Maritime Union of New Zealand National President Garry Parsloe says not only is the “fact sheet” misleading, but it is a symptom of a deeply politicized management who need to be brought under control by the ports shareholders.
The Maritime Union leader also criticised the line being pushed by the right that this dispute was about pay rates. This deliberate misrepresentation is also being repeated by some left apologists as an excuse to oppose giving support to the wharfies.
Mr Parsloe says the Ernst and Young produced fact sheet repeats the misinformation propagated by POAL management.
He says it avoids the fundamental issues in this dispute which are about security of employment and privatisation, not pay rates.
As long as the left keep repeating the right wing lies as a justification for not supporting the struggle against contracting out.
And refuse to gather around the wharfies….
Then a management victory is inevitable.
And for the first time in over 100 years the Auckland wharves will be non-union.
Where the fekk are Shearer and Brown????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Mr Brown said he expected the stoush between Ports of Auckland and the union to be resolved soon.
“I would encourage them to do everything they can as loyal Aucklanders to resolve this issue without any further unnecessary time wasting,” he said.
Mr Brown – a member of the Labour Party who received a $2000 donation from the Maritime Union towards his 2010 election campaign – yesterday said the board and management of the 100 per cent council-owned port company had his full confidence but he refused to express confidence in the union, which he was not responsible for.
Mayor Brown could end this dispute right now. If the Mayor came out publicly and demanded that the Ports of Auckland management reverse their decision to out source the union jobs.
Dispute over.
Of course this may be a bit of a problem for Mayor Brown, as like other Labour Party members the Mayor can’t even acknowledge what the dispute is about.
Cheap oil and credit made it advantageous to beat up on unions because workers could get debt easy and managers could force down wages while activity was high in the economy, people would take longer to pay off mortgages on high priced homes. So it made it easy to crush the working stiffs. No longer, cheap oil and cheap credit are over, managers who blame their workers to crush another round of corporate bonuses are bad for businesses and investors. As Auckland council are now finding. Investment payoffs are not going to come from the old economy (unless there is a oil energy saving), the money is in investing in the energy sector.
” This deliberate misrepresentation is also being repeated by some left apologists as an excuse to oppose giving support to the wharfies.”
Or not, as the case may be, Jenny. Isn’t it ironic that you would would use a press release issued to disprove deliberate misrepresentation to make some deliberate misrepresentation of your own?
If MUNZ want Labour and the Greens to declare their hands, then I will support my party getting on board. But I don’t think that will happen, because it is not in the immediate interests of MUNZ members for that to happen as its an industrial dispute at this point, not a political one. Yet.
This dispute is about a business trying to cuts its wage bill so that it can undercut a competitor.
And that’s why, for now, Labour and the Greens are smart to stay out of this, and why the union wants them to stay out. The parties wouldn’t do any favours to the workers if they turned what is essentially a story of a greedy company and workers just wanting to keep what they’ve got into a national political issue.
Can you show me where I opposed support for the wharfies? Or eddie did? No, I guess you can’t. This is MUNZ’s dispute not yours and at this point they don’t want any political support and they are even turning down offers of donations. What part of this do you not understand?
This is MUNZ’s dispute not yours and at this point they don’t want any political support and they are even turning down offers of donations. What part of this do you not understand?
I understand this very well.
As you have pointed out this MUNZ’s decision.
Faced with contracting out all their jobs, MUNZ are on the horns of a dilemma and have only two choices.
1 Accept outsourcing of their jobs and the end of a union presence on the Auckland Waterfront.
or,
2 Refuse to accept contracting out and mount a fighting campaign.
The fact that MUNZ have chosen to make this an international issue is evidence that MUNZ want to make a fight of it.
But international support alone will not win this dispute.
No matter how sharp their international support is, it is like having only one half of a pair of scissors.
That they have not chosen to make this a national issue as well, is out of place especially if they intend to win.
What could be the reason for this?
As Colonial Viper points out;
demands like this aren’t usually issued between erstwhile allies unless an affirmative response has been coordinated and guaranteed, as rejection or even delay in repsonse will appear politically damaging. Certainly, the left could put on a very strong show if it did co-ordinate and act in concert. The protests around the 90 day right to fire show the possibilities of what could be done.
Colonial Viper 21 January 2012 at 11:56 am
The fact that Gary Parsloe feels the need to go public to counter the argument that “this is not political issue”, Is a sign that the behind the scenes efforts by MUNZ to gain national support from the Labour Party and their affiliated unions is failing.
In a previous thread I questioned you as “a Labour Party supporter and a union official, both. Will you be calling on your members to support the wharfies, or not?”
Which you ignored.
So I will ask you again.
As a Labour Party supporter and a union official, both. Will you be calling on your members to support the wharfies, or not?
I didn’t ignore the question, I told you to piss off. And this is madness:
“The fact that Gary Parsloe feels the need to go public to counter the argument that “this is not political issue”, Is a sign that the behind the scenes efforts by MUNZ to gain national support from the Labour Party and their affiliated unions is failing.”
Can you show me where I opposed support for the wharfies? Or eddie did? No, I guess you can’t.
The Voice of Reason
This dispute is about a business trying to cuts its wage bill so that it can undercut a competitor.
And that’s why, for now, Labour and the Greens are smart to stay out of this,….
…….And, frankly, do you back Labour’s PR team to do more good than harm to the wharfies’ cause? I don’t. For the same reason, the Occupy movement should stay clear of the wharfs for now.
Jonathan Coleman, Dotcom’s Party, National Party and loads of Money
So far John Banks has conceded that he accepted hospitality from Dotcom and endorsed Dotcom’s largess to local causes. He is paddling furiously to distance himself from the possibility that Dotcom donated to his Election Campaign fund..
Jonathan Coleman is notorious for his poor decisions on accepting hospitality. Let us see how well he handled himself with Dotcom. If Dotcom had invited Banks over for a party, it is likely he would have invited the party loving nearby MP and immigration minister over too!
