Is the definition of stupidity David Shearer going on-air complaining about Labour’s lack of unity and then in the next sentence stabbing David Cunliffe in the back. All of the Labour MP’s currently going on-air to have a stab at David Cunliffe are clearly showing that they are the “insiders” who have been undermining Labour and are the main cause for the 24.7%.
There are other factors for the 24.7%, but when I have spoken to people they always talk about the infighting that goes on in labour as the main reason that they wouldn’t vote Labour. As soon as I heard Nash, Cosgrove and Shearer on air yesterday, I knew, as Winston would say: “Labour are gone”… idiots putting their own ambitions in front of the Party. For the sake of Labour shut the f%$# up.
Agreed. And the loudest should reflect on their own personal performance. If they want a review we should start with why their electorate campaign for the party vote was so bad. A comparison of results makes for fascinating reading …
Time for a new party folks ? this one was hijacked decades back and is no longer capable of representing middle/lower nz.
It’s not possible to purge the shearers, mallards etc so can anyone see it working with them ? Described as too comfortable and not to bothered about the strugglers was how one party figure depicted them to me, sounds about right.
Helen held it together but that was awhile ago now and its easier in power than in opposition. Jones being able to be bought off by the Nats pretty much summed it for me, zero loyalty, maximum troughing and nasty as into the bargain.
Re time for a new party, I wondered the same thing this morning. In fact, this year’s election result is not significantly different from Goff’s. Division is still the undermining factor. The Goff/Shearer team seems to have the blessing of the political/media elite, while Cunliffe largely retains the support of the unions and the membership.
Each morning I listen to Susie Ferguson carrying on about Cunliffe like a high school queen bee attacking some boy for wearing his slippers to the school ball.
Cunliffe can’t effectively stand up to this sort of thing, as Winston does, without his caucus firmly behind him. At the same time, the right-leaning ambitions of the opposing team draw scorn and contempt from the cheap seats, while their beloved tradies go over to Winston and the luvvies to the Greens. If things continue in this way, as they have since Clark left, it will ultimately mean the death of Labour.
Shearer is calling for an independent review. Here’s an independent review: constantly backstabbing the party leader to the media makes the populace not like your party.
Pre-election DC often looked like someone who was preparing for the next beating. As bad as the MSM has been I don’t think they did that to him alone. Well done Labour caucus, leadership coup by PTSD.
I think Cunliffe did remarkably well under the circumstances, but that sense that something was wrong was palpable yet never explained. No wonder so many people don’t trust Labour.
I had the same feeling. But it would fragment the left further. We need an integrating party, to get anywhere. Also Labour are not going to disappear…..but if they don’t get it together…..there will be no opposition.
The labour MPs should learn to debate issues in private in their caucus and not air their differences/views in public or secretly through journalists/bloggers.
After this election, in my opinion, the only people in Labour that should have spoken in public are Cunliffe and Parker and may be Coatsworth. The rest them should have shown better restraint or at least shown unity and loyalty in their utterances.
Yep, been saying that for years. Labour is a centre-right party and probably closer to radical right compared to where we were in the 1970s and a right-wing party is bad for the country.
and another 100% agreement about Shearer ( friend of National and Hooton)
…naked ambition…limited ability…ruthless to opposition ….didnt he get rid of Leanne Dalziel and Charles Chauvel while he was leader?
…both Dalziel and Chauvel were future potential leaders of the Labour Party
….really David Cunliffe did not stand a chance with Shearer behind his back ( imo Cunliffe should stay and fight it out if he has the support of the rank and file Labour Party members…change in the Labour Party has got to come from the bottom up)
…there were huge mistakes in Labour’s election strategy that can not be sheeted back to Cunliffe…but to the whole Party apparatus
And Shearer never had a chance with Cunliffe behind his back.
Maybe the issue are actually bigger than these two men, and the next Labour leader needs to be a fresh face.
Labour got up to 34% (according to Phil Ure) when Cunliffe lurched to the left, and got 25% when they pulled back to the right.
Maybe theres a lesson there, but they also need to factor in that by abandoning the centre, they will be forever hoping that Winston will choose them for Government. Thats a risky strategy for any party to adhere to in my view.
Cunliffe should resign for good of party and nation.
Labour needs to face the question of its leadership, nothing more. If Mr Cunliffe is going to appeal over the heads of his caucus to the membership and affiliated unions who elected him last year, he must imagine he can continue to lead a team that has little confidence in him. This will do Labour no good, as surely its members and unions now see.
It is in the nation’s interest that the party finds a new leader quickly.
Or, if Cunliffe is supported by the party as a whole then how about those disruptive caucus members do their job properly.
I thought Cunliffe did brilliant in the debates. He came across as caring, he made leaps and bounds in dispelling the media painted perception of him with actions and showing just how much he cared about NZ. Given proper media coverage he would have won. That’s the crux of the issue. the only way a Labour leader would get the thumbs up from the likes of O’Sullivan and Armstrong and everyone else in the media except Cambell is if he was a National MP leading Labour.
You know it, you know the press are against Labour, so who will they be even handed too, no one. That’s why you need a man like Cunliffe, he’ll get the bad press for awhile but has the oration skills and brain to dispel them and make the media look stupid. Just like he was doing in the debates.
I for one like Cunliffe a lot. I also liked Shearer, but did not like him when I saw how hopeless he was on media duties or in parliaments debates.
leave Cunliffe there just band behind him and unify and start dispelling the perceptions painted by bad media personalities.
The fight back starts by uniting and dispelling the Labour tainted image. only then will we get the common voter to consider the tick seriously. Until then they won’t even look at labour.
Agree with you Richard, but ideally Labour need to analyse the root cause of Labours’ weakness. Leadership is one of the factors, but there are many factors for Labour struggling including the following:
– Labour funding/campaign revenue
-implementing tough policies such as CGT, Irrigation tax, increasing age of super
-centralised campaign/marketing strategy
-constant infighting and leaks to the media (Lack of internal discipline)
-DC apologising to womens refuge
-Insider attacking Cunliffe for taking 3 days off in school holidays
-Labours marketing strategy versus Nationals marketing strategy
-Is the electorate ready for a change?
-Labour brand weakness
-Dotcom and the affect he had on Labours campaign
-Dirty Politics – did it help or hinder
-Could Labour have presented its suite of policies better?
The point I am trying to make is that Labour need to analyse the root cause of the problem, the infighting that is already happening is in my view the biggest reason Labours brand has gone down the toilet.
+++ And Labour are being played like little docile puppets! Dancing to their tune. Public display of power hungry, naked ambition, disloyalty and chaos.
Someone needs to reign them in.
+1
I used to keep bikes and cars for years, spending more and more on maintaining what had turned into heaps of shit. I belatedly learned that it’s better to get rid of the absolute rubbish and get something else to do the same job. For a long time I thought we had to keep Labour, but I’ve had enough. The Rogernomics cancer has been terminal.
20% vote from lunions is not what got Cunliffe the leadership, it’s mathematically impossible. The Herald is peddling the ABC lines again. Why don’t they jkust simplify their article to
“”wa. wa.wa. I want to be more like National. wa wa wa.” said David Shearer and his pals today
Totally agree Sarbo!! Shearer deserves a huge chunk of blame – he took the leadership with no experience and wasted so much time stumbling and bumbling around – If David Cunliffe had been elected leader straight after Goff, the election result might have looked very different – 11 months is not long enough for a leader to cement themselves into the job and for the public to know them – Helen Clark was leader for a much longer period before becoming Prime Minister and look how that turned out!! NO-ONE else in the party could have performed in those debates better than David Cunliffe – its a pity that certain MP’s only did enough to regain their own seats and didn’t bother campaigning for the party vote – self interest reigns supreme among many in the Caucus! As for Nash, he’s a bit cheeky saying he may go for the leadership when he’s only just got into Parliament – trading on the name of his adopted Grandfather a bit too much I think – and imagine the field day Cameron Slater would have with Nash’s private life!!!! Nash does not strike me as a measured type of man which could get him into all sorts of trouble. Robertson may debate well but he will never have appeal with the public, he’s gay and he just doesn’t look like a Prime Minister should – unfortunately people really ARE that shallow, so looks are important! If David Cunliffe doesn’t stay leader of the Party, then watch all the new members they have gained melt away like snow in spring!
We’re in real danger of doing for Labour what the Tea Party does for the Republican Party: selecting ideologically “pure” candidates that are either unappealing to the wider electorate or are abrasive to a significant portion of the caucus. I voted for Cunliffe. I like him and I like his principles, but I was also very impressed with Grant Robertson and would have been okay with “settling” for him (Jones was out of the question).
Someone is going to have to blink here. I know it feels really good to stick it to the right wing in caucus, but they’re not the enemy. National is. The perfect is the enemy of the good and you can little by being in opposition. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m tired of losing.
For better or worse the Labour caucus is now selected for the next three years. It is chock full of yesterday’s men and women.
The first thing the leader must do is unite this group behind him or herself and the common cause of displacing John Key in 2017.
For me that is the top of the job description for leader of the Labour party.
I am not sure who that person is. But I am fairly certain that person’s name does not begin with David.
Neither Shearer nor Cunliffe have the requisite support of the caucus to effectively carry out the job. Without that support they cannot do the job. Therefore neither should be leader.
My problem with John Key’s Silver Fern is that it looks too much like the ISIS flag from a distance, exposing NZ troops in Syria to being targeted by allied air power.
Saarbo, well bloody said. Do they not engage brain before shooting themselves in ass. No one wanted goff he’d never get in, frankly he has a worse public image than Cunliffe. Shearers background gave him a good standing but he cannot talk. pointless, part of the job requirements are the ability to get ones point across. These two are causing too much infighting the president of Labour need to tell them to can it for awhile. If you have an issue with someone how about growing a pair and talking about it like an adult with the person concerned, or is it more of a case of them blinded by the hint they may be able to get the leadership baubbles back. it’s pathetic. frankly the country would laugh at labour if they threw the truck in reverse in a traffic jam.
Today I joined the labour party, yep on the cheap side at $10 PM but heck I’m on a low wage. I figure every dollar counts though, have to do something I figured I can’t sit here bleating on like a cry baby if I don’t get active. So I am a labour member, well until I get approved officially.
I consider myself pretty fair handed not a rabid commie or right wing neo liberal. I just go for common sense. Good policy is good policy no matter who comes up with it if it improves things. lets hope my 1% can help Labour if even a little.
and because three more years of this lots going to hurt us all big time the way the economy is tanking.
Waikato University’s production line of mediocrity;
They’re right at home on Jim Mora’s light chat show The Panel, Monday 22 September 2014
Jim Mora, Stephen Franks, Duncan Webb
Waikato University has long been the refuge of some of the most bizarre right wing nutjobs in the nation. If you care to visit the notorious “Political Science” [sic] department, you’ll meet the unbelievably nasty professors Dov Bing, an implacable Israeli hardliner who every few years emerges from academic obscurity to write a bloodthirsty Op-Ed piece in the Waikato Times, and Ron Smith, who on Jim Mora’s show once spoke, in a tone of high seriousness, of the “virtue” of New Zealand governments falling in line with U.S. foreign policy. Needless to say, Smith’s party politics are as deranged as his lectures; he ran for ACT in the Hamilton East electorate this year. Over in the English department, dear old Norman Simms occasionally contributes to the public discourse, backing up his friend Prof. Bing by frothing and snarling and tirelessly reiterating the line that critics of Israel are “anti-Semitic”. Up the hill, in Earth Sciences, you’ll meet the bewhiskered Professor Willem De Lange, a global warming denier who foolishly, in 2008, appeared on a risible Prime TV “debate” on the same side as NewstalkZB’s resident loon Leighton Smith; to compound the impression of haplessness, De Lange let Smith do nearly all the talking. But probably the most dismal of all the dismal departments at Waikato is the Management School, which achieved notoriety in 1998 by bestowing an Honorary Doctorate on the ridiculous advertising poseur Kevin Roberts.
Sadly, anyone who listened to Jim Mora’s light chat show The Panel today (Monday) will be all too aware that Waikato’s lamentable production line of mediocrity shows no sign of slowing down. Right now I am listening to one Jacqueline Rowarth, a Waikato University professor—allegedly—of Agricultural Science, asserting that there is no such thing as poverty in New Zealand. It is, apparently, all in the minds of the poor. Except that, according to Prof. Rowarth, the poor don’t exist. Those reports in the media of kids without shoes? Rubbish, according to Jacqueline Rowarth—all the alleged shoelessness is simply kids who just don’t want to wear shoes.
Stephen Franks—like Prof. Ron Smith, an ACT supporter—is warmly supportive of this carefully researched thesis, but Duncan Webb is less impressed. Webb has a go at arguing with Prof. Rowarth and Franks, but Jim Mora cuts him off because time is up.
Earlier in the programme, Franks launched into one of his typically bizarre rants, asserting that Frank Bainimarama is actually a democrat, and has been one all along. According to Franks, only the Great Council of Chiefs was ever opposed to the Fijian dictator. That’s not true of course: the staunchest opposition to the Bainimarama dictatorship has been by the trade unions in Fiji. This has evidently failed to register with Franks. To his credit, Duncan Webb contested what Franks said. Franks also engaged in a lengthy condemnation of the New Zealand government for its failure to support Bainimarama’s coup, which was apparently a coup for democracy. To support his case, he invoked another great hero of democracy, Henry Kissinger*, who claimed that morality had no place in foreign policy.
I flicked the glib, laughing host of this joke of a show the following supportive e-mail….
Morality has no place in foreign policy
Dear Jim,
We support Stephen Franks’s assertion that morality has no place in foreign policy.
Yours sincerely,
Adolf Hitler
Benito Mussolini
Emperor Hirohito
V.I. Lenin
Lev Trotsky
“Uncle Joe” Stalin
Pol Pot
General Franco
Henry Kissinger
(and the disturbing thought that here was a future panel-candidate..she says all the ‘right’ things..)..her semi-orgasmic gasps of agreement as franks laid out his vile-prescriptons for the children of the poor…painted her in exactly the colour she should be..unadulterated far-right..
..and she is a professor..(!)..she gets to teach/preach this shit to gullible students..?..
..whoar..!..)
..and moras’ nodding-along to those (as always) putrid-excretions from the mind of franks was particularly puke-inducing..
