I have some respect for Roy Morgan’s poll results, but its commentary sucks.
The commentary on the latest results says “continuing strong support for Prime Minister John Key’s National Party” even though it is down to 45.5%. Support for Key’s Coalition partners has apparently changed little even though the Maori Party has lost 25% of its support (1.5%) and ACT at 1% still needs National’s generosity to be relevant. United Future at 0.5% remains a haircut away from oblivion.
Support for Labour Party has increased 0.5% to 31% but 3.5% since last November’s election. The Greens are down a bit to 11.5%, (down 1.5%), New Zealand First is at 6% which is up from the last result but down from the election result, Mana is up slightly to 1% and who knows who the others are.
Confidence Rating is down 6 points to 127 — with 57% (down 4%) of New Zealanders saying New Zealand is “heading in the right direction” compared to 30% (up 2%) that say New Zealand is “heading in the wrong direction.” I predict that these particular statistics will continue to worsen over the next few months.
Over all,
NACT + MP + UF = 48.5%
L + G + NZF + M = 49.5%
So the “continuing strong support for Prime Minister John Key’s Party” actually looks pretty flimsy. Someone should tell Gary Morgan.
I guess technically they are correct insofar as 45.5% vs 31% is still a large gap (though narrowing steadily). Actually I think Roy Morgan deserve some credit for at least attempting to gauge the relative position of the two potential governing blocs. Most of the NZ pollsters still insist on looking at their polls through the prism of FPP. At any rate Gary Morgan concludes his remarks with this statement:
“Overall support for the full National-led Government has dipped to 48.5% (down 0.5%), trailing the Opposition Parties (51.5%, up 0.5%). Worryingly for Key, this is the lowest level of support his broad-based Coalition has received since being elected to Government in November 2008.”
MS – Serious question. Do you believe that the state of NZ politics, as it reflects global politics, is in any way capable of turnin a sinking NZ around, and should people waste their time buying into the political system, which is blatantly defunct, and serving interests other than NZ?
If a few 10k more people had voted for the opposition rather than National, we wouldn’t be having asset sales discussions (or they would be radically different, if MP went ahead with them).
Of course I do. I would not be involved in politics otherwise. Although I agree that there are reasons to despair at the inertia and at the self serving behaviour of some of our fellow MPs.
Do you believe that the state of NZ politics, as it reflects global politics, is in any way capable of turnin a sinking NZ around, and should people waste their time buying into the political system
Doing work at the local body or community level may turn out to be more important. And pressuring central government from that level to get its shit together re: transport systems and energy systems will be crucial.
The problem I see at central government level is that it only takes the Tories half the time to dismantle anything that the left tries to build. Knocking stuff down and cancelling stuff is always quicker than trying to build stuff up.
The other dynamic is that in national politics, a huge amount of time and energy is spent just trying to maintain, administer and manage a highly complex status quo. In a lot of ways that investment is a dead investment because the complex status quo today is completely unfit for the purpose that we will need it for in just a few years.
Not sure Lanth. In the past 5 months using Roy Morgan figures the nats have shed 10 percentage points. If you look at the graph there is a noticeable and sustained dip. If I was them I would be more than a little afraid …
Watched Bruce Robertson on tv re smoking , just triggered a question- what had happened to the drinking age? That was all go pre last years election and I have heard nothing since
I think the bill is still making its way through Parliament, and is due to be voted on this year sometime.
I dont drink that much myself, but it seem to be that the force behind the proposed changes seems to be more of a view that only those who are over 45, male and in the upper income bracket can hold their drink, and it needs to be made harder for everyone else to buy alcohol. The moral panic around ball season binge drinking springs to mind.
Thanks for that
It appears another case where big business will direct social policy all for a $. I am sure that this will be a great distraction surprised it has not been promoted with the asset sales and the lack of public support over the govts blind at all cost following their ideology
Still think it is funny that we can currently drink at 18 but are unable to go to the casino until 20.
Our good wowser mate Dunne will be happy to raise the drinking age to 20….of course the kids will save all their money and buy shares in state assets instead of alcohol.
Phil, he was at Uni, prick would not invest in a beer chiller for Steins….he then went to ALAC, always “Mr Moral”. I reckon if he has been in the pockets of the alcohol and fags industries as you state he must be the ultimate two faced “me firster” I take him to be.
Very bad form and typical of some of the stories coming from Ch’ch.
TVNZ, TV3 and Sky New Australia all cross live at 8 am for the commencement of the earthquake memorial service.
And nothing for 25 minutes. People on stage obviously ready for an 8 am start and no dignitaries. They didn’t arrive until 8:25.
I could only imagine people swearing in the Sydney newsroom that a 24 hour news channel was forced to broadcast what effectively was 25 minutes of music from the Army Band.
Who f’d up?
Worse for those watching TVNZ. 25 minutes of fill from Corin Dan. 25 uninterrupted minutes for Corin to talk shit.
Who f’d up?
All the broadcasters would be cursing at the loss of revenue from planned commercial breaks that were replaced with 25 minutes of the Army Band.
Couldn’t even give the right time to the media. Symbolic of the recovery?
Sure. Lets time everything to suit the media in future. If real world circumstances conspire to fuck it up, then hell, we’ll, we’ll….do something to teach that real world a lesson it will never forget. While we’re at it, lets stop the world spinning for the ad breaks. Wouldn’t want to miss any of that live action now, would we?
It’s not about pandering to the media. It’s about doing your job and doing it efficiently.
For an event like this, that you want broadcast to NZ and all those interested and concerned, then you either setup you own television network for which you call the shots (obviously out of the question) or you enter into a symbiotic relationship with the broadcaster in which you have to consider their needs.
Somebody didn’t do their job.
Jeez, William, no need to blow a foo foo valve. The ceremony was delayed to allow the many, many buses full of Chch citizens to get to Latimer Square. Normally, transport wouldn’t be a problem, but they had an earthquake down there a while ago which has made things a bit awkward for them. Sorry they let you down and I’m sure the mayor will make a formal apology to you in due course.
No need to be rude (or an ass for that matter).
“Jeez, William, no need to blow a foo foo valve.” – inferring an attitude not in evidence. I was passing comment that some had fucked up (which they had) and the implication for the broadcasters (which there were a number) and I said absolutely nothing about the implications on me (of which there were none). All of which makes your post thoroughly pointless.
In response to your patronising comment “they had an earthquake down there a while ago”, all things considered, (including earthquakes and moving people) planning should do just that, i.e. consider all things. If you can’t get people there on time then, in the planning stage, you push back the time and let the relevant parties know. Both of which they didn’t. Ergo, someone f’d up.
BTW, that little problem with the earthquake you mention, didn’t happen yesterday nor was this event unanticipated.
Word of advise, before you launch into conceited posts full of misplaced sarcasm you should take the time to read what is posted instead of making inferences, the evidence for which only exists in your head.
William, I’m glad you get it now and I hope you think before writing such drivel again in the future. Or at least do some fact checking first. In this case, it wouldn’t have been hard because the reason for the delay was announced at the time.
That minor effort to actually find out what was going would have stopped you jumping to dumbarse conclusions like ‘someone f’d up’. As it turns out, that someone was you.
Do you have a reading comprehension problem? Some sort of learning impairment I need to know about?
Are you not able to read what has been posted?
Or is it that once you take up an opposing position (and despite having been soundly corrected) you not capable of seeing the error in your reasoning?
– “William, I’m glad you get it no” – not the case. You have yet to show that I am in error.
– “Or at least do some fact checking first” – already done before I first posted. On the ccc website. So, again you make inferences from incorrect assumptions. Check it yourself. The announced schedule was that John Key et al would arrive at 7:50 am. That makes them 35min late. Are there other facts that I should be aware off. You know, the ones that exist in reality and not your congested imagination.
– “the reason for the delay was announced at time“. If you mean “announced this morning” than all I can say to you is “Thank you for demonstrating my point” [William takes a bow midst thunderous applause]. MY POINT EXACTLY! If it was announced this morning then it shows poor planning hence leaving the media with time to fill. Which, if I am not mistaken, (and I most certainly am not) was my original post.
