Happy to lie to get power.
Happy to put their interests above the vulnerable.
Happy to accept poisoned rivers, increasing poverty and inequality, more mental health issues, worsening health and education services…
As long as they are alright and get their flash holidays and flash cars……
It’s the media peddled fake economy, the lavish private taxes and levies introduced by govts on us all. National are the party of high hidden taxes. Taxes that take time from parenting, take time from community, take time from participation in society, take time off life from pollution causing ill health. It’s the fake economy the corrupt media manufactures to cover all the external costs unpaid for except by the people.
Our biased media have shown their Dirty side with their reliable amplification and repeating of Nact lies and smears ….. Its what they do at election times.
Lies by omission is their usual method of mis-reporting …..
Which brings me to John Key and the comprehensive con job they pulled on behalf of that disgusting man … although they did lie a hell of a lot for him …
Keys early currency speculation in NZ was possibly rigged with insider trading, …..if he was in on the Douglas pre-devaluation tip off …
Currency speculation makes normal trading for businesses which actually produce something more difficult…….. Key left NZ for Merrill Lynch.
Keys work for Merrill Lynch in Ireland, seems to have consisted of using tax havens and things like the double irish dutch sandwich ….. to entice mainly American companies to creatively become Irish ones, In name ……
He made large money …. by Gutting UsA tax revenue, and that of other countries….. as corporations opted out of paying tax where they make their sales and profits …..
Its impossible to estimate the costs and harms John Key has inflicted on poor and middle class citizens everywhere ,,,,, through reduced Governments revenue.
His work for merrill in Asia is where he gained the reputation for smiling while sacking people ,,,,
The Asian currency crisis took place in 1997 ……and like most crashes involved speculation …. along eith innocent workers paying the price for the greed of the financial sector ….
Corruption was also rife in Asia …regularly 25% of funding for projects and sometimes up to 50% was being taken and skimmed by corrupt regimes like a suharto or his Generals.
…… In many cases institutions like Merrill when raising funding and making the loans … would then help the corrupt leaders move their stolen portion off-shore …. High ranking jobs were given to corrupt Politicians children or other relatives …..
When or if the corrupt illegitimate leaders were removed from power …..the corrupt banksters debts remained ……….
These corrupt debts get paid in either privatisation and theft of resources ….or through tax on the poor …
s
Sometimes over 50%) of a governments expenditure will be interest on never ending debt …….. while poor children die from lack of sanitation and basics in healthcare and food ….
Poor people are not worth a dollar missing from bankers profits to the Keys of this world.…
In our country and other developed nations, corporate and uber rich tax cheating ….. means things like ‘voluntary’ school fees for financially stressed parents,….. large student debts for something that used to be free for Key, English, Joyce,Collins and co …. longer waiting lists in the health sector, underfunded police etc etc
In poor countries this economic apartheid kills children……
Ask yourself , would you steal from a baby ? …. people who build and use tax havens do …..
Key has personally helped steal from Millions of children ……
Keys investment skills suggest he left the largest portion of his paper wealth in his old firm ….It almost hit $100 per share ….. before it poisoned itself with its on products and dodgy creative accounting … Merrill was the third big firm after Bear-sterns and Lehmans to collapse …
Bank of America was backing out of a deal to buy merrill …. when Merrills portfolio revealed itself as a pile of toxic crap …. with 21 Billion dollar operating losses revealed in a three month period ……
Merrill and the financial sector were vaporizing wealth at a rate which is hard to comprehend ….. 46 Billion was the final amount in losses from Merrill …… 46 Billion
The American government stepped in and the Bank of America was forced to rescue the imploding Merrill and stop a domino collapsing of the american financial system …..
american taxpayers, pension funds and other victims paid for the bailout in Govt cash to the perpetrators ….. and then they paid again ….. with GFC loss of jobs wealth and security for themselves and other ordinary people.
Despite Keys statements dissing and distancing himself from Merrill …… when the GFC revealed their sham products, creative dishonesty and reckless gambling behavior …
His Bank of America shares are testimonty to him staying firmly invested with Merrill …..
He benefited from the Usa Govt forcing the merger ….. and paying Billions to cover Merrills loses
Key started his Merrill career by costing ordinary taxpayers money with his base erosion tax dodge work …
And he finished it with a direct bailout for his worthless Merrill shares ….
What a hard working creative millionare …… he cant swing a hammer but builds things which blow Billion dollar holes in Government revenue
How many millions in charity he took from usa citizens …. depends on how many Merrill shares he had hoarded
He could be summed up as an anti-Robin Hood ….. Stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
Good at greed driven cheating ……….. But a shit Greed driven investor.
Its all a bit of a scam how our media never reported his personal multi million bailout at the start of the GFC ….
Protecting the image ….. by many lies ….and lots of omission.
As Bill and National is benefiting from.
Keys and Englishs economic model ……of speculation and cheating is of course doomed to failure ……
It can only benefit the few by the losses of the many.
I’ve been out and about in Onehunga and Mangere taking people to enrol and vote early over the last week. The vibe for change is strong and I’m pleased to have seen young people skipping into the booths and coming out with the “I’ve voted” sticker. For me the last two days have been emotional, feeling nervous and butterflies multiplying in the puku…hoping and praying for the best outcome for all our people tomorrow…we can do this…let’s do this!
I agree Wild Katipo…the stickers are good…we took our young children along with us to vote this week and they said to me quietly “vote for me” to which a man overheard and replied “I just did”…we all walked out with our stickers! Proud!
Good on you Pacific Princess. I have been out and about in Papatoetoe. People are desperate for a change and they really want to vote this time. They are getting family out to vote. They are encouraging each other. It could be 2005 all over again -turnout confounding the polls.
Some MSM must have Australian decency because some of them Keep underarm bowling Jacainda.
Nice try but I all ready read that someone was under arm bowling me last nite or was it a SPIN bowling on TV 3.
I agree with Draco T Bastard we will ban all polls a month before election nite.
What a load of rubbish bill already knows he has lost its written all over his face I will courier a couple of boxes of tissues to TV 3 for Saturday nite
My pick
Lab 50
Grn 18
Maori party 6
We want a future for OUR children
70 000 immigrants a year. That is 700 000 in ten years, 100 000 new houses required at 7 per house, at least 350 000 new jobs required, 4 new hospitals and another cities worth of services,. Just so National can pretend the economy is growing
Yip and half of the growth has been coming from the earthquake rebuild and increased infrastructure spend. Projections certainly aren’t so impressive going forward.
Yip. Reminds me of Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney and their poignant song.
The National Herd have passed their suitability test to be an exalted citizen, they have made money and worked at something enough so they feel virtuous. The Virtue Religion it’s the new one, probably a bit like Scientology.
National! Note – Al they don’t want you in their nation.
Yip’s song.
Brother Can You Spare a Dime
Say don’t you remember you called me Al,
It was Al all the time,
Buddy can you spare a dime.
‘Don’t want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard.’ For Gnashional politicians.
Paul Simon You can call me Al. Al certainly has difficulties and in NZ he’s the tail end of the nation. Let’s see the tail wagging the dog eh! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev0wfe6zzi0
Nationals standard election procedure.
1. Pretend to be socialist.
2. Fudge statistics so they look socialist.
3. Make things up about the opposition.
4. Lie. Lie. Lie. Lie………
Duncan stop trying to justify your polls which are designed to confuse voters what a good under arm bowl the business of OUR country need to pay more to OUR society because they ain’t paying much NOW Ka Pai
Values learned: Avoid the truth, disrespect, unfairness, profit over people
Virtues displayed: Deviousness, win at all costs, dishonesty
Sometimes I wonder whether calling out lies & liars is actually having the intended effect of achieving a more truthful society. It seems that more often (?) it is portrayed & viewed as a shining example of how to get ahead and succeed. Think Gordon Gekko and “greed is good”.
That said, not pulling them up on lies is not the way either …
The problem is that there’s no consequences to lying. Blinglish and many other National Party MPs lied and they’re still eligible to be in parliament. This should not happen.
