Rubbish. It shows that the agreeement was always an attenpt to free trade and that each party to the negotiations has interest groups for or against certain aspects of it as you would expect.
Gosman, you can sit there lapping up the crap you are being spoonfed by the monied interests pushing TPP or you can re-ignite a few brain cells and do a little research before regurgitating the party line. Suggest you start with:
Gosman, you almost make me miss PG, at least he [seemed to] believe the drivel he wrote.
There is currently underway a co-ordinated global effort to clamp down on real free trade in favour of corporate friendly regimes, written largely by those who will benefit the most from the agreements. Hint, those who will benefit the most are not the workers making the products being traded or the countries those products are being made in.
Start with looking up what these acronyms stand for “TPP/TTIP/TAFTA/CETA/PAFTA”
You will no doubt still insist on making your usual propaganda soaked mantras and I guess there is not much we can do about that. So many here and elsewhere have tried to educate you. What I fail to understand is your stubborn willingness to become a trade unit rather than a member of a functional democracy in a world where people come before profit.
Of course why should you believe a bunch of unions, or doctors, or teachers, or chemists, or software engineers or builders or Universities or Aid agencies or any of the other hundreds of groups that are working full time to bring the realities of these agreements to the public’s attention. They are all just lying right?
How about believing the leaked text on IP from the TPP itself? https://wikileaks.org/tpp/
It plainly states how the public message from the negotiators contradicts the goals of the proposed text, and if it doesn’t why did the negotiators launch a tsunami of press attacks in the hours after it had been released, all screaming in unison that it was just a draft and the real agreement is all different now, but you can’t read it because …???? oh yeah because it’s secret. Does it compute with you that no negotiating team has seen the entire text?
But that is just crazy conspiracy nonsense right? These trans national behemoths would never try to manipulate a nation’s laws to increase their profits and power? No they are the bastions of truth and goddness and happy happy joy joy days.
The link demonstrates little other than that the global power elite of the negotiating parties could not find sufficient political capital from home constituencies to reach agreement and the world’s most powerful but nevertheless declining superpower the US was isolated.
The fifth Labour government appointed the negotiators and set their bottom lines. If I’m not mistaken you’d like to be a Labour MP, which would make you one of the “power elite”, wouldn’t it?
Huh? Leaving aside the idea that MPs have much actual power over anything, what you are saying would put me in the class of ‘wanna-be’ or ‘hanger-on’. And who can be fucked with that.
Perhaps your idea of power-elite and mine are different. The power elite IMO are the 0.1% in a developed western country. They aren’t the $100K pa to $200K pa paid lackeys and higher income professional organ grinders who work for the power elite.
The fifth Labour government appointed the negotiators and set their bottom lines.
LOL its OK then just trust them is I suppose what you are implying.
OAB, are you referring to the pdf link or the wikileaks link?
The pdf has many examples of the potential problems countries face. The pdf also includes numerous examples of current and recent cases where the efforts of big business are not in the best interests of the communities they want to profit from and how the new agreements would be even more problematic.
The wikileaks link was widely covered at the time of its release, which was why so much effort was put into discrediting the leaked text saying it was only a draft.
How does saying it’s a draft (which it clearly is) discredit it?
The whole point of negotiations is to find compromises between competing interests, so it would be an odd negotiation that didn’t provide evidence of said competition.
I said effort was put into discrediting it, I did not say the text was discredited.
The leaked text was openly attacked by those who were embarrassed by its release because of what it exposed and the questions it raised. Questions that went to content which contradicted the numerous public statements being made by the various negotiating teams.
You said “The link demonstrates little other than that the negotiating parties could not reach agreement and the US was isolated.”
Which link? I would just like to know which link you think shows this?
I don’t think it’s necessary to put much energy into discrediting opinions based on false premises. It was a draft. Anyone saying so was merely stating a fact.
It must have been embarrassing for all the Chicken Littles though, to have been assuring everyone that our negotiators were selling us out and then have Wikileaks prove them wrong.
Thank you for answering OAB. I think you already know I completely disagree with your interpretation of the various activity that surrounded the release of the Wikileaks material, so we will just leave that alone as it would achieve nothing.
When it comes to the ‘trade’ agreements mentioned above, I would like to say one thing…. I sincerely hope myself and so many others are completely wrong about our interpretation of the globalists’ plans for your mukapuna.
Don’t get me wrong: I would be implacably opposed to NZ signing up to what the US wants, I just think there is precisely zero chance of us doing so, and the leaked documents support that view.
I prefer to oppose things on solid ground – goes to credibility.
Freedom, for your ‘owning’ response @1.1.1.3 to GooseMan, you have my AAA+, my ten more Gold Stars than you’ll ever need, and my heartiest congratulations.
GooseMan, you have been stunningly ‘proprietorialised’, viz. ‘owned’ by the Good Freedom. It’ll be on ViciousOldThing PaulineHenry@3 – 10.30 tonight, you see.
Time to lick your wounds, pick yourself up, and hobble off back to SlaterPorn where for a millisecond you’ll be acknowledged as a soldier of The Dark back from The Cold, then ignored. For reside there many, many exquisitely madder people than you.
Give up Cuzzy, melt into SlaterPorn. You’re simply not up to it. You realise of course that ShonKey Python thinks you’re a fuckwit. Bombasting and Beavering away while –
“Me ?……..I’m off to play Baldrick to Barak”.
Take your pick – the list is long and undistinguished however in this particular case, the statement you made that I replied to – you know as per the commonly accepted practice in discussion threads.
RNZ 7 am news leading with cricket scandal for 2nd day…and continuing with the Horan distraction.
Is it taking its new selections from the Herald and ZB now?!
This is our public broadcaster.
Green and brown colored cigarettes will apparently be the next battleground in the effort to deter smokers from using tobacco products,
Personally, if it were not for the fact that i grow everything i smoke, the proposed color schemes for ciggies highlighted in today’s Herald would be pleasing when compared to the boring old white variety,
i recommend shocking pink, that might put a few off…
Lolz, there goes my ability at original thought, beaten to it by many years by the look of it, if there’s a market for pink cigarettes i fail to see how Green and Brown ones are going to be off putting to us addicts…
Actually, driving home tonight I heard that one on RNZ and it crossed my mind that the perfect number would be to produce all the ciggies in ‘Lolly Pink’. That’d clear off all those smokey, closety homophobes in one fell swoop. Anyone smoking a lolly pink (sorry) ‘fag’ within 300 metres of a rugby clubrooms or an Eminem (MenInMen) concert’d walk right into the meanest ever re-education/rogering. Never to do it again…….well…….maybe never.
Fark ! Then all [SHIT] would hit the fan and British American Tobacco [BAT] would come over all gay-friendly and sue [NZ] under [TPPA] for more [$$$] than your best bailout. Fark !
And then ShonKey Python’s [BAT][SHIT] would acquire real meaning. Fark !
Meanwhile………crossing to the Rose Room………Barak and Baldrick……..jiving ……..seductively. Fark !
Aue ! I SO need this. Living in Kaikohe. Coining 17 grand a year……..
Identity politics a political distraction in an age of energy and civilisation collapse
Dmitry Orlov hits this one hard –
When I gave the same talk a month later at last year’s Age of Limits conference, the reaction was rather different. There was almost no discussion of impediments to implementation or ideas for overcoming them. Instead, the conversation veered off into gender politics, with some amount of booing and hissing from the female members of the audience. You see, the examples I picked, which included, among others, traditional, religious communities with patriarchal gender roles, were said to be ill-suited as models for such a “progressive” group. (By the way, I never proposed that they be used as models, only as examples from which general principles can be uncovered.) Then there followed some harsh (and, to my mind, ridiculous) criticisms of the Amish, who were said to abuse their wives and children. Compared to the focused and productive discussion at Grand Marais, this one turned out to be a complete waste of time. I was flabbergasted by this reaction, only later realizing that I had blundered into an American cultural war zone. I later realized that none of the criticisms raised had the slightest bit of relevance to the topic under discussion.
and this shocking suggestion about male rape in the US being the most common form – all occurring from behind prison walls. I’ve never seen any anti-rape campaigner include this fact before.
As for minority rights, there are more black slaves in America today than there were before the Civil War—they used to work on plantations, but now they work in prisons, many of which are privately owned, where they make money for their politically connected owners. With regard to the rights of sexual minorities, it needs to be noted that not only does the US lead the developed world in rape, but that here rape is evenly distributed between men and women, male rape being most prevalent, again, among the prison population
So it’s not identity politics Orlov objects to its gender politics? Same for you in truth CV, you call it identity politics but you mean gender or feminist politics dont you? You urged someone to be clear about a comment they made about what type of people buy KFC, so be honest. You object to feminist politics as part of a politic discourse?
You did see Orlov’s commentary on slavery and imprisonment of minorities right? They’ve essentially instituted a New Jim Crow in the USA. I think he is very clear about what he means by the American “cultural wars” of which gender politics is a big part.
You urged someone to be clear about a comment they made about what type of people buy KFC, so be honest. You object to feminist politics as part of a politic discourse?
I’m not interested in putting my energy into any politics which ignores or damages economic justice for the many, especially in an age of energy and resource depletion. If it is politics which does focus on economic justice for the many – I will back it to the hilt.
“While it is the entire country that is being victimized by this system of governance based on the principle of social divide and conquer, it is women and minorities that are the pawns in this game, and the biggest losers, with some of the worst outcomes out of all of the developed countries.”
Sure. If you want to imagine minorities and women as some grouped mass with largely homogenous or at least congruent opinions, identities and perspectives.
Oh bejesus marty, are you jumping on the ‘you listen to an Apple iPod so you can’t complain about cruel Chinese worker factory conditions’ or ‘you live in Herne Bay so you’re not allowed to speak out against poverty’ style of argument.
It’s a bit better than the, ‘you identify with a group and oppose some of what they do yet others lump you in to further their argument’ bandwagon imo 🙂
as for orlov… he could ask why men are not outraged at the high number of men being raped in prison… and start advocating for them.
The answer is obvious; it’s because they tend to be poor young men from minority groups and it is not politically fashionable to help them. And btw few do more useful advocacy work than Orlov, but of course it is not in the area of identity politics, it is in the area of surviving collapse.
was my question at the end too hard. cmon cv… you fudged it….practice what you preached earlier in the week.
I gave you a pretty simple answer. If it’s identity politics focussing on the rights of just a few while the very many still get trodden on, I don’t rate it at all.
nah, you avoided the question, which is your right.
funny you should say no men are advocating on behalf of male rape victims cos its politically unfashionable. it was politically unfashionable to demand the vote, but women did it… same with sexual abuse and rape of children.
Is there a term CV for the often feminist derailing of discussions of wide social problems? Something like Ware feminist heist WFH?
The instant hostility accompanied by well-worn argument that fits every case is notable. It’s as bad as the results of criticising anything relating to superannuitants?. The entitlement to self-absorption is great. And a morning of silence will be held (from non-feminist commenters).
