The COC around the place are in fact key players in the theft of assets….since when does the COC get to decide when debate should be held about public governence?
After writing several MSM propaganda posts on why we should attack Syria, why China would be the next empire and a post on Iran were he, while still maintaining that Iran has a repressive regime (most notably for that typical Muslim hatred for women) and we are the good guys, at least comes to the conclusion that attacking them would maybe not be such a good idea (which again is the MSM stance so no surprise there) I would like to present Michael Valley with a challenge!
More and more information comes out of Libya (not in the MSM of course) indicating that very predictably the “liberation” of Libya doesn’t mean the same for all Libyans and that as was predicted by many geopolitical strategists Libya is now being Balkanised (ad in cut up in three states) by flaming inter tribal rivalries with the tribal area from whence the “revolution” started and the most oil rich looking forward to a hansom reward for assisting in throwing out the only man strong enough to resist the US and removing the only viable obstacle towards the re-colonisation of the African continent (Kony anyone?) Colonel Gaddafi (No I’m not saying he was a nice guy)
My challenge to Michael Valley is the following. I would like to see his analysis from his point of view which I suspect is that there was no hidden agenda on the part of the Hillary led war crime syndicate called the US/NATO liberation forces and that Libya is now free to do what it wants even if that means the killing of black people by the thousands. That is what freedom means.
That at least is what the MSM seems to suggest by their dead silence on the developing situation in Libya.
That at least is what the MSM seems to suggest by their dead silence on the developing situation in Libya.
Right. It’s all a conspiracy, nothing to do with the fact that MSM has the attention span of a tweaking flea and is averse to anything that can’t be thoroughly expressed in a 5-second sound bite.
Right. It’s all a conspiracy, nothing to do with the fact that MSM has the attention span of a tweaking flea and is averse to anything that can’t be thoroughly expressed in a 5-second sound bite.
Jeff Robinson interviewed the chairman of ACC on RNZ Morning Report this morning. Jeff Robinson does not appear to know much about the chairman. Robinson asked him a question, “Have any other ministers of ACC written letters while you have been chairman of ACC?”
For your info Jeff, The chairman of ACC was appointed by Nick Smith as part of the preparation for the sale of ACC. The chairman of the ACC is/was a member of the Business Round Table. He probably doesn’t party much with members in Mana, the Labour Party, the Greens, or NZF. Doesn’t leave many other parties that he might share a beer at a barbecue with really and “chat about things…” (Chats like our PM did with Ashcroft when he was here.)
Jeff Robinson has been kept on because he toes Griffins line of don’t ask any tough questions, be nice to govt ministers and cronies alike……who’s a good boy then.
Mercep’s no better, Mary Wilson’s kept her credibility whereas Mora/Ryan etc are about as cutting as a sponge.
Linda Clark was the same, just didn’t know how to ask the next question. Some idiot she’d be interviewing would say something that just begged the most obvious next question that would have had them cornered, and what would Clark do every time: miss the chance by asking the next bloody question on her list. Just hopeless. Ryan’s no better. Contrast them with what Kim Hill used to do. Politicians have it so easy here. The Aussies have got it all over us on this, too.
Jeff Robinson has been kept on because he toes Griffin’s line of don’t ask any tough questions
I think you could be right. Yesterday (Thursday) morning Robinson interviewed Phoebe Greenwood from the Guardian about the Toulouse murders at a Jewish school. Pro-Israeli propagandists have been trying their best (or worst) to use the deaths of the children and their teacher to invoke support not for the victims, but for the state of Israel. To do this, they need useful idiots in the media—people like Geoff Robinson.
His brief interview with Phoebe Greenwood was toe-curlingly, embarrassingly awful….
ROBINSON:[voice croaking with empathy] Israelis are more STOIC about terror attacks, aren’t they.
GREENWOOD: Stoic and accustomed. One rabbi here in France says that this is a turning point for the diaspora. Now Jews must RETURN to Israel, for their own safety.
Pro-Israeli propagandists have been trying their best (or worst) to use the deaths of the children and their teacher to invoke support not for the victims, but for the state of Israel.
What interests me greatly, is how the story has changed! Days ago, it was about three Muslim soldiers murdered by a gunman on a scooter, and the French authorities were not all that fussed. (The lone gunman was assumed to belong to a para-military right wing group..) Then the shooting at the Jewish school happened – sparking the largest manhunt in French history! In about 5 minutes, they found the guy – I mean that – I was listening to the BBC World Service that day – and it took all of 45 minutes from one half hourly news bulletin to the next for them to say ‘the manhunt has begun’ to ‘he’s holed up in an apartment building’… 24 hours later, the perp is dead, he’s said to be an Islamist belonging to Al Quaeda, and Radio NZ describes him as the man who killed “Three Jewish children and four adults’ – giving the impression to anyone who hadn’t been following the story, that all the victims were Jewish! How the gunman’s new backstory fits with his first 3 victims being North African Muslims, doesn’t matter – according to the new story he was just an “Islamist” whatever one of those is – and no explanation is needed…
Read the literature of empire from the Victorian period and the connection is impossible to miss. Why did industrial nations want imperial colonies? The reason given in book after book and speech after speech at the time is that the industrial nations needed markets. Free trade rhetoric, then as now, insisted that all an industrial nation had to do was to build a better mousetrap and the world would beat a path to its door, but then as now, that’s not how things worked; the markets that mattered were the ones where a single industrial nation could exclude competitors and impose the unequal exchange of cheap labor and raw materials for expensive manufactured products that would keep the wealth pump churning away.
A good read I agree. The most salient point for me was Greers contention (with which I also agree) that capital aggregation and the consequent impoverishment of the consumer base never gets talked about.
Greer commented that one of the most incisive commentaries on “capital aggregation” was that of Marx BUT that the Cold War climate limited any institutional interest in what is a very valid criticism. In fact economists and their masters dont actually want capital aggregation examined as it threatens their very assumptions about wealth and distribution there of.
My take is that this lack of focus on how capital (and finance) aggregate is at the centre of todays crisis and is being ignored totally, along with the other great driver of our current crisis: resource diminution. NZs treasury and politicians of all colours here seem totally blind to both.
If schools, as part of a balanced education, examined just the first three chapters of the first part of the first volume of Das Kapital, in the same way they uphold current flawed economic indoctrination in classes, the world would change overnight.
Capital
A Critique of Political Economy
Karl Marx 1867
Volume I
Book One: The Process of Production of Capital
Part 1: Commodities and Money
Chapter 3: Money, Or the Circulation of Commodities
Section 3: Money
“…The continual movement in circuits of the two antithetical metamorphoses of commodities, or the never ceasing alternation of sale and purchase, is reflected in the restless currency of money, or in the function that money performs of a perpetuum mobile of circulation. But so soon as the series of metamorphoses is interrupted, so soon as sales are not supplemented by subsequent purchases, money ceases to be mobilised; it is transformed, as Boisguillebert says, from ―meuble‖ into ―immeuble, from movable into immovable, from coin into money.
With the very earliest development of the circulation of commodities, there is also developed the necessity, and the passionate desire, to hold fast the product of the first metamorphosis. This product is the transformed shape of the commodity, or its gold-chrysalis.[39] Commodities are thus sold not for the purpose of buying others, but in order to replace their commodity-form by their money-form. From being the mere means of effecting the circulation of commodities, this change of form becomes the end and aim. The changed form of the commodity is thus prevented from functioning as its unconditionally alienable form, or as its merely transient money-form. The money becomes petrified into a hoard, and the seller becomes a hoarder of money.
As the production of commodities further develops, every producer of commodities is compelled to make sure of the nexus rerum or the social pledge.[41] His wants are constantly making themselves felt, and necessitate the continual purchase of other people‘s commodities, while the production and sale of his own goods require time, and depend upon circumstances. In order then to be able to buy without selling, he must have sold previously without buying. This operation, conducted on a general scale, appears to imply a contradiction. But the precious metals at the sources of their production are directly exchanged for other commodities. And here we have sales (by the owners of commodities) without purchases (by the owners of gold or silver). [42] And subsequent sales, by other producers, unfollowed by purchases, merely bring about the distribution of the newly produced precious metals among all the owners of commodities. In this way, all along the line of exchange, hoards of gold and silver of varied extent are accumulated. With the possibility of holding and storing up exchange-value in the shape of a particular commodity, arises also the greed for gold. Along with the extension of circulation, increases the power of money, that absolutely social form of wealth ever ready for use. ―Gold is a wonderful thing! Whoever possesses it is lord of all he wants. By means of gold one can even get souls into Paradise.‖ (Columbus in his letter from Jamaica, 1503.) Since gold does not disclose what has been transformed into it, everything, commodity or not, is convertible into gold. Everything becomes saleable and buyable. The circulation becomes the great social retort into which everything is thrown, to come out again as a gold-crystal. Not even are the bones of saints, and still less are more delicate res sacrosanctae, extra commercium hominum able to withstand this alchemy.[43] Just as every qualitative difference between commodities is extinguished in money, so money, on its side, like the radical leveller that it is, does away with all distinctions.[43a] But money itself is a commodity, an external object, capable of becoming the private property of any individual. Thus social power becomes the private power of private persons. The ancients therefore denounced money as subversive of the economic and moral order of things.[43b] Modern society, which, soon after its birth, pulled Plutus by the hair of his head from the bowels of the earth,[44] greets gold as its Holy Grail, as the glittering incarnation of the very principle of its own life.
