For some reason I’m logged out on individual pages and although this comment is intended to be repeated on the ABP recess page it can fit here as well.
The only change the Labour Party has made since this is to take the history off their website. At least that’s more honest that promoting things they don’t believe in.
And it took National to increase benefits – not all and not enough but it’s still not Labour policy to do that.
Labour caters to the aged conservative baby boom voting superannuation who have the voting power just as National does. The price of that is being paid by the young, the unwell and the ordinary. The right blames the individual, the left offers no solution.
Well there’s little evidence that Labour is pushing the needs of beneficiaries and workers. 2012 was the year of the manifesto. 2013 was supposed to be the year of the policy.
“And no it’s not unrealistic to know this far out what they believe in and stand for – you build a brand and a connection with people over time – and that’s why I don’t particularly care who is leader.
And here’s the other thing if I as a voter can’t figure out what they stand for is it any wonder those within seem disconnected and rudderless and disloyal.
It seems to me they don’t know either – you can’t have a group of people consistently articulate a vision if the vision is a secret.”
So anyway we have a (draft) Labour policy document that is, like their website strongly focused on past glories and like a National Party document focused strongly on non-specific aspirational shit.
When this document does get specific about an actual work or welfare policy guess what – it’s to lift the age of super to 67. This both shows that they can put specific policy in their policy documents when they want and where their actual priorities are.
I just love phrases like this in the document:
“Today and into the future, we stand for the hopes and aspirations of all New Zealanders to a life of security, dignity, and fulfilment.”
“Labour believes in the innovative and creative powers of New Zealanders.”
“Labour will govern in the spirit of the age, with a new focus on the state as an enabler of community action and citizen involvement.”
Given the prominence National have given to aspiration in their policies wtf is that word even doing in a Labour party document and overall this stuff isn’t visionary it’s corporate mission statement speak.
“For young and old, women and men, Labour’s social policy will ensure that adequate support is available when people have a genuine need.”
“Labour believes that people who can work, should.”
Yep still have their neo-liberal qualifiers in there.
“Labour will continue to improve the quality of the state housing stock”
No mention of quantity – actually building more houses.
No mention of 8 hour working days, 40 hour working weeks, some waffle about protecting workers and union rights but little mention of how. Some talk of regional development which is good. No mention of increasing benefit rates to help the poorest in our society.
Here in this post I try and help Labour be showing how a vision of something can be articulated.
Tell me how Labour will once again make it a positive to be living in a state house, something to be proud of. They continue to see it as charity.
Finally
“Our history and our values mean nobody will be surprised when we fight for a fairer and more inclusive New Zealand, when we fight against inequality, and when we fight to preserve freedom and opportunity for all: this is what Labour believes in, and what drives the activity of our party and its
members.”
Yep I’ll be surprised – particularly since 84/85..
Back in 2012 I asked Mike Smith whether Labour actually believed in the 8 hour day, 40 hour week they claimed so proudly on their website. He chose not to answer that twice despite ostensibly being their to champion Labour’s new direction and it’s policy development.
The simple answer is that it doesn’t and as one of the basic fundamental principles historically to help workers have better lives, decent incomes, spread limited work around and to allow them to spend more time with their families that this policy is missing says they don’t really have workers interests at heart.
I have this picture in my head, of the family standing over the headstone of their parents generation, the boomers and asking why they never helped them into a home like their parent parents did their kids. Its about how we remember the boomers, who sure, many lost parents in the war so the govt reworked the system to make it look like they were self made. Its how we remember them as selfish and stupid.
Some guy at Cracked magazine, of all places, has read all the ISIS Dabiq magazines and has a more solid piece about what they think than most other news orgs:
Graeme Edgeler, the constitutional law guru and pedant extraordinaire, has an excellent post on the Public Address blog site explaining the various voting options and consequences for the first flag referendum.
Well that is interesting! My comment has come up with a new name for me – “Undefined” rather than my usual “veutoviper”.
It happened while I was trying to edit my comment to add in a note in reply to Graeme’s comment re randomised voting papers.
The situation re this is covered in the comments under the PA post starting midway down page 2.
Apparently the selection of the position of the five flag options on the voting paper format was randomised in line with the provisions of the Flag Referendum Act; but then all voting papers are in this format/positioning.
I can understand this. For example, printing costs would be much higher if individual voting papers were then also randomised. It would also be necessary to ensure that equal numbers of each of the various voting paper options were distributed to avoid claims of bias if this did not happen.
(I wonder what name I get for this comment!)
EDIT – both comment back to vv. All is good with the world.
Voting by ranking all of them at a 5 would invalidate your vote.
Actually, it turns it into an informal vote which does get counted.
For example, printing costs would be much higher if individual voting papers were then also randomised.
Only if they haven’t worked on the software. After all, the printer is simply a large commercial laser printer that will print any digital file sent to it and randomising a digital file is relatively simple.
It would also be necessary to ensure that equal numbers of each of the various voting paper options were distributed to avoid claims of bias if this did not happen.
Normalised psuedo-random number generators do exist.
Done properly, a person wouldn’t even have the possibility of touching the form until the person it’s addressed to opens their mail.
A proper randomisation procedure doesn’t stop at the printing press, though. The randomised papers need to be send out evenly across the country: two people at the same address, or two people on the same street, or two people in the same city, should have a random chance of getting any particular printout.
So, we can’t just mail out all of design A to Auckland, all of design B to Wellington and all of design C to Christchurch. Instead, all cities need to get a mix of A, B and C.
What we’d want is a fully automatic system. Randomises the layout/address, prints it, sticks it in an envelope and posts it. A computer can do that easily.
Yes, it can be done, but it costs more money to implement it and test it.
Also, I think you’ll find that large production runs of this print all of design A, then all of design B, then all of design C in batches, because it is more cost effective and quicker to do it that way. This then gives you the problem as I noted of how to randomly distribute them.
Your approach of printing each form individually and individually addressing it would likely end up costing a lot more.
Yes, it can be done, but it costs more money to implement it and test it.
Yes but it’s something that I would expect already to be done.
Also, I think you’ll find that large production runs of this print all of design A, then all of design B, then all of design C in batches, because it is more cost effective and quicker to do it that way.
That would be true if the printers were still using a screen printing process whereas I’d expect something more like these followed by something like these on a fully automated production line. They would then be automatically sorted to go to the right mail centre.
Your approach of printing each form individually and individually addressing it would likely end up costing a lot more.
There is actually 120 combinations (e.g. 5!) of the way the flag could appear on the voting form – which makes things a bit hard keeping track of.
Possibly the easiest way would be to have a random order and just rotate it, so that every flag could be first, and then there are only 5 possible orderings. It’s position (usually the first position) on the voting form that matters.
But all that needs to be done is create 5 stacks of the same kind of sheet and randomise voters to one of 5 address lists and randomly assign an address list to a stack and then it’s good to go.
I had been wondering what to do. Filing the ballot paper in the recycling felt wrong. After reading this I have decided to put an X in each box beneath each flag. I’ve also gone with Winnie’s suggestion of K.O.F as well.
The ballot paper, I understand (and someone please correct me if I’m wrong) gets counted as an invalid vote. Your voice still gets heard. It’s like a protest vote. It’s like a fingers up to the PM.
As I understand it, yes your vote will be counted as an invalid vote. CORRECTION – Informal not invalid. Used incorrect word in my earlier comments also, as Draco pointed out. Need to wake up properly before posting …
However, as discussed on the Public Address blog, the total number of informal votes is counted – but not broken down by the various types of reasons for votes be informal – eg just simple errors, KOF written on vote paper, X in each box, etc. So there will no way of quantifying the extent of protest votes per se.
Not criticising your choice – still haven’t made up my mind which way to go, but have not yet got my voting papers. We have a lot of problems in our street with late and non-delivery of mail and I will be REALLY ANGRY if my papers don’t turn up. I want the right to exercise my option to throw it away, invalidate it, or vote strategically with the ferns as my lowest choices.
Hi vv. I saw your public address link and am yet to read it – thanks for summarising the point around how invalid votes are counted. Still ok though, if all the invalid votes are counted as a block? Given the issues around this referendum there may a higher number of invalid votes than usual and it will get reported upon in the media?
Re not receiving your voting paper in the mail yet. I’ve got a friend in the Postal Workers Union. He said they’ve had real problems with NZ Post going to three day delivery. Rostering the posties has proved to problematic and there has been delays with mail being delivered.
You can give them a call at their contact centre to find out what has happened to your mail:
Thanks Rosie. That is interesting re the rostering problems. I was not criticising the postees as such. Our problems relate more to the fact that 18 townhouses were built on the site of a former old peoples home. The Council or whoever decides these things, numbered the townhouses from 1 to 18 rather than A to R(?) and so the pre-existing properties in the street numbered 1 – 18 often get mail, courier deliveries etc intended for the townhouses and vice versa. Many of the townhouses are tenanted with regular turnovers of the occupants who often do not redeliver our mail to us. Very annoying.
That is a real kerfuffle about your address issues vv. What a nuisance. I do hope you get your voting papers soon…….
I’ve read the two links you provided. Thanks. So, yes you’re right, it’s an “informal” vote I’ve cast. (democracy learnings for today) 🙂
I take on board what Graeme Edgeler is saying about intentionally doing this isn’t a protest vote BUT it feels like it, to me at least. I felt like I had no choice when our government is literally trolling the democratic process of voting.
I also see what Stephanie is saying here:
” High numbers of informal/spoiled votes could say that many of us think the process is corrupt – or it could, and probably will, be spun as “those weirdos on the Left who hate democracy” ”
Yes, we will have to brace ourselves for spin, if a higher number of informal votes are reported on. That is a function of our media parroting government spin. We’ve come to expect that. I can see Patrick Gower’s big pointy finger poking the air already.
But but but, for those of us who genuinely dislike any of the flag options we haven’t got much in the way of choice for ref 1. It’s either spoil your ballot paper or bin it.
You ring your local NZ Postbranch veutoviper? Today is the last day for the refs to go out, by law. The branch leader will be very concerned if you do not get your refs today.
Voting papers arrived yesterday luckily – now what to do?
Our local NZ Post branch has been as helpful as they are able to be over our ongoing problems. The prime problem is getting the occupants of the townhouses to ensure they give people their correct addresses in the first place.
Syria is being reduced to rubble – in this morning’s Herald. Just disgusting, and our government is playing a part in this. No wonder millions of people are leaving Syria, and trying to find some other place to go to. And after Syria …. what country will be next ?
