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Open mike 26/01/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:53 am, January 26th, 2014 - 123 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

openmike

Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step right up to the mike …

123 comments on “Open mike 26/01/2014 ”

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  1. Jenny 1
    26 January 2014 at 7:24 am

    Panui! Panui! Panui!

    Wanting something fun, worthwhile, altruistic, artistically creative, and political, to do on Auckland Anniversary Day? Tired of listening to politicians making boring speeches excusing BAU? Sad at the damage climate change is doing to our world?

    Join the fight against coal, the number 1 cause and most easily preventable cause of global greenhouse gas emissions.

    Auckland Coal Action is calling for the public to rally to protest Fonterra’s proposed new coal mine.

    Building on our series of successful on Labour Weekend, at Easter Weekend and Queens Birthday Weekend, help us make this Monday’s Auckland Anniversary Day our most successful protest ever.

    By continuing to build these protests we will make sure that Fonterra gets the message that the world can’t afford more new coal mines.
    This holiday Monday 28 January, starting at 3pm (set up from 2pm) On the Auckland-bound side of State Highway 2 next to the site of the proposed new coal mine on the Mangatawhiri straight.
    Meeting at the corner of Homestead Road (motorway overbridge) and Bell Road.

    Coming from Auckland you will need to take the Mangatawhiri exit from State Highway 2 onto Mangatawhiri Road (incorrectly shown as Mangatangi Rd on Google Maps).

    Coming from the East, you will need to take the Golf Road exit.

    Click here for a map of the area: http://www.wises.co.nz/l/waikato/mangatawhiri/bell+road/#c/-37.221375/175.148721/15/

    What should I bring?

    Just bring yourself and your friends. We have lots of colourful banners and signs, that they can hold, stating opposition to climate change, and coal mining.

    bearing these messages:

    No New Coal Mines
    Coal Cooks the Climate
    Back Off Fonterra
    Use Wood Waste Fonterra
    Coal Causes Drought
    Coal = Climate Chaos = Drought
    Coal Dried Milk = Climate Dried Paddocks
    Coal Free Mangatawhiri

    But if you or your friends want to bring along your very own creative climate change messages to present to the public and Fonterra this would be very welcome also.

    What can I do?
    There will be lots of returning holiday crowds for you to interact with, Bored out of their minds sitting in the traffic and interested by anything you do, to bring attention to the danger of coal to the environment.

    Can anyone come?
    Yes. If you are returning from your holiday why not stop and join the rally? You will only be stuck in traffic anyway!

    Support the campaign against new coal mines!

    If you need transport and or want to be part of our car pool or for updates on this activity go to our website or facebook page.

    http://aucklandcoalaction.org/

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/aklcoal/

    • karol 2.1
      26 January 2014 at 8:20 am

      chris73 – born again anarchist.

      I suspect a lot of collaborative engagement, and less competitive jockeying for positions of power.

      • chris73 2.1.1
        26 January 2014 at 8:25 am

        Naah its just common sense that kids need to burn off energy

        • karol 2.1.1.1
          26 January 2014 at 8:36 am

          There was more going on there than burning energy – collaborative games (bullrush) – creating stuff in the junk pit. Rather than trying to structure children’s play through rules, just structure the environment and leave them to it. That’s what happens in early childhood education – kindergartens etc. Somehow that changes with many school playgrounds for older children – they are left with big open spaces and little in the environment to work with other than each other.

          • Colonial Viper 2.1.1.1.1
            26 January 2014 at 1:44 pm

            I think the PC brigade had bullrush banned years ago, or did that get reversed?

            • chris73 2.1.1.1.1.1
              26 January 2014 at 2:48 pm

              My mum hated bullrush but only because of the damage done to our clothes (three boys)

    • David H 2.2
      26 January 2014 at 1:41 pm

      Oh yes, the more energy they go through at school, means more peace in the home.

  3. Chooky 3
    26 January 2014 at 8:17 am

    @ chris 73….+100 …interesting….I agree with this….kids need to explore all avenues of creativity in the playground…eg. war games, climbing trees and gettiing into hedges…water and sand play ….even so-called risky behaviour ….because this is how they learn to set their own safety limits

    ….mind you there always needs to be some loose teacher playground supervision …to ensure no bullying or real harm to kids

    • chris73 3.1
      26 January 2014 at 8:26 am

      See I knew there could be cross-party support 🙂

    • millsy 3.2
      26 January 2014 at 6:13 pm

      I remember years ago, when I was in primary school, we had this massive (in the minds of us kids) 2 story playhouse, with an outside ladder to the second story, a pole, slide, balcony with a swing bridge out the back. It was on ‘stilts’ so you could play under it as well as on it. And it had a heck of a view when you climbed up top. Us kids loved it, and upshifting to the “Standards” (not to be confused with this site), meant playing on the other side of the school, and confidence course-like arrangement of high ropes, hanging tires and swinging logs.

      The playhouse was demolished not long before I left that school. Probably around the same time as the Tomorrow’s Schools reforms came in. It was replaced by some plastic looking lego type thing that seemed totally boring.

      Should also remind everyone that it was National that brought in all the OSH red tape stuff.

  4. phillip ure 4
    26 January 2014 at 8:25 am

    just fuck off..!..shane jone..!

    http://whoar.co.nz/2014/shane-jones-proves-what-a-reactionary-arsewipe-he-truly-is/

    (excerpt:.)

    “.. (ed:..and seriously..!

    ..an obese/fat/porn-addicted pisshead..

    ..saying cannabis ‘is a problem’..?

    ..is kinda beyond irony..eh..?..”

    shane jones..putting the ‘act’ in reactionary…

    • Chooky 4.1
      26 January 2014 at 8:36 am

      …speaking of pissheads ( I am not one) ….but recently instead of an occasional glass of red wine( which is supposed to be good for you)….i have switched to Guiness Stout ….and omg….it really is good for you! ….full of iron and Vit Bs..( got rid of my creakiness and I feel miles younger….. ha ha) …..supposed to be good for hypertension also…….just what the doctor ordered…..so i am now drinking a glass of Guiness every night ….while my partner drinks his red wine

      ….also Guiness is less fattening than red wine or a glass of milk

      Go the Irish!…..at last I have found my drink

      • Paul 4.1.1
        26 January 2014 at 8:39 am

        Jones is a dinosaur.

        • Pasupial 4.1.1.1
          26 January 2014 at 9:40 am

          I just hope he doesn’t go all Jurassic Park on us after the election this year. Labour can’t go with the Nats, however closely certain members of their caucus agree on most issues. But I could almost see Jones leading a breakaway faction of blue-reds (such an ugly bruised colour) that could congeal with NZF to give C&S to “the greatest party” (ie the one with most votes). Still, with the impending annihilation example of Dunne (and the MP) to show what happens to exLabourites who hook up with the Tories, such a course may not appeal.

          One of a long list of prognostications about which I hope I am in error.

          • phillip ure 4.1.1.1.1
            26 January 2014 at 9:56 am

            @ parsp..

            “..But I could almost see Jones leading a breakaway faction of blue-reds (such an ugly bruised colour) that could congeal with NZF to give C&S to “the greatest party”..”

            i agree…jones is in the wrong party..

            ..and the cherry on the cake is..

            ..that he is generally deemed to be short-listed for the ‘laziest-mp-in-parliament’-award..

            ..he just turns up to collect his paycheck..

            ..his performances in portfolios has been beyond dire..

            ..which is part of the reason there was so much hilarity when he stood/played-stalking-horse for the right/neo-libs..in his claim on the labour..leadership role..

            ..with most claiming that jones probably ‘couldn’t be bothered’ putting in the necessary hard work..

            ..an exercise by jones that was only given any credence by the paid-for corporate/access-media hacks..

            ..jones is also most famed for long-lunching..being over-fed by his lobbyists..

            ..(rapers of the environment/exploiters of third-world workers..all of them..)

            ..jones is the worst kind of greedy/self-interested reactionary tory in labour drag..

            ..he belongs on nationals’ back bench..

            ..up there with that other self-serving clown..henare..

            ..peas in a fucken pod..

            ..those two..

            ..eh..?

            ..phillip ure..

          • alwyn 4.1.1.1.2
            26 January 2014 at 12:59 pm

            Out of curiosity what is your success rate on your long line of prognostications?

            As far as Dunne goes he is merely another example of what happens when they get into the governmental bed with a larger party. They get crushed.
            National or Labour, it doesn’t matter. Tell me where the Alliance Party, a Labour supporter went too.

            • phillip ure 4.1.1.1.2.1
              26 January 2014 at 1:17 pm

              nah..!..alwyn..

              ..it’s those mesh-stockings/suspender-belts/fanny-flashing micro-skirts/crimson-painted-lips he wears/affects ..

              .. that make dunne different..

              ..but most importantly..

              .it is that ‘for sale/hire – short-time ok!..eftpos-accepted’ sign dunne has hanging around his neck..

              ..that makes him stand out from the others..

              ..phillip ure..

            • Draco T Bastard 4.1.1.1.2.2
              26 January 2014 at 2:42 pm

              The Alliance cracked internally and not because of outside pressure from a larger party. They have, unfortunately, forgotten the reason for being a party though. This seems to be a problem with most left leaning small parties.

