On Friday, some among the young protesters, dubbed “los indignados” (“the indignant”), told the Reuters news agency that they feared the police would forcibly disperse the demonstrators.
….
The protesters have departed from years of patience over government austerity measures and a youth unemployment rate of about 45 per cent, making their voices heard before the polls.
They have called on people not to vote on Sunday for the two main parties, the Socialists and the centre-right opposition Popular Party. Spaniards elect 8,116 city councils and 13 out of 17 regional governments on Sunday.
Spain pulled out of recession at the start of last year, but the economy has failed to gain serious momentum and unemployment has spiralled higher.
The protests have resonated through Spaniards of all ages, including those who remember unrest which swept much of Europe more than 40 years ago.
One of the protesters said: “I’m protesting because I’ve got no job future in Spain even though I’ve finished my degree in tourism,” said 25-year old Inma Moreno on Madrid’s Puerta del Sol plaza.
Well, tourism is a significant industry, but as Top scientist Sir Paul Callaghan said in a speech at the Labour Party conference, it’s not one a government should be foregrounding to lead economic recovery. It’s not a business that developes the “real” economy.
Callaghan challenged Prime Minister John Key’s emphasis on tourism as a means of boosting wealth, saying to meet National’s goal of catching Australia, businesses would have to produce an extra $40 billion in exports.
“Instead of 1000 people visiting Milford Sound every week, we’d need 60,000,” he said, and even then New Zealand would remain behind because tourism created only $80,000 in revenue per job annually.
He compared that with Fonterra, which created $350,000 per job annually, or US-based Apple computers, which produced $1m-plus per job.
“The more tourism, the poorer we get. Tourism is a great industry, but it cannot be a route to prosperity.”
But our dear leader has no experience working in an industry that would be innovative and productive.
It’s not a business that developes the “real” economy.
Or a real society with real culture. What it develops is a nation of serfs.
But our dear leader has no experience working in an industry that would be innovative and productive.
Our dear leader has no experience in any industry that actually produces wealth. All he’s ever done is work as a parasite that got rich off the backs of millions of hard working people the world over.
Although torism gets jobs for the supply industry it always seems to me to be fragile. An increase in fuel costs can devastate the industry as can a serious terrorist threat, so then the tourism industry, jobs, infrastructure disappears overnight. So yes. Jobs/industries with substance.
Will Labour produce a plan? Yes it will.
A diversified business environment would be good ianmac. Tourism is dependent on fossil oils, even the few that sail or row themselves, when they need rescuing. But our animals are also vulnerable to foot and mouth disease. Even a hint of this sort of threat can cause a quick shut downs to our exports. I understand that there is a vaccine available for it but our country is not one for precautionary measures.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Wait till the disaster occurs and go into authoritarian crisis mode, like Tony Blair presiding over a killing regime wiping out pet animals and rare breeds with rare genes.
The world’s governments are denying the realities of Peak Oil and Climate Change that are doing so much accumulated damage that continuation of capitalistic economies is impossible.
Capitalism demands steady growth in order to pay off debts. The resources demanded by economic activity are simply no longer available. There isn’t more oil, coal, grain, lumber, steel, metals, minerals and fish available this year than there was last year. There is less of all of these things and more people who demand a share.
Until we recognize that our economic systems are based upon a fundamental lie we are trapped.
johnm I was just thinking of the throwaway society. Style and appearance is everything, a person who isn’t cool and in with the culture is nothing. Clothing shops abound and from my experience in dealing with secondhand clothes, many don’t bother about their clothes, just spoil them, toss them out, buy more.
So we in NZ and elsewhere are with our savings and investments. Go for style and the appearance of companies without taking note of the substance and history, then they waste the investments, they virtually go down the drain, and it is expected that more will always be as widely available as women’s clothes in the high street.
Our government can’t even encourage a strong, reliable superannuation fund now sagging in the resolve at the first downturn. Other countries have such strong pension funds that they could buy us lock, stock and barrel. Perhaps that would be the best thing? We don’t ever seem to have a government with politicians who can keep us on prosperity road without excess or making an unreasonable grab of resources, and also to support and encourage everybody to be good, keen workers and providers of social good.
That says more about you than it does about Moira Coatsworth or the Labur Party, PeteG.
If you are more concerned about the impact of negative campaigning than you are about increasing inequality in society, IMO you have a warped sense of priorities.
National have done nothing but campaigned negatively since 2005, and probably before then.
They’d now managed to convince a large number of the public that Labour managed the economy badly and put us into debt with their free-spending ways. They love to repeat the distortion that government spending increased massively between 2004 and 2008, but really the 2008 levels were on par with 2000, for example.