It just seems that there are no negative consequences to lying. Indeed, it appears to pay off in the short term. However, in the longer term the lies will catch up with you and you start to distrust others and suspect them from lying to you too. In the end, you cannot trust anyone, not even yourself … A truly Faustian Pact!
In the end, you cannot trust anyone, not even yourself … A truly Faustian Pact!
Which is just one of the aspects of the RWNJ Greed is Good paradigm that destroys society. When no one can trust anyone else then relationships break down and society fragments and eventually we see civil war or worse.
I got told off for trying to tell my sons whom to vote for she was right I had to apologise Please go and vote Labour Green or Maori party If you want a future
We have commentators telling us who to vote for, PR firms and pamphlets and billboards galore.
Depending on “how” you were telling your sons, I would think that anyone else should stay out of it, (unless it falls under party campaigning at the booth). Especially if they had asked your advice. In the end, you are just another source of information, they get to decide whether to listen to you or not.
As an aside, meant to act as a casual scrutineer this time at my father-in-law’s rest home this election. We went to take him to the voting booth last time, and found out he had already voted. He thought he had just confirmed his vote, with “helpers” telling him where to tick. He had no idea which party he had voted for. Unfortunately, when the early voting came around I was unable to get there to watch. Back on the to-do list for next time.
We went to take him to the voting booth last time, and found out he had already voted. He thought he had just confirmed his vote, with “helpers” telling him where to tick. He had no idea which party he had voted for.
I hope you reported that to the electoral commission so that it could be properly investigated.
I worked as a poll clerk at a polling booth at one election a long time ago. We did it as a fund raising exercise for a charity where we put in the time and they got the money.
It was in a rest home and a fair number of the people there were showing distinct signs of dementia.
They were being “helped” by the staff. I think that quite a lot of the people “voting” had no idea what was going on.
From what you say it appears the practice continues.
He was not concerned with the outcome, and I was not going to appropriate his experience and perhaps put him in a situation that caused him discomfort.
(I was instead, going to actively be present at the home for this election process, in order to make any complaints from a personal perspective but unfortunately was occupied with being with him over that two weeks in his last illness. He passed away the day after the vote was taken in the home, a week before the elections.)
I can already see the effects of my fellow bloggers and I fighting equal rights For OUR female”s you go get that power Ladys I mite be a bit bias because I have granddaughter”s but OUR females need all the help to right this wrong we fight for equal rights For every Human in OUR WORLD
GET THE TRUTH OF WHATS HAPPENING AROUND OUR WORLD WITH SOCIAL MEDIA KA PAI
It seems to be the season for making predictions on the outcome of the election, and who am I to resist the fashion.
So: Labour on 41%, just ahead of National on 39% (which, God knows is about 15 per cent more than they deserve!) Greens on 9% or even more – the message about climate change/breakdown finally getting through. NZ First, just over 5%, but with Winnie losing his seat in Northland. Act 1 seat (a real travesty of natural justice) The Maori Party 1 seat.
I don’t know how that would break down into seats, but the progressive bloc half of parliament!
Whether that means we can begin to roll back the neoliberal cancer that has wracked this country for over 30 years – remains to be seen!
It’s possible TV (not etc) if the rumours that the “youthquake” has finally emerged are true, but don’t count on it. I don’t trust the integrity of the majority of the rest of the punters. They are politically inept and easily led by the duplicitous, unscrupulous Nats.
Sources told Newsroom that National’s latest internal polling has it at 43 percent and Labour at 39 percent. NZ First and the Greens were both on six percent. But there were suggestions from those close to National that its figures had softened overnight
haveseen two conflicting reports (but no numbers) RNZ suggest he has little chance of holding whereas Newsroom suggests he will…as to threshold, i wouldnt be highly surprised….mildly perhaps
An average of those puts left block ahead by a mere half a percent… in my electorate I heard from a colleague who’s scrutineering early mostly left in a Conservative seat. Winnie still a lynch pin I think
That’s right Ianmac .Tory numbers will come down in my view & Labour
up…but not enough for Greens/Labour to govern alone unfortunately.Hope
Jacinda chooses the right single malt
Are scrutineers really allowed to look at the polling papers before election day?
I thought the boxes remained sealed and early counting wasn’t allowed until the polls opened on polling day.
I also thought it was illegal to provide anyone not part of the election with information about the vote before the close of the polls.
Don’t be naif mate… yes the votes are sealed and you cant talk but some people can read body language pretty well & wearing a rosette is also allowed. Also only anecdotal
“But there were suggestions from those close to National that its figures had softened overnight”
Gee hope so. Maybe early voting is not such a good idea. Remember a couple of elections ago John Key on mounting the victory dais gave his first hearty thanks to David Farrar. So his polling and focus grouping engineered a victory rather than a Party with merit.
Chairman I listened to that link you posted last weekend, it was really interesting, am following what’s going on re subject matter and researching because it’s entirely plausible and logical. Appreciate these links you have posted. Thanks Cinny.
PS am not racist and i love love refugees, but this isn’t about race, it’s about power
I’m afraid Mr Chairman you are on money with this one, especially when Australia and NZ governments are reducing aid in the South Pacific (incl PNG and East Timor) weather is civilian aid or under the Mutual Aid Pact (MAP) and China fills void with its cheap loans, cheap labour for its aid projects instead of employing and training up the local workforce like Oz and NZ do. Then the Chinese government puts pressure on the South Pacific counties to under report fishing quotas/ catches, threatened to withdraw market access for goods when there is a enquiry into the Chinese dumping of low quality goods aka cheap reo bar used in NZ building projects or worst calls in the so called cheap loans etc and then we have got the Chinese government/ proxies actions in to freedom of speech within the our universities or in the fourth estate.
The Chinese use of soft power is straight out of the thinking of the great Chinese general of Sun Tuz with a bit Mahan and Clausewitz thrown in for good measure.
The NZ establishment to busy trying to make as money as they can in the short term than rather look at the long term consequences, which is so typical of NZ governments and corporate NZ.
As Marx pointed out – the capitalists will sell you the rope used to hang them. And that is exactly how our governments have been acting for the last few decades.
Hey, James….how about putting your faith in the status quo into action and give your home address to one of the overworked charities trying to find homes for those without.
I’m sure they can satisfy your probable desire to only help those who are making the effort to help themselves by sending you a couple of working poor families who need a home.
If you go over to the National site, you can see particularly in their property section that they are far better at expressing their policies in terms of rational self interest. Both to younger people trying to get in to property, and to those who already own property.
Most of my work colleagues noticed this.
They also put up the banner headline on their site about “More of your income for you” or thereabouts.
I work for a University with schools in South Auckland and see the effects of this everyday. There is not a school I work with (and I work with primary schools) that doesn’t have kids who are self harming and or have made suicide attempts. FFS 10 year olds so disillusioned by your brigther future that they do not want to live.
With my brother (a patched gang member who your Deputy thinks has less human rights than her ) I also do volunteer work coaching sports teams and fundraising so kids can pay fees, have boots and have a chance for a better life and the need just keeps getting bigger and bigger under National.
We both grew up poor and brown in South Auckland but things were never as bad as they are right now.
Despite my own battles with drug and alcohol addiction (15 years sober) and depression I have been lucky and done well for myself. I earn six figures and my wife who is a Deputy Principal earns just under six figures. We can afford to pay more tax so that others have decent healthcare, access to mental health services and more money in their pockets to provide for themselves and their whanau.
As a country we need to do better. As a country we need to be fairer. That is why James I hope you are wrong and National do not win on Saturday. That is why I hope this election people vote for what is best for others and not what is best for them.
Kia Kaha James. I respect your right to hold your beliefs I just do not agree with them
Thanks ianmac. I just want to live in a country where I get to volunteer to help kids just because I want to not because I also “need” to. I am sitting at home today filling out forms and jumping through hoops so that the low decile schools I work with can access money to pay for professional development (PLD) for their teachers. Prior to this Governmentthis money was earmarked for them in a priority learners (Maori, Pasifika, Low SES, special needs) fund. The schools that really need it, now have to compete with high decile schools who can afford to fund the PLD themselves. It is a friggin joke.
