Every party complains about the media coverage they get, but not too loudly in case they lose favour and coverage. Media reports commonly don’t seem accurate to those being reported on. Mostly that is a natural effect of someone else looking at things differently.
In our democratic system the media hold a lot of power.
Just as most politicians mean well and work hard, the same for journalists. Personal views and preferences must influence how stories are chosen and covered but most journalists try to provide width and balance to their coverage.
Actually Peter it’s down to the management editing and controlling what’s published by setting agendas and employing kids just look at the fresh young faces doing stories on drunken sport heads on the TV.
To quote a good mate, also a senior experienced journo, ‘too few employers and the editors have preconceived yarns to get out there, cross them and you’re out of a job’
Games is rigged dude…..watch Oz news to get a stark contrast in how balanced reporting is done.
I know it’s rigged. A few people are looking at what might be able to be done to hold them to account, a bit at least. Power of the ‘net may be able to apply some pressure.
what might be able to be done to hold them to account, a bit at least.
Geez Pete. You are standing for a party headed by a hairpiece that backs this current rabble like a bad smell. This is not “holding them to account”. Your party is part of the problem.
It is part of this contrived gerrymander that gives the right an undue advantage. Basically if the hairpiece wins National gets 1.2% more of the party vote than it actually won.
Your comments are hypocritical. If you truly want to “hold them to account” then resign and join a real party, one determined to do something for ordinary people, not for millionaires.
But that’s the problem, the millionaries are loosing their shirts because they are running the country so badly.
But worse they’ve locked in the tax system to make any company that grows (or farm, crafer) into a target for foreign take over.
NZ is digging itself faster into serfdom, and that’s what’s so astonishing about the elite here, that they really are that incredibly self-destructive.
The culture is set by media and the jerk elite has decided it doesn’t care what nonsense is peddled, or by whom.
Am STILL awaiting a âprogress reportâ (promised Friday morning 18 November 2011) from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
ARE THE NZ SFO GOING TO EQUALLY LAY CHARGES AGAINST ACT CANDIDATE FOR EPSOM JOHN BANKS, AND ACT LEADER DON BRASH, AS WERE LAID AGAINST FORMER FELLOW DIRECTOR OF HULJICH WEALTH MANAGEMENT (NZ) LTD â PETER HULJICH FOR SIGNING âREGISTERED PROSPECTUSESâ WHICH CONTAINED UNTRUE STATEMENTS â OR NOT?
IF NOT â WHY NOT?
How come ACTâs âONE LAW FOR ALLâ â apparently doesnât apply to the ACT Leader Don Brash, and ACT candidate for Epsom John Banks?
Whereâs ACTâs âZERO TOLERANCEâ for âwhite collarâ CRIME?
Will be following up with the SFO this morningâŚ..
Of course this issue is being given the mainstream media coverage one would expect in election yearâŚâŚ
Not.
(Situation normal)
Penny Bright
CENSORED
Independent Candidate for Epsom
Campaigning against âwhite collarâ CRIME, CORRUPTION (and its root cause â PRIVATISATION) and âCORPORATE WELFAREâ [email deleted]
The teapot scandal will break National
Rena will scupper them
Labours policys will bring them back
NZ will have a collective wakening to what John Keys about
The Greens, Mana, Winston First and Labour will get enough votes
The worm turned
Attacking the Mad Butcher will get votes
Playing the personality politics is the way to go (not that Labours doing that of course)
Any one of the above is a game changer so don’t give up hope just yet
He wants folks to swallow his shit recipes
[audio src="http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-election2011-20111123-0708-national_defends_record_on_trans-tasman_exodus-048.mp3" /]
David Cunliffe makes excellent points:
[audio src="http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-election2011-20111123-0714-labours_finance_spokesman_discusses_emigration_stats-048.mp3" /]
Strange lack of empathy from Joanne Black, in the latest Listener, for Bradley Ambrose. Remember she has admitted to leaving a tape running hidden behind a bunch of flowers after a press conference with then PM Geoffrey Palmer. Then she played it to other journalists and possibly politicians including Ruth Richardson who then used it in the house to mock the PM.
Bradley Ambrose was pushed away, with a scrum of other journalists, from a public meeting in a cafe, to a position a few feet away. Whether or not it was accidental, he left the mike in full view of several DPS staff and the two politicians, none of whom noticed it. When he realised it was still recording he alerted his contracted employer and deleted it.
When he realized it was still recording he alerted his contracted employer and deleted it.
Hmm more like he rubbed his hands together and thought ha ha pay day is coming!
Deleted it – don’t you mean copied it and sold to who ever would buy it?
His argument that it was all an accident and he didn’t mean to tape the conversation would be like you or me walking out of a supermarket with groceries without paying for them, going home and eating the groceries.
When Plod comes around to have a chat you say, oh yes I realized after I got home that I hadn’t paid for the groceries so it wasn’t stealing – but I decided to eat them anyway as it was ok to.
Wouldn’t hold up in court as the consumption proves the intent. I think Mr Ambrose is going to find out this afternoon that the judge will decide that his selling of the conversation will allow a prosecution to use this as evidence as to his intention or otherwise of taping the conversation deliberately.
Your last point is incorrect, Jimmie, because the judge is not being asked to rule on the question of the selling of the conversation, just whether it was a private conversation or not. If not, that lets the cameraman off the hook, if it is private, then the cops have to then make the decision about prosecution.
By the way, who said he sold the tape? I haven’t seen it reported anywhere that he was paid for it.
“that the judge will decide that his selling of the conversation will allow a prosecution to use this as evidence as to his intention or otherwise of taping the conversation deliberately.”
Granny Herald has returned to form pushing propaganda and disinformation for the Nats in on it’s front page with article from chief cheerleader John sycophant Armstrong. The editor busied himself with talking up the dangers of earthquakes prone buildings in Auckland (FFS!) demanding ‘the public have a right to know’ but has nothing to say on the suppression of information involved in the ombudsman withholding advice that the government received from treasury wrt asset sales, or the lack of any concrete evidence to back up Nationals claim that ownership will be retained by
New Zealanders.
Inside the political pages the talk (excepting Rudman) was all about how Shonkeys charm is like the sun and without it we would all surely wither and die.
And Kathryn Ryan gets bored quickly has an idea she just has to express right then and talks over the top of Key rather than waiting for a natural pause. Just done it 3 times in 30 seconds. (it’s not just Key she does it all the time as does Kim Hill end rant. RANt continues – she also talks way too quick. It’s like dealing with an 8 year old who has to blurt everything out in one go. Key and Goff have a much more moderate pace and the contrast really grates).
Key said something really interesting right up front after the introduction when Ryan said that Nats could govern alone based on recent polls, the first party to do so under MMP. He then said something like ‘that [Fairfax] poll could be overstating things’.
Katherine is the interviewer. She asks the question. Key goes off on a tangent and avoids the question. Katherine attempts to return to the question. Key shouts over her and continues to avoid.
Pity. Key could have answered some good questions but failed.
It’s a long form interview – she doesn’t have to rush. But she does it all the time. No doubt she’ll be as irritating with Goff tomorrow. It appears like it is more about her and her voice getting airspace. Kim Hill has developed the same problem.
I didn’t hear the whole interview, but a part of it I did hear, Key was wandering off the question that was asked and started talking about Goff, so Kathryn had to interrupt to get him back on track.
In the interview Key admitted that they are planning to spend 4 billion dollars on the power grid/network.
So let’s get this straight. He is going to spend billions upgrading the lines and wants to sell the power generation plants that need the lines to deliver their product.
We are paying to build the trucks, and the roads, that takes their goods to market for us to buy
================
How can the host not have the basic treasury and budget figures on hand.
Key says National just delivered a zero budget – i hear crickets-
key says labour left hundreds of billions of debt – more crickets –
Key said they have not lumped NZ with new debt – i swear i heard a black hole open up –
The 4b is old news and probably accounted for as it is 100% funded by consumers. It has meant Transpower has not been giving the govt a dividend in recent years despite making 100m or so a year. I think Labour started the ball rolling in about 2007. Oh and Labour allowed Transpower to ‘sell’ the national grid to Wachovia in a buy and lease back arrangement to rort US taxpayers.
But your analogy doesn’t hold. The govt already builds and owns the roads. But it doesn’t try and own the cars and trucks that run on them, or the factories that fill the trucks, or the office blocks filled by people who drive their cars on the roads. Are you calling for wholescale nationalisation of the means of production and transport?
it is a very clear and simple metaphor of what is represented by NZ paying to build new power grid systems and transmission lines and then selling the companies that produce the electricity that will use those very lines to sell power back to NZ. or were you just wanting to waste my time?
the whole structure is corrupt and the more we all look into it the murkier the whole story becomes.
Left , Right, doesn’t matter, the deals done in NZ the last thirty years have to be brought to light and those responsible have to be held to account.
Even this single phone call raises more than a few questions as to the legitimacy of the status quo.
It’s a completely odd ‘metaphor’ because it’s not one.
But that aside, what you are saying is that it is strange and illegitimate for the government to build a road to develop some crown land at the end of it, and then sell that land to private enterprises (like farmers, builders and developers), who will then turn it into a housing estate or warehousing or farms and use that same crown owned road to service the area and bring produce and people out of it to other places served by the same crown owned roading network. Strange, because that is how much of NZ was developed and they are still doing it today http://www.primecommercial.co.nz/1657269
“Are you calling for wholescale nationalisation of the means of production and transport?”
Why not? The idea probably gives you an aneurysm, but as my late brother used to say “If you’re going to sin, might as well make it an original one!” đ
(PS I think you meant wholesale though wholescale is orignal, and almost fits!)
Lew has an interesting observation over on Kiwipolitico:
The other day David Farrar got in a pre-emptive whinge about Bryan Bruceâs Inside New Zealand documentary on child poverty that aired last night on TV3.
Yeah, itâs election week, and yeah, Labour are emphasising their poverty alleviation focus on the back of this documentary. But isnât it more telling that National and its proxies immediately and reflexively go on the defensive, rather than acknowledging the problems of child poverty and renewing its commitment to resolving them?
But National are the government now, and their defensiveness, I think, signals that they know they bear some responsibility for child poverty. And yet theyâre not willing to do much about it, beyond the tired old saw of âa rising tide lifts all boatsâ, and announcements that they will further constrict the welfare state to force the parents of these sick children to seek jobs that arenât there. (And yes; National bought time during the documentary as well: the âcracking down on benefit fraudâ ad was a particularly cynical form of irony.)
So, when the psychopaths in National heard that there was a documentary showing just how bad the poverty in NZ had become over the last three decades of neo-liberalism they called it a Labour advert, said it wasn’t their fault and then promised to make it worse by cracking down on beneficiaries?
The other side of that is that most of the poverty statistics you see variously quoted as appalling, third world etc date from Labour’s time in power, a period of apparantly massive growth and success. That’s just the nature of the time it takes to collate and analyse this stuff. We are not going to know the impact of National on the trend for some time, like it or not.
Did you see the bit where I mentioned the last three decades of neo-liberalism? Yes, Labour’s to blame as well.
The point was that, given the evidence, National whinge and whine and don’t do anything to get rid of the poverty. Of course, they don’t want to because having large amounts of poverty pushes wages down just as John Key said he wanted.
Key was interviewed by Katherine Nine to Noon. (Try hard to be open minded.)
Katherine shouted down.
Key: Slippery. Evasive. Devious.
(Comparing his performance with that of other leaders in terms of honesty credibility trust. Awful!)
Shonkey could get caught with two 13 year old girls in the back of the limo and his fan club would still be relaxed. The rabid and rapid response of the Kiwiblog gargoyle re one widely perceived advantage to Phil Goff following the TV3 debate shows these people are on maximum wind.
Judge Helen Winkelmannâs phone would possibly have been busy last nite.
Really the likes of Key, Farrar and Joyce can only be considered as traitorous swine running a continuous âdark opâ on behalf of capital in NZ.
You are spot on, Key could do anything and it would not matter. The basic issue is that NZers (as pointed out in Trotters latest column) want reassurance and parenting from their lovely leader. Facts and policies are of no real issue, we just want to be lead by nice daddy John.
