Can you trust a system that lies to you about the basics? Parliament says that common law is case law, but older dictionaries of law (eg Bouvier’s, Blacks) say something else. English common law was established by King Alfred the Great, and King Alfred’s code began with the 10 commandments.
Rodney Hide believes National is trying to protect Shearer.
His logic is quite convincing. He is wondering why National is not going for the jugular over Shearer’s foreign bank account.
The normal rule book says that you keep this alive, keep feeding the media, and lodge a privilege complaint which would keep this going for months. Meanwhile Shearer’s reputation is further and further trashed.
Instead Key has become all magnanimous on it and forgiven Shearer.
There seems to be only two possibilities:
1. Key has become a decent human being and is not interested in playing games.
2. Hide is right.
Or
3. It neutralises Key’s dodgy dealings in the past (Tranzrail, winery, SkyCity convention dealings). Letting Shearer off the hook now also means he can’t have a go at the NActs when found to have dodgy dealings later on.
Key’s systematic lying and dishonesty first came to public attention in Nicky Hager’s book. It is neither valid nor reasonable to say that Key’s exhaustively documented pattern of corruption is comparable to Shearer’s failure, which is really only bumbling incompetence.
Yes, but that’s hardly the point for people who don’t know about Key’s systematic lying and dishonesty. Criticism of Key, Banks, English and the like ends up be a pox on both their houses or hypocritical in the minds of the public.
It’s a win-win for Key to let Shearer’s bumbling incompetence slide.
“…systematic lying and dishonesty…” could provide a convincing argument if supported by a table of indisputable facts. Facts I suspect we will never see given Key continues to lead the current government. I agree entirely with your closing comment although I would swap bumbling for absolute.
A fact is by definition indisputable. Not that the grinning puffed up self believer currently the darling of half of nz would agree. In his twisted mind anything he can get away with saying must surely prove that it’s been accepted as fact. And as for indisputable facts, Key can always find a lawyer who would give a different opinion.
Just so you know, more than a few people have been cataloguing his systematic lies, dishonesty and unevidenced opinions: try a search on BLiP + Key lies
I’d say Hide is correct. It’s now impossible for Labour to criticize a minister that has been ‘forgetful’ without it bouncing back onto Shearer so that’s a plus. Secondly without doubt Shearer will get hammered in the televised debates, he struggles now even with an auto cue and prepared lines if he has to think on his feet he will melt into a collection of um’s and ah’s. The show me the money episode killed off Goff in that it dominated the story of the debates and I have no doubt that the Nats will be banking on a Shearer bumble fest and a resulting bump in the polls in their favor right before the election…
I don’t think it matters if it is credible in terms of a comparison, more that they will be able to deflect and turn Parliament into a rabble which will bury the question. Esp with the assistance of a hopeless speaker…
I don’t think it matters if it is credible in terms of a comparison, more that they will be able to deflect and turn Parliament into a rabble which will bury the question.
No, I think Labour could actually turn that to the advantage – Key has far more points where he’s been less than honest and it was always done on purpose and always hidden. Shearer screwed up but came clean – once. All Labour, and the rest of the opposition, has to do when National try to deflect onto Shearer is to say Remember when… and every time they say it, it’s a different case showing John Key’s dishonesty.
The Lower Wages – with the fact that wages have been going down and the youth rates
The Transrail shares
The Springbok tour he can’t remember but remember the 1976 Olympics
The unread police reports showing Banks probably broke the law
The Springbok tour he can’t remember but remembers the 1976 Olympics
Do you think this article might have something to do with Key’s reluctance to go there DTB?
John Key’s father was in all probability a Marxist in his younger days. But as Tom Scott points out:
Had Key played a prominent role protesting the 1981 Springbok tour, Muldoon would have had the SIS working nights on this link to a Marxist past, however tenuous, building it into a file thick enough to derail a train.
It also seems Key was an ardent admirer of Muldoon.
IMO his amnesia in this instance sort of makes sense now.
Really Morrissey? You lambast the pathetic media we have in this country, and don’t realise that what cricklewood is saying is exactly how the same media would react in these situations?
Can’t you just imagine Hoskings crowing “but Shearer had that hidden bank account?!?!”.
Morally there may be no comparison, but electorally there is. Incompetence will be punished at the ballot as harshly as corruption, probably even more harshly.
At least that’s my interpretation of National’s strategy.
I’ll not be at all surprised if, once the cheque’s cleared, Hooton shows up and advises calm and forgiveness in his usual smarmy way.
As a Labour supporters we find it very hard to accept Shearer as a leader.
My familty won’t bad mouth the party as we know the great work it has done down the years.
The health system, the education system, the holidays and work conditions all exist because of Labour activists and supporters.
Shearer is like a cuckoo’s chick. Labour is hosting an outsider that will ruin it. Get rid of Shearer and Robertson as quickly as possible.
To Retired Engineer, I totally agree with you. Not only is Shearer a cuckoo’s chick, he also has a huge ego – everything he does and says is about him. He doesn’t include Labour members (sorry, followers) in anything. He’s not a cooperative type of person, he’s a “me, me, me” type. Look at how he worded his comments about the presentation of the Assets Sales petition in his newsletter about that subject. “Today I presented the petition ….” when it was a joint collective effort by all the Left parties and their members.There are other examples of the “I, I, I” persona as well.
I suspect it is too late to get rid of the hopeless labour leader now. Labour will have to go with him.
I get the feeling that the party is trying to pull together, listening to Shane Jones this morning (on Q&A) discussing how the Maori Party is buggered if they stay divided may have said as much about Labours current strategy to pull together (Also the Australian situation is motivating them to pull together as well). This is probably the right thing to do given the time frame.
Im just bloody nervous and apprehensive when it comes to the Key versus Shearer debates in 2014.
“I suspect it is too late to get rid of the hopeless labour leader now. Labour will have to go with him.”
I don’t agree, but if you’re correct, let’s hope whoever put and kept DS in the job are held accountable and have absolutely nothing to do with selecting the next leader.
Grant in waiting, fuck right off. 😉
Or Key has more important thinks to do, like looking for the next photo-op
FIFY
Key doesn’t, and can’t, run the country. He doesn’t have the interest, he doesn’t have the experience and he’s not actually there to do so. He’s there solely to sell out NZ to his rich mates.
Key is “there solely to sell out NZ to his rich mates.”
And to dismantle the government. Don’t forget he said every dollar to government is a dollar sucked out of the economy.
Latest examples are the Open Bank Resolution (no depositor’s insurance) and Susan The-Void to make the Race Relations Commission meaningless so it can be phase out.
The left should not stop attacking the lies of John Key and his Ministers.
The lies over his tranzrail shares. The lies over Dotcom. The corruption over Skycity. The lies of John Banks (what a dismal twit he is now).
If the labour lot think this cowes them and silences the issue of John Key’s lies then they do not deserve the levers of power.
Just stand up, back straight, and call John Key a liar, not a forgetful sap, a liar. Say “Shearer genuinely forgot, John Key lies when he says he forgot”. Call him a liar ffs. Weak-arsed fools.
what does “weak-arsed” actually mean? The opposite would be ‘strong-arsed’ wouldn’t it and I don’t get that. Of course ‘hard-arsed’ is used by some but then surely ‘soft-arsed’ would be the opposite of that, wouldn’t it?
Key cannot afford to “go for the jugular” To do so would put him at risk of interest being shown again in many of his past dodgy dealings, brain fades, outright lies etc. Many of these still being shown on-line.
A big challenge for the left: Labour Party management “shoulder-tapping” potential candidates on the basis of some kind of public profile, despite political beliefs in conflict with the principles of Labour, despite their not even being party members, regardless of suitablility. There are a few in the party who have been “helicoptered-in”, and without exception, the “tappers” have been of the right of the party.
Of course, we usually only know of those “tap’s” which lead to a very perky job for the tappee.
It’s always interesting to hear of some of the others:
Dame Susan Devoy has been shoulder tapped to run for Parliament by almost every political party except the Greens. And NZ First.*
I’m pretty sure Mana hasn’t shoulder-tapped her lol.
That article had this beauty
Mana Party member Annette Sykes said the appointment was an affront as only people with an “intimate knowledge” of the Treaty of Waitangi could be qualified to be commissioner.
“How does she know that I don’t have an intimate knowledge of the treaty?” Devoy asks.
Well, does she?
Devoy says she understands the treaty from “my own perspective” and even though she does not know what Sykes means by “intimate” she has certainly read it. However, she would not go into more detail about what she thought the treaty meant.
“I’ve taken lots of flak and now I’m a bit gun shy. When you are pushed into a corner you don’t necessarily come out fighting.”
devoy has also stated in another interview that she might make her first job to sort Waitangi Day out – can’t wait to see what idiot ideas she will come up with.
Waitangi Day is fine as it is, in all its turmoil, debate, history, celebration and the like. It should be left to grow and develop organically, as it currently does.
I think what Devoy and others are talking about when they say this is more a Day for New Zealand as a whole, not so much interfering with the day for the treaty. Waitangi Day is very specific.
I don’t see a problem with another day off to celebrate (or commemorate) NZ in totality.
I don’t really see any problem with another day either, if people want it. But it’s a bit odd to me that they only seem to start talking about how they want it with reference to Waitangi Day.
Yep. I guess Waitangi Day is seen as a form of national day too, which it is in many ways, hence the tie-up in looking at an entirely separate day. It is an unfortunate aspect of the debate because it hauls in all sorts of other issues which are not related and the whole thing ends up a messy squabble.
But those issues pretty much are related though eh?
What I like about Waitangi Day, particularly in comparison the Australia Day, is that we do actually have a bit of a ding dong, and people say what they think. It’s a genuine reflection about what the day means and how we’re doing.
If the desire is for a day that is not so genuine, and we have a big old pretendathon about things, then fine. But imma gonna laugh my arse off when it too becomes fractious with people sitting on the sidelines calling out “Nah, that’s bullshit mate”.
NZers don’t go for that sort of happy clappy stupidity, and that’s a good thing.
Having a national day at Matariki might work. It’s more celebratory, and brings Maori and non-Maori together in less confrontational ways. Plus it grounds us all in the fact that we live on these particular islands at this particular time.
It might, but i’d bet you dollars to donuts it would be met, every year, with howls of ‘What’s this pagan bullshit’, and ‘this isn’t a real holiday’ and ‘oh noes it’s the maorification of all of the things.’
The complaint isn’t about unity and togetherness, it’s about a particular type of unity and togetherness that never existed, but used to be assumed.
Pb, many places already have Matariki celebrations. It’s growing and in time will naturally become our winter holiday. Eventually the govt can formalise that, but in the meantime communities will just get on with celebrating together.
I don’t know what unity means in a national (or even local) context, nor why it is so important to some people. It strikes me as something to aspire to if one sees diversity as a problem.
I’ve said I don’t understand why people call for unity. It always happens in conversations where other people value diversity highly and where the people calling for unity view that diversity as divisive. eg Waitangi Day, or the Treaty itself.
The other kind of diversity, the one that is allowed so long as we agree with each other, seems a poorer kind of diversity to me.
It is not a call for unity. Why would you think it was? Don’t see that mentioned anywhere around this mini-thread. In fact I see the opposite – a call for celebration of our our myriad differences.
It might, but i’d bet you dollars to donuts it would be met, every year, with howls of ‘What’s this pagan bullshit’, and ‘this isn’t a real holiday’ and ‘oh noes it’s the maorification of all of the things.’
Pascal’s bookie
Great! Then Pakeha red faced angry people, will have a day to protest about too.
I look forward to watching it on TV.
Don Brash up front holding a banner wrapped in the Union Jack. Rodney Hide on the bull horn. And instead of a haka. We can witness the protesters doing an angry and spirited morris dance.
personally I’d keep Matariki and Waitangi Day separate because it is important that the Treaty is highlighted (and everything associated with it) on the day it was signed and imo that is the healthiest way to sort out the issues which will lead to actual nation-building rather than the pretend stuff that goes on now.
Of course a day for NZ as a whole includes all people and cultures, bar none. Waitangi Day however is subtle but very real in its difference. The Treaty was between Maori and the British Crown only – it is only the next step out that hauls in other people by dint of being “subjects of the crown” (yeah right) so it is indirect when it comes to other people.
This is not to detract from Waitangi at all. In fact, if anything, having a further day for all NZ would possibly enhance the position of Waitangi, by way of contrast. Its importance would be highlighted by stripping away the flotsam which accrues to it by also being some undefined NZ national day.
another national day for this country would detach from the significance of Waitangi Day – imagine if the promises made had been kept then the day would actually be a celebration but sadly the day just highlights the inequality of the current situation and that highlighting is the bit that people don’t like because it reminds them of what has happened, what is currently happening and what is likely to continue to happen unless some changes are made.
That’s the way I’m looking at it. I may not celebrate Waitangi Day or pay much attention to what goes on at Waitangi on that day but I’d actually be quite angry if some idiot tried to move it. It would be like trying to deny our history which I think is what the people who call for a new National Day are actually trying to do.
I agree, no one except a very small % consider Waitangi day to be anything other than some Maori bitchfest.
A yearly opportunity for the same dick heads to jump up and down and tell the majority of NZ to go get fucked.
What people want is a NZ day where everyone can come together without the racial bullshit and a have a day of celebrating who we are.
That isn’t Waitangi day.
Don’t know about that BM. Waitangi brings out issues around the Treaty. They need discussing, debating, shouting about, celebrating, holding hands etc. This is what it is about. I don’t see where it is written that everyone should just sit down and be quiet. It is good that people express their views – even if it creates some turmoil. Better that it happen in a forum such as Waitangi than spark up in some random other area of the country.
The Treaty can be discussed on any of the other 364 days of the year, it’s not like Maori have no representation and this is their only opportunity to be heard.
How can you have a celebration, when a certain group of party goers are slinging shit and insulting the other people at the party?
Awesome. Waitangi day should be the one day of the year when you mustn’t talk about the Treaty. Obviously.
