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.
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.
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.
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.
@ 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
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.
…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
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.
“..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..
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
..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..
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!!!! 🙄
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
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?
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…
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?
Why bring in height though? Shes is making a negative reference.
You cant link to a particular twitter quote, unless your sign it to that
page or something. I think it had to do with the guy who used the internet
to hunt down a woman he meet overseas.
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.
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?
“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.
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.
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.
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.]
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
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…
..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..
…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
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.
’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.
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?
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)…
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.
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.
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.
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…
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)…
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,
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.
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.
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…
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.
Excellent idea middxkea. Wasn’t that the same principle behind Whanau Ora? (Sp?) The disconnect between agencies has defeated past efforts to coordinate help.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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…
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.
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.
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…
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.
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…
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.
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.
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:
Postmodernism has long been looked upon as an indecipherable ideology and a source of amusement. In 1996 Alan Sokal, a physics professor at New York University, had a hoax article published in ‘Social Text’ an academic journal of postmodern cultural studies. In ‘Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of ...
In a recent interview with RNZ (14th of January), NZ Council of Civil Liberties Chair Thomas Beagle, in response to Simon Bridges condemnation of the post-Trump Twitter purge of local far Right and other accounts, said the following: “Cos the thing about freedom of expression is that it’s not just ...
Let’s be clear: if Trump is not politically killed off once and for all, he will become a MAGA Dracula, rising from the dead to haunt US politics for years to come and giving inspiration to his wretched family of grifters and thousands of deplorables well into the next decade. ...
Since its demise as an imperial power, and especially its deindustrialisation under Thatcher, the UK's primary economic engine has been its role as a money laundry, using its network of overseas territories as tax havens to enable rich people around the world to steal from the societies they live in. ...
Last month OMV quit the Great South Basin and surrendered its offshore exploration permits outside of Taranaki. This month, Australian-owned Beach Energy has done the same: Beach Energy Resources New Zealand has decided to abandon all of its oil and gas exploration permits off the South Island coast, including ...
The new Northland case has been linked to the South African strain of Covid-19, one of a number of new, more contagious Covid variants. Here’s how they emerge and why. Let’s start with the basics. The genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19 is a strand of RNA ...
MARVIN HUBBARD, US citizen by birth, New Zealand citizen by choice, Quaker and left-wing activist, has been broadcasting his show, "Community or Chaos", on Otago Access Radio for the best part of 30 years. On 24 November last year, I spoke with him about the outcome of the 2020 General ...
This is a guest blog post by Daniel Tamberg, Potsdam, co-founder and director of SCIARA GmbH. The non-profit organisation SCIARA is developing and operating a flexible software platform for scientific simulation games that allows thousands of players to explore, design and understand possible climate futures together. Decision-makers in politics, business, ...
Yesterday's Gone: Cold shivers are running up and down the spines of conservatives everywhere. Donald Trump may have gone, but all the signs point to there being something much more momentous in the wind-shift than a simple return to the status quo ante. A change is gonna come. ONE COULD ...
Is it possible to live and let live in the post-Trump era? The online campaign to vilify Christopher Liddell, ex-White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant to Trump, makes for an interesting case study. Liddell is a New Zealander whose illustrious career in corporate America once earned him plaudits ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 17, 2021 through Sat, Jan 23, 2021Editor's Choice12 new books explore fresh approaches to act on climate changeAuthors explore scientific, economic, and political avenues for climate action ...
This discussion is from a Twitter thread by Martin Kulldorff on 20 December 2020. He is a Professor at Harvard Medical School specialising in disease surveillance methods, infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety. His Twitter handle is @MartinKulldorff #1 Public health is about all health outcomes, not just a single ...
The Treasury forecasts suggest the economy is doing better than expected after the Covid Shock. John Kenneth Galbraith was wont to say that economic forecasting was designed to make astrology look good. Unfair, but it raises the question of the purpose of economic forecasts. Certainly the public may treat them ...
