Does Jenny-May Coffin ever check what she is given to read out?
Sports journalism in New Zealand is a Mark Richardson-calibre joke
Television One News, Saturday 25 July 2015
Too many sports “journalists” know little or nothing about sports. Sadly, the worst of them seem to be chosen, apparently on purpose, to “work” in the electronic media. Anyone who has managed to endure a few minutes of Radio Sport or the thankfully now defunct LiveSport will be only too aware that the people who spend all day flapping their gums about sports are not drawn from the top, or even the lower middle, end of the talent pool. Dull, indolent, prejudiced and ill-informed sports commentators are a perennial problem in the United States: one of the most infamous is Tom Heinsohn who, during a live TV broadcast of a 1985 NBA finals game, woofed: “What the Lakers need is more white bodies out there.” It’s also a problem in Great Britain—New Zealanders will remember the deeply unpleasant and dishonest Sunday Times rugby curmudgeon Stephen Jones. Australia’s rugby commentators (league and union) are embarrassingly bad, whether it’s Andrew Slack or Nick Farr-Jones uttering inane platitudes or Phil Gould acting as a crude shill for the poker machine lobby during live game calls.
I know the virus is pretty bad in Canada, France, and in Japan as well.
You might say that useless and/or offensive sportscasters are a universal problem. But even so, it gives me no pleasure to say that New Zealand seems particularly afflicted by really, really bad ones. Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I present for your inspection Murray Deaker, Martin Devlin, Doug Golightly, Andrew Saveloy, Jim Kayes, Tony Veitch, Mark Watson, Nigel Yalden, Wiwwy Wose and, perhaps worst of the lot, that gruesome twosome, those horribly unfunny try-hards Mulligan and Richardson. That’s a representative, rather than a complete, sample.
However, this evening she managed to excel—if that’s the right word for something so abject—herself, as she burbled: “Real Madrid beat Manchester City last night in front of 99,000 spectators, a record football crowd for the Melbourne Cricket Ground.”
Now, if Jenny-May Coffin were a serious journalist, or a reasonably knowledgeable sports authority, or even mildly interested in the material she was given to read out, then she would have known that that statement was ridiculous.
If she had bothered to check, she would have discovered that the record football crowd for the MCG was 121,696 for the Victorian Football League grand final between Carlton and Collingwood. The year after that (1971) the crowd for the St Kilda vs Hawthorn game was 118,192—a hell of a lot more than were at last night’s association football game. In fact, the Real-Man. City attendance was nowhere near the top TWENTY football crowds for the MCG, as Jenny-May Coffin would have known if she possessed even a rudimentary level of professionalism….
No she was not correct. She read out a glaringly wrong press release from some PR flack. Obviously such basic journalistic tenets as research or checking are unknown to her.
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol and Manchester City Football Club play football. My beloved St Kilda Football Club play a radically different code, only played professionally in a single country, and hardly known outside Australia.
Context is everything and Coffin was reporting on two well known football clubs, so it’s obvious that the record referred to was a football statistic, not an AFL one. The turnout of 99000 matches the current AFL grand final record. It was a sellout as the MCG has a smaller capacity these days.
We’ve had this discussion before, Moz, and the result is the same; World 1, Moz 0.
My beloved St Kilda Football Club play a radically different code
A code of what, exactly?
only played professionally in a single country, and hardly known outside Australia.
As a St Kilda F.C. fan, you will be well aware that your beloved Saints played in front of 118,192 fans as they lost a classic Grand Final to the Hawks in 1971. By the way, have a look at the name of the bloke who scored four goals for St. Kilda that day.
Australian Rules Football, which by it’s very name differentiated itself from the worldwide code. And I don’t have look up your namesake Barry, he’s still a legend! ’66 and all that!
A more interesting question might be which sport was codified first. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Yes I know it was our Victorian chums who got there first! Who actually wrote up a set of rules first is interesting, but doesn’t especially please me one way or the other.
More concerning are some of the recent trends of Australian football, especially the levels of on-field violence and the unfortunate preponderance of handballing. When Geelong started making handball a key part of its games in the 1960s, other teams quickly followed, and disgusted spectators would yell, “Kick the bloody thing!”
I also think that the scoring methods in Australian football are unsatisfactory—consider the ho-hum attitude of an MCG crowd after a point, or even a goal at times is scored in an AFL game, and compare it with the genuine excitement that followed all five goals in the Real-Manchester City game on Friday night. One sport’s scoring method is diffuse, over-complicated and perceptibly too easy, whereas the other’s is clear and unambiguous and much harder to do.
And of course, there’s the size of the teams and the immense size and shape of the playing surface…
Bit harsh on Jenny-May I feel. There is only one “foot”ball after all. The others such as rugby, league, rules etc involve the major use of hands and are pretenders only. When I hear the term football there is omly one sport that comes to mind to me and it’s played with a round ball.
To some people yes. To others no. Times are a changing. I think most kiwis would say “are you watching the rugby test tonight” not “are you watching the football test”.
By the way, a WorkSafe spokeswoman said KiwiRail had pleaded guilty to two charges in relation to the incident, and would be sentenced in the Auckland District Court in September.
So. This M.Key and C. Lazar rahui….this ban on bringing the kids into ‘this’..
Prince of Parnell anyone?
J.Keys official photographer shoots M.Keys holiday vid – featuring Dad – and what? Don’t bring the kids into it!!!They’re innocent!
imo they kids are part of the hashtagPlanetKey system.
CR Joe who’s side are you on you and anyone else who criticised the family of any politician is going down an all-time loosers path.
Attack the policies and failures not their families .
Max is clearly part of the PM’s propaganda team. Why else would the PM blatantly appear in Max’s holiday video, it shows the PM clearly wanted to be part of the message his son was putting out. If the kids aren’t to be involved in politics then all it would of taken is Key to say, you can make a video but you’re not showing me in it.
Of course they are, so as far as I am concerned they are fair game.
They are exhibitionists who like the limelight just like their exhibitionist father. If you court publicity then when you are criticised for it, you can’t cry foul because of who you are. They are adults now so are responsible for their own conduct.
@ Anne (5.2) Yes. Both Key offspring are hardly children. They are young adults, responsible for their own decisions and behaviour, putting themselves out there in the public domain.
Interesting point is that Key’s wife Bronagh seems to keep herself private, a low profile, away from the public glare. Good for her. Proves I guess there is at least one Key family member, who isn’t self absorbed, obsessed with hogging the limelight!
PM John Key (Bank of America shareholder) looking after US or the U$?
TPPA – WALK AWAY!
Today, Sunday 26 July 2015, NZ Prime Minister John Key, gives his ‘KEY’note speech to the National Party’s 79th Conference at the Auckland Sky City Casino, at noon.
A range of New Zealanders and those who believe that signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), will NOT work in the best interests of New Zealand, as a sovereign State, the majority of the NZ people, or NZ businesses, will be protesting outside, from 11am till 1pm.
PROTEST! TPPA – WALK AWAY!
WHEN: Today – Sunday 26 July 2015
TIME: 11am – 1pm
WHERE: Outside Sky City Auckland Convention Centre
A number of us are deeply concerned with the FACT that NZ Prime Minister John Key, is a shareholder in the Bank of America.
So – in whose ‘national interest’ is NZ Prime Minister working?
For US (New Zealanders) or the U$?
Follow the dollar….?
The evidence of John Key’s Bank of America shareholding is available on the NZ Parliamentary website:
(These Bank of America shares are NOT in a ‘blind trust’!)
Hey Jenny this is the shit that is going down over this TPPA agreement. This is one of the reasons why America supported by their fucking lap dog Spiv Key are all for it. They are prepared to turn a blind eye to slavery just to get at China.
“But because the Senate is the Senate, it was unable to swap out the original language for the modification. (The chamber needed unanimous consent to make the legislative move, and an unknown senator or senators objected.) So the trade promotion authority bill that passed Friday includes the strong anti-slavery language, which the House will now work to take out to ensure that Malaysia (and, potentially, other countries in the future) can be part of the deal.
Observers are left with a deeper question: Why, in the year 2015, is the White House teaming up with Republican leaders essentially to defend the practice of slavery?
Understanding this is key to understanding why President Barack Obama has been pushing so aggressively for a trade deal that so many of his allies insist will harm American workers. It’s about global power, geopolitics and pushing back against the rise of China. And that starts with Malaysia.
How bad is Malaysia?
Unfortunately for Obama, Malaysia is a hub of human trafficking comparable, according to the State Department, to North Korea and Saudi Arabia. It falls in Tier 3, the lowest ranking a country can have in the State Department’s annual human trafficking report, which gauges a country’s actions against modern-day slavery.
Why is Malaysia so important?
A century ago, U.S. foreign policy focused on the brand-new country of Panama. Wars were started, coups were plotted, deals were struck, all toward the end of controlling access to its just-completed canal. Today the Panama Canal is still a global trade “chokepoint” that shipping must pass through. Another chokepoint, equally if not more important, is the Strait of Malacca, which lies between the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula.
