Labour/ Greens 48% (up 9%) surge ahead of National Party 44% (down 7%)
Economic Issues are still easily the most important problems facing New Zealand (51%)
Labour/ Greens 48% (up 9%) surge ahead of National Party 44% (down 7%) [http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/5113-new-zealand-voting-intention-august-2013-201308200137]
Labour/ Greens 48% (up 9%) surge ahead of National Party 44% (down 7%) as Parliament debates contentious GCSB ‘Spying’ Bill [http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/5113-new-zealand-voting-intention-august-2013-201308200137]
Today’s New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows a plunge in support for Prime Minister John Key’s National Party to 44% (down 7% since July 15-28, 2013). Support for Key’s Coalition partners has changed little with the Maori Party 2% (up 0.5%), ACT NZ 0.5% (down 0.5%) and United Future 0% (unchanged).
Support for Labour has increased to 34% (up 5%); Greens are 14% (up 4%) – their highest level of support since August 2012, New Zealand First 3% (down 1%), Mana Party 0.5% (down 0.5%), Conservative Party of NZ 1% (down 0.5%) and Others 1% (unchanged).
If a National Election were held now the latest NZ Roy Morgan Poll shows that a Labour/ Greens alliance would win.
The latest NZ Roy Morgan Government Confidence Rating is virtually unchanged at 128 (down 0.5%) with 58% (down 0.5%) of New Zealanders saying New Zealand is ‘heading in the right direction’ compared to 30% (unchanged) that say New Zealand is ‘heading in the wrong direction’.
Gary Morgan says:
“Today’s New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll contains good news for the Opposition Labour (34%, up 5%) and Greens (14%, up 4%) – now at their highest level of combined support in four months since early April 2013 [http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/national-party-down-labour-gains-201305290207]. The Greens have jumped to their highest level of support in a year since August 2012 [http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/finding-4810-201302130413].
“The huge swings in support come as the contentious GCSB (Government Communications Security Bureau) ‘Spying’ Bill is heavily debated in Parliament. The Bill, which will increase the Government’s powers of surveillance over all New Zealand citizens, has faced strong opposition in Parliament. Prime Minister John Key has insisted on the importance of passage of the bill in the fight against terrorism claiming there are people living in New Zealand who had been trained by Al-Qaeda.
“Opposition to the bill is not just inside Parliament, with the Law Society saying there are ‘fundamental flaws in the GCSB Bill’ that minor adjustments insisted on by Independent MP Peter Dunne for his support do not alter.”
View New Zealand Political Reports [http://www.roymorganonlinestore.com/Browse/New-Zealand/Economic,-Political-and-Social.aspx]
Economic Issues are still easily the most important problems facing New Zealand (51%) [http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/5111-new-zealand-issues-august-2013-201308200005]
Economic Issues are still easily the most important problems facing New Zealand (51%) and facing the World (45%) according to New Zealanders [http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/5111-new-zealand-issues-august-2013-201308200005]
Economic issues are clearly the most important issue facing New Zealand and the World today and since surveying began in November 2010 according to the latest Roy Morgan Research conducted in July 2013.
New Zealand views on Problems facing New Zealand
When asked about the most important problem facing New Zealand, Economic issues are mentioned by 51% (up 5% since May 2013) well ahead of Social issues (18%, unchanged), Government and Public Policy Issues (14%, down 2%) and Environmental issues (7%, up 1%).
The most important Economic issues facing New Zealand include Poverty /Gap between the Rich and the Poor (15%, up 6%), the Economy/ Financial crisis/ Recession/ Inflation/ Exchange rate/ High dollar (13%, unchanged), Unemployment/ Job security (13%, down 2%) and the Cost of living/ Increasing prices/ Financial hardship/ Household debt (7%, up 3%).
Another important issue mentioned by New Zealanders is the Government/ Politicians/ Leadership/ Government Spending (7%, down 2%). Important Social Issues according to New Zealanders are Social Apathy/ Lack of values/ Lack of empathy towards others/ Intolerance (4%, up 1%) and Racism/ Racial tension (3%, up 1%).
Michele Levine says, CEO Roy Morgan says:
“This latest NZ Roy Morgan Issues Research shows that Economic issues dominate concerns facing both New Zealand (51%, up 5%) and the World (45%, up 10%).
“The dominant Economic issues facing New Zealand are Poverty/ Gap between the Rich and Poor (15%, up 6%), Unemployment/ Job Security (13%, down 2%), the Economy/ Financial crisis/ Recession/ Inflation/ Exchange rate/ High dollar (13%, unchanged) and Cost of Living/ Increasing Prices/ Financial Hardship/ Household Debt (7%, up 3%).
“Other important issues facing New Zealand include Government/ Politicians/ Leadership/ Government Spending (7%, down 2%), Social Apathy/ Lack of Values/ Lack of empathy toward others/ Intolerance (4%, up 1%), Racism/ Racial tension (3%, up 1%), Housing shortages/ Housing affordability (3%, up 1%) and Natural Disasters/ Earthquakes/ Tsunamis/ Floods/ Volcanic eruptions (3%, up 2%).
“When asked about World issues, the most important Economic issues are Poverty/ The gap between the Rich and the Poor/ Imbalance of wealth (17%, up 7%) Economy/ Financial crisis/ Recession (15%, up 4%), Over-population (4%, unchanged) and Unemployment/ Job Security (4%, unchanged).
“The next most important issues facing the World are Social apathy/ Lack of values/ Lack of empathy toward others/ Intolerance (7%, up 1%), Wars & Conflicts/ Unrest (7%, down 3%), Climate Change/ Global Warming/ Ozone Layer/ Greenhouse Effect (6%, unchanged), Religion/ Religious Conflict (4%, unchanged) and Government/ Politicians/ Political unrest/ Instability/ Greedy and Corrupt Governments (4%, down 1%).”
View New Zealand Economic & Social Reports [http://www.roymorganonlinestore.com/Browse/New-Zealand/Economic,-Political-and-Social.aspx]
View all latest findings [http://www.roymorgan.com/]
The elite always need to scare the wider public about “threats” in order to convince us that we must cede even more power and authority to them. For our own good, you understand.
The GCSB Bill passed 61-59. Apparently the Maori Party didn’t bother to have sufficient members in the House so they could only cast 2 of their 3 votes against the bill? Sums up their time in office perfectly it seems to me.
They have cast only two votes at each of the readings. No-one seems to have an answer as to why. Inability to be in the precinct three times ? Abstention ? Who knows.
The most probable reason was the Parliament rules on absence from the Parliament precinct of one or more members of the MP. It happens frequently with the MP that they only cast two not three votes – not just on the GCSB Bill.
Abstentions from voting must be recorded and none were recorded last night in the final vote, or as far as I am aware (having been following this closely) in the votes in the various hearings and votes on parts of the Bill.
I am not a great fan of the MP, but I also don’t like to see anyone slagging of at someone without finding out the facts/probable reasons. Flavell gave a very empassioned speech in the final stages last night against the Bill and why the MP opposed it.
“In the end the majority was two votes, not the one expected, because the Maori Party which opposed the bill did not have enough MPs in the precinct to cast its three votes and cast two instead.”
(if you were pissed off about the $30 something million in cash handout to rio tinto..and were wondering about the value of that latest ‘secret’ power-subsidy to rio tinto..and exactly how much in total they had managed to screw out of a compliant key/corporate-slave govt…?
..well..wonder no more..figures revealed this morning show the total corporate-handout to rio tinto..was over $500 million..
..ka-ching..!..eh..?..i’ll bet the bubbles flowed at rio tinto hq after that one..eh..?..it’ll be big-bonus time..)
Collins is “chilled” at the thought that the Henry commission could have invaded her privacy, or any MP’s for that matter. Yet she is countenancing the government’s recent move to be able to trawl across thousands and thousands of ordinary citizens. Chilling isn’t it? Don’t you love the Holier than Thou.
Is there a way to reply to messages on the mobile version? I’m assuming there is and I’m just missing something really obvious because I can’t figure it out.
On my list of things to finish. It wasn’t supported in the most useful theme of latest version of the mobile code.
It is getting pretty high on my list of things to do because it affects the flow of comments.
For anyone interested, the technical problem is that there is only one comment edit form on the screen. The reply link just moves it to div that the comment you are replying to and changes a few parameters in the form. However it is quite specific to the layout of the HTML ids. So I have to set up a development environment at home to do all of this on chrome on my desktop. When I think I have it correct, I have to test on my two android devices, and then plead the use from Lyn of her two iOS devices to test on those.
I figure I will get it done on the weekend. Then ship the fix back to BraveNewCode
did i just get a glimpse of a new standard format/layout..?
..if so..(blush..!)..i see you are using the same single-column-scrolling format that i have clung to for so long..(battling the vicissitudes of fashion),,
..as this is a format that was first used..then abandoned..and then returned to.. by the likes of salon/slate..
..they returned..and i have stayed..because of the simplicity of use for the user..
(for want of a better name..i call it scroll ‘n click’..and of course the proliferation of hand-held devices makes this format all the more appealing..)
.if that is your new format-call..congratulations..the simplicity and ease of use will be appreciated by yr readers..i reckon..
Sounds like the mobile version for phones and tablets. There is a new page caching system in place. Drat- looks like it served up the wrong page. Time to shift the mobile theme to m.thestandard.org.nz
US military tested using Twitter to profile civilians in anti-terror scheme
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By Carola Hoyos in London and April Dembosky in San Francisco
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The US military was able to create detailed dossiers on people through Twitter in eight-day experiment called Quantum Leap
Dear Standardistas, this is DAMNED important, similarly to the GCSB saga, this is stuff that ALL beneficiaries should know, and those that care for them definitely should bother to read and study, and SHARE, this is NOT a joke:
The assault or attack on beneficiaries was declared by Paula Bennett as early as 2009 , certainly by 2010, and her government has us all, and I am one of you, black, brown, yellow or whatever fucking ethnicity, or cultural backgroud, targeted, to CULL us off the benefits. I appeal to you guys and girls, get a wake up call, read up, study what someone has spent months working on, for your damned sake, to support and assist you guys, to protect and warn you, as it will be a dangerous war path in future, to even dare walking into the doors of WINZ, thank you. Stand strong, tall and take em on, and join together to defend your rights, they are taking them off you bit by bit, day and night.
Salute, all the best, the fight has just started Viva – Xtasy
Yes. Its horrible, scarey stuff Xtasy and Karol. Sue Bradford also has an article about it on The Daily Blog. Oh ….. we’re becoming an awful mean nation … and its so unnecessary. If Govt/NZ
official thinking was turned around and people HELPED rather than be penalised more, then we WOULD have a well-educated people working together and making this country much more productive than it is now.
As someone reasonably well informed about the issues, I find that information on the accforum hard to follow. The author has acknowledged the problems with formatting, but I think there are issues with information overload, and how the information is being presented. Many people on medical benefits would find it hard to read through that and get what they need from it. It might be better presented on a wordpress blog format, with articles separated out and searchable, and with clear titles etc.
For instance, this title
‘The Health and Disability Panel’ and its hand-picked Members, who advised the M.S.D. and Paula Bennett on welfare reforms, and thus the ‘Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Act’:
weka you have a point, I think, but these are really complex matters, so it is not headline stuff, and that is of course what the media love. How are you going to explain the communist revolution and take-over in China for instance, to lay persons? Is it going to be the reds hiding in the caves, then coming out and taking over? It is absurd. The problem is, most NZers are “lazy” and do not bother to read or study anything, and I had students like that staying with me!
So to learn and understand, I am afraid, some effort needs to be made. Sadly most want a quick fix!
I suppose it depends on who those articles are aimed at. I think it’s very important that beneficiaries can access this information, so would prefer to see it presented in a more easily read way.
Weka – while you may have a point with your well meant criticism, the writer clearly did not just want to take a kind of advocacy position expressing support for the cause of helping beneficiaries, there is more that needs to be considered.
The ones like UK professor Mansel Aylward, like Gordon Waddell, Kim Burton and others, also including local Dr David Bratt (WINZ Principal Health Advisor), the New Zealand follower of these ill proved ideas and policies based on the somewhat perverted form of the “bio psycho-social model”, are sadly not “light-weights”. Also are the politicians in the government, who have taken up these approaches and brought in these hideous “reforms” sadly not “light weights”.
Clearly the writer, being aware of this, and knowing that arguments based on supposed “scientific” and “medical research” are being used, has seen the need to present counter evidence, alternative reports and the likes, same as many links to such scientific reports, media reports and more.
If the intention would have been to simply write up something for the affected beneficiaries, it could have been done with a more condensed, shorter presentation. But that would allow anyone to too easily criticise it as mere opinion or whatever.
The exposure of flaws and untruths and half-truths must be done with presenting sufficient, clear evidence, and sadly that is complex and requires some analysis and study.
So of course, it cannot just be directed at the sick and disabled on benefits, it goes further and deeper than that!
Weka – fair enough, you are at least informed, alert and contribute by commenting on these issues here and on probably a few other forums. Thanks for that – always!
I just watched this program on the “reforms” in the UK, which gives an interesting perspective.
Both Helen Kelly and Hone Harawira in their speeches to the Auckland Town hall meeting informed us that the surveillance and spying on the working poor and beneficiaries is more oppressive than most of us in better circumstances have experienced. And has been going on for a long time.
One example, (that both forgot to mention). Is the campaign by the government to privatise the state rental stock. Government surveillance and threats are being used to evict state tenants in the Glen Innes and Pamure area so that their houses can be demolished and removed and the land sold to private developers.
How it works is this: Housing New Zealand spies, determine which state tenants in the targeted area for demolition and sell off, have more than the registered number of tenants staying in their home. The registered tenant is then sent warnings that they will be charged with fraud unless they get out. If they refuse to leave, police are sent around to evict them on grounds of criminal fraud for having people not deemed eligible for state housing living there..
So why are people illegally doubling up in state rentals?
Because there are not enough affordable rentals. The government are making this worse by deliberately shrinking the State Housing rental stock. Which leads to more doubling up, and overcrowding, which leads to more threats, and more evictions, and more demolitions. All the while the private developers who are John Keys mates, are rubbing their hands in delight. State House rents which act as a brake on high private rents are disappearing from the Auckland housing market. The increased demand for private rentals is seeing private rents sky rocket. Property values are set by what sort of rents they can command. So house prices rise to unaffordable levels. In a vicious cycle this results in more people in the rental housing market. And at the bottom homelessness and moving in with your family or relatives who might still be lucky to have a State House, but which then opens them up to charges of fraud which makes them vulnerable to the Housing New Zealand snoops. So how does Housing New Zealand know who should or shouldn’t be in a state house? By matching up metadata. Laws past in recent years has permitted the open sharing of information held by differing branches of government freely to all other branches of government. This could be anything traffic infringement notices ACC payments IRD personal information. Anything with your address on it.
So does all this already existing oppressive surveillance and victimisation of the the less well off, mean we shouldn’t be concerned that this sort of surveillance is now being extended to all New Zealanders despite their income or circumstances? (which is one of the inference’s you could take from Hone Harawira’s speech in particular).
No certainly not.