So yes, if you’re really so against negative campaigning, Pete, you should start with National.
I thought I’d give you some light Sunday morning reading. I’d have put it in the socialising section if it weren’t for the fact that it is about Wall street bankers and what they get up to when nobody is watching.
Remember John Key and his visiting strip clubs to “entertain” his customers? The Sexual Underground Of Bankers
Strauss-Kahn and The Secret Culture of Aggressive Sexuality In The High Pressure World Of Bankers and Banksters
Enjoy!!
And if you think that since Merrill Lynch, John Key’s bank, is not named it must be free of the sex taint, think again. In the late nineties a spate of allegations against the the bank most especially of sexual harassment and discrimination was settled almost exclusively out of court.
Some of the complaints featured the way male bankers used sex and strip clubs to exclude their female colleagues from partaking in the process of making huge and profitable deals.
This article claims the bank defended twice the amount of such cases as your average Wall street bank.
Morning ev, how are you? I see neither of us have been taken away in the rapture.
I’m with you on this one. To provide a bit of an alternative take on it, I’m more concerned about what they were doing than where they were doing it.
The point that they are parasites sucking the life out of the economy gets lost amongst the salaciousness of the “they went to a strip club” bit, and the “they are sexist bastards” bit. Sure, they have no respect for women, and that is worse than just ruining the economy. The fact that if they were not such terribly misogynistic bastards then we could have had them and their female colleagues suck the life out of the economy isn’t much consolation on a misty Sunday morning.
I hoped but there you have it, the rapture gave it a miss. LOL.
I agree. Another way of looking at it is that if they had more respect for women i.e. the female force they would not have become bankers intend on sucking the life out of our communities and environment.
We wouldn’t need a rapture then, we’d be in heaven today.
I agree with you. Let’s not forget that Hillary Clinton, Thatcher and Condi Rice were of the female persuasion and have/had no problems with being ruthless.
I am not saying all female force is good. Kali after all is the goddess of death and destruction in India.
What I’m saying is that male and female as forces and energies can balance each other but it still requires a massive amount of work and goodwill.
The banking world and the corporate world have a tendency to stray to the male side of things I hope you will agree with me though.
Remember the Apple and Pear Board? What about the forests? Our trees are overseas owned and are cut into logs that are driven straight to the wharves by a few exploited sub-contract drivers. If we took a longer view, we would build secondary industries around our wood, creating tens of thousands of jobs.
Remember when we sold off Telecom for a song? The overseas shareholders have made their investment back many times over. What did we get? A predator monopoly that artificially kept prices up for two decades that now leaves the state to pay for the new internet infrastructure it should have built.
I’m not even including the Aussie banks that ship billions of our money offshore each year. I could go on. Just tell me what the benefit is of selling off our public utilities to foreigners?
Now Key tells us we can flog off our power companies and our national carrier, Air New Zealand – that is until their new owners mess them up, forcing us to buy them back again at a loss. Don’t even get me started on the railways.
While we all twitter on about the minor stuff in the Budget, our politicians from both main parties ignore the real problem.
Repeat after me loudly – the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.
I’d go for a shorter quote but that end bit nails it. A free-market economy while selling our assets off to overseas interests has left us all worse off. And there doesn’t appear to be a party or politician around that will admit it.
Matt McCarten is 1000% right. But we can’t wake up the self-absorbed (I’m alright with my tax cuts) apathetic politically dumbed down NZ public to vote to save us(Now too late) from these ruthless asset strippers.
I know if I sold my only asset,a house,for a short term financial gain including overseas trips and then rented my house back!!! Ultimately I would be a hell of a lot poorer!
If Key/Joyce were consistent they will lead the Election with:
“KEY CALLS ON GOOD KIWIS TO SELL THEIR HOUSES AND INVEST!”
In a major Election Speech today, John Key called on all good Kiwi Mums and Dads to sell their Assets and instead use their capital to invest in Finance companies, the Sharemarket and in the various Mining Companies that have sprung up around the country. “It makes sense,” he said with a boyish grin. “It worked for us. We sold your Assets to get at the capital and while unemployment has risen to 23% it is not our fault, its the fault of the last Labour Government. They should have called for Asset Sales sooner. So Mums and Dads, help save NZ and sell up and invest.”
But the mike was left on and when Key turned to Joyce he was heard to say, ” Reckon we pulled the suckers in Boss?”