– “That minor effort to actually find out what was going would have stopped you jumping to dumbarse conclusions like ‘someone f’d up’. As it turns out, that someone was you.”
This para shows that it is you who has jumped to a “dumbarse conclusion”
Dude, I heard it on the radio at about 10 minutes past 8. It’s not my problem that you leapt to a particularly stupid conclusion without bothering to find out what was going on. This was not the RWC transport fiasco, just a lot of Chch people wanting to show their respects, which caused a short delay that only you are the least bit upset about. And which you would have known if you’d bothered to check.
And by your friends, ye shall be known. When V32 comes to your defence, you’ve gotta know you have well and truly f’d up!
I have taken too much time to make my point perfectly clear and you still have been unable to refute it with anything other than some radio broadcast that just goes to prove my point.
Take a deep breath and re-read the posts.
If you’re still unhappy then go tell Oprah, she cares. Better still try Dr Phil – I’m sure he can help you.
William, I’m glad you get it now and I hope you think before writing such drivel again in the future. Or at least do some fact checking first
You may have changed your name, but your attitude to disagreement is as foul as ever! Your vicious, scarcastic little wank of a post disgusts me. You are thoroughly in the wrong here, and not for the first or the last time. Your ego gets in the way of your common sense. 🙁
I’m having a bad day so I’ll “take the bait” on this one.
So, my moniker is William Joyce. That is what you know for certain.
What you do not know is whether that is my real name or a pseudonym. To assume one way or the other (without evidence) is, what those in the industry call, an “assumption”.
Error number 1
Someone in history, who was blessed with the name William Joyce, was a mouthpiece for a fascist regime. Therefore, anyone with a similar name must also be a fascist.
Error number 2
Reacting to someone because of the moniker they use….
Error number 3.
“Hardly surprising…” – was a response to Vicky32 as though she was responding to me. Rather I & Te Reo Putake think V32 was responding to Te Reo Putake. (I hope I have read this right, V32, as I can not see any number for posts)
Error number 4
Ok, time for bed, where I can dream of a world where rich financiers, economic technocrats, and artificial-humans (known as corporations) do not rule the world.
“I will treat corporations as pseudo-human beings when Texas executes one”
I wasn’t refereing to Joyce being a mouthpiece for a fascist regime (hmmm – works for the Nats too), but for his hyperbolic trolling the allied troops -something that seems to accommodate your ignorant tirades rather nicely.
Just listened to Key speak at the Chch commemorations. Now it could be me (I can hardly bear to listen to him at the best of times) but on radio at least his delivery seemed pretty flat, monotone and detached. Is he getting as tired of it all as some are suggesting?
“…In an article titled “Still No End to ‘Too Big to Fail,’” William Greider wrote in The Nation on February 15th:
“Financial market cynics have assumed all along that Dodd-Frank did not end “too big to fail” – but instead created a charmed circle of protected banks labeled “systemically important” – that will not be allowed to fail – no matter how badly they behave.”
That may be, but there is one bit of bad behavior that Uncle Sam himself does not have the funds to underwrite:
– the $32 trillion market in credit default swaps (CDS).
Thirty-two trillion dollars is more than twice the U.S. GDP and more than twice the national debt.
CDS are a form of derivative taken out by investors as insurance against default.
According to the Comptroller of the Currency, nearly 95% of the banking industry’s total exposure to derivatives contracts is held by the nation’s five largest banks: JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, HSBC, and Goldman Sachs.
The CDS market is unregulated – and there is no requirement that the “insurer” actually have the funds to pay up.
CDS are more like bets – and a massive loss at the casino could bring the house down.
It could, at least, unless the casino is rigged.
Whether a “credit event” is a “default” triggering a payout is determined by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) –
– and it seems that the ISDA is owned by the world’s largest banks and hedge funds.
That means the house determines whether the house has to pay…”
Which simply means that when Greece defaults completely and takes bck their country , that the banks will fall like dominoes, as the CDS kick in , which then can’t be paid.
Someone (in the feedback) made a good point on Campbell Live this week about a NZ father dealing recovering his child after parental child abduction.
Our authorities are so quick and aggressive to do the bidding of the US when corporate copyright interests are at stake but are “do nothing” when comes to one of our own who has rights under the Hague Convention to recover his child.
The drive to get workplace injuries down actually used to be part of the Fonterra permanent employees KPI, as it related to their performance bonues…it may not longer be the case, but it certainly was. You can see the conflict of interest there!
Obviously it just leads to less reporting, which in turn allows the company to have undeserved health and safety status!
Michael Laws utterly unable to defend his extreme comments
Radio Live, Wednesday February 22, 2012
If you were so bored and stupid that you listened to Michael Laws this morning, you may have detected that he was more than a little distracted. Possibly because at the same time that he was raving about the need to sterilize “feral Māori”, he was engaging in an epistolary
exchange with this writer, i.e., moi….
1.) 9:36 AM
Dear Michael,
Why don’t you provide a lead for the Māori “ferals” and have yourself sterilized?
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
2.) Michael Laws ml…@mediaworks.co.nz
9:50 AM
Because i don’t kill my children you wanker!
3.) 10:03 AM
Really? You were, and no doubt still are, a vituperative advocate of the mass killing of children in Palestine.
Yours in honest disclosure,
Morrissey
4.) Michael Laws ml…@mediaworks.co.nz
10:07 AM
Do you enjoy living on the sickness benefit with your mental condition or are you just FITH?
5.) 10:11 AM
Not a clever reply, my friend. No doubt you intimidate lots of people with personal attacks like that, just like you dismissed poor old “Walter” before the News.
But back to the point under discussion: how can you pretend to be an advocate for Maori children when you have such a filthy record of anti-Palestinian bigotry?
Still waiting for an intelligent answer…
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey
6.) 10:19 AM
Ditto: how do you justify killing Maori kids??
7.) 10:34 AM
I don’t. I think it’s terrible, but unlike you, I really mean that. Now when will you condemn the government-sponsored killing of Palestinian children?
Still waiting….
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey
8.) 10:36 AM
I don’t care about kids in another country, you moron, when its the kids here getting killed? YOU are part of the problem wasting your few mental resources on mad people half a world away.
9.) 10:42 AM
You “don’t care about kids in another country”? Then why did you so vociferously champion their destruction in January 2009?
Calling murdered children “mad” is not an intelligent answer, so could you have another, serious, attempt at an explanation?
Still waiting….
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey
10.) 10:43 AM
Actually if the Israelis had taken you out, I’d have cheered too
11.) 10:54 AM
Still not a serious or credible answer, my friend. You’re not making uneasy sycophants laugh in a Dunedin cafetaria now; you’re expected to back up your attitude with some kind of argument. So far you’ve said nothing of intelligence.
By the way, I thought it was amusing to hear you assert that you “don’t like people who make up history”; I remember the wandery, disconnected and confused potted history of Israel you gave on air at the bloodiest point of the massacre. You obviously got your “history” from a fantasy source—was it Joan Peters by any chance?
Still waiting, mate….
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
12.) 10:58 AM
False name false FB profile = fraud
13.) 11:03 AM
Jokes, personal attacks, now threats. You’ve really gone to the well, haven’t you?
Is a false Facebook profile as bad a crime as uttering?
Yours in amusement,
Morrissey
14.) 11:08 AM
You’re just a wanker: anonymous wanker hiding behind false identity. Sicko.Now fuck off …
15.) 11:13 AM Quod erat demonstrandum.
Thanks, mate. Your programme’s a winner, and your callers are all as informed and intelligent as you. Well done, my friend.
Hilarious.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey
16.) 11:18 AM
FRAUD
17.) 11:29 AM
“Fraud”? Really? Using a pseudonym on the internet is an accepted and almost universal practice. It’s hardly fraudulent. Forging documents when you’re an elected public figure is fraud.
Yours in amusement,
Morrissey
18.) 11:29 AM
FRAUD
19.) 11:37 AM
Seriously Michael, we try to resist inferring from the way in which you bawl into the microphone that you’re not very bright, but your tendentious and abusive e-mail correspondence just confirms it.
What will you do if you lose your radio spot?
