Shocking, doesn’t even know how many children he has! I guess that’s ok because NZ is there to support them and his other partners and pay their medical and social welfare costs and build more schools… but he build a retirement village (most of them rip people off) and is wealthy. No wonder a shortage of midwives when you have 3 women concurrently carrying your offspring and ‘good character’ being less important than government ideology – then they complain why the Natz have so many voters – just wait 18 years and there will be even more change!
As for the Guardianship visa, sounds like one of the women must be pretty young… time for the government to stop handing our citizenship and residency like lollies, our health care and social services can’t take much more – especially if we are getting into concubine type arrangements with multiple women having kids concurrently in NZ hospitals and going to NZ schools.
This is a classic extreme right wing rant. Immigrants coming in and taking all the medical budgets and living on social welfare, clogging up our school systems.
I think the right wing rant is, hopeless drugged Kiwis, let us get superior cheaper labour, build our retirement villages and luxury hotels (and fill them up, profits, profits) and the social system will provide. You’re behind the times there, Tuppence, your thinking the back 80 years before widespread cheap airlines and easy tax havens… world’s moved on on how to exploit labour and other people.
Another pressing problem for right wingers and luxury developers is that you have no idea how difficult it is to get $30 million for a home in Queenstown for example if you ban foreign buyers! The market is going to collapse overnight! Lucky the Queenstown Mayor is asking for an exception for Queenstown and there is plenty of lawyers ready for fight for their foreign buyer and richer interests.
Don’t forget the aged parents too. For every migrant couple 4 aged parents can come into NZ, and I guess if you have multiple partners and marriage split ups and can get new wives into NZ, the amount of parents eligible keeps going up!
Even the Natz had to eventually change the rules to 10 years before migrant parents got free everything, because so many migrants were ‘abandoned’ by their sponsors (aka kids) and had to go on welfare as well as being a quote Mr Woodhouse, “burden on the health services that are considerably higher than other people of that age who are eligible for New Zealand public health services.”
Even with the new rules 10 years is nothing when people can live to 100 years old and can get a pension, health care, Gold card with free travel, and it costs $1000 a week in a rest home, which might go on for years,, especially since we seem to be attracting National loving migrants that have few morals, abandon their parents, have multiple children to multiple partners concurrently, etc etc.
This is just from 2016 so the figures and costs will just be increasing and I think thats just the 10 million in costs before they get the free care as residents which will be millions if not billions over a lifetime more … no wonder there is no money to fix mouldy Middlemore for Kiwi kids who are going to grow up without a stable house, decent hospital to go to, high student debt and a low wage job, with higher taxes to pay for all the ‘aged folks’ that the government deliberately gave free care to while abandoning it’s own people and taxpayers and turning their backs on them when they are growing up, while milking the first student loan generation for more taxes!
The government needs to clean up their immigration act. Our government should not even allow aged parents in as residents with free care on the NZ taxpayer and remove the ability for kids to be used as a reason for residency.
Migrant family members should not get citizenship or residency – they could just get a visa to stay with family and the person has to have FULL insurance for all their health care and social service needs the entire time they are here, just like Kiwis have to, if they travel overseas.
Only those on refugee visa should be eligible for free care.
Saw a documentary about OZ quite a while ago, and their category for immigration was that the person has to employ 2 native Australian citizens and they had to have a profit on a business of over $50k per year for 5 years to qualify for residency.
In NZ we seem to want the complete opposite and to get as many people coming in and adding family members needing social welfare and health services, as possible. With creative accounting you can be as rich as crocus but not a profit in sight.
Probably the only reason they noticed this man’s activities was that the pregnant women went on benefits.
I guess that’s why they have 30% higher wages over in Australia!
“Belief in conspiracies can serve to set oneself apart from the ignorant masses—a self-serving boast about one’s exclusive knowledge. Adherence to conspiracy theory might not always be the result of some perceived lack of control, but rather a deep-seated need for uniqueness.”
Conspiracy theorists are kind of like modern-day Schrodinger’s cats. They exist in a weird state of quantum superposition where they are simultaneously the most skeptical of all people and the most gullible.
The Term “Conspiracy Theory” Was Invented by the CIA In Order To Prevent Disbelief of Official Government Stories.
And people who regurgitate the term help authoritarian governments.
Sacha, do you think that the invasion and destruction of Iraq in 2003 just happened? You don’t think that a small group of politicians and their fanatical advisers didn’t conspire to commit that crime?
Do you think that stating that these criminals conspired to commit this crime is just a paranoid fantasy?
Dude’s gone to the trouble of debunking the claptrap Robert’s dishes up to gullible fuckwits.
History of the Term “Conspiracy Theory”
The term “conspiracy theory” is used to describe any theory that attempts to characterize observed events as the result of some secret conspiracy. The term is often used dismissively, implying that the theory is implausible.
Although conspiracy theories (particularly aimed at Jews and Bankers) date back hundreds of years, the earliest usage of “conspiracy theory” do not always have this connotation, although the theories are quite often dismissed in other ways. Usually it’s simply a way of identifying the theory from other theories – as in “the theory that happens to have a conspiracy”
The theory of Dr. Sankey as to the manner in which these injuries to the chest occurred in asylums deserved our careful attention. It was at least more plausible that the conspiracy theory of Mr. Charles Beade, and the precautionary measure suggested by Dr. Sankey of using a padded waistcoat in recent cases of mania with general paralysis—in which mental condition nearly all these cases under discussion were—seemed to him of practical value.
You are right Ed. Pilger, Hager, Parry, Bartlett, Roberts – all conspiracy theorists because they don’t tow the company line. What a sad state of affairs.
Yep, those out on the fringes do real damage that way.
As do those who refuse to acknowledge the parts of the mainstream media that still function reasonably effectively. The likes of Matt Nippert come to mind.
Agree not all msm is stuffed up but the paucity of genuine both side non cut and paste party press releases makes it too easy to spot the ones doing a great job.
So conspiracy theorists should not have their ideas and possible reasons for holding those ideas critiqued? Is it only those with right wing views who deserve to be scrutinised?
Is the study part of the conspiracy about conspiracy theories?
could big academia really be running the show with big government the product of it’s out put from elite universities? But that would mean those selected would have to been malleable at high school to be susceptible for recruitment to these elite secret organisations.
It probably started all the way back with big academia. The kindergarten teachers control it all, we just think they’re on low pay. but really, they are pre selecting the global elites for the next generations.
What s the deal with these attacks on Gayford? See the Derp is having a go now. What a thoroughly unpleasant person she is. Obviously Jacinda is not giving them much to hammer her on . I was shocked to see another sad desparate attack on CG so soon after that distinctly odd one from Deborah whatshername. On their way out and they know it. Sounds like they are team tagging. Wish there was still the facility to COMMENT on these cowardly mutterings.
Deborah Hill Cone column criticising Clarke Gayford divides New Zealand
While many were opposed to the opinions expressed in the column, a SMALL PROPORTION threw their weight behind Hill Cone, suggesting he was “lapping up” the attention.
I suppose technically a SMALL PROPORTION is divided!!! BUT hardly justifies the headline.
When was the last time a Prime Ministerial spouse was attacked for the sort of person they were?
Answer: Peter Davis
Very different personalities Gayford and Davis but the similarities are:
Labour PMs
Male spouses
Not conventional, conservative alpha males from business, finance, law etc. so in the minds of right wing commentators they are simply the ‘wrong sort’ of people to be associated with power.
We are likely to see more of it. If sex can be brought into it then watch out – remember the insinuations that Davis was gay?
It really is a fight to the death when you offend power and privilege.
Gayford is popular, likeable and extroverted though otherwise he wouldn’t have had numerous tv jobs, while Davis was easy to bully due to his quiet personality.
The Harold has gone down the track of attacking someone popular and likeable. I think they’ve totally lost it.
It was never about Peter Davis, it was about Helen Clark who was PM at the time.
Similarly, it is not about Clarke Gayford but about Jacinda Ardern, who’s the current PM.
It is not in the public interest and therefore some manufacture public interest and lo and behold the public is very interested. Good for some …
Every piece that gets written, every word that is uttered about this feeds it and gives it more oxygen. Defending it is in some ways the worst thing that one can do; it is catch 22.
If the Government were to propose major tax changes, for example, it would knock it out of the ring and out of the limelight (away from the public attention). However, this would be bad politics and a weak attempt to regain control of the news cycle and media narrative.
My partner and I very nearly disappeared down a rabbit hole a couple of weeks ago while in conversation with a seemingly fairly ‘normal’ Kiwi van dweller.
From general conversation about lack of enforcement of agrochemical regulations by territorial authorities the korero turned rapidly to assertions that our PM and her beloved are both ‘trannies, and the pregnancy a total fiction.
We have the occasional very odd conversation, being somewhat transient and part of a community that resides in the margins, but this raised our eyebrows.
And this person was truly sincere…and allowed to wander the world without the supervision they so clearly need.
We retired early, arose before dawn and folded our tent and fled.
No point whatsoever in engaging with these people.
Sadly we know that once a rumour hits mainstream, it s veracity is irrelevant.
I spent years listening to my brother refer to our then PM as Alan Clarke. About how close she was to “Heather”. About Peter’s sexuality. We think we live in an enlightened country but still some of the first things done to lessen someone in our eyes is to impune their sexuality.
I doubt this is where the Gayford rumour is going but this is SO dirty politics
I mean Eagleston (?)) seemingly would do anything for Key, at times way over the line but I never heard a single person suggrst the PM had a sham marriage to cover his relationship with him?
I’ve seen one of these rumours on the web -it includes TV-ism, man-whoring for jobs, hard drugs – and in a post that connects this somehow with some Russian-Jewish global conspiracy.
So OTT that it’s not really credible – but I guess some people, unfortunately, will buy into it.
From general conversation about lack of enforcement of agrochemical regulations by territorial authorities the korero turned rapidly to assertions that our PM and her beloved are both ‘trannies, and the pregnancy a total fiction.
Did they make any mention of the Anderson’s Bay Peninsula branch of the Labour Party too? 😉 lol sorry couldn’t resist.
Cheer up all. Incognito says give them the death stare. So watch Eddie Izzard, a trannie par excellence, do his death star canteen bit, it will give you a weak laugh and strengthen you enough to stagger away and face these smiling assassins so prevalent.
Lord Vader gives you:
More food oriented Izzard:
Followed by 6 minutes of populist historical political
comment!
Gayford is much more dangerous to the Herald narrative than they had initially supposed – he’s a media presence with a degree of popularity. They recognize in him the kind of public connection for which Key had to confess pissing in the shower and endure prison rape jokes.
