In Scotland a recent TNS poll which said just five per cent of people aged 25 to 34 intend to vote Labour, while 80 per cent will vote SNP.
The likely new leader of the Scottish branch office told her supporters: “We may not be at the bottom of where the Labour party could get to in Scottish public life. There might be another storm coming.
The SNP are now clearly the party of the left in Scotland and there is no future for Labout there. The sooner English Labour starts engaging with the SNP as an ally rather than the enemy the sooner the fight against the Tories can be won.
Nitpicking and Natzish I know but I too get mildly irritated by the minor spelling/grammar errors in bw’s well presented and thoughtful posts.
Not life threatening but:
‘Don’t confuse their and there. Their is a possessive pronoun: I like their new car. There is an adverb meaning ‘at that place’: park the car over there.’
Yes but what do think might work? . he’s highlighted the extreme end but I think if the first time a kid gets the polices attention the parents get fined or sent to parenting course it could nip a lot of problems in the bud.
So Paul Holmes should have been fined or more once the Police got hold of Millie abusing P?
Heck we are not locking up those that actually commit crimes….Roastbusters anyone? All these guys that are having name suppression cause they are important and rich New Zealanders. …..
IF we started with those than maybe others would have a bit more faith in the Justics System.
I’m talking about kids under 16 or maybe 18 past that they are an adult.
It would be interesting to know the first time the ones you mentioned crossed paths with the police though .
the roastbusters were between 15 – 17 at the time i think.
The reason I mention these two is actually as all the offenders come from well off families, and often if not always they don’t get to punished either way, case in point big fuss about Millies Gangbanger boyfriends death and the roastbusters boys will be boys treatment.
What we might want to ask is who will be most impacted by these Hard on Crime Feel Good Measures. My guess would be low income, three job working, single parents, parents that have just gone through hard time, etc. type parents. The ones that sit in the richer parts of the country and that go to the nicer schools will have enough cash to pay a lawyer and ask for name suppression, and community work.
Regarding the reaction to elder’s blokes death I can only assume he was the Auckland in crowds dealer of choice including the reporters.
And how the buster sikos got away with it is a national shame.
Fining the truant is stupid .
What I’m getting at is the kids who get picked up wandering the streets , if there parents where given the option of a fine or attending some form of family guidance I bet they would start paying attention to what there kids are up to.
read the first two links. This one really only speaks of truancy, and how it its criminalizing poor parents, often working a few jobs, and yes, these parents if they can’t pay the fine can opt to go to prison. What this Duncan Garner Guys is advocating has been done in the states for years now, to such devastating effect that many inclusive Law Enforcement, Schools and others are calling for the Truancy Fine System to be dismantled.
We should rather invest money in an apprenticeship system to get those kids of the street that quit school at 14 / 15 because they are not suited to school. And it is a Fact, not all of our children do well in school, not all of our children are happy to go to school till they are 18.
We just simply don’t offer them a different alternative then school.
In the states they call it the School to Prison Pipeline. I have added a link in my comment above. Google the term, it makes for good reading.
Don’t worry the answer will soon be upon us. Once SERCO take over social welfare they will have a vested interest in ensuring there is a steady supply of youth offenders heading off to Prison where their Company will be employed to guard them. It’s a regular money go round. Interesting that in USA there was a recent case of Judges being on payroll of the Private Juvenile Prisons and they were paid to ensure offenders were sent to those prisons.
Might be worth investing in some of the Private Prision companies here
What is not being examined is what sort of upbringing those parents had and what they actually understand about child-rearing. Garner is, as usual, being simplistic.
meh. If Duncan can write the whole story containing accurate enough description of the family past, and then say it’s all the fault of the parents, he’s a dunce. Duncean Garner. Unfortunately for Garner, his coy views do not reveal that, shock horror, the parents are people too, with their stories and context, living in NZ.
Let us all recite the Right wing myth: We create society. Society has no effect on anyone, society doesn’t exist.
To the Right, what we live now is perfectly normal. Ther eis no yesterday. Everyone should be happy and white. There is no cause and effect, no object and environment. No one ever influences the behaviour of anyone else. Unless a Rightie gets angry that their greed is being curtailed by society.
In other parts of the world, society (the local village) is put in the dock with criminals. We are too sophisticated for that. Wholistic thinking is for the stoneage. Blame and deception is our preferred method.
Well said Charles. There was a stuff headline a day or two ago: ‘Is Duncan Garner the new John Campbell?’ Ah no, Duncan Garner is the same low brow fool he always was.
His childhood was not normal and he had a history of getting into fights, lying, stealing and disregarding authority.
The last two words are a good tell on where Garner is coming from. He expects people to bow down to authority immediately, no questions asked.
His mother gave him cannabis in a bizarre bid to wean him off synthetic cannabis.
I wouldn’t call that bizarre considering that synthetic cannabis is more damaging and more addictive than actual cannabis which, of course, is why it was taken off the shelves.
The truth is these people don’t deserve to have babies.
Don’t see him saying that about the National Party despite the pain and horror that they’ve caused to the poor over the last few years.
If you don’t depend on the state apparently you can have as many children as you like no matter how dysfunctional they and your family is… no matter how bad your children are ,no matter how many Class A drugs they take or deal.
I’m trying to remember if Paul Holmes got vilified or sancitfied when his daughter went off the rails?
He tried everything to get her off it, went on a crusade against P. He was very vocal about it.
However, no one would want to fine him him for his daughter going of the rail and being a little shit. No that is reserved for the mongrels that have too many kids and that can’t look after their kids. Poor families, and single parent families, and families that don’t live in Parnell or Ponsonby.
“The sad reality is we have a bunch of uneducated, drug-abusing mongrels bringing young people into this world. ”
The wording says it all – as long as people are labeled like this, there will be problems. Yes parents need better child raising skills and more options and support. Yes parents need access to resources and community and yes options for life and living not worrying about the bills or how to get food on the table. That can’t happen if people are demonised and ridiculed. Kindness, sympathy, empathy and direct support is needed – and that is where the government comes in – with the money.
I don’t imagine Mrs Key senior will want to be hauled before the courts for all of her son’s wrongdoing, especially in light of the most especial office he holds in our land…
But would be a good example to set – maybe Mrs Key senior would like to volunteer
IMO this is typical kneejerk vengeance-seeking populism from Garner. It’s a fair bet the parents will have similar stories to their kids. Do you put their parents in the dock as well? Their parents too?
“Finally to all those who get exercised about this stuff, much of it seems based on the fact that “journalists” are supposed to be neutral.
Well, top tip for you, I am not a journalist, and any claimed neutrality from others is most often a myth.”
So, if Garner takes over the 7pm slot on TV3 and he is meant to be TV3’s Mike Hosking we will now not have journalists running our main, broadcast ‘current affairs’ shows.
One of iprents comments in the last day was how he ran this site to get people coming up with ideas ,so when a story that highlights the problems that would be close to most “lefties ” hearts , ie disfunctional families and the system failing kids I foolishly thought there might be a good descussion started. And yet all that happened was highlighting of the negative things the author said and the negative out comes from failed attempts to solve the problems. Baa fucking hum bug
The thing is that visiting the sins of the children upon their parents is no more “left” than cursing the children with the sins of their parents.
The solutions to dysfunctional families and wayward children are, for the most part, well known. But the solutions involve short term expense in housing, income, education, truancy response, and social work, rather than more punitive measures against people who might be incapable of solving the problems their kids face.
If anything, if the parents are working long hours or depressed and unemployed, then a fine that simply increases the financial pressure is hardly likely to solve anything. And if the parents are estranged from their kids, nothing builds bridges like “great, now I need to pay off this fine because of you”, right?
And if the parents are estranged from their kids, nothing builds bridges like “great, now I need to pay off this fine because of you”, right?
Yes I had thought of that angle and that’s were the offer of help instead would be good.
But from my own experience if my parents had of got a short sharp shock when I was 15 and had a brush with the law my outcomes might of been very different and I’ve been around long enough to know I’m not unique.
And I realize a fine for the mother in the story would of achieved nothing but she and others in her situation still have to take some responsibility for there actions.
And as for help I have first hand knowledge of a ” mother ” (not mine) who has had alsorts of help and her kids still have to go through p withdrawals after there school holidays with them. It come as a surprise to some lefties but some people don’t want saving there happy being nasty people.
In the case in question, one mother was already in prison when the crime was committed.
I reckon that basically negates the idea of whether prison (or the threat thereof) makes for better parents.
Your life would have been different – but in what way? Garner says that apparently the system in some parts of the US doesn’t even work anyway. So better or worse is up in the air.
So what sort of “responsibility” should the parents of serious offenders take?
I think the entire idea is bunk, for the reasons I initially stated.
In the case of parents who’s only fault is not really paying attention to what there kids are up to (in my case drinking ) I disagree as a society I think there has to be the expectation that parentsrotect there kids even if it is from them selves. In the case of the ones in garners story I bet that they had been brought tho the attention of the police and probably cyfs long before the poor man got killed . hell maybe we need a whole family facilty so they can be gotten a way from the circles they move in and have time to get off the drugs and heal.
Speaking of “incomprehensible” did anyone else hear ShonKey Python on TV the other night exhorting us to patriotism centred on ‘The Flag’ ? Can’t find the link but my goodness he was beaming at the prospect. Has he lost it altogether now, or is he just retired on a ranch in Texas somewhere, or what ?
