Todays little gem from Granny…it appears National supporters are more likely to be unfaithful and have affairs. After that they drink Coke and fuck us over.
Huh? The the article says people who sign up to a marital cheater website are National voters, own a PC, drink coke, eat meat, have a tattoo, smoke and be a Christian. Nothing about pepsi.
Right you are Carol. I did not want to waste any bit of my life reading the article but have now done so and it looks like Pepsi is the true drink of leftys …
Labour leader David Shearer, who visited one of the Crafar farms yesterday, said he supported the Fay-led bid, which included iwi interests.
“My feeling is that New Zealanders should be able to buy their own land and we should at least give them the first option to be able to buy it,” Mr Shearer said.
New Zealanders have had two years to bid for the Crafer farms.
They only had to offer what the banks considered acceptable (actually below) to the loans that they gave the Crafer family, and the Chinese would no be at the party.
As for Michael Fay he is only looking to screw somebody, as he has done often in the past.
It seems to me that Labour has picked up from where it left off before it made a few desperate attempts to stench the blood of its base, maybe six months before the general election, and is back on the same political, tactical moral and public-relations trajectory, with the same players calling the shots, and the same heads in the sand, and just a new face for the brand.
Thursday 26 January 2012
Is NewstalkZB about to radically change its nature?
Child abuse—that perennial talkback favourite. It’s always fascinating (and horrifying) to listen to radio hosts like Larry Williams, Mike Hosking, Leighton Smith and Susan Wood ranting and railing against the Labour/Green “nanny state” that finally (in 2009) abolished parents’ immunity from prosecution for assaulting their own children, and in the next breath condemn the parents who take smacking (which these radio hosts support) a tad too far and end up killing their children.
It might have surprised some people, then, to hear this morning, just after 7:30 a.m., one of these fanatical anti-nanny staters and pro-kiddy whackers, Susan Wood, suggesting that the state should indeed do something about child abuse.
Speaking very slowly and with the deepest voice she could manage, in order to emphasize just how serious she is, Wood put the following question to the Hon. Paula Bennett: “Do you think it’s time for the state to intervene more proactively?”
Does this signal a radical change of policy at NewstalkZB? Will the hosts of this station now cease to defend the “right” of parents to hit their children?
Who knows, but perhaps the hosts of this station will reverse some other of their long-established policy positions and speak out against knife killing, assaulting of women, Chinese government goons roughing up New Zealand MPs in the grounds of parliament, the mass killing of civilians and the destruction of hospitals, power stations and schools.
Is NewstalkZB about to radically change its nature?
Not bloody likely! There’s a big difference between 2008 (the smackng law passed 2008) and 2012. What passed for ‘nanny statism’ under Labour becomes acceptable practise under National.
I’m waiting for the light bulb legislation now – under a pseudonym name of course.
Some will tell you that the woes of the Keydom result from simple human failings like greed, a lack of understanding or compassion.
But our rulers know better. They know that the fault does not lie with them, after all to rule is a reflection of the grace of God and confirmation of his favour.
There is a plague upon our land.
A plague of Witches.
They will be identified by their weakness.
Those with little money or little power, those whose voices are easily silenced, those whose wretched human failings set them apart from the virtue and nobility of the people – they are the cancer that eats away at our prosperity.
They must be found and punished, all of them. It may take many years, for as everyone knows Witches breed like rats, and if one touches you it is likely that you too may be infected.
They may resist, but do not be discouraged, for both resistance and assisted confession are clear indicators of guilt.
Light the fires, the promised land awaits.
Update: Paula Bennett confirms that innocent people may be burnt and asks NZ:
It is your choice: burn the innocent, or let the guilty go free.
Now i am old fashioned and thought that law and process and morality had something to do with it.
Lets not take any chances eh?
I made a decision last year to never again listen to “newstalk”ZB ever again. Everybody has their own barrow to push but for a radio station to ram their outdated rwnj agenda down the throats of listeners is a disgrace. Late in (Leighten) the line for brain allocation Smith and Larry Williams loves his neighbour Key make me wanna chunder or do a Laws shootout gig. And in between the propaganda their high amount of adverts makes the name ad-talk ZB seem more appropriate.
As interesting bug caused by a comment that made the page kind of hard to see (ie black). Fixed both the immediate cause in a comment and prevented it from happening in the future.
Hey folks, as a random aside – have you noticed how incredibly bored, disinterested and contemptuous as ever JK looks, now that he’s been forced away from his holiday in his mansion in Hawaii or wherever he was? It was disturbing to see his return on TV3 news, mind you the sight of him always disturbs me any way, but he’s not even bothering trying to mask that he couldn’t care less about the crafar deal, chch and anything else of critical importance to NZ. It’s like he’s run out of “smile n wave juice” His face just screams “oh, god, theres all this lot to deal with again, this just isn’t what I signed up for”
Yes Rosie I noticed his “don’t wanna be here” demeanor as well.
Never mind he’s off to Australia for another well earned break to watch the tennis shortly.
It follows on from the comment about how well TV3 are working for National, Carol. It’s either the next sentence or part of the same sentence. He’s claiming ownership of Garner and Gower. Amazing what results a cheap loan to Mediaworks will bring you in terms of fawning coverage. Very, very problematic for the two reporters.
not just your hearing, its pretty hard to figure out what they are saying, but whatever it is it sounds like a very dull conversation, they say something like ‘ooh, that labour party are so nasty, we would never do anything nasty like them” , but yeah hopefully someone transcribes it.
Is it technically possible to remove the back-ground noise? I could just hear names being mentioned. I’m sure I heard JK claim something to the effect… Nah, he won’t make it. Got about 4 last time. He’ll get 3 this time. Winston Peters?
Downloaded and listened to it on headphones. A lot of the first half is about polls, saying Labour’s negative campaigning doesn’t work, and Key being very smug about how he apporaches the media – positive upbeat approach etc. Then he and Banks rehearse what they are going to say to the media after their tea.
Then they mention some woman MP as being pretty good and Banks talks about how he is approaching his campaign – but can’t hear a lot of the details.
So that’s it? Where is the “scandal” the media (and of course many on this site) hinted at? And more why did John Key (or his advisers) handle it so stupidly?
My theory is they handled it the way they did because it put the whole focus of the couple of weeks before the election on the tapes rather than on anything else Labour could’ve wanted.
Obviously that plan worked but whether it actually helped the result is debatable.
It got Winston into parliament. So I’d say that backfired pretty badly on them.
I attribute Labour’s poll slump to their stupid decision to announce that they would extend WFF to beneficiaries and the superannuation changes also weren’t well-received.
Yeah that sounds about right – the working for families thing cracks me up as I’m willing to bet had Labour announced that they were giving additional money to beneficiaries who have children rather than framing it as an extension of working for families it would have gone down a lot better.
Key: Most photographed cup of tea in the world
Banks: This is a very good media contingent
K: Yeah, it’s huge eh
B: I got to tell you
K: Wherever I go though there’s really big numbers, normally ???
B: I mean ah, there’s 30 here today, that is very very good
B: …the labour party has ah given up on Epsom.
K: oh yeah
B: he’s a horrible little fella that candidate
B/K: nasty, nasty
K: but yet they all are??? they’re a very nasty party in a lot of ways
B: well, you know, they’re putting ah, they’ve been putting things in letter boxes about me, shocking socking stuff
K: yes yes, it’s nasty. that’s what they do, they play the person the whole time. we never do that stuff.
It goes on for a little bit after that but it’s hard to hear.
They talk about Winston, Key thinks he won’t get higher than 3%. Didn’t hear anything about supporters dying off, though.
Right towards the end (around 6 minutes) they are apparently talking about ACT leadership and suggest whats-her-name would make a good leader, give a female perspective/influence, and refer to “that other guy” and an odd-fellow, to which Key agrees. He says something about “when they called me up in London”, I guess talking about when he was first parachuted into the party.
I think that phone call relates to the Don brash comments. It comes after Key agrees with him being an odd fellow & says “we’ve been down that road, that is why when they called me in the UK…”
Can everyone please put the start time by the snippet of conversation that they have heard thanks.
If a couple of dozen people transcribe 20 seconds each, we’ll have it finished.
Yes , then after we have done all that transcribing and debating the phonetics and intent of each statement we can back mask it so we can hear the true hidden message about JK wanting to murder all infants in their sleep, or something similar.
B: he’s a horrible little fella that candidate
B/K: nasty, nasty
K: but yet they all are??? they’re a very nasty party in a lot of ways.
I’m sure there is a medical name for their delusional habit of transferring their own nasty, deceitful behaviour on to the shoulders of their opponents!
Indeed. How contradictory is it to criticise Labour for negative campaigning by smearing Labour as “the nasty party”? This was in reference to Goff calling Key a liar and to the letter drops about Banks in Epsom. Yet, Labour also had far more positive policy stuff.