We’ll turn it into one of those awkward movie family ‘celebrations’ where everyone is forced to attend by social duty but no one talks to each other because they pretty much can’t stand the sight of one another.
Not at all.
Just don’t pretend it’s a national day of celebration when it’s clearly not.
Leave Waitangi day for the certain Maori to do their thing and have another day where the rest of us can get together and have a celebration.
I agree and I would say that Waitangi Day accurately reflects the actual situation in this country – a group from all ethnicities striving for the realisation of equality and another group who just want to pretend the inequalities don’t exist.
“What people want is a NZ day where everyone can come together without the racial bullshit and a have a day of celebrating who we are.”
Really? Because I don’t hear people talking about the need for that. Except for a small number of people at the beginning of Feb each year who seem offended that they have to share a country with Maori. Irrespective of what Waitangi Day is or should be, is there a need for a national coming together day (whatever that means)? Most people would support it if they got another stat holiday out of it no doubt, but beyond that, where is the evidence that NZers have that degree of nationalism?
You seem a bit anti on the whole idea P’s b. There is clearly demand for something as the issue of a national day continues to crop up. Do you imagine there should not be such and that these people should just sit down, be quiet and accept what they are given? Sort of like what they seem to want Maori to do at Waitangi?
I just doubt that it will end up being what the folks who are mostly loudly calling for it want.
The loudest voices calling for it seem to be saying that they wish we didn’t have any issues about race or whatever. But we do in fact have those issues. That’s why Waitangi day is fractious.
So if the idea is to have a day when we pretend there aren’t these issues, or when we mustn’t talk about them? What the hell is that? It’s like some sort of right wing hippie kumbayah hey let’s just be friends why can’t we all just get along.
You can’t set up a day to not talk about something without making everybody reflect on the thing they aren’t supposed to talk about.
I think they want a day which is about celebration not necessarily debate or analysis or reflection of current or past issues or anything else at all like that. Just celebration of NZ and its myriad cultures. All those other things are for sorting out another day. Pretty simple.
Its not about pretending those issues don’t exist at all. It is about allocation of components of life to various parts. i.e. meetings in teh afternoon, drinks after work.
vto, I’m willing to accept that the definition of NZ nationhood is broader than what I stated, but I can’t see how it can not include what I stated without writing Maori out of the picture. By all means have a go though.
Plus what Pb said. How can we have a national day when we don’t even know what we are as a nation? (although personally, I don’t feel the need for a national day in the unity sense, because I feel very secure in who I am as a NZer and what that means).
Tom Lehrer has something pointed to say about racism and how difficult it is to deal with all differences – try to be nice to each other during National Brotherhood Week. Good stuff.
I guess the answer to all of that lies in your last sentence. Most NZers, I would surmise, feel secure in their New Zealanderness in however that has arisen, like yourself. That New Zealanderness has clearly arisen in many different ways (if you consider our history), which is fine. Each can be celebrated. Together.
The people calling for a national day (well, just the one I found) seem to be less worried about how they got to this point but they would like to celebrate being at this point. The “how” can be dealt with on another day. That I think is the crucial difference between how they view it and how someone like yourself and P’s b view it.
And, a little further, as stated above, it may well be that creating a separate national day enhances the status of Waitangi and the Treaty. It would receive the full position it deserves. (though Marty Mars seems to think it would detract). It could be one of those famous win-win situations.
Vto, I’m still not getting it. Can you please tell me, without any reference to Waitangi Day or ANZAC Day or the Treaty, why you would like a national day that celebrates NZ as a nation (if that’s what you are arguing for)? And be specific, not a generality like “we need to celebrate as a nation” (because that will just prompt me to ask why).
DtB, that is a miserly approach and you are assuming excessively around people’s intentions for wanting a day that encompasses the whole of NZ and its cultures. You are wrong.
CW, it is explained in the posts made on here this morning up and down. What are you getting at? Just ask the question. (btw, it aint me calling for such a day, just being the devil’s advocate and placing the arguments).
In shortness – The call seems to centre around the desire for a day that encompasses all cultures and peoples who live here on an equal basis.
“(btw, it aint me calling for such a day, just being the devil’s advocate and placing the arguments).”
Great, thanks for letting me know I’ve been wasting my time. The problem with arguing other people’s beliefs is that you don’t have the required insight to defend them. Makes sense now.
So, the question, given that you aren’t calling for a national day… do you want a national day or not? Why? why not?
Have a day that I suppose acknowledges the work that ‘has’ been done to compensate and address Maori grievances, like a New Zealand day where we don’t need to go through the ritualised protest and spitting etc.
It can be like Australia day – give everyone a public holiday where you can head to the beach, have a barbie, watch some fireworks, and celebrate the good things in NZ.
Keep Waitangi day too however, where you acknowledge ongoing issues and put Maori accompilshments and concerns front and centre
My feeling is that a day like that might actually be a catalyst for increased Nationalism. It doesn’t seem necessary to me that Nationalism has to precede the day. The day would be an opportunity to express, affirm and feed a sense of Nationalism.
Draco if some inchoate sense of ‘resolution’ of ‘race relations’ is a predicate for a National day, it will never happen, which would be a real shame. Of course a contrarian such as yourself is always going to see the cracks, but it would be nice relegate these as secondary to the sound parts of the structure for one day of the year.
No CW, you haven’t been wasting your time. I think it is a good idea and it fits all sorts of narratives around how a society needs to operate. So while I have never called for one, imo the idea is sound and has many redeeming features.
Draco the Bastard, when I said this above … “I think they nt a day which is about celebration…”
and you replied with this … “And they can have that just as soon as we’ve corrected for the injustices of the past as then we’ll have something to celebrate.”
I suggested that your suggestion was miserly.
But in fact, more importantly, it must be kept in mind that the Treaty was between Maori and the British Crown. It was not between Maori and other people in NZ, nor between Maori and non-Maori. It is the Crown’s obligation to amend for its poor ways – don’t confuse the parties or who owes the obligations under this treaty.
But that is what you have done. Your statement implies that people in the street should somehow be made to pay (by way of not having a national day of celebration until past treaty cock-ups are remedied).
Keep Waitangi day too however, where you acknowledge ongoing issues and put Maori accompilshments and concerns front and centre
Because it’s an attempt to sideline the issues that some people don’t want to address.
Draco if some inchoate sense of ‘resolution’ of ‘race relations’ is a predicate for a National day, it will never happen, which would be a real shame.
Of course it will – as soon as some fuckwits get over themselves and admit that there are injustices that need addressing.
@vto
But in fact, more importantly, it must be kept in mind that the Treaty was between Maori and the British Crown. It was not between Maori and other people in NZ, nor between Maori and non-Maori.
And those other people wouldn’t have been able to come in if not for Te Tiriti O Waitangi. Well, they would have been able but it would have been under different conditions than what applies. Probably far worse.
But that is what you have done. Your statement implies that people in the street should somehow be made to pay (by way of not having a national day of celebration until past treaty cock-ups are remedied).
Actual examples of specific person and specific words? Sorry mate, aint spending time searching the net for that but come back to me on April 26 when this year’s examples will be front page news again.
A couple of web links to media or something would have done. Will take it as a personal anecdote then vto, rather than lots of people in NZ calling for a national day around the time of ANZAC day.
Interesting link. It doesn’t reference ANZAC day though, only Waitangi Day, which proves my point. I can’t see a date on the article though.
Besides which, the whole article is about redefining NZ in relationship to its independence from the UK, rather than seeing the Treaty as being a founding document for NZ. By doing so, he is essentially saying that NZ = what British descendants think/do.
And he wants to artificially create something to replace something that already exists and has significant cultural value.
His views on Te Tiriti and what it was/is are incredibly eurocentric 🙁
“But it was primarily concerned with recognising Maori as British subjects, and acknowledging the governing role of the Westminster-based parliament in England. In that respect, it was essentially a truce with an occupying power – not the founding document of a modern nation.”
That’s just wrong. The Treaty didn’t ‘recognise’ that Maori were British subjects, nor did it ‘acknowledge’ that the UK govt was the governing power. It established those things. Prior to the Treaty, those things were not true, after it, they were.
The Crown acknowledged that prior to the treaty, iwi were the rightful governing authority. They weren’t an ‘occupying power’ in any respect, and it wasn’t a ‘truce’.
It’s these sort of fundamental disputes that need to be worked out if we are going to be happily ‘celebrating nationhood’. And they aren’t really things that ‘just opinion’.
Waitangi day in London would count as a degree in nationalism, many may frown on the cringe worthy antics but none the less it is a bunch of proud kiwis celebrating where they are from…
‘Who we are’ is a country with a bunch of ‘racial bullshit’ going on. We can either sort it out, or ignore it. But we can’t sort it out by ignoring it. But good luck in trying; like I said, I love a good laugh.
And what is it with all this nationalistic stuff anyway? I like that New Zealanders always seemed to be aware of who they were without putting on a show. Those shows are more divisive in national and international terms that a few over-reported protests about legitimate failures.
Is everyone who wants a celebration of a national day sure every other country they’re quoting has a fully celebratory day…. aborigines in Australia, First Nations people in Canada, the U.S. and Central and South America? And European countries have divisions that go back years… do the Cornish people fully celebrate St Georges Day? (btw does the UK have a national day?).
Rose-tinted glasses. I like that we have Waitangi Day as a national day, warts and all. That’s what a nation is – lots of fussing and arguing but through that a respect for the good points and an understanding and desire to improve the not so good.
““I’ve taken lots of flak and now I’m a bit gun shy. When you are pushed into a corner you don’t necessarily come out fighting.””
How convenient is that excuse. What did she think would happen taking on this particular job? How is she going to handle any controversial decisions she has to make if she can’t stand her ground this early on?
Devoy says she doesn’t want to become so scared that she’s not be able to express a viewpoint. “We have become indoctrinated by this whole politically correct thing and I certainly don’t want to be involved with that. I just tell myself I’m going to be my own person.”
Though, she admits, this will be her last interview for a while.
Yep, it seems clear from her utterances that she believes it is important for her to express her own opinions in the role rather than the views required for the position. This is further evidence of why she is unqualified for the role.
This sort of outlook generally stems from an over-confident person. Over-confidence leads to all manner of troubles, especially in such a sensitive position.
This is further evidence of why she is unqualified for the role.
Interestingly, I think we may have been slightly missing the mark with Devoy. It looks to me like it’s professional inexperience which will be her biggest issue, not her qualifications.
The Devaluation and Demeaning of Public Life
Why Dame Susan Devoy’s farcical appointment should not be a surprise
The bizarre Devoy appointment has been damned by nearly everyone. One of the most frequently heard criticisms is that the ridiculous installation of the Dame is “inexplicable”. I don’t think it is.
This unholy ACT/National/Dunne/Maori Party regime has established a pattern of devaluing and trivialising public institutions. On television yesterday, conservationist Guy Salmon said that he has worked with conservation ministers since 1971, but until now he has never met one who has tried to LOWER environmental standards.
So it’s not really a surprise to see Key and Joyce—let’s not pretend that Judith Collins was the genius behind this—appointing to the position of Race Relations Commissioner a grossly unsuitable person who has repeatedly voiced and written racist opinions.
Next up: expect an interesting new Human Rights Commissioner. My bet is it will be either Kyle Chapman or Garth McVicar.
There is a very deliberate degrading of the public institutions, which is actually not confined to NZ.
Take something which has a public good (even if its somewhat token), and turn it to a farce, such that people are no longer interested, because *its a bad joke*
Thats how you get rid of something you don’t want there, its rather simple, and very transparent!
Didn’t see that programme. I was under the impression that Salmon and Nick Smith were close and that Salmon was the the favourite blue-greenie. Is there a rift coming here – does Salmon suddenly wake up to the fact he is being used?
BTW dealing with Conservation Ministers since 1971 Guy? C’mon I have good sources that say something more like “student parties”.
just watched TV3’s 3-60 for the first time,
my brain hurts
the current global stream of cowardice being expressed by the MSM translates as ‘wow we sure got duped aboout WMD in Iraq’ Even BBC on UKTV is doing some whitewash story later on.
These were International War Crimes most blatant and indefensible yet those responsible are being treated as if they were caught travelling in a bus lane. The MSM were complicit in the lie as any basic journalistic method of fact checking and asking follow up questions would have exposed the lie well before the white phosporus began to fall, but that as they say is a story to lie about another day.
I knew from reading a handful of good blogs back then that absolutely for certain Iraq did not have WMD’s and that the entire pretext for the war was mendacious, criminal lies.
I also recall quite clearly marching down Wellington streets in protest.
So yes … absolute cowardice from the MSM who’ve completely failed to name the obvious, that GW Bush and Tony Blair are war criminals.
1. The “advice” to pee or puke on a rapist is not from “experts”, it’s from one book, published 1975, by Frederic Storaska which was based on nine-tenths of “fuck all”. [citation: Brownmiller, Susan, In Our Time, Dell: New York, 1999, p223]
2. Guns don’t stop rape. Guns don’t stop most crimes. We can tell by the way the United States isn’t a crime-free utopia.
As Zerlina Maxwell has come under fire (pun!) for pointing out, putting the onus on women to prevent rape is not only pointless, but destructive. Let’s stop rapists committing rapes, why don’t we?
I think that when the police start warning potential rapists they will be hunted down in preference of telling women that they should avoid going out…just in case..THAT will be a proactive start.
I object to the idea of having to carry around a fucking GUN and deal with the potential trauma of having killed another human being to enforce what is my legal right to begin with.
“I just think that women arming themselves is a proactive step towards protecting themselves from rape”
Yes, that’s what you think, but it’s a stupid idea. Can you please listen to why that is? People are telling you here.
Another reason – if women arm themselves to protect themselves from rapists, then rapists will also arm themselves. Or are you suggesting that only women be allowed to bear arms?
Yes, that’s what you think, but it’s a stupid idea. Can you please listen to why that is? People are telling you here.
