What I thought capitalism was just fine Ad, us doomsayers who were saying structurally it was weak as piss were dismissed by you and yours.
It takes almost total collapse, pain and suffering for middle NZ – for any of you to take notice. Well take notice- this is what it like all the time for the weakest in this society.
Capitalism is a failed project. Time to grow up and change the economy.
I'm not aware of any country that has practised free market capitalism. I know plenty that have practised market economics, and as a result we have seen millions lifted out of poverty, and the standard if living for most westerners rise to well above anything ever experienced in history.
You said capitalism. That is in itself a straw man, because in it's pure form no country practices it, least of all NZ. So your comment " Time to grow up and change the economy" is meaningless.
Is it just me, or does Raveen Jaduram, the CEO of Watercare, come across as curiously detached about the current water problems in Auckland, and acting like he is simply observing an incomprehensible slow moving train wreck that is quite beyond his control? His public utterances thus far display no sense or urgency or agency on his part and a sort of fatalistic shoulder shrugging abdication of responsibility.
The guy should be jumping up and down, but instead he just seems to be meandering along as an useless CEO of a monopoly utility…
The architects of the Auckland region's local body restructuring made sure his particular empire was well-insulated, figuring it would be the first on the block. He has no connection with citizens, only with customers of a monopoly.
I think they devised a formula sometime ago for CEO and senior staff both in the private and public sectors. The higher the salary, the more insulated and out of touch and less accountable you are allowed to be.
The reality is droughts we are not adapting to the need to use less water.
Droughts are becoming more common yet everyone is looking to the govts to solve the problem.
Farmers have had to face this problem for nearly 30 years but are largely farming for what was happening 30 years ago.Some farmers have buried 3 to 4 yrs of silage to mitigate climate change,changing feed crops not over stocking.
City dwellers need to change habits as well cars can stay dirty.Houses don't need water blasting, gardens need to be drought resistant.Washing Machines water efficient ,Showers shorter and more efficient.
Blaming everything on watercare is not going to solve the longterm problem.
There does not need to be any long term problem about Auckland water. At present Auckland takes 1% of the Waikato flow. Even if that increased to 5% (which would be twice Auckland’s normal daily usage) it would be literally unnoticeable in terms of the river.
The current problem is entirely due to a lack of forward planning to take account of droughts. Water are has operated on the basis that the pipeline installed 20 years ago would be enough. In the meantime the population has virtually doubled.
So the current problem is due to lack of future proofing using a readily available water source at our back door.
At 150 million litres/day taken by Watercare, that's 1.7 cubic metres per second. Out of an annual mean flow of 330ish cubic metres/second at Tuakau. So about 0.5%.
Current Waikato river mean flows are way above historical averages since the 1980s when the headwaters of rivers that used to flow into the Rangitikei, Whanganui, Whangaehu etc got diverted into the Tongariro power scheme. That increased the mean annual flow of the Waikato by about 29 cubic metres/second.
He's clearly cognisant of the ubiquitous sense of entitlement that has long characterised Auckland citizenry. They've always felt entitled to use sprinklers regardless of droughts. First sign of getting real would be to eliminate car washes. Didn't happen last time the reservoirs were this low.
I recall when the headlines were blaring dire emergency, heading into Les Mills & seeing the showers running continuously even though nobody was using them. The dork was actually then current mayor of Ak, blathering on air about water conservation. Typical rightist Aucklander, I thought. Aucks never change.
You are missing the word "some" in several of your sentences. Including it appropriately would make your comment more accurate… but admittedly less dramatic.
Thank Jenny Shipley for corporatising essential council services.
Before a clerk of water services was paid a decent salary for doing the same job probably the equivalent of $150 ,000 to $200,000 in today's money perfectly adequate for a local govt job.
Corporatization was supposed to make these CCO's more efficient.
Reality is cost's have risen efficiency gains dubious and the service users left high and Dry.
The government needs to step in a fix Aucklands water woes . Sure it's a drought but its government policies that have flooded the city with migrants ,both kiwi and foreign!
Nah the absolute inaction over late summer when it was becoming apparent supplies were dropping fast.
Instead they put the house on a change of season bringing rain, realistically we should be looking to manage fresh water year round so drastic steps are less likely.
The reason for that seems obvious. There's the added expense of an interpreter on any overseas visit = probably more than one when visiting/grovelling the U.S
Looking on the bright side, we've dodged both those bullets. Simon wouldn't know what justice was if it came up & bit him on the arse, and he's never had a clue about foreign affairs either. Todd oughta give him race relations (to keep us entertained).
He did that in QT as well, and slowed down how he said a question (after repeating it), very "mansplain"-ish, he's gonna be fun to watch (in a cringe comedy kinda way).
Mr Todd will very soon receive his Muller knighthood. For he will have done what National and Hooton always does: namely
He will have offered the wealthy National Voters large reductions in tax payments.
Not even glancing over the thing we once called the Middle Class – but building the shameful poverty National has built up for decades, Courtesy of the savage NZ Landlords and the low wage Hounds.
Maybe Grant Robertson and Treasury will develop an equality in New Zealand's Fiscal arrangements.
After all is said and done – the duty of our Parliament is to build a Democracy. A thing Muller and his mates know nothing about. We are Not to build a bunch of weatlthy thieves such as present day Nationals.
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson told RNZ the new offering was a "very clear" admission that base benefit rates were not enough to live on.
…
The Greens had pushed for all benefits to be increased to the new Covid-19 level, she said, but had so far been unsuccessful in getting that over the line.
…
"Both New Zealand First and Labour need to come to the table on this."
In October 2017, the Green Party co-leader James Shaw signed an agreement with Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, agreeing to support the government on matters of confidence and supply.
In return, Labour made a number of commitments including one to "overhaul the welfare system".
Public grandstanding becomes inevitable when you are ineffective in intra-party negotiations, I suppose. You'd think that the co-leaders would be forthright and honest about that – but no. Typical politicians. Treat the public with contempt and they will do it right back to you. Inept.
Do tell us how the Greens could have been more effective in intra-party negotiations. I'd really like to know how you see that. Because I can't see how the Greens can negotiate better on welfare if Labour and NZF are against what they want. Please explain how they can.
Okay, let's assume Labour & NZF were indeed opposed to the Greens position: I would immediately flush out why. Not just have all the cards on the table, but for the voters to see them. I cannot accept that it is in our national interest to indulge the cover-up.
Then the onus would instantly be on Labour to justify their opposition. That has to be done in reference to the memo of understanding or whatever deal the Greens made after the 2017 election that got them into the troika situation.
We would then have a media frenzy examining the pros & cons of the Labour justification: it would hold up – or not. It could expose a cleavage within Labour, right? Neoliberals vs socialists. The latter supporting the Green position.
Using triangulation within the govt only gets the Greens so far. If they come out of a negotiation as losers they must use the public as third party in the triangle. Grandstanding doesn't achieve that – it merely comes across to the public as losers whimpering. Greens using the triangle as leverage to produce suitable outcomes is the missing bit. Jacinda will always compromise for the greater good. That's the desired outcome. They just need to engineer it!
The flaw in the above reasoning is whether the public mood will support the Greens. I have no rational basis for optimism on that point – just a hunch that the kiwi preference for a fair go for all will guide them to see that the Greens have got the issue right. I'm confident that suitable framing of the issue by the Greens will achieve that result. I suspect that whatever framing they used in the negotiation is root of the current problem…
I was sure I had explained that carefully! I see no evidence they have explained their negotiation failure. Nor that they are attempting to include the public in their process (participatory democracy). Just doing back-room deals (that fail) in non-smoke-filled rooms is merely traditional politics without the smoke. You can't cause a political paradigm shift by being so old-fashioned. Inclusion is the zeitgeist. That they don't get such a simple principle is depressing.
Add to that process failure the key principle; to win public support you must explain your political positioning on issues. What we got was her lobbying for beneficiaries plus her reminder of Labour's commitment. No explanation offered for the negotiation failure. Reluctance to inform the public of that sends the wrong signal. Not only would beneficiaries like to know who to blame, I bet media pros would too. She would rather National grabs the headlines? Any publicity is good became a political truism long ago. Did nobody tell her?
"to win public support you must explain your political positioning on issues."
MD just did that. She explained their political positioning on welfare, in response to Labour's.
If I have understood you correctly, your main point here is that the process of policy development isn't transparent? I would agree with that. I'm not sure to what extent the Greens can do something about that, although I agree that they should be saying something. There will be some expectation of confidentiality. Breaking that will harm relationships, so there is a balance between going against Labour and NZF and being able to work with them (eg in negotiations). I mean, what is she supposed to say? Hey NZ, Labour wouldn't have such a stupid policy if it weren't for NZF, who actively blocked our suggestions on how to so this payment in a way that was better for all NZers.
One thing that is clear is that lots of people, including those that comment on politics publicly, don't understand how parliament works. Or government. Or the Greens. I wonder if it would help if the Greens just started pointing this stuff out more generally.
People slam the Greens for not using leverage, but the Green kaupapa is relationship based, they don't do macho politics. I like the idea of bringing the public into the process, just not sure how that would work. I would probably agree with your strategy more if I was more confident in how NZers would respond. I'm not, and the evidence for that is the people voting Labour instead of Green who used to vote Green. They stopped voting Green after Turei's speech and with the rise of Ardern. They haven't gone back. Maybe they just don't care that much about welfare, or maybe they think that Labour is getting the settings right, despite three years of it being explained how they're not.
If I have understood you correctly, your main point here is that the process of policy development isn't transparent?
No. Internal party policy process isn't the problem. Political positioning is something that caucus decides, to maximise impact on voters. I was explaining why they got it wrong on this particular occasion.
The vital thing is not to appear in public as impotent losers. Nothing is more guaranteed to make voters lose confidence in the Greens than that. The only possible way to prevent the contagion effect of that perception snowballing in the public mind is via suitable framing – that's the x factor missing.
The best frame would be via explanation of the outcome: NZF wouldn't agree, Labour wouldn't agree, both wouldn't agree. They not only failed to specify which reason produced the outcome, they seem not to have grasped the necessity of communicating an explanation to voters. Once again, clueless public relations. Do they not even use all those donations to hire somebody to explain this stuff – or did they hire someone useless??
Imagine you were hired to 'explain this stuff'. Could you provide an example of the way you would 'communicate an explanation to voters' without the 'missing x-factor'?
As quoted here, Marama apparently did communicate an explanation to voters without that essential framing. So the best answer to your query is to read hers. Keeping in mind the technical possibility that she did explain which of those three viable explanations caused the impasse, and that bit didn't get included in the quote.
I did read it and came to a different conclusion to you.
So, seeing as you have diagnosed the issue and determined their PR people are 'useless', I was asking you, in your wisdom, to furnish us with what you think the 'essential framing' should have been.
I wasn't talking about internal policy development, I was talking about the government's policy development, which is influenced by the in-closet negotiations that happen between Lab/NZF and Lab/Greens (don't know if there is a G/NZF thing or a L/NZF/G). It's clear from the rest of my explanation that I was referring back to what we were discussing.