..and of course..as noted..never challenged at all by mora..
Prof Rowarth also mixed up the average and median. She said poverty is supposed to be 80% of the median income – and then said that meant it was around $50k. No, it is actually around $20k – which she could probably not even imagine supporting a family on. And then she said that the lack of shoes is just a life style choice for kids!
On the Electoral Commission election results page they have a demographic breakdown of each electorate. For example in Palmerston North 55% live on less than $30k and only about 3% over $100, 000. So as a professor formerly at Massey she is up there with the tiny elite – no wonder she has no idea. Pity they give her airtime as an expert on anything but farming.
Full time work on Minimum wage equals around $29,600pa, are you saying more than half of peple in Palmerston North are on full time minimum wage, part time work or benefit? That is an apalling stat if true!
What was Iain Lees-Galloway’s plan for the region to increase employment opportunities during the election?
“she gets to teach/preach this shit to gullible students..?..”
And that is the problem, until the Friedman and the Chicago School religion is purged from all universities this Noe-Liberal failed crap will go on unabated.
i have worked out what the real metaphor is in that eminem-rip-off rowing skiff ad…
..it actually represents how each party has got to grips with mmp..
..national has nailed it..
..and the progressives/labour/grns etc..
..haven’t got a fucken clue..
..they are the ones in the dinghy..
..all rowing in opposite directions..
..and against each other..
..and labour can angst and leader-fret all they like..
..but until lab/grns progressives learn not to cannabilse/fight each other to the death national will just continue skiffing past them..
..there have been two post-election statements/claims that have particularly ground my gears..
..one was the crocodile tears from cunnliffe on ‘the bad result for the left’..after his successful knee-capping of harawira/internet-mana..(for all the obvious reasons..)
..and the other was from metiria turei..
..with her (to me) smug-claim that the greens couldn’t have done any more to avert that crushing defeat for the left/progressives..
..a look at the result in ohariu-belmont puts the lie to that..
..and the greens have gifted dunne his 11th term in parliamant..(on a mandate for him/his party half the size of that of the aotearoa legalise cannabis party..(!)..)
..because dunne won with a majority of 900+…
..yet the green candidate in that seat..got 2,4000+ votes…
..so had the greens clearly asked their supporters to vote strategically in ohariu-belmont..
..dunne would have been out the door..
..and this disasterous (for the progressives) pattern is repeated up and down the country..
(auckland central…had the greens not competed for the electorate..labour would have won that seat..as just one other example of many..)
..and until labour and the greens work out enough how to not cannabilise each other..
(issuing clear/explaining reasons for.. how-to-vote cards to their supporters..would be one obvious solution..and of course agreeing not to stand competing-candidates in some strategic seats will have to be worked out…)
..until then..labour can shuffle leaders all they like..
..and turei can make that false claim again and again that ‘the greens could do nothing more’..
..but the progressives will just continue to get out-rowed by national/the right..
..this is the solution to the problems facing the left/progressives…
..not fretting over a new leader for labour..
..but sitting down together and actually working out/planning how to win an election..
You did a great job hacking lumps off red/green throughout the campaign, and now, in defeat, you have all the answers to all their woes. Sincere? A big belly laugh at that.
As for lack of nous, I disagree. I managed to suss you out soon enough.
No and labour/national/nzfirts and the maori party did not join together to kill it off.
See here is the problem, and the denial going on – Labour got into bed with national to kill off mana.
Let me repeat that so you understand. Labour got into bed with national to kill mana off.
And you’re going to sit there with a straight face and tell me mana killed itself. Wow another out of touch labour supporter. This is why the working people in this country hate you and why they won’t vote.
Mana did kill itself. Their delusional idiotic behaviour left other parties no choice, but to either sit uncomfortably on the sidelines, or at the close to distance themselves, otherwise the public would make their own decision. Davis had to fight for his life. Labour didn’t owe Mana anything, but it did owe the electorate clarity in saying they would not deal with IMP. Hone is a victim of his own stupidity, and thank heavens we don’t have to listen to that tosser Laila Harre anymore. If hone had stayed away from Dotcom he would still be an MP.
So it’s ok for labour to work with national now Once was Pete? What idiotic behaviour? Your right labour owes nobody nothing, because they are dead. It’s going to hurt, it’s going to take some time, but the beast is dead.
All I see is a party of egoists, slashing and burning all who oppose them. Oh wait they already sold out working people. They just followed that up and destroying any voice working stiffs had, by joining with the enemy. Well done labour, what a wonderful strategy.
David Shearer is calling for a forensic analysis of the election result. I agree. For a start we could do a seat by seat analysis of what happened to the party vote. Here are the worst performing seats and the figure represents the drop in percentage points of party vote:
Mt Roskill -8.21%
Hutt South -7.86%
Mt Albert -7.12%
Here is New Lynn’s result:
New Lynn -1.52%
Of course there will be a multitude of causes and reasons and boundary changes were reasonably significant for each of these seats. But let’s have the debate. The party should have had it in 2011.
Until Nationals vote disintegrates there’s not a lot the left can do.
Thinking about it, for MMP to really be effective the National vote needs to be around 30-35% and has to work and compromise with other parties instead of the other parties just making up the numbers to govern.
In that sort of scenario the possibility of National and labour working together would be quite high.
Currently with John Key at the helm the chances of nationals vote collapsing or a left leaning government gaining power are practically nil.
“..when cunnliffe didn’t deliver on those transformational-policies/promises..is when the labour vote started its’ slow collapse…”
What ‘left’ promises didn’t DC follow through with that collapsed the vote?
“had lab/grns not cannabilised each other.”
I’m missing your text that slams mana voters in Rotorua for not electorate voting Labour to keep Flavell and another out of parliament. Do you have a link?
National have 1 trump up their sleeve to protect from their voter base collapsing, when Peters retires who do you think will pick up the majority of NZ1’s support? Do you think it will be a party that promotes increasing the retirement age, The Greens or any other party that lies on the left of the political spectrum ?
Nice stats there Micky. Goff, Shearer, Mallard should take a look at themselves. Though I would point out that Goff nearly won in 2011.
Cunliffe should stay as leader and should sack/ease out Cosgrove and anyone else who refused to push Labour in their electorate campaigns. He needs to be seen to take control and any bloodletting should be now and then get unified for the following 2 years.
And please can we have party vote labour written as PARTY VOTE LABOUR on the hoardings next time.
Much though I like Hone and Laila it will complicate things less for Labour next time now Mana has gone. Maybe Laila should replace Cosgrove?
To have a fair comparison leaders of a party attract a greater % of support in their electorate than “just anybody” so to compare DC’s loss of party vote when he was just anyone to now being “The One” is a bit IMO playing with numbers, unless you compare his vote with other 1st time leaders in an losing campaign. Say bill English in 2002 as comparing like with like ?
Dunedin South, that Former Red Stronghold which lost the party vote to National by a few hundred votes in 2011, lost it again this time around by 2,300 votes.
Unfortunately Labour (mainly) & Green politicians ego’s got in the way of common sense. I put out a strategy to these idiots but their over inflated ego’s got the better of them. Met & spoke with Cunliffe’s PR men and realised they were amateurs pretty quickly, this was a big disappointment. Rolled out our strategy locally to great effect which was very successful, backed up back by the National snake oil team congratulated us on an effective play.
I would say that one of the reasons is that the anxious classes are now moving outwards from city centres, ( having captured them in the last few decades, particularly in Auckland) because they can’t afford the prices. These suburbs are becoming gentrified.
It seems to me that the right and the corporate is in the ascendency well and truly.
Like it is in the US and most western nations. There is nothing to halt it – the poor / left don’t vote and the right wing vested interests are simply too powerful.
The caucus is the problem not the solution. That some in there don’t see that IS THE PROBLEM.
Boo Fucking Hoo they had to work for someone they dont like, well suck it up princesses, we all have had to work for bosses we didnt like, we either leave or we contribute tot he common goal. At least that is how fgrown ups do it.
The soultion for the ABC’s is right in front of their eyes
United Future
New Zealand First
ACT
National
Go join them and I never thought I would say this but I wonder who Cosgrove and others gave their party votes to?
It seems to me that all the fuckwits that voted for Key now think that by merely voting for Key they have disproved Hagar and Greenwald and Snowden. It is proof of their fuckwittery … if we all say “nyah nyah nyah” at once then we must be right …
Yeah, Richard Prebble tried that one in his “Letter”.
TVNZ, TV3 and state radio called this election wrong. The credibility of our news services has taken a huge hit. Night after night TV and radio told us John Key was a liar. First “Dirty politics” and then claims of mass surveillance were given not just top billing but saturation coverage. The news blogs are going to be the big winners.
It astounds me (not) that Fed Farmers are still in denial about the environment and its place in the world…
William Rolleston this morning claiming that the looming reforms of the RMA are a good thing …. all these reforms will do is allow more pieces of the environment to be taken from the environment and placed onto people’s dinner plates, thereby simply diminishing the environment ….. the dinner plate that is already loaded with roast lamb and gravy, mash potato and rosemary, peas beans piled high, all washed down with a very good sauvignon ….
brainless and greedy
I see the future and it is barren – like the Canterbury Plains are now
the farmers don’t care as essentially they don’t sell to NZ. They sell overseas…so why not pollute here? As long as they have theirs who gives a fuck about those that have nothing?
again, if people complain, tell them to write a letter to the editor and contact their National Party goons.
Eventually – hopefully not too late – global customers will tell NZ farmers that they will farm to acceptable practices of animal ethics, traceability, purity, and sustainability.
Eventually – hopefully not too late – Fonterra will realise that deliberately making itself vulnerable to the bulk commodity cycle with low added value will kill the business and the New Zealand economy with it. How’s that bet on bulk commodities going now Mr Spiering?
Mr Spiering and Mr Rolleston should have a bit of a sit down.
I think part of the problem with their thinking is that they keep telling themselves that they are the best farmers in the world …. sheesh, really? I don’t believe that for one millisecond….
for a start, what makes the best farmers in the world? This lot have been going for around 140 years or so and look at what they’ve done to the land. I understand the Dutch punch out around 5 times the productivity from a smaller area and don’t use nitrates – maybe they are the best. There are farmers all across the globe who have been at it for centuries – maybe they are better, at least they are proven.
Really. What defines the “best farmers in the world”
They need to stop believing their own bullshit as it is their/our downfall.
We must beware of William Rolleston. He is Monsanto’s chief weapon in NZ for introducing GMOs.
Without doubt, he is to Monsanto what Ede was to Key.
And if TPPA is signed, we will be gone the way of every other country and end up flooding our precious food crops with glyphosate and now, 2,4 D — yes, the main ingredient of Agent Orange is now approved in USA for use on crops as glyphosate has failed, rendering millions of acres of farmland completely unuseable and abandoned forever to superweeds up to 8 ft tall. ( Can only imagine the future spread of those seeds by wind and what little bird life remains.)
Do we want this in Aotearoa ? Last chance now to fight it off and prevent the TPPA.
And in terms of improving product and adding value, the cheapest marketing ploy ever is to remain firmly against GMOs and label all our product as such. It actually matters to millions of consumers. And wow, it actually increases prices overseas!
But Wily Willy Rolleston will ensure this truth is never told. This scares me.
1. Doesn’t pollute the water ways
2. Uses sustainable practices
3. Doesn’t use up finite resources
4. Ensures that their local community is fed first and foremost
5. Doesn’t use GMOs
They are not the only ones who are subsidised.
Working For Families (WFF), although laudable, is also a means of subsidising small to medium businesses (SMEs) in terms of their wage bill. The businesses do not pay a fair price for labour (clearly, as the households getting minimum wage are eligible for WFF). I think if small businesses cannot get a business model in which their costs are structured properly, and covered by earnings, then they should not be in business.
The government through WFF is subsidising bad business (if the business truly cannot pay workers), or else subsidising the profits that these business owners make.
This is another reason for middle NZ to move to/stay with/ or move toward National. Increasing minimum wages to a level that would affect them (despite their being effectively subsidised through WFF) was unpalatable for many SMEs.
by the way, I am not against WFF by any means….but I think we need better analysis of the distributional aspects of it – who actually benefits from it besides the deserving working families?
Dirty politics was about abuse of power.
By defination the powerless cannot indulge in it.
Thank you for saying it. It’s been enraging me for weeks – the accusation and the ignorance. And it really pissed me off that none of our “representatives” saw fit to point it out when it most needed to be said.
remember – it is not acceptable to point out the actual nature of the establishment structures of power (of which they are an intrinsic part of); but it is acceptable to criticise some of the worst, most egregious, intolerable aspects of it.
I think the lesson learned for the left this election is Labour are not to be trusted. No matter what rhetoric come out of their collective mouths – they are a bunch of self serving , backstabbing, idiots. When labour opened the door to neo-liberalism, and exposed capitalism in all it’s fury to working people, was the day they died.
We just didn’t get what a bunch of self absorbed egomaniacs were left in the party. We just didn’t get how gutless they were or how much they could justify to themselves doing bad things to people. We just didn’t get how big their ego’s really were.
Once Nash and Co had wrapped the party away from its socialist roots, the next generation would walk it down to the end of the garden and shot it in the back of the head. This is the husk sitting around a table, who are no more than a bunch of sniveling servants of the 1%.
The elites must roar with laughter each time one of the labour apostles try to move this once great party back to socialism. They have their pet commentators, hacks, and stoge munchers all set to destroy any chance of that.
But, please keep talking reform, keep dreaming of a left victory, keep repeating the same mistakes. Who cares, it’s only people’s lives and well being were talking about. Nothing important like who should lead the labour party.
Hey LPrent,
Can I request that you ask Giovani Tiso to post his latest blog on the Standard?
I’m not sure about the Standard rules in regard to this kind of request.
Meantime, here’s the link. It’s well-worth reading imo:
Yes, I support that notion. It’s an excellent post.
Buried in it is a link to a stunning and sober situation appraisal from the editor of the International Socialist Organisation of Aotearoa, bringing some clear analysis couched in the language of class struggle. It’s a delight to read. The link is
The election was rigged hands down, a stolen election by Key, GCSB and America. Key is not the prime minister and we need to march in the streets and take our country back!!
Throughout the campaign I hoped that National’s meme that the ” Labour Party was not fit to govern because it has become too factionalised and lacked unity” was just a media beat up but sadly it sounds as if they were on the button.