Today’s Herald:
“Prime Minister John Key said Dr Coleman was informed because of Immigration’s “no surprises” policy, but his approval was neither sought nor given. “The decision was made by the officials. The minister knew about the circumstances but was not required to make the decision … He was simply made aware of it.”. If Dr Coleman had disapproved, however, it is highly unlikely the residency would have been been granted.”
As opposed to the Hollywood studios busines model which is to use the coercive force of Government and law enforcement to raise their own margins while stomping on the rights of everyone else to create, store and use their own data including data and backups of that data they have already paid for legitimately.
Why is the government picking a fight with its farmer supporters? For years now at meetings with Fonterra, farmers have been trying to reduce the amount of milk that has to be sold to Fonterra’s competitors, especially those competitors who sell on the international market. Selling to local speciality cheese makers who sell on the local market is not a problem, and it is these that the legislation was set up to protect. It is the overseas owned (who owned by is not specified) who receive subsided milk from Fonterra and then go head to head with Fonterra in its markets. I believe one of these companies is Russian and another American, and no doubt the Chinese have interests somewhere. This is called overseas investment, but this type of overseas investment is not needed as it takes straight from New Zealand farmers’ pockets. Has the TPP got anything to do with it, perhaps it is not only Pharmac that is threatened by the TPP? No doubt in any free trade agreement Fonterra could be forced to sell as much raw milk as these companies wants. Any person living in a provincial town in New Zealand knows how much their economy depends on the income of the local farmers, and if this forced sale goes ahead no doubt some of the city types who dislike farming will find out where their support comes from.
“Fonterra chairman Sir Henry van der Heyden said he could “live with” commission involvement and it was valid for Fonterra to assist domestic market suppliers with milk, but to require Fonterra to supply largely foreign-owned New Zealand-based exporters which competed against it overseas “defied logic”.
Key is playing a game here to respond to NZ consumer concerns about high dairy prices (although that is secondary), while backing foreign nations that we trade with (Fran O’Sullivan’s latest piece on why Key will sell Crafar Farms to the Chinese provides an instructive background).
One scenario: by generating local industry outrage he will “prove” to foreign trade partners that he is stirring the pot on their behalf; however by the time the proposals come to be finalised, they will be watered right back down from the 5% mark back towards today’s 3% mark.
Any person living in a provincial town in New Zealand knows how much their economy depends on the income of the local farmers…
Considering reality (Peak Oil, pollution from the farms, drying up of the rivers from Climate Change) they better start diversifying their income streams as a lot of farms are going to away. We will have no choice but to close them.
They’ll be nationalised as the country will still need the food output despite the financial economics no longer stacking up. And farms are going to become much more labour intensive, once again.
Yeah – actually, this could be a positive outcome of oil shocks/ climate change. Less intensive farming, land use more suited to the area, and better quality waterways because of it.
Yeah, the way I see it is that 50%+ of farms will be closed down and the rest used solely for feeding NZ. Those farms that are closed should be replanted with native forest which will help clean up the land, help maintain the soil and allow hunting to become normative again (in about 5 centuries).
That would be ACT policy in the making again. Their erstwhile leader is on the board of one of those “competitors”, who have to be sold cheaper milk so they can make more profits overseas.
Capitalists in general and not just overseas competitors have always preferred to be monopolies as it allows them to rort far more from the populace as the populace are dependent upon the monopoly. National and Act always go on about people being dependent upon government and yet they enact policies which makes people dependent upon the capitalists. The latter, of course, is far worse as a government is accountable to the populace while the capitalists are answerable to no one and so it is under capitalism that the Road to Serfdom is built.
Thank you Christchurch.
Just received my house (Auckland) insurance bill. Increase of just under 50% on last year. Still to come will be contents which may also rise.
Yeah, sorry about that. You should see our contents premium now. It is seriously worth considering self-insurance – especially when one don’t have much stuff.
Bloody earthquakes.
Back from a break which cleared the head and the stress and within couple days the brokenness and shaking bring it all back again.
And the city is emptier now than I have ever seen.
We here all trying to stay positive but it no easy.
I was there last week….a few minor shakes but enough to be disconcerting. What I did notice was the activity compared to Wellington etc, Canterbury appears to be buoyant (by comparison) with here. Must be the influx of cash to fix the place and the work now it is ramping up. My question is what happens after that?
As per usual at this time of year I have been reading history….the parallels and rhymes are just too good. Could not help but notice that the banksters and their political institutions rather resemble the medieval Papacy…..default is the highest of all sins, you get excommunicated.
The bail outs appear to be rather similar, whole nations have their collective rights to pass into the Kingdom of Heaven held in the hands of the IMF, the theocratic economists curia who deliver edicts for compliance that resemble Papal bulls and interdicts. Salvation will be delivered through austerity, the people will pay for their material consumerism, the Inquisition will deny you further credit and demand torturous repayment schedules.
A little peep inside St Peters at the time is very revealing: the wealth of the medieval world extracted to the greater glory of the Papacy, benefices distributed to their insiders, enormous sums of cash gathered for the few from the masses. Pope Bernanke? The money market the Dominicans? Tetzel a Wall St bankster selling indulgences in the form of toxic debt derivatives?
Nothing new in human nature, Luther and the reformation is the next chapter…..
Just been reading about the Romans in Britannica, Bored and the anti-Robin Hood was at work there too. And through-out history the same.
I wonder what the takers actually believe about their wealth? Let’s ask John Key?
Bloody interesting question: what do the takers actually believe about their wealth?
If we rejected a currency as legitimate we would by corollary be rejecting the authority of that currency and the institutions that support it. Maybe wealth takers are not interested in the dollars or what that can buy for the individual but are interested in the power vested in our agreement with the currency.