Gayford is also currently a writer for the Herald – a weekly column in the Travel section. So what the hell are the Herald* up to allowing one of their writers to diss another in this way?
Soper has quite a fixed view of the world. When he started as a political journo his world was predominantly white and male. Ardern might as well be from another planet from his accumulated experiences
I wonder how long it will be before they start bringing up Clarke’s exes. That’s what bottom feeders do. They rise to the top and become scum. All the whole hiding behind the ‘no comments ‘ position. Cowards as well.
And if any exes are being offered money for stories? Thing is we will never know thevtruth of any assertions but Dirty Politics and subsequent enactment by Joyce et al has surely taught us the truth is irrelevant, once it is out there as long as 50% believe it, Nats are winning.
Ffloyd
Clever – bottom feeders rise to the top and become scum.
Should be taught in schools – a great example of physics and political science all in one. Learning practical detail like this would be better for an alert informed citizenry.
Wondered too.
“1.used as a substitute for speech regarded as meaningless or stupid, or to comment on a foolish or stupid action.
“Lower tax rates and far lower job creation. Derp”
Yes Jilly Bee. Came out of my inability to ever remember her name properly. Hence Derp. Looked it up and got definition as shown above by ianmac. Also is a slang term for ‘stupid action or stupid person”. Both are a good fit for HEathER. GEDDIT? 2ES!
Just been having a chuckle over a passage in the book, ‘Reilly, Ace of Spies’ by Robin Bruce Lockhart. Russia, 1918.
“. . . and Boyce had spent a considerable sum for some correspondence which seemed to prove conclusively that the Bolsheviks were in secret liaison with the German High Command and that the British War Cabinet’s belief that Lenin and Trotsky were German agents was correct. When Reilly examined this correspondence with Hill, he discovered that although the letters purported to come from different parts of Russia, they were all typed on the same typewriter. As the whole correspondence was obviously faked, Reilly suggested to Boyce that he should re-sell it to the Americans. Boyce did so. Mr. Sissons of the U.S. mission in Petrograd paid a very large sum for the documents and Boyce made a profit on the deal.”
The American seem to have an affinity for ‘fake news’ even back at the beginning of last century! Or perhaps that they were fws then and still today?
That was pretty standard fare.
The New Zealand Government during WW 2 was conned into trying to investigate “sabotage” planned by the Germans in New Zealand. https://nzhistory.govt.nz/nazi-sabotage-hoax
HDPA and DHC(with an e – and how utterly feeble is a comment like that) show themselves up to be sour nasty types with little joy or humour in their lives.
The spouses photo would have been taken by an official photographer who saw the opportunity for something a bit different which most people would look at with a smile on their face rather than a scowl like these two sad commentators.
Sad they did not give it time to get more of an idea of the benefits, but also Finland already has a pretty good social welfare system so there is less equality there in the first place.
It’s monolithic all the way down
The uncritical acceptance of one methodology begins with undergraduate economics education. Rethinking Economics conducted a curriculum review of 174 modules at 7 Russell Group universities – rightly or wrongly considered the ‘top’ universities in the UK – and we found that the uncritical acceptance of one type of economics begins with education. Under 10% of modules even mentioned anything other than mainstream or ‘neoclassical’ economics; in econometrics, over 90% of modules devoted more than two-thirds of their lectures to linear regression. Only 24% of exam questions required critical or independent thinking (i.e. were open-ended); this dropped to 8% if you only counted the compulsory macro and micro modules that form the core of economics education.
We have previously called this ‘indoctrination’, and while this may seem dramatic the dictionary definition of indoctrination is to “teach a person or set of people to accept a set of beliefs uncritically”, which we think adequately characterises the results of the review, as well as our own experience and many widely used economics textbooks. Given this education, it is no wonder that economists remain wedded to the fundamental precepts of choice models and linear regression no matter where they turn their attention. By putting the method first, the implicit assumption becomes that answering a question using this framework is prima facie interesting, and critical evaluation of these tools against others is made unthinkable.
Which actually tells me that the problem is economists getting economics wrong.
No wonder the whole worlds fucked after listening to them for the last 200+ years.
At the moment, I’m reading “Growth Delusion” by David Pilling. We clearly follow the wrong path only considering GDP without seriously questioning the methodology and numbers behind GDP. You can completely destroy life, society, environment and everything… on short term it’s all fantastic for the GDP growth.
Economists would be fine – if they were actually studying the economy rather than trying to predict human behaviour. The economy is physical, the actual reality within which we live and human behaviour needs to exist within that reality and so our nature should not become an excuse to try to exist outside of it.
Nature bats last, doesn’t negotiate and doesn’t take prisoners.
Nothing DP about it – they circulated reports instead of fixing things – it’s an old trick for staying within budget, but not calculated to endear one to a new employer.
Let me see if I can explain. Its dirty politics if the right do it but if the left do it…well the left don’t it so its not dirty politics and even if the left did do it (which of course they don’t) its only because the right do it and thus the left are forced to doing it to level the playing field but as already mentioned they don’t do it, ever
What exaclty is “dirty” here – is a pretend-independent blogger feeding outright lies to a quietly partisan but less rabid blogger who feeds the lies to partisan reporters for partisan media to duly report as the lies are being discussed?
Or are ministers and officials merely disagreeing publicly about how dilapidated hospital buildings are, and when they were told?
In NZ, dirty politics has spawned one popular book: “Dirty Politics – How attack politics is poisoning New Zealand’s political environment” (2014).
National, painted and tainted ‘dirty’, still trying to whitewash themselves by (more) muck-racking – good luck!
Maybe the absence of a well-researched book summarising dirty politics originating from left-leaning NZ governments is due to the lack of enough real dirt to make a good story. Or maybe it’s just a matter of time until the left ‘catch up’ – hope not.
National didn’t give a rats about a hospital with shit all over the shop because, surplus….
Timeline
• 2012 – Large cladding panel falls off the Scott Building. Checks reveal weathertightness problems and leaking. Leaks also fund at Manukau SuperClinic
• 2013 – Leaks found at Kidz First
• 2014 – Leaks found at McIndoe Building
• 2016 – Leaking issues outlined to Ministry of Health, according to DHB
• Mid-2016 Auditor-General’s report shows Counties Manukau reporting it had 89 per cent life left in its buildings
• 2017 – Sewage and sanitation problems are again raised with the board
• Feb 2017 – Treasury rates Counties Manukau among top half of DHBs for repairs and maintenance
• Mid-2017 – DHB commissions first overall expert appraisal of buildings
• Nov 2017 – Independent surveyor Alexander and Co report for DHB outlines problems with buildings
• November 22 – DHB Strategic Assessment Case sets out $123m worth of work across multiple buildings. That amount is now known to be an underestimate.
• Feb 21, 2018 – Counties Manukau DHB appears before health select committee. No mention of specific problems are raised.
• March 13 – David Clark visits Middlemore, where he says he was told about rot, mould and sewage in Scott Building but no other buildings.
• March 20 (circa) – Government approves additional $11.5m towards repairs in Scott Building
• March 22 – RNZ reports based on OIA that four hospital buildings are full of rot and mould. Health Minister David Clark says he knew about only one, the Scott
• March 23 – Former Health Minister Jonathan Coleman says he was not briefed about extent of problems at Middlemore. Clark says he expects DHB to outline plan for managing the issues. Email from Gloria Johnson to board members say documents handed to Clark and his adviser “spells out succinctly the scale and nature of the facilities issues”
• March 27 – DHB says it did not do repairs because Coleman wanted it to stay in surplus
• March 28 – DHB confirms report of sewage leaks in Scott Building
For those of you who, like me, want to hear an alternative narrative to that presented by the western corporate media, here is George Galloway’s most recent radio show.
It is worth listening alone for the interview with Peter Hitchens, which starts right at the start of the show ( after 30 seconds.)
And if you don’t want to hear what independent journalists like Hitchens say, scroll by.
I hear on tonight’s Checkpoint, RNZ are following up on the issue.
Once again though, ‘officials’ appear to have given a bullshit response in defense of their continued use of T&C – I’d thought the government had made their position pretty bloody clear.
My position is that there is evidence of a degree of ‘pushback’ by senior public servants against the coalition government’s policies.
I’m waiting a bit longer to see what happens.
Naturally enough, some senior public servants are eagre to preserve the status quo = going completely against the coalition governments intentions to make change – as they’re entitled to do.
Hopefully the SSC is also watching very closely.
As far as I know, Iain Lees-Galloway, Carmel Sepuloni and couple of others have made it pretty bloody clear what their expectations of Ministry ‘officials’ are. Some of the officials appear to be a bit slow in getting the message.
If there’s a way of contacting you in confidence @ Tracy, I’ll definitely do so.
“Naturally enough, some senior public servants are eagre to preserve the status quo = going completely against the coalition governments intentions to make change – as they’re entitled to do.”
Of course I mean the government is entitled to make change – they have the mandate. Senior PS ‘officials’ (supposedly being as ‘impartial’ as @ Wayne has suggested), are obliged to implement the change
For consistency’s sake, this would see an immediate meeting with Donald, then a strike on Israel.
Their navy and air force is ready.
But somehow I sense double standards will prevail.
PETITION:
Remove Ian Smith from Sky Rugby commentary team.
Ian Smith should be removed from the commentary box because he has no idea what he’s talking about. I can’t handle his stupidity anymore. There must be thousands of people more qualified to commentate test rugby than him.
I have been granted the interim injunction, and stopped the sale of my home.
In the Minute of Woodhouse J
“[6] In consequence, there are the following orders:
(a) Pending further order of the Court, the respondent shall take no steps, or no further steps, to effect sale of the applicant’s property at 86A School Road, Kingsland.
Although I was thinking if worse comes to worse a little tent outside Auckland council or Mr Town’s residence, might make them think twice about selling rate payers houses in the future. So pleased it does not come to that.
We have enough homeless and disempowered people, already.
Oh, just read Sacha’s post, 3 days is not long, hoping for a longer term outcome for you to keep your house. Good luck!
When are Auckland Council going to disclose their spending details, the books should be open to all ratepayers as we are stakeholders in Auckland Council ?
Yep, I think the entire budget each year including payments to all the contractors/third parties should be made public each year. I’m sure that will throw up some interesting information.
Rates used to be quite a small bill for home owners. Now it’s more likely to be in your top 4 most expensive bills you have to pay each month.
