Ten years after the invasion, occupation and widespread destruction of Iraq was set into motion the revisionist apologetics are flying fast and furious. These include the denial of culpability for crimes committed, the systematic undercounting of the innocents slaughtered and displaced and the conveniently forgotten hubris of empire in the high theater of technocratic carnage. They also wanly posit that the historical epic is behind ‘us,’ the 75 per cent of the populace reported in poll results to have supported the war before news began leaking that its murder and mayhem weren’t achieving their hypothesized results. So to this 75 per cent, AKA the American people, is the problem that we murdered too many or not enough? Put another way, what number of murdered Iraqis would be too many if today there were a Starbucks on every corner in Baghdad and Payday Lenders to bridge the cash flow shortfalls of the citizenry that remains?
And whither the good old days? Once upon a time the decomposing corpses of those responsible for destroying an entire nation, murdering a million or more of its citizens, causing the premature deaths of a wee chunk of the home folk and costing it a few trillion of its national ‘product’ would be on display for all to see—a cautionary exhibit against future hubristic incaution. This, if for no other reason than to assure that before another such adventure is undertaken, as the Nazis about to be hung at Nuremberg had it, we are sure to ‘win.’ And as gestures of contrition for these and other transgressions and magnanimity toward those slaughtered and their friends and family who remain, fair trials followed by swift executions of those found guilty at gallows set within public view on the White House lawn for Messrs. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Powell and Ms. Rice would place some distance between these architects of distant carnage and the other 75 per cent of this nation who at one point or another supported ‘their’ war.
The culture and political economy of impunity and immunity from prosecution for crimes high—war crimes under legally agreed upon terms, is matched only by the absolute immiseration, persecution, incarceration, torture and purposeful and negligent homicide of those on the other side of this imperial power. No war criminals have yet been charged in the bungled plunder of Iraq and the torch of aggressive war, murder, torture, illegal surveillance and robotic murder have been passed from war criminals past to war criminals present. Likewise, the methods of imperial economic extraction intended for America’s client nations now place much of the same 75 per cent that at one time supported the war on the wrong side of the imperial divide. The murder drones tested on distant battlefields now carry surveillance and murder technologies ‘at home’ to assure phone bills are paid and for-profit prisons filled as the ‘other’ political party divides our collective wealth amongst its new owners.
Three million Iraqis dead since 1991, but according to this genius it was all worth it, because “at least there’s no more Saddam in the world.”
Was that the catalyst for the Arab spring which may also see the downfall of Bashar?
No, it wasn’t. And, although you probably don’t know, the United States and Britain, AKA “The West”, continued to support Mubarak until the very last moment of his dictatorship.
That’s gotta be worth something in the long run…
You’re either a halfwit, or are just trying to be funny. Why are you here, exactly?
The arab spring? Dictators stopped inevitable progress, and was threatening food, water, energy outcomes for the populations, dictators held in place by cold war fears that no longer had merit.
People need to understand the NZ govt is working for other entities, who do not give a toss about NZ or the people in this country.
Perhaps once the bank accounts have been raided, people will begin to join the dots.
The debt is growing exponentially, global GDP cant keep up fast enough to pay the interest bill, we know thats not possible, so nect they’re coming for the banck accounts, after which time , private property is not going to tbe off the table, but likely that will be after whats left on NZs support systems, have been sold off!
+1, yes Granny and the MSM in general are assisting the NACT keep the sheeple in the dark as to their real inentions which is flogging anything of value and making us tenants in our own country.
Key’s desire to see wages drop is the tip of the iceberg NZ is being shafted with.
I had an interesting conversation around the ‘OBR’ and it’s implications with a couple of people yesterday . we ended up agreeing (surprise, surprise) that now that our politicians, on both sides of the house, are advocating the confiscation of our private property that they were no longer doing the job they had been elected to do ie represent the people and need to be removed. all of them
. but how do we do this?
we are going to gave to take the power back through fair means or foul if necessary.
As expected, the Cyprus parliament has been forced by the international banksters to directly “haircut” savers bank accounts. If you have over Euro 100K in Cyprus biggest bank, expect to lose 20% of it, instantaneously.
Many ATMs in the country now allow you to withdraw only Euro 100 a day. Capital controls. And this is just the start.
The party whose elected representatives refuse to participate in the current system. Each seat won becomes a non-starter and effectively cancels out a seat. It is not a final solution – it is a kick-starter.
Yep, everything not available. Aim is cancellation of the system. Use it against itself by voting it out of existence. You wont even be in Wellington, let alone gobbling on a Bellamys Fat Burger and Fries…
vote them out and replace them with whom? even the greens response isn’t satisfactory afaiac. it’s time to start regulating the banks and restricting the way they operate so that they can never be ‘too big to fail’. ‘too big to fail’ is simply too big, full stop.
there is going to be misery pain and suffering if we continue down the current path we are now clearly on to serfdom and virtual slavery to the moneyed elites. I’d prefer we go through the misery pain and suffering and destroy these barstards and ensure a fair and just world for future generations.
Well as I said clashman, it aint a final solution, it is a kick-starter to kicking the system.
And yep – this entire global financial crisis is the result of charging for the use of money – interest, or usury. Ban usury, like many other societies do. Usury turns the system into a ponzi scheme. The world banking system is one gigantic ponzi scheme – the planets biggest ever.
(ponzi scheme being one whereby further money needs to be brought into the system in order to pay for the costs of the system (the interest). This of course is completely unsustainable. Unfortunately the bozo right wingers and Nat party types refuse to see this)
Cancel out interest and the risk and danger dissipates to near nil.
I agree. In disparaging the charging of interest Aristotl and the church fathers may have been onto something. It would be useful to ban the charging of interest on fiat money but in today’s world it is difficult to distinguish between fiat money and real money backed by debt, though about 95% of our money supply seems to start out as fiat money. Perhaps we should also get rid of fractional reserve banking.
It would be useful to ban the charging of interest on fiat money but in today’s world it is difficult to distinguish between fiat money and real money backed by debt, though about 95% of our money supply seems to start out as fiat money.
All money today is fiat money and all of it is based upon debt. There’s nothing wrong with fiat money, the problems arise because it’s based upon debt and has interest charged upon it by the banks who created it meaning that the economy always needs to grow to cover the interest but it can still never be paid off.
Given that virtually all money is fiat money a ban on charging interest on fiat money would be tantamount to banning interest altogether. However, if I receive money as wages, say, and decide to lend that money out, I would probably want to receive interest on it.
You need to ban interest on it’s creation and the only way to do that is to have the government create the money rather than the banks. People loaning out their money would still be able to charge interest – except that I’d also have the government making loans at 0% interest which would probably put paid to that idea.
Charging interest results in an exponential increase in income. As savings accumulate interest income increases thus increasing the rate that savings accumulate. The end result is that all the money will inevitably end up in the hands of a few (very few people have an income above subsistence) which requires an ever increasing amount of money to be created which feeds the ever widening gap between the haves and the have nots.
Having the government creating the money and loaning it out at 0% stops that cycle of accumulation and ensures a more equal society with all the benefits that brings.
And like all ponzi schemes it results in a few people at the top with all the wealth and everyone else losing. That is a perfect description of capitalism though and it’s been that way throughout history.
This of course is completely unsustainable. Unfortunately the bozo right wingers and Nat party types refuse to see this
Some of them see it but they’re the ones at the top benefiting from it so they don’t want it to stop and everything they say about how great the system is is a lie.
Greens-“disabled facing tougher work requirements under govt. welfare reforms, yet, funding for a placement programme-Mainstream-has run out of funding despite being opened up to the private sector; Demands for placements have increased, yet, funding has not risen since 2010-2011 financial year.”
I think more weight should be given to referenda, even citizen initiated ones. While I don’t think a CIR should be binding on a government, I think that once the necessary number of signatures has been collected and a referendum has become mandatory it would seem pretty unseemly for a government to act ahead of the ‘people’s voice’ being heard, even if they intend ignoring the outcome as is the case with asset sales.
It may even be a constitutional matter since it affects the way democracy is conducted in this country.
If a referenda is not binding. THEN WE DO NOT HAVE DEMOCRACY.
All the arguments against BCIR and real democracy are the same ones that were made by those in power at the time against citizens, women, non-aristocracy or non-landowners having a vote, at all.
There is absolutely no moral, or justifiable arguments against democracy.
Just self serving bullshit from those who want their turn in Dictatorship.
As NRT says. ” Even if they are wrong they are still our decisions to make”.
Why should 160 odd marginally competent, power hungry, ill educated twits in Parliament rule the rest of us.
We still let them do it despite constant reminders of how incapable politicians, of all stripes, really are.
It’s the future generations who will do something about it.
There’s not even any need to foment unrest amongst the slackers. They’ll have their revolution cos we, of generation x, were to gutless and apathetic to.
I see these times and events as the last days and futile power grab of a generation looking to see out their days on the back of ill gotten gains.
It won’t take much to level the playing field. By wiping out debt/profit and cracking ‘free’ energy resets the game to start over again but with new rules.