– There have been no compelling arguments for not arming yourself
if women arm themselves to protect themselves from rapists, then rapists will also arm themselves. Or are you suggesting that only women be allowed to bear arms
– men have the inherent advantage of (generally) being larger and stronger, guns however are a great equalizer because it doesn’t take much strength to use (negating the strength factor) and are used at a distance (negating the size factor)
If men carry guns as well then its still men and women being equal as opposed to men having the advantage over women
chris… so? In each of those cases, how many women were raped that day at gun point?
Besides, we are in NZ, our gun laws and culture are quite different. Trading rape for gun deaths is not a solution, unless you have a way of making all the gun deaths happen to rapists. Do you?
Are you going to address the actual points being raised here about why women arming themselves is a dumb idea?
Are you going to address the actual points being raised here about why women arming themselves is a dumb idea?
– When theres a decent argument I’ll address it
-Three-quarters of Sunday Star-Times readers believe we should follow Australia and prohibit cabinet ministers from buying shares in state-owned companies they decide to sell.
If I were to be cynical, I’d say we all were to some degree.
The voyage was maybe more about making a movie than it was about making a difference .In real terms it won’t change the Pasifikan outlook with regards to interacting with our environment.
We, in supposedly being put forward as a metaphor for sustainability, are more likely metaphors for tokenism, lip service and welfare dependency.
It’s all about what we as individual crew decide to do in following up what we learnt and how it changed us to pass on that knowledge to future generations to use that’s important.
If they want to do something useful to help the unemployed better their situation then let the unemployed build graft and climb every way they can. Selling them for $2 an hour is not going to do anything but piss off a whole lot of angry people. The fastest easiest and most economically practical method is to use the existing graduated tax rate and get rid of the Secondary Tax that takes 70c in every dollar earned over the $100 abatement.
No other group in NZ gets hammered so punitively for trying to grasp at crumbs from the table of Poverty Line living. In addition to being a self defeating motivational failure the dinosaur of Secondary Tax takes 70 c in every dollar away from the local economy where that dollar would have been spent in its entirity and would have eventually entered the tax stream. Instead it steals the earnings of the poor and slides it straight across to service 150+ billion dollars of debt that the poor did not create.
This latest brainfart from king dickhead highlights nothing but he lack of rational thought that exists in power today.
It’s possible to do a tax form and get any excess money paid in tax back. What we’re really fighting with secondary tax is the old way of doing things before we had computers and fast internet that could do the taxes in real time.
Draco, you must know something i don’t. 😉
( when it comes to reaping rewards that is not hard)
Years back when i was last on a benefit I argued the injustice of this point repeatedly and have never had a cent returned. Please tell me the name of your accountant and do they barter? With my redundancy, and no severance, I may have to ask the Gov for some temporary assistance and I would love to know I won’t be forking over 70 % of any carvings or other art I might actually sell before I get back on independant street again.
The abatement isn’t an income tax (DTB is talking about income tax). It’s an abatement ie it gets taken directly off the beneficiary before payment (or the week after), rather than going through IRD.
freedom, I agree but I haven’t seen the figures laid out in a way that is fair for minimum wage earners. If a beneficiary’s first $200 is labour free, why should minimum wager earners have to work for that? A universal income would solve the problem but is a long way off as a political possibility. A voluntary work for dole scheme might make it fairer, if we had sane and fair governments, but again, that’s unlikely at this point. What else?
1: it may not technically be processed by IRD but if a one off payment for a sale arrives of $500 and $400 of that gets abated at 70c in the dollar, I call that a tax.
It doesn’t magically stop once the total of the benefit payment for that week is reached.
( this is an actual personal example from a few years back and from a discussion on the phone yesterday I understand that nothing has changed) (Where are the abatement penalties for those receiving WFF or the Farmers Assistance by the way?)
The one size fits all criteria is part of the problem but the principal issue is that the whole structure is pigheaded stupid if you want poor people to do more to contribute to their assistance and the economy as a whole.
which leads us into point 2
2: the only fair process for minimum wage earners/benes/ everyone who earns under 25k a year is a tax free allowance like our trading partners enjoy, e.g
: Australia = 18 thousand dollars before income tax applies, why?
because they understand every single cent goes directly into the daily economy not into the vast reservoirs of term deposits, trusts and trading floors. But for some reasons Governments only consider that if poor people earn more they may need less and then it is harder to bash them.
The one size fits all criteria is part of the problem but the principal issue is that the whole structure is pigheaded stupid if you want poor people to do more to contribute to their assistance and the economy as a whole.
The government doesn’t want poor people actually doing anything to help themselves. If they did that and succeeded then there wouldn’t be any one to work for the rich and the rich would lose their profits.
2: the only fair process for minimum wage earners/benes/ everyone who earns under 25k a year is a tax free allowance like our trading partners enjoy
UI is basically the same as a Tax Free Allowance with the only difference that TFA injects cash directly into a person’s life and then into the economy not vice-versa.
or am I confused? it’s been a busy weekend and with only hours to go before my employment is over the brain is starting to sidetrack to little details like’ hey how are we going to eat next week?’
Actually, a Tax Free Allowance would be a Universal Income and no country does that. I was reading tax free bracket which Australia and a few other countries have.
How does the tax free bracket make it fair for low wage earners if people on the dole get their first $200 without having to to work for it?
btw, freedom, yes call it a tax in the general sense, but be aware that it will confuse people. And like I said, it’s not income tax in the sense that most people would understand it in NZ.
Papers released under the Official Information Act reveal that, for more than a year, the Grant Dalton-led America’s Cup team failed to provide the quarterly reports it was supposed to send in order to receive payments.
But no-one from the Ministry of Economic Development followed up on the lapse and Dalton said in an email that earlier reports the team had sent had “disappeared into a black hole” at the ministry.
Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce told the Star-Times he was concerned…
Something to listen to on a Sunday afternoon: Max and Stacey: Italy, Spain And New Zealand Are Changing the Law for Wealth Confiscation. But hey, no conspiracies happening here.
The Ministry of Education is making it difficult for the children of outlying towns to get to Colleges in Dunedin and Whangarei. Free transport options are being withdrawn and the cost mounts up over a year for multiple children if parents want to support them travelling into the near city to get their secondary learning at a school that is right for them.
Lord Rutherford was a boy in a very small place, but got the education that enabled him to develop his work, make discoveries and we are still living in the reflected glory of the plaudits he got. The smaller minds running government don’t aspire to greatness of thinking beyond the track their minds are fixed on. No side issues to their conceptions of good practice (usually cheapness) can distract them.
dont ya just love how anthropo-centric “skeptics” take a stand against, well, just about everything recorded and still being “discovered about the human condition and experienced.
He freakin’ wept alright!
Here the authors marshal evidence from neurology, cognitive neuroscience, and neuroimaging that suggests that OBEs are related to a failure to integrate multisensory information from one’s own body at the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). It is argued that this multisensory disintegration at the TPJ leads to the disruption of several phenomenological and cognitive aspects of self-processing, causing illusory reduplication, illusory self-location, illusory perspective, and illusory agency that are experienced as an OBE.
re earlier denial of “Boy Racer” culture persisting;
CHCH boy racers form “Christchurch Anti- Police Riot Squad”, and boy racer disorder features as primary tele news article.
Zespri; “smuggling” 11M fine, to be born by growers, not the marketing desk, may be the final staple in the industry.
from Q & A;
ol’ Pita aye, Power, then ultimate power corrupts!
Nick Smith; hiding behind the “kiwis own home dream”;
-“post-war, home ownership has been positively correlated with low interest rates.” Hmmmm.
-over last five years of “low interest rates”???
-according to the Productivity Commission, the price of building materials in NZ is 30% higher than Aus.
]
Stephen Franks; “the Auckland Regional Council will not be representing the interests of the wider populace of the region.” (implying that it will represent the vested interests,and the inevitable NIMBYs). he appears to be not a very egalitarian sort himself however, while Sandra Lee appears to be fading…
According to an NZIER analysis, if the present rate of migration by NZers to Aus continues (although there are signs of some negative feed-back signals entering the system, migration was down last month) there would be a loss of $30B to NZ of “lost human capital”.
According to one commentary on Cyprus I chanced upon (Dragons Den businessman), the EU requirements are a trial run by Germany et al: to see if they can transfer the approach to Spain, Portugal, etc.
Did you know that a significant land area of the Scottish Highlands used to be covered in Caledonian Pine up until a few hundred years ago, and naturally carried moose, lynx, bear and wolves: now it primarily carries Red Deer, Salmon and Grouse. (a wealthy estate-holder is attempting to return his section of the region to how it was).
“For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, (or the dancers of the Bolshoi) yet lose his soul.”
According to one commentary on Cyprus I chanced upon (Dragons Den businessman), the EU requirements are a trial run by Germany et al: to see if they can transfer the approach to Spain, Portugal, etc.
If sovereign governments and elected politicians think they still run their own countries, they’re about to find out (again) who is really in charge.
You do realise that it’s smarter to keep the energy company dividends to pay down debt than hock off ownership to put a one-off drop in the bucket? Shit, if a beneficiary did what the government’s doing, tories would be screaming about “bad choices” and “lifestyle options”.
Dear “Harriet”
“Glory Glory Hallelujah, just like a knife it cuts right through ya,
Glory Glory Hallelujah, just like a lie, I see right through ya…”
Yeehaaa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kq0vPSadqU
Time to ‘privatise’ all the assets and government services too.
We dumped feudalism for a very good reason – no need to bring it back no matter what the rich think. What we really need to do is to get rid of capitalism and then we’d have the freedom that we’ve been fighting for for the last few hundred years.
[These are] structural subsidies blessed by Congress and the Fed that make large banks look more profitable than they truly are. In fact, the TBTF banks are not really profitable at all.
That’s got to be the biggest shocker of all – that banks aren’t profitable without government subsidies.
For every £X deposited, banks promise (implicitly or explicitly) to return £X (possibly plus some interest and possibly less bank charges). But at the same time, banks lend on or invest the £X in ways that are not 100% safe. Thus it’s a statistical certainty that sooner or later any given bank will go bust, and not be able to return the £X.
Governments back deposits with taxpayers’ money and this amounts to a subsidy of FR banking.
Out of all that comes a serious question: How much are the banks in NZ subsidised? How much are they costing us per year?
I think it was a week ago – maybe more, that RNZ (Phillipa Tolley) looked at various scams.
I (myself) have a complaint with the old Labour Dear-Part ment – reference number and all – now more than a year old – blacker than the Black Hole of Calcutta!
Just so ya know – I’m not all that impreesed with alternative media either! Often it seems the plight of minorities gets on an agenda IF and WHEN it fits.
So much for a 4th Estate – and actually so much for ‘the new 4th Estate’.
This NZer in Canada, Farley cut his electronic bracelet and has gone on to attack women.
Why did someone who calls himself a Judge judge that this was appropriate. Females don’t count for anything apparently. They and children are used as canaries in the dark pit of these men’s minds to see if they are suitably civilised to be left to live in the community. If they reoffend it’s such a shame, and there is hou ha about it.
The point is that they should never get out. The country comes down harder on women on benefits who have got more over the years because they had some sort of relationship with a bloke, and welfare can be harsh and unreasonable in judging about this. It’s time that these soulless decision makers found some integrity and more ba.ls instead of so much ba.l..
WTF are you on about? Farley had the bracket for receiving stolen goods. The second charge would likely have put him in jail:
Michael Edward Farley, 39, left New Zealand in July 2011 using a false passport.
At that time he was serving a home detention sentence in Palmerston North on charges of receiving stolen goods and was due to be sentenced on a further charge of perverting the course of justice, the Manawatu Standard reports.
What I want to know is how he managed to get a false passport. His brother is being charged with assisting him to get that but there must also have been someone else as a passport requires two people to testify that they know you.
Anyway, it’s obvious that we need to up the security of getting passports in NZ.
Right DTB – I was way off the facts. But I believe that violent people have often committed numbers of crimes before the one that they are accused of. A person doesn’t commit a serious crime without an apprenticeship.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he had committed other crime including sex crimes. He found it way too easy to get that passport which would mean that he’s well connected within the criminal world.
The judge couldn’t rule on what he’s possibly done though, only what he’s been convicted of and receiving stolen goods isn’t much more than a misdemeanor.
DTB
It would be interesting for police with unsolved crimes to look at whether he was around at the time. Not trying to pin stuff on him, but to bring him into the bunch of possible offenders. And again I come back to how long he will be imprisoned. He is the type of individual addicted to criminality and viciousness who should stay in prison. The numbers of criminals like this are a small percentage.
The prison population overall can be reduced by shorter sentences for lesser offences, not long punitive ones where they only receive rehabilitation courses just before release. The whole prison sentence should be turned to retraining and building the individual’s personal standards and self-belief in themselves as a person of worth with a mental kit of ways of dealing with threats to themselves, their psyche, their property. Initiatives won’t happen with the moronic bunch of politicians we continually see dabbling with Laura Norder.
I notice John Howard is quite sure that he was right in bringing in the swingeing laws against NZers. Of course he can make a case for anything, even the Tampa people floundering in the sea. He considered that they were just attention-seekers, willing to sacrifice children. Which would have been a bad thing. But when he judges himself he can do anything and make a case for it being good. What a twister.
And Julia Gillard and her lot aren’t going to change the discriminatory legislation against us. And our pollies are as I have said earlier, too busy buttering their own bread on both sides and both sides of the Tasman, to worry – we’re just toast. I caught some mention of condescending treatment, and I guess that would be Aussies against NZers, not the other way round.
I got to edit this – just to try to make it less rambly.
I would love to know why McCullum didnt enforce the follow on.
A 239 run lead, with 2 days to do. Putting England in to bat again would have ensured, at the very least a draw, a squared series and honour intact, and at the most, a rare test victory against England and their first series win since 1999 (first at home since just before Rogernomics kicked in, Feb 1984), at 35/3, the Black Caps risk screwing up and letting England take the test and the series.
Anyway, we shall see how things pan out at Eden Park in the next couple of days…
And Harriet. the earth was created with science, not magic.
As an aside, belief in science can become it’s very own religion.
