So Rick Barker has denied the $100,000 auction bid and he previously confirmed that the $60,000 boat cruise was actually a meal at a work gathering on a boat.
And Mr Liu has said that he will make no further comment about political donations or swear an affidavit outlining dollar amounts.
So this leaves the Labour Party with having to spend precious time on an issue that is essentially not an issue. And the media have climbed in and chosen to have another kick at the left.
The donation is ”said” to have come to Labour via Liu’s lawyer’s trust account and the pressure should now go on this particular lawyer to provide proof of any donation,
IF, there is in fact ANY donation i would suggest it will be shown to be one of ten thousand dollars and ”someone” will have inflated this into the ”claimed” $100,000,(a mistake in translation will later be forthcoming as a butte covering),
The Editor of the Herald said on RadioNZ National this morning that they have been ”sitting on” the statement from Liu claiming to have made the donation since the Williamson resignation,
As Liu is said to have no use of the English language it begs the question of who wrote the ”statement”…
Edit: Tim Barnett the Labour Party secretary has said, again on RadioNZ National, that they have checked with the lawyers who ”did” donate amounts in the 100’s of 1000’s to Labour in 2007, and, they cannot find any link between the (3) law firms and Liu…
And who gave it to the Herald and why it was timed at this particular time. The Herald is clearly being manipulated. Shame they do not have the gumption to report on this particular aspect of it.
The National Party! Gotta laugh how their smear campaign is unravelling. Idiots think they can make shit up to distract from the hot water they are in over corrupt practices and cash for access.
I heard the Editor and I took from his comments about Liu’s – possible lack of conformity to truth or fact; inaccuracy. – that Eddy is happy to swirl around in his bag of tricks and pull out a plum from the lucky dip every few days. (I got my mixed metaphors from my lucky dip! More to come. Watch this space or nearby!)
And the Hairy did not get all the information they presented, in May either. I think I heard that it popped up a few days ago.
Amusing RWs, they are very flexible thinkers!. One sent an email to Radionz setting Liu up as a good citizen just donating to a good cause and Labour painted as responsible for stirring things up apparently for their own advantage. Hahaha.
Note: There is something of an incestuous relationship becoming apparent between Slippery the Prime Minister and the NZHerald within the time-line of disclosures surrounding the Liu ”donation”,(who would have thunk it),
IF, my memory serves me correctly, it was Slippery the PM who first raised the ”specter” of donations from Liu to Labour being ”six figures” from amidst His Amerikan sojourn even befor the Herald claimed to have the Liu ”statement”…
Slippery/ShonKey (you don’t get total naming rights here bad12) has a few things that suggest he does indeed have the capability to indulge in dirty tricks and media manipulation.
Finance capital links, Prime Minister, minister in charge of all spooks and relations with 5 eyes snoopers, contacts with media owners and bloggers, dirtiest filthiest media company Crosby /Textor customer and all-round Hollow man.
Adding to my previous note: it is obvious that the NZHerald is ”hiding” something with its refusal to let anyone from the Labour Party even view the ”alleged” statement from Liu surrounding donations,
My previous comment mentions my view that the donation amount has been ”inflated” by persons at this stage unknown,
i mention a figure of 10,000 dollars as a likely amount for any ”actual” donation made by Liu to the Labour Party in 2007,
The fact is, IF there were a donation at all, and, i have some large doubts about this, the sum could have been in the range of a thousand dollars,($1000),
Perhaps the Herald would serve its readers well by publishing the ”facts”, like where exactly, ie: to which branch of the Labour Party, was this ”supposed” donation made…
“Never ask a question in public, unless you already know the answer”
Winston is the master of it, and clearly Key made his comments in the full knowledge of the Liu letter and in the full knowledge of the NZ Herald having a copy.
I wouldnt doubt for a minute that Trevor Mallard, and Bill Birch before him, have played the same tactics time and again.
Its politics and its how its been played by the main parties for a very long time. To be fair, the Greens are the only mob who seem to avoid it, and good on them for that.
i believe it comes from law. Young lawyers get taught, when cross examing never ask a question you dont know the answer to and dont ask one question too many.
I was also advised by a top Simpson Grierson lawyer that 80% of people incriminate themselves when interviewed by the Police, and they usually do it by answering more than the question actually legally requires to be answered.
Still, he did manage to keep a very senior NZ Politician out of court a few years back. Maybe Banks needed better Counsel.
“The donation is ”said” to have come to Labour via Liu’s lawyer’s trust account and the pressure should now go on this particular lawyer to provide proof of any donation,”
Perhaps we should ask about the donations to David Cunliffe’s campaign fund.
Should the pressure go on the lawyer who set the fund up to release the names of the donors so that DC can make a complete return to Parliament on gifts he received?
Another subject changer, i would rather have Slippery the Prime Minister tell all of New Zealand from where He got the information He released to the media while sojourning in Amerika about the ”supposed” six figure donation from Liu to the Labour Party,
As far as i know David Cunliffe has made a full disclosure surrounding donations He recieved for His successful bid to become the Labour leader,
It is obvious to anyone with half a brain, that appears not to include you Alwyn, that giving the monies paid back to the donor who did not wish to be identified cancels that donation as having been given and thus allows for that donations non-inclusion in the register of gifts,
Its a really ”simple” concept Alwyn and is in fact the same concept, backed by the Parliament that would allow the Green Party to return donations from those it would feel sullied by should they accept them and thus have no requirement to report such donations…
“that giving the monies paid back to the donor who did not wish to be identified cancels that donation as having been given and thus allows for that donations non-inclusion in the register of gifts,”
I am not a lawyer, and am only quoting a casual opinion from a lawyer friend, but I was told that a gift had to be declared, even it was later returned or passed on to another organisation. Thus accepting and then returning a gift does NOT cancel the need to declare it.
That is why Ministers list everything they receive, even though the PM may not allow them to keep the presents.
I understand that Cunliffe’s reason for not declaring the amounts is that he claims not to know who the people were. Do you really believe that?
However, assuming it is true is the reason I am suggesting we should require the person who was administering the trust to ‘fess up.
Can you please provide a link to your comment about the Green Party? I would like to see whether they really received and then returned donations or whether they were not received in the first place
NO law requiring cunliffe to declare a trust for his leadership campaign BUT against labour party rules SO he went to the five donors. Three happy to be named, and were. Two not happy so their donations refunded.
Now you might be able to see the difference. I wont hold my breath.
I suggest you look at the Standing Orders of Parliament regarding gifts to Members of Parliament.
They are required to declare any gift they receive, with exceptions for such things as gifts from close family members that is worth more than $500. The Trust as a whole, and by deduction at least one of the refunded amounts, was certainly more than $500.
The money from the trust was a gift to the member and the parliamentary rules required that he at least declare the Trust’s donation.
The question of declaring the individual members who contributed depends on whether there was a reasonable expectation that he knew who they were. If you think he didn’t know you can believe anything.
A rule of the Labour Party does not override a Standing Order of Parliament.
The stupidity of Cunliffe was of course to set up a Trust in the first place, after complaining long and loud about other parties using such things.
The point is that it was the gift that had to be declared and the fact that the money was returned at a later date does not affect that in the slightest. If DC still claims he doesn’t know who the individuals were I suggest the lawyer who administered the trust should help him out.
Yes, because you’re all about dishonouring agreements, in this case a guarantee of anonymity, and then you people have the towering hypocrisy and arrogance to talk about personal responsibility.
The National Party makes no effort whatsoever to hide its donors from its MPs: they sell access to Ministers for fuck’s sake. What does this tell us about other parties? Nothing, but that won’t stop you smearing everyone else with your filth, will it?
Alwyn, you are keeping in mind that the trust was set up for his leadership bid? As such, it has nothing to do with the Parliamentary obligations of a Party or its MP’s. Any declarations of the trust was voluntary.
If I have this wrong I would really appreciate being steered in the correct direction.
A. A third party, who then re-gifted the funds as part of the leadership campaign.
This was declared.
This is exactly the same mechanism as the Waitemata Trust, but Alwyn is a snivelling hypocrite with zero personal responsibility, so conveniently ignores this.
Very good young fellow.
You forget one thing though.
National stopped using the Waitemata Trust when the Electoral Law was changed.
Cunliffe chose to implement a Trust system to finance his campaign for the leadership although it was clearly in breach of the spirit of the law his own party had implemented.
It is the declaration of gifts to a Member of Parliament that he is skirting with, not the Electoral Act. If he says he can’t obey the law and tell us who made the gifts he should demand that the “Trustee” of the Trust do so.
Giving the money back doesn’t cut it.
You also say that the party guaranteed anonymity. To bad. For Cunliffe the Rules of Parliament override party rules.
That will be why it’s been sent to the Privileges Committee, eh. No? Gosh, perhaps someone higher up than you dismissed your opinions out-of-hand. I certainly hope so, it would mean at least I have something in common with them.
Freedom @2.25pm.
Of course it was in conformity to the law to set up a trust.
It was however, in my view at least, politically completely stupid for a number of reasons.
The first is that it leaves him wide open to attack for concealing details of who his financial backers were. If he is accused of being supported by, say, Kim Dotcom he can’t deny it. To do so would be implicitly admitting that he knew who it was and once he has started claiming that he doesn’t know he can’t do that. How about a claim that a donor was David Ross, the swindler from Wellington who is now doing time. Gee David keeps awful company doesn’t he?
The second is that he looks incredibly tight-fisted. He, even as a backbencher made about $150,000/year. His wife, a law firm partner would probably make at least $250,000. The live in a house worth $2.5 million. And he is too mean to pay his own expenses for accommodation while campaigning to be leader.
The third is that the Labour Party campaigned against anonymous trust fund donations to support politicians. But not for me says David.
Shorter Alwyn: I agree with David Cunliffe’s assessment that “I don’t think … a trust structure fully represented the values I would like to bring to this leadership”.
How feeble: paragraphs and paragraphs of lies and vacuous drivel all boil down to parroting the target’s own words.
So alwyn, I take you will support the EDRNZ idea then? Full transparency of all donations to local and central body election funds above a $1000 threshold.
Freedom.
The trust was apparently set up to pay for his campaign for the leadership.
The money, agreed to be more than $500 was a gift to Mr Cunliffe. All MPs have an obligation under the rules of Parliament to declare any gift they receive that is more than $500. Once you accept the gift you have to declare it so a declaration of the trust is not voluntary. It has nothing to do with the party and its rules. It has to do with the obligations of an MP under the Rules of the House
John Banks was pinged for not declaring a gift basket in a Hong Kong hotel room because it was, apparently to his genuine surprise, worth more than $500.
I am not sure that I really want to read the cabinet “manually”. It sounds dreadfully like a rectal examination to me.
I don’t have to approve of Collins. I think she is an ignorant, arrogant ass. In just the same way I think that Cunliffe is an ignorant, arrogant ass. I certainly don’t think that either of them is qualified to be PM. On the other hand I don’t think either of them has done sufficient to get the boot.
The Cabinet Manual says members must declare
“(b) a description of each gift received by the member that has an estimated market value in New Zealand of more than $500 and the name of the donor of each of those gifts (if known or reasonably ascertainable by the member)”
The money from the trust is certainly a gift and has to be declared. Legally that is all that is required, provided that Cunliffe is genuinely unaware of who the five donors to the trust were. If he knows I suspect he would have to tell us who they were. Once he has taken the money the gift is established and giving it back doesn’t relieve him of the obligation to declare the gift.
It isn’t that that is his problem of course. It is the fact that he was so stupid as to think he wouldn’t be attacked for trying to hide who his financial backers were. The Labour Party changed the Electoral Act to prevent this sort of thing in an election campaign and he is silly enough to do the same sort of thing with regard to his declaration of pecuniary interests.
Well OAB, you don’t have to read it you know.
I will accept that people like lprent, Mickysavage, Karol etc choose to tell me about what I can say or not say on this blog.
I don’t really think that you qualify as a censor.
I read an article only this morning where Labour stated they had spoken to the lawyers involved in [fund raising] payments received and none of them could show any connection to Liu.
For some reason, that little detail seems to have vanished in an edit.
I have gone over every article (for the last three days ) in my history log that is remotely relevant to this issue and the passage has gone.
If someone has it I would appreciate the link as I am not prone to [unassisted] hallucinations.
It really is getting to the point where every article we read needs to be screen grabbed.
Which in itself is a sad state of affairs for journalism in New Zealand. But when it means vital information that clarifies important issues is removed to facilitate the protracted confusion then what conclusion are we meant to arrive at if not there are people in the MSM who are as corrupt as those they are protecting.
Yes I am fairly positive that is the article I read it in as well. Though I do not recall seeing the ‘transposed date’ comment at the time but it was there later when looking for the lawyer bit. What I find odd is I originally read it just after 8 am but there is no mention of an update or an edit.
Clearly the Nats (and the media) are playing this one very dirty. We need to just keep on, and get the word out there by various means: face-to-face, online, at meetings, etc.
And the righties are gloating about the slickness and game-winning strategies of the Nats, with some here saying it’s all about “perception”. they clearly have no ethics or interest in democracy.
I tried being critical under 3 News report on it on their website last night. then I saw that the discussion descended into righties gloating and getting the boot into Labour, with others trying to respond with facts. Became a non-discussion.
Ah a subject changer,who would have thunk it, i realize that for one carrying your afflictions Grumpy putting your imagination to use isn’t likely to produce more than a series of Derrs and Aaaahs, but an attempt at the least has to be made,
Imagine a boat trip for Just Rick Barker that cost 50 thousand dollars, go on, i know it probably results in a burning smell,(you have a few spare neurons to burn),you can do it,
Imagine, imagine, NOW, detail for us Grumpy just what form of boat trip you can imagine COULD cost 50 grand, all of it spent upon Rick Barker,
i await the results of your imagining with anticipation…
From what Barker has described Lui had the boat crammed with his staff. Chinese business culture sometimes does this to make the Guest of Honour feel important.
Or more likely he was booked in for the staff cruise and popped Mr Barker in when he appeared. “I say old chap. I am shouting a fun trip for all my staff as a thankyou for a jolly good years work. Would you like to come too?”
You are lacking a little something in that answer Grumpy, ”proof” ”fact” ”links” all these things help advance a hypothesis, as your comments now stand they are simply ”you thunk it therefore it is”,
Poor form, it could just as well be argued that the dinner on the river might well have been planned for months by Liu and Barker showing up was a chance to try and impress Him with Liu’s largesse to His staff,
i take it tho we now can agree that there was not 50, or any other grand amount of thousands spent by Liu on a boat-trip especially in Barker’s honor…
I remember seeing Larry Ellison on one of his America’s Cup catamarans.
Rumour has it that that cost him about $200 million so $50,000 doesn’t sound very much at all.
(And this comment is only meant as a joke).
“the management of this ‘crisis’ by labour has been abysmal.”
That’s an interesting observation considering I and others think they’ve responded really well to the beat up story.
Rather than revel (my interpretation) in the Herald’s claim, state what more they can do than have the boss go on tv numerous times saying that according to the info available it’s a crock and have the party president release statements to the same effect?
“But he was questioned at least twice last week and said the same thing then as now!”
So what more would you have done, rather than indulge in being the herald’s devil advocate?
Not a lot more than Labour have done.
Puts your abysmal claim to the sword, so it does.
Surely your time would be better spent liberating a meat pie truck.
The silence from Hooten on RNZ today was a big tell that their hand is not as good as they thought it was. It was abundantly clear the subject he didn’t want to discuss was the Liu affair.
Q to mod: why was this comment put into moderation?
If you read Frank Macskasy’s latest on TDB (a Timeline), you’ll understand why.
What’s worse though is why a public service broadcaster continues to give BOTH Williams and Hooton any airtime (in the manner they do).
Btw …. isn’t it about time Rinny Ryan was retired and given a PR spin doctor’s role somewhere? (maybe the EPA…. or DOC …. or even create a position in say Foreign Affairs and Trade as Chief Apologist …… perhaps even Umigration)
The harder they rise (in all their arrogance), the harder they fall though eh? For them, the trick is basically trying their best not to get caught – not unlike the local P dealer.
As the Pantine lady once said though “It won’t hepun ovanoit, but it WILL Hepun!”
No wonder Mr Krisma is cultivating friendshup with the world’s most powerful Uncle Thomas.
Funny to watch really. It’s about time we had another Muldoon moment (a la just prior to his downfall)
Must read on intelligence, capitalism and the upcoming revolution:
It’s not just the US, he adds. “The preconditions of revolution exist in the UK, and most western countries. The number of active pre-conditions is quite stunning, from elite isolation to concentrated wealth to inadequate socialisation and education, to concentrated land holdings to loss of authority to repression of new technologies especially in relation to energy, to the atrophy of the public sector and spread of corruption, to media dishonesty, to mass unemployment of young men and on and on and on.”
Some of what he says can easily been seen happening in NZ now as this National government does things secretly and the MSM help that same National government attack the opposition.
With the announcement of Mr Dearlove entering the race, he shall draw votes from Mana members that do not understand the ManaINTERNET situation. Further he is likely to attract a good percentage of the protest vote against the ManaINTERNET partnership.
Mr Harawira is under pressure from within, after the Herald ran the story announcing Mr Dearloves intention to stand, he took to facebook to explain his interview with the herald. In politics if your explaining your losing (ask Labour about the donations issue).
Questions are being asked what has Mr Harawira done in the Te Tai Tokerau? We know that he is at all the hui, and talks alot, but… what has really changed for all his time in parliamnent?
Ask yourself what do Maori on the Te Tai Tokerau marae think of Kim Dotcom? Do you think Maori in Te Tai Tokerau see Dotcom as our answer?
Mana has lost its core message with the partnership with the internet party, what does ManaINTERNET stand for really? And can that message be understood by the Te Tai Tokerau electorate?
In their [ManaINTERNET] push for the youth vote in Te Tai Tokerau it is likely to help Mr Dearlove further. After the 2011 election he returned to the the far north and taught at Mr Harawiras kura. Mr Dearlove has taught throughout Northland and is a well respected teacher by the students. The young voters shall likely know Mr Dearlove or have friends that do.
Has Dearlove said who he would support in govt? If he hasn’t then it’s clear that he’s not left wing. I know Māori politics is more complex than that, but given the actions of the Māori Party it’s reasonable to expect a clear statement of intent.
A shallow analysis worthy of a shill, Dearlove likely to poll a couple of hundred votes will in all probability take such votes as what He gets from across the spectrum,
Far from a threat to Hone He may even help Him increase the majority by removing more votes from kelvin Davis than He does from the sitting MP,
Suggesting that because Dearlove was at one point their teacher that young people as a majority will vote for Him is risable, young people are just as likely to wave the big middle finger at ”teacher” and vote everywhere but….
I don’t know what Hone does in Northland, but I do know that in the last few years I’ve become more aware of the issues up there than at any time previous. That man has a mouth on him for sure.
Not sure why it’s taking you to comments from CV, because they link to the comments by NzJackson (which do have replies from CV, but that is still not what I’m linking to).
If you hover your mouse cursor over the date link for each comment you will see the number in the URL matches the link I posted above.
Mr Dearlove will no doubt WISH that his comments were truth, but they are fables of his own making. Hone has a very loyal base up in TTT and will bolt in at the election, most likely with over 50% of the cast votes in the electoral race.
And Labour will probably win the party vote. Those Maori up north, they understand MMP.
