My belief runs with John Key on this matter. The doctors have PC image to maintain because of a foolish though well meaning law. I am much closer to the end than JK and would be greatly comforted if I knew that if terminal and in great pain I could decide to have the ‘plug pulled’.
Key is right in that it does happen, but I think it’s a lot more of a grey area than he intimated. I also expect that the ‘euthanasia by inaction’ that he’s hinting at comes quite late in the piece, when the individual involved probably would have chosen to end their life months earlier if they’d had the choice.
Maybe they’ve had enough of this gov’t BS with all the porkys Ryall keeps telling about increased doctors and nurses and the slash by stealth they’ve been up to in the health sector along with farming out elective work off the waiting lists to their private hospital mates.
They’re in a tough spot, taking the oath to preserve human life in a system where their paychecks are written by the born to rule neo liberal worhippers and the DHB’s are run by NACT’s mates.
A doctor in the UK kill many many older people without their consent.
The question surely is, in cases where the individual cannot commit suicide then the
consideration of euthanasia can be entered into, but doctor who quicken the end of
life are committing murder and it should not be allowed.
I watched Parliament yesterday and I thought that a comedian had snuck in and was masquerading as John Banks. Because the speech had to be a joke. It is very difficult to achieve the amount of belligerence coupled with stupidity that was on show. Then I confirmed it was actually Banksie.
This is the guy who thinks it’s still 1981 (the time of the 40th NZ government) and who says he’ll be back for the 50th term, when Shearer will be the leader of the opposition – except the current government is the 50th.
He had the gall to say that the Greens can’t get elected in in an electorate seat – ignoring that the Greens have a bigger vote nationally than Act’s pitiful less than 1% (compared with Green Party’s 11-14%) …
Banks is still living in 1981 First Past the Post NZ, when the issue of climate change had far less media attention.
Banks only got elected in an electorate seat because National did a deal. Labour did no such deals with the Greens, although I wouldn’t be surprised if they did something in 2014.
It doesn’t look like the Greens are going to need it. If I was them I wouldn’t want it. Becoming too dependent on an electorate seat for a party seems to result in the party expending too much effort and mana defending it with the inevitable result that they wind up being unable to run a nationwide campaign and a slow descent into being a party of one MP.
They’d be better reaching a loose accord prior to the election so that they can fight to get the voters to vote for their policies to improve their negotiating position after election result.
I’d also add that the party that relies on one electorate MP tends to place more emphasis on the personal beliefs of that indispensable MP than on its policies, i.e. the common beliefs of its membership.
Duh Mickey, that’s pretty much the attitude of the top 1%.
The real movers and shakers don’t live in parliamentary type venues and would never be caught dead on record saying such things, like the Koch Brothers.
Banks is a simply a distracting loon used by the Nat’s to divert attention from the great NZ swindle and should be treated like any child throwing a tantrum and ignored.
Haha John Banks having a go at the Green MPs because they are list MPs and “would never get elected anywhere.”
1. They did get elected, NZers gave the Green party their party vote. 11% to ACTs 1%.
2. John Banks is only there because of a cup of tea ffs.
Also love the challenge to “stand in Epsom in 2014” when JBs dodgyness has been so sorely exposed. It’s going to take a lot of cups of tea for him to get elected anywhere again. Even in BMWtown I mean Epsom.
Shame on Brownleee and NAct for focusing on Roads of Negligible Significance over the importance of revitalising KiwiRail after years of decline under private ownership:
The Labour Party has asked tough questions about the state of KiwiRail after it won a temporary injunction preventing the publication of sensitive material from a leaked business plan.
…
But parts of it were read in Parliament yesterday by Labour MP Phil Twyford under the absolute privilege MPs have, without the source document being identified.
…
Mr Twyford asked several questions of the Minister of State Owned Enterprises, pointing to aspects of the report:
* Has the board of KiwiRail advised him that from 2014 onwards the rail asset will decline and disruption will grow,
…
* Has the board of KiwiRail advised him that the amount to be spent on timber bridges will be cut substantially, projects on the main trunk line will be cancelled or deferred, the overall condition of railway sleepers will decline, …
It takes them too long to revitalise KR so they can flick it off to their mates so they’ll ignore it as it can’t be achieved in their window of power.
So they place their man Quinney atop and park the brownlee bus in front for his unique brand of arrogance and BS and stay the course Joyce set last term.
Charter schools are an experiment on our most vulnerable children, teachers’ union advocate Frances Guy says.
More than 150 parents, teachers and education leaders gathered at the Kelston Community Centre on Tuesday to discuss the Government’s decision to introduce charter schools.
With quotes from John Minto, Waikato University professor of education Martin Thrupp, Massey High School principal Bruce Ritchie, Massey Primary School principal Bruce Barnes, and Kelston Intermediate School teacher Sue Newby. They give a thumbs down to Charter Schools and refer to the fact that NZ already has a very good education system so why try something as dodgy as Charter Schools.
Maybe because 20% are falling out of the bottom of our current system and they want to be proactive and do something about it. All the education establishment will agree to do is the same as they have always been doing so nothing will change.
You do know that the biggest influence is poverty right? Get rid of the poverty and the few percent who are having difficulty will mostly disappear. Do what NACT want and our education will actually suffer – just as what happened in the US and UK after similar reforms.
The education establishment is always doing the research and changing. That’s why schools are better today than when I went to school 30+ years ago. You’re just one of the people who are too stupid to realise that.