Unlike Senate Democrats and labor leaders, many experts on U.S.-China relations consider the Trans-Pacific Partnership essential. They argue that the deal, which the Obama administration is forging with 11 other Pacific nations, will show that Washington is not going to allow an expansionist Beijing to dominate the region with tactics ranging from bullying smaller nations to building island fortresses in disputed waters. A March 2015 report from the Council on Foreign Relations lists granting Obama trade promotion authority — which will grease the skids for the TPP to pass Congress — as the top way in which the legislators can ensure a smart U.S. response to China’s rise.”
Refreshing to see Bob Reid fronting for workers on Q & A this morning and countering ‘everything is hunky dory’ put up by the Nat cyborg. I would love to see Reid takeover the leadership of the CTU when Helen Kelly retires in October. Bob has the rare ability to cut through the crap being spun by the Government’s PR snake oil merchant’s, well done cobbah.
Michelle Boag was at her sour puss, bullying worst this morning. She claimed the unions are to blame for low paid workers and the unemployed. Beat that.
I gather there’s a Reid Research poll coming out on TV3 tonight. Don’t want to flag it the wrong way, but I have to wonder if she has foreknowledge of the result and isn’t too happy about it. 🙂
Boag’s argument was shear stupidity and reiterated what Bob was saying that the elite are too far removed from the low wage economy most workers are living in New Zealand.
I once took exception listening to Boag on Willie & JT’s political show around the time of the tragic Pike River deaths. Anyway she made some ridiculous comment about health & safely in her business, I called in under my than George handle and gave her a crack, “Michelle what would you know about Health & Safety in the workplace, the only risk you would face is choking while eating tapas in a Ponsonby cafe.” McCarten and the boys laughed… Boag was momentarily stuck for words. She finally mustered a sarcastic “why thanks how kind of you” I replied
“You welcome”. 🙂
Read the link, you elemental dick. The man was left seriously brain damaged. If people are to be locked up as punishment, then the state has the obligation to protect them from random violence no matter what their crime.
what about people with mental health issues, drug habits that can’t get treatment elsewhere? Shame finance company swindlers /tax avoiders cant get a taste of real corrections?
Took my kid to open day at local state high school yesterday. Teacher in the food tech area talked nostalgically about how they used to have community cooking classes as part of the nightschool programme. Long gone now. Cheers national.
And look at Bernard Hickey’s expression as Boag gibbers on about young people wanting to buy 3 bedroom houses in Grey Lynn.
He shakes his disbelief as the nonsense she spouts.
Again, why does this fool Boag get air time?
And why is Dallow such a shill for the National Party?
Thanks for the link Paul. Yes Michelle Boag wheeling out the old young people wanting to buy a three bedroom home in Grey Lynn. Why don’t they just have an apartment…………………………….
Great now I get it! The housing crisis in Auckland is because young people want to buy a three bedroom house in Grey Lynn! Its the young people’s fault!
Surprised she didn’t bring out her other red herring “I don’t own a house”………..
The depth of the analysis. Please keep Boag on. She is doing wonder’s for………….Labour and the Left.
Remember the part that private building inspection companies played in the leaky buildings saga and the liabilities that were passed on when they folded? Seems the National Government have very short memories, are slow learners or are so wedded to ideology that they can’t see the wood for the trees. Not to worry, tax and rate payers have big pockets and just love to help out dodgy industries.
Wonder how he’s thinking of paying for this? My guess is that it will come out of local government coffers one way or another forcing the local councils to put up rates to cover the extra expenses of having more people doing the job.
“Nobody gets as many standing ovations…. This weekend I’ll be with Clint Eastwood in California. Tremendous group of people, I’ll be in Arizona this weekend, I’ll be all over the place…”
This is exciting! It’s like Nietsche and Kierkegaard coming together. Or Chomsky and Russell. Or Tom Paine and Immanuel Kant. Or Jamie Whyte and Richard “I’ve Been Thinking” Prebble.
Yes, at long last, Donald Trump and Clint Eastwood are going to be in California together!….
According to Boag on Q&A this morning, it is all Robert Reid’s fault that there are a few poor people struggling, because he doesn’t look after them well enough!!!!!
And yet they invite her back on week after bloody week, setting the narrative that intelligent people then have to waste time countering/adjusting and pointing out facts, so no advancement in debate.
I have given up on the Nation, will have to check who is on Q&A before subjecting myself again.
Michelle Boag’s job is identical to Matthew Hooton’s—to disrupt and if possible destroy any chance of engaging in serious debate. Her rants on Jim Mora’s light chat vehicle are infamous, made even worse by the fact she is accompanied every time by her new best friend Dr Brian Edwards.
Absolutely, how does she get air time. “FMR” party president what does that stand for? F****** Much Richer” ???
Watching her represent “baby boomers” the other week, is another device to divide generations, young people actually do believe my generation has ruined the chance of a good life for their generation. I have worked for 35 years for the health service, no savings, but a clear conscience and finally a house that is mine.
Like Key I would have liked for my offspring and the next generation to have the same if not a little better….like his do.Is that going to happen thanks purley to his government, NO. Assets sold, conflated house prices, low wage economy, education for the rich only (or face debts for most of life, unless bailed out by rich parents) etc.
I am so sick of people like Boag dictating the narrative, whilst decent intelligent people like Robert Reid have to sit there and listen (and stomach), what a crazy environment for the 4th estate to have to work in.
And why do they invite her back?
Because the people who own and run Q and A are part of the same elite as her.
She is a useful puppet for hte powerful interests who own and run New Zealand.
@Paul
Reminds me of a parallel person in UK – Thatcher. Reading about dead but not forgotten, John Mortimer’s comments on Thatcher. In 1986, his adaptation of his own novel Paradise Postponed was televised. This depicts what he saw as Britain’s descent into viciousness in the era of Thatcherism.
Boag fills the same role in NZ for those who desire power and wealth and disdain the hoi polloi.
Boag needs to see the replay of herself trying to defend the cost of housing in Auckland and how hard it is for working people to afford the basics. The ex Bank of Reserve economist was a breath of fresh air.
H Joon Chang is someone whose ideas I have been listening to since I bought his book 23 things they don’t tell you about Capitalism. It is a great read and destroys many key Capitalist myths.
This article lays thing bare also. He is definitely the Economist to follow.
A lovely analogy here, even though he gets the wording a bit wrong, and should have said “the body” in the last line, where he says “business”: When the only ones capable of making exchanges are a small percentage of the population, the entire economy suffers because the many are excluded for the benefit of the few, but this benefit too is an illusion. There is no real benefit. Pretending otherwise is like thinking that cutting off the blood in your body to everything except the brain is good for business. It’s not. It’s good for gangrene.
Every extra dollar going into the pockets of low-wage workers, standard economic multiplier models tell us, adds about $1.21 to the national economy. Every extra dollar going into the pockets of a high-income American, by contrast, only adds about 39 cents to the GDP. These pennies add up considerably on $26.7 billion in earnings. If the $26.7 billion Wall Streeters pulled in on bonuses in 2013 had gone to minimum wage workers instead, our GDP would have grown by about $32.3 billion, over triple the $10.4 billion boost expected from the Wall Street bonuses.
That debt, which is threatening to destroy the euro, is at the heart of the machinery behind this elaborate matrix, and the wedge pushing the very rich and the poor apart.
That valuable, exponential debt, and the greed associated with its accumulation, was behind the growth of derivatives and sub- prime mortgages that precipitated the near-collapse of the global economy in 2008. Thanks in part to weak oversight and regulation, which was acknowledged by a regretful former United States president Bill Clinton in an April 2010 interview.
And now that debt is impacting on the sovereignty of those troubled European nations through expectations of such organisations as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for sweeping austerity measures attached to bail-outs.
If you think that such murky dealings are a world away from our own shores, consider what makes up the vast majority of New Zealand’s money supply.
If we want prosperity for our country then we need to:
1. Get of the rich because we simply cannot afford them
2. Change our monetary system so that only the government creates money
3. Stop foreign ownership of land, businesses and housing so that we don’t become serfs to foreign owners
As a result, large parts of the business class have become neo-luddites. Faced with the possibility of creating gene-sequencing labs, they instead start coffee shops, nail bars and contract cleaning firms: the banking system, the planning system and late neoliberal culture reward above all the creator of low-value, long-hours jobs.
Boag blames unions for the low rates of pay in supermarkets and DIY stores.
Not the employers.
Unbelievable.
Simon Dallow is a tool for the government and part of the bubble that does not realise how most people live. A disgraceful excuse for a journalist.
The Boag Tyrantosaurus rex started looking for limbs to rip off the other panellists at the end there. Bernard I think was very shortly going to just start banging his head repeatedly on the desk with a continuous low groaning sound.
will they have to stay there, or do they get to quit right away and move to akl once their permit has been approved and bumbfuckistan dairy country aint gonna do it anymore for them?
There’s nothing wrong with an opinion on those things. The problem comes from people whose opinions are actually misconceptions. If you think vaccines cause autism you are expressing something factually wrong, not an opinion. The fact that you may still believe that vaccines cause autism does not move your misconception into the realm of valid opinion. Nor does the fact that many other share this opinion give it any more validity.
A great article on the difference between opinions and misconceptions.
