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6:00 am, February 25th, 2016 - 111 comments
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The power of money in New Zealand.
‘Housing vote could have serious consequences, council warned.
The leadership of the Auckland Council has suffered an unprecedented defeat that could leave the council unrepresented at crucial hearings on the future shape of housing in the city.
A 13-8 vote at the end of a five-hour extraordinary council meeting last night dumped some of the changed proposals for increased housing density the council would have taken to an independent panel weighing up the city’s Unitary Plan.
Opponents of the changes said property owners should have been consulted, but the council argued the government-designed Unitary Plan process did not allow it.
The vote was a victory for a campaign run under the Auckland 2040 banner whose founders addressed a protest meeting of 700 in Kohimarama two weeks ago.
“I think it was a question of grass-roots democracy in action,” said Auckland 2040 co-founder Richard Burton who watched the vote at the end of the meeting.
“We got a result and praise to the councillors for doing it, they see the need to consult with the public and that’s what they are now going to do.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/297368/council-dumps-housing-density-changes
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201790677/auckland-mayor-says-density-vote-a-significant-defeat
Public Address has some comment, they expect government to do what happened with Ecan.
Can somebody, preferably someone in Auckland who understands what is going on please explain what is different between what people in the suburbs like Epsom seem to want and what was desired by that guy Jonno Smith and the protesters who didn’t want some trees cut down in order to build on land in West Auckland?
Both groups seem to want open space and low density housing with other people having to leave their land little used so that they can look at the trees.
Why is one group “good” and the other lot, doing the same thing “bad”?
Oh the irony!
“House Speaker Paul Ryan Demands TPP Be Renegotiated; Neglects To Mention It Was His Bill That Makes That Impossible”
link
Which raises an interesting point: is the TPPA being rammed through NZ’s parliament the same document which will have to be modified to pass Congress and Senate?
And if it isn’t, does this little country get the chance to renegotiate, or will we blindly just accept what the US tells us to do?
Sorry, forgot to hit the reply button to 2 above.
I am sick to death of this trade (for diplomatic/friendship/posing/whateva) in animals as some sort of prestigious gift. Sri Lanka Prime Minister Maithripala Sirisena STOP giving baby elephants away so you can look good. nz pm key STOP accepting them so you can be a big man overseas.
“A gift of a Sri Lankan baby elephant to Prime Minister John Key on Wednesday was intended to be a gesture of diplomatic warmth, but it has left animal rights activists outraged.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/77250960/sri-lankas-gift-of-baby-elephant-to-john-key-outrages-animal-rights-activists
and I know among the big, bigger and biggest outrages happening daily this is not in any of those categories but for me it is symbolic of our twisted consumerist relationship with nature and animals.
+100
+100.
I’m sure that Key is pleased with the idea of a baby elephant to go along with his fluffy panda.
Perhaps the deprivation he suffered as a child (which was not housing or low beneficiary payments) was that of a lack of soft toys.
I suppose we could paint ‘debt’ on one side of it and ‘Christchurch’ on the other, and let it sit in on cabinet meetings – but being ignored would make it feel bad.
Or Key could begin to redeem his reputation in Christchurch by using it to replace Gerry Brownlee – it would be smarter, more charismatic, harder working, and approximately the same weight.
And maybe we should crowdfund a Sumatran rat monkey for Seymour so he doesn’t feel left out.
Yes, it really would be the elephant in the room.
Sri Lanka is just another one of those countries who have committed human rights atrocities, but it seems NZ and Aus simply don’t care.
I guess you might prefer we bundled the animal up and sent it off to Zimbabwe as a gift to that hero of the left, Robert Mugabe.
I’m sure he would find a use for it.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/16/robert-mugabe-birthday-party-elephant-meat-lion-zimbabwe-91
pathetic comment from you alwyn as usual – trying to start a flamewar with a provocative statement – you bore
Yes dear.
So so boring
Alwyn, Have you not heard? the heffalump is for Gerry Brownlee
John thought it would make a nice pet for him once he is off the
ChCh recovery programme.
Chomsky on history repeating itself, cause people are not learning or something like that. 🙂
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/02/chomsky-trumps-rise-fueled-by-same-societal-breakdown-that-birthed-hitler/
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2015/12/the-left-is-to-blame-for-the-creation-of-donald-trump/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/why-trump-may-be-winning-the-war-on-political-correctness/2016/01/04/098cf832-afda-11e5-b711-1998289ffcea_story.html
Food for thought maybe?