In the early stages of the circulation of commodities, it is the surplus use-values alone that are converted into money. Gold and silver thus become of themselves social expressions for superfluity or wealth. This naive form of hoarding becomes perpetuated in those communities in which the traditional mode of production is carried on for the supply of a fixed and limited circle of home wants. It is thus with the people of Asia, and particularly of the East Indies. Vanderlint, who fancies that the prices of commodities in a country are determined by the quantity of gold and silver to be found in it, asks himself why Indian commodities are so cheap. Answer: Because the Hindus bury their money. From 1602 to 1734, he remarks, they buried 150 millions of pounds sterling of silver, which originally came from America to Europe.[40] In the 10 years from 1856 to 1866, England exported to India and China £120,000,000 in silver, which had been received in exchange for Australian gold. Most of the silver exported to China makes its way to India.
A commodity, in its capacity of a use-value, satisfies a particular want, and is a particular element of material wealth. But the value of a commodity measures the degree of its attraction for all other elements of material wealth, and therefore measures the social wealth of its owner. To a barbarian owner of commodities, and even to a West-European peasant, value is the same as value-form, and therefore, to him the increase in his hoard of gold and silver is an increase in value. It is true that the value of money varies, at one time in consequence of a variation in its own value, at another, in consequence of a change in the values of commodities. But this, on the one hand, does not prevent 200 ounces of gold from still containing more value than 100 ounces, nor, on the other hand, does it hinder the actual metallic form of this article from continuing to be the universal equivalent form of all other commodities, and the immediate social incarnation of all human labour. The desire after hoarding is in its very nature unsatiable. In its qualitative aspect, or formally considered, money has no bounds to its efficacy, i.e., it is the universal representative of material wealth, because it is directly convertible into any other commodity. But, at the same time, every actual sum of money is limited in amount, and, therefore, as a means of purchasing, has only a limited efficacy. This antagonism between the quantitative limits of money and its qualitative boundlessness, continually acts as a spur to the hoarder in his Sisyphus-like labour of accumulating. It is with him as it is with a conqueror who sees in every new country annexed, only a new boundary…”
What a splendid passage, thoroughly enjoyed reading about about the ancients finding money was “subversive”….
In business I find very few employees actually understand how we employers make money…margin…profit. I have always found Marx’s analysis of relation to production and surplus value as the simplest explanation to the uninformed. You can get a straight explanation out of the likes of Freidman, they all try and hide the reality from the “workers”.
“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
Your right, how the banking system works and how the capitalists actually becomes rich really is hidden from the people. I had my opened when I was in Amway when one of the Diamond level people told a conference that you don’t get rich by working but by having a lot of people work for you. It’s why capitalism is hierarchical and why the books are hidden from the workers. Basically, you have a lot of people below you that do the work but, instead of them being paid directly, you get paid and then you pay the workers. The hidden aspect of the accounts means that the workers don’t know how much you’ve just clipped the ticket and have no say in it.
@Bored
I am reading Bruce Jessons Fragments of Labour. He might explain the background to the magnificent and determined lack of thought and wide, wise understanding by our politicians and their Sir Humphreys. On p12 he says
New Zealand’s lack of intellectual vitality has always been related to its background of colonialism: lacking ideas of their own, New Zealanders have imported them wholesale and uncritically from overseas. In the 1980s, the New Zealand Treasury has been thoroughly colonised by the libertarian ideas of the Chicago school of economics, and has tried to reconstruct New Zealand society in that image.
He refers to some in Labour having “ideas, less well developed, of social liberalism”….as in the Report of the Royal Commission. “It was only a matter of time before the different sets of ideas clashed”
To right Prism, we frown on intellectuals here in NZ, only do “faux” intellectual stuff like film criticism etc etc (all good valid things but never too close to the real meat on socio economic reality).
Thanks for the tip, will have a read of Jesson. On that note I grabbed a copy of Sutch “The Quest for Security in NZ” at a garage sale recently…well worth a read. NZ prior to the First Labour Government was a very insecure place, we are headed rapidly back to that era courtesy of a millionaire who just does not have a clue (or care I suspect).
One outcome of globalisation and consumersim where profit is god and must increase year on year is you end up with few players controlling everything as M&A’s are eventually always approved by weakened anti-monopoly agencies/laws.
Brands have been used to mask this making people feel like they’re making a choice when the only choice is which marketing/advertising/packaging/presentation won the decision to purchase.
When you are planning to produce your own NZ based dairy factories, i guess pricing out the competition is to be expected. Is the PM relaxed that this also spits in the face of TPP discussions and exposes the endgame of excessive foreign ownership of our farms ?
I believe it spits in the face of the FTA we have with China as well and certainly makes it look as if the Crafar purchase actually was part of Chinese government action.
I just read that and nearly spewed tea all over the laptop screen. The world is full of crazies but it did brighten the first few minutes of my days off
It’s funny in some respects, but it does have the rather more serious effect of nurturing a racist narrative, not to mention the mental illness of the true believers.
Hi Grumpy, it is safe to assume that there is much about history, ours and abroad which we have been fed, is little more than self interest!
I recall a few years back listening to a historian/anthropologist on national radio, while I was home from abroad, saying he was aware of large swaths of NZ historical records and the like being destroyed. I am unable to recall his name, nor provide any links, so was not able to check into his background. He also made reference to some sort of ancient boat!
Clever bastard eh? There is another story about a stone village in a Northland forest. The story is that the archeological report is embargoed to 2060’s. Anyone know anything about that?
You mean this? http://www.kaimaiview.co.nz/an_unpalitable_truth
Funnily enough featuring the very same Noel Hilliam also seen here
//readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2010/03/why-is-kiwibank-honouring-grave-robbing
Take his tales with several handfuls of salt, me thinks
Seven or eight feet eh! That ties in with Northern Hemisphere legends about all the “Tall Bastards” that were driven out by their angrier neighbours.
The ancient volume (kept under lock and key in the British Museum) “The Righteous Rage of Shorty the Red”, details how Shorty drove them from their homes with the following warning :
“Yer Talle Bastardds, wu knew nott ur oun Godds, yer’ll niver retoorn hier! If yer doos yer’ll bee bluddy!”
This and other “Tall Tales” have long been suppressed all over the world.
I don’t believe any of it to be true. There are a number of quasi anthropologist / archaeologist crackpots out there who have had a lot of publicity making claims that have been easily refuted on closer examination of the so called evidence.
I have very good personal reasons for being sceptical about this stuff, none of it attributable to Treaty of Waitangi settlement debates
Why would archeologists want to shut down such a ground breaking , and career making discovery? It would be a greater find than Troy, or the opening of the pyramids.
Why would the state want to hide something that would attract tourists by the plane load and raise huge awareness of NZ. Think of the publicity this would bring, if true.
Seems to me the threorists here want it to be true for some reason. What is that reason?
Please tell me it isn’t anything to do with the Treaty. But from reading various pushers of the idea, it seems to be that they have the idea that if someone else got here first, then the Treaty would be null and void. that belief would account for their passion I suppose, if they don’t like the Treaty.
Perhaps someone could explain to me why the Trety would be null and void though. It’s not a long document.
If Greeks or celts or egyptions got here first, why would that mean Maori weren’t soveriegn when Pakeha arrived?
And even if, somehow, it did, we are left with the problem of the Crown covering up something that would get them off the hook for treaty settlements. Why would they do that?
It’s just a big old pile of pudding son.
Best left to the lizard brains squeeking away over at farrers place I reckon.
It wouldn’t matter if 30 different groups had arrived here at different times from different places. If they were alive to intermarry with Māori, by the time Te Tiriti was signed they would have been well and truly intergrated and therefore part of the various iwi.
The trouble is, given that iwi were an oral culture, there would have been waiata and kōrero purākau about there presence. Given the lack of that, it would seem to be unlikely that, should they have ever been here, they were living during the migration period.
As well as that, there would be middens, at the very least.
Hogwash I say but I am just another layperson. What would I know
Yes that was my concern to Kotahi. While it made me laugh out loud initially, I groaned inwards at the fuel it gives the racists. I am just waiting for my redneck, racist uncle to post the link on Facebook….shouldn’t take him long.
Show me the midden pits and other signs of people living here Grumpy and I might open my fixed mind a little. Till then, this sounds like more Muriel Newman-promulgated “stop the uppity Maoris and their uppity claims” bullshit
I don’t know… I just try to keep an open mind. It is entirely conceiveable that NZ was visited/settled by other cultures pre-Maori. My point was there is a lot of money being made by individuals out of the grievance process which will ensure a vested interest in maintaining a narrative that Maori were the first to NZ, irrespective of any evidence to the contrary.