A rural Waikato secondary school has pass rates in the mid to high 90s for each level of NCEA.
“Hands-on” options help students not planning on university study, says Hauraki Plains College principal Ngaire Harris.
She says that’s partly due to subjects that range from beekeeping to classical studies.
Hauraki Plains College has about 700 students.
In 2014 it had a
95 per cent pass rate for NCEA level 3
99 per cent at level 2.
Strangely, the level 1 pass rate is 102 per cent of students on the roll.
————–
It is all well good and useful to graduate in bee keeping, chain saw skills etc, but
I am wondering how many or what % of their ‘highly successful’ students actually study academic studies such as Science, physics, Botany, Chemistry, Zoology, Economics, Accounting, Statistics, Architecture, Calculus etc , go to university and graduate as doctors, engineers, scientists etc. Strangely, the article praising this school did not mention that.
I suppose the academic jobs will be taken up by students from the Charter schools.
Or by skilled and qualified immigrants.
I know, perhaps from the students of the part publicly funded private schools which cater to the kids of the privileged and the wealthy.
I think that education is being dumbed down. Parents and the country are being short changed by students and the schools taking the easy course routes.
The damage done to the proper education and prosperity of the common people is a real worry in this artificially manipulated system of education, where paper work, reports, tests, feel good BS statistics and quantity seems to be more important than the quality of education and qualifications.
@Clem
And I think that the state we are in today with our deficient government and opposition that are not ready to face reality, much less future events, is an indication of how we have received deficient education over the last century plus.
Our education needs to be based on problem solving and understanding multiple views of any situation, gaining the skills to think through that, not using problems as exercises to advance our skill knowledge and sit exams to confirm our proficiency. A broad-based education that ensures the humanities, the conservation of the environment, as well as the hard sciences, are to the fore not left to be picked up later by somebody.
o-one will then be able to concentrate entirely on business and money-making and creational economics (of any persuasion). Everyone will know at least two languages fluently, and four others to ask simple questions etc. This can be done in primary after the kids are eight, when their minds are ready to absorb more complex stuff, as educationists have discovered.
It is all well good and useful to graduate in bee keeping, chain saw skills etc, but
I am wondering how many or what % of their ‘highly successful’ students actually study academic studies such as Science, physics, Botany, Chemistry, Zoology, Economics, Accounting, Statistics, Architecture, Calculus etc , go to university and graduate as doctors, engineers, scientists etc. Strangely, the article praising this school did not mention that.
That is because the people living on the Plains around here and in Thames know that this is a very successful school and has been for some time. They know many of the students finishing there move on to all manner of university and other tertiary studies. My daughter had the privilege of teaching there for a time Science and Geography . Then again your assertion that the less academic have little value.. well many of the young men who take their schooling there are destined to work on their parents farms after agriculture colleges. My butcher is a young graduate of Hauraki Plains and has just received praise for supplying the meat for award winning pies, baked here in Thames. As a past educator of Physics and Mathematics I appreciate that there are many other facets of life other than the “academic”.
I think you do this very good secondary school a disservice with your comment.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend. All studies, skills, jobs and professions are useful, needed and good. No problem with that.
My concern and questions were genuine about the lack of information in the article about the brainy/harder academic courses and what % of students took those there. I think you missed the point or perhaps I did not explain myself properly.
I think you would find similar proportions of students taking academic subjects at Hauraki Plains as any other secondary school of similar decile. My daughter reported the students were extremely well focused across all classes, and a very good culture existed in the school and has for some time.
Do you by any chance have the % of level 3, students that sat last year for each of Physics, Chemistry and Calculus and what their result % were? That information would be really interesting, especially as the report said that the level 3 students had an outstanding result of 95% success rate.
O.k. I am almost sure its official. Paddy Gower must be stupid. Reid poll out.
National up very slightly. Labour up very slightly. Keys popularity down to under 40%
Those polled say they are against foreign buyers buying up property……. (something like 65%.
Minor parties down. National couldn’t govern alone. Would need NZ first.
So Lab and Greens have enough with NZ first…………
Then Paddy says, this shows it’s dangerous for Labour playing the race card………………….
Paddy your either stupid or desperate to find a line that makes Labour look bad………..
that matches my analysis. No bump at all from Labour’s race baiting. Labour should have kept the message about the economics, about economic sovereignty and the foreign financing, but they thought they were being smart selling out on their left wing liberal values and picking on the Chinese.
IMO Labour’s right wing chose the race tack and did not want to make any general statements around the principles of economic sovereignty, as that would be too left wing for them.
I think the next couple of polls including the next Roy Morgan will be pivotal in understanding the full effects of Labour’s foray into race politics.
Questions in parliament last week showed the problem. Little started asking about the flag referendum, a minor matter for the leader of the opposition. He was backing off the housing issue.
National are giving gifts (Serco etc) and they are providing the headlines. Better to focus on that than alienating a lot of people on the left.
In short, Labour won’t (shouldn’t) make the same mistake twice. I hope.
You are doing false framing again!
Just to check if there was any truth in your assertion, I went to the parliament website and this is what I saw:
On the very first day of parliament this term, (Tuesday, 21 July 2015) Andrew Little asked this question on housing;
ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister : Does he stand by his statement in relation to affordability of homes in Auckland that “there’s a general view that housing prices are not overvalued”, given that the homeownership rate has fallen to its lowest level in 64 years?
On the same day, Peters too asked a question on Housing.
——————————
On the next day, Wed, 22, the housing question was asked by the Labour housing spokesperson, Twyford. He asked this:
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister of Finance : Does he stand by his statement about whether inequality was a problem in the Auckland housing market, “We’ve been concerned about that for some time, that there’s part of Auckland where there’s been really no new supply of lower value houses that low and middle-income families can afford”?
On the same day Metiria Turei too asked a housing issue question too.
So instead of the same housing issue, Little asked about the flag because the design submissions had just concluded.
—————-
Again on Thursday, 23, Twyford once again asked more questions on Housing:
PHIL TWYFORD to the Minister for Building and Housing: How does he intend to reduce the shortfall of Auckland houses in the next two years, given that under this Government the shortfall is increasing by 5000 a year, and the Productivity Commission predicts on current rates the shortfall – now 32,000 – will hit 60,000 by 2020?
——————-
Labour’s different spokes people deal with the different issues : Hipkins on Education, Davis on corrections, Twyford on housing, King on health, Goff on foreign affairs. Robertson on finance etc.
Little takes the overall charge without depriving the others.
So, you see, your false framing of Little is wrong and unfair as seen from the questions this week alone.
Bump in polls or not is NOT the main point or the question. At least it did not do any harm. The question is, was Twyford right in highlighting the dire problem of the possible money coming in from non resident Chinese for Auckland houses? I say YES, he absolutely did the right thing highlighting the issue rather than allow it to fester quietly around office water coolers in Chinese whispers.
The poll shows that over 60% of people and over 50% of NATIONAL voters WANT to stop non residents (‘not’ residents) from buying houses in Auckland. All this IN SPITE of the false framing indulged in by the RW crooks and the LW asinines as being ‘racist’. The fools framing it so are the real racists.
Twyford and Labour are well vindicated. No doubt about that. There is still over two years for the election. Keep calm and carry on, I say.
? Far far too early to determine that. Dozens of Labour activists have left the party or “downed tools”. And the true impact of that alone will take time to appear.
Hey, we live in a free democratic society. Not in Guatemala or 福州. Any one is free to leave or join. Some do it with honest principles while some others do it for cheap political stunts.
As long as Labour does the best by the country and all its people (including all legal immigrants), I am happy. Nothing else matters. For those that have left, I say さようなら.
I don’t think Labour would want a massive rise in the polls at this stage. Don Brash and National actually did play the race card around the time of the Orewa speech. Every redneck (and there’s a lot of them and probably includes Gower) in the country cheered them on. The last thing Labour wants is to be compared with is a bunch of rednecks.
Labour decided to emphasise the ethnic aspects, and not the economic sovereignty aspects, of foreign buyers in the NZ property market.
IMO they did that as an appeal to Waitakere Man (and Woman), and in order to not use too much economically left leaning language.
Caucus definitely wanted a rise in the polls from this exercise, and would have been expecting one after days of wall to wall media coverage of the issue.
Labour’s whole emphasis WAS on off shore non residents buying Auckland houses. They showed (in the absence of more reliable data) that the nearly 40% of houses sold in three months went to Chinese sounding owners disproportionate to their 9% population. That was the point which was framed by dishonest people as being racist. It wasn’t.
Of course, there would be some names that would sound like Chinese names, but will not be. that is true and Labour acknowledged that.
I don’t think Clemgeopin is “casually” dismissing large numbers on the left and from ethnic communities as “dishonest” gobsmacked. I strongly suspect many of them mistakenly believed the false framing that was built up around this issue and in particular… I refer to the disingenuous framing from the National Party and their acolytes. eg. Matthew Hooton.
On the Sat morning interview, Twyford emphasised over and over that Chinese investors and people with Chinese names who were the problem. He had plenty of opportunities to generalise the case to all foreign money, to economic sovereignty, to mention buyers from the UK or USA etc as also being potential issues, but he did not.
