Open mike 22/04/2013

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 22nd, 2013 - 158 comments
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158 comments on “Open mike 22/04/2013 ”

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  1. BLiP 1
    22 April 2013 at 6:15 am

    *** Would you please consider this contribution for publication on The Standard as a post rather than a comment. I’ve had a couple of emails bounce back to me from the gmail submissions address, so making the request here since I know it will end up in moderation. Feel free to edit what ever. I am happy to be identified as the author. If you decide not to publish it, I would appreciate any feedback you might offer with a view towards how it may be tailored to better suit your requirements for publication at a future date, if at all.

    Kind Regards,

    BLiP ***

    New Zealanders put their trust in John Key. As the 2008 election neared, New Zealanders sensed a positive change was in the offing, a change driven by optimism which held out the reassurance that the darkening and ominous clouds heralding financial meltdown gathering around previously rock-solid international banking institutions didn’t have to reach as far as us. In fact, a multi-millionaire, a man who had made his fortune working with those very institutions had stepped up to offer his talents and to soften any impact such impending fiscal threat imposed. And look – he grew in a solo parent family dependent on a benefit for his family’s very food and rent. He knows struggle street, he’ll look after us, he’s one of us. Consider his own example; that’s how we work things out – be positive, couple our inate Kiwi optimism with a sturdy and aspirational mind-set to embrace a new New Zealand offered by John Key. Sure, we can make mistakes, heh, just look at all that silly fuss about the Coldplay song on that promotion CD the nice smiling John Key sent to us. He won’t us down. Yes, its time for a change. And guess what? John Key has promised live on television to never lie and to always do his best.

    Now, four-and-a-half years later we know that was his first lie, and it certainly wasn’t going to be his last. And these are only the ones we know about. In fact, as the litany of lies still spills from John Key, it must be asked: is the litany orchestrated?

    You decide. Take the “power” back.

    01 – I promise to always be honest

    02 – We’re not proposing to change the Employment Relations Act in a way that weakens unions

    03 – we are not going to sack public servants, the attrition rate will reduce costs

    04 – we are not going to cut working for families

    05 – I firmly believe in climate change and always have

    06 – We seek a 50% reduction in New Zealand’s carbon-equivalent net emissions, as compared to 1990 levels, by 2050. 50 by 50. We will write the target into law.

    07 – National Ltd™ will provide a consistent incentive for both biofuel and biodiesel by exempting them from excise tax or road user charges

    08 – I didn’t know about The Bretheren election tactics

    09 – If they came to us now with that proposal [re trans-Tasman Therapeutic Goods regime], we will sign it

    10 – I can’t remember my position on the 1981 Springbok Tour

    11 – Tranzrail shares

    12 – I did not mislead the House (1)

    13 – Lord Ashcroft

    14 – National Ltd™ would not have sent troops into Iraq

    15 – Standard & Poors credit downgrade

    16 – the double-down grade doesn’t really matter and its only about private sector debt

    17 – I did not mislead the House (2)

    18 – I didn’t say I want wages to drop

    19 – the real rate of inflation is 3.3 percent.

    20 – the tourism sector has not lost 7,000 jobs

    21 – no I have never heard of Whitechapel

    22 – I won’t raise GST

    23 – people who are on the average wage and have a child are $48 a week better off after the rise in GST

    24 – the purchase of farmland, by overseas buyers will be limited to ten farms per purchase

    25 – the Pike River Mine was consented to under a Labour Government

    26 – no promises were made to get the remains of the miners out of the Pike River mine

    27 – I did not provide a view on the safety of the Pike River coalmine

    28 – I did not mislead the House (3)

    29 – capping, not cutting the public service

    30 – raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour will cost 6000 jobs

    31 – north of $50 a week

    32 – privatisation won’t significantly help the economy

    33 – wave goodbye to higher taxes , not your loved ones

    34 – I never offered Brash a diplomatic job in London

    35 – Tariana Turia is “totally fine” with the Tuhoe Treaty Claim deal

    36 – Kiwisaver

    37 – National Ltd™ is not going to radically reorganise the structure of the public sector

    38 – tax cuts won’t require additional borrowing

    39 – New Zealand does not have a debt problem

    40 – New Zealand troops in Afghanistan will only be involved in training, not fighting

    41 – the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia has closed under my National Ltd™ government

    42 – It took 9 years for Labour to make a complete and utter mess of the economy

    43 – National Ltd™ has changed the Overseas Investment Act to include 19 different criteria

    44 – the price of goods and services has risen by 6 per cent since the last election, while the has actually gone up by 16 per cent

    45 – no, although its a week ago and here I am being interviewed on television about them, I havn’t seen Gerry Brownlee’s comments regarding demolitions in Christchurch and which caused such outrage, but I can talk all about them

    46 – our SAS soldiers were not involved in the Kabul Hotel gunfight

    47 – the use of the Vela brother’s helicopter was required so I could attend meetings relating to national/international security concerns

    48 – the DPS makes the decision about accompanying the Prime Minister or not, I had no choice but to take them on holiday to Hawaii

    49 – I did not mislead the House

    50 – oh, maybe our SAS soldiers were in the Kabul hotel gun fight but they weren’t wounded by friendly fire

    51 – New Zealand has lost $12 billion from GDP due to the Christchurch earthquake . . . oh, it might actually be around $15 billion from GDP due to the Christchurch earthquake . . . Blinglish said what?

    52 – 10,000 houses will have to be demolished in Christchurch due to the earthquake

    53 – 14,000 new apprentices will start training over the next five years, over and above the number previously forecast

    54 – Our amendments to the ETS ensure we will continue to do our fair share internationally

    55 – we are committed to honouring our Kyoto Protocol obligations

    56 – any changes to the ETS will be fiscally neutral

    57 – we [NZ] have grown for eight of the last nine quarters”

    58 – National Ltd™ will tender out the government banking contract

    59 – we will be back in surplus by 2014-15

    60 – Nicky Hager’s book “Other People’s Wars” is a work of fiction

    61 – unemployment is starting to fall

    62 – we have created 60,000 jobs

    63 – we have created 45,000 jobs

    64 – the 2011 Budget will create in the order of 170,000 jobs

    65 – I don’t know if I own a vineyard

    66 – no, I did not mislead the House (4)

    67 – the Isreali spy killed in the Christchurch quake had “only one” passport

    68 – the Police will not need to make savings by losing jobs

    69 – GCSB re Kim Dotcom x 3 (that we know about)

    70 – I did not mislead the House (5)

    71 – I voted to keep the drinking age at 20

    72 – New Zealand is 100% Pure

    73 – I’ve been prime minister for four years, and it’s really 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year

    74 – baseball in New Zealand is attracting more government support

    75 – the decision to buy brand new BMWs was made by the Department of Internal Affairs without reference either to their minister or to me

    76 – I didn’t have a clue that Ministerial Services, which I am in charge of, was going to buy brand new BMWs

    77 – even though two of my ministers knew all about it, I didn’t have a clue that brand new BMWs were being bought.

