Watched ShonKey try very hard to explain his security council mtg, just did his yeah, nah, she’ll be right mate. He’s really good at filling up airtime with nothing but blah blah.
Coming our way with the National government – having to compete with multinationals to buy our own water…
“A small town in Ontario, Canada, has prompted fresh scrutiny of the bottled-water industry after its attempt secure a long-term water supply through the purchase of a well was outbid by the food and drinks multinational Nestlé.
When authorities in Centre Wellington, population of about 30,000, learned that Nestlé had put a bid on a spring water well in their region, they scrambled over the summer to counter with a competing bid. The goal was to safeguard a water supply for the township’s fast-growing population, Kelly Linton, the mayor, told the Guardian. “By 2041, we’ll be closer to 50,000 so protecting our water sources is critical to us.”
wtf. Farmer groups want to be able to use wayer, gm, etc, to make money, it does not matter other frmers aquifers dry up, or gm escapes, as long as the corp farmer can make profit oblivious of effects… ..just like shitty rivers.
why would any farmer lobby argue for gm and against regional efforts to grow value? Is the farming lobby a talk fest for big corp?
This is already happening in the north, unfortunately.
A small iwi is battling the Northland Regional Council to retain its long-held rights in the Poroti Springs which the NRC is busily selling off water rights to overseas companies – including Nestles which has been looking at Poroti Springs too. I’m not sure how far along Nestles has got with its resource consent application to withdraw water from the Springs.
There is the Freshwater site set up by Forest and Bird. Maybe it could be expanded to be an advocacy site for local water rights as so many are being hawked off by the National government and clueless councils around the country.
@b waghorn – name and shame. There has already been a case in the US where the judge ruled, water is not a human right. NZ needs to get active to nip water selloffs in the bud before there is no drinkable water left. It’s no coincidence corporates are buying up water. Everyone needs water – very profitable – especially when sold so cheaply in NZ with the help of the cronies.
Food for thought (I think some of it applies across the spectrum).
The left now suffer from closed minds and moral smugness. They are moribund and backward-looking.
They run from ideas. Opposing philosophies distress them.
They pillory dissenters as stupid or immoral and often both. There’s no debating or explaining, just abuse for those who step outside received wisdom.
The left have taken to social media with gusto. It only takes 140 characters to abuse and attack.
They fill Twitter and blogs with their righteousness and smugness, puffed up by their own perceived moral and intellectual superiority.
There’s no allowance that a person with a differing view might offer an opportunity to learn and to strengthen your ideas and perhaps, just perhaps, to change them.
That’s never allowed as a possibility.
Their minds are closed and they gasp and take offence at any idea or opinion different to their own.
Indeed, ganging up against dissenters on social media is what binds them. Their attacks on others proves to them their correctness and superiority.
The left are puzzled about why they’re politically marginalised but never trouble themselves to listen to those who have turned away from them. They look down on them and despise them.
The left view their political failure as the fault of voters who must be hoodwinked, stupid, selfish, or suffering some other ethical or intellectual shortcoming. Why else would they not be supporting the left when they are so good and true?
The problem is never with the left or their doctrine.
They are a self-reinforcing sect who in their wretchedness and anger are becoming ever smaller. Their narrow and insular outlook prevents them reaching out. Little wonder it’s not attractive to new recruits.
Labour is the narrow party that has shut itself off from the great bulk of New Zealanders.
Rodney Hides opinion? Fuck off.
I have just read through yesterdays Open Mike…. wow. Well done all the contributors , esp CV and Paul and Adrian, for ably fending off the narrow minded, ignorant defenders of ‘ pax Americana ‘ or , to put it more bluntly, those who are basically backing Zionism.
For me all the hypocrisy of the USA can be summed up in one word….. Vietnam.
Yes, we can really listen to Rodney – ACT last election getting less than 1% of votes. Bit like at the amount of voters who actually take ACT seriously and soon to be the amount of people who take the Herald seriously.
Even die hard Natz supporters know that Granny is not really a news organisation anymore and you can’t trust news from Granny – sponsor-an-article cum crony-alert-reporting style. Have MR less than 1% Hide as a commentator just reinforces their dying readership.
Yep – and revolutionary as the idea might seem to the likes of Pete George, a country with 300 000 children in poverty and an entire generation consigned to homelessness has no particular need to slide further to the right. It has significant and pressing pragmatic problems that paying lip service to the bloody idols of neoliberalism will not address.
and an entire generation consigned to homelessness has no particular need to slide further to the right.
Labour will have the first affordable $600,000 homes ready by 2019. So the Aucklanders priced out of the housing market today only need to put their lives on hold until then.
(By which time the prices of the “affordable” homes will be more like $700,000).
It is of course optimistic, but the hope is that when they get their paws on the reins of power they will begin to govern, part of which will necessarily include addressing such problems. Better that they have a local Corbynist lobby to encourage them probably, or a community housing initiative to show them the way.
One of the outcomes of the last election for Labour was to notice that the Gnats produced no policy. The Gnats have no intention of being lampooned in public for their gross dishonesty and manifest stupidity. This is a lesson Labour has learned. We will only see a general picture of what they might do – but if you want genuine growth and reform that will need to come from a community base. Produce a working model & Labour might be very happy to fund and proliferate it. But thus far it doesn’t seem to be how they choose to fight their corner.
One of the outcomes of the last election for Labour was to notice that the Gnats produced no policy. The Gnats have no intention of being lampooned in public for their gross dishonesty and manifest stupidity. This is a lesson Labour has learned.
Labour has been facing off against the National tories since the 1930s.
You can’t tell me that they’ve only just figured out how Tories think.
The Tories changed their presentation. Under Bill English they represented themselves honestly as the crooked and unambiguously backward set of chumps they actually are. Key brought in the Crosby Textor thing – and the MSM decided they could embrace bias without any proximate prospect of comeuppance. Now the media are locked in – they will be reformed when the Gnats leave power and they know it.
Nevertheless a strong press is believed to be one of the pillars of a healthy democracy – and I think we are feeling the lack. But yes, the LP isn’t setting speed records. Partly this is that feature of organisations that they grow to do the opposite of what they were established for. This is where a large activist membership is supposed to apply corrective feedback.
There are some curiosities in reform movements in that they require a receptive environment to develop new ideas – an incubator or as the trolls would have it an echo chamber. The Beijing student uprising resembled nothing so much as a magnetron – the ring of university campuses acting as the circulating amplifying chambers feeding the centre.
If you react badly to that you may well be proving Rodney’s point.
Pete George is moribund and backward-looking. He suffers from a closed mind and moral smugness. He runs from ideas and opposing philosophies distress him.
If he reacts badly to that he may well be proving my point.
The good thing about Rodders is. He’s full of shit and everyone knows it.
Aucklander’s want his testicles danglin from the sky tower in recognition of his superb super city idea.
I imaging stepping out in public is wonderful for him. Wondering if someone will dent his face.
As for the article. It’s actually a reflection of their own closed minds, they(people like him) think everyone else is behaving like they do themselves.
Rodney telling the left they have closed minds is more so outrageous that it will click bait people into A reading his article,. B push up ratings at the Herald which thankfully is diving like a Stuka!
I used to read the Herald, now it’s a third rate click bait celebrity mag. They lost the plot. If the Herald doesn’t turn it around soon it’ll be gone.
Sacking Rodney and actually reporting news would help.
As for the article. It’s actually a reflection of their own closed minds, they(people like him) think everyone else is behaving like they do themselves.
Yep, pure bloody projection and we see it from the RWNJs all the time as they use their own actions to justify keeping things the way they are and even to make things worse instead of making things better.
“Willem Wiskerke, a spokesman for Greenpeace Netherlands said: “He is a climate denier like Donald Trump, nothing more, nothing less, a rightwing, fact-free populist who denies the climate crisis and will not put any effort into solving it.”
“You will like me very much” – the Don to fossil fuel execs:
“The same day as a new report highlighted the carbon emissions calamity that would accompany new fossil fuel extraction, Donald Trump promised an audience of fossil fuel executives that is the very agenda he would pursue if elected to the White House.
” “Oh, you will like me so much,” the Republican presidential candidate said in his address to the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
“He promised to lift regulations, open up more federal lands for fossil fuel extraction—including coal and fracking—and ease the way for new fossil fuel infrastructure projects including pipelines.
From your Stuff link:
“A large chunk of Canterbury’s coast will again be offered up for oil and gas exploration, under a Government proposal described as “lunacy” by Christchurch’s deputy mayor.
“The Government wants to set aside nearly 300,000 square kilometres of New Zealand’s east coast for oil and gas companies as part of its 2017 block offer.
“The annual block offer allows companies to compete for exploration permits.
“This year’s proposed offer would open up the largest area near Canterbury yet.
“It includes a space near the Banks Peninsula Marine Mammal Reserve, home to the endangered Hector’s dolphin.”
“Last year’s offer was deeply unpopular with the Christchurch City Council and environmental groups.
“They argued that deep-sea drilling could threaten the region with a catastrophic oil spill for little economic gain.”
“Under Hide’s leadership, the vote in the September 2005 elections severely reduced ACT’s party parliamentary representation. ACT’s share of the party vote dropped from over 7% of the total in 2002 to around 1.5%; its representation in Parliament fell from nine MPs to two. Despite this reduction, the party remained in parliament due to Hide winning the Epsom seat. As a consequence of its reduced share of the vote, ACT received a significant cut in taxpayer-funded Parliamentary resourcing and Hide shifted his electorate office in Remuera to Newmarket, the same location as that of ACT’s head office”
wiki
now that Rodney’s (and by extension, ACT’s) popularity/support has been bought up it occurs to me if you want to measure the publics appetite for neoliberal theory you only need to examine the level of support for ACT, which I believe peaked at around 7% and now languishes within the MoE
It is quite amazing that ACT got 7% as we always beleived that there were only 5% intelligent enough to vote ACT. Now some 4% are looking elsewhere …. NZF ?
Sorry that is trolling but I couldn’t resist 🙂
I was showing that ‘save nz’ is wrong, Hide has had many people voting for him in an electorate, especially when compared to Little.
I said nothing about ‘his popularity alone’, it was more complex than that but Hide worked hard in Epsom. I don’t think anyone gets all their votes on popularity alone.
In 2008 ACT got 85,496 votes, that had little to do with National and quite a lot to do with Hide’s efforts.
@Peter George – save the spin. We all know that they were National voters told to vote for him to prop up the Natz. Not many people would willingly vote for Hide. He’s a joke, as is his ideology.
You’re claiming that 78% of Epsom voters acted under instruction from National. Confirmation your comment wasn’t ‘a colloquial euphemism’, you were making thing things up.
In the old Newspaper days letters to the editor would have curtailed them from posting to much of fringe politicians crap like Rodney.
The complaints and stinging letters he received would have told him that. The editors letters would have also put the dickhead back where he belongs, talking fringe politics to nutters in a mental health ward.
Take this little fact in, someone born since 1980 doesn’t know truth or proper politics like us older people. They have never heard dissention. They have never seen proper protests(springboks tour someone born 1980 ain’t going to remember) They don’t know what unions can do, all they know is wall street, greed is good, consumerism and having the latest phone and trainers is important.
” talking fringe politics to nutters in a mental health ward.”
By this I assume you mean the way a senile old fool like Geoffrey Palmer on his ideas for a written Constitution?
Now there is someone who really should be ignored.
alwyn the list of people who enter representative politics with completely the wrong mental attitude, and who have not been scarred in some way by their nurture is tiny. Most of them who seek the halls of power, do it for fame, and ego.
It’s the one field I think psychological evaluation should be completed on, that is anyone seeking public office. IMHO.
Start with John Key, and many questions about his mum, and how long he breast fed for. Did he find it comforting gently pulling her hair whilst he was feeding on the nipple at 10, or did he think it felt a little strange at that age.
That’s what the media tells us, Richard Rawshark, but I do keep coming across young people who are thinking about other things – not just worried about not being able to own a home, but worried about climate change, dirty waters, oil drilling, and NZ (their home) being taken over by multitudes of others.
I just hope there are enough of these younger people to carry on dissension and protests when the time comes for those things.
sadly I did the one thing there I hate most, I stereo typed. Sorry. Their are a lot of good youth out there don’t get me wrong. barring the stereotyping i’m sure you all get the gist of what I said though.
I consider the youth of the greens Genter etc, an example of youth excelling beyond what we could back in my day. But they seem fewer.
US RWNJ’s doing the Trumps going to win thing when Hillary will clearly pass the post, is an old trick they employ when it’s looking bad for their guy. In that it’s to stop the rot and keep voters and try to gain the undecided.
Hope i’m right on that, even though Hillarys donkey deep in it too(war mongering), Trumps scarier and a big gamble. Better the devil you know.
Good to see the latest attempt to spread CCOs and forced local government amalgamations has been shelved.
Glad to have helped.
Seen this?
‘Activists – get things done’
Unlike ALL the other Auckland Mayoral candidates – I successfully petitioned Parliament for an urgent inquiry into Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs).
The following information I made available to Mayors in other parts of NZ to assist in their fight back against the continued corporate takeover of our local democracy, our assets and our public property.
