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.
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).”
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.
Covid and climate change have been changing the face of tourism. That’s why it seemed oddly premature last week for Tourism Minister Stuart to announce that New Zealand isn’t interested in mass tourism any more, or in attracting the sort of budget visitors who “travel around our country on $10 ...
Here’s a fantastic interview by Moana Maniapoto talking with law professor and courageous public intellectual Jane Kelsey, on her retirement from university life. The whole 17 minutes is really worth watching. It’s good to place Prof Kelsey in context with this brief, accessible retrospective look. She has always struck me ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Kennedy Thousands of people have died attempting to enter the U.S. from Mexico. And the crossing is growing even more dangerous as the climate changes. U.S. border security policy in the Southwest is designed to deter unauthorized migration at heavily guarded ...
So we have ourselves yet another promotional clip for The Rings of Power, this time one focusing on the show’s characterisation of Galadriel: Her task has only just begun. Meet Galadriel in #TheRingsOfPower. pic.twitter.com/Ebj9TLph6N— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo) August 16, 2022 The usual suspects have been denigrating this ...
What kind of political activists incite fear and alarm, set a goal to make their country “ungovernable”, milk their followers for funds, then encourage them stand for local government posts – but tell them to conceal their affiliations for the sake of attracting votes from the ignorant? The sleazy, in ...
Activist Mike Smith has been in court for the last few days, as part of a case seeking to hold Fonterra, New Zealand Steel, and other large emitters accountable for the pollution they produce. Along the way, the case has raised serious questions about whether the courts are worth anything ...
We have ourselves a new thirty-second Rings of Power clip, which is getting some pushback for allegedly hinting at a romance between Galadriel and the invented character of Halbrand: New promo pic.twitter.com/Lgns310jt5— The Mellon Heads – LOTR Podcast (@mellon_heads) August 15, 2022 Oh, the handwringing. Poor Teleporno finding himself ...
There’s been quite the reaction to the Stuff Circuit documentary covering what took place outside Parliament. Among other things, that has prompted further conversations about not only its direct relationship to the shape of the consumption of modern media, but the media machine itself… and of course the social ...
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a 750,000 word IPCC report is logically worth 750 pictures. John Lang, Net Zero Tracker lead with the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit and science communicator, is trying out a new way of seeing climate change, one picture at a time. The length of ...
For the past few years Renters United has been calling for rent controls to stop gouging landlords. Now, that call has been taken up by the Human Rights Commission: The Human Rights Commission/Te Kāhui Tika Tangata is calling for an immediate rent freeze and an increase to the accommodation ...
Totally worth watching: Robbie Nicol (of White Man Behind A Desk) explains …”After the protests [at Parliament Buildings, Wellington] in February, I tried to write a monologue about Facebook and radicalisation — and it ended up being 17 minutes long lol.” Surely Facebook’s twisted, evil, money-at-all-costs approach – radicalising users ...
When it comes to funding and managing public transport, should local government or central government bear most of the responsibility for delivering a quality service? Ratepayers or taxpayers? Those basic questions re-surfaced yesterday, after the government announced its intention to scrap the Public Transport Operating Model (PTOM) imposed by the ...
Last week’s visit to New Zealand by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was another in a series of high-level calls on the country by top US military and political figures this year. Sherman’s trip to Wellington came soon after a stop in New Zealand’s capital by Admiral John ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Philip Warburg Often described as a giant tower of Jenga blocks, Boston University’s Center for Computing and Data Sciences shows no outward signs of leading the race to sustainable energy design. No rooftop wind turbines grace its heights; no solar panels are ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh 13 August 2022 On Friday 12th, an assailant attacked Salman Rushdie on stage in New York, stabbing him some 15 times. The author was whisked away by helicopter to a hospital and at the time of writing the prognosis is that he will survive though with ...
Even if you only have a cursory interest in politics, it’s likely you’ve heard of an outfit called Counterspin, which is a streaming media outlet that propagates fake news and encourages severe acts of violence. Based along similar lines as Infowars, Counterspin is run by a trumped-up little fascist named ...
He’s got the fire and the furyAt his commandWell, you don’t have to worryIf you hold on to Jesus’ handWe’ll all be safe from SatanWhen the thunder rollsWe just gotta keep the devilWay down in the hole─ Tom Waits, “Way Down In The Hole”WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE about Stuff Circuit’s ...
Back in 2013, the then-National government imposed the public transport operating model, requiring local authorities to contract out their bus services to the lowest bidder. Now, its being reversed: The system that bus drivers and their union say has created the “race to the bottom” is on the out, ...
RNZ had a piece this morning about Waka Kotahi's plans for smart speed cameras allowing things like point-to-point average speed tickets and so on. There are obvious privacy issues here, which waka Kotahi seems to have completely ignored, having signed a contract before they were even investigated, let alone addressed. ...
Gather round the camp-fire, folks. Let me tell you about the Ice Age era of the fourth Labour government, when mean, sabre-toothed tigers like Richard Prebble ranged at large within the Labour caucus. A being so mean and fierce that – legend has it – he once made Michael Cullen ...