In the context of this election you are coming across as a destabiling enemy agent, being neither a ‘Dear’ nor brimming with any true ‘Love’ for Hone or the progressives.
Do you know Mr Dearlove? I dont know him but have friends and kids that do. All the things i have heard have been good. What do you know? Is he bad because he is standing?
Draco TB
LOL Is Dearlove bad because he is standing? No he’s bad because he’s lying. Good one. Dear me the opposition have to sharpen up to keep with the pace here. Love the repartee. In cups or wherever. (Or perhaps as MS states – coffee is best.)
Now, this is going to be seen as a supreme self-indulgence on my part, but what the Hell…
I’m re-designing my blog Sub-Zero Politics and I just can’t choose between the present design and one of the alternatives I’ve set up. I’d appreciate any comments from my fellow Standardistas on which is best / most effective.
I explain it all at the top of the alternative blog – so, if you’re in the mood, please feel free to leave a comment below the post on the alternative one, letting me know which one you prefer. Or possibly here on The Standard in reply to this comment. (assuming Lynn etc doesn’t mind).
Yeah, I know, it sounds like a cheap trick to get people reading my blog but nothing, absolutely nothing on this Earth could be further from the truth. God forbid !
Definitely the new background and title font. I can see the point of CV’s icicle suggestion, but it’s a bit too intricate for a border (where the central detail would be lost anyway). Just lose the Banks pic please!
Many thanks for all the good work on polls and statistics.
I find the raindrops one much easier visually, however the post date isn’t very visible (something I would be looking for on a political blog)
If you are intent on changes, I’d suggest getting a theme that allows text to be wider on the page. No need for all that space on left and right, and depending on background it’s just distracting.
I like the melting ice one but note that the date over the comment below then fades into the background – would have to go on white, or be in thick white on dark background. Dates are important to me.
And I don’t understand – at a glance- what the geography of the vote means when its at home.
The Ides of Epsom. Good title. (Reminds me – frivolous – of the comedy line ‘I told him Julie (Johnny) don’t go, It’s the Ides of March already’.)
Already had a few visits to your blog over the last week or so, Y_F.
Played The Beautiful Game throughout my 20s and most of my 30s (as well as its Indoor equivalent). So, I’m always up for anything on the World’s premier sporting event. I’ll continue to visit.
Incidently, at the risk of taking things just a little too far, I’ll just give one more alternative…http://subzpsubzp.blogspot.co.nz/
Looks great as far as I’m concerned, but I doubt anyone really wants to read white typeface on black background. So probably not an option.
Funny thing swordfish I looked right past the layout and studied the numbers and text. Either/or. The content on polls is fascinating as is the data on Political Scientist.
Hi swordfish. IMO. The transparent deep grey needs to be mildly darker in order for the background to be less distracting from the text; I don’t like the fact that the blue of the date is a different (and to me) harder to read blue to the other blues on the page.
Not quite sure exactly what but one or two softer, more feminine design elements would be nice to incorporate. Perhaps something curvilinear or less angular, maybe a symbol or pattern of some kind (which should probably be in a greyscale)?
my 2c, The icicles suggestion from CV are certainly stronger and more interesting than the raindrops. It would be worth stretching the image to fit the frame and the soft distortion this would create would be a nice detail without being too busy.
p.s. if you do use the blocks, use the transparent boards, that looks really good, but maybe just a smidge darker?
The blocks with large white font is very clear, using white needs larger font for ease on eyes. You have a wide sentence across screen, be better with a bit more left margin and that would narrow the content a little, not too much..
The date being light on dark needs to be really bold. Like the blue effect on letters at bottom gives zing so good for emphasis, notices.
And keep your settings for the other pages – you may want a change now and then. I thought they were good – new is just a change at the same good quality.
Cheers to everyone above, really appreciate it. Looks like the alternative was the winner on the day (by quite some distance). I’ll get the date sorted and I’ll have a think about the image you proposed, CV. Cheers.
Greywarbler – geography of the vote = Over the last few years (since 09), I’ve been occasionally using a bit of spare time to calculate the party-vote (from last 3 elections – 2014 will be the 4th) for every suburb in urban NZ – cities ranging in size from Wanganui up to Auckland. For all the parties that made it into parliament + figures for the Left and Right blocs in general. So, I thought I might stick some of that data on the blog when I have time. So, basically It’ll be on a seat-by-seat basis – and for each seat there’ll be tables setting out party / bloc support for the last 3 elections (and the vote movement between) on a suburb-by-suburb basis. Ultimately, I’ll add suburban census data so people can get a really detailed understanding of demographics underlying party support. Christchurch is the one exception for obvious reasons. Given the huge population movement, not much point in trying to pin down the vote geographically at this stage. (Then again, maybe all the more reason…)
Weka – text to be wider on the page. I’m not sure about this, Weka. When I first started setting it up a couple of months ago, I had a good look at other kiwi blogs and most tend towards the narrow. Whereas, I like something similar to an A4 width. So I purposely made mine wider than most. What your saying might have more to do with the lack of any information (previous posts / blogroll / profile etc) down either side. So the background (on either side) probably seems a bit empty relative to other blogs.
ianmac – thanks for that. I’ve got a whole lot of half finished posts in draft – got the motivation but just not enough spare time. I’ll be linking to Puddleglum’s The Political Scientist in my next post. He’s produced some brilliant analysis on that site and very impressive graphics to boot.
Just to put my 2 cents worth in – I thought the comment by Weka re width had some merit – perhaps it would only mean more white space – but white space is good and also could save some scrolling (although possibly not, might just allow for more white space).
[It looks good regardless – just my 2 cents worth]
Another bit of feedback too: when you have lots of tables/stats it would be helpful/ more readable to have some quick explanations in between that information. I think this would make your information more easily digested. (This is in relation to the first longer article you wrote)
Cheers, bl – but which one looks good ? The Mountain/Rain-drops one ? What do you think of the 2nd alternative (linked to in 9.18am comment (7.2.1) ?. I personally think it looks brilliant but probably impractical. CV’s almost certainly right when he suggests the grey background is too intrusive given the transparent background of the blog itself.
I’ll have another think about the width given the points made by you and Weka. But it is actually wider than almost every other NZ blog I’ve seen. Possibly what you’re noticing is the severe contrast between blog background and outer background that most other blogs don’t have. But if you were to get a ruler and measure, you’d find that each line is actually wider than on most blogs.
White space is important (The Standard utilizes white space very well – one of the most impressively designed leading blogs IMO), but before I started making changes in the last few days, my blog had FAR too much of the stuff – all these stats marooned in a sea of white. Having that outer background on either side brings focus and clarity to the posts IMO.
Really appreciate you and others taking the trouble. There’s no doubt this has been a massive self-indulgence on my part. Now back to Colin the Christian and the enterprising Mr Liu.
I didn’t mention the other aspects of design because I really think both are good.
I personally like the raindrop effect. If you want detailed-picky feedback I shall now oblige, however the following should be taken as very mild suggestions/observations because both are perfectly fine as they are:
I like the typeset of the new design’s title, yet notice there is something clearer about the white background and black letters – (this is likely to do with the fact I often sit outside and was sitting outside with a laptop when last viewing them, so this showed up a weakness in the darker background). This is very picky though – and the darker/transparent background looks snazzier to me.
I also agree with other comments that it would be good to ensure the date is clear (that definitely disappears when viewing in bright conditions on a laptop).
It is really great having your site and Puddleglum’s – good idea to link them! You both provide – really good and thought provoking analysis, makes such a nice change from the dull mulched brain-dead info that we receive from the lamestream. Thanks very much! 🙂
I’d have guessed that ts has wider text than you blog swordfish, but have resisted getting out the ruler 😉 I’m on a laptop, and have my browser text set larger than default, so that will change things too.
I’m not a fan of imaged backgrounds, which is why I tend to like wordpress blogs better than blogspot. Much of the text outside the white box is illegible in the raindrops one. IMO that’s a design crime by the people at blogger.com. Their themes should work across all text formats.
Whatever you choose, I think communication and ease of access are the most important things. Having text legible is part of that. And thank-you for not using light text on dark background!
Thanks swordfish – geography of vote. That approach could be good and quite sensitive to possible changes, when electorate boundaries are changed. Is that so?
With small differences between parties the understanding of votes in particular booths even could be vital.
I actually really am liking the SWARE Iron browser. It presents a lot like chrome. The reviews I looked at put Avant at #1. But the Iron one had a recommendation re-privacy capabilities.
So far Iron seems way more usable than Avant. And it has a much better spell check than FF.
cheers karol, might just be mild case of mondayitis on my part
good to know it is a german group because that country is fighting harder for privacy than probably any other member of the EU
I will of course try them both and see which has the fewer crumbs left on the plate
Well, I got fed up with FF’s slowness, and for some reasons I’ve had problems with Chrome, too – shockwave conflicts, I think. So decided to try something different.
there are quite a few alternative browsers out there.
FF has gotten very sluggish of late. Chrome is faster for general browsing but i do prefer the FF interface. (habit mainly) The shockwave problems though are weird.
Ever since Adobe decided to stop supporting ubuntu/linux most flash software is almost like revisiting the early days of ADSL .. have been trying to find a fix but it is a global problem. It is being worked on I am told. Times like this i wish i understood computers more. It seems to be something in the refresh rate/decoding side of the players but it does makes streaming some stuff look like a flip book. Chrome is even worse than FF sometimes because although FF stutters on the feeds the Chrome player (html5 i think?) just looks like a series of picture cards being dropped into your screen one at a time.
Had another Ubuntu guy here the other day and he too was shaking his head in solidarity.
I run on a brand new 64bit dual core with 6G ram and a shiny new video card so at least I know it is not my machine. Had that confirmed too by Ubuntu folk. It came with Windows 8.1 which was nice and all but after having a wander around the lovely tiles, it came time to install Ubuntu alongside it, like i had done on previous machines, Windows wanted to set it up as a virtual machine inside Windows and I laughed at its coy ploy as i dumped Windows into the netherworld and now just run Ubuntu again.
What gets confusing, and a bit aggravating is how streams from within NZ like TV One and TV3 for instance are absolutely fine and there is nary a hiccup. I know it’s not your thing but the Football is a good example of the current situation. Can have the TVOne stream going and it is sweet. Other feeds from across the waters and i am back in stutter flipbook hell.
I am resigned to be patient though as I am sure the Ubuntu folk will find a fix. A good practise is to download streams instead (video downloadhelper) then watching later when I can but this is often tough (read impossible) with many live streams.
Will try those new browsers over the next few days and see if there are any improvements. but until either Adobe stops being such a dick or Ubuntu creates a new stand alone player we seem to be stuck with a few issues… all because corporate greed believes stifling innovation will somehow provoke progress for the internet 🙁
Weird. I haven’t been seeing anything like that for a year or so. But I generally remain on the development versions of kubuntu (I hate that godwful unity with a passion because it is so hard to find open windows (of which I have many) and gnome is so damn old feeling for speed now). There were a pile of fixes that went in on the ubuntu 13.04/13.10. 14.04 was wonderful apart from having to reinstall it after the upgrade failed. I’d been running upgraded development versions on my workstation since 10.10 with added in non-distribution packages. I suspect one of the latter is what forced the new.
Just make sure /home, /root, /etc and /opt are all off in a different partition, just fstab them back after the install (merge the changed etc files), and the reinstall is pretty trivial, and you run a text dump of dpkg periodically so you can see what packages you should be asking for from the distribution.
I have exactly one problem these days. The bloody MTR for the androids etc doesn’t like my USB setup. It keeps dropping them off and reaquiring them. I have tracked it down enough to know that it is a problem in the Linux USB driver and the USB chips on my 990FXA-UD3 motherboard. It also shows up when I plug in one particular USB3 external hard drive. One day I might have to look at the code (I keep hoping that a fix will come through). Makes it frigging hard to access the file system on Androids, and I have to plug that external drive into a USB2.
In the meantime I backup those from windows on the laptop every few weeks.
Lprent, kubuntu is only for experienced users right? It is more of a kitset that you build from scratch rather than the lego set that is Ubuntu?
Overall U 14.04 is solid as a rock but I also had it fall over on the first install. From then on though it has been fine. No USB issues that I have noticed but no USB3 here either.
The multiple workspace bugs are gone YEEHAH and that makes my life really simple, being able to jump around between progs without having to have layers and layers of open windows. The multiple workspaces are probably my favourite ubuntu thing. So simple, so useful. I can easily have a dozen files open in gimp so the extra workspace is handy. As long as gimp runs smoothly and media players function as intended I am happy. (I am so easily pleased. Now if we could get world peace a cure for cancer and find everlasting love i would be set) I will put up with browser issues and I have only really had problems with FF freezing, which I now know is FF. The only other problem is VLC is skittish of late with sync issues but SMP covers whatever VLC stuffs up usually bluray rip related.. or so i hear from those who watch movies that may or may not have been purchased
I generally rely on the updater and the software centre to avoid stuffing things up but I am stumbling along learning a few bits here and there. I am more confident in a terminal than I was a year ago but still have heart in mouth attacks most times. I always do lots of reading from others before doing anything.
====================
“Just make sure /home, /root, /etc and /opt are all off in a different partition, just fstab them back after the install (merge the changed etc files), and the reinstall is pretty trivial, and you run a text dump of dpkg periodically so you can see what packages you should be asking for from the distribution.”
This passage pretty much encompasses my current slow road to learning. But learning is fun. I know I need to get out from under the apron of the software center and really knuckle down so i can stuff up all on my own. I know I have not fully grasped the architecture of the system and am often unclear of how to go forward with identifying partition listings et al but the wider Ubuntu community are really helpful, even to newbies. Which I will always be.
Latest FF is probably the worst browser I’ve ever used. Slow, clunky and has an irritating habit of dropping into [not responding] for several seconds whenever I try to change tabs. I keep it around so that I can watch youtube videos. In Chrome the sound always lags the video (Chrome has it’s own Flash player built in) and the fix I found for that left me with sound and no video more often than not (ie, cure worse than problem).
I was getting the [not responding] several times a day. That is what sent me looking for an alternative. I was surprised at the number of alternatives out there – but not knowledgeable enough to make a strong judgement in advance of using them.
I’ve used FF for a long time and to my disgrace I’ve gone back to IE as I got sick of FF 1) bloating and taking up all my RAM and 2) quitting with no reason and no warning.
I gave W8.1 a good couple of weeks before disposing of it and can see the attraction, but when I had to register with MS just to install software on my own machine i knew its days were numbered
p.s. i won’t use IE but certainly found chrome was better on that platform
Anyone hear Obama say that he was expecting to meet Key later in the year,after the election. Is he advocating for the Natz or have the dirty tricksters told him,”Don’t worry Mr President, your golfing buddy is guaranteed another term”.
“Well, maybe Key is just planning to head off to live fulltime in the US?”
Maybe that explains this wee slip of the tongue when Key said he and Obama are going to meet up next year, after politics, when the logistics will be easier.
neither of them can be very good. They played for five hours on a secured course, with buggies. Golf does not take five hours under those circumstances
BREAKING: I have just signed a statement claiming I donated $10billion to John Key for a cheap bottle of gin, where’s my front page and lead on the TV news?
By Martyn Bradbury / June 23, 2014
“I’m getting this terrible feeling that the entire NZ mainstream media have run with a Government created lie and not critically evaluated their one roll in perpetrating that lie….
All we have to date is a 6 week old bullshit signed statement that means nothing. If Donghua Liu was genuine he would sign an affidavit, he hasn’t. So his signed statement is about as credible as my signed statement claiming to have donated $10 Billion to John Key, yet major news outlets have run with this story as if they have clear legal protection to do so.
Unless Donghua Liu comes forward this week with an affidavit, the Labour party should take defamation action against every major news outlet for what amounts to the regurgitation minus any credible evidence of a manufactured smear”….
…well it shows he reads the Standard and appreciated your comment…isnt that good ?.flattery ..share and share around…all to the good end cause of defeating NACT and John Key
Chooky
You’ve been done. Just one bottle? A jeroboam? at least. Careful, it makes you go blind or something. Obvious that NACTs are big partakers. Don’t fall down that mousehole.
@ greywarbler …what do you mean just one bottle.?!..all i had was breakfast and reposted a Bomber post from the other side…and I never get drunk except on Election Night when i only get rather tiddled on champagne if the Left is winning…i am working up to this in imagination and anticipation
…if Labour and the Left dont win …it will be only be one glass to celebrate the demise of Peter Dunne
I posted a comment on TDB pointing out where Martyn had sourced the post from and, after an hour in moderation, it went up on the site. Twenty minutes later, it vanished. Funny that.
To be fair to Bomber, he did allow a second comment to go through, and he denies plagiarism because “… the idea I would read the standard was a clear lie “.
I don’t know about you lot, but I trust him completely when he says that. Honest.
well he probably said it with a maniac smile on his face like Rik in the ‘Young Ones’…so dont sob like Neil…he stole it from you the bastard !…so go and steal something from his site
People lie in affidavits regularly. Atheists swear affidavits rather than makedeclarations. The important issue for me is the lack of corroborating documentation.
Mr Liu says his trust gave money. Or someone said it was his trust. Ird requires documentation of a financial nature to be kept for 7 years. Ird will have proof or can request it. Unless the trustees agree, ird agrees cant release it publically.They wouldnt object though would they?.the trustees are required to keep the documents.
So, for me, being a statement or affidavit is irrelevant in practice, what is relevant is no supporting documentation.
Atheists swear affidavits rather than makedeclarations
Actually, atheists swear affirmations because it would be rather silly of them to swear on the bible which they don’t believe in. Also, what people swear on doesn’t make any difference as to their honesty. Honest people will be honest and liars will lie.
I hope everyone else is enjoying the football world cup as much as I am. I am interested that I saw an article this morning on my tablet that Van Gaal, the dutch coach, is having a whine about the officials, though from what I see of the dutch matches there were no issues. Van Gaal is normally a leveled headed person, so I am wondering if his comments have been taken out of context or not… I have to find a link to the article now
cheers Al1en, always good to have options. to reciprocate http://www.vipboxoc.co/
you have to do a few ad clicks to load the streams, but reliable feeds
I like wiziwig as it has a range of stream speeds from hd down. Use ad blocker, close any chat boxes and you’re away.
Also I can get GB commentary, which as in the case of the recent meat head tests, makes really biased home town callers a thing of the past.
Up watching the cricket last night, though I really shouldn’t have.
Pay for view funds professionalism, overpaid over-hyped beef heads on the field, the same watching their TVs.
I hate professional sport, I used to head down to Lancaster park, pay $5 to stand on the bank, chain my bike to the fence. Shield matches with 40,000 regular attendees and amateur teams. Glory, parochialism, fun. free to air test matches. Club play on the weekend against provincial and AB players.
Professionalism leaves me cold: we did not need to pay our gladiators at our Colosseum.
Level headed? Ha! van Gaal is notoriously outspoken and almost eccentric in his ability to polarise support. But he is a fantastic man manager, putting particular emphasis on knowing everything about his players, right down to remembering their kid’s birthdays, which has meant he is able to build genuine team spirit even amongst Dutch squads. He’s an expert at getting more than the sum of the parts out of his teams, which bodes well for Man U next season.
His complaint is that the Brasil team will know what they have to do in their final game to get the weakest possible opposition in the first knockout round (ie they might choose to play for a draw in order to be paired with a weak country). Of course, FIFA would never allow any kind of shenanigans like that to tarnish the beautiful game. Oh, no.
