In Protest, Climate Activists Board Coal Ship Off Great Barrier Reef
Absent action by political leaders, activists call on public citizens to fight climate change by physically preventing fossil fuel expansion through peaceful civil disobedience
Jon Queally staff writer Common Dreams, Wednesday April 24
Bring your surfboards, bring your kayaks, bring your dinghies, bring your small yachts, bring your fishing boats and tinnies. Bring your life jackets and wet suits. Bring your signs banners and flags. Bring your courage and your joy.
New Zealand is a maritime nation, we need to take to the sea. We need to defy the anti-marine protest laws. We need to stop coal exports here and in Australia.
“Join the “Resistance”
John Key and the National Party are firmly in the corner of big oil and big coal.
Despite the terrible danger we are all in they will not lift a finger to stop it.
In fact they are doing the opposite, passing anti-democratic laws that make it easier for the climate wreckers to operate.
NASA scientist James, Hansen the world’s leading climate change expert, has determined that; “If we can’t stop coal. It is game over for the climate.”
We can play a role in stopping the immoral profiteering in coal that is killing our world.
Australia is the world’s biggest coal exporter in the world, and as such is a major contributor to climate change on a global scale. To save the planet the Australians must stop this trade.
New Zealand’s coal exports, are big. In fact most of the coal mined in this country is for the export trade. But in comparison with Australia, our trade in coal is dwarfed. The significance of our coal trade, is that Australia will never stop exporting coal, unless New Zealand has done it first.
It is up to us.
Our history shows that of all countries, we are most up to the task.
For the safe future of our world, for our children, and for our children’s children’s sake…..
We must act!
If the spirit of ANZAC is still worth something. We must!
The halting of all coal exports from this country will be a huge and unmissable moral lead for our closest international neighbour and long time friend and ally, Australia. As an example of the sacrifice that must be demanded of them too. That is, If we are to preserve the global climate, fit to hand onto to our children.
Sacrifice, Mateship, Fighting to make the world fit for future generations. This is what the ANZACs fought for, for us. Can we do any less?
If you have nothing constructive to say, wouldn’t it be better to say nothing?
Jenny is inspired by the actions of the climate activists off Australia and wants to share that with us, while encouraging us to be active in our defence of the climate too.
Rather than insulting people, why don’t you make your own suggestions for how we can improve the world?
Or are your contributions to this site merely intended to be destructive?
Jenny is a complete flake.
She wants people to get up and rally against what provides us with the current lifestyle we enjoy today.
Without oil and coal the worlds economy collapses, unless you’re a complete masochist who the hell wants that.
It should be about managing these resources and trying to minimize the impacts not banning them.
Until something else comes along it’s coal and oil for the foreseeable future, except that.
Funnily enough, although I might disagree with Jenny on stuff, I actually get the impression that she behaves in a genuine and earnest manner, with little or no dissembling or misdirection.
From what I’ve read nature cleaned up he spill pretty well.
The research done on it came to the conclusion that it would have been better just to let nature clean up the area and that the efforts made to control the spill actually hindered the process not helped.
yeah mate, and calling any policy that’s left of centre: communism by stealth, polish shipyard stuff, north korea and so on is just totally non hysterical and well reasoned.
You cretin BM! If you want the sound of hysterical shit. Then go to the Beehive there’s heaps of it from the National Party over the Labour/Greens Power profits redistribution from the greedies to the needies.
Some people just come onto this site to disrupt intelligent discussion.
Aren’t there right wing sites for them to carp on and on about their pet topics?
What are you talking about, fool? You’ve repeatedly claimed that the conversation was “one-sided and hysterical” but you evidently lack the wherewithal to provide any evidence to back up your assertion.
Wow, just wow. That’s vile. But you’ll be pleased to know that Mugabe ran out of colonials to “liberate” land from quite some time ago and now is reduced to inflicting misery on and stealing from black Zimbabweans. He’s an equal opportunity kleptocrat.
I can imagine better collective global effort about climate change if petrol costs more. But not if there’s an easier transition to other forms of oil than has been envisaged.
Insurance companies have a market interest to keep disasters (and so pay outs down). Or do they?
As we have found, market churn means fees. Why would any industry cut its growth, and so its immediate share price since its based on its future potential?
So to answer your question, should carbon energy never run out, the market would never deal with the consequences until its too late (look at any polluted industrial areas for how little and too late the market is).
Second, carbon energy is stored sunlight over millions of years, there will always become a point where the ‘new’ sources run out like oil has, and so the old adage of never say never must be employed.
Jenny’s point that governments really do respond to the force of crowds – as per the ANZAC/Lange protests – is understood. I still love Canetti’s Crowds and Power.
My point is less about the supply of oil and more a pessimism that without the force of price and spectacular scarcity that effective global movements would be hard to generate. I can see it at a neighbourhood scale, even at a City scale, because in different ways I have done it. So to be clear I support the effort. But if even the entire EU can’t sustain a carbon market, it’s hard to see governments successfully contesting the market about climate change generally.
Helen Clark called for a groundswell from below to force government’s and political parties to act on climate change.
If you are concerned about climate change you must ask ourself this question:
I am I happy to just protest against climate change, or do I want to stop climate change?
If your answer is, I want to stop climate change.
You should listen to Helen Clark.
Helen Clark knows the mechanics of how to stop climate change.
She should.
As a senior Labour Party MP during the Muldoon and Lange years. Helen Clark was an eye witness on the inside into how a mass movement can change governments and influence political parties and parliaments.
From her vantage point inside the parliamentary Labour Party Helen Clark saw that; No matter whether they were National Party government MPs, or Labour Party opposition MPs. The mass public campaign that blockaded our Nation’s harbour’s against nuclear ships, put every politician on notice.
This became especially true when the issue came up for a vote in the house when Richard Prebble’s (of all people) private member’s bill to ban nuclear warship visits was drawn from ballot.
Due to the huge pressure from below, two National MPs, Mike Minogue and Marilyn Waring, were moved to cross the floor and vote with the opposition.
If Richard Prebble’s private members bill had been put to the vote, New Zealand would have become Nuclear Free in 1984.
To prevent the vote, the Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon closed parliament down, called a snap election.
Everyone knew, including Muldoon, that his National Party had no chance of continuing in government with the issue of nuclear ship visits unresolved. Conservative pundits including Muldoon, hoped that under the pressure of what has cynically been called “pragmatism” or “Real Politic” (Which is all the secret, and not so secret conservative pressures that influences governments and parliamentary parties), that a new Labour administration would, on gaining office, be able to back-track on the issue in a way that the unpopular Muldoon could not. Which as predictably the new Labour government did. To break the ban David Lange himself, tried to bring in the nuclear armed warship the USS Buchanon into New Zealand waters.
However a high level meeting in his Beehive office held with the, (then), unofficial head of the anti-nuclear movement, Nicky Hagar, convinced Lange that if the Buchanon was brought into any New Zealand harbour that the protests against his government would dwarf anything that had gone down against the Muldoon administration.
Although the USS Buchanon was already on route to New Zealand and was more than half way here. Facing up to the inevitable disgrace that threatened to befall him, and his government if he allowed the Buchanon to dock. Lange had to call up Washington and ordered the Americans to turn their ship around.
The next day in an interview that was published in the the Listener, Lange was reported to have said that the peace movement was his most “feared lobby”.
After the debacle of the Buchanon defeat, the Lange administration still continued to drag the chain as much as they could.
Whereas, the Muldoon administration in 1984, could not have held the line for even one more day, putting off the vote to make New Zealand “Nuclear Weapons Free”. The Lange administration was able to hold the line until the dying months of 1987. And was only finally forced by the approaching deadline of an upcoming general election to put the long promised legislation. Lange feared that if the universally unpopular and controversial Rogernomic policies of his government was followed by a reversal on the “Nuclear Weapons Free” legislation, then the Labour Party if not being turfed out of office completely, would at the very least taken a very serious hit in voter support. (Not to mention the personal odium that would have been attached to his name forever.)
As it turned out. Despite the harsh economic policies forced on the New Zealand people by the Lange/Douglas administration, surfing the wave of the wildly popular support for the New Zealand’s newly minted “Nuclear Free” status – the 1987 election results saw David Lange’s Labour Party triumphantly returned as the government in a massive victory landslide of voter support.
Jenny I respect your passion, just to be clear on that.
Few things though.
1: Climate change can’t be stopped
2: Helen Clark is NOT to be listened to – Getting the to the #3 spot at the UN, means she delivered what was wanted by those who control the UN, hence her position there now. That would imply, she delivered what was requested, during her 9 years in as PM. Question, is, what was it that she did which earned her that position…
3: Helen Clark knows the mechanics of political corruption – She knows NOTHING about about how to stop climate change, however she might well know the planned role for the UN as defacto global government, which will fit perfectly with her own ideological beliefs!
4: You’re still focusing on too narrow a set of parameters, you should widen too include geo-engineering. Just like GM foods, which will have environmental consequences and people are happy to have that discussion, so should it be true of geo-engineering….
Just echoing what muzza said. Climate change is a lot more complicated than the solitary effect of increasing CO2 emissions, the green movement was hijacked a long time ago.
…not continuing to pump ancient carbon stores into the atmosphere; like the pain in your thumb is a lot more complicated than not hitting it with the bloody hammer any more.
CC is a very, very simple thing. The effects are not. Reversing that which has already been done is not. Avoiding unforeseeable consequences is not. But still…at root, climate change and the action required to stop contributing to it is devastatingly simple and uncomplicated.
Is there any evidence that the USS Buchanan was nuclear armed? The way I remember things, it quite obviously wouldn’t have been, with the problem being that the yanks refused to confirm this.
Also, I’d say it was a pity that Helen Clark didn’t let the groundswell against Rogernomics sway her from it.
Is there any evidence that the USS Buchanan was nuclear armed? The way I remember things, it quite obviously wouldn’t have been….
Murray Olsen
Indeed, the Buchanon had been intentionally chosen so that David Lange would have the political cover of “plausible deniability” that it was carrying any nuclear weapons.
Mr Lange dispatched his Chief of Defence Force, Air Marshal Sir Ewan Jamieson, to Honolulu to discuss the actual ship with the US Pacific Command. New Zealand was given a choice of ships and Air Marshal Jamieson settled on USS Buchanan, an almost obsolete destroyer which, while capable of carrying nuclear weapons, almost certainly would not have been…..
Gerald Hensley David Lange’s chief adviser
However this was not enough for the powerful New Zealand anti-nuclear movement. (Though Audrey Young doesn’t credit him, in particular, anti-nuclear activist Nicky Hagar who met with Lange in his Beehive office in the lead up to the Buchanon visit).
“To the surprise of his hearers from both delegations, [Schultz] added that New Zealand had to accept that from time to time there would inevitably be nuclear weapons aboard the occasional visiting ship.”
It was seized upon by activists later as confirmation that even if a compromise had been reached, the US would have disregarded the policy.
So basically a no then? As I remember from the time, the issue was that American ships would be allowed in if the yanks confirmed they had no nuclear weapons on board. They were not prepared to deviate from their neither confirm nor deny policy.
My position on this is that not letting it in was the right thing to do. I don’t even want windsurfers from nuclear navies in our waters. I don’t want a GI Joe toy from a country that tortures people in our shops.
One good thing about Tory governments – they provide many opportunities for healthy outdoor exercise and catching up with old friends. See you all on the march tomorrow!
I see America is beating the war drums over Syria again, claiming that the Syrian government is using sarin against rebels. Now where did we hear stories of weapons of mass destruction before…?
And surprise, surprise..there appears to be no serious questioning of the claims by the corporate media.
Mr Hagel said “our intelligence community does assess, with varying degrees of confidence, that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically, the chemical agent sarin”.
“It violates every convention of warfare,”
“Its the same script writers, that should be plainly obvious, to all but the weakest of minds!”
So when the proof comes with footage of innocent children, women, old men and women, faces disfigured and contorted by fear and pain, what page of the wank manual will your weak mind get it’s next throw away nugget from?
Does Mr Hagel have a history of providing relevant intelligence information?
Sibel Edmonds: “I provided three possible US objectives associated with the Boston Terror incident. I emphasized the first possible scenario as the most likely: Removing Russia as the obstacle in invading Syria.”
If only I did have a weak mind TA – Sadly you are very much mistaking me for someone else, or more likely you are projecting!
When you say *proof*, what is it exactly that twists your emotive sub-set, when it comes to *proof*, and are you prepared to accept the worlds most war mongered (USA) nation, as the holders/providers of said, *proof*.
Who will be selling those pictures, of contorted faces, or more accurately, who will have manufactured them..
I suggest you read about some of the historical *gotcha* moments around the Lybian escapades, of the likes of the BBC/CNN/FOX news et al!
I’m sure, with so many vigilants like yourself on their case, the us will never make the same mistake twice, but you, in not even considering the reports may actually be true, and innocents are being gassed, prejudice most, if not all of your personal warmongery against the americans as pure fucktardery.
I consider them alright, I consider as many angles as I have time to absorb, and then I look at the players, their history and the motives.
Nah the Anglo-French administrations will continue to ensure, through their agendas, that many more innocent people continue to die, every minute of every day..
With the support of those who share your , limited view of the ME situation!
You mean well, but you’re playing down the wrong line.
Please go and do some further reading, the Syrian situation, same as Libya, is manufactured by the US/UK/France primarily, or more accurately, those who pull the strings of those administraive entities!
“You mean well, but you’re playing down the wrong line.”
Offside. I always wait til the team sheet is released before I slag off the opposing players, anything else would be stupid and leave me open to ridicule, which I wouldn’t like.
“Please go and do some further reading”
You need to chose the right battles, Rambo.
By throwing mud at everything, you make it an easy decision to walk on the other footpath of life.
And a bit patronising, especially considering only one of us has jumped to a conclusion without knowing any fact other than same day news reports.
That’s basic, that’s clare curran like stuff. :tut tut: 😉
Seen the footage of chemical victims, yet?
Got a ‘put on job’ or ‘set up’ reply waiting in the wings?
Shame on you for so easily dismissing human suffering to score a point against the ‘enemy’.
Are you deliberately obtuse, or is that you are not paying attention!
Ill try make this as simple as possible, one final time:
1: Libya, and now Syria, were/are being, taken down by the same forces.
2: Innocent people have been/are being killed on the manufactured conflict, on all sides
3: Innocent people dying/being f*cked over, for any reason what-so-ever, is unacceptable, be it war, famine, poverty, inequality, political lies, police lies doesn’t matter – That’s always my default position!
You’re aiming your ill-informed opinions, at the wrong person matey, I’d suggest you speak to the people in Langley Virginia, and Washington DC, aim your vitriol in that direction , as a start!
Perhaps thats because I have spent more time in those parts of the world Murray, and speaking with people who are working/from ME countries, and to people who have served in the actions/wars in that region!
News of a terror plot to attack a Via Rail train, just one week after the Boston Marathon bombings, has pushed public security to the front burner just as the Harper government seeks Parliament’s authority to curb civil liberties in the name of keeping Canadians safe.
Recent months have been trying for the Tories as they drifted from one controversy to another – from aboriginal anger to foreign workers – with few high-profile items left on its agenda.
Monday’s arrests “demonstrate that terrorism continues to be a real threat to Canada,” Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said a short while after Mounties began explaining the arrests. “Preventing, countering, and prosecuting terrorism is a priority for our government.”
Yup, off to the camps you go! – Never let a manufactured terror event go to waste!
When asked about the nature of her work by the MC, Dame Susan responded with the line “same s…, different day”, Ms Tyrrell said.
Another disgruntled guest said Dame Susan had described her Wellington staff as “difficult”, before making an off-colour joke about men with sausages in their pockets.
!??!! Fuck that is funny. Love the quote from Sir Peter Leitch, “policially driven”. Halarious.
I’m telling you the way to bring this country to a stand still isn’t to attack policitally, or with arms…just wipe out all the stadiums and sports broadcasts and we would submit to anything to have them back.
No discernable talent? He built a business empire from a humble base, and has put time, effort and heaps of financial support into league and other sports and charities. I may not like his current sucking up to Key etc. but I’d never be so foolish as to deny his obvious abilities.
I have to admit he does a good comic impression of a beer-sodden boor.
He built a business empire from a humble base, and has put time, effort and heaps of financial support into league and other sports and charities. I may not like his current sucking up to Key etc. but I’d never be so foolish as to deny his obvious abilities.
His “obvious abilities”? He has none, other than crude self-publicity.
Have to agree with Voice here Mozza – PL, while not everyones cup of tea, has done much with the fund raising, and charity work, resulting not only from his empire built on rotten meat products, but also because he loved Rugby League, and appreciated that it was a *working class game*
While not a fan of PL at all, I think in this instance your evaluation might be a little out of alignment.
I think of the Mad Butcher as the guy who brought Warehouse/Walmart approaches to meat. He wiped out a lot of small butchers and replaced them with high turn over service centres selling crap meat. He identified the League community as one which would be exceedingly loyal, and had enough income to buy his sausages. He is a successful businessman whose major success was passing himself off as a working class battler, which possibly explains why he can so easily be mates with Key. In terms of successful capitalism, he has talent and can see opportunities, but I always preferred the personal touch of a neighbourhood butcher.
