did anyone else go to ‘the spirit level’ lectures in ak this week..?
..takeaways..?
..and i wd urge those in regions south..
..to go and have defined for themselves..
..what actually needs to be done..
..(when they come to your town..1200 in ak is the target to beat..c’mon..!..you know you can see off the jafas..eh..?..
..i’m looking @ you..wellington..)
..as made by the authors..(to 1200 people in ak last nite..)..
..the case could not be clearer..
..(that was my takeaway..)
(..another sub-takeaway was the pointed comment from one of the authors..
..that the evidence clearly shows the last labour govt did virtually nothing to lessen the inequalites engendered by the rightwing-revolution/attack on the welfare state in the 1980’s..
..started by labour..and enthusiastically carried on by national..
..let’s hope they take all that blinding-evidence on board..
Had to have my nearly 20 year old dog put to sleep recently. I miss him so much. Dogs are wonderful companions and such trusting souls. Nice hearing about your dog Phil. Give Lucy a pat from me.
Armstrong praisies Labour & Cunliffe – sort of – as ong as they look like National Lite, and don’t, you know, return to its roots, advocate for the poor and struggling Kiwis. Cause according to Armstrong, there is no problem for those on low incomes.
A bit of a twist from Mr Armstrong. There is a positive mood shift. The announcement of Opposition Policies can now go ahead post-Budget and leaves National less time to counter any positive feedback that comes from those policies.
An old guy at a bus stop recently rambled on to me about the carelessness of young people today (litter in the streets). He then kind of back tracked and said his generation got criticised a lot by older people. then he said something about the hard times that are coming. I thought he was going to say something about an economic crash, and/or climate change. So I said, “Really?”. He then launched into a bit of a rant about the reports he’d read of conflict in an Avondale mosque, and how “those people” shouldn’t bring their fights to NZ.
First of all, do you mean anti-Muslim rhetoric in the sense of al-Qaeda etc, or anti-Muslim rhetoric against Muslim NZ citizens? I doubt they would the latter because there would be nothing to gained from it, and if you had regular contact with the NZ Muslim community you would soon find that, having minds of their own, and depending on whether they are Shia or Sunna, and depending on their country of origin, may very well agree with the newspaper article.
The author of the Daily piece seems to have an axe to grind with the NZMA that goes well beyond this single event.
Also I fail to see how desiring to keep foreign sectarian conflict out of New Zealand is in any way racist, prejudiced or even bad. It would be naive in the extreme to ignore what has happened in countries even more liberal than ours like Sweden and the Netherlands.
Well, it can often be hard to tell whether media beatups about (alleged) Muslim Jihads are motivated by Islamaphobia, but it does feed into fairly widely spread Islamophobia discourse.
The guy I talked to at the bus stop was explicitly anti-Islam.
Yes, that was the story I mentioned before which you had already posted. The author appears to have an agenda against the NZMA.
I doubt xenophobic old coots are indicative of much – they’ve been around forever.
. The present dominant affect of anxiety is also known as precarity. Precarity is a type of insecurity which treats people as disposable so as to impose control. Precarity differs from misery in that the necessities of life are not simply absent. They are available, but withheld conditionally.
For many young job-starters the lack of job security and unclear future careers must contribute to this precarity. Being on contracts where you only work when the manager needs you in the unholy name of “flexibility” must hurt.
Hooton believes that we only work well if scared. Well, that’s of course depends, if we are already wealthy then we do best being over paid. And if anyone says otherwise they are mean, raging, envious, and hate filled. So speaks the pure petulant voice of the right.
Thanks. It’s thought provoking, and I tend to agree with the basic premis: that capitalism stimulates resisistance, then capitalism reacts to neutralise the resistance…. then a new form of resistance forms.
However, I think the periodised labels for each phase of resistance is pretty superficial – and US-based. Bored people in the 60s, tended to be amongst the more middle classes – and white and male. As they also state, there was always anxiety around sexuality – well that would include most women, and anyone who didn’t conform to sexual norms.
Anxiety now, would be more likely to be those in the middle incomes/wealth brackets – the most precarious have lives of daily struggle.
For ages I’ve been trying to put into words what is going wrong with trying to taking any kind of group action – the paralysis of the current age that he describes and the reasons for it. His analysis of this state and how we find ourselves here is an outstanding overview.
The only collective action that I’ve been involved in that hasn’t been seriously infected with it has been something I’ve been doing with a group of very well off middle-class people who are mostly a long way off precarious compared to people like me (though of course they are affected, just not infected). I’ve felt such a sense of frustration at this project powering ahead while just about every other collective action I’ve tried has floundered or limped meekly along without achieving anything much beyond just continuing to exist. Treading water, yet important causes and outstanding people rendered powerless.
edit: Embarrassed by my unthinking sexism in ascribing the article a male writer.
On Kim Hill’s Saturday Morning show today Harriet Sergeant was pontificating about the significance of the UKIP vote in local government elections in Britain. It made me feel ill – the more so because of the sycophantic way Hill treated this rightwing ideologue.
On the RNZ website Sergeant’s self description from her website was reproduced verbatim –
“a journalist, author and Research Fellow of the Centre for Policy Studies, an independent Think Tank…”
Instead of simply repeating Sergeant’s self-description, they should have mentioned that the Centre for Policy Studies is a right wing, neoliberal policy think tank which claims to be non-partisan but which has strong historical links to the British Conservative Party.
Unless, of course, Hill was deliberately trying to present a well known rightwing ideologue as a politically neutral researcher/commentator.
I emailed RNZ about this and it was not read out but Hill did mention the fact that the CPS has historical links to the Tory Party – having been set up by Thatcher.
Acknowledgement of having been caught out on sloppy research at best and political bias at worst would have been good but at least the record was set straight to some extent.
Yes TWW I too thought that the fact that she was from a right wing think tank should have been made clear, though that became obvious when she gave her analysis.
She lumped Milliband in with Cameron and Clegg, where in fact he is not a public school toff like them but went to a comprehensive.
I also hated the way she dished public education in the UK (snotty), and the way she made out Farage, a right-wing populist, was a good guy. Show me the policies Farage.
She also failed to mention that if these poll results were replicated next year Labour would be likely to get elected without the need for a coalition partner. Like the rest of the Tory press she had written her analysis before Labour’s good results in London came in.
Was pleased to see Hammersmith and Fulham won back from the tories, the 11 seats won taking them to a 26 – 20 majority.
Now at least I have something to cheer about Fulham this year.
Cameron’s favourite, so I read. Can Imagine a few being sunk tonight on the broadways.
Enjoy the ride, ours got us a few minutes away from a penalty shoot out for the ueffa cup, and rid of that bizarre MJ statue.
I don’t care too much, just as long as Derby beat QPR. Looking forward to an easy six pointer next term 😉
Its common place to see moderate progressives of the left matched with right-wing revolutionary conservative types who peddle the extremism which their opponents have not the time or language to deconstruct. When growth was assured (cheap energy trending lower) the right got more extreme and stupid. It was easy living for parasites, to argue for more nothing and claim victory when achieved, and so much work kicking the poor, unions, communities.
We will have high taxes on the rich again, since we cannot afford to leave people in precarity where their time is spent getting by rather than growing the economy.
The rebuttal to the surgeon who is dealing with women who are facing ongoing and debilitating issues, was “Associate Professor Malcolm Frazer – The urogynaecology spokesperson for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the immediate past vice chair of the Urogynaecological Society of Australasia.”
No mention of the fact that he derives income from other sources such as:
“Declaration of interest
Malcolm Frazer holds contracts as a preceptor for Johnson & Johnson Gynecare as well as American Medical Systems mesh products for which he receives a fee. He has received financial support from both organisations to attend scientific conferences as an invited lecturer.”
This declaration of interest can be found on one of his articles on the benefits of surgical mesh that he continues to write, and get income from the company that is undergoing a class action suit.
That would provide clarity to the discussion. I haven’t listened to the whole interview, but understand that National Women’s have stopped using this mesh because of the complications, and are keeping on the QT. ACC is continuing to refuse payment and treatment to those who have had complications from these mesh implants.