What a hypocrite is Key. When asked about why he thinks we should have a new flag he talked about how we are no longer a colonial country but wasn’t asked to justify his fawning to the Royal family which he makes us another colonial slave to those royals.
North. That was on Sunday as well talking to Miriama Kamo. Apparently a new flag will give us an *overt* way to be patriotic to our flag. New word this week is OVERT. He’s up to the O’s. Usually like her but this was a puff piece. He was a grinning loon with a bad hair rug that appears to be woven out of the hair of the endangered orangutang. And speaking of incomprehensible, MK asked him the likely cost of changing the flag and he airily pronounced that it would be ‘lots and lots, we will need more material’ grin, grin. And then proceeded to speak in tongues at length before he could be asked again. Which she did but you could hardly hear her. I really dislike him intensely. Why does he really want to change the flag?
He wants to change the flag cos he wants to be remembered for being the prime minister who “changed the flag”. That simple and self-centred which is why he’s ignoring the fact 70-75% of the population are happy with the current flag.
Prediction: the final cost of changing the flag will be $50 million plus because he wants it so badly. Who gives a tinker’s cuss about poor, hungry kids and people living in cars? Not John Key.
It’s a nice, calming diversion that can be rolled out whenever the government has something to hide.
Agree with that too. And talking about agreeing, for the second week in a row I find myself ‘agreeing’ with something Matthew Hooton has said on RNZ political spot.
He bemoaned (not quite the right word) the lack of political opposition to the govt.’s current habit of lying about and mishandling of various controversies. As an example he gave the Murray McCully shenanigans over the Saudi sheep scandal and suggested that Labour should have succeeded in having him sacked by now. I agree. Why are Labour letting this govt. get away with so much downright corrupt behaviour? Why are they not screaming their heads off? What is the matter with them? Are they too timid or are they being given bad advice?
I know Phil Twyford has done well but that’s not enough. Remember the continuous hollering coming from National in the last term of the Labour govt. often over inconsequential matters? It worked. So why isn’t Labour pulling out all stops to do the same?
Remember the continuous hollering coming from National in the last term of the Labour govt. often over inconsequential matters? It worked. So why isn’t Labour pulling out all stops to do the same?
Yep. All the Left parties need a hundred or so people reading the news/social media etc, knocking around a few ideas and then getting the attack lines out ASAP. There shouldn’t be 24 hours before there’s a response but about half an hour.
It’s not even hard as the communication lines are open and in place 24/7 now.
I suspect the real reason is NOT that he wants to change the flag, but he wants this flag debate as a DISTRACTION from everything else. The debate not only marginalises his government’s inefficiency and misdeeds, it fills hours and hours of time and space in the media away from other social and economic issues, as well as divides the people. It is a cunning plan.
Has John finished his cycleway yet, and if so, who is he intending to sell it to?
Everyone knows that state assets, once built by locals, are more effectively run by private interests. Shouldn’t be too hard to run a cycleway. All that’s required is an admin staff of about 130, a multi-story office building in Manila, 146 consultants, a coffee machine, 80 merino sheep, and $2b of NZ government funds to prop it up till it gets started. I estimate income from increased tourism to be about $450.
Will it be a part of ongoing state asset sales in his next (imagined) term?
Crikey, the roastbusters case is catapaulted back into the news. Further investigations? Charges laid? Oh no no hohoho. Turns out Mediaworks is settling with John Tamihere. Tamihere’s reputation as a stand-up guy is worth about $620K, apparently. In my opinion, whenever I’ve seen him around town, he never looked more than 1K, but shopping for groceries does that to the best of us. In the grey light of the New World tinned foods aisle, everyone looks depressed.
Today Mediaworks will publicly apologise. Long-time followers and frequent callers of the case will need kava on-hand and a sturdy seat when that happens.
Just clicking back through the associated stories, I found this older one, of the Mediaworks management motivations behind what happened. Read some of the reasoning in the emails….
Ties in nicely with the reasoning behind the precurser publication and various incarnations of the The Standard – as posted last night here by the sysop. Commercial news “for the public good” is bought and sold.
Equally, 86 percent of Israelis who voted for the right-wing Shas party and 66 percent of Likud voters agree with the statements of far-right Israeli politician Miri Regev that African immigrants, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea, are a “cancer” in the Israeli body politic.
Graeme Watson – who went to school here, got married, obtained driving and gun licences, became a registered counsellor and worked in Government-provided health services – said he might joke about being a “nobody”, a stateless person in his own country, but “it’s a bloody nightmare”.
Two months ago Mr Watson lost his job because of his “immigration status” , after being employed with a private mental health provider for only five weeks. He was paid for only two of those weeks; the nationwide company telling him his outstanding wages were frozen because he may have worked “illegally”, he said. Before then he had worked for more than four years with Northland District Health Board.
Tell him to contact the Community Law Centre in Whangarei. The phone number for the main office is 09 437 7535. They should be able to offer free legal assistance.
This employer is just trying him on, and there’s plenty examples of that sort of behaviour among the private groups that access government money for offering public services – some of them are quite big names – such wickedness!
“”We need to fight austerity,” she says. “The whole of Europe, not just Greece. Nations can’t live under these conditions.”
Austerity has left her country ravaged by unemployment and many remaining wages below the poverty line, she says. Money that comes into Greece leaves straight away, back into the pockets of its creditors.
Judy… Judy… Judy doll just when you thought your career was back on track. Your in a real bit of bother now. We know exactly what has been going on here and it stinks like rotting milk in the sun.
It’s no good threatening people and trying to bully them, so tell your offsider New Zealand isn’t some banana republic, actually tell him he is Peking duck and he is going to be served on a plate. Honestly trying to hide massive amounts of Kauri movements out of our ports it is impossible not to leave a trace. Yes yes all will be explained. My advice do an immediate Sabin or ‘you will be fired.’
Keith Locke got me thinking about terrorism, or more specifically, what it might actually be, after he said that if you’re white and killing people, you can’t be a terrorist. I don’t agree, which means I disagree with all kinds of famous smart people. That’s the beauty of opinion.
There are echoes of the “white people are inherently racist” idea in his words, a peripheral ideology in itself. The obvious rebuttal is that the various factions of the Irish war for Independent government (is that still the claim?) is also run by some really white people – they don’t specifically hire-in Africans to do the dirty work – although they’ll take money and guns from just about anyone. Locke’s comments were motivated by the recent Charleston shootings, where a young white bloke with a serious beef against people whose skin colour wasn’t the same as his, shot-up a church congregation. Ten people were shot, nine people died, including a state senator.
Terror, it is said, is a mental state that is brought on by a sudden threat, causing the fight-or-flight response in the human brain, and may include “Freezing up” or “hiding”. It is also defined as the act of a legitimate state or power to suppress dissention. The FBI defines terrorism as:
“…the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”
The FBI say they are more concerned with examining the method, over the motivation. Dylann Roof wasn’t very organised. There is dispute over where he got a gun, which gun he used, or even if there were two. He’d been planning for 6 months, apparently, yet the existence of white supremacy groups that he was associated with wasn’t enough to motivate his actions by itself. Politics wasn’t enough. Vague organisational support wasn’t enough. Going on what they know, the FBI say he wasn’t a terrorist.
If everyone who causes or uses terror is a terrorist, then,
The Father who perpetrates domestic violence is a terrorist.
The Mother who emotionally abuses her child is a terrorist.
The Bad-Ass who is feared for his violence in local neighbourhood is a terrorist.
The government department that violently changes policy, causing sudden shock and terror in people effected, is a terrorist organisation.
Which they are clearly not. They may or may not have all committed serious crimes, with descriptions that may or may not already exist in legislated acts, but that’s as far as it goes. I don’t think there is anything to be gained by legitimising “Lone Wolf Terrorist” as a term, for above reasons. It doesn’t add anything real to the reasons why crimes against humanity occur. What it looks like to me is that Keith Locke is trying to say that racism is deadly. Who’d argue with that? If anything, the labelling of Dylann Roof’s crime as a hate crime, or an act of racism, would do more to have people inspect how covert and institutionalised racism occurs, and when, who or what drives it, than using another colloquial term that takes a step away from the serious nature of racism.
Terror and terrorism are subjective and emotive terms – as is the word violence – and it is difficult to conclusively measure until a large group is effected and a series of acts form a trend of intent. Usually you could look back on the internal struggles or civil war of a country and say, “Ah yes, now we can see how that group changed from a peasant uprising, to a militia, to a fledgling political group and now to a terrorist/organised criminal group”. One person acting alone, with no previous acts to form a trend, we can’t measure much terrorism, just the act itself. Organise a group into crashing two planes into an American skyscraper and make videos to support that action, and you’re a terrorist. Breed nastiness inside yourself and go on a shooting spree – you’re just a killer.
Now here is where the line starts to blur: You could say, “Hey but wait, whitey has been killing darker folks since forever, that’s the trend, that’s what the culture covertly, openly and politically encourages – all whites are terrorists!” And you’d have a good argument. Culture, or culture clashes, play an important part in terrorism. The World Trade Centre wasn’t just a couple of tall buildings – they were symbols of a culture. The church Dylann Roof shot-up wasn’t just a church, it was a symbol of the civil rights movement – a symbol of a culture. And you could also point out that there are plenty of instances throughout history where a blind-eye is turned by the more powerful party in a conflict: allowing peripheral war crimes to occur inside a larger warzone, where lawless groups do things that save the more powerful party from having to “get dirty” by addressing it themselves. You could also say that the FBI are part of the racist establishment.
