Merry Christmas to you and yours. I know for many times are tough and I am thinking of you, hoping joy will reach you. I will be blessed with the presence of our adult children and extended family Xmas day and am very conscious of how fortunate we are. This year we gifted to the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal rather than personal gifts and know this will be distributed to some in need. I believe this will remain a future family commitment at Xmas.
Most of all I wish for 2014 to be the turnaround year.
Thank you to all who contribute here. You are very much appreciated.
And to you LynWiper! Good idea re the Sallies Christmas Appeal too 🙂
“Most of all I wish for 2014 to be the turnaround year”.
This is the biggest wish and the biggest hope of all. Imagine, this time next year we could possibly have a shiny new government. Personally, I will be playing my part to make that happen.
be very careful when listening to the weasel-words of peters vis a vis coalition options after the next election..
..peters is now saying that he could ‘never be part of a govt that sold assets’..
..nor one that did not ‘support the rebuilding of the nz infrastructure’..
..so..i read that as..after the next election..should key promise not to sell any more assets in the ’14’-’17 govt..(easy for him to do..there is ‘no more worth selling’..remember..?..)
..and offer (whatever) that peters can point at and shout ‘infrastructure-rebuilding’..
..then winston peters will quite happily slide his shiny-suited arse into a key govt ministerial-limo..
The secret deal announced by the government today with the company James Hardie on leaky school buildings smacks of more corporate welfare.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are involved, yet it appears James Hardie will not be pursued. Another shonKey deal carefully announced on Xmas Eve so that it is brushed under the carpet.
Yep, but Leaky Building rehabilitation is providing economic growth…I reckon it is the only National Party initiative (Introducing the Building Act 1991) that is actually providing growth.
James Hardie are past masters at insulating their shareholders from liabilities like this. They were criminal in how they ring faced their Asbestos liabilities.
Letting them off on the schools scandal is an act of criminal negligence or corruption. Labour should be all over this.
Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK47, has died aged 94. He was a remarkably modest guy, who was genuinely saddened by some of the uses the rifle was put to, but he designed a simple, cheap weapon that is still manufactured virtually unchanged from the original plans.
While the project was not completed till after WW2, the Kalashnikov helped liberate millions from the shackles of colonialism in the decades following.
At about 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 1, 2007, pilots wearing night vision goggles unleashed several Enhanced Paveway II smart bombs into his camp in eastern Colombia as officials in both capitals waited. Troops recovered only a leg. It appeared by its dark complexion to belong to Acacio, one of the few black FARC leaders. DNA tests confirmed his death.
[…]
Six weeks later, smart bombs killed Gustavo Rueda Díaz, alias Martin Caballero, leader of the 37th Front, while he was talking on his cellphone. Acacio’s and Caballero’s deaths caused the 16th and 37th fronts to collapse. They also triggered mass desertions, according to a secret State Department cable dated March 6, 2008, and released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks in 2010. This was just the beginning of the FARC’s disintegration.
To hide the use of the PGMs from public discovery, and to ensure maximum damage to a FARC’s leaders’ camp, the air force and U.S. advisers developed new strike tactics. In a typical mission, several A-37 Dragonflys flying at 20,000 feet carried smart bombs. As soon as the planes came within a three-mile “basket” of the target, a bomb’s GPS software would automatically turn on.
The Dragonflys were followed by several A-29 Super Tucanos, flying at a much lower altitude. They would drop a series of dumb bombs in a pattern nearby. Their blast pressure would kill anyone close in and also flatten the dense jungle and obscure the use of the smart bombs.
Then, low-flying, Vietnam-era AC-47 gunships, nicknamed Puff the Magic Dragon, would strafe the area with mounted machine guns, “shooting the wounded trying to go for cover,” according to one of several military officials who described the same scenario.
You believe that cocaine was the deciding factor in this high level of US military involvement?
And not erosion of US power in central America?
If you are serious in your belief that drug money and not political revolution was the aim, why didn’t the FARC just sit back and let the money roll in?
Its a lesson of Bernay’s treatise entitled Propaganda, yes. Another lesson is that the intellectual class is often more than happy to support war for imperial aims. Notice how the US isn’t smart bombing the leadership of Mexican drug cartels?
CV, what I’m saying is that FARC turned to the soft option of the drug trade, which, in turn, allowed the US to further attack them as part of the bogus war on drugs. It was a terrible strategic error on FARC’s behalf.
So you contend that if the FARC had not been linked to the cocaine trade, the US would not be providing precision munitions and intel to the Columbian Govt?
Of course, we both know that is a nonsense, given that the US does not smart bomb Mexican drug cartel leaders.
“So you contend that if the FARC had not been linked to the cocaine trade, the US would not be providing precision munitions and intel to the Columbian Govt?”
Nope. I contend that without the drugs, the US would have to make do with ‘unofficial’ support (ie CIA, NSA etc). With drugs in play, the US can come out of the shadows and directly support military action against them as well.
You appear not to understand how the Washington Post works.
The piece was either published with the tacit approval of the US gov in that it supported a desired narrative to be pushed out into the public sphere and hence contained a whole lot of sensitive information but via ‘authorised’ leaks.
Or the piece was published without the approval of the US gov and the journalist and editors have put together a huge and awesome piece of investigative journalism.
These two scenarios mean that your suggested conditionality around drugs allowing “out of the shadows” US direct military action is mistaken.
Again, there plenty of well armed drug cartels operating around Mexico which haven’t been blasted to smithereens by smart munitions, demonstrating that the drugs angle is merely incidental.
The infamous joint US-Colombia drug eradication strategy, Plan Colombia, recently resurrected under Plan Patriota, has been embraced by the Uribe administration and referred to in the DS policy. Although most armed groups now finance their operations through the drug economy, Uribe claims to fight the “war on drugs” and the “war on terror” simultaneously. Curiously, the government “negotiates” with those most directly involved in the drug trade, the AUC, while engaging in an all-out offensive with the minor players: left-wing guerrilla groups.
The right wing militias that control most of the Colombian cocaine production do not pretend to be a revolutionary movement. They obviously took your advice.
I see old Bomber has had another brain explosion, he clearly doesn’t like the “PublicAddress gender equal person” if his (now striked out) rant was any guide. Actually as rants go it was quite funny, TBH.
I suppose that is all you can really salvage from the whole sorry carry on.
I think Bomber’s main problem is that he’s more of a performer than a militant. If he calmed down a bit, counted to something like Avogadro’s number, and didn’t insist on having the first word, the last word, and most of those in between, he might achieve a lot more. As it stands, his contributions are not trivial and he deserves to be remembered for more than frothing at the mouth.
Xox
Interesting to see how MSM spin poverty as a worthy opportunity for ‘generosity’ from the haves.
Also how MSM spin rising interest rates as great for savers. And it’s only about 2%. It is really 2 percent on top of approx 5.5 percent, which is really about 36 percent! We don’t want the MSM to scare mortgage payers (or voters) do we?
Merry Christmas, God save the Queen, heaven help her subjects.
a wealthy cousin of mine posted on facebook that to show her children the true meaning of xmas so shes going to give poor people their old toys…but anyway, i’m looking forward to a cpl days off work & spending it with my wife & daughter. ram on!
North
” The ease is patent but what’s really appalling is that they just don’t see it. “Who me ? No way !”
True but the trouble is the NZ averages can’t/don’t see it either. The ‘Keys’ know and exploit that inability. Dunno what we can do about the average kiwi’s poor visual acuity.
From that article:
“Irreverent Cabinet Minister Paula Bennett has produced her own pink wine label on a chardonnay this Christmas called “Sip It Sweetie”.
Some will find their way into Christmas stockings, but most will be auctioned to fundraise for her campaign in Upper Harbour next year.
“A fruity little number, plenty of sass and spirit,” the label says.
“This classy chardonnay will impress at a barbecue, beach picnic or a fancy-pants dinner party. Good drinking now but even better after a third term.”
Suggest “A full-bodied plonk with a tarty after-taste. Won’t age well. Will be off within 12 months.”
Jesu H Christos – now I understand why I can’t listen to Nine-toNoon for any length of time.
The music talking-head critic sage commenting on how we CONSUME music FFS!
OFF!
I was listening to RNZ Concert FM news who quoted Sara Chatwin, “celebrity” psychologist. I’m guessing this is the same one. If so, she always seems to comment on the most on the most inane non issues facing the population.
