his natural home in the National Party, because he would probably be leader of that party now.
So maybe Green/Green for what it's worth, which is fuck all…pity they didn't have the balls to elect Sue Bradford when they had the chance, someone who has the strength of character to really fight (and I mean really fight) for the working classes and disenfranchised of this country. and not just talk about it like everyone else in NZ politics today.
Sue Bradford used a lot of her capital getting the no-smacking bill through which does not appear to have reduced violence one iota. If she was a practical woman she would have been getting anti-bullying workshops for kids into schools, showing how kids can feel strong and good about themselves, and maybe turn bullys away with a quip and a raised eyebrow.
Yes she is good, but like many left progressives, goes for hoping people will turn to the good side, just because they should. We all need to change, and it takes a mental effort and someone demonstrating and upskilling us, not just feelgood preachiness.
I have meet her and can tell you she is a practical woman and she knows what drives the human condition better than most, she has actually lived a real life outside politics unlike nearly every single high ranking politician in NZ on both sides.
"Sue Bradford used a lot of her capital getting the no-smacking bill through which does not appear to have reduced violence one iota."
Maybe Bradford was playing a longer, aspirational game with a generational payoff – if fewer children are thrashed by their parents, then when those children (in the fullness of time) become parents maybe they will be a little less likely (on average) to thrash their own children. We can but hope.
I was pleased when the bill was passed (in 2007), and that it withstood various protests, petitions and even a referendumb ["Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?"] to get it overturned. Whatever its faults, the message of the legislation is clear, and good IMHO.
I'm relieved you might be able to vote for grouping that can make enough internal compromises to attract a coalition of somewhere around 6% of the vote. I wasn't sure anyone electable would be able to live up to your standards.
I often think there is a bit of a disconnect between what the smug, holier-than-though pragmatic centre-left thinks of many vocally more radical lefties, and what the latter are actually like. I think there are quite a few people who argue passionately for more left-leaning philosophies and policies, pronouncing the centrist options to be confused, insincere and weak, but still quietly vote for them as the lesser evil when the choice comes around. On the other hand, many centre-left pragmatists profess theoretical support for more left-leaning ideas, while waxing eloquent about the qualities of 'electable' centrists, and smugly lecturing radicals about the nature of politics in a broad democratic electorate, as though everybody didn't know already. The fact, though, as far as I'm concerned, is that if the radical left were to quieten its rhetoric down to that brand of 'sensible' strategic thinking, the centre would end up considerably to the right very quickly.
So it's forgivable to vote for electable candidates, and even express respect for them at times, so long as you don't gush about it as though it were some kind of virtue.
As did I, Ad. Metiria and Sue both presented themselves very well, though at that stage, Sue appeared to be resigned to the likely outcome. She's a very strong and big-hearted woman and achieved a great deal for us all. Speaking one to one with Sue was a real eye-opener for me; she's a very "human" human, as distinct from her portrayal by the media of the time. Metiria, I liked very much also. She was as feisty as Sue but somehow suited the Party's needs more at the time. I found her various television interviews, especially those done by MaoriTV, to be remarkable vehicles for her wit and intelligence. Her downfall, or rather take-down, was awful, unpleasant and must have shaken her to the core. Both women deserve our highest respect, imo.
I am glad that she didn't get it. While i respect her achievements and incredible drive her mind is very much closed. I don't think she would have been able to bring the party along with her as a cohesive group.
I'm interested in outcomes, not just whether the politician involved is a sterling character. Hopefully waiting for possibly results in the next generation is what got us into the mess we in NZ are at present. Kindness coupled with practicality finds the most effective way to deal with the problem before it festers any further. We are all now dealing with neolib NZ that has ignored problems, not even cared, preferring to dismiss those with them as losers. Not satisfactory from our various governments.
The DNC quietly removed language from the party platform yesterday that endorsed an end to fossil fuel subsidies, after voting two years ago to allow itself to accept fossil fuel PAC contributions.
The dark side of the Dems. US voters must decide which shit tastes best. Will they lap up that shovelled by the Dems? Looks like that from the Reps is more unpalatable.
There is a Rep/Dem boundary to discussing voting in the US elections. I've just had a wee look at Wiki, there are heaps of choices. Unless you can only vote for the 'winning' team.
Adrian – you can set as many litmus tests as you like, but nobody is interested in dipping the test paper in the 'solution'. And they will just get angry at you for asking that they do.
Brianna Joy Gray writes in the article I have linked to: "if we accept the binary that your vote is either unconditional or pledged to Trump, it removes our ability to affirm the values which will remain important long after the election is over."
There are bottom line standards that if someone goes below them, it should be disqualifying. For instance, personal criminal corruption or credible rape accusations. The Grab'em'fuhrer has multiple accusations open against him. If Tara Reade had a backstory that suggested she was credible rather than a proven serial fabulist, I would have real trouble with Biden. At the time of Bill Clinton's elections, Broaddrick's accusations weren't public and indeed her public stance was she didn't have anything to accuse Clinton of doing. And neither Biden nor Clinton have had any credible accusations of criminal personal corruption.
Then there are litmus tests where multiple tests are set at extremely high levels, and the slightest falling short of any one of them is considered disqualifying. Those prone to setting these kinds of litmus tests set many bars at levels that are impractically high, such that any candidate that might clear all of them to the satisfaction of the test setter becomes unelectable to the majority of the electorate that don't share the exact same extreme views on the exact same set of priorities.
"The Grab'em'fuhrer has multiple accusations open against him. If Tara Reade had a backstory that suggested she was credible rather than a proven serial fabulist, I would have real trouble with Biden."
So you apply the litmus test to trump and accept the result but the result of the same test when applied to Biden is false?
Because Tara Reade has been convincingly demonstrated to be a serial fabulist. To the point where her fraudulent expert testimony claiming qualifications she didn't have may well have harmful repercussions on actual victims of sexual assault.
There has been zero corroboration of Reade's claims from people she worked with, and a key aspect of her claim was about being forced into a semi-private area on a specific route in the Senate building. No such semi-private area exists.
Her claims appear to be carefully presented in a way that precludes Biden from being able to prove his innocence. They are not specific about date and time etc etc.
Whereas there are a huge number of complaints against the stygian homunculus by women that don't have questions against their credibility, speaking to a pattern of behaviour. A pattern of behaviour that he is even on record as boasting about.
Checking facts and doing background research. You should try it sometime. It gives one a better grip on reality than existing solely within one's own initial prejudices.
Yes, your thorough and carefully selective research has conveniently led to your repeating exactly the concerted attacks on the character of that woman. Your "grip on reality" matches precisely the "grip on reality" of the party machine that has foisted Gropin' Joe, along with Gropin' Don, on the unfortunate voters of that benighted Republic.
You, on the other hand, can offer nothing to support your baseless contentions. And before you link to doctored video clips from right wing muck rackers, you need to know that we have seen those vile slanderous clips, and understand them for what they are.
The arguments in Current Affairs were all hashed out in the Democratic Primaries. They aren't relevant now. Unless you are part of the anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, or Outsider marginals.
There is absolutely nothing for the far left in the Biden-Harris ticket.
Biden = MidLeft Dem Corporate. Also one of the least wealthy in the Senate. He's in the middle of the Democratic party for left-leaning.
Harris = Authoritarian Dem Corporate. Fractionally more left leaning on voting record.
They have zero to offer the anti-authoritarian left at all.
They have zero to offer the anti-corporate left at all.
They have zero to offer the Outsider left at all.
Those groups vote Green or or Socialist or not at all.
The US is not a socialist country. Moderate Democrats, in the mould of FDR is about as left as the US wants to go. Though obviously there is 10% of the electorate who would go further left. But 90% who don’t.
