I work part time and at weekends, but don’t mind that. But do we need as many people working weekends, and is it destroying family and community life? I don’t have children, but it must be hard for parents of young children to need to work weekends. In fact, one of the weekend cleaners at my workplace has said things to that effect.
And when Monday to Friday workers complain about losing a public holiday every few years, do they realise many people never get the Monday public holidays and welcome the years a public holiday falls at a weekend?
More than a third of workers work their “normal hours” outside the standard 7am-7pm, Monday to Friday time frame, Statistics New Zealand figures reveal, and 20 per cent of our workforce works more than 50 hours a week.
Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said: “I think for thousands of workers the weekend is just nonexistent and has been for some time. Not only is the weekend becoming working time, but hours are so irregular that workers don’t even have replacement days. It’s not like they are working Tuesday to Saturday and having Sunday and Monday off. They are rostered on any time, any place.”
And this change to a 7 day business week has come from businesses that want to increase their profits. Do we really need 7 day shopping, when many places in Europe manage quite well with shops closing on Sundays?
Totally agree with your comment, pity those who allow laws to be made forgot about the voter and what is best for the country. But I am sure that those who supported the Mondanising of ANZAC and Waitangi Days didn’t give a second thought to the group you are part of Carol. I am still surprised that no-one has commented why Labour is supporting the extension of consumerism and big business to the extent that we will have shops open 364 of the 365 day p.a..and I am waiting for someone to question why Christmas day should be the exception?
As can be seen by this post many here could not care about the damage done by Labour to the worker, all they seem to have in mind is the damage National causes and too bad about the collateral damage that was caused by Labour governments
Labour lurched to the right and accepted the Monetarist economic theory in the 1970s despite the fact that they first came to power when the previous implementation of such a theory collapsed.
Hi Carol,
I’ve just read the stuff article you posted and have popped over here to see if there was any one talking about it- and you are!
I think our obsessive consumerism is ulitmately damaging for society, and fully agree with the points and observations in this article. I’ve worked in retail off and on through my life, starting out in 1989 prior to the ECA coming into effect and the subsequent scrapping of penal rates, among many other reductions in working conditions. I remember if you had to work the odd Saturday morning you got double pay. It was time and half on Friday night. Eventually things changed to what they are now. My last job was a fall back position in retail. The recession came and I couldn’t use my tertiary qual I had recently obtained. I worked every Saturday for two years and it was so depressing on top of everything else that was wrong with working there.
Ironically I had written an essay for one of my papers, on the topic on deteriorating work life balance and its effect on psychological well being, using the NZ example and comparing with differing employment legislation and experience in other industralised countries. Guess what, NZ came out on the bottom in regard to long hours worked and stress related illness. The worst affected groups worked in service: retail, hospitality and caregiving.
The profit at any cost mentality we have in NZ is so damaging in so many ways, to so many sectors of society and the labour market is no exception. It would be great to see more media discussion about this.
No PG, it’s not voluntary. When people don’t have enough to eat and can’t cover the bills then they’re willing to work long hours for SFA – exactly as planned by the neo-liberals.
Very profound.
Of course, if penal rates were mandatory on the weekend, the cause of your handwringing would be solved for the weekend. And workers would be better off.
Pete you have been showing signs of trying to understand of late, but this you do not comprehend.
Marketing and advertising are based on the long term studies of human nature, and psychology plays a huge part in the campaigns, which have rendered the average person into a dribbling moronic, consumer. The advertsing is part if the wider attack on society, the family, the individual. You name it, its being attacked!
While I agree with you that the resposibility lies with the end user, their ability to critically understand what has been happening to them, has been removed.
The techniques too advanced, and the systems attacking the spirit at every turn, has lead to societal misery, and rampant consumerism is a symptom, and much of the related debt.
For evey excessive marketer (that continues) there’s a willing market.
Often “willing” markets opened up by coercion, force and threat. Yeah, that’s real willing.
Also those who prey on human weaknesses – pokie machines being the classic example of highly specialist designed interactions constructed to be physiologically addictive.
Remember, everyone, you live in a vacuum completely bereft of societal messages about wealth, value, deriving satisfaction in material objects! You are not constantly bombarded with advertisements inventing issues which their products will solve! You are not being told on a daily basis that if you don’t eat this, use this, own this, you are stupid/uncool/damaging your children/ruining your own life!
To be fair, Pete has never let his fundamental unpopularity affect his decisions. His lack of electoral support was spectacular, but he still believes he knows what “the people” want. He is told daily that he’s a jerk, and the point hasn’t sunk in yet. So he can’t see why anyone else would be different.
I don’t care about being called a jerk here, especially when you see who calls me one. Abuse makes a very poor argument.
I get different feedback in different forums – some of them refer to here as full of jerks and wonder why I bother commenting here. Do you think that will sink in? I doubt any one will care either.
I actually got some very positive feedback in the electorate for my main focus, including from all four eventual Dunedin baseed MP’s (on record in local newspapers). And what I went into the election campaign for is still progressing here.
And you might be surprised who I got positive feedback from today – from someone who played a significant role in Green campaigning, we’re on a similar wavelength on a very interesting project and may combine our efforts. People prepared to put ideologies aside and work collabaritively.
What I do here is a relatively minor part of what I’m doing.
I’m well aware of the persuasiveness of pervasiveness of marketing. But it can’t be banned, and cannot be easily controlled by regulation. The best way to beat it is by playing them at their own game, social marketing. Either that or just accept that sheep will be always be sheep, and the marketing shepherds will keep convincing them of all the things they don’t really need.
So … you understand marketing is persuasive, but still want to call people “sheep”. Another fine chapter in the Pete George Manifesto Of Knowing Better Than You, Youngsters.
The lecturers at my sales & marketing courses had a name for people like you Pete. Profit. The easiest people to con are those who think they can’t be conned. They look at everyone else as sheep & don’t even notice their own fleece has been shorn.
The Fair Trading Act is a good law to control deceptive marketing, it just doesn’t get enforced enough.
Critical thinking of consumer economics and marketing really needs to be taught as a high school staple, it really is a valuable life skill. I never recall being taught anything remotely relevant to it during my stint in the education system. If anything it was the opposite, they were teaching ways to make a living out of the consumerist status quo.
My education on critical thought of the topic came from the good old university of Real Life. I was fortunate enough to spend some time living on a tight budget in the UK when I was younger doing my OE. It taught me there was much more to life than what the TV told me I wanted to buy. I learned a real appreciation for not frittering away hard earned money on consumer marketed junk. I don’t even own a TV now, I’ll catch a very small selection of tv shows on-demand and that’s it, and I skip all the ads.
As far as I’m concerned if a company has to advertise it’s product, you probably don’t need it. When I buy stuff, I start with MY opinion of what I need, then research to find out what is most suitable/ethical (e.g. free range animal products) solution. Often I may not even buy something if I can make/recycle/repair/improvise something myself. Even buying something second hand, no shame in that, it’s better than a perfectly functional product it ending up in the tip. I am a big fan of trademe & local markets for that very reason.
Yes, the ‘messages’ are important influences but I think the importance of the way things are organised, the structures of daily life are often overlooked as mechanisms to encourage consumerism and eliminate alternatives.
For example, time pressure makes malls appear like convenient ways of purchasing different kinds of goods all in one place. But, then, once you’re in the mall the psychological engineering kicks in. The structures of modern life, that is, serve us all up (soften us all up?) for the messages.
I started my working life in retail back in the days when we had a Thursday or Friday late night. I got up to management level & then they brought in Saturday trading. I’d work a 12hr day Friday & then 9-12 Saturday, it put a crimp in the social life. Then it went to 9-3pm Saturday and that’s when I quit the trade, got too much.
Retail trading hours are bad for the family and social life, I’d be happy to see Sunday trading disappear so everyone can have a break. It’s not as if retail turnover would be affected, same amount of money would still be spent it would just be spent in six days instead of seven.
Can’t see it changing though, consumers have gotten too used to the convenience of all-weekend & evening shopping.
Ratings time must be due in radioland. Michael Laws at his attention seeking best (or worst):
Stop feckless mums having more kids
One of the great moral disasters of our time is that our society lets inadequate people have children. In fact, it doesn’t just allow the pathetic to become parents, it positively encourages it.
Prevent bad parents in advance by sterilising them, pay them not to breed. Heard it all before. It’s sure to stir up a demographic.
Obvious perhaps, but sometimes obvious things need restating. I don’t much like the idea that we should avoid pointing out obvious [email protected] in our public discourse just because we already know about them.
That could be seen as a tacit – even if unintended – acceptance of such views.
And yep I absorb a fair bit of media, some by choice and some by circumstance. Thankfully Laws is more a case of “occasionally by chance”.
Oh, I do so love to see people outing themselves as misogynists – especially when it’s by out-of-nowhere dropping radical feminism into a conversation about talkback radio.
Well well, the Valerie Solanas wannabe has rocked on up today! Must be a bit lonely over there on your blog, averaging about 2 comments an article, and they usually your own comments, lol.
Oh, I’m so wounded! A Valerie Solanas comment AND a stab at my readership? If only I didn’t post here on a semi-regular basis, frequently getting 100+ comments on my posts …
You know you still need to actually back up your statements with links, right? I’ve mentioned it a couple of times now, and I am truly excited to know how you’ve deduced felix is a man-hater.
Remarkably for someone who has said so much food for thought, and given so much sheer delight and pleasure with the ritual disembowlings routinely administered … I still have absolutely no clear sense of who he or she is. I don’t even care whether felix is a boy or girl… it’s what is said that matters. And felix has been one of a handful who have shaped The Standard into what it is. The pseudonym tells all you really need to know; playful, dangerously intelligent and has sharp claws.
Nor does has any narrow ‘rad-fem’ agenda ever been apparent. felix contributes on all sorts of threads and topics.
What’s the alternative to being a feminist?
My answer is simple and plain. There is none. The slaver, property-owning patriarchy makes life a misery for most of humanity; male and female. We would all be much better off without it. And our sex lives would be a lot more fun too.
k_p, if you think statements like “we would all be better off without patriarchy” constitute “radical feminism”, you could be in for a rude shock one day.
And in fact not even mainstream here at The Standard. We hardly ever frame discussions in purely ‘radical femminist’ terms as you would have it. For me it’s mostly a private aspect of my life. What I think about, how I see things and what I value is mostly my own business. Except here.
This is a place to say things that are not mainstream, where you can say what you really think and have people respond. Quite often you aren’t going to like the response; but it’s real and sometimes, quite often, you learn stuff.
As a white middle-aged male I came quite late in life to how I think about ‘feminism’. A few years ago I’d been saying much the same line you are right now k_p. I’m not in a mood right now to reprise everything that changed my mind; but has been a real collection of ideas from numerous sources; many of them more related to behavioural evolution and epigenetics than any exposure to a ‘radical feminist’ agenda you are so contemptuous of.
In fact I’m utterly innocent of having read ANY serious feminist material whatsoever.
I’ve really arrived at my own understanding from a completely different direction, equally as much to do with how badly the patriarchy servers MOST men, as it also fundamentally shapes world into a place most women feel it unsafe to be their real selves.
But carry on with the contempt and sneering if you want. Don’t imagine for an instant it will impress anyone. We’ve seen it all before.
Yeah, but we’re sneering and contemptuous towards people who make hilarious statements like “felix is a radical feminist” and who think adding “BS” to a person’s screenname constitutes an argument.
You still haven’t backed up any of your statements. Ours just requires a person to scroll up, read your “contributions”, and join in the sniggering.
Well for one I respect felix for having the stomach to listen to Laws. Frankly I’d just get too angry and finish up breaking too many radios.
But someone has to speak up against the evil this man is spewing. Sure he may be running as a ‘shock jock’ and only a minority might put their hands up to support what he is saying. But it normalises and desensitises us to something that is fundamentally wrong.
All people have the fundamental right to have children. Laws does not get to set some entirely arbitrary standard on who gets to reproduce and who does not.
Promoting compulsory sterilisation is pure facist evil. Of the most egregious kind.
Free speech is not the same as being free to say anything you like and Laws has stepped well over the boundary with this.
felix is permanently in a rage – oscillating between full blown and barely supressed – after all she is a rad fem. So listening to Laws all day would have no discernible effect on her mood.
Yes I agree the media needs cleaning up – Laws, Henry, Holmes et al. A result of a generation of neoliberal policy.
I know politics makes for strange bed mates but felix is a false friend, those misanthropists are losers.
Nope. You have been here five minutes k_p; felix I’ve been reading for over five years. In that time you may not ever know who a commenter is in real life, but you do get a real sense of their soul.
I’d suggest you’ve leapt to a wrong conclusion based on limited evidence. To put it politely.
I’d suggest k_p thinks that laying down the “you’re a radical feminist!” smackdown is somehow a killer silencing move. Further evidence to support the notion that k_p hasn’t known felix very long.
I like felix, whose gender identity I am ignorant of. And you’re funny, and if you’d been here longer than 10 minutes you’d know how I like to poke the funny ones.
To be honest, I haven’t seen anything from you that is worth reading. You don’t argue, just state baseless ‘facts’ as if that wins the argument and then go all ad hominem when called on it.
Eugenics and misogyny on the same page – he’s getting more efficient at this, isn’t he? Apparently women have these babies by themselves. Happy to read that you don’t support that tripe, Pete.
Absolutely cutting critique of the debacle that is the F1 in Bahrain this weekend.
…As for the Mr Kurtz of Formula One, it is almost touching to watch Britain’s plucky politicians cower from criticising Ecclestone with any bite. Perhaps it feels a little too soon for Labour, who may remember the time when his £1m donation caused such a stink, but fortunately didn’t do such lasting damage to Tony Blair that he wasn’t able to spend a decade schmoozing Colonel Gaddafi and Hosni Mubarak and other much-missed Middle East faces…
Even looked at from the Bahraini side, Yates seems an eccentric hire. There are only two tenuously sane explanations for his appointment. The first is that the Bahraini king was only in possession of outdated news cuttings, and imagined he was hiring the heroic Yates of the Yard of popular newspaper lore circa 2008. (You may since have developed suspicions as to why he was so popular with certain of those papers.) The second explanation is that the king is secretly a self-saboteur who wishes to be overthrown by protesters. Because the thing about Yates of the Yard, as closer students of his oeuvre will have noted, is that he never gets his man. I’m sure he’ll have binbags of evidence of people plotting against the king, and will spend at least 20 minutes deciding that there’s nothing to see here.
F1 just seems like a relic of a passing era of excess and loud impractical objects being hurtled around a track for the pleasure of uber geeks, the rich and famous and TV.
Serious racing allows passing and driver skill determining the outcome not he who has the best technology. They keep altering the rules to make it sort of competitive but as Melbourne have found out at 50 mill p.a. to host it ain’t worth it so Berne has to cuddle up to the oil barons unless he wants a much reduced calendar.
Is that how you see it?
The driver was 14, and I understand that he was known to the police who were chasing the vehicle when it left the road, as were all the youths in the car.
The police opened fire on the passengers. Hard to see how that was in the interest of public safety. Hard to imagine a similar scenario involving euro-aussie youth.
And had just run over and hospitalised a woman on the footpath.
The police opened fire on the passengers.
No, they opened fire on the car. And, no, I don’t have any sympathy for the passengers either.
Hard to imagine a similar scenario involving euro-aussie youth.
The charge of racism may be accurate but then the police did have to stop them and they didn’t have a lot of choice on how. What did you expect them to do? Stand in front of the car, hand up yelling stop perhaps?
Far from homicidal rage, kids in this situation (and even adults) are usually operating out of blind panic.
How exactly does shooting the driver stop the car, or get it back on the road in this situation anyway? What could be achieved other than even more death and injury?
Need more info than I’ve been able to find, obviously.
But 14 Draco. And the the cops knew he was a terrified kid.
You severely injure or kill the driver so that the driver can no longer actively and effectively operate the vehicle.
