What is happening in UK will happen here. The lucrative bits of our Health system will be steadily privatised. Hospital meals anyone?
In the early 90s in NZ our National Government introduced partial charges for patients in Public Hospitals. Didn’t work very well but now under Key, they will be back!
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 1.1.1
Following your logic everything involved with hospitals such as drugs, bandages, beds, bedding and even the ambulances bringing people in should be provided by the State.
Gosman suggests the following items “drugs, bandages, beds, bedding and even the ambulances” and you then appear to claim that “the State” in the past manufactured all those things.
Do you really mean that that happened in New Zealand and if so can you please tell me when this all happened.
I certainly can’t remember state owned pharmaceutical companies, or blanket makers or any of those other things.
Even the ambulance service, at least in Wellington isn’t provided by the state.
The state’s role (at least prior to the recent outsourcing binge) is in the provision of services, not the manufacture of the components of those services. Your argument is akin to saying that; because hospital kitchens do not grow their own food, but instead purchase fresh produce from local suppliers (until recently) to prepare, then they have not created that food out of thin air. True enough, but spectacularly missing the point.
Likewise; “drugs, bandages, beds, [&] bedding”, will be purchased from external suppliers, but their specifications will be set by the state. The way these items are used within the health system will be determined by health professionals (well; ideally, though increasingly by; executives, commissioners and consultants these days). An ambulance service may be provided by an external organization such as St Johns, but the minimum requirements of that service will be determined by the hospital(s) it services.
The problem with outsourcing services is in the lack of control over the methods used in the external organization. Companies cut corners to maximize profit, unless they are constantly supervised. But that supervision costs, and the point of outsourcing is to save money (on paper at least, until those who signed off on it leave the organization before the hidden costs become evident), so supervision remains inadequate and ineffective.
I have no problem with anything you say.
However Macro was stating, at least by implication, that the state used to provide all those things, not buy them from private firms who manufactured them. I am curious how he came to that conclusion.
Actually I was in hospital about two years ago. The meals were provided by an outside firm and were pretty good. Cooking them in-house with hospital employed staff doesn’t really seem necessary.
🙄
Is there a competition on today to see who is the most gormless?
Every hospital I know of has its own Pharmacy. (and yes they do manufacture some of their own medicines.)
Every hospital I know of has its own laundry.
Every hospital I know of has its own beds. and my uncle (as a Wgtn Hospital employee) used to manufacture some of the special beds they needed for polio patients.
NZ used to even manufacture its own blankets, from wool grown in this country.
And I believe the Government should be responsible for the provision of ambulance services (and fire for that matter). The reliance on trust for the provision of vital helicopter and ambulance services should not be left to the syphonning off of problem gamblers money from pokies.
Just one of those funny things where the State is responsible for the welfare of its citizens Gosman.
Maybe you should be made to pay for every comment you make on here, I am sure you would not have a problem with that. At least you would then feel you were upholding your ideals.
1. Any incidents of food safety would be limited to one institution instead of multiples.
2. Local employment.
3. Higher likelihood of better nutritional value – for patients with already compromised health.
4. Local food and ingredients purchased.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 1.1.1.2.1
Because if the food is not nutritional the people eating it will be back in hospital (sate funded) to get better, you see? Long term thinking that, not that hard really.
Monsanto already has many patents on food. Now that NZ seems to be opening up to GMOs (probably against the wishes of NZers) we’ll probably find that we won’t be allowed to grow our own non-patented food in a short while.
Having worked in the RNZN for 15 years and for 7 of those years working alongside supply and secretariat officers I can assure you that the local provisioning of food was far and away the best option. (I was also the examining officer for the City and Guilds Cooking exam) Outsourcing of meals means that some of the money originally put aside for the provision of food now goes into the transport of the food, and the profit of the provider.
Therefore the quality of the meal – for the same amount of money – must drop. But the usual reason given to go to an outside provider is to save money – so the quality of the food provided must be done on an even smaller budget.
Back in the Navy each ship was given a set budget dependent upon the number of personnel and the supply staff, cooks, and stewards had to work within that budget to feed the ship. You knew if there was a rort going on if sailors started to complain about the quality of the food. The first first place to look was always in the kitchen and the pantry. Too easy to sign for a dozen leg of lamb and receive only 10.
So if hospitals are supplying poor food to their patients – the first question to ask is – are the cooks being given enough money to provide good food in the first place? and then the second question is how is the money being spent? and where has it gone? Much easier to ask these questions in house.
The only faith and ignorance that I’ve seen is from the RWNJs in their faith that the private sector is always better. Their ignorance comes from ignoring the evidence that the private sector is almost always worse.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell …
parked in a leaky-building garage, built over a polluted stream, and paid for by a south canterbury finance loan ……… never mind though eh, you can always get non-market labour from some poor country to patch things up for you at slave rates
In fact Russia had problems with product quality and corrupt administration long before the revolution – you might like to read Futility by William Gerhardie – it will give you some context.
Have you ever eaten over cooked and then over frozen food?? The crap they serve in hospitals would make a healthy man sick.. It was better when the food was cooked in the individual hospitals, then any dietary changes could be made with in 1 day, not a week or whatever it is now..
This was never about the patient this was all about some company making a killing with inferior food, and diabolical cooking practices.
Fresh food and fresh vegetables contain more nutrients than frozen reheated garbage, if you want to recover quickly you need good quality food. Food is medicine.
I was talking to an Agricultural Businessman at a meeting recently and he stated that vegetables these days only contain 12% of the nutrients today compared to the old vegetable varieties and growing methods of the past?
With the use of artificial fertilizers and synthetic agrochemicals the plants and the environment are becoming unbalanced.
dirty politics – what is it called when a group or individual pretends to be another group and says offensive stuff so that members of that first group can then pour moral outrage on the second group even though the first group have pretended to be the second group and the actual second group don’t know anything about the offensive stuff the first group pretended the second group said?
If this is a false flag operation it should be easy enough to reveal. Track down the people who made such comments and expose them for being plants by right wingers.
Then I expect you lot will find it easy to expose this ‘dirty tricks’ campaign. Track down one of the people who posted those offensive comments and get them to confess. Then you can bring down this VRWC once and for all. Somehow I doubt any of you will bother though.
So, this is the latest dirty political meme? Send off comments filled with filthy language aimed at JK and co. to reputable media sites then shriek horror and disgust at their own creations?
John Campbell… looks like you might have a dirty political trick happening right under your nose.
yep the election isn’t today eh so come what may these poll figures are unlikely to stay – go higher? get on a flyer? nah not with the slimeKeyponytailpuller liar.
The issue at hand is that RWNJs have seemingly threatened John Key and made massively inappropriate comments and then blamed those comments on the Left.
Seems to me that we’re focussing on that and that you’re now trying to distract from it.
This is one of those times where the police should be finding out who made the comments and bringing them to justice which, of course, means naming them.
Danyl’s post raises enough questions with an implied answer that makes such an investigation necessary. Of course, we probably won’t see such an investigation and so we’re only left with the RWNJ version of events which is, itself, lacking any facts.
…so we’re only left with /963.89520the RWNJ version of events which is, itself, lacking any facts.
Yep. The unthinking and the unlinking.
I just read Danyl’s post and had a quick look around. After having seen Cameron Slater do exactly this kind of thing on a number of unmoderated sites (including this one way back), I’ll call it and say that in my view the Whaleoil group mob has been reactivated to spew crap on the RNZ site.
If RNZ would like knowledgeable assistance on how to moderate without too much work, I’d be happy to provide it. But basically RNZ need to implement some moderation to handle the self-pleasuring trolls from Whaleoil and Kiwiblog (who have usually been banned or are very cautious in their behaviour here). Because once the loudmouthed arseholes like Cameron and his mates start doing this kind of thing, they don’t stop unless they are forced to.
And learn to ignore the screams of outrage of ‘censorship’ as their horrendous behaviour is moderated to a level consistent to legal limits. It isn’t like they contribute to that process. Just kick them off the site for months. Sure they will group whine in the bowels of whaleoil, kiwiblag or laudafinem. But anyone with something sensible to say will come back with revised behaviour.
So, you’re part of the latest Dirty Political meme eh Wayne?
DTB @ 3.3.1.2 has made no charges against anyone -unless you’re not aware of the meaning of the word “seemingly”. Is it now an heinous sin to express concern/suspicion about a “seemingly” orchestrated litany of threatening comments on a reputable media site which normally only attracts nominal numbers of comments? And exactly who the “seeming” culprits might be is open to speculation unless/until someone conducts a thorough investigation.
If no-one (police?) chooses to conduct such an investigation then I am liable to become very suspicious.
sadly it would appear having got away with it in the past it will be applied until such time as it becomes counter-productive……hope it pays well in monetary terms as it must be soul destroying work.
You don’t need to conduct a through investigation. All you need to do is ascertain of one or more of them is real or not and what their political persuasion us likely to be. That seems quite straightforward.
Ahhh no he didn’t. He hasn’t done any leg work at all. He certainly hasn’t contacted anybody on the extensive friends list of the people involved and asked them if they in fact knew the person in question.
You can search Facebook for the profiles captured in WhaleOil’s screenshots. None of them seem to be left-wing activists, or commentators on New Zealand politics, or previous RNZ commentators, or, in a couple of cases, active Facebook users. Although it’s hard to know for sure, because they don’t tend to have any of the autobiographical information or other interactions that normal Facebook users do.
As I said, Danyl’s done the preliminary investigation. To go further really does require an official investigation with the full backing of the law with legal consequences for those spewing such hate.
You do, of course, understand that that action you describe won’t prove anything. They will, if they’re the fictitious accounts that they appear to be, say that they all exist, are great buddies and know each other intimately.
Hooton, Farrar & the RW trolls are Right Wing Activists, they seem to be calling these commentators ‘Left Wing Activists’ but I don’t see what makes them so, whereas Hooton & co are actively shoving right wing memes down my throat.
We already know they are DP operatives Gosman, that’s why so many people are suspicious this time round. As for this specific instance, of course I think the truth of the situation matters. What an odd question.
So why don’t you bother actually doing the investigative effort required to find out? It isn’t hard. Most of the people on that list have left a big trail to follow. For some reason you are reluctant though. Why is that?
Not sure about the imagery of Hooton as a longbow man though. Presumably he works for the Sheriff but I’d see him as more cloak and dagger than fighting out front.
Hooten studies a bit you know – and he’ll be employing the weapon that really beat the French at Agincourt. Not as is popularly supposed the longbow – It was mud that stopped the French chivalry.
Fascinating battle, actually – there were lots of little factors that by themselves were pretty minor, but added together really fucked things up for the French. The clay in the mud made it harder going for smooth armoured feet than for cloth/leather-shod archers. The command confusion wouldn’t have been so serious with those ods in a more open field.
Even the slightly narrowing shape of the field had some pretty interesting consequences regarding crowd dynamics.
The Overseas Investment Office (OIO) today clarified that Landcorp’s future withdrawal from the former Crafar farms will not breach any conditions of Shanghai Pengxin Group Limited’s consent.
Under the conditions, Shanghai Pengxin must contract Landcorp to manage the farms until May 2017, and the consent conditions do not require the contract to be extended beyond that.
“Despite your hilarious attempt at satire, Puckers, let’s call it a wild stab in the dark, I think we all know Winnie could jump either way.”
I’m certainly not saying Winston will go with National, I was more pointing out the tendency of some on here to count Winston as part of the Left wing block
For every reason Winston could go right he could also go left so I think its utterly futile to guess where Winston will go until the votes are in and the trading begin
So yeah I agree with you but its a shame theres many on here that don’t
I’m being remarkably generous to you, incidentally, by including the Maori Party’s 1% in Govt Bloc support. Who knows which way they’ll jump in 2017 ?