Upshot is that we will as a nation ignore that nice daddy John will sell of the house and then have an affair with a merchant bankster mistress, all so long as we feel reassured. And in 3 years we will wont get letters from Hawaii from runaway daddy because we wont have our own address, we will be out in the street.
Which begs the question: when will we grow up and become adults assessing our own futures? When will we leave political infancy?
Any chance you explaining to me the point and its value of always attacking the PM. Hasn’t he also gotten a heap of ministers and MPs running things.. so what’s with the obsession.. don’t you see how counter-productive this is.. and how excellent JK is fending it off.. looks to me a lot of the time like he’s inviting it so he can deflect scrutiny from the others..
Cheers, I’ve got so used to the tags and automatic logons that I even forgot to re-enter the data on the comment above and had to go back and reload it.
Yep. Unfortunately I’ve spent the last week pushing data for election day targeting which is more time dependent.
I know how to fix the problem to get around the new cache, but it takes time to dig out the old code from javascript. I just haven’t had time to do so. But I’m almost done. However I also have to stop my holiday and go back to the paying job…
I’d revert it back to the normal system, but we’re getting read peaks that are quite high. Tonight for instance we did about a quarter of the days page views in just over an hour after the debate (and surprise surprise we just made another record for highest page view day and highest visitor day – the second this week). The cache was the only thing that made the system operate without falling unresponsive. It was feeding the same cached page to multiple readers rather than regenerating it for each reader.
That generates a separate page for each logged in user (whilst serving up cached copies for non-logged in) and therefore has all of that stuff operational without issues (it is the readers that cause the peak issues)
Prior to the last election in 2008, National promised that New Zealander’s would Wave goodbye to higher taxes⌠however National increased GST to 15%. The broken promise ensured that socially negative statistics kept growing.
National’s pledge card also said: Not your loved ones⌠meaning that New Zealanderâs would stop leaving en mass. However weâve seen the first net migration loss in ten years and the increasing exodus has continued to grow under National over the last three years.
Some people have argued that the Christchurch earthquakes are the reason for the continued exodus⌠however only a small percentage of those leaving come from Christchurch. The vast majority of people are leaving because National has mismanaged the economy and things are getting worse here in New Zealand.
Get it right Jackal, National did not mismanage the economy, they did not even attempt to do anything other than transfer wealth to their mates, scrap social expenditure and plan to sell off the silver to themselves.
Incorrect. National has
– deliberately skewed the economy in favour of the wealthy elite,
– generated a massive government debt
– overseen an embarrassing credit downgrade
All in preparation for the privatisation of our juicy public assets.
Another wealth grab by the insatiable banksters and their useful idiots…
That GST increase was fiscally risk neutral.. go ask any pensioner whose fixed income had to otherwise take a hit on regular grocery for example.. try for more REAL in your comments please.
“That GST increase was fiscally risk neutral.. go ask any pensioner whose fixed income had to otherwise take a hit on regular grocery for example.”
That’s gurble, really! What does ” fiscally risk neutral” even mean? It’s jargon of some sort, each of the words makes sense on its own, but together? No… ?????
More great Poll results for National despite all the personal Mudslinging from Labour. I know Iprent is not in favour of this as I have read his comments on it before. That the Election should always be fought on a Policy basis. There are two real problems for Labour in this Election that I see.
1) The associated link with Winston Peters as shown by the contrived worm,and polls the Public dont trust him even though Phil Goff says he does.
2) The rise of the Greens this party is appearing as fresh full of new ideas and the voters choice for the left vote. While Labour throws out its same old same old. I believe within 3 more Elections that the Greens will have a bigger voter base than Labour unless Labour can revitalise itself.
To do that they need to attract some smart Business people to their ranks who can show some comercial nouse. This means there will be a direct or indirect conflict with the Union power base in Labour.At the moment they cant show any credible way how they are going to grow the Economy without over taxing a smaller ,and smaller base of people. Sooner or later the leaves all fall off the money tree, and labour has no plans to show how it can create wealth in the Economy so Businesses will invest money ,and hire more people
Hi Bill,
I just spent a couple of minutes puzzling how the ‘Bill of old’ could have changed his attitude so drastically, and concluded that you are a new commenter. I think you need a new handle.
At least I assume it’s not you Bill – Standard author and parecon proponent?
At least I assume itâs not you Bill â Standard author and parecon proponent?
Yep….I mean no. Not me. And the person signing in as ‘bill’ on another thread isn’t me either. (Have commented beneath the comments with those handles asking that the handles be changed.)
I don’t think Bill actually logged in to comment. That’s the problem. You can comment without logging in, all you need to do is provide a name (say “Bill”) and an email address.
Probably the only way to avoid this is to require commenters to log-in, because I believe all login usernames are unique.
I believe within 3 more Elections that the Greens will have a bigger voter base than Labour unless Labour can revitalise itself.
That I kinda agree with. The rest of your comment was complete delusional BS. With Peak Oil already here the economy can’t be grown so all we’re left with is correcting the misallocation of resources that capitalism has caused. NAct, wants to do the opposite and make things worse.
big ups to Rob Guyton – constantly posting on good green issues and with a wicked sense of humour – exhibit 1 this headline – “This man suffers from worms” guess who?
It has many in-text links, which I intend to follow up on. One crucial aspect is the recent disclosure of a 1987 EPA report which found:
‘…fracking contaminated well and groundwater in West Virginia. For decades, the industry had been able to deny this critical case study and insist fracking was perfectly safe because, as the New York Times notes, the caseâs details âwere sealed from the public when energy companies settled lawsuits with landowners.â Now, though, the oil and gas industry cannot issue such denials with impunity…’
I’m not sure what you are getting excited about. The report interesting and well written but comes pretty much to the same conclusion as others – it’s the integrity of the casings that are the issue not the fracking process. This is a known issue and applies to any well of any sort going through ground water. The report is very clear that the fracked zone does not directly affect the aquifer.
âŚitâs the integrity of the casings that are the issue not the fracking process.
/facepalm
The fracking process forces apart the rock so we can assume that “the integrity of the casings” has no bearing whatsoever on if the fracking compound enters the ground water. Physics ensures that it will.
No because the fracking (usually) happens thousands of feet below any ground water. The fractures themselves are millimetres wide which is why sand is use as a proppant to keep the cracks open. and they wouldn’t/shouldn’t intersect say with an aquifer in these circumstances because they primarily travel laterally within a geological formatin rather than vertically between formations.
The casings are supposed to contain fluids and gas as they pass through other geological formations from the source rock to the well head. It is these failing that seem to be the issue. Like a hose getting a hole in it while you are running a siphon. If you’ve done it a thousand times before and it fails once, it’s likely the hose is the problem not the siphoning method.
There’s also been an increase in stranding’s closer to the MV Rena disaster, which is known to have released over 2000 barrels of heavy crude oil into the ocean. 3150 Litres of Corexit 9500 was also applied throughout the cleanup operation and 23,240 kgs of Alkylsulphonic Acid was lost overboard.
Quick question to moderators : why am I having to type in user name and mail address for every comment? It used to store them. Problem at my end or yours?
so kweewee is going to sell Kiwibank.
it doesnt belong to him or his party either (the john kee and matthew hooton party).
It belongs to New Zealanders and Phill Goff should make that quite clear to New Zealanders tonight on teevee.
They have edited their site. What they had (up until yesterday afternoon) was:
National and Labour serve foreign interests not New Zealand. They will both swamp us with immigration, they will both serve the wealthy on the backs of the poor, donât be fooled by them again, vote for the other parties. get blue and red out. If you want traditional Kiwi life vote NZ First.
“In this country we must vote for the smaller parties…” replaced “If you want traditional Kiwi life vote NZ First.”
Over the last week or so, it has been reported in several media articles that he is a National supporter – that probably should now be “was” in the past tense.
I feel, especially in these last days leading up to our elections, that it is vital that New Zealanders see this. Actually, stuff the elections, this is something that every person in Aotearoa needs to watch and think about because this is about us as a community, this is about us taking responsibility as human beings. This is about us putting people before corporations and profits.
After my initial surge of rage, disgust, and extreme sadness at watching this clip, my main three questions are these:
Firstly, what on EARTH are they teaching at the police colleges that produce policepeople that are so eager to inflict serious harm on other humans? When I was at primary school, even at high school, to want to become a policeperson came out of a desire to help, protect and generally do good in a community. Not sit on a desperate and upset man and calmly beat him around the head and ribs with a police-issue baton in front of his extremely pregnant partner SO THAT A LUCRATIVE POWER COMPANY WHO TURNS OVER MILLIONS EACH YEAR CAN SAVE A FEW BUCKS!! (which turned out to be a mistake on the power company’s part anyway!)
Secondly, what lack of humanity allows contractors to carry on their job when they can see the result it is having? What is this crazy hold over people that lets them use the excuse ‘I was just doing my job’ when they can see that doing their job is causing a man to receive head injuries? When it is causing immense distress to a woman who is overdue to give birth?
And, in conclusion to the first two questions I guess, as it was so VERY obvious that things weren’t going so well in this situation (to put it lightly) why on earth could the police and contractors not take the sensible approach, pull back, and reassess the situation?? I cannot think of any reason why the disconnection of power had to happen at that specific time, given the resulting circumstances. Not exactly a life-or-death situation for the power company was it? Are we really the type of society who would rather see another human beaten till they bleed rather than have a company lose out on a few profits?? Do we truly worship money that much? Should we really let it control us in that way?
To those of you who say, regarding the police, that they were only doing their jobs, then I say – well, if that is their job, then I think it’s time we thought about what sort of system we’re living under. Because I don’t want any part of it.
OMG! That is one of the most outrageous abuses of police plus corporate power toward an individual in NZ that I have ever seen – and all this is completely legal???? (call me sheltered, but Wow!). There was no crime that warranted that sort of treatment (and not even an unpaid power bill, in the end).
seeing a lot of calls for the death penalty, if any country ever commits to arresting them.
I say no to the death penalty for these architects of misery.
Incarceration in a penitentiary, life sentences, no house arrest, no quick deaths, no easy out for these murderers, let their long final days be spent in fear and regret.
Good God. We have had 20 plus years now of “Tomorrow’s Schools” and ERO.
Parents have been free to join boards of trustees in open and free elections.
They have had screeds of information available to them.
One has to wonder just who is driving this attitude.
One thing is for certain – Delorus Umbridge is going to create an extremely demoralised teaching profession. Of course, she is a here-today-gone-tomorrow politician and will not be subject to any scrutiny herself – in fact apart from the infamous Merv Wellington and David Lange, people would be hard pressed to name the succession of Ministers of Education.
Why has she got such a snitch on teachers? Is she holding a grudge against her 1960’s teachers and schools. Did she fail School Cert?
Did a teacher guest in one of her hotels do something untoward in a room?
Not really, Greens will only grow until they risk leaving behind the activist base. So the question for the Greens is; are you an activist party or one for the middle classes?
Oh fuck, we’ve got ads from the anti-MMP brigade playing at the top of the page. They’re really going all out now in splurging on ads focusing on Winston, even stooping as low as to buy ads on facebook.
When you’re up to your neck in shit it’s tempting to try to get out of it.
However, the ‘Lucky Country’ isn’t so lucky these days, especially for new arrivals.
‘According to press release from the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia, âFirst time home buyers have little confidence in the Australian economy, as they baulk at property purchases and hoard their cashâ.’
‘SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — The world’s second-largest iron ore miner Rio Tinto PLC /quotes/zigman/182541/quotes/nls/rio RIO -1.35% will boost its fleet of driverless trucks 15-fold to 150 vehicles over the next four years, as part of a bid to increase margins at its mines in Australia’s Pilbara region.’
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The government announced more changes to the ETS today, including to the emissions budget for 2021 - 2025. The overall budget for that period will stay at 354 million tons of CO2-equivalent. But the ETS component of that - stockpile reduction, free allocation, and credits to be auctioned - budget ...
The new National Party leader, Todd Muller, had been at pains to portray himself as a solid, serious, safe pair of hands, in contrast to the increasingly Trumpian leanings of Simon Bridges, who Muller deposed in a leadership coup last Friday. But after an uneventful, if uninspiring, first press conference, ...
Minneapolis Police StationIf you’ve been keeping an eye on recent events in the United States, you’ll likely understand why there’s so much anger on the streets at the moment. Not only did police officers murder another black man; it is patently obvious that authorities initially attempted to cover up George ...
