certainly seems to be an improvement on what we have got !…would like to hear specific policies soon eg state and tertiary education…incentives for tertiary education (loan/interest issues) are crucial for attracting the young NZers vote.
Not just the young NZers. National’s changes to education will prevent many older people from taking up any education as well. And these would be the people who, due to changing technology, have come to the end of their career path and need the education to get a job at all.
National have been throwing a lot of people on the scrap heap, young and old, so that they can claim a surplus while still borrowing.
+100…affordable if not free tertiary or polytech education is a light at the end of the tunnel for many NZers thrown on the scrap heap….a chance for another career , to meet new people, to learn new skills, to start their own business…this is why Continuing Education is so important as well
Better late than never I guess… but politically, isn’t the best time for an alternative budget when the government releases their one?
Seems about a month too late, the conversation is over and National won it largely unopposed. Releasing this now looks like more evidence of how risk averse and conservative Labour is. Constantly reactionary, never willing to take the fight to National or take a risk in preempting them.
I bet it also adheres to Nationals framing of ‘fiscal responsibility’ thereby endorsing their current economic management.
Better late than never I guess… but politically, isn’t the best time for an alternative budget when the government releases their one?
Seems about a month too late, the conversation is over and National won it largely unopposed.
A shadow budget starts a discussion on alternatives and lets the public know that there are indeed other choices possible. It should be more radical and somewhat provocative to that end, but it should drive toward setting up a consistent narrative – inequality, insufficient incomes, housing affordability as the short term narratives, and climate change/resource depletion/sovereignty as the medium and long term narratives.
The shadow budget puts the govt on the defensive over the choices its made.,
80 days before the election is when this well developed public narrative, gets fleshed out with gutsy, detailed policy.
Key-National pander to the Americans by supporting Obama’s intentions to forge ahead with the TTPA, cutting out Japan who are strongly opposed due to valid concerns. By his actions Key is selling us down the toilet to the Corporations.
If we had half decent media in this Country they would be taking Key-National to task, not sitting idle and praising his US trip as a huge success. A few left commentators have rightly pointed out Key goes to the States, doesn’t get any major runs on the board, and instead gets us tangled in backing a war. What a disgrace!
This is, in relative terms, very gutsy policy from Labour as it targets the big multinationals – well done. An extra ~$200M in tax revenue out of $15B in foreign ownership shipped offshore isn’t much – but it does send a signal.
They need to say that all income in NZ will be taxed in NZ before it leaves the country and that offshore expenses aren’t tax deductible for either NZ companies or foreign. This will make many present tax avoidance schemes obsolete while still treating onshore and offshore companies the same.
It will also encourage diversification in NZ’s economy.
“and that offshore expenses aren’t tax deductible for either NZ companies or foreign.”
Can you clarify this statement? On the face of it it would appear to pick up something as simple as a car dealer who imported cars from Japan and sold them in New Zealand.
Suppose they bought the car in Japan for $20k, paid freight of $3k and then sold the car in New Zealand for, say $30k plus GST. Lets say staff and premises cost $3k per car. This would mean a real profit of $4k/car. It also means offshore expenses of $23k/car.
As you appear to word it they would have to pay tax on $27k (car price minus the firms operating cost) rather than the $4k profit they are really making.
Yeah good stuff Labour – I guess we can now expect another massive attack on Labour shortly from our business-interests-friendly and people-interests-hostile media…..
While looking for Frank, I did find this, oddly enough.
I wonder if they made a party donation?
“Solar Technology Systems has installed a new solar system in my house in Stoke and I want to commend them on their professional, friendly and cost effective service. Frank Witowski provided expert advice, a very competitive quote and an outstanding service.”
Well Hayden has him busted now. Looks like Frank has to deny involvement or be guilty as charged.
If the press/media can run the story to embarrass Sue and Labour, surely they can investigate a little bit harder and uncover the truth.
If the press/media can run the story to embarrass Sue and Labour, surely they can investigate a little bit harder and uncover the truth.
If they were going to do that then they would have done it before they ran the story. They would, or at least should, know that domain name registrations are public information and they mentioned in the article that the domain had been registered.
No, this looks like another attempt to make Labour look bad.
There is a Francis (not Frank) Patrick Collingwood registered as a director of Skisling Limited (annual report filed just last month), but at 17b Scott Road, Hobsonville:
At 125 Hanham Road, there was a company registered known as Matisse PC Ltd (annual report last filed in 2006), but the director was Paul William James:
Also, a quick search shows the hotmail account is associated with a post by a “Francis Patrick Collingwood” on a genealogy webpage (so the person goes by Frank or Francis?):
Ha! I didn’t look that deeply, but I do note he ‘liked’ one of John Key’s pages and said that he hoped the PM would win lots of elections. I do hope he’s not part of Dunnokeyo’s electorate team, that wouldn’t be a good look 😉
ps: When a green party member defaced some hoardings, the PM had this to say:
Key said it was “extremely disappointing and frustrating” for candidates.
“There is no room for negative campaigning in New Zealand.”
It isn’t a criminal act, it is a contractual requirement. Doesn’t mean that it isn’t done and quite extensively in some URLs.
Not to mention that some of the contact details are often designed to obstruficate with old addresses and phone numbers (there is also a requirement to keep details up to date).
probly seemed like a good idea at the time. Especially as nabbing it would be a good campaign tactic to prevent tories doing exactly what they did this time around. But letting it go again was an error (maybe physically scratching the old address off the recycled billboards would be useful, too).
Time for someone to do some serious research into HBL (health benefits limited) whcih seems to have been set up by National so its pals can scam the health system. They have got $700,000 so far.
The Association of Salaried Medical specialists are calling it a PONZI scheme.
The HBL is just one more page in the tome of How to Rort the System.
I know I am only an unwanted drain on resources that the economy seems to have no use for apart from stomping on my progress and doing whatever it can to destroy the numerous attempts I have made to contribute to my society but I have a question….
How are private consultants who charge multiple times per hour what a salaried staffer receives, and work just as many hours as the salaried staffer would, ever going to save money?
Funny how National Radio and Stuff and others are full of the HBL rort but the Herald is silent. Suppose they don’t want to upset Key/Ryall?
@Stuff:”
The Capital & Coast District Health Board could back out of a flagship government cost-cutting drive, as a leaked report compares the money-saving push to Novopay, and attacks it for funnelling cash away from patient care.
In a series of leaked documents, the multimillion-dollar push to consolidate back-office health work, led by cost-cutting agency Health Benefits Ltd (HBL), has been called the greatest threat to public health services in a generation, and a debacle comparable to Novopay.”
Should have been worth a mention at the Herald.
Ryall has been praised in the past for keeping the contentious and costly health portfolio ticking along without too many hiccups.
Guess The Hairy didn’t want to rile him. Boom. boom (Basil Brush the Fox).
Why is it a crime to have reports on government activity? Now they are hot on the trail about HBL information. Leaked documents about government and related matters should not be necessary as government should be reporting all the time on what it is doing with our money or for the people who it is acting on behalf of.
Simple really. All else turns government into a group of mandarins acting as secular priests selectively evealing the Good Word to the supplicant populace.
HBL quoted this a.m. on RNZ as promising to be more transparent. How fast things happen near elections. We promise we are going to be good and save lots of money at great cost to the country and great financial advantage to us and the combined thinking and decision making of the DHB financial executives doesn’t amount to diddly-squat.
In some inititiatives? in running large entities, the management have asked workers at all levels to come up with efficiency ideas and money-saving practices and highlight faults that result in wastage. But that sort of thing is just doing things on the cheap, and can’t really be considered when the whole trend is to cut staff anyway to get the labour bill down, employ juniors, sack expensive seniors, and dismiss institutional knowledge because it will be out of touch, based on wasteful practices. And further there is no money in it for specialist change agents who swoop in, upset the games board so all the pieces fall to the floor, and devise something new and exciting that will have to be rehashed within a decade at a fee that reflects the inflated expectations of experts in transforming the mistakes of previous change agents.