Travelev: So true or maybe Key taught them? I still wonder about the mechanism which will be available to us before the next election which will show whether the National Plan is working (per Budget), or whether it is fraudulent. Thus from your link: ““They would never know. They would never be able to know how much money was taken out of that,” says one employee, referring to the huge profits the bank stood to make on the transaction. “Never, no way, no way,” replies her colleague.”
Easy to change a few words and attribute it to Key/Joyce?
Ianmac,
In a book by Frank Partnoy (an ex banker and now professor in law) called Infectious greed Andrew Krieger was pin pointed as patient Zero in the trade in the newly decriminalised derivatives trade. The event? The attack on the New Zealand dollar in October 1987 the Thursday after Black Monday.
John Key has stated that he has dealed with Andrew Krieger in millions of dollars but that he did not start with Bankers trust until August 1988. This is when the bank registers officially. The bank started operating a year before however and the timeline shows that John Key left the bank he worked for in the spring of 1987. He was prohibited from working for the competition for three months making it very likely that he started to work for bankers trust in the early autumn of 1987.
Further more in three articles in the NYtimes archives (Andrew Krieger was a bit of a legend because of his attack on the new Zealand dollar and his apparent over estimation of his portfolio by about 60 million dollars if I am not mistaken) He left bankers trust in December 1987 or January 1988. He started to work for Soros in March 1988 and left Soros in June 1988. By the time John Key said he dealt in millions of dollars with Andrew Krieger (Which he only did while attacking the NZ dollar) Andrew Krieger had left the trading business and did not return until 1991 making John Key’s assertion he worked with Andrew Krieger much later than the attack a lie.
Why is this important? John Key was a party in the first Derivatives and forex attack on a currency. His speciality? The bonds and Derivatives trade.
He was headhunted by Merrill Lynch to become their world wide head of Forex and European head of their Bonds and Derivatives trading.
He was a member of the Forex Advisory committee for the NY federal reserve bank a committe his boss shared before him with Robert Rubin widely touted as the most corrupt corporate individual ever and responsible for the repeal of the Glass Steagall act.
In fact he was involved with the first case of the federal reserve having to bail out the banking system and the collapse of the LTCM hedge fund, the collapse of the Thai bath and the Russian rouble.
If you consider that the Derivatives trade according to another corrupt individual is touted as the Weapons of financial Mass destruction of Wall street you get an idea of how dirty John Key really is.
Larger Profits + Safety Shortcuts = Death Pike River?
This report of 29 Miners killed in 2010 in West Virginia due to neglect of safety procedures to my mind parallels the preventable accident at Pike River.
“.that the accident was the result of safety violations by Massey management. In truth, the Upper Big Branch mine was more or less a death trap.”
“In the investigators’ own words, “The disaster at Upper Big Branch was man-made and could have been prevented had Massey Energy followed basic, well-tested and historically proven safety procedures.” The message couldn’t be any plainer: Had Massey paid as much attention to mine safety as it did to company profits, those 29 miners would still be alive.”
“As Gary Hardesty, an AWPPW (Assoc. of Western Pulp & Paper Workers) safety consultant, once put it, “Because maintaining a safe facility costs money, many companies see safety only as another form of overhead.””
“And, of course, there’s another component to this tragedy, one reflecting organized labor’s unfortunate loss of influence, not only in the industry but in the country at large.”
“Statistics show that 92-percent of all mine accidents occur in non-union facilities.”
I am personally convinced that the above equation applied at Pike River. But I invite anyone here to shoot me down on this if they can! Also look at the ruthless sidelining of the Union in the Hobbit controversy,though safety was not compromised in this instance.
P.S.
And if you want to protest about safety?
“Because coal mining is a close-knit community, once your name gets put on a company shit-list as a “union activist” or “union sympathizer,” it’s going to stay on that list, and you’re going to find it difficult to get hired anywhere. Coal miners might be a remarkably tough but courageous breed of worker, but, tough or not, they have to work to eat, and there are only so many mining jobs to go around. Few are willing to rock the boat.”
My deepest sympathy to the families who lost loved ones at Pike River.
Saw Phil Goff on Q&A this morning. Have to agree with Jon Johannson. He was at his equivocal worst. Hinted at policy announcements he planned to reveal later this morning at the Congress but refused to give any detail. As Mike Williams said: he’s got an audience of thousands watching Q&A so why didn’t he take advantage of it?
If he felt compelled to reveal all to the delegates first, then perhaps he should have stayed away from Q&A.
Waiting for coitus with an older person would require patience, determination and stimulation. So if that analogy is appropriate then keeping up questioning and policy suggestions to the older Labour politicians may prevent impotence when the test comes.
wham bam thank you mam, but I ‘m going to vote for anyone who says they will require every vehicle on the new zealand roads to have adeqquate mufflers. after the last binge of infantilised noisemaking it may be too much to hope for.
