According to the reports that Zimbaweans kept Beijing in the loop, Beijing discussed it with Washington*.
I recall the hope that Mugabe once represented. We’re kidding ourselves if we don’t acknowledge the same dynamics at work in our alleged Social Democracy.
All that fighting, and for what, when we just throw it away in a generation or two?
*Edit: now I think about it: the reports were a bit vague. Maybe it was the Zimbaweans that kept Washington in the loop too.
The scale of the disaster is unimaginable. All that will remain is anyone willing to pay the ISP a ransom. Porn? Gone. LGBT sites right wing fundamentalists don’t approve of? In the slow lane of dial up speed. Online media like theAtlantic, Huff post, or Salon? Sorry, Comcast has it’s own deal with Breitbart for news. If you like Facebook, and they don’t pay the ransom – hey! lets revive Myspace on Verizon! Like Twitch? Sorry, your ISP has a deal with Google for youtube exclusivity.
I listed porn first because it is the most obvious example of the sort of “going after your enemies” censorship that is going to happen. How long does anyone think porn sites are going to last once the evangelicals get a campaign going to throttle their speed back to extinction?
We don’t have proper net neutrality anyway and I think its getting continually worse. Most of what people consume on the internet is all filtered through major corps like google, book of the face, and youtube.
Over the last 6 mos, my office has investigated a massive scheme to corrupt the @FCC's comment process on #NetNeutrality by impersonating 100,000s of real Americans.The FCC has been unwilling to provide information that is critical to the investigation: https://t.co/xxFjSg6Pxf— Eric Schneiderman (@AGSchneiderman) November 22, 2017
I’v meet Dr Tim Mackle from DNZ a few years back hes cool
With our water if it takes 50 years for the leaching cycle !!!!!!!!! well we have to innervate to mitigate OUR water problems . I liked the air blanket system this helps with water circulation and puts oxygen into our water but I think that it is to high tec and expensive to roll out on a large scale which is what we need to do to protect our water quality .I have seen a low tec wind mill in China that does the same thing these wind mills just had paddles that spun half in water and put oxygen in water and creates circulation low tec low cost creates employment maintenance of these wind mills we have to look for low cost options to fix OUR problems a dollar save is like earning two dollars more oxygen more fish eating algae ect .
Another idea I have been pondering on for a few years is solar panels on Dairy sheds they could have a back up battier pack to keep milking in a power cut and keep the chiller going you will only be able to have one going at one time as It would be to expensive to have a back up system for both. And Fonterra would be-able to cut out the middle man go strait to the manufacture and cut cost heaps on solar systems battier back up systems and wind mill to oxygenate water this will help clean up Fonterras Brand around our world. Hydrogen cars are to expensive and in my view big business not wanting to cede power ie control of our energy this Is Elons Mus view . Electric vehicles and very efficient vehicles is the way to go.
Houseing shortage keys plan to get him and his mates richer .Environment problems key and bull not wanting to upset there mates an thats why Its a big problem now.
I buy most of my fule from Gull because they support Labour. Kia Kaha
Could we get our own town milking systems back? They would be encouraged to be sustainable, might be offered large tax advantages for putting in solar panels and methane tanks too perhaps.
They would work on a different cost structure to Fonterra, the main market would be town supply, they would operate on a different pasture system cutting out most fertiliser, they would be part of the food system for the region and have a protected income level, that was sufficient for profitability.
They would probably be entirely separate from Fonterra as the corporate structure and understanding of domestic suppliers would be alien to them, not being export-oriented. The local farmers would put in some R&D and perhaps develop a product that could be sold elsewhere in NZ and also exported overseas to countries beyond Australia.
Yes! i live next door to a small farm that supplies raw milk through a 24 hr vending system. it’s taken off the last few years because the milk ($2.50 per litre) tastes much, much nicer than industrial milk.
I buy local milk delivered, and support Palmerston North organic milk in supermarket and now I also can buy organic milk at my co-op. I think given half a chance NZ will boom with all sorts of ideas and products from the bright sparks ready to go. Perhaps now we’ve got the arrogant bums off our government seats, the country can be released into the wild blue yonder.
Sesame Credit, a credit-scoring agency setup by Alibaba and Tencent, is designed to make Orwellian self-surveillance a reality. As well as creditworthiness, it measures political loyalty – based on user data gathered by China’s two biggest internet companies. People with low scores won’t get job offers, loans or high-speed internet; people who network with people with low scores will also get downgraded. The project, which is awaiting regulatory approval, has been decried by human rights groups as a mass surveillance tool. But it is nothing compared to what China is planning with artificial intelligence. Last month, the Chinese state issued a strategy designed to achieve global leadership in AI by 2030. As part of the plan, the private sector is ordered routinely to share its user data with the state. This puts China in the unique position among major powers of having no formal barriers to state exploitation of private commercial data. If it succeeds, China will create a consumer market whose customer data is completely interpenetrated with state surveillance mechanisms, and a population whose behaviour can be predicted right down to their choice of underwear.
If it succeeds, China will create a consumer market whose customer data is completely interpenetrated with state surveillance mechanisms, and a population whose behaviour can be predicted right down to their choice of underwear.
The west already achieved this in the decade after 9/11.
As a FVEY member we are part of this, and subject to this.
The west already achieved this in the decade after 9/11
Ah, this explains why I’m so fearful of associating with people who have low government loyalty scores in case it impacts on my own career. Or it would, if any of it had actually happened somewhere outside Colonial Viper’s head.
Ohhhh, you mean what National were calling “social investment”? The number of ideas National clearly got from China went up by one.
Having said that, China is shaping up as the greatest threat to the idea of individualism and the liberty of the individual since Xerxes took out his map and said “Now I shall deal with those pesky Greeks…”
Who needs classical economics, when you have, from O Brother Where Art Thou, The Big Rock Candy Mountain:
[Verse 1]
One evening as the sun went down
And the jungle fire was burning
Down the track came a hobo hikin’
And he said, “Boys, I’m not turning
I’m headed for a land that’s far away
Besides the crystal fountains
So come with me, we’ll go and see
The Big Rock Candy Mountains.”
[Verse 2]
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
There’s a land that’s fair and bright
Where the handguns grow on bushes
And you sleep out every night
Where the boxcars all are empty
And the sun shines everyday
All the birds and the bees
And the cigarette trees
The lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
[Verse 3]
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
All the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs
The farmers’ trees are full of fruit
And the barns are full of hay
Oh, I’m bound to go
Where there ain’t no snow
Where the rain don’t fall
The wind don’t blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
[Verse 4]
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol
Come trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats
And the railroad bulls are blind
There’s a lake of stew
And of whiskey too
You can paddle all around them
In a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
[Verse 5]
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
The jails are made of tin
And you can walk right out again
As soon as you are in
There ain’t no short-handled shovels
No axes, saws, or picks
I’m going to stay
Where you sleep all day
Where they hung the jerk
That invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
I don’t think much of that Ad as a rejoinder to the post. It is sarcastic, cynical, and you have chosen to offer derisively, a child’s dream, an excessively fantastic response.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike]
I have had a look at the ncea level one maths exam.