I have changed my mind about election periods – I once thought every four years would allow a government that had good intentions to serve the country well, to have the time to get its policies going and achieving good outcomes.
But I am so foolish, fancy hanging on to the idea of a government having good intentions for the country. Now I think we should hold elections every two years to try and limit the damage before the slightly different government can come in and reverse some of the recent innovations, and then impose their own version of TINA.
..where those elected need seriously extenuating circumstances to do anything else than what they have promised the electorate they will do..
..(with the people given the ability..(electronic-voting?)..to call an early election themselves..should the govt err..)
..it wd nip secret-agendas in the bud..and keep the bastards accountable..
..and reduce politicians to what they should be..effective-managers/servants of the people..
..basically..politicians should just fuck off with their personal-politics..they have a caretaker/common-good role..and yes..they can differentiate by their promised policies..
..but as for imposing the whole package of their ‘politics’..as has been done to us far too often..
..with the randite key being the latest..imposing the twisted objectivist/fuck the poor! -policies that are randite policies..
..that is why key seems to just not care about the poor..that’s ‘cos he doen’t care about the poor..
..and he uses the teachings of ayn rand as the philosophical-underpimings for that ability to just ignore the fact that one in four nz children live in poverty..
..here..in nz..one of the richest/most-blessed countries..
..we have no rational reasons to be happy about that..
..it’s just those fucken politicians and their fucken politics..
..once again..they can just fuck off..
..we need to get the politics out of politicians..
(as an aside..i am heavily opposed to a four year term..for most of the above reasons..)
I’m glad you have responded to the idea phillip. haven’t read all yours yet. (It’s stopped raining and I am taking the chance to get out dry.)
But I’ve been thinking about a group who are really interested in the country and have done some study and passed a diploma on government and the citizen actually choosing a series of works and measures, and conferring with government as to how to go ahead and what order. This in conjunction with select committees allowing other citizens to have input. Things would be slower but then a lot of time is spent in government reversing, changing things and repairing mistakes.
I’ll just throw in this link to Town Meetings on wikipedia.
I have heard of them especially the ones in Vermont but haven’t studied them or read this yet. But I’ll have a look later. I have heard that they get a lot of public participation in their decision making. Thought I’d just put it up for interest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_meeting
They’re not. The point isn’t to save money, the point is to distrubute the money differently. And disenfranchise a whole lot of people so they will do the shit work in society. Plus it’s part of the medium term agenda of privatisation.
From another unwanted drain on resources, kia kaha freedom. Know that the ‘economy’ you are being excluded from is inherently flawed on so may levels and none of this is your fault. It will eventually fail. In the meantime let’s look to our communities instead.
Just posted some new stats / analysis of the latest Fairfax/Stuff-Ipsos Poll, with an emphasis on the importance of the views of the Undecideds and on its striking contrast with the latest Roy Morgan. sub-zero pols here…http://sub-z-p.blogspot.co.nz/
(Still a work in progress, though. Transformed the design, influenced, in part, by the views of Standardistas a couple of days ago. Looks bloody fantastic I have to say but, as Weka rightly implied, is deeply impractical visually. So, I’ll probably alter it to something a little more legible in a few weeks time. But, I’ll leave it as it is for a couple of weeks, savouring its futuristic/Space Age qualities. It’s almost like we’re living in the year 1999 !).
Claims of clairvoyance and effeminate financial malfeasance, and offers of deals not to do deals, yesterday in Parliament was one, to quote the prime minister, of mumbo jumbo.
[…]
When Labour’s David Parker stood to raise a point of order about something Finance Minister Bill English had just said in answer to his question about the export sector, Carter smelt biffo and tried to be pro-active.
“Order! . . . I listened carefully to the answer. The question was addressed,” he ruled.
Trouble was, Parker had only got four words out before Carter interrupted him and ruled. They were, “My question did not . . .” To the lay person, these four words did not by themselves articulate the nature of his complaint – yet Carter had ruled the complaint unwarranted.
In vain, Parker and several colleagues applied for the chance for Parker to finish at least a sentence of his point of order so that Carter might know what he had actually ruled against.
“I didn’t need to listen any further to the member,” Carter said crisply, and warned all subsequent point of order-raisers that he would not tolerate their relitigating the issue. Except, of course, that no-one knew what the issue was.
The Speaker of the House isn’t the only one with a a visceral dislike of Parker, my opinion of Him as a Monetarist Neo-Lib hasn’t as yet been altered by anything so far said from Him or about Him,
i took yesterday’s question time in the Parliament as a complete capitulation by Labour over the Liu donations saga, and, it all looked to me to have been completely pre-scripted to the point where there was agreement between National and Labour that the issue would not be raised,
Given the perfect opportunity to pillory Slippery the Prime Minister over His previous utterances of there having been ”six figure donations” from Liu to Labour, David Cunliffe chose instead to ask what in effect was a patsy question,
This weak exchange was then followed by a series of ”patsy questions” to the Minister of Finance, in among them the patsy from Parker,
Just what the hell sort of answer He expects to gain from English is beyond me, every question so far asked by Parker of English is a pro forma one which English simply deflects by reading from a different data set than what Parker does,
The little spat that then ensues, as Phillip alludes to is also pro forma boredom with Parker always claiming that English hasn’t answered the question, its all dancing on the head of a pin, as English does answer the question using different data sets than Parker chooses to use,
As far as Carter as the Speaker goes, He just about has me casting a Party Vote for Labour in September for the sole reason of having the Parliaments Blackadder,(Mallard), be given the role, i can well imagine Trev in all His bloody mindedness adding a much needed dose of spices to the proceedings of what has become an exercise in tedium…
“tho’ i think carter is the worst of the speakers since i have been doing commentaries on q-time..”
That really can’t have been a very long time then Phil. A maximum of five and a half years in fact.
There is no way that Margaret Wilson was a better Speaker than Carter is. She was an appalling Speaker of the House.
That is of course why I picked that length of time.
On the other hand I really don’t want to have to remember how bad I thought she was so we had better agree to disagree on what we thought of her as a Speaker, and how she compares to Carter.
I thought Lockwood Smith was bloody good, but it may have only been in comparison with his predecessor. He was better than Carter is and he always seemed to manage to keep a good humoured manner.
Certainly he was different to Hunt and Wilson in that he did make the Ministers make some attempt to address the politically neutrally worded questions.
The Smith doctrine was that questions actually require answering, and that the lesser requirement of only “addressing” allows too much scope for vague and meaningless responses.
Of course Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine reversed this healthy change immediately upon taking the chair.
some potential points of order Parker might have been about to ask, but we will never know
My question did not;
:ask for yet another reminder that dairy exports are becoming a noose around the necks of kiwi farmers.
: ask for more evidence of how National stick their heads into the magical sand of what might be.
: need the fantasies of double dipping droids to tell us what we already know, which is NZ is facing a steep decline in dairy exports over the next decade.
: ignore reality like the Minister has done every time this Government’s failed policies are shown to be driving kiwi manufacturers to the wall from Bluff to Kaitaia.
Cunliffe was interviewed this morning. He said that if Labour obtained 34% then they would have x new MPs. Espiner asked if that was a target and Cunliffe clearly said no and their aspirations were higher.
Now at 8 am they are reporting that Labour’s target is 34% …
CV has put together this short audio in response to that comment comparing the two items:
eckshully one of the major problems with the media in NZ is that they are uneducated.
They may have acquired some leaning on an ad hoc piecemeal basis but essentially they are trained.
you know. like performing seals.