Yeah, someone spent the better part of the last decade throwing raw meat to the Republican base with wall to wall coverage of the gay Kenyan born married to a drag queen Koranic verse inscripted ring wearing sekrit Muslim President whose real dad was actually Malcolm X who also happens to be a Muslim brotherhood sleeper agent and the anti-Christ readying mass Muslin cloth immigation, death panels and FEMA camps as we speak.
But who fucking knew it was the left what made them all into tea-bagging there ain’t never going to be no niclang president in mah lifetime neo-Confederate low intelligence racist misogynist god-addled flag wrapped Trumpette arseholes with a bibly in one hand and a bushmaster in the other.
bushmaster, ack ack ack
we did and still do have better beer in Germany tho. those fucking leftwing arseholes in Germany around 1369 decided to regulate how beer could be a. brewed, b. what ingredients had to be used, c. how to measure it, and d. how much to charge it. I mean, capitalism and profit are not made with regulation, what the fuck were they thinking.
In the US and certain other parts of the English speaking world one gets glorified piss, lukewarm with no foam.
Trying to work out what you are saying in your comment.
So tell me sabine is the homebrew that you have obviously consumed this afternoon German quality beer or similar to the English glorified piss you speak of so knowledgeably?
Glenn Beck –
Just left the caucus site.
Some of the nastiest people I have ever been with. (Trump supporters). We have their hate and rage on tape. Others around them were embarrassed for them. It was scary and sad.
[…]
I believe Trump, whether he knows it or not, is grooming brown shirts.
Don’t believe me, go to a caucus.
“how much to charge it”. Really? You mean that beer in Germany hasn’t changed in price for 650 years?
God, don’t let the Dunedin students know? Pissed out of your mind for a week for a total price of 4 cents. They’d all be off.
in the dark ages it was healthier and more nutritional to drink beer. It was consumed instead of water and considered a bit of a good thing. One phrase that old people in Germany like to say is :The little bit i eat i can drink.
So eventually lot’s of ‘homebrewers’ flooded what was then the market, and a lot of ‘piss’ was sold, for a high price, using all sorts of ingredients and people complained mightily.
Eventual the powers that were the powers at the time decided that in order to prevent beer riots they would better regulate.
So they stipulated what could be used as ingredients, how much a serving should measure and who much could be charged with. Funnily enough even water is regulated within this law.
it is one of Germanys oldest law, and it is still applied today, and beer can not be named beer if it is not brewed according to the law.
Bushmaster and many other beers coming from various places and produced with a high yield and a low cost in Germany can not be sold as ‘beer’, and will not be considered beer but ‘piss’ ‘punch’ or ‘soup’. Funnily enough, Beer is one of the big drawing cards in Germany, the Beerfests bring a lot of money, and a lot of beer is exported.
I have gotten the year wrong tho the law started much earlier.
“The earliest documented mention of beer by a German nobleman is the granting of a brewing licence by Emperor Otto II to the church at Liege (now Belgium), awarded in 974.[12] A variety of other beer regulations also existed in Germany during the late Middle Ages, including in Nuremberg in 1293, Erfurt in 1351, and Weisensee in 1434.[13][14]”
so my rambling about beer, regulations, capitalism etc was just an answer to Joe90’s ramblings about cheepshots in US holding a crappy beer in one hand and a bible in the other. Also too, they must have been lefties in Germany at the time, cause only lefties would argue for laws that regulate a product and protect the consumer from rip off.
as you were
Ah, this bushmaster..
damn mate, don’t play with that while drinking this http://www.busch.com/
Ooops:) and i am not even indulging. Damn.
Explained at last!
I once had an eight bottle lunch with a Russian oligarch English student, and among the problems of the world we tried to resolve was how the US, with its plethora of German, English, Dutch and Irish immigrants, and its vast and fertile grain growing plains produced a frankly miserable weasel piss like Budweiser.
He was from Primorye, and quite interested in the prospects for microbreweries. Very hard water in Primorye though.
@joe90
Your description of this reminds me rather sadly of the fact that imbeciles in this country have been saying equally wild things about John Key.
