Dame Anne Salmond: Abusing water, part of our lucrative pure image, is crazy
In New Zealand, we’ve recently been given painful lessons about what happens when waterways turn toxic. In Hawke’s Bay, thousands of people have fallen ill, some dangerously so. In Canterbury, Lake Forsyth has killed sheep and dogs. According to the Ministry of Health, tens of thousands across the country fall ill from water-borne diseases every year.
Many of our rivers are no longer safe to swim in. The Hauraki Gulf, and other coastal waters are at risk. As the Rotorua Lakes illustrate, it is very expensive to try and restore degraded waterways. The costs may be unaffordable and it doesn’t always work.
Increasingly, current land use regimes look reckless and short-sighted. Dairy cows, for instance, produce very large volumes of effluent, and much of it ends up in the ground water. Other kinds of industrialised farming, forestry and industrial activities are pumping large quantities of pollutants into our waterways…….
………If we all own the water, as the Prime Minister says, why has the Government set the bar for water quality in New Zealand so low? Whose interests are they serving? Kiwis want rivers, lakes and harbours they can swim and fish in, and pure, safe drinking water.
In the case of irrigators and water bottling industries, how can they make large profits from water sources that belong to us all?
Who is doing deals behind closed doors about pricing water? Who will get the money, and how will it be spent?
At present, it seems clear that Parliament and regional councils are being lobbied by special interest groups (industrial farmers, forestry companies, irrigators, water bottling plants and the like) to allow them to degrade and deplete waterways owned by all New Zealanders. That is wrong, and strategically unwise.
I disagree,you give national too much credit, they obviously dont value, price, anything. As they always backdown ashamed when the real costs undermine their economic credientials. They are inauthentic, parasites on the body politic, having only remain so ensconced due to thirty years of cheap high density fuels. Energy misused to pollute more, opportunities misses to grow globally, r thirty years instead of building a world green economy, we let the finacial sector churn paper and spend the wealth eating the planet, our future options, our collective mind. We’ve suffered from a generation that inherited a jobs market missing millions of workers who died in war, free education, shifting wealth to themselves by paying less into pensions to give themselves tax cuts. Even the humility of previous generations is gone, they think they full paid for the wealth they have recieved, though polution is rampent, ecosystems and climate pushing to collapse, soils water, eating up at pace. A financial stsyem cannibalising us all, drugs, jails all turned up to the max to extort profits, its just sad how stupid boomers are.
This Country has to change its direction – there are no two ways about it. However I am certain that it would take a monumental disaster for the dumbarses running the place to even contemplate the changes to our agricultural practices that are necessary. In the meantime we will just have to bear witness to Nature striking back at us for our ongoing ( and accelerating ) folly.
I have heard Little wants it to replace Labour Day.
He knows that organised labour, as represented by the union movement and his own party is dead and beginning to smell.
“But they’re missing the real story – Clinton has an 11th toe. Here’s how The New York Times’ Frank Bruni addressed the cover-up of the Democratic candidate’s freakish, disqualifying digit: “Have you watched her walk? Look closely. She wobbles a bit, or maybe it’s more of a teeter, combined with a lurch, and the likeliest cause is podiatric asymmetry.
“I consulted foot specialists. At least they referred to themselves that way online, and when I assured them that an interview with me could be their springboard to [Fox News’] Sean Hannity, they opened up.
“‘Does Hillary Clinton have a superfluous toe?’ I asked one of them.
“‘I can’t definitively rule that out,’ he said.
“‘Hillary Clinton: Hobbled and hiding it?’ I asked the other, who agreed that ‘until she permits a thorough examination of her feet — and I mean both of them — how can we be sure?'”
The real question is why Hillary Clinton is only doing one public campaign rally a week, max, if that. And why she hasn’t done a sit down Q&A press conference as a candidate for around 260 days now.
I’m sure RT or the Trump campaign has already told you what to think so why don’t we skip the foreplay and you can just go ahead and let me [munt] your dumb beliefs like I did yesterday
[Couldn’t think of a better alternative to the original word used, so lets’ go with munt, eh? TRP]
Rope a dope , It’s the same strategy the nats are using . just lean back block the blows and wait for your the other side to tire and drop their guard.
Exactly. Watch Trump try wiggle out of the debates too.
Uh…what? AFAIK the debate schedule has been agreed between Trump and Clinton camps and it is all go.
Next question – why has Hillary Clinton not done a sit down press Q&A for approx 260 days? And why does she barely do 1 or 2 public rallies a week, compared to Trump out there 6 days a week?
It’s almost like Clinton’s begun copying Barack Obama’s strategy from the last two elections; carefully selected public appearances, positive TV coverage built around regular chat show visits, and tens of millions spent advertising in the msm. All topped off with a savvy online presence.
On the hand, Trump has truckloads of bigots packed into sports arenas in crucial swing state towns like Shitkicker, Missouri and Linchemall, Ohio.
Gosh, it’s hard to tell which campaign will work best in 2016.
And, to be fair, Trump extending the tiny hand of friendship to the black voter might be a turning point. Will he discover he’s always loved hispanic migrants next?
Will he get the last few votes he needs by converting to Islam in the last week of the campaign?
Will Jill Stein offer him the leadership of the US Greens?
Yes, anything could happen and it’s too close to call just how badly it’s going to end for orange faced orator from Noo York City.
More coverage on page 94. Plus, our new competition! Vote Republican and go to Heaven! Let’s Make the Afterlife Great Again!!
Or solar flares have interferred with the instructions from the secret alien moonbase and the Clinton draco changeling cannot receive the messages on what to say or do thus a body double is actually doing everything at the moment and that is why there are so many non appearances.
Oh I know the dates have been organised but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Trump try to get out of them some way or another.
Trump has said almost nothing substantive at all yet and is seemingly unaware of major geopolitical events. Clinton will smoke him…. Which I am sure you will claim is some sort of psy-op campaign or something.
I’ll be interested to see if his campaign coaches can get him to overcome 70 years of being a dick.
Their problem is that he did well in the primaries simply because he was the loudest and most outrageous guy in the crowded room. One on one, that behaviour doesn’t look so good. Like if the “life of the party” goes on a blind date, sort of thing – wearing a lampshade as a hat isn’t quite so entertaining….
One bad debate where he either loses his cool or just looks wooden and stupid, he’s fucked.
Trump has said almost nothing substantive at all yet and is seemingly unaware of major geopolitical events. Clinton will smoke him…. Which I am sure will claim is some sort of psy-op campaign or something.
1) Shitcan NAFTA, the TPP and other free trade deals if they cannot be renegotiated.
2) Pull back US forces, make NATO relevant again and make sure that US allies pay their own way and pull their own weight.
3) Slam on taxes and costs on to any US company which tries to offshore its manufacturing.
4) Massive investment in crumbling US infrastructure like roads, bridges, airports.
5) Major upgrade of services and care for US veterans.
6) Work closely with Russia on multiple issues, but especially destroying ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
7) Aggressive control and vetting of immigration, especially from known centres of terrorism.
8) Actively manage China’s cheating in currency, manufacturing and other industries.
9) Boost mining in the USA, including coal, gas and petroleum exploration.
Yeah “substantive”. More mining, more fossil fuel use, reliance on other countries to just do what Trump says, demonise refugees and build an impossible fucking wall.
No I spend a lot of time bagging you for your weird support of a crazed demagogue of a candidate and your seemingly growing disconnect from the reality that is Trump.
Funnily enough though in some sense I would rather a Trump victory because of my utter dismay at Clinton as a presidential candidate. But I can only support Trump in the perverse sense that the US will get te candidate they deserve rather than jumping in head first into believing that Trump is actually a coherent, logical and upstanding choice for president which you seem to think
National have no other option really ,every day another story comes out about their dishonesty or incompetence , if they front footed it all they would be getting slayed , they’ll be hoping that by hanging back while quietly gearing up their dirty politics efforts that they can pull off another win.
I see dunne just shafted labour over some bill he was going to support ,so he must think the nats are odds on to win.
AP finds big link between Clinton donors, and meetings/phone calls she held as US Sec State
AP made a big effort to cross check the Clinton’s records and discovered that most meetings/phone calls that Hillary Clinton had with private interests as Sec State were also big donors to her.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money — either personally or through companies or groups — to the Clinton Foundation. It’s an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president.