It is true, just in my observations, that folks do seem to freak and obsess about Christmas day weather, especially the newspapers and TV news, but really, to tell us not to worry about it is another thing altogether. There are far greater issues facing the national psyche than the weather.
I’d be one of those people, but funnily enough only on work days. Can go without any caffeine all weekend, but have a grossly unnatural relationship with that first cup of coffee mon-fri…
as for the music on 9-no-one.
its all whining gamines, processed pap and noo noo heads who cant sing.
but the awful thing is that “THEY” think its wunnerful.
yetchhhhhhhh.
Where’d your computer come from? Government
Where’d the drugs you use come from? Most likely government.
And this applies to a hell of a lot of innovation over the last few centuries. The lesson we need to learn is that the private sector doesn’t do the innovation as we’ve been told over the last 30 to 40 years. More often than not, the private sector holds innovation back through the use of patents.
Yep, from what I’ve seen out of the TPP innovation is going to become even more difficult and the patent trolls are going to be even more of a problem.
Brewer denies journalist prompt
The councillor caught out on a junket to the Gold Coast declared the trip to officials – but concedes he may have done so after a call from a journalist.
Xox
Pity about the falling standards @ RNZ. Lead by Jim, and Kathryn. Hopefully Wallace will do some serious reading and thinking over the Summer break, ready to provide an informed and intelligent program. A worthy successor to Chris.
Indeed!
Just like this morning, the nicest man on Earth is about to get the OFF button. Currently playing – the most self-indulgent load of kaka you could ever hope to imagine. And if anyone ever accuses RNZ of left-wing bias, they only need check out his afternoon’s guests. The occasional leftie (for fairness and balance of course – likw Peter Elliot, maybe even Bernard Hickey) – other than that – what a pack of out-of-touch ‘experts’ ffs/
Mai: what’s the diff between living in wgtn and commuting to auckland, and living in auck and commuting to wgtn?
– Oh (to paraphrase) it’s so difficult getting the kids to school.
– It makes you realise that to win an election, you have to win Auckland.
All very twee.
There goes half RNZ’s budget on cheap Chardonnay – down the gullets of those ‘movers and shakers’ including some Squeaky Fromme TVNZ hasbeen.
Reasons given being just as valid in proposing Auckland be carved off as a separate country, and for all those Auckland expats moving to Queenstown (or Martinborough) to get away from it all (whereupon they attempt to develop, develop, develop and re-create the new wonderland).
I like Jim and Kathryn and I’m leftish thinking. They seem to be reasonably impartial to me. Middle road reasonably intelligent content except for the concessional bigotted comments of Boag or Farrar and I guess we have to put up with the silly empty rhetoric of Hooton as part of being a democracy. Often disappointed with, “i have to agree with Michelle” from Mike Williams who I guess is changing with the need to supplement his corporate retirement.
Generally I think Jim and Kathryn do a good job.
I enjoy Kathryn Ryan too Rodel and agree she’s fairly impartial. She has regularly pulled up Hooton on his more outrageous claims and on one occasion she shouted him down and almost threatened to pull the plug on him. She also has a good sense of humour and conducts her interviews in a very professional manner. You can’t really expect any more than that…
Indeed she and Mary Wilson on Check Point keep us well served with all the information of the day.
There was an interesting opinion piece in the Dom/Post this morning by Geoffrey Palmer.
I can’t find it online so I can’t give a link to it unfortunately.
It will, I suspect attract completely opposite views from thos on the right of politics to those on the left.
Those on the right will say, about the first part the GP has finally come to his senses and that in the second part that he has reverted to senility. To the left the first part will be anathema and the second that he is finally back to his sensible self.
The first part argues that referenda endanger our democratic system. He also says that democracies where they are used extensively the results have been disastrous and that the act that allows for CIR should be repealed. Governments are elected to govern. They should decide what to do and to get on with it.
Very sensible of the man say all right thinking people.
The second part, where he relapses into drooling idiocy, calls for extending the OIA, bringing in a written, entrenched constitution, better protection for Maori values and aspirations and more safeguards against government’s abuse of power. “Bah humbug” as Ebenezer Scrooge would say, and as all right thinking people would believe..
I wonder how many people here would agree with everything, or disagree with everything, the Geoffrey says?
The first part argues that referenda endanger our democratic system. He also says that democracies where they are used extensively the results have been disastrous and that the act that allows for CIR should be repealed. Governments are elected to govern. They should decide what to do and to get on with it.
Very sensible of the man say all right thinking people.
I don’t see anything particularly right wing about this view, and nor, frankly, do I see his point. In NZ CIRs are not binding on the government. They are designed to be a means whereby people can determine the view of the electorate. The way politics works, that means they will usually be about expressing a view the government of the day doesn’t like. It is form of, very civil indeed, disobedience.
calls for extending the OIA, bringing in a written, entrenched constitution, better protection for Maori values and aspirations and more safeguards against government’s abuse of power.
I notice mostly that your response only amounts to a ‘humbug’. Understandably I suppose, it’s hard to argue against any of that without looking like a fuckwit.
It worked!
As I expected someone who doesn’t agree with part one, but is thoroughly in favour of part two shows up.
Referenda. “nor do I see his point”, “people can determine the view of the electorate”
Constitution “Hard to argue against any of it”.
Now is there anyone who agrees with BOTH parts of his opinion piece or, alternatively, disagrees with BOTH parts.
About the only sensible thing I can remember about Geoffrey was a proposal to put an expiration date on legislation.
Now that might be a little impractical, but at the very least (as someone else on this site suggested), it should be mandatory for anything passed under urgency.
(Besides – it’d give the delightful Mai Chen a reason to commute to Wellington and pass on her apologies to the all important “The Panel” appearances – she could probably even claim on a taxi to get the kids to and from school).
Geoffrey has a knack of romanticising everything and being a thoroughly ‘well rounded fellow’ amongst those who aspire to be his peers.
Now a far cry from the Mt Vic-living Geo of old who was far more practical and in touch with reality.
Geoffrey former Mt Vic what ? Hope he never engaged the face-first molestation of the steep Hawker Street pavement as has apparently the fulsomely reasonable closet totalitarian Stephen Franks. As mirthfully reported by someone on TS recently.
Akshully I seem to recall that hilarious story was related by you Tim. It was real LOL stuff to a former resident in that very street. Poor Geoffrey. Poor Stephen. Poor Nation.
Further hilarity – Alwyn above talks “bah humbug” as though his know-it-all right wing twittiness doesn’t define it.
Considering the shenanigans with the GCSB in NZ, think about this allegedly “benign” filter instituted by Cameron in the UK that was only supposed to filter porn and in fact, not accidentally, filters a lot more and think what could be planned here in NZ:
Cameron’s problem, methinks, is that he’s thinking like an old-school (literally) authoritarian whereas todays digital natives might not have heard the cyberpunk slogan “Information wants to be free” because its thoroughly ingrained in them. A lot of young people at least are going to get and damned well play on the old man’s lawn whether he likes it or not. Especially if not.
EDMONTON – More than 75 environment officers who watched over oil industry activities left the provincial environment department this fall, to take higher paying jobs with the new industry-funded Alberta Energy Regulator. Another 75-plus are expected to leave in the spring.
In mid-November, the department also began handing over to the regulator thousands of files on oil industry activity pertaining to the Public Lands Act, according to documents obtained by the Journal.
This shift in staffing and the moving of years of files out of a government department to the new arm’s length regulator are key steps in the government’s plan, announced last spring, to create a more streamlined approval process for oil companies that wanted “one window” to get permits for new projects.
Previously, companies had to apply to the environment department for some permits and to the old regulator, the now defunct Energy Resources Conservation Board.
To achieve the “one window,” the provincial government handed over to the privately funded regulator responsibility for administering the Water Act, Public Lands Act, and the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act (dealing with spills) as they pertain to energy companies.
To ALL Standardistas, friends and foes, have a happy holiday season, a Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and the best of wishes for the new year 2014, which will be highly important “DECISION YEAR” for all of us.
It was an at times stressful and difficult year that comes to an end, and the fight for social justice, and for common sense, sustainable, smart, constructive, fair and inclusive policies, will continue in 2014.
