Last year, just weeks after the British state had forcibly removed journalist Julian Assange from his place of asylum, the British High Commission staged an Orwellian event in honour of World Press Freedom Day.
OK so he explicitly links poverty and climate change, revolts against billionaires and 2020 capitalism, and joins the 20th century in supporting legal support for gay people.
At some point this Pope is going to gain the majority of Cardinals needed to give women freedom within the Church. Slowly he will catch up with many western Anglicans, and our local Presbyterians.
Until then, he's leading a billion moral conservatives out in front far better than 99% of the US evangelicals on display right now.
Still wont support gay marriage, and in 2020, hoping papa will soon give 50% of the congregation the freedoms the other half have always taken for granted is at best a poor attempt at hiding how out of touch and inconsequential the catholics really are.
But great they're on their way. Ladies, set 2060 in your diaries and, oh yeah, prey.
I was told recently that the reason priests became celibate is because some 1000-2000 years ago, the 'church' found the upkeep of wives and children as well as the priests too much of a financial burden so they decided to ban relationships between priest and their flock. Naturally they enforced it by claiming it was decree from God.
If there is any truth to that story then I say drop the celibate nonsense and let priests marry and have partners just like the rest of us. Could solve a lot of problems.
Any normal person would feel some kind of need to square what they claim now to what they have previously said, but Giuliani has shameless lying down to an art. (A necessary skill for hanging out with the Quid Pro Quovidiot.)
Giuliani told Page Six that in the midst of the interview, which was being conducted by a female interviewer “with a professional set-up of lights and camera,” a man came storming in wearing an outrageous outfit. The former mayor told the publication, “This guy comes running in, wearing a crazy, what I would say was a pink transgender outfit. It was a pink bikini, with lace, underneath a translucent mesh top, it looked absurd. He had the beard, bare legs, and wasn’t what I would call distractingly attractive.”
While Giuliani would later identify the interview-crasher as Cohen, he told Page Six he did not realize it at first and reported the incident to the police. “This person comes in yelling and screaming, and I thought this must be a scam or a shake-down,” he said. “So I reported it to the police. He then ran away.”
“I only later realized it must have been Sacha Baron Cohen,” Giuliani added. “I thought about all the people he previously fooled and I felt good about myself because he didn’t get me.”
In an hotel room with what he thought was a 15 year old with his hands down his strides. A new perspective on Giuliani's sleazy insinuations about Hunter Biden.
He added that he had believed the interview with Bakalova was entirely legitimate. “At one point she explained to me some problems she had. I actually prayed with her,” he said. “And then I had to leave. I had my jacket on. I was fully clothed at all times
To be fair, I really don't think age issues ever entered Nosferatu's mind.
Hmmm, p'raps I should explain that further. The lady in question is 24, and I haven't seen anywhere any reports saying a younger age was claimed for her (until Cohen entered the room), nor that she is unusually youthful in appearance.
yes, grant supports a political party that pushes three strikes law, grant is on strike two? one more shoplifted loaf of bread and he's looking at striped sunlight. be a bugger if he was set up by someone he had put through the financial wringer!! perhaps for his own good, they may tell him to get a lawnmowing run. plenty of time to smirk while pushing a masport.
It's written by a guy from a right-wing Australian think-tank who quotes Dr Oliver Hartwich, executive director of the New Zealand Initiative like this.
“The next few years will be extremely tough. If we do not get our economic house in order, New Zealand could end up a failed state."
Sounds a bit over the top and people reacted strongly to that on social media. But Oliver Hartwich is quoted as saying the same thing on Sunday by Stuff’s political editor – and he said the same thing back in May in an Institute newsletter.
Two days before the election, The Australian's foreign editor Greg Sheridan said:
"No international halo is so shabby, or so fraudulent, as that worn by New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern.”
It’s no surprise because Murdoch’s press takes sides in Australia supporting the right and his papers’ editors and columnists follow suit.
Colin Peacock then paints left leaning media with the same brush
In the UK, The Guardian leans left and hammers Boris Johnson’s Tories every chance it gets – sometimes damaging its own credibility in the process.
Colin, perhaps some politicians deserve to be hammered.
Thanks for that enlightening comment aj – what a bloody disgrace to have to report. We've got The NZ Snuffitive and Oliver Hartwich from Germany? come like bugs imported to eat holes in the fabric of our NZ society, and being used as a fifth-columist in the main page columns of overseas newspapers as well as our own. Lies, damn lies, and the hyper-wealthy and their flatulent servants! What a lovely 21st century we have managed to build in the world.
Stuff's political editor – is that Luke Malpass? Just appointed, and that shows an insensitivity by stuff to what is fair comment and what is right wing weighted – the flying in circles syndrome that so many journos display. Is this bird worthy of veterinary care or should it be put out of its misery?