In the ‘Today in Politics’ section of the Dom this morning there was a note about how John Key is watching the Primaries from Hawaii and how he thought Romney was going to win. So far, so usual puff piece on our totes amazing PM.
However, at the end of the piece it said something along the lines of “Unlike Mitt Romney, Mr. Key said he will not be making his tax returns public.”
Why not? Why shouldn’t he? Shouldn’t the public finally get proof of the ‘fact’ that he pays his entire PM salary to charity? Shouldn’t we get to see proof of how ‘revenue neutral’ the tax switch was to one of NZ’s richest men?
Not sure what I think about politicians having to release their tax returns – tend to be interested obviously but not sure they should have too.
Did want to point out though that him releasing his tax returns would not show how revenue neutral the tax switch was for him as you would not be able to see how much GST he has paid on anything other than expenses directly relating to his income (which would not be much probably just bank/accounting/legal fees).
Why shouldn’t he? Shouldn’t the public finally get proof of the ‘fact’ that he pays his entire PM salary to charity?
I was working at the time of the election, and was stunned and horrified when a
20-something colleague said she’d voted National because “Key gives his parliamentary salary to charity”. I asked her for details, and of course she didn’t know anything. It confirmed me in my belief that pretty girls of 22 or so, are as dumb as toast. (After all, if you’re young and pretty, you don’t need to be clever, you’ll get (and keep) a job anyway, hey?)
Thanks AdrianK! let us know how you get on with the rest of the conversation. I’m not surprised by whats been said so far. and there was a lot of speculation about the “NZ first supporters dying off ” comment wasn’t there? If he really is referring to the elderly, he is such an evil bastard, but we know that anyway don’t we.
Sounds like one of those dialogues that reveals information damaging to Key that you’d only realise if you were in the loop. He was sure Winston wasn’t going to be back. So embarrasment for internal polling? We all know how egotisical they all are, but it seems a flimsy pretext for the massive overaction that followed. At best, it’s an indicator of his true personality and he’s done a better job at emphasising that than anyone else.
Other than that, does anyone want his mobile phone number?
Does badmouthing Labour and Winston count as the nastiness that Banks and Key say that ACT and National don’t engage in? Banks says he never plays the man… unless it’s Winston … or “the brown man climbing in your window…”.
I don’t think so. The law regarding the legality of the recording has not been established… besides, posting a link to highlight that somebody else may have broken the law is not publishing. I would argue that having the embed code is also not breaching the supposed law… I’m publishing the code, not the recording. The recording has already been published and is now common knowledge… even if they bother to remove the original uploaded recording, it will be republished again because that’s the nature of the internet.
Just direct people to Kiwiblog, where DPF gives the name of the uploader.
If National’s official spokesman DPF thinks it’s OK to release the tape then who am I to argue?
That needs to be removed, Ev. It exposes The Standard to potential legal action. I’d hit the ‘request deletion’ button pronto, if I were you.
ps, Ev, a mate has just discovered the truther madness. I did my best to show him the obvious stupidity of the argument, but he insisted on ‘learning’ more, so I recomended your site as the best repository of ‘facts’ about 9/11. Hope you don’t mind me endorsing you!
So sue me. I did not publish it someone else did and I linked to it just like others on the thread. If they are stupid enough to sue everybody who linked to it and downloaded it and spread it I hope they start at Kiwiblog because that is where I got the link from.
Otherwise your submission to the vindictiveness of our ruling elite looks pretty sad to me.
It wasn’t you being sued I was worried about, Ev, it was the Standard. The Tories would love to be able instruct the coppers to close this site down, so giving them an opportunity to do so seems foolish. However, I see there is now a post which gives the address, so the mods must be confident that there will be no legal problems from linking to it. I hope they are right, but that doesn’t make you (or the others) any less irresponsible or thoughtless for publishing it.
TVOR,
The link had already been posted here and just about everywhere before I did. Jackal is very clear as I also stated I did not publish it here I linked to the person who had published it. I have no intention of jeopardising anybody’s blog. So fuck off with your yellow bellied whinging and kowtowing to the powers that be.
CV: it’s not just a question of the internet; there are real people associated with this site and real consequences if the Police were to decide that The Standard had ‘published’ the leak. They’ve already shown themselves to be actively willing to censor the media at John Key’s personal request, an action not seen here, since, oh, 1951.
I note Farrar immediately put up a ‘do not publish the address’ note on his site, and whatever his politics, the man is not stupid.
Ev: it is you who is yellow bellied, by recklessly putting somebody else’s site at risk. Feel free to set up camp on the moral high ground at your own place. You would always have the legal defence that your whole blog is satire and nothing you say should be taken seriously.
That’s up to the trustees, moderators and admins of The Standard. I’m sure most of them are grownups who are capapble of making judgement calls about such things.
Dead right, McFlock, but I made my original comment at 1.16pm, well before any of the mods appeared to be aware of the release of the tape. I was urging caution for a genuine reason, but it is definitely their call once they are aware and they have made their position clear by putting up the address themselves.
Self censorship, they’re relying on it. Put it another way, if any of the Standard administrators ever get charged on this, they’re going to have one hell of a big defence fund.
That is why I linked to it, rather than posting it. Not much law on linking.
As it stands there is a hell of a lot of grey area between the requirements of an exemely slow ongoing police investigation and the requirements of public interest. I probably wouldn’t have released it, certainly won’t hold it in this country, and have no real issues with linking to public accessible copies.
Speaking of police investigations, they still haven’t bothered to look into my formal complaint concerning Owen Glenn trying to bribe people to vote Nact. Perhaps if the Police had given my complaint the attention it deserves, I might feel a bit more inclined to adhere to their requests.
Oh God you’re a nasty piece of work. It is you who is going for the moral high ground and your stupidity has no end. Last time I looked Iprent was very good at protecting the Standard and I have no doubt he would have banned me forever if he thought I jeopardised this blog.
So get of your high horse, grow some balls and pull your head in. LOL
[lprent: Yep, you’d be out of here if you caused the site problems, and I think that you only received a few warning bans long ago.
I might not agree with people but if I booted people for that then there wouldn’t be any posts apart from my words of wisdom. Even then it is a bit problematic as I tend to disagree with myself frequently. It is a operating requirement for any good programmer to always second guess themselves on everything because that is how you remove inaccurate presumptions.
People most commonly get booted from here for behaviour that attacks the site, authors, or effectively causes shutdowns in the comments. Most of those are pretty apparent. The next most common reason can roughly be defined as “boring the moderators”. Which is a direct derivative of attacking the site: bored moderators stop moderating which causes a shutting down the comments as moderators stop the really really boring flamewars that rapidly diminish the numbers of people reading comments. ]
Oh, noes! I pissed off a paranoid righty by suggesting they take care that they don’t damage somebody else’s property. However will I get over the shame?
If the police are going to have a go at anyone for revealing how to find the video, they will of course have to prosecute DPF, who was the first person to publish the name of the uploader to Youtube that I could find. That name is still there on Kiwiblog. If it disappears I have a screep cap of the Kiwiblog page that mentions the name of the uploader. So I guess the police will not be prosecuting anybody will they? Otherwise dozens of blogs can keep harping on this matter until the next election.
Thanks Lanthanide and others for providing us with the service of your ears. Still not bowled over by whats been said, on the surface of it. I don’t get why they (jb, Jk, and Nat) went all uppity about it, called the police and started crying and going all po faced. So far, as much as we know theres nothing there that is scandalous (unfortunately) or defames anyone. Labour would know they’re not liked, they get it every day that parliment is in session. To my mind JK’s accusation towards Labour that they organised that guy to attempt to get over the railing at the public gallery in parliament last year was far worse, and then the throat cutting gesture. What a dick. I did love the lolnats take on that though.
No, I think the comments about odler constituents dying off is there. The only other possibly damaging thing at the time of the elcction was the lack of faith in Brash and the promotion of Isaacs.
Although key’s smearing of Labour as “the nasty party” is…. nasty, given he’s referring to Goff calling Key a Liar, and some appparently pretty tame mail drops about Banks. That’s an over reaction altogether. And Key’s apology says he says things differently in private than in public…!?
Tim Selwyn’s take on the tap has a couple of extra details, and the dogiest stuff may have been said in a whisper, after Banks says he didn’t know, following the 15% snap election comment:
Starts with voices of handlers shooing the media away. Then they talk about what a good media turnout they have – about 30 press. Then Key talks about polling, saying he expects National to ease to 50%: “around 49”.
1:54
JB: “the left have been nasty”… “you have no idea how vicious they’ve been, especially at public meetings […] we can handle that…”
2:45
JB: “Someone said that you’d be working with… ah, ah…”
—
Now there is no name mentioned but they both know who they mean. There’s a lot of nod, nod, wink, wink with that – are they talking about a journo, a consultant? Then Key tells Banks what he will say to the media when they finish their cuppa. You can hear the clinking cups etc. so the “teapot”. Then Banks tells Key what he should say:
—
3:30
JB: “You might be inclined to say ‘I know John quite well’ […]
JB: Do you think Winston will cross the line?