The following proves that I already have an effective working relationship with central government.
Petition 2014/33 of Penelope Mary Bright and 55 others, and Report from the Controller and Auditor-General, Governance and accountability of council- controlled organisations
Nuclear Power and Climate Change – excerpt:
“Overall, the idea that atomic power is “clean” or “carbon free” or “emission free” is a very expensive misconception, especially when compared to renewable energy, efficiency, and conservation. Among conservation, efficiency, solar and wind power technologies, there are no global warming analogs to the heat, carbon, and radioactive waste impacts of nuclear power. No green technology kills anywhere near the number of marine organisms that die through reactor cooling systems.
“Rooftop solar panels do not lose ten percent of the power they generate to transmission, as happens with virtually all centralized power generators. S. David Freeman, former head of numerous large utilities and author of All Electric America: A Climate Solution and the Hopeful Future, says: “Renewables are cheaper and safer. That argument is winning. Let’s stick to it.”
Financially it seems pretty clear that renewables are the cheapest option for utility-scale new builds, even without a carbon tax. So worldwide I doubt we’ll see many more nuclear new builds, at least in western countries.
But it seems to me the appropriate comparison for nuclear is against fossil fuels. In that comparison, nuclear still looks pretty favourable to coal/gas/oil (and actually even hydro) in terms of land area ruined and human health/mortality footprints, even considering the worst case projections from Chernobyl, Fukushima etc. So to me, it looks like an environmental setback when a nuclear plant is closed prematurely while fossil plants feeding the same grid are still running and polluting.
Current production is far from ideal, but it’s still a lot better than fossil fuels. Most of the problems with current production are fairly easy to manage and eliminate, if the producers are incentivised to actually do it.
Interesting comments by Rodney Hide on the left in the herald this morning, expresses much commentary you see on this site
“The left view their political failure as the fault of voters who must be hoodwinked, stupid, selfish, or suffering some other ethical or intellectual shortcoming. Why else would they not be supporting the left when they are so good and true?
The problem is never with the left or their doctrine.
They are a self-reinforcing sect who in their wretchedness and anger are becoming ever smaller. Their narrow and insular outlook prevents them reaching out. Little wonder it’s not attractive to new recruits.
It’s astonishing that National is now the vibrant party looking to the future and open to diverse views.
Labour is the narrow party that has shut itself off from the great bulk of New Zealanders.”
He does have point Paul no matter how much you may not like it, the lefts failure can’t be all externally afflicted, ie msm, dumb voters and other conspiracies
““The left view their political failure as the fault of voters who must be hoodwinked, stupid, selfish, or suffering some other ethical or intellectual shortcoming. Why else would they not be supporting the left when they are so good and true?
The problem is never with the left or their doctrine.”
meanwhile – if you talk to people on the left you quickly find the above assertion to be based on a deliberate over simplification of actual arguments made
We had a wander around MOTAT on Friday and came across a potted history of Radio in New Zealand. This is what I read –
“On New Year’s Day in 1932 the Government took over the responsibility of the Radio Broadcasting Company in providing a national service. This was done under a three man Broadcasting Board who was also given the power to impose restrictions on the private stations. By 1937 most of the private stations had been bought by the New Zealand Government. Two distinct systems were then set up – one NATIONAL and one COMMERCIAL.
The first Director of Broadcasting was Professor James Shelley. He saw radio as an instrument of real democracy based on a sympathetic understanding of all points of view.
In 1946 the commercial and non-commercial branches of the national radio system were amalgamated under the name New Zealand Broadcasting Service.”
My words – the poor sod Professor Shelley will be turning in his grave at the state of our airways these days – so much for “a sympathetic understanding of all points of view.” There isn’t one jot of balance in anything we listen to on Radio or TV – just adoration for a corrupt Government which is sickening.
Tend to agree nutters on both sides of the phone , the medium attracts them like moths to a flame Albeit I do find Paul Henry entertaining you just need to take him with a grain of salt
I didn’t realise they went right through to Holyoake’s time in the early 1960s. If it was early in his second term that he got rid of it, it would seem that he didn’t approve of the practice. He was only there for about 3 months in 1957 before the election and he wouldn’t really have time to change very much.
Was Nash also doing it? From what you say it sounds as if he must have been.
Actually I can tolerate Fraser if it was about anything to do with the war.
However I highlighted Savage because he was the PM when Shelley was primarily involved in broadcasting and it was Shelley that WK was talking about.
As per your link – in 1947 things were relaxed to allow controversial broadcasts to be aired but Prime Ministerial approval was required until restrictions were abolished in 1962.
If you want to hear an out of touch ex pollie who actually dislikes democracy making a complete fool of himself, tune in to Natrad and listen to doddery old Geoffrey Palmer play with his constitutional toy soldiers.
Well said. He would tie us up in expensive knots for years trying to nut out a constitution. The main benefits of the monarchy are its distance and saving us from yet another self-important ex-pollie (like Geoffrey?) pretending to be our head of state.
It’s a esotreic academic law professors hobby horse, law lecturers blather on about it in 101 law since the the beginning of time The rest of us don’t really give a monkeys, status quo is fine, bigger issues to deal with
+100 rhino…lol…we live in a time of profound bullshit, trivia …and wasted time and white collar technological trickery and bankster fraud and usury…driven by materialism and venal mindless greed
“President Barack Obama used a pseudonym when communicating with then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by email, while her IT company referred to her email deleting as a “cover-up”, new FBI documents reveal….
During the interview with Huma Abedin, who served as deputy chief of staff under Clinton, the FBI reportedly presented her with an email exchange between Clinton and a person she did not recognize. The FBI then revealed the unknown person’s name was believed to be a pseudonym used by Obama. Abedin reacted by saying, “How is this not classified?”
This exchange could expose Obama as having mislead the public on the issue, given his 2015 statement that he found out about Clinton’s use of a private email server “the same time everybody else learned it, through news reports.”…
Cops, a lot of talk about cops lately, underfunded, understaffed, ignoring things, skewing stats..
If Key remained PM lets say for another decade god forbid, how long do the standardista”s think it will be before a police surcharge to come out, comes along.
What was it 25 police stations to close, but a little while ago they close a load down too.
Why do we pay tax under national, they have pretty much driven everything under.
Anyone can talk about moving left of the centre; where is the left wing action, the left wing policy and the left wing personnel from Labour to back it up?
He would be silly to show all his cards to early , but going on clarkes performance on the tpp and praising of shit key, having Little publicly slap her down speaks volumes.
He is the right man for the next pm.
More crap neoliberal advice from last century. Thanks but no thanks Aunty Helen. Little was right to distance himself from Helen’s divisive legacy.
Anyway, Key currently rules the “centre” and won’t be budged. Labour’s only chance to get it back is if FJK makes a huge ballsup like David Cameron, but I reckon Key is more self aware
John Key is an exceptional politician. As cunning as Fraser, as likable as Lange. But his set piece, 'statesman' speeches are bloddy shite— Morgan Godfery (@MorganGodfery) September 21, 2016
Aunty Helen was right and is always right. She was smart to quickly dump any left-wing policies unpalatable to the centre so that she could appeal to the ‘middle’ voters.
Wrong, she lost the 2008 election because she wasted her political capital on pet social policies that alienated most voters. And she failed to address inequality and the growing housing bubble.
I respect her as a well-intentioned and highly intelligent person, her government was excellent on foreign policy, but she bought into the “Third Way” Blairite bullshit on economic matters, a betrayal of all workers & class struggles of the last century
In the next election I will be voting Green Party(not Labour ) for the first time in what will be my 12th election.
The last time I voted National was for Muldoon, and I honestly believe that was the last time a National Party leader gave a shit for the ordinary kiwi.
Key spoke as if he were more interested in his own speech rather than any solution for the Syrian people.
That neither the US nor Russia batted an eyelid at Key’s weak pleas to ‘hold hands’ over the matter, and indeed doubled their strikes immediately says a lot about how the rest of the world views him.
I’m loving the DPRK News Service. (yes, it’s a parody account)
As expected, oily cave troll Ted Cruise offers endorsement of shouting rotting papaya Donald Trump, to applause of idiot racists across US. pic.twitter.com/5PyU7G1l2g— DPRK News Service (@DPRK_News) September 23, 2016
I Imagine Clinton’s heard about Gennifer Flowers’ appearance at the first debate so I guess she’s out and about organising a front row seat for Trump’s former mistress.
A well written rant, shame Trotter didn’t get his facts straight, some reactions from Spinoff/GenZero author here (the whole thread on twitter is longer)
Never seen anyone get this pissed over a b-. If I publish my academic transcript will you stop calling us corrupt?— Leroy Beckett (@LeroyBeckett) September 25, 2016
saying we have been paid for our opinions or anything GZ do is laughable and kinda offensive to the ridiculous amount of work we do for free— Leroy Beckett (@LeroyBeckett) September 25, 2016
For what it's worth, scorecards and UP campaigns funded entirely from small donations from our supporters. All that went to promotions— Leroy Beckett (@LeroyBeckett) September 25, 2016
i know nothing of Lee but the endorsement of Ralston was what caused the enquiry…and as you note, they didn’t defend their endorsements merely their funding.
That said I think Trotter is right about the UP being twisted by property developers & speculators for their own ends, it is the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. Need to close the immigration floodgates, penalise speculation & McMansions, and implement proper rates/LVT based on unimproved land value.
A major problem with Millennials is they have no concept of life outside of the market oriented neoliberal narratives. From TDB:
Underlying this debate is the mute acceptance of the government’s ‘more is always better’ mantra by so many. Anyone who dissents is attacked overtly and covertly. Huge population increase is being pursued solely to line the pockets of the already rich and will be detrimental to NZ in most respects. We should be growing quality, not numbers. We would not have to build hundreds of thousands of homes over productive horticultural land if we accepted pursued a small, high quality niche approach.
“A while back, Mikhail Gorbachev famously said: ‘The most puzzling development in modern politics is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe.’
Gorbachev wasn’t referring to the European Union’s hunger to expand eastwards, but instead the bloc’s top-heavy governance, where smaller states are increasingly dominated by larger members.
This was evident last year, when Angela Merkel pretty much unilaterally imposed a liberal migration policy on the confederation, which has led to massive division…
You’re very welcome. And this one also sometime at the end of last month:
“Market Economy – Reinvent or Reboot?”
Yanis Varoufakis versus Clemens Fuest, at the Alpbach Forum, along the lines of the proposition: “The market economy is the best model. It will also successfully manage the challenges faced in the future.” Agree or disagree with this statement?”
by Daphna Whitmore Last week France passed a law that equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. It is based on a definition of anti-Semitism that includes criticism of Israel such as: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist ...
Over the past year we've seen major bus problems in Hamilton and Wellington, as drivers have sought better wages and an end to the bullshit of split shifts, which basicly see them "married to the job". And now its Auckland's turn. When NZBus's drivers planned low-level strike action of not ...
The government has been congratulating itself over the passage of the Zero Carbon Act, which sets out long-term emissions targets. But those targets are insufficient. Meanwhile, Denmark is showing us how its done:Denmark’s parliament adopted a new climate law on Friday, committing to reach 70% below its 1990 emissions in ...
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On 27 September, Greta Thunberg addressed a crowd of 500,000 at the School Strike for Climate in Montreal, saying: “You are a nation that is allegedly a climate leader. And Sweden is also a nation that is allegedly a climate leader. And in both cases, it means absolutely nothing. Because ...
It should be obvious by now but let’s be clear: The same folk who regularly traffic in disinformation, misinformation and “fake news” are also those who most strongly claim that their freedom of expression rights are being violated when moves are made to curb hate speech (as opposed to protected ...
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New Zealand's Underarm Banker: It bears recalling that the “independence” of the Reserve Bank Governor was for decades held up by neoliberal capitalists as the most compelling justification for passing the Reserve Bank Act. Interesting, is it not, how the ruling class’s support for the Bank’s independence lasted no longer than ...
Rubbish In, Rubbish Out: Put all this together, and it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that anyone who responds positively to a pollster’s request to “answer a few questions” is just ever-so-slightly weird. Desperately lonely? Some sort of psephological train-spotter? Political party member primed to skew the poll for or against ...
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Some people seem to want to close down any critical discussion of the current research into the relationship between water fluoride and child IQ. They appear to argue that claims made by researchers should not be open to critical review and that the claims be accepted without proper consideration ...
The government has been congratulating itself over the passage of the Zero Carbon Act, which sets out long-term emissions targets. Meanwhile, Climate Action Tracker has the shameful reality: those targets are insufficient:While New Zealand is showing leadership by having passed the world’s second-ever Zero Carbon Act in November 2019, under ...
The government introduced a Racing Industry Bill today. As an urban who horse racing as pointless-to-cruel, and gambling as a tax on stupidity and/or hope, this isn't normally a bill which would interest me in the slightest, beyond grumpiness at more government money for a dying industry. But there is ...
Check. Check. One, two, three, four. Is this thing ON? Hello readers, I logged in last night (yeah, it’s been a while) to mark THE END of the landmark legal case, Jordan Williams v Colin Craig, which (gulp) reached The Supreme Court, in which New Zealand’s most-defamed man was suing the politician he ...