I had helped my son study for it.
The level of reasoning needed seemed very high, before being able to demonstrate your knowledge.
Not sure where to from here, wether the marks get moderated and 30% becomes the new 50% or what.
In some of the questions adding a line or forming triangles to a diagram was a big step before being able to answer the question with knowledge learned in class. Sometimes you can know the math really well but just not get those insights.
I thought it was very long. It meant kids doing multiple papers could take time from those papers to spend more time on geometry.
But it’s really not good practice to make an exam so hard that all the scores are bunched up – they should be well spread so that categorising scores into E, M, A & NA is obvious and fair.
Hey cheers mp, for your insights.
So hard to watch your child be disillusioned and have their confidence dented by a test.
He is a resilient kid and I am a parent that doesnt shelter him from too much from life’s ups and downs, but this has been quite impactful for me (more so than him perhaps)
Hey gsays, sorry this is a bit late. Been away helping at a school camp this week so I’ve been disconnected for a while.
Had a look at the level 1 math exams, and yeah, the geometry one looked a bit intense for that level.
But what bothers me more about it is I really don’t see how that knowledge of geometry and spatial relationships is of any use to anyone except a few esoteric specialists. The small part of geometric properties as a field that is of value to engineers or technical trades can certainly get covered in later years, and academic pointy-heads that go on to get into abstract math theory can pick it up if it ever becomes relevant to them. Seems to me it would be better for most students to drop that geometry in favour of other aspects of math that might be more broadly useful.
The other two parts looked reasonable to me. Though I’ve no idea if the content and level of the exam was appropriate to what had been taught through the year,
The lesson I would take from it and would have told any of mine if they had sat it is more of an exam technique one. Read through the whole lot, and start with what looks easiest then go on to the stuff that’s harder.
Thanks Andre, Good exam advice.
It’s funny, a couple of sleeps and a day at Himatangi beach (getting the ute stuck with a full load) and already the exam from hell has become a distant memory.
Yesterday I mildly criticised “Jacinda” for not being firm enough with Jack Tane’s infantile interrogation of her. Today I’m well and truly on her side.
They’re ganging up on her aren’t they. On the one hand she’s too accessible. On the other hand she’s not accessible enough. On the one hand she’s too open and honest. On the other hand she’s not open and honest enough. And so it goes on…
Soper is just the latest to jump on the bully boy/girl media bandwagon.
He makes an interesting point when he says:
Under normal circumstances our closest neighbour in the big league, the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, should have done the honours as other Aussie leaders have done with Kiwi newbies in the past.
Yes. Turnbull should have been introducing her to the leaders etc. Instead she was left on her own and Justin Trudeau stepped into the breach. Good on him for doing so. Soper then goes on and effectively blames Ardern for the whole silly nonsense.
It’s a testament to Key’s skill that supposedly-seasoned journalists like Soper prat on about him being an “open book” and “just like the guy next door.” I guess that in the circles Soper moves in, the guy next door could well be a corporate weasel from the currency trading business who’s well-used to playing people for suckers, but fortunately I’ve never had any neighbours like that.
Jacinda and her advisors will have to be ready for various psychological ploys.
Anne refers to the attempt to demolish her persona – not strong enough, too strong etc. It is a false debate between these RW journalist ‘apparrotchiks’ like surgeons over her body as they try to remove her authority with keyhole surgery.
One of the tricks might be good cop, bad cop, and it may have already started.
One will always find fault, and the other will defend her and damn her with faint praise.
Seems like a form of bullying to me. Young, female, friendly, approachable – they see her as easy to pick on. She is a quick learner and will stand her ground. Ask that twerp Matk Richardson.
More likely that after Hipkin’s role in interferring in Aussie domestic politics (Ardern refused to apologise for) and her further embarrassing comments arount refugees that Turnball is not predisposed to do anything for Ardern.
Rightly or wrongly
You don’t care which, and aren’t going to attempt to establish truth, is that why you chose your pseudo? Hipkins didn’t interfere with Oz politics, he was just trying to establish some facts, which when viewed by someone as relaxed as yourself, is a provocative thing to do.
Turnbull by the way is not king of Oz to hand out favours to other smaller countries, he heads a democracy and a government that we are always trying to collect facts about, and taking its pulse to ensure it is still a functioning entity, it’s just unfortunate they consider that provocative too.
Yes you have to be a quick learner against journalists who are looking for the plat du jour and who often are young, female, friendly and approachable just like the PM. Jacinda will be able to sum her age and gender peer group easily, and the old hacks are predictable either in their known habits and integrity or their ‘unbearable lightness of being’.
At least Barry Soper’s article recognised the triviality of the issue – unlike Jack Tame’s nonsensical angle. On the other hand I can just imagine MSM’s reaction if Jacinda divulged private personal details about herself like Key and his vasectomy etc etc. I think she has got it pretty well right.
At the age of 64 years and married to a 32 year old I would have expected Soper to have more savvy and manners than he shows in the trite and waste of ink and newsprint article that Anne refers to.
He uses the story of Jacinda being Trudeau’s wife to pad out his effort instead of making it quite clear that the story was an MSM load of tripe, he has fouled his own nest by not doing so.
He maybe a longstanding journo., Perhaps he needs to retire and find a job that he can actually handle.
Suggesting that Jacinda should be like our previous PM is close to disgusting , not exactly weinsteinery but hey!!!!
Yes Anne I spotted that “ganging up against jacinda” it is offensive as she dererves respect not an ugly mob rule here!!!
Media are now out of control so we want jacinda to take over our public media again and run it for our public services good not for cheap shot political events and right wing activities.
Puckish Rogue – you are being really silly. Of course our new PM should be questioned in a professional, direct, and intelligent way. She should not be bullied and harassed by second rate reporters exaggerating a trivial issue so they can get a headline. That is all they are interested in. Jack Tame would have been a smug little chappie yesterday having got his headline. Pathetic.
Jacinda told a story, embellished it a bit and then it came back and bit her on the arse.
BULLSHIT. She did the opposite. It was fancy man Tane who was doing the embellishing and creating false scenarios without a skerrick of evidence. I’m going to keep calling out you rwnjs and telling you to GROW UP and act your age.
people behaving badly generally lose respect. Not a hard concept to understand. I haven’t seen JA do anything that deserves her not being respected (apart from the whole neoliberal capitalist thing of course but then we’d have to be look at all of us at that point).
I think the trolls are out today still trying to piss everyone off here, but we will be best ingnoring you all who want to just criticise jacinda but forget the mountains of corrption your National paymasters did eh!
Best we plan on dismantling the national sopin machine instead of answering to these brind nat trolls eh!!!
Amanda Terkel, writing in Huffington Post, described another incident. “The teenage daughter of Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), for example, visibly cringed and pulled away when Biden whispered in her ear and kissed her on the head.”