JK: “Not a dog’s show. He’s at 2.5 on TV3 […] He won’t poll much over three…”
[…]
5:20
JB: Labour have given up on Epsom. […] Labour are nasty…
6:10
JK: The reason I don’t text is it puts you under pressure to say whether he has or hasn’t […]
JB: I haven’t talked to you. […] Catherine and the 4 of us […] restructure the party…
—
So Banks thought he could get 4 in. They got only himself in in the end, but he was still confident at this point – just as Key was that Winston wouldn’t make it. Act falling and certainly the rise of NZ First was in large part due to the existence of this recording.
—
JB: He’s a strange fellow the other fellow, isn’t he
JK: Mmm, yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, no, we’ve been down that road. The reason why when they rang me in the UK I never ever thought that […] 15% a snap election.
JB: No, no, I didn’t know, I didn’t know.
—
That odd fellow they refer to is Don Brash. What the hell 15% and snap elections have to do with anything and why Banks is claiming profusely that he didn’t know is odd.
Excellent work. Let us please use this format. If in doubt as to the speaker, leave the start of the line blank. And feel free to dispute any transcript so we can have another listen.
7:20
JK: What do you want to do, scan it?
JB: Yep.
…
JK: Is that yours?
JK: Is that yours?
JK: Is that yours?
JB: No.
JK: Hey that’s a recording device.
…
It’s someone’s recording device.
Let’s take a look.
7:50 recording muffled
Gingrich calls for moon base, space contests
An interesting headline because, as the text makes clear, what he’s actually calling for is more state subsidies of private business. Here’s the text:
Gingrich said he wanted to spend 10 percent of NASA’s $18 billion budget on prize money for competitions that spur innovation and technological breakthroughs in space.
US$1.8b into private hands per year.
During a debate in Florida on Monday, Romney said he believed space should be a priority.
“What we have right now is a president who does not have a vision or a mission for NASA. I happen to believe our space program is important not only for science, but also for commercial development and for military development,” he said.
If it was important for commerce then it would already be happening. ATM, it’s still far too cheap to continue to destroy the Earth’s environment for private profit.
The really funny thing about that is that US$1.8b is chump change:
Apple’s cash balance is now a quarter of its $415 billion market capitalization and roughly equals California’s 2012-2013 state budget.
Amongst the claims by the right wing that there’s nothing of note in the teapot tape and we should all just move along, is another feckless rant by Cameron Slater…
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by Don Franks It was a lovely sunny Wellington afternoon with blue skies above the beaches. In Courtenay Place, political activists packed out a stuffy upstairs room for an important meeting. The assembled pacifists, anarchists, communists and independent young radicals of Peace Action Wellington felt the need for a mission ...
Current and former NZDF top brass are being publicly grilled this week by the hit and run inquiry over their public responses to allegations of civilian casualties. Previously, they've claimed there were no casualties, a position which led them to lie to Ministers and to the public. Now, they're saying ...
by Rafael D. Quiles (gender-critical gay man from Puerto Rico) The writing on the wall is right in people’s faces and people just don’t see it or don’t want to. What could actually possess a heterosexual male to want to feminize himself and claim that he is a lesbian? Because ...
From the Wall Street Journal:Inside a room of the ornately decorated Hotel du Palais during last month’s Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, President Trump awaited a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Mr. Trump looked over a gathering of American and Egyptian officials and called out in ...
by the Redline blog collective At Redline we are very saddened to hear of the death of Magdalen Burns who passed away on the morning of Friday, September 13 (British time). Magdalen was a great fighter for the rights of women in general and lesbian women in particular, a defender ...
The Brexit issue has certainly brought with it a series of apparently difficult constitutional issues, many of them concerning the respective roles of the executive and parliament. Most of them arise because of the unwillingness of MPs, despite their professions to the contrary, to be bound by a constitutional rarity ...
. . This blogpost is different to my usual format of reporting on issues… Since July 1011, I have blogged on a variety of political issues; near always political and/or environmental; mostly highly critical of the previous National Government. Other issues included Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and repression of ...
Those close to the Police Minister believe the initiative may be the result of Nash “seeing a great deal” on AliExpress. In a move that comes seemingly out of nowhere, Police Minister Stuart Nash announced this afternoon that he expects all frontline staff to don bearskin hats, famously worn by ...
The government has released its Arms Legislation Bill, containing the second tranche of changes to gun laws following the March 15 massacre. And it all looks quite sensible: a national gun register, higher penalties for illegal possession and dealing, tighter restrictions on arms dealers and shooting clubs, and a shorter ...
Private prisons are a stain on humanity. Prison operators explicitly profit from human misery, then lobby for longer prisons terms so they can keep on profiting. And in the US, prison companies run not only local and state prisons, but also Donald Trump's immigration concentration camps. Faced with this moral ...
When National was in power, they were very keen on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) - basicly, using private companies to finance public infrastructure as a way of hiding debt from the public. They were keen on using them for everything - roads, schools, hospitals. But as the UK shows, that "service" ...
Moving And Shaking: There was a time when people spoke matter-of-factly about the “labour movement” – a political phenomenon understood to embrace much more than the Labour Party. Included within the term’s definition was the whole trade union movement – many of whose members looked upon the Labour Party as ...
by Philip Ferguson Much of the left, even people who formally identify as marxists, have collapsed politically in the face of postmodern gender theory of the sort pioneered by American philosopher Judith Butler. For Butler even biological sex is socially constructed. “If the immutable character of sex is contested, perhaps ...
The media is reporting that the (alleged) Labour party sexual assaulter has resigned from their job at Parliament, which means hopefully he won't be turning up there making people feel unsafe in future. Good. But as with everything about this scandal, it just raises other questions. Most significantly: why the ...
By Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern I am every bit as angry as you are. I am every bit as disappointed as you must be. The people with power, oversight and the ability to do something about these processes within the Labour Party should be ashamed. Whoever those people are, I ...
Property developers think there is an "oversupply" of houses in Auckland:High turnover rates and falling prices may be a sign that there are too many new houses going in to some parts of Auckland, commentators say. [...] Property developer David Whitburn said there was a "bit of an oversupply" in ...
Labour Party president Nigel Haworth resigned yesterday over the party's sexual assault scandal. But while that's good news, its unlikely to take away the stench of a coverup. Because according to Paula Bennett in Parliament yesterday, pretty much everyone in the Prime Minister's office was involved as well:I have been ...
Two-Faced? Labour insiders' commitment to the neoliberal status quo puts them at odds with their party’s membership; its trade union affiliates; and a majority of Labour voters, but this only serves to strengthen the perception they have of themselves as a special elite. Among the lesser breeds, they’ll talk up a ...
There has been a lot of talk about Boris Johnson wanting an election, and he has blustered with great gusto about 'chicken' Jeremy Corbyn refusing one, but I think there are many reasons why he is secretly glad he has been refused the opportunity:The Tories are an utter rabble,tearing themselves ...
Scottish appeal court judges have declared that Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament in the run-up to the October Brexit deadline is unlawful. The three judges, chaired by Lord Carloway, Scotland’s most senior judge, overturned an earlier ruling that the courts did not have the powers to interfere in the prime ...
By Simon Bridges. The following is a press release from the office of Simon Bridges, leader of The National Party. Key ora, New Zealand. Happy Maori Language Week. Look, I’m writing to you today because I want to clear something up. There’s been a lot of kerfuffle around some things ...
I understand there's some stuff going round about how the SIS "was removed from the list of public offices covered by the Public Records Act in 2017". The context of course being their records derived from US torture, which will be disposed of or sealed. The good news is that ...
Dr. Christopher Labos and Jonathan Jarry discuss the recent Canadian fluoride/IQ research. They provide an expert analysis of the paper and its problems. Click on image to go to podcast. The critical debate about the recent ...
Australia is burning down again, and meanwhile its natural disaster minister is denying climate change:Australia’s minister responsible for drought and natural disasters, David Littleproud, has said that he doesn’t “know if climate change is manmade”. Clarifying earlier comments that the question is “irrelevant” when considering the Coalition government’s response to ...
Auckland Philippines Solidarity is excited to host Professor Judy Taguiwalo for a speaking tour of NZ in September. She is a well-known activist in the Philippines and was a political prisoner under the Marcos dictatorship. Professor Taguiwalo briefly served as a Cabinet member under President Duterte but was forced from ...
This open letter to the Green Party was penned after an opinion piece by Jill Abigail, a feminist and founding member of the party, was censored by the Greens’ leadership. (Redline has reprinted her article here).The intolerance of the Green Party leaders and their acceptance of the misogyny of gender ...
Today is a Member's day, and David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill continues its slow crawl through its committee stage. They're spending the whole day on it today, though the first hour is likely to be spent on voting left over from last time. After that they'll move on ...