I guess we should not be surprised if we get somewhat deranged people who think it is right to attack him and his Government members at public functions.
If they do he could just pull their hair. He’s got form for that.
you mean this John Key?
Equally wild things, of course they do.
/
http://cultureunseen.com/post/77868988729/tea-party-tea-party-comix-they-dont-care-about
Thanks Obama.
John Key’s electorate office in Huapai is displaying the proposed new flag in the window. The existing flag is not displayed. Given that each electorate office is funded by Parliamentary Services I find this offensive. The electorate office is funded by the tax payer for the tax payer and I would have thought displaying a preference for this flag is attempting to influence the up coming vote.
Would a person be justified in complaining to Parliamentary Services about this? If so how does one register a complaint with them?
This is starting to look like John Key marching on Moscow.
can’t have ‘free’ energy, that would be against the principle of profit and capitalism.
and making rules to better your country, that too is against the principle of profit and capitalism.
http://in.reuters.com/article/us-india-usa-solar-idINKCN0VX1Y5
If India don’t want to abide by the rules of the WTO, nobody is forcing them to stay a member. They could just ignore the treaties they signed.
The Standard is very slow to load today. 83 seconds to refresh. Anyone else? All other sites as normal.
Edit: 48 seconds that time.
Yes I am using firefox, and it is the same for me.
Use Firefox but no better with Safari.
Yes. Taking an age to upload – up to several minutes for me – Google chrome.
While I have the opportunity:
“Pablo” has written a very good summary of the US elections on Kiwipolitico. Here is an early taste:
Will attempt to link but if can’t get back here just google Kiwipolitico.
I’ll poke my nose in to possibly save LP having to. I know he’s trying to solve the blank page issue that some people are having. Some changes were made overnight for that, possibly they’re also causing slow loading, although an external site also seems to be very slow to respond. Patience is a virtue 🙂
I guess others have seen the Open Mike date is wrong, its not 25/01/2016, maybe that’s effecting things.
Some pretty great stuff happened in the past month, maybe we should do it again 🙂
(very slow loading for me too).
Woodhouse displays his party’s commitment to democratic process (i e; none):
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/374331/labour-ticket-council
As for the larger story of possible Labour-endorsed candidates, I’d be interested in what was happening in other council elections – if anyone has any news?
Hawkins (the GP endorsed Dunedin councillor) has said that it is a bit of a double-edged sword. Yes; you get the backing of the party in getting elected, but the local government regulations treat any cause in which you have been publicly participated as a conflict of interest. So you may actually achieve more to further a party’s goals by not being associated with them. This may be why so many council candidates seem so boring and uncommitted, that they are keeping their voting options open (though this seems a poor lookout for local democracy).
BTW does anyone know anything about Damian Newell? More FM DJ (which I don’t listen to), real estate (which seems a big red flag with the council’s privitisable property), and possible Labour council candidate.
Brian Rudman makes the case Why focus on other cultures and not our own?
Labour is making a big mistake by refusing to confront John Key on the Chinafacation of NZ.
Kiwis do not want their native traditional culture subjugated by a foreign culture, an event driven by excessive immigration as encouraged by a National Party desperate to maintain the illusion of prosperity and the myth of its own “good economic management”.
Winston Peters isn’t doing the job. There are a swag of votes waiting out there for anyone who has the guts to speak out for the NZ people against the destruction of their native culture and its eventual subjugation to an imported culture.
National should at least be called on their arrogance and duplicity in driving this change merely for the sake of their own desperate need for political power.
Brian Rudman has the guts to write about it. To speak out. Where’s the Labour Party? Or are National and Labour really just the same political group who disagree over who sits at the leadership table?
Whats the big deal? The history of the world is filled with examples of countries being taken over and having foreign cultures imposed on them
I’m predominately anglo-scots with some french thrown in for good measure and all those countries improved due to being exposed to other cultures
NZ, as another example, is much better for having british culture forced on it, theres quite a lot to admire about how the Chinese have gone about doing things, for the most part they’re very good about assimilating
Or is this another bout of Asian bashing?
“NZ, as another example, is much better for having british culture forced on it”
that is your privileged opinion and not shared by others. This is the south sea islands and having repressed colonial attitudes imposed has not made us ‘better’. We will never know what we could have been but it is arrogance to assume it would have been worse if the brutish culture wasn’t forced on the people and land.
