So, I said I’d put a comment to remind those interested that we’re meeting up on Sat at 1pm at the bandstand in the Dunedin Botanics.
I said I’d put the reminder up this morning. I forgot.
So here it is. Buried way own this thread. What can I say…?
[lprent; That is easy to fix. Moderator edit (not quick edit). Change the date/time of the comment and you now wrote it at 0421 rather than 1421. Good practice is to leave a note stating what you did. ]
John Key continues to display his contempt for New Zealanders by launching the 2014 political year with an orchestrated litany of lies. Not that anyone especially noticed nor even, these days, seems to care about. Rather, John Key’s puppeteers had spend the preceding three days priming both Labour and (alas) the Greens as well as the press gallery chooks with the “big picture” meme of “education”, thus taking everyone’s eyes off the fact that New Zealand is being governed by the most mendacious Prime Minister in its history.
Take John Key’s comments about employment and the economy, as but one example. No one I’ve seen has responded to his “State of the Nation” bollocks that National Ltd™ has shredded worker’s rights, mocked the living wage, and put the employment law up for sale to the likes of Warner Bros. Its probably not a whole lie to say, as he did, that “. . . the economy will grow strongly this year. Our economic growth is forecast to be one of the highest in the developed world in 2014 . . . “ but where’s the analysis? The simple fact is that the apparent upsurge in economic activity is entirely predicated on trashing human rights, recovering from a natural disaster, and ruining the enviroment.
Among John Key’s big lies is his statement
. . . the Government will get back to running surpluses next year. At first they will be very small but they will build up over time. There might be some room for modest spending or revenue initiatives, but the top priority has to be getting our debt down . . .
Bullshit.
What ever surplus John Key manages to contrive is based entirely on the ACC rort and, his speciality, “funny money, rubber numbers” spreadsheet manufacturing. The idea that reducing debt is based entirely on neo-conservative wishful-thinking and bolstered by a school-boy error made by Reinhart and Rogoff. Even if it were true, why has National Ltd™ borrowed more than $50 billion in six years and sold off two prime income-generating assets? FFS.
Perhaps John Key’s most egregious lie was meticulously inserted into his introductory blather amongst a list of half-truths and platitudes. It concerns another of National Ltd™ ‘s shameful acts: the wholesale commercial exploitation of Aotearoa’s natural environment:
. . . This summer is the most active season ever for oil and gas exploration, with the industry spending up to $750 million. At the same time, the Government is strengthening the regulations that govern drilling, particularly in deep water . . .
Bullshit.
Slipped out during the pre-Christmas news-dump was an Official Information Act release of 1800 pages of documents supporting Anadarko’s drilling applications. Hidden within those documents is the actual data concerned Anadarko’s “Plan A” for a “worse case scenario” oil leak. Anadarko’s “Oil Leak Management Plan” in the event of a major oil well blowout states that there will be a “best estimate” wait of 35 days while equipment required to cap the well is flown out from Scotland. That plan was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency which, in an Orwellian feat of National Ltd™ political management, does not have listed as one of its functions “the protection of the environment”. That’s bad enough. Yet, also released during the Christmas news-dump is the fact that National Ltd is about the change the regulations governing deep sea oil drilling so that applications such as Anadarko’s do not have to be publicly notified.
Sunmissions on this latest National Ltd™ double-dealing close on Friday next week. Geoff Cumming over at the New Zealand Fox News Herald has, somehow, managed to get a worthy backgrounder printed even if the anonymous leader writer(s) is shouting “drill baby, drill”.
No doubt the drop in crime is related to international trends – but only partially so. The real reason New Zealand’s crime rate has “dropped” is that John Key changed the method of gathering statistics. Previously, the statistics were “reported crime” so, say, if three neighbours all called about the same domestic incident across the road, that was counted as three reports. Now, its just one. Tricksy National Ltd™ is tricksy.
But wouldn’t that make sense given it is the same incident and counting the same incident three times would inflate statistics? It’d be like counting the number of cars on the road by how many people were in the car.
I mean, no matter how many people make a report it is still only one incident.
Each witness will have to be spoken to separately. More witnesses, more police time spent, greater cost. Makes a lot of sense to gather the reporting stats as well as the incident stats.
In any case, John Key is lying: it doesn’t represent a drop in crime, whatever stats you collect.
There are various “forcings” (to borrow a word from climatology) that affect the crime rate. Two examples: increased inequality increases crime, removal of lead from petrol decreases it.
The National Party enacts penal and economic incompetencies that increase the crime rate. And then lies about it.
BLiP’s point was that Key is lying, and he is. Pretending that changing the reporting method represents a reduction is dishonest, whether or not it makes sense to change the reporting method.
That said though – you can’t get a true picture of the crime rate if you are to include multiple reports of the same incident as representing separate incidents.
That’s true however if you want to get a raw figure on how many assaults (for example) have happened, if you count the number of reports over the number of incidents you’ll get a number not reflective of the crime rate. You might count 20 reports when there were only 4 assaults.
Assessing the community harm is a different bucket of fish all together. Are there any reports that do quantify community harm?
“I take it this means that one violent incident with three victims (a mother and two kids, say) will now be reported as one crime.”
Well – it might be reported as a single crime (triple homicide say – looking at the worst case scenario) however the murderer would face three charges (3 counts of murder). So there is a strange dichotomy here in reported crime vs. charges faced. Not just in NZ either. Many countries might report one incident of a single incident (say crashing a car into a power pole) whereas the driver might face multiple charges (drunk driving, no license, dangerous driving, speeding, drug possession).
Hang on – did you just go into a big discussion about how stats on A don’t measure B, and then just dismiss the fact that Key’s lying is “nothing new” when that’s the entire point?
More people are affected by crime in dunnokeyo’s “brighter future”, and he’s solved that problem by deliberately undercounting the number of people immediately affected.
“More people are affected by crime in dunnokeyo’s “brighter future”, and he’s solved that problem by deliberately undercounting the number of people immediately affected.”
So if one murder effects 10 people that equals 10 murders? Or still just one murder?
The Standard is a weird place. Firstly someone argues the caffeine and sugar is more dangerous that a heroin/speedball and now reporting a single crime as a single crime instead of how many people called in to report it is a bad thing
[lprent: It is called “individuals arguing”. Individuals have varying ideas. But please examine the policy, especially the section about ascribing intelligence to a machine. I tend to be a little harsh in how I deal with individuals who transgress that with generalisations about this site. ]
The weirdest thing about commenters here is that the tories never seem to be able to focus on a subject for more than 30sec.
The argument as to whether the crime rate should be reported incidents, number of reports, or number of victims in each incident is irrelevant to the fact that Dunnokeyo has changed the scale and claimed that things have therefore improved.
No doubt at intermediate school he measured his dick using the inches side of the ruler, then used the centimetre side and claimed that he’d swelled to 2.5 size in 5 seconds.
What do you expect on a political site? Friendly relaxed people having a good time?
Most people who take the effort to get informed enough to be able to participate in a meaningful way on a political site are usually frustrated because the world isn’t listening to their great ideas. They’re also usually smart and if they have been around the sites for a while – pretty damn bored with people saying the same old myths yet again.
There are nearly 14 thousand posts on this site with nearly 700 thousand comments. Most of us have heard it all before. We’ve also mostly found that tearing a strip off people whilst explaining why they’re wrong (and linking to to the explanations) tends to reduce how often we have to get bored by repetitions.
well, focusing on the accuracy, suitability or reliability of statistical measures (be they crime, economics, health or human-made global warming) is something tories love to do, rather than giving more than passing acknowledgement (when completely unavoidable) to the fact that the tories are outright lying about the measure, anyway.
. . .The idea that reducing debt is a priority is based entirely on neo-conservative wishful-thinking and bolstered by a school-boy error made by Reinhart and Rogoff . . .
. . . and, yeah, the typos.
NOTE TO SELF: Early morning ranting on The Standard after getting pissed off by the New Zealand Herald and before morning coffee does not result in an exhibition of clarity of thinking.
The New Zealand government’s operating deficit was bigger than expected in the first five months of the financial year after it reported a smaller take in corporate taxes and goods and services tax than it anticipated a month ago in its updated forecasts.
Double Dipton, your doing a heck of a job. Headline should read “Govt debt $400 million worse than predicted. As someone said the other day, it will be an interesting experiment when The Herald goes behind the pay wall.
BLiP: No one I’ve seen has responded to his “State of the Nation” bollocks that National Ltd™ has shredded worker’s rights, mocked the living wage, and put the employment law up for sale to the likes of Warner Bros.
It was much stated on Twitter at the time of the speech by many on the left.
I also thought I did mention it in my comments in my post update yesterday – but on reflection, I thought it was so obvious I just pointed out what Key had said. It is good that you directly spell out Key’s lies, BLip.
I did mention it in the front page blurb for my post. And xtasy posted some very critical comments about Key’s lies in the speech. At the end of his comment he wrote:
Liar Key, liar Key, liar Key, caught out again, but the media failed to mention this!
Indeed the speech is full of LIES, if you go through it, and the only other explanation for Key’s claims is, his mind was “fogged” most the time, on booze and the “strange” effects it has.
Mainly it is mainly the MSM that ignored all Key’s blatant lies.
Thanks, karol. My faith in “the watchers” is partially restored and, yeah, I was having a crack at the indolent MSM. It would seem cheerleading has replaced analysis, fact-checking, and cynicism has in political reporting these days. In my defence I did say “I have not seen” but, I guess, it might be my own fault in that I am not a member of the twitosphere. Being as palaverous as I am, there’s never enough characters ; )
Do you think twitter is worth joining? My impression from what I have seen is that one has to do an inordinate amount of “raisin plucking” which hardly seems worth the effort.
+100…very intelligent informed rant especially on John Key’s oil rort…(thankyou BLiP Rooster)
i might add Keys changes for education are most underwhelming…apart from the other factors which drive educational excellence and which the National govt has consistently undermined ….this is a USA Neo liberal inspired attack on teachers( it is being done in the USA)…blaming teachers by implication for for our unravelling international education quality and laying the ground for privatising and charter schools
…..why not just bring back the old school inspectorate to advise schools and teachers? ( this inspectorate was made of very experienced older teachers nearing retirement and deemed excellent at their jobs and they didnt cost much more!)
…. this would be without the huge cronyist monetary incentivist bribes to those Principals the Nact govt deems as ‘excellent’ to advise everyone else especially ‘under performing’ schools from low socio economic areas ( irony irony)
…..the potential for a cronyist fascist top down education is here imo….
….ie you are only an excellent Principal deserving of tens of thousands more in your pay packet if you are a Nact supporter and do not criticise the Nact govt
( and for God’s sake never teach critical thinking!)
And at the bottom of the ‘speech’ on ZB site there’s only 15 likes. and everywhere else I am reading comments usually along the lines of what about alleviating poverty, and buying teachers.
High performing principals.
What is a high performing principal?
What will the criteria be for such assessment?
More importantly, what are the criteria for determining a poor performing principal.
What is the role of ERO in this?
Oh yeah, league tables.
When are people going to learn that you cannot incentivise this particular profession.
You have to reduce the workload of teaching to improve the outcomes.
But a money trader probably will never understand that…
Metiria Turei nailed it this morning with ‘there cannot be any raising of education out-comes while a significant number of children are turning up at school unwell, unfed, and under-clothed'(my interpretation of Her quoted words from RadioNZ this morning)…
You’re are right; Turei can be relied upon to express the impact of specific social issues (poverty), on wider society (education). I only wish that you could endeavour to be as cogent.
Metiria was excellent, bad. Absolutely hit the nail on the head. Poverty is the problem, and it’s not solved by chucking money at an invented strata of elite teachers.
Karol, sorry if i gave you a wrong steer there, i am not 100% sure that Mets appeared on ‘Morning Report’ which is where i think i heard Her quoted, i think the news reader might have quoted what She said without providing the actual soundbite,(and i have translated from that),
David Cunliffe who i am sure i did ‘hear’ on the same morning report was even more specific stating that while there was some merit in the 300+ million dollars to be thrown into the education portfolio unless there was something done to change the stat of 1 in 4 kids living in poverty then the song will essentially remain the same…
John Hattie has done a ‘Meta Analysis’ of all the research on what influences educational outcomes. Hattie, John A. (2008). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement.
He compiled a list of 138 outcomes that influence educational achievement, in which socio-economic status and home environment rank well further down the list (i.e. poverty)
Clearly educational achievement is influenced by a lot more than simply “poverty” as Turei states. Others factors show to have more influence such as, teacher quality and reports on progress…
He compiled a list of 138 outcomes that influence educational achievement, in which socio-economic status and home environment rank well further down the list (i.e. poverty)
Yet well ahead of “Quality of Teaching” (source: your own link). It even has “School effects” on the list, whatever that’s supposed to mean.
The cynic would say a high performing principal is one who sees him/herself in line for a big monetary boost if he/she is prepared to learn the Crosby Textor education script and sing John Key’s praises. There always have been heaps of stinking big-fish-little-pond Tory schoolteachers.
Piss all to do with kids’ education all to do with retention and further cementing in of one-percenter power. And the corruption that goes with it.
Piss all to do with kids’ education all to do with retention and further cementing in of one-percenter power. And the corruption that goes with it.
+1 North.
Since when has this National/ACT government been interested in raising the standards of ALL children in this country? Never. Its not part of their political philosophy to see everyone well educated. Good grief! They might become better informed and that is the last thing they want to see happen. Worse, the MSM as we know it will also become better informed and that would spell disaster for them.
No, its about providing extra monetary incentives to get the kind of educators who are willing to become part of yet another corporate structure owned and controlled by the powerful few at the expense of the many.
Singapore & HK as educational models brings to mind Nationals historical fixation on Taiwan as a hi-tech exemplar for NZ. There does not seem much for entrepreneurship or hi-tech in this latest proposal.
You simply have to look at the appointments in the replacement to the Teachers Council to see what type of person will be the new Executive Principal. I would rule out any opponents of the National Standards/School Closure in Christchurch/Increased Class Sizes ‘initiatives’.
NZEI should be very worried because I would guess that Secondary School principals will fill most of these roles (It was very interesting to hear Key talk up his education and name his Intermediate and High School only and by omission dis Primary Education – a common theme of this govt). Primary Schools are seen as easier to bully because of the high number of females in the workforce and clearly a comparatively weak Principals Association and Union.