Before The Birth: Israel’s most fervent supporters set their clocks ticking in Biblical times. They cite the kingdoms of David and Solomon as proof that, in the words of the Exodus movie’s theme-song: “This land is mine.” The majority of Israel’s backers, however, start their clocks in 1933 – the year Adolf ...
In an unreliable, strange and confusing world, Public Address is proud to present a measure of comfort and stability by annually asking everyone what words or phrases sum up the year that's been – and then giving some of them consumer goods as prizes for being clever or simply lucky.Well, ...
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When it was revealed that NZ First had tried to enrich itself from public office via the Provoncial Growth Fund, the Prime Minister assured us that everything was OK as Shane Jones, the Minister responsible for the fund, had recused himself. Except it seems that that recusal came very late ...
Today is a Member's Day, and probably the last one of the year. After the marathon of the End of Life Choice Act, most of the bills up for debate today are uncontentious. First up is the second reading of Chlöe Swarbrick's Election Access Fund Bill. This will be followed ...
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has reported back on the government's odious and tyrannical control orders bill. As expected, the fraudulent select committee process has made no significant changes (partly because they couldn't agree, but mostly because it was a stitch-up from the start, with no intention of ...
Yesterday, the government released its draft Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill, which will be put to a non-binding referendum at the next election. I'm not a drug policy expert, but Russell Brown is, and he thinks its pretty good. And pretty obviously, it will be a massive improvement on the ...
As you're probably aware, the draft bill outlining the proposed legal cannabis regime to be put to a referendum late next year was published yesterday, and has already attracted a flurry of comment. It's notable that a good deal of the comment is about proposals that aren't actually new.A minimum ...
One of the big problems in New Zealand climate change policy is the government working at cross-purposes with itself. It wants to reduce fossil fuel use, but encourages oil and gas exploration. It wants to reduce transport emissions, but then builds enormous new roads. The problem could be avoided if ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzAccording to the United Nations, food shortages are a threat ...
Last year, the government announced it was ending offshore oil exploration by no longer issuing new permits. The idea was that the industry would then die off as permits expired. Except almost immediately the government revealed its bad faith, by saying they would extend permits and alter conditions to keep ...
The government introduced the Education and Training Bill to Parliament yesterday. Its a massive bill, which replaces both existing Education Acts, as well as various other bits of legislation (including some which are still proceeding through the House). I'll leave the serious analysis to teachers and people who actually know ...
Amelia SharmanThere’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to micro-credentials, those bits of bite-sized learning that can help workers stay on top of technological change. What’s a micro-credential? While definitions vary, micro-credentials can be understood as short courses that allow people to learn new skills or have an existing competency recognised. ...
All Smiles Now: Claire Szabo is taking up her presidential role after serving as the CEO of Habitat For Humanity. Which is absolutely perfect! After KiwiBuild was so comprehensively mismanaged by Phil Twyford, the party has not only elected a new president from a thoroughly respectable not-for-profit, but one who ...
While much of the NZ left has transitioned to postmodern and identity politics in relation to transgender ideology, there are some very good articles about that deploy Marxist methodology in relation to this subject. The one below is from the British marxist group Counterfire and appeared on their site here ...
by Daphna Whitmore At Golden Oaks, a luxurious country retreat in the Hudson Valley, pregnant women have the best care money can buy. From the organic food, personalised exercise programmes, private yoga instruction and daily massages Golden Oaks looks like a country lodge for the upper class. Set some time ...
When Labour was running for election in 2017, it felt it needed to demonstrate "fiscal responsibility" and signed itself up to masochistic "budget responsibility rules". It was a fool's errand: the sorts of voters who demand fiscal responsibility are also the sorts of voters who believe that labour can never ...
Writing in Stuff, Joel MacManus looks at what we need to do to meet the Zero Carbon Act's targets. The core of it:1. Convert 85 per cent of vehicles on the road to electric. 2. Eliminate fossil fuels from all industrial heating up to 300 degrees Celsius. 3. Double our ...
Professors Janet Hoek and Richard Edwards, Emeritus Professor Phil Gendall, Jude Ball, Dr Judith McCool, Anaru Waa, Dr Becky FreemanRecent media reports have presented conflicting evidence on youth vaping in NZ. While some NZ school principals report concerns about increasing vaping on school grounds and confiscating vapes, ASH Year ...
“America the Beautiful!”, staunch defender of democracy, freedom and… a whole lot of despotic tyrants that play nice with what is called “the Washington Consensus.” America is indeed capable of immense good, but like any Nation, and most assuredly any aspirant to the mantle of Empire, great, immense evil. All ...
Image credit:The beginner’s guide to blogging I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is ...
1080 is used to control pests in NZ. Its use is contested by a noisy few. A new report claims high levels of 1080 in rats washed up on a beach. Flora and Fauna of Aotearoa (F&F) won’t name the laboratory that did their testing. It has sparked a hunt ...
What Kind Of Empire? The thing for Kiwis to decide is what kind of empire they want to belong to. The kind that, while offering its own citizens democratic rights, demands absolute obedience from its “friends”? Or, the kind that, while authoritarian at home, takes a relaxed attitude to the ...
It hasn't been a good week for the Conservatives, pollwise. All major recent polls are showing their lead shrinking.Comparing each pollster's current (between 29/11 and 22/11) and previous most recent poll.Com Res - Conservative lead down 3 points.You Gov - Conservative lead down 1 point.Kantar - Conservative lead down 4 ...
Within quick succession, Countdown maths wizard and twitterer Rachel Riley, alleged comedian David Baddiel and prominent lawyer Andrew Julius have all expressed very similar opinions / ideas:
These #3billboards are going round London today, organised by ex-Labour people, horrified by what their party has become. Their principles haven’t changed, they’re ...
So, there have been a bunch of bad polls out for Labour, and even the Leftie's friend, Survation, have recently given the Conservatives a rip-snorting 11% lead. You Gov's much vaunted MRP poll - which pretty much nailed the result in 2015 - is currently predicting a comfortable majority for ...
The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to declare a climate emergency:The European parliament has declared a global “climate and environmental emergency” as it urged all EU countries to commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The vote came as scientists warned that the world may have already crossed ...
Pure Fear: Worse than Heroin, this drug’s addictive power was terrifying. People under its influence didn’t drift off to Elysium. Nor did it persuade inadequate individuals that they could conquer the world. No, this drug – pure crystal methamphetamine, “P” for short – unlocked the gates of Hell itself. It ...
As the rate of measles infection, and of deaths, continues to climb in Samoa, antivaccination activists infectious disease proponents seem intent on doubling down on their claims about vaccination. (Check pretty much any news-media FB post about measles & you’ll see exactly what I mean.) Unfortunately, some of them have ...
Samoa are experiencing a devastating measles epidemic. It is possible that 2-3% of the population will ultimately be infected by the time it is over. Hopefully the mass immunisation campaign currently under way can mitigate some of this, for many it is too late. The first question many people ask ...
Meghan Murphy is a Canadian writer and journalist She runs the Feminist Current website which she founded in 2012. She was a keynote speaker for the Feminism2020 conference in Wellington this month. When Massey University cancelled the original venue booking Feminism2020 was hosted in Parliament by MP David Seymour. Meghan ...
Text and photos by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Colombia has lived through one week of protests against the economic measures taken by president Duque. What looked like a protest that would fizzle out after its first day on November 21st is still going strong. Part of the reason for the continuance ...
Around a million billion pass through you each second, almost all originating from our sun, but few of them are likely to interact with you enroute. I was reading in a physics magazine earlier in the week about the nature of neutrinos. These are extremely numerous elementary particles, but only ...
By Pallab GhoshThere’s value in covering new research advances, even when the underlying science is unsettled. But there are also risks.The recent announcement that scientists discovered water on the planet K2-18b, 110 light years away, prompted a media swoon. News stories, including a piece written by me, billed ...
I wrote this review a couple of years ago when I was still in the process of getting my head around the politics of transgenderism, and specifically the claim that intersex conditions lend support to the notion that sex is ‘socially constructed’. Since writing this review I have come across ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzHow much does our use of air travel contribute to the ...
Minor planet/asteroid (2309) Mr. Spock is named not for the character in Star Trek, but for a cat that was itself imperturbable, logical, intelligent and had pointed ears. In a preceding blog post I introduced one of my favourite asteroids, (2472) Bradman, and also mentioned (6581) Sobers amongst a few ...
Today the death toll from measles in Samoa rose to 32. All but four of the dead were less than 5 years old. Absolutely terrible, heartbreaking, news. That statistic alone should be enough to give the lie to the common claim by antivaccination activists plague enthusiasts that “measles is a ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh It is late here in Bogotá, almost 11.30pm on Monday the 25th of November as I write this. The day began full of hope with yet more massive marches throughout the country, a mix of the International Day of Non-Violence Against Women and the National Strike. ...
Anti-fluoride activists are rubbing their hands in glee over what they claim is “yet another study” showing fluoride harms the brains of children. But their promotion relies on IQ relationships which the paper’s authors acknowledge disappearing when outliers or other factors are considered. And they completely ignore other relationships ...
The feature below is the conclusion of A History of Economic Thought, whose author was a leading Marxist economist in Russia in the early 20th century, Isaac Ilyich Rubin. The book arose from a course he ran at Moscow University following the Russian Revolution. First published in Russian in 1929, ...
There are many thousands of asteroids with formal names, some humdrum but other more noteworthy (depending on your predilections). One of my favourites, the name of which I was involved in suggesting, is (2472) Bradman, named for the Australian cricketing great. As a minor planet (synonym: asteroid) spotter, I have ...
Tory manifesto: big on austerity, low on promise, non-existent on delivery. The Tories: the party so big on ambition they couldn't be arsed writing a manifesto. MLK: "I have a dream!"BJ: "I'll just have a nap." Labour: Broadband!Tories: Narrow minds! Labour have hope, dreams and ambition. The Tories will save ...
The Ministry of Health has announced that “people under the age of 50 travelling from New Zealand to Samoa, Tonga, Philippines and Fiji” are now on the list of national priorities for MMR vaccination. Given the outbreaks of measles in Samoa, Tonga, Philippines and Fiji, the Ministry of Health is ...
Hong Kong has been protesting for six months for, demanding democracy, human rights, and an end to police violence. Today, they went to the polls in district council elections - a low-level of government with virtually no power, similar to community boards in New Zealand. But while the positions themselves ...
Text and photos by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh On Friday 22nd of November a curfew came into effect and troops were deployed on the streets, here in Bogota. It was the first time since September 1977 that a curfew had been imposed on the city. The decision was a cynical pre-planned ...
Meanwhile, while the government is planning to restore voting rights to prisoners, National is promising to turn our prisons into US-style slave-labour camps:The Opposition is proposing compulsory education, training or employment for prisoners who are serving sentences of two years or more. [...] On Sunday, National Party Leader Simon Bridges ...
Excerpts from Being and Being Bought, by Kajsa Ekis Ekman Spinifex Press, 2013. Ekman, a Swedish journalist and critic, brings together a Marxist and feminist analysis of prostitution and surrogacy in this groundbreaking book. This is the second part of a synopsis and brief commentary of the book by Daphna ...
Dalmeet Singh ChawlaIn 2008, psychologists proposed that when humans are shown an unfamiliar face, they judge it on two main dimensions: trustworthiness and physical strength. These form the basis of first impressions, which may help people make important social decisions, from who to vote for to how long a ...
Claas Kirchhelle, University of Oxford; Adam Roberts, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and Andrew Singer, Centre for Ecology & HydrologyAntibiotics are among the most important medicines known to humankind, but we are running out of this crucial resource. Decisive action is needed if we are to retain access to ...
Things That Make You Go - Hmmmm: “All right. Let me come at this another way. I’m guessing that what you’ve got in that box contains names, dates, bank account numbers – all the details you need to put Winston Peters and Jacinda Ardern squarely in the cross-hairs. So, the first ...
A new defence report has mapped out how New Zealand's soldiers will navigate rising seas, and a year after the Defence Force announced its need to prepare for climate change. In the “Responding to the Climate Crisis” report, the Force restates its operational plan and sets goals to tackle climate ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First spokesperson for Primary Industries, Mark Patterson, has called for awareness to be raised and more stringent biosecurity checks to be put in place for African Swine Fever (ASF), a widespread virus that is uncontrolled in most of Asia and a serious ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Human Rights A critical step has been taken to end gender based violence against women and girls in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for Human Rights Jenny Marcroft MP has welcomed the passing of the first reading of the Crimes (Definition of Female ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones says it's time to recognise market forces haven't led to the expected reduction in Māori smoking rates and try a new approach. The Party had recently invoked the agree to disagree clause in their Coalition Agreement with the Labour Party, and will not support ...
Live from the Whanganui Opera House, on the final day of the 2019 Labour Party Conference, Jacinda Ardern announced the largest investment in school property in 25 years. ...