An ambitious plan to fly to Los Angeles petered out into a brief sight-seeing trip and a desire to return home and get some sleep before work tomorrow. Air New Zealand has confirmed a flight to Los Angeles last night was turned back about a quarter of the way into ...
There appears to be consensus – by omission – that the concept of indigenous futures should be accepted at face value. So I scavenged the internet to see if I could locate an academic descriptor or a framework around how we think about it as a concept, and whether it ...
Here’s another novelty chocolate to shove in your gob, New Zealand Cadbury could be seeking to make itself great again with a rumoured new release: Pineapple Trumps, a spin on its classic chocolate-encased pineapple treat and do-it-yourself tooth remover. The global confectionery manufacturer and bumbling “before” character in an infomercial, ...
During my time in the Pentagon I had the privilege of sitting down with military leaders and defence and security officials from a variety of Latin American nations. Sometimes I was present as a subordinate assistant to a senior US defence department official, sometimes as part of a delegation that ...
Kia ora, Aotearoa. It’s that magical time of year. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. In English, the week that frightens talk radio. As you probably know by now, all your favourite media outlets are participating, some more successfully than others. Stuff has changed its name to Puna for the ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. So how's that going? I was curious, so I asked for all advice about the proposal. ...
As the Brexit saga staggers on, the focus is naturally enough on the Prime Minister and his attempts to achieve Brexit “do or die”. But the role played by the Leader of the Opposition is of almost equal interest and complexity. The first problem for Jeremy Corbyn is that he ...
Last week, English Prime Minister Boris Johnson boldly declared that he would rather die be dead in a ditch than delay Brexit. Unfortunately for him, the UK parliament accepted the challenge, and promptly dug one for him. The "rebellion bill" requires him to ask for and secure yet another temporary ...
Lost In Political Space: The most important takeaway from this latest Labour sexual assault scandal, which (if I may paraphrase Nixon’s White House counsel’s, John Dean’s, infamous description of Watergate) is “growing like a cancer” on the premiership, is the Labour Party organisation’s extraordinary professional paralysis in the face of ...
It has been two years since Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called climate change her generation's nuclear free moment. And on Monday, against a backdrop of global climate protest, she will give the opening speech at the United Nation's climate ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson is under intense scrutiny. New figures show economic growth has slowed to levels not seen for six years. And he has chosen not to answer questions about when he heard about serious allegations of a sexual assault cover-up ...
NZDF Attends Commemorations to Mark International Mission in East Timor A New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) contingent participated today in the 20th anniversary commemorations of the International Force East Timor (INTERFET) mission in Dili. The commemoration ...
They’ve only been up and running for a few months, but a New Zealand not-for-profit has already made a big impact on period poverty in New Zealand. ...
The allocation of money for publicly funded broadcasting for election campaigns should be turned on it's head according to Massey University professor of communication design Claire Robinson. ...
Disappointment expressed by Fletcher Building CEO, Ross Taylor, reflects the increasing frustration held by many with this Government’s failure to protect private property rights.[1] ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee today launched an eight-week, nationwide call for evidence on options available to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ...
Social Credit has lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman over the way the Overseas Investment Office is handling its official information request for disclosure of documents on the sale of Westland Milk Products to Chinese company Inner Mongolian ...
This Friday in Solidarity with the Global Climate Strike All of the SodaStream’s e-commerce platforms and head office operations will be closed to kick-off the week-long event, and employees will march the #CLIMATESTRIKE in Auckland on 27 September. ...
Federated Farmers congratulates the Auditor-General’s office on its release today of its report Managing Freshwater Quality: Challenges and Opportunities. ...
Growth has now slowed to a 6-year low, and downside risks are dominating. June quarter GDP growth came in at 0.5%qoq, in line with our expectation, and slightly above consensus. Although there were a few sensational reports of the chance of a negative print. ...
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) is calling the release of the National Climate Change Risk Assessment (NCCRA) framework a good first step in balancing New Zealand’s response to climate change. ...
Family First NZ says that a new Colorado report compiled by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area finds marijuana-positive traffic fatalities, hospitalisations, marijuana use, and illegal market activity have exploded since marijuana legalization. ...
This year’s Ratepayers’ Report , local government league tables released yesterday, reveals which local councils owe the most and which owe the least. ...
Rachel MacGregor welcomes the decision released today by Justice Hinton. The key issue on which all the various litigation has been based is the question, did Colin Craig sexually harass Rachel. That question has been answered – he did. Justice ...
The Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) has today ratified a ground breaking pay deal with Dunedin Railways which will see all union members being paid a living wage and the lowest paid receiving an 18% wage increase. Higher paid RMTU members ...
Inclusion for trans women/men and non-binary peoples has today been announced as the cornerstone of a new resolution for the National Council of Women New Zealand (NCWNZ). ...
It took a testy Morning Report interview this week to remind me that Simon Bridges was still the Leader of the Opposition. Until then, he had been largely invisible as the events of recent weeks unfolded. ...
The National Council of Women NZ has today welcomed the news that the Government has purchased Kate Sheppard’s house in Christchurch, the base for the NZ suffrage campaign. ...
The Māori Party supports mana whenua of Ihumātao and acknowledges their coming together to reach consensus on the future of their whenua. “We also acknowledge the leadership of the Kīngitanga who have played an important role in supporting ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is questioning why, for the second time, Jacinda Ardern has appointed a Crown-owned company Chief Executive to Chair her “Business Advisory Council”, following her announcement that Mercury CEO Fraser Whineray ...
Responding to the Government’s decision to give around $300 million to Amazon as a sweetener for filming a TV series in New Zealand, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “As a matter of simple waste, this is striking, ...
I am very pleased with Air New Zealand’s Decision to backdown and withdraw their application to trademark into a logo Kia Ora. I said at the time that it was an ill conceived idea and poorly thought out – more importantly it should never have been ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa members will be joining with others across the union movement by wearing black and white in support of pay equity on Suffrage Day tomorrow, and urging the Government to commit to a settlement for teacher aides this year. ...
Yesterday’s announcement from the Minister for Immigration, to improve temporary work visas for migrant workers, provides some positive changes but more detail is needed. The Council of Trade Unions fundamentally supports the principle of making ...
FIRST Union today welcomed Westpac’s public admission of the significant gender pay gap in its workforce and reiterated its call for employers to work with unions to close this disparity, arguing that this work must begin at the bottom of the pay ...
Changes to the work visa system announced by the Minister of Immigration are not all positive for employers or migrants, comments Ms June Ranson, chair of the New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment (NZAMI) , a leading voice in the ...
The Dairy Workers Union (DWU) has welcomed the announcement from dairy company, Synlait, that they will be boosting parental leave entitlements significantly for working parents. ...
In June, the Children’s Commissioner announced a thematic review into Oranga Tamariki’s policies, processes and practice relating to care and protection issues for tamariki Māori aged 0-3 months. Today the Children’s Commissioner has released the full ...
“Closing the Gap” Tauranga, one of the area groups of Income Equality Aotearoa NZ Inc., has surveyed all candidates in the three local body elections to discover attitudes to some basic issues of the Western Bay region. We believe that this is ...
In response to DairyNZ's attempt to dismiss an economic report that highlighted dairy's role in the New Zealand economy is only three per cent of GDP, Fish & Game New Zealand Chief Executive Martin Taylor says: "If DairyNZ wishes to reject a report ...
Kiingi Tuuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has successfully guided the mana whenua of lhumaatao to reach a consensus on the future of their whenua. ...
Two activists disguised as shareholders interrupted the AGM of a gold mining company in central Auckland this morning to inform shareholders their plans to mine for gold in conservation estate in the Karangahake Gorge were unwelcome. ...
The Capital and Coast District Health Board (CCDHB) has been labelled ‘NATO’ (no action, talk only) when it comes to child mental health, with just 0.6 full time staff (24 hours per week) for inpatient child psychology and just 0.8 full time staff ...
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL has awarded three New Zealand climate youth groups with its Ambassador of Conscience award, its highest recognition for human rights work, previously given to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Ai Weiwei and Malala Yousafzai. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union , in partnership with the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance , has today published this year's Ratepayers' Report – online local government league tables – at www.ratepayersreport.nz . ...
NZUS Council executive director Jordan Small welcomes the news New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will meet with US President Donald Trump in New York next week. ...
The recent NZIER report trivialises the significant role the dairy sector plays in New Zealand’s economy – and fails to look at the specifics of the Government’s freshwater package, according to DairyNZ. DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle said ...
This week, the New Zealand Parliament and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) will jointly host a seminar on tackling the global spread of illicit weapons. ...
New Zealand banning Huawei’s 5G network equipment won’t impact you nearly as much as the US’s recent moves against Huawei phones, writes Henry Burrell. Twenty years ago, you would have shown off your flash new Ericsson or Nokia. How times change. Now, those two entities exist only to provide mobile network ...