In that sense there are parallels with NZ. Only 5 to 10% of the country want to go left as the Greens, maybe a few percent more. It is indicative of the NZ mid point that the PM says she would not support a CGT while she is PM. I imagine she will have a 36% top tax rate for this election for incomes over $100 or 120k. Middle NZ will be fine with that.
You either have no knowledge of the long and honorable history of U.S. unionism and civil rights struggle, or you are a former National Party cabinet minister habituated to writing dishonest and misleading messages.
Moderate Democrats, in the mould of FDR is about as left as the US wants to go.
???? You are deliberately, I think, misrepresenting the thoroughly discredited DNC as reflecting the wishes and policy preferences of American voters.
As acknowledged by most New Zealanders, in particular the hundreds of thousands who are abandoning your party right now, Jacinda Ardern is an extremely competent centrist politician.
I was personally very worried to learn she had worked for that arch criminal Tony Blair AFTER he had been one of the main conspirators in the destruction of Iraq, and I have been extremely disappointed that she allowed the Army and your political cronies to thwart Afghan victims of the N.Z. Army from appearing in our court during the Burnham inquiry. But in spite of those very grave reservations, I think she's done a fine job of holding this country together; the contrast with the treacherous behaviour of your colleagues is instructive.
The extreme left have done their job already. By supporting Sanders, and in turn by Sanders and team working on policy formation with Biden, the extreme left have pushed the policy platform as far as it's going to go.
I don't think they'll stay at home rather than vote.
In fact it's more likely that some of the Republicans will stay home and not vote.
Christ Wayne, you need to get out more beyond the cocktail set.
Levels of public ownership in the USA is very extensive, having been built up over more than a century, add to that, the level of direct consumer and worker ownership as well.
Such a welter of meaningless categories ('far left' , 'mid-left', 'authoritarian left'…) it is impossible to construct a response to it – other than note the overall inclination towards control and exclusion.
Barring accidents Biden will win -lets hope for a landslide and control of both houses as well. Some good things will follow and in time a lot of disappointment too. Pain and suffering will continue, and great wealth will continue to accumulate – both of these in the accustomed places.
Look like one of the rights attack vectors of speculation that the Government putting people into lock-down increased suicide rates is just another one of their may unscrupulous lies trying to win by hitting below the belt while the ref is not looking.
Suicide commentary unhelpful to Queenstown, mental health experts say. By Tim Brown
Speculation about the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the suicide rate is causing more harm than good, those in the mental health sector say.
The link between Covid-19 and higher suicide numbers first reared its head during the nationwide level 4 lockdown earlier this year.
Provisional figures from the Chief Coroner, released yesterday, show the opposite is in fact true with year-on-year suicide numbers down as well as a marked drop during the months of the lockdown.
However, the link has been drawn again since Auckland re-entered level 3 and the country moved to level 2.
ACT Party leader David Seymour for instance is quoted in the article as defending himself about what he said in Parliament with the words "You have to go by facts and not speculation," while it turns out from what the figures show that what he was saying was only speculation, and could possibly be harmful to.
Something I noticed by its absence was no mention of the actual figure of how many suicides there were in Queenstown for the year being talked about. There is still an element of keeping the unattractive fact out of the public gaze. This might alert others to what difficulties Queenstown has been causing for working people in finding affordable housing.
How is it an abuse of parliamentary privilege? The statements/speech raised legitimate questions about the cause of suicide. The media have a number of rules about how to discuss suicide and Seymour stayed within those guidelines.
It is not legitimate to shut down the debate of a very real and deep problem in the way those critical of Seymour were trying to do.
For instance when the farming sector has a finance or drought streak, farmer suicides increase. The farming community is very much aware of that and tries to provide more empathetic support than was historically was the case.
It seems a bit odd, certainly no rumours around my part of town that people are suiciding left, right and centre.
And adult suicide is more a peak of the cycle thing here, usually from people working too much, chefs and business owners working 100+ hours a week and it all going to shit.
Insurance jobs are more the bottom of the cycle thing.
A couple of our local actoids tried starting a suicide meme during the April lockdown but got shut down pretty quickly for spinning shit.
Would be interesting to see how many people committed suicide after your lot had ACC throw them off their long term claim rolls and onto the benefit system, loosing between $200 and $300 a week, and their houses as a concequence. All so "line goes up".
Or the young mother of 6 who killed herself in about 2016 or 17 after WINZ told her they werent going to pay for any more motel accomodation, leaving her parents to bring up the kids, who ended up having to stay in motel rooms, after being evicted from their state house on trumped up meth charges.
But I dont see you, your lot, or your supporters giving a shit about that, as long as your retirement nest eggs dont get taxed.
Not just any test, an Immigration NZ approved test:
Those coming from more far-flung parts of the world will have to find labs Immigration NZ has vetted and approved, or their test results might not be accepted.
The bribes will flow and water the poor, benighted, rich bludgers who have lost so much income due to the closing of the border.
Yeah, just another plan by National to get their funders hands into the publics till because you can guarantee that it will all be contracted out to the private sector. Another great recipe to increase corruption by National.
Gordon McDowell (who has spent over a decade documenting the next generation nuclear renaissance) has new clip of an Alberta panel discussion on nuclear energy and it's role in climate change from a completely non-technical perspective.
The CDHB Board is stacked with National Party stooges including a current candidate and the Gough family member.I see this as being political mischief. As an employee I have nothing but admiration for David Meates who has been very willing to be involved in solving some of the problems of the Mental Health sector. For Sue Nightingale to decribe the Board / Executive relationship as toxic and adverserial is interesting, she is a Psychiatrist with all the interpersonal skills required and thats her diagnosis.
A commissioner to oversee a manager for the board and a manager for the executive need to be appointed and answerable to the health minister through the commissioner because of the implosion. Matters should not have got to the stage they have got to.
What do Israelis and Jews everywhere have to say about this? Is the answer to be more what-about-ism and you-did-it-first and look-what-you-did we are just doing the same? And we must protect ourselves by showing us as ready to attack as vicious hornets do? Are they allowed to smite everyone by their religion? Did the Holocaust mean that they will be for ever cursed by that happening and the revenge response that they apparently have bred in their young people and embedded in compulsory army duty where they are taught hostility and can use violence and deadly force when they can make some excuse?
In the early hours of 7 August, Israeli Occupation force, in a night raid and home invasions in Jenin, shot and killed Dalia Samudi in her Jabariyat neighbourhood home. She received several bullet wounds in the chest while trying to close a window againstIsraeli Army tear gas; thesoldierseven opened fire on the ambulance that arrived to take her to hospital. Dalia was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at hospital and the 23-year-old woman’s new-born child is now motherless. The local Red Crescent Director, Mahmoud al-Sa’adi, confirmed to the Wafa News Agency that the ambulance, scarred with bullets, had been fired on by Israeli soldiers as it arrived to evacuate her.
Even when the daily update is given it is a guessing game. There is no precision with Covid. Were the number even zero in the community I would still be looking over my shoulder at times.
Something I just stumbled on, evedently in Australia, you can't leave the country, you are required to apply for an Exemption, the exemtions are listed here
Essential worker migrants are allowed in with an exemption. It's about having enough quarantine facilities here and flight availability from their country of departure. It's sad their countries of citizenship aren't taking care of said migrants workers while NZ borders are closed.
Thanks for link Cinny. I have signed. I think it is sad that NZ thinks it can turn the tap on for low-paid people when it wants, and then off again while they are still being processed or getting transport.
Accommodation is a problem, time is passing and they should be fixing this, the government excuse is wearing thin.
Petition is open till 14 September for those who give a damn.