And scientific fundamentalism is the same as any other religious fundamentalism: where their way is the only correct way of thinking about and looking at the entire world. And if your beliefs don’t match up with their accepted orthodoxy satisfactorily, then you are nothing more than a backward infidel, heretic or barbarian worthy of dismissive scorn and disrespect.
As an aside, belief in science can become its very own religion.
Nonsense. You are contending that to oppose or radically differ from something means you are the equal and opposite of that which you oppose or radically differ from. That’s a logical fallacy.
And scientific fundamentalism is the same as any other religious fundamentalism…
Nonsense. That’s exactly the sort of garbage that appears in Fundamentalist Christian literature.
God those Circket people do my fucking head in – I guess I just have to savour the afternoon.
Uncharitably as those last 3 wickets fell, I was reminded of that old line that the best way to get a small to medium sized company is hand a huge company to a New Zealander and come back in a year. Sigh.
I suspect that they thought the pitch was going to break up even more so if England managed to eck out a 100 run lead it might have been too much for NZ to get facing Anderson and Panesar.
Whereas this way they can extend the lead, take up a bit more time, wear the pitch out even more and make it even harder for England so I can see the logic in why they chose not to enforce the follow on.
Society under capitalism can never be equal or fair . . . but it can be better. I am no expert and it is obviously an overly simplistic concept for a difficult problem but so was the hairclip, and a kiwi solved that little problem too. With over four million of us surely we can fix this tangled mess. All I know is for things to improve the change must be extreme, but you start small
At its most basic level of explanation: If the first 15 K of income was tax free ?
We would see low wage communities with more stable local businesses. Many new small businesses servicing the needs of their local community would flourish [read: return].
Families would have more which means they would have better fed kids, meaning fewer doctor visits amongst other savings. These savings are just a fraction of what is possible to pass on to the Nation as a whole. Along with the increased tax take from the growing stable of local businesses (whose profits would generally stay onshore ) we would have greater employment thus fewer in need, We could easily allow for the support of those who do need it, and how you treat those unable to help themselves says more about your society than any GDP figure ever will.
These basic tenets of a decent society would germinate into greater equality and wider opportunities for all.
Add an FTT and before you know it we are back to full funding of education as well, including Tertiary. Throw a Health & Welfare tax onto all gambling and kiwiland is almost standing on its own feet again. The tax take from Lotto alone would be substantial. The Casinos will bitch but stay, the Racing brigade will swallow it and if the owners of Lotto don’t like it then rip up the contract and let Bonus Bonds off the chain and give it a new sparkly jacket. Booze could do with a good looking at also.
Then there is the big step, every dollar above 15K is taxed. Every dollar. Every woman every man every business every sale every trade everything is taxed with no exemptions. It is not news that those with more pay less because they can. If you want a more equitable society you must have a more equitable tax system. The one we curently have is a joke. Cue RWNJ’s But But But companies will abandon the country etc etc etc, The Corporate World has been playing a bluff for a really long time and it needs to be called on it. I believe New Zealand would survive because it would remember that it can.
Naturally all of that means that a few have to take little less but then the many can have so much more. Your only choice is which side of that equation you want to be on.
ok, but that doesn’t solve the Work and Income benefit abatement problem now. A problem for which I’ve yet to see any solution except UBI. Simply getting rid of it is both unfair on low wagers and politically impossible currently.
“so we just leave it all in the too hard basket eh!”
No. We are just talking at cross purposes. I got excited for a minute because I thought someone might have some ideas on what to do about the abatement issue now without completely rearranging society. Nothing wrong with rearranging society either 🙂
Am I out of line by thinking that the most immediate step to reducing the absurdly negative affect of the current abatement process is to return to the practical and logical policy of extra income being adjusted over the annual earnings and not processed against an individual week ?
I will always believe that the first 10-15 K of income should be tax free as it is spent in its entirety in the local community regardless of who you are or what you earn. The low income workers, as always, bear the brunt of so many vaccuous policies. Holding them up as victims only when convenient , does little but reinforce the status quo.
There is always going to be a need for welfare if we fumble around blindfolded looking for eternal growth instead of working steadfast and true, with eyes and minds wide open, focused on achieving a sustainable economy.
“Am I out of line by thinking that the most immediate step to reducing the absurdly negative affect of the current abatement process is to return to the practical and logical policy of extra income being adjusted over the annual earnings and not processed against an individual week ?”
That would help certainly. Most benefit to people with variable income. Not so much help to people with regular weekly part time work.
I think they still do yearly assessments for some long term benefits, which suggests that this is something they could do for any one individual if they were do inclined.
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Photo by Jari Hytönen on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel “through to 2050 and beyond”. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuel’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Next week the government will again next try to get its legislation through to deal with non-citizens who won’t cooperate with efforts to deport them. The bill, which the opposition and crossbench refused to rush ...
A long-term project that will set out an alternative vision for Aotearoa that looks beyond the narrow confines of the policy straight jacket adopted by successive governments. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bree Hurst, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Law, QUT, Queensland University of Technology TK Kurikawa/Shutterstock A much-awaited report into Coles and Woolworths has found what many customers have long believed – Australia’s big supermarkets engage in price gouging. What started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Ghezelbash, Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney The Albanese government wanted to avoid an inquiry into its migration amendment bill. The report, handed down yesterday by a senate committee that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joo-Cheong Tham, Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne Lobbying is at the heart of government. Who has access to and influence over key government officials shapes the decisions governments make – and how they make them. The ability to influence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Myfany Turpin, Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology, Linguistics and Ethnobiology, University of Sydney The act representing Australia at this year’s Eurovision contest has sadly not qualified for the grand final. Yet for Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross, the duo that makes up Electric Fields, ...
In announcing changes to the school lunches programme, David Seymour said kids would no longer be served ‘woke’ foods. To clear up any confusion, The Spinoff has compiled a guide to the wokeness levels of some common food items. Apple = NOT WOKE Avocado = WOKE Avocado, smashed = EVEN ...
The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Minglu Chen, Senior Lecturer, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Robert Way/Shutterstock As the past few years have illustrated so clearly, the Australia-China relationship is complicated. As such, it is crucial for Australians to develop a more nuanced understanding of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mariana Campbell, Research Lecturer, Conservation, Charles Darwin University Marilyn Connell Australian freshwater turtles are facing an alarming trend. Almost half of these species are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) is one of Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debbie Passey, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josephine Barbaro, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, Psychologist, La Trobe University Unsplash We’ve come a long way in terms of understanding that everyone thinks, interacts and experiences the world differently. In the past, autistic people, people with attention deficit hyperactive disorder ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s deputy opposition leader James Nomane has accused the government of “reckless economic management” that has forced devaluation to manage loan repayments in foreign currency and placate the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prime Minister James Marape “must stop lying to the people of Papua New Guinea”, ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Jane Arthur, author of Brown Bird, and former bookseller at Good Books.The book I wish I’d writtenI have been working on not comparing myself to others. On accepting that what I can ...
The final decision on the Wellington District Plan makes it official: High-density housing is legal across most of Wellington. Housing minister Chris Bishop has announced his decision on the Wellington District Plan, approving a series of amendments to radically upzone most of Wellington, allowing tens of thousands of new townhouses ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to ...
RNZ News As Israel presses ahead with strikes in Rafah and seizing the Rafah crossing from Egypt, aid agencies are sounding the alarm of a “catastrophic humanitarian situation”. Rafah was “significant” because it was the only part in Gaza that had not been terribly damaged by the conflict, United Nations ...
With funding set to be scrapped for the Hamilton-Auckland commuter train, Te Huia enthusiast Georgie Dansey argues for it to be thrown a lifeline. It’s 5.45am and the chain of my crappy old bike falls off slugging up the one hill in Hamilton. I contemplate yeeting the bike into the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Cooke, Honorary Fellow, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland We feel ecological grief when we lose places, species or ecosystems we value and love. These losses are a growing threat to mental health and wellbeing globally. We all see ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shauna Brail, Associate Professor, Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto A shift to hybrid and remote work continues to affect worker presence in Toronto’s downtown.(Shutterstock) Downtown Toronto, the core of Canada’s largest city, continues to reel from the lingering ...
Responding to an Auditor-General's report slamming failures in the administration of the 2023 General Election, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said: ...
Productivity apps now make up a big chunk of the software market. But do they work? And why do they all have AI integrations?Despite being firmly on the record as a physical planner fan, I sometimes dream of something better than my pretty diary and its scrawled, ugly, interior ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says the Beehive need to lead by example, following reports of more than $50,000 spent upgrading video conferencing equipment and furniture in the Prime Minister’s office. Taxpayers’ Union Campaign Manager, Connor Molloy, ...
An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the names of deceased people, and describes ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. First Nations people in Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University Netflix Baby Reindeer’s phenomenal success has much to do with its writer and lead, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny in a tender semi-autobiographical account of sexual abuse, harassment and stalking. Gadd’s story has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle KarolinaGrabowska/Pexels If you didn’t have food allergies as a child, is it possible to develop them as an adult? The short answer is yes. But the reasons why are much ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Moon, Professor of History, Auckland University of Technology Ans Westra, self-portrait, c. 1963. National Library ref AWM-0705-F They try but invariably fail – those writers who believe they are capable of encapsulating in prose or verse the essence of ...
Stewart Sowman-Lund looks at the growing concern around the world in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. What’s all this? When Covid-19 arrived on our shores in early 2020, some argued we were too slow, or crucially, ill-prepared for a pandemic. So ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Franco Montalto, Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Director, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Laboratory, Drexel University Water runs into a storm drain in a Los Angeles alley on Aug. 19, 2023, during Tropical Storm Hilary.Citizen of the Planet/Universal Images ...
The inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones has turned up a new witness who says he saw two teenagers and a small child in a high vis vest in the area where the boy’s body was found the day he died. Lachie’s body was discovered face up ...
Stories from the tenancy trenches, featuring spider infestations, cupboard rats and same-sex discrimination. Lucy’s brother was living in a damp 1930s building in Mt Eden where “he had to tie the cupboard doors closed so the rats didn’t get in”. Although he shared custody of his six-year-old son, his property ...
Simeon Brown, Chris Luxon, and Wayne Brown climbed into a hole and announced a plan to solve Auckland’s water woes. This is how it’ll work. New Zealand’s pipes are munted. They’re cracked and leaking, and struggling to handle all the extra poos excreted by our rising population. It’s a big, ...
I knew Taika Waititi quite well when he was a kid. His mother lived in a tall narrow house in Aro St, and my youngest sister had a similar house two doors along. They were both single mums, they each had a son aged seven. Taika and my nephew Stepan ...
Opinion: “As time passes, knowledge of the circumstances of the August 2016 outbreak will fade and its immediate impact will be lost.” This statement is from the 2017 report of the Official Inquiry into the Havelock North campylobacteriosis outbreak. The then National-led government established the inquiry after the outbreak left ...
Opinion: Nicholas Khoo looks at two key points in the high-stakes foreign policy pact debate – and asks if NZ can engage with as little drama as possible. The post Where to next for the Aukus ruckus? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 8 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: ‘Reference-class forecasting’ is at the heart of improving pricing a project and identifying the expected timeframe but it doesn’t appear to be in use here The post ‘Think fast and act slowly’ is failing big projects appeared first on Newsroom. ...
What do a sombrero in Argentina and cognitive driving tests have in common? Don’t worry, we’re not setting up a bad joke. Hinengaro Clinic dementia clinician Gregory Winkelman has the answer on today’s episode of The Detail. “We ask a patient’s spouse or son or daughter: If you went to ...
Wellington long jumper Phoebe Edwards is back and she’s having fun again. Until this year, Edwards, a top athlete in her teens, had never competed as a senior athlete in New Zealand. In March, the 26-year-old won a national long jump title in a lifetime best of 6.28m after ...
After replacing a fifth of their caucus in just four months, the Greens’ opportunity to reset, reshuffle and refocus on the Government is quickly slipping away The post Persistent Green Party scandals delay caucus reset appeared first on Newsroom. ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
By Robin Martin, RNZ News reporter A New Zealand local authority, Whanganui District Council, has passed a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, condemnation of all acts of violence and terror against civilians on both sides of the conflict and the immediate return of hostages. It comes as ...
Asia Pacific Report The Aotearoa chapter of the Women’s International league for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has appealed to the New Zealand government to call out Israel over the “cruel and barbaric use of force” in Gaza and demand a permanent ceasefire. The league’s open letter was sent to Prime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will invest $566 million over a decade on data, maps and other tools to promote exploration and development in Australia’s resources industry. The project will fund “the first comprehensive map of what’s ...
Asia Pacific Report Following an open letter by Auckland University academics speaking out in support of their students’ right to protest against the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, a group of academics at Otago University have today also called on New Zealand academic institutions to “repair colonial violence” and end ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda J. Graham, Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology Ryan Tauss/ Unsplash, CC BY Two male students have been expelled from a Melbourne private school for their involvement in a list ranking female students. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The Reserve Bank is now assuming Australians will see no interest rate cuts this year – and quite possibly none before the next federal election, due next May. That’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University The Victorian budget offered more of the same on Tuesday, with the only change being how the budget papers were packaged. The usual shrink wrap was gone, hinting at savings in the pages ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Coalition is demanding extensive amendments to the government’s legislation targeting non-citizens who refuse to co-operate with their removal. In a dissenting report to the senate inquiry into the legislation, the Coalition says it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanita Yadav, Senior Research Fellow, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Brett Boardman/Belvoir The complex and grappling issue of violence against women takes centre stage in the soul-stirring solo dance drama Nayika: A Dancing Girl. During a dinner conversation ...
Can you trust a system that lies to you about the basics? Parliament says that common law is case law, but older dictionaries of law (eg Bouvier’s, Blacks) say something else. English common law was established by King Alfred the Great, and King Alfred’s code began with the 10 commandments.
Hmmm …
Rodney Hide believes National is trying to protect Shearer.
His logic is quite convincing. He is wondering why National is not going for the jugular over Shearer’s foreign bank account.
The normal rule book says that you keep this alive, keep feeding the media, and lodge a privilege complaint which would keep this going for months. Meanwhile Shearer’s reputation is further and further trashed.