The trouble is they are getting worse results than they were getting 30 years ago. The education system is being dumbed down with focus on soft subjects such as “inquiry (aka googling on the internet), kapa haka and “enviro”(aka recycling).
Maths especially is actively demoted, probably because most teachers just dont like it. It is left to one or two teachers in a school to pick up the slack. Same with English with “text” language not being acceptable. And all though this “yes of course little Jimmy’s doing well” – except he’s not and the parents dont find out until the next teacher or he next school. Or the student doesnt find out until he tries to get a job or tries t go to uni and has to do a year of catch up or woese yet just cant get in at all.
In addition to that, the far left-wing bias of the teachers unions and most teachers leaves the students with little exposure to radical ideas such as working hard to achieve goals, looking after yourself and not depending on the state for handouts. Everyone one is a “winner”, no matter how hard they try (or not). It’s “mean” not to give everyone a “reward” (talk about newspeak- even words are changing their meaning) just for turning up.
From what I’ve read/seen it seems that it’s actually getting more challenging. Actually being able to think is far harder than wrote learning.
In addition to that, the far left-wing bias of the teachers unions and most teachers leaves the students with little exposure to radical ideas such as working hard to achieve goals, looking after yourself and not depending on the state for handouts.
Individualism is a dead end – quite literally. You must be a part of a society to survive so it’s not a question of looking for handouts on the left but working together. The right is the home of the handouts. Just look at the RoNS, the cronyism that’s shining through and the massive increase in government borrowing.
It’s “mean” not to give everyone a “reward” (talk about newspeak- even words are changing their meaning) just for turning up.
Got any proof of that or is it just another RWNJ meme?
Om charter schools. It is concerning that at a regulated NZ school a dedicated trickster and paedophile found a way to breach the barriers to staying in teaching. He ingratiated himself into a Maori community by adopting a Maori-centric behaviour. That was an extra breach of trust by someone who was not even NZ pakeha on top of the whole bad behaviour of false friendship with children serving his own personal desires. Procedures were not followed that should have sent a red flag of warning before he could get so entrenched. The Teachers Council were duped, the police did not have the confidence and evidence to proceed further etc. The system failed the children and their parents.
Now if charter schools are to be able to widely employ non-teachers they will be fertile fields for this sort of twisted individual.
Hon Nanaia Mahuta: Is she aware that teachers are police vetted every 3 years when they have to reregister, and can she assure the House that non-registered teachers working in charter schools will also be police vetted every 3 years?
Hon HEKIA PARATA: Indeed, they are often vetted more often than every 3 years, and we will be expecting the same level of probity, protection, and safeguarding of all students in all schools.
Hon Nanaia Mahuta: If there is no difference whatsoever in the vetting and background checks for non-registered charter school teachers, why did officials warn the Minister last year that “There is the challenge of ensuring that students are not put at risk by mentors who are not necessarily subject to professional licensing.”?
Carol
I have a tape of an old piece of advice for budding politicians on how not to answer a question. I don’t know if it was meant to be cutting analysis or spoof. But Parata has learned well. Is there a psychological and speaking test before the NACTs will endorse a candidate for parliament?
I am entirely unreasonable of course. In wanting NZ policies to be more effective and well researched. As I have got older the accretion of examples of our she’ll-be-right, research and expertise lite, approach have grown so I can no longer overlook our innate capacity to go into almost everything on a wing and a prayer. And we aren’t a very religious society either. This is an important revelation to me and so while we must keep trying for better, we are bound to get this sort of vague shit from politicians in answer to searching questions. And this can apply for Left and Right. I just felt I had to get this off my chest. There, there I feel better now.
Rob 6.2
Good point. But it is obvious that conditions where there are no or fewer controls will allow worse situations or more bad ones to surface. Don’t you think?
A black mark for Tonga. A Tongan now a decorated NZ policeman goes home to attend his grandfather’s funeral and ends up dead there after violence with Tongan police involvement. Very sad for his family. Very sad for the state of Tongan male culture. And following my former piece about the destructive power of alcohol when it isn’t carefully limited, an unhappy example that reinforces the rightness of my point.
The Slippery little Shyster’s empty suitcase of intellectual rigor has been opened and exposed for all to see,
Having alienated everyone but the National core 40% of the vote Slippery is beginning to lash out in anger and not having a particular group of people to be angry at,
Making accusations that Doctors and Nurses are regularly killing people in New Zealand hospitals will sure as hell get em all voting for ya,
All but accusing the Hungarian PRT serving in Baghlan Province of being COWARDS is likely to have one of them pay some deviant Afghani to plant road-side explosives in reply to the Prime Ministers abhorrent utterance,
The sooner the country gets rid of this Slippery used-car-salesman the better…
All but accusing the Hungarian PRT serving in Baghlan Province of being COWARDS is likely to have one of them pay some deviant Afghani to plant road-side explosives in reply to the Prime Ministers abhorrent utterance,
That’s as big a slur against the Hungarians as what Key said.
If ever an apology was painfully obviously required it’s here. The Hungarian minister of Defense writes an open letter than says a) you’re wrong, and b) it’s a shame your “comradely spirit” appears to be lacking.
I think that’s diplomatic speak for “f*ck you.”
A no comment response from Key here is pretty much like extending the middle finger in reply. Key is not capable of seeing that there are exceptions to every rule, including the politicians ‘Never admit you are wrong, never apologize’ rule. Sometimes you put your foot so far in it that not apologizing is worse. This dick is supposed to be representing us. Thanks JK.