Another definition of terrorism is a political act that is made to suppress opposition – in non-combatants.
So did Dylann Roof wipe-out or suppress opposition to his “political beliefs” with his act? What about in non-combatants? Is a state senator a non-combatant in civil rights? Is anyone a non-combatant when it comes to racism and civil rights? If anything, he only made opposition stronger. Has he strengthened white supremacy? If the ruling class of America are conclusively racists, has he improved their position, their power, or extended their ideology? Not one bit. Obama didn’t know Roof was going to shoot people (well I hope he didn’t!), and didn’t need him to justify making changes to gun laws which, if we now create a conspiracy, “would lead an armed State to freely kill disarmed civil rights advocates”. Is anyone saying, “If Dylann can do this we might as just accept that killing people is condoned by popular agreement and make it legal.”? Fear and terror may have increased, momentarily, but strong political opposition remains – evidenced by outrage and debate over him being a terrorist, or not. Using that definition, you might also say that whatever the USA are fighting now with their War on Terror, the terrorists lost a long time ago.
So now our definition of terrorism also includes:
Anyone who acts lawlessly and causes terror by utilising/manipulating the neglect of the State
Anyone who violently opposes the State, rules of establishment, culture, or more powerful party, causing terror – armed or not.
Any weaker smaller party that violently opposes the more powerful party or culture, causing terror.
Any larger more powerful party that violently opposes the weaker smaller party or culture, causing terror.
Anyone that does anything to so badly scare other people, that those people feel oppressed and divorced from their personal autonomy.
White people.
Any other people with skin.
Pretty soon, everyone’s a terrorist, or a potential terrorist, which makes the word itself pretty pointless. However terrified people may be, Dylann Roof hasn’t single-handedly suppressed political opposition in non-combatants, or otherwise. The only thing we can be sure of is that racism is deadly, people hate each other for some strange reasons, those reasons are supported by a culture, and people die because of it.
So did we arrive at what terrorism is? Maybe. We might have brushed past part of it: People can be made to feel terror. Political idealists want things their own way, and people not getting what they want makes them panic and become terrified of loss of the power to act, but, does the thought oppress them to the extent that they are divorced from their autonomy? I would argue that if someone more powerful than you consistently breaks agreements between you, agreements constructed by them, primarily for their own gain, and calls you a terrorist because you try to stop them hurting your people, grabbing more of your stuff, or increasing their claim of ownership over an environment that can’t be owned (without an accompanying culture of hereditary rights), their personal autonomy is not and never was threatened and you might be a freedom fighter, not a terrorist. Keith Locke might agree with me.
Dylan Roof is clearly a terrorist by the FBI’s own definition which is admittedly broad. Possibilities are either that it was either legally OR politically expedient for the FBI not to refer to him as such. Trouble is that not calling him a terrorist does give a lot of leeway to think that the reason he’s not called one is that he’s white
Where are the post writers of The Standard today -or yesterday or the day before – not writing about the new law about to be passed – the Cyber Bullying Law which is aimed at shutting down free speech and could censor writers on this blog site for just having opinions which may cause “harm or emotional distress” to the person they are writing about. Why has The Standard itself not bothered to make more of a fuss and bringing it to the forefront and emphasising the seriousness of it. It could close down this blogsite – its a nasty piece of legislation and shot full of holes – and aimed at journalists and blog writer’s like yourself in the guise of protecting vulnerable teenagers being bullied on their social networks. The law is vague, the net is so wide it will eventually include all of us who welcome free speech and critical thinking. It is being passed in urgency in the next couple of days. Obviously there has been no mention in the MSM and probably will be passed in the dead of night while we sheeples are sleeping. Lisa Owen quizzed Amy Adams about this on The Nation last Saturday and Sunday and Lisa gave Amy Adams plenty of examples where prosecutions could happen – satirical cartoons, policital commentary and blog writers etc and Adams couldn’t give an assurance as to the guidelines as to how this law would work – people will have to settle it in court by a case by case basis. Its censureship plain and obvious.
For the first time ever I think we are slowly being led into a world where free speech is going to disappear and we are all too dim witted to seeing it happening before our eyes. What’s worse knowing about it or not knowing about – either way we are all screwed.
Thanks for that Barbara. It is an important point. I ‘think’, but not sure, that well written guest topics are welcome here on the Standard. Perhaps, if you can, you should write a comprehensive article on this important topic and send it to the contact address below to see if they would like to publish it as a post here. I am sure many readers, including me, would be interested to read the read it and understand all the details.
Air New Zealand’s chief operations officer Bruce Parton said the airline had been exploring opportunities for some time to secure a solid future for Safe Air.
I think being owned by AirNZ would be a fairly solid future so what did he actually mean?
This seems to explain most of what is going on now here in NZ under Nat given questions raised here yesterday and our ever expanding debt – so hard to believe we were in the black a few weeks before the 2008 election now $90b in the hole. What Labour might do about this (if anything) and is Ross’s ideas just conspiracy theory or coming chaos theory? Apols if this is old topic for you but I would be interested in your feedback and whether nesara is some kind of option? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NESARA ??
and returning to a bimetallic currency, would result in 0% inflation and a more stable economy.
Nope, it’s a load of bollocks. Metallic currencies have never worked as there just isn’t enough of the metals available to maintain enough currency for the services available especially after the rich have syphoned them all up. This gives a continual deflationary pressure almost always resulting in a recession or depression. The 19th century, marked in it’s use of the Gold Standard is also noted for the fact that most of the time the economy was in recession.
A fiat currency, as we have now, is fine but it needs strict rules about the creation of money and credit. Strict that we presently don’t have. In fact, we allow private banks to make money every time they make a loan. This results in massive inflation and, due to the interest, the fact that those loans can’t actually be paid back. In fact, paying them back would result in a recession or more probably a depression as it would drastically reduce the amount of money in circulation.
why can’t we get rid of this govt? i am at my wits end (as Nan would say) and me!
what the hell is it going to take?
if the current lies and BS get accepted then maybe labour need to BS and lie just to be the norm?
if you allow 50-60 thousand immigrants a yr. it must help you’re voter base? yes!
It’s not ‘we’ that gets rid of governments. It’s the public and so far they seem happy with National. Maybe what needs to happen is to change the opposition parties to reflect what the majority of New Zealanders want in a government. I sometimes despair that so many people keep up with the meme that if only opposition parties were more leftwing they would triumph at the polls. It is not going to happen. What is more likely is that either Greens or NZ First (or both) will embrace National and cement a Rightwing government in power for many many years.
Austerity is the dirtiest word of the now
It has been constructed not by Bill Gates and others who actually have wealth out of something people can use even though it survives on its ridiculously insane share price and africa and other nations who they indirectly keep poor so the Austerity sucking monetarist leeches can keep lying to the world about the corruption in every facet of banking starting with the valueless commodity money itself which the poor pay for not the rich
That’s why there will always be the poverty on a mass scale administered by souless power brokers like Key who has lowered the intelligence of this nation just by being here
He has nothing but a hangmans noose for this country
What are the verified conditions of live animal exports from New Zealand?
Some Australian information on Australian live export ships (dated March 2013).
——————————————————–
Revealed: The real conditions on live export ships
Tasmanian Times,
29 March, 2013
From Dr Simpson’s submission – overstocked cattle covered in excrement
FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE REAL CONDITIONS ON LIVE EXPORT SHIPS HAS BEEN MADE PUBLIC …
Last August, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) called for submissions into the operation of the Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock. 23 submissions have been published on the DAFF website (here):
One submission in particular has become especially public and has ‘gone viral’ within the animal advocacy community. The document was submitted by Dr Lynn Simpson, a shipboard veterinarian of 13 years experience, who had sailed on 57 ‘long and extra long haul’ voyages.
It is anyone’s guess why it has taken Dr Simpson such a long time to come forward about the truly atrocious conditions faced by animals on live export ships on voyages that can be as long as 41 days, or almost 6 weeks, but her submission documents, and photographs, the desperate living conditions and misery the animals must endure for many weeks on these old Third World ships.
• Hard deck, ‘cleated’ and bitumised flooring, totally unsuitable for animals who cannot or will not lie down on these surfaces, particularly when they are covered in excrement, compounded by insufficient cleaning and bedding, especially appalling on voyages of up to 6 weeks
• Overstocking in pens, meaning the animals cannot all lie down at once
• Animals who meet the ‘rejection criteria’ (ill and unfit animals) being loaded regardless, blind, lame, or otherwise ill or diseased
• Animals who do not meet the requirements of the importing country (for example, the voyage of the M/V Barkly Pearl from Geraldton to Mauritius on which cattle certified by an Australian veterinarian and cattle specialist as not being pregnant gave birth to calves on the ship and many more were found to be pregnant upon arrival in Mauritius, where it is unlawful to slaughter pregnant animals)
• Cattle with bleeding horn stumps being loaded
• Cattle far too heavy being loaded who then developed severe leg injuries from the shipboard conditions; other animals suffering from footrot and injuries compounded by septicaemia from being mired in urine and excrement for weeks
• Open, faulty drains pouring urine and excrement from animals on higher decks onto animals below
• Animals being unable to cool themselves because they are covered in faeces, despite the soaring temperatures in the northern hemisphere
• Inability to properly check the animals’ health and welfare because of overstocking, which also led to smothering of some animals
• Insufficient veterinary supplies to treat animals, including humane killing devices
• Unshorn sheep, whose condition could not be checked because of the thickness of their fleeces and the stocking densities
• High ammonia levels and suboptimal ventilation, causing not only a hazard to ship personnel, but especially to the animals, who live in this environment for long weeks on end, 24/7. This can cause severe eye irritation and pneumonia
• And possibly worst of all, depriving the animals of feed and water for 48 hours of more in the heat of the Middle East to meet trade (weight restrictions) requirements, and in circumstances where they could be further delayed by transports in the destination country.