+ 1 Only time before corporate sponsors come in to DOC I think – after all the capitalist exploiters are so much better at looking after everything – but only for them and their obscene profits.
Because it’s just another attempt to re-write history although the stupidity of people who swallow that sort of revisionist bullshit never ceases to amaze me.
Prior to the National Rifle Association being organised in 1871, with the goal of improving American civilian marksmanship in preparation for war, the southern states instituted The Black Codes with severe restriction on black possession and ownership of firearms.
I’d have thought that a video bracketed by nut in chief Alex Jones clips and fronted by born again loon and world nut daily columnist Star Parker and would have given it away.
But then idiots will persist in swallowing the revisionist tripe that’s dished up.
I don’t like to admit my mistakes but I’ll man up and admit one here. I said yesterday gun deaths attributable to rifles in the USA was around 2% . I was wrong.
This guy looked at the stats, shows the web sites and has a higher number:
Also the UK is a lot more violent then the USA (3.5 times more!).
Sure. The Brits love their pub punch ups.
But the per capita kill rate in the US is 4x higher than the UK. The difference is that in the UK they use fists, bottles and knives. In the US they use firearms.
Not saying the USA doesn’t have problems but we know prohibition doesn’t work so banning weapons won’t work. Mexico has way stricter gun laws then most countries yet theres a few gun deaths there. Also note that the USA rates are dropping.
The recent ban was for military style semi-automatics which make up less than 3.5% of all deaths.
If you want to stop gun deaths why target a gun that is used in less than 3.5% of all deaths?
Also on a separate note check out Greenland, double the rate of the USA. That surprised me.
“There’s no civilian or sporting use for military style convertible to full-auto assault weapons”
– I agree but the 2nd amendment isn’t about sporting or hunting (as I understand it)
– Yes I concede prohibition wasn’t the right choice of words.
“In terms of banning these weapons, unfortunately for the US that horse has well and truly bolted.”
– I agree and thats why I think banning is just pointless, all it does it make a few people fell good about themselves because they’ve made a difference whereas the reality is they’ve made no difference at all except make previously law abiding citizens potential criminals.
Check this guy out, hes got quite reasonable views (if you can get past the semi-incoherent ramblings of Piers Morgan) and some ideas of what to do
Bear in mind that the modern equivalent of a standard infantry primary weapon is a fully automatic AR-15, M-16 or AKM/AK-74 with 30 round clip with anti-personnel or armour penetrating rounds.
Surely that’s the modern corollary Second Amendment would apply to today, right?
…. from a deeply stupid person who reckons people need assault rifles in case the gubmint decides to start rounding them up…with tanks, bombers, F-35 joint force fighters and drones armed with hellfire missiles…oh, and he’s a victim too…
Yeah. Because we should never have let the horse bolt in the first place.
We could have stopped it in NZ by continuing the strict registration and licensing of firearms, but of course the gun nuts want open slather.
Real sports people and pro hunters don’t need semi-auto’s or auto’s. You get into position and get it right, with the first shot.
I’ve always been against guns for “self defense”. The USA shows that it doesn’t work. The most common gun casualty is the family members of gun owners.
However with our police assaulting legal protesters with impunity, maybe the yanks have a point!
We could have stopped it in NZ by continuing the strict registration and licensing of firearms, but of course the gun nuts want open slather.
NZ firearms users tend to be highly responsible and serious about abiding by the law and good safety practices. There are almost 1M firearms in this country, with only very few non-suicide deaths resulting.
Actually, around 50% of reported family violence incidents where a firearm was involved are committed by gun license holders. That indicates that any legislative changes should target licensed and unlicensed gun owners.
1.1 million guns is an old estimate from around 2006… We simply don’t know how many guns there are in New Zealand because they aren’t registered. Also, around 79% of gun deaths are from suicide, with the remaining 21% from criminal endeavour, legal intervention or by accident.
As far as I’m aware, there is no proper database of recent statistics on firearms deaths, however between 1995 and 2004 there was a mean annual number of deaths by firearm of 79 (62 were suicide). This number has nearly halved whereby 38 of the 558 suicides in 2011 were committed using a gun or explosives.
Even with that reduction, casualties arising from firearm misuse in New Zealand are considered to be high.
As an aside, an in-depth government funded 1997 review of firearms control concluded that registering guns is required. However the government has ignored that recommendation, mainly because of pressure from the Police and gun lobbyists.
Personally I don’t see the point in undertaking costly studies if the government just does whatever they want to anyway.
We don’t need restrictive laws as the ones being proposed in the USA. We don’t have a problem with them now and we haven’t had a problem with them in the past.
The difference between the USA and NZ is that the laws in NZ are enforced. I personally will be buying certain military rifles and machine guns when I have the spare money to buy them (so a wee way off) and I’ll be following the laws to allow me to do that.
“I’ve always been against guns for “self defense”. The USA shows that it doesn’t work.”
– I’ve posted many examples of women using guns for self-defense successfully, I’d suggest that the people with the guns are trained properly to use them.
I’d say anyone owning a firearm should (as part of obtaining a license) be made to get proper training and be part of a gun club (so as to have regular practice)
Yep. There is some degree on the surface of biological plausibility for a decline in violence, but it still screams “texas sharpshooter”. There’s probably further work going into ot though.
chris73 ..
This is a good example of how to present stats in a confusing way that tends to reinforce one’s argument.
The murder and violent crime rate in the USA has decreased over 50% since 1992.
Also the UK is a lot more violent then the USA (3.5 times more!).
The first statement seems to be connected with the use of guns which was being discussed.
The second seems to be connected also but is not just related to guns.
How can we get a clear line of reasoning to comprehend the argument when the references are being shifted?
I have been rereading Chris Trotter’s “No Left Turn” recently and came across this wonderful comment by Bill Sutch about the first National Government. He described National’s approach to education as being founded on a conviction “that the main thing needed in education was to insult the Education Department …”
Is that Bill Sutch, NZ national hero? Who I think was not made a Sir William Sutch because he had a scenario for NZ’s progress that required intelligent judgment. So Sir Roger Douglas got the knighthood and Goodnight Nurse to NZs aspirations to a modern, well-balanced, well-run economy with stability, effective enterprise and innovation plus good living standards for all.
The whole book gives a really good oversight of how opportunity after opportunity for improvement of the country was missed because of the stupidity of the right. And New Zealand has often verged on doing the right thing but this has been frustrated by reactionary forces and stupidity.
It should be compulsory reading for the current cabinet not to mention the opposition front bench!
ms
I watched Sir Humphrey and PM Jim in Yes Minister on youtube recently. The one about only getting honours if they have been earned.
PM Jim trying to pierce Sir Humphrey’s rhetoric says something like ‘So you don’t want to do the right thing now, because it creates a precedent for the next time’.
I guess that explains National’s behaviour and why they stick to the status quo, which usually produces results that suit them and their supporters, ie ‘If it ain’t broke (for us NACTs) why fix it.’ I don’t like this idea, it is very depressing to me. We seem to be doomed to this downward slide.
I am very interested in this movement in the UK. I think that the only way we are going to get a return to anything resembling social justice is for people to unite, independently of political parties. I just had a chat on Skype with a friend in Athens, who is just staggered by the EU’s abandonment of democracy for the sake of the banks.
I thought it was because he was a part of some think tank on monetary reform during Norm Kirk’s time in office. Gerald O’Brien was also on that think tank and was later beaten up in a Courtenay Place public toilet. O’Brien was later arseholed out of the Labour Party by Bill Rowling, though perhaps justifiably since he had written a letter to Bruce Beatham, then leader of the Social Credit party, behind Rowling’s back. Sutch was later prosecuted, though unsuccessfully, for having contact with someone in the Russian embassy. He may well have been set up.
Yes Sutch was a bigger thinker than the little crackpots in and around government. He remained silent on the Russian clandestine meeting for which he was arrested in 1974. I thought he probably just was trying to keep up with his background knowledge of political thought and movement in that part of the world. But it appears that he may have been responding to a request for political asylum.
See stuff – http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/477347/Sutch-case-Russian-got-chance-to-defect
At the time of course we were strongly anti-communist. However we pragmatically managed to overlook that barrier by the 1980s to do some bartering with Soviet Russia by swopping our butter for their Lada cars and the NZ Dairy Board was distributor for them. (Australia was bartering with bauxite ore, so we of course weren’t trail-blazing.)
From Wikipedia –
Ladas were briefly popular in the 1980s. Meat, dairy and fertiliser exports to Russia were wholly or partly paid for with Belarus tractors, Stolichnaya vodka and Lada cars. The New Zealand Dairy Board were distributors for Lada vehicles.[10] Some Ladas, even those of the 1970s, can still be seen on New Zealand roads (especially in rural areas and offshore islands) but are increasingly rare.
Yep. Two leaders of progressive governments brought down in very unusual circumstances. I must admit harbouring a few conspiracy theories about what happened.
