I see the Maori division of the NACT have now done a ‘deal’ on private owners of SOEs not being bound by treaty obligations and just listened to Pita the bread saying how being at the table gets their views across.
The hypocrisy knows no bounds with this mob, if you’re opposed you don’t allow any devaluation of your people’s rights but not Pita and the sell out crew. I see a provision that acknowledges there’s a treaty thingy and that’s about it no binding or adherence to it.
Radio NZ is reporting that a compromise on the Power Company share sell off treaty provision has been reached between the Maori Party and the Government.
Blinglish has apparently said that there will be a clause reflecting the concept of the existing treaty clause in the State Owned Enterprises Act.
But he says it will only bind the Crown, and not the 49% of private investors.
The current clause says:
“Nothing in this Act shall permit the Crown to act in a manner that is inconsistent with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.”
Essentially what it does is require adherence to the Treaty by the Crown.
It is hard to imagine how it could be watered down without the treaty itself being breached.
And if Government promises are true then why shouldn’t the entity continue to recognize the treaty. After all it will still be majority owned by the Crown won’t it?
Not so much a back track but a return to their traditional position of selling out after electioneering on slogans they had no intention of following through on……you know like no frontline cuts, no GST rise etc etc……sleep with dogs geez this scratching seems to be getting worse.
Well, that’s the end of the Maori party as a political force. But it’s not all bad. Ok, the treaty will be left out of the sale process, but the good news is that Sharples and Turia’s pensions have been suitably acknowledged.
And Labour’s, Lanth. I suspect they will be targetting the return of all the maori seats in the next election, though I have a sneaking suspicion they may not campaign too hard in Te Tai Tokerau if Hone proves to be someone they can work with over this term. And vice versa, of course.
I’m not sure that coming to an accomodation with Hone would be appealing to the swing voters Labour needs to attract back. He could be electoral poison.
Really interesting listening to Chris Carr from the Trucking Companies this morning lauding ther productitvity of Tauranga, Very scathing of the union at POA for affecting the viability of so many people for their own self interest. Basically said the only way it will change is if the Union isnt a part of POA. He stated that the shipping companies have told POA that their lack of productivity is costing the shipping companies $40 million a year. To many smoko breaks for the boys. I can certainly see why POA and Len Brown want this mess cleaned up with much more productivity coming out of the unionised work force.2% return is not enough for all the rate payers of Auckland
I heard someone (Daniel Silver?) from the ‘importers council’ on Radio New Zealand National this morning being interviewed along with Helen Kelly.
She wiped the floor with him. She had all the facts (quoting various official reports). All he had was unsupported ideology and a self-assured tone.
Oh, and something about Auckland being less productive than “other ports in New Zealand” (plural) which quickly turned out to be ‘Tauranga’ (singular).
Micky just very interesting to hear another perspective who has 3000 trucks ,and all the retailers they supply affected.
Not much love lost for the union from the truckies. Obviously believes the Union needs to go from the Wharf for it to be competitive. You can probably watch it on a lter news broadcast or on NZOOM
How is it the union’s fault james111? What they are doing is well within longtime law. Perhaps the truckies should take their beef up with some other party. Or learn to operate their businesses within the known bounds of business.
National need to explain why they’re still promoting falsehoods about the potential returns from MOM asset sales, why they’ve dramatically devalued the current dividends and how they’ve managed to borrow $50 billion with practically nothing to show for it?
I’ve just discovered the editing/ABC toolbar. Is it new? Good work, Admin! When it allows me to edit a selection, am I changing words in the overall database or just as a one-off in my post?
Here’s another suggestion to add to the no doubt long list of not very practical things:
Instead of warning trolls on the first offence, why not have the system filter 98% of their comment out and add three dots. So when certain contributors insist on filling threads with circular arguments, unaware or not of their own contradictions and silliness, all we get is …
“You cannot have half the population supporting lazy bludging…”
“MUNZ are deliberately…”
and the less they write, the funnier it gets.
Fuc…
Bast…
H…
It would subject them to the same head banging frustration other people get reading their contributions and also provide islands of humour in the more serious topics.
@ Uturn –
A good idea, funny too. After reading the RWNJ stuff it gets to head-banging time here. The evolving human mind must be able to change something inside, that’s why we come to the blog, to discuss how this is best done, not to be clobbered by the clever kids who have found what arguments get them the most pats on the head from the sect family inhabiting their Truman suburb.
Someone already fixed it.