Orcon founder and millionaire Seeby Woodhouse who also spoke against the bill at the Auckland Town Hall meeting. Talking about countries worse off than us for civil liberties. Woodhouse put it this way: He said that if we go down this path, those in worse circumstances than us will be pushed down even further.
Jenny, while i agree with your prognosis that the current Government is aiding the high cost of housing, particularly in the Auckland market by deliberately removing State Housing from areas so as to allow for private sector interests access to the land you have got some of your comment wrong in Fact,
The State House equation is simple, when there are enough State Houses in an area there are less tenants available to be exploited by Landlords, if Landlords do not have tenants to exploit they will have a lowered interest in purchasing further property’s as rental investments, when demand from would be Landlords is quashed more property will become available for Home Buyers and prices will stabilize,
Obviously at least National have no desire for the above to occur as the higher the prices of houses go the better the figures for ‘Economic Growth’ look on paper, unfortunately i suspect that Labour are also conflicted by this equation which is why their ‘Flagship’ policy mentions not State Housing but instead promises to shoe-horn into home ownership the children of the middle class who have in the past 20 years transferred 100,000 previous ‘homes’ into ‘rental investments’ off of the back of a State Housing shortage in the realm of 30,000+ homes,
The ‘Fact’ which you wrongly posit???, Housing New Zealand does not have the legal power to restrict who besides the tenant lives at the address, what Housing New Zealand require is that they are informed of WHO resides at the address AND the rent for that address will be 25% of HOUSEHOLD income up to an agreed market rent,
So, as that is the conditions of renting a Housing New Zealand property it is then the onus of the Tenant to tell Housing New Zealand that they have ‘others’ residing at the address and the rent for the property will be adjusted to take into account the income of the ‘others’ at the address as well as the tenant…
Housing New Zealand does not have the legal power to restrict who besides the tenant lives at the address, what Housing New Zealand require is that they are informed of WHO resides at the address AND the rent for that address will be 25% of HOUSEHOLD income up to an agreed market rent
bad 12
Mere quibbling.
1/ I have it on good authority that Housing New Zealand do not use this surveillance in areas where they are not trying to evict tennants to redevelop the land.
2/ Many of the registered owners don’t tell Housing New Zealand that they have tenants other than themselves crammed in their home because they know that it will lead to an increase in their rents. The point is that they are crowded together because they can’t afford to pay more.
Many of the working poor have not had decent wage rises that compete with inflation in more than a decade. Those on fixed incomes ie. beneficiaries are just that on fixed incomes.
Many young people in this area and I imagine in other areas find it very difficult to get a benefit at all even if they can find no work. Many of these young people with no income at all are crammed in with friends and relatives.
The fact is just like the GCSB law many of those on low income as well as being marginalised are being criminalised. The government through spying find and exploit this vulnerability to help their developer mates clear state tenants out of their homes.
Jenny mere quibbling about your mere lying it may be but you are in error on FACTS, and erring in such a manner is of no service to Housing NZ tenants,
Your point at (1), you have no evidence that surveillance is being used as a tool to evict tenants of State Houses what-so-ever, the fact is that ALL the tenants recently ‘evicted’ from housing where the land is destined to be passed to the private sector have been offered other HousingNZ tenancies, and while i despise this National Government’s tacticd of destroying parts of the States Housing estate in Auckland simply to keep the prices of housing high while lining the pockets of it’s developer buddies stooping to bullshit to oppose such trickery from this National Government is facile to say the least,
Your point (2), Total bullshit again, i assume you mean ‘registered tenants’, rubbish, if the ‘other’ people the tenant of the property has allowed to stay are on a benefit and also registered as part of the tenancy with HousingNZ, HousingNZ will arrange to deduct rent of 25% of income from ‘the other people’s’ benefits just as they now do for the main tenant of the property, in such a situation the main tanant of the property will pay no more than they currently pay,
The rest of your rant is just that a rant without much fact, you talk of young people without an income, which bit of HousingNZ charging 25% of Household income up to a market rent do you fail to comprehend, if a tenant has a young person with NO income staying with them, HousingNZ has no legal basis to collect rent off of that person, But, the tenant still has a legal requirement to inform HousingNZ that the person is residing permanently at the tenancy,
Your last paragraph is garbled rubbish which tries to connect the GCSB law into the plight of HousingNZ tenants but if there is any tenuous connection it is obliterated by your grubby garbled misuse of the English language…
John Key says – The Law society, Anne Salmond, the Human Rights Commission, the Opposition Parties and all the people who are against the GCSB law don’t understand the law.
There it is people, your PM thinks you’re all stupid and misinformed. Time to give him a kick in the arse, yes?
Not the best performance by Mallard on Backbench’s for sure. Although his fellow MPs likely did ask him to stop posting, saying so publicly isn’t a good look.
In my opinion, letting the politicians run amok on the interwebs is the best way to determine which ones have brain cells. There is no buffer of the MSM between them and the public. That’s why I’m somewhat glad National MPs like Simon Bridges are using services like twitter and Facebook more often, because they’re making themselves look like total idiots!
I owe you an apology btw phillip ure. It appears my claim that the Labour leadership issue was dead was entirely wrong, for obvious reasons.
True, every day that Manning spends in a jail cell is a day of shame for the Prez Barak Obama, jailing Manning for exposing the murder of innocent Iraqi children by laughing soldiers operating from a helicopter gunship has to be the low point of the Obama Presidency,
Manning’s lawyers today called for the President to pardon Manning and anyone who has the smallest speck of belief in Justice would agree with this call,
US Presidents get to pardon all sorts of people when the term of their Presidency has reached it’s end, Manning should sit atop the current Presidents list of pardons once He is at the point of leaving the White House…
So Barack Obama may due to that deserve the DEATH penalty, will he not? And the same may be dealt out to those that do disregard human rights and whatever. They may sanctimoniously talk about Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran and so forth, but what damned values do the US bloody stand for?
No faith no more is my answer, and I have NO faith in any imperial power, and that definitely includes Mainland China too, to avoid any errors.
This world is a hideous place now, and citizens have to take action in each other’s place, but again, most will be convenient cowards, like most Kiwis are anyway, sadly. I have nothing to lose and am ready to do almost anything, so read this too GCSB, SIS and John Key, yesterday you drew the lines in the sand, and I know where I bloody stand. I am waiting for New Zealanders to take a stand, but expect NADA in that regard, given past experience.
This is, without misunderstanding, and I have worked on this for 3 years, a declaration, that I have nothing to lose, and that is very serious and for real, if anybody dares to understand! My body will be a a “weapon” of “self-defence” for a fight for freedom and democracy, whenever it is necessary!
I am non violent by the way, a bit like Gandhi sort of, I suppose Key and gang understand, but that is the greatest threat they fear, really, CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE!
48 hours without sleep, in over-drive, overworked, stressed, exhausted, perhaps after weeks my eyes will drop and allow for a bit of sleep.
Thanks all for putting up with me, I need a solid break, work has been done, heaps, those who know me will be informed, I am sinking into the cushions and onto the mattress now, defeat, exhausted, finito, kind of. But strength will be regained and gathered, so tomorrow or in a few days, I may be back.
Never give up, viva, viva, viva, el pueblo unido – jamas cera vencido!
Don’t worry Xstasy, Collins and Tolley and Banks to the rescue… they will wake up this morning and be hounded by the press to explain their horror at the idea their emails could be released and voting against the GCSB. There will be a wholesale release of all their emails because they have nothing to hide and nothing to fear….
Banks and Henare referred to Shearer as “useless”. That’s great coming from them. Really looking forward to seeing Banks successfully convicted under the private prosecution and the inevitable by-election that’ll cause.
Hands up who would like a business where your profit relative to revenue went like this example…
Revenue $300,000 per annum
Deduct hard costs needed to earn that income of $100,000
Profit equals $200,000
From that profit pay any costs associated with your ownership of that business such as loans etc. No loans, no more costs.
Wouldn’t it be grand? You would think that in a free market world such a business model would lead to countless competitors setting up to take advantage and hence revenue would lower due to competitors offering the same service / product at lower price. This is after all how the system operates, right?
Well no, wrong. Wrong so wrong.
Auckland Airport numbers fit into that model in this way
Revenue $450,000,000
Deduct hard costs to earn that income of $150,000,000
Profit equals $300,000,000
Rort on a grand scale? Monopolistic situation? Taking advantage of the lack of competition? Charging almost the minimum wage per hour to park your car on some asphalt?
Sometimes this “public good” translates into “let’s price gouge and rip a captive market off so we can spend the money on something we think is really, really important”.
That’s why we have transparency in our SOEs – so we can see what they’re spending our money on.
BTW, over the last few years since deregulation and it’s sale Telecom have pushed more than $17b dollars out as dividends this has resulted in us a) paying billions of dollars of taxpayer money for the network we should have and b) paying too much for telecommunications. Those dividends match perfectly with your “let’s price gouge and rip a captive market off so we can spend the money on something we think is really, really important” and show the dead weight loss of profit.
They offered Grange Golf club some land east of existing runway to help them ‘exit’ their existing course as those lovely fletcher folk wanted to build some much needed housing stock.
Went down badly with grange and aviation club members…..big boys and their powerful corporate toys.
Who knows but the way I’m reading it is the 2013 law has clarified (legitimised?) a lot of grey and possibly illegal stuff thats been happening in NZ for probably decades which is good and if it still doesn’t go far enough Labour will get their turn in 2017
The clarfied line is pure spin and you should know it. Your looking at one tiny part in isolation. The new law also introduces new powers and you should know it. Then combine it with the TICS bill then chuck in the timelines of the meeting with eric holder and others and the recipe you end up with isnt for cupcakes
the old law stated that the GCSB couldnt spy on NZers. end of story. – there was some room to manufacture confusion by deliberatly thinking that a different clause got them round that. But thats only been a line pushed by those that wanted these latest changes to come into force.
If the GCSB act was only ever meant to clear up the oh so convenient confusion then thats all it would have done and all the people pushing it wouldve had a very easy job pointing this out and arguing their corner. Yet its main cheerleader (john key) has almost always resorted to personally attacking people. What does that tell you?
The internal and external parts of your intelligence network are kept separate for bloody good reasons – but not in NZ anymore
How much of our money did John Key give Geoff Thorn to go to relieve the pressure on himself? . Key is the architypical bullying boss that everyone who works for, hates.
My bet is that it was at least $1.5 million.
Nice point from Green Party leader Metiria Turei in today’s Herald online, the Ministry of Education has released advice it gave to Paula Bennett befor She launched Her abysmal attack upon recipients of the DPB,
The Education Ministry advice was that even without the rush of DPB mums trying to enroll their kids in Early Childhood Education there were waiting lists where 20% of kids were having to wait 3 months or longer for the limited places available and that forcing DPB dependent kids to be enrolled would exacerbate the already dire position of a shortage of capacity,
Bennett tho, who obviously doesn’t give a big fat f**k about anything other than having beneficiaries en masse running round looking for Jobs or placements for the kids in Early Childhood Learning Centers that don’t actually exist went right on ahead with the requirement along with gleefully outlining the penalty’s involved with not having the kids enrolled,
If Bennett had of had an ounce of concern about the Ministry of Education advice She would have gone to the Cabinet and pointed out the impossibility of the proposed regulation and demanded funding to increase the number of Early Childhood centers to match the expected increase in the numbers applying, She was after all is in possession of all the FACTS,
i posted a comment here last week about the abysmal treatment National Governments just can’t seem to help themselves meting out to beneficiaries in general and pointed out that once the effects of such attacks, for attacks is what they become even in the unlikely event that attacks are simply the unintended consequences of ill thought through changes, there is an inevitable backlash from within the electorate ads they are confronted with the increasingly ugly effects of such changes/attacks,
The recent Roy Morgan Poll where this National Government has taken ‘a hit’ in it’s popularity of 7% seems to attest somewhat to the unease with which the electorate is viewing the Governments (mis)treatment of beneficiaries, although you have to read the nitty gritty details to gain this sense from that Roy Morgan Poll,
Morgan Himself cites the GCSB legislation as the reason for the Governments sudden and dramatic loss of support in this Poll, Roy however has ignored much of His own data in coming to this conclusion, and i quote,
”The dominant economic issues facing New Zealand are POVERTY/ Gap between Rich and Poor, (15% UP 6%), unquote,
i would dare suggest that the issues surrounding the GCSB Legislation will fade into the background over the next few months, but, that part of the Roy Morgan Poll being an ‘economic issue’ will not and the 6% rise in concern nearly matches the slide in polled popularity for this Government,
This far out from November 2014 do i dare suggest we start a book on who will be the next Leader of the Opposition, Judith Collins, Bill English, or a compromise Maurice Williamson…
Bomber putting out a rallying cry on what we can do now post-GCSB bill (edited bits):
If you as a New Zealander are horrified by what has happened, if you see this as a step towards a NZ you don’t recognize, if the ability of the State to spy upon us all and share it with America breaches the values of independence you believe our country should stand for, then here’s what I suggest.
A 3 pronged approach.
1: Repeal the Bill at the 2014 election:
Call upon every opposition MP to signal before the 2014 election if they will vote to repeal the legislation. Every week until the election the Blogs will post up the names of all those opposition MPs who will repeal the legislation and all those who won’t. We will advise people not to vote for those opposition MPs who will not repeal the Bill. Take the public Town Hall speaking tour around the main cities and provinces in the lead up to the election culminating in Auckland in the week of the election.
2: Close the Waihopai Spy Base – America out of NZ
The pressure to spy on us domestically is being driven by Washington, not Wellington. With Key’s refusal to confirm or deny if the NSA is subsidizing the GCSB and with the Snowden revelations growing and not diminishing, it is time to tell the Americans they can stick their spy base the same place they stuck their nuclear ships.
How would we close it down?
What do we do better than anything else in NZ? We do casual. What if this Summer in January a vast tent city of NZers converged upon Waihopai and set up a massive ring of tents around the entire Base and just occupied it? Show America they are no longer welcome here and they can have their 5th eye back thanks. Social media could convey their voices, the media attention during Summer would be intense and the Summer action could lead into the Autumn Public Town Hall speaking tour. Logistics would have to be sorted out, but a mass tent city protesting against the Spy Base would send a clear signal and shift the focus in the election year.
….
3: The creation of a cyber Bill of Rights
We desperately need a cyber Bill of Rights to protect our interests, our privacy and our online civil liberties. We need to demand telcos join in on defending and promoting these cyber Bill of Rights and we demand Government entrenches it within the NZ Bill of Rights and that the Human Rights Commission receive extra funding to promote and stand up for those cyber civil liberties.
We have some of the brightest techies and legal minds to grapple with and generate a cyber Bill of Rights that we could all be proud of as NZers. Women fought and gained universal suffrage, workers fought and gained the 40 hour week and baby boomers fought and kept us nuclear free.
It is our responsibility now to make a stand and use this terrible step towards a mass surveillance state as momentum to shape our future in a manner befitting the egalitarian and social justice values our democracy should champion.
-freedom of online expression
-freedom of online peaceful assembly
-freedom of online association
-freedom of online thought, conscience, religion and belief.
-freedom from mass surveillance
-right to privacy
-right to free community high speed access to internet via all schools, libraries, community centers and Maraes.