A much bolder move would be to merge all the CRI’s and the Ministry of Science and Innovation into a new super 21st century DSIR and tell it to go off and make magic.
Wow, Bill English managed to say something intelligent:
He’s called prisons a moral and fiscal failure and there are other ways of dealing with criminals and potential criminals.
“The public service has done a lot of very smart work on this and, over the next two or three years, we’re going to see the need for prison beds drop a bit at least.”
Although, I haven’t yet seen any Nact policies or programs that would achieve this. They did take an axe to several of the successful programs that Labour had supported though.
Garth McVicar, being the idiot that he is, said:
“Just as they were starting to bear fruit through the ‘tough on crime’ message that they were sending out, he capitulates and waves a white flag,” McVicar told ONE News.
“It just sends the wrong message to criminals. I know people think criminals are dumb but they’re quite smart and they’ll understand if we’re not going to build more prisons out there, then ultimately we’re not going to send them to prison.”
No evidence to back his claims of course but plenty worldwide that he’s talking out his arse.
McVicar shouldnt be worried. Lynching will be brought back soon, if not already. And that intolerant bigoted bastard will be the one pulling the rope up to hang that ‘dirty nigger’.
Trust me.
The guy has gone from being an advocate for victims, to an advocate for a punitive socitey where violence, bullying and humiliation are used to enforce the social control in repressive society where women, the young, gays, solo mothers, maori, and the poor are completely stripped of their rights and made non persons.
You only had to read McVicar’s words, in between the lines, to understand way back that sensible sentencing was not his end goal. Control over societal freedoms, esp. for women and return of the ‘traditional’ family, which held its own horrors behind closed doors, was always his end goal. With National and Act, Maori and United Future support he will get it. If women can’t see that the few freedoms they have gained will be swiftly taken away then they will regret it.
so get tough on crime in time for the election. how neat is that. bill english is not as silly as he looks. anyway national being national if they said it (crime) was going away then it would. yeah right.
Kiwi wage slaves lagging behind
Yes, that is actually the headline from the granny. It has lovely bits of information in it like this:
National secretary of the Service and Food Workers Union, John Ryall,
has had reports of employers getting workers in for unpaid “trials”. They will work for as much as two weeks in cleaning jobs or in restaurants, supposedly getting trained for new roles but essentially working for no pay. “These are small operators and employers who think they’ll get away with it, looking for every opportunity to use unemployment to their advantage,” says Ryall.
And when the economy is so fucked that there’s 2700 turning up for 150 jobs I’m sure these lying, stealing scum can get away with it for quite some time.
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A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
The infamous over-the-suit T-shirt worn by the PM at a Parliament barbecue has gone on sale to raise funds for children living in poverty, in a TradeMe auction. ...
MONDAYSheriff Seymour rode slowly down the main street of Dodge on his faithful white horse Atlas Network.He liked what he saw.Children were being fed free lunches prepared by kind people who collected the scraps from an offal rendering plant.“Very strongly flavoured liver, such as ox liver, can be soaked overnight ...
Once upon a time it was all about being an astronaut, a firefighter or doctor; but these days kids have their sights set on becoming vloggers or YouTubers.That’s according to a 2019 study by Lego that surveyed 3000 children between the ages of eight to 12 from the US, the ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. From the moment I started high school and realised almost every other girl in my year was at least partially interested in what the boys were up to, I realised that I would be single for life. The feeling wasn’t one of ...
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Selina Alesana Alefosio.All photos by Geoffery Matautia.On a bright Sunday morning from her grandparent’s home in Pito-one, I spoke with ...
The White Lotus star reflects on her life in TV, including the local ad reference that doesn’t work in Australia, and her bananas co-star on Neighbours.Morgana O’Reilly was scrolling her phone next to her sleeping son on an idle Saturday morning when she got the call confirming that she ...
Claire Mabey explores the pros and cons of puff quotes on book covers.In January, Publishers Weekly put out an article by Sean Manning – publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship US imprint – in which he said he’d “no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books”.The ...
New Zealand’s Entomological Society is hosting its annual bug of the year contest. Here are some of the insects in the running. For some reason – perhaps humans’ inherent competitiveness, the idealisation of democracy, the need to demarcate winners and losers – one of the best ways to get people ...
A journey along the border, with words and illustrations by Bob Kerr.The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous support of our members.The Sunset Limited leaves Union Station New Orleans on time at nine in the morning. We ...