Dear Aotearoa, we have a major problem that is inhibiting our success, namely racism. Destroying old and young alike, racism in New Zealand is the silent assassin, a killer that permeates through every facet of our society.On Thursday, the NZ Herald reported:Cricket: Black Caps great Ross Taylor's racism claim outlined ...
CLIMATE CHANGE UPDATE IN IMAGES 2022I am just wondering how hot is too hot before we commit to real global action to reduce our emissions and save our climate and natural environment. The images below are what has occurred in the northern hemisphere summer and it is likely we will ...
Salman Rushdie has been stabbed while on stage in New York where he was about to give a talk. He is now undergoing surgery. The British novelist has lived under death threats since the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against him in 1989 and put a $3 ...
Two-and-a-half years on, the Government’s merged mega-polytechnic, the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology – Te Pūkenga, is facing a deficit which is double the planned one. Will Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) be facing similar troubles in December 2024?Why did the Government centralise the 20 ...
A couple of months ago, in response to a Newsroom piece about what endemic covid means for Aotearoa, I asked Treasury and the Ministry of Health what advice they'd produced on the impacts of "long covid" on the economy and health system. Treasury responded quickly, admitting that they hadn't been ...
On The Way Out: Gaurav Sharma has clearly had enough of Parliament and is more than ready to return to his life as a medical professional. What he has been willing to do on the way out, however, is draw aside the curtain, if only for a moment, and let ...
The Empire Within Which Bullying Never Ceased: The bitter truth about Great Britain’s “public” schools (and their many imitators in the Empire’s far-flung dominions) is that they were consciously designed to produce a very particular kind of imperial administrator. These men needed to be courageous, but not compassionate; clever, but ...
A most amazingly air-tight conspiracy Not research, but research-related. Skeptical Science reader John G. writes to point out an omission in our collection of rebuttals: "You are failing to rebut a prevailing narrative which blames a Globalist Elite for promoting CC as part of The Great Reset."Thank you John, ...
The travails of National MP Sam Uffindell are bad news for the National party in more ways than one. The obvious question is as to how an applicant with such a disreputable history could have secured the nomination as the National candidate in the Tauranga by-election. National’s vetting procedures seem ...
The “A View from Afar” podcast with Selwyn Manning and I resumed after a months hiatus. We discussed the PRC-Taiwan tensions in the wake of Nancy Pelosi’s visit and what pathways, good and bad, may emerge from the escalation of hostilities between the mainland and island. You can find it ...
A ballot for one member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill (Eugenie Sage) The bill is pitched as protecting conservation land, and it does immediately do that. But it also goes further, doing exactly what it ...
Sam Uffindell’s defenders keep reminding us that he was only 16 at the time of the King’s College incident, and haven’t we all done things in our teens that, as adults, we look back on with shame and embarrassment? True. Let’s be honest. Haven’t we all at one time or ...
Our media insists on telling us that Ukraine is a unified country suffering aggression from its neighbour the Russian Federation. But it is hardly unified. A violent civil war has raged there since the overthrow of the democratically elected government in February 2014. This civil war arose from deep ...
If National causes yet another by-election to be held in Tauranga, not only will it cost the taxpayers another unnecessary $1m for the taxpayers after Simon Bridges called it quits earlier in the year, but National will also pay a big price in terms of its reputation and integrity. A ...
Representing Pakeha Racism: The important thing to remember about Rob Muldoon, and the racist policies with which his name is associated, is that he drew his power from the hundreds-of-thousands of anxious, angry, and yes – racist – Pakeha who voted for him, and that his most effective campaign slogan was: “New Zealand the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The U.S. Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act by a single vote on Sunday, August 7. The bill, headed to the House of Representatives within days, includes by far the largest and most consequential measures to reduce domestic climate pollution in the nation’s ...
I remember feeling anxious before making the phone call, although not at anxious I might have expected. But what sticks most in my mind is how the phone call ended. It was the late 1990s. I was deputy editor of the NZ Listener and I had to ring a guy ...
National is dripping “blue blood” again. The revelations over Sam Uffindell’s violent assault indicate that the National Party under Christopher Luxon hasn’t quite shed the toxicity and internal damage of the last few years. The crises besetting the party have recently been well documented in journalist Andrea Vance’s new book ...
Most of us believe in redemption and atonement… But the timing, the nature and the semantics of Sam Uffindell‘s apology for his role in a gang that beat a younger kid (reportedly) with wooden bed legs, has left much to be desired. The victim seems pretty clear about the motivation ...
Yesterday the news broke that newly elected National MP Sam Uffindell was asked to leave private Auckland school King’s College at the end of his fifth form year after being part of a group that viciously beat a younger student one night. There are many elements to this latest political ...
You’ve got to wonder why the National Party knowingly hid information from the public about their newest MP, Sam Uffindell. Surely they must’ve realised that their secret would eventually leak into the public domain. New Zealand is far too small for cover-ups of this kind to be effective.Despite his violent ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk With high energy prices and increasing urgency to reduce fossil fuel burning, it makes sense to get the most out of every gallon of gasoline or kilowatt-hour of electricity. A previous post showed that charging an EV costs around $1.41 per gallon ...
Back in the 1990s, Tony Blair rebranded The British Labour Party as “New Labour”, to try and draw a line under past failures. It’s as if Christopher Luxon is attempting to follow suit, and launch “New National” at the moment – a party that’s fresh-looking, has made some big breaks ...