“GROPERS” is researched and presented by GroperWatch, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
Check out all the gropers so far…
No.1 George Herbert Walker Bush; No. 2 Bill O’Reilly ; No. 3 Al Franken; No. 4 Robin Brooke; No. 5 Lester Beck; No. 6 Arnold Schwarzenegger
I wonder if our very own (hair) groping pervert’s name will pop up through Gropers sometime soon? He deserves to be named and shamed for assaulting women and young girls! In his touchy feely stroking (hair) capacity, he should be up there with the rest of the “can’t keep their grubby hands to themselves” filth!
I’m sure it’s a worthy challenge to kill off a good swathe of creeps and sex criminals from the US glitterati. It really is.
But let’s not confuse this current binge-purge cycle with breaking global patriarchy.
For example, the only reason there’s another male President in Zimbabwe today rather than a female is because the armed forces led a revolt against the female incumbent and her youth supporters, who did not have the track record of unreconstructed thuggery that the new guy and his military have. And before everyone clutches their pearls for democracy, being a wife of a President or ex-President is a primary route for a lot of women to achieve political power in this anti-female world.
The twisting and turning of russiagate – or stupid water gate or whatever you want to call it. Is turning into some new form of McCarthyism. When the far right think tanks keep piling in on it, it starts to get worring.
The twisting and turning of russiagate – or stupid water gate or whatever you want to call it. Is turning into some new form of McCarthyism. When the far right think tanks keep piling in on it, it starts to get worring.
Haha, nice. Max Blumenthal’s journalistic output must make for some uncomfortable family reunions. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the Blumenthal household for this weekend’s upcoming thanksgiving dinner – assuming Max hasn’t been permabanned from Sidney’s presence by now…
Yeah I take that site for what it often is, wishful thinking and rumour mongering en-extremis.
Confirmation bias driven by wishful thinking is one hell of a drug, which is of course why traditional methodology says don’t run stories off one source. However, I’d also point out that the guy you link here cites Snopes and Media Matters an awful lot for someone concerned with source credibility. They’re partisan sites now, you can’t uncross that Rubicon.
But on the subject of confirmation bias driven by wishful thinking, let’s see how an awful lot of respectable sites who have written on it prolifically are looking when the Steele Dossier’s all done and dusted…
Now, as to the article I posted. I see the journalist whose tweet this comes from has that blue Jack Dosey approved tick. And it cites and presents the image of a release of data from the Congressional office of compliance. Finally, it cites an MSNBC interview with a Democratic legislator which would seem to confirm the amounts of money spent settling sexual harassment cases.
So I still wonder, which party will the majority of those lawmakers turn out to be from?
Also, the byline on the article isn’t Jim Hoft. J’ss’say’n.
The dumbest man on the internet’s site and the organisation employing the hack with the blue Jack Dosey approved tick are partisan AF who’re more willing to accommodate their own side’s abusers. and both sought to discredit the women accusing Moore.
The robocall reported Tuesday is not the only instance of someone attempting to perpetrate a hoax about the Washington Post‘s reporting. Not long after the original story’s publication, a Twitter account called @umpire43 posted a message claiming that a Post reporter named “Beth” had offered an Alabama woman $1,000 to “accuse Roy Moore.” (The Post‘s story was written by Stephanie McCrummen, Beth Reinhard, and Alice Crites.) The tweet was shared by the far-right website Gateway Pundit and coursed through Moore-supporting social media. It actually wound up on television Friday when the right-wing channel One America News Network read @umpire43’s tweet as the authentic word of a “former Secret Service agent and Navy veteran,” then showed a photo of Reinhard.
Interesting tack to take, but let’s look at that – one Republican vs. how many Democrats currently accused? And let’s bear in mind the political leanings of all those celebrities and mjournalists currently accused. No wonder the women of the American left are obsessed with rape culture and patriarchy – it reflects the men they associate with so well.
Quite a few republicans, including their house leadership have called for him to drop out of the race. And I recall them being pretty displeased about those access Hollywood Trump revelations. Including high level calls for him to quit his candidacy and allow the RNC to replace him. So by your own argument, yes, I do have a point, thank you.
Liberals are sacked quick smart on the strength of the accusations, yet Republicans say Moore is their man and the toddler in chief and his enablers continue to stand by an accused sexual predator running for Senate so they can pass tax cuts.
Top White House officials have now made President Trump’s position on Roy Moore absolutely clear: Trump does not believe that the allegations that Moore initiated sexual contact with a 14-year-old — and pursued three other teenagers — should disqualify him from becoming a U.S. senator.
This is not how they presented their position, of course. On the Sunday shows, legislative director Marc Short and senior adviser Kellyanne Conway both expressed great shock and horror over the charges. But then each of them carefully carved out a position that appears designed to allow Moore to continue with his run for Senate largely unobstructed and, ultimately, to accept Moore as a senator if he wins, while letting the allegations fade away in a fog of he-said-she-said uncertainty.
The idea of bringing people out from India who were not to be paid made Chorus uncomfortable..
.”On investigation, our service company in Nelson, UCG, has advised…[the] intention was to help people who wanted to learn about the industry and see if a career as a fibre technician was one they wanted to pursue further,” spokesman Nathan Beaumount said.” …. (Thin, very.)
‘UCG [Universal Communications Group] said via a three-line emailed response it was aware that Sunwin Technologies had a voluntary program, aligned with the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) guidelines.’.. (Which were??)
“To our understanding based on Sunwin’s feedback, they have followed the guidelines as stipulated by the EMA,” general manager operations, Paul Trotman said.
Attempts to track Sunwin Technologies were not successful.” (BAU)
‘The Ministry of Business, Employment and Innovation would be making further enquiries.’ (BAU)
The commenters were highly disgusted about this. Aliena -“intention was to help people who wanted to learn about the industry and see if a career as a fibre technician was one they wanted to pursue further,” What complete and utter rubbish Chorus….
RBM“……. had a voluntary program, aligned with the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) guidelines.” Obviously this is a widespread rort!
Squire – visionstream are the same, bring people over on a education visa, set them up as a owner operator, take a cut out of their wages to pay for the business startup, work them, exhaust their money and send them back with nothing.
Happyatwork – happyatwork
I have worked (For a sub contractor) for several of chorus service partners including UCG. Chorus now prefers service partners who have sub contractors and work for coded work (rather than staff earning wages), and with the large amount of foreign workers, chorus has been able to change the rules, requiring these sub-contractors to do more work for the same code (value of work).
This has resulted in many NZers leaving the industry, as the service partners can just pass on the extra work without increasing the codes, because they know there are more foreign workers / sub-contractors who will just replace them.
we now have:
1.The Government help pay for the UFB rollout with the taxpayers money
2.Chorus complain they need more workers to help
3. The government change the immigration rules to support
4. Chorus drives done the install cost and “passes” it down to the coal face workers.
5. New Zealanders leave the industry
6. go back to step 2.