For those that suffer illness and disabilities, bear in mind, that WINZ will start a new regime in February 2014, which will include medical and work capability assessments – similar to the ones done by ATOS in the UK, for those sick and disabled on benefits. They will be using OUTSOURCED CONTRACTORS!
“Private contractors will be paid $650 an assessment to get thousands of New Zealand’s sick and disabled ready to return to work.”
“From February, Work and Income will pay private “medical assessors” to scrutinise sickness and disability beneficiaries who it believes can work.”
“The medical assessors will be paid $650 per assessment, which are expected to take about three hours, and are prompted to recommend lifestyle changes to help the beneficiary get a job, such as a “positive approach to life” and more time at the gym.”
“It is expected eventually 3000 disabled people a year will have to visit an assessor, who will judge their fitness for work and report back to Work and Income.
The scheme, revealed in a tender proposal, is part of the biggest welfare shake-up in decades, with the Government aiming to have 28,000 to 44,000 people off benefits by 2017, saving up to $1.6 billion.”
Also remember this, from the NZ Herald, 18 Nov. 2013:
“Winz apologises to sick woman placed on wrong benefit”
So if some had horrific experiences with WINZ’s “designated doctors” (some are true “hatchet doctors”), get ready for the next level of harassment!
Study up the ample information offered in the following publications, to get informed what is going on, and what it is all about. Do NOT forget, the new year will bring more challenges, and the enemy NEVER sleeps (Bennett and her nasty WINZ and MSD underlings):
Feel free to copy and paste, and use the links at convenient times. Enjoy your holidays or breaks for time being, and get ready for the firestorm on the welfare and national policy front in the coming years. Every voice and body will be needed, it all leading up to the most important election in recent New Zealand history!
This is one more issue that Labour needs to take a firm position on. It seems Jacinda and whoever took her place have taken Benefat’s recommendation to heart and zipped it.
Also: Tnagata Whenua do not forget your brothers and sisters in Chile, they are called Mapuche, they have lived there for centuries, but have had their lands and rights taken away, like your people. Some take a stand at least:
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When they were running for election, Labour promised to overhaul the Employment Relations Act and introduce fair pay agreements to set basic pay and conditions on an industry level, preventing bad employers from undercutting good ones. They followed this up by establishing a working group, which reported back in January ...
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Back in 2011, journalist Nicky Hager published Other People's Wars, an expose on NZDF's activities over the previous decade of the "war on terror". NZDF didn't like this, and especially didn't like the fact that it was base don leaks from their own. So, they had the SIS investigate him ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is due back from select committee in two weeks, and will likely pass its final stages in November. So naturally, farmers are planning a hate-march against it. But they're not just demanding lower methane targets so they can keep on destroying the planet; they're also demanding ...
Last year, California burned. This year, to stop it happening again (or rather, to stop themselves from being found liable if it happens again), Pacific Gas and Electric is cutting power to half the state for a week:Schools are closed. Traffic lights down. Tunnels dark. Businesses unopened. Hospitals running on ...
The Best Way: Missing from the on-line voting debate is any reference to the voting system that produces turn-out figures ranging from 77 to 93 percent of registered voters. The voting system used to collect and count the votes cast in our parliamentary elections. The system that involves citizens making ...
Among the great new bunch of political friends we have been making recently is the excellent Australian-based Marxist gender-critical site, Freer Lives. So we asked the comrade who set up that blog to write something for Redline on the blog, himself, his analysis of the rise of gender politics and ...
by Don Franks The Auckland City Mission is struggling with a 40 percent increase in demand for food parcels this year. A total of 23,020 were needed by June. Last month Missioner Chris Farrelly told the Herald the “cupboards are bare” and without an emergency food drive, he can’t see ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Massey Wellington Student Association had a sit-in today. Imagine a sit-in. On a campus. Against a women’s rights meeting. Did the ’60s really happen or did we fucking dream it? They gathered in the student square, an echo chamber. Sitting on soft pillows ...
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...
First, almost a score of Labour MPs seem to have sent a letter to the EU basically begging them to accept a deal - any deal - just so Britain can get the Heck on with Brexiting instead of being trapped in limbo:
by Phil Duncan In 2016 the National-led government suspended the Parent Visa Category, through which migrants were able to bring their parents into New Zealand. Since then over 5,700 people have been in immigration limbo, stuck on the visa wait list. Labour is now bringing back the scheme. Well, sort ...
The following was released yesterday (Tues, October 8) by the women’s liberation organisation Speak Up for Women. On 23 September Speak Up For Women announced that we would be holding an event at the Massey University Theaterette in Wellington. The event is called Feminism 2020. The intention of the event ...
The government is currently consulting on plans to improve freshwater quality. So naturally, farmers oppose it:South Taranaki farmers are preparing to fight proposed national freshwater changes that some fear will bankrupt them. The Government's proposed National Environment Standard on Freshwater Management, released in September, rated the Waingongoro River as one ...
Yesterday was the last day for (reliably) posting your vote away in local body elections. Turnouts are mostly much lower than the equivalent time last year (Palmerston North is down 2.3%), and so naturally people are pushing their online-voting snake oil again. Because the online census worked so well, lets ...
This essay, on the political legacy of the eugenics movement, by Kenan Malik was originally published in the Observer on 6 October 2019, under the headline ‘The spirit of eugenics is still with us, as immigrants know to their cost’. Birth control. Intelligence tests. Town planning. Immigration controls. It’s striking how ...
Another year, and the government has announced another enormous government "surplus". And just like last year, its nothing of the sort. When we have people homeless and sick and hungry, when we have schools and hospitals still falling down, when we have underpaid public servants and infrastucture unmaintained or unbuilt, ...
James Forsyth at The Spectator (I know, I know) has tapped one of his contacts inside Number Ten for an insight into the Johnson administration's thinking and strategy.It is fascinating, unsettling and quite, quite mad. Some key points:Negotiations have stalled and the Johnson administration are keen to blame the EU: ...
Fatal Contact: With the arrival of captain James Cook in October 1769, the islands of what would become New Zealand ceased to be the preserve of Polynesian navigators and settlers and became a part of both the world’s map and the world’s history.THE MAORI NATIONALIST assault upon the historical meaning ...
Another round of tactical talks about forming a Government of National Unity have come to nothing with the Liberal Democrats still refusing countenance putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street:Opposition talks on Monday made little headway over when to try and vote down Boris Johnson's government and who might succeed him as ...
by Nick Rogers The debate around the meaning of sex and gender made an appearance at this year’s British Labour Party conference in Brighton. Women’s Place UK – an organisation that questions the demand that biological males who self-identify as woman should have access to women’s spaces, to all-women shortlists, ...
Yesterday I went down to Wellington to participate in the Extinction Rebellion protest. Its part of the latest global wave of XR actions, with actions happening all over the world. Some of those protests are massively disruptive: in Canada, XR is blocking major bridges, stopping people from getting to work. ...
The Workshop is a charitable trust for public good. The Workshop undertake research to find ways of communicating that will build support for the solutions that work to solve complex social and environmental problems. See their Report on Talking about Poverty and Welfare Reform below. ...
What is language? We generally assume that it a facility unique to humans, allowing us to share what’s in and on our minds. We can tell of our plans, our past exploits, our knowledge. It also allows us to lie. And yet there are vast numbers of people we can’t ...
Being and Being Bought (Spinifex Press, 2013) by Kajsa Ekis Ekman A synopsis and commentary of Chapters 1-2 by Daphna Whitmore Ekman, a Swedish journalist and critic, brings together a Marxist and feminist analysis of prostitution and surrogacy in this groundbreaking book She opens the discussion with a definition of ...
I make no claims to having much legal knowledge, so I defer to those trained in this area.I am very much enjoying this twitter stream from m'learned friend in Edinburgh, deciphering the legal arguments around the Scottish court challenge to Boris Johnson, based on the charmingly obscure principle of Nobile ...
Ivory Folly? The University of Auckland’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, upheld the right of the radical nationalist group, Action Zealandia to exercise their freedom of speech – not matter how distasteful that speech might be. A wiser community of students and scholars would have nodded their agreement and moved on. ...