I feel quite sad that Education spokespersons seem blinded by dollars (for them) so far and that only the Greens and NZF have really seen through this bulldust. You know teachers and principals would collaborate more given the opportunity – the roles and money are simply about building a managerial system and giving the government power within schools to do things that they currently can’t do with schools run by Boards – for be sure the new Executive Principals will be the new masters here/
KiwiGunner, good point, in your first paragraph you point out 3 things which i would suggest if a principle in particular shows full support for will probably earn Him/Her that extra 20 to 50 thousand,
Charter schools being another, possibly a willingness to shove higher achieving students toward charter schools might make a good reason for National to annoint a principle as superior and thus deserving of a larger slice of the pie…
….and why does the Nact govt and Ministry of Education and Treasury keep taking advice from private consultants with no education background but who are influenced by USA Neo Liberal private education buinesses eg USA Charter School businesses….We dont need this commercial business model of education in New Zealand!
Labour and the teacher unions should be listening to our own Professors and lecturers in Education without a commercial axe to grind and who have years of international educational research annalysis under their belts
….what Nact is proposing will undermine our egalitarian education system…. into a fascist cronyist right wing commercial top down education system
Hekia Parata is just a pawn in the game for these ideas…she is not the originator
Ratana, at what is considered to be the start of the ‘political year’ are holding their main annual Hui at Ratana Pa over the next few days,
With 40,000 members Ratana, definitely what i would describe as a religous/political movement, has a huge influence upon the out-come of the Te Tai Hauauru seat in particular,
In what looks like a bad case of political suicide the Maori Party have selected a non-Ratana member to stand in this electorate upon the retirement of Tariana Turia,(who incidently is a Ratana adherent),
Other news from the Maori electorates has news reports suggesting that Labour believe that they can ‘take back’ all 7 Maori electorate seats at the 2014 election,
Shane Jones was questioned on this very point on RadioNZ National’s Morning Report, unfortunately as soon as Jones opened His mouth my brain(what’s left of it) immediately switched off,
In the age of MMP Labour need coalition partners,(with an S),do not they understand this, in the electorates of Te Tai Tokerau and Waiariki there is in fact 2 extra seats for ‘the left’ and why in the name of any deity you can care to name Labour would want to ‘win back’ these seats is beyond me,
Such an attitude is simply the politics of the past FPP system and Labour need urgently to address this issue as it may be the difference between opposition and government, adhering to the ‘moral high-ground’ over supporting probable coalition partners gaining a larger slice of parliamentary representation while National happily ‘gift’ seats to the bizaare, dishonest and unhinged, in my opinion is just plainly stupid…
Who do you reckon Labour should ‘gift’ the seat to, Bad? Are you saying Labour need to be as arrogant as National in order to lead the next Government? Language like ‘gift’ suggests you think Labour own the seats. They don’t. They have to earn the right to represent each seat, just like any other party.
Assuming you mean Labour should patronise/franchise mana, the obvious question is ‘why’? mana have given no indication that they would support a Labour led Government, let alone want to be part of one.
My preference has always been blocs announced pre-election, Phillip. Be honest with voters and say what the likely alternative Government is. That requires agreement now, not in the weeks after the election. I include mana in that, and as I said, there is no indication that they want be part of the next Government, so it’s sensible for Labour to fight and win all 7 seats.
btw, the mP have just announced they intend to support National. So at least we know where their heads are at. Up their arses, apparently.
Sensible??? now that’s as big a laugh as Te Ururoa Flavell telling morning report that the Maori Party ‘plan’ on winning 12 seats in the 2014 election,(obviously planning a future after Parliament as a comic),
Don’t you f**king ‘get’ MMP Te Reo, if Labour grabs say 35% of the party vote at election 2014 then that’s the number of seats they will have in the next Parliament irrespective of how many of the Maori electorates they hold,
Should the Mana Party exit the election with 2 of those Maori electorate seats then ‘the left’ have 2 seats more than it would have should Labour win those 2 electorate seats,
Slippery the Prime Minister will be running around the country during the election making much of the fact that a vote for either Dunne in Ohariu, ACT in Epsom, and Craig if National gift Him a seat is a vote for a National Government,
Given that, my opinion is Cunliffe will be begging for another 3 years of opposition if He takes the ‘moral high-ground’ and does not do exactly the same in the Te Tai Tokerau and Waiariki electorates,
Principles neither put food on the table or provide employment and a roof over your head…
I get MMP fine, bad. And the likelihood is that LP+Greens aren’t going to need mana to get over the line anyway. If extra support is needed, NZF are the most likely place it will come from. The real problem with giving mana a helping hand is outlined below in 4.1.2.1.
Befor i get to work this HAS to be answered, NZFirst, now i am starting to think you suffer from delusions,a disease of the mind,or at the least, an inability to move on from things that have long past,
You slate the Mana Party for not having declared it will support a Labour lead Government in favor of the dream of a cozy business as usual ‘Dream’ of a cozy coalition with NZFirst,
NZFirst’s stated position is that they will talk first with the Party who has the most votes, want to take a guess which Party that will be Te Reo,
If Slippery the Prime Minister needs NZFirst to form a third term Government do you think that the ‘used car salesman in chief’ will not agree to NZFirsts terms, more fool you if you do…
Um, bad, in your hurry to misunderstand what I wrote, you’ve made several mistakes. I think LP+ GP is the most likely outcome. That’s my dream ticket. I think LP+GP+NZF is also possible, or LP+one other and the 3rd providing support on confidence and supply.
I did not slate mana. I just pointed out the obvious fact that no-one knows what they intend to do, therefore they cannot be relied on to support a Labour led Government. That situation might change, but it’s over to mana to put their position. Until then, they don’t enter the calculations.
I think there is significant risk that NZF would go with National, but I’d say it’s 60/40 that they’d go with Labour, just so Winston can be the one to knife Key like Key knifed him.
Te Reo, now your just being a deliberate Liar, the comment i reply to here was posted at 9.20 this morning, track down the page a bit and you posted a comment attacking the Mana Party,(based on nothing), at 9.16 this morning,
You might forget what you wrote in the blink of an eye but the rest of us can see it here in black and white,
Your whole wrong-turn in attacking the Mana Party is in my opinion just cover for you being unable to admit that those of us urging the Labour Party to show support for the Mana Party in the Waiariki and Te Tai Tokerau electorates are in fact right when we point out that such support will result in another 2 votes for ‘the left’ in the next Parliament,
Your spurious attack on Annette Sykes and John Minto is just more of your bullshit unless you provide some evidence to back up the claims you make and i believe your dislike of the Mana Party is stirred by ‘some’ other reason and wonder what this might be…
“I get MMP fine, bad. And the likelihood is that LP+Greens aren’t going to need mana to get over the line anyway. If extra support is needed, NZF are the most likely place it will come from. The real problem with giving mana a helping hand is outlined below in 4.1.2.1.”
I’ll take that to mean that you would prefer the left to risk losing the election than considering Mana a coalition partner or a party for confidence and supply. And/or risk losing the election rather than making strategic decisions around where it stands people in the seats.
If you think Mana are the problem here, that they haven’t said that they would want to be in govt with Labour, what do you think they would do post-election if they were kingmakers?
“I’ll take that to mean that you would prefer the left to risk losing the election than considering Mana a coalition partner or a party for confidence and supply.”
Take that meaning if you want to. But you’d be wrong. Labour is going to stand in all the seats. Mana have not given any indication of why Labour should soften that stance. Only a fool would assume that mana are going to support the LP/GP Government. When Hone says they will, either before or after the election, cool. Till then, nothing changes.
“Take that meaning if you want to. But you’d be wrong.”
And yet nothing you have just said demonstrates that I am wrong and that you don’t really think that.
“Mana have not given any indication of why Labour should soften that stance.”
They don’t have to. All Labour has to do is understand how MMP works. Otherwise it’s gambling eg L/GP will get enough seats to govern on their own. I think what you are really arguing here is that you don’t like Mana and think it is too radical or something and would prefer NZF over relying on Mana. Pretty bizarre to be trusting Peters to form a left wing govt but not Mana.
“Only a fool would assume that mana are going to support the LP/GP Government.”
ok, so what do you think Mana will do post-election if they don’t support a left wing govt? Do you think they would allow the formation of a right wing govt if they had a choice?
There’s a cost to gifting a seat, which is the eternal tory rehash of “Labour does it too”.
The old moral equivalence thing which serves national far more than it serves the left.
And for what – an extra seat for Mana? If they can’t get up to 1.6% in this election (1 electorate and one list seat), then what good are they? Just another UF/ACT appendix-party that is corruptly used to inflate bloc votes.
Personally, I think that I’d prefer to see a party try to win using integrity and good policies for once. Hasn’t happened in a while – the Alliance was building good levels until shafted by its saviourleader.
It’s not 2 seats for Mana, it’s any seats. Labour wants them all. Read bad12’s comment if you still don’t understand how that could cost the left the election (although I’m sure you already do).
So my quesion remains. Would you prefer to risk another NACT govt rather than the left making easy concessions?
Don’t they have a reasonably reliable electorate seat already?
But even if they don’t, I don’t think that they are likely to be the difference between government and opposition. Because, as I previously stated, being seen to be manipulating the electoral system as shamelessly as national do could well cost labgrn as much as it gains. Yes, if labour only get 35% then mana might be essential. But if labour act with the same level of integrity as national, will they even get up to 35%?
We’re not looking at free money, here – there might or might not be a couple of dollars under a particular rock, and we might or might not be kicked in the arse if we bend down to look.
Cynically manipulating the electoral system might be the only thing that helps us win the election. In that case, no I’m not entirely sure I want the left to “win”. But it might also cost us the election, or at the least be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So basically things are pretty even. I’m happy to not bother looking under the rock, and I don’t think labgrn should be considering selling their souls quite yet. If labgrn don’t improve their polling, maybe. But it’s way too early to be making that call of desperation.
Ok, good to know, that the principle outweighs the reality of getting NACT out of power.
I don’t think what is being suggested is the same as what National are doing. No-one is saying that Labour should sponsor a Mana candidate in a Maori seat, or manipulte who Mana chooses to stand.
AFAIK, Labour granted the GP a concession in Coromandel back in the day so that Fitzsimmon could take the seat from the National party candidate. That was a history making move.
“Don’t they have a reasonably reliable electorate seat already?”
Depends who you talk to. The Maori seats are the wild card this election because of the demise of the mP. I haven’t looked at the past election results closely enough to know what the exact issues (eg 3 way vote splitting), and Maori politics seem to generally fall outside the scope of non-Maori to have a good grasp of. So who knows, but what is clear is that what you are proposing is a risk.
“We’re not looking at free money, here – there might or might not be a couple of dollars under a particular rock, and we might or might not be kicked in the arse if we bend down to look.”
I have absolutely no idea what you mean there. Care to clarify?
I mean that you’re looking at one side of the equation without considering the costs.
nactivists here already pretend that Anderton consistently got given an unofficial pass in Wigram. Not sure about the lab/grn gift in coromandel, but I think the point is that neither party were using it to boost their representation in parliament and thus change the government. If a labgrnmana govt gets in by one seat, I’m not sure it would survive the second election. But a legitimate majority might be able to last long enough to make a solid change.
And I’m sorry, but if labour choose not to stand in a Maori electorate, then that is sponsoring a Mana candidate. It’s as obvious as a cup of tea.
Good call Lanth. I got it wrong. I thought I heard Flavell say he wanted to keep working with National, but he actually said they would try and work with whoever led the Government. National was just one of the possible options.
MP Pita Sharples has distanced his Maori Party from National at Ratana, but Prime Minister John Key says Maori are better off under his government.
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Sharples, a former co-leader of the Maori Party, said today it was trying to separate itself from National and reaffirm its status as an independent Maori voice.
The Maori Party has supported National since its election victory in 2008 and that relationship is said to be costing the Maori Party support at a time when it is in danger of losing at least two of the three Maori electorate seats it holds.
When asked whether it was time for the Maori Party to move away from National, Sharples conceded “it probably is”.
“I think we’ve already started to be honest,” he said.
So you believe Sharples’ studied murmurings do you Lanthanide ?
I don’t. He exemplifies those in Maoridom who fancy themselves an aristocracy. Who when it comes to it value their personal relationship with Key more than anything else.
Where Paula Bennett as a former beneficiary has pulled up the ladder Sharples too has pulled up his ladder – the ladder of activism. It’s “tepu tepu tepu” for Peter now. Please…….no one mention “Beamer Beamer Beamer”. Or “knighthood knighthood knighthood”
My belief doesn’t really have anything to do with this little exchange.
TRP made what I considered to be a surprising statement, because I had never seen anything similar to what he’d said anywhere else. When asking for proof of the statement, TRP realised he got it mixed up.
I then found a statement that was pretty much to the opposite of what TRP said.
No, not at all, just asking for confirmation of what to me is surprising information, because I had never before seen any strict commentary on this particular subject.
Turns out my surprise was well and truly warranted, what-with the MP now saying they’re distancing themselves from National.
Reading the stats on the latest Roy Morgan poll I am at a loss as to how and why the Maori party are polling at 2%. Surely there aren’t that many Maori tories? I thought they would be lucky if they retained 1 seat, however seeing the 2% and hearing Tua & Rush are candidates makes me think their good for 2 seats. It’s a tricky one but I was optimistic that Labour would cut them off at the knees and reject any coalition arrangement just like they have with ACT and the Conservatives. There needs to be a concerted effort by left party’s to knock them out if not completely down to one. Stating the obvious, vote splitting in the Maori seats is a issue of concern. If? it is a tight election 1 seat may be the deference.
Are all the general seats using their manpower to get any voters for the Maori seats that live in their geographic electorate as well as general electorate voters? Upping the Maori seats turnout advantges the left generally does it not?
Skinny – Maori from the iwi leaders forum is almost exclusively made up of members who will vote National, they hold onto their baubbles of power steadfastly. Their job is wealth creation, and hanging onto that wealth – growing the pot – they don’t want to distribute it without some sort of payback. What wealth is distributed is like that in the old feudal system – for services rendered, for compliance to the wishes of the iwi leaders, and for being faithful servants.