So our own money (Taxpayers) is destroying our jobs and reasonable standard of living!!
7 days ago
napmannz
We also had bad experience with one of the subcontractors who rented the four bed house next door and promptly put twelve guys in the house. We ended up with about seven large work vans and another five cars in a small grove causing massive disruption to the neighborhood. When the property manager finally was able to shift them a large clean up was required with the number of people in the house putting a strain on the house. Talking with others they also had similar troubles in different suburbs with the same company. As others have said the cost push is downward leaving mostly foreign labor that will do the work at below market rates.
6 days ago
BJRBJR
Shame on you Chorus, and what is our new Minister of Labour going to do about it. These workers have been here for years now. No or little English and the standard of installs in the homes is disgusting and when you complain and request it is fixed…. Nothing! A friend recently had the fiber box put into a brand new home, the contractor put the large screws straight through the wall in the other room. When this was shown to them they just said call Chorus and left…. Another story from a plumber who was called out after-hours as the non English speaking workers had cut through a water pipe, and begged him not to call there boss as they would be fired!
More New Zealand businesses IN NZ: 22/11/2017
Supermarkets owned by NZs as a co-operative making payments to its members,
and the money largely remaining in NZ. Sounds all right to me! (Think PaknSave and New World.)
During the past 12 months Foodstuffs South Island posted sales worth $2.9 billion, an increase of $96m or 3.3 per cent over the previous year. The growth occurred in a period of low inflation and was attributed to the opening of three new stores and higher market share of existing outlets.
Typical neoliberal drivel from a free market fanatic. We should be concerned what a former trader thinks about us? “Economic success story” for who? Limited economic measures to equate with the success label while we have seen degradation in our environment, mental health, health system, social welfare, corporate and social service standards and accountability, and increases in poverty and corruption. Success story? Yeah right
A foreigner, ex wall st (like the pm who quit) is unhappy that we’ve changed/are changing the rules for foreign ownership and immigration is pissed off about it.
Oh my word, what a freaking surprise, no more investment properties in NZ for him, of course he’s pissed off about it and writing about it.
Growth forecast is excellent.
Government forecast surplus of $4.1billion.
Headline unemployment lower than 5%.
Maybe, with the state having now so little effect on us other than in welfare and infrastructure to changing New Zealand at all, just maybe any economic downturn will be due to markets correcting?
Just like markets did last time.
At immense social damage to human beings.
My main correction to the article is that foreign investors should give us a miss for a while, as we start to support local investors.
Forbes and other such institutions keep telling us that we should continue following their preferred neo-liberal ideology despite all the damage that it’s done to our society.
Yeah, probably not worth taking their advice in that respect.
It still has a large number of witless dupes who believe it: Maninthemiddle, Baba Yaga, 3Stepstotheright, Groundhog, Acrophobic: there’s one for a start.
In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga /ˈbɑːbə jəˈɡɑː/[1] (Russian: Баба-яга, Bulgarian: Баба Яга, Polish: Baba Jaga) is a supernatural being (or one of a trio of sisters of the same name) who appears as a deformed and/or ferocious-looking witch. Baba Yaga flies around in a mortar, wields a pestle, and dwells deep in the forest in a hut usually described as standing on chicken legs (or sometimes a single chicken leg).[2] Baba Yaga may help or hinder those that encounter or seek her out. She sometimes plays a maternal role, and also has associations with forest wildlife. According to Vladimir Propp’s folktale morphology, Baba Yaga commonly appears as either a donor or villain, or may be altogether ambiguous.
I see that Steven Joyce is beating his gums again! – trying to cover over his entrails of that $11.7 billiion dollar hole. Then going hard pushing Labour for their financial figures eh!
While I see this as a “diversion” ploy to keep labour busy on the job of keeping the books straight instead!
Labour should now be going on the defensive investigating the nine years of financial reporting they did to find some ‘anomolies’ in their own shaddy books as there will be several holes and ‘kickbacks’ to keep their supporters happy at the expense of all of us on the lower runggs of the ladder eh!
Also Steven Joyce and hiis crims are probably feeling the heat right now with Winston preparing his case gfor the 7th December ‘discovery’ in court.
I guess legal papers have already been served on Joyce, Brownlee, Bennett and English so they and the media are feeling the heat to as several jouralists are involved with Winston’s case too.
Maybe that’s why the media are treating the Government like shit now eh!!!
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TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
The pressure is mounting on the Government as it finalises its Budget Policy Statement, but yet more predicted revenue ‘goes missing’. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Climate Commission has delivered another funding blow to the National-ACT-NZ First coalition Government’s tax-cutting plans, potentially carving $1.4 billion off the ‘climate ...
The Government now faces the prospect of having to watch another tax raise the price of petrol when, only six days ago, it abolished the Auckland Regional Fuel tax. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon argued that the regional fuel tax imposed costs on lower-income people with less fuel-efficient vehicles and that ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
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Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
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Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
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The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
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The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
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So, Mugabe’s gone. Now, one murderous thug will be replaced by another murderous thug – and all with China’s blessing!
Beware the creeping influence of Chinese economic power!
According to the reports that Zimbaweans kept Beijing in the loop, Beijing discussed it with Washington*.
I recall the hope that Mugabe once represented. We’re kidding ourselves if we don’t acknowledge the same dynamics at work in our alleged Social Democracy.
All that fighting, and for what, when we just throw it away in a generation or two?
*Edit: now I think about it: the reports were a bit vague. Maybe it was the Zimbaweans that kept Washington in the loop too.
This is a catastrophe for the United States – they’ll cripple the internet for Americans and force organisations like Google and Facebook offshore.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/trump-net-neutrality-repeal-internet-rules-fcc-free-latest-news-ajit-pai-a8067811.html
The scale of the disaster is unimaginable. All that will remain is anyone willing to pay the ISP a ransom. Porn? Gone. LGBT sites right wing fundamentalists don’t approve of? In the slow lane of dial up speed. Online media like theAtlantic, Huff post, or Salon? Sorry, Comcast has it’s own deal with Breitbart for news. If you like Facebook, and they don’t pay the ransom – hey! lets revive Myspace on Verizon! Like Twitch? Sorry, your ISP has a deal with Google for youtube exclusivity.
Utter insanity is reigning in America.
Yep Trump is one vindictive bastard. It seems anything Obama accomplished Trump will destroy.
The thing is that Trump thinks his revenge on Obama is some kind of success while history will forever remember Trump as a complete and utter idiot.
Obama doesn’t need to do a thing or say a word – Trump will just bury himself.
The centre-right and their own goals. Massive gap in the market opening up for anyone who doesn’t live in the USA.
Assuming they can get their vindictive malice past the courts, that is.
Trump is simply continuing a process..
Obama was also involved
I had to laugh Sanctuary, at your possible freudian slip whereby the item at the top of your list of concerns is the likely demise of porn sites.
