That thought had passed my mind: he guy is definitely a fruit loop. Suppose the question is how long has he been like this, is it dementia or a similar age related thing? Sad really.
Looked like dementia to me, because he was so slow in replying to questions. It took him a while to formulate answers and seemed like he was dredging up memories of what he has thought in the past.
Well Louis Crimp is clearly an ignorant pig of a man with shallowness in spades. In fact he sounds like he lives in a shallow mud estuary, all clogged as he is.
But he expresses a background view which I frequently bring up around here. He clearly does not appreciate that there are two separate sets of rules for two types of people in New Zealand – Maori and non-Maori. This has led him to resentment and anger, which of course has led straight to the hatred that he has been subjected to and the hatred that he expresses.
Two separate sets of rules are not sustainable. This should be patently obvious in most every community on the planet – white, pink, red, yellow, muslim, christian, spots and stripes. But we stick our heads in the sand here and think that it is somehow different down here. But it is not. We are no different we kiwis to any other people on the globe.
Two separate sets of rules may be appropriate for a period of time (perhaps another generation or two) to assist in righting past wrongs and I don’t think most NZers have a problem with putting things back to a balance. But as a form of permanent setting it is completely and utterly flawed – and it leads directly to the some of the attitudes expressed by ignorant Crimp. It is a dangerous situation.
However, I see no person in the particular Maori-nonMaori circles in New Zealand talking about this situation. Some honesty needs to be brought to this (very particular) issue.
If you are talking about the treaty, then I’m not sure what can be done, or why it’s so terrible.
One thing’s fer sure tho, you won’t be able to renegotiate the treaty relationship into something else before Maori feel that the Treaty has been honoured.
And blathering on about how unfair the deal we signed up to is, won’t go far in getting the feeling felt.
You miss my point P’s b. It is about having two systems for two peoples in one land – and based on birthright. Just doesn’t work. The point is simple.
And in that context the treaty is also flawed in its structure. I didn’t say it is so terrible – I say its structure is flawed. It needs amending to fit a world that is entirely different from that which existed in 1830s NZ.
I have the feeling part of us becoming a republic would be honouring the treaty as a contract between Iwi’s and the government. Monarchy or no monarchy.
I have plenty of friends and in-laws of the older persuasion further south than say Blenheim who when you mention matters Maori have a quick red veil cover their minds and all else following is non-repressed rage. I love them but that part of them disgusts me.
That idea of all settlements complete by 2014 sticks in them like a nationally redemptive moment that they refuse to believe will ever happen. It’s just deep and hard in them, and often they don’t know which way they will vote until they get to the polls.
VTO, it is brave of you to bring up the issue. That you feel a need to is healthy because like you I think it needs debate, keeping it under covers will never resolve it.
I have some real concerns touched upon by people above: the biggest is that I do not believe exclusive societies are healthy. For example access to services based upon ability to pay (the ACT way of doing things) or whanau ora (as opposed to universal delivery of welfare etc). There may be merit in some exclusivity but generally I believe it will lead to discord.
Which is why we need to keep the debate live and in the open, even when we disagree.
VTO as I understand it, the treaty was not about one rule for all. So there is a problem with you thinking there should be i.e. you are ignoring an existing treaty simply because it does not support your contention.
All people of the world are not all the same, not personally, not culturally. The similar points are we all eat, sleep, shit, love, etc. One of the things that has steered you wrong in thinking there can be one rule for all is forgetting that many cultures do not recognise time and reality as we (pakeha) do. In certain cultures the dead never leave, events are not resolved until certain other acts are achieved and there is no “world that is entirely different from that which existed in 1830s…”.
To have states within a nation is not unusual. To have multiple cultures within a nation is not unusual. Why do we need one rule for all if relative harmony can be achieved by making sure all have basic needs met and that a dominant party cannot not interfere with others needs? Is it necessary for me to able to wander freely across another person’s land, insult his local arrangements with immunity just so I can feel like I can do anything I want? Perhaps you can give a detailed expression of why you want one rule for all.
The point about “birth right” I assume refers to maori specifically. As you know maori have got the short end of the stick from their “treaty partners” for some time. Just as a natural resource is not created by the man who mines it, and just as the natural resource will be changed but still exist (hopefully) after he dies, the prejudices and crimes of the past have twisted the “birth right” of maori in NZ. This is the basis for things like affirmative action, or in NZ, the idea that a certain amount of students should be maori at universities, for example. It is an acknowledgement that the losses of the past influence the future and that if pakeha hadn’t betrayed their words (yes that is underestimating what was done) maori would be in a better position today. If we refused to teach the next generation to read, just closed schools for ten years, do you think that would effect society? And when we opened them again, would we condemn the new underclass for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and educating themselves? Would that be fair, do you think? Just? Moral?
Let me give you an example. You come from a family with long running cultural and community connections. There is a war, your family is killed, your culture is dominated by the foreign invader and the world as you know it changes overnight. Most of the time you simply move food to mouth, but have no idea who you are anymore because everything you hold dear, your ability to understand the world and reason you own identity, is rejected by the people around you. Symptoms of your distress are masked or emphasised depending ont he environment. After a while, the struggle becomes the new identity, and you are condemned for it. The struggle identity even encourages you to attack your own people. Your children react to your problems and compensate and extend them to their families. For the next 150 years, your family struggles to adapt. Tell me, if you had not been invaded, would these things have happened naturally? Now, if that same oppressor comes along and wants to right his forefathers crimes, where should he start? From today, discarding the past, or in discussion with you, including the past, from your point of view?
If an oppressor was not foreign, if they shared the same culture as you, but were simply from another village, would that excuse and lessen the actions of a foreign oppressor that dominated all? No, because if any reparations were later made, the language and terms would be under the same culture. Understanding would be possible between the two parties. Even a prisoner of war, later made to be a slave, still within his own culture, will know his place. But an outcast in a foreign enforced culture experiences major psychological trauma.
VTO, you cannot go into this discussion thinking that everyone thinks like you or begin with a conclusion and work backwards to an enforced rule. Do it that way and you simply repeat the political hostilities metered out to maori, and others, and expose the intent of making your own life easy, at the cost of others, by trying to claim the problem does not exist.
Hello. The two books about The Tao have been “found”. Had them by my bed for a while. Reread your post. Belief that the journey has recommenced pace. Imagine posts will change now. Only started posting anywhere on NZ Herald last week. Once begun, Worth guiding others?
The original premise of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, as sold to the chiefs, was that the chiefs would manage what was theirs (pretty much everything), according to tikanga māori and the tāngata tiriti (settlers) would make laws to manage their people. At the time there was great concern about the drunkenness and lawlessness of some of the sailors etc who were causing difficulties in and around Kororareka.
That is where the debate around the words ‘kawanatanga’ = governance and tino rangatiratanga = chiefly authority or sovereignty come in. Whether by accident, misunderstanding or deliberate misuse, most of the early Treaty difference begins there. That so many do not actually know (or care) about these and other fundamental differences in what was promised and what the settler governments presumed / assumed to be their rights, is sad after so many years of genuine efforts to educate more widely about Te Tiriti.
So Dunking Garner quit the Nation over “disagreements” with the producer – ongoing, but in the final instance it was about how to interview Hekia Parata. Given Garner always seemed like a National Government shill, I’d like to know more of the content of these disagreements.
TV3 political editor Duncan Garner has walked out of weekend news show The Nation over a dispute with executive producer Richard Harman.
Garner was due to interview Education Minister Hekia Parata on Saturday morning, but unexpectedly quit 24 hours earlier.
Harman told The Diary the dispute was a “trivial blow-up over the allocation duration of the interview”. But Garner said it was a difference of opinion over Harman’s approach to the show and how he should interview Parata.
It’s probably about Harmon wanting some probing and inquisition on the flaky Parata, it’s what you’re there for and it’s good TV getting a PR Spin only minister off their script.
Garner probably took the ‘ my way or the highway’ approach which he’s known to do being an egotistical twat first and a political journo on rare occasions.
Duncy wouldn’t like offending his idols by doing his job, easier to sling the hook. Harmon wouldn’t be worried as he’ll get someone better now.
Really? That’s not how he looks to me. It just looks to me like he has his finger on Key’s pulse. Rachel Smalley seems, so far, to be more open-minded and aware of diverse political perspectives.
Garner, for all his faults, has been around for a long time and knows some real heavy weights. You don’t get that far without knowing a few tricks….again, that doesn’t mean he isn’t a…..”insert derogatory term of your choice”.
Not sure if many of you got to see THE FOUR HORSEMEN at the doco film fest, but here’s a piece the director put out yesterday, the 27 principles of The Renegade Economist, a plan for a better future without Orthodox economics.
“Creating a set of principles on which to base a successful process of global political and economic change has to be a collaborative project. To this end everyone is welcome to comment or make suggestions for their improvement.”
The RenegadeEconomist has a great channel on YouTube. Unfortunately our news media has a list of approved orthodox bank economists that they use, and alternative points of view are NOT aired.
“We sold off on some fear, and not all of that fear was realized,” Frank Lesh, a futures analyst and broker at FuturePath Trading, told Reuters. “We’re in a bit of an oversold bounce in here at the moment.”
— Never any mention of the High Frequency Trading in these articles!