Within Maoridom there is a sense of hierarchy, and yes, there are alot of Maori tories. These tend to be ones who never lost their rural roots even if they became urban dwellers.
Asking me questions such as these ones simply reveals a lack of thought on your part, refer to the comment above regarding National’s ‘gifting of seats,
In relation to who would Mana support in Government, really??? i find the question to be plainly dumb, perhaps you think the Mana Party other than support a Labour lead government would either support National or let no-one govern…
I have no idea what mana would do, bad. Neither do you. Nobody does. Which is actually my point.
If mana want to play a role in the next government, they need to say so. Labour are not going to walk away from a winnable seat just on the off chance mana decide post election to help out. Labour have never previously gifted a seat (though it’s fair to say they never actively contested my old electorate of Sydenham while Jim Anderton was part of the Government).
And given the sectarian/anti social democracy nature of mana’s advisers and leadership, my gut feeling is that they (or he) would sit on the cross benches, voting issue by issue. I can’t see Labour taking the risk, without clear evidence of a commitment to post election support.
ps, if anybody has evidence mana intend to actively support LP/GP, I’d be pleased to see it. Anyone?
Te Reo, i have work to do, this comment raises some points that demand an answer and it would help if you didn’t generalize with your attack on the Mana Party, try naming names when you make such accusations against the Mana Party’s advisers and leaders,
Will definitely come back to this comment once the mahi is done…
“If mana want to play a role in the next government, they need to say so.” No they don’t – you know any seat is winnable on the day but the last day they tested it it was not winnable for labour so not sure why you think it is now.
“And given the sectarian/anti social democracy nature of mana’s advisers and leadership”
pray tell who do you mean and compared to what? labour? NZF? Edit – oh I see who you are meaning – why add bomber he’s TIP now and John and Annette – no don’t agree with your analysis at all.
The fact that Mana haven’t made any definitive statement re support is canny and wise. If Mana support is not needed, so what? business as usual for the left in parliament. But no doubt in the future labour leadership will come down off their lofty mountains and crawl over the shingle to get the vote and support of Mana – just a question of when not if.
i suspect though that the machinations regarding how to deal/work with/cohabit with the greens will keep them very busy.
Fair comment Draco, but surely Labour must understand the MMP landscape by now, if the 2014 election turns out to be as tight as i think it might,(someone with a 1 seat majority), and Labour has ‘won back’, as the ongoing dialogue is wont to describe it, Waiariki and Te Tai Tokerau will they enjoy the next 3 in opposition…
+1 to BOTH those sentences (the loss during the 2k8 leadership change, and the competitive thinking)
Some more than others (the ABC and the leadership aspirants especially).
I’m hoping Cunliffe is thinking/acting methodically and strategically in order to bring about change given he knows exactly what some of his colleagues are about.
Roll on the big speech!
It’ll determine whether or not they get an electorate vote from me, and whether or not Labour will be around in 2020 to worry about
– check the opinion poll out as well, its quite interesting
‘A REALLY GOOD THING’
Post-Primary Teachers Association president Angela Roberts said the policy sounded promising, because it was being resourced.
“Teaching and learning and providing teachers with the time, and enabling them to teach and share their practice and have the time to do that, is vital to enable something like that to be sustainable and happen systemically.”
She said it was a good direction to move toward – away from a system that was struggling with teachers who were “stretched to capacity”.
‘GAME CHANGER’
Secondary Principals’ Association president Tom Parsons called it a “wonderful initiative”.
“It’s super, what a game changer, what a tremendous thing.
“They’ve taken the politics out of this and are just looking at the welfare and the benefits for every New Zealander at school now, and in the future.”
Parsons, who is principal of Queen Charlotte College in Picton, has been a critic of many Government policies in the past two years, including the introduction of national standards.
But he joined the PPTA in its view that industry involvement was crucial and the new policies would lift student achievement.
He said $359m was a “big deal” and would do away with the “real competition between schools for bums on seats”.
– Once again the Left have failed to realise that John Key is smart, very smart…at a stroke hes taken out one of the largest, most vocal opponenets of National
the Teachers Unions have been bought or they are politically naive…..this sharing of expertise could have been done by bringing back the old School Inspectorate …without the cronyist tens of thousands of dollars rewards for so called ‘excellent’ Nact compliant Principals
…it will not solve the decline of State Education in New Zealand …which has been starved of finance and support from this Nact Govt which is intent on rewarding privatisation of education
Teachers unions should be listening to University research education academic experts
I see the online Herald closed comments relating to Audrey Young’s crappy column yesterday after about half an hour. Judging by most of the comments that did get through I guess it’s because they didn’t really support the editorial line she was promoting.
LPRENT:
Do you think TS could save bandwidth costs if pages dynamically updated just those portions of the page that were new, ie new comments, edits, etc? Would that even be technically possible?
Government plans to put resources into teaching and learning rather than finance and administration are being greeted with optimism by PPTA.
President Angela Roberts said Prime Minister John Key’s announcement that $359 million would be invested in teaching and school leadership over the next four years was a positive one.
She praised his commitment to ““support a culture of collaboration within and across schools” and said the creation of principal and teacher positions to provide leadership and support across communities of schools marked the beginning of a collaborative approach long sought by PPTA.
The Principals’ Federation
Principals’ Federation President Phil Harding said the announcements were significant for both principals and teachers.
“It’s hard for me to say it but I’m pretty damned impressed. It is a huge amount of new money and I have never seen such a transformation of ideas and discussion into policy and money in my life. It has gone from a theoretical discussion about how the system needed to evolve and change just last year to the appropriation of significant resource.”
The Secondary Principals Association
Secondary Principals’ Association president Tom Parsons called it a “wonderful initiative”.
“It’s super, what a game changer, what a tremendous thing.
“They’ve taken the politics out of this and are just looking at the welfare and the benefits for every New Zealander at school now, and in the future.”
Easy to point out that it’s a win for the teachers’ unions. Which makes me wonder, cynically, exactly what’s in this for the National Party’s clients, and how they will betray the country when the fine print is revealed.
How about a link to what former head of NZEI Ian Leckie’s comments he has a far different view on this vote buying policy put together by Crosby/Textor, Joyce!
I agree Skinny This is best that I can achieve.
New policy not addressing underlying problem – principal ( 4′ 29″ )
The education sector reforms over-haul has been widely welcomed but has also drawn some criticism for not addressing hurdles to learning such as poverty.
Skinny
I don’t know who is shrill. Were you thinking of the Principals Federation speaker
Phil Harding? Sounds like a trade union just for principals? Perhaps more money for themselves is their principal principle.
It’s making education even a more attractive profit centre. There will be some great education trusts to invest in soon.
Advertisement notice.
An excellent way to invest in services needed by the public. A blue-chip investment with guaranteed growth profiles in uncertain times. When all else fails to provide a secure future and business growth in employment-rich enterprises even more money will be poured into education. Education is the magic ingredient that offers no surety of outcome but untold possibilities. Rather like a pokie machine, and we know how the punters love those, especially the ones who haven’t got much money to start off with.
That’s how I feel about the present situation. And hey, I hold to my principles, but if you don’t like them I have others. So if you like my prospectus for education, I come cheap, eager to earn more so I can get up to average earnings for NZ. Just drop me the word on the blog!!
I spend three days last week in Wellington listening to Academics and researchers from New Zealand, Australia, USA and England talking about the effects of National Standards and the directions being taken in education in their countries.
Margie Hōhepa
Te Reo Areare
Barbara Comber
Martin Thrupp
David Berliner
David Hursh
Meg Maguire
Bob Lingard
Lester Flockton (Facilitator)
Basically what the research found, and backed up by PERLS Data, was that the biggest stopper to all children succeeding in NZ Schools was the huge inequity gap between children living in New Zealand. That is not Deficit Theory, it is reality!
Then we had the announcement from Mr Keys about the huge money they were proposing to principals to “fix” schools. On the face of it, I can understand some principals thinking great, that’s extra money…. However I expected our principal leaders to have thought a little more deeply before leaping into support the concept in such glowing terms as the current President of NZPF did! I am aghast at the proposal, and astounded by Phil Harding,s statement’s in the New Zealand Herald!
Why?
The proposal:
(1)Presupposes that the sole problem of why some of our children are failing is an individual schools problem or fault. That outside influences or conditions or socioeconomics have no part in solving the problem.
(2)Is based upon the concept that National Standards results will be the measure of a successful principal
(3)Doesn’t give any support to the need for a Holistic Education for all our children, not just numeracy and Literacy
(4)Presupposes that you can fly in a “fixer” who will spend two years and depart leaving behind a “fixed” school!!!!!
(5)In my view, is the start of amalgamating schools under “one head’ concept rather than having the beauty of different schools with community input.
What we really need:
– Are decent support services covering not just Numeracy and Literacy and Leadership, but all Curriculum areas.
– Is a support service staffed by good practitioners seconded into it for 2-3 years and then returning back into the profession.
– A rebuilding of some form of trust between us the practitioners and the Ministry of Education, something that has been missing for quite a few years now, ever since they became the enforcers of political decisions in education.
One must also wonder if this is an admittance that SAPS and Ministry Advisers have failed in what they were supposed to be achieving. Will they continue in their present positions??
Well that’s my view for what it is worth. Check out the website link from above. What they say is based upon good solid research, and not as a result of some politicians thinking up another bright idea. $395million would have gone a long way to providing that badly needed support!!
Lauding the fresh flow of collaboration and cooperation between schools BUT how will that sit with League Tables? League Tables are a recipe for competition.
I find it very easy to argue with the contention that; “They’ve taken the politics out of this…” given that it was announced during the PMs State of the Nation speech at the start of an election year. Here’s Cunliffe & Turei’s take (from PRs stuff link at 6):
” Cunliffe said today he would give a speech on Monday that would set the broad direction for Labour’s plan. Education could not be seen in isolation from issues of poverty, the cost of living and the variation in standard creeping in because of national standards and charter schools, he said.”
” “Growing inequality in New Zealand is negatively impacting on our kids’ learning,” co-leader Metiria Turei said in a statement. “Sick and hungry kids can’t learn. This policy does nothing for kids and families living in poverty.” ”
Bradbury is as incendiary (and speculative) as ever:
any one saying that about this policy and the timing of the announcement has just put themselves in the idiot corner and shouldnt be given the time of day.
of course its political – fucks sake, its national announcing a policy that appears to be good for the teachers union!
Well, if it’s as great as you say, dickwads like you will learn how to avoid plagiarism when you cut and paste Farrar’s Daily Instructions for Toryboy Lickspittles.
I have always thought of teaching as a vocation or profession and it has always been called this in the media etc – so it was very very interesting to hear the word John Key used to describe it during his Education Announcements – He called it “the teaching industry” – so teaching is just a business now like any other business! That must be why the only people listening to his speech seemed to be business people – who incidentally PAID to be there, very unlike David Cunliffe’s speech which is to be totally free to hear!
I thought it was interesting how high he placed the value of the extra money in achieving the ends. That is the problem with these dye-in-the-wool neoliberals – they think people make decisions, and go about life, based to the bulk on money.
@ Hami
” “the teaching industry” – so teaching is just a business now”
+1
They just don’t get it! A very hollow man.
Have you also noticed various Natzi politicians have stopped talking about “learnings” too? (Soimun Brudjiss especially).
Not a good look when you’re about to announce a mayja jickashun polsee.
I haven’t heard ‘litrissy and newmrissy’ for a while either. No doubt the Natzi torking points and CT spin will be outsourced to any newly bonused Prince Pal.
Choosy, Thanks for your analysis. It clarified what I had yet to understand… it’s a swipe at teachers. Quite a clever framing of the issue and surprising that the teacher unions have only seen the dollars. Clever from Hekia? It’s saying the problem is with teacher performance and not poverty. Thanks again Chooky.
Asked if Mana would be looking for a high-profile name to give it the edge over Labour and the Maori Party in its fight for the Maori seats, Mr Harawira said he wasn’t interested.
“Mana’s got a job to do, and that’s to convince the voters that we are the party that represents the interests of the poor and the dispossessed – that’s the target we’re going for. We don’t need celebrities to promote that image…
“The Maori Party is with National and that’s the position that I want all Maori to understand – the Maori Party is with National, Mana is with the people.”
It is fantastic to know that Mana know exactly who they are targeting as constituents. We just need to help those people find hope.
NICE, well said Hone, based on the latest Roy Morgan the Green Party is polling where i thought they would be,(up), so as it stands i have a vote for the Mana Party…
Wow, three generations of (alleged ;)) criminals. Perhaps someone needs a motorway to help this family drive past them and commit crimes somewhere else.
Folks, in light of the need for Dotcom to pull his CD Launch/Party Launch party least he be in breach of section 217 of the Electoral Act I have some confusion as to how the law works in regard to the Green’s Picnic for the Planet planned for this Sunday at Waitangi Park in Wellington.
This event has been well advertised in local papers and karol refers to it her “Spot the difference” article. It’s a picnic so you bring your own food but there will also be food stalls, so as far as the food “treats” go, none will provided by the party as such. But what about the band? Minuet is the entertainment “treat” that is being provided.
Then I came across this article in our local paper, The Wellingtonian:
“In that case, it is hard to see how the Greens’ annual “Picnic For The Planet” differs from the Dotcom “Party Party” bash – it, too, could be construed as encouraging its attendees to look more favourably upon the Green Party.”
Seems it’s an annual event and I’m unaware of of any previous issue with it.
Just curious about the definition of “treating” and when and where it applies and when and where it doesn’t.
As for the event itself, it sounds like fun and it would be good to go along and see what Turei has to say – and then view the livestream of Cunliffe on Monday and see how startlingly different from Shonkey’s “state of the Nation” drone both speeches will be.
Hey Warbly, thanks for your link to the Victory suburb community development article two days ago on Open Mike. I did see it, and hope to get a chance to read it properly soon. Will be interesting to note the challenges the organisers faced and see where the issues over lap with the development we are on.
Hi Rosie
Good. Someone getting people together doing things and talking about doing things, and hinking about things and having a few minor festivals seems to get people going. There used to be a great community constable there who got mentors for teenagers who couldn’t read that well and were fazed by forms so they could go through the processes and get driving licences which opened up opportunities for them and I guess brought them up in their own esteem. He was very busy I think and stood down after a while for a quieter job.
