There is an interesting article by Guyon Espinar in the listener this week about Grant Robertson. Interesting because it raises the possibility that he may be the first openly gay Prime Minister.
With Shearer barely 2 months into the job this sort of conjecture is not helpful. The last thing that Shearer needs is the categorisation of a caretaker looking after things while Robertson prepares himself. Some could describe it as being disloyal.
Robertson also talks about gay issues and obviously supports gay adoption.
This is one aspect of “equality” that I have a major difficulty with. My experience from dealing with adopted people over a number of years is that the institution itself is brutal, uncaring and wrecks lives. The feeling of rejection that adoptees have swells to the surface in their teenage years and causes huge problems from then on. Why this concept should be extended to gay couples is beyond me. It would be much better if it was done away with all together.
And Labour is so highly dependent on support from the Pacifica community it should tread very warily in these areas. I would prefer that it put effort into the essentials such as dealing with poverty, job creation, and environmental sustainability than get into a debate about a policy that has limited application.
I’m not referring so much to adoption but the double stanards employed for those who aren’t hetrosexual – if adoption is antiquated then lets at least allow all to participate…
Can you point me towards somewhere I can get an idea of why you think it old fashioned – is it the concept or the delivery you dislike?
slight aside: my mother was adopted and brought to NZ (Italian orphan post ww2) and in turn she was forced to adopt out my eldest brother (stupid standards of the day – they were reunited about 20 years back, in a wonderful but awkward way)… the impacts of all have had a huge emotional toll on my family and they continue and will do for at least another generation I reckon… but we’re all as disfunctional as any ‘normal’ loving kiwi family 🙂
Nope just a simple repeal of the Adoption Act 1955 would do it. If kids have to be moved out of their family unit the Care of Children Act can handle the legal side. The child retains his or her legal biological links to his or her parents and they can hopefully know who their parents are.
Open adoptions are not as damaging as the old fashioned closed adoptions but it is still a barbaric principle that treats a child’s family relations as something that can be changed at the stroke of a pen.
The Care of Children Act allows gay and lesbian couples to assume care of a child and has no problems with gay and lesbian couples doing so.
“It would be much better if it was done away with all together.”
I agree totally! In 1972, I had my oldest son adopted out and away from me and although he’s been back in my life since 1991, his life has been horrific. His adoptive mother’s a good woman, but the rest all treated him as if was dangerous. Guess what a child does if everyone expects him to mess up? Yes, you’re right.
Are you suggesting that children who are put up for adoption should instead be killed?
No, of course not. But most adoptions now are not stranger adoptions (I think it’s around 85% of adoptions now are cases where a step-father adopts a child when he and the mother marry, or and this weird but it happens, where a couple marry after being together and having children – and in order for the children to have the name of the new husband, he has to legally adopt them even though he is their father!) It’s a myth that there are hundreds of abandoned children all ready to be adopted by lovely middle class rescuers.
Fully agree vicky. Closed adoption is a barbaric holdover from generations past. We really should be legislating to make them illegal. And you are so right about the power of expectation; it’s one of the two or three most potent influences on the human psyche.
By contrast open adoption can be great. I’m pretty liberal-minded about the form that families might take… as far as I’m concerned the people who have the babies really don’t have to be the same people who grow them up; just so long as they are all part of the same extended family or social group.
By contrast open adoption can be great. I’m pretty liberal-minded about the form that families might take… as far as I’m concerned the people who have the babies really don’t have to be the same people who grow them up; just so long as they are all part of the same extended family or social group.
I agree. Open adoption is a good thing, if the child has the chance to know where s/he comes from, and is not lied to!
Thanks Mickey. I have no issue with gay couples caring for children; they generally manage to muddle through and do their best, just like most parents. I however do have issues with the politics of adoption. Adoption in New Zealand is a barbaric practice; the legislation that covers it was passed in 1955 and should be totally repealed and replaced by a revamped guardianship act. This would cover care of children whose parents are unable to care for them, either temporarily or permanent. Adoption gives ownership of the child to the adopters – something than natural parents don’t have or need. The child’s name, family and heritage is taken from it, and it is forced to live a lie under a false name and pretend that strangers are its parents. No wonder so many finish up under the care of the mental health or penal services. There have been many submissions made to many MPs on many reviews of the act, but they all get pigeonholed into the “too hard” basket.
It is a brutal process and it is no wonder that so many are adversely affected by it. IMHO they should just repeal the act. The Care of Children Act can handle care arrangements much more elegantly.
Open adoption is not a legislated practice. There have been adopters who have signed an open adoption agreement with the birth mothers and their families and then after the adoption becomes legal they shut the whole thing down with no legal consequences as the child who the legal agreement named no longer legally exists, it is owned by a new family. Adoption objectifies and dehumanises the child, who is not a blank slate as many would like to think.
My experience from knowing many adoptees and adopters is that the adopters have been motivated by the best of intentions and the adoptees have all been better off in the short and longer term and have made wonderful families.
In all but one case they have been in contact at certain times or in an ongoing fashion with their birth families as well without any adverse effects.
So from my experience I would have to completely refute your assertion that adoption is ‘brutal, uncaring and wrecks lives.’ Although I do expect you get to see the worst in your professional capacity.
I do see the worst effects of adoption HS but I have also done some study in the area for professional reasons and the outcomes for adopted kids are way worse than for kids generally.
I actually have two adopted cousins who turned out pretty well but did struggle with it. Your comments suggest that you have seen the best of cases. I agree that I have seen some of the worst.
Should we actually give a fark about that point, and instead of continually having our differences pointed out between us, perhaps we should focus on similarities instead…
Grant will be the first male PM – Not really accurate it is, and won’t sell as many records, better just focus on the fact he is gay, as opposed to weather or he might actually be capable..
Can’t wait for the distractions over this exciting piece of news should it ever happen!
Really? Not according to what I can find on google. I am sure he’d be amazed to hear it. It reminds me of those lists of “famous people who were one of us” put out by everything from the ADHD association to gay rights groups – Leonardo Da Vinci being the most absurd of the latter – I learned that in the 1960s, an American Freudian had decided that Leonardo was gay because he used to buy caged birds and release them – which was such an effeminate thing to do! 😀
The truly hilarious thing about that is that Americans are totally clueless about any culture other than their own. As Hans Eysenck pointed out in his book about Freud, buying caged birds and releasing them was a cultural thing – males and females in that time and place did it all the time, as an attractor of good luck. Gay my left tit! 😀
Yep, that comment surprised me, too, V32. I know Savage didn’t marry, but that doesn’t make him a ‘confirmed batchelor, nudge nudge, wink wink’. From previous comments, I think Sprout has issues with homosexuality and likes to use it as a putdown.
Mounting evidence that at least some Pike River workers survived the initial explosion and were left to die. I’m starting to think it won’t just be Peter Whittall who is jailed over these deaths. If can be proved that the decision to abandon a rescue was itself a crime, then there are going to be some nervous officials busy trying to think of excuses for their cowardice.
Can’t see how incompetance and adherence to a crippling ‘safety culture’ could constitite a criminal act. At the end of the day, I expect there will be some ‘recommendations’ and that, as they say, will be that. And the wankers who wouldn’t allow rescuers to enter the mine will absolve themselves by pointing to the rules and regulations, give themselves a congratulatory pat on the back for following proper procedure and claim they acted on the best available evidence at the time.
And all the knowledge pertaining to methane explosions; the percentage of methane to oxygen that is explosive (12% or so I think?) will be quietly pushed aside and not spoken of. And the window of opportunity that came in the aftermath of the first explosion that would, in all likelyhood, have ‘cleaned out’ any built up methane will be quietly pushed aside and not spoken of.
And so on.
In other words, authority will absolve itself and all those who act in its interests.
The decision not to risk more deaths considering the likelihood of further explosions, the atmosphere and the difficulties of rescue deep underground with SCBA was perfectly justified in the circumstances.
Why get more people killed while trying to rescue some who were extremely unlikely to have survived.
If it happens that some were still alive, for a while, it does not make that decision wrong.
I have read many accident reports where people rushed in to rescue their mates, a brave and human response, and have died too.
Not long ago on a log ship at Marsden point.
Someone there who made them hold off and get proper equipment would have saved at least one life.
It was one of those decisions some one had to make which could be seen to be wrong on hindsight either way.
If the rescuers had been killed. The same people who are damning the decision, not to go in, would be, with their 20/20 hindsight be damning them for killing the rescuers.
This is absolute proof that the west’s “health & safety” culture pendulum has swung too far.
Pike River has similarities. It aint as easy as you paint KJT. Read and listen to what some of NZ’s most experienced miners and mine rescuers had to say on exactly this.
Similar goes for rescues in Christchurch post-Feb 22. The last survivor was resuced only about 24 hours after the quake and this is an extremely short time in comparison to other earthquake rescues. How many potential survivors died because of our health & safety culture’s over careful approach? This is a very fair and legitimate question imo and I hope the royal commission answers it.
Not that you want people to be foolhardy and naive in coming to your rescue. But you wouldn’t want them to be timid wait on the sidelines until the clock runs down while-you-die-terrified-and-abandoned types either.
