This is all so awful. It amazes me that countries can go into other countries and exploit or destroy them and expect no ‘externalities’ from that.
Having said that, the UK and the US, the biggest offenders in the destruction of nations have been getting off rather lightly, with Italy and Greece bearing the brunt of resuce and resettlement operations that they can little afford.
The UK response of stopping resuce missions to ‘remove the pull factor’ for would-be refugees and migrants is particularly disgusting. I wonder how many deaths the current UK government think will do the job?
Fix what you broke, exploiters and warmongers, and/or open the gates – there are consequences for destroying things. Turning the boats back, and wiping out human trafficking removes migrants and refugees from European sight, but does not fix the horror (whether war or economic, in which European/US nations are implicated) that these people are trying to escape.
(Trigger warning – [r0b: deleting unfounded allegations – let the account speak for itself without attaching these labels to it])
So it’s confirmed that John Keys is a [del]. It’s a disturbing read, but a brave young woman has spoken out on the Daily Blog about how our [del] her. The Tory filth are protected from prosecution though, as in Northland, as with Keys, as with all the rest of the Natzi bottom-feeding sub-human scum.
Tro-lling GR?
An account of harrassment which paints an interesting picture of our PM.
How do you feel about someone you don’t like repeatedly pulling your hair after you have made it perfectly clear you don’t want them to GR?
How do you feel about someone with this kind of power and a security detail in tow behaving this way?
Oh, I think it was an attempt at trolling and damage limitation on behalf of the National Party. You’ve really got to watch out for over-egging the pudding with that kind of thing.
Thanks for deleting it Rob. It was insulting.
This behaviour is disturbing and telling. No attempt at extreme exaggeration changes the fact.
“Not trolling. It literally made me sick to read it. Any such bodily violation is certainly a sexually motivated assault.”
It might be sexually motivated, but there is nothing in the story to say it definitely was. I read it as bullying, most likely gender bullying (can’t see Key doing that to a male waiter), and creepy, but not inherently sexual. The story is bad enough on its own without adding to it.
I also think the woman who told the story gets to define what happened to her.
From my knowledge of men who do this sort of thing, it is almost definitely related to sex and predation. I have come across it several times and it creeps me out.
I also think the woman who told the story gets to define what happened to her.
She can certainly define her experience of it. But she cannot define what Key’s driving intent and motivation was. That will require other people to assess.
on the basis of what she wrote, I can’t see how we could know whether there was anything sexual in Key’s intentions or motivations. Possibly people who were there and saw it might have a better view on that, but maybe not then even.
“From my knowledge of men who do this sort of thing, it is almost definitely related to sex and predation. I have come across it several times and it creeps me out.”
Sure, but this is the woman’s story, and I think it’s better to not put additional bits into that that she didn’t.
Her story does indeed stand on its own. Developing connections, comparisons and context is what we are doing here. I think it adds value if we want to have a conversation about what has happened.
It is her story but it is also our story. This guy is the PM of our country and what he does affects us all. He is our representative. We are not going to get anywhere by making this the story of one individual, something that followers of identity politics do all the time. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.
As for putting additional bits into it, we see every story through the lens of our own experiences. They add to, or in some cases, detract from our understanding. Unless we have the concentration of a goldfish, it’s something we can’t help doing.
No question in my mind that Key is a predator devoid of empathy and conscience. I didn’t need to read this story to come to that conclusion. This isn’t about “identity politics” and I find it offensive that you would come to such a conclusion. The way GR wrote about this incident was straight from the Crosby-Textor playbook of divide and rule. I don’t know if GR is an innocent, but the way it read to me, I don’t think he or she is.
An attack on one of us is indeed an attack on all of us. Maybe though, you could listen to of those with experience of dealing with this particular kind of attack and of how our experiences are usually able to be dismissed instead of writing us, and our experiences off so glibly.
What on earth am I writing off so glibly? I can’t make any sense of your comment at all. I did not say the story was about identity politics. How about replying to something I actually wrote? Note that I never saw GR’s whole comment, and wasn’t addressing that.
You have certainly seen what I wrote through the lens of your own experiences, which ironically is the point I was making.
Can you MR refrain from using the term identity politics at all? It seems to flavour every discussion it crops up in with something pungent and ultimately unpleasant. Best left on the shelf if some extended discussion and analysis is hoped for.
If you didn’t read GRs comment why are you assuming that responses to it relate to”identity politics”?
It was grossly inflammatory and inaccurate and bore no relationship to the story as related by the complainant.
Are you saying that it is ever possible to not understand things through the lens of our own experiences? Or does that just apply to some kinds of kinds of experiences?
And yes, the term “identity politics” pisses me off.
The other video, of the child, definitely is not a playful tug on a pony tail, but a caressing or fondling. BUT I agree with Weka, the waitress has described tugging (on her pony tail), not caressing or fondling.
Who does this, to a stranger, or even a casual acquaintance from a cafe? C’mon honesty time. Who? I don’t know anyone who does since they were a child and it was not to fondle. Then ask yourself how many rime Minister’s have done it? Not just once it seems, Multiple times to different people.
Those on the Right morally affronted by Brown having sex with someone not his wife, are you morally appalled right now? Then say so.
I agree – both that it is a disturbing read if true, and that GR’s comments are ott.
However, it also brought to mind an action by Key last year on the Campbell Live episode pre-general election where Key cooked breakfast, but was videoed beforehand at a local market straightening a young girl’s ponytail while she was being interviewed by Campbell.
imgur.com/r/newzealand/wT4XtDj
I found it disturbing at the time, and still do having re-watched it now. If it had been a very quick flick, fine – but it is the fact that he rubbed the girl’s hair through his fingers. Actually, even a quick flick is not fine without the permission of the girl.
His action also raised a lot of comments at the time, eg these ones on the video extract above.
I don’t think that kind of insinuation is at all helpful.
Plenty of men are creeps. Their creepiness should be called out and shut down. But comparisons to Jimmy Savile’s decades of child sexual abuse and the massive networks of power and privilege which covered for him are just gross.
+1 They also muddy the seriousness of what Key did in this instance that isn’t being reported as sexual assault. What he did, his abuse of his position of power and how he treated this woman is bad enough.
“predilection for young girls” – GR that is a smear too far based on evidence available today. Is there more than one girl shown to have had her pony tail messed with? To my knowledge it is an adult woman and a child.
He would come up behind me when I was at the ordering terminal, tug on my hair and then pretend that his wife, Bronagh, had done it (much to her embarrassment), and she would tell him to stop it. As he rounded the corner behind me he commented “that’s a very tantalising ponytail”… he pulled my hair before once again pointing the blame at Bronagh. I couldn’t believe it, he was still persisting and by now he had definitely got the message that I was not enjoying it – that seemed to be why he was enjoying it so damn much.
This is a level of sociopathy not previously reported about Key, other people really don’t seem to be seen as human to him. Hopefully others he’s acted similarly (there will be others) will find the strength to come forward with their stories.
Look closely at that video. Note that he did not “pull” on that girls pony tail (no resulting head and neck motion form the girl). Instead, you can see from a repetitive movement of his thumb that he rustled around, feeling the texture of the girls hair between his fingers.
That is assault and a complaint should be made to police.
That is entirely in keeping with John Key’s persona…. weird, child-like, shallow, planet key, dominating, and no self-awareness
edit: I recall him playing oddly with a young girld ponytail when doing some cooking thing with Campbell Live. Thought it was very strange at the time.