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey
20.) 11:38 AM
FRAUD
21.) 11:50 AM
Shouting like that doesn’t really enhance your credibility, old chap. It’s easy to berate callers, and cut them off when you can’t mount a coherent argument against them, but in epistolary form like this, you end up just making yourself look kind of …. well, daft.
I do expect better than you’ve shown this morning—but then again, I’ve rarely heard you in better form. Which is a disappointment.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey
22.) 11:50 AM
FRAUD
23.) 12:03 PM
Dear Alan Partridge,
A convicted utterer accusing someone of fraud. Kind of awesome.
Yours in amusement,
Morrissey
Nice one, Morrisey. Laws cuts a sad, lonely figure around Whanganui these days. Ignored in the council, laughed at in the local media and deleted from the phone contacts of most of his former allies. As for his shouty problems, Aqualung might be a good nickname for him now, because he looked a lot like the dero on the cover of the Tull album last time I saw him.
The Environment Southland Council were provided with an opposing view of Lignite Mining today and while commercial interests get extended time to promote their projects we were initially allotted ten minutes. Considering the lignite projects will increase our carbon emissions by 20 million tons a year (from our current level of 70 million) this is no small issue and commercial interests should not be given preference over environmental concerns. http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/lignite-presentation-to-environment.html
Is Mr Shearer still leader of the Labour Party?
I haven’t heard him utter anything lately.
If this is his way of doing things differently, I don’t like it…
It was a lapse in judgement and there are consequences. However, it is seems to be the same problem people like him face.
The days when you could have a Ralph Nader presenting facts, and catching the forces of reaction by surprise, has gone.
The forces of the right, “special interest”, reaction, are well funded and resourced in their merciless and unethical dealings. There are a myriad of “think tanks” which don’t use their brain power to think about the facts but to think about ways to obfuscate, mislead, misdirect, misinform.
It leaves people like Peter Gleick with the temptation to cross the line to redress the power imbalance.
Ultimately, he repented of his action and confessed. If the position was reversed, the guilty think tank member would not confess but get booked on Fox News so he could attack “the liberals”, further muddy the waters and promote his new book.
Hells Bells Barry. Can you hear the applause from those whose support for National standards has been “Teachers should obey the Government. Teachers are just trying to protect poor teachers. etc ”
Just imagine what will happen once Key and Banks get to enact such a disgraceful program as described in your New York link. No wonder USA are steadily slipping down international scores.
Makes me sick to think that Min Ed Hekia Parata, who is going to introduce competition between teachers, will make the New York disaster our disaster.
The Radio Network, which broadcasts Newstalk ZB, ZM and Radio Sport, has been referred to police by the Electoral Commission over election programmes for Peter Dunne’s United Future Party.
The programmes aired on October 25, just over a month out from the general election last year.
The Commission said it believed the broadcasts breached section 70 of the Broadcasting Act because broadcasters were prohibited from airing election programmes outside of the election period, which was October 26 to November 25, last year.
Whoops, someone at UF must have got their dates wrong.
Occupying Government of Greece
These days are going to vote for a bill that will be the last nail in the coffin of the Greek.
A bill to return the country to a totalitarian rule.
To bring the country and its people in absolute poverty.
We will not allow another misery to the Greek people.
We demand your resignation immediately, and elections.
We demand not paid a cent to moneylenders ‘friends’ you.
We demand the immediate withdrawal of the IMF from Greece.
The Justice Department was only a small sample of what we’re capable of doing
Even you have not seen the full wrath of Anonymous.
CV even conservative MP’s in the UK are advocating for Greece to default and set up their own currency again.Otherwise as these Conservative MPs have pointed out Greece will never recover!
They are saying Greece will just keep getting worse and not better.
Why aren’t our Con artistive Trolls backing their opinion!
Where have all the Trolls gone!
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Redline is critical of Corbyn for his political weaknesses, but he’s no anti-Semite. There is no substance to the McCarthyist witch-hunt being run by the right wing, and the pro-Israel lobby inside and outside the Labour Party in the UK. ...
The government's billion trees program is the sort of policy which could make a real difference to our emissions and the fight against climate change. But climate scientist Jim Salinger isn't convinced:The Forestry Minister Shane Jones' one billion trees won't ...
Last month the government was celebrating another surplus. Meanwhile, children are starving:One in five children are living in households where putting food on the table is a struggle, according to a new report from the Ministry of Health. It found ...
Show Me The Money! The alternative to state funding of infrastructure is, of course, to fund it by taking on massive amounts of private debt. On this issue, at least, Auckland mayoral challenger, Tamihere, has some solid points to make. ...
If we are to avoid making the earth uninhabitable, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to practically nothing over the next decade. But that will still leave us with the problem of the carbon we have already emitted, which ...
Former Waikato DHB CEO Nigel Murray allegedly misused public funds, spending more than $120,000 of public money on unjustified travel. He was forced to resign and the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation. But despite the SFO finding that the ...
Jeremy Corbyn, we are told, is being advised – not least by his deputy (as well as by some of his would-be successors) – that he must come “off the fence” on the Brexit issue if he wants to bolster ...
The End of Life bill has been read a second time and is now heading for the House for further debate. Personally, I support the proposal. I don't ever epect to take advantage of the Bill's provisions myself, but as ...
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.read more ...
Below is a translation of the editorial in the June 24 round of weekly workplace bulletins issued all over France by the revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvriere. Last Saturday, 8,000 people took to the streets of Belfort (eastern France) to ...
Why hasn't Parliament followed the lead set by our local authorities and declared a climate emergency? The answer is the National Party:The Prime Minister’s admission that she is open to the idea of declaring a climate change emergency is nothing ...
Back in May the government released its Zero Carbon Bill. While much of the bill was welcome, there was one big exception: it contained a secrecy clause, requiring the Climate Change Commission to maintain secrecy over practically everything it does. ...
by Phil Duncan This past week has marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Stonewall Inn riots in Christopher Street, New York, the event generally regarded as kicking off the gay liberation movement. Quite a few articles have ...
Southland - land of coal-burning dairy farmers - has become the first region in the country to explicitly vote against declaring a climate emergency. Their reason? They didn't want to "devalue" the word "emergency". Its an argument addressed powerfully in ...
New Zealand has a problem with police chases: officers going after fleeing drivers like rabid dogs, without any consideration for proportionality or public safety, often with fatal results. And according to an in-depth article in the Guardian today, the UK ...
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...
Holly Lawford-Smith is a senior lecturer in political philosophy at the University of Melbourne. She’s currently writing a book about radical feminism. This article appeared on Feminist Current Academics should be standing together in defence of universities’ fundamental values: the ...
The Otago Daily Times has an in-depth article about the future of wind energy in New Zealand, and it is looking bright:The news that wind will play the leading role in New Zealand’s energy future was put up in lights ...
If the sight of schoolkids striking for a future has been filling you with hope, good news: they want you to join them on September 27:Students will take to the streets again demanding action on climate change, and this time ...
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...
I have been working my way through a 47,000 document tranche of declassified US government communications related to Argentina and the “Dirty War” of 1976-83. I grew up in Argentina in the period leading up to the March 24, 1976 ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
A new website has launched in response to recent RNZ reporting about Police in Dunedin unlawfully entering people’s homes and breath-testing them. “I was disgusted when I saw what they cops were doing in Dunedin. Their behaviour undermines all of ...
Hundreds of whanau and Maori leaders gathered at a hui in Mangere last weekend where they voted unanimously for an inquiry into Oranga Tamariki. The historic meeting called for a child welfare framework to be developed by Maori, for Maori. ...
The Head of the New Zealand Maori Council has called for the Government to hold an immediate investigation into the global cosmetics company Sephora after they were caught dumping waste hundreds and thousands of waste paper products embedded with ...
Simon Shepherd: The government says its agreement with farmers, that they should pay for agricultural emissions, is historic. But there's no agreement on how. One proposal says farmers should pay a 5 per cent emissions tax. Another suggests farmers ...
The O’Brien Institute for Public Health at Calgary University has just released their report on fluoridation. This institute has, up to now, been staunchly in favour of fluoridation. However, yesterday, with regards to fluoride’s effect on the brain, ...