Fact of the matter is, if a specialist unit which is trained and experienced and judges that it is worth taking a risk to try and help someone (and understands what that risk is) why let manager types who have fuck all expertise stand in their way. What’s our society become?
Does no one remember the saying “All for one and one for all?” Is it now “All for one and one for all, but only when we judge that all associated risks and potential liabilities are negligible”?
Interestingly in some other cases you get high honours and recognition for deliberately putting yourself in lethal harm’s way while trying to help others.
In the case of the CHCH earthquake, it really was quite a different situation to other earthquakes world-wide that see rescues happening days and occasionally weeks after the event:
1. Most of the earthquakes with these rescues happen in 3rd world or developing countries, where many more buildings fall down, trapping many more people. The more people who are trapped, increases the number who can be rescued.
2. We really only had 2 large buildings that collapsed and the one that had the most people trapped and died had a massive fire. Not a lot you can do about that, and turning hoses on it is quite likely to drown anyone who did actually manage to survive the fire/collapse in the first place.
3. A lot of the worst buildings in the CBD were already cordoned off from the September 4th and boxing day quakes: this is quite different compared to a city that is hit by a massive earthquake out of nowhere as is typically the case.
4. Similar to above, because of the September 4th quake a lot of people had already left the city and/or were much more clued up with how to react to an earthquake and this would have saved lives.
5. A lot of the deaths that occurred were from masonry facades falling on people. Heavy bricks smashing you in the head/back is likely to lead to death, compared to being inside a collapsed building that will have air pockets created due to the amount and different materials involved.
I don’t believe the fact that the last rescue occurred 24 hours after the quake has anything to do with health and safety, but rather a result of many different factors, some of which I have outlined above.
If the rescuers had been killed. The same people who are damning the decision, not to go in, would be, with their 20/20 hindsight be damning them for killing the rescuers.
Or, NZers might see it as having been a heroic, necessary and worthwhile attempt to save lives. Risking a 3 or 4 person team in order to try and save 20 others.
Standard Rule of the Sea is that we are obliged to render assistance whenever others are in need, but with the proviso that the rescuers are not put at risk. The same applies to those arriving at a traffic accident. Secure the area and make sure that the rescuers are not exposing themselves to risk.
Problem is in deciding how great the risk is. On the spot. Risk of more falls. Child caught by a beam and crying. Stand back? Or risk it? Hard eh!
If the rescuers had been killed. The same people who are damning the decision, not to go in, would be, with their 20/20 hindsight be damning them for killing the rescuers.
No-one was ever going to be ‘ordered’ to enter the mine. With knowledge of the likely risks involved, there were members of the rescue team who wanted to enter the mine. They were prohibited by managers/bureaucrats. And, if my memory serves me correctly, some resigned from the rescue team in disgust.
It was as well that someone took the responsibility for making the decision.
Second guessing afterwards is unfair and unrealistic.
You have to go on the information at the time.
That information was that rescuers would be exposed to extreme and almost certain risk balanced against the strong indication that no one was still alive.
And. The least suitable people to make the decision at the time is the mates of the people in the mine. To much emotion involved. Same reason why Doctors are discouraged from treating close family.
The internet is full of armchair Admirals with the benefit of hindsight. Most of whom will never be in a situation where they have to make that decision.
Well I am in a job where the risk level is similar to mining. I am aware I may have to make that sort of decision at some time.
I am not prepared to judge the person who had to make the decision, on the ground, immediately, when we are all sitting down and have had days to consider it.
Okay. I fully agree that someone who is emotionally charged up is not the best person to make a decision. But that doesn’t mean that the people who are going to be putting their own safety/lives on the line shouldn’t be the ones making the decision based on all available or requested information.
. That information was that rescuers would be exposed to extreme and almost certain risk balanced against the strong indication that no one was still alive
I find this assertion strange. Of course any would be rescuers were going to be exposed to certain and probably quite extreme risk. But where the hell do you get the idea that a risk assessment was balanced off against indications that no-one was alive? What you are suggesting is that if some-one was known to be alive, then the rescuers would have allowed to enter the mine under the same level of risk that was present when they were forbidden to enter.
And I have serious doubts over the claim that there was “a strong indication that no one was still alive.” What indication was that? As I recall, there was talk of rescue up until the second explosion.
Meanwhile, (and flying in the face of rescue talk at the time) the company knew there was only half an hour’s worth of oxygen in any cylinders and (presumably) that the best time to attempt a rescue is immediately after any explosion because gas levels will likely be at non-dangerous levels but getting more dangerous with time.
You might accuse me of cynicism, but it crosses my mind that with the knowledge the company had at hand, they reckoned that by the time they responded (well in excess of 30 minutes) it was too late….unless miners had grabbed multiple cylinders. But they didn’t want the publicity and the hard questions that would have followed from people having died due to the tardiness of their initial emergency response. Solution? Wank around and say it’s all too dangerous to enter the mine and just keep on saying that it’s all too dangerous. Arse covered (sort of)…until somebody mounts a camera on a robot….
I think that Pike River showed NZ just how dangerous coal mining is and I hope the inquiry gets that message across. The major problem with mine explosions is that they destroy or badly damage the ventilation system in the vicinity of the blast. Ventilation is what removes dangerous gases from a mine so if the system is broken you’ll get a gas build up. An explosion can also start small fires and/or create potential ignition sources such as arcing batteries and if you put the two together you get a mine too dangerous to enter.
The harsh reality of coal mines is that an explosion typically makes the mine too dangerous for rescue teams to enter and unless the mine can be re-ventilated to a satisfactory level it can conceivably never be safe. With Pike it appeared necessary to enter the mine to repair the ventilation system which created that catch22 situation.
The only way to make a mine safe is to prevent the explosions from occurring. The rescue teams were placed in a terrible position and I don’t think they warrant any criticism.
We should have regular ‘crony watch ‘ post to see a list of appointments and their links to NACT/MP figures in SOE’s, authorities both new and existing, govt departments etc yand have some slots for Hide and Ellis to see what junket they pop up in after seeing Parata’s whanau doing very nicely on the taxpayer…..ka Ching.
Aye but I am sure that they will say that a proper and robust selection took place with real checks and balances and cognizance of the fact that the candidate was the Minister’s sister but that the committee members, all of who are outstanding in their area of expertise, are confident that the decision and process cannot be faulted and that in the fullness of time their decision will be shown to be the right one.
Fascinating investment letter from Jeremy Grantham. NZ would be unrivalled in a warming, resource depleting world – if we could shore up our military security capabilities.
Sorry, no way of knowing the context of any of that.
Remember how Anderton said it would take an earthquake to keep him from being mayor?
And how afterward, Slater said the truth is whatever he says it is at the time?
Armed with that info, you can’t even tell whether any of the comments in the video relate to the same worksite, the same union, the same strike, the same job, or even the same person.
Intimadatory tactics? That’s what economic and class war is based on. Why not threaten the balance sheets and profits of corporations if they fail to take their responsibilities to workers and workers families seriously?
So what? It doesn’t matter that you can see the edits, what matters is that there is no context to tell what he’s talking about from one edit to the next.
You’re assuming it’s one story about one strike at one workplace but you have no way of knowing that, and the video was made by someone with a history of fooling people like you in exactly the same way.
I’m not saying you might not be right, just that you’re relying on faith in Slater’s honesty and pretending you’re not.
You say it’s not the 1950s, yet here we have a port company and its international clients trying to crush the workers and their families into submission to drive down their wage bill.
Were you around in the 50’s, and have you bothered to understand that the strike is actually being created due to lies and dishonesty of the PoAL management and board/CEO?
Spoken to many warfies first hand, or spent time wading through the structures that govern PoAL as it relates to the onership directives by the council?
Yeah today he’s all concerned about someone losing their ping pong balls, when just last night he would’ve sexually violated someone with them as a punishment.
ps this video has a dolphin logo in the corner so I guess it was made by the Slater child.
Given his history of deliberately editing videos out of context to make people appear to be saying things they never actually said, nothing in it can be assumed to be accurate.
The neoliberals can’t find any effective ways to develop and create any truly new assets or wealth of their own at the moment. Therefore the easiest way left to grow their own riches is to organise the transfer (theft) of already existing public wealth into their private sector hands.
The meme of the “wealth creating” top 0.1% is largely, though not entirely, a fabrication.
“If you really want to see a wealth creator, just look at the grocer, the nurse, the software developer, the accountant, and the civil engineer. They are all creators of wealth. Chances are, you are a wealth creator”.
Agreed, the accountant isn’t a wealth creator but is a part of the administration. The administration is necessary but they aren’t the wealth creators that they paint themselves as and, as such, they should be paid less than the actual wealth creators.
I’d go along with both comments. When I went into business for myself I made the conscious decision to keep the accountants out of the business. They do the books & the tax returns and that’s as close as they get. Works well for me.
Finally, Bernard Hickey has had the courage to promote what he terms “heresy”: ie that RBNZ should be creating money to finance infrastructure and rebuild Christchurch.
1) I suspect that there’s no need to eliminate fractional reserve banking if the Government becomes a major source of interest free/debt free money for productive use.