The Coalition Government will be banning foreign donations to political parties and candidates, ahead of next year’s general elections. Legislation will be introduced to Parliament and passed under urgency – emphasising the need for such restrictions to safeguard our democracy. The bill introduces a new requirement that party secretaries and ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones opened Taipā's $19 million bridge recently, improving transport infrastructure in the Northland region. The two-lane bridge is 107m long with a 2.5m-wide shared walking and cycling path, and will reduce the congestion that the old one-lane bridge was notorious for. The project had also included ...
The Overseas Investment Office have rejected the application of Mercury Agriculture LP, which is 92 per cent controlled by Canadian interests, to purchase more than 2000 hectares of South Canterbury and Otago land. Mercury wanted to buy 2000ha at Rangitata, 1494ha near Ashburton, 816ha near Cromwell and 212ha near Temuka. ...
This weekend was Labour's 103rd Party Conference! We welcomed over 500 of our Labour whānau in red to Whanganui, where we reflected on the last two years in Government, and looked ahead to 2020 and beyond. We know the long-term challenges facing New Zealand won't be tackled overnight, but we're making ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced that the Provincial Growth Fund will invest $9.6 million to seal the final unsealed section of State Highway 43 from Stratford to Taumarunui. The Minister said sealing the 12-kilometre gravel section of the highway – also called the “Forgotten World Highway” - through ...
Former Finance Minister and former chair of the Tax Working Group, Sir Michael Cullen, has voiced his support for New Zealand First’s decision to oppose the planned increase in tobacco excise tax. In an interview with The Weekend Collective, he said that increasing the price was no longer effective in ...
Māori are natural storytellers. On the marae we use stories to tell our history, to teach the next generation life lessons and to let people know, in our most creative of ways, who we are and where we have come from. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First has invoked the ‘Agree to Disagree’ provisions of the Coalition Agreement because it cannot support the announced 11.46 percent increase in the tobacco excise from 1 January 2020. “Studies show that the automatic tobacco excise increases are having less effect ...
Taupō-based company Geo40 has made a breakthrough in extracting near battery-grade lithium from geothermal fluid which its says could be a gamechanger. Its chief executive John Worth said the earth mineral was highly prized, with battery-grade lithium selling for US$10,000 (NZ$15,600) a tonne. Geo40 was founded in 2010 to find ...
Crown research institute AgResearch Ltd, as part of its Future Footprint plan, had intended to relocate top scientists and support staff — particularly those focused on sheep genetics and genomics — from Invermay to Lincoln. However, those plans seem to have been shelved at the request of the Coalition Government. ...
Ten engineering firms in Southland are receiving a total of $2.13 million in Provincial Growth Fund funding to lift productivity and create new jobs. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced in Invercargill that the 10 engineering and manufacturing firms would receive funding to assist them with buying equipment that ...
The number of new residents to New Zealand is the lowest it has been in nearly two decades and it has earned the ire of the immigration industry. The industry alleges that 'Trump-style extreme vetting' is being put in place aimed at keeping a lid on immigration numbers. June Ranson, ...
The Royal New Zealand Air Force is one step closer to modernising its fleet after the United States State Department recently approved the sale of five new C-130J Hercules aircraft to New Zealand. Arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, in Fort Worth, Texas, will provide the aircraft, but as a "foreign military ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones wants to create a log barging facility at Hicks Bay and turn the area into a Special Economic Zone. The move would be part of protecting New Zealand's forests from being depleted by India and China, he said. It follows his announcement last week to strengthen ...
New Zealand First supports the changes recommended by the Winter Grazing Taskforce to improve animal welfare outcomes through the winter months, and the establishment of a pan-sector action group to implement them. New Zealand First Primary Industries Spokesperson Mark Patterson says the report highlights areas of concern about the animal ...
Former prime ministers Helen Clark and Sir John Key, formerly from the Labour and National parties respectively, have joined forces in support of New Zealand First’s plan to relocate Auckland's port to Whangārei. While Ms Clark and Sir John spent their political careers on opposite sides of the political divide, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is in Japan for the Foreign Ministers' meeting of the G20 grouping of countries as one of nine "invited" countries. He has used the opportunity to cast a spotlight on the plight of Pacific countries, calling out countries which still offered subsidies or Government assistance to ...
It's been a great week of progress: we've celebrated Children's Day, we've made communities safer with 1800 new police, and we've seen almost 90% of eligible schools take up Government funding to scrap school donations - taking pressure off the families of more than 416,000 students. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Forestry The Government will further strengthen New Zealand’s wood processing sector as part of our focus on ‘value over volume’ in our forestry industry, Forestry Minister Shane Jones says. Minister Jones will today meet with forestry representatives in Northland to signal new measures to help the ...
New Zealand First are celebrating the announcement of an investment of $3.5 million into five new trapping devices. These are a range of bait and trap devices, all designed to be left unattended for long periods of time. NZ First conservation spokesperson Jenny Marcroft says that this latest development will ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Police New Zealand First is proud to have delivered on a key Coalition Agreement commitment to adding 1800 new frontline police, with the graduation of Recruit Wing 332 in Porirua today. Law and Order Spokesperson Darroch Ball says increasing police numbers and boosting their resources was one ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Conservation New Zealand First is proud to announce the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) has allocated $3.5 million to develop innovative predator control approaches which will reduce the need for repeated 1080 use. $19.5 million of PGF funding was announced for Predator Free 2050 Limited in February ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has welcomed the first reading of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation 2021 (APEC 2021) Bill in Parliament today. The temporary bill supports New Zealand’s security preparations for hosting the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum ...
Clayton Mitchell, Spokesperson for Consumer Affairs The ‘wheel clamping’ Bill that will cap clamper fees to $100 passed its third readinginParliament today. New Zealand First welcomes The Land Transport (Wheel Clamping) Amendment Bill to combat predatory wheel clamping behaviour in what is currently a largely unregulated business. Cowboy clampers are: gouging ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its first reading in Parliament. “Today’s progress takes serious action on the mental health and addiction crisis the country is facing,” says New Zealand First Health Spokesperson Jenny Marcroft. “The re-establishment ...
The Government will fund the bulk of the cost of a rural water supply for the Ohakea community affected by PFAS contamination, Environment Minister David Parker announced today at a meeting of local residents. This new water scheme will provide a reliable and clean source of drinking water to the ...
I have had the opportunity to be briefed on the details of the volcanic eruption of Whakaari/White Island, off the coast of Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty. The eruption happened at 2.11pm today. It continues to be an evolving situation. We know that there were a number of tourists ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare have today confirmed initial Government support of $100,000 for communities affected by the severe weather that swept across the South Island and lower North Island over the weekend. The contribution will be made to Mayoral relief funds across the ...
New Zealand's High Commissioner to the Cook Islands, Tessa Temata, died in Palmerston North over the weekend, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said today. Ms Temata, 52, had recently returned to New Zealand for medical treatment. "On behalf of the Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, we extend ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today announced construction is underway on Wellington commuter rail upgrades which will mean more frequent services and fewer breakdowns. The upgrades include converting the Trentham to Upper Hutt single track section to a double track, with a new signalling system, upgraded stations and level crossings, and ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark and Minister for Climate Change James Shaw have announced the release of a Defence Climate Change Implementation Work Plan, titled Responding to the Climate Crisis: An Implementation Plan. The plan sets out a series of recommendations based on the 2018 New Zealand Defence Assessment, The ...
A medium-scale adverse event has been declared for the South Canterbury district, which will see up to $50,000 in funding made available to support farming communities which have been significantly affected by recent heavy rain and flooding in the area, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “Two weeks of solid rain ...
Thank you Professor Juliet Gerrard and your team for the comprehensive and extremely helpful report and recommendations. Thank you too to all the stakeholders and interested parties who have contributed ideas and thinking to it. “Making best practice, standard practice” is a great framework for change and the action plan ...
The Government will phase out more single-use plastics following the success of its single-use plastic bag ban earlier this year and the release today of a pivotal report for dealing with waste. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has welcomed the Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa New Zealandreport, released by her Chief Science Advisor ...
International education continues to thrive as the Government focuses on quality over quantity, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. The tuition revenue from international education increased to $1.16 billion last year with the average tuition fee per student increasing by $960. The total number of international students enrolled in New Zealand ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says new appointments to DHBs represent a significant changing of the guard, with 13 new chairs including four Māori chairs. Today 76 appointments have been announced to complement elected board members, as well as eight elected members appointed as either chair or deputy chair. Four ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Fletcher Tabuteau, is travelling to Germany, Poland, Austria, and Spain next week to bolster New Zealand’s political and trade relationships in Europe. While in Spain, Mr Tabuteau will represent New Zealand at the 14th Asia-Europe (ASEM) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Madrid. “New Zealand strongly supports ...
“I’ve spoken to Minister Faafoi, who has apologised for his poor handling of this issue,” Jacinda Ardern said. “I have confidence in Kris as a hardworking and effective Minister, but this should have been dealt with in a much clearer manner, and I’ve made my views on that very clear ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters met with Tongan Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa in Wellington today. The pair signed a Statement of Partnership setting out joint priorities for cooperation out to 2023. “We welcomed Prime Minister Tu'i'onetoa on his first visit to New Zealand as Prime Minister. Tonga ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash says his sympathies are with the family of a man who died after being shot by Police in Kurow. “Initial reports are that Police were called by a family member to help the man who was threatening to harm himself,” Mr Nash says. “However ...
Ethnic communities will be able to plan and deliver more community initiatives thanks to an increase in Government funding, Minister for Ethnic Communities Hon Jenny Salesa said today. “Ensuring Aotearoa New Zealand is a place we can all be proud to call home has been a key priority of our ...
Healthier waterways, better productivity and farmer wellbeing are front and centre in a new project involving more than 1000 Southland farmers and growers. Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor today announced that the Thriving Southland Change and Innovation Project is the first region-wide extension programme supported by the $229 million Sustainable ...
Work to look after nature and restore freshwater quality in Te Hoiere/Pelorus River catchment is getting a significant boost, thanks to new Government funding support Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage announced in Canvastown today. “Every New Zealander should be able to swim in their local river without getting sick, and ...
Eight Queen’s Counsel have been appointed under a process that includes the new criterion of a commitment to improving access to justice, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. “The new criterion was included this year. It emphasises that excellence and leadership in the profession can be seen through a wider, community ...
Onslow College in Wellington will get 20 new classrooms for more than 400 students, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. The much-needed investment will relieve growth pressure the school has been experiencing for some time. Seven existing classrooms which have deteriorated over time will also be replaced, bringing the total ...
More than 250 young New Zealanders will add international experience to their education, thanks to the latest Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia (PMSA) and Latin America (PMSLA), Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. This round of scholarships supports 252 recent graduates or current students to undertake study, research or internships ...
Consumers will benefit from a more competitive, transparent retail fuel market as a result of changes the Government will be making in response to the findings of the Commerce Commission’s study of the fuel sector. “We accept the Commission’s findings and, as the Prime Minister has said, we’re ready to ...
Five new cancer medicines have now been funded this year, meaning thousands of people have more treatment options PHARMAC has today announced that it has approved two new medicines for funding – fulvestrant for breast cancer and olaparib for ovarian cancer. This follows earlier decisions on advanced lung cancer treatment alectinib, ...
The Minister of Local Government, Hon Nanaia Mahuta says the Government will consider making changes to local electoral legislation before the 2022 elections to fix the problems that have arisen where elections are settled by a coin toss. The Minister says the recount process in the Murupara- Galatea ward at ...
New Zealand will sign up to new international maritime regulations to reduce ship emissions and lift air quality around ports and harbours, Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter announced today. Subject to completion of the Parliamentary treaty examination process, New Zealand will sign up to Annex VI of MARPOL, an ...
New legislation to transform our urban areas and create sustainable, inclusive and thriving communities will tomorrow be introduced to Parliament, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford said. “The Urban Development Bill gives Kāinga Ora-Homes and Communities the tools it needs to partner with councils, communities, mana whenua and private developers to ...
Today’s launch of He taonga te Tamaiti: Every child a taonga: The Early Learning Action Plan 2019-2029 provides the foundation for long-lasting changes to early learning, Education Minister Chris Hipkins says. “Early learning will be one of the Government’s top education priorities going into 2020,” Chris Hipkins said. ...
Major decisions made by the Government will now be considered under a climate change lens, Minister for Climate Change James Shaw announced today. “Cabinet routinely considers the effects of its decisions on human rights, the Treaty of Waitangi, rural communities, the disability community, and gender – now climate change will ...
Education Minister Chris Hipkins today announced the appointment of Māori education specialist Dr Wayne Ngata and Business NZ head Kirk Hope to the Board of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). Dr Alastair MacCormick has been reappointed for another term. “Wayne Ngata, Kirk Hope and Alastair MacCormick bring a great deal ...
The next phase of the Pike River Re-entry project is underway, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little says. “Fresh air will be pumped into the Pike River Mine drift this week, following acceptance of the plan for re-entry beyond the 170m barrier by New Zealand’s independent health and ...
New Zealand consumers will have greater certainty about their insurance cover when they need to make claims as a result of proposed government changes. “Insurance is vitally important in supporting consumers and businesses to be financially resilient when unexpected events happen,” Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Kris Faafoi said. ...
