A Merry Christmas to all Students of Comedy and Comedians
That bloke in Auckland who’s had his name suppressed, Jimmy Savile, Sacha Baron Cohen….2012 has been the Year of Reassessment of the Comedian.
Thanks to everyone who read about and debated the issue of Sacha Baron Cohen’s monstrous behaviour—even if you raged, obfuscated or indignantly denied that your favorite comedian was a moral imbecile. For many of you, having had to think for the first time about the politics of laughter, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. You may still insist that Baron Cohen’s behaviour was simply fun, or ironic, or “edgy” or “pushing the envelope”, but from now on you’ll also have that nagging doubt, called a conscience, in your mind when—if—you watch Bruno again.
And you SHOULD watch it again if you want. Please don’t feel bad if you watch a video of Bruno or Borat or The Dictator from now on; they’re funny and you have my blessing if you fall about laughing as you watch them. Only from now on, perhaps, you’ll be a tad more aware of what is happening when he interviews that poor fellow captioned “Terrorist group leader, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade”, and just what Baron Cohen and his producers were quite deliberately doing.
Coming up after the Holiday break: WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT SEINFELD.
“Coming up after the Holiday break: WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT SEINFELD.”
Why? Because he’s Jewish? I don’t find him funny, but that doesn’t seem to be what your agenda is. I’m surprised you haven’t rehashed the whole Woody Allen incest thing. What next? Blood libel? Merry goddam Christmas to you too.
No, we need to have a critical look at Seinfeld because he’s a nasty ideologue with a particularly objectionable modus operandi.
I don’t find him funny,
Well, I do. I find Sacha Baron Cohen funny too, most of the time. And Bob Hope. But they are (or were) all shills for some unconscionably evil enterprises.
…but that doesn’t seem to be what your agenda is.
Our analysis incorporates some study of their comedy routines, naturally, but our agenda is of course to encourage people to engage critically with the material they watch, and think about why they are laughing at official victims (in the Occupied Territories) or sneering callously at the down and out on the streets of American cities.
I’ve refrained from commenting on a line and a half of wild and choleric ranting by Populuxe1, where he riffs insanely about “incest” and “blood libel”.
Borat was awful and I couldn’t watch the hurt inflicted upon other innocent people for the entire film. I think I watched the first 10 minutes before leaving in disgust. I found it as entertaining as watching animals being tourtured. When Bruno came out I didn’t bother…some of the Dictator material I found funny but after Borat I only watched short clips on youtube.
Seinfeld!? Oi vey! I liked Seinfeld. Looking forward to a new prospective in the new year to grow my mind. Politics of comedy is intellectually stimulating.
All their divisions that trade interest rate derivatives on their own account report huge profits running into billions. Where does that profit come from?
The answer is it comes largely from you and me. Global banking, intertwined with the global financial services and asset-management industry, has emerged as a tax on the world economy, generating much activity and lending that has not been needed, but whose purpose is to make those who work in it very rich.
It is entirely feasible to have a system of credit without the destruction that comes from interest. Interest needs to be peeled off from credit, amongst more.
Well no, it was just my minds creation, but I have a lot of faith in those… It would go like this – zero percent interest rates, which is almost the case already.
But of course that too doesn’t quite resolve the issue, which is credit’s reach into society to such an extent that it becomes part of the fabric. Best example of this being the housing market. Housing values are to the level they are entirely due to the issue of credit (interest bearing or otherwise, virtually, following the logic). If interest rates were zero housing values would probably stay right up of course, but who would waste time issuing credit if that ws the case? Perhaps government or some other non-profit or joint-between-stakes approach. The urge to keep issuing credit due to its profitable nature needs to be taken out.
The only problem with removing the right ot issue credit (print money) from private banks and placing it elsewhere is that, humans being humans, we will find some way to work it to an advantage. Of course if it was placed with a government type organisation then the urge to use it for political advantage (rather than private profit advantage as now) is smack in the face. The disadvantages with this are probably greater than if it remained with private, given the power resting with government.
Methinks I need to read more on it and do more thinking but one thing is sure and, using the example above, keeping house values high surely advantages private banks only and I fail to see the use in this, especially when other areas are bereft of funds (those funds being our daily toil). I mean, imagine if instead of one third of your working toiling week going to pay for your roof, it was only one quarter or one tenth……. not hard to see the results.
There is no advantage to high capital values. All it does is require people to take on debt. I like Foodstuffs approach when it comes to buying and selling New Worlds and PaknSaves and hmmm four squares. etc. What they do is require the sale of any of their supermarkets to be at a multiple of one years earnings (as I recall..), and be to an approved operator through their system. What this does it focus attention on revenue and income instead of capital. This means owners get ownership easier and without silly cripping debt. And this is the right approach – hence their success.
Our current obsession with capital over revenue is destructive. The banking system prefers an obssession with capital of course.
bit of a ramble but full belly and sleepy christmas eyes …
Of course if it was placed with a government type organisation then the urge to use it for political advantage (rather than private profit advantage as now) is smack in the face. The disadvantages with this are probably greater than if it remained with private, given the power resting with government.
Unless you make government democratic rather than hierarchical thus having it being one person one vote for the creation and use of that money.
Our current obsession with capital over revenue is destructive.
It’s a it more complex than that. What we have is a requirement to get the capital (money) back plus revenue. What we need to do is change it so that money used to build something productive (power stations, telecommunications, high tech fab plant) doesn’t need to produce a monetary return or even pay for itself. What it provides is all that’s required.
Very interesting karol. Yet while this is disturbing in itself, the most dramatic threat in West Antarctica is not so much the surface and air termperatures … but the sea temperatures.
What most people don’t really grasp is that the WAIS (West Antarctic Ice Shelf) is grounded well below sea-level. This means that if warm water gets between the base of the glacier and the bed-rock it can be broken up very rapidly.
Worse still Naish and his colleagues are now faced with clear evidence that the WAIS does not necessarily melt in a linear fashion, rather it is prone to highly unstable events that could lead to massive breakups, potentially adding up to 3.2m of average sea level rise in quite short periods of time. And due to the way the earth’s gravitational field works, that average rise would not be distributed evenly over the earth’s surface; in some places like North America the rise could be up to 4.0m…within our, or our children’s, lifetimes.
For their down playing of climate change and their willingness to be part of an administration that will allow the <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escarpment_Mine_Project<Massive Opencast, (Escarpment) coal mine at Denniston to proceed.
The Green Party get awarded the Lump of Coal.
Give a Lump of Coal for Christmas
Traditionally lumps of coal was the gift given to children who have been naughty. In the past several years this holiday tradition has taken on a bit of a twist, with people giving lumps of coal to each other for fun or as a way of indicating displeasure.
Children (and pets) may be given lumps of coal from their parents or their teachers to indicate that they’ve been misbehaving. Coal lumps may be given to bosses, colleagues and politicians anonymously to indicate frustration, disapproval or anger over the job they are doing.
While Green Party leaders may be lauded by both Labour and National and their allies in the MSM and the unions for their “acceptance of the realities of coalition government”, their “responsibility” and their “pragmatism” and their prioritising of jobs and economics over the environment……
It is for this ‘pragmatic’ behaviour, (in reality a sick sell out), that the Green Party get my lump of coal in their stocking this Christmas mourning.
At the same time Jenny if a Labour/Green govt were to get into power and then attempt to de-carbonise the NZ economy by 10% in 2015, and each year thereafter… they would be thrown out in the 2017 election. If not sooner by massive protests in the streets.
The New Zealand public is not yet ready for this. If they were they would be demanding action even from this current government.
Twenty thousands marched to stop mining on conservation land. There are dozens of environmental groups in existence and being set up.
Many thousands in this country have protested for nuclear free and anti aparthied and anti war.
Where is the political will for the massive protests and pressure you claim are in support of doing nothing, to come from?
The only political pressure to continue with the fossil fuel economy is coming from the fossil fuel and roading lobbies themselves. Obviously this lobby has intimidated the Greens. I suppose with all their money and power this lobby will try and drum up some sort of fake mass opposition movement. But so far there is no sign of it.
The Greens are being frightened by shadows.
You say that the New Zealand public is not ready for this. I say that through cowardice and ignorance of New Zealand history no lead is being given by those who should be giving it.
As long as there is no lead being given, what can people do, other than what they are doing now, in their small groups?
What do you think you are achieving by being confrontational with me?
Yes change is happening. Yes there are groups who are doing fantastic work and I hugely respect the time and energy they are putting into it. Eventually it will bring results.
But the fact is that de-carbonising the New Zealand economy will have a real, direct impact on how we live our lives. The large majority of ordinary people are, for a whole bunch of reasons, some better than others … are simply not emotionally ready for that change.
And right now any political party that seriously challenged that fact would be slaughtered by the media. Hell look at the hammering we got for simply passing a law to stop adults from assaulting children. The S59 Reform was the turning point that let John Key into power… what hope if we try and take their cars and toys away from them before they are willing to let them go?
Quit attacking your allies. Really. What I’m looking for is less emotional noise and some hard sense about how to deal with this constructively.
Maybe it is not New Zealanders “who are simply not emotionally ready”, but the Greens.
If you want some hard sense about how to deal with this then you have openly and strongly demand the actions that are required.
The Green Party policy is no new coal mines. This is a realistic policy. Globally coal extraction and use has been identified as the number 1 cause of climate change. Taking a hard line against the coal industry is what is required.
But instead the Green Party are prepared to ditch their principle of no new coal mines for cabinet positions.