Now you've brought in something new, that the Greens' PR is an issue, because if they oppose Labour on a policy that they didn't get wins on they appear to be losers and people won't like them. Which takes us back to the framing. You seem to be saying that the Greens should take confidential information from negotiation processes and make it public as a way of blaming Labour and NZF for the GP not getting gains. Have I got that right?
Even if this were a wise strategy (I've already pointed out the problem of breaking trust like that), the GP aren't in Cabinet and don't have access to what L/NZF discuss.
I do see value in someone explaining to the public how government works, and how this one in particular works.
As an aside, your argument would be much easier to follow if you could resist sticking the boot into the Greens each time. I can't be bothered trying to parse past that much more. Hmm, maybe there's a communication fail there on your part.
Okay, sorry, I didn't get that. You're right that govt policy formulation is the underlying process in the situation, of course. If confidentiality prevents them explaining that to the public, I would view it as a design flaw – I haven't seen any such clause and am curious if it derives from MMP constitutionally or is something invented by Labour. Do you know?
If Labour really are trying to prevent transparent governance happen, they ought to be held accountable. As regards pointing to mistakes by the Greens, my expectation is that consciousness will be raised about how politics is best done. Learning comes from experience, and when ingrained beliefs prevent that others must catalyse the elucidation necessary. So it's a helping motivation…
There was a report on TV3 news just now – Metiria has come out on the issue, I saw a tweet shown with a naughty word blanked out.
I did check online to see what the text of the Labour/Greens agreement says re confidentiality, and it became clear that they are unable to explain such negotiation failures to the public – so my criticism lacked a realistic basis, really. It is a substantial flaw in our democratic system to use a confidentiality agreement to prevent the public learning which party is discriminating against a significant minority group in the electorate!
A tweet from Turei? Not seeing anything from her two twitter accounts.
Yes, this is what I have been saying. The process is locked up, and the public are excluded, and this isn't the fault of the Greens. I doubt it is on Labour, more convention that has developed during MMP. The coalition partners (L/NZF) are bound by Cabinet rules. I couldn't remember what was in the agreements but the Greens would also be respectful of confidentiality because the relationships still need to be functional.
I would guess that NZF are a big factor, given they campaign in a way that is blind to the electorate.
This is why I'm saying that talking about the set up is important. We really have a poor form of democracy.
I thought that's what I saw but if you want to investigate it was from their political reporter (Jenna Lynch, if I remember that right) and they will probably have it on the Newshub site in print form some time this evening. Seemed contraversial, so I'd be surprised if it never shows…
Yeah, if you do write something, would be good to include the limitation imposed on the free speech of parliamentarians by the system. People do expect politicians to explain conflict between parties to both media and public (not just me being idiosyncratic). Using the agreement clause like a gag order isn't merely just a bad look. It blocks transparency, therefore is unprincipled. That said, they signed it, so must act in accord with it.
The Greens did have 'welfare overhaul' written into its confidence and supply agreement with Labour but other than a couple of minor tweaks not much progress has been made.
They need to do a lot more to convince voters that having the Green Party in Government is actually effecting change.
The writers also conclude it is the Greens fault apparently.
To blame the Greens in this situation is simply trolling-it is all about coalition government under MMP. The Greens would be more effective in these matters if they got 10% in September and NZF 4.9%
You might wise up a little if you read what Pete George cited below, huh? I'm not blaming the Greens, I'm pointing to the lack of leadership exemplified by the mishandling of the negotiation.
Now if it turns out that either Labour or NZF are refusing to honour that agreement, I will happily blame them. But the current info on the situation suggests the Greens have decided not to inform the media & public about that. Presuming you have heard of the principle of transparent governance, do you approve their apparent decision to act in contradiction??
I still think you are both (Weka and Dennis) missing the point that it doesn't matter how well the Greens negotiate, if NZF don't like it then its gets voted down and so doesn't happen.
So all the Greens are doing is getting the best outcome they can get within this straightjacket, and then spinning it as a good outcome because some Green elements have squeezed through. That is politics. It increases their profile and the public's perception of the party as achievers.
To attack them for "public grandstanding" and being "ineffective" is completely unfair, without basis and purposefully inflammatory i.e trolling. They are perfectly entitled to scream to the high heavens how they would really have liked the negotiations to have turned out.
To then point me to Pete George (of all people) to prove your case is simply rubbing salt in the wound, and says it all. (He ignores the reality described above in his post below.)
I say yet again in TS; the only way we will have a government that is in any way genuinely left of centre/progressive is to Party Vote Green. If the Greens don't get 5% we will probably have PM Muller.
All you are really achieving here is exhibiting failure to comprehend the relevance of the clauses Pete George quoted – even though Marama's reference to them was flagged by quote at the top of the thread!
Do you not understand that the agreement between Labour & the Greens operates just like a contract?? And that Marama is endeavouring to alert kiwis to Labour's failure to honour that contract?
That's the guts of the situation. It's how MMP operates!! All them red herrings of yours aren't going to change that fact.
no, I largely agree with you and disagree with Dennis. I just thought the point about the invisibility of how government policy is developed was worth looking at. It's daft to blame the Greens for that.
And yes, the only way we get a left wing govt is to vote Green. My personal view is that slagging off the Greens all the time just makes a L/NZF govt more likely.
Otoh, I'm trying really hard today to not write a post called Fuck You Labour, so I can understand the sentiment of feeling deeply disappointed in a political party.
I vote Green but I have plenty of sympathy for Labour and I organised a public meeting for David Parker in Wanaka for the 2017 election. I wouldn't do this again in September because of the fast track RMA reform he is supporting. The public scrutiny afforded by the RMA is an important check and balance.
I'm also highly dubious about the two-tier unemployment payment policy just announced. This should be extended to all unemployed over the same 12 weeks-this would give a cash boost to the economy and would be fair. I thought Jacinda was into fairness.
10. Overhaul the welfare system, ensure access to entitlements, remove excessive sanctions and review Working For Families so that everyone has a standard of living and income that enables them to live in dignity and participate in their communities, and lifts children and their families out of poverty
And maybe here:
Relationship to other agreements
Both parties to this agreement recognise that Labour will be working with other parties both in terms of coalitions and confidence and supply arrangements. Labour agrees that it will not enter into any other relationship agreement which is inconsistent with this agreement and the Green Party and Labour agree that they will each act in good faith to allow all such agreements to be complied with.
But since then Greens have not got close to negotiating what they wanted despite this formal agreement.
It's too late to complain now, except for campaign purposes.
"Overhaul the welfare system" Putting Wellbeing at the heart of things matters. It drives all future actions, even in a 1 in 100 situation.
Perhaps the budget was going to do that, we will never know. I hear lots of fear and anger coupled with hope for change.
Many of us feel more secure with this Government, and trust their direction more than any we have experienced for a while.
They too are people who will not always "get it right"., But they have shown a capacity to accept and correct errors.
I think it is wrong to label them as part of regimens that have gone before, as they have tried to keep their promises, though often blocked by friends.
Jacinda Ardern is a rare being, and is recognised world wide for her advocacy and communication. We are fortunate to have someone of her calibre. She has kept her Ministers on track with few exceptions, and promoted high standards.
Decisions to be made in the near term will not be easy, but she will show kindness tenacity and skill.
Many aspects of our lives have been improved, and she has shown us the way. Help each other, support those in need, share more and base our lives around keeping our part of the world functioning.
Some will say that is simplistic, but in lock down we discovered we need essential services (and they should be paid for). We need food producers. We need shelter. We need education and good health, but most of all we need each other with all our faults a foibles.
We relearned what wants were, and looked askance at our collected debri. We learned most people want their friends and relatives to be well, and strangers are just folk we have not met yet, so we smile and wave when we see them, put teddies in windows for the children.
We learned that for some this will be more frightening than for others given their health or starting point in life.
The most important thing we learned was we can help others and ourselves. We can innovate create and share ideas thanks to technology. We need to believe we can make a difference, and then we will. IMO
It's absolutely pointless overhauling the welfare system/increasing benefits unless there is a corresponding overhaul of housing and rents. Much more urgent impetus on state housing – driven by the state, not property developers, is needed. This government also wimped out on CGT, so residential property speculation remains as an attractive "investment" option. Much of the benefit increases will just go into landlords' pockets. All the talk about poverty and wellbeing is just that – talk. A rent freeze for a couple of years would be a good place to start in the mean time.
I thought Winston made it fairly plain he blocked that. A coalition has to compromise even when it is painful. They have increased the house building and continue to do so, and have begun training apprentices again. It is not much over 2 and a half years!!. They may get a bigger mandate this time.
The vote buying welfare industry is changing quickly, the new two tier system proves all animals are equal but some are more equal than others, comrade.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Muller’s suggestion of a non-combative election where he talked about ‘’what was right for families, not what was wrong about the Government," is a very different kind of brand to the National Party of old.
All the while his colleagues repeated the word nice over and over again.
…
It's clear the battle for power has had a makeover, if politicians are now competing for who can be the nicest and kindest.
They are two quite simple words, but both will be used heavily to describe Ardern and Muller's brands as they face off in the election in September.
Problem there is that National have two "nice" senior MPs in Kaye and Adams who are both more experienced than Muller, had bigger roles in the previous government, have some crossover appeal to voters and are much better performers in the media.
So, er, why did they pick Muller? Presumably to look like the CEO with balls (sic) who "gets things done".If they really wanted "nice" they had better options.
Kaye and Adams standing dutifully either side of him while he outlined the shuffle yesterday just seemed to highlight the way National Party was overlooking their senior women MPs.
You've got it! It's the kiwi bloke strategy. It's the front row of a rugby scrum look. Muller is the hooker. He's out trying to hook votes. The other two are mere props.
As a hooker would he sell his soul for a vote? Too damned right.
I assume Adams definitely didn't, don't know if there was any discussion about the positions of Muller/Kaye ticket.
But we can be sure Collins and Kaye have future leadership ambitions after they lose (Adams might quit). They want to be leaders in government. Not opposition.
So it really just emphasises that National don't expect to win. Muller takes one for the team, then the real contenders will target 2023.
I suppose it depends on whether they wanted to be leader AND warranted it over Muller.
Just because Ardern is very good as a politician and rightly deserves top spot in Labour, this does not mean every other women MP currently in parliament should automatically deserve to be a leader of a party.
It is like the line of Goff, Shearer, Cunliffe and Little are wiped from peoples memories, just because Ardern is a very good leader now.
I'm just suggesting that on the (limited) evidence so far Muller doesn't come across as the best candidate for the job. If after Bill quit they'd picked Amy Adams (on merit) instead of Bridges they might not have been in this mess.
Maybe it was a too obvious a direct match try to Ardern though.
No idea.
TBF to Bridges, he did keep them in the running through a lot of crap, even if he did have the communication skills of the Swedish Chef in the muppets.
those photos of adams and kaye, standing and looking upwards in awe at their leader, remind me of many of trumps photo ops. what a man! we are in his aura!
Mr Muller has launched a petition aimed at pressuring the Government to overturn an Environment Court decision ordering the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to establish marine reserves on reefs around Motiti Island about 10 km off Tauranga Harbour.
Motiti Rohe Moana Trust advisor Te Atarangi Sayers says hapū have pushed for more than half a century to protect their fisheries.