The anti Jacida rubbish poured out by Gideon Rozner, who isthe head of policy at Australia’s powerful right wing think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), and the NZ connections are two New Zealand members of the Atlas Network: The New Zealand Initiative and the NZ Taxpayers Union. The Atlas Network claims Williams’ campaign was instrumental in getting Ardern to dump the idea of a capital gains tax. etc etc
The linked article is incredibly important for NZers to read, IMHO. The likes of the Koch brothers and Gina Rinehart are using their money to influence the NZ media and politics.
Yes the 'dark forces' are at work and won't relent. Watched a doco on Al Jazeera yesterday 'The Unfair Game' Big data politics and how the American public were tricked into opening the doors of the White House to Donald Trump (2018) and a companion piece to The Great Hack (2019). Both highly recommended. The right fight to win and use any means available.
Rudd's started a petition over “the abuse of media monopoly in Australia” and “to make recommendations to maximise media diversity ownership for the future lifeblood of our democratic system”across the ditch.
In the video circulating via Facebook and Twitter, Rudd describes the Murdoch corporation, which owns 70 per cent of newspapers in Australia, as a “cancer on our democracy”.
Nothings binding in terms of # signatures etc on scomo to do anything and a royal commissions will be the last thing Liberals want looking at their fav media mogul.
In Australia they used to have an idea of separation of media system but the drongoes didn't maintain that and now look at their media situation. And note how influential Labour were in loosening up controls, just like here.
Apart from a period during colonial times, the ownership of newspapers was free of government regulation until the 1980s, when Labor governments under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating introduced changes that continue to define the media landscape 30 years later….
For Andrew Dodd, the program director of journalism at Swinburne University of Technology, 1987 [Labour's Hawke in power and neolib changes under way] was a watershed year.*
'Rupert Murdoch bought into The Herald and Weekly Times, and in doing that he acquired the company that his father had built up. He already had assets but then he came in and bought six metropolitan newspapers as well as a raft of community papers around the country. So here he was sitting on an absolute mountain of printed publications. In the same year, the Trade Practices Commission said that this really didn't create market dominance, which was an extraordinary finding.
(No wonder Julia Gillard got run out of town.)
In 2011, with Julia Gillard as prime minister, the Labor government attempted a root and branch rethinking of regulation to try to take into account a media environment that now included the internet. The Convergence Review attempted to come up with a way to address powerful emerging media while also creating some commonality in regulation, so that the same standards would be applied, for example, to a print newspaper story and the online version of that story….
'I do think that the interaction between media proprietors in Australia with politicians is different to other countries because of one very important difference, and that is that we have very high levels of media concentration in Australia compared to other countries,' adds Carson.
'If we are looking particularly at print, the two largest proprietors, or even if you take the top three, have a 98 per cent reach of audience across Australia. That is tremendously influential.
…These policies [neoliberal economic recipe] needed a fresh government prepared to defy vested economic interests. Such a government would win much support for its boldness.
These ideas came from the top down. The public wanted change – but it was not protesting in the streets for a floating dollar, free trade and low inflation. The intellectual momentum for the 1980s reforms was elite-driven.
Coincidence – after finding these reports referring to Australia and Bob Hawke I have come onto this piece about Yes Minister and the enthusiasm with which Bob Hawke embraced Paul Eddington, sort of.
See at 9 mins where the director? says that the UK Yes Minister aims to show everyone warts and all unlike the USA West Wing where all have to he perfect, more like The Truman Show I suppose, just a total sham. However they, go for all the UK institutions with words like shoddy and sleazy. 'You aren't JC, you are just a naughty boy' sort of thing.
The NZInstitute and Murdoch are just trying to ensure that the rich remain in power by raising people's fears.
Of course, once people truly realise that government spending is what actually funds the economy and that profits are just a tax by another name then we might start changing our society for the better.
Be interesting to know what agency was responsible for testing those Russukrainian fishers, and who approved the deal. Is it Mfat or Mbie does this stuff? Is Gnashie in the mix anywhere?
I find it all a bit worrying. Doesn't look like there was any effort to stop covid transfer on the plane or pre boarding? did the companies bother to have any importing controls over this- and the more cases on shore the greater chance that it leaks into the community.
Hopefully though it can be used to deter to much other private importing of labour forces based on this. I'd also like to see the plan for the sharp reduction in offshore labour in favour of training locals.
The Movement For Socialism (MAS) scored an impressive victory in Bolivia this Sunday. Overturning the bullshit US inspired coup against the legitimate Morales election victory. Lets hope the people of Venezuela can take heart from this with their ongoing struggle against the Yankee facist interference.