How about when Russel Norman mentioned ‘printing money’ a short while ago (another word for the quantitative easing that numerous other Western nations have been doing flat out for the last 5 years or so) … and the media instantly jump on him as ‘crazy, irresponsible, extremist and generally loopy’?
Now imagine if he came out and said that in 2015 New Zealand was going to shut down it’s carbon use by 10%? Or more because National had delayed acting?
The Greens would be crucified by the John Armstrongs and Fran O’Sullivan’s of the media. It would be used constantly all through the election campaign as a massive stick to beat them with.
And the point of loosing another election in 2014 is?
When, and only when, the middle class see pictures on their TVs of waves breaking upon the tarmac of Wellington Airport and rolling through the departure lounge will they be snapped out of their comfort zone long enough to ‘demand’ action,
The Green Party is only 10-11% of the vote and therefor can hardly DICTATE to the wider electorate that action has to occur now,(even if the consensus of science says it must),
Unless you suggest a 1 party Green state any such actions where the majority are being dictated to against it’s will would collapse the vote of any coalition that the Greens were part of at the following election and the Tories would just reverse whatever changes the Greens had made,
I should cop some flak for this, BUT, the future of the planet does not rely upon whether the Denniston plateau is mined or remains un-mined, the same amount of carbon WILL be produced to the atmosphere by whomever the coal is to be sold to whether that coal comes from Denniston or somewhere else in the world,
My view is that the Greens should walk away from Kyoto, impose a carbon tax and spend that into the economy planting trees everywhere until such time as there are no more places to plant those trees or the amount of trees planted makes New Zealand a carbon neutral country, secondly a portion of such a tax should be set aside for research into technology’s which reduce carbon emission and technology’s which are capable of capturing and storing carbon already present in the atmosphere,
As a Green Party member i am insulted by your use of the word ‘cowardice’ in reference to the Green Party and would ask you, what would you rather have a Green Party that gets done what is possible with regards the climate and social justice. or a Green Party that in Government for the first time commits electoral suicide…
…..the future of the planet does not rely upon whether the Denniston plateau is mined or remains un-mined, the same amount of carbon WILL be produced to the atmosphere by whomever the coal is to be sold to whether that coal comes from Denniston or somewhere else in the world
@bad12
This is not the point.
New Zealand produces 0.2% of green house gases. (This is from all sources agriculture included.) If New Zealand were to stop all emissions tomorrow, it would have little quantitive impact.
New Zealand’s biggest contribution to stopping global warming can only be qualitative.
“New Zealand is a small emitter by world standards – only emitting some 0.2% of global green house gases. So anything we do as a nation will have little impact on the climate – our impact will be symbolic, moral, and political”
A nationwide ban on coal mining and coal use, is the needed symbolic stand that Sir Peter Gluckman is talking about. Grabbing the world’s attention, inspiring millions to demand the same thing from their governments.
Coal must be phased out, and soon.
Stopping coal is the minimum that must be done to stop worldwide catastrophe.
Stopping the Denniston open cast coal mine is a necessary first step on the way to that larger goal of stopping all coal mining.
And is it really that hard?
The mining and use of asbestos has been banned worldwide. It can be argued that the death and destruction from continuing to mine and burn coal will dwarf that caused by asbestos.
Jenny, but it IS the point, China, India, and the US to name 3 are country’s who use coal as an integral part of their economy’s, and crowd power in all 3 economy’s is sadly lacking to have that use banned,
We can as a country only proceed so far and as i point out above, i would prefer that we walk away from Kyoto and instead resort to a carbon tax to be used to plant trees of sufficient number so as to get us as an economy as close to being carbon neutral as possible, along with a like investment in research to find technology’s which are capable of capturing carbon emissions at source and research into a means of mas carbon capture from the atmosphere, that is the best example we can show the world,
So as you have not seen fit to answer my question on whether or not you favor a suicidal Green presence in the next or any future Government i suppose i have to take your lack of reply as assent in that is what you favor,
Simply because what you continue to propose is electoral suicide for the Greens…
Have to partially disagree Red. I think the NZ public actually is ready and with just a little info and understanding, I believe they can be motivated to protest and pressure for action to be taken by government.
To get action from above, it’s always been necessary to apply pressure from below.
I think that’s where we’re at. Consider the general reaction in comments to the couple of posts I’ve put up so far on global warming. Just a couple of years back, I suspect those posts would have met with howls of derision.
And we have a simple scientific fact to focus peoples’ minds and it’s not one you need a degree to grasp and/or explain. 4 degrees = impossible future. And the 4 degreesfigure isn’t coming from individual scientists or whatever, but from the World Bank and the International Energy Authority….very conservative institutions.
OK … but among the people I’m working with and meet; there is silence. Either they simply don’t want to know, or they suspect the truth and really don’t want to confront it.
This is reflected in how the media has almost completely stopped talking about it as well.
This is fear-driven behaviour. We won’t get the co-operation needed from the mass of people globally unless we can get them to confront that fear openly.
I’m sure it can be done; it might even happen a lot sooner and faster than any of us imagine. But right now we’re at more of a ‘sticking point’ than a ‘tipping’ one.
– the skills and support to deal with the fear and cognitive dissonance. I see very little work being done on this in NZ.
– information and a way of getting involved that allows them to take positive action that may save their children and grandchildren’s lives. Transition Towns and allied movements are leading the way on this. Everywhere in NZ now has some kind of positive action that can be done at an individual level.
– information about CC that doesn’t tell them we’re all fuckd and going to die. That information needs to be presented at a lay person’s level. If the MSM media aren’t doing this, then how else can it be done?
It’s true that there is a lot of silence. But silence is easily broken. And I know some people have devoted their energies to the act of avoidance…because it’s too scary or whatever.
But I also know that other people are really receptive and just waiting for some nascent form of protest to form that they would then join in with.
And when I’m done with these posts I know my energies are going to be focussed on helping to bring that opportunity about. And I know I have a shit hot talent for instigating grass/flax roots activism/protest – just I’ve been in ‘retired’ mode for several years.
So maybe (putting aside the fact that I don’t think you live in these parts and that I wouldn’t know you from a bar of soap if you walked right up to me) we’ll get to say ‘hello’ out on the streets sometime in the New Year 😉
I suppose that depends upon where you think the sticking point is. From what I can make out it’s more with the politicians and business than with the people.
Politicians and business people are always going to try and maintain the status quo. Important change gets led by the people. Enough people want something to change, and do something about it, politicians and business follows.
But that’s just it, they [politicians] don’t or, at least, most of them don’t. They seem to think that they’re there to lead the way rather than being representatives.
… but among the people I’m working with and meet; there is silence. Either they simply don’t want to know, or they suspect the truth and really don’t want to confront it.
This is reflected in how the media has almost completely stopped talking about it as well.
Redlogix
Exactly, this is why a strong lead on this issue at this time is vital. And why the Green Party decision to stop giving that lead at this time will prove to be a fatal mistake.
I partially agree, I think people are more ready now than they were. I just don’t think the Green Party should be leading the charge any more than they already are. Their experience over many elections now is that it is very easy for their floating voters to get scared off at election time. Either by MSM or NACT fearmongering, or by people not understanding MMP and voting for Labour to prevent NACT winning. The next election is crucial. I don’t think the GP should be risking anything at this point in time. Once they are in govt they may up the ante on CC.
Instead, what we need is NGO action, from grassroots all the way through to corporate/business. Jenny is right about one thing, we need leadership. But we also need mass involvement at the community level. The 350 campaign some years ago mobilised alot of people, esp those no engaged in traditional political activism. What happened to that energy and action?
I completely agree with what you said in the If thread – we need information that people can assimilate and work with rather than the ‘we’re all fucked and humanity is going extinct’ argument. The posts you’ve been doing on Anderson’s work strike a good balance: this is a very serious situation AND we are still able to do something so let’s do it.
To get action from above, it’s always been necessary to apply pressure from below.
Agreed – and on all the pressing issues; climate, peak resources, poverty, sustainable economics, closing the inequality gap, measuring success in terms of activities that benefit society not any old economic activity, adequate social security, etc.
World Bank and the International Energy Authority….very conservative institutions
Why on earth would you be hopeful about anything which was pushed by either of these two entities Bill?
People are definitely not going to get what they ask for, and sooner than later, they will be yet again wondering how it went to far against what they imagined the solutions looked like!
Why on earth would you be hopeful about anything which was pushed by either of these two entities Bill?
I’m not. But the fact that they are (rightly or wrongly is beside the point here) generally regarded as authoratative sources of information…and given their conservatism too…their latest prognoses on AGW serve as useful reference points.
Telling lies again Jenny? Please present some evidence that the GP supports mining of the Dennistion Plateau. And that evidence will have to concretely refute what the GP have on their own website.
“BOOS and jeers from about 150 protestors greeted Prime Minister John Key as he entered Bathurst Resources’ new Wellington offices late yesterday.
Mr Key was there to meet the management of the Australian mining company which is planning New Zealand’s biggest open cast mine on the West Coast. The PM and Energy and Resources Minister Phil Heatley were confronted by a crowd of environmental activists and Green Party MPs rallying against coal mining.
National MP Simon Bridges and Labour’s West Coast MP Damien O’Conner had both slipped in to the building prior to the Prime Minister’s arrival. The Bathurst mine proposal is for the Denniston Plateau in the West Coast.
The proposed mine site is on public conservation land near the largest current opencast mining operation in New Zealand, State-owned Solid Energy’s Stockton coal mine.
Green Party Conservation spokesperson Eugenie Sage expressed her disappointment following the Prime Minister’s remarks in the House of Parliament that the Denniston mine could proceed due to historical consent.