In reference to the latest sensationalist article in the NZ Herald, no one declared ‘jihad’ at the security guard. What actually happened is that the security guard was smoking inside (which is against the law) and walking in the mosque with shoes on, something that is unacceptable in a mosque (similar to a marae). When someone told him that he shouldn’t be doing that, the security guard made up a story about threats of jihad to take attention away from him disrespecting the mosque
Meanwhile, as the Immigration Service ordered the deportation of all four nannies employed to look after the couple’s five children, dotcon says “”The nannies are crying. They are completely destroyed,”
Why did kim not employ NZ nannies? Maybe hone can help find some kiwi staff for the mega mansion as part of the keep it New Zealand campaign. That would be great move to reduce unemployment and show his coalition partner has a handle on poverty in his adopted (for a little bit longer at least) country.
“Or why not look after their own kids instead of paying someone else to bring them up.”
Indeed, or better still, government makes it an option to pay one parent to stay at home to raise babies while the other works.
“I think that the twins are autistic so they need extra care which is what less wealthy parents of autistic would desperately need and wish for.”
Sad indictment on this country if we don’t have suitably qualified staff to do that good work.
And right, less well off parents could do with the help. Hope the next government will grant the wish.
You don’t know that “local labour is more than capable of doing” the role at all – you just suppose it – for instance we (generally) only know one language (english) here – could it be that they may have wanted a german speaking nanny? I don’t know but i’d allow for the possibility, certainly before adding this tidbit to the stack of ammunition used to attack dotcom, Hone and Mana.
I also think that many kiwi nannies around the world wouldn’t be too fussed with your foreign labour angle.
No, not bitter, more a black comedy observation on the mismatch in interests here. Only nanny I ever knew was Mary Poppins and my nan, who in fact introduced me to her one Saturday movie matinee afternoon back in the early 70s.
As for my status, I don’t know for sure. I’ll cheer anything with a lion or a rose on it, but most of the time I’ve assimilated quite well. I bred with a local woman and got married and had a child born here, who holds a NZ passport in her name, just like her mother, her grandmother and her great grandmother.
Mostly I consider myself, after 13 years on the good waka Aotearoa as one of the crew, but sometimes it’s not just the flow of the ocean lapping at the hull where I find resistance.
Legally, my 10 year passport with my permanent residency silver dollar stickers ran out 4 years ago, I found out I was a shoe in for citizenship, and though a little affronted at not only being asked to pay near 5 hundy membership fee, despite 14 years of A ok service and going 50% in a fantastic little kiwi chick, I’m comfortable in the knowledge I didn’t sink 50 grand into Bank’s campaign fund after hearing from the horses mouth it was to keep it secret and anonymous, or if believed, 200k, I didn’t get it because I needed a little red box audio interface box of magic (though sadly it hasn’t made my cathatic musical musings any easier to listen to).
As for Hone, I mean him no ill, and though I’m no politician, robust debate should come as nothing new to him. He even built his career on it, so no harm done. That’s why I’, not bothered by the bitter thing. I wouldn’t read that much into it.
Happy to concede it could be the delivery and style.
You’re all good, Mars, eh. See, even talking like you lot now, though you’ll have to imagine it coming in a less put on Michael Caine sort of way).
Well I for one am pleased you are here adding your bit to the cause.
I probably am oversensitive with the comedy – my father was english and, well, to be truthful, we didn’t get on very well – coloured me rotten that did, tainted me.
Half lion heart, that’ll account for the being up for it bit 😆
Wrong person to speak to about tainted as I’m quite sure there are a few who’s opinion on my place of birth has altered for the negative through meeting me and not always with justification, but then that could say more about them than I. I’m too busy paddling and keeping one eye on the bailing bucket not the life raft to take it all to heart.
lol perhaps it does account for me being an obnoxious, argumentative bastard sometimes, perhaps not – we are all made up of many strands of whakapapa, many connections and that is common to every single one of us on this planet (not counting aliens of course)
If you really want to know why they didn’t employ NZ nannies, why not send him an email and ask? There could be any number of reasons.
I also don’t think that Hone acting as an employment agency for the mansion would do much at all to reduce unemployment. Did you make this stuff up yourself, or get it from WhaleSpew?
Thought of it myself and sadsack’s opinions have never interested me one bit. If anything I should be accused of envy politics about how money buys hired help while those without have sod all, and that’s hardly wo material.
Like stated, a black comedy observation on the bizarre nature of the political union.
And in an opinion dedicated forum of my peers. How dare I? lol
Hey Phil don’t judge Sue Morony by 5 minutes on the Nation, she is not the enemy my friend.
Compared to most of the LP MP’s, Sue has the lowest income earners firmly in mind. I’ve known her since we were in our early 20’s when she was fighting the fight as a young Union organiser. She has never faultered from that fight, not once. I credit Moroney for unseating Shearer as Leader and fighting to get Labour back Left. First you have to gain power to make the nessasary social changes. Like many I detest the ‘middle vote rhetoric’ however it’s all about mopping up soft votes. There is enough dog whistling to the low income group from Labour to attract the vote. Remember Matt McCarten is ‘monitoring the noise level.’
You sit back and relax as you do, the Red Dragon is steady on a Left course. Let us do the hard work and you reap the rewards of our hard toil.
..i am just expressing my dismay at no clear policies from labour to help the worst off..
..(and i am aware of moroneys’ placement in the ideological-rainbow that is labour..)
..and y’know..’once bitten etc..’..eh..?..( the last labour govt..they promised to end neo-liberalism to get elected..then did nothing..
..so..y’know..!..my concerns do have some grounding in fact/history..eh..?
..and i am just pointing out that there is a vacuum there..
..and with mana/internet party offering concrete-policies to deal to inequality/the gross-poverty-stricken society we have become..since that rightwing-revolution in the 80’s..
.it is to them those missing-million voters will turn..
..which..as a mana voter..suits me..
..but i have my commentary-hat on when i warn you of this..
Pity Brendon Who’s insipid smoking gun used against Winston this week was so lacking in substance ae Phillip, if there was a knotted noose evident anywhere in Brendon Who’s allegations we might have seen a repetition of 2008 for NZFirst which would have clarified ‘options’ greatly,
Specially If as i suspect, an alliance of Mana/Internet would produce a resultant 3–4% of the party vote for that entity…
Fair enough Phil. The problem is many Lefties like yourself and I turned off Labour in disgust, dating back to the treachery of Douglas & Prebble. It allowed the Right within the party to hold sway, reflected in their candidate/MP selections. The bottom straw was Goff taking the leadership, I walked in protest (after 4 years) and only came back after his dismissal. I realise you can only make change from within.
Referring to Mana, I believe they are about to make a huge mistake by aligning with The Inernet Party. Dotcom isstarting to look like the shady character that he is, and lets face it had he not got busted he would probably have been quite happy to be donating to the ACT party.
How do you defend a man who in a recent interview has the opinion that Government needs ‘less regulations.’ Now how can a political party like Mana entertain forming any arrangement with a Party that’s founder his this neo-liberal ideology.
Bradford has understandably balked at any suggestion of joining forces. What the heck is Minto thinking? And you for that matter? Hone having got to know him is a alpha male type fuckwit who I can see getting rolled by Kelvin Davis if the merger happens? Outside of Bradford, Annette Sykes I have a fair bit of time for, however she is weak by not fronting the their alpha ape Leader. Sykes has a great chance of unseating Favell, however Labour look like fucking that up by throat slitting the candidate vote. The Left fail to grasp howto play MMP, or should I say refuse to bend and work as a team.
And I’m with Bradford on being wary of the Internet Party – which is pretty much KDC’s baby. I need more than a few election-focused policies. I would need to see how the party operates if they gets any MPs.
My vote will go to the Greens – I have more of an idea of what I’m getting, and more info about the consistency of their underlying values – such values will inform how any MP operates when they are faced with new situations once in government.
This is my choice, others may make a different choice.
Bradford has string left principles – it’s not about getting votes by compromising on principles.
Bradford has also said that it takes longer to build a movement – as she sees Mana – not just as a party. She has said something about linking to the Internet Party as a short cut that, ultimately will not help build a strong movement.