I’m inclined to think that you may get better support from Charter Schools for your voluntary services – in fact I would think that Charter Schools would be more inclined to pay for your services.
I do my volunteer work in the community not in schools (although I have done some work with schools uncharged when I have had free time).
I would never work in a charter school as the philosophy behind them is at odds with my own beliefs that were formed by research. You may think they are great and if you do then good for you but for me I would rather see better funding for state schools.
Thank you Trey. So well expressed with no bitterness.
We all who have worked with struggling and disadvantaged families and individuals know that right wing parties cut services severely when they first get power. (austerity budget)
Following that they change the playing field to assist their own while berating the rest as lazy or making bad choices. (Ring fencing opportunities).
After 6/9 years of this, as opposition grows, they say yes we have made provision for improving that, but it is still less than before. (small loaded tax cuts/ contestible funding)
By now youth who were 9/10 years old when the right got in, at 18 are voting for something they have never had. Fairness and Hope.
Some are already lost souls hoping against hope for change.
Youth, you have the power to enroll vote and change this. Please do.
Yes james many fools have believed the polling – if you actually knew what they do, how they do it and then the interpretation of what information they receive – then you would not follow their lines so easily – but as a gnat voter you are easily led.
“For the trolls, know-it-alls and daredevils among us, the above options may seem laughably tame. After all this is your time to shine!
Fear not. Any and all situations can be turned into an opportunity for you to demonstrate your penchant for provocation with aplomb.
You know you’re the smartest. Elections are the time to make that apparent. Election night is the crescendo of your campaign of intellectual superiority and you cannot let it go to waste. In the mood for company? Wear a controversial t-shirt. Interrupt people loudly. Make your thoughts on controversial issues crystal clear. Staying in? Use the internet as it was intended: taunting, goading and antagonising those you disagree with.
You may not make friends but you will MAKE YOURSELF HEARD. And after all – isn’t that what democracy is all about? “
James
Everyone is so nice and polite to you. Bugger that. You have said that it is going to be a National led government I don’t know how many times. You are
just a stupid troll who doesn’t know that elections are a competition for ideas and methods of government. It’s not a sporting match, it’s not my side against yours and getting the ball over the line is the big deal.
This is about life and you waste our time, but not yours because you don’t know how to value time and effort. So you come here for amusement and interrupt the grown-ups. As time goes by, you and we may not be so polite when we are fighting for our lives and resources and have reached the end of our tether.
Marty… Maureen Pugh doesnt get back in? I’m so down with that, that leader ad happened again, lololol 7 weeks in a row, super funny. She’s already removed her hoardings from the main street here, Hooray.
May I add to that prediction please, Greens gain at least one more seat 2 weeks later after the special are counted.
Election time in NZ should never be source of severe angst and anxiety to any segment of the population. We should all be able to be confident that, whatever the outcome we will be able to accept it. But in what I thought I’d never see happen in NZ, the outcome of a general election is now literally a matter of life or death for some- make that a lot more than some, it’s multiplying every 3 years. So that anxiety is more than justified.
Those who are yet to vote, please also consider the literal lives of your fellow human beings/citizens.
Indeed , Kay ,… it is PROFOUNDLY crazy that this country , … has gotten to the point that there is anxiety about who wins this election. And its not just the sort of anxiety of team pride ,… it is something completely different ,… it is the same sort of anxiety experienced by many in third world country’s that are war torn,…
Whereby for many , – it is a matter of urgency of life or death.
That is ridiculous in a country full of natural resources like this. And it is even more ridiculous that it is present in a country that was once the 6th wealthiest ( per head of population ) in the late 1960s.
And , it is a direct result of 33 years of neo liberalism.
That’s beautifully put, Kay and so true. There is a great deal of unnecessary anxiousness out in the community that benefits no one. I hope that tomorrow night, there’ll be a great deal less. In the towns and cities anyway 🙂
I hear you, Kay, and please remember that voting is personal but it’s not personal, if you know what I mean. Some people care, some don’t. I don’t know you but I still care for you and for my fellow humans. Is my vote going to make a difference? A vote is just a vote, once every three years. It is pretty meaningless in the greater scheme of things unless you let it define your life. I know this may sounds very patronizing – it is to some extent – but those who have a one or two-seat majority in Parliament do not own me, they are not telling me what to think, say or do. They have as much power over me as I’m willing to give to them. Stay strong, find other strong people and join forces and help and love each other. Kia kaha, Kay! [I’m as pakeha as they come]
After tomorrow I look forward to driving all the way down a six lane highway to our holiday house on the Coromandel in our new Bentayga. The future is bright. Abigail and Felicity are doing well at school and looking forward to their trip to Italy with their school chums.
The MSM should not be printing rubbish like I saw this morning. It brings the country down when we are so buoyant and everything is great. We truly are in ‘Godzone.’
Publishing this sort of stuff before an election is unethical. What happened to integrity? Thank goodness we have a man like Mr English at the top. Hopefully such an ethical man, of such strong religious views and moral perspective, will see that nonsense like this will never be allowed to be printed.
The publishers of the Herald and the midwife should be the first into his new bootcamps.
A touch of irony would be not being able to top up the 13l+/100km transport because some Northern scum had buggered up delivery of the supplies!
Great confidence that Bull will have St Judith on that case though. Might stop in to see her on the way through actually. Just in for a cup of tea like. Now, how many kms from the airport? In what direction? ….
… ” The publishers of the Herald and the midwife should be the first into his new bootcamps ” …
Yep , – I can just see it now , Herr English and Herr Joyce in their riding boots , peaked caps and bullwhips. The image suits them well. A sign with the words ‘Arbeit macht frei’ would be a suitable backdrop to ram the message home as well….
That’s right Ianmac .Tory numbers will come down in my view & Labour
up…but not enough for Labour /Greens to govern alone unfortunately.Hope
Jacinda chooses the right single malt
Millsy the youth are turning out. Lines of them at most polling booths. Yesterday, 178785 people voted. It was reported many were young and enrolling as well.
Today on facebook the lines are 20 deep at all unis, so they are responding. Chin up.
A breakthrough in soft robotics means scientists are now one step closer to creating lifelike machines. Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a 3D printed synthetic tissue that can act as active muscle
So I just hope that whatever way the result goes we can all accept it with good grace and that we call get in behind whatever government is formed
Even if the government formed is not the one we’re hoping for its still the government of NZ so we should all get in behind and support it however we can
We don’t want to be (at least I hope we don’t) like the USA and have protests, start a petition etc etc
NZ is the overall best country in the world and we have one of the most stable political systems in the world as well and we should proud of that
Go democracy!
[I’ve done a couple of moderation requests on top of previous moderations. Given it’s the election and I don’t want to have to think about this for a while, I’m banning you for 4 weeks. When you come back you still need to answer the questions that have been asked. See https://thestandard.org.nz/is-nz-doomed-to-lying-politics-now/#comment-1388685 – weka]
Section 80 of the Electoral Act 1993 prohibits someone from being a candidate if they’re being detained for treatment under order or if they’re unfit to stand trial, but that’s a pretty massive threshold.
If you can breath and write your name, you can be a candidate and therefore a minister (with a few other exceptions, like prinoners or defence force personnel).
Im not joking…..having dealt with a parent with dementia for the past 5 years I was seriously concerned to read this a short time ago….
“Richard Prosser responds:
Morning Tim
Just for clarity, my statement concerning the re-nationalisation of power company shares was not wrong as your otherwise splendid article proclaims.
Perhaps the Member for Northland had simply changed his mind and not bothered to tell anyone else. Or perhaps he had forgotten our established and agreed position. Or perhaps he simply forgot that he’d changed his mind.
Recent behavioural trends lead me to suspect that any of the above are possibilities.
On the other hand, given NZ1st’s slide in the polls and Mr Prosser’s change in list position from 3rd to 15th, he may … erm…not perhaps be the most reliable witness.