Edward Snowden and Aaron Alexis—-of COURSE they go together! Pravda is alive and well, and operating in New Zealand Worldwatch, Radio NZ National, Friday 24 January 2014
At 12:45 every weekday afternoon, Radio New Zealand runs a feature called Worldwatch, which is billed as “Extending the news agenda to give you a global perspective on news and current affairs.” In fact, the agenda it follows is something different to the news agenda. More often than not, listening to Worldwatch is not much different than listening to an official broadcast straight out of Washington, or London, or Tel Aviv. Veteran newsman John Greaves announces these poisonous little propaganda pieces; sadly he seems to be immune to what is often outright political slant and sometimes even downright dishonesty.
Today’s edition offered two particularly grievous examples, one after the other. The first was from the BBC’s Mike Wooldridge, reporting from the Syrian “peace talks” in Geneva. After a darkly humorous interview with that embarrassed, bumbling corpse Ban Ki Moon, who failed dismally to explain why he has allowed himself to be bullied into excluding Iran from the talks, Wooldridge still managed to end his item with the obligatory swipe at one of the official enemies. With all the gravitas he could summon, he intoned: “Syria continuing to test diplomacy—to the limits.”
Still, in spite of that absurd parting shot, at least Mike Wooldridge did try to get some sense out of that useless South Korean timeserver.
The next item, however, was sinister. In a society that was serious about truth and justice, it would have led to outrage from listeners. But of course, this is New Zealand, a country which tolerates people like John Banks continuing to occupy a seat in parliament, and where politicians and news media refer to violent knife-killing enthusiasts as “victim advocates”.
Introducing the item, John Greaves read out that the Justice Department is taking a civil case against the United States Investigation, a private company that conducts security-background checks for the federal government. This action comes, Greaves intoned, because of criticism after the USIS had cleared Aaron Alexis, who killed 12 people in the Washington Naval Yard shootings last September—–and also Edward Snowden.
That’s a neat little exercise in character assassination. Aaron Alexis and Edward Snowden. Mass murderer and whistle-blower. Any journalist, in fact any person with an intellect and a conscience would surely see there was something wrong with that equation—but not John Greaves.
Lumping a mass murderer together with a champion of civil liberties like that was not an unfortunate accident. The spin-meisters in Washington thought very carefully about that press release. Reading out their cynical little dig at Public Enemy Number One was exactly what the clever folk at the State Department want and expect from responsible journalists like John Greaves.
Have Ratana got the right idea about politicising people and making it part of everyday life? Can individual parties combine for a big day out regularly, and government hold one where there are singers and political speakers and talk corners and chats over cups of tea and coffee (no alcohol or drugs). Something that is all political and so everyone has opportunity to be seen explain themselves and have a discussion. Time for politicians to be serious and have it interspersed with NZ entertainers. Let’s excite people. Dotcom wasn’t too wrong imo.
The Green Party are having a remarkably similar to what you outline launch to election year at Wellingtons Waitangi Park on Sunday starting at 10am,
Metiria Turei will give Her state of the nation speech, there will be food stalls along with various NGO’s explaining themselves and at least one live band,(hope the lousy Wellington summer behaves itself),
This should be a ripper of a gathering as radicalism in Wellington is mostly of the Green variety and i expect not 100’s to attend but thousands…
PS, Greywarbler, Ratana with 40,000 members is political, religious and social, social services being delivered through Morehu Social Services,
The real deal right across the spectrum, they do not put up candidates themselves,(although very few of those who have represented the Te Tai Hauauru electorate and Western Maori befor it have not been adherents of the prophet),
What is discussed at Ratana Pa this early in the new year goes on to be the topic of discussion on Marae throughout the lower North Island…
They sound so clued up. If only we were more like Maori, they had stalwarts in the culture and rights who led the way to overcoming the crushing changes to everything they had known to their place today. If we hadn’t had the Right Wing lefties, and the destruction of employment and the economy while they searched for efficiencies down every cul de sac of the Friedman maze, who knows how happy we could have been. Our squabbles would have finished with business still there to return to.
Their rise contrasts with ours which I feel has reached the Bell Curve zenith and is downward now. While Maori, still have the strength to push on upwards.
Should a war criminal be arrested in a restaurant?
The Panelists are amused by the very idea of it The Panel, Radio NZ National, Friday 24 January 2014
Jim Mora, Elly Jones, Sapna Samant
We join the panel pre-show, just before the 4 o’clock news….
JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! ELLY JONES: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! SUSAN BALDACCI: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! JIM MORA: Ha ha ha! Mmm-kay. What else? SUSAN BALDACCI: Oh yes! This story about a BOUNTY for attempting to arrest former British prime minister Tony Blair! ELLY JONES: He he he he he!….[snort] JIM MORA: A bounty? SUSAN BALDACCI: Yep! …[snicker]… The waiter in a restaurant in London, a gentleman by the name of Twiggy Garcia— ELLY JONES: HA! [snort] SUSAN BALDACCI: Well, Mr Garcia saw on the internet that there was a bounty being offered for anyone who tried to arrest Tony Blair on the grounds he prosecuted “an illegal aggression against Iraq”. ELLY JONES: He he!… [snort] SUSAN BALDACCI: He has no job now, but he does have the two thousand pounds! JIM MORA: And presumably Mr Blair resisted him and would not accompany him to the station? SUSAN BALDACCI: Ha ha ha! That’s right. Ha ha ha! ELLY JONES: He he!… [snort] JIM MORA: So he got 2,000 pounds out of it. That will encourage others to do the same now. SUSAN BALDACCI: Actually Garcia was the FIFTH person to put his hand on Tony Blair’s shoulder! ELLY JONES: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! SAPNA SAMANT: He he he he he he he! MORA: Sapna Samant, how ARE you?
He did not announce a reason for his resignation, but he is also running for a position on the InternetNZ council.
Vikram Kumar, who has previously headed Internet New Zealand and Dotcom’s Mega company, will take over as interim general secretary for the Internet Party.
Dotcom seems to be going through a lot of advisors and consultants.
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Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
A listing of 24 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 26, 2025 thru Sat, February 1, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is global warming ...
Our low-investment, low-wage, migration-led and housing-market-driven political economy has delivered poorer productivity growth than the rest of the OECD, and our performance since Covid has been particularly poor. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty this ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.As far as major government announcements go, a Three Ministers Event is Big. It can signify a major policy development or something has gone Very Well, or an absolute Clusterf**k. When Three Ministers assemble ...
One of those blasts from the past. Peter Dunne – originally neoliberal Labour, then leader of various parties that sought to work with both big parties (generally National) – has taken to calling ...
Completed reads for January: I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson The Black Spider, by Jeremias Gotthelf The Spider and the Fly (poem), by Mary Howitt A Noiseless Patient Spider (poem), by Walt Whitman August Heat, by W.F. Harvey Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White The Shrinking Man, by Richard Matheson ...
Do its Property Right Provisions Make Sense?Last week I pointed out that it is uninformed to argue that the New Zealand’s apparently poor economic performance can be traced only to poor regulations. Even were there evidence they had some impact, there are other factors. Of course, we should seek to ...
Richard Wagstaff It was incredibly jarring to hear the hubris from the Prime Minister during his recent state of the nation address. I had just spent close to a week working though the stories and thoughts shared with us by nearly 2000 working people as part of our annual Mood ...
Odd fact about the Broadcasting Standards Authority: for the last few years, they’ve only been upholding about 5% of complaints. Why? I think there’s a range of reasons. Generally responsible broadcasters. Dumb complaints. Complaints brought under the wrong standard. Greater adherence to broadcasters’ rights to freedom of expression in the ...
And I said, "Mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone"'Cause I can't go outside, I'm scared I might not make it homeWell I'm alive, I'm alive, but I'm sinking inIf there's anyone at home at your place, darlingWhy don't you invite me in?Don't try to feed me'Cause I've been ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ star is on the rise, having just added the Energy, Local Government and Revenue portfolios to his responsibilities - but there is nothing ambitious about the Government’s new climate targets. Photo: SuppliedLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
It may have been a short week but there’s been no shortage of things that caught our attention. Here is some of the most interesting. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt took a look at public transport ridership in 2024 On Thursday Connor asked some questions ...
The East Is Red: Journalists and commentators are referring to the sudden and disruptive arrival of DeepSeek as a second “Sputnik moment”. (Sputnik being the name given by the godless communists of the Soviet Union to the world’s first artificial satellite which, to the consternation and dismay of the Americans, ...
Hi,Back on inauguration day we launched a ridiculous RFK Jr. “brain worms” tee on the Webworm store, and I told you I’d be throwing my profits over to Mutual Aid LA and Rainbow Youth New Zealand. Just to show I am not full of shit, here are the receipts. I ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump over Gaza and Ukraine.Health expert and author David Galler ...
In an uncompromising paper Treasury has basically told the Government that its plan for a third medical school at Waikato University is a waste of money. Furthermore, the country cannot afford it. That advice was released this week by the Treasury under the Official Information Act. And it comes as ...
Back in November, He Pou a Rangi provided the government with formal advice on the domestic contribution to our next Paris target. Not what the target should be, but what we could realistically achieve, by domestic action alone, without resorting to offshore mitigation. Their answer was startling: depending on exactly ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guest David Patman and ...
I don't like to spend all my time complaining about our government, so let me complain about the media first.Senior journalistic Herald person Thomas Coughlan reported that Treasury replied yeah nah, wrong bro to Luxon's claim that our benighted little country has been in recession for three years.His excitement rose ...
Back in 2022, when the government was consulting internally about proactive release of cabinet papers, the SIS opposed it. The basis of their opposition was the "mosaic effect" - people being able to piece together individual pieces of innocuous public information in a way which supposedly harms "national security" (effectively: ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to stand firm and work with allies to progress climate action as Donald Trump signals his intent to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Jon Kroll and Aimee McCammon have been appointed to the New Zealand Film Commission Board, Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “I am delighted to appoint these two new board members who will bring a wealth of industry, governance, and commercial experience to the Film Commission. “Jon Kroll has been an ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has hailed a drop in the domestic component of inflation, saying it increases the prospect of mortgage rate reductions and a lower cost of living for Kiwi households. Stats NZ reported today that inflation was 2.2 per cent in the year to December, the second consecutive ...
Two new appointed members and one reappointed member of the Employment Relations Authority have been announced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden today. “I’m pleased to announce the new appointed members Helen van Druten and Matthew Piper to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and welcome them to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Coates, Program Director, Housing and Economic Security, Grattan Institute Marlinde/Shutterstock Most Australians can look forward to a comfortable retirement. More than three in four retirees own their own home, most report feeling comfortable financially, and few suffer financial stress. But ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The weekend byelection in the outer suburban seat of Werribee saw the widely-anticipated slap-in-the-face to Victorian Labor, which is absolutely on the nose. The question is: to what degree were electors venting against federal Labor ...
Mediawatch -Trump's alarmed the world with trade tariffs, turning off aid and proposing to take over Gaza. But New Zealand's had diplomatic drama in the news too - with the media in the middle of it. ...
By Rachel Helyer Donaldson, RNZ News journalist New Zealand should be robust in its response to the “unacceptable” situation in Gaza but it must also back its allies against threats by the US President, says an international relations academic. Otago University professor of international relations Robert Patman said the rest ...
A Christchurch man who lost 55 relatives in three Israeli airstrikes on Gaza says his remaining family will never leave, despite a US proposal to remove them. ...
Asia Pacific Report A national Palestine advocacy group has hit back at critics of its “genocide hotline” campaign against soldiers involved in Israel’s war against Gaza, saying New Zealand should be actively following international law. The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) dismissed a “predictable lineup of apologists for Israel” for ...
ACT Party leader David Seymour said he wrote to police about the treatment of Philip Polkinghorne because it's an electorate MP's job to pass on the concerns of their constituents. ...
MEDIAWATCH:By Colin Peacock, RNZ Mediawatch presenter By the time US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on China and Canada last Monday which could kickstart a trade war, New Zealand’s diplomats in Washington, DC, had already been deployed on another diplomatic drama. Republican Senator Ted Cruz had said on social ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown says New Zealand is asking for too much oversight over its deal with China, which is expected to be penned in Beijing next week. Brown told RNZ Pacific the Cook Islands-New Zealand relationship was reciprocal. “They certainly did ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Byelections occurred on Saturday in the Victorian state seats of Prahran and Werribee. The Liberals gained Prahran from the Greens by a ...
A long time ago, Brian Turner wrote a poem in which, among the mountains, as he slept on a river flat … My speechless ancestors played like mice among my dreamsand he woke to the river running over my bed of stone. I have come to know that where a ...
Pacific Media Watch President Donald Trump has frozen billions of dollars around the world in aid projects, including more than $268 million allocated by Congress to support independent media and the free flow of information. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has denounced this decision, which has plunged NGOs, media outlets, and ...
Otago University professor of international relations Robert Patman says New Zealand should provide a robust response to Donald Trump's Gaza plan, and also "should stop tip-toeing" around Trump. ...
The new minister of transport has opened the door for public consultation on at least some of the speed limit changes the government said would be automatic. ...
Officially, they’re called ‘memecoins,’ but Kōura Wealth founder Rupert Carlyon says the crypto world has another name for them: ‘shitcoins’.In digital finance, that phrase is used for tokens that have no true value – in essence, a money-grab.A few days before his inauguration, US President Donald Trump launched his own ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. Guy Williams has made a whole show off the joke that he is a “volunteer” journalist. So getting publicly owned by David Seymour while trying to act as a journalist is a good and timely reminder not to underestimate the nuance and ...
Many of Sāmoa’s beloved dishes are the result of cultural collaboration, writes Madeleine Chapman. All photos by Jin FelletIf you ever find yourself at a barbecue in a Sāmoan home, there’s 99% chance that sapasui (chop suey) will be on the table. For the past century, sapasui has ...
The funnyman takes us through his life in television, including Jono and Ben mayhem, live Telethon flubs, and funnelling all those experiences into his new comedy Vince. There’s an inciting incident in Three’s new comedy Vince where morning television presenter Vince Walters (Jono Pryor) is visiting sick kids in hospital ...