………
Gael Our govt debt to gdp is not that bad relative to other OECD countries, our total net debt including forgieners that owe us money is about 58pc, not earth shattering either , while our banks now raise more capital locally than offshore due to increased savings. our economy is more diverse than ever, still to reliant on ag but better than 20 years ago, evidenced in that short term collapse in milk price has not sent us into recession, . Let me also remind you Gael there has been a gfc plus chc earthquake of which national kept the tap on to support chc and the vulnerable. part of the reason our govt debt has grown is the result of labours middle class welfare bribes to hold onto power in regard to student loans and welfare for families which national did not roll back. if national where hard right and implemented austerity in regard to labours bribes, chc and Gfc then the likes of yourselves and rob would really have something to bleat about
Congratulations to National for handing out tax cuts and capital gains windfalls to their mates while raising GST and exploiting disaster capitalism. How Bill English managed to make our debt to GDP worse while selling off public assets was truly a wonderful trick. I am sure that your corporate sponsors are pleased.
The refusal of Syriza MPs to support any more fraudulent bankster austerity to pay interest for a loan which was never made may mean that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cannot get enough parliamentary support for any deal he makes with eurozone leaders today at an emergency summit in Brussels.
A deal by Tsipras with the Troika will, anyway, only postpone the inevitable collapse and default of Greece under an unsustainable burden of fractional reserve banking debt.
In a sign of the unreality that continues to haunt Brussels as the continent lurches from one disaster to the next, no plans have been announced by the European Commission, the European Parliament or any German or French politicians to switch over the money creation system in the eurozone from private banks to government banks.
This, in spite of the fact the entire eurozone is rapidly unravelling, hurtling towards financial meltdown and social upheavel. This, in spite of the fact, the need for souvereign money is now openly discussed in the mainstream media.
The move by Syrixa MPs to have the Greek national debt declared an illegal fraud, and default comes amid rumours that Syriza has prepared for an emergency exit of Greece from the eurozone.
Greece has activated a national emergency plan for fuel.
It is in the interests of the European Commission, Germany and France to get back in touch with reality and help Greece switch over in an orderly switch manner to the Drachma. The alternative could be social upheaval, a staged Colour Revolution and even an orchestrated Ebola outbreak in Greece.
The European Commission, Parliament and German and French politicians have to chose between the private banks and Europe. The private banks are destroying Europe. And they must chose now or the choice will be taken from them by the people, fed up with the corruption, fraud and lies of the politicians.
The refusal of Syriza MPs to support any more fraudulent bankster austerity to pay interest for a loan which was never made may mean that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cannot get enough parliamentary support for any deal he makes with eurozone leaders today at an emergency summit in Brussels.
In an Open Letter to the parliament on June 19th, the 49 MPs Syriza said that Greeks are not responsible for the debt, the debt is illegitimate and private French and German banks are the beneficiaries of the public debt crisis in Greece.
Syriza MPs also plan to table a motion for an Icelandic style default and the establishment of a souverign central bank.
The move by Syrixa MPs to have the Greek national debt declared an illegal fraud, and default comes amid rumours that Syriza has prepared for an emergency exit of Greece from the eurozone.
Greece has activated a national emergency plan for fuel.
It is in the interests of the European Commission, Germany and France to get back in touch with reality and help Greece switch over in an orderly switch manner to the Drachma. The alternative could be social upheaval, a staged Colour Revolution and even an orchestrated Ebola outbreak in Greece.
The European Commission, Parliament and German and French politicians have to chose between the private banks and Europe. The private banks are destroying Europe. And they must chose now or the choice will be taken from them by the people, fed up with the corruption, fraud and lies of the politicians.
[Penny, can you please edit these missives before posting? It’s so long it’s probably not going to get read anyway and it’s not helping that you’ve repeated some of the quotes and the associated links (I’ve edited out a couple). Cheers. TRP]
And tax cuts, happy, kept money circulating to shore up demand during GFC better than ending up in govt hands where 30 cents is lost in every dollar
Why do you people get so exercised on who owns and asset or a firm, its what the firm or asset Produces that is important and how efficiently it does for the good of the economy as a whole. Ownership, control and rights to residual cash flow is sort of irrelevant, be a firm employee owned, coop, state owned, owned by capital funders etc . If you can’t take it away how relevant is it really. nearly every academic study shows privatisation adds value and improves productivity and thus a benefit to the economy as a whole , The firm or asset is unhindered as a govt play thing. its also not as government give the asset away they receive consideration that reflects present value of future cash flow of those assets in consideration ti invest anew , oh unless left leaning politician wish to devalue those asset for their own selfish ends
Offshore ownership of assets robs us of the fiscal return, the local resource being capitalized, and local control, thus the opportunity to own and control our own future.
It’s good management that adds value and improves productivity. Managerial expertise and experience can be acquired without the need to privatize.
Additionally, the more assets the state owns and capitalizes from (which broadens and increases their revenue stream) the less they are required to tax us going forward.
Silly statement Millsay all nz governments past and presence spend billion in these areas, dollars are not the issue, outcomes are of which at least national has the guts to address, not throwing more of others people money at a problem, never worked, never will
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
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The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
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In Scotland a recent TNS poll which said just five per cent of people aged 25 to 34 intend to vote Labour, while 80 per cent will vote SNP.
The likely new leader of the Scottish branch office told her supporters: “We may not be at the bottom of where the Labour party could get to in Scottish public life. There might be another storm coming.
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+100
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/69534286/Duncan-Garner-Deadbeat-parents-should-be-in-the-dock-with-their-kids
I can’t say I agree with the wording but I do think parents should be held accountable for there kids behavior.
And their spelling.
Nitpicking and Natzish I know but I too get mildly irritated by the minor spelling/grammar errors in bw’s well presented and thoughtful posts.
Not life threatening but:
‘Don’t confuse their and there. Their is a possessive pronoun: I like their new car. There is an adverb meaning ‘at that place’: park the car over there.’
Too simplistic an argument by Garner.
Showing his true colours in this article.
But then what would you expect?
Yes but what do think might work? . he’s highlighted the extreme end but I think if the first time a kid gets the polices attention the parents get fined or sent to parenting course it could nip a lot of problems in the bud.
So Paul Holmes should have been fined or more once the Police got hold of Millie abusing P?
Heck we are not locking up those that actually commit crimes….Roastbusters anyone? All these guys that are having name suppression cause they are important and rich New Zealanders. …..
IF we started with those than maybe others would have a bit more faith in the Justics System.
I’m talking about kids under 16 or maybe 18 past that they are an adult.
It would be interesting to know the first time the ones you mentioned crossed paths with the police though .
the roastbusters were between 15 – 17 at the time i think.
The reason I mention these two is actually as all the offenders come from well off families, and often if not always they don’t get to punished either way, case in point big fuss about Millies Gangbanger boyfriends death and the roastbusters boys will be boys treatment.
see here Texas
http://forcechange.com/33331/repeal-texas-truancy-laws-which-fine-and-jail-students-for-missing-class/
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121186/truancy-laws-unfairly-attack-poor-children-and-parents
then you have this https://www.aclu.org/fact-sheet/what-school-prison-pipeline
and this most interesting as parents might go to prison themselves if they can not a. restrain their children, or b. pay fines that children rake up. http://www.npr.org/2014/12/16/371264533/should-parents-be-legally-responsible-for-childrens-serious-crimes
What we might want to ask is who will be most impacted by these Hard on Crime Feel Good Measures. My guess would be low income, three job working, single parents, parents that have just gone through hard time, etc. type parents. The ones that sit in the richer parts of the country and that go to the nicer schools will have enough cash to pay a lawyer and ask for name suppression, and community work.
Regarding the reaction to elder’s blokes death I can only assume he was the Auckland in crowds dealer of choice including the reporters.
And how the buster sikos got away with it is a national shame.
Fining the truant is stupid .
What I’m getting at is the kids who get picked up wandering the streets , if there parents where given the option of a fine or attending some form of family guidance I bet they would start paying attention to what there kids are up to.
read the first two links. This one really only speaks of truancy, and how it its criminalizing poor parents, often working a few jobs, and yes, these parents if they can’t pay the fine can opt to go to prison. What this Duncan Garner Guys is advocating has been done in the states for years now, to such devastating effect that many inclusive Law Enforcement, Schools and others are calling for the Truancy Fine System to be dismantled.
We should rather invest money in an apprenticeship system to get those kids of the street that quit school at 14 / 15 because they are not suited to school. And it is a Fact, not all of our children do well in school, not all of our children are happy to go to school till they are 18.
We just simply don’t offer them a different alternative then school.
In the states they call it the School to Prison Pipeline. I have added a link in my comment above. Google the term, it makes for good reading.