Well Labour better be building bridges with the Maori Party in a bid to gain MMP partners but of course they are not. Labour put on a big campaign to recapture every Maori Seat in 2014 and they will do so again in 2017.
True. At the moment, the logic of electoral competition in the Maori seats (well, at least in 3 or 4 of them) – where Labour and the Maori Party go head-to-head as major competitors/antagonists – would seem to inevitably push the MP in National’s direction (despite polls suggesting a large majority of MP voters prefer a Labour-led Government).
On FPP thinking, if the 1996, 1999 and 2002 General Elections taught us anything, it’s that the voting public need to see a cohesive, united, viable potential Government-in-waiting if they’re to support the Opposition parties.
You’ve come in for a bit of a bollocking here over recent months, CV, but personally I’ve always admired your sense of urgency, your broad vision, your avoidance of wishful thinking and your strategic nous. Nor do I condemn you for failing to win one of the Bluest Seats in the Country a couple of Elections ago.
The problem for the left and their counting is that yes going by votes only it is close but if you take the Maori Party and their 1% but possibly two seats, Peter Dunnes virtually no votes but one and Acts possibly two votes then that makes the counting quite a lot different and its not quite as close as the Left would like
I think the only thing that we can probably all agree on is that the most likely outcome is that Winston may well have a big say in the outcome of the next election
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell …
But, the wider point is that Labour keep announcing policy aimed at people who already vote left, rather than people who currently vote for the government.
Oh of course, something can always happen but I guess I mean if National and Labour keep doing what they’re doing then I don’t think we’ll get a change of government
Yeah – but like I’madinnerjacket, you’ll still be saying that when he’s toppled. Maybe your ESP talents aren’t much more reliable than Treasury predictions. I don’t recall them predicting $120 billion in debt – it was all going to be surpluses from here to eternity.
They both seem like sensible responses to me – why is asking for the police to be independent from politics and saying that mccaw is entitled to his opinion and others may dislike it, so abhorrent to you bm?
1. Andrew Little doesn’t need to comment on Richie McCaw, it’s none of Little’s business what flag McCaw likes or doesn’t like.
2. Accusing Collins of politicizing the event when there’s a Labour Float with all these signs saying we voted for homosexual reform, don’t forget that, you owe us is the height of hypocrisy.
I have to say that its a bad move by Little, had he said nothing then more then a few people would probably just go “huh what does Richie know” and just ignore but now that Littles put his oar it looks a bit like the old left wing bullying happening
You know the rules PR.
If anyone shows even the slightest hint of agreeing with John Key’s view he has to be abused and silenced. At a minimum people will be encouraged to do it for you.
Be anti-John Key and you will be hailed as a true patriot and evidence that Key is hated by all.
That is about par for the course.
1. Little agrees that McCaw is entitled to his own opinion, but also notes that opinions on controversial subjects attract backlash (e.g. negative comments on McCaw’s facebook page). He refuses to express a view as to whether McCaw has been co-opted by Key, saying that McCaw is able to make up his own mind. This is hardly trespassing on McCaw’s business, especially given that Little seemed to have been answering questions that were asked of him.
2. In the case of Collins, Little was drawing attention to the fact that the police are meant to function independently of the government of the day. Collins, in marching with them, appeared to disregard that boundary. So it was not about politicising the event per se, but showing a compromised relationship between a government minister and the police.
He said he would not put it past Mr Key to encourage people like McCaw to go public with their views. “But equally, I view Richie McCaw as somebody who’s quite capable of making up his own mind and having a view he chooses either to or not express.
“We know that there’s a bit of a rearguard action by some National Party politicians who are trying to elicit celebrity help to curry more favour to changing the flag. Whether or not Richie McCaw has been put up to that by people, I don’t have a view. He’s quite capable of expressing his own view. He has, and he’s getting a reaction.”
Hes basically saying that Richie has either been manipulated or paid for his opinion, this is not good by Andrew Little
‘basically’ lol yep well done for the slanted – in fact he said, “I view Richie McCaw as somebody who’s quite capable of making up his own mind and having a view he chooses either to or not express.” as you quote. Basically a fail from you puck.
I do not see any suggestion of payment in that extract. It is publicly known that National is trying to elicit celebrity help in support of a flag change. As to whether or not McCaw is among them, Little does not venture an opinion. So mention of payment, no suggestion that those celebrities who have agreed to support the flag change have been manipulated, and no claim that McCaw must be one of them.
I expect that Andrew Little is far less exercised by these matters than you are. He was asked questions. He answered them. His answers were reasonable.
McCaw said it was time to change the flag. Yes. I agree with him.
But the new flag design offered is nowhere near worth voting for. Wonder if McCaw really believes the new design is his best choice? Must ask him.
They’re usually easy to spot and scroll past; often no more than one sentence or even just a single word. Also; timewasting links, with no description or quote from the contents to explain why you would want to click on them. But you just learn to spot the names after a while: BM, Gosman, Gormless, PR, etc…
I assume that they’re out in force today to try derail conversation away from NACT’s handling of the Christchurch rebuild.
Thanks, I do scroll past, especially when I see “The problem with the left is…” reminds me when people start a sentence “I’m not a racist but…” you know a lot of tripe is going to follow.
But yes, spotlight on CHCH today, 5 years, sheesh.
Fresh food and fresh vegetables contain more nutrients than frozen reheated garbage, if you want to recover quickly you need good quality food. Food is medicine.
I was talking to an Agricultural Businessman at a meeting recently and he stated that vegetables these days only contain 12% of the nutrients today compared to the old vegetable varieties and growing methods of the past?
With the use of artificial fertilizers and synthetic agrochemicals the plants and the environment are becoming unbalanced.
For a month this summer, our group of five travelled the country to document the stories of New Zealanders dealing with destruction of our rivers and lakes, and urge the government to prioritise the health of all New Zealanders by raising the minimum standard for waterways to swimmable.
The government will raise those minimum standards. Our waterways will have to be “wadeable”.
“Wadeable” means that the toxicity is acceptable if it is limited to skin exposure below the knee. (Which can be further avoided by wearing gumboots).
Swimmable would require a level of non-pollution that would allow someone to *gasp* immerse their heads underneath the surface – and suffer no ill-effects.
In other words, wadeable is doable. (Or to be honest, “wadeable” is polluted.)
Thanks Molly for that explanation of levels of unacceptability. That is what we are reduced to in NZ under the barbarian hordes of stinging Gnats.
And Double Plus Good introduces another measure which enables us to give a hollow ironic laugh and keep going on what seems to be an endless Pilgrims Progress (written in the 1600s by John Bunyan). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim%27s_Progress#First_Part
‘…the allegory, which centres itself in his [Christian’s] journey from his hometown, the “City of Destruction” (“this world”), to the “Celestial City” (“that which is to come”: Heaven…Christian is weighed down by a great burden—the knowledge of his sin— He gets caught in a fearsome swamp and struggles to get free.
After struggling to the other side of the slough, Christian is pulled out by Help, who has heard his cries and tells him the swamp is made out of the decadence, scum, and filth of sin, but the ground is good at the narrow Wicket Gate.
So brothers let’s go down, come on down, down to the river to pray. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Eu85pZNoWY Alison Krauss
Our only real sin will be if we don’t make an effort, and become like Pliable in the story.
Another cappella version that the singers have worked up very beautifully. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI–E2Cu7Gw
edited
For kids that will mean full body skellerups, given the way they splash. Look on the brightside another new fashion industry – waterproof wading suits with triclosan for adventurous children and trampers. Yay!
Another price of everything and the value of nothing moment.
Because people with a high public profile shouldn’t comment on their preference for a flag change (because, you know, they might influence someone) I await with baited breath the condemnation that will now surely follow Rachel Smalley for offering her opinion
PR, (well initialed btw), the following paragraphs from the article to which you have alerted us (and thanks!) state what is a primary concern for the writer.
“And now they’re rolling out former All Blacks to encourage us to vote for it.
Dan Carter and Richie McCaw. Both are fine men. Both are experts on the game of rugby. Neither is an expert on design.”
By acknowledging their lack of expertise in flag design she also acknowledges her own lack. She offers her opinion; it’s worth as much as Carter and McCaw’s.
It’s her preference.
Why should we pay attention to it? Only to highlight the point, subtly, that being famous/in the media/ a celebrity is not enough and should not influence a voting choice.
She does offer some arguments for her liking for the current flag and her dislike of the alternative, however, which are worth considering.
We should have worried when the government announced the composition of the selection panel. No flag design expertise there. Thereafter the process was flawed.
Hoots, Wail and Farrar are trying to brand opposition to Key as “hate speech” using fake facebook pages, all as a matter of “public interest” of course.
Hoots is pointing at John Campbell while disingenuously claiming it’s not really all about him. Right.
Hey Hoots, how about just passing John Campbell’s address on to your thug friends, eh? They do more than just “hate speech” don’t they?
BM posted some links to Key’s FB page recently where he claimed that there were lefties behaving inappropriately on family orientated pages. I thought it odd at the time when I looked at it, but didn’t bother looking to see who the abusive posters were. There wasn’t much to suggest they were lefties though.
As an aside, was FB even a thing when Clark was in govt?
FB began in 2004.
Myspace in 2003, youtube and Bebo 2005.
Without looking at the uptake stats for NZ, you’re probably looking at social networking really only becoming big in the last term of Lab5, as web2.0 became the buzzword of the day.
Prior to that, it was newsgroup discussion lists or largely static websites, rather than websites adapting content to the user, ISTR.
lol – looked at the nz.politics newsgroup for the first time on well over a decade and it seems to be populated be a solitary doofus who posts copious amounts of complete and utter shite daily. Pity – had some good arguments back in the day. Trouble is that it was an unmoderated newsgroup, with regular doses of what RNZ failed to clean up promptly.
The state houses are being sold off. That’s only half the transaction though. Next question – who is buying them, and are they related to anyone in Parliament in anyway shape or form.
Is Farrar actually on about Radionz being taxpayer funded? It would serve his and Slater’s masters and paycheques if they dumped on Radionz so much that it would seem time to close down, on some spurious grounds.
What they are saying is that Radionz is not pleasing their bosses. And that if it is government funded it is beholden to have to kiss their arses and tiptoe around the little corporals (or generals if you will). Just as Labour and Gnats have acted to have any body receiving public money, stay schtum about failures of the government of the day, especially charities. Muldoon closed charitable status on a church based one CORSO because they dared to mention that deprivation was growing in NZ. See below.
The kaupapa of Radionz is to be there for the people, keep us informed, let us hear what the other citizens are doing, and what is happening elsewhere. (I don’t agree with a change of name, no matter what other media they may venture into, having alphabet letters is not satisfactory in their case, be Radio+plus and be proud, I say).
Thinking about the way that the Gnats want to control information about the country’s and people’s status and conditions here, set me thinking about Muldoon’s cutting off a large aid organisation CORSO in the 1970s. Largely, it had annoyed the government and its middle class supporters by drawing attention to deficits and problems occurring here, instead of just looking at troubled people overseas.
I have looked for relevant work on charities and punishment for truthful reporting about conditions by government. Below are some headings from Google that will give the interested further information:
New Zealand Parliament – Charities Bill — First Reading http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/debates/…/charities-bill-—-first-reading
Mar 30, 2004 – The Government’s intention was to tax charities that put their tax-free profits back into the … groups performing advocacy will not be eligible for charitable status. …. We had a case in the House, around 1979-80, relating to CORSO. …. states that an organisation can be removed from the register of charitable …
New Zealand Parliament – Charities Bill — Second Reading … http://www.parliament.nz/…nz/…/charities-bill-—-second-reading-instruction-t...
Apr 12, 2005 – That removes the requirement for the commission to establish and …… They are liable to be stripped of their charitable status by some unfeeling Government …… by crawling to Margaret Thatcher, and treated CORSO cruelly.
