Thd ferocity of the attack by the corporate media pit bulls like Soper, Armstrong and Hosking on Metiria would suggest her comments were a real threat to the owners of this country.
It would be better if they funded all beneficiaries to have access to internet/scanners and permit remote access for everyone. That way they could do without the guards/humiliation/lack of toilets/reception etc.
It would be better if beneficiaries never had to endure the human rights abusers at WINZ ever again. I don’t care whether they’re just following National Party orders or not.
Human rights abusers belong in court, not in offices.
Get rid of WINZ completely, have a UBI and have an Office of NZ Citizen Support which will be about citizens getting the help they need, and choosing what hours they are going to put in to help with NZ Social Infrastructure. All will be encouraged to do something they can manage, even an hour a week, and the able bodied and minded will be expected to do from 3-7 hours a week.
This would apply to all ages, and even to the bed-ridden or non-mobile who could do something small from home or hospice. If people want to live-long, then they can be integrated life-long in their society and not feel useless. This will be universal for anyone wishing to live in NZ full or part-time, and participate in public health ad other amenities whether they are receiving a pension or subsidy or not. Then the country has to recognise that all people drawing money from the government are contributing to society.
Parents will be learning at workshops etc. on human relationships, psychology, physical and mental oriented skills, child psychology through different ages, self-care and relief when needed, and efficient systems for running a house, also workshops on gardening, small woodwork and handyman jobs, and home focussed, cooking, cleaning, sewing and knitting. It will be called learned helpfulness, and be full of positive vibes. Parents without transport will be able to catch buses, jeepney-type or contracted taxis that come to the door, and make it easy to attend.
That would be a whole new start and the country would embrace its young people and parents. Most of our woe would go!
The money is not going to the guards though. They are at the bottom of the pile of any juicy contract. Unfortunately, some seek someone even less powerful to intimidate. They are just copying the bullying behaviour of the bosses.
WINZ do need to protect their staff – so it is not unreasonable that they have guards.
When I was young (18ish) I worked at what was then Social Welfare – (IT Side) – but was made to spend time at the counter to understand what it was like for customers.
I always remember the abuse a lot of staff received – sometimes from drunk or stoned people. When all the time trying to do the best they could to help.
IIRC, there have been two times over the last twenty odd years where WINZ staff have been killed. Both times was WINZ was refusing to help when the people actually needed help.
Well, the guards are effective against little old ladies. Wouldn’t have done shit against Tully, though.
But I’m not actually against guards on premises.
I’m against guards on the door demanding ID, receptionists who refuse to make an appointment when you’re in the goddamn branch and insist you call the call centre in order to make an appintment to speak to the person 4 metres away from both of you, long application forms, and a myriad of other pointless barriers placed between people in need and the assistance that can help them.
I didn’t know it was as bad as that. Government is doing its best it seems to keep the smelly humans away from the department offices that are supposed to help.
Eventually they will do everything through machines by machines and they can get on with whatever they think they should do with their time at the expense of our country if you can call it that by that time. More just a giant ‘waiting station’ or ‘people processor’.
A toxic mix of low wage growth and fast-rising rents
Two reports released within 24 hours of each other neatly summarise the state of New Zealand right now. They showed the wealth of the richest sprinting ahead with property values, while the poorest are struggling with stubbornly low wages and fast-rising housing costs. Bernard Hickey reports on a tale of two New Zealands.
This is what Stuff should have top of the page on their site. Instead they discuss the mental health of David Bains Mum (as offensive as it is out of date and irrelevant), and the fact Turei didn’t have a job during university but found time for political campaigns. God. This fucking country and it’s media.
Those subjects in the media indicate the shallow intellect of this country. We seem incapable of reflection, and self-correction. The national intellect instead revolves around judgment of others who haven’t got money, those who are struggling and who complain (persons of no standing), getting things for ourselves and then getting more, and the latest style in the various ways of displaying our persona to others.