Back in June Sam Uffindell was elected to parliament in the Tauranga by-election. Turns out he's a bully who beat a kid with a bed-leg at school: The National Party’s newest MP, Sam Uffindell, was asked to leave his exclusive boarding school after viciously beating a younger student late ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Electoral Amendment Bill. Submissions are due by Wednesday, 31 August 2022, and can be made at the link above. The bill improves disclosure of party finances, lowering the declaration threshold to $5,000 and requiring parties to disclose their annual financial statements. ...
Laughing With The Poor Folks - Or At Them? Christopher Luxon took rapper LunchMoney Lewis’s lyrics at their face value. “Bills”, as heard by Luxon, is a cri-de-cœur from a hard-working man determined to pull himself and his family up by their own bootstraps. It simply wouldn’t occur to him ...
On the rare occasions when it ever gets asked, the public keeps rejecting tax cuts as such, as a policy priority. It keeps saying it wants tax levels to either stay the same or be increased, so that public services can be maintained, or even (perish the thought) improved. In ...
Europe has been baking in a heatwave, of course. Not so much this part of the world, which benefits by still being in Winter (though let’s just say I am not looking forward to January 2023). Not that it’s been a particularly cold Winter – we haven’t had one ...
The Wagner Group is a private military company – effectively mercenaries. It has been used for the military activity of the Russian Federation in various parts of the world. Currently, it is operating in Ukraine and apparently has a reputation as a very brave and effective force in the ...
I have said this in other forums, but here is the deal: PRC military exercises after Pelosi’s visit are akin to male gorillas who run around thrashing branches and beating their chests when annoyed, disturbed or seeking to show dominance. They are certainly dangerous and not to be ignored, but ...
From July 7 to 26 we tried something new on our Facebook page by sharing one Cranky Uncle cartoon each day for 20 days in a row. There were two reasons for doing this: firstly, we wanted to ensure that at least one post would get published each day while I was ...
Too many commentators on current price pressures have not understood that this time it is very different from the 1970s. Their prescriptions may accelerate inflation.The New Zealand economy is experiencing an external price shock arising from the Covid pandemic and the Ukrainian invasion compounded by related supply chain difficulties. It ...
During the years of the Key government one hardy perennial of political journalism was that whenever the Labour Opposition would suggest a policy alternative to the status quo, the hard bitten response from the Gallery realists would be “But how’re you gonna pay for it?” National in Opposition has been ...
In The Wizard’s Garden: George Dunlop Leslie, 1904IT ALL SEEMS so long ago now, and, to be fair, in human terms, 48 years is a long time. New Zealand was a different country in 1974. Someone unafraid of courting controversy might say it had achieved “Peak Pakeha”. Although the Labour Government of ...
Proximate Cause: Tellingly, it was Helen Clark who was seated close by when, earlier this week, Jacinda Ardern delivered a speech carefully crafted to keep New Zealand’s dairy exports heading China’s way. Photo by PolitikPURISTS WOULD ARGUE that New Zealand’s foreign policy should not be determined by who its Prime Minister ...
We have a new clip out of The Rings of Power. It sees Galadriel and the affectionately nicknamed Gigwit* venturing into dark places in search of evil. At fifty-odd seconds, it also constitutes the longest single piece of show dialogue we have seen thus far. *An acronym. “Galadriel Is ...
Rising To The Challenge: Te Pāti Māori is reassuring the angry and the alienated that in 2023 voting will make a difference. Aotearoa is changing. Pakeha – especially young Pakeha – are changing. The racism is still there, of course, heightened, it would seem, by the prospect of Labour, the ...
"CAGW." A thing? With its provocative title and remarks grounded in respected published research, the perspective Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has caused a few ripples reaching into popular media. "Endgame" and "catastrophic" lean hard in the direction of "pay ...
In the past there's been a few interesting data points about the New Zealand Intelligence Community's desire to covertly manipulate public opinion through media and academic mouthpieces. In 2015 the Council for Civil Liberties revealed the existence of an NZIC "Strategic Communications Group" tasked with persuading the public that spying ...
Inflation is through the roof, and "coincidentally" so is oil company profiteering. UN Secretary-General António Guterres calls it what it is: grotesque: The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has described the record profits of oil and gas companies as immoral and urged governments to introduce a windfall tax, using ...
What on earth is going on with the main opposition parties at the moment? Both National and ACT have been making numerous flip-flops and miscommunications, clearly indicating that they aren’t a viable alternative to the current Labour led Government.Of particular note is the duplicitous reasoning given for why they support ...
A ballot for two member's bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Housing Infrastructure (GST-sharing) Bill (Brooke van Velden) Prohibition on Seabed Mining Legislation Amendment Bill (Debbie Ngarewa-Packer) Ngarewa-Packer's bill looks likely to start a shitfight with Labour, and not just because the ...
As you might have noticed, I have an on-going interest in working my way through old and intellectually influential reading material. Occasionally I even share my thoughts on it, which allows me to take a break from my generally-dominant Tolkien analysis. Well, today I thought I would take a ...
The Green Party says the Government is right to carry out a full review of the Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) scheme - but says the review should start right now. ...