Is it just me or are the left more happier in defeat. We could have woken up on Sunday to a Nat/act govt wanting to do australian style task force raptor police reforms, tax cuts , allowing people to with draw from their kiwi saver, zero investment in health reforms and a program of austerity, welfare education and social cuts and ruthanasia on steroids.
Instead we have the biggest left wing mandate in our lifetimes to work on climate, education, health transport reforms a govt that wants to feed kids in schools free trades and wants to do more but will have to be pushed like all great left wing govts have to be pushed.
Anyone would thing Nat / act had a super majority.
I've criticized this govt a lot but it never had the numbers for rapid transformation and our expectations of a three way coalition were incredibly high. Ardern is now talking about accelerating change , it's million miles better than the alternative and if we push this govt I believe it will be more progressive. It actually did do a lot of good in the first term but this term it needs to be 3x faster and 3x more transformational.
I hope labour and greens can work out a confidence agreement that gives the greens experience policy reforms and the ministerial portfolios outside of cabinet to see those reforms happen, I was hoping labour would get 60 seats and the greens about what they got so we could blame all the left wing stuff we need to do on the greens (even though we mostly wanna do it) but now we have a mandate. The left are either saying we can't do it because swing voters voted labour (when was that a bad thing, I think they wanted that transformational change that Ardern spoke of throughout the last period) or that nothing can ever change because the labour party, the party of reforms has a mandate to do nothing, with covid still unfolding and the economic crisis it brings on and labour being elected to do the recovery both economically and socially Labour can say that anything they do is a part of the covid recovery.
We won the party vote in nearly every Electorate, every city except Auckland, Tauranga are seas of red, Ilam, rangitata hell even whangerei may be red after specials, the greens increased their vote and the Maori party have been reelected on a left wing mandate and the labour party just wow… Let's not write this govt off before the votes even been counted and if lab and the greens can't use this historic mandate on climate change reform to work together then something is seriously wrong with us.
Victory is so rare in the left. So rare, we lose globally. Let's savior this victory and yes organize to push the govt to be more active but some of us have been given great hope by this win and some of us feel really happy that this country is not a divided mess and that instead of voting for me this country voted for we, we can make this country a better place, let the chips fall before we right this govt off.
Sorry for the rant but you'd literally think we lost and sometimes I wonder, do left wingers prefer nights like 2014 to nights like Saturday?
I too am grateful that we don't have Judith and struggle to believe that 35% of the country were willing to take a chance on catching covid.
I'm not sure if it is the media presentation or labour itself that is coming over as so risk adverse. I do feel though that the electorate at large – will still wanting to be employed but not in a dead end seasonal minimum rate if you are lucky job- has a lot of concern about bigger issues both economic and social and would like some progress on those.
Victory is so rare for the left that we have to keep our heads while we unwrap what the gift is made of. No good getting a lovely toy if the key isn't with it. That's why everyone is thinking through implications – Mum we aren't there yet are we!
But good news. All wasp haters will be pleased. And look how well we collaborated for the common good. Why can't we get this mode of behaviour rippling across the world?
In a world first, New Zealand researchers have sequenced the genome of three wasps, two of which are invasive wasps in New Zealand, paving the way for new methods of control for these significant pests.
Genomics Aotearoa researchers working at the University of Otago and Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington, alongside colleagues from the UK, Australia and California have successfully completed a three-year project to sequence and interpret the genomes of the common wasp (Vespula vulgaris), German wasp (Vespula germanica), and the western yellowjacket (Vespula pensylvanica).
Now another insect that could invade our borders as we have the right climate for it. Perhaps we could work with the Chinese and other Asian laboratories on the dreaded Chinese hornet – that would be a good collaboration also.
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[multiple links get caught in the filter, no explanation or the links and mods are likely to treat them as spam – weka]
We should start applying the kindness we want to this Government. I hear many critical voices here, and small support for what they have managed.
Voters understood, Winston wanted too much status quo and the Greens think of this Government in terms of past iterations, and tokenism.
Jacinda Ardern is such a breath of fresh air she has made a mark internationally, and that has attracted enemies in the oil coal and right wing think tanks.
She has made New Zealanders proud of our country, prepared to help each other and listen to the scientists. This Labour Party has attracted high calibre representatives who will be able to take more of the load.
We want this Government to right all the wrongs, during a pandemic, which is still raging, and to govern for all.
The bitterness some feel with real reason will take many a balm to still the pain, and prejudging is unhelpful to the sensitive negotiations taking place right now.
We hope to have a combination of parties, and the real shape of Government will show after the special votes are counted. 'Till then be glad we are not waking up to Judith and that lot.
Labour are very much at the point where they're going to let the present crisis go to waste as they try to maintain BAU – especially as the crisis proves BAU to be contrary to a resilient economy and society.