As the conflict drags into a fifth year with no end in sight, little heed is being paid to the enormity of the damage in the country. Some 2.1 million homes, half the country’s hospitals and more than 7000 schools have been destroyed, according to the United Nations.
Westlake Boys, a public school built an $11 million auditorium ten years ago. Impressive facilities are now quite common at our largest secondary schools whether they are public or private. Burnside built a very expensive facility about 3 years ago.
As they say, modern schools are not like the one you went to thirty years ago.
It’s the pedagogy that counts. All the facilities in the world won’t turn right wing dogma into good education practice, and nor will Parata’s venal and fraudulent rhetoric.
Why does the National Party hate children so much?
Neither of us are singling Westlake out: Wayne mentioned it as an example of his belief that modern buildings are somehow significant to the nature of education. I think the teaching model is more important.
Yes ONB it is very important to remember that real estate and physical assets are more important than occupants and staff. i.e. children and teachers in a school.
That is number 1 rule in Charter schools and prisons. In fact in the US they don’t even bother to open the schools they just buy the real estate and run out of money. You don’t have to pay it back.
Under Neoliberalism and the Natz that doesn’t matter – it is the profit that counts.
Just as an interesting aside, Fallout 4 computer game has recently been launched and sold tens of millions of copies. One of the sub plots is a satire of a Charter School where the students are forced to eat nothing but pink gloop as part of a commercial sponsorship deal.
I did a nationwide survey of parents of secondary school students for some govt/edcuational organisation and once thing I commented on was how much money gets spent on Auckland schools compared to the rest of NZ. I think some parents and teachers from where I live would be shocked at seeing what facilities AGGS, EGGS, MAGS, Westlake etc have. Numerous schools around Wellington have been battling for years to get basic remedial work done that should have been sorted at once on health and safety reasons alone.
I’m unaware that more is being spent by the government on state schools in Auckland than in other parts of the country.
I do know that some schools in Auckland have had leaky building fiascos which have been/are being remediated but I don’t think they are getting more than their share, Rangitoto college for example is getting a huge number of buildings sorted out at the moment.
Wayne’s examples are somewhat mischievous as I know in Westlake’s case that the vast majority of the spend was via fundraising with some funds from foreign fee paying students rather than anything from his or previous governments.
I’m pretty sure it will be a very similar situation at Burnside which is also a state school.
Just imagine if someone told you that the citizens and ratepayers of Auckland had been paying billions of dollars to private sector consultants and contractors for services and regulatory functions – which have not been subject to transparency, accountability or ‘cost-benefit’ analysis?
Just imagine if someone told you that there can be up to three layers of private sector, for profit, ‘contractocracy’, clipping the ticket, before you get to the boots and overalls, who actually fix the footpaths / roads / water pipes etc, compared with a former single layer of not-for-profit, public service ‘bureaucracy’?
As soon as you get into contracting (privatisation) of Council services and regulatory functions, Council staff are regarded as being ‘too dumb’ to know how to do that, so contract management is further contracted out to private consultants, who then ‘project manage’ the works contractors, a number of whom then sub-contract ….
How on earth can that be a more effective use of ratepayer monies?
No wonder Auckland Council and CCOs don’t want to OPEN THE BOOKS and make available for public scrutiny exactly where every dollar is being spent on private sector contracts?
I stand for OPENING THE BOOKS and the full and thorough implementation and enforcement of the Public Records Act 2005.
NO more ‘corporate welfare’!
(Please be reminded that this contracting out – privatisation of public services at central and local government, was started under the 1984 – 87 ‘Rogernomic$’ Labour Government, in which 2016 Auckland Mayoral aspirant Phil Goff was a Cabinet Minister.)
As someone who’s had to draft a few Annual Plans in my time, any citizen who wants to wade through that foot-high degree of detail as it is, is welcome to. I can count on one hand those who really want to. Good luck to them.
But that won’t tell you the difference between price and value. That is, what do you want the money spent on? Any wannabe accountant can tell me the price of something, but they can’t tell me the value of anything.
The thing you value in public policy terms is the thing you vote to have money spent on.
Penny, as Mayor, what will you spend public money on?
I agree the image of the fern leaf dropping like a tear is powerful but leave it there you dumb f*ck. This is not the time to use a person’s death to your advantage.
(This morning I will be posting my ballot paper. All 5 flag option’s have an X beneath them).
Been thinking lately that Key has issues around the sacred aspects of death.
He promised the families of the Pike River victims that he would do everything in his power to get the men out, so they can have a proper burial. He doesn’t. He changes laws on the hoof and uses his power to do that but doesn’t seem to find it within himself to keep his promise to grieving families.
He thinks it’s ok to leave Vietnam war veterans buried in foreign soil, away from their families, in ground that has been designated for future public works. His Aussie mates have decided this year they will bring their dead back, which is the right thing to do. But he just can’t bring himself to give the go ahead to do the same.
Now he disrespects an NZer whose career was tied to a team whose relationship he exploits for political gain and appears to be disconnected from the fact that he is using Jonah Lomu’s death to promote an agenda.
Key did say he never cries and had not even cried when his mother died (sorry don’t have a link for this ,perhaps someone else has). ,so you may be correct Rosie@9.42am.
Interesting. Potentially he’s been conditioned to not show any emotion (although his outbursts in the house over the years would suggest otherwise), or there is something dysfunctional in how he processes grief, or doesn’t even connect with loss?
His mother died around the turn of the millennium, I think. I find it a very bizarre reaction, the not-crying. We do all mourn in different ways and sometimes we experience a delayed reaction if we consciously or unconsciously put our grief on hold. Maybe his experience of grief is yet to come, or maybe it never will.
No matter what his personal feeling is he needs to learn to at least pretend at showing respect. Keeping his mouth shut would be a good start.
I recall there was an article about Key in a womans weakly or no idea mag or something a short while after 22.02.11. He “revealed” that he had considered resigning because of the emotional strain of coping with the Pike disaster, followed a few months later by the CHCH earthquake.
I had been thinking prior to that that he was looking really grey and like he just wanted to be outta there. It would be hard for any leader to steer a nation through such tragedies but clearly he was not emotionally equipped to deal with one let alone two.
And he chose his son’s baseball game over attending funerals for members of our armed services who were killed overseas doing his bidding! Can’t really see how anyone could be more crass and classless than that!
Another shameful NZ problem:
The number of people seeking emergency accommodation and turning to Citizens Advice Bureau for help has doubled in five years.
Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) received more than 3000 enquiries about emergency accommodation this year, up from 1500 in 2010, a recent report shows.
Overall there have been 10,000 such enquiries in the past five years.
Today I met a someone via my old dog. The Lady and her dog are living in her car. I offered her coffee, as that is all I can offer. Fucking brighter future indeed….its so fucking bright the world seems to wear blinkers.
That is interesting news. Sean may have been a pain in the proverbial and pugnacious if that is the word but he did ring true on some rare occasions. Mark Sainsbury will be an awful choice. Just what Radio Live are aiming for – wet and woolly flim flam rubbish. I can see in the future that Willie will not have his contract renewed and Alison Mau will take over that slot on her own in the afternoon – and that for me is goodbye for everything on Radio Live. Karyn Hay has lost it now her other half Andrew Fagan has gone from her show, between the two of them they were an absolute hoot, now she is doing a magazine type format and she doesn’t spark at all on her own.
David Slack is my choice for the replacement or bring back Mitch Harris – can see it happening – yeh right.
More strength to your right arm, Whispering Kate. I thought I was the only one in NZ who thought like this. I really enjoyed Fagan and Karyn. Apart from anything else, every so often he would say something fairly off the planet and she would gently, bit by bit, over a series of comments, bring him back to his, that is, her senses. I had been secretly hoping that he was off on a yacht trip somewhere and one day he would be back. Sigh, dream destroyed.
Willy I like too but he is on less now, and Ali does most of the talking even when he is there. Ali is pretty good but Willy has the passion. It looks to me like he is being eased out. Perhaps that is what he wants as he does a lot of other things outside this radio slot.
Sean Plunkett is strong medicine but quite OK when he is on stuff that I agree with, (of course.)
I was also disappointed when J.T. left. He would amble along with Willy most of the time and then spit out something really pointed and sharp eyed about politics, Key or Labour. Sadly, once too often for the corporate management.
Anyone seen the latest YouTube spotlight video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgOV1dYdYVk
It is titled (#OursToLose: Climate Change Affects the Things We Love)
A number of YouTubers from various countries are featured in it including Kiwi Jamie Currie of Jamie’s World.
Climate change affects the things we love. But this December we have a huge opportunity. Sign the global petition and ask world leaders to agree to a deal at the COP21 climate conference in Paris.
“Greenpeace said Tangaroa was refitted at taxpayer expense to exploit hydrocarbons in an operation likely to undermine New Zealand’s obligations to fighting the greenhouse effect and climate change-related issues.
Greenpeace said the taxpayer-funded boat had been surveying the East Cost of the North Island on behalf of petroleum giants Statoil and Chevron.”
Yes probably, that is why National want to have us blaming the middle class and bene bashing to hide the fact that our taxes are actually being used to help his corporate mates in corporate welfare.
Yes. I received that email too. Some of the content, from the activist aboard the Tangaroa.
“The ship we’re on is the NIWA research boat Tangaroa which has recently been refitted for oil and gas exploration at a cost of 24 million to the tax-payer. Now on the eve of the Paris climate talks, it has been searching for deep sea oil reserves off the East Coast of the North Island on behalf of Statoil and Chevron! It’s just madness.”
First I’d heard!
24 mill? If thats the case then why isn’t that money being spent on keeping women’s refuge’s and mental health services open? And why are we funding fossil fuel exploration?
Hi Poission. Do you have a link to info about the refit? I guess you’re saying that a 2010 refit means that it isn’t recent. Ok, but what about the fact that it was refitted for oil and gas exploration in the first place?
I received the same email today from Greenpeace. Another form of disgraceful corporate welfare for FJK’s cronies – $24m – Absolutely it’s another WTF moment or two! Disturbing as well!
This might be very very good news: The conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal is now in doubt following the defeat in the US Senate of a proposal to advance the FastTrack Bill. The Fast Track Bill would prevent the U.S. Congress from amending the TPP, and instead …U.S. Senate votes down TPP FastTrack bill: TPP deal now in doubt………The Fast Track Bill would prevent the U.S. Congress from amending the TPP, and instead allow only a yes or no vote,”
If the USA does not sign it Key won’t.