Op-Ed by Kaveh Zahedi, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)Kaveh Zahedi is Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).In less than ten days world leaders will be ...
Grant McDougall reviews Kilgour’s new solo album, Bobbie’s A Girl, which sees him reflecting on the deaths of his friend and former bandmate, Peter Gutteridge and his own mother, Helen Kilgour. There is a passage in Shayne Carter’s excellent recent autobiography, Dead People I Have Known, in which he describes ...
New Zealand painter-poet Gregory O’Brien has just published a new collection of essays and art; pitched as a “field notebook … my whale survey”, Always Song in the Water drifts from his own front lawn in Hataitai, up to Northland and way, way across the Pacific. It’s the sort of ...
Ruby Porterlooks into New Zealand’s future when the sea level rises 10, 25 and 80 metres, and finds out how much of Auckland will be left.I grew up in Ponsonby, but the only bay I knew around here was Cox’s. It’s fed by a creek which was once a mahinga ...
Opening up a skid pad, create more housing for single people and make the central city dog friendly: policies from Christchurch's lesser-known mayoral candidates. ...
Josie Adams, Hayden Donnell, and Alice Webb-Liddall read thousands of policy statements to find the climate change deniers, fudgers, prevaricators (and believers) running in our local elections.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The SpinoffMembers. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.One of the problems ...
The paintings of Colin McCahon convey dissonance and uncertainty, writes Shannon Te Ao. So what does this say about us? And why are we maintaining this Pākehā male narrative at the expense of more inclusive representation?Colin McCahon would have turned 100 on August the 1st. If you keep one eye ...
Amanda Thompson spends a day with the New Zealand men’s roller derby squad as they prepare for next year’s world champs in the US.Let’s play a word game. Let’s list some contact sports and the top teams in those codes.Say rugby. Are you thinking about the All Blacks yet? What ...
Covering Climate Now:Dietary Requirements is The Spinoff’s monthly podcast in which we eat, drink and talk about it too, with special thanks to Freedom Farms. This month, we go crazy for crickets in a climate week special.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. ...
To mark International Day of Peace, Dr Rebecca Dudley of the New Zealand Red Cross explores the role that New Zealanders play in the global story of war and peace. Personal stories about war almost always begin with a memory.A humid afternoon in South Sudan.A calm Wednesday evening in Beirut.A bustling ...
The history of tattoo art in Japan is deep-rooted and complex – and so is the cultural aversion to tattooed bodies, explains Brian Ashcraft, the author of a book on subject.Tonight, when the All Blacks take the field, they’ll be covering up. In order not to run afoul of Japanese ...
Covering Climate Now: Saying climate change is important is one thing. So why are we so incapable of having a real conversation about what actually addressing it will mean? Sam McGlennon investigates. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!Up until a week ago, ...
"This is what Wellington boy said, after he finished his quick and bloody deed. You know what your problem is? Once a slut, always a slut": a short story by Auckland writer Eileen Merriman. ...
Michael Mann, a climatologist and famous press critic, talks to the Columbia Journalism Review about the dangers of both understating and overstating the dangers of climate change. ...
Ahead of the All Blacks first game Trevor McKewen makes some his fanciful, fraught and some hopefully on-point predictions for the Rugby World Cup.Can you take one for the team? Could you cope with the All Blacks coming up short in achieving an unprecedented third straight World Cup if it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Leigh Sullivan discusses Scott Morrison’s new family law inquiry with Michelle Grattan. They also speak of the developments in the Tamil family from Biloela’s case, and the UN barring ...
Analysis - Jacinda Ardern heads for the UN as the sexual assault scandal rumbles on at home, and Simon Bridges says he isn't going to ease off his personal attacks on the PM. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dries Verstraete, Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Design and Propulsion, University of Sydney CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d ...
In this episode of our new tarot reading show Wild Card, The Spinoff’s resident psychic divines the outcome of the All Blacks’ opening match against the Springboks on Saturday.In the first and potentially only episode of Wild Card, we have a focus on sport. The Spinoff’s psychic-in-residence, Jo Sees, specialises ...
Recently-retired Sky TV chief executive John Fellet talks to Newsroom business editor Nikki Mandow about baseball, media, goldfish, accountancy - and more baseball. ...
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s.With Duncan enjoying a MAFS-style beach holiday in Bali, Alex and Jane are left to cover another crazy week in reality television. Shannon Ryan has gone full beast-mode in Celebrity Treasure Island, Married ...
Dr Bryce Edwards“Diversity” is a central theme of the current local government elections – with the common criticism that incumbent politicians are generally too “stale, male, and pale” (or variations on that). Numerous commentators and candidates have lamented the lack of women, ethnic minorities, and youth in local government. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Climate change, environment Paul Gorman (Stuff): How would you spend an unlimited war chest for ...
A review into the Ministry for Culture and Heritage will look into the relationship between a staffer and the external developer responsible for a massive data breach. ...
Covering Climate Now: The Spinoff crew who took on climate change with a vegan diet for the week reflect on the highs, the lows, the pies and the fries. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!As I write, I’m tucking into ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roger Crisp, Professorial Fellow, Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, Australian Catholic University As world chiefs and youth leaders gather in New York at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, many of us as individuals are feeling powerless and overwhelmed. Making big personal changes ...
The head of one of the country's biggest news media firms is the latest subject of criticism for darkening his face at a staff party he attended dressed as US basketballer Lamar Odom. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Coral Gartner, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland Health authorities in the United States are investigating 530 cases of lung illness, including seven deaths, reportedly connected to vaping. Some of these patients have been diagnosed with lung inflammation ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (Chatto & Windus, $48)Obvs. (Read our review by Pip Adam here)2 Three ...
When comedy documentary Funny As was made, a lot of interviews got left on the cutting room floor which NZ On Screen quickly picked up. Here are some of our favourites.We’re a pretty funny bunch us Kiwis. Trapped on a tiny island at the end of the earth it appears ...
Auckland rapper JessB has just released a new EP and wraps up a national mini-tour tonight in her home town. Jogai Bhatt talked to her about her world travels, performing at Ihumātao, and how her community and her music intersect.It’s only been two years since JessB entered the public radar ...
A new poem by Waiheke poet Rata Gordon.PacingA deep bow to NerudaIt so happens I am sick of being a woman. It happens that I walk into BP stations and supermarkets greasy, swollen, like a cow made of soap, losing my way in a field of placentas and pesticides.The smell ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amanda Gardiner, Lecturer, Edith Cowan University In August, a 24-year-old woman appeared before the Western Australian District Court after pleading guilty to concealing the birth of her newborn baby in 2018. The charge of concealment of birth refers to hiding the dead ...
Voting papers are being sent out today, and lots of people say they won’t fill them out because they don’t know anything about the candidates. Respected website ‘The Spinoff’ is trying to fix that through its Policy Local tool. But it’s not the only one. Catherine Jeffcoat talks to the ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by literary editor Steve Braunias ...
Writer and cannabis legalisation expert Russell Brown watched episode two of Patrick Gower on Weed, and found it highly entertaining but dangerously light on facts. Patrick Gower is good value when he’s high. In the second part of his documentary Patrick Gower on Weed, he does what you’d expect in a ...
Sydney shock-jock Alan Jones has written to Jacinda Ardern saying he didn't intend any violence towards her when he said on air that Australia's Prime Minister should "shove a sock down [her] throat". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caio Seguin, PhD candidate, University of Melbourne Brain regions exchange information by sending and receiving signals through a network of nerve connections. This exchange is crucial to all aspects of the brain’s functioning, including how we experience the world, form and retrieve ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Miranda Kaye, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney Over the next 12 months, a joint parliamentary committee will examine Australia’s family law system. It will be led by conservative Liberal MP Kevin Andrews and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Barbara Allen, Senior Lecturer in Public Management, Victoria University of Wellington This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. For three years in a row, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Moscova, Senior Lecturer in Anatomy, UNSW Women’s nipples have long been a source of fascination and controversy, from celebrity gossip stories of wardrobe malfunctions and “nip slips” to feminist movements for gender equality. Nipples even became a fashion accessory. Men’s nipples ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Holmes, Director, Climate Change Communication Research Hub, Monash University One of the great paradoxes of climate change communication in Australia is that politicians command the most attention on the issue, yet are among the least trusted sources of climate information. Research ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachael Sharman, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of the Sunshine Coast This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. Thousands of school students across Australia are ...