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...
Kia Anga Mua Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi (KAM) has reached a pivotal milestone following a hui yesterday at Waitangi with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Government spent $133,530 on producing its ‘Wellbeing Budget’ document, a cost blowout largely driven by spending on graphic design and photography. The $133,530 price tag compares to $86,268 ...
Kahungunu Māori Language Awards. Nominations closed on 5 July 2019, and were judged by the Senior Management Team of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. The judges wish to acknowledge the very high calibre of all nominations received making it a very ...
High Court of Australia Judge, Justice Stephen Gageler, will address recent criticism of court judgment delays in Australia, at the University of Canterbury (UC) on 23 July at 6.15pm. ...
This summary is provided to assist in the understanding of the Inquiry’s proceedings but does not constitute the official record. The full Minute is available at the link below. ...
The Tertiary Education Commission is laying charges under section 292A of the Education Act 1989 against three individuals for making a false representation for the purpose of receiving, or continuing to receive, free tertiary education from a tertiary education ...
New Zealand food businesses today welcomed a trio of new food safety tools, designed to make it faster, easier and more affordable to follow the rules and keep consumers safe. ...
AUT research shows that Māori children are almost four times more likely than those of European descent to be placed out of home by child protection services ...
The Government announced today that grants of up to $2,500 for energy efficient heaters are now available as part of the Government’s Warmer Kiwi Homes programme. ...
Fonterra’s use of coal has been the target of numerous grassroots campaigns in recent years. Last year 350 Aotearoa affiliated groups, Fossil Free Aoraki and 350 Nelson launched a petition dismissing the dairy giant’s initial target of no new ...
Information sessions on proposals for The Medicinal Cannabis Scheme take place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch over the next fortnight. The sessions are open to anyone with an interest in learning more about the proposed scheme. ...
“Our children are our most vulnerable, most innocent victims and we do not want to see any more children harmed by these ‘known sex offenders’. The safety of our community must be the paramount consideration.” ...
“The announcement that Fonterra will immediately stop installing any new coal boilers or increasing capacity to burn coal is the signal that the biomass fuel supply industry welcomes” said Brian Cox, Executive Officer of the Bioenergy Association. ...
18 July 2019-- Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) today welcomed Fonterra’s commitment to build no new coal plants, a “no brainer” for the climate crisis the world faces. The group has been urging this transition for six years now and ...
The increase in demand for cage-free eggs is set to continue according to animal rights organisation SAFE, who says the egg industry should expect this and prepare. ...
Wellington, New Zealand – 350 Pacific made a formal submission to the New Zealand Government’s Environment Parliamentary Select Committee on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, led by the Pacific Climate Warriors (PCWs) based in ...
There used to be a school of thought on the centre right side of politics that the best way to neuter the Greens as a political force would be to let them have a spell in government. Then, according to ...
Today (18 July) is Nelson Mandela International Day when the United Nations highlights the importance of humane conditions of imprisonment. In New Zealand our prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. At 214 prisoners per 100,000 people, we have the fifth ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take legal action over the lengthy delay in implementing pay increases for teachers. Novopay announced yesterday that teachers would have to wait until 11 September to see pay increases that they won when they settled ...
EDS has filed its submission on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The Bill sets targets for greenhouse gas reductions, provides for the government to set a series of carbon budgets, and sets up a new, independent, Climate ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has identified an absurd case of mission creep at Wellington City Council: the decision to spend $21,750 on two Consumer NZ investigations into different brands of bike lights. ...
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...
The Department of Conservation continue to repeat the same old story about attacks on staff and how it is affecting their role in protecting our precious wildlife. NZ herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249704 ...
The government's silence on the fact that the country's second-largest milk processor is on the brink of becoming 25% Chinese Government owned has been deafening. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ welcomes the coalition Government’s endeavour to take action on reducing agricultural emissions but is disappointed at the weak stance that the Government has taken on the issue. ...
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has issued a formal warning under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act) to seven reporting entities within the Regus Management Limited (RNZML) designated business ...
The Northland Regional Council (NRC) has voted to exclude all GM/GE precautionary provisions in its regional plan, despite years of community engagement showing support for such protection. There is a sense of betrayal following the way the NRC Chairman ...
New Zealand’s ‘mission-driven’ charities working in international aid are showing early signs of changing the way they work, in particular prioritising building the capacity and resilience of local communities to do their own development. ...
Teachers will have to wait until 11 September for pay increases won as part of their collective agreement negotiations settled in June, according to an update sent to schools today from Novopay. ...
July 16 (BusinessDesk) - Energy Minister Megan Woods says the government “won’t die in a ditch” if its goal of 100 percent renewable electricity generation isn't reached by 2035. ...
The Electricity Networks Association (ENA) is welcoming the Government’s response to the Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) Report released today. Graeme Peters, chief executive of the ENA, said one of the key recommendations, endorsed by the ...
An article* published this month in the Journal of Health Organization and Management raises questions over the way health board members are elected and whether the boards are even needed. ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa's kindergarten teacher members will vote on a proposed settlement to their collective agreement after four days of negotiations with the Ministry of Education and kindergarten employers. ...
Vector has today welcomed the ICCC’s report on Accelerated Electrification . Vector agrees that accelerating the electrification of transport and process heat will play a major role in reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Initiatives to ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Porirua City Council to cancel its underwriting of a proposed Canadian-led privately owned adventure park slated for public land after a similar project created a huge liability for Christchurch ...
Youth climate change campaigners Generation Zero welcome the Interim Climate Change Committee’s (ICCC’s) reports: Accelerated Electrification and Action on agricultural emissions ; which were finally released by the Government today, almost three months ...
Fish & Game New Zealand notes the announcement today that the Government and the intensive agriculture leadership have reached a ‘historic consensus’ and are exploring using a formal sector-government agreement instead of bringing agriculture ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report on Accelerated Electrification was released today by the Minister for Energy and Resources, Hon Dr Megan Woods. ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report Action on agricultural emissions was released today by the Minister for Climate Change, Hon James Shaw and the Minister of Agriculture, Hon Damien O’Connor. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Flannery, Planetary Scientist, Queensland University of Technology This weekend marks 50 years exactly since humans first walked on the Moon. It also marks Australia’s small but significant role in enabling NASA ...
The Lightbulb asks innovators and entrepreneurs how they turned their ideas into reality. This week we talk to Aaron Jones, founder of Christchurch-based reusable bag company Zerobag.First of all, give us your elevator pitch for Zerobag.Zerobag is a New Zealand-owned ...
Aaron Kreisler looks beyond the gags in this survey of an artist and his dogsat the Christchurch Art Gallery.“The dog really must love him, it’s so incredibly patient…”, a woman says to her daughter, punctuating a screening of Coin ...
‘He wants to sleep with you,’ a close friend had said. ‘Then you’ll be able to tell if it is going to lead anywhere’: a short story by New Plymouth author Elizabeth Smither. Photography by Peter Black. ...
Opinion - The leadership visits are more interesting in that they serve as a spotlight on the two countries - politically, and on policy issues, writes Brigette Morten. ...
Created by future ACT Party leader Richard Prebble after an epic reform bender in the 80s, NZ on Air has just marked its third decade. Duncan Greive relates its history and asks: is the funder still fit for purpose?It’s a ...
It helps that he played in the New Zealand cricket team when they lost the 1992 semi-final and went on to coach India, writes Georgie Wright, daughter of JohnMy dad has taught me a fair few things over my 25 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan – one with a reduced pace, despite the 24 ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and ...
Jacinda Ardern’s Melbourne trip wrapped up with nothing to show on longstanding trans-Tasman concerns, but was a potent reminder of her international appeal. ...
Pricing agricultural emissions first at the processor level - such as Fonterra - rather than right down at farm level stacks up as a gap measure says Catherine Leining. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Orlando, Researcher: Children and Technology, Western Sydney University Instagram is running a social media experiment in Australia and elsewhere to see what happens when it hides the number of likes on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cross, Research Fellow, Curtin University Sign up to the Beating Around the Bush newsletter here, and suggest a plant we should cover at batb@theconversation.edu.au. Billabongs in the northern Kimberley are welcome ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling You’ve probably heard that this week marks 50 years since humans first set foot on the Moon – a feat that still boggles the mind given ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Gentilin, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University As strange as it might sound, whistleblowers in Australia have reason to rejoice – so long as they are in the private sector. Thanks to new ...