If the USA is able to amend the Treaty, then so should we.
(No date on this.) http://itsourfuture.org.nz/u-s-senate-votes-down-tpp-fasttrack-bill/
Oh. 15 May?
Oh again. Fast Track was passed in June. My mistaken hope.
Even if the US pull out of TPP I bet Key can’t wait to get us all competing for 35 cents an hour like Vietnam as well as selling our country off via Meryl Lynch and Offshore contacts.
I have suggested before that the reason she was kept on as deputy leader was that she could keep the extra money, the perks of the job (Limo for example) and a promise of a well paid sinecure when Labour became the Government if she would retire and give Little a free run at the Rongatai seat in 2017.
From this story, where Little has suddenly gone public with his claim on the seat, I think that King has decided that Labour cannot win in 2017 and that after the election Little will have ben dumped, Labour will continue in opposition, and there will be no-one in a position to provide her with a job. By 2020, if Labour can win then she will have been forgotten and the party won’t feel they owe her anything.
She has decided therefore that the best thing she can do is hang on to the seat and stay at the trough for another 3 years.
Little is now on a desperate campaign to try and force her out. I wonder what attempts he is making to try and get his own supporters to sign up in the Rongatai electorate to provide support for the moves he is now going to have to make to dump her?
Little will be top of the list at 1 so he doesn’t need a seat. It’s better for him to not have an electorate because then he has to deal with electorate stuff. Or if he does, to go for an Auckland seat because labour need to work up their presence in Auckland.
There are too many people in Wellington who see first hand what is going on in government so it’s pretty safe as a Labour/Green stronghold.
All politicians prefer an electorate seat. Like it or not it gives them greater credibility.
Little can’t really afford to stand in a by-election for, say Goff’s seat if he really quits because it will be less than a year out from a General Election. If his majority was, as it almost certainly would be, below Goff’s it leaves him open to comments about how unpopular he is.
He can’t possibly better Goff’s result, no matter how popular he might prove, because not that many people vote in by-elections. Even if Little was to run and win he is on a hiding to nothing.
Of course Wellington is a Labour/Green stronghold. There are far to many Government Department Head Office types. One shudders to think how many “Policy Analysts” there are and what they do.
No Little wants King to go and she is clinging on.
“Like it or not it gives them greater credibility”
Only because too many pundits and voters have still not grown out of First Past Post expectations. Representing a population group well rather than an area is no less difficult.
“Only because too many pundits and voters have still not grown out of First Past Post”.
That’s right. However Little, like all politicians, would be a fool to ignore what is a general perception. We have had MMP for 20 years now. Those of us who aren’t politicians can happily complain about the ignorance of hoi polloi but the real politicians can’t.
They have to compete, and try and win, in the world the way it is, not the world we might prefer. In general people still seem to think that an electorate MP is in some way superior to a list one.
And no. I can’t point you to a poll that PROVES that comment to be true.
My workmates say Annette King has chosen the mantle of ABC Godmother, rather than serve the Leader who appointed her and work for the interest of a cooperative broader caucus, as well as the party’s true working class interests.
I reckon she has made the call to create a legacy that will strengthen the careerist and right-wing factions to take on the leadership post-Little. A ‘King’ maker, in a cynical sense of the expression.
Little did the right thing many months ago by attempting to unify the party, but the right-wing and careerist factions (and the incompetents who are clinging on to their electorates) are not interested in unifying but are determined to have absolute control of caucus.
Little surrounded himself with those factions and it will be seen next whether he will be asphyxiated by them. Grant Robertson is happy to wait a bit longer. His thinking is that the tide will run out even more for National when 2020 approaches and he will take Labour to a resounding victory, such as the likes of 1984.
Can some of you (posters or commenters) who are politically thoughtful, astute, honest and insightful provide a candid updated version of the following piece please? Perhaps, something like “Labour’s Three Factions 2.0”?
Can update that in the light of whoever is left [not a pun] in caucus, whoever has changed (or not changed) spots, etc? If ‘Eddie’ is still keen to write, it will be nice to read an updated version from the original author.
There is no good time like now, on this side of Christmas, nearing the end of the first year of the third electoral cycle of being in opposition, and clearing the way for more house-keeping and house-cleaning for next year, just before the 2017 election year. If not now, things will just go further downhill for Labour until 2020.
I believe trp is correct and credit to Andrew Little for achieving it. Although in some ways he’s had an easier ride than the two previous incumbents because both the Left and the Right were prepared to accept him as leader.
The reshuffle is a tricky one. To ensure continuing peace and tranquility inside the caucus, Little will need to ensure both sides have been accommodated. So we can expect some mumblings and grumblings on The Standard and elsewhere in the next little while. 😉 (not trying to be provocative)
For my part I don’t care who gets on the front bench so long as the values that saw me join Labour first time around (40 plus years ago) are no longer being compromised.
It works because Labour has a leader who has managed to sort the differences between them. His legal qualifications together with his many years as a union leader have given him the expertise and knowledge that was essential for the job. He’s strong and Key and co. know it. They’re worried alright.
Just imagine the difference in this country when Little becomes PM. Things would get done and done properly. Legislation would be fair and reasonable. A living wage? I reckon so, although it might have to be implemented incrementally. No more asset sales. And that’s just for starters. Too tired tonight to go into more detail.
What a load of fantastical tripe alwyn. You missed the bit where you would say that Andrew has to keep shaving bits off the horns growing out of his forehead while your mate John is floating around on fairy wings. And you will be knighted for your perceptions. Huh!
Your imagination must be admired. Peter Jackson needed someone like you when he was making The Hobbit. Apparently he didn’t know what “fantastical” story he was going to tell when he started.
“From this story, where Little has suddenly gone public with his claim on the seat, I think that King has decided that Labour cannot win in 2017 and that after the election Little will have ben dumped, Labour will continue in opposition, and there will be no-one in a position to provide her with a job. By 2020, if Labour can win then she will have been forgotten and the party won’t feel they owe her anything.
She has decided therefore that the best thing she can do is hang on to the seat and stay at the trough for another 3 years.”
I think that ianmac is on the money as to what is fantastical. The word that gave it away in the text provided is the word coming after “I”. Not much thinking shown, but a lot of surmise, fantasy, fiction and falsely attributed motivation.
I think that the piece you put in quotation marks, starting at “from this” and finishing with “3 years”, is an amazingly intelligent and thoughtful review. This is certainly one of the very best comments ever posted on this blog.
The paragraph at the end starting with “I think that ianmac is on” doesn’t really hack it though.
Mauricio Macri, who was elected president on Sunday, is (normally) bland by Argentina’s exuberant standards. The changes he heralds, after 12 years of kirchnerismo, are anything but. The populism, economic controls, phony statistics and hostility toward foreign investors of the current president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and her late husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner, have stalled growth, stoked inflation and distanced the country from international capital markets. Mr Macri, previously mayor of Buenos Aires, aims to end currency and exchange controls, allow the peso to devalue, restore central-bank independence and reach agreement with foreign creditors, who pushed Argentina into default in 2014. His victory changes politics elsewhere, too: he will call on Mercosur, a regional trade grouping, to suspend Venezuela from membership unless a parliamentary election there next month is conducted democratically. No other Latin American leader has been so outspoken.”
What are the chances we will have democracy, and sanity, restored to Venezuela as well?
“It’s very unusual for a terrorist group to hold territory and run a government.”
Neil Miller’s fatuous and ideological remarks go unchallenged. The Panel, RNZ National, Monday 23 November 2015
Jim Mora, Neil Miller, Sally Wenley, Julie Moffett
derelictionn. Deliberate, conscious, or willful neglect, as of duty or principle (esp. in the phrase dereliction of duty)
First topic up for discussion after the 4 o’clock news: ISIS and the threat of terrorism. Dr Clark Jones from the Australian National University in Canberra was on the line and ready to speak, but instead of going straight to someone who knew what he was talking about, Mora asked his two guests what THEY thought. Miller did all the talking, droning on for more than a minute, pompously and tediously, in a rambling monologue which included the following gem: “It’s very unusual for a terrorist group to hold territory and run a government.”
Long-time sufferers of this joke of a program will not have been at all surprised that neither Sally Wenley nor Jim Mora dared to throw a log under the wheel of Miller’s carriage by saying something irritating such as: “What about Israel? That state, founded by terrorists, based on terrorism, has managed, by a combination of extreme violence and the diplomatic protection of the United States, to ‘hold territory and run a government’ for more than sixty years.”
But the producers of this show knew better than to put the bombastic Miller on with someone who might have have contradicted or challenged him. Sally Wenley did not so much as demur at what Miller said, and neither did host Jim Mora.
This in today’s print version of The Press. Probably in the online version too, but I couldn’t find it.
“24% of kiwi kids live in poverty (260,000)
180,000 missing out on basic needs like health, food and warm clothes
40,000 kids hospitalised each year because of poverty and inadequate housing
100,000 kids live in conditions that stop them from educational development success
80,000 kids go to school hungry each day . . .”
My God, we, as a nation, should be thoroughly ashamed of such figures!
We should be shouting at our politicians, demanding to know why these figures exist.
Jacinda Ardern shouts it as loud as she can in the House during question time, along with NZ First and Greens … only by voting out this bloody government can any change be effected.
But don’t forget that the PM’s departments budget has more than doubled since 2009.
Since 2009/10, Radio NZ’s allocation has stayed the same; $31,816,000.
By contrast, the amounts allocated to the Prime Minister’s Department has increased, and in the 2015/16 Budget was allocated $49,298,000 – an increase of $24,476,000 since 2008 and a near-doubling of John Key’s department and Cabinet expenditure since Michael Cullen’s last budget, seven years ago.
In the 2015/16 Budget, Radio NZ was allocated $31,816,000 – a nil increase.
“40,000 kids hospitalised each year because of poverty and inadequate housing” – are you sure about that? That’s 109 kids for every day of the year. Was any source quoted for these figures?
It does seem high, I agree. These figures appear to come from UNICEF, as quoted in The Press, via Deborah Morris-Travers, NZ advocacy manager.
But let’s not quibble over the figures – the fact that a high number of OUR kids are hospitalised because of poverty and inadequate housing is the salient point – that is what is a disgrace!
A poll purporting to show that one in five British Muslims had “sympathy for jihadis” was constructed by calling people with “Muslim surnames” in an effort to complete an affordable survey of opinion in the week after the Paris terror attacks.