If you are not convinced terrorist Organisation ‘Extinction Rebellion’ is very, very dangerous – watch this video at one of their recent meetings. Not only is this obviously mentally ill Woman begging the other terrorists to promote killing and “eating” babies and children, if you watch carefully other members nod ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
An export-led economy is one of New Zealand First’s key principles, and our commitment to achieving this is shown by the continuing skyrocketing demand for our beef and sheep meat exports. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's New Season Outlook 2019-20 report forecasts beef, lamb and mutton prices to lift from ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today in Gisborne an investment of $17.27m into bringing “world-leading” food-growing technology and the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the East Coast city. The funding comes from the Provincial Growth Fund, and included a $15 million loan to LeaderBrand, a ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development More than 100 people in Tairāwhiti’s Tolaga Bay will benefit from two employment initiatives supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. “Tolaga Bay is an incredibly tight-knit community, but one in ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is supporting Gisborne business Leaderbrand to produce salad vegetables year round and create more jobs in the Tairāwhiti region, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Our support for Leaderbrand will help them build large greenhouses ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has praised the promise by New Zealand’s biggest banks not to close any provincial branches while the Coalition Government trials regional banking hubs across the country. The Minister said the announce was the “first sign of hope for regional communities”, many of which have ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have delivered an upgrade of the SuperGold Card website and a new smartphone app, which will help unlock the full benefits of the SuperGold Card for 750,000 New Zealand seniors.Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters, ...
Delivering a key election campaign promise, New Zealand First is proud to have accomplished a long overdue upgrade of the SuperGold Card today. At an event in Auckland, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters joined Minister for Seniors Hon. Tracey Martin in unveiling the new website and smartphone app which ...
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter welcomes leaders in the private sector taking action on closing their gender pay gaps to ensure a fairer workplace for all New Zealanders. Ms Genter today launched a new report, Addressing the gender pay gap and driving women’s representation in senior leadership, from the Champions for ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand continues to have serious concerns for peace and stability in north-east Syria. “Recent reports that hundreds of ISIS-affiliated families have fled from a camp are deeply concerning from a humanitarian and security perspective”, Mr Peters says. “While we acknowledge Turkey’s domestic security ...
Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor is warning travelling Kiwis to be vigilant as the high-season for the crop-eating brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is under way. “We’re on high alert to stop BMSB arriving in NZ. The high season runs until April 30 and we’ve strengthened our measures to stop stink ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
The Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage has launched a new comprehensive trapping guide for community trappers to help them protect our native birds, plants and other wildlife, at Zealandia in Wellington today. ‘A practical guide to trapping’, has been developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and was launched during ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter welcomes PHARMAC’s move to improve access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs). PHARMAC has today announced it will fund the full cost of Mirena and Jaydess for anyone seeking long term contraception, lifting previous restrictions on access to Mirena. “I welcome women having greater choices ...
The Government has approved the next stage of a major redevelopment of Taranaki Base Hospital, which will deliver new and improved facilities for patients. Health Minister Dr David Clark has announced details of a $300 million dollar project to build a new East Wing at the New Plymouth hospital. It ...
Extra funding will allow Rural Support Trusts to help farming families, says Minister for Rural Communities and Agriculture Damien O’Connor. “I know that rural families are worried about some of the challenges facing them, including the ongoing uncertainty created by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. “Those concerns sit alongside ongoing worries ...
Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present certificates to the 16 graduates who have completed a beekeeping course delivered by the Howard League. Let us start by acknowledging Auckland Prison’s Deputy Prison Director Tom Sherlock, and Acting Assistant Regional Commissioner of Corrections Northern Region Scott Walker - ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves this weekend to attend the APEC Finance Ministers meeting in Santiago, Chile. Discussions between APEC Finance Ministers at the meeting will include the effects of the current global economic uncertainty, risks for APEC economies and sustainable development of the region. While at APEC Grant Robertson ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says for Pacific people, language can be a source of strength. It can help ground us and give us confidence. When we speak them, our languages provide us with an immediate and intimate access to our identity and our story - and ...
The Coalition Government has announced an action plan to improve the wellbeing of disabled New Zealanders by addressing inequalities in play, active recreation and sport. The initiative includes training to develop a workforce that understands the needs of children and young people with a range of impairments, advocacy for fit ...
The construction sector is being freed up to allow more homes to be built more quickly as the Government cuts through some of the red tape of the Building Act. “Every New Zealander deserves a warm, dry, safe home and old inefficiencies in the Building Act make building slow and ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has welcomed further details on the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall’s visit to New Zealand next month. Their Royal Highnesses will visit New Zealand from 17-23 November – their third joint visit to New Zealand and first in four years. They arrive in Auckland ...
Minister of State for Trade and Export Growth and Minister of Agriculture, Damien O’Connor, heads to Thailand today to attend the final Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Ministerial meeting, as negotiations enter their final stages. “The RCEP Agreement would anchor New Zealand in a regional agreement that covers 16 countries, ...
Pacific young people living in the Hawke’s Bay, Southland and Otago regions will have access to support services that have proved successful in helping young people find new earning and learning opportunities. “Tupu Aotearoa is about changing Pacific young peoples’ lives. Our young people are talented, they are smart, they ...
Introduction As the Minister for ACC I thank you all for the work that you do supporting New Zealanders in their literally most vulnerable moments. From those who hold people’s lives in their hands, to the people who research technique, technology and trends, your work is highly valued. A special ...
Notes prepared for speeches in Christchurch – Wednesday 9 October 2019 Today’s topic, “trends and opportunities for the New Zealand economy,” is certainly one getting a great deal of commentary at the moment. Looking across the media landscape lately you’ll notice we aren’t the only ones having this discussion. There ...
Minister of Health Dr David Clark and Associate Minister of Health Peeni Henare say this year’s World Mental Health Day theme is a reminder of why the Government’s work on mental health is so important. “This year the World Federation for Mental Health has made suicide prevention the main theme ...
Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni will represent the government at Australia’s Meeting of Cultural Ministers in Adelaide this week. “This year’s meeting is special because New Zealand is expected to become an International Member of the Meeting of Cultural Ministers at this Australian forum,” Carmel Sepuloni said. “The meeting is an opportunity to ...
Aotearoa Climate Emergency (ACE), a climate change network, will host a conference in Wellington on 11 November (Armistice Day) to promote holding a Citizens Assembly in 2020, as a way of breaking the current political deadlock on treating climate ...
MediaWorks’ owners have called time after years of losses from its TV division. Sources say the company will announce it is for sale – if no buyers emerge, it will close within months.Three is facing the biggest crisis in its three decade history today, as its ownership will soon announce ...
Sam Brooks reviews Amazon Prime’s Modern Love, an anthology series based on the New York Times column dedicated to ‘love in all its forms’. A first date that ends up in the emergency room. A flagging marriage that finds new energy through tennis. The founder of a dating app who doesn’t ...
If we want to grow support for New Zealand’s aid, we need to get better at partnering with the ‘unlike-minded’ as well as the ‘like-minded’, and much better at telling people what we do with the money they give, says Josie Pagani, Executive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Orsola De Marco, Astrophysicist , Macquarie University If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.How are stars made? –Zali, age 8, Karkoo, South Australia. How are stars made? Well, stars are not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gita Mishra, Professor of Life Course Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland All women know to expect the time in life when their periods finish and they reach menopause. Many might even look forward to it. What many women don’t ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul McGreevy, Professor of Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare Science, University of Sydney Since ancient times, horse behaviour, and the bond between horses and humans, has been a source of intrigue and fascination. The horse-lore that has accumulated over the centuries is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachael Wallis, Lecturer and Honorary Research Fellow, University of Southern Queensland A move to the country is often presented in popular culture as an idyllic life, a place where you can escape the pressures of the city. It’s in television shows such ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW The just-announced inquiry into Australia’s retirement income system ought to be anything but run-of-the-mill. Taking place 25 years after the introduction of compulsory superannuation, it provides an opportunity to either fix a broken system, or discard ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allan McCay, Law Lecturer, University of Sydney The rise of artificial intelligence has led to widespread concern about the role of humans in the workplaces of the future. Indeed, Israeli historian, futurist and publishing sensation Yuval Noah Harari warns in his most ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Saunders, Phd candidate, University of Wollongong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains images and names of deceased people. You leave Sydney and head for holidays on the South Coast. You plan to catch a quick surf, ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Clayton Mitchell denies accusations around a night out, food insecurity on the rise, and UK PM Boris Johnson secures deal with dubious prospects.NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell has got himself in a spot of late night bother in a Tauranga ...
