In late 1918, after the war had ended, New Zealand and Australian soldiers rounded up more than one hundred boys and men in the Palestinian village of Surafend, then methodically clubbed them to death. After that, the ANZAC soldiers burned the village to the ground/
General Allenby called these ANZAC troops “cowards and murderers”.
Far from apologizing for the massacre, the RSA ran poems in its magazine praising it.
Well done to those who attended Dawn parade. Those of you who did attend showed more respect than former PM Helen Clark who refused to attend dawn parade. It seemed that she could not be bothered getting out of bed early on that one day of the year. [r0b: Moved this comment from the Anzac day post to Open Mike. Also banned BB for a year on the charge of inappropriate politicisation and being a POS.]
Helen attended several ANZAC services on each ANZAC day while she was in parliament. I usually saw her at the Mt Albert one, starting in 1990 when I shifted back to that one. She routinely did several around Mt Albert, Mt Roskill, Avondale, Pt Chev and other local ones around her home.
She attended the War Memorial dawn service frequently… At least as frequently as I did, and I was a soldier.
Many of her family were soldiers in various of our wars.
FFS This can be found with a simple google. Why didn’t you do one? Rather than just lying.
You sound like another lazy armchair general. Too damn lazy to get off your arse to volunteer for anything. A critic of those who do. Playing the patriotic card to send other parents kids to fight for you. Basically a parasite on society and as r0b said, generally a piece of shit
BFD, i get up before dawn every fucking morning to go to work you moron. what pisses me off is the sheep who go to the dawn parades then go to the warehouse or malls or cafes feeling superior to us who refuse to be sucked in to celebrating & supporting military conflict, so fuck you you sanctimonious dick.
last one I went to was in Cambridge a few years back .When the local Nat MP/lance -Adams Schider used tyhe whole time telling us how we needed Nuclear Powered Ships.Never been since.Any way I do not have to attend such meetings to realise the horror of war.
Of course it was rot. RWNJs have to lie and put others down so as to put themselves up on a pedestal of their own delusion, to tell themselves how much better they are than everyone else.
This sort of censorship would make Kim Jong-un blush. It reflects very poorly on the site and your ideology. Though it is to be expected from a Clark apologist.
When people see this it drives them into JK’s arms, as the lessor of two evils.
I want a decent choice in the next election and if the left continues the way it is going, I will be denied that choice.
BB claimed Helen Clark never attended Dawn Services. This is a repeat of a common lie – a lie that can be readily shown for the smear it is with a few seconds googling.
BB is not expressing an honest opinion. He knows he is lying, and continues to do it over many years. This is not behaviour we are obliged to tolerate.
There is a difference between ideas and opinions – and behaviour. This site has long tolerated the expression of a very wide range of opinions, but does not allow repeated bad behaviour to disrupt the debate.
Then expose their lies. Surely that is a better approach. It also makes things much more interesting.
If JK told a lie you could expose, would you really want to hide the lie and stop him telling more lies ? With thinking like that, you must have been a Labour strategist in the past few elections.
The “behavior” argument is at best subjective and at worst unconvincing.
bb is well known here. For years he posted here in a similar vein. He’s said that lie many times before and been pointed to the correct information before. An honest person would accept the correct information and not repeat the mistake. There would be no problem this at all.
But knowingly repeating a lie is a different thing to expressing an honestly held opinion. Then it becomes bad behaviour.
I agree that this can be a subjective thing. I used to moderate here for years (I don’t have the time nor inclination to do it any more) and I know it is not easy deciding where the boundaries are. But there is no doubt that boundary exists, and the site owners are entitled to make up their minds as to where it lies.
The comment directly beneath BB’s refutes his lies.
What would be “interesting” about allowing disruptive tr*lls to ruin the discourse? There are plenty of live issues to pick over without resuscitating long dead zombies.
big bruv…my uncle never attended the RSA or ANZAC Day …let alone Dawn Parades… so disgusted was he with the futility and tragic waste of war….if it was good enough for him not to attend , it is good enough for any of the rest of us to remember in our own way….and hopefully we will simply remember their sacrifice … the tragedy that is war ….and resolve to strive for peace
my uncle, the navigator in the tail of a Lancaster, was shot down over Germany ( only he and one other survived)…ended up on a German forest….walked for a week at night trying to get into France and then back to the UK ….ended up in a POW camp and then towards the end of the war did the Long March in winter( he said they would not have survived without the Red Cross and their parcels)
…i remember him and those returned servicemen ( many of them scarred) of my childhood who did not want to talk about war but who wanted to live!…..and who loved life!…and believed fervently in PEACE
(incidentally he never said a bad word about the Germans because he was reasonably well treated and he recognised that we are all capable of war atrocities)
No doubt there were incidents similar to this in French and Belgian villages; petty thievery is universal. Yet it is unthinkable that New Zealand and Australian soldiers would have contemplated the mass murder of innocent civilians in a French or Belgian village. The Arabs in Palestine, on the other hand, were regarded with contempt by many of the soldiers; they were untermenschen on a level with the natives of Australia and New Zealand.
The New Zealand establishment has continued to refuse to apologize for this massacre—doggerel poems in the RSA magazine treated the murderers as heroes. It renders hollow this morning’s words by the Governor General, praising the “courage, compassion and mateship in adversity” and “moments of astonishing humanity”, and the Prime Minister’s words about those who “fought so gallantly for what we believe in.”
what is it with all the folk having to go to cafes, burger chains etc on this solemn morning.
i have long ranted about businesses that choose to open on anzac day and vowed not to darken their doors during the rest of the year.
it occurs to me the businesses are just doing as businesses do. meeting a demand.
couldnt we skip the trim flat white and bacon and eggs (not too hard please), and instead gather together at the local rsa, or at someones home and break bread together?
We stopped at a cafe this morning – as we always do, with my father-in-law and another resident from the retirement home, and enjoyed the morning coffee with them. It is the one regular visit out for one of them, and I’m glad that we did it.
I am one of those who commemorate the wastefulness of war and conflict with sadness and contemplation, and to be surrounded by others who seem to be celebrating is quite disconcerting.
I am finding the emphasis of the Gallipoli celebrations this year to be particularly disheartening, in light of the deployment of troops to Iraq. I don’t want to participate in this appropriation of loss by those who have their own agenda, or who “enjoy” this day. Our local MP used one ANZAC service to speak about his politics for over 20 minutes – a gross display of disrespect.