“It’s disappointing that the Prime Minister doesn’t seem to realise that the Conservation Minister still has an access application to consider,” Ms Sage said.
“Coming here today is sending a strong signal to the Department of Conservation and the minister that the government will be approving this mine.””
I guess what this really means is that the GP are lying through their teeth to get the votes and then intend to reneg on that once in govt and support the mining of the plateau 🙄
You can’t have it both ways Jenny. You want the GP to protest things to do with CC, but when they do, you tell lies about them.
I have never said that the Green Party are “against” mining the Denniston Plateau. I have said that the Green Party are prepared to bargain this away to get cabinet positions.
This is something that you don’t deny.
It is entirely possible to be against something, and still do the opposite.
If the Green Party really wanted to stop Denniston they should immediately release a press statement now that they will not be part of any administration either National or Labour that let it proceed.
This would certainly give the investors and shareholders at Bathurst Resources pause for thought, before ploughing any more money into developing this mine.
The few politicians that I’ve spoken too have confirmed that it is only the top 4-5 cabinet ministers including the PM that get to effect any real change (with the exception of private members bills of course). The rest are just warming the bench and making up the numbers in the hope that one day they will be in the top 5. Perhaps the greens have realised this and have made a judgement call to let denniston go through so they can effect greater change with cabinet positions.. possibly even legislation to stop or at least phase out coal mining altogether amongst other things.
Maybe they have PP. But your wondering out loud is different than Jenny telling lies about the GP by stating opinion as fact. She’s just making it up.
Myself, I doubt that any decisions have been made at this stage. I also think that the GP has the potential to change MMP and how coalition govts form. No idea if they will though. Much depends on how many votes they get. It’s a long time until the next election.
Where did you get/hear this information from ? The wikipedia link is not working so I couldn’t verify it there, and I cannot find anything on the Green Party website about them downplaying either climate change or the Denniston mining effects. Please clarify.
Solo mums, I love you all the most.
You have the most important job of all, and often have to do it under a barrage of criticism.
Just remember “you only need a dick to run the country, it only takes a mother to raise a son.”
What ever you do, don’t take Paula’s pills unless you want to.
If my old girl had been coerced into stopping at one or two, I wouldn’t be 3 of 5.
I’m just a dreamer, but you could have an Einstein, Hawkins, Dr Barnardos or Florence Nightingale, and let’s face it, they can’t get here soon enough. So make love, not Paula’s day. Get any stick at WINZ and we’ll come down and contracept their mouths.
I hear what they say and I know that it’s rough. It beats you down.
Every night on the news when the going gets tough. They put you down.
You know solo mum, down my road, it’s all right. You aint so bad.
You’re not on your own Alpha one, 3 of 5. Born Alpha tribe.
Lift your head up little sister. Lift your face up to the son.
Don’t let anyone say you’re shit, love. Make them always prove you’re wrong.
Take that flower by the hand, love. And then you’ve got to make him understand.
He’s got to stand up for all the sisters if he wants to be an Alpha man.
I know what they say and I know that it’s wrong. But they wheel you out.
Every night on the news when they’ve done something wrong. Appease the crowd.
You know solo mum, on my road, we’re all right. We aint so bad.
You’re not on your own Alpha one, 3 of 5. with your Alpha pride.
Keep your head up pretty sister. Hold your face up to the sun.
We don’t let anyone say we’re shit, love. We don’t ever let anyone say we’re wrong.
Take the flower by his hand, love. Teach him how to grow up strong.
You only need a dick to run the country. You only need a mother to raise a son.
The Carter’s in or out of the Parliament confuse me,but, the current one with the back-woodsy type portfolio that i cannot remember the name of and who is said to be the next Speaker of the House,
I think Nick Smith is going to pick up Carter’s portfolio when they drag Him back from Siberia for a vodka laced rehabilitation, it’s thought that Carters portfolio is so obscure,(it must be if i can’t remember what it is). that even Smith is unlikely to make a hash of it, but hats off to Nick i bet it don’t take him long to do so…
Do you mean the little bird on the TV news the other night, me thinks that Slippery will keep His word on Hekia remaining right where she is,(that’s cause for definite surprise),
I cannot see anyone in Nationals line-up capable of doing the job Ryall has with the Health portfolio have and Hekia is doing one hell of a good job destroying the peace of mind of the Education sector which is what i believe the outcome sought by Slippery’s National Government really is,
Wreck the ability of the sector to function properly, destroy any individual schools ability to budget properly with NO-NO-Pay and across the field ‘they’ are halfway to replacing the Boards with hand picked Commissioners,
Hell the Bizness sector has probably been in Slippery’s ear about just how expensive it is to set up a charter school and why should they have to when there are 1000’s of schools out there just ripe for a negative take-over from the charter schools mob…
Tony Ryall should remember that all political careers end in failure.
If he succeeded in ‘breaking the unions’ in education then that would amount to the most radical ‘reform’ of the education sector achieved by any government. So much for this being a ‘centrist’ government.
It would also lead to the crumbling of what has been a consistently high quality state education system and leave the door wide open to the overall educational quality reductions that come from privatising mass education (e.g., would one ‘provider’ ever share its ‘successful’ educational IP with another? If so, why? Markets inevitably create distortions in social systems of cooperation. :-)).
I say this simply because the collective values of the teaching profession, as currently supported through a unionised workforce, are part of what is needed to produce quality public education. Those values are not the foundation of mass private education.
So, if you are correct in that intention, Ryall’s appointment as education minister would either be a disaster for his career or a disaster for public education. If I were Ryall I would not want the former – for obvious reasons – and I also wouldn’t want the latter.
Why would he wish to go down in history as the minister who undermined public education and initiated a decline in educational attainment in New Zealand’s children? The so-called ‘tail’ would inevitably lengthen significantly. (And don’t get me onto supposed high level ‘accountability’ measures to ensure schools/children ‘achieve’ – they would be laughable if they weren’t so dangerous.)
(WYSIWYG doesn’t seem to appear as an option anymore for me.)
24 hours ago TV3 news was saying exactly the same as what you are about the future prospects of Hekia,
Perhaps you could ask your ‘little birdy’ to be a lot less tardy in the future, after all what’s the point of having a ‘little birdy’ if they are beaten by the MSM in breaking the latest gossip…
The media were speculating, quite accurately as it happens. I wasn’t. You seem to have the impression I was trying to impress you. mate, I wouldn’t [deleted]. [ B – Be nice 😉 ]
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Yesterday the Greater Wellington Regional Council unanimously declared a climate emergency. They've also set themselves a goal of being carbon neutral by 2030, though this only applies to their direct emissions. Still, its a good step, and as usual it invites the question: where is Parliament? When are we going ...
That's the only way to describe the government's plans for a Parliamentary Budget Office to allow opposition parties to get an independent costing of their policies. When the idea was first floated back in 2016 as an office within Treasury, I thought that wasn't independent enough and argued that it ...
Today is a Member's day, and after the third reading of Hamish Walker's KiwiSaver (Oranga Tamariki Guardians) Amendment Bill, Parliament will be continuing the committee stage of David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. The bigots have put up another pile of amendments in an effort to delay or wreck ...
Television advertising has a huge impact on our lives. Even if we don’t recognise that, we know it has to be true, since otherwise why would advertisers spend so much on it? Its significance, however, is greater than simply the influence it has on what we purchase and consume. It ...
by Jan Rivers More than 30 years ago a Commission of Inquiry was held in New Zealand to investigate, amongst other things, whether women with cervical cancer were aware that they had been part of a research project and whether they were properly informed of the treatment options ...
Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...
by Philip Ferguson This weekend just past marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the most famous of the great 1960s music festivals. It was held over the weekend (Friday-Monday) of August 15-18, 1969. Woodstock was a highpoint of the US ‘counter-culture’, and also the beginning of its end. When exploring the ...
It looks like the government has won over the public on its vehicle feebate scheme:A feebate scheme that would transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from buyers of higher-emission cars into the pockets of people buying EVs and other more fuel-efficient vehicles has been winning favour with submitters, the Government ...
When people suggest lowering the voting age, others argue that the young are too uneducated or silly to exercise the duties of citizenship. Australian John Quiggin has just blown that argument out of the water:Looking at the array of ignorant and vindictive old men attacking Greta Thunberg and other young ...
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...
Back in May, Destiny Church leaders Brian and Hannah Tamaki launched another political party. Despite consisting entirely of followers of their religion, they grandly called it "Coalition New Zealand", in a vain effort to suggest it was something broader. But when they applied for registration, submitters opposed the name, as ...
The following article is excerpted and translated from two articles in recent issues of Lutte de Classe (Class Struggle), the magazine of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the revolutionary workers group active in France. We don’t necessarily agree with everything in it – for instance, the 1956-62 war for independence involved rather more revolutionary forces than ...
The Pacific is on the front line of climate change, and if we don't cut emissions quickly, some countries are literally going to be underwater. Because of this, small Pacific states had tried to use this week's Pacific Islands Forum meeting to get Pacific countries to agree to ending coal ...
To Limit Another's Rights Is To Limit One's Own: Is it too much to expect senior members of our Government to be capable of explaining that we protect the rights of human-beings precisely because not even the most depraved act can cancel-out the fact that its perpetrator is also a ...
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...
This section builds on Part 1 of this series to provide a theoretical basis for the final instalment (part 3 – to come). Self-determination: law or resurgence — or both? International law promotes the principal of equal treatment and self-determination, which includes peoples’ rights to freely pursue their social, cultural and ...
Everyone was outraged yesterday to learn that the Christchurch shooting accused had been able to send mail from prison to his Nazi fans, apparently pushing more hate. "How could this possibly happen", people asked. Simple: because New Zealand is a civilised country, and so we let prisoners send and receive ...