An appeal to the Quartet on the Middle East to sack Tony Blair
Professor Noam Chomsky, Sir Richard Dalton, Caroline Lucas, Ken Livingstone and others argue that the former UK prime minister is tainted by the war in Iraq
“This Friday, 27 June, will mark the seven-year anniversary of Tony Blair’s appointment as the Quartet representative to the Middle East. We, the undersigned, urge you to remove him with immediate effect as a result of his poor performance in the role, and his legacy in the region as a whole.”
Liu is now saying that the $100 G is inclusive of the Barker cruise ($50G – 60G), the rowing club donation ($2G) and several bottles of wine he won at auction.
This man Liu is adept at presenting a moving target. Has he plenty of time on his hands and a very agile mind to think all this up? Or is he being coached by CT or other NACT financial and public relations advisors?
Circling back to when he wrote the original statement – May 3rd – it was two days after Maurice Williamson resigning over the phone calls he made on Liu’s behalf to police.
Collins was having her melt down and hitting out at the media, essentially blaming them for Williamson’s woes. And it was Jared Savage who broke the Williamson story. (and Cunliffe Letter & Donation stories)
Can’t help wondering if they set up Jared as well as Labour. Kill two birds with one stone so to speak.
Oh, I’m sure that 50 to 60 thou to throw a party for the people who work at a business is quite reasonable. Then claiming that it was spent solely on the minister is stretching credibility beyond breaking point.
“Today, Liu said: “I did say I made a contribution of close to $100,000 and that is my closing comment in my statement…that is how much I believe I have donated in total to Labour and some of their MPs during their last term in Government.”
“I have no reason to inflate this number. It’s as best as I can remember” said Liu.
‘Believe’?, ‘Best I can remember’?
What happened to good accounting practices? Doesn’t he have records of these things?
This is unacceptable – it is rubbish. Why didn’t the media check this out prior to spending all last week lambasting Labour and distracting us all from real news?
Still a long way to bridge the truth. It is no wonder there was no affidavit or Liu will find himself now dragged to court.
And then there was the NZH editor with his proven experience and demonstrated knowledge that all became very evident when he labelled the distinction between the statement and an affidavit as “immaterial”.
Lui makes another statement – clarifying, but also confirming that he gave close to $100,000 in total payments to Labour and its MPs – including anonymous donations.
Looks like this is going to play out longer in the news – and again not in a good way for labour.
People (on here anyway) keep going on about proving a negative – Perhaps Labour could come out and call him a liar if they really believe it? (guessing that they wont).
Is there any record of the reason Labour have given for granting him residency against official advise?
No, it’s a fucking joke. The $100,000 includes donations to a rowing club, which isn’t the Labour Party, and payment for a company cruise which Rick Barker attended*, which wasn’t actually for benefit of the Labour Party or Rick Barker. If he is being so economical with the truth about these things, it pretty much means nothing he says can be believed.
* If I invite you to my wedding that costs $50k, does this mean I donated $50k to you? Yeah fucking right.
It’s getting boring. So he made several anonymous donations – ones which it seems no-one in Labour knew about – so how can that in anyway be wrong on Labour’s part, or be evidence of cash for favours?
And it is now looking like Liu inflated the amount to include that cruise, etc. An on-going beat-up by Liu, the Nats, and the compliant MSM.
Yes I can see how it could be funny for some who don’t consider how it adds nothing toward creating informed voters and plenty toward a whole bunch of misinformed ones.
Perhaps those laughing are happy about gaining a government through misinformed voters basing their decisions on made up shit. I find the prospect pretty disturbing.
There are only a very small percentage of people in this country who are advantaged by an outcome created in this way. They will certainly be laughing. I suggest that anyone else not in that group who are laughing are simply delusional sycophantic gibbering idiots.
“Is there any record of the reason Labour have given for granting him residency against official advise?”
I haven’t seen any official record, however I am of the impression that money takes a high priority in these decisions – if someone has oodles they are likely to get into the country – because we are suckers for a large bank balance here in NZ.
Money counts and nothing much else matters. That is ‘common business practice’ these days aye? …and successive governments simply reflect this.
This way of approaching business just collapses in on itself and undermines the very society it relies on. It doesn’t work. Time for a change in thinking.
I haven’t seen any official record, however I am of the impression that money takes a high priority in these decisions – if someone has oodles they are likely to get into the country – because we are suckers for a large bank balance here in NZ.
Yep, Labour seem to have been as guilty of that as National.
This way of approaching business just collapses in on itself and undermines the very society it relies on. It doesn’t work. Time for a change in thinking.
We need to get away from the current culture that a few being rich is good for society. It isn’t and never has been.
It’s a confirmation of nothing and clarification of nothing. Surely for that to be possible he would need to make the actual cost of donations, the date of the donations, where he made the donations, publics that we can see that he is not lying. He seems to have no idea of any sequence and timing of alleged donations. In the first instance he confirmed that he bought wine to the value of 100.000.00 and then he confirms that the wine was included in the 100.000.00 donation. Until Labour comes up with evidence of donations I am inclined to believe he is being manipulated. Also has Mr savage received any reply to his oia for letters relating to Mr Liu from woodhouse and Williamson? And has he got any more info on donations to national from Mr Liu? What a beat up. Starting to smack of ‘the boy who cried wolf’
I think Labour party should still demand an apology from this fellow along with from all those who tried to destabilise Labour. People and entities like Key, Slater, Whaleoil and also should sue them all to teach them a lesson not to play nasty sewer politics and dirty tricks from Key’s ‘top drawer’ as he himself proudly announced his Modus operandi recently.
I’ve been off broadcast TV since September 2012. I never got around to fixing the TV aerial when we moved back into my apartment and put a cupboard right over it. It buggered the plugs and we had far too many other things to do at the time.. I never miss the obnoxious advertising and the shows designed for morans.
So I don’t see most of their material unless I deliberately look at it because their on-demand TV doesn’t go onto the bluray/TV channels via the computer or the network link too well.
Mind you Lyn does want to watch some of the ads for professional reasons. I should get the screwdriver out and fix it before she gets back from the US on saturday.
Suing for defamation may be good as it will teach the sewer right wing nasty vermin to behave and at the same time will let us concentrate on the policies without unnecessary time wasting unfair distractions. On the other hand, …….what are the possible downsides to that?
There’s always a downside for politicians criticising the MSM. But then, given how strongly they have come out against Labour & Cunliffe, could it get any worse. Seems to me like there’s little now to lose by complaining, and everything to gain.
The main point missed so far is that the NZ Herald believes that it has the institutional right to throw the upcoming General Election, and fuck with this nation’s democratic processes as they see fit.
Labour candidate in Marlborough suggests recreational fishers should have a licence. I always thought Labour were “Give a man a fish” and National were “Teach a man to fish”. Now it appears that Labour are “Tax a man to fish.” Any wonder they are tanking in the polls.
Tamati Coffey calls for Simon Bridges to resign for doing something approved by David Cunliffe. Any wonder they are tanking in the polls.
If you read this article about what is happening in the US then you will share my resolve to do as much as we can to oust this Natz government which seem to want to follow all of the worst policies from US or UK.
“A Secret Plan to Close Social Security’s Offices and Outsource Its Work” https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/06/24-7
Tautoko Viper
I don’t like the sound of ” The National Academy of Public Administration, or NAPA,”.
Could easily be made into NAPALM with the apt descriptive words added ‘Limiting Measures”.
Isn’t it amazing that the wealthier some people get, the more they want to hold their own and others’ rewards in life constantly more tightly to themselves.
he doesn’t blame anyone.
it is the job of her majesties loyal opposition to sheet home responsibility for governmental failure and inadequacy.
I blame you for being inane as you are utterly incapable of seeing the gross dereliction of governance by this government of venal little moneygrabbers!
I’m just wondering what other people think but note I didn’t bother putting an option down for Cunliffe as the answer because its never Cunliffes fault, ever
I missed the 6 pm news on both channels today. What I want to know from anyone that watched either, how much prominence was given to Labour’s alternate budget today? Cheers.