I hope that the new government looks into whether it is better to abandon the COO structures. We have Auckland Transport that seems to be a basket case which take up 53% from rates of their $1.345 billion dollar annual budget. Not only does it not work very well, we now have a to pay fuel tax on top of that. What’s next, poll tax to prop them up? Ports of Auckland are terrible employers with employment rulings against them and apparently ok to steal the harbour. Wastewater is still not separated, but wait, more money is the problem, not their lack of planning between resource consenting and wastewater.
If we can see where all the money goes in fine detail, it can shed some light on what’s going wrong, such as why the dig up the roads and footpaths continually, and is it a good idea to speculate on Westgate malls? How do people get around with zero public transport in parts of the supercity? Is charging $10 for a HOP card and the ridiculous way to get a child HOP a good idea? Why is it taking over $200,000 in legal fees to defend CEO Steven Town’s alleged defamation of Penny Bright? Is it price gouging from the lawyers?
No doubt nobody in power would be keen for full transparency, but then if there is full transparency, won’t that shut the critics up if it’s all above board as well as make people trust Labour more.
There are too many scandals with public figures on the trough.
I don’t agree with Phil Goff’s ideology, but I do think he is an honest man in terms of money and maybe he could lead the councillors to actually properly open up the books in minute detail so that the stakeholders aka rate payers have full access. We all know the CEO and executives will not be for it.
This would also keep out the more dishonest contractors and suppliers from dealing with council, and that would be a good thing.
Any public contracts and services should be totally transparent at all times. Not just three yearly.
Firms undertaking contracts for public entities, us, have no right to cower behind “commercial sensitivity”, to hide from those paying the bills.
Good morning people the moko is taking her first steps and the sun is shining .
The trolls can not take a chink out of Jacinda so the target Clarke well they are wasting there time I can see he is a good man he could be like that Other famous Clarke and they won’t be able to take a chink out of him.
Lets get this strait I treat all people with respect if they treat me the same and just because one person makes a statement about me doesn’t mean it is true I respect the police I don’t respect these sandflies that are exclusive brethren who think they have the right to cast there judgement on US Maori cultured tangata .They use there money and influence to distort the course of justice there members avoid jail and they justify this by implying that the members whom have had the course justice distorted for there mistakes are shunned from there church what a load of———being ostracized is nothing compeared to going to jail for one they have no record of jail time they are not locked in jail caged like an animal . It is accepted right in frount of OUR eyes that this behavior is OK for the few WTF this makes a mockery of the whole system there is more bad things that these people get up to Eco Maori will reveal this in good time .
So I don’t hate all police .Every move the sandflies make reveals that my hunches are right Ana to kai Ka kite ano
I can not pronounce Te reo properly my self my wife laughs at my attemts I can pronounce words that I used when I was young but with my spelling problem my attempts a pronouncing Te reo are not very good .So Eco Maori says lay off the coach if he knows he mite pronounce the name wrong well so be it let him use what he wants to get what he means across to the audience Ana to kai ka kite ano.
Newshub well you already know my view on ANZAC it mite not be the popular view but I care about te tangata and Ngati Porou both had big losses in World War 1 and 2 the 1 percent start War while the Tommy fight and die in these wars and in New Zealand the Tommy were mostly Maori enough said.
Amazon is the future of retail everyone better change or get left in its wake they cut out the middle man this is going to happen in all industrys .
Come on you don’t trip up the mokopunas .
It will be a good game of League tonight .
Ka kite ano P.S you can not see me through the camera lol
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...
Why do so many people mistrust the police? Because they pull shit like this:The police are flouting the rules on breath testing, carrying out tests in people's homes to catch them out sometimes up to two hours after they were ...
I have been reading and listening to the aftermath of Trump’s comments about the four female first term Democratic representatives, all of whom are “people of color.” I found the US coverage interesting both as evidence of partisanship and the ...
The Herald reports that the housing shortage / bubble has hit a new level:New Zealand is short of 130,000 homes, the tally having risen lately by 30,000, two economists say. Jarrod Kerr and Jeremy Couchman, Kiwibank economists said: "This time ...
Milk producer Fonterra is one of New Zealand's biggest coal-users, using it to power all its South Island (and a few of its North Island) dairy factories. They'd previously "committed" to not building any new coal boilers after 2030. Now, ...
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...
Yesterday the government released its discussion document on action on agricultural emissions. As sadly usual, it proposed enormous subsidies for farm emissions, including for nitrogen-based fertiliser. This is a huge mistake. In addition to being one of the chief drivers ...
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act (this replaced their previous plans to hold a secret consultation with handpicked people). 285 people submitted on ...
Always Playing Catch-Up: Throughout the 1970s, the purchasing power of the ordinary worker’s pay packet – the only meaningful measure of his or her wealth – was being eaten away every passing year by seemingly inexorable rises in the cost-of-living. ...
The Interim Climate Change Committee's report on Action on agricultural emissions: Evidence, analysis and recommendations was finally released today, and as you might guess from the title, it is recommending that we actually act, rather than let farmers keep ...
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...
Agriculture is our biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for 48% of the total. It follows that meeting any credible emissions reduction target requires cutting agricultural emissions, most likely by having fewer cows. But National thinks people shouldn't be ...
How scummy is the UK Home Office? This scummy:The Home Office lied to EU member states to remove victims of human trafficking and modern slavery in breach of European law, according to whistleblowers. Legal experts have said the practice is ...
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...
“We wuz robbed!” is the classic cry of the disappointed losers of a closely contested sporting contest – it is very much to the credit of the Black Caps that we heard no such sentiment from them following the stunning ...
The Youth Parliament is being held this week, and some of the youth MPs are campaigning for a lower voting age:Molly Doyle, 17, is one Youth MP who wants this to change. She is part of a non-partisan campaign run ...
Up till now, Australia has made its living by digging up coal and exporting it to other countries, destroying the global climate in the process. But now they have a new option: exporting solar power:The desert outside Tennant Creek, deep ...
Later this month, thousands of people are expected to march to parliament as part of the #HandsOffOurTamaraki movement. At its heart, the movement is about preserving whānau and demanding that the state stop removing children from their whānau, hapū and iwi. ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh The recent statements made by the former FARC commander, Carlos Lozada (legal name Julian Gallo), where, from his seat in Congress, he praised the Colombian Army demonstrate how low the farianos have sunk. Lozada began by ...
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...
Last month I talked about the no-fly movement: people who refuse to fly or limit it to absolute necessity to avoid destroying the climate. Now, that movement has a somewhat surprising new member: Dutch airline KLM:Dutch airline KLM has launched ...
In the 1960's, humanity faced a terrible threat: global thermonuclear war. Nuclear weapons were uniquely destructive and dangerous, and if more countries got them, the logic of MAD and the pre-emptive strike would put us on a hair-trigger to destruction. ...
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...
Matariki has been and gone, but this year we saw a couple of op-eds arguing that it should be a public holiday, replacing the foreign monarch's fake birthday. And now, New Zealand Republic - a group which campaigns for an ...
The discussion on the quality of economic advice, which we reported last week, has spilled over into a discussion about whether so many senior appointments should be of non-New Zealanders. Recall I discussed the failure to develop career paths within ...
When Nicky Hager revealed US footage of the Operation Burnham raid, obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act, one of the obvious questions was whether Ministers had seen it - and in particular, whether they'd been told that it ...
Northern Ireland is the Alabama of the UK: a backwards region where women and gay people are denied fundamental rights. But Westminster has just decided to fix that:MPs have voted resoundingly to extend same-sex marriage and access to abortion to ...
There's a problem with "synthetic cannabis", and not just the one you think. It's the name.We're in the midst of a wave of news stories that link synthetic drugs to serious harm, through deadly road accidents and accidental overdoses (which ...
Ranjit Kauri, The Dancing Maharani and Other Stories, Swansea, Head and Heart, 2019, £6.99; reviewed by Don Franks Working people are not the same country to country. Our struggles for a better life take place in surroundings of very different ...
Let's Do Them! All Jacinda Ardern has to do to clinch the 2020 General Election is frighten the bejesus out of the electorate by describing in the most graphic terms imaginable what will happen to all the positive beginnings her ...
It may be that we have all misinterpreted the somewhat surprising “bromance” between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. It has been all too easy to assume that it is Kim who is cosying up to Trump rather than the ...
by Michael Roberts So the full circle is completed. The corrupt pro-business conservative New Democracy party in Greece that was ousted by the anti-capitalist Syriza party in 2015 has been returned to office in yesterday’s general election, with an outright ...
When the Australian government passed a series of new spy laws over the last few years, they pinky-promised that they wouldn't use them to spy on journalists and subvert freedom of the press. They lied:The anti-encryption laws passed by the ...
From 1975 to 1989, the spy agencies of South America's right-wing military dictatorships cooperated in Operation Condor, a joint campaign of extermination against the continent's left. Roughly 400,000 people were imprisoned, 30,000 disappeared, and 60,000 murdered - kidnapped, tortured, executed, ...
When she was standing for office, Jacinda Ardern promised she would take abortion out of the Crimes Act. And to be fair, there was some early action on that, with an immediate referral of the issue to the Law Commission ...
When the government introduced the Zero Carbon Bill, people rightly asked what they planned to do to reduce transport emissions, which basicly had no policy at all other than the ETS. Today, they responded, announcing a "feebate" system which would ...
At almost every level, the problem with medicinal cannabis is a lack of good information. In the US, FDA regulations make it hard to research. Most doctors aren't familiar with what research there is and most patients don't know either. ...
Redline is critical of Corbyn for his political weaknesses, but he’s no anti-Semite. There is no substance to the McCarthyist witch-hunt being run by the right wing, and the pro-Israel lobby inside and outside the Labour Party in the UK. ...
The government's billion trees program is the sort of policy which could make a real difference to our emissions and the fight against climate change. But climate scientist Jim Salinger isn't convinced:The Forestry Minister Shane Jones' one billion trees won't ...
Last month the government was celebrating another surplus. Meanwhile, children are starving:One in five children are living in households where putting food on the table is a struggle, according to a new report from the Ministry of Health. It found ...
Show Me The Money! The alternative to state funding of infrastructure is, of course, to fund it by taking on massive amounts of private debt. On this issue, at least, Auckland mayoral challenger, Tamihere, has some solid points to make. ...
If we are to avoid making the earth uninhabitable, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to practically nothing over the next decade. But that will still leave us with the problem of the carbon we have already emitted, which ...
Former Waikato DHB CEO Nigel Murray allegedly misused public funds, spending more than $120,000 of public money on unjustified travel. He was forced to resign and the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation. But despite the SFO finding that the ...
Jeremy Corbyn, we are told, is being advised – not least by his deputy (as well as by some of his would-be successors) – that he must come “off the fence” on the Brexit issue if he wants to bolster ...