Taking an interest in politics indicates dissatisfaction with the status quo which has been established by our betters. How dare Turei take this tone! Who does she think she is? And she hasn’t complied with all the requirements and filled out forms correctly. Disgraceful. And thinks it important to gain skills for a self-supporting life and to guide her child to the same ways for being responsible, pleasant, practical and socialised people.
We are like deviant bower birds who have adopted the habits of the shining cuckoo which leave their eggs and rearing of young to greywarblers’ nests. In winter they fly away to warmer climes like New Guinea so they are just irresponsible. Really they are like those immigrants who are making use of us and ripping us off as they go.
With that summary in mind it is understandable why we are in our present hole,
short of nests.
If you want to over hype the issue, then we both can.
I take it you have no problem with groups of people running into banks wearing tinted crash helmets waving around sticks or making kindergartens open spaces where the public are free to wonder in and out playing with kids?
I definitely think WINZ shouldn’t let groups of people running into their offices wearing tinted crash helmets waving around sticks. But since you brought it up, banks should now not let people wear hats in banks nor let elderly people bring in their wheelie shopping bags. Good idea there Chris, put it out there and see how that goes down. Oh, and all people who want to go into a bank have to show ID and prove they have a good reason for going in there. And if they get angry about being expected to do all those things, then they’re be put in a register that is shared with all the other banks.
It’s amazing the access Hooton gets. It really helps if you’re repeating the establishment line.
He gets all that airtime, yet a story about grandparents being humiliated by WINZ is shutdown.
Was Metiria’s questioning of the failing welfare state challenged by Hooton?
And Hooton was able to spout his toxic anti Labour anti Andrew bullshit like he does on 9 to noon. He gets it in then talks mildly about other matters on hand.
I think Banter is quite interesting in a basic raw way. Unlike the other smooth talk shows.
He’s now called “Michael Hooten” according to the listing. A new fun, loungy chat show bringing on a wringer who wants to demolish the Labour Party. I wonder what that does for the ratings..
There is no law that requires you to listen to him.
Are you really that much of a masochist that you have to torture yourself in this way?
Turn off the radio. Turn off the TV.
Get outside and sniff the flowers.
That’s exactly what I do alwyn. I was responding to dv’s link. We do not watch/listen to any of the commercial channels, and have not for several years because of their total toadying to the Natz ( which is precisely what they are paid to do).
Yep it it’s clause 7b of his employment contract, how did he survive under 9 years of labour with this clause I dont know, he’s real smart or labour are real dunces
Hosking still justifying his pay rate whilst refusing to disclose it.
Gosh he is getting old now, wonder what he would do for a job if removed from media? Maybe that’s his issue, that he doesn’t know how to do anything else but talk shite and support the local casino.
There must be a fellow staffers who have a good idea what Hosking is earning so why don’t they leak it? I’m picking his annual income is well over $1million per annum – maybe as high as $2million – and that’s without the additional perks. And we’re paying the bulk of that salary.
Setting aside the law which is frequently an ass, there’s no doubting who is the real criminal and it ain’t Metiria Turei. Hosking is fleecing tax-payers of millions of dollars for third rate performances on TV and radio and imo that is a far more serious crime than Metiria’s 2000 dollars per annum all those years ago.
“setting aside the law”. That’s the problem Anne. Do we all just go about our lives, setting aside the laws we don’t agree with, or like or that inconvenience us?
Sam C, that is what the vast majority of the well heeled do with rorting the system. They set aside the law by using lawyers and accountants etc.
Show me the tradie who doesn’t do jobs under the table and those who seek those savings etc etc . We are all guilty of it to some degree or other.
Someone dead at a railway station in Auckland which means a 3 hour wait for usual travellers as services are shut down. This is an unacceptably long time when it prevents the running of mass transport. I am assuming that it is largely to conduct a police investigation and take samples and photos from the site. There has to be a police investigation but the time taken to deal with the matter is far too long. There should be an emergency team that can deal with the matter so that there can be resumption of normal and necessary activity for others.