Also this paper might show bias on having muzzled charities putting government patronage ahead of a responsibility to inform the public as to its work, and how it finds the public conditions experienced.
June 2013
The History of Charitable Purpose Tax Concessions in
New Zealand: Part 1*
Michael Gousmett, FCIS PhD BCom(Hons) BBS DipTchg DipCM, is an independent Charities and Third
Sector Researcher, and Founding Trustee of The New Zealand Third Sector Educational Trust CC47402. Just as taxpayers are required to meet their fiscal obligations or else face penalties, so too should those organisations with charitable purposes that benefit from fiscal privileges be required to demonstrate precisely how it is that they have benefitted the community through their activities, being activities that are both directly and indirectly subsidised by the taxpayer.
Once charitable status has been granted, we need to go beyond the presumption of charitability to ensure that positive outcomes are being achieved as a consequence of the fiscal privileges available to charities. The nexus between charitable status and fiscal privilege is clear, for without the one the other does not follow.
This is the first of a two-part article examining the history of the charitable purposes concession in New Zealand
This paper researching the background and demise of CORSO probably illustrates the factors that led to NZ and the 1984 revolution when the welfare state was abandoned as the goal and materialism and individualism replaced it. The reliance of CORSO on women volunteers who during the 1960’s were entering employment and dropping volunteering and community :
PDF]Paying the Price of the Failure to retain Legitimacy in a … http://www.victoria.ac.nz/sacl/centres-and-institutes/cagtr/…/WP47.pdf
by D Sutton – Cited by 1 – Related articles
Legitimacy in a National Charity: the CORSO Story. WORKING PAPER SERIES … Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand ….. 19 September 1979 the government legislated the removal of the tax exempt status of. CORSO …l
Also
Stakeholders: Government-NGO Partnerships for … https://books.google.co.nz/books?isbn=1134188463
Ian Smillie, Henny Helmich, Judith Randel – 2013 – Political Science
CORSO, one of New Zealand’s earliest international NGOs, had its charitable status removed in the 1970s for its criticism of government policy,6 and debates …
Britain has been accused of waging a behind-the-scenes PR offensive aimed at neutering United Nations criticism of Bahrain for its human rights record, including the alleged use of torture by its security forces.
Bahrain’s young people mark fifth anniversary of Arab spring
Read more
Documents shared with the Observer reveal that the UN’s criticism of the Gulf state was substantially watered down after lobbying by the UK and Saudi Arabia, a major purchaser of British-made weapons and military hardware.
The culprit was a selfish arsehole, his age and sex are incidental (though the sense of entitlement may be linked to his perceived privilege).
At the time the threats were sent, Kerr’s credit card was almost maxed out and he could not make the minimum repayments…
An ANZ staffer also told the court about Kerr increasing an overdraft facility on his mother Judith’s account from $10,000 to $50,000, which he was permitted to do since he had enduring power of attorney over her estate.
When the bank contacted Mrs Kerr she “knew nothing” but they approved the application after the defendant provided them with documentation about his authority.
When you’re willing to defraud your own sick mother (he’s 60 and has power of attorney, so I imagine that she’s in a nursing home), then threatening the health of stranger’s babies isn’t that big a step, I guess. From Marty’s link:
he became “agitated” and came to believe sales of his own product would increase by 30 per cent if 1080 wasn’t used… Kerr became concerned that 1080 was outdoing sales of Feratox, and would ask company managers on a daily basis how Feratox sales were doing.
I almost hope that he was a meth-head, as that’d almost go one some way to explaining (not excusing) this pattern of behaviour (agitation, impulsiveness, increasing need for large amounts of money). It’s better than believing that someone could become this much of an loathsome creep naturally.
I’ve been having this problem with certain post pages on The Standard for a few weeks now. All I get is a red flag icon up in the chrome tab (instead of the usual grey square icon) and a blank page. Clicking on any comments for that page in the right hand Comments list also doesn’t open the page.
Only happens with certain pages: others open fine. Strange. Wonder if something in my browser settings needs changing. I mostly use chrome.
Edit: Hang on, now it’s opening. It didn’t 3 or 4 minutes ago. I haven’t changed anything in my browser settings. Weird.
Tried windows 7 with Chrome.48 and Internet Explorer.11, both logged in and logged out. I don’t have any problems apart from more lagginess than I’d like.
On pages that fail to load, try Shift+f5 or Shift+refresh to see if you can clear any local browser cache.
Also what is your ISP? It could be that they are caching pages badly. When I get home I’ll have a peek at the logs for any page errors. But I haven’t seen any for previous people reporting something similar.
I started experiencing similar problems maybe six weeks ago. Various TS pages wouldn’t load but later that day it would be OK. It has now become worse in that on some machines the home page will never load, a blank white screen occurs.
It has consistently only affected some machines/OS’s.
e.g. I’m writing this in Firefox 44.0.2 on a Win XP machine which suffers the problem. Pasting the url for this open mike works OK but I cannot get to the home page.
The same applies to Chrome 48.0.2564.116m & IE 8 (tried that for laughs).
This machine can also boot to Linux Mint 17 32 bit and everything works fine using the current latest Firefox.
Another machine running Mint 17 64 bit & FF does have the problem, as does another running Win7 using FF, Chrome or IE11.
There’s a few other XP machines here running FF that seem OK.
I’m not experiencing anything similar on other sites.
Looking at the blank home page using this machine the page source looks like
1
2
3
That’s all, no actual content.
Page info says the render mode is quirks mode and the size is 24 bytes, it loads very fast, no lagginess 🙂
Originally it showed it was modified on 16 Feb, ctrl F5 brought it up to date although I think I have tried to view the page several times since then.
There’s no button for ‘Media’ or ‘Feeds’ and no metatags listed.
This open mike page shows render mode as Standards compliance mode.
I’m connected via vodafone on the ex TC cable network in Wgton.
What is odder is that only some people appear to be getting the problem and there is no particular pattern to what they are using at the client end.
It sounds like a caching problem – but pretty difficult to see where it is from.
For instance my cellphone runs spark. So I ran a test the weekend before last for windows7 + cell spark looking for a ISP caching. Didn’t see any.
BTW: There were no particular page errors yesterday at around 3pm.
Try this in Chrome if you are game.
Right click on failed page & inspect.
At top of inspector, click on network.
Click on preserve log in options at the top of the inspector.
Click on filled dot on left at top left of inspector to put it into record mode.
Press F5 on page
After the page has loaded, scroll to the top and have a look at the load. The primary page is the URL. The Size column says if it loaded from cache. It shouldn’t for any post page. Most of the images etc should come from your local cache.
In the status column 200 means that it was ok or local cache. 304 means that the local cached version was ok and to use that. (failed) says that it couldn’t get it
The thing I don’t get about all the booing and dildo-chucking that’s been happening lately is that it means that either the polls or wrong, or that the polls are correct but the marginalised are becoming more restless.
The latter is the option that bodes particularly badly for NZ, imo.
I think the polls are reflecting the self satisfaction of the polled (those who have homes and can afford landlines) and they are doing ok at the moment because their house prices are going up. That is about as far ahead as most think imo. The polls won’t change much until the bubble bursts, and the sheeple suddenly wake up and find that they are in a bit of strife!
The restlessness however on the extremities is growing. Those who have been left out of the “economic miracle” that John Key has provided are growing angry that their cries for justice are never heard. I’m not sure we are are back to 1793 as McF alludes to below – but the conditions are growing by the day.
This. A direct result of the current government’s anti-social policy platform is the growth in inequality, the marginalisation of the vulnerable, the polarisation of the people and the sending of them to the extremes.
The value in the increase in booing etc isn’t that it will shift this or that poll, but that it is building a movement of resistance and protest. At this stage, the polls are irrelevant to that.
I think the value in the raised awareness of protestors is that the general public may start to wonder, why are people protesting? why are they so angry? why is there so much unrest? It begins to sow some seeds of political doubt for them, at least that’s a good theory anyway.
“The thing I don’t get about all the booing and dildo-chucking that’s been happening lately is that it means that either the polls or wrong, or that the polls are correct but the marginalised are becoming more restless.”
I was wondering about that too. My assumption was that it’s the quiets ones you gotta watch out for, that seem to be growing louder, the marginalised restless as you say – February’s activities wouldn’t have happened even a couple of years ago.
weka makes a good point at 18.2.2, about building a movement of resistance, and how the polls are irrelevant to that at the moment.
The more that people react to the government at public events, the more courage that gives to those that would never dream to speak up. I hope one day there will come a time when we reach a tipping point and our government becomes widely condemned.
When it’s not reflected in the polls, it means that a chunk or the population are being shafted and the regular democratic safety valve isn’t kicking in to give representation to those who have been marginalised.
It might not lead to 1793 all over again, but it does increase the odds of a nutter throwing something other than dildos.
Hmm. So you’d favour the state extending its influence and in the process consolidating a sense of legitimacy? (Or something like that.) Y’see, I think that’s the bad thing, but hey…
Just that if people A) are getting increasingly pissed off and B) see no way of getting their voice heard in current democratic institutions, then the odds that someone will think they need to yell really loudly, and with violence, also increases.
Or the other odds – that current illiberal institutions are simply given the long finger as people organise beyond the sphere of influence those institutions have – or simply deny the institutions any efficacy in daily life.
In effect, a bit like the day the passing KGB started to be stared down instead of scurried away from.
I think violence is usually the exception and the myth that it’s the ‘go to’ position of any revolutionary process a nice control measure.
Yet more odds to consider are those for reformists refusing to merely settle for whatever has been conceded, but always formulating immediate new demands off the back of the old ones.
Maybe there are odds for the stuff in the preceding paragraph being a necessary pre-condition to the stuff of the first paragraph as opposed to both lots of stuff proceeding simultaneously or in tandem?
1793 is always closer than anyone thinks….particularly those with the arrogance to indulge in the manipulation….there is a fine line between control and out of…..
Has February been one of NZ’s most active months for protest since dear leader took charge?
There are a wide range of sectors within society expressing feelings of all round shitiness and dissatisfaction with Key personally and the govt in general.
4th Feb: Massive turnout for TPPA signing protest, estimates of 15,000 with roads blocked for several hours.
5th Feb: Awesome lady, Josie Butler, throws a dildo at Steven Joyce at Waitangi, causing an outbreak of international hilarity.
6th Feb: Key booed loudly by the crowd at Auckland Nine’s Rugby League
14th Feb Key booed loudly again by the crowd at the Big Gay Out for 3 minutes solid and only gets 20 seconds into a speech before he has to abandon the stage.
21st Feb. A large crowd gather in Cathedral Square Christchurch to protest their treatment by EQC and insurance companies. Key and Brownlee target of anger and frustration.
And now today, Brownlee gets mud thrown at him during remembrance ceremony for Christchurch:
As opposed to the link ‘header’ “Brownlee bewildered by heckler”, I’m bewildered by the show of mateyness that was on display. Seriously wondering wtf that’s about.
It actually shows Little is a decent, caring human being.
I absolutely loathe Brownlee but this was not the time or place to throw shit all over him. It was a memorial service for people who had lost loved ones in the earthquake. Maybe some here should remember that.
There is never a wrong time or place for a message well deserved and delivered.
Bad form to throw shit at a fucker who actioned decisions that he knew would entail misery and/or death and who then has the gall to turn up at a memorial event…. why?
In a sane world Brownlee would have been barred from being there. His attendance, and that of other government ministers, was insulting and grossly inappropriate on a number of levels with regard to people both living and dead.
It’s possible that the man knew it was inappropriate, but was desperate. Being able to work within what is socially acceptable is a position of privilege, that’s the whole point, there are too many people who are being denied this privilege now. Something is going to break.