Now there’s a good idea for the Wellington City Council to emulate, the Auckland Council is trialling the collection of food-waste from households so as to short-circuit its inclusion into its landfills,
Not that i plan on putting out the scraps, all of mine and that of one of my neighbour’s goes into my gardens to ensure a healthy grow for the year,
Lolz, with bins full of them in the street i will have a much boosted supply to choose from, no meat scraps please people they bring around the pesky Rats, Cats and Dogs to dig around in the garden looking for a free feed….
Yes, that is a grand idea bad12. I once heard a promoter of sustainable living say that 90% of the methane that emanates from landfill comes from kitchen waste. An excellent reason to compost right there.
Our vego only compost bin has a wee mouse living in it. I think it is multiplying, as there is another mouse living in the woodpile in the garage, since wee mousey set up home in the compost.
Lolz Rosie, i made that mistake once a long time ago, left the cute wee mouse to do it’s thing coz it wasn’t really doing any harm, said mice turned out to be Ma and Pa Mouses and shortly afterwards i discovered much to my surprise Mr and Mrs mouses four offspring in my wheat-bix packet,
Yeah having the garden to compost it in saves both me and the neighbor a bit on rubbish bags, there will be a downside for Wellington Councils if they go for composting tho, in the future the elaborate set up in the tips to capture and burn that methane to generate electricity wont work so well…
Yes, that is a grand idea bad12. I once heard a promoter of sustainable living say that 90% of the methane that emanates from landfill comes from kitchen waste. An excellent reason to compost right there.
Dunedin city generates electricity from its landfill methane.
Extracting methane and burning it to produce electricy and heat water is a well adopted co-gen technology in landfills . Been in use for over 40 years at least.
But that isn’t to say we should make efforts to reduce our waste and use it more efficiently………….? Not all landfills have methane electricity production technology do they?
We also have to consider how much space we are taking up in landfills with kitchen waste. With up to 40% of our domestic waste being made up of compostable kitchen scraps, seems foolish to bury it when we can re use it.
And speaking of green technology the Mill Creek Windfarm construction is going ahead in leaps and bounds. It is a sight to behold from my living room window.
Radio Active interviewing Grant Robertson and Alistair Thompson now. (Suggested listening yesterday, Open Mike ) 88.6fm in Wellington or listen on line at http://www.radioactive.fm/
phillip, instead of watching that headache inducing breakfast tv, you could have been listening to the very interesting half hour interview above. 15 mins of which covered Campbells Fletcher/Clapper/GCSB show on Tuesday night, our increasing surveillance society, 10 seconds of saying goodbye to Shane Jones, charter schools, helping babies and children of beneficiaries and Grant Robertson owing up to the mistakes of the past (excluding beneficiaries from WFF) etc etc.
Do you provide that breakfast show with feedback on how appalling and insensitive they are?
Well phil, maybe they did sniff the wind and smell your criticism – I’m guessing a term such as “neo lib apologist” wouldn’t be a mainstay in their vocab. That show, it sounds dire.
There wasn’t anything in today’s interview that stood out as changing my feelings in terms of optimism, although I am reassured somewhat by Grant Robertson’s genuine concern about our increasingly surveilled (is that a word?) society and Labour’s commitment to providing for ALL NZ kids. Today he was mainly on the attack towards to the PM about his approach to foreign policy and the way he has manipulated the changes at the GCSB.
I’ve been listening to the show for years so it’s not like theres any one interview where you respond with a “YES!”, it’s more of a slow boil and a way of gauging the over all views and subtle changes in views. I have noticed that he was sometimes on the back foot but in the past 5 months or so he has been really clear on where he and Labour stand.It sounds like there’s some good momentum and confidence now where previously it sounded like he was at a bit of standstill. (during the Goff and Shearer times) He has acknowledged quite humbly Labour’s mistakes, eg, the example above.
It’s great to listen to Alistair Thompson too. He came to the show awhile ago at a point sometime after where Chris Finlayson, who was then standing for Nat for Wgtn Central, refused to come on the show any more. He just wanted to talk about all the “good work” he was doing for Treaty negotiations and Redbird Jnr just kept trying to hold him to account for all the Government’s failings. They were just at loggerheads and it was a fruitless exercise.
Without Finlayson and with Alistair Thompson instead you get a good show. I find it insightful.
Welcome to the Parliament the newest MP, Labour’s Kelvin Davis, the bar is exceptionally low as far as bettering His predecessor goes so it should be a breeze for Kelvin to achieve far far more than His predecessor accomplished…
Yep, nice to see Jones going well before the Election but his brand of egotism could well see him surface again in some spoiler role to annoy the Labour party.
There is disturbing activity taking place on National’s website. The Party is self-censoring itself and quietly, without fuss, removing certain embarrassing information from it’s website….
..The bureau is struggling to hire young hackers –
because its long-standing drug policy does not allow the use of marijuana.
Unfortunately – hackers like their weed.
“I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals –
and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview” –
FBI Director James B. Comey told a White Collar Crime Institute conference on Monday..”
what says the bureau on staff using nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, prescription medicines, ‘32 ounce sodas’ and sitting at work stations with a gut full of decaying high cholesterol junk food?
still they are in a bind it seems with their young stoners… a nice quandary for them
Which gives a clear route to legalisation of drugs. I guess anyone attempting this would have to battle both the pharmaceutical companies and alcohol/cigarette companies, in addition to public opinion.
Yes someone linked to an article the other week from a doctor Tashkin which extolled the virtues of marijuana in such a way,
The subjects of these tests which were said to have shown positive results were of course not humans but a bunch of furry little critters, first fed with various cancers and then fed with various amounts of dope,(definitely not an ethical means of introducing medical marijuana into a debate),
To give the ‘link’ a little credit it did then go on to list quite a few downsides to the use of marijuana including a propensity for smokers of the stuff to exhibit pre-cancerous conditions in their airways,
There seems to be other ingredients in Marijuana’s chemical makeup other than the THC which gets us stoned that have some medical benefit which are worth exploring…
hey hey! I see Pete George is spreading his special kind of love on Public Address now, any bets on how long the Republic of Grey Lynn will tolerate him before he gets a DCM email?
Just listened to an interview on Nine to Noon that has me agreeing with the comment above this morning decrying the content of the current RadioNZ National,
Some author who’s name i didn’t remember banging on endlessly about ”Chinese spying” elicited a big Yawn and had my ears switch off after 5 minutes as i concentrated on a far more productive activity,(the kitchen ceilings annual wash),
Talk about unbalanced BUT, expect to hear this sort of mind wash to develop even further as attitudes harden with Russia and China signing yesterday an economic pact over the supply of gas which will result in a pipeline being built from Russia across China,
As a contrast to this news of the energy rich Russia reaching this deal with China effectively allowing the Russians to wave a big middle finger at ”sanctions” imposed by ”the West” a story in the Herald this morning highlighted the fact that Shale oil will not be as big a boon for the US as first thought,
Using current methods the expected extraction of shale oil has now dropped in total from 1.6 billion barrels to 600 million,
On energy, the wind type an item of interest i forgot to comment upon was a ”new” means of generating electricity from wind in the herald the other day, this device is said to only need wind speeds as light as 3 kilometers an hour to produce viable electricity as opposed to the wind towers that need a wind speed of at least 13 K,
The way of the future perhaps, if those maddened by their addiction to fossil fuels don’t fry us all in some future ”energy war” that is…
Apparently Gosman you cling to stupid arguments that will result in your brain soon collapsing, your insertion of this comment in this particular piece of this mornings discussion is simply the actions of one attempting Diversion as a means of debate,
The short version of the above is F-off to the sewer and play your stupid games of low level intelligence…
Using current methods the expected extraction of shale oil has now dropped in total from 1.6 billion barrels to 600 million,
yes the extractable amount and extraction rate sustainability was always highly over-hyped as a way of drawing in massive initial investments from unwary money – hence the ‘shale oil bubble’. It also fit in well with politicians’ narratives that America was going to become “energy independent” at long last. Everyone had a reason for playing along with the myth.
However one can’t fool Mother Nature and physical realities have set in, and with them financial realities. A lot of shale oil plays have breakeven pricing at over $90/barrel.
China is describing the US as a ‘mincing rascal’ and a ‘high-level hooligan’
I like this fresh style of invective – so don’t belittle Chinese efforts. We try out all sorts of new descriptions here and why get bogged down in the verbal hegemony of the west.
We don’t want to be verbiose running dogs of western verbal hegemony. Pete George already has that role covered.
Seriously though, the insults a people use can give us small insights into their culture. A Kiwi/Chinese colleague told me that most of the insults used by new immigrants were about family poverty. This immediately made me think that they would quickly develop links with NAct and now they have. (Gross generalisation, but proof by anecdote requires that.)
A Russian colleague told me many Russian insults were about sex with someone’s mother, so I think we can expect to see Jamie Whyte encouraging Russian immigration.
Very amusing MO. I notice that about many immigrants. After making the big leap, they want to get on to feathering their own nests. Welfare begins at home to them. They can be quite cutting about us trying to do the right thing by indigenous people.
Thinking about nests I looked up godwits and they are just so amazing. We should think of reducing our numbers to ensure that there is room for these creatures more wonderful than us.
Beringia is where the godwits begin their journey. This outcrop of land where Asia and America nearly touch is a global cross roads, a springboard for millions of migratory birds of a variety of species. Just to name a few mingling with the bar–tailed godwits bound for New Zealand, are Hudsonian godwits aiming for Tierra del Fuego; Arctic warblers which migrate to the Philippines; Wilson’s warblers which fly to Central America; fox sparrows and golden-crowned sparrows that winter in Pacific coastal woodlands, and gray-cheeked thrushes that travel to the Amazon; northern wheatears traveling across Asia for wintering grounds in Africa, and Swainson’s thrushes moving south to the equatorial forests of Venezuela and Brazil. Approximately one-quarter of the world’s shorebirds breed in tundra and boreal habitats of the arctic and sub-arctic. These habitats provide well-camouflaged nesting sites for these ground-nesting species, and the abundance of invertebrates following snow-melt provides the conditions for rapid chick growth during a very short season.
A team of researchers headed by Robert Gill Jr. of the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center in Anchorage implanted tiny satellite trackers in female godwits near the Alaska coast. Prior to their southward migration, the godwits eat up large, until up to 55 per cent of their body weight is fat. They then reduce the size of their gut, kidney and liver by up to 25 per cent to compensate for the added weight. The scientists think that the birds reshuffle proteins in their bodies before they set out and that this allows them to reduce the size of their food-processing organs. Stuffed with fuel, the godwits are ready for the air. Assessing the weather patterns in Alaska, the team found that the godwits timed their departures to coincide with favorable tail winds that helped them fly south. “All birds took off with favorable winds,” says Gill, who added that tail winds caught in Alaska can shoot these birds 3,000 to 5,000 kilometers. “Some birds get shot almost to Hawaii,” says Gill. Scientists don’t know how the godwits assess weather patterns or navigate. What’s more, the satellite trackers can’t measure altitudes — the birds could be skimming the ocean or flying thousands of feet above the surface, says Gill.