Neville Peat is the 2024 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in nonfiction. He’s written 56 books, mostly on natural history; this excerpt is from The Falcon and the Lark: A New Zealand High Country Journal, first published in 1992. The falcon wintering on the Rock and ...
It was a light-hearted gesture Greta Pilkington will be forever grateful for – thanks to an Aussie rival who jumped in when the Olympic sailor couldn’t be at her own graduation.Pilkington, then 20, had been leading a double life – while qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the ILCA ...
I was born in the back of my grandfather’s ute, by an overgrown windbreak in a remote place called Wahi-Rakauyou can’t find on a map. I was born a girl but given the man’s name Harvey, as my dad always wanted a violent-minded boy to one day help him ...
“We’re not here to interfere in people’s property rights,” Ngāi Tahu’s Te Maire Tau has told the High Court.Tau, a historian, Upoko (traditional leader) of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, and a university professor of history, is the lead witness in a case designed to force the Crown to recognise the tribe’s rangatiratanga ...
Pacific Media Watch Trump administration officials barred two Associated Press (AP) reporters from covering White House events this week because the US-based independent news agency did not change its style guide to align with the president’s political agenda. The AP is being punished for using the term “Gulf of Mexico,” ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific Presenter/Bulletin editor France’s top diplomat in the Pacific region says talks around the “unfreezing” of New Caledonia’s highly controversial electoral roll are back on the table. The French government intended to make a constitutional amendment that would lift restrictions prescribed under the Nouméa Accord, which ...
By bringing these global voices to the fight for free expression in New Zealand, we’ll continue to protect and expand our culture of free speech, says Nathan Seiuli, the Free Speech Union's Events Manager. ...
The issue is no longer a hypothetical one. US President Donald Trump will not explicitly suggest death camps, but he has already consented to Israel’s continuing a war that is not a war but rather a barbaric assault on a desolate stretch of land. From there, the road to annihilation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cecelia Cmielewski, Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University To be selected as the artist and curator team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale is considered the ultimate exhibition for an artistic team. To have your selection rescinded, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia is bearing down on the northwest coast of Australia and is likely to make landfall early Friday evening. It’s a monster storm of great concern to Western Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor, ANU National Security College, Australian National University A Victorian government decision to allow dingo culling in the state’s east until 2028 has reignited debate over what has been dubbed Australia’s most controversial animal. Animals Australia, an animal welfare ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University Overnight, Robert F. Kennedy Jr was confirmed as the secretary of the US Health and Human Services Department. Put simply, this makes him the most influential figure in overseeing the health and wellbeing of more ...
Everything you missed from day five of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard eight hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.It was another work from home day for the Justice Committee, the only people in Room 3 being security guards, committee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne Juris Teivans/Shutterstock In Australia, fatal road crashes are climbing again, especially since the pandemic, and despite years of attempts to reduce road trauma, the numbers ...
In its eagerness to appease supporters of Israel, the media is happy to ride roughshod over due process and basic rights. It’s damaging Australia’s (and New Zealand’s?) democracy.COMMENTARY:By Bernard Keane Two moments stand out so far from the Federal Court hearings relating to Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking by the ...
“The reality is we’re getting poorer. The government this year is leaning heavy on chasing economic growth, which is absolutely the right thing to do.” ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Granta, $28) Han Kang’s astounding novel was based on an ...
This new docuseries about two single comedians looking for love is also a joyful celebration of female friendship. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. “How many people do you think are boning right now?” Kura Forrester asks Brynley Stent as the bright ...
A new poem by Freya Turnbull. Hunger Song – After Kaveh Akbar (Untitled With Hunger And Matcheads) I hold my age in ripped fishnet hold an empty vessel oldyoung body cracks like gunshot like killa i was a father ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominik Koll, Honorary Lecturer, Australian National University View of the Pacific Ocean from the International Space Station.NASA Earth must have experienced something exceptional 10 million years ago. Our study of rock samples from the floor of the Pacific Ocean has found ...
Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Bahrain. and now….. Los indignados:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/05/201152122336663.html
One of the protesters said:
“I’m protesting because I’ve got no job future in Spain even though I’ve finished my degree in tourism,” said 25-year old Inma Moreno on Madrid’s Puerta del Sol plaza.
Well, tourism is a significant industry, but as Top scientist Sir Paul Callaghan said in a speech at the Labour Party conference, it’s not one a government should be foregrounding to lead economic recovery. It’s not a business that developes the “real” economy.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/5037261/Innovation-needed-to-boost-economy
But our dear leader has no experience working in an industry that would be innovative and productive.
Or a real society with real culture. What it develops is a nation of serfs.