She raised him and his siblings in the USA, away from the grieving. He became a believer in the teachings of Norman Vincent Peale.
"Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are."
Another well written and researched opinion piece by Mr Glen Johnson via Al Jazeera.
Coronavirus and conspiratorial dog-whistles return to New Zealand
Amid a new outbreak, New Zealand's opposition is once again trying to leverage misinformation for political gain.
on Tuesday, Brownlee reiterated his claims, again engaging in scaremongering and conspiracy-baiting in the hope of drawing a tiny number of fringe voters to his party.
There is something deeply unappealing about a grasping politician who puts the personal pursuit of power above public wellbeing.
"A worker at the company’s Auckland parcel processing centre in Highbrook tested positive in mid-August and a second was diagnosed on Wednesday……Seventy people who work the day shift at the centre have been stood down on full pay, NZ Post chief operating officer Mark Stewart said…..“Following advice from health officials late last night our 70 people on the processing day shift are now in self-isolation until Saturday 29 August,” Stewart said.
But self isolation is for 14 days, 'late last night' must mean 15th August? unless their stand-down is only 7 days?
So.. written today, and 'last Tuesday ' was the 18th Aug. But the 102 day streak was broken a week earlier than that.
This is could be just sloppy writing and no editorial oversight, but is confusing and possibly misleading to the time-line of events it is reporting on. Why am I never surprised…
The conspirators need to be countered with the facts
[deleted]
[lprent: Perhaps you should understand that commenters need to get themselves educated about quoting and linking. Deleted what looked to be a dump of a whole CNN page complete with all of the side links. Assuming this is a person rather than dumb arse bot, I have removed it. Short quotes and a link please. We’re not disinterested in idiots violating copyrights. Maintaining auto moderation until we see a comment that doesn’t reek of stupid behaviour.]
Here's one man for Hosking to interview on ' How one literally creates a new f#k up at the border.'
"A business owner in managed isolation says he stopped eating for eight days to see if authorities would notice."
Peeved at not been given exceptional privilege he decides to try an experiment and concludes, ” I was right, no one has noticed.”
Despite the daily health care given Tony Everitt is a man on a mission to prove he has….?
Siouxie Wiles, the biochemist who has contributed a lot of easy to understand material throughout the pandemic so far, has written another useful and cogent article in the Spinoff on how to improve the Covid response, including an analysis of National's proposals. Worth a read.
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
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Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
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Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
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Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
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The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
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Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
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Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
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Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
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Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
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Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
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Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
Has Chris Darby actually lost his mind?
He wrote to the government proposing that they buy 50% of Ports of Auckland off them, to help with the Council's dire financial straits.
He didn't tell the Mayor.
He appears to have had a few conversations with a few Councillors.
There appears to have been no Council report, or recommendation, or other advice from Council about it.
Councillor Darby, please explain.
Does he want a finder's fee?
His senior colleagues are already disowning him for it.
Auckland: the sow with multiplying nipples for gorging piglets.
Before selling the port I think we should be sitting lots of people down and asking them…
"Do you think the value you bring to Aucklanders would attract a $200k salary in the private sector?"
When in financial strife the first thing a shallow imagination turns to is 'What can we sell?'
This Covid thing will linger. If we can stay free in NZ and testing improves… Older people feel the Covid threat more than most, older people Cruise and the Covid stigma around Sea Cruises will linger. NZ Pure.
All of the Cruise line companies are desperate to set their floating assets free.
Auckland Central retail needs a shot in the arm. Cruise liners queuing up could be just the trick.
Ironclad, foolproof double-checked testing would need to be a rite of passage. Customers would be delighted to be subjected to such a comprehensive test regime. The 60+ crew are real keen to avoid the Wuhan Wheeze.
Tourists tying up in downtown Auck would grease the path for directing sea bound freight to Whangarei and a fast rail link to those blossoming suburbs in outer West Auck, Kumeu etc. Give those new suburbians a job that starts next door.
Events at the Canterbury DHB are very worrying. Between the lines, looks like a case of the board running the place like a business (and a hopelessly struggling business due to chronic underfunding) while the executive try to maintain patient services.
The solution is to just properly fund the thing and to reject the "austerity" model of public health that NZ has embraced.
Costs way more in the long run than just providing good health care. I have direct personal experience with several cases where the cost to both the individual and society has been massively increased by rationing of healthcare. Has caused long periods of disability and eventually much more costly interventions – and certainly zero actual savings. And it seems everyone you talk to has similar stories.
Are there any examples in NZ where adopting a business model to 'run' a public service has been at least a moderate success in the medium-to-long term? Such an approach in the NZ tertiary education sector has certaintly compromised the quality, if not the quantity of university 'product'.
It must be easier for CEOs/boards, and cheaper for governments, to run public services as businesses – we get what we pay for.
" It must be easier for CEOs/boards, and cheaper for governments, to run public services as businesses "
Maybe – although harder for the public and more expensive for society I believe.
But I think it has a lot more to do with evidence-free ideology – the proponents just think it must be the best or only way, because.
On a related manner, for my sins I listened to 5 minutes of Prof Gorman talking to Karen Haye on Radio NZ last night. Firstly I didn't think much of Karen's interviewing style. Questions with a negative assumption, that supported Gorman theory that our Covid response has been "egregious". Gorman wants to take the covid response out of the Govts hand and apparently the problem with the Govt and the Mof H has not been the strategies (which I assume will remain as contract tracing and quarantine) but the problem has been governance. He must have used this word 5 times in 5 minutes………he thinks our contract tracing services has performed extremely poorly. And his example went something like this "Karen if you and I had a car factory and we produced cars and the brakes didn't work and we were in a court of law it wouldn't be enough if we said, well we thought that the brakes were being made properly"……………….Hay didn't pull him up on this and any of his bullshit and it was bullshit.
I say hand the covid response over to gorman and his mate Horne now! Its great to know when the next case slips through the border that Gorman will say "I am accountable! This is what good governance looks like". NZers will so appreciate that.
I thought Gorman came across as an pompous arrogant arse
Was it only 5 minutes? it seemed like 10, but it was painful, yes he repeated the word governance every 30 seconds. I think he had a mini light-bulb moment towards the end, when he conceded that politicians were only good at …. governing! (I paraphrase) but it sounded like he almost destroyed his complete argument right there.
Again in Stuff (no link sorry) there is and interesting graphic showing breakdown of the current MIQ hierarchy of management. It does look complicated but anyone with half a brain can see that it would be very difficult with any restructuring, not to still have the need for the myriad of parts at the bottom requiring a number of people working collectively near the top. To use his own car analogy, the wheels of the car don't go round without fuel (and fuel systems) electricity (and electrical systems) oil (and oil systems) coolant (and cooling systems) pistons, valves, bearings, gears, shock absorbers, etc etc etc
And behind all this is Murray Horn whose ideological bent is ACT
Aj the interview was from memory 17 minutes, but 5 was all I could bare! Thanks for filling me in on how it panned out and yes I think it was about every 30 seconds he used the word governance!! Hilarious that he conceded in the end politicians are good at governing! What a dick………..and Horn is ACT eh? Well it all makes a lot of sense. Surprized old Gorman didn't start talking about Air bnbs Returnees isolating in air bnb scattered through out the land! What could possibly go wrong. I wonder if Act is trying to pick up the air bnb vote!
Uncooked S
I noticed a piece from an ex Treasury guy, Tony Burton, on the right hand feed last night and commented on it which I have pasted below.