I suppose I will be berated for callousness but I am sick of hearing about the feelings of bereaved relatives after criminal court cases ad infinitum. There are people suffering sad deaths and injuries all the time needing caring attention and support.
I don’t want to know every day how people looked in court and whether they seemed sorry, that’s not important to me after the rotten deed has been done. At the end is the predictable and tragically true quote, he/she only gets 10 years while my loved one has no life after this crime and I have lost family for ever. I feel sorry but this grief being publicly displayed is a gross and constant cliche. It is a response to the victim movement which is good when it supports the people around the abused person, and we want them to know we care and to get support but not at the cost of displaying them for media sales.
Hearing a blow by blow account about Emily Langley who at 17 years (very young) was in another country away from her parents influence, attracted by a jealous, violent young man – a dangerous liaison from the first, is sad news. But it underlines the futility of the whole situation of putting oneself in danger’s way by taking up with somebody who would have given her as an older and wiser woman clues as to his volatility and lack of standards. Sad too is the drowning of the dinghy owner in Auckland, again putting himself and his children in danger’s way. The sadness of his wife who has lost so much in one day must be extreme.
If only we could hear some ideas at the time of these tragedies that would help to prevent such things happening in the future but we are just encouraged to wallow in the sadness of each event. What about some organisation getting funding to have a small shop near boat ramps that hired out lifejackets so that boaties short of funds could enjoy the water more safely. There would need to be a deposit as well as the hire to avoid rip-offs, and perhaps money-strapped people could be given the opportunity to leave something of value with the shop to cover this and ensure the jackets return. And young women could be provided with self care classes perhaps so they weren’t drawn to macho men who want an icon on their arm rather than a loved person.
Then there is this terrible myth about “closure”. I imagine that the loss of someone close is a tragedy but the constantly repeated belief that closure will heal is to me, daft, and misleading. The way that Sensible Sentencing “Trust?” is allowed to abuse victims of crime by constant public repetitions, is a disgrace.
Mind you, we have very little support for victims of crime whereas in some countries taxes are used to pay compensation automatically. A bit like ACC is supposed to be?
“If only we could hear some ideas at the time of these tragedies that would help to prevent such things happening in the future but we are just encouraged to wallow in the sadness of each event.”
You give two suggestions yourself and I’m sure other people would put two and two together and are now safe. But the frustrating thing is that before these events, there were thousands just like them, spelled out every night on the news: Women, stay aware of your lover’s influence; boaties, put on lifejackets. Perhaps asking people to make simple conclusions from case studies is too difficult, but I doubt it. It seems not be intelligence that is the problem. Seems to me that otherwise intelligent people get bullied, manipulated, suckered, caught-up and sleep walk into events that pull emotional strings they don’t know how to handle, and then can’t extricate themselves while also maintaining whatever cultural personal identity they have. Solving everyone’s personal psychology, everyday, and knowing exactly which triggers occur in an infinite range of possiblities, is going to be a huge task.
To get back to the media angle, orgnaisations like triangle TV openly encourage people to create their own TV programmes, with their help, so if you wanted to begin a “lifeskills” show for pakeha, you or someone could look into that. At present there is a legal advice show running, there is the union report, there is one where the difficulties of polynesian culture meeting pakeha/palangi culture are discussed by people in the polynesian community and church. There is a resource out there. As you point out, it is just white six o’clock mainstream culture that thinks solutions and public service announcements aren’t sexy.
The main pratfall of us whities trying it within the mainstream would be that eventually someone would come along and turn it into a propaganda machine – political or otherwise – because we just can’t help ourselves with all the social climbing crap that permeates everything now. There’d be theme songs and background music and shaky camera angles to jazz things up and close ups so close you can see into a person’s skin pores. A successful attempt would have to be a very stripped down approach to avoid an obvious bias either toward men, women, hetero’s etc etc. Mostly you can find shows of that type on student radio.
I remember a great radio show mediated by Steven Grey in the early 2000’s on BFM about drug use. From the point of view of keeping existing users safe they discussed general guidelines to avoid overdoses, safe practices and what to mix and what not to mix and what to look out for in certain fads. And of course they talked about medical assistance and getting off the stuff too. A realistic/practical show, somewhat ahead of it’s time. Haven’t seen or heard anything like it since. Maybe something like that, but examining the drug-like effect of emotions on judgement would be useful.
Uturn, U R right. The current moral standards that are so popular in current TV are not “modern” just fashionable and sell well. The Western world has been through it all before. King Henry VIII married 6 times. History repeats itself.
Uturn
Yes public good programs would help. And reshown each year, with updates etc. Instead the risky behaviour that leads to tragedy is often the favoured stuff for drama, made to seem exciting and populist (ie USA actors in and out of Betty Ford clinics) and played as reality. Compare to the staged performances of Shakespeare that spelled out human problems well but were obviously plays.
Setting up real on the ground help systems that save people from themselves would also be good. We aren’t good at this in NZ. We are a judgmental little country. Talk about people receiving huge traffic fines and a man or woman will say primly that all the person needs to do is obey the law. Ridiculous comment when we know that there always will be mistakes or deliberate bad behaviour. That’s human FGS.
We can prevent many road accidents by having median strips and rumble lines (which I hate) but we drag our feet because if people always drove more carefully we wouldn’t need them. This prating diatribe gives me the pip when we should do something useful. A trailer renting life jackets, an emergency number for unsafe girls and boys with an ‘angel’ to help them, a provision that bad drivers have to take driving theory and practical courses and attend drug rehabilitation if needed. Solid helpful kindly and firm. Not judgmental lazy fault-finding.
For 20+ + years there has been a volunteer group out there, Prisoners Aid and Rehabilitation. They are widely recognised in the industry but not in the media. These are people making a personal effort, not just pouring money in and sitting back. Now the Government is claiming credit. I am not familiar with the history of the group but they are nation wide, with full time offices and mentor type volunteers. Some people do care.
Gotta keep us a wee bit anxious. Other wise we might get it in our heads that there isn’t really any need for ‘protective’ state appartuses. And we might even begin to think that ‘the stranger’ is first and foremost benevolent and so bring down our own hostile protectionist barriers a little. And then (oh, lordy, lordy!) we might do something really crazy like conduct our affairs face to face and with some trust rather than have them mediated by lawyers and other various professionals out to look after our interests and protect us from the big scary world of misanthropic bastards….which must be the default position of most people (being misanthropic bastards) coz, like, I keep seeing it on the telly and reading about it in mags.
Yersterday, three determined women ‘held John Bank’s feet to the fire’, with five banners on the Gillies Ave / Mortimer Pass intersection in Newmarket (Epsom electorate) explaining why we were there.
Increasing numbers of motorists are ‘tooting’ in support, and there were a number of smiles and ‘thumbs up’ responses.
FYI – below is a copy of the letter that was pushed into the gap between doors at John Bank’s empty Epsom electorate office at 27 Gillies Ave, yesterday, Monday 21 May 2012.
“OPEN LETTER TO THE ‘HONORABLE’ JOHN BANKS, MP FOR EPSOM 21 May 2012
Today, there is a protest being held outside your electorate office at 27 Gillies Ave, Newmarket from 12 noon till 2pm.
The purpose of this protest is to encourage you to do the ‘honorable’ thing, and resign forthwith as the ACT MP for Epsom, and leave the NZ House of Parliament, before you bring it, and this country ‘perceived’ to be ‘the least corrupt in the world,(http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results) into further international disrepute.
How can you honestly consider yourself to be ‘fit for duty’ as either an MP or a Minister of the Crown?
Why is it that former Labour MP Taito Phillip Field got sentenced for SIX years for ‘bribery and corruption’, for providing ‘immigration advice’ to Thai nationals in exchange for work on his properties – whilst yourself, the Minister of Regulatory Reform is effectively getting political protection from NZ Prime Minister John Key, after you have given ‘immigration assistance’ and Coatsville property purchase ‘assistance’ to a German/ Finnish national, in return for $50,000 donated to your 2010 Auckland Mayoral campaign fund, and gifts valued at over $500 which you failed to declare?
Are you aware that Kim Dotcom’s ‘John Bank’s song’ has had over 140,000 ‘hits’ on You Tube, in my opinion, helping to make NZ an international laughing stock? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CvRSZxqk_I
It is also of great concern to me, as a fighter also against ‘white collar’ crime, that ACT’s ‘one law for all’ has yet to apply to both yourself and Don Brash, current and former Leaders of the ACT Party.
As former fellow directors of Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) Ltd, you both signed Huljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009, which contained untrue statements, but you were never charged for so doing. This is a strict liability offence under s58(3) of the Securities Act 1978, but neither the old Securities Commission, the Finance Markets Authority (FMA), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) , nor the NZ Police arguably ‘did their job’ and charged yourself or Don Brash.
John Banks, you are now the Minister of Regulatory Reform, yet four different ‘regulatory’ bodies failed to act against you, someone, who arguably couldn’t properly run a Kiwisaver Scheme, yet now has a key Ministerial post and you are supposedly helping to run the country ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt in the world’
Have you been politically protected at the highest levels, because this minority National Government has only 59 out of 121 MPs, thus no mandate for assets sales, because there is not a majority of National MPs, so is dependent on your pivotal vote?