I’ll see if I can see the old version because I have plugin and some CSS that is dedicated to getting the tags that wordpress and KSES miss.
“..Nightmare and insanity are akin: mysterious and involuntary states that skew and distort objective reality.
One wakens from nightmare; from insanity there is no awakening.
Whether Americans live in the one state or the other is the paramount question of this era.
For two hundred years Americans have been indoctrinated with a mythology created, imposed and sustained by a manipulating cabal: –
– the financial elite that built its absolute control on the muscle and blood, good will, ignorance and credulity, of its citizenry.
America began with the invasion of a populated continent and the genocide of its native people.
Once solidly established – it grafted enslavement of another race onto that base.
With those two pillars of state firmly in place it declared itself an independent nation in a document that nobly proclaimed the equality of all mankind.
In that act of monumental hypocrisy America’s myth had its beginning..”
I went to Nemo-the-fish site here – with the heading of 34 hours to make input to Oz submissions on a marine park. But time is now down to few hours 12 now – It is easy to put in a submission, there is set wording in reasonable language and its worth being involved from here if only to ensure that when we visit Oz there are beautiful things in the oceans to look at. The submission site is in real time, your name will come up in seconds, and within seconds be joined by others from all over the world. A good flash crowd in action.
The four crooks running Lombard Finance have been found guilty of lying to investors. Presumably Senior Nat John Key will immediately begin the process of stripping Senior Nat Doug Graham of his knighthood.
In future reveiw the boom & the violent bust period that this failure is part of will become very recognised & studied. Currently the pain is being localised to the investors directly impacted, but the the true opportunity cost of not having a wealthy private funding base to invest in local industry and initaitives will beome more apparent.
A big legacy of the Labour Govt years will be the ‘asleep at the wheel nature’ they took to the finance investment era and the years of pain it will cause. This is Labours ‘leaky building’ syndrome.
Just shows what a lot of codwallop the so called Knighthoods are.
The only reason Kdey reintroduced this crap was to please his toffee nosed friends. And of course to get one just before he pisses off to Hawaii.
Helen Kelly spanks Daniel Silva live on air
National Radio, 8:10 a.m.
Veterans of the Usenet group nz.general may recall the name of DANIEL SILVA. His contributions were brief, and usually uninteresting, but he always proved to be a reliable third or fourth person into the fray whenever someone like Redbaiter or Sue Bilstein or Wee Willie Wonka wrote something attacking Māori or green activists or unions, and supporting things like the Bainimarama coup in Fiji or the use of cluster munitions against civilian populations—hardly a surprise, as Silva is from Portugal, and was a supporter of the fascist Salazar regime, which was overthrown in 1974.
Silva’s inability to argue his case coherently possibly stems from the fact that English is not his native tongue, but probably it has more to do with his deep-seated arrogance and complacency. He is the
Secretary of the Importers’ Institute, and he is clearly not accustomed to being challenged and contradicted, as he was by CTU president Helen Kelly when he unwisely tried to argue with her on
National Radio this morning. Here are a few highlights (although poor old Daniel Silva might not call them highlights)….
SIMON MERCEP: What are you going to do with the workers? Sack them?
DANIEL SILVA: Yes.
HELEN KELLY: Ha! What a cheerful character he is! This is just ruthless behavior by the Ports of Auckland. They want to reduce workers to the lowest pay, casualized, and precarious. The workers have offered to make significant concessions and changes.
SILVA: The Port of Auckland is the most inefficient in the country.
KELLY: That’s not true.
SILVA: Yes it is true.
KELLY: The government’s own Productivity Commissioner found that the Ports of Auckland is the most efficient in the country. This person is on his own saying the Ports of Auckland are inefficient. ….
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Just as in his nz.general days, Silva proved capable of nothing other than angry, practically incoherent bluster. He must have been fuming in dumb, black rage as Helen Kelly got in the last word so eloquently.
Actually, he lapsed into a gloomy silence for most of the interview. Helen Kelly knew her facts and he did not, and he realized the audience would know that too.
It’s noteworthy that Helen Kelly was present when the hopelessly flustered Alisdire Thompson degenerated into a ludicrous rant against women last year. She’s much too smart for these old fellows that are not used to rigorously debating a point.
The pity of it is that there are far too few instances of people standing up to bullies like Thompson and Silva. A few moments stand out, however: in 2010, Sue Bradford confronted John Barnett and Paul Holmes on the piss-poor Q&A, and on Jim Mora’s National Radio programme, I’ve heard Gordon Campbell challenge aggressive and ill-informed comments by Graham Bell and Richard Griffin. Both Bell and Griffin backed down from their extreme statements immediately, with Griffin going to the most pathetic lengths to ingratiate himself.