I listed porn first because it is the most obvious example of the sort of “going after your enemies” censorship that is going to happen. How long does anyone think porn sites are going to last once the evangelicals get a campaign going to throttle their speed back to extinction?
It has nothing to do with pornography!
We don’t have proper net neutrality anyway and I think its getting continually worse. Most of what people consume on the internet is all filtered through major corps like google, book of the face, and youtube.
The fix is in.
https://twitter.com/AGSchneiderman/status/933151128706936834
https://medium.com/@AGSchneiderman/an-open-letter-to-the-fcc-b867a763850a
I’v meet Dr Tim Mackle from DNZ a few years back hes cool
With our water if it takes 50 years for the leaching cycle !!!!!!!!! well we have to innervate to mitigate OUR water problems . I liked the air blanket system this helps with water circulation and puts oxygen into our water but I think that it is to high tec and expensive to roll out on a large scale which is what we need to do to protect our water quality .I have seen a low tec wind mill in China that does the same thing these wind mills just had paddles that spun half in water and put oxygen in water and creates circulation low tec low cost creates employment maintenance of these wind mills we have to look for low cost options to fix OUR problems a dollar save is like earning two dollars more oxygen more fish eating algae ect .
Another idea I have been pondering on for a few years is solar panels on Dairy sheds they could have a back up battier pack to keep milking in a power cut and keep the chiller going you will only be able to have one going at one time as It would be to expensive to have a back up system for both. And Fonterra would be-able to cut out the middle man go strait to the manufacture and cut cost heaps on solar systems battier back up systems and wind mill to oxygenate water this will help clean up Fonterras Brand around our world. Hydrogen cars are to expensive and in my view big business not wanting to cede power ie control of our energy this Is Elons Mus view . Electric vehicles and very efficient vehicles is the way to go.
Houseing shortage keys plan to get him and his mates richer .Environment problems key and bull not wanting to upset there mates an thats why Its a big problem now.
I buy most of my fule from Gull because they support Labour. Kia Kaha
Hydrogen all the infrastructure is to expensive to set up we are using electricity now just need charge stations installed ka pai
I’m going to take my moko to Kelly Tarltons It will be awesome Ka pai
i read that post because it was short eco
Could we get our own town milking systems back? They would be encouraged to be sustainable, might be offered large tax advantages for putting in solar panels and methane tanks too perhaps.
They would work on a different cost structure to Fonterra, the main market would be town supply, they would operate on a different pasture system cutting out most fertiliser, they would be part of the food system for the region and have a protected income level, that was sufficient for profitability.
They would probably be entirely separate from Fonterra as the corporate structure and understanding of domestic suppliers would be alien to them, not being export-oriented. The local farmers would put in some R&D and perhaps develop a product that could be sold elsewhere in NZ and also exported overseas to countries beyond Australia.
Yes! i live next door to a small farm that supplies raw milk through a 24 hr vending system. it’s taken off the last few years because the milk ($2.50 per litre) tastes much, much nicer than industrial milk.
I buy local milk delivered, and support Palmerston North organic milk in supermarket and now I also can buy organic milk at my co-op. I think given half a chance NZ will boom with all sorts of ideas and products from the bright sparks ready to go. Perhaps now we’ve got the arrogant bums off our government seats, the country can be released into the wild blue yonder.
What the fuck? I just read the plot of a Black Mirror episode in a news report. That Charlie Brooker is one clever bastard.
In the Guardian:
The west already achieved this in the decade after 9/11.
As a FVEY member we are part of this, and subject to this.
[citation needed]
Why? Does a citation make it more real to you?
You don’t recall the original releases of the Snowden files through the Guardian and the follow ups to all that via WikiLeaks and other sources?
Because it’s necessary for you to back up what you say.
I don’t recall the specific details, no.
The west already achieved this in the decade after 9/11
Ah, this explains why I’m so fearful of associating with people who have low government loyalty scores in case it impacts on my own career. Or it would, if any of it had actually happened somewhere outside Colonial Viper’s head.
Ohhhh, you mean what National were calling “social investment”? The number of ideas National clearly got from China went up by one.
Having said that, China is shaping up as the greatest threat to the idea of individualism and the liberty of the individual since Xerxes took out his map and said “Now I shall deal with those pesky Greeks…”
Who needs classical economics, when you have, from O Brother Where Art Thou, The Big Rock Candy Mountain:
[Verse 1]
One evening as the sun went down
And the jungle fire was burning
Down the track came a hobo hikin’
And he said, “Boys, I’m not turning
I’m headed for a land that’s far away
Besides the crystal fountains
So come with me, we’ll go and see
The Big Rock Candy Mountains.”
[Verse 2]
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
There’s a land that’s fair and bright
Where the handguns grow on bushes
And you sleep out every night
Where the boxcars all are empty
And the sun shines everyday
All the birds and the bees
And the cigarette trees
The lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
[Verse 3]
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
All the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs
The farmers’ trees are full of fruit
And the barns are full of hay
Oh, I’m bound to go
Where there ain’t no snow
Where the rain don’t fall
The wind don’t blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
[Verse 4]
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol
Come trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats
And the railroad bulls are blind
There’s a lake of stew
And of whiskey too
You can paddle all around them
In a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
[Verse 5]
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
The jails are made of tin
And you can walk right out again
As soon as you are in
There ain’t no short-handled shovels
No axes, saws, or picks
I’m going to stay
Where you sleep all day
Where they hung the jerk
That invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
No good without the video 🙂
I don’t think much of that Ad as a rejoinder to the post. It is sarcastic, cynical, and you have chosen to offer derisively, a child’s dream, an excessively fantastic response.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike]
I have had a look at the ncea level one maths exam.
I had helped my son study for it.
The level of reasoning needed seemed very high, before being able to demonstrate your knowledge.
Not sure where to from here, wether the marks get moderated and 30% becomes the new 50% or what.
In some of the questions adding a line or forming triangles to a diagram was a big step before being able to answer the question with knowledge learned in class. Sometimes you can know the math really well but just not get those insights.
I thought it was very long. It meant kids doing multiple papers could take time from those papers to spend more time on geometry.
NZQA have profiles of expected performance so if the exam is too hard then they adjust it back to the profiles.
http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/nqfdocs/ncea-resource/pep/2017/91031-pep-17.pdf
But it’s really not good practice to make an exam so hard that all the scores are bunched up – they should be well spread so that categorising scores into E, M, A & NA is obvious and fair.
Hey cheers mp, for your insights.
So hard to watch your child be disillusioned and have their confidence dented by a test.
He is a resilient kid and I am a parent that doesnt shelter him from too much from life’s ups and downs, but this has been quite impactful for me (more so than him perhaps)
Hey gsays, sorry this is a bit late. Been away helping at a school camp this week so I’ve been disconnected for a while.
Had a look at the level 1 math exams, and yeah, the geometry one looked a bit intense for that level.