The scheduling thing is a genuine complaint; FIFA have some explaining to do on that as there appears to be no rhyme or reason for the scheduling as done. The rant about the officials seems weird, as both incidents were clear penalties. I suppose the ranting on that could be to take some pressure off his players, which good managers do….
..yes I have bets placed in this because of the company i keep ….thus far i am running at a profit…made more money than the sports nuts
….but to me politics is more interesting…and I am betting Labour alliance wins and Winnie is part of this alliance…so i expect to collect big time from present company i keep
On my wireless this morning Joyce is grovelling to Guyon on behalf of spending more of our hard earned coin on the millionaire ”struggling” boat racers,
”Strugglers” they sure as hell are, imagine having to struggle all the way to Parliament to claim,(falsely), that if the Government didn’t stump up with an immediate 5 million bucks of taxpayer coin ‘Team NZ’ would be gone in a month,
”Struggle” has got to be the 2 million bucks a year that Grant gets to run this little ‘pump shop’, pumping money outta the taxpayers pockets, ”struggle” you bet, it cost lots to let off steam from the ”struggle” buying up both state of the art and antique motor-bikes as well as race in a modified car class,
i can well imagine the ”struggle” Dean had wrestling all the furniture outta the million dollar pad in one of Auckland’s ritzier suburbs up the street into the new pad worth many millions so soon after losing the un-losable boat race,
The fact is that all the millions of taxpayers money spent on these ”sportsmen” in the last decade would have paid for breakfast and lunch for every kid in a decile 1,2,3, and 4 school in this country over the period that the taxpayer has been busily pushing the heavy wheel of capitalism in an effort to buy these bludgers their multi-million dollar habits,
We need to get our priorities right and in my opinion multi-millionaire yachties aint one of them…
But, but, but, No buts you hear, the ”team” is struggling and all of us red sock wearers must close ranks and support millionaire bludgers, oops i mean sportsmen everywhere…
I recently sent my MP (John Key) an email suggesting we apply normal WINZ thinking to the Americas Cup. The beneficiaries in question are perfectly capable of finding work – they don’t need government support. Cut the strings, make them stand on their own two feet. Means test them.
Few things piss me off as much as govt funding for the Americas Cup or for professional sports like rugby.
I was mildly irked to see that Daltons “gone at the end of the month” line was typical grasping bullshit and that they can keep going to the end of the year.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11279512
“Colin Craig launched his Conservative Party’s election campaign by assuming a strong moral stance — including ruling out any “bland and inspid cup of tea” electoral deal with National like the one used to keep Act in Parliament.”
lol…well he did say he didnt trust John Key when asked….maybe this explains their love hate relationship!…John knows Colin doesn’t trust him….and they really dont want to get into bed together…it could be a bumpy ride
…however Colin did say he could work with Labour and the Greens …can you believe that?….and could they work with him?
Sounds as though Tim is caught in an indefensible position. Decidedly flakey.
Incidentally my email was read out on Morning Report highlighting an idea floated on TS by someone showing that the Key/Media has framed the Liu Donations as Money For Access. But since no evidence of the $100,000 exists how can it be framed as Money for Influence?
Yeah that is just plain creepy and will put all beachgoers off enjoying our coastline. The eyes give it all away despite the ambiguity of where his missing hand resides…
Is this the best our “thinkers” and “academics” on $100K p.a. can come up with?
A more simple answer – lets not have either, and simply tax our biggest corporations another $1B p.a. instead of putting the burden on the poorest in society. Or if you prefer, have the government simply spend the $1B into circulation by keeping super the same age and creating 10,000 jobs for youth in NZ.
Too difficult an answer eh, so instead we are left deciding who is worthy enough to get a seat in the lifeboat.
Too right Stephenie. Like this bit that demonstrate the smoke and mirrors of Stats:
Further, the largest number of people avowing support for National was in the November 2012 poll at 442 (out of the roughly 1,000 polled). That’s 44.2% of adult New Zealanders. The percentage party support reported in the poll – based on only the preferences of the ‘decided’ voters who were likely to vote – was 46.3%.
The latest poll, however, has a reported percentage support for National of 56.5%. The number of actual people in that poll who avowed support for the National Party was 439 – three fewer people than in the November 2012 poll.
So, the reported support for National between November 2012 and June 2014 appears to show a 10% increase in the proportion of New Zealanders supporting the party. Yet, there are (marginally) fewer people declaring their support for National in June 2014.
Regarding the 50%-plus support in the polls, most all I have spoken to just think that is bizarre and that the polling people must have rocks in their heads… I imagine the reason people think it is odd is because it does not stack with the feeling on the streets.
This election is going to be very very close I think. The nats are on a hiding to nothing on various fronts, such as some seats in Chch, Hone and his merry band, and the like. Look at how close the last election and subsequent current government have been – the slimmest of majorities.
The nats are going to have to do dirty deals all over the place to get back in. However, given that dirty deals are their modus operandi watch out!
It is all based on the Undecided. As the Political Scientist says as the undecided numbers fall then the vote for Labour Greens rise in the polls. Conversely the more the undecided numbers rise then the proportion of National poll votes rise even though the actual number of supports for National stay the same. Odd eh?
This is why Labour MUST give the undecideds firm, irresistable reasons to DECIDE. Instead, Labour is literally driving its own supporters into the “undecided” category with policies like raising the retirement age.
These are not voters who want to leave Labour (for instance they are not going to National or to other parties) but they refuse to vote for a centrist, mixed up Labour that they do not recognise as being a true left wing party.
And guess what – no matter how middle of the road Labour shifts, soft NAT voters do not defect over to it in any significant numbers.
Pete George used to suggest that journos just didnt understand how polls work. I am way more cynical than he it seems. This also expkains why nats are getting dirty.
Great url Steph, I have been saying the polls were somewhat misleading because I figured that National could not pick up any more than 50% max. This seems to indicate 45% or less..good stuff, as it says it is a case of getting the undecided and non voters to the polling booths.
+1. That is a very good article, and doesn’t mince words.
This quote from Guy Rundle hits the nail on the head: Either this budget has fundamentally misjudged the residual social-democratic will of the Australian people . . . or, they have judged it right, and there has been a decisive political-cultural shift in Australia, towards a more individualistic/class-fragmented way of life, in which the poor are seen—US style—as “other.”
Not to mention the final warning: If we can always point to the United States to demonstrate where we don’t want to go, this frees the Australian left from the need to fully articulate the direction we think we should be heading—a question which is becoming more urgent every day.
What we are now seeing is that TINA means something, and means it with a vengeance. There is no rising tide that will life all boats, and there is no maturing market economy. There cannot be, because if the foot-on-the-back-of-the-neck is lifted, alternative systems are then able to gain traction. That is why I think that the fightback must begin with protection of the poor from the rich in the form of substantive human rights – e.g. the right to secure housing and the right to earn a living (as opposed to a pittance). Each step toward securing such things would inch the economy further along a path that accommodated them.
Olwyn
James McNeish’s book on Danilo Dolci told about his fight to help the poor in Southern Italy.. The economy was so munted by the mafia and corrupted authorities and church in Sicily, that there was an outcry when many working men went with Danilo on a ‘work-strike’. That was a strike where they protested against unemployment and fixed potholes in the road for free. That caused a stink. The emperor was seen naked and unadorned with comforting fuzzy lies. The Pope is on the case again. The last time that the Church leader spoke out against this, bombs were set off in churches.
The sooner that we force the issue here the better. The entitlement, rentier, speculator and milk-rush brigade get stronger every day, and then harder to penetrate their defences, mental and physical.
It is interesting how constant disagreement on dividing matters means dissipation of energy, time and effectiveness, seen in Thailand where the military have taken over. In NZ we are watched over by the USA who have run an exercise here with these relevant scenarios:
Organisers have created a scenario where the lower half of the South Island is a South West Pacific country called Mainlandiar. For the purposes of the exercise, the top half of the South Island doesn’t exist and the North Island is New Zealand.
In the scenario, Mainlandiar has held an election with the ousted prime minister refusing to go, supported by a militia.
Thanks for pointing out McNeish’s book – I will put it on my “to read” list.
The sooner that we force the issue here the better. The entitlement, rentier, speculator and milk-rush brigade get stronger every day, and then harder to penetrate their defences, mental and physical. Couldn’t agree more.
And I am not sure what to make of the South Island military exercises. On one hand, I assume such exercises need to run along narrative lines so that the participants have a basis for making decisions and acting on them. On the other, I can’t help getting a creepy sense of the military being taught how to intervene on a possible future government that doesn’t do as it’s told.
Think it’s called Fire under the Ashes Olwyn. It’s good like all of McNeish’s.
That exercise thing and Key’s undying love for Obama is to my mind just creepy. When other places in the world have received their share of loving care from the democracy or else our way brigade well who knows what could happen. But few people are probably cognisant of the implications. We still have a cold war in Dunedin, NZ about 1915 conscientious objectors recognition by the RSA who took ages to accept the post WW2 fighting men into their glorious ranks. My Dad buried in France, was saying that the Grim Reaper could very well get him, and that he had a different point of view than when he left NZ. But the old nostalgia for bloody war, death and injury has sort of pulled the wool over some eyes and blocked thinking passages.
Remembering NZ workers protests and the response from the noble denizens of the land from the past. Who would know whether we might have a real-life example to them all carried forward here run by our foreign friends. The Tuhoe exercise was done on whose say-so, for what purpose? A practice run, to ratchet up the police presence and capability a notch from the 1981 episode, and try out the use or the handling anyway of new weaponry?
A peaceful, happy country working out its problems diplomatically is not a hostile-event-prepared one. The unprepared Maori were in that position after Hongi Hika traded his gifts for guns. (Those gifts are historical taonga, I wonder where they ended up?) And now communism has been beaten, the logical next target is socialism. And social democracies, eeuugh.
Prof Joanathan Boston and Simon Chapple authors on an apparent wise D-I-Y economy book probably get their ideas direct down the pipe from the OECD.
This is one of their thinkpieces on it. Pensions are too generous – it makes sense to work longer. Thinking that might have been done with one’s head down a toilet, or with one eye on an old telescope eyepiece.
What about the workers! Or more to the point those who have been denied work and a livable wage by this august well paid bunch of boffins. http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/archivestory.php/aid/824/Retiring_later_makes_sense.html
Here from a table showing countries’ leaving ages from employment.
Mexico
Korea
Chile
in paid employment either over 70 or near in years 2009-2013.
(New Zealand is midway in table and well above OECD average for length of employment years.)
Pensions at a glance OECD 2013
3.8. Average effective age of labour market exit and normal pensionable age
“A case could be made for expecting capable, older New Zealanders to support themselves without the benefit of New Zealand Superannuation for a bit longer,” they said.
The authors said many other countries had moved that way. Moving the age of eligibility would just be a start – it should then be indexed to life expectancy as Denmark has done.
Here is a grab of OECD headings with a few stats on employment –
Young Danes aged 15-24 face an unemployment rate of 14.1% compared ..
and
Young Norwegians aged 15-24 face an unemployment rate of 8.6%, …
and
In terms of employment, 72% of people aged 15 to 64 in New-Zealand have a paid job, …
and
In terms of employment, around 74% of people aged 15 to 64 in Sweden have a …
Referring to thinkpieces at top – is referring to the OECD link but says basically what Boston et al say.
And when looking at employment stats remember that what is classed as paid employment is what is decided by Stats or Treasury or OECD. They may have been counting all paid work of at least an hour a week, a day, or a year. Not what I myself would count as useful employment stats but useful for masking the extent of a problem.
But I don’t know. I have to go and do some unpaid physical work that isn’t of much interest to the magic bean counters.
We live in a fantasy world so from Through the Looking Glass a good quote to remember between Alice and Humpty Dumpty. “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”
And consult the Red Queen for good advice about saying things and possibly it applies to doing things, though I hope that things wrongly done in NZ can be corrected. “It’s too late to correct it,” said the Red Queen: “when you’ve once said a thing, that fixes it, and you must take the consequences.”
I backed Ed Milliband for the UK Labour leadership, but when he retreats into cautious poll driven word smithed mode, what good is he. As many others have been noticing.
Are there no Labour Parties around the world able to take on the Right Wing even during a prolonged age of austerity and recession?
“It depends on which Ed Miliband you are talking about,” he said. “Will it be the Ed who is bold, who really wants to change things? Or will it be the one who is defensive, cautious and listens to the focus groups? Is our leader the guy who learned his craft sitting on Gordon Brown’s lap for a decade or is he the bloke who is prepared to change the game?”
From beginning to end the question was unresolved. There was a party leader on stage and a policy programme on seats but no one knew what the relationship was between the one and the other. That morning, Labour had briefed the press that it would accept one of the IPPR’s 30 or so big ideas – to end out-of-work benefits for about 100,000 18- to 21-year-olds and replace them with a less expensive means tested allowance if they went into training.
To those wanting a big, broad, new story to tell about the condition of Britain, their party’s response was a disappointment. “So this is it,” said one activist. “A policy designed to reassure the public that we, like the Tories, don’t like benefit scroungers. Where’s the big new offer there?”
Marcus Roberts, deputy general secretary of the Fabian Society, observed that “shifting £65m from jobseekers’ allowance to non-vocational qualifications does not reimagine social democracy” and said victory in 2015 required more, including “radical change in policy and organisation alike”.
Is the National Party socket puppet Rachel Glucina being used to undermine John Campbell?
“Is trouble brewing behind the scenes at MediaWorks about the state of current affairs on TV3? A well-informed source tells The Diary there is a level of concern at “very senior levels” about daily current events show Campbell Live and whether adding a female co-host could be a solution.”
“The Diary understands suggestions have been made that Campbell Live should make changes and reinvent itself.
“The stories are often too depressing and need to be more uplifting and encompass the whole country. And there’s been too much focus on earthquake gripes and hyperbolised accounts of the GSCB,” said a source.
“Campbell Live is Grey Lynn TV that’s used the situation in Christchurch to leverage a national audience, but that’s a one-trick pony.”
“The show’s leanings, traditionally left, are also perhaps not in line with Kiwis’ thought patterns – which are more upbeat and confident at the moment.”
“The Herald’s Rachel Glucina raised an interesting prospect last week in her column headed “Woman’s touch tipped as answer for Campbell”.
Given that his ratings are lower than those on 7 Sharp, the theory goes that Campbell should get a lady in to help out about the place.
Also, reading between the lines, the message from an unnamed ‘insider’ is that JC should stop moaning about the losers in our society and get behind our glorious leader Mr Key, and stop being a bloody communist.
Glucina’s thinly disguised self endorsement article has a poll which I answered just I could post current polling stats here. I’ll wash the mouse directly.
As at 1.05pm Monday:
“Yes – he’s been looking a little lonely. 19%
Maybe – perhaps just on the odd night? 13%
No – I like Campbell to fly solo. 68%”
Maybe she is not as adept as she has led herself to believe. She should perhaps, get herself mentored by someone quite like her ownself to teach her how to relate to herself.
(I am practising pointless wordage, so I can simultaneously discredit her, and then apply for her job. I am now working on a quote to give myself so I can receive it and then quote it in my finely tuned forthcoming article)
Was diverted this morning into a quick search on the Proposed Unitary Plan for Auckland and ended up in the volcanic viewshafts submissions.
Was interested, but not particularly surprised to see the level of diligence that our now defunct Housing New Zealand took to try to ensure that future owners of then current HNZ stock, would not be impeded by any misguided attempt to ensure volcanic viewshafts and UNESCO Heritage status.
This translates as
If you are not insured and have a disaster then you get nothing.
The National government being very generous has given people 50% of the value to help them get back on their feet. Very decent.
Labour now claim that they will pay the uninsured the same money as the insured. Why on earth would anyone buy insurance if Labour came to power? What message does that send? Desperation for votes. Cash for votes.
Kiwiassure is therefore stuffed as are all insurance companies. You can bribe some people some of the time but you cannot fool 50%.
We could buy some broken houses and help some screwed over kiwis get back on their feet
or feed a few bankers in a bail out banquet at Antoine’s and throw in some tickets to a yacht race
no prizes for guessing which you would prefer fisiani
When national and local governments provide permission through planning processes for development to occur, they are in effect saying that they have met their obligations to current and future owners of those properties that they will be fit for purpose.
What is the point of insurance if Labour gives you a payout whether you have it or not?
This is just a cynical attempted bribe to buy a few votes in Christchurch. There are far more insured people than uninsured. Effectively through their taxes the insured and careful will subsidise the uninsured and feckless. For every vote it gains via bribery it loses 10 due to lack of principle.
It’s as useless a tactic as telling the West Coasters that the windfall trees must rot on the forest floor and there cannot be jobs, wealth , timber for Christchurch and a windfall payout to DOC for conservation. For every 1 Green Taliban lover there are 100 sensible West Coasters.
For every 100 low socio economic taxpayers there is 1 south canterbury finance investor bludging $1,700,000,000 for their shonky, feckless, reckless and greedy investment habits.
Get some scale you dumbarse.
Btw, on just one particular point at hand you do realise that it is not possible to insure bare land, don’t you? I suspect not.
“timber for Christchurch ” I can only assume you are meaning for building new houses? So I have to ask you fisiani…have you any idea how ridiculous that statement is? Apart from maybe a few sq meters making its way into a council building’s fancy panel work or being used as shelving in some one’s kitchen or den, there is no way reclaimed native timber is going to be used for house framing timber when current prices have 100mm x 50mm around $25 l/m.
If those logs do get cleared, you will have to sit there and watch them head overseas like all our reclaimed swamp Kauri. I wonder if Oravida Kauri Ltd is going to be making an application?
Not taking out private insurance has nothing to do with red-zoning and consequent payouts you muppet. Go get some learnings and stop trying to be a deceptive bastard like Browlee on this issue.
Because helping people affected significantly by a natural disaster is so totes a bad thing. Heck taking your line of thinking and running with it, one could argue that we shouldn’t give farmers and central government help vis droughts because often they don’t have insurance for it.
Anyhow this is bloody good idea, insurance can be very difficult to pay for if you don’t have the income, which for many pensioner’s is a fact of life, as it is for anyone who ends up on a benefit or very low income while owning a house. Oh and amusingly WINZ used to help pay for insurance/rates/house maintenance because it works out cheaper than paying rental costs, but under Bennett such rational cost/benefit stuff has been thrown out in favour of treating beneficiaries like criminals.
Or in terms you and the sewer can understand:
food+power+other living costs>>>>house insurance
The you’ve got those who forgot to renew their insurance and are now fucked or were excluded from the EQC buyout because they had a bar section, resulting in major financial problems for many of them.
In terms of votes, helping people out and ye olde “fairness” issues are usually a vote winner and in the context of Christchurch, a major vote winner for Eastern, Central and South electorates, where the majority of people screwed over by Brownlee and EQC live.
In the tsumani of comments on Smeargate not sure if this got mentioned already,
“The same Herald article refers to right-wing commentator; National Party apparatchik, and professional lobbyist, Matthew Hooton, being hired by Donghua Liu, to change business migration laws in this country;”
Ended up where I needed to be to get some information about the PAUP – Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan. (Note: all those marketing degrees and they end up with an acronym that almost spells Pauper?)
And came across this disquieting entry relating to submissions by the Ministry of Ed.