National have been trumpeting Air New Zealand as working example of the mixed ownership model. Well, now we find out that Air NZ is about to to jettison jobs.
Privatising of our assets in the MOM means that “our” SOEs are going to be under even more pressure to adhere to that most iniquitous maxim that drives the capitalist world….
The sole responsibility of the organisation/CEO is to maximise profits for the share holder.
If the profit is not high enough to satisfy shareholders then we will see NZdrs losing their jobs because other NZdrs (and the foreigners who buy the on sold shares) want, not just a modest return, but a maximised return on their investments.
Attribution error or the deliberate misappropriation of the supposedly independent voice of the Fourth Estate?
In today’s Herald ostensibly by Audrey Young: (last two paragraphs)
“Most nights on television we see the consequences of countries in Europe … borrowing too much. We don’t want that for New Zealand.”
The Government was spending and borrowing more than it could afford into the future. So it made sense to reorganise the Government’s assets and redeploy capital to priority areas without having to borrow more.
…and the same paragraph again in the ODT this time author unknown:
“Our political opponents need to honestly explain to New Zealanders why it would be better to borrow this $5 to $ 7 billion from overseas lenders at a time when the world is awash with debt and consequent risks.”
The Government was spending and borrowing more than it could afford into the future. So it made sense to reorganise its assets and redeploy capital to priority areas without having to borrow more.
The omission of quotation marks to indicate source and bias is unacceptable.
The MSM is waging a propaganda war against the people of New Zealand – they must be held to account.
…The author of the paragraph for those that couldn’t guess from the tone or too lazy to do the google is none other than the (dis) honourable Bling-lish.
You’ve recently embarrassed yourself by revealing how little you know about the situation in Palestine. I’m sure I’m not the only person to have expressed concern at your almost total lack of knowledge. You need to educate yourself, pronto.
Here’s a start for you. Please don’t try to say you can’t spare two minutes and ten seconds….
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New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
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Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
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 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 crux of my message today is that New Zealand needs to bend two curves. One is the long-term economic growth trajectory, which needs to bend upwards to expand our productive capacity and national real incomes. The second is our net public debt ...
The Jono & Ben star is self-aware and surrounded by extraordinary women in Three’s latest local comedy series. The first episode of Vince, written by and starring Jono Pryor, opens with intrigue, a loincloth and a man in the middle of some kind of breakdown. As the titular character, a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Barclay, ARC Future Fellow and Professor, Macquarie University Wikimedia “1,000 Letters and 15,000 Kisses” screamed the headline in an 1898 edition of the English newspaper, the Halifax Evening Courier. Harriet Ann McLean, a 32-year-old laundry maid, was suing Francis ...
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NONFICTION1 Understanding Te Tiriti by Roimata Smail (Wai Ako Books, $25)Number one with a bullet of common sense and concise thinking on the Treaty, boiled down to 32 pages. A free copy of the most important book in New Zealand right now was up for grabs in last week’s giveaway ...
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I see the Maori division of the NACT have now done a ‘deal’ on private owners of SOEs not being bound by treaty obligations and just listened to Pita the bread saying how being at the table gets their views across.
The hypocrisy knows no bounds with this mob, if you’re opposed you don’t allow any devaluation of your people’s rights but not Pita and the sell out crew. I see a provision that acknowledges there’s a treaty thingy and that’s about it no binding or adherence to it.
Snap TC!
The wriggleroom has been found as it was with the Foreshore and Seabed legislation. Shame on them.
http://mars2earth.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/wriggleroom-shame.html
And asset sales will not benefit Maoridom, it will benefit the Donna Hall’s, the Tamahere’s and the rest of the Maori elite.
Radio NZ is reporting that a compromise on the Power Company share sell off treaty provision has been reached between the Maori Party and the Government.
Blinglish has apparently said that there will be a clause reflecting the concept of the existing treaty clause in the State Owned Enterprises Act.
But he says it will only bind the Crown, and not the 49% of private investors.
The current clause says:
“Nothing in this Act shall permit the Crown to act in a manner that is inconsistent with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.”
Essentially what it does is require adherence to the Treaty by the Crown.
It is hard to imagine how it could be watered down without the treaty itself being breached.