I think it refers to your comment at 2.1.1 pasted here:
Yesterday I pasted this at 35 on OM 21/8 in my comment:
...When I was part of the government machine I was struck by how little understanding even those receiving the eye-watering fees to teach “Masters in Public Policy” have of the way government operates. (If you want an example, look up “policy cycle” in a textbook on government where you will find a hamster wheel schematic and text describing how, apparently, government is run by hamster bureaucrats scuttling round it.)…
This is a one-eyed interpretation:- At its most extreme, a former Chief Executive of MSD commanded “no problems without solutions” so only problems that had already been solved could be presented to senior managers…
…Ministers very rarely talk to people at the front line. Their decisions are largely informed by meetings with people at the upper end of the hierarchy who are equally ignorant of what is happening where services are delivered.
https://democracyproject.nz/2020/08/21/tony-burton-govt-depts-debacle/
This article can be republished under a Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 license. Attributions should include a link to the Democracy Project. With Bryce Edwards involvement.
.
DTB was thinking along similar lines at 15.3 OM 21/8 when he put:
"Climate change is proof that our economic system is uneconomic and, for the majority of people, that will be hard to swallow. For the economists and politicians its even harder as they've based their entire careers and life on it.
As the saying goes: Its difficult to get a person to understand something when their job depends upon them not understanding it."
Meanwhile the UK's outsourced contact-tracing is expensive and a disaster:
There's no must in there.
The whole reasoning for the shift from public service management is because of the myth that business runs things better than the public service model. Research is coming out now that shows that there's much of a muchness between the two (still just humans after all) but for public services, such as hospitals, the public service model is better in that its more efficient and produces better outcomes.
There is more money in it for the management class.
A lot of the time, it's not so much that it's easier as that they have a conceptual block. I've seen a number of nonprofit clusterfucks in Dunedin over the years, and the fault is either enthusiasts who dream big but can't run a pissup in a brewery, or managers who think their job is to say "we can't afford it, wind up" rather than working out, well in advance, how we can afford it.
Company directors who started it from the ground up because they love widgets, know everything about widgets, and have no interest in making anything other than widgets are the exception – their objective is to make widgets, the money is a bonus. They would be making widgets in their shed upon retirement.
Generally, though, in business the company directors don't really care what the company produces, as long as it makes money. They might dominate an industry, but if that industry dies they'll just as happily move on to something else. Nintendo used to make playing cards, Western Union used to send telegrams (until surprisingly recently), and so on.
So they cut underperforming units without realising what the units add to the body as a whole. They reward managers who waste resources by spending their time making petty savings on inventory – paperclips, towels, patient wifi. They ignore "friends of" groups that could raise tens of thousands of dollars if only someone told them about the financial difficulties before the winding-up meeting – or even told them about the winding-up meeting, at least. They don't ask the staff which managers are essential and which ones seem to have gained themselves a sinecure with no clear role. They hire consultants without bothering to ask the people they literally pay to know about that stuff.
You get a corporate exec who cares about the organisation's role, they bring the skills and the will and they can be fucking brilliant. They'll restructure finances to cut costs (e.g. rather than friendly businesses charging a cut rate, the non-profit can pay full rate and the friendly business makes a tax-deductible donation, so it actually costs them less to essentially give stuff for free), leverage their knowledge of the local wealthies to reach into their pockets, make damned sure everyone's legally compliant so there's no GST or liability surprise, and so on. But many don't get the point that they're there to help the organisation do its thing, not get in the way.
And get rid of the board.
Being voted onto a health board doesn't magically give people the necessary expertise to be in such a position and, really, its just more bureaucracy for no apparent gain.
Yep. Another example where cutting immediate running costs ends up costing far more due to the job not being done well enough in the first place.
NZ does cheap and nasty (which it seemingly inherited from Britain) and then wonders why everything costs more.
Local boards are a way of helping services meet the needs of the local population, rather than Wellington. But they can also become handy scapegoats for problems (like underfunding) that are caused by Wellington.
Boards also need to have significant representation from people who work in the organisation. If all the board members are accountants or lawyers with spare time, they run it like a business and harm the system. Their decisions might be right and proper, but they have an impulse to err on the side of winding services up, and have little knowledge or experience of maintaining connections with stakeholders within the community.
There is a belief that governance is fundamentally interchangable – that a board of company directors can run an opera company or a rescue helicopter trust. They cannot. But a frew out-of-sector directors can add strength through diversity.
I'm tending towards a rule of thirds: 1/3 industry practitioners (or employees for large organisations), 1/3 community stakeholders, 1/3 unrelated professionals.
Sounds good balance Mcflock.
I think I'd prefer sevenths: 3/7 for industry practitioners (or employees for large organisations), 2/7 community stakeholders, 2/7 unrelated professionals.
Just to give that little extra weighting to the industry practitioners.
It may be worth going for: 3/7 for industry practitioners (or employees for large organisations), 3/7 community stakeholders, 1/7 unrelated professionals.
Especially considering that some of the community stakeholders could also be part of the group of unrelated professionals.
I wasn't really parsing the exact fractions.
Basically, if we look at a health board I'd expect "a chunk" to be doctors or other people who work directly for that board, another "chunk" being stakeholders like patient advocacy groups or primary healthcare. The remaining "chunk" can be lawyers and accountants, because they'll be better placed to see if the CEO is hoodwinking with the accounts – not fraud, just polishing the occasional turd.
A small theatre might conflate stakeholders and employees, but the result still needs to be that a hefty chunk of people on the board have practical experience in that industry (including the fact it tends to run from grant to grant and one bad or good show can dramatically change outlook).
A couple of token staff reps in a board of twelve is largely ineffectual. Having nobody who can read a set of accounts, knows the difference between operating expenditure and capital expenditure, and knows basic business law (especially conflicts of interest) is likewise asking for trouble.
“Biden Barn Burner”
Even the Drudge Report thought he did OK
I saw a clip of him on our news last night & got an emotional lift! He'd not only awoken, he seemed both serious & staunch.
He was great, I didn't expect to be so emotionally stirred by Joe Biden's speech.
It's worth watching, he offers hope and his words find common ground, good work Joe and co. Looking forward to the debates.
Full speech – 24.27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmN90VuLH6Y
I think you're giving him too much credit. Just reading off a teleprompter is easy, any idiot can do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-29I6Ia8Xmc
(it’s worth clicking through to watch on youtube so you get to read the comments)
Cheers Andre, will check it out.
Edit… LMFAO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He really is a decent guy.
Well worth the 2 min watch. And a brave 13 year old.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1296640406046867456
Wow beautiful.
And now stutter truthing is a thing. Assholes gonna asshole.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/21/1971201/-Oh-look-a-stutter-truther-Must-be-a-big-Trump-supporter
The great Steven Joyce has a column in the Herald. Don't bother reading it. It is full of dodgy assumptions and dodgy lies. Scraping the barrel he is and offers no credible insight. Another failed old MP. (I can read Premium thanks to my son's workplace connection.)
Thanks for sparring us Ianmac. And thanks whoever gave the headsup yesterday that a link posted contained an article from Peter Dunne. Sometimes there is only so much crap you can read or listen to. Speaking of which I have just posted about listening to 5 minutes of Prof Gorman last night. So that is my contribution to filtering to save others from having to listen.
I can't help but wonder/hope that with Covid NZders start to get a little more critical and see through the bullshit. So whenever the media or whoever talk about the shambles that is our Covid response people can think well hold on a minute….UK has just borrowed something like 3 trillion pounds. 200+ cases in Victoria and everyday a tragic number of deaths………are we really that bad??????? this is why I think Trumps statements actually help us.
yes, trump spewing nonsense about NZ can only help the current gov . nats are associated with trump, and are trying to flick him off, but like snot on glass, he still leaves a trail.
I don’t usually bother but I read Armstrong’s column on TVNZ online. He spent the whole column describing the ways that Judith is a train bearing down on a hapless Jacinda only to say in his summation that Jacinda’s current stratospheric polling means she’ll do fine on Election Day and the real casualties will be ACT, NZFirst and the Greens. It was a total crock of shit.