My message to my father and the rest of rural New Zealand is this: a National victory may add to growing resentment, in which case expect the opposition to demand harsher policy. This narrative of town versus country is propagated by one party alone. By accepting it you are laying down a gauntlet against an enemy that you are creating. An enemy you cannot beat.
Turns out the young Syrian man bagged by the usual suspects in their efforts to vilify refugees, had nothing to do with Parson’s Green attack.
The second suspect detained was named as Yahyah Farroukh, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee who was arrested outside a chicken shop in Hounslow on Saturday night.
He was released with no further action by the Metropolitan Police on Thursday.
Voted at 2:22 on the 22nd (Spring Equinox) 😀 Crikey it was busy at the polling booth in Motueka, am on the unpublished roll so have do a a special vote, and by crikey the specials ballot box was bursting at the seams with special votes, that’s a good sign 😀
Michelle Boag adroitly manages to shift a conversation about the poor sod who immolated himself yesterday to one about Nikki Kaye wanting to encourage ‘resilience’ in our youth. My bad for having ‘Giggles With Jim’ on in the background.
(I’m not going to link to the show, mods…masochists can find it for themselves. 😉
Great, now she and Mike Williams are having a pretend fight…great for ratings…
However, not why I’m here.
Went to a busy Pak n Save today and observed that a very high proportion of shoppers were using the small trolleys, rather than the large family sized ones.
Commented on such to the understandably bored looking Checkout Operator, with the tongue in cheek explanation that perhaps folk were preparing for when National get back in tomorrow and austerity bites even harder.
Eyeroll from CO…”they’re all the same so I don’t bother…”
I think, using the little amount of subtle diplomacy I am capable of, I managed to persuade her that a vote for Labour, and one for the Greens (to keep Labour honest) would be beneficial for for those workers struggling to make ends meet. I told her that National supporters are crapping themselves at the thought of any revision of labour regulations and raising the minimum wage. I explained to her that there was more to the Greens than pollution and legalising dope.
Also had a similar conversation with a young person on a casual contract working in a bank….
Boag was dreadful (so at least consistent) on RNZ’s The Panel this afternoon, referring (at ~7:45 minutes) to “The children who are going to be the problems of tomorrow.” In Boag’s value system, these children don’t have problems, they are the problem. Odious.
“When the former National Party president Michelle Boag left her passport at home before an international flight yesterday, she did the obvious thing – called the Westpac rescue helicopter to fetch it for her.
Ms Boag, who is chairwoman of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Foundation, made the 5.30am call on her way to Auckland Airport after she realised her passport was still at home on Waiheke Island.
The chopper, with the mandatory crew of three including a paramedic, flew from Mechanics Bay to Waiheke and then out to the helipad near the international terminal. It then returned to Mechanics Bay. ”
If there ever was a good reason to distrust and despise anyone and everyone aligned with the National Party….this is it.
Good link Ad the double edged sword of the internet we need to sort that shit out cannot have another like that person off the Simpson fuck that.
Those idiots in Tauranga think that because they zip around in there flash cars I won’t notice them. Just like one lot that thought that wearing a black beanie would make them invisible WTF they are costing me thousands in lost good will and lost income
but they have given me some big targets I will keep you up to date with my process
I no they have jack shit on me and the police are still trying to damage my credibility and undermine my social media credibility So don’t believe there bullshit they are barking up the wrong tree.Like there masters national
Ffs. Just seen PARTAY GIRL Bennett on The Bus leading the sing along while strap hanging Billy Liar was very excited about the amount of POSITIVE TOOTS they have been getting.
Can’t unsee it now. Question. How can you tell if a toot is positive?.
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
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Performance Review King Luxon sat behind His massive polished oak desk. It is Performance Review time. There is a knock on the door. “Enter!” says the King. In steps Minister of Disabilities and Carer Pedicures, Penny Simmonds. “I can explain everything …” she begins. “Fine,” says King Luxon, pressing the ...
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Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
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Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
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Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
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National.
Happy to lie to get power.
Happy to put their interests above the vulnerable.
Happy to accept poisoned rivers, increasing poverty and inequality, more mental health issues, worsening health and education services…
As long as they are alright and get their flash holidays and flash cars……
C’mon New Zealand ,… vote Labour / Green and end all the poverty !!!
One in Ten – UB40 (lyrics) – YouTube
Video for one in ten you tube▶ 4:34
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s59yXAtmaTw
And it is that corruption, there really is no other word for it, that destroys societies and has done throughout history.
It’s the media peddled fake economy, the lavish private taxes and levies introduced by govts on us all. National are the party of high hidden taxes. Taxes that take time from parenting, take time from community, take time from participation in society, take time off life from pollution causing ill health. It’s the fake economy the corrupt media manufactures to cover all the external costs unpaid for except by the people.
Our biased media have shown their Dirty side with their reliable amplification and repeating of Nact lies and smears ….. Its what they do at election times.
Lies by omission is their usual method of mis-reporting …..
Which brings me to John Key and the comprehensive con job they pulled on behalf of that disgusting man … although they did lie a hell of a lot for him …
Keys early currency speculation in NZ was possibly rigged with insider trading, …..if he was in on the Douglas pre-devaluation tip off …
Currency speculation makes normal trading for businesses which actually produce something more difficult…….. Key left NZ for Merrill Lynch.
Keys work for Merrill Lynch in Ireland, seems to have consisted of using tax havens and things like the double irish dutch sandwich ….. to entice mainly American companies to creatively become Irish ones, In name ……
He made large money …. by Gutting UsA tax revenue, and that of other countries….. as corporations opted out of paying tax where they make their sales and profits …..
Its impossible to estimate the costs and harms John Key has inflicted on poor and middle class citizens everywhere ,,,,, through reduced Governments revenue.
His work for merrill in Asia is where he gained the reputation for smiling while sacking people ,,,,
The Asian currency crisis took place in 1997 ……and like most crashes involved speculation …. along eith innocent workers paying the price for the greed of the financial sector ….
Corruption was also rife in Asia …regularly 25% of funding for projects and sometimes up to 50% was being taken and skimmed by corrupt regimes like a suharto or his Generals.
…… In many cases institutions like Merrill when raising funding and making the loans … would then help the corrupt leaders move their stolen portion off-shore …. High ranking jobs were given to corrupt Politicians children or other relatives …..
When or if the corrupt illegitimate leaders were removed from power …..the corrupt banksters debts remained ……….
These corrupt debts get paid in either privatisation and theft of resources ….or through tax on the poor …
s
Sometimes over 50%) of a governments expenditure will be interest on never ending debt …….. while poor children die from lack of sanitation and basics in healthcare and food ….
Poor people are not worth a dollar missing from bankers profits to the Keys of this world.…
In our country and other developed nations, corporate and uber rich tax cheating ….. means things like ‘voluntary’ school fees for financially stressed parents,….. large student debts for something that used to be free for Key, English, Joyce,Collins and co …. longer waiting lists in the health sector, underfunded police etc etc
In poor countries this economic apartheid kills children……
Ask yourself , would you steal from a baby ? …. people who build and use tax havens do …..
Key has personally helped steal from Millions of children ……
Keys investment skills suggest he left the largest portion of his paper wealth in his old firm ….It almost hit $100 per share ….. before it poisoned itself with its on products and dodgy creative accounting … Merrill was the third big firm after Bear-sterns and Lehmans to collapse …
Bank of America was backing out of a deal to buy merrill …. when Merrills portfolio revealed itself as a pile of toxic crap …. with 21 Billion dollar operating losses revealed in a three month period ……
Merrill and the financial sector were vaporizing wealth at a rate which is hard to comprehend ….. 46 Billion was the final amount in losses from Merrill …… 46 Billion
The American government stepped in and the Bank of America was forced to rescue the imploding Merrill and stop a domino collapsing of the american financial system …..
american taxpayers, pension funds and other victims paid for the bailout in Govt cash to the perpetrators ….. and then they paid again ….. with GFC loss of jobs wealth and security for themselves and other ordinary people.