Becoming the leader of a political party is a bit like having a baby. Not so much the screaming and sleepless nights, as the fact that you’ve waited and hope and planned for something and it’s finally here. And when that wonderful gift finally arrives, you want to be ready, ...
The US appears to be headed towards what Antonio Gramsci and other Italian political theorists call an “organic crisis of the State.” It involves the simultaneous and compounded fractures of economy, society and politics, which together constitute a tipping point in a nation’s history. Social contradictions are exacerbated, class and ...
Like the rest of the world, I have been aghast at what I have seen of, and read and heard about, what is happening currently in the United States. It seems incredible that a once great country should be suffering the worst effects and the highest number of deaths worldwide ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week...
Climate concerns as Siberia experiences record-breaking heatHeat wave sparks concerns about devastating wildfire season and melting permafrost.Satellite ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 24 through Sat, May 30, 2020Editor's ChoiceAntarctic Ocean Reveals New Signs of Rapid Melt of Ancient Ice, Clues About Future Sea Level RiseA study of seafloor ripples ...
It’s almost painful to watch. Let’s be honest, maybe a pleasure too, in some quarters, but painful nonetheless. Because the fact is, for a democracy to function properly, any sitting Government does need honest and proper Opposition so that it doesn’t get ahead of itself. That’s what we should ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk A banner on the International Energy Agency website spells it out in bold font: “The global oil industry is experiencing a shock like no other in its history.” As the response to the coronavirus pandemic upends the lives of billions of ...
The ownership of newspapers and televison channels is in turmoil, and they want to redisorganise public broadcasting. *Three years ago, I expressed concern in a column about the future of the (traditional) media. Nothing has happened since to reduce the concern. It was based on an earlier column which ...
Australia's High Court has ruled that the "palace letters" between the queen and then-Governor-General John Kerr are public records rather than private papers: Historian Jenny Hocking has won her High Court bid to access the letters exchanged between then governor-general Sir John Kerr and the Queen around the time of ...
SATURDAY MAY 30Six60: Live at Western Springs 2020 (TVNZ 1, 8.45pm). Remember live concerts? The day will come again, friends, when we will be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in an uncomfortable sweaty venue with people we don’t know. It will happen. Sometimes the sound of concerts drifts over to the ...
New Zealand and its prime minister Jacinda Ardern have received international attention and praise, rightly so, for decisive leadership, clear communication and scientific management of the coronavirus pandemic. Observers point out that the nation has been through multiple crises under Ardern’s leadership – such as the Christchurch terrorist attack and ...
…a lot of things unrelated to the pandemic were happening. Relatively little attention was given to some major events on the global stage, so I thought I would do a quick recap of some of the high (or low) -lights, starting with something familiar. The common theme throughout is human ...
Labour's talk of gutting the RMA to push through "shovel ready" projects to boost employment after the pandemic predictably has every half-arsed pipe-dream crawling out of the woodwork demanding special treatment. Today, it's the West Coast inbreds, who are demanding a host of laws be rescinded so they can dig ...
"I can't breathe, Mama. I'm dying." - Last words of George Floyd.LOOK HARD at this image. Think about what it depicts. Ask yourself how one human-being could behave so brutally when so many eye-witnesses – and very soon millions of people online around the world – were there to watch ...
Since the government announced its pandemic wage subsidy, there have been regular stories about companies taking it and then sacking or refusing to pay their workers - essentially committing fraud. But how often does this happen? The Minister just doesn't want to know: Government ministers are not receiving up to ...
"You call that a conservative?Nah, this is a conservative!" New Zealanders are in the market for a quiet and reassuring small-c conservative political centrist. The critical question, however, is which politician is currently playing that role? Who has mastered the art of relaxed, informal and intimate political communication? Who ...
I’VE OFTEN WONDERED if South African immigrants passing through towns like Kerikeri and Kaikohe ever wonder how we do it. In their homeland, through the bitter years of Apartheid, keeping the races segregated required pass laws, Alsatian dogs, tear gas, rubber bullets and, all-too-often, live rounds. Not here. Not in ...
Below is the list of gender-critical material which appeared on Redline from July 31, 2019 to September 30, 2019. Sports categories must be by sex, not gender identity Queer theory glossary Woke misogyny and homophobia: a gay critique of trans ideology Another unfortunate experiment? New Zealand’s transgender health policy and ...
Smart Energy Europe: A Plan to provide 100% of ALL ENERGY using Renewable Energy to EuropeIntroductionAll Energy renewable energy systems are often commented on here at Skeptical Science. Many comments suggest that it will be difficult, expensive or impossible to use renewable energy to power the world. To ...
The government released its Action for Healthy Waterways package today, ostensibly with the goal of cleaning up our rivers and making them swimmable within a generation. Doing that, of course, requires confronting the cow in the room: the dairy industry which causes most of the pollution. But while they've imposed ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzI would like to know if New Zealand’s carbon emissions ...
Simon Lamb, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Timothy Stern, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonBack in the 1970s, scientists came up with a revolutionary idea about how Earth’s deep interior works. They proposed it is slowly churning like a lava lamp, with buoyant ...
Remember KiwiBuild? Previously the government's flagship policy, it was supposed to build thousands of new homes every year for kiwi families. But instead of flooding the market, we've got a pathetic dribble: The Government's former flagship housing policy is so far behind schedule it will take more than 400 years ...
Don Franks Now Covid-19 restrictions allow gatherings of a hundred, an urgent hui needs calling. A special conference of the Council of Trade Unions. Today, workers face the greatest attack on employment, pay and conditions since the depression, we need a strong united union voice. As it stands now, organised ...
George Henderson New Zealand schools have introduced a climate change resource that suggests children “eat less meat and dairy”, even though teachers will not know how much meat or dairy any child in their care has eaten. Opinion pieces in the papers have called for the reduction of meat and ...
Questioning the number of district health boards in New Zealand has got to the extent that “too many DHBs” has become a perceived truth requiring no further elaboration. It is rarely challenged by policy advisers, academics, and journalists. But when one drills down further it becomes clear that the number ...
The emergence of a new National party leader, seemingly out of nowhere, has – not surprisingly – raised a number of questions as to who Todd Mulller actually is and what makes him tick. He has been an MP for some time but seems to have hidden his light under ...
Costa Rica has become the first country in Central America to recognise same-sex marriage: The first same-sex weddings have taken place in Costa Rica, the first Central American country to equalise its marriage legislation. A lesbian couple became the first to tie the knot in a ceremony that took ...
There's a new twist in the Winston Peters secret donation story. It appears that a significant chunk of NZ First's secret laundered donations goes straight into the pockets of the people administering the scheme: Tens of thousands in donor's funds given to the New Zealand First Foundation were spent paying ...
Is Todd Muller the Ned Flanders of the National Party? This is how he’s been characterised by political commentator Gordon Campbell, who suggests the change in leadership is, in Simpsons terms, akin to swapping the scary and cruel Monty Burns for Homer Simpson’s compassionate but conservative neighbour. There’s almost a ...
We all know that many so-called journalists and political commentators in New Zealand work directly or indirectly for political parties or for certain political factions. This was obviously the case when pundit for hire Matthew Hooton launched a campaign against then National Party leader, Simon Bridges, over their numerous polling ...
Let's Roll! The easy victory over a Bridges-led National Party which the Left had every cause to anticipate just a few days ago is no longer in the offing. Our enemy’s position has changed. His numbers are swelling. A rapid thrust to the left, followed by an audacious outflanking manoeuvre ...
New National Party leader Todd Muller has been interviewed about his policies, and has promised to restart offshore fossil fuel exploration if elected: The Bay of Plenty MP rolled former leader Simon Bridges last week, but says the party has not changed its stance on previous promises. "That is ...
Anyone who keeps an eye on evidence around cannabis and public health will be familiar with the Christchurch Health and Development Study. It's one of two local longitudinal studies frequently cited with respect to cannabis and youth development. But in a new article in the New Zealand Medical Journal, it is ...
In the age of covid we are Jacinda’s team of five million, except for some. There has rarely been a more blatant case of discrimination against beneficiaries than Grant Robertson’s announcement yesterday that people who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus will receive weekly payments of $490 per week for 12 weeks and $250 per week for part time ...
It was 75 years ago this month that Germany surrendered and the Allies celebrated VE (Victory in Europe) Day. Millions of people around the world had been killed and many more injured or captured. It was an end to war not just for Europeans, but their allies too, in countries across Africa. But its impact is ...
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...
Watching Todd Muller make his first speech as the newly minted Leader of the Opposition after Simon Bridges’ defenestration on Friday brought to mind a headmaster addressing a school assembly. He showed no particular desire to ingratiate himself with his audience although the occasional flash of self-deprecating humour indicated a ...
The government has announced another income support scheme for people affected by the economic aftershocks of the pandemic: a $490 a week tax-free payment for the newly unemployed, which you can get even if you have a working partner. Which is great, because its supporting people who need help, but ...
The Greens have released their party list, and it contains a few surprises. The one that's getting all the news is that the membership are clearly fans of Chlöe Swarbrick, and she has worked hard to earn that. But they've also favoured incumbent protection over new blood, and in the ...
age credit:Science and Politics – Skeptically.org It seems impossible to keep politics out of science. It’s a pity because politics can end up forcing science to produce the results desired by ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Matthew Parry, Dr Ayesha Verrall, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Martin Eichner (author details*)This blog details a recent modelling study we conducted. In it we estimated that it would take between 27 and 33 days of no new detected cases of COVID-19 for there to be ...
The 2015 Schol Bio paper included a question about a group of birds known as honeycreepers, specifically, the 56 species endemic to the Hawaiian islands. (Or, were endemic: 18, or perhaps 19, are still living; the others are extinct.) Students who’ve already had a look at this paper as part of ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... What a Week’s Disasters Tell Us About Climate and the PandemicExtreme weather presents an even bigger threat ...
Todd Muller has made a good start to his leadership, though it would obviously be pretty stupid to extrapolate too much from the first couple of days. Nevertheless, as a matter of speculation, it is interesting to think what success on his part might say about the preferences of the ...
A guest post by Hamish Price.“A leader is a dealer in hope.”— Napoléon BonaparteCatholics have a name for potential successors to a dead pope. Papabile. The small coterie of distinguished cardinals who have what it takes to step up. Todd Muller has always been one.I first met Muller at a National ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 17 through Sat, May 23, 2020Editor's ChoiceMore than 80 killed in India and Bangladesh as Cyclone Amphan heaps misery on coronavirus-hit areasA man salvages items from ...
The Green Party is urging the New Zealand Police to rule out the use of Armed Response Teams, following their recent trial in communities around Aotearoa. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has described Labour's original COVID-19 commercial rent dispute proposal as "poorly targeted". Justice Minister Andrew Little hasannounced a temporary law changeto force commercial landlords and renters to consider COVID-19 in disputes over rent issues, almost two months after the Government first floated the idea. But ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First acknowledges that some small businesses have been struggling to meet fixed costs due to the loss of revenue by COVID-19. We also know some businesses are at greater risk of insolvency when they cannot come to a reasonable ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First is disappointed that the removal of the spousal deductions has had to be delayed by the Ministry fo Social Development, due to COVID19 workload pressures. “New Zealand First has always stood for fairness when it comes to superannuation ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First On the steps of Parliament today the Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters received a petition from registered nurse Anna Maria Coervers, requesting an amendment to the Protection for First Responders Bill which will ensure the legislation also include registered ...
It's been a busy seven days as we start to rebuild New Zealand together. From delivering extra support for small businesses, to investing in our artists and arts organisations, to cutting red tape on home DIY projects, we're rolling out our plan to get the economy and New Zealand moving ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says alert level 2 restrictions have to be discussed during today's Cabinet meeting. Thousands gathered across the country, including at Parliament, yesterday forBlack Lives Matter marcheswhere social distancing and mass gathering rules were flouted. Mr Peters said the breaching of Alert Level 2 rules at ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of State Owned Enterprises KiwiRail’s Northland rail upgrade steps up another gear today and will help Northland recover from the impacts of COVID-19, State Owned Enterprises Minister Winston Peters says. The Government is investing $204.5 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to ...