And once you read up on how Salvador Allende was dealt to and how Pinochet was installed, also the 2002 coup against Chavez, you realise that “conspiracy theory” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
My schoolboy recall of the time says Sutch was Secretary of Trade and Industry, or the equivalent, under the ’57-’60 Labour government. Phillip Holloway was the minister I think.
Sutch was booted and marginalised when Holyoake took power in 1960. He had no opportunity to lobby for anything meaningful until ’72 when Labour returned. By that time he was probably regarded as a bit old hat. Accordingly he spent years as a private consultant.
He was a remarkable individual whose influence commenced as early as 1935. He accompanied Walter Nash to Britain when Nash went there as finance minister to give comfort that the first Labour government was not about to nationalise all and sundry, inlcuding the interests of British bondholders.
The talk around Wellington at the time of his trial an afterwards was that the Russian Embassy officer Razgovoroz whom Sutch met surreptitiously was indeed planning to defect.
It was a strange case with, it was privately said, the Sutch home having been entered and searched in the course of the trial. Tin foil liner in the base of a tea caddy of a morning was found in the evening on top of its contents, with remnants of those contents spilt on a kitchen bench. Nothing stolen.
One can see the SIS of the day (for which Rowling as PM after Kirk was minister) being much exercised by Sutch – Cold War, reds under the bed and all that. It was even said that at his funeral a matter of only months after his acquittal, people were observed in the upper floors of a building opposite the church in Taranaki Street, photographing those emerging.
Interesting times the real fabric of which will probably never emerge.
Having had pc trouble this past week, I’ve only just seen your comment North. Be assured that back in the 1970s… interest in NZ politics and related matters was not confined to the NZSIS. In 1992 a lengthy article appeared in the Australian Womens Weekly (I still have a copy in my possession) about a woman by the name of Wendi Holland who went public about her former job as an ASIS spy. She spent a large portion of her time in the late 1960s and 1970s in NZ spying on NZ politicians and certain organisations and individuals suspected of links to communist activity. She would certainly not have been their only spy in the country either.
There is no doubt in my mind that off-shore intelligence services were interfering in New Zealand’s affairs at that time and a lot of innocent people were being fingered for no other reason other than they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I had a close family member who was one of them, and the fallout even had an affect on my life and career opportunities.
In light of the above I agree with you mickysavage. It is unlikely to be coincidence that both Kirk and Whitlam were brought down in unusual circumstances.
Press Release – Housing Lobby Spokesperson Sue Henry ” Don’t fast-track the Auckland Unitary Plan!”
“The Unitary Plan should not be fast-tracked and signed off this side of the local body elections, with so much dissent from communities, who do not want unfettered property developers intensifying their suburbs beyond recognition,” says Housing Lobby Spokesperson Sue Henry.
“The ‘tiff’ between Mayor Len Brown and Housing Minister Nick Smith is a diversion from the fact that there is already an alignment set in concrete between Wellington and the Auckland Mayor. ”
“Three east Auckland suburbs, Panmure, Point England and Glen Innes, have already been signed off between the Mayor and the previous Housing Minister, Phil Heatley, into a company, implementing the ‘Tamaki Transformation Programme’, through a ‘Heads of Agreement’ which was signed off behind closed doors, excluding the residents.”
“Which suburbs will be next?
What other communities want to be turned into a ‘company’ without their consent?”
A tick for Winston. He has revealed the NACTs siphoning money that should be going direct to regional development initiatives in NZ, to an overseas oriented agency. He has found that the smarmy ones are paying it to some outfit called KEA that operates overseas to keep in touch with the people that are already doing well there and perhaps to entice them back. Now them being encouraged to come home is okay – let us have a register of interested ex-pats to be referred to.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport
08:23 Winston Peters says regional funding diverted to expat group
The New Zealand First leader, Winston Peters, says money from a Government fund aimed at boosting regional economic development has been given instead to the organisation Kiwi Expatriates Abroad, or Kea. (4′10″)
But the money being paid to KEA we need HERE to support the regions to find and support healthy and risk-free business initiatives that will provide employment for semi-skilled people in particular. The idea has grown that it is Bad and Lazy to be ‘semi-skilled’ ie not to be a lawyer, or a techology type etc. Trouble is when there is growth in employees in any of these specialist jobs, the pay will go down – so self-defeating for the upwardly mobile aspirants. There must be jobs for all so we are all enabled to have a good live and the respect of our country for each person, something the unemployed don’t receive.
And with the growth of computer generated physical objects this still leaves many people in a work-oriented society out of the loop. This is surprising in a country with such advanced education and understanding about everything. We must do better at balancing the economy and work opportunities.
Council chief executive Doug McKay said he saw no reason to change the arrangement, which he had decided under delegated authority, as did managers of five council-controlled organisations.
“From the Left and From the Right”: trivializing serious public debate
Radio NZ National, Monday 25 March 2013
Kathryn Ryan, Matthew Hooton, Mike Williams
The always on-message, relentless and very clever Matthew Hooton is clearly the Alpha-male in nearly all these Monday morning match-ups. Only Andrew Campbell and Laila Harre have had the presence of mind and integrity to consistently counter Hooton’s antics and consistently get the better of him. Mike Williams does occasionally get aroused and actually puts Hooton in his place, but all too often Williams is just like he was today: passive and over-eager to please. First part of this program was a run-of-the-mill discussion, mostly about David Shearer’s bank account, with Williams as usual bending over backwards to agree with everything Hooton said. Then it was time to face up to a very unpleasant elephant in the room….
KATHRYN RYAN: The other matter that took a PREPOSTEROUS amount of time in my humble opinion was the appointment of Dame Susan Devoy as Race Relations Commissioner.
MATTHEW HOOTON: Have we still got a Race Relations Commissioner? Ha ha ha! No, really, she is no worse than anyone else! I mean she’s a perfectly nice person. She belongs to the Climate Science Coalition….[He rambles on for a considerable time, simultaneously pouring scorn on the very idea of a Race Relations Commissioner and asserting, incredibly, that Susan Devoy has written and said nothing to disqualify her.]
KATHRYN RYAN: That all sounds reasonable to me. Mike, what’s your problem with her?
MIKE WILLIAMS:[carefully] She’s clearly not a rocket scientist, let’s put it like that.
KATHRYN RYAN:[suddenly not so congenial] I-I-I-I-I’m not going to put UP with that! What is your objection?
MIKE WILLIAMS: She lacks the capacity to do the job.
MATTHEW HOOTON: You need to be able to conciliate, and not just swallow everything from the Treaty grievance industry!
MIKE WILLIAMS: Actually there is quite a lot to the job. Joris De Bray— or De Brayze, is it?
MATTHEW HOOTON: Who cares?
MIKE WILLIAMS: Well, I was tangentially involved in the Cheeky Darky business and Joris did a very good job taking the heat out of that. He called off the Auckland University people who wanted to hang, draw and quarter Paul Holmes.
KATHRYN RYAN: I like the cartoon over the weekend which showed her whacking a squash ball at people and saying “You lot make up!” He he he he!
MIKE WILLIAMS: Ha ha ha ha ha! Let’s give her a chance!
More light-hearted and jocular comments on another topic, then it’s time to wrap it up…
KATHRYN RYAN: Hey thanks guys! That is Mike Williams and Matthew Hooton, our political commentators! Coming up: today’s recipe and wine match from John Hawkesby!
I listened to some of that while on the exercise machine. Williams managed to say “no problem” to Shearer’s UN bank account, and to say nothing when Hooton added in a smear to TS as a site of conspiracy theorists re-shearer being a plant for overseas wealthy interests.
I got fed up, and switched onto Maori TV for a Te Reo learning session – was much more useful way of engaging my mind while exercising.
The regular spots in Afternoons with Borer are so facile I’m now more or less dependent on Morrissey. Seems Mornings in that safe pair of hands Kathryn is going the same way.
In fact, everything seems to be relatively dumbed down now. Not surprising since that was always part of the modus operandi on the road to the nirvana of New Zealand as a playground for international money games.
Trivialise formerly trusted institutions as someone said. Have people give up and stop listening. Logistically, institutions and thinking which formerly defined us, is all the easier to throw away as inefficient and ultimately expendable froth on a body politic which is distinctive for its corruptness.
RNZ-“House Insurers shifting the onus (and cost) of maintaining up-to-date cost of rebuild figures on to home owners; do not expect market value payouts unless you keep (annually) up to date valuations (at your expense); Insurers slipping more risk back onto owners.”
Dom-
CHINESE SUCCESSFULLY TEST “CARRIER KILLER MISSILE”; (anti-ship DF21D)(yanks developing “highly classified defensive measures).China shifting ballistic missile batteries nearer Taiwan; Americans rushing Raptors and U-2 spy planes to Asia-Pacific region.
time for an end to “romantic pacifism” and to begin “full preparation” for war.
-Liberation Army Daily. (that is some fairly strong rhetoric, right there)
Nope. And they are up to date on my screen. Ummm. I did fiddle with the database query caching at the end of last week. I’ll have a look at what implications that has.
The problem doesn’t seem to last long though and then the links go back to normal if I try another page. But if I try and open links from the original page (the FP in this case, that I still have open), all the comments go to the Tizard thread, but different comments.
