Young is a willing enabler and shill for key and his cabal.
CT has probably produced a plan they will work to involving a lot of distraction, this worked a treat last Election. Anything celebrity/all black/sporty JK can hitch his wagon to.
Also a bad dose of miserablelitus, key symptoms I see misery in everything, and when I don’t I go looking for it , severe symptoms include obsessive googling, uncontrollable desire to cut and paste plus delusions of ones intelligence
Not sure why Granny Herald’s role as an approved outlet of the ruling classes is ever in question.
They might from time to time run a good piece or interview a good economist, but that only happens outside of election years, and it is only there for a veneer of “balance”.
That’s right CV ,it has always been that way. Just seems to be getting worse.
I see Gavin Ellis is even getting concerned about the problem with what’s going on.
There, Glazyev proposed a five-year ‘road map’ to Russia’s economic sovereignty and long-term growth. It was aimed toward building up the country’s immunity to external shocks and foreign influence, and ultimately, toward bringing Russia out of the periphery and into the core of the global economic system. Goals included raising industrial output by 30-35 percent over a five year period, creating a socially-oriented ‘knowledge economy’ via the transfer of substantial economic resources to education, health care and the social sphere, the creation of instruments aimed at increasing savings as a percent of GDP, and other initiatives, <b?including a transition to a sovereign monetary policy.
I expect character assassination of Russia by the Western MSM will step up quite markedly.
Yes, but it’s an oligarchy at odds with the US oligarchy and if they start getting massive economic boost from a sovereign monetary policy they also become a Good Example of a system that works better than the Western private credit system.
Try addressing the point of DtB’s comment rather than derailing it. All large nations are corrupt to some degree and Russia is no exception. But that is not all that Russia is about and this is actually a very interesting report.
You have to keep in mind that while Putin is no angel, in a historic context he is still by far the best leader the Russian people have had since … well ever. Hence his enduring popularity.
Well I have worked there for a short period and spent much of last Friday evening chatting with the head of our Russian office. This absolutely does not qualify me as our resident Russia expert, but it gives me just enough appreciation of what you are saying to confirm you are 100% correct.
In a nutshell it’s like this: on the surface the Russians are very buttoned down and grim. Think Leonid Brezhnev stereotype. The reason is that that their history teaches them to always be circumspect in the public domain. By contrast in private I found them to be a wonderful mix of mad party animals, scholars and artistic souls.
And while life in Russia is very tough in many respects, they are as you say a deeply civilised people almost completely misunderstood in the West.
They survived the Golden Horde and still welcome Muslims as a massively growing demographic.
They survived Napolean and Hitler and NATO, and still want to engage with Western Europe as military, economic and diplomatic partners.
They view their own government authorities as chokingly bureaucratic, and often corrupt, but give Putin far higher approval ratings than any western population gives its own political leaders.
Interestingly the West’s efforts to isolate, sanction and demonise Russia has forced that nation’s acceleration towards fully expressing its own civilisational perspective, one which is neither Tsarist nor Soviet in character.
Pretty easy to have enduring popularity when you can disappear journalists and jail dissidents.
No, my point to Draco and his comment was while it may look good on paper I have my serious doubts that Russia is in anyway better or more trustworthy than any other so I take everything with a grain of salt and hefty dose of skepticism.
Pretty easy to have enduring popularity when you can disappear journalists and jail dissidents.
No .. in fact that sort of thing generally causes much unpopularity over time. And in fact the kind of thing you refer to, while it does have an undoubted chilling effect, does not happen all that often. Certainly not remarkably more often than many other places in the world. Even NZ has it’s local and quite recent examples of govt. intimidation of journos it doesn’t like.
But the point is, while none of this is defendable, it’s not the purpose of DtB’s comment. Which is that for the first time in my adult life a major economy is officially abandoning neo-liberal policy and trying something different.
Which is that for the first time in my adult life a major economy is officially abandoning neo-liberal policy and trying something different.
And the big part of that difference is the use of sovereign money. If they do it well, and that’s a big if, then Russia will find out very rapidly that it doesn’t need foreign investment or trade and the rest of the world will also realise that. Especially all those poor countries that happen to be dependent upon foreign ‘aid’ – the ‘aid’ that more often than not subsidises private businesses in the country that the aid is coming from.
As I say, it becomes an example of a state that’s not dependent upon the present private credit system.
Which is that for the first time in my adult life a major economy is officially abandoning neo-liberal policy and trying something different.
Putin can head in this direction now because the West’s attempts to destabilise Russia by creating issues like a Ukrainian coup, trying to turn Sevastapol in Crimea into a NATO base, Olympics faux drug scandal, blocking Gazprom pipelines into Europe, degrading Russia’s nuclear deterrent by placing ABM systems close to her borders, and others.
Not to mention the US continuously attempting to use the western controlled financial, monetary and banking system against Russia.
The sum of this has ended up incrementally and effectively discrediting the formerly powerful neoliberals and Atlanticists that Putin has always had to include in his government structures including the central bank.
And so now the Kremlin can start heading in a different direction.
(As an interesting note, Russia has through all of this continued to supply US forces in Afghanistan with fuel, NASA with rocket engines, and the US military industrial complex with titanium aerospace alloys.)
You are so right Colonial, and hasn’t the western airforces adopted the Russian Ejector seat after it had a very good demonstration at the Paris Airshow in 1993 when two of their MIG 29’s collided
I remember at the time the air chiefs of the west were astounded that both pilots walked away from this mid air collision.