Anyone who, just weeks into their new job, regards it as “same shit, different day” and doesn’t like their staff has made a serious error taking the job and will probably ditch it soon for something else.
There’s always the possibility of tory conceit, but it might also be that she slipped into “celebrity speaker” mode (rather than “government representative”) at a dinner that possibly cost a couple of hundred dollars a head (they raised $46k). And that’s without the fine dinner+vino factor (which is doubtful, given that it was unlikely to be her first keynote speaker role).
But either way, it shows that she isn’t enthusiastic about the bauble thrown her way, and she doesn’t have the right qualities for the job.
The office will be fun on Monday when she gets to work. This seige mentality of devoys was her typical squash tactic – she admitted that she worked with the british/uk/whatever the fuck it’s called media against her. This tactic is boorish when used with important and demanding work like trying to make race relations better in this country.
I think she’d only ditch it if she was offered something that paid more. She’ll find it in herself to put up with her staff because she’ll have Tory racists and Ansell/Brash one nation types fawning all over her. Key will come out soon and try to paint anyone attacking her as a woman hater, just like Lange did with the unions at Kawerau. She’s doing exactly what she was appointed to do.
On this site, it was suggested by rocky in about 2009 that if I was going to put up the anzac poppy each year, that I should also add the white poppy as well. So we did.
Notice that Judith Collins considers it disrespectful (apparently sending our people to die at war is a better idea than attempting peace). All the more reason to use it as often as possible.
Judith Collins really is that kind of armchair general cum politician that any soldier hates. They’re the idiots who get us killed for their vanity, and yet never do anything substantive to prevent the problems. Irresponsible producers of hot-air and bombast – useless on the actual action.
It is no wonder that Cameron Slater identifies with her.
Judith Collins really is that kind of armchair general cum politician that any soldier hates.
Judith “Rosa Klebb” Collins has been voted “Most Likely To Be Accidentally Shot By Own Troops” if she ever finds herself commanding a platoon in South Vietnam.
So, in the context of WW2 say, you would be advocating to attempt piece with Hitler? I believe Anthony Eden tried that and it didn’t work out so well. Sometimes there is no alternative and no amount of hand-wringing will change that. You can’t reason with psychotic imperialists – corporate or state.
So, in the context of WW2 say, you would be advocating to attempt piece [sic] with Hitler? I believe Anthony Eden tried that and it didn’t work out so well.
Did you mean to write Neville Chamberlain? I think you did.
Sometimes there is no alternative…
There is certainly an alternative in this case.
…and no amount of hand-wringing will change that.
How typical, and predictable, that you should seek to demean principled objection to state violence as “hand-wringing”.
You can’t reason with psychotic imperialists – corporate or state.
Indeed. The people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Occupied West Bank, and the besieged enclave of Gaza know that only too well.
Yes, I make deliberate spelling mistakes just to set you off, and yes, you are right, Chamberlain, not Eden – a brain hiccough which I apologise for.
“Principled” objection to state violence only ever seems to be possible in societies protected by the possibility of state violence – how strange. Pehraps less hand-wringing than hand washing. And while I have never supported the invasion of Iraq and unilateral US actions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I do happen to believe Al Qaida is a threat to otherwise innocent people and must be broken – though of course I would prefer it if the US could find more creative means that don’t involve harm to innocent women and children. Curiously, one wonders at your lack of “principled objection to state [or its equivalent] violence” when Hamas fires off one of its squibs into Israel in deliberate provocation of a massive retaliation and loss of innocent life in Gaza?
There you go again, seriously trying to suggest that Hamas is the problem, and absolving the aggressor. You admit that the rockets that come out of the imprisoned enclave are little more than squibs, and you recognize that the devastation wrought by Israel is massive, but you carefully and dishonestly portray this aggression as “retaliation”.
To portray Hamas as the aggressor and Israel as the retaliator is the exact inversion of the truth. I don’t know if it’s massive ignorance on your part or brutal, heartless dishonesty. Whatever the case, you will be called on it whenever you attempt it.
Mozza – Pop is a US, and by default, Israeli sympathizer, who knows that Arabs are the problem! His bias is no naked, and his position so wrong, he can’t wrap his head around even the most simple *terror frauds*
POP
I do happen to believe Al Qaida is a threat to otherwise innocent people and must be broken
Again McFlock, you have shown a complete lack of ability to understand when to use the B word!
Pop has played his cards openly many times!
You’re still having memory issues by the sounds of bro, you need to exercise that skull a bit more!
Ill leave your piss poor, over eager use of the B word, for you to ponder, appropriate use!
Shalom!
Edit – Helpful hint, don’t even contemplate coming back with what your instinct will encourage you to, just take the helpful advice, and leave it at that!
actually, rereading that one it seems to meant to say something along the lines of “Pop is a US sympathizer, and therefore by default an Israeli sympathizer” rather than “Pop is a US, [i.e. short for “yank”] and by default [because he is a yank], Israeli sympathizer”.
So yeah, I clocked off early on that one. Fair call. But at least I can answer a simple question.
What, pray, is a “US”? I’m a fifth generation New Zealander, and you couldn’t be further wrong. I am disgusted by Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian people and the illegal colonisation of their land, and the Muslim world has been very hard one by in this “war on terror”, but that doesn’t really change the fact that there is a militant Muslim minority who do carry out organised terror attacks quite successfully. Pretending it’s a conspiracy won’t make it go away – it certainly won’t bring back the victims, you dick.
Um, no, you delusional, tiny-minded cretin, I am noting that if Hamas didn’t conveniently provide Israel with a slight excuse to carry on with what amounts to a war of extermination, the US wouldn’t have much of a fig leaf to hide behind, and the left wing of the Knesset might be able to get some traction over the insanity. Jeez, what is wrong with you people?
Yeah Hamas is going to carry out a war of extermination using, what exactly? AK47’s? WWII era Katyusha rockets? IEDs made in garages? RPGs?
Shall we examine what the IDF uses to compete with these Hamas ‘weapons of extermination’?
– Abrams main battle tanks
– F15’s and F16’s
– Apache attack helicopters
– Modern guided munitions, including bunker buster munitions
– Arsenal of nuclear warheads held outside the NPT.
– etc
Sorry mate when you create a ghetto you can expect people to fight back; what is your expectation: that they should roll over and play nice in the hope that they will get better treatment?
I’m sorry, can you actually read? Or is your confirmation bias on too tight.
“provide Israel with a slight excuse to carry on with what amounts to a war of extermination” Israel, dick, Israel, not Palestine – Hamas does, however, provide just enough of an excuse for Likkud and a whole Zionist lobby in the US to get on with it. FFS!
Is throwing rocks at military police sufficient justification for a hellfire missile strike on an apartment block. How about hand gun fire at military personnel?
to Populuxe – Is this before or after the water wells where taken and Palestinians left to literally die without a bullet being spent? Or when their land is being “taken” – just like that and there was no agreement on that – ever. Yes, 2 wrongs do not make 1 right.
P1 views the Palestinians and the Israelis as near equals in this ongoing conflict. And if only the Palestinians would start behaving, things would be much better for them. That says all it needs to.
No, I’m saying that we should value our soldiers lives over political ego. They are precious and should only be used as a last resort. We have lost several in the last year and it’s a time of peace.
Appeasement of Hitler was not, as is popularly portrayed, a kind of early incarnation of ‘peacenikery’. The elites of Europe no doubt supported Hitler’s reformation of the German economy, especially the re-privatisation of the banking sector and the privatisation of many publicly owned assets, including the railways, the biggest public sector operation in the world.
As this paper outlines, the privatisation pursued by the Nazis went against the trend of western governments of the time who, in response to the depression, had tended to (have to) nationalise firms and even industries – it was the big bail out, as followed today.
Remember that the German republic was, under Bismarck, one of the most advanced state apparatuses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The public sector was large. The Nazi privatisation represented windfalls for selected crony capitalists (as well as franchised arms of the Nazi Party). The term ‘reprivatisation’ used post-WWII was, in fact, adopted from 1930s Germany.
From the link above:
“The Nazi government may have used privatization as a tool to improve its relationship with big industrialists and to increase support among this group for its policies. Privatization was also likely used to foster more widespread political support [i.e., financial backing] for the party. Finally, financial motivations played a central role in Nazi privatization. The proceeds from privatization in 1934-37 had relevant fiscal significance: No less than 1.37 per cent of total fiscal revenues were obtained from selling shares in public firms. Moreover, the government avoided including a huge expenditure in the budget by using outside-of-the-budget tools to finance the public services franchised to Nazi organizations.
Nazi economic policy in the mid-thirties went against the mainstream in several dimensions. The huge increase in public expenditure programs was unique, as was the increase in the armament programs, and together they heavily constrained the budget. Exceptional policies were put in place to finance this exceptional expenditure, and privatization was just one among them. Nazi Germany privatized systematically, and was the only country to do so at the time. This drove Nazi policy against the mainstream, which flowed against privatization of state ownership or public services until the last quarter of the twentieth century.”
It’s worth remembering that the ‘appeasers’ were, generally, very wealthy men – leading Tories (including Eden who was an appeaser, despite his resignation over how to respond to Mussolini breaching an agreement) with international business and financial interests and connections. It’s also worth remembering that the greater threat was always considered to be the Soviet Union – and the UK elite knew that Hitler was keen to invade Russia.
I’m sure that was a great consolation to Germany’s Jewish industrialists- oh wait, no, they were on to the nazi’s fairly early on for good reasons. How about the wealthy and influential Czech and Polish industrialists… Oh, no, wait…. I think more than a few French businessmen were probably inconvenienced too…
No it was the Anglo Saxon Elite that saw the advantage whereas the socialist left in France and elsewhere expected the political scenery to change to their advantage. In the end, it all came down to money. Europe at the time has lost its royal houses through revolts and civil was followed as a void needed to be filled. The general population was to a certain extend naive. But one should not forget that there wasn’t the media as it is today and the radio was easily controlled.
To put it in perspective, Manapouri produces enough power to supply about 630,000 houses each year. It could run five Large Hadron Colliders. It could run two times Google’s data storage network.
Bertram says power companies have been gouging the consumer for too long. With a simple write down of their assets Tiwai could give all New Zealanders 300kW hours free, each month, for ever. At current average power prices that’s about $80 a month off your power bill, permanently.
$80 a month. Just from Manapouri hydro. Kinda puts the Labour/Greens $300 saving per year in perspective.
If you add this potential saving to the potential saving associated with writing down the asset values of the other generators what would the cents per kWh price be?
I’d love to see an article from Geoff Bertram which states what the price of electricity should be.
So he spent a quarter mil on travel, ok, he no doubt has a great collection of pens and plenty of spare headphones. It would be a lot more interesting though and certainly more revealing to see what his total expenses were, especially regarding the gravy train dinners, lunches, lunches that become dinners etc. I imagine the wine bill alone is mighty impressive. I also expect sundries will not be itemized.
Yes, but you can say the same about just about any New Zealand politician, regardless of party. That sort of point scoring is ultimately not a game worth playing.
Not really, there is a distinct culture of entiltlement amongst ‘the deal makers’ that only gets worse the closer to trade deals that you get. Every country (and every wannabe) do their damndest to show it is the richest flashiest most succesful etc. Much like any bunch of friday night fools showing off in the newest downtown bar. In my humble opinion, the taxpayer much like the cleaner the next day, is thoroughly sick of it.
imagine if this was promised by a party:
No more parliamentary pensions/benefits/discounts etc. Do your time in service. You get well paid, then that is it.
The trough is closed. There’s a (?) 20-30 million a year saved just like that.
A few facts. Germany was locked out of global colonial ambitions. WWI. Germany is a patchwork of protestant and catholicism (and pre-WWII jews). So the WWII was not about Christianity, since Christians were on both sides, if anything there were more non-Christians on the allies side in both great wars. As France and Britain brought in non-European armies from their colonies. Independence of these colonies was won in part because of those who had given up their lives in those wars. Also Israel existence is a form of restitution, etc.
So when Moro’s guest said we remember them, God and Country, etc, that every creed, faith, etc was a afterthought, a modernism. I can’t help be struck how much has been forgotten.
Our forefathers did not go to the world wars for Christianity.
As far as Zionism is concerned, the founder of Zionism and apostate, Theodor Herzl, sought to intensify hatred of the Jew in order to enhance the cause of political Zionism. Here are some of his “pearls:
“It is essential that the sufferings of Jews. . . become worse. . . this will assist in realization of our plans. . .I have an excellent idea. . . I shall induce anti-semites to liquidate Jewish wealth. . . The anti-semites will assist us thereby in that they will strengthen the persecution and oppression of Jews. The anti-semites shall be our best friends. (From his Diary, Part I, pp. 16)
Karl Marx never suggested theft. expropriation
I think you’ll find the first definition correct. It is repossession of that which was stolen in the first place.
You say po-tay-to, I say take your mendacious little word games and go fuck yourself. Shifting the goal posts around doesn’t change what it is. “Expropriation”, as opposed to paying tax, is theft. Lenin’s “expropriation” wasn’t very different from Hitler’s “expropriation” from the Jews.
Or Gerry’s threatened expropriation of landowners’ property in Christchurch?
One of the saddest things about modern economies is that they are built upon private property.We all wish to defend our, generally, minuscule amounts of private property, thus allowing those with massive amounts to dominate our world. We accept the sacrifice of our freedom (i.e., the relative influence of our voice in collective decision making) to protect very little that is our ‘own’, in most cases. Not a wise – or rational – trade-off.
Populuxe1, is the accumulation of property (via legal means) never theft in liberal democracies? (I’m assuming that we agree that legality is not the arbiter of whether or not something is ‘theft’ – theft is the acquisition of something that does not rightfully belong to you; a judgment that depends upon moral and ethical principles, not the current state of the law.).
On Lenin’s expropriations – the economic system of the Tsar (Nicholas II) in Russia was mainly feudal (though industrialisation had flourished under his father, Alexander III). Was the property accumulated by the Russian aristocracy legitimately obtained? Remember, the Tsar was an absolute/divine monarch and tens of millions of serfs lived and died under harsh conditions for generations prior to the 1917 revolutions (and the one in 1905).
Similarly, were the holdings of the British Crown in the American Colonies legitimate, given that they were quite decisively expropriated by the Colonial elite? (Should today’s Americans be paying compensation to the British Crown?)
Again, was Maori land in New Zealand expropriated (i.e., in your eyes, stolen)?
And what happened to the Jews in the 1930s in Germany was not ‘expropriation’ – it was ethnic cleansing and brutal terrorising and oppression. Get your terms right. Property had very little to do with it. That was a ‘bonus’.
Dismount your high horse. It’s just a broomstick with a pretend horse’s head on top.
History is not something to huff and puff about, especially over ‘theft’. It’s about power – who has it and who doesn’t. Those with the power get the property. Those without power and property seek to gain it.
And those with the power always get to decide what is and isn’t theft.
Your incoherent rambling is utterly unconvincing. Perhaps the stupidest sentence is your extraordinary claim that Israel’s existence is a “form of restitution, etc.”
I’m not going to ask you to explain—you are clearly not up to it.
The position of RRC pays over 200k a year, or has Devoy refused the salary?
I cannot find anything saying she has, so is this article just another type and print, forget the fact-check, straight to market lie?
also imagine The mad butcher’s definition of lewd is pretty colourful and likely very different from say, Colin Craig’s 🙂
Policy on the Hoof? And envy of colleagues’ exposure?
Grant Robertson is trying to limit the Party’s Policy Options and put down his colleagues.
Shearer and Parker were leading the NZPower story. But Robertson has to put his oar in! Wow has the boy an inferiority complex!
“Labour makes no apology for stepping in to fix problems in the electricity sector. But this is not a signal that Labour is going to intervene elsewhere in the economy.
“As we said on the day we launched NZ Power, we have no plans to intervene in any other markets.”
WTF? We have just seen the consensus around the Neo-Liberal hegemony of the past thirty years finally get dented: and Grant Robertson is trying to stop it!
Robertson will lead Labour to the same position it is in Wellington Central. Third position behind National and the Greens!
“I’ll just bring in my expert witness here: Ron Mark”
The Vote: Is New Zealand a Racist Country?
TV3, Wednesday 24 April 2013, 8:30 p.m.
After watching the superb Annie Goldson documentary about NZ in Afghanistan, my big night of television continued with this horror show. I watched this insult to the intelligence, this D-grade comedy, this dog’s breakfast on the TV3 Plus One channel.
The producers had assembled what looked like a lecture-theatre full of people, many of them well known in their own right. At first glance it looked like this might be a return to the serious live studio spectaculars that Gordon Dryden, Brian Edwards and Ian Fraser used to front in the 1970s and ’80s. But TV3 obviously doesn’t trust the idea of boring old discussions. Some genius has come up with the idea that a program about racism can be treated like one of those ghastly music talent quests, where celebrity judges gather a team of “talents” and spend half of the show verbally sniping at each other. Presiding over all of this is a “moderator”, played by Linda Clark. Her brief: Keep it light. It’s supposed to be amusing.
On The Vote, the equivalents of the celeb judges on the pop star talent quests are Guyon Espiner and Duncan Garner, who have obviously been instructed to dish out the repartee against one another; someone in management evidently thinks these two are the equivalent of Abbott and Costello.