I am surprised you cannot see the potential problems of being linked with the Internet Party if they don’t support left wing policies once in the House; that you can’t see the concerns about linking with a pretty unknown quantity politically.
But, whatever – I prefer to go with those with a track record that I feel I can trust.
What does that mean? – because it sounds quite offensive to me and if my interpretation is correct then you can get fucked you pretend-insider arsehole but I could have it wrong and if so then all the words after ‘because’ can be disregarded.
Tax cuts would do a fat load of good for those on low incomes. A lot less then a wage hike would be for? Plus it will leave less for things like health and education.
”My major claims are that 10% of those who have or do use tobacco products and have a Lung Cancer at any time is not a reliable statistic which shows cause and effect when 90% of the users of the same product never have a Lung Cancer at any time”,
And,
”IF 50% of those who have ever used tobacco products will die of either Cancer or Heart Disease, SO WHAT, even treated in the most kind manner the statistics show that 49% of people who have never used tobacco products will also die of a Cancer or Heart disease”,
The reply to the Moot:
”As i said, you’ve got no fucken evidence to refute decades of evidence from the actual people who know what they’re talking about”,
Now that is what i call a really compelling argument that 90% of those who have ever used tobacco products WILL NOT develop Lung Cancer therefor using tobacco products is the cause of 10% of such users developing Lung Cancer,
An unsustainable suspect ‘statistic i would suggest, and as for have ‘No evidence’, Pfft, theres this,
”The Welcome Trust Sanger Institutes cancer genome project is lead jointly by Professor Mike Stratton and Dr Peter Campbell”,
”All cancers occur due to abnormalities in the DNA sequence. Cancer affects people at all ages with risks for most cancer types increasing with age”
That to me simply says that the 10% those who develop Lung Cancer and have smoked have a specific genetic anomaly and the 90% who have smoked and never develop a Lung Cancer do not have that same genetic anomaly,
The proof of my little assertion there will be when the studies of the genome become advanced enough where they compare the genome of smokers who did not develop Lung Cancer with those that did,(i have yet to come across such a study but such research is still in its infancy),
Cancers occur when mistakes occur in cell replication at a genetic level, across all cancers, smokers/never smoked there is one point 60–70 years of age that is the commonality,
Contrary views are that as industrialized tobacco production and therefor higher rates of tobacco use occurred in the previous century rates of all cancers increased does not explain the increase in the rates of cancer for those who never smoked whereas the age at which we live to also increased during the latter part of the previous century,
In the future genetic science will identify exactly which gene(s) are at the center of the mistakes in cell reproduction which produce cancers and hopefully find a means of stopping those mistakes occurring…
According to the Dr Tashkin you linked us all to last week Phillip, your dope smoking has you well on the way to developing cancerous growths in your airways,
No need to switch to the ciggies my friend, just roll another spliff…
The Nation on TV3 today had a very good segment on Inequality fronted by the authors of the Spirit level. They are well spoken, fair and intelligent experts on the subject, in contrast to the ‘critic’ in the panel, Hooton, who pretends to be some sort of expert on everything with his pretty useless low level comments. Boring and completely biased commentator. Waste of time trying to listen to his ‘expert’ views!
Indeed. I mean the idea that CEO’s would notice some slashing to their incomes would effect
them, but their employees who could be paid more would not notice, was totally missed on him.
Despite being the whole point of inequality at its heart. Hooton is a very smart moron.
Hooton was totally shown up on the subject, and it showed by his usual ‘selective narrative’ I laughed as the interviewer/host quickly shot poor old ‘snake oil’ salesman Matthew down over his 20% company tax claim.
The highlight was the Hosts introduction of Hooton ‘former National Party staffer’ oh did you see Hooton wince, such pain being described as a ‘has been.’
I bet poor old Matty is currently sitting at a bar alone in Ponsonby Rd, on the sauce half sozzled by now, after making a nuisance of himself drunkenly rambling of better days gone by when he use to be someone within National.
So what does inequality look like? Well the richest
would be able to pay their taxes, who pay more of the
tax base as inequality grows. Housing would become
scarce as the poorest couldn’t afford new houses
(leave for OZ, live more to a home, rent in decaying homes), demand
for decades would fall, and housing prices would rise
further pushing more people out.
Let’s understand The Rich do not pay taxes, not the way trusts are set up in NZ. One of the highest on the Rich List is wont to boast he owns nothing, earns nothing … all safely taken care of by Queen Street accountants in family trusts. I think it is the greatest rort of them all, and should be challenged and changed.
Exactly yeshe! I bet a dollar that in spite of being very rich John Key would pay minimal tax. A wage/salary earner cannot avoid but Trusts of the wealthy hide billions.
crosby textors tactics against an nz milk brand revealled today by a whistleblower. stuff article very clearly states key and national use and have close links with crosby textor.
Edit: BTW, that article says Phillip Morris is one of the corporates that helps pay C-T’s bills. Apparently advising political parties doesn’t bring much money for them.
Edit: BTW, that article says Phillip Morris is one of the corporates that helps pay C-T’s bills. Apparently advising political parties doesn’t bring much money directly for them.
Just for accuracy.
A strong Tory neoliberal government will always lead to a more permissive environment for corporates and the 1% i.e. the CT client base.
Thus CT will be very busy advising corporates on how to effectively lobby government, lobby political parties and lobby MPs. In such activities CT can therefore also truthfully claim that they ‘don’t advise political parties very much.’
hopefully those who feel precious about our diarying, like judith collins (just joking), will see the strategy referred to here and assume they do the same for other clients like key and national. perhaps why fairfax wanted to water down the john key lies, article ahead of this one.
“those who feel precious about our dairying, like judith collins (just joking)”
I laughed on a couple of levels. The oravida politics bit and because Judith, more and more, looks like the hi-de-hi camp comedian’s butt of the joke, silly old cow mother-in-law.
Lighten’s a miserable Saturday afternoon with a two for one special.
At the crux of any prejudice is the idea that “I” am different, separate and, ultimately “superior”. To live with this delusion, we must keep ourselves apart from those we believe “inferior”.
Because it’s at the centre of the divide between rich and poor.
At the same time as the Abbott govt and it’s coalition partner are squabbling about how to dismantle the previous Labour govt intitiatives on climate change:
If Sydney’s balmy late autumn feels unusual, there’s a good reason.
If the mercury reaches at least 23 degrees on Saturday – 25 is forecast – Sydney will post its longest warm spell in records going back to 1910, says Sarah Perkins, a leading heatwave expert at the University of NSW.
Sydney’s 25.1 degrees on Friday matched the previous longest heatwave – defined as at least three consecutive days in the warmest 10 per cent for each date – of seven days set in August 1995. Including Saturday, that burst could stretch to at least 14 days.
”It’s actually quite scary, especially if it lasts for two weeks – that’s incredible,” Dr Perkins said.
”That’s blitzing records.”
Australia’s program to rein in pollution is losing momentum, the latest in a series of setbacks for the international effort to tackle global warming.
With the highest per-capita fossil fuel emissions among industrial countries, Australia’s participation in United Nations-led climate talks is seen as crucial to sway China and India to step up pollution controls even as conditions in developed nations worsen.
Now, Australia’s environmental stance is undergoing an about-face as the country’s new coalition government and its political opponents haggle over the best way to dismantle earlier regulations.
The shift in Australia comes just ahead of a series of global climate talks set for later this year. The UN is aiming to craft an agreement in 2015 that would include 190 nations.
The remarkable thing is how deeply unpopular Abbott has made himself in just 8 short months. It’s almost at the point where the backbench revolt is going to force Joe Hockey into a deeply embarrassing U-turn on some Budget measures.
But Abbott is a soft-target for my anger and despair. The truth is taking effect action against climate change is not the kind of thing democracies are good at imposing on an unenthusiastic population. If we thought telling them not to spank their kiddies was fraught – trying to take their cars off them (even if just symbolically), and all the other changes implied by real action – is going to be way, way harder.