They really do need to use the crisis to move away from BAU.
See Stuff has another think piece -without much think- on possible seasonal worker shortage.
However I had found a piece from 2019 in Stuff – not sure why they published it!- that if I read it correctly stated that gold kiwifruit returned about $95000 per hectare and cost about $2000 to pick.
Now I know there are other costs but it would be very interesting to see the per hectare returns of a lot of other fruits. Cherries at about $20 retail per kg so say $10 cost – so a worker needs to pick some 2.5kg per hour plus more for other overheads ?
This doesn't seem to be part of any of the media stories.
I think you might find that cost to a producer of agri and hort crops is closer to 80 to 90% of return. Viticulture, depending on the season is lucky to average 7% before tax.
Fuck knows why we do it.
That retail cherry price in a supermarket is at least twice the growers return, picking is one week in 52, they don’t look after themselves for the other 51.
Urban ignorance of how food happens is staggering, except for those few who have attempted to grow $50 lettuces and $80 a kilo tomatoes.
"For the 2016/17 harvest, the average forecast return ("OGR" or Orchard Gate Return) for Green Kiwifruit is just over $53k per hectare and for Gold Kiwifruit it is just over $95k. With average on orchard costs sitting at about $30k per hectare, the maths is pretty simple and compelling. Remember, this is the average. When growers put in the time and effort, the rewards are generally, better."
Um I'm not that urban. I do realise that the local veggie market is not super profitable to put it mildly – on the other hand AFAIK they also don't employ RSE and backpackers to any great extent. On the other hand there was a time when tomato paste fetched huge prices – although that is now gone?
I'm more interested in the seasonal vines and fruit picking that use RSE labour and backpackers and keep muttering about labour shortages. Is it that the stuff is not profitable unless the wage rates are rock bottom or could the wages go up? For the export markets I guess it makes sense to concentrate on the more profitable crops bearing in mind that the production life can be 10 ++ years for the tree or vine and retruns can vary over that life.
So I do think it is a valid question that the MSM could be asking along with queries about the extent of foreign ownership of the sector.
Frankly for me I would far rather help a local owner than some business where the profit is being siphoned off by overseas ownership or a wad of local intermediaries.
Otherwise did I touch a nerve there? Something best not discussed?
Markets determine the price and the vast majority are supermarket chains and they are arseholes, constantly driving down the return so they can claim to be the "cheapest food "in town.
The kiwifruit returns are a bit of bullshit, because Zespri etc have propietry rights to the cultivars, "'Use of " charges for the plants are astronomical , in the 100s of thousands of dollars per hectare but these are not counted as "orchard "costs, but as start up expenses.
"Sweden has now seen a doubling in cases in three weeks, hitting more than 1000 new cases in one day for the first time since June,"
"Sweden's cumulative death total from infections is 10 times higher than neighbouring Norway and Finland and five times higher than Denmark."
This is crucial for kea because DoC, who are ostensibly concerned to protect them, will keep poisoning in any event. For the keas, it's a bit like having Harold Shipman as one's GP.
In my young days I worked as a possum trapper for a while and witnessed first hand the utter devastation that possums can wreak upon the bush – 1080 is by far the lesser evil.
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It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
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Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When ASIO boss Mike Burgess delivered his annual threat assessment earlier this year, he stressed the rising danger posed by espionage and foreign interference. “In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed ...
The Tribunal had called on Minister for Children Karen Chhour to provide evidence at an urgent inquiry into the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University Midjourney image by T.J. Thomson As more than half of Australian office workers report using generative artificial intelligence (AI) for work, we’re starting to see this technology affect every ...
More breathtaking hypocrisy from the U.K. state
Last year, just weeks after the British state had forcibly removed journalist Julian Assange from his place of asylum, the British High Commission staged an Orwellian event in honour of World Press Freedom Day.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/05/these-people-are-representative-of-new.html
Now, the Johnson regime is at it again….
https://twitter.com/FCDOGovUK/status/1318537453234520064
A new headache for the U.S. and its client regimes: democracy in Bolivia will not die
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/55741.htm
OK so he explicitly links poverty and climate change, revolts against billionaires and 2020 capitalism, and joins the 20th century in supporting legal support for gay people.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/21/europe/pope-gay-couples-civil-union-intl/index.html
At some point this Pope is going to gain the majority of Cardinals needed to give women freedom within the Church. Slowly he will catch up with many western Anglicans, and our local Presbyterians.
Until then, he's leading a billion moral conservatives out in front far better than 99% of the US evangelicals on display right now.
Hang in there man.
Still wont support gay marriage, and in 2020, hoping papa will soon give 50% of the congregation the freedoms the other half have always taken for granted is at best a poor attempt at hiding how out of touch and inconsequential the catholics really are.