Tonight, Guyon Espiner heads the “Yes” team, with Damon Salesa and John Tamihere. Duncan Garner is the captain of the “No” team, backed up by May Chen and Phil Goff. The default mood for the evening is comical truculence….
Clearly, what was actually said during this show was not important to the producers. What they wanted was manufactured conflict, plenty of personality clashes—and lots of laughs. Of the “talent”, however, only John Tamihere seemed to be in on this; the other three seemed to take it seriously. So we saw the demeaning sight of Professor Damon Salesa trying to make a serious argument in the face of a barrage of heckling and infantile negative comments by Duncan Garner.
So the mood of frivolity and forced competitiveness had been established. But it only got worse….
DUNCAN GARNER: Okay, I’ll just bring in my expert witness here: Ron Mark!
Instead of eliciting gales of laughter, this announcement was treated seriously, and Winston Peters’ loyal soldier was wheeled on to deliver banalities for a long, long minute in his usual manner. Then the “expert witness” returned to the crowd, with nobody any the wiser. It was like he was back in parliament.
Now, rack my brains as I might, I could think of only one political featherweight shallower than Ron Mark—and sure enough, not long after, this happened….
GUYON ESPINER: All right, now to argue that New Zealand IS a racist country, we have the Member of Parliament for Khandallah, Peter Dunne!
This ineffective fop, this repellent poseur, this National Party stooge embarked on one of his trademark wandery homilies, focused entirely on the notion that we are racist against CHINESE people. This pitiable, bow-tied, bouffanted fool probably doesn’t even know that there are Māori people in New Zealand.
As Dunne droned on, I could make out in the audience several prominent people, including John Minto, Don “Brethren Cash” Brash (nodding gravely to show he took it all very seriously) and the controversial new Race Relations commissioner Dame Susan Devoy.
Finally, mercifully, Dunne’s monologue came to an end and he sat down, to the relief of all. It was back to the comedians….
DUNCAN GARNER: Calling us racist is plain NUTS and simply offensive! LINDA CLARK: I have here the result of our audience poll. Eighty-two per cent think that YES, New Zealand is a racist country. GUYON ESPINER: Eighty-two per cent! It’s hard to argue we’re not a racist country with those sorts of numbers!
Then it’s time for a commercial break, but before that, viewers are taken into the middle of each team as they huddle together and strategize, just like a sports team talk. What is obvious immediately is that Espiner does all the talking, while Tamihere and Salesa listen intently. Same with the other team: Garner urgently strategizes, while Goff and Chen listen. The “stars” have to be seen to be in charge.
DUNCAN GARNER: Right, next up, the big question: Are Māori TOO PRIVILEGED? This of course is the question Don Brash asked back in 2004.
John Tamihere says something disparaging about the old racist, and is warming to his task before the moderator steps in…
LINDA CLARK:[giggling] Tamihere, be QUIET!
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
LINDA CLARK: Forty-eight per cent of our audience says YES, Māori are too privileged, and 42 per cent say no they are not. So it’s almost TOO CLOSE TO CALL!
The old race-baiter, Don “Brethren Cash” Brash is then trundled on to the stage and asked if he STILL thinks Māori are a privileged and indulged elite group…
DON “BRETHREN CASH” BRASH: Ehhhhhhhhhhhmmmmm. Yes they are. Ehhhhhhhhhhhmmmm.
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!…What?… You silly old fool!… Ha!… Somebody shoot him!
As disgusting and ridiculous as the old race-baiter and Brethren stooge is, he is almost immediately upstaged….
MAY CHEN:[slowly, with gravitas] As Ron Mark said, we are sorting out our racial problems in the bedrooms of the nation.
That crass and insulting statement comes courtesy of the fertile brain of Dr. Ranginui Walker. It was one of his enduring tropes during his long tenure as a Listener columnist, and he repeated it again recently when he was interviewed on radio.
LINDA CLARK: After the break, we will sum up. And we will talk to the new Race Relations Commissioner, Dame Susan Devoy.
This proved to be the only pleasant surprise of the night. Dame Susan handled her brief interview impressively. She was balanced, generous and well spoken.
As for the rest of those involved in this dud: shame on you all.
Sounds truly awful viewing, Moz. Thanks for taking one for the team!
It was awful, all right, but it was compellingly awful. I even felt positive at the end of it, seeing Dame Susan give such a good account of herself.
Mai Chen, btw.
I KNEW it! Just before I pushed the “Submit Comment” button, I had this nagging feeling that I had made a mistake somewhere, but for the life of me I couldn’t track it down. Thanks for that.
From the Herald “Trade Minister Tim Groser’s bid to head the World Trade Organisation has failed……”The New Zealand Government has spent a lot of money supporting Mr Groser’s bid.” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10879907
How much is ‘a lot of money’? Will the corporate media bother to find out?
And will they ask if that money could have been spent on other stuff…like tackling child poverty, save DOC jobs, raising the minimum wage more etc etc
Don’t hold your breath.
Well . . . the MSM has pointed out the bill is around about $3000 per day, and that’s just for travel. You can add in his salary since lobbying for the job is all he’s done.
(Protest organised by the Switch Off Mercury Energy group).
______________________________________________________________________________
SOE Minister Tony Ryall said the Government wouldn’t sell Mighty River Power unless they could get a ‘good price’.
(Official Information Act reply from Minister of State Owned Enterprises, Tony Ryall, dated 17 March 2013)
“Let me make it quite clear. If the Government doesn’t get a good price the Government isn’t going to sell.”
The Government are NOT going to get a ‘good price’ for Mighty River Power, according the opinion expressed in the Dominion Post Editorial dated 24 April 2013:
OPINION: An unholy mess. There is no other way to describe the Government’s partial asset sales programme.
With just days to go before the public offering of shares in Mighty River Power closes, the float is shrouded in uncertainty. Is the country’s single biggest consumer of electricity about to shut its doors? Will Labour and the Green Party be part of the next government and, if so, will they make good on their promises to renationalise the electricity industry by stealth?
Potential investors have no way of knowing whether Rio Tinto is serious about closing the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter unless it can wring further concessions from the Government and Meridian Energy. Likewise, they have no way of knowing whether Labour and the Greens will be in a position to implement their policies after the next election.
But, amid all the uncertainty, there is one certainty: the price the Government and, ultimately the public, will receive for shares sold in Mighty River Power will be lower because of the uncertainty. ….
However, political considerations should not determine the fate of an asset worth billions of dollars that has been built up by generations of taxpayers. The Government’s overriding concerns should be ensuring that taxpayers get fair value for the business and that as many New Zealanders as possible take advantage of the opportunity to become shareholders in it.
Neither of those goals are likely to be achieved while there is a possibility of the country being flooded with cheap electricity and the next government telling generators how much they can charge for electricity and how they should operate their power stations.
……………………
But, delaying the sale till after the next election would at least allow voters to choose which of the two approaches offers the better prospect of sensible pricing and secure supply. It would also allow time for the future of Tiwai Point to be resolved.”
______________________________________________________________________________
SO! CALL OFF THE SALE OF MIGHTY RIVER POWER!
Is NZ Prime Minister John Key, (a shareholder in the Bank of America), going to continue to put his mouth where his money is, and look after investors – or is he going to look after the public majority of taxpayers?
(Remembering that arguably the majority of taxpayers are not investors?)
“Rt Hon John KEY (National, Helensville)
……..
Bank of America – banking ”
How appropriate is it for the four people responsible for setting the ‘final price’ of Mighty River Power shares are those who seem ‘hell bent’ on selling off Mighty River Power at any price, seemingly regardless of the cost to taxpayers?
“.. I can advise that Cabinet has delegated authority to a group of Ministers to set the final price for shares in the Mighty River Power share offer. the group of Ministers is the Prime Minister (John Key) Minister of Finance (Bill English) , Minister for Economic Development and Associate Minister of Finance Steven Joyce, and Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (Tony Ryall).”
(Above-mentioned Official Information Act reply from Minister of State Owned Enterprises, Tony Ryall, dated 17 March 2013).
How many taxpayers (or investors) know this?
Prime Minister John Key, Minister of Finance Bill English, Minister for Economic Development and Associate Minister of Finance Steven Joyce, and Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Tony Ryall, must act in a fiscally responsible, and financially prudent way and look after the interests of taxpayers by calling of the sale of Mighty River Power – NOW.
The other risk the NZ Government faces is that thousands of new ‘Mum and Dad’ investors, not to mention larger investors, both national and international, may lose confidence in the NZ sharemarket, because of the uncertainty over this ‘unholy mess’ which is currently the Mighty River Power share launch.
Tomorrow – Saturday 27 April 2013 will be actions all over New Zealand opposing asset sales – which today’s protest outside Mighty River Power, will help to advertise:
sounds pretty good to me why should they pay the workers when there not working and out on the street having a fucking whine
[r0b: farmboy, filling your comments with fucking swearing doesn’t impress anyone, and it (unfortunately) promotes comments in kind, and the whole thread gets derailed. Please calm down all, DNFTT.]
[lprent: Banned one week for what appears to have been a deliberate attempt to start a flame war. Banned a further week for wasting my time moving the thread to OpenMike and away from diverting from the post topic. ]
The sensible answer to your stupid question is to point out that “fucking whining” is a feeble mis-characterisation of the right to strike, you fucking child.
Get a horse. And a haircut. And a pickaxe handle. Ride into town to cleanse the streets. You can call yourself Key’s Cossacks.
And please, if you fall off the horse like that AWB idiot in South Africa, put the video on youtube.
might be hard to record myself while smashing heads with my pickaxe that sounds like a 2hander maybe they should just get the sack and someone more concerned about doing a decent days work for decent money as in affco should be hired that would sound pretty weird to you but alot of people actully work without havn a cry
If Rambo can handle an M60 with one hand, but you need two for a pickaxe handle, what sort of righty are you? Bloody soft, that’s what I say. Now stop crying and look for a full stop, some commas, and a clue.
The New Lynn LEC is hosting the Whau Ward Selection Meeting tomorrow at 4.00.
It will be held in 3071 Great North Road, New Lynn, opposite the Police Station!
The Whau seat on the Council and the seven Whau Local Board seats will be contested by the Labour Party, with full Labour Party branding. All candidates will be members of the Labour Party.
Labour will present a full slate.
The Whau Ward is predominantly in the New Lynn Parliamentary electorate, with parts in the Mt Albert and the Mt Roskill electorates.
All Whau area LabourParty paid-up members are welcome to attend.
Every self respecting Auckland lefty and liberal will be at the weekend march against the sale of our assetsthis Saturday. Kicks off at 2 pm from Britomart.
Any self respecting New Zealander should be there. You may have voted for National. Show the government this is not the reason you voted for them.
Selling assets is a sale of our sovereignty. If should affect all New Zealanders.
from RNZ, apparently the Christchurch rebuild is to cost up to 30% /10B more than the government had until now calculated, coming to possibly 40B in total.
The governments reason for the conservative estimates include
-inflationary pressure
-impact upon total $NZ spend.
-impact on stake-holders costs; (insurers want to cap their debt), taxpayers and ratepayers
“Throw off your hat kick off your shoes
Throw down your gun you might shoot yourself
Or is that what you’re trying to do?”
So Grosers bid to be the next bigwig of the WTO has crashed and burned. So will he pay the obscene amount of money he has wasted on his pipe dream, back to the taxpayer? Will he fuck. What a waste of time and space he is. And he’s been collecting his taxpayer salary too, what a bludger.\
“The trade minister hit headlines last week when it emerged that he racked up travel expenses of almost $260,000 in the first three months of the year – nearly $3000 a day – as he lobbied for the WTO top job.”
Not one cent of the millions of dollars worth of assets seized from criminals has been funnelled into drug treatment or resources to fight organised crime as promised when the enabling law came into force.
Nearly $150 million worth of homes, cars, boats, cash, jewellery and other valuables has been restrained since the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was passed in December 2009, of which $27 million has been forfeited to the Crown
Forfeited to The Crown – WTF does that even mean, and who has that cash!
Where is the rest of the seized assets/cash ending up?
Seems to be a slide in terminology in the article: $150mil “restrained” (i.e. my guess is frozen), but $27mil “forfeited” (my guess is completed the seizure process and handed over). However, once that is converted into cash and other creditors settled (article mentioned the banks of course, and spouses) a little over a third of that actually gets to the government (shit valuation of the property?), and of that ABSOLUTELY NONE goes to rehabilitation or addressing the causes of crime. All has disappeared into the consolidated fund, which the nats piss away like export gold (i.e. tip directly down the drain without involving the kidneys as middleman).
Police involved in the Urewera dawn raids had still not fully co-operated with the agency investigating their actions five years after the controversial operation.
With full support through the blue structure, is the only way this *lack of cooperation* could happen!
The Averch–Johnson effect is the tendency of companies to engage in excessive amounts of capital accumulation in order to expand the volume of their profits. If companies profits to capital ratio is regulated at a certain percentage then there is a strong incentive for companies to over-invest in order to increase profits overall. This goes against any optimal efficiency point for capital that the company may have calculated as higher profit is almost always desired over and above efficiency.
As far as I can tell, this effect describes the main reason our electricity prices are so high.
But it’s not really going to happen! Otherwise we’d be taking to the streets instead of sitting on the internet calling each other names or arguing about politics and shit.
It’s not really them that we have to worry about though. It’s us and all the people we know that know that CC is real but still aren’t doing much about it.
The Allen: That is the way I have lived here since I arrived! I NEVER saved and got anywhere, really, as just working honestly and hardly leaves you nowhere but down at the bottom. NZ has NOT improved or changed substantially since the 1980s, apart for a few. That is the sad reality, especially for ordinary, low paid workers, and certainly for benficiaries. Fuck National AND Labour for that!
I have not taken a “knife” to WINZ, which I thought of doing so, but North cautioned me. I was not really decided and ready to let off my anger about welfare reforms and to be expected harassments in that manner. But given the most intimidating steps to be expected soon, I will not make any promise or take any commitments to what I can, can restrain myself from, or what may otherwise happen. I have been treated with utter contempt before and was near suicide, due to WINZ and MSD agendas and treatments.
This present Nat dominated government is pushing many of us to the brink, and if I need to take action, I will do so, even if I need to take the last step to take my life.
I HATE New Zealand for what this country has been turned into, it is now a disgustingly unfair, divided, racist and hateful place, I wish I had never come back to. It is up to YOU to make a difference and take a stand.
Much is happening behind the scenes, but few understand and will be prepared to listen.
Good luck, if you believe that freedom, democracy and rights will be preserved by sitting at home, blogging, chatting and otherwise just minding your own selective interests, you will soon see another thing coming. Iit is too much cowardice that rules this country.
For FUCKS sake, wake up, take a stand, and go on the Day of Action Today!!!
I respect and see my ideal in Che Guevara, as I identify very much with this man!
Oh dear, oh dear, a few hundred marching and “holding up traffic” in Queen Street on the “Day of Action Against Asset Sales”, a supposed one hundred marching in Wellington, and was there any few others that bothered? Seems that to most the horse has bolted long ago, and it is more of “roll over Kiwis” all over the land. Yawn, sigh, what a mess!
That is how much people care, division is the rule now, self interest and self pre-occupation the prime ambition, so next election will likely show another term for this semi dictotorial lot running the show.
Import more slaves to do the dirty jobs at service stations in supermarkets, as cleaners in your offices, in fast food and restaurant outlets, in bars and what else need done to keep the show running.
F*** the rest, that seems to be the motto of most.
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One of the key voices in this extraordinary time in which we live is that of University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker. Philip Matthews did an an excellent job this weekend of capturing the way he became the man for this moment in a profile for The Press.But one ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...
Redline received this article from the KOE a Marxist party in Greece Our friends in the KOE describe here the mounting crisis in Greece and tensions on the Turkish border. As desperate people flee from their homelands which have been ruined after decades of imperialist wars and interventions the people ...
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messagesfrom different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of a pretty flower, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a cute animal video. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 2: Day eight of living in lock-down… Today, my work day starts late. Our rosters and clients have been dramatically changed, lessening (theoretically) the number of people in our work “bubble”. If just one of us catches covid19 the impact could be considerable as Grey Base Hospital ...
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin Don’t we all know that feeling now.
Prospect Magazine alerted me to this particularly apt quote. It is a much more evocative quote than Hemingway’s “gradually then suddenly” which is also doing ...
Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...
Brian Williamson1, Prof Nick Wilson2 (1Economic consultant, UK; 2University of Otago Wellington)In this blog, we outline how a win-win social contract could be forged to address the major dimensions of response to the COVID-19 pandemic when using a mitigation strategy: the particular need to protect older people from high ...
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...
No Free Society Without A Free And Functioning News Media: If we are to surrender our civil rights to the broader cause of defeating Covid-19, then foreign corporations must, likewise, surrender their right to inflict immense economic and cultural harm on New Zealanders simply because it improves their bottom line.I’M ...
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
This has been a terrible summer for Hector’s dolphins. The first indication was very low numbers of dolphin sightings during late spring and early summer. The Otago University Marine Mammal Research Team has carried out routine dolphin surveys at Banks Peninsula for more than 30 years. In all that time, ...
On March 17, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was quick out of the blocks with an economic rescue package to help businesses through the inevitable recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had pulled together a scheme in short order that so far seems to have saved many jobs. In his ...