JMG has taken a well-earned break from his series of remarkable essays, but the last two are to my mind the climax of the entire body of work:
We didn’t make that collective choice when it still could have made a difference: when peak oil was still decades in the future, anthropogenic climate change hadn’t yet begun to destabilize the planet’s ice sheets and weather patterns, and the variables that define the crisis of our age—depletion rates, CO2 concentrations, global population, and the rest of them—were a good deal less overwhelming than they’ve now become. As The Limits to Growth pointed out more than four decades ago, any effort to extract industrial civilization from the trap it made for itself had to get under way long before the jaws of that trap began to bite, because the rising economic burden inflicted by the ongoing depletion of nonrenewable resources and the impacts of pollution and ecosystem degradation were eating away at the surplus wealth needed to meet the costs of the transition to sustainability.
That prediction has now become our reality. Grandiose visions of vast renewable-energy buildouts and geoengineering projects on a global scale, of the kind being hawked so ebulliently these days by the prophets of eternal business as usual, fit awkwardly with the reality that a great many industrial nations can no longer afford to maintain basic infrastructures or to keep large and growing fractions of their populations from sliding into desperate poverty. The choice that I discussed in last week’s post, reduced to its hard economic bones, was whether we were going to put what remained of our stock of fossil fuels and other nonrenewable resources into maintaining our current standard of living for a while longer, or whether we were going to put it into building a livable world for our grandchildren.
The great majority of us chose the first option, and insisting at the top of our lungs that of course we could have both did nothing to keep the second from slipping away into the realm of might-have-beens. The political will to make the changes and accept the sacrifices that would be required to do anything else went missing in action in the 1980s and hasn’t been seen since. That’s the trap that was hidden in the crisis of our age: while the costs of transition were still small enough that we could have met them without major sacrifice, the consequences of inaction were still far enough in the future that most people could pretend they weren’t there; by the time the consequences were hard to ignore, the costs of transition had become too great for most people to accept—and not too long after that, they had become too great to be met at all. .
The remarkable thing is how deeply unpopular Abbott has made himself in just 8 short months. It’s almost at the point where the backbench revolt is going to force Joe Hockey into a deeply embarrassing U-turn on some Budget measures.
Sweet F.A. people wanted Abbott as PM, and that’s even including Coalition supporters. But Labour made themselves totally toxic, so that’s what you get.
The truth is taking effect action against climate change is not the kind of thing democracies are good at imposing on an unenthusiastic population
While true in many ways, Labor/Rudd got voted in on a clear carbon trading scheme/climate change action platform. Giving in to corporate and factional pressure fucked Australian Labor in the eyes of the electorate and their polls dived.
The lesson being – electorates are often far more progressive than politicians who sound brave and forward thinking on the campaign trail, but rapidly become risk averse and befuddled when under the sway of lobbyists and factional considerations after taking office.
It is really great to use the net to catch up on programs. This Native Affairs program is awesome and covers really interesting subjects that are important in this election year.
The titford stuff shows the underlying agenda of a few racist, big moneyed men and women. They have an agenda!!!!! It is the same agenda that they use for everything and it is designed to help them gain more influence and money. It is not a coincidence that a lot of them used to be and often still are, ‘in’ political parties. These moneyed people are trying both overtly and covertly to ‘own’ this country, set the agenda and, as I have said, gain influence and money – and with the election coming up they will be and are, up to their usual tricks. They are scum. They create illusion, distrust and division. They are working hard right now to implement their agenda. Be awake and aware – if not, they will trample you, your family and everything/everyone you believe in and hold dear, to make an extra dollar.
We had plenty of feedback about this story both for and against Allan Titford. However it’s the people behind him and their political agendas that have come under scrutiny.
Native Affairs was contacted by several supporters of Alan Titford about our story including Ross Baker from the One NZ Foundation.
When we invited him to appear this evening he declined because he lives in Australia. Muriel Newman, Mickael John Winkel, and Martin Doutre also declined.
Joining Mihingarangi Forbes to discuss this is Treaty gate blogger John Ansell and treaty lawyer and Mana Party President Annette Sykes.
”28.5 teaspoons of sugar in one jar of ”Chicken tonight” sweet and sour simmer sauce”, Source–Herald online,
At a time when we as a country are faced with an epidemic of type 2 diabetes the use of such obscene amounts of sugar in products should not be tolerated,
The world health organization has just lowered its recommended daily sugar intake to 6 teaspoons max and four people dining on a dinner containing the whole jar of the product highlighted by the Herald-online would be already over that recommendation without taking into account anything else any of them had ate during the rest of the day…
and four people dining on a dinner containing the whole jar
I seriously doubt if the whole jar would be used. Certainly not in any meal I make – I only use two desert spoons full in each serving of stir-fry that I make.
At a time when we as a country are faced with an epidemic of type 2 diabetes the use of such obscene amounts of sugar in products should not be tolerated,
Manufacturers use large amounts of salt, sugar and flavour enhancer (MSG) to disguise how poor quality and tasteless the base ingredients in their products are.
National’s policy of looking at whole of life spending is reaping huge benefits for those involved. A 20 year old on a benefit at age 20 currently spends another 20 years on a benefit. National have arranged mentors to assist young people to get off a benefit and into employment or training. This is expensive up front but well worthwhile in the long term. There is less crime and thus less imprisonment thus saving incarceration costs. Area by area the public service is looking at ways to reduce spending in future years. Compare this with the lolly scramble mentality of Labour that splashes money without regard to outcomes.
I haven’t mentioned Green or Mana policies. I don’t read joke books. The scary thing is that such nutbars would be Ministers in a Cunliffe led government. Sadly a collection of losers can trump the first place getter. That’s why first place has to be over 50%.
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
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. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
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It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
did anyone else go to ‘the spirit level’ lectures in ak this week..?
..takeaways..?
..and i wd urge those in regions south..
..to go and have defined for themselves..
..what actually needs to be done..
..(when they come to your town..1200 in ak is the target to beat..c’mon..!..you know you can see off the jafas..eh..?..
..i’m looking @ you..wellington..)
..as made by the authors..(to 1200 people in ak last nite..)..
..the case could not be clearer..
..(that was my takeaway..)
(..another sub-takeaway was the pointed comment from one of the authors..
..that the evidence clearly shows the last labour govt did virtually nothing to lessen the inequalites engendered by the rightwing-revolution/attack on the welfare state in the 1980’s..
..started by labour..and enthusiastically carried on by national..
..let’s hope they take all that blinding-evidence on board..
..and do better next time..
..eh..?..)
apropos of not much..
..my 16 yr old dog..(her name is lucy..)..is lying on her foam squab…just behind me..(within arms’ reach..)..
..she is covered by her ‘banky’..and has her head resting on her pillow..
..and she is wagging her tail..
..as i drop pieces of toast smeared with peanut butter and jam – into her mouth..
..(it’s a thing we do..and that all cheers me no end..)
cheers me too, Phillip ! 🙂
Had to have my nearly 20 year old dog put to sleep recently. I miss him so much. Dogs are wonderful companions and such trusting souls. Nice hearing about your dog Phil. Give Lucy a pat from me.
@ belladonna..
..sorry to hear about yr dog..
..a dread i have to (not) look forward too..
..this is pretty cool..
..and will confirm what you already know..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/22/dogs-feelings_n_5374334.html
one of mine is in my lap and the other lies beside me with a paw on my thigh. i understand your bond.
Synthetic cannabis fuelling Yemen’s terrorism ? Some revealing stats in this story …
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/23/how-synthetic-weed-fuels-yemen-s-terrorism.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet
Armstrong praisies Labour & Cunliffe – sort of – as ong as they look like National Lite, and don’t, you know, return to its roots, advocate for the poor and struggling Kiwis. Cause according to Armstrong, there is no problem for those on low incomes.
A bit of a twist from Mr Armstrong. There is a positive mood shift. The announcement of Opposition Policies can now go ahead post-Budget and leaves National less time to counter any positive feedback that comes from those policies.
The nats will also be talking up anti-Muslim rhetoric.
An old guy at a bus stop recently rambled on to me about the carelessness of young people today (litter in the streets). He then kind of back tracked and said his generation got criticised a lot by older people. then he said something about the hard times that are coming. I thought he was going to say something about an economic crash, and/or climate change. So I said, “Really?”. He then launched into a bit of a rant about the reports he’d read of conflict in an Avondale mosque, and how “those people” shouldn’t bring their fights to NZ.