If we are to avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, we need to rapidly decarbonise our transport fleet. The good news: its starting to happen:The number of electric vehicles on New Zealand's roads have nearly tripled in the past two years. There are currently 15,453 registered electric vehicles (EVs), up ...
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
AN OPEN LETTER FOR SIGN ON BY ORGANISATIONS AND MOVEMENTS ACROSS THE WORLD, ALLIED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST INEQUALITY. This letter was released at the UN Political Forum on 9 July, where the Sustainable Development Goal on inequality was reviewed. The purpose of the letter is to call out the ...
We asked a young gay science student and critic of trans ideology and the trans activists’ assault on women’s and gay rights to outline his views on Redline. Thanks to him for his article. by Cian Ó Catháin Gender identity ideology (Gender ID) is ripping through western society at full ...
The Environment Committee is currently hearing submissions on the Zero Carbon Bill, and Stuff is reporting on the submissions. Today, they're covering yesterday they heard from "NZ" Steel:NZ Steel has told MPs it may be forced to close with the loss of thousands of jobs if changes aren't made to ...
Students are striking against climate change on September 27. And this time, they're asking everyone to join them:Students are taking to the streets, beaches and parks on 27 September, and we're inviting everyone to join us. That's right, this is an intergenerational issue, and you're all invited to put pressure ...
Peter McKenzie has a piece on Newsroom this morning about how local body politics is awash with property developer cash. 70% of all the donations in the 2016 Wellington mayoral election came from property developers. And its pretty obvious what they want in exchange:That’s particularly important in local government, according ...
Source: Unknown, twitter user Recently, I wrote a (relatively) short paper titled as above, to explore what self-determination could like in a practical sense. Maybe I’m a bit of an international trade truther or something, but I absolutely believe trade is at the heart of achieving peace and self-determination. Since ...
In the 1960s, after I had graduated with a first-class Oxford postgraduate law degree, I joined the British Foreign Office as the top entrant of my year. There, I worked for a couple of years on European affairs and was eventually posted to the Embassy in Brussels. After this exposure ...
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...
I heard a 45 minute interview with Monica Lewinsky talking to TED’s Chris Anderson on BBC Radio 4 over the weekend, and have listened to it another two times out walking. I recommend it. Highly. Man, I am so impressed with how this woman has integrated her life experiences and ...
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure, London, Penguin, 2019, 352pp; reviewed by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s book The Coddling of the American Mind is a timely book, whose ...
When the Justice Committee reported back on the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, free speech advocates breathed a sigh of relief. As originally introduced, the Bill reitered the ancient offence of "scandalising the court" - basicly, a special sedition law protecting judges from criticism. The select ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. Since then - crickets. Which raises the obvious question: are they actually going to do this, ...
Back in March, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act. 285 people submitted on it. Now, Stuff has trawled through those submissions, and the case for reform is strong:The Justice Ministry asked Kiwis what they thought was ...
National's prisoner voting ban has gone down as one of the worst laws in New Zealand history. Passed after a farcical debate (including this farcial speech from ACT MP Hilary Calvert), it has subsequently been found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act by the High Court, Court ...
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
by Daphna Whitmore US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his bookThe Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z. ...
What an extraordinarily depressing experience it is to be compelled to watch, at 12,000 miles distance, the contortions and machinations of the British political class as they set about their determined attempt to overturn the decision taken by the British people that they wish to leave the European Union. The ...
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...
by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
Since scientists started studying climate change, they have warned that it will reduce food production. And now, its happening:The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill just passed its first reading, 94-23. Its a far bigger margin than I expected, even allowing for the Winston factor, and it reflects the overwhelming support there is in this country for reform. but that support isn't a new thing - it has existed for literally ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Referendums Framework Bill. The Bill does what it says on the label - establishes a framework for referenda. Things you may want to address in your submission: Whether the bill should apply only at the 2020 election, or whether it should ...
The Thompson and Clark / MBIE spying scandal continues to result in fallout, this time in the form of a report on the implementation of MBIE's "Operation Exploration", its internal operation to enforce the infamous Anadarko Amendment which criminalised protests against the oil industry. MBIE's enforcement operation was tainted by ...
So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
National’s Election promises are similar to 2017 statements BUT…. • Recognises compliance is the number one issue for small medium business (SMEs); ...
Aug. 26 (BusinessDesk) - The National Party is floating a cut to New Zealand's 28 percent company tax rate among a suite of possible tax changes it would promise going into the 2020 election. ...
The New Zealand Maori Council has been provided with the soon to be released coronial data on suicide in New Zealand. The fact is the suicide rate has risen again and is out of control. The Executive Director of the New Zealand Maori Council (and former ...
Family First NZ is welcoming the Government’s intention to tackle the harms of pornography, and are also continuing to call for a truly independent Expert Panel to investigate and provide solutions for families. ...
"For too long central government has layered additional responsibilities onto local government with little consultation or acknowledgement of the essential work councils do. Combined with the lack of support and funding, this top down attitude ...
Joining local Green candidates at their campaign launch on Sunday at the Highbury Whanau Centre Green Party Co-Leader Marama Davidson will say, “I’m very proud to join Green candidates Teanau Tuiono, Renee Dingwall and Brent Barrett in calling ...
The Campaign for Better Transport ( CBT ) is pleased to hear the government has announced the start of train services from Hamilton to Papakura but is concerned about some of the features of the proposed service. ...
Family First NZ is supporting a call by the Police to raise the drinking age, which echoes previous calls by the NZ Medical Association, but says that other factors around price, availability, penalties and addiction services must be part of the ...
West Papua solidarity activists met yesterday and resolved to call on the Prime Minister to step up to help resolve the escalating crisis in West Papua. ...
Landmark Report Released into Maori Aging and Disabilities “Manaaki Pakeke” – New Zealand Maori Council calls for a policy shift and greater focus The New Zealand Maori Council has released a comprehensive policy statement challenging the ...
MANATŪ TAONGA MINISTRY FOR CULTURE AND HERITAGE MEDIA RELEASE 25 August 2019 Privacy breach identified with the Tuia 250 Voyage Trainee website Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage is investigating a serious digital privacy breach involving ...
‘Original Sin’ of Land Confiscation at Ihumātao is a wrong that can be put right by Government says Justice & Peace Commission of Catholic Diocese of Auckland ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a press conference on August 19 that her government is likely to impose new restrictions on prisoners’ rights to send letters. She said the law could be changed in “weeks.” ...
Heart-warming images of House Speaker Trevor Mallard cradling a baby in Parliament have been welcomed around New Zealand, but the Public Service Association warns most families can only dream of such support in the workplace. ...
Applying New Zealand’s international human rights commitments, particularly those in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, can help in resolving the situation at Ihumātao, Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt says. ...
Climate campaigners impersonating bank staff have taken to the streets this week to expose ANZ Bank’s sponsorship of the fossil fuel industry. In the series of satirical actions in Wellington, Dunedin, and Auckland, the ‘bank staff’ promoted ...
Auckland Action Against Poverty joins the Children’s Commissioner , The Green Party , The New Zealand Drugs Foundation , Child Poverty Action Group and other organisations in the calls for an immediate end to the drug testing benefit sanctions. ...
Negotiations between Port Otago workers represented by the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) and the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) and management failed today and the unions have issued notice of an overtime ban from Saturday 7th September. ...
Queenstown Lakes District Council’s comments that it has applied for a consent to pollute waterways to avoid 'prosecutions by the Otago Regional Council' are unacceptable,’ Fish & Game New Zealand Chief Executive Martin Taylor says. ...
On March 15, the real world impact of online hate became abundantly, horrifically clear. As a shooter opened fire at two Christchurch mosques, the online image board 8chan anticipated, celebrated and amplified his killing spree. ...
Friday, 23 August: Government delegates from around the world, including New Zealand, are meeting in New York for the third of four meetings at the United Nations to agree a Global Oceans Treaty that could help to protect 30% of our oceans by 2030. Greenpeace ...
The excuses about a reportedly unwanted $57,000 payrise for Dunedin City Council CEO Sue Bidrose are laughable, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance has launched the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” committing to no more than 2% annual rate hikes over the next Council term, and has written to all Mayoral and Council candidates asking them to sign. The pledge will ...
This Saturday, Pakuranga Hunt Day at the Ellerslie Racecourse will see anti-horse racing protesters demonstrating at the corner of Ascot Avenue and Greenlane East. ...
Mayoral candidate John Tamihere will meet with Pacific Island leaders and community elders today at Puhunui Reserve in South Auckland to commit to a Pasefika Cultural Centre. ...
Cruel and invalid Forced Swim Tests carried out at Victoria University of Wellington, will be exposed at the University Open Day today, so prospective students can be warned about the flawed and unethical research being conducted at the institute. ...
The organiser of the annual YWCA Equal Pay Awards has expressed her disappointment with the latest Gender Pay Gap figure for New Zealand workers. The figure rose slightly from 9.2% in 2018 to 9.3% for the quarter ended 30 June 2019. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to pass on information to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques now that the period for submissions has been extended to 27 September. ...
An application was filed in the Employment Relations Authority in Wellington today, seeking an injunction to prevent the Board of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation from removing the President from office. ...
The Government’s commitment to support literacy and numeracy training in the workplace is a strong signal from Government on recognising the importance of upskilling, reskilling and increasing productivity alongside their commitment to address the challenges ...
“The infrastructure sector sees a major role for the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga in lifting the nation’s sagging infrastructure performance,” says Paul Blair, incoming CEO of Infrastructure NZ. ...