At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to her family charity or pledged commitments to its international programs, according to a review of State Department calendars released so far to The Associated Press. Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million. At least 40 donated more than $100,000 each, and 20 gave more than $1 million.
Donors who were granted time with Clinton included an internationally known economist who asked for her help as the Bangladesh government pressured him to resign from a nonprofit bank he ran; a Wall Street executive who sought Clinton’s help with a visa problem; and Estee Lauder executives who were listed as meeting with Clinton while her department worked with the firm’s corporate charity to counter gender-based violence in South Africa.
They may have met with her. They may have given the Clinton Foundation money. But they don’t appear to have actually become the beneficiaries of unethical behaviour from it.
No doubt you can look forward to years and years of Republican congressional investigations into every one of these allegations, excitedly thinking all the while “this time they’re gonna nail her for sure”.
But that one might actually be possible. Congratulations. Of course, it looks pretty shallow when it’s not surrounded by bullshit, but good for you.
I’m sure you can keep going all day. That’s how bullshitters work: just keep spraying bullshit, regrdless of whether even the basics of the story are correct. Something might stick.
So Hillary Clinton only met 154 people from private interests during her time at the State Department?
Nonsense from go to whoa.
Reading the whole piece, it looks like someone had an idea for a story and when they couldn’t find a scandal they wrote it any way.
Trumps honesty, is he is a old piece of meat being passed off as fresh, whereas Clinton is a contradiction, same old piece of meat but with some fresh meat glued on to look like fresh. They both stink, Trump looks more honest, Clinton more palatable. Classic false dicotomy of two staged turd blossms. Where it matters neither has any integrity. We hope Clinton may but doubtful since the stronger she is, the more she’s responsible for her husband legacy, yet we also know Trump is a loose cannon only voters who hate America would press his button.
The president of CharityWatch explains the Clinton Foundation’s “A” rating – it’s one of the top-rated charities in the US, 88% of spending goes to services with $2.00 spent to raise every $100.00.
I don’t believe any of the bullshit PR from these outfits. RE: the Gates Foundation this is more like it:
In a 54-page report released Thursday, U.K. social advocacy group Global Justice Now slammed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for using its enormous giving-power to influence global health policies in the foundation’s own interests. The report also claims the Gates Foundation often invests in the same health care and pharmaceutical companies it funds, creating “a corporate merry-go-round” that benefits corporations while undermining support for basic public health systems.
“The [foundation’s] program is not a neutral, charitable strategy for which the world should be thankful that a rich man is deciding to spend his money on good causes,” reads the report’s introduction. “Analysis of the foundation’s programs shows that it has an agenda—it is a specific ideological strategy that promotes neo-liberal economic policies, corporate globalization [and] the technology this brings, and a long outdated view of the centrality of ‘aid’ in helping the ‘poor.’”
Of course you don’t believe it, because it doesn’t suit your worldview.
Now, you’ve been pissing on the Clinton Foundation for a while now – do you have any evidence of any personal gain from it for the Clintons? Or even of the donations going anywhere other than directly to humanitarian work or the reasonable administration of such?
Sure me and the NSA will collect that proof. You know, like signing off on Russian uranium deals after receiving millions in donations for poor children in Africa.
First, the State Department did approve of Russia’s gradual takeover of a company with significant U.S. uranium assets, but it didn’t act unilaterally. State was one of nine government agencies, not to mention independent federal and state nuclear regulators, that had to sign off on the deal.
Second, while nine people related to the company did donate to the Clinton Foundation, it’s unclear whether they were still involved in the company by the time of the Russian deal and stood to benefit from it.
Third, most of their Clinton Foundation donations occurred before and during Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid, before she could have known she would become secretary of state.
The bottom line: While the connections between the Clinton Foundation and the Russian deal may appear fishy, there’s simply no proof of any quid pro quo.
The Clintons helped to shephard the deal through the US bureaucracy. And its not the only time they did so for foreign $$$.
Except that there is no indication or evidence of any Clinton involvement in the deal or “shepherding” it through the bureaucracy, nor is there any indication or evidence the Clintons received “foreign $$$”.
Starving kids received assistance, and a deal was authorised by another 8 organisations other than anything Clinton had even possibly under her direction – and the deal might not even have had any financial interest for most of the donors by the time it was on the table.
Really, to say you’re grasping at straws is hardly “excusing corruption”.
Yup, half of all adults and three quarters of all children being treated for AIDS/HIV receive financial assistance from The Clinton Foundation.
The 2015 annual report of the CHAI, naturally, tells an inspiring story. The outfit has helped more than 11.8 million people in more than 70 nations gain access to low-cost HIV medicines (saving the global health system billions of dollars)
Trump promised millions to charity. We found less than $10,000 over 7 years.
[…]
In recent years, Trump’s follow-through on his promises has been seemingly nonexistent.
The Post contacted 188 charities searching for evidence of personal gifts from Trump in the period between 2008 and this May. The Post sought out charities that had some link to Trump, either because he had given them his foundation’s money, appeared at their charity galas or praised them publicly.
The search turned up just one donation in that period — a 2009 gift of between $5,000 and $9,999 to the Police Athletic League of New York City.
Trump campaign head Bannon bragged only one month ago about his embrace of "alt-right" white nationalists. Jesus. pic.twitter.com/g31jRFfyNj— John Aravosis (@aravosis) August 25, 2016
The Herald reported in 2011 how Auckland Council and North Shore City spent $322,838 on the court defence of the Redback resource consent to demolish the Masonic Taven, one of the cities oldest hotels.
Now the 24-year-old heritage protection group has to liquidate after $27,000 bill trying to save the Taven.
All this will be much worse under the unitary plan that further removed the little protection for historic buildings and trees in Auckland.
When people say, why that apathy in NZ, that is why. The system is legally stacked against anything good in NZ, from preserving a historic site, to protecting an ancient Kauri, to preserving water quality.
And the chickens are coming home to roost from these extremely poor protections and rule changes to help and encourage the rich and exploitative, through our RMA.
“When people say, why that apathy in NZ, that is why. The system is legally stacked against anything good in NZ, from preserving a historic site, to protecting an ancient Kauri, to preserving water quality.”
RMA giving more opportunities for money launderers and foreign buyers to speculate in NZ… no need to worry about pollution, visual impact, or infrastructure. Someones else’s problem… someone’s making a $1 which is all that matters, and under globalism whether it is a organised gang, foreign student, local plutocrat, polluter industry, or local Kiwi, we are all the same, to be treated equally as economic effects to some are just as important (as many paid experts will testify) as environmental effects (which are less than minor as some paid expert will testify) to some indigenous person under law who has their water supply or standard of living affected (someone else’s fault or non existant as some paid expert will testify) ..
So actually although technically equal, those with access to paid experts and lawyers are actually much more likely to succeed that that group without funds.. so we are not equal at all under law and it is getting worse. Especially as Auckland council on behalf of the rate payers is the one defending the polluters and rich developers to make everything less equal… go figure.
Meryl Streep must be a very intelligent woman to be such a good actress. So it was embarrassing to see her dressed in an American flag playing cheer leader for Hillary Clinton at the Democratic Convention. One must suppose that she is too busy studying for all her varied movie roles to have learned much about the sinister nature of Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy. She proclaimed that President Hillary Clinton would be “making history” simply by being a woman. That means symbolic history. The fact that President Hillary Clinton is more likely to make real history by starting another war even more disastrous than those she has already helped get us into seems not to have occurred to Meryl Streep.
Nor does it occur to millions of other American women who share the same illusion.
Those women are thinking too much in terms of symbols and images. They are ignoring the major issue facing the United States: whether to make peace or war.
The feminist idea behind this illusion is that by becoming President, Hillary will be “shattering the glass ceilings” – the invisible obstacles – that prevent women from rising to the top. Women everywhere will benefit – just as American blacks all
benefited from the election of Barack Obama. Oops, wait a minute, did they really ? …
… Women seek the same feel-good experience. They believe it will be provided by Hillary Clinton when she shatters the glass ceiling – “for you”, as Hillary likes to say.
In reality, hasn’t the “glass ceiling” preventing women from pursuing successful careers already been shattered, precisely by the current neoliberal world order which favors promoting women and token members of various ethnic groups ? Isn’t it part of the strategy of neoliberalism to prove that modern capitalism enables the best to rise to the top, a circumstance that should win the adherence of all “identity groups” – whose self-identification has largely succeeded in wiping the old concept of class consciousness out of people’s minds ? …
… For most women, as for most blacks, when wages are low, their wages are low. When good housing or education is too expensive for most people, it’s too expensive for women. When spending for war ruins the economy, it’s their economy too.