              • alwyn …
                26 January 2014 at 3:53 pm

                I think it is a bit more general than that. If you have a look at what happens to parties other than Labour and National in the election that follows their first term in Government you find that the smaller parties all crash in popularity. I’ve only looked at what happened at the election in which they first enetered Government, not what might have happened in later elections. I mean Jim Anderton dropped from 2 to 1 but it was their first term in Powerr that did them in.

                ie 1996
                New Zealand First was part of the Government with 17 seats. In the next election they dropped to 5 seats.

                1999.
                The Alliance, in Government with 10 seats. Next election they got 2.

                2002
                United Future had 8 seats. Next election they got 3

                2005.
                New Zealand First had 7 seats. Next election none.

                2008
                ACT had 5 seats. Next election 1
                Maori Party 5 seats. Next election 3.

                In the mean time the Green Party, never part of the Government, went along, starting in 1999, with 7,9,6,9,and 14 seats. It looks as if NOT being in Government helps if you are small, don’t you think.

      • alwyn 4.1.2
        26 January 2014 at 2:05 pm

        Poor Chooky. Conned by the Irish.
        You say “Guiness Stout ……full of iron …”
        I’m sorry to say but the benefits of iron from drinking Guiness are a myth.
        As an example I will point you to an example of the dietician’s comments on the subject.

        You would have to drink three pints of Guiness to get as much iron as a single egg yolk.
        You would have to drink fifteen pints of Guiness to get as much iron as two Weetabix.
        Not being English I don’t know what a Weetabix is but I assume it is like our Weetbix.

        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1222684/Dont-believe-say-Guiness-isnt-good-you.html

        I won’t suggest you check any of the other claims. Assume they are right and you can go on drinking with a clear conscience. If you check them you may have to settle on drinking it because it tastes good.

      • Molly 4.1.3
        26 January 2014 at 2:54 pm

        Many years ago… stout was my choice of tipple, so I can appreciate your enthusiasm. But was a Murphys or Beamish aficionado myself.

        Didn’t stop me visiting the Guinness brewery in Dublin though, and discovering that for many years a glass of Guinness was given by Dublin hospital to women after childbirth to revitalise them.
        Don’t even recollect a cup of tea after delivering here…

      • McFlock 4.1.4
        26 January 2014 at 6:18 pm

        I play it safe and try to have both 😉

      • David H 4.1.5
        26 January 2014 at 6:18 pm

        But Guiness is out of most beneficiaries price range. Also Paula won’t like us drinking on the benefit even if it is good for our health.

      • phillip ure 4.2.1
        26 January 2014 at 11:43 am

        @ chooky..

        re yr link..

        ..this is the current ‘scary’ lie that prohibitionists peddle (with some effect..) to parents of today who smoked pot back then..

        ..(which instill (justifiable) concerns in those parents…)

        ..on an anecdotal-level..from one who smoked pot then..and smokes pot now..

        ..yes..as confirmed in yr link..the average-quality has increased..

        ..but that is just ‘cos of blackmarket vagaries/forces..as in ‘cabbage’ can’t be sold now..the maket is more sophisticated..there is ‘better stuff’ just down/across the road..

        ..but the strength/potency of good-pot has not changed between then and now..

        ..(facts actually confirmed in yr anti-pot link..)

        “..But while the average is up due to the availability of marijuana with a higher THC count –

        – the high mark in potency (somewhere around 25-27 percent) remains relatively unchanged in the last couple decades –

        – and isn’t likely to increase..”

        see..!..

        ..court forensic records here in new zealand also confirm that fact..

        ..as weed busted has to be checked for potency..

        ..and those records show minimal (if any) increases in the potency/thc-levels of good quality dope then..

        ..and good quality dope now..

        ..basically..(back to anecdotals again) good dope has always been good dope..

        ..and the ‘skunk’ of today..is no stronger than the thai-sticks/afghani-hash/whatever of their youth..

        ..this ‘potency’-argument is almost the last rearguard action the prohibitionists/piss-pimpers have to hand..

        ..and like so much else peddled about marijuana over the years..

        ..this too is a puff of smoke/bunch of lies..

        ..eh..?

        ..and but/hey!..as those former pot-smoking parents of today will attest/remember..

        ..when the pot is ‘good’..you smoke/need less..

        ..i can reassure them..

        ..that this has not changed..

        ..and there are not nasty/super-hybrid versions of pot out there..

        ..neither then..nor now..

        phillip ure..

    • QoT 4.3
      26 January 2014 at 11:34 am

      My god, he’s obese AND fat? That must make him the worst human being ever!!!! There are certainly no other things we could criticise Shane Jones for at all!!!! 🙄

      • phillip ure 4.3.1
        26 January 2014 at 11:52 am

        good old qot..

        ..can always be relied upon to get it wrong..

        ..’fat-addicted’..as in addicted to animal-fat/flesh..

        ..mm-kay..?

        ..just like yr good self..eh..?

        ..any other questions..?

        ..as by any measures..

        ..he is clinically-obese/prime candidate for the nasty-outcomes from that adopted pakeha-diet/addiction-pattern..

        ..eh..?

        ..phillip ure..

        • Zorr 4.3.1.1
          26 January 2014 at 2:08 pm

          Looking at the parts you have quoted in your blog post and what you have put here – how about try giving up these ad hominem attacks. If you actually had a point it was completely obscured for me by your bullshit personal attacks.

          Reading your blog post – Shane Jones was making an argument from the other side of the aisle of the cannabis debate. He chose to highlight the issues that Maori culture has with legal and illegal drugs as well as confronting the fact that a pro-cannabis white guy was able to speak on the marae when their own women weren’t afforded the same courtesy. From the sounds of it, he was making a responsible, progressive and inclusive speech against the promotion of cannabis – and you choose to personally insult him for it rather than attempt to rebut any of the points he raised.

          I guess it just goes to display that ad hominem is the only sustainable level of “debate” you’re capable of

          • phillip ure 4.3.1.1.1
            26 January 2014 at 2:42 pm

            @ zorr..if you read the actual report..there..zorr..

            ..you will find that jones just adhom-ed the pro cannabis speaker..

            ..for being ‘pakeha’..(!)..and for daring to make that case..(!)

            ..and you are just fine with that..eh..?

            ..and everything i have said about jones is true/fact..

            ..please point me at what i have said that you think is untrue..

            ..jones is what he is..

            ..i am just pointing that out..

            ..and his hypocrisies in pimping the drug that does the most harm to maori/nz..

            ..and just making up lies/bullshit about the least harmful intoxicant of them all..

            ..unpleasant facts do not necessarily translate to ad hominems..

            ..eh..?

            ..phillip ure..

            • phillip ure 4.3.1.1.1.1
              26 January 2014 at 2:53 pm

              and zorr..you get a special conflate/strawman-argument award..

              ..first you bracket pot and alcohol together..’

              ..when/whereas alcohol is most certainly a problem..

              ..(and is advertised/glamourised on tv/by the likes of jones.. etc..)

              ..but the main problem with cannabis for maori communities..

              ..is people getting busted/jailed for it..(doh..!..)

              ..and then you somehow drag the women speaking on marae issue into it..

              ..w.t.f.has that got to do with the pot-debate/the lies/bullshit of/from jones..?

              ..phillip ure.

            • Zorr 4.3.1.1.1.2
              26 January 2014 at 2:55 pm

              He wasn’t actually attacking the speaker for being white but pointing out the issue within Maori culture where an outside male can get up to speak to promote whatever they so wish but Maori women are ignored and do not have the right to speak on the marae – so not an ad hominem (from your blog “It was particularly “galling” that a Pakeha man could make such a speech on a marae when Maori women were not accorded that privilege”)

              And, despite what you say about Shane Jones being true, it does not make your argument any less of an ad hominem. What does his weight have to do with the argument for decriminalization of cannabis?

              • phillip ure …
                26 January 2014 at 3:02 pm

                @ zorr..

                “..from your blog “It was particularly “galling”..”

                just be clear..zorr…they are jones’ words…

                ..not mine…as yr comment cd read..

                ..and he said of the pro-cannabis-speaker..whose name is macdonald..

                ..he called him a ‘half-stoned creature from Macdonald’s farm’..

                ..and this ignorant-prick pretends to be fit to head a ministry..?

                ..and if we are riffing on names..

                ..jones sure needs to do a lot of ‘jonesing’..

                ..to shed his suite of life-threatening addictions..

                ..eh..?

                phillip ure..

              • phillip ure …
                26 January 2014 at 4:21 pm

                @ zorr..

                “..What does his weight have to do with the argument for decriminalization of cannabis?..”

                ..because of the fact he lies about the most harmless of intoxicants..

                ..and pimps for the most harmful intoxicant..to/for nz’ers..

                ..from a body showing all the outcomes from his life spent feeding his addictions to animal-flesh/fats/sugar/alcohol..

                ..his screaming hypocrisies/ignorances make his body-shape/personal-addictions entirely relevant..to the debate..

                ..he is the walking example of all that is wrong about/with that adopted pakeha-diet/addiction-patterns..

                ..he make himself relevant..

                ..phillip ure..