If I had just arrived in New Zealand from a couple of months on a desert island and read/listened to the news, I would have wondered why the Labour party bothered to waste the voters’ time entering the race.
I have to say that this is probably not the time or place to criticise a party that is hurt and bleeding – I wish them well in their deliberations. I would suggest that they seek council from the likes of Bryan Gould on how they manage this, because clearly, whoever is running the back office needs to be strong, measured and wise.
For starters though, Shearer, Goff, and the Whale-oil-confidant-Mallard need to take some deep breaths.
“NZ is a poorly unionised and low wage economy with a growing gap between top and bottom earners. Many low paid workers do not even earn subsistence level wages. The state, in effect, subsidises employers through benefits. The balance of power in NZ lies with the employer and this government will further entrench that position over the next term.
60% of those who voted, chose right wing parties; National was very successful in claiming the media’s hallowed centre ground.
But all parties failed to bridge the gap to the 1 in 3 Kiwis who did not vote.
Labour’s failure was NOT that it didn’t win the comfortable centre but that it continued to fail to connect with the 1 in 3 Kiwis who see no point in voting. Moves back to the centre to slug it out with National will leave those people disconnected and, as the social divide widens, vulnerable to extremist politics.”
Well said Whero, that is absolutely one of the crucial missing foundation stones of our society. How can we have a robust and healthy society when the base layer is shot to shit?
I call again for a general strike by all those on less than the living wage … lets see who actually provides the most value to our lives ….
We could have this strike one week and then a strike by the 1% a week later, and run a comparison ….
“In the Invercargill incident, two Molotov cocktails, containing what appeared to be kerosene, were found burning in Dee St near the National Party office about 1am on Sunday, Sergeant Ian Martin, of Invercargill, said. ”
“In the Invercargill incident, two Molotov cocktails, containing what appeared to be kerosene, were found burning in Dee St near the National Party office about 1am on Sunday, Sergeant Ian Martin, of Invercargill, said. ”
Key has always repeated that Ede no longer worked for him, but worked only for the National Party and not in Parliament.
But Key says this to TVNZ yesterday – so why on earth did Ede need to resign with Key’s Chief of Staff ??
“John Key says Mr Ede advised his chief of staff on Friday that he wouldn’t be coming back to work in Parliament or for the National Party.”
and also this explanation:
“Mr Key said it wasn’t unusual that Mr Ede’s resignation on Friday was effective immediately because staffs’ contracts end over the election and decisions have to be made about whether or not they will return once campaigns have ended and before the new Parliament resumes.”
Clearly another lie for Blip’s list.
By Key’s own words, Ede has been employed by Key ( and his office) this whole time. Lying bastard of a leader we have.
Labour’s candidate vote was higher than the party vote in most electorates.
If everyone of these voters also gave labour the party vote, what would have been the electoral outcome?
I suggest that the Green Party vote would have dropped – many would have voted electorate Labour/ party Green. No overall change in the Left block total percentages.
Labour’s candidate vote was higher than the party vote in most electorates.
If everyone of these voters also gave labour the party vote, what would have been the electoral outcome?
Mt Albert: candidate vote was 8,913 higher than Labour party vote
Wellington Central: candidate vote was 8,751 higher than Labour party vote
Rimutaka: candidate vote was 6,702 higher than Labour party vote
Mt Roskill: candidate vote was 6,082 higher than Labour party vote
Hutt South: candidate vote was 5,486 higher than Labour party vote
Dunedin South: candidate vote was 5,404 higher than Labour party vote
Total differential of 41,338
That’s at least 2 more MPs and more than 1/3 of the way to a Labour victory sitting in 6 electorates right there.
Thank you for doing the sums.
And nationwide…..therein lies the problem.
These voters like the candidate, who are the face of the party and represent to the electorate the party values and policy.
But they reject the party itself, which agrees on those values and policies.
I know many posters here have laid out their ideas and theories but it still looks like irrational voting behaviour to me, and the reasons for that will be multi-faceted.
I know, I’m a simpleton. I vote on policy, and the party with the best policies for the future gets my vote and always will. If I don’t like the candidate for that particular party I won’t vote for him/her. There are always other electorate voting options.
but it still looks like irrational voting behaviour to me
This is the KEY
The intellectual academic pol-sci Left cannot get that a plurality of people are not
rational actors’.
A low information public will make their decisions based on emotion, tribal affiliation, brand image, cultural values and other ‘irrational’ factors.
The Left are way way behind in considering this stuff because the activists and pollies on the Left are too socially and culturally disconnected from most Kiwis.
Some parties simply aim to appeal to attitudes that are out there in the public (appeal to public opinion)
others attempt to shift public opinion.
There are pitfalls to simply appealing to popular attitudes – a perfect example is in one of Adam Curtis’s documentaries (I think it was Century of the Self), where the British Labour Party started basing their policies on focus groups and ringing people through out the country.
What ended up happening is the very policies that were formulated on the most popular opinion ended up being contradicted by popular opinion gleaned a few years later. From memory, the example was that people didn’t think [something like] the national railways should be invested in, and then years later the public opinion was that the railway should not have been allowed to degenerate and should have been invested in earlier. (sorry this is from memory, I think it was railways.)
Am I talking about the same approach (appealing to attitudes) that you were meaning, or have I erred in what you meant by your comment?
I’m certainly not talking about politics by focus grouping. I’m talking about understanding that people want a Labour Party which sticks to its guns and advocates for its values, principles and its constituents. Which is exactly what National does all day every day.
The one extra dimension that Labour has to get right, because of its inability to rely on the MSM, is deep community networks which can reach out to the 1.1M non voters out there. At the moment, Labour has sweet F.A. infrastructure which can reach out to those people.
I certainly agree re sticking to one’s guns being something that appeals to people.
I am unclear about this part:
‘and advocates for its values, principles and its constituents. Which is exactly what National does all day every day.
What is the ‘its’ referring to? The parties values?
I thought Labour advocated their policies and values very well this year.
There is a known phenomenon occurring in the Western world – the mix that makes up society has become far more complex than it once was. You talk about the left being ‘out of touch’ with ‘most Kiwis’ but I am unsure whether there is an homogenous group out there that all have similar values. It may be that Labour were trying to appeal to too many, & thereby ended up appealing to very few.
Also, have you considered that NZ might be becoming pretty rightwing, and that is why Labour are struggling? I would have thought the message was very very clear from Labour this time, and that was inclusiveness. It got rejected and ‘each to their own’ was favoured.
I believe the corporate owned media is a big issue in this shift of attitudes and agree the left need to counter this somehow. That may actually be the biggest issue the left faces.
I continue to view some of the issue for the left is that the leftwing approach is more thoughtful, and this makes it hard to present the approach in short sound-bites – I really think Cunliffe did pretty well with this aspect this year. I did spot times where verbosity was present where it didn’t need to be though too.
@ colonial viper
We haven’t been taught critical thinking at school that is the trouble.
We know things happen, but we don’t know why.
We were so impractical at government level that we allowed public television to fall from government hands into a private model. That had been our chance to display factual stuff to the whole country and partially plug the information gap. Now info is a flash of words on a screen the size of a matchbox or perhaps no words just music.
Sadly I think you are correct.
This is a completely unexpected consquence of past labour governments – and the party at large – making what appeared and probably were correct and moral decisions at the time. Whether the consequences should have been unexpected or not, we don’t know. There are not too many far-sighted and visionary people in politics with the ablilty to divine 5-10-15yrs ahead.
However the ability to ADAPT QUICKLY is so important. Values do not have to change, but being able to change the presentation of your values is vitally important to that floating voter who, perhaps cruelly, I call ‘irrational’
The Left are way way behind in considering this stuff because the activists and pollies on the Left are too socially and culturally disconnected from most Kiwis.
I’d say that it’s impossible for rational people to understand irrational people and that there’s no way to bridge the gap.
My Mum is turning 80 soon. Here is her anecdote from Saturday – Shopping at New World – the young woman on the checkout said she didn’t know who to vote for. My mum suggested she vote for the party who would raise the minimum wage……who is that she said?
No one knows what to do anymore.
It’s socially embarassing to admit supporting Labour in the provincial city I live in.
When Cunliffe shaved his beard I thought it was a bad sign.
Labour no longer fits culturally (or socially) in wider NZ society. I find that it is socially awkward to admit that you are a Labour Party supporter in most circles – neither Green leaning nor Blue leaning associates nor the largely apolitical ones (which together make up about 3/4 of NZ adults) know what the hell you or your party are doing.
lol…Labour needed a simple message to sell ..1.) 2) 3) 4) 5)… that showed it cared about wider NZ society
…..( not pages of detail on tax… and threats to up the age for workers super ….and put a capital gains tax on your retirement nest egg property and meager business profits )
How many votes did “Fully Costed Policies” give Labour? Or the Greens for that matter. Sweet fuck all. National didn’t cost two tenths of no policies, and waltzed by.
Nactional did dirty tricks and told outright lies (eg “better teaching”.. the opposite of what they are doing)….but they sold dreams …and they won
On the front page of the Christchurch Press the day before the Election was a shiney blue and white advertising sticker . It read:
5 REASONS TO PARTY VOTE NATIONAL
1 Stable Government
2 Strong Economy
3 150,000 New Jobs
4 Better healthcare & Teaching
5 No New Taxes
[Tick Box ] PARTY VOTE NATIONAL
FEAR and Nightmares was also SOLD to the voters : – Below this National Party advertisement – Half the front page of the Press was titled: ‘Terror plot: Beheading was planned’
and a threatening quarter page picture of an innocent sitting down in their socks and either a short skirt or long shorts and a t-shirt ….and confronted by an armed man in battle gear and a full balaclava head mask and goggles … presumably the innocent civilian who had his/her face blotted was waiting to be beheaded …(included in the graphic was a map of the Australian coast and Brisbane and Sydney)
( nice one Christchurch Press…and great Election timing whoever was responsible )
Key corrupter Ede’s resignation should be a major news story but is buried away by the editor as a small note at the bottom of page 5 in the Christchurch Press.
The fight continues.
.
Did anyone reference Fran O’Sullivan’s column yesterday because it is quite good:
“Where’s the plan?
This is the question for John Key who during the election debates repeatedly promised the country was “on the cusp of something special” – but couldn’t say what it was……
Where’s the thinking for instance that will get us on to a path where 4 per cent growth is the new normal?
….Air New Zealand’s Christopher Luxon makes the point that Auckland has a long-term plan but the Government doesn’t…. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11328976
Does AirNZ Christopher Luxon have a long term plan to provide affordable plane travel and air freight for the provinces? In Nelson we would like to know, and when it will be implemented? Otherwise he can go back to Unilever where he came from and we will get someone who can grow the internal NZ system profitably, with an eye to the future when fuel might be tight. Have new designs for planes giving more gliding impetus and less fuel come out yet Mr Luxon. Is that the government’s long term plan you are wishing for?
In many frames of reference the failings may be true,but the left came close.The greens were expecting a higher percentage of the vote but it never happened they had a extremely and unfairly viewed CGT policy they should have been left to sit with that policy solely while labour deleted theirs or placed it into there second term it may well have been the foundation from which the fruits of social change were going to spring from, the greens may well have asked for the inclusion of CGT if asked to form a government. Increases and more bad medicine in the short term was not required BY NATIONAL VOTERS a tax cut resonates mildly ,far easier to introduce a CGT into a booming market . The left, one wonders did they have a coordinated strategy or were they unfairly denied ,people were hurting but status quo seemed better sitting and hoping the arrow of time would lead upwards. Hindsight is a great thing and many things are entangled..DC will make a good pm just caught in the midst of timing, intentions are honorable .
“The truth about our ‘rockstar economy’
by Brian Easton
A softening of the housing market, falling dairy prices and potential weakening of the Chinese economy do not bode well for New Zealand…………”
Bodes badly over the next year or so. Brian also says,” There were knowing smiles among economists when earlier this year John Key set the election date a couple of months early. He told us it was because there were various international gatherings that the prime minister had to attend. But it also seemed possible that economy growth would be weakening at the end of 2014. The main forecasts – the ones reported – did not show it, but the downside of a weaker economy was more likely than the expansionary upside. Better, a political strategist would advise, to go early…..” http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/the-truth-about-our-rockstar-economy
Well. What will our clever PM do about all this?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, especially when it comes to explaining market crashes. Six times in the past 50 years US equities dropped more than 30 per cent in 12 months. After most of them investors looked back at glaring warning signs and were baffled that they missed them. If the S&P 500 were to plunge from 2,000 to 1,400 in the next year, what screaming sell signals would future generations gaze at in the history books and wonder at our ability to ignore the obvious?
The entire global economy is about to crash again and this time NZ will be going with it into depression.
My jumbled thoughts:
It is time to dispense with the tiptoeing, pc, inoffensive, worried about what they will say, weak, mild mannered, appeasement based policies and posturing.
The only time Cunliffe got my attention was when he called out key using ACT as a means to introduce hardline right-wing policy, truth for once without sugar coating it.
It is time to face facts, there is a power elite working in the shadows infiltrating all parties and media, putting in place actors who will do their bidding.
It is not a struggle between the left and right, national vs labour, it is power vs the people,
If labour wants to get back to it’s roots and support the people they need to purge the party of those that serve the elite, then ensure the people that vote national are shown that national have been infiltrated by traitors who have betrayed their trust.
Support whistleblowers and investigations into corruption, get behind “MOT” and stand for something, you want the million missing votes, do the above and represent the people, drag across national voters that have been betrayed or misled, and work with other parties,
Don’t attack the National party, attack the traitors that have infiltrated both parties,
Selling out our sovereignty, our assets and burdening us with debt is treason,
Quick idea regarding CGT, with motor vehicles you’re not considered a trader until you sell more than 7 cars per year? do the same with CGT, set the tax not on a second property but the 3rd or 4th, that way you target the speculators without killing the dreams of the working class kiwi.
In a New York Times op-ed published September 18 titled “Errors and Emissions,” economist-columnist Paul Krugman took a swipe at my organization, Post Carbon Institute, lumping us together with the Koch brothers as purveyors of “climate despair.” No, the Koch brothers are not in despair about the climate; apparently our shared error is that we say fighting climate change and growing the economy are incompatible. And, according to Krugman, a new report from the New Climate Economy Project (NCEP) and a working paper from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show that the falling cost of renewable energy means this is happily not the case.