…
If you support this – share it with all your friends and whanau, because only a grass roots keyboard campaign will generate the kind of mass momentum we would need to win.
Hi Weka. May I suggest a walk over to the neighbours for a chat on their side of the fence? I thought it was a worthy post too, with many useful points. There is a lot to discuss around these ideas and I’ve only replied to one person due to time constraints today but it would be good to see the input of folks that don’t usually comment on the TDB. Liven things up a little! The more voices the better:-)
Hi Rosie, I’ll see how I go. I’m not averse to commenting at TDB, but feel more at home here, and would like to discuss this with people I know better.
I do have my reservations about commenting on TDB: By the time I come out of moderation, which has been up to 7 hours, the tide has gone out on the conversation, or when my comments do get posted in a timely way no one engages with me, even when I’m seeking other’s views or clarifications or I just get heaps of down votes, lol. So it is a bit discouraging. However I like sampling the different flavours of authors and commenters. I’m always curious to know what others are thinking and feeling.
RadioNZ confirming just now that Labour are in an ‘urgent Caucus’, my first thought, was the ‘secret meeting’ between Shearer and Slippery the Prime Minister over the GCSB legislation also a well kept secret hidden from the Labour Caucus…
David Parker, you are kidding right, Parker is conspicuous by his absence and cannot even match it with bill from Dipton simply because His economic prescription possesses only a sliver of difference when compared to bill’s…
The amount of people here who ripped on the Journalists that said this would’nt happen, who went on twitter laughing at those Journalists, must real damn stupid right about now.
”Of His own volition” seriously Mac???, i pick that Dave who didn’t bother to tell the Green Party about His little tete a tete with Slippery the Prime Minister over the GCSB Legislation also forgot to mention it to His own Party,
It would be totally fitting that should this have been the truth of the matter that the ‘Narking’ of Slippery the Prime Minister leads to the election of the other Dave who’s many supporters believe can rub the Slippery little Shysters face in the dirt of His own deceit and lead to the ‘Nark’s’ ultimate defeat in next years election…
Maybe.
Maybe the latest poll plus the response to his experiment with gimmicks in the House going down like, er, a dead fish was enough for him to call it a day.
Hell, maybe there was even a nc vote in caucus to give him the push. Who knows. But he resigned with dignity, rather than being dragged kicking and screaming and holding on to the paycheque for as long as possible (Brash, anyone?). And even if it’s a polite fib, everyone in caucus at least has the good grace to continue to respect his (and their own) dignity.
This was clearly not a coup as such bad12. I think the fact that Labour hasn’t increased much in the polls and that Shearer has lost some support from the caucus are the main reasons for his resignation. I also think he is a bit sick of getting such a hard time.
Shearer wasn’t required to let Labour or the Greens en masse know when a meeting between GCSB committee members was held. GCSB committee members meeting isn’t usually out of the ordinary and would certainly not result in Shearer’s resignation. What is discussed within GCSB committee meetings is meant to be kept confidential anyway.
Don’t tell me you actually believe what Key was claiming the other day?
Brett, he did so. He went on the radio saying it was all going down right now. Then when it didn’t, he said it would happen by the end of the week. He was wrong.
Shearer has just said that he resigns because he does not have the confidence of his caucus. The new leader is not decided yet.
I don’t think that Robertson or Little will get more public support than Shearer. I believe that Cunliffe could be the only one capable of winning a debate with Key.
“Against Stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain”
Friedrich Schiller 1759 – 1805
It is all but certain that human activity has caused a steady increase in global temperatures over the past 60 years, leading to warmer oceans and an acceleration in sea-level rise, according to the most recent climate change report by an international panel of scientists…..
…..A report on Maryland sea-level rise released in June by the state’s Climate Change Commission estimated that the rise would range from slightly less than a foot to two feet by 2050, and from two to six feet by 2100, depending on several factors, including glacial ice melt.
Up to six feet of sea-level rise can be devastating when effects from storm surge are factored in, said Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
In addition to projections, the document reported several facts. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by more than 20
percent since 1958 and 40 percent since 1750, “virtually all due to burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, and a small contribution from cement production”. DARRYL FEARSstuff.co.nz, 21 August 2013
But what does New Zealand do?
Cancels a project that would inject $115m into household incomes over its construction period, create over a thousand permanent jobs, and power 170,000 New Zealand homes with renewable energy.
Why?
Because planet destroying coal fired electricity is so cheap and abundant
…..Waikato District Council Mayor Allan Sanson said he was not too surprised by the news.
“It was always going to be marginal in relation to the fact that there was already generating capacity and surplus available.”
Waikato Chamber of Commerce CEO Sandra Perry said the news was just another disappointment for the region, especially for those in the energy sector following last week’s Huntly Coal Mine lay-offs.
There you have it. Not only is the bankrupt coal industry laying off workers. It is keeping another 1033 hundred others out of work.
It is way past time that the government rationalised the real cost of coal, in real terms of human misery, illness and death, pollution and climate damage. To reflect the reals cost of fossil fuels and make renewables competitive.
If any government had foresight vision and the guts to do this. Renewables would then become viable, creating tens of thousands of new jobs.
Instead our leaders crawl on their bellies to the fossil fuel moguls, at every opportunity. Instead of investing in renewables, politicians offer the polluters $multimillion subsidiesto come here to plunder our natural resources to increase pollution and to continue our dependence on fossil fuels.
When New Zealand could be, and should be leading the world in showing that there is an alternative.
Humanity is facing an existential crisis like none ever faced before, we have no need for the corporate suits, or bureaucratically appointed leaders who have leadership handed to them.
We are at a cross roads.
We need leaders leaders with vision leaders with courage and conviction. Leaders with passion, leaders with boldness, inspired and informed by the past. But solidly rooted in the real world.
Leaders with a mandate to act.
We need political scrappers
Unafraid to fight for that mandate.
Their task to overcome the impasse that sees humanity careering down a road to destruction, and put us on another track.
[Bunji: Moved to Open Mike as nothing to do with post.]
This is The Economist’s response to David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs. The Economist makes a couple of points but, IMO, completely misses what Graeber is saying:
If someone had designed a work regime perfectly suited to maintaining the power of finance capital, it’s hard to see how they could have done a better job. Real, productive workers are relentlessly squeezed and exploited. The remainder are divided between a terrorised stratum of the, universally reviled, unemployed and a larger stratum who are basically paid to do nothing, in positions designed to make them identify with the perspectives and sensibilities of the ruling class (managers, administrators, etc) – and particularly its financial avatars – but, at the same time, foster a simmering resentment against anyone whose work has clear and undeniable social value. Clearly, the system was never consciously designed. It emerged from almost a century of trial and error. But it is the only explanation for why, despite our technological capacities, we are not all working 3-4 hour days.
Well said, instead of dividing the ‘actual’ available productive work among all those able to be gainfully employed we have instead raced backward to an era where the criminalization of the unemployed is but a mere step away,
The divide is as easy to see as those who have that degree are the pampered and those who do not are increasingly marginalized with Legislation aimed at making employment for those with less than a degree a matter of rotation…
It is all but certain that human activity has caused a steady increase in global temperatures over the past 60 years, leading to warmer oceans and an acceleration in sea-level rise, according to the most recent climate change report by an international panel of scientists…..
…..A report on Maryland sea-level rise released in June by the state’s Climate Change Commission estimated that the rise would range from slightly less than a foot to two feet by 2050, and from two to six feet by 2100, depending on several factors, including glacial ice melt.
Up to six feet of sea-level rise can be devastating when effects from storm surge are factored in, said Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
In addition to projections, the document reported several facts. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by more than 20
percent since 1958 and 40 percent since 1750, “virtually all due to burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, and a small contribution from cement production”.
We cancel a project that would inject $115m into household incomes over its construction period, create over a thousand permanent jobs, and would when completed power 170,000 New Zealand homes with renewable energy.
Why?
Because planet destroying coal fired electricity is so cheap and abundant
…..Waikato District Council Mayor Allan Sanson said he was not too surprised by the news.
“It was always going to be marginal in relation to the fact that there was already generating capacity and surplus available.”
Waikato Chamber of Commerce CEO Sandra Perry said the news was just another disappointment for the region, especially for those in the energy sector following last week’s Huntly Coal Mine lay-offs.
There you have it. Not only is the bankrupt coal industry laying off workers. It is keeping another 1033 hundred others out of work.
It is way past time that our leaders in government rationalised the real cost of coal, the cost in human misery, illness and death, and the cost of pollution and climate damage. To justly reflect the real cost of fossil fuels and to make renewables competitive.
If any government had foresight vision and the guts to do this. Renewables would then become viable, creating tens of thousands of new jobs.
Instead our leaders crawl on their bellies to the fossil fuel moguls at every opportunity. Instead of investing in renewables, politicians offer the polluters $multimillion subsidies to come here to plunder our natural resources, to increase pollution, and to continue our dependence on fossil fuels.
Humanity is facing an existential crisis like none ever faced before, we have no need for the corporate suits, or bureaucratically appointed leaders who have leadership handed to them.
We need leaders leaders with vision, leaders with courage and conviction. Leaders with passion, leaders with boldness, inspired and informed by the past. But solidly rooted in the real world. Well aware of the danger we are in, and of the necessary measures needed to combat it.
Leaders with a mandate to act.
We need political scrappers
Unafraid to fight for that mandate.
Their task to overcome the impasse that sees humanity careening down a road to certain destruction, and put us on another, safer saner track.
[lprent: Way off topic. Moved to OpenMike. If I see this type of grandstanding in a hot post again, then you may wind up with a holiday. ]
As if the existential issue of climate change is not at stake.
Cunliffe is the only parliamentarian to raise the issue of climate change in a meaningful way. Even the Greens are prepared to put it to the back burner in exchange for cabinet seats.
What do you call this again?
Politics 101, I recall.
Crass pragmatic opportunism might be a better description.
Cunliffe despite being the members choice has Little chance of becoming the new leader. And your actions are making sure of it.
As much as I mock the people on here (gentle mocking because I love you all dearly :)) I do have to say that suggesting this blog might be responsible for Cunliffe not becoming leader is just a little…otp
Although if Labour put out a short-term contract to someone like Colonial Viper as an adviser they’d probably do a bit better in the polls
Helping us sleepwalk into a leadership and later election campaign where the question of climate change is not an issue. Is giving a victory to the climate change ignorers.
Jenny the fossil fuels/climate change issue is a global civilisation ending issue, you might as well say that Rome would have held together if they’d had different senators.
But these decisions are made by human beings just like us.
Just like the atheists want to to think. Atheism, humanity and corruption are directly linked to each other. On the other hand society has the capacity to enjoy liberty and to meaningfully shape the future.
At a time when the whole ruling elite of Britain were fully behind the policy of appeasement and some indeed were Nazis or Nazi sympathisers. Churchill’s leadership changed all that.
To act collectively humans need leaders, it is not because we are sheep but that they recognise that not much can be achieved by one sole human acting alone.
Every thing worthwhile that can be done by humans takes team work, whether its building a road or a house or an ocean liner or 747. And teamwork requires leadership. It’s inescapable.
And it seems that the Holiday highway is becoming even more worthless:
In recent times the argument that the project will benefit Northland has become even more stretched – because it seems as though the Warkworth-Wellsford section is encountering huge problems with geotechnical stability.
It seems that perhaps Northlanders are waking up to the fact that the project which was supposed to have a transformational effect on their economy is slowly but surely evolving into what its critics have called it all along – little more than a “holiday highway”.
Yep, even the Northlanders are waking up to the fact that this Road of National (party) Significance will do absolutely nothing for them.
But there’s form here. The Mail still can’t quite live with the shame that it has always, always been historically wrong about everything – large and small – from Picasso to equal pay for women. Because it has always been against progress, the liberalising of attitudes, modern art and strangers (whether by race, gender or sexuality). Of course they’ll leap on a Stephen Lawrence bandwagon once the seeds of their decades of anti-immigration racism (read a 1960s or 1970s Daily Mail) have been sown, but deep down they have always come from the same place and had the same instinct for the lowest, most mean-spirited, hypocritical, spiteful and philistine elements of our island nation.
Most notoriously of all, they loved Adolf Hitler when he came to power, and as the Czech crisis arose they were the appeasement newspaper. And woe-betide any liberal-minded anti-fascist who warned that the man was unstable and that consistently satisfying his vanity, greed and ambition was only storing up trouble. The whole liberal left, not to mention Winston Churchill, were mocked and scorned for their instinctive distrust of Hitler. The Daily Mail knew better.
Yeah right! I suppose I should check the link to see if it goes to your own bank account! NZ Council disenfranchises members without notice – Ha!
[lprent: Dickhead fool. How exactly could you check the bank account.
Moved to OpenMike as being off topic. And you are banned (whoever you are) until after the election for both being a dickhead and suggesting that I’m a thief. ]
Jenny: Read the about / policy. It is quite specific about who we are and what we defend.
The latter pretty much comes down to defending the site, its authors and the right for people to make intelligent dicks of themselves in a sort of public way. That is because we consider that having a platform where people can argue with each other vehemently is useful for the political dialogue in this country. And we really don’t care that much if others agree with that position or not.
The policy is mostly interested in making sure that 50 or so people who can author posts don’t wind up on the receiving end of the 30-40k unique visitors we get in a month – we’re vastly outnumbered. And as you are probably becoming aware having even a few people closely criticising you, your motivations, and everything you do is intensely demotivating to continuing to write or moderate. So they run into my gentle style because I really don’t want to (or have time to) write much.
We will deal with *pointless* abuse when we see it. But that largely consists of looking to see if the person making the comment has said why they are going off like a rocket. If they don’t then they will often get a sharp warning/ban if we see them doing it too often or if it is too far over the top.
But I’m afraid that when seeing *pointed* abuse, the only thing we get really interested in is if it affects the site and if other people outside of the tweedledum/dee “discussions” will want to read them. That means that simple rants against others are usually unproductive because they’re usually boring and repetitive – especially after you have seen a few thousand of them over a year. Satirical, humorous, or informative rants are much better received.
We tend to insist that they are done within the context of a post because after all there is always OpenMike, where people reading it will have to put up with a lot (and many readers actively avoid).
I’m not interested in stopping you making climate change an election issue (FFS I’ve been pointing out the implications of that since the early 80’s). I just don’t want you to divert posts from what their author intended them to talk about. That means you can really only make them the focus of your comments when they are in OpenMike or posts that are clearly related to climate change. Putting a climate change comment in the middle of post about leadership changes in the Labour party doesn’t fit regardless how much you want to protest.
And if you wanted to look at extinction events (the earth sciences comes to the fore again) then climate change of the type that we are going to go through isn’t it. That will merely cause a dieback in some shape, manner or form and possibly cause humans to lose their current civilisation. But there simply aren’t enough sources of fossil carbon to cause an major extinction of either humans or most species. If you want to have a look at mass extinctions, then I suggest you look at the big ones. Try the start of the Cambrain, the big one in the Devonian, the Permian/Triassic boundary… Actually just look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event especially the marine extinctions (land diebacks are so common as to be kind of commonplace)
When you do so, just consider that these only really look at the last billion years. The three and half billion before that really went to town on the biosphere wiping operations. The impacts that killed Earth one and formed the moon probably killed the bulk of living things inside the crust (still the largest biomass today). They are the later refugees from the terror of an oxygen atmosphere…
Of course those are just the minor events compared to the possible ones. Nearby supernovas, stray strings left over from the big bang, slow moving black holes, nasty galactic sized quasars, ….. Don’t read too much science fiction.