A female bar–tailed godwit, implanted with a tiny satellite tracker, lifted off from her Alaskan breeding ground and flew south 11,680 kilometers, nonstop, until she reached her winter home in New Zealand. Called E7 by the scientists who monitored her, she flew more than eight days without food, water or rest, on the longest direct flight by a bird ever documented – See more at: http://www.nzbirds.com/birds/kuaka.html#sthash.5LfsiwQA.dpuf
North
Could be..could be. Just a bit of discursion? flying away from the original about immigrants looking after No.1 rather than joining in the nation’s zeitgeist. Then I got onto feathering their nests and took off with the amazing tale of the bar tailed godwit. Makes a difference from the usual kittens on youtube.
On May 21 the Los Angeles Times reported that “Federal energy authorities have slashed by 96% the estimated amount of recoverable oil buried in California’s vast Monterey Shale deposits, deflating its potential as a national ‘black gold mine’ of petroleum.” The EIA had already downgraded its technically recoverable reserves estimate for the Monterey from 15.4 to 13.7 billion barrels; now it was reducing the number to a paltry 0.6 billion barrels.
So much for the US oil boom that was going to save us and make renewable energy irrelevant that the RWNJs had been telling us enthusiastically about for the last few years. Seems to have gone up in a puff of reality.
Dear Tony,
17 years ago my wife an I had our wedding reception at your very fine restaurant. However, on reading in the Herald yesterday that you may ban David Cunliffe from Antoine’s for no reason other than being leader of the Labour Party, I have a confession to make.
17 years ago I neglected to tell you that we are Labour voters. I apologise for sullying your fine establishment with unacceptable opinions. In mitigation of this offence I can only say that at no point during the evening were our opinions expressed, so there was no risk of us contaminating other diners or any of your staff.
I know this is a weak excuse, so I think the best thing would be for you to retrospectively ban us from Antoine’s and return the approximately $3,000 we paid you. When you pop the cheque in the mail, could you kindly ensure that it is addressed to the individual named at the bottom of this letter, and not to the National Party.
Certainly AB, I’ll refund your money when you return the product we provided in its original condition. I will deduct 15% because you’re so fucking boring.
Love
Tony.
Astle is exactly the type of Tory maggot whose establishment should be banned for good as a return favour. Not that ‘Parnhell’ is exactly a Labour enclave. Knew he was dodgy from the time it was made public that Antoines actually served tripe! Surprising how many restaurants a left supporter might not like to eat at if they knew the owners political bent.
I ate at Antoine’s once. It was nothing special, but then NActoids base their taste on the price column of the menu anyway. Mind you, I was shouted by a working girl I knew, so I didn’t pay.
It’s not the tucker, GooseMan Fool, it’s the people you find there. Farting foie gras is vile. Mopped up by the P’Astle mo’ of the bro’ who runs the sho’. It’s shocking to watch.
Hi Gosman
Do you realise that you are the standard’s school cert level simple simon right wing pet? You afford light relief for serious contributors to have a snigger at regularly? have a nice day, mate!
Antiones screams ‘old money establishment’ projecting its insecure owners psyche like similar joints around inner akl channelling those class divides from the old country.
Been there done that, overpriced and olde world with very snooty floor staff for those who enjoy the feeling of superiority and smugness.
+1
and just read an old quote from richard griifin,”radio new zealand is staffed by a gang of sad little lefties”.
now the that griffin is in charge it has become a gang of very very sad little whining righties.
gluon spinelesser and suzy fungus are the worst suckups and kissarses that have ever whined over the airwaves of our proud nation.
If Griffin is ‘chair of the board’ then I guess he had some say over appointing Paul Thompson (ex Press editor, ex Fairfax chief editor) as CEO of National Radio.
If you ever read Paul Thompson’s editorials in The Press (over anything economic or party political) you’ll know Paul is hardly a sad little leftie.
(In fact, the interesting thing about the economically focused and party political editorials in The Press over the last three editors – Paul Thompson, Anthony Holden and Jane (?) Norris – is that they all have had exactly the same discursive style, used the same rhetorical devices and, of course, have expressed the same political leanings. Very odd that. Almost as if they have been written by the same person despite a changing of the guard in the editor’s office.)
This Nat candidate was in the news a few weeks ago, at the same time as Todd Barclay but he was totally overshadowed by the Barclay furore. Interesting that fearfux are running the story again but in more depth. Funny, because, by doing so they are drawing attention to Nat’s highly questionable morally bankrupt candidates. Usually when National and/or the Government are doing something dodgy they report it but kind of mumble and walk off. This time they’ve amplified it. Check out the comments too, a major turnaround for Stuffed commenters.
Those two blokes could be carbon copies of one another.
Hey Rosie, oh I thought the difference was that he’s been confirmed as the Hutt South candidate now, not merely a contender.
Like you say, these two kids are a couple of clones, maybe they were able to get extra funds from their previous employer via a cabinet club smoke up session.
It’s great watching the comments on stuffed and other sites changing to an anti Nat tune, helps to keep the spirits up while enduring this painful regime.
Keep up your great efforts to rid Ohariu of the Dunney 🙂
Lol, I didn’t realise “I coulda been a contender” was only a contender at that point.
I’ll have a chat to my friend who lives in Wainuiomata and see what they’ve all got to say about the cancer promo guy. I’m sure him and his friends will think he’s a big joke.
Thanks for your support on Dunney. All of us living in this electorate need to pull out all the stops to get the long drop filled in and decommissioned. For the country!!!
Hey, I could do with a hand from the Labour campaign team in fighting off ultra retarded RWNJ’s in the local paper in our Ohariu electorate.
I am trying to wake up the sleepy little letters section (there isn’t really one) by submitting letters in response to Dunne activity, Ginny Anderson news and the Nat twerp, Brett Hudson. It’s a bit lonely and a concerted Left effort in the letters section might give this Pro Dunne, conservative rag a bit of a wake up slap. We need to get the upper hand. Whaddya reckon?
In the meantime I have written a response with actual facts that should put the RWNJ contributor firmly in their place, easy enough of course but many versus one would be better than one versus one.
In a neoliberal universe, where markets are the gauge of value, money becomes, more straightforwardly than ever before, the measure of all things. If hospitals, schools and prisons can be privatised as enterprises for profit, why not political office too?
You saying that just proves that RWNJs haven’t learned a damn thing in 1500 years. Of course, when we look at that study, it’s actually 5000+ years as civilisation has been collapsing from the hubris of the rich in all of recorded history.
I would be more worried if they had their stories perfectly matched. Human beings remember things differently and some disagreement about the odd detail is not an unusual occurrence.
It would be far more suspicious if they had, and all gave exactly the same evidence. The fact is human memory is unreliable, at this remove it’s no wonder theirs differ.
The judge knows this, even if you don’t. I hope sentencing is carried out just before lunch.
is this the wayne tempero that many on the right posted here probably leaked who had been visiting the dotcom mansion? cos you would think a simple recant yesterday would have done the job, but no, his recollection aligns with dotcoms…
then theres banksies police interview today… skycity say they gave the cheque to banksie, banksie says… wait for it… he doesnt remember getting a cheque from them.
good for him. let the public decide if it is plausible the pm attended discussions about unsuitable candidates to head gcsb, suggested fletcher and had rennies agreement that key contact fletcher but forgot. i call a big BS on that.
i think what the pm couldnt remember whether he needed to lie about it or not = default position lie
pm said had to buy bmws cos labour had locked them in = untrue
blip cover the list that so many choose to ignore.
now cunliffe needs to tell people that if the pm cant recall contacting someone to head one of his two portfolios he is treating everyone as fools.
…Cunliffe’s fighting talk and pitching it home to John Key and the NACTS on Key’s lies and Nacts betrayal of New Zealanders and poor economic performance
Key yesterday branded TV3 television presenter John Campbell a conspiracy theorist over claims that Fletcher, who was shoulder-tapped by Key to head the bureau, was hired to help facilitate the FBI raid on Kim Dotcom’s mansion.
I don’t think such claims were made in this week’s Campbell Live. I have always thought Fletcher’s appointment was part of a shift to focus on “economic terrorism” and support for the big corproates – protection of didgital “rights” on behalf of media such as the Hollywood Studios is part of that – surveillance and arrest of Dotcom was one isntance of the broader aim.
But then, why would Key bother, given that the MSM had largely ignored the Campbell Live programme. Could it be the programme pointed to something else? Something that Cunliffe picked up on and was saying to Key “I know where you are vulnerable on this issue…and it aint so much to do with Dotom.”?
An the main focuses of the CL programme weren’t really KDC. They were US-NZ relations, and the appointment and start date of Ian Fletcher, and the meetings that led up to that.
Fascinating karol. I think you might be on to something.
I was surprised and a bit perplexed at Cunliffe’s warning to Key to be careful what he says, but it would fit in nicely with your interpretation that Cunliffe is saying “I know where you are vulnerable on this issue…and it aint so much to do with Dotcom.”?
Given the programme makers know how far they can go without out putting their existence under threat…. what if the programme was designed to point in a specific direction, without making an accusation?
The CL programme was very carefully crafted’ again IMO with a lot of legal input. It just pointed towards the joining of the dots; it did not make any specific accusations or conclusions. And its goes well beyond KDC. That might have been the starting point; but KDC in some respects has now become irrelevant (to a degree). It is all about Key’s ‘truthfulness’ or otherwise; and what he is seeking to achieve (or that of the people who really pull his strings).
It’s been my suspicion for some time that Fletcher was groomed for a special role within the 5 Eyes arrangement before he returned to NZ. I also suspect that role has not got a lot to do with our security considerations. And if I’m right then Key knows all about it and is happy for NZ to be used in such a way.
Oh well, I can answer my own question. He gets to have palsy walsy conversations and golf games with the American president. In other words, special privileges. All good for the re-election campaign.
i was surprised by how lightly they stepped around key – almost like the program was about fletcher. I certainly think the whole knot gets untied when fletcher is pulled.
“Today’s New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows a gain in support for National (45.5%, up 3%) now back ahead of a potential Labour/Greens alliance (44%, down 1.5%).
Support for Key’s Coalition partners is little changed with the Maori Party 1% (unchanged), ACT NZ (0.5%, unchanged) and United Future 0% (down 0.5%).
Support has fallen for the Opposition with the Labour Party down 0.5% to 30.5%, the Greens down 1% to 13.5%, New Zealand First 6% (unchanged), Mana Party 1% (unchanged). Support for the Conservative Party of NZ is 1% (up 0.5%) and the Internet Party is now at 0.5% (down 1%).
If a National Election were held now the latest New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows that the result would be too close to call and would largely depend on who New Zealand First decided to support.
The latest NZ Roy Morgan Government Confidence Rating has fallen to 132pts (down 3.5pts) with 60% (down 2%) of New Zealanders saying New Zealand is ‘heading in the right direction’ compared to 28% (up 1.5%) that say New Zealand is ‘heading in the wrong direction’.”
Its so much inside the margin of error there could – in reality – be a small net gain for the opposition parties and a small net loss for the govt. parties.
Umm….not sure where to put this observation…but tonight was watching TV3 news cover of Bank’s trial..The camera lingered on him as he dug into his ear, removed…something….looked at it…then put it in his mouth. Yuck.