The Crown is providing an opportunity for the hapu of Ngāpuhi to rebuild its framework from the ground up for collective negotiations to deal with its historical Treaty claims, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little and Minister for Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The Crown is also ...
A Bill enabling referendums to be held with the 2020 General Election has passed its third reading. Justice Minister Andrew Little says the Act is important for upholding the integrity of New Zealand’s electoral process. “The Government has committed to holding a referendum on legalising recreational cannabis at the next ...
The first release of public information on the two referendums to be held at next year’s General Election was made today with an informative new Government website going live. Additionally, the draft Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill has been released, showing the strict controls on cannabis that will apply if ...
The Government is taking action to protect New Zealand from foreign interference in our elections by banning foreign donations to political parties and candidates, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Legislation will be introduced to Parliament this afternoon and passed under urgency. “There’s no need for anyone other than New ...
Governments and tech companies are holding a two-day workshop, hosted by YouTube/Google in Wellington, to test the Christchurch Call Shared Crisis Response Protocol. The workshop aims to refine and strengthen the response in the event of a terrorist attack with online implications. Companies, governments, civil society experts and NGOs will ...
The new independent Cancer Control Agency has formally opened today, delivering on the Government’s plan to improve cancer care in New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister of Health David Clark marked the occasion by announcing the membership of the Advisory Council that will be supporting ...
Small businesses who deal with government departments are set to be paid faster and have improved cash flow as a result, under a new strategy released today. The Government is backing recommendations from the Small Business Council (SBC) and has agreed to implement three initiatives immediately to support business and ...
The Education and Training Bill 2019, introduced in Parliament today, proposes the biggest education changes in decades and is an important step towards improving success for all our learners, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. “The Bill’s rewrite of education legislation is long overdue. Indeed one Education Act, parts of which ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio will travel to Bali to represent New Zealand at the 12th Bali Democracy Forum that will be held on the 5-6 December. “The Forum is a valuable opportunity for Asia-Pacific countries to share experiences and best practice in building home-grown democracy and fostering ...
We don’t normally see these eruptions coming, no matter how much we would like to. Many systems are already ‘primed’ for such events, but the triggers are poorly understood, writes Shane Cronin of the University of Auckland.As of Monday night five people have been confirmed dead, 18 had been rescued ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shane Cronin, Professor of Earth Sciences, University of Auckland Five people have been confirmed dead, 23 have been rescued and several remain unaccounted for after a sudden volcanic eruption on Whakaari/White Island off the east coast of New Zealand. The island is ...
One person is dead, 23 have been rescued and potentially two dozen people are unaccounted for on Whakaari/White Island, after it erupted on Monday. ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters are to be commended for their leadership on the Upper North Island port issue, Waterfront 2029 Spokesperson Michael Goldwater said today. The Prime Minister today announced that ...
In partnership with the JR McKenzie Trust and University of Otago, Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft has today released the annual Child Poverty Monitor at childpoverty.org.nz which shows more bold and sustainable action is needed. ...
Today’s child poverty figures , revealing that nearly 150,000 children are living in material hardship in New Zealand, show the need for tax relief says the Taxpayers’ Union . ...
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) welcomes the 2019 Child Poverty Monitor report , and says more can be done to help families who have need of welfare assistance. ...
A rescue operation is under way on Whakaari/White Island in the Bay of Plenty, with reports of up to 20 people injured, some critical.What’s going on?Whakaari/White Island, New Zealand’s most active cone volcano, located 48km off the eastern coast of the Bay of Plenty, is erupting. Large plumes of steam ...
Auckland bus operators are enraged at the inconvenience to passengers affected by continued bus driver strike action. Even those operators not directly affected by strikes are appalled at the behaviour of First Union and Tramways Union and their ...
The publication of the Child Poverty Monitor 2019, released today, is a reminder of the need to accelerate efforts to lift our children / tamariki out of poverty. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniela Kaleva, Associate Head Research and Scholarship, Australian Institute of Music Review: Farnace, composed by Vivaldi, Pinchgut Opera When a performance of Farnace was cancelled at the theatre of Ferrara after the artistic failure of Vivaldi’s opera Siroe re di Persia in ...
OPINION: In the fifth part of the series with our partners at Flick Electric Co to help you make better energy choices, Flick’s Nikki Cockburn breaks down the sources of our electricity.So we know that regardless of which power company we’re with, the electricity we use is at the mercy ...
The recent accident near Kaikoura, where two Malaysian children and their parents were killed in a head-on collision with a truck, was easily preventable, says the car review website dogandlemon.com . ...
Former Auditor-General Martin Matthews is petitioning Parliament to reopen his case, claiming MPs "held a gun to his head" to force his resignation. ...
Auckland Council recently announced a citywide food scrap collection scheme that will be kicking off in 2021. Most of us already know the main gist of composting, but what’s happening to this waste? What will I have to pay? And can I opt out if I don’t need it?New Zealanders ...
Central and local government, including Auckland Council, have been debating the future of the Ports of Auckland but there seems to be something missing in the debate - how much more greenhouse gases will Aotearoa emit if we move the port from the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Humphery-Jenner, Associate Professor of Finance, UNSW Westpac can expect a bumper turnout of shareholders at its annual general meeting in Sydney on Thursday, many of them angry at its alleged role in facilitating child exploitation in the Philippines, its 23 million ...
More than a billion dollars has wiped off the value of New Zealand's biggest company this morning following the surprise resignation of A2 Milk's chief executive. ...
Cindy Baxter is at COP25 – her 17th climate change conference – and for the first time, New Zealand is one of the good guys. But are we?As we head into the second week of the climate talks in Madrid, I’ve been reflecting over the first week, and the strange ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David King, Senior Lecturer, The University of Queensland Growing up, no one ever gave me the rundown on how or what I should do to keep my penis clean […] I’ve never read any reliable answer beyond washing it with water. ...
You’ve probably never heard of him, but an artist called Cavetown is coming to Auckland in January for a show that’s already sold out. We explain where he came from, how this happened, and why you should be listening.What, pray tell, is a Cavetown?Cavetown is the stage name of Robin ...
Three glaze recipes to take your festive feast from ho-hum to ham-azing.In the middle of November, my aunt suggested in our family WhatsApp group that Christmas lunch should go meat-free in acknowledgement of climate change. I froze at my desk where I’d taken a moment to procrastinate. While I support ...
The Climate Change Minister James Shaw says he is hopeful the final hurdles can be cleared for fixing the final rules of Paris Agreement before it kicks in next year. ...
"Youllbefine, Rockmaster, Cossack Warrior and now Valtteri are the four horses who have been killed on New Zealand race tracks in just three weeks" said Frances Baker, Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR) spokesperson. ...
Former finance minister Steve Joyce says an NBR journalist told him its columnist Matthew Hooton had ‘gone completely troppo’ in a column about to be published by the business website about the MP. ...
A truly ambitious solution would keep jobs in Southland, delivering on the promise of the Zero Carbon Act to make NZ all but carbon neutral by 2050, writes Nicola Gaston in a post co-authored with Sally Brooker, Justin Hodgkiss and David Williams of The MacDiarmid Institute.Tiwai Point is in the ...
The housing market is heating up ahead of the holidays, with positive signs of growth, according to ASB's latest quarterly housing confidence survey. ...
The New Zealand Maori Council has called the latest childhood poverty statistics released by the Children’s Commissioner as appalling for a first world nation and has called upon the Government to do more. Matthew Tukaki, the Councils Executive ...
The next phase in the Democrats’ plan to impeach US President Donald Trump begins at 9am Monday morning Washington DC when the House judiciary committee meets to consider a report from the intelligence committee – and hear academic argument on the way forward. The judiciary committee is expected to draft ...
It’s been a Sunday morning staple for Kiwi kids for decades, but What Now may be facing new challenges in the era of social media. New Zealand children’s show What Now has utilised many different ways of engaging with its young audience over the past 38 years. Whether it was getting ...
New Zealand Police has taken delivery of three Armoured Special Purpose Vehicles. The vehicles are unmarked and look like standard Toyota Land cruisers. ...
Polystyrene meat trays, cups and takeaway food containers are the next targets in the battle to phase out single-use plastics, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced. ...
All workers contracted by InterGroup to carry out street cleaning and litter control for Hutt City Council are now receiving the living wage as a minimum. ...
Kris Faafoi apologises to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, does not offer to resign; and Government moves to ban plastic fruit stickers, cutlery, and cotton buds. ...
We may be called fuckwits. We may be called idiots. But the optimism keeps on, writes Chris Cessford.As spring lurches into summer, Wellington wakes up to another day of a crazy-making gusty northerly gale. Or, as we cyclists in the southern suburbs call it, a head wind.I fasten my helmet ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Kewley, Director, ARC Centre for Excellence in All-Sky Astrophysics in 3D, Australian National University Australian astronomy punches well above its weight, in terms of the research it leads and the facilities it houses. We have made remarkable discoveries in the past ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vicki Lowik, PhD candidate, CQUniversity Australia This article is the first in a series exploring gender and Christianity. Jane* was a member of Australia’s evangelical Christian community, and throughout her marriage she heard many sermons on honouring a husband’s authority. These sermons ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yousuf Mohammed, Dermatology researcher, The University of Queensland If you’ve ever Googled the causes of a skin complaint or damaged hair, chances are someone on the internet has pointed the finger at SLS, or sodium lauryl (or laureth) sulfate, a common ingredient ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Nelson, Associate Professor of Economics, Griffith University Household electricity bills in Australia have increased sharply in the past decade. But new official figures show they are projected to fall markedly – in some cases by 20%. In-house modelling we conducted at ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, Grattan Institute Education news in Australia last week was dominated by Australia’s worst ever showing in the OECD’s PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) tests. The mathematical literacy of our students has fallen to the OECD ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Davies, PhD Candidate, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University This is the first article in a series to mark the 50th anniversary of the landmark Melbourne Transportation Plan. —- The 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan was perhaps the most influential planning policy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Backhouse, Research Fellow, Learning Environments Applied Research Network (LEaRN), University of Melbourne Public libraries embody the values of democracy by offering free access to knowledge. But the role of contemporary public libraries extends far beyond access to books. Libraries are places ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Long term consequences from heavy weekend weather, hospitality giant apologises for many mishandled complaints, and Auckland traffic chaos looms.There will be long term consequences from the weather that hammered the country over the weekend. Chief among them is a massive slip ...
A new report from the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Adviser envisages a future with much less plastic, all of it recycled or dealt with responsibly within New Zealand borders. ...
America's Cup defenders Emirates Team New Zealand have done things differently by building their own boats for the first time, and so far, it's paying off ...
Liam Hehir makes a plea to education minister Chris Hipkins not to discriminate against integrated schools when it comes to school funding.The government’s announcement of a big maintenance funding boost for schools was greetedwarmly by many principals, teachers and parents. Excluded ...
In the wake of the OFLC report Breaking Down Porn, an academic studying the gendered influence of pornography urges people not to panic, but to be aware of when – and why – pornography becomes problematic.Contemporary pornography is immensely popular, accessible and mostly free via pornographic ‘tube’ sites such as ...
Sustainable New Zealand Welcomes the Government’s Announcement on Phasing Out Waste But Wants to See More Action on Building and Construction Waste ...
Our Seas Our Future welcomes Prime Minister Jacinda Arden’s announcement that the Government is aiming to phase out another round of single-use hard plastics, made of PVC and Polystyrene. ...
The Fraudster exposes the life and crimes of a million dollar conwoman Award-winning investigative team Stuff Circuit’s latest documentary exposes the cautionary tale of a woman who ripped off New Zealand businesses and government agencies, and a justice ...
Press Release 8 December 2019 Auckland, 8 December 2019 : The Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, Professor Juliet Gerrard, presented the 262-page report on ‘Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand’ to the Prime Minister on Sunday ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Cabinet should make a policy decision tomorrow that Auckland’s car and container port must close by 31 December 2029, Waterfront 2029 Spokesperson Michael Goldwater said today. ...
In light of increasing public concern over the harmful effects of plastic pollution, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, Professor Juliet Gerrard, is presenting the Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand report to the Prime Minister on Sunday ...
The government will start phasing out polystyrene packaging and beverage containers in response to a major new report calling for a nationwide rethink on plastics in New Zealand, PM Jacinda Ardern announced today. Here’s what you need to know about the announcement, and the Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa report.For much ...