The court’s decision was a major win for the hapū, and they don’t want to see their efforts to bring life back to the moana stymied by political posturing.
Its looking pretty clear where Todd Muller stands on Maori issues and for that matter the environment. They're at the bottom of his list of priorities – if they’re on the list at all. Plays well to the demographic he's looking to gather into the fold though.
So much for the "nice" Mr Muller who is honest and straightforward and is not interested in attacking opponents.
Yes. Basically, they could no longer avoid not signing up to something and Muller managed to water down James Shaw's bill to such a degree it ended up a very weak imitation of its former self. Muller then agreed to sign it.
That nice Mr Muller last night on Q&A did not come across as nice or competent. An awful interview with nil substance. The panel was more interesting. Lila Harre was very clear whereas the usual confidence of Thomas was subdued.
I was interested to note that the Nats have (had) a number of "Todds" in the line-up, so I wondered if it was short for some other name, but no it's not.
It is its own name, and it has its own meaning.
In English Baby Names the meaning of the name Todd is: Fox. Tod is a Scottish nickname meaning a clever or wily person.
If Mula (or should I say Maga?) tries to play the "kind" and "nice" game against Jacinda he will be playing on a steeply sloping pitch into a gale-force wind.
Will Faafoi grow a pair and do something about the landscape in RNZ now.
Hooton's played the system to line his pockets in a partisan way along with others for years. That’s without looking at his highly questionable personal morality.
Just get national MP’s on and be done with it, cheaper also.
Granny does as she always has but it's not taxpayer funded till COVID came along.
Taxpayers funded soapboxes for the shills needs to stop if RNZ is to be of service to the people of NZ….all people not just the acolytes of the neolib construct.
Agreed Tricle….Hooton is capable of sounding quite rational for 70% of the time but then he goes completely off the rails for the next 30%….definitely not who you would want as chief of staff.
I listened last night to muller on the Kathryn Ryan show from earlier that day.
i did comment on this website that his first speech was good. The interview with Kathryn not so much. She was tripping him up left right and centre. The main thrust of his position was we are better than them. 17 empty chairs at the cabinet table, their plan is not coherent. And he would really understand small business. He is endanger of sounding like a white male whose knows it all (but hasn’t done it yet) saying” move aside little lady. Three is an edge of arrogance here that I think Kiwis will switch off from. An actually he was boring. Apparently he was a bit of a train wreck on q and a last night, answering many questions by dropping in Amy Adams name. Oh and Simons not going anywhere
forgive me for quoting mike Hoskins but “happy days”
I agree JanM. I could hardly bear to watch Muller's interview on Q & A – I even felt a tiny bit of pity for him. The Breakfast show usually follows up on Q & A – I was waiting for some commentary this morning – but nothing…
"……. it was downright embarrassing" I agree, but then I have to check myself.
Do you really think Todd Muller ( or half his tribe for that matter ) give a shit what you 'feel'.
Same shit but a substantially different stink for the Bridges tribe. I imagine that little tribe is now considered very,, very inferior – so let's throw them a bone and a promise or there could conceivably an uprising in the future (going forward, in this space)
If 10 households default on their mortgages it is those households problem….if 10,000 default it is the banks problem….and consequently everyones problem.
Just thinking about how people cite experience in big business, such as fonterra in Miller’s case, as being a great asset to running a country. But business is run with the key focus of making a profit. This driver is not a key focus of running a country. Sure finance ministers endeavour to balance the books, but that is a means to an ends.
re miller’s embarrasing a and a interview, it occurs to me he has had very little experience of being interviewed. This could be a real disaster for the Nats. Meanwhile Amy who interviews we’ll surely must be wondering why she didn’t get the job in the first place. Meanwhile in the botany electorate Luxton is wanting Todd to fail. And do we really expect Simon not to sabotage when he’s back. Someone should make a soap out of this
" it occurs to me he has had very little experience of being interviewed."
That's why the superficial comparison with Ardern 2017 is false. Another late change, and it worked, so National could do it too – that's the line.
But Ardern must have given 100s of live interviews by then. Starting with TV's "Young Guns" in 2008, she was increasingly prominent in the media. It's a skill set that can only be learned through experience, and is unrelated to business meetings or whatever Muller brings to the job.
He was undone by something as simple as the time delay. It made him look hesitant and evasive. That might seem trivial but it is something you have to get used to and allow for. He needs to learn fast.
Agree re him not managing the time delay very well but I also think there was some evident frustration showing on his part that Tame wouldn’t just accept everything he said and move on to another subject. He looked a man more used to holding court rather than someone relishing the to-and-fro of debate. Doesn’t bode well for the campaign.
Also did he seem, how shall I say it, a little sweaty?
Unless he's proposing new policies, his job is simply to know his party's policies and promote them. Falling back on empty buzz words is feeble.
I honestly don't know which of the Bridges/Goldsmith economic policies are still in place, and which ones aren't. And I've heard him interviewed half a dozen times.
Business meetings too easily suffer from deference to authority, group-think, ideological controls that render some things 'unsayable', and participants afraid of losing their positions of prominence. Corporations are "private tyrranies" (Chomsky) and bringing the habits developed there into the public domain is not often a good idea.
There are sooooo many reasons why the todd change is no switch to Ardern.
Ardern was deputy leader. Muller was who-ller.
Ardern was visibly different to Little – not so much gender: energy, pace of delivery, enthusiasm. Muller doesn't seem to be particularly different to Bridges.
Ardern changed the game against the nats – "let's do this" literally within a few days. Muller… ?
The leadership change for Labour was amicable. This one – not so much.
Labour knew that leadership was a poisoned chalice – Ardern took one for the team. I doubt anyone else wanted it. National has multiple pretenders sharpening their blades.Some of them might even think they can turn things around in seven weeks, so Muller needs to watch his back until August at least.
"Just thinking about how people cite experience in big business, such as Fonterra in Miller’s case, as being a great asset to running a country."
Does working inside say Fonterra count as business experience? I would have thought that the hairdresser or mechanic running his own business or engineer running his workshop with 20 workers are businesses people with genuine experience with trial/error determination coping with losses etc etc. Lets not rate Fonterra/Zespry as qualifying MPs.
FPP: a recipe for gerrymandering, perverse undemocratic outcomes, and a two party system of rotating dictatorship. Kiwis chucked it because they were sick of getting Rogered and Ruthanasia'd by radicals
Looks to me like more than 400k voters have switched allegiance from National to Labour since February … a profound realignment … possibly (entering the realm of speculation here) predicated first & foremost upon the gratitude of older voters.
Don't rule out National crashing like 2002.
In some senses, a different context … but also some striking similarities:
Up against an unusually popular First Term Govt & PM, National's Oligarchs facilitated Bill English's toppling of Jenny Shipley in October 2001, 10 Months out from the 2002 Election.
The leadership spill had zero effect at first – no post-leadership bounce, with the Nats & broader Opposition forces flatlining over the next few months. Over the New Year, however, a clear Leftward swing of around 4 points from National to Labour emerged as softly-aligned Nats began to bail, followed by another 2 months of relative stability, then another small swing from Nat-to-Lab.
But most significantly from our 2020 point of view, Nat support very suddenly & very shockingly went into freefall over the final 3 weeks of the campaign … with almost all of this very late swing heading to conservative, centrist & Right parties … ACT surging, NZF & UF more than tripling their support (albeit with the help of the somewhat notorious 'Worm-Debate'). Nats plunged from 30% down to 21% over a remarkably short period of time, with ACT almost doubling from 4 to 7%, NZF from 3 to 10% & UF exploding from zilch to 7 in the blink of an eye.
With the re-election of the Clark Labour Govt seemingly inevitable, more astute (or, at least, pragmatic) National voters saw the writing on the wall … hence the Right vote significantly fragments as large numbers of 1999 Nats seek to provide a counterweight to any leftward thrust of the incoming Govt, in the process, if possible, keeping the Greens away from power. Meanwhile, true-believers on the Right follow their hearts & desert to ACT.
As a consequence, less than half of 1999 National supporters remain loyal, as the Party plunges to a historic low. Amongst a whole host of surprises, Labour wins the Party-Vote in all but 3 of National's Rural Heartland seats.
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Muller's toppling of Bridges & the release of the latest Colmar Brunton have occurred 4 Months out from the Election. Here's a comparison with the same point in 2002:
Well-reasoned, plausible. If Muller isn't adept at fronting media situations, it becomes likely. I stopped watching Q+A when it got too boring, but if he was as inadequate as commentators here suggest, that could become the determining trend.
I reckon the election will hinge as much on competing recovery plans as on leadership charisma. If the Nats get theirs out in front of voters before the coalition govt gets theirs out, perception that they are sufficiently on the ball to govern will form. If the govt gets theirs out first, they'll win as long as serious flaws don't emerge…
I wonder which of 2002 or 2011 is the better comparison. Labour didn't roll Goff, but a first term government with a popular, bullet-proof PM in the backdrop of a natural disaster has some similarities.
More mistakes from TM…..it seems he may be a front only for the Nats…a new face that is somehow, they hope, more acceptable to the electorate. Good times.
Todd Conehead’s gem was sticking with Nat super at 67 policy. Sure some time out from implementation, but people close to 65 will still likely not be impressed. Cost Labour votes previously.
So National are saying the younger retirees are going to pay double with less job security.
Paying the debt down and no early retirement robots taking more jobs.
Universal super should become UBI funded by a much bigger Cullen Fund + compulsory Kiwisaver.Then people can choose when to retire ie a builder could retire at 60 less physically demanding jobs can retire later.The builder may want to become a trainer or work in a bunnings store part time..
The 4 day week needs to be seriously considered the 40 hr week is old hat.
Time to be more adaptable,like farmers could have a 3 1/2 day week doing 35 hrs in 3 and a half days which would make easy shift changes.
Chris T it's not Noah's Ark. A woman has the top job in Labour. It is generally agreed in Labour they need more women on the front bench. They have gender equality policies to promote this. They haven't got there yet, but they are working on it.
Goldsmith: "My great-great grandfather had European wives and Māori wives, and so I've got lots of relatives across Ngāti Porou – I don't claim to be Māori myself.''
He could've added: "I'm proud to be descendant of a bi-racial polygamist." Some of these people haven't got a clue how to grab a headline…
At a time when a lot of older people who got to quite like the lockdown for the slower pace and are saying they could go a shorter week, Todd Boofhead says National will raise the retirement age.
Fuck me, the man can not read a room let alone the country. Nats to try for 25%. Go Team.
Chris T…re labour’s lack of women in the cabinet front row. They acknowledge that and have policies in place to develop gender equality in labour. Even so the front bench aren’t devoid of women, one has the top job.
i look forward to the problems Toddy is going to have when his promoted his team as the more competent and he just dumped two Maoris and two out of the three labour ministers he’s said are non performers are Maori. Oh and did we mention the MAGA hat.
it is not a good look when you promote your team as more competent and then one of them makes the unbelievable mistake of stating one her colleagues is Maori when he isn’t. Of course the other interesting thing is goldsmith refuted this immediately. So much support in this caucus, although really it was the only thing he could do
The interesting thing though is how badly they fluffed the response and how little support they got to smooth the blunder over from the rest rest of the caucus.
