Global Day of Action for a Financial Transaction Tax (22 June)
The Tax Justice campaign supports today’s (22 June) Global Day of Action for a Financial Transaction Tax coordinated by Oxfam in Britain.
“Momentum is building worldwide for financial transaction taxes that target the banks, speculators and big corporates,” says Vaughan Gunson, New Zealand’s Tax Justice campaign coordinator.
“The international money men who caused the global financial crisis must be made to pay the bill,” says Gunson. “Financial transaction taxes are the best way to make that happen.”
It’s widely accepted that financial transaction taxes levied internationally could raise hundreds of billions of dollars, which could then be used to fund programmes that help the world’s poorest. (For more information on financial transaction taxes and the Global Day of Action click on HERE)
The Tax Justice campaign in New Zealand is calling on the government to seriously look at how a FTT could be applied here.
“There’s an urgent need to broaden the tax base in this country to maintain public services, protect our people from the effects of the economic crisis, and re-build Christchurch,” says Gunson,
“The beauty of an FTT is that would be not squeeze more tax out of people already paying their fair share.”
“It is a very progressive tax, because those who end up paying the most tax would be those involved in high frequency trading in New Zealand’s financial markets – these mostly overseas speculators are currently paying no tax to the government,” says Gunson.
Mr Gunson says a small percentage tax on the money flows of financial speculators operating in New Zealand markets would raise significant government revenue.
“Here’s a solution to the government’s debt problem that it would be irresponsible for politicians to ignore,” says Gunson.
Tax Justice supporters will be out on the streets continuing to collect signatures for a petition calling on Parliament to: 1. Remove GST from food; and 2. Tax financial speculation.
40,000 signatures have so far been collected for the Tax Justice petition, which will be presented to Parliament on Tuesday 16 August. Su’a William Sio, Labour MP for Mangere, will be receiving the petition and presenting it to the House.
Nothing much going on except the ground shifting around a lot. From about 19:30 onwards we had aftershocks about every ninety minutes. The strongest was 5.3 at just after 22:30 and then swarms of shakers ranging from 3.5 to 4.4 through the night. First there’d be a muffled roar like an old diesel starting up and then a strange rocking and floating sensation. It felt like spending the night on an old tugboat chugging across a harbour.
Christchurch announcement should be made today. It will be announced that 80-90% of land will not be able to be built upon. Not sure of the areas. Was signed off yesterday.
And why is the government still waiting for the enquiry before doing something about safety standards? Because it’s clear they don’t really care about the Royal Commission results. And if they’re not doing anything – and if we know safety standards are too lax – surely any further deaths in mines in the meantime should be treated as criminal?
hmmm…now wheres that video of Gerry the Hut, from a few years back, laughing and rarking up the National party faithful in parliament as they scoff at and bury the findings of a Labour commissioned safety report that shows our mining standards weren’t up to scratch ?
Can you see yourself, under a coconut tree
Wanting for nothing, or maybe a cooler breeze
Where all things romantic, in the south pacific ?
French Polynesia’s assembly is working on a resolution to formally demand the territory’s re-inscription on the UN list of territories to be decolonised.
After what was called an informal meeting last week, the assembly’s commission on international relation is today due to draw up the text.
Looks like Smile and Wave is putting his foot in it every time journos ask him questions.
Twice now he has kicked off the Christchurch land storm – first, weeks ago, stating that 10,000 homes would need to be abandoned.
After, last weeks quakes he started talking about whole suburbs being abandoned.
I bet there are people in CERA wishing the PM would STFU!
Now he is making comments to the Australian media that he has not made here (or to the Pike River families) and that prejudges the Commission findings.
Now he is blaming Labour for consenting the mine but fails to mention that it was a National government and their Neo-Lib economic thinking that decided in 1992 that mine owners should be in charge of determining the safety of the mine and so scrapped the mines inspectorate.
Will Joyce – Joky Hen (tm logie97 !) may have been making some off-the-cuff unscripted comments. His minders need to tighten the reins I think, but no the enlightening flow of thought should not be stopped.
prism – happy to see Joky Hen become part of the nomenclature for the PM. Acknowledgements not necessary. Just continue your thoughtful comments – good reads. (I think it was Vicky who pointed us towards an anagram generator site late one night and I am sure we could use it to find further apt names).
Ok logie97 thanks. I’ll continue with my current favourite Joky Hen. Interesting ones arise from that anagram generator. We shouldn’t forget some of the old ones though. I think it was Blip who came up with King John of Charmalot a while ago. Quite good, the film on Camelot had the song What do the common people do etc.
If Labour wants to frontfoot this, I say take the blame AND make a promise:
– take the blame for NOT having overturned National’s previous lowering of workers’ standards
– take the blame for having accommodated the right/centre right and NOT battling harder for workers
And:
– promise to go into urgency, at the soonest opportunity, to improve standards for workers, and
– promise, when they are next in the government, to review and reverse all of National’s policies that have attacked, undermined and chipped away at workers’ rights and progressive values.
Like you say, JM, there is much to be said for a “mea culpa” (or a “my bad”) and stressing that we have learned how the old policy doesn’t work and then going on to promise to do better.
If only Clinton had said, “Yep – I did it and I should not have”
Pollies always have the need to never admit a mistake or the need to do a rethink.
Fran O’Sullivan is reflecting concern for the process used against Mr Hubbard. She wonders if the powers of the SFO have bypassed the rights to natural justice.
Does seem a bit odd. Hope politics have not intruded to protect certain politicians?
“Such state force is seldom seen in New Zealand’s commercial history, writes Fran O’Sullivan.”
“How can Allan Hubbard fight 50 fraud charges when the state controls his personal funds, refuses to fully pay his lawyers, controls documents he needs for his defence and still won’t reveal who laid the complaint that ultimately led to him being slapped into a fiscal straitjacket?” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10733654
Please, Hubbard will never see jail. The trial will take so long, and as we are seeing the process is going to be drawn out just to add to it. If Hubbard is smart he’ll welcome the opportunity of yet more appeals and delay.
“If Hone Harawira won the Te Tai Tokerau seat, Mr Goff says the Labour Party would be unable to work with him.
“In government – and we do plan to be in government – you need to have reliable allies, and he’s proven right through his political career to be anything but reliable,” he says.
“The distance between us on values and philosophy is just too great…I just don’t buy into that separatist philosophy.”
So all the talk about forgiving goff his sins from the past when he was part of the cabal that helped fuck the country is for naught, because reliability is the key – reliability – yes we can rely on goff – to what?
Is the distance too great between a politician of Mana and goff – the values too dissimilar?
I know who i’m voting for – the party that represents the disadvantaged and stands for social justice and equality and goff isn’t a member of that party – thank goodness.
Wouldn’t be the first time Goff has been in negotiations to join the ACT Party. Maybe he thought he could do more to further the right wing cause by staying put. It’s certainly turned out that way.
The right’s greatest weapon is Goff, not Key. If he wanted to further the interests of the left , or even a Labour election win, he would have resigned as leader long ago. He has consistently chosen not to.
NACTs second biggest weapon is the rest of the Labour caucus in refusing to dump him.
Key would be nothing by now, without this Labour “opposition”.
Sir Philip……
….services to the rich and powerful….
Personally I’d prefer if Labour didn’t out-right rule out Hone and Mana.
But it becomes a game of public perceptions, and by doing this, National can’t wave Hone around like the bogey man – “a vote for Labour is a vote for Hone” like they try to do with Winston Peters. So there’s a tactical reason for doing so.
At the same time, it is unlikely to blow back up in Labour’s face. In any parliament where Mana are the king-maker, they’re not going to side with National and Act. So Mana-held seats effectively shrink the size of parliament. There are cases where it could make a difference, like a complex arrangement where Mana + Greens vs MP & UF were together king-makers, eg MP & UF go with National unless Labour goes with Mana and Greens.