2) There’s no way that the private banks and the privately driven world central banking system is going to allow NZ to wean off their (very profitable) interest bearing debt markets. Especially as it will mean that they cannot indebt NZ enough to compromise our productive assets (which is the true prize they covet) in firesales.
3) John Key is an Inside Man of these private banking interests. You can be certain that he won’t have a bar of any of this talk of Government supplied credit to the economy. Government supplied credit to the economy means no more need for overseas asset sales. See the point above.
Presently, the POAL dispute continues, and I applaud every MP who has turned up at the picket line.
Meanwhile, Housing NZ is shutting its offices, so that clients can only contact them through a call centre. This no doubt is a prelude to farming out management to some corporation or other.
In the Herald, Matt McCarten draws attention to a strike by Aged care Workers. Their employer, Oceania, presently owns 79 NZ Rest homes and is in turn owned by a large conglomerate. The workers have been offered a 1% pay rise, with a base rate of $13.61 an hour provided they give up their overtime.
Conciliatory noises from the left at this time suggest that we no longer have a left at the representational level. And diverting the conversation to superficial social rearrangements do not cut it either. We need a clear, articulate challenge to all of the above, along with an alternative strategy at representational level yesterday!
There is no point in trying to look user friendly to raise money to fight an election if you have no one left listening to you. Conversely, if your vision is bold, sane and well-articulated, you might not need the bloody money – people will rally to you anyway.
So Key and co are cutting a front line service to the public at HNZ. This is not helping an already CRITICAL housing situation and those who work at the coal face who will have to wait until they hear back from HNZ for an appointment.
Further proof of the widening DISCONNECT by the current government. The government need to act fast due to being the odd country out when it comes to the increase in preventable infectious disease. A green paper for this and a white paper for that is nothing but lip service. The Families Commission have told the government about the correlation that unaffordable housing and damp housing has when it comes to child abuse and child hospitalisation.
My apprasil of Heatley is that he is a real estate minister as all he can say is that we have empty houses, the houses are in need of repair, we are going to build cramped complexes which will create social problems and that some millionaires are lined up to buy HNZ properties with million dollar views, (the top priority is the millionaires).
Further proof of the widening DISCONNECT by the current government.
It’s not a disconnect, this government is purposefully ignoring the facts and ramming through policies based upon their ideology. The ideology that has led to more poverty as the wealth accumulates into the hands and control of the few. They’re setting NZ up to become a feudal state complete with serfs.
So Key and co are cutting a front line service to the public at HNZ. This is not helping an already CRITICAL housing situation and those who work at the coal face who will have to wait until they hear back from HNZ for an appointment.
I am an HNZ tenant, and we got the letters announcing this back in December. The Tenancy Manager I had (I can no longer call her) never answered her phone anyway being the laziest cow unhung, so it’s made no difference to me, but it will to others. 🙁
It’s like the cutting of frontline services at IRD and authorising agents (private sector ) to be able to file your tax returns.
It used to be someone who was having trouble with their tax return could go to IRD and get some help to fill it out. This service was free and was part of what was called public service.
Today you are referred to someone in the private sector who is authorised to do this and charges you a fee and from what I’ve seen often gets it wrong.
Many low income people and those with disabilities ( the two often go hand in hand) can’t or won’t pay a fee to get this done and so often go without a refund they are entitled to.
The well off on the other hand pay their accountants to work out how to pay less tax while again the poor pay more than their share.
I’ve taken to helping people do their tax returns and getting their refunds due simply because I can’t see why they should have to pay to fulfill their democratic obligations.
It’s not like the public don’t need this help – the plethora of agents that has sprung up in recent years is testimony to this. They must be making money from what used to be free.
It ain’t enough to pay crap wages in this country – any mechanism to get some of those wages back will suffice. This is but another one.
Good to see the Talley Family standing up to the Meatworkers Union .Just like POA there will only be one winner there,and it wont be the workers or the Union
Some on here may very well listen to cricket commentary. There was a time when commentators were generally drawn from wordsmiths – and they were articulate and interesting to listen to. The qualification for getting behind a microphone in today’s group (taking a lead from Australia) appears to be that one needs to be a former player.
Now perhaps someone here can enlighten me.
The expression “Running between the wickets” referring to batsmen. I would have thought that to run between the wickets would earn a rebuke and warning from the umpire for running directly down the line of the wickets and therefore damaging the pitch.
Secondly, as I am taking the radio commentary, I cannot see exactly what is happening, and depend therefore on their description of play. It would appear from this constantly repeated term “Their running between the wickets …” suggests that the batsmen run to other points of the oval as well. Can anyone help out there on that one?
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In yesterday’s post I tried to present the Reserve Bank Funding Agreement for 2025-30, as approved by the Minister of Finance and the Bank’s Board, in the context of the previous agreement, and the variation to that agreement signed up to by Grant Robertson a few weeks before the last ...
Australia’s bid to co-host the 31st international climate negotiations (COP31) with Pacific island countries in late 2026 is directly in our national interest. But success will require consultation with the Pacific. For that reason, no ...
Old and outdated buildings being demolished at Wellington Hospital in 2018. The new infrastructure being funded today will not be sufficient for future population size and some will not be built by 2035. File photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from our political economy on Thursday, April 17:Simeon Brown has unveiled ...
The introduction of AI in workplaces can create significant health and safety risks for workers (such as intensification of work, and extreme surveillance) which can significantly impact workers’ mental and physical wellbeing. It is critical that unions and workers are involved in any decision to introduce AI so that ...
Donald Trump’s return to the White House and aggressive posturing is undermining global diplomacy, and New Zealand must stand firm in rejecting his reckless, fascist-driven policies that are dragging the world toward chaos.As a nation with a proud history of peacekeeping and principled foreign policy, we should limit our role ...
Sunday marks three months since Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president. What a ride: the style rude, language raucous, and the results rogue. Beyond manners, rudeness matters because tone signals intent as well as personality. ...
There are any number of reasons why anyone thinking of heading to the United States for a holiday should think twice. They would be giving their money to a totalitarian state where political dissenters are being rounded up and imprisoned here and here, where universities are having their funds for ...
Taiwan has an inadvertent, rarely acknowledged role in global affairs: it’s a kind of sponge, soaking up much of China’s political, military and diplomatic efforts. Taiwan soaks up Chinese power of persuasion and coercion that ...
The Ukraine war has been called the bloodiest conflict since World War II. As of July 2024, 10,000 women were serving in frontline combat roles. Try telling them—from the safety of an Australian lounge room—they ...
Following Canadian authorities’ discovery of a Chinese information operation targeting their country’s election, Australians, too, should beware such risks. In fact, there are already signs that Beijing is interfering in campaigning for the Australian election ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). From "founder" of Tesla and the OG rocket man with SpaceX, and rebranding twitter as X, Musk has ...
Back in February 2024, a rat infestation attracted a fair few headlines in the South Dunedin Countdown supermarket. Today, the rats struck again. They took out the Otago-Southland region’s internet connection. https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360656230/internet-outage-hits-otago-and-southland Strictly, it was just a coincidence – rats decided to gnaw through one fibre cable, while some hapless ...
I came in this morning after doing some chores and looked quickly at Twitter before unpacking the groceries. Someone was retweeting a Radio NZ story with the headline “Reserve Bank’s budget to be slashed by 25%”. Wow, I thought, the Minister of Finance has really delivered this time. And then ...
So, having teased it last week, Andrew Little has announced he will run for mayor of Wellington. On RNZ, he's saying its all about services - "fixing the pipes, making public transport cheaper, investing in parks, swimming pools and libraries, and developing more housing". Meanwhile, to the readers of the ...
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming, 1921ALL OVER THE WORLD, devout Christians will be reaching for their bibles, reading and re-reading Revelation 13:16-17. For the benefit of all you non-Christians out there, these are the verses describing ...
Give me what I want, what I really, really want: And what India really wants from New Zealand isn’t butter or cheese, but a radical relaxation of the rules controlling Indian immigration.WHAT DOES INDIA WANT from New Zealand? Not our dairy products, that’s for sure, it’s got plenty of those. ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
Yesterday, 5,500 senior doctors across Aotearoa New Zealand voted overwhelmingly to strike for a day.This is the first time in New Zealand ASMS members have taken strike action for 24 hours.They are asking the government tofund them and account for resource shortfalls.Vacancies are critical - 45-50% in some regions.The ...
For years and years and years, David Seymour and his posse of deluded neoliberals have been preaching their “tough on crime” gospel to voters. Harsher sentences! More police! Lock ‘em up! Throw away the key. But when it comes to their own, namely former Act Party president Tim Jago, a ...
Judith Collins is a seasoned master at political hypocrisy. As New Zealand’s Defence Minister, she's recently been banging the war drum, announcing a jaw-dropping $12 billion boost to the defence budget over the next four years, all while the coalition of chaos cries poor over housing, health, and education.Apparently, there’s ...
I’m on the London Overground watching what the phones people are holding are doing to their faces: The man-bun guy who could not be less impressed by what he's seeing but cannot stop reading; the woman who's impatient for a response; the one who’s frowning; the one who’s puzzled; the ...