I’ve made an open Facebook group about this, which I intend to bring to the attention of the Hungarian Ministry of Defence and as many Hungarians as I can. http://www.facebook.com/groups/172650396204620/
Wow a message of hope and change from the Murdoch clan. Golly. I may well be being cynical here, but I do note that her husband is noted PR guru Matthew Freud (Sigmund’s great-grandson no less) who was in with the Tony Blair crowd.
Yay, the news on RadioNZ National, we are saved, the balance of trade tipped firmly in New Zelands favor for this quarter we exported 100 and something million dollars worth of stuff more than what we imported,
Party anyone???
Yeah i’m friggin lying, the whole thing took another tiny step towards the column over to the right of the profit one, you know the one what sez ”gone tits up”
Imports are down 1.4% for the quarter and more telling exports are down 0.4%, expect another 2000 unemployed…
“The thing is, a black man can’t be president in America, given the racial aversion and history that’s still out there,” Cornell Belcher, a pollster for Obama, told the journalist Gwen Ifill after the 2008 election. “However, an extraordinary, gifted, and talented young man who happens to be black can be president.”
Belcher’s formulation grants the power of anti-black racism, and proposes to defeat it by not acknowledging it. His is the perfect statement of the Obama era, a time marked by a revolution that must never announce itself, by a democracy that must never acknowledge the weight of race, even while being shaped by it. Barack Obama governs a nation enlightened enough to send an African American to the White House, but not enlightened enough to accept a black man as its president.
[…]
While Beck and Limbaugh have chosen direct racial assault, others choose simply to deny that a black president actually exists. One in four Americans (and more than half of all Republicans) believe Obama was not born in this country, and thus is an illegitimate president. More than a dozen state legislatures have introduced “birther bills” demanding proof of Obama’s citizenship as a condition for putting him on the 2012 ballot. Eighteen percent of Republicans believe Obama to be a Muslim. The goal of all this is to delegitimize Obama’s presidency. If Obama is not truly American, then America has still never had a black president.
John Beattie, Director of FiordlandLink Experience (monorail) needs to understand that the World Heritage status of our parks is based on the pristine, unaltered nature of the environment and most tourists want to experience that too and if they don’t, there is always Disneyland. http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/fiordland-or-disneyland.html
I saw a ‘story’ which showed Michelle Obama at a soup kitchen handing out food etc and to mark the occasion the final photo showed the young female beneficiary taking a photo with her $500 iPod.
This to me smells of bene-bashing that why should somebody with such a phone get food for free. Completely ignoring the upheavals sadly so common in America and around the world and seemingly requiring one to drop all one’s assets before getting help.
Well that would make no sense because pods and pads and phones are cheaper than food. But it will make for a good ignorant rant by many ignorant ranters.
pfft. Just a recommendation, innit? I’m sure Johnny Boy can pull any number of other recommendations from, erm…well, out his arse really. And be guided by them. (Don’t know how to categorise that [unfortunate?, disturbing?, amusing?…all of the pre-mentioned?] image I just had of JK following his recommendations and so disappearing up his own arse )
Loathe as I am to bring it all up again (who am I kidding, I am not loathe! 🙂 ) have a shufti at tnis: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m90539&fb=1
The bizarre, unhealthy blinding media contempt for Julian Assange.
A warning to all those heading off over the Tasman to live in Australia. Things may not be all that good there as a flock of Aussie Pelicans have settled in the Kaipara Harbour. Perhaps they know something we don’t!
John Key is hamming it up on the dance floor with a bunch of youngsters. Nothing wrong with that. All in good fun.
But does anyone remember when Pete Hodgson and another Labour minister (can’t remember who) did exactly the same thing in 2007/8? They were derided and lampooned by a spiteful MSM.
What’s the bet Key will be lauded by the same MSM as a… good fellow who joins in the fun and makes everyone smile and laugh.
Similarly on NewstalkZB this afternoon, host Larry Williams and NBR hackette Ellen Read snarled that the law needs to come down far more heavily on people who drink too much. When token liberal Tim Watkin pointed out that they usually slam talk like that as “nanny state”, Williams and Read did not miss a beat.
“That’s not nanny state!” shouted Read.
“No,” agreed Williams, “That’s just doing something about drinking!”
As usual, Watkin declined to challenge them any further.
“The point of the treaty-based international consensus was to make it comfortable for multinationals to romp around the world while paying minimal tax.”
and
“A pernicious fiction propagated by the OECD is that the arm’s-length method produces precise results, while all other methods of allocating income are sloppy. The arm’s-length method is illusory.. . . fiction piled on top of fiction”
The KiwiRail report has the figure of $200 million over 3 years as a shortfall or reduction in funding. With unfortunate consequences for its effectiveness. Brownlee throws in the ‘information’ that the government is spending hundreds of millions on it. I think the job he’s in is too big for him. The roads are using up hundreds of millions or is it billions. The difference is that it is glamorous to float along in the BMW or the latest humvee, while only peasants and hard working productive firms are using rail.
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
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 ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – 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 ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
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 ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
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. ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
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 ...
Sir Robert devoted his life to disability rights after living in institutions in his younger years, says Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga | Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University Violence against women is not a women’s problem to solve, it is a whole of society problem to solve; and men in particular have to take responsibility. Those were the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Allen, Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Newcastle Snapshot freddy/ShutterstockPlans to revive an old coal-fired power station using bioenergy are being considered in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Similar plans for the station ...
Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
Lawyers representing two iwi as well as the Māori Women’s Welfare League on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn last week’s High Court decision on the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to summons Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Tribunal is currently investigating the Government’s decision to repeal section 7AA of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will introduce legislation to ban deepfake pornography and provide more funding for the eSafety Commission to pilot age-assurance technologies. The contribution of internet sites to gender-based violence was one major issue ...