But what bothers me more about it is I really don’t see how that knowledge of geometry and spatial relationships is of any use to anyone except a few esoteric specialists. The small part of geometric properties as a field that is of value to engineers or technical trades can certainly get covered in later years, and academic pointy-heads that go on to get into abstract math theory can pick it up if it ever becomes relevant to them. Seems to me it would be better for most students to drop that geometry in favour of other aspects of math that might be more broadly useful.
The other two parts looked reasonable to me. Though I’ve no idea if the content and level of the exam was appropriate to what had been taught through the year,
The lesson I would take from it and would have told any of mine if they had sat it is more of an exam technique one. Read through the whole lot, and start with what looks easiest then go on to the stuff that’s harder.
Thanks Andre, Good exam advice.
It’s funny, a couple of sleeps and a day at Himatangi beach (getting the ute stuck with a full load) and already the exam from hell has become a distant memory.
So, Barry Soper says Jacinda Ardern needs to drop her guard in the public eye.
Yesterday I mildly criticised “Jacinda” for not being firm enough with Jack Tane’s infantile interrogation of her. Today I’m well and truly on her side.
They’re ganging up on her aren’t they. On the one hand she’s too accessible. On the other hand she’s not accessible enough. On the one hand she’s too open and honest. On the other hand she’s not open and honest enough. And so it goes on…
Soper is just the latest to jump on the bully boy/girl media bandwagon.
He makes an interesting point when he says:
Yes. Turnbull should have been introducing her to the leaders etc. Instead she was left on her own and Justin Trudeau stepped into the breach. Good on him for doing so. Soper then goes on and effectively blames Ardern for the whole silly nonsense.
It’s a testament to Key’s skill that supposedly-seasoned journalists like Soper prat on about him being an “open book” and “just like the guy next door.” I guess that in the circles Soper moves in, the guy next door could well be a corporate weasel from the currency trading business who’s well-used to playing people for suckers, but fortunately I’ve never had any neighbours like that.
Jacinda and her advisors will have to be ready for various psychological ploys.
Anne refers to the attempt to demolish her persona – not strong enough, too strong etc. It is a false debate between these RW journalist ‘apparrotchiks’ like surgeons over her body as they try to remove her authority with keyhole surgery.
One of the tricks might be good cop, bad cop, and it may have already started.
One will always find fault, and the other will defend her and damn her with faint praise.
Seems like a form of bullying to me. Young, female, friendly, approachable – they see her as easy to pick on. She is a quick learner and will stand her ground. Ask that twerp Matk Richardson.
More likely that after Hipkin’s role in interferring in Aussie domestic politics (Ardern refused to apologise for) and her further embarrassing comments arount refugees that Turnball is not predisposed to do anything for Ardern.
Actions have consequences
Rightly or wrongly
You don’t care which, and aren’t going to attempt to establish truth, is that why you chose your pseudo? Hipkins didn’t interfere with Oz politics, he was just trying to establish some facts, which when viewed by someone as relaxed as yourself, is a provocative thing to do.
Turnbull by the way is not king of Oz to hand out favours to other smaller countries, he heads a democracy and a government that we are always trying to collect facts about, and taking its pulse to ensure it is still a functioning entity, it’s just unfortunate they consider that provocative too.
Yes you have to be a quick learner against journalists who are looking for the plat du jour and who often are young, female, friendly and approachable just like the PM. Jacinda will be able to sum her age and gender peer group easily, and the old hacks are predictable either in their known habits and integrity or their ‘unbearable lightness of being’.
At least Barry Soper’s article recognised the triviality of the issue – unlike Jack Tame’s nonsensical angle. On the other hand I can just imagine MSM’s reaction if Jacinda divulged private personal details about herself like Key and his vasectomy etc etc. I think she has got it pretty well right.
agreed reality..Tame is a prat
At the age of 64 years and married to a 32 year old I would have expected Soper to have more savvy and manners than he shows in the trite and waste of ink and newsprint article that Anne refers to.
He uses the story of Jacinda being Trudeau’s wife to pad out his effort instead of making it quite clear that the story was an MSM load of tripe, he has fouled his own nest by not doing so.
He maybe a longstanding journo., Perhaps he needs to retire and find a job that he can actually handle.
Suggesting that Jacinda should be like our previous PM is close to disgusting , not exactly weinsteinery but hey!!!!
Yes Anne I spotted that “ganging up against jacinda” it is offensive as she dererves respect not an ugly mob rule here!!!
Media are now out of control so we want jacinda to take over our public media again and run it for our public services good not for cheap shot political events and right wing activities.
Wow so any questioning of Jacinda is bullying and only those journalists that are deemed worthy as decided by Labour should only be published
Puckish Rogue – you are being really silly. Of course our new PM should be questioned in a professional, direct, and intelligent way. She should not be bullied and harassed by second rate reporters exaggerating a trivial issue so they can get a headline. That is all they are interested in. Jack Tame would have been a smug little chappie yesterday having got his headline. Pathetic.
Jacinda told a story, embellished it a bit and then it came back and bit her on the arse
Maybe next time Jacinda won’t be quite so flippant so hopefully shes learnt her lesson
OR the media treat her the same as Key and forgive everything fir a smile and wave 😉
I think we can all agree the media went extremely soft on “the peoples princess” during the election 🙂
Pretty sure Key wasn’t around during the election.
Jacinda told a story, embellished it a bit and then it came back and bit her on the arse.
BULLSHIT. She did the opposite. It was fancy man Tane who was doing the embellishing and creating false scenarios without a skerrick of evidence. I’m going to keep calling out you rwnjs and telling you to GROW UP and act your age.
+1 Anne.
Why does she “deserve respect”? Is it because she is a woman ? Because she is the prime minister ? Just because you like her ?
What makes her so deserving ?
How about because she is a person?
national money is still influenceing our media this is the way of our world some one need to put a rubber ring on some of those people Ka pai
As is John Key – would you be happy with Jacinda being shown the same amount of respect on this blog as he is?
If she presided over the same policies he did, and did the same things he did, hell yes.
people behaving badly generally lose respect. Not a hard concept to understand. I haven’t seen JA do anything that deserves her not being respected (apart from the whole neoliberal capitalist thing of course but then we’d have to be look at all of us at that point).
So its OK to call her names along the same line as Key was been called on this blog should I lose respect for her?
Who is the ultimate arbitrator of behaving badly?
Do one group get to decide who deserves respect and others do not?
Can you see my point?
AND for the record – you will see from my post that I have always commented with respect to the PM.
I think the trolls are out today still trying to piss everyone off here, but we will be best ingnoring you all who want to just criticise jacinda but forget the mountains of corrption your National paymasters did eh!
Best we plan on dismantling the national sopin machine instead of answering to these brind nat trolls eh!!!