The AA is calling on the Government to bring forward critical highway projects while time is spent properly developing the plans for a rapid transit system in Auckland. ...
Between 2015/16 and 2017/18, DHBs spent $280 million treating patients due to adverse drug reactions, reveals the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union in its latest briefing paper on health productivity . ...
The Pay Equity Coalition Auckland (PECA) is pleased the gender pay gap has decreased slightly. Statistics released today show the gap is now 11.9%, nearly 2 percent less than last year. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to make sure they pass on any information they have to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques before submissions close tomorrow (Friday). ...
The big electricity companies consider solar energy “disruptive” and want pricing to suppress it. In contrast, advocates of local energy say that solar, energy efficiency, and other local energy solutions are the cheapest ways to reduce carbon emissions. ...
The Earthquake Commission and Shine Lawyers are delighted to announce that EQC has reached an agreement with the Gibling family, agreeing to cover the cost of repairs of remaining earthquake damage on their property. ...
Four months into the inquiry, the Royal Commission is gathering significant information and continues to receive valuable submissions from the public, from current and former State servants, experts and community groups. ...
While Fish & Game New Zealand is pleased to see Federated Farmers Environment Spokesperson Chris Allen say that 'we all want good, fresh water', he conveniently overlooks some key facts. ...
What: Wellington demo “Save the Amazon Forest/Salve a Amazônia!” When: Friday, 6 September 2019 from 12:30-13:30 Where: Embassy of Brazil in Wellingtona ...
Rt Hon Trevor Mallard, Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, welcomes the visit of His Excellency Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grahame Dowling, Honorary Professor, University of Technology Sydney One of my banks invited me to a customer lunch a few weeks back so that it could announce its commitment to the new Banking Code of Conduct. Here was a chance for it ...
In the space of days a waitress was racially abused in Auckland and a deaf student mocked by his peers in Canterbury. In both cases there were apologies. In both cases those apologies fall short, writes Christine AmmunsonWhat a stink week. Within days and in two different cities, we had ...
Record low borrowing costs are a precious opportunity for business owners who now need to make savvy decisions about what to do with the cash.The experts may have been caught off-guard when the Reserve Bank opened fire on interest rates earlier this month, but the fact of the matter is ...
For years, New Zealand has bemoaned the gap between much of our television drama and the cutting edge out in the world. That gap might finally be closing, writes Duncan Greive.He’s just a minor character, eating an ice cream. It doesn’t seem all that revolutionary, but in the context of ...
Ruby Porter on the first novel by acclaimed Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong. I came across Ocean Vuong’s poetry collection Night Sky With Exit Wounds last year. I read it twice in one day. I was staying outside of New York, at the time, and taking the train in each morning. I ...
A War Story is one more attempt in a long line of art to make sense of 9/11 – this time from a uniquely Kiwi perspective.The coordinated terrorist attacks on September 11 2001 cut a razor-sharp divide between the relatively carefree time before and everything after, bleeding into ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Privacy breach at Ministry for Culture and Heritage Audrey Young (Herald): How latest privacy breach ...
Auckland mayoral rival John Tamihere is pitching himself as a low-cost candidate but the incumbent Phil Goff says Mr Tamihere lacks a basic understanding of finances. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elyse Methven, Lecturer in Law, University of Technology Sydney As the state election loomed last year, the NSW government rushed through a new crime targeting drug suppliers. A person who supplies a prohibited drug for profit can now be prosecuted for homicide ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julia Talbot-Jones, Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington Last week, voter enrolment for the 2019 local government elections closed in New Zealand and concerns about low voter turnout resurfaced. During a panel discussion run by Auckland Council, the idea was raised to pay ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Dunk, Research Fellow, University of Sydney Last week, one of the world’s leading medical journals declared the medical community must act now to limit the health effects of climate change. In a stark editorial, readers of the New England Journal of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, Grattan Institute Australia’s young high achievers are turning their backs on teaching. They want to make a difference in their careers, and they are interested in teaching, but when it comes to the crunch they choose ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carl Grodach, Professor and Director of Urban Planning & Design, Monash University Since 2000, planning authorities in Australia have overseen a massive rezoning of inner-city industrial land to make way for mixed-use residential development. They claim central industrial space is obsolete in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lara Owen, PhD Candidate, Monash University Last week, menstrual pad brand Libra launched their Blood Normal commercial in Australia, running it during prime time television shows including The Bachelor, The Project, and Gogglebox. Australia is a little late to the party: Blood ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Govt rejects idea to ban petrol car imports in 2035, firefighters say they’re facing a workforce crisis, and Tamihere pledges rate freeze.A strange sort of stoush erupted at the end of last week around petrol and diesel car sales. On Friday, Newsroom reported ...
Kiwi boxer Troy Garton, who defied medical advice to produce one of the most remarkable performances in NZ sport, now has her sights set firmly on the Tokyo Olympics. ...
Victoria University of Wellington's Anne Goulding discusses the paradox of New Zealanders wanting to safeguard our personal data, while frequently and freely giving it away. ...
Lisa McMillan is an adrenaline junkie. Instead of skydiving or driving race cars, she collects rooms full of naked strangers. Josie Adams went along to the Naked Dinner and found it stimulated all the wrong hormones.In a tealight-lit lounge in a rented Symonds Street flat, I milled around with 23 ...
Brazil’s rainforests are ablaze, and even from the distance of New Zealand, many of us are losing sleep. For the climate and for humanity, we can do something profound and simple, writes Kena DuignanI’ve asked my dad to look after my kids yesterday so I could write this, after a ...
Meng Foon has been a fixture in Gisborne local government for more than two decades. Today he starts a new role, as race relations commissioner. Alice Webb-Lidall heads over to his Gisborne home for dinner, to find out what he’ll miss as mayor, and how he’ll approach his new jobThis ...
In the final of our series on the loss of faith in free market economics we ask New Zealand business leaders how they’re grappling with the almighty power of a technology that barely existed 20 years ago. Hands up who’s read the Financial Markets Authority’s website. Come on, be honest.No, of ...
Is New Zealand in danger of becoming a bio-tech backwater because of our strict GE rules, or should we retain them to sell our clean image overseas? ...
ANALYSIS:By David Robie Indonesia’s harsh policies towards West Papua ought to be scrapped. Whatever happened to the brief window of enlightenment ushered in by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in 2015 with promises of a more “open door” policy towards foreign journalists and human rights groups? They were supposed ...
The House - The grammar of being an MP is harder than you might think. MPs in Parliament choose their words with care, and it just got more complicated. ...
As a format it predates almost all reality TV, and that’s precisely why it works in 2019, writes Duncan Greive.There’s something deeply comforting about watching Celebrity Treasure Island. It is a very pure form of escapism, largely because it explicitly recalls a world without the internet, and before everything started ...
Residents in Los Angeles and Orange County warned to check for symptoms after an infected NZ teen visited theme parks including Disneyland and Universal Studios earlier this month.Californian health authorities have issued warnings to residents and visitors after a New Zealand teenager was found to have spent five days in ...
When you crave fresh, bright flavours but summer veges seem far away, throw together this simple salad.Growing up we often ate this salad, or one very similar to it. My mum is a fantastic cook and this dish is one she still makes to this day – though I must ...
Analysis of New Zealand media headlines reveals a lot of people slamming a lot of other people.Slamming is at epidemic levels in New Zealand news. Drawn from just the last month, we present a selection of slamming.On July 27A union boss slammed David ClarkOn July 29Police slammed a dangerous photographerOn ...
Vana Manasiadis wrote a collection of poetry in the wake of her mother’s death. In this essay, ahead of her appearance at the Going West festival, she argues that as a nation Aotearoa needs to learn to make space for mourning. When Mum died in Athens, I cried loudly and publicly ...
The giant hand that captivated, delighted and disgusted the nation is now settling into its new Wellington home. For City Gallery Wellington’s blog, Spinoff arts editor Megan Dunn talked to Ronnie van Hout, the man who made Quasi.“Quasi is in the wrong place,” wrote art critic Warren Feeney in 2016, ...
At school camp, the children are banned from having phones, laptops, lollies, chocolate, money, cotton clothing or independent thoughts. They, are, however, allowed home baking – but it’s gotta be hearty. How hearty are you? We are packing for a school camp. If you’re thinking that the middle of winter is ...
Phil Goff’s rival has already pledged an 0800-Jacinda homeless hotline and an 18-lane harbour bridge. What’s next? The two most important people in the 2019 campaign for the Auckland mayoralty faced each other down on Wednesday night across the desk in the NZME debate: Bernard Orsman and Simon Wilson. Correction: it ...
Split Level View Finder: Theo Schoon and New Zealand Art is the exhibition that sparked a protest over issues of cultural appropriation and institutional representation. Theo Schoon is a divisive historical figure. But is his art any good? Martin Patrick reviews.British novelist L.P. Hartley once wrote that “the past is ...
Ahead of debuting her solo show at New Zealand Fashion Week, Korean-NZ couture designer Cecilia Kang talks about growing up ‘feminine’, being influenced by the LGBTQ+ community, and why an ‘administrative error’ at Fashion Week left her so shaken up. ‘I like something big,” says Cecilia Kang, gesturing to the giant ...
The Labour Party is distancing itself from one of its members who is strongly pro-Beijing and has caused controversy in the Chinese community by standing for local office in Auckland. ...
Faced with staff shortages, equipment failures, cancer risks, and a jump in critical calls that can leave them traumatised, some firefighters are wondering if it’s time to hang up the hose. Gareth Shute reports on the dissatisfaction inside Fire and Emergency New Zealand.The state of our nation’s fire service is ...