Don’t worry the answer will soon be upon us. Once SERCO take over social welfare they will have a vested interest in ensuring there is a steady supply of youth offenders heading off to Prison where their Company will be employed to guard them. It’s a regular money go round. Interesting that in USA there was a recent case of Judges being on payroll of the Private Juvenile Prisons and they were paid to ensure offenders were sent to those prisons.
Might be worth investing in some of the Private Prision companies here
The US should only be used as a guide on how not to do things. Any one who views them as leaders is at best a moron.
What is not being examined is what sort of upbringing those parents had and what they actually understand about child-rearing. Garner is, as usual, being simplistic.
meh. If Duncan can write the whole story containing accurate enough description of the family past, and then say it’s all the fault of the parents, he’s a dunce. Duncean Garner. Unfortunately for Garner, his coy views do not reveal that, shock horror, the parents are people too, with their stories and context, living in NZ.
Let us all recite the Right wing myth: We create society. Society has no effect on anyone, society doesn’t exist.
To the Right, what we live now is perfectly normal. Ther eis no yesterday. Everyone should be happy and white. There is no cause and effect, no object and environment. No one ever influences the behaviour of anyone else. Unless a Rightie gets angry that their greed is being curtailed by society.
In other parts of the world, society (the local village) is put in the dock with criminals. We are too sophisticated for that. Wholistic thinking is for the stoneage. Blame and deception is our preferred method.
+ 1 Charles
+ 100 from me too
Well said Charles. There was a stuff headline a day or two ago: ‘Is Duncan Garner the new John Campbell?’ Ah no, Duncan Garner is the same low brow fool he always was.
The last two words are a good tell on where Garner is coming from. He expects people to bow down to authority immediately, no questions asked.
I wouldn’t call that bizarre considering that synthetic cannabis is more damaging and more addictive than actual cannabis which, of course, is why it was taken off the shelves.
Don’t see him saying that about the National Party despite the pain and horror that they’ve caused to the poor over the last few years.
If you don’t depend on the state apparently you can have as many children as you like no matter how dysfunctional they and your family is… no matter how bad your children are ,no matter how many Class A drugs they take or deal.
I’m trying to remember if Paul Holmes got vilified or sancitfied when his daughter went off the rails?
He tried everything to get her off it, went on a crusade against P. He was very vocal about it.
However, no one would want to fine him him for his daughter going of the rail and being a little shit. No that is reserved for the mongrels that have too many kids and that can’t look after their kids. Poor families, and single parent families, and families that don’t live in Parnell or Ponsonby.
Thanks Sabine… it was kind of rhetorical but as some won’t recall, thanks for filling us in.
Cos he was white and rich he was sanctified for his crusade not vilified for an upbringing that led her down that path…
“but I do think parents…”
“The sad reality is we have a bunch of uneducated, drug-abusing mongrels bringing young people into this world. ”
The wording says it all – as long as people are labeled like this, there will be problems. Yes parents need better child raising skills and more options and support. Yes parents need access to resources and community and yes options for life and living not worrying about the bills or how to get food on the table. That can’t happen if people are demonised and ridiculed. Kindness, sympathy, empathy and direct support is needed – and that is where the government comes in – with the money.
Thanks Marty, & Charles up above too. +100!
if you are an educatied drug abusing mongrel you are OK.
I don’t imagine Mrs Key senior will want to be hauled before the courts for all of her son’s wrongdoing, especially in light of the most especial office he holds in our land…
But would be a good example to set – maybe Mrs Key senior would like to volunteer
IMO this is typical kneejerk vengeance-seeking populism from Garner. It’s a fair bet the parents will have similar stories to their kids. Do you put their parents in the dock as well? Their parents too?
Sadly it seems by appointing Garner Mediaworks is taking Hosking on with their own hosking.
Yes, it’s a sad state of affairs.
It’s important to remember that Hoskings, himself, said he was not a journalist:
“Finally to all those who get exercised about this stuff, much of it seems based on the fact that “journalists” are supposed to be neutral.
Well, top tip for you, I am not a journalist, and any claimed neutrality from others is most often a myth.”
So, if Garner takes over the 7pm slot on TV3 and he is meant to be TV3’s Mike Hosking we will now not have journalists running our main, broadcast ‘current affairs’ shows.
One of iprents comments in the last day was how he ran this site to get people coming up with ideas ,so when a story that highlights the problems that would be close to most “lefties ” hearts , ie disfunctional families and the system failing kids I foolishly thought there might be a good descussion started. And yet all that happened was highlighting of the negative things the author said and the negative out comes from failed attempts to solve the problems. Baa fucking hum bug
The thing is that visiting the sins of the children upon their parents is no more “left” than cursing the children with the sins of their parents.
The solutions to dysfunctional families and wayward children are, for the most part, well known. But the solutions involve short term expense in housing, income, education, truancy response, and social work, rather than more punitive measures against people who might be incapable of solving the problems their kids face.
If anything, if the parents are working long hours or depressed and unemployed, then a fine that simply increases the financial pressure is hardly likely to solve anything. And if the parents are estranged from their kids, nothing builds bridges like “great, now I need to pay off this fine because of you”, right?
And if the parents are estranged from their kids, nothing builds bridges like “great, now I need to pay off this fine because of you”, right?
Yes I had thought of that angle and that’s were the offer of help instead would be good.
But from my own experience if my parents had of got a short sharp shock when I was 15 and had a brush with the law my outcomes might of been very different and I’ve been around long enough to know I’m not unique.
And I realize a fine for the mother in the story would of achieved nothing but she and others in her situation still have to take some responsibility for there actions.
And as for help I have first hand knowledge of a ” mother ” (not mine) who has had alsorts of help and her kids still have to go through p withdrawals after there school holidays with them. It come as a surprise to some lefties but some people don’t want saving there happy being nasty people.
In the case in question, one mother was already in prison when the crime was committed.
I reckon that basically negates the idea of whether prison (or the threat thereof) makes for better parents.
Your life would have been different – but in what way? Garner says that apparently the system in some parts of the US doesn’t even work anyway. So better or worse is up in the air.
So what sort of “responsibility” should the parents of serious offenders take?
I think the entire idea is bunk, for the reasons I initially stated.
In the case of parents who’s only fault is not really paying attention to what there kids are up to (in my case drinking ) I disagree as a society I think there has to be the expectation that parentsrotect there kids even if it is from them selves. In the case of the ones in garners story I bet that they had been brought tho the attention of the police and probably cyfs long before the poor man got killed . hell maybe we need a whole family facilty so they can be gotten a way from the circles they move in and have time to get off the drugs and heal.
The PM has a cunning plan. If when asked a question he makes the answer incomprehensible he can’t be accused of not knowing the answer or of lying.
To be fair he didn’t invent it but he is taking it to new levels.
Speaking of “incomprehensible” did anyone else hear ShonKey Python on TV the other night exhorting us to patriotism centred on ‘The Flag’ ? Can’t find the link but my goodness he was beaming at the prospect. Has he lost it altogether now, or is he just retired on a ranch in Texas somewhere, or what ?
What a hypocrite is Key. When asked about why he thinks we should have a new flag he talked about how we are no longer a colonial country but wasn’t asked to justify his fawning to the Royal family which he makes us another colonial slave to those royals.
he’ll turn down the knighthood right? He will collect his knighthood from our GG in wellington, the Queen in Buck House, right?
I laugh!
North. That was on Sunday as well talking to Miriama Kamo. Apparently a new flag will give us an *overt* way to be patriotic to our flag. New word this week is OVERT. He’s up to the O’s. Usually like her but this was a puff piece. He was a grinning loon with a bad hair rug that appears to be woven out of the hair of the endangered orangutang. And speaking of incomprehensible, MK asked him the likely cost of changing the flag and he airily pronounced that it would be ‘lots and lots, we will need more material’ grin, grin. And then proceeded to speak in tongues at length before he could be asked again. Which she did but you could hardly hear her. I really dislike him intensely. Why does he really want to change the flag?
He wants to change the flag cos he wants to be remembered for being the prime minister who “changed the flag”. That simple and self-centred which is why he’s ignoring the fact 70-75% of the population are happy with the current flag.
Prediction: the final cost of changing the flag will be $50 million plus because he wants it so badly. Who gives a tinker’s cuss about poor, hungry kids and people living in cars? Not John Key.
It’s a nice, calming diversion that can be rolled out whenever the government has something to hide.
It’s a nice, calming diversion that can be rolled out whenever the government has something to hide.
Agree with that too. And talking about agreeing, for the second week in a row I find myself ‘agreeing’ with something Matthew Hooton has said on RNZ political spot.
He bemoaned (not quite the right word) the lack of political opposition to the govt.’s current habit of lying about and mishandling of various controversies. As an example he gave the Murray McCully shenanigans over the Saudi sheep scandal and suggested that Labour should have succeeded in having him sacked by now. I agree. Why are Labour letting this govt. get away with so much downright corrupt behaviour? Why are they not screaming their heads off? What is the matter with them? Are they too timid or are they being given bad advice?
I know Phil Twyford has done well but that’s not enough. Remember the continuous hollering coming from National in the last term of the Labour govt. often over inconsequential matters? It worked. So why isn’t Labour pulling out all stops to do the same?
Yep. All the Left parties need a hundred or so people reading the news/social media etc, knocking around a few ideas and then getting the attack lines out ASAP. There shouldn’t be 24 hours before there’s a response but about half an hour.
It’s not even hard as the communication lines are open and in place 24/7 now.