    78 – even though my Chief of Staff met with officials to discuss purchase of the the brand new BMWs, I didn’t have a clue

    79 – Labour forced us into buying the brand new BMWs, its their fault

    80 – ummm, look, sorry about that BMW thing , it was because I was so upset about the death of a New Zealand soldier and Julia Gillard was visit too

    81 – the public demanded that we change the labour laws for The Hobbit

    82 – “The Hobbit” created 3000 new jobs

    83 – we have delivered 800 extra doctors in the public service

    84 – I did not mislead the House (6)

    85 – I wasn’t working at Elders when the sham foreign exchange deals took place

    86 – I was starting School Certificate exams in 1978

    87 – I don’t know who arrived on the CIA jet to visit the spies I am responsible for

    88 – reducing barriers to property developers will increase the availability of affordable housing

    89 – Labour left the economy in poor shape

    90 – forecasts show unemployment will fall

    91 – we have closed the wage gap with Australia by $27

    92 – Ngati Porou and Whanau Apanui are not opposed to mining

    93 – I have not had any meetings with Media Works

    94 – our [NZ’s] terms of trade remain high

    95 – the TPP is an example of democracy

    96 – National Ltd™ will use the proceeds of state asset sales to invest in other public assets, like schools and hospitals

    97 – New Zealand troops will be out of Afghanistan by April 2013

    98 – overseas investment in New Zealand adds to what New Zealanders can invest on their own

    99 – overseas investment in New Zealand creates jobs, boosts incomes, and helps the economy grow

    100 – National Ltd™ will build 2000 houses over the next two years

    101 – there are only 4 New Zealand SAS soldiers in Bamiyan and all working in the area of logistics and planning only

    102 – selling state assets will give cash equity to those companies

    103 – the Sky City deal doesn’t mean more pokies

    104 – there was nothing improper about the Sky City deal

    105 – my office has had no correspondence, no discussions, no involvement with the Sky City deal

    106 – SkyCity will only get “a few more” pokie machines at the margins

    107 – any changes to gambling regulations will be subject to a full public submission process

    108 – Sky City has approached TVNZ about the purchase/use of government-owned land

    109 – the Auditor General has fully vindicated National over the Sky City deal

    110 – there’s a 50/50 chance the Hobbit is going off shore unless we do something

    111 – David Shearer has signed up for the purchase of shares in Mighty River

    112 – Solid Energy asked the government for a $1 billion capital investment

    113 – fracking has been going safely on in Taranaki for the past 30 years without any issues

    114 – no front line positions will be lost at DoC

    115 – Iain Rennie came to me and recommended Fletcher for the GCSB job

    116 – I forgot that after I scrapped the shortlist for GCSB job I phoned a life-long friend to tell him to apply for the position

    117 – I told Iain Rennie I would contact Fletcher

    118 – for 30 years, or three decades, I didn’t have any dinners or lunches or breakfasts with Ian Fletche

    119 – I did not mislead the House (7)

    120 – No, I did not say we would follow the US and Australia into a war against North Korea

    121 – I paid for that lunch and I’ve got the credit card bill to prove it

    122 – I called directory service to get Ian Fletcher’s number

    123 – I did not mislead the house (8)

    124 – I am honest and upfront

    125 – cyber terrorists have attempted to gain access to information about weapons of mass destruction held on New Zealand computers

    126 – the illegal spying on Kim Dotcom was an isolated incident

    127 – New Zealand has an arrangement to have asylum seekers processed in Australian detention camps

    128 – the law which says the GCSB cannot spy on New Zealanders is not clear

    129 – the only way net new jobs can be created is by private investors putting their money into businesses in New Zealand

    130 – an increase in the number of people looking for work indicates that confidence is returning to the economy

    131 – the 10 percent of taxpayers in New Zealand who are the top earners pay 76 percent of all net personal tax.

    132 – I did not mislead the House (9)

    133 – the substantial wage growth under Labour was eroded by inflation

    134 – National Ltd™’s 2010 tax changes were fiscally neutral

    135 I did not mislead the House (10)

    136 – the bulk of New Zealanders earn between $45,000 and $75,000 a year

    137 – Pike River Coal did not put profits and its production ahead of the safety and lives of those 29 workers.

    138 – Radio Live had sought advice from the Electoral Commission about my show just before the election

    139 – it is because of National Ltd™’s policies that the price of fresh fruit and vegetables has dropped.

    140 – the length-of-the-country cycleway will create 4000 jobs.

    141 – police training for next year has not has not been cancelled

    142 – National Ltd™ has only cut back-office jobs in the health service

    143 – The Crown’s dividend stream from the Meridians, the Mighty Rivers of the world is large and there is no motivation to sell assets

    144 – Gross.

  2. geoff 2
    22 April 2013 at 6:49 am

    I think David Shearer and Co. really need to be honest about how they are going to approach the election. They can’t be unrealistic about what John Key’s approach will be. It’s going to be the bullying ‘show me the money’ angle where Key tries to make Shearer look like a bumbling fool under the pressure of live TV. If an experienced politician like Goff can lose to Key that way then it is quite likely that Shearer will be crushed.
    So he needs to not play that game. Admit that he can’t play the slick, salesman routine like Key can. People love an underdog who shows some humility(that was one of Helen’s weaknesses, too much pride).
    Shearer should instead try to occupy the moral ground (but without the typical labour party smug sanctimony ).

    • One Anonymous Knucklehead 2.1
      22 April 2013 at 7:07 am

      Key is damaged goods: smug arrogance may work for Mr. Popular but it’s a bad look on dead meat.

    • Jackal 2.2
      22 April 2013 at 9:00 am

      I think National’s strategy will be to start announcing sweeteners soon in the form of election bribes while continuing with the beneficiary bashing and getting tough on crime angle. I don’t think Key will necessarily want to go head to head with Shearer too often because, as long as Shearer can rattle off a few of Key’s failures, that’s where Key will get tripped up. Instead, Key will continue to rely on a biased media to paint him in a good light… No journalist asking the hard questions will be allowed. There will likely be a play of extended coverage about a minor controversy leading up to the election to ensure Key is in the limelight where he can smile and wave till the cows come home. Labour will try to outplay the Natz with their own happy go lucky clown card.

      • ghostrider888 2.2.1
        22 April 2013 at 9:06 pm

        biased media indeed Jackal; see comment on the news coverage of the “far left” and investors “scared off” by Labour and the Greens; freakin’ toadies; the ghost has no respect for the majority of them, though he must understand them all the same.

    • Mary 2.3
      22 April 2013 at 10:17 am

      Shearer was absolutely pitiful on Morning Report this morning about the polls. “What it shows is that Labour are beginning to show themselves as a credible party”, “We’re showing that we really can give John Key a run for his money” or words to that effect. Just pathetic. He should be dismissing the polls as having limited value when the shifts are so small, that this is reflected in the different poll results, and then move quickly on to how that John Key’s a dishonest schmuck who doesn’t care about the majority of New Zealanders, only the rich, and that for these reasons he’s not fit to be prime minister. Short of making defamatory statements the guy needs to harden up and tell it how it is. The way Shearer’s behaving at the moment I’d be embarrassed if were to become the prime minister. Pathetic.

      • Belladonna 2.3.1
        22 April 2013 at 10:21 am

        +1

      • prism 2.3.2
        22 April 2013 at 12:11 pm

        Shearer sounded like the Labour we’re tired of – interested in getting elected primarily, so interested in whether they have gained some advantage over the other Party. And strangely referring to leaks from Key’s side as if that was of real importance to voters.

        He should have been talking about how Labour is going to roll up its sleeves and get busy for NZ with good policies (a stirring class image). Great if he’d talked about things NZ need done – for the economy, for profitable businesses that have thought for their workers and society, with encouragement from government, also environment maintaining, enhancing, saving etc. No it’s all about the voters realising that Labour has something to offer. Labour don’t wait for us to realise, repeat about firm vision again and again!

        We who derive from early colonisation that left an industrial society for a better life and opportunities to get ahead will suffer increasing disappointment as years of this economic management continue. Now we are sinking back into the old feudal agricultural economy of poor farm workers and impoverished town dwellers, with a sprinkling of jobs in the new industrial trend that allows oppressive surveillance from new technology allowing the wealthy to keep the poor distant from government – NZ Housing is just the start. What a damnable place this country is turning into under these bourgesoisie in government.

  3. geoff 3
    22 April 2013 at 7:08 am

    And right on cue, salesman Key never turns down an opportunity like this:
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10878940

    • geoff 3.1
      22 April 2013 at 7:15 am

      Let’s not forget that super popular ‘gay-icon’ Maurice Williamson was the very man who gave us the gift that keeps on stinking….Steven Joyce.

      http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Debates/Debates/e/a/b/50HansD_20130322_00000008-M-ori-Television-Service-Te-Aratuku-Whakaata.htm

      Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —that is right, $385,000—and there apparently was not any audience at all, apart from mum and dad and the cousins down the road. That is the kind of shambles that Mr Williamson allowed to happen. So why he is talking during this important speech, I do not know. Then, of course, he went off and he made a colleague of his a multimillionaire.