Our Government wants New Zealand to be the best place in the world to be a child, and we have a plan to make sure that’s a reality. We’ve put the wellbeing of children and families at the heart of our work since taking office in 2017 – from putting ...
The Green Party backs the Human Rights Commission’s call for an immediate rent freeze followed by reform of the rental system to guarantee that everyone has a warm, dry, affordable place to live. ...
The Green Party has once again shown that bringing people together to demand change works, with the announcement today that the Government will give communities a greater say over how their local transport services are run. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to ensure that as a nation which produces enough food to feed 40 million people, everyone in New Zealand can put an abundance of nourishing, nutritious kai on the table. ...
Following months of work by the Green Party and community and environmental organisations, Parliament will have the opportunity to pass legislation to protect public conservation land and waters from mining. ...
New evidence released today by Alcohol Healthwatch shows there’s never been a better time for Parliament to pass Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick’s Alcohol Harm Minimisation Bill. ...
We’re helping more Kiwis into work, to help support whānau, grow our skilled workforce and secure our economy for future generations. During our time in Government, we’ve delivered record low unemployment rates, as well as a steady fall in the number of New Zealanders receiving a main benefit, and we’re ...
The Green Party once again calls on the Government to ban bottom trawling on all seamounts following the release of an industry white paper on so-called ‘sustainable’ trawling. ...
Urgent reform is essential to ensure disabled people have equal access to the care and support they need, the Green Party says in response to a new report that challenges politicians to fix the current system. ...
Emerging from an energetic selection meeting, we’re pleased to announce that Kaydee Zabelin and Brent Barrett are your Green Party candidates for Palmerston North City Council. ...
COVID-19 is here to stay and so the Government needs to put in place long-term protection measures, including mandatory ventilation standards, the Green Party says. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to overhaul the Recognised Seasonal Employers scheme in the wake of revelations of shocking human rights violations. ...
The Green Party is calling for a cross-party commitment to guaranteeing at least a living wage and safe working conditions to people seeking employment, instead of continuing benefit sanctions. ...
The Green Party is once again calling on the Government to announce its support for a moratorium on deep sea mining, and to support a member’s bill going to select committee. ...
The Government must take steps to ensure that the way we build our homes is helping to meet New Zealand’s climate change targets, the Green Party said. ...
The Government’s employment initiatives led by the Ministry of Social Development must guarantee liveable incomes and fair working conditions, the Green Party says. ...
New Zealanders deserve a health system that works for everyone, no matter who you are or where you live. Our Government has a plan to make this a reality, and we’re taking the next steps. We now have thousands more health professionals, such as doctors and nurses, working in New ...
During her time as Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern has navigated New Zealand through unprecedented times. Through it all, she’s become known as someone who leads with kindness, compassion and strength, while keeping the wellbeing of Kiwis at the heart of her approach. To celebrate five years of Jacinda leading the ...
Since taking office in 2017, our Government has worked hard to lift wages and make life more affordable for New Zealanders, as we move forward with our plan to grow a secure economy for all. ...
The Government is making an initial contribution of $200,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Nelson/Tasman and Marlborough following prolonged heavy rain, flooding and high winds this week, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “My thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted by severe weather ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has wrapped up her first official visit to Niue, reaffirming Aotearoa New Zealand’s commitment to work together to strengthen resilience in the region and support climate action. During the visit, Nanaia Mahuta met Niue Premier Dalton Tagelagi and Cabinet, and was the first outside speaker to ...
In line with Aotearoa New Zealand’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the UK and the EU, the Government is establishing an Artist Resale Royalty Scheme to ensure the creators of visual arts are recognised and rewarded when their work is resold on the secondary art market. “This is about fairness. ...
A total of 29 Pacific businesses located across regional New Zealand have received up to a $100,000 each from the Pacific Aotearoa Regional Enterprise Fund, said Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio. The Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment’s Kānoa - Regional Economic Development and Investment Unit, transferred $2 ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker today released the Government’s response to the Future of Commercial Fishing in Aotearoa New Zealand report. “The report has already been influential in shaping this Government’s approach to oceans and fisheries management,” David Parker said. The report calls for immediate evidence-based action and identified ...
A Kiwi trawling innovation that enables most undersized fish to escape unharmed is going global with the help of government funding. “We’re supporting the further improvement of a fishing system that enables fish to swim freely and thereby allowing juveniles and non-targeted species to escape,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister David ...
The Government is providing $6.5 million to a programme that will grow and retain the numbers of Māori in the research, science and innovation workforce. “Growing a research workforce where the perspectives and expertise of Māori are well represented is a key part of ensuring we have a thriving and ...
The Government is increasing the number of funded clinical psychology internships and the payment interns receive on placement to support more students to choose clinical psychology as a career and address mental health workforce demand. By 2024 we will have increased the number of interns to 40 every year, along ...
Environment Minister David Parker’s address on how the future resource management system will protect the environment Chateau on the Park, Christchurch 17 August 2022 Tēnā koutou katoa Thank you for coming here today to discuss the reform of the resource management system and in particular how the future system will ...