I have been told that sometimes road accidents and consequent closures have lasted far longer than required for police to deal with it, and that the attitude has been far from as expeditious as it should have been.
Right go for the emotional response. It is a very focussed one at any time, people are dying all the time and we don’t cancel the day and go home. What I am saying is the procedures need to speed up so people can attend to their work and other duties. Some of us have self-imposed duties to try and make the world a better place, and we have to get to work too. If we can get a change of heart in our government there will be less of these sad stats.
That is part of my point Rightly. Roads closed for 6-7 hours. Matters need to be attended to promptly. Also I have been told that in one case a road was left closed for hours after the important stuff was attended to.
In this case the body would need to be gathered up and handled carefully and considerately. Evidence gathered, 1 hour plus could hardly be avoided.
It needs to be kept to a minimum, the transport cleared as soon as reasonably possible. People are needed at work, they need work to get wages, the wages are earned by doing their job, and multiplied by hundreds, it is a great loss to businesses and individuals.
The more it happens, the more likely there will be more committing suicide or becoming stressed beyond return. Emotion and reason have to be balanced. It’s not something to be resigned and accepting about.
……..the topic I will focus on today, is the dangerous drift towards racial separatism in New Zealand, and the development of the now entrenched Treaty grievance industry. We are one country with many peoples, not simply a society of Pakeha and Maori where the minority has a birthright to the upper hand, as the Labour Government seems to believe.
I’m dizzy at reading this heady stuff from Don Brash in 2004. I’m looking forward to what Willie Jackson has to say on Saturday in Orewa Rotary. Ticket in handbag!
Peroxide Blonde
You seem to be colour oriented. Why blonde? And peroxide, is that a healthy treatment? It might be cancer producing as hair dyes and chemicals are very quick to penetrate skin layers. Do you think we should all look the same, and have one standard hair colour? Should it be blonde? Does everyone of importance have to be blonde? So many questions.
What if I like my racial separation, culture and look? Your link goes back to 2004. Many things and thoughts have occurred since Don Brash’s speech then. Are you having trouble adjusting to the new thoughts? Life is full of adjustments and choices and somewhere people have to find something worthwhile to believe in, something that allows for everyone to be respected and honoured.
Do you feel that Don Brash speaks for that, or for you alone and your cohort? How is that going to bring about a happy society where all are respected? Don’t you want that, and if not respect then do you want happy society, and if not happy, do you want a society, and if you don’t want that what sort of crap do you want going on around you?
Thank you Karen .Love the bit about Paula likes the way NZers give people a second chance. Doesn’t seem to apply if the person is in the Greens does it?
A ha well Gareth Morgan is the man to deal with him. I know who I’d rather have, and a few less cats, perhaps with micro chips. I don’t know what sort of chip N Smith needs but please someone find one suitable.
Checkpoint did a great job last night with its story of the chaos in the ICU unit at Dunedin Hospital. Only 6 ICU beds, just increased to 8 and there will be 10 in 13 months time where I heard someone say they need 18. Morning Report continued the story this morning saying “bumping” (where an operation is cancelled at the last minute due to lack of resources) is co common it has become a joke in the wards.
Another news story doing the rounds yesterday (at least on RNZ) was a report that said that poor people in Auckland now pay more than 50% of their income in housing costs.
Chronic public (not private) health under-funding and a housing crisis. Surely Labour’s no-tax-cuts to help solve these issues coupled with the Green’s more humane benefit regime will resonate on 23rd September?
‘Bumbling incompetence in management in public service’. Sounds like a spray of grumbling about everybody but ‘me’ being bumbling. I think it is a carry-on from the mantra of there being fat in the system, and cutting it out and getting a lean running machine will result in exponential gains in productivity etc.
When it comes to the public service try looking at Harrison and the psychopathic way she ran her manor. See below. ‘the caravan of love’. If the people could just get on with their jobs with adequate mentoring by managers they would achieve and be proud of their department’s efforts and effectiveness. All the rest is an excuse for ego-flashing.