I have a feeling that power and wealth aggregation get out of whack with social arrangements, for example when money was reintroduced into the feudal world the danger the lord was supposed to protect you from did not disappear. The church, the lords and finally the royal houses went to a cash economy, on the ground social contract for protection from other lords etc failed yet the power positions still demanded their part of the social contract.
We are currently well out of whack, the democratic state that we developed to protect the citizen from abuse of socio political power by institutions such as corporations, or wealthy interest groups is failing. Interesting times. John Key straddles both camps but only operates for one….
Pity. For all his waffle about a new local inclusive approach to politics, this seems like something he could get involved with.
The Dunedin council under an act of parliament are forced to give the same or greater sum of money to the museum every year and have no transparency or oversight into how it is spent.
A board member from the museum was on the radio this morning saying it was fair, for example the head of Te Papa might have a managerial staff of 20 under him that he overloads work to, while the head of Otago only has 3 or 4 and has to do a lot of work themselves.
But in response to that, I’d suggest that being the head of Otago museum can’t possibly be more difficult, stressful or have more responsibility than being a cabinet minister and yet he gets paid more. It also doesn’t strike me as a position that requires a particularly specific skillset; I’d be surprised if you couldn’t find someone else who could do a comparable job for $150k/year.
Had an interesting chat in the doctor’s waiting room today. Guy pointed out that of course Meridian was going to cancel the windfarm if it was up for the chopping block. Who needs all that construction debt on the books bringing the price down?
Another tactic will probably be low or no spending in traditional areas to bolster the bottom line/dividend/sale price leaving the impacts to be picked up post float via higher power prices as inevtitable you have to catch up.
Comment deleted. I was commenting on climate funding in an article about climate funding.
[lprent: It is a post about funding of climate change denier groups. But you just wasted my time answering a question with something you are quite aware of. Banned 2 weeks for doing so. Moving comments to OpenMike.
If I understand the problem here from other threads, the new version is missing some files, and the current developer doesn’t seem to care. Or at least isn’t paying attention. 🙁
Selling off NZ farms (and anything else) to foreigners is a sure way of exporting profits. And sovereignty. Ah but business is “international” and if you have a home in Hawaii and shares on Wall St…well you are “international”. So fuck NZ and its residents (sorry peasants).
If an overseas investor purchases a farm or dairy-processing company; exports the products back to their home country; with the label “Masde In New Zealand” – what happens if a melamine-type of food tampering occurs?
I can imagine, for example, milk powder being mixed with another substance, to “bulk” out the product. (Just as heroin dealers ‘cut’ their product with all sorts of crap, to maximise profits.)
When this happens (not “if”) – then our international reputation will take a major hit. And watch the politicians run and duck for cover.
We aren’t just selling our farms and profits – we’re selling our reputation.
Fonterra is a worker collective yet its farmers and their workers vote overwhelming for National. So the real joke is who is selling off what? It was Fonterra Farmers that voted for the back door for China to buy their farms by allowing any with a farm to buy Fonterra shares. aka why china wants Carfer. And now that looks to have failed, what is National and the farmer lobby doing now??? Well they are going to take more of Fonterra milk (via big government intervention and hand it over subsidies by farmers to foriegned owned exporters). WTF! So why again do farmers buy National’s crap? Simple because they do what they are told. Well Winston saw the gap, even the jounralists missed, and went around farmers plying for their vote. And he’s only going to take more of Nationals vote come the next election if National keep attacking their base. No farmer wants their natural local tourist attrcation turned into a mine and their land poisoned. Yet National goes and does this anyway!!!
Fonterra is NOT a worker collective. It is a SUPPLY COMPANY collective. Neither dairy farm workers nor dairy factory workers have any ownership share in Fonterra.
Rural Tories have always seen the value of collective organisations – for themselves.
Yes you are correct, but the farm workers invarible rise to become the new tory farm overlords, either by inheriting or by saving, borrowing and buying. I mean where did all these farmers get the money to run up all the farm debt we have in NZ, farm property bubble. So yes, its not every joe is in the collective but is a damn sight like the workers owning the company.
Except we can’t stop anyone putting made in New Zealand on anything already.
I saw a newspaper article awhile ago about some people who made pens or some crap like that in Korea I think it was who called them made in New Zealand and their logo was basically the same as our branding.
Basically the gist of it was we could sue them and make it stop but it would only stop that one specific product in that one country and it wasn’t worth the money.
aero you might as well know that nashnil is the gubmint of the short term.
they need the money so they can go to london and play wealthy pastoralists from downunder or some other myth that they have constructed for themselves.
they are worse than robber barons because they haven’t got a f*cking clue what they are doing and nor do they care.
all they want is the cash.
NOW!
Once in while, a local body government will take the time to look properly at the evidence available and put people and the environments wellbeing ahead of financial gain. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, we should congratulate those who have pulled their heads out of the sand.
The latest interesting radio doco on Radionz is about the wealth gap between them and us. Tonight it was how ordinary people in London can’t afford to live there. Their wages haven’t gone up but house prices have – a 2 bedroom flat would cost half a million pounds. The average house price is sixteen times the average wage. A well paid teacher would have to have a 20% deposit of 100,000 pounds with 400,000 pounds on mortgage which she wouldn’t get because banks wouldn’t lend her more than four times her annual wage which as a teacher is one and a third of the average wage of 26,000 pounds. Property prices are rising, so rentals are rising to unaffordable levels too.
The program started off with an interview with the owner of a new shop on Regent Street which is selling two centimetre Faberge eggs with little jewels inside at stupendous prices which are expected to be snapped up. It is a hundred years since the last time such a shop selling these jewel eggs was in London. The point is that in Britain the economic climate has returned to that of pre-WW1. So all those millions of people who died for freedom etc etc which was justified by the fact that life got better for all, have not achieved lasting peace and prosperity. How bloody sad.