“Man has gained power over the world by turning it into symbols-by turning real men into matchstick men and so on. But he has often gained this mastery at the expense of losing touch with reality and spending far too much time in an unreal world of symbols. In effect modern man spends most of his time inside a sound-proof room inside his own head, staring at a computer screen ;). This enables him to handle reality with far more efficiency than a child or a savage, but it also means he tends to forget that there is a ‘real’ reality out there. And when he grows tired and bored with the computer, he thinks he has grown tired and bored with life…”
The psychologist J.Silverman found that for “convicts who had been in prison for a very long time that their perceptions became blurry and they tended to notice far less.Their consciousness had shifted from the ‘active’ mode to the ‘receptive’ mode (i.e.passive mode).”
“A Zen parable tells how a common man asked the Zen Master Ikkyu to write down for him some maxims of the highest wisdom. The Master wrote one word: ATTENTION.”Will you not write something more?” asked the man, whereupon Ikkyu wrote, ATTENTION.ATTENTION.The disgruntled man said he couldn’t see much wisdom in this, whereupon the Master wrote, ATTENTION. ATTENTION.ATTENTION.” What does attention mean?” asked the man, whereupon Ikkyu replied, “Attention means attention.” 🙂
interesting, yet i would suggest text implies it is; from my experience, the available vaccinations covers the national and international strains of concern per year of release.
Breakfast this morning covered it and it sounded like all the necessary evils are present and accounted for. (I think it was just before Toni Timefiller asked the PM about the DOC job losses then sat back as the PM spun a long line about National’s ongoing ever-growing world saving job creation programme whilst avoiding the question in its entirety. Did you know that according to the PM over a hundred thousand jobs a month are lost or created in NZ? Someone please tell me I heard it wrong)
folk have to understand many of the useful predominately safe vaccine programmes of thirty forty years ago are very different beasties than the pick’n’mix petridishes of today.
folk have to understand many of the useful predominately safe vaccine programmes of thirty forty years ago are very different beasties than the pick’n’mix petridishes of today.
Josie Pagani, shows why certain subject matter, are best left to those who have an ounce of understanding, Josie is not one of those, in this instance!
Some gems:
Does anyone really understand what the hell just happened in Cyprus?
Russian money in particular had flooded in, taking advantage of its tax-haven status. The financial system grew, and soon out-weighed other productive parts of the economy, like natural gas. The banks had to invest all that Russian money somewhere, so they brought up Greek bonds. Bad decision.
It’s a shame that the financial crisis hasn’t been used as an excuse to clean up tax havens across the world. If global leaders focused on that as much as they focused on multilateral trade deals, we’d go a long way to stop Cyprus type chaos happening again.
According to development economist Paul Collier, if you stopped corrupt African leader syphoning off the proceeds of oil and natural resources into Swiss bank accounts, developing countries would be better off by many millions of dollars.
The legacy of the Cyprus crisis is unknown. The Economist magazine has argued that the Cyprus crisis should be used as a excuse to introduce a united European banking system, which would create more confidence across the region, and therefore more investment
What is alarming for countries like New Zealand is the lack of a strategy from the EU to deal with situations like Cyprus.
Did Josie just miss the fact that the Eurozone is a key part of the problem, yet she wants even broader multinational banking systems???
And did she just equate Cyprus to some tin pot corrupt African country?
OMG.
Geeezus the international bankster and corporate cartel want their tax havens and infinitely unrestricted control over capital movement. She needs to get with the programme.
Josie is clueless on this subject, and a terrible writer by looks of it, the article is atrocious in all respects!
Of course she has no idea that the Russian money is long since removed from Cyprus, if it were ever actually there in the first place (the avergae cyprian will wear 100% of this, and what when they need another bailout, another round of account theft of course), and Josie seems to not understand that the people writing the compliance regulations, also use the *tax havens*, she muses about *being cleaned up*
Its no wonder Josie has no idea the Eurozone/EU/IMF/ECB at al, are tools used to reek havoc on the worlds populace! – NZ has been owned by the IMF since 1961, it started with our gold, and it will end with (who knows what),and we still owe, undisclosed amounts, to undisclosed creditors
Q&A. Guest argued that Australia laws are its own business, but then decried that Australia would return welfare rights to kiwis in OZ, and this would hurt Australia because so many kiwis over there are so hard working – what will they do? return to NZ. The guest was unnerved by the whole direction of the move. NZ just doesn’t deserve better highly motivated skilled kiwis working here.
But then, to cap his blather off, after missing the obvious disproportionate treatment (that is know to destabilizes a nation), he went on to demand that the same policy should be introduce here.
Now editors at Q&A may feel the dumb arse opinions of don’t-know-don’t-want-to-know-heres-my-definitive-conclusion types makes great television, but I don’t, its just lazy filler for the time slot.
Q&A is not quality current affairs when it can’t debunk such nonsense.
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
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 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, 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. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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America’s Willing Executioners
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/22/americas-willing-executioners/
by ROB URIE
Ten years after the invasion, occupation and widespread destruction of Iraq was set into motion the revisionist apologetics are flying fast and furious. These include the denial of culpability for crimes committed, the systematic undercounting of the innocents slaughtered and displaced and the conveniently forgotten hubris of empire in the high theater of technocratic carnage. They also wanly posit that the historical epic is behind ‘us,’ the 75 per cent of the populace reported in poll results to have supported the war before news began leaking that its murder and mayhem weren’t achieving their hypothesized results. So to this 75 per cent, AKA the American people, is the problem that we murdered too many or not enough? Put another way, what number of murdered Iraqis would be too many if today there were a Starbucks on every corner in Baghdad and Payday Lenders to bridge the cash flow shortfalls of the citizenry that remains?
And whither the good old days? Once upon a time the decomposing corpses of those responsible for destroying an entire nation, murdering a million or more of its citizens, causing the premature deaths of a wee chunk of the home folk and costing it a few trillion of its national ‘product’ would be on display for all to see—a cautionary exhibit against future hubristic incaution. This, if for no other reason than to assure that before another such adventure is undertaken, as the Nazis about to be hung at Nuremberg had it, we are sure to ‘win.’ And as gestures of contrition for these and other transgressions and magnanimity toward those slaughtered and their friends and family who remain, fair trials followed by swift executions of those found guilty at gallows set within public view on the White House lawn for Messrs. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Powell and Ms. Rice would place some distance between these architects of distant carnage and the other 75 per cent of this nation who at one point or another supported ‘their’ war.
The culture and political economy of impunity and immunity from prosecution for crimes high—war crimes under legally agreed upon terms, is matched only by the absolute immiseration, persecution, incarceration, torture and purposeful and negligent homicide of those on the other side of this imperial power. No war criminals have yet been charged in the bungled plunder of Iraq and the torch of aggressive war, murder, torture, illegal surveillance and robotic murder have been passed from war criminals past to war criminals present. Likewise, the methods of imperial economic extraction intended for America’s client nations now place much of the same 75 per cent that at one time supported the war on the wrong side of the imperial divide. The murder drones tested on distant battlefields now carry surveillance and murder technologies ‘at home’ to assure phone bills are paid and for-profit prisons filled as the ‘other’ political party divides our collective wealth amongst its new owners.
Read more….
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/22/americas-willing-executioners/
At least there’s no more Saddam in the world.
Was that the catalyst for the Arab spring which may also see the downfall of Bashar ?
That’s gotta be worth something in the long run…
At least there’s no more Saddam in the world.
Three million Iraqis dead since 1991, but according to this genius it was all worth it, because “at least there’s no more Saddam in the world.”
Was that the catalyst for the Arab spring which may also see the downfall of Bashar?
No, it wasn’t. And, although you probably don’t know, the United States and Britain, AKA “The West”, continued to support Mubarak until the very last moment of his dictatorship.
That’s gotta be worth something in the long run…
You’re either a halfwit, or are just trying to be funny. Why are you here, exactly?
He was being sarcastic.
I thought he might have been—hence the “trying to be funny” bit. I apologize to our friend Pollywog for unleashing Throttler.
lol – tie the dog up again morrie
The arab spring? Dictators stopped inevitable progress, and was threatening food, water, energy outcomes for the populations, dictators held in place by cold war fears that no longer had merit.
The National Govt. are cutting more jobs from the Conservation Debt. Unbelievable.
Conservation is critical to our NZ lifestyle.
Conservation underpins our Tourism and Farming industry.
How the hell does this atrocious government maintain its support, it is completely beyond me?
Appropriate slip.
People need to understand the NZ govt is working for other entities, who do not give a toss about NZ or the people in this country.
Perhaps once the bank accounts have been raided, people will begin to join the dots.
The debt is growing exponentially, global GDP cant keep up fast enough to pay the interest bill, we know thats not possible, so nect they’re coming for the banck accounts, after which time , private property is not going to tbe off the table, but likely that will be after whats left on NZs support systems, have been sold off!
+1, yes Granny and the MSM in general are assisting the NACT keep the sheeple in the dark as to their real inentions which is flogging anything of value and making us tenants in our own country.