Instead they can be prey to the machinations of human resources gurus with team building projects that bear no relation to their work. There are vanity projects meant to get compliance which can be expensive and involve considerable disruption to work and private life, going rock climbing for instance, something where you push yourself beyond your normal boundaries. Getting teamwork and compliance could be accomplished easier by giving them squaddie army drill and forming a marching team with flash uniforms performing at contests and high days an holidays.
Some business entities pay staff to do work day in the community for the community, but that is more private business. When you work in the government you are supposed to be doing that, so don’t have to put yourself out getting involved with the public in some helping way.
The public service has been degraded by the cult of neo liberalism and PR management and particularly the complete lack of trust in the public service workers and any agencies receiving government funds and input, The lack of acceptance of responsibility for proper and correct management of government, obssessive accoounting for every hour and every penny, unreasonably high targets, by targeting itself of chosen outcomes instead of overall performance to a mission and vision statement, and by the desire and determination of the neoliberal government to cut government to matchbox size and then set that alight, after its functions have been passed over to profit-making entities in the private sector.
The Greens have been doing uncharacteristically well – now a self-selected poll isn’t likely to be valid unless the numbers are very large – but Metiria’s stand is the best candidate to explain the result if it is not an artifact of poor sampling design.
Well of course she didn’t work you ass. She had a tiny baby. It’s a 24 hr job you know or perhaps you don’t know being an ignorant red-neck.
I won’t be wasting my time reading a crappy newshub (?) article but so what… if she did actively help out in a campaign. She probably stuffed envelopes somewhere with baby sleeping in her pram alongside her. Jesus, the bigotry and misogyny from these right wingers is mind boggling.
Even Mums with new born babes are allowed to go out and have a bit of social contact with other people.
I’m not making stuff up – you’re failing to extrapolate from the data – NZ now has the most unaffordable housing in the OECD. And far from the best wages.
Even the meanest intelligence can join those two dots to conclude that not owning a home predicates poverty.
You might recall Shamu (the economist, not the anthropocidal orca) used to maintain that renting was fine and this obsession with owning your own home didn’t matter. He has reversed that stance, in one of those rare (vanishingly rare among economists) instances of observation overturning theoretical bias.
So beneficiaries aren’t allowed to have lives? No agency to choose how they spend their time? Not allowed recreation? Pleasure? Fun?
The irony here in the latest round of righties feeling offended is that she chose to spend her time doing politics. Quelle horreur that beneficiaries might have a political voice. And of course they haven’t, which is why we are in the situation we are today as a country, where for the first time in 30 years the political class have stepped up and given the underclasses an actual voice not just talked about them.
“No agency to choose how they spend their time? Not allowed recreation? Pleasure? Fun?”
Of course not.
But you dont get to spend all your time going for government (which she was) then saying that she had no choice but to defraud the government for money.
If things were so dire that she had to defraud $ or her child was going to be hungry – then surely the choice to perhaps work as opposed to campaigning for government would have delivered a better outcome.
But – thats her choice – stand for the serious party – and not work and defraud the government.
She didn’t spend all her time going for govt. She had a baby, was raising it and going to law school.
“If things were so dire that she had to defraud $ or her child was going to be hungry – then surely the choice to perhaps work as opposed to campaigning for government would have delivered a better outcome.”
Yes, as I just said, you think that beneficiaries, esp solo mums, aren’t allowed to have spare time or consequently agency in how they spend that time or have fun or a life. You think that you should get to decide what is best for benes or solo mums.
Don’t worry, we get it, this has been the message for many decades now. It’s not new. Now that Turei is pushing back, it’s being exposed for the piece of shit values that it is.
This total denigration of Metiria by the right is to totally close down any analysis/discussion of the Greens humane social welfare policy. They will push this to the max. I’m surprised the Greens didn’t realise that this would happen, after all it is text book procedure to shoot the messenger.
Yes, and pretty sure they did realise this but decided it was worth the risk. That task now for lefties, progressives, and anyone who gives a shit, is to make sure the narrative gets changed permanently to one of beneficiaries are people too. There is so much in that that underpins all of neoliberalism.