Also Apple incorporating the Russian GLONASS geolocation system into their iPhones alongside the traditional GPS; Samsung has done the same in its flagship Galaxy S phones.
Basically, Russia would prefer to partner most closely economically and technologically with the west rather than with China, which is the only option that is left open to Russia nowadays.
Even NZ has it’s local and quite recent examples of govt. intimidation of journos it doesn’t like.
Did you seriously write that in response to a comment about the Russian government having journalists murdered?
I think it is relevant to the original comment. If an economy is being governed by a guy who thinks the collapse of the Soviet Union was a tragedy and has journalists who expose his corruption killed, then news of great prospects for success of that economy isn’t good news for liberal society.
Psycho Milt, the US doesn’t kill its own journalists, but in the 20th and 21st century it has installed and supported plenty of regimes which did.
then news of great prospects for success of that economy isn’t good news for liberal society.
The Russian people prefer Putin’s mildy conservative traditional societal values style of politics to that of the liberal and neoliberal Atlanticists.
by a guy who thinks the collapse of the Soviet Union was a tragedy
In particular, how the Soviet Union collapsed was a tragedy, and specifically the fact that the West used it as an opportunity to maim and gut the country from the inside out.
Exactly. PM confuses the fall of the Soviet Union with the neo-liberal gutting of the country post-Gorbachev.
I personally saw the heart-breaking poverty and hardship the Russian people endured through the 90’s. And yet Russia was never a poor country, it was always rich in resource both material and cultural. It was poor because it was being looted.
In the Soviet era, while there was a lack of political freedom, almost everyone had a warm home, access to a decent education, medical care and some sort of job to go to. A decade later and this happened.
I was walking back to my apartment from the center of the city and for a slight change I decided to detour through the war memorial gardens at the end of the main road. About 200m into the park, I could see a small circular monument, with gardens and some seating around an ‘eternal flame’ in memory to all those who’d died defending Russia.
As I got closer I could see a figure huddled just out of sight, on the side of that would be normally out of sight from the road. At -10 degC there was a boy, no more than 11 or 12 huddled as best he could for some warmth from the flame. He was clearly homeless, and I stood rooted to the spot for some moments. He could so easily have been my own son, yet there was nothing I could think to do about it.
Poverty is a warm country is one thing, in a cold country it’s lethal. And all of this was entirely avoidable, Russia did not have to endure this.
Anytime someone challenges you on Russia’s fairly…errr…poor record in freedom of speech (i.e. assasinating political foes and journalists) you immediately leap to pointing the finger at the US.
Yes, the US is a poor international actor but that does not validate Russia’s own behaviour. Russia should be condemened for its actions the same as the US.
…the West used it as an opportunity to maim and gut the country from the inside out.
Of course, it was all the fault of the wicked West. No ex-Soviet citizens could possibly have had anything to do with looting the place and turning it into a Mafia state, because… well, because the West are the bad guys and that explains everything ever.
In particular, how the Soviet Union collapsed was a tragedy, and specifically the fact that the West used it as an opportunity to maim and gut the country from the inside out.
RL:
… the heart-breaking poverty and hardship the Russian people endured through the 90’s … It was poor because it was being looted.
The excellent Prof Stephen F Cohen:
A large majority of Russians, as they have regularly made clear in opinion surveys, regret the end of the Soviet Union, not because they pine for “communism” but because they lost a secure way of life.
They do not share the nearly unanimous western view that the Soviet Union’s “collapse” was “inevitable” because of inherent fatal defects.
They believe instead, and for good reason, that three “subjective” factors broke it up: the way Gorbachev carried out his political and economic reforms; a power struggle in which Yeltsin overthrew the Soviet state in order to get rid of its president, Gorbachev; and property-seizing Soviet bureaucratic elites, the nomenklatura, who were more interested in “privatising” the state’s enormous wealth in 1991 than in defending it.
Most Russians, including even the imprisoned oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, therefore still see December 1991 as a “tragedy”.
In addition, a growing number of Russian intellectuals have come to believe that something essential was lost – a historic opportunity to democratise and modernise Russia by methods more gradualist, consensual and less traumatic, and thus more fruitful and less costly, than those adopted after 1991.
Having ended the Soviet state in a way that lacked legal or popular legitimacy – in a referendum nine months before, 76% had voted to preserve the union – the Yeltsin ruling group soon became fearful of real democracy … Yeltsin’s armed overthrow of the Russian parliament soon followed.
Dissolving the union without any preparatory stages shattered a highly integrated economy and was a major cause of the collapse of production across the former Soviet territories, which fell by almost half in the 1990s. That in turn contributed to mass poverty and its attendant social pathologies, which are still, in the words of a respected Moscow economist, the “main fact” of Russian life today.
And, as a one-time Yeltsin supporter wrote later, “almost everything that happened in Russia after 1991 was determined to a significant extent by the divvying-up of the property of the former USSR”. Soviet elites took much of the state’s enormous wealth with no regard for fair procedures or public opinion. To enrich themselves, they wanted the most valuable state property distributed from above, without the participation of legislatures. They achieved that, first by themselves, through “spontaneous nomenklatura privatisation”, and after 1991, through Kremlin decrees issued by Yeltsin …
… Yeltsin abolished the Soviet Union with the backing of the nomenklatura elites – pursuing the “smell of property like a beast after prey”, as Yeltsin’s chief minister put it – and an avowedly pro-democracy wing of the intelligentsia. Traditional enemies in the pre-Gorbachev Soviet system, they colluded in 1991 largely because the intelligentsia’s radical market ideas seemed to justify nomenklatura privatisation.