Pulling up the wordy and repetitive document that entails the submission, it seems to ask that the 400 school sites in Auckland that it is responsible for no longer retain a special purpose zoning. Instead, that is replaced by the same zoning that exists in adjacent properties.
What does this mean for schools?
Since we don’t operate under the suggested Open Source democracy above who knows. But the cynic in me thinks – watch out school communities, your social value is steadily being eroded by this government, and this ensures that your capital value is easily ascertained and converted into cash.
Considering Labour got 34 seats last election and it was a fairly low voter turn out that year, I would say that you are making stuff up based on your own wishful thinking.
By the way, I am interested to know do you do that confusing reality with fantasy stuff deliberately or is it that you have difficulty discerning the difference between the two?
Have been re reading Jaques Ellul. This reminded me of fisiani, bm and other right wing regurgitators
” People used to think that learning to read evidenced human progress; they still celebrate the decline of illiteracy as a great victory; they condemn countries with a large proportion of illiterates; they think that reading is a road to freedom. All this is debatable, for the important thing is not to be able to read, but to understand what one reads, to reflect on and judge what one reads. Outside of that, reading has no meaning (and even destroys certain automatic qualities of memory and observation). But to talk about critical faculties and discernment is to talk about something far above primary education and to consider a very small minority. The vast majority of people, perhaps 90% percent, know how to read, but do not exercise their intelligence beyond this. They attribute authority and eminent value to the printed word, or, conversely, reject it altogether. As these people do not possess enough knowledge to reflect and discern, they believe — or disbelieve — in toto what they read. And as such people, moreover, will select the easiest, not the hardest, reading matter, they are precisely on the level at which the printed word can seize and convince them without opposition. They are perfectly adapted to propaganda. “
Oh dear, that sounds horribly familiar with people I know in RL (real life) too 🙁
That bit about believing or disbelieving what is read solves a puzzle for me re how some people can appear intelligent yet become very ‘binary’ over certain things (black & white). At the point they become ‘binary’ there is no convincing them otherwise – no amount of easily understood, information (reasoned or otherwise) will change their minds. I figure that occurs when they have made that decision to disbelieve. At which point, any evidence to the contrary gets turned around in a manner that supports their argument. (Conspiracy theorists are guilty of this).
Very interesting, I have never heard of the writer (about to google it). My mother has often said that about memory and reading – how learning to read affects memory, will have to ask her if she got it from that author . Very interesting ta!
Downloadable, great! I just checked out the Wikipedia page on him – am rather surprised I don’t appear to have come across him at all – saw the book you mentioned on that page and it immediately sounded like something that would interest me (I am fascinated on how propaganda works on people…and also how to stop it working on people!). Glad to hear it is available online, will go and find it now!
nobody cares what you think fishyanus,
you are an agent provocateur who always gets it wrong.
Labour is about to clean up.
I spoke to a died in the wool tory this morning in town and he said that real national people are getting tired of the prevarication and dissembling from this lot and they have just about had enough.
hangers on are going to be swept aside.
that means you fishy!
Thatcher came to power. Cheap energy trends set in. Progressive politics died and was taken over by the extreme right. Now every policy must have a tax cut for the wealth and cross taxation to sustain the welfare budget (what is family credits but getting childless low to middle income earner to pay for children of low to middle income earners and give the richest a tax cut). It was class war and the wealth won. Now we’re told home ownership is falling and that does not represent growing inequality.
Since there can be no talk of an independent ideology formulated by the working masses themselves in the process of their movement, the only choice is – either bourgeois or socialist ideology. There is no middle course (for mankind has not created a “third” ideology).
[lprent: Moved to OpenMike. Appears to have nothing to do with this post. Don’t do diversion trolling on posts. Read the policy. This is your warning. ]
Am I naive or did this auction actually take place? Be hilarious if Mr Liu did spend up large on this or devastaing for the Herald. They woulkd say sorry, sorry sorry or not.
Despite giving Americans a “blow job”, alliance with the US is “worthless”
Apparently some distant protectorates of the Empire may not be as loyal to Rome as first appears.
The Wprost news magazine said the recording was of a private conversation between [Polish Foreign Minister] Sikorski and Jacek Rostowski (finance minister) with such headlines as “you know that the Polish-US alliance isn’t worth anything;” also describing Warsaw’s attitude towards the United States using the Polish word “murzynskosc” – roughly translated as a negro slave – “It is downright harmful, because it creates a false sense of security … Complete bullshit. We’ll get in conflict with the Germans, Russians and we’ll think that everything is super
Be interesting to see how this one unfolds or another Tory Smear..
re they saying Liu’s declaration is false? or is it true? the dates are quite a way apart…… will be watchin how they explain this one when it backfires 🙂
@toby_etc I am familiar with the event. The wine you refer to sold for $1,600, and I have seen the record proving it was not to Mr Liu.
5:05 PM – 23 Jun 2014
The piece showing the Auction catalogue entries has been lost in translation to my computer with percentages all over the place. It looks like one of those brain tests where you instinctively know what a part word is. How good to put the story to bed. The Hairy will be upset – it looked as if it would percolate for weeks, carefully heated.
Hah good job…. will go follow him and get that tweet and spread it far and wide ….. o the irony of seeing trolls jump in anger is sooooooooooooooo satisfying
Oh Lorde, I thought when I first opened that page it was going to say she was a young nat. Thank goodness she isn’t, we would never hear the end of it…..
A post by Jan Logie – something to read with a heavy heart. This is the stuff the NActs don’t want us to know about while they congratulate themselves on being oh so good at the dirty tricks, celebrity politics diversions, and double speak.
Shameful that this is happening in NZ. It’s also something to link to every time some rightie starts saying no-one in NZ needs to be poor – it’s their choice.
Until the Left takes human rights seriously, and enables the police and courts to prosecute breaches whether or not people were just following National Party orders, nothing will change. Apart from our international reputation sliding further into the gutter, that is.
Our forbears fought wars to protect human rights: they won. Don’t let the National Party re-litigate the outcome.
PS: start with accessory/conspiracy to murder charges against anyone who has facilitated US drone strikes in any way, and go from there. Demand the accused be extradited from Hawaii if necessary.
..i’ve done time..hung with junkies and crims..done battle with screws..
..and have moved in and out of various (scary to some) subcultures around the planet..
..but the people who i have met on this planet who i think are ..in the main..absolute fucken scum…
..are the sadistic fucks at work and income..
..and one of my largest motivations to argue for a universal basic income..
..is ‘cos most of those useless excuses for ill-educated/dumb-as-fucken-doorknobs/useless for anything else/wastes of space wd not be not needed..wd be out of a job..
..and i wd love to be given the job of firing their arses..i wd volunteer(unpaid..)
..these people are (in the main) sick/sadistic fucks..
..and my skin crawls i loathe them so much..
..and you may think..that being a man raising a kid..you wd at least get treated the same as women in the same position..
..nah..!..those (in the main) woman-witches seem to see you as payback for every male that ‘did them wrong’..and treat you accordingly..
..i can’t think of any other reason for their actions/treatment of me..and those others they are meant to be there to help..
..it is a sick fucken institutional-culture..with them loathing their ‘clients’..treating them with contempt..
..making them jump thru hoops..just generally fucking them over in every way possible..
..and their fucken ‘seminars’..?..dumb-shit/waste-of-time…braindead-fucken-morons talking absolute drivel..
..people you wouldn’t trust to hammer in a fucken nail .. lecturing/bullying/threatening….
..(and that is part of the head-fuck..as these morons ruling over you..bullying/fucking with yr life/head..are clearly not competent to do anything else..
Used to enjoy Hoskings on Radio. Was a bit like Mary Wilson, hard incisive questions but with age and riches he’s become just another Paul Henry celebrity shock dick. Shame really.
If the media report is correct that the TPP will not be successfully negotiated this year, then that is a real shame, but we simply press on. The Uruguay Round took 8 years to negotiate and delivered enormous benefits for the world in freeing trade. New Zealand was a strong advocate, and our unilateral trade liberalisation was an example for everyone.
The TPP will be finalised, and ratified by New Zealand some time in the next two years. I hope it has bilateral support from Labour. If not no doubt the next National Government will press ahead after the election. There is no alternative.
It is really sad that you feel a global cabal of corporate contracts that tie up every country on earth and put self-determination on the scrap heap, is a good thing. That or you simply fail to understand how all the other versions of the TPPA that are also being negotiated around the planet, fit together.
Personally srylands, I feel it is the latter that is your particular problem.
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
The lead witness in Ngāi Tahu’s freshwater claim says the case raises an “existentialist question” for his people.“My greatest fear is that we will have our connection with our land and waterways extinguished,” Te Maire Tau (Ngāi Tahu/Ngāi Tūāhuriri) said in the Christchurch High Court, before Justice Melanie Harland. The university history ...
New Zealand employers are well-used to the constant evolution of employment and workplace health and safety law – but we think the scope of changes in this area may still surprise in 2025. In our view, the number of changes under active consideration and the potential practical impact of those ...
As New Zealand woke to Waitangi Day, 1600 athletes and their support crew began to descend on the sleepy west coast town of Greymouth, ready to take on the iconic multisport race, the Coast to Coast.Among the cars laden with kayaks, bikes and enough race food to feed a small ...
I collect sailing books, especially solo sailing adventures. I sail a lot and when in meetings, I think about sailing rather than focus on the dry PowerPoint presentations of earnest landlubbers. Just quietly, I also offer dead sailors drinks and occasionally good books over the side when I am at ...
Over the past few weeks, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has had public tiffs with the leaders of both the Cook Islands and Kiribati.The issues: first Peters put foreign aid to Kiribati under review after President Taneti Maamau cancelled a meeting with him. Then this week, Peters accused the PM of ...
Proposed changes to the Fisheries Act 1996 could see on-board cameras, introduced to protect endangered marine and seabird species, shut off from public view. Lyric Waiwiri-Smith explains.Minister for oceans and fisheries Shane Jones was in his element on Wellington’s waterfront on Wednesday morning. While waves crashed onto the rocks ...
The prime minister has had a bad week, and it’s barely Thursday. This week’s Luxon low points, ranked.8. Bad poll, part oneA Taxpayers’ Union-Curia Poll released on Monday showed that Labour, the Greens, and Te Pāti Māori could form a government. Christopher Luxon is down 3.8 points at ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('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, Thursday 13 February appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Appiah Takyi, Senior Lecturer, Department of Planning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Street vending is a major economic activity in most of Ghana’s urban areas. The vendors bring everyday goods to residents and commuters at affordable prices in ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – The United States shares the pathologies of all dying empires with their mixture of buffoonery, rampant corruption, military fiascos, economic collapse and savage state repression.ANALYSIS: By Chris Hedges The billionaires, Christian fascists, grifters, psychopaths, imbeciles, narcissists and deviants who ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government has secured bipartisan support for a major new regime covering political donations and spending, after making significant concessions. The government agreed to increase the proposed threshold above which donations must be disclosed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With the election only months away, the Labor government finds itself suddenly battling with the Trump administration for an exemption from new US tariffs on steel and aluminium. The opposition has supported the effort, but ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julee McDonagh, Senior Research Fellow of Frailty Research, University of Wollongong PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock Ageing is a normal part of the life course. It doesn’t matter how many green smoothies you drink, or how many “anti-ageing” skin care products you ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Carlson, Professor, Critical Indigenous Studies and Director of The Centre for Global Indigenous Futures, Macquarie University The Conversation, CC BY-SAAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people. Colonial commemorations ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hazel, Associate Professor, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide Masarik/Shutterstock In some overseas countries, pets can travel with their owners in a plane’s cabin, in a carrier under a seat. In Australia, pets must travel in the ...
A raft of proposed legislation changes to the media and screen industry have been announced this morning – we read through it all all so you don’t have to. What’s all this then? This morning the Ministry for Culture and Heritage released its draft proposed changes to media and screen ...
David Seymour's recent off-road parliamentary excursion led to a reprimand from the Speaker, who also said the rules didn't apply to this instance. What are the rules? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee Morgenbesser, Associate Professor, School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University, Griffith University Many Americans have watched in horror as Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has been permitted to tear through various offices of the United States government in recent ...
By Patrick Decloitre,RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls has announced he will travel to New Caledonia later this month to pursue talks on the French territory’s political future. These discussions on February 22 follow preliminary talks held last week in Paris in “bilateral” mode ...
As Benjamin Netanyahu threatens to resume war, Hamas outlines widespread Israeli ceasefire violations in document sent to the mediators.By Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous of Dropsite News Hamas officials submitted a two-page report to mediators yesterday listing a wide range of Israeli violations of the Gaza ceasefire since ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Murray Print, Professor of Education, University of Sydney A federal parliamentary inquiry has just recommended civics and citizenship become a compulsory part of the Australian Curriculum, which covers the first year of school to Year 10. The committee also recommended a ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits of Aotearoa writers, and guests. This week: Claire Baylis, author of Dice and guest at the forthcoming HamLit programme at the Hamilton Arts Festival. The book I wish I’d writtenMy mind seems surprisingly unwilling ...
The courts should deal with illegal fishing, not the "court of public opinion", Shane Jones says, as he announces proposed changes to the Quota Management System. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan McElhone, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Monash University A London court has found Sam Kerr not guilty of the racially aggravated harassment of Metropolitan Police officer Stephen Lovell. As captain of the Australian women’s national soccer team, Kerr was widely condemned when ...
Could iwi and hapū be the unexpected solution to the government’s asset dilemma? David Seymour pressured the prime minister into an unwelcome conversation, and in the couple of weeks since the Act leader raised the issue in his state of the nation speech, privatisation has shifted from absent in the ...
Human rights advocates must uphold human dignity, rights and justice, while rejecting the discriminatory tactics we oppose, writes Taimor Hazou.Two weeks ago the Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) launched a campaign inviting New Zealanders to call a hotline if they suspected an Israel Defence Force (IDF) soldier that had ...
Immigration New Zealand figures shows more people have been looking at the ETA and visitor visa pages on the website, however fewer people have applied to come or to extend their stay. ...
So Rick Barker has denied the $100,000 auction bid and he previously confirmed that the $60,000 boat cruise was actually a meal at a work gathering on a boat.
And Mr Liu has said that he will make no further comment about political donations or swear an affidavit outlining dollar amounts.
So this leaves the Labour Party with having to spend precious time on an issue that is essentially not an issue. And the media have climbed in and chosen to have another kick at the left.
Frustrating times …
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11279513
The donation is ”said” to have come to Labour via Liu’s lawyer’s trust account and the pressure should now go on this particular lawyer to provide proof of any donation,
IF, there is in fact ANY donation i would suggest it will be shown to be one of ten thousand dollars and ”someone” will have inflated this into the ”claimed” $100,000,(a mistake in translation will later be forthcoming as a butte covering),
The Editor of the Herald said on RadioNZ National this morning that they have been ”sitting on” the statement from Liu claiming to have made the donation since the Williamson resignation,
As Liu is said to have no use of the English language it begs the question of who wrote the ”statement”…
Edit: Tim Barnett the Labour Party secretary has said, again on RadioNZ National, that they have checked with the lawyers who ”did” donate amounts in the 100’s of 1000’s to Labour in 2007, and, they cannot find any link between the (3) law firms and Liu…
And who gave it to the Herald and why it was timed at this particular time. The Herald is clearly being manipulated. Shame they do not have the gumption to report on this particular aspect of it.
The Herald’s editor refusing to name the source of the Liu info on Morning Report this AM. Who is he protecting here?
“Who is he protecting here?”
The National Party! Gotta laugh how their smear campaign is unravelling. Idiots think they can make shit up to distract from the hot water they are in over corrupt practices and cash for access.
The real story here is the Smear Campaign, not the 11 year old letter or the mythical donations.
+1, precisely, and the public will turn against Key when he’s exposed for employing Tea Party tactics.
A few elections ago, Nats had the exclusive brethren.
Playing before our eyes this time, it is the NZ Herald.
I heard the Editor and I took from his comments about Liu’s – possible lack of conformity to truth or fact; inaccuracy. – that Eddy is happy to swirl around in his bag of tricks and pull out a plum from the lucky dip every few days. (I got my mixed metaphors from my lucky dip! More to come. Watch this space or nearby!)
And the Hairy did not get all the information they presented, in May either. I think I heard that it popped up a few days ago.
Amusing RWs, they are very flexible thinkers!. One sent an email to Radionz setting Liu up as a good citizen just donating to a good cause and Labour painted as responsible for stirring things up apparently for their own advantage. Hahaha.
Note: There is something of an incestuous relationship becoming apparent between Slippery the Prime Minister and the NZHerald within the time-line of disclosures surrounding the Liu ”donation”,(who would have thunk it),
IF, my memory serves me correctly, it was Slippery the PM who first raised the ”specter” of donations from Liu to Labour being ”six figures” from amidst His Amerikan sojourn even befor the Herald claimed to have the Liu ”statement”…
Slippery/ShonKey (you don’t get total naming rights here bad12) has a few things that suggest he does indeed have the capability to indulge in dirty tricks and media manipulation.
Finance capital links, Prime Minister, minister in charge of all spooks and relations with 5 eyes snoopers, contacts with media owners and bloggers, dirtiest filthiest media company Crosby /Textor customer and all-round Hollow man.
TM, ever see me claim that i did,(re: total naming rights)…
Adding to my previous note: it is obvious that the NZHerald is ”hiding” something with its refusal to let anyone from the Labour Party even view the ”alleged” statement from Liu surrounding donations,
My previous comment mentions my view that the donation amount has been ”inflated” by persons at this stage unknown,
i mention a figure of 10,000 dollars as a likely amount for any ”actual” donation made by Liu to the Labour Party in 2007,
The fact is, IF there were a donation at all, and, i have some large doubts about this, the sum could have been in the range of a thousand dollars,($1000),
Perhaps the Herald would serve its readers well by publishing the ”facts”, like where exactly, ie: to which branch of the Labour Party, was this ”supposed” donation made…
I remember being told once
“Never ask a question in public, unless you already know the answer”
Winston is the master of it, and clearly Key made his comments in the full knowledge of the Liu letter and in the full knowledge of the NZ Herald having a copy.
I wouldnt doubt for a minute that Trevor Mallard, and Bill Birch before him, have played the same tactics time and again.
Its politics and its how its been played by the main parties for a very long time. To be fair, the Greens are the only mob who seem to avoid it, and good on them for that.
i believe it comes from law. Young lawyers get taught, when cross examing never ask a question you dont know the answer to and dont ask one question too many.
I was also advised by a top Simpson Grierson lawyer that 80% of people incriminate themselves when interviewed by the Police, and they usually do it by answering more than the question actually legally requires to be answered.
Still, he did manage to keep a very senior NZ Politician out of court a few years back. Maybe Banks needed better Counsel.
David Jones is pretty good. I believe that Banks stuffed things up with his statement to the police.
“The donation is ”said” to have come to Labour via Liu’s lawyer’s trust account and the pressure should now go on this particular lawyer to provide proof of any donation,”
Perhaps we should ask about the donations to David Cunliffe’s campaign fund.
Should the pressure go on the lawyer who set the fund up to release the names of the donors so that DC can make a complete return to Parliament on gifts he received?