1) Lot’s of things are concievable. It’s concievable that NZ was discovered by a reverse engineered invisible spacecat from the far distant future who zipped back in time, snooped about, spotted the place, picked up a few humans and plopped them down with his plopper ray before popping back to his sparkly litterbox in the future. I just concieved it, but it doesn’t count for shit.
2) “a narrative that Maori were the first to NZ” has no bearing at all on the Treaty of Waitangi. None. Not even a little bit.
“Lot’s of things are concievable. It’s concievable that NZ was discovered by a reverse engineered invisible spacecat from the far distant future who zipped back in time, snooped about, spotted the place, picked up a few humans and plopped them down with his plopper ray before popping back to his sparkly litterbox in the future. I just concieved it, but it doesn’t count for sht”
What is even more conceiveable than your example, is the level of control and manipulation from monetary flows into almost any industry you could name. There are the known interational infrastructure networks, and there are networks which facillitate money flows which are not monitored, measured or reported on.
Controlling money and finance can give almost endless ability to manipulate….
If AML means “anti-money-laundering”, first you say it’s not being monitored, now you say there’s a whole “space” devoted to it. I wish you’d make your “mind” up.
You are absolutely right – I do not know the details of that particular business. I was merely pointing out the self-contradictory nature of your argument.
To recap:
1. “…there are networks which facillitate money flows which are not monitored, measured or reported on.”
2. “The AML space”
Which is it – is there no monitoring measurement or reporting, or is there in fact an entire network that is dedicated to them?
Or do you need me to make you a tin-foil hat before you can work it out?
Still not quite getting it because you have assumed the word “space” incorrectly from the context I meant it.
I will explain this very slowly for you…
1. “…there are networks which facillitate money flows which are not monitored, measured or reported on.” – Thats right, there are monitored networks, gateways etc, and there are those which are not reported on, which could be referred to as back doors, and if you had worked in the “AML Space”, you would know what I am talking about, but you dont, so you can’t!
2 – AML Space – What I meant here was the the part of the business that AML operates inside of, and also the space that as a contractor, I operated in – AML Space.
Maybe not jumpt to conclusions to support your ignorance, but it does amuse me!
No need to mention the tin foil hat , because you have made yourself look ignorant enough by now!
And these money laundering channels (which are monitored measured and reported on by law-enforcement agencies), your thesis is they they “give almost endless ability to manipulate” information, which in this case is being used to suppress archaeological data, for unknown reasons.
Except of course that doesn’t work on you, because you know the truth.
I’ll tell you what happened to all those 7-8′ tall fair-skinned types that used to live here: they moved on, and their descendants formed the HAARP Cabal. I learned this from Buzz Aldrin in a dream, but don’t worry, he’s going to bust them wide open.
“And these money laundering channels (which are monitored measured and reported on by law-enforcement agencies” – You seem to believe you know alot about it, have you worked in AML? Oh no thats right, we have established by now that you have not! – It’s ok though Bloke, you dont’t have to know everything, its not a competition, but it is good sense to pull back when you have no idea what you are talking about!
“your thesis is they they “give almost endless ability to manipulate” – Correct, imagine the level of what is possible when you can control, and hide money flows, into almost any industry. After this you tried to tell me about AML, which we have already established you know nothing about, yet you then decided to try and tell me about my job – Schoolboy!
“information, which in this case is being used to suppress archaeological data, for unknown reasons.” – Your words Nostradamus, not mine. I only offered the line that “Controlling money and finance can give almost endless ability to manipulate”, and you then tried to debate the in’s and out’s of my experience of the AML Space – Schoolboy!
In brief, I think the flaw in your argument is that attempts to manipulate are not always successful. You overestimate the power of money.
Certainly an individual can probably control aspects of debate – look at the small number of people who currently distort Climatology, for example. But these influences are only ever pertinent within lifetimes. The campaign to distort information about tobacco, for example, successfully fended off the medical profession et al for decades, but no-one seriously questions the fact that smoking is bad for you any more.
Things that happened in the distant past, though – who cares enough to spend money to intentionally suppress them? Make no mistake – if there were lots of DNA evidence of European rats (Rattus Rattus, Rattus Norvegicus, whatever) that was carbon dated to pre-Maori times that would be a very big deal. Historians, anthropologists etc. would be all over that like a rash.
However, Kiore DNA matches the human DNA chain in exactly the same way – and funnily enough, they match the oral history too – that of the South Pacific being gradually inhabited by the same group of people – a story of deliberate exploration.
The “evidence” advanced for counter-claims is based almost universally on cherry-picked information or simple misunderstanding.
The “evidence” advanced for counter-claims is based almost universally on cherry-picked information or simple misunderstanding.
If your follow Reading the Maps you’ll see that it’s primarily driven by racist ideologues, with intersections from New Age mysticism bullshit and a hefty helping of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, when it comes to recruitment to and persistence of these meme sets.
So yeah, more wilful cherry picking and complete failure to understand the basics of archaeology, especially when it clashes with a priori beliefs…
Read, think, even look up fallacies on wikipedia, then come back and try and argue your line of pure bullshit.
Because we teh science, teh archaeological evidence, and teh genetics analyses that show Polynesians were first in New Zealand.
Sheesh, next you’ll be telling us there’s a lot of money invested in evolution, therefore it’s wrongzors, or worse yet, HIV…
And muzza, I’ll cluebat you on vaccines when I can, Nick be depressed at present and thus all out of teaspoons for trudging through stuff that’s easily found via googling science-based medicine sites.
“Nick be depressed at present ” – Maybe get yourself a vaccination to fix that then eh, or some big pharma pills! As long as they are getting paid, all is good!
It would be your choice to take the vaccination/pills of course, which was only ever my point. That topic was over weeks ago, but by all means add to your low by wasting your time…
It would have to be a solution diluted thousands of times more to cure the abysmal cash-control, idiotic math, and an overwhelming sense of entitlement held for the 40 years since they were in the school first fifteen that those tossers are afflicted by.
Why the pricks couldn’t have gone under before we built them a $300mil stadium I don’t know. Oh, wait – it was the idiotic excess of the stadium that got their 3 biggest supporters kicked from local council, so then the council stopped permanently rolling over loans and writing off debts. I think that counts as “irony”.
“After the shocking figures were revealed last month, Prime Minister John Key agreed the health gap was a wider social issue that needed to be addressed.”
Cue a move to outsource, sorry “bestsource”, healthcare to Serco. They’re got their fingers in everything else.
Roughly 30 years ago NZ radically updated its fiscal laws, but crucially it failed to reward good endeavors and punish bad. Property speculation took off and the wealth of NZ, in a world awash with cheap oil and easy credit, funneled growth in the wrong areas of the economy. And now the economy is suffering, since we need a deeper and wider economy to draw upon, yet we built crap leaky homes,and hire shrill poor managers in the private and public sectors.
Wakeup NZ, it was easy to grow, now its going to be tough, and no its not the workers fault. In fact we need a German like outlook to employer-employee relationships.
Death by a 1000 cuts – Just another cut to households. Just been sent from Mercury gas charges going up. Currently paying 7.98/kWh price to go up to 8.99 (increase by 12.6%) but if I fix for 3 years it will be 9.17 (and only an increase of 14.9%). Add on rate increases and other non tradables how can households survive in NZ? Just waiting for interest rates to start increasing.
The price could “shoot up” just with the continued threat of conflict. If the insurers up premiums for transport/cargo on perceived risk, that will push prices up also.
Violent conflict will send the price right up – As SpaceMonkey says, thats the purpose of it!
Insurance company goes bust, govt bails them out eating all the shit and leaving the above water parts of the business intact, govt builds a temporary stadium, insurance company sponsors stadium.
It’s the barefaced ‘F You’ that grates the most…..bet they’re busy cooking up a way to bail out that RU that went bust or have I missed a few meetings …..
“The terms of the bailout will see AMI’s earthquake liabilities transferred to a Crown-owned company, leaving IAG free to pick up the good assets.” Like rugby stadia?
Just as well we do not take baseball seriously. I just love the way Amercian communism system works or was that private enterprise !! 😉 http://www.american.com/archive/2008/april-04-08/a-closer-look-at-stadium-subsidies
And no longer does the public sector determine the appropriate price to charge private enterprise for use of this publicly supplied resource. Today, sports stadiums are largely the private domain of for-profit businesses that the public sector subsidizes, often with special taxes. http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2009/01/3496_nyc_baseball_st.html
Of that, the public – city, state, and federal taxpayers – are now covering just shy of $1.2 billion, by far the largest stadium subsidy ever. In fact, even discounting the $417 million in property-tax breaks (if you’re inclined to agree with Lieber), it’s still the largest stadium subsidy ever. The Yankees, meanwhile, would be on the hook for just $670 million, after counting property-tax breaks.
Sharopetrosian is a member of the Armenian Power organized crime group hmmm, there is anopther organised criminal group working the other side of the States, they are known collectively as Goldman Sachs. We have are own GS operative here in NZ.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 17
Sometimes, the most resource-intensive people are the ones who kind’ve stay just sane enough to keep out of the health system, but in one or two precise areas they are still very irrational, obsessive, and create detailed fantasies over months or years.