But great they're on their way. Ladies, set 2060 in your diaries and, oh yeah, prey.
I was told recently that the reason priests became celibate is because some 1000-2000 years ago, the 'church' found the upkeep of wives and children as well as the priests too much of a financial burden so they decided to ban relationships between priest and their flock. Naturally they enforced it by claiming it was decree from God.
If there is any truth to that story then I say drop the celibate nonsense and let priests marry and have partners just like the rest of us. Could solve a lot of problems.
The Dotard of Doltistan's personal Nosferatu might have a new bit of distraction from trying to sell his hokey'd up Hunter Biden laptop story …
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8864821/Giuliani-caught-Borats-daughter-hand-pants.html
Will Rudi claim he was in on the joke all along?
He might.
Any normal person would feel some kind of need to square what they claim now to what they have previously said, but Giuliani has shameless lying down to an art. (A necessary skill for hanging out with the Quid Pro Quovidiot.)
In an hotel room with what he thought was a 15 year old with his hands down his strides. A new perspective on Giuliani's sleazy insinuations about Hunter Biden.
So he was going for the crucifix in his pants.
He added that he had believed the interview with Bakalova was entirely legitimate. “At one point she explained to me some problems she had. I actually prayed with her,” he said. “And then I had to leave. I had my jacket on. I was fully clothed at all times
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/oct/21/rudy-giuliani-faces-questions-after-compromising-scene-in-new-borat-film
To be fair, I really don't think age issues ever entered Nosferatu's mind.
Hmmm, p'raps I should explain that further. The lady in question is 24, and I haven't seen anywhere any reports saying a younger age was claimed for her (until Cohen entered the room), nor that she is unusually youthful in appearance.
Quick poll, does anyone here lay down to tuck their shirt into their pants?
I don't know about you, but I stand up to do that.
It's been so long since I last did that I'm not sure anymore.
Lmfao !!!
Perhaps Grant might show remorse for his imprisonable actions of 25 years ago and repay the victims of his fraud.
People might then view his character in a different light.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/damien-grant-fights-for-insolvency-career-in-court-after-license-rejected-over-criminal-history/FCBD5TMQLFF7CGSIHUSHPLXF7U/
yes, grant supports a political party that pushes three strikes law, grant is on strike two? one more shoplifted loaf of bread and he's looking at striped sunlight. be a bugger if he was set up by someone he had put through the financial wringer!! perhaps for his own good, they may tell him to get a lawnmowing run. plenty of time to smirk while pushing a masport.
MediaWatch on RNZ last night featured an segment on media bias in reporting the New Zealand's election in Murdoch-owned media overseas.
Colin Peacock then paints left leaning media with the same brush
Colin, perhaps some politicians deserve to be hammered.
Along with Don Brash and others, Dr Oliver Hartwich is a major backer of Damien Grant referenced in the comment @5 above.
Thanks for that enlightening comment aj – what a bloody disgrace to have to report. We've got The NZ Snuffitive and Oliver Hartwich from Germany? come like bugs imported to eat holes in the fabric of our NZ society, and being used as a fifth-columist in the main page columns of overseas newspapers as well as our own. Lies, damn lies, and the hyper-wealthy and their flatulent servants! What a lovely 21st century we have managed to build in the world.
Stuff's political editor – is that Luke Malpass? Just appointed, and that shows an insensitivity by stuff to what is fair comment and what is right wing weighted – the flying in circles syndrome that so many journos display. Is this bird worthy of veterinary care or should it be put out of its misery?
Could the dark forces intrude in NZ? Yes.
The anti Jacida rubbish poured out by Gideon Rozner, who is the head of policy at Australia’s powerful right wing think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), and the NZ connections are two New Zealand members of the Atlas Network: The New Zealand Initiative and the NZ Taxpayers Union. The Atlas Network claims Williams’ campaign was instrumental in getting Ardern to dump the idea of a capital gains tax. etc etc
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/who-the-hell-is-gideon-rozner-anyway
The linked article is incredibly important for NZers to read, IMHO. The likes of the Koch brothers and Gina Rinehart are using their money to influence the NZ media and politics.
+100
Easy solution. Turn TVNZ/RNZ into proper public broadcasters so people can tune in when they want the truth.
Or we can leave them alone to continue using the hootons, pagani's etc being asked patsy questions by the Espiners/Ferguson/Ryan etc.
Yes the 'dark forces' are at work and won't relent. Watched a doco on Al Jazeera yesterday 'The Unfair Game' Big data politics and how the American public were tricked into opening the doors of the White House to Donald Trump (2018) and a companion piece to The Great Hack (2019). Both highly recommended. The right fight to win and use any means available.