      Hon Maurice Williamson: Which one?

      Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Mr Steven Joyce. He gave out licences under a Vickrey sale process—a Vickrey sale process. I want to remind everybody listening that this is the kind of money that has gone into this. The Vickrey sale process goes like this. Up comes this item for purchase. Mr Williamson is heading the sale. A bids $1 million, B bids $100,000, and C bids $50,000. A gets the tender—

      Hon Maurice Williamson: We could have a royal inquiry.

      Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —well, it deserves an inquiry, all right, but not, I think, from that member—because A bid $1 million, but he does not pay $1 million; he pays what the second guy, B, bid. He pays $100,000. Now every morning, and five times a day, Mr Joyce gets up and he points his face towards Pakuranga. He gets down on his knees and he prays to the Mecca of Pakuranga who made him a multimillionaire, and then he walks into the House and calls himself a self-made man.

      • vto 3.1.1
        22 April 2013 at 8:54 am

        The truth is that nobody is a self-made manwoman. No such person would have done so without the following lowly or nowly paid people. None…

        Mother (and Father)
        doctor and nurse
        plunket
        kindy teacher, primary teacher, secondary teacher
        road worker
        postman
        cleaner
        police, defence force

        This is the unrecognised base from which most all wealth springs.

        Not from the likes of Joyce. Joyce on his own without any of those things would be ….. well you can only imagine.

  4. millsy 4
    22 April 2013 at 7:40 am

    So what’s the bet that Labour/Greens will water down the NZ Power plan between now and the election?

  5. Paul 5
    22 April 2013 at 7:44 am

    It would be better if they strengthened it by taking control of strategic needs such as water and energy.

    • Colonial Viper 5.1
      22 April 2013 at 7:55 pm

      and the banking + EFTPOS transaction network.

      • ghostrider888 5.1.1
        22 April 2013 at 8:02 pm

        have banked your component specs and a 4-year-old transaction machine gifted by a fellow philosophical communitarian today is going into the shop for an increased horse=power deposition tomorrow. Cheers (further disclosure may be harnessed from the Pogues and Rolls bridle.)

  6. Bill the Pill 6
    22 April 2013 at 8:35 am

    Ref Roy Morgan Polls.

    We lost the 2008 Election with National on 45% and Labour on 34%
    Currently it is National on 40.5 % and Labour on 35.5%

    National has been consistently on 45% through Goff and Shearer’s time.
    Labour has been consistently on 30-32% through Goff and Shearer’s time.

    National has dropped a bit as a result of massive foul-ups.
    We are picking up an additional 3-4 people out of 100 only.

    We have a lot more work to do.

  7. vto 7
    22 April 2013 at 9:03 am

    How can Tuwharetoa charge for use of the Lake Taupo bed when most all the water that passes through the lake never touches the lake bed?

    Doesn’t the air do the same thing over land?

    Bloody rentiers

    • marty mars 7.1
      22 April 2013 at 9:33 am

      Are your really sure that “most of the water that passes through the lake never touches the lake bed” because that doesn’t seem correct to me.

      • vto 7.1.1
        22 April 2013 at 9:44 am

        Well no, it is an assumption. But what of the water that never touches the lake bed? It just seems to be an illogical argument that is straight from the capitalist rentier book.

        Similar to land, people do not own the entire column of atmoshere that exists above the land. And it is very clear that their ownership is limited to the bed and does not include the entire column of water and atmosphere that exists above the bed.

        I think tranzrail tried something equally silly and money-grubbing over its rail lines some years ago.

        I wonder whether there is some fuzzy-wuzzy thinking going on in Tuwharetoa land. A few weeks ago someone there (I think) was bemoaning the first-in-first-served principle under the RMA that operates when allocating the country’s resources. Bemusement arose given that their own claims rest on the first-in-first-served principle. Perhaps they need to get some sea air to clear the fuzz and the wuzz.

        • marty mars 7.1.1.1
          22 April 2013 at 9:57 am

          I don’t like your term fuzzy wuzzy so please cease using that insult.

          I would say all of the water touches the lake bed at some point so all good.

          You are speaking ignorance when you go on about first in and so forth, I replied to the alien the other day on this point.

          “a very small percentage of the populace, even if they are first arrivals.”

          Māori are not just ‘first arrivals’, the culture developed here and that is why they are indigenous to these islands. As wikipedia outlines, “Indigenous peoples are ethnic minorities who have been marginalized as their historical territories became part of a state.[1] In international or national legislation they are generally defined as having a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory, and to their cultural or historical distinctiveness from politically dominant populations. The concept of indigenous people may define them as particularly vulnerable to exploitation, marginalization and oppression by nations or states that may still be in the process of colonialism, or by politically dominant ethnic groups.”

          It is a very important concept to grasp and I emphasise it because too often the line ‘first arrivals’ is used to marginalise and denigrate Māori as if somehow in some strange universe they are not indigenous and by not being indigenous, under this worldview, they are not due the rights and respect that indigenous peoples should be given in this world. I say should because the sad truth is that that rarely has happened unless the dominant culture decides to misappropriate some aspect of the indigenous culture for their own purposes.

          Understanding the indigenous culture of a land people choose to live in imo should be step 1 otherwise we end up with the sorts of negative social statistics for marginalised indigenous cultures we see here and around the world.

          I know it is a tangential point but I felt I had to make it to correct any misunderstandings that may be there with the use of the term ‘first arrivals’.

          Perhaps they need some sea air? Why don’t you leave them alone instead of the bullying, snide, nasty putdowns vto or are you just feeling mean this morning.

          • pollywog 7.1.1.1.1
            22 April 2013 at 1:41 pm

            yeah nah Marty

            the culture apart from a few local variances arrived fully formed with the first Pasifikans. Very little actually developed here indigenously.

            Choose any indicator you like, language, dress, customs, traditions, gods…

            But i still afford 1st nation status, with all sovereignty rights conferred, to Maori even if you are a multitude of disparate tribes sharing a common aesthetic masked as a united people.

            finders keepers

            though you still shouldn’t have signed that bloody treaty eh. 🙂

            • marty mars 7.1.1.1.1.1
              22 April 2013 at 3:05 pm

              polly – that ‘fully formed’ argument is the same as ‘not first here’ except the other way round. We can be Pasifikans and have our own cultural identity – it is not mutually exclusive. I think we are becoming more united 🙂 and true about that treaty bro, so trusting and so let down.

              • pollywog …
                22 April 2013 at 4:18 pm

                the culture developed here and that is why they are indigenous to these islands.

                Just saying if the proviso of indigineity is that the culture developed here, but it didn’t, then it calls into question the nature of indigenousness ?

                Hasn’t a unique kiwi culture developed more here since the Euros arrived, but are they indigenous?

                I’d stick to the rights of finders keepers and possession being 9/10ths of the law 🙂

                • vto …
                  22 April 2013 at 5:01 pm

                  If pollywog is right then at some point the multiple cultures of NZ must become one culture (in one sense) which incorporates those that exist now and then such as the current indigenous one. At that point the indigeneity shifts, does it not, to that next point along the timescale where the ‘new improved’ culture is the reality and the previous cultures drift back in time not forgotten but not used.

                  We could be at that point now. Surely not too far off atthe most. Or perhaps when that point arrives indigeneity simply stops and no longer exists….

                  It makes my eyes cross-eyed like looking at concentric rings.

                  • pollywog …
                    22 April 2013 at 5:26 pm

                    Indigineity only applies in the literal sense until all treaty claims are settled, then its about cultural evolution and convergence.

                    Fun times ahead, especially when framed by the question…

                    What does it mean to be Maori ?

                  • marty mars …
                    22 April 2013 at 6:10 pm

                    He’s not right imo and I find the concept of one culture to be repellant – I love diversity and uniqueness too much.

                    • vto …
                      22 April 2013 at 6:58 pm

                      I don’t mean one culture as in homogeneity, that’s why it was framed with “(in one sense”).