I don’t need a particular day to join with others in regretting our continued involvement in other people’s conflicts – without a decent strategy or exit plan. This is happening for me every day, the waste of human potential is always depressing.
hi molly, my experience of todays dawn service was far from celebratory.
two speakers, local high school boy, and returned soldier.
both eloquent, the veteran cited casualty numbers and gave context with the population of our town in 1915.
there was plenty of contemplation, solemnity, sacrifice (it was cold), coming together, reflection.
the experience with your mp electioneering, says more about that member than anzac service.
our mayor gave the g.g. address and that was the politics over with.
i do share your disheartedness re troops deployed.
i simply feel, surely some things are sacred.
maybe we could sacrifice by going without a visit to the cafe?
disclaimer- i work in hospitality.
i am curious, what was the atmosphere in the cafe this morning?
Very quiet in the cafe this morning. The realist in me thinks this is due to the carpark being empty because of the retail stores not being open, rather than attendance at ANZAC day or a recognition of sacrifice.
…”surely some things are sacred”…”
Strangely enough, I agree with you there. Except my heart and my mind recognise this sacredness every day, every time it is considered. To my oftentimes awkward realisation – I have never been someone who is entirely comfortable with requiring others to share my sentiments at “appropriate” times, so I find it difficult to do myself. If I observed this day in the way that you do, I would be assuming a persona specifically to say – to paraphrase Keri Hulme – “I wear my heart on my sleeve, mind you look at my sleeve”. The sincerity of the action would not be present. I consider this to be disrespectful in itself.
My thoughts on this topic are fairly constant. And if engaged on the thought of war and engagement, I will express my thoughts with anyone on any day of the year, in order to have a better understanding. This is how I personally recognise the “sacred” that you observe on this day. My approach can be contentious, and requires a lot of internal fortitude, particularly coming up to ANZAC day – but for me it is the only way I can see for myself to come to grips with past and present deployments of our troops, and the consequences for those that live in the countries where they are deployed. I am past the point where I need others to agree with me by the end of the discussion, so I am more adept at keeping discussions flowing, but the ego in me, does try to make them understand my point of view.
hi molly,
thanks for expanding on yr thoughts. a lot of it resonates with me.
especially “I am past the point where I need others to agree with me by the end of the discussion, so I am more adept at keeping discussions flowing, but the ego in me, does try to make them understand my point of view.”
for some there is just little meaning in this day, as they might not be New Zealanders by birth i.e. Tourists and the likes.
for some, they might not need a particular day to remember the death, especially in a world where on every other day we have no issue not only in forgetting the death, but often in blaming the death for their own demise…Gaza comes to mind, or Africa, or other parts of the world, where the dead are not ours.
for another lot, they might plant a tree instead, or go out and clean a river from pollution.
You could lobby the government to declare Anzac Day a day where no one but First Responders, Nurses and other medical staff at hospitals, and Police are allowed to work.
We are closed on Monday, but we are open today. First customer of the day a US American on a visit in NZ…all others were Kiwis coming back from the dawn service buying breakfast items to be shared at home with family.
My staff is off, but my Hubby and I are working.
We are one of those famous small Mum and Pop business, and keeping a day off is not really an option in these times general austerity.
So observance that doesn’t involve turning up to a sanctioned memorial isn’t ‘observance’? Righteous bullshit.
Never been to a dawn anything. Never will. You remember the dead in your way, I mine. But don’t tell me my grief isn’t the same as yours because you demanded businesses close.
Hi stephanie, molly, tigger,
The motive for my posting was twofold: testing the waters re anzac days
sacredness, and garner sympathy for some of the lesser paid, sometimes exploited work force.
Deputy P.M tries comedy–‘The Government has effectively left nothing “undone” to tackle sky-rocketing house prices in Auckland, Finance Minister Bill English says’
In less than surprising, but utterly sickening news from the UK….
The former Conservative deputy prime minister (Michael Heseltine) is being lined up by the shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna, to advise Labour in government.”
& (cause that’s not all folks!)
Labour also hopes to sign up the business secretary, Vince Cable, (Lib Dem)and his predecessor Lord Mandelson (Blairite).
Extraordinary, isn’t it. If there’s one thing UK Labour have conspicuously failed to do since the last Election, it’s win over 2010 Tory voters. They’ve won over a huge chunk of the 2010 Lib Dem vote and made inroads into the Non-vote but next to no Tories (most polls suggest about 3 or 4% of 2010 Conservatives have swung to Labour, representing at most 1.4% of all voters. The Tories have attracted roughly the same proportion – comprising about 1.0% of all voters – from Labour). Nothing suggests this is suddenly going to change over the next few weeks.
The reality is that if Labour manage to cobble together a Government after this Election (as seems more than likely) then – compared to the Blair regime – it will be far less dependent on keeping newly-won-over former Tory voters happy. It will be a Government firmly grounded in a social democratic support-base – voters who have stayed with Labour through thick and thin, voters who swung to Labour from the Lib Dems the moment the latter went into coalition with the Tories, decidedly Left-leaning SNP supporters, along with Greens, the communitarian-socialist Plaid Cymru, Ulster’s SDLP, not to mention the member for Bradford West (even if in some cases, we’re talking about informal/tacit/policy-by-policy support).
Unfortunately, the Blairites still hold some sway in the Party (even if their voice isn’t quite as dominant as it once was).
🙂 I take it you haven’t heard Sturgeon openly saying the SNP will court Labour’s left wing mps to kill austerity/Blairite/Tory lite policies?
I’m looking forward to the unofficial ‘grand alliance’ of Tory/Labour that’s going to come into being in order to push through unpopular policies. Well, the reaction to it from the voting public. 😉
I’m hoping at that point, people will realise that the labour party is the boot at the neck of working people.
It is good to see many Kiwis understand it here. Labour keeps worshipping at the altar of liberalism, and wonders why people don’t want a bar of them. Poll after poll and little or no movement for labour. When will they wake up and notice the wind change?
Plus their latest email with overview of the actions being taken. I’m starting to be quite impressed with this group (although I’m not sure I agree with using the “je suis…” line in situations like this)
More than 90,000 people like you signed petitions to save Campbell Live.
More than 3000 of you wrote emails to MediaWorks or sent messages to Campbell Live sponsor Mazda.
Campbell Live was TV3’s top rated show last night.
Hundreds of people showed up at rallies across the country today.
John Campbell and his team came out to meet and thank our campaigners today, saying: “Thank you so much to everyone involved, from petition organisers and signers, to video makers. Thank you all.”
All in all, as Bill Ralston said yesterday, this has been an amazing display of people power and it seems MediaWorks would prefer it if we went away quietly. When Laura showed up at the MediaWorks office today to deliver those 90,000 signatures, MediaWorks CEO Mark Weldon and Head of News Mark Jennings refused to meet her.
As you know, this petition was originally to be delivered via a crowdfunded television commercial:
More than 1100 of you chipped in to make this video explaining why Campbell Live matters to so many New Zealanders, but when Marianne tried to secure an advertising spot on TV3, they flat-out refused.
In other words, not only will TV3 bosses not meet with someone representing 90,000 fans of their top rated show, they also refuse to accept paid advertising from fans of the show. What they have done, however, is delay the announcement of the outcome of their review of Campbell Live for a few weeks, no doubt in the hope that we’ll all get bored, stop watching and go away. But we don’t give up that easily.
Our job for the next two weeks is to keep Campbell Live in the forefront of people’s minds. This beautiful video, made by people like you, is the perfect way to do it. So we are going to put this video all over the internet!
Will you chip in $10 to put our member-funded video all over the internet? Or if you can’t chip in right now, you can still help by watching and sharing the video with your friends and networks.
MediaWorks may refuse to meet us and refuse to air our ad, but they cannot ignore 90,000 of us, not when our video is all over the internet!
I wish to pay a tribute to my late uncle and the many others who served overseas today, He volunteered during WW2 and went off with the 1st Echelon to the Middle East and served for 4 years. His given peacetime occupation was a printer so he was placed with the Sappers. He defused bombs and set charges on important installations like bridges etc all of this time and escaped death twice from strafing while on land convoys in the desert. He was a cynic through and through and was knicknamed “why” for obvious reasons. He was a dynamic and delightful man but had no time for the military. On his return he and the other returned servicemen had to apply for their service medals (if they chose to) and he naturally told them to put them where the sun doesn’t shine. His thoughts were if they hadn’t the courtesy to take the trouble to send the medals personally they weren’t worth having. He never attended ANZAC Day services but always remembered his mates he served with with much affection and pride. He was above all a man with bravery in his heart and honour deep into his bones.
I, like him do not attend the ceremonies – there is a history world wide of veterans not being looked after like they should be and the grandstanding at these commemorations doesn’t do it for me one little bit. I salute my Uncle today and will have a drink or two and chat with him off and on throughout the day – he is one of the thousands of treasures we have in this country – Lest We Forget”.
i cant be leave how nasty the people on this site are calling the prime minister a pervert or worse where is your respect for the high office and your betters John key is leader of this nation and you should hold your noses and bow before him. just make sure your wearing protection hat or swimming cap
This comment is perfectly placed downthread from big bruv’s attempt to smear Helen Clark’s memory. The right do love to trot out the “respect your betters” line … as long as it’s the betters they personally agree with.
The Key is my harrasser; I shall not be silent.
He maketh me to let down my golden locks: he fondles my hair beside the till.
He violateth my locks: he grabbeth me on the way to serve for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk between the tables of the Tories of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art not near me; thy rod and thy staff they will not touch me.
I preparest a table before you in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with pudgy fingers; my bile runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and my story will live in the blog of the Bomber for ever.
I feel really uneasy at the whole glorfication of the whole ANZAC thing. I dont blame the vets or even the RSA though. Its the politicians and media who are milking the whole thing.
I think we can find way better ways of defining ourselves than by war and militarism.
Gallipoli – Memorial at Anzac Cove by Ataturk.
“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives…
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours…
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace, after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”
Ataturk, 1934
I was very moved to read these words at Anzac Cove ten years ago. Such generosity of spirit and a call to reconciliation.
How markedly different from our current crop of leaders.
John Armstrong in the Herald this morning is hilarious – sage advice against premature us of the “R” word re Trichy-Key. I take that as an apology for his bullshit outburst
over the 11 year old letter and Cunliffe. Even if not intended. His words today condemn his words of last year.
And, of course, just the previous year, NZ invaded Samoa and ruled it as a colony for the next near-50 years, carrying out the Black Saturday massacre, and caring so little for Samoan lives that thousands died during the influenza epidemic after the war: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/samoa-what-new-zealand-did/
I always understood Gallipoli as a catastrophe. My grandmother’s younger sister’s husband served right through WW1 and his War Diary – while constrained and understated – makes no bones of what an inglorious and disgraceful business it all was.
And this is the reason why Gallipoli ranked so highly in the minds of the New Zealanders who lived through it. Before Gallipoli most New Zealanders still regarded Britain as the mother country; and themselves as citizens of the Empire. The images of naive young farm-boys queuing up for conscription, loading their farm horses onto ships for an ‘adventure’ in Europe are bitter indeed.
After Gallipoli the monstrous, incompetent and catastrophic bungling of the British High Command was laid bare. Their unspoken, but palpable contempt for the lives to the ‘colonials’ they so culpably threw away in a futile, pointless campaign – was seared into the minds of many. It marked the critical turning point in the conciousness of this nation – and gave birth to a determination for New Zealand to grow as a nation with it’s own political agency.
To my generation and earlier I believe this was a widespread understanding. The Dawn Services I attended as a youth were sombre, solemn affairs. The still living returned servicemen in attendance would not tolerate much foolish jingoism or flag-waving. They were there to remember their mates. And to grieve for their own loss of innocence.
“The Dawn Services I attended as a youth were sombre, solemn affairs. The still living returned servicemen in attendance would not tolerate much foolish jingoism or flag-waving. They were there to remember their mates. And to grieve for their own loss of innocence.”
This reflects my experience too.
Have avoided the ANZAC parades since my son left the scouts many years ago, and the last I attended was the aforementioned one which was appropriated for a party political broadcast by our local National MP.
I watch the children decked out in the medals of their unmet ancestors and I wonder at their knowledge of what it truly means. I understand the need to make sense of the loss, I’m just not sure the current method of doing so will lead us in the right direction, but unfortunately I have no answers to what will.
To my generation and earlier I believe this was a widespread understanding. The Dawn Services I attended as a youth were sombre, solemn affairs. The still living returned servicemen in attendance would not tolerate much foolish jingoism or flag-waving. They were there to remember their mates. And to grieve for their own loss of innocence.
Mine too. They were grim people about what happened in war. And quiet about it. Incredibly staunch if they felt that something needed to be done. Very reluctant to put younger bodies on the line if they didn’t think it was required. Very inclined to get drunk after the remembrances. Especially the ones who cleared Europe in 1945.
It wasn’t until I went into the army in 1977 and ran across RF who’d been active in Vietnam, who would occasionally talk about it (usually when drinking), that I started to understand. Mind you, clearing the range of sheep with bren gun was a pretty graphic introduction.
It goes both ways.
Being a pacifist when you have conscienceless sociopathic arseholes around isn’t an option. At a local level, and just for an example, how on earth Cameron Slater got a gun license is an good example.
On the other hand you don’t want inexperienced parasites like John Key who appears to have no background in any activity that doesn’t directly benefit himself being able play the ‘patriotic card’. because he will screw it up by the numbers. I am thinking about bloody David Lange thinking that he could send the troops into Fiji during the first coup as an example.
The ideal would be to make sure that we have a counterbalance in the system that protects soldiers from the daft politicians, yet allows them to be used when they are useful. In the latter case East Timor comes to mind.
The question, that is, isn’t whether or not Key likes to characterise himself as a ‘joker’. Instead, it’s what he uses his ‘joking’ for?
If the waitress’ account is anything to go by, it seems his ‘banter’ had the effect on the waitress of dominating, demeaning and cowing her while, simultaneously, asserting his power in the situation.
As the research on humour makes clear, far from being entirely ‘innocent’ and ‘naive’ such “horsing around” may function primarily to aggress against and control others.
That would be my take on JK’s joking. He’s using it to show his power over others.
Hawkes Bay wedding photographer and syndicated columist Eva Bradley says in the Wairarapa Times Age today that New Zealanders didn’t die at Gallipoli so that we could worry about silly things like the Prime Minister repeatedly fondling a waitress’s hair.
anna stretton has penned something along those lines too, its online somewhere i really don’t want to look at it again. ‘its hardly a crime’ she opines.
we don’t want to bloody worry about it – she should send a text to John Key because he has let us and our ancestors down – he has disrespected everyone.
Did Hawkes Bay wedding photographer and syndicated columist Eva Bradley say in the Wairarapa Times Age today that New Zealanders didn’t die at Gallipoli so that we could have a Prime Minister who could take away our rights?
Did Hawkes Bay wedding photographer and syndicated columist Eva Bradley say in the Wairarapa Times Age today that New Zealanders didn’t die at Gallipoli so that we could have a Prime Minister who was a dicktator?
it’s not exactly what one might call an enlightened read.
And so this week in order to never be able to forget the sacrifice made by my forebears I have been making sure I know what there is to remember. I have been consuming the Gallipoli ‘‘special edition’’ sections of the various media, asking the odd old person in my life about what they knew about it as young tykes and soaking up history Hollywood-style with a couple of the flood of films timed to coincide with the anniversary.
little wonder her view of the PM’s actions are so submissive
“Thom discusses fast-track and the TPP with Rep. Alan Grayson and whether European officials are pushing for regime change in Greece with Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. In a special edition of Conversations with Great Minds, Thom talks with Constitution Society for Law and Policy’s Caroline Fredrickson, author of the new book ‘Under the Bus: How Working Women Are Being Run Over’….
When a group of pre-adolescent Chilean schoolgirls were leaving on a trip to Wellington, the president, Michelle Bachelet, was asked if she had any advice for them. With a completely straight face, she said “Don’t have lunch with the Prime Minister.”
Do you think anyone who jokes about FJK should be chastised? I’d hate to think it was just me. And while we’re at it, get whatever’s stuck up your bum surgically removed. You might develop a reasonable facsimile of a sense of humour after that.
Good to know you don’t like what I say. I don’t aim to please the site’s leading Tory apologist.
The thing that hits home to me is that we have learned that the man who is our PM has been acting in the same manner as a sexually aggressive 12 year old and almost no one has come out and said “John Key would never do that. I don’t believe it.” Apart from one or two, most people seemed to have expected reports of something like this sooner or later and are not at all surprised. How low has our society sunk when we get to this?
well i did NOT expect it from a New Zealand Prime Minister!
….however now that the waitress Amanda Bailey has come forward with her story I find it entirely believable and would not be surprised if there are other women who have been similarly harassed ( eg. Bill Clinton did not make an inappropriate pass at just one woman….generally these abuses of power are serial)
( and btw congratulations are due to Bomber for breaking the story so sensitively with Amanda’s own account)
“…almost no one has come out and said “John Key would never do that. I don’t believe it.”
Its not how low has our society sunk, but how low has John Key taken us Murray R.
And I personally think there has been so little surprise because we’ve been waiting for something to come out into the open ever since we learned about the “suppressed important NZer” indecent assault charges and the resultant buy-election. Something had to give : these things can’t be kept secret for ever in a small society like NZ – and the fact that there are now popping up on Facebook and other places many photos of the sleazy creepy PM fondling young girls’ hair indicates people have been keeping these pics in the wings, waiting for the right time to bring ’em out.
+100 agreed jenny kirk…there does seem to be a pattern of power abuse and corruption and hidden secrets and blatant, arrogant, cover ups with this Nact government led by John Key
….so it does conform to this pattern and therefore is not surprising at a subliminal level
We are a country of many secrets Jenny. You rightly made reference to this in respect of the Waikato Maori wrongly imprisoned at North Head during WW1 because they refused to fight for a crown who stole their land. How many NZer’s would be aware of that story do you think? An important part of asserting pakeha dominance and their laws.
I often wonder how many errant son’s were sent to these shores by their embarrassed family. This country grew up with secrets.
We wouldn’t know the half of it. We have an ingrained culture of turning a blind eye or sweeping under the carpet and silence. Don;t we?
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Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
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Why you should NOT wear a red poppy
In late 1918, after the war had ended, New Zealand and Australian soldiers rounded up more than one hundred boys and men in the Palestinian village of Surafend, then methodically clubbed them to death. After that, the ANZAC soldiers burned the village to the ground/
General Allenby called these ANZAC troops “cowards and murderers”.
Far from apologizing for the massacre, the RSA ran poems in its magazine praising it.
http://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog?topic_id=1115959
http://www.theage.com.au/national/massacre-that-stained-the-light-horse-20090723-dv3o.html
Thanks Morrisey, from memory there is also an example of Kiwi troops war crime on display in the Auckland War Memorial museum.
War is an ugly and complex thing and I imagine that there are plenty of examples of this, fuelled by seeing one of your mates killed.
This is the Anzac tradition followed by FJK and Abbott. The Australian Light Horse machine gunning unarmed demonstrators in Egypt also plays a role.
Well done to those who attended Dawn parade. Those of you who did attend showed more respect than former PM Helen Clark who refused to attend dawn parade. It seemed that she could not be bothered getting out of bed early on that one day of the year. [r0b: Moved this comment from the Anzac day post to Open Mike. Also banned BB for a year on the charge of inappropriate politicisation and being a POS.]
Big bruv you are going to have to let it go. Helen has not been PM for 7 years now. We have an ex merchant banker hair fetishist in control now.
Besides it appears that what you say is not true.
It appears she attended a dawn ceremony in 2005 (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0505/S00060.htm), and 2006 (https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=0d_QAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=%22helen+clark%22+attends+anzac+dawn+parade&source=bl&ots=Ih2WMKgweW&sig=JuUefIPLjqgGmraJaI6edCG51Zk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=8Ko6Ve6VEqi1mwXFnIHQAQ&ved=0CEoQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=%22helen%20clark%22%20attends%20anzac%20dawn%20parade&f=false). In fact Google suggests that she attended a huge number of ceremonies.
In 20 years time BB are you still going to have your obsession with Helen?
Helen attended several ANZAC services on each ANZAC day while she was in parliament. I usually saw her at the Mt Albert one, starting in 1990 when I shifted back to that one. She routinely did several around Mt Albert, Mt Roskill, Avondale, Pt Chev and other local ones around her home.
She attended the War Memorial dawn service frequently… At least as frequently as I did, and I was a soldier.
Many of her family were soldiers in various of our wars.
FFS This can be found with a simple google. Why didn’t you do one? Rather than just lying.
You sound like another lazy armchair general. Too damn lazy to get off your arse to volunteer for anything. A critic of those who do. Playing the patriotic card to send other parents kids to fight for you. Basically a parasite on society and as r0b said, generally a piece of shit
BFD, i get up before dawn every fucking morning to go to work you moron. what pisses me off is the sheep who go to the dawn parades then go to the warehouse or malls or cafes feeling superior to us who refuse to be sucked in to celebrating & supporting military conflict, so fuck you you sanctimonious dick.
+1
Never gone to a dawn service, probably never will.
last one I went to was in Cambridge a few years back .When the local Nat MP/lance -Adams Schider used tyhe whole time telling us how we needed Nuclear Powered Ships.Never been since.Any way I do not have to attend such meetings to realise the horror of war.
what’s a POS?
piece of shit.
ah. It was a good piece of moderation from r0b.
PIECE OF SHIT I believe;-)
😀
My recollection is that Helen went to Gallipoli and certainly spoke out about her uncle who died there if my memory serves me right.
What does POS stand for? Primeval Old Shit by any chance?
Oops… weka has already asked. Oh well, I wasn’t far out.
Probably more accurate though 😈
What rot! It was Helen Clark who solemnly unveiled the tomb of the unknown warrior in Wellington.
Of course it was rot. RWNJs have to lie and put others down so as to put themselves up on a pedestal of their own delusion, to tell themselves how much better they are than everyone else.
Can we please get some better trolls around here? The ones we have are getting far too predictable and boring.
This sort of censorship would make Kim Jong-un blush. It reflects very poorly on the site and your ideology. Though it is to be expected from a Clark apologist.
When people see this it drives them into JK’s arms, as the lessor of two evils.
I want a decent choice in the next election and if the left continues the way it is going, I will be denied that choice.
Oh, look at that. Another RWNJ telling lies.
but but, you could always vote for dear leader as the lesser of two evils, or the only evil left tugging 🙂
BB claimed Helen Clark never attended Dawn Services. This is a repeat of a common lie – a lie that can be readily shown for the smear it is with a few seconds googling.
BB is not expressing an honest opinion. He knows he is lying, and continues to do it over many years. This is not behaviour we are obliged to tolerate.
There is a difference between ideas and opinions – and behaviour. This site has long tolerated the expression of a very wide range of opinions, but does not allow repeated bad behaviour to disrupt the debate.
Then expose their lies. Surely that is a better approach. It also makes things much more interesting.
If JK told a lie you could expose, would you really want to hide the lie and stop him telling more lies ? With thinking like that, you must have been a Labour strategist in the past few elections.
The “behavior” argument is at best subjective and at worst unconvincing.
bb is well known here. For years he posted here in a similar vein. He’s said that lie many times before and been pointed to the correct information before. An honest person would accept the correct information and not repeat the mistake. There would be no problem this at all.
But knowingly repeating a lie is a different thing to expressing an honestly held opinion. Then it becomes bad behaviour.
I agree that this can be a subjective thing. I used to moderate here for years (I don’t have the time nor inclination to do it any more) and I know it is not easy deciding where the boundaries are. But there is no doubt that boundary exists, and the site owners are entitled to make up their minds as to where it lies.
The comment directly beneath BB’s refutes his lies.
What would be “interesting” about allowing disruptive tr*lls to ruin the discourse? There are plenty of live issues to pick over without resuscitating long dead zombies.
big bruv…my uncle never attended the RSA or ANZAC Day …let alone Dawn Parades… so disgusted was he with the futility and tragic waste of war….if it was good enough for him not to attend , it is good enough for any of the rest of us to remember in our own way….and hopefully we will simply remember their sacrifice … the tragedy that is war ….and resolve to strive for peace
my uncle, the navigator in the tail of a Lancaster, was shot down over Germany ( only he and one other survived)…ended up on a German forest….walked for a week at night trying to get into France and then back to the UK ….ended up in a POW camp and then towards the end of the war did the Long March in winter( he said they would not have survived without the Red Cross and their parcels)
…i remember him and those returned servicemen ( many of them scarred) of my childhood who did not want to talk about war but who wanted to live!…..and who loved life!…and believed fervently in PEACE
(incidentally he never said a bad word about the Germans because he was reasonably well treated and he recognised that we are all capable of war atrocities)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_March_%281945%29
….fuelled by seeing one of your mates killed.
No doubt there were incidents similar to this in French and Belgian villages; petty thievery is universal. Yet it is unthinkable that New Zealand and Australian soldiers would have contemplated the mass murder of innocent civilians in a French or Belgian village. The Arabs in Palestine, on the other hand, were regarded with contempt by many of the soldiers; they were untermenschen on a level with the natives of Australia and New Zealand.
The New Zealand establishment has continued to refuse to apologize for this massacre—doggerel poems in the RSA magazine treated the murderers as heroes. It renders hollow this morning’s words by the Governor General, praising the “courage, compassion and mateship in adversity” and “moments of astonishing humanity”, and the Prime Minister’s words about those who “fought so gallantly for what we believe in.”
More media on John Key – not sure if funny or more disturbing.
this is a bit funny
Indeed freedom that is just a bit funny.
but if you want disturbing go to facebook and look for
Ace Lady Network
and a little animation called #PONYPONY
😮 ONCE SEEN IT CANNOT BE UNSEEN 😮
i must get this off my chest.
what is it with all the folk having to go to cafes, burger chains etc on this solemn morning.
i have long ranted about businesses that choose to open on anzac day and vowed not to darken their doors during the rest of the year.
it occurs to me the businesses are just doing as businesses do. meeting a demand.
couldnt we skip the trim flat white and bacon and eggs (not too hard please), and instead gather together at the local rsa, or at someones home and break bread together?
come on folks, just for today.
We stopped at a cafe this morning – as we always do, with my father-in-law and another resident from the retirement home, and enjoyed the morning coffee with them. It is the one regular visit out for one of them, and I’m glad that we did it.
I am one of those who commemorate the wastefulness of war and conflict with sadness and contemplation, and to be surrounded by others who seem to be celebrating is quite disconcerting.
I am finding the emphasis of the Gallipoli celebrations this year to be particularly disheartening, in light of the deployment of troops to Iraq. I don’t want to participate in this appropriation of loss by those who have their own agenda, or who “enjoy” this day. Our local MP used one ANZAC service to speak about his politics for over 20 minutes – a gross display of disrespect.
I don’t need a particular day to join with others in regretting our continued involvement in other people’s conflicts – without a decent strategy or exit plan. This is happening for me every day, the waste of human potential is always depressing.
as it is, molly, exactly as it is.
hi molly, my experience of todays dawn service was far from celebratory.
two speakers, local high school boy, and returned soldier.
both eloquent, the veteran cited casualty numbers and gave context with the population of our town in 1915.
there was plenty of contemplation, solemnity, sacrifice (it was cold), coming together, reflection.
the experience with your mp electioneering, says more about that member than anzac service.
our mayor gave the g.g. address and that was the politics over with.
i do share your disheartedness re troops deployed.
i simply feel, surely some things are sacred.
maybe we could sacrifice by going without a visit to the cafe?
disclaimer- i work in hospitality.
i am curious, what was the atmosphere in the cafe this morning?
Hi gsays,
Very quiet in the cafe this morning. The realist in me thinks this is due to the carpark being empty because of the retail stores not being open, rather than attendance at ANZAC day or a recognition of sacrifice.
…”surely some things are sacred”…”
Strangely enough, I agree with you there. Except my heart and my mind recognise this sacredness every day, every time it is considered. To my oftentimes awkward realisation – I have never been someone who is entirely comfortable with requiring others to share my sentiments at “appropriate” times, so I find it difficult to do myself. If I observed this day in the way that you do, I would be assuming a persona specifically to say – to paraphrase Keri Hulme – “I wear my heart on my sleeve, mind you look at my sleeve”. The sincerity of the action would not be present. I consider this to be disrespectful in itself.
My thoughts on this topic are fairly constant. And if engaged on the thought of war and engagement, I will express my thoughts with anyone on any day of the year, in order to have a better understanding. This is how I personally recognise the “sacred” that you observe on this day. My approach can be contentious, and requires a lot of internal fortitude, particularly coming up to ANZAC day – but for me it is the only way I can see for myself to come to grips with past and present deployments of our troops, and the consequences for those that live in the countries where they are deployed. I am past the point where I need others to agree with me by the end of the discussion, so I am more adept at keeping discussions flowing, but the ego in me, does try to make them understand my point of view.
Perhaps after a few years, this too will pass.
hi molly,
thanks for expanding on yr thoughts. a lot of it resonates with me.
especially “I am past the point where I need others to agree with me by the end of the discussion, so I am more adept at keeping discussions flowing, but the ego in me, does try to make them understand my point of view.”
Never again.
Deeply moving ….
http://tewharewhero.blogspot.co.nz/
for some there is just little meaning in this day, as they might not be New Zealanders by birth i.e. Tourists and the likes.
for some, they might not need a particular day to remember the death, especially in a world where on every other day we have no issue not only in forgetting the death, but often in blaming the death for their own demise…Gaza comes to mind, or Africa, or other parts of the world, where the dead are not ours.
for another lot, they might plant a tree instead, or go out and clean a river from pollution.
You could lobby the government to declare Anzac Day a day where no one but First Responders, Nurses and other medical staff at hospitals, and Police are allowed to work.
We are closed on Monday, but we are open today. First customer of the day a US American on a visit in NZ…all others were Kiwis coming back from the dawn service buying breakfast items to be shared at home with family.
My staff is off, but my Hubby and I are working.
We are one of those famous small Mum and Pop business, and keeping a day off is not really an option in these times general austerity.
hi sabine,
i accept that anzac day aint for all.
it is an important part of our heritage, identity and culture.
i, too, work for a mom and pop business.
i fortunately have the ability to say i am not available today.
the rest of the staff arent.
oops.. last line wrong.
the rest of the staff will not.
So observance that doesn’t involve turning up to a sanctioned memorial isn’t ‘observance’? Righteous bullshit.
Never been to a dawn anything. Never will. You remember the dead in your way, I mine. But don’t tell me my grief isn’t the same as yours because you demanded businesses close.
hi tigger
So observance that doesn’t involve turning up to a sanctioned memorial isn’t ‘observance’? Righteous bullshit.
i have no comment on yr observance.
nor do i wish to comment on yr grief.
i simply fail to see the need to excercise my consumer rights on this day is all.
Funny how you’ve gone from complaining about what other people choose to do with their time to pretending it’s just about your ~personal preference~.
Hi stephanie, molly, tigger,
The motive for my posting was twofold: testing the waters re anzac days
sacredness, and garner sympathy for some of the lesser paid, sometimes exploited work force.
Third para strikes a chord…..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/the-path-to-happiness-les_b_7127124.html
+1
A must read.
Considering the ever increasing corruption in our government and businesses how much do we trust each other today?
EDIT: This applies
Deputy P.M tries comedy–‘The Government has effectively left nothing “undone” to tackle sky-rocketing house prices in Auckland, Finance Minister Bill English says’
‘The Government has effectively left nothing “done” to tackle sky-rocketing house prices in Auckland, Finance Minister Bill English says’
There fixed it for you.
In less than surprising, but utterly sickening news from the UK….
& (cause that’s not all folks!)
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/24/labour-to-call-on-michael-heseltine-if-it-wins-election
Tory lite…
Extraordinary, isn’t it. If there’s one thing UK Labour have conspicuously failed to do since the last Election, it’s win over 2010 Tory voters. They’ve won over a huge chunk of the 2010 Lib Dem vote and made inroads into the Non-vote but next to no Tories (most polls suggest about 3 or 4% of 2010 Conservatives have swung to Labour, representing at most 1.4% of all voters. The Tories have attracted roughly the same proportion – comprising about 1.0% of all voters – from Labour). Nothing suggests this is suddenly going to change over the next few weeks.
The reality is that if Labour manage to cobble together a Government after this Election (as seems more than likely) then – compared to the Blair regime – it will be far less dependent on keeping newly-won-over former Tory voters happy. It will be a Government firmly grounded in a social democratic support-base – voters who have stayed with Labour through thick and thin, voters who swung to Labour from the Lib Dems the moment the latter went into coalition with the Tories, decidedly Left-leaning SNP supporters, along with Greens, the communitarian-socialist Plaid Cymru, Ulster’s SDLP, not to mention the member for Bradford West (even if in some cases, we’re talking about informal/tacit/policy-by-policy support).
Unfortunately, the Blairites still hold some sway in the Party (even if their voice isn’t quite as dominant as it once was).
🙂 I take it you haven’t heard Sturgeon openly saying the SNP will court Labour’s left wing mps to kill austerity/Blairite/Tory lite policies?
I’m looking forward to the unofficial ‘grand alliance’ of Tory/Labour that’s going to come into being in order to push through unpopular policies. Well, the reaction to it from the voting public. 😉
I’m hoping at that point, people will realise that the labour party is the boot at the neck of working people.
It is good to see many Kiwis understand it here. Labour keeps worshipping at the altar of liberalism, and wonders why people don’t want a bar of them. Poll after poll and little or no movement for labour. When will they wake up and notice the wind change?
Some feel good from Action Station on Campbell Live http://www.actionstation.org.nz/video_campbell
Plus their latest email with overview of the actions being taken. I’m starting to be quite impressed with this group (although I’m not sure I agree with using the “je suis…” line in situations like this)
Refused to met them! Gutless wonders.
Bloody impressive action indeed.
I wish to pay a tribute to my late uncle and the many others who served overseas today, He volunteered during WW2 and went off with the 1st Echelon to the Middle East and served for 4 years. His given peacetime occupation was a printer so he was placed with the Sappers. He defused bombs and set charges on important installations like bridges etc all of this time and escaped death twice from strafing while on land convoys in the desert. He was a cynic through and through and was knicknamed “why” for obvious reasons. He was a dynamic and delightful man but had no time for the military. On his return he and the other returned servicemen had to apply for their service medals (if they chose to) and he naturally told them to put them where the sun doesn’t shine. His thoughts were if they hadn’t the courtesy to take the trouble to send the medals personally they weren’t worth having. He never attended ANZAC Day services but always remembered his mates he served with with much affection and pride. He was above all a man with bravery in his heart and honour deep into his bones.
I, like him do not attend the ceremonies – there is a history world wide of veterans not being looked after like they should be and the grandstanding at these commemorations doesn’t do it for me one little bit. I salute my Uncle today and will have a drink or two and chat with him off and on throughout the day – he is one of the thousands of treasures we have in this country – Lest We Forget”.
+100 Barbara
thank you barbara.
Tautoko Barbara.
i cant be leave how nasty the people on this site are calling the prime minister a pervert or worse where is your respect for the high office and your betters John key is leader of this nation and you should hold your noses and bow before him. just make sure your wearing protection hat or swimming cap
Ha! Full burqa to be really safe?
John Key may be “better” than someone but for the life of me I just can’t imagine who!!
Gerry Brownlee – makes Key look like a cross between Gandhi and Einstein…
C’mon Stuart. You cannot mention Brownlie in the same sentence as Einstein, and I don’t think he measures up ( sorry- down) to Gandhi’s somatic s.
This comment is perfectly placed downthread from big bruv’s attempt to smear Helen Clark’s memory. The right do love to trot out the “respect your betters” line … as long as it’s the betters they personally agree with.
I think keyman may be being sarcastic there but it’s hard to tell.
yep, parody.
his english is even better then mine, 🙂
The Key is my harrasser; I shall not be silent.
He maketh me to let down my golden locks: he fondles my hair beside the till.
He violateth my locks: he grabbeth me on the way to serve for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk between the tables of the Tories of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art not near me; thy rod and thy staff they will not touch me.
I preparest a table before you in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with pudgy fingers; my bile runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and my story will live in the blog of the Bomber for ever.
Very good. Some of us got it.
I feel really uneasy at the whole glorfication of the whole ANZAC thing. I dont blame the vets or even the RSA though. Its the politicians and media who are milking the whole thing.
I think we can find way better ways of defining ourselves than by war and militarism.
This interview on rnz/checkpoint is well worth a listen:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201751897
Former Aussie army officer and now historian, James Brown is saying what so many of us have been saying in the past week.
Gallipoli – Memorial at Anzac Cove by Ataturk.
“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives…
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours…
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace, after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”
Ataturk, 1934
I was very moved to read these words at Anzac Cove ten years ago. Such generosity of spirit and a call to reconciliation.
How markedly different from our current crop of leaders.
Though the sentiment is compassionate and statesmanlike, not all is as it seems.
jacina adern needs cover up with creepykey on the loose
Key on preys on women that don’t have power.
that whole troy shit pile preys on any group that doesn’t have power not just women horrible horrible people .
John Armstrong in the Herald this morning is hilarious – sage advice against premature us of the “R” word re Trichy-Key. I take that as an apology for his bullshit outburst
over the 11 year old letter and Cunliffe. Even if not intended. His words today condemn his words of last year.
A couple of plugs:
Gallipoli invasion – a dirty and bloody business: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/gallipoli-invasion-a-dirty-and-bloody-business/
The absurdity and obscenity of Gallipoli – three NZ writers accounts: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/24/the-absurdity-and-obscenity-of-gallipoli-three-new-zealand-writers-accounts/
And, of course, just the previous year, NZ invaded Samoa and ruled it as a colony for the next near-50 years, carrying out the Black Saturday massacre, and caring so little for Samoan lives that thousands died during the influenza epidemic after the war: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/samoa-what-new-zealand-did/
Then the NZ state compounded its disgraceful behaviour in relation to Samoa: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/depriving-samoans-of-immigration-and-citizenship-rights/
I always understood Gallipoli as a catastrophe. My grandmother’s younger sister’s husband served right through WW1 and his War Diary – while constrained and understated – makes no bones of what an inglorious and disgraceful business it all was.
And this is the reason why Gallipoli ranked so highly in the minds of the New Zealanders who lived through it. Before Gallipoli most New Zealanders still regarded Britain as the mother country; and themselves as citizens of the Empire. The images of naive young farm-boys queuing up for conscription, loading their farm horses onto ships for an ‘adventure’ in Europe are bitter indeed.
After Gallipoli the monstrous, incompetent and catastrophic bungling of the British High Command was laid bare. Their unspoken, but palpable contempt for the lives to the ‘colonials’ they so culpably threw away in a futile, pointless campaign – was seared into the minds of many. It marked the critical turning point in the conciousness of this nation – and gave birth to a determination for New Zealand to grow as a nation with it’s own political agency.
To my generation and earlier I believe this was a widespread understanding. The Dawn Services I attended as a youth were sombre, solemn affairs. The still living returned servicemen in attendance would not tolerate much foolish jingoism or flag-waving. They were there to remember their mates. And to grieve for their own loss of innocence.
“The Dawn Services I attended as a youth were sombre, solemn affairs. The still living returned servicemen in attendance would not tolerate much foolish jingoism or flag-waving. They were there to remember their mates. And to grieve for their own loss of innocence.”
This reflects my experience too.
Have avoided the ANZAC parades since my son left the scouts many years ago, and the last I attended was the aforementioned one which was appropriated for a party political broadcast by our local National MP.
I watch the children decked out in the medals of their unmet ancestors and I wonder at their knowledge of what it truly means. I understand the need to make sense of the loss, I’m just not sure the current method of doing so will lead us in the right direction, but unfortunately I have no answers to what will.
Mine too. They were grim people about what happened in war. And quiet about it. Incredibly staunch if they felt that something needed to be done. Very reluctant to put younger bodies on the line if they didn’t think it was required. Very inclined to get drunk after the remembrances. Especially the ones who cleared Europe in 1945.
It wasn’t until I went into the army in 1977 and ran across RF who’d been active in Vietnam, who would occasionally talk about it (usually when drinking), that I started to understand. Mind you, clearing the range of sheep with bren gun was a pretty graphic introduction.
It goes both ways.
Being a pacifist when you have conscienceless sociopathic arseholes around isn’t an option. At a local level, and just for an example, how on earth Cameron Slater got a gun license is an good example.
On the other hand you don’t want inexperienced parasites like John Key who appears to have no background in any activity that doesn’t directly benefit himself being able play the ‘patriotic card’. because he will screw it up by the numbers. I am thinking about bloody David Lange thinking that he could send the troops into Fiji during the first coup as an example.
The ideal would be to make sure that we have a counterbalance in the system that protects soldiers from the daft politicians, yet allows them to be used when they are useful. In the latter case East Timor comes to mind.
PMs just wanna have fun …
That would be my take on JK’s joking. He’s using it to show his power over others.
Yep that article is bang on and a great read thx.
Hawkes Bay wedding photographer and syndicated columist Eva Bradley says in the Wairarapa Times Age today that New Zealanders didn’t die at Gallipoli so that we could worry about silly things like the Prime Minister repeatedly fondling a waitress’s hair.
anna stretton has penned something along those lines too, its online somewhere i really don’t want to look at it again. ‘its hardly a crime’ she opines.
She’s wrong. Sexual harassment is a crime.
we don’t want to bloody worry about it – she should send a text to John Key because he has let us and our ancestors down – he has disrespected everyone.
Did Hawkes Bay wedding photographer and syndicated columist Eva Bradley say in the Wairarapa Times Age today that New Zealanders didn’t die at Gallipoli so that we could have a Prime Minister who could take away our rights?
Did Hawkes Bay wedding photographer and syndicated columist Eva Bradley say in the Wairarapa Times Age today that New Zealanders didn’t die at Gallipoli so that we could have a Prime Minister who was a dicktator?
it’s not exactly what one might call an enlightened read.
little wonder her view of the PM’s actions are so submissive
A foul colonisation of Anzac Day by Anna Stretton.
Todays war… financial and sovereignty takeover is more subtle and by stealth and subterfuge ?….corporate takeover via TPP?
‘Rep. Alan Grayson blasts TPP’
http://rt.com/shows/big-picture/252605-us-tpp-eu-greece/
“Thom discusses fast-track and the TPP with Rep. Alan Grayson and whether European officials are pushing for regime change in Greece with Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. In a special edition of Conversations with Great Minds, Thom talks with Constitution Society for Law and Policy’s Caroline Fredrickson, author of the new book ‘Under the Bus: How Working Women Are Being Run Over’….
When a group of pre-adolescent Chilean schoolgirls were leaving on a trip to Wellington, the president, Michelle Bachelet, was asked if she had any advice for them. With a completely straight face, she said “Don’t have lunch with the Prime Minister.”
lol
You have a reputable source for this story do you Murray?
Something better than your fertile imagination I hope?
Please provide a reference.
Loosen up alwyn. Read it again, reflect on the events of a recent NZ prison escapee, Key’s press interview comments that followed.
I suspect that these might have been the words the president might have said to the children if such a trip existed.
Thanks for the laugh. You never fail to meet my expectations.
Just what I expected. It’s old b.s Murray at work again.
It was so much better on this site when you were banned.
Do you think anyone who jokes about FJK should be chastised? I’d hate to think it was just me. And while we’re at it, get whatever’s stuck up your bum surgically removed. You might develop a reasonable facsimile of a sense of humour after that.
Good to know you don’t like what I say. I don’t aim to please the site’s leading Tory apologist.
alwyn is taking things seriously.
PM needs to do the same.
I’d be surprised if more women didn’t come forward before this is all finished.
yes i have been waiting for this too
The thing that hits home to me is that we have learned that the man who is our PM has been acting in the same manner as a sexually aggressive 12 year old and almost no one has come out and said “John Key would never do that. I don’t believe it.” Apart from one or two, most people seemed to have expected reports of something like this sooner or later and are not at all surprised. How low has our society sunk when we get to this?
well i did NOT expect it from a New Zealand Prime Minister!
….however now that the waitress Amanda Bailey has come forward with her story I find it entirely believable and would not be surprised if there are other women who have been similarly harassed ( eg. Bill Clinton did not make an inappropriate pass at just one woman….generally these abuses of power are serial)
( and btw congratulations are due to Bomber for breaking the story so sensitively with Amanda’s own account)
“…almost no one has come out and said “John Key would never do that. I don’t believe it.”
Its not how low has our society sunk, but how low has John Key taken us Murray R.
And I personally think there has been so little surprise because we’ve been waiting for something to come out into the open ever since we learned about the “suppressed important NZer” indecent assault charges and the resultant buy-election. Something had to give : these things can’t be kept secret for ever in a small society like NZ – and the fact that there are now popping up on Facebook and other places many photos of the sleazy creepy PM fondling young girls’ hair indicates people have been keeping these pics in the wings, waiting for the right time to bring ’em out.
In the age of the internet, nothing goes away.
+100 agreed jenny kirk…there does seem to be a pattern of power abuse and corruption and hidden secrets and blatant, arrogant, cover ups with this Nact government led by John Key
….so it does conform to this pattern and therefore is not surprising at a subliminal level
We are a country of many secrets Jenny. You rightly made reference to this in respect of the Waikato Maori wrongly imprisoned at North Head during WW1 because they refused to fight for a crown who stole their land. How many NZer’s would be aware of that story do you think? An important part of asserting pakeha dominance and their laws.
I often wonder how many errant son’s were sent to these shores by their embarrassed family. This country grew up with secrets.
We wouldn’t know the half of it. We have an ingrained culture of turning a blind eye or sweeping under the carpet and silence. Don;t we?