We have to find ways of managing past this rapacious management and house speculating class as we have been trumped while taking it easy, thinking that good conditions were set in concrete. Now making changes require conflict of some kind although it may be a rearguard action.
It’s going to be an interesting race around the farmers isn’t it.
Will Big Biz NACT manage to sell sufficent farms to change the power dynamics inside Fonterra towards Corporate farming and keep their donations safe?
Or will local farmers who have a local farmer NACT MP under their control suggest these farmer NACT MP’s form a group within the party to threaten the overseas corporate type NACT’s control of the party?
Personally my money is on the local farmers but they will need to get out of the blocks quickly.
The government is poised to announce a plan to restore the Bay of Plenty coastline to the condition it was in before the Rena disaster. Meanwhile their idea of a cleanup response for areas that aren’t important to tourism is to drop off a couple of rubbish skips and let the locals fend for themselves…
Despite new laws meant to toughen up dog control, that’s an increase of 35% since 2003 for people getting treatment for dog attacks. So why the huge increase in the amount of dog attacks and subsequent injuries?
Yes Jackal this is an important issue and needs a cool head doing something intelligent. Though
the old leftie idea that good wages, housing etc will prevent most bad events is wishful thinking. It is in people’s minds that bad things are fostered and fester. It is the letting things happen because – ‘I can’t manage to do something to change things’ that keeps the cycle of sh…t happening. A beneficiary’s dog bit two little dogs to death when they were in an exercise park recently. The pound contained it for weeks. There were pleas and letters to the paper about how sweet the dog was, how broken-hearted the owner would be if it was destroyed etc. Gagging stuff. No understanding of the irresponsibility of the owner, or the distress of the dead dogs and their owners. Also the fact that there would be cost involved in buying dogs of breeding, not just the result of random pairing that somebody had been happy to pass along.
An example I have are two women dog owners whose dogs chase my cat. I will have to suggest to them that when they come off their property they already have a leash on their dog to stop them rushing across the path, something that they should be able to think for themselves. Instead they mutter sorry and rush to catch its collar, and tell me that’s what dogs do, (ie I just have to put up with it because they are helpless against nature). One said ‘It’s a game really’ only my cat isn’t sure about that. A lead does the job and turns a careless stupid dog owner into an intelligent, responsible one that has control over their pet.
Obedience training should be mandatory for all dog owners who register, with a large discount in the year they attend and present a completed certificate to the Council. I believe in money as a strong incentive, particularly with those that haven/t got sufficient. And because that lack doesn’t stop them getting a sweet, itty-bitty puppy that grows up into a large bunch of muscle that’s energetic and a handful if it has little training.
I’m not aware of any evidence that dogs of breeding have better temperaments. I agree that it is mainly dog owners that are responsible, however there is also the factor that some dog breeds are more dangerous than others. Some dogs are bred because they are vicious… and restrictions on such animals should be enforced properly.
A person who cannot feed their dog because of a government decision should not be blamed when their dog goes roaming to find food. The alternative to that is to tie the dog up and let it starve. That is what some government decisions have caused… the repercussions of which we see in climbing dog attack statistics.
I don’t think it’s helpful that you’ve labelled it wishful thinking that people want an end to poverty which leads to more dog abuse and attacks. It should not be wishful thinking that people have enough money to look after their animals and be able to afford the training you talk about.
why do Police have such a hard time catching drug dealers? I mean dealers have to advertize themselves, their buyers need to find them, the transactions need to take place away from either the dealers or the buyers assets (since they can be seized). if they use unwitting landlords hotel rooms or flats to cook P, could they also be using their neighbors house when the neighbors are out to sell drugs from??? But wouldn’t Police know this, is that what the new power to place surveilance on private property is all about, to get track dealers down????
But wouldn’t Police know this, is that what the new power to place surveilance on private property is all about, to get track dealers down????
Apparently not, it seems that the new powers are to be used to help wealthy Hollywood studios bolster their profit margins by tracking down suspected internet pirates.
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Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...
2024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?When I say 2024 I really mean the state of humanity in 2024.Saturday night, we watched Civil War because that is one terrifying cliff we've ...
Buzz from the Beehive A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements. The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets. It will be introducing pet bonds in a change to the Residential Tenancies Act ...
A recent report generated from a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey of 1,224 rangatahi Māori aged 11-12 found: Cultural connectedness was associated with fewer depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and better quality of life. That sounds cut and dry. But further into the report the following appears: Cultural connectedness is ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: From the gory details of job-cuts news, you’d think the public service was being eviscerated. While the media’s view of the cuts is incomplete, it’s also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington ...
Remember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iran’s drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...
Costello did not pass on analysis of the benefits of the smokefree reforms to Cabinet, emphasising instead the extra tax revenues of repealing them. Photo: Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images TL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me at 7:26 am today are:The Lead: Casey Costello never passed on ...
True loveYou're the one I'm dreaming ofYour heart fits me like a gloveAnd I'm gonna be true blueBaby, I love youI’ve written about the job cuts in our news media last week. The impact on individuals, and the loss to Aotearoa of voices covering our news from different angles.That by ...
While commentators, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, are noting a subtle shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy, which now places more emphasis on the United States, many have missed a key element of the shift. What National said before the election is not what the government is doing now. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
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Maritime Union National President Gary Parsloe argues that his union’s dispute with POAL is political.
http://www.munz.org.nz/2012/01/24/ports-of-auckland-management-fact-sheet-short-on-facts/
The Maritime Union leader also criticised the line being pushed by the right that this dispute was about pay rates. This deliberate misrepresentation is also being repeated by some left apologists as an excuse to oppose giving support to the wharfies.
Mr Parsloe says the Ernst and Young produced fact sheet repeats the misinformation propagated by POAL management.
He says it avoids the fundamental issues in this dispute which are about security of employment and privatisation, not pay rates.