I base it on the brits doing a better job then the french at colonising but my main point was we’re all colonised at some point so why worry if its the Chinese since they’ve been here since the 1860s
I don’t disagree that picking on one ethnicity is not the way to go. Nevertheless the colonisation process is brutal and devastating and also worse for the indigenous cultures being taken over. Saying we are better off is sort of insulting, but I’m letting it go 🙂
Fair enough, I guess I’m more looking at the after effects of the colonisation as opposed to what happens during the occupation, kind of like the effect the Roman invasion had on Britain
The after effects are brutal too, in NZ and in Roman and post-Roman Britain.
Of course there is but on the whole colonisation was good for Britain
Says who?
“the after effects of the colonisation”:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/25/indigenous-australians-and-canadians-destroyed-by-same-colonialism
It was a pretty unfortunate choice of phrase by PR 🙁 either he has no idea or he doesn’t care and it’s OK to sacrifice whole cultures to the empire.
As you say the Poms have a better record than the French – if we look at things like infant mortality and education systems.
But tell us, PR, if you know, how good are the Chinese as colonisers? or the Americans? Do you consider Tibet an encouraging example, or the Philipines?
“I’m predominately anglo-scots with some french thrown in for good measure”
Bloody hell, so am I.* You sure you’re not me ?
* 60% English / 30% Scots / 10% French
Not unless you’re forebears happened to come from Cornwall…
About a third of the 60% English forebears did – Tin/Copper Miners in villages in the triangle between Truro / Redruth / Falmouth 16-19c.
I’m beginning to seriously suspect you are me – or, at least, some sort of Tory alter ego or doppelganger.
Reminds me of Bart’s Evil Twin that lived in the attic in one of the Halloween Episodes of The Simpsons
Lol
Having just spent three days at the Lantern Festival in Auckland (and I loved every moment of it) the one thing that really stood out was the diversity of cultures involved. Whilst the majority of stall holders were Asian, most of those directing traffic and keeping an eye on the running of the event were from one or other of the Pacific Islands. I believe the event co-ordinator is Samoan. The people most noticeably absent amongst the workers were the pakeha kiwis.
I spoke to visitors from Germany, Canada, England, the Netherlands, Australia, Tonga, Samoa and the US as well as from China, Korea, Laos and Vietnam. All were very enthusiastic about the event. Several suggested that it should last a week rather than three days (obviously they weren’t on a stall and nearly dead on their feet at the end of three days) and others thought it should go from midday to midnight each of the three days.
On Waitangi Day I spent the day with Scottish and German friends on the local marae where they held an international kai day. One area was specifically celebrating Chinese New Year. So we had Germans, Americans and Chinese learning the haka right beside Kiwi Chinese performing the dragon dance. It was a wonderful day and certainly showed that there is room here in NZ for us all.
Nice one prickles 🙂
I guess your job is to start up a war of words by being overtly racist, and for that reason usually best to avoid, especially with a name like yours, but your words are too provocative to ignore – and usually I do a good job of ignoring your type, so well done you.
Couple of things.
1)You sound very “concerned” that Labour is ignoring the subject of immigration. Maybe you should take it up with them yourself – they do have form in this area you know, or did you forget about Phil Twyford and his “Chinese sounding names” gig? Or take it up with the National Front, which you may already be a member of.
2)The Brian Rudman article was downright plain offensive. Rather than being given exclusive column inches to display his prejudice he sounds like he would be better off dwelling in this cess pit of ignorance. Please see the comments section on this article about Syrian refugee’s arriving in Wellington as an example.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/77170400/windy-wellington-ready-to-welcome-its-new-syrian-refugees
3)”Kiwis do not want their native traditional culture subjugated by a foreign culture…….” I’m confused. Are you talking about indigenous Maori culture when you refer to “native traditional”? I think it’s a bit late for that, it already happened. Maori were colonised.
Or are you talking about something else altogether? Perhaps you are thinking about NZ’s Pakeha culture? If so, are you feeling threatened? And speak for yourself, not for “Kiwi’s”
Bedwetter is a scared old fool yelling at the Tauranga clouds. Best not take the chap too seriously.
Lols. I usually ignore his/ her kind, and his/her comments here. He/she sounded so determined to start a fight but I see he/she has buggered off now, maybe hanging out at Phil Rudd’s place, or busy on the stormfront website, who knows.