At least we can probably do something with self-generated climate change..
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Has Winston Peters got a ferries deal for you! (Buyer caution advised.) Unfortunately, the vision that Peters has been busily peddling for the past 24 hours – of several shipyards bidding down the price of us getting smaller, narrower, rail-enabled ferries – looks more like a science fiction fantasy. One ...
Completed reads for March: The Heart of the Antarctic [1907-1909], by Ernest Shackleton South [1914-1917], by Ernest Shackleton Aurora Australis (collection), edited by Ernest Shackleton The Book of Urizen (poem), by William Blake The Book of Ahania (poem), by William Blake The Book of Los (poem), by William Blake ...
First - A ReminderBenjamin Doyle Doesn’t Deserve ThisI’ve been following posts regarding Green MP Benjamin Doyle over the last few days, but didn’t want to amplify the abject nonsense.This morning, Winston Peters, New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister, answered the alt-right’s prayers - guaranteeing amplification of the topic, by going on ...
US President Donald Trump has shown a callous disregard for the checks and balances that have long protected American democracy. As the self-described ‘king’ makes a momentous power grab, much of the world watches anxiously, ...
They can be the very same words. And yet their meaning can vary very much.You can say I'll kill him about your colleague who accidentally deleted your presentation the day before a big meeting.You can say I'll kill him to — or, for that matter, about — Tony Soprano.They’re the ...
Back in 2020, the then-Labour government signed contracted for the construction and purchase of two new rail-enabled Cook Strait ferries, to be operational from 2026. But when National took power in 2023, they cancelled them in a desperate effort to make the books look good for a year. And now ...
The fragmentation of cyber regulation in the Indo-Pacific is not just inconvenient; it is a strategic vulnerability. In recent years, governments across the Indo-Pacific, including Australia, have moved to reform their regulatory frameworks for cyber ...
Welcome to the March 2025 Economic Bulletin. The feature article examines what public private partnerships (PPPs) are. PPPs have been a hot topic recently, with the coalition government signalling it wants to use them to deliver infrastructure. However, experience with PPPs, both here and overseas, indicates we should be wary. ...
Willis announces more plans of plans for supermarketsYesterday’s much touted supermarket competition announcement by Nicola Willis amounted to her telling us she was issuing a 6 week RFI1 that will solicit advice from supermarket players.In short, it was an announcement of a plan - but better than her Kiwirail Interislander ...
This was the post I was planning to write this morning to mark Orr’s final day. That said, if the underlying events – deliberate attempts to mislead Parliament – were Orr’s doing, the post is more about the apparent uselessness of Parliament (specifically the Finance and Expenditure Committee) in holding ...
Taiwanese chipmaking giant TSMC’s plan to build a plant in the United States looks like a move made at the behest of local officials to solidify US support for Taiwan. However, it may eventually lessen ...
This is a Guest Post by Transport Planner Bevan Woodward from the charitable trust Movement, which has lodged an application for a judicial review of the Governments Setting of Speed Limits Rule 2024 Auckland is at grave risk of having its safer speed limits on approx. 1,500 local streets ...
We're just talkin' 'bout the futureForget about the pastIt'll always be with usIt's never gonna die, never gonna dieSongwriters: Brian Johnson / Angus Young / Malcolm YoungMorena, all you lovely people, it’s good to be back, and I have news from the heartland. Now brace yourself for this: depending on ...
Today is the last day in office for the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Adrian Orr. Of course, he hasn’t been in the office since 5 March when, on the eve of his major international conference, his resignation was announced and he stormed off with no (effective) notice and no ...
Treasury and Cabinet have finally agreed to a Crown guarantee for a non-Government lending agency for Community Housing Providers (CHPs), which could unlock billions worth of loans and investments by pension funds and banks to build thousands of more affordable social homes. Photo: Lynn GrievesonMōrena. Long stories shortest:Chris Bishop ...
Australia has plenty of room to spend more on defence. History shows that 2.9 percent of GDP is no great burden in ordinary times, so pushing spending to 3.0 percent in dangerous times is very ...
In short this morning in our political economy:Winston Peters will announce later today whether two new ferries are rail ‘compatible’, requiring time-consuming container shuffling, or the more efficient and expensive rail ‘enabled,’ where wagons can roll straight on and off.Nicola Willisthreatened yesterday to break up the supermarket duopoly with ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 23, 2025 thru Sat, March 29, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. The formatting is a ...
For prospective writers out there, Inspired Quill, the publisher of my novel(s) is putting together a short story anthology (pieces up to 10,000 words). The open submission window is 29th March to 29th April. https://www.inspired-quill.com/anthology-submissions/ The theme?This anthology will bring together diverse voices exploring themes of hope, resistance, and human ...
Prime minister Kevin Rudd released the 2009 defence white paper in May of that year. It is today remembered mostly for what it said about the strategic implications of China’s rise; its plan to double ...
In short this morning in our political economy:Voters want the Government to retain the living wage for cleaners, a poll shows.The Government’s move to provide a Crown guarantee to banks and the private sector for social housing is described a watershed moment and welcomed by Community Housing Providers.Nicola Willis is ...
The recent attacks in the Congo by Rwandan backed militias has led to worldwide condemnation of the Rwandan regime of Paul Kagame. Following up on the recent Fabian Zoom with Mikela Wrong and Maria Amoudian, Dr Rudaswinga will give a complete picture of Kagame’s regime and discuss the potential ...
New Zealand’s economic development has always been a partnership between the public and private sectors.Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) have become fashionable again, partly because of the government’s ambitions to accelerate infrastructural development. There is, of course, an ideological element too, while some of the opposition to them is also ideological.PPPs come in ...
How Australia funds development and defence was front of mind before Tuesday’s federal budget. US President Donald Trump’s demands for a dramatic lift in allied military spending and brutal cuts to US foreign assistance meant ...
Questions 1. Where and what is this protest?a. Hamilton, angry crowd yelling What kind of food do you call this Seymour?b.Dunedin, angry crowd yelling Still waiting, Simeon, still waitingc. Wellington, angry crowd yelling You’re trashing everything you idiotsd. Istanbul, angry crowd yelling Give us our democracy back, give it ...
Two blueprints that could redefine the Northern Territory’s economic future were launched last week. The first was a government-led economic strategy and the other an industry-driven economic roadmap. Both highlight that supporting the Northern Territory ...
Abortion care at Whakatāne Hospital has been quietly shelved, with patients told they will likely have to travel more than an hour to Tauranga to get the treatment they need. ...
Thousands of New Zealanders’ submissions are missing from the official parliamentary record because the National-dominated Justice Select Committee has rushed work on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...
Today’s announcement of 10 percent tariffs for New Zealand goods entering the United States is disappointing for exporters and consumers alike, with the long-lasting impact on prices and inflation still unknown. ...
The National Government’s choices have contributed to a slow-down in the building sector, as thousands of people have lost their jobs in construction. ...
Willie Apiata’s decision to hand over his Victoria Cross to the Minister for Veterans is a powerful and selfless act, made on behalf of all those who have served our country. ...
The Privileges Committee has denied fundamental rights to Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Rawiri Waititi and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, breaching their own standing orders, breaching principles of natural justice, and highlighting systemic prejudice and discrimination within our parliamentary processes. The three MPs were summoned to the privileges committee following their performance of a haka ...
April 1 used to be a day when workers could count on a pay rise with stronger support for those doing it tough, but that’s not the case under this Government. ...
Winston Peters is shopping for smaller ferries after Nicola Willis torpedoed the original deal, which would have delivered new rail enabled ferries next year. ...
The Government should work with other countries to press the Myanmar military regime to stop its bombing campaign especially while the country recovers from the devastating earthquake. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to scrap proposed changes to Early Childhood Care, after attending a petition calling for the Government to ‘Put tamariki at the heart of decisions about ECE’. ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill today that will remove the power of MPs conscience votes and ensure mandatory national referendums are held before any conscience issues are passed into law. “We are giving democracy and power back to the people”, says New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters. ...
Welcome to members of the diplomatic corp, fellow members of parliament, the fourth estate, foreign affairs experts, trade tragics, ladies and gentlemen. ...
In recent weeks, disturbing instances of state-sanctioned violence against Māori have shed light on the systemic racism permeating our institutions. An 11-year-old autistic Māori child was forcibly medicated at the Henry Bennett Centre, a 15-year-old had his jaw broken by police in Napier, kaumātua Dean Wickliffe went on a hunger ...
Confidence in the job market has continued to drop to its lowest level in five years as more New Zealanders feel uncertain about finding work, keeping their jobs, and getting decent pay, according to the latest Westpac-McDermott Miller Employment Confidence Index. ...
The Greens are calling on the Government to follow through on their vague promises of environmental protection in their Resource Management Act (RMA) reform. ...
“Make New Zealand First Again” Ladies and gentlemen, First of all, thank you for being here today. We know your lives are busy and you are working harder and longer than you ever have, and there are many calls on your time, so thank you for the chance to speak ...
Hundreds more Palestinians have died in recent days as Israel’s assault on Gaza continues and humanitarian aid, including food and medicine, is blocked. ...
National is looking to cut hundreds of jobs at New Zealand’s Defence Force, while at the same time it talks up plans to increase focus and spending in Defence. ...
It’s been revealed that the Government is secretly trying to bring back a ‘one-size fits all’ standardised test – a decision that has shocked school principals. ...
The Green Party is calling for the compassionate release of Dean Wickliffe, a 77-year-old kaumātua on hunger strike at the Spring Hill Corrections Facility, after visiting him at the prison. ...
The Green Party is calling on Government MPs to support Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence and illegal actions in Palestine, following another day of appalling violence against civilians in Gaza. ...
The Green Party stands in support of volunteer firefighters petitioning the Government to step up and change legislation to provide volunteers the same ACC coverage and benefits as their paid counterparts. ...
At 2.30am local time, Israel launched a treacherous attack on Gaza killing more than 300 defenceless civilians while they slept. Many of them were children. This followed a more than 2 week-long blockade by Israel on the entry of all goods and aid into Gaza. Israel deliberately targeted densely populated ...
Living Strong, Aging Well There is much discussion around the health of our older New Zealanders and how we can age well. In reality, the delivery of health services accounts for only a relatively small percentage of health outcomes as we age. Significantly, dry warm housing, nutrition, exercise, social connection, ...
Shane Jones’ display on Q&A showed how out of touch he and this Government are with our communities and how in sync they are with companies with little concern for people and planet. ...
The Government’s new planning legislation to replace the Resource Management Act will make it easier to get things done while protecting the environment, say Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop and Under-Secretary Simon Court. “The RMA is broken and everyone knows it. It makes it too hard to build ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay has today launched a public consultation on New Zealand and India’s negotiations of a formal comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. “Negotiations are getting underway, and the Public’s views will better inform us in the early parts of this important negotiation,” Mr McClay says. We are ...
More than 900 thousand superannuitants and almost five thousand veterans are among the New Zealanders set to receive a significant financial boost from next week, an uplift Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says will help support them through cost-of-living challenges. “I am pleased to confirm that from 1 ...
Progressing a holistic strategy to unlock the potential of New Zealand’s geothermal resources, possibly in applications beyond energy generation, is at the centre of discussions with mana whenua at a hui in Rotorua today, Resources and Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is in the early stages ...
New annual data has exposed the staggering cost of delays previously hidden in the building consent system, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I directed Building Consent Authorities to begin providing quarterly data last year to improve transparency, following repeated complaints from tradespeople waiting far longer than the statutory ...
Increases in water charges for Auckland consumers this year will be halved under the Watercare Charter which has now been passed into law, Local Government Minister Simon Watts and Auckland Minister Simeon Brown say. The charter is part of the financial arrangement for Watercare developed last year by Auckland Council ...
There is wide public support for the Government’s work to strengthen New Zealand’s biosecurity protections, says Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard. “The Ministry for Primary Industries recently completed public consultation on proposed amendments to the Biosecurity Act and the submissions show that people understand the importance of having a strong biosecurity ...
A new independent review function will enable individuals and organisations to seek an expert independent review of specified civil aviation regulatory decisions made by, or on behalf of, the Director of Civil Aviation, Acting Transport Minister James Meager has announced today. “Today we are making it easier and more affordable ...
The Government will invest in an enhanced overnight urgent care service for the Napier community as part of our focus on ensuring access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown has today confirmed. “I am delighted that a solution has been found to ensure Napier residents will continue to ...
Health Minister Simeon Brown and Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey attended a sod turning today to officially mark the start of construction on a new mental health facility at Hillmorton Campus. “This represents a significant step in modernising mental health services in Canterbury,” Mr Brown says. “Improving health infrastructure is ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has welcomed confirmation the economy has turned the corner. Stats NZ reported today that gross domestic product grew 0.7 per cent in the three months to December following falls in the June and September quarters. “We know many families and businesses are still suffering the after-effects ...
The sealing of a 12-kilometre stretch of State Highway 43 (SH43) through the Tangarakau Gorge – one of the last remaining sections of unsealed state highway in the country – has been completed this week as part of a wider programme of work aimed at improving the safety and resilience ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters says relations between New Zealand and the United States are on a strong footing, as he concludes a week-long visit to New York and Washington DC today. “We came to the United States to ask the new Administration what it wants from ...
Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee has welcomed changes to international anti-money laundering standards which closely align with the Government’s reforms. “The Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) last month adopted revised standards for tackling money laundering and the financing of terrorism to allow for simplified regulatory measures for businesses, organisations and sectors ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour says he welcomes Medsafe’s decision to approve an electronic controlled drug register for use in New Zealand pharmacies, allowing pharmacies to replace their physical paper-based register. “The register, developed by Kiwi brand Toniq Limited, is the first of its kind to be approved in New ...
The Coalition Government’s drive for regional economic growth through the $1.2 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund is on track with more than $550 million in funding so far committed to key infrastructure projects, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. “To date, the Regional Infrastructure Fund (RIF) has received more than 250 ...
[Comments following the bilateral meeting with United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio; United States State Department, Washington D.C.] * We’re very pleased with our meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio this afternoon. * We came here to listen to the new Administration and to be clear about what ...
The intersection of State Highway 2 (SH2) and Wainui Road in the Eastern Bay of Plenty will be made safer and more efficient for vehicles and freight with the construction of a new and long-awaited roundabout, says Transport Minister Chris Bishop. “The current intersection of SH2 and Wainui Road is ...
The Ocean Race will return to the City of Sails in 2027 following the Government’s decision to invest up to $4 million from the Major Events Fund into the international event, Auckland Minister Simeon Brown says. “New Zealand is a proud sailing nation, and Auckland is well-known internationally as the ...
Improving access to mental health and addiction support took a significant step forward today with Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey announcing that the University of Canterbury have been the first to be selected to develop the Government’s new associate psychologist training programme. “I am thrilled that the University of Canterbury ...