‘
I think that the accusation that Harawira is unreliable, bares closer examination.
The question is, Is this verbal attack by Goff aimed at Harawira, just political rhetoric to weaken a politician whose political views he is opposed to?
Is this attack even accurate?
“he’s proven right through his political career to be anything but reliable,”
Phil Goff
Yet not once during his term in government as a Maori Party MP, did Harawira break Maori Party caucus discipline and vote against the direction of the Maori Party.
Yes, Harawira bitterly complained, and publicly criticised, (as he claimed was his right to do,) some of the right wing legislation that the Maori Party supported in parliament.
Even on this site he, Harawira was condemned by Labour supporters for being a hypocrite for voting for legislation that he didn’t personally support.
Though he voted with the Maori Party on every occasion as a disciplined member of their caucus, it was his willingness to challenge and debate that political direction, which was cited as the reason for his expulsion from the Maori Party.
Harawira fought his expulsion from the Maori Party because he claimed, (and with some justification), that he had never broken party discipline and that therefore there were no grounds for his expulsion. Also, (with some justification), Harawira claimed that he had a right and even a duty to raise his misgivings about the direction of the Maori Party in private and in public.
My question is this;
Isn’t it a tad bit inconsistent for Labour Party members to condemn Harawira for maintaining party discipline even when he disagreed with it’s direction, and for Goff to then also condemn him for being unreliable?
Am I wrong in thinking that there is a contradiction here?
The name’s Ph’Goff. It’d be choice if he’d do just that.
Certainly I won’t be putting my name near a Labour ballot in November. Never NOT voted Labour in 40 years. He can Ph’Get it this time.
What finally unleashed the inexorable build up of my somewhat embarrassed “God……this ain’t Labour…..” senses was this; Harawira announces he’s gonna resign and precipitate a by-election……… “Oh no…..we won’t work with the (demon) Harawira……..! says Ph’Goff.
You could see him all glassy-eyed over the expectation that “Mr and Mrs Ignorant Honky Middle Class Who’re Shit Scared of The Meorries” would stand up and clap.
Wouldn’t it be great if by miraculous chance it came down to Hon-Aye having the casting vote on whether Ph’Goff got to be PM . That particular Meorrie would be a fine type then.
Stomping on Dissent at Yale
If you care about the question of Palestine, and indeed about democracy and free speech, you should click on the following links, in series. Each one builds on the next. You can see how one of the most compelling speakers and scholars in the United States is constantly hounded by the enemies of democracy and free speech.
While, in a way, this is a painfully funny example of a young student politician (Stephen Marsh) being browbeaten and bullied by a zealot (Yishai Schwarz) it’s also profoundly disturbing, when you reflect that this is what happens even at a supposedly liberal institution like Yale.
Dear “freedom”: Are you trying to be funny? Your comment is certainly obscure, but I suspect that’s because you don’t have a clue what this topic is about, rather than because of any complexity or nuance in your thinking. Perhaps you should click on those links, and educate yourself.
Yep, Finkelstein’s one of the most inspiring scholars I’ve ever come across. Discovered his work in 2002. The destruction of his academic career has been a bloody disgrace.
Not in the mind of Yishai Schwartz. Or Alan Dershowitz, or Anthony Weiner, or David Horror-wits, or [insert name of your favourite Israeli government shill here].
“It’s diets all round,” National Minister Gerry Brownlee’s advisor suggested after being stuck for 30 minutes with the minister and colleagues in a lift. Picture
But worrying? Whom to. All we need now is to re-establish our manufacturing industries, in particular clothing lined with possum fur so we can all remain warm and toasty.
After all, the last ice age peoples survived with fur coats and fire.
Oh, but we won’t be able to burn wood to keep warm will we? After all, it releases CO2 and thats bad.
Yep. Despite the many many things that his simple lines have wrong – I won’t bite.
It is too much like potting a possum with a light and a 0.22″. You keep firing the rounds and they keep bouncing off those bloody thick skulls. You have to either get a higher velocity weapon or drill them through the eye. However my preferred Oscar solution requires a blog equivalent of a machete…… I’m sure he will notice that (won’t he?)
So when winter finally comes in NZ from mid July – mid December, you’ll all sit around going, oh geez, that CO2 got’s a lot to answer for hasn’t it!
Nevermind the fact that Earths natural state of being is ICE. Not warmth, but COLD. Even the IPCC make note of the fact we’ve come through a geological warm period.
Humans can survive the cold much better than the heat. But if privatised power companies become a reality, we sure won’t be able to pay for the heating required 9 months of the year when it’s too darn cold.
I wonder who the ignoramus is DTB. You with your constant warmist cries. I sure won’t be sorry to see the back of the global con that the scientists have built up for themselves over the last 30 years and indoctrinated a whole generation into believing that CO2 is bad.
Lprent – tell me why greenhouse growers pump CO2 into their tunnels for plants? After all, you seem to take great delight in breaking down the CO2 is oxygen for plants. I’ve shown you many references to plant life existing much more beneficially at a CO2 level greater than 1000 ppm, but you (fail) to recognise the relevance of it. After all, Humans need around 25% O2, and with an atmospheric composition sitting around 14% – this is far more dangerous and deadly to mankind than CO2.
And the answers in your face when trying to investigate how to increase O2. Plants. But with a lack of CO2, it becomes a self perpetuating cycle. No CO2, fewer plants, less O2, goodbye mankind.
The reptiles will survive. After all, they don’t generally breath O2 in such vast quantities.
I think that maybe I viewed this before probably via the Standard but am still breathtaken or is that gobsmacked as they say, about the audacity of USA Bankers and Politicians and the strategy of the Chinese.
I expect the clued up here have already seen this but the last 10 minutes are compelling. – again.
“All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (Ep. 1) – ”
Why is Radio NZ National using low-grade American reporters?
Priscilla Huff knows nothing about Afghanistan, yet she’s reporting on it. Why?
Wednesday 22 June 2011
National Radio Checkpoint, 5.45 p.m.
For about the 357th time, a news item on the plan to “draw down” U.S. troops in Afghanistan. With her customary crisp, efficient style, Checkpoint anchor Mary Wilson crosses to “Priscilla Huff in Washington.”
PRISCILLA HUFF?!?!?!???
This would have rung alarm bells with anybody who has any familiarity with that reporter’s work over the years. Her reporting has about as much authority as Andy Haden’s “source in the Crusaders organization”, as much integrity as Paul Holmes’ September 2003 apology to the Auckland Ghanaian community, and as much understanding of the political situation in Afghanistan as… well, as John Key’s understanding of the situation in Afghanistan. [1]
Huff begins her report with this remarkable statement: “President Karzai has continued to criticize America’s efforts to help his country.” [2]
After making it clear that the U.S. is occupying, terrorizing, imprisoning, bombing, shooting, kidnapping and torturing Afghanis to help Afghanistan, Huff decides to really extend herself and do some fieldwork. Naturally, that does not mean that she goes and interviews someone who actually knows about the situation, such as an academic, a military analyst, or (God forbid) an Afghani. [3]
No, what Priscilla Huff does is walk out onto the street and ask three passers-by what they think of “the plan to draw down U.S. troops”. The first two people know absolutely nothing; they blither about how “we need to finish the job we started.” In other words, they repeat what they’ve heard people like Priscilla Huff telling them on CNN and CBS and Fox News for the last decade. It’s a perfect example of the recycling of sound-bite propaganda in the echo-chamber of what Americans call “public debate”.
Hearteningly, though, the third (and last) person seems to have thought about things: “We need to get out immediately”, he says. “We hear lots of talk from politicians about how we can’t afford to pay for social programs in this country, but we never hear them say we can’t find money for war.”