First of all, do you mean anti-Muslim rhetoric in the sense of al-Qaeda etc, or anti-Muslim rhetoric against Muslim NZ citizens? I doubt they would the latter because there would be nothing to gained from it, and if you had regular contact with the NZ Muslim community you would soon find that, having minds of their own, and depending on whether they are Shia or Sunna, and depending on their country of origin, may very well agree with the newspaper article.
The author of the Daily piece seems to have an axe to grind with the NZMA that goes well beyond this single event.
Also I fail to see how desiring to keep foreign sectarian conflict out of New Zealand is in any way racist, prejudiced or even bad. It would be naive in the extreme to ignore what has happened in countries even more liberal than ours like Sweden and the Netherlands.
Well, it can often be hard to tell whether media beatups about (alleged) Muslim Jihads are motivated by Islamaphobia, but it does feed into fairly widely spread Islamophobia discourse.
The guy I talked to at the bus stop was explicitly anti-Islam.
Martyn Bradbury also has included in his post today, repsonses from someone else from the Muslim community. It certainly shows that there is a pretty one-sided view being presented in the MSM.
Yes, that was the story I mentioned before which you had already posted. The author appears to have an agenda against the NZMA.
I doubt xenophobic old coots are indicative of much – they’ve been around forever.
Hmm…
. The present dominant affect of anxiety is also known as precarity. Precarity is a type of insecurity which treats people as disposable so as to impose control. Precarity differs from misery in that the necessities of life are not simply absent. They are available, but withheld conditionally.
http://www.weareplanc.org/we-are-all-very-anxious/
For many young job-starters the lack of job security and unclear future careers must contribute to this precarity. Being on contracts where you only work when the manager needs you in the unholy name of “flexibility” must hurt.
Hooton believes that we only work well if scared. Well, that’s of course depends, if we are already wealthy then we do best being over paid. And if anyone says otherwise they are mean, raging, envious, and hate filled. So speaks the pure petulant voice of the right.
+1
The mindset of feudal lords, slave drivers and tyrants
Thanks. It’s thought provoking, and I tend to agree with the basic premis: that capitalism stimulates resisistance, then capitalism reacts to neutralise the resistance…. then a new form of resistance forms.
However, I think the periodised labels for each phase of resistance is pretty superficial – and US-based. Bored people in the 60s, tended to be amongst the more middle classes – and white and male. As they also state, there was always anxiety around sexuality – well that would include most women, and anyone who didn’t conform to sexual norms.
Anxiety now, would be more likely to be those in the middle incomes/wealth brackets – the most precarious have lives of daily struggle.
I agree karol – and thanks joe for the fabulous linky love as always.
I’m off to have a long read of that entire planc site. At first glance it’s the most intriuguing thing I’ve seen in ages.
Thanks Joe90
For ages I’ve been trying to put into words what is going wrong with trying to taking any kind of group action – the paralysis of the current age that he describes and the reasons for it. His analysis of this state and how we find ourselves here is an outstanding overview.
The only collective action that I’ve been involved in that hasn’t been seriously infected with it has been something I’ve been doing with a group of very well off middle-class people who are mostly a long way off precarious compared to people like me (though of course they are affected, just not infected). I’ve felt such a sense of frustration at this project powering ahead while just about every other collective action I’ve tried has floundered or limped meekly along without achieving anything much beyond just continuing to exist. Treading water, yet important causes and outstanding people rendered powerless.
edit: Embarrassed by my unthinking sexism in ascribing the article a male writer.
On Kim Hill’s Saturday Morning show today Harriet Sergeant was pontificating about the significance of the UKIP vote in local government elections in Britain. It made me feel ill – the more so because of the sycophantic way Hill treated this rightwing ideologue.
On the RNZ website Sergeant’s self description from her website was reproduced verbatim –
“a journalist, author and Research Fellow of the Centre for Policy Studies, an independent Think Tank…”
Instead of simply repeating Sergeant’s self-description, they should have mentioned that the Centre for Policy Studies is a right wing, neoliberal policy think tank which claims to be non-partisan but which has strong historical links to the British Conservative Party.
Unless, of course, Hill was deliberately trying to present a well known rightwing ideologue as a politically neutral researcher/commentator.
I emailed RNZ about this and it was not read out but Hill did mention the fact that the CPS has historical links to the Tory Party – having been set up by Thatcher.
Acknowledgement of having been caught out on sloppy research at best and political bias at worst would have been good but at least the record was set straight to some extent.
They do this the whole time.
Farrar is never described as a National Party pollster.
+1 Paul
“Farrar is never described as a National Party pollster.”
I’ll just leave these here…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503459&objectid=11254285
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5069779/Anti-MMP-plan-leaked
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2594442/political-observers-weigh-in-on-williamson-resignation
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8717357/Seriously-happy-to-upset-the-status-quo
(And there are many more, FYI)
Yes TWW I too thought that the fact that she was from a right wing think tank should have been made clear, though that became obvious when she gave her analysis.
She lumped Milliband in with Cameron and Clegg, where in fact he is not a public school toff like them but went to a comprehensive.
I also hated the way she dished public education in the UK (snotty), and the way she made out Farage, a right-wing populist, was a good guy. Show me the policies Farage.
She also failed to mention that if these poll results were replicated next year Labour would be likely to get elected without the need for a coalition partner. Like the rest of the Tory press she had written her analysis before Labour’s good results in London came in.
Was pleased to see Hammersmith and Fulham won back from the tories, the 11 seats won taking them to a 26 – 20 majority.
Now at least I have something to cheer about Fulham this year.
Yes TA great result in H and F-a Tory flagship council.
As a Burnley fan you will appreciate I’m cheering on two counts.
Cameron’s favourite, so I read. Can Imagine a few being sunk tonight on the broadways.
Enjoy the ride, ours got us a few minutes away from a penalty shoot out for the ueffa cup, and rid of that bizarre MJ statue.
I don’t care too much, just as long as Derby beat QPR. Looking forward to an easy six pointer next term 😉
Its common place to see moderate progressives of the left matched with right-wing revolutionary conservative types who peddle the extremism which their opponents have not the time or language to deconstruct. When growth was assured (cheap energy trending lower) the right got more extreme and stupid. It was easy living for parasites, to argue for more nothing and claim victory when achieved, and so much work kicking the poor, unions, communities.
We will have high taxes on the rich again, since we cannot afford to leave people in precarity where their time is spent getting by rather than growing the economy.
Similar story with the discussion on surgical mesh a couple of days ago – on Radio NZ.
The rebuttal to the surgeon who is dealing with women who are facing ongoing and debilitating issues, was “Associate Professor Malcolm Frazer – The urogynaecology spokesperson for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the immediate past vice chair of the Urogynaecological Society of Australasia.”
No mention of the fact that he derives income from other sources such as:
“Declaration of interest
Malcolm Frazer holds contracts as a preceptor for Johnson & Johnson Gynecare as well as American Medical Systems mesh products for which he receives a fee. He has received financial support from both organisations to attend scientific conferences as an invited lecturer.”
This declaration of interest can be found on one of his articles on the benefits of surgical mesh that he continues to write, and get income from the company that is undergoing a class action suit.
That would provide clarity to the discussion. I haven’t listened to the whole interview, but understand that National Women’s have stopped using this mesh because of the complications, and are keeping on the QT. ACC is continuing to refuse payment and treatment to those who have had complications from these mesh implants.
Dammit yes, she should have thrown tea cakes at him and set fire to herself in protest
Seems the NZH only told one side of the story and it appears they even got that wrong http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/05/24/the-truth-behind-the-avondale-mosque-stand-off/
I’m not sure that anti-NZMA screed is all that accurate either
This will be a litmus test of NZ’s clean green credentials.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/animals/news/article.cfm?c_id=500834&objectid=11257720
moroney seems to have just confirmed that labour will be doing nothing for many of the poorest..
..when asked specifically..
..she said that labour would give benificiary-families the $60 p.w tax credit..
..and raise minimum-wage to $15..
..nothing for the poorest/homeless/single unemployed..