Open mike 26/01/2012 
. . Just when you thought Simon Bridges couldn’t sink any lower – he has. After the March 15th Christchurch terror attack, the (current) Leader of the National Party issued strong committments to support urgently needed gun law reform; “We will be ready and prepared to be constructive and to ...1 day ago
We all know that bad parents simply don’t care about their children’s education. Most truants have loser parents, and grow up to be involved with crime, or in low paid employment usually like their parents. The nonsense so-called “climate strike” coming up will be attended mostly by the least intelligent ...2 days ago
Today is the first day of the global climate strike. Led by schoolkids, people all around the world are going to protest to demand action on climate change. New Zealand isn't doing it till next Friday (join us!), but if you want to get active early, there's plenty to do ...2 days ago
To Protect and Serve: When the Prime Minister finds herself enmeshed in the coils of a full-blown political scandal, her colleagues and party comrades have only one priority: to release her as swiftly – and with as little lasting injury – as possible. Is this what Jacinda Ardern’s colleagues and ...2 days ago
When military leaders cover up and lie to elected civilian authorities, the foundation of democratic civil-military relations is undermined because it is those authorities who are entrusted to hold the military accountable to the public that they mutually serve. But this is only true if civilian political authorities take their ...2 days ago
by Daphna Whitmore The long years of Netanyahu’s reign are drawing to an end. For years he has epitomized reactionary zionism as he oversaw hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers seize land in the West Bank. There are now 700,000 settlers, putting an end to the myth that Israel was ...2 days ago
BP, Z and Mobil all insist that petrol price hikes are temporary, “in a very literal sense.” The nation’s major petrol providers are trying to allay customer fears over prices, promising that they’ll move to lower them again “immediately” when the Middle East is returned to its formerly peaceful state. ...3 days ago
South African coach Rassie Erasmus says he has no idea what they’re going to do about the boat. In a highly anticipated press conference this afternoon, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has finally unveiled the team’s boat for its Rugby World Cup 2019 campaign. In a press conference that went ...3 days ago
Get Back Jojo! The elation in Mayor Phil Goff’s camp may be easily imagined as they watched social media light up in indignation at challenger John Tamihere’s "Sieg Heil to that" quip. Just when JT’s notoriously right-wing, sexist and homophobic stains were beginning to fade back into his ‘colourful’ past, ...3 days ago
Patrick Gower is good value when he's high. Not that I've ever, you know, got stoned with him. But in the second part of his documentary Patrick Gower on Weed, he does what you'd expect in a modern weed documentary and immerses himself – first with a doctor, then a ...3 days ago
We surveyed candidates on their attitudes to issues facing the Western Bay Region, find out what they think: “Closing the Gap” Tauranga, one of the area groups of Income Equality Aotearoa NZ Inc., has surveyed all candidates in the three local body elections to discover attitudes to some basic issues ...4 days ago
Why is New Zealand climate change policy so crap? The Herald this morning has a long article on the twists and turns of climate change policy in New Zealand [paywalled / depaywall script], which shows where we've been. The short version is that the government first began worrying about this ...4 days ago
The All Blacks have been, for more than a century, arguably the most successful International sports team in the world. But they are more than that; even for those Kiwis who are immune to the charms of rugby (and there are more than a few), the All Blacks are ambassadors ...4 days ago
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Dangerous Foes: For those readers of Bowalley Road who feel disposed to dismiss any prospect of an Israeli destabilisation of New Zealand politics, the example of the United Kingdom repays close attention. Ever since the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour Party, the Israelis have sanctioned, funded and ...6 days ago
Make It 16, the youth-led campaign to lower New Zealand's voting age, is holding an official campaign launch at Parliament this Friday from 16:30. If you'd like to attend, you can register using EventBrite here. ...6 days ago
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Todays little gem from Granny…it appears National supporters are more likely to be unfaithful and have affairs. After that they drink Coke and fuck us over.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10781228
Journalism at its finest…and here’s me thinking Pepsi is the choice of a new generation, glad that critical debate been settled.
Does this mean Coke is the real thing for a lefty?
Huh? The the article says people who sign up to a marital cheater website are National voters, own a PC, drink coke, eat meat, have a tattoo, smoke and be a Christian. Nothing about pepsi.
Right you are Carol. I did not want to waste any bit of my life reading the article but have now done so and it looks like Pepsi is the true drink of leftys …
What a pity! I love vanilla Coke…
Why is Mr Sheaer supporting Michael Fay? Shark jumping to be Labours leisure pursuit of choice?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/6315003/Crunch-time-in-Crafar-farms-saga
Labour leader David Shearer, who visited one of the Crafar farms yesterday, said he supported the Fay-led bid, which included iwi interests.
“My feeling is that New Zealanders should be able to buy their own land and we should at least give them the first option to be able to buy it,” Mr Shearer said.
My thoughts exactly.
Michael Fay has done more damage to this country than any other business man…EVER. We should be rejecting the Chinese bid outright but Fay…really.
Does anyone think he is doing this for the love of his country. Like fuck he is.
even Farrar doesn’t support Fay
http://dimpost.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/the-grifter/#comments
I’m obviously missing something but perhaps someone who is in touch with labour could explain this endorsement
Fay has a low ball offer cynically exploiting the sentiment and politics to try and get it for a song, the waikato times pointed this out last year.
He’s paying shedloads to PR outfits to spin him as a saviour…tui moment.
Receivers are bound to get the highest price legally so what’s needed is strong and proactive political leadership…..uh oh.
New Zealanders have had two years to bid for the Crafer farms.
They only had to offer what the banks considered acceptable (actually below) to the loans that they gave the Crafer family, and the Chinese would no be at the party.
As for Michael Fay he is only looking to screw somebody, as he has done often in the past.
It seems to me that Labour has picked up from where it left off before it made a few desperate attempts to stench the blood of its base, maybe six months before the general election, and is back on the same political, tactical moral and public-relations trajectory, with the same players calling the shots, and the same heads in the sand, and just a new face for the brand.
And the consequences will continue.
Thursday 26 January 2012
Is NewstalkZB about to radically change its nature?
Child abuse—that perennial talkback favourite. It’s always fascinating (and horrifying) to listen to radio hosts like Larry Williams, Mike Hosking, Leighton Smith and Susan Wood ranting and railing against the Labour/Green “nanny state” that finally (in 2009) abolished parents’ immunity from prosecution for assaulting their own children, and in the next breath condemn the parents who take smacking (which these radio hosts support) a tad too far and end up killing their children.
It might have surprised some people, then, to hear this morning, just after 7:30 a.m., one of these fanatical anti-nanny staters and pro-kiddy whackers, Susan Wood, suggesting that the state should indeed do something about child abuse.
Speaking very slowly and with the deepest voice she could manage, in order to emphasize just how serious she is, Wood put the following question to the Hon. Paula Bennett: “Do you think it’s time for the state to intervene more proactively?”
Does this signal a radical change of policy at NewstalkZB? Will the hosts of this station now cease to defend the “right” of parents to hit their children?
Who knows, but perhaps the hosts of this station will reverse some other of their long-established policy positions and speak out against knife killing, assaulting of women, Chinese government goons roughing up New Zealand MPs in the grounds of parliament, the mass killing of civilians and the destruction of hospitals, power stations and schools.
Is NewstalkZB about to radically change its nature?
Not bloody likely! There’s a big difference between 2008 (the smackng law passed 2008) and 2012. What passed for ‘nanny statism’ under Labour becomes acceptable practise under National.
I’m waiting for the light bulb legislation now – under a pseudonym name of course.
Some will tell you that the woes of the Keydom result from simple human failings like greed, a lack of understanding or compassion.
But our rulers know better. They know that the fault does not lie with them, after all to rule is a reflection of the grace of God and confirmation of his favour.
There is a plague upon our land.
A plague of Witches.
They will be identified by their weakness.
Those with little money or little power, those whose voices are easily silenced, those whose wretched human failings set them apart from the virtue and nobility of the people – they are the cancer that eats away at our prosperity.
They must be found and punished, all of them. It may take many years, for as everyone knows Witches breed like rats, and if one touches you it is likely that you too may be infected.
They may resist, but do not be discouraged, for both resistance and assisted confession are clear indicators of guilt.
Light the fires, the promised land awaits.
Update: Paula Bennett confirms that innocent people may be burnt and asks NZ:
It is your choice: burn the innocent, or let the guilty go free.
Now i am old fashioned and thought that law and process and morality had something to do with it.
Lets not take any chances eh?
Bung linkey, try:
National Party Strategy instruction video’/a><
I made a decision last year to never again listen to “newstalk”ZB ever again. Everybody has their own barrow to push but for a radio station to ram their outdated rwnj agenda down the throats of listeners is a disgrace. Late in (Leighten) the line for brain allocation Smith and Larry Williams loves his neighbour Key make me wanna chunder or do a Laws shootout gig. And in between the propaganda their high amount of adverts makes the name ad-talk ZB seem more appropriate.
Farrar wouldn’t, he needs to spout his paymasters rhetoric.
Great to see that Aotea Square in Auckland has finally been returned to the 100%.
As interesting bug caused by a comment that made the page kind of hard to see (ie black). Fixed both the immediate cause in a comment and prevented it from happening in the future.
Ta.