Another subject changer, i would rather have Slippery the Prime Minister tell all of New Zealand from where He got the information He released to the media while sojourning in Amerika about the ”supposed” six figure donation from Liu to the Labour Party,
As far as i know David Cunliffe has made a full disclosure surrounding donations He recieved for His successful bid to become the Labour leader,
It is obvious to anyone with half a brain, that appears not to include you Alwyn, that giving the monies paid back to the donor who did not wish to be identified cancels that donation as having been given and thus allows for that donations non-inclusion in the register of gifts,
Its a really ”simple” concept Alwyn and is in fact the same concept, backed by the Parliament that would allow the Green Party to return donations from those it would feel sullied by should they accept them and thus have no requirement to report such donations…
“that giving the monies paid back to the donor who did not wish to be identified cancels that donation as having been given and thus allows for that donations non-inclusion in the register of gifts,”
I am not a lawyer, and am only quoting a casual opinion from a lawyer friend, but I was told that a gift had to be declared, even it was later returned or passed on to another organisation. Thus accepting and then returning a gift does NOT cancel the need to declare it.
That is why Ministers list everything they receive, even though the PM may not allow them to keep the presents.
I understand that Cunliffe’s reason for not declaring the amounts is that he claims not to know who the people were. Do you really believe that?
However, assuming it is true is the reason I am suggesting we should require the person who was administering the trust to ‘fess up.
Can you please provide a link to your comment about the Green Party? I would like to see whether they really received and then returned donations or whether they were not received in the first place
how can you genuinely only know half the story?
NO law requiring cunliffe to declare a trust for his leadership campaign BUT against labour party rules SO he went to the five donors. Three happy to be named, and were. Two not happy so their donations refunded.
Now you might be able to see the difference. I wont hold my breath.
I suggest you look at the Standing Orders of Parliament regarding gifts to Members of Parliament.
They are required to declare any gift they receive, with exceptions for such things as gifts from close family members that is worth more than $500. The Trust as a whole, and by deduction at least one of the refunded amounts, was certainly more than $500.
The money from the trust was a gift to the member and the parliamentary rules required that he at least declare the Trust’s donation.
The question of declaring the individual members who contributed depends on whether there was a reasonable expectation that he knew who they were. If you think he didn’t know you can believe anything.
A rule of the Labour Party does not override a Standing Order of Parliament.
The stupidity of Cunliffe was of course to set up a Trust in the first place, after complaining long and loud about other parties using such things.
The point is that it was the gift that had to be declared and the fact that the money was returned at a later date does not affect that in the slightest. If DC still claims he doesn’t know who the individuals were I suggest the lawyer who administered the trust should help him out.
Yes, because you’re all about dishonouring agreements, in this case a guarantee of anonymity, and then you people have the towering hypocrisy and arrogance to talk about personal responsibility.
The National Party makes no effort whatsoever to hide its donors from its MPs: they sell access to Ministers for fuck’s sake. What does this tell us about other parties? Nothing, but that won’t stop you smearing everyone else with your filth, will it?
Alwyn, you are keeping in mind that the trust was set up for his leadership bid? As such, it has nothing to do with the Parliamentary obligations of a Party or its MP’s. Any declarations of the trust was voluntary.
If I have this wrong I would really appreciate being steered in the correct direction.
Q. Were the gifts made to DC or a third party?
A. A third party, who then re-gifted the funds as part of the leadership campaign.
This was declared.
This is exactly the same mechanism as the Waitemata Trust, but Alwyn is a snivelling hypocrite with zero personal responsibility, so conveniently ignores this.
Very good young fellow.
You forget one thing though.
National stopped using the Waitemata Trust when the Electoral Law was changed.
Cunliffe chose to implement a Trust system to finance his campaign for the leadership although it was clearly in breach of the spirit of the law his own party had implemented.
It is the declaration of gifts to a Member of Parliament that he is skirting with, not the Electoral Act. If he says he can’t obey the law and tell us who made the gifts he should demand that the “Trustee” of the Trust do so.
Giving the money back doesn’t cut it.
You also say that the party guaranteed anonymity. To bad. For Cunliffe the Rules of Parliament override party rules.
That will be why it’s been sent to the Privileges Committee, eh. No? Gosh, perhaps someone higher up than you dismissed your opinions out-of-hand. I certainly hope so, it would mean at least I have something in common with them.
“although it was clearly in breach of the spirit of the law”
oh so you openly admit no law was broken then, 🙄
Freedom @2.25pm.
Of course it was in conformity to the law to set up a trust.
It was however, in my view at least, politically completely stupid for a number of reasons.
The first is that it leaves him wide open to attack for concealing details of who his financial backers were. If he is accused of being supported by, say, Kim Dotcom he can’t deny it. To do so would be implicitly admitting that he knew who it was and once he has started claiming that he doesn’t know he can’t do that. How about a claim that a donor was David Ross, the swindler from Wellington who is now doing time. Gee David keeps awful company doesn’t he?
The second is that he looks incredibly tight-fisted. He, even as a backbencher made about $150,000/year. His wife, a law firm partner would probably make at least $250,000. The live in a house worth $2.5 million. And he is too mean to pay his own expenses for accommodation while campaigning to be leader.
The third is that the Labour Party campaigned against anonymous trust fund donations to support politicians. But not for me says David.
Shorter Alwyn: I agree with David Cunliffe’s assessment that “I don’t think … a trust structure fully represented the values I would like to bring to this leadership”.
How feeble: paragraphs and paragraphs of lies and vacuous drivel all boil down to parroting the target’s own words.
What an egg.
So alwyn, I take you will support the EDRNZ idea then? Full transparency of all donations to local and central body election funds above a $1000 threshold.
here is a rough sketch http://thestandard.org.nz/heres-an-idea-electoral-funding/
Freedom.
The trust was apparently set up to pay for his campaign for the leadership.
The money, agreed to be more than $500 was a gift to Mr Cunliffe. All MPs have an obligation under the rules of Parliament to declare any gift they receive that is more than $500. Once you accept the gift you have to declare it so a declaration of the trust is not voluntary. It has nothing to do with the party and its rules. It has to do with the obligations of an MP under the Rules of the House
John Banks was pinged for not declaring a gift basket in a Hong Kong hotel room because it was, apparently to his genuine surprise, worth more than $500.
was banks given the basket, or his trust?
i suggest you read the cabinet manually and then come back and post your outrage that collins remains.
Can you quote the part of the standing orders relating to gifts to trusts. Thanks.
I am not sure that I really want to read the cabinet “manually”. It sounds dreadfully like a rectal examination to me.
I don’t have to approve of Collins. I think she is an ignorant, arrogant ass. In just the same way I think that Cunliffe is an ignorant, arrogant ass. I certainly don’t think that either of them is qualified to be PM. On the other hand I don’t think either of them has done sufficient to get the boot.
The Cabinet Manual says members must declare
“(b) a description of each gift received by the member that has an estimated market value in New Zealand of more than $500 and the name of the donor of each of those gifts (if known or reasonably ascertainable by the member)”
The money from the trust is certainly a gift and has to be declared. Legally that is all that is required, provided that Cunliffe is genuinely unaware of who the five donors to the trust were. If he knows I suspect he would have to tell us who they were. Once he has taken the money the gift is established and giving it back doesn’t relieve him of the obligation to declare the gift.
It isn’t that that is his problem of course. It is the fact that he was so stupid as to think he wouldn’t be attacked for trying to hide who his financial backers were. The Labour Party changed the Electoral Act to prevent this sort of thing in an election campaign and he is silly enough to do the same sort of thing with regard to his declaration of pecuniary interests.
Listen, egg, you don’t get to rehash drivel you’ve already backed away from on another thread.
Of course it was in conformity to the law to set up a trust. It was however, in my view at least, politically completely stupid…
Unless you want to embody National Party values and exhibit zero personal responsibility, that is.
Well OAB, you don’t have to read it you know.
I will accept that people like lprent, Mickysavage, Karol etc choose to tell me about what I can say or not say on this blog.
I don’t really think that you qualify as a censor.
No skin off my nose: it’s your personal responsibility at an all time low, not mine 🙂
Keep up, alwyn. The donations were returned to the donors who didn’t want their names published.
I read an article only this morning where Labour stated they had spoken to the lawyers involved in [fund raising] payments received and none of them could show any connection to Liu.
For some reason, that little detail seems to have vanished in an edit.
I have gone over every article (for the last three days ) in my history log that is remotely relevant to this issue and the passage has gone.
If someone has it I would appreciate the link as I am not prone to [unassisted] hallucinations.
It really is getting to the point where every article we read needs to be screen grabbed.
Which in itself is a sad state of affairs for journalism in New Zealand. But when it means vital information that clarifies important issues is removed to facilitate the protracted confusion then what conclusion are we meant to arrive at if not there are people in the MSM who are as corrupt as those they are protecting.
Yes, I read that info too.
I am quite sure it was in the following article, but that part of the report you refereed to seems to have been removed now! Quite intriguing that!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11279513
Yes I am fairly positive that is the article I read it in as well. Though I do not recall seeing the ‘transposed date’ comment at the time but it was there later when looking for the lawyer bit. What I find odd is I originally read it just after 8 am but there is no mention of an update or an edit.
yeah i saw it there too earlier today.
good to know, thanks guys, the dragon in my armchair told me not to be too bothered
Clearly the Nats (and the media) are playing this one very dirty. We need to just keep on, and get the word out there by various means: face-to-face, online, at meetings, etc.
And the righties are gloating about the slickness and game-winning strategies of the Nats, with some here saying it’s all about “perception”. they clearly have no ethics or interest in democracy.
I tried being critical under 3 News report on it on their website last night. then I saw that the discussion descended into righties gloating and getting the boot into Labour, with others trying to respond with facts. Became a non-discussion.
Barnett on Hosking this morning claimed Labour has not asked Barker about his Lui boat trip and dinner because “he was on holiday”……really?
Ah a subject changer,who would have thunk it, i realize that for one carrying your afflictions Grumpy putting your imagination to use isn’t likely to produce more than a series of Derrs and Aaaahs, but an attempt at the least has to be made,
Imagine a boat trip for Just Rick Barker that cost 50 thousand dollars, go on, i know it probably results in a burning smell,(you have a few spare neurons to burn),you can do it,
Imagine, imagine, NOW, detail for us Grumpy just what form of boat trip you can imagine COULD cost 50 grand, all of it spent upon Rick Barker,
i await the results of your imagining with anticipation…
Of course it could have been the nice Mr Liu spending $50,000 on a great boat trip for Mr Barker —-but only on Planet Key.
From what Barker has described Lui had the boat crammed with his staff. Chinese business culture sometimes does this to make the Guest of Honour feel important.
Or more likely he was booked in for the staff cruise and popped Mr Barker in when he appeared. “I say old chap. I am shouting a fun trip for all my staff as a thankyou for a jolly good years work. Would you like to come too?”
You are lacking a little something in that answer Grumpy, ”proof” ”fact” ”links” all these things help advance a hypothesis, as your comments now stand they are simply ”you thunk it therefore it is”,
Poor form, it could just as well be argued that the dinner on the river might well have been planned for months by Liu and Barker showing up was a chance to try and impress Him with Liu’s largesse to His staff,
i take it tho we now can agree that there was not 50, or any other grand amount of thousands spent by Liu on a boat-trip especially in Barker’s honor…
I remember seeing Larry Ellison on one of his America’s Cup catamarans.
Rumour has it that that cost him about $200 million so $50,000 doesn’t sound very much at all.
(And this comment is only meant as a joke).
all day friday you banged on about an affidavit. So far, no affidavit. Take a break grumpy.
…”all day friday you banged on about an affidavit”………care to refresh my memory???
I apologise for wrongly confusing you with one of the other posters here.I only just got back in and saw your reply.
‘k
Hello???????????
the political-bagman of the time for labour..mike williams..was on nat-rad..
..and he said he had no knowledge of such a donation..
..and that (as expected) had that happened at the time..he says ..’cos of his fundraiser-in-chief role..that he wd have known/heard about it..
..and all he cd think what happened..if the donation was made..was that ‘it was not passed on’…
..now..that raises two questions:..
..the first being why the fuck wasn’t williams wheeled out days ago..?..to hose/close this down..?
(..as he was the person who thru all monies at that time flowed..)
..the management of this ‘crisis’ by labour has been abysmal..
..they should have been wheeling williams out from the get-go..
..the second question needs to be asked of liu..
..as in..if the donation was made..
..who did he give/hand the money to..?
But he was questioned at least twice last week and said the same thing then as now!
that was seriously under-publicised..
..and why isn’t the ‘well..who did he give it to/did it go to?’ question being asked..?
“the management of this ‘crisis’ by labour has been abysmal.”
That’s an interesting observation considering I and others think they’ve responded really well to the beat up story.
Rather than revel (my interpretation) in the Herald’s claim, state what more they can do than have the boss go on tv numerous times saying that according to the info available it’s a crock and have the party president release statements to the same effect?
williams should have been wheeled out from day one..
“‘we’ve checked out records..and here is our money-man from the time..!’
Already been answered
“But he was questioned at least twice last week and said the same thing then as now!”
So what more would you have done, rather than indulge in being the herald’s devil advocate?
Not a lot more than Labour have done.
Puts your abysmal claim to the sword, so it does.
Surely your time would be better spent liberating a meat pie truck.
what do you not understand about ‘wheeling him out’..?
..obscure comment on a couple of media-slivers is not ‘wheeling out’..
..they could have been where they are now..days ago..
..so..where we are now..is that either liu lied/is lying….
..or some unknown person in labour made off with a shed-load of money…
The silence from Hooten on RNZ today was a big tell that their hand is not as good as they thought it was. It was abundantly clear the subject he didn’t want to discuss was the Liu affair.
Q to mod: why was this comment put into moderation?
Hooton please. Tired of pulling comments out of moderation.
D’oh sorry lprent,
and after i made the earlier comment about people’s spelling…. egg meet face 🙁
If you read Frank Macskasy’s latest on TDB (a Timeline), you’ll understand why.
What’s worse though is why a public service broadcaster continues to give BOTH Williams and Hooton any airtime (in the manner they do).
Btw …. isn’t it about time Rinny Ryan was retired and given a PR spin doctor’s role somewhere? (maybe the EPA…. or DOC …. or even create a position in say Foreign Affairs and Trade as Chief Apologist …… perhaps even Umigration)
The harder they rise (in all their arrogance), the harder they fall though eh? For them, the trick is basically trying their best not to get caught – not unlike the local P dealer.
As the Pantine lady once said though “It won’t hepun ovanoit, but it WILL Hepun!”
No wonder Mr Krisma is cultivating friendshup with the world’s most powerful Uncle Thomas.
Funny to watch really. It’s about time we had another Muldoon moment (a la just prior to his downfall)
Must read on intelligence, capitalism and the upcoming revolution:
Some of what he says can easily been seen happening in NZ now as this National government does things secretly and the MSM help that same National government attack the opposition.
Whoops – posted in wrong place.
Edit: I’m all for the open source everything revolution.
Yep its pretty damn good
ManaINTERNET leader Hone Harawira will highly likely not hold his Te Tai Tokerau seat in this years election.
The northern advocate also ran a story with the Mr Dearloves announcement on Friday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11278241
With the announcement of Mr Dearlove entering the race, he shall draw votes from Mana members that do not understand the ManaINTERNET situation. Further he is likely to attract a good percentage of the protest vote against the ManaINTERNET partnership.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11275172
Mr Harawira is under pressure from within, after the Herald ran the story announcing Mr Dearloves intention to stand, he took to facebook to explain his interview with the herald. In politics if your explaining your losing (ask Labour about the donations issue).
Questions are being asked what has Mr Harawira done in the Te Tai Tokerau? We know that he is at all the hui, and talks alot, but… what has really changed for all his time in parliamnent?
Ask yourself what do Maori on the Te Tai Tokerau marae think of Kim Dotcom? Do you think Maori in Te Tai Tokerau see Dotcom as our answer?
Mana has lost its core message with the partnership with the internet party, what does ManaINTERNET stand for really? And can that message be understood by the Te Tai Tokerau electorate?
In their [ManaINTERNET] push for the youth vote in Te Tai Tokerau it is likely to help Mr Dearlove further. After the 2011 election he returned to the the far north and taught at Mr Harawiras kura. Mr Dearlove has taught throughout Northland and is a well respected teacher by the students. The young voters shall likely know Mr Dearlove or have friends that do.
I’d say that you and Mr Dearlove are working for National so as to try and prevent a Left government.
+1
Has Dearlove said who he would support in govt? If he hasn’t then it’s clear that he’s not left wing. I know Māori politics is more complex than that, but given the actions of the Māori Party it’s reasonable to expect a clear statement of intent.
A shallow analysis worthy of a shill, Dearlove likely to poll a couple of hundred votes will in all probability take such votes as what He gets from across the spectrum,
Far from a threat to Hone He may even help Him increase the majority by removing more votes from kelvin Davis than He does from the sitting MP,
Suggesting that because Dearlove was at one point their teacher that young people as a majority will vote for Him is risable, young people are just as likely to wave the big middle finger at ”teacher” and vote everywhere but….
So – when is Mr Dearlove going to write for the Standard and explain his motives for splitting Mana’s vote in order to help Kelvin Davis and National?
Snigger, i thought He had been doing so, but, according to NzJackson He does not know Dearlove leaving me in my usual state of intellectual confusion…
lol – not your fault, this bloody world is built on cognitive dissonance, the average joe just cauterises it out of their mind
I don’t know what Hone does in Northland, but I do know that in the last few years I’ve become more aware of the issues up there than at any time previous. That man has a mouth on him for sure.
This guy is obviously a shill.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13062014/#comment-830097
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17062014/#comment-831858
Heh, those links take me to comments by CV every time. Say what you like about CV but I doubt he fits the description of a “shill”.
Not sure why it’s taking you to comments from CV, because they link to the comments by NzJackson (which do have replies from CV, but that is still not what I’m linking to).
If you hover your mouse cursor over the date link for each comment you will see the number in the URL matches the link I posted above.
Oh, you mean the posts ABOVE those from CV………… 🙂
lol grumpy; pleased your eye is naturally drawn to my comments tho 😀
I like your comments, haven’t found one I agree with yet but respect them all the same 🙂
Clearly your browser is as wonky as your right wing mind..
lol
Sounds like ear wax munching John Banks, going by the ‘rain falling on his head’ quote and all that.
Utter rubbish.
Mr Dearlove will no doubt WISH that his comments were truth, but they are fables of his own making. Hone has a very loyal base up in TTT and will bolt in at the election, most likely with over 50% of the cast votes in the electoral race.
And Labour will probably win the party vote. Those Maori up north, they understand MMP.
In the context of this election you are coming across as a destabiling enemy agent, being neither a ‘Dear’ nor brimming with any true ‘Love’ for Hone or the progressives.
Really? Is Kelvin working for National to?
No, he’s working for Labour but that’s almost as bad.
Do you know Mr Dearlove? I dont know him but have friends and kids that do. All the things i have heard have been good. What do you know? Is he bad because he is standing?
No, he’s bad because he’s lying. Voting for him won’t result in Te Tai Tokerau getting three MPs and he knows it.
Draco TB
LOL Is Dearlove bad because he is standing? No he’s bad because he’s lying. Good one. Dear me the opposition have to sharpen up to keep with the pace here. Love the repartee. In cups or wherever. (Or perhaps as MS states – coffee is best.)
You ask a lot of “questions”.
no, you are bad because you are championing someone you have never met.