Solo mums can do what they want just don’t expect society to fund it beyond the necessities, if they want more take ownership of your own life and make the right choices You don’t have the right to unilaterally decide you are above the law or determine what you feel what you are entitled to Tough but thats life No one owes you a living
aka “it’s better to starve then bend the rules”. Actually, more like, it’s better for those people over there that I hate to starve than for them to be helped. Works both ways.
The starving narrative is bs weka and you know it, like she had no other choices to avoid starvation, granny and indeed loses dad was going to sit by and let that happen as one example, get real
If you think there are no kids and parents and other benes in NZ that don’t routinely go without adequate food and nutrition, you are either extremely naive or extremely stupid. Much more likely is you are just a bigot who doesn’t give a shit.
In Meteria case it’s BS, don’t extrapolate my point, please also desist with standard left wing attack lines it gets a bit boring and is not an arguement , you forgot, projecting, hating the poor, only the left care , racist homophobic, mysoginist ( just to save you the time)
Self defeating there red. the necessities mean food and roof over your head. Which when national reduced the benefits by 25% meant the necessities were not covered. And she fudged it to get the necessities.
But sure live in you deserving and undeserving poor lala land. Where we have the western worlds largest homeless problem, growing poverty and the highest suicide rates.
No one owes you a living, so does that mean you support an end to inheritance laws?
To Red @9.3.1.1.3.
All I can say about your comment there is that you typify what is wrong with this Country.
Your total lack of empathy is telling.
Try walking a mile in someone else’s shoes for once.
defraud the government – what about apple? Not seeing you jump up and down about that. But a few hundred dollars, and it’s the end of the world. James go sort out your priorities mate, you’re in amoral land.
And sleep, James! Turei slept at times during the night when her baby was new-born, when she could have been seeking work!
Drag her into the courts, I say! Berate her for her idleness; sleeping when she could have been applying herself to lifting herself out of her self-made mire with a good yank on her boot-straps! James is right in thinking there’s no place in the ACT Party for Metiria!
It’s really interesting the media beat up against Meti, she’s fronted to questions by media, isn’t hiding, MSD are still to take action from a situation that happened near on 30 years ago, and on it goes.
Maybe since the law is so fickle on words, if Meti had described someone as a boarder rather than a flatmate, there would be no issue.
Now she is being slammed for doing voluntary work rather than paid work? Slammed for taking an interest in politics while studying because she realised some of our laws are archaic and wanted to take action to do something about it. How dare she! (sarc.)
Meanwhile… WHAT”S ON THE TAPES TODD? How’s that police investigation going? Why was the PM avoiding giving straight answers in question time yesterday? Why won’t you talk to media Todd?
Meanwhile… WHAT”S ON THE TAPES TODD? How’s that police investigation going? Why was the PM avoiding giving straight answers in question time yesterday? Why won’t you talk to media Todd?
QFT
The National Party supporters never question the actions of their own leaders which highlights their hypocrisy.
Mhmmm near on 30 years ago Sam, almost 3 decades, more than 2 decades, so near on 30 years ago, closer to 30 than 20.
Sam, what’s on the tapes? Once it is disclosed what is on the tapes, the public will be shocked. True story, NZ is a small place, especially the south island, confidentiality agreement prevents me from sharing more. JS
@ James So she shouldn’t have been involved in politics because she was poor? You would have her working at McDonalds while paying for childcare for her baby-that is for a pittance.
She was working unpaid for the public good by being involved in politics-that is a job. All power to her.
Whatever. Why the fuck didn’t she repay then go public. Fuck I’m so pissed off with fucking Turei !!!! I would normally vote Labour but the thought of this sanctimonious fucking fraudster in a Labour led governemnt really turns me off.
Audit Gerry’s term with CERA and you’ll find enough fraud to give him a ten stretch – Collin’s illegal kauri exports likewise. So why make a fuss about Metiria now? Hasn’t offended in decades – and small potatoes anyway.