Health Minister Simeon Brown has today officially opened the new East Building expansion at Manukau Health Park. “This is a significant milestone and the first stage of the Grow Manukau programme, which will double the footprint of the Manukau Health Park to around 30,000m2 once complete,” Mr Brown says. “Home ...
The Government will boost anti-crime measures across central Auckland with $1.3 million of funding as a result of the Proceeds of Crime Fund, Auckland Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee say. “In recent years there has been increased antisocial and criminal behaviour in our CBD. The Government ...
The Government is moving to strengthen rules for feeding food waste to pigs to protect New Zealand from exotic animal diseases like foot and mouth disease (FMD), says Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard. ‘Feeding untreated meat waste, often known as "swill", to pigs could introduce serious animal diseases like FMD and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held productive talks in New Delhi today. Fresh off announcing that New Zealand and India would commence negotiations towards a Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, the two Prime Ministers released a joint statement detailing plans for further cooperation between the two countries across ...
Agriculture and Trade Minister Todd McClay signed a new Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) today during the Prime Minister’s Indian Trade Mission, reinforcing New Zealand’s commitment to enhancing collaboration with India in the forestry sector. “Our relationship with India is a key priority for New Zealand, and this agreement reflects our ...
Agriculture and Trade Minister Todd McClay signed a new Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) today during the Prime Minister’s Indian Trade Mission, reinforcing New Zealand’s commitment to enhancing collaboration with India in the horticulture sector. “Our relationship with India is a key priority for New Zealand, and this agreement reflects our ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of two new Family Court Judges. The new Judges will take up their roles in April and May and fill Family Court vacancies at the Auckland and Manukau courts. Annette Gray Ms Gray completed her law degree at Victoria University before joining Phillips ...
Health Minister Simeon Brown has today officially opened Wellington Regional Hospital’s first High Dependency Unit (HDU). “This unit will boost critical care services in the lower North Island, providing extra capacity and relieving pressure on the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and emergency department. “Wellington Regional Hospital has previously relied ...
Namaskar, Sat Sri Akal, kia ora and good afternoon everyone. What an honour it is to stand on this stage - to inaugurate this august Dialogue - with none other than the Honourable Narendra Modi. My good friend, thank you for so generously welcoming me to India and for our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie Brodie, Research Scientist in Marine Ecology, CSIRO jittawit21, Shutterstock Picture this: you’re lounging on a beautiful beach, soaking up the sun and listening to the soothing sound of the waves. You run your hands through the warm sand, only to ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist Although New Zealand and Australia seem to have escaped the worst of Donald Trump’s latest tariffs, some Pacific Islands stand to be hit hard — including a few that aren’t even “countries”. The US will impose a base tariff of 10 percent on all ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton both agree Australia should react to US President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff regime by continuing to seek a special deal. They just disagree about which of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Orlando, Researcher, Digital Literacy and Digital Wellbeing, Western Sydney University UK Prime Minster Keir Starmer met with Adolescence writer Jack Thorne to discuss adolescent safety at Downing Street on Monday. Jack Taylor/ GettyImages Netflix’s Adolescence has ignited global debate. ...
By Anneke Smith,RNZ News political reporter A stoush between the Chief Human Rights Commissioner and a Jewish community leader has flared up following a showdown at Parliament. Appearing before a parliamentary select committee today, Dr Stephen Rainbow was asked about his recent apology for incorrect comments he made about ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rakesh Gupta, Associate Professor of Accounting & Finance, Charles Darwin University US President Donald Trump’s new trade war will not only send shockwaves through the global economy – it also upsets efforts to tackle the urgent issue of climate change. Trump has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Toohey, Professor of Law, UNSW Sydney It had the hallmarks of a reality TV cliffhanger. Until recently, many people had never even heard of tariffs. Now, there’s been rolling live international coverage of so-called “Liberation Day”, as US President Donald Trump ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Fuller, Clinical Trials Director, Department of Endocrinology, RPA Hospital, University of Sydney mavo/Shutterstock In the ever-changing wellness industry, one diet obsession has captured and held TikTok’s attention: protein. Whether it’s sharing snaps of protein-packed meals or giving tutorials to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sebastian Maslow, Associate Professor, International Relations, University of Tokyo Two months into US President Donald Trump’s second term, the liberal international order is on life support. Alliances and multilateral institutions are now seen by the United States as burdens. Europe and ...
Starving public services of resources, gutting the workforce and then proposing private market solutions has been a key strategy of this government, says Vanessa Cole, spokesperson for Public Housing Futures. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hayley Geyle, Ecologist, Charles Darwin University Sarah Maclagan/Author provided The greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) is one of Australia’s most iconic yet at-risk animals — and the last surviving bilby species. Once found across 70% of Australia, its range has contracted by ...
The government’s own Regulatory Impact Statement acknowledges that organic producers will bear the financial burden of adapting to the risks posed by GMO expansion. ...
The committee has "rammed it through with outrageous haste", with a report now expected tomorrow, but excluding thousands of submissions, Duncan Webb says. ...
The US president’s sweeping programme of global tariffs will hit every country abroad, including New Zealand, and dramatically raise prices at home. This is an excerpt from The World Bulletin, our weekly global current affairs newsletter exclusively for Spinoff Members. Sign up here.In a dramatic, flag-draped address from the White ...
Alex Casey talks to Bariz Shah and Saba Afrasyabi, the couple who launched a project to change 51 lives in honour of those lost in the Christchurch mosque attacks. When Bariz Shah and Saba Afrasyabi walked into Naeem’s house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, they knew immediately that he needed their help. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Deane, Professor of Trade Law, Taxation and Climate Change, Queensland University of Technology US President Donald Trump has imposed a range of tariffs on all products entering the US market, with Australian exports set to face a 10% tariff, effective April ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra US President Donald Trump singled out Australia’s beef trade for special mention in his announcement that the United States would impose a 10% global tariff as well as “reciprocal tariffs” on many countries. In ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hayley Geyle, Ecologist, Charles Darwin University Sarah Maclagan/Author provided The greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) is one of Australia’s most iconic yet at-risk animals — and the last surviving bilby species. Once found across 70% of Australia, its range has contracted by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra US President Donald Trump singled out Australia’s beef trade for special mention in his announcement that the United States would impose a 10% global tariff as well as “reciprocal tariffs” on many countries. In ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Shutterstock Recent media coverage in the Nine newspapers highlights a surge in non-medical ultrasound providers offering “reassurance ultrasounds” to expectant parents. The service has resulted in serious harms, such as misdiagnosed ectopic pregnancies and ...
The three MPs whose rule-breaking haka caught the world’s attention didn’t attend their scheduled hearing yesterday. Constitutional law expert Andrew Geddis has the rundown of what happened, why, and what’s likely to come next. I see Te Pāti Māori and the privileges committee are in some sort of stand-off – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Turner, Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University The Eurasian and North American tectonic plates in Thingvellir National Park, Iceland.Nido Huebl/Shutterstock Earth is the only known planet which has plate tectonics today. The constant movement of these giant slabs of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra US President Donald Trump singled out Australia’s beef trade for special mention in his announcement that the United States would impose a 10% global tariff as well as “reciprocal tariffs” on many countries. In ...
Meta has stolen millions of books to train its AI, including books by kaituhi Māori. What does that mean for mātauranga and its status as taonga? New Zealand authors are among the millions whose books have been pirated and scraped by Meta to train its AI. The New Zealand Society of ...
Some hoped the open of the New Zealand markets would open with a bounce as certain tariffs fell short of the worst-case scenario, but investors were met with a deflated thud.The New Zealand market fell immediately as stock market darling Fisher & Paykel Healthcare’s shares were punished, with no update ...
Healthcare dominated the debate in an unusually sober and serious question time. “Hey David!” a group of high school students in the public gallery called out as Act leader David Seymour entered the debating chamber. Standing in the middle of the floor, before any other MPs had arrived, he happily ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Heaslip, Senior Lecturer in Naval History, University of Portsmouth How the Shuqiao barges may be used to ferry troops ashore. X (formerly Twitter) China’s intentions when it comes to Taiwan have been at the centre of intense discussion for years. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kiera Vaclavik, Professor of Children’s Literature & Childhood Culture, Queen Mary University of London This spring, Babe is returning to cinemas to mark the 30th anniversary of its release in 1995. The much-loved family film tells the deceptively simple but emotionally powerful ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sophie King-Hill, Associate Professor at the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham Netflix television series Adolescence follows a 13-year-old boy accused of the murder of his female classmate. It touches upon incel online hate groups, toxic influencers and the misogynistic online ...
Morgan Poll New Zealand Update
Labour/ Greens 48% (up 9%) surge ahead of National Party 44% (down 7%)
Economic Issues are still easily the most important problems facing New Zealand (51%)
Labour/ Greens 48% (up 9%) surge ahead of National Party 44% (down 7%) [http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/5113-new-zealand-voting-intention-august-2013-201308200137]
Labour/ Greens 48% (up 9%) surge ahead of National Party 44% (down 7%) as Parliament debates contentious GCSB ‘Spying’ Bill [http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/5113-new-zealand-voting-intention-august-2013-201308200137]
Today’s New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows a plunge in support for Prime Minister John Key’s National Party to 44% (down 7% since July 15-28, 2013). Support for Key’s Coalition partners has changed little with the Maori Party 2% (up 0.5%), ACT NZ 0.5% (down 0.5%) and United Future 0% (unchanged).
Support for Labour has increased to 34% (up 5%); Greens are 14% (up 4%) – their highest level of support since August 2012, New Zealand First 3% (down 1%), Mana Party 0.5% (down 0.5%), Conservative Party of NZ 1% (down 0.5%) and Others 1% (unchanged).
If a National Election were held now the latest NZ Roy Morgan Poll shows that a Labour/ Greens alliance would win.
The latest NZ Roy Morgan Government Confidence Rating is virtually unchanged at 128 (down 0.5%) with 58% (down 0.5%) of New Zealanders saying New Zealand is ‘heading in the right direction’ compared to 30% (unchanged) that say New Zealand is ‘heading in the wrong direction’.
Gary Morgan says:
“Today’s New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll contains good news for the Opposition Labour (34%, up 5%) and Greens (14%, up 4%) – now at their highest level of combined support in four months since early April 2013 [http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/national-party-down-labour-gains-201305290207]. The Greens have jumped to their highest level of support in a year since August 2012 [http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/finding-4810-201302130413].
“The huge swings in support come as the contentious GCSB (Government Communications Security Bureau) ‘Spying’ Bill is heavily debated in Parliament. The Bill, which will increase the Government’s powers of surveillance over all New Zealand citizens, has faced strong opposition in Parliament. Prime Minister John Key has insisted on the importance of passage of the bill in the fight against terrorism claiming there are people living in New Zealand who had been trained by Al-Qaeda.
“Opposition to the bill is not just inside Parliament, with the Law Society saying there are ‘fundamental flaws in the GCSB Bill’ that minor adjustments insisted on by Independent MP Peter Dunne for his support do not alter.”
View New Zealand Political Reports [http://www.roymorganonlinestore.com/Browse/New-Zealand/Economic,-Political-and-Social.aspx]
Economic Issues are still easily the most important problems facing New Zealand (51%) [http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/5111-new-zealand-issues-august-2013-201308200005]
Economic Issues are still easily the most important problems facing New Zealand (51%) and facing the World (45%) according to New Zealanders [http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/5111-new-zealand-issues-august-2013-201308200005]
Economic issues are clearly the most important issue facing New Zealand and the World today and since surveying began in November 2010 according to the latest Roy Morgan Research conducted in July 2013.
New Zealand views on Problems facing New Zealand
When asked about the most important problem facing New Zealand, Economic issues are mentioned by 51% (up 5% since May 2013) well ahead of Social issues (18%, unchanged), Government and Public Policy Issues (14%, down 2%) and Environmental issues (7%, up 1%).
The most important Economic issues facing New Zealand include Poverty /Gap between the Rich and the Poor (15%, up 6%), the Economy/ Financial crisis/ Recession/ Inflation/ Exchange rate/ High dollar (13%, unchanged), Unemployment/ Job security (13%, down 2%) and the Cost of living/ Increasing prices/ Financial hardship/ Household debt (7%, up 3%).
Another important issue mentioned by New Zealanders is the Government/ Politicians/ Leadership/ Government Spending (7%, down 2%). Important Social Issues according to New Zealanders are Social Apathy/ Lack of values/ Lack of empathy towards others/ Intolerance (4%, up 1%) and Racism/ Racial tension (3%, up 1%).
Michele Levine says, CEO Roy Morgan says:
“This latest NZ Roy Morgan Issues Research shows that Economic issues dominate concerns facing both New Zealand (51%, up 5%) and the World (45%, up 10%).
“The dominant Economic issues facing New Zealand are Poverty/ Gap between the Rich and Poor (15%, up 6%), Unemployment/ Job Security (13%, down 2%), the Economy/ Financial crisis/ Recession/ Inflation/ Exchange rate/ High dollar (13%, unchanged) and Cost of Living/ Increasing Prices/ Financial Hardship/ Household Debt (7%, up 3%).
“Other important issues facing New Zealand include Government/ Politicians/ Leadership/ Government Spending (7%, down 2%), Social Apathy/ Lack of Values/ Lack of empathy toward others/ Intolerance (4%, up 1%), Racism/ Racial tension (3%, up 1%), Housing shortages/ Housing affordability (3%, up 1%) and Natural Disasters/ Earthquakes/ Tsunamis/ Floods/ Volcanic eruptions (3%, up 2%).
“When asked about World issues, the most important Economic issues are Poverty/ The gap between the Rich and the Poor/ Imbalance of wealth (17%, up 7%) Economy/ Financial crisis/ Recession (15%, up 4%), Over-population (4%, unchanged) and Unemployment/ Job Security (4%, unchanged).
“The next most important issues facing the World are Social apathy/ Lack of values/ Lack of empathy toward others/ Intolerance (7%, up 1%), Wars & Conflicts/ Unrest (7%, down 3%), Climate Change/ Global Warming/ Ozone Layer/ Greenhouse Effect (6%, unchanged), Religion/ Religious Conflict (4%, unchanged) and Government/ Politicians/ Political unrest/ Instability/ Greedy and Corrupt Governments (4%, down 1%).”
View New Zealand Economic & Social Reports [http://www.roymorganonlinestore.com/Browse/New-Zealand/Economic,-Political-and-Social.aspx]
View all latest findings [http://www.roymorgan.com/]
As this seems to be a preoccupation of this government
What percentage of New Zealanders were concerned about terrorism?
The elite always need to scare the wider public about “threats” in order to convince us that we must cede even more power and authority to them. For our own good, you understand.
Um, why the copypasta?
Yeah, and the ugly links.
This is the poll from two days ago, what does it mean ‘update’?
Emmerson this morning.
Cartoon: Back to sleep, NZ
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/news-cartoons/news/article.cfm?c_id=500814&objectid=11112286
Very cynical. And totally on the money.
Emmerson this morning.
Cartoon: Back to sleep, NZ
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/news-cartoons/news/article.cfm?c_id=500814&objectid=11112286
Or will this make NZers come out of their apathy?