Boris, getting hammered by Jonathan Pie.
https://youtu.be/CYmn76Y50Us
Boris' incompetency rivals tRump's.
https://twitter.com/RussInCheshire/status/1318525199940308992
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1318525199940308992.html
Did he give an example of the pommedia damaging their credibility attacking Johnson? Maybe 'Johnson' was a slip of the tongue and he meant 'Corbyn'.
Crossed my mind that too
Rudd's started a petition over “the abuse of media monopoly in Australia” and “to make recommendations to maximise media diversity ownership for the future lifeblood of our democratic system”across the ditch.
In the video circulating via Facebook and Twitter, Rudd describes the Murdoch corporation, which owns 70 per cent of newspapers in Australia, as a “cancer on our democracy”.
Nothings binding in terms of # signatures etc on scomo to do anything and a royal commissions will be the last thing Liberals want looking at their fav media mogul.
In Australia they used to have an idea of separation of media system but the drongoes didn't maintain that and now look at their media situation. And note how influential Labour were in loosening up controls, just like here.
Apart from a period during colonial times, the ownership of newspapers was free of government regulation until the 1980s, when Labor governments under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating introduced changes that continue to define the media landscape 30 years later….
For Andrew Dodd, the program director of journalism at Swinburne University of Technology, 1987 [Labour's Hawke in power and neolib changes under way] was a watershed year.*
'Rupert Murdoch bought into The Herald and Weekly Times, and in doing that he acquired the company that his father had built up. He already had assets but then he came in and bought six metropolitan newspapers as well as a raft of community papers around the country. So here he was sitting on an absolute mountain of printed publications. In the same year, the Trade Practices Commission said that this really didn't create market dominance, which was an extraordinary finding.
(No wonder Julia Gillard got run out of town.)
In 2011, with Julia Gillard as prime minister, the Labor government attempted a root and branch rethinking of regulation to try to take into account a media environment that now included the internet. The Convergence Review attempted to come up with a way to address powerful emerging media while also creating some commonality in regulation, so that the same standards would be applied, for example, to a print newspaper story and the online version of that story….
'I do think that the interaction between media proprietors in Australia with politicians is different to other countries because of one very important difference, and that is that we have very high levels of media concentration in Australia compared to other countries,' adds Carson.
'If we are looking particularly at print, the two largest proprietors, or even if you take the top three, have a 98 per cent reach of audience across Australia. That is tremendously influential.
*Background on why 1987 was an important year:
https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/confs/2000/kelly-address.html
…These policies [neoliberal economic recipe] needed a fresh government prepared to defy vested economic interests. Such a government would win much support for its boldness.
These ideas came from the top down. The public wanted change – but it was not protesting in the streets for a floating dollar, free trade and low inflation. The intellectual momentum for the 1980s reforms was elite-driven.
Coincidence – after finding these reports referring to Australia and Bob Hawke I have come onto this piece about Yes Minister and the enthusiasm with which Bob Hawke embraced Paul Eddington, sort of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkKY0oMP3yk&feature=emb_rel_end
See at 9 mins where the director? says that the UK Yes Minister aims to show everyone warts and all unlike the USA West Wing where all have to he perfect, more like The Truman Show I suppose, just a total sham. However they, go for all the UK institutions with words like shoddy and sleazy. 'You aren't JC, you are just a naughty boy' sort of thing.
ScoMoFo kno what side his bread buttered.
The NZInstitute and Murdoch are just trying to ensure that the rich remain in power by raising people's fears.
Of course, once people truly realise that government spending is what actually funds the economy and that profits are just a tax by another name then we might start changing our society for the better.
Be interesting to know what agency was responsible for testing those Russukrainian fishers, and who approved the deal. Is it Mfat or Mbie does this stuff? Is Gnashie in the mix anywhere?
I find it all a bit worrying. Doesn't look like there was any effort to stop covid transfer on the plane or pre boarding? did the companies bother to have any importing controls over this- and the more cases on shore the greater chance that it leaks into the community.
Hopefully though it can be used to deter to much other private importing of labour forces based on this. I'd also like to see the plan for the sharp reduction in offshore labour in favour of training locals.
The Movement For Socialism (MAS) scored an impressive victory in Bolivia this Sunday. Overturning the bullshit US inspired coup against the legitimate Morales election victory. Lets hope the people of Venezuela can take heart from this with their ongoing struggle against the Yankee facist interference.
Agreed Gabby…and Morales can come back home from exile in Argentina….he should get some reception. (Maybe he is already back?)
Bugger.
https://twitter.com/pennjillette/status/1319014935544750080
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Randi
The Amazing Randi did some very important work, a great sceptic, and very, very funny.