But 14 Draco. And the the cops knew he was a terrified kid.
Being 14 and terrified does not make a car driven into a crowded footpath any less of a lethal weapon. Remember in NZ, a 14 year old is considered responsible and mature enough to look after young children in the home.
You severely injure or kill the driver so that the driver can no longer actively and effectively operate the vehicle
So you mean you hope he can no longer press the accelerator? Doesn’t stop the car or get it onto the road. Maybe, seeing as the kid was fleeing from the cops, backing the fuck off might have been a more effective strategy.
…14 year old is considered responsible and mature enough to look after young children in the home. And that is the only “adult” privilege a 14 year old is allowed. Can’t drink, drive, have sex, vote, gamble, smoke, leave school…….. but can be shot down like an animal with no obvious advantage to the pedestrians in danger.
Were you an adult at 14 CV?
I sure as hell wasn’t.
I have a real simple rule, which boils down to not fucking off people with firearms.
I’m pretty sure I had that rule when I was 14 as well, having been young in countries where it was routine for law enforcement and security guards to pack heat.
Were you an adult at 14 CV?
I sure as hell wasn’t.
At 14 years of age I also knew that it was best to follow police instructions. Didn’t you? Even though you weren’t legally an “adult” yet?
My view of it from the TV3 news clip was the same, looked like a deliberate execution,
The car obviously was not in gear and was stationary when the shots were fired through the windscreen,
the drivers foot went down on the gas pedal and stayed that way with the car revving like hell after He,(the driver), had been shot twice,the car wasn’t moving despite all the revving…
Don’t know about the ‘trouble’ bit for the Oz plods, justification for such shootings are usually found, much like the shootings on the Auckland motorway were ‘found’ to be justified,
The plod with all the braid and silverware shown on the TV3 news clip made mention that the cars occupants had been involved in previous armo’s and it will be interesting to see if anyone in the car was carrying firearms…
And let’s also remember that the drivers ran down a 29 year old woman who suffered significant chest injuries when pinned under the vehicle.
I saw a real stupid incident on the roads tonight, involving a couple of quite young, drunk guys. A serious life threatening accident accident could have been caused if things had happened just a bit differently.
Both children and parents need to remember their responsibilities to each other and to society.
Crazy kids,better throw the lot of them in Borstal, ya never know there might be A John A lee among them some place,
Can’t see any justification tho in blowing the kid away for hitting the woman,summary justice is the thing of B grade cowboy movies and such should stay firmly in that realm,
In a heavily armed society the plod that pulled the trigger is making it just that much little more likely that a month down the road some crazy kid is going to unload a full magazine into one of his fellow officers on some routine traffic stop…
What a bunch of self pleasurers the once mighty F1 lot have become, the ‘pique’ of mega millions professional sport, this is where it ends up. Empty stands while the streets are full of locals and immigrant workers battling the state for basic rights.
Why don’t they retire the whole circus and just make it virtual for those that must watch these robotic spoilt tax exiles.
Sad to hear of the death of John Haigh. While it would be fair to say he made his living as a QC advising the wealthy, as a younger lawyer, he was tireless in his support of workers and their unions, as his father Frank had been before him. Saved my arse a couple of times, for sure!
John did great work for unions and union members with often tricky injuctions etc in the 80s to early 90s. I only looked askance at his later clients when they started including the odd bent copper. But you have to be guided by his peers regard, the best of lawyers take on the most appalling of customers.
For all we love to bag Granny Herald, and for all the times its reaction and lack of real depth in understanding how the neoliberal reforms are continuing to polarise Auckland (and the rest of the country) into the haves and have nots, there are times and certain kinds of issues when the Herald does its job of being the Auckland civic watchdog very well indeed.
Other articles dig into the issue from other angles: questioning losing a theatre space, actual jobs created, etc.
And they learn, because they work a local beat: Brian Rudman got off to an awful start with his articles on light rail (called something like “Last chance to stop the trains”) arguing the need to vote John Banks in ahead of Christine Fletcher, whose responsibility in dealing with Auckland’s actual problems had turned her into some kind of public transport convert. Now, Brian is the most cogent voice on many aspects of civic development NZ has.
Simon Collins is the only senior journalist we have who writes from a really informed position about social policy. He knows policy detail, he weighs things, he knows real people who are who are involved with eg the benefit system, he does the research, he provokes and grounds debate in this area better than anyone else in the mainstream media.
Yes, I expect to be quoted on this Herald- liking when the worm turns next time: but compared to the Dom Post (whose editorial team often seem convinced they have the inside line/ wisdom of Prometheus, but are often wrong and reactionary with it), I would say that Herald’s editorial folk are more than capable of some useful civic voice.
You are politically illiterate and or trolling k_p, Bernard Hickey only began to seriously critique the ‘banksters’ in recent times after they (finance capital) almost crashed the world economy in 2008.
I have known Bernard since he was a young boy .We are friends of his family and he was a close friend of our son. However his politics even then was very Right-wing.He has certainly mellowed but I think underneath he is still National inclined.
David – while it is refreshing to see something resembling ‘useful civic voice’ from the Herald editorial it is far from being hook free. Take the following passage for example:
“The liquor and gambling industries thrive at our well-documented social cost.”
True.
“Their expensively contrived advertising imagery depicts both as part of a vibrant and happy social life – which of course they are; plenty of people gain great pleasure and do minimal harm to themselves or anyone else by participating in such pursuits.”
Hang on a minute – this kind of contradicts the previous sentence, or at least makes light of the ‘cost’ – and how? By referring to ‘plenty of people’ – I don’t want to get into a stat battle here but the MOH has this to say:
“The Ministry of Health estimates 25 percent of New Zealand drinkers aged between 12-65 years are heavy drinkers, consuming large amounts of alcohol on a typical drinking occasion. Other estimates have put the number of Kiwis binge drinking at over 50 percent.”
And when it comes to gambling the figures are worse – approx 10% of the population are regular continuous gamblers – the kind most at risk from addiction, and 60% of these are likely to develop a gambling problem in their lifetime.
So actually quite a lot of people potentially have a problem with drinking and over half of those who gamble regularly will have a problem with that too – not something to be lightly dismissed by claiming that they are part of a ‘vibrant and happy social life’
As for the Heralds regurgitated “show us the money” the whole point is that its not about the bloody money – sure the fact that the convention centre business case does not stack up financially is relevant, but the catchphrase was nauseating the first time, and no better now. We deserve better than one liners from old Tom Cruise films from the writers of editorials in our newspapers.
todays msn poll is should marijuana be decriminalised and the answer should be yes.
dope has caused more troubl ein this country than it ihas been worth.
the bluenoses, the bumblers and the authoritarians have had a field day
as soon as it is legalised and made the concern of the community and allotted an appropriate place the better.
as it stands it wastes police time, and confuses people about the evils of real drugs like coke and smack and speed not to mention alcohol and tobacco.
Anyone who has watched Paul Holmes salivating after pop stars and celebrities in the past will not be surprised to see him making a fool of himself as he does here. Over the years, Holmes has debased himself for a galaxy of celebrities, from the mediocre to the sinister, including Dame Kiri, Shania Twain, President Bill Clinton, Peter Jackson, Gordon Ramsay, Alistair Campbell and—perhaps most toe-curlingly awful of all, an extended live on air paean to the Christchurch-based Russian-born songstress Yulia, the closest anyone has ever come, albeit unwittingly, to rendering on screen a letter to Penthouse Forum.
In this interview with Harry and Niall of One Direction, however, Holmes is comparatively restrained. Nevertheless, there is still something here for Holmes-watchers, and connoisseurs of the inane in general. If you have any sense of the absurd, you will appreciate the following gems:
1.) “It’s feet on the ground stuff, isn’t it.”
2.) “Tell Louie I’m working hard here.” (A discomfited Holmes says that when one of the One Direction boys starts to playfully sabotage the interview. He smiles nervously and keeps calm on this occasion, but Holmes-watchers will remember his enraged bawling—“Children, STOP IT, we are trying to WORK here!”—as primary school kids skylarked all around him during a live cross somewhere in the rural North Island on his pisspoor—now defunct—Television One show Holmes.)
3.) “This shouting girls thing, this screaming girls thing: is it hard to cope with?” (This question was written for him by Tony “Boot Boy” Veitch, who has also had to cope with the screaming of women, but in a different context.)
The girls who love One Direction were clearly not impressed by the hate talk legend….
One girl, xMissLexi attracted 26 thumbs up endorsements in just a few hours for this comment: “I swear to god if the interviewer interrupts one more fucking time there are going to be some serious
issues.”
A little while later, one “hannnahspanner” commented…
“I know right, god i hate him for being so RUDE!!!it is embarrassing.”
Don’t know the details and cannot be bothered researching it as I am not that interested, but I understand that they separated about 2 – 3 years ago after 20+ years as a “power couple”, as you described them.
One of Slippery’s bookends, Gerry Brownlee is in news yet again for being the bully boy, this time during a media interview,
Its in the Tories nature when under pressure to turn septic,resort to abuse and then when all else fails retreat into ‘standover’ tactics,
The other bookend, Joyce has been trying to take the heat off of their Slippery master by fronting the ‘casino catastrophe’ on behalf of National over the weekend,and, I wonder if Brownlee’s latest bout of over-projecting His Personality(or lack of such), is simply the tactics of the National Government to divert attention away from the abysmal performance of Slippery doing backroom deals with the card sharps and His pathetically insipid attempts at defending such sleazy deal making…
“I see no real need in putting height restrictions. Nobody’s going to build anything the market doesn’t want and nobody is going to be allowed anything that isn’t structurally very very sound.”
Another gem and own goal by Gerry. Here, at his best in revealing his psychological state of projecting and dumping his hysteria onto others that he needs to address within himself.
“All of your hysteria there won’t change the fact that we asked the Christchurch City Council to come up with a draft plan for the CBD …..”
Good to see Peter Slipper has stood down as speaker of the house in Australia no room for sexual predators in Politics. Going to make it very interesting for Julia Gillard now
That would be too close to home for jturd. He likes to search the word labour on the web and try use results to discredit NZ Labour. Prize fool is james.
Interesting he uses the word predator when just last week he admitted to stalking a EMPU delegate.
Play his silly game and tell him France is likely to have a left-wing Govt in a few days by the looks.
Although the Vioxx scandal certainly did generate several days of newspaper headlines and intermittently returned to the front pages as the resulting lawsuits gradually moved through our judicial system, the coverage still seemed scanty relative to the number of estimated fatalities, which matched America’s total losses in the Vietnam War. In fact, the media coverage often seemed considerably less than that later accorded to the Chinese infant food scandal, which had caused just a handful of deaths on the other side of the world.
In this case protecting the capitalists while condemning the commun1st dictators.
A dirty, dusty, deadly, deceitfull, business marked by bullying, greed, fear, over it all, the dreadful pall of global warming and climate change. In my opinion the price is just to high and this industry must be consigned to the dust bin of history.
…. as a Royal Commission of Inquiry investigates the cause of the tragedy – as well as a raft of issues relating to the mine’s safety procedures, design and the actions of former management – Mudge’s parents have gone public with an aborted plan to have the mine closed down.
Just weeks before the initial explosion at Pike River on November 19, 2010, a group of Pike River miners and contractors – including Mudge – voiced their shared concerns over the mine at a private barbecue.
“They were all talking about safety at Pike River. Stu said something like, ‘The gas levels are terrible, she is going to blow . . . we should be doing something about it’,” Mudge’s mother, Carol Rose, told the Sunday Star-Times.
Stu’s father, Steve Rose, added: “They said, ‘OK, we will do it. We will go in on Monday morning and shut the mine down.’ ”
But the concerned delegation of Pike River miners never made it to the Labour Department.
Steve said that the day following the barbecue, the men realised such a move could end their mining careers. “It was like, ‘S—, we will be blacklisted, we will never get another job in mining, no one will ever touch us,’ ” he said.
“They wanted to do something. But experience had shown them in the mine that people that put their head above the parapet got shot.
“They needed that money to pay the bills. The loss for them would have been considerable if they had got fired.”
Carol said: “They all had mortgages to pay and families to raise. What were they going to do if they raised the flag and were told, ‘On your bike.’ Because that is what happened.
“If anybody challenged [management], that is it, mate, you were down the road.”
Steve said on the “face of it”, working at Pike River was a good deal.
Miners were being reasonably paid, with some being given company shares and offered bonuses.
“Stu saw it as a career path,” he said. “And from the outside looking in, we looked at it and thought, great.”
Seventeen months on from the Pike River disaster, the Roses are honouring their son’s memory with an unflinching resolve to fight for justice.
Whilst having refrained recently from commenting on Pike River while the Royal Commission deliberates on the evidence they have heard I will ask readers to consider this,
Methane when combusted is odorless, 3 witnesses have given evidence to the Pike River Royal Commission,(one who had been into the main tunnel after the 1 st explosion),that after the first explosion at the mine there was a strong smell of burned diesel from within the mine,
There are of course only 2 substances within underground mining that are going to give off a strong smell of diesel after having been combusted,
The first being diesel itself,the second I will leave you to ponder for a while until the Royal commission produces its findings…
Reading the evidence given to the Pike River Royal Commission by the South African electrician sent into the mine to see why communications and the data stream had ceased from the mine might be an eye opener…
Dude, it ain’t the sort of thing to be smug about. You seem to think you’ve made a dramatic connection somewhere. Either come out with specifics or whack off about a different topic.
As above,reading the evidence given to the Pike River royal commission by the South African electrician sent into the mine after the 1st explosion might get you thinking…
PS, I have burned quite a bit of the stuff,coal that is,both in an open fire and in a coal range over a 2 year period while living down South,even when I filled the house up with smoke from having damped down the range with the wrong flue i never smelt any diesel like smell…
Try wet coal – which smells quite different. Shift up to a higher grade of coal burning. Then add in leachates that burn smelling like bunker oil. Then add a methane explosion that also burns all of those plus any coal dust. The only thing you can be sure of is that won’t be odorless and that it will not smell like your house fire.
“I’m embarrassed that we used to run around chasing guys for $1000 they ripped off Social Welfare,” he says. “The big money is heading out the back door through softly regulated industries full of people in suits who should know better.”
All of the govt regulatory bodies are like Internal Affairs. Commerce Commission get thousands of complaints each year, many about crooked business people, and they do nothing either. They see no evil, speak no evil….
Party Support
National 49.8% (+2.3%)
Labour 29.4% (nc)
Green 14.1% (+0.8%)
ACT 0.2% (nc)
Maori 1.6% (+0.3%)
United Future 0.0% (nc)
Mana 0.9% (-0.4%)
NZ First 2.3% (-2.7%)
Conservative 1.1% (-0.3%)
Leadership Approval
Key – 59.9% (-0.6%) doing well vs 24.0% (-2.0%) doing poorly – net rating is +35.9% (-2.6%)
Shearer – 32.5% (-2.6%) doing well vs 26.2% (+9.0%) doing poorly – net positive is +6.3% (-11.6%)
National (surprisingly) and Labour (not surprisingly) about the same as the Morgan poll.
Greens up a bit, NZF down on Morgan. But overall not a big change.
If Labour can’t make any inroads into National support with whats been in the news over the last couple of weeks then maybe some serious thought has to be put in to strategies. Failed for the last three years, still failing. Leadership will come up in discussions but the problem is deeper than that.
Pete George – I have read your posts for a few months on this blog and have grown more infuriated by the week. You’re supposed to be a cheerleader for United Future, I recall that you got just over 100 votes last election in the Dunedin seat you stood in, yet you insist on bagging Labour for their ratings, which aren’t exactly setting the world on fire at the moment, but I wish you would concentrate on UF’s 0.0% rating if the latest poll is anything to go by. Are you really a NAct supporter in drag? It appears that Act and United Future have the same future politically speaking.