Exactly – ‘bread and circuses’
“Why does he really want to change the flag?”
I suspect the real reason is NOT that he wants to change the flag, but he wants this flag debate as a DISTRACTION from everything else. The debate not only marginalises his government’s inefficiency and misdeeds, it fills hours and hours of time and space in the media away from other social and economic issues, as well as divides the people. It is a cunning plan.
Has John finished his cycleway yet, and if so, who is he intending to sell it to?
Everyone knows that state assets, once built by locals, are more effectively run by private interests. Shouldn’t be too hard to run a cycleway. All that’s required is an admin staff of about 130, a multi-story office building in Manila, 146 consultants, a coffee machine, 80 merino sheep, and $2b of NZ government funds to prop it up till it gets started. I estimate income from increased tourism to be about $450.
Will it be a part of ongoing state asset sales in his next (imagined) term?
Ha I like it.
But you forgot to mention the hair straighteners in the toilets. Also remember the Labour party are not really blameless over the merino sheep
“Also remember the Labour party are not really blameless over the merino sheep”
Huh? Got a cite for that?
Charles, your cynicism has reached a disturbing level. Trouble is I find myself in total agreement so where does that leave me ?!
There is nothing more that I can do to help me help you, than push myself further to the edge.
I reckon the one to watch if god help us key gets elected again is they sale of all those new dairy farms, they would have to be worth 20 mill each.
the income of 450$ is that before or after tax?
and will all the people working on site be from Winz?
Crikey, the roastbusters case is catapaulted back into the news. Further investigations? Charges laid? Oh no no hohoho. Turns out Mediaworks is settling with John Tamihere. Tamihere’s reputation as a stand-up guy is worth about $620K, apparently. In my opinion, whenever I’ve seen him around town, he never looked more than 1K, but shopping for groceries does that to the best of us. In the grey light of the New World tinned foods aisle, everyone looks depressed.
Today Mediaworks will publicly apologise. Long-time followers and frequent callers of the case will need kava on-hand and a sturdy seat when that happens.
Just clicking back through the associated stories, I found this older one, of the Mediaworks management motivations behind what happened. Read some of the reasoning in the emails….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11196245
Ties in nicely with the reasoning behind the precurser publication and various incarnations of the The Standard – as posted last night here by the sysop. Commercial news “for the public good” is bought and sold.
“Sorry if I caused any offence to anyone. I hope I will stay married when my husband will land and hear what I did”
Full details here:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/21/israeli-politician-wife-tweets-racist-obama-joke
Also twitter:
https://twitter.com/JudyMozes/status/612658631163650048
No small wonder Israeli teenagers are racists.
Here is a shocking fact from a poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute and reported by the Times of Israel: fully one-third of Israelis say that unlawful, vigilante violence against non-Jewish African immigrants is fine with them.
Equally, 86 percent of Israelis who voted for the right-wing Shas party and 66 percent of Likud voters agree with the statements of far-right Israeli politician Miri Regev that African immigrants, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea, are a “cancer” in the Israeli body politic.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140816015250/http://www.thenation.com/blog/177697/racism-israel
Golly – sounds like Germany 70 years ago!!
Ghettos for the Poles
I mean, the Palestinians.
I think you missed the point Colonial Rawshark, those are African Jews.
Can someone help this guy? http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11469049 “After 47 years of living in New Zealand, a Whangarei man only recently learned he is not a citizen when his employer terminated his contract due to his “immigration status”.
Graeme Watson – who went to school here, got married, obtained driving and gun licences, became a registered counsellor and worked in Government-provided health services – said he might joke about being a “nobody”, a stateless person in his own country, but “it’s a bloody nightmare”.
Two months ago Mr Watson lost his job because of his “immigration status” , after being employed with a private mental health provider for only five weeks. He was paid for only two of those weeks; the nationwide company telling him his outstanding wages were frozen because he may have worked “illegally”, he said. Before then he had worked for more than four years with Northland District Health Board.
Presumably if he went to school here there’d be a record of that. Plus his paren’t immigration if they were living here.
The article doesn’t say how old he was when he immigrated though.
Tell him to contact the Community Law Centre in Whangarei. The phone number for the main office is 09 437 7535. They should be able to offer free legal assistance.
This employer is just trying him on, and there’s plenty examples of that sort of behaviour among the private groups that access government money for offering public services – some of them are quite big names – such wickedness!
The people DO get it
“”We need to fight austerity,” she says. “The whole of Europe, not just Greece. Nations can’t live under these conditions.”
Austerity has left her country ravaged by unemployment and many remaining wages below the poverty line, she says. Money that comes into Greece leaves straight away, back into the pockets of its creditors.
“These are war conditions.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/69590317/greek-crisis-that-never-quite-happens-may-finally-happen
Subjugating an entire people and an entire country using economics and finance, instead of military force.
Judy… Judy… Judy doll just when you thought your career was back on track. Your in a real bit of bother now. We know exactly what has been going on here and it stinks like rotting milk in the sun.
It’s no good threatening people and trying to bully them, so tell your offsider New Zealand isn’t some banana republic, actually tell him he is Peking duck and he is going to be served on a plate. Honestly trying to hide massive amounts of Kauri movements out of our ports it is impossible not to leave a trace. Yes yes all will be explained. My advice do an immediate Sabin or ‘you will be fired.’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/276553/call-for-inquiry-into-swamp-kauri-exports
White people can’t be terrorists
Keith Locke got me thinking about terrorism, or more specifically, what it might actually be, after he said that if you’re white and killing people, you can’t be a terrorist. I don’t agree, which means I disagree with all kinds of famous smart people. That’s the beauty of opinion.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/06/22/when-is-a-terrorist-not-a-terrorist/
There are echoes of the “white people are inherently racist” idea in his words, a peripheral ideology in itself. The obvious rebuttal is that the various factions of the Irish war for Independent government (is that still the claim?) is also run by some really white people – they don’t specifically hire-in Africans to do the dirty work – although they’ll take money and guns from just about anyone. Locke’s comments were motivated by the recent Charleston shootings, where a young white bloke with a serious beef against people whose skin colour wasn’t the same as his, shot-up a church congregation. Ten people were shot, nine people died, including a state senator.
Terror, it is said, is a mental state that is brought on by a sudden threat, causing the fight-or-flight response in the human brain, and may include “Freezing up” or “hiding”. It is also defined as the act of a legitimate state or power to suppress dissention. The FBI defines terrorism as:
“…the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”
The FBI say they are more concerned with examining the method, over the motivation. Dylann Roof wasn’t very organised. There is dispute over where he got a gun, which gun he used, or even if there were two. He’d been planning for 6 months, apparently, yet the existence of white supremacy groups that he was associated with wasn’t enough to motivate his actions by itself. Politics wasn’t enough. Vague organisational support wasn’t enough. Going on what they know, the FBI say he wasn’t a terrorist.
If everyone who causes or uses terror is a terrorist, then,
The Father who perpetrates domestic violence is a terrorist.
The Mother who emotionally abuses her child is a terrorist.
The Bad-Ass who is feared for his violence in local neighbourhood is a terrorist.
The government department that violently changes policy, causing sudden shock and terror in people effected, is a terrorist organisation.
Which they are clearly not. They may or may not have all committed serious crimes, with descriptions that may or may not already exist in legislated acts, but that’s as far as it goes. I don’t think there is anything to be gained by legitimising “Lone Wolf Terrorist” as a term, for above reasons. It doesn’t add anything real to the reasons why crimes against humanity occur. What it looks like to me is that Keith Locke is trying to say that racism is deadly. Who’d argue with that? If anything, the labelling of Dylann Roof’s crime as a hate crime, or an act of racism, would do more to have people inspect how covert and institutionalised racism occurs, and when, who or what drives it, than using another colloquial term that takes a step away from the serious nature of racism.
Terror and terrorism are subjective and emotive terms – as is the word violence – and it is difficult to conclusively measure until a large group is effected and a series of acts form a trend of intent. Usually you could look back on the internal struggles or civil war of a country and say, “Ah yes, now we can see how that group changed from a peasant uprising, to a militia, to a fledgling political group and now to a terrorist/organised criminal group”. One person acting alone, with no previous acts to form a trend, we can’t measure much terrorism, just the act itself. Organise a group into crashing two planes into an American skyscraper and make videos to support that action, and you’re a terrorist. Breed nastiness inside yourself and go on a shooting spree – you’re just a killer.
Now here is where the line starts to blur: You could say, “Hey but wait, whitey has been killing darker folks since forever, that’s the trend, that’s what the culture covertly, openly and politically encourages – all whites are terrorists!” And you’d have a good argument. Culture, or culture clashes, play an important part in terrorism. The World Trade Centre wasn’t just a couple of tall buildings – they were symbols of a culture. The church Dylann Roof shot-up wasn’t just a church, it was a symbol of the civil rights movement – a symbol of a culture. And you could also point out that there are plenty of instances throughout history where a blind-eye is turned by the more powerful party in a conflict: allowing peripheral war crimes to occur inside a larger warzone, where lawless groups do things that save the more powerful party from having to “get dirty” by addressing it themselves. You could also say that the FBI are part of the racist establishment.
Another definition of terrorism is a political act that is made to suppress opposition – in non-combatants.