You don't have no prescriptionYou don't have to take no pillsYou don't have no prescriptionAnd baby don't have to take no pillsIf you come to see meDoctor Brown will cure your ills.Songwriters: Waymon Glasco.Dr Luxon. Image: David and Grok.First, they came for the Bottom FeedersAnd I did not speak outBecause ...
The Health Minister says the striking doctors already “well remunerated,” and are “walking away from” and “hurting” their patients. File photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from our political economy on Wednesday, April 16:Simeon Brown has attacked1 doctors striking for more than a 1.5% pay rise as already “well remunerated,” even ...
The time is ripe for Australia and South Korea to strengthen cooperation in space, through embarking on joint projects and initiatives that offer practical outcomes for both countries. This is the finding of a new ...
Hi,When Trump raised tariffs against China to 145%, he destined many small businesses to annihilation. The Daily podcast captured the mass chaos by zooming in and talking to one person, Beth Benike, a small-business owner who will likely lose her home very soon.She pointed out that no, she wasn’t surprised ...
National’s handling of inflation and the cost-of-living crisis is an utter shambles and a gutless betrayal of every Kiwi scraping by. The Coalition of Chaos Ministers strut around preaching about how effective their policies are, but really all they're doing is perpetuating a cruel and sick joke of undelivered promises, ...
Most people wouldn't have heard of a little worm like Rhys Williams, a so-called businessman and former NZ First member, who has recently been unmasked as the venomous troll behind a relentless online campaign targeting Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle.According to reports, Williams has been slinging mud at Doyle under ...
Illustration credit: Jonathan McHugh (New Statesman)The other day, a subscriber said they were unsubscribing because they needed “some good news”.I empathised. Don’t we all.I skimmed a NZME article about the impacts of tariffs this morning with analysis from Kiwibank’s Jarrod Kerr. Kerr, their Chief Economist, suggested another recession is the ...
Let’s assume, as prudence demands we assume, that the United States will not at any predictable time go back to being its old, reliable self. This means its allies must be prepared indefinitely to lean ...
Over the last three rather tumultuous US trade policy weeks, I’ve read these four books. I started with Irwin (whose book had sat on my pile for years, consulted from time to time but not read) in a week of lots of flights and hanging around airports/hotels, and then one ...
Indonesia could do without an increase in military spending that the Ministry of Defence is proposing. The country has more pressing issues, including public welfare and human rights. Moreover, the transparency and accountability to justify ...
Former Hutt City councillor Chris Milne has slithered back into the spotlight, not as a principled dissenter, but as a vindictive puppeteer of digital venom. The revelations from a recent court case paint a damning portrait of a man whose departure from Hutt City Council in 2022 was merely the ...
That's the conclusion of a report into security risks against Green MP Benjamin Doyle, in the wake of Winston Peters' waging a homophobic hate-campaign against them: GRC’s report said a “hostility network” of politicians, commentators, conspiracy theorists, alternative media outlets and those opposed to the rainbow community had produced ...
That's the conclusion of a report into security risks against Green MP Benjamin Doyle, in the wake of Winston Peters' waging a homophobic hate-campaign against them: GRC’s report said a “hostility network” of politicians, commentators, conspiracy theorists, alternative media outlets and those opposed to the rainbow community had produced ...
National Party MP Hamish Campbell’s ties to the secretive Two By Twos "church" raises serious questions that are not being answered. This shadowy group, currently being investigated by the FBI for numerous cases of child abuse, hides behind a facade of faith while Campbell dodges scrutiny, claiming it’s a “private ...
National Party MP Hamish Campbell’s ties to the secretive Two By Twos "church" raises serious questions that are not being answered. This shadowy group, currently being investigated by the FBI for numerous cases of child abuse, hides behind a facade of faith while Campbell dodges scrutiny, claiming it’s a “private ...
The economy is not doing what it was supposed to when PM Christopher Luxon said in January it was ‘going for growth.’ Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short from our political economy on Tuesday, April 15:New Zealand’s economic recovery is stalling, according to business surveys, retail spending and ...
This is a guest post by Lewis Creed, managing editor of the University of Auckland student publication Craccum, which is currently running a campaign for a safer Symonds Street in the wake of a horrific recent crash.The post has two parts: 1) Craccum’s original call for safety (6 ...
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff has published an opinion piece which makes the case for a different approach to economic development, as proposed in the CTU’s Aotearoa Reimagined programme. The number of people studying to become teachers has jumped after several years of low enrolment. The coalition has directed Health New ...
The growth of China’s AI industry gives it great influence over emerging technologies. That creates security risks for countries using those technologies. So, Australia must foster its own domestic AI industry to protect its interests. ...
Unfortunately we have another National Party government in power at the moment, and as a consequence, another economic dumpster fire taking hold. Inflation’s hurting Kiwis, and instead of providing relief, National is fiddling while wallets burn.Prime Minister Chris Luxon's response is a tired remix of tax cuts for the rich ...
Girls who are boys who like boys to be girlsWho do boys like they're girls, who do girls like they're boysAlways should be someone you really loveSongwriters: Damon Albarn / Graham Leslie Coxon / Alexander Rowntree David / Alexander James Steven.Last month, I wrote about the Birds and Bees being ...
Australia needs to reevaluate its security priorities and establish a more dynamic regulatory framework for cybersecurity. To advance in this area, it can learn from Britain’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which presents a compelling ...
Deputy PM Winston Peters likes nothing more than to portray himself as the only wise old head while everyone else is losing theirs. Yet this time, his “old master” routine isn’t working. What global trade is experiencing is more than the usual swings and roundabouts of market sentiment. President Donald ...
President Trump’s hopes of ending the war in Ukraine seemed more driven by ego than realistic analysis. Professor Vladimir Brovkin’s latest video above highlights the internal conflicts within the USA, Russia, Europe, and Ukraine, which are currently hindering peace talks and clarity. Brovkin pointed out major contradictions within ...
In the cesspool that is often New Zealand’s online political discourse, few figures wield their influence as destructively as Ani O’Brien. Masquerading as a champion of free speech and women’s rights, O’Brien’s campaigns are a masterclass in bad faith, built on a foundation of lies, selective outrage, and a knack ...
The international challenge confronting Australia today is unparalleled, at least since the 1940s. It requires what the late Brendan Sargeant, a defence analyst, called strategic imagination. We need more than shrewd economic manoeuvring and a ...
This year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will take place as a fully hybrid conference in both Vienna and online from April 27 to May 2. This year, I'll join the event on site in Vienna for the full week and I've already picked several sessions I plan ...
Here’s a book that looks not in at China but out from China. David Daokui Li’s China’s World View: Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict is a refreshing offering in that Li is very much ...
The New Zealand National Party has long mastered the art of crafting messaging that resonates with a large number of desperate, often white middle-class, voters. From their 2023 campaign mantra of “getting our country back on track” to promises of economic revival, safer streets, and better education, their rhetoric paints ...
A global contest of ideas is underway, and democracy as an ideal is at stake. Democracies must respond by lifting support for public service media with an international footprint. With the recent decision by the ...
It is almost six weeks since the shock announcement early on the afternoon of Wednesday 5 March that the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Adrian Orr, was resigning effective 31 March, and that in fact he had already left and an acting Governor was already in place. Orr had been ...
The PSA surveyed more than 900 of its members, with 55 percent of respondents saying AI is used at their place of work, despite most workers not being in trained in how to use the technology safely. Figures to be released on Thursday are expected to show inflation has risen ...
Be on guard for AI-powered messaging and disinformation in the campaign for Australia’s 3 May election. And be aware that parties can use AI to sharpen their campaigning, zeroing in on issues that the technology ...
Strap yourselves in, folks, it’s time for another round of Arsehole of the Week, and this week’s golden derrière trophy goes to—drumroll, please—David Seymour, the ACT Party’s resident genius who thought, “You know what we need? A shiny new Treaty Principles Bill to "fix" all that pesky Māori-Crown partnership nonsense ...
After stonewalling requests for information on boot camps, the Government has now offered up a blog post right before Easter weekend rather than provide clarity on the pilot. ...
More people could be harmed if Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey does not guarantee to protect patients and workers as the Police withdraw from supporting mental health call outs. ...
The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. ...
The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...
Nicola Willis continues to sit on her hands amid a global economic crisis, leaving the Reserve Bank to act for New Zealanders who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver. ...
Today, the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill has passed its third and final reading, but there is one more stage before it becomes law. The Governor-General must give their ‘Royal assent’ for any bill to become legally enforceable. This means that, even if a bill gets voted ...
Abortion care at Whakatāne Hospital has been quietly shelved, with patients told they will likely have to travel more than an hour to Tauranga to get the treatment they need. ...
Thousands of New Zealanders’ submissions are missing from the official parliamentary record because the National-dominated Justice Select Committee has rushed work on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...
Today’s announcement of 10 percent tariffs for New Zealand goods entering the United States is disappointing for exporters and consumers alike, with the long-lasting impact on prices and inflation still unknown. ...
The National Government’s choices have contributed to a slow-down in the building sector, as thousands of people have lost their jobs in construction. ...