I only just realised the thing that really pisses me off about "plan b" Thornley. Read somewhere that the dude specialises in economic impacts of health interventions, yet he provided zero – ZERO! – information. Just repeated basically that "cure might be worse than the disease" wank. Where was his data? If he studies this shit, where's his prediction of how many people would be killed by the economic flow-on of L4? QALYs? Estimated mortality?
I bet that if he even did it, it's locked in a draw because it didn't suit his bullshit.
Tova O'Brien, I've not liked her style but I just saw she antagonises the Nat supporters too, so I tip my (non MAGA) hat to Ms O'Brien, she must be doing something right (she's getting accused on the Twitter for making up the Goldsmith Māori gaff, like she said, "you can't make this shit up!").
The most exciting takeaway from the National Party in Parliament today was that Chris Bishop has cut off his mullet and that Paul Goldsmith is from Ngati Epsom.
6 new cases in Western Australia today, all from a Kuwaiti live sheep export ship that was cleared to berth by Federal Border Force agents in spite of them being advised that at least 3 crew had ‘elevated temperatures’.
"Speaking to Stuff, Wade-Brown said she was running to maximise the party vote." "Issues of equality, climate change, and rivers matter to people. We've got an opportunity to do a green reset to Covid-19," she said. Wade-Brown is not among the 24 candidates on the Green Party list, and is not expected to make a serious play to win the seat."
"She had been a supporter of John Hart, who ran for the Green Party in the last two elections and only offered to stand when she learnt he was not planning to run again." National haven't selected their candidate yet, and Ron Mark "pulled 19 per cent of the electorate vote in 2017, with more coming from National party voters than Labour voters."
"Wairarapa-based List MP Kieran McAnulty will be running for Labour for a third straight election." Third time lucky, I reckon! "Wade-Brown said she would consider formally endorsing McAnulty for the electorate vote. "We're going to have those conversations over the next couple of weeks. I think he's very widely respected within the local community," she said."
He picked out the best of what people had been through in their lockdown experience and he made it last.
He put a carbon tax on emissions to pay for a Universal Basic Income (UBI). He electrified trains, buses, anything that would take a current. He put Manapouri hydropower into the grid for free energy. He broke the cycle of people trying to get rich out of houses and making them ever more unaffordable. To achieve the unachievable he simply flooded the market with affordable houses and apartments built by a 21st century Ministry of Works.
…
By the end of his four-decade run, the nation could not believe its good fortune, even in a time of plague.
I see the labour party is paying the recent unemployed twice what the already unemployed are getting.Reminds me of the last labour government who didn't pay working for families to beneficiaries.Elected by the poor govern for the rich
It appears that those nations with governed states and provinces have struggled a bit more with this pandemic.
Squabble with our brother while Grandma dies.
I'm a Cuomo fan, I like anyone that sounds like Tony Soprano and isn't indicted. I love it when they call a bird a boid. In spite of his declaration to keep politics out of it Andrew couldn't resist a stab at Kentucky Governor Mitch McConnell. Mitch had suggested that New York declare bankruptcy. Andrew offered a contrary view, this guy picked up the ball and ran with Andy's view…
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Radhika Raghav, Teaching Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Otago Netflix Indian director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known for his big-budget Bollywood production, featuring grand sets, star casts, meticulously choreographed dance sequences and lavish costumes, jewellery and furnishings. ...
Sir Robert devoted his life to disability rights after living in institutions in his younger years, says Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga | Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University Violence against women is not a women’s problem to solve, it is a whole of society problem to solve; and men in particular have to take responsibility. Those were the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Allen, Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Newcastle Snapshot freddy/ShutterstockPlans to revive an old coal-fired power station using bioenergy are being considered in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Similar plans for the station ...
Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
Lawyers representing two iwi as well as the Māori Women’s Welfare League on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn last week’s High Court decision on the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to summons Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Tribunal is currently investigating the Government’s decision to repeal section 7AA of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will introduce legislation to ban deepfake pornography and provide more funding for the eSafety Commission to pilot age-assurance technologies. The contribution of internet sites to gender-based violence was one major issue ...
Average ordinary time hourly earnings, as measured by the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), increased 5.2 percent in the year to the March 2024 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. Annual wage cost inflation, as measured by the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dimitrios Salampasis, FinTech Capability Lead | Senior Lecturer, Emerging Technologies and FinTech, Swinburne University of Technology Clem Onojeghuo/Unsplash In the digital era, the job market is increasingly becoming a minefield – demanding and difficult to navigate. According to the Australian Bureau ...
As of the March 2024 quarter, we can now look back on 20 years of data related to youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET), as collected by the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), according to figures released by Stats NZ today. "The ...
Thousands of workers attended public events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch today to celebrate International Workers’ Day (May Day), but union representatives are urging caution and vigilance over the Government’s blatantly "anti-worker" ...
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in the March 2024 quarter, compared with 4.0 percent in the previous quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
The PSA is warning the Government that the sensitive information of New Zealanders held by various agencies will fall into the wrong hands if the latest round of proposed cuts goes ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Talitha Best, Professor of Psychology, CQUniversity Australia Victoria Rodriguez/Unsplash How do sugar rushes work? – W.H, age nine, from Canberra What a terrific question W.H! Let’s explore this, starting with some of the basics. What is sugar? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karinna Saxby, Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne MART PRODUCTION/Pexels Increasing income support could help keep women and children safe according to new work demonstrating strong links between financial insecurity and domestic violence. ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark A Gregory, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT University The telecommunications industry faces a major shakeup following the release of the post-incident report on last November’s 12-hour Optus outage. Telecommunications companies will have to share more information with customers during future ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Eden Denyer, bookseller at Unity Books Auckland.Weirdest question/request you’ve had on the shop floorA mother came in looking for anything we might have on Alaskan bison as that was her little boy’s ...
NZCTU Economist Craig Renney said new data released by Statistics New Zealand shows the need for Government to act now, with unemployment rising from 3.4% to 4.3%. ...
The outpouring of anger over Maiki Sherman’s hyperbolic presentation of this week’s ‘nightmare’ poll is itself an overreaction, argues Stewart Sowman-Lund. Politicians love nothing more than to pretend they don’t care about polls. This week, deputy prime minister Winston Peters said he didn’t give a “rat’s derriere” about a TVNZ ...
Asia Pacific Report Ngāti Kahungunu in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay region has become the first indigenous Māori iwi (tribe) to sign a resolution calling for a “ceasefire in Palestine”, reports Te Ao Māori News. Reporter Te Aniwaniwa Paterson talked to Te Otāne Huata, who has been organising peace rallies ...
By Dale Luma in Port Moresby “We want grants and not concessional loans,” is the crisp message from Papua New Guinea businesses directly affected by the Black Wednesday looting four months ago. The businesses, which lost millions after the January 10 rioting and looting, say they need grants as part ...
Happy May Day. Join a union. Q: What’s worse than a staff break room where the only place to sit and have a cup of tea is on a teetering stack of old pornography magazines? A: Your boss replacing the magazine stacks with chairs that are “heartily encrusted with ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Former opposition leader Matthew Wale has been announced as the second prime ministerial candidate ahead of the election in Solomon Islands tomorrow. He will face off against former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele, who was announced by the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation ...
We get but one birthday a year – why not make it last as long as possible by scheduling as many meals with friends and family as you can? This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. How do you celebrate your birthday? Do you celebrate at ...
A Koi Tū discussion paper released today proposes sweeping changes to New Zealand’s media industry. The principal’s key author, Gavin Ellis, explains how journalists have a key role to play in making others value their role in society. This is an abridged version of a piece first published on knightlyviews.com ...
The Government’s spending cuts are again targeting support for Māori with proposed reform of the agency charged with advising on Māori wellbeing and development. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Douglas, Honorary Senior Lecturer, UNSW Aviation., UNSW Sydney The history of budget jet airlines in Australia is a long road littered with broken dreams. New entrants have consistently struggled to get a foothold. Low-cost carrier Bonza has just become the industry’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rosalind Dixon, Director, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW Sydney Australia is finally having a sustained conversation about violence against women and what we can do about it. It is more than time. Australian women and girls continue to experience ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne stockfour/Shutterstock Preliminary bulk billing data released this week shows a 2.1% rise in bulk billing up to March. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Schulz, Senior Lecturer, University of Adelaide Australia is once again grappling with how we can stop gendered violence in our country. Protests over the weekend show there is enormous community anger over the number of women who are dying and National ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University AnastasiaDudka/Shutterstock What if the government was doing everything it could to stop thieves making off with our money, except the one thing that could really work? That’s how it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Harrington, Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of Canterbury The Conversation It seems to be a time of old favourites. This month our experts have recommended two new seasons – the second season of Alone Australia (although ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland A bright Eta Aquariid meteor photobombed this photo of comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) in May 2020.Jonti Horner Meteors – commonly known as shooting stars – can be seen on any night of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Flannery, Honorary fellow, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock Current concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in Earth’s atmosphere are unprecedented in human history. But CO₂ levels today, and those that might occur in coming decades, did occur millions of years ago. ...
Winston Peters has been keen to dismiss speculation on our involvement in Aukus but will give a speech tonight on the direction of our foreign policy, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Usmar, Lecturer in Critical Media Literacies, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images With the coalition government’s ban of student mobile phones in New Zealand schools coming into effect this week, reaction has ranged from the sceptical (kids will just get ...
Hospitals around the country are not allowed to make a single hiring decision without the approval of Te Whatu Ora's head office, including for cleaners and administration staff. ...
A new report on protecting journalism and democracy in New Zealand recommends a levy be charged on global platforms like Facebook and Google to fund media firms undertaking public interest reporting. It also calls for the reinstatement of a powerful Broadcasting Commission to distribute public funding for journalism and other ...
On International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi and the wider union movement are celebrating the proud history of the labour movement during a tough time for working people. ...
From bills to beards, a walk through the former Green co-leader’s time in politics. After close to a decade in politics, James Shaw is preparing to bid farewell to parliament. Tonight will see the former minister deliver his valedictory address, certain to be a speech filled with Shaw’s trademark wit ...
Two months ago, MPs unanimously voted to give themselves a week off in Efeso Collins’ honour. On Tuesday, most were too busy to give even an hour of their time. The day Fa’anānā Efeso Collins died, parliament felt different. In a building that operates at a breakneck pace, everyone stopped ...
India’s election involves hundreds of millions of people and is a months-long affair. Here’s how voting works and what’s at stake.The biggest-ever election in world history started on April 19, with more than 10% of the world’s population eligible to vote. Elections in India, the world’s most populous country ...
After the Christchurch earthquake, the then-national civil defence boss compared his experience to “putting a team on the rugby field who have never ever played together before”. Now, eight years later – and following a damning inquiry into the emergency response of cyclones Gabrielle, Hale and the Auckland anniversary weekend floods – ...
“I had just come off the end of a major robbery case which I had been working on for six months when I got a call on the afternoon of September 1, 1992, that some remains had been found at a building site in Devonport, so I drove over with ...
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Comment: Journalists are very good at telling other people’s stories, but they fall well short when writing about their own profession. Perhaps that is why it is so undervalued. Every successive poll on the public’s attitude toward journalism is more alarming than the last. In the last month we have ...