          • bad12 4.3.1.1.2
            26 January 2014 at 2:52 pm

            Zorr, and got caned on that same Marae for His outlandish attack on the Pakeha speaker, looks like we will have to add to the ‘crimes’ of Jones ‘closet racist’ as well…

      • Brett Dale 4.3.2
        26 January 2014 at 2:27 pm

        Qot:

        So let me get this right, its wrong to have a go at someone’s weight (I agree)

        You have bought this up regarding, Jesse Ryder and Shane Jones.

        But its okay to have a go at someones height. (judging by what you said on Twitter).

        Dont you think that is hypocritical?

        • weka 4.3.2.1
          26 January 2014 at 9:06 pm

          Link please Brett.

          • Brett Dale 4.3.2.1.1
            26 January 2014 at 11:29 pm

            weka:

            On her twitter page she said.

            That’s up to you, I personally have no space to sympathize for entitled little men who demand women’s attention.

            So she has a go at anyone who makes fun of someones weight, but she is okay with
            taking pot shots at someones height.

            • weka 4.3.2.1.1.1
              26 January 2014 at 11:41 pm

              You will have to put a link so I can see it on context, but on the face of it I don’t think she is talking about height. It would be like me saying something like ‘what a little shit’. Would you think I was referring to a short person?

  5. Paul 5
    26 January 2014 at 8:44 am

    Key appealing to the born again christian vote
    What will Colin say?
    http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9650503/PM-snags-votes-at-Parachute-music-festival

    • mickysavage 5.1
      26 January 2014 at 9:36 am

      I hear that David Cunliffe also attended but was refused permission to go on stage. The whole thing was a Key love in. Strange that Key, who is a self confessed agnostic, should be heralded in this way.

      • phillip ure 5.1.1
        26 January 2014 at 10:39 am

        @ m.s..

        re cunnliffe spurned..

        is that correct..?

        ..i wd like to report on it..

        ..so confirmation would be appreciated..

        ..phillip ure..

        .

      • ropata 5.1.2
        26 January 2014 at 8:58 pm

        Parachute also hosted Sue Bradford a while ago, to talk about the S59 Amendment, so I don’t know if this was deliberately partisan.

        There are zero reasons for thinking Christians, or people of conscience, to support the two-faced bankster Key. Christian values cohere much more with original Labour policy as enacted by Mickey Savage and his “applied Christianity”.

        (Jesus talked about loving thy neighbour and helping the needy … not the legalistic and weird traditions from the old testament, or the anti science insanity popular in US churches)

        IIRC Cunliffe is a churchgoer of some description?

  6. Paul 6
    26 January 2014 at 8:50 am

    The big lie being sold this election.

    “However, the Government points to the annual study by the Ministry of Social Development, Household Incomes in New Zealand, to support Key’s claim that the gap is diminishing, rather than widening.

    The Government says that while there is no doubt some families are in difficult circumstances, the income survey shows there is no evidence of rising income inequality over the past two decades. It argues that inequality is actually lower now than a decade ago according to internationally accepted measures.

    http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9648389/Rich-and-poor-in-election-focus

    • Pasupial 6.1
      26 January 2014 at 9:26 am

      Paul

      It’s certainly a big lie, but I think I’ll wait for a while before awarding the title of: “The big lie being sold this election”. They are only warming up and sound-checking at this point of the election year.

    • Molly 6.2
      26 January 2014 at 9:43 am

      Yes. John Key refers to a extrapolated study taken from the Household Economic Survey to give credit to his lies.

      The HES is compiled by using data from interviews and surveys – hardly likely to appeal to the full demographic of NZ – but more likely to skew the data in favour of massaged numbers in his favour. This samples only 5000 households – so Key can legitimately claim “In NZ we have 5,000 households who indicate that they are faring well”.

      You would have thought he didn’t have the full statistics department with census figures, along with IRD, MSD etc at his disposal.

      If the media can’t do this basic research before reprinting his claims, then Cunliffe needs to address it clearly tomorrow – and stop the meme.

    • Chooky 6.3
      26 January 2014 at 9:43 am

      …thanks Paul….says it all

      According to Labour’s figures, the top 1 per cent of income earners own 16 per cent of the total wealth, worth around $77 billion, while the bottom 200,000 income earners are, in contrast, $4.7b in debt.

      No-one in the bottom 20 per cent owns more than $6000 in assets, its figures show.

      Labour’s figures also suggest that incomes at the top have increased while those in the middle and bottom have stagnated 30 years on from the 1984 election that installed the fourth Labour government and unleashed a wave of economic reforms.

      After-tax incomes for the bottom 10 percent were $9700 in 1984 and had only increased by $11,000 in 2011 – a 13.4 per cent increase, according to Labour.

      But incomes for the top 10 per cent had increased 78 per cent to $100,200 over the same period.

      [Key’s response: “Despite what our political opponents try to claim, it is simply not true that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer,” Key told a business audience during his state-of-the-nation speech on Thursday.]

      • Naki Man 6.3.1
        26 January 2014 at 7:40 pm

        After-tax incomes for the bottom 10 percent were $9700 in 1984 and had only increased by $11,000 in 2011 – a 13.4 per cent increase, according to Labour

        $9700 increased by $11000 is 13.4 % increase, Labour’s maths is crap

        According to Labour’s figures, the top 1 per cent of income earners own 16 per cent of the total wealth, worth around $77 billion, while the bottom 200,000 income earners are, in contrast, $4.7b in debt

        The 1% ( business people) have a lot more debt than 4.7b

        • bad12 6.3.1.1
          26 January 2014 at 9:10 pm

          There is tho a huge difference between the money making debt racked up by the 1% and the money draining debt racked up by the 10% at the bottom of the income scale…

        • McFlock 6.3.1.2
          26 January 2014 at 9:16 pm

          $9700 increased by $11000 is 13.4 % increase, Labour’s maths is crap

          But bang-on if Watkins should have written “to” instead of “by”.

    • freedom 6.4
      26 January 2014 at 10:00 am

      We often blame the owners and the editors, but perhaps we should lay as much blame with those who let their names be printed atop the lies.

      Journalism without credible fact is propaganda
      and New Zealand is drowning in it

      • phillip ure 6.4.1
        26 January 2014 at 10:47 am

        @..freedom..

        ..media ‘names’..

        ..that was one of the takeaways i took from the media scrum after key spoke last week..

        ..at that fat-cat lunch..

        ..how despite key spouting a litany of easily proveable-lies..in speech/transcript..

        ..those corporate/access-media types just didn’t call him on it..(they never do..)

        (‘cleaner-rivers’..’no poverty/inequality’ being just two of them..)..

        ..yet were cunnlife to not dot one ‘i’..not cross one ‘t’..

        ..these access-media types..

        ..would be all over him..

        ..(a bit like what happens to a meat pie that comes within coo-ee of shane jones..eh..?..)

        ..were they all absent the week journalistic-ethics/imperatives were taught at journalism-school..?

        ..you’d hafta ask..

        phillip ure..

        • Chooky 6.4.1.1
          26 January 2014 at 11:01 am

          …he would be better to try a Phillip Ure Vegan Sausage

          • phillip ure 6.4.1.1.1
            26 January 2014 at 11:19 am

            aye chooky..never a truer word spoken in jest..

            ..it isn’t just the bone-headed/piss-merchant-pimper arguments jones posits that piss me off…

            ..it is that he..as an animal-fat/sugar-addict..(washed down by the product he pimps/celebrates consuming on-air..booze)

            ..is a walking/textbook example of all that is wrong with the ‘pakeha-diet’ so many maori are addicted to..

            ..and the cause of the off-the-wall health-problems/premature-deaths that plague maori..

            ..and that this obese fat/sugar/booze-sodden/burping/farting walking example of ill-health..

            ..points at cannabis as being a ‘problem’ to/for maori..

            ..the eye-watering hypocrisies/ignorances that displays..

            ..does kinda take the breath away..

            ..eh..?..

            ..just the facts that ending prohibition would see less maori jailed..

            ..less maori with alcohol-induced/fostered violence/health problems…

            (as legalising/regulating/taxing cannabis means alcohol-consumption would plummet..a fact pimp-jones and his booze-pushing paymasters are very well aware of..)

            ..just those two facts should totally dispel any ideas that jones works in/for the interests of maori..

            ..shane jones works in/for the interests of shane jones..

            ..and his scum corporate-paymasters/death-pushers..

            ..end of story..

            ..and it has always been thus..

            ..phillip ure

            • Chooky 6.4.1.1.1.1
              26 January 2014 at 11:59 am

              …well get on with making your Phillip Ure Vegan Sausage alternatives to pies then….and offer the likes of Shanes Jones an easy alternative( he can eat them while he fantasises about his fillies)

              ….for most people boiling up beans and rice is a chore…but a baked, boiled ,barbequed or fried sausage is easy

  7. AsleepWhileWalking 7
    26 January 2014 at 9:01 am

    Disabled people are getting poorer. Noticed they weren’t mentioned at all.

    • Chooky 7.1
      26 January 2014 at 12:04 pm

      …yes I do hope that attention from Labour and the Greens will be put on to the plight of the disabled….they are doubly disadvantaged

    • aerobubble 7.2
      26 January 2014 at 12:55 pm

      Long term benefitaries savings get eaten into when inflation and so interest rates push savings into the $80 week threshold, when 70% is taken off. $80 has not moved in decades for most.