Hopefully Campbell Live will go through their archival footage and get us a longer cut that shows the incident from another angle. Or even what the girl’s mother says to Key at the end. Another reason to watch CL tonight.
If this is true, it is appalling. No person should have to tolerate such behaviour once let alone repeatedly. Where were her co-workers and management in this?
He has admitted them. His acolytes, beginning with Farrar and Plunket, will probably say it’s all a storm in a teacup and far left lesbians are just jealous because they all have short hair. Many Kiwis will agree. That this creep is still in office is a real indictment on us as human beings.
FJK has apologised for “horsing around” and being playful with the waitress. There is something seriously wrong with the guy and maybe we are learning why Paula Bennett cut her hair short.
In other news, Young Nacts has sent out a bulletin requiring all female members to grow their hair long and wear pony tails.
In 1999 I drove about 4000 km through Brazil, from São Paulo to Cuiabá and back. On the second day I stopped for lunch at a small restaurant outside Campo Grande. The owner, a middle aged woman, had never seen a man with a ponytail before and asked if she could play with it. I let her. That’s how people who respect others do it.
It also has buggerall to do with Key, but this is Open Mike.
1. That post is gross and brings in a lot of unrelated material to hype its story up.
2. There are affair rumours about every influential person. (Well, affairs for dudes, “slept her way to the top” for women)
3. A consenting extramarital affair between adults is the business of them and their partners and shouldn’t be used for cheap political point-scoring unless there are elements which impact their work (e.g. the early insinuations in the Len Brown saga that there was sexual harassment, or misuse of influence.)
It was his P.M hand. Not his John Key – husband and father and general family man – hand.
Hands Hats. Keep up!
But No. With his security detail and Bronagh Colluding with him It is definitely the Prime Minister of N.Z stalking and assaulting this woman.
Kathryn Ryan good on Green issues today…personally I always thought she was a Greenie….she loves diving after all and tramping
(my comment…the government should be protecting New Zealanders and their environment and regulating against corporates opposing and standing in the way of new power saving technology using renewable electricity sources)
“New technologies such as LED lighting and solar panels are meant to be making electricity cheaper and reducing reliance on traditional electricity markets. But Nine to Noon recently highlighted the case of Wellington City Council’s plan for installing LED streetlights to save electricity costs, which is being hampered by the local lines company saying it would change its charging formula to recoup any money lost. Wellington Electricity’s chief executive referred to new technology “marching across the hillside looking at eating your lunch off the table”. And there’s been outrage after Meridian and Contact Energy slashed the price it pays for solar energy coming off its customers’ houses. So what’s the future of new technologies being able to put a dent in consumers’ power bills and is the industry playing fair?”
(and….on CLIMATE CHANGE…who says this is NOT REAL !?)
“One of the country’s biggest fisheries companies, Sanford has closed its Christchurch mussel processing factory, blaming rising ocean temperatures and variable weather. Matthew Dunn, a Victoria University marine biologist and Dr John Zeldis a marine scientist with NIWA, discuss the implications of warming oceans on the seafood industry, which brings billions of dollars to the economy.”
@ CR…wrong!…no it is hurting the consumer!….and wrecking the environment….that is the “Important bit” !…that should be of concern and self- evident to every New Zealander
… personally I dont give a monkey’s arse… (always wanted to use that term)… that it is hurting the corporate profits of formerly state owned assets…if they were still state owned the story would be different
Colonial R
Did you say you can be contacted on FB? I tried the other day, (a lot of Tat Loos) and not sure whether I was successful, (de is the start of my e/m address.)
Sorry, didn’t see anything on FB which looks like it might be from you. If you find a Tat Loo who lives in Dunedin and has multiple politician types as FB friends, that’s probaby going to be me.
@Chooky That would be me. I could be wrong about her being to the Right, but there are plenty of Blue-Greens out there. I still hold with my impression that she tends to favour the Right in the Monday politics discussion.
well you are allowed your opinion and I have mine….and they are diametrically opposed
…so I guess this just shows that she is a very successful broadcaster/interviewer on radionz…she always did say that no one would know her own political opinions
Glenn Beck is notoriously slow, pompous, and bewildered about virtually everything. Except for the slight variation in accent, he could be the bloke that’s spluttering and frothing over on NewstalkZB right now….
On this clip, Beck boasts about how he has “been with the WITCH Barbara Walters, and I stress the word WITCH….”
And, for those who can stand it, here are two more stellar performers from the Republican Party’s brains trust….
“While the International Criminal Court investigates and sentences African dictators, any of the crimes the US commits like the invasion of Iraq, which has destabilized an entire region, go unpunished, philosopher Noam Chomsky tells RT…..
The anti-immigration election rhetoric is perverse – we fear the arrival of people that we have drawn here with the wealth we stole from them.
I sometimes wonder if satire has reached a nadir in Britain because British society has itself become a parody of itself. The Chipping Norton Set: the prime minister, a tabloid editor and a Roger Mellie-ish TV icon all conveniently living in the same little town and taking turns at being the centre of scandal, feels like a novel Martin Amis bashed out because his conservatory was leaking. Likewise there has been an element of tragic irony this week as the growing drumbeat of anti-immigration election rhetoric has been punctuated by the mass drowning of migrants.
Katie Hopkins calling migrants vermin recalls the darkest events of history.
…..
If we have become a self-satirising society, Ukip are just the broader end, the easy slapstick laughs. They even have a porn-star candidate. Of course, he isn’t the first MP to have filmed himself having sex. But he is the first to do so with an adult, whom he allowed to live.
Even our charity is essentially patronising. Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day. Give him a fishing rod and he can feed himself. Alternatively, don’t poison the fishing waters, abduct his great-grandparents into slavery, then turn up 400 years later on your gap year talking a lot of shite about fish.
In a further nod to satire, Comic Relief this year focused on Malawi and Uganda. I didn’t see any acknowledgement that Britain had been the colonial power in those countries. “Thanks for the gold, lads, thanks for the diamonds. We had a whip-round and got you a fishing rod.”
A lot of racism comes from projection. White Americans have a stereotype of black people being criminals purely because they can’t acknowledge that it was actually white people that stole them from Africa in the first place. Today, you have the spectacle of black men being gunned down by cops who, by way of mitigation, release footage to show that the victims were running away. This is what happens when you don’t understand or even acknowledge history. You end up in a situation where, when slavery is the elephant in the room in your relationship with African Americans, you think it’s OK to say that you killed one of them because he was trying to escape.
Britain is in a similar place with colonialism. We have streets named after slave owners. We profited from a vile crime and feel no shame. We fear the arrival of immigrants that we have drawn here with the wealth we stole from them. For much of the rest of the world we must be the focus of bitter amusement, characters in a satire we don’t understand. It is British people that don’t learn languages, or British history. Britain is the true scrounger, the true criminal.
Stuff still hasn’t got it right!
Ria Bond was a successful hairdresser Invercargill but has, since the election, been living in Wellington where she has been working as an assistant to a couple of NZ First MPS. She also has Northland origins,
Do watch Campell Live tonight and support that eminently worthwhile programme. 7 pm, TV3.
Tonight, (from Twitter) the topics include:
* She was just 12 when she got into a “wrong relationship” with a married man 10 years her senior. What’s going on inside Gloriavale? disturbing revelations about the Gloriavale community. Is it time for the police to become involved?
* Thames locals come out in force to protest plans for a crematorium in their town’s CBD. Fair enough? Or an over-reaction?