Opinion: A young Māori woman and her Pacific partner arrive at their local hospital by ambulance. She has gone into labour at just under 24 weeks, but the couple haven’t recognised the symptoms – and don’t know the risks of premature birth for their baby. By the time they arrive, ...
Behind closed doors, NZ First will be arguing fiercely against any watering down of the ministerial decision-making powers in the Bill The post Bishop backtracks after fast-track backlash appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Emotional scenes played out in the Invercargill courthouse on the first two days of the coronial inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones, in which the boy’s mother was accused of disposing of her son’s body. The second season of Newsroom’s award-nominated podcast The Boy in the Water ...
Opinion: The impression from the carpark is very inviting. The area is well fenced but barred so there is easy visibility of loved ones. Inside, the spaces are welcoming and clean and staff are friendly and clearly comfortable. I am greeted by ‘Kim’. She has worked here for three years, ...
Asia Pacific Report A Pacific civil society alliance has condemned French neocolonial policies in Kanaky New Caledonia, saying Paris is set on “maintaining the status quo” and denying the indigenous Kanak people their inalienable right to self-determination. The Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations (PRNGOs) Alliance, representing some 15 groups, said in ...
I just hope to God all this worker assistance provides just something to get us through this bleak, dark, miserable winter ahead.
So many I know in real pain.
The financial assistance is needed and appreciated by people I know.
But there is massive anxiety about what comes post September. There are not exactly a lot of jobs out there at the moment
What I thought capitalism was just fine Ad, us doomsayers who were saying structurally it was weak as piss were dismissed by you and yours.
It takes almost total collapse, pain and suffering for middle NZ – for any of you to take notice. Well take notice- this is what it like all the time for the weakest in this society.
Capitalism is a failed project. Time to grow up and change the economy.
I'm not aware of any country that has practised free market capitalism. I know plenty that have practised market economics, and as a result we have seen millions lifted out of poverty, and the standard if living for most westerners rise to well above anything ever experienced in history.
Silly little stawman, I did not say free market capitalism – so sorry for you.
You said capitalism. That is in itself a straw man, because in it's pure form no country practices it, least of all NZ. So your comment " Time to grow up and change the economy" is meaningless.
Typically thoughtless, pitless fatalism from the Adam.
Your mishmash ideology is nothing but a joyously sadistic apocalyptopia.
Is it just me, or does Raveen Jaduram, the CEO of Watercare, come across as curiously detached about the current water problems in Auckland, and acting like he is simply observing an incomprehensible slow moving train wreck that is quite beyond his control? His public utterances thus far display no sense or urgency or agency on his part and a sort of fatalistic shoulder shrugging abdication of responsibility.
The guy should be jumping up and down, but instead he just seems to be meandering along as an useless CEO of a monopoly utility…
The architects of the Auckland region's local body restructuring made sure his particular empire was well-insulated, figuring it would be the first on the block. He has no connection with citizens, only with customers of a monopoly.
I think they devised a formula sometime ago for CEO and senior staff both in the private and public sectors. The higher the salary, the more insulated and out of touch and less accountable you are allowed to be.
The reality is droughts we are not adapting to the need to use less water.
Droughts are becoming more common yet everyone is looking to the govts to solve the problem.
Farmers have had to face this problem for nearly 30 years but are largely farming for what was happening 30 years ago.Some farmers have buried 3 to 4 yrs of silage to mitigate climate change,changing feed crops not over stocking.
City dwellers need to change habits as well cars can stay dirty.Houses don't need water blasting, gardens need to be drought resistant.Washing Machines water efficient ,Showers shorter and more efficient.
Blaming everything on watercare is not going to solve the longterm problem.
There does not need to be any long term problem about Auckland water. At present Auckland takes 1% of the Waikato flow. Even if that increased to 5% (which would be twice Auckland’s normal daily usage) it would be literally unnoticeable in terms of the river.
The current problem is entirely due to a lack of forward planning to take account of droughts. Water are has operated on the basis that the pipeline installed 20 years ago would be enough. In the meantime the population has virtually doubled.
So the current problem is due to lack of future proofing using a readily available water source at our back door.
At 150 million litres/day taken by Watercare, that's 1.7 cubic metres per second. Out of an annual mean flow of 330ish cubic metres/second at Tuakau. So about 0.5%.
Current Waikato river mean flows are way above historical averages since the 1980s when the headwaters of rivers that used to flow into the Rangitikei, Whanganui, Whangaehu etc got diverted into the Tongariro power scheme. That increased the mean annual flow of the Waikato by about 29 cubic metres/second.
He's clearly cognisant of the ubiquitous sense of entitlement that has long characterised Auckland citizenry. They've always felt entitled to use sprinklers regardless of droughts. First sign of getting real would be to eliminate car washes. Didn't happen last time the reservoirs were this low.
I recall when the headlines were blaring dire emergency, heading into Les Mills & seeing the showers running continuously even though nobody was using them. The dork was actually then current mayor of Ak, blathering on air about water conservation. Typical rightist Aucklander, I thought. Aucks never change.
You are missing the word "some" in several of your sentences. Including it appropriately would make your comment more accurate… but admittedly less dramatic.
Some people overcompensate for a banal existence.
Well not like he really cares his 750k Salary keeps him well insulated from real world issues.
750 grand to make water run downhill! bloody outrageous.
He should be able to make it run uphill for that salary.
Thank Jenny Shipley for corporatising essential council services.
Before a clerk of water services was paid a decent salary for doing the same job probably the equivalent of $150 ,000 to $200,000 in today's money perfectly adequate for a local govt job.
Corporatization was supposed to make these CCO's more efficient.
Reality is cost's have risen efficiency gains dubious and the service users left high and Dry.
that's how it gets into the header tanks lol
The government needs to step in a fix Aucklands water woes . Sure it's a drought but its government policies that have flooded the city with migrants ,both kiwi and foreign!
Nah the absolute inaction over late summer when it was becoming apparent supplies were dropping fast.
Instead they put the house on a change of season bringing rain, realistically we should be looking to manage fresh water year round so drastic steps are less likely.
The Free market answer put the price up to drive down demand.
The poor can afford a Trickle while the wealthy can afford to drown their gardens and fill swimming pools
"It's understood he was offered justice but declined to take it, asking instead for foreign affairs." (Henry Cooke)
stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300020221/todd-mullers-cautious-reshuffle-reveals-deep-tensions-within-national-party
The reason for that seems obvious. There's the added expense of an interpreter on any overseas visit = probably more than one when visiting/grovelling the U.S
Looking on the bright side, we've dodged both those bullets. Simon wouldn't know what justice was if it came up & bit him on the arse, and he's never had a clue about foreign affairs either. Todd oughta give him race relations (to keep us entertained).
Race Relations Toddy should man up and take himself, his views on the subject are of national significance now.
Watch the kid gloves media handle him with going forward so as to not damage the brand after the mauling Soimons given it.
Jack Tame took the gloves off. He asked Toll Muddler what he would do. Deer in the headlights comes to mind.
Did a lot of impressive hand waving though. For a moment I thought he was using sign language to get his answers across.
He did that in QT as well, and slowed down how he said a question (after repeating it), very "mansplain"-ish, he's gonna be fun to watch (in a cringe comedy kinda way).
Speaking of the Wealthy …wastrels
Mr Todd will very soon receive his Muller knighthood. For he will have done what National and Hooton always does: namely
He will have offered the wealthy National Voters large reductions in tax payments.
Not even glancing over the thing we once called the Middle Class – but building the shameful poverty National has built up for decades, Courtesy of the savage NZ Landlords and the low wage Hounds.
Maybe Grant Robertson and Treasury will develop an equality in New Zealand's Fiscal arrangements.
After all is said and done – the duty of our Parliament is to build a Democracy. A thing Muller and his mates know nothing about. We are Not to build a bunch of weatlthy thieves such as present day Nationals.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/417512/green-party-won-t-give-up-pushing-for-benefits-increase
Public grandstanding becomes inevitable when you are ineffective in intra-party negotiations, I suppose. You'd think that the co-leaders would be forthright and honest about that – but no. Typical politicians. Treat the public with contempt and they will do it right back to you. Inept.
🙄
Do tell us how the Greens could have been more effective in intra-party negotiations. I'd really like to know how you see that. Because I can't see how the Greens can negotiate better on welfare if Labour and NZF are against what they want. Please explain how they can.
Okay, let's assume Labour & NZF were indeed opposed to the Greens position: I would immediately flush out why. Not just have all the cards on the table, but for the voters to see them. I cannot accept that it is in our national interest to indulge the cover-up.
Then the onus would instantly be on Labour to justify their opposition. That has to be done in reference to the memo of understanding or whatever deal the Greens made after the 2017 election that got them into the troika situation.
We would then have a media frenzy examining the pros & cons of the Labour justification: it would hold up – or not. It could expose a cleavage within Labour, right? Neoliberals vs socialists. The latter supporting the Green position.
Using triangulation within the govt only gets the Greens so far. If they come out of a negotiation as losers they must use the public as third party in the triangle. Grandstanding doesn't achieve that – it merely comes across to the public as losers whimpering. Greens using the triangle as leverage to produce suitable outcomes is the missing bit. Jacinda will always compromise for the greater good. That's the desired outcome. They just need to engineer it!
The flaw in the above reasoning is whether the public mood will support the Greens. I have no rational basis for optimism on that point – just a hunch that the kiwi preference for a fair go for all will guide them to see that the Greens have got the issue right. I'm confident that suitable framing of the issue by the Greens will achieve that result. I suspect that whatever framing they used in the negotiation is root of the current problem…
what's the difference between what you are suggesting and Davidson has just done?
I was sure I had explained that carefully! I see no evidence they have explained their negotiation failure. Nor that they are attempting to include the public in their process (participatory democracy). Just doing back-room deals (that fail) in non-smoke-filled rooms is merely traditional politics without the smoke. You can't cause a political paradigm shift by being so old-fashioned. Inclusion is the zeitgeist. That they don't get such a simple principle is depressing.
Add to that process failure the key principle; to win public support you must explain your political positioning on issues. What we got was her lobbying for beneficiaries plus her reminder of Labour's commitment. No explanation offered for the negotiation failure. Reluctance to inform the public of that sends the wrong signal. Not only would beneficiaries like to know who to blame, I bet media pros would too. She would rather National grabs the headlines? Any publicity is good became a political truism long ago. Did nobody tell her?
"to win public support you must explain your political positioning on issues."
MD just did that. She explained their political positioning on welfare, in response to Labour's.
If I have understood you correctly, your main point here is that the process of policy development isn't transparent? I would agree with that. I'm not sure to what extent the Greens can do something about that, although I agree that they should be saying something. There will be some expectation of confidentiality. Breaking that will harm relationships, so there is a balance between going against Labour and NZF and being able to work with them (eg in negotiations). I mean, what is she supposed to say? Hey NZ, Labour wouldn't have such a stupid policy if it weren't for NZF, who actively blocked our suggestions on how to so this payment in a way that was better for all NZers.
One thing that is clear is that lots of people, including those that comment on politics publicly, don't understand how parliament works. Or government. Or the Greens. I wonder if it would help if the Greens just started pointing this stuff out more generally.