As long as the left keep repeating the right wing lies as a justification for not supporting the struggle against contracting out.
And refuse to gather around the wharfies….
Then a management victory is inevitable.
And for the first time in over 100 years the Auckland wharves will be non-union.
The large accounting firms serve their paying corporate clients well, don’t they.
Where the fekk are Shearer and Brown????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Well here is Mayor Brown:
Mayor gives striking port union the message
Mayor Brown could end this dispute right now. If the Mayor came out publicly and demanded that the Ports of Auckland management reverse their decision to out source the union jobs.
Dispute over.
Of course this may be a bit of a problem for Mayor Brown, as like other Labour Party members the Mayor can’t even acknowledge what the dispute is about.
Cheap oil and credit made it advantageous to beat up on unions because workers could get debt easy and managers could force down wages while activity was high in the economy, people would take longer to pay off mortgages on high priced homes. So it made it easy to crush the working stiffs. No longer, cheap oil and cheap credit are over, managers who blame their workers to crush another round of corporate bonuses are bad for businesses and investors. As Auckland council are now finding. Investment payoffs are not going to come from the old economy (unless there is a oil energy saving), the money is in investing in the energy sector.
” This deliberate misrepresentation is also being repeated by some left apologists as an excuse to oppose giving support to the wharfies.”
Or not, as the case may be, Jenny. Isn’t it ironic that you would would use a press release issued to disprove deliberate misrepresentation to make some deliberate misrepresentation of your own?
Can you show me where I opposed support for the wharfies? Or eddie did? No, I guess you can’t. This is MUNZ’s dispute not yours and at this point they don’t want any political support and they are even turning down offers of donations. What part of this do you not understand?
I understand this very well.
As you have pointed out this MUNZ’s decision.
Faced with contracting out all their jobs, MUNZ are on the horns of a dilemma and have only two choices.
1 Accept outsourcing of their jobs and the end of a union presence on the Auckland Waterfront.
or,
2 Refuse to accept contracting out and mount a fighting campaign.
The fact that MUNZ have chosen to make this an international issue is evidence that MUNZ want to make a fight of it.
http://thestandard.org.nz/ports-of-auckland-vs-400000-wharfies/
But international support alone will not win this dispute.
No matter how sharp their international support is, it is like having only one half of a pair of scissors.
That they have not chosen to make this a national issue as well, is out of place especially if they intend to win.
What could be the reason for this?
As Colonial Viper points out;
The fact that Gary Parsloe feels the need to go public to counter the argument that “this is not political issue”, Is a sign that the behind the scenes efforts by MUNZ to gain national support from the Labour Party and their affiliated unions is failing.
In a previous thread I questioned you as “a Labour Party supporter and a union official, both. Will you be calling on your members to support the wharfies, or not?”
Which you ignored.
So I will ask you again.
As a Labour Party supporter and a union official, both. Will you be calling on your members to support the wharfies, or not?
Very tenacious Jenny.
I didn’t ignore the question, I told you to piss off. And this is madness:
“The fact that Gary Parsloe feels the need to go public to counter the argument that “this is not political issue”, Is a sign that the behind the scenes efforts by MUNZ to gain national support from the Labour Party and their affiliated unions is failing.”
You make shit up, Jenny. Badly.
I hope to be proved wrong.
I would be the first to celebrate.
PoAL’s decision to share information (Ernst & Young audits) with David Farrar and Cactus Kate ratchets this dispute up another notch.
I think whether Shearer and Brown like it or not – they will have to become involved, eventually.
Tony Gibson appears to be totally out of control… http://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/propaganda-as-an-industrial-dispute-weapon/
Jonathan Coleman, Dotcom’s Party, National Party and loads of Money
So far John Banks has conceded that he accepted hospitality from Dotcom and endorsed Dotcom’s largess to local causes. He is paddling furiously to distance himself from the possibility that Dotcom donated to his Election Campaign fund..
Jonathan Coleman is notorious for his poor decisions on accepting hospitality. Let us see how well he handled himself with Dotcom. If Dotcom had invited Banks over for a party, it is likely he would have invited the party loving nearby MP and immigration minister over too!
Today’s Herald:
“Prime Minister John Key said Dr Coleman was informed because of Immigration’s “no surprises” policy, but his approval was neither sought nor given. “The decision was made by the officials. The minister knew about the circumstances but was not required to make the decision … He was simply made aware of it.”. If Dr Coleman had disapproved, however, it is highly unlikely the residency would have been been granted.”
Aye ALP I would love to see National’s list of donors.
Coleman’s “indifference” was a tacit nudge nudge wink wink to the Immigration Department.
the press reports that megasnarfload made $500,000,000 last year.
thats a lot of little brown paper baggies filled with spare cash.
And just think, all those media companies could be making those sorts of revenues if they changed their business models too…
As opposed to the Hollywood studios busines model which is to use the coercive force of Government and law enforcement to raise their own margins while stomping on the rights of everyone else to create, store and use their own data including data and backups of that data they have already paid for legitimately.
Why is the government picking a fight with its farmer supporters? For years now at meetings with Fonterra, farmers have been trying to reduce the amount of milk that has to be sold to Fonterra’s competitors, especially those competitors who sell on the international market. Selling to local speciality cheese makers who sell on the local market is not a problem, and it is these that the legislation was set up to protect. It is the overseas owned (who owned by is not specified) who receive subsided milk from Fonterra and then go head to head with Fonterra in its markets. I believe one of these companies is Russian and another American, and no doubt the Chinese have interests somewhere. This is called overseas investment, but this type of overseas investment is not needed as it takes straight from New Zealand farmers’ pockets. Has the TPP got anything to do with it, perhaps it is not only Pharmac that is threatened by the TPP? No doubt in any free trade agreement Fonterra could be forced to sell as much raw milk as these companies wants. Any person living in a provincial town in New Zealand knows how much their economy depends on the income of the local farmers, and if this forced sale goes ahead no doubt some of the city types who dislike farming will find out where their support comes from.