Instead Key has become all magnanimous on it and forgiven Shearer.
There seems to be only two possibilities:
1. Key has become a decent human being and is not interested in playing games.
2. Hide is right.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10873176
Or
3. It neutralises Key’s dodgy dealings in the past (Tranzrail, winery, SkyCity convention dealings). Letting Shearer off the hook now also means he can’t have a go at the NActs when found to have dodgy dealings later on.
Key’s systematic lying and dishonesty first came to public attention in Nicky Hager’s book. It is neither valid nor reasonable to say that Key’s exhaustively documented pattern of corruption is comparable to Shearer’s failure, which is really only bumbling incompetence.
Yes, but that’s hardly the point for people who don’t know about Key’s systematic lying and dishonesty. Criticism of Key, Banks, English and the like ends up be a pox on both their houses or hypocritical in the minds of the public.
It’s a win-win for Key to let Shearer’s bumbling incompetence slide.
“Bumbling incompetence” is one possible explanation of the matter.
as an aside Tiresias; Mark 10 :42- was contained in the service attended today.
(Aithnionn ciarog ciarog eile)
Believe, or not.
🙂
“…systematic lying and dishonesty…” could provide a convincing argument if supported by a table of indisputable facts. Facts I suspect we will never see given Key continues to lead the current government. I agree entirely with your closing comment although I would swap bumbling for absolute.
A fact is by definition indisputable. Not that the grinning puffed up self believer currently the darling of half of nz would agree. In his twisted mind anything he can get away with saying must surely prove that it’s been accepted as fact. And as for indisputable facts, Key can always find a lawyer who would give a different opinion.
Just so you know, more than a few people have been cataloguing his systematic lies, dishonesty and unevidenced opinions: try a search on BLiP + Key lies
I’d say Hide is correct. It’s now impossible for Labour to criticize a minister that has been ‘forgetful’ without it bouncing back onto Shearer so that’s a plus. Secondly without doubt Shearer will get hammered in the televised debates, he struggles now even with an auto cue and prepared lines if he has to think on his feet he will melt into a collection of um’s and ah’s. The show me the money episode killed off Goff in that it dominated the story of the debates and I have no doubt that the Nats will be banking on a Shearer bumble fest and a resulting bump in the polls in their favor right before the election…
It’s now impossible for Labour to criticize a minister that has been ‘forgetful’ without it bouncing back onto Shearer so that’s a plus.
You are wrong on this point. There is simply no credible comparison between Shearer’s incompetence and Key’s established pattern of dishonesty.
Your other points are well made.
I don’t think it matters if it is credible in terms of a comparison, more that they will be able to deflect and turn Parliament into a rabble which will bury the question. Esp with the assistance of a hopeless speaker…
No, I think Labour could actually turn that to the advantage – Key has far more points where he’s been less than honest and it was always done on purpose and always hidden. Shearer screwed up but came clean – once. All Labour, and the rest of the opposition, has to do when National try to deflect onto Shearer is to say Remember when… and every time they say it, it’s a different case showing John Key’s dishonesty.
The Lower Wages – with the fact that wages have been going down and the youth rates
The Transrail shares
The Springbok tour he can’t remember but remember the 1976 Olympics
The unread police reports showing Banks probably broke the law
etc, etc
do you think the current bunch are clever enough to do that?
also the strategy assumes that the slate going forwards is clean now.
Probably not.
Remember when Shearer agreed that disability scroungers spend their days on the roof painting it?
Remember when Shearer forgot he had more cash sitting in an overseas account than most Kiwi’s can aspire to have in their bank accounts at all?
Remember when Shearer said anything else?
Actually, on that last point I can’t.
The Springbok tour he can’t remember but remembers the 1976 Olympics
Do you think this article might have something to do with Key’s reluctance to go there DTB?
John Key’s father was in all probability a Marxist in his younger days. But as Tom Scott points out:
It also seems Key was an ardent admirer of Muldoon.
IMO his amnesia in this instance sort of makes sense now.
Really Morrissey? You lambast the pathetic media we have in this country, and don’t realise that what cricklewood is saying is exactly how the same media would react in these situations?
Can’t you just imagine Hoskings crowing “but Shearer had that hidden bank account?!?!”.
Morally there may be no comparison, but electorally there is. Incompetence will be punished at the ballot as harshly as corruption, probably even more harshly.
At least that’s my interpretation of National’s strategy.
I’ll not be at all surprised if, once the cheque’s cleared, Hooton shows up and advises calm and forgiveness in his usual smarmy way.
“the Nats will be banking on a Shearer bumble fest and a resulting bump in the polls in their favor right before the election…”
Oh I think they’re actually banking on him being a walking fucking disaster all day every day from the moment he first took the job.
And that’s pretty much what they’ve got.
settle mate, McFlock reckons it’s too early to come to any conclusions about this yet and we should just wait it out.
I was only going by the numbers you yourself came up , cv.
According to your data, the left might very well be on course for a solid victory.
As a Labour supporters we find it very hard to accept Shearer as a leader.
My familty won’t bad mouth the party as we know the great work it has done down the years.
The health system, the education system, the holidays and work conditions all exist because of Labour activists and supporters.
Shearer is like a cuckoo’s chick. Labour is hosting an outsider that will ruin it. Get rid of Shearer and Robertson as quickly as possible.
To Retired Engineer, I totally agree with you. Not only is Shearer a cuckoo’s chick, he also has a huge ego – everything he does and says is about him. He doesn’t include Labour members (sorry, followers) in anything. He’s not a cooperative type of person, he’s a “me, me, me” type. Look at how he worded his comments about the presentation of the Assets Sales petition in his newsletter about that subject. “Today I presented the petition ….” when it was a joint collective effort by all the Left parties and their members.There are other examples of the “I, I, I” persona as well.
To be fair, that’ll be because he’s still got “be a strong leader” ringing in his ears from post-conference wally advisors.
The “Strong Leader” metric is an absolutely crucial predictor for US presidential politics.
And Labour people have been talking to US Democratic Party campaign advisors.
“And Labour people have been talking to US Democratic Party campaign advisors.”
Talking, but not learning.
The NZ Labour party is as far away from the Obama community organizing model as a horse and buggy are from a space shuttle.
+1000
I suspect it is too late to get rid of the hopeless labour leader now. Labour will have to go with him.
I get the feeling that the party is trying to pull together, listening to Shane Jones this morning (on Q&A) discussing how the Maori Party is buggered if they stay divided may have said as much about Labours current strategy to pull together (Also the Australian situation is motivating them to pull together as well). This is probably the right thing to do given the time frame.
Im just bloody nervous and apprehensive when it comes to the Key versus Shearer debates in 2014.
“I suspect it is too late to get rid of the hopeless labour leader now. Labour will have to go with him.”
I don’t agree, but if you’re correct, let’s hope whoever put and kept DS in the job are held accountable and have absolutely nothing to do with selecting the next leader.
Grant in waiting, fuck right off. 😉
Yes agree, if Labour fail in 2014 then DS and his whole brigade need to be cleaned out.
Partially agree. But remember winning is the easy bit. Labour governing the country beyond one term, that’s the real trick.
Or Key has more important thinks to do, like running the country.
Leave the political point scoring wankyness to Greenbour.
FIFY
Key doesn’t, and can’t, run the country. He doesn’t have the interest, he doesn’t have the experience and he’s not actually there to do so. He’s there solely to sell out NZ to his rich mates.
Fucken dreamer.
Key is “there solely to sell out NZ to his rich mates.”
And to dismantle the government. Don’t forget he said every dollar to government is a dollar sucked out of the economy.
Latest examples are the Open Bank Resolution (no depositor’s insurance) and Susan The-Void to make the Race Relations Commission meaningless so it can be phase out.
The left should not stop attacking the lies of John Key and his Ministers.
The lies over his tranzrail shares. The lies over Dotcom. The corruption over Skycity. The lies of John Banks (what a dismal twit he is now).
If the labour lot think this cowes them and silences the issue of John Key’s lies then they do not deserve the levers of power.
Just stand up, back straight, and call John Key a liar, not a forgetful sap, a liar. Say “Shearer genuinely forgot, John Key lies when he says he forgot”. Call him a liar ffs. Weak-arsed fools.
what does “weak-arsed” actually mean? The opposite would be ‘strong-arsed’ wouldn’t it and I don’t get that. Of course ‘hard-arsed’ is used by some but then surely ‘soft-arsed’ would be the opposite of that, wouldn’t it?
Used to infer cowardly, timid, weak-kneed or lack of back-bone characteristics…
Key cannot afford to “go for the jugular” To do so would put him at risk of interest being shown again in many of his past dodgy dealings, brain fades, outright lies etc. Many of these still being shown on-line.
Sharp as a fucking hammer is Rodders!!!
Why wouldn’t national protect their best chance of a third term…..David Shearer.
+1
A big challenge for the left: Labour Party management “shoulder-tapping” potential candidates on the basis of some kind of public profile, despite political beliefs in conflict with the principles of Labour, despite their not even being party members, regardless of suitablility. There are a few in the party who have been “helicoptered-in”, and without exception, the “tappers” have been of the right of the party.
Of course, we usually only know of those “tap’s” which lead to a very perky job for the tappee.
It’s always interesting to hear of some of the others:
Dame Susan Devoy has been shoulder tapped to run for Parliament by almost every political party except the Greens. And NZ First.*
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8464695/Squashed-in-court-of-public-opinion
Another popular career path is via an invitation to apply for a cushy job in the offices of the Labour Leadership.
Some successful tappees have combined both modes.
*To anyone who wishes to argue that the Party’s referred to in Devoy’s case might not include Labour: dream on!
I’m pretty sure Mana hasn’t shoulder-tapped her lol.
That article had this beauty
devoy has also stated in another interview that she might make her first job to sort Waitangi Day out – can’t wait to see what idiot ideas she will come up with.
Waitangi Day is fine as it is, in all its turmoil, debate, history, celebration and the like. It should be left to grow and develop organically, as it currently does.
I think what Devoy and others are talking about when they say this is more a Day for New Zealand as a whole, not so much interfering with the day for the treaty. Waitangi Day is very specific.
I don’t see a problem with another day off to celebrate (or commemorate) NZ in totality.
I don’t really see any problem with another day either, if people want it. But it’s a bit odd to me that they only seem to start talking about how they want it with reference to Waitangi Day.
Yep. I guess Waitangi Day is seen as a form of national day too, which it is in many ways, hence the tie-up in looking at an entirely separate day. It is an unfortunate aspect of the debate because it hauls in all sorts of other issues which are not related and the whole thing ends up a messy squabble.
But those issues pretty much are related though eh?
What I like about Waitangi Day, particularly in comparison the Australia Day, is that we do actually have a bit of a ding dong, and people say what they think. It’s a genuine reflection about what the day means and how we’re doing.
If the desire is for a day that is not so genuine, and we have a big old pretendathon about things, then fine. But imma gonna laugh my arse off when it too becomes fractious with people sitting on the sidelines calling out “Nah, that’s bullshit mate”.
NZers don’t go for that sort of happy clappy stupidity, and that’s a good thing.
Having a national day at Matariki might work. It’s more celebratory, and brings Maori and non-Maori together in less confrontational ways. Plus it grounds us all in the fact that we live on these particular islands at this particular time.
It might, but i’d bet you dollars to donuts it would be met, every year, with howls of ‘What’s this pagan bullshit’, and ‘this isn’t a real holiday’ and ‘oh noes it’s the maorification of all of the things.’
The complaint isn’t about unity and togetherness, it’s about a particular type of unity and togetherness that never existed, but used to be assumed.
Pb, many places already have Matariki celebrations. It’s growing and in time will naturally become our winter holiday. Eventually the govt can formalise that, but in the meantime communities will just get on with celebrating together.
I don’t know what unity means in a national (or even local) context, nor why it is so important to some people. It strikes me as something to aspire to if one sees diversity as a problem.
Totally.
If it turns into a “National Day” whatever that is, it will be through a bottom up evolution.
” It strikes me as something to aspire to if one sees diversity as a problem”
Why on earth would that follow that? I think that describes your own outlook rather than others… much as everyone’s opinion do such
I’ve said I don’t understand why people call for unity. It always happens in conversations where other people value diversity highly and where the people calling for unity view that diversity as divisive. eg Waitangi Day, or the Treaty itself.
The other kind of diversity, the one that is allowed so long as we agree with each other, seems a poorer kind of diversity to me.
It is not a call for unity. Why would you think it was? Don’t see that mentioned anywhere around this mini-thread. In fact I see the opposite – a call for celebration of our our myriad differences.
Great! Then Pakeha red faced angry people, will have a day to protest about too.
I look forward to watching it on TV.
Don Brash up front holding a banner wrapped in the Union Jack. Rodney Hide on the bull horn. And instead of a haka. We can witness the protesters doing an angry and spirited morris dance.
I can’t wait.
personally I’d keep Matariki and Waitangi Day separate because it is important that the Treaty is highlighted (and everything associated with it) on the day it was signed and imo that is the healthiest way to sort out the issues which will lead to actual nation-building rather than the pretend stuff that goes on now.
Signs people have privilege: they think the biggest issue in NZ race relations is one statutory holiday.
a day for nz as a whole includes Māori though doesn’t it and Waitangi Day includes all nzers so the call for a new day is redundant isn’t it?
Well, for sure a new day can’t be simply based on the rationale of “Waitangi Day as we know it isn’t what we want”.
Of course a day for NZ as a whole includes all people and cultures, bar none. Waitangi Day however is subtle but very real in its difference. The Treaty was between Maori and the British Crown only – it is only the next step out that hauls in other people by dint of being “subjects of the crown” (yeah right) so it is indirect when it comes to other people.
This is not to detract from Waitangi at all. In fact, if anything, having a further day for all NZ would possibly enhance the position of Waitangi, by way of contrast. Its importance would be highlighted by stripping away the flotsam which accrues to it by also being some undefined NZ national day.
another national day for this country would detach from the significance of Waitangi Day – imagine if the promises made had been kept then the day would actually be a celebration but sadly the day just highlights the inequality of the current situation and that highlighting is the bit that people don’t like because it reminds them of what has happened, what is currently happening and what is likely to continue to happen unless some changes are made.