Sue Kedgley, former Green MP, now on the board of Consumer New Zealand, calls for the Government to adopt sensible measures to minimise the effects of electromagnetic exposure in an opinion piece published in the Herald today.
‘[The Govt] should also review our out-dated standard on electromagnetic radiation, which is one of the most permissive in the world, and set up an independent body to evaluate the health risks of electromagnetic radiation.’
“A disabling bug”
“May 19th, 2014 at 7:00 am by David Farrar ”
“Sarah Wilson writes in the Nelson Mail:”
(See links provided)
Farrar’s comment:
“Sarah’s story is gripping, and as you read it I guess the reaction is that this could have happened to me – it was just a bug after all. Sarah has become an activist on welfare issues, after her frustrations with WINZ – which she wrote about here. WINZ has apologised for what happened.
But it does highlight that there is a balancing act with welfare reforms, and how WINZ implements them. And we shouldn’t assume the balance is absolutely right. There are some on welfare who are able to work, and some of the measures introduced are necessary to target them.
But there are also many on welfare who have had horrible things happen to them, and a system which makes them prove every x months they are still unable to work needs some flexibility and judgement involved.
UPDATE: Sarah has written a sort of response to this blog, on her blog.”
So read some of the comments, and some are actually confirming what our concern has been for years. The welfare reforms have been an attempt to push things beyond the acceptable boundaries, and here even a government supporting blogger now acknowledges this!!!
I thought I let you know this, I am signing off again, as I have offended too many. I say sorry to Lprent, who I accused of being “corrupt”, but it was a rushed, unjustified comment, like a few others. I am just worked up on issues, like welfare, and the lot of sick and disabled, and I have a bit of a grudge against Labour and Helen Kelly. Maybe they will learn? I will speak my mind anyway.
I feel some “wins” are made when even the government spinners are now conceding something in welfare may have gone over the top. That is worth noting, let us work on more achievements!!!
You know you’re fucked when national television decides to run you eating your ear wax at your High Court trial. Oh Banksie Banksie Banksie………the wages of being an arsehole for ALL of your life !
campbell Live dropped a damned bomb, I know of more to come, and John Key, the greatest lying PM we ever had, better watch out, he is on the line. The revolution goes on, it must go on, and the few feeble minded better take note:
“From the dead cat wearing rates avoider Penny Bright to the feral in front of me in the public gallery wearing socks with his jandals and track pants, I cannot help feeling sorry for John Banks having to put up with his career and legacy tried in front of a bunch of rabble. I do not particularly like John Banks as a politician, but no one deserves this….”
errrr….I was actually wearing a beret Cathy?
And I wouldn’t describe you as ‘rabble’ 🙂
“Rates avoider Bright is allowed to harangue witnesses right down to the Hyatt Hotel. It is a scenario that awaits a Steve Braunias column.”
errr….. to whom were you referring Cathy?
“And David Fisher nice punk for informing the rates avoider Bright I was in attendance. The only ray of sunshine was that I got to say to her face what I had previously published. I don’t think she’s ever experienced that before.
There is a first and a last time for everything.”
What a wee SPINNER you are Cathy!
My side of the story is that I recognised your face, and asked David Fisher if it was indeed ‘Cactus Kate’.
He said it was and that your name was ‘Cathy’.
You may recall that it was I who approached you, in Auckland High Court room 6, (before proceedings commenced), extended my hand and said “Hello Cathy – I’m Penny Bright – we haven’t yet met.”
You looked VERY much like you didn’t want to shake my hand and – quite frankly – it was the most revolting handshake I have ever experienced (even worse than John Key’s – and that is saying something!).
(My home is freehold – I was lucky enough to pay off a 24 year loan in less than 9 years as a result of falling interest rates)
“Isn’t that the politics of envy? I thought you people didn’t do that sort of thing?”
When you asked me if I had paid my rates, I said ‘absolutely not’.
(Which is still the case.
Auckland Council is not complying with the Public Records Act 2005, and giving citizens and ratepayers the ‘devilish detail’ and showing where exactly rates monies are being spent on private sector contracts.)
You see Cathy Odgers – you may not be interested in ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ local government – which is probably unsurprising, given that I understand you are connected with tax havens for the wealthy?
“Odgers holds bachelor of commerce and bachelor of laws degrees from the University of Auckland and is an admitted barrister and solicitor in New Zealand.[2] Odgers is a full member of STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners), the Asia Offshore Association and the Inter-Pacific Bar Association.[2] ”
Click Here – Essential UAE Company Practical Information and Facts.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) – An Absolute “Must Read” …
What does the ‘Near Future’ hold and Dubai – ‘The New Switzerland’ for the Rich
Anonymity / confidentiality of beneficial owners
Here is a list of benefits of the UAE relating to SAFE and confidential banking in a rich and economically stable country with huge financial (and oil) reserves.
14th largest economy in the world having the 5th largest oil reserves and notably the reserves of the emirate of Abu Dhabi alone amount to over 1 trillion USD$!
FULL confidentiality for beneficial owners at banks and the authorities and NO information exchange agreements with any other country. Do we disclose UBO details / identity to the authorities? In RAK we do not! (the reason for choosing RAK) in Jebel Ali (Dubai) we do and authorities need bank ref of UBO! To the banks? Yes as a general rule we disclose BUT there are no information exchange agreements
Solid bank confidentiality with NO exchange of information agreements with any country
The emirates have not signed exchange of information treaties with any nation, not even the European Union
…………….”
(Of course – you can’t believe everything you read on Wikileaks – so please correct any information which is wrong (as I am doing with that which you have written about me 🙂
You see Cathy Odgers – you may not be into ‘transparency’ (understandable if you’re into tax havens and the like) – but I am.
Maybe you’re not used to people approaching you directly, and challenging you to your face over what you have previously
published?
I very much doubt that you’ve previously experienced that before.
But I did enjoy your ‘spin’ (sorry – ‘take’) on this event 🙂
Is it your intention to visit the Defendant John Banks, if and when he is incarcerated following this trial?
He’ll probably appreciate visitors.
(“Even rats have feelings” ).
I understand that Kim Dotcom was looking forward to a visit from John Banks when he was imprisoned.
Possibly if Kim Dotcom had been a beagle or a ‘lab rat’ John Banks would have been more concerned about his circumstances?
Of course – I’d post this directly on Whaleoil – but unfortunately Cameron Slater doesn’t believe in ‘freedom of expression’ on HIS ‘blog’ (like the equally phony Martyn Bradbury with HIS ‘Daily Blog’)
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
xox
Just heard Grocer on RNZ trying to talk up the struggling TPP negotiations. Sounded like a Dr with a treminal cancer patient.
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20140522-0622-tim_groser_in_japan_to_push_for_trade_deal-048.mp3
Grosser sounds like he’s using a lot of words to cover for the fact that he’s not achieving anything much. Talking about Japan…. yaddayaddayadda…
Seems all your fears of some corporate coup to impose the TPPA on unsuspecting nations is a load of nonsense.
links please to support this statement ?
that it seems to have been killed off by/thru political self-interest/priorities by major/all(?) players..
..does not negate/make a lie of the claims of .. the actual original intents of that ‘corporate-coup’…eh..?
..(have you been taking false-equivalence lessons from that ‘bad’..?..)
Rubbish. It shows that the agreeement was always an attenpt to free trade and that each party to the negotiations has interest groups for or against certain aspects of it as you would expect.
yeah..that’s right gossy..
..and the corporates were in there boots and all..(trying to strip away states sovereignty..)
..they were there for the common-good/the betterment of humanity..
..eh..?
..right ho..!
Sovereignty is unaffected by the TPPA.
links to factual basis?
Since you don’t understand the concept of “sovereignty” how is it that you would know?
links please gosman
Gosman, you can sit there lapping up the crap you are being spoonfed by the monied interests pushing TPP or you can re-ignite a few brain cells and do a little research before regurgitating the party line. Suggest you start with:
http://www.theglobalist.com/americas-proposed-tpp-buyer-beware
Gosman, you almost make me miss PG, at least he [seemed to] believe the drivel he wrote.
There is currently underway a co-ordinated global effort to clamp down on real free trade in favour of corporate friendly regimes, written largely by those who will benefit the most from the agreements. Hint, those who will benefit the most are not the workers making the products being traded or the countries those products are being made in.
Start with looking up what these acronyms stand for “TPP/TTIP/TAFTA/CETA/PAFTA”
then maybe settle in and go through this:
http://www.iuf.org/w/sites/default/files/TradeDealsThatThreatenDemocracy-e_0.pdf
You will no doubt still insist on making your usual propaganda soaked mantras and I guess there is not much we can do about that. So many here and elsewhere have tried to educate you. What I fail to understand is your stubborn willingness to become a trade unit rather than a member of a functional democracy in a world where people come before profit.
Of course why should you believe a bunch of unions, or doctors, or teachers, or chemists, or software engineers or builders or Universities or Aid agencies or any of the other hundreds of groups that are working full time to bring the realities of these agreements to the public’s attention. They are all just lying right?
How about believing the leaked text on IP from the TPP itself? https://wikileaks.org/tpp/
It plainly states how the public message from the negotiators contradicts the goals of the proposed text, and if it doesn’t why did the negotiators launch a tsunami of press attacks in the hours after it had been released, all screaming in unison that it was just a draft and the real agreement is all different now, but you can’t read it because …???? oh yeah because it’s secret. Does it compute with you that no negotiating team has seen the entire text?
But that is just crazy conspiracy nonsense right? These trans national behemoths would never try to manipulate a nation’s laws to increase their profits and power? No they are the bastions of truth and goddness and happy happy joy joy days.
The link demonstrates little other than that the negotiating parties could not reach agreement and the US was isolated.
Just for a bit of context
🙄
The fifth Labour government appointed the negotiators and set their bottom lines. If I’m not mistaken you’d like to be a Labour MP, which would make you one of the “power elite”, wouldn’t it?
Huh? Leaving aside the idea that MPs have much actual power over anything, what you are saying would put me in the class of ‘wanna-be’ or ‘hanger-on’. And who can be fucked with that.
Perhaps your idea of power-elite and mine are different. The power elite IMO are the 0.1% in a developed western country. They aren’t the $100K pa to $200K pa paid lackeys and higher income professional organ grinders who work for the power elite.
LOL its OK then just trust them is I suppose what you are implying.
Do you? Sad for you.
OAB, are you referring to the pdf link or the wikileaks link?
The pdf has many examples of the potential problems countries face. The pdf also includes numerous examples of current and recent cases where the efforts of big business are not in the best interests of the communities they want to profit from and how the new agreements would be even more problematic.
The wikileaks link was widely covered at the time of its release, which was why so much effort was put into discrediting the leaked text saying it was only a draft.
How does saying it’s a draft (which it clearly is) discredit it?
The whole point of negotiations is to find compromises between competing interests, so it would be an odd negotiation that didn’t provide evidence of said competition.
I said effort was put into discrediting it, I did not say the text was discredited.