Key’s desire to see wages drop is the tip of the iceberg NZ is being shafted with.
I had an interesting conversation around the ‘OBR’ and it’s implications with a couple of people yesterday . we ended up agreeing (surprise, surprise) that now that our politicians, on both sides of the house, are advocating the confiscation of our private property that they were no longer doing the job they had been elected to do ie represent the people and need to be removed. all of them
. but how do we do this?
we are going to gave to take the power back through fair means or foul if necessary.
time to stock up on piano wire, people.
As expected, the Cyprus parliament has been forced by the international banksters to directly “haircut” savers bank accounts. If you have over Euro 100K in Cyprus biggest bank, expect to lose 20% of it, instantaneously.
Many ATMs in the country now allow you to withdraw only Euro 100 a day. Capital controls. And this is just the start.
How do we do this?
Vote Them Out
The party whose elected representatives refuse to participate in the current system. Each seat won becomes a non-starter and effectively cancels out a seat. It is not a final solution – it is a kick-starter.
Does refusing to participate in the system also mean refusing the $145K salary…?
Absolutely it does.
When is candidate selection?
Drawn from a hat at last possible minute. Keen?
Could be. Are the subsidised meals and drinks still available or do they have to be refused along with the salary?
Best to clear these things up front, wouldn’t want a Bellamys scandal 🙂
Yep, everything not available. Aim is cancellation of the system. Use it against itself by voting it out of existence. You wont even be in Wellington, let alone gobbling on a Bellamys Fat Burger and Fries…
What about those cleaning allowances? Could I get Bill’s cleaner to do my place too?
vote them out and replace them with whom? even the greens response isn’t satisfactory afaiac. it’s time to start regulating the banks and restricting the way they operate so that they can never be ‘too big to fail’. ‘too big to fail’ is simply too big, full stop.
there is going to be misery pain and suffering if we continue down the current path we are now clearly on to serfdom and virtual slavery to the moneyed elites. I’d prefer we go through the misery pain and suffering and destroy these barstards and ensure a fair and just world for future generations.
Well as I said clashman, it aint a final solution, it is a kick-starter to kicking the system.
And yep – this entire global financial crisis is the result of charging for the use of money – interest, or usury. Ban usury, like many other societies do. Usury turns the system into a ponzi scheme. The world banking system is one gigantic ponzi scheme – the planets biggest ever.
(ponzi scheme being one whereby further money needs to be brought into the system in order to pay for the costs of the system (the interest). This of course is completely unsustainable. Unfortunately the bozo right wingers and Nat party types refuse to see this)
Cancel out interest and the risk and danger dissipates to near nil.
Centrist parties like Labour also tend to completely avoid the issue in favour of the status quo.
+1
Which is why Labour is no longer a party for the workers or, even, for people and life.
None of the current listed MPs or Parties are addressing the monetary supply issue.
Which as I have said here many times, until its being address in a meanigful way, there is NO point in discussing anything else, forget it!
Monetary Supply is the most critical problem which needs to be sorted out, and currrently is hardly rating a mention!
I agree. In disparaging the charging of interest Aristotl and the church fathers may have been onto something. It would be useful to ban the charging of interest on fiat money but in today’s world it is difficult to distinguish between fiat money and real money backed by debt, though about 95% of our money supply seems to start out as fiat money. Perhaps we should also get rid of fractional reserve banking.
All money today is fiat money and all of it is based upon debt. There’s nothing wrong with fiat money, the problems arise because it’s based upon debt and has interest charged upon it by the banks who created it meaning that the economy always needs to grow to cover the interest but it can still never be paid off.
Given that virtually all money is fiat money a ban on charging interest on fiat money would be tantamount to banning interest altogether. However, if I receive money as wages, say, and decide to lend that money out, I would probably want to receive interest on it.
You need to ban interest on it’s creation and the only way to do that is to have the government create the money rather than the banks. People loaning out their money would still be able to charge interest – except that I’d also have the government making loans at 0% interest which would probably put paid to that idea.
Charging interest results in an exponential increase in income. As savings accumulate interest income increases thus increasing the rate that savings accumulate. The end result is that all the money will inevitably end up in the hands of a few (very few people have an income above subsistence) which requires an ever increasing amount of money to be created which feeds the ever widening gap between the haves and the have nots.
Having the government creating the money and loaning it out at 0% stops that cycle of accumulation and ensures a more equal society with all the benefits that brings.
QFT
And like all ponzi schemes it results in a few people at the top with all the wealth and everyone else losing. That is a perfect description of capitalism though and it’s been that way throughout history.
Some of them see it but they’re the ones at the top benefiting from it so they don’t want it to stop and everything they say about how great the system is is a lie.
Greens-“disabled facing tougher work requirements under govt. welfare reforms, yet, funding for a placement programme-Mainstream-has run out of funding despite being opened up to the private sector; Demands for placements have increased, yet, funding has not risen since 2010-2011 financial year.”
I think more weight should be given to referenda, even citizen initiated ones. While I don’t think a CIR should be binding on a government, I think that once the necessary number of signatures has been collected and a referendum has become mandatory it would seem pretty unseemly for a government to act ahead of the ‘people’s voice’ being heard, even if they intend ignoring the outcome as is the case with asset sales.
It may even be a constitutional matter since it affects the way democracy is conducted in this country.
If a referenda is not binding. THEN WE DO NOT HAVE DEMOCRACY.
All the arguments against BCIR and real democracy are the same ones that were made by those in power at the time against citizens, women, non-aristocracy or non-landowners having a vote, at all.
There is absolutely no moral, or justifiable arguments against democracy.
Just self serving bullshit from those who want their turn in Dictatorship.
As NRT says. ” Even if they are wrong they are still our decisions to make”.
Why should 160 odd marginally competent, power hungry, ill educated twits in Parliament rule the rest of us.
We still let them do it despite constant reminders of how incapable politicians, of all stripes, really are.
+1
There’s far more wisdom within all of us working together than a few people at the top telling us how we must live.
+1 Nice to see you blogging again KJT.
always worth reading KJT; no, we do not have “democracy”; just an illusion becoming a nightmare for an increasing number of people and children.
Link to KJT’s blogpost
#Freedom isn’t the choice you have down at the shop but having a say in your #governance.
It’s the future generations who will do something about it.
There’s not even any need to foment unrest amongst the slackers. They’ll have their revolution cos we, of generation x, were to gutless and apathetic to.
I see these times and events as the last days and futile power grab of a generation looking to see out their days on the back of ill gotten gains.
It won’t take much to level the playing field. By wiping out debt/profit and cracking ‘free’ energy resets the game to start over again but with new rules.
DoC Cuts Put Wildlife At Risk
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10873425
-laying off 100 front-line staff to be replaced with volunteers
-budget cut by 25M
-Fonterra becomes a corporate “sponsor” / funder of DoC; water quality conflicts you think?
+ 1 Only time before corporate sponsors come in to DOC I think – after all the capitalist exploiters are so much better at looking after everything – but only for them and their obscene profits.
I’ll admit I didn’t know this:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/9RABZq5IoaQ?feature=player_embedded
Because it’s just another attempt to re-write history although the stupidity of people who swallow that sort of revisionist bullshit never ceases to amaze me.
Prior to the National Rifle Association being organised in 1871, with the goal of improving American civilian marksmanship in preparation for war, the southern states instituted The Black Codes with severe restriction on black possession and ownership of firearms.
.http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112322/gun-control-racism-and-nra-history
This too.
http://guns.periscopic.com/?year=2013
Deaths since Sandy Hook.
You tell them they’ve got it wrong, I wouldn’t.
I’d have thought that a video bracketed by nut in chief Alex Jones clips and fronted by born again loon and world nut daily columnist Star Parker and would have given it away.
But then idiots will persist in swallowing the revisionist tripe that’s dished up.
I don’t like to admit my mistakes but I’ll man up and admit one here. I said yesterday gun deaths attributable to rifles in the USA was around 2% . I was wrong.
This guy looked at the stats, shows the web sites and has a higher number:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FWNOiw_XIV8
I haven’t checked the link out yet, but I presume that the majority of US gun deaths are ones where a handgun are used.
Probably correct. He gets stats from the FBIs website and the UKs website. 3.5% of deaths attributed to rifles .
If people don’t want to view it:
The murder and violent crime rate in the USA has decreased over 50% since 1992.
Also the UK is a lot more violent then the USA (3.5 times more!).
Its just when you go to metropolitan centers over 250 000 is when the violent crimes and murder rates jump up.
He does have some good ideas on how to solve the crime rates in those centers, you’d probably agree with it.
Sure. The Brits love their pub punch ups.
But the per capita kill rate in the US is 4x higher than the UK. The difference is that in the UK they use fists, bottles and knives. In the US they use firearms.
More guns = more people dead.
Global UNODC homicide data here.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/oct/10/world-murder-rate-unodc
added: NZ has a 15% higher murder rate than the UK. Something that I find quite curious.