Is it “appropriate” for Gerry Brownlee to attend managed and celebratory events for the earthquake – while being able to avoid meaningful discussion and action for those still hurting?
This event – in that respect – is an appropriate time for those who have been marginalised, ignored and forgotten to show their disgust.
I feel some discomfort for Brownlee, but the immediate sympathy and concern shown for him is decidedly lacking in his role for reconstruction and others who have suffered far more, and for five long years.
We can’t judge those whose level of suffering we know nothing of. Are we meant to be behave like the Victorians and be polite and silent under avoidable duress? Such pain can’t always draw at line at societal protocols.
Brownlee can handle it. These guys look like they’re going to have get more used to this kind of reaction. They do not deserve our sympathy, or our concern about the correct actions in time and place.
Disappointing to see Little give Brownlee a consoling pat on the shoulder, which Brownlee barely acknowledged, being the arrogant fucker that he is. By doing this Little shows he is supporting those who have privilege and power, over and above those who have been shafted.
I think this may be the first time I have ever disagreed with you Rosie, but you seem to have missed the fact that it was a memorial service for those who had died. I don’t care how much shit gets thrown at Brownlee when he is at other events but this was a service attended by people who are still grieving. They are the ones I care about.
As for Little his was a spontaneous response to a person who had been attacked – whether Brownlee deserved to be attacked or not is not the point. Personally, I’d rather have someone in charge with whose immediate instinct when the person next to them is attacked is one of empathy than someone who jeers because it happened to an enemy.
Yes I’m aware it was a memorial service. What I gather from reports on RNZ, stuffed, and newshurb, the arrested man threw the mud/matter at a time shortly after Brownlee and Little were speaking to one another. This indicates that either the memorial service was over or at least it wasn’t during the time that the names of the 185 dead were being read out.
I can’t speak for the people attending the ceremony, and what they may have felt. I’m sure it would have upset a few people. Others may have felt supportive towards the man who took the action.
I also can’t speak for the Cantabrians so incredibly let down by this government post 22.02.11. From where I’m sitting I can only be astonished at the level of abandonment. So that is why I empathise with a person who has reached breaking point and reacts.
When we think of grief, collective grief in the case of the ceremony, we know that feeling doesn’t exist in isolation. Depending on the circumstances there may also be anger, hurt, frustration, resentment and fear. All these emotions are part of grief. I think it is natural that it was expressed yesterday despite our social protocols and expectations that dictate that it shouldn’t. These protocols exist to keep order and harmony in society but in extreme circumstances these invisible walls have to come down – theres only so much they can hold.
No I wouldn’t expect Little to “jeer at the enemy either”. But I wouldn’t expect him to support a bully.
I want a caring society too. I have a feeling that the man who threw the mud is reacting to the fact that we have become an uncaring and compassionless society (see my comments on yesterdays post on 22.02.11) It’s not for us to judge if he expresses himself in an impolite way.
Hi Rosie. I am not saying that the man who did this was not justified in despising Brownlee and wanting to humiliate him. I am questioning the timing of this action at a memorial service. It may have been at the end of the service but that would still have had an impact on the other people who had lost loved ones. I do know about grief – I have had my own share of it.
I also took issue with this:
“By doing this Little shows he is supporting those who have privilege and power, over and above those who have been shafted.”
I don’t think this is a fair assessment, but we shall just have to agree to disagree
It looked like Andrew Little patted Brownlee on the back after the code brown incident. I had to watch it a second time to pick up on that myself. I can see why Bill might see that as bewildering mateyness. I think it might be seen by many as classiness, in an attack the errors not the person kind of way. Provided, of course, that Little did use the occasion to criticise the many shortcomings in Brownlee’s handling of the Christchurch rebuild.
Afterwards, Mr Brownlee had to leave for home to get cleaned up, and thanked an unnamed woman who helped him get clean enough to get in the car.
He said he would like to know what the man’s gripe was.
Shub have updated their page and are now allowing Brownlee to suggest that the man has mental health problems alongside reporting that he’s been arrested and will appear in court.
So someone covered Brownlee with smelly brown stuff. Better than getting shot like some have had overseas. No harm done to him. It was not the right thing to do on this particular day, but I find it puzzling that anyone noticed any difference? There is always a stench about Brownlee when he is in Christchurch pushing his weight around and bullying so many!
“Europe’s migration/refugee crisis is expected to match or even exceed last year’s record numbers. Much of the discussion on what to do centers on the cost of resettlement and whether EU member countries should accept quotas. But why are so many migrants and/or refugees leaving their home countries? And what about the question of culture?
CrossTalking with Chris Bambery, Sukant Chandan, and Catherine Shakdam.”
‘EU ‘cannot handle’ another year of refugees pouring into Europe – Danish PM’
Obama Admin’s TPP Trade Officials Received Hefty Bonuses From Big Banks
February 20, 2014
by Lee Fang
This post first appeared at Republic Report.
US Trade Representative Michael Froman attends a leaders’ retreat during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Bali, Indonesia, Oct. 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, Pool)
Officials tapped by the Obama administration to lead the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations have received multimillion dollar bonuses from CitiGroup and Bank of America, financial disclosures obtained by Republic Report show.
……..
__________________________________
So – why would the big banks pay USA officials negotiating the TPPA multi-million dollar bonuses?
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
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Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
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The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
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:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
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 ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
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. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
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 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02eA0QsbszI
What is happening in UK will happen here. The lucrative bits of our Health system will be steadily privatised. Hospital meals anyone?
In the early 90s in NZ our National Government introduced partial charges for patients in Public Hospitals. Didn’t work very well but now under Key, they will be back!
Why is it vital that the state cook the meals eaten in hospitals?
Because mass produced frozen meals reheated is gross. The interests of the company trumps the interests of the patients.
Is public provided hospital food the example you want to hang your hat on?
What hospital? Many who need surgery cannot accumulate enough “points” to even get on a waiting list.
Kafka would recognise this. Yossarian made jokes about it. Brighter future. Yum.
Actually, yeah.
Hospital food, like any mass distributed food, is going to be pretty average.
But Compass seem unable to achieve even that standard
+1
Following your logic everything involved with hospitals such as drugs, bandages, beds, bedding and even the ambulances bringing people in should be provided by the State.
Exactly – ohhh that was what was happening
Gosman suggests the following items “drugs, bandages, beds, bedding and even the ambulances” and you then appear to claim that “the State” in the past manufactured all those things.
Do you really mean that that happened in New Zealand and if so can you please tell me when this all happened.
I certainly can’t remember state owned pharmaceutical companies, or blanket makers or any of those other things.
Even the ambulance service, at least in Wellington isn’t provided by the state.
Alwyn
The state’s role (at least prior to the recent outsourcing binge) is in the provision of services, not the manufacture of the components of those services. Your argument is akin to saying that; because hospital kitchens do not grow their own food, but instead purchase fresh produce from local suppliers (until recently) to prepare, then they have not created that food out of thin air. True enough, but spectacularly missing the point.
Likewise; “drugs, bandages, beds, [&] bedding”, will be purchased from external suppliers, but their specifications will be set by the state. The way these items are used within the health system will be determined by health professionals (well; ideally, though increasingly by; executives, commissioners and consultants these days). An ambulance service may be provided by an external organization such as St Johns, but the minimum requirements of that service will be determined by the hospital(s) it services.
The problem with outsourcing services is in the lack of control over the methods used in the external organization. Companies cut corners to maximize profit, unless they are constantly supervised. But that supervision costs, and the point of outsourcing is to save money (on paper at least, until those who signed off on it leave the organization before the hidden costs become evident), so supervision remains inadequate and ineffective.
I have no problem with anything you say.
However Macro was stating, at least by implication, that the state used to provide all those things, not buy them from private firms who manufactured them. I am curious how he came to that conclusion.
Actually I was in hospital about two years ago. The meals were provided by an outside firm and were pretty good. Cooking them in-house with hospital employed staff doesn’t really seem necessary.
🙄
Is there a competition on today to see who is the most gormless?
Every hospital I know of has its own Pharmacy. (and yes they do manufacture some of their own medicines.)
Every hospital I know of has its own laundry.
Every hospital I know of has its own beds. and my uncle (as a Wgtn Hospital employee) used to manufacture some of the special beds they needed for polio patients.
NZ used to even manufacture its own blankets, from wool grown in this country.
And I believe the Government should be responsible for the provision of ambulance services (and fire for that matter). The reliance on trust for the provision of vital helicopter and ambulance services should not be left to the syphonning off of problem gamblers money from pokies.
Just one of those funny things where the State is responsible for the welfare of its citizens Gosman.
Maybe you should be made to pay for every comment you make on here, I am sure you would not have a problem with that. At least you would then feel you were upholding your ideals.
1. Any incidents of food safety would be limited to one institution instead of multiples.
2. Local employment.
3. Higher likelihood of better nutritional value – for patients with already compromised health.
4. Local food and ingredients purchased.
Molly, are you arguing for or against state provision?
We know you are a gormless fool – you don’t have to display it so openly however!
Because if the food is not nutritional the people eating it will be back in hospital (sate funded) to get better, you see? Long term thinking that, not that hard really.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
Hippocrates
Don’t say that, the big pharma types will want a patent and monopoly on our lunch spread too.
They’re already making tonnes shoving vitamins in basically everything.
Monsanto already has many patents on food. Now that NZ seems to be opening up to GMOs (probably against the wishes of NZers) we’ll probably find that we won’t be allowed to grow our own non-patented food in a short while.
What do you think?
oh sorry, I meant: What? Do you think?
It’s vital that hospitals produce food on site because the meals produced are of a higher standard, cost less, and as a bonus, help the local economy.
Now that really shows faith founded on ignorance.
“the meals produced are of a higher standard, cost less”
Just what is your evidence for this?
Having worked in the RNZN for 15 years and for 7 of those years working alongside supply and secretariat officers I can assure you that the local provisioning of food was far and away the best option. (I was also the examining officer for the City and Guilds Cooking exam) Outsourcing of meals means that some of the money originally put aside for the provision of food now goes into the transport of the food, and the profit of the provider.
Therefore the quality of the meal – for the same amount of money – must drop. But the usual reason given to go to an outside provider is to save money – so the quality of the food provided must be done on an even smaller budget.
Back in the Navy each ship was given a set budget dependent upon the number of personnel and the supply staff, cooks, and stewards had to work within that budget to feed the ship. You knew if there was a rort going on if sailors started to complain about the quality of the food. The first first place to look was always in the kitchen and the pantry. Too easy to sign for a dozen leg of lamb and receive only 10.
So if hospitals are supplying poor food to their patients – the first question to ask is – are the cooks being given enough money to provide good food in the first place? and then the second question is how is the money being spent? and where has it gone? Much easier to ask these questions in house.
The only faith and ignorance that I’ve seen is from the RWNJs in their faith that the private sector is always better. Their ignorance comes from ignoring the evidence that the private sector is almost always worse.
This is why I proudly drive a Leyland.
parked in a leaky-building garage, built over a polluted stream, and paid for by a south canterbury finance loan ……… never mind though eh, you can always get non-market labour from some poor country to patch things up for you at slave rates
Yep, there’s been some fuckups but overall the government provides government services better than the private sector does and does it cheaper.
Which is why the Soviet Union was so famously successful.
In fact Russia had problems with product quality and corrupt administration long before the revolution – you might like to read Futility by William Gerhardie – it will give you some context.
Care to explain why East Germany was so site at making things then considering Germans didn’t have that tradition you mention?
Have you ever eaten over cooked and then over frozen food?? The crap they serve in hospitals would make a healthy man sick.. It was better when the food was cooked in the individual hospitals, then any dietary changes could be made with in 1 day, not a week or whatever it is now..
This was never about the patient this was all about some company making a killing with inferior food, and diabolical cooking practices.