                      But indigeneity must have moved along that timeframescale for today’s Maori culture to be indigenous, given the difference with the first Maori cultures here. Those original ones have morphed into today’s one through population increase, migrations, time, changed habits, etc , hence the claim to being indigenous here.

                      But that process must surely still apply. If it were not to apply then indigeneity must stop when cultures change (which leads to todays maori not being indigenous). As such, at some point the indigenous culture of NZ must come to include other arrivals such as the europeans.

                    • vto …
                      24 April 2013 at 8:31 am

                      I look forward to this point in time, if still around.

                • marty mars …
                  22 April 2013 at 6:07 pm

                  I can’t see it being a proviso, maybe an attribute and it did develop here, which answers the ‘calls into question’ bit.

          • The Al1en 7.1.1.1.2
            22 April 2013 at 7:10 pm

            “You are speaking ignorance when you go on about first in and so forth, I replied to the alien the other day on this point.”

            You could have quoted my reply, which from memory was something like “that’s not how I meant it at all”, so plenty of distance between myself and the intent of your ignorance barb.

  8. vto 8
    22 April 2013 at 10:04 am

    “insult bullying, snide, nasty ”

    nope. typical.

    and i don’t think your copied piece addresses the principle of first-in-first-served at all. It addresses tangential issues to the principle.

    edit: reply to the post of marty mars above

    • marty mars 8.1
      22 April 2013 at 10:11 am

      in what way is that tangential – it seems to cover your use of the term.

      plus

      http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/146100.html

      • vto 8.1.1
        22 April 2013 at 10:31 am

        noted on the fuzzy wuzzy. inadvertant.

        The copied piece refers to understanding and respect for a developed culture lest negative things arise. That is all genuine and credible sure, but it is not the sole consideration in application of the first-in-first-served principle. It is merely one of many factors to consider. It does not deliver a knockout punch.

        It smells of framing an argument to support a predetermined position, rather than understanding the pricniple in the first place and then applying particular circumstances around it.

        (You may like (but probably not) a couple posts made on open mike yesterday around the constitutional review and the place of te tiriti and others….)

        • marty mars 8.1.1.1
          22 April 2013 at 10:56 am

          vto said, “Bemusement arose given that their own claims rest on the first-in-first-served principle.”

          I said, “It is a very important concept to grasp and I emphasise it because too often the line ‘first arrivals’ is used to marginalise and denigrate Māori as if somehow in some strange universe they are not indigenous and by not being indigenous, under this worldview, they are not due the rights and respect that indigenous peoples should be given in this world.”

          You know by your logic there is no-one who is indigenous because they “all came from somewhere” even though unique and valuable cultures developed.

          And as for the silly notion you propose below where some water molecules are supported by the lakebed and others not – you do know they are all, sort of moving around a lot in there – you know in the water itself.

          • vto 8.1.1.1.1
            22 April 2013 at 11:11 am

            I don’t believe I made any mention over who is indigenous and who isn’t, or what effect such indigeneity has, I merely spoke of the principle of first in first served.

            Sure, Maori are indigenous here, that is clear. And sure, people may well do what you intimate there and use it to denigrate. I don’t disagree with you but it still misses the point made in response – namely that such issues are tangential to the principle and are merely considerations in the application of the principle and not determinative.

            First in first served is a poorly principle with few good applications in the wanderings of manwomankind across the planet. This was recognised by Tuwharetoa themselves when they recognised its weaknesses in its application in the RMA. They and I are on the same page on that – it is just where it is being chosen for application that was bemusing.

        • marty mars 8.1.1.2
          22 April 2013 at 11:08 am

          Oh and on your ‘inadvertent’ use of the term – perhaps stop and think about how that might hurt a group of people in society, that inadvertent language happens all the time and hurts people all the time. I said that your use of that term in regards to this iwi was “bullying, snide, and a nasty putdown” you said, “nope. typical.” The truth is that you are/were wrong and your “nope. typical” was incorrect wasn’t it?

          I raise this in some detail because it was typical but just not in the way you thought vto.

          • vto 8.1.1.2.1
            22 April 2013 at 11:16 am

            I see that marty. Things is there was no intention to insult, it was truly inadvertant. That was why I said nope – at that stage its meaning was still flying around in the wind.

            You may well see that it sprang to mind because of its use in distance days past, when it was used to insult etc (not by me I would hope but perhaps by others in my vicinity which was picked up on). Such is the nature of man and the long timeframes that are often required to change flawed ways.

    • Te Reo Putake 8.2
      22 April 2013 at 10:26 am

      Yep, a deliberate racist insult. You’re usually far cleverer than that VTO.

      And, to go back to your original question, all the water in Lake Taupo is supported by the lake bed. The bed holds the water that later gets used in a profit making business. Fair enough that the owners of the lake bed would want their interests recognised.

      • vto 8.2.1
        22 April 2013 at 10:39 am

        Yes it was inadvertant. One of those never-used terms that popped to mind from distance days past and plunked out with no thinking.

        As for the bed issue – don’t agree. Just like tranzrail some years ago the claim is unsound and smacks of rentier behaviour that is of no benefit to anyone expect the capitalist. The country is moving away from rentier behaviour so they are running against the grain in attempting to grab it. Don’t blame them though – all’s fair in love and war apparently and it is only what the corporates do themselves, so good on them for giving it a crack.

        Only the water on the bottom is supported by the bed, all else is supported by the water below it, just as the air above the lake surface is supported by the lake itself. Quick send a bill to the nearest windfarm.

        The water is in that location due to gravity and the higher topographical position of surrounding property, not the lake bed. See how silly it is?

        • Te Reo Putake 8.2.1.1
          22 April 2013 at 11:08 am

          Nope, I don’t think you’ve thought this through properly, VTO. Water is a liquid and water in a lake is a contiguous mass. All the water is supported by the bed, which is actually shown by your example, not disproved by it.

          The phrase ‘hydro storage’ just popped into my head. I’m guessing that the claim probably has a basis in the fact that lake bed performs a role in the overall process of generation, even if it’s only storage. It just seems reasonable to me for that to be recognised.

        • weka 8.2.1.2
          22 April 2013 at 6:56 pm

          “See how silly it is?”

          Yes I do (although probably quite differently than you). But tell me this vto, who put Tuwharetoa in the position where they had to use such silly arguments to reinstate their capacity to maintain their culture and people? And who gave them those tools of argument in the first place?

          Personally, I find many Western concepts of relationship with nature pretty bizarre esp this idea that nature is primarily a set of resources for our use (thank-you Judeo-Christian peoples). But we can hardly blame Maori for using and developing those concepts when they’ve been forced to by the dominant culture.

        • Murray Olsen 8.2.1.3
          22 April 2013 at 7:04 pm

          vto, if you turn up with a 750 ml bottle of whisky at my door, how much can I take because it hasn’t touched the sides of the bottle? Your argument makes absolutely no sense. If the water isn’t supported by the lake bed, what happens if the lake bed drops by 100m?
          When you load logs on a truck, are only the ones which touch the truckbed supported by it? The springs might argue with you there.

          • vto 8.2.1.3.1
            22 April 2013 at 8:42 pm

            Yes well I’m just trying to apply the logic to this situation whereby logic is spinning down a hot pool whirlpool.

            For the water molecule to get to the turbines it needs to go down this path…….. flow down a river some goddamn other place and out to sea, then it gotta drift around over some sea bottoms for an age or two before being lifted to the sky when it gets too close to the surface on a hot day due to wind blowing down off somebody’s mountain range over the horizon. It then finds itself drifting helplessly in clouds of other water molecules with the same dilemma, floating over all sorts of peoples places like my house (I’ve seen them) and lots of other peoples houses and farms and cemetries. Then whoever owns Mount Cook is lucky because all them wee molecules gather together at places like that where it’s mr gravity’s turn. Heshe pulls them back down to the earth where they belong. Water doesn’t like flying. If they are in a Taupo catchment they will fall onto the land and property of individual private people, businesses, government, iwi, nobody, roads, crown, and even people’s own heads. Then, quite tired by now, it wends its way back to where it likes to be – a drain, a creek, a low area, a swamp, a culvert, river, pipe, drink bottle and lake taupo.

            i mean …

            • ghostrider888 8.2.1.3.1.1
              22 April 2013 at 9:17 pm

              was a lovely reed though vto

              • vto …
                23 April 2013 at 8:06 am

                why thanks ghostrider. Hopefully it highlights the silliness of the claim. (or if it is a legit claim then perhaps all landowners should follow suit with same logic) Another one could be put up around wind farms and neighbouring properties too, along with many more.