Sucks for everyone involved. And the paperwork is a bitch.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 17.1.1
I enrolled in a maori language course at southland Polytech in 1993 and the teacher took us through how to introduce youreself, referring to your ancestor and your mountain or lake or whatever. He said his ancestor was Tutankhamen and that was why his surname began with Tut. I got put off by this. Was the guy serious ? I didn’t want to hurt his feelings so I never asked.
I like the truth of people searching the greatest ocean and finding the land of birds. The Egyptians and Phoenicians would never have bothered to voyage son far, even had they been able to. So many resources precious to them much closer to home.
All humans came from Africa, but this was long before Tutankhamen and the thousands of ancient egyptian years, and the phoenicians.
Florida House, Senate Pass Troubling Resolutions Regarding Israel
March 12, 2012 at 10:16 pm
J Street is concerned about nearly identical resolutions regarding Israel that were passed by the Florida House and Senate last week.
Those who voted for the resolutions thinking they were simply expressing straightforward support for Israel probably had little clue that the language they endorsed contains the seeds of Israel’s destruction as a democratic state and Jewish homeland. Keeping “the entirety of the land” under Israeli control and granting all those who live there democratic rights (“one law for all people”) is actually the agenda of those who seek a “one-state solution” – a binational state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, better thought of as the end of Israel as we know it.
With the demographic data clearly telling us that the number of non-Jews will exceed the number of Jews over time, the formula passed by the Florida legislature leads inexorably to the eradication of Israel as a democratic national home for the Jewish people.
These Florida resolutions are good examples of what it looks like to hug a friend so tightly that you unintentionally suffocate him.
We urge both chambers of the Florida Legislature to revoke these egregiously-misguided resolutions and to support the only route to Israel being both Jewish and democratic – a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Research finds that forgiving home loans will save money – the problem?
But this solution has raised passionate opposition: Many borrowers who are paying their mortgages every month feel it is unfair. Why, they ask, should they have to keep paying the full amount while others who took a loan they ultimately couldn’t afford or saw their house plummet in value get a break? Some economists and policy makers argue that borrowers might intentionally stop paying their mortgages to score a reduction. Indeed, the prospect that the government would help troubled homeowners was a spark that created the Tea Party movement.
Too many US citizens don’t give a fuck about anyone else in their communities now. If they can’t clamber off in a lifeboat themselves, they’ll make sure no one else does either.
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
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 ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
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. ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Responding to an Auditor-General's report slamming failures in the administration of the 2023 General Election, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said: ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says the Beehive need to lead by example, following reports of more than $50,000 spent upgrading video conferencing equipment and furniture in the Prime Minister’s office. Taxpayers’ Union Campaign Manager, Connor Molloy, ...
An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the names of deceased people, and describes ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. First Nations people in Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University Netflix Baby Reindeer’s phenomenal success has much to do with its writer and lead, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny in a tender semi-autobiographical account of sexual abuse, harassment and stalking. Gadd’s story has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle KarolinaGrabowska/Pexels If you didn’t have food allergies as a child, is it possible to develop them as an adult? The short answer is yes. But the reasons why are much ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Moon, Professor of History, Auckland University of Technology Ans Westra, self-portrait, c. 1963. National Library ref AWM-0705-F They try but invariably fail – those writers who believe they are capable of encapsulating in prose or verse the essence of ...
Stewart Sowman-Lund looks at the growing concern around the world in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. What’s all this? When Covid-19 arrived on our shores in early 2020, some argued we were too slow, or crucially, ill-prepared for a pandemic. So ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Franco Montalto, Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Director, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Laboratory, Drexel University Water runs into a storm drain in a Los Angeles alley on Aug. 19, 2023, during Tropical Storm Hilary.Citizen of the Planet/Universal Images ...
The inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones has turned up a new witness who says he saw two teenagers and a small child in a high vis vest in the area where the boy’s body was found the day he died. Lachie’s body was discovered face up ...
Stories from the tenancy trenches, featuring spider infestations, cupboard rats and same-sex discrimination. Lucy’s brother was living in a damp 1930s building in Mt Eden where “he had to tie the cupboard doors closed so the rats didn’t get in”. Although he shared custody of his six-year-old son, his property ...
Simeon Brown, Chris Luxon, and Wayne Brown climbed into a hole and announced a plan to solve Auckland’s water woes. This is how it’ll work. New Zealand’s pipes are munted. They’re cracked and leaking, and struggling to handle all the extra poos excreted by our rising population. It’s a big, ...
I knew Taika Waititi quite well when he was a kid. His mother lived in a tall narrow house in Aro St, and my youngest sister had a similar house two doors along. They were both single mums, they each had a son aged seven. Taika and my nephew Stepan ...
Opinion: “As time passes, knowledge of the circumstances of the August 2016 outbreak will fade and its immediate impact will be lost.” This statement is from the 2017 report of the Official Inquiry into the Havelock North campylobacteriosis outbreak. The then National-led government established the inquiry after the outbreak left ...
Opinion: Nicholas Khoo looks at two key points in the high-stakes foreign policy pact debate – and asks if NZ can engage with as little drama as possible. The post Where to next for the Aukus ruckus? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 8 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: ‘Reference-class forecasting’ is at the heart of improving pricing a project and identifying the expected timeframe but it doesn’t appear to be in use here The post ‘Think fast and act slowly’ is failing big projects appeared first on Newsroom. ...
What do a sombrero in Argentina and cognitive driving tests have in common? Don’t worry, we’re not setting up a bad joke. Hinengaro Clinic dementia clinician Gregory Winkelman has the answer on today’s episode of The Detail. “We ask a patient’s spouse or son or daughter: If you went to ...
Wellington long jumper Phoebe Edwards is back and she’s having fun again. Until this year, Edwards, a top athlete in her teens, had never competed as a senior athlete in New Zealand. In March, the 26-year-old won a national long jump title in a lifetime best of 6.28m after ...
After replacing a fifth of their caucus in just four months, the Greens’ opportunity to reset, reshuffle and refocus on the Government is quickly slipping away The post Persistent Green Party scandals delay caucus reset appeared first on Newsroom. ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
By Robin Martin, RNZ News reporter A New Zealand local authority, Whanganui District Council, has passed a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, condemnation of all acts of violence and terror against civilians on both sides of the conflict and the immediate return of hostages. It comes as ...
Asia Pacific Report The Aotearoa chapter of the Women’s International league for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has appealed to the New Zealand government to call out Israel over the “cruel and barbaric use of force” in Gaza and demand a permanent ceasefire. The league’s open letter was sent to Prime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will invest $566 million over a decade on data, maps and other tools to promote exploration and development in Australia’s resources industry. The project will fund “the first comprehensive map of what’s ...
Asia Pacific Report Following an open letter by Auckland University academics speaking out in support of their students’ right to protest against the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, a group of academics at Otago University have today also called on New Zealand academic institutions to “repair colonial violence” and end ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda J. Graham, Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology Ryan Tauss/ Unsplash, CC BY Two male students have been expelled from a Melbourne private school for their involvement in a list ranking female students. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The Reserve Bank is now assuming Australians will see no interest rate cuts this year – and quite possibly none before the next federal election, due next May. That’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University The Victorian budget offered more of the same on Tuesday, with the only change being how the budget papers were packaged. The usual shrink wrap was gone, hinting at savings in the pages ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Coalition is demanding extensive amendments to the government’s legislation targeting non-citizens who refuse to co-operate with their removal. In a dissenting report to the senate inquiry into the legislation, the Coalition says it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanita Yadav, Senior Research Fellow, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Brett Boardman/Belvoir The complex and grappling issue of violence against women takes centre stage in the soul-stirring solo dance drama Nayika: A Dancing Girl. During a dinner conversation ...
Disruption to patient care from a nationwide junior doctors strike is bordering on unsafe, a senior doctor claims, despite what health officials say. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rory Mulcahy, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of the Sunshine Coast Professional sports organisations regularly promote and develop initiatives to support diversity, equity and inclusion. While sport has the power to change attitudes by sparking conversations about political issues and social ...
Comment: The weekly Monday post-Cabinet press conference is a useful forum for observing Christopher Luxon and how he is developing into the job of Prime Minister. He attempts to convey the impression of a man of action, speaking fast, delivering memorised National Party strategies in a connect-the-slogans kind of way, ...
Double votes, missing ballot boxes, tired tech and stressed staff: how tick-tallying went astray at last year’s election. Cast your mind back to November 2023, that bleary-eyed post-election period duringwhichwewaited, andwaited, for a coalition deal to be hammered out. A distraction from the hotel-hopping of our ...
International audiences are starting to discover what New Zealand already knew about After the Party.When After the Party aired in New Zealand last year, the response was fast and furious. In his preview for Rec Room, Duncan Greive said it was a “gritty, wrenching and highly confronting” series. By ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shahram Akbarzadeh, Convenor of the Middle East Studies Forum (MESF), and Acting Director the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University Iran’s leadership has been a direct beneficiary of the months-long war in Gaza. With every missile that Israel fires ...