People slam the Greens for not using leverage, but the Green kaupapa is relationship based, they don't do macho politics. I like the idea of bringing the public into the process, just not sure how that would work. I would probably agree with your strategy more if I was more confident in how NZers would respond. I'm not, and the evidence for that is the people voting Labour instead of Green who used to vote Green. They stopped voting Green after Turei's speech and with the rise of Ardern. They haven't gone back. Maybe they just don't care that much about welfare, or maybe they think that Labour is getting the settings right, despite three years of it being explained how they're not.
If I have understood you correctly, your main point here is that the process of policy development isn't transparent?
No. Internal party policy process isn't the problem. Political positioning is something that caucus decides, to maximise impact on voters. I was explaining why they got it wrong on this particular occasion.
The vital thing is not to appear in public as impotent losers. Nothing is more guaranteed to make voters lose confidence in the Greens than that. The only possible way to prevent the contagion effect of that perception snowballing in the public mind is via suitable framing – that's the x factor missing.
The best frame would be via explanation of the outcome: NZF wouldn't agree, Labour wouldn't agree, both wouldn't agree. They not only failed to specify which reason produced the outcome, they seem not to have grasped the necessity of communicating an explanation to voters. Once again, clueless public relations. Do they not even use all those donations to hire somebody to explain this stuff – or did they hire someone useless??
Imagine you were hired to 'explain this stuff'. Could you provide an example of the way you would 'communicate an explanation to voters' without the 'missing x-factor'?
As quoted here, Marama apparently did communicate an explanation to voters without that essential framing. So the best answer to your query is to read hers. Keeping in mind the technical possibility that she did explain which of those three viable explanations caused the impasse, and that bit didn't get included in the quote.
I did read it and came to a different conclusion to you.
So, seeing as you have diagnosed the issue and determined their PR people are 'useless', I was asking you, in your wisdom, to furnish us with what you think the 'essential framing' should have been.
Personally, I find a turgid bloviate expounding forth upon PR and messaging to be the height of guerilla satire.
I wasn't talking about internal policy development, I was talking about the government's policy development, which is influenced by the in-closet negotiations that happen between Lab/NZF and Lab/Greens (don't know if there is a G/NZF thing or a L/NZF/G). It's clear from the rest of my explanation that I was referring back to what we were discussing.
Now you've brought in something new, that the Greens' PR is an issue, because if they oppose Labour on a policy that they didn't get wins on they appear to be losers and people won't like them. Which takes us back to the framing. You seem to be saying that the Greens should take confidential information from negotiation processes and make it public as a way of blaming Labour and NZF for the GP not getting gains. Have I got that right?
Even if this were a wise strategy (I've already pointed out the problem of breaking trust like that), the GP aren't in Cabinet and don't have access to what L/NZF discuss.
I do see value in someone explaining to the public how government works, and how this one in particular works.
As an aside, your argument would be much easier to follow if you could resist sticking the boot into the Greens each time. I can't be bothered trying to parse past that much more. Hmm, maybe there's a communication fail there on your part.
Okay, sorry, I didn't get that. You're right that govt policy formulation is the underlying process in the situation, of course. If confidentiality prevents them explaining that to the public, I would view it as a design flaw – I haven't seen any such clause and am curious if it derives from MMP constitutionally or is something invented by Labour. Do you know?
If Labour really are trying to prevent transparent governance happen, they ought to be held accountable. As regards pointing to mistakes by the Greens, my expectation is that consciousness will be raised about how politics is best done. Learning comes from experience, and when ingrained beliefs prevent that others must catalyse the elucidation necessary. So it's a helping motivation…
There was a report on TV3 news just now – Metiria has come out on the issue, I saw a tweet shown with a naughty word blanked out.
I did check online to see what the text of the Labour/Greens agreement says re confidentiality, and it became clear that they are unable to explain such negotiation failures to the public – so my criticism lacked a realistic basis, really. It is a substantial flaw in our democratic system to use a confidentiality agreement to prevent the public learning which party is discriminating against a significant minority group in the electorate!
A tweet from Turei? Not seeing anything from her two twitter accounts.
Yes, this is what I have been saying. The process is locked up, and the public are excluded, and this isn't the fault of the Greens. I doubt it is on Labour, more convention that has developed during MMP. The coalition partners (L/NZF) are bound by Cabinet rules. I couldn't remember what was in the agreements but the Greens would also be respectful of confidentiality because the relationships still need to be functional.
I would guess that NZF are a big factor, given they campaign in a way that is blind to the electorate.
This is why I'm saying that talking about the set up is important. We really have a poor form of democracy.
I thought that's what I saw but if you want to investigate it was from their political reporter (Jenna Lynch, if I remember that right) and they will probably have it on the Newshub site in print form some time this evening. Seemed contraversial, so I'd be surprised if it never shows…
Yeah, if you do write something, would be good to include the limitation imposed on the free speech of parliamentarians by the system. People do expect politicians to explain conflict between parties to both media and public (not just me being idiosyncratic). Using the agreement clause like a gag order isn't merely just a bad look. It blocks transparency, therefore is unprincipled. That said, they signed it, so must act in accord with it.
ta, it's up now.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/05/former-green-party-leader-metiria-turei-puts-government-on-blast-over-new-payment-scheme.html
From the link:
The writers also conclude it is the Greens fault apparently.
Dennis is a troll Weka…haven't you realised yet?
To blame the Greens in this situation is simply trolling-it is all about coalition government under MMP. The Greens would be more effective in these matters if they got 10% in September and NZF 4.9%
You might wise up a little if you read what Pete George cited below, huh? I'm not blaming the Greens, I'm pointing to the lack of leadership exemplified by the mishandling of the negotiation.
Now if it turns out that either Labour or NZF are refusing to honour that agreement, I will happily blame them. But the current info on the situation suggests the Greens have decided not to inform the media & public about that. Presuming you have heard of the principle of transparent governance, do you approve their apparent decision to act in contradiction??
He's not a troll. He's got a beef for the Greens, but sifting past that he is pointing to something important here.
I still think you are both (Weka and Dennis) missing the point that it doesn't matter how well the Greens negotiate, if NZF don't like it then its gets voted down and so doesn't happen.
So all the Greens are doing is getting the best outcome they can get within this straightjacket, and then spinning it as a good outcome because some Green elements have squeezed through. That is politics. It increases their profile and the public's perception of the party as achievers.
To attack them for "public grandstanding" and being "ineffective" is completely unfair, without basis and purposefully inflammatory i.e trolling. They are perfectly entitled to scream to the high heavens how they would really have liked the negotiations to have turned out.
To then point me to Pete George (of all people) to prove your case is simply rubbing salt in the wound, and says it all. (He ignores the reality described above in his post below.)
I say yet again in TS; the only way we will have a government that is in any way genuinely left of centre/progressive is to Party Vote Green. If the Greens don't get 5% we will probably have PM Muller.
"If the Greens don't get 5% we will probably have PM Muller. "
Or PM Ardern with NZF as their coalition partner?
All you are really achieving here is exhibiting failure to comprehend the relevance of the clauses Pete George quoted – even though Marama's reference to them was flagged by quote at the top of the thread!
Do you not understand that the agreement between Labour & the Greens operates just like a contract?? And that Marama is endeavouring to alert kiwis to Labour's failure to honour that contract?
That's the guts of the situation. It's how MMP operates!! All them red herrings of yours aren't going to change that fact.
no, I largely agree with you and disagree with Dennis. I just thought the point about the invisibility of how government policy is developed was worth looking at. It's daft to blame the Greens for that.
And yes, the only way we get a left wing govt is to vote Green. My personal view is that slagging off the Greens all the time just makes a L/NZF govt more likely.
Otoh, I'm trying really hard today to not write a post called Fuck You Labour, so I can understand the sentiment of feeling deeply disappointed in a political party.
I agree with all of that Weka.
I vote Green but I have plenty of sympathy for Labour and I organised a public meeting for David Parker in Wanaka for the 2017 election. I wouldn't do this again in September because of the fast track RMA reform he is supporting. The public scrutiny afforded by the RMA is an important check and balance.
I'm also highly dubious about the two-tier unemployment payment policy just announced. This should be extended to all unemployed over the same 12 weeks-this would give a cash boost to the economy and would be fair. I thought Jacinda was into fairness.
Greens got the negotiating bit right on welfare at the start of the term. From Confidence and Supply Agreement between the New Zealand Labour Party and the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand:
And maybe here:
But since then Greens have not got close to negotiating what they wanted despite this formal agreement.
It's too late to complain now, except for campaign purposes.
"Overhaul the welfare system" Putting Wellbeing at the heart of things matters. It drives all future actions, even in a 1 in 100 situation.
Perhaps the budget was going to do that, we will never know. I hear lots of fear and anger coupled with hope for change.
Many of us feel more secure with this Government, and trust their direction more than any we have experienced for a while.
They too are people who will not always "get it right"., But they have shown a capacity to accept and correct errors.
I think it is wrong to label them as part of regimens that have gone before, as they have tried to keep their promises, though often blocked by friends.
Jacinda Ardern is a rare being, and is recognised world wide for her advocacy and communication. We are fortunate to have someone of her calibre. She has kept her Ministers on track with few exceptions, and promoted high standards.
Decisions to be made in the near term will not be easy, but she will show kindness tenacity and skill.
Many aspects of our lives have been improved, and she has shown us the way. Help each other, support those in need, share more and base our lives around keeping our part of the world functioning.
Some will say that is simplistic, but in lock down we discovered we need essential services (and they should be paid for). We need food producers. We need shelter. We need education and good health, but most of all we need each other with all our faults a foibles.
We relearned what wants were, and looked askance at our collected debri. We learned most people want their friends and relatives to be well, and strangers are just folk we have not met yet, so we smile and wave when we see them, put teddies in windows for the children.
We learned that for some this will be more frightening than for others given their health or starting point in life.
The most important thing we learned was we can help others and ourselves. We can innovate create and share ideas thanks to technology. We need to believe we can make a difference, and then we will. IMO
It's absolutely pointless overhauling the welfare system/increasing benefits unless there is a corresponding overhaul of housing and rents. Much more urgent impetus on state housing – driven by the state, not property developers, is needed. This government also wimped out on CGT, so residential property speculation remains as an attractive "investment" option. Much of the benefit increases will just go into landlords' pockets. All the talk about poverty and wellbeing is just that – talk. A rent freeze for a couple of years would be a good place to start in the mean time.
Lift benefit rates
Build an endless supply of state houses (that can be converted to rent to buy that gets transferred to private debt once enough equity is gained)
Relationship status shouldn't effect your benefit.
Create jobs
"This Government wimped out on CGT"
I thought Winston made it fairly plain he blocked that. A coalition has to compromise even when it is painful. They have increased the house building and continue to do so, and have begun training apprentices again. It is not much over 2 and a half years!!. They may get a bigger mandate this time.
The vote buying welfare industry is changing quickly, the new two tier system proves all animals are equal but some are more equal than others, comrade.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Burt this isnt the post for social welfare commentary.
Bill did one on that yesterday.
Normally unemployment numbers move up slowly this sort of economic shock hasn't happened since 1929.