But the most influential pro-Yeltsin intellectuals were neither coincidental fellow travellers nor real democrats. Since the late 1980s they had insisted that free-market economics and large-scale private property would have to be imposed on Russian society by an “iron hand” regime using “anti-democratic measures”.
Like the property-seeking elites, they saw Russia’s newly elected legislatures as an obstacle. Admirers of Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, they said of Yeltsin: “Let him be a dictator!” Not surprisingly, they cheered (along with the US government and mainstream media) when he used tanks to destroy Russia’s popularly elected parliament in 1993.
And … recent analysis from Cohen on the US MSM’s demonization of Russia:
American media on Russia today are less objective, less balanced, more conformist and scarcely less ideological than when they covered Soviet Russia during the Cold War.
The history of this degradation is also clear. It began in the early 1990s, following the end of the Soviet Union, when the US media adopted Washington’s narrative that almost everything President Boris Yeltsin did was a “transition from communism to democracy” and thus in America’s best interests.
This included his economic “shock therapy” and oligarchic looting of essential state assets, which destroyed tens of millions of Russian lives; armed destruction of a popularly elected Parliament and imposition of a “presidential” Constitution, which dealt a crippling blow to democratization and now empowers Putin; brutal war in tiny Chechnya, which gave rise to terrorists in Russia’s North Caucasus; Yeltsin rigging of his own re-election in 1996; and leaving behind, in 1999, his approval ratings in single digits, a disintegrating country laden with weapons of mass destruction.
Indeed, most American journalists still give the impression that Yeltsin was an ideal Russian leader. Since the early 2000s, the media have followed a different leader-centric narrative, also consistent with US policy, that devalues multifaceted analysis for a relentless demonization of Putin, with little regard for facts.
Russia today has serious problems and many repugnant Kremlin policies. But anyone relying on mainstream American media will not find there any of their origins or influences in Yeltsin’s Russia or in provocative US policies since the 1990s—only in the “autocrat” Putin who, however authoritarian, in reality lacks such power.
Nor is he credited with stabilizing a disintegrating nuclear-armed country, assisting US security pursuits from Afghanistan and Syria to Iran or even with granting amnesty, in December, to more than 1,000 jailed prisoners, including mothers of young children.
Cheers swordfish. I enjoy listening to the talk show segment that Cohen and John Batchelor does every week.
The other side of Cohen’s comments helps explain part of Putin’s popularity.
After just a decade and a half in power, Putin has largely economically rehabilitated Russia from the wrecked sold out shell that Yeltsin and the Oligarchs had created out of the old USSR>
The US doesnt kill its own journalists ??really ?some how i doubt that michael hastings is the first name to come to mind died in 2013 after his late model merc hit a palm tree and then burst into flame later the engine of the car was found 100meters or so down the street perhaps the mechanics at mercedes didnt bolt it down properly !! so hard to get good staff these days .
Hastings had done a story on Gen Stanley McCrystal which had led to obama accepting his resignation.
The other guy who comes to mind was that journo who discovered that drugs were being flown into the states in us military planes to fund a dirty and secret war cant remember which administration that was i think the journos name might have been garry ..webb ?….
Psycho Milt. Many Americans have died, by foul means, for questioning Corporate America. Many of them could just as easily be described as journalists rather than whistleblowers.
“The open society and its enemies.” A few of its enemies can be found commenting on blogs, attempting to create false equivalence between liberal societies and appallingly illiberal ones. It’s not pleasant to watch.
No-one is claiming Putin’s Russia conforms to our Western liberal ideals. But then again considering how rarely we actually live up to these ideals, the point is rather mute.
And yes I do understand the large difference between murdering a journalist and raiding their home/office and illegally seizing their computers. But in the context of two very different nations, with different histories and cultures … the chilling effect on journalism might not be so very different.
Frankly it doesn’t take a long or hard look to find plenty that is ugly and appalling about any of the major powers. They each tend to specialise in their own particular appalling and none of it is defendable. But at the same time I do try to avoid falling into that weirdly unhelpful binary trap of thinking this is ALL they are about.
You are a refreshing informer who breaks the pattern of incessant biased drivel that we get fed.
I think that some Germans are still wondering just how the Russians defeated them in World War 2. We didn’t – the Russians did. They defeated 80% of Hitler’s war effort, while we claim victory in fighting only 20% – slow and late.
Communist/Socialist/Capitalist hardly mattered. The Russians did it.
But, of course, only Capitalism may be seen as successful…
Put behind a pay wall, now my tax dollars are going to pay for it… Yeah right. No wait I really am paying for the shitty thing I could not watch because I won’t help Muppet Murdoch be even more of a slime ball.
There isn’t one. I can restrict linked video to sites that do maintain moderation control and that check the contents of videos, but I have never found anything similar for images. And there are a number of ways that images can be abused.
The only possible way is to sequester images while my server side runs scans on them. Then put them into our media library rather than linking to other sites. Since the vast bulk of the site’s data is already images, I’m reluctant to increase the backup footprint. Besides putting the images directly into our site is likely to cause copyright issues.