Claire Mabey reviews the haunting and sexy debut novel from Sinéad Gleeson, who is about to touch down in Aotearoa for a string of live events.When Irish writer Sinéad Gleeson was in Aotearoa in 2018 with her spectacular collection of essays, Constellations, she told me she was working on ...
PNG Post-Courier Bougainville Affairs Minister Manasseh Makiba has described the Post-Courier’s front page story yesterday regarding a meeting between Bougainville and national government leaders as “sensationalised” and without substance. The Autonomous Bougainville Government (AGB) had warned it might use “other avenues to gain its independence” should the PNG government “continue ...
Where some saw the worst press conference given by the government to date, Anna Rawhiti-Connell recognised girl maths game.Nicola Willis, recently exasperated by comparisons to Ruth Richardson, said she was “a bit sick of being compared with every female finance minister that’s ever been out there.”Some think that’s ...
The March results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2023 (HYEFU 2023), published on 20 December 2023 and the results for the same period for the previous year. ...
Jamie Arbuckle, the district councillor who became an MP but decided to keep getting paid for both roles, will instead donate one salary to charity. ...
Adding gender to the Human Rights Act would simply make the implicit explicit. So why is it so controversial? Paul Thistoll explain. At present, Aotearoa’s 1993 Human Rights Act (HRA) includes sex, marital status, religious belief, ethical belief (meaning a lack of religious belief), colour, race, ethnicity or national origin, ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, an 18-year-old who’s studying and working in hospo shares their approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Transmasc Age: 18 Ethnicity: Pākehā/Māori Role: Student, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Resources Minister Shane Jones has reportedly asked officials for advice on whether oil and gas companies could be offered “bonds” as compensation if drilling rights offered by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Gleeson, Associate Professor of Law, Macquarie University Shutterstock The Albanese government is weighing up the costs of delivering an election promise to protect religious people from discrimination in Commonwealth law. Such protections were relatively uncontroversial when included in state anti-discrimination ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yen Ying Lim, Associate Professor, Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio Dementia is often described as “the long goodbye”. Although the person is still alive, dementia slowly and irreversibly chips away at their memories and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judy Bush, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne Adam Calaitzis/Shutterstock I met with a friend for a walk beside Merri Creek, in inner Melbourne. She had lived in the area for a few years, and as we walked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Throsby, Distinguished Professor of Economics, Macquarie University Arts companies and individual artists in Australia are supported by government arts agencies, philanthropists, industry bodies, private donors and patrons. However, it is frequently overlooked that a major source of support for the arts ...
Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa, a new incorporated society dedicated to ending harmful drug policies, officially launched today, seeks a new fit-for-purpose drug law for Aotearoa New Zealand, rooted in science, experience and evidence. ...
The Corrections Minister admits he "muddied the water" after he and the Prime Minister repeatedly provided incorrect information about a $1.9 billion prison spend-up. ...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/6616197/Chamber-in-super-council-push
The COC around the place are in fact key players in the theft of assets….since when does the COC get to decide when debate should be held about public governence?
Alamgamate, bankrupt, sell off….
After writing several MSM propaganda posts on why we should attack Syria, why China would be the next empire and a post on Iran were he, while still maintaining that Iran has a repressive regime (most notably for that typical Muslim hatred for women) and we are the good guys, at least comes to the conclusion that attacking them would maybe not be such a good idea (which again is the MSM stance so no surprise there) I would like to present Michael Valley with a challenge!
More and more information comes out of Libya (not in the MSM of course) indicating that very predictably the “liberation” of Libya doesn’t mean the same for all Libyans and that as was predicted by many geopolitical strategists Libya is now being Balkanised (ad in cut up in three states) by flaming inter tribal rivalries with the tribal area from whence the “revolution” started and the most oil rich looking forward to a hansom reward for assisting in throwing out the only man strong enough to resist the US and removing the only viable obstacle towards the re-colonisation of the African continent (Kony anyone?) Colonel Gaddafi (No I’m not saying he was a nice guy)
My challenge to Michael Valley is the following. I would like to see his analysis from his point of view which I suspect is that there was no hidden agenda on the part of the Hillary led war crime syndicate called the US/NATO liberation forces and that Libya is now free to do what it wants even if that means the killing of black people by the thousands. That is what freedom means.
That at least is what the MSM seems to suggest by their dead silence on the developing situation in Libya.
Right. It’s all a conspiracy, nothing to do with the fact that MSM has the attention span of a tweaking flea and is averse to anything that can’t be thoroughly expressed in a 5-second sound bite.
Er, how about both?
Ty, V
To have both would require simultaneous competence and incompetence. A contradiction.
Jeff Robinson interviewed the chairman of ACC on RNZ Morning Report this morning. Jeff Robinson does not appear to know much about the chairman. Robinson asked him a question, “Have any other ministers of ACC written letters while you have been chairman of ACC?”
For your info Jeff, The chairman of ACC was appointed by Nick Smith as part of the preparation for the sale of ACC. The chairman of the ACC is/was a member of the Business Round Table. He probably doesn’t party much with members in Mana, the Labour Party, the Greens, or NZF. Doesn’t leave many other parties that he might share a beer at a barbecue with really and “chat about things…” (Chats like our PM did with Ashcroft when he was here.)
Jeff Robinson has been kept on because he toes Griffins line of don’t ask any tough questions, be nice to govt ministers and cronies alike……who’s a good boy then.
Mercep’s no better, Mary Wilson’s kept her credibility whereas Mora/Ryan etc are about as cutting as a sponge.
Linda Clark was the same, just didn’t know how to ask the next question. Some idiot she’d be interviewing would say something that just begged the most obvious next question that would have had them cornered, and what would Clark do every time: miss the chance by asking the next bloody question on her list. Just hopeless. Ryan’s no better. Contrast them with what Kim Hill used to do. Politicians have it so easy here. The Aussies have got it all over us on this, too.
Jeff Robinson has been kept on because he toes Griffin’s line of don’t ask any tough questions
I think you could be right. Yesterday (Thursday) morning Robinson interviewed Phoebe Greenwood from the Guardian about the Toulouse murders at a Jewish school. Pro-Israeli propagandists have been trying their best (or worst) to use the deaths of the children and their teacher to invoke support not for the victims, but for the state of Israel. To do this, they need useful idiots in the media—people like Geoff Robinson.
His brief interview with Phoebe Greenwood was toe-curlingly, embarrassingly awful….
ROBINSON: [voice croaking with empathy] Israelis are more STOIC about terror attacks, aren’t they.
GREENWOOD: Stoic and accustomed. One rabbi here in France says that this is a turning point for the diaspora. Now Jews must RETURN to Israel, for their own safety.
ROBINSON: [thoughtfully] Mmmmm….
What interests me greatly, is how the story has changed! Days ago, it was about three Muslim soldiers murdered by a gunman on a scooter, and the French authorities were not all that fussed. (The lone gunman was assumed to belong to a para-military right wing group..) Then the shooting at the Jewish school happened – sparking the largest manhunt in French history! In about 5 minutes, they found the guy – I mean that – I was listening to the BBC World Service that day – and it took all of 45 minutes from one half hourly news bulletin to the next for them to say ‘the manhunt has begun’ to ‘he’s holed up in an apartment building’… 24 hours later, the perp is dead, he’s said to be an Islamist belonging to Al Quaeda, and Radio NZ describes him as the man who killed “Three Jewish children and four adults’ – giving the impression to anyone who hadn’t been following the story, that all the victims were Jewish! How the gunman’s new backstory fits with his first 3 victims being North African Muslims, doesn’t matter – according to the new story he was just an “Islamist” whatever one of those is – and no explanation is needed…
Another good JMG read on the American Empire and Capitalism.
A good read I agree. The most salient point for me was Greers contention (with which I also agree) that capital aggregation and the consequent impoverishment of the consumer base never gets talked about.
Greer commented that one of the most incisive commentaries on “capital aggregation” was that of Marx BUT that the Cold War climate limited any institutional interest in what is a very valid criticism. In fact economists and their masters dont actually want capital aggregation examined as it threatens their very assumptions about wealth and distribution there of.
My take is that this lack of focus on how capital (and finance) aggregate is at the centre of todays crisis and is being ignored totally, along with the other great driver of our current crisis: resource diminution. NZs treasury and politicians of all colours here seem totally blind to both.
If schools, as part of a balanced education, examined just the first three chapters of the first part of the first volume of Das Kapital, in the same way they uphold current flawed economic indoctrination in classes, the world would change overnight.
Capital
A Critique of Political Economy
Karl Marx 1867
Volume I
Book One: The Process of Production of Capital
Part 1: Commodities and Money
Chapter 3: Money, Or the Circulation of Commodities
Section 3: Money
“…The continual movement in circuits of the two antithetical metamorphoses of commodities, or the never ceasing alternation of sale and purchase, is reflected in the restless currency of money, or in the function that money performs of a perpetuum mobile of circulation. But so soon as the series of metamorphoses is interrupted, so soon as sales are not supplemented by subsequent purchases, money ceases to be mobilised; it is transformed, as Boisguillebert says, from ―meuble‖ into ―immeuble, from movable into immovable, from coin into money.