* Would you give something this bad to your kids? We look into the “lunch packs” being sold directly to children.
Campbell Live @CampbellLiveNZ also tweeted this:
No. 1 on TV3, again. You are making this happen.
1. Campbell Live 288,720 viewers
2. The Bachelor 278,540
3. 3 News 229,820
THANK YOU!
Now I've heard there was a secret chordThat David played, and it pleased the LordBut you don't really care for music, do you?It goes like this, the fourth, the fifthThe minor falls, the major liftsThe baffled king composing HallelujahSongwriter: Leonard CohenI always thought the lyrics of that great song by ...
People are getting carried away with the virtues of small warship crews. We need to remember the great vice of having few people to run a ship: they’ll quickly tire. Yes, the navy is struggling ...
Mōrena. Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom/$3, NZ Herald/$, Stuff, BusinessDesk/$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT/$, WSJ/$, Bloomberg/$, New York Times/$, The Atlantic-$, ...
US President Donald Trump’s hostile regime has finally forced Europe to wake up. With US officials calling into question the transatlantic alliance, Germany’s incoming chancellor, Friedrich Merz, recently persuaded lawmakers to revise the country’s debt ...
We need to establish clearer political boundaries around national security to avoid politicising ongoing security issues and to better manage secondary effects. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) revealed on 10 March that the Dural caravan ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have reiterated their call for Government to protect workers by banning engineered stone in a submission on MBIE’s silica dust consultation. “If Brooke van Velden is genuine when she calls for an evidence-based approach to this issue, then she must support a full ban on ...
The Labour Inspectorate could soon be knocking on the door of hundreds of businesses nation-wide, as it launches a major crackdown on those not abiding by the law. NorthTec staff are on edge as Northland’s leading polytechnic proposes to stop 11 programmes across primary industries, forestry, and construction. Union coverage ...
It’s one thing for military personnel to hone skills with first-person view (FPV) drones in racing competitions. It’s quite another for them to transition to the complexities of the battlefield. Drone racing has become a ...
Seymour says there will be no other exemptions granted to schools wanting to opt out of the Compass contract. Photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories shortest:David Seymour has denied a request from a Christchurch school and any other schools to be exempted from the Compass school lunch programme, saying the contract ...
Russian President Boris Yeltsin, U.S. President Bill Clinton, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, and British Prime Minister John Major signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in ...
Edit: The original story said “Palette Cleanser” in both the story, and the headline. I am never, ever going to live this down. Chain me up, throw me into the pit.Hi,With the world burning — literally and figuratively — I felt like Webworm needed a little palate cleanser at the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler(Image credit: Antonio Huerta) Growing up in suburban Ohio, I was used to seeing farmland and woods disappear to make room for new subdivisions, strip malls, and big box stores. I didn’t usually welcome the changes, but I assumed others ...
Myanmar was a key global site for criminal activity well before the 2021 military coup. Today, illicit industry, especially heroin and methamphetamine production, still defines much of the economy. Nowhere, not even the leafiest districts ...
What've I gotta do to make you love me?What've I gotta do to make you care?What do I do when lightning strikes me?And I wake up and find that you're not thereWhat've I gotta do to make you want me?Mmm hmm, what've I gotta do to be heard?What do I ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom3, NZ Herald, Stuff, BusinessDesk-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT-$, WSJ-$, Bloomberg-$, New York Times-$, The Atlantic-$, The Economist-$ ...
Whenever Christopher Luxon drops a classically fatuous clanger or whenever the government has a bad poll – i.e. every week – the talk resumes that he is about to be rolled. This is unlikely for several reasons. For starters, there is no successor. Nicola Willis? Chris Bishop? Simeon Brown? Mark ...
Australia, Britain and European countries should loosen budget rules to allow borrowing to fund higher defence spending, a new study by the Kiel Institute suggests. Currently, budget debt rules are forcing governments to finance increases ...
The NZCTU remains strongly committed to banning engineered stone in New Zealand and implementing better occupational health protections for all workers working with silica-containing materials. In this submission to MBIE, the NZCTU outlines that we have an opportunity to learn from Australia’s experience by implementing a full ban of engineered ...
The Prime Minister has announced a big win in trade negotiations with India.It’s huge, he told reporters. We didn't get everything we came for but we were able to agree on free trade in clothing, fabrics, car components, software, IT consulting, spices, tea, rice, and leather goods.He said that for ...
I have been trying to figure out the logic of Trump’s tariff policies and apparent desire for a global trade war. Although he does not appear to comprehend that tariffs are a tax on consumers in the country doing the tariffing, I can (sort of) understand that he may think ...
As Syria and international partners negotiate the country’s future, France has sought to be a convening power. While France has a history of influence in the Middle East, it will have to balance competing Syrian ...
One of the eternal truths about Aotearoa's economy is that we are "capital poor": there's not enough money sloshing around here to fund the expansion of local businesses, or to build the things we want to. Which gets used as an excuse for all sorts of things, like setting up ...
National held its ground until late 2023 Verion, Talbot Mills & Curia Polls (Red = Labour, Blue = National)If we remove outlier results from Curia (National Party November 2023) National started trending down in October 2024.Verion Polls (Red = Labour, Blue = National)Verian alone shows a clearer deterioration in early ...
In a recent presentation, I recommended, quite unoriginally, that governments should have a greater focus on higher-impact, lower-probability climate risks. My reasoning was that current climate model projections have blind spots, meaning we are betting ...
Daddy, are you out there?Daddy, won't you come and play?Daddy, do you not care?Is there nothing that you want to say?Songwriters: Mark Batson / Beyonce Giselle Knowles.This morning, a look at the much-maligned NZ Herald. Despised by many on the left as little more than a mouthpiece for the National ...
Employers, unions and health and safety advocates are calling for engineered stone to be banned, a day before consultation on regulations closes. On Friday the PSA lodged a pay equity claim for library assistants with the Employment Relations Authority, after the stalling of a claim lodged with six councils in ...
Long stories shortest in Aotearoa’s political economy:Christopher Luxon surprises by announcing trade deal talks with India will start next month, and include beef and dairy. Napier is set to join Whakatane, Dunedin and Westport in staging a protest march against health spending restraints hitting their hospital services. Winston Peters ...
At a time of rising geopolitical tensions and deepening global fragmentation, the Ukraine war has proved particularly divisive. From the start, the battle lines were clearly drawn: Russia on one side, Ukraine and the West ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom3, NZ Herald, Stuff, BusinessDesk-$, Newsroom-$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT-$, WSJ-$, Bloomberg-$, New York Times-$, The Atlantic-$, ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 9, 2025 thru Sat, March 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. We are still interested ...
Max Harris and Max Rashbrooke discuss how we turn around the right wing slogans like nanny state, woke identity politics, and the inefficiency of the public sector – and how we build a progressive agenda. From Donald Trump to David Seymour, from Peter Dutton to Christopher Luxon, we are subject to a ...
The Government dominated the political agenda this week with its two-day conference pitching all manner of public infrastructure projects for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories shortest in our political economy this week: The Government ploughed ahead with offers of PPPs to pension fund managers ...
You know that it's a snake eat snake worldWe slither and serpentine throughWe all took a bite, and six thousand years laterThese apples getting harder to chewSongwriters: Shawn Mavrides.“Please be Jack Tame”, I thought when I saw it was Seymour appearing on Q&A. I’d had a guts full of the ...