The purpose of the lockdown is to save lives, by reducing the spread of covid-19. We won't know if its really working for another week, but given the devastation that will result if it doesn't - 14,000 dead is the optimistic scenario - its definitely worth trying. But pausing the ...
. . March 30: Day five of living in lock-down… Woke up still in darkness. Alarm hadn’t gone off. Turn to radio clock; it’s a few minutes after 6am… I lie there in the dark, waiting to drift off to sleep… but it ain’t happening. Clock ticks over to 6.55 ...
The story of Les Gray, the public sector psychologist who told the truth about his use of cannabis and set off a storm, has a special place in the lore of cannabis reform in New Zealand.When Paul Shannon interviewed Gray for the 'Dope and Hope' issue of Planet magazine in ...
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to extirpate the virus that causes COVID-19 from its shores. To do that, as a society we’ve moved to “Level 4”. That means adapting to unprecedented restrictions on our personal freedoms, particularly to our rights to move freely and associate with friends and ...
When the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency last week, she handed the police powers to enforce it. And almost immediately, we started hearing about heavy-handed, arbitrary "enforcement" by police who (at best) cared more about order than law, or (more likely) had no idea what the rules were ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced that New Zealand will enter into transit arrangements with a range of countries to make it easier for each other’s citizens to get home. “There are millions of people around the world stranded ...
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Communities stepping up to help New Zealanders stay at home to break the transmission of COVID-19 and save lives have received Government support, said Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. “Delivering groceries for the elderly who can’t shop online, providing data packs for low income families to keep them connected, and being ...
Across New Zealand 120 sites are taking samples to be tested for COVID-19. 68 community based assessment centres (CBACs) have been established to take samples from people with COVID-19 symptoms. Alongside this, 52 other centres including designated general practices, swabbing centres, and mobile clinics are now testing people for ...
The Ministry of Education is working with partners to develop a package of options so that students can learn at home when Term 2 begins on 15 April, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. Supports are also being prepared for households with children under five, to help parents and whānau ...
Māori Television to begin educational te reo programmes Ki te Ao Mārama – a new online learning space Thousands of hard copy learning packs ready for distribution Helpdesk and advice service for kōhanga, kura and wharekura Television, the internet and hard copy learning packs are some of the ways whānau ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced an initial package of support to help the people and the Government of Vanuatu respond to the impact of Tropical Cyclone Harold. “Our Pacific neighbours have been hit by a Category 5 Cyclone at the same time as dealing with the economic impacts ...
Tourism New Zealand to lead work reimagining the way tourism operates in post-COVID-19 world. Ministers to review International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy investment plan. The Government, industry and business are working together to develop a plan for how tourism will operate in a post-COVID-19 world, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis ...
More New Zealanders are taking up the chance to work in horticulture as the sector keeps New Zealanders fed and in jobs during the COVID-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our ...
The Provincial Development Unit is working through applications and projects to see where Provincial Growth Fund money can be repurposed for initiatives deemed more critical to fighting the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. “We need to be throwing everything we have at ...
The Government’s wage subsidy to protect jobs and keep workers and businesses connected during the lockdown has now supported over a million New Zealanders, with $6.6 billion already paid out. “We’re supporting businesses to pay wages, and stay connected with their workers so that we are all in a better ...
The Government is stepping up efforts to help protect New Zealand’s Pacific communities in the fight against COVID-19. Cabinet has agreed that $17 million will be allocated to support a COVID-19 Pacific Response Package, which will: Support Pacific health and disability services facing increased demand; Ramp up public health messaging ...
“Yesterday evening the Health Minister advised me of his trip to a beach during the lockdown and offered his resignation,” Jacinda Ardern said. “Under normal conditions I would sack the Minister of Health. What he did was wrong, and there are no excuses. “But right now, my priority is our ...
Last night as part of my preparation for the Epidemic Response Committee, I provided the Prime Minister with a complete picture of my activity outside my home during Alert Level 4. That included the fact that on the first weekend of the Alert Level 4 lockdown I drove my family ...
A range of support is being rolled out across New Zealand to help people look after their mental health during COVID-19 Health Minister David Clark said this morning. “COVID-19 has brought a lot of uncertainty into our lives and many of us will be feeling some level of distress or ...
The New Zealand Government has made arrangements to charter a flight for New Zealanders stranded in Peru to depart the country, following agreement with the Chilean government to allow the necessary transit through Chile, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. “Like many travellers around the world at the moment, ...
Hospital preparations for COVID-19 are well advanced says Health Minister David Clark. “Hospitals across New Zealand are repurposing buildings and training staff to get ready for COVID-19 patients. This gives me confidence that we are well prepared for any potential increase in COVID-19 patients needing hospital level care,” said David ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
By RNZ News Social media misinformation about Covid-19 is putting Pacific communities in New Zealand at particular risk, government advisers say. The government announced a $17 million package toward building an awareness campaign in Pacific languages, as well as support for health providers. Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa identified ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marilyn McMahon, Deputy Dean, School of Law, Deakin University A distinctive feature of the prosecution of Cardinal George Pell is that the former choirboy who accused him of sexual abuse (known in the High Court as Complainant “A”) was regarded as a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren Palmer, Associate professor, Deakin University The law on what we can and can’t do during the coronavirus outbreak is changing on an almost hourly basis. Some of what is written now might be overtaken by the shifts in the pandemic powers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Mudgway, Senior Lecturer in Law, Auckland University of Technology As millions of people are moving work and social interactions online to protect themselves from COVID-19, existing online safety measures may not be enough to deal with a surge in harassment and ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says the primary sector will play a critical role in NZ’s economic recovery once the country emerges from the Covid-19 lockdown. It is the first time (at least within Point of Order’s close surveillance of the issue) that a coalition minister has acknowledged how the pandemic ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Doughney, Emeritus professor, Victoria University The loss of international students due to COVID-19 restrictions, and predicted second semester declines, will see universities lose between A$3 and 4.5 billion, according to Universities Australia. The higher education sector was dealt another blow this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brian Oliver, Research Leader in Respiratory cellular and molecular biology at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and Professor, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney Harry Potter author JK Rowling says a breathing technique has helped her coronavirus-like respiratory symptoms, a ...
8 April 2020 This media release summarises changes to the operation of the courts entering week of COVID-19 alert level 4. It also looks ahead to how the courts will operate in the short and medium term under alert restrictions. Courts to function ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Glasziou, Professor of Medicine, Bond University Should members of the public be wearing face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic? It’s a controversial question, with different countries and authorities giving different advice. We have reviewed the results of more than a dozen ...
The Government is moving to safeguard businesses from insolvency with 'safe harbour' legislation for directors’ liabilities and a business debt hibernation regime. Practically, the business debt hibernation regime will see company directors seeking ...
This Passover, we won’t be attending synagogue, we won’t be participating in large raucous dinners and sharing our food with our extended family and friends, we won’t be welcoming strangers into our homes, as Jewish people are instructed to do, writes Juliet Moses.Tonight, on what is hopefully the halfway point ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brad Elphinstone, Lecturer in psychology., Swinburne University of Technology The same week social distancing measures were announced in Australia (March 16 – March 22), sales of game consoles leaped 285.6%. Prior to this, sales were declining month on month. We’ve also seen ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Harris, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, UNSW As part of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all elective surgeries across Australia have been temporarily cancelled. Elective surgery is non-urgent surgery people choose (elect) to have: things like cataract surgery, joint replacement, ...
Infratil and Wellington Council are preparing to lend Wellington Airport funds to help it cope with a traffic collapse because of Covid-19 restrictions, DIleepa Fonseka reports from Infratil's update to investors Wellington City Council and listed investment firm Infratil are preparing a loan to support Wellington Airport, which has seen ...
The latest in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersThese posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in the early ...
After two weeks of lockdown, police are no longer taking "I didn't know the rules" as a valid excuse, Marc Daalder reports Two weeks into the nationwide lockdown, the police are starting to take non-compliance seriously. The number of prosecutions nearly tripled in 24 hours and 76 new breaches of ...
As the Ministry of Social Development struggles to cope with unprecedented inquiries due to Covid-19, Child Poverty Action Group is calling for the Government to fix our broken welfare system and redesign it so all New Zealanders, but particularly ...
Fijian authorities are scrambling to ensure Cyclone Harold doesn’t make the country’s Covid-19 crisis worse, Teuila Fuatai reports. As Cyclone Harold hits Fiji, authorities have issued physical distancing and sanitation guidelines for evacuation centres. Lashing rain and strong winds caused widespread flooding, power outages and damage to homes and buildings ...
The Government has announced a $88 million package to help students adjust to the new normal of learning from home Thousands of modems and internet-ready devices are being sent to households around the country, in a bid to bridge the digital divide before children resume their studies at home next ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Jenkins, Professor, Respiratory Medicine, UNSW Sydney and Clinical Professor at the University of Sydney, George Institute for Global Health The new respiratory coronavirus COVID-19 is particularly worrying for the 2.7 million Australians who already suffer from asthma. That’s roughly one in ...
By Maggie Boyle of FBC News Fiji disaster authorities have put the whole of Viti Levu island on restricted movement due to TC Harold. Director for National Disaster Management Vasiti Soko confirmed the step had been taken as a precautionary measure. Soko said everyone except emergency services were to ...
By Wansolwarastaff Fiji now has 15 coronavirus cases after a single new case has been confirmed by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama. The new case was one of 25 samples that were tested at the molecular lab and is the husband of an existing patient from Lautoka – the Zumba ...
Māori will likely make up the worst unemployment figures in the forthcoming economic recession. Things can’t go back to the way they were, writes Joshua Hitchcock.Our world has changed. While it is too early to know with any certainty what the full impact of this crisis will be on Māori, ...
‘New Zealand leads world in public perception of Covid-19 response,’ says pollster Colmar Brunton.Public support for the official New Zealand response to the Covid-19 outbreak remains high, and well ahead of the world’s richest coutries, new polling suggests.The numbers show New Zealanders’ backing for measures “far outstrips the response in ...
People waiting a week or longer for the results of their Covid-19 tests say the delays are making them anxious, even as the Government says they're nothing to worry about, Marc Daalder reports Anand Rama says the worst part wasn't the waiting, it was that he had no idea how ...
In any crisis, large or small, people usually rally round those in control so long as they convey a sense of knowing what they are doing. If those in charge lose that sense, start to waver, or are otherwise deflected, then their authority quickly starts to erode, warns Peter Dunne ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa O’Donnell, Senior Research Fellow, University of Western Australia Tackling a health crisis such as COVID-19, with society in lockdown can’t help but place families under strain. It’s been reported family violence notifications to police nearly tripled in some areas of China’s ...
A new study released today by Colmar Brunton shows the public’s response to Government measures to tackle COVID-19 far outstrips the response in any of the G7 nations. The Colmar Brunton COVID Times is a study of over 600 New Zealanders surveyed from ...
Launching a new series, 60 Seconds with Siouxsie, the inimitable Dr Wiles has a few sharp words for anyone thinking they might catch up with neighbours for a drink or a chat, even at a couple of metres apart.In our first video, made possible by the support of Spinoff members, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bekessy, Professor in Sustainability and Urban Planning, Leader, Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group (ICON Science), RMIT University Intriguing things sometimes happen in places deserted by people. Plants creep back, animals return, and slowly, birdsong fills the air. The coronavirus pandemic means ...
What’s an Ōamaru sweet maker doing giving away a product remarkably similar to the late, lamented Snifter? Amanda Thompson searches for the truth behind a minty mystery.I’m not in this for laughs, people. I’m not playing. At the time of writing, things are bad, they don’t seem to be getting ...
The Tūpuna Maunga Authority is calling for a total ban on the private sale of fireworks following the latest fire at Maungarei / Mt Wellington on Tuesday 7 April. Fire and Emergency crew in attendance advised Authority management they received reports of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geetanjali Saluja, Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney Governments everywhere face the challenge of getting people to stay home so they can limit the spread of coronavirus. In order to make their messages more effective, governments must ensure these appeals resonate with the ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the Government has no plans to end New Zealand’s four-week lockdown ahead of schedule, despite acknowledging there are signs the country is “starting to turn a corner” in its fight against coronavirus. Ardern’s comments came as Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield reported there had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Blakely, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Melbourne Australia is on track to flatten the curve of coronavirus cases, which will allow our health system to cope with increasing demand for intensive care unit (ICU) beds, recently released modelling confirms. The modelling, ...
Today, dozens of peace groups, academics and human rights campaigners are calling on Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to withdraw from RIMPAC, the world’s largest, US-led military exercise due to begin in June. The text of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meredith Rossner, Professor of Criminology, Australian National University In the past, the courts were ideal breeding grounds for spreading disease. In what became known as the “Black Assize”, a deadly fever that swept through prisons and courts in England in 1586, 11 ...
Returning nutrients to the soil was once part of every culture, and now, more than ever, it’s time we restore its valuable role in everyday life.Like keep cups, organic cotton tote bags and eco-friendly cleaning products, composting can at times seem like a new trend latched on to by sustainability-obsessed ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet ...
The Prime Minister’s chief science adviser Juliet Gerrard says the next few days will be key to determining when the country can come out of lockdown at the end of four weeks. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Trauer, Senior Research Fellow, Monash University Australia is effectively in lockdown. Public gatherings of more than two people are banned and people are only permitted to leave home for a limited set of reasons. The recent tough measures appear to be ...
She’s not a teacher or a fluent speaker – she just wants to practise with you. Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Today we’re asking and answering: how many?E hia te roa o te rāhui e toe ana? How long have ...
Jacinda Ardern has pushed back on calls to lift New Zealand out of lockdown early - but businesses say we need a roadmap for how and when we come out the other side Business leaders have urged the Government to provide greater clarity about how New Zealand will move out ...
It looks like troughers should go back to the drawing board before submitting – or re-submitting – their claim to a serving from the Provincial Growth Fund. Shane Jones, the Minister of Munificence, has announced that the Provincial Development Unit is working through applications and projects ” … to see ...
E tū members at Fletcher Building Ltd are opening up about how they expect their pay cut to affect them and their families. The company has announced that most workers are in line for a wage cut of up to 70%, while the top executives on millions of ...
A simple, long overdue change in New Zealand’s policy for blood donations would benefit everyone, writes Dr. Oliver Armstrong-Scott. The New Zealand Blood Service recently pleaded for Kiwis to continue donating blood during the Covid-19 lockdown to ensure supplies do not run out. As a medical doctor, I have seen ...
Tonight New Zealand marks the halfway point of alert level four. Assuming, that is, it ends on schedule. What will determine the decision to lift the strictest restrictions, and what comes next? Kate Newton of RNZ asks the experts.Covid-19 researchers in New Zealand are optimistic that the level four restrictions ...
If crisis point was met, there is little doubt that the Bay of Plenty regions District Health Boards and hospitals could not cope with a severe outbreak of COVID-19. Medical staff would be stretched to their limits, resulting in deaths, and iwi and hapu in ...
The creators of a commercial property clause that may exempt tenants from paying all or some of their rent say it is working as intended. Clause 27 of the Auckland District Law Society (ADLS) Deed of Lease includes a "no access in emergency clause", which the Property Councilwarned could lead ...
As New Zealand enters day 14 of a scheduled four-week lockdown, director general of health Ashley Bloomfield says New Zealand can be ‘increasingly confident’ . ...
The On the Rag team meet one more time to talk about how the Covid-19 crisis affects women and what you can do to cope. It’s our last podcast for a little while so crack open a bottle of something fizzy and join us as we undergo what is basically a ...
Former Chief Justice Sir Arnold Amet … emergency powers up to controller alone. Video: EMTV NewsBy Martha Louis in Madang Papua New Guinea’s former Chief Justice Sir Arnold Amet says the state of emergency (SoE) in the country means that no other authority has any ability or powers ...
By Florencio Miranda Ximenes and Antónia Gusmão in Dili Timor-Leste’s Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak has explained the decision to dismiss the vice-health minister, saying he lost trust in her to do the job. The President dismissed Élia António de Araújo dos Reis Amaral from her post on Friday, following ...
Farrowing crates, which confine mother pigs kept on factory farms, violate the Animal Welfare Act 1999, and for the first time in New Zealand history the Act will be tested in court. SAFE and the New Zealand Animal Law Association (NZALA) filed court proceedings ...
‘Yes, it’s endearing that the PM said that the Easter Bunny is an essential service but I wondered how many kids had a hope in hell of seeing three good meals a day let alone a chocolate egg.’Read more Lockdown Letters here.Bob Dylan’s latest, Murder Most Foul, is an interesting ...
Covid 19 coronavirus: Expert professor says no blanket quarantine at border risks a longer lockdown; and Covid-19: 387 Air NZ pilots look set to lose jobs. ...
Amid COVID-19, New Zealanders disregard privacy concerns for convenience – 1.2m affected by cybercrime, 600k by identity theft Over a third of New Zealanders estimated to have experienced cyber crime in the past 12 months Highlights: More than half ...
The National Party leader intends to continue commuting between Tauranga and Wellington so he can do his job effectively in an unprecedented situation. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand. Today’s contentPublic health strategy, exiting lockdown Thomas Manch (Stuff): A path out of lockdown is being charted, but experts say ...