“She comes over. You’re my mother, she says. Yes, I say. I don’t know you, she says”: a mother and child seaside story by Wellington author Jan Pryor. Photo by Peter Black. ...
Open mike 25/12/2012 
My wife and I have had dogs for the whole of our 52 years of married life – and that has meant sharing our lives with our little furry friends. Because we usually spend a good part of our evenings watching television, it also means that our dogs have learned ...1 day ago
. . Former Police, Corrections, and Justice Minister in the previous John Key government, Judith Collins, has been ridiculed on social media after posting a comment on Twitter that was patently untrue; . Wrong!! National did not remove Prisoners’ ability to vote. Parliament voted through a Private Member’s Bill ...2 days ago
Speaker Trevor Mallard was left to look after Jones, while his usual caretaker, Winston Peters, underwent surgery. A truly adorable scene from Parliament yesterday has gone viral, after Speaker Trevor Mallard cradled an extremely drunk Shane Jones in his arms while the House was in session. Loud “awwww”s could be ...3 days ago
Western media have defended their decision not to cover the fires so as not to give them any oxygen. Social media outrage continues to grow around the sentiment that mainstream western media is devoting too little coverage to an ongoing series of fires in the Amazon rainforest, and in doing ...3 days ago
A Long Time Ago, In A Parallel Universe Far, Far Away: The political journalist scratched his head in confusion. Only then did he notice the name of the building: ‘The Jacinda Ardern Presidential Library and Public Resource Centre’. Making his way inside to the information desk, he asked the librarian ...3 days ago
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Nothing from me tody - I'm off to Christchurch to pretend to be other people for a weekend. Normal bloggage should resume on Tuesday. ...3 days ago
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A Merry Christmas to all Students of Comedy and Comedians
That bloke in Auckland who’s had his name suppressed, Jimmy Savile, Sacha Baron Cohen….2012 has been the Year of Reassessment of the Comedian.
Thanks to everyone who read about and debated the issue of Sacha Baron Cohen’s monstrous behaviour—even if you raged, obfuscated or indignantly denied that your favorite comedian was a moral imbecile. For many of you, having had to think for the first time about the politics of laughter, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. You may still insist that Baron Cohen’s behaviour was simply fun, or ironic, or “edgy” or “pushing the envelope”, but from now on you’ll also have that nagging doubt, called a conscience, in your mind when—if—you watch Bruno again.
And you SHOULD watch it again if you want. Please don’t feel bad if you watch a video of Bruno or Borat or The Dictator from now on; they’re funny and you have my blessing if you fall about laughing as you watch them. Only from now on, perhaps, you’ll be a tad more aware of what is happening when he interviews that poor fellow captioned “Terrorist group leader, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade”, and just what Baron Cohen and his producers were quite deliberately doing.
Coming up after the Holiday break: WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT SEINFELD.
“Coming up after the Holiday break: WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT SEINFELD.”
Why? Because he’s Jewish? I don’t find him funny, but that doesn’t seem to be what your agenda is. I’m surprised you haven’t rehashed the whole Woody Allen incest thing. What next? Blood libel? Merry goddam Christmas to you too.
Because he’s Jewish?
No, we need to have a critical look at Seinfeld because he’s a nasty ideologue with a particularly objectionable modus operandi.
I don’t find him funny,
Well, I do. I find Sacha Baron Cohen funny too, most of the time. And Bob Hope. But they are (or were) all shills for some unconscionably evil enterprises.
…but that doesn’t seem to be what your agenda is.
Our analysis incorporates some study of their comedy routines, naturally, but our agenda is of course to encourage people to engage critically with the material they watch, and think about why they are laughing at official victims (in the Occupied Territories) or sneering callously at the down and out on the streets of American cities.
I’ve refrained from commenting on a line and a half of wild and choleric ranting by Populuxe1, where he riffs insanely about “incest” and “blood libel”.
Borat was awful and I couldn’t watch the hurt inflicted upon other innocent people for the entire film. I think I watched the first 10 minutes before leaving in disgust. I found it as entertaining as watching animals being tourtured. When Bruno came out I didn’t bother…some of the Dictator material I found funny but after Borat I only watched short clips on youtube.
Seinfeld!? Oi vey! I liked Seinfeld. Looking forward to a new prospective in the new year to grow my mind. Politics of comedy is intellectually stimulating.
Merry Christmas and joy to you in 2013 Morrissey.
And a Merry Christmas to you, my friend.
Will Hutton on the Bankster scam that made banksters rich, at the expense of the majority of us.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/23/banking-reform-ubs?CMP=twt_gu
If there was ever an area of our system that needs attacking, dismantling and re-setting it is the banking sector.
It has indeed become nothing but a taxer, a rentier, a do-nothing waste of space draining our daily toil from us before it even hits our wallets.
Tha banking system is inorganic evil.
It is entirely feasible to have a system of credit without the destruction that comes from interest. Interest needs to be peeled off from credit, amongst more.
Got an example vto?
Well no, it was just my minds creation, but I have a lot of faith in those… It would go like this – zero percent interest rates, which is almost the case already.
But of course that too doesn’t quite resolve the issue, which is credit’s reach into society to such an extent that it becomes part of the fabric. Best example of this being the housing market. Housing values are to the level they are entirely due to the issue of credit (interest bearing or otherwise, virtually, following the logic). If interest rates were zero housing values would probably stay right up of course, but who would waste time issuing credit if that ws the case? Perhaps government or some other non-profit or joint-between-stakes approach. The urge to keep issuing credit due to its profitable nature needs to be taken out.
The only problem with removing the right ot issue credit (print money) from private banks and placing it elsewhere is that, humans being humans, we will find some way to work it to an advantage. Of course if it was placed with a government type organisation then the urge to use it for political advantage (rather than private profit advantage as now) is smack in the face. The disadvantages with this are probably greater than if it remained with private, given the power resting with government.
Methinks I need to read more on it and do more thinking but one thing is sure and, using the example above, keeping house values high surely advantages private banks only and I fail to see the use in this, especially when other areas are bereft of funds (those funds being our daily toil). I mean, imagine if instead of one third of your working toiling week going to pay for your roof, it was only one quarter or one tenth……. not hard to see the results.
There is no advantage to high capital values. All it does is require people to take on debt. I like Foodstuffs approach when it comes to buying and selling New Worlds and PaknSaves and hmmm four squares. etc. What they do is require the sale of any of their supermarkets to be at a multiple of one years earnings (as I recall..), and be to an approved operator through their system. What this does it focus attention on revenue and income instead of capital. This means owners get ownership easier and without silly cripping debt. And this is the right approach – hence their success.
Our current obsession with capital over revenue is destructive. The banking system prefers an obssession with capital of course.
bit of a ramble but full belly and sleepy christmas eyes …
Unless you make government democratic rather than hierarchical thus having it being one person one vote for the creation and use of that money.
It’s a it more complex than that. What we have is a requirement to get the capital (money) back plus revenue. What we need to do is change it so that money used to build something productive (power stations, telecommunications, high tech fab plant) doesn’t need to produce a monetary return or even pay for itself. What it provides is all that’s required.
A new report on temperatures recorded over time in West Antarctica concludes the area has been warming faster than previously thought:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/science/earth/west-antarctica-warming-faster-than-thought-study-finds.html?_r=0
Very interesting karol. Yet while this is disturbing in itself, the most dramatic threat in West Antarctica is not so much the surface and air termperatures … but the sea temperatures.
What most people don’t really grasp is that the WAIS (West Antarctic Ice Shelf) is grounded well below sea-level. This means that if warm water gets between the base of the glacier and the bed-rock it can be broken up very rapidly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet
Back in 2009 I posted this:
That’s 3-4m within a decade.
More info:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wcc.110/pdf
For their down playing of climate change and their willingness to be part of an administration that will allow the <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escarpment_Mine_Project<Massive Opencast, (Escarpment) coal mine at Denniston to proceed.
The Green Party get awarded the Lump of Coal.
While Green Party leaders may be lauded by both Labour and National and their allies in the MSM and the unions for their “acceptance of the realities of coalition government”, their “responsibility” and their “pragmatism” and their prioritising of jobs and economics over the environment……
It is for this ‘pragmatic’ behaviour, (in reality a sick sell out), that the Green Party get my lump of coal in their stocking this Christmas mourning.
At the same time Jenny if a Labour/Green govt were to get into power and then attempt to de-carbonise the NZ economy by 10% in 2015, and each year thereafter… they would be thrown out in the 2017 election. If not sooner by massive protests in the streets.
The New Zealand public is not yet ready for this. If they were they would be demanding action even from this current government.
That is the problem. Not the Green Party.
I call bullshit on this.
Twenty thousands marched to stop mining on conservation land. There are dozens of environmental groups in existence and being set up.
Many thousands in this country have protested for nuclear free and anti aparthied and anti war.
Where is the political will for the massive protests and pressure you claim are in support of doing nothing, to come from?
The only political pressure to continue with the fossil fuel economy is coming from the fossil fuel and roading lobbies themselves. Obviously this lobby has intimidated the Greens. I suppose with all their money and power this lobby will try and drum up some sort of fake mass opposition movement. But so far there is no sign of it.
The Greens are being frightened by shadows.
You say that the New Zealand public is not ready for this. I say that through cowardice and ignorance of New Zealand history no lead is being given by those who should be giving it.
As long as there is no lead being given, what can people do, other than what they are doing now, in their small groups?
What do you think you are achieving by being confrontational with me?
Yes change is happening. Yes there are groups who are doing fantastic work and I hugely respect the time and energy they are putting into it. Eventually it will bring results.