  9. Paul 9
    22 April 2013 at 10:33 am

    Yet another scaremongering article in the Herald,,this time by Liam Dann.
    At least this NZ Power issue is flushing out who all the neo-liberals are. People need to remember who the defenders of big business are.
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10878895

  10. Ad 10
    22 April 2013 at 11:12 am

    Anyone get to the New Lynn electorate office opening yesterday?

    • Anne 10.1
      22 April 2013 at 11:43 am

      Yes Ad. Although was late arriving because I got lost… another story. Very nice, spacious office. It was packed to the rafters. Just about every ethnic group was represented. I picked up that David Cunliffe and his supporters are in a good place.

      I was also pleased to see Phil Twyford there… and Louisa Wall and Carmel Sepuloni. And for those of us getting a bit long in the tooth, so was Jonathon Hunt.

      • karol 10.1.1
        22 April 2013 at 12:44 pm

        I would have gone if I’d known, and wasn’t working. Or was it just for NZLP members? Where is the new office?

        • Colonial Viper 10.1.1.1
          22 April 2013 at 1:27 pm

          All comers welcome, you don’t even have to live in the electorate 🙂

        • karol 10.1.1.2
          22 April 2013 at 1:39 pm

          I’ve been to Cunliffe’s old electorate office, on the corner of Great North Road and Rata Street. The staff were very friendly and helpful.

  11. Morrissey 11
    22 April 2013 at 11:44 am

    Matthew Hooton is feeling the pressure
    Right-wing pundit’s embarrassing performance on radio this morning
    From the Left and From the Right, Radio NZ National, Monday 22 April 2013
    Kathryn Ryan, Matthew Hooton, Mike Williams

    A flustered Matthew Hooton nearly melted down a few minutes ago. He’s usually so calm and in control of himself, but these latest polls, plus the popularity of the Labour-Green electricity price policy, have evidently upset the poor fellow. Mike Williams’ knowing laughter will have infuriated him even more…

    MATTHEW HOOTON: [steadily rising tone of hysteria] They’ve crashed the stock market with just a press statement! God knows what they’d be like if they were in office!

    KATHRYN RYAN: The stock market has NOT crashed. That’s nonsense.

    HOOTON: But, but! aaaaarghhh!…. they, they…

    MIKE WILLIAMS: Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho.

    KATHRYN RYAN: They did NOT crash the stock market. That is NOT true, Matthew.

    HOOTON: They have CHOSEN to go to the left…politics of envy… [mutter, choke, splutter with indignation]…

    MIKE WILLIAMS: Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.

    • Paul 11.1
      22 April 2013 at 11:51 am

      He also made a comment about it being a wealth destroyer…and Williams told him it was about wealth distribution.
      Maybe someone can compile a list of all the effects of NZ Power ( as described by the hysterical right) and make a post based on it…like the list of Key’s brainfades posted today.

    • Anne 11.2
      22 April 2013 at 11:51 am

      Mike Williams gave his best performance yet with some excellent advice to the Labour Party.

      Get out there and SELL the policies from now through to the election. Don’t do what you’ve tended to do in the past and that is… assume everyone understands them. THEY DON’T!

    • Brett Dale 11.3
      22 April 2013 at 11:53 am

      Please stop trolling my blog, your messages will now be deleted.

      • Morrissey 11.3.1
        22 April 2013 at 12:04 pm

        Why on earth are you talking about that on a thread about Matthew Hooton?

        Clearly, you’re still as confused as ever you have been.

    • Murray Olsen 11.4
      22 April 2013 at 7:08 pm

      I wish the housing market could be crashed as easily as Hooton is saying the stock market has been.

  12. Dv 12
    22 April 2013 at 11:48 am

    I suspect the Hysterical reaction of the Nats also had an effect on the energy companies fall.

  13. Brett Dale 13
    22 April 2013 at 11:52 am

    Hey Morrissey Breen, please stay off my blog, you have been trolling it, since I started it five years ago, you have also been trolling my posts for the 20 years, starting with usenet in the mid 90’s. (not political posts, but sporting ones)

    Its a bit weird, that someone would do this for nearly 20 years, your not interested in a discussion, your trolling, any posts you do at my blog, will now will be deleted.

    • Morrissey 13.1
      22 April 2013 at 12:07 pm

      You made some particularly foolish remarks on this forum. You have provided a link to your blog, which I clicked on. Presumably that is what you WANT people to do.

      I felt compelled to comment on a few of your more ridiculously stupid opinions, but you obviously lack the wherewithal to defend your statements. Go ahead and ban me, but bear in mind that I was your only reader.

      • Brett Dale 13.1.1
        22 April 2013 at 12:15 pm

        You have been doing this for 20 years though,You dont find that a bit sick? Again, any comment you leave, wont be read, but will be deleted.

        • Morrissey 13.1.1.1
          22 April 2013 at 12:17 pm

          Again, any comment you leave, wont be read,

          Well, no, it won’t. Not if it’s on your blog.

        • felix 13.1.1.2
          22 April 2013 at 2:04 pm

          Hey Brett, if it’s wordpress blog you can just feed him to Akismet.

          • Morrissey 13.1.1.2.1
            22 April 2013 at 2:08 pm

            Good Lord, felix, that sounds…. ominous. What will this Akismet do to me?

            • felix 13.1.1.2.1.1
              22 April 2013 at 2:34 pm

              Probably nothing, but it’s not really about you.

              It’s about what it will do for Brett, which is make sure he doesn’t have to put up with your trooling.

              • Morrissey …
                22 April 2013 at 4:32 pm

                It’s about what it will do for Brett, which is make sure he doesn’t have to put up with your trooling.

                You mean my drooling, surely?

    • felix 13.2
      22 April 2013 at 12:08 pm

      Very interesting Brett.

      I’m starting to get the impression that Morrissey is a deeply troubled individual.

      • Morrissey 13.2.1
        22 April 2013 at 12:16 pm

        We’re all deeply troubled, felix.

      • prism 13.2.2
        22 April 2013 at 12:23 pm

        Morrissey
        You must watch your addictions. Put Brett Dale down now. 20 years of him seems excessive. And sometimes you can never find even a tiny gap to slip your arguments through.
        Better play Kiss the Postman with someone more accommodating.

        • Morrissey 13.2.2.1
          22 April 2013 at 2:06 pm

          Put Brett Dale down now.

          I’ve put down the poor fellow so often that I actually feel a bit guilty.

          20 years of him seems excessive.

          It certainly does, and it is. Poor old Mr. Dale has doubled the length of time I’ve been on Usenet. Twenty years ago, I couldn’t even turn on a computer.

      • Te Reo Putake 13.2.3
        22 April 2013 at 12:40 pm

        Garth Brooks, Neil Diamond? That’s pretty cutting edge stuff, Brett, no wonder nobody else comments. I think you should give Mozza a medal if he’s been putting up with that quality of posting for 20 years.

        • Brett Dale 13.2.3.1
          22 April 2013 at 12:55 pm

          Like I said, its just my wee blog, just my thoughts, not suppose to be cutting edge. If someone is consistently going to the blog, but not interested in the subject matter, then they’re trolling. The fact that he has been trolling my posts over the internet for 20 years about Garth Brooks and sports that anit rugby union (when he has no interest whatsoever in these topics) shows me that he is trolling/bullying.

          • Morrissey 13.2.3.1.1
            22 April 2013 at 1:54 pm

            The fact that he has been trolling my posts over the internet for 20 years

            Wrong. I have been trolling Usenet since the end of January, 2003. Before then I never even owned a computer.

            about Garth Brooks

            Wrong. I have never ever written a single word about Garth Brooks. Ever.