Average ordinary time hourly earnings, as measured by the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), increased 5.2 percent in the year to the March 2024 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. Annual wage cost inflation, as measured by the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dimitrios Salampasis, FinTech Capability Lead | Senior Lecturer, Emerging Technologies and FinTech, Swinburne University of Technology Clem Onojeghuo/Unsplash In the digital era, the job market is increasingly becoming a minefield – demanding and difficult to navigate. According to the Australian Bureau ...
As of the March 2024 quarter, we can now look back on 20 years of data related to youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET), as collected by the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), according to figures released by Stats NZ today. "The ...
Thousands of workers attended public events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch today to celebrate International Workers’ Day (May Day), but union representatives are urging caution and vigilance over the Government’s blatantly "anti-worker" ...
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in the March 2024 quarter, compared with 4.0 percent in the previous quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
The PSA is warning the Government that the sensitive information of New Zealanders held by various agencies will fall into the wrong hands if the latest round of proposed cuts goes ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Talitha Best, Professor of Psychology, CQUniversity Australia Victoria Rodriguez/Unsplash How do sugar rushes work? – W.H, age nine, from Canberra What a terrific question W.H! Let’s explore this, starting with some of the basics. What is sugar? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karinna Saxby, Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne MART PRODUCTION/Pexels Increasing income support could help keep women and children safe according to new work demonstrating strong links between financial insecurity and domestic violence. ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark A Gregory, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT University The telecommunications industry faces a major shakeup following the release of the post-incident report on last November’s 12-hour Optus outage. Telecommunications companies will have to share more information with customers during future ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Eden Denyer, bookseller at Unity Books Auckland.Weirdest question/request you’ve had on the shop floorA mother came in looking for anything we might have on Alaskan bison as that was her little boy’s ...
NZCTU Economist Craig Renney said new data released by Statistics New Zealand shows the need for Government to act now, with unemployment rising from 3.4% to 4.3%. ...
The outpouring of anger over Maiki Sherman’s hyperbolic presentation of this week’s ‘nightmare’ poll is itself an overreaction, argues Stewart Sowman-Lund. Politicians love nothing more than to pretend they don’t care about polls. This week, deputy prime minister Winston Peters said he didn’t give a “rat’s derriere” about a TVNZ ...
Asia Pacific Report Ngāti Kahungunu in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay region has become the first indigenous Māori iwi (tribe) to sign a resolution calling for a “ceasefire in Palestine”, reports Te Ao Māori News. Reporter Te Aniwaniwa Paterson talked to Te Otāne Huata, who has been organising peace rallies ...
By Dale Luma in Port Moresby “We want grants and not concessional loans,” is the crisp message from Papua New Guinea businesses directly affected by the Black Wednesday looting four months ago. The businesses, which lost millions after the January 10 rioting and looting, say they need grants as part ...
Happy May Day. Join a union. Q: What’s worse than a staff break room where the only place to sit and have a cup of tea is on a teetering stack of old pornography magazines? A: Your boss replacing the magazine stacks with chairs that are “heartily encrusted with ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Former opposition leader Matthew Wale has been announced as the second prime ministerial candidate ahead of the election in Solomon Islands tomorrow. He will face off against former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele, who was announced by the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation ...
We get but one birthday a year – why not make it last as long as possible by scheduling as many meals with friends and family as you can? This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. How do you celebrate your birthday? Do you celebrate at ...
A Koi Tū discussion paper released today proposes sweeping changes to New Zealand’s media industry. The principal’s key author, Gavin Ellis, explains how journalists have a key role to play in making others value their role in society. This is an abridged version of a piece first published on knightlyviews.com ...
The Government’s spending cuts are again targeting support for Māori with proposed reform of the agency charged with advising on Māori wellbeing and development. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Douglas, Honorary Senior Lecturer, UNSW Aviation., UNSW Sydney The history of budget jet airlines in Australia is a long road littered with broken dreams. New entrants have consistently struggled to get a foothold. Low-cost carrier Bonza has just become the industry’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rosalind Dixon, Director, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW Sydney Australia is finally having a sustained conversation about violence against women and what we can do about it. It is more than time. Australian women and girls continue to experience ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne stockfour/Shutterstock Preliminary bulk billing data released this week shows a 2.1% rise in bulk billing up to March. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Schulz, Senior Lecturer, University of Adelaide Australia is once again grappling with how we can stop gendered violence in our country. Protests over the weekend show there is enormous community anger over the number of women who are dying and National ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University AnastasiaDudka/Shutterstock What if the government was doing everything it could to stop thieves making off with our money, except the one thing that could really work? That’s how it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Harrington, Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of Canterbury The Conversation It seems to be a time of old favourites. This month our experts have recommended two new seasons – the second season of Alone Australia (although ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland A bright Eta Aquariid meteor photobombed this photo of comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) in May 2020.Jonti Horner Meteors – commonly known as shooting stars – can be seen on any night of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Flannery, Honorary fellow, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock Current concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in Earth’s atmosphere are unprecedented in human history. But CO₂ levels today, and those that might occur in coming decades, did occur millions of years ago. ...
Winston Peters has been keen to dismiss speculation on our involvement in Aukus but will give a speech tonight on the direction of our foreign policy, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Usmar, Lecturer in Critical Media Literacies, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images With the coalition government’s ban of student mobile phones in New Zealand schools coming into effect this week, reaction has ranged from the sceptical (kids will just get ...