Despite Keys statements dissing and distancing himself from Merrill …… when the GFC revealed their sham products, creative dishonesty and reckless gambling behavior …
His Bank of America shares are testimonty to him staying firmly invested with Merrill …..
He benefited from the Usa Govt forcing the merger ….. and paying Billions to cover Merrills loses
Key started his Merrill career by costing ordinary taxpayers money with his base erosion tax dodge work …
And he finished it with a direct bailout for his worthless Merrill shares ….
What a hard working creative millionare …… he cant swing a hammer but builds things which blow Billion dollar holes in Government revenue
How many millions in charity he took from usa citizens …. depends on how many Merrill shares he had hoarded
He could be summed up as an anti-Robin Hood ….. Stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
Good at greed driven cheating ……….. But a shit Greed driven investor.
Its all a bit of a scam how our media never reported his personal multi million bailout at the start of the GFC ….
Protecting the image ….. by many lies ….and lots of omission.
As Bill and National is benefiting from.
Keys and Englishs economic model ……of speculation and cheating is of course doomed to failure ……
It can only benefit the few by the losses of the many.
Key, Nz’s George Bush junior. Bush started wars, Key destroyed his own nation, shitty rivers, shitty housing, shitty tourism all over the country…
I’ve been out and about in Onehunga and Mangere taking people to enrol and vote early over the last week. The vibe for change is strong and I’m pleased to have seen young people skipping into the booths and coming out with the “I’ve voted” sticker. For me the last two days have been emotional, feeling nervous and butterflies multiplying in the puku…hoping and praying for the best outcome for all our people tomorrow…we can do this…let’s do this!
L0l yes !… my son and I both smiled and wore the ‘ I’ve voted ‘ sticker after casting our votes ,… its really a good idea . 🙂
I agree Wild Katipo…the stickers are good…we took our young children along with us to vote this week and they said to me quietly “vote for me” to which a man overheard and replied “I just did”…we all walked out with our stickers! Proud!
We voted for our kids and everyone elses too – this is change in action!!!
Excellent work. Pleased to read about the vibe for change – south Auckland needs it; Tāmaki Makaurau needs it; Aotearoa- NZ needs it.
Top Work Pacific Princess. Keep it up.
Nice one – good mahi – let’s make a diffrence, together
Having an I’ve voted’ sticker is a good idea. Me with the butterflies too. Good on you Pacific Princess.
Good on you Pacific Princess. I have been out and about in Papatoetoe. People are desperate for a change and they really want to vote this time. They are getting family out to vote. They are encouraging each other. It could be 2005 all over again -turnout confounding the polls.
This is heartening!
Some MSM must have Australian decency because some of them Keep underarm bowling Jacainda.
Nice try but I all ready read that someone was under arm bowling me last nite or was it a SPIN bowling on TV 3.
I agree with Draco T Bastard we will ban all polls a month before election nite.
What a load of rubbish bill already knows he has lost its written all over his face I will courier a couple of boxes of tissues to TV 3 for Saturday nite
My pick
Lab 50
Grn 18
Maori party 6
We want a future for OUR children
Youth vote today please. So so important.
70 000 immigrants a year. That is 700 000 in ten years, 100 000 new houses required at 7 per house, at least 350 000 new jobs required, 4 new hospitals and another cities worth of services,. Just so National can pretend the economy is growing
Yip and half of the growth has been coming from the earthquake rebuild and increased infrastructure spend. Projections certainly aren’t so impressive going forward.
All the growth has been coming from increased debt created by the housing boom.
To have increased GDP requires having more money in the system and the only way money increases is through borrowing from the private banks.
Yip. Reminds me of Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney and their poignant song.
The National Herd have passed their suitability test to be an exalted citizen, they have made money and worked at something enough so they feel virtuous. The Virtue Religion it’s the new one, probably a bit like Scientology.
National! Note – Al they don’t want you in their nation.
Yip’s song.
Brother Can You Spare a Dime
Say don’t you remember you called me Al,
It was Al all the time,
Buddy can you spare a dime.
Al Jolson (Old time famous in USA, interesting historic and Depression shots)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F4yT0KAMyo
Bing Crosby’s version.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eih67rlGNhU
Depression history images.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpfY8kh5lUw
‘Don’t want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard.’ For Gnashional politicians.
Paul Simon You can call me Al. Al certainly has difficulties and in NZ he’s the tail end of the nation. Let’s see the tail wagging the dog eh!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev0wfe6zzi0
Nationals standard election procedure.
1. Pretend to be socialist.
2. Fudge statistics so they look socialist.
3. Make things up about the opposition.
4. Lie. Lie. Lie. Lie………
Duncan stop trying to justify your polls which are designed to confuse voters what a good under arm bowl the business of OUR country need to pay more to OUR society because they ain’t paying much NOW Ka Pai
In recent days an awful (!) lot has been said about lying.
I thought this piece was very good: http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/decor/97045612/how-not-to-be-a-good-human-according-to-the-block
Sometimes I wonder whether calling out lies & liars is actually having the intended effect of achieving a more truthful society. It seems that more often (?) it is portrayed & viewed as a shining example of how to get ahead and succeed. Think Gordon Gekko and “greed is good”.
That said, not pulling them up on lies is not the way either …
The problem is that there’s no consequences to lying. Blinglish and many other National Party MPs lied and they’re still eligible to be in parliament. This should not happen.
It just seems that there are no negative consequences to lying. Indeed, it appears to pay off in the short term. However, in the longer term the lies will catch up with you and you start to distrust others and suspect them from lying to you too. In the end, you cannot trust anyone, not even yourself … A truly Faustian Pact!
Which is just one of the aspects of the RWNJ Greed is Good paradigm that destroys society. When no one can trust anyone else then relationships break down and society fragments and eventually we see civil war or worse.
Good link Incognito. Just as well Jacinda, aware of those crook values, said,
“Let’s NOT do it.” And she hasn’t and nor has James.
Yes, they don’t sink to these lows because they have values and it shows. We need more …
I got told off for trying to tell my sons whom to vote for she was right I had to apologise Please go and vote Labour Green or Maori party If you want a future
We have commentators telling us who to vote for, PR firms and pamphlets and billboards galore.
Depending on “how” you were telling your sons, I would think that anyone else should stay out of it, (unless it falls under party campaigning at the booth). Especially if they had asked your advice. In the end, you are just another source of information, they get to decide whether to listen to you or not.
As an aside, meant to act as a casual scrutineer this time at my father-in-law’s rest home this election. We went to take him to the voting booth last time, and found out he had already voted. He thought he had just confirmed his vote, with “helpers” telling him where to tick. He had no idea which party he had voted for. Unfortunately, when the early voting came around I was unable to get there to watch. Back on the to-do list for next time.
I hope you reported that to the electoral commission so that it could be properly investigated.
I worked as a poll clerk at a polling booth at one election a long time ago. We did it as a fund raising exercise for a charity where we put in the time and they got the money.
It was in a rest home and a fair number of the people there were showing distinct signs of dementia.
They were being “helped” by the staff. I think that quite a lot of the people “voting” had no idea what was going on.
From what you say it appears the practice continues.
Hi Alwyn, what was the process that was undertaken to review this practice – if any?
He was not concerned with the outcome, and I was not going to appropriate his experience and perhaps put him in a situation that caused him discomfort.
(I was instead, going to actively be present at the home for this election process, in order to make any complaints from a personal perspective but unfortunately was occupied with being with him over that two weeks in his last illness. He passed away the day after the vote was taken in the home, a week before the elections.)
I can already see the effects of my fellow bloggers and I fighting equal rights For OUR female”s you go get that power Ladys I mite be a bit bias because I have granddaughter”s but OUR females need all the help to right this wrong we fight for equal rights For every Human in OUR WORLD
GET THE TRUTH OF WHATS HAPPENING AROUND OUR WORLD WITH SOCIAL MEDIA KA PAI
It seems to be the season for making predictions on the outcome of the election, and who am I to resist the fashion.