Workers’ have experienced their biggest pay hike on record, outstripping inflation. Stats NZ figures show median weekly earnings from wages and salaries jumped by 8.8 percent in the June year, the largest annual increase since records began in 1998 and well ahead of inflation at 7.3 percent. “This is an ...
Pacific community organisations are strongly urged to apply for the Pacific Community Health Fund, now open for applications. “Pacific communities know what works for our communities, and what will create positive changes to lift Pacific wellbeing for families,” said the Associate Minister of Health Aupito William Sio. “We only have ...
Savings for a family with two children at school of up to $62 a week, over $2000 a year Lunches now reaching 220,000 kids at 950 schools every school day A million lunches delivered a week, over 63 million in total to date 2,361 jobs created or retained The Government’s ...
The Government is continuing to make regional economies stronger and more resilient with investment in a project that will likely create the world’s first commercial seaweed-based nanocellulose manufacturing plant. The innovative $1.5 million project in Paeroa in the Waikato is being supported with a $750,000 loan from the Government’s Regional ...
A new partnership strategy aimed at putting the decision-making and support for children in need in the hands of the community has been officially launched in Kaitaia by Minister for Children Kelvin Davis. TE ATATŪ, formed in partnership with Te Kahu Oranga Whānau and Oranga Tamariki, is the first such ...
$6million investment in research into three green hydrogen projects New Zealand research teams now able to access European green hydrogen research facilities and expertise A green hydrogen research programme has been established with Germany will support Aotearoa New Zealand’s move towards a more sustainable, low-emissions economy, Research, Science and Innovation ...
Minister for Māori Development Willie Jackson today announced the allocation of the remaining $14.9 million of the $20 million Budget 2021 investment into the Māori Boarding Schools initiative. The four Māori boarding schools play a significant role in the development of future Māori leaders. They have been long-standing, staunch advocates ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta today announced the appointment of Andre Van Der Walt as New Zealand’s next High Commissioner to Kiribati. “As a Pacific nation we value our strong and enduring relationships throughout the region, especially with Kiribati,” Nanaia Mahuta said. “Our two nations share a strong partnership based on ...
More than a third of eligible migrants are now New Zealand residents thanks to the Government’s one-off, simplified path to residence, providing a way forward for migrant families and certainty for New Zealand businesses, Minister of Immigration Michael Wood has announced. “This is great news for our migrant families and ...
New Zealand is making a further significant deployment of 120 New Zealand Defence Force personnel to the United Kingdom to help train Ukraine soldiers, as part of an international effort to help Ukraine continue to defend itself against Russia’s illegal war. It follows a completed deployment of 30 NZDF personnel ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will visit Niue and Tonga this week to engage kanohi ki te kanohi with counterparts, and progress work on Aotearoa New Zealand’s Pacific Resilience and climate action priorities. “After the disruption caused by COVID-19 border closures, this is another opportunity to connect in-person with our ...
Our new approach to public transport will: Support ‘on-demand’ public transport services Allow councils to own and operate services in house Improve pay and working conditions Deliver routes and services that reflect community needs Incentivise the decarbonisation of the fleet Workers and public transport users are at the heart of ...
As-salamu alaykum, Tena tatou katoa, Thank you all for being here today. To the Afghan human rights defenders and your family members, welcome to Aotearoa. And thank you Your Excellency for hosting us all here at Government House. We have with us today from Afghanistan, human rights advocates, journalists, judges, ...
It’s my great pleasure to be able to speak with you about a really positive move for the Build-to-Rent sector. As you know, we announced changes last year to help steer property investors way from the existing pool of housing and toward solving New Zealand’s grave housing shortage - by ...
· Tax changes aimed at growing quality, secure rental supply · New and existing build-to-rent developments exempt from interest limitation rules in perpetuity, when offering ten-year tenancies · Exemption to apply from 1 October 2021. The Government is encouraging more long-term rental options by giving developers tax incentives for as ...
The Government has marked another milestone in its push for better rural connectivity, welcoming the delivery of Rural Connectivity Group’s (RCG) 350th tower. Waikato’s Te Ākau, which sits roughly 50 kilometres out of Hamilton is home to the new tower. “The COVID 19 pandemic has highlighted the ever-increasing importance of ...
Biosecurity co-operation topped the agenda when Australia and New Zealand’s agriculture ministers met yesterday. Australia’s Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Senator Murray Watt met with his New Zealand counterpart, Damien O’Connor, Minister of Agriculture, Biosecurity, and Rural Communities in a conference call, which had particular focus on foot and ...
People could spend less time in hospital, thanks to a smart new remote device that lets patients be monitored at home, Health Minister Andrew Little says. “Technology has the potential to really change the way we do things – to do things that are better for patients and at the ...
Concrete steps to clarify inclusive, evidence-informed teaching practices Strengthen capability supports along the professional pathway Enhance partnerships between the education system and whānau, iwi, communities Embed equitable additional learning supports and assessment tools that help teachers effectively notice and respond to the needs of students Improved student achievement is a ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to strengthen global prevention, preparedness and responses to future pandemics with seed funding for a new World Bank initiative, Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. “We cannot afford to wait until the next pandemic. We must all play our part to support developing countries ...