Willie Apiata’s decision to hand over his Victoria Cross to the Minister for Veterans is a powerful and selfless act, made on behalf of all those who have served our country. ...
The Privileges Committee has denied fundamental rights to Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Rawiri Waititi and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, breaching their own standing orders, breaching principles of natural justice, and highlighting systemic prejudice and discrimination within our parliamentary processes. The three MPs were summoned to the privileges committee following their performance of a haka ...
April 1 used to be a day when workers could count on a pay rise with stronger support for those doing it tough, but that’s not the case under this Government. ...
Winston Peters is shopping for smaller ferries after Nicola Willis torpedoed the original deal, which would have delivered new rail enabled ferries next year. ...
The Government should work with other countries to press the Myanmar military regime to stop its bombing campaign especially while the country recovers from the devastating earthquake. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Nicholls, Senior Research Associate in Media and Communications, University of Sydney Tech giant Google has just suffered another legal blow in the United States, losing a landmark antitrust case. This follows on from the company’s loss in a similar case last ...
Paddy GowerAmanda Luxon. I mean what can you say. Easter is a good time to publish my latest reckons at Stuff because without exaggeration or making too much of things, Amanda Luxon walks among us like Jesus but probably with better shoes.Jesus healed. How good is that? It’s really good, ...
How can an afternoon be long when it starts at one o’clock and finishes at half past three? Beauden thought about that as he stood at the back of the classroom and looked through the large window to the upper grounds where his colleague Monty Spiers was taking a phys ed ...
Alex Casey delves into the enduring success of The Artist’s Way, a self-help book beloved by everyone from retirees to famous rappers. On the video call, my mum is gesticulating so wildly while recounting all her recent creative endeavours that she knocks her cup of tea over a work-in-progress jigsaw ...
Feijoa scholar Kate Evans reviews the dish everybody raves about at Metro’s 2024 restaurant of the year, Forest. People have been telling me I need to try the deep-fried feijoa dessert at Forest for about three years now. I’m embarrassed it took me this long, but it takes a lot ...
Chef, author and reality television judge Colin Fassnidge takes us through his life in television. Colin Fassnidge is a huge television fan. He watches every blockbuster TV series the moment it drops and scores every single show on his Instagram account. It’s a habit that recently caught the attention of ...
Why are shops on Parnell Road allowed to open on Easter Sunday? It’s all thanks to an obsolete rule from the 1970s that’s been ‘frozen in time’.Originally published in 2023.Under our current trading laws, most stores are required to stay closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday (along ...
Yael Shochat, chef-owner of Auckland restaurant Ima Cuisine, shares the recipe for her hot cross buns – regularly voted among the best in the city.Originally published in 2019.HOT CROSS BUNSMakes 12You may use equal weights of pre-ground spices, but you’ll get a much better flavour if ...
Gràinne Moss knows she can’t tackle the final leg of one of the world’s toughest swimming challenges alone.In her quest to complete the Oceans Seven marathon challenge, 38 years after she began, she’s enlisted the help of two remarkable women – one barely out of her teens, and the other ...
By Susana Leiataua, RNZ National presenter There are calls for greater transparency about what the HMNZS Manawanui was doing before it sank in Samoa last October — including whether the New Zealand warship was performing specific security for King Charles and Queen Camilla. The Manawanui grounded on the reef off ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Labor increased its lead again in a YouGov poll, but Freshwater put the party ahead by just 50.3–49.7. This article also covers ...
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on April 18, 2025. Labor’s poll surge continues in YouGov, but they’re barely ahead in FreshwaterSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, $30) Haymitch’s Hunger Games. 2 Careless People: A ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Labor increased their lead again in a YouGov poll, but Freshwater put them ahead by just 50.3–49.7. This article also covers the ...
A new poem by Tusiata Avia. How to make a terrorist First make a whistling sound which is the sound of a bomb just before it lands on a house. Then make an exploding sound which is the sound of the bomb which kills a father, decapitates a mother, roasts ...
The top-rated Scrabble players in the country go head-to-head this Easter weekend. Watch games live from 9.30am on the stream below.How does it all work?The Masters is different to most Scrabble tournaments in that it’s invitational, open only to the top-rated players in the country. The ...
Books editor Claire Mabey appraises all the Austen-adapted films from 1990 onwards to separate the delightful from the duds.For the purists, read our ranking of Jane Austen’s novels here.It is a truth universally acknowledged that not everything is created equal. Since 1990 there have been 12 attempts to ...
To arrive through the heavy red door of Margot in Newtown is to be invited to the best dinner party in town, hosted by the best friends you haven’t yet made. Table Service is a column about food and hospitality in Wellington, written by Nick Iles.Hospitality is a term ...
We recommend the best – and longest – television series to watch this holiday weekend. As the Easter holiday weekend descends and the weather turns a little grim, many of us will turn to the trusty old television for comfort and entertainment. If you’re lucky, you’ll have some time over ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 18 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
NONFICTION1 No Words for This by Ali Mau (HarperCollins, $39.99)A free copy of the author’s new memoir was up for grabs in last week’s giveaway contest. Readers were asked to share their feelings about Mau, a former broadcaster and one of the most powerful figures in the New Zealand #metoo ...
Analysis: The announcement last week that Colossal Biosciences in the USA had “de-extincted” the dire wolf, which was last seen 13,000 years ago, was reported worldwide.The three wolf pups generated equal parts fascination and widespread scientific criticism. But is this actually de-extinction, and what are the implications for the potential ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gode Bola, Lecturer in Hydrology, University of Kinshasa The April 2025 flooding disaster in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, wasn’t just about intense rainfall. It was a symptom of recent land use change which has occurred rapidly in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Peter Dutton, now seriously on the back foot, has made an extraordinarily big “aspirational” commitment at the back end of this campaign. He says he wants to see a move to indexing personal income ...
Essay by Keith Rankin. Operation Gomorrah may have been the most cynical event of World War Two (WW2). Not only did the name fully convey the intent of the war crimes about to be committed, it, also represented the single biggest 24-hour murder toll for the European war that I ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Tietz, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design, UNSW Sydney A New South Wales Senate inquiry into public toilets is underway, looking into the provision, design and maintenance of public toilets across the state. Whenever I mention this inquiry, however, everyone nervously ...
Shrinking budgets and job insecurity means there are fewer opportunities for young journalists, and that’s bad news, especially in regional Australia, reports 360infoANALYSIS:By Jee Young Lee of the University of Canberra Australia risks losing a generation of young journalists, particularly in the regions where they face the closure ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tessa Charles, Accelerator Physicist, Monash University An artist’s impression of the tunnel of the proposed Future Circular Collider.CERN The Large Hadron Collider has been responsible for astounding advances in physics: the discovery of the elusive, long-sought Higgs boson as well as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer McKay, Professor in Business Law, University of South Australia Parkova/Shutterstock Could someone take you to court over an agreement you made – or at least appeared to make – by sending a “👍”? Emojis can have more legal weight ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trang Nguyen, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Global Food and Resources, University of Adelaide Stokkete, Shutterstock Australians waste around 7.68 million tonnes of food a year. This costs the economy an estimated A$36.6 billion and households up to $2,500 annually. ...
Pushing people off income support doesn’t make the job market fairer or more accessible. It just assumes success is possible while unemployment rises and support systems become harder to navigate. ...
A year since the inquest into the death of Gore three-year-old Lachlan Jones began and the Coroner has completed his provisional findings. Interested parties have been provided with a copy of Coroner Ho’s provisional findings and have until May 16 to respond.The Coroner has indicated the final decision will be delivered on June 3 in Invercargill, citing high ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ken Nosaka, Professor of Exercise and Sports Science, Edith Cowan University Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock Do you ever feel like you can’t stop moving after you’ve pushed yourself exercising? Maybe you find yourself walking around in circles when you come off the pitch, ...
There is an interesting article by Guyon Espinar in the listener this week about Grant Robertson. Interesting because it raises the possibility that he may be the first openly gay Prime Minister.
With Shearer barely 2 months into the job this sort of conjecture is not helpful. The last thing that Shearer needs is the categorisation of a caretaker looking after things while Robertson prepares himself. Some could describe it as being disloyal.
Robertson also talks about gay issues and obviously supports gay adoption.
This is one aspect of “equality” that I have a major difficulty with. My experience from dealing with adopted people over a number of years is that the institution itself is brutal, uncaring and wrecks lives. The feeling of rejection that adoptees have swells to the surface in their teenage years and causes huge problems from then on. Why this concept should be extended to gay couples is beyond me. It would be much better if it was done away with all together.
And Labour is so highly dependent on support from the Pacifica community it should tread very warily in these areas. I would prefer that it put effort into the essentials such as dealing with poverty, job creation, and environmental sustainability than get into a debate about a policy that has limited application.
same sex marriages and gay adoption should be a no brainer for anyone on the left who believes in equality for all
But why Shorts?
Adoption is a barbaric old fashioned concept that does all sorts of damage. Why extend it?