The plain fact is that the successful careers of these ceiling breakers do nothing for the majority of women who are nowhere near any ceiling that needs to be broken.
Yeah, there are, of course, other reasons for American women preferring Clinton over Trump, but Johnstone does make a good point about the “glass ceiling” emphasis on the interests of a tiny number of women elites and the accompanying feel-good symbolism and imagery over far more fundamental concerns.
And meanwhile, Hillary’s uber-hawkish foreign policy stance continues to be minimised, dismissed or quietly ignored by far too many erstwhile liberals and progressives.
There has always been a sense of the presidency as the “top job” but it has been that in relation to the idea of service to the citizens of a country. The breaking of glass ceilings privileges the former over the latter. It says “look how far I’ve come!” more than it says, “I will do all I can to live up to the confidence you have shown in me.”
And now women, like men, can be conscripted to fight in these pointless wars and the genders can die in equal numbers soldiering on the front lines. Progress!
“The reason Epsom houses command such prices is the quality of the public schools. (Epsom even has Mt Eden Prison, the highest decile prison in the country – and look how that went downhill once it went private.)”
Is Andrew Little really as dumb as this comment indicates?
Or does he not regard a Maori as not being a “proper” Maori unless they support the Labour Party? I wonder if he considers National Party supporting Maori to be Uncle Toms?
“We have a good and growing and flourishing Maori caucus … they are an integral part of the Labour Party. Four of them are in my shadow cabinet and two of them are on the front bench – they’re not an add on to a Government like the National Government has done with members of the Maori Party,” Little said.” http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/83462254/maori-kings-claims-andrew-little-wont-work-with-maori-party-wrong-labour
This is from the leader of a party in which only 1 of the top ten rankings is a Maori.
In the National Party on the other hand 3 of the top ten are Maori.
More tellingly, given the different sizes of the parties, we can say that there are no Maori in the top 20% of the Labour rankings but there are 3 in the top 20% of National.
Does he really not know who the members of the National Party are? Does he not consider them to be “real” Maori? Perhaps someone should print out a list for him.
A lesson in remedial arithmetic might also help.
Alwyn-the MP will continue to be punished by the electorate for cravenly taking the baubles of office while doing precious little for their people and propping up Key’s robber barons.
I can easily see Hone coming back to parliament though, so at least in one respect the king may get his way.
I don’t really think this is specific to the Maori Party.
None of the minor parties that have become part of the Government have survived as a real party afterwards.
Look at the Alliance. 160,000 votes in 1999. Went into Government and dropped to 26,000 in 2002 and vanished.
New Zealand First got 130,000 votes in 2005. Went into Government and dropped to 95,000 in 2008 and went out of Parliament.
United Future went from 136,000 in 2002 to 61,000 in2005, and continued to fall while supporting various Governments.
Only the Green Party have lasted, mostly unscathed, because they have never been in Government. If they got into Government I think they would collapse at the next election.
As for Hone getting back I couldn’t make a sensible comment. I don’t know enough about Maori politics, or the far north for that matter to have an informed opinion. Kelvin Davis has proved a great disappointment though so if he went out he wouldn’t be a great loss.
2, “He said Tukuroirangi (Tuku) Morgan, the newly appointed president of the Maori Party and personal adviser to the King, had “far too much influence” on the matter.”
The comment about Tuku was by Henare, not Little.
I was only commenting on Little’s seeming view that Labour had leading Maori figures, when they don’t, while attacking National who actually do have more Maori members and give them much higher rankings.
He still seems to have the traditional Labour view that Maori should be grateful for the scraps they are allowed.
“The comment about Tuku was by Henare, not Little.”
yes – but did you miss the bit where it points out that the maori kings statement was really a maori party broadcast? This changes the way a response is worded
its all party sparring
“while attacking National who actually do have more Maori members ”
he was commenting on the way national treat and use their maori coalition partners, not the rankings of maori nat MPs.
YouGov have apparently carried out 2 polls of Party Members on the UK Labour leadership contest over recent weeks, yet (strangely enough) haven’t released either of them. Word is – they were commissioned by Owen Smith’s team. If so, his numbers may not be where he might have wished them to be.
I’m in the Owen Jones (not to be confused with Owen Smith) camp regarding Corbyn.
(1) Strongly supportive of the swing towards traditional Left Social Democracy under Corbyn – as opposed to Blairite quasi-Thatcherism and then a confused triangulation under his predecessors (the notion that Corbyn and McDonnell are “Trots” is ridiculous)
But
(2) Realistic about Corbyn’s pretty dire Leadership ratings (among voters in general as opposed to Labour members)
And
(3) By no means uncritical of Corbyn and his team’s performance (although their media strategy’s clearly improving and he’s been in an impossible position over the last 12 months – unexpectedly winning the leadership with only minor preparation and having to withstand constant sabotage from the more recalcitrant members of the PLP, not to mention a veritable storm of abuse and ridicule from the British Establishment and all its flunkies)
Part of me thinks he should stand down in a year or two in favour of a hand-picked successor from either the Corbynite Campaign Left or the Soft Compass Left, someone with less baggage and more intuitive populism. Someone like Clive Lewis (rather than a comical fake like Smith).
Other part of me thinks: With May enjoying a voter honeymoon and the Tories Gerrymandering the constituencies (meaning Labour would need to win a whole swathe of extra seats just to be in their present position and would require an almost unprecedented swing to win power) – the next Election is already lost. So maybe Corbyn needs to stay longer and transform the Party root and branch.
If a section of the PLP splits .. then It’ll be a tragedy for all concerned.
Your optimistic ‘other part of you’ is saying that a previously nationwide reformist party will consign itself to a boutique specialist outfit, while congratulating themselves on being as pure as the ideological snow.
Tony Blair’s long lament in an interview this week about the collapse of centrist politics – while of course licking his own political balls as luxuriantly as an aging Labrador – is nevertheless on point. The small c conservatives are looking rarer, and more sensible.
“I thought you were a big optimistic Corbyn fan ?”
Sympathetic to the Corbyn-McDonnell ideological revitalisation of the Party ? Yep. But I’ve made a number of comments over recent months pointing to Corbyn’s poor – and sometimes dire – ratings with British voters as a whole (as distinct from Labour Party Members and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Labour voters) and I’ve suggested before that the Corbyn team are by no means beyond reproach when it comes to their media strategy.
“Tony Blair’s long lament in an interview this week about the collapse of centrist politics … is nevertheless on point … “
“Your optimistic ‘other part of you’ is saying that a previously nationwide reformist party will consign itself to a boutique specialist outfit, while congratulating themselves on being as pure as the ideological snow.”
Shouldn’t have thought so. You’ve obviously fallen for the Blairite / Media Establishment line that Corbyn / McDonnell represent some sort of purist, “Trotskyite” Cult. In fact, their platform simply updates the traditional Social Democracy that, for example, the Wilson Governments of the 60s and 70s pursued.
I saw an interesting analysis a few weeks ago that showed that – apart from a more clear-cut rejection of austerity – little daylight in fact existed between the policies of the Corbyn-led and Miliband-led Labour Party.
We need to move away from the nonsense that there’s an electorally crucial “Centrist” group of voters whose views are roughly half-way between Labour and the Tories on every issue. Public opinion and voter behaviour is more complex than that.
If we start to look at things on an issue-by-issue basis, we might just find that large majorities of UK voters support the re-Nationalisation of Railways, the Utilities and Postal Services, while strongly opposing further privatisation of the NHS.
Same for a number of other core Corbynite policies.
Goes without saying that you have to compromise to win power. And Corbyn is probably going to have to swallow a few dead rats – Trident being one of them (even though I agree entirely with his stance on the issue – as do, apparently, a number of leading Defence Staff, all off-record, of course).
Immigration and attitudes to welfare are also going to be difficult issues to navigate. (pointing to significant cleavages that have opened up within Labour’s constituency).
But it’s a matter of emphasising the issues where the public support you and minimising the space between you and your opponents on those areas where you’re less popular.