But the fact is that de-carbonising the New Zealand economy will have a real, direct impact on how we live our lives. The large majority of ordinary people are, for a whole bunch of reasons, some better than others … are simply not emotionally ready for that change.
And right now any political party that seriously challenged that fact would be slaughtered by the media. Hell look at the hammering we got for simply passing a law to stop adults from assaulting children. The S59 Reform was the turning point that let John Key into power… what hope if we try and take their cars and toys away from them before they are willing to let them go?
Quit attacking your allies. Really. What I’m looking for is less emotional noise and some hard sense about how to deal with this constructively.
Maybe it is not New Zealanders “who are simply not emotionally ready”, but the Greens.
If you want some hard sense about how to deal with this then you have openly and strongly demand the actions that are required.
The Green Party policy is no new coal mines. This is a realistic policy. Globally coal extraction and use has been identified as the number 1 cause of climate change. Taking a hard line against the coal industry is what is required.
But instead the Green Party are prepared to ditch their principle of no new coal mines for cabinet positions.
“But instead the Green Party are prepared to ditch their principle of no new coal mines for cabinet positions.”
Liar.
“Obviously this lobby has intimidated the Greens. ”
[citation needed]
What else could it be?
Why are the Green Party shying away from raising Climate Change?
Is it cowardice?
Is it intimidation?
Is it lack of faith in New Zealanders?
Is it corruption?
The simplest explanation will do.
How about when Russel Norman mentioned ‘printing money’ a short while ago (another word for the quantitative easing that numerous other Western nations have been doing flat out for the last 5 years or so) … and the media instantly jump on him as ‘crazy, irresponsible, extremist and generally loopy’?
Now imagine if he came out and said that in 2015 New Zealand was going to shut down it’s carbon use by 10%? Or more because National had delayed acting?
The Greens would be crucified by the John Armstrongs and Fran O’Sullivan’s of the media. It would be used constantly all through the election campaign as a massive stick to beat them with.
And the point of loosing another election in 2014 is?
“What else could it be?”
You’re being disingenuous Jenny. We’ve had plenty of conversations about what else it could be. See also RL’s comment.
At least you are admitting that you are making this shit up.
There is a world of difference between the following two statements:
“Obviously this lobby has intimidated the Greens.”
“I don’t understand the Green’s strategy and I’m worried that they will make too many compromises on CC issues if they become part of govt”
The fact that you use the former, even when you know that it is a lie, tells us alot about your motivations.
When, and only when, the middle class see pictures on their TVs of waves breaking upon the tarmac of Wellington Airport and rolling through the departure lounge will they be snapped out of their comfort zone long enough to ‘demand’ action,
The Green Party is only 10-11% of the vote and therefor can hardly DICTATE to the wider electorate that action has to occur now,(even if the consensus of science says it must),
Unless you suggest a 1 party Green state any such actions where the majority are being dictated to against it’s will would collapse the vote of any coalition that the Greens were part of at the following election and the Tories would just reverse whatever changes the Greens had made,
I should cop some flak for this, BUT, the future of the planet does not rely upon whether the Denniston plateau is mined or remains un-mined, the same amount of carbon WILL be produced to the atmosphere by whomever the coal is to be sold to whether that coal comes from Denniston or somewhere else in the world,
My view is that the Greens should walk away from Kyoto, impose a carbon tax and spend that into the economy planting trees everywhere until such time as there are no more places to plant those trees or the amount of trees planted makes New Zealand a carbon neutral country, secondly a portion of such a tax should be set aside for research into technology’s which reduce carbon emission and technology’s which are capable of capturing and storing carbon already present in the atmosphere,
As a Green Party member i am insulted by your use of the word ‘cowardice’ in reference to the Green Party and would ask you, what would you rather have a Green Party that gets done what is possible with regards the climate and social justice. or a Green Party that in Government for the first time commits electoral suicide…
@bad12
This is not the point.
New Zealand produces 0.2% of green house gases. (This is from all sources agriculture included.) If New Zealand were to stop all emissions tomorrow, it would have little quantitive impact.
New Zealand’s biggest contribution to stopping global warming can only be qualitative.
A nationwide ban on coal mining and coal use, is the needed symbolic stand that Sir Peter Gluckman is talking about. Grabbing the world’s attention, inspiring millions to demand the same thing from their governments.
Coal must be phased out, and soon.
Stopping coal is the minimum that must be done to stop worldwide catastrophe.
Stopping the Denniston open cast coal mine is a necessary first step on the way to that larger goal of stopping all coal mining.
And is it really that hard?
The mining and use of asbestos has been banned worldwide. It can be argued that the death and destruction from continuing to mine and burn coal will dwarf that caused by asbestos.
Jenny, but it IS the point, China, India, and the US to name 3 are country’s who use coal as an integral part of their economy’s, and crowd power in all 3 economy’s is sadly lacking to have that use banned,
We can as a country only proceed so far and as i point out above, i would prefer that we walk away from Kyoto and instead resort to a carbon tax to be used to plant trees of sufficient number so as to get us as an economy as close to being carbon neutral as possible, along with a like investment in research to find technology’s which are capable of capturing carbon emissions at source and research into a means of mas carbon capture from the atmosphere, that is the best example we can show the world,
So as you have not seen fit to answer my question on whether or not you favor a suicidal Green presence in the next or any future Government i suppose i have to take your lack of reply as assent in that is what you favor,
Simply because what you continue to propose is electoral suicide for the Greens…
Have to partially disagree Red. I think the NZ public actually is ready and with just a little info and understanding, I believe they can be motivated to protest and pressure for action to be taken by government.
To get action from above, it’s always been necessary to apply pressure from below.
I think that’s where we’re at. Consider the general reaction in comments to the couple of posts I’ve put up so far on global warming. Just a couple of years back, I suspect those posts would have met with howls of derision.
And we have a simple scientific fact to focus peoples’ minds and it’s not one you need a degree to grasp and/or explain. 4 degrees = impossible future. And the 4 degreesfigure isn’t coming from individual scientists or whatever, but from the World Bank and the International Energy Authority….very conservative institutions.
I’m hopeful
OK … but among the people I’m working with and meet; there is silence. Either they simply don’t want to know, or they suspect the truth and really don’t want to confront it.
This is reflected in how the media has almost completely stopped talking about it as well.
This is fear-driven behaviour. We won’t get the co-operation needed from the mass of people globally unless we can get them to confront that fear openly.
I’m sure it can be done; it might even happen a lot sooner and faster than any of us imagine. But right now we’re at more of a ‘sticking point’ than a ‘tipping’ one.
People need (at least) these three things:
– the skills and support to deal with the fear and cognitive dissonance. I see very little work being done on this in NZ.
– information and a way of getting involved that allows them to take positive action that may save their children and grandchildren’s lives. Transition Towns and allied movements are leading the way on this. Everywhere in NZ now has some kind of positive action that can be done at an individual level.
– information about CC that doesn’t tell them we’re all fuckd and going to die. That information needs to be presented at a lay person’s level. If the MSM media aren’t doing this, then how else can it be done?
It’s true that there is a lot of silence. But silence is easily broken. And I know some people have devoted their energies to the act of avoidance…because it’s too scary or whatever.
But I also know that other people are really receptive and just waiting for some nascent form of protest to form that they would then join in with.
And when I’m done with these posts I know my energies are going to be focussed on helping to bring that opportunity about. And I know I have a shit hot talent for instigating grass/flax roots activism/protest – just I’ve been in ‘retired’ mode for several years.
So maybe (putting aside the fact that I don’t think you live in these parts and that I wouldn’t know you from a bar of soap if you walked right up to me) we’ll get to say ‘hello’ out on the streets sometime in the New Year 😉
Mebbe Bill. Got to sort some shit out in my life before I go activist again. Sounds like you have a good plan though 🙂
You have my guarantee of that Bill
I suppose that depends upon where you think the sticking point is. From what I can make out it’s more with the politicians and business than with the people.
Politicians and business people are always going to try and maintain the status quo. Important change gets led by the people. Enough people want something to change, and do something about it, politicians and business follows.
But that’s just it, they [politicians] don’t or, at least, most of them don’t. They seem to think that they’re there to lead the way rather than being representatives.
Ah, I see what you mean now.
Exactly, this is why a strong lead on this issue at this time is vital. And why the Green Party decision to stop giving that lead at this time will prove to be a fatal mistake.
I partially agree, I think people are more ready now than they were. I just don’t think the Green Party should be leading the charge any more than they already are. Their experience over many elections now is that it is very easy for their floating voters to get scared off at election time. Either by MSM or NACT fearmongering, or by people not understanding MMP and voting for Labour to prevent NACT winning. The next election is crucial. I don’t think the GP should be risking anything at this point in time. Once they are in govt they may up the ante on CC.
Instead, what we need is NGO action, from grassroots all the way through to corporate/business. Jenny is right about one thing, we need leadership. But we also need mass involvement at the community level. The 350 campaign some years ago mobilised alot of people, esp those no engaged in traditional political activism. What happened to that energy and action?
I completely agree with what you said in the If thread – we need information that people can assimilate and work with rather than the ‘we’re all fucked and humanity is going extinct’ argument. The posts you’ve been doing on Anderson’s work strike a good balance: this is a very serious situation AND we are still able to do something so let’s do it.
To get action from above, it’s always been necessary to apply pressure from below.
Agreed – and on all the pressing issues; climate, peak resources, poverty, sustainable economics, closing the inequality gap, measuring success in terms of activities that benefit society not any old economic activity, adequate social security, etc.