That is almost always true for those who put forward their beliefs and desires as fact which, unfortunately, seems to include nearly every reporter in the country.
Why would anything written by Joyce be characterized as "Premium"? No wonder the Gerald is going down the tubes.
Printed on three-ply.
An in-depth article on Stuff (no link sorry) about the Covid Card which is being trialled. A weakness that is not talked about, is that it won't help in cases of picking up the virus from surfaces. A person could touch a surface and leave virus on it and then move on. Minutes later half a dozen people could touch the same surface but their cards, or the original person's card, will never register with each other.
I'm still a fan of this card, but this article does reveal some of the concerns associated with it. For example it appears all the cards need to be around the same height above the ground to register with each other??
Interesting stuff on Radio nz from the UK based virologist.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018760655/virologist-dr-chris-smith-latest-covid-19-science
Consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith of Cambridge University and The Naked Scientists returns to digest emerging Covid-related science and research. This week, a new study suggests that children are an important vector for the virus, what sounds like some encouraging news about post-infection immunity, and could herd immunity really work when just 20 percent of a population test positive?
Skin cells could be a vector for the virus, possibly floating like aerosols. Russian announcement that their immunity producing vaccines will last for two years. Dr Chris Smith says that cannot be stated as a fact, as the virus has only been worked on for 8+ months. Proper trials need to be carried out over two years to verify the situation.
Lanyards are annoying. People won't wear them.
Agreed, in fact the article suggested they need to be outside clothing. If it won't work from your pocket/wallet I can't see it being a goer. The article did discuss social acceptance.
Also a health and safety issue in a lot of occupations.
Just in case you have missed it..the DNC has quite literally told ( I am talking in political optics here ) the growing progressive wing of that party to fuck off! we are not your party and you have no place within it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HInen3jH_4M
So sure Biden is marginally better than the walking talking disaster that is Trump, but let's just be honest with ourselves here…he is nothing more than a talking head for the same old US hegemonic exceptionalist neocon's along with wall st and US corporate interests that POTUS always represent at the expense of the rest of the world…and their own citizens….Yep Biden and the DNC is just as happy to let the planet burn as Trump and the RNC are and make no mistake about that…
DNC’s Flip-Flop on Fossil Fuel Subsidies Follows Deep Ties the Industry
"The DNC quietly removed language from the party platform yesterday that endorsed an end to fossil fuel subsidies, after voting two years ago to allow itself to accept fossil fuel PAC contributions."
https://readsludge.com/2020/08/18/dncs-flip-flop-on-fossil-fuel-subsidies-follows-deep-ties-the-industry/
Where a broken clock is still correct twice a day, a broken record is just cracked and pointless.
Oh, and…
Sen. Bernie Sanders Worked With Biden To Potentially Create The “Most Progressive Agenda Since FDR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMh_nz9JnsM
Bernie Sanders – Mobilizing Progressives for Biden | The Daily Social Distancing Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hsQOOt_v7c
Not really much point in us debating, if you can't see that the Biden administration will be just another Republican lite corporate/wall st/military and prison industrial complex circle jerk just like that shill Obama's was, despite all the actual evidence staring you in the fucking face then whats the point?…none.
I wouldn't hold it against anyone who voted Biden in the US, but to actually think he and the DNC will be progressive is just plain delusion..he and the DNC are nothing more than pro choice republicans, that is just a fact, and will probably prove to be even more hawkish in foreign policy than Trump.
Trump…Obama's legacy..who knows what Biden's will be?
“We’re going to come together to defeat Trump,” Sanders told "The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah on Friday. “And the day after Biden is elected, we’re going to have a serious debate about the future of this country, but it will be done within the framework of a democratic society.”
Good luck with that meeting, Bernie, if the sad left stay home or vote for Kanye or other loser candidate, and reelect Trump by default.
Interesting to see that now Sanders is working from the inside, the emergence of the ‘more Bernie than Bernie’ splinter faction.
The day after Biden is elected he and the DNC will be in meetings with Goldman Sachs and the rest of their corporate owners…but I guess you already know that.
Unlike you, I'm just listening to what Bernie said on TV.
Since when have you starting listening to Bernie?…since he scrubbed out his lines in the sand and became a toothless, trained dog who stopped barking and biting at the enemy at the gates…not surprising.
He was my second choice in the primaries behind Warren, so personal politics wise, we have a fair amount in common.
I do find it saddening how ultra, only lefty in the village types who once clung to his every word, now insult him as "a toothless, trained dog". That, to me, speaks volumes. Someone working on the inside to get policy wins, despite being roundly rejected at the polls, clearly plays the long game for the greater good, rather than just grandstanding wishes and reckons from the edge of the rim on the very outside of us politics.
Good to know you're not a Bernie bro, now. I guess you're looking for the next most un electable candidate to throw your support behind. Good luck.
Well done, in not stooping to snide, unhelpful name calling in reponding to Al1en.
Are there two comedians less funny than Colbert and Noah in the entire United States? Roseanne Barr, possibly.
I’d agree that they are often unfunny. But they specialise more in dark satire than simple humour. More Jonathon Swift satirising the pompous dimwits of his day than a Benny Hill play things for laughs.
I realise that distinction, that is perfectly obvious to me, may escape you. I tend to view your thinking as tending toward very straight line direct thinking than nuanced. But if you observe what they do closely, they tend towards using barbed similes – designed more to elicit a feeling of horror than those to elicit laughs.
Personally I find actual comedians rather boring and predictable. However I do like these two.
Trevor Noah is a deep and thoughtful commentator? When did that remarkable transformation occur?
By “dark satire”, do you mean Noah’s and Colbert’s three and a half years of grim but nutty fantasy about those dastardly Russian masterminds who have seized control of America?
I wouldn’t call Russian intelligence masterminds.
It has been pretty damn obvious to anyone who is technically competent on the net. They have a tendency to be rather blatant about it. Approximately a fifth of the volume or hack attempts on this site come from Russian networks – some of which have very interesting network patterns. While US networks are our largest load of hack attempts. Most of them come from a relatively small group of dodgy server farms that anyone can rent for a dime or pretty obvious botnet captured machines.
It has been interesting over the years watching what some of the offshore hacks do after they fall into one of my honey traps (I set them up for Slater and co about 2013). About 8-10% aren’t commercial patterns (ie not spammers or obvious botnets) which I suspect is a lot higher than most non-political sites. Anyway if I want to drop the server loads, I usually just turn off access to bingbots, then I turn off access to the whole of easter Europe, and then exclude about 50 US server farms
However in this case Colbert and Noah were just repeating the reports of every security company or intelligence agency who looked the the raw data. The most recent was the bipartisan Senate report looking at pervasive Russian intelligence contacts with the Trump campaign – that look deliberate on both sides.
But basically I’d have to say that you’re a raving naive fool to think that there wasn’t a strong intelligence inspired influencer campaign in the 2016 election to get exactly the chaotic administration that Trump provides. It was less crude reprise of what has been happening in Russian border states for decades now.
I’m not particularly worried about it. The online tactic only really works for a short time. There was a limited real affect – probably actually less electoral effect than the daft electoral college system provided. And it warned every other state that they have to watch for it again (it was a very common pattern back in the 20th as well). The network system operators are now aware of it as well. They tend to being somewhat more abrupt about dealing with it.
Which is the long form of saying that I think, with what I consider is good reason, that you’re often rather deluded. However that is a personal opinion and doesn’t get fed into the moderator lprent role – who is more concerned with online behaviour.
BTW:
I couldn’t possibly agree with that – apart from anything else because I didn’t say it. I said that they were satirists.