All set against the fundamental backdrop of valence issues – how voters view the leader, the degree of economic competence they ascribe to the party and so on. The latter remains a real problem for UK Labour regardless of Leader or ideological direction …
… As the British Election Study suggested:
Some events realign parties with crucial issues. The economic crash in 2007/08 appears to have done for Labour what the exchange rate mechanism crisis did for the Conservatives more than 20 years earlier: it fundamentally altered the public perception of which party could be trusted on the economy. Given how long it took the Conservatives to recover a lead …
I would hope Weka that in NZ those nearby would cover their heads with their beach towels in support. A strange call by the police. Her face was not covered except by dak glasses like others around her.
And that is your problem. Already you’ve turned away from defending liberal concepts and ideals from those who wish to take it away from society towards attacking the supposed evils of neo-liberalism. You even fail to understand the reason neo-liberalism concepts were so successfully spread was because they shared the same basic principles that the liberal ideals you wish to defend have namely increasing individual liberty and freedom as opposed to an authoritarian power or group.
Gosman believes neo-liberalism detractors are wrong. Gosman beliveves attacks on neo-liberalism is an attack on liberal ideals. Worse. That neo-liberakism are opposed to authoritarism, you know jailing people from the drug war, privatizing prisons, and throwing away liberty of citizens as they are criminals.
Gosman is a idiot, reminds me of Hooten, both have a shallw hold of the reality in whuch they live. Typical shorters.
I watched David Carter this afternoon bringing the House into disrepute again.
His stunningly sharp mind discerned someone trying to slip in an extra supplementary question to show you can’t get anything past him.
That was a short time after I saw Jonathan Coleman make his usual “just making things up” about Annette King. Ms King got up and explained her sources exactly which showed she was not “making it up.” Things carried on and I thought Coleman was a lying bastard who had been allowed to lie. I wondered about who to approach about scummy behaviour just being accepted in their highest court in the land.
Shortly later someone got up and brought the matter to the attention of Carter. He of rapier mind and sharp ears (and great skill at counting supplementary questions) said he didn’t pick it up.
A Speaker who rants about disorder in the house not picking up what was a very clear slur, worse than some of the stuff he gets all righteous and pompous about is clearly incompetent.
Apparently Speakers get upset about being called biased. His gently chiding of Gerry Brownlee today after geting stuck into Opposition people on a number of occasions, his perpetual allowing the Prime Minister free reign and the incident today could easily attract allegations of bias. It is either that or incompetence.
I wonder if I’ll get an invite to the conferring of his knighthood?
With many apologies for putting up the full text of the release, but it is very rare for a PM to comment on the dynamics of interaction between Ministers and public servants in such an explicit manner:
PM sets ground rules for ministers’ treatment of public servants
By Pattrick Smellie
Aug. 24 (BusinessDesk) – Prime Minister John Key has laid down the law about the way ministers and public servants should interact, saying ministers may not always like the advice they receive, but they must listen to it carefully, respectfully and professionally.
In a speech to public sector leaders at the parliament, Key said that in return the government wants its “free and frank advice” from public servants in written form, and expects officials to be politically aware, but not politically active.
Launching a major project intended to lift the quality and consistency of public policy-making, known as The Policy Project, Key said “it takes a lot of confidence to be the only person in a room of ministers to raise a problem, or advise against the preferred option”, but it was important to have well-qualified public servants able to do that.
“Ministers need to listen too,” he said. “In my experience, confident ministers value hard-hitting advice even if they may not act on it. My ministers know that I expect them to behave in a professional way toward everyone they deal with, including officials who may be giving them, at times, unwelcome advice.”
On significant decisions, “I expect departments to provide their free and frank advice in writing,” said Key, in a nod to an environment created by the threat of disclosure under the Official Information Act being seen to stifle officials’ willingness to give controversial advice in writing, which has given rise to critical reports from the Office of the Ombudsman.
“Written advice is fuller, allows for more nuance, and can better cover the complexities of the trade-offs we face,” Key said. “It also allows ministers time for reflection and to work through a problem in stages with officials to come to better solutions,” Key said. “It really shouldn’t be a big story when ministers and officials disagree – that’s the system working.”
However, while the policy project framework cites the need for public servants to be “politically savvy”, advice from officials “should avoid second-guessing the politics of the choices we face. That’s our job.”
I would sincerely hope this means that this culture is also reflected in faster and fuller (ie pre-emptive) releases of information, rather than having to go through the cumbersome OIA provisions.
It would take out much of the mystery, paranoia, and suspicion about political decision-making of one could see how political calls have been made against the facts and within the context of official recommendations. It’s definitely better than it was a few years ago, but still vastly uneven. Too many smaller Departments don’t seem to have anything useful to say, and even large Departments like MBIE only respond in big published set-pieces.
With thanks to Patrick Smellie for taking notice of this.
Any future government – especially a more genuine coalition government – should be able to release its “full and frank” components after decisions to show how calls were made across the Cabinet table. It would be much, much harder for either media or Ministers to spin things their way. And hence also suck a whole lot of needless fuel off any future Opposition. Perhaps that’s too much to ask, but it’s possible.
[I’ve just released a comment of yours, Rosie, which I presume is the missing one. No idea why it was in limbo, though it’s possible the site you link to is on the naughty list. TRP]
University of Chicago tells new students to not expect “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings”
You will find that we expect members of our community to be engaged in rigorous debate, discussion, and even disagreement. At times this may challenge you and even cause discomfort.
Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called “trigger warnings,” we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual “safe spaces” where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.
Poorly paid workers will lose the opportunity to take holidays on days special to their faith.
But that’s ok.
Neoliberalism only worships one God too.
Money.
And, workers, regardless of faith or no faith, who previously only got to spend 3.5 days off, now will only 2.5 days off at the same time as their friends and family. Key words are “at the same time”.
Everyone else gets 11 days off. Retail and hospo staff get only get 2.5 now, depending on what kind of public fight goes down in their town about keeping the shops shut or open.
It was really slimey how the govt passed it off to councils to deal with.
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
Compulsory viewing.
Rachel Stewart and Mike Joy are worth listening to on this issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEYQ-nkAuGc
Dame Anne Salmond: Abusing water, part of our lucrative pure image, is crazy
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11700128
Everything has a price under national and as long as their backers benefit they don’t give a toss about any impacts to the wider population.
A price that National ensures falls upon the poor while further enriching the rich.
I disagree,you give national too much credit, they obviously dont value, price, anything. As they always backdown ashamed when the real costs undermine their economic credientials. They are inauthentic, parasites on the body politic, having only remain so ensconced due to thirty years of cheap high density fuels. Energy misused to pollute more, opportunities misses to grow globally, r thirty years instead of building a world green economy, we let the finacial sector churn paper and spend the wealth eating the planet, our future options, our collective mind. We’ve suffered from a generation that inherited a jobs market missing millions of workers who died in war, free education, shifting wealth to themselves by paying less into pensions to give themselves tax cuts. Even the humility of previous generations is gone, they think they full paid for the wealth they have recieved, though polution is rampent, ecosystems and climate pushing to collapse, soils water, eating up at pace. A financial stsyem cannibalising us all, drugs, jails all turned up to the max to extort profits, its just sad how stupid boomers are.
This Country has to change its direction – there are no two ways about it. However I am certain that it would take a monumental disaster for the dumbarses running the place to even contemplate the changes to our agricultural practices that are necessary. In the meantime we will just have to bear witness to Nature striking back at us for our ongoing ( and accelerating ) folly.
Nature’s fine
Heh. It’s funny because it’s true.
Watched last night cheers for putting these up. What a bunch of gutless shits the fed farmers are.
New Zealand Land Wars
Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox called for a public holiday.
Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said a public holiday during winter should be a consideration.
Last year, the Prime Minister said there would be no new public holiday but he didn’t rule out replacing one of the existing 11 stat days.
Labour leader Andrew Little suggested provincial holidays could be scrapped in lieu of a national NZ Wars commemoration day
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/83459046/no-public-holiday-for-new-zealand-land-wars.
Should the NZ Land Wars commemoration day be a new public holiday, swapped over with another, or none at all?
Thoughts?
The whole idea is shit and have to wonder what the hell National is thinking.
A New Zealand day not some land wars day, fucking idiots.
We already have Anzac day which covers the fighting aspect, then we have a heavily Maori orientated day in Waitangi day.
How about this for a crazy thought , have a day where NZ shows off it’s diversity and celebrates who we all are in a happy and positive way.
Man why you want to call your political masters and betters idiots I’ll never know – they might adjust your words rate bub.