I’m not referring so much to adoption but the double stanards employed for those who aren’t hetrosexual – if adoption is antiquated then lets at least allow all to participate…
Can you point me towards somewhere I can get an idea of why you think it old fashioned – is it the concept or the delivery you dislike?
slight aside: my mother was adopted and brought to NZ (Italian orphan post ww2) and in turn she was forced to adopt out my eldest brother (stupid standards of the day – they were reunited about 20 years back, in a wonderful but awkward way)… the impacts of all have had a huge emotional toll on my family and they continue and will do for at least another generation I reckon… but we’re all as disfunctional as any ‘normal’ loving kiwi family 🙂
“It would be much better if it was done away with all together.”
Are you suggesting that children who are put up for adoption should instead be killed?
He …
Nope just a simple repeal of the Adoption Act 1955 would do it. If kids have to be moved out of their family unit the Care of Children Act can handle the legal side. The child retains his or her legal biological links to his or her parents and they can hopefully know who their parents are.
Open adoptions are not as damaging as the old fashioned closed adoptions but it is still a barbaric principle that treats a child’s family relations as something that can be changed at the stroke of a pen.
The Care of Children Act allows gay and lesbian couples to assume care of a child and has no problems with gay and lesbian couples doing so.
cheers, your suggestion sounds much more civilised all round
Ok, I wasn’t aware that there was separate legislation already on the books that could be used to handle this instead.
I agree totally! In 1972, I had my oldest son adopted out and away from me and although he’s been back in my life since 1991, his life has been horrific. His adoptive mother’s a good woman, but the rest all treated him as if was dangerous. Guess what a child does if everyone expects him to mess up? Yes, you’re right.
No, of course not. But most adoptions now are not stranger adoptions (I think it’s around 85% of adoptions now are cases where a step-father adopts a child when he and the mother marry, or and this weird but it happens, where a couple marry after being together and having children – and in order for the children to have the name of the new husband, he has to legally adopt them even though he is their father!) It’s a myth that there are hundreds of abandoned children all ready to be adopted by lovely middle class rescuers.
Fully agree vicky. Closed adoption is a barbaric holdover from generations past. We really should be legislating to make them illegal. And you are so right about the power of expectation; it’s one of the two or three most potent influences on the human psyche.
By contrast open adoption can be great. I’m pretty liberal-minded about the form that families might take… as far as I’m concerned the people who have the babies really don’t have to be the same people who grow them up; just so long as they are all part of the same extended family or social group.
I agree. Open adoption is a good thing, if the child has the chance to know where s/he comes from, and is not lied to!
Thanks Mickey. I have no issue with gay couples caring for children; they generally manage to muddle through and do their best, just like most parents. I however do have issues with the politics of adoption. Adoption in New Zealand is a barbaric practice; the legislation that covers it was passed in 1955 and should be totally repealed and replaced by a revamped guardianship act. This would cover care of children whose parents are unable to care for them, either temporarily or permanent. Adoption gives ownership of the child to the adopters – something than natural parents don’t have or need. The child’s name, family and heritage is taken from it, and it is forced to live a lie under a false name and pretend that strangers are its parents. No wonder so many finish up under the care of the mental health or penal services. There have been many submissions made to many MPs on many reviews of the act, but they all get pigeonholed into the “too hard” basket.
Agreed Janice.
It is a brutal process and it is no wonder that so many are adversely affected by it. IMHO they should just repeal the act. The Care of Children Act can handle care arrangements much more elegantly.
Open adoption is not a legislated practice. There have been adopters who have signed an open adoption agreement with the birth mothers and their families and then after the adoption becomes legal they shut the whole thing down with no legal consequences as the child who the legal agreement named no longer legally exists, it is owned by a new family. Adoption objectifies and dehumanises the child, who is not a blank slate as many would like to think.
My experience from knowing many adoptees and adopters is that the adopters have been motivated by the best of intentions and the adoptees have all been better off in the short and longer term and have made wonderful families.
In all but one case they have been in contact at certain times or in an ongoing fashion with their birth families as well without any adverse effects.
So from my experience I would have to completely refute your assertion that adoption is ‘brutal, uncaring and wrecks lives.’ Although I do expect you get to see the worst in your professional capacity.
I do see the worst effects of adoption HS but I have also done some study in the area for professional reasons and the outcomes for adopted kids are way worse than for kids generally.
I actually have two adopted cousins who turned out pretty well but did struggle with it. Your comments suggest that you have seen the best of cases. I agree that I have seen some of the worst.
Grant will be the first male Gay New Zealand PM.
Should we actually give a fark about that point, and instead of continually having our differences pointed out between us, perhaps we should focus on similarities instead…
Grant will be the first male PM – Not really accurate it is, and won’t sell as many records, better just focus on the fact he is gay, as opposed to weather or he might actually be capable..
Can’t wait for the distractions over this exciting piece of news should it ever happen!
Baaa baaa baaa
I think Fortran’s point was to imply that Helen Clark was a lesbian, Muzza.
He was being a dickhead, not trying to make a serious point.
Michael Joseph Savage was our first gay PM
Really? Not according to what I can find on google. I am sure he’d be amazed to hear it. It reminds me of those lists of “famous people who were one of us” put out by everything from the ADHD association to gay rights groups – Leonardo Da Vinci being the most absurd of the latter – I learned that in the 1960s, an American Freudian had decided that Leonardo was gay because he used to buy caged birds and release them – which was such an effeminate thing to do! 😀
The truly hilarious thing about that is that Americans are totally clueless about any culture other than their own. As Hans Eysenck pointed out in his book about Freud, buying caged birds and releasing them was a cultural thing – males and females in that time and place did it all the time, as an attractor of good luck. Gay my left tit! 😀
Yep, that comment surprised me, too, V32. I know Savage didn’t marry, but that doesn’t make him a ‘confirmed batchelor, nudge nudge, wink wink’. From previous comments, I think Sprout has issues with homosexuality and likes to use it as a putdown.
I thought it was a well known rumour. We’ll never know for sure
.
Mounting evidence that at least some Pike River workers survived the initial explosion and were left to die. I’m starting to think it won’t just be Peter Whittall who is jailed over these deaths. If can be proved that the decision to abandon a rescue was itself a crime, then there are going to be some nervous officials busy trying to think of excuses for their cowardice.
Can’t see how incompetance and adherence to a crippling ‘safety culture’ could constitite a criminal act. At the end of the day, I expect there will be some ‘recommendations’ and that, as they say, will be that. And the wankers who wouldn’t allow rescuers to enter the mine will absolve themselves by pointing to the rules and regulations, give themselves a congratulatory pat on the back for following proper procedure and claim they acted on the best available evidence at the time.
And all the knowledge pertaining to methane explosions; the percentage of methane to oxygen that is explosive (12% or so I think?) will be quietly pushed aside and not spoken of. And the window of opportunity that came in the aftermath of the first explosion that would, in all likelyhood, have ‘cleaned out’ any built up methane will be quietly pushed aside and not spoken of.
And so on.
In other words, authority will absolve itself and all those who act in its interests.
The decision not to risk more deaths considering the likelihood of further explosions, the atmosphere and the difficulties of rescue deep underground with SCBA was perfectly justified in the circumstances.
Why get more people killed while trying to rescue some who were extremely unlikely to have survived.
If it happens that some were still alive, for a while, it does not make that decision wrong.
I have read many accident reports where people rushed in to rescue their mates, a brave and human response, and have died too.
Not long ago on a log ship at Marsden point.
Someone there who made them hold off and get proper equipment would have saved at least one life.
It was one of those decisions some one had to make which could be seen to be wrong on hindsight either way.
If the rescuers had been killed. The same people who are damning the decision, not to go in, would be, with their 20/20 hindsight be damning them for killing the rescuers.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2104935/Fire-chief-told-policeman-leave-drowning-man-3ft-deep-lake-half-boot-deep.html
This is absolute proof that the west’s “health & safety” culture pendulum has swung too far.
Pike River has similarities. It aint as easy as you paint KJT. Read and listen to what some of NZ’s most experienced miners and mine rescuers had to say on exactly this.
Similar goes for rescues in Christchurch post-Feb 22. The last survivor was resuced only about 24 hours after the quake and this is an extremely short time in comparison to other earthquake rescues. How many potential survivors died because of our health & safety culture’s over careful approach? This is a very fair and legitimate question imo and I hope the royal commission answers it.
Not that you want people to be foolhardy and naive in coming to your rescue. But you wouldn’t want them to be timid wait on the sidelines until the clock runs down while-you-die-terrified-and-abandoned types either.
Fact of the matter is, if a specialist unit which is trained and experienced and judges that it is worth taking a risk to try and help someone (and understands what that risk is) why let manager types who have fuck all expertise stand in their way. What’s our society become?
Does no one remember the saying “All for one and one for all?” Is it now “All for one and one for all, but only when we judge that all associated risks and potential liabilities are negligible”?
Interestingly in some other cases you get high honours and recognition for deliberately putting yourself in lethal harm’s way while trying to help others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Apiata
In the case of the CHCH earthquake, it really was quite a different situation to other earthquakes world-wide that see rescues happening days and occasionally weeks after the event:
1. Most of the earthquakes with these rescues happen in 3rd world or developing countries, where many more buildings fall down, trapping many more people. The more people who are trapped, increases the number who can be rescued.