“Today and every day we stand in solidarity with George Floyd’s family, friends and community who feel pain and fear about his untimely death at the hands of Minneapolis police”, said Green Party Co-leader and Māori Development spokesperson Marama Davidson. ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Hon Eugenie Sage, Minister of Conservation The West Coast forests of Mount Te Kinga at Kotuku Whakaoho/Lake Brunner are the latest predator free project to receive Government funding, announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
The Green Party says major freshwater reforms announced today provide the strongest ever protections of our waterways, to help ensure the next generation can swim in the rivers of Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party has begun the process for a Select Committee inquiry into student accommodation, which has been exposed during COVID-19 as an under-regulated sector that straddles students with unfair debt. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Hon Dr David Clark, Minister of Health Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods, and Health Minister David Clark today announced a COVID-19 vaccine strategy, ...
Budget 2020 is about rebuilding together, supporting jobs, getting business moving and the books back into the black. It’s an integral part of our COVID-19 economic response, and our plan to grow our economy and get New Zealand moving again.Here’s a quick look at the five top things you ...
The Green Party is pleased to reveal its candidate list for the upcoming election. With a mix of familiar faces and fresh new talent, this exceptional group of candidates are ready to lead the Greens back into Government. ...
The Coalition Government has approved $206 million in essential upgrades at Ōhakea Air Base. Defence Minister Ron Mark said the money would be spent on improving old infrastructure. He said safety issues would be addressed, as well as upgrades to taxiways, accommodation and fresh, storm and waste water systems. "This ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First “I am not persisting with this case just for myself, but for all people who have had their privacy breached. Privacy of information is a cornerstone of our country’s democracy. Without it our society truly faces a bleak future. We now ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones has introduced a Bill to Parliament that he says will "force more transparency, integrity and respect" for the domestic wood-processing sector through the registration of log traders and practice standards. The Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Bill had its first reading in ...
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman is joining over 300 lawmakers from around the world in calling on the big banks and the IMF to forgive the debt of developing countries, in the wake of the COVID crisis. ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones says concerns that carbon foresters are planting pine trees that will never be harvested are the result of "misinformation". "The billion tree strategy is an excellent idea, unfortunately from time to time it's tainted by misinformation spread by the National Party or their grandees, hiding in scattered ...
The Green Party welcomes funding in the budget to reunite more refugees with their families, ensuring they have the best chance at a new life in Aotearoa New Zealand. ...
A new-look Police graduation ceremony to take account of COVID19 health rules has marked the completion of training for 57 new constables. Police Minister Stuart Nash attended this afternoon's ceremony, where officers of Recruit Wing 337 were formally sworn in at the Royal New Zealand Police College without the normal support of ...
Mobile traders and truck shops must adhere to responsible lending requirements Interest rate cap on high-cost loans Lenders prohibited from offering further credit to an applicant who has taken two high-cost loans in the past 90 days The Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Kris Faafoi, has signalled an end ...
94% of firms say wage subsidy had positive impact on cashflow 62% of firms say support helped to manage non-wage costs like rent A survey of business that have received the Government’s wage subsidy show it has played a significant role in saving jobs, and freed up cash flow to ...
New legislation introduced to Parliament today will support growth and assist businesses on the road to economic recovery, said Revenue Minister Stuart Nash. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2020-21, Feasibility Expenditure, and Remedial Matters) Bill proposes that businesses can get tax deductions for ‘feasibility expenditure’ on new investments,” said Mr ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson has welcomed the first release of funds from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced as part of Budget 2020. Sport NZ has announced that $4.6 million in funding will go to the Wellington Phoenix, NZ Warriors, Super Rugby teams and the ANZ Premiership ...
An iconic New Zealand tourism attraction and the country’s 31 Regional Tourism Organisations are the first recipients of support from the $400 million Tourism Sector Recovery Plan, to help position the sector for recovery from COVID-19, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. The plan includes a Strategic Tourism Assets Protection ...
The Government will legislate to ensure businesses that suffered as a result of the COVID-19 response will get help to resolve disputes over commercial rent issues, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. A temporary amendment to the Property Law Act will insert a clause in commercial leases requiring a fair ...
The Minister for Small Business says new data from Xero highlights the urgency of prompt payment practices to small and medium enterprises as we move into economic recovery. Last month Government ministers wrote to significant private enterprises and the banking industry to request they join efforts by government agencies to ...
Young people in Waikato will be the first to have free access to period products in schools in another step to support children and young people in poverty,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. During term 3, the Ministry of Education will begin providing free period products to schools following the ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash has issued the following statement in response to charges filed against three Police officers this morning in the New Plymouth District Court. “Any incident involving a loss of life in Police custody is taken very seriously. The charges today reflect the gravity of the ...
$196 million for Crown Research Institutes $150 million for R&D loan scheme $33 million for Māori research and development opportunities $12 million for the Nationally Significant Collections and Databases $10 million to help maintain in-house capability at Callaghan Innovation New Zealand’s entrepreneurs, innovators and crown researchers will benefit from a ...
Further temporary changes to NCEA and University Entrance (UE) will support senior secondary school students whose teaching and learning have been disrupted by COVID-19. “The wellbeing of students and teachers is a priority. As we are all aware, COVID-19 has created massive disruption to the school system, and the Government ...
Minister for Racing Winston Peters today announced that the terms for the directors of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) have been extended to 30 June 2021. Due to the COVID-19 crisis the transition period has been extended to ensure that the Racing Industry Bill can complete its progress through ...
The deadline for landlords to include detailed information in their tenancy agreements about how their property meets the Healthy Homes Standards, so tenants can see the home they are renting is compliant, has been extended from 1 July 2020 to 1 December 2020. The Healthy Homes Standards became law on 1 July 2019. The Standards are ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little today announced details of further appointments to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. “I am pleased to announce Paula Rose QSO OStJ as Deputy Chief Commissioner for a term of five years commencing on 15 June 2020,” said Andrew Little. “I am also pleased to announce the ...
The Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF) will pay costs of learners of all ages to undertake vocational education and training The fund will target support for areas of study and training that will give learners better employment prospects as New Zealand recovers from COVID-19 Apprentices working in all industries ...
The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will finally start to cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas pollution as it was originally intended to, because of changes announced today by the Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw. The changes include a limit on the total emissions allowed within the ETS, rules to ensure ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List provides an abundance of examples that Pacific people’s leadership capability is unquestionable in Aotearoa. “The work and the individuals we acknowledge this year highlights the kind of visionary examples and dedicated community leadership that we need ...
The Government is backing a new $27 million project aimed at boosting sustainable horticulture production and New Zealand’s COVID-19 recovery efforts, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our economy. During and ...
Applications have opened for 2021 Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships, which will support more Māori and women to pursue careers in forestry science, says Forestry Minister Shane Jones. “I’m delighted Te Uru Rākau is offering Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships for the third year running. These ...
The Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List once again highlights the dedication by many to looking after our native plants and wildlife, including incredible work to restore the populations of critically endangered birds says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Anne Richardson of Hororata has been made an Officer of the New ...
The Government will invest $10 million from the One Billion Trees Fund for large-scale planting to provide jobs in communities and improve the environment, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor and Forestry Minister Shane Jones have announced. New, more flexible funding criteria for applications will help up to 10 catchment groups plant ...
Organisations that support women are invited to apply to a new $1,000,000 fund as part of the Government’s COVID-19 response. “We know women, and organisations that support women, have been affected by COVID-19. This new money will ensure funding for groups that support women and women’s rights,” said Minister for ...
Healthier waterways are front and centre in a new project involving more than 300 King Country sheep, beef and dairy farmers. The Government is investing $844,000 in King Country River Care, a group that helps farmers to lift freshwater quality and farming practice, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “Yesterday ...
A major funding package for libraries will allow them to play a far greater role in supporting their communities and people seeking jobs as part of the economic recovery from COVID-19. “Budget 2020 contains over $60 million of funding to protect library services and to protect jobs,” says Internal Affairs ...
A jobseekers programme for the creative sector and four new funds have been set up by the Government to help our arts and music industry recover from the blow of COVID-19. Thousands of jobs will be supported through today’s $175 million package in a crucial economic boost to support the ...
Minister for Veterans Ron Mark has welcomed the First Reading of a Bill that will make legislative changes to further improve the veterans’ support system. The Veterans’ Support Amendment Bill No 2, which will amend the Veterans’ Support Act 2014, passed First Reading today. The bill addresses a number of ...
Views sought on Order in Council to help fast track the reinstatement of the Christ Church Cathedral The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Hon Poto Williams, will be seeking public written comment, following Cabinet approving the drafting of an Order in Council aimed at fast-tracking the reinstatement of the ...
The law setting out New Zealanders’ basic civil and human rights is today one step towards being strengthened following the first reading of a Bill that requires Parliament to take action if a court says a statute undermines those rights. At present, a senior court can issue a ‘declaration of ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today reiterated the deep concern of the New Zealand Government following confirmation by China’s National People’s Congress of national security legislation relating to Hong Kong. “New Zealand shares the international community’s significant and long-standing stake in Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand ...
Thousands of artists and creatives at hundreds of cultural and heritage organisations have been given much-needed support to recover from the impact of COVID-19, Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Jacinda Ardern announced today. “The cultural sector was amongst the worst hit by the global pandemic,” Jacinda ...
Key New Zealand assets will be better protected from being sold to overseas owners in a way contrary to the national interest, with the passage of the Overseas Investment (Urgent Measures) Bill. The Bill, which passed its third reading in Parliament today, also cuts unnecessary red tape to help attract ...
Setting higher health standards at swimming spots Requiring urban waterways to be cleaned up and new protections for urban streams Putting controls on higher-risk farm practices such as winter grazing and feed lots Setting stricter controls on nitrogen pollution and new bottom lines on other measures of waterway health Ensuring ...
The Government is on the verge of reaching its target of state sector boards and committees made up of at least 50 percent women, says Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter and Minister for Ethnic Communities Jenny Salesa. For the first time, the Government stocktake measures the number of Māori, ...
The Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister and Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister, Kris Faafoi, has today announced the appointment of Tristan Gilbertson as the new Telecommunications Commissioner and member of the Commerce Commission. “Mr Gilbertson has considerable experience in the telecommunications industry and a strong reputation amongst his peers,” ...
The Ministry of Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa have agreed to settle the pay equity claim for teacher aides, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. This will see more than 22,000 teacher aides, mostly women, being valued and paid fairly for the work they do. “Teacher aides are frontline ...
Subcontractors will have greater certainty, more cashflow support and job security with new changes to retention payments under the Construction Contracts Act says Minister for Building and Construction, Jenny Salesa. A recent review of the retentions money regime showed that most of the building and construction sector is complying with ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong have marked the first anniversary of the New Zealand-Singapore Enhanced Partnership with a virtual Leaders’ Meeting today. The Enhanced Partnership, signed on 17 May 2019, provides the framework for cooperation across the four main areas of trade, defence and ...
On 17 May 2019, New Zealand and Singapore established an Enhanced Partnership to elevate our relations. The Enhanced Partnership – based on the four pillars of trade and economics, security and defence, science, technology and innovation, and people-to-people links – has seen the long-standing relationship between our countries strengthen over the ...
State-Owned Enterprises Minister Winston Peters has welcomed KiwiRail’s announcement that it is seeking a preferred shipyard to build two new rail-enabled ferries for the Cook Strait crossing. “This Government is committed to restoring rail to its rightful place in New Zealand. Bigger, better ships, with new technology are yet another ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Senior Lecturer in New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity US President Donald Trump delivered an address this week in which he threatened military action on the nation. Then he walked to the nearby St John’s Episcopal Church ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vincent Ho, Senior Lecturer and clinical academic gastroenterologist, Western Sydney University Why do we burp? We sometimes also burp before meals, why does this happen? — Ahaana, age 7 That is a really interesting question, Ahaana! There ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justine Bell-James, Associate Professor, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland After years of litigation, Australia’s highest court will today make a major decision on the fate of the controversial proposed expansion to the New Acland Coal mine in Queensland. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Williams, Associate Professor in Urban Ecology and Urban Horticulture, University of Melbourne Tomorrow is the first World Green Roof Day. Cities around the world will celebrate the well-documented environmental, economic and social benefits of green roofs. New ground-level green spaces are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Senior Lecturer, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Robodebt isn’t the only measure the government should consider withdrawing. Late last Friday, after a long press conference from the prime minister which avoided any mention of the topic, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW Harvard University’s Alberto Alesina died suddenly of a heart attack on May 23. He was 63. His long-time colleague and friend Larry Summers wrote that before him, “there was no academic field of political economy. Today, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Griffith University What keeps democracies together? As America burns, Brazilians die and Europe braces for another wave of the coronavirus, the question assumes an alarming immediacy. If the answer is complicated in one way, it is ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Millions of dollars divvied up by Sport NZ, MSD’s problem with wrongly denied payments grows, and internal coalition battles emerge in time for election.It’s Friday, and there hasn’t been a lot of it recently, so we’re going to start with ...