We already have massive hollies for the things you outline. This idea is an idea whose time has come BUT it must be done correctly.
It’d be nice to have a day to give the Union Jack an airing.
“then we have a heavily Maori orientated day in Waitangi day.”
really – cause the biggest thing i hear on waitangi day is the annual “great white whinge”.
That’s called Australia Day, maybe you could head over there to celebrate a day of ignorance.
No it doesn’t. It covers the European wars that we were in while ignoring the Land Wars.
Doesn’t seem particularly Māori orientated to me.
Yeah, because sweeping all the faults and issues under the rug works so bloody well.
Good idea that needs lots of planning and work. Not so good that blinglish doesn’t want a day off and wants it to be regional?? commemorations.
I wouldn’t change the provincial holidays but add this in at the appropriate date.
What do YOU think chair
I support the notion of the day having its own, new public holiday. But I’m sure a number of employers would disagree.
It’s interesting to see Little prefers to replace a current stat day rather than having a new public holiday.
I have heard Little wants it to replace Labour Day.
He knows that organised labour, as represented by the union movement and his own party is dead and beginning to smell.
Little suggested provincial holidays could be scrapped in lieu of a commemoration day.
However, one would expect workers unions would support employees having a new stat day off. Labour evidently don’t.
They should just replace the queens birthday with it , it needs a better name than land wars holiday though.
vulnerable children day?
Flushing Flows Day? We could do the whole country.
Worship of the Golden Cow Day
National National Day
Parihaka Day, Nov 5
Very good article
http://www.mana.co.nz/news/our-ghosts-have-never-slept-a-response-to-chris-trotter-on-the-nz-wars.html
Bit of a laugh with some seriousness too
“But they’re missing the real story – Clinton has an 11th toe. Here’s how The New York Times’ Frank Bruni addressed the cover-up of the Democratic candidate’s freakish, disqualifying digit: “Have you watched her walk? Look closely. She wobbles a bit, or maybe it’s more of a teeter, combined with a lurch, and the likeliest cause is podiatric asymmetry.
“I consulted foot specialists. At least they referred to themselves that way online, and when I assured them that an interview with me could be their springboard to [Fox News’] Sean Hannity, they opened up.
“‘Does Hillary Clinton have a superfluous toe?’ I asked one of them.
“‘I can’t definitively rule that out,’ he said.
“‘Hillary Clinton: Hobbled and hiding it?’ I asked the other, who agreed that ‘until she permits a thorough examination of her feet — and I mean both of them — how can we be sure?'”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/83533992/hillary-clinton-has-an-extra-toe–why-is-no-one-investigating
na it’s those pesky lizard claws , they’ve never made a heel that fits them properly .
lol nice one
The real question is why Hillary Clinton is only doing one public campaign rally a week, max, if that. And why she hasn’t done a sit down Q&A press conference as a candidate for around 260 days now.
Maybe because every time Trump does one, it sends another 100,000 voters her way. So why bother.
Yes Hillary has to make some excuses for being the feet up take it easy candidate, but it seems a bit poor to not even bother to meet the voters.
I’m sure RT or the Trump campaign has already told you what to think so why don’t we skip the foreplay and you can just go ahead and let me [munt] your dumb beliefs like I did yesterday
[Couldn’t think of a better alternative to the original word used, so lets’ go with munt, eh? TRP]
(Apologises to The Standard community – the above reads harsher than I intended but too late to edit…)
Rope a dope , It’s the same strategy the nats are using . just lean back block the blows and wait for your the other side to tire and drop their guard.
Exactly. Watch Trump try wiggle out of the debates too.
Uh…what? AFAIK the debate schedule has been agreed between Trump and Clinton camps and it is all go.
Next question – why has Hillary Clinton not done a sit down press Q&A for approx 260 days? And why does she barely do 1 or 2 public rallies a week, compared to Trump out there 6 days a week?
Your “next question” was twice answered two levels up the subthread. Immediately after you asked it then.
Gotta love cut&paste obsessives who parrot lines they read off the nutweb.
I actually found out the true answer – that Hillary is conducting multiple fundraisers a day with Hollwood A listers and corporate leaders.
She doesn’t have time or interest for entertaining the plebs when she can raise a couple of million dollars at each event.
Oh, so she’s not been suspending her campaign because of ill-health as you heavily implied.
It’s almost like Clinton’s begun copying Barack Obama’s strategy from the last two elections; carefully selected public appearances, positive TV coverage built around regular chat show visits, and tens of millions spent advertising in the msm. All topped off with a savvy online presence.
On the hand, Trump has truckloads of bigots packed into sports arenas in crucial swing state towns like Shitkicker, Missouri and Linchemall, Ohio.
Gosh, it’s hard to tell which campaign will work best in 2016.
And, to be fair, Trump extending the tiny hand of friendship to the black voter might be a turning point. Will he discover he’s always loved hispanic migrants next?
Will he get the last few votes he needs by converting to Islam in the last week of the campaign?
Will Jill Stein offer him the leadership of the US Greens?
Yes, anything could happen and it’s too close to call just how badly it’s going to end for orange faced orator from Noo York City.
More coverage on page 94. Plus, our new competition! Vote Republican and go to Heaven! Let’s Make the Afterlife Great Again!!
Little extra toe is playing up?
Or solar flares have interferred with the instructions from the secret alien moonbase and the Clinton draco changeling cannot receive the messages on what to say or do thus a body double is actually doing everything at the moment and that is why there are so many non appearances.
Fortunately spaceweather is monitored, a close call.
https://news.agu.org/press-release/1967-solar-storm-nearly-took-us-to-brink-of-war/
Oh I know the dates have been organised but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Trump try to get out of them some way or another.
Trump has said almost nothing substantive at all yet and is seemingly unaware of major geopolitical events. Clinton will smoke him…. Which I am sure you will claim is some sort of psy-op campaign or something.
I’ll be interested to see if his campaign coaches can get him to overcome 70 years of being a dick.
Their problem is that he did well in the primaries simply because he was the loudest and most outrageous guy in the crowded room. One on one, that behaviour doesn’t look so good. Like if the “life of the party” goes on a blind date, sort of thing – wearing a lampshade as a hat isn’t quite so entertaining….
One bad debate where he either loses his cool or just looks wooden and stupid, he’s fucked.
Don’t fuck with the lampshade on the head routine. It works in all situations.
But yeah, as soon as Clinton starts speaking about major international event and their various nuances Trump will lose his nut completely.
LOL you have no idea McFlock, you truly do not.
Easy win TRump 2016.
Uh, this is not the way it is going to unfold.
That’s just how it looks to this mere mortal who isn’t receiving coded messages from the intrinsic intelligence of the universe.
1) Shitcan NAFTA, the TPP and other free trade deals if they cannot be renegotiated.
2) Pull back US forces, make NATO relevant again and make sure that US allies pay their own way and pull their own weight.
3) Slam on taxes and costs on to any US company which tries to offshore its manufacturing.
4) Massive investment in crumbling US infrastructure like roads, bridges, airports.
5) Major upgrade of services and care for US veterans.
6) Work closely with Russia on multiple issues, but especially destroying ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
7) Aggressive control and vetting of immigration, especially from known centres of terrorism.
8) Actively manage China’s cheating in currency, manufacturing and other industries.
9) Boost mining in the USA, including coal, gas and petroleum exploration.
10) Build the WALL and make Mexico pay for it!!!
Yeah “substantive”. More mining, more fossil fuel use, reliance on other countries to just do what Trump says, demonise refugees and build an impossible fucking wall.
These are all substantive policy positions. You may not agree with them, but there they are.
What are Hillary’s top ten substantive policy positions then? Does she even have any?
Demonising refugees, expanding fossil fuel use and building impossible walls are substantive?
Wow….
Yay, go Clinton… Look forward to the new dangerous geopolitical events that will likely start springing up in our own backyard if the Middle east and North Africa are anything to go by:
http://www.cfr.org/asia-and-pacific/secretary-clintons-op-ed-americas-pacific-century/p30265
Not supporting trump doesn’t equal supporting Clinton
But you sure do spend a lot of time bagging Trump instead of bagging Clinton
No I spend a lot of time bagging you for your weird support of a crazed demagogue of a candidate and your seemingly growing disconnect from the reality that is Trump.