“Mr Rankin will be laying a complaint with TV One’s management over the actions of its staff. “Our team were surprised at the cowardly behaviour of the reporters. We were at risk of being seriously assaulted, or worse, and this man’s child was in extreme danger, but the reporters just fled the scene.”
Mr Rankin will be approaching TV One management today asking for a full investigation.
I found it interesting the story on Stuff and the Herald didn’t mention anything about Rankin laying a complaint over the cowardly behaviour of the TV One news crew
Wondering why Rankin believes the man was on “P” I guess it’s an excuse as to why someone is so angry. Time will tell what the real story is rather than a press release from a right wing council candidate.
Maybe the reporters backed off to get a wider camera angle?
Puckish Rogue the second link you posted came up as a 403 forbidden for me
hmm – the man with the sword wasnt attempting to attack the child (the child was back in the car presumably) – so its a bit weird to try and claim the journos have done something wrong.
Im pretty sure the advice from the police would be “dont get involved – call us”
sure the guy sounds like he was dangerous – but the rest of it all seems to be desperate profile building.
i struggle to see what a complaint to TVNZ would actually be about – journos arent keepers of law and order after all
(happy to retract once more info comes to light of course)
When interviewed about this on morning report, Brash seemed to think no one had any photos and no one had called the police. Really? Man with sword not filmed? By anyone? Brash sounded concerned for the boy, but no one called police . Really?
Thought the right wing were big on ” law and order”
Whoops, I guess Rankin did a Lochte, and got a bit carried away with his version of events, Brash tried to paint Rankin and himself as ‘victims’ turns out Brash did a runner.
TVNZ news boss John Gillespie this morning said the ONE News team did not feel they or Mr Rankin were in any danger from the man.
“Our team said the man was not waving the sword about nor did he appear to have any violent intent,” Mr Gillespie said in a statement.
“The sword was pointed towards the ground. The boy with the man was smiling and appeared happy. Our cameraman had finished filming by this point and was packing up his gear.
“Our team said Mr Rankin approached the man, shook hands with him and spoke to him.
“Our team were by now in their car ready to leave. Dr Brash had left. Mr Rankin got into his car and as he was driving off, rolled down his window and spoke with the team.
“Our team were the last to leave.
“Our team never felt in danger and nor were they concerned about the safety of anyone else.”
I read that – lots of facts, tenuous connections, and the worst possible conclusions made. It is not news that some try to get access and favours and sometimes they even succeed overtly and/or covertly.
LOL never would have thought you to be a bleeding heart hillary supporter i saw a clip of her once where she was giving a talk in a packed auditorium on …i kid you not free speech …when a guy stands up wearing a tee shirt with something apparrently provocative on it an turns his back to her in order to display it whereupon he is immediately jumped on by two goons who manhandle him very roughly out of the room. Meanwhile hillary doesnt even hesitate for a nanno secend on how its so important to have democratic rights etc etc The other yuk thing was the totally absorbed almost fixated attention of the audience almost noone even turned around when the “protester”was dragged out .They reminded me of a bunch of sheep or christians at a gathering of the flock .Ithought what a fucking cold bitch no way shed get my vote .
But no obviously a right wing attack meme trp /sarc
[lprent: You appear to confuse “free speech” with your “right” to be a arrogant offensive fuckwit. Hosts at any venue, both public or private, make the rules about behaviour, just as they do here. “Free speech” doesn’t mean that you or any other gormless idiotic wanker gets the right to crap all over our site, nor like the protagonist in your story – to wave your diseased mind around like a demented stage 3 syphilitic patient. But obviously that is what you think you can and should be able to do.
Well around here you cannot. On this site you obey our rules as a guest. If you don’t want to then you can take your stupidity elsewhere and whine there like any other tormented puppy after being disciplined for weeing on the carpet. If you look hard enough around the net, I am sure that you can find somewhere that will tolerate adult children with spoilt tantrum issues.
So I’m giving you 2 weeks freedom from the need to comment here while you read our policies about the behaviour of guests on our site and/or look for another site to be a fuckwit on. Based on your profound ignorance of civilised behaviour, I suspect you will need that kind of time to look up and understand some of the concepts in the policy. Like “guest”, “responsibility”, “respect for hosts”, and what real “sarcasm” looks like.
And incidentially, I hope you liked me exercising my “free speech” on your pissant behaviour. ]
A Sulphurous Blast from the Past:
Seven minutes that disgusted New Zealand
This disgraceful, foul-mouthed, unintelligent spray doesn’t get any better, even after thirteen years. At about the two-minute mark in his ignorant and hateful rant, Paul Holmes opines that “the greatest perk, do-nothing job in the world is at the U.N.”
In fact, of course, as these bigots invariably do, he was talking about himself….
Seems I’m not the only one who thinks that Larry lost his job for criticizing the media establishment. Obama took it well, it just seems all the white people did not think it was funny.
Unlikely, Colbert roasted Bush Jr a lot worse. Difference is Colbert was/is very popular and funny. Wilmore was cutting but just not very funny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ-a2KeyCAY
School-age students will be able to enrol in an accredited online learning provider instead of attending school, under new Government legislation.
The radical change will see any registered school, tertiary provider such as a polytechnic or an approved body corporate be able to apply to be a “community of online learning” (COOL).