You’re supposed to be a cheerleader for United Future
Who told you that? Sure, I stood for UF last election (and got a par for the course result unsurprisingly, a bit more than you claim) and I respond to queries about UF here. But I act indepently mostly, as I have long before I joined UF. In fact currently I am strongly querying a UF position on asset sales.
I support some National things and people and I think voted National once, but I’m not a National supporter as such. I’ve never voted Act nor supported them. I’ve more often than not voted Labour and I supported the Clark government for the first two terms. I’ve also voted Greens.
UF always seem to get 0% in the TV3 poll, I don’t know why that is – TV3 never even reveal what question they ask. I know one poll excludes UF from it’s list of options. But UF tends to be around the 0-1% range in various polls. That’s not important to me at the moment.
I think the most important thing in NZ party politics at the moment is Labour’s non-recovery from 2008. I’d like to see as strong a Labour party as possible in opposition so they can contribute positively to Parliament, adequately rebuild and prepare for their next time in government. I am still disapointed with Labour’s lack of progress and their clinging to failed strategies. I’m not a fan of their level of attack politics. They would be more effective if they saved theirn efforts for things that really mattered, ie picked their fights.
Even TV3 don’t believe this poll, if they did it would have lead the news hour on 3 tonight,there are 2 points I simply do not believe in this poll, that National have gained more support than it had on election night,and, that NZFirst has lost over half the support it had on election night,
To us its just another in a long line of ”dont bother voting its a done deal polls” that the Montgomery Burns owners of the mass media have been using to good effect to turn people away from thinking that their vote might just make that difference,
I see the situation as this, without the 3 Maori Party MP’s votes, National have a knife edge majority of Dunne and Banks,
Its still the same 2% ballgame that it was leading up to the 2011 election and a 3rd term for National in 2014 will still require the Maori Party support of 3 seats that that party is unlikely to have at the 2014 election…
‘To us its just another in a long line of ”dont bother voting its a done deal polls” that the Montgomery Burns owners of the mass media have been using to good effect to turn people away from thinking that their vote might just make that difference.”
Exactly bad12. I felt they only televised this ‘poll’ this to make Key, Joyce and all who sail in them feel good about their decomposing selves. Rather like a spray of room freshener, to stop the smell of cronyism and undemocratic dealings of our prime leader seeping through the TV set on a Sunday evening. …………………..
“There we are Johnny and Steve, nicely deodorised and spun back into the position you believe you are entitled to and now you are already for a new week of manipulation, ignorance and the use of New Zealand for our own ends- and all courtesy of TV3 non news.”
Easy to see why they pay the newsreaders such unhealthy large sums of the filthy lucre to faithfully read this stuff to the masses without actually chucking up big time or breaking into gales of mad laughter ae,
The closing dramatics from tonights TV3 clip covering the latest poll offering was the usual ramped up voice giving the usual ramped up mind numbing ”with these figures National could Govern alone”…
I don’t know who wrote those figures up but they look meaningless to me. They add up to 99.4% which means they’ve removed the ‘undecided’ respondents. No way in hell do only 0.6% say they wouldn’t vote for any of them. It’s certainly not a measure of approval for this Govt, not a measure of anything really.
Why are people concerned about ratings now anyway? They’re not going to do any good to anyone, next election is 2 1/2 yrs away.
Surface fixit/plaster for Labour = replace Shearer with Cunliffe
Unfortunately plasters don’t heal gangrene – major surgery is required.
Simple suggestions for Labour:
– Consider a name change – brand damaged
– Consider a major clean out of caucus whether by resignation and bring in new folk from the list, or lots of retirements in 2014.
– A full overhaul of policy to promote a progressive agenda that takes in to account the reality of life in 2012.
– Also policy that isn’t warmed up leftovers from a past era (50’s-70’s)
– Also policy that isn’t a left swinging knee jerk reaction to what the Nats do.
– A leader who actually believes, promotes, and is fully enthusiastic about the policies he/she stands for and who is not afraid to come down on their own team members when necessary.
– A caucus who know what the words discipline/team work/hard work/good character actually mean.
– Work on 2 way communication with grass roots supporters so that they can share/push the vision.
Without at least some of these things, Labour is like a ship that has had a fire at sea – its still floating but sure is dead in the water and going no where fast.
Totally agree problem is greater than Shearer Greens are now becoming left party of choice. Also fully agree with this comment below
A full overhaul of policy to promote a progressive agenda that takes in to account the reality of life in 2012.
Labour needs to realise that employers aren’t evil, and it OK for people to make money with out throwing in the envy card every time.
They only seem to have one revenue policy that is tax people to death ,and if they are still moving tax them again.
Haven’t seen one idea from them that will grow the economy
[Take a week off for playing the ‘envy’ card. Idiot sloganeering no longer tolerated…RL]
There is envy all right. The wealthy are so envious of what we have left, they are grabbing that too.
The US economy was growing at its fastest rate ever when the rich were taxed at 91%.
Havn’t you noticed what has happened since the tax cuts for the rich?
Transferring money from the rich, who hoard it or waste it in pointless money gambling schemes, to those who spend locally, is a proven method of growing an economy.
Tax and spend is exactly what we should do. It is how New Zealand got out of the 30’s depression ahead of the USA.
Instead of borrowing, selling, giving money to rich cronies and hoping the confidence fairy returns.
Yep. Asset/capital taxes and spending that money back into circulation is the only way ahead.
If the largest holders of capital refuse that approach, the Government should simply print the money it needs to keep the economy going, into the economy, while ensuring it is directed into productive areas which increase efficient operation and competition within the economy.
If at some stage excess money supply appears to be driving inflation the Government can either enter a specific market itself to increase competition and/or withdraw money from the supply by increasing taxes and savings rates further.
No problem.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 24.1.2
Well, I look forward to this being applied evenhandedly.
[lprent: Well this site was never meant to be an even playing field (read the about), we’re interested in views from outside the labour movement if they add to the debate and fools being repetitive simply don’t do that. But have you ever noticed that james111 or yourself get relatively lenient bans compared to others with similar opinions? It is because we’re not looking at the opinions as much as the behaviour.
Moderators tend to find that a simple warning is enough to get most of the commentators attention and change in behaviour (which is what we want). Most of the commentators are from the centre and left and respond to relatively simple and easy guidance about what is tolerated. Whereas often those believing in the principles of the Divine Right usually require a frigging club and a lot of force to pound through to them that they don’t make the rules – we do.
So experience has taught the moderators to use whatever is most effective on different types of people to achieve our site objectives of having interesting robust debate. That is why you’ll see differences in handling depending on peoples behaviour. Someone like philu or Wayne/Mark fit the profile of being stupid egotists who just won’t listen and they get permanent bans because it reduces our workload. People who do listen but only after being banned like SHG will get bans of increasingly longer spans until we find where they either leave or listen. Others respond immediately to [warnings] and still others you only have to write a cutting comment about their behaviour.
In short, even handedness is from the perspective of the moderators – not from the perspective of the commentators. If you respond to less draconian techniques then we’ll use less. If it takes more draconian measures, then we’ll use more. The primary aim is for us to use the least amount of effort to get a desired result. ]
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrel 24.1.2.1
Blame the polls. The number of bannings seems to have a relationship to the popularity of the govt. three polls against the received standardistas wisdom over the weekend and i’ve counted three bans today for relatively trivial things. Moderator grumpiness index seems set to high…
What? National tanked at 21% and came back. Labour isnt damaged as much as NZ is still in love with Key – They never did anything actually wrong. Shearer at least should take this as a serious request by the public to get off the fence stand up and fight back.
I think Labour far from having a need to completely re-invent itself should simply firmly focus upon what had the Party leading the left of New Zealand politics from the coal mines of the West Coast into Governing the country of New Zealand and cementing into place the physical manifestation of the principals of social justice to protect the most vulnerable members of our society, much of which still stands albeit under constant attack from the right,
There are a million voters who have not voted for 2 elections even though they are registered to do so,
The missing million sure as hell aint going to vote for National, an obvious seeing as they did not vote for that Party despite the election bribe of tax cuts in 2008 and didn’t vote for national again in 2011 despite the election bribe of being able to tuck into the part sale of the most profitable of state owned assets,
Labour and the Greens need find out what it is that will turn out the missing million to the ballot box on election day 2014, its really that simple,
I have the view that it is my democratic duty to do so,vote that is,even at times when what is on offer at the ballot box is unpalatable,
The view here is that we should make voting a matter of legal requirement just as registering to do so is…
Jimmie gives Labour a whole lot of recommendations straight from the Right Wing. Who are scared to death of Cunliffe. (Notice how Cunliffe was put up front and centre by Jimmie haha)
I agree with you CV that Cunliffe would be a more effective leader than Shearer – but would just changing their leader be enough to make the voters go, ‘ oh, yeah, Labour, we ditched them at the last two elections, but now that Cunliffe is in charge we’ll come and vote for them again.
I dunno – I think its a lot to have riding on the shoulders of one man – and what if Cunliffe fails to inspire the public? What if the anyone but Cunliffe brigade doesn’t pull their weight heading into 2014? Its a risk and 2017 is a long way away.
I know I am right wing with my view on life, but the advice I previously posted was just wanting to be helpful, as NZ needs strong parties from both sides of the fence, and at the moment Labour aint cutting it. Also when we do have to have a left wing government I’d prefer one dominated by Labour and NZF rather than the Greens, so Labour needs to be strong to achieve that.
But tell me, which of the above points do you disagree with? The policy ones probably, but the teamwork/structure/leadership points are valid and need to be faced or people will be turned off again, in 2014 and all the lefties on this blog will need to get checked for stomach ulcers after election 2014!
I wondered why over 100 comments. It’s just old Pete George. Also the right winger Kiwi Prometheus. As that guy was supposed to have brought fire to the world the choice of name indicates that this commenter has no intention to attempt thought but merely wants to be a jerk.
I might have become a ‘closed shop’ when thinking about Labour Leader David Shearer but in my own defence have to say that initial media perceptions are very formative of the perception one has of people, particularly politicians, that i have not personally met,
The Labour Leader’s appearance on the ‘comedy’ hosted by whats-his-face that abusive little far-right wing clown made me cringe for obvious reasons…
New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public office and becoming lobbyists and ...
This is a guest post by accessibility and sustainable transport advocate Tim Adriaansen It originally appeared here. A friend calls you and asks for your help. They tell you that while out and about nearby, they slipped over and landed arms-first. Now their wrist is swollen, hurting like ...
Floating offshore wind turbines offer incredible opportunities to capture powerful winds far out at sea. By unlocking this wind energy potential, they could be a key weapon in our arsenal in the fight against climate change. But how developed are these climate fighting clean energy giants? And why do I ...
Over the past two or three weeks, a procession of Maori iwi and hapu in a series of little-noticed appearances before two Select Committees have been asking for more say for Maori over resource management decisions along the co-governance lines of Three Waters. Their submissions and appearances run counter ...
The decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue war crimes arrest warrants for the Russian President and the Russia Children Ombudsman may have been welcomed by the ideologically committed but otherwise seems to have been greeted with widespread cynicism (see Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants ...
Let’s say you’re clasping your drink at a wedding, or a 40th, or a King’s Birthday Weekend family reunion and Drunk Uncle Kevin has just got going.He’s in an expansive frame of mind because we’re finally rid of that silly girl. But he wants to ask an honest question about ...
National Party leader Christopher Luxon may be feeling glum about his poll ratings, but he could be tapping into a rich political vein in describing the current state of education as “alarming”. Luxon said educational achievement has been declining, with a recent NCEA pilot exposing just how far it has ...
Way Beyond Reform: Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have no more interest in remaining permanent members of “New Zealand’s” House of Representatives than did Lenin and Trotsky in remaining permanent members of Tsar Nicolas II’s “democratically-elected” Duma. Like the Bolsheviks, Te Pāti Māori is a party of revolutionaries – not reformists.THE CROWN ...
Buzz from the Beehive Auckland was wiped off the map, when Education Minister Jan Tinetti delivered her speech of welcome as host of the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers “here in Tāmaki Makaurau”. But – fair to say – a reference was made later in the speech to a ...
Morning mate, how you going?Well, I was watching the news last night and they announced this scientific report on Climate Change. But before they got to it they had a story about the new All Blacks coach.Sounds like important news. It’s a bit of a worry really.Yeah, they were talking ...
Always a bailout: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the Government would fully guarantee all savers in all smaller US banks if needed. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: No wonder an entire generation of investors are used to ‘buying the dip’ and ‘holding on for dear life’. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ...
Wealthy vested interests have an oversized influence on political decisions in New Zealand. Partly that’s due to their use of corporate lobbyists. Fortunately, the influence lobbyists can have on decisions made by politicians is currently under scrutiny in Guyon Espiner’s in-depth series published by RNZ. Two of Espiner’s research exposés ...
Yesterday afternoon it rained and traffic around the region ground to a halt, once again highlighting why it is so important that our city gets on with improving the alternatives to driving. For additional irony, this happened on the same day the IPCC synthesis report landed, putting the focus on ...
The Beginning: Anti-Co-Governance agitator, Julian Batchelor, addresses the Dargaville stop of his travelling roadshow across New Zealand . Fascism almost always starts small. Sadly, it doesn’t always stay that way. Especially when the Left helps it to grow.THERE IS A DREADFUL LOGIC to the growth of fascism. To begin with, it ...
Hi,From an incredibly rainy day in Los Angeles, I just wanted to check in. I guess this is the day Trump may or may not end up in cuffs? I’m attempting a somewhat slower, less frenzied week. I’ve had Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s new record on non-stop, and it’s been a ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
RNZ has been shining their torch into corners where lobbyists lurk and asking such questions as: Do we like the look of this?and Is this as democratic as it could be?These are most certainly questions worth asking, and every bit as valid as, say:Are weshortchanged democratically by the way ...
RNZ has continued its look at the role of lobbyists by taking a closer look at the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Andrew Kirton. He used to work for liquor companies, opposing (among other things) a container refund scheme which would have required them to take responsibility for their own ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has left for Beijing for the first ministerial visit to China since 2019. Mahuta is to meet China’s new foreign minister Qin Gang where she might have to call on all the diplomatic skills at her command. Almost certainly she will face questions on what role ...
TL;DR:The Opportunities Party’s Leader Raf Manji is hopeful the party’s new Teal Card, a type of Gold card for under 30s, will be popular with students, and not just in his Ilam electorate where students make up more than a quarter of the voters and where Manji is confident ...
When I was a kid New Zealand was actually pretty green. We didn’t really have plastic. The fruit and veges came in a cardboard box, the meat was wrapped in paper, milk came in a glass bottle, and even rubbish sacks were made of paper. Today if you sit down ...
Looking back through the names of our Police Ministers down the years, the job has either been done by once or future party Bigfoots – Syd Holland, Richard Prebble, Juduth Collins, Chris Hipkins – or by far lesser lights like Keith Allen, Frank Gill, Ben Couch, Allen McCready, Clem Simich, ...
Chris Trotter writes – The Crown is a fickle friend. Any political movement deemed to be colourful but inconsequential is generally permitted to go about its business unmolested. The Crown’s media, RNZ and TVNZ, may even “celebrate” its existence (presumably as proof of Democracy’s broad-minded acceptance of diversity). ...
Four out of the five people who have held the top role of Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff since 2017 have been lobbyists. That’s a fact that should worry anyone who believes vested interests shouldn’t have a place at the centre of decision making. Chris Hipkins’ newly appointed Chief of ...
Feedback on Auckland Council’s draft 2023/24 budget closes on March 28th. You can read the consultation document here, and provide feedback here. Auckland Council is currently consulting on what is one of its most important ever Annual Plans – the ‘budget’ of what it will spend money on between July ...
by Molten Moira from Motueka If you want to be a woman let me tell you what to do Get a piece of paper and a biro tooWrite down your new identification And boom! You’re now a woman of this nationSpelled W O M A Na real trans woman that isAs opposed ...