Hah, just noticed that the date on this Open Mike is wrong – it’s dated for yesterday :D:
[karol: thanks. Fixed]
[My bad – prepared pre coffee – MS]
Now, this is going to be seen as a supreme self-indulgence on my part, but what the Hell…
I’m re-designing my blog Sub-Zero Politics and I just can’t choose between the present design and one of the alternatives I’ve set up. I’d appreciate any comments from my fellow Standardistas on which is best / most effective.
Design I’m currently using is here…http://sub-z-p.blogspot.co.nz/
Alternative one here… http://s-zpolitics.blogspot.co.nz/
(you can also get to the current one via link from alternative one)
I explain it all at the top of the alternative blog – so, if you’re in the mood, please feel free to leave a comment below the post on the alternative one, letting me know which one you prefer. Or possibly here on The Standard in reply to this comment. (assuming Lynn etc doesn’t mind).
Yeah, I know, it sounds like a cheap trick to get people reading my blog but nothing, absolutely nothing on this Earth could be further from the truth. God forbid !
I prefer the tears in the rain background.
Agree but something like this might fit the blog title better
http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/frosty-window-jamie-rabold.jpg
Definitely the new background and title font. I can see the point of CV’s icicle suggestion, but it’s a bit too intricate for a border (where the central detail would be lost anyway). Just lose the Banks pic please!
Many thanks for all the good work on polls and statistics.
+1
I find the raindrops one much easier visually, however the post date isn’t very visible (something I would be looking for on a political blog)
If you are intent on changes, I’d suggest getting a theme that allows text to be wider on the page. No need for all that space on left and right, and depending on background it’s just distracting.
You might find wordpress better too.
I like the melting ice one but note that the date over the comment below then fades into the background – would have to go on white, or be in thick white on dark background. Dates are important to me.
And I don’t understand – at a glance- what the geography of the vote means when its at home.
The Ides of Epsom. Good title. (Reminds me – frivolous – of the comedy line ‘I told him Julie (Johnny) don’t go, It’s the Ides of March already’.)
The mods here might contradict me, but they let me link to my football podcast/blog so I am sure they will be fine with this…
Also I shall read your blog if you read mine :p
[lprent: The restraints by mods are markedly less in OpenMike. ]
Thanks to all 3 of you. I appreciate it.
Already had a few visits to your blog over the last week or so, Y_F.
Played The Beautiful Game throughout my 20s and most of my 30s (as well as its Indoor equivalent). So, I’m always up for anything on the World’s premier sporting event. I’ll continue to visit.
Incidently, at the risk of taking things just a little too far, I’ll just give one more alternative…http://subzpsubzp.blogspot.co.nz/
Looks great as far as I’m concerned, but I doubt anyone really wants to read white typeface on black background. So probably not an option.
Funny thing swordfish I looked right past the layout and studied the numbers and text. Either/or. The content on polls is fascinating as is the data on Political Scientist.
Hi swordfish. IMO. The transparent deep grey needs to be mildly darker in order for the background to be less distracting from the text; I don’t like the fact that the blue of the date is a different (and to me) harder to read blue to the other blues on the page.
Not quite sure exactly what but one or two softer, more feminine design elements would be nice to incorporate. Perhaps something curvilinear or less angular, maybe a symbol or pattern of some kind (which should probably be in a greyscale)?
my 2c, The icicles suggestion from CV are certainly stronger and more interesting than the raindrops. It would be worth stretching the image to fit the frame and the soft distortion this would create would be a nice detail without being too busy.
p.s. if you do use the blocks, use the transparent boards, that looks really good, but maybe just a smidge darker?
The blocks with large white font is very clear, using white needs larger font for ease on eyes. You have a wide sentence across screen, be better with a bit more left margin and that would narrow the content a little, not too much..
The date being light on dark needs to be really bold. Like the blue effect on letters at bottom gives zing so good for emphasis, notices.
And keep your settings for the other pages – you may want a change now and then. I thought they were good – new is just a change at the same good quality.
Prefer the alternative.
Cheers to everyone above, really appreciate it. Looks like the alternative was the winner on the day (by quite some distance). I’ll get the date sorted and I’ll have a think about the image you proposed, CV. Cheers.
Greywarbler – geography of the vote = Over the last few years (since 09), I’ve been occasionally using a bit of spare time to calculate the party-vote (from last 3 elections – 2014 will be the 4th) for every suburb in urban NZ – cities ranging in size from Wanganui up to Auckland. For all the parties that made it into parliament + figures for the Left and Right blocs in general. So, I thought I might stick some of that data on the blog when I have time. So, basically It’ll be on a seat-by-seat basis – and for each seat there’ll be tables setting out party / bloc support for the last 3 elections (and the vote movement between) on a suburb-by-suburb basis. Ultimately, I’ll add suburban census data so people can get a really detailed understanding of demographics underlying party support. Christchurch is the one exception for obvious reasons. Given the huge population movement, not much point in trying to pin down the vote geographically at this stage. (Then again, maybe all the more reason…)
Weka – text to be wider on the page. I’m not sure about this, Weka. When I first started setting it up a couple of months ago, I had a good look at other kiwi blogs and most tend towards the narrow. Whereas, I like something similar to an A4 width. So I purposely made mine wider than most. What your saying might have more to do with the lack of any information (previous posts / blogroll / profile etc) down either side. So the background (on either side) probably seems a bit empty relative to other blogs.
ianmac – thanks for that. I’ve got a whole lot of half finished posts in draft – got the motivation but just not enough spare time. I’ll be linking to Puddleglum’s The Political Scientist in my next post. He’s produced some brilliant analysis on that site and very impressive graphics to boot.
Just to put my 2 cents worth in – I thought the comment by Weka re width had some merit – perhaps it would only mean more white space – but white space is good and also could save some scrolling (although possibly not, might just allow for more white space).
[It looks good regardless – just my 2 cents worth]
Another bit of feedback too: when you have lots of tables/stats it would be helpful/ more readable to have some quick explanations in between that information. I think this would make your information more easily digested. (This is in relation to the first longer article you wrote)
Cheers, bl – but which one looks good ? The Mountain/Rain-drops one ? What do you think of the 2nd alternative (linked to in 9.18am comment (7.2.1) ?. I personally think it looks brilliant but probably impractical. CV’s almost certainly right when he suggests the grey background is too intrusive given the transparent background of the blog itself.
I’ll have another think about the width given the points made by you and Weka. But it is actually wider than almost every other NZ blog I’ve seen. Possibly what you’re noticing is the severe contrast between blog background and outer background that most other blogs don’t have. But if you were to get a ruler and measure, you’d find that each line is actually wider than on most blogs.
White space is important (The Standard utilizes white space very well – one of the most impressively designed leading blogs IMO), but before I started making changes in the last few days, my blog had FAR too much of the stuff – all these stats marooned in a sea of white. Having that outer background on either side brings focus and clarity to the posts IMO.
Really appreciate you and others taking the trouble. There’s no doubt this has been a massive self-indulgence on my part. Now back to Colin the Christian and the enterprising Mr Liu.
I didn’t mention the other aspects of design because I really think both are good.
I personally like the raindrop effect. If you want detailed-picky feedback I shall now oblige, however the following should be taken as very mild suggestions/observations because both are perfectly fine as they are:
I like the typeset of the new design’s title, yet notice there is something clearer about the white background and black letters – (this is likely to do with the fact I often sit outside and was sitting outside with a laptop when last viewing them, so this showed up a weakness in the darker background). This is very picky though – and the darker/transparent background looks snazzier to me.
I also agree with other comments that it would be good to ensure the date is clear (that definitely disappears when viewing in bright conditions on a laptop).
It is really great having your site and Puddleglum’s – good idea to link them! You both provide – really good and thought provoking analysis, makes such a nice change from the dull mulched brain-dead info that we receive from the lamestream. Thanks very much! 🙂
I’d have guessed that ts has wider text than you blog swordfish, but have resisted getting out the ruler 😉 I’m on a laptop, and have my browser text set larger than default, so that will change things too.
I’m not a fan of imaged backgrounds, which is why I tend to like wordpress blogs better than blogspot. Much of the text outside the white box is illegible in the raindrops one. IMO that’s a design crime by the people at blogger.com. Their themes should work across all text formats.
Whatever you choose, I think communication and ease of access are the most important things. Having text legible is part of that. And thank-you for not using light text on dark background!
But how inherently sexist is that ? I’ve just assumed Puddleglum’s a bloke.
As the late, lamented Rik Mayall once said to Neil: “Ah haaa ! And what makes you think your Bank Manager’s a Man ???”
Neil (looking confused at the question): “His beard.”
Thanks swordfish – geography of vote. That approach could be good and quite sensitive to possible changes, when electorate boundaries are changed. Is that so?
With small differences between parties the understanding of votes in particular booths even could be vital.
I was trying to use FF and use Chrome sparingly. Last night I switched to SWARE Iron, open source browser. So far very pleased with how it works.
Last night I also set up Avant browser. Both look very good.
Thanks karol,
Typos on the SWARE page is a bit of a bad look, but that Avant set up looks worth a run.
Hmmm. I’m not sure where you are looking.
But it may be because it’s a German company?
I actually really am liking the SWARE Iron browser. It presents a lot like chrome. The reviews I looked at put Avant at #1. But the Iron one had a recommendation re-privacy capabilities.
So far Iron seems way more usable than Avant. And it has a much better spell check than FF.
http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php
cheers karol, might just be mild case of mondayitis on my part
good to know it is a german group because that country is fighting harder for privacy than probably any other member of the EU
I will of course try them both and see which has the fewer crumbs left on the plate
Well, I got fed up with FF’s slowness, and for some reasons I’ve had problems with Chrome, too – shockwave conflicts, I think. So decided to try something different.
there are quite a few alternative browsers out there.
FF has gotten very sluggish of late. Chrome is faster for general browsing but i do prefer the FF interface. (habit mainly) The shockwave problems though are weird.
Ever since Adobe decided to stop supporting ubuntu/linux most flash software is almost like revisiting the early days of ADSL .. have been trying to find a fix but it is a global problem. It is being worked on I am told. Times like this i wish i understood computers more. It seems to be something in the refresh rate/decoding side of the players but it does makes streaming some stuff look like a flip book. Chrome is even worse than FF sometimes because although FF stutters on the feeds the Chrome player (html5 i think?) just looks like a series of picture cards being dropped into your screen one at a time.
Had another Ubuntu guy here the other day and he too was shaking his head in solidarity.
I run on a brand new 64bit dual core with 6G ram and a shiny new video card so at least I know it is not my machine. Had that confirmed too by Ubuntu folk. It came with Windows 8.1 which was nice and all but after having a wander around the lovely tiles, it came time to install Ubuntu alongside it, like i had done on previous machines, Windows wanted to set it up as a virtual machine inside Windows and I laughed at its coy ploy as i dumped Windows into the netherworld and now just run Ubuntu again.
What gets confusing, and a bit aggravating is how streams from within NZ like TV One and TV3 for instance are absolutely fine and there is nary a hiccup. I know it’s not your thing but the Football is a good example of the current situation. Can have the TVOne stream going and it is sweet. Other feeds from across the waters and i am back in stutter flipbook hell.
I am resigned to be patient though as I am sure the Ubuntu folk will find a fix. A good practise is to download streams instead (video downloadhelper) then watching later when I can but this is often tough (read impossible) with many live streams.
Will try those new browsers over the next few days and see if there are any improvements. but until either Adobe stops being such a dick or Ubuntu creates a new stand alone player we seem to be stuck with a few issues… all because corporate greed believes stifling innovation will somehow provoke progress for the internet 🙁
Thanks, I was thinking it was my machine which is 1-2 years old.
I just chose those 2 browsers from a couple of lists of recommended browsers. There may be other ones that are better. I’m no techie.
Weird. I haven’t been seeing anything like that for a year or so. But I generally remain on the development versions of kubuntu (I hate that godwful unity with a passion because it is so hard to find open windows (of which I have many) and gnome is so damn old feeling for speed now). There were a pile of fixes that went in on the ubuntu 13.04/13.10. 14.04 was wonderful apart from having to reinstall it after the upgrade failed. I’d been running upgraded development versions on my workstation since 10.10 with added in non-distribution packages. I suspect one of the latter is what forced the new.
Just make sure /home, /root, /etc and /opt are all off in a different partition, just fstab them back after the install (merge the changed etc files), and the reinstall is pretty trivial, and you run a text dump of dpkg periodically so you can see what packages you should be asking for from the distribution.
I have exactly one problem these days. The bloody MTR for the androids etc doesn’t like my USB setup. It keeps dropping them off and reaquiring them. I have tracked it down enough to know that it is a problem in the Linux USB driver and the USB chips on my 990FXA-UD3 motherboard. It also shows up when I plug in one particular USB3 external hard drive. One day I might have to look at the code (I keep hoping that a fix will come through). Makes it frigging hard to access the file system on Androids, and I have to plug that external drive into a USB2.
In the meantime I backup those from windows on the laptop every few weeks.
Lprent, kubuntu is only for experienced users right? It is more of a kitset that you build from scratch rather than the lego set that is Ubuntu?
Overall U 14.04 is solid as a rock but I also had it fall over on the first install. From then on though it has been fine. No USB issues that I have noticed but no USB3 here either.
The multiple workspace bugs are gone YEEHAH and that makes my life really simple, being able to jump around between progs without having to have layers and layers of open windows. The multiple workspaces are probably my favourite ubuntu thing. So simple, so useful. I can easily have a dozen files open in gimp so the extra workspace is handy. As long as gimp runs smoothly and media players function as intended I am happy. (I am so easily pleased. Now if we could get world peace a cure for cancer and find everlasting love i would be set) I will put up with browser issues and I have only really had problems with FF freezing, which I now know is FF. The only other problem is VLC is skittish of late with sync issues but SMP covers whatever VLC stuffs up usually bluray rip related.. or so i hear from those who watch movies that may or may not have been purchased
I generally rely on the updater and the software centre to avoid stuffing things up but I am stumbling along learning a few bits here and there. I am more confident in a terminal than I was a year ago but still have heart in mouth attacks most times. I always do lots of reading from others before doing anything.
====================
“Just make sure /home, /root, /etc and /opt are all off in a different partition, just fstab them back after the install (merge the changed etc files), and the reinstall is pretty trivial, and you run a text dump of dpkg periodically so you can see what packages you should be asking for from the distribution.”
This passage pretty much encompasses my current slow road to learning. But learning is fun. I know I need to get out from under the apron of the software center and really knuckle down so i can stuff up all on my own. I know I have not fully grasped the architecture of the system and am often unclear of how to go forward with identifying partition listings et al but the wider Ubuntu community are really helpful, even to newbies. Which I will always be.
Latest FF is probably the worst browser I’ve ever used. Slow, clunky and has an irritating habit of dropping into [not responding] for several seconds whenever I try to change tabs. I keep it around so that I can watch youtube videos. In Chrome the sound always lags the video (Chrome has it’s own Flash player built in) and the fix I found for that left me with sound and no video more often than not (ie, cure worse than problem).
I was getting the [not responding] several times a day. That is what sent me looking for an alternative. I was surprised at the number of alternatives out there – but not knowledgeable enough to make a strong judgement in advance of using them.
But, decided to go for a change.
I’ve used FF for a long time and to my disgrace I’ve gone back to IE as I got sick of FF 1) bloating and taking up all my RAM and 2) quitting with no reason and no warning.
Win 8.1
I gave W8.1 a good couple of weeks before disposing of it and can see the attraction, but when I had to register with MS just to install software on my own machine i knew its days were numbered
p.s. i won’t use IE but certainly found chrome was better on that platform
Don’t have to register but MS certainly makes it hard to find the bypass.
Try Chrome or some of the others that Karol listed.
Anyone hear Obama say that he was expecting to meet Key later in the year,after the election. Is he advocating for the Natz or have the dirty tricksters told him,”Don’t worry Mr President, your golfing buddy is guaranteed another term”.
Well, maybe Key is just planning to head off to live fulltime in the US?
“Well, maybe Key is just planning to head off to live fulltime in the US?”
Maybe that explains this wee slip of the tongue when Key said he and Obama are going to meet up next year, after politics, when the logistics will be easier.
It’s amazing the tricks the Democrat Party has to get past the line these days…..
“these days”?
US politics has been corrupt since the revolution.
What’s wrong with the Democratic division of the Pro-corporate Party as opposed to the Republican division of that Party?
I agree with McFlock, above, and, like you, can’t tell the difference.
On Morning Report it was just later in the year. But if Mr Key fails in the Election then he will become his best mate Obama’s Chief Adviser.
appointment to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, an area chief of the World Bank, or some similar scam
bet key never tells his new best friend that he can’t remember which side he was on for the 1981 springbok rugby tour ….
neither of them can be very good. They played for five hours on a secured course, with buggies. Golf does not take five hours under those circumstances
Depends upon what you’re talking about I suppose and how critical it is that the public don’t hear what you’re saying.
BREAKING: I have just signed a statement claiming I donated $10billion to John Key for a cheap bottle of gin, where’s my front page and lead on the TV news?
By Martyn Bradbury / June 23, 2014
“I’m getting this terrible feeling that the entire NZ mainstream media have run with a Government created lie and not critically evaluated their one roll in perpetrating that lie….
All we have to date is a 6 week old bullshit signed statement that means nothing. If Donghua Liu was genuine he would sign an affidavit, he hasn’t. So his signed statement is about as credible as my signed statement claiming to have donated $10 Billion to John Key, yet major news outlets have run with this story as if they have clear legal protection to do so.
Unless Donghua Liu comes forward this week with an affidavit, the Labour party should take defamation action against every major news outlet for what amounts to the regurgitation minus any credible evidence of a manufactured smear”….
No doubt Martyn has fully credited and acknowledged the person who first posted this mildly humorous concept coz he ain’t no plagiarist, no sirree:
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22062014/#comment-836107
TDB doesn’t even hat tip for images borrowed off other blogs, which is just bad manners really
Citizen D-
…well it shows he reads the Standard and appreciated your comment…isnt that good ?.flattery ..share and share around…all to the good end cause of defeating NACT and John Key
Ahem. 🙂
Touche!
Chooky
You’ve been done. Just one bottle? A jeroboam? at least. Careful, it makes you go blind or something. Obvious that NACTs are big partakers. Don’t fall down that mousehole.
@ greywarbler …what do you mean just one bottle.?!..all i had was breakfast and reposted a Bomber post from the other side…and I never get drunk except on Election Night when i only get rather tiddled on champagne if the Left is winning…i am working up to this in imagination and anticipation
…if Labour and the Left dont win …it will be only be one glass to celebrate the demise of Peter Dunne
I’ll have to co-ordinate with you after the election and get time and the appropriate beverage to celebrate or commiserate with!
yes that would be interesting
I posted a comment on TDB pointing out where Martyn had sourced the post from and, after an hour in moderation, it went up on the site. Twenty minutes later, it vanished. Funny that.
Martyn ‘Bomber’ Bradbury: Plagiarist and Coward.
To be fair to Bomber, he did allow a second comment to go through, and he denies plagiarism because “… the idea I would read the standard was a clear lie “.
I don’t know about you lot, but I trust him completely when he says that. Honest.
cd someone tell me why the standard and the daily blog seem to ‘hate’ each other so much..?
(to bolshevik vs. menshevik levels..)
..that totally puzzles me..
..did it all start over a woman/man..?
..or an ideological-schism i missed..?
Martyn stole Lprents stash …
i cd see lprent getting ugly/unforgiving over that..
Its about Numbers.