The GCSB Bill passed 61-59. Apparently the Maori Party didn’t bother to have sufficient members in the House so they could only cast 2 of their 3 votes against the bill? Sums up their time in office perfectly it seems to me.
They have cast only two votes at each of the readings. No-one seems to have an answer as to why. Inability to be in the precinct three times ? Abstention ? Who knows.
Read my comment at 7.3 of the Shame post.
The most probable reason was the Parliament rules on absence from the Parliament precinct of one or more members of the MP. It happens frequently with the MP that they only cast two not three votes – not just on the GCSB Bill.
Abstentions from voting must be recorded and none were recorded last night in the final vote, or as far as I am aware (having been following this closely) in the votes in the various hearings and votes on parts of the Bill.
I am not a great fan of the MP, but I also don’t like to see anyone slagging of at someone without finding out the facts/probable reasons. Flavell gave a very empassioned speech in the final stages last night against the Bill and why the MP opposed it.
Addendum – and here from the Herald this morning
“In the end the majority was two votes, not the one expected, because the Maori Party which opposed the bill did not have enough MPs in the precinct to cast its three votes and cast two instead.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11112283
(if you were pissed off about the $30 something million in cash handout to rio tinto..and were wondering about the value of that latest ‘secret’ power-subsidy to rio tinto..and exactly how much in total they had managed to screw out of a compliant key/corporate-slave govt…?
..well..wonder no more..figures revealed this morning show the total corporate-handout to rio tinto..was over $500 million..
..ka-ching..!..eh..?..i’ll bet the bubbles flowed at rio tinto hq after that one..eh..?..it’ll be big-bonus time..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2013/ed-ka-ching-the-full-extent-of-the-corporate-handout-from-john-key-to-rio-tinto-one-of-the-richestmost-profitable-earth-wasting-conglomerates-on-the-planet-is-revealed-and-if-you-were-up/
..get angry..get really angry..eh..?
phillip ure..
Paul: Emmerson is probably right – but I did a double take when I saw a strange online news image yesterday. I looked again .. it was Shearer smiling.
Collins is “chilled” at the thought that the Henry commission could have invaded her privacy, or any MP’s for that matter. Yet she is countenancing the government’s recent move to be able to trawl across thousands and thousands of ordinary citizens. Chilling isn’t it? Don’t you love the Holier than Thou.
It’s just her and her peers’ sadistic rubbing it in to the masses who will not be protected from unwarranted snooping.
There’s some Standard tech issues for me this morning. The mainpage looks totally different – mobile view? Open mic give the usual webpage view.
I log in, and get the dashboard with author access. But when I click back to “visit site”, I am no longer logged in.
PS: No wait. I am logged in as with this comment.
Drat. Testing a page cache. It isn’t distinguishing the mobile and logged in states.
Is there a way to reply to messages on the mobile version? I’m assuming there is and I’m just missing something really obvious because I can’t figure it out.
Apparently there’s not.
On my list of things to finish. It wasn’t supported in the most useful theme of latest version of the mobile code.
It is getting pretty high on my list of things to do because it affects the flow of comments.
For anyone interested, the technical problem is that there is only one comment edit form on the screen. The reply link just moves it to div that the comment you are replying to and changes a few parameters in the form. However it is quite specific to the layout of the HTML ids. So I have to set up a development environment at home to do all of this on chrome on my desktop. When I think I have it correct, I have to test on my two android devices, and then plead the use from Lyn of her two iOS devices to test on those.
I figure I will get it done on the weekend. Then ship the fix back to BraveNewCode
I was getting it yesterday and I don’t login. I’ve had to re-enter my name and email a few times in order to post.
did i just get a glimpse of a new standard format/layout..?
..if so..(blush..!)..i see you are using the same single-column-scrolling format that i have clung to for so long..(battling the vicissitudes of fashion),,
..as this is a format that was first used..then abandoned..and then returned to.. by the likes of salon/slate..
..they returned..and i have stayed..because of the simplicity of use for the user..
(for want of a better name..i call it scroll ‘n click’..and of course the proliferation of hand-held devices makes this format all the more appealing..)
.if that is your new format-call..congratulations..the simplicity and ease of use will be appreciated by yr readers..i reckon..
..phillip ure
Sounds like the mobile version for phones and tablets. There is a new page caching system in place. Drat- looks like it served up the wrong page. Time to shift the mobile theme to m.thestandard.org.nz
From the Financial Times:
US military tested using Twitter to profile civilians in anti-terror scheme
—
By Carola Hoyos in London and April Dembosky in San Francisco
—
The US military was able to create detailed dossiers on people through Twitter in eight-day experiment called Quantum Leap
Read the full article at: http://on.ft.com/19xoMvF
Dear Standardistas, this is DAMNED important, similarly to the GCSB saga, this is stuff that ALL beneficiaries should know, and those that care for them definitely should bother to read and study, and SHARE, this is NOT a joke:
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15188-medical-and-work-capability-assessments-based-on-the-bps-model-aimed-at-disentiteling-affected-from-welfare-benefits-and-acc-compo/
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15264-welfare-reform-the-health-and-disability-panel-msd-the-truth-behind-the-agenda/
The assault or attack on beneficiaries was declared by Paula Bennett as early as 2009 , certainly by 2010, and her government has us all, and I am one of you, black, brown, yellow or whatever fucking ethnicity, or cultural backgroud, targeted, to CULL us off the benefits. I appeal to you guys and girls, get a wake up call, read up, study what someone has spent months working on, for your damned sake, to support and assist you guys, to protect and warn you, as it will be a dangerous war path in future, to even dare walking into the doors of WINZ, thank you. Stand strong, tall and take em on, and join together to defend your rights, they are taking them off you bit by bit, day and night.
Salute, all the best, the fight has just started Viva – Xtasy
Yes. The fight for social security and against the war on the poor and wealth/income gap still goes on.
Thanks for the info, xtasy.
Yes. Its horrible, scarey stuff Xtasy and Karol. Sue Bradford also has an article about it on The Daily Blog. Oh ….. we’re becoming an awful mean nation … and its so unnecessary. If Govt/NZ
official thinking was turned around and people HELPED rather than be penalised more, then we WOULD have a well-educated people working together and making this country much more productive than it is now.
As someone reasonably well informed about the issues, I find that information on the accforum hard to follow. The author has acknowledged the problems with formatting, but I think there are issues with information overload, and how the information is being presented. Many people on medical benefits would find it hard to read through that and get what they need from it. It might be better presented on a wordpress blog format, with articles separated out and searchable, and with clear titles etc.
For instance, this title
‘The Health and Disability Panel’ and its hand-picked Members, who advised the M.S.D. and Paula Bennett on welfare reforms, and thus the ‘Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Act’:
Could instead be
The Health and Disability Panel
or
The Role of the Health and Disability Panel
weka you have a point, I think, but these are really complex matters, so it is not headline stuff, and that is of course what the media love. How are you going to explain the communist revolution and take-over in China for instance, to lay persons? Is it going to be the reds hiding in the caves, then coming out and taking over? It is absurd. The problem is, most NZers are “lazy” and do not bother to read or study anything, and I had students like that staying with me!
So to learn and understand, I am afraid, some effort needs to be made. Sadly most want a quick fix!
I suppose it depends on who those articles are aimed at. I think it’s very important that beneficiaries can access this information, so would prefer to see it presented in a more easily read way.
Weka – while you may have a point with your well meant criticism, the writer clearly did not just want to take a kind of advocacy position expressing support for the cause of helping beneficiaries, there is more that needs to be considered.
The ones like UK professor Mansel Aylward, like Gordon Waddell, Kim Burton and others, also including local Dr David Bratt (WINZ Principal Health Advisor), the New Zealand follower of these ill proved ideas and policies based on the somewhat perverted form of the “bio psycho-social model”, are sadly not “light-weights”. Also are the politicians in the government, who have taken up these approaches and brought in these hideous “reforms” sadly not “light weights”.
Clearly the writer, being aware of this, and knowing that arguments based on supposed “scientific” and “medical research” are being used, has seen the need to present counter evidence, alternative reports and the likes, same as many links to such scientific reports, media reports and more.
If the intention would have been to simply write up something for the affected beneficiaries, it could have been done with a more condensed, shorter presentation. But that would allow anyone to too easily criticise it as mere opinion or whatever.
The exposure of flaws and untruths and half-truths must be done with presenting sufficient, clear evidence, and sadly that is complex and requires some analysis and study.
So of course, it cannot just be directed at the sick and disabled on benefits, it goes further and deeper than that!
weka – nobody stops you from going over it and present a simpler, better targeted and easier to read summary. I invite you to do it!
My disability prevents me xtasy. QED.
(would otherwise be quite interested in what you suggest).
Weka – fair enough, you are at least informed, alert and contribute by commenting on these issues here and on probably a few other forums. Thanks for that – always!
I just watched this program on the “reforms” in the UK, which gives an interesting perspective.
Both Helen Kelly and Hone Harawira in their speeches to the Auckland Town hall meeting informed us that the surveillance and spying on the working poor and beneficiaries is more oppressive than most of us in better circumstances have experienced. And has been going on for a long time.
One example, (that both forgot to mention). Is the campaign by the government to privatise the state rental stock. Government surveillance and threats are being used to evict state tenants in the Glen Innes and Pamure area so that their houses can be demolished and removed and the land sold to private developers.
How it works is this: Housing New Zealand spies, determine which state tenants in the targeted area for demolition and sell off, have more than the registered number of tenants staying in their home. The registered tenant is then sent warnings that they will be charged with fraud unless they get out. If they refuse to leave, police are sent around to evict them on grounds of criminal fraud for having people not deemed eligible for state housing living there..
So why are people illegally doubling up in state rentals?
Because there are not enough affordable rentals. The government are making this worse by deliberately shrinking the State Housing rental stock. Which leads to more doubling up, and overcrowding, which leads to more threats, and more evictions, and more demolitions. All the while the private developers who are John Keys mates, are rubbing their hands in delight. State House rents which act as a brake on high private rents are disappearing from the Auckland housing market. The increased demand for private rentals is seeing private rents sky rocket. Property values are set by what sort of rents they can command. So house prices rise to unaffordable levels. In a vicious cycle this results in more people in the rental housing market. And at the bottom homelessness and moving in with your family or relatives who might still be lucky to have a State House, but which then opens them up to charges of fraud which makes them vulnerable to the Housing New Zealand snoops. So how does Housing New Zealand know who should or shouldn’t be in a state house? By matching up metadata. Laws past in recent years has permitted the open sharing of information held by differing branches of government freely to all other branches of government. This could be anything traffic infringement notices ACC payments IRD personal information. Anything with your address on it.
So does all this already existing oppressive surveillance and victimisation of the the less well off, mean we shouldn’t be concerned that this sort of surveillance is now being extended to all New Zealanders despite their income or circumstances? (which is one of the inference’s you could take from Hone Harawira’s speech in particular).
No certainly not.
Orcon founder and millionaire Seeby Woodhouse who also spoke against the bill at the Auckland Town Hall meeting. Talking about countries worse off than us for civil liberties. Woodhouse put it this way: He said that if we go down this path, those in worse circumstances than us will be pushed down even further.
Jenny, while i agree with your prognosis that the current Government is aiding the high cost of housing, particularly in the Auckland market by deliberately removing State Housing from areas so as to allow for private sector interests access to the land you have got some of your comment wrong in Fact,
The State House equation is simple, when there are enough State Houses in an area there are less tenants available to be exploited by Landlords, if Landlords do not have tenants to exploit they will have a lowered interest in purchasing further property’s as rental investments, when demand from would be Landlords is quashed more property will become available for Home Buyers and prices will stabilize,
Obviously at least National have no desire for the above to occur as the higher the prices of houses go the better the figures for ‘Economic Growth’ look on paper, unfortunately i suspect that Labour are also conflicted by this equation which is why their ‘Flagship’ policy mentions not State Housing but instead promises to shoe-horn into home ownership the children of the middle class who have in the past 20 years transferred 100,000 previous ‘homes’ into ‘rental investments’ off of the back of a State Housing shortage in the realm of 30,000+ homes,
The ‘Fact’ which you wrongly posit???, Housing New Zealand does not have the legal power to restrict who besides the tenant lives at the address, what Housing New Zealand require is that they are informed of WHO resides at the address AND the rent for that address will be 25% of HOUSEHOLD income up to an agreed market rent,
So, as that is the conditions of renting a Housing New Zealand property it is then the onus of the Tenant to tell Housing New Zealand that they have ‘others’ residing at the address and the rent for the property will be adjusted to take into account the income of the ‘others’ at the address as well as the tenant…
Mere quibbling.
1/ I have it on good authority that Housing New Zealand do not use this surveillance in areas where they are not trying to evict tennants to redevelop the land.
2/ Many of the registered owners don’t tell Housing New Zealand that they have tenants other than themselves crammed in their home because they know that it will lead to an increase in their rents. The point is that they are crowded together because they can’t afford to pay more.
Many of the working poor have not had decent wage rises that compete with inflation in more than a decade. Those on fixed incomes ie. beneficiaries are just that on fixed incomes.
Many young people in this area and I imagine in other areas find it very difficult to get a benefit at all even if they can find no work. Many of these young people with no income at all are crammed in with friends and relatives.
The fact is just like the GCSB law many of those on low income as well as being marginalised are being criminalised. The government through spying find and exploit this vulnerability to help their developer mates clear state tenants out of their homes.
Jenny mere quibbling about your mere lying it may be but you are in error on FACTS, and erring in such a manner is of no service to Housing NZ tenants,
Your point at (1), you have no evidence that surveillance is being used as a tool to evict tenants of State Houses what-so-ever, the fact is that ALL the tenants recently ‘evicted’ from housing where the land is destined to be passed to the private sector have been offered other HousingNZ tenancies, and while i despise this National Government’s tacticd of destroying parts of the States Housing estate in Auckland simply to keep the prices of housing high while lining the pockets of it’s developer buddies stooping to bullshit to oppose such trickery from this National Government is facile to say the least,
Your point (2), Total bullshit again, i assume you mean ‘registered tenants’, rubbish, if the ‘other’ people the tenant of the property has allowed to stay are on a benefit and also registered as part of the tenancy with HousingNZ, HousingNZ will arrange to deduct rent of 25% of income from ‘the other people’s’ benefits just as they now do for the main tenant of the property, in such a situation the main tanant of the property will pay no more than they currently pay,
The rest of your rant is just that a rant without much fact, you talk of young people without an income, which bit of HousingNZ charging 25% of Household income up to a market rent do you fail to comprehend, if a tenant has a young person with NO income staying with them, HousingNZ has no legal basis to collect rent off of that person, But, the tenant still has a legal requirement to inform HousingNZ that the person is residing permanently at the tenancy,
Your last paragraph is garbled rubbish which tries to connect the GCSB law into the plight of HousingNZ tenants but if there is any tenuous connection it is obliterated by your grubby garbled misuse of the English language…
John Key says – The Law society, Anne Salmond, the Human Rights Commission, the Opposition Parties and all the people who are against the GCSB law don’t understand the law.
There it is people, your PM thinks you’re all stupid and misinformed. Time to give him a kick in the arse, yes?