2. We really only had 2 large buildings that collapsed and the one that had the most people trapped and died had a massive fire. Not a lot you can do about that, and turning hoses on it is quite likely to drown anyone who did actually manage to survive the fire/collapse in the first place.
3. A lot of the worst buildings in the CBD were already cordoned off from the September 4th and boxing day quakes: this is quite different compared to a city that is hit by a massive earthquake out of nowhere as is typically the case.
4. Similar to above, because of the September 4th quake a lot of people had already left the city and/or were much more clued up with how to react to an earthquake and this would have saved lives.
5. A lot of the deaths that occurred were from masonry facades falling on people. Heavy bricks smashing you in the head/back is likely to lead to death, compared to being inside a collapsed building that will have air pockets created due to the amount and different materials involved.
I don’t believe the fact that the last rescue occurred 24 hours after the quake has anything to do with health and safety, but rather a result of many different factors, some of which I have outlined above.
If you look at the accident rates in industries such as construction, mining, fishing and shipping.
Yes the HSE pendulum has swung too far.
In the wrong direction.
Or, NZers might see it as having been a heroic, necessary and worthwhile attempt to save lives. Risking a 3 or 4 person team in order to try and save 20 others.
Standard Rule of the Sea is that we are obliged to render assistance whenever others are in need, but with the proviso that the rescuers are not put at risk. The same applies to those arriving at a traffic accident. Secure the area and make sure that the rescuers are not exposing themselves to risk.
Problem is in deciding how great the risk is. On the spot. Risk of more falls. Child caught by a beam and crying. Stand back? Or risk it? Hard eh!
Yeah its tough. Even something as mundane as getting involved to break up a pub fight can be extremely risky, let alone this other stuff.
More akin to stopping a mother from rushing into a burning building when there is no hope of getting her or her child out safely.
No-one was ever going to be ‘ordered’ to enter the mine. With knowledge of the likely risks involved, there were members of the rescue team who wanted to enter the mine. They were prohibited by managers/bureaucrats. And, if my memory serves me correctly, some resigned from the rescue team in disgust.
It was as well that someone took the responsibility for making the decision.
Second guessing afterwards is unfair and unrealistic.
You have to go on the information at the time.
That information was that rescuers would be exposed to extreme and almost certain risk balanced against the strong indication that no one was still alive.
And. The least suitable people to make the decision at the time is the mates of the people in the mine. To much emotion involved. Same reason why Doctors are discouraged from treating close family.
The internet is full of armchair Admirals with the benefit of hindsight. Most of whom will never be in a situation where they have to make that decision.
Well I am in a job where the risk level is similar to mining. I am aware I may have to make that sort of decision at some time.
I am not prepared to judge the person who had to make the decision, on the ground, immediately, when we are all sitting down and have had days to consider it.
Okay. I fully agree that someone who is emotionally charged up is not the best person to make a decision. But that doesn’t mean that the people who are going to be putting their own safety/lives on the line shouldn’t be the ones making the decision based on all available or requested information.
I find this assertion strange. Of course any would be rescuers were going to be exposed to certain and probably quite extreme risk. But where the hell do you get the idea that a risk assessment was balanced off against indications that no-one was alive? What you are suggesting is that if some-one was known to be alive, then the rescuers would have allowed to enter the mine under the same level of risk that was present when they were forbidden to enter.
And I have serious doubts over the claim that there was “a strong indication that no one was still alive.” What indication was that? As I recall, there was talk of rescue up until the second explosion.
Meanwhile, (and flying in the face of rescue talk at the time) the company knew there was only half an hour’s worth of oxygen in any cylinders and (presumably) that the best time to attempt a rescue is immediately after any explosion because gas levels will likely be at non-dangerous levels but getting more dangerous with time.
You might accuse me of cynicism, but it crosses my mind that with the knowledge the company had at hand, they reckoned that by the time they responded (well in excess of 30 minutes) it was too late….unless miners had grabbed multiple cylinders. But they didn’t want the publicity and the hard questions that would have followed from people having died due to the tardiness of their initial emergency response. Solution? Wank around and say it’s all too dangerous to enter the mine and just keep on saying that it’s all too dangerous. Arse covered (sort of)…until somebody mounts a camera on a robot….
I would not go too much on what members of the rescue team said in the heat of the moment.
That was their friends in there.
Speaking to a senior member afterwards.
“The decision not to go in probably saved our lives”.
“Though we were all keen to go at the time no matter what”.
I think that Pike River showed NZ just how dangerous coal mining is and I hope the inquiry gets that message across. The major problem with mine explosions is that they destroy or badly damage the ventilation system in the vicinity of the blast. Ventilation is what removes dangerous gases from a mine so if the system is broken you’ll get a gas build up. An explosion can also start small fires and/or create potential ignition sources such as arcing batteries and if you put the two together you get a mine too dangerous to enter.
The harsh reality of coal mines is that an explosion typically makes the mine too dangerous for rescue teams to enter and unless the mine can be re-ventilated to a satisfactory level it can conceivably never be safe. With Pike it appeared necessary to enter the mine to repair the ventilation system which created that catch22 situation.
The only way to make a mine safe is to prevent the explosions from occurring. The rescue teams were placed in a terrible position and I don’t think they warrant any criticism.
Exactly.
I do not think the people really close to it should have to make the decision.
We should have regular ‘crony watch ‘ post to see a list of appointments and their links to NACT/MP figures in SOE’s, authorities both new and existing, govt departments etc yand have some slots for Hide and Ellis to see what junket they pop up in after seeing Parata’s whanau doing very nicely on the taxpayer…..ka Ching.
Aye but I am sure that they will say that a proper and robust selection took place with real checks and balances and cognizance of the fact that the candidate was the Minister’s sister but that the committee members, all of who are outstanding in their area of expertise, are confident that the decision and process cannot be faulted and that in the fullness of time their decision will be shown to be the right one.
Fascinating investment letter from Jeremy Grantham. NZ would be unrivalled in a warming, resource depleting world – if we could shore up our military security capabilities.
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2012/02/GMO.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIHRSeVxSeg&feature=player_embedded
Interesting view from a port worker
Interesting how? Never heard of scab labour before?
OMG! They took his ping pong balls away!
And gee I wonder how there came to be ping pong, pool, and bbq facilities eh?
Kinda figured you lot would ignore the physical assaults and verbal threats, probably think thats what they deserve
And again, you must be unfamiliar with the concept of scab labour.
ffs this guy crossed a picket line and he’s complaining about his car getting egged?
I was referring to the verbal threats, shoulder charges and spitting (while not painful it is a pretty foul thing to do) and the racism aspect as well
Sorry, no way of knowing the context of any of that.
Remember how Anderton said it would take an earthquake to keep him from being mayor?
And how afterward, Slater said the truth is whatever he says it is at the time?
Armed with that info, you can’t even tell whether any of the comments in the video relate to the same worksite, the same union, the same strike, the same job, or even the same person.
bollix
On that clip you could tell where the edits were done, on this clip the edits are done between sentences
or do you really believe that the unions would never use indimadationary tactics to get what they want?
Intimadatory tactics? That’s what economic and class war is based on. Why not threaten the balance sheets and profits of corporations if they fail to take their responsibilities to workers and workers families seriously?
So what? It doesn’t matter that you can see the edits, what matters is that there is no context to tell what he’s talking about from one edit to the next.
You’re assuming it’s one story about one strike at one workplace but you have no way of knowing that, and the video was made by someone with a history of fooling people like you in exactly the same way.
I’m not saying you might not be right, just that you’re relying on faith in Slater’s honesty and pretending you’re not.
Whereas threatening the livelihoods of families and neighbourhoods is just being economically rational.
I agree the strikers are threatning livelihoods, good to see that you’re starting to see things rationally
Oh how droll.
Whether you meant it or not you were correct
The most powerful and the wealthiest in the country are the ones who destroy jobs and financial value, mate.
So how many lattes did you have before you came up with that slogan
Lattes? I’m typing this with a delicious Irish Coffee in front of me at the cafe.
Yes.
Of course you think removing workers wages and livelihood so a few can get rich is not violent.
The union is not good for ports operations (heresy!) its that simple
This isn’t the 1950s (though some on here wish it were) its time to move on
You say it’s not the 1950s, yet here we have a port company and its international clients trying to crush the workers and their families into submission to drive down their wage bill.
Bullshit. Without the workers/consumers there would be no port and no profits.
Were you around in the 50’s, and have you bothered to understand that the strike is actually being created due to lies and dishonesty of the PoAL management and board/CEO?
Spoken to many warfies first hand, or spent time wading through the structures that govern PoAL as it relates to the onership directives by the council?
Today we have the sensitive chris73. Metaphorically, speaking, of course.
Yeah today he’s all concerned about someone losing their ping pong balls, when just last night he would’ve sexually violated someone with them as a punishment.
ps this video has a dolphin logo in the corner so I guess it was made by the Slater child.