So here we are at the wedding of Alexandra Vincent Martelli and David Seymour.Look at all the happy prosperous guests! How proud Nick Mowbray looks of the gift he has made of a mountain of crap plastic toys stuffed into a Cybertruck.How they drink, how they laugh, how they mug ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is waste heat from industrial activity the reason the planet is warming? Waste heat’s contribution to global warming is a small fraction of ...
Some continue to defend David Seymour on school lunches, sidestepping his errors to say:“Well the parents should pack their lunch” and/or “Kids should be grateful for free food.”One of these people is the sitting Prime Minister.So I put together a quick list of why complaint is not only appropriate - ...
“Bugger the pollsters!”WHEN EVERYBODY LIVED in villages, and every village had a graveyard, the expression “whistling past the graveyard” made more sense. Even so, it’s hard to describe the Coalition Government’s response to the latest Taxpayers’ Union/Curia Research poll any better. Regardless of whether they wanted to go there, or ...
Prof Jane Kelsey examines what the ACT party and the NZ Initiative are up to as they seek to impose on the country their hardline, right wing, neoliberal ideology. A progressive government elected in 2026 would have a huge job putting Humpty Dumpty together again and rebuilding a state that ...
See I try to make a differenceBut the heads of the high keep turning awayThere ain't no useWhen the world that you love has goneOoh, gotta make a changeSongwriters: Arapekanga Adams-Tamatea / Brad Kora / Hiriini Kora / Joel Shadbolt.Aotearoa for Sale.This week saw the much-heralded and somewhat alarming sight ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom3, NZ Herald, Stuff, BusinessDesk-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT-$, WSJ-$, Bloomberg-$, New York Times-$, The Atlantic-$, The Economist-$ ...
By international standards the New Zealand healthcare system appears satisfactory – certainly no worse generally than average. Yet it is undergoing another redisorganisation.While doing some unrelated work, I came across some international data on the healthcare sector which seemed to contradict my – and the conventional wisdom’s – view of ...
When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he knew that he was upending Europe’s security order. But this was more of a tactical gambit than a calculated strategy ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Over the last year, I’ve been warning about Luxon’s pitch to privatise our public assets.He had told reporters in October that nothing was off the cards:Schools, hospitals, prisons, and ...
When ASPI’s Cyclone Tracy: 50 Years On was published last year, it wasn’t just a historical reflection; it was a warning. Just months later, we are already watching history repeat itself. We need to bake ...
1. Why was school lunch provider The Libelle Group in the news this week?a. Grand Winner in Pie of The Yearb. Scored a record 108% on YELP c. Bought by Oravida d. Went into liquidation2. What did our Prime Minister offer prospective investors at his infrastructure investment jamboree?a. The Libelle ...
South Korea has suspended new downloads of DeepSeek, and it was were right to do so. Chinese tech firms operate under the shadow of state influence, misusing data for surveillance and geopolitical advantage. Any country ...
Previous big infrastructure PPPs such as Transmission Gully were fiendishly complicated to negotiate, generated massive litigation and were eventually rewritten anyway. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesLong stories shortest: The Government’s international investment conference ignores the facts that PPPs cost twice as much as vanilla debt-funded public infrastructure, often take ...
Woolworths has proposed a major restructure of its New Zealand store operating model, leaving workers worried their hours and pay could be cut. Public servants are being asked how productive their office is, how much they use AI, and whether they’re overloaded with meetings as part of a “census”. An ...
Robert Kaplan’s book Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis paints a portrait of civilisation in flux. Drawing insights from history, literature and art, he examines the effect of modern technology, globalisation and urbanisation on ...
Sexuality - Strong and warm and wild and freeSexuality - Your laws do not apply to meSexuality - Don't threaten me with miserySexuality - I demand equalitySong: Billy Bragg.First, thank you to everyone who took part in yesterday’s survey. Some questions worked better than others, but I found them interesting, ...
Hi,I just got back from a week in Japan thanks to the power of cheap flights and years of accumulated credit card points.The last time I was in Japan the government held a press conference saying they might take legal action against me and Netflix, so there was a little ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including Donald Trump’s wrecking of the post-WW II political landscape; andHealth Coalition Aotearoa co-chair Lisa ...
Hi,I just got back from a short trip to Japan, mostly spending time in Tokyo.I haven’t been there since we shot Dark Tourist back in 2017 — and that landed us in a bit of hot water with the Japanese government.I am glad to report I was not thrown into ...
I’ve been on Substack for almost 8 months now.It’s been good in terms of the many great individuals that populate its space. So much variety and intelligence and humour and depth.I joined because someone suggested I should ‘start a Substack,’ whatever that meant.So I did.Turning on payments seemed like the ...
Open access notables Would Adding the Anthropocene to the Geologic Time Scale Matter?, McCarthy et al., AGU Advances:The extraordinary fossil fuel-driven outburst of consumption and production since the mid-twentieth century has fundamentally altered the way the Earth System works. Although humans have impacted their environment for millennia, justification for ...
Australia should buy equipment to cheaply and temporarily convert military transport aircraft into waterbombers. On current planning, the Australian Defence Force will have a total of 34 Chinook helicopters and Hercules airlifters. They should be ...
Indonesia’s government has slashed its counterterrorism (CT) budgets, despite the persistent and evolving threat of violent extremism. Australia can support regional CT efforts by filling this funding void. Reducing funding to the National Counterterrorism Agency ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Resource Management (Prohibition on Extraction of Freshwater for On-selling) Amendment Bill (Debbie Ngarewa-Packer) The bill does exactly what it says on the label, and would effectively end the rapacious water-bottling industry ...
Twilight Time Lighthouse Cuba, Wigan Street, Wellington, Sunday 6 April, 5:30pm for 6pm start. Twilight Time looks at the life and work of Desmond Ball, (1947-2016), a barefooted academic from ‘down under’ who was hailed by Jimmy Carter as “the man who saved the world”, as he proved the fallacy ...
Foreign aid is being slashed across the Global North, nowhere more so than in the United States. Within his first month back in the White House, President Donald Trump dismantled the US Agency for International ...
Nicola Willis has proposed new procurement rules that unions say will lead to pay cuts for already low-paid workers in cleaning, catering and security services that are contracted by government. The Crimes (Theft by Employer) Amendment Bill passed its third reading with support from all the opposition parties and NZ ...
Most KP readers will not know that I was a jazz DJ in Chicago and Washington DC while in grad school in the early and mid 1980s. In DC I joined WPFW as a grave shift host, then a morning drive show host (a show called Sui Generis, both for ...
Long stories shortest: The IMF says a capital gains tax or land tax would improve real economic growth and fix the budget. GDP is set to be smaller by 2026 than it was in 2023. Compass is flying in school lunches from Australia. 53% of National voters say the new ...
Last year in October I wrote “Where’s The Opposition?”. I was exasperated at the relative quiet of the Green Party, Labour and Te Pati Māori (TPM), as the National led Coalition ticked off a full bingo card of the Atlas Network playbook.1To be fair, TPM helped to energise one of ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkGood data visualizations can help make climate change more visceral and understandable. Back in 2016 Ed Hawkins published a “climate spiral” graph that ended up being pretty iconic – it was shown at the opening ceremony of the Olympics that year – and ...
An agreement to end the war in Ukraine could transform Russia’s relations with North Korea. Moscow is unlikely to reduce its cooperation with Pyongyang to pre-2022 levels, but it may become more selective about areas ...