That is almost as silly as deciding that people from China were purchasing all the Auckland houses by looking for “Chinese” names among the buyers.
Surely no-one is really that stupid?
The only one silly enough to suggest that ALL the Auckland houses are being bought by Chinese buyers is you. Or are you purposely lying? So which is it, are you a liar or terminally stupid?
Hi mods. I’m having a problem with the site. According to the recent comments bar (I don’t know what it’s actually called) to the right of the frame there are people commenting on Stephanie’s post about the flag referendum and Micky’s post about RNZ’s story about Housing NZ referring people to CAB. but when you go to Stephanie’s post it shows one comment and Mickey’s post shows no comments. Comments that people have made are just not showing up.
This has happened a few times before and normally seems to correct itself fairly quickly but this time the problem is remaining………..
In 2014, Australia sold Port of Newcastle, the world’s busiest coal terminal, to state-owned China Merchants Group Ltd and local firm Hastings. A year earlier, it sold the second busiest container terminal to a consortium partly owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Hastings and the Abu Dhabi investment firm, along with Chinese, Canadian, Kuwaiti and local interests, are expected to bid for the New South Wales electricity network sale, people familiar with the matter have said.
As countries scramble to remain upright in the international game of dominoes, they are selling off bits of their infrastructure and resources. Australia is trying to balance China and the USA. And they always have the aboriginal land to reneg on.
They may as well bring back Hosking; he couldn’t be worse than Paul Brennan.
Crass and credulous fan-boy interview with U.S. Army propagandist a new low for RNZ. Afternoons, RNZ National, Tuesday 24 November 2015
In March 2006 the controversial British prime minister Tony “Bliar” Blair had the gall to make a state visit to New Zealand. Unfortunately for him, his handlers forgot to vet the Radio New Zealand journalist Eva Radich, who doggedly went after him about the illegality of the Iraq invasion and occupation, and his bogus “45 minute” claim. She would not let him evade her questions or divert the focus of the interview. In the end, of course, Blair just resorted to his usual insulting menu of vague platitudes. But she had clearly discomfited him, in a way he rarely faced back in the United Kingdom.
Over the years, several other politicians and ideologues have come unstuck on Radio New Zealand, most notably Jeffrey Archer, John Howard and William Shawcross. [1]
But Radio New Zealand is no longer what it was. Its only decent political interviewer (Mary Wilson) has been kicked upstairs to management, where she can no longer torment the likes of Bill English and Gerry Brownlee. And softball P.R.-type interviews, even with controversial subjects, are becoming more and more common. A month ago, Jesse Mulligan granted a free half hour for Blair’s notorious henchman Alistair Campbell to blather on about “strategy, leadership, and teamship”. [2]
This afternoon, Paul Brennan’s “interview” of one Gayle Tzemach Lemmon was a case study in the softball interview. [3] It was billed on the RNZ website in the following manner…..
Female Soldiers – Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
For almost ten years, U.S Special Forces working in Afghanistan were working blind, unable to gather intelligence from the largest group of citizens in the country, women. When soldiers raided compounds, or entered homes, they were not allowed to make contact with Afghan women. In 2010, 100 women were deployed alongside the Army Rangers as so called “Cultural Support Teams” to gather information from wives and daughters. First Lieutenant Ashley White was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) while working on the Cultural Support Team. Author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, describes the important role these sister soldiers played in her book, “Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield”.
Appalled, I sent the following e-mail to Paul Brennan….
Your interview with Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Dear Paul,
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon glibly talked about raiding Afghanistan homes at late night, “while the Rangers went about their business.” That “business”, as has been made painfully clear in the last 14 years, is nothing more than terrorizing and brutalizing thousands of Afghani citizens. It is all illegal, and all a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions. Gayle Tzemach Lemmon also spoke as if the Afghani women in the houses being raided were just waiting to be liberated by her and her woman colleagues. The facts are diametrically different to what she claims.
Near the end of the interview, she boasted: “Make no mistake about it, these women are warriors.”
I was surprised that you seemed to endorse everything she said. Surely, as an interviewer, you are expected to test and challenge what people say on your show—especially someone saying such radical and controversial things as Gayle Tzemach Lemmon did this afternoon.
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. 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 economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
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 ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
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 ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
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 ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Stokan, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County If you live in one of the most economically deprived neighborhoods in your city, you might think the government is directing a smaller share of public funds to your community. ...
Wansolwara The news media’s crucial role in climate change and environment journalism was the focus of The University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme 2024 World Press Freedom Day celebrations. The European Union Ambassador to the Pacific, Barbara Plinkert, and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna were the chief ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Adams, Professor of Corporate Law & Academic Director of UNE Sydney campus, University of New England Last August, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched legal proceedings against Qantas. The consumer watchdog accused the airline of selling thousands of tickets ...
This episode of A View From Afar was recorded LIVE on May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, May 5, 2024 at 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Assistant Professor, Bond University Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures At the crux of the critical response to Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Challengers is one word: “sexy”. The film charts a love triangle between three up-and-coming tennis players: Tashi (Zendaya), ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy, ADFA Canberra, UNSW Sydney For years, First Nations people have been telling governments they want to be listened to. In particular, they want more ownership of the programs and services that are supposed to help them. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Why do trees have bark? Julien, age 6, Melbourne. This is a great question, Julien. We are so familiar with bark on trees, that most of us ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9)An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Keeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...
Jamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
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The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
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, Monday 6 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
For the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...
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Asia Pacific Report About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children. Marking the annual May 3 World Press ...
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Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
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By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
The rich get richer…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11550050
And the poor get poorer….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11539592
Equal opportunities in John Key’s New Zealand?
What a joke!
As designed with the joke being on middle nz who keep voting these clowns in like turkey’s voting for Xmas.
For some reason I’m logged out on individual pages and although this comment is intended to be repeated on the ABP recess page it can fit here as well.
The only change the Labour Party has made since this is to take the history off their website. At least that’s more honest that promoting things they don’t believe in.
And it took National to increase benefits – not all and not enough but it’s still not Labour policy to do that.
Labour caters to the aged conservative baby boom voting superannuation who have the voting power just as National does. The price of that is being paid by the young, the unwell and the ordinary. The right blames the individual, the left offers no solution.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-01012014/#comment-752261
Well there’s little evidence that Labour is pushing the needs of beneficiaries and workers. 2012 was the year of the manifesto. 2013 was supposed to be the year of the policy.
http://thestandard.org.nz/amidst-thencircling-gloom/#comment-566641
“Next year will be where the detail gets done.” Mike Smith
Here’s some posts of mine speaking for those people though.
http://thestandard.org.nz/on-david-shearers-leadership/#comment-546121
Take note of this in that comment in 2012:
“And no it’s not unrealistic to know this far out what they believe in and stand for – you build a brand and a connection with people over time – and that’s why I don’t particularly care who is leader.
And here’s the other thing if I as a voter can’t figure out what they stand for is it any wonder those within seem disconnected and rudderless and disloyal.
It seems to me they don’t know either – you can’t have a group of people consistently articulate a vision if the vision is a secret.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/labour-shoots-themselves-in-the-foot-again/#comment-740795
So anyway we have a (draft) Labour policy document that is, like their website strongly focused on past glories and like a National Party document focused strongly on non-specific aspirational shit.
https://www.labourparty.org.nz/sites/default/files/130803%20-%20Policy%20Platform%20-%20Version%201%206_0.pdf
When this document does get specific about an actual work or welfare policy guess what – it’s to lift the age of super to 67. This both shows that they can put specific policy in their policy documents when they want and where their actual priorities are.
I just love phrases like this in the document:
“Today and into the future, we stand for the hopes and aspirations of all New Zealanders to a life of security, dignity, and fulfilment.”
“Labour believes in the innovative and creative powers of New Zealanders.”
“Labour will govern in the spirit of the age, with a new focus on the state as an enabler of community action and citizen involvement.”
Given the prominence National have given to aspiration in their policies wtf is that word even doing in a Labour party document and overall this stuff isn’t visionary it’s corporate mission statement speak.
“For young and old, women and men, Labour’s social policy will ensure that adequate support is available when people have a genuine need.”
“Labour believes that people who can work, should.”
Yep still have their neo-liberal qualifiers in there.
“Labour will continue to improve the quality of the state housing stock”
No mention of quantity – actually building more houses.
No mention of 8 hour working days, 40 hour working weeks, some waffle about protecting workers and union rights but little mention of how. Some talk of regional development which is good. No mention of increasing benefit rates to help the poorest in our society.
Here in this post I try and help Labour be showing how a vision of something can be articulated.
http://thestandard.org.nz/why-charity-cannot-replace-the-state/#comment-583166
Tell me how Labour will once again make it a positive to be living in a state house, something to be proud of. They continue to see it as charity.
Finally
“Our history and our values mean nobody will be surprised when we fight for a fairer and more inclusive New Zealand, when we fight against inequality, and when we fight to preserve freedom and opportunity for all: this is what Labour believes in, and what drives the activity of our party and its
members.”
Yep I’ll be surprised – particularly since 84/85..
Back in 2012 I asked Mike Smith whether Labour actually believed in the 8 hour day, 40 hour week they claimed so proudly on their website. He chose not to answer that twice despite ostensibly being their to champion Labour’s new direction and it’s policy development.
The simple answer is that it doesn’t and as one of the basic fundamental principles historically to help workers have better lives, decent incomes, spread limited work around and to allow them to spend more time with their families that this policy is missing says they don’t really have workers interests at heart.
I have this picture in my head, of the family standing over the headstone of their parents generation, the boomers and asking why they never helped them into a home like their parent parents did their kids. Its about how we remember the boomers, who sure, many lost parents in the war so the govt reworked the system to make it look like they were self made. Its how we remember them as selfish and stupid.
Aye the incessant lowering of taxes, the reducing of workers rights and the demonising of the disabled and poor.
The blaming the victims who resulted from the policies of looking after number one.
The loss of community and sense of common purpose.
Jack is as good as his master was somehow lost once they felt they were the masters.
The thing is that they lost many of their own generation as well – not all benefited by a long shot.
Orwell had it thus:
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
That’s the modern state of politics in a nutshell. Swap pig and man with Labour and National and it remains as apt as the original.
Some guy at Cracked magazine, of all places, has read all the ISIS Dabiq magazines and has a more solid piece about what they think than most other news orgs:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/isis-wants-us-to-invade-7-facts-revealed-by-their-magazine_p2/
Seriously how should we vote on keys vanity flag to both register it as a valid vote and send a clear message they are all unworthy.