The End of Life bill has been read a second time and is now heading for the House for further debate. Personally, I support the proposal. I don't ever epect to take advantage of the Bill's provisions myself, but as ...
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.read more ...
Below is a translation of the editorial in the June 24 round of weekly workplace bulletins issued all over France by the revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvriere. Last Saturday, 8,000 people took to the streets of Belfort (eastern France) to ...
Why hasn't Parliament followed the lead set by our local authorities and declared a climate emergency? The answer is the National Party:The Prime Minister’s admission that she is open to the idea of declaring a climate change emergency is nothing ...
Back in May the government released its Zero Carbon Bill. While much of the bill was welcome, there was one big exception: it contained a secrecy clause, requiring the Climate Change Commission to maintain secrecy over practically everything it does. ...
by Phil Duncan This past week has marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Stonewall Inn riots in Christopher Street, New York, the event generally regarded as kicking off the gay liberation movement. Quite a few articles have ...
Southland - land of coal-burning dairy farmers - has become the first region in the country to explicitly vote against declaring a climate emergency. Their reason? They didn't want to "devalue" the word "emergency". Its an argument addressed powerfully in ...
New Zealand has a problem with police chases: officers going after fleeing drivers like rabid dogs, without any consideration for proportionality or public safety, often with fatal results. And according to an in-depth article in the Guardian today, the UK ...
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...
Holly Lawford-Smith is a senior lecturer in political philosophy at the University of Melbourne. She’s currently writing a book about radical feminism. This article appeared on Feminist Current Academics should be standing together in defence of universities’ fundamental values: the ...
The Otago Daily Times has an in-depth article about the future of wind energy in New Zealand, and it is looking bright:The news that wind will play the leading role in New Zealand’s energy future was put up in lights ...
If the sight of schoolkids striking for a future has been filling you with hope, good news: they want you to join them on September 27:Students will take to the streets again demanding action on climate change, and this time ...
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...
I have been working my way through a 47,000 document tranche of declassified US government communications related to Argentina and the “Dirty War” of 1976-83. I grew up in Argentina in the period leading up to the March 24, 1976 ...
To express concern about foreign ownership and control in New Zealand is often to invite accusations of xenophobia and economic illiteracy. It is worthwhile, therefore, to rehearse the grounds for that concern, and to explore the various forms it can ...
It must be a day ending in Y because the Guardian - remember when it used to be a good paper1 - is running another spurious story about Corbyn's leadership being threatened over anti-Semitism.The headline the Guardian runs is: "MPs tell ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...
Kia Anga Mua Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi (KAM) has reached a pivotal milestone following a hui yesterday at Waitangi with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Government spent $133,530 on producing its ‘Wellbeing Budget’ document, a cost blowout largely driven by spending on graphic design and photography. The $133,530 price tag compares to $86,268 ...
Kahungunu Māori Language Awards. Nominations closed on 5 July 2019, and were judged by the Senior Management Team of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. The judges wish to acknowledge the very high calibre of all nominations received making it a very ...
High Court of Australia Judge, Justice Stephen Gageler, will address recent criticism of court judgment delays in Australia, at the University of Canterbury (UC) on 23 July at 6.15pm. ...
This summary is provided to assist in the understanding of the Inquiry’s proceedings but does not constitute the official record. The full Minute is available at the link below. ...
The Tertiary Education Commission is laying charges under section 292A of the Education Act 1989 against three individuals for making a false representation for the purpose of receiving, or continuing to receive, free tertiary education from a tertiary education ...
New Zealand food businesses today welcomed a trio of new food safety tools, designed to make it faster, easier and more affordable to follow the rules and keep consumers safe. ...
AUT research shows that Māori children are almost four times more likely than those of European descent to be placed out of home by child protection services ...
The Government announced today that grants of up to $2,500 for energy efficient heaters are now available as part of the Government’s Warmer Kiwi Homes programme. ...
Fonterra’s use of coal has been the target of numerous grassroots campaigns in recent years. Last year 350 Aotearoa affiliated groups, Fossil Free Aoraki and 350 Nelson launched a petition dismissing the dairy giant’s initial target of no new ...
Information sessions on proposals for The Medicinal Cannabis Scheme take place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch over the next fortnight. The sessions are open to anyone with an interest in learning more about the proposed scheme. ...
“Our children are our most vulnerable, most innocent victims and we do not want to see any more children harmed by these ‘known sex offenders’. The safety of our community must be the paramount consideration.” ...
“The announcement that Fonterra will immediately stop installing any new coal boilers or increasing capacity to burn coal is the signal that the biomass fuel supply industry welcomes” said Brian Cox, Executive Officer of the Bioenergy Association. ...
18 July 2019-- Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) today welcomed Fonterra’s commitment to build no new coal plants, a “no brainer” for the climate crisis the world faces. The group has been urging this transition for six years now and ...
The increase in demand for cage-free eggs is set to continue according to animal rights organisation SAFE, who says the egg industry should expect this and prepare. ...
Wellington, New Zealand – 350 Pacific made a formal submission to the New Zealand Government’s Environment Parliamentary Select Committee on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, led by the Pacific Climate Warriors (PCWs) based in ...
There used to be a school of thought on the centre right side of politics that the best way to neuter the Greens as a political force would be to let them have a spell in government. Then, according to ...
Today (18 July) is Nelson Mandela International Day when the United Nations highlights the importance of humane conditions of imprisonment. In New Zealand our prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. At 214 prisoners per 100,000 people, we have the fifth ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take legal action over the lengthy delay in implementing pay increases for teachers. Novopay announced yesterday that teachers would have to wait until 11 September to see pay increases that they won when they settled ...
EDS has filed its submission on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The Bill sets targets for greenhouse gas reductions, provides for the government to set a series of carbon budgets, and sets up a new, independent, Climate ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has identified an absurd case of mission creep at Wellington City Council: the decision to spend $21,750 on two Consumer NZ investigations into different brands of bike lights. ...
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...
The Department of Conservation continue to repeat the same old story about attacks on staff and how it is affecting their role in protecting our precious wildlife. NZ herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249704 ...
The government's silence on the fact that the country's second-largest milk processor is on the brink of becoming 25% Chinese Government owned has been deafening. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ welcomes the coalition Government’s endeavour to take action on reducing agricultural emissions but is disappointed at the weak stance that the Government has taken on the issue. ...
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has issued a formal warning under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act) to seven reporting entities within the Regus Management Limited (RNZML) designated business ...
The Northland Regional Council (NRC) has voted to exclude all GM/GE precautionary provisions in its regional plan, despite years of community engagement showing support for such protection. There is a sense of betrayal following the way the NRC Chairman ...
New Zealand’s ‘mission-driven’ charities working in international aid are showing early signs of changing the way they work, in particular prioritising building the capacity and resilience of local communities to do their own development. ...
Teachers will have to wait until 11 September for pay increases won as part of their collective agreement negotiations settled in June, according to an update sent to schools today from Novopay. ...
July 16 (BusinessDesk) - Energy Minister Megan Woods says the government “won’t die in a ditch” if its goal of 100 percent renewable electricity generation isn't reached by 2035. ...
The Electricity Networks Association (ENA) is welcoming the Government’s response to the Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) Report released today. Graeme Peters, chief executive of the ENA, said one of the key recommendations, endorsed by the ...
An article* published this month in the Journal of Health Organization and Management raises questions over the way health board members are elected and whether the boards are even needed. ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa's kindergarten teacher members will vote on a proposed settlement to their collective agreement after four days of negotiations with the Ministry of Education and kindergarten employers. ...
Vector has today welcomed the ICCC’s report on Accelerated Electrification . Vector agrees that accelerating the electrification of transport and process heat will play a major role in reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Initiatives to ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Porirua City Council to cancel its underwriting of a proposed Canadian-led privately owned adventure park slated for public land after a similar project created a huge liability for Christchurch ...
Youth climate change campaigners Generation Zero welcome the Interim Climate Change Committee’s (ICCC’s) reports: Accelerated Electrification and Action on agricultural emissions ; which were finally released by the Government today, almost three months ...
Fish & Game New Zealand notes the announcement today that the Government and the intensive agriculture leadership have reached a ‘historic consensus’ and are exploring using a formal sector-government agreement instead of bringing agriculture ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report on Accelerated Electrification was released today by the Minister for Energy and Resources, Hon Dr Megan Woods. ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report Action on agricultural emissions was released today by the Minister for Climate Change, Hon James Shaw and the Minister of Agriculture, Hon Damien O’Connor. ...
Please find attached embargoed copies of two media statements from the Interim Climate Change Committee http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1907/Embargoed_Interim_Climate_Change_Committee_Accelerated_electrification_MEDIA_STATEMENT.pdf ...
Greenpeace Executive Director, Dr Russel Norman, has reacted with disbelief that the Government’s latest climate proposal includes an option for dairy to voluntarily deal with their emissions over the next six years. ...
This week’s “Youth Parliament” is an expensive waste of time that promotes taxpayer-funded junketeering, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “We shouldn’t be training kids on the joys of the trough,” says Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones admitted on Q+A tonight that the state of New Zealand’s infrastructure planning is “dismal” and the government needs to get on with building “rather than writing more reports about it.” ...
‘He wants to sleep with you,’ a close friend had said. ‘Then you’ll be able to tell if it is going to lead anywhere’: a short story by New Plymouth author Elizabeth Smither. Photography by Peter Black. ...
Opinion - The leadership visits are more interesting in that they serve as a spotlight on the two countries - politically, and on policy issues, writes Brigette Morten. ...
Created by future ACT Party leader Richard Prebble after an epic reform bender in the 80s, NZ on Air has just marked its third decade. Duncan Greive relates its history and asks: is the funder still fit for purpose?It’s a ...
It helps that he played in the New Zealand cricket team when they lost the 1992 semi-final and went on to coach India, writes Georgie Wright, daughter of JohnMy dad has taught me a fair few things over my 25 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan – one with a reduced pace, despite the 24 ...
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, with the interview available as both audio and ...
Jacinda Ardern’s Melbourne trip wrapped up with nothing to show on longstanding trans-Tasman concerns, but was a potent reminder of her international appeal. ...
Pricing agricultural emissions first at the processor level - such as Fonterra - rather than right down at farm level stacks up as a gap measure says Catherine Leining. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Orlando, Researcher: Children and Technology, Western Sydney University Instagram is running a social media experiment in Australia and elsewhere to see what happens when it hides the number of likes on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cross, Research Fellow, Curtin University Sign up to the Beating Around the Bush newsletter here, and suggest a plant we should cover at batb@theconversation.edu.au. Billabongs in the northern Kimberley are welcome ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling You’ve probably heard that this week marks 50 years since humans first set foot on the Moon – a feat that still boggles the mind given ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Gentilin, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University As strange as it might sound, whistleblowers in Australia have reason to rejoice – so long as they are in the private sector. Thanks to new ...