Buzz from the Beehive New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti is hosting the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers for three days from today, welcoming Education Ministers and senior officials from 18 Pacific Island countries and territories, and from Australia. Here’s hoping they have brought translators with them – or ...
Let’s say you’ve come all the way from His Majesty’s United Kingdom to share with the folk of Australia and New Zealand your antipathy towards certain other human beings. And let’s say you call yourself a women’s rights activist.And let’s say 99 out of 100 people who listen to you ...
James Shaw gave the Green party's annual "state of the planet" address over the weekend, in which he expressed frustration with Labour for not doing enough on climate change. His solution is to elect more Green MPs, so they have more power within any government arrangement, and can hold Labour ...
RNZ this morning has the first story another investigative series by Guyon Espiner, this time into political lobbying. The first story focuses on lobbying by government agencies, specifically transpower, Pharmac, and assorted universities, and how they use lobbyists to manipulate public opinion and gather intelligence on the Ministers who oversee ...
Nick Matzke writes – Dear NZ Herald, I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland. I teach evolutionary biology, but I also have long experience in science education and (especially) political attempts to insert pseudoscience into science curricula in ...
James Shaw has again said the Greens would be better ‘in the tent’ with Labour than out, despite Labour’s policy bonfire last week torching much of what the Government was doing to reduce emissions. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Green Party has never been more popular than in some ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler Poor air quality is a long-standing problem in Los Angeles, where the first major outbreak of smog during World War II was so intense that some residents thought the city had been attacked by chemical weapons. Cars were eventually discovered ...
Yesterday I was reading an excellent newsletter from David Slack, and I started writing a comment “Sounds like some excellent genetic heritage…” and then I stopped.There was something about the phrase genetic heritage that stopped me in tracks. Is that a phrase I want to be saying? It’s kind of ...
Brian Easton writes – Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go ...
This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War. While it strongly opposed the US-led invasion, New Zealand’s then Labour-led government led by Prime Minister Helen Clark did deploy military engineers to try to help rebuild Iraq in mid-2003. With violence soaring, their 12-month deployment ended without being renewed ...
After seventy years, Auckland’s motorway network is finally finished. In July 1953 the first section of motorway in Auckland was opened between Ellerslie-Panmure Highway and Mt Wellington Highway. The final stage opens to traffic this week with the completion of the motorway part of the Northern Corridor Improvements project. Aucklanders ...
National’s appointment of Todd McClay as Agriculture spokesperson clearly signals that the party is in trouble with the farming vote. McClay was not an obvious choice, but he does have a record as a political scrapper. The party needs that because sources say it has been shedding farming votes ...
Rays of white light come flooding into my lounge, into my face from over the top of my neighbour’s hedge. I have to look away as the window of the conservatory is awash in light, as if you were driving towards the sun after a rain shower and suddenly blinded. ...
The columnists in Private Eye take pen names, so I have not the least idea who any of them are. But I greatly appreciate their expert insight, especially MD, who writes the medical column, offering informed and often damning critique of the UK health system and the politicians who keep ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 12, 2023 thru Sat, Mar 18, 2023. Story of the Week Guest post: What 13,500 citations reveal about the IPCC’s climate science report IPCC WG1 AR6 SPM Report Cover - Changing ...
Buzz from the Beehive The building of financial capability was brought into our considerations when Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced she had dipped into the government’s coffers for $3 million for “providers” to help people and families access community-based Building Financial Capability services. That wording suggests some ...
Do you ever come across something that makes you go Hmmmm?You mean like the song?No, I wasn’t thinking of the song, but I am now - thanks for that. I was thinking of things you read or hear that make you stop and go Hmmmm.Yeah, I know what you mean, ...
By the end of the week, the dramas over Stuart Nash overshadowed Hipkins’ policy bonfire. File photo: Lynn GrieveasonTLDR: This week’s news in geopolitics and the political economy covered on The Kākā included:PM Chris Hipkins’ announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but ...
When word went out that Prime Minister Chris Hipkins would be making an announcement about Stuart Nash on the tiles at parliament at 2:45pm yesterday, the assumption was that it was over. That we had reached tipping point for Nash’s time as minister. But by 3pm - when, coincidentally, the ...
Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go on to attack physics by citing Newton.So ...
Photo by Walker Fenton on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kaka for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on Riverside (we’ve moved from Zoom) for our chat about the week’s news with ...
In a nice bit of news, my 2550-word deindustrial science-fiction piece, The Dream of Florian Neame, has been accepted for publication at New Maps Magazine (https://www.new-maps.com/). I have published there before, of course, with Of Tin and Tintagel coming out last year. While I still await the ...
And so this is Friday, and what have we learned?It was a week with all the usual luggage: minister brags and then he quits, Hollywood red carpet is full of twits. And all the while, hanging over the trivial stuff: existential dread, and portents of doom.Depending on who you read ...
When I changed the name of this newsletter from The Daily Read to Nick’s Kōrero I was a bit worried whether people would know what Kōrero meant or not. I added a definition when I announced the change and kind of assumed people who weren’t familiar with it would get ...
There was a time when a political party’s publicity people would counsel against promoting a candidate as queer. No matter which of two dictionary meanings the voting public might choose to apply – the old meaning of odd, strange, weird, or aberrant, or the more recent meaning of gay, homosexual ...
Photo by Joakim Honkasalo on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for the next hour, including:PM Chris Hipkins announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but which blew up ...
Even though concern over the climate change threat is becoming more mainstream, our governments continue to opt out of the difficult decisions at the expense of time, and cost for future generations. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Now we have a climate liability number to measure the potential failure of the ...
Thomas Cranmer writesLike it or not, the culture wars have entered New Zealand politics and look set to broaden and intensify. The culture wars are often viewed as an exclusively American phenomenon, but the reality is that they are becoming increasingly prominent in countries around the world, ...
Here’s an analogy for the Stuart Nash saga. If people are to be forgiven for their sins,Catholic dogma requires two factors to be present. There has to be a sincere act of confession about what has been done, but also a sincere act of contrition, which signals a painful ...
Here’s an analogy for the Stuart Nash saga. If people are to be forgiven for their sins,Catholic dogma requires two factors to be present. There has to be a sincere act of confession about what has been done, but also a sincere act of contrition, which signals a painful ...
Human Destabilisers: Russia now has a new strategic weapon – migratory waves of unwelcome human-beings. Desperate people with different coloured skins and different religious beliefs arriving at, or actually breaching, the national borders of Russia’s enemies can wreak as much havoc, culturally and politically, as a hypersonic missile exploding in the ...
Hi,After Webworm contributor Hayden Donnell wrote his latest piece, ‘RIP to Millennials Killing Everything’, he delivered this exciting and important bonus content.It will make more sense if you’ve read his piece.David. Read more ...
Hi,Before we get to Hayden’s column — RIP to Millennials Killing Everything — a quick observation.There was a day last week where it had suddenly reached 10pm and I hadn’t eaten all day. Hunger had suddenly gripped me with a panicky all-consuming force, so I jumped onto Uber Eats and ...
We add some of the CMIP6 models to the updateable MSU comparisons. After my annual update, I was pointed to some MSU-related diagnostics for many of the CMIP6 models (24 of them at least) from Po-Chedley et al. (2022) courtesy of Ben Santer. These are slightly different to what ...
In a memorable Pulp Fiction scene, Vincent inadvertently shoots their backseat passenger in the head. This leads our heroes Jules and Vincent to express alarm about their predicament.We're on a city street in broad daylight here!says Vincent. We gotta get this car off the roads. You know cops tend to ...
Primary, secondary and kindergarten teachers are all on strike today, demanding higher pay and an end to systematic understaffing. While the former is important - wages should at least keep up with inflation - its the latter which is the real issue. As with the health system, teachers have been ...
So the teachers are on strike, marching across Aotearoa today to press their demands for better pay and working conditions.Children remained in bed this brisk morning, many no doubt quite pleased about a day off school. Parents perhaps taking the day off to look after the kids, or working from ...
After the Cold War the consensus among Western military strategists was that the era of Big Wars, defined as peer conflict between large states with full spectrum military technologies, was at an end, at least for the foreseeable future. The … Continue reading → ...
Dairy giant Fonterra has posted a 50% lift in net profit to $546m, doubled its interim dividend, and is proposing a return of capital of 50c a share, injecting a note of optimism into the nation’s dairy industry. Fonterra’s strong performance is against a backdrop of market volatility. It ...
Buzz from the Beehive The bothersome economic news today is that New Zealand’s GDP fell by 0.6% in the December quarter, weaker than market forecasts of a fall of around 0.2% and much weaker than the Reserve Bank’s assumption of a 0.7% rise. This followed the even-more-bothersome news yesterday that ...
Ouch: Hipkins’ policy bonfire has resulted in an expensive self-administered removal of a Budgetary foot with an explosive device. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Bonfires can be dangerous things when they get out of control. They also create a lot of smoke and heat and burn the grass. ...
* Dr Bryce Edwards writes – I teach a first-year course at Victoria University of Wellington about government and the political process in New Zealand. In “Introduction to Government and Law”, students learn there are rules preventing senior public servants from getting involved in big political debates – as we ...
I teach a first year course at Victoria University of Wellington about government and the political process in New Zealand. In “Introduction to Government and Law”, students learn there are rules preventing senior public servants from getting involved in big political debates – as we have recently witnessed with Rob ...
An issue of integrity has claimed the first ministerial scalp in Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ premiership. Police Minister Stuart Nash lasted mere weeks in the role after admitting in a radio interview this morning that he had called Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to ask him if police were going to ...
For some time now we’ve known that the cost and completion timeframe for the City Rail Link would increase. Yesterday we finally learned by just how much. Costs City Rail Link Ltd (CRL Ltd) today confirms it has submitted a formal funding request to its Sponsors – the Crown and ...
The Government’s decision to back peddle on lowering speed limits is hitting potholes. At this stage, although it is part of the Government’s reprioritisation efforts to free up money to alleviate cost of living increases, the speed limit change looks unlikely to do that. And it appears that it ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
“Cabinet needs to do better - and today has shown exactly why we need Green Ministers in cabinet, so we can prioritise action to cut climate pollution and support people to make ends meet,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. ...
Biggest increase in food prices for over three decades shows the need for an excess profit tax on corporations to help people put food on the table. ...
The Green Party has today launched a submission guide to help Aucklanders give crucial input and prevent potentially disastrous Auckland Council budget proposals. ...
With calls growing for inquiries and action on bank profits, the Greens say the Government has all the information it needs to act now and put a levy on banks. ...
As large parts of Aotearoa recover from two of the worst climate disasters we have ever experienced, it would be a huge mistake for the Government to deprioritise climate action from future transport investments, the Green Party says. ...
The Green Party is celebrating the signing of a historic United Nations Ocean Treaty, and calls on the new Oceans and Fisheries Minister to urgently step up protection for Aotearoa’s oceans. ...
$2.9 million convertible loan for Scapegrace Distillery to meet growing national and international demand $4.5m underwrite to support Silverlight Studios’ project to establish a film studio in Wanaka Gore’s James Cumming Community Centre and Library to be official opened tomorrow with support of $3m from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has today launched the first national EV (electric vehicle) charging strategy, Charging Our Future, which includes plans to provide EV charging stations in almost every town in New Zealand. “Our vision is for Aotearoa New Zealand to have world-class EV charging infrastructure that is accessible, affordable, ...
Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment Priyanca Radhakrishnan has today launched the Love Better campaign in a world-leading approach to family harm prevention. Love Better will initially support young people through their experience of break-ups, developing positive and life-long attitudes to dealing with hurt. “Over 1,200 young kiwis told ...
Hon Rino Tirikatene, Minister for Courts, welcomes the Ministry of Justice’s appointment of Dr Garry Clearwater as New Zealand’s first Chief Clinical Advisor working with the Coroners Court. “This appointment is significant for the Coroners Court and New Zealand’s wider coronial system.” Minister Tirikatene said. Through Budget 2022, the Government ...
The Government via the Cyclone Taskforce is working with local government and insurance companies to build a picture of high-risk areas following Cyclone Gabrielle and January floods. “The Taskforce, led by Sir Brian Roche, has been working with insurance companies to undertake an assessment of high-risk areas so we can ...
E te huia kaimanawa, ko Ngāpuhi e whakahari ana i tau aupikinga ki te tihi o te maunga. Ko te Ao Māori hoki e whakanui ana i a koe te whakaihu waka o te reo Māori i roto i te Ao Ture. (To the prized treasure, it is Ngāpuhi who ...
113,400 exits into work in the year to June 2022 Young people are moving off Benefit faster than after the Global Financial Crisis Two reports released today by the Ministry of Social Development show the Government’s investment in the COVID-19 response helped drive record numbers of people off Benefits and ...
The Government’s priority to keep New Zealand at the cutting edge of food production and lift our sustainability credentials continues by backing the next steps of a hi-tech vertical farming venture that uses up to 95 per cent less water, is climate resilient, and pesticide-free. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visited ...
E nga mana, e nga iwi, e nga reo, e nga hau e wha, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou kātoa. Warm Pacific greetings to all. It is an honour to host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers here in Tāmaki Makaurau. Aotearoa is delighted to be hosting you ...
The new renal unit at Taranaki Base Hospital has been officially opened by the Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall this afternoon. Te Huhi Raupō received around $13 million in government funding as part of Project Maunga Stage 2, the redevelopment of the Taranaki Base Hospital campus. “It’s an honour ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little has marked the arrival of the country’s second P-8A Poseidon aircraft alongside personnel at the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Base at Ohakea today. “With two of the four P-8A Poseidons now on home soil this marks another significant milestone in the Government’s historic investment in ...
Aotearoa New Zealand will provide further humanitarian support to those seriously affected by last month’s deadly earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, says Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta. “The 6 February earthquakes have had devastating consequences, with almost 18 million people affected. More than 53,000 people have died and tens of thousands more ...
Migrant communities across New Zealand are represented in the new Migrant Community Reference Group that will help shape immigration policy going forward, Immigration Minister Michael Wood announced today. “Since becoming Minister, a reoccurring message I have heard from migrants is the feeling their voice has often been missing around policy ...
Construction has begun on major works that will deliver significant safety improvements on State Highway 3 from Waitara to Bell Block, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan announced today. “This is an important route for communities, freight and visitors to Taranaki but too many people have lost their lives or ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has today appointed Ginny Andersen as Minister of Police. “Ginny Andersen has a strong and relevant background in this important portfolio,” Chris Hipkins said. “Ginny Andersen worked for the Police as a non-sworn staff member for around 10 years and has more recently been chair of ...
Six further bailey bridge sites confirmed Four additional bridge sites under consideration 91 per cent of damaged state highways reopened Recovery Dashboards for impacted regions released The Government has responded quickly to restore lifeline routes after Cyclone Gabrielle and can today confirm that an additional six bailey bridges will ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta departs for China tomorrow, where she will meet with her counterpart, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, in Beijing. This will be the first visit by a New Zealand Minister to China since 2019, and follows the easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions between New Zealand and China. ...
Education Ministers from across the Pacific will gather in Tāmaki Makaurau this week to share their collective knowledge and strategic vision, for the benefit of ākonga across the region. New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti will host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers (CPEM) for three days from today, ...
A vital transport link for communities and local businesses has been restored following Cyclone Gabrielle with the reopening of State Highway 5 (SH5) between Napier and Taupō, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan says. SH5 reopened to all traffic between 7am and 7pm from today, with closure points at SH2 (Kaimata ...
Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds has thanked generous New Zealanders who took part in the special Lotto draw for communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Held on Saturday night, the draw raised $11.7 million with half of all ticket sales going towards recovery efforts. “In a time of need, New Zealanders ...
The Government has announced funding of $3 million for providers to help people, and whānau access community-based Building Financial Capability services. “Demand for Financial Capability Services is growing as people face cost of living pressures. Those pressures are increasing further in areas affected by flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle,” Minister for ...