Yeah… I think it might have been my comment. Wondered if there was some political interference going on. 🙂
Hey folks, as a random aside – have you noticed how incredibly bored, disinterested and contemptuous as ever JK looks, now that he’s been forced away from his holiday in his mansion in Hawaii or wherever he was? It was disturbing to see his return on TV3 news, mind you the sight of him always disturbs me any way, but he’s not even bothering trying to mask that he couldn’t care less about the crafar deal, chch and anything else of critical importance to NZ. It’s like he’s run out of “smile n wave juice” His face just screams “oh, god, theres all this lot to deal with again, this just isn’t what I signed up for”
Yes Rosie I noticed his “don’t wanna be here” demeanor as well.
Never mind he’s off to Australia for another well earned break to watch the tennis shortly.
tea tapes been leaked. http://soundcloud.com/goldenturkey/2johns2cups..
Do you have to log in to hear that? Or has it been removed?
Ditto – only read about it here http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10781324 and now its gone?
You shouldn’t need to sign in to hear it, the embed Soundcloud code is still working fine on The Jackal… although the file isn’t seeding properly yet.
Corrected URL
2 Johns 2 Cups – tea tapes leaked
My hearing is not sharp enough. Hope someone transcribes it?
Ask Winston – he has a transcribed copy.
Damn my poor hearing! Can’t hear what they are saying due to all the background noise. What was the gist of the talk?
TV3 get a favourable mention by JK: “…they’ve been very good working for us…”.
TV3’s also “pretty solid”. That’s Key’s code for thick, gullible and will work for wine.
I think the comment about TV3 is about the TV3 polls. It comes after talking about the latest Roy Morgan poll.
It follows on from the comment about how well TV3 are working for National, Carol. It’s either the next sentence or part of the same sentence. He’s claiming ownership of Garner and Gower. Amazing what results a cheap loan to Mediaworks will bring you in terms of fawning coverage. Very, very problematic for the two reporters.
TVOR, as I hear it, they mention the Roy Morgan poll, then the TV3’s is working for them, has been solid, and then mentions the NZ Herald poll.
You might be right, I’ll have another listen.
$44 million dollars worth
No surprises there then! 😀
not just your hearing, its pretty hard to figure out what they are saying, but whatever it is it sounds like a very dull conversation, they say something like ‘ooh, that labour party are so nasty, we would never do anything nasty like them” , but yeah hopefully someone transcribes it.
Is it technically possible to remove the back-ground noise? I could just hear names being mentioned. I’m sure I heard JK claim something to the effect… Nah, he won’t make it. Got about 4 last time. He’ll get 3 this time. Winston Peters?
Downloaded and listened to it on headphones. A lot of the first half is about polls, saying Labour’s negative campaigning doesn’t work, and Key being very smug about how he apporaches the media – positive upbeat approach etc. Then he and Banks rehearse what they are going to say to the media after their tea.
Then they mention some woman MP as being pretty good and Banks talks about how he is approaching his campaign – but can’t hear a lot of the details.
So that’s it? Where is the “scandal” the media (and of course many on this site) hinted at? And more why did John Key (or his advisers) handle it so stupidly?
Oh well, puts that strange footnote to bed.
Key fed the prospect of scandal via his reaction, people on this site and others were reacting to his fear of it’s release.
Must have been concerned about having to change his phone number..
My theory is they handled it the way they did because it put the whole focus of the couple of weeks before the election on the tapes rather than on anything else Labour could’ve wanted.
Obviously that plan worked but whether it actually helped the result is debatable.
It got Winston into parliament. So I’d say that backfired pretty badly on them.
I attribute Labour’s poll slump to their stupid decision to announce that they would extend WFF to beneficiaries and the superannuation changes also weren’t well-received.
Yeah that sounds about right – the working for families thing cracks me up as I’m willing to bet had Labour announced that they were giving additional money to beneficiaries who have children rather than framing it as an extension of working for families it would have gone down a lot better.
Yes, I certainly think it would have been received a lot better.
Key: Most photographed cup of tea in the world
Banks: This is a very good media contingent
K: Yeah, it’s huge eh
B: I got to tell you
K: Wherever I go though there’s really big numbers, normally ???
B: I mean ah, there’s 30 here today, that is very very good
B: …the labour party has ah given up on Epsom.
K: oh yeah
B: he’s a horrible little fella that candidate
B/K: nasty, nasty
K: but yet they all are??? they’re a very nasty party in a lot of ways
B: well, you know, they’re putting ah, they’ve been putting things in letter boxes about me, shocking socking stuff
K: yes yes, it’s nasty. that’s what they do, they play the person the whole time. we never do that stuff.
It goes on for a little bit after that but it’s hard to hear.
They talk about Winston, Key thinks he won’t get higher than 3%. Didn’t hear anything about supporters dying off, though.
Right towards the end (around 6 minutes) they are apparently talking about ACT leadership and suggest whats-her-name would make a good leader, give a female perspective/influence, and refer to “that other guy” and an odd-fellow, to which Key agrees. He says something about “when they called me up in London”, I guess talking about when he was first parachuted into the party.
Key said that NZ First’s “constituents (constituency’s?) dying off” or words to that effect. And up until the teapot tape, it was!
I think that phone call relates to the Don brash comments. It comes after Key agrees with him being an odd fellow & says “we’ve been down that road, that is why when they called me in the UK…”
Can everyone please put the start time by the snippet of conversation that they have heard thanks.
If a couple of dozen people transcribe 20 seconds each, we’ll have it finished.
I only transcribed the interesting bits. The rest of it was boring or hard to hear.
Yes , then after we have done all that transcribing and debating the phonetics and intent of each statement we can back mask it so we can hear the true hidden message about JK wanting to murder all infants in their sleep, or something similar.
From what I can hear sounds boring as hell.
Have we been conned ?
Ah… so David Parker was one of the names.
B: he’s a horrible little fella that candidate
B/K: nasty, nasty
K: but yet they all are??? they’re a very nasty party in a lot of ways.
I’m sure there is a medical name for their delusional habit of transferring their own nasty, deceitful behaviour on to the shoulders of their opponents!
Psychological projection
Indeed. How contradictory is it to criticise Labour for negative campaigning by smearing Labour as “the nasty party”? This was in reference to Goff calling Key a liar and to the letter drops about Banks in Epsom. Yet, Labour also had far more positive policy stuff.
B: well, you know, they’re putting ah, they’ve been putting things in letter boxes about me, shocking socking stuff.
My recollection of that incident is that it turned out to be an individual (possibly two) who had no known association with the Labour Party.
The brochures had quotes of things that Banks had been reported saying in the Herald. Truly shocking and underhand …
Is there anything there that would spell big trouble for the cameraman?
How likely will it be that damages can be awarded against the cameraman?
HEY
Someone has gone through and edited the tapes and cut out the backgropund noise. It is on youtube here.
Everything is much clearer and you get a real sense of the sorts of people Key and Banks are. Watch and be amazed …
A much clearer version of the tape via, http://soundcloud.com/goldenturkey/2johns2cups
In the ‘Today in Politics’ section of the Dom this morning there was a note about how John Key is watching the Primaries from Hawaii and how he thought Romney was going to win. So far, so usual puff piece on our totes amazing PM.
However, at the end of the piece it said something along the lines of “Unlike Mitt Romney, Mr. Key said he will not be making his tax returns public.”
Why not? Why shouldn’t he? Shouldn’t the public finally get proof of the ‘fact’ that he pays his entire PM salary to charity? Shouldn’t we get to see proof of how ‘revenue neutral’ the tax switch was to one of NZ’s richest men?
Not sure what I think about politicians having to release their tax returns – tend to be interested obviously but not sure they should have too.
Did want to point out though that him releasing his tax returns would not show how revenue neutral the tax switch was for him as you would not be able to see how much GST he has paid on anything other than expenses directly relating to his income (which would not be much probably just bank/accounting/legal fees).
Ah yes, good point there Chris.
Mitt Romney – one of the billionaire bankster cartel, higher up the food chain than Key actually.
I was working at the time of the election, and was stunned and horrified when a
20-something colleague said she’d voted National because “Key gives his parliamentary salary to charity”. I asked her for details, and of course she didn’t know anything. It confirmed me in my belief that pretty girls of 22 or so, are as dumb as toast. (After all, if you’re young and pretty, you don’t need to be clever, you’ll get (and keep) a job anyway, hey?)
Guys that age are also dumb. And smellier. 😉
Thanks AdrianK! let us know how you get on with the rest of the conversation. I’m not surprised by whats been said so far. and there was a lot of speculation about the “NZ first supporters dying off ” comment wasn’t there? If he really is referring to the elderly, he is such an evil bastard, but we know that anyway don’t we.
Sounds like one of those dialogues that reveals information damaging to Key that you’d only realise if you were in the loop. He was sure Winston wasn’t going to be back. So embarrasment for internal polling? We all know how egotisical they all are, but it seems a flimsy pretext for the massive overaction that followed. At best, it’s an indicator of his true personality and he’s done a better job at emphasising that than anyone else.