      • [email protected] 7.2.1
        26 January 2014 at 2:12 pm

        ’81. Had friends whose husband was laid off, and while he was looking for a job, she had to be careful, not to cross the $80.00 threshold. They had three children, and she could easily have earnt more, but they would have been worse off. It was the same with him, the old Labour Dept. kept “offering” him the odd day’s work here and there, which meant they would have been worse off. To be better off, he needed 3 days work a week, not 1 or 2, due to tax and abatements.

    • alwyn 7.3
      26 January 2014 at 2:10 pm

      Where does this statement come from? Is there any documented evidence for it on the web?
      If so, where can I find confirmation for what you are saying?

      • bad12 7.3.1
        26 January 2014 at 2:46 pm

        Oh shut up alwyn, your nonsensical whining is a total bore, perhaps you think people with disabilities are all getting richer…

        • alwyn 7.3.1.1
          26 January 2014 at 3:11 pm

          Nothing forces you to read what I say bad12. I guess that you are merely pissed of because I have in the past pointed out when YOU have made statements that had no basis in fact.

          In the meantime I hope that the person who did make this statement will tell me where it is documented so that I can look up the details. It sounds quite appalling.

          As for bad12’s proposal “perhaps you think … are getting richer”. Where on earth do you get such strange ideas about the things you “think” I believe?

          • bad12 7.3.1.1.1
            26 January 2014 at 3:34 pm

            alwyn, of course you have every right to say whatever it is that you continue to whine about and my shut up was merely a rhetorical reaction to your latest snivel knowing it was hardly going to silence you,

            Your propensity to whine appears to be brought about by your ‘snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory’ in your haste to attempt to negate a point i made, ‘only’ a 58% rise in the party vote for the Green Party between elections 2008 and 2011 in the Auckland City electorates held by National is hardly something victorious for a ‘wing-nut’ to want to have published and the fact that you have has me continuously going Ha Ha Ha at you,

            If you have a further comment to make in relation to a comment i have made perhaps you could stop the cryptic bullshit and link to it, i realize that gobbledygook is your language of choice but such having been imported from the planet of the stupid most here would have no means of translation,(in relation to your last little whine)…

            • alwyn 7.3.1.1.1.1
              26 January 2014 at 4:07 pm

              You might as well give up you know. After all I was the one who told you that the Green vote went up by 58% between elections wasn’t it? You never did seem to realise that did you? All you could seem to do was to make up a b.s story about how well the Greens did in the National held Auckland electorates, claiming that they had DOUBLED their vote in those electorates. The truth of course was that they had exactly the same percentage increase there as they did everywhere else.
              How, by the way do you think that anybody could not realise that the party had a 58% increase in the nationwide vote? You do realise don’t you that they increased their seats from 9 to 14 and that that requires a percentage increase of the magnitude that occurred. Perhaps the details of the MMP system are beyond you.

              It is rather difficult to come up with any further link for your benefit. I offered you the simple to understand elections.org.nz but that appeared to be too difficult for you to follow.
              Finding any site that contains material that supports your fantasies is of course impossible. There aren’t any because they are just that. Fantasies.

              • One Anonymous Knucklehead …
                26 January 2014 at 4:22 pm

                Alwyn, you espouse right-wing policy. Therefore, you are either stupid, delusional, or venal, and your opinions are of no use in this forum.

                Bad12’s point that the Greens are taking votes off the Foreign Corporations and Farmers Party renders your bad faith statements about what you say you believe about Dotcom’s constituency moot, and the fact of your bad faith makes them irrelevant.

                • alwyn …
                  26 January 2014 at 4:31 pm

                  Jolly good old fellow. As I said to bad12, you are not required to read what I say and there won’t be an exam on the material.
                  If reading things that present a viewpoint that differs from what you want to believe upsets your delicate little stomach don’t bother. You are quite entitled to believe that the world is flat, and was created in 4004 BC if it makes you happy. As long as lprent et al, don’t object I shall contribute occasionally.
                  “Pip, pip and toodle ooh” as Bertie Wooster would say.

                  • One Anonymous Knucklehead …
                    26 January 2014 at 9:13 pm

                    I didn’t say your opinion is challenging, or uncomfortable, I said it’s worthless and irrelevant, rendered so by your bad faith.

              • bad12 …
                26 January 2014 at 4:44 pm

                alwyn, did you like my faux outrage, as good if not better then that which you usually exhibit don’t you think, the proof of that is that you bit and bit on it big time, more fool you,

                Oh the link i mention, your answer to that little last point i made in my previous comment shows you up as belonging in the Dunce’s corner,(a fact not lost on most here),and my pointing this out is simply as an educative hint to you,

                Most people would have realized that as an answer to your post of 3.11pm i was eluding to the last two lines of your relevant whine as ‘cryptic bullshit’, not you of course which is why i consider you to be a virtual dummy,(a useful tool is a dummy),

                Laughably i knew all along what you were referring to even if you havn’t the nous to have worked it out, and, as a wing-nut i believe your sole use here is simply to provide me with the pleasure of laughing at you, so along with the faux outrage i used a little pretense of not understanding for my personal amusement,(at you),

                As far as the particular last two lines of your comment at 3.11pm goes do you not understand the ‘interrogative’ nature of the words ”perhaps you think”, its a question not a statement…

              • bad12 …
                26 January 2014 at 5:03 pm

                Psst, was the nationwide, Ha ha ha, increase in the Green Party vote of the magnitude that occurred ALL from National held electorates,(you are just so hilarious)…

  8. bad12 8
    26 January 2014 at 1:15 pm

    Listening to RadioNZ National this morning it was a little disquieting to learn that radiation shown to have emanated from the Fukushima disaster has now been shown to have reached the west coast of the US and Canada,

    Given that it is only a matter of time, with large amounts of contaminated water still spewing into the Pacific ocean after 3 years, that such contamination will be taken up by seaweed and hence move into the fin-fish and bi-valves resident in the ocean and from there into the human food chain,

    Of course as fish are all part of their own food chain and considering the fact that fish do not necessarily remain in the one hemisphere sooner or later it’s pretty much a certainty that we are all going to get a dose high enough to be not good for our health from our seas,

    On a related topic we would think that those workers involved in the cleanup of the mess at Fukushima would be treated like hero’s in Japan for agreeing to go anywhere near the failed nuclear plant let alone work in the place,

    Not likely, the link below explains just who these workers are and what happens to the extra $100 dollars a day the Japanese Government is said to have provided for each worker at the site of the actual melt-down and in the surrounding radiation zone,

    If the link doesn’t work which is quite often the fate of the ones i attempt try Googling: Homeless used by Japanese in Fukushima cleanup,

    http://www.reuters.com/…/us-fukushima-workers-idUSBRE9BT00520131230

  9. middxkea 9
    26 January 2014 at 1:18 pm

    Just got back from Metiria speech in Wellington.

    The Greens have unveiled a new policy which would see schools in lower income areas turned into hubs which would meet all the health, social and welfare needs of poor families.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9651543/Greens-unveil-school-hub-plan
    Brilliant

    • Colonial Viper 9.1
      26 January 2014 at 1:24 pm

      That’s really really awesome…in fact, it’s a total game changer for communities.

      One small issue is that in the new economy, education is not the game changer that it once was. I hope the Greens realise this. Without a full employment policy, a phenomena we are going to see more and more of from now on are educated unemployed with student debt.

      • bad12 9.1.1
        26 January 2014 at 2:38 pm

        What i would call a ‘good start’ from Mets and the Green Party, perhaps a little light in the vein of treating the symptoms and not the cause, but, nothing there to scare the middle class who would buy into Slippery the Prime Ministers ‘devil beast’ and ‘Green Taliban’ rubbish,

        i totally agree with CV in that at some point the fact that there is not enough employment for everybody in our economy has to be addressed either by the State providing a lot more of it or providing a lot more to those effected by it,

        Given that, an election year might not be the best time to start such a debate but for the parties of the left to just accept the status quo is simply unacceptable and amounts to marking time befor the next attack upon the unemployed and beneficiaries in general occurs,

        The ‘Hubs’ in secondary schools sounds promising, i have a long held belief that the children of the poor miss out hugely in terms of socialization where their parents cannot afford the cost of fees for sports clubs, music lessons and a myriad other activities where the kids show a real skill and the school cannot offer a raised level of training/learning,

        My view is that either through the schools or through a direct partnering with the particular organization the fees for inclusion of the kids who’s parents cannot afford their participation along with any uniform, instruments etc should be included in the activities of such proposed secondary school ‘Hubs’,

        Good start to the year Green Party, with David Cunliffe set to launch tomorrow the scene is set for a ‘real’ fight in 2014,(as opposed to the mainly rear-gaurd action i feel 2011 was),

        My vote with the Party numbers and the polls on the up is still leaning toward the Mana Party, but, the Green Party will be the recipient of my ‘political budget’ for the year which should help provide advertising and electioneering worth far more than just my one vote…

        • Draco T Bastard 9.1.1.1
          26 January 2014 at 3:08 pm

          Given that, an election year might not be the best time to start such a debate but for the parties of the left to just accept the status quo is simply unacceptable and amounts to marking time befor the next attack upon the unemployed and beneficiaries in general occurs,

          Actually, I think the beginning of an election year is a great time to start the debate – especially after 5 years of National which came after the preceding 25 years of neo-liberal failure.