Minister of Education, Hon Jan Tinetti, has announced appointments to the Board of Education New Zealand | Manapou ki te Ao. Tracey Bridges is joining the Board as the new Chair and Dr Therese Arseneau will be a new member. Current members Dr Linda Sissons CNZM and Daniel Wilson have ...
Fifteen ākonga Māori from across Aotearoa have been awarded the prestigious Ngarimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarships and Awards for 2023, Associate Education Minister and Ngarimu Board Chair, Kelvin Davis announced today. The recipients include doctoral, masters’ and undergraduate students. Three vocational training students and five wharekura students, ...
High Court Judge Jillian Maree Mallon has been appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal, and District Court Judge Andrew John Becroft QSO has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Mallon graduated from Otago University in 1988 with an LLB (Hons), and with ...
The economy has continued to show its resilience despite today’s GDP figures showing a modest decline in the December quarter, leaving the Government well positioned to help New Zealanders face cost of living pressures in a challenging global environment. “The economy had grown strongly in the two quarters before this ...
Aucklanders now have more ways to get around as Transport Minister Michael Wood opened the direct State Highway 1 (SH1) to State Highway 18 (SH18) underpass today, marking the completion of the 48-kilometre Western Ring Route (WRR). “The Government is upgrading New Zealand’s transport system to make it safer, more ...
This section contains briefings received by incoming ministers following changes to Cabinet in January. Some information may have been withheld in accordance with the Official Information Act 1982. Where information has been withheld that is indicated within the document. ...
Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta reaffirmed her commitment to working together with the new Government of Fiji on issues of shared importance, including on the prioritisation of climate change and sustainability, at a meeting today, in Nadi. Fiji and Aotearoa New Zealand’s close relationship is underpinned by the Duavata ...
The Government is delivering a coastal shipping lifeline for businesses, residents and the primary sector in the cyclone-stricken regions of Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan announced today. The Rangitata vessel has been chartered for an emergency coastal shipping route between Gisborne and Napier, with potential for ...
The Government will progress to the next stage of the NZ Battery Project, looking at the viability of pumped hydro as well as an alternative, multi-technology approach as part of the Government’s long term-plan to build a resilient, affordable, secure and decarbonised energy system in New Zealand, Energy and Resources ...
This morning I was made aware of a media interview in which Minister Stuart Nash criticised a decision of the Court and said he had contacted the Police Commissioner to suggest the Police appeal the decision. The phone call took place in 2021 when he was not the Police Minister. ...
The Government’s sharp focus on trade continues with Aotearoa New Zealand set to host Trade Ministers and delegations from 10 Asia Pacific economies at a meeting of Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Commission members in July, Minister for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor announced today. “New Zealand ...
$25 million boost to support more businesses with clean-up in cyclone affected regions, taking total business support to more than $50 million Demand for grants has been strong, with estimates showing applications will exceed the initial $25 million business support package Grants of up to a maximum of $40,000 per ...
80 per cent of 2021 Resident Visas applications have been processed – three months ahead of schedule Residence granted to 160,000 people 84,000 of 85,000 applications have been approved Over 160,000 people have become New Zealand residents now that 80 per cent of 2021 Resident Visa (2021RV) applications have been ...
The Government continues to invest in New Zealand’s burgeoning space industry, today announcing five scholarships for Kiwi Students to undertake internships at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. Economic Development Minister Stuart Nash congratulated Michaela Dobson (University of Auckland), Leah Albrow (University of Canterbury) and Jack Naish, Celine Jane ...
The Lead Coordination Minister for the Government’s Response to the Royal Commission’s Report into the Terrorist Attack on the Christchurch Mosques travels to Melbourne, Australia today to represent New Zealand at the fourth Sub-Regional Meeting on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Security. “The Government is committed to reducing the threat of terrorism ...
The health and safety practices at our nation’s ports will be improved as part of a new industry-wide action plan, Workplace Relations and Safety, and Transport Minister Michael Wood has announced. “Following the tragic death of two port workers in Auckland and Lyttelton last year, I asked the Port Health ...
Bikes, electric bikes and scooters will be added to the types of transport exempted from fringe benefit tax under changes proposed today. Revenue Minister David Parker said the change would allow bicycles, electric bicycles, scooters, electric scooters, and micro-mobility share services to be exempt from fringe benefit tax where they ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will hold bilateral meetings with Fiji this week. The visit will be her first to the country since the election of the new coalition Government led by Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sitiveni Rabuka. The visit will be an opportunity to meet kanohi ki ...
The Government is introducing the Severe Weather Emergency Legislation Bill to ensure the recovery and rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle is streamlined and efficient with unnecessary red tape removed. The legislation is similar to legislation passed following the Christchurch and Kaikōura earthquakes that modifies existing legislation in order to remove constraints ...
Ahead of tax season, Avast , a leading digital security and privacy brand of Gen ™ (NASDAQ: GEN), is warning New Zealanders of increased scam activity as cybercriminals prey on taxpayers' vulnerability during a time when they are expecting their tax ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: The Beehive’s revolving door and corporate mateship New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a ...
In the year ended June 2022, 1 in 4 households that were renting were spending more than 40 percent of their disposable income on housing costs, compared with 1 in 5 households that were paying a mortgage, according to figures released by Stats NZ ...
Child poverty rates for the year ended June 2022 were unchanged compared with the previous year, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. “Child poverty statistics have not changed compared with last year,” general manager social and ...
The former broadcaster Liz Gunn, who has become a vocal figure within the anti-vaccination movement in New Zealand, has appeared in court today after an alleged airport altercation earlier this year. Gunn pleaded not guilty to charges of assault, trespass and resisting arrest over the incident at Auckland International Airport. ...
You don’t need to go to wildlife sanctuaries to see native birds, bugs and reptiles.This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof brought to you by Electric Kiwi – sign up here. Recently I wrote a feature for New Zealand Geographic on weeds – it turns out, a ...
Rental costs have hit a record high, according to new statistics released this morning. Trade Me has reported that the national median rent was up to $600 in February – a jump of 4%, or $25, when compared with the same month in 2022. It’s not unusual to see rent ...
The Free Speech Union welcomes the decision by Immigration New Zealand to not suspend Kellie-Kay Keen-Minshull's NZeTA and to allow her entry into the country, says Jonathan Ayling, Chief Executive of the Free Speech Union. “The Free Speech Union envisions ...
HeartLandNZ represents provincial New Zealand, the heart of the nation, the men and women, workers, contractors, businesses and farmers in the successful primary production sector. For over 30 years these voters have been economically ...
This week, Hera Lindsay Bird ponders whether it’s better to leave a party too early or too late.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to [email protected]Dear Hera,How can you tell when something is over? A recurring theme through my life is sticking around way past the due date. There have been ...
National’s new education policy will focus on the first eight years of education – primary and intermediate – in an effort to prepare students for high school. The opposition will formally unveil their policy later today – coincidentally (or likely not) in the prime minister’s electorate of Upper Hutt. Erica ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yen Ying Lim, Associate Professor, Monash University ShutterstockDementia is an umbrella term to describe a progressive neurological condition that affects people’s cognitive abilities, such as memory, language and reasoning. Alzheimer’s is the most common form, but other common ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Green, Host + Producer, The Conversation A comparison between two views of the same coral reef on Kiritimati, taken by University of Victoria scientists.Danielle Claar, Kristina Tietjen/University of Victoria Earlier this week, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Graham Edgar, Senior Marine Ecologist, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania Graham Edgar/Reef Life Survey, Author provided Marine heatwaves are damaging reef ecosystems around Australia, but while the tropical north has received the lion’s share of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Burch, Lecturer in Accounting, University of Tasmania Shutterstock One of the priorities of the federal government’s sweeping Universities Accord is to improve employment conditions in higher education. This is long overdue. Australia’s university sector once set the standard for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Davies, PhD Candidate, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University Image: David Kelly, Author provided Australia is in the grip of a housing crisis, with low-income households hit hardest by rising rents and falling vacancy rates. Social housing tenants were ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kristie Patricia Flannery, Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Francisco V. Coching’s Rendition of Gabriela Silang Charging on a Mount, 1986 (Ayala Museum). It was around this time of year back in 1763 that Filipino rebels ...
The government’s planning to roll out dozens of new electric vehicle charging stations across the country in new “hubs” that would operate similar to existing petrol stations. The “charging our future” strategy has set a target of bringing in new hubs ever 150 to 200 kilometres along the state highways, ...
This morning we bring you an exclusive on The Spinoff from Dylan Cleaver. Wellington rugby stalwart, one-game All Black and former New Zealand First MP Tutekawa Wyllie has had his probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) condition recognised and compensated for by the ACC after a five-year campaign. CTE is a brain ...
New Zealand joins countries around the world by banning TikTok on government-issued devices as the US threatens an outright ban on the popular social media app, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Big building supply companies have fended off competition by wrapping desirable blocks of land in legal constraints on generations of NZers, alarming the Commerce Commission into issuing a far-reaching warning. Jonathan Milne reports. ...
The Green Party is announcing Teall Crossen as their candidate for the Nelson Whakatū electorate. Teall is an environmental barrister and activist with two decades of experience advocating for the rights of people and nature in the Courts in Aotearoa, ...
NZ Rugby wants to triple the number of female rugby referees - starting with the rise of Natarsha Ganley to Super Rugby honours, and handing a whistle to an Aupiki star player in a new scholarship. Suzanne McFadden writes. Natarsha Ganley loves rules. So during the week, she's on the lookout for ...
Exclusive: All Black turned NZ First MP Tutekawa Wyllie and his wife Margaret have won a landmark battle that could open the floodgates for rugby-related head injury claims. Dylan Cleaver reports.Wellington rugby stalwart, one-game All Black and former New Zealand First MP Tutekawa Wyllie has had his probable chronic ...
Do the results in Mt Albert, Wellington Central and Christchurch East amount to thumbing noses at head office, or are they a sign of party strength?Across three Labour selection contests in three high-profile electorates over the last fortnight, candidates have succeeded from local foundations in seeing off rivals considered ...
This week's anti-trans rally is straight out of the right-wing playbook With strange and toxic prescience, a subject from the new study Histories of Hate:The Radical Right in Aotearoa New Zealand has leapt from the pages of the book into a major news story this week. The ...
More than half of Aotearoa may need to be in native ngahere (bush) to merely blunt future worsening storms, but without such revolutionary change, Aotearoa could descend into a spiral of social, ecological, and economic damage Much of our land is without any trees, or is without the right trees, ...
Unlike other countries around the world, New Zealand has no regulations about lobbying. Is change needed to ensure greater transparency about who's influencing our decision-makers? If you want to know who lobbies the Australian government on behalf of Air New Zealand, you simply go to an online register, type ...
Cyclone Gabrielle’s hammering of Hawkes Bay has ignited fears in Southland of bridges failing and farmland flooding through “mismanagement” of accumulated gravel Southland farmer Barry Taylor is frustrated gravel is being allowed to build up beneath a bridge on one of the country’s key tourist routes despite his years of ...
Loading...(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. ...
Opinion - There's plenty of research supporting lowering the voting age to 16. Public debate and the law just need to catch up, Claire Breen writes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra As well as her interviews with politicians and experts, Politics with Michelle Grattan includes “Word from The Hill”, where she discusses the news with members of The Conversation’s politics team. In this podcast Michelle and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jingdong Yuan, Associate Professor, Asia-Pacific security, University of Sydney Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to Moscow this week has been more about reiterating China and Russia’s shared interests, and less about any concrete pathway towards ending the war in Ukraine. While a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Treena Clark, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Indigenous Research Fellow, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney This May, Wiradjuri woman Denni Francisco and her label Ngali will be the first Indigenous designer to have a solo show at Australian Fashion Week. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Treena Clark, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Indigenous Research Fellow, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney This May, Wiradjuri woman Denni Francisco and her label Ngali will be the first Indigenous designer to have a solo show at Australian Fashion Week. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Robinson, Associate Professor in Housing and Communities, University of Tasmania Shutterstock Thousands of children end up being homeless in Australia without a parent or guardian. In 2021-22, 12,812 children (aged 10-17) were on their own when they sought help ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Robinson, Associate Professor in Housing and Communities, University of Tasmania Shutterstock Thousands of children end up being homeless in Australia without a parent or guardian. In 2021-22, 12,812 children (aged 10-17) were on their own when they sought help ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra There has been a lot of talk about the risk of financial contagion following the collapse of California’s Silicon Valley Bank. Perhaps too much talk. While the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra There has been a lot of talk about the risk of financial contagion following the collapse of California’s Silicon Valley Bank. Perhaps too much talk. While the ...
A Pacific elder and former secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum says Pacific leaders need to sit up and pay closer attention to AUKUS and the Indo-Pacific strategy and China’s response to them. Speaking from Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, Dame Meg Taylor said Pacific leaders were being sidelined ...
The government says it should have details on which weather-hit areas are high risk within three weeks, and can then make decisions about rebuilding. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carly Tozer, Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO Dean Lewins/AAPLa Niña and El Niño are well-known terms in Australia these days. Linked to them are certain expectations: we expect wet conditions in La Niña and dry conditions in El Niño. These ...
Promoters say The Game has pulled out of his upcoming appearance at two legs of a new New Zealand hip-hop festival, continuing the Compton rapper’s sketchy attendance record in Aotearoa. In an announcement made on Facebook today, promoters Room Service say The Game, real name Jayceon Taylor, has “last-minute commitments” ...
Counter-protests are planned for this weekend as a controversial anti-trans campaigner speaks in two New Zealand cities. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull will be allowed into the country after Immigration NZ said the threshold to stop her had not been reached. In a tweet, Rainbow Greens, the group that released an open letter ...
We asked workers at some of our favourite food establishments to show us what they eat when the rush is over.This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter The Boil Up. Last week was Work Week on The Spinoff, dedicated to unpacking our relationship with the world ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: Who will drain Wellington’s lobbying swamp? Wealthy vested interests have an oversized influence on political decisions in New Zealand. Partly that’s due to their use of corporate lobbyists. Fortunately, the influence lobbyists can have on decisions made by politicians is currently under scrutiny in ...
65 percent of Kiwis surveyed admit they would have no idea what to do if their identity was stolen Norton, a leading consumer Cyber Safety brand of Gen, today announced the New Zealand launch of Norton™ 360 Platinum, which leverages the company's ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Claire Breen, Professor of Law, University of Waikato Getty Images There might have been pragmatic political reasons behind the government throwing voting-age legislation onto its recent policy bonfire, but it remains a sadly wasted opportunity. The announcement reversed former ...
ANALYSIS:By Bevin Veale, Massey University The impending arrival of Kelly-Jean Keen-Minshull — aka Posie Parker — has put the spotlight on the tension between free speech and protecting vulnerable communities in Aotearoa New Zealand. In particular, it raises questions about Immigration New Zealand’s role in limiting who can visit ...
Wairoa has ready-to-go projects that could be accelerated to quickly get people back into homes following Cyclone Gabrielle, Minister Willie Jackson was told on a visit to Wairoa today. Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa is seeking a Government commitment ...
A new report published by the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union exposes the bad decision-making that led to a 61% cost blowout in Auckland’s City Rail Link and shows that the costs of the project now significantly outweigh any benefits. ‘The City Rail Link: ...
Immigration NZ has today confirmed that the controversial anti-trans campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull will be allowed into New Zealand for her speaking events this week. You can read our report here – and the full statement from Immigration NZ’s Richard Owen to the media is below: “I can confirm that ...
Immigration NZ says it knows some people will be unhappy, but ultimately the threshold to bar Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull from New Zealand hasn’t been reached.The British anti-transgender campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, also known as Posie Parker, will be allowed into New Zealand this weekend, Immigration NZ has confirmed.Keen-Minshull’s ability to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Stevens, Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Adelaide Antarctica is an icy place today, but the ice extended even further during past ice ages. The question of how and where life survived on land in the icy continent, through the ages, has ...