US death toll catching Italy's fast; Johnson on oxygen in ICU, but not intubated; US threatens India, Canada over mask and drugs; Germany accuses America of 'piracy' as China, Russia send supplies to New YorkUS cases spiral: The United States leads the world in total cases, but not yet ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meead Saberi, Senior lecturer, UNSW Traffic jams may have disappeared from our roads as people stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic, but we can be confident they will be back. Scientists have studied traffic and congestion for decades. We know a lot ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Lindsey, Malcolm Smith Professor of Asian Law and Director of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society, University of Melbourne Almost no one thinks Indonesia is handling the COVID-19 pandemic well. Until early March, the government claimed it had no ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rod Lamberts, Deputy Director, Australian National Centre for Public Awareness of Science, Australian National University Good news: COVID-19 is not the only thing going on right now! Bad news: while we’ve all been deep in the corona-hole, the climate crisis has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Waters-Lynch, Lecturer Entrepreneurship and Innovation, RMIT University If you’re working from home for the first time, you might be asking yourself why you didn’t get to do this years ago. The benefits of remote work have been discussed for nearly half ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roslyn Petelin, Course coordinator, The University of Queensland When a literary luminary such as Thomas Kenneally declares so early in 2020 that he is certain a “more original” novel “will not be published this year”, the reviewer faces a challenge. The book ...
Open mike 26/04/2013 
We are seeing what has been termed “a greater challenge than the crash of 2008” by a growing number of economists and more rational, sane commentators, because whilst that was a shocking exposure of the levels to which hubris had sunk, right down to the blank cheque given those who ...5 hours ago
I am a Kiwi living in Jersey City, New Jersey. Jersey City is the second-largest city in the state and is located directly across the Hudson River from downtown Manhattan. Locals call it New York’s sixth borough. More than 350,000 New Jersey citizens, including myself, commute to New York daily ...8 hours ago
It’s a beautiful autumn afternoon, we need to get out of the house, and so our bubble sets off on a bike ride around our local neighbourhood, Cambridge Park. The bikes come out of the garage, and, being really certain we have a front door key, close the garage door ...9 hours ago
. . April 7: Day 13 of living in lock-down… and unlucky for those who are superstitious. A day when there was a ray of sunshine from an otherwise bleak day of worrying signs. Today, as RNZ reported; Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield reported 54 new confirmed and probable cases ...11 hours ago
So far, universal basic income policies, which see people given a regular income without any conditions, have been trailed only on a small scale. But now, Spain is introducing one nationwide as a response to the pandemic: Spain is to roll out a universal basic income (UBI) “as soon as ...12 hours ago
Paul Connet, head of the anti-fluoride propaganda group, Fluoride Action Network, claims that the IQ of children bottle-fed in fluoridated areas drops by 9 points. But he misrepresented the research. There is no observable effect. For earlier articles in this series see: Part 1: Anti-fluoridation propaganda now relies on only ...15 hours ago
The Queen’s coronavirus broadcast, with its overtones of Winston Churchill and Vera Lynn, prompted me to reflect on the tribulations my parents’ generation suffered during the Second World War – and I imagine that those parallels, given her own wartime experience, were very much in the Queen’s mind as she ...16 hours ago
Imagination By-Pass: Had the Communications Minister, Kris Faafoi (above) taken a firm stand with Bauer, reminding them of their obligations to both their staff and the wider New Zealand public, then a much more favourable outcome may well have ensued. He should have made it clear to the Bauer board ...2 days ago
We all know that Simon Bridges has, at the best of times, an intermittent relationship with the truth. However you would think that during a pandemic and economic crisis the current opposition leader would pull his head in and start to do the right thing.Obviously leading by example should be ...2 days ago
Connett promotes Riddell et al (2019) as one of the only four studies one needs to read about fluoridation. But he misunderstands and misrepresents the findings of this study. Image credit: Fluoride Action ... 2 days ago
Last month I wrote my blog on covid-19 pointing out the in our pre Alert Level 4 days that a subject no one had heard here months ago was now dominating the media. An amazing feature of this crisis is how quickly it has swept every other issue aside worldwide. ...2 days ago
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... North Atlantic's capacity to absorb CO2 overestimated, study suggests Research into ocean’s plankton likely to lead to ...2 days ago
As the world economy slides rapidly towards deep recession there are growing calls for a Universal Benefit coming from some leftists and rightists. Now Finance Minister Grant Robertson is saying it is on the table. This article by a French party Workers Struggle provides analysis of various forms of universal ...3 days ago
This is the advice from the very top of the anti-fluoride movement – Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Don’t worry about reading up on all the scientific information “You only have ... 3 days ago
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...4 days ago
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...4 days ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...5 days ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...6 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 1 week ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...1 week ago
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced that New Zealand will enter into transit arrangements with a range of countries to make it easier for each other’s citizens to get home. “There are millions of people around the world stranded ...1 day ago
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...3 days ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...2 weeks ago
Communities stepping up to help New Zealanders stay at home to break the transmission of COVID-19 and save lives have received Government support, said Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. “Delivering groceries for the elderly who can’t shop online, providing data packs for low income families to keep them connected, and being ...8 hours ago
By RNZ News Social media misinformation about Covid-19 is putting Pacific communities in New Zealand at particular risk, government advisers say. The government announced a $17 million package toward building an awareness campaign in Pacific languages, as well as support for health providers. Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa identified ...4 hours ago
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Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says the primary sector will play a critical role in NZ’s economic recovery once the country emerges from the Covid-19 lockdown. It is the first time (at least within Point of Order’s close surveillance of the issue) that a coalition minister has acknowledged how the pandemic ...5 hours ago
8 April 2020 This media release summarises changes to the operation of the courts entering week of COVID-19 alert level 4. It also looks ahead to how the courts will operate in the short and medium term under alert restrictions. Courts to function ...6 hours ago
This Passover, we won’t be attending synagogue, we won’t be participating in large raucous dinners and sharing our food with our extended family and friends, we won’t be welcoming strangers into our homes, as Jewish people are instructed to do, writes Juliet Moses.Tonight, on what is hopefully the halfway point ...7 hours ago
Infratil and Wellington Council are preparing to lend Wellington Airport funds to help it cope with a traffic collapse because of Covid-19 restrictions, DIleepa Fonseka reports from Infratil's update to investors Wellington City Council and listed investment firm Infratil are preparing a loan to support Wellington Airport, which has seen ...8 hours ago
After two weeks of lockdown, police are no longer taking "I didn't know the rules" as a valid excuse, Marc Daalder reports Two weeks into the nationwide lockdown, the police are starting to take non-compliance seriously. The number of prosecutions nearly tripled in 24 hours and 76 new breaches of ...8 hours ago
Fijian authorities are scrambling to ensure Cyclone Harold doesn’t make the country’s Covid-19 crisis worse, Teuila Fuatai reports. As Cyclone Harold hits Fiji, authorities have issued physical distancing and sanitation guidelines for evacuation centres. Lashing rain and strong winds caused widespread flooding, power outages and damage to homes and buildings ...9 hours ago
The Government has announced a $88 million package to help students adjust to the new normal of learning from home Thousands of modems and internet-ready devices are being sent to households around the country, in a bid to bridge the digital divide before children resume their studies at home next ...9 hours ago
People waiting a week or longer for the results of their Covid-19 tests say the delays are making them anxious, even as the Government says they're nothing to worry about, Marc Daalder reports Anand Rama says the worst part wasn't the waiting, it was that he had no idea how ...9 hours ago
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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the Government has no plans to end New Zealand’s four-week lockdown ahead of schedule, despite acknowledging there are signs the country is “starting to turn a corner” in its fight against coronavirus. Ardern’s comments came as Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield reported there had been ...10 hours ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet ...11 hours ago
The Prime Minister’s chief science adviser Juliet Gerrard says the next few days will be key to determining when the country can come out of lockdown at the end of four weeks. ...11 hours ago
Jacinda Ardern has pushed back on calls to lift New Zealand out of lockdown early - but businesses say we need a roadmap for how and when we come out the other side Business leaders have urged the Government to provide greater clarity about how New Zealand will move out ...12 hours ago
In which we gaily rip-off the fun quarantine-house thing on the internet and adapt it to NZ authors ...12 hours ago
It looks like troughers should go back to the drawing board before submitting – or re-submitting – their claim to a serving from the Provincial Growth Fund. Shane Jones, the Minister of Munificence, has announced that the Provincial Development Unit is working through applications and projects ” … to see ...12 hours ago
The creators of a commercial property clause that may exempt tenants from paying all or some of their rent say it is working as intended. Clause 27 of the Auckland District Law Society (ADLS) Deed of Lease includes a "no access in emergency clause", which the Property Councilwarned could lead ...13 hours ago
As New Zealand enters day 14 of a scheduled four-week lockdown, director general of health Ashley Bloomfield says New Zealand can be ‘increasingly confident’ . ...13 hours ago
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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/04/24-0
We need to do this here.
Bring your surfboards, bring your kayaks, bring your dinghies, bring your small yachts, bring your fishing boats and tinnies. Bring your life jackets and wet suits. Bring your signs banners and flags. Bring your courage and your joy.
New Zealand is a maritime nation, we need to take to the sea. We need to defy the anti-marine protest laws. We need to stop coal exports here and in Australia.
“Join the “Resistance”
John Key and the National Party are firmly in the corner of big oil and big coal.
Despite the terrible danger we are all in they will not lift a finger to stop it.
In fact they are doing the opposite, passing anti-democratic laws that make it easier for the climate wreckers to operate.
NASA scientist James, Hansen the world’s leading climate change expert, has determined that; “If we can’t stop coal. It is game over for the climate.”
We can play a role in stopping the immoral profiteering in coal that is killing our world.
Australia is the world’s biggest coal exporter in the world, and as such is a major contributor to climate change on a global scale. To save the planet the Australians must stop this trade.
New Zealand’s coal exports, are big. In fact most of the coal mined in this country is for the export trade. But in comparison with Australia, our trade in coal is dwarfed. The significance of our coal trade, is that Australia will never stop exporting coal, unless New Zealand has done it first.
It is up to us.
Our history shows that of all countries, we are most up to the task.
For the safe future of our world, for our children, and for our children’s children’s sake…..
We must act!
If the spirit of ANZAC is still worth something. We must!
The halting of all coal exports from this country will be a huge and unmissable moral lead for our closest international neighbour and long time friend and ally, Australia. As an example of the sacrifice that must be demanded of them too. That is, If we are to preserve the global climate, fit to hand onto to our children.
Sacrifice, Mateship, Fighting to make the world fit for future generations. This is what the ANZACs fought for, for us. Can we do any less?
What a load of hysterical shit.
You moron. Just because you don’t care about anything or know about anything, how dare you use such language about people who do?
If you have nothing constructive to say, wouldn’t it be better to say nothing?
Jenny is inspired by the actions of the climate activists off Australia and wants to share that with us, while encouraging us to be active in our defence of the climate too.
Rather than insulting people, why don’t you make your own suggestions for how we can improve the world?
Or are your contributions to this site merely intended to be destructive?
Jenny is a complete flake.
She wants people to get up and rally against what provides us with the current lifestyle we enjoy today.
Without oil and coal the worlds economy collapses, unless you’re a complete masochist who the hell wants that.
It should be about managing these resources and trying to minimize the impacts not banning them.
Until something else comes along it’s coal and oil for the foreseeable future, except that.
Yeah that’s right, we can just forget about that pesky thing called extreme climate change eh?
Funnily enough, although I might disagree with Jenny on stuff, I actually get the impression that she behaves in a genuine and earnest manner, with little or no dissembling or misdirection.
BM?
Not so much…
If it happens it happens.
We’ll deal with it then, if it starts to become an issue.
How would you have “minimized” the impact of the Gulf oil spill?
From what I’ve read nature cleaned up he spill pretty well.
The research done on it came to the conclusion that it would have been better just to let nature clean up the area and that the efforts made to control the spill actually hindered the process not helped.
yeah mate, and calling any policy that’s left of centre: communism by stealth, polish shipyard stuff, north korea and so on is just totally non hysterical and well reasoned.
You cretin BM! If you want the sound of hysterical shit. Then go to the Beehive there’s heaps of it from the National Party over the Labour/Greens Power profits redistribution from the greedies to the needies.
You do know that “profit redistribution” is what Mugabe called it at the beginning.
What a clever comment. Not.
Some people just come onto this site to disrupt intelligent discussion.
Aren’t there right wing sites for them to carp on and on about their pet topics?
How was this conversation intelligent? One sided and hysterical maybe but that doesn’t automatically qualify it as intelligent.
What are you talking about, fool? You’ve repeatedly claimed that the conversation was “one-sided and hysterical” but you evidently lack the wherewithal to provide any evidence to back up your assertion.
You are a waste of space.
Why are you here?
My Bad. I should have said, If you want the sound hysterical shit, just wait, and the Trolls will provide.
Edit: How come I am in Moderation? Or is more about what I said?
[r0b: I think the keyword troll causes moderation]
It’s also what the partners at JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs do.
What’s your point?
Please tell us more about Mugabe. Are you a whenwe? Were you allowed to shoot blacks in Rhodesia, or did you have to cross into Mozambique?
Wow, just wow. That’s vile. But you’ll be pleased to know that Mugabe ran out of colonials to “liberate” land from quite some time ago and now is reduced to inflicting misery on and stealing from black Zimbabweans. He’s an equal opportunity kleptocrat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Zimbabwe
A provocation for you:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/05/what-if-we-never-run-out-of-oil/309294/
I can imagine better collective global effort about climate change if petrol costs more. But not if there’s an easier transition to other forms of oil than has been envisaged.
Insurance companies have a market interest to keep disasters (and so pay outs down). Or do they?
As we have found, market churn means fees. Why would any industry cut its growth, and so its immediate share price since its based on its future potential?
So to answer your question, should carbon energy never run out, the market would never deal with the consequences until its too late (look at any polluted industrial areas for how little and too late the market is).
Second, carbon energy is stored sunlight over millions of years, there will always become a point where the ‘new’ sources run out like oil has, and so the old adage of never say never must be employed.
Jenny’s point that governments really do respond to the force of crowds – as per the ANZAC/Lange protests – is understood. I still love Canetti’s Crowds and Power.
My point is less about the supply of oil and more a pessimism that without the force of price and spectacular scarcity that effective global movements would be hard to generate. I can see it at a neighbourhood scale, even at a City scale, because in different ways I have done it. So to be clear I support the effort. But if even the entire EU can’t sustain a carbon market, it’s hard to see governments successfully contesting the market about climate change generally.
the Canetti is a timeless reference.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/7513890/Helen-Clark-urges-action-on-environment
Helen Clark called for a groundswell from below to force government’s and political parties to act on climate change.
If you are concerned about climate change you must ask ourself this question:
I am I happy to just protest against climate change, or do I want to stop climate change?
If your answer is, I want to stop climate change.
You should listen to Helen Clark.
Helen Clark knows the mechanics of how to stop climate change.
She should.
As a senior Labour Party MP during the Muldoon and Lange years. Helen Clark was an eye witness on the inside into how a mass movement can change governments and influence political parties and parliaments.
From her vantage point inside the parliamentary Labour Party Helen Clark saw that; No matter whether they were National Party government MPs, or Labour Party opposition MPs. The mass public campaign that blockaded our Nation’s harbour’s against nuclear ships, put every politician on notice.
This became especially true when the issue came up for a vote in the house when Richard Prebble’s (of all people) private member’s bill to ban nuclear warship visits was drawn from ballot.
Due to the huge pressure from below, two National MPs, Mike Minogue and Marilyn Waring, were moved to cross the floor and vote with the opposition.
If Richard Prebble’s private members bill had been put to the vote, New Zealand would have become Nuclear Free in 1984.
To prevent the vote, the Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon closed parliament down, called a snap election.
Everyone knew, including Muldoon, that his National Party had no chance of continuing in government with the issue of nuclear ship visits unresolved. Conservative pundits including Muldoon, hoped that under the pressure of what has cynically been called “pragmatism” or “Real Politic” (Which is all the secret, and not so secret conservative pressures that influences governments and parliamentary parties), that a new Labour administration would, on gaining office, be able to back-track on the issue in a way that the unpopular Muldoon could not. Which as predictably the new Labour government did. To break the ban David Lange himself, tried to bring in the nuclear armed warship the USS Buchanon into New Zealand waters.
However a high level meeting in his Beehive office held with the, (then), unofficial head of the anti-nuclear movement, Nicky Hagar, convinced Lange that if the Buchanon was brought into any New Zealand harbour that the protests against his government would dwarf anything that had gone down against the Muldoon administration.
Although the USS Buchanon was already on route to New Zealand and was more than half way here. Facing up to the inevitable disgrace that threatened to befall him, and his government if he allowed the Buchanon to dock. Lange had to call up Washington and ordered the Americans to turn their ship around.
The next day in an interview that was published in the the Listener, Lange was reported to have said that the peace movement was his most “feared lobby”.
After the debacle of the Buchanon defeat, the Lange administration still continued to drag the chain as much as they could.
Whereas, the Muldoon administration in 1984, could not have held the line for even one more day, putting off the vote to make New Zealand “Nuclear Weapons Free”. The Lange administration was able to hold the line until the dying months of 1987. And was only finally forced by the approaching deadline of an upcoming general election to put the long promised legislation. Lange feared that if the universally unpopular and controversial Rogernomic policies of his government was followed by a reversal on the “Nuclear Weapons Free” legislation, then the Labour Party if not being turfed out of office completely, would at the very least taken a very serious hit in voter support. (Not to mention the personal odium that would have been attached to his name forever.)