Given his history of deliberately editing videos out of context to make people appear to be saying things they never actually said, nothing in it can be assumed to be accurate.
keep telling yourself that and you may just end up believing it
I don’t need to, Slater himself admits that he does that.
Look what the tories have been up to in Canada http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/22/racknine-inc-fraudulent-election-calls-traced/
The Nats real agenda – Get Rich By Privitisation?
This from the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/25/emma-harrison-family-tsar
The neoliberals can’t find any effective ways to develop and create any truly new assets or wealth of their own at the moment. Therefore the easiest way left to grow their own riches is to organise the transfer (theft) of already existing public wealth into their private sector hands.
The meme of the “wealth creating” top 0.1% is largely, though not entirely, a fabrication.
Exactly, its NACTS version of the long awaited economic growth
Too true. The “wealth creator”s have been so ineffectual at creating wealth, the only way they can do it is to steal ours.
The real wealth creators are you and me.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/154153/how_the_1_destroys_jobs_and_the_real_heroes_are_everyday_people
“If you really want to see a wealth creator, just look at the grocer, the nurse, the software developer, the accountant, and the civil engineer. They are all creators of wealth. Chances are, you are a wealth creator”.
Though I would argue about the Accountant.
Agreed, the accountant isn’t a wealth creator but is a part of the administration. The administration is necessary but they aren’t the wealth creators that they paint themselves as and, as such, they should be paid less than the actual wealth creators.
I’d go along with both comments. When I went into business for myself I made the conscious decision to keep the accountants out of the business. They do the books & the tax returns and that’s as close as they get. Works well for me.
Finally, Bernard Hickey has had the courage to promote what he terms “heresy”: ie that RBNZ should be creating money to finance infrastructure and rebuild Christchurch.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10788041
He still needs, though, to look at the other side of the coin (excuse the pun) and promote the elimination of “fractional reserve” banking.
1) I suspect that there’s no need to eliminate fractional reserve banking if the Government becomes a major source of interest free/debt free money for productive use.
2) There’s no way that the private banks and the privately driven world central banking system is going to allow NZ to wean off their (very profitable) interest bearing debt markets. Especially as it will mean that they cannot indebt NZ enough to compromise our productive assets (which is the true prize they covet) in firesales.
3) John Key is an Inside Man of these private banking interests. You can be certain that he won’t have a bar of any of this talk of Government supplied credit to the economy. Government supplied credit to the economy means no more need for overseas asset sales. See the point above.
Already being done in that bastion of socialism, the USA.
http://publicbanking.wordpress.com/
Note that the US States which have best survived the GFC were also the ones with State banking.
North Dakota is the best example.
+1
Presently, the POAL dispute continues, and I applaud every MP who has turned up at the picket line.
Meanwhile, Housing NZ is shutting its offices, so that clients can only contact them through a call centre. This no doubt is a prelude to farming out management to some corporation or other.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6481036/Housing-NZ-shutting-offices
In the Herald, Matt McCarten draws attention to a strike by Aged care Workers. Their employer, Oceania, presently owns 79 NZ Rest homes and is in turn owned by a large conglomerate. The workers have been offered a 1% pay rise, with a base rate of $13.61 an hour provided they give up their overtime.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10788025
Then we have the most recent Pike River Mine news, about people having survived the first blast, mentioned on this thread by Te Reo Putake.
Two days or so ago we heard of how our corporates are exploiting foreign slave labour (already noted elsewhere on this site).
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/call-action-over-fishing-slave-ships-4738571
Meanwhile, 762 Meat workers are being locked out.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10788023
Conciliatory noises from the left at this time suggest that we no longer have a left at the representational level. And diverting the conversation to superficial social rearrangements do not cut it either. We need a clear, articulate challenge to all of the above, along with an alternative strategy at representational level yesterday!
There is no point in trying to look user friendly to raise money to fight an election if you have no one left listening to you. Conversely, if your vision is bold, sane and well-articulated, you might not need the bloody money – people will rally to you anyway.
Oh great the shithouse Talley family in full flight yet again, they must not have enough tens of millions of dollars yet.
So Key and co are cutting a front line service to the public at HNZ. This is not helping an already CRITICAL housing situation and those who work at the coal face who will have to wait until they hear back from HNZ for an appointment.
Further proof of the widening DISCONNECT by the current government. The government need to act fast due to being the odd country out when it comes to the increase in preventable infectious disease. A green paper for this and a white paper for that is nothing but lip service. The Families Commission have told the government about the correlation that unaffordable housing and damp housing has when it comes to child abuse and child hospitalisation.
My apprasil of Heatley is that he is a real estate minister as all he can say is that we have empty houses, the houses are in need of repair, we are going to build cramped complexes which will create social problems and that some millionaires are lined up to buy HNZ properties with million dollar views, (the top priority is the millionaires).
It’s not a disconnect, this government is purposefully ignoring the facts and ramming through policies based upon their ideology. The ideology that has led to more poverty as the wealth accumulates into the hands and control of the few. They’re setting NZ up to become a feudal state complete with serfs.
It’s the tenth of the 1% who are faceless and who are doing the irreparable damage.
I am an HNZ tenant, and we got the letters announcing this back in December. The Tenancy Manager I had (I can no longer call her) never answered her phone anyway being the laziest cow unhung, so it’s made no difference to me, but it will to others. 🙁
It’s like the cutting of frontline services at IRD and authorising agents (private sector ) to be able to file your tax returns.
It used to be someone who was having trouble with their tax return could go to IRD and get some help to fill it out. This service was free and was part of what was called public service.
Today you are referred to someone in the private sector who is authorised to do this and charges you a fee and from what I’ve seen often gets it wrong.
Many low income people and those with disabilities ( the two often go hand in hand) can’t or won’t pay a fee to get this done and so often go without a refund they are entitled to.
The well off on the other hand pay their accountants to work out how to pay less tax while again the poor pay more than their share.
I’ve taken to helping people do their tax returns and getting their refunds due simply because I can’t see why they should have to pay to fulfill their democratic obligations.
It’s not like the public don’t need this help – the plethora of agents that has sprung up in recent years is testimony to this. They must be making money from what used to be free.
It ain’t enough to pay crap wages in this country – any mechanism to get some of those wages back will suffice. This is but another one.
Is Chris Heatley related to the filthy rich business tycoon, Craig Heatley?
http://whoar.co.nz/2012/eliot-spitzer-spending-money-on-prosecuting-pot-is-ridiculous/
“…Former New York governor and attorney general Eliot Spitzer says he not only supports medical marijuana –
– but thinks we should replace marijuana prohibition with legalization…”
phil-at-whoar.
Good to see the Talley Family standing up to the Meatworkers Union .Just like POA there will only be one winner there,and it wont be the workers or the Union
Backing the very wealthy ahead of ordinary working NZers? Why am I not surprised.
Nice to see you know what side you’re on, Jim Jim. Our new insect overlords will be well pleased with your efforts. Perhaps they’ll eat you last.
Some on here may very well listen to cricket commentary. There was a time when commentators were generally drawn from wordsmiths – and they were articulate and interesting to listen to. The qualification for getting behind a microphone in today’s group (taking a lead from Australia) appears to be that one needs to be a former player.
Now perhaps someone here can enlighten me.
The expression “Running between the wickets” referring to batsmen. I would have thought that to run between the wickets would earn a rebuke and warning from the umpire for running directly down the line of the wickets and therefore damaging the pitch.
Secondly, as I am taking the radio commentary, I cannot see exactly what is happening, and depend therefore on their description of play. It would appear from this constantly repeated term “Their running between the wickets …” suggests that the batsmen run to other points of the oval as well. Can anyone help out there on that one?
My goodness – there may be the occasional fruitloop on The Standard, but nothing as fruity as this http://aotearoaawiderperspective.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/is-the-standard-blog-a-mainstream-media-shill/
Apparently we’re all just shills of the mainstream media….
i went and read that piece..and have to concur with whoever it is..
..they have given a calm/link-backed rendition of what has been happening in this domino-effect the americans are using in the middle east..
..the most recent example the shills of this phenomenon..the calling for ‘the dogs of war of humanitarian-intervention’/cia-coup had me gobsmacked..
.it was how keith locke..(who of all people..you’d think would know better..eh..?)..was just parroting the cia-pro-invasion propaganda for them…
..i wasn’t reading here then..was this site/labour pretty get-gadaffi-gung-ho..?
..also parroting that pro-war bullshit..?
..and those swallowing/parroting this latest call for the dogs of war to be unleashed really should think on a bit more/deeper..
..and look closer at the latest example.. libya http://whoar.co.nz/?s=libya
..especially at the outcome..one year later..(3rd story in link..)
..and maybe ponder on how..like gaddafi..assad was until very recently..americas’ friend..
..so much a friend..that america renditioned prisoners there for torture…
..think on..!..eh..?
phil-at-whoar.
late night juxtaposition:
TAG oil’s highest estimate for the east coast prospecting is $600million to NZ.
Oil-strike-could-be-worth-600m
Cost of cleanup from one cargo ship is $130million.
Gotta love that risk-reward ratio.
TAG gets the reward, we get the risk, what’s there not to love as a TAG shareholder?