    • ianmac 9.2
      26 January 2014 at 1:58 pm

      Excellent idea middxkea. Wasn’t that the same principle behind Whanau Ora? (Sp?) The disconnect between agencies has defeated past efforts to coordinate help.

    • phillip ure 9.3
      26 January 2014 at 4:08 pm

      @ greens..

      ..that is all good-policy..

      ..and i like how labour are supporting it..

      ..and how with this policy..the greens have trumped a key tory policy-plank..

      ..(their re-invented scout-troop approach to problems on education..

      .their .’and if you get five pips..you get to be assistant troop-leader’-bullshit..)

      ..well done there..those greens..

      phillip ure..

      • phillip ure 9.3.1
        26 January 2014 at 4:55 pm

        pretty sucky/blowy on that pot-issue tho’..eh..?

        ..and how about that cunnliffe/labour..?

        ..whoar..!..

        ..cunnliffe just ‘won’t say’..

        .phillip ure..

    • millsy 9.4
      26 January 2014 at 6:17 pm

      Now this is a much better policy. Will do more for the education of our young people than something that has been lifted from a movie script.

    • Molly 9.5
      27 January 2014 at 9:04 am

      I’m all for the educational/community hubs – just a couple of points about having them at schools.

      1. Many of the disengaged have had disastrous experiences at schools – and will be loathe to return to them in a positive way later on in their lives. You may miss out on reaching those who have the most to benefit – just because of the choice of venue.
      2. Schools are already underresourced and overcrowded – where are the facilities and capacity that will allow this to happen without capital investment?
      3. You are introducing the community – many of whom are unknown individuals – into the school environment – how do you then ensure safety for both those individuals and the students of that school?
      4. Future governments – using the MoE – can destroy these programmes even if they are successful by claiming they are focusing on “getting back to basics”

      Alternatives:
      1. Adjust the stated policy to deal with these potential problems and ensure that the continuation of these programmes is strengthened.
      2. Create community hubs in local community facilities that are underutilised – obvious choice is to use local sports facilities that are not in use during the weekdays. Ensure cooperation between schools and hubs but try to set up hubs so that the communities own them – makes it more likely to survive long-term.

      • just saying 9.5.1
        27 January 2014 at 10:11 am

        Most of the furniture is the wrong size for adults in schools and the layout is usually wrong. They tend to feel a bit officious and formal
        Sports facilities make more sense – they are built for a more similar purpose ( often from lotteries grants), and could possibly be extended or adapted for wider use.

      • millsy 9.5.2
        27 January 2014 at 10:12 am

        Hi Molly,

        Just in regards to your point #3 — this can easily be solved by utilising the facilities after hours and on weekends/school holidays.

        • Molly 9.5.2.1
          27 January 2014 at 10:22 am

          Hi millsy,

          Yes – it is a possibility – if the school is not having after school activities.

          And is that time optimal for those we wish to engage? I would assume that some will be at home looking after their returning school aged children, and those delivering the services will also be working outside of “normal hours”.

          Local sports facilities are often empty during school days and most evenings. For the amount of investment and maintenance they are often underutilised.

          Note: I impatiently reposted my previous comment on
          today’s Open Mike           and see Karol has since posted on the Green Party educational policy. If there are further discussions, may pay to transfer there.

  10. middxkea 10
    26 January 2014 at 1:35 pm

    Metiria, said the election was shaping up to be about inequality. It was a very passionate speech and very well attended despite the crap Wellington weather.
    Talking to Green activists from around NZ it seems that people are ready for change, meetings are very well attended and membership is up. There is a buzz that I haven’t experienced before.
    Keys days are numbered

    • blue leopard (Get Lost GCSB Bill) 10.1
      26 January 2014 at 2:10 pm

      Thanks for the update Middxkea, that is very good to hear 🙂

      [I just posted this and it disappeared, so hopefully there is not going to be a double up]

  11. PapaMike 11
    26 January 2014 at 2:17 pm

    I note that the Indonesian Coal contract has been cancelled and that any coal required for the standby generator at Huntly will be now be locally sourced.
    Work for miners in Huntly, rather than overseas sourced.

  12. joe90 12
    26 January 2014 at 3:55 pm

    They really are awful people.

    Regarding your editorial “Censors on Campus” (Jan. 18): Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its “one percent,” namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the “rich.”

    From the Occupy movement to the demonization of the rich embedded in virtually every word of our local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, I perceive a rising tide of hatred of the successful one percent. There is outraged public reaction to the Google buses carrying technology workers from the city to the peninsula high-tech companies which employ them. We have outrage over the rising real-estate prices which these “techno geeks” can pay. We have, for example, libelous and cruel attacks in the Chronicle on our number-one celebrity, the author Danielle Steel, alleging that she is a “snob” despite the millions she has spent on our city’s homeless and mentally ill over the past decades.

    This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent “progressive” radicalism unthinkable now?

    http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304549504579316913982034286

    http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/01/25/vc-firm-disavows-founders-letter-comparing-outrage-against-rich-to-nazi-view-of-jews/

  13. blue leopard (Get Lost GCSB Bill) 13
    26 January 2014 at 4:39 pm

    It appears that Perce Harpham is giving a lecture on Universal Basic Income

    http://binews.org/2014/01/wellington-new-zealand-reducing-inequality-through-universal-basic-income/

    Would be great to hear about it from anyone in Wellington who is able to attend

    DATE: Friday, 31 January
    VENUE: Rutherford House, Lecture Theatre 3, Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington
    TIME: 12:30pm – 1:30pm

  14. Meg 14
    26 January 2014 at 5:04 pm

    Well, it is finally official. Whale oil is banning anyone who disagrees with his views. For a long time it has been very obvious Cameron Slater’s little site had been nothing but a national party platform, but now he is making it official by blocking anyone who holds a different view.

    Yes it is his own website and he gets to make the rules. However he can no longer pretend he is anything but a national party mouthpiece.

  15. the pigman 15
    26 January 2014 at 5:50 pm

    See there is some discussion related to the Jones foot-in-mouth re: cannabis above.

    To put another spin on it, there is a good opinion piece in Granny today regarding the ongoing prohibition on cannabis. Which of course creates crime and social dysfunction where there should otherwise be none.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11191645

    Judging by the comments below (not all from fellow NORML supporters, I assume) the opinion piece, a position on the ongoing prohibition would be my top “nice-to-have” in Cunliffe’s state of the nation.

    Meanwhile Dunne retains political oxygen by bowing down to legal-high manufacturers. Those who argue that “pot has gotten so much stronger” would be well-advised to try a quick taste test of street cannabis vs. that synthetic cannabinoid shit.

    …eh?… (apologies to phillip ure)

    • millsy 15.1
      26 January 2014 at 6:20 pm

      People are starting to realise that dragging people through the justice system for having a few joints in their pockets is a waste of time and resources.

    • phillip ure 15.2
      26 January 2014 at 6:27 pm

      @ pigman..

      ..wow..!..on that comments-thread..

      ..i really hope it is brought to the attention of those too-scared-to-do-anything..labour mp’s..

      ..i am heartened by the overwhelming approval for ending prohibition..

      ..and the large number arguing for legalisation/regulation/taxation..

      ..and not that halfway-house worst of both worlds decriminalisation the greens are pushing (ever so softly..ever so softly.)

      ..taken as a poll..these comments must surely embolden them to go the whole hog..?

      ..you’d think..?

      ..and to call for the colorado-model..

      ..and to actually argue passionately for it..(as do the commenters in that thread..)

      ..(not as turia does it..handling it like a smelly-object on the sole of the shoe..

      ..best to be wiped-off/hosed-down..and never mentioned again..)

      ;;having turia ‘arguing’ this..

      ..is like expecting the mad butcher to make the vegan-case..

      ..it ain’t gonna happen..

      phillip ure..

    • bad12 15.3
      26 January 2014 at 8:39 pm

      The Green Parties Russell Norman on Prime News tonight refused to back away from Green Party policy that Marijuana should be decriminalized saying that like all policy, the decriminalization policy will be ‘on the table’ in any future coalition negotiation with Labour…

      • millsy 15.3.1
        26 January 2014 at 11:15 pm

        I think it was a bad idea about the MJ issue. They should have instead raised the possibility of a Royal Commission that would look into our drug laws. Nice and safe — at least they could get a dialog going about it with the possibility of backing away from it if things got too hairy, and it would let everyone have their say about it all.

        Now they are going to leave themselve vulnerable on this issue, and probably let this over shadow their education reforms.

        • bad12 15.3.1.1
          27 January 2014 at 9:12 am

          Millsy, the Green Party are not willing to back away from policies hammered out by the Party members over many years just for political expediency,

          If we simply trade away everything we stand for nothing, as indicated by both Metiria and Russell this is hardly a ‘die in a ditch’ policy that the Green Party would try and push Labour into and i believe that David Cunliffe, cleverly, believes that this should be a conscience vote by the Parliament…

  16. Paul 16
    26 January 2014 at 5:59 pm

    Herald bias in reporting. Part 478.