The leaked text was openly attacked by those who were embarrassed by its release because of what it exposed and the questions it raised. Questions that went to content which contradicted the numerous public statements being made by the various negotiating teams.
You said “The link demonstrates little other than that the negotiating parties could not reach agreement and the US was isolated.”
Which link? I would just like to know which link you think shows this?
The Wikileaks link.
I don’t think it’s necessary to put much energy into discrediting opinions based on false premises. It was a draft. Anyone saying so was merely stating a fact.
It must have been embarrassing for all the Chicken Littles though, to have been assuring everyone that our negotiators were selling us out and then have Wikileaks prove them wrong.
Thank you for answering OAB. I think you already know I completely disagree with your interpretation of the various activity that surrounded the release of the Wikileaks material, so we will just leave that alone as it would achieve nothing.
When it comes to the ‘trade’ agreements mentioned above, I would like to say one thing…. I sincerely hope myself and so many others are completely wrong about our interpretation of the globalists’ plans for your mukapuna.
Please excuse my rather tragic misspelling of mokopuna. I have been making a bunch of mistakes with all sorts of words lately. must try harder
Don’t get me wrong: I would be implacably opposed to NZ signing up to what the US wants, I just think there is precisely zero chance of us doing so, and the leaked documents support that view.
I prefer to oppose things on solid ground – goes to credibility.
Beautifully put Freedom! This should be the final answer to all the garbage written by all the RWNJ’s everywhere.
Well done.
Freedom, for your ‘owning’ response @1.1.1.3 to GooseMan, you have my AAA+, my ten more Gold Stars than you’ll ever need, and my heartiest congratulations.
GooseMan, you have been stunningly ‘proprietorialised’, viz. ‘owned’ by the Good Freedom. It’ll be on ViciousOldThing PaulineHenry@3 – 10.30 tonight, you see.
Time to lick your wounds, pick yourself up, and hobble off back to SlaterPorn where for a millisecond you’ll be acknowledged as a soldier of The Dark back from The Cold, then ignored. For reside there many, many exquisitely madder people than you.
Give up Cuzzy, melt into SlaterPorn. You’re simply not up to it. You realise of course that ShonKey Python thinks you’re a fuckwit. Bombasting and Beavering away while –
“Me ?……..I’m off to play Baldrick to Barak”.
Chump Sucker You !
You are truly a retard Gosman. Do you actually read anything prior to spouting your trivial nonsense?
What trivial nonsense would that be?
everything
Take your pick – the list is long and undistinguished however in this particular case, the statement you made that I replied to – you know as per the commonly accepted practice in discussion threads.
it seems he isamhs he is confirming he doesnt even read his own posts, which from now on makes two of us.
RNZ 7 am news leading with cricket scandal for 2nd day…and continuing with the Horan distraction.
Is it taking its new selections from the Herald and ZB now?!
This is our public broadcaster.
Out of interest what news do you think should have lead the 7am news?
Green and brown colored cigarettes will apparently be the next battleground in the effort to deter smokers from using tobacco products,
Personally, if it were not for the fact that i grow everything i smoke, the proposed color schemes for ciggies highlighted in today’s Herald would be pleasing when compared to the boring old white variety,
i recommend shocking pink, that might put a few off…
too late
http://www.tygerpipes.com/product.html?pid=1052
Lolz, there goes my ability at original thought, beaten to it by many years by the look of it, if there’s a market for pink cigarettes i fail to see how Green and Brown ones are going to be off putting to us addicts…
how about a bit of this !
http://www.cigarettespedia.com/index.php/Black_Death_American_Blend
And some of this to drink with it.
http://www.sapich.co.nz/purpledeath.html
Actually, driving home tonight I heard that one on RNZ and it crossed my mind that the perfect number would be to produce all the ciggies in ‘Lolly Pink’. That’d clear off all those smokey, closety homophobes in one fell swoop. Anyone smoking a lolly pink (sorry) ‘fag’ within 300 metres of a rugby clubrooms or an Eminem (MenInMen) concert’d walk right into the meanest ever re-education/rogering. Never to do it again…….well…….maybe never.
Fark ! Then all [SHIT] would hit the fan and British American Tobacco [BAT] would come over all gay-friendly and sue [NZ] under [TPPA] for more [$$$] than your best bailout. Fark !
And then ShonKey Python’s [BAT][SHIT] would acquire real meaning. Fark !
Meanwhile………crossing to the Rose Room………Barak and Baldrick……..jiving ……..seductively. Fark !
Aue ! I SO need this. Living in Kaikohe. Coining 17 grand a year……..
Camouflage ciggies! Does that make them invisible to drones?
Identity politics a political distraction in an age of energy and civilisation collapse
Dmitry Orlov hits this one hard –
and this shocking suggestion about male rape in the US being the most common form – all occurring from behind prison walls. I’ve never seen any anti-rape campaigner include this fact before.
http://cluborlov.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/death-by-political-correctness.html
So it’s not identity politics Orlov objects to its gender politics? Same for you in truth CV, you call it identity politics but you mean gender or feminist politics dont you? You urged someone to be clear about a comment they made about what type of people buy KFC, so be honest. You object to feminist politics as part of a politic discourse?
You did see Orlov’s commentary on slavery and imprisonment of minorities right? They’ve essentially instituted a New Jim Crow in the USA. I think he is very clear about what he means by the American “cultural wars” of which gender politics is a big part.
I’m not interested in putting my energy into any politics which ignores or damages economic justice for the many, especially in an age of energy and resource depletion. If it is politics which does focus on economic justice for the many – I will back it to the hilt.
“While it is the entire country that is being victimized by this system of governance based on the principle of social divide and conquer, it is women and minorities that are the pawns in this game, and the biggest losers, with some of the worst outcomes out of all of the developed countries.”
We will not be quiet.
when you add women and minorities together you get…
the many
Sure. If you want to imagine minorities and women as some grouped mass with largely homogenous or at least congruent opinions, identities and perspectives.
The belief in the oppression of inequality binds people together.
It’s your right to keep advocating for new corporate dairying conversions, etc. I’m certainly not asking or stopping you from doing so.
Are you sure you aren’t because that is not what you’ve argued previously.
What corporate supplied goods and services have you abstained from this week – you know to be consistent with your stated views.
Oh bejesus marty, are you jumping on the ‘you listen to an Apple iPod so you can’t complain about cruel Chinese worker factory conditions’ or ‘you live in Herne Bay so you’re not allowed to speak out against poverty’ style of argument.
It’s a bit better than the, ‘you identify with a group and oppose some of what they do yet others lump you in to further their argument’ bandwagon imo 🙂
Better to walk the talk not just talk.
Some of the best outcomes too if you accept our ranking on that social ranking survey put out recently.
was my question at the end too hard. cmon cv… you fudged it….practice what you preached earlier in the week.
as for orlov… he could ask why men are not outraged at the high number of men being raped in prison… and start advocating for them.
The answer is obvious; it’s because they tend to be poor young men from minority groups and it is not politically fashionable to help them. And btw few do more useful advocacy work than Orlov, but of course it is not in the area of identity politics, it is in the area of surviving collapse.
I gave you a pretty simple answer. If it’s identity politics focussing on the rights of just a few while the very many still get trodden on, I don’t rate it at all.
nah, you avoided the question, which is your right.
funny you should say no men are advocating on behalf of male rape victims cos its politically unfashionable. it was politically unfashionable to demand the vote, but women did it… same with sexual abuse and rape of children.
Is there a term CV for the often feminist derailing of discussions of wide social problems? Something like Ware feminist heist WFH?
The instant hostility accompanied by well-worn argument that fits every case is notable. It’s as bad as the results of criticising anything relating to superannuitants?. The entitlement to self-absorption is great. And a morning of silence will be held (from non-feminist commenters).
Now there’s a good idea for the Wellington City Council to emulate, the Auckland Council is trialling the collection of food-waste from households so as to short-circuit its inclusion into its landfills,
Not that i plan on putting out the scraps, all of mine and that of one of my neighbour’s goes into my gardens to ensure a healthy grow for the year,
Lolz, with bins full of them in the street i will have a much boosted supply to choose from, no meat scraps please people they bring around the pesky Rats, Cats and Dogs to dig around in the garden looking for a free feed….
Yes, that is a grand idea bad12. I once heard a promoter of sustainable living say that 90% of the methane that emanates from landfill comes from kitchen waste. An excellent reason to compost right there.
Our vego only compost bin has a wee mouse living in it. I think it is multiplying, as there is another mouse living in the woodpile in the garage, since wee mousey set up home in the compost.
Lolz Rosie, i made that mistake once a long time ago, left the cute wee mouse to do it’s thing coz it wasn’t really doing any harm, said mice turned out to be Ma and Pa Mouses and shortly afterwards i discovered much to my surprise Mr and Mrs mouses four offspring in my wheat-bix packet,
Yeah having the garden to compost it in saves both me and the neighbor a bit on rubbish bags, there will be a downside for Wellington Councils if they go for composting tho, in the future the elaborate set up in the tips to capture and burn that methane to generate electricity wont work so well…
Dunedin city generates electricity from its landfill methane.
Extracting methane and burning it to produce electricy and heat water is a well adopted co-gen technology in landfills . Been in use for over 40 years at least.
But that isn’t to say we should make efforts to reduce our waste and use it more efficiently………….? Not all landfills have methane electricity production technology do they?
We also have to consider how much space we are taking up in landfills with kitchen waste. With up to 40% of our domestic waste being made up of compostable kitchen scraps, seems foolish to bury it when we can re use it.
And speaking of green technology the Mill Creek Windfarm construction is going ahead in leaps and bounds. It is a sight to behold from my living room window.
yes dear
er, what’s with the sarcasm Rob?
Radio Active interviewing Grant Robertson and Alistair Thompson now. (Suggested listening yesterday, Open Mike ) 88.6fm in Wellington or listen on line at http://www.radioactive.fm/
Discussing GCSB
a heads-up for those ‘best-bits’ producers..
..tvone just had a cross to the homicide-scene in ranui..
..and when the reporter ..after describing the grim/dire sequence of events..threw back to ‘rawdy’…
..’rawdy’ said:..’thanks chris..!..fan-tast-ic..!’…(big beaming smile and all..)
..surely he deserves some sort of unawareness/cloth-ear-award for that one..?
phillip, instead of watching that headache inducing breakfast tv, you could have been listening to the very interesting half hour interview above. 15 mins of which covered Campbells Fletcher/Clapper/GCSB show on Tuesday night, our increasing surveillance society, 10 seconds of saying goodbye to Shane Jones, charter schools, helping babies and children of beneficiaries and Grant Robertson owing up to the mistakes of the past (excluding beneficiaries from WFF) etc etc.
Do you provide that breakfast show with feedback on how appalling and insensitive they are?
re feedback:..as they monitor social media/this place etc..i am sure they do..
..a couple of weeks back..’rawdy’ said/read out..(with a tone of astonishment/disbelief..)
..’someone has even said that i am ‘a neo-lib-apologist’..’
..that had a bit of a whiff of the whoar about it…
..(and i don’t sit and watch breakfast tv..it is going in the background..