Open Mike 25/09/2016 
Open mike is your post.
by Daphna Whitmore Last week France passed a law that equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. It is based on a definition of anti-Semitism that includes criticism of Israel such as: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist ...12 hours ago
Over the past year we've seen major bus problems in Hamilton and Wellington, as drivers have sought better wages and an end to the bullshit of split shifts, which basicly see them "married to the job". And now its Auckland's turn. When NZBus's drivers planned low-level strike action of not ...13 hours ago
The state of the United Kingdom is fractured, torn up, shredded. The Empire is gone, it died a long time ago. And yet, the country is still tracking with a lead in favour of the ones who play to the ingrained, class-bound division for political gain. It is a disgrace ...2 days ago
On 27 September, Greta Thunberg addressed a crowd of 500,000 at the School Strike for Climate in Montreal, saying: “You are a nation that is allegedly a climate leader. And Sweden is also a nation that is allegedly a climate leader. And in both cases, it means absolutely nothing. Because ...2 days ago
It should be obvious by now but let’s be clear: The same folk who regularly traffic in disinformation, misinformation and “fake news” are also those who most strongly claim that their freedom of expression rights are being violated when moves are made to curb hate speech (as opposed to protected ...2 days ago
New Zealand's Underarm Banker: It bears recalling that the “independence” of the Reserve Bank Governor was for decades held up by neoliberal capitalists as the most compelling justification for passing the Reserve Bank Act. Interesting, is it not, how the ruling class’s support for the Bank’s independence lasted no longer than ...4 days ago
“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.” ― Martin Luther King Jr. A long and bitter court feud between former Conservative Party leader Colin Craig and Jordan Williams has been settled, with an apology and compensation from Williams. On Tuesday, Craig sent out ...4 days ago
Some people seem to want to close down any critical discussion of the current research into the relationship between water fluoride and child IQ. They appear to argue that claims made by researchers should not be open to critical review and that the claims be accepted without proper consideration ...4 days ago
In an unreliable, strange and confusing world, Public Address is proud to present a measure of comfort and stability by annually asking everyone what words or phrases sum up the year that's been – and then giving some of them consumer goods as prizes for being clever or simply lucky.Well, ...5 days ago
While much of the NZ left has transitioned to postmodern and identity politics in relation to transgender ideology, there are some very good articles about that deploy Marxist methodology in relation to this subject. The one below is from the British marxist group Counterfire and appeared on their site here ...1 week ago
“America the Beautiful!”, staunch defender of democracy, freedom and… a whole lot of despotic tyrants that play nice with what is called “the Washington Consensus.” America is indeed capable of immense good, but like any Nation, and most assuredly any aspirant to the mantle of Empire, great, immense evil. All ...1 week ago
Image credit: The beginner’s guide to blogging I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is ... 1 week ago
It hasn't been a good week for the Conservatives, pollwise. All major recent polls are showing their lead shrinking.Comparing each pollster's current (between 29/11 and 22/11) and previous most recent poll.Com Res - Conservative lead down 3 points.You Gov - Conservative lead down 1 point.Kantar - Conservative lead down 4 ...1 week ago
A new defence report has mapped out how New Zealand's soldiers will navigate rising seas, and a year after the Defence Force announced its need to prepare for climate change. In the “Responding to the Climate Crisis” report, the Force restates its operational plan and sets goals to tackle climate ...17 hours ago
Live from the Whanganui Opera House, on the final day of the 2019 Labour Party Conference, Jacinda Ardern announced the largest investment in school property in 25 years. ...7 days ago
The Government will fund the bulk of the cost of a rural water supply for the Ohakea community affected by PFAS contamination, Environment Minister David Parker announced today at a meeting of local residents. This new water scheme will provide a reliable and clean source of drinking water to the ...9 hours ago
We don’t normally see these eruptions coming, no matter how much we would like to. Many systems are already ‘primed’ for such events, but the triggers are poorly understood, writes Shane Cronin of the University of Auckland.As of Monday night five people have been confirmed dead, 18 had been rescued ...3 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shane Cronin, Professor of Earth Sciences, University of Auckland Five people have been confirmed dead, 23 have been rescued and several remain unaccounted for after a sudden volcanic eruption on Whakaari/White Island off the east coast of New Zealand. The island is ...6 hours ago
Ports of Auckland needs to control and run its port operations if it moves to Northport, just as it does now in Auckland. ...7 hours ago
One person is dead, 23 have been rescued and potentially two dozen people are unaccounted for on Whakaari/White Island, after it erupted on Monday. ...8 hours ago
Official advice may not be so hot on moving the port, Shane Jones says. ...9 hours ago
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters are to be commended for their leadership on the Upper North Island port issue, Waterfront 2029 Spokesperson Michael Goldwater said today. The Prime Minister today announced that ...11 hours ago
The European Central Bank’s activism on climate change is leading it into uncharted territory. ...12 hours ago
Former Auditor-General Martin Matthews is petitioning Parliament to reopen his case, claiming MPs "held a gun to his head" to force his resignation. ...13 hours ago
More than a billion dollars has wiped off the value of New Zealand's biggest company this morning following the surprise resignation of A2 Milk's chief executive. ...14 hours ago
The Climate Change Minister James Shaw says he is hopeful the final hurdles can be cleared for fixing the final rules of Paris Agreement before it kicks in next year. ...16 hours ago
Former finance minister Steve Joyce says an NBR journalist told him its columnist Matthew Hooton had ‘gone completely troppo’ in a column about to be published by the business website about the MP. ...16 hours ago
The housing market is heating up ahead of the holidays, with positive signs of growth, according to ASB's latest quarterly housing confidence survey. ...17 hours ago
The next phase in the Democrats’ plan to impeach US President Donald Trump begins at 9am Monday morning Washington DC when the House judiciary committee meets to consider a report from the intelligence committee – and hear academic argument on the way forward. The judiciary committee is expected to draft ...18 hours ago
Polystyrene meat trays, cups and takeaway food containers are the next targets in the battle to phase out single-use plastics, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced. ...19 hours ago
Kris Faafoi apologises to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, does not offer to resign; and Government moves to ban plastic fruit stickers, cutlery, and cotton buds. ...19 hours ago
The long-awaited and much-delayed Parliamentary report into the 2017 general election is expected to be published in the coming days. ...19 hours ago
A new report from the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Adviser envisages a future with much less plastic, all of it recycled or dealt with responsibly within New Zealand borders. ...23 hours ago
Just three months into her comeback from knee surgery, Bronwyn Dibb jumps to silver at the world trampoline championships ...23 hours ago
America's Cup defenders Emirates Team New Zealand have done things differently by building their own boats for the first time, and so far, it's paying off ...23 hours ago
Every day, City Mission employee Helen Robinson sees the depth of poverty in Auckland. But at no time is that more visible than at Christmas. ...23 hours ago
Debt is deep in the heart of our heart and our society, but we have an odd relationship with it. Bernard Hickey asks why we both love and fear it. ...23 hours ago
Cancer treatment could be in for a paradigm shift with genomic profiling opening the door to personalised tumour therapy. ...23 hours ago
With penguins dropping of the perch left, right and centre, Dunedin ranger Ben Goldsworthy must step up the search-and-rescue effort. ...23 hours ago
Whatever political party we support, we either respect human rights or we don’t, writes Dr Jonathan Barrett of Victoria University of Wellington. ...23 hours ago
The Islamic Women’s Council spent five years trying to get their concerns heard. David Williams tells their story ...23 hours ago
When should we start getting worried when our volcanic fields start heating up? ...24 hours ago
Watched ShonKey try very hard to explain his security council mtg, just did his yeah, nah, she’ll be right mate. He’s really good at filling up airtime with nothing but blah blah.
JEZ HE DID! Despite a purge that prevented a quarter of Labour supporters from voting.
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/09/24/jez-despite-purge-prevented-quarter-labour-supporters-voting/
Hokio Stream has become ‘an open sewer’ after years of polluting
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/84576646/hokio-stream-has-become-an-open-sewer-after-years-of-polluting
Coming our way with the National government – having to compete with multinationals to buy our own water…
“A small town in Ontario, Canada, has prompted fresh scrutiny of the bottled-water industry after its attempt secure a long-term water supply through the purchase of a well was outbid by the food and drinks multinational Nestlé.
When authorities in Centre Wellington, population of about 30,000, learned that Nestlé had put a bid on a spring water well in their region, they scrambled over the summer to counter with a competing bid. The goal was to safeguard a water supply for the township’s fast-growing population, Kelly Linton, the mayor, told the Guardian. “By 2041, we’ll be closer to 50,000 so protecting our water sources is critical to us.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/24/canada-nestle-water-well-bid-centre-wellington
That is what will happen if the government brings in tradeable water rights.
wtf. Farmer groups want to be able to use wayer, gm, etc, to make money, it does not matter other frmers aquifers dry up, or gm escapes, as long as the corp farmer can make profit oblivious of effects… ..just like shitty rivers.
why would any farmer lobby argue for gm and against regional efforts to grow value? Is the farming lobby a talk fest for big corp?
This is already happening in the north, unfortunately.
A small iwi is battling the Northland Regional Council to retain its long-held rights in the Poroti Springs which the NRC is busily selling off water rights to overseas companies – including Nestles which has been looking at Poroti Springs too. I’m not sure how far along Nestles has got with its resource consent application to withdraw water from the Springs.
Shocking Jenny Kirk!
There is the Freshwater site set up by Forest and Bird. Maybe it could be expanded to be an advocacy site for local water rights as so many are being hawked off by the National government and clueless councils around the country.
https://web.facebook.com/groups/freshwater111/?_rdr
there is a bottling plant taking the best aquifer water in the havlock north/ napier area for bottling will the locals drink shit.
@b waghorn – name and shame. There has already been a case in the US where the judge ruled, water is not a human right. NZ needs to get active to nip water selloffs in the bud before there is no drinkable water left. It’s no coincidence corporates are buying up water. Everyone needs water – very profitable – especially when sold so cheaply in NZ with the help of the cronies.
http://nzmiracle.com/en_US/
http://onepure.co.nz/our-mineral-water/
It would appear there is two of them.
Food for thought (I think some of it applies across the spectrum).
Some of that may be a bit on the nose but it is generally quite close to the mark. If you react badly to that you may well be proving Rodney’s point.
If the left want to attract more support they need to look more attractive.
Rodney Hide is not someone whose views are worth listening to.
The left now suffer from closed minds and moral smugness. They are moribund and backward-looking.
They run from ideas. Opposing philosophies distress them.
Top of the article Paul.
I would not call what comes from Hide’s brains ideas.
+1
Nor would I confuse laughing at his dated drivel with ‘distress’.
+1
We are reading them Paul …. anyway much of what he wrote applies to those on the right … the signs of “true beleivers” including religious devotees. 🙂
Rodney Hides opinion? Fuck off.
I have just read through yesterdays Open Mike…. wow. Well done all the contributors , esp CV and Paul and Adrian, for ably fending off the narrow minded, ignorant defenders of ‘ pax Americana ‘ or , to put it more bluntly, those who are basically backing Zionism.
For me all the hypocrisy of the USA can be summed up in one word….. Vietnam.
Yes, we can really listen to Rodney – ACT last election getting less than 1% of votes. Bit like at the amount of voters who actually take ACT seriously and soon to be the amount of people who take the Herald seriously.
Even die hard Natz supporters know that Granny is not really a news organisation anymore and you can’t trust news from Granny – sponsor-an-article cum crony-alert-reporting style. Have MR less than 1% Hide as a commentator just reinforces their dying readership.
The left will not get support from the right – they would be fools to look for it.
+1
But we do need to point out their delusional ideology and how it fails the nation.
Yep – and revolutionary as the idea might seem to the likes of Pete George, a country with 300 000 children in poverty and an entire generation consigned to homelessness has no particular need to slide further to the right. It has significant and pressing pragmatic problems that paying lip service to the bloody idols of neoliberalism will not address.
Labour will have the first affordable $600,000 homes ready by 2019. So the Aucklanders priced out of the housing market today only need to put their lives on hold until then.
(By which time the prices of the “affordable” homes will be more like $700,000).
It is of course optimistic, but the hope is that when they get their paws on the reins of power they will begin to govern, part of which will necessarily include addressing such problems. Better that they have a local Corbynist lobby to encourage them probably, or a community housing initiative to show them the way.
What are their plans with these “reins of power”?
How are they going to “address such problems”?
Labour have now had 8 years cooling their heels in Opposition. What have they come up with in that time that we can look forward to?
One of the outcomes of the last election for Labour was to notice that the Gnats produced no policy. The Gnats have no intention of being lampooned in public for their gross dishonesty and manifest stupidity. This is a lesson Labour has learned. We will only see a general picture of what they might do – but if you want genuine growth and reform that will need to come from a community base. Produce a working model & Labour might be very happy to fund and proliferate it. But thus far it doesn’t seem to be how they choose to fight their corner.
Labour has been facing off against the National tories since the 1930s.
You can’t tell me that they’ve only just figured out how Tories think.
The Tories changed their presentation. Under Bill English they represented themselves honestly as the crooked and unambiguously backward set of chumps they actually are. Key brought in the Crosby Textor thing – and the MSM decided they could embrace bias without any proximate prospect of comeuppance. Now the media are locked in – they will be reformed when the Gnats leave power and they know it.
We on The Standard can figure this shit out way fucking faster than the Labour caucus.
A Labour Govt is going to do fuck all “reform” to the MSM.
Nevertheless a strong press is believed to be one of the pillars of a healthy democracy – and I think we are feeling the lack. But yes, the LP isn’t setting speed records. Partly this is that feature of organisations that they grow to do the opposite of what they were established for. This is where a large activist membership is supposed to apply corrective feedback.