Tauranga Eh? God, I lived in that conservative backwards hell hole for several years. Just look at their history of voting over the decades if you need to get a picture of the place. Simon Bridges twice in a row now………………Ugh.
“confront John Key on the Chinafacation of NZ”
good god its the yellow peril , their all smoking opium and they have come for our virtuous white women
The 50s called, they would like their attitudes back please…
Chinafication of NZ?
Historically Chinese have done nothing else apart from work hard and do well in NZ.
Think of all the market gardens/small businesses etc. owned by Chinese folk.
I don’t mind where Immigrants come from as a long as they are law abiding and are happy to live alongside kiwis.
I don’t know what you have against the Chinese Redbaiter but I think you are barking up the wrong tree.
The Republicans are angry and are justifiably so. President Obama has replaced some White House curtains with “muslim’ ones. Hell!
A just released study in Nature shows that the Earth is now warming at a rate 50 times faster than in any previous climate change event. The sea level rise over the past century is 10 times faster than for any century over the past 2 millenia. We are already locked in to an eventual 1.7m of sea level rise and if we continue with BAU it could end up as a whopping 50 m. Even if we manage to restrain our emissions to the 1 trillion tonne Carbon Budget to keep temp rise to below 2 Degrees, sea level is predicted to rise to 9 m. Meaning 20% of the current Earth populations will have to move including NY, London, and even Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and much of Dunedin.
But don’t worry folks Paula, John, and co will tinker with the ETS to ensure you don’t have to pay too much (if anything). Pity about your grandkids though.
An ETS ain’t going to solve sweet FA, and it never was going to.
I was being sarcastic CV
That link is the kicker though. Basically we have locked in at least 1.7 m rise and if we are successful and keep within the carbon budget we are looking at an eventual 9m rise.
The Earth is now heating up 50 times faster than it has ever done in the past. and sea level is rising faster than ever before as well. Most living things will not be able to adapt fast enough.
Basically we are stuffed.
A few of us worked that out awhile ago.
Thing is, we’re not stuffed because we can’t do anything but because a few people won’t let us do anything.
QFT
In particular around 62 people in the US Congress who continuously stymie any action on CC. and the similar percentage in the Senate.
These people are in the pockets of the US corporates who bought them their position. They can vote no other way.
Sorry Macro, was clearly being slow on the uptake
This.
The point of the governments continued objection to paying carers (they keep losing in court) is probably a delaying tactic – so they can avoid placing the cost in their budget forecasts – so they can put in tax cuts before they go/or promise tax cuts in 2017.
It will be interesting to see what they really believe the cost would be. This should already be a known – as a contingency – given they have already lost in court a number of times.
The underlying problem is that they believe disabled people are a waste of oxygen, even though they would never admit it in public. Scum.
Not just people with disabilities either. They treat elderly people the same.
Large overlap, similar needs and services.
But the over 50s crowd don’t tend to vote Labour or Greens.
Can’t trust Labour on Super for starters. And only Winston takes the concerns of the elderly seriously enough to meet with them up and down the country.
This will be fun.
.
In court filings last Friday, lawyers for both sides in a long-running civil lawsuit over the now defunct Trump University named Trump on their witness lists. That makes it all but certain that the reality-show star and international businessman will be forced to be grilled under oath over allegations in the lawsuit that he engaged in deceptive trade practices and scammed thousands of students who enrolled in his “university” courses in response to promises he would make them rich in the real estate market.
[…]
The core case revolves around the operations of a school Trump launched in 2005 with a promotional You Tube video, as well as ads that proclaimed, “I can turn anyone into a successful real estate investor, including you,” “Are YOU My Next Apprentice?” and “Learn from my handpicked experts how you can profit from the largest real estate liquidation in history.” The plaintiffs, former students at Trump University, allege they were misled into maxing out their credit cards and paying up to $60,000 in fees for seminars in hotel ballrooms and “mentoring” by Trump’s “hand-picked” real estate experts. The lawsuit against the school, which is no longer in business, alleges the seminars turned into little more than an “infomercial” and the Trump mentors offered “no practical advice” and “mostly disappeared.” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a separate suit in 2013 alleging fraud on the part of the “university,” which was never an accredited institution and awarded no degrees.
https://www.yahoo.com/politics/with-gop-nomination-looming-trump-slated-to-take-191550876.html
Lusk and Williams’ role models.