GROPERS
No. 7: Joe Biden
https://stream.org/joe-bidens-disturbing-groping-of-young-girls-and-women/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy07yHAgM4E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoLHn577xIE
“GROPERS” is researched and presented by GroperWatch, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
Check out all the gropers so far…
No.1 George Herbert Walker Bush; No. 2 Bill O’Reilly ; No. 3 Al Franken; No. 4 Robin Brooke; No. 5 Lester Beck; No. 6 Arnold Schwarzenegger
Thanks for keeping this info going Morrissy (9)
I wonder if our very own (hair) groping pervert’s name will pop up through Gropers sometime soon? He deserves to be named and shamed for assaulting women and young girls! In his touchy feely stroking (hair) capacity, he should be up there with the rest of the “can’t keep their grubby hands to themselves” filth!
I wonder if our very own (hair) groping pervert’s name will pop up through Gropers sometime soon?
Yes, mary, his name is on my list. Keep an eye out!
I’m sure it’s a worthy challenge to kill off a good swathe of creeps and sex criminals from the US glitterati. It really is.
But let’s not confuse this current binge-purge cycle with breaking global patriarchy.
For example, the only reason there’s another male President in Zimbabwe today rather than a female is because the armed forces led a revolt against the female incumbent and her youth supporters, who did not have the track record of unreconstructed thuggery that the new guy and his military have. And before everyone clutches their pearls for democracy, being a wife of a President or ex-President is a primary route for a lot of women to achieve political power in this anti-female world.
Like this one…
http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/hillaryclinton115.jpg
You’re measuring the breaking of global patriarchy by looking at Zimbabwe?
It’s everywhere.
So, yes.
I would have thought what happened in Zimbabwe was a reflection of the state of the patriarchy in Zimbabwe.
The twisting and turning of russiagate – or stupid water gate or whatever you want to call it. Is turning into some new form of McCarthyism. When the far right think tanks keep piling in on it, it starts to get worring.
https://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/terror-cranks-sold-america-russia-panic
The twisting and turning of russiagate – or stupid water gate or whatever you want to call it. Is turning into some new form of McCarthyism. When the far right think tanks keep piling in on it, it starts to get worring.
https://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/terror-cranks-sold-america-russia-panic
Haha, nice. Max Blumenthal’s journalistic output must make for some uncomfortable family reunions. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the Blumenthal household for this weekend’s upcoming thanksgiving dinner – assuming Max hasn’t been permabanned from Sidney’s presence by now…
I wonder which party these lawmakers will mostly be from.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/11/boom-trump-wants-congress-release-names-lawmakers-settled-sexual-harassment-suits/
On past form, I’d take anything published by a site run by the dumbest man on the internet with a grain of salt.
https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2017/01/25/22-times-jim-hoft-and-gateway-pundit-were-absurdly-wrong/215106
Yeah I take that site for what it often is, wishful thinking and rumour mongering en-extremis.
Confirmation bias driven by wishful thinking is one hell of a drug, which is of course why traditional methodology says don’t run stories off one source. However, I’d also point out that the guy you link here cites Snopes and Media Matters an awful lot for someone concerned with source credibility. They’re partisan sites now, you can’t uncross that Rubicon.
But on the subject of confirmation bias driven by wishful thinking, let’s see how an awful lot of respectable sites who have written on it prolifically are looking when the Steele Dossier’s all done and dusted…
Now, as to the article I posted. I see the journalist whose tweet this comes from has that blue Jack Dosey approved tick. And it cites and presents the image of a release of data from the Congressional office of compliance. Finally, it cites an MSNBC interview with a Democratic legislator which would seem to confirm the amounts of money spent settling sexual harassment cases.
So I still wonder, which party will the majority of those lawmakers turn out to be from?
Also, the byline on the article isn’t Jim Hoft. J’ss’say’n.
The dumbest man on the internet’s site and the organisation employing the hack with the blue Jack Dosey approved tick are partisan AF who’re more willing to accommodate their own side’s abusers. and both sought to discredit the women accusing Moore.
The robocall reported Tuesday is not the only instance of someone attempting to perpetrate a hoax about the Washington Post‘s reporting. Not long after the original story’s publication, a Twitter account called @umpire43 posted a message claiming that a Post reporter named “Beth” had offered an Alabama woman $1,000 to “accuse Roy Moore.” (The Post‘s story was written by Stephanie McCrummen, Beth Reinhard, and Alice Crites.) The tweet was shared by the far-right website Gateway Pundit and coursed through Moore-supporting social media. It actually wound up on television Friday when the right-wing channel One America News Network read @umpire43’s tweet as the authentic word of a “former Secret Service agent and Navy veteran,” then showed a photo of Reinhard.
https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/11/14/hoax-robocall-going-around-alabama-claims-washington-post-seeking-information-roy-moore/
Interesting tack to take, but let’s look at that – one Republican vs. how many Democrats currently accused? And let’s bear in mind the political leanings of all those celebrities and mjournalists currently accused. No wonder the women of the American left are obsessed with rape culture and patriarchy – it reflects the men they associate with so well.
If the left responded in the way the right has, with silence, deflection and victim blaming, I guess you’d have a point.
But the left doesn’t respond like the right, the left calls abusers out no matter their political persuasion.
Quite a few republicans, including their house leadership have called for him to drop out of the race. And I recall them being pretty displeased about those access Hollywood Trump revelations. Including high level calls for him to quit his candidacy and allow the RNC to replace him. So by your own argument, yes, I do have a point, thank you.
Liberals are sacked quick smart on the strength of the accusations, yet Republicans say Moore is their man and the toddler in chief and his enablers continue to stand by an accused sexual predator running for Senate so they can pass tax cuts.
Top White House officials have now made President Trump’s position on Roy Moore absolutely clear: Trump does not believe that the allegations that Moore initiated sexual contact with a 14-year-old — and pursued three other teenagers — should disqualify him from becoming a U.S. senator.
This is not how they presented their position, of course. On the Sunday shows, legislative director Marc Short and senior adviser Kellyanne Conway both expressed great shock and horror over the charges. But then each of them carefully carved out a position that appears designed to allow Moore to continue with his run for Senate largely unobstructed and, ultimately, to accept Moore as a senator if he wins, while letting the allegations fade away in a fog of he-said-she-said uncertainty.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/11/13/ignore-the-spin-trump-and-gop-have-made-a-devils-bargain-with-roy-moore/
Al Franken has been sacked? John Conyers has been sacked? But you said…
You probably saw this earlier – 14/11/2017 – but it is interesting how given an inch business will take a mile (convert to metrics yourself). This business of contracting out leaves so many loose ends floating around.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/98857100/chorus-deeply-uncomfortable-with-volunteers-scheme
The idea of bringing people out from India who were not to be paid made Chorus uncomfortable..
.”On investigation, our service company in Nelson, UCG, has advised…[the] intention was to help people who wanted to learn about the industry and see if a career as a fibre technician was one they wanted to pursue further,” spokesman Nathan Beaumount said.” …. (Thin, very.)
‘UCG [Universal Communications Group] said via a three-line emailed response it was aware that Sunwin Technologies had a voluntary program, aligned with the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) guidelines.’.. (Which were??)