Any student of compulsory schooling age will be able to enrol in a COOL – and that provider will determine whether students will need to physically attend for all or some of the school day.
It sounds like something from “In the Thick of It”
Edmund Burke set out in an address to the electors of Bristol in 1774: “Your representative owes you not his industry only but his judgement; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”
I’m especially partial to Mr Burke’s notion that parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole.
Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different
and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain,
as an agent and advocate, against other agents and
advocates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one
nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local
purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the
general good, resulting from the general reason of the
whole. You choose a member indeed; but when you have
chosen him, he is not member of Bristol, but he is a member
of parliament. If the local constituent should have an
interest, or should form an hasty opinion, evidently opposite
to the real good of the rest of the community, the
member for that place ought to be as far, as any other,
from any endeavour to give it effect. I beg pardon for
saying so much on this subject. I have been unwillingly
drawn into it; but I shall ever use a respectful frankness
of communication with you. Your faithful friend, your devoted
servant, I shall be to the end of my life: a flatterer
you do not wish for.
It’s not perfect, what with all the different networks of corporate connection, but it does require that environmental, social, and corporate governance issues be part of the fiduciary calculation (i.e. “maximised profits” include the long term good as well as short term mercenary motivations).
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What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
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305 000 in poverty.
People living in cars, containers and garages.
Over 4000 people poisoned by polluted water.
Yet, Audrey Young New Zealand Herald’s political editor, finds this more important to talk about.
Not their sports editor.
Not their entertainment editor.
Their political editor.
‘John Key: Don’t jump to conclusions about bugging device found in All Blacks’ hotel.’
(without mentioning the new spy bill in parliament)
The media sucks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11698962
Young is a willing enabler and shill for key and his cabal.
CT has probably produced a plan they will work to involving a lot of distraction, this worked a treat last Election. Anything celebrity/all black/sporty JK can hitch his wagon to.
Why bother with granny herald.
Seriously when last week it was all about John Keys ties – this is a paper that is so out of touch Whale Oil looks a better read.
Why bother with granny herald.
Media derangement Syndrome. Paul’s got it bad and is not expected to recover.
Also a bad dose of miserablelitus, key symptoms I see misery in everything, and when I don’t I go looking for it , severe symptoms include obsessive googling, uncontrollable desire to cut and paste plus delusions of ones intelligence
@Adam +1 – yep don’t click on Granny – you are enabling them.
Not sure why Granny Herald’s role as an approved outlet of the ruling classes is ever in question.
They might from time to time run a good piece or interview a good economist, but that only happens outside of election years, and it is only there for a veneer of “balance”.
That’s right CV ,it has always been that way. Just seems to be getting worse.
I see Gavin Ellis is even getting concerned about the problem with what’s going on.
Putin: Nyet to Neo-liberals, Da to National Development
I expect character assassination of Russia by the Western MSM will step up quite markedly.
Russia might as well be an oligarchy at this stage so I won’t hold my breath.
Yes, but it’s an oligarchy at odds with the US oligarchy and if they start getting massive economic boost from a sovereign monetary policy they also become a Good Example of a system that works better than the Western private credit system.
I’m as suspicious of Russia as I am the US. They are both corrupt dictatorial plutocracies.
Try addressing the point of DtB’s comment rather than derailing it. All large nations are corrupt to some degree and Russia is no exception. But that is not all that Russia is about and this is actually a very interesting report.
You have to keep in mind that while Putin is no angel, in a historic context he is still by far the best leader the Russian people have had since … well ever. Hence his enduring popularity.
I think Russia has been so demonised and vilified over so many generations that we have absolutely no bloody idea what it is about..
the mystery wrapping the riddle tied up in an enigma
one of the most civilised and advanced nations on the planet
we have no idea
Well I have worked there for a short period and spent much of last Friday evening chatting with the head of our Russian office. This absolutely does not qualify me as our resident Russia expert, but it gives me just enough appreciation of what you are saying to confirm you are 100% correct.
In a nutshell it’s like this: on the surface the Russians are very buttoned down and grim. Think Leonid Brezhnev stereotype. The reason is that that their history teaches them to always be circumspect in the public domain. By contrast in private I found them to be a wonderful mix of mad party animals, scholars and artistic souls.
And while life in Russia is very tough in many respects, they are as you say a deeply civilised people almost completely misunderstood in the West.
They survived the Golden Horde and still welcome Muslims as a massively growing demographic.
They survived Napolean and Hitler and NATO, and still want to engage with Western Europe as military, economic and diplomatic partners.
They view their own government authorities as chokingly bureaucratic, and often corrupt, but give Putin far higher approval ratings than any western population gives its own political leaders.
Interestingly the West’s efforts to isolate, sanction and demonise Russia has forced that nation’s acceleration towards fully expressing its own civilisational perspective, one which is neither Tsarist nor Soviet in character.
Pretty easy to have enduring popularity when you can disappear journalists and jail dissidents.
No, my point to Draco and his comment was while it may look good on paper I have my serious doubts that Russia is in anyway better or more trustworthy than any other so I take everything with a grain of salt and hefty dose of skepticism.
Pretty easy to have enduring popularity when you can disappear journalists and jail dissidents.
No .. in fact that sort of thing generally causes much unpopularity over time. And in fact the kind of thing you refer to, while it does have an undoubted chilling effect, does not happen all that often. Certainly not remarkably more often than many other places in the world. Even NZ has it’s local and quite recent examples of govt. intimidation of journos it doesn’t like.