Whatever happened to the Hippocratic Oath?
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”?
“Do no harm”?
How many people now have adverse reactions from, or die from ‘approved’ pharmaceutical drugs?
How much emphasis is placed by our ‘illness-based’ health system on NUTRITION as opposed to pharmaceutical drugs?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Fresh food and fresh vegetables contain more nutrients than frozen reheated garbage, if you want to recover quickly you need good quality food. Food is medicine.
I was talking to an Agricultural Businessman at a meeting recently and he stated that vegetables these days only contain 12% of the nutrients today compared to the old vegetable varieties and growing methods of the past?
With the use of artificial fertilizers and synthetic agrochemicals the plants and the environment are becoming unbalanced.
5 years since our world turned upside down.
Kia kaha Christchurch.
dirty politics – what is it called when a group or individual pretends to be another group and says offensive stuff so that members of that first group can then pour moral outrage on the second group even though the first group have pretended to be the second group and the actual second group don’t know anything about the offensive stuff the first group pretended the second group said?
https://dimpost.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/the-mysterious-case-of-the-hate-speech-on-the-rnz-facebook-page/
IMO this technique is very hollow, obvious and rightwingish – they just can’t help loving the gutter and their dirty techniques.
false flag operation
Its not like it hasn’t happened before:
http://www.rightreason.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/anti-semitic-billboard11.jpg
http://static2.stuff.co.nz/1397119815/816/9928816.jpg
If this is a false flag operation it should be easy enough to reveal. Track down the people who made such comments and expose them for being plants by right wingers.
You can’t track down a person if it’s someone like Slater operating a fake account. That’s why they do it.
Those people have actual Facebook pages with associated friends. Contact some of these others to see if they have ever met the person in question.
Then I expect you lot will find it easy to expose this ‘dirty tricks’ campaign. Track down one of the people who posted those offensive comments and get them to confess. Then you can bring down this VRWC once and for all. Somehow I doubt any of you will bother though.
Which is to say nothing about anything really fascist Goose.
I take it that you are unwilling to follow up on exposing these people as being part of a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign then. How unsurprising.
They seem to enjoy getting drunk a lot.
So, this is the latest dirty political meme? Send off comments filled with filthy language aimed at JK and co. to reputable media sites then shriek horror and disgust at their own creations?
John Campbell… looks like you might have a dirty political trick happening right under your nose.
Its actually Dirty Tricks to try to take focus away from the issue at hand and place the blame elsewhere
So well done the Left for trying
yeah what are the right frightened of at the moment hmmm…
Well Nationals only at 47% and John Keys only at 40% popularity (vs Andrew Littles whopping 9% popularity) so you might be onto something
yep the election isn’t today eh so come what may these poll figures are unlikely to stay – go higher? get on a flyer? nah not with the slimeKeyponytailpuller liar.
Sounds like something you’d hear at a protest
lol – that is the evidence you’ve never had the courage to protest puck
Not true, I was in a protest once, ma and a bunch people went out in support of Sir Peter Jackson
Was quite successful as I recall
lol good one
The issue at hand is that RWNJs have seemingly threatened John Key and made massively inappropriate comments and then blamed those comments on the Left.
Seems to me that we’re focussing on that and that you’re now trying to distract from it.
Draco,
Do you actually have any evidence at all for this conspiracy theory?
Or is repeating the conspiracy enough evidence of itself?
This is one of those times where the police should be finding out who made the comments and bringing them to justice which, of course, means naming them.
Danyl’s post raises enough questions with an implied answer that makes such an investigation necessary. Of course, we probably won’t see such an investigation and so we’re only left with the RWNJ version of events which is, itself, lacking any facts.
Yep. The unthinking and the unlinking.
I just read Danyl’s post and had a quick look around. After having seen Cameron Slater do exactly this kind of thing on a number of unmoderated sites (including this one way back), I’ll call it and say that in my view the Whaleoil group mob has been reactivated to spew crap on the RNZ site.
If RNZ would like knowledgeable assistance on how to moderate without too much work, I’d be happy to provide it. But basically RNZ need to implement some moderation to handle the self-pleasuring trolls from Whaleoil and Kiwiblog (who have usually been banned or are very cautious in their behaviour here). Because once the loudmouthed arseholes like Cameron and his mates start doing this kind of thing, they don’t stop unless they are forced to.
And learn to ignore the screams of outrage of ‘censorship’ as their horrendous behaviour is moderated to a level consistent to legal limits. It isn’t like they contribute to that process. Just kick them off the site for months. Sure they will group whine in the bowels of whaleoil, kiwiblag or laudafinem. But anyone with something sensible to say will come back with revised behaviour.
Is there any way for RNZ’s tech people to see at the back end what is going on, or is because it’s FB it’s relatively blind?
You are aware that you could quite easily conduct an investigation yourself aren’t you?
So, you’re suggesting that I hack Facebook, RNZ, Failoil and a number of ISPs?
No. Contact the people involved or their friends via Facebook. That is quite possible to do and involves no hacking.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22022016/#comment-1137484
If you are a racist, then by definition you are not of the left
Would you consider Mahatma Ghandhi left or right? I ask because theres some discussion about whether he was racist
In my experience, the left tend to trade off one prejudice for another.
He doesn’t need evidence. It is all blatantly self obvious to him that evidence would just cloud the issue.
So, you’re part of the latest Dirty Political meme eh Wayne?
DTB @ 3.3.1.2 has made no charges against anyone -unless you’re not aware of the meaning of the word “seemingly”. Is it now an heinous sin to express concern/suspicion about a “seemingly” orchestrated litany of threatening comments on a reputable media site which normally only attracts nominal numbers of comments? And exactly who the “seeming” culprits might be is open to speculation unless/until someone conducts a thorough investigation.
If no-one (police?) chooses to conduct such an investigation then I am liable to become very suspicious.
sadly it would appear having got away with it in the past it will be applied until such time as it becomes counter-productive……hope it pays well in monetary terms as it must be soul destroying work.
You don’t need to conduct a through investigation. All you need to do is ascertain of one or more of them is real or not and what their political persuasion us likely to be. That seems quite straightforward.
Danyl already did that. Indications are that the comments come from bogus accounts.
Ahhh no he didn’t. He hasn’t done any leg work at all. He certainly hasn’t contacted anybody on the extensive friends list of the people involved and asked them if they in fact knew the person in question.
As I said, Danyl’s done the preliminary investigation. To go further really does require an official investigation with the full backing of the law with legal consequences for those spewing such hate.
– Gosman
How do you know? Are you one of them?
You do, of course, understand that that action you describe won’t prove anything. They will, if they’re the fictitious accounts that they appear to be, say that they all exist, are great buddies and know each other intimately.
“Do you actually have any evidence at all for this conspiracy theory?”
It’s not a conspiracy theory Wayne, or is RWers calling it a conspiracy theory enough to make it one?
It’s a theory at this stage, a serious enough one that warrants discussion.
Hooton, Farrar & the RW trolls are Right Wing Activists, they seem to be calling these commentators ‘Left Wing Activists’ but I don’t see what makes them so, whereas Hooton & co are actively shoving right wing memes down my throat.
Pretty much. Looks like classic Dirty Politics to me, so even if it isn’t they’ve got no-one to blame but themselves for being suspects.
Does that mean you aren’t interested in finding out for sure that they are ‘dirty politics’ operatives?
Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, but who the fuck are we – David Attenborough?
Something took a shit on our car, and the most likely culprit is the waddling, quacking lump of stupid over to the right.
We already know they are DP operatives Gosman, that’s why so many people are suspicious this time round. As for this specific instance, of course I think the truth of the situation matters. What an odd question.
So why don’t you bother actually doing the investigative effort required to find out? It isn’t hard. Most of the people on that list have left a big trail to follow. For some reason you are reluctant though. Why is that?
Hooton is the one with the long bow to draw. Thanks for your concern.
How has he a long bow to draw?
Yes, he has. Thanks for your concern.
Ummm…. comprehension doesn’t seem to be your strong suit. HOW has he a long bow to draw? What exactly makes you think that?
Good question. I think it’s something to do with the quality of your concern.
+ 100 OAB, DNFT etc…
The must have been eating hospital meals – there is a lot of them around at the moment!
Not sure about the imagery of Hooton as a longbow man though. Presumably he works for the Sheriff but I’d see him as more cloak and dagger than fighting out front.
Hooten studies a bit you know – and he’ll be employing the weapon that really beat the French at Agincourt. Not as is popularly supposed the longbow – It was mud that stopped the French chivalry.
Fascinating battle, actually – there were lots of little factors that by themselves were pretty minor, but added together really fucked things up for the French. The clay in the mud made it harder going for smooth armoured feet than for cloth/leather-shod archers. The command confusion wouldn’t have been so serious with those ods in a more open field.
Even the slightly narrowing shape of the field had some pretty interesting consequences regarding crowd dynamics.
Just for what it’s worth 🙂
Something strange going on with the Crafar Farms Deal, Landcorp pulling out of the management contracts?
Anybody know anything?
Where did you see that?
Winston Peters http://www.radiolive.co.nz/WINSTON-PETERS-Foreign-farmers-ownership-hangs-in-balance/tabid/615/articleID/113419/Default.aspx
Seems pretty clear cut. Can buy Crafar farms on condition that Landcorp run them. Landcorp drops out so deal is off. Re advertise?
Mind you. Is Key capable of changing the Act to accommodate the Chinese buyers? Surely not.
The Overseas Investment Office (OIO) today clarified that Landcorp’s future withdrawal from the former Crafar farms will not breach any conditions of Shanghai Pengxin Group Limited’s consent.
Under the conditions, Shanghai Pengxin must contract Landcorp to manage the farms until May 2017, and the consent conditions do not require the contract to be extended beyond that.
http://www.linz.govt.nz/news/2016-02/landcorp-withdrawal-former-crafar-farms
Danyl gets what no-one in the circle-jerk gets:
https://dimpost.wordpress.com/2016/02/21/business-as-usual/
Indeed. The Labour/Green bloc down 3%, Nats steady and NZF picking up 1%. The Left echo chamber is in full force.
No no you don’t understand, Winston Peters is in the left block so theres no need to worry
Or, to put it another way …
Colmar Brunton (Feb 2016)
Oppo Bloc 50.0%
Govt Bloc 48.3%
Once again, like every TV News Poll (Colmar Brunton / Reid Research) since May 2015, the Opposition are leading.
Despite your hilarious attempt at satire, Puckers, let’s call it a wild stab in the dark, I think we all know Winnie could jump either way.
“Despite your hilarious attempt at satire, Puckers, let’s call it a wild stab in the dark, I think we all know Winnie could jump either way.”
I’m certainly not saying Winston will go with National, I was more pointing out the tendency of some on here to count Winston as part of the Left wing block
For every reason Winston could go right he could also go left so I think its utterly futile to guess where Winston will go until the votes are in and the trading begin
So yeah I agree with you but its a shame theres many on here that don’t
I’m being remarkably generous to you, incidentally, by including the Maori Party’s 1% in Govt Bloc support. Who knows which way they’ll jump in 2017 ?
Perhaps, if we’re looking at potential coalitions/support arrangements, it might be better to say:
Colmar Brunton (Feb 2016)
Lab+Green+NZF+Maori = 51%
Nat+ACT+UF = 47.3%
Well Labour better be building bridges with the Maori Party in a bid to gain MMP partners but of course they are not. Labour put on a big campaign to recapture every Maori Seat in 2014 and they will do so again in 2017.
FPP thinking all the way.
True. At the moment, the logic of electoral competition in the Maori seats (well, at least in 3 or 4 of them) – where Labour and the Maori Party go head-to-head as major competitors/antagonists – would seem to inevitably push the MP in National’s direction (despite polls suggesting a large majority of MP voters prefer a Labour-led Government).