A law change to ensure that forestry conversions by overseas investors benefit New Zealand has passed its final reading in Parliament. Previously, overseas investors wishing to convert land, such as farm land, into forestry only needed to meet the “special forestry test”. This is a streamlined test, designed to encourage ...
International tourism recovery well underway with higher level of overseas visitor arrivals than previously expected UK and US card spend already back at pre-COVID levels Visitors staying in New Zealand longer and spending more compared to 2019 Govt support throughout pandemic helped tourism sector prepare for return of international ...
The Ministry for Ethnic Communities has released its first strategy, setting out the actions it will take over the next few years to achieve better wellbeing outcomes for ethnic communities Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities Priyanca Radhakrishnan announced today. “The Strategy that has been released today sets out ...
The Prime Minister has officially opened the Hawke’s Bay Regional Aquatic Centre today saying it is a huge asset to the region and to the country. “This is a world class facility which will be able to host national and international events including the world championships. With a 10-lane Olympic ...
The Associate Minister of Education, Aupito William Sio, has today announced the recipients of the Tulī Takes Flight scholarships which were a key part of last year’s Dawn Raids apology. The scholarships are a part of the goodwill gesture of reconciliation to mark the apology by the New Zealand Government ...
96% of estimated menstruating students receive free period products 2085 schools involved 1200 dispensers installed Supports cost of living, combats child poverty, helps increase attendance Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti today hailed the free period products in schools, Ikura | Manaakitia te whare tangata, a huge success, acknowledging ...
The Tourism Industry Transformation Plan outlines key actions to improve the sector This includes a Tourism and Hospitality Accord to set employment standards Developing cultural competency within the workforce Improving the education and training system for tourism Equipping business owners and operators with better tools and enabling better work ...
Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications Dr David Clark welcomes Google Cloud’s decision to make New Zealand a cloud region. “This is another major vote of confidence for New Zealand’s growing digital sector, and our economic recovery from COVID 19,” David Clark said. “Becoming a cloud region will mean ...
A package of changes to NCEA and University Entrance announced today recognise the impact COVID-19 has had on senior secondary students’ assessment towards NCEA in 2022, says Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti. “We have heard from schools how significant absences of students and teachers, as a result of COVID-19, ...
Te Reo Māori tauparapara… Tapatapa tū ki te Rangi! Ki te Whei-ao! Ki te Ao-mārama Tihei mauri ora! Stand at the edge of the universe! of the spiritual world! of the physical world! It is the breath of creation Formal acknowledgments… [Your Highness Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II and Masiofo] ...
The Government’s commitment to combatting firearms violence has reached another significant milestone today with the passage of the Firearms Prohibition Order Legislation Bill, Police Minister Chris Hipkins says. The new law helps to reduce firearm-related crime by targeting possession, use, or carriage of firearms by people whose actions and behaviours ...
The rate of early learning centre closures is on track to more than double on last year, showing the government’s teacher Pay Parity initiative still isn’t working two years into its three year timeline. 48 early learning centres closed between ...
Deputy National Commander Brendan Nally says all 111 for fire calls will be answered and Fire and Emergency NZ will continue to respond to fire emergencies during the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union strike between 11am and 12 noon this ...
In 2019, our report Using different processes to protect marine environments examined how effective two processes were in developing marine reserve proposals in New Zealand, with a specific focus on the processes’ implementation guidelines, inclusiveness, ...
A View from Afar – In this podcast, political scientist Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning analyse the ongoing war in Ukraine. Specifically, they examine how the invading forces of Russia are struggling against a determined and well-equipped Ukraine defence. What can we expect next from Russia? How can western ...
Buzz from the Beehive It’s not the sort of accomplishment – some of us might think – that a Prime Minister would be proud to bray about. The Government’s healthy lunches in school programme has ramped up to deliver a million free lunches to school kids every week. The PM ...
Today Te Tai Ōhanga, Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga and Te Pūtea Matua are publishing a joint paper that provides an assessment of the key drivers of the housing market over the last 20 years. The joint paper was authored by the Housing Technical Working ...
Painters and other visual artists whose work is resold will get 5 percent in royalties under a new scheme set up as part of the EU and UK trade agreements, the government has announced. ...
Painters and other visual artists whose work is resold will get 5 percent in royalties under a new scheme set up as part of the EU and UK trade agreements, the government has announced. ...
The signals were clear enough before the on-line Labour caucus meeting this week and – sure enough – Hamilton West Dr Guarav Sharma was suspended. No surprises, then – except did it also mark the formal burial of the Prime Minister’s “be kind” policy? Sharma had been labelled a “rogue” ...
Injury statistics for work-related claims give information about claims accepted by ACC for work-related injuries. Key facts A total of 223,300 work-related claims were made in 2021 (up 4,800 from 2020). In 2021, the incidence rate of all ...
The experimental weekly series provides an early indicator of employment and labour market changes in a more timely manner than the monthly employment indicators series. Key facts The 6-day series includes jobs with a pay period equal to or less than ...
Treasury advisors warned the government against extending Fuel Excise Tax and Road User Charge reductions beyond August, saying it would lead to an expectation they would continue. ...
Auckland Council and Auckland Transport released their Transport Emissions Reduction Pathway (TERP) this week, calling for a significant increase in public transport use. The Free Fares campaign supports this call, urging the Government to implement ...