And Priscilla Huff is by no means the only bad reporter, or even the worst, that appears on National Radio.
The question is: WHO CHOOSES THE LIKES OF PRISCILLA HUFF?
[1]Throughout her report, Huff repeatedly (and obediently) uses the Pentagon’s own insulting weasel expression “draw down” instead of “withdrawal”.
Questions and Answers 21 June 2011
‘Hon Phil Goff: If the Prime Minister is worried about youth unemployment, why has he allowed a consistent decline in the intake into apprenticeships since he became the Prime Minister, and why does he not do something about that, instead of looking at cutting the wages paid to young people?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I think the Leader of the Opposition is confused in his facts and incorrect.
Hon Phil Goff: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I could ask the permission of the House to table a series of documents from the news media, widely reporting the facts that I have just mentioned. You would not normally allow that to be done, but I ask you to consider allowing it on this occasion, as the Prime Minister’s standard answer is to reject the facts that he claims are wrong in what I have been saying to him.
Mr SPEAKER: One of the reasons why we do not do that is that the information is readily available to all members of the House. What is more, WHAT IS PRINTED IN THE MEDIA MAY BE NO MORE “FACT” THAN ANYTHING ELSE. In all my 27 years’ experience in this place, I have found that it is extremely unlikely to be “fact” if it has been printed in the media. That is one reason why we do not table recent newspaper clippings. I realise that the member could be frustrated by that kind of answer, but a Minister is entitled to dispute the information provided in a supplementary question. Ministers should be careful in doing so, and I am sure the Prime Minister will have been careful in doing that.
Hon Phil Goff: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Is it in order for the Prime Minister to dispute facts that are available to every member in this House in order to avoid answering a question?
Mr SPEAKER: If that was established to be correct, that would be a very serious issue…’
What more proof could we need than from the Speaker of New Zealand Parliament to stand up and say the media is a liar.
So, what with Huff now the guru on Radio New Zealand, last bastion of objectivity, a lying media, economic experts chosen from banks to tell us all about how to get ourselves further into debt, we look forward to a future full of Fox, and we’re one lot of stuffed chickens.
If you watched tonight’s TV3 News at six, you might have caught a glimpse of the world renowned Riot Dog. He’s been in regular attendance at riots and protests in Athens, Greece since 2008…
When I was in Athens a couple of years ago, I was intrigued at the number of largish dogs wandering or sleeping on the streets. They seemed to be placid but also seemed to be strays.
So now I know that the blighters were just resting ready for the next protest. Ta.
If the over-valuation, or the threat of it, persists for any length time, there is then a second-order range of consequences. Bright graduates cease to go into productive industry; they prefer to try their luck in asset speculation, finance and retailing – anywhere that is protected from foreign competition. People look to non-productive assets like housing as the place to make their fortune. Capital moves to wherever it is possible to make a quick buck. Our successful businesses move overseas or are sold to overseas buyers. Corporate headquarters move to Sydney or Shanghai. Does any of this sound familiar?
In the longer run – a generation or more – the culture itself changes. Borrowing – in the belief that the word owes us a living – becomes a way of life. We lose faith in saving, investing, and producing goods and services for sale as a way of providing for ourselves.
It was Einstein who said “Insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results”. Our results are not about to change any time soon.
Artificially high interest rates courtesy of the RBNZ and it’s focus on keeping inflation down is depressing our economy forcing people to look for other ways to make an income rather than being productive. If we want to actually become wealthier then we need to change what we’re doing and this government is doing everything it can to ensure we keep doing the same thing.
Courtesy of Mother Jones (US), a heartbreaking look at what might well happen here if NACT are allowed to carry out their welfare privatisation plans and foist ‘social services’ off on de/unregulated ‘child corrective facilities’ like the ones mentioned in Kathryn Royce’s chilling “Escape from Missouri” (July/Aug 2011: 52-57):
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I heard a 45 minute interview with Monica Lewinsky talking to TED’s Chris Anderson on BBC Radio 4 over the weekend, and have listened to it another two times out walking. I recommend it. Highly. Man, I am so impressed with how this woman has integrated her life experiences and ...
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure, London, Penguin, 2019, 352pp; reviewed by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s book The Coddling of the American Mind is a timely book, whose ...
When the Justice Committee reported back on the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, free speech advocates breathed a sigh of relief. As originally introduced, the Bill reitered the ancient offence of "scandalising the court" - basicly, a special sedition law protecting judges from criticism. The select ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. Since then - crickets. Which raises the obvious question: are they actually going to do this, ...
Back in March, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act. 285 people submitted on it. Now, Stuff has trawled through those submissions, and the case for reform is strong:The Justice Ministry asked Kiwis what they thought was ...
National's prisoner voting ban has gone down as one of the worst laws in New Zealand history. Passed after a farcical debate (including this farcial speech from ACT MP Hilary Calvert), it has subsequently been found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act by the High Court, Court ...
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
by Daphna Whitmore US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his bookThe Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z. ...
What an extraordinarily depressing experience it is to be compelled to watch, at 12,000 miles distance, the contortions and machinations of the British political class as they set about their determined attempt to overturn the decision taken by the British people that they wish to leave the European Union. The ...
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...
by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
Since scientists started studying climate change, they have warned that it will reduce food production. And now, its happening:The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill just passed its first reading, 94-23. Its a far bigger margin than I expected, even allowing for the Winston factor, and it reflects the overwhelming support there is in this country for reform. but that support isn't a new thing - it has existed for literally ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Referendums Framework Bill. The Bill does what it says on the label - establishes a framework for referenda. Things you may want to address in your submission: Whether the bill should apply only at the 2020 election, or whether it should ...
The Thompson and Clark / MBIE spying scandal continues to result in fallout, this time in the form of a report on the implementation of MBIE's "Operation Exploration", its internal operation to enforce the infamous Anadarko Amendment which criminalised protests against the oil industry. MBIE's enforcement operation was tainted by ...
So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
Last week, the ongoing democracy protests in Hong Kong saw a pro-Hong Kong student assaulted at the University of Auckland. The Chinese consulate in Auckland followed this up with a press release "express[ing] its appreciation to the students for their spontaneous patriotism" - effectively condoning the assault and inciting further ...
Only those who close their eyes and minds to the evidence can still be in any doubt that we are facing a climate change crisis. The evidence is conclusive that the world is not only getting inexorably hotter, but also that the rising temperatures are creating a number of other ...
Rural communities are wailing about forestry conversions "taking land out of production" and putting it into locking up carbon. Its driven purely by economics: there's more money and lower costs in carbon than in sheep or beef, and if carbon prices rise, there'll be more net money than dairy even. ...
This week, the government introduced its (underwhelming) Abortion Legislation Bill. And despite having negotiated the text of the bill through the coalition process, Winston Peters is now suggesting that he will demand a referendum on it:NZ First leader Winston Peters has hinted that his party may only support the Government's ...
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
The organiser of the annual YWCA Equal Pay Awards has expressed her disappointment with the latest Gender Pay Gap figure for New Zealand workers. The figure rose slightly from 9.2% in 2018 to 9.3% for the quarter ended 30 June 2019. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to pass on information to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques now that the period for submissions has been extended to 27 September. ...
An application was filed in the Employment Relations Authority in Wellington today, seeking an injunction to prevent the Board of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation from removing the President from office. ...
The Government’s commitment to support literacy and numeracy training in the workplace is a strong signal from Government on recognising the importance of upskilling, reskilling and increasing productivity alongside their commitment to address the challenges ...
“The infrastructure sector sees a major role for the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga in lifting the nation’s sagging infrastructure performance,” says Paul Blair, incoming CEO of Infrastructure NZ. ...