Not saying the USA doesn’t have problems but we know prohibition doesn’t work so banning weapons won’t work. Mexico has way stricter gun laws then most countries yet theres a few gun deaths there. Also note that the USA rates are dropping.
The recent ban was for military style semi-automatics which make up less than 3.5% of all deaths.
If you want to stop gun deaths why target a gun that is used in less than 3.5% of all deaths?
Also on a separate note check out Greenland, double the rate of the USA. That surprised me.
There’s no civilian or sporting use for military style convertible to full-auto assault weapons. Greenland…those guys need to get more daylight hours.
Sorry mate you used the legal term for an alcohol ban which is what doesn’t work in this context.
In terms of banning these weapons, unfortunately for the US that horse has well and truly bolted.
Children should be taught in the use of machine guns and rpg’s at the pre-school stage so they can defend themselves.
This is the usa way.
I can’t believe that you would consider a ban on RPGs. I have my Constitutionally guaranteed Second Ammendment rights, damnit!
“There’s no civilian or sporting use for military style convertible to full-auto assault weapons”
– I agree but the 2nd amendment isn’t about sporting or hunting (as I understand it)
– Yes I concede prohibition wasn’t the right choice of words.
“In terms of banning these weapons, unfortunately for the US that horse has well and truly bolted.”
– I agree and thats why I think banning is just pointless, all it does it make a few people fell good about themselves because they’ve made a difference whereas the reality is they’ve made no difference at all except make previously law abiding citizens potential criminals.
Check this guy out, hes got quite reasonable views (if you can get past the semi-incoherent ramblings of Piers Morgan) and some ideas of what to do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHIQtxLCgrM&feature=endscreen&NR=1
Sure, it was about the use of rifled muskets within the context of a well disciplined, well regulated state run citizens militia.
Muskets which was the technology of the day. Since its the United States of America not simply America it still holds true today.
The constitution was written with the thought of ,and applied to, the common military firearm of the day chris73.
Muskets and rifled muskets, usually with bayonets.
Bear in mind that the modern equivalent of a standard infantry primary weapon is a fully automatic AR-15, M-16 or AKM/AK-74 with 30 round clip with anti-personnel or armour penetrating rounds.
Surely that’s the modern corollary Second Amendment would apply to today, right?
…. from a deeply stupid person who reckons people need assault rifles in case the gubmint decides to start rounding them up…with tanks, bombers, F-35 joint force fighters and drones armed with hellfire missiles…oh, and he’s a victim too…
http://www.newshounds.us/breitbart_s_ben_shapiro_pretends_to_be_bullied_by_the_left_01092013
Yeah. Because we should never have let the horse bolt in the first place.
We could have stopped it in NZ by continuing the strict registration and licensing of firearms, but of course the gun nuts want open slather.
Real sports people and pro hunters don’t need semi-auto’s or auto’s. You get into position and get it right, with the first shot.
I’ve always been against guns for “self defense”. The USA shows that it doesn’t work. The most common gun casualty is the family members of gun owners.
However with our police assaulting legal protesters with impunity, maybe the yanks have a point!
NZ firearms users tend to be highly responsible and serious about abiding by the law and good safety practices. There are almost 1M firearms in this country, with only very few non-suicide deaths resulting.
Yes agreed. Mostly!
However it was not very responsible opposing gun registration.
Not to mention, the ‘so called hunters” who don’t identify their targets
And in NZ Mostly rifles. Which are a bit hard to routinely carry around, and keep in the bedside cabinet..
I suspect we would have a lot more gun deaths if we had more handguns, like the USA.
Actually, around 50% of reported family violence incidents where a firearm was involved are committed by gun license holders. That indicates that any legislative changes should target licensed and unlicensed gun owners.
1.1 million guns is an old estimate from around 2006… We simply don’t know how many guns there are in New Zealand because they aren’t registered. Also, around 79% of gun deaths are from suicide, with the remaining 21% from criminal endeavour, legal intervention or by accident.
As far as I’m aware, there is no proper database of recent statistics on firearms deaths, however between 1995 and 2004 there was a mean annual number of deaths by firearm of 79 (62 were suicide). This number has nearly halved whereby 38 of the 558 suicides in 2011 were committed using a gun or explosives.
Even with that reduction, casualties arising from firearm misuse in New Zealand are considered to be high.
As an aside, an in-depth government funded 1997 review of firearms control concluded that registering guns is required. However the government has ignored that recommendation, mainly because of pressure from the Police and gun lobbyists.
Personally I don’t see the point in undertaking costly studies if the government just does whatever they want to anyway.
We don’t need restrictive laws as the ones being proposed in the USA. We don’t have a problem with them now and we haven’t had a problem with them in the past.
The difference between the USA and NZ is that the laws in NZ are enforced. I personally will be buying certain military rifles and machine guns when I have the spare money to buy them (so a wee way off) and I’ll be following the laws to allow me to do that.
“I’ve always been against guns for “self defense”. The USA shows that it doesn’t work.”
– I’ve posted many examples of women using guns for self-defense successfully, I’d suggest that the people with the guns are trained properly to use them.
I’d say anyone owning a firearm should (as part of obtaining a license) be made to get proper training and be part of a gun club (so as to have regular practice)
Greenland… as well as sunlight issues it probably has a similar problem to NZ ie colonisation trauma.
The decrease in violence and murder has been convincingly attributed to the removal of lead based additives from petrol. This pattern is not confined to the USA.
Holy mackarel. That’s quite something.
Also heard it attributed to the rise of legal abortion. Take your pick?
Not only that, but since lead in the environment is closely related to stupidity, and stupidity is closely related to right wing politics, the reduction in lead-based petrol might even result in fewer wingnuts.
Yep. There is some degree on the surface of biological plausibility for a decline in violence, but it still screams “texas sharpshooter”. There’s probably further work going into ot though.
chris73 ..
This is a good example of how to present stats in a confusing way that tends to reinforce one’s argument.
The first statement seems to be connected with the use of guns which was being discussed.
The second seems to be connected also but is not just related to guns.
How can we get a clear line of reasoning to comprehend the argument when the references are being shifted?
Watch his youtube clip, he does it a lot better than me
I have been rereading Chris Trotter’s “No Left Turn” recently and came across this wonderful comment by Bill Sutch about the first National Government. He described National’s approach to education as being founded on a conviction “that the main thing needed in education was to insult the Education Department …”
How times (and the Nats) have not changed …
Is that Bill Sutch, NZ national hero? Who I think was not made a Sir William Sutch because he had a scenario for NZ’s progress that required intelligent judgment. So Sir Roger Douglas got the knighthood and Goodnight Nurse to NZs aspirations to a modern, well-balanced, well-run economy with stability, effective enterprise and innovation plus good living standards for all.
Yep prism one and the same.
The whole book gives a really good oversight of how opportunity after opportunity for improvement of the country was missed because of the stupidity of the right. And New Zealand has often verged on doing the right thing but this has been frustrated by reactionary forces and stupidity.
It should be compulsory reading for the current cabinet not to mention the opposition front bench!
And has that made either the Greens, Labour or National tack further to the left, in recognition? Nope. We’re as blind as ever.
ms
I watched Sir Humphrey and PM Jim in Yes Minister on youtube recently. The one about only getting honours if they have been earned.
PM Jim trying to pierce Sir Humphrey’s rhetoric says something like ‘So you don’t want to do the right thing now, because it creates a precedent for the next time’.
I guess that explains National’s behaviour and why they stick to the status quo, which usually produces results that suit them and their supporters, ie ‘If it ain’t broke (for us NACTs) why fix it.’ I don’t like this idea, it is very depressing to me. We seem to be doomed to this downward slide.
I am very interested in this movement in the UK. I think that the only way we are going to get a return to anything resembling social justice is for people to unite, independently of political parties. I just had a chat on Skype with a friend in Athens, who is just staggered by the EU’s abandonment of democracy for the sake of the banks.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/05/people-assembly-against-austerity
I’m not. It’s been obvious for awhile now that governments are only there for the rich, to keep the wealth pump from the poor to the rich going.
Sutch was booted to the sideline because he committed the heresy of scandalous interest in secondary industry
I thought it was because he was a part of some think tank on monetary reform during Norm Kirk’s time in office. Gerald O’Brien was also on that think tank and was later beaten up in a Courtenay Place public toilet. O’Brien was later arseholed out of the Labour Party by Bill Rowling, though perhaps justifiably since he had written a letter to Bruce Beatham, then leader of the Social Credit party, behind Rowling’s back. Sutch was later prosecuted, though unsuccessfully, for having contact with someone in the Russian embassy. He may well have been set up.
Yes Sutch was a bigger thinker than the little crackpots in and around government. He remained silent on the Russian clandestine meeting for which he was arrested in 1974. I thought he probably just was trying to keep up with his background knowledge of political thought and movement in that part of the world. But it appears that he may have been responding to a request for political asylum.