The fourth season of Queer Eye drops today on Netflix. Sam Brooks reflects on his difficult relationship with the show, and where it sits in mainstream culture.For depressingly many people, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was an introduction not just to ...
The collapse of a multi-billion dollar deal to sell AMP's life insurance division to a British company for $3.6 billion is the fault of the companies, according to the Reserve Bank. ...
A poem by Miramar poet Geoff Cochrane.Channel HoppingStupa or Stuka?Weet-Bix or Welsh rabbit?Galactic aerodrome or Matchbox truck?*I’m young in my dreams, still young.*Beautiful Keanu’s wearing shades—antique shades with iodine-coloured lenses.*I’m young in my dreams, still young,and I still have some ...
For the month of July, Josie Adams is taking on the challenge of being low-waste. That means minimising plastics, emissions, and even recyclables. Each week we release her diary. This is week two.Read week one here.I’ll be honest, week two ...
By Royson Willie in Port Vila Two Vanuatu Daily Post journalists were literally given a pat-down by the police criminal investigation unit yesterday over a story they had written about the vehicle of the Chairman of the Public Service ...
By Gorothy Kenneth in Port Moresby Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape will visit Australia this weekend for a week-long state visit and the Bougainville independence referendum in less than three months is expected to be high on ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
Wtf did we just watch?That sound you heard was a million furries screaming in ecstasy as their fantasy and everyone else’s nightmare came to life in the form of the first trailer for the live action version of Cats.Is it ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Three Women by Lisa Taddeo (Bloomsbury, $35)Fucking ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
As we mark the fiftieth anniversary the July 20th Moon landing Dr Nick Long reflects on what that's meant for New Zealand and considers the space 'gold rush' ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Griebsch, Specialist and Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Medicine, University Veterinary Teaching Hospital Sydney, Sydney School of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney Recently reported cases of the often fatal bacterial infection ...
My selection of the eight best morning news links from here and overseas, along with eight lunchtime lean-back long reads. Also, the full list of links, including Jacinda Ardern's trip to Australia, the big emissions report, Fonterra's coal move and a new ...
Heaven is a place on earth, and June is saving the world one ’80s pop hit at a time. Tara Ward recaps season 4, episode 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Praise be, for there was a tiny bit of good news ...
Finance companies say they shouldn’t have to be ‘fit and proper’ even though in some cases they charge more than the planned clampdown on high cost lending. A group of finance companies that charges well over the government’s proposed cap on ...
An ANZ shareholder is demanding the bank disclose more information about the sale of an Auckland residential property to its former chief executive and his family. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentForeign Affairs and trade Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): The new, ...
Tara Ward sets out on a valiant quest to find the best apple in Aotearoa. The idea that every apple is a good apple is fake news. We’ve all got stories about shit experiences with apples, when it looked good on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Sarkissian, Operations Scientist, CSIRO The role Australia played in relaying the first television images of astronaut Neil Armstrong’s historic walk on the Moon 50 years ago this July features in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lyndal Sleep, Research Fellow, Griffith University In Australia’s social security laws, the “couple rule” is used to determine if a person is in a relationship, tying access to Centrelink payments to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Walker, Lecturer (Management), Victoria University of Wellington We live in a society obsessed with performance. For both young and old, competitions, awards and rankings are an inescapable feature of life. How ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan O’Connell, Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne One-third of all preschools may lack a qualified teacher in the next four years if nothing changes, my new modelling shows. Currently, half of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirsty Volz, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Of all the mantras for modernism, the one I think most befitting for Australian mid-century modern houses is L’esprit Nouveau – The New Spirit. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Skifield snowmaking a sign of the future, vaccination rates fall alarmingly, and construction industry encouraged to lower emissions.Snowmaking has saved the ski industry from disaster this year, after the weather ...
Neil Armstrong may have been the first man on the moon, but if we define the ‘space race’ as spaceflight capability, the Soviets won it hands down, writes Jennifer Frost. ...
Joel Rindelaub explains why it's so important for those weighing on climate science to be transparent about their funding sources and conflicts of interest. ...
Our government and leaders are (still) divided on the question of compulsory te reo Māori. Who’s for it, who’s against it, and who’s flip flopping around in the middle?Under article two of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the government pledges to ...
When teenagers today are being called upon to solve the problems of tomorrow, why aren’t they given the right to participate in democracy? Fourteen-year-old Oli Morphew makes the case for lowering the voting age. If you’re going to deprive someone of ...
Open Mike 24/04/2018 
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...14 hours ago
This week, in the wake of National's opposition to even talking about reducing agricultural emissions and Simon Bridges' refusal to recognise that there is a climate emergency, I've been saying that National is unfit to govern. And it looks like ...16 hours ago
Something I missed: not only did Youth MPs declare a climate emergency; they also launched a campaign to lower the voting age to 16:Youth Parliament week in Parliament has seen the establishment of Make it 16, a campaign to ...19 hours ago
I have been reading and listening to the aftermath of Trump’s comments about the four female first term Democratic representatives, all of whom are “people of color.” I found the US coverage interesting both as evidence of partisanship and the ...2 days ago
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...2 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...3 days ago
3 days ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...4 days ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...4 days ago
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...6 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...1 week ago
1 week ago
2 weeks ago
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...2 weeks ago
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...3 weeks ago
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...3 weeks ago
Image Credit: Blog Writing Tips. I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the ... 3 weeks ago
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...4 days ago
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...14 hours ago
‘He wants to sleep with you,’ a close friend had said. ‘Then you’ll be able to tell if it is going to lead anywhere’: a short story by New Plymouth author Elizabeth Smither. Photography by Peter Black. ...18 mins ago
Opinion - The leadership visits are more interesting in that they serve as a spotlight on the two countries - politically, and on policy issues, writes Brigette Morten. ...1 hour ago
Created by future ACT Party leader Richard Prebble after an epic reform bender in the 80s, NZ on Air has just marked its third decade. Duncan Greive relates its history and asks: is the funder still fit for purpose?It’s a ...2 hours ago
It helps that he played in the New Zealand cricket team when they lost the 1992 semi-final and went on to coach India, writes Georgie Wright, daughter of JohnMy dad has taught me a fair few things over my 25 ...7 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan – one with a reduced pace, despite the 24 ...12 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cherie Hugo, Teaching Fellow, Nutrition & Dietetics, Bond University The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety this week turned its attention to food and nutrition. The testimony of maggots in ...14 hours ago
Jacinda Ardern’s Melbourne trip wrapped up with nothing to show on longstanding trans-Tasman concerns, but was a potent reminder of her international appeal. ...14 hours ago
Pricing agricultural emissions first at the processor level - such as Fonterra - rather than right down at farm level stacks up as a gap measure says Catherine Leining. ...15 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cross, Research Fellow, Curtin University Sign up to the Beating Around the Bush newsletter here, and suggest a plant we should cover at batb@theconversation.edu.au. Billabongs in the northern Kimberley are welcome ...16 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Gentilin, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University As strange as it might sound, whistleblowers in Australia have reason to rejoice – so long as they are in the private sector. Thanks to new ...17 hours ago
The fourth season of Queer Eye drops today on Netflix. Sam Brooks reflects on his difficult relationship with the show, and where it sits in mainstream culture.For depressingly many people, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was an introduction not just to ...17 hours ago
The collapse of a multi-billion dollar deal to sell AMP's life insurance division to a British company for $3.6 billion is the fault of the companies, according to the Reserve Bank. ...17 hours ago
A poem by Miramar poet Geoff Cochrane. Channel Hopping Stupa or Stuka?Weet-Bix or Welsh rabbit?Galactic aerodrome or Matchbox truck?*I’m young in my dreams, still young.*Beautiful Keanu’s wearing shades—antique shades with iodine-coloured lenses.*I’m young in my dreams, still young,and I still have some ...17 hours ago
For the month of July, Josie Adams is taking on the challenge of being low-waste. That means minimising plastics, emissions, and even recyclables. Each week we release her diary. This is week two.Read week one here.I’ll be honest, week two ...18 hours ago
By Royson Willie in Port Vila Two Vanuatu Daily Post journalists were literally given a pat-down by the police criminal investigation unit yesterday over a story they had written about the vehicle of the Chairman of the Public Service ...18 hours ago
By Gorothy Kenneth in Port Moresby Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape will visit Australia this weekend for a week-long state visit and the Bougainville independence referendum in less than three months is expected to be high on ...18 hours ago
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...18 hours ago
Wtf did we just watch?That sound you heard was a million furries screaming in ecstasy as their fantasy and everyone else’s nightmare came to life in the form of the first trailer for the live action version of Cats.Is it ...18 hours ago
As we mark the fiftieth anniversary the July 20th Moon landing Dr Nick Long reflects on what that's meant for New Zealand and considers the space 'gold rush' ahead. ...19 hours ago
My selection of the eight best morning news links from here and overseas, along with eight lunchtime lean-back long reads. Also, the full list of links, including Jacinda Ardern's trip to Australia, the big emissions report, Fonterra's coal move and a new ...19 hours ago
John Banks' former lives, vegetable-based insults in Auckland's mayoral race and metaphorical cabbage - James Elliott has it all. ...20 hours ago
Heaven is a place on earth, and June is saving the world one ’80s pop hit at a time. Tara Ward recaps season 4, episode 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Praise be, for there was a tiny bit of good news ...21 hours ago
An ANZ shareholder is demanding the bank disclose more information about the sale of an Auckland residential property to its former chief executive and his family. ...21 hours ago
Tara Ward sets out on a valiant quest to find the best apple in Aotearoa. The idea that every apple is a good apple is fake news. We’ve all got stories about shit experiences with apples, when it looked good on ...22 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan O’Connell, Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne One-third of all preschools may lack a qualified teacher in the next four years if nothing changes, my new modelling shows. Currently, half of ...24 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirsty Volz, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Of all the mantras for modernism, the one I think most befitting for Australian mid-century modern houses is L’esprit Nouveau – The New Spirit. ...24 hours ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Skifield snowmaking a sign of the future, vaccination rates fall alarmingly, and construction industry encouraged to lower emissions.Snowmaking has saved the ski industry from disaster this year, after the weather ...1 day ago
A former MP and shock jock says Queenstown council’s making excuses in seeking a 35-year approval for sewer overflows. ...1 day ago
Neil Armstrong may have been the first man on the moon, but if we define the ‘space race’ as spaceflight capability, the Soviets won it hands down, writes Jennifer Frost. ...1 day ago
Joel Rindelaub explains why it's so important for those weighing on climate science to be transparent about their funding sources and conflicts of interest. ...1 day ago
Emma Espiner takes a look at a deadly inequity happening in our poorest communities. ...1 day ago
Rebecca Mahoney is about to make rugby history as the first woman to referee a Ranfurly Shield challenge. ...1 day ago
Man with 3 pregnant partners – fails to inform immigration of this (but he is wealthy so apparently that’s OK)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12037904
He has done a few multi-million dollar developments in New Zealand, including retirement villages,” Delamere said.