Q: Will the COVID-19 vaccines prevent the transmission of the coronavirus and bring about community immunity (aka herd immunity)? A: Jury not in yet but vaccines do not have to be perfect to thwart the spread of infection. While vaccines induce protection against illness, they do not always stop actual ...
Joe Biden seems to be everything that Donald Trump was not – decent, straightforward, considerate of others, mindful of his responsibilities – but none of that means that he has an easy path ahead of him. The pandemic still rages, American standing in the world is grievously low, and the ...
Keana VirmaniFrom healthcare robots to data privacy, to sea level rise and Antarctica under the ice: in the four years since its establishment, the Aotearoa New Zealand Science Journalism Fund has supported over 30 projects.Rebecca Priestley, receiving the PM Science Communication Prize (Photo by Mark Tantrum) Associate Professor ...
Nothing more from me today - I'm off to Wellington, to participate in the city's annual roleplaying convention (which has also eaten my time for the whole week, limiting blogging despite there being interesting things happening). Normal bloggage will resume Tuesday. ...
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weaponscame into force today, making the development, possession, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons illegal in international law. Every nuclear-armed state is now a criminal regime. The corporations and scientists who design, build and maintain their illegal weapons are now ...
"Come The Revolution!" The key objective of Bernard Hickey’s revolutionary solution to the housing crisis is a 50 percent reduction in the price of the average family home. This will be achieved by the introduction of Capital Gains, Land, and Wealth taxes, and by the opening up of currently RMA-protected ...
by Daphna Whitmore Twitter and Facebook shutting down Trump’s accounts after his supporters stormed Capitol Hill is old news now but the debates continue over whether the actions against Trump are a good thing or not. Those in favour of banning Trump say Twitter and Facebook are private companies and ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Democrats now control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives for the first time in a decade, albeit with razor thin Congressional majorities. The last time, in the 111th Congress (2009-2011), House Democrats passed a carbon cap and trade bill, but it died ...
Session thirty-three was highly abbreviated, via having to move house in a short space of time. Oh well. The party decided to ignore the tree-monster and continue the attack on the Giant Troll. Tarsin – flying on a giant summoned bat – dumped some high-grade oil over the ...
Last night I stayed up till 3am just to see then-President Donald Trump leave the White House, get on a plane, and fly off to Florida, hopefully never to return. And when I woke up this morning, America was different. Not perfect, because it never was. Probably not even good, ...
Watching today’s inauguration of Joe Biden as the United States’ 46th president, there’s not a lot in common with the inauguration of Donald Trump just four destructive years ago. Where Trump warned of carnage, Biden dared to hope for unity and decency. But the one place they converge is that ...
Dan FalkBritons who switched on their TVs to “Good Morning Britain” on the morning of Sept. 15, 2020, were greeted by news not from our own troubled world, but from neighboring Venus. Piers Morgan, one of the hosts, was talking about a major science story that had surfaced the ...
Sara LutermanGrowing up autistic in a non-autistic world can be very isolating. We are often strange and out of sync with peers, despite our best efforts. Autistic adults have, until very recently, been largely absent from media and the public sphere. Finding role models is difficult. Finding useful advice ...
Doug JohnsonThe alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than ...
Getting to Browser Tab Zero so I can reboot the computer is awfully hard when the one open tab is a Table of Contents for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and every issue has more stuff I want to read. A few highlights: Gugler et al demonstrating ...
Timothy Ford, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Charles M. Schweik, University of Massachusetts AmherstTo mitigate health inequities and promote social justice, coronavirus vaccines need to get to underserved populations and hard-to-reach communities. There are few places in the U.S. that are unreachable by road, but other factors – many ...
Israel chose to pay a bit over the odds for the Pfizer vaccine to get earlier access. Here’s The Times of Israel from 16 November. American government will be charged $39 for each two-shot dose, and the European bloc even less, but Jerusalem said to agree to pay $56. Israel ...
Orla is a gender critical Marxist in Ireland. She gave a presentation on 15 January 2021 on the connection between postmodern/transgender identity politics and the current attacks on democratic and free speech rights. Orla has been active previously in the Irish Socialist Workers Party and the People Before Profit electoral ...