Merry Christmas Bill
Why on earth would you be hopeful about anything which was pushed by either of these two entities Bill?
People are definitely not going to get what they ask for, and sooner than later, they will be yet again wondering how it went to far against what they imagined the solutions looked like!
I’m not. But the fact that they are (rightly or wrongly is beside the point here) generally regarded as authoratative sources of information…and given their conservatism too…their latest prognoses on AGW serve as useful reference points.
Telling lies again Jenny? Please present some evidence that the GP supports mining of the Dennistion Plateau. And that evidence will have to concretely refute what the GP have on their own website.
http://www.greens.org.nz/searchresults?search=denniston
“BOOS and jeers from about 150 protestors greeted Prime Minister John Key as he entered Bathurst Resources’ new Wellington offices late yesterday.
Mr Key was there to meet the management of the Australian mining company which is planning New Zealand’s biggest open cast mine on the West Coast. The PM and Energy and Resources Minister Phil Heatley were confronted by a crowd of environmental activists and Green Party MPs rallying against coal mining.
National MP Simon Bridges and Labour’s West Coast MP Damien O’Conner had both slipped in to the building prior to the Prime Minister’s arrival. The Bathurst mine proposal is for the Denniston Plateau in the West Coast.
The proposed mine site is on public conservation land near the largest current opencast mining operation in New Zealand, State-owned Solid Energy’s Stockton coal mine.
Green Party Conservation spokesperson Eugenie Sage expressed her disappointment following the Prime Minister’s remarks in the House of Parliament that the Denniston mine could proceed due to historical consent.
“It’s disappointing that the Prime Minister doesn’t seem to realise that the Conservation Minister still has an access application to consider,” Ms Sage said.
“Coming here today is sending a strong signal to the Department of Conservation and the minister that the government will be approving this mine.””
http://www.newswire.co.nz/2012/03/prime-minister-mines-boos-jeers-on-street/
I guess what this really means is that the GP are lying through their teeth to get the votes and then intend to reneg on that once in govt and support the mining of the plateau 🙄
You can’t have it both ways Jenny. You want the GP to protest things to do with CC, but when they do, you tell lies about them.
I have never said that the Green Party are “against” mining the Denniston Plateau. I have said that the Green Party are prepared to bargain this away to get cabinet positions.
This is something that you don’t deny.
It is entirely possible to be against something, and still do the opposite.
If the Green Party really wanted to stop Denniston they should immediately release a press statement now that they will not be part of any administration either National or Labour that let it proceed.
This would certainly give the investors and shareholders at Bathurst Resources pause for thought, before ploughing any more money into developing this mine.
“I have said that the Green Party are prepared to bargain this away to get cabinet positions.”
Please show some evidence for that statement.
The few politicians that I’ve spoken too have confirmed that it is only the top 4-5 cabinet ministers including the PM that get to effect any real change (with the exception of private members bills of course). The rest are just warming the bench and making up the numbers in the hope that one day they will be in the top 5. Perhaps the greens have realised this and have made a judgement call to let denniston go through so they can effect greater change with cabinet positions.. possibly even legislation to stop or at least phase out coal mining altogether amongst other things.
Maybe they have PP. But your wondering out loud is different than Jenny telling lies about the GP by stating opinion as fact. She’s just making it up.
Myself, I doubt that any decisions have been made at this stage. I also think that the GP has the potential to change MMP and how coalition govts form. No idea if they will though. Much depends on how many votes they get. It’s a long time until the next election.
You are either deliberately making stuff up about what I have said or not said. Or do you just misunderstand it?
I think weka is being more than fair in pointing out your deductive leaps.
When you say the greens have or haven’t issued a press release containing a specific hypothetical statement, that’s a verifiable fact.
When you ascribe a motive as to why they have or haven’t issued this specific hypothetical statement, you’re making stuff up.
What felix said.
Jenny, anytime you want to produce ANY evidence that what you say about the GP is true, fine by me.
Where did you get/hear this information from ? The wikipedia link is not working so I couldn’t verify it there, and I cannot find anything on the Green Party website about them downplaying either climate change or the Denniston mining effects. Please clarify.
Solo mums, I love you all the most.
You have the most important job of all, and often have to do it under a barrage of criticism.
Just remember “you only need a dick to run the country, it only takes a mother to raise a son.”
What ever you do, don’t take Paula’s pills unless you want to.
If my old girl had been coerced into stopping at one or two, I wouldn’t be 3 of 5.
I’m just a dreamer, but you could have an Einstein, Hawkins, Dr Barnardos or Florence Nightingale, and let’s face it, they can’t get here soon enough. So make love, not Paula’s day. Get any stick at WINZ and we’ll come down and contracept their mouths.
Track 9 @ http://www.al1en.org
Alpha 1
I hear what they say and I know that it’s rough. It beats you down.
Every night on the news when the going gets tough. They put you down.
You know solo mum, down my road, it’s all right. You aint so bad.
You’re not on your own Alpha one, 3 of 5. Born Alpha tribe.
Lift your head up little sister. Lift your face up to the son.
Don’t let anyone say you’re shit, love. Make them always prove you’re wrong.
Take that flower by the hand, love. And then you’ve got to make him understand.
He’s got to stand up for all the sisters if he wants to be an Alpha man.
I know what they say and I know that it’s wrong. But they wheel you out.
Every night on the news when they’ve done something wrong. Appease the crowd.
You know solo mum, on my road, we’re all right. We aint so bad.
You’re not on your own Alpha one, 3 of 5. with your Alpha pride.
Keep your head up pretty sister. Hold your face up to the sun.
We don’t let anyone say we’re shit, love. We don’t ever let anyone say we’re wrong.
Take the flower by his hand, love. Teach him how to grow up strong.
You only need a dick to run the country. You only need a mother to raise a son.
Merry Christmas to Te Pati Maori, i have had cause to ponder today just what it would take for the once promising Maori Party to come to it’s senses,
The loss of both Sharple’s and Flavell’s seats in 2014 should just about do it…
Little birds tell me that Tony Ryall is to be the new minister for education. Quelle surprise.
Mmmm, now that will be interesting. Who gets health?
Return of Nick Smith?
The Carter’s in or out of the Parliament confuse me,but, the current one with the back-woodsy type portfolio that i cannot remember the name of and who is said to be the next Speaker of the House,
I think Nick Smith is going to pick up Carter’s portfolio when they drag Him back from Siberia for a vodka laced rehabilitation, it’s thought that Carters portfolio is so obscure,(it must be if i can’t remember what it is). that even Smith is unlikely to make a hash of it, but hats off to Nick i bet it don’t take him long to do so…
Do you mean the little bird on the TV news the other night, me thinks that Slippery will keep His word on Hekia remaining right where she is,(that’s cause for definite surprise),
I cannot see anyone in Nationals line-up capable of doing the job Ryall has with the Health portfolio have and Hekia is doing one hell of a good job destroying the peace of mind of the Education sector which is what i believe the outcome sought by Slippery’s National Government really is,
Wreck the ability of the sector to function properly, destroy any individual schools ability to budget properly with NO-NO-Pay and across the field ‘they’ are halfway to replacing the Boards with hand picked Commissioners,
Hell the Bizness sector has probably been in Slippery’s ear about just how expensive it is to set up a charter school and why should they have to when there are 1000’s of schools out there just ripe for a negative take-over from the charter schools mob…
No, my little birds perch considerably closer to power than the media
The words “break the unions” were uttered
Tony Ryall should remember that all political careers end in failure.
If he succeeded in ‘breaking the unions’ in education then that would amount to the most radical ‘reform’ of the education sector achieved by any government. So much for this being a ‘centrist’ government.
It would also lead to the crumbling of what has been a consistently high quality state education system and leave the door wide open to the overall educational quality reductions that come from privatising mass education (e.g., would one ‘provider’ ever share its ‘successful’ educational IP with another? If so, why? Markets inevitably create distortions in social systems of cooperation. :-)).
I say this simply because the collective values of the teaching profession, as currently supported through a unionised workforce, are part of what is needed to produce quality public education. Those values are not the foundation of mass private education.
So, if you are correct in that intention, Ryall’s appointment as education minister would either be a disaster for his career or a disaster for public education. If I were Ryall I would not want the former – for obvious reasons – and I also wouldn’t want the latter.
Why would he wish to go down in history as the minister who undermined public education and initiated a decline in educational attainment in New Zealand’s children? The so-called ‘tail’ would inevitably lengthen significantly. (And don’t get me onto supposed high level ‘accountability’ measures to ensure schools/children ‘achieve’ – they would be laughable if they weren’t so dangerous.)
(WYSIWYG doesn’t seem to appear as an option anymore for me.)
Sure it is, your little bird probably watched the same news item on TV3 as what i did…
You are both incorrect and tiresome.
24 hours ago TV3 news was saying exactly the same as what you are about the future prospects of Hekia,
Perhaps you could ask your ‘little birdy’ to be a lot less tardy in the future, after all what’s the point of having a ‘little birdy’ if they are beaten by the MSM in breaking the latest gossip…
Well I’m inclined to take pop at his word. Nothing wrong with having scuttlebutt arrive from several independent sources….
i will take the hint…
The media were speculating, quite accurately as it happens. I wasn’t. You seem to have the impression I was trying to impress you. mate, I wouldn’t [deleted]. [ B – Be nice 😉 ]
i read the other day, trees are not being replanted in our country as fast as they are being harvested.
-Ent (whistle)
(and that is not the Kaka’s fault either)
🙂
“Consumptionomics”
This was just on National Radio. Worth while checking out, right now.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/writers/audio/2541235/chandran-nair-consumptionomics.asx