..s.f.a…
..and for the very first time.. i had to agree with a part of a sentence from e.t.-impersonter colin craig..
..when he advocated tax cuts for the poorest..
.(.to end the bizarre ritual of taxing the unemployment-benefit..for starters..w.t.f. is the/any logic in that ..?..
..call taxing benefits for what it is..
..cutting benefits..)
..moroney shied away from that idea like a startled-horse..
Meanwhile, as the Immigration Service ordered the deportation of all four nannies employed to look after the couple’s five children, dotcon says “”The nannies are crying. They are completely destroyed,”
Why did kim not employ NZ nannies? Maybe hone can help find some kiwi staff for the mega mansion as part of the keep it New Zealand campaign. That would be great move to reduce unemployment and show his coalition partner has a handle on poverty in his adopted (for a little bit longer at least) country.
Or why not look after their own kids instead of paying someone else to bring them up.
Child neglect is common at both ends of town from the looks of it.
I think that the twins are autistic so they need extra care which is what less wealthy parents of autistic would desperately need and wish for.
“Or why not look after their own kids instead of paying someone else to bring them up.”
Indeed, or better still, government makes it an option to pay one parent to stay at home to raise babies while the other works.
“I think that the twins are autistic so they need extra care which is what less wealthy parents of autistic would desperately need and wish for.”
Sad indictment on this country if we don’t have suitably qualified staff to do that good work.
And right, less well off parents could do with the help. Hope the next government will grant the wish.
They were probably crying because he pays shit
200k offered to Banks, so that proves you get what you pay for.
“Why did kim not employ NZ nannies?”
My gods you sound bitter allen – got your wee jibes into Hone and Mana as well as Kim. How is your status here different to his?
It’s a fair point. Why import foreign labour to do what local labour is more than capable of doing?
You don’t know that “local labour is more than capable of doing” the role at all – you just suppose it – for instance we (generally) only know one language (english) here – could it be that they may have wanted a german speaking nanny? I don’t know but i’d allow for the possibility, certainly before adding this tidbit to the stack of ammunition used to attack dotcom, Hone and Mana.
I also think that many kiwi nannies around the world wouldn’t be too fussed with your foreign labour angle.
Hello Marty
No, not bitter, more a black comedy observation on the mismatch in interests here. Only nanny I ever knew was Mary Poppins and my nan, who in fact introduced me to her one Saturday movie matinee afternoon back in the early 70s.
As for my status, I don’t know for sure. I’ll cheer anything with a lion or a rose on it, but most of the time I’ve assimilated quite well. I bred with a local woman and got married and had a child born here, who holds a NZ passport in her name, just like her mother, her grandmother and her great grandmother.
Mostly I consider myself, after 13 years on the good waka Aotearoa as one of the crew, but sometimes it’s not just the flow of the ocean lapping at the hull where I find resistance.
Legally, my 10 year passport with my permanent residency silver dollar stickers ran out 4 years ago, I found out I was a shoe in for citizenship, and though a little affronted at not only being asked to pay near 5 hundy membership fee, despite 14 years of A ok service and going 50% in a fantastic little kiwi chick, I’m comfortable in the knowledge I didn’t sink 50 grand into Bank’s campaign fund after hearing from the horses mouth it was to keep it secret and anonymous, or if believed, 200k, I didn’t get it because I needed a little red box audio interface box of magic (though sadly it hasn’t made my cathatic musical musings any easier to listen to).
As for Hone, I mean him no ill, and though I’m no politician, robust debate should come as nothing new to him. He even built his career on it, so no harm done. That’s why I’, not bothered by the bitter thing. I wouldn’t read that much into it.
Happy to concede it could be the delivery and style.
You’re all good, Mars, eh. See, even talking like you lot now, though you’ll have to imagine it coming in a less put on Michael Caine sort of way).
Well I for one am pleased you are here adding your bit to the cause.
I probably am oversensitive with the comedy – my father was english and, well, to be truthful, we didn’t get on very well – coloured me rotten that did, tainted me.
Half lion heart, that’ll account for the being up for it bit 😆
Wrong person to speak to about tainted as I’m quite sure there are a few who’s opinion on my place of birth has altered for the negative through meeting me and not always with justification, but then that could say more about them than I. I’m too busy paddling and keeping one eye on the bailing bucket not the life raft to take it all to heart.
lol perhaps it does account for me being an obnoxious, argumentative bastard sometimes, perhaps not – we are all made up of many strands of whakapapa, many connections and that is common to every single one of us on this planet (not counting aliens of course)
Nah, how it works for al1ens too, and all the better for it.
If you really want to know why they didn’t employ NZ nannies, why not send him an email and ask? There could be any number of reasons.
I also don’t think that Hone acting as an employment agency for the mansion would do much at all to reduce unemployment. Did you make this stuff up yourself, or get it from WhaleSpew?
Thought of it myself and sadsack’s opinions have never interested me one bit. If anything I should be accused of envy politics about how money buys hired help while those without have sod all, and that’s hardly wo material.
Like stated, a black comedy observation on the bizarre nature of the political union.
And in an opinion dedicated forum of my peers. How dare I? lol
Hey Phil don’t judge Sue Morony by 5 minutes on the Nation, she is not the enemy my friend.
Compared to most of the LP MP’s, Sue has the lowest income earners firmly in mind. I’ve known her since we were in our early 20’s when she was fighting the fight as a young Union organiser. She has never faultered from that fight, not once. I credit Moroney for unseating Shearer as Leader and fighting to get Labour back Left. First you have to gain power to make the nessasary social changes. Like many I detest the ‘middle vote rhetoric’ however it’s all about mopping up soft votes. There is enough dog whistling to the low income group from Labour to attract the vote. Remember Matt McCarten is ‘monitoring the noise level.’
You sit back and relax as you do, the Red Dragon is steady on a Left course. Let us do the hard work and you reap the rewards of our hard toil.
@ skinny..
..i am not attacking moroney..
..i am just expressing my dismay at no clear policies from labour to help the worst off..
..(and i am aware of moroneys’ placement in the ideological-rainbow that is labour..)
..and y’know..’once bitten etc..’..eh..?..( the last labour govt..they promised to end neo-liberalism to get elected..then did nothing..
..so..y’know..!..my concerns do have some grounding in fact/history..eh..?
..and i am just pointing out that there is a vacuum there..
..and with mana/internet party offering concrete-policies to deal to inequality/the gross-poverty-stricken society we have become..since that rightwing-revolution in the 80’s..
.it is to them those missing-million voters will turn..
..which..as a mana voter..suits me..
..but i have my commentary-hat on when i warn you of this..
Pity Brendon Who’s insipid smoking gun used against Winston this week was so lacking in substance ae Phillip, if there was a knotted noose evident anywhere in Brendon Who’s allegations we might have seen a repetition of 2008 for NZFirst which would have clarified ‘options’ greatly,
Specially If as i suspect, an alliance of Mana/Internet would produce a resultant 3–4% of the party vote for that entity…
Fair enough Phil. The problem is many Lefties like yourself and I turned off Labour in disgust, dating back to the treachery of Douglas & Prebble. It allowed the Right within the party to hold sway, reflected in their candidate/MP selections. The bottom straw was Goff taking the leadership, I walked in protest (after 4 years) and only came back after his dismissal. I realise you can only make change from within.
Referring to Mana, I believe they are about to make a huge mistake by aligning with The Inernet Party. Dotcom isstarting to look like the shady character that he is, and lets face it had he not got busted he would probably have been quite happy to be donating to the ACT party.
How do you defend a man who in a recent interview has the opinion that Government needs ‘less regulations.’ Now how can a political party like Mana entertain forming any arrangement with a Party that’s founder his this neo-liberal ideology.
Bradford has understandably balked at any suggestion of joining forces. What the heck is Minto thinking? And you for that matter? Hone having got to know him is a alpha male type fuckwit who I can see getting rolled by Kelvin Davis if the merger happens? Outside of Bradford, Annette Sykes I have a fair bit of time for, however she is weak by not fronting the their alpha ape Leader. Sykes has a great chance of unseating Favell, however Labour look like fucking that up by throat slitting the candidate vote. The Left fail to grasp howto play MMP, or should I say refuse to bend and work as a team.
working backwards..