Hospitals around the country are not allowed to make a single hiring decision without the approval of Te Whatu Ora's head office, including for cleaners and administration staff. ...
A new report on protecting journalism and democracy in New Zealand recommends a levy be charged on global platforms like Facebook and Google to fund media firms undertaking public interest reporting. It also calls for the reinstatement of a powerful Broadcasting Commission to distribute public funding for journalism and other ...
On International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi and the wider union movement are celebrating the proud history of the labour movement during a tough time for working people. ...
From bills to beards, a walk through the former Green co-leader’s time in politics. After close to a decade in politics, James Shaw is preparing to bid farewell to parliament. Tonight will see the former minister deliver his valedictory address, certain to be a speech filled with Shaw’s trademark wit ...
Two months ago, MPs unanimously voted to give themselves a week off in Efeso Collins’ honour. On Tuesday, most were too busy to give even an hour of their time. The day Fa’anānā Efeso Collins died, parliament felt different. In a building that operates at a breakneck pace, everyone stopped ...
India’s election involves hundreds of millions of people and is a months-long affair. Here’s how voting works and what’s at stake.The biggest-ever election in world history started on April 19, with more than 10% of the world’s population eligible to vote. Elections in India, the world’s most populous country ...
Emotional scenes played out in the Invercargill courthouse on the first two days of the coronial inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones, in which the boy’s mother was accused of disposing of her son’s body. The second season of Newsroom’s award-nominated podcast The Boy in the Water ...
Opinion: The impression from the carpark is very inviting. The area is well fenced but barred so there is easy visibility of loved ones. Inside, the spaces are welcoming and clean and staff are friendly and clearly comfortable. I am greeted by ‘Kim’. She has worked here for three years, ...
After the Christchurch earthquake, the then-national civil defence boss compared his experience to “putting a team on the rugby field who have never ever played together before”. Now, eight years later – and following a damning inquiry into the emergency response of cyclones Gabrielle, Hale and the Auckland anniversary weekend floods – ...
“I had just come off the end of a major robbery case which I had been working on for six months when I got a call on the afternoon of September 1, 1992, that some remains had been found at a building site in Devonport, so I drove over with ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 1 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Comment: Journalists are very good at telling other people’s stories, but they fall well short when writing about their own profession. Perhaps that is why it is so undervalued. Every successive poll on the public’s attitude toward journalism is more alarming than the last. In the last month we have ...
Opinion: A young Māori woman and her Pacific partner arrive at their local hospital by ambulance. She has gone into labour at just under 24 weeks, but the couple haven’t recognised the symptoms – and don’t know the risks of premature birth for their baby. By the time they arrive, ...
Behind closed doors, NZ First will be arguing fiercely against any watering down of the ministerial decision-making powers in the Bill The post Bishop backtracks after fast-track backlash appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report A Pacific civil society alliance has condemned French neocolonial policies in Kanaky New Caledonia, saying Paris is set on “maintaining the status quo” and denying the indigenous Kanak people their inalienable right to self-determination. The Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations (PRNGOs) Alliance, representing some 15 groups, said in ...
Koi Tū New Zealand cannot sit back and see the collapse of its Fourth Estate, the director of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, Sir Peter Gluckman, says in the foreword of a paper published today. The paper, “If not journalists, then who?” paints a picture of an industry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Foreign investment proposals with implications for Australia’s strategic or economic security will face tougher scrutiny, under a policy overhaul to be announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday. At the same time, the government ...
Looks as though John-Mr-nice-and-natural-tell-it-how-it-is-Key’s off the cuff, unresearched sound bites are beginning to get him into trouble. Now it’s not only the Hungarian’s he has upset but also New Zealand’s hospitals and doctors
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7538178/PMs-euthanasia-claim-sparks-anger
My belief runs with John Key on this matter. The doctors have PC image to maintain because of a foolish though well meaning law. I am much closer to the end than JK and would be greatly comforted if I knew that if terminal and in great pain I could decide to have the ‘plug pulled’.
Having the “plug pulled” is not euthenasia in the context of the bill being proposed.
Key is right in that it does happen, but I think it’s a lot more of a grey area than he intimated. I also expect that the ‘euthanasia by inaction’ that he’s hinting at comes quite late in the piece, when the individual involved probably would have chosen to end their life months earlier if they’d had the choice.
Lanthanide, it may well be a grey area, I cannot be certain (who can?), but it would be a change to see Key using a little more “grey matter”!
Key is right in that it does happen,
Nonsense. Can you provide us with one example of a doctor killing a patient in this country?
Maybe they’ve had enough of this gov’t BS with all the porkys Ryall keeps telling about increased doctors and nurses and the slash by stealth they’ve been up to in the health sector along with farming out elective work off the waiting lists to their private hospital mates.
They’re in a tough spot, taking the oath to preserve human life in a system where their paychecks are written by the born to rule neo liberal worhippers and the DHB’s are run by NACT’s mates.
A doctor in the UK kill many many older people without their consent.
The question surely is, in cases where the individual cannot commit suicide then the
consideration of euthanasia can be entered into, but doctor who quicken the end of
life are committing murder and it should not be allowed.
Is Shipman at all relevant to the current bill?
No.
I watched Parliament yesterday and I thought that a comedian had snuck in and was masquerading as John Banks. Because the speech had to be a joke. It is very difficult to achieve the amount of belligerence coupled with stupidity that was on show. Then I confirmed it was actually Banksie.
The speech was on the Government’s further undermining of the ETS.