See stuff – http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/477347/Sutch-case-Russian-got-chance-to-defect
At the time of course we were strongly anti-communist. However we pragmatically managed to overlook that barrier by the 1980s to do some bartering with Soviet Russia by swopping our butter for their Lada cars and the NZ Dairy Board was distributor for them. (Australia was bartering with bauxite ore, so we of course weren’t trail-blazing.)
From Wikipedia –
Ladas were briefly popular in the 1980s. Meat, dairy and fertiliser exports to Russia were wholly or partly paid for with Belarus tractors, Stolichnaya vodka and Lada cars. The New Zealand Dairy Board were distributors for Lada vehicles.[10] Some Ladas, even those of the 1970s, can still be seen on New Zealand roads (especially in rural areas and offshore islands) but are increasingly rare.
It was a funny time.
Kirk’s death was thought by some, including Bob Harvey, to be a case of poisoning.
Certainly Sutch’s treatment was strange and had the feeling of hatchet job about it.
Gough Whitlam.
Yep. Two leaders of progressive governments brought down in very unusual circumstances. I must admit harbouring a few conspiracy theories about what happened.
And once you read up on how Salvador Allende was dealt to and how Pinochet was installed, also the 2002 coup against Chavez, you realise that “conspiracy theory” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
My schoolboy recall of the time says Sutch was Secretary of Trade and Industry, or the equivalent, under the ’57-’60 Labour government. Phillip Holloway was the minister I think.
Sutch was booted and marginalised when Holyoake took power in 1960. He had no opportunity to lobby for anything meaningful until ’72 when Labour returned. By that time he was probably regarded as a bit old hat. Accordingly he spent years as a private consultant.
He was a remarkable individual whose influence commenced as early as 1935. He accompanied Walter Nash to Britain when Nash went there as finance minister to give comfort that the first Labour government was not about to nationalise all and sundry, inlcuding the interests of British bondholders.
The talk around Wellington at the time of his trial an afterwards was that the Russian Embassy officer Razgovoroz whom Sutch met surreptitiously was indeed planning to defect.
It was a strange case with, it was privately said, the Sutch home having been entered and searched in the course of the trial. Tin foil liner in the base of a tea caddy of a morning was found in the evening on top of its contents, with remnants of those contents spilt on a kitchen bench. Nothing stolen.
One can see the SIS of the day (for which Rowling as PM after Kirk was minister) being much exercised by Sutch – Cold War, reds under the bed and all that. It was even said that at his funeral a matter of only months after his acquittal, people were observed in the upper floors of a building opposite the church in Taranaki Street, photographing those emerging.
Interesting times the real fabric of which will probably never emerge.
Having had pc trouble this past week, I’ve only just seen your comment North. Be assured that back in the 1970s… interest in NZ politics and related matters was not confined to the NZSIS. In 1992 a lengthy article appeared in the Australian Womens Weekly (I still have a copy in my possession) about a woman by the name of Wendi Holland who went public about her former job as an ASIS spy. She spent a large portion of her time in the late 1960s and 1970s in NZ spying on NZ politicians and certain organisations and individuals suspected of links to communist activity. She would certainly not have been their only spy in the country either.
There is no doubt in my mind that off-shore intelligence services were interfering in New Zealand’s affairs at that time and a lot of innocent people were being fingered for no other reason other than they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I had a close family member who was one of them, and the fallout even had an affect on my life and career opportunities.
In light of the above I agree with you mickysavage. It is unlikely to be coincidence that both Kirk and Whitlam were brought down in unusual circumstances.
FYI.
25 March 2013
Press Release – Housing Lobby Spokesperson Sue Henry ” Don’t fast-track the Auckland Unitary Plan!”
“The Unitary Plan should not be fast-tracked and signed off this side of the local body elections, with so much dissent from communities, who do not want unfettered property developers intensifying their suburbs beyond recognition,” says Housing Lobby Spokesperson Sue Henry.
“The ‘tiff’ between Mayor Len Brown and Housing Minister Nick Smith is a diversion from the fact that there is already an alignment set in concrete between Wellington and the Auckland Mayor. ”
“Three east Auckland suburbs, Panmure, Point England and Glen Innes, have already been signed off between the Mayor and the previous Housing Minister, Phil Heatley, into a company, implementing the ‘Tamaki Transformation Programme’, through a ‘Heads of Agreement’ which was signed off behind closed doors, excluding the residents.”
“Which suburbs will be next?
What other communities want to be turned into a ‘company’ without their consent?”
Sue Henry
Housing Lobby Spokesperson
A tick for Winston. He has revealed the NACTs siphoning money that should be going direct to regional development initiatives in NZ, to an overseas oriented agency. He has found that the smarmy ones are paying it to some outfit called KEA that operates overseas to keep in touch with the people that are already doing well there and perhaps to entice them back. Now them being encouraged to come home is okay – let us have a register of interested ex-pats to be referred to.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport
08:23 Winston Peters says regional funding diverted to expat group
The New Zealand First leader, Winston Peters, says money from a Government fund aimed at boosting regional economic development has been given instead to the organisation Kiwi Expatriates Abroad, or Kea. (4′10″)
But the money being paid to KEA we need HERE to support the regions to find and support healthy and risk-free business initiatives that will provide employment for semi-skilled people in particular. The idea has grown that it is Bad and Lazy to be ‘semi-skilled’ ie not to be a lawyer, or a techology type etc. Trouble is when there is growth in employees in any of these specialist jobs, the pay will go down – so self-defeating for the upwardly mobile aspirants. There must be jobs for all so we are all enabled to have a good live and the respect of our country for each person, something the unemployed don’t receive.
And with the growth of computer generated physical objects this still leaves many people in a work-oriented society out of the loop. This is surprising in a country with such advanced education and understanding about everything. We must do better at balancing the economy and work opportunities.
Good to see someone in the opposition sticking to the basics and focusing on the money trail.
Looks like the pricks were using the RDI fund to pay blood money too.
http://www.odt.co.nz/156763/govt-give-35m-mine-memorial-centre
http://business.scoop.co.nz/2013/03/25/regional-development-fund-slashed-and-squandered/
‘DEMOCRACY FOR DEVELOPERS’?
WHO EXACTLY IS RUNNING AUCKLAND COUNCIL AND IN WHOSE INTERESTS???
Council sees no conflict in belonging to property body – Property – NZ Herald News
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/property/news/article.cfm?c_id=8&objectid=10873340
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
2013 Auckland Mayoral Candidate
Tells you who the puppets are eh!
The same people as always – the businessmen.
“From the Left and From the Right”: trivializing serious public debate
Radio NZ National, Monday 25 March 2013
Kathryn Ryan, Matthew Hooton, Mike Williams
The always on-message, relentless and very clever Matthew Hooton is clearly the Alpha-male in nearly all these Monday morning match-ups. Only Andrew Campbell and Laila Harre have had the presence of mind and integrity to consistently counter Hooton’s antics and consistently get the better of him. Mike Williams does occasionally get aroused and actually puts Hooton in his place, but all too often Williams is just like he was today: passive and over-eager to please. First part of this program was a run-of-the-mill discussion, mostly about David Shearer’s bank account, with Williams as usual bending over backwards to agree with everything Hooton said. Then it was time to face up to a very unpleasant elephant in the room….
KATHRYN RYAN: The other matter that took a PREPOSTEROUS amount of time in my humble opinion was the appointment of Dame Susan Devoy as Race Relations Commissioner.
MATTHEW HOOTON: Have we still got a Race Relations Commissioner? Ha ha ha! No, really, she is no worse than anyone else! I mean she’s a perfectly nice person. She belongs to the Climate Science Coalition….[He rambles on for a considerable time, simultaneously pouring scorn on the very idea of a Race Relations Commissioner and asserting, incredibly, that Susan Devoy has written and said nothing to disqualify her.]
KATHRYN RYAN: That all sounds reasonable to me. Mike, what’s your problem with her?
MIKE WILLIAMS: [carefully] She’s clearly not a rocket scientist, let’s put it like that.
KATHRYN RYAN: [suddenly not so congenial] I-I-I-I-I’m not going to put UP with that! What is your objection?
MIKE WILLIAMS: She lacks the capacity to do the job.
MATTHEW HOOTON: You need to be able to conciliate, and not just swallow everything from the Treaty grievance industry!
MIKE WILLIAMS: Actually there is quite a lot to the job. Joris De Bray— or De Brayze, is it?
MATTHEW HOOTON: Who cares?
MIKE WILLIAMS: Well, I was tangentially involved in the Cheeky Darky business and Joris did a very good job taking the heat out of that. He called off the Auckland University people who wanted to hang, draw and quarter Paul Holmes.
KATHRYN RYAN: I like the cartoon over the weekend which showed her whacking a squash ball at people and saying “You lot make up!” He he he he!
MIKE WILLIAMS: Ha ha ha ha ha! Let’s give her a chance!
More light-hearted and jocular comments on another topic, then it’s time to wrap it up…
KATHRYN RYAN: Hey thanks guys! That is Mike Williams and Matthew Hooton, our political commentators! Coming up: today’s recipe and wine match from John Hawkesby!