Bad idea to try to put words into my mouth or anyone else. That is bad behaviour to lie about what someone else said.
Interestingly the small site I have also has a good number of "visitors" from Russia, including Leningrad.
The recently released Bi-Partisan Senate Intelligence Report into Russian interference in the 2016 election is highly damning (all 996 pages of it). It goes much further than the Mueller Report.
They weren’t restricted to a criminal proprietorial standard – so they were able to say what their balance of probability said what actually happened.
Fortunately on this site, I’m not restricted to even that standard. I operate on any possible threat rather than probable. The constraining factor is resources (especially my time).
Accurate.
Adrian, off-topic but I'm genuinely curious: which party do you support for the election here 8 weeks from now?
Thanks for asking, well I can't vote Labour here because they have given us the twin insults in the John Key loving Anna Lorke in Tukituki and if I registered in Napier, Stuart Nash who is probably ruing that he didn't drift to what is obviously his natural home in the National Party, because he would probably be leader of that party now.
So maybe Green/Green for what it's worth, which is fuck all…pity they didn't have the balls to elect Sue Bradford when they had the chance, someone who has the strength of character to really fight (and I mean really fight) for the working classes and disenfranchised of this country. and not just talk about it like everyone else in NZ politics today.
Sue Bradford used a lot of her capital getting the no-smacking bill through which does not appear to have reduced violence one iota. If she was a practical woman she would have been getting anti-bullying workshops for kids into schools, showing how kids can feel strong and good about themselves, and maybe turn bullys away with a quip and a raised eyebrow.
Yes she is good, but like many left progressives, goes for hoping people will turn to the good side, just because they should. We all need to change, and it takes a mental effort and someone demonstrating and upskilling us, not just feelgood preachiness.
I have meet her and can tell you she is a practical woman and she knows what drives the human condition better than most, she has actually lived a real life outside politics unlike nearly every single high ranking politician in NZ on both sides.
Maybe Bradford was playing a longer, aspirational game with a generational payoff – if fewer children are thrashed by their parents, then when those children (in the fullness of time) become parents maybe they will be a little less likely (on average) to thrash their own children. We can but hope.
I was pleased when the bill was passed (in 2007), and that it withstood various protests, petitions and even a referendumb ["Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?"] to get it overturned. Whatever its faults, the message of the legislation is clear, and good IMHO.
Thanks.
I'm relieved you might be able to vote for grouping that can make enough internal compromises to attract a coalition of somewhere around 6% of the vote. I wasn't sure anyone electable would be able to live up to your standards.
I often think there is a bit of a disconnect between what the smug, holier-than-though pragmatic centre-left thinks of many vocally more radical lefties, and what the latter are actually like. I think there are quite a few people who argue passionately for more left-leaning philosophies and policies, pronouncing the centrist options to be confused, insincere and weak, but still quietly vote for them as the lesser evil when the choice comes around. On the other hand, many centre-left pragmatists profess theoretical support for more left-leaning ideas, while waxing eloquent about the qualities of 'electable' centrists, and smugly lecturing radicals about the nature of politics in a broad democratic electorate, as though everybody didn't know already. The fact, though, as far as I'm concerned, is that if the radical left were to quieten its rhetoric down to that brand of 'sensible' strategic thinking, the centre would end up considerably to the right very quickly.
So it's forgivable to vote for electable candidates, and even express respect for them at times, so long as you don't gush about it as though it were some kind of virtue.
I went to a couple of those Green leadership contests.
Bradford was so easy to respect. I too wish she'd got it. But that's a fair time ago now.
As did I, Ad. Metiria and Sue both presented themselves very well, though at that stage, Sue appeared to be resigned to the likely outcome. She's a very strong and big-hearted woman and achieved a great deal for us all. Speaking one to one with Sue was a real eye-opener for me; she's a very "human" human, as distinct from her portrayal by the media of the time. Metiria, I liked very much also. She was as feisty as Sue but somehow suited the Party's needs more at the time. I found her various television interviews, especially those done by MaoriTV, to be remarkable vehicles for her wit and intelligence. Her downfall, or rather take-down, was awful, unpleasant and must have shaken her to the core. Both women deserve our highest respect, imo.
I am glad that she didn't get it. While i respect her achievements and incredible drive her mind is very much closed. I don't think she would have been able to bring the party along with her as a cohesive group.
I'm interested in outcomes, not just whether the politician involved is a sterling character. Hopefully waiting for possibly results in the next generation is what got us into the mess we in NZ are at present. Kindness coupled with practicality finds the most effective way to deal with the problem before it festers any further. We are all now dealing with neolib NZ that has ignored problems, not even cared, preferring to dismiss those with them as losers. Not satisfactory from our various governments.
The DNC quietly removed language from the party platform yesterday that endorsed an end to fossil fuel subsidies, after voting two years ago to allow itself to accept fossil fuel PAC contributions.
The dark side of the Dems. US voters must decide which shit tastes best. Will they lap up that shovelled by the Dems? Looks like that from the Reps is more unpalatable.
There is a Rep/Dem boundary to discussing voting in the US elections. I've just had a wee look at Wiki, there are heaps of choices. Unless you can only vote for the 'winning' team.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_party_and_independent_candidates_for_the_2020_United_States_presidential_election
Adrian – you can set as many litmus tests as you like, but nobody is interested in dipping the test paper in the 'solution'. And they will just get angry at you for asking that they do.
Brianna Joy Gray writes in the article I have linked to: "if we accept the binary that your vote is either unconditional or pledged to Trump, it removes our ability to affirm the values which will remain important long after the election is over."
Thanks, yes I have read that one, maybe a few commenters on this site would benefit from reading it as well…
There's different kinds of litmus tests.
There are bottom line standards that if someone goes below them, it should be disqualifying. For instance, personal criminal corruption or credible rape accusations. The Grab'em'fuhrer has multiple accusations open against him. If Tara Reade had a backstory that suggested she was credible rather than a proven serial fabulist, I would have real trouble with Biden. At the time of Bill Clinton's elections, Broaddrick's accusations weren't public and indeed her public stance was she didn't have anything to accuse Clinton of doing. And neither Biden nor Clinton have had any credible accusations of criminal personal corruption.
Then there are litmus tests where multiple tests are set at extremely high levels, and the slightest falling short of any one of them is considered disqualifying. Those prone to setting these kinds of litmus tests set many bars at levels that are impractically high, such that any candidate that might clear all of them to the satisfaction of the test setter becomes unelectable to the majority of the electorate that don't share the exact same extreme views on the exact same set of priorities.
"The Grab'em'fuhrer has multiple accusations open against him. If Tara Reade had a backstory that suggested she was credible rather than a proven serial fabulist, I would have real trouble with Biden."
So you apply the litmus test to trump and accept the result but the result of the same test when applied to Biden is false?
How so?
Because Tara Reade has been convincingly demonstrated to be a serial fabulist. To the point where her fraudulent expert testimony claiming qualifications she didn't have may well have harmful repercussions on actual victims of sexual assault.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/21/tara-reade-biden-expert-testimony-274460
There has been zero corroboration of Reade's claims from people she worked with, and a key aspect of her claim was about being forced into a semi-private area on a specific route in the Senate building. No such semi-private area exists.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-74-former-biden-staffers-think-about-tara-reades-allegations
Her claims appear to be carefully presented in a way that precludes Biden from being able to prove his innocence. They are not specific about date and time etc etc.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/04/29/joe-biden-sexual-assault-allegation-tara-reade-column/3046962001/
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/tara-reade-joe-biden-democrats/
Reade has left of long trail of people that feel deceived by her.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/15/tara-reade-left-trail-of-aggrieved-acquaintances-260771
Whereas there are a huge number of complaints against the stygian homunculus by women that don't have questions against their credibility, speaking to a pattern of behaviour. A pattern of behaviour that he is even on record as boasting about.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/women-accused-trump-sexual-misconduct-list-2017-12?r=US&IR=T
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations
….convincingly demonstrated to be a serial fabulist. …well have harmful repercussions on actual victims of sexual assault.