As it turned out. Despite the harsh economic policies forced on the New Zealand people by the Lange/Douglas administration, surfing the wave of the wildly popular support for the New Zealand’s newly minted “Nuclear Free” status – the 1987 election results saw David Lange’s Labour Party triumphantly returned as the government in a massive victory landslide of voter support.
Jenny I respect your passion, just to be clear on that.
Few things though.
1: Climate change can’t be stopped
2: Helen Clark is NOT to be listened to – Getting the to the #3 spot at the UN, means she delivered what was wanted by those who control the UN, hence her position there now. That would imply, she delivered what was requested, during her 9 years in as PM. Question, is, what was it that she did which earned her that position…
3: Helen Clark knows the mechanics of political corruption – She knows NOTHING about about how to stop climate change, however she might well know the planned role for the UN as defacto global government, which will fit perfectly with her own ideological beliefs!
4: You’re still focusing on too narrow a set of parameters, you should widen too include geo-engineering. Just like GM foods, which will have environmental consequences and people are happy to have that discussion, so should it be true of geo-engineering….
In case you missed my link yesterday
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/31/earth-cooling-schemes-global-signoff
Just echoing what muzza said. Climate change is a lot more complicated than the solitary effect of increasing CO2 emissions, the green movement was hijacked a long time ago.
…not continuing to pump ancient carbon stores into the atmosphere; like the pain in your thumb is a lot more complicated than not hitting it with the bloody hammer any more.
CC is a very, very simple thing. The effects are not. Reversing that which has already been done is not. Avoiding unforeseeable consequences is not. But still…at root, climate change and the action required to stop contributing to it is devastatingly simple and uncomplicated.
Is there any evidence that the USS Buchanan was nuclear armed? The way I remember things, it quite obviously wouldn’t have been, with the problem being that the yanks refused to confirm this.
Also, I’d say it was a pity that Helen Clark didn’t let the groundswell against Rogernomics sway her from it.
Indeed, the Buchanon had been intentionally chosen so that David Lange would have the political cover of “plausible deniability” that it was carrying any nuclear weapons.
However this was not enough for the powerful New Zealand anti-nuclear movement. (Though Audrey Young doesn’t credit him, in particular, anti-nuclear activist Nicky Hagar who met with Lange in his Beehive office in the lead up to the Buchanon visit).
Sources:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10879810
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10879996
So basically a no then? As I remember from the time, the issue was that American ships would be allowed in if the yanks confirmed they had no nuclear weapons on board. They were not prepared to deviate from their neither confirm nor deny policy.
My position on this is that not letting it in was the right thing to do. I don’t even want windsurfers from nuclear navies in our waters. I don’t want a GI Joe toy from a country that tortures people in our shops.
One good thing about Tory governments – they provide many opportunities for healthy outdoor exercise and catching up with old friends. See you all on the march tomorrow!
haha!
I see America is beating the war drums over Syria again, claiming that the Syrian government is using sarin against rebels. Now where did we hear stories of weapons of mass destruction before…?
And surprise, surprise..there appears to be no serious questioning of the claims by the corporate media.
Good luck Американцыs.
http://www.majalla.com/eng/2013/01/article55237794
Its rather like after 911, there was an, anthrax *attack*, then after Boston, a repeat using another sunstance, but almost identical story line…
Its the same script writers, that should be plainly obvious, to all but the weakest of minds!
Mr Hagel said “our intelligence community does assess, with varying degrees of confidence, that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically, the chemical agent sarin”.
“It violates every convention of warfare,”
“Its the same script writers, that should be plainly obvious, to all but the weakest of minds!”
So when the proof comes with footage of innocent children, women, old men and women, faces disfigured and contorted by fear and pain, what page of the wank manual will your weak mind get it’s next throw away nugget from?
Does Mr Hagel have a history of providing relevant intelligence information?
Sibel Edmonds: “I provided three possible US objectives associated with the Boston Terror incident. I emphasized the first possible scenario as the most likely: Removing Russia as the obstacle in invading Syria.”
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2013/04/25/boston-terror-update-2-april-25-the-syria-objective-is-nearly-accomplished/
Russian Economy
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/26/uk-russia-detentions-idUKBRE93P15320130426
Russia detains 140 in sweep at Muslim prayer room
Yup!
If only I did have a weak mind TA – Sadly you are very much mistaking me for someone else, or more likely you are projecting!
When you say *proof*, what is it exactly that twists your emotive sub-set, when it comes to *proof*, and are you prepared to accept the worlds most war mongered (USA) nation, as the holders/providers of said, *proof*.
Who will be selling those pictures, of contorted faces, or more accurately, who will have manufactured them..
I suggest you read about some of the historical *gotcha* moments around the Lybian escapades, of the likes of the BBC/CNN/FOX news et al!
I’m sure, with so many vigilants like yourself on their case, the us will never make the same mistake twice, but you, in not even considering the reports may actually be true, and innocents are being gassed, prejudice most, if not all of your personal warmongery against the americans as pure fucktardery.
You’re dismissed, nut wank.
What is with the insults, sheesh!
I consider them alright, I consider as many angles as I have time to absorb, and then I look at the players, their history and the motives.
Nah the Anglo-French administrations will continue to ensure, through their agendas, that many more innocent people continue to die, every minute of every day..
With the support of those who share your , limited view of the ME situation!
You mean well, but you’re playing down the wrong line.
Please go and do some further reading, the Syrian situation, same as Libya, is manufactured by the US/UK/France primarily, or more accurately, those who pull the strings of those administraive entities!
“I consider them alright,”
Yeah, it’s all over your *work*
“You mean well, but you’re playing down the wrong line.”
Offside. I always wait til the team sheet is released before I slag off the opposing players, anything else would be stupid and leave me open to ridicule, which I wouldn’t like.
“Please go and do some further reading”
You need to chose the right battles, Rambo.
By throwing mud at everything, you make it an easy decision to walk on the other footpath of life.
And a bit patronising, especially considering only one of us has jumped to a conclusion without knowing any fact other than same day news reports.
That’s basic, that’s clare curran like stuff. :tut tut: 😉
Quality control is slipping, M.
Patronizing – Is that how you read my response to your insults, TA,
Well done lad!
Seen the footage of chemical victims, yet?
Got a ‘put on job’ or ‘set up’ reply waiting in the wings?
Shame on you for so easily dismissing human suffering to score a point against the ‘enemy’.
Are you deliberately obtuse, or is that you are not paying attention!
Ill try make this as simple as possible, one final time:
You’re aiming your ill-informed opinions, at the wrong person matey, I’d suggest you speak to the people in Langley Virginia, and Washington DC, aim your vitriol in that direction , as a start!
“Are you deliberately obtuse, or is that you are not paying attention!”
It would appear neither, seeing as I’ve correctly called you for being a plank.
“You’re aiming your ill-informed opinions,”
I seriously dispute ill informed, and as stated, nothing wrong with my aim.
“I’d suggest you speak to the people in Langley Virginia, and Washington DC, aim your vitriol in that direction , as a start!”
Why? Because you dismiss rightful condemnation over the use of chemical weapons in Syria as a plot for world domination.
Don’t be a dick head.
Anyway, I gave you the benefit of the doubt, ’cause you’re a ‘name’ here, but I really shouldn’t have.
Keep your right of reply for the secret dossiers, comrade. 😉
Well muzza, it does seem plainly obvious to your mind. Hmmmm.
Perhaps thats because I have spent more time in those parts of the world Murray, and speaking with people who are working/from ME countries, and to people who have served in the actions/wars in that region!
Thats before I even do my own reading etc!
Hows the geo-engineering research coming along?
What geo-engineering research? Go and look on youtube, I wouldn’t have a clue.
Cui bono?
http://revoltoftheplebs.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/by-deception-thou-shalt-do-boston/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-use-boston-bombing-to-speed-up-vote-on-counter-terrorism-bill/article11464897/
Yup, off to the camps you go! – Never let a manufactured terror event go to waste!
Honestly this reads like something that would be on The Onion or The Civilian:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8599493/Susan-Devoy-makes-train-crash-speech
!??!! Fuck that is funny. Love the quote from Sir Peter Leitch, “policially driven”. Halarious.
I’m telling you the way to bring this country to a stand still isn’t to attack policitally, or with arms…just wipe out all the stadiums and sports broadcasts and we would submit to anything to have them back.
Peter Leitch is a halfwit, with no discernible talent.
No discernable talent? He built a business empire from a humble base, and has put time, effort and heaps of financial support into league and other sports and charities. I may not like his current sucking up to Key etc. but I’d never be so foolish as to deny his obvious abilities.
No discernable [sic] talent?
I have to admit he does a good comic impression of a beer-sodden boor.
He built a business empire from a humble base, and has put time, effort and heaps of financial support into league and other sports and charities. I may not like his current sucking up to Key etc. but I’d never be so foolish as to deny his obvious abilities.
His “obvious abilities”? He has none, other than crude self-publicity.
“You just can’t beat the Mad Butchers meat”
Having worked in advertising for a number of years, I am pretty sure some creative came up with that line as a laugh, but bugger me, he went with it.
I always tell my boyfriend after that ad has been on: “the Mad Butcher won’t let you beat his meat”.
Have to agree with Voice here Mozza – PL, while not everyones cup of tea, has done much with the fund raising, and charity work, resulting not only from his empire built on rotten meat products, but also because he loved Rugby League, and appreciated that it was a *working class game*
While not a fan of PL at all, I think in this instance your evaluation might be a little out of alignment.
You’re both right—he DOES know how to make a dollar.
I think of the Mad Butcher as the guy who brought Warehouse/Walmart approaches to meat. He wiped out a lot of small butchers and replaced them with high turn over service centres selling crap meat. He identified the League community as one which would be exceedingly loyal, and had enough income to buy his sausages. He is a successful businessman whose major success was passing himself off as a working class battler, which possibly explains why he can so easily be mates with Key. In terms of successful capitalism, he has talent and can see opportunities, but I always preferred the personal touch of a neighbourhood butcher.
How nice. I assume you can afford to pay the prices of a neighbourhood butcher as well. I know I can’t.
Anyone who, just weeks into their new job, regards it as “same shit, different day” and doesn’t like their staff has made a serious error taking the job and will probably ditch it soon for something else.
+1 Indeed. I agree and I think this must be deliberate because it not as if she doesn’t know people are watching what she says.
Agree Marty, it must be deliberate, question is, why…so openly, brazenly!
There’s always the possibility of tory conceit, but it might also be that she slipped into “celebrity speaker” mode (rather than “government representative”) at a dinner that possibly cost a couple of hundred dollars a head (they raised $46k). And that’s without the fine dinner+vino factor (which is doubtful, given that it was unlikely to be her first keynote speaker role).
But either way, it shows that she isn’t enthusiastic about the bauble thrown her way, and she doesn’t have the right qualities for the job.
The office will be fun on Monday when she gets to work. This seige mentality of devoys was her typical squash tactic – she admitted that she worked with the british/uk/whatever the fuck it’s called media against her. This tactic is boorish when used with important and demanding work like trying to make race relations better in this country.
I think she’d only ditch it if she was offered something that paid more. She’ll find it in herself to put up with her staff because she’ll have Tory racists and Ansell/Brash one nation types fawning all over her. Key will come out soon and try to paint anyone attacking her as a woman hater, just like Lange did with the unions at Kawerau. She’s doing exactly what she was appointed to do.
Susan Devoy on The Vote; (just to recap the most telling statement):
“…PEOPLE SHOULD FEEL ASHAMED THAT THEY BELIEVE WE ARE A RACIST COUNTRY!”
(SORRY, caps got stuck on).
if ya missed it, there is a summary on y’days OM.
Can anyone tell me what the significance is of the other white flower next to the poppy at the top of the page?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_poppy_(symbol)
Reminds me – time to change the header back
On this site, it was suggested by rocky in about 2009 that if I was going to put up the anzac poppy each year, that I should also add the white poppy as well. So we did.
Ahh, thankyou. I googled “white daisy”.
Notice that Judith Collins considers it disrespectful (apparently sending our people to die at war is a better idea than attempting peace). All the more reason to use it as often as possible.
Judith Collins really is that kind of armchair general cum politician that any soldier hates. They’re the idiots who get us killed for their vanity, and yet never do anything substantive to prevent the problems. Irresponsible producers of hot-air and bombast – useless on the actual action.
It is no wonder that Cameron Slater identifies with her.
Judith Collins really is that kind of armchair general cum politician that any soldier hates.
Judith “Rosa Klebb” Collins has been voted “Most Likely To Be Accidentally Shot By Own Troops” if she ever finds herself commanding a platoon in South Vietnam.
So, in the context of WW2 say, you would be advocating to attempt piece with Hitler? I believe Anthony Eden tried that and it didn’t work out so well. Sometimes there is no alternative and no amount of hand-wringing will change that. You can’t reason with psychotic imperialists – corporate or state.
So, in the context of WW2 say, you would be advocating to attempt piece [sic] with Hitler? I believe Anthony Eden tried that and it didn’t work out so well.
Did you mean to write Neville Chamberlain? I think you did.
Sometimes there is no alternative…
There is certainly an alternative in this case.
…and no amount of hand-wringing will change that.
How typical, and predictable, that you should seek to demean principled objection to state violence as “hand-wringing”.
You can’t reason with psychotic imperialists – corporate or state.
Indeed. The people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Occupied West Bank, and the besieged enclave of Gaza know that only too well.
Yes, I make deliberate spelling mistakes just to set you off, and yes, you are right, Chamberlain, not Eden – a brain hiccough which I apologise for.
“Principled” objection to state violence only ever seems to be possible in societies protected by the possibility of state violence – how strange. Pehraps less hand-wringing than hand washing. And while I have never supported the invasion of Iraq and unilateral US actions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I do happen to believe Al Qaida is a threat to otherwise innocent people and must be broken – though of course I would prefer it if the US could find more creative means that don’t involve harm to innocent women and children. Curiously, one wonders at your lack of “principled objection to state [or its equivalent] violence” when Hamas fires off one of its squibs into Israel in deliberate provocation of a massive retaliation and loss of innocent life in Gaza?
There you go again, seriously trying to suggest that Hamas is the problem, and absolving the aggressor. You admit that the rockets that come out of the imprisoned enclave are little more than squibs, and you recognize that the devastation wrought by Israel is massive, but you carefully and dishonestly portray this aggression as “retaliation”.
To portray Hamas as the aggressor and Israel as the retaliator is the exact inversion of the truth. I don’t know if it’s massive ignorance on your part or brutal, heartless dishonesty. Whatever the case, you will be called on it whenever you attempt it.
Mozza – Pop is a US, and by default, Israeli sympathizer, who knows that Arabs are the problem! His bias is no naked, and his position so wrong, he can’t wrap his head around even the most simple *terror frauds*
POP
Um, yeah, ok then Pop…..
wow
Bigot much?
“By default” my arse.
Again McFlock, you have shown a complete lack of ability to understand when to use the B word!
Pop has played his cards openly many times!
You’re still having memory issues by the sounds of bro, you need to exercise that skull a bit more!
Ill leave your piss poor, over eager use of the B word, for you to ponder, appropriate use!
Shalom!
Edit – Helpful hint, don’t even contemplate coming back with what your instinct will encourage you to, just take the helpful advice, and leave it at that!
actually, rereading that one it seems to meant to say something along the lines of “Pop is a US sympathizer, and therefore by default an Israeli sympathizer” rather than “Pop is a US, [i.e. short for “yank”] and by default [because he is a yank], Israeli sympathizer”.
So yeah, I clocked off early on that one. Fair call. But at least I can answer a simple question.
What, pray, is a “US”? I’m a fifth generation New Zealander, and you couldn’t be further wrong. I am disgusted by Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian people and the illegal colonisation of their land, and the Muslim world has been very hard one by in this “war on terror”, but that doesn’t really change the fact that there is a militant Muslim minority who do carry out organised terror attacks quite successfully. Pretending it’s a conspiracy won’t make it go away – it certainly won’t bring back the victims, you dick.
Yeah, if you use the language of those in the military, financial and political position of power. Nice.
Thats nice Pop.
It goes against written bias, of a pro US nature, but perhaps thats just down to writing syle…
You were going along quite well until the 5th and 6th lines, where you managed to throw in the *conspiracy* word, and an insult!
Pretending there is not a conspiracy, won’t get those
*militant mulsims*neocon/zionists, to go away!It is the symptom of a particularly simple mind that can only think in binary. It’s quite clear there’s blame on both sides.
Um, no, you delusional, tiny-minded cretin, I am noting that if Hamas didn’t conveniently provide Israel with a slight excuse to carry on with what amounts to a war of extermination, the US wouldn’t have much of a fig leaf to hide behind, and the left wing of the Knesset might be able to get some traction over the insanity. Jeez, what is wrong with you people?
Yeah Hamas is going to carry out a war of extermination using, what exactly? AK47’s? WWII era Katyusha rockets? IEDs made in garages? RPGs?
Shall we examine what the IDF uses to compete with these Hamas ‘weapons of extermination’?