Cheap political point scoring.
Muller being pushed as 'nice'? https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/121618232/its-a-brave-new-world-when-politicians-compete-to-be-the-nicest-and-kindest
Problem there is that National have two "nice" senior MPs in Kaye and Adams who are both more experienced than Muller, had bigger roles in the previous government, have some crossover appeal to voters and are much better performers in the media.
So, er, why did they pick Muller? Presumably to look like the CEO with balls (sic) who "gets things done". If they really wanted "nice" they had better options.
Kaye and Adams standing dutifully either side of him while he outlined the shuffle yesterday just seemed to highlight the way National Party was overlooking their senior women MPs.
You've got it! It's the kiwi bloke strategy. It's the front row of a rugby scrum look. Muller is the hooker. He's out trying to hook votes. The other two are mere props.
As a hooker would he sell his soul for a vote? Too damned right.
Eh?
National now has 3 women in the top 5 of their list and at last count Labour has 1
Fair enough.
But Labour's woman is obviously better than the men she outranks. So – merit.
Whereas National's man isn't obviously better than the 3 women he outranks. This is a problem.
Do you know if kaye or adams wanted the top job??
I assume Adams definitely didn't, don't know if there was any discussion about the positions of Muller/Kaye ticket.
But we can be sure Collins and Kaye have future leadership ambitions after they lose (Adams might quit). They want to be leaders in government. Not opposition.
So it really just emphasises that National don't expect to win. Muller takes one for the team, then the real contenders will target 2023.
I suppose it depends on whether they wanted to be leader AND warranted it over Muller.
Just because Ardern is very good as a politician and rightly deserves top spot in Labour, this does not mean every other women MP currently in parliament should automatically deserve to be a leader of a party.
It is like the line of Goff, Shearer, Cunliffe and Little are wiped from peoples memories, just because Ardern is a very good leader now.
Not automatically, of course not.
I'm just suggesting that on the (limited) evidence so far Muller doesn't come across as the best candidate for the job. If after Bill quit they'd picked Amy Adams (on merit) instead of Bridges they might not have been in this mess.
TBF I would have gone for Adams as well.
Maybe it was a too obvious a direct match try to Ardern though.
No idea.
TBF to Bridges, he did keep them in the running through a lot of crap, even if he did have the communication skills of the Swedish Chef in the muppets.
those photos of adams and kaye, standing and looking upwards in awe at their leader, remind me of many of trumps photo ops. what a man! we are in his aura!
I thought they looked like those posed promotional posters from Bolshevic USSR and the 3rd Reich.
Not so 'nice' if you are Māori interests in his local electorate upsetting the white folk. https://www.waateanews.com/waateanews/x_news/MjQ1ODM/Muller-seeking-to-undo-Motiti-win
Its looking pretty clear where Todd Muller stands on Maori issues and for that matter the environment. They're at the bottom of his list of priorities – if they’re on the list at all. Plays well to the demographic he's looking to gather into the fold though.
So much for the "nice" Mr Muller who is honest and straightforward and is not interested in attacking opponents.
Do you know why National signed up to the zero carbon bill Anne?
Yes. Basically, they could no longer avoid not signing up to something and Muller managed to water down James Shaw's bill to such a degree it ended up a very weak imitation of its former self. Muller then agreed to sign it.
But but but says Nicky Kaye we've got plenty of Maoris, theres..there's oh Paula and Paul Goldsmith and Shane Whatshis name..!
Paul G, a correction actually I'm not Maori.
Nicky K.. but but but..actually I'm not Maori either but I've got connections !.
Good luck Todd, you asked for it. plonker.
That nice Mr Muller last night on Q&A did not come across as nice or competent. An awful interview with nil substance. The panel was more interesting. Lila Harre was very clear whereas the usual confidence of Thomas was subdued.
Starts about 8 minutes in.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/live
I was interested to note that the Nats have (had) a number of "Todds" in the line-up, so I wondered if it was short for some other name, but no it's not.
It is its own name, and it has its own meaning.
Sort of fits really.
If Mula (or should I say Maga?) tries to play the "kind" and "nice" game against Jacinda he will be playing on a steeply sloping pitch into a gale-force wind.
Will Faafoi grow a pair and do something about the landscape in RNZ now.
Hooton's played the system to line his pockets in a partisan way along with others for years. That’s without looking at his highly questionable personal morality.
Just get national MP’s on and be done with it, cheaper also.
Granny does as she always has but it's not taxpayer funded till COVID came along.
Taxpayers funded soapboxes for the shills needs to stop if RNZ is to be of service to the people of NZ….all people not just the acolytes of the neolib construct.
No one listens to Hootons twisted logic
Agreed Tricle….Hooton is capable of sounding quite rational for 70% of the time but then he goes completely off the rails for the next 30%….definitely not who you would want as chief of staff.
"Will Faafoi grow a pair and do something about the landscape in RNZ now."
Somehow, I very much doubt it.
Like his counterpart I L-G, they're too "nice". You could get some idea with their "core competencies" with the latest INZ fuckup.
Sometimes I wonder whether JA quietly thinks to herself – FUCK guys! do I have to do everything myself?"
I'm hoping the likes of AlJazeera (even DW and France24), Amnesty International and a few others don't get hold of JA underlings' dithering
I listened last night to muller on the Kathryn Ryan show from earlier that day.
i did comment on this website that his first speech was good. The interview with Kathryn not so much. She was tripping him up left right and centre. The main thrust of his position was we are better than them. 17 empty chairs at the cabinet table, their plan is not coherent. And he would really understand small business. He is endanger of sounding like a white male whose knows it all (but hasn’t done it yet) saying” move aside little lady. Three is an edge of arrogance here that I think Kiwis will switch off from. An actually he was boring. Apparently he was a bit of a train wreck on q and a last night, answering many questions by dropping in Amy Adams name. Oh and Simons not going anywhere
forgive me for quoting mike Hoskins but “happy days”
Yes, I'm surprised nobody has said much about last night's Q & A interview – it was downright embarrassing!
I agree JanM. I could hardly bear to watch Muller's interview on Q & A – I even felt a tiny bit of pity for him. The Breakfast show usually follows up on Q & A – I was waiting for some commentary this morning – but nothing…
Yes Anker and Jan. Does Todd send shivers down your spine at the Todd prospects of overturning this Government?
"……. it was downright embarrassing" I agree, but then I have to check myself.
Do you really think Todd Muller ( or half his tribe for that matter ) give a shit what you 'feel'.
Same shit but a substantially different stink for the Bridges tribe. I imagine that little tribe is now considered very,, very inferior – so let's throw them a bone and a promise or there could conceivably an uprising in the future (going forward, in this space)
If 10 households default on their mortgages it is those households problem….if 10,000 default it is the banks problem….and consequently everyones problem.
Except the banks extract billions from NZ every year… I'm sure they can bare losing a billion or three to avoid those kinds of situations.
And you would be mistaken because the effect is not limited to those few billions but the system as a whole.
Just thinking about how people cite experience in big business, such as fonterra in Miller’s case, as being a great asset to running a country. But business is run with the key focus of making a profit. This driver is not a key focus of running a country. Sure finance ministers endeavour to balance the books, but that is a means to an ends.
re miller’s embarrasing a and a interview, it occurs to me he has had very little experience of being interviewed. This could be a real disaster for the Nats. Meanwhile Amy who interviews we’ll surely must be wondering why she didn’t get the job in the first place. Meanwhile in the botany electorate Luxton is wanting Todd to fail. And do we really expect Simon not to sabotage when he’s back. Someone should make a soap out of this
" it occurs to me he has had very little experience of being interviewed."
That's why the superficial comparison with Ardern 2017 is false. Another late change, and it worked, so National could do it too – that's the line.
But Ardern must have given 100s of live interviews by then. Starting with TV's "Young Guns" in 2008, she was increasingly prominent in the media. It's a skill set that can only be learned through experience, and is unrelated to business meetings or whatever Muller brings to the job.
He was undone by something as simple as the time delay. It made him look hesitant and evasive. That might seem trivial but it is something you have to get used to and allow for. He needs to learn fast.
Agree re him not managing the time delay very well but I also think there was some evident frustration showing on his part that Tame wouldn’t just accept everything he said and move on to another subject. He looked a man more used to holding court rather than someone relishing the to-and-fro of debate. Doesn’t bode well for the campaign.
Also did he seem, how shall I say it, a little sweaty?
He wasn't well prepared at all.
Unless he's proposing new policies, his job is simply to know his party's policies and promote them. Falling back on empty buzz words is feeble.
I honestly don't know which of the Bridges/Goldsmith economic policies are still in place, and which ones aren't. And I've heard him interviewed half a dozen times.
Business meetings too easily suffer from deference to authority, group-think, ideological controls that render some things 'unsayable', and participants afraid of losing their positions of prominence. Corporations are "private tyrranies" (Chomsky) and bringing the habits developed there into the public domain is not often a good idea.
There are sooooo many reasons why the todd change is no switch to Ardern.
Ardern was deputy leader. Muller was who-ller.
Ardern was visibly different to Little – not so much gender: energy, pace of delivery, enthusiasm. Muller doesn't seem to be particularly different to Bridges.
Ardern changed the game against the nats – "let's do this" literally within a few days. Muller… ?
The leadership change for Labour was amicable. This one – not so much.
Labour knew that leadership was a poisoned chalice – Ardern took one for the team. I doubt anyone else wanted it. National has multiple pretenders sharpening their blades.Some of them might even think they can turn things around in seven weeks, so Muller needs to watch his back until August at least.
God it's funny when it happens to them lol
"Just thinking about how people cite experience in big business, such as Fonterra in Miller’s case, as being a great asset to running a country."
Does working inside say Fonterra count as business experience? I would have thought that the hairdresser or mechanic running his own business or engineer running his workshop with 20 workers are businesses people with genuine experience with trial/error determination coping with losses etc etc. Lets not rate Fonterra/Zespry as qualifying MPs.
A "woodwork teacher" has generally had more hands on business experience, as most have been sole trader or small business tradespeople.
Some inherited the business and made it fail, however,
Pretty pale lineup.
Is Todd getting payback for all "….the Maori kids flogged his flash sandwiches ".
All the boys and girls came out to play …and messed up everywhere.
As far as I can see
First past the post is Clear Cut.
Free by 3 times, the current speculative mess. Less expensive; easily comprehended. Absolutely Normal.
Join the Political Party you value, Not with a crooked tree. and endless threats.
FPP: a recipe for gerrymandering, perverse undemocratic outcomes, and a two party system of rotating dictatorship. Kiwis chucked it because they were sick of getting Rogered and Ruthanasia'd by radicals
Looks to me like more than 400k voters have switched allegiance from National to Labour since February … a profound realignment … possibly (entering the realm of speculation here) predicated first & foremost upon the gratitude of older voters.
Don't rule out National crashing like 2002.
In some senses, a different context … but also some striking similarities:
Up against an unusually popular First Term Govt & PM, National's Oligarchs facilitated Bill English's toppling of Jenny Shipley in October 2001, 10 Months out from the 2002 Election.