The fourth season of Queer Eye drops today on Netflix. Sam Brooks reflects on his difficult relationship with the show, and where it sits in mainstream culture.For depressingly many people, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was an introduction not just to ...
The collapse of a multi-billion dollar deal to sell AMP's life insurance division to a British company for $3.6 billion is the fault of the companies, according to the Reserve Bank. ...
A poem by Miramar poet Geoff Cochrane.Channel HoppingStupa or Stuka?Weet-Bix or Welsh rabbit?Galactic aerodrome or Matchbox truck?*I’m young in my dreams, still young.*Beautiful Keanu’s wearing shades—antique shades with iodine-coloured lenses.*I’m young in my dreams, still young,and I still have some ...
For the month of July, Josie Adams is taking on the challenge of being low-waste. That means minimising plastics, emissions, and even recyclables. Each week we release her diary. This is week two.Read week one here.I’ll be honest, week two ...
By Royson Willie in Port Vila Two Vanuatu Daily Post journalists were literally given a pat-down by the police criminal investigation unit yesterday over a story they had written about the vehicle of the Chairman of the Public Service ...
By Gorothy Kenneth in Port Moresby Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape will visit Australia this weekend for a week-long state visit and the Bougainville independence referendum in less than three months is expected to be high on ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
Wtf did we just watch?That sound you heard was a million furries screaming in ecstasy as their fantasy and everyone else’s nightmare came to life in the form of the first trailer for the live action version of Cats.Is it ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Three Women by Lisa Taddeo (Bloomsbury, $35)Fucking ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
As we mark the fiftieth anniversary the July 20th Moon landing Dr Nick Long reflects on what that's meant for New Zealand and considers the space 'gold rush' ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Griebsch, Specialist and Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Medicine, University Veterinary Teaching Hospital Sydney, Sydney School of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney Recently reported cases of the often fatal bacterial infection ...
My selection of the eight best morning news links from here and overseas, along with eight lunchtime lean-back long reads. Also, the full list of links, including Jacinda Ardern's trip to Australia, the big emissions report, Fonterra's coal move and a new ...
Heaven is a place on earth, and June is saving the world one ’80s pop hit at a time. Tara Ward recaps season 4, episode 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Praise be, for there was a tiny bit of good news ...
Finance companies say they shouldn’t have to be ‘fit and proper’ even though in some cases they charge more than the planned clampdown on high cost lending. A group of finance companies that charges well over the government’s proposed cap on ...
An ANZ shareholder is demanding the bank disclose more information about the sale of an Auckland residential property to its former chief executive and his family. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentForeign Affairs and trade Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): The new, ...
Tara Ward sets out on a valiant quest to find the best apple in Aotearoa. The idea that every apple is a good apple is fake news. We’ve all got stories about shit experiences with apples, when it looked good on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Sarkissian, Operations Scientist, CSIRO The role Australia played in relaying the first television images of astronaut Neil Armstrong’s historic walk on the Moon 50 years ago this July features in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lyndal Sleep, Research Fellow, Griffith University In Australia’s social security laws, the “couple rule” is used to determine if a person is in a relationship, tying access to Centrelink payments to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Walker, Lecturer (Management), Victoria University of Wellington We live in a society obsessed with performance. For both young and old, competitions, awards and rankings are an inescapable feature of life. How ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan O’Connell, Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne One-third of all preschools may lack a qualified teacher in the next four years if nothing changes, my new modelling shows. Currently, half of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirsty Volz, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Of all the mantras for modernism, the one I think most befitting for Australian mid-century modern houses is L’esprit Nouveau – The New Spirit. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Skifield snowmaking a sign of the future, vaccination rates fall alarmingly, and construction industry encouraged to lower emissions.Snowmaking has saved the ski industry from disaster this year, after the weather ...
Neil Armstrong may have been the first man on the moon, but if we define the ‘space race’ as spaceflight capability, the Soviets won it hands down, writes Jennifer Frost. ...
Joel Rindelaub explains why it's so important for those weighing on climate science to be transparent about their funding sources and conflicts of interest. ...
Open mike 22/02/2012 
by Daphna Whitmore The story of how the world awoke to a big injustice is starting to be told. The Pacific Games held this month in Samoa is another chapter. On the podium was Laurel Hubbard, the giant transgender weightlifter, ...2 hours ago
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...20 hours ago
This week, in the wake of National's opposition to even talking about reducing agricultural emissions and Simon Bridges' refusal to recognise that there is a climate emergency, I've been saying that National is unfit to govern. And it looks like ...22 hours ago
Something I missed: not only did Youth MPs declare a climate emergency; they also launched a campaign to lower the voting age to 16:Youth Parliament week in Parliament has seen the establishment of Make it 16, a campaign to ...1 day ago
I have been reading and listening to the aftermath of Trump’s comments about the four female first term Democratic representatives, all of whom are “people of color.” I found the US coverage interesting both as evidence of partisanship and the ...2 days ago
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...3 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...3 days ago
3 days ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...4 days ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...4 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...1 week ago
1 week ago
2 weeks ago
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...3 weeks ago
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...3 weeks ago
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...3 weeks ago
Image Credit: Blog Writing Tips. I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the ... 3 weeks ago
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...4 days ago
A new website has launched in response to recent RNZ reporting about Police in Dunedin unlawfully entering people’s homes and breath-testing them. “I was disgusted when I saw what they cops were doing in Dunedin. Their behaviour undermines all of ...41 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Flannery, Planetary Scientist, Queensland University of Technology This weekend marks 50 years exactly since humans first walked on the Moon. It also marks Australia’s small but significant role in enabling NASA ...3 hours ago
The Lightbulb asks innovators and entrepreneurs how they turned their ideas into reality. This week we talk to Aaron Jones, founder of Christchurch-based reusable bag company Zerobag.First of all, give us your elevator pitch for Zerobag.Zerobag is a New Zealand-owned ...3 hours ago
Aaron Kreisler looks beyond the gags in this survey of an artist and his dogs at the Christchurch Art Gallery.“The dog really must love him, it’s so incredibly patient…”, a woman says to her daughter, punctuating a screening of Coin ...6 hours ago
‘He wants to sleep with you,’ a close friend had said. ‘Then you’ll be able to tell if it is going to lead anywhere’: a short story by New Plymouth author Elizabeth Smither. Photography by Peter Black. ...7 hours ago
Opinion - The leadership visits are more interesting in that they serve as a spotlight on the two countries - politically, and on policy issues, writes Brigette Morten. ...8 hours ago
Created by future ACT Party leader Richard Prebble after an epic reform bender in the 80s, NZ on Air has just marked its third decade. Duncan Greive relates its history and asks: is the funder still fit for purpose?It’s a ...9 hours ago
It helps that he played in the New Zealand cricket team when they lost the 1992 semi-final and went on to coach India, writes Georgie Wright, daughter of JohnMy dad has taught me a fair few things over my 25 ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan – one with a reduced pace, despite the 24 ...18 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cherie Hugo, Teaching Fellow, Nutrition & Dietetics, Bond University The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety this week turned its attention to food and nutrition. The testimony of maggots in ...20 hours ago
Jacinda Ardern’s Melbourne trip wrapped up with nothing to show on longstanding trans-Tasman concerns, but was a potent reminder of her international appeal. ...21 hours ago
Pricing agricultural emissions first at the processor level - such as Fonterra - rather than right down at farm level stacks up as a gap measure says Catherine Leining. ...21 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cross, Research Fellow, Curtin University Sign up to the Beating Around the Bush newsletter here, and suggest a plant we should cover at batb@theconversation.edu.au. Billabongs in the northern Kimberley are welcome ...22 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Gentilin, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University As strange as it might sound, whistleblowers in Australia have reason to rejoice – so long as they are in the private sector. Thanks to new ...23 hours ago