People often claim they just want Waitangi Day to be a celebration. At Waitangi, away from the headlined political acrimony and the marae ātea, celebrating is what most people are doing. The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous ...
Is there anything more fashionable than a Māori get together? One of the best things about Northland is that nobody cares what they look like — probably because they’re all naturally more stylish than the rest of us, famously. Māori from the Far North, especially. In 27 degree heat, wearing ...
I’ve been in love with him since last July, but it’s only now in this tepid hotel room that I find myself wondering why. The first thing he does when we arrive is smoke a cone in the bathroom – he emerges, hacking up a lung, fists thrust into his ...
MONDAY“Name,” barked a representative of the lower orders.I regarded him with a look of stern disapproval, and told him from up high, “May I remind you that I have name suppression. I shall also thank you to ask with more respect as befits a former president of the Act Party, ...
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A Late Reminder
So, I said I’d put a comment to remind those interested that we’re meeting up on Sat at 1pm at the bandstand in the Dunedin Botanics.
I said I’d put the reminder up this morning. I forgot.
So here it is. Buried way own this thread. What can I say…?
[lprent; That is easy to fix. Moderator edit (not quick edit). Change the date/time of the comment and you now wrote it at 0421 rather than 1421. Good practice is to leave a note stating what you did. ]
You could always get up at 6am tomorrow and grab the first spot on Saturday’s Open Mike ;-p
Or, apparently quite possible to sleep long and simply rely on some ‘standard’ time travel 😉
“Buried way own[s] this thread”
well..here it is..
..the song the green caucus could well be singing to the labour caucus..post-election..
..(clap along..!..eh..?..)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DohRa9lsx0Q
phillip ure..
‘
John Key continues to display his contempt for New Zealanders by launching the 2014 political year with an orchestrated litany of lies. Not that anyone especially noticed nor even, these days, seems to care about. Rather, John Key’s puppeteers had spend the preceding three days priming both Labour and (alas) the Greens as well as the press gallery chooks with the “big picture” meme of “education”, thus taking everyone’s eyes off the fact that New Zealand is being governed by the most mendacious Prime Minister in its history.
Take John Key’s comments about employment and the economy, as but one example. No one I’ve seen has responded to his “State of the Nation” bollocks that National Ltd™ has shredded worker’s rights, mocked the living wage, and put the employment law up for sale to the likes of Warner Bros. Its probably not a whole lie to say, as he did, that “. . . the economy will grow strongly this year. Our economic growth is forecast to be one of the highest in the developed world in 2014 . . . “ but where’s the analysis? The simple fact is that the apparent upsurge in economic activity is entirely predicated on trashing human rights, recovering from a natural disaster, and ruining the enviroment.
Among John Key’s big lies is his statement
Bullshit.
What ever surplus John Key manages to contrive is based entirely on the ACC rort and, his speciality, “funny money, rubber numbers” spreadsheet manufacturing. The idea that reducing debt is based entirely on neo-conservative wishful-thinking and bolstered by a school-boy error made by Reinhart and Rogoff. Even if it were true, why has National Ltd™ borrowed more than $50 billion in six years and sold off two prime income-generating assets? FFS.
Perhaps John Key’s most egregious lie was meticulously inserted into his introductory blather amongst a list of half-truths and platitudes. It concerns another of National Ltd™ ‘s shameful acts: the wholesale commercial exploitation of Aotearoa’s natural environment:
Bullshit.
Slipped out during the pre-Christmas news-dump was an Official Information Act release of 1800 pages of documents supporting Anadarko’s drilling applications. Hidden within those documents is the actual data concerned Anadarko’s “Plan A” for a “worse case scenario” oil leak. Anadarko’s “Oil Leak Management Plan” in the event of a major oil well blowout states that there will be a “best estimate” wait of 35 days while equipment required to cap the well is flown out from Scotland. That plan was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency which, in an Orwellian feat of National Ltd™ political management, does not have listed as one of its functions “the protection of the environment”. That’s bad enough. Yet, also released during the Christmas news-dump is the fact that National Ltd is about the change the regulations governing deep sea oil drilling so that applications such as Anadarko’s do not have to be publicly notified.
Sunmissions on this latest National Ltd™ double-dealing close on Friday next week. Geoff Cumming over at the New Zealand Fox News Herald has, somehow, managed to get a worthy backgrounder printed even if the anonymous leader writer(s) is shouting “drill baby, drill”.
/rant
Excellent rant. cheers.
more on keys’ litany-of-lies yesterday..
..and why the fuck do the corporate/access-media never call him on them..?
..when they are so easily-provable..?
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/ed-another-john-keygovt-lie-exposed/
phillip ure..
‘
No doubt the drop in crime is related to international trends – but only partially so. The real reason New Zealand’s crime rate has “dropped” is that John Key changed the method of gathering statistics. Previously, the statistics were “reported crime” so, say, if three neighbours all called about the same domestic incident across the road, that was counted as three reports. Now, its just one. Tricksy National Ltd™ is tricksy.
But wouldn’t that make sense given it is the same incident and counting the same incident three times would inflate statistics? It’d be like counting the number of cars on the road by how many people were in the car.
I mean, no matter how many people make a report it is still only one incident.
Each witness will have to be spoken to separately. More witnesses, more police time spent, greater cost. Makes a lot of sense to gather the reporting stats as well as the incident stats.
In any case, John Key is lying: it doesn’t represent a drop in crime, whatever stats you collect.
There are various “forcings” (to borrow a word from climatology) that affect the crime rate. Two examples: increased inequality increases crime, removal of lead from petrol decreases it.
The National Party enacts penal and economic incompetencies that increase the crime rate. And then lies about it.
“Makes a lot of sense to gather the reporting stats as well as the incident stats.”
Yes it does – but reporting stats reflect the amount of time and resources but doesn’t represent the amount of incidents actually occurring.
Counting three reports of the same incident as three separate incidents doesn’t make any sense.
“removal of lead from petrol decreases it”
Yes – a very interesting study/theory this was. Kinda fits doesn’t it?
BLiP’s point was that Key is lying, and he is. Pretending that changing the reporting method represents a reduction is dishonest, whether or not it makes sense to change the reporting method.
Well, Key lying isn’t anything new.
That said though – you can’t get a true picture of the crime rate if you are to include multiple reports of the same incident as representing separate incidents.
That depends what you need to know. If you want to know how crime has affected a neighbourhood the number of witnesses is a very important statistic.
In this case, was the decision to change the reporting method made by a statistician, or a politician (or political appointee)?
That’s true however if you want to get a raw figure on how many assaults (for example) have happened, if you count the number of reports over the number of incidents you’ll get a number not reflective of the crime rate. You might count 20 reports when there were only 4 assaults.
Assessing the community harm is a different bucket of fish all together. Are there any reports that do quantify community harm?
yep – the reported crime rate, as distinct from the individual incident rate.
PS: I take it this means that one violent incident with three victims (a mother and two kids, say) will now be reported as one crime.
“I take it this means that one violent incident with three victims (a mother and two kids, say) will now be reported as one crime.”
Well – it might be reported as a single crime (triple homicide say – looking at the worst case scenario) however the murderer would face three charges (3 counts of murder). So there is a strange dichotomy here in reported crime vs. charges faced. Not just in NZ either. Many countries might report one incident of a single incident (say crashing a car into a power pole) whereas the driver might face multiple charges (drunk driving, no license, dangerous driving, speeding, drug possession).
Hang on – did you just go into a big discussion about how stats on A don’t measure B, and then just dismiss the fact that Key’s lying is “nothing new” when that’s the entire point?
More people are affected by crime in dunnokeyo’s “brighter future”, and he’s solved that problem by deliberately undercounting the number of people immediately affected.
“More people are affected by crime in dunnokeyo’s “brighter future”, and he’s solved that problem by deliberately undercounting the number of people immediately affected.”
So if one murder effects 10 people that equals 10 murders? Or still just one murder?
The Standard is a weird place. Firstly someone argues the caffeine and sugar is more dangerous that a heroin/speedball and now reporting a single crime as a single crime instead of how many people called in to report it is a bad thing
[lprent: It is called “individuals arguing”. Individuals have varying ideas. But please examine the policy, especially the section about ascribing intelligence to a machine. I tend to be a little harsh in how I deal with individuals who transgress that with generalisations about this site. ]
The weirdest thing about commenters here is that the tories never seem to be able to focus on a subject for more than 30sec.
The argument as to whether the crime rate should be reported incidents, number of reports, or number of victims in each incident is irrelevant to the fact that Dunnokeyo has changed the scale and claimed that things have therefore improved.
No doubt at intermediate school he measured his dick using the inches side of the ruler, then used the centimetre side and claimed that he’d swelled to 2.5 size in 5 seconds.
Wait, what – I’m a tory?
no idea. But you’re arguing like one at the moment.
Errrr, right.
And to the mod – talking my impressions as the stand as a site doesn’t equal ‘ascribing intelligence to a machine”. It describes my experiences here.
People sure are twitchy and combative round these parts.
What do you expect on a political site? Friendly relaxed people having a good time?
Most people who take the effort to get informed enough to be able to participate in a meaningful way on a political site are usually frustrated because the world isn’t listening to their great ideas. They’re also usually smart and if they have been around the sites for a while – pretty damn bored with people saying the same old myths yet again.
There are nearly 14 thousand posts on this site with nearly 700 thousand comments. Most of us have heard it all before. We’ve also mostly found that tearing a strip off people whilst explaining why they’re wrong (and linking to to the explanations) tends to reduce how often we have to get bored by repetitions.
😈
well, focusing on the accuracy, suitability or reliability of statistical measures (be they crime, economics, health or human-made global warming) is something tories love to do, rather than giving more than passing acknowledgement (when completely unavoidable) to the fact that the tories are outright lying about the measure, anyway.
Judging by a couple of high profile cases looks like they ignore complaints =reduced crimes
‘
Ooops . . .
. . . and, yeah, the typos.
NOTE TO SELF: Early morning ranting on The Standard after getting pissed off by the New Zealand Herald and before morning coffee does not result in an exhibition of clarity of thinking.
This only gets a small mention in the Herald.
The New Zealand government’s operating deficit was bigger than expected in the first five months of the financial year after it reported a smaller take in corporate taxes and goods and services tax than it anticipated a month ago in its updated forecasts.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11191429
Double Dipton, your doing a heck of a job. Headline should read “Govt debt $400 million worse than predicted. As someone said the other day, it will be an interesting experiment when The Herald goes behind the pay wall.
BLiP: No one I’ve seen has responded to his “State of the Nation” bollocks that National Ltd™ has shredded worker’s rights, mocked the living wage, and put the employment law up for sale to the likes of Warner Bros.
It was much stated on Twitter at the time of the speech by many on the left.
Some examples:
Julie Anne Genter
And JAG again:
Bomber:
Myself:
And many more covered in Bryce Edwards’ collection of Tweets about Key’s speech.
I also thought I did mention it in my comments in my post update yesterday – but on reflection, I thought it was so obvious I just pointed out what Key had said. It is good that you directly spell out Key’s lies, BLip.
I did mention it in the front page blurb for my post. And xtasy posted some very critical comments about Key’s lies in the speech. At the end of his comment he wrote:
Mainly it is mainly the MSM that ignored all Key’s blatant lies.
‘
Thanks, karol. My faith in “the watchers” is partially restored and, yeah, I was having a crack at the indolent MSM. It would seem cheerleading has replaced analysis, fact-checking, and cynicism has in political reporting these days. In my defence I did say “I have not seen” but, I guess, it might be my own fault in that I am not a member of the twitosphere. Being as palaverous as I am, there’s never enough characters ; )
Do you think twitter is worth joining? My impression from what I have seen is that one has to do an inordinate amount of “raisin plucking” which hardly seems worth the effort.
+100…very intelligent informed rant especially on John Key’s oil rort…(thankyou BLiP Rooster)
i might add Keys changes for education are most underwhelming…apart from the other factors which drive educational excellence and which the National govt has consistently undermined ….this is a USA Neo liberal inspired attack on teachers( it is being done in the USA)…blaming teachers by implication for for our unravelling international education quality and laying the ground for privatising and charter schools
…..why not just bring back the old school inspectorate to advise schools and teachers? ( this inspectorate was made of very experienced older teachers nearing retirement and deemed excellent at their jobs and they didnt cost much more!)
…. this would be without the huge cronyist monetary incentivist bribes to those Principals the Nact govt deems as ‘excellent’ to advise everyone else especially ‘under performing’ schools from low socio economic areas ( irony irony)
…..the potential for a cronyist fascist top down education is here imo….
….ie you are only an excellent Principal deserving of tens of thousands more in your pay packet if you are a Nact supporter and do not criticise the Nact govt
( and for God’s sake never teach critical thinking!)
And at the bottom of the ‘speech’ on ZB site there’s only 15 likes. and everywhere else I am reading comments usually along the lines of what about alleviating poverty, and buying teachers.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/9633612/The-Logical-Conclusion-Party
Beat the aged and infirm, prosecute the sick. The logical conclusion of Colin Craig’s policies
High performing principals.
What is a high performing principal?
What will the criteria be for such assessment?
More importantly, what are the criteria for determining a poor performing principal.
What is the role of ERO in this?
Oh yeah, league tables.
When are people going to learn that you cannot incentivise this particular profession.
You have to reduce the workload of teaching to improve the outcomes.
But a money trader probably will never understand that…
@ logie..
..tho’ i was cheered by both cunnliffe and turia saying the real problem is poverty..
..(with the subtext that they will do something meaningful/substantial about/to end that poverty..?..)
..i live in hope..
..phillip ure..
Metiria Turei nailed it this morning with ‘there cannot be any raising of education out-comes while a significant number of children are turning up at school unwell, unfed, and under-clothed'(my interpretation of Her quoted words from RadioNZ this morning)…
Well she would say that wouldn’t she
PR
You’re are right; Turei can be relied upon to express the impact of specific social issues (poverty), on wider society (education). I only wish that you could endeavour to be as cogent.
+1
+1 and lolz
The PR robot seems to have been a bit anaemic lately.
Metiria was excellent, bad. Absolutely hit the nail on the head. Poverty is the problem, and it’s not solved by chucking money at an invented strata of elite teachers.