He had plenty of opportunities to generalise the case to all foreign money, to economic sovereignty, to mention buyers from the UK or USA etc as also being potential issues, but he did not.
I want to ban foreign buyers no matter where they come from. I want us to save the Kiwi dream of affordable homeownership for all New Zealanders. One of the things we should do, and it’s by no means the only problem we need to solve; it’s by no means the only policy we need to adopt; but actually banning foreign buyers will actually make a difference, and reduce the spiralling house prices that are making homeownership unaffordable.
and
We’re going to crack down on speculators generally, and we have a policy review underway. There are a myriad of different tax and policy approaches that we can do to level the playing field away from the current incentives for property speculation in our economy. So we’re going to do that. We’re going ban foreign buyers.
and
We’re going to build thousands of affordable homes for first-home buyers in New Zealand. We’re going to change the planning rules so that the industry can build more and better housing in places where people want to live.
and
I’m standing up for young Kiwi first-home buyers who currently are denied the dream of affordable homeownership. This is a matter of vital public interest. The Government is in denial. They have refused to give New Zealanders the information about foreign buyers
and
I’m speaking for young New Zealanders who want affordable homeownership. If we solve this problem, if we ban foreign buyers, that will make a big difference.
Yeah, that’s why dozens of Labour Party members have left.
Having just watched the clip, yes, I agree that Twyford definitely slanted this towards the buyers being Chinese far more than was warranted, and he should have couched it in more general terms of foreign buyers, and he had plenty of opportunities to do so. It did come across as a racist dog-whistle.
Twyford was being honest and straight up. You would prefer him to be less so, like Key? Twyford wasn’t being offensive or racist. He was exposing a huge housing crisis in Auckland and speaking the truth from the data he had.
Clemgeopin: Pretty sure Ng, Mok, Kan, myself, and a lot of other Kiwi Chinese found Labour’s tactics utterly offensive. But I welcome lots more Pakeha saying it was OK, not offensive, not anti-Chinese etc.
Anyways. No polling pay off for Labour even though most Kiwis agree that there should be no foreign ownership, and I think the damage caused is yet to make itself felt.
Col. Viper, just because you are Chinese does not make you right or smart. Don’t take stupid offense when none was intended. Use your brains. Understand the problem.
孔子 says, “Bubble, bubble, housing bubble can soon make plenty trouble. Just one non-resident prick, can burst all bubbles. Bubble, bubble, plenty trouble!”
The first cut and paste you provide is in response to a direct proposal to sanction only Chinese buyers. (What else was he going to say ffs!)
The second was a direct lead up to that first one. (If not just Chinese, then what?)
The third was a part of the second response.
And the forth and fifth were squeezed in right at the tail end of the interview.
Now, you and I and everyone knows that first impressions count. And right up until he would have had to respond “yes, only (insert ‘otherness’), he banged on about Chinese and only Chinese… and then there was the Chinese.
But look, here’s the thing. Labour, as far as I understand, have access to electronic copies of the electoral roll. So why didn’t they run those 4000 sales against the roll? It wouldn’t have been perfect, but would have given a far clearer picture than the one they presented and it would have avoided any scapegoating/dog-whistling or what have you.
The reason they didn’t, wouldn’t have been because they wanted cheap votes, hmm?
Thankfully, and I mean this sincerely, it hasn’t worked.
Dishonest from the point of view of second guessing what the real point of the Twyford’s exercise was, which was to show that one of the causes of the skyrocketing house prices in Auckland was the money (legal or dodgy cash) coming from non residents most of the culprits seemed to be from China. It was NOT against the local resident Chinese at all who Twyford said he welcomes with open arms if they are legitimately locals buying houses.
It is up to the government to show that Twyford was wrong, if he was wrong at all, by producing accurate statistics of non residents owning houses which isn’t too difficult for the Government to do if THEY are honest. They too, like the false ‘racist’ branding framers, aren’t! The government does not need to wait to BEGIN collecting some IRD numbers starting from OCTOBER! Do it NOW and have it back dated for the last seven years or even fifteen years. Computers are good, accurate and quick at doing such stuff!
So, I would say that the framing of the serious issue as racist is, if not dishonestly by all, then done by a false understanding of being PC or by being scared to be honest or by being quite stupid. Doesn’t really matter which. What matters is the accelerating house prices meed to be stopped by all possible measures. Today, even Key agreed, by saying heavy taxing for land is a better option than banning non residents buying.
So the point is that Twyford and Labour have made this an important issue for considering serious solutions.
Twyford can be right on the general thrust of the information and still be guilty of dog whistling. And that makes him wrong to have indulged in the shit he indulged in.
As said in reply to ‘McFlock’, electronic versions of the electoral roll are available to political parties. They could have used that to get a more precise onshore/offshore split…and for a fraction of the price they spent on doing what they did.
Singling out any identifiable minority and pointing a finger of blame at them isn’t dishonest: it’s just plain fucking wrong on multiple levels of wrongness.
What minority? Nothing to do with ‘minority’ or ‘majority’. It was to do with the non resident Chinese money rushing in in droves to buy investment property in Auckland and pushing prices beyond the reach of the residents, including the resident Chinese. Don’t be so daft.
@Clem
We have not long ago had Helen Clark apologising to Chinese people for past racist wrongs and bad treatment, murder included because of the hatred, fear and disdain for their ethnicity. (Think Dunedin mad guy. Forgotten his name. And others I’ve recently come across.) So Twyford should have been aware of sensitivity being needed.
His approach would have been better if he had gone in stages, with worrying stats alone to start. Then said that real estate figures he had received indicated that there was a strong move of foreign money into Auckland housing. Then said that he was looking at a statistical analysis trying to establish from where, in the absence of any figures from government sources or the Overseas Investment office.
Stages would have been better. Then announce the Asian figure as a bloc with other known comparative figures – Europe, UK, USA, South America. Then Colonial Viper would have had less to bite on!
When Pakeha single out Maori or any other ethnicity for special mention – its never a good thing usually. The Chinese are taking over the country, and the Maoris are taking over the prisons.
@Adele
Reading that – Maori are taking over the prisons, got me thinking. Instead of Serco, why not contract Maori professionals to manage them and help them acquire needed education and life skills?
I have heard that there are numbers of successful programs for life training from interested Maori. Perhaps Ngawha could become a pilot working under a plan to incorporate the successful small programs on a bigger scale, working in stages and aiming to restore self-worth, self-control and self-direction within the collective culture of community.
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Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Does Jenny-May Coffin ever check what she is given to read out?
Sports journalism in New Zealand is a Mark Richardson-calibre joke
Television One News, Saturday 25 July 2015
Too many sports “journalists” know little or nothing about sports. Sadly, the worst of them seem to be chosen, apparently on purpose, to “work” in the electronic media. Anyone who has managed to endure a few minutes of Radio Sport or the thankfully now defunct LiveSport will be only too aware that the people who spend all day flapping their gums about sports are not drawn from the top, or even the lower middle, end of the talent pool. Dull, indolent, prejudiced and ill-informed sports commentators are a perennial problem in the United States: one of the most infamous is Tom Heinsohn who, during a live TV broadcast of a 1985 NBA finals game, woofed: “What the Lakers need is more white bodies out there.” It’s also a problem in Great Britain—New Zealanders will remember the deeply unpleasant and dishonest Sunday Times rugby curmudgeon Stephen Jones. Australia’s rugby commentators (league and union) are embarrassingly bad, whether it’s Andrew Slack or Nick Farr-Jones uttering inane platitudes or Phil Gould acting as a crude shill for the poker machine lobby during live game calls.
http://www.theroar.com.au/2011/07/13/phil-goulds-argument-nothing-but-a-sham/
I know the virus is pretty bad in Canada, France, and in Japan as well.
You might say that useless and/or offensive sportscasters are a universal problem. But even so, it gives me no pleasure to say that New Zealand seems particularly afflicted by really, really bad ones. Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I present for your inspection Murray Deaker, Martin Devlin, Doug Golightly, Andrew Saveloy, Jim Kayes, Tony Veitch, Mark Watson, Nigel Yalden, Wiwwy Wose and, perhaps worst of the lot, that gruesome twosome, those horribly unfunny try-hards Mulligan and Richardson. That’s a representative, rather than a complete, sample.
Viewers of tonight’s sports bulletin on One News were subjected to one of the worst of this grim fraternity delivering one of the worst gaffes imaginable. Substandard performances by Television One auto-cue reader Jenny-May Coffin have drawn comment from many quarters, including this forum, in the past…..
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20062015/#comment-1032625
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-27042013/#comment-625478
http://thestandard.org.nz/whose-values/#comment-422251
However, this evening she managed to excel—if that’s the right word for something so abject—herself, as she burbled: “Real Madrid beat Manchester City last night in front of 99,000 spectators, a record football crowd for the Melbourne Cricket Ground.”
Now, if Jenny-May Coffin were a serious journalist, or a reasonably knowledgeable sports authority, or even mildly interested in the material she was given to read out, then she would have known that that statement was ridiculous.