Our dear leader has no experience in any industry that actually produces wealth. All he’s ever done is work as a parasite that got rich off the backs of millions of hard working people the world over.
Although torism gets jobs for the supply industry it always seems to me to be fragile. An increase in fuel costs can devastate the industry as can a serious terrorist threat, so then the tourism industry, jobs, infrastructure disappears overnight. So yes. Jobs/industries with substance.
Will Labour produce a plan? Yes it will.
A diversified business environment would be good ianmac. Tourism is dependent on fossil oils, even the few that sail or row themselves, when they need rescuing. But our animals are also vulnerable to foot and mouth disease. Even a hint of this sort of threat can cause a quick shut downs to our exports. I understand that there is a vaccine available for it but our country is not one for precautionary measures.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Wait till the disaster occurs and go into authoritarian crisis mode, like Tony Blair presiding over a killing regime wiping out pet animals and rare breeds with rare genes.
The world’s governments are denying the realities of Peak Oil and Climate Change that are doing so much accumulated damage that continuation of capitalistic economies is impossible.
Capitalism demands steady growth in order to pay off debts. The resources demanded by economic activity are simply no longer available. There isn’t more oil, coal, grain, lumber, steel, metals, minerals and fish available this year than there was last year. There is less of all of these things and more people who demand a share.
Until we recognize that our economic systems are based upon a fundamental lie we are trapped.
johnm I was just thinking of the throwaway society. Style and appearance is everything, a person who isn’t cool and in with the culture is nothing. Clothing shops abound and from my experience in dealing with secondhand clothes, many don’t bother about their clothes, just spoil them, toss them out, buy more.
So we in NZ and elsewhere are with our savings and investments. Go for style and the appearance of companies without taking note of the substance and history, then they waste the investments, they virtually go down the drain, and it is expected that more will always be as widely available as women’s clothes in the high street.
Our government can’t even encourage a strong, reliable superannuation fund now sagging in the resolve at the first downturn. Other countries have such strong pension funds that they could buy us lock, stock and barrel. Perhaps that would be the best thing? We don’t ever seem to have a government with politicians who can keep us on prosperity road without excess or making an unreasonable grab of resources, and also to support and encourage everybody to be good, keen workers and providers of social good.
Labour Party president Moira Coatsworth got my hopes up with this:
then dashed them:
I thought she was going to say the “divisive and corrosive” impact of negative campaigning.
That says more about you than it does about Moira Coatsworth or the Labur Party, PeteG.
If you are more concerned about the impact of negative campaigning than you are about increasing inequality in society, IMO you have a warped sense of priorities.
National have done nothing but campaigned negatively since 2005, and probably before then.
They’d now managed to convince a large number of the public that Labour managed the economy badly and put us into debt with their free-spending ways. They love to repeat the distortion that government spending increased massively between 2004 and 2008, but really the 2008 levels were on par with 2000, for example.
So yes, if you’re really so against negative campaigning, Pete, you should start with National.
The Labour Party President is telling the facts Pete G. Sometimes they are negative. That’s an inconvenient truth. Suck it up.
I thought I’d give you some light Sunday morning reading. I’d have put it in the socialising section if it weren’t for the fact that it is about Wall street bankers and what they get up to when nobody is watching.
Remember John Key and his visiting strip clubs to “entertain” his customers?
The Sexual Underground Of Bankers
Strauss-Kahn and The Secret Culture of Aggressive Sexuality In The High Pressure World Of Bankers and Banksters
Enjoy!!
And if you think that since Merrill Lynch, John Key’s bank, is not named it must be free of the sex taint, think again. In the late nineties a spate of allegations against the the bank most especially of sexual harassment and discrimination was settled almost exclusively out of court.
Some of the complaints featured the way male bankers used sex and strip clubs to exclude their female colleagues from partaking in the process of making huge and profitable deals.
This article claims the bank defended twice the amount of such cases as your average Wall street bank.
Morning ev, how are you? I see neither of us have been taken away in the rapture.
I’m with you on this one. To provide a bit of an alternative take on it, I’m more concerned about what they were doing than where they were doing it.
The point that they are parasites sucking the life out of the economy gets lost amongst the salaciousness of the “they went to a strip club” bit, and the “they are sexist bastards” bit. Sure, they have no respect for women, and that is worse than just ruining the economy. The fact that if they were not such terribly misogynistic bastards then we could have had them and their female colleagues suck the life out of the economy isn’t much consolation on a misty Sunday morning.
Good morning AC.
I hoped but there you have it, the rapture gave it a miss. LOL.
I agree. Another way of looking at it is that if they had more respect for women i.e. the female force they would not have become bankers intend on sucking the life out of our communities and environment.