With the very earliest development of the circulation of commodities, there is also developed the necessity, and the passionate desire, to hold fast the product of the first metamorphosis. This product is the transformed shape of the commodity, or its gold-chrysalis.[39] Commodities are thus sold not for the purpose of buying others, but in order to replace their commodity-form by their money-form. From being the mere means of effecting the circulation of commodities, this change of form becomes the end and aim. The changed form of the commodity is thus prevented from functioning as its unconditionally alienable form, or as its merely transient money-form. The money becomes petrified into a hoard, and the seller becomes a hoarder of money.
As the production of commodities further develops, every producer of commodities is compelled to make sure of the nexus rerum or the social pledge.[41] His wants are constantly making themselves felt, and necessitate the continual purchase of other people‘s commodities, while the production and sale of his own goods require time, and depend upon circumstances. In order then to be able to buy without selling, he must have sold previously without buying. This operation, conducted on a general scale, appears to imply a contradiction. But the precious metals at the sources of their production are directly exchanged for other commodities. And here we have sales (by the owners of commodities) without purchases (by the owners of gold or silver). [42] And subsequent sales, by other producers, unfollowed by purchases, merely bring about the distribution of the newly produced precious metals among all the owners of commodities. In this way, all along the line of exchange, hoards of gold and silver of varied extent are accumulated. With the possibility of holding and storing up exchange-value in the shape of a particular commodity, arises also the greed for gold. Along with the extension of circulation, increases the power of money, that absolutely social form of wealth ever ready for use. ―Gold is a wonderful thing! Whoever possesses it is lord of all he wants. By means of gold one can even get souls into Paradise.‖ (Columbus in his letter from Jamaica, 1503.) Since gold does not disclose what has been transformed into it, everything, commodity or not, is convertible into gold. Everything becomes saleable and buyable. The circulation becomes the great social retort into which everything is thrown, to come out again as a gold-crystal. Not even are the bones of saints, and still less are more delicate res sacrosanctae, extra commercium hominum able to withstand this alchemy.[43] Just as every qualitative difference between commodities is extinguished in money, so money, on its side, like the radical leveller that it is, does away with all distinctions.[43a] But money itself is a commodity, an external object, capable of becoming the private property of any individual. Thus social power becomes the private power of private persons. The ancients therefore denounced money as subversive of the economic and moral order of things.[43b] Modern society, which, soon after its birth, pulled Plutus by the hair of his head from the bowels of the earth,[44] greets gold as its Holy Grail, as the glittering incarnation of the very principle of its own life.
In the early stages of the circulation of commodities, it is the surplus use-values alone that are converted into money. Gold and silver thus become of themselves social expressions for superfluity or wealth. This naive form of hoarding becomes perpetuated in those communities in which the traditional mode of production is carried on for the supply of a fixed and limited circle of home wants. It is thus with the people of Asia, and particularly of the East Indies. Vanderlint, who fancies that the prices of commodities in a country are determined by the quantity of gold and silver to be found in it, asks himself why Indian commodities are so cheap. Answer: Because the Hindus bury their money. From 1602 to 1734, he remarks, they buried 150 millions of pounds sterling of silver, which originally came from America to Europe.[40] In the 10 years from 1856 to 1866, England exported to India and China £120,000,000 in silver, which had been received in exchange for Australian gold. Most of the silver exported to China makes its way to India.
A commodity, in its capacity of a use-value, satisfies a particular want, and is a particular element of material wealth. But the value of a commodity measures the degree of its attraction for all other elements of material wealth, and therefore measures the social wealth of its owner. To a barbarian owner of commodities, and even to a West-European peasant, value is the same as value-form, and therefore, to him the increase in his hoard of gold and silver is an increase in value. It is true that the value of money varies, at one time in consequence of a variation in its own value, at another, in consequence of a change in the values of commodities. But this, on the one hand, does not prevent 200 ounces of gold from still containing more value than 100 ounces, nor, on the other hand, does it hinder the actual metallic form of this article from continuing to be the universal equivalent form of all other commodities, and the immediate social incarnation of all human labour. The desire after hoarding is in its very nature unsatiable. In its qualitative aspect, or formally considered, money has no bounds to its efficacy, i.e., it is the universal representative of material wealth, because it is directly convertible into any other commodity. But, at the same time, every actual sum of money is limited in amount, and, therefore, as a means of purchasing, has only a limited efficacy. This antagonism between the quantitative limits of money and its qualitative boundlessness, continually acts as a spur to the hoarder in his Sisyphus-like labour of accumulating. It is with him as it is with a conqueror who sees in every new country annexed, only a new boundary…”
What a splendid passage, thoroughly enjoyed reading about about the ancients finding money was “subversive”….
In business I find very few employees actually understand how we employers make money…margin…profit. I have always found Marx’s analysis of relation to production and surplus value as the simplest explanation to the uninformed. You can get a straight explanation out of the likes of Freidman, they all try and hide the reality from the “workers”.
Henry Ford
Your right, how the banking system works and how the capitalists actually becomes rich really is hidden from the people. I had my opened when I was in Amway when one of the Diamond level people told a conference that you don’t get rich by working but by having a lot of people work for you. It’s why capitalism is hierarchical and why the books are hidden from the workers. Basically, you have a lot of people below you that do the work but, instead of them being paid directly, you get paid and then you pay the workers. The hidden aspect of the accounts means that the workers don’t know how much you’ve just clipped the ticket and have no say in it.
@Bored
I am reading Bruce Jessons Fragments of Labour. He might explain the background to the magnificent and determined lack of thought and wide, wise understanding by our politicians and their Sir Humphreys. On p12 he says
He refers to some in Labour having “ideas, less well developed, of social liberalism”….as in the Report of the Royal Commission. “It was only a matter of time before the different sets of ideas clashed”
To right Prism, we frown on intellectuals here in NZ, only do “faux” intellectual stuff like film criticism etc etc (all good valid things but never too close to the real meat on socio economic reality).
Thanks for the tip, will have a read of Jesson. On that note I grabbed a copy of Sutch “The Quest for Security in NZ” at a garage sale recently…well worth a read. NZ prior to the First Labour Government was a very insecure place, we are headed rapidly back to that era courtesy of a millionaire who just does not have a clue (or care I suspect).
He has a good clue himself to care for himself?
One outcome of globalisation and consumersim where profit is god and must increase year on year is you end up with few players controlling everything as M&A’s are eventually always approved by weakened anti-monopoly agencies/laws.
Brands have been used to mask this making people feel like they’re making a choice when the only choice is which marketing/advertising/packaging/presentation won the decision to purchase.
That’s similar to what I’ve been saying for the last few years about the impossibility of exporting our way to wealth.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/market-data/currencies/6617519/Kiwi-nosedives-on-China-news
When you are planning to produce your own NZ based dairy factories, i guess pricing out the competition is to be expected. Is the PM relaxed that this also spits in the face of TPP discussions and exposes the endgame of excessive foreign ownership of our farms ?
I believe it spits in the face of the FTA we have with China as well and certainly makes it look as if the Crafar purchase actually was part of Chinese government action.
Looks like Fairfax media has finally lost the plot. They faked the moon landings too you know!
I just read that and nearly spewed tea all over the laptop screen. The world is full of crazies but it did brighten the first few minutes of my days off
It’s funny in some respects, but it does have the rather more serious effect of nurturing a racist narrative, not to mention the mental illness of the true believers.
Would it upset your views on feeling like you are in control of your thoughts bloke?
Mental illness, true believers…
Just is not possible that some things can’t be as they seem is it!
Nah its all black and white!
….maybe Egypt and Greece could put a claim into the Waitangi Tribunal?
I seem to remember someone claiming years ago that an ancient boat had been dug out of a seaside cliff near Timaru?????
Hi Grumpy, it is safe to assume that there is much about history, ours and abroad which we have been fed, is little more than self interest!
I recall a few years back listening to a historian/anthropologist on national radio, while I was home from abroad, saying he was aware of large swaths of NZ historical records and the like being destroyed. I am unable to recall his name, nor provide any links, so was not able to check into his background. He also made reference to some sort of ancient boat!
Bugger me muzzy, I agree with you.
Just off to the doctor for a checkup……….
Try the Moeraki Boulders near Oamaru.
You may be thinking of this. It is all utter bunkum, of course. You will note that there has been no update with the ‘concrete’ analysis promised
http://www.gavinmenzies.net/Evidence/15-chinese-ship-construction/
No-one seems to know who coined the phrase:
“Keep an open mind – but not so open that your brain falls out.”
Nostradamus predicted that Woolworths would stay open late on a Thursday.
Clever bastard eh? There is another story about a stone village in a Northland forest. The story is that the archeological report is embargoed to 2060’s. Anyone know anything about that?
You mean this?
http://www.kaimaiview.co.nz/an_unpalitable_truth
Funnily enough featuring the very same Noel Hilliam also seen here
//readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2010/03/why-is-kiwibank-honouring-grave-robbing
Take his tales with several handfuls of salt, me thinks
It also has a potentially serious effect on the industry that has grown around the grievances.