BB spams that site everywhere. Dumps and runs the links in so many Facebook pages, Twitter as well..
Dont get me wrong I admire the guy. And he stirs up the Tories. So all good
Just IMO I think that site is errr soooooo last week. Moderation? bah
i agree the heavy-censorship sucks..
..tho’ it has some good articles..that i often link to..
..but it’s not much point reading the comments-thread to get any idea of populist-mood..
..as contrary arguments often just don’t get thru..
..and as a strong advocate of free-speech..
..that degree/level of control/suppression of dissenting-voices.. both puzzles and disturbs…
@ Te Reo Putake…dont be so sibling petty …imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…he thought what you said was great!
On TDB he called me a liar and, um, a mindreader. The sad thing is that, as he never reads the Standard, he’ll never know how much that hurt me. Sob!
well he probably said it with a maniac smile on his face like Rik in the ‘Young Ones’…so dont sob like Neil…he stole it from you the bastard !…so go and steal something from his site
People lie in affidavits regularly. Atheists swear affidavits rather than makedeclarations. The important issue for me is the lack of corroborating documentation.
Mr Liu says his trust gave money. Or someone said it was his trust. Ird requires documentation of a financial nature to be kept for 7 years. Ird will have proof or can request it. Unless the trustees agree, ird agrees cant release it publically.They wouldnt object though would they?.the trustees are required to keep the documents.
So, for me, being a statement or affidavit is irrelevant in practice, what is relevant is no supporting documentation.
Actually, atheists swear affirmations because it would be rather silly of them to swear on the bible which they don’t believe in. Also, what people swear on doesn’t make any difference as to their honesty. Honest people will be honest and liars will lie.
yes and Mr Liu is clearly one of the latter ….takes after his NACT master
I hope everyone else is enjoying the football world cup as much as I am. I am interested that I saw an article this morning on my tablet that Van Gaal, the dutch coach, is having a whine about the officials, though from what I see of the dutch matches there were no issues. Van Gaal is normally a leveled headed person, so I am wondering if his comments have been taken out of context or not… I have to find a link to the article now
Here is the one I read:
http://www.supersport.com/football/world-cup-2014/news/140622/Van_Gaal_accuses_Fifa_of_schedule_tricks
What football world cup? Not on my TV in waking hours.
You can catch the highlights on TV 1 at 4.30 or 5 each afternoon, and some of the games are shown whole and live in the mornings, also on TV 1.
Thanks. But, I’m actually not interested. I’m quite happy that the whole thing has not been put in front of my eyes.
Or put a www in front of wiziwig.tv/index.php?part=sports
and watch all the games on live streams.
Free sport, including rugby for beef heads, to negate sky and all pay per view.
cheers Al1en, always good to have options. to reciprocate http://www.vipboxoc.co/
you have to do a few ad clicks to load the streams, but reliable feeds
Indeed, ta for the extra bookmark.
I like wiziwig as it has a range of stream speeds from hd down. Use ad blocker, close any chat boxes and you’re away.
Also I can get GB commentary, which as in the case of the recent meat head tests, makes really biased home town callers a thing of the past.
Up watching the cricket last night, though I really shouldn’t have.
and streaming you get to see other nation’s tv ads which is always fun and often enlightening
Pay for view funds professionalism, overpaid over-hyped beef heads on the field, the same watching their TVs.
I hate professional sport, I used to head down to Lancaster park, pay $5 to stand on the bank, chain my bike to the fence. Shield matches with 40,000 regular attendees and amateur teams. Glory, parochialism, fun. free to air test matches. Club play on the weekend against provincial and AB players.
Professionalism leaves me cold: we did not need to pay our gladiators at our Colosseum.
Level headed? Ha! van Gaal is notoriously outspoken and almost eccentric in his ability to polarise support. But he is a fantastic man manager, putting particular emphasis on knowing everything about his players, right down to remembering their kid’s birthdays, which has meant he is able to build genuine team spirit even amongst Dutch squads. He’s an expert at getting more than the sum of the parts out of his teams, which bodes well for Man U next season.
His complaint is that the Brasil team will know what they have to do in their final game to get the weakest possible opposition in the first knockout round (ie they might choose to play for a draw in order to be paired with a weak country). Of course, FIFA would never allow any kind of shenanigans like that to tarnish the beautiful game. Oh, no.
The scheduling thing is a genuine complaint; FIFA have some explaining to do on that as there appears to be no rhyme or reason for the scheduling as done. The rant about the officials seems weird, as both incidents were clear penalties. I suppose the ranting on that could be to take some pressure off his players, which good managers do….
..yes I have bets placed in this because of the company i keep ….thus far i am running at a profit…made more money than the sports nuts
….but to me politics is more interesting…and I am betting Labour alliance wins and Winnie is part of this alliance…so i expect to collect big time from present company i keep
On my wireless this morning Joyce is grovelling to Guyon on behalf of spending more of our hard earned coin on the millionaire ”struggling” boat racers,
”Strugglers” they sure as hell are, imagine having to struggle all the way to Parliament to claim,(falsely), that if the Government didn’t stump up with an immediate 5 million bucks of taxpayer coin ‘Team NZ’ would be gone in a month,
”Struggle” has got to be the 2 million bucks a year that Grant gets to run this little ‘pump shop’, pumping money outta the taxpayers pockets, ”struggle” you bet, it cost lots to let off steam from the ”struggle” buying up both state of the art and antique motor-bikes as well as race in a modified car class,
i can well imagine the ”struggle” Dean had wrestling all the furniture outta the million dollar pad in one of Auckland’s ritzier suburbs up the street into the new pad worth many millions so soon after losing the un-losable boat race,
The fact is that all the millions of taxpayers money spent on these ”sportsmen” in the last decade would have paid for breakfast and lunch for every kid in a decile 1,2,3, and 4 school in this country over the period that the taxpayer has been busily pushing the heavy wheel of capitalism in an effort to buy these bludgers their multi-million dollar habits,
We need to get our priorities right and in my opinion multi-millionaire yachties aint one of them…
Joyce did not rule out funding Team New Zealand. Labour should explictly rule this out now.
but if Team NZ are struggling so… where is the sacrifice from the Team to keep it going?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11279103
But, but, but, No buts you hear, the ”team” is struggling and all of us red sock wearers must close ranks and support millionaire bludgers, oops i mean sportsmen everywhere…
Open the books so people can see how much these poor people are paying themselves with state funds..
+1
I recently sent my MP (John Key) an email suggesting we apply normal WINZ thinking to the Americas Cup. The beneficiaries in question are perfectly capable of finding work – they don’t need government support. Cut the strings, make them stand on their own two feet. Means test them.
Few things piss me off as much as govt funding for the Americas Cup or for professional sports like rugby.
sport nz does not give any funding to the all blacks.
I was mildly irked to see that Daltons “gone at the end of the month” line was typical grasping bullshit and that they can keep going to the end of the year.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10188943/Key-coy-on-getting-into-bed-with-Craig
Craig conceded at yesterday’s campaign launch, that he would lose if National did not step aside. “”
The prime minister is right on that front, with voters overwhelmingly rejecting the practice of coat-tailing in the latest Stuff.co.nz/Ipsos poll.
The poll found 81.6 per cent of voters did not support coal-tailing, compared with just 13.8 per cent in favour.
Hah hope this backfires on Key……..
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11279512
“Colin Craig launched his Conservative Party’s election campaign by assuming a strong moral stance — including ruling out any “bland and inspid cup of tea” electoral deal with National like the one used to keep Act in Parliament.”
and apparently their polling has them at over 5%
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10187803/Voters-reject-riding-on-the-coat-tails
(do you think they understand the Party Vote is calculated from votes across the country not just in his local congregation?)
is this new Fairfax photo what we might call “a strong moral stance” ? Too weird for me .. is he after the gay vote in ECB ?? 🙂 good luck with that !
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10187803/Voters-reject-riding-on-the-coat-tails
Conspiracy theorist and gay icon, Colin “Cray-Cray” Craig, working hard on his modelling career, still had time to stop and pose for our reporter.
“I’d like to thank my photographer, and Jesus Christ”, he gushed, before heading off into the dunes.
😀
lol…well he did say he didnt trust John Key when asked….maybe this explains their love hate relationship!…John knows Colin doesn’t trust him….and they really dont want to get into bed together…it could be a bumpy ride
…however Colin did say he could work with Labour and the Greens …can you believe that?….and could they work with him?
I think that’s the I’m thoroughly confused stance 😈
Tim Murphy on morning report was hilarious.
Trying to say the difference between an affidavit and a statement is “immaterial”.
Sound sketchy as anything.
Sounds as though Tim is caught in an indefensible position. Decidedly flakey.
Incidentally my email was read out on Morning Report highlighting an idea floated on TS by someone showing that the Key/Media has framed the Liu Donations as Money For Access. But since no evidence of the $100,000 exists how can it be framed as Money for Influence?
Crazy Colin’s dating profile pic?
Or is he just pining for a caption contest?
Yeah that is just plain creepy and will put all beachgoers off enjoying our coastline. The eyes give it all away despite the ambiguity of where his missing hand resides…
I have titled it ‘Gens bizarres sur l’herbe’
(with apologies to Manet but pretty sure he would approve)
Well Freedom, at least he kept his clothes on, and there is only him in it and he aint eating lunch.
However it could be a great modern day remake of the painting with him and christine enjoying a boozy lunch in the grass and one of them naked….
Oh well back to work.
Be OK until he opened his mouth.
here’s a new one from Fairfax today .. same photographer I’m sure … creeeeeepy ..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10187803/Voters-reject-riding-on-the-coat-tails
Ew Thats his Grindr/Scruff profile 😛
Swap child poverty for elder poverty
Is this the best our “thinkers” and “academics” on $100K p.a. can come up with?
A more simple answer – lets not have either, and simply tax our biggest corporations another $1B p.a. instead of putting the burden on the poorest in society. Or if you prefer, have the government simply spend the $1B into circulation by keeping super the same age and creating 10,000 jobs for youth in NZ.
Too difficult an answer eh, so instead we are left deciding who is worthy enough to get a seat in the lifeboat.
Fucking middle-wayism.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/10181859/Lift-super-age-to-beat-child-poverty#Séquence_1
I think this post on the realities of the Fairfax poll should be required reading for every voter – but especially those of us on the left who are feeling a little disheartened!
http://www.thepoliticalscientist.org/the-real-story-in-the-fairfax-polls/
Too right Stephenie. Like this bit that demonstrate the smoke and mirrors of Stats:
Further, the largest number of people avowing support for National was in the November 2012 poll at 442 (out of the roughly 1,000 polled). That’s 44.2% of adult New Zealanders. The percentage party support reported in the poll – based on only the preferences of the ‘decided’ voters who were likely to vote – was 46.3%.
The latest poll, however, has a reported percentage support for National of 56.5%. The number of actual people in that poll who avowed support for the National Party was 439 – three fewer people than in the November 2012 poll.
So, the reported support for National between November 2012 and June 2014 appears to show a 10% increase in the proportion of New Zealanders supporting the party. Yet, there are (marginally) fewer people declaring their support for National in June 2014.
How does that happen?
Regarding the 50%-plus support in the polls, most all I have spoken to just think that is bizarre and that the polling people must have rocks in their heads… I imagine the reason people think it is odd is because it does not stack with the feeling on the streets.
This election is going to be very very close I think. The nats are on a hiding to nothing on various fronts, such as some seats in Chch, Hone and his merry band, and the like. Look at how close the last election and subsequent current government have been – the slimmest of majorities.
The nats are going to have to do dirty deals all over the place to get back in. However, given that dirty deals are their modus operandi watch out!
It is all based on the Undecided. As the Political Scientist says as the undecided numbers fall then the vote for Labour Greens rise in the polls. Conversely the more the undecided numbers rise then the proportion of National poll votes rise even though the actual number of supports for National stay the same. Odd eh?
This is why Labour MUST give the undecideds firm, irresistable reasons to DECIDE. Instead, Labour is literally driving its own supporters into the “undecided” category with policies like raising the retirement age.
These are not voters who want to leave Labour (for instance they are not going to National or to other parties) but they refuse to vote for a centrist, mixed up Labour that they do not recognise as being a true left wing party.
And guess what – no matter how middle of the road Labour shifts, soft NAT voters do not defect over to it in any significant numbers.
Thanks for tge link Stephanie.
Pete George used to suggest that journos just didnt understand how polls work. I am way more cynical than he it seems. This also expkains why nats are getting dirty.
Great url Steph, I have been saying the polls were somewhat misleading because I figured that National could not pick up any more than 50% max. This seems to indicate 45% or less..good stuff, as it says it is a case of getting the undecided and non voters to the polling booths.
Recommended read:
http://thebaffler.com/blog/2014/06/why_american_is_a_bad_word_in_australia
Replace “Australia” with “New Zealand” and I agree with every word.
+1. That is a very good article, and doesn’t mince words.
This quote from Guy Rundle hits the nail on the head: Either this budget has fundamentally misjudged the residual social-democratic will of the Australian people . . . or, they have judged it right, and there has been a decisive political-cultural shift in Australia, towards a more individualistic/class-fragmented way of life, in which the poor are seen—US style—as “other.”
Not to mention the final warning: If we can always point to the United States to demonstrate where we don’t want to go, this frees the Australian left from the need to fully articulate the direction we think we should be heading—a question which is becoming more urgent every day.
What we are now seeing is that TINA means something, and means it with a vengeance. There is no rising tide that will life all boats, and there is no maturing market economy. There cannot be, because if the foot-on-the-back-of-the-neck is lifted, alternative systems are then able to gain traction. That is why I think that the fightback must begin with protection of the poor from the rich in the form of substantive human rights – e.g. the right to secure housing and the right to earn a living (as opposed to a pittance). Each step toward securing such things would inch the economy further along a path that accommodated them.
Olwyn
James McNeish’s book on Danilo Dolci told about his fight to help the poor in Southern Italy.. The economy was so munted by the mafia and corrupted authorities and church in Sicily, that there was an outcry when many working men went with Danilo on a ‘work-strike’. That was a strike where they protested against unemployment and fixed potholes in the road for free. That caused a stink. The emperor was seen naked and unadorned with comforting fuzzy lies. The Pope is on the case again. The last time that the Church leader spoke out against this, bombs were set off in churches.
The sooner that we force the issue here the better. The entitlement, rentier, speculator and milk-rush brigade get stronger every day, and then harder to penetrate their defences, mental and physical.
It is interesting how constant disagreement on dividing matters means dissipation of energy, time and effectiveness, seen in Thailand where the military have taken over. In NZ we are watched over by the USA who have run an exercise here with these relevant scenarios:
Organisers have created a scenario where the lower half of the South Island is a South West Pacific country called Mainlandiar. For the purposes of the exercise, the top half of the South Island doesn’t exist and the North Island is New Zealand.
In the scenario, Mainlandiar has held an election with the ousted prime minister refusing to go, supported by a militia.
A coalition of New Zealand and the nine other nations has formed the International Stability Mission for Mainlandiar (Instamm).
Troops and vehicles will be brought ashore on a local beach (weather permitting) on amphibious craft, with the intention of “securing” Timaru Airport. ….
The exercise will involve the naval ships Canterbury, Wellington, and a French-supplied frigate. The French will also contribute aircraft.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/9282666/Defence-force-training-in-South-Canterbury
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/9384664/Troops-liberate-Mainlandia
Thanks for pointing out McNeish’s book – I will put it on my “to read” list.
The sooner that we force the issue here the better. The entitlement, rentier, speculator and milk-rush brigade get stronger every day, and then harder to penetrate their defences, mental and physical. Couldn’t agree more.
And I am not sure what to make of the South Island military exercises. On one hand, I assume such exercises need to run along narrative lines so that the participants have a basis for making decisions and acting on them. On the other, I can’t help getting a creepy sense of the military being taught how to intervene on a possible future government that doesn’t do as it’s told.
Think it’s called Fire under the Ashes Olwyn. It’s good like all of McNeish’s.
That exercise thing and Key’s undying love for Obama is to my mind just creepy. When other places in the world have received their share of loving care from the democracy or else our way brigade well who knows what could happen. But few people are probably cognisant of the implications. We still have a cold war in Dunedin, NZ about 1915 conscientious objectors recognition by the RSA who took ages to accept the post WW2 fighting men into their glorious ranks. My Dad buried in France, was saying that the Grim Reaper could very well get him, and that he had a different point of view than when he left NZ. But the old nostalgia for bloody war, death and injury has sort of pulled the wool over some eyes and blocked thinking passages.
Remembering NZ workers protests and the response from the noble denizens of the land from the past. Who would know whether we might have a real-life example to them all carried forward here run by our foreign friends. The Tuhoe exercise was done on whose say-so, for what purpose? A practice run, to ratchet up the police presence and capability a notch from the 1981 episode, and try out the use or the handling anyway of new weaponry?
A peaceful, happy country working out its problems diplomatically is not a hostile-event-prepared one. The unprepared Maori were in that position after Hongi Hika traded his gifts for guns. (Those gifts are historical taonga, I wonder where they ended up?) And now communism has been beaten, the logical next target is socialism. And social democracies, eeuugh.
Prof Joanathan Boston and Simon Chapple authors on an apparent wise D-I-Y economy book probably get their ideas direct down the pipe from the OECD.
This is one of their thinkpieces on it. Pensions are too generous – it makes sense to work longer. Thinking that might have been done with one’s head down a toilet, or with one eye on an old telescope eyepiece.
What about the workers! Or more to the point those who have been denied work and a livable wage by this august well paid bunch of boffins.
http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/archivestory.php/aid/824/Retiring_later_makes_sense.html
Here from a table showing countries’ leaving ages from employment.
Mexico
Korea
Chile
in paid employment either over 70 or near in years 2009-2013.
(New Zealand is midway in table and well above OECD average for length of employment years.)
Pensions at a glance OECD 2013
3.8. Average effective age of labour market exit and normal pensionable age
“A case could be made for expecting capable, older New Zealanders to support themselves without the benefit of New Zealand Superannuation for a bit longer,” they said.
The authors said many other countries had moved that way. Moving the age of eligibility would just be a start – it should then be indexed to life expectancy as Denmark has done.
Here is a grab of OECD headings with a few stats on employment –
Young Danes aged 15-24 face an unemployment rate of 14.1% compared ..
and
Young Norwegians aged 15-24 face an unemployment rate of 8.6%, …
and
In terms of employment, 72% of people aged 15 to 64 in New-Zealand have a paid job, …
and
In terms of employment, around 74% of people aged 15 to 64 in Sweden have a …
Just a bit more – I ran out of time.
Referring to thinkpieces at top – is referring to the OECD link but says basically what Boston et al say.
And when looking at employment stats remember that what is classed as paid employment is what is decided by Stats or Treasury or OECD. They may have been counting all paid work of at least an hour a week, a day, or a year. Not what I myself would count as useful employment stats but useful for masking the extent of a problem.
But I don’t know. I have to go and do some unpaid physical work that isn’t of much interest to the magic bean counters.
We live in a fantasy world so from Through the Looking Glass a good quote to remember between Alice and Humpty Dumpty.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”
And consult the Red Queen for good advice about saying things and possibly it applies to doing things, though I hope that things wrongly done in NZ can be corrected.
“It’s too late to correct it,” said the Red Queen: “when you’ve once said a thing, that fixes it, and you must take the consequences.”