But in our view Krugman himself is guilty of five critical errors, and three equally serious omissions. First the errors:
Angry Cunliffe is angry, I’m guessing its like being savaged by a neutered little puppy dog but maybe its just that he can’t face where the real anger should be directed towards
Now, the good news. Professor Steve Keen accurately predicted there would be a major financial crisis before the 2008 crash. He explains why the economic ‘recovery’ will be short-lived.
I personally think it is a mistake to personalise this. Things undoubtedly could have been done better but the verdict is in and the rest is up to the internal processes of the political parties making up the governing and opposition coalitions.
I’ve tried to read The Economist but the shear bloody stupidity and illogical assumptions prove that it’s as well connected to reality as National and other RWNJs and thus should be ignored.
A liberal magazine with a liberal ideology judging how a economy is run from a liberal perspective. How very original of you Gosman. Want to bring up something else which is of a same ideology to say how good it’s ideology is, verse another ideology.
Gosmans stupidest argument ever – I will wait for the tears to dry.
They’re just angry because the young women aren’t as desperate as they used to be, and don’t have to subject themselves to all sorts of garbage just to get food.
Oh joy shout the RW troles. The election is over playtime again. How we missed TS.
Back to wiping off the drivel and contentious nonsense that mists my computer screen.
I seem to be able to turn out sufficient drivel myself that I didn’t really notice a gap they would fill. However fair’s fair, it looks like another period of brick wall banging and fun for all for ….more years?
The forthcoming review of the RMA to increase ‘flexibilty’ is the tip of an iceberg that will see a wholesale assault on the environment in favour of economic goals. Part of the unstated agenda about to be rolled out. Expect to see a high-level resignation from the Department if Conservation in the near future.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 40
I am currently banned, so no-one may get to see this. I have done nine months so, on the off-chance that whoever moderates this thinks that that is long enough for my crimes, I thought I would try my luck.
Of course, the moderators’ tolerance for offering opportunities for redemption may be tested by what I have to say next. I am not completely hopeful, as there is a well-documented strong authoritarian streak in left wing circles.
You lefties are going to have to come to grips with being wrong about everything. Viz:
1. John Key is evil. He isn’t. And the more you go on about it, the more you allow yourselves to be painted as deranged.
2. The polls are wrong/rigged. They aren’t. The Labour Party is really that unpopular.
3. The media is biased. No it isn’t. And this talk I hear in some circles that the “problem” should be fixed by limiting the opportunities for those who do not endorse the “progressive” line should be limited is a bit creepy and, once again, makes those people look deranged.
4. Labour has to reject “neo-liberalism” in order to get elected. I am going to ignore for the moment that the way “neo-liberalism” is defined by people that use the term is “acceptance of basic reality”. Labour cannot become government by taking votes off the Greens and Mana. They have to take votes off National. Nor can they win by trying to appeal to people who can’t be arsed voting. Just about everyone who comments here is far left. If Labour does what they want, they will never be elected. Leave those 3,000 people to vote for John Minto and try to convince everyone else you are responsible enough to govern.
5. The constitutional arrangements for electing your leader are just super. No. They aren’t. It means your caucus is left trying to work for someone that, if they do not find repulsive, they think is a numpty.
6. David Cunliffe “won” the debates. No. He didn’t. What you all thought was a brilliant orator, 50% of New Zealanders thought was a smarmy self-important git, pretending he was something he wasn’t.
7. The pubic are wrong. They are never wrong. This is closely aligned to “people are waking up”. No. They aren’t. Key is more popular going into his third term than his second. At this rate, everyone will be voting for him in 2024.
I accept that Labour always starts behind the eight ball. This is because New Zealanders do not readily warm to left wing ideas. They vote Labour when National is in disarray and, generally, when they have no other real option. Clearly, that is not now.
In anticipation: you’re welcome.
Ps. Don’t listen to Bryan Gould.
[lprent: I think you were on the list that got removed from auto-spam on the 21st. You were in good company. Jenny and a few other people were there as well. The next lot is on the 26th. ]
Great-a party that gets 0.7% of the vote and one seat provides us with the new Associate Minister of Education. Watch for more charter schools and bulk funding and vouchers to rear their ugly head. Things that have nothing to do with educating children and everything to do with privatisation and “getting stuck in to those pesky teacher unions”.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 41.1
Yeah a party whose education policies I disagree with got elected. It’s not going to stop me fighting them every step of the way in defence of the children I teach.
Bollix, people knew that if National got in Charter schools would be coming and you know what? More people want National in then last time so I’m going to go ahead and say just do what your told, you work for the government you implement what your employer wants
I’m sorry but as a teacher when I see anything that has little or no educational value for the children I teach and in fact may be detrimental to their learning then I will argue against it and I believe in a democracy I have the right to do that.
That’s not actually democratic as was shown by the referendum for selling assets. 70% of the people didn’t want it but the <government went and sold them anyway against the peoples will.
In a democracy, the people’s will should rule and not the desires of elected servants.
Maybe not but National said prior to the election what they’d do and then did it and then got re-elected with 48% of the vote so I’m comfortable with it
You may not like the fact that National was returned to power or the fact that more people voted for National then they did in 2011 but that doesn’t change that they are facts
A party or two with not enough votes to have a seat in parliament is now part of government while other parties which got more votes didn’t even get in parliament.
Basically, what happened is that the RWNJs proved that our system isn’t democratic.
Essentially I’m commenting on the notion thats quite well-known that the left arn’t really keen on democracy especially when the results don’t go their way, a notion you and others like you are reinforcing
Democracy is for ancient Greeks for myself however I prefer STV as a voting option but if the threshold was lowered to 3% I wouldn’t be at all bothered
Have I missed it here tonight, but on Campbell Live they had finally received the OIAs that they been seeking for months which show that the Pike River Tunnel was safe to enter from nearly a year ago. At least 5 OIA had been refused. What! Lied to. OIAs witheld – again! Key and others lied to everyone re access.
Anyone concerned?
Pike River is an analogy for what has been, and not, happening in NZ. When we erect a memorial statue we should put on the plinth our sorrow at the failure of the NZ government to take responsible steps from whoa to go about everything.
We applaud death defying feats by amateurs. But when the police were afraid to go down the mine, the miners were prevented from doing anything to recover their people. They should have had the right to do a short reconnoitre when they considered it safe after the first explosion. They would have taken the risk to have satisfied themselves that they had done everything they could. They should have been able to inspect and make their own judgement as to feasibility. But suddenly safety was paramount, where it had not been for the trapped miners. That was too late in the piece and very hypocritical.
I am listening to one of these web lectures. The financial problems we see are all because of private debt, not government debt. In the USA two generations ago the level of private debt was 55% of GDP and now it is about 115%. In Europe I think Portugal the rate is over 255%. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvRcQ5Tm6Kw
The Next Economic Disaster – Why it’s coming and how to avoid it – Richard Vague
The real story behind the GFC is the multiplied leverage and debt in the shadow banking system*, and although I have not watched that video, I am pretty sure that that is not included in the numbers that you quoted.
*This is the vast financial system which is not regulated by banking laws and regulations (which the banks themselves helped build to get around banking laws and regulations).
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Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...
2024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?When I say 2024 I really mean the state of humanity in 2024.Saturday night, we watched Civil War because that is one terrifying cliff we've ...
Buzz from the Beehive A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements. The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets. It will be introducing pet bonds in a change to the Residential Tenancies Act ...
A recent report generated from a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey of 1,224 rangatahi Māori aged 11-12 found: Cultural connectedness was associated with fewer depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and better quality of life. That sounds cut and dry. But further into the report the following appears: Cultural connectedness is ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: From the gory details of job-cuts news, you’d think the public service was being eviscerated. While the media’s view of the cuts is incomplete, it’s also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington ...
Remember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iran’s drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...
Costello did not pass on analysis of the benefits of the smokefree reforms to Cabinet, emphasising instead the extra tax revenues of repealing them. Photo: Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images TL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me at 7:26 am today are:The Lead: Casey Costello never passed on ...
True loveYou're the one I'm dreaming ofYour heart fits me like a gloveAnd I'm gonna be true blueBaby, I love youI’ve written about the job cuts in our news media last week. The impact on individuals, and the loss to Aotearoa of voices covering our news from different angles.That by ...
While commentators, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, are noting a subtle shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy, which now places more emphasis on the United States, many have missed a key element of the shift. What National said before the election is not what the government is doing now. ...
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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
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 ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
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)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
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Is the definition of stupidity David Shearer going on-air complaining about Labour’s lack of unity and then in the next sentence stabbing David Cunliffe in the back. All of the Labour MP’s currently going on-air to have a stab at David Cunliffe are clearly showing that they are the “insiders” who have been undermining Labour and are the main cause for the 24.7%.
There are other factors for the 24.7%, but when I have spoken to people they always talk about the infighting that goes on in labour as the main reason that they wouldn’t vote Labour. As soon as I heard Nash, Cosgrove and Shearer on air yesterday, I knew, as Winston would say: “Labour are gone”… idiots putting their own ambitions in front of the Party. For the sake of Labour shut the f%$# up.
Agreed. And the loudest should reflect on their own personal performance. If they want a review we should start with why their electorate campaign for the party vote was so bad. A comparison of results makes for fascinating reading …
Time for a new party folks ? this one was hijacked decades back and is no longer capable of representing middle/lower nz.
It’s not possible to purge the shearers, mallards etc so can anyone see it working with them ? Described as too comfortable and not to bothered about the strugglers was how one party figure depicted them to me, sounds about right.
Helen held it together but that was awhile ago now and its easier in power than in opposition. Jones being able to be bought off by the Nats pretty much summed it for me, zero loyalty, maximum troughing and nasty as into the bargain.
These are not the pollys you are looking for.
+100 tc
Re time for a new party, I wondered the same thing this morning. In fact, this year’s election result is not significantly different from Goff’s. Division is still the undermining factor. The Goff/Shearer team seems to have the blessing of the political/media elite, while Cunliffe largely retains the support of the unions and the membership.
Each morning I listen to Susie Ferguson carrying on about Cunliffe like a high school queen bee attacking some boy for wearing his slippers to the school ball.
Cunliffe can’t effectively stand up to this sort of thing, as Winston does, without his caucus firmly behind him. At the same time, the right-leaning ambitions of the opposing team draw scorn and contempt from the cheap seats, while their beloved tradies go over to Winston and the luvvies to the Greens. If things continue in this way, as they have since Clark left, it will ultimately mean the death of Labour.
Shearer is calling for an independent review. Here’s an independent review: constantly backstabbing the party leader to the media makes the populace not like your party.
+1
Pre-election DC often looked like someone who was preparing for the next beating. As bad as the MSM has been I don’t think they did that to him alone. Well done Labour caucus, leadership coup by PTSD.
I think Cunliffe did remarkably well under the circumstances, but that sense that something was wrong was palpable yet never explained. No wonder so many people don’t trust Labour.
I love your analogy of Susie Ferguson as the high school queen bee
if you close yr eyes when she speaks..
..she does sound a bit like a bee…
I had the same feeling. But it would fragment the left further. We need an integrating party, to get anywhere. Also Labour are not going to disappear…..but if they don’t get it together…..there will be no opposition.
The Greens will remain a strong opposition party. I expect Mana and IP (or similar) to regroup in the medium term too.
The labour MPs should learn to debate issues in private in their caucus and not air their differences/views in public or secretly through journalists/bloggers.
After this election, in my opinion, the only people in Labour that should have spoken in public are Cunliffe and Parker and may be Coatsworth. The rest them should have shown better restraint or at least shown unity and loyalty in their utterances.
Yep, been saying that for years. Labour is a centre-right party and probably closer to radical right compared to where we were in the 1970s and a right-wing party is bad for the country.
May I suggest Mana, Internet or Greens?
Is not The Greens or Internet/Mana good enough for you? Oh wait, I just mean The Greens.
This aging lefty agrees totally. The history of new parties isn’t that great so far, but these are certainly not the pollies I’m looking for.
shearer is either so thick he doesn’t realise what he is doing is why the vote went the way it did or like other abc members he just does not care.
This confirms the disunity theme Nats ran with as pretty accurate, nice work Dave.
and another 100% agreement about Shearer ( friend of National and Hooton)
…naked ambition…limited ability…ruthless to opposition ….didnt he get rid of Leanne Dalziel and Charles Chauvel while he was leader?
…both Dalziel and Chauvel were future potential leaders of the Labour Party
….really David Cunliffe did not stand a chance with Shearer behind his back ( imo Cunliffe should stay and fight it out if he has the support of the rank and file Labour Party members…change in the Labour Party has got to come from the bottom up)
…there were huge mistakes in Labour’s election strategy that can not be sheeted back to Cunliffe…but to the whole Party apparatus
+1 Chooky. Well said.
Great work in Ohariu Rosie. It’s a shame the Greens and Labour couldn’t work together there…
Agree ++
And Shearer never had a chance with Cunliffe behind his back.
Maybe the issue are actually bigger than these two men, and the next Labour leader needs to be a fresh face.
Labour got up to 34% (according to Phil Ure) when Cunliffe lurched to the left, and got 25% when they pulled back to the right.
Maybe theres a lesson there, but they also need to factor in that by abandoning the centre, they will be forever hoping that Winston will choose them for Government. Thats a risky strategy for any party to adhere to in my view.
chooky 100+
Editorial: Labour needs a new leader, nothing more
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11329493
Or, if Cunliffe is supported by the party as a whole then how about those disruptive caucus members do their job properly.
I hear your opinion, tangled up but disagree.
I thought Cunliffe did brilliant in the debates. He came across as caring, he made leaps and bounds in dispelling the media painted perception of him with actions and showing just how much he cared about NZ. Given proper media coverage he would have won. That’s the crux of the issue. the only way a Labour leader would get the thumbs up from the likes of O’Sullivan and Armstrong and everyone else in the media except Cambell is if he was a National MP leading Labour.
You know it, you know the press are against Labour, so who will they be even handed too, no one. That’s why you need a man like Cunliffe, he’ll get the bad press for awhile but has the oration skills and brain to dispel them and make the media look stupid. Just like he was doing in the debates.