If the attitude of Banks is held by even a minority of the world’s population then the planet is fcuked.
This is the guy who thinks it’s still 1981 (the time of the 40th NZ government) and who says he’ll be back for the 50th term, when Shearer will be the leader of the opposition – except the current government is the 50th.
He had the gall to say that the Greens can’t get elected in in an electorate seat – ignoring that the Greens have a bigger vote nationally than Act’s pitiful less than 1% (compared with Green Party’s 11-14%) …
Banks is still living in 1981 First Past the Post NZ, when the issue of climate change had far less media attention.
Banks only got elected in an electorate seat because National did a deal. Labour did no such deals with the Greens, although I wouldn’t be surprised if they did something in 2014.
It doesn’t look like the Greens are going to need it. If I was them I wouldn’t want it. Becoming too dependent on an electorate seat for a party seems to result in the party expending too much effort and mana defending it with the inevitable result that they wind up being unable to run a nationwide campaign and a slow descent into being a party of one MP.
They’d be better reaching a loose accord prior to the election so that they can fight to get the voters to vote for their policies to improve their negotiating position after election result.
Yeah, I agree with that assessment.
Except where Labour and the Greens doing a deal means that a seat goes to the left instead of the right.
Yep, that’s the one.
I’d also add that the party that relies on one electorate MP tends to place more emphasis on the personal beliefs of that indispensable MP than on its policies, i.e. the common beliefs of its membership.
So did Labour do a deal with Jim Anderton similar to Banks ?
National had to gift a seat to Banks.
Anderton always had his seat to begin with.
Didn’t Labour accommodate the Greens so that Fitsimmons got Coromandel?
Not sure, but National consistently beat the Greens there from 2002 on.
Duh Mickey, that’s pretty much the attitude of the top 1%.
The real movers and shakers don’t live in parliamentary type venues and would never be caught dead on record saying such things, like the Koch Brothers.
Banks is a simply a distracting loon used by the Nat’s to divert attention from the great NZ swindle and should be treated like any child throwing a tantrum and ignored.
He should have been kicked out for insulting elected members of parliament. List MPs are elected.
I think his robot circuitry is affected by solar flares.
Haha John Banks having a go at the Green MPs because they are list MPs and “would never get elected anywhere.”
1. They did get elected, NZers gave the Green party their party vote. 11% to ACTs 1%.
2. John Banks is only there because of a cup of tea ffs.
Also love the challenge to “stand in Epsom in 2014” when JBs dodgyness has been so sorely exposed. It’s going to take a lot of cups of tea for him to get elected anywhere again. Even in BMWtown I mean Epsom.
Shame on Brownleee and NAct for focusing on Roads of Negligible Significance over the importance of revitalising KiwiRail after years of decline under private ownership:
Good work by Twyford:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Business/QOA/3/4/a/50HansQ_20120823_00000001-1-KiwiRail-Confidence-in-Board.htm
It takes them too long to revitalise KR so they can flick it off to their mates so they’ll ignore it as it can’t be achieved in their window of power.
So they place their man Quinney atop and park the brownlee bus in front for his unique brand of arrogance and BS and stay the course Joyce set last term.
Stand with Pussy Riot
http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_pussy_riot_free_russia_e
A slightly more Russian perspective on Pussy Riot. Which suggests why they got a more than negligible 2 year sentence.
http://exiledonline.com/crime-pussy-riot-the-russian-soul-world-war-iii-how-pussy-riot-troupe-got-the-exile-censored-in-2008/
I see the Western Leader (West Auckland local paper) has a (hard copy) front page article slamming Charter Schools. Online version here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/western-leader/7539981/Charters-experiment-on-poor
With quotes from John Minto, Waikato University professor of education Martin Thrupp, Massey High School principal Bruce Ritchie, Massey Primary School principal Bruce Barnes, and Kelston Intermediate School teacher Sue Newby. They give a thumbs down to Charter Schools and refer to the fact that NZ already has a very good education system so why try something as dodgy as Charter Schools.
Maybe because 20% are falling out of the bottom of our current system and they want to be proactive and do something about it. All the education establishment will agree to do is the same as they have always been doing so nothing will change.
Bollocks
You do know that the biggest influence is poverty right? Get rid of the poverty and the few percent who are having difficulty will mostly disappear. Do what NACT want and our education will actually suffer – just as what happened in the US and UK after similar reforms.
The education establishment is always doing the research and changing. That’s why schools are better today than when I went to school 30+ years ago. You’re just one of the people who are too stupid to realise that.
yep.
Most of our social ills are symptoms of a deeper malady, not maladies themselves.
The trouble is they are getting worse results than they were getting 30 years ago. The education system is being dumbed down with focus on soft subjects such as “inquiry (aka googling on the internet), kapa haka and “enviro”(aka recycling).
Maths especially is actively demoted, probably because most teachers just dont like it. It is left to one or two teachers in a school to pick up the slack. Same with English with “text” language not being acceptable. And all though this “yes of course little Jimmy’s doing well” – except he’s not and the parents dont find out until the next teacher or he next school. Or the student doesnt find out until he tries to get a job or tries t go to uni and has to do a year of catch up or woese yet just cant get in at all.
In addition to that, the far left-wing bias of the teachers unions and most teachers leaves the students with little exposure to radical ideas such as working hard to achieve goals, looking after yourself and not depending on the state for handouts. Everyone one is a “winner”, no matter how hard they try (or not). It’s “mean” not to give everyone a “reward” (talk about newspeak- even words are changing their meaning) just for turning up.