“Fonterra chairman Sir Henry van der Heyden said he could “live with” commission involvement and it was valid for Fonterra to assist domestic market suppliers with milk, but to require Fonterra to supply largely foreign-owned New Zealand-based exporters which competed against it overseas “defied logic”.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/6308146/Milk-price-scrutiny-supply-proposals-anger-farmers
Key is playing a game here to respond to NZ consumer concerns about high dairy prices (although that is secondary), while backing foreign nations that we trade with (Fran O’Sullivan’s latest piece on why Key will sell Crafar Farms to the Chinese provides an instructive background).
One scenario: by generating local industry outrage he will “prove” to foreign trade partners that he is stirring the pot on their behalf; however by the time the proposals come to be finalised, they will be watered right back down from the 5% mark back towards today’s 3% mark.
Considering reality (Peak Oil, pollution from the farms, drying up of the rivers from Climate Change) they better start diversifying their income streams as a lot of farms are going to away. We will have no choice but to close them.
They’ll be nationalised as the country will still need the food output despite the financial economics no longer stacking up. And farms are going to become much more labour intensive, once again.
Yeah – actually, this could be a positive outcome of oil shocks/ climate change. Less intensive farming, land use more suited to the area, and better quality waterways because of it.
Pity about the food prices, though.
Yeah, the way I see it is that 50%+ of farms will be closed down and the rest used solely for feeding NZ. Those farms that are closed should be replanted with native forest which will help clean up the land, help maintain the soil and allow hunting to become normative again (in about 5 centuries).
That would be ACT policy in the making again. Their erstwhile leader is on the board of one of those “competitors”, who have to be sold cheaper milk so they can make more profits overseas.
For once I am with the cockies.
Fonterra, along with POT and POAL, is now the latest to be sacrificed on the alter of the “competition” god.
Which of Key’s Mum and Dad mates will have shares in new dairy companies?
There is a reason why our overseas competitors prefer to be monopolies.
Capitalists in general and not just overseas competitors have always preferred to be monopolies as it allows them to rort far more from the populace as the populace are dependent upon the monopoly. National and Act always go on about people being dependent upon government and yet they enact policies which makes people dependent upon the capitalists. The latter, of course, is far worse as a government is accountable to the populace while the capitalists are answerable to no one and so it is under capitalism that the Road to Serfdom is built.
When are we all going to realise that NACT is only out to get the best results for their offshore puppet masters.
Thank you Christchurch.
Just received my house (Auckland) insurance bill. Increase of just under 50% on last year. Still to come will be contents which may also rise.
Yeah, sorry about that. You should see our contents premium now. It is seriously worth considering self-insurance – especially when one don’t have much stuff.
Bloody earthquakes.
Back from a break which cleared the head and the stress and within couple days the brokenness and shaking bring it all back again.
And the city is emptier now than I have ever seen.
We here all trying to stay positive but it no easy.
Over on this side, nothing’s really changed. I guess it’s a bit busier.
Yes Lanthanide, it is definitely a city of two halves…
At least out east the sewers are repaired meaning the sea is clean again.
I was there last week….a few minor shakes but enough to be disconcerting. What I did notice was the activity compared to Wellington etc, Canterbury appears to be buoyant (by comparison) with here. Must be the influx of cash to fix the place and the work now it is ramping up. My question is what happens after that?
Rural commodity prices are good, while in Welly people are losing their jobs and public sector contracts are not being renewed.
As per usual at this time of year I have been reading history….the parallels and rhymes are just too good. Could not help but notice that the banksters and their political institutions rather resemble the medieval Papacy…..default is the highest of all sins, you get excommunicated.
The bail outs appear to be rather similar, whole nations have their collective rights to pass into the Kingdom of Heaven held in the hands of the IMF, the theocratic economists curia who deliver edicts for compliance that resemble Papal bulls and interdicts. Salvation will be delivered through austerity, the people will pay for their material consumerism, the Inquisition will deny you further credit and demand torturous repayment schedules.
A little peep inside St Peters at the time is very revealing: the wealth of the medieval world extracted to the greater glory of the Papacy, benefices distributed to their insiders, enormous sums of cash gathered for the few from the masses. Pope Bernanke? The money market the Dominicans? Tetzel a Wall St bankster selling indulgences in the form of toxic debt derivatives?
Nothing new in human nature, Luther and the reformation is the next chapter…..
Just been reading about the Romans in Britannica, Bored and the anti-Robin Hood was at work there too. And through-out history the same.
I wonder what the takers actually believe about their wealth? Let’s ask John Key?
Bloody interesting question: what do the takers actually believe about their wealth?
If we rejected a currency as legitimate we would by corollary be rejecting the authority of that currency and the institutions that support it. Maybe wealth takers are not interested in the dollars or what that can buy for the individual but are interested in the power vested in our agreement with the currency.
I have a feeling that power and wealth aggregation get out of whack with social arrangements, for example when money was reintroduced into the feudal world the danger the lord was supposed to protect you from did not disappear. The church, the lords and finally the royal houses went to a cash economy, on the ground social contract for protection from other lords etc failed yet the power positions still demanded their part of the social contract.
We are currently well out of whack, the democratic state that we developed to protect the citizen from abuse of socio political power by institutions such as corporations, or wealthy interest groups is failing. Interesting times. John Key straddles both camps but only operates for one….
Snippet on money creation and alternatives from Ted
http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/2011/11/jem-bendell-reveals-money-myth-ted-talk/
Good talk. Clearly explains the problems with today’s delusional monetary system and puts forwards some ideas on how to correct.
Pete George, what do you think about the head of Otago Museum being paid a $310,000 salary per year?