Surely Labour’s selection process must have some kind of vetting procedure?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11279732#comment-form
Labour UK and its leadership floundering
I backed Ed Milliband for the UK Labour leadership, but when he retreats into cautious poll driven word smithed mode, what good is he. As many others have been noticing.
Are there no Labour Parties around the world able to take on the Right Wing even during a prolonged age of austerity and recession?
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/22/ed-miliband-leadership-policy-labour
Is the National Party socket puppet Rachel Glucina being used to undermine John Campbell?
“Is trouble brewing behind the scenes at MediaWorks about the state of current affairs on TV3? A well-informed source tells The Diary there is a level of concern at “very senior levels” about daily current events show Campbell Live and whether adding a female co-host could be a solution.”
“The Diary understands suggestions have been made that Campbell Live should make changes and reinvent itself.
“The stories are often too depressing and need to be more uplifting and encompass the whole country. And there’s been too much focus on earthquake gripes and hyperbolised accounts of the GSCB,” said a source.
“Campbell Live is Grey Lynn TV that’s used the situation in Christchurch to leverage a national audience, but that’s a one-trick pony.”
“The show’s leanings, traditionally left, are also perhaps not in line with Kiwis’ thought patterns – which are more upbeat and confident at the moment.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11277598
Paul Casserly in today’s Herald writes:
“The Herald’s Rachel Glucina raised an interesting prospect last week in her column headed “Woman’s touch tipped as answer for Campbell”.
Given that his ratings are lower than those on 7 Sharp, the theory goes that Campbell should get a lady in to help out about the place.
Also, reading between the lines, the message from an unnamed ‘insider’ is that JC should stop moaning about the losers in our society and get behind our glorious leader Mr Key, and stop being a bloody communist.
He should probably also abdicate and give his slot to Paul Henry and Janika ter Ellen while he’s at it.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/television/news/article.cfm?c_id=339&objectid=11279776
The Key, Slater, Glucina connection …
Glucina’s thinly disguised self endorsement article has a poll which I answered just I could post current polling stats here. I’ll wash the mouse directly.
As at 1.05pm Monday:
“Yes – he’s been looking a little lonely. 19%
Maybe – perhaps just on the odd night? 13%
No – I like Campbell to fly solo. 68%”
Maybe she is not as adept as she has led herself to believe. She should perhaps, get herself mentored by someone quite like her ownself to teach her how to relate to herself.
(I am practising pointless wordage, so I can simultaneously discredit her, and then apply for her job. I am now working on a quote to give myself so I can receive it and then quote it in my finely tuned forthcoming article)
Was diverted this morning into a quick search on the Proposed Unitary Plan for Auckland and ended up in the volcanic viewshafts submissions.
Was interested, but not particularly surprised to see the level of diligence that our now defunct Housing New Zealand took to try to ensure that future owners of then current HNZ stock, would not be impeded by any misguided attempt to ensure volcanic viewshafts and UNESCO Heritage status.
Pages 1-41 of 46 pages are all HNZ – delete proposed viewshaft protection.
It is amazingly how diligent and detailed government departments can be when they are inspired to be so…
From the “You couldn’t make this shit up page”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/247934/labour-pledges-red-zone-buy-out-offer
This translates as
If you are not insured and have a disaster then you get nothing.
The National government being very generous has given people 50% of the value to help them get back on their feet. Very decent.
Labour now claim that they will pay the uninsured the same money as the insured. Why on earth would anyone buy insurance if Labour came to power? What message does that send? Desperation for votes. Cash for votes.
Kiwiassure is therefore stuffed as are all insurance companies. You can bribe some people some of the time but you cannot fool 50%.
mmm $24 million, what can we buy for that?
We could buy some broken houses and help some screwed over kiwis get back on their feet
or feed a few bankers in a bail out banquet at Antoine’s and throw in some tickets to a yacht race
no prizes for guessing which you would prefer fisiani
Fisiani,
When national and local governments provide permission through planning processes for development to occur, they are in effect saying that they have met their obligations to current and future owners of those properties that they will be fit for purpose.
It is demonstrable that in regards to red-zone areas in Chch, that although council was aware of flooding risk, they still released that land.
They failed to meet that fundamental trust and obligation.
It is right that they carry some of the resulting cost.
What is the point of insurance if Labour gives you a payout whether you have it or not?
This is just a cynical attempted bribe to buy a few votes in Christchurch. There are far more insured people than uninsured. Effectively through their taxes the insured and careful will subsidise the uninsured and feckless. For every vote it gains via bribery it loses 10 due to lack of principle.
It’s as useless a tactic as telling the West Coasters that the windfall trees must rot on the forest floor and there cannot be jobs, wealth , timber for Christchurch and a windfall payout to DOC for conservation. For every 1 Green Taliban lover there are 100 sensible West Coasters.
Oh, I thought it would be a waste of time providing you with reasonable answers in meaningful words. I decided I’d try anyway.
I should have followed my initial instinct.
Keep banging that repetitious drumbeat of yours Fisiani. The musicmakers of the world obviously live elsewhere.
For every 100 low socio economic taxpayers there is 1 south canterbury finance investor bludging $1,700,000,000 for their shonky, feckless, reckless and greedy investment habits.
Get some scale you dumbarse.
Btw, on just one particular point at hand you do realise that it is not possible to insure bare land, don’t you? I suspect not.
“timber for Christchurch ” I can only assume you are meaning for building new houses? So I have to ask you fisiani…have you any idea how ridiculous that statement is? Apart from maybe a few sq meters making its way into a council building’s fancy panel work or being used as shelving in some one’s kitchen or den, there is no way reclaimed native timber is going to be used for house framing timber when current prices have 100mm x 50mm around $25 l/m.
If those logs do get cleared, you will have to sit there and watch them head overseas like all our reclaimed swamp Kauri. I wonder if Oravida Kauri Ltd is going to be making an application?
You’ve already been cluebatted on the forestry issue:
http://www.thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21062014/#comment-835915
But hey, why bother with teh truth when you can ignore it instead and be shown to be an utter fool time and time again?
Cant GET insurance on bare land.
Not taking out private insurance has nothing to do with red-zoning and consequent payouts you muppet. Go get some learnings and stop trying to be a deceptive bastard like Browlee on this issue.
🙄
Because helping people affected significantly by a natural disaster is so totes a bad thing. Heck taking your line of thinking and running with it, one could argue that we shouldn’t give farmers and central government help vis droughts because often they don’t have insurance for it.
Anyhow this is bloody good idea, insurance can be very difficult to pay for if you don’t have the income, which for many pensioner’s is a fact of life, as it is for anyone who ends up on a benefit or very low income while owning a house. Oh and amusingly WINZ used to help pay for insurance/rates/house maintenance because it works out cheaper than paying rental costs, but under Bennett such rational cost/benefit stuff has been thrown out in favour of treating beneficiaries like criminals.
Or in terms you and the sewer can understand:
food+power+other living costs>>>>house insurance
The you’ve got those who forgot to renew their insurance and are now fucked or were excluded from the EQC buyout because they had a bar section, resulting in major financial problems for many of them.
In terms of votes, helping people out and ye olde “fairness” issues are usually a vote winner and in the context of Christchurch, a major vote winner for Eastern, Central and South electorates, where the majority of people screwed over by Brownlee and EQC live.
Also, quit being a coward and reply already: http://www.thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21062014/#comment-835915
http://thestandard.org.nz/why-insurance-should-be-a-state-monopoly/
Society is the insurance policy.
In the tsumani of comments on Smeargate not sure if this got mentioned already,
“The same Herald article refers to right-wing commentator; National Party apparatchik, and professional lobbyist, Matthew Hooton, being hired by Donghua Liu, to change business migration laws in this country;”
From Frank MacSkasy’s timeline http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/06/23/the-donghua-liu-timeline-damn-lies-dirty-tricks-and-a-docile-media/
That explains why the law hasnt been changed yet. Hooton isnt nearly as good as he says he is. u
but his fees still clock over. On RNZ today it seems Liu owed Hooton over $100,000 for services rendered
Maybe he’s paying that debt off this week.
Ah hah! It was Hooton that bought the bottle of wine on Liu’s behalf!
the whole segment was the oddest Hooton commentary I can remember
and what was the just off-mic ‘on page Seven” comment about ? 😉
*snickering
Thanks weka. A very detailed timeline with the right questions thrown in @
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/06/23/the-donghua-liu-timeline-damn-lies-dirty-tricks-and-a-docile-media/
Ended up where I needed to be to get some information about the PAUP – Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan. (Note: all those marketing degrees and they end up with an acronym that almost spells Pauper?)
And came across this disquieting entry relating to submissions by the Ministry of Ed.
Pulling up the wordy and repetitive document that entails the submission, it seems to ask that the 400 school sites in Auckland that it is responsible for no longer retain a special purpose zoning. Instead, that is replaced by the same zoning that exists in adjacent properties.
What does this mean for schools?
Since we don’t operate under the suggested Open Source democracy above who knows. But the cynic in me thinks – watch out school communities, your social value is steadily being eroded by this government, and this ensures that your capital value is easily ascertained and converted into cash.
Kelvin Davis not in the top 10. Shafted by Labour again at 18. Unelectable. It will be a shitfight in TTT.
Considering Labour got 34 seats last election and it was a fairly low voter turn out that year, I would say that you are making stuff up based on your own wishful thinking.
By the way, I am interested to know do you do that confusing reality with fantasy stuff deliberately or is it that you have difficulty discerning the difference between the two?
BL
Have been re reading Jaques Ellul. This reminded me of fisiani, bm and other right wing regurgitators
” People used to think that learning to read evidenced human progress; they still celebrate the decline of illiteracy as a great victory; they condemn countries with a large proportion of illiterates; they think that reading is a road to freedom. All this is debatable, for the important thing is not to be able to read, but to understand what one reads, to reflect on and judge what one reads. Outside of that, reading has no meaning (and even destroys certain automatic qualities of memory and observation). But to talk about critical faculties and discernment is to talk about something far above primary education and to consider a very small minority. The vast majority of people, perhaps 90% percent, know how to read, but do not exercise their intelligence beyond this. They attribute authority and eminent value to the printed word, or, conversely, reject it altogether. As these people do not possess enough knowledge to reflect and discern, they believe — or disbelieve — in toto what they read. And as such people, moreover, will select the easiest, not the hardest, reading matter, they are precisely on the level at which the printed word can seize and convince them without opposition. They are perfectly adapted to propaganda. “
Oh dear, that sounds horribly familiar with people I know in RL (real life) too 🙁
That bit about believing or disbelieving what is read solves a puzzle for me re how some people can appear intelligent yet become very ‘binary’ over certain things (black & white). At the point they become ‘binary’ there is no convincing them otherwise – no amount of easily understood, information (reasoned or otherwise) will change their minds. I figure that occurs when they have made that decision to disbelieve. At which point, any evidence to the contrary gets turned around in a manner that supports their argument. (Conspiracy theorists are guilty of this).
Very interesting, I have never heard of the writer (about to google it). My mother has often said that about memory and reading – how learning to read affects memory, will have to ask her if she got it from that author . Very interesting ta!
formation of mens attitudes, was written in the sixties is worth a read and is downloadable for free.
I revisit it every now and then.
Downloadable, great! I just checked out the Wikipedia page on him – am rather surprised I don’t appear to have come across him at all – saw the book you mentioned on that page and it immediately sounded like something that would interest me (I am fascinated on how propaganda works on people…and also how to stop it working on people!). Glad to hear it is available online, will go and find it now!
George Bernard-Shaw said in the sexist language of his time: “It is not a man’s experience that makes him wise, but his capacity to learn from it.”
Sexist maybe, but blissfully brief.?
live from the Planet Key broadcasting centre, it’s the tory-trippy-hour!
nobody cares what you think fishyanus,
you are an agent provocateur who always gets it wrong.
Labour is about to clean up.
I spoke to a died in the wool tory this morning in town and he said that real national people are getting tired of the prevarication and dissembling from this lot and they have just about had enough.
hangers on are going to be swept aside.
that means you fishy!
“A died in the wool tory” conjures up some fascinating images.
On the offchance that someone may know.
I’ve been trying to identify a documentary series about water that was shown on either Prime TV or TVNZ7 a few years ago…
Does anyone here remember it – and better still recall the name or the producer?
When they get bought out at a fire sale price by Oravida the anonymous border officials will be handsomely rewarded.
That’s how it’s done.
Thatcher came to power. Cheap energy trends set in. Progressive politics died and was taken over by the extreme right. Now every policy must have a tax cut for the wealth and cross taxation to sustain the welfare budget (what is family credits but getting childless low to middle income earner to pay for children of low to middle income earners and give the richest a tax cut). It was class war and the wealth won. Now we’re told home ownership is falling and that does not represent growing inequality.
Since there can be no talk of an independent ideology formulated by the working masses themselves in the process of their movement, the only choice is – either bourgeois or socialist ideology. There is no middle course (for mankind has not created a “third” ideology).
[lprent: Moved to OpenMike. Appears to have nothing to do with this post. Don’t do diversion trolling on posts. Read the policy. This is your warning. ]
2007 Midlands Hawkes Bay Charity Wine Auction …was held 3 June 2007.
Was this where Lui bought the wine?
http://www.tizwine.com/index.php/ps_pagename/newsdetail?pi…548
Spirits soared as the bidding reached $162700 at The Midland’s Hawkes Bay Charity Wine Auction held at the Hawkes Bay Opera House on Sunday.
http://www.tizwine.com/index.php/ps_pagename/pdfpressrelease/news/484/.pdf
Am I naive or did this auction actually take place? Be hilarious if Mr Liu did spend up large on this or devastaing for the Herald. They woulkd say sorry, sorry sorry or not.
Despite giving Americans a “blow job”, alliance with the US is “worthless”
Apparently some distant protectorates of the Empire may not be as loyal to Rome as first appears.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-22/despite-giving-americans-blow-job-polish-foreign-minster-says-us-alliance-worthless
NZers need to realise the same thing – cosying up to the US won’t save us if/when the brown stuff hits the rotary air impeller.
http://www.listener.co.nz/current-affairs/politics/revealed-labours-signed-wine-fundraiser/
Be interesting to see how this one unfolds or another Tory Smear..
re they saying Liu’s declaration is false? or is it true? the dates are quite a way apart…… will be watchin how they explain this one when it backfires 🙂
Shot down in flames by Rob Salmond (see comment below the creative writing essay). Humiliation is all The Listener is good for these days.
But a tweet from:
Rob Salmond @rsalmond
Follow
@toby_etc I am familiar with the event. The wine you refer to sold for $1,600, and I have seen the record proving it was not to Mr Liu.
5:05 PM – 23 Jun 2014
The piece showing the Auction catalogue entries has been lost in translation to my computer with percentages all over the place. It looks like one of those brain tests where you instinctively know what a part word is. How good to put the story to bed. The Hairy will be upset – it looked as if it would percolate for weeks, carefully heated.
Hah good job…. will go follow him and get that tweet and spread it far and wide ….. o the irony of seeing trolls jump in anger is sooooooooooooooo satisfying
Thank You Lorde
http://instagram.com/p/oKiMonHt3M/#
Oh Lorde, I thought when I first opened that page it was going to say she was a young nat. Thank goodness she isn’t, we would never hear the end of it…..
A bit of cash in the bank now, so let’s not go by the song royals (the one she co-wrote to get famous).
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/10190195/Lorde-craves-luxe-buzz-after-all
you linked to that piece of mindless crap..?
..w.t.f. 4..?
Sorry mate, didn’t mean to step on your toes. I had no idea you had a monopoly on posting mindless crap.
A post by Jan Logie – something to read with a heavy heart. This is the stuff the NActs don’t want us to know about while they congratulate themselves on being oh so good at the dirty tricks, celebrity politics diversions, and double speak.
“Work and income – stories from hidden people”
Shameful that this is happening in NZ. It’s also something to link to every time some rightie starts saying no-one in NZ needs to be poor – it’s their choice.
Until the Left takes human rights seriously, and enables the police and courts to prosecute breaches whether or not people were just following National Party orders, nothing will change. Apart from our international reputation sliding further into the gutter, that is.
Our forbears fought wars to protect human rights: they won. Don’t let the National Party re-litigate the outcome.
PS: start with accessory/conspiracy to murder charges against anyone who has facilitated US drone strikes in any way, and go from there. Demand the accused be extradited from Hawaii if necessary.
i just read that link..and it made me angry..
..i’ve done time..hung with junkies and crims..done battle with screws..
..and have moved in and out of various (scary to some) subcultures around the planet..
..but the people who i have met on this planet who i think are ..in the main..absolute fucken scum…
..are the sadistic fucks at work and income..
..and one of my largest motivations to argue for a universal basic income..
..is ‘cos most of those useless excuses for ill-educated/dumb-as-fucken-doorknobs/useless for anything else/wastes of space wd not be not needed..wd be out of a job..
..and i wd love to be given the job of firing their arses..i wd volunteer(unpaid..)
..these people are (in the main) sick/sadistic fucks..
..and my skin crawls i loathe them so much..
..and you may think..that being a man raising a kid..you wd at least get treated the same as women in the same position..
..nah..!..those (in the main) woman-witches seem to see you as payback for every male that ‘did them wrong’..and treat you accordingly..
..i can’t think of any other reason for their actions/treatment of me..and those others they are meant to be there to help..
..it is a sick fucken institutional-culture..with them loathing their ‘clients’..treating them with contempt..
..making them jump thru hoops..just generally fucking them over in every way possible..
..and their fucken ‘seminars’..?..dumb-shit/waste-of-time…braindead-fucken-morons talking absolute drivel..
..people you wouldn’t trust to hammer in a fucken nail .. lecturing/bullying/threatening….
..(and that is part of the head-fuck..as these morons ruling over you..bullying/fucking with yr life/head..are clearly not competent to do anything else..
..except maybe parking-wardens..?..or shovelling shit somewhere..?..)
..at one this harridan running it started going off at the lady sitting next to me..was ranting away/bullying her….
..then i pointed out to her that the lady did not speak english/could not understand her…..
..did she apologise to her..?..hell no..!
..but she did make her sit thru the rest of what she couldn’t understand..
‘cos for them it is a numbers game..a quota thru their seminars..job done..!
..in every town..all those people..in all those buildings..not needed if we have a universal basic income..
..and those winz-buildings..in many towns/provincial-centres..the flashest building in town..
..they cd be turned over to the people to use as education/online/community-centres/w.h.y-resources..
Used to enjoy Hoskings on Radio. Was a bit like Mary Wilson, hard incisive questions but with age and riches he’s become just another Paul Henry celebrity shock dick. Shame really.
If the media report is correct that the TPP will not be successfully negotiated this year, then that is a real shame, but we simply press on. The Uruguay Round took 8 years to negotiate and delivered enormous benefits for the world in freeing trade. New Zealand was a strong advocate, and our unilateral trade liberalisation was an example for everyone.
The TPP will be finalised, and ratified by New Zealand some time in the next two years. I hope it has bilateral support from Labour. If not no doubt the next National Government will press ahead after the election. There is no alternative.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11280085
The TPPA is a dead duck. Just like the MAI.
It is really sad that you feel a global cabal of corporate contracts that tie up every country on earth and put self-determination on the scrap heap, is a good thing. That or you simply fail to understand how all the other versions of the TPPA that are also being negotiated around the planet, fit together.
Personally srylands, I feel it is the latter that is your particular problem.