Thanks for the tip, bad – will go listen.
bad, I can’t find any audio with Turei on RNZ this morniNG – which segment did she comment in?
Karol, sorry if i gave you a wrong steer there, i am not 100% sure that Mets appeared on ‘Morning Report’ which is where i think i heard Her quoted, i think the news reader might have quoted what She said without providing the actual soundbite,(and i have translated from that),
David Cunliffe who i am sure i did ‘hear’ on the same morning report was even more specific stating that while there was some merit in the 300+ million dollars to be thrown into the education portfolio unless there was something done to change the stat of 1 in 4 kids living in poverty then the song will essentially remain the same…
No problem, bad. I found a similar quote on Newstalk ZB and linked to it in my post.
John Hattie has done a ‘Meta Analysis’ of all the research on what influences educational outcomes. Hattie, John A. (2008). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement.
He compiled a list of 138 outcomes that influence educational achievement, in which socio-economic status and home environment rank well further down the list (i.e. poverty)
http://visible-learning.org/hattie-ranking-influences-effect-sizes-learning-achievement/
Clearly educational achievement is influenced by a lot more than simply “poverty” as Turei states. Others factors show to have more influence such as, teacher quality and reports on progress…
Can’t actually get any meaning from that sales blurb.
Yet well ahead of “Quality of Teaching” (source: your own link). It even has “School effects” on the list, whatever that’s supposed to mean.
The cynic would say a high performing principal is one who sees him/herself in line for a big monetary boost if he/she is prepared to learn the Crosby Textor education script and sing John Key’s praises. There always have been heaps of stinking big-fish-little-pond Tory schoolteachers.
Piss all to do with kids’ education all to do with retention and further cementing in of one-percenter power. And the corruption that goes with it.
@ north..aye..!
phillip ure..
+1 North.
Since when has this National/ACT government been interested in raising the standards of ALL children in this country? Never. Its not part of their political philosophy to see everyone well educated. Good grief! They might become better informed and that is the last thing they want to see happen. Worse, the MSM as we know it will also become better informed and that would spell disaster for them.
No, its about providing extra monetary incentives to get the kind of educators who are willing to become part of yet another corporate structure owned and controlled by the powerful few at the expense of the many.
Don’t know why my comment @ 10:09am is in moderation.
Singapore & HK as educational models brings to mind Nationals historical fixation on Taiwan as a hi-tech exemplar for NZ. There does not seem much for entrepreneurship or hi-tech in this latest proposal.
You simply have to look at the appointments in the replacement to the Teachers Council to see what type of person will be the new Executive Principal. I would rule out any opponents of the National Standards/School Closure in Christchurch/Increased Class Sizes ‘initiatives’.
NZEI should be very worried because I would guess that Secondary School principals will fill most of these roles (It was very interesting to hear Key talk up his education and name his Intermediate and High School only and by omission dis Primary Education – a common theme of this govt). Primary Schools are seen as easier to bully because of the high number of females in the workforce and clearly a comparatively weak Principals Association and Union.
I feel quite sad that Education spokespersons seem blinded by dollars (for them) so far and that only the Greens and NZF have really seen through this bulldust. You know teachers and principals would collaborate more given the opportunity – the roles and money are simply about building a managerial system and giving the government power within schools to do things that they currently can’t do with schools run by Boards – for be sure the new Executive Principals will be the new masters here/
KiwiGunner, good point, in your first paragraph you point out 3 things which i would suggest if a principle in particular shows full support for will probably earn Him/Her that extra 20 to 50 thousand,
Charter schools being another, possibly a willingness to shove higher achieving students toward charter schools might make a good reason for National to annoint a principle as superior and thus deserving of a larger slice of the pie…
@ logie agreed
….and why does the Nact govt and Ministry of Education and Treasury keep taking advice from private consultants with no education background but who are influenced by USA Neo Liberal private education buinesses eg USA Charter School businesses….We dont need this commercial business model of education in New Zealand!
Labour and the teacher unions should be listening to our own Professors and lecturers in Education without a commercial axe to grind and who have years of international educational research annalysis under their belts
….what Nact is proposing will undermine our egalitarian education system…. into a fascist cronyist right wing commercial top down education system
Hekia Parata is just a pawn in the game for these ideas…she is not the originator
USA Professor Diane Ravitch on the undermining of State education and blaming teachers for poor educational outcomes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Ravitch
The National Party is following this agenda
Ratana, at what is considered to be the start of the ‘political year’ are holding their main annual Hui at Ratana Pa over the next few days,
With 40,000 members Ratana, definitely what i would describe as a religous/political movement, has a huge influence upon the out-come of the Te Tai Hauauru seat in particular,
In what looks like a bad case of political suicide the Maori Party have selected a non-Ratana member to stand in this electorate upon the retirement of Tariana Turia,(who incidently is a Ratana adherent),
Other news from the Maori electorates has news reports suggesting that Labour believe that they can ‘take back’ all 7 Maori electorate seats at the 2014 election,
Shane Jones was questioned on this very point on RadioNZ National’s Morning Report, unfortunately as soon as Jones opened His mouth my brain(what’s left of it) immediately switched off,
In the age of MMP Labour need coalition partners,(with an S),do not they understand this, in the electorates of Te Tai Tokerau and Waiariki there is in fact 2 extra seats for ‘the left’ and why in the name of any deity you can care to name Labour would want to ‘win back’ these seats is beyond me,
Such an attitude is simply the politics of the past FPP system and Labour need urgently to address this issue as it may be the difference between opposition and government, adhering to the ‘moral high-ground’ over supporting probable coalition partners gaining a larger slice of parliamentary representation while National happily ‘gift’ seats to the bizaare, dishonest and unhinged, in my opinion is just plainly stupid…
Who do you reckon Labour should ‘gift’ the seat to, Bad? Are you saying Labour need to be as arrogant as National in order to lead the next Government? Language like ‘gift’ suggests you think Labour own the seats. They don’t. They have to earn the right to represent each seat, just like any other party.
Assuming you mean Labour should patronise/franchise mana, the obvious question is ‘why’? mana have given no indication that they would support a Labour led Government, let alone want to be part of one.
stop dancing on the head of a pin..trp..
..it is called..mmp..
..you are arguing some fpp false-construct..
..a ‘purist’-argument like yrs..
..(especially when the other side has worked out how to work under mmp..)
..is just a recipie for electoral-defeat..
..lab/grns/mana need to all work together in this area..
..to ensure the biggest possible bloc of progressive-mps..
..after the election..
..anything else is blind-folly..
..phillip ure..
My preference has always been blocs announced pre-election, Phillip. Be honest with voters and say what the likely alternative Government is. That requires agreement now, not in the weeks after the election. I include mana in that, and as I said, there is no indication that they want be part of the next Government, so it’s sensible for Labour to fight and win all 7 seats.
btw, the mP have just announced they intend to support National. So at least we know where their heads are at. Up their arses, apparently.
re blocs..aye..
.and then those components of that clearly-defined bloc..
..should work together to ensure the most seats/best outcomes..?
..that they don’t ‘hurt’ each others’ chances..?
..you’d think..?
..which in reality will entail them all making concessions to each other..
..and what is wrong with that..?
..seems fair..
..not to mention..logical..
..the/any other way just ensures a smaller progressive bloc..in a best-case scenario..
..and/or defeat..in a worst-case scenario..
..and who wants that either/or outcome../
..eh..?
.with of course the/a seat ripe for plucking..dunny-brushes..
..being a prime candidate..
..lab grns should agree on one candidate..
..and not split the vote..
..and thus ensure we throw that bastard out..
..eh..?
phillip ure..
..
Sensible??? now that’s as big a laugh as Te Ururoa Flavell telling morning report that the Maori Party ‘plan’ on winning 12 seats in the 2014 election,(obviously planning a future after Parliament as a comic),
Don’t you f**king ‘get’ MMP Te Reo, if Labour grabs say 35% of the party vote at election 2014 then that’s the number of seats they will have in the next Parliament irrespective of how many of the Maori electorates they hold,
Should the Mana Party exit the election with 2 of those Maori electorate seats then ‘the left’ have 2 seats more than it would have should Labour win those 2 electorate seats,
Slippery the Prime Minister will be running around the country during the election making much of the fact that a vote for either Dunne in Ohariu, ACT in Epsom, and Craig if National gift Him a seat is a vote for a National Government,
Given that, my opinion is Cunliffe will be begging for another 3 years of opposition if He takes the ‘moral high-ground’ and does not do exactly the same in the Te Tai Tokerau and Waiariki electorates,
Principles neither put food on the table or provide employment and a roof over your head…
I get MMP fine, bad. And the likelihood is that LP+Greens aren’t going to need mana to get over the line anyway. If extra support is needed, NZF are the most likely place it will come from. The real problem with giving mana a helping hand is outlined below in 4.1.2.1.
Befor i get to work this HAS to be answered, NZFirst, now i am starting to think you suffer from delusions,a disease of the mind,or at the least, an inability to move on from things that have long past,
You slate the Mana Party for not having declared it will support a Labour lead Government in favor of the dream of a cozy business as usual ‘Dream’ of a cozy coalition with NZFirst,
NZFirst’s stated position is that they will talk first with the Party who has the most votes, want to take a guess which Party that will be Te Reo,
If Slippery the Prime Minister needs NZFirst to form a third term Government do you think that the ‘used car salesman in chief’ will not agree to NZFirsts terms, more fool you if you do…
Um, bad, in your hurry to misunderstand what I wrote, you’ve made several mistakes. I think LP+ GP is the most likely outcome. That’s my dream ticket. I think LP+GP+NZF is also possible, or LP+one other and the 3rd providing support on confidence and supply.
I did not slate mana. I just pointed out the obvious fact that no-one knows what they intend to do, therefore they cannot be relied on to support a Labour led Government. That situation might change, but it’s over to mana to put their position. Until then, they don’t enter the calculations.
I think there is significant risk that NZF would go with National, but I’d say it’s 60/40 that they’d go with Labour, just so Winston can be the one to knife Key like Key knifed him.
Te Reo, now your just being a deliberate Liar, the comment i reply to here was posted at 9.20 this morning, track down the page a bit and you posted a comment attacking the Mana Party,(based on nothing), at 9.16 this morning,
You might forget what you wrote in the blink of an eye but the rest of us can see it here in black and white,
Your whole wrong-turn in attacking the Mana Party is in my opinion just cover for you being unable to admit that those of us urging the Labour Party to show support for the Mana Party in the Waiariki and Te Tai Tokerau electorates are in fact right when we point out that such support will result in another 2 votes for ‘the left’ in the next Parliament,
Your spurious attack on Annette Sykes and John Minto is just more of your bullshit unless you provide some evidence to back up the claims you make and i believe your dislike of the Mana Party is stirred by ‘some’ other reason and wonder what this might be…
“I get MMP fine, bad. And the likelihood is that LP+Greens aren’t going to need mana to get over the line anyway. If extra support is needed, NZF are the most likely place it will come from. The real problem with giving mana a helping hand is outlined below in 4.1.2.1.”
I’ll take that to mean that you would prefer the left to risk losing the election than considering Mana a coalition partner or a party for confidence and supply. And/or risk losing the election rather than making strategic decisions around where it stands people in the seats.
If you think Mana are the problem here, that they haven’t said that they would want to be in govt with Labour, what do you think they would do post-election if they were kingmakers?
btw Can’t see a 4.1.2.1
“I’ll take that to mean that you would prefer the left to risk losing the election than considering Mana a coalition partner or a party for confidence and supply.”
Take that meaning if you want to. But you’d be wrong. Labour is going to stand in all the seats. Mana have not given any indication of why Labour should soften that stance. Only a fool would assume that mana are going to support the LP/GP Government. When Hone says they will, either before or after the election, cool. Till then, nothing changes.
5.1.2.1, sorry.
“Take that meaning if you want to. But you’d be wrong.”
And yet nothing you have just said demonstrates that I am wrong and that you don’t really think that.
“Mana have not given any indication of why Labour should soften that stance.”
They don’t have to. All Labour has to do is understand how MMP works. Otherwise it’s gambling eg L/GP will get enough seats to govern on their own. I think what you are really arguing here is that you don’t like Mana and think it is too radical or something and would prefer NZF over relying on Mana. Pretty bizarre to be trusting Peters to form a left wing govt but not Mana.
“Only a fool would assume that mana are going to support the LP/GP Government.”
ok, so what do you think Mana will do post-election if they don’t support a left wing govt? Do you think they would allow the formation of a right wing govt if they had a choice?
There’s a cost to gifting a seat, which is the eternal tory rehash of “Labour does it too”.
The old moral equivalence thing which serves national far more than it serves the left.
And for what – an extra seat for Mana? If they can’t get up to 1.6% in this election (1 electorate and one list seat), then what good are they? Just another UF/ACT appendix-party that is corruptly used to inflate bloc votes.
Personally, I think that I’d prefer to see a party try to win using integrity and good policies for once. Hasn’t happened in a while – the Alliance was building good levels until shafted by its saviourleader.
It’s not 2 seats for Mana, it’s any seats. Labour wants them all. Read bad12’s comment if you still don’t understand how that could cost the left the election (although I’m sure you already do).
So my quesion remains. Would you prefer to risk another NACT govt rather than the left making easy concessions?
Don’t they have a reasonably reliable electorate seat already?
But even if they don’t, I don’t think that they are likely to be the difference between government and opposition. Because, as I previously stated, being seen to be manipulating the electoral system as shamelessly as national do could well cost labgrn as much as it gains. Yes, if labour only get 35% then mana might be essential. But if labour act with the same level of integrity as national, will they even get up to 35%?
We’re not looking at free money, here – there might or might not be a couple of dollars under a particular rock, and we might or might not be kicked in the arse if we bend down to look.
Cynically manipulating the electoral system might be the only thing that helps us win the election. In that case, no I’m not entirely sure I want the left to “win”. But it might also cost us the election, or at the least be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So basically things are pretty even. I’m happy to not bother looking under the rock, and I don’t think labgrn should be considering selling their souls quite yet. If labgrn don’t improve their polling, maybe. But it’s way too early to be making that call of desperation.