The Government picks Waitomo caves as 'strategic tourism asset' and grants $4m to Tourism Holdings, boosting shares another 7.8 percent. Facebook staff and alumni revolt over Zuckerberg's inaction on Trump ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan NZ bestseller list and described by ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias.NON-FICTION 1 Vegful by Nadia Lim (Nude Food, $55) 2 Stop Surviving Start Fighting by Jazz Thornton (Penguin Random House, $38) 3 So Delish! by Simone Anderson ...
Anomalies in the policy for superannuitants with overseas pensions are an indictment on the justice process in New Zealand, write Susan St John and Dr Claire Dale Along with many others, the Retirement Policy and Research Centre has worked assiduously for more than a decade to alert the public, policy-makers ...
A new study indicates native plants, despite their tendency to grow more slowly than exotic species like Pinus Radiata, are better at storing carbon in the soil for longer periods of time. ...
Systemic white violence against black Americans is alive and well, and it's white violence that sustains white supremacy Current scenes from the United States are both familiar and shocking. George Floyd’s life being brutally snuffed out by Minneapolis police, followed by peaceful protests of Floyd’s murder as well as legitimate ...
The US isn't the only country with a broken criminal justice system that works to criminalise and destroy the lives of black and brown families. Dylan Asafo puts forward two ways NZ could lead in dismantling systems of white supremacy. If you were to imagine a society without racial oppression, ...
The British Tribe Next Door attracted over 60 complaints of racist themes from viewers when it first aired in the UK. Now TVNZ is streaming it on its OnDemand service attracting concerns from members of Aotearoa’s African community and a letter from race relations commissioner Meng Foon.When The British Tribe ...
When approached by The Spinoff Jeanette Wilson denied having told participants in an online session that the product ‘lined the lungs’, despite clear evidence to the contrary.The Covid-19 crisis has sparked misinformation in every corner of the world. In New Zealand, a “psychic healer” whose fixations read like a conspiracy ...
The union movement launched a push earlier this week to double the legal minimum of sick leave from five days a year to 10. Is a change likely?What’s all this then?In light of the recent global pandemic putting the focus on health in the workplace, unions have called for changes ...
An African American pastor from George Floyd's community gives The Detail a special insight into what's happening there - and gives us hope for the future. “Nobody in America wants to be a racist.” David Hill is a pastor in the Third Ward neighbourhood of Houston where George Floyd grew ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When Ken Wyatt, the Minister for Indigenous Australians, last week effectively pronounced dead the prospect of a referendum on indigenous recognition being put to the people this parliamentary term, the demise of his hoped-for timetable ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Morrison government will significantly strengthen its scrutiny of foreign investment to protect sensitive national security technology and information and further ring fence the nation’s critical infrastructure. It will insert a new “national security test” ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Does National have any chance of winning the election in September? It’s looking very unlikely, especially after National’s change of leadership hasn’t exactly produced Mullermania in the first two weeks. Quite the opposite, in fact, as I summarised in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne When a newspaper with the authority of The New York Times chooses to publish a party-political essay calculated to further inflame the violence wracking cities across America, serious questions arise. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Plank, Professor in Mathematics, University of Canterbury There is now a 95% chance COVID-19 has been eliminated in New Zealand, according to our modelling, based on official Ministry of Health data. As of June 4, New Zealand has had 20 consecutive ...
In 2014, Duncan Greive was invited to interview Dan Carter on the back of the All Black’s spokesmodelling gig for Jockey underwear – a meeting that would eventually lead to Greive co-writing Carter’s autobiography, My Story. To celebrate today’s big Dan Carter news, we republish that original Metro story here.In ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Coates, Program Director, Household Finances, Grattan Institute Scott Morrison’s new housing stimulus package is straight-out retail politics. HomeBuilder offers homeowners (including first home buyers) a grant of A$25,000 to build a new home worth less than $750,000 or to spend between ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Rachel Taulelei, CEO of Kono.Demand for New Zealand produce overseas is currently up. ...
By Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie in Jakarta A panel of judges at the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) has granted a lawsuit filed by civil society groups against the Indonesian government’s decision to impose an internet blackout during weeks of protests in Papua and West Papua provinces last year, declaring ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Mitchell, Professor of Nursing, University of Newcastle With coronavirus restrictions gradually lifting across the country, we’re now able to resume many of our regular activities. A lot of us might have been particularly keen to get back to the gym, which ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Perhaps at no point in Australia’s history has the demand for real-time figures been stronger than during the coronavirus crisis. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has stepped up its efforts to get data fast, to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bree Hurst, Senior Lecturer, QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jolynna Sinanan, Research Fellow in Digital Media and Ethnography, University of Sydney Earlier this week, you might have seen your social media taken over by a stream of posts showing simple images of a black square. These posts, often tagged with #BlackoutTuesday, ...
A strong vote for sustainability would make the resulting Labour-Greens government a confident and ambitious reformer, having shed its NZ First handbrake ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick White, PhD Candidate in History and Politics, James Cook University Australia’s local governments breathed new life into embattled regional communities after the second world war. Today, this history reminds us of the role local councils and communities should play in plans ...
This bill proposes to provide for enhanced information disclosure requirements for the gas market and to ensure that settings around enforcement and penalties are suitably robust. The Gas (Information Disclosure and Penalties) Amendment Bill would do this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mick Broderick, Associate Professor of Media Analysis, Murdoch University Over successive Sunday nights, the ABC has premiered two important television programs recounting the history of nuclear testing in Australia – the documentary Maralinga Tjuratja and a six-drama series Operation Buffalo. Both explore ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marisa Paterson, Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National University When the COVID-19 restrictions came into force more than two months ago, it meant lights out for the country’s 200,000 poker machines. Now, the pokies are slowly turning on again across ...
With roughly 97% of New Zealand enterprises categorised as small businesses – that is, 20 or fewer employees – accounting software platform Xero’s newly released analysis provides a stark picture of the severe impact of Covid-19 throughout the sector.What exactly does the data show?Essentially, the data shows that year-on-year revenue ...
This week, on 1 June 2020, an interest rate cap on high-cost loans (over 50% interest per annum) was finally introduced in New Zealand. The introduction of an interest rate cap will help borrowers, like Sarah Newham, who presented to Select Committee ...
After hammering out a deal over commercial rents with Labour, New Zealand First is now publicly criticising some of the measures its coalition partner had been pushing for. ...
After hammering out a deal over commercial rents with Labour, New Zealand First is now publicly criticising some of the measures its coalition partner had been pushing for. ...
After hammering out a deal over commercial rents with Labour, New Zealand First is now publicly criticising some of the measures its coalition partner had been pushing for. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lee, Associate Professor of History , UNSW The Conversation is running a series of explainers on key figures in Australian political history, looking at the way they changed the nature of debate, its impact then, and it relevance to politics today. ...
Labour-hire workers are falling between the cracks because neither the agencies they are employed by nor the host companies they work for want to take responsibility for them, FIRST Union said today. Dozens of agency workers have been contacting the ...
CEAC annual review of National Party climate change policy, makes miserable reading, and supports Government for elevating clean ‘Rail Transport’ over truck transport, for moving more freight onto rail, thereby keeping our CO2 ‘climate emissions’ ...
The biggest danger facing New Zealand under level one will the border. Justin Giovannetti looks at what the government is doing to increase border defences and prevent another influx of Covid-19.As the elimination of coronavirus appears imminent in New Zealand, the country’s attention turns to the border and the conflicting ...
The Government’s 5.3% increase in road user charges (RUC) from 1 July is a kick in the guts to the trucking industry that kept the country moving during lockdown and must be cancelled says the National Road Carriers Association. “It is unacceptable,” ...
From the Minister of Tourism came an announcement on the distribution of $400 million. He was outdone by the Minister for Research, Science and Technology, whose announcement involved a sum of $401.3m. Much more bemusing was the announcement from the PM headed Free period products in schools to combat poverty. ...
The charging of three officers of the Central Police District with homicide confirms community fears of police violence. The announcement of the charges comes as the United States of America is crippled by nationwide protests against the murder of ...
The Government’s recently announced Action for Healthy Waterways package includes protections and funding to improve the quality of New Zealand’s rivers, lakes, streams, estuaries, and wetlands. The package introduces new rules and regulations ...
The images of Minnesota policeman Derek Chauvin kneeling on a dying African-American man’s neck have ricocheted around the world. From Auckland to London, Christchurch to cities across the US, tens of thousands have marched in opposition to what is perceived as systemic police violence against one race. Chauvin’s charges have ...
With Rhys Darby returning to our small screens with a travel series documenting his wild travels around Japan, Tara Ward rounds up some more TVNZ shows that will take you from your armchair to locales far and wide. Rhys Darby is world famous for bringing walk socks to New York on ...
Sir Jerry Mateparae is extending his life of service to the NZ community, moving into the role of chair of Chair of the Healthier Lives−He Oranga Hauora National Science Challenge. He says the research being done in preventing some of the country’s worst diseases as fitting neatly with his own ...
E tū is calling for a serious harm investigation into the case of two security guards who were injured when a staff member was attacked at Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital. On 21 May, two security guards were stabbed with a pair of scissors when ...
Kiwi Rail CEO Greg Miller said he will not re-open the Gisborne rail service for freight and passenger services for the region, after eight years of closure even now after a yearlong PGF $600.000 study confirmed to the Government that the rail ...
Universal public compliance has been one of the major reasons why New Zealand has apparently been so successful in curbing the spread of the Covid19 virus. Fundamentally, people complied with the restrictions imposed during Alert Levels 4 and 3 because ...
Greenpeace wants New Zealand to become the first country in the world to ban plastic drinks bottles. Last year, after a huge public outcry, the NZ Government banned single use plastic bags. Now Greenpeace is launching a new campaign to "ban the bottle." ...
Pacific Media Centre A Papua New Guinea provincial governor has defending his actions for speaking up in Parliament yesterday on the government’s mooted proposal to extend the state of emergency (SoE) for two more months. Writing on social media, Governor Allan Bird of East Sepik cited instances of police abuse ...
Grey Power’s stance is that the global Covid-19 pandemic, as it has impinged on New Zealand, has highlighted existing problems within the Aged Care Sector and we suggest that if the promise by the Labour Party to fund an Aged Care Commissioner ...
New Zealanders have been re-discovering the many benefits of growing food at home over the Pandemic lock-down. Sustainable Living’s free learning guides on food growing have been this on-line community education programme’s most popular downloads. ...
From 1846 onwards, various militia came together to form the New Zealand Armed Constabulary Force, to ‘combat Māori hostiles and to keep civil order’. In 1885 they changed uniforms and became the New Zealand Police. We’re still feeling the effects of that whakapapa today, writes Emilie Rākete. America is burning, burning ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Carew, Lecturer, University of Melbourne During the coronavirus pandemic, have your kids been using headphones more than usual? Maybe for remote schooling, video chats with relatives, or for their favourite music and Netflix shows? We have to be careful about both ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling When it comes to coronavirus cases, deaths and tests, Australia is performing better than many other countries with comparable populations and geographies, a new COVID-19 data visualisation reveals. Use the tool below, which uses data drawn ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joelle Gergis, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science, Australian National University As we slowly emerge from lockdown, local adventures are high on people’s wish lists. You may be planning a trip to the ski fields, or even the nearby hills to revel in ...