DNC character assassination and talking points bitten off and swallowed, hook, line, and sinker.
Checking facts and doing background research. You should try it sometime. It gives one a better grip on reality than existing solely within one's own initial prejudices.
Yes, your thorough and carefully selective research has conveniently led to your repeating exactly the concerted attacks on the character of that woman. Your "grip on reality" matches precisely the "grip on reality" of the party machine that has foisted Gropin' Joe, along with Gropin' Don, on the unfortunate voters of that benighted Republic.
You, on the other hand, can offer nothing to support your baseless contentions. And before you link to doctored video clips from right wing muck rackers, you need to know that we have seen those vile slanderous clips, and understand them for what they are.
… doctored video clips from right wing muck rackers [sic] you need to know that we have seen those vile slanderous clips,
We have?
and understand them for what they are.
What on earth are you raving about?
The arguments in Current Affairs were all hashed out in the Democratic Primaries. They aren't relevant now. Unless you are part of the anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, or Outsider marginals.
There is absolutely nothing for the far left in the Biden-Harris ticket.
Biden = MidLeft Dem Corporate. Also one of the least wealthy in the Senate. He's in the middle of the Democratic party for left-leaning.
Harris = Authoritarian Dem Corporate. Fractionally more left leaning on voting record.
They have zero to offer the anti-authoritarian left at all.
They have zero to offer the anti-corporate left at all.
They have zero to offer the Outsider left at all.
Those groups vote Green or or Socialist or not at all.
But they have everything to offer against Trump.
The US is not a socialist country. Moderate Democrats, in the mould of FDR is about as left as the US wants to go. Though obviously there is 10% of the electorate who would go further left. But 90% who don’t.
In that sense there are parallels with NZ. Only 5 to 10% of the country want to go left as the Greens, maybe a few percent more. It is indicative of the NZ mid point that the PM says she would not support a CGT while she is PM. I imagine she will have a 36% top tax rate for this election for incomes over $100 or 120k. Middle NZ will be fine with that.
The US is not a socialist country.
???????!!!???
You either have no knowledge of the long and honorable history of U.S. unionism and civil rights struggle, or you are a former National Party cabinet minister habituated to writing dishonest and misleading messages.
Moderate Democrats, in the mould of FDR is about as left as the US wants to go.
???? You are deliberately, I think, misrepresenting the thoroughly discredited DNC as reflecting the wishes and policy preferences of American voters.
What is your view about where the PM fits on the political spectrum, which, after all, is of immediate relevance to us New Zealanders?
I have given my assessment about where she fits. What is yours?
As acknowledged by most New Zealanders, in particular the hundreds of thousands who are abandoning your party right now, Jacinda Ardern is an extremely competent centrist politician.
I was personally very worried to learn she had worked for that arch criminal Tony Blair AFTER he had been one of the main conspirators in the destruction of Iraq, and I have been extremely disappointed that she allowed the Army and your political cronies to thwart Afghan victims of the N.Z. Army from appearing in our court during the Burnham inquiry. But in spite of those very grave reservations, I think she's done a fine job of holding this country together; the contrast with the treacherous behaviour of your colleagues is instructive.
What is your assessment of Judith Collins Wayne? Where does she fit on your spectrum?
The extreme left have done their job already. By supporting Sanders, and in turn by Sanders and team working on policy formation with Biden, the extreme left have pushed the policy platform as far as it's going to go.
I don't think they'll stay at home rather than vote.
In fact it's more likely that some of the Republicans will stay home and not vote.
Christ Wayne, you need to get out more beyond the cocktail set.
Levels of public ownership in the USA is very extensive, having been built up over more than a century, add to that, the level of direct consumer and worker ownership as well.
Let's start with the following link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-owned_enterprises_of_the_United_States
And of course, the TVA, the greatest SOE of them all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Valley_Authority
Even socialist nations like Egypt under Nasser copied and pasted the TVA for their public works projects.
The US Army Corps of Engineers, owns 30% of the hydro dams in the USA:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Corps_of_Engineers
Etc.
Such a welter of meaningless categories ('far left' , 'mid-left', 'authoritarian left'…) it is impossible to construct a response to it – other than note the overall inclination towards control and exclusion.
Barring accidents Biden will win -lets hope for a landslide and control of both houses as well. Some good things will follow and in time a lot of disappointment too. Pain and suffering will continue, and great wealth will continue to accumulate – both of these in the accustomed places.
Do a little search of "Joe Biden Political Compass"
The taxonomies stabilise after the first 30 or so.
AOC has made a fatal mistake in not selling out to at least one corrupt corporation. Her corrupt 'peers' will have nothing to do with her.
AOC is fully integrated into Democratic politics and into the Presidential campaign.
AOC is being groomed and guided upwards very well. All in the timing.
If the NZ Greens can both groom her for power and protect her from over-exposure, Chloe Swarbrick could be our equivalent of AOC.
"Literally"? I don't think that word means what you think it means .
Look like one of the rights attack vectors of speculation that the Government putting people into lock-down increased suicide rates is just another one of their may unscrupulous lies trying to win by hitting below the belt while the ref is not looking.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/suicide-commentary-unhelpful-to-queenstown-mental-health-experts-say/ar-BB18eSJV?li=BBqdg4K
ACT Party leader David Seymour for instance is quoted in the article as defending himself about what he said in Parliament with the words "You have to go by facts and not speculation," while it turns out from what the figures show that what he was saying was only speculation, and could possibly be harmful to.
Implication seem to be that while the overall numbers are down, Queenstown may not be. 'Unhelpful' isn't 'untrue'.
Something I noticed by its absence was no mention of the actual figure of how many suicides there were in Queenstown for the year being talked about. There is still an element of keeping the unattractive fact out of the public gaze. This might alert others to what difficulties Queenstown has been causing for working people in finding affordable housing.
That has to be an abuse of parliamentary privilege.
How is it an abuse of parliamentary privilege? The statements/speech raised legitimate questions about the cause of suicide. The media have a number of rules about how to discuss suicide and Seymour stayed within those guidelines.
It is not legitimate to shut down the debate of a very real and deep problem in the way those critical of Seymour were trying to do.
For instance when the farming sector has a finance or drought streak, farmer suicides increase. The farming community is very much aware of that and tries to provide more empathetic support than was historically was the case.
is there any evidence that there were seven suicides in Queenstown in that fortnight?
It seems a bit odd, certainly no rumours around my part of town that people are suiciding left, right and centre.
And adult suicide is more a peak of the cycle thing here, usually from people working too much, chefs and business owners working 100+ hours a week and it all going to shit.
Insurance jobs are more the bottom of the cycle thing.
A couple of our local actoids tried starting a suicide meme during the April lockdown but got shut down pretty quickly for spinning shit.
Would be interesting to see how many people committed suicide after your lot had ACC throw them off their long term claim rolls and onto the benefit system, loosing between $200 and $300 a week, and their houses as a concequence. All so "line goes up".
Or the young mother of 6 who killed herself in about 2016 or 17 after WINZ told her they werent going to pay for any more motel accomodation, leaving her parents to bring up the kids, who ended up having to stay in motel rooms, after being evicted from their state house on trumped up meth charges.
But I dont see you, your lot, or your supporters giving a shit about that, as long as your retirement nest eggs dont get taxed.