Local Government NZ (LGNZ) is backing IAG’s pragmatic and sensible solutions to help reduce flood risk in the country. “Tens of thousands of New Zealanders live in houses that are prone to flooding,” says LGNZ’s Chief Executive Susan Freeman-Greene. ...
A View from Afar – In this podcast, political scientist Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning will analyse the ongoing war in Ukraine. Specifically, we will examine how the invading forces of Russia are struggling against a determined and well-equipped Ukraine defence. What can we expect next from Russia? How ...
The Māori Party’s push to have representation in Local Government has had a successful start with incumbent Bay of Plenty Regional Councillor, Toi Kai Rakau Iti, being re-elected unopposed. Iti is taking his re-election as a vote of confidence and not ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood has confirmed the government will do a full review of the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme early next year. ...
A report which found the country's health and safety regulator lacks a clear strategy and cannot say if it is effective is "shocking", the National Party says. ...
The latest rise in the official cash rate by the Reserve Bank on Wednesday has only cemented the need for Government to respond positively to unions calling for a unified pay increase to recognise people working across the education, health and wider public ...
Having found time in his busy schedule, missing civil servant Stephen Town has hung up his boots and resigned from his $13,000-a-week garden leave ‘job’ - which is cushy even for Wellington. “We are delighted that our efforts to find Stephen ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says that cuts to Government spending are a far better way to deal with the inflation crisis than the Reserve Bank of New Zealand hiking the Official Cash Rate – and the public agree. Kiwi voters understand the drivers behind ...
The Monetary Policy Committee today increased the Official Cash Rate (OCR) to 3 percent from 2.5 percent. The Committee agreed it remains appropriate to continue to tighten monetary conditions at pace to maintain price stability and contribute ...
It’s a tense time in New Zealand’s farming industries. Already the Ministry for Primary Industries has had to shoot down an overseas news report that China had shut its borders to NZ and Australian products due to concerns about foot-and-mouth. NZ exports to China are continuing as normal, a Ministry ...
Buzz from the Beehive Promoting the wellbeing of Māori is the common factor in three of the latest four Beehive announcements. The government is providing $14.9 million (from of the $20 million Budget 2021 investment into the Māori Boarding Schools initiative) to four Māori boarding schools; and ...
There has been little progress in closing the gender pay gap despite record low unemployment, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions said today following the release of labour market data by Statistics NZ. The overall gender pay gap has stubbornly ...
“There are far too many dairies now also operating as licenced ‘Specialist Vape Retailers’. It makes a mockery of our vaping laws and so we’re pleased the Government is going to tidy up this unintended consequence,” says Nancy Loucas, co-founder ...
Median weekly earnings from wages and salaries rose by 8.8 percent to $1,189 in the year to the June 2022 quarter, Stats NZ said today. The 8.8 percent annual increase in median weekly earnings from wages and salaries was the largest annual increase ...
Hamilton West MP Gaurav Sharma's office has one staff member and no further decisions have been made on his staffing since he publicly accused Labour colleagues of bullying. ...
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff, Deputy Mayor Bill Cashmore and Regulatory Committee Chair Linda Cooper will today present Auckland Council’s submission [speaking notes attached] to the government’s Finance Expenditure Committee hearing on the proposed Water ...
The MP's suspension from Labour's caucus will be reviewed in December but caucus could agree to expel him sooner if he breaches party rules again, the Prime Minister says. ...
The Accessibility for New Zealanders Bill is aimed at addressing the accessibility barriers faced by disabled people, tāngata whaikaha, and others, so they can live independently and participate fully in all areas of life. The bill also aims to ensure ...
Labour MPs may well be determining the fate of Hamilton West MP Gaurav Sharma at a special caucus meeting, as this post is being written. According to Stuff, the party’s MPs will enter a virtual meeting at 2.30pm on Tuesday and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was expected to speak to ...
Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr has a lot on his plate at present. He is battling to hose down prices which have been rising faster than they have done for 30 years, while at the same time “maximising” sustainable employment. It’s a task none of his predecessors had to undertake. ...
Te Tari Taiwhenua is inviting members of the public to apply to the current funding round of the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust. The Trust chairman, Mr Paul Chin, encourages people to make applications for proposals that support the aims of the Trust. The ...
The Independent Monitoring Mechanism (IMM) says that disabled people’s human rights will not be fully realised in Aotearoa unless there is a jointly owned and implemented cross government agency approach. The IMM today released its third general update ...
Buzz from the Beehive Comings and goings were the common factor in the latest Beehive announcements. Immigration Minister Michael Wood handled the “inward” movements by regurgitating migrant statistics he presumably wanted to crow about. The “outward” movements are recorded in three statements – a further deployment of 120 New Zealand ...
Greenpeace Aotearoa is urging the New Zealand government to back the strongest possible Global Oceans Treaty as the latest round of negotiations for the long-awaited treaty kick off in New York. UN member states are meeting this week to hammer out the details ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ron May, Emertius Fellow, attached to the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program, Australian National University Paramilitary police and soldiers patrol ballot boxes at Tari airport, Southern Highlands, PNGAAP Image Despite Australia “stepping up” its relations with the Pacific since ...