The AA is calling on the Government to bring forward critical highway projects while time is spent properly developing the plans for a rapid transit system in Auckland. ...
Between 2015/16 and 2017/18, DHBs spent $280 million treating patients due to adverse drug reactions, reveals the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union in its latest briefing paper on health productivity . ...
The Pay Equity Coalition Auckland (PECA) is pleased the gender pay gap has decreased slightly. Statistics released today show the gap is now 11.9%, nearly 2 percent less than last year. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to make sure they pass on any information they have to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques before submissions close tomorrow (Friday). ...
The big electricity companies consider solar energy “disruptive” and want pricing to suppress it. In contrast, advocates of local energy say that solar, energy efficiency, and other local energy solutions are the cheapest ways to reduce carbon emissions. ...
The Earthquake Commission and Shine Lawyers are delighted to announce that EQC has reached an agreement with the Gibling family, agreeing to cover the cost of repairs of remaining earthquake damage on their property. ...
Four months into the inquiry, the Royal Commission is gathering significant information and continues to receive valuable submissions from the public, from current and former State servants, experts and community groups. ...
While Fish & Game New Zealand is pleased to see Federated Farmers Environment Spokesperson Chris Allen say that 'we all want good, fresh water', he conveniently overlooks some key facts. ...
What: Wellington demo “Save the Amazon Forest/Salve a Amazônia!” When: Friday, 6 September 2019 from 12:30-13:30 Where: Embassy of Brazil in Wellingtona ...
Rt Hon Trevor Mallard, Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, welcomes the visit of His Excellency Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal. ...
A cross political Mental Health and Addictions Wellbeing group will be launched on Wednesday 28 August hosted by Sir John Kirwan and Moe Milne (ONZM) who have both been at the forefront of our country’s often difficult conversations about mental ...
Confirmation that the government will be progressing an independent Parliamentary Budget Office is great news for democracy and transparency, Federated Farmers says. ...
At first glance, Simon Bridges’ strident opposition to the government’s proposal to establish an independent office to cost political parties’ election spending plans looks childish and petty. ...
Euthanasia-Free NZ is appalled that Parliament spent so little time debating Part 2 of the End of Life Choice Bill and voted to leave it full of holes. ...
Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance and its nationwide sister group the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Auckland Mayor Phil Goff for his comments today that John Tamihere would need the Government’s support to ...
A ‘one size fits all’, inflexible and punitive regulatory regime for water quality just gets backs - and costs - up and most importantly will not work, Federated Farmers says. ...
Mediation yesterday between secondary principals and the government has resulted in a deal that the principals' negotiating team is recommending to its members. ...
Clubs New Zealand welcomes the decision of Justice Minister Andrew Little to put forward a bill amending the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to allow all licensed premises to remain open for Rugby World Cup matches. ...
The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation has ordered a review looking at labelling of added sugars in food and drinks. An option under investigation is ‘a pictorial approach applied to sugary beverages / sugar-sweetened beverages’ ...
Labour market data released by Statistics New Zealand today indicates that a gender pay gap persists in New Zealand, despite improvement in some areas. ...
In the midst of the 6th Great Extinction Event the coalition, STOP Trashing Our Planet is urging voters to take full responsibility for the legacy we are leaving our children. ...
LGNZ will carefully consider the proposed National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) to assess if it meets the Government’s aim of enabling urban development or simply adds more red tape to the planning process. ...
Statistics out today from the Government show that the gender wage imbalance, or gap, in the average wage is 11.9%, a strong 2 percentage point improvement from 13.9% last year. The gender pay imbalance in the median wage is 9.3%. ...
Newstalk ZB Drive host and Herald on Sunday columnist Heather du Plessis-Allan is taking on the challenge of keeping 2019 Auckland Mayoral contenders Phil Goff and John Tamihere in line and on point in tonight’s live NZ Herald Newstalk ZB debate. ...
After twenty years Napier residents have endured heavy sleep and health disruptive noise and air pollution from freight trucks gridlock operations to and from the Napier port and other regions. ...
The EMA says much is riding on the board and chief executive of the new National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) announced by Infrastructure Minister Hon Shane Jones today, with a difficult task ahead to deliver on its purpose. ...
The Public Service Association welcomes the introduction of workplace standards by the State Services Commission that make it clear public services should expect positive and safe workplaces. ...
The Financial Services Federation (FSF) - the voice of responsible lenders and leasing companies - and FinCap - working with consumers facing financial hardship - are signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) this Thursday 22 August in Auckland. It will ...
Wellington, 20 August 2019 — Lawyers for Vulnerable New Zealanders (LVNZ) has lent its support to the amendments proposed by MP Chris Penk to better protect vulnerable people from being coerced to end their lives under the End of Life Choice Bill, currently ...
The Government’s decision to establish and independent Parliamentary Budget Office, outside of Treasury, is a taxpayer victory and will improve democracy, says the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union . Taxpayers' Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “It's ...
The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the cost-benefit analysis prepared by Ministry of Transport and used to advise Ministers on the Government’s Clean Car Standard and ‘Feebate’ policies has serious flaws which undermine justifications for the ...
The Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) welcomes new proposals for prison reform put forward by the Minister of Corrections and non-government organisations recently. ...
The New Zealand Maori Council has called on the nation to address all forms of racism and not to shy away from an honest conversation about where it’s taking hold. The call comes after the Nelson Club decided to keep a member after his comments became ...
Wellington (20 August 2019): The New Zealand Initiative enthusiastically welcomes the Coalition Government’s announcement of an Independent Parliamentary Budget Office. Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Associate Finance Minister James Shaw ...
Drs Say No agree with Chris Penk’s amendment to protect vulnerable patients from coercion, although the organisation still maintains that no safe euthanasia legislation can ever be drafted and continues to urge MPs to defeat the End of Life Choice Bill. ...
The Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier says the Northland Regional Corrections Facility is persisting with policies that are preventing it from achieving its full potential. ...
The second national hui in the Māori-led Inquiry into Oranga Tamariki concluded yesterday ahead of schedule after a capacity audience formally ratified the terms of reference that determines the scope and purpose of the independent investigation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Even Scott Morrison, with his abundant self-belief, couldn’t have imagined that on Saturday’s first anniversary of his seizing the prime ministership, he’d be winging his way to France for a G7 meeting, where Australia has ...
A group of students, including some Youth MPs, have been banned from Parliament for a year, after singing a waiata in the public gallery in support of the Ihumātao hīkoi. ...
National MP Nick Smith has lodged a serious accusation against Parliament's Speaker calling him "biased" after once again being booted out of the debating chamber. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling Last weekend, hundreds of thousands of people again took to the streets in Hong Kong to protest against the government – the 11th straight weekend of demonstrations that began in June over a proposed extradition bill. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Hamilton, Strategic Advisory Panel Member, Australian-German Energy Transition Hub, University of Melbourne Australia’s primary federal renewable energy target – to have 33 terawatts of renewable energy by 2020 – has essentially been achieved. There is much uncertainty as to what is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lewis Mitchell, Senior Lecturer in Applied Mathematics, University of Adelaide I swear by Hypatia, by Lovelace, by Turing, by Fisher (and/or Bayes), and by all the statisticians and data scientists, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Just when we thought Australia was getting serious about shifting priorities away from the Middle East to its own neighbourhood, the prime minister has announced another Middle East step up. Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Keogh, ARC DECRA Fellow, Queensland University of Technology In the last three months, the Australian Classification Board has “refused classification” for at least four video games – effectively banning them in Australia. The latest is zombie-survival shooter DayZ. Despite being previously ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle The Heart Foundation now recommends full-fat milk, cheese and yoghurt or reduced-fat options as part of its updated dietary advice released yesterday. This moves away from earlier advice that recommended only reduced-fat ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Paris Georgia co-founders Paris Mitchell Temple and Georgia Cherrie.This week’s podcast features a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer, who has died aged 73 of cancer, leaves a political and personal legacy as a man of courage, conviction and congeniality. The support that Fischer as National Party leader ...