            …and sports that anit [sic] rugby union [sic]

            You have been reminded several times now that nobody other than you and Murray Deaker ever calls it rugby union.

      • Lanthanide 13.2.4
        22 April 2013 at 12:53 pm

        I’ve had that impression for a long time now. He keeps posting here the letters he’s sent off to Radio NZ, obviously they never read them out and reading a few of them it’s clear why. Someone reposting their letters in a public forum like this is just dying for attention.

        • Te Reo Putake 13.2.4.1
          22 April 2013 at 12:59 pm

          Er, actually, Lanth, I heard two of Morrissey’s letters read out, in part, on RNZ shows last week. One of them (about ‘Lord’ Monckton) even made me laugh and not in a roll your eyes kind of way either.

        • Morrissey 13.2.4.2
          22 April 2013 at 2:02 pm

          He keeps posting here the letters he’s sent off to Radio NZ, obviously they never read them out and reading a few of them it’s clear why.

          You make it seem like I send a flood of correspondence to Radio NZ. I’m sure you intend to create that impression, but of course you are wrong. I occasionally post to Radio NZ, as in roughly once a fortnight, and contrary to your mean-spirited allegation, the majority of my e-mails have been read out on air—whether by Bryan Crump, Chris Laidlaw, Kim Hill, Kathryn Ryan or Jim Mora.

          Someone reposting their letters in a public forum like this is just dying for attention.

          I work hard at writing clear, punchy communications. Of course I welcome the fact they get attention. You think I want to write for an audience of none, like some sad bloggers we know?

          • Ennui 13.2.4.2.1
            22 April 2013 at 2:17 pm

            Keep it up Morrissey, appears some natives to this blog don’t appreciate your comms to here and elsewhere. We are so tribal methinks.

          • muzza 13.2.4.2.2
            22 April 2013 at 2:42 pm

            Don’t sweat it Morrissey, the *self styled* here, have little useful to offer, many will never have sent a single letter, email or turned up on a picket, or at a protest, or spoken face to face with a radio host, and MP or any such thing.

            Keep at it!

            • Te Reo Putake 13.2.4.2.2.1
              22 April 2013 at 3:00 pm

              And some will stroke their egos by kidding themselves that they are better than their peers. How is project Onan going, Muz? Any closer to releasing the results?

              • muzza …
                22 April 2013 at 3:58 pm

                Interesting comment about ego, from someone who openly attaches his own self to a political entity!

                Whats this peers nonsense, we are human beings…

                The results of the projects (not mine), are clear for all those who are paying attention to see, its called NZ!

                Heal the world, make it a better place…

                • Te Reo Putake …
                  22 April 2013 at 4:18 pm

                  “Interesting comment about ego, from someone who openly attaches his own self to a political entity!”

                  Surely attaching one’s self to another entity is a denial of ego?

                  “Whats this peers nonsense, we are human beings…”

                  We don’t need your steenkin’ thesaurus …

                  “The results of the projects (not mine), are clear for all those who are paying attention to see, its called NZ!”

                  So you aren’t going to be transparent with project Onan after all? Your mates at Lordy Find’em aren’t going to be pleased with you. They’re all about teh openness, or so they say. Which reminds me, did they ever do that expose on the Standard they promised? It’d be fascinating reading.

                  • muzza …
                    22 April 2013 at 8:10 pm

                    Surely attaching one’s self to another entity is a denial of ego?

                    You could not be more wrong!

                    No idea about LF!

                    What is project onan ?

                    • karol …
                      22 April 2013 at 8:19 pm

                      I thought the project referred to must be an ism

                    • Te Reo Putake …
                      22 April 2013 at 8:31 pm

                      “Surely attaching one’s self to another entity is a denial of ego?

                      You could not be more wrong!”

                      Ok then, prove me wrong.

                      “No idea about LF”

                      “One of our regular readers, Muzza, posted a comment the other day … ”

                      You do remember that you’re a regular reader, dontcha?

                    • muzza …
                      23 April 2013 at 12:07 pm

                      Ok then, prove me wrong.

                      I have nothing to prove to anyone!

                      You referred to the *exposure of the standard* – Yes LF did an article on TS some time back!

                      I’m no more invovled with LF, than I am with TS!

        • veutoviper 13.2.4.3
          22 April 2013 at 2:44 pm

          I also have heard Morrissey’s letters read out on NZ National.

          AND, AND

          Guess what the album of the day is today on Mora’s afternoon show?

          Morrissey

          On now….!

          • North 13.2.4.3.1
            22 April 2013 at 6:41 pm

            Morrissey = entertaining.

            Some who lash him = justified.

            Some who lash him = boring.

            Some think they own TS = yes.

            Those who are perfect = none.

            Stick around Morrissey = yes.

            • Morrissey 13.2.4.3.1.1
              22 April 2013 at 6:43 pm

              Those who are perfect = none.

              Jessica Alba?

              • North …
                22 April 2013 at 7:38 pm

                B’Jesus Morrissey you’re a frustrating bugger……..here I am tryin’ to back you up bro’ and also make a point about the whiff of a slightly sniffy “Beltway” happening on TS. Whadda you do ?

                Blow me down………come back all bloody human !

  14. Chrissy 14
    22 April 2013 at 12:18 pm

    Did anyone see susan devoy’s interview with JC last week. He asked her who rang her and she said that they did not say who they were and she never found out.They just advised her to ring phone number supplied and there would be a job there for her that she might be interested in.A ghost caller.Spooky. Then again maybe it was discussed over the neighbouring back fence with the fairy at the bottom of the garden.

    • Colonial Viper 14.1
      22 April 2013 at 1:15 pm

      That’s a load of bullshit, just like the “If you deposit $10,000 into this Nigerian bank account…”

    • North 14.2
      22 April 2013 at 7:46 pm

      Naughty Chrissy ! Maybe not. Look at the National Party votes for and against……….?

      You know it’s the height of fashion to turn your lime green check table cloth into a business shirt with an orange and purple paisley tie underneath a navy two inch wide pinstripe.

      Too Gock for me……..

      • North 14.2.1
        22 April 2013 at 8:02 pm

        Have to own that one re sartorial. Sorry, from the bottom my garden. Something went wrong in the North.

        Then I see the name “undefined” is replaced by “North”. Oh well since I’m here might as well add this: VERY large lime green check under VERY lawyerly two inch wide pinstripe.

  15. prism 15
    22 April 2013 at 12:25 pm

    Gee that’s interesting, how do you get to be a Dame or Sir, just hang around in the vicinity of the political electrical field and hope you make contact with someone live?

    • Ennui 15.1
      22 April 2013 at 2:55 pm

      You play some sport really really well for a considerable time (with attendant reflected glory for the nation) OR you make heaps of money and give a smidgen of it away with strings attached OR you inherit a fortune and donate some to the ****** party OR you do exacting legal work for the government laying the basis for privatisation…….Damehoods and Sirhoods…. piece of cake!

      PS Do not under any circumstances do long term unnoticed work in an old peoples home or unpaid for the community. No gongs available there.

      • ghostrider888 15.1.1
        22 April 2013 at 3:02 pm

        😀 reverb: wah wah; just a minor burgandy E DS (GT) du Pre concerto

      • prism 15.1.2
        22 April 2013 at 5:04 pm

        Yeah. We have Sir Roger Douglas but never Sir William Sutch. He mingled in the wrong electrical fields. Ouch.

        Though I was just thinking of Sir Angus Tait – someone who was a worthy knight.
        Wikipedia – Bronze bust of Sir Angus Tait as part of the Twelve Local Heroes sculpture … He served with the Royal NZ and also Royal Air Force instructing as a Second…
        After the war, he designed and built mobile radio equipment, although his first company went into receivership. In 1969, he founded Tait Electronics Ltd, now operating as Tait Radio Communications, Christchurch (New Zealand), with men who had decided to remain loyal and see him through; now his company is considered a world leader in mobile radio. He had persisted in keeping his manufacturing base in New Zealand, with 95 per cent of production exported to 160 countries.