In a statement released today to Media Matters, a CNN spokesperson said of Stone: “He will no longer appear on CNN.”
Stone is a notorious “dirty trickster” who recently co-authored The Clintons’ War on Women. The 2015 book is dedicated to — and cites research from — a Holocaust denier who blames a “Jewish plot” for the 9/11 attacks. Stone’s history includes forming an anti-Hillary Clinton group named “C.U.N.T.” during the 2008 election
Stone worked for Trump’s presidential campaign last year and is now organizing against Clinton’s campaign again. He is a frequent presence in the media because of his long ties to Trump; their friendship and professional relationship goes back decades
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/02/23/cnn-trump-supporter-roger-stone-will-no-longer/208751
But back home, Mr. Roe’s allies and opponents alike have seen a familiar imprint in the Cruz campaign’s recent exploits, which have included a Photoshopped image of Mr. Rubio and the misleading suggestion, on the night of the Iowa caucuses, that Ben Carson was leaving the race.
There was the time, in 2006, when Mr. Roe ran an ad flashing “XXX” to highlight a 63-year-old, wheelchair-using congressional candidate’s former employer’s association with Penthouse magazine. Mr. Roe’s candidate won.
Long before Mr. Cruz tweaked Mr. Trump’s “New York values,” Mr. Roe condemned the “San Francisco-style values” of another opponent in a 2008 ad featuring an ostentatiously dressed black man dancing with two women. Some criticized the spot as racist and homophobic. Mr. Roe’s candidate won.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/24/us/politics/ted-cruz-campaign-manager-jeff-roe.html?_r=0
Rockstar Economy
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201790722/how-long-will-the-banks-stick-with-dairy-farmers
A Federated Farmers poll last week found more than one in 10 dairy farmers are now under pressure from banks over their mortgage. “They were allowing permissive development schemes, irrigation schemes … it factors into farmers psyche so the central government and the regional governments were pretty much facilitating permissive growth.”..”We actually completely lost the plot in New Zealand on this sugar rush diet that we were on….” Alison Dewes, Agricultural Consultant.
Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy said the medium-to-long-term outlook for the dairy sector was incredibly rosy …..but some dairy analysts said it was anything but.
The medium-to-long-term outlook for the dairy sector is shit – literally. Shit in our rivers, streams and harbours, and shit monetary returns to the farmers pushing them into bankruptcy.
“Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy said the medium-to-long-term outlook for the dairy sector was incredibly rosy …..but some dairy analysts said it was anything but.”
now which statement is likely to be correct?…..and unfortunately the analysts don’t form policy
the Munster conveniently means 5 to 20 years. If only banks holding farm loans thougnt like that. #shucks
ah the banks…..they are merely an inconvenience to be ignored by our esteemed leaders…cant let something as insignificant as facts get in the way of spin.
Probably pretty rosy for the people who pick up farms and stock in a year or so’s time once those that went in with a break-even cost of production over $6 /Kg go tits up.
For the current lot, less rosy in inverse proportion to their cost of production.
So probably both right.
It’ll be interesting to see a breakdown of where the losses are going to land, how much of it’s overseas investment going down the gurgler, and how much out of the assets of New Zealanders. There could be an ironic silver lining to all this overseas “investment” in our little booms.
or will the distressed sales end up in foreign ownership , a very real possibility in light of current investment opportunities around the world?…and the land value will have to drop substantially (with the spiral effect on debt ratios) along with many other factors to get cost of production down to a sustainable level…and don’t forget we are currently in historic low interest rate regime …so all in all Im fairly sure the Minister is ,we should be kind, misguided.
New Zealand.
Betrayed and sold by a privileged few to the neo liberal corporate world order.
Douglas, Richardson, Moore and Shipley shouldn’t have been knighted.
They should have been tried for treason.
And the wealthy collaborators in Remuera and Fendalton should be facing charges in court too.
Yawn
Exactly. Let those piss poor peasants eat cake.
They took the risk – they should now pay for it failing.
Upper Hutt City Council has declared the city a “TPP-Free Zone”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/hutt-valley/77271987/upper-hutt-council-slammed-by-business-lobby-over-antitpp-stance
shades of the anti nuclear stance…wonder if it will have the same result?