Other than that, does anyone want his mobile phone number?
So, the teapot tapes have been leaked on to youtube. Download a copy now.
Does badmouthing Labour and Winston count as the nastiness that Banks and Key say that ACT and National don’t engage in? Banks says he never plays the man… unless it’s Winston … or “the brown man climbing in your window…”.
Here is the link to the teapot tape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KloJf11GvQg
Oooooer…that’s pretty shakey legal ground to publish that link. Mods ought to remove that.
I don’t think so. The law regarding the legality of the recording has not been established… besides, posting a link to highlight that somebody else may have broken the law is not publishing. I would argue that having the embed code is also not breaching the supposed law… I’m publishing the code, not the recording. The recording has already been published and is now common knowledge… even if they bother to remove the original uploaded recording, it will be republished again because that’s the nature of the internet.
Fair enough – not my ass on the line 😉
Just direct people to Kiwiblog, where DPF gives the name of the uploader.
If National’s official spokesman DPF thinks it’s OK to release the tape then who am I to argue?
That needs to be removed, Ev. It exposes The Standard to potential legal action. I’d hit the ‘request deletion’ button pronto, if I were you.
ps, Ev, a mate has just discovered the truther madness. I did my best to show him the obvious stupidity of the argument, but he insisted on ‘learning’ more, so I recomended your site as the best repository of ‘facts’ about 9/11. Hope you don’t mind me endorsing you!
Bit late TVOR but if you want to hear an edited and much clearer version then try this one.
Ho ho, not a million miles away from the real thing, as it turns out!
So sue me. I did not publish it someone else did and I linked to it just like others on the thread. If they are stupid enough to sue everybody who linked to it and downloaded it and spread it I hope they start at Kiwiblog because that is where I got the link from.
Otherwise your submission to the vindictiveness of our ruling elite looks pretty sad to me.
It wasn’t you being sued I was worried about, Ev, it was the Standard. The Tories would love to be able instruct the coppers to close this site down, so giving them an opportunity to do so seems foolish. However, I see there is now a post which gives the address, so the mods must be confident that there will be no legal problems from linking to it. I hope they are right, but that doesn’t make you (or the others) any less irresponsible or thoughtless for publishing it.
Close this site down? Another one would open within days, probably offshore too. Then what are they going to do?
TVOR,
The link had already been posted here and just about everywhere before I did. Jackal is very clear as I also stated I did not publish it here I linked to the person who had published it. I have no intention of jeopardising anybody’s blog. So fuck off with your yellow bellied whinging and kowtowing to the powers that be.
CV: it’s not just a question of the internet; there are real people associated with this site and real consequences if the Police were to decide that The Standard had ‘published’ the leak. They’ve already shown themselves to be actively willing to censor the media at John Key’s personal request, an action not seen here, since, oh, 1951.
I note Farrar immediately put up a ‘do not publish the address’ note on his site, and whatever his politics, the man is not stupid.
Ev: it is you who is yellow bellied, by recklessly putting somebody else’s site at risk. Feel free to set up camp on the moral high ground at your own place. You would always have the legal defence that your whole blog is satire and nothing you say should be taken seriously.
Scoop has an embedded version of the tape.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1201/S00136/teapot-tapes-uploaded.htm
That’s up to the trustees, moderators and admins of The Standard. I’m sure most of them are grownups who are capapble of making judgement calls about such things.
Dead right, McFlock, but I made my original comment at 1.16pm, well before any of the mods appeared to be aware of the release of the tape. I was urging caution for a genuine reason, but it is definitely their call once they are aware and they have made their position clear by putting up the address themselves.
Self censorship, they’re relying on it. Put it another way, if any of the Standard administrators ever get charged on this, they’re going to have one hell of a big defence fund.
It worked on the editors in the last week of the campaign.
That is why I linked to it, rather than posting it. Not much law on linking.
As it stands there is a hell of a lot of grey area between the requirements of an exemely slow ongoing police investigation and the requirements of public interest. I probably wouldn’t have released it, certainly won’t hold it in this country, and have no real issues with linking to public accessible copies.
Speaking of police investigations, they still haven’t bothered to look into my formal complaint concerning Owen Glenn trying to bribe people to vote Nact. Perhaps if the Police had given my complaint the attention it deserves, I might feel a bit more inclined to adhere to their requests.
Oh God you’re a nasty piece of work. It is you who is going for the moral high ground and your stupidity has no end. Last time I looked Iprent was very good at protecting the Standard and I have no doubt he would have banned me forever if he thought I jeopardised this blog.
So get of your high horse, grow some balls and pull your head in. LOL
[lprent: Yep, you’d be out of here if you caused the site problems, and I think that you only received a few warning bans long ago.
I might not agree with people but if I booted people for that then there wouldn’t be any posts apart from my words of wisdom. Even then it is a bit problematic as I tend to disagree with myself frequently. It is a operating requirement for any good programmer to always second guess themselves on everything because that is how you remove inaccurate presumptions.
People most commonly get booted from here for behaviour that attacks the site, authors, or effectively causes shutdowns in the comments. Most of those are pretty apparent. The next most common reason can roughly be defined as “boring the moderators”. Which is a direct derivative of attacking the site: bored moderators stop moderating which causes a shutting down the comments as moderators stop the really really boring flamewars that rapidly diminish the numbers of people reading comments. ]
Oh, noes! I pissed off a paranoid righty by suggesting they take care that they don’t damage somebody else’s property. However will I get over the shame?
Pot, meet kettle! AFAIK you’re the righty, my friend – being pro-abortion, pro-gay, anti-everything else, is not enough to make you left… 😀
If the police are going to have a go at anyone for revealing how to find the video, they will of course have to prosecute DPF, who was the first person to publish the name of the uploader to Youtube that I could find. That name is still there on Kiwiblog. If it disappears I have a screep cap of the Kiwiblog page that mentions the name of the uploader. So I guess the police will not be prosecuting anybody will they? Otherwise dozens of blogs can keep harping on this matter until the next election.
meh.
It’s something that the media should have done in the first place.
Thanks Lanthanide and others for providing us with the service of your ears. Still not bowled over by whats been said, on the surface of it. I don’t get why they (jb, Jk, and Nat) went all uppity about it, called the police and started crying and going all po faced. So far, as much as we know theres nothing there that is scandalous (unfortunately) or defames anyone. Labour would know they’re not liked, they get it every day that parliment is in session. To my mind JK’s accusation towards Labour that they organised that guy to attempt to get over the railing at the public gallery in parliament last year was far worse, and then the throat cutting gesture. What a dick. I did love the lolnats take on that though.
Keep looking everybody, there’s something in there to be found. Key is apologising apparently…
Key’s apology
Is it possible that Key is apologising for something that has been deleted from the tape and he doesn’t know it??
No, I think the comments about odler constituents dying off is there. The only other possibly damaging thing at the time of the elcction was the lack of faith in Brash and the promotion of Isaacs.
Although key’s smearing of Labour as “the nasty party” is…. nasty, given he’s referring to Goff calling Key a Liar, and some appparently pretty tame mail drops about Banks. That’s an over reaction altogether. And Key’s apology says he says things differently in private than in public…!?
From what I can hear and deduce its a boring nothingness.
Have we been conned ?
Seems so to me.
Tim Selwyn’s take on the tap has a couple of extra details, and the dogiest stuff may have been said in a whisper, after Banks says he didn’t know, following the 15% snap election comment:
http://www.tumeke.blogspot.com/2012/01/teapot-tape-now-online.html
Excellent work. Let us please use this format. If in doubt as to the speaker, leave the start of the line blank. And feel free to dispute any transcript so we can have another listen.
7:20
JK: What do you want to do, scan it?
JB: Yep.
…
JK: Is that yours?
JK: Is that yours?
JK: Is that yours?
JB: No.
JK: Hey that’s a recording device.
…
It’s someone’s recording device.
Let’s take a look.
7:50 recording muffled
It’s on youtube, cant work it out much thought its very noisy.. Sorry nearly posted but realised it was illegal.
the censor is in your head 🙂
TPTB rely on people to enforce self censorship e.g. NZ on Air.
Gingrich calls for moon base, space contests
An interesting headline because, as the text makes clear, what he’s actually calling for is more state subsidies of private business. Here’s the text:
US$1.8b into private hands per year.
If it was important for commerce then it would already be happening. ATM, it’s still far too cheap to continue to destroy the Earth’s environment for private profit.
The really funny thing about that is that US$1.8b is chump change:
A moon base, that’s real funny.
In a few years, the US won’t even be able to keep its carrier fleet at sea most of the time.
Cameron Slater – Asshole of the Week
Amongst the claims by the right wing that there’s nothing of note in the teapot tape and we should all just move along, is another feckless rant by Cameron Slater…
Do you not think he uploaded the tape himself as he new Parliament was about to sit and Winstone will let every body know. now the heat is off