Is it just me or are the left more happier in defeat. We could have woken up on Sunday to a Nat/act govt wanting to do australian style task force raptor police reforms, tax cuts , allowing people to with draw from their kiwi saver, zero investment in health reforms and a program of austerity, welfare education and social cuts and ruthanasia on steroids.
Instead we have the biggest left wing mandate in our lifetimes to work on climate, education, health transport reforms a govt that wants to feed kids in schools free trades and wants to do more but will have to be pushed like all great left wing govts have to be pushed.
Anyone would thing Nat / act had a super majority.
I've criticized this govt a lot but it never had the numbers for rapid transformation and our expectations of a three way coalition were incredibly high. Ardern is now talking about accelerating change , it's million miles better than the alternative and if we push this govt I believe it will be more progressive. It actually did do a lot of good in the first term but this term it needs to be 3x faster and 3x more transformational.
I hope labour and greens can work out a confidence agreement that gives the greens experience policy reforms and the ministerial portfolios outside of cabinet to see those reforms happen, I was hoping labour would get 60 seats and the greens about what they got so we could blame all the left wing stuff we need to do on the greens (even though we mostly wanna do it) but now we have a mandate. The left are either saying we can't do it because swing voters voted labour (when was that a bad thing, I think they wanted that transformational change that Ardern spoke of throughout the last period) or that nothing can ever change because the labour party, the party of reforms has a mandate to do nothing, with covid still unfolding and the economic crisis it brings on and labour being elected to do the recovery both economically and socially Labour can say that anything they do is a part of the covid recovery.
We won the party vote in nearly every Electorate, every city except Auckland, Tauranga are seas of red, Ilam, rangitata hell even whangerei may be red after specials, the greens increased their vote and the Maori party have been reelected on a left wing mandate and the labour party just wow… Let's not write this govt off before the votes even been counted and if lab and the greens can't use this historic mandate on climate change reform to work together then something is seriously wrong with us.
Victory is so rare in the left. So rare, we lose globally. Let's savior this victory and yes organize to push the govt to be more active but some of us have been given great hope by this win and some of us feel really happy that this country is not a divided mess and that instead of voting for me this country voted for we, we can make this country a better place, let the chips fall before we right this govt off.
Sorry for the rant but you'd literally think we lost and sometimes I wonder, do left wingers prefer nights like 2014 to nights like Saturday?
I too am grateful that we don't have Judith and struggle to believe that 35% of the country were willing to take a chance on catching covid.
I'm not sure if it is the media presentation or labour itself that is coming over as so risk adverse. I do feel though that the electorate at large – will still wanting to be employed but not in a dead end seasonal minimum rate if you are lucky job- has a lot of concern about bigger issues both economic and social and would like some progress on those.
Victory is so rare for the left that we have to keep our heads while we unwrap what the gift is made of. No good getting a lovely toy if the key isn't with it. That's why everyone is thinking through implications – Mum we aren't there yet are we!
But good news. All wasp haters will be pleased. And look how well we collaborated for the common good. Why can't we get this mode of behaviour rippling across the world?
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC2010/S00038/world-first-wasp-genome-completed.htm
In a world first, New Zealand researchers have sequenced the genome of three wasps, two of which are invasive wasps in New Zealand, paving the way for new methods of control for these significant pests.
Genomics Aotearoa researchers working at the University of Otago and Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington, alongside colleagues from the UK, Australia and California have successfully completed a three-year project to sequence and interpret the genomes of the common wasp (Vespula vulgaris), German wasp (Vespula germanica), and the western yellowjacket (Vespula pensylvanica).
Now another insect that could invade our borders as we have the right climate for it. Perhaps we could work with the Chinese and other Asian laboratories on the dreaded Chinese hornet – that would be a good collaboration also.
[deleted]
[multiple links get caught in the filter, no explanation or the links and mods are likely to treat them as spam – weka]
OK got too fascinated by the stuff.
We should start applying the kindness we want to this Government. I hear many critical voices here, and small support for what they have managed.
Voters understood, Winston wanted too much status quo and the Greens think of this Government in terms of past iterations, and tokenism.
Jacinda Ardern is such a breath of fresh air she has made a mark internationally, and that has attracted enemies in the oil coal and right wing think tanks.
She has made New Zealanders proud of our country, prepared to help each other and listen to the scientists. This Labour Party has attracted high calibre representatives who will be able to take more of the load.
We want this Government to right all the wrongs, during a pandemic, which is still raging, and to govern for all.
The bitterness some feel with real reason will take many a balm to still the pain, and prejudging is unhelpful to the sensitive negotiations taking place right now.
We hope to have a combination of parties, and the real shape of Government will show after the special votes are counted. 'Till then be glad we are not waking up to Judith and that lot.