Like a Tongan Cool Runnings, with trumpets instead of bobsleds, Red, White & Brass is a feel-good movie based on an incredible true story. First-time film producer Halaifonua Finau tells Sela Jane Hopgood how he got it made.In 2016, promising new Tongan producer Halaifonua Finau was sitting in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Thomas Gleeson, Doctoral Candidate, Australian National University Luz Rovira / Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND In the 19th century, Charles Darwin was one of the first to notice something interesting about domesticated animals: different species often developed similar changes when compared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katharine Kemp, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney New research reveals serious privacy flaws in fertility apps used by Australian consumers – emphasising the need for urgent reform of the Privacy Act. Fertility apps provide a number ...
The Fiji Times “The University of the South Pacific (USP) has been and continues to be a bedrock for regionalism. A resource owned by the region; for the region and a precious institution that needs to be protected in line with the vision of our forebearers.” This was the message ...
By Claudia Tally in Port Moresby A Papua New Guinean family who have been renting a property from the National Housing Corporation for the past 46 years have been served with a 24-hour eviction notice by a different owner who had obtained an eviction notice from the Port Moresby District ...
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown’s plans to cut back on spending could see the council quit Local Government NZ, the group that represents councils across the country. Stuff’s Todd Niall has reported that $400,000 would be saved by the move, with mayor Brown reportedly wanting to direct that money into other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frederic Gachon, Associate Professor, Physiology of Circadian Rhythms, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland Gregory Pappas/Unsplash Some of us love to be tucked up in bed by a particular time every night, ensuring a certain number of hours ...
The government has launched campaign to help young people navigate break-ups with the long-term aim of preventing family violence, believed to be the first of its kind. ...
The government has launched campaign to help young people navigate break-ups with the long-term aim of preventing family violence, believed to be the first of its kind. ...
Sports can be hugely beneficial for children but there are still many barriers for trans kids wanting to play, writes researcher Julia de Bres.There’s been a lot of talk recently about trans athletes in high performance sport, much of which derives from a broader anti-trans project rather than a ...
A new documentary follows Amber Clyde, skateboarder and founder of Girls Skate NZ, as she works to rebuild her confidence in the sport while juggling solo motherhood.Amber Clyde remembers being bullied as the only girl at the skate park in Birkenhead – but these days all the same bullies ...
After dedicating years to helping young women find their confidence in skateboarding, Amber Clyde must teach herself how to get back on the board after the birth of her second child. But balancing the realities of being a solo Mum with running her own business means that her time is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arthur Immanuel Crichton, PhD candidate, Flinders University Relative of _Chunia pledgei_ named _Ektopodon serratus_ (top left), with _Wakaleo oldfieldi_.Reconstruction of the early Miocene Kutjumarpu faunal assemblage by Peter Schouten, CC BY-SA Imagine a vast, lush forest dominated by giant flightless birds ...
I work part time and at weekends, but don’t mind that. But do we need as many people working weekends, and is it destroying family and community life? I don’t have children, but it must be hard for parents of young children to need to work weekends. In fact, one of the weekend cleaners at my workplace has said things to that effect.
And when Monday to Friday workers complain about losing a public holiday every few years, do they realise many people never get the Monday public holidays and welcome the years a public holiday falls at a weekend?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/wellbeing/6786313/Where-did-the-weekends-go
And this change to a 7 day business week has come from businesses that want to increase their profits. Do we really need 7 day shopping, when many places in Europe manage quite well with shops closing on Sundays?
Totally agree with your comment, pity those who allow laws to be made forgot about the voter and what is best for the country. But I am sure that those who supported the Mondanising of ANZAC and Waitangi Days didn’t give a second thought to the group you are part of Carol. I am still surprised that no-one has commented why Labour is supporting the extension of consumerism and big business to the extent that we will have shops open 364 of the 365 day p.a..and I am waiting for someone to question why Christmas day should be the exception?
As can be seen by this post many here could not care about the damage done by Labour to the worker, all they seem to have in mind is the damage National causes and too bad about the collateral damage that was caused by Labour governments
Labour lurched to the right and accepted the Monetarist economic theory in the 1970s despite the fact that they first came to power when the previous implementation of such a theory collapsed.
Hi Carol,
I’ve just read the stuff article you posted and have popped over here to see if there was any one talking about it- and you are!
I think our obsessive consumerism is ulitmately damaging for society, and fully agree with the points and observations in this article. I’ve worked in retail off and on through my life, starting out in 1989 prior to the ECA coming into effect and the subsequent scrapping of penal rates, among many other reductions in working conditions. I remember if you had to work the odd Saturday morning you got double pay. It was time and half on Friday night. Eventually things changed to what they are now. My last job was a fall back position in retail. The recession came and I couldn’t use my tertiary qual I had recently obtained. I worked every Saturday for two years and it was so depressing on top of everything else that was wrong with working there.
Ironically I had written an essay for one of my papers, on the topic on deteriorating work life balance and its effect on psychological well being, using the NZ example and comparing with differing employment legislation and experience in other industralised countries. Guess what, NZ came out on the bottom in regard to long hours worked and stress related illness. The worst affected groups worked in service: retail, hospitality and caregiving.
The profit at any cost mentality we have in NZ is so damaging in so many ways, to so many sectors of society and the labour market is no exception. It would be great to see more media discussion about this.
I think our obsessive consumerism is ulitmately damaging for society
I ahgree with this, but to a fair extent it’s a voluntary condition. For evey excessive marketer (that continues) there’s a willing market.
No PG, it’s not voluntary. When people don’t have enough to eat and can’t cover the bills then they’re willing to work long hours for SFA – exactly as planned by the neo-liberals.
But many many people voluntarily buy too much stuff and too much of the wrong sort of stuff.
Very profound.
Of course, if penal rates were mandatory on the weekend, the cause of your handwringing would be solved for the weekend. And workers would be better off.
Pete you have been showing signs of trying to understand of late, but this you do not comprehend.
Marketing and advertising are based on the long term studies of human nature, and psychology plays a huge part in the campaigns, which have rendered the average person into a dribbling moronic, consumer. The advertsing is part if the wider attack on society, the family, the individual. You name it, its being attacked!
While I agree with you that the resposibility lies with the end user, their ability to critically understand what has been happening to them, has been removed.
The techniques too advanced, and the systems attacking the spirit at every turn, has lead to societal misery, and rampant consumerism is a symptom, and much of the related debt.
These things are all closely linked.
Often “willing” markets opened up by coercion, force and threat. Yeah, that’s real willing.
Also those who prey on human weaknesses – pokie machines being the classic example of highly specialist designed interactions constructed to be physiologically addictive.
Remember, everyone, you live in a vacuum completely bereft of societal messages about wealth, value, deriving satisfaction in material objects! You are not constantly bombarded with advertisements inventing issues which their products will solve! You are not being told on a daily basis that if you don’t eat this, use this, own this, you are stupid/uncool/damaging your children/ruining your own life!
Pete thinks so, so it must be true.
To be fair, Pete has never let his fundamental unpopularity affect his decisions. His lack of electoral support was spectacular, but he still believes he knows what “the people” want. He is told daily that he’s a jerk, and the point hasn’t sunk in yet. So he can’t see why anyone else would be different.
I don’t care about being called a jerk here, especially when you see who calls me one. Abuse makes a very poor argument.
I get different feedback in different forums – some of them refer to here as full of jerks and wonder why I bother commenting here. Do you think that will sink in? I doubt any one will care either.
Really? I was simply going by your reception here and in your local electorate. Where do you get positive feedback, petey?
I actually got some very positive feedback in the electorate for my main focus, including from all four eventual Dunedin baseed MP’s (on record in local newspapers). And what I went into the election campaign for is still progressing here.
And you might be surprised who I got positive feedback from today – from someone who played a significant role in Green campaigning, we’re on a similar wavelength on a very interesting project and may combine our efforts. People prepared to put ideologies aside and work collabaritively.
What I do here is a relatively minor part of what I’m doing.
What I do here is a relatively minor part of what I’m doing.
oh? Good.
Nice to hear that your competing candidates didn’t call you a jerk in the press.
Do you think that will sink in?
A girl can hope.
I’m well aware of the persuasiveness of pervasiveness of marketing. But it can’t be banned, and cannot be easily controlled by regulation. The best way to beat it is by playing them at their own game, social marketing. Either that or just accept that sheep will be always be sheep, and the marketing shepherds will keep convincing them of all the things they don’t really need.
So … you understand marketing is persuasive, but still want to call people “sheep”. Another fine chapter in the Pete George Manifesto Of Knowing Better Than You, Youngsters.
Any suggestions on a better way of describing the MacDonald syndrome?
The lecturers at my sales & marketing courses had a name for people like you Pete. Profit. The easiest people to con are those who think they can’t be conned. They look at everyone else as sheep & don’t even notice their own fleece has been shorn.
The Fair Trading Act is a good law to control deceptive marketing, it just doesn’t get enforced enough.
Critical thinking of consumer economics and marketing really needs to be taught as a high school staple, it really is a valuable life skill. I never recall being taught anything remotely relevant to it during my stint in the education system. If anything it was the opposite, they were teaching ways to make a living out of the consumerist status quo.
My education on critical thought of the topic came from the good old university of Real Life. I was fortunate enough to spend some time living on a tight budget in the UK when I was younger doing my OE. It taught me there was much more to life than what the TV told me I wanted to buy. I learned a real appreciation for not frittering away hard earned money on consumer marketed junk. I don’t even own a TV now, I’ll catch a very small selection of tv shows on-demand and that’s it, and I skip all the ads.
As far as I’m concerned if a company has to advertise it’s product, you probably don’t need it. When I buy stuff, I start with MY opinion of what I need, then research to find out what is most suitable/ethical (e.g. free range animal products) solution. Often I may not even buy something if I can make/recycle/repair/improvise something myself. Even buying something second hand, no shame in that, it’s better than a perfectly functional product it ending up in the tip. I am a big fan of trademe & local markets for that very reason.
Well, It is part of the new New Zealand curriculum.
Probably one of the reasons NACT is so keen on sabotaging its introduction.
That’s good to hear something along those lines is taught now, I just don’t recall anything similar during my time circa 80s early 90s.
I hope it doesn’t get sabotaged.
Yes, the ‘messages’ are important influences but I think the importance of the way things are organised, the structures of daily life are often overlooked as mechanisms to encourage consumerism and eliminate alternatives.
For example, time pressure makes malls appear like convenient ways of purchasing different kinds of goods all in one place. But, then, once you’re in the mall the psychological engineering kicks in. The structures of modern life, that is, serve us all up (soften us all up?) for the messages.
I started my working life in retail back in the days when we had a Thursday or Friday late night. I got up to management level & then they brought in Saturday trading. I’d work a 12hr day Friday & then 9-12 Saturday, it put a crimp in the social life. Then it went to 9-3pm Saturday and that’s when I quit the trade, got too much.
Retail trading hours are bad for the family and social life, I’d be happy to see Sunday trading disappear so everyone can have a break. It’s not as if retail turnover would be affected, same amount of money would still be spent it would just be spent in six days instead of seven.
Can’t see it changing though, consumers have gotten too used to the convenience of all-weekend & evening shopping.
Absolutely, no we don’t!
Ratings time must be due in radioland. Michael Laws at his attention seeking best (or worst):
Prevent bad parents in advance by sterilising them, pay them not to breed. Heard it all before. It’s sure to stir up a demographic.
Michael Laws to be Sterilisation Selector chief? Or just mischief.
Well he is the man who said we should line the whole country up against a wall and pick out everyone who looks like a “crim” and send them to jail.
He then said “you might not get all of them but you’d get most of them, surely” or something very similar to this.
Frankly the man is a [email protected], in the quite literal sense.
Thanks for that Captain Obvious.
You must spend a lot of time listening to those shock jocks, you are always going on about what they are saying.
A death match between you and Laws would be cool. Whichever one lost would be a score for NZ.
Obvious perhaps, but sometimes obvious things need restating. I don’t much like the idea that we should avoid pointing out obvious [email protected] in our public discourse just because we already know about them.
That could be seen as a tacit – even if unintended – acceptance of such views.
And yep I absorb a fair bit of media, some by choice and some by circumstance. Thankfully Laws is more a case of “occasionally by chance”.
No, you just like to mouth off.
You and Laws are opposite sides of the same coin.
The Left doesn’t need rad fems hanging around. Unless their goal is to stay out of government.
What’s the alternative to being a feminist?
Oh, I do so love to see people outing themselves as misogynists – especially when it’s by out-of-nowhere dropping radical feminism into a conversation about talkback radio.
Well well, the Valerie Solanas wannabe has rocked on up today! Must be a bit lonely over there on your blog, averaging about 2 comments an article, and they usually your own comments, lol.
The Left doesn’t need rad fem man haters.
Oh, I’m so wounded! A Valerie Solanas comment AND a stab at my readership? If only I didn’t post here on a semi-regular basis, frequently getting 100+ comments on my posts …
You know you still need to actually back up your statements with links, right? I’ve mentioned it a couple of times now, and I am truly excited to know how you’ve deduced felix is a man-hater.
LOL. I have a sneaking suspicion Felix is a male.
But carry on amusing us tearing the fire bringer apart.
felix has been here almost from the beginning.
Remarkably for someone who has said so much food for thought, and given so much sheer delight and pleasure with the ritual disembowlings routinely administered … I still have absolutely no clear sense of who he or she is. I don’t even care whether felix is a boy or girl… it’s what is said that matters. And felix has been one of a handful who have shaped The Standard into what it is. The pseudonym tells all you really need to know; playful, dangerously intelligent and has sharp claws.
Nor does has any narrow ‘rad-fem’ agenda ever been apparent. felix contributes on all sorts of threads and topics.
What’s the alternative to being a feminist?
My answer is simple and plain. There is none. The slaver, property-owning patriarchy makes life a misery for most of humanity; male and female. We would all be much better off without it. And our sex lives would be a lot more fun too.
more rad fem nonsense
hardly the stuff that’s going to get Labour some votes off National
k_p, if you think statements like “we would all be better off without patriarchy” constitute “radical feminism”, you could be in for a rude shock one day.
Oh really? You think you’ve managed to mainstream that do you?
Nope. Not at all mainstream.
And in fact not even mainstream here at The Standard. We hardly ever frame discussions in purely ‘radical femminist’ terms as you would have it. For me it’s mostly a private aspect of my life. What I think about, how I see things and what I value is mostly my own business. Except here.
This is a place to say things that are not mainstream, where you can say what you really think and have people respond. Quite often you aren’t going to like the response; but it’s real and sometimes, quite often, you learn stuff.
Usually about yourself.
kp, you’ve spent too much time around Chris Trotter.
You’ve spent too much time around QofBS.
I see that you are environmentally conscious, if not a feminist. You recycle other people’s lines frequently.
As a white middle-aged male I came quite late in life to how I think about ‘feminism’. A few years ago I’d been saying much the same line you are right now k_p. I’m not in a mood right now to reprise everything that changed my mind; but has been a real collection of ideas from numerous sources; many of them more related to behavioural evolution and epigenetics than any exposure to a ‘radical feminist’ agenda you are so contemptuous of.
In fact I’m utterly innocent of having read ANY serious feminist material whatsoever.
I’ve really arrived at my own understanding from a completely different direction, equally as much to do with how badly the patriarchy servers MOST men, as it also fundamentally shapes world into a place most women feel it unsafe to be their real selves.
But carry on with the contempt and sneering if you want. Don’t imagine for an instant it will impress anyone. We’ve seen it all before.
Sneering and contempt?
Hypocrite. Your fellow femininsts mates felix and QofT show plenty of that in their rants.