That’s the way I’m looking at it. I may not celebrate Waitangi Day or pay much attention to what goes on at Waitangi on that day but I’d actually be quite angry if some idiot tried to move it. It would be like trying to deny our history which I think is what the people who call for a new National Day are actually trying to do.
I agree, no one except a very small % consider Waitangi day to be anything other than some Maori bitchfest.
A yearly opportunity for the same dick heads to jump up and down and tell the majority of NZ to go get fucked.
What people want is a NZ day where everyone can come together without the racial bullshit and a have a day of celebrating who we are.
That isn’t Waitangi day.
Don’t know about that BM. Waitangi brings out issues around the Treaty. They need discussing, debating, shouting about, celebrating, holding hands etc. This is what it is about. I don’t see where it is written that everyone should just sit down and be quiet. It is good that people express their views – even if it creates some turmoil. Better that it happen in a forum such as Waitangi than spark up in some random other area of the country.
The Treaty can be discussed on any of the other 364 days of the year, it’s not like Maori have no representation and this is their only opportunity to be heard.
How can you have a celebration, when a certain group of party goers are slinging shit and insulting the other people at the party?
Crappiest party ever.
Awesome. Waitangi day should be the one day of the year when you mustn’t talk about the Treaty. Obviously.
We’ll turn it into one of those awkward movie family ‘celebrations’ where everyone is forced to attend by social duty but no one talks to each other because they pretty much can’t stand the sight of one another.
Not at all.
Just don’t pretend it’s a national day of celebration when it’s clearly not.
Leave Waitangi day for the certain Maori to do their thing and have another day where the rest of us can get together and have a celebration.
Considering the history, why should we be celebrating?
I agree and I would say that Waitangi Day accurately reflects the actual situation in this country – a group from all ethnicities striving for the realisation of equality and another group who just want to pretend the inequalities don’t exist.
“What people want is a NZ day where everyone can come together without the racial bullshit and a have a day of celebrating who we are.”
Really? Because I don’t hear people talking about the need for that. Except for a small number of people at the beginning of Feb each year who seem offended that they have to share a country with Maori. Irrespective of what Waitangi Day is or should be, is there a need for a national coming together day (whatever that means)? Most people would support it if they got another stat holiday out of it no doubt, but beyond that, where is the evidence that NZers have that degree of nationalism?
April 25th indicates a level of evidence of this CW – which may well point to a solution of a type.
A movable feast. Like Easter, which isn’t on the same date every year.
Something for everyone that is so inclined to wave a flag and skite about NZ and say sucks boo to the rest of them.
The day of first All Blacks Test of the year.
Sorted
You seem a bit anti on the whole idea P’s b. There is clearly demand for something as the issue of a national day continues to crop up. Do you imagine there should not be such and that these people should just sit down, be quiet and accept what they are given? Sort of like what they seem to want Maori to do at Waitangi?
I’m not anti it at all v.
Go for it.
I just doubt that it will end up being what the folks who are mostly loudly calling for it want.
The loudest voices calling for it seem to be saying that they wish we didn’t have any issues about race or whatever. But we do in fact have those issues. That’s why Waitangi day is fractious.
So if the idea is to have a day when we pretend there aren’t these issues, or when we mustn’t talk about them? What the hell is that? It’s like some sort of right wing hippie kumbayah hey let’s just be friends why can’t we all just get along.
You can’t set up a day to not talk about something without making everybody reflect on the thing they aren’t supposed to talk about.
I think they want a day which is about celebration not necessarily debate or analysis or reflection of current or past issues or anything else at all like that. Just celebration of NZ and its myriad cultures. All those other things are for sorting out another day. Pretty simple.
Its not about pretending those issues don’t exist at all. It is about allocation of components of life to various parts. i.e. meetings in teh afternoon, drinks after work.
“Just celebration of NZ and its myriad cultures”
And yet the basis of NZ nationhood is the Treaty, which is between Maori and the Crown who represent non-Maori.
“And yet the basis of NZ nationhood is the Treaty, which is between Maori and the Crown who represent non-Maori.”
Yep nup there are very different views on what is the basis of NZ nationhood and who the Crown were and how non-Maori relate to it.
there are very different views on what is the basis of NZ nationhood and who the Crown were and how non-Maori relate to it.
And that’s the rub.
Given these different views, how do we have a day that ‘celebrates’ NZ nationhood without it ending up as a discussion about what NZ nationhood means?
vto, I’m willing to accept that the definition of NZ nationhood is broader than what I stated, but I can’t see how it can not include what I stated without writing Maori out of the picture. By all means have a go though.
Plus what Pb said. How can we have a national day when we don’t even know what we are as a nation? (although personally, I don’t feel the need for a national day in the unity sense, because I feel very secure in who I am as a NZer and what that means).
Tom Lehrer has something pointed to say about racism and how difficult it is to deal with all differences – try to be nice to each other during National Brotherhood Week. Good stuff.
I guess the answer to all of that lies in your last sentence. Most NZers, I would surmise, feel secure in their New Zealanderness in however that has arisen, like yourself. That New Zealanderness has clearly arisen in many different ways (if you consider our history), which is fine. Each can be celebrated. Together.
The people calling for a national day (well, just the one I found) seem to be less worried about how they got to this point but they would like to celebrate being at this point. The “how” can be dealt with on another day. That I think is the crucial difference between how they view it and how someone like yourself and P’s b view it.
And, a little further, as stated above, it may well be that creating a separate national day enhances the status of Waitangi and the Treaty. It would receive the full position it deserves. (though Marty Mars seems to think it would detract). It could be one of those famous win-win situations.
And they can have that just as soon as we’ve corrected for the injustices of the past as then we’ll have something to celebrate.
Yes it is.
Vto, I’m still not getting it. Can you please tell me, without any reference to Waitangi Day or ANZAC Day or the Treaty, why you would like a national day that celebrates NZ as a nation (if that’s what you are arguing for)? And be specific, not a generality like “we need to celebrate as a nation” (because that will just prompt me to ask why).
DtB, that is a miserly approach and you are assuming excessively around people’s intentions for wanting a day that encompasses the whole of NZ and its cultures. You are wrong.
CW, it is explained in the posts made on here this morning up and down. What are you getting at? Just ask the question. (btw, it aint me calling for such a day, just being the devil’s advocate and placing the arguments).
In shortness – The call seems to centre around the desire for a day that encompasses all cultures and peoples who live here on an equal basis.
draco is correct imo
vto – the devils advocate hmmm – why bother doing that when you can articulate your view and contribute to the debate you often say we need to have.
“(btw, it aint me calling for such a day, just being the devil’s advocate and placing the arguments).”
Great, thanks for letting me know I’ve been wasting my time. The problem with arguing other people’s beliefs is that you don’t have the required insight to defend them. Makes sense now.
So, the question, given that you aren’t calling for a national day… do you want a national day or not? Why? why not?
Why not have both.
Have a day that I suppose acknowledges the work that ‘has’ been done to compensate and address Maori grievances, like a New Zealand day where we don’t need to go through the ritualised protest and spitting etc.
It can be like Australia day – give everyone a public holiday where you can head to the beach, have a barbie, watch some fireworks, and celebrate the good things in NZ.
Keep Waitangi day too however, where you acknowledge ongoing issues and put Maori accompilshments and concerns front and centre
My feeling is that a day like that might actually be a catalyst for increased Nationalism. It doesn’t seem necessary to me that Nationalism has to precede the day. The day would be an opportunity to express, affirm and feed a sense of Nationalism.
Draco if some inchoate sense of ‘resolution’ of ‘race relations’ is a predicate for a National day, it will never happen, which would be a real shame. Of course a contrarian such as yourself is always going to see the cracks, but it would be nice relegate these as secondary to the sound parts of the structure for one day of the year.
No CW, you haven’t been wasting your time. I think it is a good idea and it fits all sorts of narratives around how a society needs to operate. So while I have never called for one, imo the idea is sound and has many redeeming features.
Draco the Bastard, when I said this above … “I think they nt a day which is about celebration…”
and you replied with this … “And they can have that just as soon as we’ve corrected for the injustices of the past as then we’ll have something to celebrate.”
I suggested that your suggestion was miserly.
But in fact, more importantly, it must be kept in mind that the Treaty was between Maori and the British Crown. It was not between Maori and other people in NZ, nor between Maori and non-Maori. It is the Crown’s obligation to amend for its poor ways – don’t confuse the parties or who owes the obligations under this treaty.
But that is what you have done. Your statement implies that people in the street should somehow be made to pay (by way of not having a national day of celebration until past treaty cock-ups are remedied).
Completely wrong-headed.
@UpandComer
Because it’s an attempt to sideline the issues that some people don’t want to address.
Of course it will – as soon as some fuckwits get over themselves and admit that there are injustices that need addressing.
@vto
And those other people wouldn’t have been able to come in if not for Te Tiriti O Waitangi. Well, they would have been able but it would have been under different conditions than what applies. Probably far worse.
No I didn’t. There’s no payment involved at all.
“There is clearly demand for something as the issue of a national day continues to crop up.”
Outside of reaction to Waitangi Day, where is the call for a national day?
April 25th each year the same call goes up.
Some examples please vto.
Actual examples of specific person and specific words? Sorry mate, aint spending time searching the net for that but come back to me on April 26 when this year’s examples will be front page news again.
A couple of web links to media or something would have done. Will take it as a personal anecdote then vto, rather than lots of people in NZ calling for a national day around the time of ANZAC day.
*sigh* http://www.btob.co.nz/article/call-new-national-day
It’s just one of course and may not satisfy
Interesting link. It doesn’t reference ANZAC day though, only Waitangi Day, which proves my point. I can’t see a date on the article though.
Besides which, the whole article is about redefining NZ in relationship to its independence from the UK, rather than seeing the Treaty as being a founding document for NZ. By doing so, he is essentially saying that NZ = what British descendants think/do.
And he wants to artificially create something to replace something that already exists and has significant cultural value.
His views on Te Tiriti and what it was/is are incredibly eurocentric 🙁
“But it was primarily concerned with recognising Maori as British subjects, and acknowledging the governing role of the Westminster-based parliament in England. In that respect, it was essentially a truce with an occupying power – not the founding document of a modern nation.”
That’s just wrong. The Treaty didn’t ‘recognise’ that Maori were British subjects, nor did it ‘acknowledge’ that the UK govt was the governing power. It established those things. Prior to the Treaty, those things were not true, after it, they were.
The Crown acknowledged that prior to the treaty, iwi were the rightful governing authority. They weren’t an ‘occupying power’ in any respect, and it wasn’t a ‘truce’.
It’s these sort of fundamental disputes that need to be worked out if we are going to be happily ‘celebrating nationhood’. And they aren’t really things that ‘just opinion’.
Is there or is it just that the MSM are helping with the rights put up job?
Why do you think the All blacks are so popular?
Advertising and sponsorship
Yeah, that’s it.
Not sure how old you are BM, but there has been a big shift in the status of the All Blacks and rugby, and sports in general, since it went corporate.
just from general discussion over brews:
bringing AIG on board was for many fans, a very large nail in the AB’s coffin .
Waitangi day in London would count as a degree in nationalism, many may frown on the cringe worthy antics but none the less it is a bunch of proud kiwis celebrating where they are from…
hahahaha. Classic.
‘Who we are’ is a country with a bunch of ‘racial bullshit’ going on. We can either sort it out, or ignore it. But we can’t sort it out by ignoring it. But good luck in trying; like I said, I love a good laugh.
Pascals B
+1
+1
And what is it with all this nationalistic stuff anyway? I like that New Zealanders always seemed to be aware of who they were without putting on a show. Those shows are more divisive in national and international terms that a few over-reported protests about legitimate failures.
Is everyone who wants a celebration of a national day sure every other country they’re quoting has a fully celebratory day…. aborigines in Australia, First Nations people in Canada, the U.S. and Central and South America? And European countries have divisions that go back years… do the Cornish people fully celebrate St Georges Day? (btw does the UK have a national day?).
Rose-tinted glasses. I like that we have Waitangi Day as a national day, warts and all. That’s what a nation is – lots of fussing and arguing but through that a respect for the good points and an understanding and desire to improve the not so good.
““I’ve taken lots of flak and now I’m a bit gun shy. When you are pushed into a corner you don’t necessarily come out fighting.””
How convenient is that excuse. What did she think would happen taking on this particular job? How is she going to handle any controversial decisions she has to make if she can’t stand her ground this early on?
I, erm. liked this bit:
Hoo boy.
Her conceptualisation of the role appears to remain all about her and very little about the role itself and the job which needs to be done.
Some generic career advice for Devoy:
Speak on behalf of the position and the points that it needs to make, not on behalf of yourself and the points that you need to make.
Yep, it seems clear from her utterances that she believes it is important for her to express her own opinions in the role rather than the views required for the position. This is further evidence of why she is unqualified for the role.
This sort of outlook generally stems from an over-confident person. Over-confidence leads to all manner of troubles, especially in such a sensitive position.
Yep. And it’s pretty much the inevitable result of appointing people on the basis of their celebrity.
Interestingly, I think we may have been slightly missing the mark with Devoy. It looks to me like it’s professional inexperience which will be her biggest issue, not her qualifications.
BRING BACK BUCK!!!
An infinitely far better choice for the job.
Any racialist shit would get sorted out in the dressing room!!!
Bring back Buck
for Speaker of the House !!!
The Devaluation and Demeaning of Public Life
Why Dame Susan Devoy’s farcical appointment should not be a surprise
The bizarre Devoy appointment has been damned by nearly everyone. One of the most frequently heard criticisms is that the ridiculous installation of the Dame is “inexplicable”. I don’t think it is.
This unholy ACT/National/Dunne/Maori Party regime has established a pattern of devaluing and trivialising public institutions. On television yesterday, conservationist Guy Salmon said that he has worked with conservation ministers since 1971, but until now he has never met one who has tried to LOWER environmental standards.