And if Government promises are true then why shouldn’t the entity continue to recognize the treaty. After all it will still be majority owned by the Crown won’t it?
I smell a back track by the Maori Party.
Not so much a back track but a return to their traditional position of selling out after electioneering on slogans they had no intention of following through on……you know like no frontline cuts, no GST rise etc etc……sleep with dogs geez this scratching seems to be getting worse.
Well, that’s the end of the Maori party as a political force. But it’s not all bad. Ok, the treaty will be left out of the sale process, but the good news is that Sharples and Turia’s pensions have been suitably acknowledged.
Probably 1 seat in 2014 and then potentially zilch after that. Depends on mana’s performance I guess.
And Labour’s, Lanth. I suspect they will be targetting the return of all the maori seats in the next election, though I have a sneaking suspicion they may not campaign too hard in Te Tai Tokerau if Hone proves to be someone they can work with over this term. And vice versa, of course.
I’m not sure that coming to an accomodation with Hone would be appealing to the swing voters Labour needs to attract back. He could be electoral poison.
I’m not sure it’s the swing voters labour needs to attract.
And I’m not sure Labour should take any notice of the forthcoming sleaze campaign that insider just hinted at.
Acshully I would call the Maori party at the moment a political farce.
Really interesting listening to Chris Carr from the Trucking Companies this morning lauding ther productitvity of Tauranga, Very scathing of the union at POA for affecting the viability of so many people for their own self interest. Basically said the only way it will change is if the Union isnt a part of POA. He stated that the shipping companies have told POA that their lack of productivity is costing the shipping companies $40 million a year. To many smoko breaks for the boys. I can certainly see why POA and Len Brown want this mess cleaned up with much more productivity coming out of the unionised work force.2% return is not enough for all the rate payers of Auckland
Where does it say that NZ ports should be addressing the profitability of overseas shipping companies.
Mearsk and others are making good profits running to Australia despite higher port costs and lower freight rates than they charge New Zealand.
You are saying we should gift a further 40 million to offshore companies.
If it was a local company, a good argument for a discount. But POAL do not give volume discounts to the local companies.
Not to mention. If, unlike Farrer, you add the costs of contract labour onto Tauranga’s costs.
Typical RWNJ statistics..
AUCKLAND COSTS LESS PER CONTAINER.
I heard someone (Daniel Silver?) from the ‘importers council’ on Radio New Zealand National this morning being interviewed along with Helen Kelly.
She wiped the floor with him. She had all the facts (quoting various official reports). All he had was unsupported ideology and a self-assured tone.
Oh, and something about Auckland being less productive than “other ports in New Zealand” (plural) which quickly turned out to be ‘Tauranga’ (singular).
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20120224-0809-call_for_council_govt_to_intervene_in_auckland_port_dispute-048.mp3
James and Gossie are on CT patrol today.
Did you know James that Tauranga spent last year $59.2m on employees and Auckland $51.9m the year before?
And the boyos got a productivity bonus paid to them recently?
And there have been three deaths on Tauranga Port in the past couple of years and none in Auckland for many years?
James cant read Micky, and if he could he would also know that Mainfreight are behind MUNZ action…
Micky just very interesting to hear another perspective who has 3000 trucks ,and all the retailers they supply affected.
Not much love lost for the union from the truckies. Obviously believes the Union needs to go from the Wharf for it to be competitive. You can probably watch it on a lter news broadcast or on NZOOM
How is it the union’s fault james111? What they are doing is well within longtime law. Perhaps the truckies should take their beef up with some other party. Or learn to operate their businesses within the known bounds of business.
Education and revolution in Tonga:
http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/meeting-michael-horowitz.html
Bill English – Asshole of the Week
National need to explain why they’re still promoting falsehoods about the potential returns from MOM asset sales, why they’ve dramatically devalued the current dividends and how they’ve managed to borrow $50 billion with practically nothing to show for it?
I’ve just discovered the editing/ABC toolbar. Is it new? Good work, Admin! When it allows me to edit a selection, am I changing words in the overall database or just as a one-off in my post?
Here’s another suggestion to add to the no doubt long list of not very practical things:
Instead of warning trolls on the first offence, why not have the system filter 98% of their comment out and add three dots. So when certain contributors insist on filling threads with circular arguments, unaware or not of their own contradictions and silliness, all we get is …
“You cannot have half the population supporting lazy bludging…”
“MUNZ are deliberately…”
and the less they write, the funnier it gets.