Note that this is more than cabinet ministers, the head of Te Pap and the mayor of Auckland.
He’s still on holiday for another few days.
Pity. For all his waffle about a new local inclusive approach to politics, this seems like something he could get involved with.
The Dunedin council under an act of parliament are forced to give the same or greater sum of money to the museum every year and have no transparency or oversight into how it is spent.
A board member from the museum was on the radio this morning saying it was fair, for example the head of Te Papa might have a managerial staff of 20 under him that he overloads work to, while the head of Otago only has 3 or 4 and has to do a lot of work themselves.
But in response to that, I’d suggest that being the head of Otago museum can’t possibly be more difficult, stressful or have more responsibility than being a cabinet minister and yet he gets paid more. It also doesn’t strike me as a position that requires a particularly specific skillset; I’d be surprised if you couldn’t find someone else who could do a comparable job for $150k/year.
That’s pretty much true of all CEOs.
$310K? Sounds like a total and complete rort of ratepayers.
How much does the Dunedin Mayor earn?
Just over $100k in remuneration – this would not include other benefits he receives but doubt he would receive that much in other benefits
I guess I underestimated how lucrative (and unaccountable) running a small museum can be.
still on holiday for another few days
Could it be extended?
WTF, $310K???? Are you sure?
and all the paintings he can steal too.
Had an interesting chat in the doctor’s waiting room today. Guy pointed out that of course Meridian was going to cancel the windfarm if it was up for the chopping block. Who needs all that construction debt on the books bringing the price down?
Another tactic will probably be low or no spending in traditional areas to bolster the bottom line/dividend/sale price leaving the impacts to be picked up post float via higher power prices as inevtitable you have to catch up.
[deleted]
[lprent: stay on topic. If you want to divert, then write your own comment in OpenMike.
Originally in http://thestandard.org.nz/funding-the-puppets-of-denial/ ]
Comment deleted. I was commenting on climate funding in an article about climate funding.
[lprent: It is a post about funding of climate change denier groups. But you just wasted my time answering a question with something you are quite aware of. Banned 2 weeks for doing so. Moving comments to OpenMike.
Originally in http://thestandard.org.nz/funding-the-puppets-of-denial/ ]
You might as well ban be permanently
Cunt
[lprent: Granted.
Originally in http://thestandard.org.nz/funding-the-puppets-of-denial/
Took me some time to get the move tool back again.. ]
Saved & bookmarked.
Thanks, Lynn.
Looks like the re-edit disappeared in a recent update
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wp-ajax-edit-comments-version-505-edit-function-broken
I’m pulling the previous code out of backups.
Ok. seems ok here. Let me know if anyone has further problems.
Your tweak might have fixed the edit/delete countdown clock for Chrome users as well 🙂
And meanwhile, the stench of something unpleasant is emanating from the Ninth Floor. Connect the dots… http://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/farms-politicians-and-emails/
Selling off NZ farms (and anything else) to foreigners is a sure way of exporting profits. And sovereignty. Ah but business is “international” and if you have a home in Hawaii and shares on Wall St…well you are “international”. So fuck NZ and its residents (sorry peasants).
Indeed, Bored.
And there’s another factor I hadn’t considered, which Fran O’Sullivan raised in her piece on the Herald; http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10767987
If an overseas investor purchases a farm or dairy-processing company; exports the products back to their home country; with the label “Masde In New Zealand” – what happens if a melamine-type of food tampering occurs?
I can imagine, for example, milk powder being mixed with another substance, to “bulk” out the product. (Just as heroin dealers ‘cut’ their product with all sorts of crap, to maximise profits.)
When this happens (not “if”) – then our international reputation will take a major hit. And watch the politicians run and duck for cover.
We aren’t just selling our farms and profits – we’re selling our reputation.
All it really comes down to is that the government is selling our livelihood. There is no gain for selling off NZ assets to foreign owners.
Fonterra is a worker collective yet its farmers and their workers vote overwhelming for National. So the real joke is who is selling off what? It was Fonterra Farmers that voted for the back door for China to buy their farms by allowing any with a farm to buy Fonterra shares. aka why china wants Carfer. And now that looks to have failed, what is National and the farmer lobby doing now??? Well they are going to take more of Fonterra milk (via big government intervention and hand it over subsidies by farmers to foriegned owned exporters). WTF! So why again do farmers buy National’s crap? Simple because they do what they are told. Well Winston saw the gap, even the jounralists missed, and went around farmers plying for their vote. And he’s only going to take more of Nationals vote come the next election if National keep attacking their base. No farmer wants their natural local tourist attrcation turned into a mine and their land poisoned. Yet National goes and does this anyway!!!
Fonterra is NOT a worker collective. It is a SUPPLY COMPANY collective. Neither dairy farm workers nor dairy factory workers have any ownership share in Fonterra.
Rural Tories have always seen the value of collective organisations – for themselves.
Yes you are correct, but the farm workers invarible rise to become the new tory farm overlords, either by inheriting or by saving, borrowing and buying. I mean where did all these farmers get the money to run up all the farm debt we have in NZ, farm property bubble. So yes, its not every joe is in the collective but is a damn sight like the workers owning the company.
You’re referring to ages gone by where you could work as a farm hand or sharemilker and one day afford your own farm.
Thanks to the property bubble its extremely hard to do that now – that upward mobility has been reduced to a greater extent.
You have to recognise that it might look like a workers co-op but its not. Its a farm owners co-op.
Except we can’t stop anyone putting made in New Zealand on anything already.
I saw a newspaper article awhile ago about some people who made pens or some crap like that in Korea I think it was who called them made in New Zealand and their logo was basically the same as our branding.
Basically the gist of it was we could sue them and make it stop but it would only stop that one specific product in that one country and it wasn’t worth the money.
After attending the Leave the Coal in the Hole Summer festival in Mataura recently, I am ever hopeful that science and truth will eventually overcome the blinkered greed displayed by Solid Energy and the National Government.