But the point is, while none of this is defendable, it’s not the purpose of DtB’s comment. Which is that for the first time in my adult life a major economy is officially abandoning neo-liberal policy and trying something different.
And that is news.
And the big part of that difference is the use of sovereign money. If they do it well, and that’s a big if, then Russia will find out very rapidly that it doesn’t need foreign investment or trade and the rest of the world will also realise that. Especially all those poor countries that happen to be dependent upon foreign ‘aid’ – the ‘aid’ that more often than not subsidises private businesses in the country that the aid is coming from.
As I say, it becomes an example of a state that’s not dependent upon the present private credit system.
Your points are well taken
Putin can head in this direction now because the West’s attempts to destabilise Russia by creating issues like a Ukrainian coup, trying to turn Sevastapol in Crimea into a NATO base, Olympics faux drug scandal, blocking Gazprom pipelines into Europe, degrading Russia’s nuclear deterrent by placing ABM systems close to her borders, and others.
Not to mention the US continuously attempting to use the western controlled financial, monetary and banking system against Russia.
The sum of this has ended up incrementally and effectively discrediting the formerly powerful neoliberals and Atlanticists that Putin has always had to include in his government structures including the central bank.
And so now the Kremlin can start heading in a different direction.
(As an interesting note, Russia has through all of this continued to supply US forces in Afghanistan with fuel, NASA with rocket engines, and the US military industrial complex with titanium aerospace alloys.)
Thanks … interesting points.
You are so right Colonial, and hasn’t the western airforces adopted the Russian Ejector seat after it had a very good demonstration at the Paris Airshow in 1993 when two of their MIG 29’s collided
I remember at the time the air chiefs of the west were astounded that both pilots walked away from this mid air collision.
Also Apple incorporating the Russian GLONASS geolocation system into their iPhones alongside the traditional GPS; Samsung has done the same in its flagship Galaxy S phones.
Basically, Russia would prefer to partner most closely economically and technologically with the west rather than with China, which is the only option that is left open to Russia nowadays.
Even NZ has it’s local and quite recent examples of govt. intimidation of journos it doesn’t like.
Did you seriously write that in response to a comment about the Russian government having journalists murdered?
I think it is relevant to the original comment. If an economy is being governed by a guy who thinks the collapse of the Soviet Union was a tragedy and has journalists who expose his corruption killed, then news of great prospects for success of that economy isn’t good news for liberal society.
Psycho Milt, the US doesn’t kill its own journalists, but in the 20th and 21st century it has installed and supported plenty of regimes which did.
The Russian people prefer Putin’s mildy conservative traditional societal values style of politics to that of the liberal and neoliberal Atlanticists.
In particular, how the Soviet Union collapsed was a tragedy, and specifically the fact that the West used it as an opportunity to maim and gut the country from the inside out.
Exactly. PM confuses the fall of the Soviet Union with the neo-liberal gutting of the country post-Gorbachev.
I personally saw the heart-breaking poverty and hardship the Russian people endured through the 90’s. And yet Russia was never a poor country, it was always rich in resource both material and cultural. It was poor because it was being looted.
In the Soviet era, while there was a lack of political freedom, almost everyone had a warm home, access to a decent education, medical care and some sort of job to go to. A decade later and this happened.
I was walking back to my apartment from the center of the city and for a slight change I decided to detour through the war memorial gardens at the end of the main road. About 200m into the park, I could see a small circular monument, with gardens and some seating around an ‘eternal flame’ in memory to all those who’d died defending Russia.
As I got closer I could see a figure huddled just out of sight, on the side of that would be normally out of sight from the road. At -10 degC there was a boy, no more than 11 or 12 huddled as best he could for some warmth from the flame. He was clearly homeless, and I stood rooted to the spot for some moments. He could so easily have been my own son, yet there was nothing I could think to do about it.
Poverty is a warm country is one thing, in a cold country it’s lethal. And all of this was entirely avoidable, Russia did not have to endure this.
“But America does it too” is not a valid argument.
Why is providing information on context and common international behaviour not valid?
Anytime someone challenges you on Russia’s fairly…errr…poor record in freedom of speech (i.e. assasinating political foes and journalists) you immediately leap to pointing the finger at the US.
Yes, the US is a poor international actor but that does not validate Russia’s own behaviour. Russia should be condemened for its actions the same as the US.
There’s a really old fashioned idea about proclaiming righteous indignation and condemnation about another nation.
It’s that your own nation has the ethical and moral standing to do it from.
…the West used it as an opportunity to maim and gut the country from the inside out.
Of course, it was all the fault of the wicked West. No ex-Soviet citizens could possibly have had anything to do with looting the place and turning it into a Mafia state, because… well, because the West are the bad guys and that explains everything ever.
CV:
RL:
The excellent Prof Stephen F Cohen:
And … recent analysis from Cohen on the US MSM’s demonization of Russia:
Cheers swordfish. I enjoy listening to the talk show segment that Cohen and John Batchelor does every week.
The other side of Cohen’s comments helps explain part of Putin’s popularity.
After just a decade and a half in power, Putin has largely economically rehabilitated Russia from the wrecked sold out shell that Yeltsin and the Oligarchs had created out of the old USSR>
The US doesnt kill its own journalists ??really ?some how i doubt that michael hastings is the first name to come to mind died in 2013 after his late model merc hit a palm tree and then burst into flame later the engine of the car was found 100meters or so down the street perhaps the mechanics at mercedes didnt bolt it down properly !! so hard to get good staff these days .