. . America: The Empire Strikes Back (at itself) Further to my comments in the first part of 2020: The History That Was, the following should be considered regarding the current state of the US. They most likely will be by future historians pondering the critical decades of ...
Nathaniel ScharpingIn March, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to shut down major cities in the U.S., researchers were thinking about blood. In particular, they were worried about the U.S. blood supply — the millions of donations every year that help keep hospital patients alive when they need a transfusion. ...
Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
The green light for New Zealand’s first COVID-19 vaccine could be granted in just over a week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. “We’re making swift progress towards vaccinating New Zealanders against the virus, but we’re also absolutely committed to ensuring the vaccines are safe and effective,” Jacinda Ardern said. ...
The Minister for ACC is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members to join the Board of ACC on 1 February 2021. “All three bring diverse skills and experience to provide strong governance oversight to lead the direction of ACC” said Hon Carmel Sepuloni. Bella Takiari-Brame from Hamilton ...
The Government is investing $9 million to upgrade a significant community facility in Invercargill, creating economic stimulus and jobs, Infrastructure Minister Grant Robertson and Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene have announced. The grant for Waihōpai Rūnaka Inc to make improvements to Murihiku Marae comes from the $3 billion set ...
[Opening comments, welcome and thank you to Auckland University etc] It is a great pleasure to be here this afternoon to celebrate such an historic occasion - the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This is a moment many feared would never come, but ...
The Government is providing $3 million in one-off seed funding to help disabled people around New Zealand stay connected and access support in their communities, Minister for Disability Issues, Carmel Sepuloni announced today. The funding will allow disability service providers to develop digital and community-based solutions over the next two ...
Border workers in quarantine facilities will be offered voluntary daily COVID-19 saliva tests in addition to their regular weekly testing, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. This additional option will be rolled out at the Jet Park Quarantine facility in Auckland starting on Monday 25 January, and then to ...
The next steps in the Government’s ambitious firearms reform programme to include a three-month buy-back have been announced by Police Minister Poto Williams today. “The last buy-back and amnesty was unprecedented for New Zealand and was successful in collecting 60,297 firearms, modifying a further 5,630 firearms, and collecting 299,837 prohibited ...
Upscaling work already underway to restore two iconic ecosystems will deliver jobs and a lasting legacy, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “The Jobs for Nature programme provides $1.25 billion over four years to offer employment opportunities for people whose livelihoods have been impacted by the COVID-19 recession. “Two new projects ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Véronique Duché, A.R. Chisholm Professor of French, University of Melbourne In this series, writers pay tribute to fictional detectives on the page and on screen. When I first heard that Rowan Atkinson was to put on Maigret’s velvet-collared overcoat, I wondered ...
Auckland writer Olivia Hayfield* explains how she resurrected 16th-century playwright Christopher Marlowe to star in her new novel, Sister to Sister. Olivia Hayfield is a pen name. Real name: Sue Copsey. When I’m planning my modern retellings of historical tales, I read widely on the characters and see who leaps out at ...
The Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine could be approved as early as next week, Marc Daalder reports Medsafe will be asked to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 on February 2, the Government has announced. The Medicines Assessment Advisory Committee (MAAC) is an independent panel that provides advice on some medicine approvals in ...
COMMENT:By Bryan Kramer, PNG’s Minister of Police who has defended Commissioner Manning’s appointment today in The National My last article, announcing that I intend to make a submission to the National Executive Council (NEC) to amend the Public Service regulation to no longer require the Commissioner of Police to ...
The Point of Order Trough Monitor was triggered today by the announcement of a $9 million handout for Southlanders – sorry, some Southlanders. The news came from the office of Grant Robertson who, as Minister of Finance, prefers to invest public money rather than give it away – especially when ...
Few people outside of her campaign team gave Chlöe Swarbrick any chance of winning in Auckland Central this year – but the Green Party MP was too busy to listen. Here’s how they turned the electorate green.First published November 12, 2020.Three Ticks Chlöe is part of Frame, a series of short ...