Did she break your meme?
Or is it that the Gnats’ record is indefensible and she’s the only one you’ve figured out how to attack?
Hope your paying living wage to your lawn mowing teenager ie walking the talk and not avoiding paying tax to suppprt welfare system to keep your costs down
Or support the lifestyle she wanted and having a baby, that’s probably more closer to the truth and where she differs from the great majority of law abiding solo mums
I think you will find the majority after ruthinasia fudged the system. They had to. Another example of the economic disconnect from you lot. It’s outstanding how much in lala land you all are.
No issues with housing
No issues with homelessness
No issue with suicide
No issues with a welfare system paying below necessity
Just hate, and up on a pedestal telling the rest of us how to live.
The National candidate will be on the ballot paper, so people do have a choice. In contrast the Greens have actually puled their candidate in the expectation that all Green voters will vote for the Labour candidate.
So less choice on the left side than on the right.
Must be awesome to be the National candidate who gets to play patsy while your leader tells the National voters in your electorate to vote for some other guy. It takes a character like Paul Goldsmith to do it – someone who could write hagiographies of John Banks and Don Brash obviously doesn’t have any requirement for self-respect. I should be surprised National’s been able to find a second candidate so lacking in standards, but for some reason I’m not.
He doesn’t. Morrissey just has a serious problem when it comes to distinguishing between his personal prejudice and rational analysis. It’s not an uncommon problem, but tends to make for obviously and woefully incorrect comments.
Ok, so Labour don’t have any deal with any other party about not standing candidates or telling their voters to vote for other party’s candidates. Nor have they chosen to not stand in one of the marginal electorates. Glad we got that cleared up.
The Greens, who have almost never runs serious candidates in the seats, and afaik have never stood candidates in all seats, have chosen to not stand in certain seats for a range of reasons, including cost. But they have no deal with Labour and they haven’t told their voters to vote for other party’s candidates.
And you think this makes Labour and the Greens the equivalent of National telling its voters to vote for another party because that’s the only way it can govern?
Just to make it easy for your. If Labour really did want to do this, they’d have put Kelvin Davis high on the list and told TTT voters to seat vote Harawira and they’d have done a deal with the Greens to also not stand in TTT.
Morrissey – Doctors, dentists, accountants, business owners, school teachers, lawyers, policeman/woman, social workers, nurses, retirees – these are some of the good people i know in Epsom that you refer to as sheep – who the fuck are you to smear these good people just because they don’t agree with your political view.
The sheep are the ones who allowed themselves to be herded to vote—against all their better instincts—for the likes of such reprehensible, comical characters as Rodney Hide and the disastrous Jamie “Lock Up His Sisters” Whyte. I doubt many social workers, nurses, teachers or indeed anyone who is compos mentis would have obeyed the cup of tea directive.
1. Epsom is a very rich neighbourhood. It’s unlikely voting ACT goes very much against the instincts of many of its wealthier residents.
2. National supporters in Epsom are unlikely to feel dubious about satisfying the request “Please vote for the ACT candidate so that National gets an extra MP.”
Those poor bastards in epsom – ‘its not fair we vote for rubbish, we get rubbish and we are told off by the unwashed, unwaged and unworthy – what about us? Has anyone given a thought for how tough it is with 3 cars and only 2 drivers – why won’t someone fix that problem. It’s racist is what it is’.
The 8th synthetic cannabis death in a month. Fricken hell do something, poor kids are dying.
What’s the bet in a couple of weeks there will be a watered down drug action plan announced that doesn’t do anything but is spoken highly of in the medias.
I’ve been thinking about Diana and her boys. It really struck me how they had suppressed much emotions around the death of their mum and that by talking about that had helped them remember her and consolidate the loss and carry on with life. Imagine now being those boys and your mother had killed herself. There are a lot of kids, parents, siblings and friends dealing with the sudden loss of their loved ones. So much stuff to work through – the guilt, sadness and fear. How many people receiving assistance have killed themselves? No one counts them so we don’t know. How many kids dealing with the suicide of a parent who was receiving assistance? We don’t count them, we don’t know.