This week, the Government is hosting a grand event aimed at trying to interest big foreign capital players in financing capital works in New Zealand, particularly its big rural motorway programme. Financing vs funding: a quick explainer The key word in the sentence above is financing. It is important ...
In a month’s time, the Right Honourable Winston Peters will be celebrating his 80th birthday. Good for him. On the evidence though, his current war on “wokeness” looks like an old man’s cranky complaint that the ancient virtues of grit and know-how are sadly lacking in the youth of today. ...
The Green Party stands in support of volunteer firefighters petitioning the Government to step up and change legislation to provide volunteers the same ACC coverage and benefits as their paid counterparts. ...
Living Strong, Aging Well There is much discussion around the health of our older New Zealanders and how we can age well. In reality, the delivery of health services accounts for only a relatively small percentage of health outcomes as we age. Significantly, dry warm housing, nutrition, exercise, social connection, ...
Shane Jones’ display on Q&A showed how out of touch he and this Government are with our communities and how in sync they are with companies with little concern for people and planet. ...
Labour does not support the private ownership of core infrastructure like schools, hospitals and prisons, which will only see worse outcomes for Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is disappointed the Government voted down Hūhana Lyndon’s member’s Bill, which would have prevented further alienation of Māori land through the Public Works Act. ...
The Labour Party will support Chloe Swarbrick’s member’s bill which would allow sanctions against Israel for its illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories. ...
The Government’s new procurement rules are a blatant attack on workers and the environment, showing once again that National’s priorities are completely out of touch with everyday Kiwis. ...
With Labour and Te Pāti Māori’s official support, Opposition parties are officially aligned to progress Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in Palestine. ...
Te Pāti Māori extends our deepest aroha to the 500 plus Whānau Ora workers who have been advised today that the govt will be dismantling their contracts. For twenty years , Whānau Ora has been helping families, delivering life-changing support through a kaupapa Māori approach. It has built trust where ...
Labour welcomes Simeon Brown’s move to reinstate a board at Health New Zealand, bringing the destructive and secretive tenure of commissioner Lester Levy to an end. ...
This morning’s announcement by the Health Minister regarding a major overhaul of the public health sector levels yet another blow to the country’s essential services. ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill that will ensure employment decisions in the public service are based on merit and not on forced woke ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ targets. “This Bill would put an end to the woke left-wing social engineering and diversity targets in the public sector. ...
Police have referred 20 offenders to Destiny Church-affiliated programmes Man Up and Legacy as ‘wellness providers’ in the last year, raising concerns that those seeking help are being recruited into a harmful organisation. ...
Te Pāti Māori welcomes the resignation of Richard Prebble from the Waitangi Tribunal. His appointment in October 2024 was a disgrace- another example of this government undermining Te Tiriti o Waitangi by appointing a former ACT leader who has spent his career attacking Māori rights. “Regardless of the reason for ...
Police Minister Mark Mitchell is avoiding accountability by refusing to answer key questions in the House as his Government faces criticism over their dangerous citizen’s arrest policy, firearm reform, and broken promises to recruit more police. ...
The number of building consents issued under this Government continues to spiral, taking a toll on the infrastructure sector, tradies, and future generations of Kiwi homeowners. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Prime Minister to rule out joining the AUKUS military pact in any capacity following the scenes in the White House over the weekend. ...
The Green Party is appalled by the Government’s plan to disestablish Resource Teachers of Māori (RTM) roles, a move that takes another swing at kaupapa Māori education. ...
The Government’s levies announcement is a step in the right direction, but they must be upfront about who will pay its new infrastructure levies and ensure that first-home buyers are protected from hidden costs. ...
The Government’s levies announcement is a step in the right direction, but they must be upfront about who will pay its new infrastructure levies and ensure that first-home buyers are protected from hidden costs. ...
After months of mana whenua protecting their wāhi tapu, the Green Party welcomes the pause of works at Lake Rotokākahi and calls for the Rotorua Lakes Council to work constructively with Tūhourangi and Ngāti Tumatawera on the pathway forward. ...
New Zealand First continues to bring balance, experience, and commonsense to Government. This week we've made progress on many of our promises to New Zealand.Winston representing New ZealandWinston Peters is overseas this week, with stops across the Middle East and North Asia. Winston's stops include Saudi Arabia, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharha Sharha, PhD Candidate in Kamasutra Feminism, Cardiff Metropolitan University A carved erotic scene on the outer wall of temple in Khajuraho complex, India.Cortyn/Shutterstock For some people, the Kamasutra is little more than a name associated with condom brands, scented oils ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Cantrell, Senior Lecturer – Writing, Editing, and Publishing, University of Southern Queensland Netflix Filmed in a one-take style, Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s new crime drama Adolescence is being hailed by critics as a technical masterpiece. Out now on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yucong Wang, Lecturer, School of Law and Justice, University of Newcastle In the first few months of 2025, there’s been a flurry of private venture space missions. Some have been successful, such as American company Firefly Aerospace landing its spacecraft Blue Ghost ...
Comment: It was all going so well. Then Christopher Luxon threatened to get in his own way.Luxon went into his India trip hoping to accumulate a few singles and keep the scoreboard ticking over, but ended up clearing the boundary.Launching free trade negotiations, deepening his leader-to-leader ties with Indian Prime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Duncan, Teaching Fellow in Politics and International Relations, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images We’re roughly half way through this parliamentary term, and it looks as though the 2026 election could deliver “Christopher vs Chris: the sequel”. Neither ...
After months of bad headlines, Chris Luxon’s trip to India seems to be reaping dividends – and not just economically, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. PM puts wins on the board Christopher Luxon is having a ...
New Zealand has joined military exercises in the Californian desert testing the world's most lethal drones, even as the Pentagon moves to fully embrace AI. ...
We call on the New Zealand government to immediately condemn these attacks and implement sanctions against Israel, in accordance with international law. ...
From coup conjecture at home to a breakthrough abroad. It wasn’t just the one week, not really. Back in February a series of unfortunate events – many of his own making – befell Christopher Luxon. After a burst of growthy-changey music at the outset of the year, the weeks since ...
In a long overdue move, Act will become New Zealand’s first modern rightwing party to run candidates in council elections. David Seymour announced on Tuesday that the Act Party will stand council candidates in the October local body election. The party has opened expressions of interest in all council districts ...
There were two knock-out sights when I interviewed Jacqueline Fahey, 95, in the dining room of her Grey Lynn home, a wooden box darkened and surrounded by tropical jungle – the vast trunk of a Phoenix palm that dominated the picture window, and the sight of Fahey herself, a beautifully ...
When journalist Paddy Gower attempted to trademark his brand and news entity “This is the F***ing News” a year ago, his application stalled at the Intellectual Property of New Zealand. (The asterisks are ours – Gower’s application used the full word.)The reason? It would “likely offend a significant section of ...
Analysis: Experts say NZ will need to carefully navigate sensitive issues with India, with both countries vulnerable to criticism on human rights and indigenous rights – but that doesn’t mean Luxon should stay silent The post How to talk human rights with India and not trigger a diplomatic incident appeared ...