Why waste $38 to further enrich a mega-wealthy foreign currency exchange gambling dude? The Liu man will probably buy the whole lot of copies for over $150,000 anyway and drink it all up on the Yangtze! Instead, here is a free portrait for your jaw dropping enjoyment. Watch the dudes at the back laughing their head off! You are welcome! http://tinyurl.com/lw4jypc
In their annual End of Year survey, Win/Gallup International found that the United States is considered the number one “greatest threat to peace in the world today” by people across the globe.
And our PM has just said that we’ll get closer to them and that we’ll help them with their wars.
Back Benches, Wednesday 10:50PM
The MP pub panel discuss what the Prime Minister’s growing relationship with the U.S. means for NZ. Also, can child poverty really be linked to NZ’s superannuation age? PGR
Judith C is planning to demand banks report on wire transfers over $1,000. This is to stop crime. The government wants to get in bed with us. They withdraw my 6 cents tax on my 36c interest. Tax is theft when they pinch cents off small savings. Yet you can take out $10,000 in cash. What’s that about?
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Here is a scenario, but first a historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world pretty much sat and watched as the ...
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University Indonesia’s TVOne launched an AI news presenter in 2023.T.J. Thomson Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has taken off at lightning speed in the past couple of years, creating disruption in ...
Many of the young vapers interviewed by a team of public health researchers said they felt unable to resist the pro-vaping environment that surrounded them. New Zealand’s smokefree law was hailed around the world for creating a smokefree generation that would have lifelong protection from smoking’s harms. The smokefree ...
Analysis: While most Wellingtonians enjoyed a rare but unbeatable sunny day on Saturday, some New Zealand diplomats will have been briefly shocked by a screenshot making the rounds on social media showing US President Donald Trump calling us a “third world country”.The image, it appears, was a fake – certainly a ...
ActionStation Director, Kassie Hartendorp says that the Treaty Principles Bill has galvanised the biggest movement in support of Te Tiriti in modern history. ...
While it is in the interests of Wellington ratepayers to sell off this subsidy for the rich, it is unfortunate that it has come to this point. The council should have never spent a penny on this programme, and the $3.4 million spent is a flagrant abuse ...
A search for the person behind a social media account ridiculing Māori.Last week, while scrolling Facebook, I came across a post shared to the New Zealand Centre for Political Research group. The post began, “From Matua Kahurangi on X”, before pasting his critique of iwi leadership – particularly Ngāpuhi ...
On the heels of The White Lotus season three, Tara Ward travels to Koh Samui, Thailand, to live her best life as a five-star wannabe. I’ve never been one for luxury travel. Despite religiously watching TV shows like Luxury Escapes: World’s Best Holidays and harbouring grand dreams of one day ...
The Treaty Principles Bill submission hearings continue at Parliament today with a range of submitters expected including councils, iwi, community organisations and individuals. ...
It’s become of one of Christchurch’s most famous landmarks online, but why? Alex Casey steps through the portal of the brutalist Timezone. Ask anyone what Christchurch’s most iconic building is and you might expect to hear some of the dusty old classics like the Cathedral, or the Town Hall, or ...
New Zealand’s alignment with the White House is further underscored by its refusal to oppose Trump’s sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC). ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is a serious blow to the soft power of the United States and disastrous for many poor countries ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janet Hoek, Professor in Public Health, University of Otago Shutterstock/Aliaksandr Barouski New Zealand’s smokefree law was hailed around the world for creating a smokefree generation that would have lifelong protection from smoking’s harms. The smokefree generation would have ended sales of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By George Disney, Research Fellow, Social Epidemiology, The University of Melbourne Edwin Tan/Getty Images When the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was established in 2013, one of its driving aims was to make disability services and support systems fairer. However, our new ...
The resignation of the director general of health is the latest departure in what Labour is calling a ‘purge’ of health leadership. Another day, another health resignation It’s a dangerous time to be a top health executive. On Friday, Dr Diana Sarfati announced her resignation as director general of health ...
Labour and the Greens say the government should focus spending on tourism infrastructure like tracks, toilets and protection of nature instead of more advertising. ...
Hundreds of people called the former prime minister vile and dehumanising things online. Internet safety agencies did nothing - then called in the lawyers. ...
Hundreds of people called the former prime minister vile and dehumanising things online. Internet safety agencies did nothing - then called in the lawyers. ...
After a morning spent calf marking, Flock Hill Station manager Richard Hill headed up Bridge Hill – about 100km from Christchurch on the way to the West Coast – to check on a fire near the station’s boundary.It was December 5 last year, and the Craigieburn area had experienced three ...
It can’t be much of a surprise that a relatively inexperienced Act MP, handed the workplace relations portfolio, doesn’t want to entertain the country’s biggest union in her office.But it still astonishes the head of that union, the CTU’s president, Richard Wagstaff.After all, he’s met regularly with ministers of all ...
Late 21st century Christchurch will be unrecognisable when compared with Christchurch today.Flooding will prompt retreat from all eastern and many northern suburbs. These areas, together with land near the Heathcote and Avon Rivers, are in a fifty-year flood zone. Fifty-year floods can happen more than once every fifty years; there ...
Is humanising a mountain the path to real transformation, or does it signal the need for a cultural paradigm shift in the operating system? Recently, a family member shared their delight at the news of Taranaki Maunga becoming a legal person.Of course, I was pleased for the eight Taranaki ...
Why New Zealanders donate money and who they give it to – and how tools like Givealittle are changing the giving landscape.Is New Zealand really a generous country? It’s difficult to quantify. Giving to registered charities can be counted through tax returns, but giving to overseas causes, giving money ...
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Labour will unveil its alternative Budget today.
Here are some details:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10197041/Labour-to-unveil-alternative-budget
certainly seems to be an improvement on what we have got !…would like to hear specific policies soon eg state and tertiary education…incentives for tertiary education (loan/interest issues) are crucial for attracting the young NZers vote.
Not just the young NZers. National’s changes to education will prevent many older people from taking up any education as well. And these would be the people who, due to changing technology, have come to the end of their career path and need the education to get a job at all.
National have been throwing a lot of people on the scrap heap, young and old, so that they can claim a surplus while still borrowing.
+100…affordable if not free tertiary or polytech education is a light at the end of the tunnel for many NZers thrown on the scrap heap….a chance for another career , to meet new people, to learn new skills, to start their own business…this is why Continuing Education is so important as well
Better late than never I guess… but politically, isn’t the best time for an alternative budget when the government releases their one?
Seems about a month too late, the conversation is over and National won it largely unopposed. Releasing this now looks like more evidence of how risk averse and conservative Labour is. Constantly reactionary, never willing to take the fight to National or take a risk in preempting them.
I bet it also adheres to Nationals framing of ‘fiscal responsibility’ thereby endorsing their current economic management.
A shadow budget starts a discussion on alternatives and lets the public know that there are indeed other choices possible. It should be more radical and somewhat provocative to that end, but it should drive toward setting up a consistent narrative – inequality, insufficient incomes, housing affordability as the short term narratives, and climate change/resource depletion/sovereignty as the medium and long term narratives.
The shadow budget puts the govt on the defensive over the choices its made.,
80 days before the election is when this well developed public narrative, gets fleshed out with gutsy, detailed policy.
While Labour announce a policy to cramp down on mainly American Multi National Corporations tax avoidance http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11280992
Key-National pander to the Americans by supporting Obama’s intentions to forge ahead with the TTPA, cutting out Japan who are strongly opposed due to valid concerns. By his actions Key is selling us down the toilet to the Corporations.
If we had half decent media in this Country they would be taking Key-National to task, not sitting idle and praising his US trip as a huge success. A few left commentators have rightly pointed out Key goes to the States, doesn’t get any major runs on the board, and instead gets us tangled in backing a war. What a disgrace!