So did Dylann Roof wipe-out or suppress opposition to his “political beliefs” with his act? What about in non-combatants? Is a state senator a non-combatant in civil rights? Is anyone a non-combatant when it comes to racism and civil rights? If anything, he only made opposition stronger. Has he strengthened white supremacy? If the ruling class of America are conclusively racists, has he improved their position, their power, or extended their ideology? Not one bit. Obama didn’t know Roof was going to shoot people (well I hope he didn’t!), and didn’t need him to justify making changes to gun laws which, if we now create a conspiracy, “would lead an armed State to freely kill disarmed civil rights advocates”. Is anyone saying, “If Dylann can do this we might as just accept that killing people is condoned by popular agreement and make it legal.”? Fear and terror may have increased, momentarily, but strong political opposition remains – evidenced by outrage and debate over him being a terrorist, or not. Using that definition, you might also say that whatever the USA are fighting now with their War on Terror, the terrorists lost a long time ago.
So now our definition of terrorism also includes:
Anyone who acts lawlessly and causes terror by utilising/manipulating the neglect of the State
Anyone who violently opposes the State, rules of establishment, culture, or more powerful party, causing terror – armed or not.
Any weaker smaller party that violently opposes the more powerful party or culture, causing terror.
Any larger more powerful party that violently opposes the weaker smaller party or culture, causing terror.
Anyone that does anything to so badly scare other people, that those people feel oppressed and divorced from their personal autonomy.
White people.
Any other people with skin.
Pretty soon, everyone’s a terrorist, or a potential terrorist, which makes the word itself pretty pointless. However terrified people may be, Dylann Roof hasn’t single-handedly suppressed political opposition in non-combatants, or otherwise. The only thing we can be sure of is that racism is deadly, people hate each other for some strange reasons, those reasons are supported by a culture, and people die because of it.
So did we arrive at what terrorism is? Maybe. We might have brushed past part of it: People can be made to feel terror. Political idealists want things their own way, and people not getting what they want makes them panic and become terrified of loss of the power to act, but, does the thought oppress them to the extent that they are divorced from their autonomy? I would argue that if someone more powerful than you consistently breaks agreements between you, agreements constructed by them, primarily for their own gain, and calls you a terrorist because you try to stop them hurting your people, grabbing more of your stuff, or increasing their claim of ownership over an environment that can’t be owned (without an accompanying culture of hereditary rights), their personal autonomy is not and never was threatened and you might be a freedom fighter, not a terrorist. Keith Locke might agree with me.
Dylan Roof is clearly a terrorist by the FBI’s own definition which is admittedly broad. Possibilities are either that it was either legally OR politically expedient for the FBI not to refer to him as such. Trouble is that not calling him a terrorist does give a lot of leeway to think that the reason he’s not called one is that he’s white
Where are the post writers of The Standard today -or yesterday or the day before – not writing about the new law about to be passed – the Cyber Bullying Law which is aimed at shutting down free speech and could censor writers on this blog site for just having opinions which may cause “harm or emotional distress” to the person they are writing about. Why has The Standard itself not bothered to make more of a fuss and bringing it to the forefront and emphasising the seriousness of it. It could close down this blogsite – its a nasty piece of legislation and shot full of holes – and aimed at journalists and blog writer’s like yourself in the guise of protecting vulnerable teenagers being bullied on their social networks. The law is vague, the net is so wide it will eventually include all of us who welcome free speech and critical thinking. It is being passed in urgency in the next couple of days. Obviously there has been no mention in the MSM and probably will be passed in the dead of night while we sheeples are sleeping. Lisa Owen quizzed Amy Adams about this on The Nation last Saturday and Sunday and Lisa gave Amy Adams plenty of examples where prosecutions could happen – satirical cartoons, policital commentary and blog writers etc and Adams couldn’t give an assurance as to the guidelines as to how this law would work – people will have to settle it in court by a case by case basis. Its censureship plain and obvious.
For the first time ever I think we are slowly being led into a world where free speech is going to disappear and we are all too dim witted to seeing it happening before our eyes. What’s worse knowing about it or not knowing about – either way we are all screwed.
Thanks for that Barbara. It is an important point. I ‘think’, but not sure, that well written guest topics are welcome here on the Standard. Perhaps, if you can, you should write a comprehensive article on this important topic and send it to the contact address below to see if they would like to publish it as a post here. I am sure many readers, including me, would be interested to read the read it and understand all the details.
http://thestandard.org.nz/contact-us/
Barbara, this comment by Ovid and the video link in it might be of interest to you. Cheers.
http://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-22062015-campbelllives/#comment-1033318
Safe Air sold to Airbus
*sigh*
I think being owned by AirNZ would be a fairly solid future so what did he actually mean?
I am really enjoying reading this forum since the demise of Campbell Live, nothing left on tv that isn’t Nat spin. Not sure if many you listened to Kim Hill on Saturday (cept Tracey) – esp Ross Ashcroft interview (http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201759223/ross-ashcroft-economics-and-europe).
This led me to his documentary The four horsemen doco on you tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbvquHSPJU 1.38hrs
This seems to explain most of what is going on now here in NZ under Nat given questions raised here yesterday and our ever expanding debt – so hard to believe we were in the black a few weeks before the 2008 election now $90b in the hole. What Labour might do about this (if anything) and is Ross’s ideas just conspiracy theory or coming chaos theory? Apols if this is old topic for you but I would be interested in your feedback and whether nesara is some kind of option? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NESARA ??
Nope, it’s a load of bollocks. Metallic currencies have never worked as there just isn’t enough of the metals available to maintain enough currency for the services available especially after the rich have syphoned them all up. This gives a continual deflationary pressure almost always resulting in a recession or depression. The 19th century, marked in it’s use of the Gold Standard is also noted for the fact that most of the time the economy was in recession.
A fiat currency, as we have now, is fine but it needs strict rules about the creation of money and credit. Strict that we presently don’t have. In fact, we allow private banks to make money every time they make a loan. This results in massive inflation and, due to the interest, the fact that those loans can’t actually be paid back. In fact, paying them back would result in a recession or more probably a depression as it would drastically reduce the amount of money in circulation.
For other ideas look to:
1. Positive Money
2. Modern Monetary Theory
3. The Chicago plan
4. Real Monetary Reform.
Colin Craig & his wife’s media statement/interview with Q and A today : Watch Video here:
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/WATCH-Colin-Craig-admits-inappropriate-conduct-with-Rachel-MacGregor/tabid/504/articleID/88493/Default.aspx
why can’t we get rid of this govt? i am at my wits end (as Nan would say) and me!
what the hell is it going to take?
if the current lies and BS get accepted then maybe labour need to BS and lie just to be the norm?
if you allow 50-60 thousand immigrants a yr. it must help you’re voter base? yes!
It’s not ‘we’ that gets rid of governments. It’s the public and so far they seem happy with National. Maybe what needs to happen is to change the opposition parties to reflect what the majority of New Zealanders want in a government. I sometimes despair that so many people keep up with the meme that if only opposition parties were more leftwing they would triumph at the polls. It is not going to happen. What is more likely is that either Greens or NZ First (or both) will embrace National and cement a Rightwing government in power for many many years.
Austerity is the dirtiest word of the now
It has been constructed not by Bill Gates and others who actually have wealth out of something people can use even though it survives on its ridiculously insane share price and africa and other nations who they indirectly keep poor so the Austerity sucking monetarist leeches can keep lying to the world about the corruption in every facet of banking starting with the valueless commodity money itself which the poor pay for not the rich
That’s why there will always be the poverty on a mass scale administered by souless power brokers like Key who has lowered the intelligence of this nation just by being here
He has nothing but a hangmans noose for this country
What are the verified conditions of live animal exports from New Zealand?
Some Australian information on Australian live export ships (dated March 2013).
——————————————————–
Revealed: The real conditions on live export ships
Tasmanian Times,
29 March, 2013
From Dr Simpson’s submission – overstocked cattle covered in excrement
FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE REAL CONDITIONS ON LIVE EXPORT SHIPS HAS BEEN MADE PUBLIC …
Last August, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) called for submissions into the operation of the Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock. 23 submissions have been published on the DAFF website (here):
http://www.daff.gov.au/animal-plant-health/welfare/export-trade/submissions_to_the_review_of_australian_standards_for_the_export_of_livestock_and_the_livestock_export_standards_advisory_group
One submission in particular has become especially public and has ‘gone viral’ within the animal advocacy community. The document was submitted by Dr Lynn Simpson, a shipboard veterinarian of 13 years experience, who had sailed on 57 ‘long and extra long haul’ voyages.
It is anyone’s guess why it has taken Dr Simpson such a long time to come forward about the truly atrocious conditions faced by animals on live export ships on voyages that can be as long as 41 days, or almost 6 weeks, but her submission documents, and photographs, the desperate living conditions and misery the animals must endure for many weeks on these old Third World ships.