As the rugby world wrestles with the new reality that players can, and will, be dismissed for accidental contact with an opponent’s head it's worth pondering the fate of three All Blacks not selected for the Ireland quarterfinal. ...
A new exhibition in Raetihi offers a rare opportunity to see early, colonialism-focused works by Wellington artist Barbara Strathdee, writes Pat Baskett. ...
Italy's Ambassador to New Zealand Fabrizio Marcelli responds to Newsroom stories - and The Detail podcasts - questioning the price of imported tinned tomatoes in light of reports of slave labour in the industry in his home country. ...
A measles outbreak in Samoa suspected to be responsible for the death of a one-year-old was “inevitable”, according to an expert who thinks NZ could have prevented it. ...
The big shock of the results in the weekend’s local elections was the unseating of Justin Lester as Wellington mayor. We invited him to pen a sort-of-valedictory.My three years as the mayor of Wellington ended on Sunday and I will forever remain grateful for the experience.I’m also acutely aware of ...
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Alex Braae reviews a night spent on the Intercity overnight sleeper bus getting from Wellington to Auckland.The most important thing to understand about long haul bus travel is that it’s all about getting exactly ...
Britain and the EU have agreed new terms for divorce. But with the Conservatives’ Northern Irish support party unimpressed, can the British prime minister at last put an end to the interminable shitstorm?At last, a deal! A palpable deal! A path out of the endless brain-melt!“Where there is a will, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Government sources insist shock jock Alan Jones didn’t drive Thursday’s announcement of a cash payment to drought-striken farmers about to be turfed off their household support because they’d reached the four year time limit. They ...
The proposition that global warming driven by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a risk that needs to be dealt with has achieved a large measure of agreement among policymakers. The proposition that it has to be dealt with right now and at great cost has no such consensus.One point ...
A bill to improve the pastoral care of students living in halls of residence has flown through its first reading in Parliament, thanks to cross-party support. ...
In this week's MediaRoom column: could MediaWorks close its TV operations altogether? And the Herald restructures its newsroom to remove a layer of management and shake up its investigative team. ...
Twenty-five young people who represent the future of the Asia-New Zealand relationship have been acknowledged as ‘ones to watch’, by the Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono. ...
The taboo that surrounds immigration and our refugee qouta, are two issues rising in New Zealand that need to start being given attention to challenge the fruit loops of the far left. ...
Winston Peters has been ordered to answer questions about whether he received a letter from MSD asking him to check details of his living arrangements, three years before discovering he'd been overpaid. ...
To celebrate 10 years since the start of New Zealand’s Next Top Model, our reality TV podcast The Real Pod is going to recap it week by week. Here are 10 of the most incredible revelations from the very first episode. 1) Colin Mathura-Jeffree was an emo kidThis was the moment ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Terrorism bill Lydia Lewis and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Security expert backs new terror law proposal ...
Occupiers of the disputed land at Ihumātao have been shut out of talks with the government about finding a resolution, saying they haven’t had any direct contact with ministers in more than a month, writes RNZ‘s Te Aniwa Hurihanganu and Meriana Johnsen.The Māori King announced in September mana whenua had ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Fancourt, Adjunct Research Fellow, University of New England Feral cats are wreaking havoc on our native wildlife, eating more than a billion animals across Australia every year. But managing feral cats and reducing their impacts on our threatened species is challenging, ...
Later this month, the national commemoration of the New Zealand Wars, known as Te Pūtake o Te Riri, is to be held in Taranaki. Local community activist Vivian Hutchinson looks at how a history of conflict has shaped our sense of citizenship and describes how some people in Taranaki are ...
New Zealand First MP Clayton Mitchell is demanding an apology from security guards who booted him out of a Tauranga bar on Saturday night, describing them as politically-motivated "buffoons". ...
New Zealand First MP Clayton Mitchell is demanding an apology from security guards who booted him out of a Tauranga bar on Saturday night, describing them as politically-motivated "buffoons". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jerry Zhou, Lecturer, School of Medicine, Western Sydney University If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.Does chewing gum stay inside you for years? – Olivia, aged 12, Australia. Great question, Olivia! ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Elphick, Adjunct Research Fellow, Law School, University of Western Australia In March last year, Frances McDormand won the Academy Award for Best Actress. In her acceptance speech, she drew attention to the female nominees in the room and left them with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peggy Kern, Associate professor, University of Melbourne The Portal follows six individuals who undergo a personal transformation from trauma and struggle to calmness, self-acceptance, and compassion towards others. These personal changes are intertwined with contemplations about the broader struggles facing humanity and ...
Many hill country farmers could be locked into low-return agriculture by government policy, with little chance of breaking the cycle, according to the main meat producers' lobby, Beef + Lamb New Zealand. ...
The Southern DHB has apologised and pledged to change practices after a report into a young woman’s complaint about treatment which included being stripped naked and left unattended in seclusion for 12 hours. Here she tells her story.I’d forgotten the Health and Disability Commission was about to publish its report. ...
In the Chief Ombudsman’s latest Annual Report, contacts for advice increased 29 percent, while more use was being made of guidance material, including the 23 new or updated guides that were published in the 2018/19 year. ...
Fletcher's new offsite home manufacturing facility could be producing two homes a day within a couple of years. But for the moment this high-tech factory is underwhelming. ...
National's leader Simon Bridges says his party will pull its support for the new anti-terrorism legislation if the minister doesn't meet with them next week and start negotiating in good faith. ...
For the latest episode of On the Rag, notorious prude Alex Casey enlisted the help of sex toy expert and pleasure therapist Teddy Curle. It sounds a bit like ingredients for an avant-garde stir-fry recipe. Cauliflower. Kūmara. A jar of Vegemite. But what it actually is, sex toy expert Teddy Curle ...
It is deeply concerning that the state of our marine environment has not improved in the last three years. Resilient coasts and oceans are essential to New Zealanders' health and wealth, so urgent action is needed to address the decline. ...
Something’s crowning this Christmas, and it isn’t King Richard of Aldovia in his favourite tiara. Tara Ward looks at what Netflix’s new movie A Christmas Prince: A Royal Baby could mean for us all. Yesterday Netflix announced they’re about to give birth to the third instalment in the legendary series A Christmas ...
In a new initiative, Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence is celebrating and recognising the careers of three Māori leaders and visionaries, who have a long history of bringing about major social change ...
The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) has welcomed the publication by the Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ of Our Marine Environment 2019 , the latest in the reports on the state of our environment. The report is available here . ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Campbell Brown, CEO of PredictHQ.This week we talk to Campbell Brown, the CEO ...
The Government has today released its discussion paper ‘ Designing a Fair Pay Agreements System ’ providing detail of what proposed law for Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs) could include. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Ruppanner, Associate Professor in Sociology and Co-Director of The Policy Lab, University of Melbourne The polls were wrong in the last US and Australian federal elections. Hillary Clinton was favoured to win at a margin of 85% to Donald Trump’s 15%. ...
Today is World Ecolabel Day and to mark the occasion New Zealand’s premier ecolabel has released a study showing the powerful environmental effect of ecolabelled products. ...
Family First's continued fight against attempts by the government's Charities Registration Board to deregister them is set to continue in the Court of Appeal in Wellington next week (Tues & Wed 22-23 Oct). In a significant development, the Charity Law ...
The actions of New Zealanders on land are increasingly harming the ocean’s ability to sustain life. Alex Braae looks at a worrying new government paper on the marine environment.What’s all this then?A new report from the Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ has sounded alarming warning about state of ...
Farmers for Positive Change (F4PC) congratulates environmental, recreation and public health groups for coming to a united position on the Government’s freshwater reform and finds significant areas of agreement with the Healthy Water, Healthy Future joint ...
In time for Auckland Artweek, Eloise Callister-Baker opens the door on a cluster of small Auckland art spaces, once off the beaten track and ephemeral, now finding cunning new ways to adapt and survive in the CBD property market. Auckland’s terrific documentor of art openings, Sait Akkirman of artdiary.co.nz, provides ...
Right to Life asks, why the Special Abortion Legislation Bill Committee is continuing to discriminate by refusing to hear the 2,740 submitters who have requested the right to make a ten minute oral submission on the highly contentious abortion Bill conceived ...
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Government ministers are exulting over how the NZ economy is performing— and their own work in making it stronger. David Clark, standing in for Grant Robertson in Parliament on Tuesday, rejoiced at how solid the “underlying fundamentals of the NZ economy are”. He said the government accounts for the June ...