Opinion: I was too young to remember, but when my father heard I was researching public opinions on gene technologies, he recalled a television interview that became known as ‘Corngate’. John Campbell put the then-Prime Minister Helen Clark on the spot about the suspected release of genetically modified corn seed, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Peter Dutton, when he gets on his favoured ground of security, too often goes for the quick hit, and frequently over-reaches. His suggestion of running a possible referendum to facilitate the removal of bad ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marika Sosnowski, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne When a ceasefire in the war between Hamas and Israel finally came into effect on January 19, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. However, that ceasefire agreement, and its associated ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marika Sosnowski, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne When a ceasefire in the war between Hamas and Israel finally came into effect on January 19, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. However, that ceasefire agreement, and its associated ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marika Sosnowski, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne When a ceasefire in the war between Hamas and Israel finally came into effect on January 19, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. However, that ceasefire agreement, and its associated ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Next week’s budget will have cost-of-living assistance that will be meaningful and substantial but “responsible”, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said. In a Tuesday speech framing the budget Chalmers said, “it will be a responsible ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Greens have heaped a lot of pressure on the government during this term, from issues of the environment, housing, and Medicare, to the war in the Middle East. With the polls close to a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabrielle Meagher, Professor Emerita, School of Society, Communication and Culture, Macquarie University On Monday, an ABC’s Four Corners investigation reported shocking cases of abuse and neglect in Australian childcare centres. This included examples of children being sexually abused, restrained for hours in ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist Papua New Guinea being declared a Christian nation may offer the impression that the country will improve, but it is only “an illusion”, according to a Catholic priest in the country. Last week, the PNG Parliament amended the nation’s constitution, introducing a declaration in ...
Asia Pacific Report A national Palestinian advocacy group has called on the Aotearoa New Zealand government to immediately condemn Israel for its resumption today of “genocidal attacks” on the almost 2 million Palestinians trapped in the besieged Gaza enclave. Media reports said that more than 230 people had been killed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cohen, Senior Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney The National Rugby League has recently made headlines for trying to crack the American sporting landscape by hosting matches in Las Vegas. But the NRL’s great rival, the Australian Football League (AFL), has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John L. Hopkins, Associate Professor of Management, Swinburne University of Technology The reality of shorter working hours could be one step closer for many Australians, pending the outcome of the federal election. The Greens, who could control crucial cross bench votes in ...
Three thought provoking articles on the ongoing man-made tragedies occurring in the Mediterranean.
Why Europe Lets People Drown
http://www.theautomaticearth.com/2015/04/why-europe-lets-people-drown/
Katie Hopkins Gets Her Dead Immigrants – Happy Now? Russell Brand The Trews (E302)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=884RCxG61K4
A Horror We Made
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/04/a-horror-we-made/
This is all so awful. It amazes me that countries can go into other countries and exploit or destroy them and expect no ‘externalities’ from that.
Having said that, the UK and the US, the biggest offenders in the destruction of nations have been getting off rather lightly, with Italy and Greece bearing the brunt of resuce and resettlement operations that they can little afford.
The UK response of stopping resuce missions to ‘remove the pull factor’ for would-be refugees and migrants is particularly disgusting. I wonder how many deaths the current UK government think will do the job?
Fix what you broke, exploiters and warmongers, and/or open the gates – there are consequences for destroying things. Turning the boats back, and wiping out human trafficking removes migrants and refugees from European sight, but does not fix the horror (whether war or economic, in which European/US nations are implicated) that these people are trying to escape.
(Trigger warning – [r0b: deleting unfounded allegations – let the account speak for itself without attaching these labels to it])
So it’s confirmed that John Keys is a [del]. It’s a disturbing read, but a brave young woman has spoken out on the Daily Blog about how our [del] her. The Tory filth are protected from prosecution though, as in Northland, as with Keys, as with all the rest of the Natzi bottom-feeding sub-human scum.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/04/22/exclusive-the-prime-minister-and-the-waitress
Tro-lling GR?
An account of harrassment which paints an interesting picture of our PM.
How do you feel about someone you don’t like repeatedly pulling your hair after you have made it perfectly clear you don’t want them to GR?
How do you feel about someone with this kind of power and a security detail in tow behaving this way?
Not trolling. It literally made me sick to read it. Any such bodily violation is certainly a sexually motivated assault.
Oh, I think it was an attempt at trolling and damage limitation on behalf of the National Party. You’ve really got to watch out for over-egging the pudding with that kind of thing.
Thanks for deleting it Rob. It was insulting.
This behaviour is disturbing and telling. No attempt at extreme exaggeration changes the fact.
Has GR got a track record in this regard or is this mere speculation on your part?
“Not trolling. It literally made me sick to read it. Any such bodily violation is certainly a sexually motivated assault.”
It might be sexually motivated, but there is nothing in the story to say it definitely was. I read it as bullying, most likely gender bullying (can’t see Key doing that to a male waiter), and creepy, but not inherently sexual. The story is bad enough on its own without adding to it.
I also think the woman who told the story gets to define what happened to her.
From my knowledge of men who do this sort of thing, it is almost definitely related to sex and predation. I have come across it several times and it creeps me out.
I reckon your take on this is spot on MR.
She can certainly define her experience of it. But she cannot define what Key’s driving intent and motivation was. That will require other people to assess.
on the basis of what she wrote, I can’t see how we could know whether there was anything sexual in Key’s intentions or motivations. Possibly people who were there and saw it might have a better view on that, but maybe not then even.
“From my knowledge of men who do this sort of thing, it is almost definitely related to sex and predation. I have come across it several times and it creeps me out.”
Sure, but this is the woman’s story, and I think it’s better to not put additional bits into that that she didn’t.
Her story does indeed stand on its own. Developing connections, comparisons and context is what we are doing here. I think it adds value if we want to have a conversation about what has happened.
It is her story but it is also our story. This guy is the PM of our country and what he does affects us all. He is our representative. We are not going to get anywhere by making this the story of one individual, something that followers of identity politics do all the time. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.
As for putting additional bits into it, we see every story through the lens of our own experiences. They add to, or in some cases, detract from our understanding. Unless we have the concentration of a goldfish, it’s something we can’t help doing.
No question in my mind that Key is a predator devoid of empathy and conscience. I didn’t need to read this story to come to that conclusion. This isn’t about “identity politics” and I find it offensive that you would come to such a conclusion. The way GR wrote about this incident was straight from the Crosby-Textor playbook of divide and rule. I don’t know if GR is an innocent, but the way it read to me, I don’t think he or she is.
An attack on one of us is indeed an attack on all of us. Maybe though, you could listen to of those with experience of dealing with this particular kind of attack and of how our experiences are usually able to be dismissed instead of writing us, and our experiences off so glibly.
What on earth am I writing off so glibly? I can’t make any sense of your comment at all. I did not say the story was about identity politics. How about replying to something I actually wrote? Note that I never saw GR’s whole comment, and wasn’t addressing that.
You have certainly seen what I wrote through the lens of your own experiences, which ironically is the point I was making.
Can you MR refrain from using the term identity politics at all? It seems to flavour every discussion it crops up in with something pungent and ultimately unpleasant. Best left on the shelf if some extended discussion and analysis is hoped for.
Sure, I’m not wed to the term. I’ll try to be more specific.
If you didn’t read GRs comment why are you assuming that responses to it relate to”identity politics”?
It was grossly inflammatory and inaccurate and bore no relationship to the story as related by the complainant.
Are you saying that it is ever possible to not understand things through the lens of our own experiences? Or does that just apply to some kinds of kinds of experiences?
And yes, the term “identity politics” pisses me off.
The other video, of the child, definitely is not a playful tug on a pony tail, but a caressing or fondling. BUT I agree with Weka, the waitress has described tugging (on her pony tail), not caressing or fondling.