How about a 5 on all of them?
I’m intrigued how a valid preferential vote can be run without the candidate positions being randomised on the voting paper.
Seen 3 papers now, and they’re all the same. Anyone else noticed this?
I posted on this at the end of the distraction thread the other day, but the world had moved on by then… http://thestandard.org.nz/flag-distraction-first-referendum/#comment-1099279
Graeme Edgeler, the constitutional law guru and pedant extraordinaire, has an excellent post on the Public Address blog site explaining the various voting options and consequences for the first flag referendum.
http://publicaddress.net/legalbeagle/voting-in-the-flag-referendum/
The post and comments are well worth reading as they cover all the various options and questions.
Voting by ranking all of them at a 5 would invalidate your vote.
Well that is interesting! My comment has come up with a new name for me – “Undefined” rather than my usual “veutoviper”.
It happened while I was trying to edit my comment to add in a note in reply to Graeme’s comment re randomised voting papers.
The situation re this is covered in the comments under the PA post starting midway down page 2.
Apparently the selection of the position of the five flag options on the voting paper format was randomised in line with the provisions of the Flag Referendum Act; but then all voting papers are in this format/positioning.
I can understand this. For example, printing costs would be much higher if individual voting papers were then also randomised. It would also be necessary to ensure that equal numbers of each of the various voting paper options were distributed to avoid claims of bias if this did not happen.
(I wonder what name I get for this comment!)
EDIT – both comment back to vv. All is good with the world.
Actually, it turns it into an informal vote which does get counted.
Only if they haven’t worked on the software. After all, the printer is simply a large commercial laser printer that will print any digital file sent to it and randomising a digital file is relatively simple.
Normalised psuedo-random number generators do exist.
Done properly, a person wouldn’t even have the possibility of touching the form until the person it’s addressed to opens their mail.
A proper randomisation procedure doesn’t stop at the printing press, though. The randomised papers need to be send out evenly across the country: two people at the same address, or two people on the same street, or two people in the same city, should have a random chance of getting any particular printout.
So, we can’t just mail out all of design A to Auckland, all of design B to Wellington and all of design C to Christchurch. Instead, all cities need to get a mix of A, B and C.
That suddenly becomes a more difficult problem.
What we’d want is a fully automatic system. Randomises the layout/address, prints it, sticks it in an envelope and posts it. A computer can do that easily.
Yes, it can be done, but it costs more money to implement it and test it.
Also, I think you’ll find that large production runs of this print all of design A, then all of design B, then all of design C in batches, because it is more cost effective and quicker to do it that way. This then gives you the problem as I noted of how to randomly distribute them.
Your approach of printing each form individually and individually addressing it would likely end up costing a lot more.
Yes but it’s something that I would expect already to be done.
That would be true if the printers were still using a screen printing process whereas I’d expect something more like these followed by something like these on a fully automated production line. They would then be automatically sorted to go to the right mail centre.
Nope, it would cost a lot less.
There is actually 120 combinations (e.g. 5!) of the way the flag could appear on the voting form – which makes things a bit hard keeping track of.
Possibly the easiest way would be to have a random order and just rotate it, so that every flag could be first, and then there are only 5 possible orderings. It’s position (usually the first position) on the voting form that matters.
But all that needs to be done is create 5 stacks of the same kind of sheet and randomise voters to one of 5 address lists and randomly assign an address list to a stack and then it’s good to go.
Hi tc. Did you see this post? There’s some discussion about that in the comments.
http://thestandard.org.nz/flag-distraction-first-referendum/
I had been wondering what to do. Filing the ballot paper in the recycling felt wrong. After reading this I have decided to put an X in each box beneath each flag. I’ve also gone with Winnie’s suggestion of K.O.F as well.
The ballot paper, I understand (and someone please correct me if I’m wrong) gets counted as an invalid vote. Your voice still gets heard. It’s like a protest vote. It’s like a fingers up to the PM.
As I understand it, yes your vote will be counted as an invalid vote. CORRECTION – Informal not invalid. Used incorrect word in my earlier comments also, as Draco pointed out. Need to wake up properly before posting …
However, as discussed on the Public Address blog, the total number of informal votes is counted – but not broken down by the various types of reasons for votes be informal – eg just simple errors, KOF written on vote paper, X in each box, etc. So there will no way of quantifying the extent of protest votes per se.
Not criticising your choice – still haven’t made up my mind which way to go, but have not yet got my voting papers. We have a lot of problems in our street with late and non-delivery of mail and I will be REALLY ANGRY if my papers don’t turn up. I want the right to exercise my option to throw it away, invalidate it, or vote strategically with the ferns as my lowest choices.
UPDATE – Stephanie says this much better https://bootstheory.wordpress.com/2015/11/24/flag-referendum-1/
Hi vv. I saw your public address link and am yet to read it – thanks for summarising the point around how invalid votes are counted. Still ok though, if all the invalid votes are counted as a block? Given the issues around this referendum there may a higher number of invalid votes than usual and it will get reported upon in the media?
Re not receiving your voting paper in the mail yet. I’ve got a friend in the Postal Workers Union. He said they’ve had real problems with NZ Post going to three day delivery. Rostering the posties has proved to problematic and there has been delays with mail being delivered.
You can give them a call at their contact centre to find out what has happened to your mail:
https://www.nzpost.co.nz/contact-support/contact-list
Thanks Rosie. That is interesting re the rostering problems. I was not criticising the postees as such. Our problems relate more to the fact that 18 townhouses were built on the site of a former old peoples home. The Council or whoever decides these things, numbered the townhouses from 1 to 18 rather than A to R(?) and so the pre-existing properties in the street numbered 1 – 18 often get mail, courier deliveries etc intended for the townhouses and vice versa. Many of the townhouses are tenanted with regular turnovers of the occupants who often do not redeliver our mail to us. Very annoying.
That is a real kerfuffle about your address issues vv. What a nuisance. I do hope you get your voting papers soon…….
I’ve read the two links you provided. Thanks. So, yes you’re right, it’s an “informal” vote I’ve cast. (democracy learnings for today) 🙂
I take on board what Graeme Edgeler is saying about intentionally doing this isn’t a protest vote BUT it feels like it, to me at least. I felt like I had no choice when our government is literally trolling the democratic process of voting.
I also see what Stephanie is saying here:
” High numbers of informal/spoiled votes could say that many of us think the process is corrupt – or it could, and probably will, be spun as “those weirdos on the Left who hate democracy” ”
Yes, we will have to brace ourselves for spin, if a higher number of informal votes are reported on. That is a function of our media parroting government spin. We’ve come to expect that. I can see Patrick Gower’s big pointy finger poking the air already.
But but but, for those of us who genuinely dislike any of the flag options we haven’t got much in the way of choice for ref 1. It’s either spoil your ballot paper or bin it.
You ring your local NZ Postbranch veutoviper? Today is the last day for the refs to go out, by law. The branch leader will be very concerned if you do not get your refs today.
Voting papers arrived yesterday luckily – now what to do?
Our local NZ Post branch has been as helpful as they are able to be over our ongoing problems. The prime problem is getting the occupants of the townhouses to ensure they give people their correct addresses in the first place.
The Belgian response to the police lockdown/ raids somehow made a lot of sense to me:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/11/23/cats-take-over-brusselslockdown-on-twitter/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/belgian-cats-brussels-tweets-1.3330918
Syria is being reduced to rubble – in this morning’s Herald. Just disgusting, and our government is playing a part in this. No wonder millions of people are leaving Syria, and trying to find some other place to go to. And after Syria …. what country will be next ?
As the conflict drags into a fifth year with no end in sight, little heed is being paid to the enormity of the damage in the country. Some 2.1 million homes, half the country’s hospitals and more than 7000 schools have been destroyed, according to the United Nations.
Westlake Boys, a public school built an $11 million auditorium ten years ago. Impressive facilities are now quite common at our largest secondary schools whether they are public or private. Burnside built a very expensive facility about 3 years ago.
As they say, modern schools are not like the one you went to thirty years ago.
It’s the pedagogy that counts. All the facilities in the world won’t turn right wing dogma into good education practice, and nor will Parata’s venal and fraudulent rhetoric.
Why does the National Party hate children so much?
Not sure where yours and Wayne’s comments came from. But in terms of “It’s the pedagogy that counts.”
I can tell you that the teachers and the teaching at Westlake Boys High are amongst the very best in Auckland if not New Zealand.
Are they required by law to implement Notional Standards? I rest my case.
It’s a High School so no, also not sure what point you and/or Wayne are trying to make.
Oh. Oops.
Neither of us are singling Westlake out: Wayne mentioned it as an example of his belief that modern buildings are somehow significant to the nature of education. I think the teaching model is more important.
Yes ONB it is very important to remember that real estate and physical assets are more important than occupants and staff. i.e. children and teachers in a school.
That is number 1 rule in Charter schools and prisons. In fact in the US they don’t even bother to open the schools they just buy the real estate and run out of money. You don’t have to pay it back.
Under Neoliberalism and the Natz that doesn’t matter – it is the profit that counts.
Just as an interesting aside, Fallout 4 computer game has recently been launched and sold tens of millions of copies. One of the sub plots is a satire of a Charter School where the students are forced to eat nothing but pink gloop as part of a commercial sponsorship deal.
+100 One Anonymous Bloke
I did a nationwide survey of parents of secondary school students for some govt/edcuational organisation and once thing I commented on was how much money gets spent on Auckland schools compared to the rest of NZ. I think some parents and teachers from where I live would be shocked at seeing what facilities AGGS, EGGS, MAGS, Westlake etc have. Numerous schools around Wellington have been battling for years to get basic remedial work done that should have been sorted at once on health and safety reasons alone.
@mpledger
I’m unaware that more is being spent by the government on state schools in Auckland than in other parts of the country.
I do know that some schools in Auckland have had leaky building fiascos which have been/are being remediated but I don’t think they are getting more than their share, Rangitoto college for example is getting a huge number of buildings sorted out at the moment.
Wayne’s examples are somewhat mischievous as I know in Westlake’s case that the vast majority of the spend was via fundraising with some funds from foreign fee paying students rather than anything from his or previous governments.
I’m pretty sure it will be a very similar situation at Burnside which is also a state school.
Just imagine if someone told you that the citizens and ratepayers of Auckland had been paying billions of dollars to private sector consultants and contractors for services and regulatory functions – which have not been subject to transparency, accountability or ‘cost-benefit’ analysis?