“To our understanding based on Sunwin’s feedback, they have followed the guidelines as stipulated by the EMA,” general manager operations, Paul Trotman said.
Attempts to track Sunwin Technologies were not successful.” (BAU)
‘The Ministry of Business, Employment and Innovation would be making further enquiries.’ (BAU)
The commenters were highly disgusted about this.
Aliena -“intention was to help people who wanted to learn about the industry and see if a career as a fibre technician was one they wanted to pursue further,” What complete and utter rubbish Chorus….
RBM“……. had a voluntary program, aligned with the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) guidelines.” Obviously this is a widespread rort!
Squire – visionstream are the same, bring people over on a education visa, set them up as a owner operator, take a cut out of their wages to pay for the business startup, work them, exhaust their money and send them back with nothing.
Happyatwork – happyatwork
I have worked (For a sub contractor) for several of chorus service partners including UCG. Chorus now prefers service partners who have sub contractors and work for coded work (rather than staff earning wages), and with the large amount of foreign workers, chorus has been able to change the rules, requiring these sub-contractors to do more work for the same code (value of work).
This has resulted in many NZers leaving the industry, as the service partners can just pass on the extra work without increasing the codes, because they know there are more foreign workers / sub-contractors who will just replace them.
we now have:
1.The Government help pay for the UFB rollout with the taxpayers money
2.Chorus complain they need more workers to help
3. The government change the immigration rules to support
4. Chorus drives done the install cost and “passes” it down to the coal face workers.
5. New Zealanders leave the industry
6. go back to step 2.
So our own money (Taxpayers) is destroying our jobs and reasonable standard of living!!
7 days ago
napmannz
We also had bad experience with one of the subcontractors who rented the four bed house next door and promptly put twelve guys in the house. We ended up with about seven large work vans and another five cars in a small grove causing massive disruption to the neighborhood. When the property manager finally was able to shift them a large clean up was required with the number of people in the house putting a strain on the house. Talking with others they also had similar troubles in different suburbs with the same company. As others have said the cost push is downward leaving mostly foreign labor that will do the work at below market rates.
6 days ago
BJRBJR
Shame on you Chorus, and what is our new Minister of Labour going to do about it. These workers have been here for years now. No or little English and the standard of installs in the homes is disgusting and when you complain and request it is fixed…. Nothing! A friend recently had the fiber box put into a brand new home, the contractor put the large screws straight through the wall in the other room. When this was shown to them they just said call Chorus and left…. Another story from a plumber who was called out after-hours as the non English speaking workers had cut through a water pipe, and begged him not to call there boss as they would be fired!
More New Zealand businesses IN NZ: 22/11/2017
Supermarkets owned by NZs as a co-operative making payments to its members,
and the money largely remaining in NZ. Sounds all right to me! (Think PaknSave and New World.)
During the past 12 months Foodstuffs South Island posted sales worth $2.9 billion, an increase of $96m or 3.3 per cent over the previous year. The growth occurred in a period of low inflation and was attributed to the opening of three new stores and higher market share of existing outlets.
The gross profit was $341m with $262m returned to members of the co-operative.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/99042577/foodstuffs-invests-in-new-south-island-supermarkets
“New Zealand, An Economic Success Story, Loses Its Way”
Forbes on Jacinda.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jareddillian/2017/11/20/new-zealand-an-economic-success-story-loses-its-way/#598f15d15f7a
Not exactly a glowing endorsement.
Evil right wingers
Just thought I’d get in first 🙂
‘ filthy, uncaring , money focused destroyers of unicorns, pixies and all the other things that make the world good”
And I am in second
Oh look, a hate in…
Typical neoliberal drivel from a free market fanatic. We should be concerned what a former trader thinks about us? “Economic success story” for who? Limited economic measures to equate with the success label while we have seen degradation in our environment, mental health, health system, social welfare, corporate and social service standards and accountability, and increases in poverty and corruption. Success story? Yeah right
A foreigner, ex wall st (like the pm who quit) is unhappy that we’ve changed/are changing the rules for foreign ownership and immigration is pissed off about it.
Oh my word, what a freaking surprise, no more investment properties in NZ for him, of course he’s pissed off about it and writing about it.
Seems a fraction early for a critique.
Growth forecast is excellent.
Government forecast surplus of $4.1billion.
Headline unemployment lower than 5%.
Maybe, with the state having now so little effect on us other than in welfare and infrastructure to changing New Zealand at all, just maybe any economic downturn will be due to markets correcting?
Just like markets did last time.
At immense social damage to human beings.
My main correction to the article is that foreign investors should give us a miss for a while, as we start to support local investors.
Growth forecast is excellent.
Government forecast surplus of $4.1billion.
Headline unemployment lower than 5%
Yep National did good all right
pity about all the people living in cars though.
lower than 5%
According to a definition that treats 1hr/w as “employed”. All the lies you’ve swallowed can’t hide the truth though.
Yet another measure by which the National Party comes off second best.
Tree good
Fire bad.
It has been a month…
no bias from Forbes there then James (sarc)….maybe they should stick to listing the rich bastards as serious journalism is clearly beyond them
Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
Forbes and other such institutions keep telling us that we should continue following their preferred neo-liberal ideology despite all the damage that it’s done to our society.
Yeah, probably not worth taking their advice in that respect.
Yes James, you and yours are doing just fine. So fuck the rest of us who aren’t under this system. Selfish, greedy etc.
What ever happened to the economic trickle-down theory or was that just for the benefit of certain New Zealanders?
It still has a large number of witless dupes who believe it: Maninthemiddle, Baba Yaga, 3Stepstotheright, Groundhog, Acrophobic: there’s one for a start.
Baba Y and Tanz would make a very nice couple.
Will this ruling help the guts in their case against Katherine Rich, Carrick Graham etc… especially the playing the man not the organisation bit?
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/11/21/62525/online-criticisms-cost-man-100000?platform=hootsuite
Baba Yaga:
Little wonder that a wingnut parrot cannot live up to their name.
Christ Almighty in a bubble!
the Projek
Let’s here it for JaiJai
I see that Steven Joyce is beating his gums again! – trying to cover over his entrails of that $11.7 billiion dollar hole. Then going hard pushing Labour for their financial figures eh!
While I see this as a “diversion” ploy to keep labour busy on the job of keeping the books straight instead!
Labour should now be going on the defensive investigating the nine years of financial reporting they did to find some ‘anomolies’ in their own shaddy books as there will be several holes and ‘kickbacks’ to keep their supporters happy at the expense of all of us on the lower runggs of the ladder eh!
Also Steven Joyce and hiis crims are probably feeling the heat right now with Winston preparing his case gfor the 7th December ‘discovery’ in court.
I guess legal papers have already been served on Joyce, Brownlee, Bennett and English so they and the media are feeling the heat to as several jouralists are involved with Winston’s case too.
Maybe that’s why the media are treating the Government like shit now eh!!!