        I looked up the Twelve Local Heroes sculptures – The Twelve Local Heroes is a series of bronze busts located in the central city of Christchurch, New Zealand on Worcester Boulevard outside the Arts Centre to commemorate twelve local Christchurch people who were prominent in their respective fields in the latter part of the 20th century.

        I can’t remember if they are still there – this happened in 2009 and the earthquake cluster started end of 2010 I think.

        • North 15.1.2.1
          22 April 2013 at 8:31 pm

          Re knighthoods and so on: at the risk of attack from TS Beltway for reposting one’s letters and what-not on TS, I have to offer this in response to Prism at 15 above. Came to me in a disturbing dream after Shonkey Python excitedly told his acolytes in the media that he’d offered Richie McCaw a knighthood – obviously he was after a “testo-top-up”.

          ON KNIGHTS AND DAMES AND OTHER BULLSHIT

          I heard a dirty story
          It’s truly damned horrific
          Shyster Boy Smiley Key
          He’s selling honorifics

          First he went to Richie
          “Cos he’s a real man
          Said Shyster Boy to Richie
          Help me if you can

          Take this crappy medal
          It’s such a thing to show
          And ‘cos I gave it to you
          I’m basking in your glow

          Richie he’s a cagey guy
          He sussed the slimey game
          He yelled out loud “Piss off you ponce…..
          Go find yourself a Dame”

          Tari proved no problem
          For this she’d always itched
          “Dame Toryana Torya”
          The whispering old witch

          “Pita” “Peter” take your pick
          Demands he had a few
          Pension with the knighthood
          And Bee Em Double U

          This was getting crazy
          And people thought it stank…..
          Shyster Boy pulled out the sword
          Sir Botox Bloody Banks…..!!!

          • prism 15.1.2.1.1
            23 April 2013 at 10:21 am

            North
            Blistering stuff. That little blister King John of Charmalot will be impervious to it of course. I think he’s one of those boys whose mother loves him as in Lyrics Freak supplied words of Paul Simon – Loves me like a Rock.

            Songwriters: SIMON, PAUL
            Words & music by paul simon

            When I was a little boy, (when I was just a boy)
            And the devil would call my name (when I was just a boy)
            I’d say “now who do,
            Who do you think you’re fooling? ” (when I was just a boy)
            I’m a consecrated boy (when I was just a boy)
            I’m a singer in a sunday choir
            Oh , my mama loves, she loves me
            She get down on her knees and hug me
            Like she loves me like a rock
            She rocks me like the rock of ages
            And loves me
            She love me, love me, love me, love me

            When I was grown to be a man (grown to be a man)
            And the devil would call my name (grown to be a man)
            I’d say “now who do,
            Who do you think you’re fooling? ” (grown to be a man)
            I’m a consummated man (grown to be a man)
            I can snatch a little purity
            My mama loves me, she loves me
            She get down on her knees and hug me…

            And if I was president (was the president)
            The minute congress call my name (was the president)
            I’d say “who do,
            Who do you think you’re fooling? (who do you think you’re fooling)

            I’ve got the presidential seal (was the president)
            I’m up on the presidential podium
            My mama loves me
            She loves me… etc

  16. veutoviper 16
    22 April 2013 at 12:35 pm

    Another nice start to the week for National today – not!

    There is nothing yet on the RNZ website (or on Stuff or the Herald), but one of the top stories on RNZ National midday news was that apparently a Court this morning has put a stop/hold on the long awaited and not yet completed investigation and report by Paula Rebstock into the leaks from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – a witchhunt that has already cost a quarter of a million dollars.

    If I heard it correctly, someone – presumably an MFA employee only referred to as Complainant A (or similar) – has filed to stop the report on the basis that publication would infringe their rights to natural justice.

    Watch this space ….

  17. karol 17
    22 April 2013 at 1:49 pm

    Two interesting GCSB-related articles:

    Phil Taylor in today’s NZ Herald writes about how Key’s new spy laws are comparable to Big Brother. The article begins:

    New laws to allow spying on New Zealand citizens is a step towards totalitarianism, says a professor of cyber security and forensics.

    “The idea of placing innocent citizens under constant surveillance is one definition of totalitarianism,” Hank Wolfe, an associate professor in the Information Science Department of Otago University’s School of Business told the Herald. “It will inhibit free thought and association. This has been demonstrated historically time and again where repressive totalitarian regimes have installed pervasive surveillance to watch citizens.”

    Hugh Wolfensohn left the GCSB employment in february as a kind of persona no grata, after being there 25 years. He was put on gardening leave because of his role in the illegal operations relating to Kim Dotcom.

    The spymaster who oversaw the Kim Dotcom raid left the GCSB without a golden handshake, gold watch or even a sausage roll….

    Soon after Mr Wolfensohn became involved in questions around the case in August, he was put on “gardening leave” before the bureau confirmed last month that he had left.

    The GCSB confirmed he had resigned on a Thursday and left on a Friday. It told the Herald: “Mr Wolfensohn has not received an exit payment, leaving function, dinner or present.” David Fisher

    • Anne 17.1
      22 April 2013 at 3:28 pm

      Mr Wolfensohn has not received an exit payment, leaving function, dinner or present.”

      As a former government employee that story sounds familiar. It usually means the department or agency is on the backfoot for some reason and they immediately cast around for a “scapegoat”. It has been reported ‘Mr Wolfensohn’ was overworked and understaffed and that has to reflect back on both the agency bosses and the govt. of the day.

      It is called a cover-up.

      • veutoviper 17.1.1
        22 April 2013 at 4:41 pm

        Exactly, Anne – scapegoat and cover-up.

        • prism 17.1.1.1
          22 April 2013 at 4:51 pm

          He didn’t get a sausage when they rolled him. It’s a serious game when you get into the civil service, as the name is becoming an oxymoron. Beware.

  18. ghostrider888 18
    22 April 2013 at 3:21 pm

    you’ve been talking like the end of the world

    sorry I was late, had to see a man about a star…
    and on the 8th day…

    TAG (fracking representatives) “worse than the worse used-car salesmen he’d ever met” (Ever)
    according to one Dannevirke farmer interviewed by Don’t Frack The Bay.

    Auckland Airport (and Tourism) are marketing directly to Chinese micro social media (like twitter) and a plugged in audience of 500M; go littlewood, go chicky; Cool Bananas!

    just like White-caps
    (remember those Terence Hill and Bud Spencer movies?)

  19. ghostrider888 19
    22 April 2013 at 3:39 pm

    IDIOTS

    • McFlock 19.1
      22 April 2013 at 4:59 pm

      yep.

      There’s something mildly illustrative about racists sending “go back to where you come from” messages to the other end of the country. One can’t help thinking that many/most Aucklanders would wish that the racists had followed their or advice.

  20. Morrissey 20
    22 April 2013 at 4:53 pm

    The Insult File. No. 1: Hazards001
    Monday 22 April 2013

    “Give yourself an uppercut you arrogant pissant.”

    Insulter: Hazards001
    Insultee: Morrissey (i.e., moi)
    Forum: The Whaleoil blog

    “Give yourself an uppercut you arrogant pissant.”

    http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2013/04/a-violent-little-scumbag/#comment-871573385

    • felix 20.1
      22 April 2013 at 6:48 pm

      Morrissey did you happen to hear The Panel today with that bewildered older gent who couldn’t figure out whether he was married to a man or a woman?

      • Morrissey 20.1.1
        22 April 2013 at 7:21 pm

        I did indeed, felix. That was the renowned but (at least on this occasion) rather bewildered Don Donovan. I thought Michele Acourt and Noelle McCarthy were both remarkably restrained and good-humoured in their treatment of him. I’m not sure that he was entirely genuine in his befuddlement; in the past he has seemed quite tolerant and liberal in his attitudes.

        • North 20.1.1.1
          22 April 2013 at 11:14 pm

          To Morrissey and Felix: you two made up have you ? Lovely !