The fourth season of Queer Eye drops today on Netflix. Sam Brooks reflects on his difficult relationship with the show, and where it sits in mainstream culture.For depressingly many people, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was an introduction not just to ...23 hours ago
The collapse of a multi-billion dollar deal to sell AMP's life insurance division to a British company for $3.6 billion is the fault of the companies, according to the Reserve Bank. ...23 hours ago
A poem by Miramar poet Geoff Cochrane. Channel Hopping Stupa or Stuka?Weet-Bix or Welsh rabbit?Galactic aerodrome or Matchbox truck?*I’m young in my dreams, still young.*Beautiful Keanu’s wearing shades—antique shades with iodine-coloured lenses.*I’m young in my dreams, still young,and I still have some ...24 hours ago
For the month of July, Josie Adams is taking on the challenge of being low-waste. That means minimising plastics, emissions, and even recyclables. Each week we release her diary. This is week two.Read week one here.I’ll be honest, week two ...1 day ago
By Royson Willie in Port Vila Two Vanuatu Daily Post journalists were literally given a pat-down by the police criminal investigation unit yesterday over a story they had written about the vehicle of the Chairman of the Public Service ...1 day ago
By Gorothy Kenneth in Port Moresby Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape will visit Australia this weekend for a week-long state visit and the Bougainville independence referendum in less than three months is expected to be high on ...1 day ago
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...1 day ago
Wtf did we just watch?That sound you heard was a million furries screaming in ecstasy as their fantasy and everyone else’s nightmare came to life in the form of the first trailer for the live action version of Cats.Is it ...1 day ago
As we mark the fiftieth anniversary the July 20th Moon landing Dr Nick Long reflects on what that's meant for New Zealand and considers the space 'gold rush' ahead. ...1 day ago
My selection of the eight best morning news links from here and overseas, along with eight lunchtime lean-back long reads. Also, the full list of links, including Jacinda Ardern's trip to Australia, the big emissions report, Fonterra's coal move and a new ...1 day ago
John Banks' former lives, vegetable-based insults in Auckland's mayoral race and metaphorical cabbage - James Elliott has it all. ...1 day ago
Heaven is a place on earth, and June is saving the world one ’80s pop hit at a time. Tara Ward recaps season 4, episode 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Praise be, for there was a tiny bit of good news ...1 day ago
An ANZ shareholder is demanding the bank disclose more information about the sale of an Auckland residential property to its former chief executive and his family. ...1 day ago
Tara Ward sets out on a valiant quest to find the best apple in Aotearoa. The idea that every apple is a good apple is fake news. We’ve all got stories about shit experiences with apples, when it looked good on ...1 day ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan O’Connell, Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne One-third of all preschools may lack a qualified teacher in the next four years if nothing changes, my new modelling shows. Currently, half of ...1 day ago
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I have some respect for Roy Morgan’s poll results, but its commentary sucks.
The commentary on the latest results says “continuing strong support for Prime Minister John Key’s National Party” even though it is down to 45.5%. Support for Key’s Coalition partners has apparently changed little even though the Maori Party has lost 25% of its support (1.5%) and ACT at 1% still needs National’s generosity to be relevant. United Future at 0.5% remains a haircut away from oblivion.
Support for Labour Party has increased 0.5% to 31% but 3.5% since last November’s election. The Greens are down a bit to 11.5%, (down 1.5%), New Zealand First is at 6% which is up from the last result but down from the election result, Mana is up slightly to 1% and who knows who the others are.
Confidence Rating is down 6 points to 127 — with 57% (down 4%) of New Zealanders saying New Zealand is “heading in the right direction” compared to 30% (up 2%) that say New Zealand is “heading in the wrong direction.” I predict that these particular statistics will continue to worsen over the next few months.
Over all,
NACT + MP + UF = 48.5%
L + G + NZF + M = 49.5%
So the “continuing strong support for Prime Minister John Key’s Party” actually looks pretty flimsy. Someone should tell Gary Morgan.
I guess technically they are correct insofar as 45.5% vs 31% is still a large gap (though narrowing steadily). Actually I think Roy Morgan deserve some credit for at least attempting to gauge the relative position of the two potential governing blocs. Most of the NZ pollsters still insist on looking at their polls through the prism of FPP. At any rate Gary Morgan concludes his remarks with this statement:
“Overall support for the full National-led Government has dipped to 48.5% (down 0.5%), trailing the Opposition Parties (51.5%, up 0.5%). Worryingly for Key, this is the lowest level of support his broad-based Coalition has received since being elected to Government in November 2008.”
MS – Serious question. Do you believe that the state of NZ politics, as it reflects global politics, is in any way capable of turnin a sinking NZ around, and should people waste their time buying into the political system, which is blatantly defunct, and serving interests other than NZ?
If a few 10k more people had voted for the opposition rather than National, we wouldn’t be having asset sales discussions (or they would be radically different, if MP went ahead with them).
Hi Muzza
Of course I do. I would not be involved in politics otherwise. Although I agree that there are reasons to despair at the inertia and at the self serving behaviour of some of our fellow MPs.
Doing work at the local body or community level may turn out to be more important. And pressuring central government from that level to get its shit together re: transport systems and energy systems will be crucial.
The problem I see at central government level is that it only takes the Tories half the time to dismantle anything that the left tries to build. Knocking stuff down and cancelling stuff is always quicker than trying to build stuff up.
The other dynamic is that in national politics, a huge amount of time and energy is spent just trying to maintain, administer and manage a highly complex status quo. In a lot of ways that investment is a dead investment because the complex status quo today is completely unfit for the purpose that we will need it for in just a few years.
Actually I think “continuing strong support for Prime Minister John Key’s Party” is actually an accurate description of those figures.
Just because the supposed opposition bloc is 1 point above the governing bloc, doesn’t mean that the governing bloc doesn’t have strong support.
Do they ask people who did not vote to participate?
I would say that given the massive number that didn’t, citing support for either side of the same coin, is trite!
Not sure Lanth. In the past 5 months using Roy Morgan figures the nats have shed 10 percentage points. If you look at the graph there is a noticeable and sustained dip. If I was them I would be more than a little afraid …
Watched Bruce Robertson on tv re smoking , just triggered a question- what had happened to the drinking age? That was all go pre last years election and I have heard nothing since
I think the bill is still making its way through Parliament, and is due to be voted on this year sometime.
I dont drink that much myself, but it seem to be that the force behind the proposed changes seems to be more of a view that only those who are over 45, male and in the upper income bracket can hold their drink, and it needs to be made harder for everyone else to buy alcohol. The moral panic around ball season binge drinking springs to mind.
The levels of clinical and subclinical depression, and alcohol and other substance abuse in this society, are very very worrying.
Thanks for that
It appears another case where big business will direct social policy all for a $. I am sure that this will be a great distraction surprised it has not been promoted with the asset sales and the lack of public support over the govts blind at all cost following their ideology
Still think it is funny that we can currently drink at 18 but are unable to go to the casino until 20.
Our good wowser mate Dunne will be happy to raise the drinking age to 20….of course the kids will save all their money and buy shares in state assets instead of alcohol.
dunne a ‘wowser’..?
for years he has been a pimp for both the alcohol and tobacco companies..
..he isn’t known as peter dunhill for nothing..
phil@whoar.
Phil, he was at Uni, prick would not invest in a beer chiller for Steins….he then went to ALAC, always “Mr Moral”. I reckon if he has been in the pockets of the alcohol and fags industries as you state he must be the ultimate two faced “me firster” I take him to be.
So when did he give up Marajuana Bored.
Seconded!
Very bad form and typical of some of the stories coming from Ch’ch.
TVNZ, TV3 and Sky New Australia all cross live at 8 am for the commencement of the earthquake memorial service.
And nothing for 25 minutes. People on stage obviously ready for an 8 am start and no dignitaries. They didn’t arrive until 8:25.
I could only imagine people swearing in the Sydney newsroom that a 24 hour news channel was forced to broadcast what effectively was 25 minutes of music from the Army Band.
Who f’d up?
Worse for those watching TVNZ. 25 minutes of fill from Corin Dan. 25 uninterrupted minutes for Corin to talk shit.