If she had bothered to check, she would have discovered that the record football crowd for the MCG was 121,696 for the Victorian Football League grand final between Carlton and Collingwood. The year after that (1971) the crowd for the St Kilda vs Hawthorn game was 118,192—a hell of a lot more than were at last night’s association football game. In fact, the Real-Man. City attendance was nowhere near the top TWENTY football crowds for the MCG, as Jenny-May Coffin would have known if she possessed even a rudimentary level of professionalism….
http://afltables.com/afl/crowds/vn_mcg.html
Yep I think Jenny-May was correct – FOOTball FOOT ball – leave her alone you big bully.
No she was not correct. She read out a glaringly wrong press release from some PR flack. Obviously such basic journalistic tenets as research or checking are unknown to her.
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol and Manchester City Football Club play football. My beloved St Kilda Football Club play a radically different code, only played professionally in a single country, and hardly known outside Australia.
Context is everything and Coffin was reporting on two well known football clubs, so it’s obvious that the record referred to was a football statistic, not an AFL one. The turnout of 99000 matches the current AFL grand final record. It was a sellout as the MCG has a smaller capacity these days.
We’ve had this discussion before, Moz, and the result is the same; World 1, Moz 0.
My beloved St Kilda Football Club play a radically different code
A code of what, exactly?
only played professionally in a single country, and hardly known outside Australia.
As a St Kilda F.C. fan, you will be well aware that your beloved Saints played in front of 118,192 fans as they lost a classic Grand Final to the Hawks in 1971. By the way, have a look at the name of the bloke who scored four goals for St. Kilda that day.
Australian Rules Football, which by it’s very name differentiated itself from the worldwide code. And I don’t have look up your namesake Barry, he’s still a legend! ’66 and all that!
A more interesting question might be which sport was codified first. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Yes I know it was our Victorian chums who got there first! Who actually wrote up a set of rules first is interesting, but doesn’t especially please me one way or the other.
More concerning are some of the recent trends of Australian football, especially the levels of on-field violence and the unfortunate preponderance of handballing. When Geelong started making handball a key part of its games in the 1960s, other teams quickly followed, and disgusted spectators would yell, “Kick the bloody thing!”
I also think that the scoring methods in Australian football are unsatisfactory—consider the ho-hum attitude of an MCG crowd after a point, or even a goal at times is scored in an AFL game, and compare it with the genuine excitement that followed all five goals in the Real-Manchester City game on Friday night. One sport’s scoring method is diffuse, over-complicated and perceptibly too easy, whereas the other’s is clear and unambiguous and much harder to do.
And of course, there’s the size of the teams and the immense size and shape of the playing surface…
Bit harsh on Jenny-May I feel. There is only one “foot”ball after all. The others such as rugby, league, rules etc involve the major use of hands and are pretenders only. When I hear the term football there is omly one sport that comes to mind to me and it’s played with a round ball.
In Australia, football means Australian Rules football or rugby. In New Zealand it means rugby football.
To some people yes. To others no. Times are a changing. I think most kiwis would say “are you watching the rugby test tonight” not “are you watching the football test”.
Certainly that is not the case in Auckland. And I doubt it’s the case in other parts of the country.
Bring Paul Home – Support for NZ Digger hit by Freight Train
https://youtu.be/2sTyr-RM0gw
By the way, a WorkSafe spokeswoman said KiwiRail had pleaded guilty to two charges in relation to the incident, and would be sentenced in the Auckland District Court in September.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/70476255/life-like-a-prison-for-severely-injured-man-paul-anderson
The MSM is shoddy biased rubbish. I don’t trust it. Saddened that so many people take it seriously.
+100
So. This M.Key and C. Lazar rahui….this ban on bringing the kids into ‘this’..
Prince of Parnell anyone?
J.Keys official photographer shoots M.Keys holiday vid – featuring Dad – and what? Don’t bring the kids into it!!!They’re innocent!
imo they kids are part of the hashtagPlanetKey system.
CR Joe who’s side are you on you and anyone else who criticised the family of any politician is going down an all-time loosers path.
Attack the policies and failures not their families .
+1 The kids are alright from what I’ve seen.
Max is clearly part of the PM’s propaganda team. Why else would the PM blatantly appear in Max’s holiday video, it shows the PM clearly wanted to be part of the message his son was putting out. If the kids aren’t to be involved in politics then all it would of taken is Key to say, you can make a video but you’re not showing me in it.
Of course they are, so as far as I am concerned they are fair game.
They are exhibitionists who like the limelight just like their exhibitionist father. If you court publicity then when you are criticised for it, you can’t cry foul because of who you are. They are adults now so are responsible for their own conduct.
Damm.. I left out CnrJoe’s quote:
imo they kids are part of the hashtagPlanetKey system.
@ Anne (5.2) Yes. Both Key offspring are hardly children. They are young adults, responsible for their own decisions and behaviour, putting themselves out there in the public domain.
Interesting point is that Key’s wife Bronagh seems to keep herself private, a low profile, away from the public glare. Good for her. Proves I guess there is at least one Key family member, who isn’t self absorbed, obsessed with hogging the limelight!
+1
Go the mighty All Blacks.
It’s a bit harder for them when they play South Africa—they can’t get Craig Joubert to help out….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuIuXrwPCcc
26 July 2015
Media Alert! PROTEST!
PM John Key (Bank of America shareholder) looking after US or the U$?
TPPA – WALK AWAY!
Today, Sunday 26 July 2015, NZ Prime Minister John Key, gives his ‘KEY’note speech to the National Party’s 79th Conference at the Auckland Sky City Casino, at noon.
A range of New Zealanders and those who believe that signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), will NOT work in the best interests of New Zealand, as a sovereign State, the majority of the NZ people, or NZ businesses, will be protesting outside, from 11am till 1pm.
PROTEST! TPPA – WALK AWAY!
WHEN: Today – Sunday 26 July 2015
TIME: 11am – 1pm
WHERE: Outside Sky City Auckland Convention Centre
A number of us are deeply concerned with the FACT that NZ Prime Minister John Key, is a shareholder in the Bank of America.
So – in whose ‘national interest’ is NZ Prime Minister working?
For US (New Zealanders) or the U$?
Follow the dollar….?
The evidence of John Key’s Bank of America shareholding is available on the NZ Parliamentary website:
(These Bank of America shares are NOT in a ‘blind trust’!)
Whose ‘national interest’ is PM John Key serving?
Is John Key working for US or the U$?
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/mpp/mps/fin-interests/00CLOOCMPPFinInterests20151/register-of-pecuniary-and-other-specified-interests-of
“Register of Pecuniary and Other Specified Interests of Members of Parliament:
Summary of annual returns as at 31 January 2015
(Page 29)
Rt Hon John Key (National, Helensville)
2 Other companies and business entities
Little Nell – property investment (Aspen, Colorado)
Bank of America – banking ..”
………
______________________________________________________________________________
Penny Bright
Hey Jenny this is the shit that is going down over this TPPA agreement. This is one of the reasons why America supported by their fucking lap dog Spiv Key are all for it. They are prepared to turn a blind eye to slavery just to get at China.
“But because the Senate is the Senate, it was unable to swap out the original language for the modification. (The chamber needed unanimous consent to make the legislative move, and an unknown senator or senators objected.) So the trade promotion authority bill that passed Friday includes the strong anti-slavery language, which the House will now work to take out to ensure that Malaysia (and, potentially, other countries in the future) can be part of the deal.
Observers are left with a deeper question: Why, in the year 2015, is the White House teaming up with Republican leaders essentially to defend the practice of slavery?
Understanding this is key to understanding why President Barack Obama has been pushing so aggressively for a trade deal that so many of his allies insist will harm American workers. It’s about global power, geopolitics and pushing back against the rise of China. And that starts with Malaysia.
How bad is Malaysia?
Unfortunately for Obama, Malaysia is a hub of human trafficking comparable, according to the State Department, to North Korea and Saudi Arabia. It falls in Tier 3, the lowest ranking a country can have in the State Department’s annual human trafficking report, which gauges a country’s actions against modern-day slavery.
Why is Malaysia so important?
A century ago, U.S. foreign policy focused on the brand-new country of Panama. Wars were started, coups were plotted, deals were struck, all toward the end of controlling access to its just-completed canal. Today the Panama Canal is still a global trade “chokepoint” that shipping must pass through. Another chokepoint, equally if not more important, is the Strait of Malacca, which lies between the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula.
Unlike Senate Democrats and labor leaders, many experts on U.S.-China relations consider the Trans-Pacific Partnership essential. They argue that the deal, which the Obama administration is forging with 11 other Pacific nations, will show that Washington is not going to allow an expansionist Beijing to dominate the region with tactics ranging from bullying smaller nations to building island fortresses in disputed waters. A March 2015 report from the Council on Foreign Relations lists granting Obama trade promotion authority — which will grease the skids for the TPP to pass Congress — as the top way in which the legislators can ensure a smart U.S. response to China’s rise.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/26/tpp-malaysia-slavery_n_7444978.html
Refreshing to see Bob Reid fronting for workers on Q & A this morning and countering ‘everything is hunky dory’ put up by the Nat cyborg. I would love to see Reid takeover the leadership of the CTU when Helen Kelly retires in October. Bob has the rare ability to cut through the crap being spun by the Government’s PR snake oil merchant’s, well done cobbah.