Yeah, but we’re sneering and contemptuous towards people who make hilarious statements like “felix is a radical feminist” and who think adding “BS” to a person’s screenname constitutes an argument.
You still haven’t backed up any of your statements. Ours just requires a person to scroll up, read your “contributions”, and join in the sniggering.
Well for one I respect felix for having the stomach to listen to Laws. Frankly I’d just get too angry and finish up breaking too many radios.
But someone has to speak up against the evil this man is spewing. Sure he may be running as a ‘shock jock’ and only a minority might put their hands up to support what he is saying. But it normalises and desensitises us to something that is fundamentally wrong.
All people have the fundamental right to have children. Laws does not get to set some entirely arbitrary standard on who gets to reproduce and who does not.
Promoting compulsory sterilisation is pure facist evil. Of the most egregious kind.
Free speech is not the same as being free to say anything you like and Laws has stepped well over the boundary with this.
felix is permanently in a rage – oscillating between full blown and barely supressed – after all she is a rad fem. So listening to Laws all day would have no discernible effect on her mood.
Yes I agree the media needs cleaning up – Laws, Henry, Holmes et al. A result of a generation of neoliberal policy.
I know politics makes for strange bed mates but felix is a false friend, those misanthropists are losers.
after all she is a rad fem
I am honestly thoroughly intrigued by this allegation and most desirous of your citations.
Nope. You have been here five minutes k_p; felix I’ve been reading for over five years. In that time you may not ever know who a commenter is in real life, but you do get a real sense of their soul.
I’d suggest you’ve leapt to a wrong conclusion based on limited evidence. To put it politely.
I’d suggest k_p thinks that laying down the “you’re a radical feminist!” smackdown is somehow a killer silencing move. Further evidence to support the notion that k_p hasn’t known felix very long.
Funny how it’s you who turns up to defend her then.
I like felix, whose gender identity I am ignorant of. And you’re funny, and if you’d been here longer than 10 minutes you’d know how I like to poke the funny ones.
All this hate for women.
To be honest, I haven’t seen anything from you that is worth reading. You don’t argue, just state baseless ‘facts’ as if that wins the argument and then go all ad hominem when called on it.
Kiwi_prometheus would appear to be able to determine almost everything about all of us, without effort, based purely on his own prejudices.
The thing I have noticed most : how often he has got it wrong. Oh well, he will get his sooner or later. I hope I am around to see it happen . 😉
We should totally throw a party or something!
Eugenics and misogyny on the same page – he’s getting more efficient at this, isn’t he? Apparently women have these babies by themselves. Happy to read that you don’t support that tripe, Pete.
And as expected there’s support for what he says. Including support for compulsory contraception.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/04/general_debate_22_april_2012.html
It’s scary that there are people who would go down thatv track, but the chances of it happening are virtually nil in New Zealand.
We hope but we really need to work to ensure that it doesn’t.
I wonder what L(h)aws will do when he remembers that he opposed Ruth’s benefit cuts back in ’91, even to the point that he walked out of the party….
Maybe laws could start the ball rolling by setting an example!
Absolutely cutting critique of the debacle that is the F1 in Bahrain this weekend.
Can’t interrupt BAU.
Delicious
F1 just seems like a relic of a passing era of excess and loud impractical objects being hurtled around a track for the pleasure of uber geeks, the rich and famous and TV.
Serious racing allows passing and driver skill determining the outcome not he who has the best technology. They keep altering the rules to make it sort of competitive but as Melbourne have found out at 50 mill p.a. to host it ain’t worth it so Berne has to cuddle up to the oil barons unless he wants a much reduced calendar.
Sad news: http://news.yahoo.com/aboriginal-teens-shot-sydney-police-033712949.html
Made me think of this haunting song –
“Maralinga” Paul Kelly live 2012:
What’s sad about it? A couple of idiots got themselves shot for being a danger to the rest of the community.
Is that how you see it?
The driver was 14, and I understand that he was known to the police who were chasing the vehicle when it left the road, as were all the youths in the car.
The police opened fire on the passengers. Hard to see how that was in the interest of public safety. Hard to imagine a similar scenario involving euro-aussie youth.
And had just run over and hospitalised a woman on the footpath.
No, they opened fire on the car. And, no, I don’t have any sympathy for the passengers either.
The charge of racism may be accurate but then the police did have to stop them and they didn’t have a lot of choice on how. What did you expect them to do? Stand in front of the car, hand up yelling stop perhaps?
Far from homicidal rage, kids in this situation (and even adults) are usually operating out of blind panic.
How exactly does shooting the driver stop the car, or get it back on the road in this situation anyway? What could be achieved other than even more death and injury?
Need more info than I’ve been able to find, obviously.
But 14 Draco. And the the cops knew he was a terrified kid.
You severely injure or kill the driver so that the driver can no longer actively and effectively operate the vehicle.
Being 14 and terrified does not make a car driven into a crowded footpath any less of a lethal weapon. Remember in NZ, a 14 year old is considered responsible and mature enough to look after young children in the home.
You severely injure or kill the driver so that the driver can no longer actively and effectively operate the vehicle
So you mean you hope he can no longer press the accelerator? Doesn’t stop the car or get it onto the road. Maybe, seeing as the kid was fleeing from the cops, backing the fuck off might have been a more effective strategy.
…14 year old is considered responsible and mature enough to look after young children in the home. And that is the only “adult” privilege a 14 year old is allowed. Can’t drink, drive, have sex, vote, gamble, smoke, leave school…….. but can be shot down like an animal with no obvious advantage to the pedestrians in danger.
Were you an adult at 14 CV?
I sure as hell wasn’t.
I have a real simple rule, which boils down to not fucking off people with firearms.
I’m pretty sure I had that rule when I was 14 as well, having been young in countries where it was routine for law enforcement and security guards to pack heat.
At 14 years of age I also knew that it was best to follow police instructions. Didn’t you? Even though you weren’t legally an “adult” yet?
Two ways:
1.) He realizes that there is no way out and stops the car
2.) Being no longer able to control the car, he crashes
Both ways result in less chance of other people being maimed or killed. Considering the danger he was to other people, age doesn’t come into it.
The was stationary. The police walked up to the window and fired. Nothing to do with stopping the car.
Really? Link?
My view of it from the TV3 news clip was the same, looked like a deliberate execution,
The car obviously was not in gear and was stationary when the shots were fired through the windscreen,
the drivers foot went down on the gas pedal and stayed that way with the car revving like hell after He,(the driver), had been shot twice,the car wasn’t moving despite all the revving…
TV footage? I didn’t see it.
But from the sounds of it, the police force over there is in a lot of trouble.
Don’t know about the ‘trouble’ bit for the Oz plods, justification for such shootings are usually found, much like the shootings on the Auckland motorway were ‘found’ to be justified,
The plod with all the braid and silverware shown on the TV3 news clip made mention that the cars occupants had been involved in previous armo’s and it will be interesting to see if anyone in the car was carrying firearms…
Often a bunch of cocks, and with a legacy of being corrupt as hell.
But I can’t find any footage of the shooting on the interwebz – lots of the aftermath. but nothing of the actual incident.
So I’m not sure where “The was stationary. The police walked up to the window and fired. Nothing to do with stopping the car” came from.
And let’s also remember that the drivers ran down a 29 year old woman who suffered significant chest injuries when pinned under the vehicle.
I saw a real stupid incident on the roads tonight, involving a couple of quite young, drunk guys. A serious life threatening accident accident could have been caused if things had happened just a bit differently.
Both children and parents need to remember their responsibilities to each other and to society.
Crazy kids,better throw the lot of them in Borstal, ya never know there might be A John A lee among them some place,
Can’t see any justification tho in blowing the kid away for hitting the woman,summary justice is the thing of B grade cowboy movies and such should stay firmly in that realm,
In a heavily armed society the plod that pulled the trigger is making it just that much little more likely that a month down the road some crazy kid is going to unload a full magazine into one of his fellow officers on some routine traffic stop…
Designer stubble is obviously back .. woohoo
Obviously Gillette and Philips no longer sponsor this over-paid indulged group.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/apr/21/bahrain-gp-sebastian-vettel-pole
What a bunch of self pleasurers the once mighty F1 lot have become, the ‘pique’ of mega millions professional sport, this is where it ends up. Empty stands while the streets are full of locals and immigrant workers battling the state for basic rights.
Why don’t they retire the whole circus and just make it virtual for those that must watch these robotic spoilt tax exiles.
Sad to hear of the death of John Haigh. While it would be fair to say he made his living as a QC advising the wealthy, as a younger lawyer, he was tireless in his support of workers and their unions, as his father Frank had been before him. Saved my arse a couple of times, for sure!
Agreed Te Reo. A fine lawyer and a gentleman. A sad loss
John did great work for unions and union members with often tricky injuctions etc in the 80s to early 90s. I only looked askance at his later clients when they started including the odd bent copper. But you have to be guided by his peers regard, the best of lawyers take on the most appalling of customers.
Condolences etc.
Anther successful education project by the nacts NOT.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/6786393/Few-parents-prosecuted-over-truancy
For all we love to bag Granny Herald, and for all the times its reaction and lack of real depth in understanding how the neoliberal reforms are continuing to polarise Auckland (and the rest of the country) into the haves and have nots, there are times and certain kinds of issues when the Herald does its job of being the Auckland civic watchdog very well indeed.
Once again this morning their editorial around the casino is probing, and shows a level of social awareness and responsibility that you have to acknowledge:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10800530
Other articles dig into the issue from other angles: questioning losing a theatre space, actual jobs created, etc.
And they learn, because they work a local beat: Brian Rudman got off to an awful start with his articles on light rail (called something like “Last chance to stop the trains”) arguing the need to vote John Banks in ahead of Christine Fletcher, whose responsibility in dealing with Auckland’s actual problems had turned her into some kind of public transport convert. Now, Brian is the most cogent voice on many aspects of civic development NZ has.
Simon Collins is the only senior journalist we have who writes from a really informed position about social policy. He knows policy detail, he weighs things, he knows real people who are who are involved with eg the benefit system, he does the research, he provokes and grounds debate in this area better than anyone else in the mainstream media.
Yes, I expect to be quoted on this Herald- liking when the worm turns next time: but compared to the Dom Post (whose editorial team often seem convinced they have the inside line/ wisdom of Prometheus, but are often wrong and reactionary with it), I would say that Herald’s editorial folk are more than capable of some useful civic voice.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10800530
They publish Bernard Hickey articles, so they are doing something right.
Labour should get BH to formulate their economic policy instead of going with neo classic lite.
You are politically illiterate and or trolling k_p, Bernard Hickey only began to seriously critique the ‘banksters’ in recent times after they (finance capital) almost crashed the world economy in 2008.
I have known Bernard since he was a young boy .We are friends of his family and he was a close friend of our son. However his politics even then was very Right-wing.He has certainly mellowed but I think underneath he is still National inclined.
David – while it is refreshing to see something resembling ‘useful civic voice’ from the Herald editorial it is far from being hook free. Take the following passage for example:
“The liquor and gambling industries thrive at our well-documented social cost.”
True.
“Their expensively contrived advertising imagery depicts both as part of a vibrant and happy social life – which of course they are; plenty of people gain great pleasure and do minimal harm to themselves or anyone else by participating in such pursuits.”
Hang on a minute – this kind of contradicts the previous sentence, or at least makes light of the ‘cost’ – and how? By referring to ‘plenty of people’ – I don’t want to get into a stat battle here but the MOH has this to say:
“The Ministry of Health estimates 25 percent of New Zealand drinkers aged between 12-65 years are heavy drinkers, consuming large amounts of alcohol on a typical drinking occasion. Other estimates have put the number of Kiwis binge drinking at over 50 percent.”
And when it comes to gambling the figures are worse – approx 10% of the population are regular continuous gamblers – the kind most at risk from addiction, and 60% of these are likely to develop a gambling problem in their lifetime.
So actually quite a lot of people potentially have a problem with drinking and over half of those who gamble regularly will have a problem with that too – not something to be lightly dismissed by claiming that they are part of a ‘vibrant and happy social life’
As for the Heralds regurgitated “show us the money” the whole point is that its not about the bloody money – sure the fact that the convention centre business case does not stack up financially is relevant, but the catchphrase was nauseating the first time, and no better now. We deserve better than one liners from old Tom Cruise films from the writers of editorials in our newspapers.
todays msn poll is should marijuana be decriminalised and the answer should be yes.
dope has caused more troubl ein this country than it ihas been worth.
the bluenoses, the bumblers and the authoritarians have had a field day
as soon as it is legalised and made the concern of the community and allotted an appropriate place the better.
as it stands it wastes police time, and confuses people about the evils of real drugs like coke and smack and speed not to mention alcohol and tobacco.
Cab Calloway – Reefer Man (1932)
Leroy ‘Stuff’ Smith – You’se A Viper (1937)
Fraternity Of Man – Don’t Bogart Me (1969)
Brewer & Shiply – One Toke Over the Line (1971)
New Riders Of The Purple Sage – Panama Red (1973)
Paul Holmes fails to impress One Direction fans
Anyone who has watched Paul Holmes salivating after pop stars and celebrities in the past will not be surprised to see him making a fool of himself as he does here. Over the years, Holmes has debased himself for a galaxy of celebrities, from the mediocre to the sinister, including Dame Kiri, Shania Twain, President Bill Clinton, Peter Jackson, Gordon Ramsay, Alistair Campbell and—perhaps most toe-curlingly awful of all, an extended live on air paean to the Christchurch-based Russian-born songstress Yulia, the closest anyone has ever come, albeit unwittingly, to rendering on screen a letter to Penthouse Forum.
In this interview with Harry and Niall of One Direction, however, Holmes is comparatively restrained. Nevertheless, there is still something here for Holmes-watchers, and connoisseurs of the inane in general. If you have any sense of the absurd, you will appreciate the following gems:
1.) “It’s feet on the ground stuff, isn’t it.”
2.) “Tell Louie I’m working hard here.” (A discomfited Holmes says that when one of the One Direction boys starts to playfully sabotage the interview. He smiles nervously and keeps calm on this occasion, but Holmes-watchers will remember his enraged bawling—“Children, STOP IT, we are trying to WORK here!”—as primary school kids skylarked all around him during a live cross somewhere in the rural North Island on his pisspoor—now defunct—Television One show Holmes.)
3.) “This shouting girls thing, this screaming girls thing: is it hard to cope with?” (This question was written for him by Tony “Boot Boy” Veitch, who has also had to cope with the screaming of women, but in a different context.)
The girls who love One Direction were clearly not impressed by the hate talk legend….
One girl, xMissLexi attracted 26 thumbs up endorsements in just a few hours for this comment: “I swear to god if the interviewer interrupts one more fucking time there are going to be some serious
issues.”
A little while later, one “hannnahspanner” commented…
“I know right, god i hate him for being so RUDE!!!it is embarrassing.”
I was reading Bomber’s review of The Nation/Q&A when he quipped about Jane Clifton and there being life after Murray McCully…
Wait… Jane and Muzza are no longer a power couple?
Don’t know the details and cannot be bothered researching it as I am not that interested, but I understand that they separated about 2 – 3 years ago after 20+ years as a “power couple”, as you described them.
One of Slippery’s bookends, Gerry Brownlee is in news yet again for being the bully boy, this time during a media interview,
Its in the Tories nature when under pressure to turn septic,resort to abuse and then when all else fails retreat into ‘standover’ tactics,
The other bookend, Joyce has been trying to take the heat off of their Slippery master by fronting the ‘casino catastrophe’ on behalf of National over the weekend,and, I wonder if Brownlee’s latest bout of over-projecting His Personality(or lack of such), is simply the tactics of the National Government to divert attention away from the abysmal performance of Slippery doing backroom deals with the card sharps and His pathetically insipid attempts at defending such sleazy deal making…
Christchurch, Market Forces and Gerry’s Farces
Important to point out this:
“Developers applaud Gerry”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/6783907/Developers-applaud-Gerry
Be nervous. Be very nervous.