Delamere said the man had “many” children but could not say how many.
Of the two other women, who the Herald understands are also from China, one holds a residence visa and the other is on a guardianship visa.
Shocking, doesn’t even know how many children he has! I guess that’s ok because NZ is there to support them and his other partners and pay their medical and social welfare costs and build more schools… but he build a retirement village (most of them rip people off) and is wealthy. No wonder a shortage of midwives when you have 3 women concurrently carrying your offspring and ‘good character’ being less important than government ideology – then they complain why the Natz have so many voters – just wait 18 years and there will be even more change!
As for the Guardianship visa, sounds like one of the women must be pretty young… time for the government to stop handing our citizenship and residency like lollies, our health care and social services can’t take much more – especially if we are getting into concubine type arrangements with multiple women having kids concurrently in NZ hospitals and going to NZ schools.
On, unsafe sex with multiple partners..
‘When, not if’: New Zealand warned super-gonorrhoea on its way
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/health/2018/04/when-not-if-new-zealand-warned-super-gonorrhoea-on-its-way.html
Dirty immigrants bringing their filthy diseases right?
It’s more likely some randy kiwi will pick something up on a trip overseas and bring it home
More a ‘safe sex’ message for all, if you want to have multiple partners at least use a condom.
Preferably one for each partner 🙂
This is a classic extreme right wing rant. Immigrants coming in and taking all the medical budgets and living on social welfare, clogging up our school systems.
I think the right wing rant is, hopeless drugged Kiwis, let us get superior cheaper labour, build our retirement villages and luxury hotels (and fill them up, profits, profits) and the social system will provide. You’re behind the times there, Tuppence, your thinking the back 80 years before widespread cheap airlines and easy tax havens… world’s moved on on how to exploit labour and other people.
Another pressing problem for right wingers and luxury developers is that you have no idea how difficult it is to get $30 million for a home in Queenstown for example if you ban foreign buyers! The market is going to collapse overnight! Lucky the Queenstown Mayor is asking for an exception for Queenstown and there is plenty of lawyers ready for fight for their foreign buyer and richer interests.
…. so where supporting Chinese immigrants with multiple partners and children also, we really are a soft touch ?
Thank God we have a “Rockstar Economy” to hand out all this welfare ?
Don’t forget the aged parents too. For every migrant couple 4 aged parents can come into NZ, and I guess if you have multiple partners and marriage split ups and can get new wives into NZ, the amount of parents eligible keeps going up!
Even the Natz had to eventually change the rules to 10 years before migrant parents got free everything, because so many migrants were ‘abandoned’ by their sponsors (aka kids) and had to go on welfare as well as being a quote Mr Woodhouse, “burden on the health services that are considerably higher than other people of that age who are eligible for New Zealand public health services.”
Even with the new rules 10 years is nothing when people can live to 100 years old and can get a pension, health care, Gold card with free travel, and it costs $1000 a week in a rest home, which might go on for years,, especially since we seem to be attracting National loving migrants that have few morals, abandon their parents, have multiple children to multiple partners concurrently, etc etc.
This is just from 2016 so the figures and costs will just be increasing and I think thats just the 10 million in costs before they get the free care as residents which will be millions if not billions over a lifetime more … no wonder there is no money to fix mouldy Middlemore for Kiwi kids who are going to grow up without a stable house, decent hospital to go to, high student debt and a low wage job, with higher taxes to pay for all the ‘aged folks’ that the government deliberately gave free care to while abandoning it’s own people and taxpayers and turning their backs on them when they are growing up, while milking the first student loan generation for more taxes!
Migrants’ parents cost NZ ‘tens of millions’
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/315435/migrants'-parents-cost-nz-'tens-of-millions‘
The government needs to clean up their immigration act. Our government should not even allow aged parents in as residents with free care on the NZ taxpayer and remove the ability for kids to be used as a reason for residency.
Migrant family members should not get citizenship or residency – they could just get a visa to stay with family and the person has to have FULL insurance for all their health care and social service needs the entire time they are here, just like Kiwis have to, if they travel overseas.
Only those on refugee visa should be eligible for free care.
Now there’s a fellow who knows how to colonise.
Saw a documentary about OZ quite a while ago, and their category for immigration was that the person has to employ 2 native Australian citizens and they had to have a profit on a business of over $50k per year for 5 years to qualify for residency.
In NZ we seem to want the complete opposite and to get as many people coming in and adding family members needing social welfare and health services, as possible. With creative accounting you can be as rich as crocus but not a profit in sight.
Probably the only reason they noticed this man’s activities was that the pregnant women went on benefits.
I guess that’s why they have 30% higher wages over in Australia!
A study in conspiracy belief, which some have noted connects many recent US shooters:
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kg8j3/conspiracy-theorists-just-want-to-feel-special
“Belief in conspiracies can serve to set oneself apart from the ignorant masses—a self-serving boast about one’s exclusive knowledge. Adherence to conspiracy theory might not always be the result of some perceived lack of control, but rather a deep-seated need for uniqueness.”
Conspiracy theorists are kind of like modern-day Schrodinger’s cats. They exist in a weird state of quantum superposition where they are simultaneously the most skeptical of all people and the most gullible.
The Term “Conspiracy Theory” Was Invented by the CIA In Order To Prevent Disbelief of Official Government Stories.
And people who regurgitate the term help authoritarian governments.
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/08/24/the-term-conspiracy-theory-was-invented-by-the-cia-in-order-to-prevent-disbelief-of-official-government-stories/
It’s a conspiracy!
‘The act of two or more persons, called conspirators, working secretly to obtain some goal, usually understood with negative connotations.’
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/conspiracy
And the word “theory” would be in the sense of “unproven conjecture”, no?
Sacha, do you think that the invasion and destruction of Iraq in 2003 just happened? You don’t think that a small group of politicians and their fanatical advisers didn’t conspire to commit that crime?
Do you think that stating that these criminals conspired to commit this crime is just a paranoid fantasy?
PNAC is a legit conspiracy, for sure. It’s not always a false thing.
“The Term “Conspiracy Theory” Was Invented by the CIA ”
Oh Ed
The irony in your post is simply the funniest thing I have read all week.
True but that doesn’t make the term false.
You’ve reached peak crazy. Conspiracy theories about the CIA et al are actually just a conspiracy theory.
As if you would even know.
What? you get crazier?
Let it all out man. Give me every single one of your theories. My brother loves the stuff i repeat to him you say.
Are you stalking me?
Tuppence, you’re out of your depth.
Tuppence’s familiarity with world geopolitics is not renowned.
He sounds like our friend Wayne.
Amazing you can be
DefenceWar Minister and know so little.There are no longer any barriers of competence for anything. Look at who the U.S. president is.
Yes that is very true…..
Dude’s gone to the trouble of debunking the claptrap Robert’s dishes up to gullible fuckwits.
History of the Term “Conspiracy Theory”
The term “conspiracy theory” is used to describe any theory that attempts to characterize observed events as the result of some secret conspiracy. The term is often used dismissively, implying that the theory is implausible.
Although conspiracy theories (particularly aimed at Jews and Bankers) date back hundreds of years, the earliest usage of “conspiracy theory” do not always have this connotation, although the theories are quite often dismissed in other ways. Usually it’s simply a way of identifying the theory from other theories – as in “the theory that happens to have a conspiracy”
The first usage I could find was from 1870, The Journal of mental science: Volume 16 – Page 14
https://www.metabunk.org/debunked-the-cia-invented-the-term-conspiracy-theory-in-1967-in-use-for-70-years-prior.t960/
I know you despise Russia.
Pointing out the absurdity of the nonsense you lap up has something to do with Russia?. Do tell…..
Can’t be bothered
Face it Ed, you’re a know-nothing repeater, with the intellect and self awareness of a boiled cabbage.
Oh go on Ed, lay it out. I’m curious too. Please?
yup, and the OED has an example from 1909.
As well as a 1964 New statesman article using the term “conspiracy theorists”:
How times fail to change lol
You are right Ed. Pilger, Hager, Parry, Bartlett, Roberts – all conspiracy theorists because they don’t tow the company line. What a sad state of affairs.
Most skeptical…most gullible…
Black White
Yes No
On Off
1 0
Spectrums, Andre…
You comment seems to have missed that…
“Wholeness is at the heart of pure phenomena”
Spectra.
And they enable people with evidence based coverup assertions to be dismissed. We see this every time Hager releases a book.
I watched The Post over the weekend and was minded how far the 4th Estate has moved from its purpose.
Key and others have successfully shut peoples eyes to the evidence Hager produces to back his assertions with a simple ” looney conspiracy theorist”.
Yep, those out on the fringes do real damage that way.
As do those who refuse to acknowledge the parts of the mainstream media that still function reasonably effectively. The likes of Matt Nippert come to mind.
Agree not all msm is stuffed up but the paucity of genuine both side non cut and paste party press releases makes it too easy to spot the ones doing a great job.
Still running others down, Sacha…
You’re special too…just like everyone else…
Shooting the messenger is another way to shut down debate and dissent.
So conspiracy theorists should not have their ideas and possible reasons for holding those ideas critiqued? Is it only those with right wing views who deserve to be scrutinised?
Who’s suggesting that?
Sacha posted a link about a conspiracy belief study and you responded with an accusation of “running others down”.
Sacha is essentially taking aim at a group of people, by dismissing them with a link to a [whatever] study…
In recent times Sacha has applauded bans, asked for bans and requested others withhold sympathy for Penny Bright…
The link and insinuation is to run others down down…
Bitterness…
get another hobby phil.
My lovely vegan dogs !
Is the study part of the conspiracy about conspiracy theories?
could big academia really be running the show with big government the product of it’s out put from elite universities? But that would mean those selected would have to been malleable at high school to be susceptible for recruitment to these elite secret organisations.
It probably started all the way back with big academia. The kindergarten teachers control it all, we just think they’re on low pay. but really, they are pre selecting the global elites for the next generations.