Open mike 23/11/2011 
Does National have any chance of winning the election in September? It’s looking very unlikely, especially after National’s change of leadership hasn’t exactly produced Mullermania in the first two weeks. Quite the opposite, in fact, as I summarised in Tuesday’s Political Roundup column: Todd Muller’s torrid start as National leader. ...16 hours ago
Last year, in the face of public pressure to better regulate New Zealand's pervasively criminal fishing industry, the government finally anounced a bullshit trial scheme for cameras on boats. The trial would apply only to a limited number of boats fishing in Māui's dolphin habitat. But all fishing boats would ...19 hours ago
Another study comparing effect in children from nonendemic areas (Dagang) and endemic fluorosis area (Jinghai) about 80km apart in the Tianjin area of China. Hardly sampling the same population. Anti-fluoride campaigners still use studies from ... 23 hours ago
George Thomson, Nick Wilson, Richard Edwards This blog discusses the passing of the Smoke-free Environments (Prohibiting Smoking in Motor Vehicles Carrying Children) Amendment Act last week. We briefly review some lessons from this legislation’s long journey and explore future smokefree possibilities in Aotearoa / New Zealand. A law ...1 day ago
74 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Surface-Energy-Balance Closure over Land: A Review (open access) Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Human influence has intensified extreme precipitation in North America (open access) Observation-derived ice growth curves show patterns and trends in maximum ice thickness and ...1 day ago
Last month I noted that the public policy debate was all about how we deal with covid-19. That’s changing now, and will change more over the next couple of months as the buffering impact of the wage subsidy disappears and we see starkly the economic hole out of which we ...1 day ago
Bernard Hickey is one of New Zealand’s leading financial journalists. His latest article, published by Newsroom, lays bare the cruel treatment of hundreds of thousands of workers stranded since the lockdown. Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of ...2 days ago
For a good part of my adult life I have studied civil-military relations. I have studied authoritarian and democratic variants, and I have studied them across countries and regions. I have also worked in and with several US security agencies and have lectured on the theme at a number of ...2 days ago
by The Spark “The system is broken”—the words of a young black man in Minneapolis watching flames destroy a police precinct demonstrators had torched. Broken? Yes, it is! What else could you say about a system whose police for nine minutes casually knelt on a black man’s neck, watching until ...2 days ago
Minneapolis Police StationIf you’ve been keeping an eye on recent events in the United States, you’ll likely understand why there’s so much anger on the streets at the moment. Not only did police officers murder another black man; it is patently obvious that authorities initially attempted to cover up George ...3 days ago
Like the rest of the world, I have been aghast at what I have seen of, and read and heard about, what is happening currently in the United States. It seems incredible that a once great country should be suffering the worst effects and the highest number of deaths worldwide ...4 days ago
Image credit: Writing an Article vs. Writing a Blog Post: What’s the Difference? I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is ... 4 days ago
It’s almost painful to watch. Let’s be honest, maybe a pleasure too, in some quarters, but painful nonetheless. Because the fact is, for a democracy to function properly, any sitting Government does need honest and proper Opposition so that it doesn’t get ahead of itself. That’s what we should ...6 days ago
SATURDAY MAY 30Six60: Live at Western Springs 2020 (TVNZ 1, 8.45pm). Remember live concerts? The day will come again, friends, when we will be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in an uncomfortable sweaty venue with people we don’t know. It will happen. Sometimes the sound of concerts drifts over to the ...7 days ago
7 days ago
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...1 week ago
age credit: Science and Politics – Skeptically.org It seems impossible to keep politics out of science. It’s a pity because politics can end up forcing science to produce the results desired by ... 2 weeks ago
The Green Party is urging the New Zealand Police to rule out the use of Armed Response Teams, following their recent trial in communities around Aotearoa. ...53 mins ago
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has described Labour's original COVID-19 commercial rent dispute proposal as "poorly targeted". Justice Minister Andrew Little has announced a temporary law change to force commercial landlords and renters to consider COVID-19 in disputes over rent issues, almost two months after the Government first floated the idea. But ...17 hours ago
It's been a busy seven days as we start to rebuild New Zealand together. From delivering extra support for small businesses, to investing in our artists and arts organisations, to cutting red tape on home DIY projects, we're rolling out our plan to get the economy and New Zealand moving ...3 days ago
A new-look Police graduation ceremony to take account of COVID19 health rules has marked the completion of training for 57 new constables. Police Minister Stuart Nash attended this afternoon's ceremony, where officers of Recruit Wing 337 were formally sworn in at the Royal New Zealand Police College without the normal support of ...15 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Senior Lecturer in New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity US President Donald Trump delivered an address this week in which he threatened military action on the nation. Then he walked to the nearby St John’s Episcopal Church ...47 mins ago
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...1 hour ago
The Government picks Waitomo caves as 'strategic tourism asset' and grants $4m to Tourism Holdings, boosting shares another 7.8 percent. Facebook staff and alumni revolt over Zuckerberg's inaction on Trump ...3 hours ago
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan NZ bestseller list and described by ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias. NON-FICTION 1 Vegful by Nadia Lim (Nude Food, $55) 2 Stop Surviving Start Fighting by Jazz Thornton (Penguin Random House, $38) 3 So Delish! by Simone Anderson ...3 hours ago
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A new study indicates native plants, despite their tendency to grow more slowly than exotic species like Pinus Radiata, are better at storing carbon in the soil for longer periods of time. ...3 hours ago
NZTA is allegedly exploring options for its $1b road to be built with a different set of builders. ...3 hours ago
Systemic white violence against black Americans is alive and well, and it's white violence that sustains white supremacy Current scenes from the United States are both familiar and shocking. George Floyd’s life being brutally snuffed out by Minneapolis police, followed by peaceful protests of Floyd’s murder as well as legitimate ...3 hours ago
The US isn't the only country with a broken criminal justice system that works to criminalise and destroy the lives of black and brown families. Dylan Asafo puts forward two ways NZ could lead in dismantling systems of white supremacy. If you were to imagine a society without racial oppression, ...3 hours ago
An African American pastor from George Floyd's community gives The Detail a special insight into what's happening there - and gives us hope for the future. “Nobody in America wants to be a racist.” David Hill is a pastor in the Third Ward neighbourhood of Houston where George Floyd grew ...4 hours ago
...15 hours ago
A strong vote for sustainability would make the resulting Labour-Greens government a confident and ambitious reformer, having shed its NZ First handbrake ...15 hours ago
After hammering out a deal over commercial rents with Labour, New Zealand First is now publicly criticising some of the measures its coalition partner had been pushing for. ...18 hours ago
From the Minister of Tourism came an announcement on the distribution of $400 million. He was outdone by the Minister for Research, Science and Technology, whose announcement involved a sum of $401.3m. Much more bemusing was the announcement from the PM headed Free period products in schools to combat poverty. ...19 hours ago
Sir Jerry Mateparae is extending his life of service to the NZ community, moving into the role of chair of Chair of the Healthier Lives−He Oranga Hauora National Science Challenge. He says the research being done in preventing some of the country’s worst diseases as fitting neatly with his own ...22 hours ago
Every party complains about the media coverage they get, but not too loudly in case they lose favour and coverage. Media reports commonly don’t seem accurate to those being reported on. Mostly that is a natural effect of someone else looking at things differently.
In our democratic system the media hold a lot of power.
Just as most politicians mean well and work hard, the same for journalists. Personal views and preferences must influence how stories are chosen and covered but most journalists try to provide width and balance to their coverage.
Some journalists abuse their power, framing stories and promoting their own agendas and egos way beyond normal journalistic boundaries.
Actually Peter it’s down to the management editing and controlling what’s published by setting agendas and employing kids just look at the fresh young faces doing stories on drunken sport heads on the TV.
To quote a good mate, also a senior experienced journo, ‘too few employers and the editors have preconceived yarns to get out there, cross them and you’re out of a job’
Games is rigged dude…..watch Oz news to get a stark contrast in how balanced reporting is done.
I know it’s rigged. A few people are looking at what might be able to be done to hold them to account, a bit at least. Power of the ‘net may be able to apply some pressure.
what might be able to be done to hold them to account, a bit at least.
Geez Pete. You are standing for a party headed by a hairpiece that backs this current rabble like a bad smell. This is not “holding them to account”. Your party is part of the problem.
It is part of this contrived gerrymander that gives the right an undue advantage. Basically if the hairpiece wins National gets 1.2% more of the party vote than it actually won.
Your comments are hypocritical. If you truly want to “hold them to account” then resign and join a real party, one determined to do something for ordinary people, not for millionaires.
But that’s the problem, the millionaries are loosing their shirts because they are running the country so badly.
But worse they’ve locked in the tax system to make any company that grows (or farm, crafer) into a target for foreign take over.
NZ is digging itself faster into serfdom, and that’s what’s so astonishing about the elite here, that they really are that incredibly self-destructive.
The culture is set by media and the jerk elite has decided it doesn’t care what nonsense is peddled, or by whom.
Murdoch is an Australian.
Murdoch is an American citizen.
Yes, he is but he was born in Australia and, I believe, still carries Australian citizenship.
Are you complaining about the latest FairFax poll in which UF polls at one tenth of one percent?
Pete, I read your article and I must say I’m surprised.
11 paragraphs about parties conniving to assist each other into seats and not one mention of United Future’s deal with National.
Banks and Brash under attack at Epsom candidate meeting last night:
http://i41.tinypic.com/4sbqmo.jpg
I guess TVNZ will be showing some footage:
http://i43.tinypic.com/2816f49.jpg
More pics at:
Thanks for that ‘Jayman’! đ
22 November 2011 Epsom candidates meeting at the Parnell Jubliee Building 545 Parnell Rd.
I recommended to Epsom voters last night that they do not vote for yet- to- be- charged or convicted âwhite collarâ crook â John Banks.
http://i39.tinypic.com/xkohly.jpg
Am STILL awaiting a âprogress reportâ (promised Friday morning 18 November 2011) from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
ARE THE NZ SFO GOING TO EQUALLY LAY CHARGES AGAINST ACT CANDIDATE FOR EPSOM JOHN BANKS, AND ACT LEADER DON BRASH, AS WERE LAID AGAINST FORMER FELLOW DIRECTOR OF HULJICH WEALTH MANAGEMENT (NZ) LTD â PETER HULJICH FOR SIGNING âREGISTERED PROSPECTUSESâ WHICH CONTAINED UNTRUE STATEMENTS â OR NOT?
IF NOT â WHY NOT?
How come ACTâs âONE LAW FOR ALLâ â apparently doesnât apply to the ACT Leader Don Brash, and ACT candidate for Epsom John Banks?
Whereâs ACTâs âZERO TOLERANCEâ for âwhite collarâ CRIME?
Will be following up with the SFO this morningâŚ..
Of course this issue is being given the mainstream media coverage one would expect in election yearâŚâŚ
Not.
(Situation normal)
Penny Bright
CENSORED
Independent Candidate for Epsom
Campaigning against âwhite collarâ CRIME, CORRUPTION (and its root cause â PRIVATISATION) and âCORPORATE WELFAREâ
[email deleted]
Bugger the polls. My Ipredict short against National winning isn’t looking too healthy now. đ
16.2 % undecided…!
Now just hang on a minute:
The teapot scandal will break National
Rena will scupper them
Labours policys will bring them back
NZ will have a collective wakening to what John Keys about
The Greens, Mana, Winston First and Labour will get enough votes
The worm turned
Attacking the Mad Butcher will get votes
Playing the personality politics is the way to go (not that Labours doing that of course)
Any one of the above is a game changer so don’t give up hope just yet
You were one of those chumps who thought the All Blacks would win the final by 20 points, weren’t you?
Oh yeah sorry I also should add:
Assett sales
A win by 20 or a win by 1 is still a win (I will admit to some nerves during the match)
Bill English now bullshitting on Morning Report
You mean he actually stopped? Damn – I missed it.
There was a brief interlude in 2008 when he said stuff like
– “we want to get rid of kiwibank”
– “labour left the government accounts in good shape”
but this lapse into reality was soon remedied and the BS is spraying all and sundry once more
bill english = bull egregious
worst Nat leader ever, lost 2002 with 21% or something
National’s deep unpopularity was the only reason NZF/Winston was in parliament.