..as i find/compile the stories/links for whoar…)
..and did robertson say anything that reassured you/gave you cause for optimism..?..)
Well phil, maybe they did sniff the wind and smell your criticism – I’m guessing a term such as “neo lib apologist” wouldn’t be a mainstay in their vocab. That show, it sounds dire.
There wasn’t anything in today’s interview that stood out as changing my feelings in terms of optimism, although I am reassured somewhat by Grant Robertson’s genuine concern about our increasingly surveilled (is that a word?) society and Labour’s commitment to providing for ALL NZ kids. Today he was mainly on the attack towards to the PM about his approach to foreign policy and the way he has manipulated the changes at the GCSB.
I’ve been listening to the show for years so it’s not like theres any one interview where you respond with a “YES!”, it’s more of a slow boil and a way of gauging the over all views and subtle changes in views. I have noticed that he was sometimes on the back foot but in the past 5 months or so he has been really clear on where he and Labour stand.It sounds like there’s some good momentum and confidence now where previously it sounded like he was at a bit of standstill. (during the Goff and Shearer times) He has acknowledged quite humbly Labour’s mistakes, eg, the example above.
It’s great to listen to Alistair Thompson too. He came to the show awhile ago at a point sometime after where Chris Finlayson, who was then standing for Nat for Wgtn Central, refused to come on the show any more. He just wanted to talk about all the “good work” he was doing for Treaty negotiations and Redbird Jnr just kept trying to hold him to account for all the Government’s failings. They were just at loggerheads and it was a fruitless exercise.
Without Finlayson and with Alistair Thompson instead you get a good show. I find it insightful.
Welcome to the Parliament the newest MP, Labour’s Kelvin Davis, the bar is exceptionally low as far as bettering His predecessor goes so it should be a breeze for Kelvin to achieve far far more than His predecessor accomplished…
Yep, nice to see Jones going well before the Election but his brand of egotism could well see him surface again in some spoiler role to annoy the Labour party.
the person who impersonates a political reporter on prime news..
..she issued a jaw-dropper yesterday..
..saying labour ‘is losing one of its’ more liberal members’..
..did she actually mean to say ‘neo-lib’..?
.(‘cos even jones admitted yesterday that he ‘is rightwing’..)
..or is she just so doorknob-like unaware/ignorant of the political-realities..?
..i dunno which answer wd be worst..
..for political-journalism..
From the Daily Blog…Frank Macskasy
“National – self-censoring embarrassing statements?
There is disturbing activity taking place on National’s website. The Party is self-censoring itself and quietly, without fuss, removing certain embarrassing information from it’s website….
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/05/22/national-self-censoring-embarrassing-statements/
–
The same way Nats are renewing those standing for election huh!!!
Ha, that’s funny – National having to re-write their own history 😆
(this is (kinda) funny..)
“..FBI ‘weed’ problem in cyber-war..”
..The bureau is struggling to hire young hackers –
because its long-standing drug policy does not allow the use of marijuana.
Unfortunately – hackers like their weed.
“I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals –
and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview” –
FBI Director James B. Comey told a White Collar Crime Institute conference on Monday..”
(cont..)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/fbi-weed-problem-in-cyberwar-9409739.html
what says the bureau on staff using nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, prescription medicines, ‘32 ounce sodas’ and sitting at work stations with a gut full of decaying high cholesterol junk food?
still they are in a bind it seems with their young stoners… a nice quandary for them
oxycontin nice legal drug
of course prescription drug abuse in the USA is way more prevalent than illicit drugs
as long as what you are using profits a corporate they care about it much less…
Which gives a clear route to legalisation of drugs. I guess anyone attempting this would have to battle both the pharmaceutical companies and alcohol/cigarette companies, in addition to public opinion.
I read recently that some “expert” is claiming that weed can cure cancer, and mugs all over the interweb are taking it as the gospel truth..
Just to let you know, Bob Marley is calling bullshit on that one.
Yes someone linked to an article the other week from a doctor Tashkin which extolled the virtues of marijuana in such a way,
The subjects of these tests which were said to have shown positive results were of course not humans but a bunch of furry little critters, first fed with various cancers and then fed with various amounts of dope,(definitely not an ethical means of introducing medical marijuana into a debate),
To give the ‘link’ a little credit it did then go on to list quite a few downsides to the use of marijuana including a propensity for smokers of the stuff to exhibit pre-cancerous conditions in their airways,
There seems to be other ingredients in Marijuana’s chemical makeup other than the THC which gets us stoned that have some medical benefit which are worth exploring…
the weed/curing cancer evidence isn’t recent/new..
http://whoar.co.nz/?s=cannabis+cancer
hey hey! I see Pete George is spreading his special kind of love on Public Address now, any bets on how long the Republic of Grey Lynn will tolerate him before he gets a DCM email?
I’m giving him a week, two at the outside.
No PG – it’s like a balmy summer’s day, with him around it’s a barmy winter’s day.
China is describing the US as a ‘mincing rascal’ and a ‘high-level hooligan’
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/60072881/us-a-mincing-rascal-china-says-over-hacking.html
I’d have thought the former was a more apt description of Dear Leader
Just listened to an interview on Nine to Noon that has me agreeing with the comment above this morning decrying the content of the current RadioNZ National,
Some author who’s name i didn’t remember banging on endlessly about ”Chinese spying” elicited a big Yawn and had my ears switch off after 5 minutes as i concentrated on a far more productive activity,(the kitchen ceilings annual wash),
Talk about unbalanced BUT, expect to hear this sort of mind wash to develop even further as attitudes harden with Russia and China signing yesterday an economic pact over the supply of gas which will result in a pipeline being built from Russia across China,
As a contrast to this news of the energy rich Russia reaching this deal with China effectively allowing the Russians to wave a big middle finger at ”sanctions” imposed by ”the West” a story in the Herald this morning highlighted the fact that Shale oil will not be as big a boon for the US as first thought,
Using current methods the expected extraction of shale oil has now dropped in total from 1.6 billion barrels to 600 million,
On energy, the wind type an item of interest i forgot to comment upon was a ”new” means of generating electricity from wind in the herald the other day, this device is said to only need wind speeds as light as 3 kilometers an hour to produce viable electricity as opposed to the wind towers that need a wind speed of at least 13 K,
The way of the future perhaps, if those maddened by their addiction to fossil fuels don’t fry us all in some future ”energy war” that is…
Apparently the US has oil technology that no other nation has access to so Russian oil extraction will soon collapse.
Apparently Gosman you cling to stupid arguments that will result in your brain soon collapsing, your insertion of this comment in this particular piece of this mornings discussion is simply the actions of one attempting Diversion as a means of debate,
The short version of the above is F-off to the sewer and play your stupid games of low level intelligence…
“F-off to the sewer and play your stupid games of low level intelligence…”
\
glad someone said it
yes the extractable amount and extraction rate sustainability was always highly over-hyped as a way of drawing in massive initial investments from unwary money – hence the ‘shale oil bubble’. It also fit in well with politicians’ narratives that America was going to become “energy independent” at long last. Everyone had a reason for playing along with the myth.
However one can’t fool Mother Nature and physical realities have set in, and with them financial realities. A lot of shale oil plays have breakeven pricing at over $90/barrel.
600 million equals less than 7 years supply at the the world current usage of about 90 million barrels a day.
That would be 7 days of supply.
Oops that’s what I meant. Thanks Draco
China is describing the US as a ‘mincing rascal’ and a ‘high-level hooligan’
I like this fresh style of invective – so don’t belittle Chinese efforts. We try out all sorts of new descriptions here and why get bogged down in the verbal hegemony of the west.
We don’t want to be verbiose running dogs of western verbal hegemony. Pete George already has that role covered.
Seriously though, the insults a people use can give us small insights into their culture. A Kiwi/Chinese colleague told me that most of the insults used by new immigrants were about family poverty. This immediately made me think that they would quickly develop links with NAct and now they have. (Gross generalisation, but proof by anecdote requires that.)
A Russian colleague told me many Russian insults were about sex with someone’s mother, so I think we can expect to see Jamie Whyte encouraging Russian immigration.
Very amusing MO. I notice that about many immigrants. After making the big leap, they want to get on to feathering their own nests. Welfare begins at home to them. They can be quite cutting about us trying to do the right thing by indigenous people.
Thinking about nests I looked up godwits and they are just so amazing. We should think of reducing our numbers to ensure that there is room for these creatures more wonderful than us.
Beringia is where the godwits begin their journey. This outcrop of land where Asia and America nearly touch is a global cross roads, a springboard for millions of migratory birds of a variety of species. Just to name a few mingling with the bar–tailed godwits bound for New Zealand, are Hudsonian godwits aiming for Tierra del Fuego; Arctic warblers which migrate to the Philippines; Wilson’s warblers which fly to Central America; fox sparrows and golden-crowned sparrows that winter in Pacific coastal woodlands, and gray-cheeked thrushes that travel to the Amazon; northern wheatears traveling across Asia for wintering grounds in Africa, and Swainson’s thrushes moving south to the equatorial forests of Venezuela and Brazil. Approximately one-quarter of the world’s shorebirds breed in tundra and boreal habitats of the arctic and sub-arctic. These habitats provide well-camouflaged nesting sites for these ground-nesting species, and the abundance of invertebrates following snow-melt provides the conditions for rapid chick growth during a very short season.
A team of researchers headed by Robert Gill Jr. of the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center in Anchorage implanted tiny satellite trackers in female godwits near the Alaska coast. Prior to their southward migration, the godwits eat up large, until up to 55 per cent of their body weight is fat. They then reduce the size of their gut, kidney and liver by up to 25 per cent to compensate for the added weight. The scientists think that the birds reshuffle proteins in their bodies before they set out and that this allows them to reduce the size of their food-processing organs. Stuffed with fuel, the godwits are ready for the air. Assessing the weather patterns in Alaska, the team found that the godwits timed their departures to coincide with favorable tail winds that helped them fly south. “All birds took off with favorable winds,” says Gill, who added that tail winds caught in Alaska can shoot these birds 3,000 to 5,000 kilometers. “Some birds get shot almost to Hawaii,” says Gill. Scientists don’t know how the godwits assess weather patterns or navigate. What’s more, the satellite trackers can’t measure altitudes — the birds could be skimming the ocean or flying thousands of feet above the surface, says Gill.
A female bar–tailed godwit, implanted with a tiny satellite tracker, lifted off from her Alaskan breeding ground and flew south 11,680 kilometers, nonstop, until she reached her winter home in New Zealand. Called E7 by the scientists who monitored her, she flew more than eight days without food, water or rest, on the longest direct flight by a bird ever documented – See more at: http://www.nzbirds.com/birds/kuaka.html#sthash.5LfsiwQA.dpuf
GreyWarbler @ 12.1.13……..are we talking ShonKey Python here or what ?
North
Could be..could be. Just a bit of discursion? flying away from the original about immigrants looking after No.1 rather than joining in the nation’s zeitgeist. Then I got onto feathering their nests and took off with the amazing tale of the bar tailed godwit. Makes a difference from the usual kittens on youtube.