Just imagine if someone told you that there can be up to three layers of private sector, for profit, ‘contractocracy’, clipping the ticket, before you get to the boots and overalls, who actually fix the footpaths / roads / water pipes etc, compared with a former single layer of not-for-profit, public service ‘bureaucracy’?
As soon as you get into contracting (privatisation) of Council services and regulatory functions, Council staff are regarded as being ‘too dumb’ to know how to do that, so contract management is further contracted out to private consultants, who then ‘project manage’ the works contractors, a number of whom then sub-contract ….
How on earth can that be a more effective use of ratepayer monies?
No wonder Auckland Council and CCOs don’t want to OPEN THE BOOKS and make available for public scrutiny exactly where every dollar is being spent on private sector contracts?
I stand for OPENING THE BOOKS and the full and thorough implementation and enforcement of the Public Records Act 2005.
NO more ‘corporate welfare’!
(Please be reminded that this contracting out – privatisation of public services at central and local government, was started under the 1984 – 87 ‘Rogernomic$’ Labour Government, in which 2016 Auckland Mayoral aspirant Phil Goff was a Cabinet Minister.)
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
As someone who’s had to draft a few Annual Plans in my time, any citizen who wants to wade through that foot-high degree of detail as it is, is welcome to. I can count on one hand those who really want to. Good luck to them.
But that won’t tell you the difference between price and value. That is, what do you want the money spent on? Any wannabe accountant can tell me the price of something, but they can’t tell me the value of anything.
The thing you value in public policy terms is the thing you vote to have money spent on.
Penny, as Mayor, what will you spend public money on?
This is incredibly sick.
Key uses Jonah Lomu’s death as a springboard to have a plug for his fave silver fern flag:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/the-flag-debate/74337045/jonah-lomu-tribute-shows-need-for-a-new-flag-pm-says
I agree the image of the fern leaf dropping like a tear is powerful but leave it there you dumb f*ck. This is not the time to use a person’s death to your advantage.
(This morning I will be posting my ballot paper. All 5 flag option’s have an X beneath them).
FJK.
He has no shame whatsoever. If he and his flag panel did their job properly then maybe one of the options would have been a regular silver fern.
The Prime Minister used Paul Henry’s show to advertise for a new flag.
We apparently need a new flag because an Irish newspaper did not feature the New Zealand flag in their graphic about Jonah Lomu.
The guy showed (again) that not only is he a drongo but that he is a desperate one.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/the-flag-debate/74337045/jonah-lomu-tribute-shows-need-for-a-new-flag-pm-says
Snap. Commented at the same time.
Been thinking lately that Key has issues around the sacred aspects of death.
He promised the families of the Pike River victims that he would do everything in his power to get the men out, so they can have a proper burial. He doesn’t. He changes laws on the hoof and uses his power to do that but doesn’t seem to find it within himself to keep his promise to grieving families.
He thinks it’s ok to leave Vietnam war veterans buried in foreign soil, away from their families, in ground that has been designated for future public works. His Aussie mates have decided this year they will bring their dead back, which is the right thing to do. But he just can’t bring himself to give the go ahead to do the same.
Now he disrespects an NZer whose career was tied to a team whose relationship he exploits for political gain and appears to be disconnected from the fact that he is using Jonah Lomu’s death to promote an agenda.
It’s all just wrong.
He’s a morally weak little boy. No idea how people find that attractive.
Key did say he never cries and had not even cried when his mother died (sorry don’t have a link for this ,perhaps someone else has). ,so you may be correct Rosie@9.42am.
@ seeker (9.1.2) – What sort of man boasts about not crying when his mother died? Demonstrates he is a psychopath of the worst possible kind I’d say.
I can think of a couple of ways to make FJK cry.
1) … hit his bank account to the extent his funds would either disappear or are frozen (much like what happened to Kim Dotcom).
2) … stick a very sharp pitchfork up his jacksie!
Both guaranteed to bring tears to his eyes and have him squealing!
Interesting. Potentially he’s been conditioned to not show any emotion (although his outbursts in the house over the years would suggest otherwise), or there is something dysfunctional in how he processes grief, or doesn’t even connect with loss?
His mother died around the turn of the millennium, I think. I find it a very bizarre reaction, the not-crying. We do all mourn in different ways and sometimes we experience a delayed reaction if we consciously or unconsciously put our grief on hold. Maybe his experience of grief is yet to come, or maybe it never will.
No matter what his personal feeling is he needs to learn to at least pretend at showing respect. Keeping his mouth shut would be a good start.
He once said he was going to resign because he blurted out an incorrect tally of the dead on the day of the ChCh earthquakes. Odd guy.
I recall there was an article about Key in a womans weakly or no idea mag or something a short while after 22.02.11. He “revealed” that he had considered resigning because of the emotional strain of coping with the Pike disaster, followed a few months later by the CHCH earthquake.
I had been thinking prior to that that he was looking really grey and like he just wanted to be outta there. It would be hard for any leader to steer a nation through such tragedies but clearly he was not emotionally equipped to deal with one let alone two.
And he chose his son’s baseball game over attending funerals for members of our armed services who were killed overseas doing his bidding! Can’t really see how anyone could be more crass and classless than that!
+1 Hami. That was a shameful decision.
Unforgivably shameful, definitely down there with his ‘desecration’ of Ireland’s wondrous tribute to Mr. Jonah Lomu.
The only residential drug treatment program north of Chch in the SI is having it,s funding cut.
Yay for a Better Future. Arseholes.!!
Another shameful NZ problem:
The number of people seeking emergency accommodation and turning to Citizens Advice Bureau for help has doubled in five years.
Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) received more than 3000 enquiries about emergency accommodation this year, up from 1500 in 2010, a recent report shows.
Overall there have been 10,000 such enquiries in the past five years.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/290380/emergency-housing-enquiries-double
Today I met a someone via my old dog. The Lady and her dog are living in her car. I offered her coffee, as that is all I can offer. Fucking brighter future indeed….its so fucking bright the world seems to wear blinkers.
Shameful, shameful, shameful. It all trickles down from the top.
Interesting to see Sean Plunket is being given the boot – http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/74333320/sean-plunket-to-leave-radiolive–and-may-be-replaced-by-colleague-mark-sainsbury
That is interesting news. Sean may have been a pain in the proverbial and pugnacious if that is the word but he did ring true on some rare occasions. Mark Sainsbury will be an awful choice. Just what Radio Live are aiming for – wet and woolly flim flam rubbish. I can see in the future that Willie will not have his contract renewed and Alison Mau will take over that slot on her own in the afternoon – and that for me is goodbye for everything on Radio Live. Karyn Hay has lost it now her other half Andrew Fagan has gone from her show, between the two of them they were an absolute hoot, now she is doing a magazine type format and she doesn’t spark at all on her own.
David Slack is my choice for the replacement or bring back Mitch Harris – can see it happening – yeh right.
More strength to your right arm, Whispering Kate. I thought I was the only one in NZ who thought like this. I really enjoyed Fagan and Karyn. Apart from anything else, every so often he would say something fairly off the planet and she would gently, bit by bit, over a series of comments, bring him back to his, that is, her senses. I had been secretly hoping that he was off on a yacht trip somewhere and one day he would be back. Sigh, dream destroyed.
Willy I like too but he is on less now, and Ali does most of the talking even when he is there. Ali is pretty good but Willy has the passion. It looks to me like he is being eased out. Perhaps that is what he wants as he does a lot of other things outside this radio slot.
Sean Plunkett is strong medicine but quite OK when he is on stuff that I agree with, (of course.)
I was also disappointed when J.T. left. He would amble along with Willy most of the time and then spit out something really pointed and sharp eyed about politics, Key or Labour. Sadly, once too often for the corporate management.
Anyone seen the latest YouTube spotlight video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgOV1dYdYVk
It is titled (#OursToLose: Climate Change Affects the Things We Love)
A number of YouTubers from various countries are featured in it including Kiwi Jamie Currie of Jamie’s World.
From the info below the video
Published on Nov 23, 2015
** Sign the petition: https://goo.gl/j3xOYg **
Climate change affects the things we love. But this December we have a huge opportunity. Sign the global petition and ask world leaders to agree to a deal at the COP21 climate conference in Paris.
Learn how climate change might affect …
New York: http://goo.gl/bzcKmj
Sports and fitness: http://goo.gl/WmwPuf
Fall leaves: http://goo.gl/OXQtPW
Chocolate: http://goo.gl/SwQXEg
Skiing: http://goo.gl/3fOca4
The ocean: https://goo.gl/uJNSgp
New Zealand: http://goo.gl/xxquDf
Coral reefs: http://goo.gl/kKceCa
Many thanks to the creators who are participating in this campaign. In order of appearance:
It’s Okay to be Smart: https://youtube.com/user/itsokaytobes…
Casey Neistat: https://youtube.com/user/caseyneistat
Flavia Calina: https://youtube.com/user/Fla1982
Blogilates: https://youtube.com/user/blogilates
Finn Harries (JacksGap): https://youtube.com/user/JacksGap
FunForLouis: https://youtube.com/user/FunForLouis
Marques Brownlee: https://youtube.com/user/marquesbrownlee
SORTEDfood: https://youtube.com/user/sortedfood
Golden Moustache: http://youtube.com/GoldenMoustacheVideo
DeevaJessica: https://youtube.com/user/deevajessica
Jamie’s World: https://youtube.com/user/theJamiesWorld
Just got an email from Greenpeace….
http://i.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/74342252/Greenpeace-activists-storm-Niwa-ship-in-Wellington-harbour
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11550347
“Greenpeace said Tangaroa was refitted at taxpayer expense to exploit hydrocarbons in an operation likely to undermine New Zealand’s obligations to fighting the greenhouse effect and climate change-related issues.
Greenpeace said the taxpayer-funded boat had been surveying the East Cost of the North Island on behalf of petroleum giants Statoil and Chevron.”
If this is correct…..WTF???
Yes probably, that is why National want to have us blaming the middle class and bene bashing to hide the fact that our taxes are actually being used to help his corporate mates in corporate welfare.
The email direct from Greenpeace this morning said the total spent was $24 million .
Oh, the execrating and vicious irony of John Key. Converting the only NIWA weather/climate change research vessel we have to oil researching.
WTF indeed Rosemary. I came here to make the same post.
Yes. I received that email too. Some of the content, from the activist aboard the Tangaroa.