So: Labour on 41%, just ahead of National on 39% (which, God knows is about 15 per cent more than they deserve!) Greens on 9% or even more – the message about climate change/breakdown finally getting through. NZ First, just over 5%, but with Winnie losing his seat in Northland. Act 1 seat (a real travesty of natural justice) The Maori Party 1 seat.
I don’t know how that would break down into seats, but the progressive bloc half of parliament!
Whether that means we can begin to roll back the neoliberal cancer that has wracked this country for over 30 years – remains to be seen!
It’s possible TV (not etc) if the rumours that the “youthquake” has finally emerged are true, but don’t count on it. I don’t trust the integrity of the majority of the rest of the punters. They are politically inept and easily led by the duplicitous, unscrupulous Nats.
That’s right Anne, we see it every election, much to our chagrin.
National Party Internal Poll (Curia) (2 days ago)
Nat 43%
Lab 39%
NZF 6%
Greens 6%
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/20/48879/election-2017-live-an-awkward-jet-fuel-crisis
Still everything to play for – “softened” = Voters swinging back to the Left ???
you seen anything on Northland?….what chance Winston holds the seat?
Northland ? …. None that I know of
Polls of Whangarei & Te Tai Tokerau …. but no Northland – go figure
Still – I’d be highly surprised if NZF fell below 5% threshold
haveseen two conflicting reports (but no numbers) RNZ suggest he has little chance of holding whereas Newsroom suggests he will…as to threshold, i wouldnt be highly surprised….mildly perhaps
So, latest Polls
Nat (Curia) … Lab (UMR) … CB ……… RR
Nat … 43% ………… 43% ……… 46% …… 45.8
Lab … 39% ………… 38% ……… 37% …… 37.3
NZF … 6% ………….. 8% ………… 5% …….. 7.1
Green 6% ………….. 7% ………… 8% …….. 7.1
NZF and Greens wouldn’t want to drop too much off that if they want a job come Monday.
That will be interesting to watch on the night.
difference is Greens trending up whereas NZF trending down….I know which position Id prefer to be in
I, for one, would be happy to see NZF drop considerably to deny this idiot a return to Parliament. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11925275
An average of those puts left block ahead by a mere half a percent… in my electorate I heard from a colleague who’s scrutineering early mostly left in a Conservative seat. Winnie still a lynch pin I think
Redlion. I think you said that early voters were voting Left in a Conservative seat?
That’s right Ianmac .Tory numbers will come down in my view & Labour
up…but not enough for Greens/Labour to govern alone unfortunately.Hope
Jacinda chooses the right single malt
Are scrutineers really allowed to look at the polling papers before election day?
I thought the boxes remained sealed and early counting wasn’t allowed until the polls opened on polling day.
I also thought it was illegal to provide anyone not part of the election with information about the vote before the close of the polls.
Don’t be naif mate… yes the votes are sealed and you cant talk but some people can read body language pretty well & wearing a rosette is also allowed. Also only anecdotal
True A single rossette is allowed but no car flags.
“But there were suggestions from those close to National that its figures had softened overnight”
Gee hope so. Maybe early voting is not such a good idea. Remember a couple of elections ago John Key on mounting the victory dais gave his first hearty thanks to David Farrar. So his polling and focus grouping engineered a victory rather than a Party with merit.
Expert calls for inquiry into Chinese ‘threat’
Well, well. There seems to be an interesting development following on from my post on the 16th (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-16092017/#comment-1385067).
A leading academic has called for New Zealand to follow Australia and take the threat of China’s growing influence in its affairs seriously.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/18/48616/expert-calls-for-inquiry-into-chinese-threat
Chinese-owned New Zealand dairy farms said to possibly being used to test advanced missile technology
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11924169
This from ABC: Chinese “soft power” influence becomes election issue in New Zealand
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday/chinese-soft-power-influence-in-new-zealand/8967852
And of course, this from Winston: China’s Growing Control in NZ Must Be Investigated
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1709/S00237/chinas-growing-control-in-nz-must-be-investigated.htm
An interesting related read:
http://www.stephenfranks.co.nz/q-e-d-on-spies-from-the-minister-responsible-for-our-security-intelligence-sevices/
http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-if-You-Are-a-Racist
Playing the race card, Marty? How original.
US power, economic paradigms and influence, in New Zealand is much more frightening at present. That may change as China already “owns” the USA.
Hey KJT – do you have any idea when that pipeline from the wharf to Wiri could have been removed after?
I can’t find it anywhere
Chairman I listened to that link you posted last weekend, it was really interesting, am following what’s going on re subject matter and researching because it’s entirely plausible and logical. Appreciate these links you have posted. Thanks Cinny.
PS am not racist and i love love refugees, but this isn’t about race, it’s about power
Thanks, Cinny.
I’m afraid Mr Chairman you are on money with this one, especially when Australia and NZ governments are reducing aid in the South Pacific (incl PNG and East Timor) weather is civilian aid or under the Mutual Aid Pact (MAP) and China fills void with its cheap loans, cheap labour for its aid projects instead of employing and training up the local workforce like Oz and NZ do. Then the Chinese government puts pressure on the South Pacific counties to under report fishing quotas/ catches, threatened to withdraw market access for goods when there is a enquiry into the Chinese dumping of low quality goods aka cheap reo bar used in NZ building projects or worst calls in the so called cheap loans etc and then we have got the Chinese government/ proxies actions in to freedom of speech within the our universities or in the fourth estate.
The Chinese use of soft power is straight out of the thinking of the great Chinese general of Sun Tuz with a bit Mahan and Clausewitz thrown in for good measure.
The NZ establishment to busy trying to make as money as they can in the short term than rather look at the long term consequences, which is so typical of NZ governments and corporate NZ.
+111
As Marx pointed out – the capitalists will sell you the rope used to hang them. And that is exactly how our governments have been acting for the last few decades.
I’ll make a prediction – LANDSLIDE FOR LABOUR – NATIONAL MPs LOSE SEATS EVERYWHERE – GREEN VOTE MASSIVE.
I’ll make a prediction that you are wrong.
Whatever way it will go it will be close.
I think National ahead of Labour. Winston goes with National (being the largest vote).
3 more years of National led government.
Hey, James….how about putting your faith in the status quo into action and give your home address to one of the overworked charities trying to find homes for those without.
I’m sure they can satisfy your probable desire to only help those who are making the effort to help themselves by sending you a couple of working poor families who need a home.
Sorted, then?
If you go over to the National site, you can see particularly in their property section that they are far better at expressing their policies in terms of rational self interest. Both to younger people trying to get in to property, and to those who already own property.
Most of my work colleagues noticed this.
They also put up the banner headline on their site about “More of your income for you” or thereabouts.
I appreciate the precision of that messaging.
(but I will still be voting for the red team).
If you are right James then New Zealand will suffer three more years of this.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11924968 because this is the legacy of nine years of National.
I work for a University with schools in South Auckland and see the effects of this everyday. There is not a school I work with (and I work with primary schools) that doesn’t have kids who are self harming and or have made suicide attempts. FFS 10 year olds so disillusioned by your brigther future that they do not want to live.
With my brother (a patched gang member who your Deputy thinks has less human rights than her ) I also do volunteer work coaching sports teams and fundraising so kids can pay fees, have boots and have a chance for a better life and the need just keeps getting bigger and bigger under National.
We both grew up poor and brown in South Auckland but things were never as bad as they are right now.
Despite my own battles with drug and alcohol addiction (15 years sober) and depression I have been lucky and done well for myself. I earn six figures and my wife who is a Deputy Principal earns just under six figures. We can afford to pay more tax so that others have decent healthcare, access to mental health services and more money in their pockets to provide for themselves and their whanau.
As a country we need to do better. As a country we need to be fairer. That is why James I hope you are wrong and National do not win on Saturday. That is why I hope this election people vote for what is best for others and not what is best for them.
Kia Kaha James. I respect your right to hold your beliefs I just do not agree with them
An inspiring story Trey. Thanks.