Winston is National’s problem child (one of many)
Clarification – should have read:
Bill English bullshitting on Morning Report now
He wants folks to swallow his shit recipes
[audio src="http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-election2011-20111123-0708-national_defends_record_on_trans-tasman_exodus-048.mp3" /]
David Cunliffe makes excellent points:
[audio src="http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-election2011-20111123-0714-labours_finance_spokesman_discusses_emigration_stats-048.mp3" /]
Strange lack of empathy from Joanne Black, in the latest Listener, for Bradley Ambrose. Remember she has admitted to leaving a tape running hidden behind a bunch of flowers after a press conference with then PM Geoffrey Palmer. Then she played it to other journalists and possibly politicians including Ruth Richardson who then used it in the house to mock the PM.
Bradley Ambrose was pushed away, with a scrum of other journalists, from a public meeting in a cafe, to a position a few feet away. Whether or not it was accidental, he left the mike in full view of several DPS staff and the two politicians, none of whom noticed it. When he realised it was still recording he alerted his contracted employer and deleted it.
>>>> When he realised it was still recording he alerted his contracted employer and deleted it.
Are you sure about that?
Well he definitely did the first half.
Ruth Richardson is only a few degrees to the right of Joanne Black.
HOS is not Ambrose’s employer.
Joanne Blacks husband is one of Key’s advisors. Says it all.
Interesting chart……..
http://tiny.cc/dpjbg
When he realized it was still recording he alerted his contracted employer and deleted it.
Hmm more like he rubbed his hands together and thought ha ha pay day is coming!
Deleted it – don’t you mean copied it and sold to who ever would buy it?
His argument that it was all an accident and he didn’t mean to tape the conversation would be like you or me walking out of a supermarket with groceries without paying for them, going home and eating the groceries.
When Plod comes around to have a chat you say, oh yes I realized after I got home that I hadn’t paid for the groceries so it wasn’t stealing – but I decided to eat them anyway as it was ok to.
Wouldn’t hold up in court as the consumption proves the intent. I think Mr Ambrose is going to find out this afternoon that the judge will decide that his selling of the conversation will allow a prosecution to use this as evidence as to his intention or otherwise of taping the conversation deliberately.
Your last point is incorrect, Jimmie, because the judge is not being asked to rule on the question of the selling of the conversation, just whether it was a private conversation or not. If not, that lets the cameraman off the hook, if it is private, then the cops have to then make the decision about prosecution.
By the way, who said he sold the tape? I haven’t seen it reported anywhere that he was paid for it.
These sorts of comments are why he now has a defamation case against Key.
“that the judge will decide that his selling of the conversation will allow a prosecution to use this as evidence as to his intention or otherwise of taping the conversation deliberately.”
But as we now know, she didn’t… đ
Granny Herald has returned to form pushing propaganda and disinformation for the Nats in on it’s front page with article from chief cheerleader John sycophant Armstrong. The editor busied himself with talking up the dangers of earthquakes prone buildings in Auckland (FFS!) demanding ‘the public have a right to know’ but has nothing to say on the suppression of information involved in the ombudsman withholding advice that the government received from treasury wrt asset sales, or the lack of any concrete evidence to back up Nationals claim that ownership will be retained by
New Zealanders.
Inside the political pages the talk (excepting Rudman) was all about how Shonkeys charm is like the sun and without it we would all surely wither and die.
Homebrew + Tourrettes’ song ‘Listen to us’ has had almost ten thousand plays in a week.
listen to it here on:
Vote for this song on the bFM top ten here:
http://www.95bfm.com/default,top10.sm
— let’s make the #1 MEAN SOMETHING this year…
Key on RNZ right now, getting all flustered and talking over the host
And Kathryn Ryan gets bored quickly has an idea she just has to express right then and talks over the top of Key rather than waiting for a natural pause. Just done it 3 times in 30 seconds. (it’s not just Key she does it all the time as does Kim Hill end rant. RANt continues – she also talks way too quick. It’s like dealing with an 8 year old who has to blurt everything out in one go. Key and Goff have a much more moderate pace and the contrast really grates).
Key said something really interesting right up front after the introduction when Ryan said that Nats could govern alone based on recent polls, the first party to do so under MMP. He then said something like ‘that [Fairfax] poll could be overstating things’.
It’s an interview, not a party political broadcast.
Not that Key would know the difference.
Katherine is the interviewer. She asks the question. Key goes off on a tangent and avoids the question. Katherine attempts to return to the question. Key shouts over her and continues to avoid.
Pity. Key could have answered some good questions but failed.
It’s a long form interview – she doesn’t have to rush. But she does it all the time. No doubt she’ll be as irritating with Goff tomorrow. It appears like it is more about her and her voice getting airspace. Kim Hill has developed the same problem.
I didn’t hear the whole interview, but a part of it I did hear, Key was wandering off the question that was asked and started talking about Goff, so Kathryn had to interrupt to get him back on track.
Winston’s weird:
http://readingthemaps.blogspot.com/2011/11/winson-takes-deng-xiaoping-for-drive.html
National Front at Christchurch candidates meeting: http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=209559
Pieces of chicken shit scum bags is what they are.
In the interview Key admitted that they are planning to spend 4 billion dollars on the power grid/network.
So let’s get this straight. He is going to spend billions upgrading the lines and wants to sell the power generation plants that need the lines to deliver their product.
We are paying to build the trucks, and the roads, that takes their goods to market for us to buy
================
How can the host not have the basic treasury and budget figures on hand.
Key says National just delivered a zero budget – i hear crickets-
key says labour left hundreds of billions of debt – more crickets –
Key said they have not lumped NZ with new debt – i swear i heard a black hole open up –
The 4b is old news and probably accounted for as it is 100% funded by consumers. It has meant Transpower has not been giving the govt a dividend in recent years despite making 100m or so a year. I think Labour started the ball rolling in about 2007. Oh and Labour allowed Transpower to ‘sell’ the national grid to Wachovia in a buy and lease back arrangement to rort US taxpayers.
But your analogy doesn’t hold. The govt already builds and owns the roads. But it doesn’t try and own the cars and trucks that run on them, or the factories that fill the trucks, or the office blocks filled by people who drive their cars on the roads. Are you calling for wholescale nationalisation of the means of production and transport?
it is a very clear and simple metaphor of what is represented by NZ paying to build new power grid systems and transmission lines and then selling the companies that produce the electricity that will use those very lines to sell power back to NZ. or were you just wanting to waste my time?
the whole structure is corrupt and the more we all look into it the murkier the whole story becomes.
Left , Right, doesn’t matter, the deals done in NZ the last thirty years have to be brought to light and those responsible have to be held to account.
Even this single phone call raises more than a few questions as to the legitimacy of the status quo.
It’s a completely odd ‘metaphor’ because it’s not one.
But that aside, what you are saying is that it is strange and illegitimate for the government to build a road to develop some crown land at the end of it, and then sell that land to private enterprises (like farmers, builders and developers), who will then turn it into a housing estate or warehousing or farms and use that same crown owned road to service the area and bring produce and people out of it to other places served by the same crown owned roading network. Strange, because that is how much of NZ was developed and they are still doing it today http://www.primecommercial.co.nz/1657269
“Are you calling for wholescale nationalisation of the means of production and transport?”
Why not? The idea probably gives you an aneurysm, but as my late brother used to say “If you’re going to sin, might as well make it an original one!” đ
(PS I think you meant wholesale though wholescale is orignal, and almost fits!)
Lew has an interesting observation over on Kiwipolitico:
So, when the psychopaths in National heard that there was a documentary showing just how bad the poverty in NZ had become over the last three decades of neo-liberalism they called it a Labour advert, said it wasn’t their fault and then promised to make it worse by cracking down on beneficiaries?
Yeah, National, really helpful – not.
The other side of that is that most of the poverty statistics you see variously quoted as appalling, third world etc date from Labour’s time in power, a period of apparantly massive growth and success. That’s just the nature of the time it takes to collate and analyse this stuff. We are not going to know the impact of National on the trend for some time, like it or not.
“We are not going to know the impact of National on the trend for some time, like it or not.”
No, but we can make some very educated guesses about whether it’s going to be better, worse, or the same…
Did you see the bit where I mentioned the last three decades of neo-liberalism? Yes, Labour’s to blame as well.
The point was that, given the evidence, National whinge and whine and don’t do anything to get rid of the poverty. Of course, they don’t want to because having large amounts of poverty pushes wages down just as John Key said he wanted.
Key was interviewed by Katherine Nine to Noon. (Try hard to be open minded.)
Katherine shouted down.
Key: Slippery. Evasive. Devious.
(Comparing his performance with that of other leaders in terms of honesty credibility trust. Awful!)
Shonkey could get caught with two 13 year old girls in the back of the limo and his fan club would still be relaxed. The rabid and rapid response of the Kiwiblog gargoyle re one widely perceived advantage to Phil Goff following the TV3 debate shows these people are on maximum wind.
Judge Helen Winkelmannâs phone would possibly have been busy last nite.
Really the likes of Key, Farrar and Joyce can only be considered as traitorous swine running a continuous âdark opâ on behalf of capital in NZ.
You are spot on, Key could do anything and it would not matter. The basic issue is that NZers (as pointed out in Trotters latest column) want reassurance and parenting from their lovely leader. Facts and policies are of no real issue, we just want to be lead by nice daddy John.
Upshot is that we will as a nation ignore that nice daddy John will sell of the house and then have an affair with a merchant bankster mistress, all so long as we feel reassured. And in 3 years we will wont get letters from Hawaii from runaway daddy because we wont have our own address, we will be out in the street.
Which begs the question: when will we grow up and become adults assessing our own futures? When will we leave political infancy?
Any chance you explaining to me the point and its value of always attacking the PM. Hasn’t he also gotten a heap of ministers and MPs running things.. so what’s with the obsession.. don’t you see how counter-productive this is.. and how excellent JK is fending it off.. looks to me a lot of the time like he’s inviting it so he can deflect scrutiny from the others..
Quick note for LP: WYSIWYG and the name and email cookies are no longer working on Firefox.
Edit: or IE.
Lynn’s aware. I thought he was going to fix it but evidently hasn’t done so yet.
Cheers, I’ve got so used to the tags and automatic logons that I even forgot to re-enter the data on the comment above and had to go back and reload it.
Yep. Unfortunately I’ve spent the last week pushing data for election day targeting which is more time dependent.
I know how to fix the problem to get around the new cache, but it takes time to dig out the old code from javascript. I just haven’t had time to do so. But I’m almost done. However I also have to stop my holiday and go back to the paying job…
I’d revert it back to the normal system, but we’re getting read peaks that are quite high. Tonight for instance we did about a quarter of the days page views in just over an hour after the debate (and surprise surprise we just made another record for highest page view day and highest visitor day – the second this week). The cache was the only thing that made the system operate without falling unresponsive. It was feeding the same cached page to multiple readers rather than regenerating it for each reader.
Best suggestion – register and login.
That generates a separate page for each logged in user (whilst serving up cached copies for non-logged in) and therefore has all of that stuff operational without issues (it is the readers that cause the peak issues)
Another broken promise
Prior to the last election in 2008, National promised that New Zealander’s would Wave goodbye to higher taxes⌠however National increased GST to 15%. The broken promise ensured that socially negative statistics kept growing.
National’s pledge card also said: Not your loved ones⌠meaning that New Zealanderâs would stop leaving en mass. However weâve seen the first net migration loss in ten years and the increasing exodus has continued to grow under National over the last three years.
Some people have argued that the Christchurch earthquakes are the reason for the continued exodus⌠however only a small percentage of those leaving come from Christchurch. The vast majority of people are leaving because National has mismanaged the economy and things are getting worse here in New Zealand.
Get it right Jackal, National did not mismanage the economy, they did not even attempt to do anything other than transfer wealth to their mates, scrap social expenditure and plan to sell off the silver to themselves.
“National has mismanaged the economy”
Incorrect. National has
– deliberately skewed the economy in favour of the wealthy elite,
– generated a massive government debt
– overseen an embarrassing credit downgrade
All in preparation for the privatisation of our juicy public assets.
Another wealth grab by the insatiable banksters and their useful idiots…
people leaving en masse because they are worried we are going to get another 3years of Shonkey .
That GST increase was fiscally risk neutral.. go ask any pensioner whose fixed income had to otherwise take a hit on regular grocery for example.. try for more REAL in your comments please.