OK, since you seem to be serious about this, I have some conundra for you. In the words of Michael Shermer:
“Where are the rest of the artifacts of those people? Where are their works of art, their weapons, their clothing, their tools, their trash?”
Where are the bones of the rats they brought with them?
One Anonymous Bloke predicts that sooner or later, archaeologists will start receiving death threats over this crap.
Have you looked a hateatea’s link?
Interesting stuff, I can see why, if true, some people would want it shut down. A conspiracy here for travellrev?
Seven or eight feet eh! That ties in with Northern Hemisphere legends about all the “Tall Bastards” that were driven out by their angrier neighbours.
The ancient volume (kept under lock and key in the British Museum) “The Righteous Rage of Shorty the Red”, details how Shorty drove them from their homes with the following warning :
“Yer Talle Bastardds, wu knew nott ur oun Godds, yer’ll niver retoorn hier! If yer doos yer’ll bee bluddy!”
This and other “Tall Tales” have long been suppressed all over the world.
KTH
Golly I didn’t know that. How amazing.
I don’t believe any of it to be true. There are a number of quasi anthropologist / archaeologist crackpots out there who have had a lot of publicity making claims that have been easily refuted on closer examination of the so called evidence.
I have very good personal reasons for being sceptical about this stuff, none of it attributable to Treaty of Waitangi settlement debates
Why would *they* want it shut down grumps?
Let’s think about it.
Why would archeologists want to shut down such a ground breaking , and career making discovery? It would be a greater find than Troy, or the opening of the pyramids.
Why would the state want to hide something that would attract tourists by the plane load and raise huge awareness of NZ. Think of the publicity this would bring, if true.
Seems to me the threorists here want it to be true for some reason. What is that reason?
Please tell me it isn’t anything to do with the Treaty. But from reading various pushers of the idea, it seems to be that they have the idea that if someone else got here first, then the Treaty would be null and void. that belief would account for their passion I suppose, if they don’t like the Treaty.
Perhaps someone could explain to me why the Trety would be null and void though. It’s not a long document.
If Greeks or celts or egyptions got here first, why would that mean Maori weren’t soveriegn when Pakeha arrived?
And even if, somehow, it did, we are left with the problem of the Crown covering up something that would get them off the hook for treaty settlements. Why would they do that?
It’s just a big old pile of pudding son.
Best left to the lizard brains squeeking away over at farrers place I reckon.
It wouldn’t matter if 30 different groups had arrived here at different times from different places. If they were alive to intermarry with Māori, by the time Te Tiriti was signed they would have been well and truly intergrated and therefore part of the various iwi.
The trouble is, given that iwi were an oral culture, there would have been waiata and kōrero purākau about there presence. Given the lack of that, it would seem to be unlikely that, should they have ever been here, they were living during the migration period.
As well as that, there would be middens, at the very least.
Hogwash I say but I am just another layperson. What would I know
😉
Pascal’s bookie, I like your style
Dunno if they lost the plot…we all read the headline because even if its bunk it grabs our attention and sells papers……
Yes that was my concern to Kotahi. While it made me laugh out loud initially, I groaned inwards at the fuel it gives the racists. I am just waiting for my redneck, racist uncle to post the link on Facebook….shouldn’t take him long.
So sick of Fairfax.
Don’t worry about it upsetting your fixed views and just labeling it “racist”. You should keep an open mind, like me………
Truthers unite, you have nothing to lose but your credibility.
Show me the midden pits and other signs of people living here Grumpy and I might open my fixed mind a little. Till then, this sounds like more Muriel Newman-promulgated “stop the uppity Maoris and their uppity claims” bullshit
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6625136/Search-and-Surveillance-Bill-passes
Should be good for filling up those new private prisons I would imagine!
I don’t know… I just try to keep an open mind. It is entirely conceiveable that NZ was visited/settled by other cultures pre-Maori. My point was there is a lot of money being made by individuals out of the grievance process which will ensure a vested interest in maintaining a narrative that Maori were the first to NZ, irrespective of any evidence to the contrary.
Spacemonkey.
1) Lot’s of things are concievable. It’s concievable that NZ was discovered by a reverse engineered invisible spacecat from the far distant future who zipped back in time, snooped about, spotted the place, picked up a few humans and plopped them down with his plopper ray before popping back to his sparkly litterbox in the future. I just concieved it, but it doesn’t count for shit.
2) “a narrative that Maori were the first to NZ” has no bearing at all on the Treaty of Waitangi. None. Not even a little bit.
No 1 – Roflmao
Lol re 1… and 2 good point.
“Lot’s of things are concievable. It’s concievable that NZ was discovered by a reverse engineered invisible spacecat from the far distant future who zipped back in time, snooped about, spotted the place, picked up a few humans and plopped them down with his plopper ray before popping back to his sparkly litterbox in the future. I just concieved it, but it doesn’t count for sht”
What is even more conceiveable than your example, is the level of control and manipulation from monetary flows into almost any industry you could name. There are the known interational infrastructure networks, and there are networks which facillitate money flows which are not monitored, measured or reported on.
Controlling money and finance can give almost endless ability to manipulate….
That’s how you can tell something definitely exists: when it is not “monitored, measured or reported on.” Nice of you to clear that up.
All the time you have spent working in the AML space Bloke, I thought you would have have had some idea what I was talking about. Oh wait on…
Can you clear something up for me – Did Nostradamus also say that Woolworths was going to be consigned to the dustbin of NZ supermarket chain history?
If AML means “anti-money-laundering”, first you say it’s not being monitored, now you say there’s a whole “space” devoted to it. I wish you’d make your “mind” up.
Well done, that is what the acronym stood for – Gold Star
In reality though you have no idea how AML functions or fits inside the world of banking & your silly responses only serve to highlight that fact!
Maybe you can ask Nostradamus to enlighten you!
You are absolutely right – I do not know the details of that particular business. I was merely pointing out the self-contradictory nature of your argument.
To recap:
1. “…there are networks which facillitate money flows which are not monitored, measured or reported on.”
2. “The AML space”
Which is it – is there no monitoring measurement or reporting, or is there in fact an entire network that is dedicated to them?
Or do you need me to make you a tin-foil hat before you can work it out?
Still not quite getting it because you have assumed the word “space” incorrectly from the context I meant it.
I will explain this very slowly for you…
1. “…there are networks which facillitate money flows which are not monitored, measured or reported on.” – Thats right, there are monitored networks, gateways etc, and there are those which are not reported on, which could be referred to as back doors, and if you had worked in the “AML Space”, you would know what I am talking about, but you dont, so you can’t!
2 – AML Space – What I meant here was the the part of the business that AML operates inside of, and also the space that as a contractor, I operated in – AML Space.
Maybe not jumpt to conclusions to support your ignorance, but it does amuse me!
No need to mention the tin foil hat , because you have made yourself look ignorant enough by now!
And these money laundering channels (which are monitored measured and reported on by law-enforcement agencies), your thesis is they they “give almost endless ability to manipulate” information, which in this case is being used to suppress archaeological data, for unknown reasons.
Except of course that doesn’t work on you, because you know the truth.
I’ll tell you what happened to all those 7-8′ tall fair-skinned types that used to live here: they moved on, and their descendants formed the HAARP Cabal. I learned this from Buzz Aldrin in a dream, but don’t worry, he’s going to bust them wide open.
“And these money laundering channels (which are monitored measured and reported on by law-enforcement agencies” – You seem to believe you know alot about it, have you worked in AML? Oh no thats right, we have established by now that you have not! – It’s ok though Bloke, you dont’t have to know everything, its not a competition, but it is good sense to pull back when you have no idea what you are talking about!
“your thesis is they they “give almost endless ability to manipulate” – Correct, imagine the level of what is possible when you can control, and hide money flows, into almost any industry. After this you tried to tell me about AML, which we have already established you know nothing about, yet you then decided to try and tell me about my job – Schoolboy!
“information, which in this case is being used to suppress archaeological data, for unknown reasons.” – Your words Nostradamus, not mine. I only offered the line that “Controlling money and finance can give almost endless ability to manipulate”, and you then tried to debate the in’s and out’s of my experience of the AML Space – Schoolboy!
Time to let you run along now!
In brief, I think the flaw in your argument is that attempts to manipulate are not always successful. You overestimate the power of money.
Certainly an individual can probably control aspects of debate – look at the small number of people who currently distort Climatology, for example. But these influences are only ever pertinent within lifetimes. The campaign to distort information about tobacco, for example, successfully fended off the medical profession et al for decades, but no-one seriously questions the fact that smoking is bad for you any more.
Things that happened in the distant past, though – who cares enough to spend money to intentionally suppress them? Make no mistake – if there were lots of DNA evidence of European rats (Rattus Rattus, Rattus Norvegicus, whatever) that was carbon dated to pre-Maori times that would be a very big deal. Historians, anthropologists etc. would be all over that like a rash.
However, Kiore DNA matches the human DNA chain in exactly the same way – and funnily enough, they match the oral history too – that of the South Pacific being gradually inhabited by the same group of people – a story of deliberate exploration.