The context I encountered it in, as mentioned, was about what connects the right-wing white men who go on shooting rampages in the US.
It’s like observing that children who torture animals tend to commit violence against people as adults. Useful if acted upon.
What s the deal with these attacks on Gayford? See the Derp is having a go now. What a thoroughly unpleasant person she is. Obviously Jacinda is not giving them much to hammer her on . I was shocked to see another sad desparate attack on CG so soon after that distinctly odd one from Deborah whatshername. On their way out and they know it. Sounds like they are team tagging. Wish there was still the facility to COMMENT on these cowardly mutterings.
Headline in Herald
When was the last time a Prime Ministerial spouse was attacked for the sort of person they were?
Answer: Peter Davis
Very different personalities Gayford and Davis but the similarities are:
Labour PMs
Male spouses
Not conventional, conservative alpha males from business, finance, law etc. so in the minds of right wing commentators they are simply the ‘wrong sort’ of people to be associated with power.
We are likely to see more of it. If sex can be brought into it then watch out – remember the insinuations that Davis was gay?
It really is a fight to the death when you offend power and privilege.
Gayford is popular, likeable and extroverted though otherwise he wouldn’t have had numerous tv jobs, while Davis was easy to bully due to his quiet personality.
The Harold has gone down the track of attacking someone popular and likeable. I think they’ve totally lost it.
It was never about Peter Davis, it was about Helen Clark who was PM at the time.
Similarly, it is not about Clarke Gayford but about Jacinda Ardern, who’s the current PM.
It is not in the public interest and therefore some manufacture public interest and lo and behold the public is very interested. Good for some …
Every piece that gets written, every word that is uttered about this feeds it and gives it more oxygen. Defending it is in some ways the worst thing that one can do; it is catch 22.
If the Government were to propose major tax changes, for example, it would knock it out of the ring and out of the limelight (away from the public attention). However, this would be bad politics and a weak attempt to regain control of the news cycle and media narrative.
Give them the death stare!
My partner and I very nearly disappeared down a rabbit hole a couple of weeks ago while in conversation with a seemingly fairly ‘normal’ Kiwi van dweller.
From general conversation about lack of enforcement of agrochemical regulations by territorial authorities the korero turned rapidly to assertions that our PM and her beloved are both ‘trannies, and the pregnancy a total fiction.
We have the occasional very odd conversation, being somewhat transient and part of a community that resides in the margins, but this raised our eyebrows.
And this person was truly sincere…and allowed to wander the world without the supervision they so clearly need.
We retired early, arose before dawn and folded our tent and fled.
No point whatsoever in engaging with these people.
Sadly we know that once a rumour hits mainstream, it s veracity is irrelevant.
I spent years listening to my brother refer to our then PM as Alan Clarke. About how close she was to “Heather”. About Peter’s sexuality. We think we live in an enlightened country but still some of the first things done to lessen someone in our eyes is to impune their sexuality.
I doubt this is where the Gayford rumour is going but this is SO dirty politics
A neighbour used to rant interminably about Aunty Helen and her beloved…along similar lines.
What is it with that?
Concentrate on what matters….their performance as an elected representative.
All else is irrelevant.
Having said that…it behooves our elected representatives to assiduously avoid all engagement with the media that is not work related.
Agree with your last comment. 100%
I mean Eagleston (?)) seemingly would do anything for Key, at times way over the line but I never heard a single person suggrst the PM had a sham marriage to cover his relationship with him?
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Unless they’re Left-wing MPs in which case it’s all over the MSM as a distraction from what’s actually important.
So Key and Eagleston were having a relationship ?
I’ve seen one of these rumours on the web -it includes TV-ism, man-whoring for jobs, hard drugs – and in a post that connects this somehow with some Russian-Jewish global conspiracy.
So OTT that it’s not really credible – but I guess some people, unfortunately, will buy into it.
It’s not credible and so it must be true seems to be such people’s thinking.
Did they make any mention of the Anderson’s Bay Peninsula branch of the Labour Party too? 😉 lol sorry couldn’t resist.
We very adroitly terminated the conversation before it moved on to this person’s experience as an alien abductee…probably amounts to the same thing?
Cheer up all. Incognito says give them the death stare. So watch Eddie Izzard, a trannie par excellence, do his death star canteen bit, it will give you a weak laugh and strengthen you enough to stagger away and face these smiling assassins so prevalent.
Lord Vader gives you:
More food oriented Izzard:
Followed by 6 minutes of populist historical political
comment!
Gayford is much more dangerous to the Herald narrative than they had initially supposed – he’s a media presence with a degree of popularity. They recognize in him the kind of public connection for which Key had to confess pissing in the shower and endure prison rape jokes.
Gayford is also currently a writer for the Herald – a weekly column in the Travel section. So what the hell are the Herald* up to allowing one of their writers to diss another in this way?
More detail in my comment here – /bottom-feeding-fish/#comment-1478090
* Or is it a case of one being a writer for the Herald and the other for the Herald on Sunday; or both for the Herald on Sunday?
Will check that detail …
It’s nothing so sinister, it’s simply clickbait and it seems to be working. It is all the Herald has to offer. Don’t even read it. Nonsensical rag.
Similar to the relationship Key had with Ritchie McCaw and the All Blacks ?
The Herald have gone on full attack this week.
duplicity said Jacinda was like Trump.
Hill Con(e) attacks Clarke.
Soper says Jacinda ’s unusual.
All are tools and paid puppets writing dirt to keep their beastly jobs.
Soper has quite a fixed view of the world. When he started as a political journo his world was predominantly white and male. Ardern might as well be from another planet from his accumulated experiences
‘It’s unusual to be loved”!
The tyrranosauri must have been watching Tom Jones gyrate.
Now that’s unusual.
Dirty Politics 101
I wonder how long it will be before they start bringing up Clarke’s exes. That’s what bottom feeders do. They rise to the top and become scum. All the whole hiding behind the ‘no comments ‘ position. Cowards as well.
And if any exes are being offered money for stories? Thing is we will never know thevtruth of any assertions but Dirty Politics and subsequent enactment by Joyce et al has surely taught us the truth is irrelevant, once it is out there as long as 50% believe it, Nats are winning.
Ffloyd
Clever – bottom feeders rise to the top and become scum.
Should be taught in schools – a great example of physics and political science all in one. Learning practical detail like this would be better for an alert informed citizenry.
Yes, there have been hints of “Tradeau and Ardern” in a few small minds.
“Tradeau”
A tough negotiatior of agreements.
Right they can’t deliver the hits on Jacaranda so they are going to attack her family “Dirty Politics 101”.
Derp?
Wondered too.
“1.used as a substitute for speech regarded as meaningless or stupid, or to comment on a foolish or stupid action.
“Lower tax rates and far lower job creation. Derp”
Ed, I’m fairly sure it’s a play on Heather du Plessis Allan’s name – eminently suitable I reckon.
Yes Jilly Bee. Came out of my inability to ever remember her name properly. Hence Derp. Looked it up and got definition as shown above by ianmac. Also is a slang term for ‘stupid action or stupid person”. Both are a good fit for HEathER. GEDDIT? 2ES!
Just been having a chuckle over a passage in the book, ‘Reilly, Ace of Spies’ by Robin Bruce Lockhart. Russia, 1918.
“. . . and Boyce had spent a considerable sum for some correspondence which seemed to prove conclusively that the Bolsheviks were in secret liaison with the German High Command and that the British War Cabinet’s belief that Lenin and Trotsky were German agents was correct. When Reilly examined this correspondence with Hill, he discovered that although the letters purported to come from different parts of Russia, they were all typed on the same typewriter. As the whole correspondence was obviously faked, Reilly suggested to Boyce that he should re-sell it to the Americans. Boyce did so. Mr. Sissons of the U.S. mission in Petrograd paid a very large sum for the documents and Boyce made a profit on the deal.”
The American seem to have an affinity for ‘fake news’ even back at the beginning of last century! Or perhaps that they were fws then and still today?
Evidently a lot of US Industrialists were behind the Nazi War Effort ?
Read “IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation,” by Edwin Black.
Not only behind the Nazi war effort, but making big profits as well.
Ford?
Well, they did try to overthrow the US government in implement Fascism in the US.
That was pretty standard fare.
The New Zealand Government during WW 2 was conned into trying to investigate “sabotage” planned by the Germans in New Zealand.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/nazi-sabotage-hoax
Gerard Hindmarsh’s podcast featuring Mr Ross and his scam.
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/home/audio/special-feature-archives/2016/06/outsiders-with-gerard-hindmarsh-the-great-nazi-hoax.html
HDPA and DHC(with an e – and how utterly feeble is a comment like that) show themselves up to be sour nasty types with little joy or humour in their lives.
The spouses photo would have been taken by an official photographer who saw the opportunity for something a bit different which most people would look at with a smile on their face rather than a scowl like these two sad commentators.
They are scum.
Come on Ed calling some one scum is a very dehumanising and beneath you, disagree with them but scum they are not
Well Ed sometimes people like these two contemptible women who attack with such glee, deserve an angry response.
“Bottom feeders”…. guess who lost most face? LOL LOL
Finland cans its guaranteed income trial, reverts to previous welfare system: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/23/finland-to-end-basic-income-trial-after-two-years
Sad they did not give it time to get more of an idea of the benefits, but also Finland already has a pretty good social welfare system so there is less equality there in the first place.
https://thecorrespondent.com/541/why-we-should-give-free-money-to-everyone/20798745-cb9fbb39
That was a given. From what I could make out it was designed to fail while giving the excuse for not implementing one that it had been tried.
Notice how they just made getting welfare even harder?
Why the problem is economics, not economists
Which actually tells me that the problem is economists getting economics wrong.
No wonder the whole worlds fucked after listening to them for the last 200+ years.
At the moment, I’m reading “Growth Delusion” by David Pilling. We clearly follow the wrong path only considering GDP without seriously questioning the methodology and numbers behind GDP. You can completely destroy life, society, environment and everything… on short term it’s all fantastic for the GDP growth.
Economists. Todays version of chicken entrials.
Economists would be fine – if they were actually studying the economy rather than trying to predict human behaviour. The economy is physical, the actual reality within which we live and human behaviour needs to exist within that reality and so our nature should not become an excuse to try to exist outside of it.
Nature bats last, doesn’t negotiate and doesn’t take prisoners.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/103249836/middlemore-hospital-what-really-went-down-between-health-minister-and-counties-manukau-dhb
Looks like middlemore isn’t the crises the national party was supposed to have left it as. Quelle Horreur! dirty politcs from the left on this issue
So if the board member thinks it’s a beat up, what was clark told about? 123 million unicorn farts?