I for one like Cunliffe a lot. I also liked Shearer, but did not like him when I saw how hopeless he was on media duties or in parliaments debates.
leave Cunliffe there just band behind him and unify and start dispelling the perceptions painted by bad media personalities.
The fight back starts by uniting and dispelling the Labour tainted image. only then will we get the common voter to consider the tick seriously. Until then they won’t even look at labour.
Whoops I edited in my opinion of the article at the last minute. I agree with you.
Agree with you Richard, but ideally Labour need to analyse the root cause of Labours’ weakness. Leadership is one of the factors, but there are many factors for Labour struggling including the following:
– Labour funding/campaign revenue
-implementing tough policies such as CGT, Irrigation tax, increasing age of super
-centralised campaign/marketing strategy
-constant infighting and leaks to the media (Lack of internal discipline)
-DC apologising to womens refuge
-Insider attacking Cunliffe for taking 3 days off in school holidays
-Labours marketing strategy versus Nationals marketing strategy
-Is the electorate ready for a change?
-Labour brand weakness
-Dotcom and the affect he had on Labours campaign
-Dirty Politics – did it help or hinder
-Could Labour have presented its suite of policies better?
The point I am trying to make is that Labour need to analyse the root cause of the problem, the infighting that is already happening is in my view the biggest reason Labours brand has gone down the toilet.
Useful agenda for a caucus meeting there
@ saarbo..
..and to say/ask themselves..
..’what were we saying when we ranked at the mid-thirties in the polls..?”
..if they don’t do that..and then act on/follow that signal..
..there is no hope for them
and a +1 to you too Richard
And that’s not going to happen – not while Labour still has the backstabbers in there. Best option is to dump Labour.
the right is making a power-move on labour…
..backed up by the usual-suspects..
..(the herald editorial being just one of them..written by roughan..?..d’yareckon…it reads like him..)
+++ And Labour are being played like little docile puppets! Dancing to their tune. Public display of power hungry, naked ambition, disloyalty and chaos.
Someone needs to reign them in.
NZ doesn’t need a particular party so just let them go their own way and take Labour to the grave with them. There are other, better parties.
+1
I used to keep bikes and cars for years, spending more and more on maintaining what had turned into heaps of shit. I belatedly learned that it’s better to get rid of the absolute rubbish and get something else to do the same job. For a long time I thought we had to keep Labour, but I’ve had enough. The Rogernomics cancer has been terminal.
20% vote from lunions is not what got Cunliffe the leadership, it’s mathematically impossible. The Herald is peddling the ABC lines again. Why don’t they jkust simplify their article to
“”wa. wa.wa. I want to be more like National. wa wa wa.” said David Shearer and his pals today
I saw that and my Tweets back were not that nice. Fucking hacks!
Totally agree Sarbo!! Shearer deserves a huge chunk of blame – he took the leadership with no experience and wasted so much time stumbling and bumbling around – If David Cunliffe had been elected leader straight after Goff, the election result might have looked very different – 11 months is not long enough for a leader to cement themselves into the job and for the public to know them – Helen Clark was leader for a much longer period before becoming Prime Minister and look how that turned out!! NO-ONE else in the party could have performed in those debates better than David Cunliffe – its a pity that certain MP’s only did enough to regain their own seats and didn’t bother campaigning for the party vote – self interest reigns supreme among many in the Caucus! As for Nash, he’s a bit cheeky saying he may go for the leadership when he’s only just got into Parliament – trading on the name of his adopted Grandfather a bit too much I think – and imagine the field day Cameron Slater would have with Nash’s private life!!!! Nash does not strike me as a measured type of man which could get him into all sorts of trouble. Robertson may debate well but he will never have appeal with the public, he’s gay and he just doesn’t look like a Prime Minister should – unfortunately people really ARE that shallow, so looks are important! If David Cunliffe doesn’t stay leader of the Party, then watch all the new members they have gained melt away like snow in spring!
Hami Shearlie +100
Hami Shearlie- agree!
“If David Cunliffe doesn’t stay leader of the Party, then watch all the new members they have gained melt away like snow in spring!”
I’m not a new member but I’ll be joining them if Cunliffe doesn’t stay as leader.
I see that as a major right-wing personality trait and a major failing. Don’t give a fuck what peoples grandfathers did, what are they doing?
They could always try to persuade DC to go with them.
We’re in real danger of doing for Labour what the Tea Party does for the Republican Party: selecting ideologically “pure” candidates that are either unappealing to the wider electorate or are abrasive to a significant portion of the caucus. I voted for Cunliffe. I like him and I like his principles, but I was also very impressed with Grant Robertson and would have been okay with “settling” for him (Jones was out of the question).
Someone is going to have to blink here. I know it feels really good to stick it to the right wing in caucus, but they’re not the enemy. National is. The perfect is the enemy of the good and you can little by being in opposition. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m tired of losing.
Well said
The problem is that the Rogernomes in caucus aren’t tired of losing. If they were, they’d shut their leaking mouths.
For better or worse the Labour caucus is now selected for the next three years. It is chock full of yesterday’s men and women.
The first thing the leader must do is unite this group behind him or herself and the common cause of displacing John Key in 2017.
For me that is the top of the job description for leader of the Labour party.
I am not sure who that person is. But I am fairly certain that person’s name does not begin with David.
Neither Shearer nor Cunliffe have the requisite support of the caucus to effectively carry out the job. Without that support they cannot do the job. Therefore neither should be leader.
“The first thing the leader must do is unite this group behind him or herself”
You seem to be discounting the possiblity that this might not be possible.
It isn’t possible. If it was it would have happened years ago.
“idiots putting their own ambitions in front of the Party”
Unfortunately DC appears to be more guilty of this than anyone.
Where to from here then? Major culling and new blood required. Mallard hanging on to Hutt South has put the regeneration back another two terms.
My problem with John Key’s Silver Fern is that it looks too much like the ISIS flag from a distance, exposing NZ troops in Syria to being targeted by allied air power.
@ raa..
..heh..!
Or whatever war zone Key will send nz troops to help out his good mates America.
.. which leads to the question – are there any All Black fans among ISIS ?
.. or Monty Python aficionados ?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11114677/Islamic-State-You-are-not-even-safe-in-your-bedrooms.html
Saarbo, well bloody said. Do they not engage brain before shooting themselves in ass. No one wanted goff he’d never get in, frankly he has a worse public image than Cunliffe. Shearers background gave him a good standing but he cannot talk. pointless, part of the job requirements are the ability to get ones point across. These two are causing too much infighting the president of Labour need to tell them to can it for awhile. If you have an issue with someone how about growing a pair and talking about it like an adult with the person concerned, or is it more of a case of them blinded by the hint they may be able to get the leadership baubbles back. it’s pathetic. frankly the country would laugh at labour if they threw the truck in reverse in a traffic jam.
Today I joined the labour party, yep on the cheap side at $10 PM but heck I’m on a low wage. I figure every dollar counts though, have to do something I figured I can’t sit here bleating on like a cry baby if I don’t get active. So I am a labour member, well until I get approved officially.
I consider myself pretty fair handed not a rabid commie or right wing neo liberal. I just go for common sense. Good policy is good policy no matter who comes up with it if it improves things. lets hope my 1% can help Labour if even a little.
and because three more years of this lots going to hurt us all big time the way the economy is tanking.
good on you Richard.
I am a Labour member and thinking of resigning, much because of what Lynn said in this article. You are encouraging me to stay.
Waikato University’s production line of mediocrity;
They’re right at home on Jim Mora’s light chat show
The Panel, Monday 22 September 2014
Jim Mora, Stephen Franks, Duncan Webb
Waikato University has long been the refuge of some of the most bizarre right wing nutjobs in the nation. If you care to visit the notorious “Political Science” [sic] department, you’ll meet the unbelievably nasty professors Dov Bing, an implacable Israeli hardliner who every few years emerges from academic obscurity to write a bloodthirsty Op-Ed piece in the Waikato Times, and Ron Smith, who on Jim Mora’s show once spoke, in a tone of high seriousness, of the “virtue” of New Zealand governments falling in line with U.S. foreign policy. Needless to say, Smith’s party politics are as deranged as his lectures; he ran for ACT in the Hamilton East electorate this year. Over in the English department, dear old Norman Simms occasionally contributes to the public discourse, backing up his friend Prof. Bing by frothing and snarling and tirelessly reiterating the line that critics of Israel are “anti-Semitic”. Up the hill, in Earth Sciences, you’ll meet the bewhiskered Professor Willem De Lange, a global warming denier who foolishly, in 2008, appeared on a risible Prime TV “debate” on the same side as NewstalkZB’s resident loon Leighton Smith; to compound the impression of haplessness, De Lange let Smith do nearly all the talking. But probably the most dismal of all the dismal departments at Waikato is the Management School, which achieved notoriety in 1998 by bestowing an Honorary Doctorate on the ridiculous advertising poseur Kevin Roberts.
Sadly, anyone who listened to Jim Mora’s light chat show The Panel today (Monday) will be all too aware that Waikato’s lamentable production line of mediocrity shows no sign of slowing down. Right now I am listening to one Jacqueline Rowarth, a Waikato University professor—allegedly—of Agricultural Science, asserting that there is no such thing as poverty in New Zealand. It is, apparently, all in the minds of the poor. Except that, according to Prof. Rowarth, the poor don’t exist. Those reports in the media of kids without shoes? Rubbish, according to Jacqueline Rowarth—all the alleged shoelessness is simply kids who just don’t want to wear shoes.
Stephen Franks—like Prof. Ron Smith, an ACT supporter—is warmly supportive of this carefully researched thesis, but Duncan Webb is less impressed. Webb has a go at arguing with Prof. Rowarth and Franks, but Jim Mora cuts him off because time is up.
Earlier in the programme, Franks launched into one of his typically bizarre rants, asserting that Frank Bainimarama is actually a democrat, and has been one all along. According to Franks, only the Great Council of Chiefs was ever opposed to the Fijian dictator. That’s not true of course: the staunchest opposition to the Bainimarama dictatorship has been by the trade unions in Fiji. This has evidently failed to register with Franks. To his credit, Duncan Webb contested what Franks said. Franks also engaged in a lengthy condemnation of the New Zealand government for its failure to support Bainimarama’s coup, which was apparently a coup for democracy. To support his case, he invoked another great hero of democracy, Henry Kissinger*, who claimed that morality had no place in foreign policy.
I flicked the glib, laughing host of this joke of a show the following supportive e-mail….
Morality has no place in foreign policy
Dear Jim,
We support Stephen Franks’s assertion that morality has no place in foreign policy.
Yours sincerely,
Adolf Hitler
Benito Mussolini
Emperor Hirohito
V.I. Lenin
Lev Trotsky
“Uncle Joe” Stalin
Pol Pot
General Franco
Henry Kissinger
* Yes, that was a joke.
@ morrissey..
..good spotting..!
i listened to that rowarth with jaw agape..
(and the disturbing thought that here was a future panel-candidate..she says all the ‘right’ things..)..her semi-orgasmic gasps of agreement as franks laid out his vile-prescriptons for the children of the poor…painted her in exactly the colour she should be..unadulterated far-right..
..and she is a professor..(!)..she gets to teach/preach this shit to gullible students..?..
..whoar..!..)
..and moras’ nodding-along to those (as always) putrid-excretions from the mind of franks was particularly puke-inducing..
..and of course..as noted..never challenged at all by mora..
Prof Rowarth also mixed up the average and median. She said poverty is supposed to be 80% of the median income – and then said that meant it was around $50k. No, it is actually around $20k – which she could probably not even imagine supporting a family on. And then she said that the lack of shoes is just a life style choice for kids!
On the Electoral Commission election results page they have a demographic breakdown of each electorate. For example in Palmerston North 55% live on less than $30k and only about 3% over $100, 000. So as a professor formerly at Massey she is up there with the tiny elite – no wonder she has no idea. Pity they give her airtime as an expert on anything but farming.
Full time work on Minimum wage equals around $29,600pa, are you saying more than half of peple in Palmerston North are on full time minimum wage, part time work or benefit? That is an apalling stat if true!
What was Iain Lees-Galloway’s plan for the region to increase employment opportunities during the election?
“she gets to teach/preach this shit to gullible students..?..”
And that is the problem, until the Friedman and the Chicago School religion is purged from all universities this Noe-Liberal failed crap will go on unabated.
+111
i have worked out what the real metaphor is in that eminem-rip-off rowing skiff ad…
..it actually represents how each party has got to grips with mmp..
..national has nailed it..
..and the progressives/labour/grns etc..
..haven’t got a fucken clue..
..they are the ones in the dinghy..
..all rowing in opposite directions..
..and against each other..
..and labour can angst and leader-fret all they like..
..but until lab/grns progressives learn not to cannabilse/fight each other to the death national will just continue skiffing past them..
..there have been two post-election statements/claims that have particularly ground my gears..
..one was the crocodile tears from cunnliffe on ‘the bad result for the left’..after his successful knee-capping of harawira/internet-mana..(for all the obvious reasons..)
..and the other was from metiria turei..
..with her (to me) smug-claim that the greens couldn’t have done any more to avert that crushing defeat for the left/progressives..
..a look at the result in ohariu-belmont puts the lie to that..
..and the greens have gifted dunne his 11th term in parliamant..(on a mandate for him/his party half the size of that of the aotearoa legalise cannabis party..(!)..)
..because dunne won with a majority of 900+…
..yet the green candidate in that seat..got 2,4000+ votes…
..so had the greens clearly asked their supporters to vote strategically in ohariu-belmont..
..dunne would have been out the door..
..and this disasterous (for the progressives) pattern is repeated up and down the country..
(auckland central…had the greens not competed for the electorate..labour would have won that seat..as just one other example of many..)
..and until labour and the greens work out enough how to not cannabilise each other..
(issuing clear/explaining reasons for.. how-to-vote cards to their supporters..would be one obvious solution..and of course agreeing not to stand competing-candidates in some strategic seats will have to be worked out…)
..until then..labour can shuffle leaders all they like..
..and turei can make that false claim again and again that ‘the greens could do nothing more’..
..but the progressives will just continue to get out-rowed by national/the right..
..this is the solution to the problems facing the left/progressives…
..not fretting over a new leader for labour..
..but sitting down together and actually working out/planning how to win an election..
..until they do that…nothing will change..