Who does this, to a stranger, or even a casual acquaintance from a cafe? C’mon honesty time. Who? I don’t know anyone who does since they were a child and it was not to fondle. Then ask yourself how many rime Minister’s have done it? Not just once it seems, Multiple times to different people.
Those on the Right morally affronted by Brown having sex with someone not his wife, are you morally appalled right now? Then say so.
It is a disturbing read – the rest of your comment is ott and will probably be deleted, I hope.
I agree – both that it is a disturbing read if true, and that GR’s comments are ott.
However, it also brought to mind an action by Key last year on the Campbell Live episode pre-general election where Key cooked breakfast, but was videoed beforehand at a local market straightening a young girl’s ponytail while she was being interviewed by Campbell.
imgur.com/r/newzealand/wT4XtDj
I found it disturbing at the time, and still do having re-watched it now. If it had been a very quick flick, fine – but it is the fact that he rubbed the girl’s hair through his fingers. Actually, even a quick flick is not fine without the permission of the girl.
His action also raised a lot of comments at the time, eg these ones on the video extract above.
http://www.reddit.com/r/…/john_key_being_weird_and_grabbing_some_girls/
EDIT – Snap, felix and your video link works!
Exactly, you saw it too. See my comment below
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22042015/#comment-1003042
reddit link not working ??
That is fucking disgusting. Our PM is a bully who harasses young women from a position of power, and his wife knows it, and his staff know it.
It’s a repeated physical assault.
ps remember this? http://imgur.com/r/newzealand/wT4XtDj
Agreed. It’s his predilection for young girls that is most disturbing. I wont be surprised if Savilesque revelations come to light.
It’s certainly difficult not to notice his readiness to cover up after prominent NZers in [r0b: del].
soz r0b
No worries, it’s a very aggravating situation!
I don’t think that kind of insinuation is at all helpful.
Plenty of men are creeps. Their creepiness should be called out and shut down. But comparisons to Jimmy Savile’s decades of child sexual abuse and the massive networks of power and privilege which covered for him are just gross.
+1 They also muddy the seriousness of what Key did in this instance that isn’t being reported as sexual assault. What he did, his abuse of his position of power and how he treated this woman is bad enough.
but it is able to be prosecuted as sexual assault according to the employment lawyer interviewed on Stuff this morning … the link is on Open Mike …
This is going to be awkward & icky when we get round to the PM explaining why an ex-MP was recently retired.
“predilection for young girls” – GR that is a smear too far based on evidence available today. Is there more than one girl shown to have had her pony tail messed with? To my knowledge it is an adult woman and a child.
felix
That’s he bit that stood out for me:
This is a level of sociopathy not previously reported about Key, other people really don’t seem to be seen as human to him. Hopefully others he’s acted similarly (there will be others) will find the strength to come forward with their stories.
@Felix
OMG that is so inappropriate!
Look closely at that video. Note that he did not “pull” on that girls pony tail (no resulting head and neck motion form the girl). Instead, you can see from a repetitive movement of his thumb that he rustled around, feeling the texture of the girls hair between his fingers.
Yep he is dirty and disgusting
I honestly hope it’s not true and is a story out of Bradbury’s head, I honestly do.
That is assault and a complaint should be made to police.
That is entirely in keeping with John Key’s persona…. weird, child-like, shallow, planet key, dominating, and no self-awareness
edit: I recall him playing oddly with a young girld ponytail when doing some cooking thing with Campbell Live. Thought it was very strange at the time.
Yep it’s here: http://imgur.com/r/newzealand/wT4XtDj
And yep I thought it was very weird at the time too. Like a compulsion that he couldn’t control.
Yes that’s it.
It is most definitely weird. As you say, like a compulsive fetish.
And now he has gone and done it again and again and again to this poor person waiting in his stalkee café.
YOU CAN’T BE SURE THAT WAS REALLY JOHN KEY’S HAND, IT COULD HAVE BEEN ANYONES!
Hopefully Campbell Live will go through their archival footage and get us a longer cut that shows the incident from another angle. Or even what the girl’s mother says to Key at the end. Another reason to watch CL tonight.
LOL
It was Nicky Hager’s, that extreme left wing conspiracy theorist, again
There are no words ………….
If this is true, it is appalling. No person should have to tolerate such behaviour once let alone repeatedly. Where were her co-workers and management in this?
Ah well, let the spin begin.
Witnesses to this alleged event must come forward.
If he doesn’t outright deny them, his fate is sealed.
“If he doesn’t outright deny them, his fate is sealed.”
Bah……’ If he doesn’t outright deny the accusations, his fate is sealed.’
….my outrage got the better of my typing.
He has admitted them. His acolytes, beginning with Farrar and Plunket, will probably say it’s all a storm in a teacup and far left lesbians are just jealous because they all have short hair. Many Kiwis will agree. That this creep is still in office is a real indictment on us as human beings.
FJK has apologised for “horsing around” and being playful with the waitress. There is something seriously wrong with the guy and maybe we are learning why Paula Bennett cut her hair short.
In other news, Young Nacts has sent out a bulletin requiring all female members to grow their hair long and wear pony tails.
lol….all around the country people will be cutting their ponytails off
In 1999 I drove about 4000 km through Brazil, from São Paulo to Cuiabá and back. On the second day I stopped for lunch at a small restaurant outside Campo Grande. The owner, a middle aged woman, had never seen a man with a ponytail before and asked if she could play with it. I let her. That’s how people who respect others do it.
It also has buggerall to do with Key, but this is Open Mike.
Just been over to The Daily blog.
?!
The woman who wrote that, she is somewhere safe right now yeah? Someone go get her and hide her.
prophetic and respectful Charles. We care too much about the story and not enough about the messenger
It’s going to be a lively day in OM. Please folks, don’t post stuff that makes work for moderators…
Er. What is OM Rob?
Open Mike 😉
Really?
Or, Order of Merit if it had been initials behind a name ! 😀
this is Wolf Of Wall St behaviour….funny that!
No wonder he feels so ” comfortable ” in the company of a certain ex-MP.
Also a rumour.. from a post at tdb
https://realnewsnz.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/john-key-secret-affair-exposed/
1. That post is gross and brings in a lot of unrelated material to hype its story up.
2. There are affair rumours about every influential person. (Well, affairs for dudes, “slept her way to the top” for women)
3. A consenting extramarital affair between adults is the business of them and their partners and shouldn’t be used for cheap political point-scoring unless there are elements which impact their work (e.g. the early insinuations in the Len Brown saga that there was sexual harassment, or misuse of influence.)
It was his P.M hand. Not his John Key – husband and father and general family man – hand.
Hands Hats. Keep up!
But No. With his security detail and Bronagh Colluding with him It is definitely the Prime Minister of N.Z stalking and assaulting this woman.
Maybe it was John Key, All-Black Captain?
Or John Key, Licensed Building Practitioner?
Or maybe his Hair Dresser training getting a refresher and certainly not a PM of NZ.
AT LAST!! An article on John Campbell in the Herald!! All about his jersey FGS! Sorry about the exclamation marks but I am gobsmacked.