Yeah the education system is doing real well.
But they’re not are they? 30 years ago 50% passed and the results of the pupils were altered to ensure that.
From what I’ve read/seen it seems that it’s actually getting more challenging. Actually being able to think is far harder than wrote learning.
Individualism is a dead end – quite literally. You must be a part of a society to survive so it’s not a question of looking for handouts on the left but working together. The right is the home of the handouts. Just look at the RoNS, the cronyism that’s shining through and the massive increase in government borrowing.
Got any proof of that or is it just another RWNJ meme?
OT/U-T
Om charter schools. It is concerning that at a regulated NZ school a dedicated trickster and paedophile found a way to breach the barriers to staying in teaching. He ingratiated himself into a Maori community by adopting a Maori-centric behaviour. That was an extra breach of trust by someone who was not even NZ pakeha on top of the whole bad behaviour of false friendship with children serving his own personal desires. Procedures were not followed that should have sent a red flag of warning before he could get so entrenched. The Teachers Council were duped, the police did not have the confidence and evidence to proceed further etc. The system failed the children and their parents.
Now if charter schools are to be able to widely employ non-teachers they will be fertile fields for this sort of twisted individual.
Yes, prism, Nania Mahuta quizzed Parata on that very issue this week. I’m not convinced by her replies:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Business/QOA/1/7/2/50HansQ_20120822_00000007-7-Teaching-Staff-Non-registered-Application.htm
Carol
I have a tape of an old piece of advice for budding politicians on how not to answer a question. I don’t know if it was meant to be cutting analysis or spoof. But Parata has learned well. Is there a psychological and speaking test before the NACTs will endorse a candidate for parliament?
I am entirely unreasonable of course. In wanting NZ policies to be more effective and well researched. As I have got older the accretion of examples of our she’ll-be-right, research and expertise lite, approach have grown so I can no longer overlook our innate capacity to go into almost everything on a wing and a prayer. And we aren’t a very religious society either. This is an important revelation to me and so while we must keep trying for better, we are bound to get this sort of vague shit from politicians in answer to searching questions. And this can apply for Left and Right. I just felt I had to get this off my chest. There, there I feel better now.
So you are condeming charter schools for heinous issues that are hapening in the current system?
Rob 6.2
Good point. But it is obvious that conditions where there are no or fewer controls will allow worse situations or more bad ones to surface. Don’t you think?
A black mark for Tonga. A Tongan now a decorated NZ policeman goes home to attend his grandfather’s funeral and ends up dead there after violence with Tongan police involvement. Very sad for his family. Very sad for the state of Tongan male culture. And following my former piece about the destructive power of alcohol when it isn’t carefully limited, an unhappy example that reinforces the rightness of my point.
The PM should apologise to the Hungarians.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1208/S00354/hungarian-defence-minister-on-nz-afghanistan-deaths.htm
Honestly, our Prime Minister is a dick NZ.
What a bozo.
Bozo the clown. Hungary, euthanasia, John Key is seriously lacking not just wisdom and depth but also basic knowledge.
What the fuck is he doing?
The Slippery little Shyster’s empty suitcase of intellectual rigor has been opened and exposed for all to see,
Having alienated everyone but the National core 40% of the vote Slippery is beginning to lash out in anger and not having a particular group of people to be angry at,
Making accusations that Doctors and Nurses are regularly killing people in New Zealand hospitals will sure as hell get em all voting for ya,
All but accusing the Hungarian PRT serving in Baghlan Province of being COWARDS is likely to have one of them pay some deviant Afghani to plant road-side explosives in reply to the Prime Ministers abhorrent utterance,
The sooner the country gets rid of this Slippery used-car-salesman the better…
That’s as big a slur against the Hungarians as what Key said.
+1
Well, he “won’t be commenting” on the Hungarian open letter according to Felix Marwick.
Dick. (not Marwick, he’s just doing his job)
If ever an apology was painfully obviously required it’s here. The Hungarian minister of Defense writes an open letter than says a) you’re wrong, and b) it’s a shame your “comradely spirit” appears to be lacking.
I think that’s diplomatic speak for “f*ck you.”
A no comment response from Key here is pretty much like extending the middle finger in reply. Key is not capable of seeing that there are exceptions to every rule, including the politicians ‘Never admit you are wrong, never apologize’ rule. Sometimes you put your foot so far in it that not apologizing is worse. This dick is supposed to be representing us. Thanks JK.
What a wanker.
I wonder houw our diplomatic corp’s already high esteem for John Key is doing now.
“What the fuck is he doing?”
He’s making up as he goes along.
Should read “making it up”.
I’ve made an open Facebook group about this, which I intend to bring to the attention of the Hungarian Ministry of Defence and as many Hungarians as I can.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/172650396204620/
What weight would any apology from the PM carry? What self-respecting nation would want to receive a chunk of his insincerity?
The ongoing saga of the Murdochs and MSM….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/7540529/Murdoch-profit-alone-a-disaster
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!( Pleased to see they have a dark sense of humour)….
Wow a message of hope and change from the Murdoch clan. Golly. I may well be being cynical here, but I do note that her husband is noted PR guru Matthew Freud (Sigmund’s great-grandson no less) who was in with the Tony Blair crowd.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-406666/The-night-Tony-Blair-cross-fertilised-PR-guru-Freud.html
Yay, the news on RadioNZ National, we are saved, the balance of trade tipped firmly in New Zelands favor for this quarter we exported 100 and something million dollars worth of stuff more than what we imported,
Party anyone???