Interactions between parents and healthcare providers could have a big impact on the wellbeing of our children, according to new research. The way parents and healthcare providers interact has lasting implications for children’s health, new research has found – and that includes immunisation uptake.Released today, the report is based on research ...
The Opposition starts the political year calling for emergency, temporary legislation to free up house building National leader Judith Collins has set five priorities for her party over the next three years - but excluded climate change, education and Crown-Māori relations. Giving her first 'state of the nation' speech as party ...
One of the biggest challenges facing the Ardern government is in public health. New Zealand may have escaped the pressures heaped on other health systems by the Covid-19 pandemic but its health service has had its problems, not least those exposed in the first report from Heather Simpson and her ...
New Zealand’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has revealed that 14 close contacts of the Northland community case have returned negative test results. Yesterday he announced two close contacts – her husband and hair dresser – were negative. In his tweet, Hipkins described the news as “encouraging”. However, New ...
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the arbitrary and opaque experiments that Google is conducting with its search engine in Australia, with the consequence that many national news websites are no longer appearing in the search results seen by some users. The Australian, ABC, Australian Financial ...
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta says councils can take stronger action against companies dumping contaminated waste water, even though they have identified loopholes in the law on fines. ...
Drag Race Down Under, part of the popular RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise, is filming in New Zealand. In their own words, local drag talent share what drag means to them and how it might be impacted by the show.RuPaul’s Drag Race is, quite simply, a television phenomenon. Love it or ...
For a long time, weighted blankets were considered a specialist device. Now they’re popular with even the most normal sleepers.Growing up, Temple Grandin spent time on her aunt’s cattle ranch in America, watching cow after stressed cow enter a squeeze chute and come out calm as the dead sea. She ...
Increased provisional tax thresholds, immediate low-value asset write offs and allowing the deferral of tax payments and use of money interest (UOMI) write offs were the most popular tax measures introduced by the Government to help businesses survive ...
The latest fleeing driver statistics show the numbers of incidents sky-rocketing out of control through 2020 with Police deciding the only tactic is to give up on chasing altogether, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “The inconvenient truth is ...
With new revelations of the appalling racism behind Israel’s refusal to provide Covid-19 vaccines to 4.5 million Palestinians under its occupation and control, PSNA has renewed our call for the government to speak out alongside the United Nations ...
The Youth of NZ will be standing up for climate action once again, on January 26th outside of Parliament for School Strike 4 Climate NZ’s 100 Days 4 Action campaign rally. “COVID-19 may have stopped us in our tracks in the past. However, I tend ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Parwinder Kaur, Associate Professor | Director, DNA Zoo Australia, University of Western Australia Koalas are unique in the animal kingdom, living on a eucalyptus diet that would kill other creatures and drinking so little their name comes from the Dharug word gula, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By S. Anna Florin, Research fellow, University of Wollongong Archaeological research provides a long-term perspective on how humans survived various environmental conditions over tens of thousands of years. In a paper published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution, we’ve tracked rainfall in northern ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Binoy Kampmark, Senior Lecturer in Global Studies, Social Science & Planning, RMIT University Since 2005, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has been one of the most stable and enduring of political forces, both in Europe and on the global stage. During her 16 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Véronique Duché, A.R. Chisholm Professor of French, University of Melbourne In this series, writers pay tribute to fictional detectives on the page and on screen. When I first heard that Rowan Atkinson was to put on Maigret’s velvet-collared overcoat, I wondered ...
*This article first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. Experts are calling for hotels with sub-par ventilation systems to no longer be used as managed isolation facilities as health officials investigate how a Northland woman became infected with Covid-19 while staying at the Pullman hotel, Rowan Quinn reports. ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for January 26, keeping you up to date with the latest local and international news. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nzOur Members make The Spinoff happen! Every dollar contributed directly funds our editorial team – click here to learn more about how you can support us ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Questions to be answered about case in the community, major companies flagrantly breaching wastewater consents, and Tenancy Tribunal decisions harming abuse survivors.As of this morning, we’re still waiting on some crucial information about the situation in Northland, after a person travelled ...