Could be. The anti nuclear stance started out in a very small way back in the 1950s and 60s and gradually grew to become a massive international movement.
and one of 12 apparently…
wow, good for them. 7 to 4 too, it wasn’t close.
Upper Hutt was one of the first towns to suffer from the ravages of FTAs . We used to manufacture 60+% of the countries car tyres. The factory had a good reputation was a major employer in the town and with the advent of cheap tyres from offshore – those jobs went.
Good on my old town for its stance. Proud to be born there.
Infused said he used to work there.. at the tyre factory, just thought I’d drop in a useless piece of information.
I worked there too – part time while studying at Vic. Early morning shift then off on the 11 am Unit to Uni for afternoon lectures. Great!
My Dad was President of the Rubber Workers Union for 20 odd years. An ‘Uncle’ (family friend rather) was manager of the rival Reid rubber factory in Auckland, we would have our Auckland holiday staying at their home while they were at their bach. Talk about the union hopping into bed with management! LOL
They definitely deserve a pat on the back for the position taken.
It shows concern is more widespread than National will admit.
As for the same result, one can only hope.
Wow!
Simon Mason
@LDNCalling
Umberto Eco’s library
https://twitter.com/LDNCalling/status/702129878817226752/photo/1
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cb53ZXAWAAQesII.jpg
Wow love that library!
https://www.rt.com/news/333051-umberto-eco-dies-rose/
Must read some of his books…look interesting
Bernie Sanders explains his spiritual beliefs,
“We are in this together,” Sanders says. “When you hurt, when your children hurt, I hurt.”
https://www.facebook.com/cnnpolitics/videos/1081358588572640/ (1 min clip).
“We are in this together,”
Yes.
So obvious yet so resisted; so derided; so mocked.
So antithetical to how we have organised our society over the last 40 years.
and how weird that it now seems radical.
This is the modern day paradox; with the emphasis on the individual people tend to think more dualistically, i.e. as being separated from the rest of the universe as a completely self-contained autonomic agency with free will and responsibility, etc.
This occurs in spite of the so-claimed six degrees of separation and increased connectedness online.
I think an interesting analogy can be drawn with the wave-particle dualism that caused so much confusion (and still does with many, especially high school students) when talking about Quantum Mechanics. When something is a ‘particle’ it cannot be in two places at the same time. OTH, when something is a ‘wave’ it is everywhere. So, where is something that is neither one nor the other but both, a ‘wavicle’? It depends on your ‘view’.
Got no time now to spin this out [pun] but if we only view ourselves as separated from each other we’re not only limiting ourselves but also inclined to make decisions that may have very undesirable consequences and not just for ourselves but for everybody else as well; we’re in it together because we are not really separated from each other as much as we (like to) think …
One of the things I loved about that Sanders clip was that he named this thing (we all impact on everyone else) and he said it’s something that we can’t even understand, it’s beyond intellect. In that one quote he places himself squarely in the middle of the divide between religion and science. Brilliant.
If the environmentalists got out of the way the world could access vast untapped reserves in the Arctic….
/
The Arctic was “a big bet,” Odum said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
“If the oil that we had hoped was there — and probably was there at some point in geological history — in the quantities we were looking for, this would have been a fabulous success,” he said.
[…]
Shell’s Arctic endeavor, launched after the company spent a record-setting $2.1 billion buying 275 Chukchi Sea drilling leases in a 2008 government auction, spanned several years but only led to drilling during two: 2012 and 2015.
The 2012 campaign was marred by mishaps, from a drifting drillship and air pollution permit violations to the grounding of Shell’s Kulluk drilling unit amid a botched tow to Seattle. After two months of drilling last year led only to insufficient quantities of oil and gas in a test well, Shell said it would indefinitely abandon Arctic oil development.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-02-24/arctic-was-a-bet-that-didn-t-pay-off-departing-shell-chief-says?
What’s Key-Cock-Sucker Hosking up to ?
Tryin’ to salvage some respect out of a long history of being a Key-Cock-Sucker ? By the occasional plumping for something way beyond Dumb John’s consciousness ?
Bet he still gets to go to Parnell though. To ritually lick prime ministerial arse. John giggling. Effetely.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/national/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503075&gal_cid=1503075&gallery_id=158013