Yes!
in your dreams maybe
Wow, what a zinger.
whereas his particular expertise is what? Gambling?
and this out of touch .. this morning on radio live ..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9073264/Key-questions-if-GCSB-law-is-controversial
He also thinks we are gutless cowards who if danger threatened, would cry to be protected by overbearing shadowy bullies.
do any of those tory-toads have the slightest qualms/queasiness about their roles in turning nz intoa surveillance-state..?
..d’yareckon..?
..and good on russel norman for vowing that a new govt will overturn this law..
..and didya see mallard claim on that late-nite chat/quizz show backbenchs last night..
..that ‘the standard’ is ‘largely a green party blog’..?
..and that his colleagues told him to stop posting on red alert..?
..but perhaps the shocker from these mp’s..was their answers when asked where they got their news and information from..
..and..brace yrslves..!..’cos for most of them..’stuff’ seems to be about it..
..which does help explain a bit..really..
..phillip ure..
Not the best performance by Mallard on Backbench’s for sure. Although his fellow MPs likely did ask him to stop posting, saying so publicly isn’t a good look.
In my opinion, letting the politicians run amok on the interwebs is the best way to determine which ones have brain cells. There is no buffer of the MSM between them and the public. That’s why I’m somewhat glad National MPs like Simon Bridges are using services like twitter and Facebook more often, because they’re making themselves look like total idiots!
I owe you an apology btw phillip ure. It appears my claim that the Labour leadership issue was dead was entirely wrong, for obvious reasons.
sweet..yr arguments had their logic..
..onward and upward..
phillip ure..
Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years in prison
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/9071956/Manning-sentenced-to-35-years-in-prison
He’ll be out in 10.
Possibly. But only if the US veers away from its current surveillance state path.
He doesn’t deserve to spend a minute in any prison.
In some other countries he wouldn’t be – they have the death penalty for this sort of thing.
True, every day that Manning spends in a jail cell is a day of shame for the Prez Barak Obama, jailing Manning for exposing the murder of innocent Iraqi children by laughing soldiers operating from a helicopter gunship has to be the low point of the Obama Presidency,
Manning’s lawyers today called for the President to pardon Manning and anyone who has the smallest speck of belief in Justice would agree with this call,
US Presidents get to pardon all sorts of people when the term of their Presidency has reached it’s end, Manning should sit atop the current Presidents list of pardons once He is at the point of leaving the White House…
So Barack Obama may due to that deserve the DEATH penalty, will he not? And the same may be dealt out to those that do disregard human rights and whatever. They may sanctimoniously talk about Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran and so forth, but what damned values do the US bloody stand for?
No faith no more is my answer, and I have NO faith in any imperial power, and that definitely includes Mainland China too, to avoid any errors.
This world is a hideous place now, and citizens have to take action in each other’s place, but again, most will be convenient cowards, like most Kiwis are anyway, sadly. I have nothing to lose and am ready to do almost anything, so read this too GCSB, SIS and John Key, yesterday you drew the lines in the sand, and I know where I bloody stand. I am waiting for New Zealanders to take a stand, but expect NADA in that regard, given past experience.
This is, without misunderstanding, and I have worked on this for 3 years, a declaration, that I have nothing to lose, and that is very serious and for real, if anybody dares to understand! My body will be a a “weapon” of “self-defence” for a fight for freedom and democracy, whenever it is necessary!
I am non violent by the way, a bit like Gandhi sort of, I suppose Key and gang understand, but that is the greatest threat they fear, really, CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE!
If you don’t mind me asking, what injury or illness are you suffering from?
My solid condition is “anti fascist and anti conservative alllergy”! One strain is called “BM” by the way!
Tell him nothing xtasy, BM seems to imagine he is a medical doctor, while in fact just an average dirty filthy tory.
48 hours without sleep, in over-drive, overworked, stressed, exhausted, perhaps after weeks my eyes will drop and allow for a bit of sleep.
Thanks all for putting up with me, I need a solid break, work has been done, heaps, those who know me will be informed, I am sinking into the cushions and onto the mattress now, defeat, exhausted, finito, kind of. But strength will be regained and gathered, so tomorrow or in a few days, I may be back.
Never give up, viva, viva, viva, el pueblo unido – jamas cera vencido!
Don’t worry Xstasy, Collins and Tolley and Banks to the rescue… they will wake up this morning and be hounded by the press to explain their horror at the idea their emails could be released and voting against the GCSB. There will be a wholesale release of all their emails because they have nothing to hide and nothing to fear….
Banks and Henare referred to Shearer as “useless”. That’s great coming from them. Really looking forward to seeing Banks successfully convicted under the private prosecution and the inevitable by-election that’ll cause.
Mary – Some must have read the horoscope this morning! Following onto that, the “useless” may also soon be called upon.
No worries about putting up with you, its quite amusing so keep posting
Bravo Xtasy!!
Hands up who would like a business where your profit relative to revenue went like this example…
Revenue $300,000 per annum
Deduct hard costs needed to earn that income of $100,000
Profit equals $200,000
From that profit pay any costs associated with your ownership of that business such as loans etc. No loans, no more costs.
Wouldn’t it be grand? You would think that in a free market world such a business model would lead to countless competitors setting up to take advantage and hence revenue would lower due to competitors offering the same service / product at lower price. This is after all how the system operates, right?
Well no, wrong. Wrong so wrong.
Auckland Airport numbers fit into that model in this way
Revenue $450,000,000
Deduct hard costs to earn that income of $150,000,000
Profit equals $300,000,000
Rort on a grand scale? Monopolistic situation? Taking advantage of the lack of competition? Charging almost the minimum wage per hour to park your car on some asphalt?
all this infrastructure should be owned and operated in the public good. It once was.
Yep, the free market model is only useful for simpleton things like the supply of plastic buckets.
Sometimes this “public good” translates into “let’s price gouge and rip a captive market off so we can spend the money on something we think is really, really important”.
That’s why we have transparency in our SOEs – so we can see what they’re spending our money on.
BTW, over the last few years since deregulation and it’s sale Telecom have pushed more than $17b dollars out as dividends this has resulted in us a) paying billions of dollars of taxpayer money for the network we should have and b) paying too much for telecommunications. Those dividends match perfectly with your “let’s price gouge and rip a captive market off so we can spend the money on something we think is really, really important” and show the dead weight loss of profit.
Can’t argue with that vto. You don’t think lack of competition has something to do with it? Maybe there should be another, competing airport????
Good idea, it worked for the electricity industry… oh wait…
I have previously posted comments on what a dysfunctional artifical market the so-called electricity industry is.
The electricity market= Cartel Price Fixing, nothing more nothing less…
Nope, natural monopolies don’t get any benefit from competition.
Only if you want to increase costs.
They offered Grange Golf club some land east of existing runway to help them ‘exit’ their existing course as those lovely fletcher folk wanted to build some much needed housing stock.
Went down badly with grange and aviation club members…..big boys and their powerful corporate toys.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2013/08/the_gcsb_law.html
Interesting reading, Farrer looks at the 2003 law and the 2013 law and shows the comparisons
but overlooks that the PM, with a few words, could have put a lot of opposition to bed, but chose not to. WHY?
He also knows that most who are spied on illegally or at all wont know, so can’t sue to challenge the Act.
Farrar’s views on this have been interesting, but it’s dangerous to consider his interpretation as gospel.
Who knows but the way I’m reading it is the 2013 law has clarified (legitimised?) a lot of grey and possibly illegal stuff thats been happening in NZ for probably decades which is good and if it still doesn’t go far enough Labour will get their turn in 2017
“Who knows ” Go on Winston, branch out, give me your best guess? BTW have you read the Bill (now Act)?
The clarfied line is pure spin and you should know it. Your looking at one tiny part in isolation. The new law also introduces new powers and you should know it. Then combine it with the TICS bill then chuck in the timelines of the meeting with eric holder and others and the recipe you end up with isnt for cupcakes
the old law stated that the GCSB couldnt spy on NZers. end of story. – there was some room to manufacture confusion by deliberatly thinking that a different clause got them round that. But thats only been a line pushed by those that wanted these latest changes to come into force.
If the GCSB act was only ever meant to clear up the oh so convenient confusion then thats all it would have done and all the people pushing it wouldve had a very easy job pointing this out and arguing their corner. Yet its main cheerleader (john key) has almost always resorted to personally attacking people. What does that tell you?
The internal and external parts of your intelligence network are kept separate for bloody good reasons – but not in NZ anymore
BUT Key wouldn’t add a dozen words to safeguard what he said he will safeguard. THAT seems to trigger nothing in Winston’s mind.
you do realise that hes paid by the national party?
hes hardly an independant voice on the topic
By all accounts Winston is not looking for an independent voice but rather one that thinks for him.
Yep keep up that attitude oh and by the way can you explain why Labours flat lining in the polls?
Yup, I thought you didn’t have an answer Winston.
Oh my. http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/speaker-naked-inside-the-off-ramp/?p=292425#post292425
How much of our money did John Key give Geoff Thorn to go to relieve the pressure on himself? . Key is the architypical bullying boss that everyone who works for, hates.
My bet is that it was at least $1.5 million.
Nice point from Green Party leader Metiria Turei in today’s Herald online, the Ministry of Education has released advice it gave to Paula Bennett befor She launched Her abysmal attack upon recipients of the DPB,
The Education Ministry advice was that even without the rush of DPB mums trying to enroll their kids in Early Childhood Education there were waiting lists where 20% of kids were having to wait 3 months or longer for the limited places available and that forcing DPB dependent kids to be enrolled would exacerbate the already dire position of a shortage of capacity,
Bennett tho, who obviously doesn’t give a big fat f**k about anything other than having beneficiaries en masse running round looking for Jobs or placements for the kids in Early Childhood Learning Centers that don’t actually exist went right on ahead with the requirement along with gleefully outlining the penalty’s involved with not having the kids enrolled,
If Bennett had of had an ounce of concern about the Ministry of Education advice She would have gone to the Cabinet and pointed out the impossibility of the proposed regulation and demanded funding to increase the number of Early Childhood centers to match the expected increase in the numbers applying, She was after all is in possession of all the FACTS,
i posted a comment here last week about the abysmal treatment National Governments just can’t seem to help themselves meting out to beneficiaries in general and pointed out that once the effects of such attacks, for attacks is what they become even in the unlikely event that attacks are simply the unintended consequences of ill thought through changes, there is an inevitable backlash from within the electorate ads they are confronted with the increasingly ugly effects of such changes/attacks,
The recent Roy Morgan Poll where this National Government has taken ‘a hit’ in it’s popularity of 7% seems to attest somewhat to the unease with which the electorate is viewing the Governments (mis)treatment of beneficiaries, although you have to read the nitty gritty details to gain this sense from that Roy Morgan Poll,
Morgan Himself cites the GCSB legislation as the reason for the Governments sudden and dramatic loss of support in this Poll, Roy however has ignored much of His own data in coming to this conclusion, and i quote,
”The dominant economic issues facing New Zealand are POVERTY/ Gap between Rich and Poor, (15% UP 6%), unquote,
i would dare suggest that the issues surrounding the GCSB Legislation will fade into the background over the next few months, but, that part of the Roy Morgan Poll being an ‘economic issue’ will not and the 6% rise in concern nearly matches the slide in polled popularity for this Government,
This far out from November 2014 do i dare suggest we start a book on who will be the next Leader of the Opposition, Judith Collins, Bill English, or a compromise Maurice Williamson…
Bomber putting out a rallying cry on what we can do now post-GCSB bill (edited bits):
If you as a New Zealander are horrified by what has happened, if you see this as a step towards a NZ you don’t recognize, if the ability of the State to spy upon us all and share it with America breaches the values of independence you believe our country should stand for, then here’s what I suggest.
A 3 pronged approach.
1: Repeal the Bill at the 2014 election:
Call upon every opposition MP to signal before the 2014 election if they will vote to repeal the legislation. Every week until the election the Blogs will post up the names of all those opposition MPs who will repeal the legislation and all those who won’t. We will advise people not to vote for those opposition MPs who will not repeal the Bill. Take the public Town Hall speaking tour around the main cities and provinces in the lead up to the election culminating in Auckland in the week of the election.
2: Close the Waihopai Spy Base – America out of NZ
The pressure to spy on us domestically is being driven by Washington, not Wellington. With Key’s refusal to confirm or deny if the NSA is subsidizing the GCSB and with the Snowden revelations growing and not diminishing, it is time to tell the Americans they can stick their spy base the same place they stuck their nuclear ships.
How would we close it down?
What do we do better than anything else in NZ? We do casual. What if this Summer in January a vast tent city of NZers converged upon Waihopai and set up a massive ring of tents around the entire Base and just occupied it? Show America they are no longer welcome here and they can have their 5th eye back thanks. Social media could convey their voices, the media attention during Summer would be intense and the Summer action could lead into the Autumn Public Town Hall speaking tour. Logistics would have to be sorted out, but a mass tent city protesting against the Spy Base would send a clear signal and shift the focus in the election year.
….
3: The creation of a cyber Bill of Rights
We desperately need a cyber Bill of Rights to protect our interests, our privacy and our online civil liberties. We need to demand telcos join in on defending and promoting these cyber Bill of Rights and we demand Government entrenches it within the NZ Bill of Rights and that the Human Rights Commission receive extra funding to promote and stand up for those cyber civil liberties.
We have some of the brightest techies and legal minds to grapple with and generate a cyber Bill of Rights that we could all be proud of as NZers. Women fought and gained universal suffrage, workers fought and gained the 40 hour week and baby boomers fought and kept us nuclear free.
It is our responsibility now to make a stand and use this terrible step towards a mass surveillance state as momentum to shape our future in a manner befitting the egalitarian and social justice values our democracy should champion.
-freedom of online expression
-freedom of online peaceful assembly
-freedom of online association
-freedom of online thought, conscience, religion and belief.
-freedom from mass surveillance
-right to privacy
-right to free community high speed access to internet via all schools, libraries, community centers and Maraes.
…
If you support this – share it with all your friends and whanau, because only a grass roots keyboard campaign will generate the kind of mass momentum we would need to win.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/08/21/the-gcsb-bill-has-passed-if-you-refuse-to-accept-that-heres-what-i-think-we-should-do-next
Any chance Bomber’s post could go up as a guest post, or a Notice so we can discuss it here?
Hi Weka. May I suggest a walk over to the neighbours for a chat on their side of the fence? I thought it was a worthy post too, with many useful points. There is a lot to discuss around these ideas and I’ve only replied to one person due to time constraints today but it would be good to see the input of folks that don’t usually comment on the TDB. Liven things up a little! The more voices the better:-)
Hi Rosie, I’ll see how I go. I’m not averse to commenting at TDB, but feel more at home here, and would like to discuss this with people I know better.
Thats understandable weka.
I do have my reservations about commenting on TDB: By the time I come out of moderation, which has been up to 7 hours, the tide has gone out on the conversation, or when my comments do get posted in a timely way no one engages with me, even when I’m seeking other’s views or clarifications or I just get heaps of down votes, lol. So it is a bit discouraging. However I like sampling the different flavours of authors and commenters. I’m always curious to know what others are thinking and feeling.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9074568/Davis-Shearer-to-go
oops
What’s up with this 1.30 Shearer press conference? Is he stepping down?