Funnily enough though in some sense I would rather a Trump victory because of my utter dismay at Clinton as a presidential candidate. But I can only support Trump in the perverse sense that the US will get te candidate they deserve rather than jumping in head first into believing that Trump is actually a coherent, logical and upstanding choice for president which you seem to think
You have to be pretty damn confident to use the rope a dope though, in any situation
National have no other option really ,every day another story comes out about their dishonesty or incompetence , if they front footed it all they would be getting slayed , they’ll be hoping that by hanging back while quietly gearing up their dirty politics efforts that they can pull off another win.
I see dunne just shafted labour over some bill he was going to support ,so he must think the nats are odds on to win.
Rope and dope with Trump is easy though. He can’t stop talking and can’t articulate a coherent thought for longer than 10 secs
US Embassy Kabul advises US citizens to consider leaving; consider avoiding travel to Afghanistan
Major hostage crisis at American University in Kabul.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-24/us-urges-citizens-afghanistan-leave-country
AP finds big link between Clinton donors, and meetings/phone calls she held as US Sec State
AP made a big effort to cross check the Clinton’s records and discovered that most meetings/phone calls that Hillary Clinton had with private interests as Sec State were also big donors to her.
https://apnews.com/82df550e1ec646098b434f7d5771f625/Many-donors-to-Clinton-Foundation-met-with-her-at-State
They may have met with her. They may have given the Clinton Foundation money. But they don’t appear to have actually become the beneficiaries of unethical behaviour from it.
http://www.vox.com/2016/8/24/12618446/ap-clinton-foundation-meeting
Didn’t the Uranium One mining interests get sold to the Russians after her signoff?
Here’s what Politifact has to say about that.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/30/donald-trump/donald-trump-inaccurately-suggests-clinton-got-pai/
lolsnap andre
CV: that’s what happens when you Cut&paste bullshit slogans: people sometimes find the same bullshit detector and independently point it out.
Then there is Ericsson giving Bill Clinton $750,000 for a speech. (LOL you probably think that’s a fair days pay for a 30 minute speech).
Soon after, a telecoms sanctions list was released by Clinton’s State Dept – and Ericsson had been taken off it.
Probably you’ll say there was no proof of a quid pro quo. But the link is obvious. I can keep listing examples if you like.
No doubt you can look forward to years and years of Republican congressional investigations into every one of these allegations, excitedly thinking all the while “this time they’re gonna nail her for sure”.
lol
Or it was the other way around.
But that one might actually be possible. Congratulations. Of course, it looks pretty shallow when it’s not surrounded by bullshit, but good for you.
I’m sure you can keep going all day. That’s how bullshitters work: just keep spraying bullshit, regrdless of whether even the basics of the story are correct. Something might stick.
If we had suspicious minds we would wonder if it is a means of laundering money. Open. Declared for tax. Who would doubt its honesty?
So Hillary Clinton only met 154 people from private interests during her time at the State Department?
Nonsense from go to whoa.
Reading the whole piece, it looks like someone had an idea for a story and when they couldn’t find a scandal they wrote it any way.
Trumps honesty, is he is a old piece of meat being passed off as fresh, whereas Clinton is a contradiction, same old piece of meat but with some fresh meat glued on to look like fresh. They both stink, Trump looks more honest, Clinton more palatable. Classic false dicotomy of two staged turd blossms. Where it matters neither has any integrity. We hope Clinton may but doubtful since the stronger she is, the more she’s responsible for her husband legacy, yet we also know Trump is a loose cannon only voters who hate America would press his button.
The president of CharityWatch explains the Clinton Foundation’s “A” rating – it’s one of the top-rated charities in the US, 88% of spending goes to services with $2.00 spent to raise every $100.00.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEUD8kgIhzs&feature=youtu.be
Obviously a fraud cooked up by the Psy-Op team.
So the Clintons have been accepting hundreds of millions from Saudis and Russians and Qataris for charity?
Yes.
The foundation claims that none of the Clintons receive any salary or expense reimbursements from the foundation.
I suspect the Gates’ foundation is run along the same lines.
I don’t believe any of the bullshit PR from these outfits. RE: the Gates Foundation this is more like it:
http://www.nonprofitpro.com/article/report-slams-gates-foundation-for-self-serving-agenda-corporate-ties/
Of course you don’t believe it, because it doesn’t suit your worldview.
Now, you’ve been pissing on the Clinton Foundation for a while now – do you have any evidence of any personal gain from it for the Clintons? Or even of the donations going anywhere other than directly to humanitarian work or the reasonable administration of such?
Sure me and the NSA will collect that proof. You know, like signing off on Russian uranium deals after receiving millions in donations for poor children in Africa.
lol
from politifact:
You need a better source than Trump.
Good to see how quickly you excuse corruption at the highest levels of the Washington DC establishment.
The Clintons helped to shephard the deal through the US bureaucracy. And its not the only time they did so for foreign $$$.
Except that there is no indication or evidence of any Clinton involvement in the deal or “shepherding” it through the bureaucracy, nor is there any indication or evidence the Clintons received “foreign $$$”.
Starving kids received assistance, and a deal was authorised by another 8 organisations other than anything Clinton had even possibly under her direction – and the deal might not even have had any financial interest for most of the donors by the time it was on the table.
Really, to say you’re grasping at straws is hardly “excusing corruption”.
Yup, half of all adults and three quarters of all children being treated for AIDS/HIV receive financial assistance from The Clinton Foundation.
The 2015 annual report of the CHAI, naturally, tells an inspiring story. The outfit has helped more than 11.8 million people in more than 70 nations gain access to low-cost HIV medicines (saving the global health system billions of dollars)
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/clinton-foundation-controversy-actual-work
Meanwhile, your bloke……
Trump promised millions to charity. We found less than $10,000 over 7 years.
[…]
In recent years, Trump’s follow-through on his promises has been seemingly nonexistent.
The Post contacted 188 charities searching for evidence of personal gifts from Trump in the period between 2008 and this May. The Post sought out charities that had some link to Trump, either because he had given them his foundation’s money, appeared at their charity galas or praised them publicly.
The search turned up just one donation in that period — a 2009 gift of between $5,000 and $9,999 to the Police Athletic League of New York City.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-promised-millions-to-charity-we-found-less-than-10000-over-7-years/2016/06/28/cbab5d1a-37dd-11e6-8f7c-d4c723a2becb_story.html
A foundation formed by and named after one of the sleaziest & morally defunct family’s in political history…
The likelihood that the foundation operates along a different strategic or ethical path from its founders would be improbable
Many gullible hypocrites seeking ‘a win’
As usual, innuendo, likelihood and SFA.
Better luck next time, chump.
There are many books written about The Clintons, for sale on Amazon
I’m sure all the defamation suites against the authors will get the books removed….hold on they’re still for sale
Keep making excuses to yourself as cover for the ABT stance, its the weak willed play, Joe
Their shit reeks as much as your efforts to ignore the stench!
Here’s white supremacist Jared Taylor celebrating Trump’s candidacy.
He names all those alt-right folk on your team, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7aG-VQYGhA&feature=youtu.be
btw, be sure to delete your YouTube history or you’ll have all sorts of white supremacist videos popping up as recommendations
Speaking of reeking shit…..
Environment court process in action.
The Herald reported in 2011 how Auckland Council and North Shore City spent $322,838 on the court defence of the Redback resource consent to demolish the Masonic Taven, one of the cities oldest hotels.
Now the 24-year-old heritage protection group has to liquidate after $27,000 bill trying to save the Taven.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11700150
All this will be much worse under the unitary plan that further removed the little protection for historic buildings and trees in Auckland.
When people say, why that apathy in NZ, that is why. The system is legally stacked against anything good in NZ, from preserving a historic site, to protecting an ancient Kauri, to preserving water quality.
And the chickens are coming home to roost from these extremely poor protections and rule changes to help and encourage the rich and exploitative, through our RMA.
“When people say, why that apathy in NZ, that is why. The system is legally stacked against anything good in NZ, from preserving a historic site, to protecting an ancient Kauri, to preserving water quality.”
….to protecting landscape values from developers
RMA giving more opportunities for money launderers and foreign buyers to speculate in NZ… no need to worry about pollution, visual impact, or infrastructure. Someones else’s problem… someone’s making a $1 which is all that matters, and under globalism whether it is a organised gang, foreign student, local plutocrat, polluter industry, or local Kiwi, we are all the same, to be treated equally as economic effects to some are just as important (as many paid experts will testify) as environmental effects (which are less than minor as some paid expert will testify) to some indigenous person under law who has their water supply or standard of living affected (someone else’s fault or non existant as some paid expert will testify) ..