    Green education policy headlined as $90 million.
    National education policy headlined as $ 357million.

    Only later in articles does one read Green policy is per annum and Nat policy over 3 years.

    What a rag.

    • Tony P 16.1
      26 January 2014 at 6:20 pm

      Yeah and TV 1 lead story is Lorde at the Grammys. Green’s education announcement comes 2nd.

  17. freedom 17
    26 January 2014 at 6:20 pm

    In a wonderfully manipulated news cycle last week, John Key Bill English and numerous talking heads told us all in breathless antici . . . . pation of exciting times ahead and how HSBC declared we were going to be a rockstar economy in 2014.

    You might want to wait before buying tickets to the show . . .
    https://topinfopost.com/2014/01/25/hsbc-bank-may-collapse

  18. Tim 18
    26 January 2014 at 7:37 pm

    Interesting Open Mike today….
    perhaps I should have a shot at flogging off my van-load of pre-twisted, pre-loved knickers (at knock down prices).
    All sizes …. all colours.
    Make me an offer- job lot. And if your name is Shane, I’ll even throw in a few feelthy pictures.

  19. vto 19
    26 January 2014 at 7:52 pm

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9651543/Greens-unveil-school-hub-plan

    Go the Greens. Keep the faith and fight hard. You might be surprised at the following.

    But I do think Metiria looks better in glasses. She is a kiwi treasure that woman.

    • karol 19.1
      26 January 2014 at 8:25 pm

      On this, I agree with you, vto.

    • bad12 19.2
      26 January 2014 at 8:31 pm

      Indeed, Mets was educated amidst the anger of the beneficiary movement surrounding the Shiply/Richardson TINA of benefit cuts as well as getting the formal stuff from Uni all the while a solo-mum,

      It’s a good start to the election year with more to come from David Cunliffe tomorrow, ”it’s not a matter of IF this happens it’s a matter of how and when” so said Labour’s Jacinda Adhern on Prime News tonight so it appears that with this policy Labour and the Green Party see eye to eye,

      Expect Slippery the Prime Minister, finding no division to be exploited, to throw a hissy fit, simpering along the lines of the ‘devil beast’ as National’s education policy is made to look like the neo-liberal orphan dressed in rags begging for an audience…

  20. joe90 20
    26 January 2014 at 8:27 pm

    Despite overwhelming support for Euromaidan Yanukovych seems to be hanging on with Putins support.

    18 regions – against the current government!

    […]

    As of 25 January in seven areas captured RSA, the other eleven of these institutions or blocked, or people preparing for such protests. Only two regions – Lugansk and Crimea – openly oppose Yevromaydanu* and express their support for Yanukovych.

    Euromaidan*

    Google translation

  21. Pete 21
    26 January 2014 at 8:29 pm

    Those clever Aussies behind Juice Rap News are at it again http://youtu.be/0VD33jRpeMM

  22. bad12 22
    26 January 2014 at 9:19 pm

    Algood Karol, time to square the eyes with a bit of television, tomorrow is another day which should belong to David Cunliffe with His addition of another nail in the coffin of Slipery’s god-awful government…

  23. Xtasy 23
    26 January 2014 at 10:02 pm

    Wow, what is “wrong” with Prime TV now, they have put out a small series of excellent programs under the title ‘Keeping it Pure’. It seems that they have given in to the “Green Talibans”, and allowed them to spread their “radical” “ideology” promoting a more “sustainable” and “environmentally balanced” economy and society.

    What a brilliant and enlightening program, I cannot believe that the MSM is allowing this.

    Maybe it is time for David Farrar to chat to Key and tell him to put the pressure on Prime TV, we cannot have this, can we? The truth being presented to the people?! It must be the Green Party behind it.

    Tune in 08.30 pm next Sunday, for the next piece.

  24. Draco T Bastard 24
    26 January 2014 at 11:51 pm

    Groser sells out – not even for 30 pieces of silver

    Washington Trade Daily has reported that ministers from all TPPA countries, except one developing country, have dropped their objections to the US-based intellectual property chapter, with some modifications.

    So, the US corporations got what they wanted and NZ is truly fucked courtesy of this government.

  26. Xtasy 26
    27 January 2014 at 12:57 am

    We need SPIRIT, and MORE in this election year, for the labour movement and “the left” to win, so take heart, keep up the fight and talk, involve, share and spread. Some great spirit comes from stuff like music. Here a taste of a “left” band from Chile, Illapu, great stuff, invigorating, I think:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkU-iYEsvHc

  27. Xtasy 27
    27 January 2014 at 1:16 am

    El concierto completo de Illapu 2013:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v515tCAzE5g

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    Photo by Josh Mills on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for the next hour, including:The runs on Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank on the west coast of the United States that forced the ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    20 hours ago

  • Weekly Roundup 24-March-2023
    Roundup is back! We skipped last week’s Friday post due to a shortage of person-power – did you notice? Lots going on out there… Our header image this week shows a green street that just happens to be Queen St, by @chamfy from Twitter. This week (and last) in ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    21 hours ago

  • Gordon Campbell on the Keen-Minshull visit
    After threatening Prime Minister Chris Hipkins of consequences if he dared to bar her entry, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull has been given her visa, regardless. This will enable her to hold rallies in Auckland and Wellington this weekend, and spread her messages of hostility against an already marginalised trans community. Neo-Nazis may, ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    22 hours ago

  • BRYCE EDWARDS’ Political Roundup:  NZ needs to distance itself from Australia’s anti-China nucl...
    * Bryce Edwards writes – The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The deal was struck by the Albanese Labor Government as ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    22 hours ago

  • Wayne Brown's #Auxit moment
    Boomers voted him in, but Brown’s Trumpish moments might spook Aucklanders worried about what a change to National nationally might mean. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR: Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has become our version of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, except without any of the insatiable appetite for media appearances. He ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    23 hours ago

  • Bryce Edwards: NZ needs to distance itself from Australia’s anti-China nuclear submarines
    The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The deal was struck by the Albanese Labor Government as part of its Aukus pact with the ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    23 hours ago

  • Posie Parker vs Transgender Rights.
    Recently you might have heard of a person called Posie Parker and her visit to Aotearoa. Perhaps you’re not quite sure what it’s all about. So let’s start with who this person is, why their visit is controversial, and what on earth a TERF is.Posie Parker is the super villain ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago

  • Select Committee told slow down; you’re moving too fast
    The chair of Parliament’s Select Committee looking at the Government’s resource management legislation wants the bills sent back for more public consultation. The proposal would effectively kill any chance of the bills making it into law before the election. Green MP, Eugenie Sage, stressing that she was speaking as ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    1 day ago

  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #12 2023
    Open access notables  The United States experienced some historical low temperature records during the just-concluded winter. It's a reminder that climate and weather are quite noisy; with regard to our warming climate,, as with a road ascending a mountain range we may steadily change our conditions but with lots of ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 day ago

  • What becomes of the broken hearted? Nanny State will step in to comfort them
    Buzz from the Beehive The Nanny State has scored some wins (or claimed them) in the past day or two but it faltered when it came to protecting Kiwi citizens from being savaged by one woman armed with a sharp tongue. The wins are recorded by triumphant ministers on the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 days ago

  • Acceptance, decency, road food.
    Sometimes you see your friends making the case so well on social media you think: just copy and share.On acceptance and decency, from Michèle A’CourtA notable thing about anti-trans people is they way they talk about transgender women and men as though they are strangers “over there” when in fact ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago

  • Climate Change: More Labour sabotage
    Not that long ago, things were looking pretty good for climate change policy in Aotearoa. We finally had an ETS, and while it was full of pork and subsidies, it was delivering high and ever-rising carbon prices, sending a clear message to polluters to clean up or shut down. And ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 days ago

  • Is bundling restricting electricity competition?
    Comparing (and switching) electricity providers has become easier, but bundling power up with broadband and/or gas makes it more challenging. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā TL;DR: The new Consumer Advocacy Council set up as a result of the Labour Government’s Electricity Price Review in 2019 has called on either ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago

  • Westland Milk puts heat on competitors as global dairy demand  remains softer for longer
    Hokitika-based Westland Milk Products  has  put the heat on dairy giant Fonterra with  a $120m profit turnaround in 2022, driven by record sales. Westland paid its suppliers a 10c premium above the forecast Fonterra price per kilo, contributing $535m to the West Coast and Canterbury economies. The dairy ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    2 days ago

  • BRYCE EDWARDS’ Political Roundup:  The Beehive’s revolving door and corporate mateship
    * Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago

  • Bryce Edwards: The Beehive’s revolving door and corporate mateship
    New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public office and becoming lobbyists and ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    2 days ago

  • A miracle pill for our transport ills
    This is a guest post by accessibility and sustainable transport advocate Tim Adriaansen It originally appeared here.   A friend calls you and asks for your help. They tell you that while out and about nearby, they slipped over and landed arms-first. Now their wrist is swollen, hurting like ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    2 days ago