Fuc…
Bast…
H…
It would subject them to the same head banging frustration other people get reading their contributions and also provide islands of humour in the more serious topics.
@ Uturn –
A good idea, funny too. After reading the RWNJ stuff it gets to head-banging time here. The evolving human mind must be able to change something inside, that’s why we come to the blog, to discuss how this is best done, not to be clobbered by the clever kids who have found what arguments get them the most pats on the head from the sect family inhabiting their Truman suburb.
Like that idea – can we start with Gossy and James111 please. BTW whatever happened to Pete George, is he on a ban? Strangely missing his nonsense!
Back on the 5th according to the bans list.
Yeah the missing morning comment at the top of OpenMike….
PG is “busy” on the Dimpost, making lots of friends (not) and some derogatory remarks re the Standard.
Lynn is there something wrong with this page? My comment at 4 has been obliterated and I think I may have done something funny with the html …
lol Micky. I think you may have inadvertently introduced an open tag within your comment which has messed up the html across the rest of the page 🙂
Someone already fixed it.
I’ll see if I can see the old version because I have plugin and some CSS that is dedicated to getting the tags that wordpress and KSES miss.
Oops sorry …
http://whoar.co.nz/2012/the-american-myth-ed-i-dont-often-say-must-watch-video-but-this-is-one-time-i-will/
“..Nightmare and insanity are akin: mysterious and involuntary states that skew and distort objective reality.
One wakens from nightmare; from insanity there is no awakening.
Whether Americans live in the one state or the other is the paramount question of this era.
For two hundred years Americans have been indoctrinated with a mythology created, imposed and sustained by a manipulating cabal: –
– the financial elite that built its absolute control on the muscle and blood, good will, ignorance and credulity, of its citizenry.
America began with the invasion of a populated continent and the genocide of its native people.
Once solidly established – it grafted enslavement of another race onto that base.
With those two pillars of state firmly in place it declared itself an independent nation in a document that nobly proclaimed the equality of all mankind.
In that act of monumental hypocrisy America’s myth had its beginning..”
(is 22 mins long…)
phil-at-whoar.
Nice cameo by the National party at 21.26!
Have tried Firefox and Safari on my Mac but both have frozen on Open Mike.
Strange layout on this page.
Yes, strange settings here too.
My fault. Was trying to put the MUNZ petition on the right and getting strange effects.
I went to Nemo-the-fish site here – with the heading of 34 hours to make input to Oz submissions on a marine park. But time is now down to few hours 12 now – It is easy to put in a submission, there is set wording in reasonable language and its worth being involved from here if only to ensure that when we visit Oz there are beautiful things in the oceans to look at. The submission site is in real time, your name will come up in seconds, and within seconds be joined by others from all over the world. A good flash crowd in action.
The four crooks running Lombard Finance have been found guilty of lying to investors. Presumably Senior Nat John Key will immediately begin the process of stripping Senior Nat Doug Graham of his knighthood.
Yep, good job.
In future reveiw the boom & the violent bust period that this failure is part of will become very recognised & studied. Currently the pain is being localised to the investors directly impacted, but the the true opportunity cost of not having a wealthy private funding base to invest in local industry and initaitives will beome more apparent.
A big legacy of the Labour Govt years will be the ‘asleep at the wheel nature’ they took to the finance investment era and the years of pain it will cause. This is Labours ‘leaky building’ syndrome.
Just shows what a lot of codwallop the so called Knighthoods are.
The only reason Kdey reintroduced this crap was to please his toffee nosed friends. And of course to get one just before he pisses off to Hawaii.
Helen Kelly spanks Daniel Silva live on air
National Radio, 8:10 a.m.
Veterans of the Usenet group nz.general may recall the name of DANIEL SILVA. His contributions were brief, and usually uninteresting, but he always proved to be a reliable third or fourth person into the fray whenever someone like Redbaiter or Sue Bilstein or Wee Willie Wonka wrote something attacking Māori or green activists or unions, and supporting things like the Bainimarama coup in Fiji or the use of cluster munitions against civilian populations—hardly a surprise, as Silva is from Portugal, and was a supporter of the fascist Salazar regime, which was overthrown in 1974.
Silva’s inability to argue his case coherently possibly stems from the fact that English is not his native tongue, but probably it has more to do with his deep-seated arrogance and complacency. He is the
Secretary of the Importers’ Institute, and he is clearly not accustomed to being challenged and contradicted, as he was by CTU president Helen Kelly when he unwisely tried to argue with her on
National Radio this morning. Here are a few highlights (although poor old Daniel Silva might not call them highlights)….