One part telenovela, one part family drama, one part addictive love story. Sam Brooks reviews Jane the Virgin, the great show with an unfortunate name that should be your next Netflix binge.The following piece contains very mild spoilers for Jane the Virgin.While watching the last season of Jane the Virgin, ...
Before Zumba, before Just Dance, before it was cool again to move in public group settings, there was Jump Jam. Madeleine Chapman reflects.Jump Jam entered the lives of New Zealand kids in 2001, a year filled with historic cultural movements. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released in 2001; ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Jensz, Research associate professor, University of Münster Donald Trump is not the first US President to make an offer of buying Greenland from Denmark – but he might be the last. Home of some 56,000 people and around 80% covered by ...
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Tara Ward taste-tests the best hot chips in the country. Everyone loves a hot chip because they’re a) hot, and b) a chip, but there’s nothing more disappointing than a bad chip experience. A ...
Sky Network Television has written down the value of large parts of its business and scrapped paying a dividend as it changes direction to counter falling pay TV subscribers. ...
Strict word limits for Māori translations of local body election candidate profiles is a form of "institutional racism" and should be changed, a candidate says. ...
ACT Party leader David Seymour's voluntary euthanasia bill has cleared another stage in Parliament with a suite of changes aimed at securing support. ...
A finalist for New Zealander of the Year for her work with Māori smokers is at war with academics because her research is funded by tobacco giant Philip Morris. Guyon Espiner reports. ...
Keith Rankin’s Chart Analysis Auckland Māori exodus after 2014The 2018 census has had such a low compliance rate, that it really acted as a large convenience sample (therefore a biased sample) of the New Zealand population. (See my Census Survey from March 2018.) Despite the assurances we are getting, ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Housing Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): Lecturing councils won’t work for Labour either Marc Daalder (Newsroom): ‘Nice pointers, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Prudence Flowers, Lecturer in US History, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Flinders University As the abortion decriminalisation bill gradually makes its way through the NSW parliament, opponents have been increasingly drawing on their long relationship with the right-to-life movement in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Hansen, Chief of Staff, The Conversation With the advent of online ancestry DNA testing, and advancements in genetic screening for various medical aliments, we’re able to know more than ever about the genes that make us who we are. But is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda Galligan, Associate professor, University of Southern Queensland If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.How was maths discovered? Who made up the numbers and rules? – Bianca, age 12, Strathfield, Sydney. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Borroz, PhD candidate in international business and comparative political economy, University of Auckland India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft has settled into lunar orbit, ahead of its scheduled Moon landing on September 7. If it succeeds India will join a very select club, now ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Twyford and Parker propose new urban development policy statement, Tamihere unveils transport plans, and Māori King issues challenge on child abuse.For a lead today, a nudge towards one of those deeply dense announcements that could end up having a huge ...
Just like its National predecessor, this Labour-led Government is trying to lecture councils into growing the 'right' kinds of cities without giving them the funding tools or help to do it. ...
Part three of our debate on the state of New Zealand fiction continues as Chris Else, whose opening essay was strongly rebutted last week by Catherine Robertson, returns to put the boot in once more. ...
This morning the five shortlisted songs for the 2019 Silver Scroll Award were announced. Here, exclusively for The Spinoff, the finalists discuss each other’s nominated songs.Tom Scott of Avantdale Bowling Club on ‘The Barrel’ by Aldous Hardingit’s such a beautiful stunt to witness. breaking just before the cliff edge. the ...
A group is currently holding seminars around NZ which appear to be based on misinformation about vaccines. Dr Helen Petousis-Harris fact checks some of their claims. ...
The Football Ferns are at a crossroads - they need to move on from simply being "competitive" to make a serious impression on the world football stage. ...
Countless stories from women who have a right to be safe on campus still go unanswered, writes Kate Hannah, deputy director equity and inclusion, Te Pūnaha MatatiniDespite the hashtags and the headlines, universities in New Zealand seem to have largely avoided facing up to their own “#MeToo moment”. It is ...
The government’s plan to avoid another ‘fiscal hole’ fiasco has an unlikely fan: the chief economist of the corporate think tank New Zealand Initiative. Eric Crampton explains what else it could do.Have you ever driven past one of those stores that mostly sells blinds but calls itself ‘Not Just Blinds’ ...
Over the course of the local elections period, The Spinoff will be publishing primers on some of the most interesting races around the country. Today, Alex Braae casts his eyes over the Otago Regional Council contest.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The SpinoffMembers. For more about ...
By Michael Andrew Journalists across Papua New Guinea have spoken out in support of EMTV news director Neville Choi after his “unacceptable” termination from a role he had held for six years. A public statement released on Monday listed the reasons for his termination, one of which was his ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Camellia Webb-Gannon, Lecturer, University of Wollongong Last weekend, the Indonesian police took 43 West Papuan students into custody for allegedly disrespecting the Indonesian flag during an independence day celebration (an allegation the students deny). Police stormed the students’ dorm and used teargas ...
Open mike 22/06/2011 
Spark is bracing for a customer backlash as rugby fans all across the country struggle to get a picture on their wireless router. With the Rugby World Cup fast approaching, an elderly Taranaki couple are furious after being told that they still won’t be able to watch the tournament, even ...7 hours ago
Several explosions have been reported across Auckland, as well-meaning environmentalists have already begun purchasing too much petrol Starting from next week, customers will no longer need a car to purchase petrol directly from the pump, a development that two major fuel providers are billing as an opportunity to help fight ...7 hours ago
A new study claims to find that a mother’s exposure to fluoridated water during pregnancy may decrease the IQ of male children – but is it correct? (Photo: Getty Images) Anti-fluoride campaigners are promoting ... 9 hours ago
Donald Trump seems to be eager to start a war with Iran, and naturally Australia is yapping at its heels like a good little vassal. The UK also asked New Zealand to get involved, but fortunately, we had a good excuse: we simply didn't have the toys available:Britain asked New ...14 hours ago
Television advertising has a huge impact on our lives. Even if we don’t recognise that, we know it has to be true, since otherwise why would advertisers spend so much on it? Its significance, however, is greater than simply the influence it has on what we purchase and consume. It ...2 days ago
by Jan Rivers More than 30 years ago a Commission of Inquiry was held in New Zealand to investigate, amongst other things, whether women with cervical cancer were aware that they had been part of a research project and whether they were properly informed of the treatment options ...3 days ago
Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...3 days ago
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...5 days ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...5 days ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...6 days ago
7 days ago
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...7 days ago
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...1 week ago
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...1 week ago
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...1 week ago
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...1 week ago
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...1 week ago
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ... 1 week ago
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...1 week ago
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...2 weeks ago
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...2 weeks ago
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...2 weeks ago
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...2 weeks ago
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...2 weeks ago
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...2 weeks ago
The organiser of the annual YWCA Equal Pay Awards has expressed her disappointment with the latest Gender Pay Gap figure for New Zealand workers. The figure rose slightly from 9.2% in 2018 to 9.3% for the quarter ended 30 June 2019. ...8 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Even Scott Morrison, with his abundant self-belief, couldn’t have imagined that on Saturday’s first anniversary of his seizing the prime ministership, he’d be winging his way to France for a G7 meeting, where Australia has ...5 hours ago
By distorting the climate truth Federated Farmers is making its members complacent about their performance and blind to the threats they face. ...6 hours ago
ANALYSIS: By Camellia Webb-Gannon of the University of Wollongong Last weekend, the Indonesian police took 43 West Papuan students into custody for allegedly disrespecting the Indonesian flag during an independence day celebration (an allegation the students deny). Police stormed the students’ dorm and used teargas to force them out, ...7 hours ago
A group of students, including some Youth MPs, have been banned from Parliament for a year, after singing a waiata in the public gallery in support of the Ihumātao hīkoi. ...9 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling Last weekend, hundreds of thousands of people again took to the streets in Hong Kong to protest against the government – the 11th straight weekend of demonstrations that began in June over a proposed extradition bill. ...9 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Hamilton, Strategic Advisory Panel Member, Australian-German Energy Transition Hub, University of Melbourne Australia’s primary federal renewable energy target – to have 33 terawatts of renewable energy by 2020 – has essentially been achieved. There is much uncertainty as to what is ...11 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Keogh, ARC DECRA Fellow, Queensland University of Technology In the last three months, the Australian Classification Board has “refused classification” for at least four video games – effectively banning them in Australia. The latest is zombie-survival shooter DayZ. Despite being previously ...11 hours ago
Government agencies are taking an unconventional approach to family violence solutions. ...11 hours ago
Sky Network Television has bought the rights to put its name on Wellington's Westpac Stadium. ...13 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle The Heart Foundation now recommends full-fat milk, cheese and yoghurt or reduced-fat options as part of its updated dietary advice released yesterday. This moves away from earlier advice that recommended only reduced-fat ...13 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Libby Porter, Professor of Urban Planning, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University The Victorian government has announced it is seeking heritage listing for parts of the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne. We heard this news on Wednesday as we sat under a grandfather ...13 hours ago
A flood and a botched insurance job has left a Howick couple out of their home for almost two years. But it's a story with some strange twists. ...13 hours ago
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Global Day of Action for a Financial Transaction Tax (22 June)
The Tax Justice campaign supports today’s (22 June) Global Day of Action for a Financial Transaction Tax coordinated by Oxfam in Britain.