Nothing DP about it – they circulated reports instead of fixing things – it’s an old trick for staying within budget, but not calculated to endear one to a new employer.
Let me see if I can explain. Its dirty politics if the right do it but if the left do it…well the left don’t it so its not dirty politics and even if the left did do it (which of course they don’t) its only because the right do it and thus the left are forced to doing it to level the playing field but as already mentioned they don’t do it, ever
What exaclty is “dirty” here – is a pretend-independent blogger feeding outright lies to a quietly partisan but less rabid blogger who feeds the lies to partisan reporters for partisan media to duly report as the lies are being discussed?
Or are ministers and officials merely disagreeing publicly about how dilapidated hospital buildings are, and when they were told?
Your moral compass is showing…
In NZ, dirty politics has spawned one popular book: “Dirty Politics – How attack politics is poisoning New Zealand’s political environment” (2014).
National, painted and tainted ‘dirty’, still trying to whitewash themselves by (more) muck-racking – good luck!
Maybe the absence of a well-researched book summarising dirty politics originating from left-leaning NZ governments is due to the lack of enough real dirt to make a good story. Or maybe it’s just a matter of time until the left ‘catch up’ – hope not.
National didn’t give a rats about a hospital with shit all over the shop because, surplus….
Timeline
• 2012 – Large cladding panel falls off the Scott Building. Checks reveal weathertightness problems and leaking. Leaks also fund at Manukau SuperClinic
• 2013 – Leaks found at Kidz First
• 2014 – Leaks found at McIndoe Building
• 2016 – Leaking issues outlined to Ministry of Health, according to DHB
• Mid-2016 Auditor-General’s report shows Counties Manukau reporting it had 89 per cent life left in its buildings
• 2017 – Sewage and sanitation problems are again raised with the board
• Feb 2017 – Treasury rates Counties Manukau among top half of DHBs for repairs and maintenance
• Mid-2017 – DHB commissions first overall expert appraisal of buildings
• Nov 2017 – Independent surveyor Alexander and Co report for DHB outlines problems with buildings
• November 22 – DHB Strategic Assessment Case sets out $123m worth of work across multiple buildings. That amount is now known to be an underestimate.
• Feb 21, 2018 – Counties Manukau DHB appears before health select committee. No mention of specific problems are raised.
• March 13 – David Clark visits Middlemore, where he says he was told about rot, mould and sewage in Scott Building but no other buildings.
• March 20 (circa) – Government approves additional $11.5m towards repairs in Scott Building
• March 22 – RNZ reports based on OIA that four hospital buildings are full of rot and mould. Health Minister David Clark says he knew about only one, the Scott
• March 23 – Former Health Minister Jonathan Coleman says he was not briefed about extent of problems at Middlemore. Clark says he expects DHB to outline plan for managing the issues. Email from Gloria Johnson to board members say documents handed to Clark and his adviser “spells out succinctly the scale and nature of the facilities issues”
• March 27 – DHB says it did not do repairs because Coleman wanted it to stay in surplus
• March 28 – DHB confirms report of sewage leaks in Scott Building
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12036681
For those of you who, like me, want to hear an alternative narrative to that presented by the western corporate media, here is George Galloway’s most recent radio show.
It is worth listening alone for the interview with Peter Hitchens, which starts right at the start of the show ( after 30 seconds.)
And if you don’t want to hear what independent journalists like Hitchens say, scroll by.
Malcolm Evans – brilliant as ever.
He was fired by the Herald for challenging Israel.
http://tvnz.co.nz/content/213087/2591764.xhtml
@ Anne, Tracey, Spikyboy and Patricia Bremner
(Yesterday’s Open Mike)
I hear on tonight’s Checkpoint, RNZ are following up on the issue.
Once again though, ‘officials’ appear to have given a bullshit response in defense of their continued use of T&C – I’d thought the government had made their position pretty bloody clear.
My position is that there is evidence of a degree of ‘pushback’ by senior public servants against the coalition government’s policies.
I’m waiting a bit longer to see what happens.
Naturally enough, some senior public servants are eagre to preserve the status quo = going completely against the coalition governments intentions to make change – as they’re entitled to do.
Hopefully the SSC is also watching very closely.
As far as I know, Iain Lees-Galloway, Carmel Sepuloni and couple of others have made it pretty bloody clear what their expectations of Ministry ‘officials’ are. Some of the officials appear to be a bit slow in getting the message.
If there’s a way of contacting you in confidence @ Tracy, I’ll definitely do so.
“Naturally enough, some senior public servants are eagre to preserve the status quo = going completely against the coalition governments intentions to make change – as they’re entitled to do.”
Of course I mean the government is entitled to make change – they have the mandate. Senior PS ‘officials’ (supposedly being as ‘impartial’ as @ Wayne has suggested), are obliged to implement the change
Israel shoots to kill as the Gaza ghetto resists its destruction
Yet to hear a statement from Boris Johnson or Theresa May, those great moralists, about this….
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/04/23/israel-shoots-to-kill-as-the-the-gaza-ghetto-resists-its-destruction/
For consistency’s sake, this would see an immediate meeting with Donald, then a strike on Israel.
Their navy and air force is ready.
But somehow I sense double standards will prevail.
The Saudis have been using chemical weapons against the civilians of Yemen.
Will these mean cruise missiles fired on Riyadh?
PETITION:
Remove Ian Smith from Sky Rugby commentary team.
Ian Smith should be removed from the commentary box because he has no idea what he’s talking about. I can’t handle his stupidity anymore. There must be thousands of people more qualified to commentate test rugby than him.
Please provide an excerpt….
I have been granted the interim injunction, and stopped the sale of my home.
In the Minute of Woodhouse J
“[6] In consequence, there are the following orders:
(a) Pending further order of the Court, the respondent shall take no steps, or no further steps, to effect sale of the applicant’s property at 86A School Road, Kingsland.
…”
Penny Bright
Really pleased for you Penny, big hugs.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/355857/penny-bright-given-brief-reprieve-over-forced-home-sale
“A High Court judge has granted a short term interim injuction, giving Ms Bright three more days to prepare her case seeking a halt to the sale.”
🙄
Good news Penny.
Although I was thinking if worse comes to worse a little tent outside Auckland council or Mr Town’s residence, might make them think twice about selling rate payers houses in the future. So pleased it does not come to that.
We have enough homeless and disempowered people, already.
Oh, just read Sacha’s post, 3 days is not long, hoping for a longer term outcome for you to keep your house. Good luck!
Sacha should focus on what the JUDGE said – not what Radio NZ said?
Happy to read a link to the full judgement. I’ve provided one for RNZ’s reading of it.
Did the judge not indicate any timescale for the interim injunction,Penny?
Really pleased for you, by the way.
When are Auckland Council going to disclose their spending details, the books should be open to all ratepayers as we are stakeholders in Auckland Council ?
Yep, I think the entire budget each year including payments to all the contractors/third parties should be made public each year. I’m sure that will throw up some interesting information.
Rates used to be quite a small bill for home owners. Now it’s more likely to be in your top 4 most expensive bills you have to pay each month.
I hope that the new government looks into whether it is better to abandon the COO structures. We have Auckland Transport that seems to be a basket case which take up 53% from rates of their $1.345 billion dollar annual budget. Not only does it not work very well, we now have a to pay fuel tax on top of that. What’s next, poll tax to prop them up? Ports of Auckland are terrible employers with employment rulings against them and apparently ok to steal the harbour. Wastewater is still not separated, but wait, more money is the problem, not their lack of planning between resource consenting and wastewater.
If we can see where all the money goes in fine detail, it can shed some light on what’s going wrong, such as why the dig up the roads and footpaths continually, and is it a good idea to speculate on Westgate malls? How do people get around with zero public transport in parts of the supercity? Is charging $10 for a HOP card and the ridiculous way to get a child HOP a good idea? Why is it taking over $200,000 in legal fees to defend CEO Steven Town’s alleged defamation of Penny Bright? Is it price gouging from the lawyers?
No doubt nobody in power would be keen for full transparency, but then if there is full transparency, won’t that shut the critics up if it’s all above board as well as make people trust Labour more.
There are too many scandals with public figures on the trough.
I don’t agree with Phil Goff’s ideology, but I do think he is an honest man in terms of money and maybe he could lead the councillors to actually properly open up the books in minute detail so that the stakeholders aka rate payers have full access. We all know the CEO and executives will not be for it.
This would also keep out the more dishonest contractors and suppliers from dealing with council, and that would be a good thing.
Any public contracts and services should be totally transparent at all times. Not just three yearly.
Firms undertaking contracts for public entities, us, have no right to cower behind “commercial sensitivity”, to hide from those paying the bills.
Why are rate payers paying Town’s court costs?
Good morning people the moko is taking her first steps and the sun is shining .
The trolls can not take a chink out of Jacinda so the target Clarke well they are wasting there time I can see he is a good man he could be like that Other famous Clarke and they won’t be able to take a chink out of him.
Lets get this strait I treat all people with respect if they treat me the same and just because one person makes a statement about me doesn’t mean it is true I respect the police I don’t respect these sandflies that are exclusive brethren who think they have the right to cast there judgement on US Maori cultured tangata .They use there money and influence to distort the course of justice there members avoid jail and they justify this by implying that the members whom have had the course justice distorted for there mistakes are shunned from there church what a load of———being ostracized is nothing compeared to going to jail for one they have no record of jail time they are not locked in jail caged like an animal . It is accepted right in frount of OUR eyes that this behavior is OK for the few WTF this makes a mockery of the whole system there is more bad things that these people get up to Eco Maori will reveal this in good time .
So I don’t hate all police .Every move the sandflies make reveals that my hunches are right Ana to kai Ka kite ano
I can not pronounce Te reo properly my self my wife laughs at my attemts I can pronounce words that I used when I was young but with my spelling problem my attempts a pronouncing Te reo are not very good .So Eco Maori says lay off the coach if he knows he mite pronounce the name wrong well so be it let him use what he wants to get what he means across to the audience Ana to kai ka kite ano.
Newshub well you already know my view on ANZAC it mite not be the popular view but I care about te tangata and Ngati Porou both had big losses in World War 1 and 2 the 1 percent start War while the Tommy fight and die in these wars and in New Zealand the Tommy were mostly Maori enough said.
Amazon is the future of retail everyone better change or get left in its wake they cut out the middle man this is going to happen in all industrys .
Come on you don’t trip up the mokopunas .
It will be a good game of League tonight .
Ka kite ano P.S you can not see me through the camera lol