So actually although technically equal, those with access to paid experts and lawyers are actually much more likely to succeed that that group without funds.. so we are not equal at all under law and it is getting worse. Especially as Auckland council on behalf of the rate payers is the one defending the polluters and rich developers to make everything less equal… go figure.
Hillary and the Glass Ceilings Illusion
by Diana Johnstone
A few excerpts …
Yeah, there are, of course, other reasons for American women preferring Clinton over Trump, but Johnstone does make a good point about the “glass ceiling” emphasis on the interests of a tiny number of women elites and the accompanying feel-good symbolism and imagery over far more fundamental concerns.
And meanwhile, Hillary’s uber-hawkish foreign policy stance continues to be minimised, dismissed or quietly ignored by far too many erstwhile liberals and progressives.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/23/hillary-and-the-glass-ceilings-illusion/
There has always been a sense of the presidency as the “top job” but it has been that in relation to the idea of service to the citizens of a country. The breaking of glass ceilings privileges the former over the latter. It says “look how far I’ve come!” more than it says, “I will do all I can to live up to the confidence you have shown in me.”
Everyone knows a pointless war started by a woman is better than a pointless war started by a man.
And now women, like men, can be conscripted to fight in these pointless wars and the genders can die in equal numbers soldiering on the front lines. Progress!
Raybon Kan: A man with enough names for a relay team
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11700106
He’s very clever & funny, does he write books?
“The reason Epsom houses command such prices is the quality of the public schools. (Epsom even has Mt Eden Prison, the highest decile prison in the country – and look how that went downhill once it went private.)”
Yes. Try “America on five bullets a day”. Published 1998. Very funny.
Brilliant.
Is Andrew Little really as dumb as this comment indicates?
Or does he not regard a Maori as not being a “proper” Maori unless they support the Labour Party? I wonder if he considers National Party supporting Maori to be Uncle Toms?
“We have a good and growing and flourishing Maori caucus … they are an integral part of the Labour Party. Four of them are in my shadow cabinet and two of them are on the front bench – they’re not an add on to a Government like the National Government has done with members of the Maori Party,” Little said.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/83462254/maori-kings-claims-andrew-little-wont-work-with-maori-party-wrong-labour
This is from the leader of a party in which only 1 of the top ten rankings is a Maori.
In the National Party on the other hand 3 of the top ten are Maori.
More tellingly, given the different sizes of the parties, we can say that there are no Maori in the top 20% of the Labour rankings but there are 3 in the top 20% of National.
Does he really not know who the members of the National Party are? Does he not consider them to be “real” Maori? Perhaps someone should print out a list for him.
A lesson in remedial arithmetic might also help.
Alwyn-the MP will continue to be punished by the electorate for cravenly taking the baubles of office while doing precious little for their people and propping up Key’s robber barons.
I can easily see Hone coming back to parliament though, so at least in one respect the king may get his way.
I don’t really think this is specific to the Maori Party.
None of the minor parties that have become part of the Government have survived as a real party afterwards.
Look at the Alliance. 160,000 votes in 1999. Went into Government and dropped to 26,000 in 2002 and vanished.
New Zealand First got 130,000 votes in 2005. Went into Government and dropped to 95,000 in 2008 and went out of Parliament.
United Future went from 136,000 in 2002 to 61,000 in2005, and continued to fall while supporting various Governments.
Only the Green Party have lasted, mostly unscathed, because they have never been in Government. If they got into Government I think they would collapse at the next election.
As for Hone getting back I couldn’t make a sensible comment. I don’t know enough about Maori politics, or the far north for that matter to have an informed opinion. Kelvin Davis has proved a great disappointment though so if he went out he wouldn’t be a great loss.
You should see the number of Asians and Chinese in the Labour caucus
1, your reading into that a bit arent you?
2, “He said Tukuroirangi (Tuku) Morgan, the newly appointed president of the Maori Party and personal adviser to the King, had “far too much influence” on the matter.”
The comment about Tuku was by Henare, not Little.
I was only commenting on Little’s seeming view that Labour had leading Maori figures, when they don’t, while attacking National who actually do have more Maori members and give them much higher rankings.
He still seems to have the traditional Labour view that Maori should be grateful for the scraps they are allowed.
National has done far more to advance the cause of Maori than Labour.
Some Maori, muginamuddle, some Maori.
That’s up to Maori.
The Orewa hate speech and infectious diseases, for example.
‘Orewa’ wasn’t hate speech. It was one mans opinion about race relations in NZ. An opinion shared by many NZ’ers.
🙄
“The comment about Tuku was by Henare, not Little.”
yes – but did you miss the bit where it points out that the maori kings statement was really a maori party broadcast? This changes the way a response is worded
its all party sparring
“while attacking National who actually do have more Maori members ”
he was commenting on the way national treat and use their maori coalition partners, not the rankings of maori nat MPs.
YouGov have apparently carried out 2 polls of Party Members on the UK Labour leadership contest over recent weeks, yet (strangely enough) haven’t released either of them. Word is – they were commissioned by Owen Smith’s team. If so, his numbers may not be where he might have wished them to be.
Even with all the biased questioning and skewed sampling they turned out shite? Oh dear.
Corbyn should win well enough.
UK Labour will then be more strongly left than it has ever been. Its stars will then be Left with Left rising.
Except for nearly every MP they have in Parliament.
Can’t see a happy ending.
I’m in the Owen Jones (not to be confused with Owen Smith) camp regarding Corbyn.
(1) Strongly supportive of the swing towards traditional Left Social Democracy under Corbyn – as opposed to Blairite quasi-Thatcherism and then a confused triangulation under his predecessors (the notion that Corbyn and McDonnell are “Trots” is ridiculous)
But
(2) Realistic about Corbyn’s pretty dire Leadership ratings (among voters in general as opposed to Labour members)
And
(3) By no means uncritical of Corbyn and his team’s performance (although their media strategy’s clearly improving and he’s been in an impossible position over the last 12 months – unexpectedly winning the leadership with only minor preparation and having to withstand constant sabotage from the more recalcitrant members of the PLP, not to mention a veritable storm of abuse and ridicule from the British Establishment and all its flunkies)
Part of me thinks he should stand down in a year or two in favour of a hand-picked successor from either the Corbynite Campaign Left or the Soft Compass Left, someone with less baggage and more intuitive populism. Someone like Clive Lewis (rather than a comical fake like Smith).
Other part of me thinks: With May enjoying a voter honeymoon and the Tories Gerrymandering the constituencies (meaning Labour would need to win a whole swathe of extra seats just to be in their present position and would require an almost unprecedented swing to win power) – the next Election is already lost. So maybe Corbyn needs to stay longer and transform the Party root and branch.
If a section of the PLP splits .. then It’ll be a tragedy for all concerned.
I thought you were a big optimistic Corbyn fan?
Your optimistic ‘other part of you’ is saying that a previously nationwide reformist party will consign itself to a boutique specialist outfit, while congratulating themselves on being as pure as the ideological snow.
Tony Blair’s long lament in an interview this week about the collapse of centrist politics – while of course licking his own political balls as luxuriantly as an aging Labrador – is nevertheless on point. The small c conservatives are looking rarer, and more sensible.
“I thought you were a big optimistic Corbyn fan ?”
Sympathetic to the Corbyn-McDonnell ideological revitalisation of the Party ? Yep. But I’ve made a number of comments over recent months pointing to Corbyn’s poor – and sometimes dire – ratings with British voters as a whole (as distinct from Labour Party Members and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Labour voters) and I’ve suggested before that the Corbyn team are by no means beyond reproach when it comes to their media strategy.
“Tony Blair’s long lament in an interview this week about the collapse of centrist politics … is nevertheless on point … “
“Your optimistic ‘other part of you’ is saying that a previously nationwide reformist party will consign itself to a boutique specialist outfit, while congratulating themselves on being as pure as the ideological snow.”
Shouldn’t have thought so. You’ve obviously fallen for the Blairite / Media Establishment line that Corbyn / McDonnell represent some sort of purist, “Trotskyite” Cult. In fact, their platform simply updates the traditional Social Democracy that, for example, the Wilson Governments of the 60s and 70s pursued.
I saw an interesting analysis a few weeks ago that showed that – apart from a more clear-cut rejection of austerity – little daylight in fact existed between the policies of the Corbyn-led and Miliband-led Labour Party.