“Momentum is building worldwide for financial transaction taxes that target the banks, speculators and big corporates,” says Vaughan Gunson, New Zealand’s Tax Justice campaign coordinator.
“The international money men who caused the global financial crisis must be made to pay the bill,” says Gunson. “Financial transaction taxes are the best way to make that happen.”
It’s widely accepted that financial transaction taxes levied internationally could raise hundreds of billions of dollars, which could then be used to fund programmes that help the world’s poorest. (For more information on financial transaction taxes and the Global Day of Action click on HERE)
The Tax Justice campaign in New Zealand is calling on the government to seriously look at how a FTT could be applied here.
“There’s an urgent need to broaden the tax base in this country to maintain public services, protect our people from the effects of the economic crisis, and re-build Christchurch,” says Gunson,
“The beauty of an FTT is that would be not squeeze more tax out of people already paying their fair share.”
“It is a very progressive tax, because those who end up paying the most tax would be those involved in high frequency trading in New Zealand’s financial markets – these mostly overseas speculators are currently paying no tax to the government,” says Gunson.
Mr Gunson says a small percentage tax on the money flows of financial speculators operating in New Zealand markets would raise significant government revenue.
“Here’s a solution to the government’s debt problem that it would be irresponsible for politicians to ignore,” says Gunson.
Tax Justice supporters will be out on the streets continuing to collect signatures for a petition calling on Parliament to: 1. Remove GST from food; and 2. Tax financial speculation.
40,000 signatures have so far been collected for the Tax Justice petition, which will be presented to Parliament on Tuesday 16 August. Su’a William Sio, Labour MP for Mangere, will be receiving the petition and presenting it to the House.
For more information on the campaign go to http://www.nogstonfood.org
For comment, contact:
Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice campaign coordinator
021-0415 082
svpl@xtra.co.nz
Kay Murray
Tax Justice spokesperson and Alliance Party co-leader
021-1672 843
ksimmondsmurray@xtra.co.nz
Nothing much going on except the ground shifting around a lot. From about 19:30 onwards we had aftershocks about every ninety minutes. The strongest was 5.3 at just after 22:30 and then swarms of shakers ranging from 3.5 to 4.4 through the night. First there’d be a muffled roar like an old diesel starting up and then a strange rocking and floating sensation. It felt like spending the night on an old tugboat chugging across a harbour.
Christchurch announcement should be made today. It will be announced that 80-90% of land will not be able to be built upon. Not sure of the areas. Was signed off yesterday.
and how do you know this?
So when Key made comments about Pike River being illegal in Australia wasn’t he stepping all over the findings of the Royal Commission (in that, effectively he was saying the standards weren’t up to international quality?).
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5174587/Come-clean-with-Pike-River-concerns-Key-urged
And why is the government still waiting for the enquiry before doing something about safety standards? Because it’s clear they don’t really care about the Royal Commission results. And if they’re not doing anything – and if we know safety standards are too lax – surely any further deaths in mines in the meantime should be treated as criminal?
Yes, John Key, now that you have admitted our standards are so lax, what are you doing to improve our standards ?
Chinese and Australian mines have higher standards!
“It’s absolutely clear already that the mine regulations are insufficient and the Government should be acting quickly.
“We know they can pass quick legislation to remove workers’ rights.
“We’d like to see them pass quick legislation to IMPROVE workers’ rights.”
– Helen Kelly from 2’57”
[audio src="http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20110622-0728-pike_river_families_appalled_at_lax_nz_mining_standards-048.mp3" /]
hmmm…now wheres that video of Gerry the Hut, from a few years back, laughing and rarking up the National party faithful in parliament as they scoff at and bury the findings of a Labour commissioned safety report that shows our mining standards weren’t up to scratch ?
In here somewhere i believe… Blood on the Coal
I wonder if the Minster of fat useless fucks still think’s it’s funny ?.
Can you see yourself, under a coconut tree
Wanting for nothing, or maybe a cooler breeze
Where all things romantic, in the south pacific ?
French Polynesia’s assembly is working on a resolution to formally demand the territory’s re-inscription on the UN list of territories to be decolonised.
After what was called an informal meeting last week, the assembly’s commission on international relation is today due to draw up the text.
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=61332
Let me be more specific, get out of the pacific
Ki te la pacific, get out of the pacific !!!
Looks like Smile and Wave is putting his foot in it every time journos ask him questions.
Twice now he has kicked off the Christchurch land storm – first, weeks ago, stating that 10,000 homes would need to be abandoned.
After, last weeks quakes he started talking about whole suburbs being abandoned.
I bet there are people in CERA wishing the PM would STFU!
Now he is making comments to the Australian media that he has not made here (or to the Pike River families) and that prejudges the Commission findings.
Now he is blaming Labour for consenting the mine but fails to mention that it was a National government and their Neo-Lib economic thinking that decided in 1992 that mine owners should be in charge of determining the safety of the mine and so scrapped the mines inspectorate.
Will Joyce – Joky Hen (tm logie97 !) may have been making some off-the-cuff unscripted comments. His minders need to tighten the reins I think, but no the enlightening flow of thought should not be stopped.
prism – happy to see Joky Hen become part of the nomenclature for the PM. Acknowledgements not necessary. Just continue your thoughtful comments – good reads. (I think it was Vicky who pointed us towards an anagram generator site late one night and I am sure we could use it to find further apt names).
Ok logie97 thanks. I’ll continue with my current favourite Joky Hen. Interesting ones arise from that anagram generator. We shouldn’t forget some of the old ones though. I think it was Blip who came up with King John of Charmalot a while ago. Quite good, the film on Camelot had the song What do the common people do etc.