Thanks ianmac. I just want to live in a country where I get to volunteer to help kids just because I want to not because I also “need” to. I am sitting at home today filling out forms and jumping through hoops so that the low decile schools I work with can access money to pay for professional development (PLD) for their teachers. Prior to this Governmentthis money was earmarked for them in a priority learners (Maori, Pasifika, Low SES, special needs) fund. The schools that really need it, now have to compete with high decile schools who can afford to fund the PLD themselves. It is a friggin joke.
I’m inclined to think that you may get better support from Charter Schools for your voluntary services – in fact I would think that Charter Schools would be more inclined to pay for your services.
I do my volunteer work in the community not in schools (although I have done some work with schools uncharged when I have had free time).
I would never work in a charter school as the philosophy behind them is at odds with my own beliefs that were formed by research. You may think they are great and if you do then good for you but for me I would rather see better funding for state schools.
+ 100%
Thank you Trey. So well expressed with no bitterness.
We all who have worked with struggling and disadvantaged families and individuals know that right wing parties cut services severely when they first get power. (austerity budget)
Following that they change the playing field to assist their own while berating the rest as lazy or making bad choices. (Ring fencing opportunities).
After 6/9 years of this, as opposition grows, they say yes we have made provision for improving that, but it is still less than before. (small loaded tax cuts/ contestible funding)
By now youth who were 9/10 years old when the right got in, at 18 are voting for something they have never had. Fairness and Hope.
Some are already lost souls hoping against hope for change.
Youth, you have the power to enroll vote and change this. Please do.
Yes james many fools have believed the polling – if you actually knew what they do, how they do it and then the interpretation of what information they receive – then you would not follow their lines so easily – but as a gnat voter you are easily led.
James! Saturday night!
“For the trolls, know-it-alls and daredevils among us, the above options may seem laughably tame. After all this is your time to shine!
Fear not. Any and all situations can be turned into an opportunity for you to demonstrate your penchant for provocation with aplomb.
You know you’re the smartest. Elections are the time to make that apparent. Election night is the crescendo of your campaign of intellectual superiority and you cannot let it go to waste. In the mood for company? Wear a controversial t-shirt. Interrupt people loudly. Make your thoughts on controversial issues crystal clear. Staying in? Use the internet as it was intended: taunting, goading and antagonising those you disagree with.
You may not make friends but you will MAKE YOURSELF HEARD. And after all – isn’t that what democracy is all about? “
James
Everyone is so nice and polite to you. Bugger that. You have said that it is going to be a National led government I don’t know how many times. You are
just a stupid troll who doesn’t know that elections are a competition for ideas and methods of government. It’s not a sporting match, it’s not my side against yours and getting the ball over the line is the big deal.
This is about life and you waste our time, but not yours because you don’t know how to value time and effort. So you come here for amusement and interrupt the grown-ups. As time goes by, you and we may not be so polite when we are fighting for our lives and resources and have reached the end of our tether.
Hooray marty mars – roll out the red carpet, we know what colour is the best for
a flying carpet.
yep if you look up on Saturday night and see a shooting star- then you will know we are just flying around here in the bay 🙂
Only a landslide can defeat ‘counting fraud’…
It’s who counts the votes…
No doubt there is a shift and ground swell rising MM…
If it doesn’t sweep this time, the nats will be gone forever should they have another 3 years…
Kia Kaha Aotearoa
Marty… Maureen Pugh doesnt get back in? I’m so down with that, that leader ad happened again, lololol 7 weeks in a row, super funny. She’s already removed her hoardings from the main street here, Hooray.
May I add to that prediction please, Greens gain at least one more seat 2 weeks later after the special are counted.
lets hope saint nick gets an early christmas and is banished to the workshop with the elves. Come on Matt get on up there!!!!!
Here’s some exciting music and images to carry the fight and spirit on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3cXcS49D64
O Fortuna we cry.
Toby Manhire tweeted a quote from Clarke Gayford:
He;s just “a hunka-hunka burnin’ lerve”.
That came out of a very, very short interlude in Jacinda being interviewed by Duncan Garner this morning.
A very good and positive interview worth watching despite the title.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/09/clarke-gayford-looking-forward-to-being-first-ladyman.html
According to Toby, Jacinda’s schedule today is gruelling – 12 media intteractions and five public events – plus her grandmother’s funeral in Waikato.
Kia kaha to Jacinda and family.
Looks like I found my Mark we will see who wins !!!!!!!! I already no
Election time in NZ should never be source of severe angst and anxiety to any segment of the population. We should all be able to be confident that, whatever the outcome we will be able to accept it. But in what I thought I’d never see happen in NZ, the outcome of a general election is now literally a matter of life or death for some- make that a lot more than some, it’s multiplying every 3 years. So that anxiety is more than justified.
Those who are yet to vote, please also consider the literal lives of your fellow human beings/citizens.
Indeed , Kay ,… it is PROFOUNDLY crazy that this country , … has gotten to the point that there is anxiety about who wins this election. And its not just the sort of anxiety of team pride ,… it is something completely different ,… it is the same sort of anxiety experienced by many in third world country’s that are war torn,…
Whereby for many , – it is a matter of urgency of life or death.
That is ridiculous in a country full of natural resources like this. And it is even more ridiculous that it is present in a country that was once the 6th wealthiest ( per head of population ) in the late 1960s.
And , it is a direct result of 33 years of neo liberalism.
That’s beautifully put, Kay and so true. There is a great deal of unnecessary anxiousness out in the community that benefits no one. I hope that tomorrow night, there’ll be a great deal less. In the towns and cities anyway 🙂
I hear you, Kay, and please remember that voting is personal but it’s not personal, if you know what I mean. Some people care, some don’t. I don’t know you but I still care for you and for my fellow humans. Is my vote going to make a difference? A vote is just a vote, once every three years. It is pretty meaningless in the greater scheme of things unless you let it define your life. I know this may sounds very patronizing – it is to some extent – but those who have a one or two-seat majority in Parliament do not own me, they are not telling me what to think, say or do. They have as much power over me as I’m willing to give to them. Stay strong, find other strong people and join forces and help and love each other. Kia kaha, Kay! [I’m as pakeha as they come]
After tomorrow I look forward to driving all the way down a six lane highway to our holiday house on the Coromandel in our new Bentayga. The future is bright. Abigail and Felicity are doing well at school and looking forward to their trip to Italy with their school chums.
The MSM should not be printing rubbish like I saw this morning. It brings the country down when we are so buoyant and everything is great. We truly are in ‘Godzone.’
Publishing this sort of stuff before an election is unethical. What happened to integrity? Thank goodness we have a man like Mr English at the top. Hopefully such an ethical man, of such strong religious views and moral perspective, will see that nonsense like this will never be allowed to be printed.
The publishers of the Herald and the midwife should be the first into his new bootcamps.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11924968
God forbid that this Midwife should work in Remuera where the effects of long term inbreeding are also too obvious.
Great slant Pete. Touch of irony?
A touch of irony would be not being able to top up the 13l+/100km transport because some Northern scum had buggered up delivery of the supplies!
Great confidence that Bull will have St Judith on that case though. Might stop in to see her on the way through actually. Just in for a cup of tea like. Now, how many kms from the airport? In what direction? ….
Pete,like the cut of your jib.
… ” The publishers of the Herald and the midwife should be the first into his new bootcamps ” …
Yep , – I can just see it now , Herr English and Herr Joyce in their riding boots , peaked caps and bullwhips. The image suits them well. A sign with the words ‘Arbeit macht frei’ would be a suitable backdrop to ram the message home as well….
That’s right Ianmac .Tory numbers will come down in my view & Labour
up…but not enough for Labour /Greens to govern alone unfortunately.Hope
Jacinda chooses the right single malt
If I don’t post on here again, just want to wish everyone good luck. Hopefully we will see a change of government.
If National does get back in, Ill probably won’t post for a little bit, at least until the trolls lose interest. But we shall see.
On the bright side, it’s going to be a warm weekend forecast, and daylight saving kicks off this weekend.
mate I like your posts (mainly) – whatever happens we will need your shoulder – go well, refresh and come back fire breathing and flying. Kia kaha.