So it’s not really a surprise to see Key and Joyce—let’s not pretend that Judith Collins was the genius behind this—appointing to the position of Race Relations Commissioner a grossly unsuitable person who has repeatedly voiced and written racist opinions.
Next up: expect an interesting new Human Rights Commissioner. My bet is it will be either Kyle Chapman or Garth McVicar.
Mozza, you have got that right!
There is a very deliberate degrading of the public institutions, which is actually not confined to NZ.
Take something which has a public good (even if its somewhat token), and turn it to a farce, such that people are no longer interested, because *its a bad joke*
Thats how you get rid of something you don’t want there, its rather simple, and very transparent!
+1
Didn’t see that programme. I was under the impression that Salmon and Nick Smith were close and that Salmon was the the favourite blue-greenie. Is there a rift coming here – does Salmon suddenly wake up to the fact he is being used?
BTW dealing with Conservation Ministers since 1971 Guy? C’mon I have good sources that say something more like “student parties”.
Guy Salmon is a very smart operator and hugely respected. Not one to be underestimated.
Forgot to say – I do appreciate him drawing attention to the lowering of conservation standards.
just watched TV3’s 3-60 for the first time,
my brain hurts
the current global stream of cowardice being expressed by the MSM translates as ‘wow we sure got duped aboout WMD in Iraq’ Even BBC on UKTV is doing some whitewash story later on.
These were International War Crimes most blatant and indefensible yet those responsible are being treated as if they were caught travelling in a bus lane. The MSM were complicit in the lie as any basic journalistic method of fact checking and asking follow up questions would have exposed the lie well before the white phosporus began to fall, but that as they say is a story to lie about another day.
+1 Yes.
I knew from reading a handful of good blogs back then that absolutely for certain Iraq did not have WMD’s and that the entire pretext for the war was mendacious, criminal lies.
I also recall quite clearly marching down Wellington streets in protest.
So yes … absolute cowardice from the MSM who’ve completely failed to name the obvious, that GW Bush and Tony Blair are war criminals.
Tony Blair and Rupert Murdoch were close. They admit it themselves. Crooked in the most extreme of extremities.
Some very good tips for avoiding rape:
http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/63981_10151531422176014_1123537092_n.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2Pt1F.gif *
*offensive, contains insight into the workings of the fundy mind
Those are good, I like this way as well:
http://julieborowski.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/how-to-avoid-rape/
She’s full of shit.
1. The “advice” to pee or puke on a rapist is not from “experts”, it’s from one book, published 1975, by Frederic Storaska which was based on nine-tenths of “fuck all”. [citation: Brownmiller, Susan, In Our Time, Dell: New York, 1999, p223]
2. Guns don’t stop rape. Guns don’t stop most crimes. We can tell by the way the United States isn’t a crime-free utopia.
As Zerlina Maxwell has come under fire (pun!) for pointing out, putting the onus on women to prevent rape is not only pointless, but destructive. Let’s stop rapists committing rapes, why don’t we?
I agree its certainly not from experts but it was recently rehashed:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/02/colorado-college-advises-students-to-urinate-vomit-to-stop-rapists/
Having someone point a 9mm at me would certainly stop me from doing whatever illegal activity I was doing at the time
Don’t worry about that mate, just take it off them and shoot them with their own weapon.
That happens to dozens of police officers in the USA every year.
I just think that women arming themselves is a proactive step towards protecting themselves from rape
Of course no one should be raping anyone in the first place
If the KKK had access to firearms, there would be dead blacks everywhere.
You’ve said some dumb ass things in your time but thats up…you’re special all right
I think that when the police start warning potential rapists they will be hunted down in preference of telling women that they should avoid going out…just in case..THAT will be a proactive start.
I object to the idea of having to carry around a fucking GUN and deal with the potential trauma of having killed another human being to enforce what is my legal right to begin with.
I’m not saying you have to arm yourself…
Yes, you are.
“I just think that women arming themselves is a proactive step towards protecting themselves from rape”
Yes, that’s what you think, but it’s a stupid idea. Can you please listen to why that is? People are telling you here.
Another reason – if women arm themselves to protect themselves from rapists, then rapists will also arm themselves. Or are you suggesting that only women be allowed to bear arms?
Yes, that’s what you think, but it’s a stupid idea. Can you please listen to why that is? People are telling you here.
– There have been no compelling arguments for not arming yourself
if women arm themselves to protect themselves from rapists, then rapists will also arm themselves. Or are you suggesting that only women be allowed to bear arms
– men have the inherent advantage of (generally) being larger and stronger, guns however are a great equalizer because it doesn’t take much strength to use (negating the strength factor) and are used at a distance (negating the size factor)
If men carry guns as well then its still men and women being equal as opposed to men having the advantage over women
Still don’t understand why you’re pursuing the US model of failure.
After you’ve been jumped from behind and whacked on the head with a ballpeen hammer, like the victims of Peter Sutcliffe?
When the person who rapes you has drugged your drink and you’re unconscious?
When it’s your partner attacking you and you’re in bed and the gun’s in your bag?
When there’s six of them?
Wow. Guns are magical.
After you’ve been jumped from behind and whacked on the head with a ballpeen hammer, like the victims of Peter Sutcliffe?
When the person who rapes you has drugged your drink and you’re unconscious?
When it’s your partner attacking you and you’re in bed and the gun’s in your bag?
When there’s six of them?
Wow. Guns are magical.
– Gee you’ve really shot down my arguments that guns are no good
oh wait…
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/29/california-mother-fights-off-intruder-thwarts-kidnapping/
http://www.examiner.com/article/mom-shoots-intruder-five-times
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/09/melinda-herman-mom-who-shot-intruder_n_2443920.html
http://thoughtfulwomen.org/2013/02/09/86-year-old-granny-grabs-her-gun-fights-off-intruder/
http://www.khou.com/news/crime/Mother-shoots-home-intruders-to-protect-herself-son-in-Montgomery-County-188507211.html
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/guns-prevent-3600-rapes-a-day/ (this ones more thought provoking)
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Woman-Fights-Off-Attempted-Rapist-Cops-.html (knives are good but guns have more range)
I’d do more but now I’m bored
Well over two thousand gun deaths in the USA since the Newtown shootings a hundred or so days ago.
and?
Not important to you, I realise that.
chris… so? In each of those cases, how many women were raped that day at gun point?
Besides, we are in NZ, our gun laws and culture are quite different. Trading rape for gun deaths is not a solution, unless you have a way of making all the gun deaths happen to rapists. Do you?
Are you going to address the actual points being raised here about why women arming themselves is a dumb idea?
Are you going to address the actual points being raised here about why women arming themselves is a dumb idea?
– When theres a decent argument I’ll address it
Releasing a mass of handguns into society is a very very bad idea.
” – When theres a decent argument I’ll address it”
Get a blog dude. Here you’re just a waste of space.
Um … you realise this proves nothing?
*Some* victims fighting off attackers with guns doesn’t prove that *all* victims, if armed, would fight off their attackers.
None of your examples contradicts any of my questions. *You* are the person who refuses to address the actual points being raised here.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8465532/Call-to-ban-ministers-from-share-float
Not just cabinet ministers, but all mp’s!
Scarey stuff……
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2013/03/rodney_says_auction_the_unemployed_on_trade_me.html?fb_source=pubv1
Southern plantation owners like the sound of this
FFS, do people not know any history of humankind at all?
Nothing more dangerous than influential fools.
Useful idiots?
Ha ha yep though they tend to be more amusing than anything. Did you have any of them on your oceanic voyage recently?
If I were to be cynical, I’d say we all were to some degree.
The voyage was maybe more about making a movie than it was about making a difference .In real terms it won’t change the Pasifikan outlook with regards to interacting with our environment.
We, in supposedly being put forward as a metaphor for sustainability, are more likely metaphors for tokenism, lip service and welfare dependency.
It’s all about what we as individual crew decide to do in following up what we learnt and how it changed us to pass on that knowledge to future generations to use that’s important.
Each one, teach one…
He is suggesting a starting pay rate of $6/hr.
i guarantee he has not considered the abatement or the secondary tax situation,
see my post below
If they want to do something useful to help the unemployed better their situation then let the unemployed build graft and climb every way they can. Selling them for $2 an hour is not going to do anything but piss off a whole lot of angry people. The fastest easiest and most economically practical method is to use the existing graduated tax rate and get rid of the Secondary Tax that takes 70c in every dollar earned over the $100 abatement.
No other group in NZ gets hammered so punitively for trying to grasp at crumbs from the table of Poverty Line living. In addition to being a self defeating motivational failure the dinosaur of Secondary Tax takes 70 c in every dollar away from the local economy where that dollar would have been spent in its entirity and would have eventually entered the tax stream. Instead it steals the earnings of the poor and slides it straight across to service 150+ billion dollars of debt that the poor did not create.
This latest brainfart from king dickhead highlights nothing but he lack of rational thought that exists in power today.
It’s possible to do a tax form and get any excess money paid in tax back. What we’re really fighting with secondary tax is the old way of doing things before we had computers and fast internet that could do the taxes in real time.
Draco, you must know something i don’t. 😉
( when it comes to reaping rewards that is not hard)
Years back when i was last on a benefit I argued the injustice of this point repeatedly and have never had a cent returned. Please tell me the name of your accountant and do they barter? With my redundancy, and no severance, I may have to ask the Gov for some temporary assistance and I would love to know I won’t be forking over 70 % of any carvings or other art I might actually sell before I get back on independant street again.
The abatement isn’t an income tax (DTB is talking about income tax). It’s an abatement ie it gets taken directly off the beneficiary before payment (or the week after), rather than going through IRD.
freedom, I agree but I haven’t seen the figures laid out in a way that is fair for minimum wage earners. If a beneficiary’s first $200 is labour free, why should minimum wager earners have to work for that? A universal income would solve the problem but is a long way off as a political possibility. A voluntary work for dole scheme might make it fairer, if we had sane and fair governments, but again, that’s unlikely at this point. What else?
two points CW
1: it may not technically be processed by IRD but if a one off payment for a sale arrives of $500 and $400 of that gets abated at 70c in the dollar, I call that a tax.
It doesn’t magically stop once the total of the benefit payment for that week is reached.
( this is an actual personal example from a few years back and from a discussion on the phone yesterday I understand that nothing has changed) (Where are the abatement penalties for those receiving WFF or the Farmers Assistance by the way?)
The one size fits all criteria is part of the problem but the principal issue is that the whole structure is pigheaded stupid if you want poor people to do more to contribute to their assistance and the economy as a whole.
which leads us into point 2
2: the only fair process for minimum wage earners/benes/ everyone who earns under 25k a year is a tax free allowance like our trading partners enjoy, e.g
: Australia = 18 thousand dollars before income tax applies, why?
because they understand every single cent goes directly into the daily economy not into the vast reservoirs of term deposits, trusts and trading floors. But for some reasons Governments only consider that if poor people earn more they may need less and then it is harder to bash them.
The government doesn’t want poor people actually doing anything to help themselves. If they did that and succeeded then there wouldn’t be any one to work for the rich and the rich would lose their profits.
Personally, I’d prefer a Universal Income.
UI is basically the same as a Tax Free Allowance with the only difference that TFA injects cash directly into a person’s life and then into the economy not vice-versa.
or am I confused? it’s been a busy weekend and with only hours to go before my employment is over the brain is starting to sidetrack to little details like’ hey how are we going to eat next week?’
Actually, a Tax Free Allowance would be a Universal Income and no country does that. I was reading tax free bracket which Australia and a few other countries have.
I’m confused now.
How does the tax free bracket make it fair for low wage earners if people on the dole get their first $200 without having to to work for it?
btw, freedom, yes call it a tax in the general sense, but be aware that it will confuse people. And like I said, it’s not income tax in the sense that most people would understand it in NZ.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/8465472/Team-NZ-accounts-disappear-into-a-black-hole
General Rumblefuck is concerned, but I’m sure Major Stumblefuck is pretty relaxed so no fucking worries…
Just keep turning a blind eye til the lack of accountability hits the hundreds of millions of dollars. Anything less is chump change.
SCF, Novopay, Solid Energy…Blame Labour and move on!
Something to listen to on a Sunday afternoon: Max and Stacey: Italy, Spain And New Zealand Are Changing the Law for Wealth Confiscation. But hey, no conspiracies happening here.
Nice. This Zero Hedge article is also instructive.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-23/why-cyprus-matters-and-ecb-knows-it
That was a good link. Ta.
The country I put the link under would have been New Zealand!
Should be the immediate pressing issue for people right now, but they are not even aware its coming.
Banks accounts being prepped to be raided in NZ, 99.9% certainty, its going to happen.
The variable is when, we won;t get to know this, until its too late to do anything about it.
HOW IS IT NOT A FORM OF CORRUPT PRACTICE FOR MPS, ESPECIALLY MINISTERS, TO BE ABLE TO BUY SHARES IN STATE ASSETS WHICH THEY HAVE VOTED TO SELL OFF?
How is this not ‘misuse of public office for private gain’? ie: A CORRUPT PRACTICE?
Is ‘shonky’ John Key going to buy shares in Mighty River Power?
(We already know he’s an ‘insider trader’ – remember Tranz Rail?)
And – he owns shares in the Bank of America – which would be UNLAWFUL if he was the Prime Minister of Australia!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8465532/Call-to-ban-ministers-from-share-float
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
2013 Auckland Mayoral Candidate
The Ministry of Education is making it difficult for the children of outlying towns to get to Colleges in Dunedin and Whangarei. Free transport options are being withdrawn and the cost mounts up over a year for multiple children if parents want to support them travelling into the near city to get their secondary learning at a school that is right for them.
Lord Rutherford was a boy in a very small place, but got the education that enabled him to develop his work, make discoveries and we are still living in the reflected glory of the plaudits he got. The smaller minds running government don’t aspire to greatness of thinking beyond the track their minds are fixed on. No side issues to their conceptions of good practice (usually cheapness) can distract them.