If Labour wants to frontfoot this, I say take the blame AND make a promise:
– take the blame for NOT having overturned National’s previous lowering of workers’ standards
– take the blame for having accommodated the right/centre right and NOT battling harder for workers
And:
– promise to go into urgency, at the soonest opportunity, to improve standards for workers, and
– promise, when they are next in the government, to review and reverse all of National’s policies that have attacked, undermined and chipped away at workers’ rights and progressive values.
Like you say, JM, there is much to be said for a “mea culpa” (or a “my bad”) and stressing that we have learned how the old policy doesn’t work and then going on to promise to do better.
If only Clinton had said, “Yep – I did it and I should not have”
Pollies always have the need to never admit a mistake or the need to do a rethink.
Fran O’Sullivan is reflecting concern for the process used against Mr Hubbard. She wonders if the powers of the SFO have bypassed the rights to natural justice.
Does seem a bit odd. Hope politics have not intruded to protect certain politicians?
“Such state force is seldom seen in New Zealand’s commercial history, writes Fran O’Sullivan.”
“How can Allan Hubbard fight 50 fraud charges when the state controls his personal funds, refuses to fully pay his lawyers, controls documents he needs for his defence and still won’t reveal who laid the complaint that ultimately led to him being slapped into a fiscal straitjacket?”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10733654
Please, Hubbard will never see jail. The trial will take so long, and as we are seeing the process is going to be drawn out just to add to it. If Hubbard is smart he’ll welcome the opportunity of yet more appeals and delay.
The Goff makes me ill.
His comments about Hone and Mana
“If Hone Harawira won the Te Tai Tokerau seat, Mr Goff says the Labour Party would be unable to work with him.
“In government – and we do plan to be in government – you need to have reliable allies, and he’s proven right through his political career to be anything but reliable,” he says.
“The distance between us on values and philosophy is just too great…I just don’t buy into that separatist philosophy.”
http://www.3news.co.nz/Davis-deserves-to-win—Goff/tabid/419/articleID/216012/Default.aspx
So all the talk about forgiving goff his sins from the past when he was part of the cabal that helped fuck the country is for naught, because reliability is the key – reliability – yes we can rely on goff – to what?
Is the distance too great between a politician of Mana and goff – the values too dissimilar?
I know who i’m voting for – the party that represents the disadvantaged and stands for social justice and equality and goff isn’t a member of that party – thank goodness.
Looks like Goff is lining himself for a post election takeover of the ACT party. Watch out Brash!
Wouldn’t be the first time Goff has been in negotiations to join the ACT Party. Maybe he thought he could do more to further the right wing cause by staying put. It’s certainly turned out that way.
The right’s greatest weapon is Goff, not Key. If he wanted to further the interests of the left , or even a Labour election win, he would have resigned as leader long ago. He has consistently chosen not to.
NACTs second biggest weapon is the rest of the Labour caucus in refusing to dump him.
Key would be nothing by now, without this Labour “opposition”.
Sir Philip……
….services to the rich and powerful….
Personally I’d prefer if Labour didn’t out-right rule out Hone and Mana.
But it becomes a game of public perceptions, and by doing this, National can’t wave Hone around like the bogey man – “a vote for Labour is a vote for Hone” like they try to do with Winston Peters. So there’s a tactical reason for doing so.
At the same time, it is unlikely to blow back up in Labour’s face. In any parliament where Mana are the king-maker, they’re not going to side with National and Act. So Mana-held seats effectively shrink the size of parliament. There are cases where it could make a difference, like a complex arrangement where Mana + Greens vs MP & UF were together king-makers, eg MP & UF go with National unless Labour goes with Mana and Greens.
‘
I think that the accusation that Harawira is unreliable, bares closer examination.
The question is, Is this verbal attack by Goff aimed at Harawira, just political rhetoric to weaken a politician whose political views he is opposed to?
Is this attack even accurate?
Yet not once during his term in government as a Maori Party MP, did Harawira break Maori Party caucus discipline and vote against the direction of the Maori Party.
Yes, Harawira bitterly complained, and publicly criticised, (as he claimed was his right to do,) some of the right wing legislation that the Maori Party supported in parliament.
Even on this site he, Harawira was condemned by Labour supporters for being a hypocrite for voting for legislation that he didn’t personally support.
Though he voted with the Maori Party on every occasion as a disciplined member of their caucus, it was his willingness to challenge and debate that political direction, which was cited as the reason for his expulsion from the Maori Party.
Harawira fought his expulsion from the Maori Party because he claimed, (and with some justification), that he had never broken party discipline and that therefore there were no grounds for his expulsion. Also, (with some justification), Harawira claimed that he had a right and even a duty to raise his misgivings about the direction of the Maori Party in private and in public.
My question is this;
Isn’t it a tad bit inconsistent for Labour Party members to condemn Harawira for maintaining party discipline even when he disagreed with it’s direction, and for Goff to then also condemn him for being unreliable?
Am I wrong in thinking that there is a contradiction here?
The name’s Ph’Goff. It’d be choice if he’d do just that.
Certainly I won’t be putting my name near a Labour ballot in November. Never NOT voted Labour in 40 years. He can Ph’Get it this time.
What finally unleashed the inexorable build up of my somewhat embarrassed “God……this ain’t Labour…..” senses was this; Harawira announces he’s gonna resign and precipitate a by-election……… “Oh no…..we won’t work with the (demon) Harawira……..! says Ph’Goff.
You could see him all glassy-eyed over the expectation that “Mr and Mrs Ignorant Honky Middle Class Who’re Shit Scared of The Meorries” would stand up and clap.
Wouldn’t it be great if by miraculous chance it came down to Hon-Aye having the casting vote on whether Ph’Goff got to be PM . That particular Meorrie would be a fine type then.
Sick sick sick !
Stomping on Dissent at Yale
If you care about the question of Palestine, and indeed about democracy and free speech, you should click on the following links, in series. Each one builds on the next. You can see how one of the most compelling speakers and scholars in the United States is constantly hounded by the enemies of democracy and free speech.
While, in a way, this is a painfully funny example of a young student politician (Stephen Marsh) being browbeaten and bullied by a zealot (Yishai Schwarz) it’s also profoundly disturbing, when you reflect that this is what happens even at a supposedly liberal institution like Yale.
NOW READ ON…
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/pdf/yale/THE_MARKETPLACE_OF_IDEAS_AT_YALE.pdf
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/marketplace-of-ideas-at-yale-update/
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/marketplace-of-ideas-at-yale-update-2/
yup, those Yale boys sure know how to cook turkey
Dear “freedom”: Are you trying to be funny? Your comment is certainly obscure, but I suspect that’s because you don’t have a clue what this topic is about, rather than because of any complexity or nuance in your thinking. Perhaps you should click on those links, and educate yourself.
Yep, Finkelstein’s one of the most inspiring scholars I’ve ever come across. Discovered his work in 2002. The destruction of his academic career has been a bloody disgrace.
Freedom of speech works both ways.
“Freedom of speech works both ways.”
Not in the mind of Yishai Schwartz. Or Alan Dershowitz, or Anthony Weiner, or David Horror-wits, or [insert name of your favourite Israeli government shill here].
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/5176964/Brownlee-stuck-in-lift-for-30-minutes
kind of feel for the other passengers,
not an experience that would have been on anyone’s bucket list
“It’s diets all round,” National Minister Gerry Brownlee’s advisor suggested after being stuck for 30 minutes with the minister and colleagues in a lift.
Picture
Time for a new ice age
And with the news the sun is now essentially devoid of sunspots makes for worrying reading.
But worrying? Whom to. All we need now is to re-establish our manufacturing industries, in particular clothing lined with possum fur so we can all remain warm and toasty.
After all, the last ice age peoples survived with fur coats and fire.
Oh, but we won’t be able to burn wood to keep warm will we? After all, it releases CO2 and thats bad.
Oh, look at that, it’s Oscar the Ignoramus showing off his ignorance – again.