And, for eg:
“I see no real need in putting height restrictions. Nobody’s going to build anything the market doesn’t want and nobody is going to be allowed anything that isn’t structurally very very sound.”
Another gem and own goal by Gerry. Here, at his best in revealing his psychological state of projecting and dumping his hysteria onto others that he needs to address within himself.
“All of your hysteria there won’t change the fact that we asked the Christchurch City Council to come up with a draft plan for the CBD …..”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/christchurch-earthquake/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502981&objectid=10800629
Even The Economist is increasingly discussing peak oil now: http://www.economist.com/node/21553034
Good to see Peter Slipper has stood down as speaker of the house in Australia no room for sexual predators in Politics. Going to make it very interesting for Julia Gillard now
jturd no comment on nick smith
Should never have resigned dont believe he is a bender though as far as I know
Looks like Nick has been on many benders judging by his drinkers face james.
That would be too close to home for jturd. He likes to search the word labour on the web and try use results to discredit NZ Labour. Prize fool is james.
Interesting he uses the word predator when just last week he admitted to stalking a EMPU delegate.
Play his silly game and tell him France is likely to have a left-wing Govt in a few days by the looks.
Duncan going from TV to Radio, voluntarily or shoved?
http://news.msn.co.nz/nationalnews/8455321/garner-leaves-3-news-for-radio-gig
Going from nationwide TV to a radio gig is not generally seen as a forward step in media career circles.
Another indication that Western MSM is biased.
In this case protecting the capitalists while condemning the commun1st dictators.
Enoying the live chat with Garner..
What happened to Keys cycling tack down NZ
Sunday April 22, 2012 6:52 Steve
6:52
Duncan Garner:
Steve
It was a joke – never happened – 4000 jobs? what jobs … sounds familiar …900 jobs at sky city casino deal?
Coal hearted killer
A dirty, dusty, deadly, deceitfull, business marked by bullying, greed, fear, over it all, the dreadful pall of global warming and climate change. In my opinion the price is just to high and this industry must be consigned to the dust bin of history.
Whilst having refrained recently from commenting on Pike River while the Royal Commission deliberates on the evidence they have heard I will ask readers to consider this,
Methane when combusted is odorless, 3 witnesses have given evidence to the Pike River Royal Commission,(one who had been into the main tunnel after the 1 st explosion),that after the first explosion at the mine there was a strong smell of burned diesel from within the mine,
There are of course only 2 substances within underground mining that are going to give off a strong smell of diesel after having been combusted,
The first being diesel itself,the second I will leave you to ponder for a while until the Royal commission produces its findings…
Methane, once it’s combusted, is commonly referred to as carbon dioxide and water both of which are odourless.
Well, yeah, burning coal will smell similar to burning diesel. Similar chemical make up and impurities within each.
Reading the evidence given to the Pike River Royal Commission by the South African electrician sent into the mine to see why communications and the data stream had ceased from the mine might be an eye opener…
Dude, it ain’t the sort of thing to be smug about. You seem to think you’ve made a dramatic connection somewhere. Either come out with specifics or whack off about a different topic.
As above,reading the evidence given to the Pike River royal commission by the South African electrician sent into the mine after the 1st explosion might get you thinking…
Given that you obviously can’t remember the person’s name, let alone link to the relevant transcript, want to share the cliffnotes?
PS, I have burned quite a bit of the stuff,coal that is,both in an open fire and in a coal range over a 2 year period while living down South,even when I filled the house up with smoke from having damped down the range with the wrong flue i never smelt any diesel like smell…
You were using dry house coals right?
Try wet coal – which smells quite different. Shift up to a higher grade of coal burning. Then add in leachates that burn smelling like bunker oil. Then add a methane explosion that also burns all of those plus any coal dust. The only thing you can be sure of is that won’t be odorless and that it will not smell like your house fire.
Is the worm turning – or am I being too optomistic? As well as some of the Herald’s opinion bits today (and recently), I just found this bit on Stuff from Anthony Hubbard also today and was somewhat surprised at its anti-Key tone.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/6787292/People-are-getting-angry-John
This is worth a read for those who think NZ doesn’t have much corruption;
The inside man
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/6785852/The-inside-man
Very perceptive words here from an ex-Policeman;
“I’m embarrassed that we used to run around chasing guys for $1000 they ripped off Social Welfare,” he says. “The big money is heading out the back door through softly regulated industries full of people in suits who should know better.”
All of the govt regulatory bodies are like Internal Affairs. Commerce Commission get thousands of complaints each year, many about crooked business people, and they do nothing either. They see no evil, speak no evil….
TV3/Reid research poll tonight:
National (surprisingly) and Labour (not surprisingly) about the same as the Morgan poll.
Greens up a bit, NZF down on Morgan. But overall not a big change.
If Labour can’t make any inroads into National support with whats been in the news over the last couple of weeks then maybe some serious thought has to be put in to strategies. Failed for the last three years, still failing. Leadership will come up in discussions but the problem is deeper than that.
Pete George – I have read your posts for a few months on this blog and have grown more infuriated by the week. You’re supposed to be a cheerleader for United Future, I recall that you got just over 100 votes last election in the Dunedin seat you stood in, yet you insist on bagging Labour for their ratings, which aren’t exactly setting the world on fire at the moment, but I wish you would concentrate on UF’s 0.0% rating if the latest poll is anything to go by. Are you really a NAct supporter in drag? It appears that Act and United Future have the same future politically speaking.
You’re supposed to be a cheerleader for United Future
Who told you that? Sure, I stood for UF last election (and got a par for the course result unsurprisingly, a bit more than you claim) and I respond to queries about UF here. But I act indepently mostly, as I have long before I joined UF. In fact currently I am strongly querying a UF position on asset sales.
I support some National things and people and I think voted National once, but I’m not a National supporter as such. I’ve never voted Act nor supported them. I’ve more often than not voted Labour and I supported the Clark government for the first two terms. I’ve also voted Greens.
UF always seem to get 0% in the TV3 poll, I don’t know why that is – TV3 never even reveal what question they ask. I know one poll excludes UF from it’s list of options. But UF tends to be around the 0-1% range in various polls. That’s not important to me at the moment.
I think the most important thing in NZ party politics at the moment is Labour’s non-recovery from 2008. I’d like to see as strong a Labour party as possible in opposition so they can contribute positively to Parliament, adequately rebuild and prepare for their next time in government. I am still disapointed with Labour’s lack of progress and their clinging to failed strategies. I’m not a fan of their level of attack politics. They would be more effective if they saved theirn efforts for things that really mattered, ie picked their fights.
Even TV3 don’t believe this poll, if they did it would have lead the news hour on 3 tonight,there are 2 points I simply do not believe in this poll, that National have gained more support than it had on election night,and, that NZFirst has lost over half the support it had on election night,
To us its just another in a long line of ”dont bother voting its a done deal polls” that the Montgomery Burns owners of the mass media have been using to good effect to turn people away from thinking that their vote might just make that difference,
I see the situation as this, without the 3 Maori Party MP’s votes, National have a knife edge majority of Dunne and Banks,
Its still the same 2% ballgame that it was leading up to the 2011 election and a 3rd term for National in 2014 will still require the Maori Party support of 3 seats that that party is unlikely to have at the 2014 election…
@bad12.9.06pm
‘To us its just another in a long line of ”dont bother voting its a done deal polls” that the Montgomery Burns owners of the mass media have been using to good effect to turn people away from thinking that their vote might just make that difference.”
Exactly bad12. I felt they only televised this ‘poll’ this to make Key, Joyce and all who sail in them feel good about their decomposing selves. Rather like a spray of room freshener, to stop the smell of cronyism and undemocratic dealings of our prime leader seeping through the TV set on a Sunday evening. …………………..
“There we are Johnny and Steve, nicely deodorised and spun back into the position you believe you are entitled to and now you are already for a new week of manipulation, ignorance and the use of New Zealand for our own ends- and all courtesy of TV3 non news.”
Easy to see why they pay the newsreaders such unhealthy large sums of the filthy lucre to faithfully read this stuff to the masses without actually chucking up big time or breaking into gales of mad laughter ae,
The closing dramatics from tonights TV3 clip covering the latest poll offering was the usual ramped up voice giving the usual ramped up mind numbing ”with these figures National could Govern alone”…
I don’t know who wrote those figures up but they look meaningless to me. They add up to 99.4% which means they’ve removed the ‘undecided’ respondents. No way in hell do only 0.6% say they wouldn’t vote for any of them. It’s certainly not a measure of approval for this Govt, not a measure of anything really.
Why are people concerned about ratings now anyway? They’re not going to do any good to anyone, next election is 2 1/2 yrs away.
Surface fixit/plaster for Labour = replace Shearer with Cunliffe
Unfortunately plasters don’t heal gangrene – major surgery is required.
Simple suggestions for Labour:
– Consider a name change – brand damaged
– Consider a major clean out of caucus whether by resignation and bring in new folk from the list, or lots of retirements in 2014.
– A full overhaul of policy to promote a progressive agenda that takes in to account the reality of life in 2012.
– Also policy that isn’t warmed up leftovers from a past era (50’s-70’s)
– Also policy that isn’t a left swinging knee jerk reaction to what the Nats do.
– A leader who actually believes, promotes, and is fully enthusiastic about the policies he/she stands for and who is not afraid to come down on their own team members when necessary.
– A caucus who know what the words discipline/team work/hard work/good character actually mean.
– Work on 2 way communication with grass roots supporters so that they can share/push the vision.
Without at least some of these things, Labour is like a ship that has had a fire at sea – its still floating but sure is dead in the water and going no where fast.
Totally agree problem is greater than Shearer Greens are now becoming left party of choice. Also fully agree with this comment below
A full overhaul of policy to promote a progressive agenda that takes in to account the reality of life in 2012.
Labour needs to realise that employers aren’t evil, and it OK for people to make money with out throwing in the envy card every time.
They only seem to have one revenue policy that is tax people to death ,and if they are still moving tax them again.
Haven’t seen one idea from them that will grow the economy
[Take a week off for playing the ‘envy’ card. Idiot sloganeering no longer tolerated…RL]
There is envy all right. The wealthy are so envious of what we have left, they are grabbing that too.
The US economy was growing at its fastest rate ever when the rich were taxed at 91%.
Havn’t you noticed what has happened since the tax cuts for the rich?
Transferring money from the rich, who hoard it or waste it in pointless money gambling schemes, to those who spend locally, is a proven method of growing an economy.
Tax and spend is exactly what we should do. It is how New Zealand got out of the 30’s depression ahead of the USA.
Instead of borrowing, selling, giving money to rich cronies and hoping the confidence fairy returns.
Yep. Asset/capital taxes and spending that money back into circulation is the only way ahead.
If the largest holders of capital refuse that approach, the Government should simply print the money it needs to keep the economy going, into the economy, while ensuring it is directed into productive areas which increase efficient operation and competition within the economy.
If at some stage excess money supply appears to be driving inflation the Government can either enter a specific market itself to increase competition and/or withdraw money from the supply by increasing taxes and savings rates further.
No problem.
Idiot sloganeering no longer tolerated.
Well, I look forward to this being applied evenhandedly.
[lprent: Well this site was never meant to be an even playing field (read the about), we’re interested in views from outside the labour movement if they add to the debate and fools being repetitive simply don’t do that. But have you ever noticed that james111 or yourself get relatively lenient bans compared to others with similar opinions? It is because we’re not looking at the opinions as much as the behaviour.
Moderators tend to find that a simple warning is enough to get most of the commentators attention and change in behaviour (which is what we want). Most of the commentators are from the centre and left and respond to relatively simple and easy guidance about what is tolerated. Whereas often those believing in the principles of the Divine Right usually require a frigging club and a lot of force to pound through to them that they don’t make the rules – we do.
So experience has taught the moderators to use whatever is most effective on different types of people to achieve our site objectives of having interesting robust debate. That is why you’ll see differences in handling depending on peoples behaviour. Someone like philu or Wayne/Mark fit the profile of being stupid egotists who just won’t listen and they get permanent bans because it reduces our workload. People who do listen but only after being banned like SHG will get bans of increasingly longer spans until we find where they either leave or listen. Others respond immediately to [warnings] and still others you only have to write a cutting comment about their behaviour.
In short, even handedness is from the perspective of the moderators – not from the perspective of the commentators. If you respond to less draconian techniques then we’ll use less. If it takes more draconian measures, then we’ll use more. The primary aim is for us to use the least amount of effort to get a desired result. ]
K. But the rule is “no idiot sloganeering”, right?
Blame the polls. The number of bannings seems to have a relationship to the popularity of the govt. three polls against the received standardistas wisdom over the weekend and i’ve counted three bans today for relatively trivial things. Moderator grumpiness index seems set to high…
What? National tanked at 21% and came back. Labour isnt damaged as much as NZ is still in love with Key – They never did anything actually wrong. Shearer at least should take this as a serious request by the public to get off the fence stand up and fight back.
I think Labour far from having a need to completely re-invent itself should simply firmly focus upon what had the Party leading the left of New Zealand politics from the coal mines of the West Coast into Governing the country of New Zealand and cementing into place the physical manifestation of the principals of social justice to protect the most vulnerable members of our society, much of which still stands albeit under constant attack from the right,
There are a million voters who have not voted for 2 elections even though they are registered to do so,
The missing million sure as hell aint going to vote for National, an obvious seeing as they did not vote for that Party despite the election bribe of tax cuts in 2008 and didn’t vote for national again in 2011 despite the election bribe of being able to tuck into the part sale of the most profitable of state owned assets,
Labour and the Greens need find out what it is that will turn out the missing million to the ballot box on election day 2014, its really that simple,
I have the view that it is my democratic duty to do so,vote that is,even at times when what is on offer at the ballot box is unpalatable,
The view here is that we should make voting a matter of legal requirement just as registering to do so is…
Why are these people uninspired to turn out and vote for Labour? Get this answer right and 2014 belongs to Labour.
Jimmie gives Labour a whole lot of recommendations straight from the Right Wing. Who are scared to death of Cunliffe. (Notice how Cunliffe was put up front and centre by Jimmie haha)
I agree with you CV that Cunliffe would be a more effective leader than Shearer – but would just changing their leader be enough to make the voters go, ‘ oh, yeah, Labour, we ditched them at the last two elections, but now that Cunliffe is in charge we’ll come and vote for them again.
I dunno – I think its a lot to have riding on the shoulders of one man – and what if Cunliffe fails to inspire the public? What if the anyone but Cunliffe brigade doesn’t pull their weight heading into 2014? Its a risk and 2017 is a long way away.
I know I am right wing with my view on life, but the advice I previously posted was just wanting to be helpful, as NZ needs strong parties from both sides of the fence, and at the moment Labour aint cutting it. Also when we do have to have a left wing government I’d prefer one dominated by Labour and NZF rather than the Greens, so Labour needs to be strong to achieve that.
But tell me, which of the above points do you disagree with? The policy ones probably, but the teamwork/structure/leadership points are valid and need to be faced or people will be turned off again, in 2014 and all the lefties on this blog will need to get checked for stomach ulcers after election 2014!
For starters you assume that Cunliffe would have done the same things in the same style as Shearer has done. Not a chance mate.
And quit pretending you’ve suddenly become a politically fair minded actor lol
I wondered why over 100 comments. It’s just old Pete George. Also the right winger Kiwi Prometheus. As that guy was supposed to have brought fire to the world the choice of name indicates that this commenter has no intention to attempt thought but merely wants to be a jerk.
I might have become a ‘closed shop’ when thinking about Labour Leader David Shearer but in my own defence have to say that initial media perceptions are very formative of the perception one has of people, particularly politicians, that i have not personally met,
The Labour Leader’s appearance on the ‘comedy’ hosted by whats-his-face that abusive little far-right wing clown made me cringe for obvious reasons…