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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/
Oh, Jenny’s back.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/9650581/School-ditches-rules-and-loses-bullies
– Heres something I think we can all agree on
chris73 – born again anarchist.
I suspect a lot of collaborative engagement, and less competitive jockeying for positions of power.
Naah its just common sense that kids need to burn off energy
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.
I think the PC brigade had bullrush banned years ago, or did that get reversed?
My mum hated bullrush but only because of the damage done to our clothes (three boys)
Oh yes, the more energy they go through at school, means more peace in the home.
@ 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
See I knew there could be cross-party support 🙂
we’ll convert you yet…you do seem to be a frequent visitor….maybe you like our company?( ha ha)
I liked what Shane Jones had to say…
Of course you did.
It’s a great idea.
Yes – great idea.
If you want to spread those new wings of yours – have a look at
Forest kindergartens – and Adventure Playgrounds.
Kids burning off energy indeed.
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.
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…
…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
Jones is a dinosaur.
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.
@ 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..
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
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…
I play it safe and try to have both 😉
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.
1L a month ration for all NZers over 18, I say.
@ phillip ure on ..”saying cannabis ‘is a problem’..?”
News form USA debate:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jan/24/patrick-kennedy/has-potency-pot-changed-president-obama-was-high-s/
@ 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..
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!!!! 🙄
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..
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
@ 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..
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.
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?
@ 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..
@ 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..
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…
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?
Link please Brett.
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.
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?
She was referring to this?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11192295
He doesn’t look short to me.
weka:
Why bring in height though? Shes is making a negative reference.
You cant link to a particular twitter quote, unless your sign it to that
page or something. I think it had to do with the guy who used the internet
to hunt down a woman he meet overseas.
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
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.
@ m.s..
re cunnliffe spurned..
is that correct..?
..i wd like to report on it..
..so confirmation would be appreciated..
..phillip ure..
.
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?
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
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.
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.
…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.]
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
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…
But bang-on if Watkins should have written “to” instead of “by”.
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
@..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..
…he would be better to try a Phillip Ure Vegan Sausage
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
…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
Disabled people are getting poorer. Noticed they weren’t mentioned at all.
…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
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.
’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.
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?
Oh shut up alwyn, your nonsensical whining is a total bore, perhaps you think people with disabilities are all getting richer…
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?
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)…
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.
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.
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.
I didn’t say your opinion is challenging, or uncomfortable, I said it’s worthless and irrelevant, rendered so by your bad faith.
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…
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)…
Alwyn:
http://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/newsroom/factsheets/future-focus/abatement.html
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
Special Report: Japan’s homeless recruited for murky Fukushima clean-up
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
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.
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…
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.
Excellent idea middxkea. Wasn’t that the same principle behind Whanau Ora? (Sp?) The disconnect between agencies has defeated past efforts to coordinate help.
And it is a much better way to spend taxpayers dollars as well!
@ 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..
pretty sucky/blowy on that pot-issue tho’..eh..?
..and how about that cunnliffe/labour..?
..whoar..!..
..cunnliffe just ‘won’t say’..
.phillip ure..
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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]
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.
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/
Josh Marshall on the Perkins’ fuckwittery.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-brittle-grip-part-2
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
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.
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)
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.
@ 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..
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…
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.
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…
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.
Yeah and TV 1 lead story is Lorde at the Grammys. Green’s education announcement comes 2nd.
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
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.
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.
On this, I agree with you, vto.
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…
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
Those clever Aussies behind Juice Rap News are at it again http://youtu.be/0VD33jRpeMM
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…
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.
Groser sells out – not even for 30 pieces of silver
So, the US corporations got what they wanted and NZ is truly fucked courtesy of this government.
Syriza Succeeds in Greece by Challenging European Left
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
El concierto completo de Illapu 2013:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v515tCAzE5g
Look who’s not akshilly smiling.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9652303/Key-preaches-to-the-converted-at-festival