Yep. Despite the many many things that his simple lines have wrong – I won’t bite.
It is too much like potting a possum with a light and a 0.22″. You keep firing the rounds and they keep bouncing off those bloody thick skulls. You have to either get a higher velocity weapon or drill them through the eye. However my preferred Oscar solution requires a blog equivalent of a machete…… I’m sure he will notice that (won’t he?)
So when winter finally comes in NZ from mid July – mid December, you’ll all sit around going, oh geez, that CO2 got’s a lot to answer for hasn’t it!
Nevermind the fact that Earths natural state of being is ICE. Not warmth, but COLD. Even the IPCC make note of the fact we’ve come through a geological warm period.
Humans can survive the cold much better than the heat. But if privatised power companies become a reality, we sure won’t be able to pay for the heating required 9 months of the year when it’s too darn cold.
I wonder who the ignoramus is DTB. You with your constant warmist cries. I sure won’t be sorry to see the back of the global con that the scientists have built up for themselves over the last 30 years and indoctrinated a whole generation into believing that CO2 is bad.
Lprent – tell me why greenhouse growers pump CO2 into their tunnels for plants? After all, you seem to take great delight in breaking down the CO2 is oxygen for plants. I’ve shown you many references to plant life existing much more beneficially at a CO2 level greater than 1000 ppm, but you (fail) to recognise the relevance of it. After all, Humans need around 25% O2, and with an atmospheric composition sitting around 14% – this is far more dangerous and deadly to mankind than CO2.
And the answers in your face when trying to investigate how to increase O2. Plants. But with a lack of CO2, it becomes a self perpetuating cycle. No CO2, fewer plants, less O2, goodbye mankind.
The reptiles will survive. After all, they don’t generally breath O2 in such vast quantities.
We’ve already had this discussion. It proves that you’re the ignoramus.
I think that maybe I viewed this before probably via the Standard but am still breathtaken or is that gobsmacked as they say, about the audacity of USA Bankers and Politicians and the strategy of the Chinese.
I expect the clued up here have already seen this but the last 10 minutes are compelling. – again.
“All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (Ep. 1) – ”
Why is Radio NZ National using low-grade American reporters?
Priscilla Huff knows nothing about Afghanistan, yet she’s reporting on it. Why?
Wednesday 22 June 2011
National Radio Checkpoint, 5.45 p.m.
For about the 357th time, a news item on the plan to “draw down” U.S. troops in Afghanistan. With her customary crisp, efficient style, Checkpoint anchor Mary Wilson crosses to “Priscilla Huff in Washington.”
PRISCILLA HUFF?!?!?!???
This would have rung alarm bells with anybody who has any familiarity with that reporter’s work over the years. Her reporting has about as much authority as Andy Haden’s “source in the Crusaders organization”, as much integrity as Paul Holmes’ September 2003 apology to the Auckland Ghanaian community, and as much understanding of the political situation in Afghanistan as… well, as John Key’s understanding of the situation in Afghanistan. [1]
Huff begins her report with this remarkable statement: “President Karzai has continued to criticize America’s efforts to help his country.” [2]
After making it clear that the U.S. is occupying, terrorizing, imprisoning, bombing, shooting, kidnapping and torturing Afghanis to help Afghanistan, Huff decides to really extend herself and do some fieldwork. Naturally, that does not mean that she goes and interviews someone who actually knows about the situation, such as an academic, a military analyst, or (God forbid) an Afghani. [3]
No, what Priscilla Huff does is walk out onto the street and ask three passers-by what they think of “the plan to draw down U.S. troops”. The first two people know absolutely nothing; they blither about how “we need to finish the job we started.” In other words, they repeat what they’ve heard people like Priscilla Huff telling them on CNN and CBS and Fox News for the last decade. It’s a perfect example of the recycling of sound-bite propaganda in the echo-chamber of what Americans call “public debate”.
Hearteningly, though, the third (and last) person seems to have thought about things: “We need to get out immediately”, he says. “We hear lots of talk from politicians about how we can’t afford to pay for social programs in this country, but we never hear them say we can’t find money for war.”
And Priscilla Huff is by no means the only bad reporter, or even the worst, that appears on National Radio.
The question is: WHO CHOOSES THE LIKES OF PRISCILLA HUFF?
[1]Throughout her report, Huff repeatedly (and obediently) uses the Pentagon’s own insulting weasel expression “draw down” instead of “withdrawal”.
[2]American troops are there to “help” Afghanistan? That will be news to the people of Afghanistan, who overwhelmingly want the U.S. to withdraw (“draw down” in Pentagon-speak).
http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2011/05/09/poll-56-percent-want-u-s-troops-out-of-afghanistan.html
Americans want them out as well…
http://www.thewashingtoncurrent.com/2011/06/poll-majority-believes-us-should-leave.html
[3] It would of course be totally unacceptable to interview an Afghani like Malalai Joya…
Questions and Answers 21 June 2011
‘Hon Phil Goff: If the Prime Minister is worried about youth unemployment, why has he allowed a consistent decline in the intake into apprenticeships since he became the Prime Minister, and why does he not do something about that, instead of looking at cutting the wages paid to young people?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I think the Leader of the Opposition is confused in his facts and incorrect.
Hon Phil Goff: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I could ask the permission of the House to table a series of documents from the news media, widely reporting the facts that I have just mentioned. You would not normally allow that to be done, but I ask you to consider allowing it on this occasion, as the Prime Minister’s standard answer is to reject the facts that he claims are wrong in what I have been saying to him.
Mr SPEAKER: One of the reasons why we do not do that is that the information is readily available to all members of the House. What is more, WHAT IS PRINTED IN THE MEDIA MAY BE NO MORE “FACT” THAN ANYTHING ELSE. In all my 27 years’ experience in this place, I have found that it is extremely unlikely to be “fact” if it has been printed in the media. That is one reason why we do not table recent newspaper clippings. I realise that the member could be frustrated by that kind of answer, but a Minister is entitled to dispute the information provided in a supplementary question. Ministers should be careful in doing so, and I am sure the Prime Minister will have been careful in doing that.
Hon Phil Goff: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Is it in order for the Prime Minister to dispute facts that are available to every member in this House in order to avoid answering a question?
Mr SPEAKER: If that was established to be correct, that would be a very serious issue…’
What more proof could we need than from the Speaker of New Zealand Parliament to stand up and say the media is a liar.
So, what with Huff now the guru on Radio New Zealand, last bastion of objectivity, a lying media, economic experts chosen from banks to tell us all about how to get ourselves further into debt, we look forward to a future full of Fox, and we’re one lot of stuffed chickens.
Hero of the Week Award – Riot Dog
If you watched tonight’s TV3 News at six, you might have caught a glimpse of the world renowned Riot Dog. He’s been in regular attendance at riots and protests in Athens, Greece since 2008…
When I was in Athens a couple of years ago, I was intrigued at the number of largish dogs wandering or sleeping on the streets. They seemed to be placid but also seemed to be strays.
So now I know that the blighters were just resting ready for the next protest. Ta.
Don’t Be Wimps
Artificially high interest rates courtesy of the RBNZ and it’s focus on keeping inflation down is depressing our economy forcing people to look for other ways to make an income rather than being productive. If we want to actually become wealthier then we need to change what we’re doing and this government is doing everything it can to ensure we keep doing the same thing.
Courtesy of Mother Jones (US), a heartbreaking look at what might well happen here if NACT are allowed to carry out their welfare privatisation plans and foist ‘social services’ off on de/unregulated ‘child corrective facilities’ like the ones mentioned in Kathryn Royce’s chilling “Escape from Missouri” (July/Aug 2011: 52-57):
http://gaynz.com/blog/redqueen/archives/1083