We wouldn’t need a rapture then, we’d be in heaven today.
Cripes T.ev you have an idealistic attitude to womens ability to resist cultural mores. Women are different to men, but not that different.
I agree with you. Let’s not forget that Hillary Clinton, Thatcher and Condi Rice were of the female persuasion and have/had no problems with being ruthless.
I am not saying all female force is good. Kali after all is the goddess of death and destruction in India.
What I’m saying is that male and female as forces and energies can balance each other but it still requires a massive amount of work and goodwill.
The banking world and the corporate world have a tendency to stray to the male side of things I hope you will agree with me though.
Good column by Matt McCarten today.
I’d go for a shorter quote but that end bit nails it. A free-market economy while selling our assets off to overseas interests has left us all worse off. And there doesn’t appear to be a party or politician around that will admit it.
Matt McCarten is 1000% right. But we can’t wake up the self-absorbed (I’m alright with my tax cuts) apathetic politically dumbed down NZ public to vote to save us(Now too late) from these ruthless asset strippers.
I know if I sold my only asset,a house,for a short term financial gain including overseas trips and then rented my house back!!! Ultimately I would be a hell of a lot poorer!
If Key/Joyce were consistent they will lead the Election with:
“KEY CALLS ON GOOD KIWIS TO SELL THEIR HOUSES AND INVEST!”
In a major Election Speech today, John Key called on all good Kiwi Mums and Dads to sell their Assets and instead use their capital to invest in Finance companies, the Sharemarket and in the various Mining Companies that have sprung up around the country. “It makes sense,” he said with a boyish grin. “It worked for us. We sold your Assets to get at the capital and while unemployment has risen to 23% it is not our fault, its the fault of the last Labour Government. They should have called for Asset Sales sooner. So Mums and Dads, help save NZ and sell up and invest.”
But the mike was left on and when Key turned to Joyce he was heard to say, ” Reckon we pulled the suckers in Boss?”
Key would have learned from the best!
Travelev: So true or maybe Key taught them? I still wonder about the mechanism which will be available to us before the next election which will show whether the National Plan is working (per Budget), or whether it is fraudulent. Thus from your link:
““They would never know. They would never be able to know how much money was taken out of that,” says one employee, referring to the huge profits the bank stood to make on the transaction. “Never, no way, no way,” replies her colleague.”
Easy to change a few words and attribute it to Key/Joyce?
Ianmac,
In a book by Frank Partnoy (an ex banker and now professor in law) called Infectious greed Andrew Krieger was pin pointed as patient Zero in the trade in the newly decriminalised derivatives trade. The event? The attack on the New Zealand dollar in October 1987 the Thursday after Black Monday.
John Key has stated that he has dealed with Andrew Krieger in millions of dollars but that he did not start with Bankers trust until August 1988. This is when the bank registers officially. The bank started operating a year before however and the timeline shows that John Key left the bank he worked for in the spring of 1987. He was prohibited from working for the competition for three months making it very likely that he started to work for bankers trust in the early autumn of 1987.
Further more in three articles in the NYtimes archives (Andrew Krieger was a bit of a legend because of his attack on the new Zealand dollar and his apparent over estimation of his portfolio by about 60 million dollars if I am not mistaken) He left bankers trust in December 1987 or January 1988. He started to work for Soros in March 1988 and left Soros in June 1988. By the time John Key said he dealt in millions of dollars with Andrew Krieger (Which he only did while attacking the NZ dollar) Andrew Krieger had left the trading business and did not return until 1991 making John Key’s assertion he worked with Andrew Krieger much later than the attack a lie.
Why is this important? John Key was a party in the first Derivatives and forex attack on a currency. His speciality? The bonds and Derivatives trade.
He was headhunted by Merrill Lynch to become their world wide head of Forex and European head of their Bonds and Derivatives trading.
He was a member of the Forex Advisory committee for the NY federal reserve bank a committe his boss shared before him with Robert Rubin widely touted as the most corrupt corporate individual ever and responsible for the repeal of the Glass Steagall act.
In fact he was involved with the first case of the federal reserve having to bail out the banking system and the collapse of the LTCM hedge fund, the collapse of the Thai bath and the Russian rouble.
If you consider that the Derivatives trade according to another corrupt individual is touted as the Weapons of financial Mass destruction of Wall street you get an idea of how dirty John Key really is.
Larger Profits + Safety Shortcuts = Death Pike River?
This report of 29 Miners killed in 2010 in West Virginia due to neglect of safety procedures to my mind parallels the preventable accident at Pike River.