+100
As the saying, apparently wrongly attributed to pretty much everybody, says:
Labour are very much at the point where they're going to let the present crisis go to waste as they try to maintain BAU – especially as the crisis proves BAU to be contrary to a resilient economy and society.
They really do need to use the crisis to move away from BAU.
Could this @ 12 be removed? I corrected some spacing and it worked but repeated the whole thing lol sorry everyone… once @ 11 is enough.
Draco, Jacinda has said she wants to "build back better"
I don't think she listens to JK, as he meant "make money in the fire sale" when he said “never let a good crises go to waste".
Doesn't have to be used to make things worse. The crisis can be used to make things better and so the Labour party should be doing so.
And its not even unscrupulous as it really does need to be done.
See Stuff has another think piece -without much think- on possible seasonal worker shortage.
However I had found a piece from 2019 in Stuff – not sure why they published it!- that if I read it correctly stated that gold kiwifruit returned about $95000 per hectare and cost about $2000 to pick.
Now I know there are other costs but it would be very interesting to see the per hectare returns of a lot of other fruits. Cherries at about $20 retail per kg so say $10 cost – so a worker needs to pick some 2.5kg per hour plus more for other overheads ?
This doesn't seem to be part of any of the media stories.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/113257301/kiwifruit-picking-hot-hard-work-that-nobody-wants-to-do
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300138256/fruitpicking-jobs-going-begging-who-is-really-to-blame
I think you might find that cost to a producer of agri and hort crops is closer to 80 to 90% of return. Viticulture, depending on the season is lucky to average 7% before tax.
Fuck knows why we do it.
That retail cherry price in a supermarket is at least twice the growers return, picking is one week in 52, they don’t look after themselves for the other 51.
Urban ignorance of how food happens is staggering, except for those few who have attempted to grow $50 lettuces and $80 a kilo tomatoes.
That's simply not true. Returns are lucrative which is why every man and his dog jumped on the bandwagon.
https://www.apata.co.nz/orchard-buyers-guide
"For the 2016/17 harvest, the average forecast return ("OGR" or Orchard Gate Return) for Green Kiwifruit is just over $53k per hectare and for Gold Kiwifruit it is just over $95k. With average on orchard costs sitting at about $30k per hectare, the maths is pretty simple and compelling. Remember, this is the average. When growers put in the time and effort, the rewards are generally, better."
Um I'm not that urban. I do realise that the local veggie market is not super profitable to put it mildly – on the other hand AFAIK they also don't employ RSE and backpackers to any great extent. On the other hand there was a time when tomato paste fetched huge prices – although that is now gone?
I'm more interested in the seasonal vines and fruit picking that use RSE labour and backpackers and keep muttering about labour shortages. Is it that the stuff is not profitable unless the wage rates are rock bottom or could the wages go up? For the export markets I guess it makes sense to concentrate on the more profitable crops bearing in mind that the production life can be 10 ++ years for the tree or vine and retruns can vary over that life.
So I do think it is a valid question that the MSM could be asking along with queries about the extent of foreign ownership of the sector.
Frankly for me I would far rather help a local owner than some business where the profit is being siphoned off by overseas ownership or a wad of local intermediaries.
Otherwise did I touch a nerve there? Something best not discussed?
Markets determine the price and the vast majority are supermarket chains and they are arseholes, constantly driving down the return so they can claim to be the "cheapest food "in town.
The kiwifruit returns are a bit of bullshit, because Zespri etc have propietry rights to the cultivars, "'Use of " charges for the plants are astronomical , in the 100s of thousands of dollars per hectare but these are not counted as "orchard "costs, but as start up expenses.
Ooops Sweden?
"Sweden has now seen a doubling in cases in three weeks, hitting more than 1000 new cases in one day for the first time since June,"
"Sweden's cumulative death total from infections is 10 times higher than neighbouring Norway and Finland and five times higher than Denmark."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-coronavirus-swedens-strategy-takes-a-turn-as-cases-spike/KP3SUPMIC7YZ5NQXEPTSIL63B4/
It seems that kea may be able to learn to recognise 1080 baits.
This is crucial for kea because DoC, who are ostensibly concerned to protect them, will keep poisoning in any event. For the keas, it's a bit like having Harold Shipman as one's GP.
The 1080 is better than having the possums eating their eggs/chicks.
In my young days I worked as a possum trapper for a while and witnessed first hand the utter devastation that possums can wreak upon the bush – 1080 is by far the lesser evil.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/425343/councils-push-central-government-for-four-year-terms'
I don't know if this has been discussed here.
And put forward your thoughts on NZ democracy on this site:
https://thedig.nz/transitional-democracy/we-need-to-reset-democracy-tedx-talk/
Twitter and facebook are censoring Biden articles now. Is Democracy dead in the usa?
What has become of journalism?
Thank you