Ok, good to know, that the principle outweighs the reality of getting NACT out of power.
I don’t think what is being suggested is the same as what National are doing. No-one is saying that Labour should sponsor a Mana candidate in a Maori seat, or manipulte who Mana chooses to stand.
AFAIK, Labour granted the GP a concession in Coromandel back in the day so that Fitzsimmon could take the seat from the National party candidate. That was a history making move.
“Don’t they have a reasonably reliable electorate seat already?”
Depends who you talk to. The Maori seats are the wild card this election because of the demise of the mP. I haven’t looked at the past election results closely enough to know what the exact issues (eg 3 way vote splitting), and Maori politics seem to generally fall outside the scope of non-Maori to have a good grasp of. So who knows, but what is clear is that what you are proposing is a risk.
“We’re not looking at free money, here – there might or might not be a couple of dollars under a particular rock, and we might or might not be kicked in the arse if we bend down to look.”
I have absolutely no idea what you mean there. Care to clarify?
I mean that you’re looking at one side of the equation without considering the costs.
nactivists here already pretend that Anderton consistently got given an unofficial pass in Wigram. Not sure about the lab/grn gift in coromandel, but I think the point is that neither party were using it to boost their representation in parliament and thus change the government. If a labgrnmana govt gets in by one seat, I’m not sure it would survive the second election. But a legitimate majority might be able to last long enough to make a solid change.
And I’m sorry, but if labour choose not to stand in a Maori electorate, then that is sponsoring a Mana candidate. It’s as obvious as a cup of tea.
you must be joking trp..
..a vote for peters/nz first is no longer ‘safe’..
..it was last time out..’cos the key-option wasn’t there..
..this is not the case this time..
..key has given peters the kiss of death..
..you are peddling false-medicine there..trp..
..peters/nz first is not an option this time..
..unless you don’t care about this gang of spivs getting back in again..
..phillip ure..
Now that is a very good point. Peter’s only option now would be to say that he won’t be supporting National.
and who would believe him?
Actually, I would. He knows how badly he got burned in 1996 when he went with National after letting it be implied that he was going with Labour.
Of course, I’m not voting NZ1st anyway.
In a king-maker position, MP would go with National? Really?
Got a link?
@ lanth..r u kidding..?
..surely it is up to you to show the link where/proving they won’t..?
..eh..?
..especially as flavell has already said he would support national again..
..you go first ..with yr link..eh..?
..phillip ure..
I’m not the one who made the claim, so I don’t have to prove it.
The real point here is I want to know if the MP has actually said it, or if it’s something that TRP has made up or insinuated.
Good call Lanth. I got it wrong. I thought I heard Flavell say he wanted to keep working with National, but he actually said they would try and work with whoever led the Government. National was just one of the possible options.
It’s toward the end:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2583319/maori-party-leader-prepares-for-ratana-celebrations
i heard that too..
he said he would talk to both..
..that is all..
..so like with peters..
..a vote for the maori party..
..is a possible vote to return key/the tories to power..
..both peters and the maori party..
..are not ‘safe’-votes..
..they are the parties you vote for when you don’t want anything to change..
..you want nothing done to fight/end poverty/inequality..
..both parties are full of people who would go-tory at the snap of keys’ fingers..
..(and i think that ‘not-safe-votes’-meme is one that should be widely circulated/repeated this election-year..)
..phillip ure..
And today: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9644043/Key-Maori-better-off-under-National
Distance yourself from the dog if you can Pita Sharples, shame that you’re still covered in fleas.
So you believe Sharples’ studied murmurings do you Lanthanide ?
I don’t. He exemplifies those in Maoridom who fancy themselves an aristocracy. Who when it comes to it value their personal relationship with Key more than anything else.
Where Paula Bennett as a former beneficiary has pulled up the ladder Sharples too has pulled up his ladder – the ladder of activism. It’s “tepu tepu tepu” for Peter now. Please…….no one mention “Beamer Beamer Beamer”. Or “knighthood knighthood knighthood”
My belief doesn’t really have anything to do with this little exchange.
TRP made what I considered to be a surprising statement, because I had never seen anything similar to what he’d said anywhere else. When asking for proof of the statement, TRP realised he got it mixed up.
I then found a statement that was pretty much to the opposite of what TRP said.
Whether I believe any of it is irrelevant.
lanth? are you naive?
No, not at all, just asking for confirmation of what to me is surprising information, because I had never before seen any strict commentary on this particular subject.
Turns out my surprise was well and truly warranted, what-with the MP now saying they’re distancing themselves from National.
Reading the stats on the latest Roy Morgan poll I am at a loss as to how and why the Maori party are polling at 2%. Surely there aren’t that many Maori tories? I thought they would be lucky if they retained 1 seat, however seeing the 2% and hearing Tua & Rush are candidates makes me think their good for 2 seats. It’s a tricky one but I was optimistic that Labour would cut them off at the knees and reject any coalition arrangement just like they have with ACT and the Conservatives. There needs to be a concerted effort by left party’s to knock them out if not completely down to one. Stating the obvious, vote splitting in the Maori seats is a issue of concern. If? it is a tight election 1 seat may be the deference.
Are all the general seats using their manpower to get any voters for the Maori seats that live in their geographic electorate as well as general electorate voters? Upping the Maori seats turnout advantges the left generally does it not?
Skinny – Maori from the iwi leaders forum is almost exclusively made up of members who will vote National, they hold onto their baubbles of power steadfastly. Their job is wealth creation, and hanging onto that wealth – growing the pot – they don’t want to distribute it without some sort of payback. What wealth is distributed is like that in the old feudal system – for services rendered, for compliance to the wishes of the iwi leaders, and for being faithful servants.
Within Maoridom there is a sense of hierarchy, and yes, there are alot of Maori tories. These tend to be ones who never lost their rural roots even if they became urban dwellers.
Asking me questions such as these ones simply reveals a lack of thought on your part, refer to the comment above regarding National’s ‘gifting of seats,
In relation to who would Mana support in Government, really??? i find the question to be plainly dumb, perhaps you think the Mana Party other than support a Labour lead government would either support National or let no-one govern…
I have no idea what mana would do, bad. Neither do you. Nobody does. Which is actually my point.
If mana want to play a role in the next government, they need to say so. Labour are not going to walk away from a winnable seat just on the off chance mana decide post election to help out. Labour have never previously gifted a seat (though it’s fair to say they never actively contested my old electorate of Sydenham while Jim Anderton was part of the Government).
And given the sectarian/anti social democracy nature of mana’s advisers and leadership, my gut feeling is that they (or he) would sit on the cross benches, voting issue by issue. I can’t see Labour taking the risk, without clear evidence of a commitment to post election support.
ps, if anybody has evidence mana intend to actively support LP/GP, I’d be pleased to see it. Anyone?
Te Reo, i have work to do, this comment raises some points that demand an answer and it would help if you didn’t generalize with your attack on the Mana Party, try naming names when you make such accusations against the Mana Party’s advisers and leaders,
Will definitely come back to this comment once the mahi is done…
Me, too, cobber. catch ya later (Minto, Bradbury, Sykes btw)
“If mana want to play a role in the next government, they need to say so.” No they don’t – you know any seat is winnable on the day but the last day they tested it it was not winnable for labour so not sure why you think it is now.
“And given the sectarian/anti social democracy nature of mana’s advisers and leadership”
pray tell who do you mean and compared to what? labour? NZF? Edit – oh I see who you are meaning – why add bomber he’s TIP now and John and Annette – no don’t agree with your analysis at all.
The fact that Mana haven’t made any definitive statement re support is canny and wise. If Mana support is not needed, so what? business as usual for the left in parliament. But no doubt in the future labour leadership will come down off their lofty mountains and crawl over the shingle to get the vote and support of Mana – just a question of when not if.
i suspect though that the machinations regarding how to deal/work with/cohabit with the greens will keep them very busy.
I think Labour are feeling weak and threatened by the rise of other parties especially considering that National are holding strong.
Fair comment Draco, but surely Labour must understand the MMP landscape by now, if the 2014 election turns out to be as tight as i think it might,(someone with a 1 seat majority), and Labour has ‘won back’, as the ongoing dialogue is wont to describe it, Waiariki and Te Tai Tokerau will they enjoy the next 3 in opposition…
You would think so and under Helen Clark I was pretty sure that they did but it seems that they lost it with the change in leadership back in 2k8.
The way I figure it is that they’ve drunk the Kool-aid and are thinking competitively rather than strategically and cooperatively.
+1 to that Draco…
+1 to BOTH those sentences (the loss during the 2k8 leadership change, and the competitive thinking)
Some more than others (the ABC and the leadership aspirants especially).
I’m hoping Cunliffe is thinking/acting methodically and strategically in order to bring about change given he knows exactly what some of his colleagues are about.
Roll on the big speech!
It’ll determine whether or not they get an electorate vote from me, and whether or not Labour will be around in 2020 to worry about
Thats human nature to a point I’d bet an mp with a borderline list position but a chance in a seat wont be terribly keen on cooperation…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9640616/Education-overhaul-targets-top-teachers
– check the opinion poll out as well, its quite interesting
‘A REALLY GOOD THING’
Post-Primary Teachers Association president Angela Roberts said the policy sounded promising, because it was being resourced.
“Teaching and learning and providing teachers with the time, and enabling them to teach and share their practice and have the time to do that, is vital to enable something like that to be sustainable and happen systemically.”
She said it was a good direction to move toward – away from a system that was struggling with teachers who were “stretched to capacity”.
‘GAME CHANGER’
Secondary Principals’ Association president Tom Parsons called it a “wonderful initiative”.
“It’s super, what a game changer, what a tremendous thing.
“They’ve taken the politics out of this and are just looking at the welfare and the benefits for every New Zealander at school now, and in the future.”
Parsons, who is principal of Queen Charlotte College in Picton, has been a critic of many Government policies in the past two years, including the introduction of national standards.
But he joined the PPTA in its view that industry involvement was crucial and the new policies would lift student achievement.
He said $359m was a “big deal” and would do away with the “real competition between schools for bums on seats”.
– Once again the Left have failed to realise that John Key is smart, very smart…at a stroke hes taken out one of the largest, most vocal opponenets of National
the Teachers Unions have been bought or they are politically naive…..this sharing of expertise could have been done by bringing back the old School Inspectorate …without the cronyist tens of thousands of dollars rewards for so called ‘excellent’ Nact compliant Principals
…it will not solve the decline of State Education in New Zealand …which has been starved of finance and support from this Nact Govt which is intent on rewarding privatisation of education
Teachers unions should be listening to University research education academic experts
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/obamas-race-to-the-top-wi_b_666598.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Ravitch
‘The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Undermine Education’ by Professor Diane Ravitch
I see the online Herald closed comments relating to Audrey Young’s crappy column yesterday after about half an hour. Judging by most of the comments that did get through I guess it’s because they didn’t really support the editorial line she was promoting.
LPRENT:
Do you think TS could save bandwidth costs if pages dynamically updated just those portions of the page that were new, ie new comments, edits, etc? Would that even be technically possible?
Wow! Great stuff
Educational Reaction
PPTA
Government plans to put resources into teaching and learning rather than finance and administration are being greeted with optimism by PPTA.
President Angela Roberts said Prime Minister John Key’s announcement that $359 million would be invested in teaching and school leadership over the next four years was a positive one.
She praised his commitment to ““support a culture of collaboration within and across schools” and said the creation of principal and teacher positions to provide leadership and support across communities of schools marked the beginning of a collaborative approach long sought by PPTA.
The Principals’ Federation
Principals’ Federation President Phil Harding said the announcements were significant for both principals and teachers.
“It’s hard for me to say it but I’m pretty damned impressed. It is a huge amount of new money and I have never seen such a transformation of ideas and discussion into policy and money in my life. It has gone from a theoretical discussion about how the system needed to evolve and change just last year to the appropriation of significant resource.”
The Secondary Principals Association
Secondary Principals’ Association president Tom Parsons called it a “wonderful initiative”.
“It’s super, what a game changer, what a tremendous thing.
“They’ve taken the politics out of this and are just looking at the welfare and the benefits for every New Zealander at school now, and in the future.”
Difficult to argue with that.
But they’ll try
PR
Not as hard as you try. But then, most of us aren’t paid by the word for commenting.
Easy to point out that it’s a win for the teachers’ unions. Which makes me wonder, cynically, exactly what’s in this for the National Party’s clients, and how they will betray the country when the fine print is revealed.
How about a link to what former head of NZEI Ian Leckie’s comments he has a far different view on this vote buying policy put together by Crosby/Textor, Joyce!
I agree Skinny This is best that I can achieve.
New policy not addressing underlying problem – principal ( 4′ 29″ )
The education sector reforms over-haul has been widely welcomed but has also drawn some criticism for not addressing hurdles to learning such as poverty.
From Morning Report on 24 Jan 2014
http://www.radionz.co.nz/search/results?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Ian+Leckie
or
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport
Cheers Grey that brings some balance into the shrill above.
Skinny
I don’t know who is shrill. Were you thinking of the Principals Federation speaker
Phil Harding? Sounds like a trade union just for principals? Perhaps more money for themselves is their principal principle.
It’s making education even a more attractive profit centre. There will be some great education trusts to invest in soon.
Advertisement notice.
An excellent way to invest in services needed by the public. A blue-chip investment with guaranteed growth profiles in uncertain times. When all else fails to provide a secure future and business growth in employment-rich enterprises even more money will be poured into education. Education is the magic ingredient that offers no surety of outcome but untold possibilities. Rather like a pokie machine, and we know how the punters love those, especially the ones who haven’t got much money to start off with.
That’s how I feel about the present situation. And hey, I hold to my principles, but if you don’t like them I have others. So if you like my prospectus for education, I come cheap, eager to earn more so I can get up to average earnings for NZ. Just drop me the word on the blog!!
Ha ha you will get a PR job offer by Joyce if he read that 🙂
I spend three days last week in Wellington listening to Academics and researchers from New Zealand, Australia, USA and England talking about the effects of National Standards and the directions being taken in education in their countries.
Margie Hōhepa
Te Reo Areare
Barbara Comber
Martin Thrupp
David Berliner
David Hursh
Meg Maguire
Bob Lingard
Lester Flockton (Facilitator)
http://www.education2014.org.nz/?page_id=296 is the link to all the PowerPoints of the presenters.