Thank you millsy!!! But clearly those suicides don’t matter to Seymour, Wayne et al … the deserving suicides vs the underserving suicides?
Seymour was politicing with the suicide stats that weren't actual stats.
Not just any test, an Immigration NZ approved test:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/08/coronavirus-national-wants-kiwis-overseas-to-find-immigration-nz-approved-testing-labs-before-coming-home.html
National’s National Border Force is going to be busy.
Now would it be more profitable to go overseas to inspect and approve, or to auction off approvals?
Oh the latter, I'd put my money on that. What are the odds?
The bribes will flow and water the poor, benighted, rich bludgers who have lost so much income due to the closing of the border.
Yeah, just another plan by National to get their funders hands into the publics till because you can guarantee that it will all be contracted out to the private sector. Another great recipe to increase corruption by National.
Gordon McDowell (who has spent over a decade documenting the next generation nuclear renaissance) has new clip of an Alberta panel discussion on nuclear energy and it's role in climate change from a completely non-technical perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySqaLbYBB_c
The CDHB Board is stacked with National Party stooges including a current candidate and the Gough family member.I see this as being political mischief. As an employee I have nothing but admiration for David Meates who has been very willing to be involved in solving some of the problems of the Mental Health sector. For Sue Nightingale to decribe the Board / Executive relationship as toxic and adverserial is interesting, she is a Psychiatrist with all the interpersonal skills required and thats her diagnosis.
A commissioner to oversee a manager for the board and a manager for the executive need to be appointed and answerable to the health minister through the commissioner because of the implosion. Matters should not have got to the stage they have got to.
What do Israelis and Jews everywhere have to say about this? Is the answer to be more what-about-ism and you-did-it-first and look-what-you-did we are just doing the same? And we must protect ourselves by showing us as ready to attack as vicious hornets do? Are they allowed to smite everyone by their religion? Did the Holocaust mean that they will be for ever cursed by that happening and the revenge response that they apparently have bred in their young people and embedded in compulsory army duty where they are taught hostility and can use violence and deadly force when they can make some excuse?
In the early hours of 7 August, Israeli Occupation force, in a night raid and home invasions in Jenin, shot and killed Dalia Samudi in her Jabariyat neighbourhood home. She received several bullet wounds in the chest while trying to close a window against Israeli Army tear gas; the soldiers even opened fire on the ambulance that arrived to take her to hospital. Dalia was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at hospital and the 23-year-old woman’s new-born child is now motherless. The local Red Crescent Director, Mahmoud al-Sa’adi, confirmed to the Wafa News Agency that the ambulance, scarred with bullets, had been fired on by Israeli soldiers as it arrived to evacuate her.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/08/22/shameful-deathly-silence/
The only failure I can see in the New Zealand Covid repsonse is that the 1pm update is never punctual. 1:09 and waiting.
Edit: I apologise. “regular written updates at approximately 1 pm daily”
Even when the daily update is given it is a guessing game. There is no precision with Covid. Were the number even zero in the community I would still be looking over my shoulder at times.
weekend.
Something I just stumbled on, evedently in Australia, you can't leave the country, you are required to apply for an Exemption, the exemtions are listed here
https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/leaving-australia
#NZHellhole could well be the funniest trend I've ever read on twitter. Kudos NZ and suck on that trump !!!
https://twitter.com/search?q=NZHellhole&f=live
I hope someone can help the plaintive immigrants and visa problems etc. Or is everyone too content.
There's a petition for it, only one signature. Migrant visa holders have already been given a visa extension. https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/petitions/document/PET_101158/petition-of-jimmy-singh-migrants-stuck-offshore-should
Essential worker migrants are allowed in with an exemption. It's about having enough quarantine facilities here and flight availability from their country of departure. It's sad their countries of citizenship aren't taking care of said migrants workers while NZ borders are closed.
In any case #NZHellhole is an excellent thread.
# hell hole NZ. lol lol lol!
Lmao !!
https://twitter.com/mikebuckham/status/1296972401553469440
Thanks for link Cinny. I have signed. I think it is sad that NZ thinks it can turn the tap on for low-paid people when it wants, and then off again while they are still being processed or getting transport.
Accommodation is a problem, time is passing and they should be fixing this, the government excuse is wearing thin.
Petition is open till 14 September for those who give a damn.
National party rebranding as the
" Chicken Little" party when a little mistake of a conspiracy turns NZ into a hellhole.
https://youtu.be/NO04VXBIS0M
Six cases and four in the cluster,
Ashley is the bestest buster.
Two more cases without a link,
I think, I think, I think, that is stink.
By tomorrow we will find,
If these are tied or we are in a bind.
Donald Trump's mother Mary Anne MacLeod was six years old and old enough to remember the Iolaire Disaster.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-46522918
She raised him and his siblings in the USA, away from the grieving. He became a believer in the teachings of Norman Vincent Peale.
"Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are."
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/norman-vincent-peale-quotes
'Murica
https://twitter.com/TalbertSwan/status/1296611012674818048
Well I'll certainly not be purchasing my next automobile from this fellow.
Another well written and researched opinion piece by Mr Glen Johnson via Al Jazeera.
Coronavirus and conspiratorial dog-whistles return to New Zealand
Amid a new outbreak, New Zealand's opposition is once again trying to leverage misinformation for political gain.
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/coronavirus-conspiratorial-dog-whistles-return-zealand-200820113656292.html
Uncertain reporting
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2020/03/coronavirus-how-new-zealand-s-self-isolation-rules-compare-to-other-countries.html
This story written today 22nd Aug…
But self isolation is for 14 days, 'late last night' must mean 15th August? unless their stand-down is only 7 days?
Towards the end of the article..
So.. written today, and 'last Tuesday ' was the 18th Aug. But the 102 day streak was broken a week earlier than that.
This is could be just sloppy writing and no editorial oversight, but is confusing and possibly misleading to the time-line of events it is reporting on. Why am I never surprised…
The conspirators need to be countered with the facts
[deleted]
[lprent: Perhaps you should understand that commenters need to get themselves educated about quoting and linking. Deleted what looked to be a dump of a whole CNN page complete with all of the side links. Assuming this is a person rather than dumb arse bot, I have removed it. Short quotes and a link please. We’re not disinterested in idiots violating copyrights. Maintaining auto moderation until we see a comment that doesn’t reek of stupid behaviour.]
@ aj at 16. Reply button on posts not responding.
Now Natz and media cannot go to bed
Up all night making shit theories instead
Malpass censoring until the truth is dead
Hosking talking with the voices in his head
GB scratches nut cos he can't get the thread.
While Eyebrows and Reti are rewriting the BIOMED
We'll say its Blomfield that did this new spread
"Let us bang that up their snotholes," Seymour said.
"Yeah let's do it, 'cos Chucky doll's got the cred! "
And we'll all have a group hug before this BS# is fed
Hello, hello is that, Heather, Hooten or rnz ?
" Evidence?" " F#k that says GB, don't need a shred !"
Pretty much sums it up…
Here's one man for Hosking to interview on ' How one literally creates a new f#k up at the border.'
"A business owner in managed isolation says he stopped eating for eight days to see if authorities would notice."
Peeved at not been given exceptional privilege he decides to try an experiment and concludes, ” I was right, no one has noticed.”
Despite the daily health care given Tony Everitt is a man on a mission to prove he has….?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12358727
… shit for brains?
Siouxie Wiles, the biochemist who has contributed a lot of easy to understand material throughout the pandemic so far, has written another useful and cogent article in the Spinoff on how to improve the Covid response, including an analysis of National's proposals. Worth a read.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/23-08-2020/siouxsie-wiles-what-does-a-robust-covid-response-look-like-for-new-zealand/