Nice sentiments, Skinny. Robert’s a lovely guy, and a great union man.
Michelle Boag was at her sour puss, bullying worst this morning. She claimed the unions are to blame for low paid workers and the unemployed. Beat that.
I gather there’s a Reid Research poll coming out on TV3 tonight. Don’t want to flag it the wrong way, but I have to wonder if she has foreknowledge of the result and isn’t too happy about it. 🙂
When I heard Boag say that, it was yet another keyboard stuffed. Why do they always say something outrageous when you have a mouthful of hot coffee?
Boag’s argument was shear stupidity and reiterated what Bob was saying that the elite are too far removed from the low wage economy most workers are living in New Zealand.
I once took exception listening to Boag on Willie & JT’s political show around the time of the tragic Pike River deaths. Anyway she made some ridiculous comment about health & safely in her business, I called in under my than George handle and gave her a crack, “Michelle what would you know about Health & Safety in the workplace, the only risk you would face is choking while eating tapas in a Ponsonby cafe.” McCarten and the boys laughed… Boag was momentarily stuck for words. She finally mustered a sarcastic “why thanks how kind of you” I replied
“You welcome”. 🙂
Another Serco bashing.
What has New Zealand become?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11486965
Why are we bashing Serco, Paul? Surely the poor fellows are doing their best?
Serco
The biggest company you’ve never heard of.
Before Mt Eden, anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szNLMtgI7hU
“Another Serco bashing.
What has New Zealand become?”
Rapists, women murders and kiddie fiddlers have always been regularly bashed in prisons. This is nothing new.
Read the link, you elemental dick. The man was left seriously brain damaged. If people are to be locked up as punishment, then the state has the obligation to protect them from random violence no matter what their crime.
I think naki man doesn’t care.
And what is your view of privatised prisons, naki man?
If you were trying to determine a way to brutalise a human being further, then this is the approach you would take to do it.
These people end up back in our society.
Are you so short-sighted your desire for brutal illegal treatment outweighs the benefits of treating prisoners humanely?
Surely even in Taranaki you are regarded as a very stupid person.
If I were from Taranaki, I’d be ashamed someone used my region to represent such repulsive views.
and then they get released to a neighbourhood near your.
nothing new here either.
feel safer yet?
what about people with mental health issues, drug habits that can’t get treatment elsewhere? Shame finance company swindlers /tax avoiders cant get a taste of real corrections?
Took my kid to open day at local state high school yesterday. Teacher in the food tech area talked nostalgically about how they used to have community cooking classes as part of the nightschool programme. Long gone now. Cheers national.
Anyone got the link to Bob Reid on Q and A?
I know I ambeing lazy here and could find it myself, but if its handy would be good to have it on open mike
Here it is.
Notice how Simon Dallow tries to interjects with him by comparison with his treatment of Boag.
http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/prime-minister-economy-panel-video-6361798
And look at Bernard Hickey’s expression as Boag gibbers on about young people wanting to buy 3 bedroom houses in Grey Lynn.
He shakes his disbelief as the nonsense she spouts.
Again, why does this fool Boag get air time?
And why is Dallow such a shill for the National Party?
thanks for that…now, I have this…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7pWhXv4ZVE…stuck in my head.
Wow, he (Bernard Hickey) couldn’t have said more with words than his expression and body language.
Thanks for the link Paul. Yes Michelle Boag wheeling out the old young people wanting to buy a three bedroom home in Grey Lynn. Why don’t they just have an apartment…………………………….
Great now I get it! The housing crisis in Auckland is because young people want to buy a three bedroom house in Grey Lynn! Its the young people’s fault!
Surprised she didn’t bring out her other red herring “I don’t own a house”………..
The depth of the analysis. Please keep Boag on. She is doing wonder’s for………….Labour and the Left.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/70546135/Nick-Smith-eyes-ways-to-boost-private-sector-role-in-building-resource-consents
Private companies being trusted to consent buildings !!
What could possible go wrong with that ??
‘That was why councils had been “so pedantic and conservative” about processing building consents, so they were not exposing themselves to liability.
‘There would also need to be some sort of guarantee scheme so consumers were protected and were not out of pocket.
AND open to competition!!
What is to stop the private co going bankrupt like the dodgy building comps.
I think the whole exercise is beyond the ability of nick smith and the Nats
Some days I think nick smiths shoes must all be slip ons
Remember the part that private building inspection companies played in the leaky buildings saga and the liabilities that were passed on when they folded? Seems the National Government have very short memories, are slow learners or are so wedded to ideology that they can’t see the wood for the trees. Not to worry, tax and rate payers have big pockets and just love to help out dodgy industries.
It is not surprising the councils are gun shy and are over careful
Wonder how he’s thinking of paying for this? My guess is that it will come out of local government coffers one way or another forcing the local councils to put up rates to cover the extra expenses of having more people doing the job.
Great Thinkers of Our Time: Trump and Eastwood
“Nobody gets as many standing ovations…. This weekend I’ll be with Clint Eastwood in California. Tremendous group of people, I’ll be in Arizona this weekend, I’ll be all over the place…”
This is exciting! It’s like Nietsche and Kierkegaard coming together. Or Chomsky and Russell. Or Tom Paine and Immanuel Kant. Or Jamie Whyte and Richard “I’ve Been Thinking” Prebble.
Yes, at long last, Donald Trump and Clint Eastwood are going to be in California together!….
Donald Trump: ‘I Will Win The Latino Vote’ (Full Interview) | NBC News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-DSfvYCKwY
Democracy died in the USA a while ago.
It’s on its last legs here.
Watch Oliver Stone’s Untold History of America.
Trump will get the dead cat bounce
Actually the dead cat landed on his head.
lmao +1,000,000
An interesting article posted on Yanis Varoufakis’s website:
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2015/07/25/a-new-kind-of-politics-by-paul-tyson-in-opendemocracy-net/
It rather explains why so many political utterances come across as a commitment to the dictates of the market wrapped in a PR pitch to constituents.
German television host to former Waffen S.S. executioner:
“You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiVDtNjORbY
[Congrats. You win the Instant Godwin of the Day award. If you want to post links, don’t waste readers’ time with misleading descriptions. TRP]
According to Boag on Q&A this morning, it is all Robert Reid’s fault that there are a few poor people struggling, because he doesn’t look after them well enough!!!!!
And yet they invite her back on week after bloody week, setting the narrative that intelligent people then have to waste time countering/adjusting and pointing out facts, so no advancement in debate.
I have given up on the Nation, will have to check who is on Q&A before subjecting myself again.
Michelle Boag’s job is identical to Matthew Hooton’s—to disrupt and if possible destroy any chance of engaging in serious debate. Her rants on Jim Mora’s light chat vehicle are infamous, made even worse by the fact she is accompanied every time by her new best friend Dr Brian Edwards.
Absolutely, how does she get air time. “FMR” party president what does that stand for? F****** Much Richer” ???
Watching her represent “baby boomers” the other week, is another device to divide generations, young people actually do believe my generation has ruined the chance of a good life for their generation. I have worked for 35 years for the health service, no savings, but a clear conscience and finally a house that is mine.
Like Key I would have liked for my offspring and the next generation to have the same if not a little better….like his do.Is that going to happen thanks purley to his government, NO. Assets sold, conflated house prices, low wage economy, education for the rich only (or face debts for most of life, unless bailed out by rich parents) etc.
I am so sick of people like Boag dictating the narrative, whilst decent intelligent people like Robert Reid have to sit there and listen (and stomach), what a crazy environment for the 4th estate to have to work in.
And why do they invite her back?
Because the people who own and run Q and A are part of the same elite as her.
She is a useful puppet for hte powerful interests who own and run New Zealand.
You are right, I always get tempted by the promise of “NZ’s leading politics programme” not again though after this morning.
I actually only linked to it because of Robert Reid.
Normally wouldn’t touch this propaganda source with a barge pole.
@Paul
Reminds me of a parallel person in UK – Thatcher. Reading about dead but not forgotten, John Mortimer’s comments on Thatcher.
In 1986, his adaptation of his own novel Paradise Postponed was televised. This depicts what he saw as Britain’s descent into viciousness in the era of Thatcherism.
Boag fills the same role in NZ for those who desire power and wealth and disdain the hoi polloi.
Boag is an utterly repulsive person.
A creation of the ‘me’ world that look over from the ‘we’ society.
She’s that openly selfish she almost appears to be doing a satire of a disgusting human some days.
The old dear is utterly compromised and twisted up, it beggars speculation as to what could be held over her
Surely no elderly woman performs as she does willingly if mentally sound and not being coerced
More likely she is becoming less relevant and is grandstanding to try and hold onto what little influence she has left.
Today Boag came across as more idiotic than Tau Henare.
Boag needs to see the replay of herself trying to defend the cost of housing in Auckland and how hard it is for working people to afford the basics. The ex Bank of Reserve economist was a breath of fresh air.
I suspect she would simply applaud herself
I believe this article is what many on the left have been waiting for,
https://medium.com/basic-income/trickle-down-economics-must-die-long-live-grow-up-economics-5b8334a0db76
H Joon Chang is someone whose ideas I have been listening to since I bought his book 23 things they don’t tell you about Capitalism. It is a great read and destroys many key Capitalist myths.