The Venn diagram of irrational nonsense.
from.
from…. some extreme fundamentalists 🙄
bah!, thought I’d fixed it.
From: http://crispian-jago.blogspot.co.uk/
a “blunt instrument” indeed! A RW Fascist site?
Atheism was in there too – unlabeled of course – as it represents empty space! 😎
Crispian Jago is a UK based sceptic.
http://crispian-jago.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/hitchhikers-guide-to-religion.html
dont ya just love how anthropo-centric “skeptics” take a stand against, well, just about everything recorded and still being “discovered about the human condition and experienced.
He freakin’ wept alright!
Indeed gr888. I also love how irrational they are 😀
All hail the Great Rationalist 😉
Your first link went direct to the picture. This is the link to the blog post.
OOBEs certainly don’t belong there.
“mindfulness” from abstract;
-attention regulation
-emotion regulation etc;
=synergistic neuroplastic changes, or, to tell another story, clay re-moulded. 🙂
re earlier denial of “Boy Racer” culture persisting;
CHCH boy racers form “Christchurch Anti- Police Riot Squad”, and boy racer disorder features as primary tele news article.
Zespri; “smuggling” 11M fine, to be born by growers, not the marketing desk, may be the final staple in the industry.
from Q & A;
ol’ Pita aye, Power, then ultimate power corrupts!
Nick Smith; hiding behind the “kiwis own home dream”;
-“post-war, home ownership has been positively correlated with low interest rates.” Hmmmm.
-over last five years of “low interest rates”???
-according to the Productivity Commission, the price of building materials in NZ is 30% higher than Aus.
]
Stephen Franks; “the Auckland Regional Council will not be representing the interests of the wider populace of the region.” (implying that it will represent the vested interests,and the inevitable NIMBYs). he appears to be not a very egalitarian sort himself however, while Sandra Lee appears to be fading…
According to an NZIER analysis, if the present rate of migration by NZers to Aus continues (although there are signs of some negative feed-back signals entering the system, migration was down last month) there would be a loss of $30B to NZ of “lost human capital”.
According to one commentary on Cyprus I chanced upon (Dragons Den businessman), the EU requirements are a trial run by Germany et al: to see if they can transfer the approach to Spain, Portugal, etc.
Did you know that a significant land area of the Scottish Highlands used to be covered in Caledonian Pine up until a few hundred years ago, and naturally carried moose, lynx, bear and wolves: now it primarily carries Red Deer, Salmon and Grouse. (a wealthy estate-holder is attempting to return his section of the region to how it was).
“For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, (or the dancers of the Bolshoi) yet lose his soul.”
If sovereign governments and elected politicians think they still run their own countries, they’re about to find out (again) who is really in charge.
Good luck with NZ’s Left wanting to raise taxes:
As NZ is not going to go ‘broke’ anytime soon!
If the children of the ‘left’ in Europe can do with less money so as to pay banks….then NZ kids certainly don’t ‘need’ anyone else’s money! 😎
You do know how much money English is borrowing right?
we’re rich right up until the creditors come calling, then… TINA.
Seen it before, thirty-odd years ago.
+1
And exactly what this government is setting us up for.
Yes I do. But the point is:
Any additional tax revenue from the NZ economy improving is now ‘earmarked’ for debt repayment. The left in Europe have just given reason for that:
if the government don’t contain risk then the government is prepared to take your property as a last resort.
And as the left in NZ keep pointing out – the government is still borrowing.
Time to ‘privatise’ all the assets and government services too. 😎
Your arguments are a bit hard to track. I don’t think you are actually making sense.
She doesn’t make arguments, she makes unsupported assertions.
Its spambot class commentary.
that shit doesn’t even follow.
You do realise that it’s smarter to keep the energy company dividends to pay down debt than hock off ownership to put a one-off drop in the bucket? Shit, if a beneficiary did what the government’s doing, tories would be screaming about “bad choices” and “lifestyle options”.
hey McFlock, don’t you just love the bit about privatising all services too, cool no more taxes weehah !!!
only pay for what you use ? rock on self sufficiency !
silly people are funny
Dear “Harriet”
“Glory Glory Hallelujah, just like a knife it cuts right through ya,
Glory Glory Hallelujah, just like a lie, I see right through ya…”
Yeehaaa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kq0vPSadqU
Yours faithfully, The Ghost Rider
so if you would be so kind Harriet, how much is the current debt total ?
and what was it in 2008 ???
and what has it all been spent on ?????????
Stupid reality getting in the way of wingnut bullshit again!
We dumped feudalism for a very good reason – no need to bring it back no matter what the rich think. What we really need to do is to get rid of capitalism and then we’d have the freedom that we’ve been fighting for for the last few hundred years.
Where are all the well-informed intelligent wingnuts? It’s almost as though they don’t exist.
Harriet: NO need to raise taxes, all the left needs to do is seize your assets!
Top Banking Analyst: Subsidies to Giant Banks Exceed $780 Billion Dollars Per YEAR
That’s got to be the biggest shocker of all – that banks aren’t profitable without government subsidies.
Socialism for the Bankers.
and there’s this one from Positive Money (UK):
And this one:
Out of all that comes a serious question: How much are the banks in NZ subsidised? How much are they costing us per year?
In fact that’s not the real shocker.
It’s the fact that several major banks may be trading while literally insolvent, and that the free liquidity being provided to them is masking that.
… and JUST IN! 9!@#$%^&) Mainstream Media EXPOSES naughty goings-on and EXPLOITATION
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/rebuilding-christchurch/8465471/Rebuild-jobs-scam-exposed
I think it was a week ago – maybe more, that RNZ (Phillipa Tolley) looked at various scams.
I (myself) have a complaint with the old Labour Dear-Part ment – reference number and all – now more than a year old – blacker than the Black Hole of Calcutta!
Just so ya know – I’m not all that impreesed with alternative media either! Often it seems the plight of minorities gets on an agenda IF and WHEN it fits.
So much for a 4th Estate – and actually so much for ‘the new 4th Estate’.
Write it up, send it in as a guest post.
This NZer in Canada, Farley cut his electronic bracelet and has gone on to attack women.
Why did someone who calls himself a Judge judge that this was appropriate. Females don’t count for anything apparently. They and children are used as canaries in the dark pit of these men’s minds to see if they are suitably civilised to be left to live in the community. If they reoffend it’s such a shame, and there is hou ha about it.
The point is that they should never get out. The country comes down harder on women on benefits who have got more over the years because they had some sort of relationship with a bloke, and welfare can be harsh and unreasonable in judging about this. It’s time that these soulless decision makers found some integrity and more ba.ls instead of so much ba.l..
WTF are you on about? Farley had the bracket for receiving stolen goods. The second charge would likely have put him in jail:
What I want to know is how he managed to get a false passport. His brother is being charged with assisting him to get that but there must also have been someone else as a passport requires two people to testify that they know you.
Anyway, it’s obvious that we need to up the security of getting passports in NZ.
Right DTB – I was way off the facts. But I believe that violent people have often committed numbers of crimes before the one that they are accused of. A person doesn’t commit a serious crime without an apprenticeship.
And Corrections facilities create thousands such training opportunities per year.
And that too. Keeping people out of prison as much as possible is a good idea. Obviously need better bracelets though.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he had committed other crime including sex crimes. He found it way too easy to get that passport which would mean that he’s well connected within the criminal world.
The judge couldn’t rule on what he’s possibly done though, only what he’s been convicted of and receiving stolen goods isn’t much more than a misdemeanor.
DTB
It would be interesting for police with unsolved crimes to look at whether he was around at the time. Not trying to pin stuff on him, but to bring him into the bunch of possible offenders. And again I come back to how long he will be imprisoned. He is the type of individual addicted to criminality and viciousness who should stay in prison. The numbers of criminals like this are a small percentage.
The prison population overall can be reduced by shorter sentences for lesser offences, not long punitive ones where they only receive rehabilitation courses just before release. The whole prison sentence should be turned to retraining and building the individual’s personal standards and self-belief in themselves as a person of worth with a mental kit of ways of dealing with threats to themselves, their psyche, their property. Initiatives won’t happen with the moronic bunch of politicians we continually see dabbling with Laura Norder.
I notice John Howard is quite sure that he was right in bringing in the swingeing laws against NZers. Of course he can make a case for anything, even the Tampa people floundering in the sea. He considered that they were just attention-seekers, willing to sacrifice children. Which would have been a bad thing. But when he judges himself he can do anything and make a case for it being good. What a twister.
And Julia Gillard and her lot aren’t going to change the discriminatory legislation against us. And our pollies are as I have said earlier, too busy buttering their own bread on both sides and both sides of the Tasman, to worry – we’re just toast. I caught some mention of condescending treatment, and I guess that would be Aussies against NZers, not the other way round.
I got to edit this – just to try to make it less rambly.
I would love to know why McCullum didnt enforce the follow on.
A 239 run lead, with 2 days to do. Putting England in to bat again would have ensured, at the very least a draw, a squared series and honour intact, and at the most, a rare test victory against England and their first series win since 1999 (first at home since just before Rogernomics kicked in, Feb 1984), at 35/3, the Black Caps risk screwing up and letting England take the test and the series.
Anyway, we shall see how things pan out at Eden Park in the next couple of days…
And Harriet. the earth was created with science, not magic.
Rly? So it should be easy to repeat and come up with the same result?
lolz. Good one CV.
As an aside, belief in science can become it’s very own religion.
And scientific fundamentalism is the same as any other religious fundamentalism: where their way is the only correct way of thinking about and looking at the entire world. And if your beliefs don’t match up with their accepted orthodoxy satisfactorily, then you are nothing more than a backward infidel, heretic or barbarian worthy of dismissive scorn and disrespect.
QFT. And unlike other fundamentalists they’re completely blind to their fundamentalism.
As an aside, belief in science can become its very own religion.
Nonsense. You are contending that to oppose or radically differ from something means you are the equal and opposite of that which you oppose or radically differ from. That’s a logical fallacy.
And scientific fundamentalism is the same as any other religious fundamentalism…
Nonsense. That’s exactly the sort of garbage that appears in Fundamentalist Christian literature.
God those Circket people do my fucking head in – I guess I just have to savour the afternoon.
Uncharitably as those last 3 wickets fell, I was reminded of that old line that the best way to get a small to medium sized company is hand a huge company to a New Zealander and come back in a year. Sigh.
I suspect that they thought the pitch was going to break up even more so if England managed to eck out a 100 run lead it might have been too much for NZ to get facing Anderson and Panesar.
Whereas this way they can extend the lead, take up a bit more time, wear the pitch out even more and make it even harder for England so I can see the logic in why they chose not to enforce the follow on.
I would have enforced the follow on though
re http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-24032013/#comment-608939
Society under capitalism can never be equal or fair . . . but it can be better. I am no expert and it is obviously an overly simplistic concept for a difficult problem but so was the hairclip, and a kiwi solved that little problem too. With over four million of us surely we can fix this tangled mess. All I know is for things to improve the change must be extreme, but you start small
At its most basic level of explanation: If the first 15 K of income was tax free ?
We would see low wage communities with more stable local businesses. Many new small businesses servicing the needs of their local community would flourish [read: return].
Families would have more which means they would have better fed kids, meaning fewer doctor visits amongst other savings. These savings are just a fraction of what is possible to pass on to the Nation as a whole. Along with the increased tax take from the growing stable of local businesses (whose profits would generally stay onshore ) we would have greater employment thus fewer in need, We could easily allow for the support of those who do need it, and how you treat those unable to help themselves says more about your society than any GDP figure ever will.
These basic tenets of a decent society would germinate into greater equality and wider opportunities for all.
Add an FTT and before you know it we are back to full funding of education as well, including Tertiary. Throw a Health & Welfare tax onto all gambling and kiwiland is almost standing on its own feet again. The tax take from Lotto alone would be substantial. The Casinos will bitch but stay, the Racing brigade will swallow it and if the owners of Lotto don’t like it then rip up the contract and let Bonus Bonds off the chain and give it a new sparkly jacket. Booze could do with a good looking at also.
Then there is the big step, every dollar above 15K is taxed. Every dollar. Every woman every man every business every sale every trade everything is taxed with no exemptions. It is not news that those with more pay less because they can. If you want a more equitable society you must have a more equitable tax system. The one we curently have is a joke. Cue RWNJ’s But But But companies will abandon the country etc etc etc, The Corporate World has been playing a bluff for a really long time and it needs to be called on it. I believe New Zealand would survive because it would remember that it can.
Naturally all of that means that a few have to take little less but then the many can have so much more. Your only choice is which side of that equation you want to be on.
ok, but that doesn’t solve the Work and Income benefit abatement problem now. A problem for which I’ve yet to see any solution except UBI. Simply getting rid of it is both unfair on low wagers and politically impossible currently.
so we just leave it all in the too hard basket eh!
No, a Universal Income solves it.
“so we just leave it all in the too hard basket eh!”
No. We are just talking at cross purposes. I got excited for a minute because I thought someone might have some ideas on what to do about the abatement issue now without completely rearranging society. Nothing wrong with rearranging society either 🙂
Am I out of line by thinking that the most immediate step to reducing the absurdly negative affect of the current abatement process is to return to the practical and logical policy of extra income being adjusted over the annual earnings and not processed against an individual week ?
I will always believe that the first 10-15 K of income should be tax free as it is spent in its entirety in the local community regardless of who you are or what you earn. The low income workers, as always, bear the brunt of so many vaccuous policies. Holding them up as victims only when convenient , does little but reinforce the status quo.
There is always going to be a need for welfare if we fumble around blindfolded looking for eternal growth instead of working steadfast and true, with eyes and minds wide open, focused on achieving a sustainable economy.
“Am I out of line by thinking that the most immediate step to reducing the absurdly negative affect of the current abatement process is to return to the practical and logical policy of extra income being adjusted over the annual earnings and not processed against an individual week ?”
That would help certainly. Most benefit to people with variable income. Not so much help to people with regular weekly part time work.
I think they still do yearly assessments for some long term benefits, which suggests that this is something they could do for any one individual if they were do inclined.