Hastings had done a story on Gen Stanley McCrystal which had led to obama accepting his resignation.
The other guy who comes to mind was that journo who discovered that drugs were being flown into the states in us military planes to fund a dirty and secret war cant remember which administration that was i think the journos name might have been garry ..webb ?….
anyone else remember that story ?
The US also imprisoned and interrogated an innocent Al Jazeera journalist in Guantanamo Bay for many years, if that counts.
Psycho Milt. Many Americans have died, by foul means, for questioning Corporate America. Many of them could just as easily be described as journalists rather than whistleblowers.
Just look at how the First Nations are treated today. As well as homeless veterans.
“The open society and its enemies.” A few of its enemies can be found commenting on blogs, attempting to create false equivalence between liberal societies and appallingly illiberal ones. It’s not pleasant to watch.
No-one is claiming Putin’s Russia conforms to our Western liberal ideals. But then again considering how rarely we actually live up to these ideals, the point is rather mute.
And yes I do understand the large difference between murdering a journalist and raiding their home/office and illegally seizing their computers. But in the context of two very different nations, with different histories and cultures … the chilling effect on journalism might not be so very different.
Frankly it doesn’t take a long or hard look to find plenty that is ugly and appalling about any of the major powers. They each tend to specialise in their own particular appalling and none of it is defendable. But at the same time I do try to avoid falling into that weirdly unhelpful binary trap of thinking this is ALL they are about.
Thanks RedLogix
You are a refreshing informer who breaks the pattern of incessant biased drivel that we get fed.
I think that some Germans are still wondering just how the Russians defeated them in World War 2. We didn’t – the Russians did. They defeated 80% of Hitler’s war effort, while we claim victory in fighting only 20% – slow and late.
Communist/Socialist/Capitalist hardly mattered. The Russians did it.
But, of course, only Capitalism may be seen as successful…
Put behind a pay wall, now my tax dollars are going to pay for it… Yeah right. No wait I really am paying for the shitty thing I could not watch because I won’t help Muppet Murdoch be even more of a slime ball.
Great cartoon from Mr Evans
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/08/23/malcolm-evans-the-last-medal/
Meanwhile in the alternative universe occupied by the British Conservative party…
https://twitter.com/HeatherWheeler/status/767756321219379201
PS – what is the code to post an image directly to this site?
There isn’t one. I can restrict linked video to sites that do maintain moderation control and that check the contents of videos, but I have never found anything similar for images. And there are a number of ways that images can be abused.
The only possible way is to sequester images while my server side runs scans on them. Then put them into our media library rather than linking to other sites. Since the vast bulk of the site’s data is already images, I’m reluctant to increase the backup footprint. Besides putting the images directly into our site is likely to cause copyright issues.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1608/S00252/david-rankin-statement-alleging-sword-attack.htm
Former National Party leader and Council Candidate hold off “P” sword attacker in West Auckland as TV One news crew flees.
David Rankin and Don Brash have:
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/8392e9004b296f1fd4ebf6bf1c1e5485.jpg
And as for the media:
“Mr Rankin will be laying a complaint with TV One’s management over the actions of its staff. “Our team were surprised at the cowardly behaviour of the reporters. We were at risk of being seriously assaulted, or worse, and this man’s child was in extreme danger, but the reporters just fled the scene.”
Mr Rankin will be approaching TV One management today asking for a full investigation.
Desperate stuff. And no, I don’t mean the man with the sword.
I found it interesting the story on Stuff and the Herald didn’t mention anything about Rankin laying a complaint over the cowardly behaviour of the TV One news crew
Wondering why Rankin believes the man was on “P” I guess it’s an excuse as to why someone is so angry. Time will tell what the real story is rather than a press release from a right wing council candidate.
Maybe the reporters backed off to get a wider camera angle?
Puckish Rogue the second link you posted came up as a 403 forbidden for me
I wouldn’t worry about it, it was just an image of some big, brass balls
hmm – the man with the sword wasnt attempting to attack the child (the child was back in the car presumably) – so its a bit weird to try and claim the journos have done something wrong.
Im pretty sure the advice from the police would be “dont get involved – call us”
sure the guy sounds like he was dangerous – but the rest of it all seems to be desperate profile building.
i struggle to see what a complaint to TVNZ would actually be about – journos arent keepers of law and order after all
(happy to retract once more info comes to light of course)
To take on the media in this instance and to call them out as they did you’d assume that Brash and Rankin were on some pretty sure footing to do so
I mean I know if I was contemplating being a politician the last thing I’d do is take a dump on the media but that’s just me of course
Since when did the msm become security personnel for candidates.
The sense of entitiement is hilarious and misguided as expected.
Harden up son your not an overpaid manager anymore, a choice you made.
When interviewed about this on morning report, Brash seemed to think no one had any photos and no one had called the police. Really? Man with sword not filmed? By anyone? Brash sounded concerned for the boy, but no one called police . Really?
Thought the right wing were big on ” law and order”
I suspect Brash and Rankin were slightly indisposed with guy with the sword, maybe the one news journos could have called?
Whoops, I guess Rankin did a Lochte, and got a bit carried away with his version of events, Brash tried to paint Rankin and himself as ‘victims’ turns out Brash did a runner.