There are some curiosities in reform movements in that they require a receptive environment to develop new ideas – an incubator or as the trolls would have it an echo chamber. The Beijing student uprising resembled nothing so much as a magnetron – the ring of university campuses acting as the circulating amplifying chambers feeding the centre.
If you react badly to that you may well be proving Rodney’s point.
Pete George is moribund and backward-looking. He suffers from a closed mind and moral smugness. He runs from ideas and opposing philosophies distress him.
If he reacts badly to that he may well be proving my point.
He fills Twitter and blogs with [his] righteousness and smugness, puffed up by [his] own perceived moral and intellectual superiority.
OMG this is a great game, PM!
Yeah this Pete and George team are even worse than the Thatcher loving Gilbert and George!
+1 PM
Perhaps the Herald only publishes Hide’s silliness for amusement, not real political analysis
@ Rodney Hide rubbish on the Left…”They run from ideas” ….compared with this do-nothing regime…LOL.
Call me closed minded if you like but I never ever ever ever read Hypocrite Hide.
Or you just think Perky is a waste of skin.
The good thing about Rodders is. He’s full of shit and everyone knows it.
Aucklander’s want his testicles danglin from the sky tower in recognition of his superb super city idea.
I imaging stepping out in public is wonderful for him. Wondering if someone will dent his face.
As for the article. It’s actually a reflection of their own closed minds, they(people like him) think everyone else is behaving like they do themselves.
Rodney telling the left they have closed minds is more so outrageous that it will click bait people into A reading his article,. B push up ratings at the Herald which thankfully is diving like a Stuka!
I used to read the Herald, now it’s a third rate click bait celebrity mag. They lost the plot. If the Herald doesn’t turn it around soon it’ll be gone.
Sacking Rodney and actually reporting news would help.
Hide’s idea is basically there is no alternative to neo-liberalism.
I think he’s also a climate denier.
So we should be listening to this git.
Ha ha.
Yep, pure bloody projection and we see it from the RWNJs all the time as they use their own actions to justify keeping things the way they are and even to make things worse instead of making things better.
“Willem Wiskerke, a spokesman for Greenpeace Netherlands said: “He is a climate denier like Donald Trump, nothing more, nothing less, a rightwing, fact-free populist who denies the climate crisis and will not put any effort into solving it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/23/dutch-parliament-votes-to-close-down-countrys-coal-industry
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/23/existing-coal-oil-and-gas-fields-will-blow-carbon-budget-study
meanwhile…..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/84445709/large-area-off-canterbury-coast-proposed-for-oil-exploration
“You will like me very much” – the Don to fossil fuel execs:
“The same day as a new report highlighted the carbon emissions calamity that would accompany new fossil fuel extraction, Donald Trump promised an audience of fossil fuel executives that is the very agenda he would pursue if elected to the White House.
” “Oh, you will like me so much,” the Republican presidential candidate said in his address to the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
“He promised to lift regulations, open up more federal lands for fossil fuel extraction—including coal and fracking—and ease the way for new fossil fuel infrastructure projects including pipelines.
” Trump said he would get rid of “all unnecessary regulations, and [place] a temporary moratorium on new regulations not compelled by Congress or public safety.” He also called anti-coal regulations “unfair to our people and our workers.” ” http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/23/trump-fossil-fuel-execs-you-will-me-so-much
From your Stuff link:
“A large chunk of Canterbury’s coast will again be offered up for oil and gas exploration, under a Government proposal described as “lunacy” by Christchurch’s deputy mayor.
“The Government wants to set aside nearly 300,000 square kilometres of New Zealand’s east coast for oil and gas companies as part of its 2017 block offer.
“The annual block offer allows companies to compete for exploration permits.
“This year’s proposed offer would open up the largest area near Canterbury yet.
“It includes a space near the Banks Peninsula Marine Mammal Reserve, home to the endangered Hector’s dolphin.”
“Last year’s offer was deeply unpopular with the Christchurch City Council and environmental groups.
“They argued that deep-sea drilling could threaten the region with a catastrophic oil spill for little economic gain.”
why encourage further investment and reliance on near term stranded assets……unless you don’t believe those assets will be stranded.
Is it even “investment” – in the truest sense of the word. Surely it is exploitation.
or fraud even….unless you don’t believe in CC.
and another generation of colonisation, as well as exploitation Manuka AOR.
Is there a way to end it?
If they struck oil there the economic gain would be out of this world.
If there was a big earthquake there, their could possibly be an out of this world catastrophe.
It’s just business to National we need energy we buy oil in, it would save us money and make money and jobs,. pure business.
You cannot change nature.
@Pat – Hides not even a populist. No one ever voted for him.
Rodney’s piece has no bearing on my post..though I do agree he is unlikely to ever be described as populist (nor popular)
Epsom 2005:
– Rodney Hide 21,102
– Richard Worth (National) 8,220
– Kate Sutton (Labour) 5,112
– Keith Locke *Greens) 2,787
New Plymouth 2014
– Jonathan Young (National) 21,566
– Andrew Little (Labour) 11,788
Young is ranked 38th in National’s caucus.
“Under Hide’s leadership, the vote in the September 2005 elections severely reduced ACT’s party parliamentary representation. ACT’s share of the party vote dropped from over 7% of the total in 2002 to around 1.5%; its representation in Parliament fell from nine MPs to two. Despite this reduction, the party remained in parliament due to Hide winning the Epsom seat. As a consequence of its reduced share of the vote, ACT received a significant cut in taxpayer-funded Parliamentary resourcing and Hide shifted his electorate office in Remuera to Newmarket, the same location as that of ACT’s head office”
wiki
Thanks Rodney
now that Rodney’s (and by extension, ACT’s) popularity/support has been bought up it occurs to me if you want to measure the publics appetite for neoliberal theory you only need to examine the level of support for ACT, which I believe peaked at around 7% and now languishes within the MoE
It is quite amazing that ACT got 7% as we always beleived that there were only 5% intelligent enough to vote ACT. Now some 4% are looking elsewhere …. NZF ?
Sorry that is trolling but I couldn’t resist 🙂
Explain what your getting at Pete please.
I feel a correction coming on if your trying to tell me Rodney won that against National on his popularity alone.
As for Andrew, yeah well, never been NP, wouldn’t have a clue to judge that result.
I was showing that ‘save nz’ is wrong, Hide has had many people voting for him in an electorate, especially when compared to Little.
I said nothing about ‘his popularity alone’, it was more complex than that but Hide worked hard in Epsom. I don’t think anyone gets all their votes on popularity alone.
In 2008 ACT got 85,496 votes, that had little to do with National and quite a lot to do with Hide’s efforts.
Striding victoriously over Savenz’s use of a colloquial euphemism, don’t get altitude sickness.
@Peter George – save the spin. We all know that they were National voters told to vote for him to prop up the Natz. Not many people would willingly vote for Hide. He’s a joke, as is his ideology.
You’re claiming that 78% of Epsom voters acted under instruction from National. Confirmation your comment wasn’t ‘a colloquial euphemism’, you were making thing things up.
I am sure the Labour Party should be taking its advice form Tories.
I like the way Kate Sutton still pulled in 5k of votes in Epsom, in bloody Epsom! Go Kate!
National and Rodney/Act must have really ignored their constituents or been talking to much shit for that to happen.
In the old Newspaper days letters to the editor would have curtailed them from posting to much of fringe politicians crap like Rodney.
The complaints and stinging letters he received would have told him that. The editors letters would have also put the dickhead back where he belongs, talking fringe politics to nutters in a mental health ward.
Take this little fact in, someone born since 1980 doesn’t know truth or proper politics like us older people. They have never heard dissention. They have never seen proper protests(springboks tour someone born 1980 ain’t going to remember) They don’t know what unions can do, all they know is wall street, greed is good, consumerism and having the latest phone and trainers is important.
” talking fringe politics to nutters in a mental health ward.”
By this I assume you mean the way a senile old fool like Geoffrey Palmer on his ideas for a written Constitution?
Now there is someone who really should be ignored.
alwyn the list of people who enter representative politics with completely the wrong mental attitude, and who have not been scarred in some way by their nurture is tiny. Most of them who seek the halls of power, do it for fame, and ego.
It’s the one field I think psychological evaluation should be completed on, that is anyone seeking public office. IMHO.
Start with John Key, and many questions about his mum, and how long he breast fed for. Did he find it comforting gently pulling her hair whilst he was feeding on the nipple at 10, or did he think it felt a little strange at that age.
🙂
That’s what the media tells us, Richard Rawshark, but I do keep coming across young people who are thinking about other things – not just worried about not being able to own a home, but worried about climate change, dirty waters, oil drilling, and NZ (their home) being taken over by multitudes of others.
I just hope there are enough of these younger people to carry on dissension and protests when the time comes for those things.
…..the time comes for those things.
The youth I grew up with at that time would have marched to the beehive and thrown by force this National government out by now even.
Seriously.
Time comes for those things.., with this lot, it WILL be to late.
“I just hope there are enough of these younger people to carry on dissension and protests when the time comes for those things.”
Well you had about 100 protesters out in force yesterday for the union lead rally in Auckland.
sadly I did the one thing there I hate most, I stereo typed. Sorry. Their are a lot of good youth out there don’t get me wrong. barring the stereotyping i’m sure you all get the gist of what I said though.
I consider the youth of the greens Genter etc, an example of youth excelling beyond what we could back in my day. But they seem fewer.
Real Clear Politics still has Clinton 2-3% ahead…the Democrats in with a chance of taking the Senate…House of Reps staying with Republicans
US RWNJ’s doing the Trumps going to win thing when Hillary will clearly pass the post, is an old trick they employ when it’s looking bad for their guy. In that it’s to stop the rot and keep voters and try to gain the undecided.
Hope i’m right on that, even though Hillarys donkey deep in it too(war mongering), Trumps scarier and a big gamble. Better the devil you know.
????????
What
Lefties need to get in touch with the reality on the ground.
RCP no toss up states electoral map now has Hillary on 272 and Trump on 266. (270 electoral votes required to win the White House).
In mid Aug, Hillary was on 351 electoral votes and Trump was on 187.
In other words, according to RCP in just over a month Clinton has lost almost 80 electoral votes, while Trump has gained that much.
The gap between the two candidates on a no-toss up basis has therefore shrunk in 5 weeks by 164 electoral votes to just 6 electoral votes.
Which explains why Clinton is shouting on TV that she doesn’t know why she isn’t leading Trump by 50 points.
From recent accounts in the last week it would seem Hillary Clinton’s health is getting worse
…according to a doctor , eye movements would suggest Parkinsons or damage to brain from concussion?…and getting worse
…if this is the case, she should not be running for President because she will not be capable of the job and it would be irresponsible
…if the Democratic Party chooses to ignore this and can’t see this then the voters certainly will
Probably just a passing case of pneumonia eh… 😛
nah probably a passing case of photoshop
Even with parkinson’s, she’s a better choice than Trump.
I don’t care how many times she stumbles, falls or passes out. Among other things, a pair of blue glasses will sort things out.
The US Government is more than a President anyway and if she has the right people in the right places, that will be all fine and sweet.
lol…”if she has the right people in the right places, that will be all fine and sweet”.
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/01/06/new-hillary-emails-reveal-true-motive-for-libya-intervention/
https://www.mintpressnews.com/wikileaks-hillary-clinton-helped-topple-gadhafi-france-uk-fought-libyas-oil/215104/
Good to see the latest attempt to spread CCOs and forced local government amalgamations has been shelved.
Glad to have helped.
Seen this?
‘Activists – get things done’
Unlike ALL the other Auckland Mayoral candidates – I successfully petitioned Parliament for an urgent inquiry into Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs).
The following information I made available to Mayors in other parts of NZ to assist in their fight back against the continued corporate takeover of our local democracy, our assets and our public property.
The following proves that I already have an effective working relationship with central government.
Read for yourself …
https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/51DBSCH_SCR69296_1/924613ec7fb831c4e74bd062f73287ac2ceb5081
Petition 2014/33 of Penelope Mary Bright and 55 others, and Report from the Controller and Auditor-General, Governance and accountability of council- controlled organisations
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2016 Independent Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Nuclear Power and Climate Change – excerpt:
“Overall, the idea that atomic power is “clean” or “carbon free” or “emission free” is a very expensive misconception, especially when compared to renewable energy, efficiency, and conservation. Among conservation, efficiency, solar and wind power technologies, there are no global warming analogs to the heat, carbon, and radioactive waste impacts of nuclear power. No green technology kills anywhere near the number of marine organisms that die through reactor cooling systems.
“Rooftop solar panels do not lose ten percent of the power they generate to transmission, as happens with virtually all centralized power generators. S. David Freeman, former head of numerous large utilities and author of All Electric America: A Climate Solution and the Hopeful Future, says: “Renewables are cheaper and safer. That argument is winning. Let’s stick to it.”
“No terrorist will ever threaten one of our cities by blowing up a solar panel. But the nuclear industry that falsely claims its dying technology doesn’t cause global warming does threaten the future of our planet. ” http://www.progressive.org/news/2016/09/188947/how-nuclear-power-causes-global-warming
Financially it seems pretty clear that renewables are the cheapest option for utility-scale new builds, even without a carbon tax. So worldwide I doubt we’ll see many more nuclear new builds, at least in western countries.