Labour and the greens lost the election… You can stop now, objective achieved.
yr own words paint you as the fucken unthinking-idiot you are..
..you..who was so eager to kill-off harawira/int-mana..
..you obviously have the political-nous/iq of..i dunno..
..a piece of old vinyl..?
(and no..i am not starting a conversation with you..)
You did a great job hacking lumps off red/green throughout the campaign, and now, in defeat, you have all the answers to all their woes. Sincere? A big belly laugh at that.
As for lack of nous, I disagree. I managed to suss you out soon enough.
Internet Mana killed themselves.
Hurry up with your grief cycle pal; denial is the graceless phase.
Once you’ve fininshed, after all that corrupted idiocy of Dotcom and Harre has been swept aside, we have a government t defeat.
yes..the int/mana defeat was in part suicide..
..but the other part was cunnliffe/labour seeming unable to comprehend the basics of mmp..
It wasn’t even assisted suicide. Mana was a bit careless on a windy road, but Labour/MP/WinstonFirst/NAct cut the brake lines.
No and labour/national/nzfirts and the maori party did not join together to kill it off.
See here is the problem, and the denial going on – Labour got into bed with national to kill off mana.
Let me repeat that so you understand. Labour got into bed with national to kill mana off.
And you’re going to sit there with a straight face and tell me mana killed itself. Wow another out of touch labour supporter. This is why the working people in this country hate you and why they won’t vote.
Mana did kill itself. Their delusional idiotic behaviour left other parties no choice, but to either sit uncomfortably on the sidelines, or at the close to distance themselves, otherwise the public would make their own decision. Davis had to fight for his life. Labour didn’t owe Mana anything, but it did owe the electorate clarity in saying they would not deal with IMP. Hone is a victim of his own stupidity, and thank heavens we don’t have to listen to that tosser Laila Harre anymore. If hone had stayed away from Dotcom he would still be an MP.
So it’s ok for labour to work with national now Once was Pete? What idiotic behaviour? Your right labour owes nobody nothing, because they are dead. It’s going to hurt, it’s going to take some time, but the beast is dead.
All I see is a party of egoists, slashing and burning all who oppose them. Oh wait they already sold out working people. They just followed that up and destroying any voice working stiffs had, by joining with the enemy. Well done labour, what a wonderful strategy.
“..Hurry up with your grief cycle pal..”
fuck off with yr ‘grief cycle’..faux-analysis/pop-psychology….
..i have a 16 yr old dog who is dying..
..as far as ‘grief’ goes..
..the election result is nothing beside that..
You have lost any remaining credibility and should close your computer permanently.
Be useful and hang out with your dog.
That is just plain nasty.
So sorry to hear about your dog Phil. My thoughts are with you.
thanks..
David Shearer is calling for a forensic analysis of the election result. I agree. For a start we could do a seat by seat analysis of what happened to the party vote. Here are the worst performing seats and the figure represents the drop in percentage points of party vote:
Mt Roskill -8.21%
Hutt South -7.86%
Mt Albert -7.12%
Here is New Lynn’s result:
New Lynn -1.52%
Of course there will be a multitude of causes and reasons and boundary changes were reasonably significant for each of these seats. But let’s have the debate. The party should have had it in 2011.
@ m.s..
..as i noted above..
..what you/labour need to do..
..is to examine the labour/grn results in each seat..
..and then do a ‘what if?’-exercise…
..and if you do that..the reasons for yr defeat will become clear..
..and how to turn that around into victory..will become obvious..
..and this needs to be started to be worked on as soon as possible..
..so that you will walk into the next election with a clearly heralded/worked-out plan…
..if you don’t do this..
..labour/the grns will just continue with this disasterous pattern of cannibal-behaviour/election-defeat..
Until Nationals vote disintegrates there’s not a lot the left can do.
Thinking about it, for MMP to really be effective the National vote needs to be around 30-35% and has to work and compromise with other parties instead of the other parties just making up the numbers to govern.
In that sort of scenario the possibility of National and labour working together would be quite high.
Currently with John Key at the helm the chances of nationals vote collapsing or a left leaning government gaining power are practically nil.
@ bm..
..that’s a matter of policy..
..the other fact for labour to remember..is that they peaked in the polls when cunnliffe was most ‘left’..35%-37%..
..do the math..!
..labour 35%..grns 10%..+ nz firs = change of govt..
..when cunnliffe didn’t deliver on those transformational-policies/promises..is when the labour vote started its’ slow collapse…
..so..had lab/grns not cannabilised each other..
..and had cunnliffe delivered on those poverty-busting promises..
..the election result wd have been very different..
“..when cunnliffe didn’t deliver on those transformational-policies/promises..is when the labour vote started its’ slow collapse…”
What ‘left’ promises didn’t DC follow through with that collapsed the vote?
“had lab/grns not cannabilised each other.”
I’m missing your text that slams mana voters in Rotorua for not electorate voting Labour to keep Flavell and another out of parliament. Do you have a link?
National have 1 trump up their sleeve to protect from their voter base collapsing, when Peters retires who do you think will pick up the majority of NZ1’s support? Do you think it will be a party that promotes increasing the retirement age, The Greens or any other party that lies on the left of the political spectrum ?
I reckon once Winston goes, Ron Marks will take over and align the party with National.
But yes I see what you’re saying, the conservatives will pick up most of NZ First vote
You may even find the Conservatives amalgamating with NZ First, they are chasing the same voter demographic.
Nice stats there Micky. Goff, Shearer, Mallard should take a look at themselves. Though I would point out that Goff nearly won in 2011.
Cunliffe should stay as leader and should sack/ease out Cosgrove and anyone else who refused to push Labour in their electorate campaigns. He needs to be seen to take control and any bloodletting should be now and then get unified for the following 2 years.
And please can we have party vote labour written as PARTY VOTE LABOUR on the hoardings next time.
Much though I like Hone and Laila it will complicate things less for Labour next time now Mana has gone. Maybe Laila should replace Cosgrove?
Yep – Whatever genius came up with Vote Positive as opposed to Vote Labour should give himself an uppercut.
To have a fair comparison leaders of a party attract a greater % of support in their electorate than “just anybody” so to compare DC’s loss of party vote when he was just anyone to now being “The One” is a bit IMO playing with numbers, unless you compare his vote with other 1st time leaders in an losing campaign. Say bill English in 2002 as comparing like with like ?
Now who are the Labour MPs for Mt Roskill, Hutt South, and Mt Albert again?
I forget.
Were a couple of them on radio this morning?
Help me out here.
Dunedin South, that Former Red Stronghold which lost the party vote to National by a few hundred votes in 2011, lost it again this time around by 2,300 votes.
And Labour came third in the party vote in Wellington Central – Robertson’s seat if I recall rightly!
Definitely time for a forensic analysis.
Unfortunately Labour (mainly) & Green politicians ego’s got in the way of common sense. I put out a strategy to these idiots but their over inflated ego’s got the better of them. Met & spoke with Cunliffe’s PR men and realised they were amateurs pretty quickly, this was a big disappointment. Rolled out our strategy locally to great effect which was very successful, backed up back by the National snake oil team congratulated us on an effective play.
You can get results by booth and then add/subtract the ones inside/outside the 2011 boundaries and get a pretty accurate measure of the changes.
Nobody on the left has yet said who the mysterious person is who would do a better job of leading Labour than Cunnliffe.
Is that being saved up to be part of the “forensic analysis” too?
I would say that one of the reasons is that the anxious classes are now moving outwards from city centres, ( having captured them in the last few decades, particularly in Auckland) because they can’t afford the prices. These suburbs are becoming gentrified.
How did you calculate that without the Special votes?
New Lynn 2011 Labour party vote = 12,462
New Lynn 2014 Labour party vote = 10,160
That’s a drop of 2,302 or 18.5%. There was however 15% less total votes cast (33,980 to 28,897), which brings it into perspective.
The figure measures the change in the proportion of the party vote.
Don’t forget the electorate boundary changes that were brought in covering West Auckland. Kelston went up by 100% party vote – for all parties.
It seems to me that the right and the corporate is in the ascendency well and truly.
Like it is in the US and most western nations. There is nothing to halt it – the poor / left don’t vote and the right wing vested interests are simply too powerful.
We have just witnessed it here.
+100% vto, sadly.
Obviously we’re past the denial stage and onto the anger stage.
The Labour Party needs to at least change its name. Labouring labour labouring under the weight of labour – its all too downwards.
“Labour Unchained”?
“Labour Unplugged”?
“Neonatal Labour”?
“Postnatal Labour”?
“Hard Labour”?
“Post Labour”?
“Proto Labour”?
“The Socialist Party?”
“Hot Girls and Free Beer”?
“Free Democratic New People’s United Revival”?
“The Robertson and Ardern Society of Friends”?
Plus a new flag.
First to the best appropriate anthem wins.
lolz.
ABC.
xox
Cheers Morrissey
It’s a comedy show, and not a very good one. I’ve tried to tell Mora to get better writers…
Labour supporters, we are in for an almighty fight.
If caucus make this fight about the leadership alone, the left are in trouble long term.
This has to be about the performance and future direction of the Labour Party as a whole.
This will be one hell of a lead up to Christmas. Keep up the fight for the good.
+1
The caucus is the problem not the solution. That some in there don’t see that IS THE PROBLEM.
Boo Fucking Hoo they had to work for someone they dont like, well suck it up princesses, we all have had to work for bosses we didnt like, we either leave or we contribute tot he common goal. At least that is how fgrown ups do it.
The soultion for the ABC’s is right in front of their eyes
United Future
New Zealand First
ACT
National
Go join them and I never thought I would say this but I wonder who Cosgrove and others gave their party votes to?
It seems to me that all the fuckwits that voted for Key now think that by merely voting for Key they have disproved Hagar and Greenwald and Snowden. It is proof of their fuckwittery … if we all say “nyah nyah nyah” at once then we must be right …
Yup, they made the nasty monster go away… by closing their eyes.
Yeah, Richard Prebble tried that one in his “Letter”.
http://www.act.org.nz/posts/the-letter-22-september-2014
Yep, been getting that delusion thrown at me on Twitter.
It astounds me (not) that Fed Farmers are still in denial about the environment and its place in the world…
William Rolleston this morning claiming that the looming reforms of the RMA are a good thing …. all these reforms will do is allow more pieces of the environment to be taken from the environment and placed onto people’s dinner plates, thereby simply diminishing the environment ….. the dinner plate that is already loaded with roast lamb and gravy, mash potato and rosemary, peas beans piled high, all washed down with a very good sauvignon ….
brainless and greedy
I see the future and it is barren – like the Canterbury Plains are now
subsidized by those that only eat grits.
the farmers don’t care as essentially they don’t sell to NZ. They sell overseas…so why not pollute here? As long as they have theirs who gives a fuck about those that have nothing?
again, if people complain, tell them to write a letter to the editor and contact their National Party goons.
+11111
Eventually – hopefully not too late – global customers will tell NZ farmers that they will farm to acceptable practices of animal ethics, traceability, purity, and sustainability.
Eventually – hopefully not too late – Fonterra will realise that deliberately making itself vulnerable to the bulk commodity cycle with low added value will kill the business and the New Zealand economy with it. How’s that bet on bulk commodities going now Mr Spiering?
Mr Spiering and Mr Rolleston should have a bit of a sit down.
I think part of the problem with their thinking is that they keep telling themselves that they are the best farmers in the world …. sheesh, really? I don’t believe that for one millisecond….
for a start, what makes the best farmers in the world? This lot have been going for around 140 years or so and look at what they’ve done to the land. I understand the Dutch punch out around 5 times the productivity from a smaller area and don’t use nitrates – maybe they are the best. There are farmers all across the globe who have been at it for centuries – maybe they are better, at least they are proven.
Really. What defines the “best farmers in the world”
They need to stop believing their own bullshit as it is their/our downfall.
We must beware of William Rolleston. He is Monsanto’s chief weapon in NZ for introducing GMOs.
Without doubt, he is to Monsanto what Ede was to Key.
And if TPPA is signed, we will be gone the way of every other country and end up flooding our precious food crops with glyphosate and now, 2,4 D — yes, the main ingredient of Agent Orange is now approved in USA for use on crops as glyphosate has failed, rendering millions of acres of farmland completely unuseable and abandoned forever to superweeds up to 8 ft tall. ( Can only imagine the future spread of those seeds by wind and what little bird life remains.)
Do we want this in Aotearoa ? Last chance now to fight it off and prevent the TPPA.
And in terms of improving product and adding value, the cheapest marketing ploy ever is to remain firmly against GMOs and label all our product as such. It actually matters to millions of consumers. And wow, it actually increases prices overseas!
But Wily Willy Rolleston will ensure this truth is never told. This scares me.
Truth is the enemy of the psychopaths.
@ vto..
..+ 1..
Good question. I think we should define it:
1. Doesn’t pollute the water ways
2. Uses sustainable practices
3. Doesn’t use up finite resources
4. Ensures that their local community is fed first and foremost
5. Doesn’t use GMOs
Add more.
They are not the only ones who are subsidised.
Working For Families (WFF), although laudable, is also a means of subsidising small to medium businesses (SMEs) in terms of their wage bill. The businesses do not pay a fair price for labour (clearly, as the households getting minimum wage are eligible for WFF). I think if small businesses cannot get a business model in which their costs are structured properly, and covered by earnings, then they should not be in business.
The government through WFF is subsidising bad business (if the business truly cannot pay workers), or else subsidising the profits that these business owners make.
This is another reason for middle NZ to move to/stay with/ or move toward National. Increasing minimum wages to a level that would affect them (despite their being effectively subsidised through WFF) was unpalatable for many SMEs.
by the way, I am not against WFF by any means….but I think we need better analysis of the distributional aspects of it – who actually benefits from it besides the deserving working families?
john oliver has reported on the new zild election..
..it’s very funny..
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/us-show-mocks-nz-over-accent-and-nationals-eminem-stoush/
I love John Oliver – that was good.
@Morrissey thanks for the analysis. Mora’s Panel is puke and sounds like Waikato University faculty is too.
On another note, someone threw a brick through a window at Nationals Michael Woods office last night.
The ODT labelled it “dirty politics”. Another source of information misses the point/looks dumb/follows the meme.
Dirty politics was about abuse of power.
By defination the powerless cannot indulge in it.