– Abrams main battle tanks
– F15’s and F16’s
– Apache attack helicopters
– Modern guided munitions, including bunker buster munitions
– Arsenal of nuclear warheads held outside the NPT.
– etc
Sorry mate when you create a ghetto you can expect people to fight back; what is your expectation: that they should roll over and play nice in the hope that they will get better treatment?
The Israelis have their own design of main battle tank – Merkava.
I’m sorry, can you actually read? Or is your confirmation bias on too tight.
“provide Israel with a slight excuse to carry on with what amounts to a war of extermination” Israel, dick, Israel, not Palestine – Hamas does, however, provide just enough of an excuse for Likkud and a whole Zionist lobby in the US to get on with it. FFS!
Is throwing rocks at military police sufficient justification for a hellfire missile strike on an apartment block. How about hand gun fire at military personnel?
to Populuxe – Is this before or after the water wells where taken and Palestinians left to literally die without a bullet being spent? Or when their land is being “taken” – just like that and there was no agreement on that – ever. Yes, 2 wrongs do not make 1 right.
P1 views the Palestinians and the Israelis as near equals in this ongoing conflict. And if only the Palestinians would start behaving, things would be much better for them. That says all it needs to.
No, I’m saying that we should value our soldiers lives over political ego. They are precious and should only be used as a last resort. We have lost several in the last year and it’s a time of peace.
It’s an international world and we exist in a variety of groups and have various obligations as a good international citizen, but I’ll save my breath.
Hi Populuxe1,
Appeasement of Hitler was not, as is popularly portrayed, a kind of early incarnation of ‘peacenikery’. The elites of Europe no doubt supported Hitler’s reformation of the German economy, especially the re-privatisation of the banking sector and the privatisation of many publicly owned assets, including the railways, the biggest public sector operation in the world.
As this paper outlines, the privatisation pursued by the Nazis went against the trend of western governments of the time who, in response to the depression, had tended to (have to) nationalise firms and even industries – it was the big bail out, as followed today.
Remember that the German republic was, under Bismarck, one of the most advanced state apparatuses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The public sector was large. The Nazi privatisation represented windfalls for selected crony capitalists (as well as franchised arms of the Nazi Party). The term ‘reprivatisation’ used post-WWII was, in fact, adopted from 1930s Germany.
From the link above:
“The Nazi government may have used privatization as a tool to improve its relationship with big industrialists and to increase support among this group for its policies. Privatization was also likely used to foster more widespread political support [i.e., financial backing] for the party. Finally, financial motivations played a central role in Nazi privatization. The proceeds from privatization in 1934-37 had relevant fiscal significance: No less than 1.37 per cent of total fiscal revenues were obtained from selling shares in public firms. Moreover, the government avoided including a huge expenditure in the budget by using outside-of-the-budget tools to finance the public services franchised to Nazi organizations.
Nazi economic policy in the mid-thirties went against the mainstream in several dimensions. The huge increase in public expenditure programs was unique, as was the increase in the armament programs, and together they heavily constrained the budget. Exceptional policies were put in place to finance this exceptional expenditure, and privatization was just one among them. Nazi Germany privatized systematically, and was the only country to do so at the time. This drove Nazi policy against the mainstream, which flowed against privatization of state ownership or public services until the last quarter of the twentieth century.”
It’s worth remembering that the ‘appeasers’ were, generally, very wealthy men – leading Tories (including Eden who was an appeaser, despite his resignation over how to respond to Mussolini breaching an agreement) with international business and financial interests and connections. It’s also worth remembering that the greater threat was always considered to be the Soviet Union – and the UK elite knew that Hitler was keen to invade Russia.
I’m sure that was a great consolation to Germany’s Jewish industrialists- oh wait, no, they were on to the nazi’s fairly early on for good reasons. How about the wealthy and influential Czech and Polish industrialists… Oh, no, wait…. I think more than a few French businessmen were probably inconvenienced too…
No it was the Anglo Saxon Elite that saw the advantage whereas the socialist left in France and elsewhere expected the political scenery to change to their advantage. In the end, it all came down to money. Europe at the time has lost its royal houses through revolts and civil was followed as a void needed to be filled. The general population was to a certain extend naive. But one should not forget that there wasn’t the media as it is today and the radio was easily controlled.
Found this article from early April. Includes commentary from the man-of-the-moment, Energy economist Geoff Bertram:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8518742/Tracing-the-history-of-Tiwai-Pt
From the article…
To put it in perspective, Manapouri produces enough power to supply about 630,000 houses each year. It could run five Large Hadron Colliders. It could run two times Google’s data storage network.
Bertram says power companies have been gouging the consumer for too long. With a simple write down of their assets Tiwai could give all New Zealanders 300kW hours free, each month, for ever. At current average power prices that’s about $80 a month off your power bill, permanently.
$80 a month. Just from Manapouri hydro. Kinda puts the Labour/Greens $300 saving per year in perspective.
If you add this potential saving to the potential saving associated with writing down the asset values of the other generators what would the cents per kWh price be?
I’d love to see an article from Geoff Bertram which states what the price of electricity should be.
posted this the other day, it has lots of really interesting reading
http://www.geoffbertram.com/publications/
Thanks!
from the ‘that was money well spent’ file
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8599819/Grosers-WTO-bid-hits-the-rocks
So he spent a quarter mil on travel, ok, he no doubt has a great collection of pens and plenty of spare headphones. It would be a lot more interesting though and certainly more revealing to see what his total expenses were, especially regarding the gravy train dinners, lunches, lunches that become dinners etc. I imagine the wine bill alone is mighty impressive. I also expect sundries will not be itemized.
Yes, but you can say the same about just about any New Zealand politician, regardless of party. That sort of point scoring is ultimately not a game worth playing.
Not really, there is a distinct culture of entiltlement amongst ‘the deal makers’ that only gets worse the closer to trade deals that you get. Every country (and every wannabe) do their damndest to show it is the richest flashiest most succesful etc. Much like any bunch of friday night fools showing off in the newest downtown bar. In my humble opinion, the taxpayer much like the cleaner the next day, is thoroughly sick of it.
imagine if this was promised by a party:
No more parliamentary pensions/benefits/discounts etc. Do your time in service. You get well paid, then that is it.
The trough is closed. There’s a (?) 20-30 million a year saved just like that.
*cough cough* Helen Clark, Mike Moore etc. *cough*
A few facts. Germany was locked out of global colonial ambitions. WWI. Germany is a patchwork of protestant and catholicism (and pre-WWII jews). So the WWII was not about Christianity, since Christians were on both sides, if anything there were more non-Christians on the allies side in both great wars. As France and Britain brought in non-European armies from their colonies. Independence of these colonies was won in part because of those who had given up their lives in those wars. Also Israel existence is a form of restitution, etc.
So when Moro’s guest said we remember them, God and Country, etc, that every creed, faith, etc was a afterthought, a modernism. I can’t help be struck how much has been forgotten.
Our forefathers did not go to the world wars for Christianity.
As far as Zionism is concerned, the founder of Zionism and apostate, Theodor Herzl, sought to intensify hatred of the Jew in order to enhance the cause of political Zionism. Here are some of his “pearls:
“It is essential that the sufferings of Jews. . . become worse. . . this will assist in realization of our plans. . .I have an excellent idea. . . I shall induce anti-semites to liquidate Jewish wealth. . . The anti-semites will assist us thereby in that they will strengthen the persecution and oppression of Jews. The anti-semites shall be our best friends. (From his Diary, Part I, pp. 16)
Source: Jews Against Zionism
And it actually worked – some of the most ardent German Zionists were in the SS.
yep, well initially anyway.
Theft can never be restitution.
Tell that to Karl Marx.
So what were Marx’s views on Israel, pray tell?
Karl Marx never suggested theft. expropriation
I think you’ll find the first definition correct. It is repossession of that which was stolen in the first place.
You say po-tay-to, I say take your mendacious little word games and go fuck yourself. Shifting the goal posts around doesn’t change what it is. “Expropriation”, as opposed to paying tax, is theft. Lenin’s “expropriation” wasn’t very different from Hitler’s “expropriation” from the Jews.
Or Gerry’s threatened expropriation of landowners’ property in Christchurch?
One of the saddest things about modern economies is that they are built upon private property.We all wish to defend our, generally, minuscule amounts of private property, thus allowing those with massive amounts to dominate our world. We accept the sacrifice of our freedom (i.e., the relative influence of our voice in collective decision making) to protect very little that is our ‘own’, in most cases. Not a wise – or rational – trade-off.
Populuxe1, is the accumulation of property (via legal means) never theft in liberal democracies? (I’m assuming that we agree that legality is not the arbiter of whether or not something is ‘theft’ – theft is the acquisition of something that does not rightfully belong to you; a judgment that depends upon moral and ethical principles, not the current state of the law.).
On Lenin’s expropriations – the economic system of the Tsar (Nicholas II) in Russia was mainly feudal (though industrialisation had flourished under his father, Alexander III). Was the property accumulated by the Russian aristocracy legitimately obtained? Remember, the Tsar was an absolute/divine monarch and tens of millions of serfs lived and died under harsh conditions for generations prior to the 1917 revolutions (and the one in 1905).
Similarly, were the holdings of the British Crown in the American Colonies legitimate, given that they were quite decisively expropriated by the Colonial elite? (Should today’s Americans be paying compensation to the British Crown?)
Again, was Maori land in New Zealand expropriated (i.e., in your eyes, stolen)?
And what happened to the Jews in the 1930s in Germany was not ‘expropriation’ – it was ethnic cleansing and brutal terrorising and oppression. Get your terms right. Property had very little to do with it. That was a ‘bonus’.
Dismount your high horse. It’s just a broomstick with a pretend horse’s head on top.
History is not something to huff and puff about, especially over ‘theft’. It’s about power – who has it and who doesn’t. Those with the power get the property. Those without power and property seek to gain it.
And those with the power always get to decide what is and isn’t theft.
Just as they decide which version of history gets published.
A few facts….
Your incoherent rambling is utterly unconvincing. Perhaps the stupidest sentence is your extraordinary claim that Israel’s existence is a “form of restitution, etc.”
I’m not going to ask you to explain—you are clearly not up to it.
For God’s sake, do some serious reading.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8599493/Susan-Devoy-makes-train-crash-speech
The position of RRC pays over 200k a year, or has Devoy refused the salary?
I cannot find anything saying she has, so is this article just another type and print, forget the fact-check, straight to market lie?
also imagine The mad butcher’s definition of lewd is pretty colourful and likely very different from say, Colin Craig’s 🙂
oops, need a rewind button today
thought i posted the above in reply to lanth 😕
Policy on the Hoof? And envy of colleagues’ exposure?
Grant Robertson is trying to limit the Party’s Policy Options and put down his colleagues.
Shearer and Parker were leading the NZPower story. But Robertson has to put his oar in! Wow has the boy an inferiority complex!
“Labour makes no apology for stepping in to fix problems in the electricity sector. But this is not a signal that Labour is going to intervene elsewhere in the economy.
“As we said on the day we launched NZ Power, we have no plans to intervene in any other markets.”
WTF? We have just seen the consensus around the Neo-Liberal hegemony of the past thirty years finally get dented: and Grant Robertson is trying to stop it!
Robertson will lead Labour to the same position it is in Wellington Central. Third position behind National and the Greens!
“I’ll just bring in my expert witness here: Ron Mark”
The Vote: Is New Zealand a Racist Country?
TV3, Wednesday 24 April 2013, 8:30 p.m.
After watching the superb Annie Goldson documentary about NZ in Afghanistan, my big night of television continued with this horror show. I watched this insult to the intelligence, this D-grade comedy, this dog’s breakfast on the TV3 Plus One channel.
The producers had assembled what looked like a lecture-theatre full of people, many of them well known in their own right. At first glance it looked like this might be a return to the serious live studio spectaculars that Gordon Dryden, Brian Edwards and Ian Fraser used to front in the 1970s and ’80s. But TV3 obviously doesn’t trust the idea of boring old discussions. Some genius has come up with the idea that a program about racism can be treated like one of those ghastly music talent quests, where celebrity judges gather a team of “talents” and spend half of the show verbally sniping at each other. Presiding over all of this is a “moderator”, played by Linda Clark. Her brief: Keep it light. It’s supposed to be amusing.
On The Vote, the equivalents of the celeb judges on the pop star talent quests are Guyon Espiner and Duncan Garner, who have obviously been instructed to dish out the repartee against one another; someone in management evidently thinks these two are the equivalent of Abbott and Costello.
Tonight, Guyon Espiner heads the “Yes” team, with Damon Salesa and John Tamihere. Duncan Garner is the captain of the “No” team, backed up by May Chen and Phil Goff. The default mood for the evening is comical truculence….
Clearly, what was actually said during this show was not important to the producers. What they wanted was manufactured conflict, plenty of personality clashes—and lots of laughs. Of the “talent”, however, only John Tamihere seemed to be in on this; the other three seemed to take it seriously. So we saw the demeaning sight of Professor Damon Salesa trying to make a serious argument in the face of a barrage of heckling and infantile negative comments by Duncan Garner.
So the mood of frivolity and forced competitiveness had been established. But it only got worse….
DUNCAN GARNER: Okay, I’ll just bring in my expert witness here: Ron Mark!
Instead of eliciting gales of laughter, this announcement was treated seriously, and Winston Peters’ loyal soldier was wheeled on to deliver banalities for a long, long minute in his usual manner. Then the “expert witness” returned to the crowd, with nobody any the wiser. It was like he was back in parliament.
Now, rack my brains as I might, I could think of only one political featherweight shallower than Ron Mark—and sure enough, not long after, this happened….
GUYON ESPINER: All right, now to argue that New Zealand IS a racist country, we have the Member of Parliament for Khandallah, Peter Dunne!
This ineffective fop, this repellent poseur, this National Party stooge embarked on one of his trademark wandery homilies, focused entirely on the notion that we are racist against CHINESE people. This pitiable, bow-tied, bouffanted fool probably doesn’t even know that there are Māori people in New Zealand.
As Dunne droned on, I could make out in the audience several prominent people, including John Minto, Don “Brethren Cash” Brash (nodding gravely to show he took it all very seriously) and the controversial new Race Relations commissioner Dame Susan Devoy.
Finally, mercifully, Dunne’s monologue came to an end and he sat down, to the relief of all. It was back to the comedians….
DUNCAN GARNER: Calling us racist is plain NUTS and simply offensive!
LINDA CLARK: I have here the result of our audience poll. Eighty-two per cent think that YES, New Zealand is a racist country.
GUYON ESPINER: Eighty-two per cent! It’s hard to argue we’re not a racist country with those sorts of numbers!
Then it’s time for a commercial break, but before that, viewers are taken into the middle of each team as they huddle together and strategize, just like a sports team talk. What is obvious immediately is that Espiner does all the talking, while Tamihere and Salesa listen intently. Same with the other team: Garner urgently strategizes, while Goff and Chen listen. The “stars” have to be seen to be in charge.
DUNCAN GARNER: Right, next up, the big question: Are Māori TOO PRIVILEGED? This of course is the question Don Brash asked back in 2004.
John Tamihere says something disparaging about the old racist, and is warming to his task before the moderator steps in…
LINDA CLARK: [giggling] Tamihere, be QUIET!
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
LINDA CLARK: Forty-eight per cent of our audience says YES, Māori are too privileged, and 42 per cent say no they are not. So it’s almost TOO CLOSE TO CALL!
The old race-baiter, Don “Brethren Cash” Brash is then trundled on to the stage and asked if he STILL thinks Māori are a privileged and indulged elite group…
DON “BRETHREN CASH” BRASH: Ehhhhhhhhhhhmmmmm. Yes they are. Ehhhhhhhhhhhmmmm.
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!…What?… You silly old fool!… Ha!… Somebody shoot him!
As disgusting and ridiculous as the old race-baiter and Brethren stooge is, he is almost immediately upstaged….
MAY CHEN: [slowly, with gravitas] As Ron Mark said, we are sorting out our racial problems in the bedrooms of the nation.
That crass and insulting statement comes courtesy of the fertile brain of Dr. Ranginui Walker. It was one of his enduring tropes during his long tenure as a Listener columnist, and he repeated it again recently when he was interviewed on radio.
LINDA CLARK: After the break, we will sum up. And we will talk to the new Race Relations Commissioner, Dame Susan Devoy.
This proved to be the only pleasant surprise of the night. Dame Susan handled her brief interview impressively. She was balanced, generous and well spoken.
As for the rest of those involved in this dud: shame on you all.
Sounds truly awful viewing, Moz. Thanks for taking one for the team!
Mai Chen, btw.
Sounds truly awful viewing, Moz. Thanks for taking one for the team!
It was awful, all right, but it was compellingly awful. I even felt positive at the end of it, seeing Dame Susan give such a good account of herself.
Mai Chen, btw.
I KNEW it! Just before I pushed the “Submit Comment” button, I had this nagging feeling that I had made a mistake somewhere, but for the life of me I couldn’t track it down. Thanks for that.
It was getting up this morning. Don’t do it again.
It was getting up this morning. Don’t do it again.
Ouch! THAT told me!
I’ll say, go get some aloe vera for that burn.
Aloe vera won’t salve the pain of Populuxe1’s searing wit, I’m afraid.