TVNZ news boss John Gillespie this morning said the ONE News team did not feel they or Mr Rankin were in any danger from the man.
“Our team said the man was not waving the sword about nor did he appear to have any violent intent,” Mr Gillespie said in a statement.
“The sword was pointed towards the ground. The boy with the man was smiling and appeared happy. Our cameraman had finished filming by this point and was packing up his gear.
“Our team said Mr Rankin approached the man, shook hands with him and spoke to him.
“Our team were by now in their car ready to leave. Dr Brash had left. Mr Rankin got into his car and as he was driving off, rolled down his window and spoke with the team.
“Our team were the last to leave.
“Our team never felt in danger and nor were they concerned about the safety of anyone else.”
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/live-stream-one-news-tonight-q01253
Hillary Clinton bought?
’15k new Hillary emails discovered as evidence of Clinton Foundation pay-to-play scheme grows’
https://www.rt.com/usa/356782-clinton-emails-bahrain-prince/
I read that – lots of facts, tenuous connections, and the worst possible conclusions made. It is not news that some try to get access and favours and sometimes they even succeed overtly and/or covertly.
How is it not news that a US Sec State accepted millions in foreign donations while presiding over decisions affecting those same foreign donors?
Or is it just the norm now and not newsworthy.
Could just be that only a few are fooled by right wing attack memes. Particularly memes that aren’t actually true and don’t stand up to scrutiny.
LOL never would have thought you to be a bleeding heart hillary supporter i saw a clip of her once where she was giving a talk in a packed auditorium on …i kid you not free speech …when a guy stands up wearing a tee shirt with something apparrently provocative on it an turns his back to her in order to display it whereupon he is immediately jumped on by two goons who manhandle him very roughly out of the room. Meanwhile hillary doesnt even hesitate for a nanno secend on how its so important to have democratic rights etc etc The other yuk thing was the totally absorbed almost fixated attention of the audience almost noone even turned around when the “protester”was dragged out .They reminded me of a bunch of sheep or christians at a gathering of the flock .Ithought what a fucking cold bitch no way shed get my vote .
But no obviously a right wing attack meme trp /sarc
[lprent: You appear to confuse “free speech” with your “right” to be a arrogant offensive fuckwit. Hosts at any venue, both public or private, make the rules about behaviour, just as they do here. “Free speech” doesn’t mean that you or any other gormless idiotic wanker gets the right to crap all over our site, nor like the protagonist in your story – to wave your diseased mind around like a demented stage 3 syphilitic patient. But obviously that is what you think you can and should be able to do.
Well around here you cannot. On this site you obey our rules as a guest. If you don’t want to then you can take your stupidity elsewhere and whine there like any other tormented puppy after being disciplined for weeing on the carpet. If you look hard enough around the net, I am sure that you can find somewhere that will tolerate adult children with spoilt tantrum issues.
So I’m giving you 2 weeks freedom from the need to comment here while you read our policies about the behaviour of guests on our site and/or look for another site to be a fuckwit on. Based on your profound ignorance of civilised behaviour, I suspect you will need that kind of time to look up and understand some of the concepts in the policy. Like “guest”, “responsibility”, “respect for hosts”, and what real “sarcasm” looks like.
And incidentially, I hope you liked me exercising my “free speech” on your pissant behaviour. ]
A Sulphurous Blast from the Past:
Seven minutes that disgusted New Zealand
This disgraceful, foul-mouthed, unintelligent spray doesn’t get any better, even after thirteen years. At about the two-minute mark in his ignorant and hateful rant, Paul Holmes opines that “the greatest perk, do-nothing job in the world is at the U.N.”
In fact, of course, as these bigots invariably do, he was talking about himself….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNdk7Hsj_R0
Seems I’m not the only one who thinks that Larry lost his job for criticizing the media establishment. Obama took it well, it just seems all the white people did not think it was funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMqgTAVDh7Y
Unlikely, Colbert roasted Bush Jr a lot worse. Difference is Colbert was/is very popular and funny. Wilmore was cutting but just not very funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ-a2KeyCAY
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11699382
Govt has officially gone mad:
School-age students will be able to enrol in an accredited online learning provider instead of attending school, under new Government legislation.
The radical change will see any registered school, tertiary provider such as a polytechnic or an approved body corporate be able to apply to be a “community of online learning” (COOL).
Any student of compulsory schooling age will be able to enrol in a COOL – and that provider will determine whether students will need to physically attend for all or some of the school day.
It sounds like something from “In the Thick of It”
Someone in the Ministry has been drinking the ACT-supplied COOL-AID.
Peeni Henare has made some interesting comments about the claim by Kīngi Tūheitia that Labour had ruled out working with the Māori Party.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/83462254/maori-kings-claims-andrew-little-wont-work-with-maori-party-wrong-labour
Edmund Burke set out in an address to the electors of Bristol in 1774: “Your representative owes you not his industry only but his judgement; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/08/why-it-duty-labour-party-try-stop-brexit
I’m especially partial to Mr Burke’s notion that parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole.
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch13s7.html
Just on ethical investments for retirement funds, apparently investment managers can sign up to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment.
It’s not perfect, what with all the different networks of corporate connection, but it does require that environmental, social, and corporate governance issues be part of the fiduciary calculation (i.e. “maximised profits” include the long term good as well as short term mercenary motivations).