Dirty politics was about abuse of power.
By defination the powerless cannot indulge in it.
Thank you for saying it. It’s been enraging me for weeks – the accusation and the ignorance. And it really pissed me off that none of our “representatives” saw fit to point it out when it most needed to be said.
remember – it is not acceptable to point out the actual nature of the establishment structures of power (of which they are an intrinsic part of); but it is acceptable to criticise some of the worst, most egregious, intolerable aspects of it.
I think the lesson learned for the left this election is Labour are not to be trusted. No matter what rhetoric come out of their collective mouths – they are a bunch of self serving , backstabbing, idiots. When labour opened the door to neo-liberalism, and exposed capitalism in all it’s fury to working people, was the day they died.
We just didn’t get what a bunch of self absorbed egomaniacs were left in the party. We just didn’t get how gutless they were or how much they could justify to themselves doing bad things to people. We just didn’t get how big their ego’s really were.
Once Nash and Co had wrapped the party away from its socialist roots, the next generation would walk it down to the end of the garden and shot it in the back of the head. This is the husk sitting around a table, who are no more than a bunch of sniveling servants of the 1%.
The elites must roar with laughter each time one of the labour apostles try to move this once great party back to socialism. They have their pet commentators, hacks, and stoge munchers all set to destroy any chance of that.
But, please keep talking reform, keep dreaming of a left victory, keep repeating the same mistakes. Who cares, it’s only people’s lives and well being were talking about. Nothing important like who should lead the labour party.
Weekend at Bernie’s.
The labour party, there c.v?
Hey LPrent,
Can I request that you ask Giovani Tiso to post his latest blog on the Standard?
I’m not sure about the Standard rules in regard to this kind of request.
Meantime, here’s the link. It’s well-worth reading imo:
http://bat-bean-beam.blogspot.co.nz/2014/09/the-rebuild.html
Yes, I support that notion. It’s an excellent post.
Buried in it is a link to a stunning and sober situation appraisal from the editor of the International Socialist Organisation of Aotearoa, bringing some clear analysis couched in the language of class struggle. It’s a delight to read. The link is
http://iso.org.nz/2014/09/22/lessons-to-learn-from-bitter-defeat/
The election was rigged hands down, a stolen election by Key, GCSB and America. Key is not the prime minister and we need to march in the streets and take our country back!!
Suggest you go and read the latest post at No right Turn. What a stupid, stupid comment.
Throughout the campaign I hoped that National’s meme that the ” Labour Party was not fit to govern because it has become too factionalised and lacked unity” was just a media beat up but sadly it sounds as if they were on the button.
If I had just arrived in New Zealand from a couple of months on a desert island and read/listened to the news, I would have wondered why the Labour party bothered to waste the voters’ time entering the race.
I have to say that this is probably not the time or place to criticise a party that is hurt and bleeding – I wish them well in their deliberations. I would suggest that they seek council from the likes of Bryan Gould on how they manage this, because clearly, whoever is running the back office needs to be strong, measured and wise.
For starters though, Shearer, Goff, and the Whale-oil-confidant-Mallard need to take some deep breaths.
Email to Morning Report: Last para read out:
“NZ is a poorly unionised and low wage economy with a growing gap between top and bottom earners. Many low paid workers do not even earn subsistence level wages. The state, in effect, subsidises employers through benefits. The balance of power in NZ lies with the employer and this government will further entrench that position over the next term.
60% of those who voted, chose right wing parties; National was very successful in claiming the media’s hallowed centre ground.
But all parties failed to bridge the gap to the 1 in 3 Kiwis who did not vote.
Labour’s failure was NOT that it didn’t win the comfortable centre but that it continued to fail to connect with the 1 in 3 Kiwis who see no point in voting. Moves back to the centre to slug it out with National will leave those people disconnected and, as the social divide widens, vulnerable to extremist politics.”
Well said Whero, that is absolutely one of the crucial missing foundation stones of our society. How can we have a robust and healthy society when the base layer is shot to shit?
I call again for a general strike by all those on less than the living wage … lets see who actually provides the most value to our lives ….
We could have this strike one week and then a strike by the 1% a week later, and run a comparison ….
Nat. Michael Woodhouse had a brick through his office window post election.
His office is deliciously located in a building called “Upstart House”….
“In the Invercargill incident, two Molotov cocktails, containing what appeared to be kerosene, were found burning in Dee St near the National Party office about 1am on Sunday, Sergeant Ian Martin, of Invercargill, said. ”
Yikes !
“In the Invercargill incident, two Molotov cocktails, containing what appeared to be kerosene, were found burning in Dee St near the National Party office about 1am on Sunday, Sergeant Ian Martin, of Invercargill, said. ”
Crikey !
Something wrong with this picture ?
Key has always repeated that Ede no longer worked for him, but worked only for the National Party and not in Parliament.
But Key says this to TVNZ yesterday – so why on earth did Ede need to resign with Key’s Chief of Staff ??
“John Key says Mr Ede advised his chief of staff on Friday that he wouldn’t be coming back to work in Parliament or for the National Party.”
and also this explanation:
“Mr Key said it wasn’t unusual that Mr Ede’s resignation on Friday was effective immediately because staffs’ contracts end over the election and decisions have to be made about whether or not they will return once campaigns have ended and before the new Parliament resumes.”
Clearly another lie for Blip’s list.
By Key’s own words, Ede has been employed by Key ( and his office) this whole time. Lying bastard of a leader we have.
http://tvnz.co.nz/vote-2014-news/john-key-i-didn-t-force-dirty-politics-staffer-6088654
…yet another one to add to Blip’s comprehensive list of “John Key’s being-economical-with-the-truth moments”.
Labour’s candidate vote was higher than the party vote in most electorates.
If everyone of these voters also gave labour the party vote, what would have been the electoral outcome?
Also: come back Blip, we will need you.
I suggest that the Green Party vote would have dropped – many would have voted electorate Labour/ party Green. No overall change in the Left block total percentages.
Mt Albert: candidate vote was 8,913 higher than Labour party vote
Wellington Central: candidate vote was 8,751 higher than Labour party vote
Rimutaka: candidate vote was 6,702 higher than Labour party vote
Mt Roskill: candidate vote was 6,082 higher than Labour party vote
Hutt South: candidate vote was 5,486 higher than Labour party vote
Dunedin South: candidate vote was 5,404 higher than Labour party vote
Total differential of 41,338
That’s at least 2 more MPs and more than 1/3 of the way to a Labour victory sitting in 6 electorates right there.
Thank you for doing the sums.
And nationwide…..therein lies the problem.
These voters like the candidate, who are the face of the party and represent to the electorate the party values and policy.
But they reject the party itself, which agrees on those values and policies.
I know many posters here have laid out their ideas and theories but it still looks like irrational voting behaviour to me, and the reasons for that will be multi-faceted.
I know, I’m a simpleton. I vote on policy, and the party with the best policies for the future gets my vote and always will. If I don’t like the candidate for that particular party I won’t vote for him/her. There are always other electorate voting options.
This is the KEY
The intellectual academic pol-sci Left cannot get that a plurality of people are not
rational actors’.
A low information public will make their decisions based on emotion, tribal affiliation, brand image, cultural values and other ‘irrational’ factors.
The Left are way way behind in considering this stuff because the activists and pollies on the Left are too socially and culturally disconnected from most Kiwis.
Some parties simply aim to appeal to attitudes that are out there in the public (appeal to public opinion)
others attempt to shift public opinion.
There are pitfalls to simply appealing to popular attitudes – a perfect example is in one of Adam Curtis’s documentaries (I think it was Century of the Self), where the British Labour Party started basing their policies on focus groups and ringing people through out the country.
What ended up happening is the very policies that were formulated on the most popular opinion ended up being contradicted by popular opinion gleaned a few years later. From memory, the example was that people didn’t think [something like] the national railways should be invested in, and then years later the public opinion was that the railway should not have been allowed to degenerate and should have been invested in earlier. (sorry this is from memory, I think it was railways.)
Am I talking about the same approach (appealing to attitudes) that you were meaning, or have I erred in what you meant by your comment?
I’m certainly not talking about politics by focus grouping. I’m talking about understanding that people want a Labour Party which sticks to its guns and advocates for its values, principles and its constituents. Which is exactly what National does all day every day.
The one extra dimension that Labour has to get right, because of its inability to rely on the MSM, is deep community networks which can reach out to the 1.1M non voters out there. At the moment, Labour has sweet F.A. infrastructure which can reach out to those people.
I certainly agree re sticking to one’s guns being something that appeals to people.
I am unclear about this part:
‘and advocates for its values, principles and its constituents. Which is exactly what National does all day every day.
What is the ‘its’ referring to? The parties values?
I thought Labour advocated their policies and values very well this year.
There is a known phenomenon occurring in the Western world – the mix that makes up society has become far more complex than it once was. You talk about the left being ‘out of touch’ with ‘most Kiwis’ but I am unsure whether there is an homogenous group out there that all have similar values. It may be that Labour were trying to appeal to too many, & thereby ended up appealing to very few.
Also, have you considered that NZ might be becoming pretty rightwing, and that is why Labour are struggling? I would have thought the message was very very clear from Labour this time, and that was inclusiveness. It got rejected and ‘each to their own’ was favoured.
I believe the corporate owned media is a big issue in this shift of attitudes and agree the left need to counter this somehow. That may actually be the biggest issue the left faces.
I continue to view some of the issue for the left is that the leftwing approach is more thoughtful, and this makes it hard to present the approach in short sound-bites – I really think Cunliffe did pretty well with this aspect this year. I did spot times where verbosity was present where it didn’t need to be though too.
+++
@ colonial viper
We haven’t been taught critical thinking at school that is the trouble.
We know things happen, but we don’t know why.
We were so impractical at government level that we allowed public television to fall from government hands into a private model. That had been our chance to display factual stuff to the whole country and partially plug the information gap. Now info is a flash of words on a screen the size of a matchbox or perhaps no words just music.
Successive Labour governments have conditioned the ground against future Labour governments. Sounds absurd, but it is utterly true.
Sadly I think you are correct.
This is a completely unexpected consquence of past labour governments – and the party at large – making what appeared and probably were correct and moral decisions at the time. Whether the consequences should have been unexpected or not, we don’t know. There are not too many far-sighted and visionary people in politics with the ablilty to divine 5-10-15yrs ahead.
However the ability to ADAPT QUICKLY is so important. Values do not have to change, but being able to change the presentation of your values is vitally important to that floating voter who, perhaps cruelly, I call ‘irrational’
I’d say that it’s impossible for rational people to understand irrational people and that there’s no way to bridge the gap.
Some random thoughts…
My Mum is turning 80 soon. Here is her anecdote from Saturday – Shopping at New World – the young woman on the checkout said she didn’t know who to vote for. My mum suggested she vote for the party who would raise the minimum wage……who is that she said?
No one knows what to do anymore.
It’s socially embarassing to admit supporting Labour in the provincial city I live in.
When Cunliffe shaved his beard I thought it was a bad sign.
Labour no longer fits culturally (or socially) in wider NZ society. I find that it is socially awkward to admit that you are a Labour Party supporter in most circles – neither Green leaning nor Blue leaning associates nor the largely apolitical ones (which together make up about 3/4 of NZ adults) know what the hell you or your party are doing.
lol…Labour needed a simple message to sell ..1.) 2) 3) 4) 5)… that showed it cared about wider NZ society
…..( not pages of detail on tax… and threats to up the age for workers super ….and put a capital gains tax on your retirement nest egg property and meager business profits )
How many votes did “Fully Costed Policies” give Labour? Or the Greens for that matter. Sweet fuck all. National didn’t cost two tenths of no policies, and waltzed by.
+100 …agreed !….National sold DREAMS
Nactional did dirty tricks and told outright lies (eg “better teaching”.. the opposite of what they are doing)….but they sold dreams …and they won
On the front page of the Christchurch Press the day before the Election was a shiney blue and white advertising sticker . It read:
5 REASONS TO PARTY VOTE NATIONAL
1 Stable Government
2 Strong Economy
3 150,000 New Jobs
4 Better healthcare & Teaching
5 No New Taxes
[Tick Box ] PARTY VOTE NATIONAL
FEAR and Nightmares was also SOLD to the voters : – Below this National Party advertisement – Half the front page of the Press was titled: ‘Terror plot: Beheading was planned’
and a threatening quarter page picture of an innocent sitting down in their socks and either a short skirt or long shorts and a t-shirt ….and confronted by an armed man in battle gear and a full balaclava head mask and goggles … presumably the innocent civilian who had his/her face blotted was waiting to be beheaded …(included in the graphic was a map of the Australian coast and Brisbane and Sydney)
( nice one Christchurch Press…and great Election timing whoever was responsible )
@ syd..
..”..When Cunliffe shaved his beard I thought it was a bad sign…”
aye..!..it’s way past time we were led again by a man with a full-beard..
..it’s been far too long..
Key corrupter Ede’s resignation should be a major news story but is buried away by the editor as a small note at the bottom of page 5 in the Christchurch Press.
The fight continues.
.
100% Rodel .. see my post #21 for the big lie about it ..
Did anyone reference Fran O’Sullivan’s column yesterday because it is quite good:
“Where’s the plan?
This is the question for John Key who during the election debates repeatedly promised the country was “on the cusp of something special” – but couldn’t say what it was……
Where’s the thinking for instance that will get us on to a path where 4 per cent growth is the new normal?
….Air New Zealand’s Christopher Luxon makes the point that Auckland has a long-term plan but the Government doesn’t….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11328976
Of course this government has a plan. The fact that we don’t know about it is both unsurprising, and worrying.
@ ian mac..
..key just has to find that ‘cusp’..
..so he can show it to us…
maybe another big earthquake somewhere can fix it for them ? sigh …
where would Key would have been without the last one to pad his books ??
Does AirNZ Christopher Luxon have a long term plan to provide affordable plane travel and air freight for the provinces? In Nelson we would like to know, and when it will be implemented? Otherwise he can go back to Unilever where he came from and we will get someone who can grow the internal NZ system profitably, with an eye to the future when fuel might be tight. Have new designs for planes giving more gliding impetus and less fuel come out yet Mr Luxon. Is that the government’s long term plan you are wishing for?