+100
This is, in relative terms, very gutsy policy from Labour as it targets the big multinationals – well done. An extra ~$200M in tax revenue out of $15B in foreign ownership shipped offshore isn’t much – but it does send a signal.
Careful CV – you are almost sounding like you are being supportive of a Labour stance there…
🙂
[glad someone got the joke 🙂 ]
They need to say that all income in NZ will be taxed in NZ before it leaves the country and that offshore expenses aren’t tax deductible for either NZ companies or foreign. This will make many present tax avoidance schemes obsolete while still treating onshore and offshore companies the same.
It will also encourage diversification in NZ’s economy.
“and that offshore expenses aren’t tax deductible for either NZ companies or foreign.”
Can you clarify this statement? On the face of it it would appear to pick up something as simple as a car dealer who imported cars from Japan and sold them in New Zealand.
Suppose they bought the car in Japan for $20k, paid freight of $3k and then sold the car in New Zealand for, say $30k plus GST. Lets say staff and premises cost $3k per car. This would mean a real profit of $4k/car. It also means offshore expenses of $23k/car.
As you appear to word it they would have to pay tax on $27k (car price minus the firms operating cost) rather than the $4k profit they are really making.
What am I misunderstanding?
The dealer isn’t the one buying the car?
Also, I did say that it would encourage diversification in our economy 😈
But mostly I was thinking of transfer pricing and how it can, and is, used to rort the tax system.
Yeah good stuff Labour – I guess we can now expect another massive attack on Labour shortly from our business-interests-friendly and people-interests-hostile media…..
Sweet, though the usual suspects are going to complain that taxing google et al is “wrong”.
Hey BM, could your fingerprints be all over this by any chance???
Arsehats like BM wouldn’t get out of Melville in one piece, so doubt he’d have the nuggets to risk it.
Registered on the 23rd of June to:
registrant_contact_name: Frank Collingwood
registrant_contact_address1: Hanham Road
registrant_contact_city: Kumeu
registrant_contact_postalcode: 0891
registrant_contact_country: NZ (NEW ZEALAND)
registrant_contact_phone: +64 21 980475
registrant_contact_email: frankfft@hotmail.com
http://http://whois.domaintools.com/labour08.co.nz
Not exactly going to great pains to hide their identity.
Link is borked and I can’t edit it: http://whois.domaintools.com/labour08.co.nz
That’s a long way from the lovely Melville.
http://20090118180756558.en.hisupplier.com/contact.html
Alps Supplies
The extent to which you can stalk people is creepy, isn’t it?
Sure is
http://www.alps-supplies.com/
http://whois.domaintools.com/alps-supplies.com
Is that mobile phone number for real? It is associated with http://www.skisling.com:
http://www.buynz.org.nz/CompanyProfile?Action=View&CompanyProfile_id=20085
Must be, there’s another address with the same skisling number
Registrant Name: FRANK COLLINGWOOD
Registrant Organization: FRANK COLLINGWOOD
Registrant Street: SCOTT ROAD
Registrant City: HOBSONVILLE
Registrant State/Province:
Registrant Postal Code: 0618
Registrant Country: NZ
Registrant Phone: +64.21980475
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax: +64.21980475
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: Email Masking Image@COLLINGWOOD.ME.UK
While looking for Frank, I did find this, oddly enough.
I wonder if they made a party donation?
“Solar Technology Systems has installed a new solar system in my house in Stoke and I want to commend them on their professional, friendly and cost effective service. Frank Witowski provided expert advice, a very competitive quote and an outstanding service.”
– Nick Smith – MP Nelson
Nothing like a Minister’s endorsement for breaching the Cabinet Manual.
Know any decent journos at the Herald?
(That’s rhetorical and a funny at the same time).
So it’s this guy?
frank.collingwood@hmg-law.co.uk
Or this?
karol, i don’t think that law guy in the UK is the one.
the link that The Al1en posted below seems to match the profile of the person we’ve been looking up (matches the person’s facebook info as well):
http://www.collingwood.me.uk/oldindex.html
I’m pretty sure that I have looked up that name “Frank before – for a similar reason.
I recognise the face and the profile, but can recall the reason or find the search in my history. Seems like a serial juvenile…
Well Hayden has him busted now. Looks like Frank has to deny involvement or be guilty as charged.
If the press/media can run the story to embarrass Sue and Labour, surely they can investigate a little bit harder and uncover the truth.
If they were going to do that then they would have done it before they ran the story. They would, or at least should, know that domain name registrations are public information and they mentioned in the article that the domain had been registered.
No, this looks like another attempt to make Labour look bad.
A couple of other searches:
There is a Francis (not Frank) Patrick Collingwood registered as a director of Skisling Limited (annual report filed just last month), but at 17b Scott Road, Hobsonville:
http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/3129205?backurl=%2Fcompanies%2Fapp%2Fui%2Fpages%2Fcompanies%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dskisling%26entityTypes%3DALL%26entityStatusGroups%3DALL%26incorpFrom%3D%26incorpTo%3D%26addressTypes%3DALL%26addressKeyword%3D%26start%3D0%26limit%3D15%26sf%3D%26sd%3D%26advancedPanel%3Dfalse%26mode%3Dstandard
At 125 Hanham Road, there was a company registered known as Matisse PC Ltd (annual report last filed in 2006), but the director was Paul William James:
http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/1604150?backurl=%2Fcompanies%2Fapp%2Fui%2Fpages%2Fcompanies%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DMatisse%2Bpc%26entityTypes%3DALL%26entityStatusGroups%3DALL%26incorpFrom%3D%26incorpTo%3D%26addressTypes%3DALL%26addressKeyword%3D%26start%3D0%26limit%3D15%26sf%3D%26sd%3D%26advancedPanel%3Dfalse%26mode%3Dstandard
Also, a quick search shows the hotmail account is associated with a post by a “Francis Patrick Collingwood” on a genealogy webpage (so the person goes by Frank or Francis?):
http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/users/c/o/l/Francis-P-Collingwood/index.html
I have emailed Sue Moroney’s office with a link to the conversation from point 3 on here.
Up to them now I guess.
http://www.collingwood.me.uk/oldindex.html
Hey Molly,
Maybe something to do with last year’s Kiwibots championship?
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3IpbH-zr3BAJ:www.kiwibots.co.nz/events/event-registration%3FeventId%3D20%26task%3Dregistrant%26controller%3Devent+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=nz&client=firefox-a
hmmm, there’s a Frank Collingwood on fb, also lives in Kumeu. The fb page doesn’t have any obvious political links (claims to be a pastafarian).
Apart from the vicious rant against the left and rabid approval for three strikes, that is.
Ha! I didn’t look that deeply, but I do note he ‘liked’ one of John Key’s pages and said that he hoped the PM would win lots of elections. I do hope he’s not part of Dunnokeyo’s electorate team, that wouldn’t be a good look 😉
ps: When a green party member defaced some hoardings, the PM had this to say:
Key said it was “extremely disappointing and frustrating” for candidates.
“There is no room for negative campaigning in New Zealand.”
One can only hope that Mr Collingwood is a member of the National Party.
There’s plenty of discussion out there that he is. It’s up to National to prove otherwise.
I see that http://www.labour08.co.nz now redirects to The Official Monster Raving Loony Party.
So nice that he gave it back then. 😉
“There’s plenty of discussion out there that he is. It’s up to National to prove otherwise.”
lolz. Ok, but I hope this isn’t the new permanent modus operandi.
Ask The Herald.
It is illegal to provide false names to the registry.
It isn’t a criminal act, it is a contractual requirement. Doesn’t mean that it isn’t done and quite extensively in some URLs.
Not to mention that some of the contact details are often designed to obstruficate with old addresses and phone numbers (there is also a requirement to keep details up to date).