But it seems to me the appropriate comparison for nuclear is against fossil fuels. In that comparison, nuclear still looks pretty favourable to coal/gas/oil (and actually even hydro) in terms of land area ruined and human health/mortality footprints, even considering the worst case projections from Chernobyl, Fukushima etc. So to me, it looks like an environmental setback when a nuclear plant is closed prematurely while fossil plants feeding the same grid are still running and polluting.
Overall, my views are pretty similar to Monbiot’s, who expresses them a lot better than I ever could. http://www.monbiot.com/category/nuclear/
Just how ‘green’ is the production of solar panels?
Current production is far from ideal, but it’s still a lot better than fossil fuels. Most of the problems with current production are fairly easy to manage and eliminate, if the producers are incentivised to actually do it.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/solar/solar-energy-isnt-always-as-green-as-you-think
Interesting comments by Rodney Hide on the left in the herald this morning, expresses much commentary you see on this site
“The left view their political failure as the fault of voters who must be hoodwinked, stupid, selfish, or suffering some other ethical or intellectual shortcoming. Why else would they not be supporting the left when they are so good and true?
The problem is never with the left or their doctrine.
They are a self-reinforcing sect who in their wretchedness and anger are becoming ever smaller. Their narrow and insular outlook prevents them reaching out. Little wonder it’s not attractive to new recruits.
It’s astonishing that National is now the vibrant party looking to the future and open to diverse views.
Labour is the narrow party that has shut itself off from the great bulk of New Zealanders.”
Red, go back to bed.
Truth hurts Garibaldi, in a strange way you are a reflection
of old Rodders comment 😀
Talking utter nonsense.
Hidebound describes the ex ACT leader perfectly.
You are being generous describing Hide’s outpourings as an interesting comment.
He does have point Paul no matter how much you may not like it, the lefts failure can’t be all externally afflicted, ie msm, dumb voters and other conspiracies
Hide does not have a point. He is pointless.
If not a point maybe then a smidgen of truth 😀
“the narrow party that has shut itself off from the great bulk of New Zealanders” sounds more like the one polling less than 1%.
Unusually stupid RW slanders repeated by morons so abject they never learned to write their own.
But the gnats are a bunch of lefties according to Seemore Coq. What are we to make of this?
Simple the Gnats control centre left and right, ie they are very removed from right wing
rofl
““The left view their political failure as the fault of voters who must be hoodwinked, stupid, selfish, or suffering some other ethical or intellectual shortcoming. Why else would they not be supporting the left when they are so good and true?
The problem is never with the left or their doctrine.”
meanwhile – if you talk to people on the left you quickly find the above assertion to be based on a deliberate over simplification of actual arguments made
in short – its horse shit
We had a wander around MOTAT on Friday and came across a potted history of Radio in New Zealand. This is what I read –
“On New Year’s Day in 1932 the Government took over the responsibility of the Radio Broadcasting Company in providing a national service. This was done under a three man Broadcasting Board who was also given the power to impose restrictions on the private stations. By 1937 most of the private stations had been bought by the New Zealand Government. Two distinct systems were then set up – one NATIONAL and one COMMERCIAL.
The first Director of Broadcasting was Professor James Shelley. He saw radio as an instrument of real democracy based on a sympathetic understanding of all points of view.
In 1946 the commercial and non-commercial branches of the national radio system were amalgamated under the name New Zealand Broadcasting Service.”
My words – the poor sod Professor Shelley will be turning in his grave at the state of our airways these days – so much for “a sympathetic understanding of all points of view.” There isn’t one jot of balance in anything we listen to on Radio or TV – just adoration for a corrupt Government which is sickening.
As most radio is talkback every nut job in the country has the power to share his view
usually the worst nutters are the host’s , m laws ,hosking and henry have all had goes spilling the rubbish into peoples
Tend to agree nutters on both sides of the phone , the medium attracts them like moths to a flame Albeit I do find Paul Henry entertaining you just need to take him with a grain of salt
tonne of salt, ………..fify
It would in fact only take a grain of salt to cover his thought section of his brain
Professor Shelley was turning in his grave even before he died. The views you attribute to him are correct. They were not those of the Prime Minister of the day however. Savage had no intention of allowing an understanding of all points of view.
Did you know that the news program to be broadcast was written in the Prime Minister’s office and delivered to the broadcasters?
Have a look at this and weep.
https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=oEXQCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=prime+minister+savage+radio+news+broadcast&source=bl&ots=O_Focr02bn&sig=C1YmpV0mlbOwJ6guXVGs78thJ6o&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmpvzyqKnPAhUDoZQKHWBNAe4Q6AEIRzAG#v=onepage&q=prime%20minister%20savage%20radio%20news%20broadcast&f=false
Through the premierships of Fraser, Holland and Holyoake’s first, and repealed in the early part of his [Holyoake’s] second term.
I didn’t realise they went right through to Holyoake’s time in the early 1960s. If it was early in his second term that he got rid of it, it would seem that he didn’t approve of the practice. He was only there for about 3 months in 1957 before the election and he wouldn’t really have time to change very much.
Was Nash also doing it? From what you say it sounds as if he must have been.
Actually I can tolerate Fraser if it was about anything to do with the war.
However I highlighted Savage because he was the PM when Shelley was primarily involved in broadcasting and it was Shelley that WK was talking about.
As per your link – in 1947 things were relaxed to allow controversial broadcasts to be aired but Prime Ministerial approval was required until restrictions were abolished in 1962.
If you want to hear an out of touch ex pollie who actually dislikes democracy making a complete fool of himself, tune in to Natrad and listen to doddery old Geoffrey Palmer play with his constitutional toy soldiers.
Well said. He would tie us up in expensive knots for years trying to nut out a constitution. The main benefits of the monarchy are its distance and saving us from yet another self-important ex-pollie (like Geoffrey?) pretending to be our head of state.
It’s a esotreic academic law professors hobby horse, law lecturers blather on about it in 101 law since the the beginning of time The rest of us don’t really give a monkeys, status quo is fine, bigger issues to deal with
+100 to all that
I am not sure that you or your two supporters know what your talking about…
What happened to ‘Open Mike’ on the 24th at the end?….comments aren’t showing properly
From the Ig Nobel Prizes this year, my favourite:
“On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit”
http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.html
The rest:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/09/sex-life-rats-personalities-rocks-awarded-ig-nobel-prizes?utm_source=sciencemagazine&utm_medium=facebook-text&utm_campaign=ignobel-7717
+100 rhino…lol…we live in a time of profound bullshit, trivia …and wasted time and white collar technological trickery and bankster fraud and usury…driven by materialism and venal mindless greed
‘Obama implicated in Clinton email scandal – New FBI docs’
https://www.rt.com/usa/360528-obama-implicated-clinton-email/
“President Barack Obama used a pseudonym when communicating with then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by email, while her IT company referred to her email deleting as a “cover-up”, new FBI documents reveal….
During the interview with Huma Abedin, who served as deputy chief of staff under Clinton, the FBI reportedly presented her with an email exchange between Clinton and a person she did not recognize. The FBI then revealed the unknown person’s name was believed to be a pseudonym used by Obama. Abedin reacted by saying, “How is this not classified?”
This exchange could expose Obama as having mislead the public on the issue, given his 2015 statement that he found out about Clinton’s use of a private email server “the same time everybody else learned it, through news reports.”…
Cops, a lot of talk about cops lately, underfunded, understaffed, ignoring things, skewing stats..
If Key remained PM lets say for another decade god forbid, how long do the standardista”s think it will be before a police surcharge to come out, comes along.
What was it 25 police stations to close, but a little while ago they close a load down too.
Why do we pay tax under national, they have pretty much driven everything under.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/84636485/labour-leader-andrew-little-dismisses-helen-clarks-advice-about-commanding-the-centre-ground
The title says it all, Little is not going to be a more of the same leader.
Anyone can talk about moving left of the centre; where is the left wing action, the left wing policy and the left wing personnel from Labour to back it up?
He would be silly to show all his cards to early , but going on clarkes performance on the tpp and praising of shit key, having Little publicly slap her down speaks volumes.
He is the right man for the next pm.
he is the right man for taking Labour to sub 20%
did you think that up all on your own?
More crap neoliberal advice from last century. Thanks but no thanks Aunty Helen. Little was right to distance himself from Helen’s divisive legacy.
Anyway, Key currently rules the “centre” and won’t be budged. Labour’s only chance to get it back is if FJK makes a huge ballsup like David Cameron, but I reckon Key is more self aware
Aunty Helen was right and is always right. She was smart to quickly dump any left-wing policies unpalatable to the centre so that she could appeal to the ‘middle’ voters.
Wrong, she lost the 2008 election because she wasted her political capital on pet social policies that alienated most voters. And she failed to address inequality and the growing housing bubble.
I respect her as a well-intentioned and highly intelligent person, her government was excellent on foreign policy, but she bought into the “Third Way” Blairite bullshit on economic matters, a betrayal of all workers & class struggles of the last century
St Helen tried her best to protect workers and contain the class strugles.
In the “ghost zone” ?
In the Green Party?
In the next election I will be voting Green Party(not Labour ) for the first time in what will be my 12th election.
The last time I voted National was for Muldoon, and I honestly believe that was the last time a National Party leader gave a shit for the ordinary kiwi.
Meh, I need another beer.
Looks like things have got worse in Syria today just as John Key chaired the Security Council this week with blithe, meaningless sound-bites.
Coincidence? I think not.
John Key has made an art of dividing those he pretends to represent.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/314163/security-council-to-meet-as-syria-violence-escalates
Murdoch nails it……
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CtJUd2VVUAAYDId.jpg:large
Ouch.
Key spoke as if he were more interested in his own speech rather than any solution for the Syrian people.
That neither the US nor Russia batted an eyelid at Key’s weak pleas to ‘hold hands’ over the matter, and indeed doubled their strikes immediately says a lot about how the rest of the world views him.
I’m loving the DPRK News Service. (yes, it’s a parody account)
I still get a giggle out of the headline “Cruz unhinges his jaw, swallows his pride.”
Maassive trump rally in Roanoke Virginia today. Crowd estimate of 10,000 to 20,000.
Where did Clinton campaign today? How many thousand supporters did she attract?
I Imagine Clinton’s heard about Gennifer Flowers’ appearance at the first debate so I guess she’s out and about organising a front row seat for Trump’s former mistress.
Marla perhaps, or Melania…….
Did Clinton take a rest day today?
Virginia is a swing state.
Yep. Thats why Trump has held rallies there several times in the last month.
Polls in Virginia?
Currently leans Clinton by +6
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/va/virginia_trump_vs_clinton-5542.html#polls
it would appear the more things change the more they stay the same….has CT got this right?..from an Aucklander’s perspective?
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2016/09/from-good-guys-to-fall-guys-spinoff-and.html
A well written rant, shame Trotter didn’t get his facts straight, some reactions from Spinoff/GenZero author here (the whole thread on twitter is longer)
note that Beckett didnt even try to defend their shitty endorsement of Right Wing Ralston or their BS labelling of Mike Lee as an anachronism.
i know nothing of Lee but the endorsement of Ralston was what caused the enquiry…and as you note, they didn’t defend their endorsements merely their funding.
The colour of his jib is not the issue, the Spinoff criteria are policy positions that will deal with the housing crisis
rather a wider questionnaire than that….with some rather peculiar grading
That said I think Trotter is right about the UP being twisted by property developers & speculators for their own ends, it is the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. Need to close the immigration floodgates, penalise speculation & McMansions, and implement proper rates/LVT based on unimproved land value.
They’re privileged kids of the top 10%. Of course they’re going to endorse Key’s mate Bill Ralston ahead of public transportation champ Lee.
A major problem with Millennials is they have no concept of life outside of the market oriented neoliberal narratives. From TDB:
Is the EU doomed?…interesting article by an Irishman, Bryan MacDonald
‘Like the Soviet Union, is EU heading for ash heap of history?’
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/359327-soviet-union-eu-history/
“A while back, Mikhail Gorbachev famously said: ‘The most puzzling development in modern politics is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe.’
Gorbachev wasn’t referring to the European Union’s hunger to expand eastwards, but instead the bloc’s top-heavy governance, where smaller states are increasingly dominated by larger members.
This was evident last year, when Angela Merkel pretty much unilaterally imposed a liberal migration policy on the confederation, which has led to massive division…
just earlier in the week, Varoufakis on the largest global economic threat 😉
And from 2’46”:
“The European Union is in dire straits, the European Union is disintegrating” (Varoufakis)
Thanks for that, it led to this great TED talk by Varoufakis
You’re very welcome. And this one also sometime at the end of last month:
“Market Economy – Reinvent or Reboot?”
Yanis Varoufakis versus Clemens Fuest, at the Alpbach Forum, along the lines of the proposition: “The market economy is the best model. It will also successfully manage the challenges faced in the future.” Agree or disagree with this statement?”