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.com/2012/01/transparency-and-truth-will-win-lignite.html
[lprent: off topic – moved to open mike. ]
aero you might as well know that nashnil is the gubmint of the short term.
they need the money so they can go to london and play wealthy pastoralists from downunder or some other myth that they have constructed for themselves.
they are worse than robber barons because they haven’t got a f*cking clue what they are doing and nor do they care.
all they want is the cash.
NOW!
Bob Parker – Hero of the Week
Once in while, a local body government will take the time to look properly at the evidence available and put people and the environments wellbeing ahead of financial gain. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, we should congratulate those who have pulled their heads out of the sand.
The latest interesting radio doco on Radionz is about the wealth gap between them and us. Tonight it was how ordinary people in London can’t afford to live there. Their wages haven’t gone up but house prices have – a 2 bedroom flat would cost half a million pounds. The average house price is sixteen times the average wage. A well paid teacher would have to have a 20% deposit of 100,000 pounds with 400,000 pounds on mortgage which she wouldn’t get because banks wouldn’t lend her more than four times her annual wage which as a teacher is one and a third of the average wage of 26,000 pounds. Property prices are rising, so rentals are rising to unaffordable levels too.
The program started off with an interview with the owner of a new shop on Regent Street which is selling two centimetre Faberge eggs with little jewels inside at stupendous prices which are expected to be snapped up. It is a hundred years since the last time such a shop selling these jewel eggs was in London. The point is that in Britain the economic climate has returned to that of pre-WW1. So all those millions of people who died for freedom etc etc which was justified by the fact that life got better for all, have not achieved lasting peace and prosperity. How bloody sad.
We have to find ways of managing past this rapacious management and house speculating class as we have been trumped while taking it easy, thinking that good conditions were set in concrete. Now making changes require conflict of some kind although it may be a rearguard action.
Go long guillotine manufacturers. That’s where it’s going to end up, once again.
It’s going to be an interesting race around the farmers isn’t it.
Will Big Biz NACT manage to sell sufficent farms to change the power dynamics inside Fonterra towards Corporate farming and keep their donations safe?
Or will local farmers who have a local farmer NACT MP under their control suggest these farmer NACT MP’s form a group within the party to threaten the overseas corporate type NACT’s control of the party?
Personally my money is on the local farmers but they will need to get out of the blocks quickly.
? I seem to be getting a blacked out page on todays open mic… so will comment here.
Questions about Rena need answers
The government is poised to announce a plan to restore the Bay of Plenty coastline to the condition it was in before the Rena disaster. Meanwhile their idea of a cleanup response for areas that aren’t important to tourism is to drop off a couple of rubbish skips and let the locals fend for themselves…
Nick Smith posturing on dogs
Despite new laws meant to toughen up dog control, that’s an increase of 35% since 2003 for people getting treatment for dog attacks. So why the huge increase in the amount of dog attacks and subsequent injuries?
Yes Jackal this is an important issue and needs a cool head doing something intelligent. Though
the old leftie idea that good wages, housing etc will prevent most bad events is wishful thinking. It is in people’s minds that bad things are fostered and fester. It is the letting things happen because – ‘I can’t manage to do something to change things’ that keeps the cycle of sh…t happening. A beneficiary’s dog bit two little dogs to death when they were in an exercise park recently. The pound contained it for weeks. There were pleas and letters to the paper about how sweet the dog was, how broken-hearted the owner would be if it was destroyed etc. Gagging stuff. No understanding of the irresponsibility of the owner, or the distress of the dead dogs and their owners. Also the fact that there would be cost involved in buying dogs of breeding, not just the result of random pairing that somebody had been happy to pass along.
An example I have are two women dog owners whose dogs chase my cat. I will have to suggest to them that when they come off their property they already have a leash on their dog to stop them rushing across the path, something that they should be able to think for themselves. Instead they mutter sorry and rush to catch its collar, and tell me that’s what dogs do, (ie I just have to put up with it because they are helpless against nature). One said ‘It’s a game really’ only my cat isn’t sure about that. A lead does the job and turns a careless stupid dog owner into an intelligent, responsible one that has control over their pet.
Obedience training should be mandatory for all dog owners who register, with a large discount in the year they attend and present a completed certificate to the Council. I believe in money as a strong incentive, particularly with those that haven/t got sufficient. And because that lack doesn’t stop them getting a sweet, itty-bitty puppy that grows up into a large bunch of muscle that’s energetic and a handful if it has little training.
I’m not aware of any evidence that dogs of breeding have better temperaments. I agree that it is mainly dog owners that are responsible, however there is also the factor that some dog breeds are more dangerous than others. Some dogs are bred because they are vicious… and restrictions on such animals should be enforced properly.
A person who cannot feed their dog because of a government decision should not be blamed when their dog goes roaming to find food. The alternative to that is to tie the dog up and let it starve. That is what some government decisions have caused… the repercussions of which we see in climbing dog attack statistics.
I don’t think it’s helpful that you’ve labelled it wishful thinking that people want an end to poverty which leads to more dog abuse and attacks. It should not be wishful thinking that people have enough money to look after their animals and be able to afford the training you talk about.
Teapot tape released
Please seed it: http://tinyurl.com/goldenturkey
why do Police have such a hard time catching drug dealers? I mean dealers have to advertize themselves, their buyers need to find them, the transactions need to take place away from either the dealers or the buyers assets (since they can be seized). if they use unwitting landlords hotel rooms or flats to cook P, could they also be using their neighbors house when the neighbors are out to sell drugs from??? But wouldn’t Police know this, is that what the new power to place surveilance on private property is all about, to get track dealers down????
Apparently not, it seems that the new powers are to be used to help wealthy Hollywood studios bolster their profit margins by tracking down suspected internet pirates.