Know how you feel Millsy. Let’s keep popping in with some interesting tidbit. And we may yet make it through the night.
Millsy the youth are turning out. Lines of them at most polling booths. Yesterday, 178785 people voted. It was reported many were young and enrolling as well.
Today on facebook the lines are 20 deep at all unis, so they are responding. Chin up.
in the 2005 election 172,052 advance votes were made in total.
The future is arriving pretty god damn fast
A breakthrough in soft robotics means scientists are now one step closer to creating lifelike machines. Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a 3D printed synthetic tissue that can act as active muscle
https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/21/synthetic-muscle-soft-robot-breakthrough/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=145&v=1J47difr3oo
So I just hope that whatever way the result goes we can all accept it with good grace and that we call get in behind whatever government is formed
Even if the government formed is not the one we’re hoping for its still the government of NZ so we should all get in behind and support it however we can
We don’t want to be (at least I hope we don’t) like the USA and have protests, start a petition etc etc
NZ is the overall best country in the world and we have one of the most stable political systems in the world as well and we should proud of that
Go democracy!
[I’ve done a couple of moderation requests on top of previous moderations. Given it’s the election and I don’t want to have to think about this for a while, I’m banning you for 4 weeks. When you come back you still need to answer the questions that have been asked. See https://thestandard.org.nz/is-nz-doomed-to-lying-politics-now/#comment-1388685 – weka]
The Maori Party is investigating allegations its first Chinese candidate threatened violence against a journalist.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/ill-beat-him-up-maori-party-investigating-allegations-candidate-threatened-nz-herald-reporter
The Scream..Jacinda Ardern.
https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1422629158
And sorry if someone has already posted it.
Does the ban on talking bout politics from midnight tonight apply to the Standard?-can I still come here to be depressed?
Does anyone know whether there is any requirement for an MP or more importantly a Minister to have full control of his/her mental faculties?
Available evidence suggests not.
Section 80 of the Electoral Act 1993 prohibits someone from being a candidate if they’re being detained for treatment under order or if they’re unfit to stand trial, but that’s a pretty massive threshold.
If you can breath and write your name, you can be a candidate and therefore a minister (with a few other exceptions, like prinoners or defence force personnel).
Not in Nationals MP’s requirements.-nick smith sets the mental target,a goal they all strive to achieve.
Im not joking…..having dealt with a parent with dementia for the past 5 years I was seriously concerned to read this a short time ago….
“Richard Prosser responds:
Morning Tim
Just for clarity, my statement concerning the re-nationalisation of power company shares was not wrong as your otherwise splendid article proclaims.
Perhaps the Member for Northland had simply changed his mind and not bothered to tell anyone else. Or perhaps he had forgotten our established and agreed position. Or perhaps he simply forgot that he’d changed his mind.
Recent behavioural trends lead me to suspect that any of the above are possibilities.
Best regards
Richard Prosser”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/21/49216/winstons-last-stand
On the other hand, given NZ1st’s slide in the polls and Mr Prosser’s change in list position from 3rd to 15th, he may … erm…not perhaps be the most reliable witness.
perhaps…but on top of his bizarre performance on RNZ the other day (was it last week?) the questions mount
nice article from a farmers son
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/97062007/on-the-eve-of-the-election-a-farmers-sons-letter-to-his-father
What a dag. It’s all Labour no Greens fault and the farmers just need to handle it right and get out of jail free./sarc
Today’s word is “dotard”.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/09/21/dotard-trump-kim-jong-un-merriam-webster/691564001/
Lil’Kim wins this round.
Turns out the young Syrian man bagged by the usual suspects in their efforts to vilify refugees, had nothing to do with Parson’s Green attack.
The second suspect detained was named as Yahyah Farroukh, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee who was arrested outside a chicken shop in Hounslow on Saturday night.
He was released with no further action by the Metropolitan Police on Thursday.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/parsons-green-attack-latest-teenager-17-sixth-person-arrested-london-underground-bomb-a7958486.html
Voted at 2:22 on the 22nd (Spring Equinox) 😀 Crikey it was busy at the polling booth in Motueka, am on the unpublished roll so have do a a special vote, and by crikey the specials ballot box was bursting at the seams with special votes, that’s a good sign 😀
I can feel a youthquake!
IKR 😀 so good
Ye gods and little fishes….
Michelle Boag adroitly manages to shift a conversation about the poor sod who immolated himself yesterday to one about Nikki Kaye wanting to encourage ‘resilience’ in our youth. My bad for having ‘Giggles With Jim’ on in the background.
(I’m not going to link to the show, mods…masochists can find it for themselves. 😉
Great, now she and Mike Williams are having a pretend fight…great for ratings…
However, not why I’m here.
Went to a busy Pak n Save today and observed that a very high proportion of shoppers were using the small trolleys, rather than the large family sized ones.
Commented on such to the understandably bored looking Checkout Operator, with the tongue in cheek explanation that perhaps folk were preparing for when National get back in tomorrow and austerity bites even harder.
Eyeroll from CO…”they’re all the same so I don’t bother…”
I think, using the little amount of subtle diplomacy I am capable of, I managed to persuade her that a vote for Labour, and one for the Greens (to keep Labour honest) would be beneficial for for those workers struggling to make ends meet. I told her that National supporters are crapping themselves at the thought of any revision of labour regulations and raising the minimum wage. I explained to her that there was more to the Greens than pollution and legalising dope.
Also had a similar conversation with a young person on a casual contract working in a bank….
Never too late. 🙂
Great, now she and Mike Williams are having a pretend fight…great for ratings…
How did that end? With Williams declaring that he agreed with her, Napoleon and then the ashtray?
Williams declared at the start of the show that he’d promised a friend not to ‘agree with Michele.’
If I remember rightly he had a reputation for agreeing with Hooten too often so, maybe, that was the ‘friend’ he was referring to?
Boag was dreadful (so at least consistent) on RNZ’s The Panel this afternoon, referring (at ~7:45 minutes) to “The children who are going to be the problems of tomorrow.” In Boag’s value system, these children don’t have problems, they are the problem. Odious.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel/audio/201859613/the-panel-with-michelle-boag-and-mike-williams-part-2
Her finest hour….http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10369999
“When the former National Party president Michelle Boag left her passport at home before an international flight yesterday, she did the obvious thing – called the Westpac rescue helicopter to fetch it for her.
Ms Boag, who is chairwoman of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Foundation, made the 5.30am call on her way to Auckland Airport after she realised her passport was still at home on Waiheke Island.
The chopper, with the mandatory crew of three including a paramedic, flew from Mechanics Bay to Waiheke and then out to the helipad near the international terminal. It then returned to Mechanics Bay. ”
If there ever was a good reason to distrust and despise anyone and everyone aligned with the National Party….this is it.
Facebook finally admits that it is now a major determinant in the outcome of elections and starts regulating itself for political advertising:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-fec-election-ads_us_59c4251be4b0cdc773300bf8?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Good link Ad the double edged sword of the internet we need to sort that shit out cannot have another like that person off the Simpson fuck that.
Those idiots in Tauranga think that because they zip around in there flash cars I won’t notice them. Just like one lot that thought that wearing a black beanie would make them invisible WTF they are costing me thousands in lost good will and lost income
but they have given me some big targets I will keep you up to date with my process
I no they have jack shit on me and the police are still trying to damage my credibility and undermine my social media credibility So don’t believe there bullshit they are barking up the wrong tree.Like there masters national
Ffs. Just seen PARTAY GIRL Bennett on The Bus leading the sing along while strap hanging Billy Liar was very excited about the amount of POSITIVE TOOTS they have been getting.
Can’t unsee it now. Question. How can you tell if a toot is positive?.
Bennett was also screaming a hysterical sounding song from the steps of the bus to a crowd of ummm- 3 journalists.
I no what’s going to happen landslide win for Labour Green’s and Maori Party . That reporter for bill doesn’t have enough fingers
don’t stress I WON’T comment again I like your show
I got the big picture I want a game of chest with who organized this illusion !!!!!!!!