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Environment, health, recreation, and water infrastructure groups have come together to support four essential policies to save fresh water in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Public Health Association, Forest & Bird, Fish & Game New Zealand, Environmental ...
"So many of our children are being violently harmed. Their innocence stolen and their bodies used for the sexual gratification and financial gain of those involved in the dark world of paedophillia. These innocent children are voiceless; nobody ...
Open mike 24/12/2013 
Jo Swinson is doing even worse at this Being Sensible lark that I'd thought. I've just become aware of the following utterance
Today's IPCA report of police criminality: a police officer unalwfully tasered a fleeing suspect who posed no threat to anyone:The police watchdog has found an officer unlawfully tasered an Auckland man who broke his ankle jumping off a balcony to escape arrest. [...] To avoid arrest, the man jumped over ...20 hours ago
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Merry Christmas to you and yours. I know for many times are tough and I am thinking of you, hoping joy will reach you. I will be blessed with the presence of our adult children and extended family Xmas day and am very conscious of how fortunate we are. This year we gifted to the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal rather than personal gifts and know this will be distributed to some in need. I believe this will remain a future family commitment at Xmas.
Most of all I wish for 2014 to be the turnaround year.
Thank you to all who contribute here. You are very much appreciated.
And to you LynWiper! Good idea re the Sallies Christmas Appeal too 🙂
“Most of all I wish for 2014 to be the turnaround year”.
This is the biggest wish and the biggest hope of all. Imagine, this time next year we could possibly have a shiny new government. Personally, I will be playing my part to make that happen.
be very careful when listening to the weasel-words of peters vis a vis coalition options after the next election..
..peters is now saying that he could ‘never be part of a govt that sold assets’..
..nor one that did not ‘support the rebuilding of the nz infrastructure’..
..so..i read that as..after the next election..should key promise not to sell any more assets in the ’14’-’17 govt..(easy for him to do..there is ‘no more worth selling’..remember..?..)
..and offer (whatever) that peters can point at and shout ‘infrastructure-rebuilding’..
..then winston peters will quite happily slide his shiny-suited arse into a key govt ministerial-limo..
..eh..?
..be in no doubt of that fact/political-reality..
..eh..?
..phillip ure..
The secret deal announced by the government today with the company James Hardie on leaky school buildings smacks of more corporate welfare.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are involved, yet it appears James Hardie will not be pursued. Another shonKey deal carefully announced on Xmas Eve so that it is brushed under the carpet.
Yep, but Leaky Building rehabilitation is providing economic growth…I reckon it is the only National Party initiative (Introducing the Building Act 1991) that is actually providing growth.
James Hardie are past masters at insulating their shareholders from liabilities like this. They were criminal in how they ring faced their Asbestos liabilities.
Letting them off on the schools scandal is an act of criminal negligence or corruption. Labour should be all over this.
Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK47, has died aged 94. He was a remarkably modest guy, who was genuinely saddened by some of the uses the rifle was put to, but he designed a simple, cheap weapon that is still manufactured virtually unchanged from the original plans.
While the project was not completed till after WW2, the Kalashnikov helped liberate millions from the shackles of colonialism in the decades following.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25497013
Meanwhile…
At about 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 1, 2007, pilots wearing night vision goggles unleashed several Enhanced Paveway II smart bombs into his camp in eastern Colombia as officials in both capitals waited. Troops recovered only a leg. It appeared by its dark complexion to belong to Acacio, one of the few black FARC leaders. DNA tests confirmed his death.
[…]
Six weeks later, smart bombs killed Gustavo Rueda Díaz, alias Martin Caballero, leader of the 37th Front, while he was talking on his cellphone. Acacio’s and Caballero’s deaths caused the 16th and 37th fronts to collapse. They also triggered mass desertions, according to a secret State Department cable dated March 6, 2008, and released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks in 2010. This was just the beginning of the FARC’s disintegration.
To hide the use of the PGMs from public discovery, and to ensure maximum damage to a FARC’s leaders’ camp, the air force and U.S. advisers developed new strike tactics. In a typical mission, several A-37 Dragonflys flying at 20,000 feet carried smart bombs. As soon as the planes came within a three-mile “basket” of the target, a bomb’s GPS software would automatically turn on.
The Dragonflys were followed by several A-29 Super Tucanos, flying at a much lower altitude. They would drop a series of dumb bombs in a pattern nearby. Their blast pressure would kill anyone close in and also flatten the dense jungle and obscure the use of the smart bombs.
Then, low-flying, Vietnam-era AC-47 gunships, nicknamed Puff the Magic Dragon, would strafe the area with mounted machine guns, “shooting the wounded trying to go for cover,” according to one of several military officials who described the same scenario.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/12/21/covert-action-in-colombia/?hpid=z8
That really is amazing investigative journalism. You don’t often see that nowadays.
It is also a none-too subtle message that armed rebellion against a government that is allied to a super-power will leave you fucked.
Or stay away from peddling drugs while pretending to be a revolutionary movement.
You believe that cocaine was the deciding factor in this high level of US military involvement?
And not erosion of US power in central America?
If you are serious in your belief that drug money and not political revolution was the aim, why didn’t the FARC just sit back and let the money roll in?
Te Reo Putake
Your one line comment is direct & on target, and taken out Colonial Viper
A sentence always beat an essay.
Its a lesson of Bernay’s treatise entitled Propaganda, yes. Another lesson is that the intellectual class is often more than happy to support war for imperial aims. Notice how the US isn’t smart bombing the leadership of Mexican drug cartels?
Cheers, watching. An intellectual smart bomb?
CV, what I’m saying is that FARC turned to the soft option of the drug trade, which, in turn, allowed the US to further attack them as part of the bogus war on drugs. It was a terrible strategic error on FARC’s behalf.
So you contend that if the FARC had not been linked to the cocaine trade, the US would not be providing precision munitions and intel to the Columbian Govt?
Of course, we both know that is a nonsense, given that the US does not smart bomb Mexican drug cartel leaders.
although I wouldn’t be surprised if the US were giving mexico advisors and tech support, like with pablo escobar.
Yep that would be standard, regular FDA/ATF activity.
The food & drug administration? WTF? Surely you meant DEA?
Anyway, I was thinking more the cloak&dagger crowd as well, as they occasionally do.
lolz thanks, yeah I pulled the wrong alphabet out of the soup 😀
Although I should I add that pharmaceuticals are by a very wide margin the most abused drugs in the USA, not illicit narcotics…
“So you contend that if the FARC had not been linked to the cocaine trade, the US would not be providing precision munitions and intel to the Columbian Govt?”
Nope. I contend that without the drugs, the US would have to make do with ‘unofficial’ support (ie CIA, NSA etc). With drugs in play, the US can come out of the shadows and directly support military action against them as well.
You appear not to understand how the Washington Post works.
The piece was either published with the tacit approval of the US gov in that it supported a desired narrative to be pushed out into the public sphere and hence contained a whole lot of sensitive information but via ‘authorised’ leaks.
Or the piece was published without the approval of the US gov and the journalist and editors have put together a huge and awesome piece of investigative journalism.
These two scenarios mean that your suggested conditionality around drugs allowing “out of the shadows” US direct military action is mistaken.
Again, there plenty of well armed drug cartels operating around Mexico which haven’t been blasted to smithereens by smart munitions, demonstrating that the drugs angle is merely incidental.
Yup, Alvaro Uribe and Juan Manuel Santos really are fighting a war on drugs.
/
The infamous joint US-Colombia drug eradication strategy, Plan Colombia, recently resurrected under Plan Patriota, has been embraced by the Uribe administration and referred to in the DS policy. Although most armed groups now finance their operations through the drug economy, Uribe claims to fight the “war on drugs” and the “war on terror” simultaneously. Curiously, the government “negotiates” with those most directly involved in the drug trade, the AUC, while engaging in an all-out offensive with the minor players: left-wing guerrilla groups.
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/296/1/
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61
The right wing militias that control most of the Colombian cocaine production do not pretend to be a revolutionary movement. They obviously took your advice.
Great piece documenting the Tsarnaev family.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/Page/Boston/2011-2020/WebGraphics/Metro/BostonGlobe.com/2013/12/15tsarnaev/tsarnaev.html
news story:..new pope to visit old pope to exchange xmas-greetings..