“The ship we’re on is the NIWA research boat Tangaroa which has recently been refitted for oil and gas exploration at a cost of 24 million to the tax-payer. Now on the eve of the Paris climate talks, it has been searching for deep sea oil reserves off the East Coast of the North Island on behalf of Statoil and Chevron! It’s just madness.”
First I’d heard!
24 mill? If thats the case then why isn’t that money being spent on keeping women’s refuge’s and mental health services open? And why are we funding fossil fuel exploration?
WTF indeed!
Hi Rosie! Hope someone in the House questions this spending.
We have suffered too many WTF incidents with FJK.
Following on from your statement:
“Oh, the execrating and vicious irony of John Key. Converting the only NIWA weather/climate change research vessel we have to oil researching”.
Well, there should be a “scumbag PM meme” for it.
Scumbag PM makes climate scientists redundant – funds oil exploration.
(Reference to science funding cuts)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/285230/research-'abandoned'-in-agresearch-cuts
Tangaroa which has recently been refitted for oil and gas exploration at a cost of 24 million to the tax-payer
The recent refit was 2010.
Hi Poission. Do you have a link to info about the refit? I guess you’re saying that a 2010 refit means that it isn’t recent. Ok, but what about the fact that it was refitted for oil and gas exploration in the first place?
Hi Rosemary
I received the same email today from Greenpeace. Another form of disgraceful corporate welfare for FJK’s cronies – $24m – Absolutely it’s another WTF moment or two! Disturbing as well!
This might be very very good news:
The conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal is now in doubt following the defeat in the US Senate of a proposal to advance the FastTrack Bill. The Fast Track Bill would prevent the U.S. Congress from amending the TPP, and instead …U.S. Senate votes down TPP FastTrack bill: TPP deal now in doubt………The Fast Track Bill would prevent the U.S. Congress from amending the TPP, and instead allow only a yes or no vote,”
If the USA does not sign it Key won’t.
If the USA is able to amend the Treaty, then so should we.
(No date on this.)
http://itsourfuture.org.nz/u-s-senate-votes-down-tpp-fasttrack-bill/
Oh. 15 May?
Oh again. Fast Track was passed in June. My mistaken hope.
Even if the US pull out of TPP I bet Key can’t wait to get us all competing for 35 cents an hour like Vietnam as well as selling our country off via Meryl Lynch and Offshore contacts.
There is a minor little Politics story in the Dom/Post this morning.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/74292130/andrew-little-keeping-tabs-on-annette-kings-rongotai-seat
I think that Annette King is trying to back out of a deal she made with Little to keep the deputy leader job in the Labour Party.
I have suggested before that the reason she was kept on as deputy leader was that she could keep the extra money, the perks of the job (Limo for example) and a promise of a well paid sinecure when Labour became the Government if she would retire and give Little a free run at the Rongatai seat in 2017.
From this story, where Little has suddenly gone public with his claim on the seat, I think that King has decided that Labour cannot win in 2017 and that after the election Little will have ben dumped, Labour will continue in opposition, and there will be no-one in a position to provide her with a job. By 2020, if Labour can win then she will have been forgotten and the party won’t feel they owe her anything.
She has decided therefore that the best thing she can do is hang on to the seat and stay at the trough for another 3 years.
Little is now on a desperate campaign to try and force her out. I wonder what attempts he is making to try and get his own supporters to sign up in the Rongatai electorate to provide support for the moves he is now going to have to make to dump her?
Little will be top of the list at 1 so he doesn’t need a seat. It’s better for him to not have an electorate because then he has to deal with electorate stuff. Or if he does, to go for an Auckland seat because labour need to work up their presence in Auckland.
There are too many people in Wellington who see first hand what is going on in government so it’s pretty safe as a Labour/Green stronghold.
All politicians prefer an electorate seat. Like it or not it gives them greater credibility.
Little can’t really afford to stand in a by-election for, say Goff’s seat if he really quits because it will be less than a year out from a General Election. If his majority was, as it almost certainly would be, below Goff’s it leaves him open to comments about how unpopular he is.
He can’t possibly better Goff’s result, no matter how popular he might prove, because not that many people vote in by-elections. Even if Little was to run and win he is on a hiding to nothing.
Of course Wellington is a Labour/Green stronghold. There are far to many Government Department Head Office types. One shudders to think how many “Policy Analysts” there are and what they do.
No Little wants King to go and she is clinging on.
“Like it or not it gives them greater credibility”
Only because too many pundits and voters have still not grown out of First Past Post expectations. Representing a population group well rather than an area is no less difficult.
“Only because too many pundits and voters have still not grown out of First Past Post”.
That’s right. However Little, like all politicians, would be a fool to ignore what is a general perception. We have had MMP for 20 years now. Those of us who aren’t politicians can happily complain about the ignorance of hoi polloi but the real politicians can’t.
They have to compete, and try and win, in the world the way it is, not the world we might prefer. In general people still seem to think that an electorate MP is in some way superior to a list one.
And no. I can’t point you to a poll that PROVES that comment to be true.
oh I agree, sadly.
My workmates say Annette King has chosen the mantle of ABC Godmother, rather than serve the Leader who appointed her and work for the interest of a cooperative broader caucus, as well as the party’s true working class interests.
I reckon she has made the call to create a legacy that will strengthen the careerist and right-wing factions to take on the leadership post-Little. A ‘King’ maker, in a cynical sense of the expression.
Little did the right thing many months ago by attempting to unify the party, but the right-wing and careerist factions (and the incompetents who are clinging on to their electorates) are not interested in unifying but are determined to have absolute control of caucus.
Little surrounded himself with those factions and it will be seen next whether he will be asphyxiated by them. Grant Robertson is happy to wait a bit longer. His thinking is that the tide will run out even more for National when 2020 approaches and he will take Labour to a resounding victory, such as the likes of 1984.
addendum:
Can some of you (posters or commenters) who are politically thoughtful, astute, honest and insightful provide a candid updated version of the following piece please? Perhaps, something like “Labour’s Three Factions 2.0”?
http://thestandard.org.nz/labours-three-factions/
Can update that in the light of whoever is left [not a pun] in caucus, whoever has changed (or not changed) spots, etc? If ‘Eddie’ is still keen to write, it will be nice to read an updated version from the original author.
There is no good time like now, on this side of Christmas, nearing the end of the first year of the third electoral cycle of being in opposition, and clearing the way for more house-keeping and house-cleaning for next year, just before the 2017 election year. If not now, things will just go further downhill for Labour until 2020.
It’s be a bit tricky as the factions appear to have faded away. At the moment the caucus seem entirely united and on message. Boring but true!
o i n k !
I believe trp is correct and credit to Andrew Little for achieving it. Although in some ways he’s had an easier ride than the two previous incumbents because both the Left and the Right were prepared to accept him as leader.
The reshuffle is a tricky one. To ensure continuing peace and tranquility inside the caucus, Little will need to ensure both sides have been accommodated. So we can expect some mumblings and grumblings on The Standard and elsewhere in the next little while. 😉 (not trying to be provocative)
For my part I don’t care who gets on the front bench so long as the values that saw me join Labour first time around (40 plus years ago) are no longer being compromised.
I’d also credit King.
Don’t have to like her, but I respect her delivery and her work.
ditto
How does that work if all the people that were in the three factions in 2013 are still there as MPs?
It works because Labour has a leader who has managed to sort the differences between them. His legal qualifications together with his many years as a union leader have given him the expertise and knowledge that was essential for the job. He’s strong and Key and co. know it. They’re worried alright.
Just imagine the difference in this country when Little becomes PM. Things would get done and done properly. Legislation would be fair and reasonable. A living wage? I reckon so, although it might have to be implemented incrementally. No more asset sales. And that’s just for starters. Too tired tonight to go into more detail.
What a load of fantastical tripe alwyn. You missed the bit where you would say that Andrew has to keep shaving bits off the horns growing out of his forehead while your mate John is floating around on fairy wings. And you will be knighted for your perceptions. Huh!
Your imagination must be admired. Peter Jackson needed someone like you when he was making The Hobbit. Apparently he didn’t know what “fantastical” story he was going to tell when he started.
Alwyn, just read the following.
“From this story, where Little has suddenly gone public with his claim on the seat, I think that King has decided that Labour cannot win in 2017 and that after the election Little will have ben dumped, Labour will continue in opposition, and there will be no-one in a position to provide her with a job. By 2020, if Labour can win then she will have been forgotten and the party won’t feel they owe her anything.
She has decided therefore that the best thing she can do is hang on to the seat and stay at the trough for another 3 years.”
I think that ianmac is on the money as to what is fantastical. The word that gave it away in the text provided is the word coming after “I”. Not much thinking shown, but a lot of surmise, fantasy, fiction and falsely attributed motivation.
I think that the piece you put in quotation marks, starting at “from this” and finishing with “3 years”, is an amazingly intelligent and thoughtful review. This is certainly one of the very best comments ever posted on this blog.
The paragraph at the end starting with “I think that ianmac is on” doesn’t really hack it though.
There, that what you wanted to hear?
Alwyn, I am minded of the lyrics of The Boxer.
“Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”
What I just heard was the next line, “Li de li de li de li de li de li.” 🙂
From the Economist.
“Adios, kirchnerismo: Argentina’s switch
Mauricio Macri, who was elected president on Sunday, is (normally) bland by Argentina’s exuberant standards. The changes he heralds, after 12 years of kirchnerismo, are anything but. The populism, economic controls, phony statistics and hostility toward foreign investors of the current president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and her late husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner, have stalled growth, stoked inflation and distanced the country from international capital markets. Mr Macri, previously mayor of Buenos Aires, aims to end currency and exchange controls, allow the peso to devalue, restore central-bank independence and reach agreement with foreign creditors, who pushed Argentina into default in 2014. His victory changes politics elsewhere, too: he will call on Mercosur, a regional trade grouping, to suspend Venezuela from membership unless a parliamentary election there next month is conducted democratically. No other Latin American leader has been so outspoken.”
What are the chances we will have democracy, and sanity, restored to Venezuela as well?
“It’s very unusual for a terrorist group to hold territory and run a government.”
Neil Miller’s fatuous and ideological remarks go unchallenged.