We need to move away from the nonsense that there’s an electorally crucial “Centrist” group of voters whose views are roughly half-way between Labour and the Tories on every issue. Public opinion and voter behaviour is more complex than that.
If we start to look at things on an issue-by-issue basis, we might just find that large majorities of UK voters support the re-Nationalisation of Railways, the Utilities and Postal Services, while strongly opposing further privatisation of the NHS.
Same for a number of other core Corbynite policies.
Goes without saying that you have to compromise to win power. And Corbyn is probably going to have to swallow a few dead rats – Trident being one of them (even though I agree entirely with his stance on the issue – as do, apparently, a number of leading Defence Staff, all off-record, of course).
Immigration and attitudes to welfare are also going to be difficult issues to navigate. (pointing to significant cleavages that have opened up within Labour’s constituency).
But it’s a matter of emphasising the issues where the public support you and minimising the space between you and your opponents on those areas where you’re less popular.
All set against the fundamental backdrop of valence issues – how voters view the leader, the degree of economic competence they ascribe to the party and so on. The latter remains a real problem for UK Labour regardless of Leader or ideological direction …
… As the British Election Study suggested:
“Giovanni Tiso @gtiso Aug 23
How you get to fascism is not the police giving the woman a fine. It is the crowd’s applause.”
Yasmine Ryan @yasmineryan
Muslim woman brought to tears after French police give verbal warning for wearing hijab on beach, as crowd applauds http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/societe/20160822.OBS6680/siam-verbalisee-sur-une-plage-de-cannes-pour-port-d-un-simple-voile.html …
https://twitter.com/gtiso/status/768212587313889280
Doubling down.
btw, the French have a history of doing this shit – a 1958 poster from Algeria – within living memory.
http://archive.li/yb6ml/ace6929d3721dcc6b880f9a2e94dc3248ea0d774.jpg
Translation: “Aren’t you pretty? Unveil yourself!”
I would hope Weka that in NZ those nearby would cover their heads with their beach towels in support. A strange call by the police. Her face was not covered except by dak glasses like others around her.
The more we get hammered over this the better:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/83543705/international-media-batter-new-zealands-progressive-social-welfare-legacy
Gosman is an idiot19 July 2016 at 10:58 am
And that is your problem. Already you’ve turned away from defending liberal concepts and ideals from those who wish to take it away from society towards attacking the supposed evils of neo-liberalism. You even fail to understand the reason neo-liberalism concepts were so successfully spread was because they shared the same basic principles that the liberal ideals you wish to defend have namely increasing individual liberty and freedom as opposed to an authoritarian power or group.
Gosman believes neo-liberalism detractors are wrong. Gosman beliveves attacks on neo-liberalism is an attack on liberal ideals. Worse. That neo-liberakism are opposed to authoritarism, you know jailing people from the drug war, privatizing prisons, and throwing away liberty of citizens as they are criminals.
Gosman is a idiot, reminds me of Hooten, both have a shallw hold of the reality in whuch they live. Typical shorters.
I watched David Carter this afternoon bringing the House into disrepute again.
His stunningly sharp mind discerned someone trying to slip in an extra supplementary question to show you can’t get anything past him.
That was a short time after I saw Jonathan Coleman make his usual “just making things up” about Annette King. Ms King got up and explained her sources exactly which showed she was not “making it up.” Things carried on and I thought Coleman was a lying bastard who had been allowed to lie. I wondered about who to approach about scummy behaviour just being accepted in their highest court in the land.
Shortly later someone got up and brought the matter to the attention of Carter. He of rapier mind and sharp ears (and great skill at counting supplementary questions) said he didn’t pick it up.
A Speaker who rants about disorder in the house not picking up what was a very clear slur, worse than some of the stuff he gets all righteous and pompous about is clearly incompetent.
Apparently Speakers get upset about being called biased. His gently chiding of Gerry Brownlee today after geting stuck into Opposition people on a number of occasions, his perpetual allowing the Prime Minister free reign and the incident today could easily attract allegations of bias. It is either that or incompetence.
I wonder if I’ll get an invite to the conferring of his knighthood?
It’s very unfair of you to suggest that Hone’s bro isn’t capable of bias and incompetence.
With many apologies for putting up the full text of the release, but it is very rare for a PM to comment on the dynamics of interaction between Ministers and public servants in such an explicit manner:
PM sets ground rules for ministers’ treatment of public servants
By Pattrick Smellie
Aug. 24 (BusinessDesk) – Prime Minister John Key has laid down the law about the way ministers and public servants should interact, saying ministers may not always like the advice they receive, but they must listen to it carefully, respectfully and professionally.
In a speech to public sector leaders at the parliament, Key said that in return the government wants its “free and frank advice” from public servants in written form, and expects officials to be politically aware, but not politically active.
Launching a major project intended to lift the quality and consistency of public policy-making, known as The Policy Project, Key said “it takes a lot of confidence to be the only person in a room of ministers to raise a problem, or advise against the preferred option”, but it was important to have well-qualified public servants able to do that.
“Ministers need to listen too,” he said. “In my experience, confident ministers value hard-hitting advice even if they may not act on it. My ministers know that I expect them to behave in a professional way toward everyone they deal with, including officials who may be giving them, at times, unwelcome advice.”
On significant decisions, “I expect departments to provide their free and frank advice in writing,” said Key, in a nod to an environment created by the threat of disclosure under the Official Information Act being seen to stifle officials’ willingness to give controversial advice in writing, which has given rise to critical reports from the Office of the Ombudsman.
“Written advice is fuller, allows for more nuance, and can better cover the complexities of the trade-offs we face,” Key said. “It also allows ministers time for reflection and to work through a problem in stages with officials to come to better solutions,” Key said. “It really shouldn’t be a big story when ministers and officials disagree – that’s the system working.”
However, while the policy project framework cites the need for public servants to be “politically savvy”, advice from officials “should avoid second-guessing the politics of the choices we face. That’s our job.”
I would sincerely hope this means that this culture is also reflected in faster and fuller (ie pre-emptive) releases of information, rather than having to go through the cumbersome OIA provisions.
It would take out much of the mystery, paranoia, and suspicion about political decision-making of one could see how political calls have been made against the facts and within the context of official recommendations. It’s definitely better than it was a few years ago, but still vastly uneven. Too many smaller Departments don’t seem to have anything useful to say, and even large Departments like MBIE only respond in big published set-pieces.
With thanks to Patrick Smellie for taking notice of this.
Any future government – especially a more genuine coalition government – should be able to release its “full and frank” components after decisions to show how calls were made across the Cabinet table. It would be much, much harder for either media or Ministers to spin things their way. And hence also suck a whole lot of needless fuel off any future Opposition. Perhaps that’s too much to ask, but it’s possible.
Have I been out of touch for so long that I am the only person who doesn’t know about this tawdry little site?
https://thestandardwatch.wordpress.com/
Why do they bother? Nothing better to do?
Why do you think he bothers? There is hardly a lack of material here for taking the piss is there?
The blog was established by The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrel. And you are correct. He had nothing better to do.
Anyway it looks like it is dead.
Is there a reason my comment isn’t coming up?
[I’ve just released a comment of yours, Rosie, which I presume is the missing one. No idea why it was in limbo, though it’s possible the site you link to is on the naughty list. TRP]
Probably just the random dropping into spam thing.
Ok, thanks weka
It might have contained a banned word…………
Ooh I’m intrigued now…
Cheers, TRP.
University of Chicago tells new students to not expect “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings”
Impending fustercluck approaching in your town:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/311826/councils-given-right-to-decide-on-easter-trading-hours
Awesome way to absolve yourselves of the difficulty of dealing with Easter trading laws Nat Govt.
(That wasn’t the comment I was talking about earlier btw)
Poorly paid workers will lose the opportunity to take holidays on days special to their faith.
But that’s ok.
Neoliberalism only worships one God too.
Money.
And, workers, regardless of faith or no faith, who previously only got to spend 3.5 days off, now will only 2.5 days off at the same time as their friends and family. Key words are “at the same time”.
Everyone else gets 11 days off. Retail and hospo staff get only get 2.5 now, depending on what kind of public fight goes down in their town about keeping the shops shut or open.
It was really slimey how the govt passed it off to councils to deal with.
It’s really a stretch to call it a government.
They appear not to want to govern anything.