I watched the doco on New Zealand in Afghanistan. Thanks for the summary and saving the rest of us the pain.
Morrissey, you’re kind of like The Standard’s version of Diana Wichtel. That’s a compliment btw.
From the Herald “Trade Minister Tim Groser’s bid to head the World Trade Organisation has failed……”The New Zealand Government has spent a lot of money supporting Mr Groser’s bid.” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10879907
How much is ‘a lot of money’? Will the corporate media bother to find out?
And will they ask if that money could have been spent on other stuff…like tackling child poverty, save DOC jobs, raising the minimum wage more etc etc
Don’t hold your breath.
‘
Well . . . the MSM has pointed out the bill is around about $3000 per day, and that’s just for travel. You can add in his salary since lobbying for the job is all he’s done.
that satire link went quick
update on the satire of Colin Craig
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10879836
****
****
Yes….Fuck up Judith Collins…..you Judith are the REAL Noddy.
Hole in the furnace fender?
Blood boils when I hear via radio that J. Collins calls 3 Labour MP’s “noddys”.
Decided to allocate “fuck off Judith Collins” to your **** comment.
But I’m sure you had some deeper meaning in mind, something private between Rouge Trooper and ghostrider888 perhaps.
only in a parallel universe.(typed in wrong un and got stuck in moderation; mundane i know)
26 April 2013
PROTEST: “The Government is NOT going to get a ‘good price’ for Mighty River Power – call off the sale!”
Friday 26 April 3 – 5.30pm
Outside the Head Office of Mighty River Power
ANZ building 23- 29 Albert St, Auckland City
MAP : https://maps.google.co.nz/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Map+Mighty+River&fb=1&gl=nz&hq=Mighty+River&hnear=0x6d0d47fb5a9ce6fb:0x500ef6143a29917,Auckland&cid=0,0,14661661492653781907&ei=-rx5UZzZM6WaiAfF1IHYCw&sqi=2&ved=0CLABEPwSMAE
(Protest organised by the Switch Off Mercury Energy group).
______________________________________________________________________________
SOE Minister Tony Ryall said the Government wouldn’t sell Mighty River Power unless they could get a ‘good price’.
(Official Information Act reply from Minister of State Owned Enterprises, Tony Ryall, dated 17 March 2013)
“Let me make it quite clear. If the Government doesn’t get a good price the Government isn’t going to sell.”
The Government are NOT going to get a ‘good price’ for Mighty River Power, according the opinion expressed in the Dominion Post Editorial dated 24 April 2013:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/8587747/Editorial-Key-should-consider-MRP-sale-delay
“Editorial: Key should consider MRP sale delay
OPINION: An unholy mess. There is no other way to describe the Government’s partial asset sales programme.
With just days to go before the public offering of shares in Mighty River Power closes, the float is shrouded in uncertainty. Is the country’s single biggest consumer of electricity about to shut its doors? Will Labour and the Green Party be part of the next government and, if so, will they make good on their promises to renationalise the electricity industry by stealth?
Potential investors have no way of knowing whether Rio Tinto is serious about closing the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter unless it can wring further concessions from the Government and Meridian Energy. Likewise, they have no way of knowing whether Labour and the Greens will be in a position to implement their policies after the next election.
But, amid all the uncertainty, there is one certainty: the price the Government and, ultimately the public, will receive for shares sold in Mighty River Power will be lower because of the uncertainty. ….
However, political considerations should not determine the fate of an asset worth billions of dollars that has been built up by generations of taxpayers. The Government’s overriding concerns should be ensuring that taxpayers get fair value for the business and that as many New Zealanders as possible take advantage of the opportunity to become shareholders in it.
Neither of those goals are likely to be achieved while there is a possibility of the country being flooded with cheap electricity and the next government telling generators how much they can charge for electricity and how they should operate their power stations.
……………………
But, delaying the sale till after the next election would at least allow voters to choose which of the two approaches offers the better prospect of sensible pricing and secure supply. It would also allow time for the future of Tiwai Point to be resolved.”
______________________________________________________________________________
SO! CALL OFF THE SALE OF MIGHTY RIVER POWER!
Is NZ Prime Minister John Key, (a shareholder in the Bank of America), going to continue to put his mouth where his money is, and look after investors – or is he going to look after the public majority of taxpayers?
(Remembering that arguably the majority of taxpayers are not investors?)
http://www.parliament.nz/NR/rdonlyres/DFA6C21E-69A8-433F-8BA9-956431281F7F/222223/register2012_3.pdf (Pg 33)
“Rt Hon John KEY (National, Helensville)
……..
Bank of America – banking ”
How appropriate is it for the four people responsible for setting the ‘final price’ of Mighty River Power shares are those who seem ‘hell bent’ on selling off Mighty River Power at any price, seemingly regardless of the cost to taxpayers?
“.. I can advise that Cabinet has delegated authority to a group of Ministers to set the final price for shares in the Mighty River Power share offer. the group of Ministers is the Prime Minister (John Key) Minister of Finance (Bill English) , Minister for Economic Development and Associate Minister of Finance Steven Joyce, and Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (Tony Ryall).”
(Above-mentioned Official Information Act reply from Minister of State Owned Enterprises, Tony Ryall, dated 17 March 2013).
How many taxpayers (or investors) know this?
Prime Minister John Key, Minister of Finance Bill English, Minister for Economic Development and Associate Minister of Finance Steven Joyce, and Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Tony Ryall, must act in a fiscally responsible, and financially prudent way and look after the interests of taxpayers by calling of the sale of Mighty River Power – NOW.
The other risk the NZ Government faces is that thousands of new ‘Mum and Dad’ investors, not to mention larger investors, both national and international, may lose confidence in the NZ sharemarket, because of the uncertainty over this ‘unholy mess’ which is currently the Mighty River Power share launch.
Tomorrow – Saturday 27 April 2013 will be actions all over New Zealand opposing asset sales – which today’s protest outside Mighty River Power, will help to advertise:
More details here:
Auckland – http://www.fb.com/events/151078145052593/
Wellington – http://www.fb.com/events/549656878400623/
Chirstchurch – http://www.fb.com/events/498770806846579/
Hamilton – 1: http://www.fb.com/events/226408490833717/
2: http://www.fb.com/events/150556321785316/
Tauranga – http://www.fb.com/events/165947043558739/
Napier – http://www.fb.com/events/101180450070550/
Palmerston North – http://www.fb.com/events/428833110546101/
Nelson – http://www.fb.com/events/178199345664434/
Dunedin – http://www.fb.com/events/228130223991407/
Hanmer Springs (Sunday 28 April) -www.fb.com/events/571065112918062/
Greymouth (Sunday 28 April) – http://www.fb.com/pages/Greymouth-Sunday-Markets/334434963322711
Penny Bright
A Spokesperson for the Switch Off Mercury Energy group
https://www.facebook.com/SwitchOffMercuryEnergy?fref=ts
Well sand my nipples !
Have you paid your rates yet dear lady ?
“Have you paid your rates yet dear lady ?”
Nope.
And I won’t until Auckland Council ‘opens the books’ and tells us EXACTLY where our rates monies are being spent.
Penny Bright
‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption’ campaigner.
2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate
sounds pretty good to me why should they pay the workers when there not working and out on the street having a fucking whine
[r0b: farmboy, filling your comments with fucking swearing doesn’t impress anyone, and it (unfortunately) promotes comments in kind, and the whole thread gets derailed. Please calm down all, DNFTT.]
[lprent: Banned one week for what appears to have been a deliberate attempt to start a flame war. Banned a further week for wasting my time moving the thread to OpenMike and away from diverting from the post topic. ]
I dunno, why are we listening to you having a fucking whine?
i’m not whining there chapie as i said sounds pretty good, tis you that is now whining about my percieved whine
The sensible answer to your stupid question is to point out that “fucking whining” is a feeble mis-characterisation of the right to strike, you fucking child.
no i think it sums it up perfectly you whining fucking pussy harden up or fuck off
Yap yap little scab.
yap yap your fired
My fired what, you illiterate scab?
Wow, thats quite some rebuttle!
The lowering of the bar continues on the trool front though, you must be the mid afternoon shift !
Go away scab.
Get a horse. And a haircut. And a pickaxe handle. Ride into town to cleanse the streets. You can call yourself Key’s Cossacks.
And please, if you fall off the horse like that AWB idiot in South Africa, put the video on youtube.
might be hard to record myself while smashing heads with my pickaxe that sounds like a 2hander maybe they should just get the sack and someone more concerned about doing a decent days work for decent money as in affco should be hired that would sound pretty weird to you but alot of people actully work without havn a cry
Fuck off you lazy ignorant little cunt.
thats not a very nice way to talk about your mother
What’s your point, scab?
If Rambo can handle an M60 with one hand, but you need two for a pickaxe handle, what sort of righty are you? Bloody soft, that’s what I say. Now stop crying and look for a full stop, some commas, and a clue.
yea haha rambo now theres a guy who wouldnt have a cry while getting decent pay
Piss off scab.
Are we in the movie “Deliverance’?
Get used to our ‘whining’ Farm Boy (it is going to be a lot louder than the farmers who whinge because they can’t plan for a few weeks of sunshine)
You are going to hear us ‘whining’ up and down this country like you have never heard it before.
We will fight this bullshit in every way imaginable and bring this country to a stop if our ‘whines’ are ignored.
The workers of this country are not going to put with this.
Your stupidity is arousing… no pressure…. aha ha
Flippin heck, no-one told me we were having a swearathon today. And now the cunt’s been banned.
jolly gosh, and I jolly well jolly missed out again.
The New Lynn LEC is hosting the Whau Ward Selection Meeting tomorrow at 4.00.
It will be held in 3071 Great North Road, New Lynn, opposite the Police Station!
The Whau seat on the Council and the seven Whau Local Board seats will be contested by the Labour Party, with full Labour Party branding. All candidates will be members of the Labour Party.
Labour will present a full slate.
The Whau Ward is predominantly in the New Lynn Parliamentary electorate, with parts in the Mt Albert and the Mt Roskill electorates.
All Whau area LabourParty paid-up members are welcome to attend.
Damn – on the afternoon of an important day of action.
I’m glad to see that Labour will be putting up candidates for the Whau Board.
Livingweek to week waitin’ around to die
REpent
Every self respecting Auckland lefty and liberal will be at the weekend march against the sale of our assetsthis Saturday. Kicks off at 2 pm from Britomart.
Facebook notification is at http://www.facebook.com/events/151078145052593/
Any self respecting New Zealander should be there. You may have voted for National. Show the government this is not the reason you voted for them.
Selling assets is a sale of our sovereignty. If should affect all New Zealanders.
I regret nothing !
Persons without a conscience don’t.
from RNZ, apparently the Christchurch rebuild is to cost up to 30% /10B more than the government had until now calculated, coming to possibly 40B in total.
The governments reason for the conservative estimates include
-inflationary pressure
-impact upon total $NZ spend.
-impact on stake-holders costs; (insurers want to cap their debt), taxpayers and ratepayers
“Throw off your hat kick off your shoes
Throw down your gun you might shoot yourself
Or is that what you’re trying to do?”
“love in a peaceful world, yeah.”
So Grosers bid to be the next bigwig of the WTO has crashed and burned. So will he pay the obscene amount of money he has wasted on his pipe dream, back to the taxpayer? Will he fuck. What a waste of time and space he is. And he’s been collecting his taxpayer salary too, what a bludger.\
“The trade minister hit headlines last week when it emerged that he racked up travel expenses of almost $260,000 in the first three months of the year – nearly $3000 a day – as he lobbied for the WTO top job.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8599819/Grosers-WTO-bid-hits-the-rocks
How much does Groser’s lack of success reflect on NZ’s standing worldwide? How much did Key kill his chances?
Or Mike Moore.
well-played
And this little Gem caught my eye too.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/8598030/Call-for-NZ-to-be-tax-haven-for-retirees
Just what we need, a bunch of old, fat, loud, opinionated, rich Yanks coming here, and building gated communities to keep out the riff raff.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10879805
Forfeited to The Crown – WTF does that even mean, and who has that cash!
Where is the rest of the seized assets/cash ending up?
“Restrained” I presume that means frozen or otherwise encumbered.
It could possibly do with more information, yes.
Seems to be a slide in terminology in the article: $150mil “restrained” (i.e. my guess is frozen), but $27mil “forfeited” (my guess is completed the seizure process and handed over). However, once that is converted into cash and other creditors settled (article mentioned the banks of course, and spouses) a little over a third of that actually gets to the government (shit valuation of the property?), and of that ABSOLUTELY NONE goes to rehabilitation or addressing the causes of crime. All has disappeared into the consolidated fund, which the nats piss away like export gold (i.e. tip directly down the drain without involving the kidneys as middleman).
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10879823
With full support through the blue structure, is the only way this *lack of cooperation* could happen!
This is a bloody disgrace!
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/04/25/hey-julian-we-are-not-pleased-grant-robertson-calls-off-labours-assault-on-neoliberalism/
Looks like Chris Trotter’s regretting mistaking a turkey (housing policy) and a lone swallow (power policy) for a summer.
Robertson disappoints, but he does not surprise.
With only two policies announced AFAIK, isn’t the turkey a lone turkey, too?
sometimes Chris Trotter disappoints
Some of his analysis is quite good. I think that he let wishful thinking get the better of him.
McF: lone turkey
Considering that there’s a new Lone Ranger film due out, I’m already imagining what Gary Larson would do with that line…
“The Adventures of the Lone Turkey and Swallow!”
lol
sounds a bit close to porno territory for my, er, taste…
orh Rhino, now you’ve gone and spoilt the Arc for me.
Oh dear, here I was thinking along the lines of cartoon’s he’d done like “Frontier Accountants” and suddenly Rule 34 kicks in…
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleThirtyFour
For the economics wonks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averch-Johnson_effect
The Averch–Johnson effect is the tendency of companies to engage in excessive amounts of capital accumulation in order to expand the volume of their profits. If companies profits to capital ratio is regulated at a certain percentage then there is a strong incentive for companies to over-invest in order to increase profits overall. This goes against any optimal efficiency point for capital that the company may have calculated as higher profit is almost always desired over and above efficiency.
As far as I can tell, this effect describes the main reason our electricity prices are so high.
Bye bye 350ppm, hello 400 parts per million.
http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/the-science-of-350-the-most-important-number-on-the-planet.html
http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/what-does-400-ppm-look-like/
But it’s not really going to happen! Otherwise we’d be taking to the streets instead of sitting on the internet calling each other names or arguing about politics and shit.
*shudder*
It’s not really them that we have to worry about though. It’s us and all the people we know that know that CC is real but still aren’t doing much about it.
Our civilisation’s very foundations depends on energy, lots and lots of energy.
We’re not going to give it up voluntarily.
How is the Government going to get a ‘good price’ for Mighty River Power’?
CALL OFF THE SALE!
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/labour-greens-electricity-policy-halves-publics-mrp-appetite-bd-139218
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption / anti-privatisation’ campaigner
44% of kiwis living pay day to pay day.
That’ll be why every one looks so carefree and relaxed, then.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10879848
The Allen: That is the way I have lived here since I arrived! I NEVER saved and got anywhere, really, as just working honestly and hardly leaves you nowhere but down at the bottom. NZ has NOT improved or changed substantially since the 1980s, apart for a few. That is the sad reality, especially for ordinary, low paid workers, and certainly for benficiaries. Fuck National AND Labour for that!
Preaching to the choir, Bruv.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul since forever.
FORGET NOT, AND LEARN!
I have not taken a “knife” to WINZ, which I thought of doing so, but North cautioned me. I was not really decided and ready to let off my anger about welfare reforms and to be expected harassments in that manner. But given the most intimidating steps to be expected soon, I will not make any promise or take any commitments to what I can, can restrain myself from, or what may otherwise happen. I have been treated with utter contempt before and was near suicide, due to WINZ and MSD agendas and treatments.
This present Nat dominated government is pushing many of us to the brink, and if I need to take action, I will do so, even if I need to take the last step to take my life.
I HATE New Zealand for what this country has been turned into, it is now a disgustingly unfair, divided, racist and hateful place, I wish I had never come back to. It is up to YOU to make a difference and take a stand.
Much is happening behind the scenes, but few understand and will be prepared to listen.
Good luck, if you believe that freedom, democracy and rights will be preserved by sitting at home, blogging, chatting and otherwise just minding your own selective interests, you will soon see another thing coming. Iit is too much cowardice that rules this country.
For FUCKS sake, wake up, take a stand, and go on the Day of Action Today!!!
I respect and see my ideal in Che Guevara, as I identify very much with this man!
Xtasy in desperation!
Oh dear, oh dear, a few hundred marching and “holding up traffic” in Queen Street on the “Day of Action Against Asset Sales”, a supposed one hundred marching in Wellington, and was there any few others that bothered? Seems that to most the horse has bolted long ago, and it is more of “roll over Kiwis” all over the land. Yawn, sigh, what a mess!
That is how much people care, division is the rule now, self interest and self pre-occupation the prime ambition, so next election will likely show another term for this semi dictotorial lot running the show.
Import more slaves to do the dirty jobs at service stations in supermarkets, as cleaners in your offices, in fast food and restaurant outlets, in bars and what else need done to keep the show running.
F*** the rest, that seems to be the motto of most.
RIP NZ.