          Apropos your comment at 20 above Morrissey, I steeled myself and (very rare for me) went to SLATER PORN to check out HAZARDS001. Not before warning everyone in the house to bash me with a chair and call the cops the moment I started to froth at the mouth.

          Well, I did, and they did, and I’ve got a bloody great egg on my noggin. Still, I am grateful. Fortunately the cops accepted my explanation and they’ve gone.

          But what utter OBSCENITY on SLATER PORN !

          Tell you, were I still the cute young fulla I was 40 years ago I would consider it very, very, very hazardous to be around HAZARDS001.

          HAZARDS001 is absolutely OBSSESSED with anal rape. How I pity HAZARDS001’s monitor and keyboard. And any youngster in proximity.

          There must be the most horrific background story there !

          • felix 20.1.1.1.1
            23 April 2013 at 7:45 am

            I think you’ll find that, like most of the commenters on Slater’s blog, it’s Slater.

          • Colonial Viper 20.1.1.1.2
            24 April 2013 at 1:25 am

            HAZARDS001 is absolutely OBSSESSED with anal rape. How I pity HAZARDS001′s monitor and keyboard. And any youngster in proximity.

            Michael Jackson takes a little boy out for a walk in the deep dark woods late one night. Finally, trudging miles from anywhere, the young boy, totally scared says, “It’s so dark and cold, and these trees are so frightening”

            Jackson replies “you think that’s scary, but I’m the one who has to walk back by myself.”

  21. North 21
    24 April 2013 at 12:57 am

    I CHALLENGE YOU ! – TAU HENARE – NATIONAL PARTY LIST MP – I CHALLENGE YOU !

    Tonight, Tuesday 23 April 2013, I’ve watched a replay of Native Affairs Maori Television from Monday night.

    I understand that your vote is all that’s needed to progress Mana’s Feed The Kids.

    I URGE YOU TO VOTE FOR IT !

    If you intend not to do that I CHALLENGE YOU to come to Kaikohe for korero with me. I can be found most days at the Kaikohe District Court. I’m not gonna give all my details here but all you need to do is to ask at the court office where to find a tall, skinny, early 60s, balding, sometimes grumpy Pakeha. First name starting S. Alternatively you might check with the young Maori fullas you’ll see wandering up and down Broadway Kaikohe, no jobs. If you’ve got the balls to come and have that korero, you’ll end up doing your duty and voting right.

    You see Tau, rightly or wrongly I have this view of you: you’ve been an MP 1993 to date, apart from ’02-’05. So that’s 17 years in Parliament. During that time, in which you’ve paddled in three different waka, you’ve pulled, let’s see, average $150K a year. Mate ! That’s $2,500,000. Two and a half million bucks. And throughout that time you’ve been as useless as tits on a bull, sorry. Here you are saying that we don’t need Feed The Kids ? How the fuck would you know ?

    Kaikohe where the median income is $17,000 dollars a year. Let’s see – 17 by 17. Oh Jesus how handsome is that – $289,000 over a whole generation. A little over 10% of what you’ve had. And you’re not gonna do the decent thing ? Because Shonkey Python says “Nah !” ?

    Tau, I’m gonna say this. In the 9 years I’ve worked at that court in Kaikohe, me, the Pakeha, he’s done twenty times for your people what you have. For maybe one quarter what you’ve pulled. Legal aid ain’t flash. But that’s algud. For this reason – your people and me have given to one another. Actually they’ve given much more to me than I’ve ever given to them. Aroha. Whanaungatanga. You know about those ones Tau ?

    YOU DON’T ANSWER THE CHALLENGE TAU……..YOU GOT NO BALLS. KIA ORA. KEEP ON SUCKING TE PUTEA.

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    Bryce Edwards writes  – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago

  • Matt Doocey doubles down on trans “healthcare”
    Citizen Science writes –  Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago

  • A TikTok Prime Minister.
    One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago

  • Texas Lessons
    This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    3 days ago

  • Bernard's pick 'n' mix of the news links at 6:06 am
    The top six news links I’ve seen elsewhere in the last 24 hours as of 6:06 am on Wednesday, April 17 are:Must read: Secrecy shrouds which projects might be fast-tracked RNZ Farah HancockScoop: Revealed: Luxon has seven staffers working on social media content - partly paid for by taxpayer Newshub ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago

  • Fighting poverty on the holiday highway
    Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    3 days ago

  • Bernard's six-stack of substacks at 6:26 pm
    Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago

  • At a glance – Is the science settled?
    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 ...
    Skeptical Science
    4 days ago

  • Apposite Quotations.
    How Long Is Long Enough? Gaza under Israeli bombardment, July 2014. This posting is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...
    Bowalley Road
    4 days ago

  • What’s a life worth now?
    You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago

  • Howling at the Moon
    Karl du Fresne writes –  There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • Newshub is Dead.
    I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago

  • Seymour is chuffed about cutting early-learning red tape – but we hear, too, that Jones has loose...
    Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago

  • Bryce Edwards: Will politicians let democracy die in the darkness?
    Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    4 days ago

  • Was Hawkesby entirely wrong?
    David Farrar  writes –  The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • PRC shadow looms as the Solomons head for election
    PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time. A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • Climate Change: Criminal ecocide
    We are in the middle of a climate crisis. Last year was (again) the hottest year on record. NOAA has just announced another global coral bleaching event. Floods are threatening UK food security. So naturally, Shane Jones wants to make it easier to mine coal: Resources Minister Shane Jones ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago

  • Is saving one minute of a politician's time worth nearly $1 billion?
    Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago

  • Long Tunnel or Long Con?
    Yesterday it was revealed that Transport Minister had asked Waka Kotahi to look at the options for a long tunnel through Wellington. State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    4 days ago

  • $41m to support clean energy in South East Asia
    New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    16 hours ago

  • Minister releases Fast-track stakeholder list
    The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    18 hours ago

  • Judicial appointments announced
    Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    19 hours ago

  • Education Minister heads to major teaching summit in Singapore
    Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa.  The summit is co-hosted ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    19 hours ago

  • Value of stopbank project proven during cyclone
    A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    20 hours ago

  • Anzac commemorations, Türkiye relationship focus of visit
    Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul.    “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    20 hours ago

  • Minister to Europe for OECD meeting, Anzac Day
    Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    22 hours ago

  • Comprehensive Partnership the goal for NZ and the Philippines
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr.  The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago

  • Government commits $20m to Westport flood protection
    The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Taupō takes pole position
    The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Cost of living support for low-income homeowners
    Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners.  “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Government backing mussel spat project
    The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Government focused on getting people into work
    Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Clean energy key driver to reducing emissions
    The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Earthquake-prone buildings review brought forward
    The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Thailand and NZ to agree to Strategic Partnership
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Government consults on extending coastal permits for ports
    RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Inflation coming down, but more work to do
    Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • School attendance restored as a priority in health advice
    Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Unnecessary bureaucracy cut in oceans sector
    Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Patterson promoting NZ’s wool sector at International Congress
    Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector.    "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Removing red tape to help early learners thrive
    The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • RMA changes to cut coal mining consent red tape
    Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • McClay reaffirms strong NZ-China trade relationship
    Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Prime Minister Luxon acknowledges legacy of Singapore Prime Minister Lee
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.   Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • PMs Luxon and Lee deepen Singapore-NZ ties
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.  During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Antarctica New Zealand Board appointments
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner.  The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Finance Minister travels to Washington DC
    Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.  “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Pet bonds a win/win for renters and landlords
    The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Long Tunnel for SH1 Wellington being considered
    State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • New Zealand condemns Iranian strikes
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel.    “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says.    "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Huge interest in Government’s infrastructure plans
    Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Health Minister thanks outgoing Health New Zealand Chair
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board.   “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti.  “I have asked her to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Roads of National Significance planning underway
    The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.  “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Navigating an unstable global environment
    New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says.   “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States.    “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • NZ welcomes Australian Governor-General
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Pseudoephedrine back on shelves for Winter
    Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • NZ and the US: an ever closer partnership
    New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says.    “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Joint US and NZ declaration
    April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • NZ and US to undertake further practical Pacific cooperation
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research.   “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

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