Basically what the research found, and backed up by PERLS Data, was that the biggest stopper to all children succeeding in NZ Schools was the huge inequity gap between children living in New Zealand. That is not Deficit Theory, it is reality!
Then we had the announcement from Mr Keys about the huge money they were proposing to principals to “fix” schools. On the face of it, I can understand some principals thinking great, that’s extra money…. However I expected our principal leaders to have thought a little more deeply before leaping into support the concept in such glowing terms as the current President of NZPF did! I am aghast at the proposal, and astounded by Phil Harding,s statement’s in the New Zealand Herald!
Why?
The proposal:
(1)Presupposes that the sole problem of why some of our children are failing is an individual schools problem or fault. That outside influences or conditions or socioeconomics have no part in solving the problem.
(2)Is based upon the concept that National Standards results will be the measure of a successful principal
(3)Doesn’t give any support to the need for a Holistic Education for all our children, not just numeracy and Literacy
(4)Presupposes that you can fly in a “fixer” who will spend two years and depart leaving behind a “fixed” school!!!!!
(5)In my view, is the start of amalgamating schools under “one head’ concept rather than having the beauty of different schools with community input.
What we really need:
– Are decent support services covering not just Numeracy and Literacy and Leadership, but all Curriculum areas.
– Is a support service staffed by good practitioners seconded into it for 2-3 years and then returning back into the profession.
– A rebuilding of some form of trust between us the practitioners and the Ministry of Education, something that has been missing for quite a few years now, ever since they became the enforcers of political decisions in education.
One must also wonder if this is an admittance that SAPS and Ministry Advisers have failed in what they were supposed to be achieving. Will they continue in their present positions??
Well that’s my view for what it is worth. Check out the website link from above. What they say is based upon good solid research, and not as a result of some politicians thinking up another bright idea. $395million would have gone a long way to providing that badly needed support!!
Lauding the fresh flow of collaboration and cooperation between schools BUT how will that sit with League Tables? League Tables are a recipe for competition.
SJ
I find it very easy to argue with the contention that; “They’ve taken the politics out of this…” given that it was announced during the PMs State of the Nation speech at the start of an election year. Here’s Cunliffe & Turei’s take (from PRs stuff link at 6):
” Cunliffe said today he would give a speech on Monday that would set the broad direction for Labour’s plan. Education could not be seen in isolation from issues of poverty, the cost of living and the variation in standard creeping in because of national standards and charter schools, he said.”
” “Growing inequality in New Zealand is negatively impacting on our kids’ learning,” co-leader Metiria Turei said in a statement. “Sick and hungry kids can’t learn. This policy does nothing for kids and families living in poverty.” ”
Bradbury is as incendiary (and speculative) as ever:
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/01/24/how-a-359m-budget-for-a-war-with-education-unions-can-be-sold-as-beneficial/
“They’ve taken the politics out of this”
any one saying that about this policy and the timing of the announcement has just put themselves in the idiot corner and shouldnt be given the time of day.
of course its political – fucks sake, its national announcing a policy that appears to be good for the teachers union!
A people really that gullible and easily led?
These negative people don’t really care about their kids education.
They just want more hand outs. The entitlement mentality is alive and well
That’s the most devastating critique of National I’ve seen all day, naki man. Nice work.
you should put that on a t-shirt..there..naki..
‘..the tories..they just want more handouts – the entitlement-mentality is alive and well..’
..well done..!..there..!..that person..!
..phillip ure..
Well, if it’s as great as you say, dickwads like you will learn how to avoid plagiarism when you cut and paste Farrar’s Daily Instructions for Toryboy Lickspittles.
I have always thought of teaching as a vocation or profession and it has always been called this in the media etc – so it was very very interesting to hear the word John Key used to describe it during his Education Announcements – He called it “the teaching industry” – so teaching is just a business now like any other business! That must be why the only people listening to his speech seemed to be business people – who incidentally PAID to be there, very unlike David Cunliffe’s speech which is to be totally free to hear!
It is all there is to him Hami and to him life is a dollar. Everything breaks down to a dollar.
The man is empty.
I thought it was interesting how high he placed the value of the extra money in achieving the ends. That is the problem with these dye-in-the-wool neoliberals – they think people make decisions, and go about life, based to the bulk on money.
That’s taught in the financial and economic schools as gospel. In their world people need to be incentivised and money’s it.
@ hami..
..i was there..
..it was like an undertakers’-convention..
..had all the charms of a pig-trough..
..at feeding time..
..phillip ure..
Brave you!
A reunion of the Creosotes no doubt
(again) ….. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXH_12QWWg8
@ Hami
” “the teaching industry” – so teaching is just a business now”
+1
They just don’t get it! A very hollow man.
Have you also noticed various Natzi politicians have stopped talking about “learnings” too? (Soimun Brudjiss especially).
Not a good look when you’re about to announce a mayja jickashun polsee.
I haven’t heard ‘litrissy and newmrissy’ for a while either. No doubt the Natzi torking points and CT spin will be outsourced to any newly bonused Prince Pal.
Choosy, Thanks for your analysis. It clarified what I had yet to understand… it’s a swipe at teachers. Quite a clever framing of the issue and surprising that the teacher unions have only seen the dollars. Clever from Hekia? It’s saying the problem is with teacher performance and not poverty. Thanks again Chooky.
Good stuff from Hone and Mana here
http://www.3news.co.nz/Harawira-Mana-doesnt-need-celebrities/tabid/1607/articleID/329583/Default.aspx
It is fantastic to know that Mana know exactly who they are targeting as constituents. We just need to help those people find hope.
Excellent. Seeing also some good recommendations for Hone from some Ratana people.
NICE, well said Hone, based on the latest Roy Morgan the Green Party is polling where i thought they would be,(up), so as it stands i have a vote for the Mana Party…
Yet again we see how there is one law for them and one for the rest of us http://laudafinem.com/2014/01/23/like-father-like-son-the-story-of-another-of-new-zealands-unwarranted-politically-wangled-name-suppressions/ I wonder how high up the influence was accessed to pull this off .
Wow, three generations of (alleged ;)) criminals. Perhaps someone needs a motorway to help this family drive past them and commit crimes somewhere else.
Folks, in light of the need for Dotcom to pull his CD Launch/Party Launch party least he be in breach of section 217 of the Electoral Act I have some confusion as to how the law works in regard to the Green’s Picnic for the Planet planned for this Sunday at Waitangi Park in Wellington.
This event has been well advertised in local papers and karol refers to it her “Spot the difference” article. It’s a picnic so you bring your own food but there will also be food stalls, so as far as the food “treats” go, none will provided by the party as such. But what about the band? Minuet is the entertainment “treat” that is being provided.
Then I came across this article in our local paper, The Wellingtonian:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/the-wellingtonian/9640347/Dotcom-party-ruling-sets-precedent
where Gordon Campbell states
“In that case, it is hard to see how the Greens’ annual “Picnic For The Planet” differs from the Dotcom “Party Party” bash – it, too, could be construed as encouraging its attendees to look more favourably upon the Green Party.”
Seems it’s an annual event and I’m unaware of of any previous issue with it.
Just curious about the definition of “treating” and when and where it applies and when and where it doesn’t.
As for the event itself, it sounds like fun and it would be good to go along and see what Turei has to say – and then view the livestream of Cunliffe on Monday and see how startlingly different from Shonkey’s “state of the Nation” drone both speeches will be.
@ Greywarbler
Hey Warbly, thanks for your link to the Victory suburb community development article two days ago on Open Mike. I did see it, and hope to get a chance to read it properly soon. Will be interesting to note the challenges the organisers faced and see where the issues over lap with the development we are on.
Cheers 🙂
Hi Rosie
Good. Someone getting people together doing things and talking about doing things, and hinking about things and having a few minor festivals seems to get people going. There used to be a great community constable there who got mentors for teenagers who couldn’t read that well and were fazed by forms so they could go through the processes and get driving licences which opened up opportunities for them and I guess brought them up in their own esteem. He was very busy I think and stood down after a while for a quieter job.
Edward Snowden and Aaron Alexis—-of COURSE they go together!
Pravda is alive and well, and operating in New Zealand
Worldwatch, Radio NZ National, Friday 24 January 2014
At 12:45 every weekday afternoon, Radio New Zealand runs a feature called Worldwatch, which is billed as “Extending the news agenda to give you a global perspective on news and current affairs.” In fact, the agenda it follows is something different to the news agenda. More often than not, listening to Worldwatch is not much different than listening to an official broadcast straight out of Washington, or London, or Tel Aviv. Veteran newsman John Greaves announces these poisonous little propaganda pieces; sadly he seems to be immune to what is often outright political slant and sometimes even downright dishonesty.
Today’s edition offered two particularly grievous examples, one after the other. The first was from the BBC’s Mike Wooldridge, reporting from the Syrian “peace talks” in Geneva. After a darkly humorous interview with that embarrassed, bumbling corpse Ban Ki Moon, who failed dismally to explain why he has allowed himself to be bullied into excluding Iran from the talks, Wooldridge still managed to end his item with the obligatory swipe at one of the official enemies. With all the gravitas he could summon, he intoned: “Syria continuing to test diplomacy—to the limits.”
Still, in spite of that absurd parting shot, at least Mike Wooldridge did try to get some sense out of that useless South Korean timeserver.
The next item, however, was sinister. In a society that was serious about truth and justice, it would have led to outrage from listeners. But of course, this is New Zealand, a country which tolerates people like John Banks continuing to occupy a seat in parliament, and where politicians and news media refer to violent knife-killing enthusiasts as “victim advocates”.
Introducing the item, John Greaves read out that the Justice Department is taking a civil case against the United States Investigation, a private company that conducts security-background checks for the federal government. This action comes, Greaves intoned, because of criticism after the USIS had cleared Aaron Alexis, who killed 12 people in the Washington Naval Yard shootings last September—–and also Edward Snowden.
That’s a neat little exercise in character assassination. Aaron Alexis and Edward Snowden. Mass murderer and whistle-blower. Any journalist, in fact any person with an intellect and a conscience would surely see there was something wrong with that equation—but not John Greaves.
Lumping a mass murderer together with a champion of civil liberties like that was not an unfortunate accident. The spin-meisters in Washington thought very carefully about that press release. Reading out their cynical little dig at Public Enemy Number One was exactly what the clever folk at the State Department want and expect from responsible journalists like John Greaves.
Have Ratana got the right idea about politicising people and making it part of everyday life? Can individual parties combine for a big day out regularly, and government hold one where there are singers and political speakers and talk corners and chats over cups of tea and coffee (no alcohol or drugs). Something that is all political and so everyone has opportunity to be seen explain themselves and have a discussion. Time for politicians to be serious and have it interspersed with NZ entertainers. Let’s excite people. Dotcom wasn’t too wrong imo.
The Green Party are having a remarkably similar to what you outline launch to election year at Wellingtons Waitangi Park on Sunday starting at 10am,
Metiria Turei will give Her state of the nation speech, there will be food stalls along with various NGO’s explaining themselves and at least one live band,(hope the lousy Wellington summer behaves itself),
This should be a ripper of a gathering as radicalism in Wellington is mostly of the Green variety and i expect not 100’s to attend but thousands…
PS, Greywarbler, Ratana with 40,000 members is political, religious and social, social services being delivered through Morehu Social Services,
The real deal right across the spectrum, they do not put up candidates themselves,(although very few of those who have represented the Te Tai Hauauru electorate and Western Maori befor it have not been adherents of the prophet),
What is discussed at Ratana Pa this early in the new year goes on to be the topic of discussion on Marae throughout the lower North Island…
They sound so clued up. If only we were more like Maori, they had stalwarts in the culture and rights who led the way to overcoming the crushing changes to everything they had known to their place today. If we hadn’t had the Right Wing lefties, and the destruction of employment and the economy while they searched for efficiencies down every cul de sac of the Friedman maze, who knows how happy we could have been. Our squabbles would have finished with business still there to return to.
Their rise contrasts with ours which I feel has reached the Bell Curve zenith and is downward now. While Maori, still have the strength to push on upwards.
Pravy Sektor (Right Sector)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/23/ukrainian-far-right-groups-violence-kiev-pravy-sektor
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25826238
Should a war criminal be arrested in a restaurant?
The Panelists are amused by the very idea of it
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Friday 24 January 2014
Jim Mora, Elly Jones, Sapna Samant
We join the panel pre-show, just before the 4 o’clock news….
JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
ELLY JONES: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
SUSAN BALDACCI: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
JIM MORA: Ha ha ha! Mmm-kay. What else?
SUSAN BALDACCI: Oh yes! This story about a BOUNTY for attempting to arrest former British prime minister Tony Blair!
ELLY JONES: He he he he he!….[snort]
JIM MORA: A bounty?
SUSAN BALDACCI: Yep! …[snicker]… The waiter in a restaurant in London, a gentleman by the name of Twiggy Garcia—
ELLY JONES: HA! [snort]
SUSAN BALDACCI: Well, Mr Garcia saw on the internet that there was a bounty being offered for anyone who tried to arrest Tony Blair on the grounds he prosecuted “an illegal aggression against Iraq”.
ELLY JONES: He he!… [snort]
SUSAN BALDACCI: He has no job now, but he does have the two thousand pounds!
JIM MORA: And presumably Mr Blair resisted him and would not accompany him to the station?
SUSAN BALDACCI: Ha ha ha! That’s right. Ha ha ha!
ELLY JONES: He he!… [snort]
JIM MORA: So he got 2,000 pounds out of it. That will encourage others to do the same now.
SUSAN BALDACCI: Actually Garcia was the FIFTH person to put his hand on Tony Blair’s shoulder!
ELLY JONES: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
SAPNA SAMANT: He he he he he he he!
MORA: Sapna Samant, how ARE you?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/twiggy-garcia-who-attempted-citizens-arrest-on-tony-blair-awarded-over-2000-9078074.html
Alistair Thompson has resigned from being Secretary of Dotcom’s Internet Party.. He didn’t last long there.
Dotcom seems to be going through a lot of advisors and consultants.
Alistair Thompson has resigned from his position as General Secretary of the Internet Party – no reason given in the article.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11191621