My favourite for that is whaleoil.co.nz’s addresses
http://dnc.org.nz/whois/whaleoil.co.nz
http://dnc.org.nz/whois/gotcha.co.nz
Mind you I can’t talk.
http://dnc.org.nz/whois/labour.co.nz
Old email address.
Just out of curiousity, how much would it cost Labour to have kept that domain name indefinitely?
About $30/year, depending on registrar.
Not keeping domains that were used for Party political purposes, seems fundamentally idiotic imho.
That’s what I was thinking.
I’m thinking that having a single use domain name was fundamentally idiotic.
probly seemed like a good idea at the time. Especially as nabbing it would be a good campaign tactic to prevent tories doing exactly what they did this time around. But letting it go again was an error (maybe physically scratching the old address off the recycled billboards would be useful, too).
Time for someone to do some serious research into HBL (health benefits limited) whcih seems to have been set up by National so its pals can scam the health system. They have got $700,000 so far.
The Association of Salaried Medical specialists are calling it a PONZI scheme.
The HBL is just one more page in the tome of How to Rort the System.
I know I am only an unwanted drain on resources that the economy seems to have no use for apart from stomping on my progress and doing whatever it can to destroy the numerous attempts I have made to contribute to my society but I have a question….
How are private consultants who charge multiple times per hour what a salaried staffer receives, and work just as many hours as the salaried staffer would, ever going to save money?
Funny how National Radio and Stuff and others are full of the HBL rort but the Herald is silent. Suppose they don’t want to upset Key/Ryall?
@Stuff:”
The Capital & Coast District Health Board could back out of a flagship government cost-cutting drive, as a leaked report compares the money-saving push to Novopay, and attacks it for funnelling cash away from patient care.
In a series of leaked documents, the multimillion-dollar push to consolidate back-office health work, led by cost-cutting agency Health Benefits Ltd (HBL), has been called the greatest threat to public health services in a generation, and a debacle comparable to Novopay.”
Should have been worth a mention at the Herald.
Ryall has been praised in the past for keeping the contentious and costly health portfolio ticking along without too many hiccups.
Guess The Hairy didn’t want to rile him. Boom. boom (Basil Brush the Fox).
Why is it a crime to have reports on government activity? Now they are hot on the trail about HBL information. Leaked documents about government and related matters should not be necessary as government should be reporting all the time on what it is doing with our money or for the people who it is acting on behalf of.
Simple really. All else turns government into a group of mandarins acting as secular priests selectively evealing the Good Word to the supplicant populace.
HBL quoted this a.m. on RNZ as promising to be more transparent. How fast things happen near elections. We promise we are going to be good and save lots of money at great cost to the country and great financial advantage to us and the combined thinking and decision making of the DHB financial executives doesn’t amount to diddly-squat.
In some inititiatives? in running large entities, the management have asked workers at all levels to come up with efficiency ideas and money-saving practices and highlight faults that result in wastage. But that sort of thing is just doing things on the cheap, and can’t really be considered when the whole trend is to cut staff anyway to get the labour bill down, employ juniors, sack expensive seniors, and dismiss institutional knowledge because it will be out of touch, based on wasteful practices. And further there is no money in it for specialist change agents who swoop in, upset the games board so all the pieces fall to the floor, and devise something new and exciting that will have to be rehashed within a decade at a fee that reflects the inflated expectations of experts in transforming the mistakes of previous change agents.
I have changed my mind about election periods – I once thought every four years would allow a government that had good intentions to serve the country well, to have the time to get its policies going and achieving good outcomes.
But I am so foolish, fancy hanging on to the idea of a government having good intentions for the country. Now I think we should hold elections every two years to try and limit the damage before the slightly different government can come in and reverse some of the recent innovations, and then impose their own version of TINA.
i like the idea of a two-year term..
..where those elected need seriously extenuating circumstances to do anything else than what they have promised the electorate they will do..
..(with the people given the ability..(electronic-voting?)..to call an early election themselves..should the govt err..)
..it wd nip secret-agendas in the bud..and keep the bastards accountable..
..and reduce politicians to what they should be..effective-managers/servants of the people..
..basically..politicians should just fuck off with their personal-politics..they have a caretaker/common-good role..and yes..they can differentiate by their promised policies..
..but as for imposing the whole package of their ‘politics’..as has been done to us far too often..
..with the randite key being the latest..imposing the twisted objectivist/fuck the poor! -policies that are randite policies..
..that is why key seems to just not care about the poor..that’s ‘cos he doen’t care about the poor..
..and he uses the teachings of ayn rand as the philosophical-underpimings for that ability to just ignore the fact that one in four nz children live in poverty..
..here..in nz..one of the richest/most-blessed countries..
..we have no rational reasons to be happy about that..
..it’s just those fucken politicians and their fucken politics..
..once again..they can just fuck off..
..we need to get the politics out of politicians..
(as an aside..i am heavily opposed to a four year term..for most of the above reasons..)
I’m glad you have responded to the idea phillip. haven’t read all yours yet. (It’s stopped raining and I am taking the chance to get out dry.)
But I’ve been thinking about a group who are really interested in the country and have done some study and passed a diploma on government and the citizen actually choosing a series of works and measures, and conferring with government as to how to go ahead and what order. This in conjunction with select committees allowing other citizens to have input. Things would be slower but then a lot of time is spent in government reversing, changing things and repairing mistakes.
I’ll just throw in this link to Town Meetings on wikipedia.
I have heard of them especially the ones in Vermont but haven’t studied them or read this yet. But I’ll have a look later. I have heard that they get a lot of public participation in their decision making. Thought I’d just put it up for interest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_meeting
According to RNZ, Labour have asked the AG to investigate.
They’re not. The point isn’t to save money, the point is to distrubute the money differently. And disenfranchise a whole lot of people so they will do the shit work in society. Plus it’s part of the medium term agenda of privatisation.
From another unwanted drain on resources, kia kaha freedom. Know that the ‘economy’ you are being excluded from is inherently flawed on so may levels and none of this is your fault. It will eventually fail. In the meantime let’s look to our communities instead.
Freedom and Weka, from my point of view you are both wanted members of this particular community.
Thank-you fender 🙂
Just posted some new stats / analysis of the latest Fairfax/Stuff-Ipsos Poll, with an emphasis on the importance of the views of the Undecideds and on its striking contrast with the latest Roy Morgan. sub-zero pols here…http://sub-z-p.blogspot.co.nz/
(Still a work in progress, though. Transformed the design, influenced, in part, by the views of Standardistas a couple of days ago. Looks bloody fantastic I have to say but, as Weka rightly implied, is deeply impractical visually. So, I’ll probably alter it to something a little more legible in a few weeks time. But, I’ll leave it as it is for a couple of weeks, savouring its futuristic/Space Age qualities. It’s almost like we’re living in the year 1999 !).
See also Puddleglum’s excellent analysis on The Political Scientist here…http://www.thepoliticalscientist.org/the-real-story-in-the-fairfax-polls/
@swordfish
Looks like you are entering Blip et al territory for services to better politicalinformation and understanding.
Jane Clifton uses a jokey tone to expose how out of order the Speaker was yesterday:
tho’ i think carter is the worst of the speakers since i have been doing commentaries on q-time..
..i do have some sympathy for him on this..
..as that is the objection that parker always makes..
..and i do mean ‘always’..
..so there was no clairvoyance needed for carter to know what parkers’ complaint was this time..
..(tho’ carter does seem to have an almost visceral dislike of parker..
..you can almost hear his teeth-grinding as/when parker jumps up to again complain his question wasn’t answered..)