This article lays thing bare also. He is definitely the Economist to follow.
A lovely analogy here, even though he gets the wording a bit wrong, and should have said “the body” in the last line, where he says “business”: When the only ones capable of making exchanges are a small percentage of the population, the entire economy suffers because the many are excluded for the benefit of the few, but this benefit too is an illusion. There is no real benefit. Pretending otherwise is like thinking that cutting off the blood in your body to everything except the brain is good for business. It’s not. It’s good for gangrene.
Chang is an outstanding economist: speaking to the Royal Society
“Let one hundred flowers bloom”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZAfLIKrp9A
Great article cheers I sent it on to a good mate who still trys to tell me that keys tax cuts to the rich was a good idea .
As I say: We cannot afford the rich.
On the same topic:
If we want prosperity for our country then we need to:
1. Get of the rich because we simply cannot afford them
2. Change our monetary system so that only the government creates money
3. Stop foreign ownership of land, businesses and housing so that we don’t become serfs to foreign owners
And we can’t go past:
The End of Capitalism
Boag blames unions for the low rates of pay in supermarkets and DIY stores.
Not the employers.
Unbelievable.
Simon Dallow is a tool for the government and part of the bubble that does not realise how most people live. A disgraceful excuse for a journalist.
http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/reserve-bank-economy-panel-video-6361802
The Boag Tyrantosaurus rex started looking for limbs to rip off the other panellists at the end there. Bernard I think was very shortly going to just start banging his head repeatedly on the desk with a continuous low groaning sound.
Actually, you are right, he could have made a difference to what was an appalling show this morning, and he didn’t do anything but grin.
Dallow did more than just grin.
He spouted the usual neoliberal mantra…’aspiration…etc
A tool.
Key has announced plans to reward immigrants with extra points if their job offers are for outside Auckland. Thought that was another Labour idea?
Focus groups and David Farrar’s polling are very busy.
will they have to stay there, or do they get to quit right away and move to akl once their permit has been approved and bumbfuckistan dairy country aint gonna do it anymore for them?
Naki man wouldnt last 5 minutes in “the other state housing”.
The rec yard at Mt Eden is a world apart from his back yard summer BBQ.
No, It’s Not Your Opinion. You’re Just Wrong
A great article on the difference between opinions and misconceptions.
Dumbing down of our education?
A rural Waikato secondary school has pass rates in the mid to high 90s for each level of NCEA.
“Hands-on” options help students not planning on university study, says Hauraki Plains College principal Ngaire Harris.
She says that’s partly due to subjects that range from beekeeping to classical studies.
Hauraki Plains College has about 700 students.
In 2014 it had a
95 per cent pass rate for NCEA level 3
99 per cent at level 2.
Strangely, the level 1 pass rate is 102 per cent of students on the roll.
————–
It is all well good and useful to graduate in bee keeping, chain saw skills etc, but
I am wondering how many or what % of their ‘highly successful’ students actually study academic studies such as Science, physics, Botany, Chemistry, Zoology, Economics, Accounting, Statistics, Architecture, Calculus etc , go to university and graduate as doctors, engineers, scientists etc. Strangely, the article praising this school did not mention that.
I suppose the academic jobs will be taken up by students from the Charter schools.
Or by skilled and qualified immigrants.
I know, perhaps from the students of the part publicly funded private schools which cater to the kids of the privileged and the wealthy.
The damage done to the proper education and prosperity of the common people is a real worry.
——-
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/70436597/hauraki-plains-college-scores-high-in-ncea
My last edited sentence that did not show was :
I think that education is being dumbed down. Parents and the country are being short changed by students and the schools taking the easy course routes.
The damage done to the proper education and prosperity of the common people is a real worry in this artificially manipulated system of education, where paper work, reports, tests, feel good BS statistics and quantity seems to be more important than the quality of education and qualifications.
@Clem
And I think that the state we are in today with our deficient government and opposition that are not ready to face reality, much less future events, is an indication of how we have received deficient education over the last century plus.
Our education needs to be based on problem solving and understanding multiple views of any situation, gaining the skills to think through that, not using problems as exercises to advance our skill knowledge and sit exams to confirm our proficiency. A broad-based education that ensures the humanities, the conservation of the environment, as well as the hard sciences, are to the fore not left to be picked up later by somebody.
o-one will then be able to concentrate entirely on business and money-making and creational economics (of any persuasion). Everyone will know at least two languages fluently, and four others to ask simple questions etc. This can be done in primary after the kids are eight, when their minds are ready to absorb more complex stuff, as educationists have discovered.
That is because the people living on the Plains around here and in Thames know that this is a very successful school and has been for some time. They know many of the students finishing there move on to all manner of university and other tertiary studies. My daughter had the privilege of teaching there for a time Science and Geography . Then again your assertion that the less academic have little value.. well many of the young men who take their schooling there are destined to work on their parents farms after agriculture colleges. My butcher is a young graduate of Hauraki Plains and has just received praise for supplying the meat for award winning pies, baked here in Thames. As a past educator of Physics and Mathematics I appreciate that there are many other facets of life other than the “academic”.
I think you do this very good secondary school a disservice with your comment.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend. All studies, skills, jobs and professions are useful, needed and good. No problem with that.
My concern and questions were genuine about the lack of information in the article about the brainy/harder academic courses and what % of students took those there. I think you missed the point or perhaps I did not explain myself properly.
I think you would find similar proportions of students taking academic subjects at Hauraki Plains as any other secondary school of similar decile. My daughter reported the students were extremely well focused across all classes, and a very good culture existed in the school and has for some time.
That is good to hear.
Do you by any chance have the % of level 3, students that sat last year for each of Physics, Chemistry and Calculus and what their result % were? That information would be really interesting, especially as the report said that the level 3 students had an outstanding result of 95% success rate.
This has been happening since the 1990’s, it isnt new, or peculiar to that particular school.
Probably worth noting that NCEA was trialled in schools 5-6 years before it was implemented. I did NCEA level 2 English back in 1997.
O.k. I am almost sure its official. Paddy Gower must be stupid. Reid poll out.
National up very slightly. Labour up very slightly. Keys popularity down to under 40%
Those polled say they are against foreign buyers buying up property……. (something like 65%.
Minor parties down. National couldn’t govern alone. Would need NZ first.
So Lab and Greens have enough with NZ first…………
Then Paddy says, this shows it’s dangerous for Labour playing the race card………………….
Paddy your either stupid or desperate to find a line that makes Labour look bad………..
Maybe both.
I’d go with ‘both’.
I think the message of the poll was pretty obvious.
On the substance of the issue (the policy question on offshore buyers) Labour had got it right.
On their handling of it, they didn’t. So, no pay-off in the party vote.
National are in trouble, but Labour aren’t smart enough to benefit. A familiar story, alas.
that matches my analysis. No bump at all from Labour’s race baiting. Labour should have kept the message about the economics, about economic sovereignty and the foreign financing, but they thought they were being smart selling out on their left wing liberal values and picking on the Chinese.
IMO Labour’s right wing chose the race tack and did not want to make any general statements around the principles of economic sovereignty, as that would be too left wing for them.
I think the next couple of polls including the next Roy Morgan will be pivotal in understanding the full effects of Labour’s foray into race politics.
I think it’s more cock-up than conspiracy.
Questions in parliament last week showed the problem. Little started asking about the flag referendum, a minor matter for the leader of the opposition. He was backing off the housing issue.
National are giving gifts (Serco etc) and they are providing the headlines. Better to focus on that than alienating a lot of people on the left.
In short, Labour won’t (shouldn’t) make the same mistake twice. I hope.
You are doing false framing again!
Just to check if there was any truth in your assertion, I went to the parliament website and this is what I saw:
On the very first day of parliament this term, (Tuesday, 21 July 2015) Andrew Little asked this question on housing;
ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister : Does he stand by his statement in relation to affordability of homes in Auckland that “there’s a general view that housing prices are not overvalued”, given that the homeownership rate has fallen to its lowest level in 64 years?
On the same day, Peters too asked a question on Housing.
——————————
On the next day, Wed, 22, the housing question was asked by the Labour housing spokesperson, Twyford. He asked this:
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister of Finance : Does he stand by his statement about whether inequality was a problem in the Auckland housing market, “We’ve been concerned about that for some time, that there’s part of Auckland where there’s been really no new supply of lower value houses that low and middle-income families can afford”?
On the same day Metiria Turei too asked a housing issue question too.
So instead of the same housing issue, Little asked about the flag because the design submissions had just concluded.
—————-
Again on Thursday, 23, Twyford once again asked more questions on Housing:
PHIL TWYFORD to the Minister for Building and Housing: How does he intend to reduce the shortfall of Auckland houses in the next two years, given that under this Government the shortfall is increasing by 5000 a year, and the Productivity Commission predicts on current rates the shortfall – now 32,000 – will hit 60,000 by 2020?
——————-
Labour’s different spokes people deal with the different issues : Hipkins on Education, Davis on corrections, Twyford on housing, King on health, Goff on foreign affairs. Robertson on finance etc.