I listened to some of that while on the exercise machine. Williams managed to say “no problem” to Shearer’s UN bank account, and to say nothing when Hooton added in a smear to TS as a site of conspiracy theorists re-shearer being a plant for overseas wealthy interests.
I got fed up, and switched onto Maori TV for a Te Reo learning session – was much more useful way of engaging my mind while exercising.
Hooton added in a smear to TS as a site of conspiracy theorists
Amusing – as he’s tried to influence opinion here and found himself the object of ridicule instead. I suppose that’s “Plan B”.
Ha!
i thought an interesting bit was during the shearer-discussion..
..when williams called those unhappy with shearer ‘the far left’..
..and that ‘there is only about three of them’..
..(i reckon ryan/nine-to-noon should be done for false-advertising..
..for describing that neo-lib apologist/enabler/promoter/defender mike williams..
..as being speaking for ‘the left’..)
..the only time williams turns/does anything ‘left’ – is when he goes out of his driveway..
..and then only because he has to..
..as he lives in a right/one-way street..
phillip ure..
The regular spots in Afternoons with Borer are so facile I’m now more or less dependent on Morrissey. Seems Mornings in that safe pair of hands Kathryn is going the same way.
In fact, everything seems to be relatively dumbed down now. Not surprising since that was always part of the modus operandi on the road to the nirvana of New Zealand as a playground for international money games.
Trivialise formerly trusted institutions as someone said. Have people give up and stop listening. Logistically, institutions and thinking which formerly defined us, is all the easier to throw away as inefficient and ultimately expendable froth on a body politic which is distinctive for its corruptness.
North
I hope you complain to Radionz with definite examples. It is important to try and keep a crisp coverage of our daily serial news.
RNZ-“House Insurers shifting the onus (and cost) of maintaining up-to-date cost of rebuild figures on to home owners; do not expect market value payouts unless you keep (annually) up to date valuations (at your expense); Insurers slipping more risk back onto owners.”
Dom-
CHINESE SUCCESSFULLY TEST “CARRIER KILLER MISSILE”; (anti-ship DF21D)(yanks developing “highly classified defensive measures).China shifting ballistic missile batteries nearer Taiwan; Americans rushing Raptors and U-2 spy planes to Asia-Pacific region.
time for an end to “romantic pacifism” and to begin “full preparation” for war.
-Liberation Army Daily. (that is some fairly strong rhetoric, right there)
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/how-it-could-happen-part-one-hubris.html
Is Lynn fiddling with the pipes again? Comments list links are in a bit of a time warp.
Nope. And they are up to date on my screen. Ummm. I did fiddle with the database query caching at the end of last week. I’ll have a look at what implications that has.
Just had it happen again. Tried opening a new tab on Pascal’s Bookie’s comment in the Labour’s Three Factions thread and went here instead
http://thestandard.org.nz/tizard-not-coming-back/#comment-609446
The problem doesn’t seem to last long though and then the links go back to normal if I try another page. But if I try and open links from the original page (the FP in this case, that I still have open), all the comments go to the Tizard thread, but different comments.
“Man has gained power over the world by turning it into symbols-by turning real men into matchstick men and so on. But he has often gained this mastery at the expense of losing touch with reality and spending far too much time in an unreal world of symbols. In effect modern man spends most of his time inside a sound-proof room inside his own head, staring at a computer screen ;). This enables him to handle reality with far more efficiency than a child or a savage, but it also means he tends to forget that there is a ‘real’ reality out there. And when he grows tired and bored with the computer, he thinks he has grown tired and bored with life…”
The psychologist J.Silverman found that for “convicts who had been in prison for a very long time that their perceptions became blurry and they tended to notice far less.Their consciousness had shifted from the ‘active’ mode to the ‘receptive’ mode (i.e.passive mode).”
“A Zen parable tells how a common man asked the Zen Master Ikkyu to write down for him some maxims of the highest wisdom. The Master wrote one word: ATTENTION.”Will you not write something more?” asked the man, whereupon Ikkyu wrote, ATTENTION.ATTENTION.The disgruntled man said he couldn’t see much wisdom in this, whereupon the Master wrote, ATTENTION. ATTENTION.ATTENTION.” What does attention mean?” asked the man, whereupon Ikkyu replied, “Attention means attention.” 🙂
“There is a big
A big hard sun
Beating on the big people
In the big hard world…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4uTEhDqa_s
(Living Stone Seagull)
The Only Sound That Matters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObRY1ZA8hfY
(Planted) 😉
btw, “viruses circulating at epidemic levels.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/8463021/Doctors-urge-vaccination-as-killer-virus-looms
Odd, it didn’t say that the US killer flu strain that they reported on is included in the 2013 Kiwi vaccination formula.
Is it in the NZ vaccine formulation or is it not in the NZ vaccine formulation?
interesting, yet i would suggest text implies it is; from my experience, the available vaccinations covers the national and international strains of concern per year of release.
Possibly, but I’d be far more comfortable with a piece containing that factual statement rather than a between the lines implication.
Breakfast this morning covered it and it sounded like all the necessary evils are present and accounted for. (I think it was just before Toni Timefiller asked the PM about the DOC job losses then sat back as the PM spun a long line about National’s ongoing ever-growing world saving job creation programme whilst avoiding the question in its entirety. Did you know that according to the PM over a hundred thousand jobs a month are lost or created in NZ? Someone please tell me I heard it wrong)
folk have to understand many of the useful predominately safe vaccine programmes of thirty forty years ago are very different beasties than the pick’n’mix petridishes of today.
It’s the old risks vs benefits balance.
or motive and opportunity 😎
freedom
Oh come on. we have super bugs etc now, things decades old aren’t up to the present strains and possibly some weren’t reliable then.
http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/highly-debatable-job-creation-fast-enough-video-5382005
in the interests of accurate reporting (hint hint daily papers)
the PM actually said in any three month period around a hunndred thousand jobs are lost or created
still seems high
Must be commission payments time again!
What a load of utter DROS!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/rebuilding-christchurch/8469811/EQC-leak-much-larger-than-realised
Gee, I wonder how King Gerry and Queen Shonkey are going to spin this one ???
its been removed and edited already, here is the new link
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/rebuilding-christchurch/8469811/EQC-leak-much-larger-than-realised
+ the herald’s
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10873522
http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/could-cyprus-happen-here
Josie Pagani, shows why certain subject matter, are best left to those who have an ounce of understanding, Josie is not one of those, in this instance!
Some gems:
More awful writing, on pundit!
“should be used as a excuse to introduce a united European banking system”
Quelle surprise!
http://unhypnotize.com/attachments/nwo-new-world-order-globalization/465d1247255964-sample-coin-new-world-currency-unity-diversity-coin-00021ace.jpg
they don’t just make these things for fun
Did Josie just miss the fact that the Eurozone is a key part of the problem, yet she wants even broader multinational banking systems???
And did she just equate Cyprus to some tin pot corrupt African country?
OMG.
Geeezus the international bankster and corporate cartel want their tax havens and infinitely unrestricted control over capital movement. She needs to get with the programme.
Maybe start with watching some Max Keiser.
Josie is clueless on this subject, and a terrible writer by looks of it, the article is atrocious in all respects!
Of course she has no idea that the Russian money is long since removed from Cyprus, if it were ever actually there in the first place (the avergae cyprian will wear 100% of this, and what when they need another bailout, another round of account theft of course), and Josie seems to not understand that the people writing the compliance regulations, also use the *tax havens*, she muses about *being cleaned up*
Its no wonder Josie has no idea the Eurozone/EU/IMF/ECB at al, are tools used to reek havoc on the worlds populace! – NZ has been owned by the IMF since 1961, it started with our gold, and it will end with (who knows what),and we still owe, undisclosed amounts, to undisclosed creditors
Josie exposes herself again!
Date Returned From Overseas.
Night John-Boy…Night Mary-Ellen… 🙂
i see shearer was on the telly reassuring the swinging-voters that ‘no..!..don’t worry..!..i also won’t do anything about poverty’..
..he has ditched the no gst on food..and the first five grand tax-free policies..
..saying we ‘can’t afford them’..
..and that labour ‘must focus on job creation-policies’..
..isn’t that the same pile of stinking bullshit key has been shovelling our way for so long now..?
..(is farrar advising shearer now..?..’can’t afford it/job-creation’ has been what he has been pushing since before national came to power..)
..phillip ure..
Q&A. Guest argued that Australia laws are its own business, but then decried that Australia would return welfare rights to kiwis in OZ, and this would hurt Australia because so many kiwis over there are so hard working – what will they do? return to NZ. The guest was unnerved by the whole direction of the move. NZ just doesn’t deserve better highly motivated skilled kiwis working here.
But then, to cap his blather off, after missing the obvious disproportionate treatment (that is know to destabilizes a nation), he went on to demand that the same policy should be introduce here.
Now editors at Q&A may feel the dumb arse opinions of don’t-know-don’t-want-to-know-heres-my-definitive-conclusion types makes great television, but I don’t, its just lazy filler for the time slot.
Q&A is not quality current affairs when it can’t debunk such nonsense.