The “evidence” advanced for counter-claims is based almost universally on cherry-picked information or simple misunderstanding.
If your follow Reading the Maps you’ll see that it’s primarily driven by racist ideologues, with intersections from New Age mysticism bullshit and a hefty helping of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, when it comes to recruitment to and persistence of these meme sets.
So yeah, more wilful cherry picking and complete failure to understand the basics of archaeology, especially when it clashes with a priori beliefs…
A lot like young earth creationists really.
http://archaeologyaotearoa.blogspot.co.nz/
Read, think, even look up fallacies on wikipedia, then come back and try and argue your line of pure bullshit.
Because we teh science, teh archaeological evidence, and teh genetics analyses that show Polynesians were first in New Zealand.
Sheesh, next you’ll be telling us there’s a lot of money invested in evolution, therefore it’s wrongzors, or worse yet, HIV…
And muzza, I’ll cluebat you on vaccines when I can, Nick be depressed at present and thus all out of teaspoons for trudging through stuff that’s easily found via googling science-based medicine sites.
“Nick be depressed at present ” – Maybe get yourself a vaccination to fix that then eh, or some big pharma pills! As long as they are getting paid, all is good!
It would be your choice to take the vaccination/pills of course, which was only ever my point. That topic was over weeks ago, but by all means add to your low by wasting your time…
Rip into it!
I caught autism from my flu jab this year, but a statistically-insignificant solution of henbane cleared it right up.
Should have given it to the ORU then mate, sounds like they could have used a dose!
It would have to be a solution diluted thousands of times more to cure the abysmal cash-control, idiotic math, and an overwhelming sense of entitlement held for the 40 years since they were in the school first fifteen that those tossers are afflicted by.
Why the pricks couldn’t have gone under before we built them a $300mil stadium I don’t know. Oh, wait – it was the idiotic excess of the stadium that got their 3 biggest supporters kicked from local council, so then the council stopped permanently rolling over loans and writing off debts. I think that counts as “irony”.
More positive effects of the neo-con model in NZ
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10794083
“After the shocking figures were revealed last month, Prime Minister John Key agreed the health gap was a wider social issue that needed to be addressed.”
Cue a move to outsource, sorry “bestsource”, healthcare to Serco. They’re got their fingers in everything else.
Roughly 30 years ago NZ radically updated its fiscal laws, but crucially it failed to reward good endeavors and punish bad. Property speculation took off and the wealth of NZ, in a world awash with cheap oil and easy credit, funneled growth in the wrong areas of the economy. And now the economy is suffering, since we need a deeper and wider economy to draw upon, yet we built crap leaky homes,and hire shrill poor managers in the private and public sectors.
Wakeup NZ, it was easy to grow, now its going to be tough, and no its not the workers fault. In fact we need a German like outlook to employer-employee relationships.
It’s Peters vs Hide. Grudge match.
Radio Live right now, streaming here: http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Portals/0/popup/Listen.htm
Winston is entertaining and credible. A good advocate Felix.
bloody entertaining radio, peters:”rodney hyde thinks manual labour is the president of mexico”
Damn is there a podcast of this anywhere?
Yep, everything broadcast on radiolive is archived here: http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Audio.aspx
Think it ran from 2pm to 3pm.
Chur Felix.
Just listened to it. Notice how everyone who wanted to talk to Winston sounded like he had a brain injury?
I particularly liked Sarah.
Sarah: Ooh, Can I speak to Winston, please ?
Winston: Go ahead.
Sarah: This is the first time I ever got to spoke to you. I will say, you are a very lovely man.
Sounds like she had her finger on the dial while she was talking to him haha.
radio live.
Death by a 1000 cuts – Just another cut to households. Just been sent from Mercury gas charges going up. Currently paying 7.98/kWh price to go up to 8.99 (increase by 12.6%) but if I fix for 3 years it will be 9.17 (and only an increase of 14.9%). Add on rate increases and other non tradables how can households survive in NZ? Just waiting for interest rates to start increasing.
Expect petrol to go up rapidly if a shooting war starts in the Straits of Hormuz.
That’s the purpose of the conflict.
The price could “shoot up” just with the continued threat of conflict. If the insurers up premiums for transport/cargo on perceived risk, that will push prices up also.
Violent conflict will send the price right up – As SpaceMonkey says, thats the purpose of it!
It just gets worse and worse, I seriously dont know how much more I can take. More corporate welfare?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10794106
What a farce.
Insurance company goes bust, govt bails them out eating all the shit and leaving the above water parts of the business intact, govt builds a temporary stadium, insurance company sponsors stadium.
Just fuck off.
Clashman, thats hilarious, you have to laugh, just like dan “can you believe they got away with this shit” carters smile …
Depends what the liabilities are – but I’m picking they’re going to be more than the $380m we got for the assets.
No, wait, who got the $380m?
It’s the barefaced ‘F You’ that grates the most…..bet they’re busy cooking up a way to bail out that RU that went bust or have I missed a few meetings …..
“The terms of the bailout will see AMI’s earthquake liabilities transferred to a Crown-owned company, leaving IAG free to pick up the good assets.” Like rugby stadia?
Rugby stadia are a useless money losing waste of time. Which is why they always get public money to fund them.
Just as well we do not take baseball seriously. I just love the way Amercian communism system works or was that private enterprise !! 😉
http://www.american.com/archive/2008/april-04-08/a-closer-look-at-stadium-subsidies
And no longer does the public sector determine the appropriate price to charge private enterprise for use of this publicly supplied resource. Today, sports stadiums are largely the private domain of for-profit businesses that the public sector subsidizes, often with special taxes.
http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2009/01/3496_nyc_baseball_st.html
Of that, the public – city, state, and federal taxpayers – are now covering just shy of $1.2 billion, by far the largest stadium subsidy ever. In fact, even discounting the $417 million in property-tax breaks (if you’re inclined to agree with Lieber), it’s still the largest stadium subsidy ever. The Yankees, meanwhile, would be on the hook for just $670 million, after counting property-tax breaks.
But what about the banks, bankers Fraud , Doesn’t count I guess!
Sharopetrosian is a member of the Armenian Power organized crime group hmmm, there is anopther organised criminal group working the other side of the States, they are known collectively as Goldman Sachs. We have are own GS operative here in NZ.
Has anyone else been following this:
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/13244696/man-harassed-woman-over-olivia-case/
I am not sure the criminal justice system needed to be called in for this one. I would have gone with the Mental Health system.
Sometimes, the most resource-intensive people are the ones who kind’ve stay just sane enough to keep out of the health system, but in one or two precise areas they are still very irrational, obsessive, and create detailed fantasies over months or years.
Sucks for everyone involved. And the paperwork is a bitch.
Still. I am grateful. Fucking hilarious.
I enrolled in a maori language course at southland Polytech in 1993 and the teacher took us through how to introduce youreself, referring to your ancestor and your mountain or lake or whatever. He said his ancestor was Tutankhamen and that was why his surname began with Tut. I got put off by this. Was the guy serious ? I didn’t want to hurt his feelings so I never asked.
I like the truth of people searching the greatest ocean and finding the land of birds. The Egyptians and Phoenicians would never have bothered to voyage son far, even had they been able to. So many resources precious to them much closer to home.
All humans came from Africa, but this was long before Tutankhamen and the thousands of ancient egyptian years, and the phoenicians.
http://jstreet.org/blog/florida-house-senate-pass-troubling-resolutions-regarding-israel/
Florida House, Senate Pass Troubling Resolutions Regarding Israel
March 12, 2012 at 10:16 pm
J Street is concerned about nearly identical resolutions regarding Israel that were passed by the Florida House and Senate last week.
Those who voted for the resolutions thinking they were simply expressing straightforward support for Israel probably had little clue that the language they endorsed contains the seeds of Israel’s destruction as a democratic state and Jewish homeland. Keeping “the entirety of the land” under Israeli control and granting all those who live there democratic rights (“one law for all people”) is actually the agenda of those who seek a “one-state solution” – a binational state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, better thought of as the end of Israel as we know it.
With the demographic data clearly telling us that the number of non-Jews will exceed the number of Jews over time, the formula passed by the Florida legislature leads inexorably to the eradication of Israel as a democratic national home for the Jewish people.
These Florida resolutions are good examples of what it looks like to hug a friend so tightly that you unintentionally suffocate him.
We urge both chambers of the Florida Legislature to revoke these egregiously-misguided resolutions and to support the only route to Israel being both Jewish and democratic – a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
http://jstreet.org/blog/florida-house-senate-pass-troubling-resolutions-regarding-israel/
UK Conservatives pass “Fiscally Neutral” Budget giving tax cuts to millionaires
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEu5uFDlQvg&context=C4cf22e2ADvjVQa1PpcFPzEQVXUK23JLMVr5jqR-JhctteyyNzscM=
The neolibs must share an international dictionary of bullshit.
Birds of a feather flock together
Research finds that forgiving home loans will save money – the problem?
The Tea Partiers and other selfish pricks.
Too many US citizens don’t give a fuck about anyone else in their communities now. If they can’t clamber off in a lifeboat themselves, they’ll make sure no one else does either.