SIMON MERCEP: What are you going to do with the workers? Sack them?
DANIEL SILVA: Yes.
HELEN KELLY: Ha! What a cheerful character he is! This is just ruthless behavior by the Ports of Auckland. They want to reduce workers to the lowest pay, casualized, and precarious. The workers have offered to make significant concessions and changes.
SILVA: The Port of Auckland is the most inefficient in the country.
KELLY: That’s not true.
SILVA: Yes it is true.
KELLY: The government’s own Productivity Commissioner found that the Ports of Auckland is the most efficient in the country. This person is on his own saying the Ports of Auckland are inefficient. ….
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Just as in his nz.general days, Silva proved capable of nothing other than angry, practically incoherent bluster. He must have been fuming in dumb, black rage as Helen Kelly got in the last word so eloquently.
Oh god, that blowhard! I remember him.. I guess it is true. In some people thinking merely makes the mind ruts deeper.
Noted how Silva’s voice became shrill as unaccustomed as he is to dissent….
Actually, he lapsed into a gloomy silence for most of the interview. Helen Kelly knew her facts and he did not, and he realized the audience would know that too.
It’s noteworthy that Helen Kelly was present when the hopelessly flustered Alisdire Thompson degenerated into a ludicrous rant against women last year. She’s much too smart for these old fellows that are not used to rigorously debating a point.
The pity of it is that there are far too few instances of people standing up to bullies like Thompson and Silva. A few moments stand out, however: in 2010, Sue Bradford confronted John Barnett and Paul Holmes on the piss-poor Q&A, and on Jim Mora’s National Radio programme, I’ve heard Gordon Campbell challenge aggressive and ill-informed comments by Graham Bell and Richard Griffin. Both Bell and Griffin backed down from their extreme statements immediately, with Griffin going to the most pathetic lengths to ingratiate himself.
What do right wing governments have in common? Well they seem to encourage their citizen to migrate – Kiwi’s to Australia and Brit’s to anywhere bar the UK!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/23/net-migration-britain-record-levels
National have been trumpeting Air New Zealand as working example of the mixed ownership model. Well, now we find out that Air NZ is about to to jettison jobs.
Privatising of our assets in the MOM means that “our” SOEs are going to be under even more pressure to adhere to that most iniquitous maxim that drives the capitalist world….
The sole responsibility of the organisation/CEO is to maximise profits for the share holder.
If the profit is not high enough to satisfy shareholders then we will see NZdrs losing their jobs because other NZdrs (and the foreigners who buy the on sold shares) want, not just a modest return, but a maximised return on their investments.
Attribution error or the deliberate misappropriation of the supposedly independent voice of the Fourth Estate?
In today’s Herald ostensibly by Audrey Young: (last two paragraphs)
“Most nights on television we see the consequences of countries in Europe … borrowing too much. We don’t want that for New Zealand.”
The Government was spending and borrowing more than it could afford into the future. So it made sense to reorganise the Government’s assets and redeploy capital to priority areas without having to borrow more.
…and the same paragraph again in the ODT this time author unknown:
“Our political opponents need to honestly explain to New Zealanders why it would be better to borrow this $5 to $ 7 billion from overseas lenders at a time when the world is awash with debt and consequent risks.”
The Government was spending and borrowing more than it could afford into the future. So it made sense to reorganise its assets and redeploy capital to priority areas without having to borrow more.
The omission of quotation marks to indicate source and bias is unacceptable.
The MSM is waging a propaganda war against the people of New Zealand – they must be held to account.
…The author of the paragraph for those that couldn’t guess from the tone or too lazy to do the google is none other than the (dis) honourable Bling-lish.
Crony media.
Open Letter to our friend “grumpy”
Dear grumpy,
You’ve recently embarrassed yourself by revealing how little you know about the situation in Palestine. I’m sure I’m not the only person to have expressed concern at your almost total lack of knowledge. You need to educate yourself, pronto.
Here’s a start for you. Please don’t try to say you can’t spare two minutes and ten seconds….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdRvabDdVBY&feature=g-all-a&list=PL0BD6DC838984A813&context=G2133216FAAAAAAAAAAA
There are four books recommended there. You need to read at least ONE of them before you comment on Palestine again.
Best wishes,
Morrissey
We are having substantial change being forced on a system that clearly doesn’t need it!
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/more-mixed-messages-for-education.html