On FPP thinking, if the 1996, 1999 and 2002 General Elections taught us anything, it’s that the voting public need to see a cohesive, united, viable potential Government-in-waiting if they’re to support the Opposition parties.
You’ve come in for a bit of a bollocking here over recent months, CV, but personally I’ve always admired your sense of urgency, your broad vision, your avoidance of wishful thinking and your strategic nous. Nor do I condemn you for failing to win one of the Bluest Seats in the Country a couple of Elections ago.
Dude, that’s most kind.
+1
The problem for the left and their counting is that yes going by votes only it is close but if you take the Maori Party and their 1% but possibly two seats, Peter Dunnes virtually no votes but one and Acts possibly two votes then that makes the counting quite a lot different and its not quite as close as the Left would like
I think the only thing that we can probably all agree on is that the most likely outcome is that Winston may well have a big say in the outcome of the next election
But, the wider point is that Labour keep announcing policy aimed at people who already vote left, rather than people who currently vote for the government.
This is true and because of that I don’t sense (not exactly scientific I admit) any real feeling that NZ want a change of government at the moment
Finely balanced, though trending slightly in the current Govt’s favour.
Water. Under. Bridge. Lots. Of. Still. To. Flow. Though.
Oh of course, something can always happen but I guess I mean if National and Labour keep doing what they’re doing then I don’t think we’ll get a change of government
Yeah – but like I’madinnerjacket, you’ll still be saying that when he’s toppled. Maybe your ESP talents aren’t much more reliable than Treasury predictions. I don’t recall them predicting $120 billion in debt – it was all going to be surpluses from here to eternity.
Andrew Little seems to have upped his dose of stupid pills.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11593245
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11593267
They both seem like sensible responses to me – why is asking for the police to be independent from politics and saying that mccaw is entitled to his opinion and others may dislike it, so abhorrent to you bm?
1. Andrew Little doesn’t need to comment on Richie McCaw, it’s none of Little’s business what flag McCaw likes or doesn’t like.
2. Accusing Collins of politicizing the event when there’s a Labour Float with all these signs saying we voted for homosexual reform, don’t forget that, you owe us is the height of hypocrisy.
Little commenting on McCaw is just like Goff commenting on Liz Hurley: inadvisable and unnecessary.
it is the opposite actually – did you read what he said?
It appeared to me like Andrew Little was talking to the media about a former All Black Captain’s Facebook page.
As I said: inadvisable and unnecessary.
did you read what he said BEFORE you commented?
Of course he didn’t, why ever would you expect that of CV?
Huh? Little shouldn’t stoop to commenting on the Facebook pages of ex-All Black Captains. He has better things to do.
I have to say that its a bad move by Little, had he said nothing then more then a few people would probably just go “huh what does Richie know” and just ignore but now that Littles put his oar it looks a bit like the old left wing bullying happening
You know the rules PR.
If anyone shows even the slightest hint of agreeing with John Key’s view he has to be abused and silenced. At a minimum people will be encouraged to do it for you.
Be anti-John Key and you will be hailed as a true patriot and evidence that Key is hated by all.
That is about par for the course.
Well look at Owen Glenn and the Mad Butcher, the Left sure do know how to alienate people
1. Little agrees that McCaw is entitled to his own opinion, but also notes that opinions on controversial subjects attract backlash (e.g. negative comments on McCaw’s facebook page). He refuses to express a view as to whether McCaw has been co-opted by Key, saying that McCaw is able to make up his own mind. This is hardly trespassing on McCaw’s business, especially given that Little seemed to have been answering questions that were asked of him.
2. In the case of Collins, Little was drawing attention to the fact that the police are meant to function independently of the government of the day. Collins, in marching with them, appeared to disregard that boundary. So it was not about politicising the event per se, but showing a compromised relationship between a government minister and the police.
He said he would not put it past Mr Key to encourage people like McCaw to go public with their views. “But equally, I view Richie McCaw as somebody who’s quite capable of making up his own mind and having a view he chooses either to or not express.
“We know that there’s a bit of a rearguard action by some National Party politicians who are trying to elicit celebrity help to curry more favour to changing the flag. Whether or not Richie McCaw has been put up to that by people, I don’t have a view. He’s quite capable of expressing his own view. He has, and he’s getting a reaction.”
Hes basically saying that Richie has either been manipulated or paid for his opinion, this is not good by Andrew Little
‘basically’ lol yep well done for the slanted – in fact he said, “I view Richie McCaw as somebody who’s quite capable of making up his own mind and having a view he chooses either to or not express.” as you quote. Basically a fail from you puck.
Its not what you say its what you want people to hear that’s important and Littles snide insinuations aren’t going to help him
no it is not what YOU want people to hear that is important – no matter how much it is on rabid repeat
I do not see any suggestion of payment in that extract. It is publicly known that National is trying to elicit celebrity help in support of a flag change. As to whether or not McCaw is among them, Little does not venture an opinion. So mention of payment, no suggestion that those celebrities who have agreed to support the flag change have been manipulated, and no claim that McCaw must be one of them.
He didn’t say he doesn’t personally find him credible.
Which was nice.
Apart from once again looking like a complete and utter sad sack, what’s he hoping to achieve.?
No wonder Peters is overtaking him in the preferred prime minister stakes, he’s so miserable and depressing.
trying to help and offer support to the nzer of the year is somehow bad in your book – THAT is sad
I expect that Andrew Little is far less exercised by these matters than you are. He was asked questions. He answered them. His answers were reasonable.
McCaw said it was time to change the flag. Yes. I agree with him.
But the new flag design offered is nowhere near worth voting for. Wonder if McCaw really believes the new design is his best choice? Must ask him.
Good on Crusher for showing support for the people she represents
The police?
Probably why she’s considered one of the more popular minister of police, they know she’s got their backs
Yep, if policemen torture to death ‘suspects’ she will back them no matter what.
Good to know that you support the politicization of the police.
It’s not as if the police force must be seen to be independent in order to maintain the public trust.
Is there no right wing blog for the RWs on here? So many comments already, or trying to trash the place up to discourage readers I wonder.
Gagnam Style
They’re usually easy to spot and scroll past; often no more than one sentence or even just a single word. Also; timewasting links, with no description or quote from the contents to explain why you would want to click on them. But you just learn to spot the names after a while: BM, Gosman, Gormless, PR, etc…
I assume that they’re out in force today to try derail conversation away from NACT’s handling of the Christchurch rebuild.
Thanks, I do scroll past, especially when I see “The problem with the left is…” reminds me when people start a sentence “I’m not a racist but…” you know a lot of tripe is going to follow.
But yes, spotlight on CHCH today, 5 years, sheesh.
Fresh food and fresh vegetables contain more nutrients than frozen reheated garbage, if you want to recover quickly you need good quality food. Food is medicine.
I was talking to an Agricultural Businessman at a meeting recently and he stated that vegetables these days only contain 12% of the nutrients today compared to the old vegetable varieties and growing methods of the past?
With the use of artificial fertilizers and synthetic agrochemicals the plants and the environment are becoming unbalanced.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11593210
The government will raise those minimum standards. Our waterways will have to be “wadeable”.
Wadeable. Is that even a real measure?
“Wadeable” means that the toxicity is acceptable if it is limited to skin exposure below the knee. (Which can be further avoided by wearing gumboots).
Swimmable would require a level of non-pollution that would allow someone to *gasp* immerse their heads underneath the surface – and suffer no ill-effects.
In other words, wadeable is doable. (Or to be honest, “wadeable” is polluted.)
Skellerups anyone?
It is a marginal improvement on ‘pokeable’, where it is only safe to poke the surface of the water with a long stick.
Thanks Molly for that explanation of levels of unacceptability. That is what we are reduced to in NZ under the barbarian hordes of stinging Gnats.
And Double Plus Good introduces another measure which enables us to give a hollow ironic laugh and keep going on what seems to be an endless Pilgrims Progress (written in the 1600s by John Bunyan).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim%27s_Progress#First_Part
‘…the allegory, which centres itself in his [Christian’s] journey from his hometown, the “City of Destruction” (“this world”), to the “Celestial City” (“that which is to come”: Heaven…Christian is weighed down by a great burden—the knowledge of his sin— He gets caught in a fearsome swamp and struggles to get free.
After struggling to the other side of the slough, Christian is pulled out by Help, who has heard his cries and tells him the swamp is made out of the decadence, scum, and filth of sin, but the ground is good at the narrow Wicket Gate.
So brothers let’s go down, come on down, down to the river to pray.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Eu85pZNoWY Alison Krauss
Our only real sin will be if we don’t make an effort, and become like Pliable in the story.
Another cappella version that the singers have worked up very beautifully.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI–E2Cu7Gw
edited
God damn but that’s a sexy song when Alison Krauss sings it, almost as sexy as this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuaRm2GbPC8
Thanks – sooo not good enough!
For kids that will mean full body skellerups, given the way they splash. Look on the brightside another new fashion industry – waterproof wading suits with triclosan for adventurous children and trampers. Yay!
Another price of everything and the value of nothing moment.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11593578
Because people with a high public profile shouldn’t comment on their preference for a flag change (because, you know, they might influence someone) I await with baited breath the condemnation that will now surely follow Rachel Smalley for offering her opinion
PR, (well initialed btw), the following paragraphs from the article to which you have alerted us (and thanks!) state what is a primary concern for the writer.
“And now they’re rolling out former All Blacks to encourage us to vote for it.
Dan Carter and Richie McCaw. Both are fine men. Both are experts on the game of rugby. Neither is an expert on design.”
By acknowledging their lack of expertise in flag design she also acknowledges her own lack. She offers her opinion; it’s worth as much as Carter and McCaw’s.
It’s her preference.
Why should we pay attention to it? Only to highlight the point, subtly, that being famous/in the media/ a celebrity is not enough and should not influence a voting choice.
She does offer some arguments for her liking for the current flag and her dislike of the alternative, however, which are worth considering.
We should have worried when the government announced the composition of the selection panel. No flag design expertise there. Thereafter the process was flawed.
Perennial charmers Screechy McHooton, Wailoil and the Princess Party Penguin are up to their usual greasy tricks:
https://dimpost.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/the-mysterious-case-of-the-hate-speech-on-the-rnz-facebook-page/
Hoots, Wail and Farrar are trying to brand opposition to Key as “hate speech” using fake facebook pages, all as a matter of “public interest” of course.
Hoots is pointing at John Campbell while disingenuously claiming it’s not really all about him. Right.
Hey Hoots, how about just passing John Campbell’s address on to your thug friends, eh? They do more than just “hate speech” don’t they?
Addendum. Hoots is spinning madly in the comments, weasel words like “may have been”, hair splitting etc. Hilarious.
It’s his typical technique: obliquely suggest something, keep pointing at the target, claim “you MIGHT interpret it that way”, “maybe” etc.
Fucking coward.
BM posted some links to Key’s FB page recently where he claimed that there were lefties behaving inappropriately on family orientated pages. I thought it odd at the time when I looked at it, but didn’t bother looking to see who the abusive posters were. There wasn’t much to suggest they were lefties though.
As an aside, was FB even a thing when Clark was in govt?
“FB even a thing when Clark was in govt”
Did the internet even exist?
🙄
FB began in 2004.
Myspace in 2003, youtube and Bebo 2005.
Without looking at the uptake stats for NZ, you’re probably looking at social networking really only becoming big in the last term of Lab5, as web2.0 became the buzzword of the day.
Prior to that, it was newsgroup discussion lists or largely static websites, rather than websites adapting content to the user, ISTR.
lol – looked at the nz.politics newsgroup for the first time on well over a decade and it seems to be populated be a solitary doofus who posts copious amounts of complete and utter shite daily. Pity – had some good arguments back in the day. Trouble is that it was an unmoderated newsgroup, with regular doses of what RNZ failed to clean up promptly.