Who f’d up?
All the broadcasters would be cursing at the loss of revenue from planned commercial breaks that were replaced with 25 minutes of the Army Band.
Couldn’t even give the right time to the media. Symbolic of the recovery?
Sure. Lets time everything to suit the media in future. If real world circumstances conspire to fuck it up, then hell, we’ll, we’ll….do something to teach that real world a lesson it will never forget. While we’re at it, lets stop the world spinning for the ad breaks. Wouldn’t want to miss any of that live action now, would we?
It’s not about pandering to the media. It’s about doing your job and doing it efficiently.
For an event like this, that you want broadcast to NZ and all those interested and concerned, then you either setup you own television network for which you call the shots (obviously out of the question) or you enter into a symbiotic relationship with the broadcaster in which you have to consider their needs.
Somebody didn’t do their job.
Jeez, William, no need to blow a foo foo valve. The ceremony was delayed to allow the many, many buses full of Chch citizens to get to Latimer Square. Normally, transport wouldn’t be a problem, but they had an earthquake down there a while ago which has made things a bit awkward for them. Sorry they let you down and I’m sure the mayor will make a formal apology to you in due course.
No need to be rude (or an ass for that matter).
“Jeez, William, no need to blow a foo foo valve.” – inferring an attitude not in evidence. I was passing comment that some had fucked up (which they had) and the implication for the broadcasters (which there were a number) and I said absolutely nothing about the implications on me (of which there were none). All of which makes your post thoroughly pointless.
In response to your patronising comment “they had an earthquake down there a while ago”, all things considered, (including earthquakes and moving people) planning should do just that, i.e. consider all things. If you can’t get people there on time then, in the planning stage, you push back the time and let the relevant parties know. Both of which they didn’t. Ergo, someone f’d up.
BTW, that little problem with the earthquake you mention, didn’t happen yesterday nor was this event unanticipated.
Word of advise, before you launch into conceited posts full of misplaced sarcasm you should take the time to read what is posted instead of making inferences, the evidence for which only exists in your head.
William, I’m glad you get it now and I hope you think before writing such drivel again in the future. Or at least do some fact checking first. In this case, it wouldn’t have been hard because the reason for the delay was announced at the time.
That minor effort to actually find out what was going would have stopped you jumping to dumbarse conclusions like ‘someone f’d up’. As it turns out, that someone was you.
Do you have a reading comprehension problem? Some sort of learning impairment I need to know about?
Are you not able to read what has been posted?
Or is it that once you take up an opposing position (and despite having been soundly corrected) you not capable of seeing the error in your reasoning?
– “William, I’m glad you get it no” – not the case. You have yet to show that I am in error.
– “Or at least do some fact checking first” – already done before I first posted. On the ccc website. So, again you make inferences from incorrect assumptions. Check it yourself. The announced schedule was that John Key et al would arrive at 7:50 am. That makes them 35min late. Are there other facts that I should be aware off. You know, the ones that exist in reality and not your congested imagination.
– “the reason for the delay was announced at time“. If you mean “announced this morning” than all I can say to you is “Thank you for demonstrating my point” [William takes a bow midst thunderous applause]. MY POINT EXACTLY! If it was announced this morning then it shows poor planning hence leaving the media with time to fill. Which, if I am not mistaken, (and I most certainly am not) was my original post.
– “That minor effort to actually find out what was going would have stopped you jumping to dumbarse conclusions like ‘someone f’d up’. As it turns out, that someone was you.”
This para shows that it is you who has jumped to a “dumbarse conclusion”
Dude, I heard it on the radio at about 10 minutes past 8. It’s not my problem that you leapt to a particularly stupid conclusion without bothering to find out what was going on. This was not the RWC transport fiasco, just a lot of Chch people wanting to show their respects, which caused a short delay that only you are the least bit upset about. And which you would have known if you’d bothered to check.
And by your friends, ye shall be known. When V32 comes to your defence, you’ve gotta know you have well and truly f’d up!
I have taken too much time to make my point perfectly clear and you still have been unable to refute it with anything other than some radio broadcast that just goes to prove my point.
Take a deep breath and re-read the posts.
If you’re still unhappy then go tell Oprah, she cares. Better still try Dr Phil – I’m sure he can help you.
You may have changed your name, but your attitude to disagreement is as foul as ever! Your vicious, scarcastic little wank of a post disgusts me. You are thoroughly in the wrong here, and not for the first or the last time. Your ego gets in the way of your common sense. 🙁
Hardly surprising – he’s adopted the moniker of Lord Haw-Haw
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joyce
I’m having a bad day so I’ll “take the bait” on this one.
So, my moniker is William Joyce. That is what you know for certain.
What you do not know is whether that is my real name or a pseudonym. To assume one way or the other (without evidence) is, what those in the industry call, an “assumption”.
Error number 1
Someone in history, who was blessed with the name William Joyce, was a mouthpiece for a fascist regime. Therefore, anyone with a similar name must also be a fascist.
Error number 2
Reacting to someone because of the moniker they use….
Error number 3.
“Hardly surprising…” – was a response to Vicky32 as though she was responding to me. Rather I & Te Reo Putake think V32 was responding to Te Reo Putake. (I hope I have read this right, V32, as I can not see any number for posts)
Error number 4
Ok, time for bed, where I can dream of a world where rich financiers, economic technocrats, and artificial-humans (known as corporations) do not rule the world.
“I will treat corporations as pseudo-human beings when Texas executes one”
I wasn’t refereing to Joyce being a mouthpiece for a fascist regime (hmmm – works for the Nats too), but for his hyperbolic trolling the allied troops -something that seems to accommodate your ignorant tirades rather nicely.
Just listened to Key speak at the Chch commemorations. Now it could be me (I can hardly bear to listen to him at the best of times) but on radio at least his delivery seemed pretty flat, monotone and detached. Is he getting as tired of it all as some are suggesting?
He was going very very slow so as not to stumble all over himself while talking, but I think I still heard a few slip ups.
http://whoar.co.nz/2012/how-greece-could-take-down-wall-street/
“…In an article titled “Still No End to ‘Too Big to Fail,’” William Greider wrote in The Nation on February 15th:
“Financial market cynics have assumed all along that Dodd-Frank did not end “too big to fail” – but instead created a charmed circle of protected banks labeled “systemically important” – that will not be allowed to fail – no matter how badly they behave.”
That may be, but there is one bit of bad behavior that Uncle Sam himself does not have the funds to underwrite:
– the $32 trillion market in credit default swaps (CDS).
Thirty-two trillion dollars is more than twice the U.S. GDP and more than twice the national debt.
CDS are a form of derivative taken out by investors as insurance against default.
According to the Comptroller of the Currency, nearly 95% of the banking industry’s total exposure to derivatives contracts is held by the nation’s five largest banks: JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, HSBC, and Goldman Sachs.
The CDS market is unregulated – and there is no requirement that the “insurer” actually have the funds to pay up.
CDS are more like bets – and a massive loss at the casino could bring the house down.
It could, at least, unless the casino is rigged.
Whether a “credit event” is a “default” triggering a payout is determined by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) –
– and it seems that the ISDA is owned by the world’s largest banks and hedge funds.
That means the house determines whether the house has to pay…”
(cont..)
phil-at-whoar.
Which simply means that when Greece defaults completely and takes bck their country , that the banks will fall like dominoes, as the CDS kick in , which then can’t be paid.
yep..!
..kinda looks like that..
phil@whoar.
Mr Dotcom granted bail when more evidence comes to hand. Breaking news – Stuff.
Someone (in the feedback) made a good point on Campbell Live this week about a NZ father dealing recovering his child after parental child abduction.
Our authorities are so quick and aggressive to do the bidding of the US when corporate copyright interests are at stake but are “do nothing” when comes to one of our own who has rights under the Hague Convention to recover his child.
compete, compete….the usual story, of making people fight amongst themselves…
interesting to read along with jennys post on slavery.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10787221
And that should tell him that injuries aren’t being reported. There’s absolutely no way that no injuries are occurring.
Also interesting to note that the article ended with a smear of the union and PR for the port in what was an obvious change to its flow.