Or has he decided to win the election (repeal the GCSB Act)?
RadioNZ confirming just now that Labour are in an ‘urgent Caucus’, my first thought, was the ‘secret meeting’ between Shearer and Slippery the Prime Minister over the GCSB legislation also a well kept secret hidden from the Labour Caucus…
So now that david shearer is set to resign, will people here say sorry to the Journos they ripped into for getting this right a month ago.
They got it wrong a month ago Brett.
If you know any journos who got it right today then by all means give them a bikkie.
No they didnt they didnt say it would happen on that day, they said its coming up, they were right, people here and on twitter were wrong.
I guess National supporters are hoping Labour makes Goff their labour, it will be a landslide to national if that happens.
Lolz Brett, most of the commenters here have been calling for Shearer to step down for two years.
In other news: I predict fine weather, maybe not today, but sometime.
Now where’s my bikkie?
Felix the cat.
There isa difference in calling for someone to step down than saying they will step down.
I predicted the weather too. So where’s my bikkie?
It’s time for Cunliffe, although I do like David Parker.
David Parker, you are kidding right, Parker is conspicuous by his absence and cannot even match it with bill from Dipton simply because His economic prescription possesses only a sliver of difference when compared to bill’s…
Maybe they should just cut to the chase and vote in Jacinda Ardern?
The amount of people here who ripped on the Journalists that said this would’nt happen, who went on twitter laughing at those Journalists, must real damn stupid right about now.
No Brett. Garner was wrong. He claimed it was happening that night, and then that weekend.
No one said it wouldn’t happen at some point.
Pascal:
No, he didnt give the actual date.
The date was implicit in how long it takes to get 18-odd signatures on a letter.
There was no letter.
Garner was full of shit.
Shearer was not challenged by a no-confidence vote.
He stood down of his own volition.
Garner was full of shit.
”Of His own volition” seriously Mac???, i pick that Dave who didn’t bother to tell the Green Party about His little tete a tete with Slippery the Prime Minister over the GCSB Legislation also forgot to mention it to His own Party,
It would be totally fitting that should this have been the truth of the matter that the ‘Narking’ of Slippery the Prime Minister leads to the election of the other Dave who’s many supporters believe can rub the Slippery little Shysters face in the dirt of His own deceit and lead to the ‘Nark’s’ ultimate defeat in next years election…
Maybe.
Maybe the latest poll plus the response to his experiment with gimmicks in the House going down like, er, a dead fish was enough for him to call it a day.
Hell, maybe there was even a nc vote in caucus to give him the push. Who knows. But he resigned with dignity, rather than being dragged kicking and screaming and holding on to the paycheque for as long as possible (Brash, anyone?). And even if it’s a polite fib, everyone in caucus at least has the good grace to continue to respect his (and their own) dignity.
This was clearly not a coup as such bad12. I think the fact that Labour hasn’t increased much in the polls and that Shearer has lost some support from the caucus are the main reasons for his resignation. I also think he is a bit sick of getting such a hard time.
Shearer wasn’t required to let Labour or the Greens en masse know when a meeting between GCSB committee members was held. GCSB committee members meeting isn’t usually out of the ordinary and would certainly not result in Shearer’s resignation. What is discussed within GCSB committee meetings is meant to be kept confidential anyway.
Don’t tell me you actually believe what Key was claiming the other day?
“Pascal:
No, he didnt give the actual date.”
Brett, he did so. He went on the radio saying it was all going down right now. Then when it didn’t, he said it would happen by the end of the week. He was wrong.
Now give me my fucking bikkie.
Shearer gone…… about bloody time. Nice chap but too politically “green” … as in newbie not Green.
Shearer has just said that he resigns because he does not have the confidence of his caucus. The new leader is not decided yet.
I don’t think that Robertson or Little will get more public support than Shearer. I believe that Cunliffe could be the only one capable of winning a debate with Key.
Boy will the new labour leader want to answer questions?, unlike shearer
@ BD
Who are you calling; “Boy”?
seriously???
Its a figure of speech, like saying man, dude, I wasnt calling anyone boy.
“Boy will the new labour leader want to answer questions?, unlike shearer”
That’s not how you spell “Key”.
The site is now page caching to cope with the load of everyone wanting to access it at the same time.
There may be a few side-effects
Ok, hopefully I have excluded the mobile stuff from the cache.
That should mean that the only people with issues will be those who aren’t logged in not getting their cached cookie information.
There you have it. Not only is the bankrupt coal industry laying off workers. It is keeping another 1033 hundred others out of work.
It is way past time that the government rationalised the real cost of coal, in real terms of human misery, illness and death, pollution and climate damage. To reflect the reals cost of fossil fuels and make renewables competitive.
If any government had foresight vision and the guts to do this. Renewables would then become viable, creating tens of thousands of new jobs.
Instead our leaders crawl on their bellies to the fossil fuel moguls, at every opportunity. Instead of investing in renewables, politicians offer the polluters $multimillion subsidiesto come here to plunder our natural resources to increase pollution and to continue our dependence on fossil fuels.
When New Zealand could be, and should be leading the world in showing that there is an alternative.
Humanity is facing an existential crisis like none ever faced before, we have no need for the corporate suits, or bureaucratically appointed leaders who have leadership handed to them.
We are at a cross roads.
We need leaders leaders with vision leaders with courage and conviction. Leaders with passion, leaders with boldness, inspired and informed by the past. But solidly rooted in the real world.
Leaders with a mandate to act.
We need political scrappers
Unafraid to fight for that mandate.
Their task to overcome the impasse that sees humanity careering down a road to destruction, and put us on another track.
[Bunji: Moved to Open Mike as nothing to do with post.]
I have to fill in my name etc. each time I comment. Only just started. Having big trouble trying to link to specific comments. Just saying…
views & comments just went through the roof – suspect it has something to do with that…
Nah, it started last night for me.
This is The Economist’s response to David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs. The Economist makes a couple of points but, IMO, completely misses what Graeber is saying:
Well said, instead of dividing the ‘actual’ available productive work among all those able to be gainfully employed we have instead raced backward to an era where the criminalization of the unemployed is but a mere step away,
The divide is as easy to see as those who have that degree are the pampered and those who do not are increasingly marginalized with Legislation aimed at making employment for those with less than a degree a matter of rotation…
The Labour Party is at a cross roads
The country is at a cross roads
The world is at a cross roads
Humanity is at a cross roads
Which way will we go?
What does New Zealand do?
We cancel a project that would inject $115m into household incomes over its construction period, create over a thousand permanent jobs, and would when completed power 170,000 New Zealand homes with renewable energy.
Why?
Because planet destroying coal fired electricity is so cheap and abundant
There you have it. Not only is the bankrupt coal industry laying off workers. It is keeping another 1033 hundred others out of work.
It is way past time that our leaders in government rationalised the real cost of coal, the cost in human misery, illness and death, and the cost of pollution and climate damage. To justly reflect the real cost of fossil fuels and to make renewables competitive.
If any government had foresight vision and the guts to do this. Renewables would then become viable, creating tens of thousands of new jobs.
Instead our leaders crawl on their bellies to the fossil fuel moguls at every opportunity. Instead of investing in renewables, politicians offer the polluters $multimillion subsidies to come here to plunder our natural resources, to increase pollution, and to continue our dependence on fossil fuels.
Humanity is facing an existential crisis like none ever faced before, we have no need for the corporate suits, or bureaucratically appointed leaders who have leadership handed to them.
We need leaders leaders with vision, leaders with courage and conviction. Leaders with passion, leaders with boldness, inspired and informed by the past. But solidly rooted in the real world. Well aware of the danger we are in, and of the necessary measures needed to combat it.
Leaders with a mandate to act.
We need political scrappers
Unafraid to fight for that mandate.
Their task to overcome the impasse that sees humanity careening down a road to certain destruction, and put us on another, safer saner track.
[lprent: Way off topic. Moved to OpenMike. If I see this type of grandstanding in a hot post again, then you may wind up with a holiday. ]
LOLZ you are a devil for punishment, didn’t this comment already get shunted over to Open Mike???…
To frightened to talk about the issues Lynn?
As if the existential issue of climate change is not at stake.
Cunliffe is the only parliamentarian to raise the issue of climate change in a meaningful way. Even the Greens are prepared to put it to the back burner in exchange for cabinet seats.
What do you call this again?
Politics 101, I recall.
Crass pragmatic opportunism might be a better description.
Cunliffe despite being the members choice has Little chance of becoming the new leader. And your actions are making sure of it.
As much as I mock the people on here (gentle mocking because I love you all dearly :)) I do have to say that suggesting this blog might be responsible for Cunliffe not becoming leader is just a little…otp
Although if Labour put out a short-term contract to someone like Colonial Viper as an adviser they’d probably do a bit better in the polls
I probably should have said “attempting” to make sure of it.
But, don’t underestimate the power of blogs.
c73, I’m honestly moved…
Gone all quiet lynn?
Helping us sleepwalk into a leadership and later election campaign where the question of climate change is not an issue. Is giving a victory to the climate change ignorers.
I hope you can sleep well?
Jenny the fossil fuels/climate change issue is a global civilisation ending issue, you might as well say that Rome would have held together if they’d had different senators.
Or that England would have won the war if they didn’t have leadership like Churchill.
I hear this all the time. That there is nothing we can do to change the direction we are headed.
But these decisions are made by human beings just like us.
I understand where you are coming from. But sometimes qualitative does trump quantitative and leadership can make a difference.
Nothing is set in stone.
And political will can make difference.
And that is what is missing.
Still silence from Lynn obviously my plaintive twittering down here in the obliette hasn’t reached up that far yet.
Nah your plaintive twittering’s are more than likely being ignored as rubbish not worthy of the energy needed to reply to your attempts at martyrdom…
Just like the atheists want to to think. Atheism, humanity and corruption are directly linked to each other. On the other hand society has the capacity to enjoy liberty and to meaningfully shape the future.
Sorry, what?
“Just like the atheists want to to think. Atheism, humanity and corruption are directly linked to each other”
What the fuck does this have anything to do anything? Where does atheism come into this?
At a time when the whole ruling elite of Britain were fully behind the policy of appeasement and some indeed were Nazis or Nazi sympathisers. Churchill’s leadership changed all that.
To act collectively humans need leaders, it is not because we are sheep but that they recognise that not much can be achieved by one sole human acting alone.
Every thing worthwhile that can be done by humans takes team work, whether its building a road or a house or an ocean liner or 747. And teamwork requires leadership. It’s inescapable.
And it seems that the Holiday highway is becoming even more worthless:
Yep, even the Northlanders are waking up to the fact that this Road of National (party) Significance will do absolutely nothing for them.
The wonderful Stephen Fry dishes it out.
But there’s form here. The Mail still can’t quite live with the shame that it has always, always been historically wrong about everything – large and small – from Picasso to equal pay for women. Because it has always been against progress, the liberalising of attitudes, modern art and strangers (whether by race, gender or sexuality). Of course they’ll leap on a Stephen Lawrence bandwagon once the seeds of their decades of anti-immigration racism (read a 1960s or 1970s Daily Mail) have been sown, but deep down they have always come from the same place and had the same instinct for the lowest, most mean-spirited, hypocritical, spiteful and philistine elements of our island nation.
Most notoriously of all, they loved Adolf Hitler when he came to power, and as the Czech crisis arose they were the appeasement newspaper. And woe-betide any liberal-minded anti-fascist who warned that the man was unstable and that consistently satisfying his vanity, greed and ambition was only storing up trouble. The whole liberal left, not to mention Winston Churchill, were mocked and scorned for their instinctive distrust of Hitler. The Daily Mail knew better.
http://stephen-fry-me.tumblr.com/post/57805910021/the-daily-mail-and-lord-dacre-appeasing-again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIjo5ItFboE#t=19
– Heres one Collins might need to watch in the future…
Not a bad strategy at all, padding out question time with mindless state propaganda.
Yeah right! I suppose I should check the link to see if it goes to your own bank account! NZ Council disenfranchises members without notice – Ha!
[lprent: Dickhead fool. How exactly could you check the bank account.
Moved to OpenMike as being off topic. And you are banned (whoever you are) until after the election for both being a dickhead and suggesting that I’m a thief. ]
To bad you don’t do it to all those who suggest I am a liar. (or make a comparison with Gilchrist).
Don’t try to stop me trying to make climate change an election issue.
Politics 101 means extinction.
Jenny: Read the about / policy. It is quite specific about who we are and what we defend.
The latter pretty much comes down to defending the site, its authors and the right for people to make intelligent dicks of themselves in a sort of public way. That is because we consider that having a platform where people can argue with each other vehemently is useful for the political dialogue in this country. And we really don’t care that much if others agree with that position or not.
The policy is mostly interested in making sure that 50 or so people who can author posts don’t wind up on the receiving end of the 30-40k unique visitors we get in a month – we’re vastly outnumbered. And as you are probably becoming aware having even a few people closely criticising you, your motivations, and everything you do is intensely demotivating to continuing to write or moderate. So they run into my gentle style because I really don’t want to (or have time to) write much.
We will deal with *pointless* abuse when we see it. But that largely consists of looking to see if the person making the comment has said why they are going off like a rocket. If they don’t then they will often get a sharp warning/ban if we see them doing it too often or if it is too far over the top.
But I’m afraid that when seeing *pointed* abuse, the only thing we get really interested in is if it affects the site and if other people outside of the tweedledum/dee “discussions” will want to read them. That means that simple rants against others are usually unproductive because they’re usually boring and repetitive – especially after you have seen a few thousand of them over a year. Satirical, humorous, or informative rants are much better received.
We tend to insist that they are done within the context of a post because after all there is always OpenMike, where people reading it will have to put up with a lot (and many readers actively avoid).
I’m not interested in stopping you making climate change an election issue (FFS I’ve been pointing out the implications of that since the early 80’s). I just don’t want you to divert posts from what their author intended them to talk about. That means you can really only make them the focus of your comments when they are in OpenMike or posts that are clearly related to climate change. Putting a climate change comment in the middle of post about leadership changes in the Labour party doesn’t fit regardless how much you want to protest.
And if you wanted to look at extinction events (the earth sciences comes to the fore again) then climate change of the type that we are going to go through isn’t it. That will merely cause a dieback in some shape, manner or form and possibly cause humans to lose their current civilisation. But there simply aren’t enough sources of fossil carbon to cause an major extinction of either humans or most species. If you want to have a look at mass extinctions, then I suggest you look at the big ones. Try the start of the Cambrain, the big one in the Devonian, the Permian/Triassic boundary… Actually just look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event especially the marine extinctions (land diebacks are so common as to be kind of commonplace)
When you do so, just consider that these only really look at the last billion years. The three and half billion before that really went to town on the biosphere wiping operations. The impacts that killed Earth one and formed the moon probably killed the bulk of living things inside the crust (still the largest biomass today). They are the later refugees from the terror of an oxygen atmosphere…
Of course those are just the minor events compared to the possible ones. Nearby supernovas, stray strings left over from the big bang, slow moving black holes, nasty galactic sized quasars, ….. Don’t read too much science fiction.
At least we can probably do something with self-generated climate change..