“..The Left fail to grasp howto play MMP, or should I say refuse to bend and work as a team..”
i agree..
“..Now how can a political party like Mana entertain forming any arrangement with a Party that’s founder his this neo-liberal ideology..”
..i understand that mana has no problems with the internet party policies..
..so they can’t be that ‘neo-iberal’..
“..Bradford has understandably balked at any suggestion of joining forces..”
an aspect of bradfords’ objections puzzles me..(in fact i have never heard/seen her actual objections detailed..)
..in that she was part of the alliance..a ,mix of 5 parties..including social credit..
..next to that..this hook-up looks simple..
..and i don’t agree with yr ‘mistake’ ..call..
..and i made a prediction this morning..and the reasons for..
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/come-my-revolution-the-apathetic-will-get-their-say-commentwhoar-what-percentage-of-the-vote-will-the-mana-partyinternet-party-get-i-make-a-call-and-for-why/
Interesting read Phil, 10% way out there on that one. 2.5% is a good result 3% outstanding.
skinny..they are getting that result now..
..before the campaigning has even started…
..you can’t see a good..nay..inspirational..campaign..
..(aimed at those non-voters/missing million voters..)
..piling 5% on top of that..?
..i can..
Really, phil? You haven’t looked very far if you haven’t seen/heard Sue Bradford state her objections.
And I’m with Bradford on being wary of the Internet Party – which is pretty much KDC’s baby. I need more than a few election-focused policies. I would need to see how the party operates if they gets any MPs.
My vote will go to the Greens – I have more of an idea of what I’m getting, and more info about the consistency of their underlying values – such values will inform how any MP operates when they are faced with new situations once in government.
This is my choice, others may make a different choice.
@ karol..
..i read yr link..
..and i am still left with the question..
..what are the logical/rational reasons why mana and internet parties should not do an alliance-lite deal to fight this election..?
..all i can see is that he is rich..has a criminal record from when young..
..that he gave banks some money..
..and i am surprised that bradford cannot see the possibilty of the internet party standing alone..getting..say..4.5% of the vote..
..and if that happened..those anti-govt votes would be wasted..
..i am puzzled that bradford cannot see this:..
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/original-whoar-cartoon-why-the-mana-party-and-the-internet-party-should-coalesce/
Bradford has string left principles – it’s not about getting votes by compromising on principles.
Bradford has also said that it takes longer to build a movement – as she sees Mana – not just as a party. She has said something about linking to the Internet Party as a short cut that, ultimately will not help build a strong movement.
I am surprised you cannot see the potential problems of being linked with the Internet Party if they don’t support left wing policies once in the House; that you can’t see the concerns about linking with a pretty unknown quantity politically.
But, whatever – I prefer to go with those with a track record that I feel I can trust.
“..Bradford has also said that it takes longer to build a movement ..”
yes..well..
it’s been how many years..?
..and the /movement’ wasn’t even registering 1% support..
..i feel the urgencies to fix what is broken/get rid of these rightwing bastards..
.. is more important than an individuals niceties about how it ‘should’ be done..
..especially when that way has been so glacial in growth/outcomes..
..we don’t have the luxury of that time to wait..
..seriously..!..i see no rational thought/logic in that argument..
..’tis a nonsense..
..i joined the mana party when it first started..because i saw the mana party as the best vehicle for the changes i want to see..
..i don’t want mana to be one percent..or less..
..i want them in parliament..kicking arse..
“by not fronting the their alpha ape Leader”
What does that mean? – because it sounds quite offensive to me and if my interpretation is correct then you can get fucked you pretend-insider arsehole but I could have it wrong and if so then all the words after ‘because’ can be disregarded.
No, there’s no logic in it but if you take that to it’s logical end then there’s no point in taxing any government employees income.
Tax cuts would do a fat load of good for those on low incomes. A lot less then a wage hike would be for? Plus it will leave less for things like health and education.
And does Craig really favour cutting the MW?
what can you mean..?
..a tax-free threshold of..say..$15-$20,000..as part of a multi-faceted ending-poverty program of legislation..
..will most certainly ‘help those on low incomes’..
..and how to pay for it..?
..for starters..treasury did research that showed that a small financial transaction tax on inter-bank interactions..
..would raise enough money to be able to do away with gst altogether..
..as i said..’for starters’..
..it’s all just a matter of changed/different priorities..
..eh..?
an episode of tv so bad it sets a new benchmark..
..the guy from the civilian..and gower..trying to do a comedy-routine..
..it is gobsmackingly awful…
‘hoots’ hooten sets his own new benchmark..
..after scoffing at/scorning any calls to end inequality..
..he pleads ‘to end the inequality of our companies paying a higher corporate tax than norway’..(!)
..(he seemed quite sincere..quivering lower-lip and all..
..he had me reaching for the tissues..on this/heir behalf..)’
homage to mathew hootON! graham chapman
http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=X0DqEdaVEBg
Armed only with their bodily fluids, members of a rack Public Films commando unit attacked and successfully desecrated a right-wing monument in South Auckland yesterday:
http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/honouring-obelisk.html
The Moot:
”My major claims are that 10% of those who have or do use tobacco products and have a Lung Cancer at any time is not a reliable statistic which shows cause and effect when 90% of the users of the same product never have a Lung Cancer at any time”,
And,
”IF 50% of those who have ever used tobacco products will die of either Cancer or Heart Disease, SO WHAT, even treated in the most kind manner the statistics show that 49% of people who have never used tobacco products will also die of a Cancer or Heart disease”,
The reply to the Moot:
”As i said, you’ve got no fucken evidence to refute decades of evidence from the actual people who know what they’re talking about”,
Now that is what i call a really compelling argument that 90% of those who have ever used tobacco products WILL NOT develop Lung Cancer therefor using tobacco products is the cause of 10% of such users developing Lung Cancer,
An unsustainable suspect ‘statistic i would suggest, and as for have ‘No evidence’, Pfft, theres this,
http://www.sanger.ac.uk/research/projects/cancergenome/
”The Welcome Trust Sanger Institutes cancer genome project is lead jointly by Professor Mike Stratton and Dr Peter Campbell”,
”All cancers occur due to abnormalities in the DNA sequence. Cancer affects people at all ages with risks for most cancer types increasing with age”
That to me simply says that the 10% those who develop Lung Cancer and have smoked have a specific genetic anomaly and the 90% who have smoked and never develop a Lung Cancer do not have that same genetic anomaly,
The proof of my little assertion there will be when the studies of the genome become advanced enough where they compare the genome of smokers who did not develop Lung Cancer with those that did,(i have yet to come across such a study but such research is still in its infancy),
Cancers occur when mistakes occur in cell replication at a genetic level, across all cancers, smokers/never smoked there is one point 60–70 years of age that is the commonality,
Contrary views are that as industrialized tobacco production and therefor higher rates of tobacco use occurred in the previous century rates of all cancers increased does not explain the increase in the rates of cancer for those who never smoked whereas the age at which we live to also increased during the latter part of the previous century,
In the future genetic science will identify exactly which gene(s) are at the center of the mistakes in cell reproduction which produce cancers and hopefully find a means of stopping those mistakes occurring…
well..that’s me convinced..!
..i’m off to buy a packet of marlboro..and an ashtray..
According to the Dr Tashkin you linked us all to last week Phillip, your dope smoking has you well on the way to developing cancerous growths in your airways,
No need to switch to the ciggies my friend, just roll another spliff…
The Nation on TV3 today had a very good segment on Inequality fronted by the authors of the Spirit level. They are well spoken, fair and intelligent experts on the subject, in contrast to the ‘critic’ in the panel, Hooton, who pretends to be some sort of expert on everything with his pretty useless low level comments. Boring and completely biased commentator. Waste of time trying to listen to his ‘expert’ views!
Indeed. I mean the idea that CEO’s would notice some slashing to their incomes would effect
them, but their employees who could be paid more would not notice, was totally missed on him.
Despite being the whole point of inequality at its heart. Hooton is a very smart moron.