Little takes the overall charge without depriving the others.
So, you see, your false framing of Little is wrong and unfair as seen from the questions this week alone.
Bump in polls or not is NOT the main point or the question. At least it did not do any harm. The question is, was Twyford right in highlighting the dire problem of the possible money coming in from non resident Chinese for Auckland houses? I say YES, he absolutely did the right thing highlighting the issue rather than allow it to fester quietly around office water coolers in Chinese whispers.
The poll shows that over 60% of people and over 50% of NATIONAL voters WANT to stop non residents (‘not’ residents) from buying houses in Auckland. All this IN SPITE of the false framing indulged in by the RW crooks and the LW asinines as being ‘racist’. The fools framing it so are the real racists.
Twyford and Labour are well vindicated. No doubt about that. There is still over two years for the election. Keep calm and carry on, I say.
? Far far too early to determine that. Dozens of Labour activists have left the party or “downed tools”. And the true impact of that alone will take time to appear.
Hey, we live in a free democratic society. Not in Guatemala or 福州. Any one is free to leave or join. Some do it with honest principles while some others do it for cheap political stunts.
As long as Labour does the best by the country and all its people (including all legal immigrants), I am happy. Nothing else matters. For those that have left, I say さようなら.
Link?
Maybe the Labour Party did it because it’s good policy, not the same as being good for polls.
And yes, Paddy is a fuckwit.
I don’t think Labour would want a massive rise in the polls at this stage. Don Brash and National actually did play the race card around the time of the Orewa speech. Every redneck (and there’s a lot of them and probably includes Gower) in the country cheered them on. The last thing Labour wants is to be compared with is a bunch of rednecks.
Labour decided to emphasise the ethnic aspects, and not the economic sovereignty aspects, of foreign buyers in the NZ property market.
IMO they did that as an appeal to Waitakere Man (and Woman), and in order to not use too much economically left leaning language.
Caucus definitely wanted a rise in the polls from this exercise, and would have been expecting one after days of wall to wall media coverage of the issue.
Labour’s whole emphasis WAS on off shore non residents buying Auckland houses. They showed (in the absence of more reliable data) that the nearly 40% of houses sold in three months went to Chinese sounding owners disproportionate to their 9% population. That was the point which was framed by dishonest people as being racist. It wasn’t.
Of course, there would be some names that would sound like Chinese names, but will not be. that is true and Labour acknowledged that.
Casually dismissing large numbers on the left and from ethnic communities as “dishonest” EXACTLY illustrates the problem.
Ah, but in what way?
Personally I think “dishonest” is a bit harsh, though. It implies a blanket motive for the many reasons that some folks were just plain wrong.
I don’t think Clemgeopin is “casually” dismissing large numbers on the left and from ethnic communities as “dishonest” gobsmacked. I strongly suspect many of them mistakenly believed the false framing that was built up around this issue and in particular… I refer to the disingenuous framing from the National Party and their acolytes. eg. Matthew Hooton.
On the Sat morning interview, Twyford emphasised over and over that Chinese investors and people with Chinese names who were the problem. He had plenty of opportunities to generalise the case to all foreign money, to economic sovereignty, to mention buyers from the UK or USA etc as also being potential issues, but he did not.
This interview?
Where Twyford made comments such as:
and
and
and
and
Yeah, that’s why dozens of Labour Party members have left.
Tip: that’s not me who said that
Twyford was being honest and straight up. You would prefer him to be less so, like Key? Twyford wasn’t being offensive or racist. He was exposing a huge housing crisis in Auckland and speaking the truth from the data he had.
no it was Lanth that said that. Not that Lanth claimed to have left (or ever joined) Labour, AFAIK.
And frankly, I think it’s a false-positive.
Clemgeopin: Pretty sure Ng, Mok, Kan, myself, and a lot of other Kiwi Chinese found Labour’s tactics utterly offensive. But I welcome lots more Pakeha saying it was OK, not offensive, not anti-Chinese etc.
Anyways. No polling pay off for Labour even though most Kiwis agree that there should be no foreign ownership, and I think the damage caused is yet to make itself felt.
Col. Viper, just because you are Chinese does not make you right or smart. Don’t take stupid offense when none was intended. Use your brains. Understand the problem.
孔子 says, “Bubble, bubble, housing bubble can soon make plenty trouble. Just one non-resident prick, can burst all bubbles. Bubble, bubble, plenty trouble!”
jesus, clem… [headdesk]
Christ on a bike ‘McFlock’!
The first cut and paste you provide is in response to a direct proposal to sanction only Chinese buyers. (What else was he going to say ffs!)
The second was a direct lead up to that first one. (If not just Chinese, then what?)
The third was a part of the second response.
And the forth and fifth were squeezed in right at the tail end of the interview.
Now, you and I and everyone knows that first impressions count. And right up until he would have had to respond “yes, only (insert ‘otherness’), he banged on about Chinese and only Chinese… and then there was the Chinese.
But look, here’s the thing. Labour, as far as I understand, have access to electronic copies of the electoral roll. So why didn’t they run those 4000 sales against the roll? It wouldn’t have been perfect, but would have given a far clearer picture than the one they presented and it would have avoided any scapegoating/dog-whistling or what have you.
The reason they didn’t, wouldn’t have been because they wanted cheap votes, hmm?
Thankfully, and I mean this sincerely, it hasn’t worked.
OK, let’s work through your methodology (even if that’s a legal use of the electoral roll).
How would you do it and what exactly would you be seeking to demonstrate?
casually calling large numbers from the left and from ethnic communities as racists is ok tho?
No.
Dishonest from the point of view of second guessing what the real point of the Twyford’s exercise was, which was to show that one of the causes of the skyrocketing house prices in Auckland was the money (legal or dodgy cash) coming from non residents most of the culprits seemed to be from China. It was NOT against the local resident Chinese at all who Twyford said he welcomes with open arms if they are legitimately locals buying houses.
It is up to the government to show that Twyford was wrong, if he was wrong at all, by producing accurate statistics of non residents owning houses which isn’t too difficult for the Government to do if THEY are honest. They too, like the false ‘racist’ branding framers, aren’t! The government does not need to wait to BEGIN collecting some IRD numbers starting from OCTOBER! Do it NOW and have it back dated for the last seven years or even fifteen years. Computers are good, accurate and quick at doing such stuff!
So, I would say that the framing of the serious issue as racist is, if not dishonestly by all, then done by a false understanding of being PC or by being scared to be honest or by being quite stupid. Doesn’t really matter which. What matters is the accelerating house prices meed to be stopped by all possible measures. Today, even Key agreed, by saying heavy taxing for land is a better option than banning non residents buying.
So the point is that Twyford and Labour have made this an important issue for considering serious solutions.
Twyford can be right on the general thrust of the information and still be guilty of dog whistling. And that makes him wrong to have indulged in the shit he indulged in.
As said in reply to ‘McFlock’, electronic versions of the electoral roll are available to political parties. They could have used that to get a more precise onshore/offshore split…and for a fraction of the price they spent on doing what they did.
And Twyford didn’t dream this strategy up by his lonesome.
Little, the Leaders Office, and a number of other MPs were crucial to developing and choosing this strategy. Very planned, very deliberate.
And you know that how?
You do that Bill and prove that Twyford was dog whistling and wrong, instead of being too clever by half.
Singling out any identifiable minority and pointing a finger of blame at them isn’t dishonest: it’s just plain fucking wrong on multiple levels of wrongness.
What minority? Nothing to do with ‘minority’ or ‘majority’. It was to do with the non resident Chinese money rushing in in droves to buy investment property in Auckland and pushing prices beyond the reach of the residents, including the resident Chinese. Don’t be so daft.
@Clem
We have not long ago had Helen Clark apologising to Chinese people for past racist wrongs and bad treatment, murder included because of the hatred, fear and disdain for their ethnicity. (Think Dunedin mad guy. Forgotten his name. And others I’ve recently come across.) So Twyford should have been aware of sensitivity being needed.
His approach would have been better if he had gone in stages, with worrying stats alone to start. Then said that real estate figures he had received indicated that there was a strong move of foreign money into Auckland housing. Then said that he was looking at a statistical analysis trying to establish from where, in the absence of any figures from government sources or the Overseas Investment office.
Stages would have been better. Then announce the Asian figure as a bloc with other known comparative figures – Europe, UK, USA, South America. Then Colonial Viper would have had less to bite on!
We single out the minority population of Maori to point out that they represent a huge part of the prison population Bill. Racist is it?
Kiaora Ianmac
When Pakeha single out Maori or any other ethnicity for special mention – its never a good thing usually. The Chinese are taking over the country, and the Maoris are taking over the prisons.
@Adele
Reading that – Maori are taking over the prisons, got me thinking. Instead of Serco, why not contract Maori professionals to manage them and help them acquire needed education and life skills?
I have heard that there are numbers of successful programs for life training from interested Maori. Perhaps Ngawha could become a pilot working under a plan to incorporate the successful small programs on a bigger scale, working in stages and aiming to restore self-worth, self-control and self-direction within the collective culture of community.
Anne@24.5 1000+