Dr Simpson’s submission can be found here:
http://www.daff.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/2253077/aav6.pdf
The key issues identified in the submission include:
• Hard deck, ‘cleated’ and bitumised flooring, totally unsuitable for animals who cannot or will not lie down on these surfaces, particularly when they are covered in excrement, compounded by insufficient cleaning and bedding, especially appalling on voyages of up to 6 weeks
• Overstocking in pens, meaning the animals cannot all lie down at once
• Animals who meet the ‘rejection criteria’ (ill and unfit animals) being loaded regardless, blind, lame, or otherwise ill or diseased
• Animals who do not meet the requirements of the importing country (for example, the voyage of the M/V Barkly Pearl from Geraldton to Mauritius on which cattle certified by an Australian veterinarian and cattle specialist as not being pregnant gave birth to calves on the ship and many more were found to be pregnant upon arrival in Mauritius, where it is unlawful to slaughter pregnant animals)
• Cattle with bleeding horn stumps being loaded
• Cattle far too heavy being loaded who then developed severe leg injuries from the shipboard conditions; other animals suffering from footrot and injuries compounded by septicaemia from being mired in urine and excrement for weeks
• Open, faulty drains pouring urine and excrement from animals on higher decks onto animals below
• Animals being unable to cool themselves because they are covered in faeces, despite the soaring temperatures in the northern hemisphere
• Inability to properly check the animals’ health and welfare because of overstocking, which also led to smothering of some animals
• Insufficient veterinary supplies to treat animals, including humane killing devices
• Unshorn sheep, whose condition could not be checked because of the thickness of their fleeces and the stocking densities
• High ammonia levels and suboptimal ventilation, causing not only a hazard to ship personnel, but especially to the animals, who live in this environment for long weeks on end, 24/7. This can cause severe eye irritation and pneumonia
• And possibly worst of all, depriving the animals of feed and water for 48 hours of more in the heat of the Middle East to meet trade (weight restrictions) requirements, and in circumstances where they could be further delayed by transports in the destination country.
………
Gael Our govt debt to gdp is not that bad relative to other OECD countries, our total net debt including forgieners that owe us money is about 58pc, not earth shattering either , while our banks now raise more capital locally than offshore due to increased savings. our economy is more diverse than ever, still to reliant on ag but better than 20 years ago, evidenced in that short term collapse in milk price has not sent us into recession, . Let me also remind you Gael there has been a gfc plus chc earthquake of which national kept the tap on to support chc and the vulnerable. part of the reason our govt debt has grown is the result of labours middle class welfare bribes to hold onto power in regard to student loans and welfare for families which national did not roll back. if national where hard right and implemented austerity in regard to labours bribes, chc and Gfc then the likes of yourselves and rob would really have something to bleat about
You forgot to mention the cost of national s bribery of the wealthy with that tax cut .
Hey Red missed the Tax cuts.
Snap BW
And the SCF bail out
Congratulations to National for handing out tax cuts and capital gains windfalls to their mates while raising GST and exploiting disaster capitalism. How Bill English managed to make our debt to GDP worse while selling off public assets was truly a wonderful trick. I am sure that your corporate sponsors are pleased.
Jane Burgermeister is the gutsy Irish/ Austrian investigative journalist who helped expose the ‘Swine flu scam’ in 2009.
Here is her latest post on what’s happening in Greece:
GREXIT IS NOW ALMOST INEVITABLE AS SYRIZA MPS REVOLT OVER ILLEGAL DEBT
by Jane Burgermeister
*49 SYRIZA MPS CALL FOR GREEK DEBT TO DECLARED ILLEGAL BY PARLIAMENT
*SYRIZA MPS TABLED MOTION FOR ICELANDIC STYLE DEFAULT AND THE REINTRODUCTION OF DRACHMA AS SOUVEREIGN MONEY
*NATIONAL EMERGENCY FUEL PLANS HAS BEEN ACTIVATED FOR A GREXIT
*SYRIZA REVOLT MAY SIDELINE ANY DEAL TSIPRAS HAMMERS OUT IN BRUSSELS WITH TROIKA
49 Syriza MPs have called for a report designating the national debt as illegal to be considered by Parliament.
The report by the Greek Debt Truth Commission undermines the case for paying any interest on Greece’s fractional reserve, banker-engineered debt.
http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/45/45240/1.html
http://www.iefimerida.gr/news/212848/ntrimpla-syriza-se-tsipra-49-voyleytes-kaloyn-tin-kyvernisi-na-parei-thesi-sti-voyli-gia
The refusal of Syriza MPs to support any more fraudulent bankster austerity to pay interest for a loan which was never made may mean that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cannot get enough parliamentary support for any deal he makes with eurozone leaders today at an emergency summit in Brussels.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/11673989/Syriza-Left-demands-Icelandic-default-as-Greek-defiance-stiffens.html
A deal by Tsipras with the Troika will, anyway, only postpone the inevitable collapse and default of Greece under an unsustainable burden of fractional reserve banking debt.
In a sign of the unreality that continues to haunt Brussels as the continent lurches from one disaster to the next, no plans have been announced by the European Commission, the European Parliament or any German or French politicians to switch over the money creation system in the eurozone from private banks to government banks.
This, in spite of the fact the entire eurozone is rapidly unravelling, hurtling towards financial meltdown and social upheavel. This, in spite of the fact, the need for souvereign money is now openly discussed in the mainstream media.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/9623863/IMFs-epic-plan-to-conjure-away-debt-and-dethrone-bankers.html
The move by Syrixa MPs to have the Greek national debt declared an illegal fraud, and default comes amid rumours that Syriza has prepared for an emergency exit of Greece from the eurozone.
Greece has activated a national emergency plan for fuel.
It is in the interests of the European Commission, Germany and France to get back in touch with reality and help Greece switch over in an orderly switch manner to the Drachma. The alternative could be social upheaval, a staged Colour Revolution and even an orchestrated Ebola outbreak in Greece.
The European Commission, Parliament and German and French politicians have to chose between the private banks and Europe. The private banks are destroying Europe. And they must chose now or the choice will be taken from them by the people, fed up with the corruption, fraud and lies of the politicians.
http://www.iefimerida.gr/news/212779/national-emergency-plan-fuels-enacted-case-grexitEMERGENCY FUEL PLANS HAS BEEN ACTIVATED FOR A GREXIT
*SYRIZA REVOLT MAY SIDELINE ANY DEAL TSIPRAS HAMMERS OUT IN BRUSSELS WITH TROIKA
49 Syriza MPs have called for a report designating the national debt as illegal to be considered by Parliament.
The report by the Greek Debt Truth Commission undermines the case for paying any interest on Greece’s fractional reserve, banker-engineered debt.
http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/45/45240/1.html
http://www.iefimerida.gr/news/212848/ntrimpla-syriza-se-tsipra-49-voyleytes-kaloyn-tin-kyvernisi-na-parei-thesi-sti-voyli-gia
The refusal of Syriza MPs to support any more fraudulent bankster austerity to pay interest for a loan which was never made may mean that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cannot get enough parliamentary support for any deal he makes with eurozone leaders today at an emergency summit in Brussels.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/22/greek-debt-crisis-tsipras-offer-is-welcomed-as-good-basis-for-progress
In an Open Letter to the parliament on June 19th, the 49 MPs Syriza said that Greeks are not responsible for the debt, the debt is illegitimate and private French and German banks are the beneficiaries of the public debt crisis in Greece.
Syriza MPs also plan to table a motion for an Icelandic style default and the establishment of a souverign central bank.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/11673989/Syriza-Left-demands-Icelandic-default-as-Greek-defiance-stiffens.html
The move by Syrixa MPs to have the Greek national debt declared an illegal fraud, and default comes amid rumours that Syriza has prepared for an emergency exit of Greece from the eurozone.
Greece has activated a national emergency plan for fuel.
It is in the interests of the European Commission, Germany and France to get back in touch with reality and help Greece switch over in an orderly switch manner to the Drachma. The alternative could be social upheaval, a staged Colour Revolution and even an orchestrated Ebola outbreak in Greece.
The European Commission, Parliament and German and French politicians have to chose between the private banks and Europe. The private banks are destroying Europe. And they must chose now or the choice will be taken from them by the people, fed up with the corruption, fraud and lies of the politicians.
http://www.iefimerida.gr/news/212779/national-emergency-plan-fuels-enacted-case-grexit
[Penny, can you please edit these missives before posting? It’s so long it’s probably not going to get read anyway and it’s not helping that you’ve repeated some of the quotes and the associated links (I’ve edited out a couple). Cheers. TRP]
And tax cuts, happy, kept money circulating to shore up demand during GFC better than ending up in govt hands where 30 cents is lost in every dollar
Why do you people get so exercised on who owns and asset or a firm, its what the firm or asset Produces that is important and how efficiently it does for the good of the economy as a whole. Ownership, control and rights to residual cash flow is sort of irrelevant, be a firm employee owned, coop, state owned, owned by capital funders etc . If you can’t take it away how relevant is it really. nearly every academic study shows privatisation adds value and improves productivity and thus a benefit to the economy as a whole , The firm or asset is unhindered as a govt play thing. its also not as government give the asset away they receive consideration that reflects present value of future cash flow of those assets in consideration ti invest anew , oh unless left leaning politician wish to devalue those asset for their own selfish ends
“And tax cuts, happy, kept money circulating to shore up demand during GFC better than ending up in govt hands where 30 cents is lost in every dollar”
So health, education and state housing dont matter to you?
Offshore ownership of assets robs us of the fiscal return, the local resource being capitalized, and local control, thus the opportunity to own and control our own future.
It’s good management that adds value and improves productivity. Managerial expertise and experience can be acquired without the need to privatize.
Additionally, the more assets the state owns and capitalizes from (which broadens and increases their revenue stream) the less they are required to tax us going forward.
Silly statement Millsay all nz governments past and presence spend billion in these areas, dollars are not the issue, outcomes are of which at least national has the guts to address, not throwing more of others people money at a problem, never worked, never will