Hooton was totally shown up on the subject, and it showed by his usual ‘selective narrative’ I laughed as the interviewer/host quickly shot poor old ‘snake oil’ salesman Matthew down over his 20% company tax claim.
The highlight was the Hosts introduction of Hooton ‘former National Party staffer’ oh did you see Hooton wince, such pain being described as a ‘has been.’
I bet poor old Matty is currently sitting at a bar alone in Ponsonby Rd, on the sauce half sozzled by now, after making a nuisance of himself drunkenly rambling of better days gone by when he use to be someone within National.
at antoines surely, for pre opening drinkies
Ha ha that sounds about right Tracey.
So what does inequality look like? Well the richest
would be able to pay their taxes, who pay more of the
tax base as inequality grows. Housing would become
scarce as the poorest couldn’t afford new houses
(leave for OZ, live more to a home, rent in decaying homes), demand
for decades would fall, and housing prices would rise
further pushing more people out.
Of course, no inequality in NZ say Key.
Let’s understand The Rich do not pay taxes, not the way trusts are set up in NZ. One of the highest on the Rich List is wont to boast he owns nothing, earns nothing … all safely taken care of by Queen Street accountants in family trusts. I think it is the greatest rort of them all, and should be challenged and changed.
+111
Exactly yeshe! I bet a dollar that in spite of being very rich John Key would pay minimal tax. A wage/salary earner cannot avoid but Trusts of the wealthy hide billions.
crosby textors tactics against an nz milk brand revealled today by a whistleblower. stuff article very clearly states key and national use and have close links with crosby textor.
read online at stuff
Thanks.
The links between Key National and Crosby Textor or have been in the public domain for a long time, and owned by key & National.
Evidence of this particular campaign is new – and it also reveals something of CT’s strategies.
Also written about in Aussie’s The Age.
Edit: BTW, that article says Phillip Morris is one of the corporates that helps pay C-T’s bills. Apparently advising political parties doesn’t bring much money for them.
Karol .. the CT/Phillip Morris link might explain the sudden emergence of those new Nat candidates freshly stinking from the smoking lobby.
Just for accuracy.
A strong Tory neoliberal government will always lead to a more permissive environment for corporates and the 1% i.e. the CT client base.
Thus CT will be very busy advising corporates on how to effectively lobby government, lobby political parties and lobby MPs. In such activities CT can therefore also truthfully claim that they ‘don’t advise political parties very much.’
It’s just more sophistry and spin of course.
didnt a well known professional lobbyist hautily write recently he doesnt work for political parties… as if stating he doesnt influence politics.
It’s like a parallel universe where these people think they are so smart and that the rest of us all came down in the last sun shower.
hopefully those who feel precious about our diarying, like judith collins (just joking), will see the strategy referred to here and assume they do the same for other clients like key and national. perhaps why fairfax wanted to water down the john key lies, article ahead of this one.
“those who feel precious about our dairying, like judith collins (just joking)”
I laughed on a couple of levels. The oravida politics bit and because Judith, more and more, looks like the hi-de-hi camp comedian’s butt of the joke, silly old cow mother-in-law.
Lighten’s a miserable Saturday afternoon with a two for one special.
the Minister for Dairies
And a play on words for the third, Judith’s dairy sells a range of illegal lows
Autism and Human Rights
This is the bit that stood out to me:
Because it’s at the centre of the divide between rich and poor.
And a large part of it is simply a moralistic, self righteous division of self-exaltation.
BTW both the Right and the Left do this.
At the same time as the Abbott govt and it’s coalition partner are squabbling about how to dismantle the previous Labour govt intitiatives on climate change:
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/climate-angst-rises-with-record-temperatures-20140523-38uek.html#ixzz32b0f78j3
Auckland’s autumn has been pretty balmy this year as well. Hardly need any heating at all, except maybe if I’m still up later at night/early hours.
Also, this from Bloomberg News, on Stuff.
The remarkable thing is how deeply unpopular Abbott has made himself in just 8 short months. It’s almost at the point where the backbench revolt is going to force Joe Hockey into a deeply embarrassing U-turn on some Budget measures.
But Abbott is a soft-target for my anger and despair. The truth is taking effect action against climate change is not the kind of thing democracies are good at imposing on an unenthusiastic population. If we thought telling them not to spank their kiddies was fraught – trying to take their cars off them (even if just symbolically), and all the other changes implied by real action – is going to be way, way harder.
JMG has taken a well-earned break from his series of remarkable essays, but the last two are to my mind the climax of the entire body of work:
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/the-time-of-seedbearers.html
Sweet F.A. people wanted Abbott as PM, and that’s even including Coalition supporters. But Labour made themselves totally toxic, so that’s what you get.
While true in many ways, Labor/Rudd got voted in on a clear carbon trading scheme/climate change action platform. Giving in to corporate and factional pressure fucked Australian Labor in the eyes of the electorate and their polls dived.
The lesson being – electorates are often far more progressive than politicians who sound brave and forward thinking on the campaign trail, but rapidly become risk averse and befuddled when under the sway of lobbyists and factional considerations after taking office.
Video of storm moving in across Dunedin Harbour.
Yeah it was quite something
Money creation and the nz economy
A slideshow showing the illogic and irrationality of our monetary system.
It is really great to use the net to catch up on programs. This Native Affairs program is awesome and covers really interesting subjects that are important in this election year.
The titford stuff shows the underlying agenda of a few racist, big moneyed men and women. They have an agenda!!!!! It is the same agenda that they use for everything and it is designed to help them gain more influence and money. It is not a coincidence that a lot of them used to be and often still are, ‘in’ political parties. These moneyed people are trying both overtly and covertly to ‘own’ this country, set the agenda and, as I have said, gain influence and money – and with the election coming up they will be and are, up to their usual tricks. They are scum. They create illusion, distrust and division. They are working hard right now to implement their agenda. Be awake and aware – if not, they will trample you, your family and everything/everyone you believe in and hold dear, to make an extra dollar.
http://www.maoritelevision.com/tv/shows/native-affairs/S08E010/native-affairs
and the follow up
http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/national/native-affairs-tall-tales
”28.5 teaspoons of sugar in one jar of ”Chicken tonight” sweet and sour simmer sauce”, Source–Herald online,
At a time when we as a country are faced with an epidemic of type 2 diabetes the use of such obscene amounts of sugar in products should not be tolerated,
The world health organization has just lowered its recommended daily sugar intake to 6 teaspoons max and four people dining on a dinner containing the whole jar of the product highlighted by the Herald-online would be already over that recommendation without taking into account anything else any of them had ate during the rest of the day…
I seriously doubt if the whole jar would be used. Certainly not in any meal I make – I only use two desert spoons full in each serving of stir-fry that I make.
Manufacturers use large amounts of salt, sugar and flavour enhancer (MSG) to disguise how poor quality and tasteless the base ingredients in their products are.
National’s policy of looking at whole of life spending is reaping huge benefits for those involved. A 20 year old on a benefit at age 20 currently spends another 20 years on a benefit. National have arranged mentors to assist young people to get off a benefit and into employment or training. This is expensive up front but well worthwhile in the long term. There is less crime and thus less imprisonment thus saving incarceration costs. Area by area the public service is looking at ways to reduce spending in future years. Compare this with the lolly scramble mentality of Labour that splashes money without regard to outcomes.
Compare this with the lolly scramble mentality of Labour that splashes money without regard to outcomes.
Citations needed.
How about spending more money on health and getting less operations.
That’s not a citation. Try again.
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/record-numbers-elective-surgery
Open to debate. And Annette King adds to the criticism. And was behind recommendations that never got picked up.
And you still haven’t presented any citations about Labour’s policies with respect to getting people into jobs.
Here’s a clue.
And another.
And you haven’t mentioned the Greens or Mana policies, either.
I haven’t mentioned Green or Mana policies. I don’t read joke books. The scary thing is that such nutbars would be Ministers in a Cunliffe led government. Sadly a collection of losers can trump the first place getter. That’s why first place has to be over 50%.
No, you read delusional ones. That’s why a) you have no sense of humour and b) believe everything that National says.
Don’t bother DtB. fisi is a pet troll we keep around because it’s kind of cute how he cares enough to keep pestering us all these years …..