“That GST increase was fiscally risk neutral.. go ask any pensioner whose fixed income had to otherwise take a hit on regular grocery for example.”
That’s gurble, really! What does ” fiscally risk neutral” even mean? It’s jargon of some sort, each of the words makes sense on its own, but together? No… ?????
More great Poll results for National despite all the personal Mudslinging from Labour. I know Iprent is not in favour of this as I have read his comments on it before. That the Election should always be fought on a Policy basis. There are two real problems for Labour in this Election that I see.
1) The associated link with Winston Peters as shown by the contrived worm,and polls the Public dont trust him even though Phil Goff says he does.
2) The rise of the Greens this party is appearing as fresh full of new ideas and the voters choice for the left vote. While Labour throws out its same old same old. I believe within 3 more Elections that the Greens will have a bigger voter base than Labour unless Labour can revitalise itself.
To do that they need to attract some smart Business people to their ranks who can show some comercial nouse. This means there will be a direct or indirect conflict with the Union power base in Labour.At the moment they cant show any credible way how they are going to grow the Economy without over taxing a smaller ,and smaller base of people. Sooner or later the leaves all fall off the money tree, and labour has no plans to show how it can create wealth in the Economy so Businesses will invest money ,and hire more people
Please choose or use a different ‘log in’ name. Cheers.
Hi Bill,
I just spent a couple of minutes puzzling how the ‘Bill of old’ could have changed his attitude so drastically, and concluded that you are a new commenter. I think you need a new handle.
At least I assume it’s not you Bill – Standard author and parecon proponent?
Yep….I mean no. Not me. And the person signing in as ‘bill’ on another thread isn’t me either. (Have commented beneath the comments with those handles asking that the handles be changed.)
I don’t think Bill actually logged in to comment. That’s the problem. You can comment without logging in, all you need to do is provide a name (say “Bill”) and an email address.
Probably the only way to avoid this is to require commenters to log-in, because I believe all login usernames are unique.
That I kinda agree with. The rest of your comment was complete delusional BS. With Peak Oil already here the economy can’t be grown so all we’re left with is correcting the misallocation of resources that capitalism has caused. NAct, wants to do the opposite and make things worse.
big ups to Rob Guyton – constantly posting on good green issues and with a wicked sense of humour – exhibit 1 this headline – “This man suffers from worms” guess who?
http://robertguyton.blogspot.com/2011/11/this-man-suffers-from-worms.html
haha excellent!
Salon: Cities, the new hydrofracking victims.
That article should be read by every NZer.
It has many in-text links, which I intend to follow up on. One crucial aspect is the recent disclosure of a 1987 EPA report which found:
‘…fracking contaminated well and groundwater in West Virginia. For decades, the industry had been able to deny this critical case study and insist fracking was perfectly safe because, as the New York Times notes, the caseâs details âwere sealed from the public when energy companies settled lawsuits with landowners.â Now, though, the oil and gas industry cannot issue such denials with impunity…’
I’m not sure what you are getting excited about. The report interesting and well written but comes pretty much to the same conclusion as others – it’s the integrity of the casings that are the issue not the fracking process. This is a known issue and applies to any well of any sort going through ground water. The report is very clear that the fracked zone does not directly affect the aquifer.
/facepalm
The fracking process forces apart the rock so we can assume that “the integrity of the casings” has no bearing whatsoever on if the fracking compound enters the ground water. Physics ensures that it will.
No because the fracking (usually) happens thousands of feet below any ground water. The fractures themselves are millimetres wide which is why sand is use as a proppant to keep the cracks open. and they wouldn’t/shouldn’t intersect say with an aquifer in these circumstances because they primarily travel laterally within a geological formatin rather than vertically between formations.
The casings are supposed to contain fluids and gas as they pass through other geological formations from the source rock to the well head. It is these failing that seem to be the issue. Like a hose getting a hole in it while you are running a siphon. If you’ve done it a thousand times before and it fails once, it’s likely the hose is the problem not the siphoning method.
Nice fancy ideas mate, let down by actual fracking contaminants found in drinking water all over the world.
you’ll be able to list them then…
Toxins to blame for increased whale stranding’s?
There’s also been an increase in stranding’s closer to the MV Rena disaster, which is known to have released over 2000 barrels of heavy crude oil into the ocean. 3150 Litres of Corexit 9500 was also applied throughout the cleanup operation and 23,240 kgs of Alkylsulphonic Acid was lost overboard.
Quick question to moderators : why am I having to type in user name and mail address for every comment? It used to store them. Problem at my end or yours?
Collective disorder tracks Occupy facebook pages, twitter accounts and Reddit subs.
so kweewee is going to sell Kiwibank.
it doesnt belong to him or his party either (the john kee and matthew hooton party).
It belongs to New Zealanders and Phill Goff should make that quite clear to New Zealanders tonight on teevee.
An interesting read.
Google Doc: Private Clearinghouses and the Origins of Central Banking
Actually Key is not selling kiwibank, thats a big lie.
Correct. National will sell KiwiBank after Key resigns.
Is it true or is just bs that Bradley Ambrose has ties to Kyle Chapman?
Look which party Kyle Chapman is supporting.
http://rwrnz.blogspot.com/2011/11/elections.html
Reading things that aren’t there again Pete. He doesn’t say, but he does say to vote for one of the small parties.
Perhaps he means UF. You’re all white aren’t you?
They have edited their site. What they had (up until yesterday afternoon) was:
“In this country we must vote for the smaller parties…” replaced “If you want traditional Kiwi life vote NZ First.”
Pete:
Well they anit voting for national and please give me a headsup, I dont want to go to that
hate site again.
Back to my original question is it true that Bradley Ambrose has ties to this group?
Over the last week or so, it has been reported in several media articles that he is a National supporter – that probably should now be “was” in the past tense.
Bugger all this election nonsense – I’m going bush. Out after the event so will keep fingers crossed ……
Don’t forget to vote!
Well, as of this time it looks like most people have considered leaving for Australia*.
* If you believe those really stupid online polls.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/tanks-in-small-towns/248975/
Can everyone please post this to their social network of choice, please get justice against police brutality in NZ.
Video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QQ3XA7KgrY
[Quote]
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2011
[b]where is the humanity?[/b]
I feel, especially in these last days leading up to our elections, that it is vital that New Zealanders see this. Actually, stuff the elections, this is something that every person in Aotearoa needs to watch and think about because this is about us as a community, this is about us taking responsibility as human beings. This is about us putting people before corporations and profits.
After my initial surge of rage, disgust, and extreme sadness at watching this clip, my main three questions are these:
Firstly, what on EARTH are they teaching at the police colleges that produce policepeople that are so eager to inflict serious harm on other humans? When I was at primary school, even at high school, to want to become a policeperson came out of a desire to help, protect and generally do good in a community. Not sit on a desperate and upset man and calmly beat him around the head and ribs with a police-issue baton in front of his extremely pregnant partner SO THAT A LUCRATIVE POWER COMPANY WHO TURNS OVER MILLIONS EACH YEAR CAN SAVE A FEW BUCKS!! (which turned out to be a mistake on the power company’s part anyway!)
Secondly, what lack of humanity allows contractors to carry on their job when they can see the result it is having? What is this crazy hold over people that lets them use the excuse ‘I was just doing my job’ when they can see that doing their job is causing a man to receive head injuries? When it is causing immense distress to a woman who is overdue to give birth?
And, in conclusion to the first two questions I guess, as it was so VERY obvious that things weren’t going so well in this situation (to put it lightly) why on earth could the police and contractors not take the sensible approach, pull back, and reassess the situation?? I cannot think of any reason why the disconnection of power had to happen at that specific time, given the resulting circumstances. Not exactly a life-or-death situation for the power company was it? Are we really the type of society who would rather see another human beaten till they bleed rather than have a company lose out on a few profits?? Do we truly worship money that much? Should we really let it control us in that way?
To those of you who say, regarding the police, that they were only doing their jobs, then I say – well, if that is their job, then I think it’s time we thought about what sort of system we’re living under. Because I don’t want any part of it.
[/quote]
http://commonbravery.blogspot.com/2011/11/where-is-humanity.html
OMG! That is one of the most outrageous abuses of police plus corporate power toward an individual in NZ that I have ever seen – and all this is completely legal???? (call me sheltered, but Wow!). There was no crime that warranted that sort of treatment (and not even an unpaid power bill, in the end).
John Key/Nathan Guy must be panicking re holding the seat of Otaki
I spotted added to most of his billboards in orange
Your vote is crucial this sat
hahaha so dont believe the polls that are cintinuly paraded on tv by the media
Lefties get out there and vote
I’ve seen the same thing today. The Nats are worried!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10768051
So we had Lab MP’s including Phil Goff support this, now as this would have been for me a great green/environmential policy. Not a mention, I even commented that the up comming Labour weekend would have been a great time to promote this. Perhaps this was all just Phil’s opportunity for a smile and wave photo.
Does The Labour party really act on saving our environment, or as I am comming to believe AFKTT, Labour is as indebted to the system as Nation is ;-(
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/4510990/Coromandel-beach-friends-spell-out-their-opposition
http://blog.labour.org.nz/2011/01/04/preserve-new-chum-wainuiototo-beach-for-everyone/
today is an historic day, and it is the smallest step that can lead the longest march
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/211548.html
Should be true but is it?
yes yes yes it is true
downloaded and watched a dozen times. it keeps getting better and better every time
fact is Fact and The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal
has now shown the world what real strength is all about.
seeing a lot of calls for the death penalty, if any country ever commits to arresting them.
I say no to the death penalty for these architects of misery.
Incarceration in a penitentiary, life sentences, no house arrest, no quick deaths, no easy out for these murderers, let their long final days be spent in fear and regret.
What do folks think about this info?
You certainly won’t get to read it in mainstream media!
Why Epsom voters whouldn’t support ‘white collar’ CRIMINALS?
đ
http://www.pennybright4epsom.org.nz/
Penny Bright
Independent Candidate (CENSORED) for Epsom
Editorial: Trust parents with the facts about schools
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10767804
Good God. We have had 20 plus years now of “Tomorrow’s Schools” and ERO.
Parents have been free to join boards of trustees in open and free elections.
They have had screeds of information available to them.
One has to wonder just who is driving this attitude.
One thing is for certain – Delorus Umbridge is going to create an extremely demoralised teaching profession. Of course, she is a here-today-gone-tomorrow politician and will not be subject to any scrutiny herself – in fact apart from the infamous Merv Wellington and David Lange, people would be hard pressed to name the succession of Ministers of Education.
Why has she got such a snitch on teachers? Is she holding a grudge against her 1960’s teachers and schools. Did she fail School Cert?
Did a teacher guest in one of her hotels do something untoward in a room?
What is it with her?
Not really, Greens will only grow until they risk leaving behind the activist base. So the question for the Greens is; are you an activist party or one for the middle classes?
You can be an activist and middle class.
Why is there an ad for Vote for Change at the top of The Standard? “give MMP the boot”.
Epsom voters could not look themselves in the eye if they voted in “that” man.
bye bye binky.
Oh fuck, we’ve got ads from the anti-MMP brigade playing at the top of the page. They’re really going all out now in splurging on ads focusing on Winston, even stooping as low as to buy ads on facebook.
There’s also an IAG investment ad on the main page. What’s going on?
Key: “National is rolling out ultra fast broadband”
Kiwis leaving for Australia: We’re rolling out ultra fast
JN.
When you’re up to your neck in shit it’s tempting to try to get out of it.
However, the ‘Lucky Country’ isn’t so lucky these days, especially for new arrivals.
‘According to press release from the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia, âFirst time home buyers have little confidence in the Australian economy, as they baulk at property purchases and hoard their cashâ.’
http://www.whocrashedtheeconomy.com/blog/category/australian-housing/
and
‘SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — The world’s second-largest iron ore miner Rio Tinto PLC /quotes/zigman/182541/quotes/nls/rio RIO -1.35% will boost its fleet of driverless trucks 15-fold to 150 vehicles over the next four years, as part of a bid to increase margins at its mines in Australia’s Pilbara region.’
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rio-tinto-boosts-driverless-iron-ore-truck-fleet-2011-11-02
and
http://au.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5EAORD
Out of interest, are you allowed to blog or post on blogs on election day about the election??????