In many frames of reference the failings may be true,but the left came close.The greens were expecting a higher percentage of the vote but it never happened they had a extremely and unfairly viewed CGT policy they should have been left to sit with that policy solely while labour deleted theirs or placed it into there second term it may well have been the foundation from which the fruits of social change were going to spring from, the greens may well have asked for the inclusion of CGT if asked to form a government. Increases and more bad medicine in the short term was not required BY NATIONAL VOTERS a tax cut resonates mildly ,far easier to introduce a CGT into a booming market . The left, one wonders did they have a coordinated strategy or were they unfairly denied ,people were hurting but status quo seemed better sitting and hoping the arrow of time would lead upwards. Hindsight is a great thing and many things are entangled..DC will make a good pm just caught in the midst of timing, intentions are honorable .
“The truth about our ‘rockstar economy’
by Brian Easton
A softening of the housing market, falling dairy prices and potential weakening of the Chinese economy do not bode well for New Zealand…………”
Bodes badly over the next year or so. Brian also says,” There were knowing smiles among economists when earlier this year John Key set the election date a couple of months early. He told us it was because there were various international gatherings that the prime minister had to attend. But it also seemed possible that economy growth would be weakening at the end of 2014. The main forecasts – the ones reported – did not show it, but the downside of a weaker economy was more likely than the expansionary upside. Better, a political strategist would advise, to go early…..”
http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/the-truth-about-our-rockstar-economy
Well. What will our clever PM do about all this?
He doesn’t give a fuck. The rich won’t suffer, only the poor.
Oh, and try this:
The entire global economy is about to crash again and this time NZ will be going with it into depression.
I agree with 90% of the above posts.
My jumbled thoughts:
It is time to dispense with the tiptoeing, pc, inoffensive, worried about what they will say, weak, mild mannered, appeasement based policies and posturing.
The only time Cunliffe got my attention was when he called out key using ACT as a means to introduce hardline right-wing policy, truth for once without sugar coating it.
It is time to face facts, there is a power elite working in the shadows infiltrating all parties and media, putting in place actors who will do their bidding.
It is not a struggle between the left and right, national vs labour, it is power vs the people,
If labour wants to get back to it’s roots and support the people they need to purge the party of those that serve the elite, then ensure the people that vote national are shown that national have been infiltrated by traitors who have betrayed their trust.
Support whistleblowers and investigations into corruption, get behind “MOT” and stand for something, you want the million missing votes, do the above and represent the people, drag across national voters that have been betrayed or misled, and work with other parties,
Don’t attack the National party, attack the traitors that have infiltrated both parties,
Selling out our sovereignty, our assets and burdening us with debt is treason,
+100…well said!
+1111
Quick idea regarding CGT, with motor vehicles you’re not considered a trader until you sell more than 7 cars per year? do the same with CGT, set the tax not on a second property but the 3rd or 4th, that way you target the speculators without killing the dreams of the working class kiwi.
Yep, tax and regulate the crap out of the extreme end of the behaviour you want to desist.
Paul Krugman’s Errors and Omissions
Posted Sep 21, 2014 by Richard Heinberg
http://www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/2362632-paul-krugman-s-errors-and-omissions
In a New York Times op-ed published September 18 titled “Errors and Emissions,” economist-columnist Paul Krugman took a swipe at my organization, Post Carbon Institute, lumping us together with the Koch brothers as purveyors of “climate despair.” No, the Koch brothers are not in despair about the climate; apparently our shared error is that we say fighting climate change and growing the economy are incompatible. And, according to Krugman, a new report from the New Climate Economy Project (NCEP) and a working paper from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show that the falling cost of renewable energy means this is happily not the case.
But in our view Krugman himself is guilty of five critical errors, and three equally serious omissions. First the errors:
… snip …
I’m sure this must have been posted before – but just in case!
TPP. Wikileaks bombshell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bPIsjH25GHo
Not seen it before but sadly it confirms those leaks. What next?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10531025/Angry-Cunliffe-tells-MPs-to-stay-shtum
Angry Cunliffe is angry, I’m guessing its like being savaged by a neutered little puppy dog but maybe its just that he can’t face where the real anger should be directed towards
Now, the good news. Professor Steve Keen accurately predicted there would be a major financial crisis before the 2008 crash. He explains why the economic ‘recovery’ will be short-lived.
http://www.everyinvestor.co.uk/analysis/2014/05/20/professor-steve-keen-warns-coming-financial-crisis-8104/
I personally think it is a mistake to personalise this. Things undoubtedly could have been done better but the verdict is in and the rest is up to the internal processes of the political parties making up the governing and opposition coalitions.
What’s the world’s worst managed economy at the moment?
And to preclude the hilarious obvious rejoinder from some of you, it isn’t New Zealand according to The Economist.
No it is apparently Venezuela. A country where the main State run petroleum company is struggling for cash despite high prices for Oil.
http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21618782-probably-worlds-worst-managed-economy-oil-and-coconut-water
Hi, Gos. Rubbing it in, are we ?
Not entirely, although I am enjoying pointing out that I basically predicted/warned about this outcome all the way back in 2012.
Well obviously the answer is they’re not left enough
I’ve tried to read The Economist but the shear bloody stupidity and illogical assumptions prove that it’s as well connected to reality as National and other RWNJs and thus should be ignored.
A liberal magazine with a liberal ideology judging how a economy is run from a liberal perspective. How very original of you Gosman. Want to bring up something else which is of a same ideology to say how good it’s ideology is, verse another ideology.
Gosmans stupidest argument ever – I will wait for the tears to dry.
If you dispute any of the facts presented in that article then show how they are incorrect.
They’re just angry because the young women aren’t as desperate as they used to be, and don’t have to subject themselves to all sorts of garbage just to get food.
Oh joy shout the RW troles. The election is over playtime again. How we missed TS.
Back to wiping off the drivel and contentious nonsense that mists my computer screen.
I seem to be able to turn out sufficient drivel myself that I didn’t really notice a gap they would fill. However fair’s fair, it looks like another period of brick wall banging and fun for all for ….more years?
ew..!..brian edwards wants nash to lead labour..
..just..ew!..
..and edwards is all pro-mass-surveillance..(!)
..he has turned into such a rightwing ratbag..that edwards..
..him and his constant property-porn blatherings..
The forthcoming review of the RMA to increase ‘flexibilty’ is the tip of an iceberg that will see a wholesale assault on the environment in favour of economic goals. Part of the unstated agenda about to be rolled out. Expect to see a high-level resignation from the Department if Conservation in the near future.
Hello.
I am currently banned, so no-one may get to see this. I have done nine months so, on the off-chance that whoever moderates this thinks that that is long enough for my crimes, I thought I would try my luck.
Of course, the moderators’ tolerance for offering opportunities for redemption may be tested by what I have to say next. I am not completely hopeful, as there is a well-documented strong authoritarian streak in left wing circles.
You lefties are going to have to come to grips with being wrong about everything. Viz:
1. John Key is evil. He isn’t. And the more you go on about it, the more you allow yourselves to be painted as deranged.
2. The polls are wrong/rigged. They aren’t. The Labour Party is really that unpopular.
3. The media is biased. No it isn’t. And this talk I hear in some circles that the “problem” should be fixed by limiting the opportunities for those who do not endorse the “progressive” line should be limited is a bit creepy and, once again, makes those people look deranged.
4. Labour has to reject “neo-liberalism” in order to get elected. I am going to ignore for the moment that the way “neo-liberalism” is defined by people that use the term is “acceptance of basic reality”. Labour cannot become government by taking votes off the Greens and Mana. They have to take votes off National. Nor can they win by trying to appeal to people who can’t be arsed voting. Just about everyone who comments here is far left. If Labour does what they want, they will never be elected. Leave those 3,000 people to vote for John Minto and try to convince everyone else you are responsible enough to govern.
5. The constitutional arrangements for electing your leader are just super. No. They aren’t. It means your caucus is left trying to work for someone that, if they do not find repulsive, they think is a numpty.
6. David Cunliffe “won” the debates. No. He didn’t. What you all thought was a brilliant orator, 50% of New Zealanders thought was a smarmy self-important git, pretending he was something he wasn’t.
7. The pubic are wrong. They are never wrong. This is closely aligned to “people are waking up”. No. They aren’t. Key is more popular going into his third term than his second. At this rate, everyone will be voting for him in 2024.
I accept that Labour always starts behind the eight ball. This is because New Zealanders do not readily warm to left wing ideas. They vote Labour when National is in disarray and, generally, when they have no other real option. Clearly, that is not now.
In anticipation: you’re welcome.
Ps. Don’t listen to Bryan Gould.
[lprent: I think you were on the list that got removed from auto-spam on the 21st. You were in good company. Jenny and a few other people were there as well. The next lot is on the 26th. ]
Don’t hold back, tell us what you really think 🙂
Great-a party that gets 0.7% of the vote and one seat provides us with the new Associate Minister of Education. Watch for more charter schools and bulk funding and vouchers to rear their ugly head. Things that have nothing to do with educating children and everything to do with privatisation and “getting stuck in to those pesky teacher unions”.
Hey, Tony. Big believer in democracy there, I see. Good for you. Remind me what happened in that election we just had.
Yeah a party whose education policies I disagree with got elected. It’s not going to stop me fighting them every step of the way in defence of the children I teach.
Well make sure you teach the kids what it means to live in a democracy then
You mean the democracy where the experts in the field are not listened to and ideologies are enforced with little or no research.
I mean where the majority of the people decide the government and then the government implements the policies they said they were going to implement
Policies like Charter Schools that were never mentioned before the last election yet were implemented after.
Bollix, people knew that if National got in Charter schools would be coming and you know what? More people want National in then last time so I’m going to go ahead and say just do what your told, you work for the government you implement what your employer wants
I’m sorry but as a teacher when I see anything that has little or no educational value for the children I teach and in fact may be detrimental to their learning then I will argue against it and I believe in a democracy I have the right to do that.
Argue against it all you like but you still have to implement it
You’ve got a National government till at least 2020
You do what you’re told, otherwise leave or be forced to leave.
Hi BM,
I thought it was the left who were meant to be authoritarian.
We’re just filling in till labour gets in again.
Labour lite and all that guff, instead of been skinned alive with a blunt stone, we’ll just beat you with rubber hoses.
That’s not actually democratic as was shown by the referendum for selling assets. 70% of the people didn’t want it but the <government went and sold them anyway against the peoples will.
In a democracy, the people’s will should rule and not the desires of elected servants.
Maybe not but National said prior to the election what they’d do and then did it and then got re-elected with 48% of the vote so I’m comfortable with it
Yes, it’s amazing how comfortable RWNJs are with the anti-democratic actions of their leaders.
Don’t like the government then produce a credible alternative
Hi chris73,
A simple question – is voting a reliable way of determining the truth?
Its a pretty good way of electing a government
That wasn’t actually my question, chris73.
Want to try again?
Ok then no its not
Agreed.
So we can stop talking about the election result when questions of fact and reality are being discussed.
You may not like the fact that National was returned to power or the fact that more people voted for National then they did in 2011 but that doesn’t change that they are facts
A party or two with not enough votes to have a seat in parliament is now part of government while other parties which got more votes didn’t even get in parliament.
Basically, what happened is that the RWNJs proved that our system isn’t democratic.
Just because National has adapted to MMP better then the left is no reason to think the system is undemocratic
Did you pass by what I said because you’re stupid or are you just engaging in the usual RWNJ pastime of distraction?
Essentially I’m commenting on the notion thats quite well-known that the left arn’t really keen on democracy especially when the results don’t go their way, a notion you and others like you are reinforcing
Speaking for myself, I’m very keen on democracy – radically so.
That’s why I’d like our MMP system to be made more democratic.
How much democracy do you favour, chris73?
Democracy is for ancient Greeks for myself however I prefer STV as a voting option but if the threshold was lowered to 3% I wouldn’t be at all bothered
Have I missed it here tonight, but on Campbell Live they had finally received the OIAs that they been seeking for months which show that the Pike River Tunnel was safe to enter from nearly a year ago. At least 5 OIA had been refused. What! Lied to. OIAs witheld – again! Key and others lied to everyone re access.
Anyone concerned?
Haven’t you heard ianmac, there’s been an election.
Apparently the result means that truth and reality don’t matter anymore. e.g., – Key doesn’t lie, apparently, because the election shows he doesn’t.
We have it on the highest authority – right wing commenters on this blog.
Don’t worry you’ll get your turn in 2020
I think I can say this much about my identity – I didn’t stand for parliament.
It’s the truth that concerns me, chris73.
We don’t want a turn at bullshitting the public. We don’t want a turn at what you lot do.
Pike River is an analogy for what has been, and not, happening in NZ. When we erect a memorial statue we should put on the plinth our sorrow at the failure of the NZ government to take responsible steps from whoa to go about everything.
We applaud death defying feats by amateurs. But when the police were afraid to go down the mine, the miners were prevented from doing anything to recover their people. They should have had the right to do a short reconnoitre when they considered it safe after the first explosion. They would have taken the risk to have satisfied themselves that they had done everything they could. They should have been able to inspect and make their own judgement as to feasibility. But suddenly safety was paramount, where it had not been for the trapped miners. That was too late in the piece and very hypocritical.
Help! I need to know where I can purchase a bumper sticker:
“Don’t blame me,
I never voted National!”
I think I’ll need one, or similar.
Seems little has changed really, except the boot was on the other foot but arguments much the same – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/election-2002/news/article.cfm?c_id=774&objectid=2050667
I am listening to one of these web lectures. The financial problems we see are all because of private debt, not government debt. In the USA two generations ago the level of private debt was 55% of GDP and now it is about 115%. In Europe I think Portugal the rate is over 255%.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvRcQ5Tm6Kw
The Next Economic Disaster – Why it’s coming and how to avoid it – Richard Vague
The real story behind the GFC is the multiplied leverage and debt in the shadow banking system*, and although I have not watched that video, I am pretty sure that that is not included in the numbers that you quoted.
*This is the vast financial system which is not regulated by banking laws and regulations (which the banks themselves helped build to get around banking laws and regulations).
cripes- 15 different applicants for leader?
gotta be the last time I vote for this rabble
a couple of weeks out from the 2017 election: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb_qHP7VaZE
@ Newsense
lolz x2!
@ newsense
Brilliant
While you are sparking at high rev do you know any Yes Ministers clips that would fill the Bill?