“.that the accident was the result of safety violations by Massey management. In truth, the Upper Big Branch mine was more or less a death trap.”
“In the investigators’ own words, “The disaster at Upper Big Branch was man-made and could have been prevented had Massey Energy followed basic, well-tested and historically proven safety procedures.” The message couldn’t be any plainer: Had Massey paid as much attention to mine safety as it did to company profits, those 29 miners would still be alive.”
“As Gary Hardesty, an AWPPW (Assoc. of Western Pulp & Paper Workers) safety consultant, once put it, “Because maintaining a safe facility costs money, many companies see safety only as another form of overhead.””
“And, of course, there’s another component to this tragedy, one reflecting organized labor’s unfortunate loss of influence, not only in the industry but in the country at large.”
“Statistics show that 92-percent of all mine accidents occur in non-union facilities.”
I am personally convinced that the above equation applied at Pike River. But I invite anyone here to shoot me down on this if they can! Also look at the ruthless sidelining of the Union in the Hobbit controversy,though safety was not compromised in this instance.
Refer link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/21-3
P.S.
And if you want to protest about safety?
“Because coal mining is a close-knit community, once your name gets put on a company shit-list as a “union activist” or “union sympathizer,” it’s going to stay on that list, and you’re going to find it difficult to get hired anywhere. Coal miners might be a remarkably tough but courageous breed of worker, but, tough or not, they have to work to eat, and there are only so many mining jobs to go around. Few are willing to rock the boat.”
My deepest sympathy to the families who lost loved ones at Pike River.
johnm Interesting quotes thanks.
Saw Phil Goff on Q&A this morning. Have to agree with Jon Johannson. He was at his equivocal worst. Hinted at policy announcements he planned to reveal later this morning at the Congress but refused to give any detail. As Mike Williams said: he’s got an audience of thousands watching Q&A so why didn’t he take advantage of it?
If he felt compelled to reveal all to the delegates first, then perhaps he should have stayed away from Q&A.
Perhaps a good move to keep ’em on the edge of their seats waiting, waiting, waiting until the anticipation becomes intense. A bit like coitus Anne?
Ooooh… eeeehh…aaaaahhhh…oioioioi – yes.
Waiting for coitus with an older person would require patience, determination and stimulation. So if that analogy is appropriate then keeping up questioning and policy suggestions to the older Labour politicians may prevent impotence when the test comes.
Some assumptions made there, young ‘un.
At least avoid any premature er -um decisions?
wham bam thank you mam, but I ‘m going to vote for anyone who says they will require every vehicle on the new zealand roads to have adeqquate mufflers. after the last binge of infantilised noisemaking it may be too much to hope for.
Underwhelming
A much bolder move would be to merge all the CRI’s and the Ministry of Science and Innovation into a new super 21st century DSIR and tell it to go off and make magic.
Wow, Bill English managed to say something intelligent:
Although, I haven’t yet seen any Nact policies or programs that would achieve this. They did take an axe to several of the successful programs that Labour had supported though.
Garth McVicar, being the idiot that he is, said:
No evidence to back his claims of course but plenty worldwide that he’s talking out his arse.
D they are going to bring back the death penalty.
Which has my vote.
McVicar shouldnt be worried. Lynching will be brought back soon, if not already. And that intolerant bigoted bastard will be the one pulling the rope up to hang that ‘dirty nigger’.
Trust me.
The guy has gone from being an advocate for victims, to an advocate for a punitive socitey where violence, bullying and humiliation are used to enforce the social control in repressive society where women, the young, gays, solo mothers, maori, and the poor are completely stripped of their rights and made non persons.
Millsy,
You only had to read McVicar’s words, in between the lines, to understand way back that sensible sentencing was not his end goal. Control over societal freedoms, esp. for women and return of the ‘traditional’ family, which held its own horrors behind closed doors, was always his end goal. With National and Act, Maori and United Future support he will get it. If women can’t see that the few freedoms they have gained will be swiftly taken away then they will regret it.
so get tough on crime in time for the election. how neat is that. bill english is not as silly as he looks. anyway national being national if they said it (crime) was going away then it would. yeah right.
http://issues.co.nz/savetvnz7/View+Viral+Videos
I quite like the Goodbye Kiwi vid
The PSA one is short & snappy, but I’m not sure about the message. Brian Edwards talks to much in one vid.
Kiwi wage slaves lagging behind
Yes, that is actually the headline from the granny. It has lovely bits of information in it like this:
And when the economy is so fucked that there’s 2700 turning up for 150 jobs I’m sure these lying, stealing scum can get away with it for quite some time.