Theyve all got livings to make and this is how they keep their paymasters happy.
Yeah. It’s just so fucking amateurish compared to what Surkov gets up to though:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/hidden-author-putinism-russia-vladislav-surkov/382489/
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/the-kremlins-troll-army/375932/
Hoots and the Penguin are the sort who aren’t quite as smart as they like to think they are.
“Hoots and the Penguin are the sort who aren’t quite as smart as they like to think they are.” Chop! chop!
Excellent article about the Māori Party support for National’s state house sell-off. Very disappointed in Marama Fox going along with this. Shameful.
https://tewhareporahou.wordpress.com/2016/02/20/the-maori-party-sellout-state-housing/
The state houses are being sold off. That’s only half the transaction though. Next question – who is buying them, and are they related to anyone in Parliament in anyway shape or form.
I don’t care who is buying them, I care that they are being sold. NZ should be building more state houses not selling them.
If you only want to look at half the picture, don’t be surprised when you can’t make sense of what you are seeing.
PS I am not suggesting that there are private buyers who would make the privatisation exercise acceptable.
Don’t patronise me. I know exactly what I am seeing.
+ 1 Karen – shame, shame shame on the MP for supporting this imo2
If you assume the MP is a subsidary of national none of this should be a surprise.
Look at their track record enabling and supporting this govt they are part of and its very predictable.
Marama fox is a parata clone and rather nasty when challenged.
+1
Is Farrar actually on about Radionz being taxpayer funded? It would serve his and Slater’s masters and paycheques if they dumped on Radionz so much that it would seem time to close down, on some spurious grounds.
What they are saying is that Radionz is not pleasing their bosses. And that if it is government funded it is beholden to have to kiss their arses and tiptoe around the little corporals (or generals if you will). Just as Labour and Gnats have acted to have any body receiving public money, stay schtum about failures of the government of the day, especially charities. Muldoon closed charitable status on a church based one CORSO because they dared to mention that deprivation was growing in NZ. See below.
The kaupapa of Radionz is to be there for the people, keep us informed, let us hear what the other citizens are doing, and what is happening elsewhere. (I don’t agree with a change of name, no matter what other media they may venture into, having alphabet letters is not satisfactory in their case, be Radio+plus and be proud, I say).
Thinking about the way that the Gnats want to control information about the country’s and people’s status and conditions here, set me thinking about Muldoon’s cutting off a large aid organisation CORSO in the 1970s. Largely, it had annoyed the government and its middle class supporters by drawing attention to deficits and problems occurring here, instead of just looking at troubled people overseas.
I have looked for relevant work on charities and punishment for truthful reporting about conditions by government. Below are some headings from Google that will give the interested further information:
New Zealand Parliament – Charities Bill — First Reading
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/debates/…/charities-bill-—-first-reading
Mar 30, 2004 – The Government’s intention was to tax charities that put their tax-free profits back into the … groups performing advocacy will not be eligible for charitable status. …. We had a case in the House, around 1979-80, relating to CORSO. …. states that an organisation can be removed from the register of charitable …
New Zealand Parliament – Charities Bill — Second Reading …
http://www.parliament.nz/…nz/…/charities-bill-—-second-reading-instruction-t...
Apr 12, 2005 – That removes the requirement for the commission to establish and …… They are liable to be stripped of their charitable status by some unfeeling Government …… by crawling to Margaret Thatcher, and treated CORSO cruelly.
Also this paper might show bias on having muzzled charities putting government patronage ahead of a responsibility to inform the public as to its work, and how it finds the public conditions experienced.
June 2013
The History of Charitable Purpose Tax Concessions in
New Zealand: Part 1*
Michael Gousmett, FCIS PhD BCom(Hons) BBS DipTchg DipCM, is an independent Charities and Third
Sector Researcher, and Founding Trustee of The New Zealand Third Sector Educational Trust CC47402.
Just as taxpayers are required to meet their fiscal obligations or else face penalties, so too should those organisations with charitable purposes that benefit from fiscal privileges be required to demonstrate precisely how it is that they have benefitted the community through their activities, being activities that are both directly and indirectly subsidised by the taxpayer.
Once charitable status has been granted, we need to go beyond the presumption of charitability to ensure that positive outcomes are being achieved as a consequence of the fiscal privileges available to charities. The nexus between charitable status and fiscal privilege is clear, for without the one the other does not follow.
This is the first of a two-part article examining the history of the charitable purposes concession in New Zealand
This paper researching the background and demise of CORSO probably illustrates the factors that led to NZ and the 1984 revolution when the welfare state was abandoned as the goal and materialism and individualism replaced it. The reliance of CORSO on women volunteers who during the 1960’s were entering employment and dropping volunteering and community :
PDF]Paying the Price of the Failure to retain Legitimacy in a …
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/sacl/centres-and-institutes/cagtr/…/WP47.pdf
by D Sutton – Cited by 1 – Related articles
Legitimacy in a National Charity: the CORSO Story. WORKING PAPER SERIES … Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand ….. 19 September 1979 the government legislated the removal of the tax exempt status of. CORSO …l
Also
Stakeholders: Government-NGO Partnerships for …
https://books.google.co.nz/books?isbn=1134188463
Ian Smillie, Henny Helmich, Judith Randel – 2013 – Political Science
CORSO, one of New Zealand’s earliest international NGOs, had its charitable status removed in the 1970s for its criticism of government policy,6 and debates …
Britain lobbied UN to whitewash Bahrain police abuses
And Saudi Arabia is presently on the UN Human Rights Council.
Good to know that anti 1080 protesters are no longer implicated in this – it always seemed far fetched to me.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/77128851/man-guilty-of-1080-blackmail-plot-named-as-inventor-of-rival-poison-jeremy-kerr
So the culprit was a white male Baby Boomer who did it for personal gain? Wow, never seen one of those before.
The culprit was a selfish arsehole, his age and sex are incidental (though the sense of entitlement may be linked to his perceived privilege).
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/373955/man-behind-milk-formula-scare-named
When you’re willing to defraud your own sick mother (he’s 60 and has power of attorney, so I imagine that she’s in a nursing home), then threatening the health of stranger’s babies isn’t that big a step, I guess. From Marty’s link:
I almost hope that he was a meth-head, as that’d almost go one some way to explaining (not excusing) this pattern of behaviour (agitation, impulsiveness, increasing need for large amounts of money). It’s better than believing that someone could become this much of an loathsome creep naturally.
I personally hope he gets the maximum sentence thrown at him for this
margarine “So the culprit was a white male Baby Boomer who did it for personal gain? Wow, never seen one of those before.”
Straight from the annals of kiwiblog (just switch a few bigotries) ….
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/the-funding-cut-is-a-myth-john-key-happy-with-levels-of-post-quake-mental-health-for-christchurch
[note – this unit is unable to sum up in words the rage they feel at this bullshit]
How come I often can’t open some pages on this site recently?
The latest one that won’t open for me is “General Lord Dannatt: UK should work with Assad in Syria”.
I’m running Windows 7. The page won’t open in Google Chrome, Firefox or Internet Exporer.
I just flipped over to that post. Works fine. (Windows 7 and chrome)
That’s odd. It’s still not working for me Bill.
I’ve been having this problem with certain post pages on The Standard for a few weeks now. All I get is a red flag icon up in the chrome tab (instead of the usual grey square icon) and a blank page. Clicking on any comments for that page in the right hand Comments list also doesn’t open the page.
Only happens with certain pages: others open fine. Strange. Wonder if something in my browser settings needs changing. I mostly use chrome.
Edit: Hang on, now it’s opening. It didn’t 3 or 4 minutes ago. I haven’t changed anything in my browser settings. Weird.
Similar problem recently on two different computers. Opera 12. Quite random. Refreshing doesn’t help.
Tried windows 7 with Chrome.48 and Internet Explorer.11, both logged in and logged out. I don’t have any problems apart from more lagginess than I’d like.
On pages that fail to load, try Shift+f5 or Shift+refresh to see if you can clear any local browser cache.
Also what is your ISP? It could be that they are caching pages badly. When I get home I’ll have a peek at the logs for any page errors. But I haven’t seen any for previous people reporting something similar.
Cheers Lynn. My ISP’s Spark. Using a standard ADSL wireless connection. Seems odd it’s only some pages that are affected.
What is odder is that only some people appear to be getting the problem and there is no particular pattern to what they are using at the client end.
It sounds like a caching problem – but pretty difficult to see where it is from.
For instance my cellphone runs spark. So I ran a test the weekend before last for windows7 + cell spark looking for a ISP caching. Didn’t see any.
BTW: There were no particular page errors yesterday at around 3pm.
I started experiencing similar problems maybe six weeks ago. Various TS pages wouldn’t load but later that day it would be OK. It has now become worse in that on some machines the home page will never load, a blank white screen occurs.
It has consistently only affected some machines/OS’s.
e.g. I’m writing this in Firefox 44.0.2 on a Win XP machine which suffers the problem. Pasting the url for this open mike works OK but I cannot get to the home page.
The same applies to Chrome 48.0.2564.116m & IE 8 (tried that for laughs).
This machine can also boot to Linux Mint 17 32 bit and everything works fine using the current latest Firefox.
Another machine running Mint 17 64 bit & FF does have the problem, as does another running Win7 using FF, Chrome or IE11.
There’s a few other XP machines here running FF that seem OK.
I’m not experiencing anything similar on other sites.
Looking at the blank home page using this machine the page source looks like
1
2
3
That’s all, no actual content.
Page info says the render mode is quirks mode and the size is 24 bytes, it loads very fast, no lagginess 🙂
Originally it showed it was modified on 16 Feb, ctrl F5 brought it up to date although I think I have tried to view the page several times since then.
There’s no button for ‘Media’ or ‘Feeds’ and no metatags listed.
This open mike page shows render mode as Standards compliance mode.
I’m connected via vodafone on the ex TC cable network in Wgton.
HTH
What is odder is that only some people appear to be getting the problem and there is no particular pattern to what they are using at the client end.
It sounds like a caching problem – but pretty difficult to see where it is from.
For instance my cellphone runs spark. So I ran a test the weekend before last for windows7 + cell spark looking for a ISP caching. Didn’t see any.
BTW: There were no particular page errors yesterday at around 3pm.
Try this in Chrome if you are game.
Right click on failed page & inspect.
At top of inspector, click on network.
Click on preserve log in options at the top of the inspector.
Click on filled dot on left at top left of inspector to put it into record mode.
Press F5 on page
After the page has loaded, scroll to the top and have a look at the load. The primary page is the URL. The Size column says if it loaded from cache. It shouldn’t for any post page. Most of the images etc should come from your local cache.
In the status column 200 means that it was ok or local cache. 304 means that the local cached version was ok and to use that. (failed) says that it couldn’t get it
It is weird. I can’t see a way to save that log and to pass it back to me. That seems odd.
Anyone know how to extract that log?
https://developer.chrome.com/devtools/docs/network
Ah – right click in the network pane and save as a har file. Send it to my email in Contacts.
When democratic checks are blocked, the media knee capped and manipulation of the system rife then the electorate has no alternative….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/77147819/heckler-pours-brown-substance-on-gerry-brownlee-at-quake-service–reports
…the lesson it would be wise for the government and its facilitators to take from these actions is ample in history
3.25 snap!
you called it first…lol
and he was doing an interview when someone yelled out “you suck, Brownlee”.
The thing I don’t get about all the booing and dildo-chucking that’s been happening lately is that it means that either the polls or wrong, or that the polls are correct but the marginalised are becoming more restless.
The latter is the option that bodes particularly badly for NZ, imo.
believe it is more the later….though the polls are suspect imo
I think the polls are reflecting the self satisfaction of the polled (those who have homes and can afford landlines) and they are doing ok at the moment because their house prices are going up. That is about as far ahead as most think imo. The polls won’t change much until the bubble bursts, and the sheeple suddenly wake up and find that they are in a bit of strife!