Kathryn Ryan good on Green issues today…personally I always thought she was a Greenie….she loves diving after all and tramping
(my comment…the government should be protecting New Zealanders and their environment and regulating against corporates opposing and standing in the way of new power saving technology using renewable electricity sources)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201751454/new-energy-and-money-saving-technologies
“New technologies such as LED lighting and solar panels are meant to be making electricity cheaper and reducing reliance on traditional electricity markets. But Nine to Noon recently highlighted the case of Wellington City Council’s plan for installing LED streetlights to save electricity costs, which is being hampered by the local lines company saying it would change its charging formula to recoup any money lost. Wellington Electricity’s chief executive referred to new technology “marching across the hillside looking at eating your lunch off the table”. And there’s been outrage after Meridian and Contact Energy slashed the price it pays for solar energy coming off its customers’ houses. So what’s the future of new technologies being able to put a dent in consumers’ power bills and is the industry playing fair?”
(and….on CLIMATE CHANGE…who says this is NOT REAL !?)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201751455/warming-seas-and-the-impact-on-fish-stocks
“One of the country’s biggest fisheries companies, Sanford has closed its Christchurch mussel processing factory, blaming rising ocean temperatures and variable weather. Matthew Dunn, a Victoria University marine biologist and Dr John Zeldis a marine scientist with NIWA, discuss the implications of warming oceans on the seafood industry, which brings billions of dollars to the economy.”
Ah yes, yet another discussion on how global warming is hurting capitalism, because that is what is the important bit.
@ CR…wrong!…no it is hurting the consumer!….and wrecking the environment….that is the “Important bit” !…that should be of concern and self- evident to every New Zealander
… personally I dont give a monkey’s arse… (always wanted to use that term)… that it is hurting the corporate profits of formerly state owned assets…if they were still state owned the story would be different
Time to support the GREENS!
Colonial R
Did you say you can be contacted on FB? I tried the other day, (a lot of Tat Loos) and not sure whether I was successful, (de is the start of my e/m address.)
Hi GWS
Sorry, didn’t see anything on FB which looks like it might be from you. If you find a Tat Loo who lives in Dunedin and has multiple politician types as FB friends, that’s probaby going to be me.
Colonial R
Had another look and sent FB message on 19 April. That might help place it.
Gosh darn it don’t see anything on that day. Try again…
@ Colonial R
Okeydoke. Not good with this facebook, it isn’t as easy as I thought. Have requested friend of yours. So hope that works.
“personally I always thought she was a Greenie….she loves diving after all and tramping”
Good lord Chooky, are you trying to get her sacked?? 😀
lol…no just getting a dig at someone yesterday who said she was a rightwinger ….she aint!
@Chooky That would be me. I could be wrong about her being to the Right, but there are plenty of Blue-Greens out there. I still hold with my impression that she tends to favour the Right in the Monday politics discussion.
well you are allowed your opinion and I have mine….and they are diametrically opposed
…so I guess this just shows that she is a very successful broadcaster/interviewer on radionz…she always did say that no one would know her own political opinions
The American version of Leighton Smith
Glenn Beck is notoriously slow, pompous, and bewildered about virtually everything. Except for the slight variation in accent, he could be the bloke that’s spluttering and frothing over on NewstalkZB right now….
On this clip, Beck boasts about how he has “been with the WITCH Barbara Walters, and I stress the word WITCH….”
And, for those who can stand it, here are two more stellar performers from the Republican Party’s brains trust….
Chomsky analyses the US media and the perceived threat of overseas media competition …also he critiques the ‘International Criminal Court’
‘Chomsky: ‘International law cannot be enforced against great powers’ FULL INTERVIEW’
http://rt.com/usa/250729-complete-chomsky-rt-interview/
“While the International Criminal Court investigates and sentences African dictators, any of the crimes the US commits like the invasion of Iraq, which has destabilized an entire region, go unpunished, philosopher Noam Chomsky tells RT…..
A plug for some good people making great music
If you have a couple of bucks spare, here is a group of artists that would put it to good use. An amazing trio helping to keep alive the diverse taonga of Aotearoa
https://www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/3450-ara-taonga-puoro-ensemble-ep
Britain’s criminally stupid attitudes to race and immigration are beyond parody
by FRANKIE BOYLE
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1429604913.html
The anti-immigration election rhetoric is perverse – we fear the arrival of people that we have drawn here with the wealth we stole from them.
I sometimes wonder if satire has reached a nadir in Britain because British society has itself become a parody of itself. The Chipping Norton Set: the prime minister, a tabloid editor and a Roger Mellie-ish TV icon all conveniently living in the same little town and taking turns at being the centre of scandal, feels like a novel Martin Amis bashed out because his conservatory was leaking. Likewise there has been an element of tragic irony this week as the growing drumbeat of anti-immigration election rhetoric has been punctuated by the mass drowning of migrants.
Katie Hopkins calling migrants vermin recalls the darkest events of history.
…..
If we have become a self-satirising society, Ukip are just the broader end, the easy slapstick laughs. They even have a porn-star candidate. Of course, he isn’t the first MP to have filmed himself having sex. But he is the first to do so with an adult, whom he allowed to live.
Even our charity is essentially patronising. Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day. Give him a fishing rod and he can feed himself. Alternatively, don’t poison the fishing waters, abduct his great-grandparents into slavery, then turn up 400 years later on your gap year talking a lot of shite about fish.
In a further nod to satire, Comic Relief this year focused on Malawi and Uganda. I didn’t see any acknowledgement that Britain had been the colonial power in those countries. “Thanks for the gold, lads, thanks for the diamonds. We had a whip-round and got you a fishing rod.”
A lot of racism comes from projection. White Americans have a stereotype of black people being criminals purely because they can’t acknowledge that it was actually white people that stole them from Africa in the first place. Today, you have the spectacle of black men being gunned down by cops who, by way of mitigation, release footage to show that the victims were running away. This is what happens when you don’t understand or even acknowledge history. You end up in a situation where, when slavery is the elephant in the room in your relationship with African Americans, you think it’s OK to say that you killed one of them because he was trying to escape.
Britain is in a similar place with colonialism. We have streets named after slave owners. We profited from a vile crime and feel no shame. We fear the arrival of immigrants that we have drawn here with the wealth we stole from them. For much of the rest of the world we must be the focus of bitter amusement, characters in a satire we don’t understand. It is British people that don’t learn languages, or British history. Britain is the true scrounger, the true criminal.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/67960823/nz-first-announces-ria-bond-as-new-list-mp
I hope she finds it a positive experience for her.
Stuff still hasn’t got it right!
Ria Bond was a successful hairdresser Invercargill but has, since the election, been living in Wellington where she has been working as an assistant to a couple of NZ First MPS. She also has Northland origins,
It’s a typical MSM put down of a woman and a non-National MP.
The ODT got most of it right though.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/politics/339885/new-zealand-first-confirms-new-mp
Palestine Land Day commemorated in Christchurch:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/21/palestinian-land-day-commemorated-in-christchurch/
Do watch Campell Live tonight and support that eminently worthwhile programme. 7 pm, TV3.
Tonight, (from Twitter) the topics include:
* She was just 12 when she got into a “wrong relationship” with a married man 10 years her senior. What’s going on inside Gloriavale? disturbing revelations about the Gloriavale community. Is it time for the police to become involved?
* Thames locals come out in force to protest plans for a crematorium in their town’s CBD. Fair enough? Or an over-reaction?
* Would you give something this bad to your kids? We look into the “lunch packs” being sold directly to children.
Campbell Live @CampbellLiveNZ also tweeted this:
No. 1 on TV3, again. You are making this happen.
1. Campbell Live 288,720 viewers
2. The Bachelor 278,540
3. 3 News 229,820
THANK YOU!