The Speaker of the House isn’t the only one with a a visceral dislike of Parker, my opinion of Him as a Monetarist Neo-Lib hasn’t as yet been altered by anything so far said from Him or about Him,
i took yesterday’s question time in the Parliament as a complete capitulation by Labour over the Liu donations saga, and, it all looked to me to have been completely pre-scripted to the point where there was agreement between National and Labour that the issue would not be raised,
Given the perfect opportunity to pillory Slippery the Prime Minister over His previous utterances of there having been ”six figure donations” from Liu to Labour, David Cunliffe chose instead to ask what in effect was a patsy question,
This weak exchange was then followed by a series of ”patsy questions” to the Minister of Finance, in among them the patsy from Parker,
Just what the hell sort of answer He expects to gain from English is beyond me, every question so far asked by Parker of English is a pro forma one which English simply deflects by reading from a different data set than what Parker does,
The little spat that then ensues, as Phillip alludes to is also pro forma boredom with Parker always claiming that English hasn’t answered the question, its all dancing on the head of a pin, as English does answer the question using different data sets than Parker chooses to use,
As far as Carter as the Speaker goes, He just about has me casting a Party Vote for Labour in September for the sole reason of having the Parliaments Blackadder,(Mallard), be given the role, i can well imagine Trev in all His bloody mindedness adding a much needed dose of spices to the proceedings of what has become an exercise in tedium…
the ‘tedium’/irrelevance to very much at all..is why i have actually stopped doing commentaries..
..it is a circus of highly-paid performing clowns/seals…
..and shows most in an ugly light…
..and yes..’boring’…
..i have/had this view of q-time as being the coalface of democracy in action..
.the cut/thrust/parry etc. of democracy..
..and very important for that reason..
..but it ain’t..
..and if it ‘ain’t’..i don’t know what the fuck is…
“tho’ i think carter is the worst of the speakers since i have been doing commentaries on q-time..”
That really can’t have been a very long time then Phil. A maximum of five and a half years in fact.
There is no way that Margaret Wilson was a better Speaker than Carter is. She was an appalling Speaker of the House.
“..A maximum of five and a half years in fact..”
..this govt has been in power for five and a half yrs..
and by ‘worst’..i mean most biased in favour of govt..
..i thought wilson was fairly even-handed in dishing out her snarls…
..this one is a shocker..
That is of course why I picked that length of time.
On the other hand I really don’t want to have to remember how bad I thought she was so we had better agree to disagree on what we thought of her as a Speaker, and how she compares to Carter.
I thought Lockwood Smith was bloody good, but it may have only been in comparison with his predecessor. He was better than Carter is and he always seemed to manage to keep a good humoured manner.
Certainly he was different to Hunt and Wilson in that he did make the Ministers make some attempt to address the politically neutrally worded questions.
Not just “address”.
The Smith doctrine was that questions actually require answering, and that the lesser requirement of only “addressing” allows too much scope for vague and meaningless responses.
Of course Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine reversed this healthy change immediately upon taking the chair.
some potential points of order Parker might have been about to ask, but we will never know
My question did not;
:ask for yet another reminder that dairy exports are becoming a noose around the necks of kiwi farmers.
: ask for more evidence of how National stick their heads into the magical sand of what might be.
: need the fantasies of double dipping droids to tell us what we already know, which is NZ is facing a steep decline in dairy exports over the next decade.
: ignore reality like the Minister has done every time this Government’s failed policies are shown to be driving kiwi manufacturers to the wall from Bluff to Kaitaia.
paranoid..?..much..?
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/how-google-glass-and-smartphones-can-decipher-your-pin-code-from-across-the-room-9560076.html
Maybe, maybe not.
Colonial Vipers’ Audio Production:
Mickey Savage wrote this comment on yesterday’s Open Mike:
CV has put together this short audio in response to that comment comparing the two items:
https://mega.co.nz/#!Ikd1xThK!CqAVY_vYN2zPlZdErRhMtCX8OZFcp-vx4qBFbqllxMc
For those of you interested in the situation in Iraq, the strange, new, incredibly wealthy “terror” group called ISIL or ISIS. Here is a good start: Max And Stacey On The Corporation Called ISIL”> And Why This Is Important To New Zealand
eckshully one of the major problems with the media in NZ is that they are uneducated.
They may have acquired some leaning on an ad hoc piecemeal basis but essentially they are trained.
you know. like performing seals.
+1
The lack of real world experience really shows through in the reporting that we get.
Great stuff:
(There is a link to a petition @ change.org on the page)
Posted on ferret thread also:
Liu is now saying that the $100 G is inclusive of the Barker cruise ($50G – 60G), the rowing club donation ($2G) and several bottles of wine he won at auction.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11281460
This man Liu is adept at presenting a moving target. Has he plenty of time on his hands and a very agile mind to think all this up? Or is he being coached by CT or other NACT financial and public relations advisors?
Circling back to when he wrote the original statement – May 3rd – it was two days after Maurice Williamson resigning over the phone calls he made on Liu’s behalf to police.
Collins was having her melt down and hitting out at the media, essentially blaming them for Williamson’s woes. And it was Jared Savage who broke the Williamson story. (and Cunliffe Letter & Donation stories)
Can’t help wondering if they set up Jared as well as Labour. Kill two birds with one stone so to speak.
Story changes too often to be taken seriously, not to mention a gross inflation in the cost of a river cruise.
Oh, I’m sure that 50 to 60 thou to throw a party for the people who work at a business is quite reasonable. Then claiming that it was spent solely on the minister is stretching credibility beyond breaking point.
This is getting beyond ridiculous
“Today, Liu said: “I did say I made a contribution of close to $100,000 and that is my closing comment in my statement…that is how much I believe I have donated in total to Labour and some of their MPs during their last term in Government.”
“I have no reason to inflate this number. It’s as best as I can remember” said Liu.
‘Believe’?, ‘Best I can remember’?
What happened to good accounting practices? Doesn’t he have records of these things?
This is unacceptable – it is rubbish. Why didn’t the media check this out prior to spending all last week lambasting Labour and distracting us all from real news?
Sounds like it has been dictated by johnkey..
LOL! That is probably closer to the truth than I care to imagine!
Still a long way to bridge the truth. It is no wonder there was no affidavit or Liu will find himself now dragged to court.
And then there was the NZH editor with his proven experience and demonstrated knowledge that all became very evident when he labelled the distinction between the statement and an affidavit as “immaterial”.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11281460
Lui makes another statement – clarifying, but also confirming that he gave close to $100,000 in total payments to Labour and its MPs – including anonymous donations.
Looks like this is going to play out longer in the news – and again not in a good way for labour.
People (on here anyway) keep going on about proving a negative – Perhaps Labour could come out and call him a liar if they really believe it? (guessing that they wont).
Is there any record of the reason Labour have given for granting him residency against official advise?
(not saying they are linked – but I am curious.)
No, it’s a fucking joke. The $100,000 includes donations to a rowing club, which isn’t the Labour Party, and payment for a company cruise which Rick Barker attended*, which wasn’t actually for benefit of the Labour Party or Rick Barker. If he is being so economical with the truth about these things, it pretty much means nothing he says can be believed.
* If I invite you to my wedding that costs $50k, does this mean I donated $50k to you? Yeah fucking right.
It’s getting boring. So he made several anonymous donations – ones which it seems no-one in Labour knew about – so how can that in anyway be wrong on Labour’s part, or be evidence of cash for favours?
And it is now looking like Liu inflated the amount to include that cruise, etc. An on-going beat-up by Liu, the Nats, and the compliant MSM.
+1 It proves jack shit and got boring the day it came out 🙁
Admittedly in this case boring would depend on what political view you have. Some people have found it amusing to watch.
If you think it’s just a game, then sure.
If you recognise that this is our democracy being trashed, not so much.
Yes I can see how it could be funny for some who don’t consider how it adds nothing toward creating informed voters and plenty toward a whole bunch of misinformed ones.
Perhaps those laughing are happy about gaining a government through misinformed voters basing their decisions on made up shit. I find the prospect pretty disturbing.