The restlessness however on the extremities is growing. Those who have been left out of the “economic miracle” that John Key has provided are growing angry that their cries for justice are never heard. I’m not sure we are are back to 1793 as McF alludes to below – but the conditions are growing by the day.
This. A direct result of the current government’s anti-social policy platform is the growth in inequality, the marginalisation of the vulnerable, the polarisation of the people and the sending of them to the extremes.
The value in the increase in booing etc isn’t that it will shift this or that poll, but that it is building a movement of resistance and protest. At this stage, the polls are irrelevant to that.
I think the value in the raised awareness of protestors is that the general public may start to wonder, why are people protesting? why are they so angry? why is there so much unrest? It begins to sow some seeds of political doubt for them, at least that’s a good theory anyway.
“The thing I don’t get about all the booing and dildo-chucking that’s been happening lately is that it means that either the polls or wrong, or that the polls are correct but the marginalised are becoming more restless.”
I was wondering about that too. My assumption was that it’s the quiets ones you gotta watch out for, that seem to be growing louder, the marginalised restless as you say – February’s activities wouldn’t have happened even a couple of years ago.
weka makes a good point at 18.2.2, about building a movement of resistance, and how the polls are irrelevant to that at the moment.
The more that people react to the government at public events, the more courage that gives to those that would never dream to speak up. I hope one day there will come a time when we reach a tipping point and our government becomes widely condemned.
Why is disdain and a “fuck you” attitude towards them’s that would presume to be our betters a bad thing?
Nothing, in of itself.
When it’s not reflected in the polls, it means that a chunk or the population are being shafted and the regular democratic safety valve isn’t kicking in to give representation to those who have been marginalised.
It might not lead to 1793 all over again, but it does increase the odds of a nutter throwing something other than dildos.
Hmm. So you’d favour the state extending its influence and in the process consolidating a sense of legitimacy? (Or something like that.) Y’see, I think that’s the bad thing, but hey…
um – no?
Just that if people A) are getting increasingly pissed off and B) see no way of getting their voice heard in current democratic institutions, then the odds that someone will think they need to yell really loudly, and with violence, also increases.
Or the other odds – that current illiberal institutions are simply given the long finger as people organise beyond the sphere of influence those institutions have – or simply deny the institutions any efficacy in daily life.
In effect, a bit like the day the passing KGB started to be stared down instead of scurried away from.
I think violence is usually the exception and the myth that it’s the ‘go to’ position of any revolutionary process a nice control measure.
Yet more odds to consider are those for reformists refusing to merely settle for whatever has been conceded, but always formulating immediate new demands off the back of the old ones.
Maybe there are odds for the stuff in the preceding paragraph being a necessary pre-condition to the stuff of the first paragraph as opposed to both lots of stuff proceeding simultaneously or in tandem?
dunno. Been a long day, me brain is fried. Whiskey time soon 🙂
Lucky bugger. What’s the odds of it being whisky?
Sadly, it is 😛
1793 is always closer than anyone thinks….particularly those with the arrogance to indulge in the manipulation….there is a fine line between control and out of…..
Has February been one of NZ’s most active months for protest since dear leader took charge?
There are a wide range of sectors within society expressing feelings of all round shitiness and dissatisfaction with Key personally and the govt in general.
4th Feb: Massive turnout for TPPA signing protest, estimates of 15,000 with roads blocked for several hours.
5th Feb: Awesome lady, Josie Butler, throws a dildo at Steven Joyce at Waitangi, causing an outbreak of international hilarity.
6th Feb: Key booed loudly by the crowd at Auckland Nine’s Rugby League
14th Feb Key booed loudly again by the crowd at the Big Gay Out for 3 minutes solid and only gets 20 seconds into a speech before he has to abandon the stage.
21st Feb. A large crowd gather in Cathedral Square Christchurch to protest their treatment by EQC and insurance companies. Key and Brownlee target of anger and frustration.
And now today, Brownlee gets mud thrown at him during remembrance ceremony for Christchurch:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/297150/something-thrown-at-brownlee-at-service
Mud, dildo’s, boo’s. Looks like our government is in the poo’s.
Clocks’ ticking PM……………
Gifting the next election to National.
Gifting the next election to National.
On a plate.
Um yeah, righto…………….. 🙄
Awesome, Rosie.
Video here. He got heckled earlier too.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/brownlee-bewildered-by-heckler-after-memorial-2016022214
As opposed to the link ‘header’ “Brownlee bewildered by heckler”, I’m bewildered by the show of mateyness that was on display. Seriously wondering wtf that’s about.
Mateyness on display by who?
The consolatory pat on the back for Brownlie from an opposition party leader.
Good grief. At least he’s a kind man, I suppose that counts for a bit.
It actually shows Little is a decent, caring human being.
I absolutely loathe Brownlee but this was not the time or place to throw shit all over him. It was a memorial service for people who had lost loved ones in the earthquake. Maybe some here should remember that.
There is never a wrong time or place for a message well deserved and delivered.
Bad form to throw shit at a fucker who actioned decisions that he knew would entail misery and/or death and who then has the gall to turn up at a memorial event…. why?
If you can’t see that a memorial event wasn’t an appropriate place to do this then I can’t help you.
I don’t need help Karen, but thanks anyway.
In a sane world Brownlee would have been barred from being there. His attendance, and that of other government ministers, was insulting and grossly inappropriate on a number of levels with regard to people both living and dead.
It’s possible that the man knew it was inappropriate, but was desperate. Being able to work within what is socially acceptable is a position of privilege, that’s the whole point, there are too many people who are being denied this privilege now. Something is going to break.
Is it “appropriate” for Gerry Brownlee to attend managed and celebratory events for the earthquake – while being able to avoid meaningful discussion and action for those still hurting?
This event – in that respect – is an appropriate time for those who have been marginalised, ignored and forgotten to show their disgust.
I feel some discomfort for Brownlee, but the immediate sympathy and concern shown for him is decidedly lacking in his role for reconstruction and others who have suffered far more, and for five long years.
I’m with you Bill.
We can’t judge those whose level of suffering we know nothing of. Are we meant to be behave like the Victorians and be polite and silent under avoidable duress? Such pain can’t always draw at line at societal protocols.
Brownlee can handle it. These guys look like they’re going to have get more used to this kind of reaction. They do not deserve our sympathy, or our concern about the correct actions in time and place.
Disappointing to see Little give Brownlee a consoling pat on the shoulder, which Brownlee barely acknowledged, being the arrogant fucker that he is. By doing this Little shows he is supporting those who have privilege and power, over and above those who have been shafted.
That last sentence you write was my immediate gut reaction to what I was seeing.
I think this may be the first time I have ever disagreed with you Rosie, but you seem to have missed the fact that it was a memorial service for those who had died. I don’t care how much shit gets thrown at Brownlee when he is at other events but this was a service attended by people who are still grieving. They are the ones I care about.
As for Little his was a spontaneous response to a person who had been attacked – whether Brownlee deserved to be attacked or not is not the point. Personally, I’d rather have someone in charge with whose immediate instinct when the person next to them is attacked is one of empathy than someone who jeers because it happened to an enemy.
I want a caring society.
Hi Karen.
Yes I’m aware it was a memorial service. What I gather from reports on RNZ, stuffed, and newshurb, the arrested man threw the mud/matter at a time shortly after Brownlee and Little were speaking to one another. This indicates that either the memorial service was over or at least it wasn’t during the time that the names of the 185 dead were being read out.
I can’t speak for the people attending the ceremony, and what they may have felt. I’m sure it would have upset a few people. Others may have felt supportive towards the man who took the action.
I also can’t speak for the Cantabrians so incredibly let down by this government post 22.02.11. From where I’m sitting I can only be astonished at the level of abandonment. So that is why I empathise with a person who has reached breaking point and reacts.
When we think of grief, collective grief in the case of the ceremony, we know that feeling doesn’t exist in isolation. Depending on the circumstances there may also be anger, hurt, frustration, resentment and fear. All these emotions are part of grief. I think it is natural that it was expressed yesterday despite our social protocols and expectations that dictate that it shouldn’t. These protocols exist to keep order and harmony in society but in extreme circumstances these invisible walls have to come down – theres only so much they can hold.
No I wouldn’t expect Little to “jeer at the enemy either”. But I wouldn’t expect him to support a bully.
I want a caring society too. I have a feeling that the man who threw the mud is reacting to the fact that we have become an uncaring and compassionless society (see my comments on yesterdays post on 22.02.11) It’s not for us to judge if he expresses himself in an impolite way.
Hi Rosie. I am not saying that the man who did this was not justified in despising Brownlee and wanting to humiliate him. I am questioning the timing of this action at a memorial service. It may have been at the end of the service but that would still have had an impact on the other people who had lost loved ones. I do know about grief – I have had my own share of it.
I also took issue with this:
“By doing this Little shows he is supporting those who have privilege and power, over and above those who have been shafted.”
I don’t think this is a fair assessment, but we shall just have to agree to disagree
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Christchurch-5-years-on—Brown-substance-thrown-at-Gerry-Brownlee/tabid/506/articleID/113568/Default.aspx
Weka
It looked like Andrew Little patted Brownlee on the back after the code brown incident. I had to watch it a second time to pick up on that myself. I can see why Bill might see that as bewildering mateyness. I think it might be seen by many as classiness, in an attack the errors not the person kind of way. Provided, of course, that Little did use the occasion to criticise the many shortcomings in Brownlee’s handling of the Christchurch rebuild.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/politics/373983/muck-tipped-over-minister
I think it’s pretty clear to most people what the “man’s grip was”.
Shub have updated their page and are now allowing Brownlee to suggest that the man has mental health problems alongside reporting that he’s been arrested and will appear in court.
Direct action protest is certainly on the increase and the National party must surely be polling their hearts out in order to find out why.
Lots of protest action is evidence of a unhappy society. John Key’s government is responsible for this.
So someone covered Brownlee with smelly brown stuff. Better than getting shot like some have had overseas. No harm done to him. It was not the right thing to do on this particular day, but I find it puzzling that anyone noticed any difference? There is always a stench about Brownlee when he is in Christchurch pushing his weight around and bullying so many!
+100 Hami Shearlie
Question: So why are European leaders scared to ask the real questions as to the causes of the refugee crisis?
Answer: Because they helped create the refugee crisis in the first place?
‘Human tidal wave’
https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/332964-refugee-crisis-record-numbers/
“Europe’s migration/refugee crisis is expected to match or even exceed last year’s record numbers. Much of the discussion on what to do centers on the cost of resettlement and whether EU member countries should accept quotas. But why are so many migrants and/or refugees leaving their home countries? And what about the question of culture?
CrossTalking with Chris Bambery, Sukant Chandan, and Catherine Shakdam.”
‘EU ‘cannot handle’ another year of refugees pouring into Europe – Danish PM’
https://www.rt.com/news/333035-europe-refugee-crisis-denmark/
20/obama-admins-tpp-trade-officials-received-hefty-bonuses-from-big-banks/#.VsqSyOieGyo.facebook
Obama Admin’s TPP Trade Officials Received Hefty Bonuses From Big Banks
February 20, 2014
by Lee Fang
This post first appeared at Republic Report.
US Trade Representative Michael Froman attends a leaders’ retreat during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Bali, Indonesia, Oct. 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, Pool)
Officials tapped by the Obama administration to lead the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations have received multimillion dollar bonuses from CitiGroup and Bank of America, financial disclosures obtained by Republic Report show.
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So – why would the big banks pay USA officials negotiating the TPPA multi-million dollar bonuses?
Whose interests are being served?
Follow the dollar ……?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.