California’s Shale Fail: The Case of 13 Billion Barrels of Missing Oil
So much for the US oil boom that was going to save us and make renewable energy irrelevant that the RWNJs had been telling us enthusiastically about for the last few years. Seems to have gone up in a puff of reality.
An Open Letter to Tony Astle
Dear Tony,
17 years ago my wife an I had our wedding reception at your very fine restaurant. However, on reading in the Herald yesterday that you may ban David Cunliffe from Antoine’s for no reason other than being leader of the Labour Party, I have a confession to make.
17 years ago I neglected to tell you that we are Labour voters. I apologise for sullying your fine establishment with unacceptable opinions. In mitigation of this offence I can only say that at no point during the evening were our opinions expressed, so there was no risk of us contaminating other diners or any of your staff.
I know this is a weak excuse, so I think the best thing would be for you to retrospectively ban us from Antoine’s and return the approximately $3,000 we paid you. When you pop the cheque in the mail, could you kindly ensure that it is addressed to the individual named at the bottom of this letter, and not to the National Party.
Warmest regards
AB
So everyone is questioning Linda Clark and not the bestie of Collins who keeps pumping this stuff out…
he is not a journalist
Certainly AB, I’ll refund your money when you return the product we provided in its original condition. I will deduct 15% because you’re so fucking boring.
Love
Tony.
Original condition ? Very well. Vomit to Vomit. Turd to Turd.
15%………that’s not to answer the GST heist is it ?
Astle is exactly the type of Tory maggot whose establishment should be banned for good as a return favour. Not that ‘Parnhell’ is exactly a Labour enclave. Knew he was dodgy from the time it was made public that Antoines actually served tripe! Surprising how many restaurants a left supporter might not like to eat at if they knew the owners political bent.
You let your political ideology restrict your choice of eating establishments do you? Rather limiting move if you do I would suggest.
Rats will eat anything, anywhere.
i sure as hell wouldn’t spend my money in any establishment that i knew funded the National Party in any way…
+1 Bad12
Not only that it would put one off the overpriced food having to suffer being around Gosman/Srylands/Key clones..
You couldn’t afford them, so it would hardly be a choice.
I ate at Antoine’s once. It was nothing special, but then NActoids base their taste on the price column of the menu anyway. Mind you, I was shouted by a working girl I knew, so I didn’t pay.
Yep, been thinking the same thing.
astle lets it restrict you will pay him to eat there though – strange you are more focused on distraction – again
And yet you say nothing about Atsle restricting his customers because of his political ideology?
You don’t see your hypocrisy do you? Of course not, that would be another defining characteristic of a RWNJ.
It’s not the tucker, GooseMan Fool, it’s the people you find there. Farting foie gras is vile. Mopped up by the P’Astle mo’ of the bro’ who runs the sho’. It’s shocking to watch.
Hi Gosman
Do you realise that you are the standard’s school cert level simple simon right wing pet? You afford light relief for serious contributors to have a snigger at regularly? have a nice day, mate!
There are serious contributors on this thread ?!? Do tell who they might be as I haven’t spotted any.
Antiones screams ‘old money establishment’ projecting its insecure owners psyche like similar joints around inner akl channelling those class divides from the old country.
Been there done that, overpriced and olde world with very snooty floor staff for those who enjoy the feeling of superiority and smugness.
Little wonder JK’s a regular.
And at last look, P’Astle drives an aged old RR.
Like a crazy old queen stuck in the 30s.
Still pinching the GST.
For the ShonKeyAss.
+1
and just read an old quote from richard griifin,”radio new zealand is staffed by a gang of sad little lefties”.
now the that griffin is in charge it has become a gang of very very sad little whining righties.
gluon spinelesser and suzy fungus are the worst suckups and kissarses that have ever whined over the airwaves of our proud nation.
is that the griffin who recently was employed to work for the prime minister
Sad little lefties like Mora, Crump, Laidlaw…LOL.
Does Richard Griffin have any say so over the hiring decisions for New staff at Radio NZ National?
as in all organisations..those doing the actual hiring will ‘know’ what their bosses want..
..if they don’t ..they won’t have that hiring-job for long..
..the control doesn’t need to be formalised
..you have quite a simple/literal way of looking at things..don’t you gossy..?
..pretty much a nuance-free zone there..eh..?
+1
you mean like john key being involved in the selection of the head of the gcsb, but then forgetting?
If Griffin is ‘chair of the board’ then I guess he had some say over appointing Paul Thompson (ex Press editor, ex Fairfax chief editor) as CEO of National Radio.
If you ever read Paul Thompson’s editorials in The Press (over anything economic or party political) you’ll know Paul is hardly a sad little leftie.
(In fact, the interesting thing about the economically focused and party political editorials in The Press over the last three editors – Paul Thompson, Anthony Holden and Jane (?) Norris – is that they all have had exactly the same discursive style, used the same rhetorical devices and, of course, have expressed the same political leanings. Very odd that. Almost as if they have been written by the same person despite a changing of the guard in the editor’s office.)
police interview with john banks played in court today. excerpts available are worth reading.
of additional note is his last comment about not going for supercity mayor again, especially if he knew he would lose.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10072385/No-actual-knowledge-of-Dotcom-Sky-City-donations-Banks
national shooting association is laying a complaint against collins for discharge of a firearm without being registered to do so.
Judge Judy is registered though not yet certified. Please dolt……some respect for your betters !
Another tobacco kid gets the nod.
Hey fender.
This Nat candidate was in the news a few weeks ago, at the same time as Todd Barclay but he was totally overshadowed by the Barclay furore. Interesting that fearfux are running the story again but in more depth. Funny, because, by doing so they are drawing attention to Nat’s highly questionable morally bankrupt candidates. Usually when National and/or the Government are doing something dodgy they report it but kind of mumble and walk off. This time they’ve amplified it. Check out the comments too, a major turnaround for Stuffed commenters.
Those two blokes could be carbon copies of one another.
Hey Rosie, oh I thought the difference was that he’s been confirmed as the Hutt South candidate now, not merely a contender.
Like you say, these two kids are a couple of clones, maybe they were able to get extra funds from their previous employer via a cabinet club smoke up session.
It’s great watching the comments on stuffed and other sites changing to an anti Nat tune, helps to keep the spirits up while enduring this painful regime.
Keep up your great efforts to rid Ohariu of the Dunney 🙂
Lol, I didn’t realise “I coulda been a contender” was only a contender at that point.
I’ll have a chat to my friend who lives in Wainuiomata and see what they’ve all got to say about the cancer promo guy. I’m sure him and his friends will think he’s a big joke.
Thanks for your support on Dunney. All of us living in this electorate need to pull out all the stops to get the long drop filled in and decommissioned. For the country!!!
Hi Stephanie, are you around today?
Hey, I could do with a hand from the Labour campaign team in fighting off ultra retarded RWNJ’s in the local paper in our Ohariu electorate.
I am trying to wake up the sleepy little letters section (there isn’t really one) by submitting letters in response to Dunne activity, Ginny Anderson news and the Nat twerp, Brett Hudson. It’s a bit lonely and a concerted Left effort in the letters section might give this Pro Dunne, conservative rag a bit of a wake up slap. We need to get the upper hand. Whaddya reckon?
In the meantime I have written a response with actual facts that should put the RWNJ contributor firmly in their place, easy enough of course but many versus one would be better than one versus one.
Amid the doom and gloom this says it all:
In a neoliberal universe, where markets are the gauge of value, money becomes, more straightforwardly than ever before, the measure of all things. If hospitals, schools and prisons can be privatised as enterprises for profit, why not political office too?
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n10/perry-anderson/the-italian-disaster
This is hardly the fault of neo-liberalism. Politicians doing favours for money goes back thousands of years. The Romans were notorious for it.
The ‘neo’ in neo-liberalism is a clue…
You saying that just proves that RWNJs haven’t learned a damn thing in 1500 years. Of course, when we look at that study, it’s actually 5000+ years as civilisation has been collapsing from the hubris of the rich in all of recorded history.
remember someone posted on here the other day that capitalism only arrived in india in 1991, so some of these posters cant be trusted on history
+1
…. and I don’t expect that person was an Indian from whatever his/her ancestry. Nor do I suspect they’ve actually lived and breathed amongst any!
Looks like KDC, his estranged wife and the security guard didn’t take enough time to get their stories in order……………..
I would be more worried if they had their stories perfectly matched. Human beings remember things differently and some disagreement about the odd detail is not an unusual occurrence.
It would be far more suspicious if they had, and all gave exactly the same evidence. The fact is human memory is unreliable, at this remove it’s no wonder theirs differ.
The judge knows this, even if you don’t. I hope sentencing is carried out just before lunch.
Edit. Snap! MS
is this the wayne tempero that many on the right posted here probably leaked who had been visiting the dotcom mansion? cos you would think a simple recant yesterday would have done the job, but no, his recollection aligns with dotcoms…
then theres banksies police interview today… skycity say they gave the cheque to banksie, banksie says… wait for it… he doesnt remember getting a cheque from them.
it inches closer and closer..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10073120/Mana-and-Internet-Party-close-in-on-deal
Also from Stuff…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10073284/Cunliffe-attacks-PM-over-spy-agency
He calls Key “a liar” and “we should get rid of him”.
good for him. let the public decide if it is plausible the pm attended discussions about unsuitable candidates to head gcsb, suggested fletcher and had rennies agreement that key contact fletcher but forgot. i call a big BS on that.
i think what the pm couldnt remember whether he needed to lie about it or not = default position lie
pm said had to buy bmws cos labour had locked them in = untrue
blip cover the list that so many choose to ignore.
now cunliffe needs to tell people that if the pm cant recall contacting someone to head one of his two portfolios he is treating everyone as fools.
+100….sounds very good Anne
…Cunliffe’s fighting talk and pitching it home to John Key and the NACTS on Key’s lies and Nacts betrayal of New Zealanders and poor economic performance
Has anyone claimed this, as in the Stuff article:
I don’t think such claims were made in this week’s Campbell Live. I have always thought Fletcher’s appointment was part of a shift to focus on “economic terrorism” and support for the big corproates – protection of didgital “rights” on behalf of media such as the Hollywood Studios is part of that – surveillance and arrest of Dotcom was one isntance of the broader aim.
Don’t believe so.
Either the author of the Stuff article stuffed up big time which is par for the course for so many in the MSM or…
Key is misrepresenting the material highlighted in the C.L. programme which is equally par for the course for him.
But then, why would Key bother, given that the MSM had largely ignored the Campbell Live programme. Could it be the programme pointed to something else? Something that Cunliffe picked up on and was saying to Key “I know where you are vulnerable on this issue…and it aint so much to do with Dotom.”?
An the main focuses of the CL programme weren’t really KDC. They were US-NZ relations, and the appointment and start date of Ian Fletcher, and the meetings that led up to that.
Fascinating karol. I think you might be on to something.
I was surprised and a bit perplexed at Cunliffe’s warning to Key to be careful what he says, but it would fit in nicely with your interpretation that Cunliffe is saying “I know where you are vulnerable on this issue…and it aint so much to do with Dotcom.”?