There are only a very small percentage of people in this country who are advantaged by an outcome created in this way. They will certainly be laughing. I suggest that anyone else not in that group who are laughing are simply delusional sycophantic gibbering idiots.
+1
The no-favours for no-donations “scandal” has been hilarious. /sarc
Meanwhile our corrupt and, I believe, criminal government continues business as usual.
If you found it amusing then I suspect that just proves you’re sociopathy.
“Is there any record of the reason Labour have given for granting him residency against official advise?”
I haven’t seen any official record, however I am of the impression that money takes a high priority in these decisions – if someone has oodles they are likely to get into the country – because we are suckers for a large bank balance here in NZ.
Money counts and nothing much else matters. That is ‘common business practice’ these days aye? …and successive governments simply reflect this.
This way of approaching business just collapses in on itself and undermines the very society it relies on. It doesn’t work. Time for a change in thinking.
Yep, Labour seem to have been as guilty of that as National.
We need to get away from the current culture that a few being rich is good for society. It isn’t and never has been.
It’s a confirmation of nothing and clarification of nothing. Surely for that to be possible he would need to make the actual cost of donations, the date of the donations, where he made the donations, publics that we can see that he is not lying. He seems to have no idea of any sequence and timing of alleged donations. In the first instance he confirmed that he bought wine to the value of 100.000.00 and then he confirms that the wine was included in the 100.000.00 donation. Until Labour comes up with evidence of donations I am inclined to believe he is being manipulated. Also has Mr savage received any reply to his oia for letters relating to Mr Liu from woodhouse and Williamson? And has he got any more info on donations to national from Mr Liu? What a beat up. Starting to smack of ‘the boy who cried wolf’
“It’s a confirmation of nothing and clarification of nothing.”
+100 That short sentence sums it up well.
I think Labour party should still demand an apology from this fellow along with from all those who tried to destabilise Labour. People and entities like Key, Slater, Whaleoil and also should sue them all to teach them a lesson not to play nasty sewer politics and dirty tricks from Key’s ‘top drawer’ as he himself proudly announced his Modus operandi recently.
I read something today from Labour that suggest that is exactly what they are thinking about for the NZ Herald and Liu
What about TVNZ and TV3? They reported this issue uncritically and wholesale too.
I’ve been off broadcast TV since September 2012. I never got around to fixing the TV aerial when we moved back into my apartment and put a cupboard right over it. It buggered the plugs and we had far too many other things to do at the time.. I never miss the obnoxious advertising and the shows designed for morans.
So I don’t see most of their material unless I deliberately look at it because their on-demand TV doesn’t go onto the bluray/TV channels via the computer or the network link too well.
Mind you Lyn does want to watch some of the ads for professional reasons. I should get the screwdriver out and fix it before she gets back from the US on saturday.
Suing for defamation may be good as it will teach the sewer right wing nasty vermin to behave and at the same time will let us concentrate on the policies without unnecessary time wasting unfair distractions. On the other hand, …….what are the possible downsides to that?
There’s always a downside for politicians criticising the MSM. But then, given how strongly they have come out against Labour & Cunliffe, could it get any worse. Seems to me like there’s little now to lose by complaining, and everything to gain.
The main point missed so far is that the NZ Herald believes that it has the institutional right to throw the upcoming General Election, and fuck with this nation’s democratic processes as they see fit.
So the CTU are backing Labours plan…Now there is a turn up for the books.
In other new, Ashburton farmer gives a big thumbs up for the Crusaders.
[lprent: Diversion comment – banned 3 months. Moved to OpenMike. I do hope you thought that comment was worth doing. ]
Awww, I was so wanting to nail him with shiny spikes of sharply pointed reality over his bullshit.
A 3 month ban is a good replacement though 😀
its only wailboil in drag.
he’s very simian.
hairy and smelly and not very bright.
Labour candidate in Marlborough suggests recreational fishers should have a licence. I always thought Labour were “Give a man a fish” and National were “Teach a man to fish”. Now it appears that Labour are “Tax a man to fish.” Any wonder they are tanking in the polls.
Tamati Coffey calls for Simon Bridges to resign for doing something approved by David Cunliffe. Any wonder they are tanking in the polls.
Still waiting: http://www.thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21062014/#comment-835915
Already answered
For those who can’t be bothered following the link, fisiani’s answer is
as opposed to “force a slave to fish“, which national seems to want to sweep under the carpet
more twaddle from the fishy one himself.
name one society where people live on fish every day.
jim mora called for listeners to txt in favourite smells..
..i sent in:..’primo bud burning’..
..mora sniffed:..’some people sent in irrevernt-smells..
..i won’t mention them..’
If you read this article about what is happening in the US then you will share my resolve to do as much as we can to oust this Natz government which seem to want to follow all of the worst policies from US or UK.
“A Secret Plan to Close Social Security’s Offices and Outsource Its Work”
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/06/24-7
Sir Bruce Slane just took the Herald apart on its coverage of the Liu issue on The Panel, National Radio.
Worth a listen.
Tautoko Viper
I don’t like the sound of ” The National Academy of Public Administration, or NAPA,”.
Could easily be made into NAPALM with the apt descriptive words added ‘Limiting Measures”.
Isn’t it amazing that the wealthier some people get, the more they want to hold their own and others’ rewards in life constantly more tightly to themselves.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Labour-U-turns-over-dolphin-sanctuary-drilling/tabid/1607/articleID/350010/Default.aspx
chris 73
You are a sour negative little git. Why don’t you go on gardening leave.
Just wondering whos to blame for Cunliffes latest u-turn (so many u-turns I’m starting to get whiplash)
A. The MSM
B. National
C. Whaleoil
D. All of the above
he doesn’t blame anyone.
it is the job of her majesties loyal opposition to sheet home responsibility for governmental failure and inadequacy.
I blame you for being inane as you are utterly incapable of seeing the gross dereliction of governance by this government of venal little moneygrabbers!
Well ackshully he blames National: http://www.odt.co.nz/news/politics/306386/cunliffe-issues-warning-caucus
I’m just wondering what other people think but note I didn’t bother putting an option down for Cunliffe as the answer because its never Cunliffes fault, ever
I missed the 6 pm news on both channels today. What I want to know from anyone that watched either, how much prominence was given to Labour’s alternate budget today? Cheers.
What? No one ?
I think chrass 72 done toomany weetbix this morning and it has gone to his head.
blame that.
John Key: Portrait of a Prime Minister
Published: 26/06/2014
Format: Paperback, 256 pages
RRP:$38.00
ISBN-13:9780143570752
ISBN-10:0143570757
http://www.penguin.co.nz/products/9780143570752/john-key-portrait-prime-minister
Gawd you have to love the audacity and guts of the Right Wing
Why waste $38 to further enrich a mega-wealthy foreign currency exchange gambling dude? The Liu man will probably buy the whole lot of copies for over $150,000 anyway and drink it all up on the Yangtze! Instead, here is a free portrait for your jaw dropping enjoyment. Watch the dudes at the back laughing their head off! You are welcome!
http://tinyurl.com/lw4jypc
Biggest threat to world peace? The US
And our PM has just said that we’ll get closer to them and that we’ll help them with their wars.
David Cunliffe leadership acceptance speech Sept 2013
This style is what this campaign is needing right about now
I looked for the transcript of that speech, but couldn’t find it. Do you have a link for the script?
On PRIME :
Back Benches, Wednesday 10:50PM
The MP pub panel discuss what the Prime Minister’s growing relationship with the U.S. means for NZ. Also, can child poverty really be linked to NZ’s superannuation age? PGR
Judith C is planning to demand banks report on wire transfers over $1,000. This is to stop crime. The government wants to get in bed with us. They withdraw my 6 cents tax on my 36c interest. Tax is theft when they pinch cents off small savings. Yet you can take out $10,000 in cash. What’s that about?