Is this why NZ Prime Minister John Key is arguably continuing to ‘defend the indefensible’ and still express ‘confidence’ in you, although former MPs, Richard Worth and Pansy Wong appear to have lost his confidence over a lot less?
John Key has been treated unfairly, he has never claimed to be anything other than what he is and he has remained true to his values and continued to use the skills that made him successful. Simple research would have revealed to voters that they would get what they voted for and what is really behind the “friendly” smile: http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/merrill-lynch-leopards-spots-and-mr-key.html
A fallacy of composition is defined as an illogical projection to an aggregate, based upon the assumption that a local relationship projects unchanged to the whole.
Now, where do you think we see that…Oh, that’s right, economics as the micro is expanded to fit the macro.
Remember that old quote? “If HP only knew what HP knows, we’d never have to worry about our stock price?” The same is even more true of an aggregate. If we would only take account in our policy discussions of what ALL PROFESSIONS know (instead of over-weighting the opinions of orthodox economists still stuck in fallacies of scale), then our nation wouldn’t have to worry about it’s fiat currency budget.
An interesting thought but this is where it gets really interesting:
Adaptive parsing is what democracies supposedly excel at, but at our present population scale, the democratic methods we once used simply aren’t propagating adequate outcomes. Every outmoded method demonstrates yet another fallacy of scale. Simple conclusion is that we need to reorganize, and do so faster.
Bingo!
Our present form of democracy is incapable of adapting to the changes needed in a modern society.
I had to look up fallacies of composition for meaning. This quote is interesting – we often hear it from right wing pollies and perhaps left I don’t know – the simplistic idea of running a country similar to some hypothetical household budget.
In economics, the fallacy of composition takes on a special meaning. The fallacy occurs economist treats the economy as if it were a family or business. This leads to the assumption that a policy that will work for a business will work for the economy as a whole. When an economist assumes that what is good for a family is good for the economy, they fallacy of composition has occurred.
And that’s the entire theory of the free-market:- individuals making choices aggregated out to everyone and every business. The end result isn’t rational but irrational.
You are right DTB Our democratic system as shown by USA and UK no longer serve the people as was the modern ideal, they are self-serving. We sensibly brought in MMP but the pollies mainly NACT have gamed it to limit its viability. We wait in vain for better policies from each government. What do you suggest that would give us ‘leadership’ on the things we need like green sustainable business and future.
More and faster democracy but that will mean online voting.
IMO, ‘leadership’ is an authoritarian concept and needs to be got rid of the same way that we got rid of the dictatorships. We don’t need leaders, we need an educated and informed populace making collective decisions about our society and economy (the real economy, not the delusional one that the capitalists and economists dreamed up).
DTB I’ve tried working in an educated collective and as a concept it is far from being satisfactory as a way of making decisions and running things. At the least facilitators are needed to channel and list thoughts, and ensure that they are talked through in the way that experience and learning in decision making teaches – ie how implemented, what effect and outcomes etc. Reliable experts in various fields should fill in the lack of knowledge and understanding and be subject to close questioning about their assertions at such meetings.
The trouble with collectives is that they often don’t realise that they don’t know what they don’t know, they are full of ideals and ideas tested somewhere far away and not suitable for the present and the project considered, and they groupthink to the most attractive idea and sometimes the most attractive speaker. This could be how cults work or start.
Sorry but if leaders are not to be had, then the collective need to be aware of the need to elect somebody to facilitate them and others to advise them. Such wisdom is not universal.
Hence leaders, often of the wrong type. Sorry to raise my realities which might be different to yours but there it is – ideals eventually give way to practicalities. The future needs pragmatic idealists who are wonderful people, and our education should be slanted to help such people arise.
At the least facilitators are needed to channel and list thoughts, and ensure that they are talked through in the way that experience and learning in decision making teaches – ie how implemented, what effect and outcomes etc.
Administration is needed, make no mistake about that but those administrators shouldn’t be the defined leaders. Ideas can, and should, come from anyone with the administrators/ministries then researching it to see if it’s viable or not and then getting back to the populace for the go ahead or telling the populace that it can’t be done.
“The trouble with collectives is that they often don’t realise that they don’t know what they don’t know, they are full of ideals and ideas tested somewhere far away and not suitable for the present and the project considered, and they groupthink to the most attractive idea and sometimes the most attractive speaker. This could be how cults work or start.””
Oh jackal, you are so devoid of intellectual honesty and so full of partisan brouhaha that you seem completely unable to admit that Jones may in fact be in the wrong and could quite conceivably be guilty of something more corrupt than Banks is, instead focusing your attack on someone already tossed from parliament because they come from the rightwing side of the aisle. Come on man, show some backbone.
I thought Jones should be stood down immediately. however, it sounds like Shearer has quizzed him pretty thoroughly on the role he played in OKing that guy’s immigration. So I will now wait and see how things play out.
Banks, on the other hand, looks a lot more dodgy to me.
As usual your summery is irrelevant The Contrarian. Firstly I’ve already blogged about Jones needing to front, and I’m not saying that he’s off the hook… I simply think Yan was mainly talking about Pansy Wong when he said he had friends in high places. The Fairfax article also fails to report on some important facts, like for instance that what was implied to have been recently said in court of law actually happened four years ago. I guess such things are a bit too much for your wee mind to comprehend.
You’re not my friend btw The Conformist. Stop being a smarmy git!
Why can’t we be friends? I hold no ill will towards you.
“I simply think Yan was mainly talking about Pansy Wong when he said he had friends in high places”
So you think Yan meant an opposition MP with no real power in his citizenship case was in a higher place than the associate immigration minister who actually had some sway in his application and approved it? Wow.
Why can’t we be friends you ask… because I think you’re a smarmy git!
So you think Yan meant an opposition MP with no real power in his citizenship case was in a higher place than the associate immigration minister who actually had some sway in his application and approved it? Wow.
You might note that Yan’s file was transfered to Jones because he apparently did not have a conflict of interest, and there has been no evidence to link Jones’ approval of that file to any kind of favours. I think Yan was likely to be talking about Wong at the time. But I guess we’ll have to just wait and see.
“Why can’t we be friends you ask… because I think you’re a smarmy git!” Well, that is a shame.
Anyway, so even though Pansy Wong was in no position of power, Jones was associate immigration minister and signed off on the application and Wong had no power to supersede DIA recommendation you still believe Yan thought Wong was the higher placed friend. Wow. That takes some reaching. Well done – there is no way I could mentally stretch like that.
I didn’t say Wong was the higher placed friend (read the post again), I said it is likely that Yan was talking about Wong. You are asking me to know what was in Yans mind when he made the statement pre 2008, which is ridiculous! You can speculate until the cows come home that he was talking about Jones, I’ve provided some information as to why it was likely Wong. It’s my opinion… don’t start telling me I’m not allowed an opinion again The Controlfreak!
You can have an opinion, sure. I don’t think anyone ever suggested you couldn’t – least of all me.
But in a public medium you can expect people to query your opinion. And your opinion seems rather divorced from reality. Luckily we can investigate and discuss opinions on this “Open Mike” forum.
You seem to have a bit of memory loss there The Amnesiac.
Can you tell me when exactly Yan made his statement concerning friends in high places, and whether Jones was even in a position to influence the outcome when that statement was made? Saying that Yan was categorically talking about Jones when there is no evidence of this is spurious indeed!
“whether Jones was even in a position to influence the outcome when that statement was made?”
Kinda irrelevant when it was Jones that OKed the citizenship, no? But don’t worry, I am sure in the end you’ll be proven right and Pansy Wong will be at fault.
Hey, when that no doubt happens, I’ll be happy to admit I was wrong. Just as I am sure you’ll be happy to admit you backed the wrong horse too….Jacky my friend.
The funniest thing about me being “a conservative/tory/right-winger” is that using the same metric Draco T Bastard uses to prove Labour is heading right-wing places me firmly on the left.
Not to mention the whole “He disagree’s with me therefore he must be a conservative” thing is completely ridiculous but, nevermind. As I said, it’s easier for you trolls to label those you don’t like instead of engaging.
@Felix – that was a general statement based on the fact that I am continually accused of being a tory or conservative as a pejorative when my political position are generally middle of the road and left of centre in most cases.
Based on my experience in the past few days is this:
Workfare, coming to a WINZ office near you? I have received letters (plural) summoning me to ‘job search seminars’ (plural) and so I rang the call centre 3 times today. As far as I have been able to find out, the first of them is about a ‘business initiative’ programme – I have already been signed up, and I am told that it starts 4th June, which is afaik, Queens Birthday!
The call centre woman said something about ‘call centres and customer service’, which actually makes sense of it starting on a public holiday – it’s telemarketing and they want to catch people at home! This is called a ‘training programme, with the ‘company’ promising a job at the end of it. I want to know how voluntary it will actually be, and what the nature of the ‘training’ is? I will supply more information when I have it (the day after tomorrow – the seminar is tomorrow at 14.00, and no doubt it will run until 17.00), but it is very worrying that I have already been signed up to it. When I finally got in touch with someone at the actual WINZ office, she just kept making with the threats… you must attend, it’s your obligation, nothing else matters etc.”