  • The Surprising Power of Floating Wind Turbines
    Floating offshore wind turbines offer incredible opportunities to capture powerful winds far out at sea. By unlocking this wind energy potential, they could be a key weapon in our arsenal in the fight against climate change. But how developed are these climate fighting clean energy giants? And why do I ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 days ago

  • The next Maori challenge
    Over the past two or three weeks, a procession of Maori iwi and hapu in a series of little-noticed appearances before two Select Committees have been asking for more say for Maori over resource management decisions along the co-governance lines of Three Waters. Their submissions and appearances run counter ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago

  • Secret “war-crime” warrants by International Criminal Court is mischief-making
    The decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue war crimes arrest warrants for the Russian President and the Russia Children Ombudsman may have been welcomed by the ideologically committed but otherwise seems to have been greeted with widespread cynicism (see Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants ...
    Open ParachuteBy Ken
    3 days ago

  • How to answer Drunk Uncle Kevin's Climate Crisis reckons
    Let’s say you’re clasping your drink at a wedding, or a 40th, or a King’s Birthday Weekend family reunion and Drunk Uncle Kevin has just got going.He’s in an expansive frame of mind because we’re finally rid of that silly girl. But he wants to ask an honest question about ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago

  • National’s Luxon may be glum about his poll ratings but has he found a winner in promising to rai...
    National Party leader Christopher Luxon may  be feeling glum about his poll ratings, but  he could be tapping  into  a rich political vein in  describing the current state of education as “alarming”. Luxon said educational achievement has been declining,  with a recent NCEA pilot exposing just how far it has ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    3 days ago

  • Climate Change: More Labour foot-dragging
    Yesterday the IPCC released the final part of its Sixth Assessment Report, warning us that we have very little time left in which to act to prevent catastrophic climate change, but pointing out that it is a problem that we can solve, with existing technology, and that anything we do ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago

  • Te Pāti Māori Are Revolutionaries – Not Reformists.
    Way Beyond Reform: Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have no more interest in remaining permanent members of “New Zealand’s” House of Representatives than did Lenin and Trotsky in remaining permanent members of Tsar Nicolas II’s “democratically-elected” Duma. Like the Bolsheviks, Te Pāti Māori is a party of revolutionaries – not reformists.THE CROWN ...
    Bowalley Road
    3 days ago

  • When does history become “ancient”, on Tinetti’s watch as Minister of Education – and what o...
    Buzz from the Beehive Auckland was wiped off the map, when Education Minister Jan Tinetti delivered her speech of welcome as host of the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers “here in Tāmaki Makaurau”. But – fair to say – a reference was made later in the speech to a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago

  • Climate Catastrophe, but first rugby.
    Morning mate, how you going?Well, I was watching the news last night and they announced this scientific report on Climate Change. But before they got to it they had a story about the new All Blacks coach.Sounds like important news. It’s a bit of a worry really.Yeah, they were talking ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago

  • What the US and European bank rescues mean for us
    Always a bailout: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the Government would fully guarantee all savers in all smaller US banks if needed. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: No wonder an entire generation of investors are used to ‘buying the dip’ and ‘holding on for dear life’. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago

  • Bryce Edwards: Who will drain Wellington’s lobbying swamp?
    Wealthy vested interests have an oversized influence on political decisions in New Zealand. Partly that’s due to their use of corporate lobbyists. Fortunately, the influence lobbyists can have on decisions made by politicians is currently under scrutiny in Guyon Espiner’s in-depth series published by RNZ. Two of Espiner’s research exposés ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago

  • It’s Raining Congestion
    Yesterday afternoon it rained and traffic around the region ground to a halt, once again highlighting why it is so important that our city gets on with improving the alternatives to driving. For additional irony, this happened on the same day the IPCC synthesis report landed, putting the focus on ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    3 days ago

  • Checking The Left: The Dreadful Logic Of Fascism.
    The Beginning: Anti-Co-Governance agitator, Julian Batchelor, addresses the Dargaville stop of his travelling roadshow across New Zealand . Fascism almost always starts small. Sadly, it doesn’t always stay that way. Especially when the Left helps it to grow.THERE IS A DREADFUL LOGIC to the growth of fascism. To begin with, it ...
    Bowalley Road
    3 days ago

  • Good Friends and Terrible Food
    Hi,From an incredibly rainy day in Los Angeles, I just wanted to check in. I guess this is the day Trump may or may not end up in cuffs? I’m attempting a somewhat slower, less frenzied week. I’ve had Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s new record on non-stop, and it’s been a ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    3 days ago

  • At a glance – What evidence is there for the hockey stick?
    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 ...
    Skeptical Science
    4 days ago

  • Carry right on up there, Corporal Espiner
    RNZ has been shining their torch into corners where lobbyists lurk and asking such questions as: Do we like the look of this?and Is this as democratic as it could be?These are most certainly questions worth asking, and every bit as valid as, say:Are we shortchanged democratically by the way ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago

  • This smells
    RNZ has continued its look at the role of lobbyists by taking a closer look at the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Andrew Kirton. He used to work for liquor companies, opposing (among other things) a container refund scheme which would have required them to take responsibility for their own ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago

  • Major issues on the table in Mahuta’s  talks in Beijing with China’s new Foreign Minister
    Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has left for Beijing for the first ministerial visit to China since 2019. Mahuta is  to  meet China’s new foreign minister Qin Gang  where she  might have to call on all the  diplomatic skills  at  her  command. Almost certainly she  will  face  questions  on what  role ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    4 days ago

  • Inside TOP's Teal Card and political strategy
    TL;DR: The Opportunities Party’s Leader Raf Manji is hopeful the party’s new Teal Card, a type of Gold card for under 30s, will be popular with students, and not just in his Ilam electorate where students make up more than a quarter of the voters and where Manji is confident ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago

  • Make Your Empties Go Another Round.
    When I was a kid New Zealand was actually pretty green. We didn’t really have plastic. The fruit and veges came in a cardboard box, the meat was wrapped in paper, milk came in a glass bottle, and even rubbish sacks were made of paper. Today if you sit down ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago

  • Gordon Campbell on how similar Vladimir Putin is to George W. Bush
    Looking back through the names of our Police Ministers down the years, the job has either been done by once or future party Bigfoots – Syd Holland, Richard Prebble, Juduth Collins, Chris Hipkins – or by far lesser lights like Keith Allen, Frank Gill, Ben Couch, Allen McCready, Clem Simich, ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    4 days ago

  • CHRIS TROTTER:  Te Pāti Māori’s uncompromising threat to the status quo
    Chris Trotter writes – The Crown is a fickle friend. Any political movement deemed to be colourful but inconsequential is generally permitted to go about its business unmolested. The Crown’s media, RNZ and TVNZ, may even “celebrate” its existence (presumably as proof of Democracy’s broad-minded acceptance of diversity). ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • Bryce Edwards: Shining a bright light on lobbyists in politics
    Four out of the five people who have held the top role of Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff since 2017 have been lobbyists. That’s a fact that should worry anyone who believes vested interests shouldn’t have a place at the centre of decision making. Chris Hipkins’ newly appointed Chief of ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    4 days ago

  • Auckland Council Draft Budget – an unnecessary backwards step
    Feedback on Auckland Council’s draft 2023/24 budget closes on March 28th. You can read the consultation document here, and provide feedback here. Auckland Council is currently consulting on what is one of its most important ever Annual Plans – the ‘budget’ of what it will spend money on between July ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    4 days ago

  • Talking’ Posey Parker Blues
    by Molten Moira from Motueka If you want to be a woman let me tell you what to do Get a piece of paper and a biro tooWrite down your new identification And boom! You’re now a woman of this nationSpelled W O M A Na real trans woman that isAs opposed ...
    RedlineBy Admin
    4 days ago

  • More Māori words make it into the OED, and polytech boss (with rules on words like “students”) ...
    Buzz from the Beehive   New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti is hosting the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers for three days from today, welcoming Education Ministers and senior officials from 18 Pacific Island countries and territories, and from Australia. Here’s hoping they have brought translators with them – or ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago

  • Social intercourse with haters and Nazis: an etiquette guide
    Let’s say you’ve come all the way from His Majesty’s United Kingdom to share with the folk of Australia and New Zealand your antipathy towards certain other human beings. And let’s say you call yourself a women’s rights activist.And let’s say 99 out of 100 people who listen to you ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • The Greens, Labour, and coalition enforcement
    James Shaw gave the Green party's annual "state of the planet" address over the weekend, in which he expressed frustration with Labour for not doing enough on climate change. His solution is to elect more Green MPs, so they have more power within any government arrangement, and can hold Labour ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • This sounds familiar…
    RNZ this morning has the first story another investigative series by Guyon Espiner, this time into political lobbying. The first story focuses on lobbying by government agencies, specifically transpower, Pharmac, and assorted universities, and how they use lobbyists to manipulate public opinion and gather intelligence on the Ministers who oversee ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • Letter to the NZ Herald: NCEA pseudoscience – “Mauri is present in all matter”
    Nick Matzke writes –   Dear NZ Herald, I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland. I teach evolutionary biology, but I also have long experience in science education and (especially) political attempts to insert pseudoscience into science curricula in ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • So what would be the point of a Green vote again?
    James Shaw has again said the Greens would be better ‘in the tent’ with Labour than out, despite Labour’s policy bonfire last week torching much of what the Government was doing to reduce emissions. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Green Party has never been more popular than in some ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago

  • Gas stoves pose health risks. Are gas furnaces and other appliances safe to use?
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler Poor air quality is a long-standing problem in Los Angeles, where the first major outbreak of smog during World War II was so intense that some residents thought the city had been attacked by chemical weapons. Cars were eventually discovered ...
    Skeptical Science
    5 days ago

  • Genetic Heritage and Co Governance
    Yesterday I was reading an excellent newsletter from David Slack, and I started writing a comment “Sounds like some excellent genetic heritage…” and then I stopped.There was something about the phrase genetic heritage that stopped me in tracks. Is that a phrase I want to be saying? It’s kind of ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago

  • BRIAN EASTON: Radical Uncertainty
    Brian Easton writes – Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • Geoffrey Miller: New Zealand’s Middle East strategy, 20 years after the Iraq War
    This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War. While it strongly opposed the US-led invasion, New Zealand’s then Labour-led government led by Prime Minister Helen Clark did deploy military engineers to try to help rebuild Iraq in mid-2003. With violence soaring, their 12-month deployment ended without being renewed ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago

  • The motorways are finished
    After seventy years, Auckland’s motorway network is finally finished. In July 1953 the first section of motorway in Auckland was opened between Ellerslie-Panmure Highway and Mt Wellington Highway. The final stage opens to traffic this week with the completion of the motorway part of the Northern Corridor Improvements project. Aucklanders ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    5 days ago

  • Kicking National’s tyres
    National’s appointment of Todd McClay as Agriculture spokesperson clearly signals that the party is in trouble with the farming vote. McClay was not an obvious choice, but he does have a record as a political scrapper. The party needs that because sources say it has been shedding farming votes ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago

  • As long as there is cricket, the world is somehow okay.
    Rays of white light come flooding into my lounge, into my face from over the top of my neighbour’s hedge. I have to look away as the window of the conservatory is awash in light, as if you were driving towards the sun after a rain shower and suddenly blinded. ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago

  • So much of what was there remains
    The columnists in Private Eye take pen names, so I have not the least idea who any of them are. But I greatly appreciate their expert insight, especially MD, who writes the medical column, offering informed and often damning critique of the UK health system and the politicians who keep ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago

  • 2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 12, 2023 thru Sat, Mar 18, 2023. Story of the Week Guest post: What 13,500 citations reveal about the IPCC’s climate science report   IPCC WG1 AR6 SPM Report Cover - Changing ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago

  • Financial capability services are being bucked up, but Stuart Nash shouldn’t have to see if they c...
    Buzz from the Beehive  The building of financial capability was brought into our considerations when Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced she had dipped into the government’s coffers for $3 million for “providers” to help people and families access community-based Building Financial Capability services. That wording suggests some ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    7 days ago

  • Things that make you go Hmmmm.
    Do you ever come across something that makes you go Hmmmm?You mean like the song?No, I wasn’t thinking of the song, but I am now - thanks for that. I was thinking of things you read or hear that make you stop and go Hmmmm.Yeah, I know what you mean, ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    7 days ago

  • The hoon for the week that was to March 19
    By the end of the week, the dramas over Stuart Nash overshadowed Hipkins’ policy bonfire. File photo: Lynn GrieveasonTLDR: This week’s news in geopolitics and the political economy covered on The Kākā included:PM Chris Hipkins’ announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but ...
    The KakaBy Peter Bale
    1 week ago

  • Saving Stuart Nash: Explaining Chris Hipkins' unexpected political calculation
    When word went out that Prime Minister Chris Hipkins would be making an announcement about Stuart Nash on the tiles at parliament at 2:45pm yesterday, the assumption was that it was over. That we had reached tipping point for Nash’s time as minister. But by 3pm - when, coincidentally, the ...
    PunditBy Tim Watkin
    1 week ago

  • Radical Uncertainty
    Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go on to attack physics by citing Newton.So ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    1 week ago

  • Jump onto the weekly hoon on Riverside at 5pm
    Photo by Walker Fenton on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kaka for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on Riverside (we’ve moved from Zoom) for our chat about the week’s news with ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago

  • The Dream of Florian Neame: Accepted
    In a nice bit of news, my 2550-word deindustrial science-fiction piece, The Dream of Florian Neame, has been accepted for publication at New Maps Magazine (https://www.new-maps.com/). I have published there before, of course, with Of Tin and Tintagel coming out last year. While I still await the ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    1 week ago

  • Snakes and leaders
    And so this is Friday, and what have we learned?It was a week with all the usual luggage: minister brags and then he quits, Hollywood red carpet is full of twits. And all the while, hanging over the trivial stuff: existential dread, and portents of doom.Depending on who you read ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago

  • This station is Karanga-a-Hape, Chur!
    When I changed the name of this newsletter from The Daily Read to Nick’s Kōrero I was a bit worried whether people would know what Kōrero meant or not. I added a definition when I announced the change and kind of assumed people who weren’t familiar with it would get ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago

  • Greens don’t shy from promoting a candidate’s queerness but are quiet about govt announcement on...
    There was a time when a political party’s publicity people would counsel against promoting a candidate as queer. No matter which of two dictionary meanings the voting public might choose to apply – the old meaning of odd, strange, weird, or aberrant, or the more recent meaning of gay, homosexual ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 week ago

  • Ask Me Anything about the week to March 17
    Photo by Joakim Honkasalo on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for the next hour, including:PM Chris Hipkins announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but which blew up ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago

  • Slow consenting could create $16b climate liability by 2050
    Even though concern over the climate change threat is becoming more mainstream, our governments continue to opt out of the difficult decisions at the expense of time, and cost for future generations. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Now we have a climate liability number to measure the potential failure of the ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago

  • THOMAS CRANMER: Challenging progressivism in New Zealand’s culture wars
    Thomas Cranmer writes  Like it or not, the culture wars have entered New Zealand politics and look set to broaden and intensify. The culture wars are often viewed as an exclusively American phenomenon, but the reality is that they are becoming increasingly prominent in countries around the world, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 week ago

  • District Court Judges appointed
    Attorney-General David Parker has announced the appointment of Christopher John Dellabarca of Wellington, Dr Katie Jane Elkin of Wellington, Caroline Mary Hickman of Napier, Ngaroma Tahana of Rotorua, Tania Rose Williams Blyth of Hamilton and Nicola Jan Wills of Wellington as District Court Judges.  Chris Dellabarca Mr Dellabarca commenced his ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    18 hours ago

  • New project set to supercharge ocean economy in Nelson Tasman
    A new Government-backed project will help ocean-related businesses in the Nelson Tasman region to accelerate their growth and boost jobs. “The Nelson Tasman region is home to more than 400 blue economy businesses, accounting for more than 30 percent of New Zealand’s economic activity in fishing, aquaculture, and seafood processing,” ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • National’s education policy: where’s the funding?
    After three years of COVID-19 disruptions schools are finally settling down and National want to throw that all in the air with major disruption to learning and underinvestment.  “National’s education policy lacks the very thing teachers, parents and students need after a tough couple of years, certainty and stability,” Education ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Free programme to help older entrepreneurs and inventors
    People aged over 50 with innovative business ideas will now be able to receive support to advance their ideas to the next stage of development, Minister for Seniors Ginny Andersen said today. “Seniors have some great entrepreneurial ideas, and this programme will give them the support to take that next ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Government target increased to keep powering up the Māori economy
    A cross government target for relevant government procurement contracts for goods and services to be awarded to Māori businesses annually will increase to 8%, after the initial 5% target was exceeded. The progressive procurement policy was introduced in 2020 to increase supplier diversity, starting with Māori businesses, for the estimated ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Continued progress on reducing poverty in challenging times
    77,000 fewer children living in low income households on the after-housing-costs primary measure since Labour took office Eight of the nine child poverty measures have seen a statistically significant reduction since 2018. All nine have reduced 28,700 fewer children experiencing material hardship since 2018 Measures taken by the Government during ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Speech at Fiji Investment and Trade Business Forum
    Deputy Prime Minister Kamikamica; distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Tēnā koutou katoa, ni sa bula vinaka saka, namaste. Deputy Prime Minister, a very warm welcome to Aotearoa. I trust you have been enjoying your time here and thank you for joining us here today. To all delegates who have travelled to be ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Government investments boost and diversify local economies in lower South Island
    $2.9 million convertible loan for Scapegrace Distillery to meet growing national and international demand $4.5m underwrite to support Silverlight Studios’ project to establish a film studio in Wanaka Gore’s James Cumming Community Centre and Library to be official opened tomorrow with support of $3m from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Government future-proofs EV charging
    Transport Minister Michael Wood has today launched the first national EV (electric vehicle) charging strategy, Charging Our Future, which includes plans to provide EV charging stations in almost every town in New Zealand. “Our vision is for Aotearoa New Zealand to have world-class EV charging infrastructure that is accessible, affordable, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • World-leading family harm prevention campaign supports young NZers
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  • First Chief Clinical Advisor welcomed into Coroners Court
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