With less than a year until its launch, Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson says he is willing to address opposition concerns over the independence of the new government funded public media entity. ...
Births and deaths releases provide statistics on the number of births and deaths of people resident in New Zealand that are registered during a given period, along with selected fertility and mortality rates. They may differ from statistics presented ...
New Zealand's resident population provisionally grew by 12,700 or 0.2 percent over the year, to reach 5.12 million at 30 June 2022, Stats NZ said today. This is the lowest annual growth rate since June 1986 when the population barely changed (0.0 ...
Retail NZ welcomes two policy initiatives from the ACT Party Law and Order policy document to combat retail crime – infringement notices and three strikes for burglary. “The announcement today from the ACT Party of two specific policies that will help ...
The departure of the Human Right’s Commission from its core role to defend classical human rights into left wing ideological advocacy would be comical if the policies it is pushing weren’t so dangerous, says the Taxpayers’ Union. “This was always ...
Given climate change not only poses a serious challenge to Auckland but New Zealand as a whole, mayoral candidate Efeso Collins is pledging to form a Coalition of Mayors For Climate Action. Collins says it’s vital local councils work closely together ...
Power Play - Labour MPs will be meeting for an urgent caucus early this afternoon, as the party tries to manage the snowballing damage from the serious allegations being made by one of its own, Gaurav Sharma. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ryan Heneghan, Lecturer in Mathematical Ecology, Queensland University of Technology US Department of Energy Even a relatively small nuclear war would create a worldwide food crisis lasting at least a decade in which hundreds of millions would starve, according to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katherine Livingstone, NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University Shutterstock The popularity of plant-based proteins, or “fake meat”, has increased in recent years as consumers look to eat fewer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arindam Basu, Associate Professor, Epidemiology and Environmental Health, University of Canterbury Yang Jianzheng/VCG via Getty Images Within less than three years, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared two public health emergencies of international concern: COVID-19 in February 2020 and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Halog, Lecturer/Research Group Leader in Industrial Ecology and Circular Economy, The University of Queensland The Brisbane 2032 Olympic organising committee boardDarren England/AAP In a year of major sporting events – the Commonwealth Games, the FIFA World Cup, cricket’s T20 World ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne O’Mara, Associate Professor in Education, Deakin University Shutterstock It’s hard for parents to help kids with homework without doing it for them. It can be especially difficult to work out where to start when your child is preparing a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Day, PhD Student, Economic and Industrial Policy, Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, University of Sydney Shutterstock The NSW government’s industrial dispute with rail unions over the new intercity trains is tipped to add hundreds of millions of dollars ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan Lyons, Scholar in Media and Cultural Studies, Macquarie University IMDB When it was announced that the creators of Breaking Bad would be filming a prequel spin-off to their iconic series, few could have imagined the critical acclaim it would ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The only credible explanation for Scott Morrison personally installing himself, as an undisclosed ministerial partner, in several portfolios is the former prime minister’s passion for control. The fact he didn’t tell senior colleagues, let ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linden Ashcroft, Lecturer in climate science and science communication, The University of Melbourne Mike Marrah/Unsplash, CC BY-SA On August 14 1912, a small New Zealand newspaper published a short article announcing global coal usage was affecting our planet’s temperature. ...
In the wake of the emotionally draining sagas that have dominated the mainstream media for the past week or so — -first the allegations of bullying within Parliament and by parliamentarians, and then the All Blacks’ triumph and turmoil over the coach’s future employment — can any relief be found? ...
Auckland mayoral hopeful Viv Beck should throw in the towel to give rival and former Far North mayor Wayne Brown a better go, says former Auckland mayor and National MP John Banks. ...
The government reduced pay parity funding for early childhood teachers in its May Budget to keep its education spending within agreed limits, briefing documents show. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Twomey, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Sydney Lukas Coch/AAP It has been reported that, during the pandemic, the then prime minister, Scott Morrison, swore himself in as a minister to several portfolios, including health, finance and resources. ...
The polytechnic sector has been getting a bad press in recent times. Former Otago Polytechnic chief executive Phil Ker has demanded an apology from Education Minister Chris Hipkins for turning the country’s polytechnic education system into “a national disgrace”. The Otago Daily Times has described the centralising of New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University Glen Carrie/Unsplash Social media platforms have had some bad press in recent times, largely prompted by the vast extent of their data collection. Now Meta, the parent company of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Sandeman, Honorary Professor, Federation University Australia Shutterstock As a parent, it might feel like you are constantly giving your children worm treatments – usually in the form of chocolate or sweetened chewable tablets. In fact, most kids in ...
New Zealand will send another 120 Defence staff to the UK to help train Ukraine soldiers to defend against Russia after the completion of the previous 30-strong deployment. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Rubenstein, Professor, Academic Director, 50/50 by 2030 Foundation, University of Canberra With more independents, women, Indigenous Australians and MPs from a multicultural background than ever before, federal parliament seems ready to deal with issues that have been lying dormant for years. ...
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.”
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ung4048v4cgtul7/Slevel6.3-c13031716040.pdf
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).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ung4048v4cgtul7/Slevel6.3-c13031716040.pdf
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!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-ZJAS_ZzKU
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.