The drive to get workplace injuries down actually used to be part of the Fonterra permanent employees KPI, as it related to their performance bonues…it may not longer be the case, but it certainly was. You can see the conflict of interest there!
Obviously it just leads to less reporting, which in turn allows the company to have undeserved health and safety status!
Michael Laws utterly unable to defend his extreme comments
Radio Live, Wednesday February 22, 2012
If you were so bored and stupid that you listened to Michael Laws this morning, you may have detected that he was more than a little distracted. Possibly because at the same time that he was raving about the need to sterilize “feral Māori”, he was engaging in an epistolary
exchange with this writer, i.e., moi….
1.) 9:36 AM
Dear Michael,
Why don’t you provide a lead for the Māori “ferals” and have yourself sterilized?
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
2.) Michael Laws ml…@mediaworks.co.nz
9:50 AM
Because i don’t kill my children you wanker!
3.) 10:03 AM
Really? You were, and no doubt still are, a vituperative advocate of the mass killing of children in Palestine.
Yours in honest disclosure,
Morrissey
4.) Michael Laws ml…@mediaworks.co.nz
10:07 AM
Do you enjoy living on the sickness benefit with your mental condition or are you just FITH?
5.) 10:11 AM
Not a clever reply, my friend. No doubt you intimidate lots of people with personal attacks like that, just like you dismissed poor old “Walter” before the News.
But back to the point under discussion: how can you pretend to be an advocate for Maori children when you have such a filthy record of anti-Palestinian bigotry?
Still waiting for an intelligent answer…
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey
6.) 10:19 AM
Ditto: how do you justify killing Maori kids??
7.) 10:34 AM
I don’t. I think it’s terrible, but unlike you, I really mean that. Now when will you condemn the government-sponsored killing of Palestinian children?
Still waiting….
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey
8.) 10:36 AM
I don’t care about kids in another country, you moron, when its the kids here getting killed? YOU are part of the problem wasting your few mental resources on mad people half a world away.
9.) 10:42 AM
You “don’t care about kids in another country”? Then why did you so vociferously champion their destruction in January 2009?
Calling murdered children “mad” is not an intelligent answer, so could you have another, serious, attempt at an explanation?
Still waiting….
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey
10.) 10:43 AM
Actually if the Israelis had taken you out, I’d have cheered too
11.) 10:54 AM
Still not a serious or credible answer, my friend. You’re not making uneasy sycophants laugh in a Dunedin cafetaria now; you’re expected to back up your attitude with some kind of argument. So far you’ve said nothing of intelligence.
By the way, I thought it was amusing to hear you assert that you “don’t like people who make up history”; I remember the wandery, disconnected and confused potted history of Israel you gave on air at the bloodiest point of the massacre. You obviously got your “history” from a fantasy source—was it Joan Peters by any chance?
Still waiting, mate….
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
12.) 10:58 AM
False name false FB profile = fraud
13.) 11:03 AM
Jokes, personal attacks, now threats. You’ve really gone to the well, haven’t you?
Is a false Facebook profile as bad a crime as uttering?
Yours in amusement,
Morrissey
14.) 11:08 AM
You’re just a wanker: anonymous wanker hiding behind false identity. Sicko.Now fuck off …
15.) 11:13 AM
Quod erat demonstrandum.
Thanks, mate. Your programme’s a winner, and your callers are all as informed and intelligent as you. Well done, my friend.
Hilarious.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey
16.) 11:18 AM
FRAUD
17.) 11:29 AM
“Fraud”? Really? Using a pseudonym on the internet is an accepted and almost universal practice. It’s hardly fraudulent. Forging documents when you’re an elected public figure is fraud.
Yours in amusement,
Morrissey
18.) 11:29 AM
FRAUD
19.) 11:37 AM
Seriously Michael, we try to resist inferring from the way in which you bawl into the microphone that you’re not very bright, but your tendentious and abusive e-mail correspondence just confirms it.
What will you do if you lose your radio spot?
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey
20.) 11:38 AM
FRAUD
21.) 11:50 AM
Shouting like that doesn’t really enhance your credibility, old chap. It’s easy to berate callers, and cut them off when you can’t mount a coherent argument against them, but in epistolary form like this, you end up just making yourself look kind of …. well, daft.
I do expect better than you’ve shown this morning—but then again, I’ve rarely heard you in better form. Which is a disappointment.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey
22.) 11:50 AM
FRAUD
23.) 12:03 PM
Dear Alan Partridge,
A convicted utterer accusing someone of fraud. Kind of awesome.
Yours in amusement,
Morrissey
Well done Morrisey. Good to see someone taking it to Laws.
He can’t cut you off online—although his puerile chanting of “FRAUD” is the same kind of behaviour.
However, in print like this, his lack of integrity and his unwillingness to engage in debate are laid bare.
Nice one, Morrisey. Laws cuts a sad, lonely figure around Whanganui these days. Ignored in the council, laughed at in the local media and deleted from the phone contacts of most of his former allies. As for his shouty problems, Aqualung might be a good nickname for him now, because he looked a lot like the dero on the cover of the Tull album last time I saw him.
Is his wife still beating him?
Here is the simple guide as to why Rangers FC are insolvent.
“Because we are the people” just about sums it up!
Classic, thanks Fisi.
The Environment Southland Council were provided with an opposing view of Lignite Mining today and while commercial interests get extended time to promote their projects we were initially allotted ten minutes. Considering the lignite projects will increase our carbon emissions by 20 million tons a year (from our current level of 70 million) this is no small issue and commercial interests should not be given preference over environmental concerns.
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/lignite-presentation-to-environment.html
Is Mr Shearer still leader of the Labour Party?
I haven’t heard him utter anything lately.
If this is his way of doing things differently, I don’t like it…
And yet Labour continues to rise in the polls, strongly suggesting that other people do like his way of doing things. Funny old world, etc…
I’m a bit perturbed as well. Was about to ask the same question.
Oh dear………………..
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/peter-gleick-admits-to-deception-in-obtaining-heartland-climate-files/
It was a lapse in judgement and there are consequences. However, it is seems to be the same problem people like him face.
The days when you could have a Ralph Nader presenting facts, and catching the forces of reaction by surprise, has gone.
The forces of the right, “special interest”, reaction, are well funded and resourced in their merciless and unethical dealings. There are a myriad of “think tanks” which don’t use their brain power to think about the facts but to think about ways to obfuscate, mislead, misdirect, misinform.
It leaves people like Peter Gleick with the temptation to cross the line to redress the power imbalance.
Ultimately, he repented of his action and confessed. If the position was reversed, the guilty think tank member would not confess but get booked on Fox News so he could attack “the liberals”, further muddy the waters and promote his new book.
The future for NZ schools under National.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/feb/21/no-student-left-untested/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nybooks+%28The+New+York+Review+of+Books%29
Hells Bells Barry. Can you hear the applause from those whose support for National standards has been “Teachers should obey the Government. Teachers are just trying to protect poor teachers. etc ”
Just imagine what will happen once Key and Banks get to enact such a disgraceful program as described in your New York link. No wonder USA are steadily slipping down international scores.
Makes me sick to think that Min Ed Hekia Parata, who is going to introduce competition between teachers, will make the New York disaster our disaster.
Goldman Sacs involvement in getting Greece into EU, video for Gosman,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17108367
What programme was this?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/6462211/Police-complaint-over-election-programme
Whoops, someone at UF must have got their dates wrong.
Anonymous gives the Greek Government an ultimatum
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/anonymous-hacks-greek-ministry-website-demands-imf-withdrawal-threatens-it-will-wipe-away-all-c
CV even conservative MP’s in the UK are advocating for Greece to default and set up their own currency again.Otherwise as these Conservative MPs have pointed out Greece will never recover!
They are saying Greece will just keep getting worse and not better.
Why aren’t our Con artistive Trolls backing their opinion!
Where have all the Trolls gone!
Crikey! What next. And a default might be the best for the people. At least they would all be in the mess together instead of just the vulnerable.
Yes, William, I was responding to him, not you! No reply button under yours so my current reply is out of order…