..what will they talk about..?
ed:..possible small-talk conversation/question:..
..old pope to new pope:..
“..so..how did the infallablity-transfer go..?
..eveything ok..?
..i do miss it..eh..?..”
..phillip ure..
I see old Bomber has had another brain explosion, he clearly doesn’t like the “PublicAddress gender equal person” if his (now striked out) rant was any guide. Actually as rants go it was quite funny, TBH.
I suppose that is all you can really salvage from the whole sorry carry on.
Oh dear. He doesn’t do much to promote unity and solidarity among the left does he. He has some issues to overcome I feel.
He’s made an apology now. But I agree, he’s pretty quick with the saying nasty shit about people. Quite a significant personal flaw that one.
I think Bomber’s main problem is that he’s more of a performer than a militant. If he calmed down a bit, counted to something like Avogadro’s number, and didn’t insist on having the first word, the last word, and most of those in between, he might achieve a lot more. As it stands, his contributions are not trivial and he deserves to be remembered for more than frothing at the mouth.
Xox
Interesting to see how MSM spin poverty as a worthy opportunity for ‘generosity’ from the haves.
Also how MSM spin rising interest rates as great for savers. And it’s only about 2%. It is really 2 percent on top of approx 5.5 percent, which is really about 36 percent! We don’t want the MSM to scare mortgage payers (or voters) do we?
Merry Christmas, God save the Queen, heaven help her subjects.
a wealthy cousin of mine posted on facebook that to show her children the true meaning of xmas so shes going to give poor people their old toys…but anyway, i’m looking forward to a cpl days off work & spending it with my wife & daughter. ram on!
Oh how easily the right wing slithers into hypocrisy:
“Gold Coaster” Cameron Brewer
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11177254
Then there’s “Prime Mournister” ShonKey Python. “I can’t recall but watch out for the Hone Monster……..”
And yet another……..Rodney “Love Perks” Hide.
The ease is patent but what’s really appalling is that they just don’t see it. “Who me ? No way !”
That’s exceptionalism, hubris, entitlement all wrapped up in one.
We’re supposed to respect these arseholes ???
North
” The ease is patent but what’s really appalling is that they just don’t see it. “Who me ? No way !”
True but the trouble is the NZ averages can’t/don’t see it either. The ‘Keys’ know and exploit that inability. Dunno what we can do about the average kiwi’s poor visual acuity.
I read this pathetic piece of fluff from Paula Bennett:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11176800
Then I saw this on TV1 last night:
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/unprecedented-demand-food-parcels-5785669?autoStart=true
Tears of anger…
From that article:
“Irreverent Cabinet Minister Paula Bennett has produced her own pink wine label on a chardonnay this Christmas called “Sip It Sweetie”.
Some will find their way into Christmas stockings, but most will be auctioned to fundraise for her campaign in Upper Harbour next year.
“A fruity little number, plenty of sass and spirit,” the label says.
“This classy chardonnay will impress at a barbecue, beach picnic or a fancy-pants dinner party. Good drinking now but even better after a third term.”
Suggest “A full-bodied plonk with a tarty after-taste. Won’t age well. Will be off within 12 months.”
How was the cat persuaded to sit on the bottle?
Festive lolz. We needz them.
Took me a few minutes to latch on to that one. lolz. Thanks TM.
“Doesn’t go well with trout.”
Snigger…
Jesu H Christos – now I understand why I can’t listen to Nine-toNoon for any length of time.
The music talking-head critic sage commenting on how we CONSUME music FFS!
OFF!
Yes Radio New Zealand featured a psychologist this a.m. telling people that they wouldnt go mad if it rained on Xmas day.
???????
I was listening to RNZ Concert FM news who quoted Sara Chatwin, “celebrity” psychologist. I’m guessing this is the same one. If so, she always seems to comment on the most on the most inane non issues facing the population.
It is true, just in my observations, that folks do seem to freak and obsess about Christmas day weather, especially the newspapers and TV news, but really, to tell us not to worry about it is another thing altogether. There are far greater issues facing the national psyche than the weather.
I reckon some people would go mad without caffeine, even for a day. As for the weather it is not mid winter.
I’d be one of those people, but funnily enough only on work days. Can go without any caffeine all weekend, but have a grossly unnatural relationship with that first cup of coffee mon-fri…
as for the music on 9-no-one.
its all whining gamines, processed pap and noo noo heads who cant sing.
but the awful thing is that “THEY” think its wunnerful.
yetchhhhhhhh.
Jingle Bells – 1898
[audio src="http://ia700306.us.archive.org/24/items/Voices_of_Christmas_Past_1898_to_1922/03_SleighRidePartyJingleBells_vbr.mp3" /]
@ hook..
aww..!..c’mon..!..that elvis costello + roots song kicked arse/grooved along..
phillip ure..
Where’d your computer come from? Government
Where’d the drugs you use come from? Most likely government.
And this applies to a hell of a lot of innovation over the last few centuries. The lesson we need to learn is that the private sector doesn’t do the innovation as we’ve been told over the last 30 to 40 years. More often than not, the private sector holds innovation back through the use of patents.
And the TPP is a tool of corporates designed to stifle innovation even more. Its a push by rentier corporates back to pre-enlightenment times.
Yep, from what I’ve seen out of the TPP innovation is going to become even more difficult and the patent trolls are going to be even more of a problem.
loved this:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11177254
Brewer denies journalist prompt
The councillor caught out on a junket to the Gold Coast declared the trip to officials – but concedes he may have done so after a call from a journalist.
kind of sums up the whole odd business
Xox
Pity about the falling standards @ RNZ. Lead by Jim, and Kathryn. Hopefully Wallace will do some serious reading and thinking over the Summer break, ready to provide an informed and intelligent program. A worthy successor to Chris.
Indeed!
Just like this morning, the nicest man on Earth is about to get the OFF button. Currently playing – the most self-indulgent load of kaka you could ever hope to imagine. And if anyone ever accuses RNZ of left-wing bias, they only need check out his afternoon’s guests. The occasional leftie (for fairness and balance of course – likw Peter Elliot, maybe even Bernard Hickey) – other than that – what a pack of out-of-touch ‘experts’ ffs/
Mai: what’s the diff between living in wgtn and commuting to auckland, and living in auck and commuting to wgtn?
– Oh (to paraphrase) it’s so difficult getting the kids to school.
– It makes you realise that to win an election, you have to win Auckland.
All very twee.
There goes half RNZ’s budget on cheap Chardonnay – down the gullets of those ‘movers and shakers’ including some Squeaky Fromme TVNZ hasbeen.
Reasons given being just as valid in proposing Auckland be carved off as a separate country, and for all those Auckland expats moving to Queenstown (or Martinborough) to get away from it all (whereupon they attempt to develop, develop, develop and re-create the new wonderland).
I like Jim and Kathryn and I’m leftish thinking. They seem to be reasonably impartial to me. Middle road reasonably intelligent content except for the concessional bigotted comments of Boag or Farrar and I guess we have to put up with the silly empty rhetoric of Hooton as part of being a democracy. Often disappointed with, “i have to agree with Michelle” from Mike Williams who I guess is changing with the need to supplement his corporate retirement.
Generally I think Jim and Kathryn do a good job.
Am I missing something?
The Panel
I enjoy Kathryn Ryan too Rodel and agree she’s fairly impartial. She has regularly pulled up Hooton on his more outrageous claims and on one occasion she shouted him down and almost threatened to pull the plug on him. She also has a good sense of humour and conducts her interviews in a very professional manner. You can’t really expect any more than that…
Indeed she and Mary Wilson on Check Point keep us well served with all the information of the day.
Nah! Mary Wilson scares me!
There was an interesting opinion piece in the Dom/Post this morning by Geoffrey Palmer.
I can’t find it online so I can’t give a link to it unfortunately.
It will, I suspect attract completely opposite views from thos on the right of politics to those on the left.
Those on the right will say, about the first part the GP has finally come to his senses and that in the second part that he has reverted to senility. To the left the first part will be anathema and the second that he is finally back to his sensible self.
The first part argues that referenda endanger our democratic system. He also says that democracies where they are used extensively the results have been disastrous and that the act that allows for CIR should be repealed. Governments are elected to govern. They should decide what to do and to get on with it.