The leadership spill had zero effect at first – no post-leadership bounce, with the Nats & broader Opposition forces flatlining over the next few months. Over the New Year, however, a clear Leftward swing of around 4 points from National to Labour emerged as softly-aligned Nats began to bail, followed by another 2 months of relative stability, then another small swing from Nat-to-Lab.
But most significantly from our 2020 point of view, Nat support very suddenly & very shockingly went into freefall over the final 3 weeks of the campaign … with almost all of this very late swing heading to conservative, centrist & Right parties … ACT surging, NZF & UF more than tripling their support (albeit with the help of the somewhat notorious 'Worm-Debate'). Nats plunged from 30% down to 21% over a remarkably short period of time, with ACT almost doubling from 4 to 7%, NZF from 3 to 10% & UF exploding from zilch to 7 in the blink of an eye.
With the re-election of the Clark Labour Govt seemingly inevitable, more astute (or, at least, pragmatic) National voters saw the writing on the wall … hence the Right vote significantly fragments as large numbers of 1999 Nats seek to provide a counterweight to any leftward thrust of the incoming Govt, in the process, if possible, keeping the Greens away from power. Meanwhile, true-believers on the Right follow their hearts & desert to ACT.
As a consequence, less than half of 1999 National supporters remain loyal, as the Party plunges to a historic low. Amongst a whole host of surprises, Labour wins the Party-Vote in all but 3 of National's Rural Heartland seats.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Muller's toppling of Bridges & the release of the latest Colmar Brunton have occurred 4 Months out from the Election. Here's a comparison with the same point in 2002:
…………. 2002 …………… 2020
Nat …….. 35% ……………. 29%
ACT ……. 4.0% ………….. 2.2%
N+A …….. 39.0% ……….. 31.2%
Well-reasoned, plausible. If Muller isn't adept at fronting media situations, it becomes likely. I stopped watching Q+A when it got too boring, but if he was as inadequate as commentators here suggest, that could become the determining trend.
I reckon the election will hinge as much on competing recovery plans as on leadership charisma. If the Nats get theirs out in front of voters before the coalition govt gets theirs out, perception that they are sufficiently on the ball to govern will form. If the govt gets theirs out first, they'll win as long as serious flaws don't emerge…
I wonder which of 2002 or 2011 is the better comparison. Labour didn't roll Goff, but a first term government with a popular, bullet-proof PM in the backdrop of a natural disaster has some similarities.
Latest National Unity news:
Outside caucus, Muller tells reporters Paul Goldsmith is Maori. Then Goldsmith says he isn't. Paula Bennett laughs. So it's all going to plan.
"National leader Todd Muller says his "Make America Great Again" hat is staying in its box in his new office, and he won't be unpacking it."
Is the cat dead or alive in the box?
More mistakes from TM…..it seems he may be a front only for the Nats…a new face that is somehow, they hope, more acceptable to the electorate. Good times.
Todd Conehead’s gem was sticking with Nat super at 67 policy. Sure some time out from implementation, but people close to 65 will still likely not be impressed. Cost Labour votes previously.
And sticking with the continuing Mining oil and gas he said last night.
So National are saying the younger retirees are going to pay double with less job security.
Paying the debt down and no early retirement robots taking more jobs.
Universal super should become UBI funded by a much bigger Cullen Fund + compulsory Kiwisaver.Then people can choose when to retire ie a builder could retire at 60 less physically demanding jobs can retire later.The builder may want to become a trainer or work in a bunnings store part time..
The 4 day week needs to be seriously considered the 40 hr week is old hat.
Time to be more adaptable,like farmers could have a 3 1/2 day week doing 35 hrs in 3 and a half days which would make easy shift changes.
Farm workers maybe, but farmers i.e owners, will still be working all the bloody hours under the sun.
I love that the conehead tag may stick rofl
Beldar!
https://imgur.com/gallery/qyrcw/comment/963640945
Whoa…heard that one coming.
edit: loud but weak
https://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake
Questions for Question Time today not yet up. A bit odd to be this late? What if…?
Has it already been said? Todd said outside caucus today that Goldsmith was Maori.
Goldsmith said, "No I'm not!"
I think the comment has been attributed to NK…..but still…another failed attempt at relevance.
Well they did forget to move the traditional vote of non-confidence in the Budget.
25 minutes to QT and no Questions up???
Labour's criticism towards the Nats is beginning to look a bit desperate now.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300020726/nikki-kaye-wrongly-describes-paul-goldsmith-as-mori-as-pressure-over-nationals-diversity-grows
The only desperate thing here is your poor attempt at deflection.
Up until a few days ago the top two were Maori.
Where are the women in the top 5 of Labour?
I see just one.
Does this mean Labour aren’t diverse enough?
It is a silly attack
The only silly think here is your inability to count to 5. If you are talking about Cabinet rankings then there is more than 1 party in Cabinet.
The people criticising in the article I posted are Labour.
And I even said "Labour's criticism towards the Nats"
Funniest four words of the year: "And obviously Paul Goldsmith."
REPORTER: Where are the Māori shadow cabinet members?
TODD MULLER: [slowly, in order to convey gravity as well as "niceness"] There's Paula Bennett of course. And there's Shane Reti.
NIKKI KAYE: And obviously Paul Goldsmith.
….Awkward pause….
EVERYBODY WHO HEARD THAT ON THE RADIO: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Chris T it's not Noah's Ark. A woman has the top job in Labour. It is generally agreed in Labour they need more women on the front bench. They have gender equality policies to promote this. They haven't got there yet, but they are working on it.
Haha nice try. Ngati Goldsmith. Tova just tweeted ‘you can’t make this shit up’
Goldsmith: "My great-great grandfather had European wives and Māori wives, and so I've got lots of relatives across Ngāti Porou – I don't claim to be Māori myself.''
He could've added: "I'm proud to be descendant of a bi-racial polygamist." Some of these people haven't got a clue how to grab a headline…
sounds like something Shane Jones would say…not sure he's a great role model
At a time when a lot of older people who got to quite like the lockdown for the slower pace and are saying they could go a shorter week, Todd Boofhead says National will raise the retirement age.
Fuck me, the man can not read a room let alone the country. Nats to try for 25%. Go Team.
Chris T…re labour’s lack of women in the cabinet front row. They acknowledge that and have policies in place to develop gender equality in labour. Even so the front bench aren’t devoid of women, one has the top job.
i look forward to the problems Toddy is going to have when his promoted his team as the more competent and he just dumped two Maoris and two out of the three labour ministers he’s said are non performers are Maori. Oh and did we mention the MAGA hat.
it is not a good look when you promote your team as more competent and then one of them makes the unbelievable mistake of stating one her colleagues is Maori when he isn’t. Of course the other interesting thing is goldsmith refuted this immediately. So much support in this caucus, although really it was the only thing he could do
Fair call
I just think it is a little throwing rocks in glass houses, using a criticism like that, given their own partys list.
The interesting thing though is how badly they fluffed the response and how little support they got to smooth the blunder over from the rest rest of the caucus.
True They aren't exactly covering themselves in glory and a sense of stability. Lol
I only just realised the thing that really pisses me off about "plan b" Thornley. Read somewhere that the dude specialises in economic impacts of health interventions, yet he provided zero – ZERO! – information. Just repeated basically that "cure might be worse than the disease" wank. Where was his data? If he studies this shit, where's his prediction of how many people would be killed by the economic flow-on of L4? QALYs? Estimated mortality?
I bet that if he even did it, it's locked in a draw because it didn't suit his bullshit.
Tova O'Brien, I've not liked her style but I just saw she antagonises the Nat supporters too, so I tip my (non MAGA) hat to Ms O'Brien, she must be doing something right (she's getting accused on the Twitter for making up the Goldsmith Māori gaff, like she said, "you can't make this shit up!").
Anderson Cooper flabbergasted by foolish person: "Wow, that's really ignorant."
She is a nice Girl.
Her name is Tovi. She is like Toddy who is also training for the public. But much much smaller.
Tova and Toddy – have a long way to go. They make stuff up a bit. To get by.
Toddy don't even know a Maori from a Goldsmith. Ultimately Tova will be way in front. Thats' my pick.
The most exciting takeaway from the National Party in Parliament today was that Chris Bishop has cut off his mullet and that Paul Goldsmith is from Ngati Epsom.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/121627591/going-hard-and-early-on-m-bovis-paid-dividends-pm
Looks like another success for the coalition government,
6 new cases in Western Australia today, all from a Kuwaiti live sheep export ship that was cleared to berth by Federal Border Force agents in spite of them being advised that at least 3 crew had ‘elevated temperatures’.
https://thewest.com.au/news/coronavirus/coronavirus-crisis-al-kuwait-crew-stopped-from-disembarking-in-fremantle-port-as-four-crew-aboard-livestock-ship-test-positive-for-coronavirus-ng-b881558631z
"Former Wellington mayor Celia Wade-Brown has jumped back into the world of politics, running as the Green Party candidate in the Wairarapa electorate." https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/121626389/former-wellington-mayor-celia-wadebrown-running-for-green-party-in-wairarapa
"Speaking to Stuff, Wade-Brown said she was running to maximise the party vote." "Issues of equality, climate change, and rivers matter to people. We've got an opportunity to do a green reset to Covid-19," she said. Wade-Brown is not among the 24 candidates on the Green Party list, and is not expected to make a serious play to win the seat."
"She had been a supporter of John Hart, who ran for the Green Party in the last two elections and only offered to stand when she learnt he was not planning to run again." National haven't selected their candidate yet, and Ron Mark "pulled 19 per cent of the electorate vote in 2017, with more coming from National party voters than Labour voters."
"Wairarapa-based List MP Kieran McAnulty will be running for Labour for a third straight election." Third time lucky, I reckon! "Wade-Brown said she would consider formally endorsing McAnulty for the electorate vote. "We're going to have those conversations over the next couple of weeks. I think he's very widely respected within the local community," she said."
Remembering bold long-term finance minister Grant Robertson. https://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/story/obituary-of-grant-robertson-by-david-slack/
not sure what to make of that tbh.
Slack has a long history of satirical obituaries in his regular newspaper column before those were canned. This one seems wishful..
ah, I didn't know that. That gives a better context.
They used to be in a certain Auckland-centric magazine as well. https://www.metromag.co.nz/society/society-people/the-obituary-of-david-slack-died-2040
National MPs already leaking as new leadership team of Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye suffers disastrous first sitting day.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/05/national-mps-already-leaking-as-new-leadership-team-of-todd-muller-and-nikki-kaye-suffers-disastrous-first-sitting-day.amp.html
Drip. Drip.Drip. Gush!
I see the labour party is paying the recent unemployed twice what the already unemployed are getting.Reminds me of the last labour government who didn't pay working for families to beneficiaries.Elected by the poor govern for the rich
It appears that those nations with governed states and provinces have struggled a bit more with this pandemic.
Squabble with our brother while Grandma dies.
I'm a Cuomo fan, I like anyone that sounds like Tony Soprano and isn't indicted. I love it when they call a bird a boid. In spite of his declaration to keep politics out of it Andrew couldn't resist a stab at Kentucky Governor Mitch McConnell. Mitch had suggested that New York declare bankruptcy. Andrew offered a contrary view, this guy picked up the ball and ran with Andy's view…