The Panel, RNZ National, Monday 23 November 2015
Jim Mora, Neil Miller, Sally Wenley, Julie Moffett
dereliction n. Deliberate, conscious, or willful neglect, as of duty or principle (esp. in the phrase dereliction of duty)
First topic up for discussion after the 4 o’clock news: ISIS and the threat of terrorism. Dr Clark Jones from the Australian National University in Canberra was on the line and ready to speak, but instead of going straight to someone who knew what he was talking about, Mora asked his two guests what THEY thought. Miller did all the talking, droning on for more than a minute, pompously and tediously, in a rambling monologue which included the following gem: “It’s very unusual for a terrorist group to hold territory and run a government.”
Long-time sufferers of this joke of a program will not have been at all surprised that neither Sally Wenley nor Jim Mora dared to throw a log under the wheel of Miller’s carriage by saying something irritating such as: “What about Israel? That state, founded by terrorists, based on terrorism, has managed, by a combination of extreme violence and the diplomatic protection of the United States, to ‘hold territory and run a government’ for more than sixty years.”
But the producers of this show knew better than to put the bombastic Miller on with someone who might have have contradicted or challenged him. Sally Wenley did not so much as demur at what Miller said, and neither did host Jim Mora.
+1 Morrissey –
“It’s very unusual for a terrorist group to hold territory and run a government”
they could have added this gem too
unless they are a puppet government run by an off shore goverment and supported by offshore military
We keep seeing a lot of those too popping up in the Middle East.
So democratic….
“Je suis chat” arises in Belgium … heart warming it is.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/22/national-emergency-belgians-respond-with-cats?CMP=share_btn_fb
and they were thanked later by Belgian Police via Twitter … be sure to scroll to the very end !
“Heartwarming”? More like twee social media time-wasting.
Yes, heartwarming. For me, at any rate. You ? Not so much. Toujours le difference to you, in your ‘tweeleries’ .
It is well known cats have a calming influence on people during times of stress. It was a spontaneous and inspired response.
Congratulations to the Belgian participants.
I’ll take it Morrissey is not a cat person 😉
This in today’s print version of The Press. Probably in the online version too, but I couldn’t find it.
“24% of kiwi kids live in poverty (260,000)
180,000 missing out on basic needs like health, food and warm clothes
40,000 kids hospitalised each year because of poverty and inadequate housing
100,000 kids live in conditions that stop them from educational development success
80,000 kids go to school hungry each day . . .”
My God, we, as a nation, should be thoroughly ashamed of such figures!
We should be shouting at our politicians, demanding to know why these figures exist.
THIS IS DISGRACEFUL!
I think it is treasonous criminality.
Jacinda Ardern shouts it as loud as she can in the House during question time, along with NZ First and Greens … only by voting out this bloody government can any change be effected.
But look ! Have a flag ! Have a panda !
and now this … staff to be halved at Ministry of Youth Development … to save aq paltry $1 million … at what true cost ??
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11550489
But don’t forget that the PM’s departments budget has more than doubled since 2009.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/11/21/the-slow-starvation-of-radio-nz-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-the-fourth-estate/
“40,000 kids hospitalised each year because of poverty and inadequate housing” – are you sure about that? That’s 109 kids for every day of the year. Was any source quoted for these figures?
It does seem high, I agree. These figures appear to come from UNICEF, as quoted in The Press, via Deborah Morris-Travers, NZ advocacy manager.
But let’s not quibble over the figures – the fact that a high number of OUR kids are hospitalised because of poverty and inadequate housing is the salient point – that is what is a disgrace!
What is this “high number”?
2400 children alone in the Hutt Valley each year, so maybe it is that high nationally. Shocking.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/69058217/New-5-million-study-to-boost-childrens-health-by-improving-housing
Jist…
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/23/sun-poll-respondents-found-using-list-of-muslim-surnames
Jist, is that the Islamic version of Gist ;-p
Muslin, the “murican” version.
Rabih Alameddine
@rabihalameddine
You let muslin in and then you’ll get rayon, chenille, chintz, shantung, and omg, taffeta
Keep our fabrics pure
https://twitter.com/rabihalameddine/status/668463757832556544
joe90
Thats no seersucker.
That is almost as silly as deciding that people from China were purchasing all the Auckland houses by looking for “Chinese” names among the buyers.
Surely no-one is really that stupid?
The only one silly enough to suggest that ALL the Auckland houses are being bought by Chinese buyers is you. Or are you purposely lying? So which is it, are you a liar or terminally stupid?
Hear ye! Hear ye!
Natrad…Radio New Zealand…RNZ…whatever floats your boat has ‘specialed’ Greenpeace this afternoon.
Interviewed the protesters, talked to activists who were there when the Rainbow Warrior was bombed by the French.
Played tracks from the fundraising concert….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZD8dA678ss
Drove home from town with a lump in my throat.
Proud again to be a Kiwi.
Take that Key!
When things need repairing or improving then it’s got to be done in stages, and monitored. The idea of a predator free NZ working on one nasty after another can backfire apparently. It needs to be done more evenly across the species.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/289893/caution-urged-over-predator-free-vision
Hi mods. I’m having a problem with the site. According to the recent comments bar (I don’t know what it’s actually called) to the right of the frame there are people commenting on Stephanie’s post about the flag referendum and Micky’s post about RNZ’s story about Housing NZ referring people to CAB. but when you go to Stephanie’s post it shows one comment and Mickey’s post shows no comments. Comments that people have made are just not showing up.
This has happened a few times before and normally seems to correct itself fairly quickly but this time the problem is remaining………..
Australia and China — and USA
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-19/australia-reviewing-asset-sales-after-obama-discusses-china-buy
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/nov/19/malcolm-turnbull-shrugs-off-us-concern-over-darwin-port-lease-to-chinese-firm
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/obama-queries-turnbull-over-china-port-deal
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/oct/13/chinese-company-secures-99-year-lease-of-darwin-port-in-506m-deal
Darwin port yeah
Giant station near Woomera weapons nah.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/290103/australia-blocks-sale-of-giant-property-portfolio
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/22/australia-investment-idUSL3N13H0DP20151122
Turnbull was speaking to reporters hours after the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) blocked the A$350 million ($252 million) sale of Australia’s largest cattle ranch to Chinese firms on the grounds of national interest.
In 2014, Australia sold Port of Newcastle, the world’s busiest coal terminal, to state-owned China Merchants Group Ltd and local firm Hastings. A year earlier, it sold the second busiest container terminal to a consortium partly owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Hastings and the Abu Dhabi investment firm, along with Chinese, Canadian, Kuwaiti and local interests, are expected to bid for the New South Wales electricity network sale, people familiar with the matter have said.
What about getting back aboriginal land.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-12/priest-native-title/6307896
April 2015 http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2847089/forced_evictions_are_australias_latest_racist_assault_on_aboriginal_people.html
and from The Australian Independent Media Network –
http://theaimn.com/the-great-land-grab-of-2015-continues/
Northern Territory
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/aug/02/northern-territory-chief-minister-adam-giles-vows-to-boost-indigenous-jobs
Central govt moves
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r5492
Aborigines opinion.
https://newmatilda.com/2015/08/09/right-development-indigenous-lands/
As countries scramble to remain upright in the international game of dominoes, they are selling off bits of their infrastructure and resources. Australia is trying to balance China and the USA. And they always have the aboriginal land to reneg on.
They may as well bring back Hosking; he couldn’t be worse than Paul Brennan.
Crass and credulous fan-boy interview with U.S. Army propagandist a new low for RNZ.
Afternoons, RNZ National, Tuesday 24 November 2015
In March 2006 the controversial British prime minister Tony “Bliar” Blair had the gall to make a state visit to New Zealand. Unfortunately for him, his handlers forgot to vet the Radio New Zealand journalist Eva Radich, who doggedly went after him about the illegality of the Iraq invasion and occupation, and his bogus “45 minute” claim. She would not let him evade her questions or divert the focus of the interview. In the end, of course, Blair just resorted to his usual insulting menu of vague platitudes. But she had clearly discomfited him, in a way he rarely faced back in the United Kingdom.
Over the years, several other politicians and ideologues have come unstuck on Radio New Zealand, most notably Jeffrey Archer, John Howard and William Shawcross. [1]
But Radio New Zealand is no longer what it was. Its only decent political interviewer (Mary Wilson) has been kicked upstairs to management, where she can no longer torment the likes of Bill English and Gerry Brownlee. And softball P.R.-type interviews, even with controversial subjects, are becoming more and more common. A month ago, Jesse Mulligan granted a free half hour for Blair’s notorious henchman Alistair Campbell to blather on about “strategy, leadership, and teamship”. [2]
This afternoon, Paul Brennan’s “interview” of one Gayle Tzemach Lemmon was a case study in the softball interview. [3] It was billed on the RNZ website in the following manner…..
Appalled, I sent the following e-mail to Paul Brennan….
Your interview with Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Dear Paul,
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon glibly talked about raiding Afghanistan homes at late night, “while the Rangers went about their business.” That “business”, as has been made painfully clear in the last 14 years, is nothing more than terrorizing and brutalizing thousands of Afghani citizens. It is all illegal, and all a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions. Gayle Tzemach Lemmon also spoke as if the Afghani women in the houses being raided were just waiting to be liberated by her and her woman colleagues. The facts are diametrically different to what she claims.
Near the end of the interview, she boasted: “Make no mistake about it, these women are warriors.”
I was surprised that you seemed to endorse everything she said. Surely, as an interviewer, you are expected to test and challenge what people say on your show—especially someone saying such radical and controversial things as Gayle Tzemach Lemmon did this afternoon.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
[1] http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-01082011/#comment-359152
[2] http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/201776237/alistair-campbell-strategy-leadership-and-teamship
[3] http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/201780051/female-soldiers-gayle-tzemach-lemmon
Our media are just puppets for the powerful.
You are brave/foolhardy to listen.
Morrissey…I’m usually with you 100%, but did you hear this….?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/201780036/greenpeace-action-siana-fitzjohn
and this…..
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/201780040/great-new-zealand-concerts-rainbow-warrior-1986
nearly a whole hour devoted to Greenpeace, then and now.
Paul almost flicked aside the emails from the “we need more fossil fuels” brigade and read out those more inclined towards mitigating global warming.
This perennial cynic was cheering him on.
Yes, I heard that too, Rosemary, and I agree with you.
I was extremely disappointed, though, to hear his utterly uncritical interview with that glib Army propagandist a half hour later.
I did not engage with that next hour…too busy discussing the previous session…I was genuinely surprised at the tone….
One member of the household suggested that Paul was on his way out from Natrad…and chose the blaze of glory route. ?