I suspect it’s all about getting the numbers right, pre-Budget, that is, if Petulant Bean can come up with some number of ‘long-term unemployed’ who are now in ‘training’ it will look good for the public. I told the woman that I had been told a few months ago by XXXXXXX X (name withheld) that I could be ‘self monitoring’ or whatever the phrase was, and she said “if you were capable of that, you’d have got a job by now’. I reminded her that even PB had admitted that there are not enough job, and her only answer was to reiterate the threats. “Benefit cancelled if you don’t turn up to the seminars” etc…
For goodness sake – it’s bad enough that I keep getting pestered by telemarketers (trying to get an unlisted number), now they are going to force the unemployed to join those pests? Really?
I’d rather my taxes paid people the dole, than they are made to join such make-work schemes for the marketing parasites!
now they are going to force the unemployed to join those pests? Really?
So it seems at the moment… in the guise of “training”… the thing is, that I’ve worked in call centres as a telemarketer on and off for decades! I don’t need any “training”, I have done it often and recently enough to know that I am woefully bad at the marketing part of it! (My most recent stint was about 13 months ago, maybe that’s why I have been selected for this?)
Well if it’s turn up or die and you can get there without serious hardship, why not turn up… just until the soonest convenience after they take “roll”, then leave? If it’s boxes they want ticked rather than effective results, they won’t care. Another alternative is to be so utterly difficult to handle, but in the politest way, of course, that you prove their idiotic idea that you are long-term unemployable. Ask really dense questions, whistle a lot, stutter on the phone; phrase your nice CSR persona as if you were a stoic peasant or can’t tell the difference between private thoughts and speaking publicly. Hey, if they ignorantly go round telling people what they are, why not give it to them? Consider it an afternoon of acting class. Keep acting till they drop you off the list.
If it’s boxes they want ticked rather than effective results, they won’t care. Another alternative is to be so utterly difficult to handle, but in the politest way, of course, that you prove their idiotic idea that you are long-term unemployable. Ask really dense questions, whistle a lot, stutter on the phone; phrase your nice CSR persona as if you were a stoic peasant or can’t tell the difference between private thoughts and speaking publicly.
Yes, that would actually be fun! 😀 The last time I had to go into the office, after a long-term teaching stint, and she had a notice up on the whiteboard for a ‘recruitment seminar’ for the very people I’d been working for from the end of 2010 to January 2011! I remarked then that I’d already worked for them – I suppose she’s forgotten, as I suspect tomorrow is about ‘recruiting’ for them! (They can’t keep staff, no wonder they’re recruiting beneficiaries! Telemarketing for minimum wage – no thanks!)
Latest in the saga of the two teenage boys I am supporting.
One was on the verge of finally starting a job, when he was charged for being in the same car as a boy racer. He was not driving and obviously terrified. Still lost his job though.
Had two week stand down. Now 4 weeks later he finally got to see a WINZ officer.
They turn up for appointments and are told to get in a line. If they do not get to the end of the line by their appointment time they have to make another appointment. It doesn’t matter if they haven’t even got the bus fare to get there numerous times. If they cannot attend any of the silly seminars for any reason, even doctors or court appointments, the dole is refused.
The other one finally got to see a WINZ officer, but now has to go through the whole rigmarole again. He was on the independent youth benefit. Instead of the sensible thing, reviewing his case at 18, he has to have a stand-down and re-apply for the dole. And then prove he has applied for at least 6 non-existent jobs a week. He should really be on a sickness or invalids benefit. He needs treatment for depression before he can work.
When they go in almost everything they are entitled to is refused, unless an adult goes with them.
It is very noticeable how most WINZ staffers think they are working for the Gestapo, since NACT got in.
Young people get a hard time of it these days. I sometimes wonder if the rightwing realise the detrimental impact of their policies. It’s all part of that Neo-Liberal agenda you wrote about… great article btw.
God awful dehumanising treatment KJT. Makes my teeth grind to read it.
My younger brother who is deaf-blind and has thus had to deal with welfare in one form or another most of his adult life once said he always knew when National was in power…. by the way he got treated by WINZ.
This is disgraceful, on the part of WINZ and the government that set them on that route. What a way for young people to be starting out on their adult life!
I can relate to that description of some WINZ staff being like Gestapo.
I have had that kind of feeling about ACC staffers, when talking about having the requests for more physio for me rejected. And those requests came from my physio & specialist. But they made me feel like I had done something wrong – like trying to get something I wasn’t entitled to.
But I persevered and protested, and in the end some ACC people that could authorise it, agreed I needed further help with a severe injury and approved more physio for me.
It’s like they are not there to help people who need help, but to give as little help to people as they can get away with.
I am appalled but not surprised. There are about a third of under 25s out of work, and we treat them as the blame. Shame on WINZ staff colluding with the NACT arseholes. Good luck with the boys.
“When they go in almost everything they are entitled to is refused, unless an adult goes with them.”
That is the answer…nobody should go into WINZ on their own if at all possible. Two VS one and the WINZ workers seem to lose their superiority complex pretty quickly. I always suggest people go in with another person, even if the second person is not skilled or knowledgeable about WINZ.
When they go in almost everything they are entitled to is refused, unless an adult goes with them.
At least they have you on their side, KJT, good on you for caring for them!
I thought I had a bad time with WINZ, but it sounds as if these boys have it much worse! I suppose they’d suffer even more if they tried the sarcasm and dumb insolence I often resort to!
As a teacher you’ll have years of experience in how to drive instructors nuts. They don’t stand a chance.
She started by insisting that it was all ‘voluntary’, but those who didn’t ‘fill out’ the form she handed around, were herded off somewhere for a ‘discussion’…
Turns out her main desires were for bar staff, security guards and telemarketers.
No, I have to wait to hear from her…
I don’t like the name “Zero” Budget
Here are some better suggestions…(journalists pay attention, you will need these words for your pieces).
The Monotone Budget – The Inadequate Budget
The phoned-in Budget – The Ineffectual Budget
The Lame Budget – The Dead-Cat-Bounce Budget
The Turning-a-Blind-Eye Budget – The Dumb Budget
The “Blah Blah Blah” Budget
– you get the idea.
Here are some more suggestions….
paltry, weak, ailing, shabby, uninspired, characterless, dishwater, stagnant, stale, dumb, do nothing, lazy…
Suggest your own titles…
p.s. we have been here before Link
The directionless budget
The desperate budget
The lean and mean budget
The no brighter future budget
The run out of ideas budget
The we got the mandate budget
The go to Aussie budget
I suspect the four year leeway given to the foreign vessels is so that Key can get NZ workers’ rights and conditions to somewhere pretty close to what’s happening on those boats anyway.
Oh my giddy aunt! Could there be a worse place for workfare? Those are HCA jobs, and in Welly hospital, HCAs are being laid off, and my son for one is quite distressed about that. (One of them was a girlfriend) He suggested I become an HCA, and I enquired – a 6 month course at Unitec is required here, it’s not exactly work that can be done with no training or even 2 weeks… In fact, on L’s ward, it’s work that can be quite distressing.
If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world. (Chinese Proverb)
If you are from Christchurch, have visited lately or are fed up with the way Christchurch is rebuilding itself as a corporate wasteland…then please act on this.
Gapfiller are the best thing to emerge in post quake Christchurch. Life is shit down here. They make it better. This is copied from their facebook page;
We need your help. We are in the process of applying for some funding to keep filling gaps in ChCh. If you have appreciated some of our gap filling work would you mind writing a brief letter of support for us? Why do you like Gap Filler’s work? What projects have you most enjoyed? Why is it important for you and for ChCh? Why is creating opportunities for people to express their creativity so necessary? If you’ve been involved in a project; what did it do for you? You get the idea. THANK YOU. Please email letters to fillthegap@gapfiller.org.nz by 28 May.
thanks
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The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
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 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
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Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When ASIO boss Mike Burgess delivered his annual threat assessment earlier this year, he stressed the rising danger posed by espionage and foreign interference. “In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed ...
2012 Premier RWNJ Darwin Award…Crimpie for “Have you ever had sex against a tree”?
That was so gratuitously awful. What would make anyone think that was an okay thing to ask, let alone while there were cameras around?
In the immortal words of Harold Steptoe, “You dirty old man!”
LOL
Are we sure this man is in his right mind? Happy to sling mud at racists, not at someone who looks to me like he needs help.
That thought had passed my mind: he guy is definitely a fruit loop. Suppose the question is how long has he been like this, is it dementia or a similar age related thing? Sad really.
Looked like dementia to me, because he was so slow in replying to questions. It took him a while to formulate answers and seemed like he was dredging up memories of what he has thought in the past.
Well Louis Crimp is clearly an ignorant pig of a man with shallowness in spades. In fact he sounds like he lives in a shallow mud estuary, all clogged as he is.
But he expresses a background view which I frequently bring up around here. He clearly does not appreciate that there are two separate sets of rules for two types of people in New Zealand – Maori and non-Maori. This has led him to resentment and anger, which of course has led straight to the hatred that he has been subjected to and the hatred that he expresses.
Two separate sets of rules are not sustainable. This should be patently obvious in most every community on the planet – white, pink, red, yellow, muslim, christian, spots and stripes. But we stick our heads in the sand here and think that it is somehow different down here. But it is not. We are no different we kiwis to any other people on the globe.