Very sensible of the man say all right thinking people.
The second part, where he relapses into drooling idiocy, calls for extending the OIA, bringing in a written, entrenched constitution, better protection for Maori values and aspirations and more safeguards against government’s abuse of power. “Bah humbug” as Ebenezer Scrooge would say, and as all right thinking people would believe..
I wonder how many people here would agree with everything, or disagree with everything, the Geoffrey says?
The first part argues that referenda endanger our democratic system. He also says that democracies where they are used extensively the results have been disastrous and that the act that allows for CIR should be repealed. Governments are elected to govern. They should decide what to do and to get on with it.
Very sensible of the man say all right thinking people.
I don’t see anything particularly right wing about this view, and nor, frankly, do I see his point. In NZ CIRs are not binding on the government. They are designed to be a means whereby people can determine the view of the electorate. The way politics works, that means they will usually be about expressing a view the government of the day doesn’t like. It is form of, very civil indeed, disobedience.
calls for extending the OIA, bringing in a written, entrenched constitution, better protection for Maori values and aspirations and more safeguards against government’s abuse of power.
I notice mostly that your response only amounts to a ‘humbug’. Understandably I suppose, it’s hard to argue against any of that without looking like a fuckwit.
It worked!
As I expected someone who doesn’t agree with part one, but is thoroughly in favour of part two shows up.
Referenda. “nor do I see his point”, “people can determine the view of the electorate”
Constitution “Hard to argue against any of it”.
Now is there anyone who agrees with BOTH parts of his opinion piece or, alternatively, disagrees with BOTH parts.
About the only sensible thing I can remember about Geoffrey was a proposal to put an expiration date on legislation.
Now that might be a little impractical, but at the very least (as someone else on this site suggested), it should be mandatory for anything passed under urgency.
(Besides – it’d give the delightful Mai Chen a reason to commute to Wellington and pass on her apologies to the all important “The Panel” appearances – she could probably even claim on a taxi to get the kids to and from school).
Geoffrey has a knack of romanticising everything and being a thoroughly ‘well rounded fellow’ amongst those who aspire to be his peers.
Now a far cry from the Mt Vic-living Geo of old who was far more practical and in touch with reality.
Geoffrey former Mt Vic what ? Hope he never engaged the face-first molestation of the steep Hawker Street pavement as has apparently the fulsomely reasonable closet totalitarian Stephen Franks. As mirthfully reported by someone on TS recently.
Akshully I seem to recall that hilarious story was related by you Tim. It was real LOL stuff to a former resident in that very street. Poor Geoffrey. Poor Stephen. Poor Nation.
Further hilarity – Alwyn above talks “bah humbug” as though his know-it-all right wing twittiness doesn’t define it.
Considering the shenanigans with the GCSB in NZ, think about this allegedly “benign” filter instituted by Cameron in the UK that was only supposed to filter porn and in fact, not accidentally, filters a lot more and think what could be planned here in NZ:
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/12/camerons-internet-filter-goes-far-beyond-porn-and-was-always-plan
Cameron’s problem, methinks, is that he’s thinking like an old-school (literally) authoritarian whereas todays digital natives might not have heard the cyberpunk slogan “Information wants to be free” because its thoroughly ingrained in them. A lot of young people at least are going to get and damned well play on the old man’s lawn whether he likes it or not. Especially if not.
What do you mean “planned”? It’s already in operation but it’s voluntary for the ISPs to use.
Softening up
Indeed; always smiling, always waving and hoping to be always welcomed.
http://roflposters.com/fascism-you-really-think-itll-be-this-obvious-205633/
The masses always cry out for their own enslavement
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-QaBhnnSS9N8/TYRqMBmIh0I/AAAAAAAAAF8/ai57zTwFXK8/s1600/austrians.gif
The new Tsarists.
http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/22/geeks-for-monarchy/
The Harper fix.
EDMONTON – More than 75 environment officers who watched over oil industry activities left the provincial environment department this fall, to take higher paying jobs with the new industry-funded Alberta Energy Regulator. Another 75-plus are expected to leave in the spring.
In mid-November, the department also began handing over to the regulator thousands of files on oil industry activity pertaining to the Public Lands Act, according to documents obtained by the Journal.
This shift in staffing and the moving of years of files out of a government department to the new arm’s length regulator are key steps in the government’s plan, announced last spring, to create a more streamlined approval process for oil companies that wanted “one window” to get permits for new projects.
Previously, companies had to apply to the environment department for some permits and to the old regulator, the now defunct Energy Resources Conservation Board.
To achieve the “one window,” the provincial government handed over to the privately funded regulator responsibility for administering the Water Act, Public Lands Act, and the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act (dealing with spills) as they pertain to energy companies.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/energy-resources/More+than+Alberta+environmental+regulators/9318036/story.html?__lsa=d2c2-8c00
It seems that the Harper government wants to relive the Dark Ages, beginning with a real life reenactment of the burning of the library at Alexandria:
http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/12/23/Canadian-Science-Libraries/
Christmas would hardly be Christmas without this song:
To ALL Standardistas, friends and foes, have a happy holiday season, a Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and the best of wishes for the new year 2014, which will be highly important “DECISION YEAR” for all of us.
It was an at times stressful and difficult year that comes to an end, and the fight for social justice, and for common sense, sustainable, smart, constructive, fair and inclusive policies, will continue in 2014.
For those that suffer illness and disabilities, bear in mind, that WINZ will start a new regime in February 2014, which will include medical and work capability assessments – similar to the ones done by ATOS in the UK, for those sick and disabled on benefits. They will be using OUTSOURCED CONTRACTORS!
Remember this:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/278489/tests-disabled-flawed-model
And this:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9356043/Contractors-to-assess-sick-and-disabled-for-work
Extract from that last story at ‘stuff’:
“Private contractors will be paid $650 an assessment to get thousands of New Zealand’s sick and disabled ready to return to work.”
“From February, Work and Income will pay private “medical assessors” to scrutinise sickness and disability beneficiaries who it believes can work.”
“The medical assessors will be paid $650 per assessment, which are expected to take about three hours, and are prompted to recommend lifestyle changes to help the beneficiary get a job, such as a “positive approach to life” and more time at the gym.”
“It is expected eventually 3000 disabled people a year will have to visit an assessor, who will judge their fitness for work and report back to Work and Income.
The scheme, revealed in a tender proposal, is part of the biggest welfare shake-up in decades, with the Government aiming to have 28,000 to 44,000 people off benefits by 2017, saving up to $1.6 billion.”
Also remember this, from the NZ Herald, 18 Nov. 2013:
“Winz apologises to sick woman placed on wrong benefit”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11158863
So if some had horrific experiences with WINZ’s “designated doctors” (some are true “hatchet doctors”), get ready for the next level of harassment!
Study up the ample information offered in the following publications, to get informed what is going on, and what it is all about. Do NOT forget, the new year will bring more challenges, and the enemy NEVER sleeps (Bennett and her nasty WINZ and MSD underlings):
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15463-designated-doctors-%e2%80%93-used-by-work-and-income-some-also-used-by-acc/
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15264-welfare-reform-the-health-and-disability-panel-msd-the-truth-behind-the-agenda/
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15188-medical-and-work-capability-assessments-based-on-the-bps-model-aimed-at-disentiteling-affected-from-welfare-benefits-and-acc-compo/
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/13301-what-to-do-if-you-are-required-to-see-a-winz-designated-doctor/
Feel free to copy and paste, and use the links at convenient times. Enjoy your holidays or breaks for time being, and get ready for the firestorm on the welfare and national policy front in the coming years. Every voice and body will be needed, it all leading up to the most important election in recent New Zealand history!
This is one more issue that Labour needs to take a firm position on. It seems Jacinda and whoever took her place have taken Benefat’s recommendation to heart and zipped it.
Murray –
It is “Sip It Sweetie” now:
“Bennett: Sip It Sweetie and help my re-election campaign”
That is as much as the MSM and “DA Herald” has to say to it:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11176800
I am lost for words, but who out there gives a crap, I ask?
HISTORIC:
The Scorpions, so thoughtful:
Illapu – alleged Marxists, coming home after exile, who relates to that here?
Also: Tnagata Whenua do not forget your brothers and sisters in Chile, they are called Mapuche, they have lived there for centuries, but have had their lands and rights taken away, like your people. Some take a stand at least: