While these events are undeniably evil and tragic, I strongly feel that any response needs to remember that at the root of the hatred that motivates them is injustice. Responding to terror attacks with defiantly pro-West rhetoric is, in my view, fuel to the extremist fire. It only deepens the spiral. I’m not sure what the alternative is, but calling the attackers “evil losers”, who must be “obliterated”, as Donald Trump has done is unhelpful to the nth degree.
…
Democracy is broken. Capitalism is broken. Their fix is not necessarily their opposite, but it’s time to stop clinging to ideologies that have clearly run their course. It is time to engage with people, and to listen – and it is time to stop ignoring the real root causes of the pain we see around us.
Well, democracy isn’t happening that well. A better version of participant democracy is needed. Capitalism is showing its inevitable downsides, and from the destruction it is causing, we need a new left way forward.
In a way it is karma
If a country makes money out of manufacturing and selling arms which it knows will be causing misery and destruction elsewhere, then that country will be perceived as being part of the problem by those who have been impacted by the weapons…… drug producers and sellers are considered to be criminals, but it seems that arms manufacturers and sellers should be seen in the same light.
TMM @ 1.1……..as in (particularly re Palestine)……..”Justice the Seed, Peace the Flower”.
Fell about laughing when I heard someone on CNN or somewhere saying Trump in his ‘best result for everyone’ line has leverage over the Palestinians on account of the $US400 million of annual US funding which goes their way (apparently).
No mention of the annual $US 3,000 million from the same source which goes the way of Zionist Israel, nor the leverage that might provide.
Ad, that photo opened up a really cool discussion on one of the game groups I’m in on facebook. A lot of republican women play the game, and for many of them the photo cut through the divide of dem/rep. They then really opened up about their disquiet about the trump administration. In the end it became about their fears around health care. Myself and a Aussie talked about our system – which they all said they liked.
@ Ad ( 2) … Looks like the Transylvanian Trump show has arrived at the Vatican. Pope obviously picked up some satanic vibes there, hence his less than happy expression! The women look very creepy indeed. The pair of them, along with the Don of course could haunt a haunted house!
BTW, why is Ivanka always there hanging out with dad and step mum?
When you buy one, you’re actually purchasing an “implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.“ Basically, a rental contract. With the difference being that even when the rental is paid off, you are still bound by the contract.
Yes, really.
It has to do with two things – the code that runs the tractor (yes, them too) and the ownership claims to that code asserted under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
You may recall the ruckus that erupted about a year ago when the car companies floated the idea that even though you bought their car, it was still their code that ran the thing – and this code remained proprietary. That is, their property. To “tamper” with anything that could conceivably affect the code, their lawyers proposed, would violate both the warranty and copyright laws. Effectively making the car not your property, no matter the name on the title.
I’m surprised we haven’t seen something like ‘Apple Finance’. Miss a payment and the device shuts down until the payment + penalty is paid and an automated system boots the iwhatever back up again. Phone finance is notorious for defaulting.
Just saw the Herald on-line but won’t read it: “Mike Hosking: Dude, where’s my tax cut?
Mike Hosking wants to know why the Government can’t give us a tax cut.”
Is he starting a Givealittle because he’s on the bones of his arse?
Lovely quote from Gordon Campbell re Mr Matthews as both Auditor and as CE of Ministry of Transport failing to figure fraud out faster, and failing to acknowledge it properly when it all came out:
“…the indulgence granted to senior executives is in stark contrast to the 90 day employment rules that operate elsewhere in the labour market. If you’re being paid say, $30,000 a year, you’re out on your ear if you under-perform. Yet if you’re being paid more than 15 times that amount to lead a government department, you are not held responsible for systemic failings that flourish on your watch. If you’re lucky, you could even be promoted to a position of greater responsibility.”
The Auditor General’s role demands the highest standards of probity, judgement and widespread respect. How the hell did Mathews even get on the short list?
An interesting and well written article, covering the points that have been avoided by many – and in particular the government. It appears to have been written just before the auditor-general decided to step down while an investigation is held – perhaps prompted by the many comments similar to those in the article. It is of course the minimum response – less than the recent resignation of a lower level official from another department, but a reasonable response nevertheless. He is to be congratulated for the initiative – it does not mean that he did not make mistakes in his previous job (and as Labour has pointed out it does not constitute evidence wrongdoing and indeed there has been no evidence of fault) – but he has had the sense to see that an independent investigation was needed. Certainly the court case should have shown that there should have been at least an internal review of procedures, and the State Services Commission should also have asked questions to ensure that if there were faults they did not also apply to other departments – and whether they should have been picked up by audit. The Minister should also have been asking questions.
Now the SSC have stepped in to ‘take over’ some investigations (news reports are not clear whose investigation they are ‘taking over’) but the standing down has it appears prompted that response.
But where was the Minister in all this – hiding. There is such a willingness to separate their position from that of their department that there is no accountability at all at Ministerial level for anything – as we have seen recently with Ngaro. Coupled with a culture of bullying departments themselves, and tolerating bullying within departments (that’s how they get things done, so why wouldn’t they encourage the same behaviour in others) it is no wonder the system doesn’t question itself too deeply. So I congratulate Matthews, but ask why there has not been corresponding condemnation of those who sat back and let (encouraged!) the system degenerate to the extent that such fraud could have happened and go effectively unquestioned. This is yet another failure of government at Cabinet level. Don;t hold your breath for any Minister to even share a smidgeon of the blame . . .
“But as the horror of the attack continues to unfold, New Zealand’s thoughts are already turning to the upcoming Lions rugby tour, and whether there will be a need for increased security.”
Crime scene photographs were leaked to the New York Times, apparently after being shared with US intelligence agencies by British investigators.
The pictures were leaked despite a direct plea from Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, to the US authorities to stop leaking information about the fast-moving inquiry.
The recent Manchester incident has prompted me to ask these questions.
1. How do I feel about the 22 Manchester killings of mainly young women?
2. How do I feel about the 225 civilians, including 36 women and 44 children killed in Syria by US Airstrikes in the month from 23 April -23 May this year.
3.Do the words “collateral damage” seem appropriate to either example above?
4. Do I think the pain of relatives of any of the above will be less?
5. How would I feel if a relative was killed by accident but the perpetrators denied it happened and tried to cover up the situation? Would the cover up increase the burden of loss even more?
6. How would I feel if I killed someone by accident and I was forced to keep the secret by others? Would this prey on my conscience? Would I be the type to be a hit-and-run driver leaving the victim or would I always stop and try to help.
7. Can I imagine the extra burden on those SAS members who carry the mental baggage from the Afghanistan raid which Jon Stephenson has investigated?
8. Where does my compassion start and end? Why? Why not?
We live in a discompassionate world. I’m using the word “world” here to refer to the contrived socio/economic paradigms we accept and live by. Every day, when we go to work or think about saving for that deposit or whatever, we are endorsing ways of life that don’t just constrain us (our ‘acceptable’ or possible expressions of humanity) but that pit us one against the other for the sake of ‘success’.
And to avoid submitting a huge comment, I’m just going to suggest those pointers tie back in with the final paragraph of carolyn_nth’s comment at the top of the thread.
Most of 1 through 7 is covered by her, I’d have thought, pretty obvious observation.
At the end of the day, it’s our world. Maybe it’s time to take it back; to wrest control of our world away from the fish eyed misanthropes and tear up their books of rules and lies. Maybe that process begins with small steps of disengagement – a growing refusal to participate in their discompassionate world…
Whadda ya mean,”maybe”? 🙂
You’ve already “begun”, Bill, as have many, many others here and elsewhere, so far as I can tell. Engaged and compassionate is the path and the direction, swelling the crowd is the action most needed now.
Sorry, it needs more thought, but I really valued Bill and Robert Guyton’s comments.
Engaged and compassionate is the path and the direction, swelling the crowd is the action most needed now:Robert Guyton
Somehow we have to show our leaders that there are better ways to deal with the issues of violence , punishment, revenge, escalation of hate, etc. If corporate media are only interested in fanning the flames of hatred, we need to overpower this with social media and public demonstrations.
While over the past few decades, workers have been increasingly shafted, poverty has exploded, and Americans continue to be bankrupted or killed by what can only generously be described as a health care “system,” Clinton couldn’t understand why people were so angry. Six months in, “she still didn’t grasp the underlying sentiments of the electorate.” “What is the appeal of a Sanders?” she wondered. Nearly a year in, she confessed to an aide: “I don’t understand what’s happening with the country. I can’t get my arms around it.”
It’s exactly why so many of us saw Clinton as such a weak candidate. She’s a political operator insulated from the real world and it showed. Trump by contrast was really good at faking it.
Yet, somehow, as flawed a candidate as Hillary was, 3.7 million more Democratic primary voters voted for her than for Sanders. Shouldn’t the clearly expressed will of the voters count for something?
Shouldn’t the clearly expressed will of the voters count for something?
But purity….
/
NEW CBO score on AHCA-23 million more uninsured-Saves $119 billion-$834 billion Medicaid cuts-$992 bn tax cuthttps://t.co/VeFPeLffEy— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) May 24, 2017
NEW CBO score on AHCA
-23 million more uninsured -Saves $119 billion -$834 billion Medicaid cuts -$992 bn tax cuthttps://t.co/VeFPeLffEy
The other way of putting it is that Sanders came within 3.7m votes despite not being the Democrat’s officially anointed candidate from the outset. Yes the will of the voters prevailed, but in hindsight everyone realises what a bungle it was.
It might be tempting to come away from Shattered viewing the Clinton campaign as a one-off aberration, a horrifyingly and uniquely misjudged series of errors that couldn’t happen again. To be sure, there’s much about Clinton’s campaign that could support this conclusion, from everything surrounding the private email server to her campaign’s disregard for traditionally blue strongholds like Wisconsin and Michigan.
But the deeper problems that plagued Clinton’s run are not necessarily ones unique to Clinton. Her lack of vision, her refusal to shift her centrist policies to the left, her campaign-for-a-campaign’s-sake, the centering of her campaign around an individual rather than a set of principles — these are all factors that could easily be repeated by the next establishment candidate.
Sorry to sound like Colonial Viper, but I think it’s worked out as nature intended.
Trump is revealing what a properly revealed Republican administration looks like,
and the Democrats have needed a lot more time to reorganise and revive.
Trump will assist the Democrats to gain a few more in the mid terms.
And will continue to drag the reputations of other Republicans down with him as the various inquiries publish their results.
Meanwhile, those democracies that have re/elected strong states and long-term revival programmes are doing just great.
or 4 years of this will leave the state electoral offices well entrenched in their disenfranchisement role so voting entitlements are rigged enough that the republicans have a straight 50 years in power.
Redistricting is only part of the issue (and can be good). Voter ID, booth locations, roadworks… Sure, the most outrageous and explicitly partisan/racist ones get smacked, but there are enough republicans smart enough to refrain from saying “we did this just to stop democrats voting” that I fear the US is committed to the downhill slope.
The thing is that there are so many ways to fuck with who can vote and how that vote is recorded, leaving SCOTUS as the only check won’t be enough by itself.
For anyone of a mind for another dive into American electoral weirdness, here’s a good piece on the the Supreme Court’s past and upcoming cases involving partisan gerrymandering (all hunky-dory and legit) and racial gerrymandering (used to be a good thing, now not so much).
“…her refusal to shift her centrist policies to the left, her campaign-for-a-campaign’s-sake, the centering of her campaign around an individual rather than a set of principles — these are all factors that could easily be repeated by the next establishment candidate.”
But the Democratic platform coming out of the convention was a long way left of Hillary’s positions going into the campaign.
Presidential campaigns are about individuals, like it or not. Policies and principles run a very distant second and third place. There remains the lesson from O’Malley’s popularity (well, extreme lack thereof). He’s a solidly competent, non-neo-liberal, somewhat generic Democrat. But just got nowhere with the electorate. Sanders had a personality that fit the moment, but when you dug down to the bones of his actual positions and history (which Hillary never did in an attack mode) there was a lot that would be unappealing to progressives.
Campaign-for-a-campaign’s-sake. Well, yeah. Bush the Elder had the same issue. I could never figure out why he wanted the presidency, except as the final flourish on a glowing CV. Fortunately all the likely prospects for 2020 at this point seem to have issues they’re passionate about. As long as Hillary doesn’t get it in her head to have another go.
As long as Hillary doesn’t get it in her head to have another go.
The dems will go with someone significantly younger. Clinton would be the oldest starting president if she ran in 2020 (72), and the trolls had more than enough fun with her health in the campaign as it was. and if Trump falls back to a non compos mentis defense like Reagan did…
Obama and Bill C were at the other end, while most started term in their 50s.
Ummm – what’s my best move to defend myself against a “witch hunt” into my links with Russia? Aha, I know. I’ll hire a lawyer with links to Russia to represent me…
Lance O’Sullivan takes on the anti-vaxxers. He’s a great guy with a long history of doing good work in poor communities, and speaking out. I agree 100% that the last thing any community needs – let alone disadvantaged communities – is harm to their health from unscientific nonsense. Vaccines are a wonderful thing and we should be thrilled to have them.
Dr Lance is a neat genuinely humble family focused guy that doesn’t talk about making a difference, he does. Same with Kelvin, he took a school that was producing the jail population of tomorrow and turned it into a state run academy of excellence.
I think Dr Lance would make one helluva Minister of Health.
BREAKING: Successful businessman Earl Hagaman, who recently sued Andrew Little, has died aged 92. pic.twitter.com/GORm3o2vNv— NBR (@TheNBR) May 25, 2017
BREAKING: Successful businessman Earl Hagaman, who recently sued Andrew Little, has died aged 92. pic.twitter.com/GORm3o2vNv
One thing it mentioned that hadn’t occurred to me (stupid, now it’s so obvious) was that the PR campaigns in the 1930s chasing bank robbers like Kelly, Dillinger, and suchlike was largely to evade comparisons with Nazi and Soviet political/secret police, even though the FBI had the bulk of its work in a substantially similar role.
A Hamilton law graduate, Sarah Thomson, is going to the High Court, requesting a judicial review of aspects of the government’s climate change policy. It’s thought to be the first case of its kind in New Zealand. The move wasn’t initially taken that seriously, with John Key dismissing the case as a “joke”.
But the case is going to the Wellington High Court next month.
NZ First portrays itself as an anti-establishment party, standing up for "the little guy" (always a guy) against Big Auckland Money and its tool-parties. But it turns out that its secret slush fund is funded by the very people it claims to oppose:Stuff can reveal a longer list of donors ...
Peter TalleyI really don’t envy Jacinda Ardern’s position as Prime Minister of New Zealand. She’s probably got the hardest job in the country. Not only does she have to ensure her own MPs are behaving properly, she has to negotiate with Winston Peters and other NZ First MPs who seem ...
Will She, Or Won't She? Jacinda’s white vestments may look impressive on the cover of the international edition of TIME magazine, but every day Labour’s relationship with Winston Peters and NZ First continues, her ability to go on wearing them back home in New Zealand – without exciting derision – diminishes.IT WAS ...
BAMS survey of 2018 extreme weather The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society has published a collection of articles examining unusually extreme weather events of 2018 and connections of those to climate change. These investigations are listed separately below but thanks to the generosity of AMS appear free for ...
Less than two months after China told the WHO there was a problem, a lot has happened. Sadly, deaths, confirmed cases and countries affected are increasing every day. However, on a scientific and medical level, what is going on to contain, cure and prevent this new disease is truly inspirational. ...
From 2015 to 2019 the NSA ran a program of mass surveillance of Americans' domestic communications. It was intrusive, totalitarian, and a collosal waste of money:A National Security Agency system that analyzed logs of Americans’ domestic phone calls and text messages cost $100 million from 2015 to 2019, but yielded ...
I must say that it’s at loggerheads with the inclusive and free society we want to create in New Zealand that one of our largest media outlets, MediaWorks, would allow Hannah Tamaki to perform on their show, Dancing With The Stars.Hannah Tamaki and her husband Brian are after all well-known ...
The media is reporting that an Auckland man has been charged with terrorism. Unfortunately, that's all we know, because all details have been suppressed. Who are they? What are they alleged to have done? Its all secret. There may be good reason for some of this (e.g. protection of the ...
Dr David ChagnéNew Zealand is involved in a US$12.8 million USDA grant to improve the quality of blueberry and cranberry. The four-year project, led by North Carolina State University, is part of the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Initiative, which funds multi-year, multi-institutional collaborative ...
The Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change book is now available! The book uses cartoons, humor, and critical thinking to expose how and why some people reject climate science. It's now available for sale on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other book outlets. If you're near the DC area, you're very welcome to ...
by the Council of Disobedient Women When Moana Maniapoto recently lamented that Rachel Stewart was no longer writing for the Herald, political commentator Morgan Godfery was quick to brag on Twitter, like a schoolyard bully, how proud he was of “driving Rachel Stewart from the Herald”. What a contrast Morgan ...
You’re probably aware that the Achievement Standards used to assess senior school students’ learning are being reviewed. Science is one of the ‘pilot’ subjects in this process, where a ‘Subject Expert Group’ has developed 4 draft Science standards¹ (a significant step away from the current 30+, and a response to ...
John MacCormickTo succeed in an unpredictable and changing world, adaptability is the key. Let’s be chameleons. Technology continues to change people’s jobs and work environments. But change so far is not as fast and extensive as some pundits claim. Nor is it as fast and extensive as it needs ...
It seems we can’t even get through a week these days without the National Party's leader, Simon Bridges, making some sort of silly announcement about a policy that doesn’t actually exist.Usually concerning Bridges’ gut instinct and the undoing of whatever the Government has recently announced, National’s reactionary opinions and uncosted ...
Oh look! NZ First's secret slush fund was laundering donations from Talley's:One of the country's biggest fishing companies, Talley's, and its managing director donated nearly $27,000 to the New Zealand First Foundation, which has been bankrolling the New Zealand First Party. The foundation received $26,950 from seafood giant Talley's and ...
Janet Hoek, Richard Edwards, Andrew Waa, Nick Wilson, George ThomsonMinister Jenny Salesa announced the Government’s long-awaited Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Bill on Sunday 23 February. The Bill contains some important provisions as it works to strike a balance between ensuring regulated products are available to ...
Surprisingly enough, one could argue (as I often do) that the day inserted into a leap year is not that we label 29th February, but actually the 24th of February. Here I explain why, briefly. Almost everyone assumes that the day added into February in a leap year is the ...
If you haven’t watched Newsroom’s video showing Oranga Tamariki staff attempting to uplift a newborn baby yet you should do so. Although it's not the worst case as far as interventions go, it’s certainly not a good look for the Government. Because of this controversy there’s been a plethora of ...
Genesis Energy is planning to build the country's biggest PV solar farm:Power generator and retailer Genesis Energy says it is in advanced discussions to build New Zealand's biggest solar farm in northern Waikato. The company, which earlier reported a 15 per cent decline in operating earnings to $167.2 million, said ...
Transport is our second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Any credible effort to reduce emissions to net-zero has to target it. So what is the government doing? Subsidising some of the dirtiest, most inefficient vehicles on the roads:New Zealand's favourite cars - double cab utes - are largely exempt ...
You’ve really got to wonder what the NZ First Party was thinking and drinking last Friday? Not only did they hamstring the Greens by halting one of their main environmental policies, the electric vehicle fee-bate scheme, a policy that the public was led to believe was a done deal…but they ...
High Risk Call: Insensitive though it may seem to even pose the question: how will the electorate respond to what the Prime Minister’s opponents will undoubtedly characterise as an attack on New Zealanders’ freedom of speech? At more than twelve month’s remove from the terrible events of 15 March 2019, ...
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A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 16, 2020 through Sat, Feb 22, 2020 Editor's Pick JP Morgan economists warn climate crisis is threat to human raceLeaked report for world’s major fossil fuel financier says ...
Last week the Wall Street Journal published an article ‘The Dangerous Denial of Sex by two scientists Colin Wright and Emma Hilton. Write is an evolutionary biologist at Penn State and Hilton is a developmental biologist at the University of Manchester. It is well worth reading the article in full. Here ...
I am about to mail my overseas ballot to Florida so that it can be counted in the Democratic primary on March 17. In Florida you have closed as opposed to open primaries, which means that one must declare a party preference in order to vote in a party primary. ...
Winston Peters - Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the NZ First PartyWe all know that politics can be pretty messy at times. Just look at the Dirty Politics saga in New Zealand, the misgovernment of the Australian bushfires or the recent Trump impeachment debacle in the US. In a ...
Last Monday SpaceX launched another clutch of Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, bringing up to 300 the number of these units intended to bring 5G internet to the whole globe. In this post I present a movie showing how all 300 such satellites will be zipping around our planet over ...
The recent floods in Southland have highlighted the issue of Rio Tinto's illegal toxic waste dump in Mataura. But according to Newsroom, there's an even worse mess in Ruakaka near Whangarei:A Northland property stockpiled one million litres of flammable and toxic chemicals. Almost two years since the situation came to ...
It’s amazing just how many attack ads $100,000 buys you these days. The National Party has really been going to town lately, with their latest Twitter campaign making a number of questionable and blatantly false assertions, one being that poverty has worsened under the Labour led Government.The National Party's claim ...
OMV's exploratory drilling in the Great South Basin has failed to find oil. Good. Firstly, because we can't afford to burn the oil and gas we've already found, so there's just no point looking for more. And secondly, because offshore, deep-water drilling poses a risk of an environmental catastrophe, which ...
The government has announced it will strengthen whistleblower protections. The major change is "allowing people to report serious wrongdoing direct to an external authority if they wish", which fixes one of the big flaws in the Act. At present, whistleblowers must generally make their disclosure direct to the body they ...
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The Democracy Virus: China’s authoritarian political system enables a level of social surveillance and control that liberal democratic societies cannot match. The Chinese Government makes full use of the latest digital technology to both punish – and reward – its citizens. The plans it formulates cannot be challenged, or hindered. Where ...
Another day, another IPCA report on criminal conduct by policy. This time they kicked a child in the head when he was handcuffed:Police chased him and yelled out for him to stop. When he turned to face the police, he threatened them with a hammer. That's when the officers tasered ...
The investigation of two of the five parties in Parliament for fraud around their election donations has pushed the issue of party funding back into the spotlight. And while there are obvious things we can do to tighten up the donations regime - a much lower declaration threshold, realtime disclosure ...
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Former National Party chief whip Jami-Lee Ross is one of the four people charged over National's multiple fraudulent donations. How unsurprising. Meanwhile, just days ago National leader Simon Bridges was trying to pretend the charges were nothing to do with his party. Yeah, right. When your chief whip effectively publicly ...
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Nobody thinks about the next century anymore. That at least is Sci-Fi writer William Gibson’s observation (in this BBC 4 short interview, starting at 1:43:50 ). He calls it “Futures Fatigue”, but isn’t judgemental about it. Gibson notes that in the 20th century speculation about the 21st (and beyond) was common. Now ...
A Labour government desperate for the numbers crawls into bed with Winston Peters. Winston ignores the law and secretly takes money under the table from someone. When it is exposed just months out from an election, he is investigated by the Serious Fraud Office. That's what happened back in 2008. ...
So the Serious Fraud Office has another secret $100,050 National Party donation before the Courts in a major scandal that looks set to quash any chances Simon Bridges had of winning the 2020 election.Yesterday, Newsroom reported:The Serious Fraud Office prosecution of four people over donations to the National Party involves ...
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The Marlborough District Council, tired of public scrutiny, wants to increase the amount it charges for LGOIMA requests:The cost of requesting official information from Marlborough's government agency could almost double after a jump in "fishing expeditions". Charges could be raised from $60 to $100 an hour for information supplied by ...
When Winston Peters was caught money laundering donations and stalking journalists, the Greens were conspicuous by their silence. It was another example of how getting along with their government partners was eroding their values and their own reputation. It was obviously unsustainable, and so now James Shaw has finally spoken ...
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...
With over 69,000 confirmed cases and 1,600 deaths, here’s your round-up of the latest coronavirus news. New disease and virus have now officially been named On the 11th February, the WHO Director General announced a new name for the disease: COVID-19 which is short for coronavirus disease 2019. The naming ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 9, 2020 through Sat, Feb 15, 2020 Editor's Pick ANALYSIS-Climate change opens up 'frontier' farmland, but at what cost to the planet?Climate change could expand farmland globally by ...
After cross-examination Jones knew he would lose the defamation case he took against film maker Renae Maihi. That’s why he threw in the towel. The weight of evidence was clearly against the old tycoon with the defense presenting fifty articles to confirm Jones’ racist views.Being unable to harass somebody into ...
Sprung! Former NZ First president, Lester Gray, chats with RNZ's Guyon Espiner in the carpark of a Tauranga shopping centre.(Photo supplied anonymously to NZ First and The BFD.)IT’S CLEAR THAT an important aspect of Jacinda Ardern’s political success is her willingness to seek – and take – advice. This ...
Ruth Cunningham, Charlotte Paul, Andrew MoorePublic health responses to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 require us to draw on our common humanity and be explicit about our values. Recognising this will help us make good decisions in difficult situations so that, for example, the need to impose restrictive measures ...
The Helen Clark Foundation has released its report on the housing crisis, and found that house-hoarders are to blame for it:Property investors are to blame for New Zealand's high house prices, a new research paper published by the Helen Clark Foundation says. [...] McArthur said previous attempts to address housing ...
The Abortion Legislation Committee has reported back on the Abortion Legislation Bill and recommended that it be passed with some amendments. Unfortunately, the latter include even more hoops to jump through for those seeking abortions after 20 weeks, including a time-wasting requirement to consult a second doctor. No-one casually seeks ...
Brexit is likely to be a disaster for the UK (how sad, never mind). But now that they're out of the EU, the latter has finaly taken the opportunity to blacklist one of their key tax havens:The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, is to be put on an EU ...
I’m not quite sure of what to make of the new figures for COVID-19 (as we must now call the novel coronavirus – though I’m not sure the capitalisation is correct) from Hubei province:Image from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51495484The spike yesterday is a consequence of a using a different way of ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, New Zealand First Deputy Leader A total delivery of 2,000 new Police Officers has been achieved. New Zealand First Deputy Leader, Fletcher Tabuteau attended the latest police graduation of Recruit Wing 335 in Porirua today. Mr Tabuteau said, “Increasing police numbers and boosting their resources was one of ...
Taupō District mayor David Trewavas has welcomed today’s announcement from regional economic development minister Shane Jones outlining $5.87m of funding for the re-development of the Taupō Airport. The bulk of the investment ($5 million) will come from the Provincial Growth Fund, while the rest will be from the New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has defended multi-million dollar provincial growth fund money for Northland water storage. The New Zealand First leader, along with Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones, were recently in Dargaville to announce up to $12.745 million PGF funding top-up for water storage initiatives in the ...
One of our most immediate priorities upon forming Government was to get people out of sleeping in cars, garages, or on the street and into safe and warm housing. Since then, we've made major progress towards breaking the cycle of homelessness, including expanding Housing First, building more state houses, and ...
Kids learn better with a full stomach. That's why we launched our Lunches in Schools programme, which is already providing free and healthy school lunches to thousands of children so they can focus on what's important - learning. ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP based in Clutha-Southland This afternoon to a crowd of over 100 people in Mataura -- Mark Patterson, New Zealand First List MP based in Clutha-Southland launched a parliamentary petition regarding the aluminium dross issue in Mataura, Southland. The petition asks that the ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Spokesperson for Finance, Fletcher Tabuteau has welcomed Statistics New Zealand’s latest report as a timely reminder of the value that this Coalition Government brings to every day New Zealanders: “This Coalition Government has meant a ...
Today New Zealand First made a pledge to campaign at the election to fund St John Ambulance the 90 per cent it has asked for. Government funding would allow St. John’s to achieve fully funded status. Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters publicly declared his determination to deliver ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order Newly released Police data shows once again the number of fleeing drivers have continued to skyrocket with a record 512 incidents occurring in December – almost tripling the number of incidents occurring just ten years ago, says New Zealand First Law and ...
While the Provincial Growth Fund has provided $2 million to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia, Regional Economic Minister Shane Jones said he is greatly concerned that there are “issues” in implementing the projects. The Minister said the immediate solution was to pipe water from a bore ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP for Clutha-Southland NZ First is calling on Rio Tinto to accept its responsibilities to the Southland community and enable the immediate removal of the toxic Aluminium Dross from the Mataura Paper Mill site. New Zealand First List MP for Clutha-Southland, Mark Patterson ...
The Coalition Government has announced that a further $500,000 will be given to help residents in Southland and Otago to speed up recovery efforts from the floods. It follows prior government assistance of $200,000 earlier this month where the Southland Mayoral Relief Fund received $100,000 to support communities impacted by ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones was on RNZ’s Morning Report talking about the recent droughts in the Northland region and what the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is doing to alleviate its impact. The PGF recently announced a funding of $2 million for temporary water supplies to Kaikohe and Kaitaia, ...
Speaking to The Country’s Jamie Mackay, New Zealand First MP and Cabinet Minister Shane Jones talks water storage, plant-based meat imitation, and superstar Hollywood director James Cameron. While water storage may have its critics, Minister Jones defended the scheme by saying: “unless we invest and continue to invest” in this ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones is accusing northern iwi leaders of selling out Māori by voting for ideologically-driven court cases rather than practical steps to increase water supply. “I just think that iwi leaders who think that water issues are going to be solved by perpetually fighting in the ...
A dairy owner in St Kilda, Dunedin was delighted to hear that an attempted robbery of his establishment was foiled by a government-funded security system. Sean Lee was delighted at how well the anti-theft smoke system worked. When a knife-wielding man entered the store, the shop assistant immediately pressed a ...
Customs says it stopped more than three tonnes of illegal drugs coming into New Zealand last year. This includes 1,180kg of methamphetamine, 329kg of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine precursors, which could have been converted into 246kg of methamphetamine, 739kg and 6469 pills of MDMA or Ecstasy and 60kg of cocaine. Offshore, ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Up to $2 million will be allocated from the Provincial Growth Fund to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia where drought is biting hard, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Drought conditions in Northland have led to ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...
In a heated debate in Parliament, National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett claimed that “nearly 1600 patched gang members have been added” since the Coalition Government took power. To illustrate her point, she altered a chart used by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to show her government’s progress in housing to instead ...
Speech by the Rt Hon Winston Peters at Parliament’s Opening 2020 "We all need insurance" This year New Zealanders are going to have a clear choice to make That choice is between: Optimism versus pessimism; More progress versus back to the future; Investment versus divestment; Unity versus division. New Zealand ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has slammed the Board of Auckland Airport following the airport's runway closing twice within two weeks due to maintenance. Around 2,000 passengers were affected by last week’s runway closures, according to 1NEWS. Another maintenance closure on January 24 saw two international flights and three domestic flights ...
A milestone has been reached with the graduation of more than 2,000 new Police officers since the Coalition Government took office in October 2017. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the graduation today of Wing 335 marks a surge of 2,023 new officers, and coincides with some significant breakthroughs against organised ...
Government Ministers today celebrated 20 years of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park/ Ko te Pataka kai o Tikapa Moana/ Te Moananui a Toi, and recognise there is much to celebrate and so much more to do to give nature a helping hand. Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage said “New Zealanders care deeply about nature.I want to ...
Prepared remarks on coronavirus by Finance Minister Grant Robertson to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and Massey University. Good morning ladies and gentlemen, The topic of this speech is the Budget 2020 priorities. But, given the considerable interest that I imagine is in the room about COVID-19 coronavirus, I do ...
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā iwi, e ngā rau rangatira ma. Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa. Ni sa bula vinaka. Namaste Thank you Shamima, Hon. Minister Vuniwaqa, community leaders and Women’s Crisis Centre staff for your warm welcome. It’s an honour and privilege to officially ...
The Government has released a comprehensive response to ensuring New Zealanders get a fairer deal at the petrol pump. This follows the Commerce Commission fuel market study which found motorists were paying more than they should for petrol and includes: Fuel Market Bill drafting, to pass mid-year Industry consultation in ...
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā iwi, e ngā rau rangatira ma Tēnā koutou katoa Ni sa bula vinaka As-salaam alaikum It is a privilege to be here today. Thank you for welcoming us to your house of prayer. Thank you for your warmth. Thank you for greeting ...
Taupō Airport is to be upgraded and expanded through a $5.9 million Government funding boost, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. “Taupō Airport is the gateway to the Central North Island. It is essential for both keeping local people and businesses connected, but also to bring more people ...
The Minister of Housing Megan Woods has confirmed the Government is working with Rotorua Lakes District Council and Te Arawa for the second place-based assessment to better understand the housing and urban issues affecting the city. “Every New Zealander has a right to a warm, safe and secure place to ...
19 new community homes (in addition to 14 opened in December) delivered in Takanini, Auckland 500 people housed by CORT Housing Trust by end of March 2,290 new public housing homes delivered in Auckland (November 2017 – December 2019). Another nineteen new public housing homes are being delivered in Auckland, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker met today with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to discuss ways to strengthen ties between New Zealand and India. “India is a priority relationship for New Zealand. We share common democratic traditions, growing two-way trade, extensive people-to-people links, ...
Speech to the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) Delhi, India Wednesday 26 February 2020 [CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY] The Indo-Pacific: from principles to partnerships Distinguished guests, good afternoon and thank you for your invitation. It is good to be here at a time where New Zealand needs less of an introduction than ...
Tihei mauri ora Te Whare e tu nei Te Papa e takoto Tēnā korua No reira tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa Ni sa bula Vinaka It is a real pleasure to be here today, and to have the honour of addressing you all. If you’ll indulge me I’m ...
Improved air quality to support better health and environmental wellbeing is the focus of proposed amendments to air quality regulations, says the Associate Minister for the Environment, Hon Nanaia Mahuta. “Although our air quality is good in most places, during winter certain places have spikes in air pollution, mainly from ...
The remote eastern Bay of Plenty community of Raukokere will receive a Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment of $10.6 million for a water storage facility, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. “This is great news for the rural community. The landowner, Te Whānau a Maruhaeremuri Hapū Trust, will use ...
The Lake Ōkaro lakebed has transferred to Te Arawa Lakes Trust, Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis joined Te Arawa at Te Papaiōuru Marae in Rotorua to celebrate the reinstatement of Te Arawa Lakes Trust as a key decision maker over the bed ...
New legislation is being proposed which aims to reduce the stress and financial hardship caused by late payments to small businesses. The Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash is considering stricter rules around payment practices between businesses. “Late payments from large organisations to smaller suppliers can be crippling for these ...
A new partnership programme between the New Zealand Police and Fiji Police will focus on combatting transnational organised crime and enhancing investigative skills, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on the first day of her visit to Fiji. The programme will see: · New Zealand Institute of Environmental Science and Research ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama met today in Suva, and renewed their commitment to continue to strengthen Fiji-New Zealand relations on a foundation of shared values and equal partnership. The Prime Ministers acknowledged the kinship between Fijians and New Zealanders, one that has endured over ...
A $19.9 million investment from the Provincial Growth Fund will help develop essential infrastructure for an industrial hub in the Bay of Plenty town of Kawerau, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. “The funding will go to three projects to further develop the Putauaki Trust Industrial Hub, an industrial ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing $8.3 million on a roading package for Mahia that will lead to greater and wider economic benefits for the region and beyond, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced at an event in Mahia today. The $8.3 million announced consists of: $7 ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has welcomed new reporting showing the Coalition Government is on track to meet its child poverty targets, with 18,400 children lifted out of poverty as a result of the Families Package. Stats NZ has released the first set of comprehensive child poverty statistics since the Government ...
Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter today announced that Bikes in Schools facilities have been rolled out to 20,000 more kiwi kids under this Government. She made the announcement at the opening of a new bike track at Henderson North School in Auckland. “Bikes in Schools facilities give kids ...
Benefit settings rise in line with wages as of 1 April Main benefits will increase by over 3 percent, instead of 1.66 percent, on 1 April with the Government’s decision to annually adjust benefit rates to increases in the average wage. The Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni, said ...
Strengthening New Zealand’s political and business ties with India will be the focus of Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters’ and Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker’s visit to India this week. The Ministers are co-leading a high level business delegation to India to support increased people and economic engagement ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio continues to champion for greater Pacific participation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers with the announcement of the Toloa Awards, with 8 recipients of the Toloa Community Fund and 13 Toloa Tertiary Scholarships. “The Toloa Programme encourages more Pacific peoples ...
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage has extended the date for people to have their say on proposed changes to improve management of whitebait across New Zealand. Submissions were due to close on 2 March 2020 but will now remain open until 9am on Monday 16 March 2020. “I have ...
The endangered toroa/Antipodean albatross has new international protection for its 100,000km annual migration, thanks to collaborative efforts led by New Zealand, Australia and Chile. Today, 130 countries agreed to strictly protect Antipodean albatross at the Conference of Parties on the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild ...
No sales to under-18-year-olds No advertising and sponsorship of vaping products and e-cigarettes No vaping or smokeless tobacco in smokefree areas Regulates vaping product safety comprehensively, - including devices, flavours and ingredients Ensure vaping products are available for those who want to quit smoking Vaping regulation that balances ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little will travel to Berlin tomorrow to represent New Zealand at a high-level summit on nuclear disarmament. This year, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) celebrates 50 years since it entered into force. “New Zealand’s proud record and leadership on nuclear disarmament is unwavering, so it’s important we are present ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will visit two of New Zealand’s most important Pacific partners, Fiji and Australia, next week. The visit to Fiji will be the first by a New Zealand Prime Minister in four years and comes during the 50th anniversary of Fijian independence and diplomatic relations between our ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little and New Zealand First MP Darroch Ball, have today announced the appointment of the Chief Commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the location, and the membership of the Establishment Advisory Group. Colin Carruthers QC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of the CCRC for an ...
Māori Development Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta and Agriculture Minister Hon Damien O’Connor co-announced the first horticultural finalists for the Ahuwhenua Trophy celebrating excellence in the Māori agricultural sector. The three finalists are Ngai Tukairangi Trust from Mt Maunganui, Otama Marere Trust from Tauranga, and Hineora Orchard Te Kaha 15B Ahuwhenua ...
A new kete of resources to strengthen support for students with dyslexia will provide extra tools for the new Learning Support Coordinators (LSCs) as they start in schools, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The Minister launched the kete in Wellington this morning, at the first of three induction ...
The Government continues to make progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the First Reading of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill and its referral to the Social Services and Community Select Committee. “Now is the opportunity for landlords, tenants and others who want ...
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Hon James Marape will visit New Zealand from 21-25 February, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “New Zealand and Papua New Guinea have a warm and friendly relationship. I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Marape here and strengthening the relationship between our two countries,” ...
Thousands of children have begun receiving a free lunch on every day of the school week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. The Government’s free and healthy school lunch programme is under way for 7,000 students at 31 schools in Hawke’s Bay / Tairāwhiti and Bay of Plenty / Waiariki, extending ...
The Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni today announced a new approach that continues to broaden the Government’s social sector focus from a narrow, investment approach to one centred on people and wellbeing. Minister Sepuloni said redefining the previous approach to social investment by combining science, data and lived experience ...
The Government is strengthening the Protected Disclosures Act to provide better protection for whistle blowers, Minister of State Services Chris Hipkins said today. “The Protected Disclosures Act is meant to encourage people to speak up about serious wrongdoing in the workplace and protect them from losing their jobs or being ...
Nǐn hǎo (Hello in Mandarin). Xīn Nián Kuài Lè (Happy New Year in Mandarin) Néi Hóu (Hello in Cantonese). Sun Nin Fai Lok (Happy New Year in Cantonese) Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Thank you for your invitation to attend this celebration today. I would like to acknowledge ...
Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. Nau mai haere mai ki te Whare Pāremata. E ngā mana whenua ki tēnei rohe Taranaki Whānui, Te Upoko o Te Ika, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Raukawa – kei te mihi, kei te mihi, kei te mihi. E ngā mana, e ...
In an apparent change of tune, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expects to raise the topic of climate change with Australian counterpart Scott Morrison tomorrow. ...
The Government says it wants to protect small businesses from getting shafted by big companies who don’t or won’t pay their bills on time. The move can’t come too soon. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Muecke, Clinical senior lecturer in Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Adelaide Humans are physiologically hardwired to love and seek out sweet things. It’s an ancient survival mechanism that evolved to prepare our bodies for periods of fasting when food supplies ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marilyn McMahon, Deputy Dean, School of Law, Deakin University The NSW government has just introduced a bill that will, among other significant reforms, make it easier for a jury to be informed about the prior convictions of a person on trial for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marilyn McMahon, Deputy Dean, School of Law, Deakin University The NSW government has just introduced a bill that will, among other significant reforms, make it easier for a jury to be informed about the prior convictions of a person on trial for ...
By RNZ Pacific Jacinda Ardern has paid tribute to the three Fijians who died in last year’s Christchurch mosque shootings. Ardern spoke today at Lautoka Mosque as part of her trip to Fiji to remember Imam Hafiz Musa Patel, Ashraf Ali Razak and Ashraf Ali, who died almost a ...
The Real Pod reassembles to dissect the cultured fourth week of The Bachelorette NZ with special thanks to Nando’s.This week on The Bachelorette NZ, a burrito bust-up ends in anaphylaxis, Steve chows down on some one-ply, and the Buenos Aires hostel goes full Lord of the Flies. It’s become abundantly ...
Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, the Catholic Bishops' agency for justice, peace and development, is concerned that the latestchild poverty numbers show that there has been anincrease in material hardship,with 4100 more children living in ...
Dr Bryce Edwards.Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni described this year’s annual benefit increases of 3 per cent as “significant”, and “a way of sharing the wealth”. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also heralded them as the biggest increase to benefits in nine years, if National’s 2015 one-off adjustments are excluded. ...
Is it the kind of headline that will win votes at the general election? “Rock-star reception in Fijian village” followed by a sub-head “Rapturous greeting for Ardern during visit to launch $3m sanitation project”. The reporter (veteran Barry Soper, Newstalk ZB’s political editor) poses the rhetorical question: “Is there any ...
The New Zealand First Foundation received $100,000 in just one week from two rich-listers, whose donations remained secret because the individual payments fell below the disclosure threshold. ...
BusinessNZ says legislation requiring more transparent petrol pricing will probably be well-received, but there are concerns about the market study that prompted it. The Government has announced it is drafting a Fuel Market Bill to introduce requirements ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Andrea Watson, Sparrows CEO and founder, and Simon Yarrow, who leads Callaghan Innovation’s ...
LGNZ say a new report from the Deep South National Science Challenge is a reminder for central government policy makers to step up the pace on progressing a national strategy on climate change adaption. LGNZ is the peak body representing New Zealand’s ...
Art schools are seen by many as beacons of liberalism. But is this the reality? Former Māori student Anna McAllister recounts her fraught journey through an Auckland art school.In high school, the only subjects I was remotely good at were the practical arts. I stayed in the art block during ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Madeline Taylor, Academic Fellow, University of Sydney This week’s decision by Norwegian company Equinor to abandon a A$200 million plan to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight surprised both its critics and backers. Equinor says it abandoned the project off ...
Finance Minister sees serious, short-term impact on economy from Covid-19. He says the Government is able to deliver more general fiscal stimulus and sector-specific help if the economic hit is longer and harder. Finance Minister Grant Robertson has given his first comprehensive update on the economic effects expected from the ...
In response to reports that 30,000 New Zealanders earning over $100,000 are taking superannuation, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Casey Russell says: “It’s clear that many wealthy New Zealanders are collecting superannuation they don’t ...
Fancy a quick trip to Europe without leaving the comfort of your own couch? Tara Ward rounds up the best European drama for your viewing pleasure. Anyone who reckons travel is the only way to expand your mind has never had the pleasure of lying on a couch for three days ...
Child protection social work involves risk. It always will. The right decisions cannot always be made and sometimes it can be a question of choosing between the least damaging alternatives. We have had a long list of child abuse tragedies for over 30 years now – in Aotearoa New Zealand and ...
SFO scrutiny of National and NZ First donations sparked debate about party funding and electoral laws. Now, Transparency International has a warning. ...
Not paying NZ Super out to those on incomes of $100,000 or more would save taxpayers around $608 million. Is it time we shake up who gets paid and what? RNZ‘s Nita Blake-Persen reports.The number of New Zealand retirees getting their superannuation while earning more than $100,000 has topped 30,000, ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentCoronavirus John Gibb (ODT): Otago academic fears ‘massive’ impact Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Nothing Xenophobic Or Racist About The Chinese ...
Dr Bryce Edwards.Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won power in 2017 on the basis of statements such as “My goal is to eradicate child poverty in New Zealand”. The Government’s progress on child poverty will be under scrutiny at this year’s general election, but progress is slow, and many are claiming ...
New Zealand King Salmon has had a better-than-expected first half, driven by record prices for its fish products. The Marlborough-based salmon farmer's net profit rose nearly 38 percent to $20.8 million in the six months to December, with the average sale price up 6.6 percent. However, revenue of $84.2m was ...
Reform of superannuation is overdue, with new figures showing more than 30,000 superannuitants are earning more than $100,000 per year. This number is growing fast as more people keep working past 65. More than 126,000 superannuitants (17% of the total) are earning ...
Funding to give nature a helping hand and support community conservation projects opens this week, with $5.6m available for community-led projects. “The Department of Conservation (DOC) Community Fund enables us to go further and faster in our conservation ...
Police acknowledge the findings of the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) in relation to decision-making in a sexual assault investigation in Palmerston North. The IPCA found that the decision-making was sound, and there was no conflict of interest ...
Thursday, February 27: Greenpeace has published an open letter calling on the organisers of music festival WOMAD to dump oil industry sponsorship. Todd Energy and Austrian oil giant OMV are on the bill again this year, despite persistent criticism from ...
The clash between urban cyclists and car drivers has been brewing for several years now. But pedestrians have been advocating for their rights for far longer, writesNot so long ago, the journalist Bernard Hickey predicted that cyclists vs motorists will become one of the political issues of our age. “We ...
A2 Milk has delivered a strong financial result, with increased sales in its infant nutrition business and with better than expected profit margins. The specialty milk company's net profit rose 21 percent in the six months to December to $184.9m, with an underlying sales margin of 32.6 percent. Sales rose ...
Air New Zealand's half year profit has taken a larger hit than expected, falling 33 percent amid slowing demand for air travel and increased costs. Its net profit was $101 million in the six months ended December, compared with $150m the year before. Costs rose due to price hikes for ...
You might be trying to reduce your carbon footprint in everyday life, but what about in death? Alex Casey talks to Becs Bartells, founder of Outside the Box about creating the perfect cardboard casket. Becs Bartells often forgets she has an empty coffin sitting in the back of her station wagon, ...
As government services shut their doors in communities and drive people to interact online, the wellbeing of New Zealand's most vulnerable people is being diminished, says the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). CAB has released the report 'Face to Face ...
New research from justice advocacy group JustSpeak released today shows that structural bias in policing continues to disproportionately harm Māori and demonstrates the urgent need for transformative change across our justice system. Using the Statistics ...
A Spinoff article last year rightly raised concerns that citizens’ assemblies could be yet another imposition of Western ideas on Māori. But assemblies and tino rangatiratanga-based visions in fact share a critique of our current democratic system – and could together transform politics, write Emily Beausoleil and Max Rashbrooke.Nadine Anne ...
More new coronavirus cases have for the first time been reported outside China than inside, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said. ...
Simon Bridges wouldn't deport mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant if found guilty despite calling for reciprocal policy; and Why climate change should be on the agenda for Jacinda meet Morrison. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David A. Savage, Associate Professor of Behavioural Economics , Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle Recent days have brought reports of shoppers clearing out supermarket shelves from Wuhan and Hong Kong to Singapore and Milan in response to the spread of coronavirus. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato The Christchurch mosque attacks on March 15 last year have prompted a significant rise in tip-offs about people expressing extremist views, according to a report by New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS). During the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Beirman, Senior Lecturer, Tourism, University of Technology Sydney The coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) has now reached more than 80,000 recorded cases, largely concentrated in China, with a death toll over 2,700 and rising. There are few signs the epidemic is abating. In ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tessa Copp, PhD candidate, University of Sydney Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common hormonal condition. When using the definition supported by the international guidelines, it affects just under one in six young Australian women. To meet the diagnostic criteria of PCOS, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul McGorrery, PhD Candidate in Criminal Law, Deakin University The recent killing of Hannah Clarke and her three children by her estranged husband has raised national attention to the types of behaviour that might lead to such a horrific crime, and how ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominique Hes, Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Architecture, University of Melbourne Despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary, some still propagate the myth that the world will need Australian coal for decades to come. Last weekend Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese joined in, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mehmet Ulubasoglu, Professor of Economics, Head of the Department of Economics and Director of the Centre for Energy, the Environment and Natural Disasters, Deakin University My team and I have analysed the incomes of people affected by some of Australia’s worst bushfires, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tiffani J. Howell, Research Fellow, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University Australians are slightly obsessed with our dogs. But are we obsessed enough to watch a reality doggy makeover show? The reality makeover concept has a long history, from ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Saving water becomes crucial amid drought, means testing Super back in the news, and a hard look at a Special Purpose Vehicle.Aucklanders need to get serious about saving water or restrictions will come in. Newshub reports that’s the message from Watercare, who ...
Up-and-coming teenage freeskiier Ruby Andrews has shown she has the boldness and the bravery to become one of the world's top women in not one, but three, different events. There’s no questioning Ruby Andrews’ grit and determination. While most 15-year-olds are spending this summer hanging with friends on the beach, Andrews ...
An anonymous international student at the University of Auckland grapples with when and how she might return to NZ amid the coronavirus outbreak, and what challenges she will face if she makes it back. I am a Chinese international student at the University of Auckland. Having completed my language course and ...
When will there be a vaccine? What can we do and how do we stay up to date? Helen Petousis-Harris gives an update on the COVID-19 global health emergency Less than two months after China told the World Health Organisation there was a problem, a lot has happened. Sadly, deaths, confirmed ...
From February 28, Kiwibank will be cheque-free. Mark Jennings looks at how it has been preparing its customers for the big change. It’s raining heavily in Nelson, something it hasn’t done for a while. Local MP and former cabinet minister Nick Smith hurriedly climbs into an old bus parked outside the city’s library. ...
Experts in far-right extremism see a number of similarities between the Christchurch terror attack and last week's mass shooting in Hanau, Germany. Marc Daalder reports. On the evening of February 19, a man shot up two shisha bars frequented by Muslims in Hanau, Germany. It later emerged that he had released ...
ReadingRoom has devoted all week to the biggest-selling book in New Zealand right now, In The Clearing, a brilliant thriller by Ngāpuhi author JP Pomare, based on creepy Australian cult The Family. We conclude the series with a review by Bill Ralston.JP Pomare's second novel In ...
New Zealand’s travel ban on China has been extended another week. The president of the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations argues for a student exemption.The loss of lives and poor health caused by coronavirus is devastating. We must acknowledge the families, across the globe, who have lost loved ones ...
The first issue of the Otago student magazine for 2020 had barely hit campus before it was making headlines in the wider media. The cover was censored by Facebook, and a furious editorial denounced party politics, promising to give them a miss. Josie Adams speaks to editor Sinead Gill about ...
The global health emergency that is the Coronavirus - or Covid-19 - has become a game-changer for scientists around the world in terms of the speed of the response. But at the same time it's been termed a 'misinfodemic' Covid-19 – or coronavirus – is a game changer for scientists around the ...
President Rodrigo Duterte administers the oath of office to the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) officials in a ceremony at the Rizal Hall in Malacañang Palace on February 26, 2020. Video: RapplerBy Felipe F. Salvosa II in Manila Reporters have finally got the chance to ...
Andy Ayamiseba died a few days ago. While the West Papuan was loved, admired and supported in Vanuatu, he fought tirelessly to win a home he could return to. He died before the dream was achieved.Originally published by the Pacific Institute of Public Policy (PIPP), this 2013 profile ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Merryn McKinnon, Senior lecturer, Australian National University Public representation of science in the media still struggles to reflect the true diversity of those who work in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM). According to the Women in Leadership Australia’s 2019 Women for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Mathews, Professor of Strategic Management, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University Australia is the world’s third largest fossil fuels exporter – a fact that generates intense debate as climate change intensifies. While the economy is heavily reliant on coal and ...
The Otago Regional Council (ORC) voted today to request that Minister for the Environment Hon. David Parker exercise his authority to ‘call in’ upcoming proposed plan changes to the Regional Plan for Otago: Water and Regional Plan for Otago: Waste ...
This week’s plummeting international stock markets are a sign the ‘best case scenario’ economic outcomes of the coronavirus are increasingly unlikely. And that’s a worry for NZ’s manufacturers. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Mark Butler, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy, is optimistic that Labor is better placed to prosecute its climate policy at the next election, compared to the last. “I think we are better positioned ...
The huge majority of New Zealanders think fishing industry donations to Members of Parliament at the last election have the potential to “strongly influence” decisions the MPs make, according to a poll conducted by Horizon Research. The poll, ...
Wellington councillors have voted to expand the mayor's proposed taskforce on the city's water problems, to include business and community members and water experts. The council has today voted to establish the taskforce proposed by mayor Andy Foster. The group he envisaged comprised only councillors, officials and iwi representatives. However, ...
Open Mike 25/05/2017 
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Fletcher Tabuteau MP, New Zealand First Deputy Leader A total delivery of 2,000 new Police Officers has been achieved. New Zealand First Deputy Leader, Fletcher Tabuteau attended the latest police graduation of Recruit Wing 335 in Porirua today. Mr Tabuteau said, “Increasing police numbers and boosting their resources was one of ...7 hours ago
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An anonymous international student at the University of Auckland grapples with when and how she might return to NZ amid the coronavirus outbreak, and what challenges she will face if she makes it back. I am a Chinese international student at the University of Auckland. Having completed my language course and ...16 hours ago
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Experts in far-right extremism see a number of similarities between the Christchurch terror attack and last week's mass shooting in Hanau, Germany. Marc Daalder reports. On the evening of February 19, a man shot up two shisha bars frequented by Muslims in Hanau, Germany. It later emerged that he had released ...16 hours ago
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Wellington councillors have voted to expand the mayor's proposed taskforce on the city's water problems, to include business and community members and water experts. The council has today voted to establish the taskforce proposed by mayor Andy Foster. The group he envisaged comprised only councillors, officials and iwi representatives. However, ...1 day ago
Good article on the Wireless from an NZ journo in Manchester: on the feeling there, and on how the way to respond is from an understanding of the injustices that fuel violent attacks like the Manchester bombing:
Well, democracy isn’t happening that well. A better version of participant democracy is needed. Capitalism is showing its inevitable downsides, and from the destruction it is causing, we need a new left way forward.
+1 “the root of the hatred that motivates them is injustice. “
In a way it is karma
If a country makes money out of manufacturing and selling arms which it knows will be causing misery and destruction elsewhere, then that country will be perceived as being part of the problem by those who have been impacted by the weapons…… drug producers and sellers are considered to be criminals, but it seems that arms manufacturers and sellers should be seen in the same light.
US 1.29 billion (£848.6m) worth of bombs to Saudi Arabia
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34838937
Blood money: UK’s £12.3bn arms sales to repressive states
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blood-money-uk-s-123bn-arms-sales-to-repressive-states-8711794.html
TMM @ 1.1……..as in (particularly re Palestine)……..”Justice the Seed, Peace the Flower”.
Fell about laughing when I heard someone on CNN or somewhere saying Trump in his ‘best result for everyone’ line has leverage over the Palestinians on account of the $US400 million of annual US funding which goes their way (apparently).
No mention of the annual $US 3,000 million from the same source which goes the way of Zionist Israel, nor the leverage that might provide.
The Pope looks just so spectacularly unhappy to hang with Trump:
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/5/24/15684774/donald-trump-pope-meeting-vatican-photo
I understand the Pope is going to take Donald’s confession. He is expected to be back at the White House in November.
When is the pope coming here to take a series of confession from double dipper. (H’d better allow a week or two)
Appalling…….get the gawping mid-west used-car salesman. Again, it’s all about President Petulant Child.
Omen
Too far?.
Contempt.
Ad, that photo opened up a really cool discussion on one of the game groups I’m in on facebook. A lot of republican women play the game, and for many of them the photo cut through the divide of dem/rep. They then really opened up about their disquiet about the trump administration. In the end it became about their fears around health care. Myself and a Aussie talked about our system – which they all said they liked.
Just one more reason to love this Pope.
@ Ad ( 2) … Looks like the Transylvanian Trump show has arrived at the Vatican. Pope obviously picked up some satanic vibes there, hence his less than happy expression! The women look very creepy indeed. The pair of them, along with the Don of course could haunt a haunted house!
BTW, why is Ivanka always there hanging out with dad and step mum?
The Addams Family.
Bad dream.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DAnTdYpXkAAQjOh.jpg
So… you think you own the vehicle you buy?
Not if it’s a John Deere tractor.
When you buy one, you’re actually purchasing an “implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.“ Basically, a rental contract. With the difference being that even when the rental is paid off, you are still bound by the contract.
Yes, really.
It has to do with two things – the code that runs the tractor (yes, them too) and the ownership claims to that code asserted under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
You may recall the ruckus that erupted about a year ago when the car companies floated the idea that even though you bought their car, it was still their code that ran the thing – and this code remained proprietary. That is, their property. To “tamper” with anything that could conceivably affect the code, their lawyers proposed, would violate both the warranty and copyright laws. Effectively making the car not your property, no matter the name on the title.
https://ericpetersautos.com/2017/05/23/nothing-runs-like-deere/
I’m surprised we haven’t seen something like ‘Apple Finance’. Miss a payment and the device shuts down until the payment + penalty is paid and an automated system boots the iwhatever back up again. Phone finance is notorious for defaulting.
Just saw the Herald on-line but won’t read it: “Mike Hosking: Dude, where’s my tax cut?
Mike Hosking wants to know why the Government can’t give us a tax cut.”
Is he starting a Givealittle because he’s on the bones of his arse?
Lovely quote from Gordon Campbell re Mr Matthews as both Auditor and as CE of Ministry of Transport failing to figure fraud out faster, and failing to acknowledge it properly when it all came out:
“…the indulgence granted to senior executives is in stark contrast to the 90 day employment rules that operate elsewhere in the labour market. If you’re being paid say, $30,000 a year, you’re out on your ear if you under-perform. Yet if you’re being paid more than 15 times that amount to lead a government department, you are not held responsible for systemic failings that flourish on your watch. If you’re lucky, you could even be promoted to a position of greater responsibility.”
The Auditor General’s role demands the highest standards of probity, judgement and widespread respect. How the hell did Mathews even get on the short list?
Yes AD. The whole item is worth a read.
http://werewolf.co.nz/2017/05/gordon-campbell-on-not-taking-responsibility-terrorism-porn-and-dylans-76th-birthday/
An interesting and well written article, covering the points that have been avoided by many – and in particular the government. It appears to have been written just before the auditor-general decided to step down while an investigation is held – perhaps prompted by the many comments similar to those in the article. It is of course the minimum response – less than the recent resignation of a lower level official from another department, but a reasonable response nevertheless. He is to be congratulated for the initiative – it does not mean that he did not make mistakes in his previous job (and as Labour has pointed out it does not constitute evidence wrongdoing and indeed there has been no evidence of fault) – but he has had the sense to see that an independent investigation was needed. Certainly the court case should have shown that there should have been at least an internal review of procedures, and the State Services Commission should also have asked questions to ensure that if there were faults they did not also apply to other departments – and whether they should have been picked up by audit. The Minister should also have been asking questions.
Now the SSC have stepped in to ‘take over’ some investigations (news reports are not clear whose investigation they are ‘taking over’) but the standing down has it appears prompted that response.
But where was the Minister in all this – hiding. There is such a willingness to separate their position from that of their department that there is no accountability at all at Ministerial level for anything – as we have seen recently with Ngaro. Coupled with a culture of bullying departments themselves, and tolerating bullying within departments (that’s how they get things done, so why wouldn’t they encourage the same behaviour in others) it is no wonder the system doesn’t question itself too deeply. So I congratulate Matthews, but ask why there has not been corresponding condemnation of those who sat back and let (encouraged!) the system degenerate to the extent that such fraud could have happened and go effectively unquestioned. This is yet another failure of government at Cabinet level. Don;t hold your breath for any Minister to even share a smidgeon of the blame . . .
Lions tour carries terror risk – English
“But as the horror of the attack continues to unfold, New Zealand’s thoughts are already turning to the upcoming Lions rugby tour, and whether there will be a need for increased security.”
Playbook.
+1
This is not good.
Crime scene pics of the bombing SHARED with US intelligence were LEAKED to the New York Times
So much for cooperation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11862785
Crime scene photographs were leaked to the New York Times, apparently after being shared with US intelligence agencies by British investigators.
The pictures were leaked despite a direct plea from Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, to the US authorities to stop leaking information about the fast-moving inquiry.
The recent Manchester incident has prompted me to ask these questions.
1. How do I feel about the 22 Manchester killings of mainly young women?
2. How do I feel about the 225 civilians, including 36 women and 44 children killed in Syria by US Airstrikes in the month from 23 April -23 May this year.
3.Do the words “collateral damage” seem appropriate to either example above?
4. Do I think the pain of relatives of any of the above will be less?
5. How would I feel if a relative was killed by accident but the perpetrators denied it happened and tried to cover up the situation? Would the cover up increase the burden of loss even more?
6. How would I feel if I killed someone by accident and I was forced to keep the secret by others? Would this prey on my conscience? Would I be the type to be a hit-and-run driver leaving the victim or would I always stop and try to help.
7. Can I imagine the extra burden on those SAS members who carry the mental baggage from the Afghanistan raid which Jon Stephenson has investigated?
8. Where does my compassion start and end? Why? Why not?
I guess this is just a response to no. 8.
We live in a discompassionate world. I’m using the word “world” here to refer to the contrived socio/economic paradigms we accept and live by. Every day, when we go to work or think about saving for that deposit or whatever, we are endorsing ways of life that don’t just constrain us (our ‘acceptable’ or possible expressions of humanity) but that pit us one against the other for the sake of ‘success’.
And to avoid submitting a huge comment, I’m just going to suggest those pointers tie back in with the final paragraph of carolyn_nth’s comment at the top of the thread.
Most of 1 through 7 is covered by her, I’d have thought, pretty obvious observation.
At the end of the day, it’s our world. Maybe it’s time to take it back; to wrest control of our world away from the fish eyed misanthropes and tear up their books of rules and lies. Maybe that process begins with small steps of disengagement – a growing refusal to participate in their discompassionate world…
Whadda ya mean,”maybe”? 🙂
You’ve already “begun”, Bill, as have many, many others here and elsewhere, so far as I can tell. Engaged and compassionate is the path and the direction, swelling the crowd is the action most needed now.
That would make a good Guest Post. I’d be happy to put it up as such if you are ok with that.
Like throwing in “Daddy what did you do in the war” sort of angle?
Sorry, it needs more thought, but I really valued Bill and Robert Guyton’s comments.
Somehow we have to show our leaders that there are better ways to deal with the issues of violence , punishment, revenge, escalation of hate, etc. If corporate media are only interested in fanning the flames of hatred, we need to overpower this with social media and public demonstrations.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/05/shattered-hillary-clinton-campaign-defeat-trump
Good article, well worth a read I thought.
Same here.
It’s exactly why so many of us saw Clinton as such a weak candidate. She’s a political operator insulated from the real world and it showed. Trump by contrast was really good at faking it.
Yet, somehow, as flawed a candidate as Hillary was, 3.7 million more Democratic primary voters voted for her than for Sanders. Shouldn’t the clearly expressed will of the voters count for something?
But purity….
/
The other way of putting it is that Sanders came within 3.7m votes despite not being the Democrat’s officially anointed candidate from the outset. Yes the will of the voters prevailed, but in hindsight everyone realises what a bungle it was.
Sorry to sound like Colonial Viper, but I think it’s worked out as nature intended.
Trump is revealing what a properly revealed Republican administration looks like,
and the Democrats have needed a lot more time to reorganise and revive.
Trump will assist the Democrats to gain a few more in the mid terms.
And will continue to drag the reputations of other Republicans down with him as the various inquiries publish their results.
Meanwhile, those democracies that have re/elected strong states and long-term revival programmes are doing just great.
That view seems somewhat … Zizekian. But it’s starting to look like it might not be wrong.
or 4 years of this will leave the state electoral offices well entrenched in their disenfranchisement role so voting entitlements are rigged enough that the republicans have a straight 50 years in power.
Even the current Supreme Court is seeing through the overt racism that redistricting is.
It’s going to take as long for the Democrats to recover as Labour is here or in the UK.
Redistricting is only part of the issue (and can be good). Voter ID, booth locations, roadworks… Sure, the most outrageous and explicitly partisan/racist ones get smacked, but there are enough republicans smart enough to refrain from saying “we did this just to stop democrats voting” that I fear the US is committed to the downhill slope.
The thing is that there are so many ways to fuck with who can vote and how that vote is recorded, leaving SCOTUS as the only check won’t be enough by itself.
For anyone of a mind for another dive into American electoral weirdness, here’s a good piece on the the Supreme Court’s past and upcoming cases involving partisan gerrymandering (all hunky-dory and legit) and racial gerrymandering (used to be a good thing, now not so much).
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/05/is_anthony_kennedy_ready_to_put_an_end_to_partisan_gerrymandering.html
“…her refusal to shift her centrist policies to the left, her campaign-for-a-campaign’s-sake, the centering of her campaign around an individual rather than a set of principles — these are all factors that could easily be repeated by the next establishment candidate.”
But the Democratic platform coming out of the convention was a long way left of Hillary’s positions going into the campaign.
Presidential campaigns are about individuals, like it or not. Policies and principles run a very distant second and third place. There remains the lesson from O’Malley’s popularity (well, extreme lack thereof). He’s a solidly competent, non-neo-liberal, somewhat generic Democrat. But just got nowhere with the electorate. Sanders had a personality that fit the moment, but when you dug down to the bones of his actual positions and history (which Hillary never did in an attack mode) there was a lot that would be unappealing to progressives.
Campaign-for-a-campaign’s-sake. Well, yeah. Bush the Elder had the same issue. I could never figure out why he wanted the presidency, except as the final flourish on a glowing CV. Fortunately all the likely prospects for 2020 at this point seem to have issues they’re passionate about. As long as Hillary doesn’t get it in her head to have another go.
The dems will go with someone significantly younger. Clinton would be the oldest starting president if she ran in 2020 (72), and the trolls had more than enough fun with her health in the campaign as it was. and if Trump falls back to a non compos mentis defense like Reagan did…
Obama and Bill C were at the other end, while most started term in their 50s.
*snort*
Ummm – what’s my best move to defend myself against a “witch hunt” into my links with Russia? Aha, I know. I’ll hire a lawyer with links to Russia to represent me…
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/24/politics/trump-attorney-kasowitz/index.html
Lance O’Sullivan takes on the anti-vaxxers. He’s a great guy with a long history of doing good work in poor communities, and speaking out. I agree 100% that the last thing any community needs – let alone disadvantaged communities – is harm to their health from unscientific nonsense. Vaccines are a wonderful thing and we should be thrilled to have them.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/201845029/lance-o-sullivan-lashes-out-at-anti-vaccination-film
Dr Lance is a neat genuinely humble family focused guy that doesn’t talk about making a difference, he does. Same with Kelvin, he took a school that was producing the jail population of tomorrow and turned it into a state run academy of excellence.
I think Dr Lance would make one helluva Minister of Health.
Narrow banded thinking is not something to be ‘proud’ about
The toxic poison is out of the vile, and it won’t be going back in..
Too many understand the gaping holes in the ‘argument’ …
I think you might of changed the meaning of what you wanted to say by spelling ‘vial’ as ‘vile’.
Vile, was intentional
Judge Judy of the NZ medical scene.
Is it just me, or is trying to score political points off someones death, truly vulgar?
I’d be tempted to say it a new low for NBR and hooten, but i’m sure in the coming weeks and months, they will dive for even newer lows.
Dishonest NBR. True headline would have said – “…….recently ‘unsuccessfully’ sued Andrew Little……”.
An interesting article about the history of the FBI’s political operations.
One thing it mentioned that hadn’t occurred to me (stupid, now it’s so obvious) was that the PR campaigns in the 1930s chasing bank robbers like Kelly, Dillinger, and suchlike was largely to evade comparisons with Nazi and Soviet political/secret police, even though the FBI had the bulk of its work in a substantially similar role.
Government being sued over climate targets!
A Hamilton law graduate, Sarah Thomson, is going to the High Court, requesting a judicial review of aspects of the government’s climate change policy. It’s thought to be the first case of its kind in New Zealand. The move wasn’t initially taken that seriously, with John Key dismissing the case as a “joke”.
But the case is going to the Wellington High Court next month.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/289535/law-student-tackles-govt-on-climate-change
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/201845139/government-being-sued-over-climate-targets