Two separate sets of rules may be appropriate for a period of time (perhaps another generation or two) to assist in righting past wrongs and I don’t think most NZers have a problem with putting things back to a balance. But as a form of permanent setting it is completely and utterly flawed – and it leads directly to the some of the attitudes expressed by ignorant Crimp. It is a dangerous situation.
However, I see no person in the particular Maori-nonMaori circles in New Zealand talking about this situation. Some honesty needs to be brought to this (very particular) issue.
What two sets of rules?
If you are talking about the treaty, then I’m not sure what can be done, or why it’s so terrible.
One thing’s fer sure tho, you won’t be able to renegotiate the treaty relationship into something else before Maori feel that the Treaty has been honoured.
And blathering on about how unfair the deal we signed up to is, won’t go far in getting the feeling felt.
You miss my point P’s b. It is about having two systems for two peoples in one land – and based on birthright. Just doesn’t work. The point is simple.
And in that context the treaty is also flawed in its structure. I didn’t say it is so terrible – I say its structure is flawed. It needs amending to fit a world that is entirely different from that which existed in 1830s NZ.
What will happen when we become a Republic, and get rid of the Monarchy, (soon) to the Treaty as there will be no Crown to honour it.
It doesn’t seem to raise too many issues I would think. The ‘crown’ in NZ is parliament.
Assuming we become a republic via act of parliament, then we are doing so via the treaty, through which parliament gained its right to govern.
If we become a republic via revultion, things might be different, but I don’t think that’s likely.
I have the feeling part of us becoming a republic would be honouring the treaty as a contract between Iwi’s and the government. Monarchy or no monarchy.
I have plenty of friends and in-laws of the older persuasion further south than say Blenheim who when you mention matters Maori have a quick red veil cover their minds and all else following is non-repressed rage. I love them but that part of them disgusts me.
That idea of all settlements complete by 2014 sticks in them like a nationally redemptive moment that they refuse to believe will ever happen. It’s just deep and hard in them, and often they don’t know which way they will vote until they get to the polls.
I have much more of a problem with having one set of rules for the economically disadvantaged and another (or rather none) for those who aren’t.
Of course Augustus, exact same thing and principles apply.
Keep applying those principles across all and see what the outcome is
VTO, it is brave of you to bring up the issue. That you feel a need to is healthy because like you I think it needs debate, keeping it under covers will never resolve it.
I have some real concerns touched upon by people above: the biggest is that I do not believe exclusive societies are healthy. For example access to services based upon ability to pay (the ACT way of doing things) or whanau ora (as opposed to universal delivery of welfare etc). There may be merit in some exclusivity but generally I believe it will lead to discord.
Which is why we need to keep the debate live and in the open, even when we disagree.
VTO as I understand it, the treaty was not about one rule for all. So there is a problem with you thinking there should be i.e. you are ignoring an existing treaty simply because it does not support your contention.
All people of the world are not all the same, not personally, not culturally. The similar points are we all eat, sleep, shit, love, etc. One of the things that has steered you wrong in thinking there can be one rule for all is forgetting that many cultures do not recognise time and reality as we (pakeha) do. In certain cultures the dead never leave, events are not resolved until certain other acts are achieved and there is no “world that is entirely different from that which existed in 1830s…”.
To have states within a nation is not unusual. To have multiple cultures within a nation is not unusual. Why do we need one rule for all if relative harmony can be achieved by making sure all have basic needs met and that a dominant party cannot not interfere with others needs? Is it necessary for me to able to wander freely across another person’s land, insult his local arrangements with immunity just so I can feel like I can do anything I want? Perhaps you can give a detailed expression of why you want one rule for all.
The point about “birth right” I assume refers to maori specifically. As you know maori have got the short end of the stick from their “treaty partners” for some time. Just as a natural resource is not created by the man who mines it, and just as the natural resource will be changed but still exist (hopefully) after he dies, the prejudices and crimes of the past have twisted the “birth right” of maori in NZ. This is the basis for things like affirmative action, or in NZ, the idea that a certain amount of students should be maori at universities, for example. It is an acknowledgement that the losses of the past influence the future and that if pakeha hadn’t betrayed their words (yes that is underestimating what was done) maori would be in a better position today. If we refused to teach the next generation to read, just closed schools for ten years, do you think that would effect society? And when we opened them again, would we condemn the new underclass for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and educating themselves? Would that be fair, do you think? Just? Moral?
Let me give you an example. You come from a family with long running cultural and community connections. There is a war, your family is killed, your culture is dominated by the foreign invader and the world as you know it changes overnight. Most of the time you simply move food to mouth, but have no idea who you are anymore because everything you hold dear, your ability to understand the world and reason you own identity, is rejected by the people around you. Symptoms of your distress are masked or emphasised depending ont he environment. After a while, the struggle becomes the new identity, and you are condemned for it. The struggle identity even encourages you to attack your own people. Your children react to your problems and compensate and extend them to their families. For the next 150 years, your family struggles to adapt. Tell me, if you had not been invaded, would these things have happened naturally? Now, if that same oppressor comes along and wants to right his forefathers crimes, where should he start? From today, discarding the past, or in discussion with you, including the past, from your point of view?
If an oppressor was not foreign, if they shared the same culture as you, but were simply from another village, would that excuse and lessen the actions of a foreign oppressor that dominated all? No, because if any reparations were later made, the language and terms would be under the same culture. Understanding would be possible between the two parties. Even a prisoner of war, later made to be a slave, still within his own culture, will know his place. But an outcast in a foreign enforced culture experiences major psychological trauma.
VTO, you cannot go into this discussion thinking that everyone thinks like you or begin with a conclusion and work backwards to an enforced rule. Do it that way and you simply repeat the political hostilities metered out to maori, and others, and expose the intent of making your own life easy, at the cost of others, by trying to claim the problem does not exist.
Hello. The two books about The Tao have been “found”. Had them by my bed for a while. Reread your post. Belief that the journey has recommenced pace. Imagine posts will change now. Only started posting anywhere on NZ Herald last week. Once begun, Worth guiding others?
I think I stuffed up my post. The Two Tao books were found today.Onwards and upwards. Worth in guiding others? Imagine posts will change. Thankyou
Glad to hear it. All the best with your reading.
So, you are against a progressive tax system then, Augustus?
The original premise of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, as sold to the chiefs, was that the chiefs would manage what was theirs (pretty much everything), according to tikanga māori and the tāngata tiriti (settlers) would make laws to manage their people. At the time there was great concern about the drunkenness and lawlessness of some of the sailors etc who were causing difficulties in and around Kororareka.
That is where the debate around the words ‘kawanatanga’ = governance and tino rangatiratanga = chiefly authority or sovereignty come in. Whether by accident, misunderstanding or deliberate misuse, most of the early Treaty difference begins there. That so many do not actually know (or care) about these and other fundamental differences in what was promised and what the settler governments presumed / assumed to be their rights, is sad after so many years of genuine efforts to educate more widely about Te Tiriti.
Was he instrumental in getting Hilary Calvert on the ACT list?
So Dunking Garner quit the Nation over “disagreements” with the producer – ongoing, but in the final instance it was about how to interview Hekia Parata. Given Garner always seemed like a National Government shill, I’d like to know more of the content of these disagreements.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10807392
It’s probably about Harmon wanting some probing and inquisition on the flaky Parata, it’s what you’re there for and it’s good TV getting a PR Spin only minister off their script.
Garner probably took the ‘ my way or the highway’ approach which he’s known to do being an egotistical twat first and a political journo on rare occasions.
Duncy wouldn’t like offending his idols by doing his job, easier to sling the hook. Harmon wouldn’t be worried as he’ll get someone better now.
Rachael Smally did a good job in Garner’s absence I understand.
And she does not look like a Garner, a slob.
Much more pretty too.
Absolutely! Which is why I have never put any credence in anything he says…
Garner is awful. Having meet him in person a few times I can assure you he is as bad in real life as he is on TV
I can never understand how he got the job as a political journalist, let alone as the head pol journo on TV3?
Because he is knowledgeable and has his finger on the political process. Doesn’t make him a nice guy but he is politically adept.
Really? That’s not how he looks to me. It just looks to me like he has his finger on Key’s pulse. Rachel Smalley seems, so far, to be more open-minded and aware of diverse political perspectives.
Not liking what he says isn’t the same as him not being knowledgeable about what he is saying.
In Garner’s case, I’d say his knowledge doesn’t go far beyond the slant he takes.
I think there are other journalists who are far more knowledgeable than him (e.g. Brent Edwards on RNZ).
Garner, for all his faults, has been around for a long time and knows some real heavy weights. You don’t get that far without knowing a few tricks….again, that doesn’t mean he isn’t a…..”insert derogatory term of your choice”.
Knowing a few tricks from being around a while? In his case it may not be as much what he knows as who he knows?
journalism and politics are based on both what you know and who you know. Again, just not liking him doesn’t mean he doesn’t know what he is doing.
Seems strange that he’s gone soon after making up some shit about Shearer telling Cunliffe not to go on The Nation.
Not sure if many of you got to see THE FOUR HORSEMEN at the doco film fest, but here’s a piece the director put out yesterday, the 27 principles of The Renegade Economist, a plan for a better future without Orthodox economics.
“Creating a set of principles on which to base a successful process of global political and economic change has to be a collaborative project. To this end everyone is welcome to comment or make suggestions for their improvement.”
http://www.renegadeeconomist.com/fourhorsemenfilm/the-27-principles.html
The RenegadeEconomist has a great channel on YouTube. Unfortunately our news media has a list of approved orthodox bank economists that they use, and alternative points of view are NOT aired.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La4JEwyr094
The Take, a 2004 film about workers reclaiming a foundry in Argentina is on YouTube.
Fantastic movie and very appropriate to what is happening now with South American governments claiming back what rightfully belongs to their people.
World sharemarkets up on relief rebound
“We sold off on some fear, and not all of that fear was realized,” Frank Lesh, a futures analyst and broker at FuturePath Trading, told Reuters. “We’re in a bit of an oversold bounce in here at the moment.”
— Never any mention of the High Frequency Trading in these articles!
I suppose I will be berated for callousness but I am sick of hearing about the feelings of bereaved relatives after criminal court cases ad infinitum. There are people suffering sad deaths and injuries all the time needing caring attention and support.
I don’t want to know every day how people looked in court and whether they seemed sorry, that’s not important to me after the rotten deed has been done. At the end is the predictable and tragically true quote, he/she only gets 10 years while my loved one has no life after this crime and I have lost family for ever. I feel sorry but this grief being publicly displayed is a gross and constant cliche. It is a response to the victim movement which is good when it supports the people around the abused person, and we want them to know we care and to get support but not at the cost of displaying them for media sales.
Hearing a blow by blow account about Emily Langley who at 17 years (very young) was in another country away from her parents influence, attracted by a jealous, violent young man – a dangerous liaison from the first, is sad news. But it underlines the futility of the whole situation of putting oneself in danger’s way by taking up with somebody who would have given her as an older and wiser woman clues as to his volatility and lack of standards. Sad too is the drowning of the dinghy owner in Auckland, again putting himself and his children in danger’s way. The sadness of his wife who has lost so much in one day must be extreme.
If only we could hear some ideas at the time of these tragedies that would help to prevent such things happening in the future but we are just encouraged to wallow in the sadness of each event. What about some organisation getting funding to have a small shop near boat ramps that hired out lifejackets so that boaties short of funds could enjoy the water more safely. There would need to be a deposit as well as the hire to avoid rip-offs, and perhaps money-strapped people could be given the opportunity to leave something of value with the shop to cover this and ensure the jackets return. And young women could be provided with self care classes perhaps so they weren’t drawn to macho men who want an icon on their arm rather than a loved person.
Then there is this terrible myth about “closure”. I imagine that the loss of someone close is a tragedy but the constantly repeated belief that closure will heal is to me, daft, and misleading. The way that Sensible Sentencing “Trust?” is allowed to abuse victims of crime by constant public repetitions, is a disgrace.
Mind you, we have very little support for victims of crime whereas in some countries taxes are used to pay compensation automatically. A bit like ACC is supposed to be?
“If only we could hear some ideas at the time of these tragedies that would help to prevent such things happening in the future but we are just encouraged to wallow in the sadness of each event.”
You give two suggestions yourself and I’m sure other people would put two and two together and are now safe. But the frustrating thing is that before these events, there were thousands just like them, spelled out every night on the news: Women, stay aware of your lover’s influence; boaties, put on lifejackets. Perhaps asking people to make simple conclusions from case studies is too difficult, but I doubt it. It seems not be intelligence that is the problem. Seems to me that otherwise intelligent people get bullied, manipulated, suckered, caught-up and sleep walk into events that pull emotional strings they don’t know how to handle, and then can’t extricate themselves while also maintaining whatever cultural personal identity they have. Solving everyone’s personal psychology, everyday, and knowing exactly which triggers occur in an infinite range of possiblities, is going to be a huge task.
To get back to the media angle, orgnaisations like triangle TV openly encourage people to create their own TV programmes, with their help, so if you wanted to begin a “lifeskills” show for pakeha, you or someone could look into that. At present there is a legal advice show running, there is the union report, there is one where the difficulties of polynesian culture meeting pakeha/palangi culture are discussed by people in the polynesian community and church. There is a resource out there. As you point out, it is just white six o’clock mainstream culture that thinks solutions and public service announcements aren’t sexy.
The main pratfall of us whities trying it within the mainstream would be that eventually someone would come along and turn it into a propaganda machine – political or otherwise – because we just can’t help ourselves with all the social climbing crap that permeates everything now. There’d be theme songs and background music and shaky camera angles to jazz things up and close ups so close you can see into a person’s skin pores. A successful attempt would have to be a very stripped down approach to avoid an obvious bias either toward men, women, hetero’s etc etc. Mostly you can find shows of that type on student radio.
I remember a great radio show mediated by Steven Grey in the early 2000’s on BFM about drug use. From the point of view of keeping existing users safe they discussed general guidelines to avoid overdoses, safe practices and what to mix and what not to mix and what to look out for in certain fads. And of course they talked about medical assistance and getting off the stuff too. A realistic/practical show, somewhat ahead of it’s time. Haven’t seen or heard anything like it since. Maybe something like that, but examining the drug-like effect of emotions on judgement would be useful.
Uturn, U R right. The current moral standards that are so popular in current TV are not “modern” just fashionable and sell well. The Western world has been through it all before. King Henry VIII married 6 times. History repeats itself.
Uturn
Yes public good programs would help. And reshown each year, with updates etc. Instead the risky behaviour that leads to tragedy is often the favoured stuff for drama, made to seem exciting and populist (ie USA actors in and out of Betty Ford clinics) and played as reality. Compare to the staged performances of Shakespeare that spelled out human problems well but were obviously plays.
Setting up real on the ground help systems that save people from themselves would also be good. We aren’t good at this in NZ. We are a judgmental little country. Talk about people receiving huge traffic fines and a man or woman will say primly that all the person needs to do is obey the law. Ridiculous comment when we know that there always will be mistakes or deliberate bad behaviour. That’s human FGS.
We can prevent many road accidents by having median strips and rumble lines (which I hate) but we drag our feet because if people always drove more carefully we wouldn’t need them. This prating diatribe gives me the pip when we should do something useful. A trailer renting life jackets, an emergency number for unsafe girls and boys with an ‘angel’ to help them, a provision that bad drivers have to take driving theory and practical courses and attend drug rehabilitation if needed. Solid helpful kindly and firm. Not judgmental lazy fault-finding.
For 20+ + years there has been a volunteer group out there, Prisoners Aid and Rehabilitation. They are widely recognised in the industry but not in the media. These are people making a personal effort, not just pouring money in and sitting back. Now the Government is claiming credit. I am not familiar with the history of the group but they are nation wide, with full time offices and mentor type volunteers. Some people do care.
Yep
HeeHee
Gotta keep us a wee bit anxious. Other wise we might get it in our heads that there isn’t really any need for ‘protective’ state appartuses. And we might even begin to think that ‘the stranger’ is first and foremost benevolent and so bring down our own hostile protectionist barriers a little. And then (oh, lordy, lordy!) we might do something really crazy like conduct our affairs face to face and with some trust rather than have them mediated by lawyers and other various professionals out to look after our interests and protect us from the big scary world of misanthropic bastards….which must be the default position of most people (being misanthropic bastards) coz, like, I keep seeing it on the telly and reading about it in mags.
“I keep seeing it on the telly and reading about it in mags”
–Exactly Bill , this is the brainwashing which most people pour scorn on people for mentioning, claiming its conspiracy and the like..
Of course the media is training your thought patterns, and programming your mind!
Yersterday, three determined women ‘held John Bank’s feet to the fire’, with five banners on the Gillies Ave / Mortimer Pass intersection in Newmarket (Epsom electorate) explaining why we were there.
Check out http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com ‘Give a grrl a banner’ 🙂
Increasing numbers of motorists are ‘tooting’ in support, and there were a number of smiles and ‘thumbs up’ responses.
FYI – below is a copy of the letter that was pushed into the gap between doors at John Bank’s empty Epsom electorate office at 27 Gillies Ave, yesterday, Monday 21 May 2012.
“OPEN LETTER TO THE ‘HONORABLE’ JOHN BANKS, MP FOR EPSOM 21 May 2012
Today, there is a protest being held outside your electorate office at 27 Gillies Ave, Newmarket from 12 noon till 2pm.
The purpose of this protest is to encourage you to do the ‘honorable’ thing, and resign forthwith as the ACT MP for Epsom, and leave the NZ House of Parliament, before you bring it, and this country ‘perceived’ to be ‘the least corrupt in the world,(http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results) into further international disrepute.
How can you honestly consider yourself to be ‘fit for duty’ as either an MP or a Minister of the Crown?
Why is it that former Labour MP Taito Phillip Field got sentenced for SIX years for ‘bribery and corruption’, for providing ‘immigration advice’ to Thai nationals in exchange for work on his properties – whilst yourself, the Minister of Regulatory Reform is effectively getting political protection from NZ Prime Minister John Key, after you have given ‘immigration assistance’ and Coatsville property purchase ‘assistance’ to a German/ Finnish national, in return for $50,000 donated to your 2010 Auckland Mayoral campaign fund, and gifts valued at over $500 which you failed to declare?
Are you aware that Kim Dotcom’s ‘John Bank’s song’ has had over 140,000 ‘hits’ on You Tube, in my opinion, helping to make NZ an international laughing stock? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CvRSZxqk_I
It is also of great concern to me, as a fighter also against ‘white collar’ crime, that ACT’s ‘one law for all’ has yet to apply to both yourself and Don Brash, current and former Leaders of the ACT Party.
As former fellow directors of Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) Ltd, you both signed Huljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009, which contained untrue statements, but you were never charged for so doing. This is a strict liability offence under s58(3) of the Securities Act 1978, but neither the old Securities Commission, the Finance Markets Authority (FMA), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) , nor the NZ Police arguably ‘did their job’ and charged yourself or Don Brash.
John Banks, you are now the Minister of Regulatory Reform, yet four different ‘regulatory’ bodies failed to act against you, someone, who arguably couldn’t properly run a Kiwisaver Scheme, yet now has a key Ministerial post and you are supposedly helping to run the country ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt in the world’
(Copies of this correspondence are available on http://www.pennybright4epsom.org.nz )
Have you been politically protected at the highest levels, because this minority National Government has only 59 out of 121 MPs, thus no mandate for assets sales, because there is not a majority of National MPs, so is dependent on your pivotal vote?
Is this why NZ Prime Minister John Key is arguably continuing to ‘defend the indefensible’ and still express ‘confidence’ in you, although former MPs, Richard Worth and Pansy Wong appear to have lost his confidence over a lot less?
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’’
http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com
http://www.pennybright4epsom.org.nz “
John Key has been treated unfairly, he has never claimed to be anything other than what he is and he has remained true to his values and continued to use the skills that made him successful. Simple research would have revealed to voters that they would get what they voted for and what is really behind the “friendly” smile:
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/merrill-lynch-leopards-spots-and-mr-key.html
Fallacies of Composition Challenge America
Now, where do you think we see that…Oh, that’s right, economics as the micro is expanded to fit the macro.
An interesting thought but this is where it gets really interesting:
Bingo!
Our present form of democracy is incapable of adapting to the changes needed in a modern society.
Most interesting, ta DtB.
I had to look up fallacies of composition for meaning. This quote is interesting – we often hear it from right wing pollies and perhaps left I don’t know – the simplistic idea of running a country similar to some hypothetical household budget.
http://www.kingwatch.co.nz/Christian_Political_Economy/fallacy_of_composition.htm
And that’s the entire theory of the free-market:- individuals making choices aggregated out to everyone and every business. The end result isn’t rational but irrational.
You are right DTB Our democratic system as shown by USA and UK no longer serve the people as was the modern ideal, they are self-serving. We sensibly brought in MMP but the pollies mainly NACT have gamed it to limit its viability. We wait in vain for better policies from each government. What do you suggest that would give us ‘leadership’ on the things we need like green sustainable business and future.
More and faster democracy but that will mean online voting.
IMO, ‘leadership’ is an authoritarian concept and needs to be got rid of the same way that we got rid of the dictatorships. We don’t need leaders, we need an educated and informed populace making collective decisions about our society and economy (the real economy, not the delusional one that the capitalists and economists dreamed up).
DTB I’ve tried working in an educated collective and as a concept it is far from being satisfactory as a way of making decisions and running things. At the least facilitators are needed to channel and list thoughts, and ensure that they are talked through in the way that experience and learning in decision making teaches – ie how implemented, what effect and outcomes etc. Reliable experts in various fields should fill in the lack of knowledge and understanding and be subject to close questioning about their assertions at such meetings.
The trouble with collectives is that they often don’t realise that they don’t know what they don’t know, they are full of ideals and ideas tested somewhere far away and not suitable for the present and the project considered, and they groupthink to the most attractive idea and sometimes the most attractive speaker. This could be how cults work or start.
Sorry but if leaders are not to be had, then the collective need to be aware of the need to elect somebody to facilitate them and others to advise them. Such wisdom is not universal.
Hence leaders, often of the wrong type. Sorry to raise my realities which might be different to yours but there it is – ideals eventually give way to practicalities. The future needs pragmatic idealists who are wonderful people, and our education should be slanted to help such people arise.
Administration is needed, make no mistake about that but those administrators shouldn’t be the defined leaders. Ideas can, and should, come from anyone with the administrators/ministries then researching it to see if it’s viable or not and then getting back to the populace for the go ahead or telling the populace that it can’t be done.
“The trouble with collectives is that they often don’t realise that they don’t know what they don’t know, they are full of ideals and ideas tested somewhere far away and not suitable for the present and the project considered, and they groupthink to the most attractive idea and sometimes the most attractive speaker. This could be how cults work or start.””
A very good description of our Government.
About time:
Foreign-flagged fishing boats banned by government
Well, that’s one thing this government has done that I agree with. Now lets hope that they do it right but:
I suspect that they won’t. Re-flagging won’t get rid of the abuses that have caused the foreign owned vessels to be banned.
Q. Oscar Wilde “Always love your enemys. Nothing annoys them so much.”
The Wong connection
Key has struck while the media iron is hot but factual evidence is sparse…
Oh jackal, you are so devoid of intellectual honesty and so full of partisan brouhaha that you seem completely unable to admit that Jones may in fact be in the wrong and could quite conceivably be guilty of something more corrupt than Banks is, instead focusing your attack on someone already tossed from parliament because they come from the rightwing side of the aisle. Come on man, show some backbone.
Hugs and kisses,
Your friend, TC
I thought Jones should be stood down immediately. however, it sounds like Shearer has quizzed him pretty thoroughly on the role he played in OKing that guy’s immigration. So I will now wait and see how things play out.
Banks, on the other hand, looks a lot more dodgy to me.
As usual your summery is irrelevant The Contrarian. Firstly I’ve already blogged about Jones needing to front, and I’m not saying that he’s off the hook… I simply think Yan was mainly talking about Pansy Wong when he said he had friends in high places. The Fairfax article also fails to report on some important facts, like for instance that what was implied to have been recently said in court of law actually happened four years ago. I guess such things are a bit too much for your wee mind to comprehend.
You’re not my friend btw The Conformist. Stop being a smarmy git!
Why can’t we be friends? I hold no ill will towards you.
“I simply think Yan was mainly talking about Pansy Wong when he said he had friends in high places”
So you think Yan meant an opposition MP with no real power in his citizenship case was in a higher place than the associate immigration minister who actually had some sway in his application and approved it? Wow.
Why can’t we be friends you ask… because I think you’re a smarmy git!
You might note that Yan’s file was transfered to Jones because he apparently did not have a conflict of interest, and there has been no evidence to link Jones’ approval of that file to any kind of favours. I think Yan was likely to be talking about Wong at the time. But I guess we’ll have to just wait and see.
“Why can’t we be friends you ask… because I think you’re a smarmy git!” Well, that is a shame.
Anyway, so even though Pansy Wong was in no position of power, Jones was associate immigration minister and signed off on the application and Wong had no power to supersede DIA recommendation you still believe Yan thought Wong was the higher placed friend. Wow. That takes some reaching. Well done – there is no way I could mentally stretch like that.
I am proud that we are friends.
I didn’t say Wong was the higher placed friend (read the post again), I said it is likely that Yan was talking about Wong. You are asking me to know what was in Yans mind when he made the statement pre 2008, which is ridiculous! You can speculate until the cows come home that he was talking about Jones, I’ve provided some information as to why it was likely Wong. It’s my opinion… don’t start telling me I’m not allowed an opinion again The Controlfreak!
You can have an opinion, sure. I don’t think anyone ever suggested you couldn’t – least of all me.
But in a public medium you can expect people to query your opinion. And your opinion seems rather divorced from reality. Luckily we can investigate and discuss opinions on this “Open Mike” forum.
You seem to have a bit of memory loss there The Amnesiac.
Can you tell me when exactly Yan made his statement concerning friends in high places, and whether Jones was even in a position to influence the outcome when that statement was made? Saying that Yan was categorically talking about Jones when there is no evidence of this is spurious indeed!
“whether Jones was even in a position to influence the outcome when that statement was made?”
Kinda irrelevant when it was Jones that OKed the citizenship, no? But don’t worry, I am sure in the end you’ll be proven right and Pansy Wong will be at fault.
Hey, when that no doubt happens, I’ll be happy to admit I was wrong. Just as I am sure you’ll be happy to admit you backed the wrong horse too….Jacky my friend.
I thought the “friends in high places” might have been the minister who knew Yan, claimed conflict of interest”, and so passed the case onto Jones.
Jones told 3 News tonight why he decided to allow Yan into the country:
http://www.3news.co.nz/MP-told-immigrant-would-be-jailed-and-executed/tabid/1607/articleID/255183/Default.aspx
Just in case anyone is fooled by TheConservative’s desperate need for friends, here’s what he really thinks of posters here:
“The Standard is a hideous place, filled with vacuous scumbags who just want to act like dictators. Worthless cretins”
You mean the Contrarian?
Aye.
The funniest thing about me being “a conservative/tory/right-winger” is that using the same metric Draco T Bastard uses to prove Labour is heading right-wing places me firmly on the left.
Not to mention the whole “He disagree’s with me therefore he must be a conservative” thing is completely ridiculous but, nevermind. As I said, it’s easier for you trolls to label those you don’t like instead of engaging.
The real question is why you would want to engage with people who you think are “worthless cretins?”
People have tried to engage you in serious discussion, TC. Would you like me to link to an example of what you do in such situations?
@Felix – that was a general statement based on the fact that I am continually accused of being a tory or conservative as a pejorative when my political position are generally middle of the road and left of centre in most cases.
And mine was a generalised statement that for all your bluster you run a mile from serious discussion.
And further that in spite of the general nature of the observation I’m happy to provide specific examples if required.
Based on my experience in the past few days is this:
Workfare, coming to a WINZ office near you? I have received letters (plural) summoning me to ‘job search seminars’ (plural) and so I rang the call centre 3 times today. As far as I have been able to find out, the first of them is about a ‘business initiative’ programme – I have already been signed up, and I am told that it starts 4th June, which is afaik, Queens Birthday!
The call centre woman said something about ‘call centres and customer service’, which actually makes sense of it starting on a public holiday – it’s telemarketing and they want to catch people at home! This is called a ‘training programme, with the ‘company’ promising a job at the end of it. I want to know how voluntary it will actually be, and what the nature of the ‘training’ is? I will supply more information when I have it (the day after tomorrow – the seminar is tomorrow at 14.00, and no doubt it will run until 17.00), but it is very worrying that I have already been signed up to it. When I finally got in touch with someone at the actual WINZ office, she just kept making with the threats… you must attend, it’s your obligation, nothing else matters etc.”
I suspect it’s all about getting the numbers right, pre-Budget, that is, if Petulant Bean can come up with some number of ‘long-term unemployed’ who are now in ‘training’ it will look good for the public. I told the woman that I had been told a few months ago by XXXXXXX X (name withheld) that I could be ‘self monitoring’ or whatever the phrase was, and she said “if you were capable of that, you’d have got a job by now’. I reminded her that even PB had admitted that there are not enough job, and her only answer was to reiterate the threats. “Benefit cancelled if you don’t turn up to the seminars” etc…
For goodness sake – it’s bad enough that I keep getting pestered by telemarketers (trying to get an unlisted number), now they are going to force the unemployed to join those pests? Really?
I’d rather my taxes paid people the dole, than they are made to join such make-work schemes for the marketing parasites!
So it seems at the moment… in the guise of “training”… the thing is, that I’ve worked in call centres as a telemarketer on and off for decades! I don’t need any “training”, I have done it often and recently enough to know that I am woefully bad at the marketing part of it! (My most recent stint was about 13 months ago, maybe that’s why I have been selected for this?)
Well if it’s turn up or die and you can get there without serious hardship, why not turn up… just until the soonest convenience after they take “roll”, then leave? If it’s boxes they want ticked rather than effective results, they won’t care. Another alternative is to be so utterly difficult to handle, but in the politest way, of course, that you prove their idiotic idea that you are long-term unemployable. Ask really dense questions, whistle a lot, stutter on the phone; phrase your nice CSR persona as if you were a stoic peasant or can’t tell the difference between private thoughts and speaking publicly. Hey, if they ignorantly go round telling people what they are, why not give it to them? Consider it an afternoon of acting class. Keep acting till they drop you off the list.
Yes, that would actually be fun! 😀 The last time I had to go into the office, after a long-term teaching stint, and she had a notice up on the whiteboard for a ‘recruitment seminar’ for the very people I’d been working for from the end of 2010 to January 2011! I remarked then that I’d already worked for them – I suppose she’s forgotten, as I suspect tomorrow is about ‘recruiting’ for them! (They can’t keep staff, no wonder they’re recruiting beneficiaries! Telemarketing for minimum wage – no thanks!)
As a teacher you’ll have years of experience in how to drive instructors nuts. They don’t stand a chance.
Latest in the saga of the two teenage boys I am supporting.
One was on the verge of finally starting a job, when he was charged for being in the same car as a boy racer. He was not driving and obviously terrified. Still lost his job though.
Had two week stand down. Now 4 weeks later he finally got to see a WINZ officer.
They turn up for appointments and are told to get in a line. If they do not get to the end of the line by their appointment time they have to make another appointment. It doesn’t matter if they haven’t even got the bus fare to get there numerous times. If they cannot attend any of the silly seminars for any reason, even doctors or court appointments, the dole is refused.
The other one finally got to see a WINZ officer, but now has to go through the whole rigmarole again. He was on the independent youth benefit. Instead of the sensible thing, reviewing his case at 18, he has to have a stand-down and re-apply for the dole. And then prove he has applied for at least 6 non-existent jobs a week. He should really be on a sickness or invalids benefit. He needs treatment for depression before he can work.
When they go in almost everything they are entitled to is refused, unless an adult goes with them.
It is very noticeable how most WINZ staffers think they are working for the Gestapo, since NACT got in.
Young people get a hard time of it these days. I sometimes wonder if the rightwing realise the detrimental impact of their policies. It’s all part of that Neo-Liberal agenda you wrote about… great article btw.
God awful dehumanising treatment KJT. Makes my teeth grind to read it.
My younger brother who is deaf-blind and has thus had to deal with welfare in one form or another most of his adult life once said he always knew when National was in power…. by the way he got treated by WINZ.
This is disgraceful, on the part of WINZ and the government that set them on that route. What a way for young people to be starting out on their adult life!
I can relate to that description of some WINZ staff being like Gestapo.
I have had that kind of feeling about ACC staffers, when talking about having the requests for more physio for me rejected. And those requests came from my physio & specialist. But they made me feel like I had done something wrong – like trying to get something I wasn’t entitled to.
But I persevered and protested, and in the end some ACC people that could authorise it, agreed I needed further help with a severe injury and approved more physio for me.
It’s like they are not there to help people who need help, but to give as little help to people as they can get away with.
I am appalled but not surprised. There are about a third of under 25s out of work, and we treat them as the blame. Shame on WINZ staff colluding with the NACT arseholes. Good luck with the boys.
That sux KJT…
“When they go in almost everything they are entitled to is refused, unless an adult goes with them.”
That is the answer…nobody should go into WINZ on their own if at all possible. Two VS one and the WINZ workers seem to lose their superiority complex pretty quickly. I always suggest people go in with another person, even if the second person is not skilled or knowledgeable about WINZ.
At least they have you on their side, KJT, good on you for caring for them!
I thought I had a bad time with WINZ, but it sounds as if these boys have it much worse! I suppose they’d suffer even more if they tried the sarcasm and dumb insolence I often resort to!
She started by insisting that it was all ‘voluntary’, but those who didn’t ‘fill out’ the form she handed around, were herded off somewhere for a ‘discussion’…
Turns out her main desires were for bar staff, security guards and telemarketers.
No, I have to wait to hear from her…
Tele marketing. Listen polietly, show some interest, and then try to sell them something. I am selling Christianity.
More good news today:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1205/S00726/meridian-dumps-west-coast-hydro-plan.htm
Haha good on Dr Russel Norman calling Key a chicken in the house today. Totally worth losing a question for.
He has gone up a few points in my estimation, now if he would just hurry up and grow a beard…
Here:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2519596/norman-called-pm-a-chicken.asx
And Double Dipton stumbles and crumbles … needs to be rescued by the Speaker.
I don’t like the name “Zero” Budget
Here are some better suggestions…(journalists pay attention, you will need these words for your pieces).
The Monotone Budget – The Inadequate Budget
The phoned-in Budget – The Ineffectual Budget
The Lame Budget – The Dead-Cat-Bounce Budget
The Turning-a-Blind-Eye Budget – The Dumb Budget
The “Blah Blah Blah” Budget
– you get the idea.
Here are some more suggestions….
paltry, weak, ailing, shabby, uninspired, characterless, dishwater, stagnant, stale, dumb, do nothing, lazy…
Suggest your own titles…
p.s. we have been here before Link
The directionless budget
The desperate budget
The lean and mean budget
The no brighter future budget
The run out of ideas budget
The we got the mandate budget
The go to Aussie budget
I suspect the four year leeway given to the foreign vessels is so that Key can get NZ workers’ rights and conditions to somewhere pretty close to what’s happening on those boats anyway.
This is funny
+1
Unemployed job seekers work in hospitals for free
The UK Tories further develop the start of workfare, and job insecurity for employed labourer in hospitals just skyrocketed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/may/21/unpaid-jobseekers-deliver-patient-care?INTCMP=SRCH
Next they’ll be re-opening the Workhouses!
Oh my giddy aunt! Could there be a worse place for workfare? Those are HCA jobs, and in Welly hospital, HCAs are being laid off, and my son for one is quite distressed about that. (One of them was a girlfriend) He suggested I become an HCA, and I enquired – a 6 month course at Unitec is required here, it’s not exactly work that can be done with no training or even 2 weeks… In fact, on L’s ward, it’s work that can be quite distressing.
If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world. (Chinese Proverb)
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22052012/comment-page-1/#comment-474240
If you are from Christchurch, have visited lately or are fed up with the way Christchurch is rebuilding itself as a corporate wasteland…then please act on this.
Gapfiller are the best thing to emerge in post quake Christchurch. Life is shit down here. They make it better. This is copied from their facebook page;
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thanks
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