I love a political mystery. 🙂
Given the programme makers know how far they can go without out putting their existence under threat…. what if the programme was designed to point in a specific direction, without making an accusation?
Karol – I think you have nailed it IMO.
The CL programme was very carefully crafted’ again IMO with a lot of legal input. It just pointed towards the joining of the dots; it did not make any specific accusations or conclusions. And its goes well beyond KDC. That might have been the starting point; but KDC in some respects has now become irrelevant (to a degree). It is all about Key’s ‘truthfulness’ or otherwise; and what he is seeking to achieve (or that of the people who really pull his strings).
It’s also about the changing role of the GCSB, and it’s role in the 5 Eyes, and in relation to that, NZ’s relationship to the US.
And it’s about why Key wanted Fletcher for the job, and why he organised several meetings with Fletcher prior to taking up the GCSB role, etc.
It’s been my suspicion for some time that Fletcher was groomed for a special role within the 5 Eyes arrangement before he returned to NZ. I also suspect that role has not got a lot to do with our security considerations. And if I’m right then Key knows all about it and is happy for NZ to be used in such a way.
So, what does he get in return?
Oh well, I can answer my own question. He gets to have palsy walsy conversations and golf games with the American president. In other words, special privileges. All good for the re-election campaign.
i was surprised by how lightly they stepped around key – almost like the program was about fletcher. I certainly think the whole knot gets untied when fletcher is pulled.
This on Techday
And Grant Robertson’s question to PM’s proxy today.
And Joyce chose a fairly novel way to avoid answering any further questions.
all uses of the words Liar and Lies have been expunged.
@ phillip ure
great news!…together the Mana Party and the Internet Party could be a force to be reckoned with!
It’s not just us of course.
Todays editorial from the Globe and Mail in Toronto calls for a Royal Commission on spying.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/editorials/we-need-a-royal-commission-on-spying/article18786038/
“Today’s New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows a gain in support for National (45.5%, up 3%) now back ahead of a potential Labour/Greens alliance (44%, down 1.5%).
Support for Key’s Coalition partners is little changed with the Maori Party 1% (unchanged), ACT NZ (0.5%, unchanged) and United Future 0% (down 0.5%).
Support has fallen for the Opposition with the Labour Party down 0.5% to 30.5%, the Greens down 1% to 13.5%, New Zealand First 6% (unchanged), Mana Party 1% (unchanged). Support for the Conservative Party of NZ is 1% (up 0.5%) and the Internet Party is now at 0.5% (down 1%).
If a National Election were held now the latest New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows that the result would be too close to call and would largely depend on who New Zealand First decided to support.
The latest NZ Roy Morgan Government Confidence Rating has fallen to 132pts (down 3.5pts) with 60% (down 2%) of New Zealanders saying New Zealand is ‘heading in the right direction’ compared to 28% (up 1.5%) that say New Zealand is ‘heading in the wrong direction’.”
It does sort of confirm the previous poll by Morgan.
Its so much inside the margin of error there could – in reality – be a small net gain for the opposition parties and a small net loss for the govt. parties.
Umm….not sure where to put this observation…but tonight was watching TV3 news cover of Bank’s trial..The camera lingered on him as he dug into his ear, removed…something….looked at it…then put it in his mouth. Yuck.
Charming.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=11259165
Sue Kedgley, former Green MP, now on the board of Consumer New Zealand, calls for the Government to adopt sensible measures to minimise the effects of electromagnetic exposure in an opinion piece published in the Herald today.
‘[The Govt] should also review our out-dated standard on electromagnetic radiation, which is one of the most permissive in the world, and set up an independent body to evaluate the health risks of electromagnetic radiation.’
America Dumbs Down
Yes, yes it has.
yes Draco. back to the early 1980’s when the Reagans got into the White House.
has john key resigned yet?
has he legalised pot?
has he ever done anything useful?
when is he going back to where he came from?
President Obama says that he is fortunate that he doesn’t have to face a crisis as great or greater than that faced by FDR or Lincoln.
The US President may choose not face it, but climate change is the greatest threat that humanity has ever faced.
Does the Kingdom of Hawaii still exist as a sovereign country? Is the US extracting taxes, and conducting other unlawful operations in Hawaii, in violation of international law?
Whaddya think of that, Mr Key?
When even David Farrar on Kiwiblog finally sees the “light” and publishes this, some of us are WINNING:
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2014/05/a_disabling_bug.html#comments
“A disabling bug”
“May 19th, 2014 at 7:00 am by David Farrar ”
“Sarah Wilson writes in the Nelson Mail:”
(See links provided)
Farrar’s comment:
“Sarah’s story is gripping, and as you read it I guess the reaction is that this could have happened to me – it was just a bug after all. Sarah has become an activist on welfare issues, after her frustrations with WINZ – which she wrote about here. WINZ has apologised for what happened.
But it does highlight that there is a balancing act with welfare reforms, and how WINZ implements them. And we shouldn’t assume the balance is absolutely right. There are some on welfare who are able to work, and some of the measures introduced are necessary to target them.
But there are also many on welfare who have had horrible things happen to them, and a system which makes them prove every x months they are still unable to work needs some flexibility and judgement involved.
UPDATE: Sarah has written a sort of response to this blog, on her blog.”
So read some of the comments, and some are actually confirming what our concern has been for years. The welfare reforms have been an attempt to push things beyond the acceptable boundaries, and here even a government supporting blogger now acknowledges this!!!
I thought I let you know this, I am signing off again, as I have offended too many. I say sorry to Lprent, who I accused of being “corrupt”, but it was a rushed, unjustified comment, like a few others. I am just worked up on issues, like welfare, and the lot of sick and disabled, and I have a bit of a grudge against Labour and Helen Kelly. Maybe they will learn? I will speak my mind anyway.
I feel some “wins” are made when even the government spinners are now conceding something in welfare may have gone over the top. That is worth noting, let us work on more achievements!!!
You know you’re fucked when national television decides to run you eating your ear wax at your High Court trial. Oh Banksie Banksie Banksie………the wages of being an arsehole for ALL of your life !
Inti Illimani – El Pueblo Unido:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F_9FEx7ymg
campbell Live dropped a damned bomb, I know of more to come, and John Key, the greatest lying PM we ever had, better watch out, he is on the line. The revolution goes on, it must go on, and the few feeble minded better take note:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86LSuXi5TLU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2o83FQ1xTs
How good or bad can it ever get, this song is stuck in my brain forever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPDixDqAUh0
My reply to Cathy Odgers (Cactus Kate).
FYI
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2014/05/court-reporting-public-gallery-circus-high-court-6/#more-137180
“From the dead cat wearing rates avoider Penny Bright to the feral in front of me in the public gallery wearing socks with his jandals and track pants, I cannot help feeling sorry for John Banks having to put up with his career and legacy tried in front of a bunch of rabble. I do not particularly like John Banks as a politician, but no one deserves this….”
errrr….I was actually wearing a beret Cathy?
And I wouldn’t describe you as ‘rabble’ 🙂
“Rates avoider Bright is allowed to harangue witnesses right down to the Hyatt Hotel. It is a scenario that awaits a Steve Braunias column.”
errr….. to whom were you referring Cathy?
“And David Fisher nice punk for informing the rates avoider Bright I was in attendance. The only ray of sunshine was that I got to say to her face what I had previously published. I don’t think she’s ever experienced that before.
There is a first and a last time for everything.”
What a wee SPINNER you are Cathy!
My side of the story is that I recognised your face, and asked David Fisher if it was indeed ‘Cactus Kate’.
He said it was and that your name was ‘Cathy’.
You may recall that it was I who approached you, in Auckland High Court room 6, (before proceedings commenced), extended my hand and said “Hello Cathy – I’m Penny Bright – we haven’t yet met.”
You looked VERY much like you didn’t want to shake my hand and – quite frankly – it was the most revolting handshake I have ever experienced (even worse than John Key’s – and that is saying something!).
I then said words to the effect “Hypocritical rich prick? (Which is how you described me in this NBR article you wrote
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/rich-prick-doesnt-want-pay-rates-ck-135024 – 29 January 2013)
(My home is freehold – I was lucky enough to pay off a 24 year loan in less than 9 years as a result of falling interest rates)
“Isn’t that the politics of envy? I thought you people didn’t do that sort of thing?”
When you asked me if I had paid my rates, I said ‘absolutely not’.
(Which is still the case.
Auckland Council is not complying with the Public Records Act 2005, and giving citizens and ratepayers the ‘devilish detail’ and showing where exactly rates monies are being spent on private sector contracts.)
You see Cathy Odgers – you may not be interested in ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ local government – which is probably unsurprising, given that I understand you are connected with tax havens for the wealthy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_Odgers
“Odgers holds bachelor of commerce and bachelor of laws degrees from the University of Auckland and is an admitted barrister and solicitor in New Zealand.[2] Odgers is a full member of STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners), the Asia Offshore Association and the Inter-Pacific Bar Association.[2] ”
http://www.fbsemirates.com/confidential-banking-and-banks-in-the-dubai/
Confidential Banking and Banks in the Dubai
Click Here – Essential UAE Company Practical Information and Facts.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) – An Absolute “Must Read” …
What does the ‘Near Future’ hold and Dubai – ‘The New Switzerland’ for the Rich
Anonymity / confidentiality of beneficial owners
Here is a list of benefits of the UAE relating to SAFE and confidential banking in a rich and economically stable country with huge financial (and oil) reserves.
14th largest economy in the world having the 5th largest oil reserves and notably the reserves of the emirate of Abu Dhabi alone amount to over 1 trillion USD$!
FULL confidentiality for beneficial owners at banks and the authorities and NO information exchange agreements with any other country. Do we disclose UBO details / identity to the authorities? In RAK we do not! (the reason for choosing RAK) in Jebel Ali (Dubai) we do and authorities need bank ref of UBO! To the banks? Yes as a general rule we disclose BUT there are no information exchange agreements
Solid bank confidentiality with NO exchange of information agreements with any country
The emirates have not signed exchange of information treaties with any nation, not even the European Union
…………….”
(Of course – you can’t believe everything you read on Wikileaks – so please correct any information which is wrong (as I am doing with that which you have written about me 🙂
You see Cathy Odgers – you may not be into ‘transparency’ (understandable if you’re into tax havens and the like) – but I am.
Maybe you’re not used to people approaching you directly, and challenging you to your face over what you have previously
published?
I very much doubt that you’ve previously experienced that before.
But I did enjoy your ‘spin’ (sorry – ‘take’) on this event 🙂
Is it your intention to visit the Defendant John Banks, if and when he is incarcerated following this trial?
He’ll probably appreciate visitors.
(“Even rats have feelings” ).
I understand that Kim Dotcom was looking forward to a visit from John Banks when he was imprisoned.
Possibly if Kim Dotcom had been a beagle or a ‘lab rat’ John Banks would have been more concerned about his circumstances?
Of course – I’d post this directly on Whaleoil – but unfortunately Cameron Slater doesn’t believe in ‘freedom of expression’ on HIS ‘blog’ (like the equally phony Martyn Bradbury with HIS ‘Daily Blog’)
Kind regards
Penny Bright