Yeah i’m friggin lying, the whole thing took another tiny step towards the column over to the right of the profit one, you know the one what sez ”gone tits up”
Imports are down 1.4% for the quarter and more telling exports are down 0.4%, expect another 2000 unemployed…
Ta-Nehisi Coates: Fear of a Black President
“The thing is, a black man can’t be president in America, given the racial aversion and history that’s still out there,” Cornell Belcher, a pollster for Obama, told the journalist Gwen Ifill after the 2008 election. “However, an extraordinary, gifted, and talented young man who happens to be black can be president.”
Belcher’s formulation grants the power of anti-black racism, and proposes to defeat it by not acknowledging it. His is the perfect statement of the Obama era, a time marked by a revolution that must never announce itself, by a democracy that must never acknowledge the weight of race, even while being shaped by it. Barack Obama governs a nation enlightened enough to send an African American to the White House, but not enlightened enough to accept a black man as its president.
[…]
While Beck and Limbaugh have chosen direct racial assault, others choose simply to deny that a black president actually exists. One in four Americans (and more than half of all Republicans) believe Obama was not born in this country, and thus is an illegitimate president. More than a dozen state legislatures have introduced “birther bills” demanding proof of Obama’s citizenship as a condition for putting him on the 2012 ballot. Eighteen percent of Republicans believe Obama to be a Muslim. The goal of all this is to delegitimize Obama’s presidency. If Obama is not truly American, then America has still never had a black president.
Meanwhile….
This too.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/08/lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-loquacious/261481/
John Beattie, Director of FiordlandLink Experience (monorail) needs to understand that the World Heritage status of our parks is based on the pristine, unaltered nature of the environment and most tourists want to experience that too and if they don’t, there is always Disneyland.
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/fiordland-or-disneyland.html
I saw a ‘story’ which showed Michelle Obama at a soup kitchen handing out food etc and to mark the occasion the final photo showed the young female beneficiary taking a photo with her $500 iPod.
This to me smells of bene-bashing that why should somebody with such a phone get food for free. Completely ignoring the upheavals sadly so common in America and around the world and seemingly requiring one to drop all one’s assets before getting help.
Well that would make no sense because pods and pads and phones are cheaper than food. But it will make for a good ignorant rant by many ignorant ranters.
A quick search on Ebay shows a used Apple iPhone 1st Generation at $50 through to an Apple iPhone 3G at $95.
what about “KILLER” key.
he has an opinion on anything and everything these days.
next time he goes to the “states” maybe he should stay there.
The Waitangi Tribunal has ruled that the asset sales process must be stopped until the water claim is resolved.
Cat meet pidgeons.
pfft. Just a recommendation, innit? I’m sure Johnny Boy can pull any number of other recommendations from, erm…well, out his arse really. And be guided by them. (Don’t know how to categorise that [unfortunate?, disturbing?, amusing?…all of the pre-mentioned?] image I just had of JK following his recommendations and so disappearing up his own arse )
“nom nom nom …pigeons!” *burp*
The Week in Pictures
“Whistle-blower”, speaking from the Ecuadorian embassy, maintains right to reveal restricted information
Link
funny
Well done. If those posters don’t bring down the government, nothing will.
Loathe as I am to bring it all up again (who am I kidding, I am not loathe! 🙂 ) have a shufti at tnis:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m90539&fb=1
The bizarre, unhealthy blinding media contempt for Julian Assange.
Thanks for that, Vicky.
Here’s something on the same theme from the excellent Media Lens site….
http://www.medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=686:incinerating-assange-the-liberal-media-go-to-work&catid=25:alerts-2012&Itemid=69
Nice link to David Green’s article.
Bookmarked.
Thanks for the genuinely informative links.
30% of recent US fatalities in Afghanistan were ‘Green on Blue’ killings by Afghan “allies”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_WM64iCt24&feature=g-all-u
The highest ever in the history of the Afghanistan conflict. Its a fuck up. And our troops are dying over there.
…and our “leaders” couldn’t give a fuck.
A warning to all those heading off over the Tasman to live in Australia. Things may not be all that good there as a flock of Aussie Pelicans have settled in the Kaipara Harbour. Perhaps they know something we don’t!
Picked this video up on the Herald site:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/video.cfm?c_id=1&gal_cid=1&gallery_id=127574
John Key is hamming it up on the dance floor with a bunch of youngsters. Nothing wrong with that. All in good fun.
But does anyone remember when Pete Hodgson and another Labour minister (can’t remember who) did exactly the same thing in 2007/8? They were derided and lampooned by a spiteful MSM.
What’s the bet Key will be lauded by the same MSM as a… good fellow who joins in the fun and makes everyone smile and laugh.
Similarly on NewstalkZB this afternoon, host Larry Williams and NBR hackette Ellen Read snarled that the law needs to come down far more heavily on people who drink too much. When token liberal Tim Watkin pointed out that they usually slam talk like that as “nanny state”, Williams and Read did not miss a beat.
“That’s not nanny state!” shouted Read.
“No,” agreed Williams, “That’s just doing something about drinking!”
As usual, Watkin declined to challenge them any further.
An interesting take on transfer pricing.
The KiwiRail report has the figure of $200 million over 3 years as a shortfall or reduction in funding. With unfortunate consequences for its effectiveness. Brownlee throws in the ‘information’ that the government is spending hundreds of millions on it. I think the job he’s in is too big for him. The roads are using up hundreds of millions or is it billions. The difference is that it is glamorous to float along in the BMW or the latest humvee, while only peasants and hard working productive firms are using rail.