Interesting critique of the New Zealand Greens here.
Essentially, in Wellington they are great at getting elected, but really poor at getting anything Green actually done.
You’ve probably heard that Spanish pop record “Despacito” over the last few weeks, by a couple of Puerto Ricans called Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi. It’s the most popular piece of Latin nonsense since the gorgeous “Ketchup” song of fifteen years ago—indeed it’s now the most played song ever, in any language.
Among those who have heard it are supporters of the democratic government in Venezuela. One of them had the inspired idea of doing away with the inane original lyrics and turning it into an anthem of hope and support for democratic values…
Great idea, right? Improving a piece of dreck, recycling a piece of meretricious rubbish like “Despacito” is part of a timeless and honored tradition.
Sadly, however, the perpetrators of the original were not happy. Both Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee have unleashed blimpish and confused outbursts against the democratic Venezuelan government: “Your dictatorial regime is a joke,” claimed Fonsi—or was it Daddy Yankee?—and the other one (Fonsi? Daddy Yankee?) claimed that “the Venezuelan people are crying out for their freedom.”
So what motivated these two Puerto Rican pop-putzes to indulge in the most absurd display of bewilderment since Jared Leto and Kevin Spacey declaimed at an awards ceremony? Well, just have a look at Daddy Yankee’s murky past: he’s a self-declared “Christian”, and a Republican, and voted for John McCain in 2008. You can be sure he’s a Rump supporter as well. He hates democracy…..
Luis Fonsi doesn’t seem to have any ideas about anything. I’m pretty sure all the energy of this anti-democracy rant comes from Daddy Yankee, and that Fonsi just follows his lead.
There are many thoughtful and well informed Puerto Rican commentators, such as Juan González, Ululy Martinez and Oscar Lopez Rivera. However, as is so often the case, the Puerto Ricans getting nearly all the publicity at the moment are—thanks to the political choices of the media—two unfeasibly ignorant, lazy, and stupid ones.
That’s a really important point. It means all that ‘debt’ upon a government’s books can be written off instantly while making no difference to the economy.
And to be picky, the absurd heading Mike Hosking: Metiria Turei should know – knowledge of a crime is a crime itself
means that a hell of a lot of criminal lawyers must be committing crime. By this measure Bill English is probably a criminal too.
Oh my – wanting to grow hemp – bad, medical cannabis – bad, and a side issue – will lose election. Purposing somthing that will not help one bit – election winner.
The sad part is people will swallow that crap whole.
Winston just asked in QT, if National were preparing to sell Transpower. WOW!
Denied of course by Joyce. Letter tabled.
Q6. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all his statements; if so, how?
Little was terrible this morning on breakfast with Jack Tame, the man has trouble putting coherent sentences together or thinking on his feet Surely the simple answer to Tame line of question to catch angry out in regard to what will dropping 30000 in immigration have on our GDp would have been, “nothing as per capita nothing will change” , little was right it was a stupid question but he got owned by Tame with a even more stupid lack of an answer and could not shut it down, beyond stuttering every labour policy and mother pie statement as an answer, must do better, epic fail
dad4 – you’ve stumbled into a decent blog-space here, accidentally, I’m sure and you’ll be feeling insecure and not a little bit alien!
Quick! Get back to Kiwiblog before you catch something! This place is awash with rational thinking and consideration: scoot!
RedLogix – my heart too, skipped a beat at the signature on the 7:53pm comment, and while I stand in awe at the elegant simplicity of dad’s comment, unencumbered as it is by any weight, depth or value, I clearly remember the path dad’s comments, when in train, take; the inevitable downward, pride-defying spiral that always ended with a graceless splat-landing and banishment by the moderators to place where dull mischief foments and flippery-feet flap.
Actually, it was Tuesday morning Red Tuesday the 25th. I saw that and I have got to agree, that little obnoxious prat, another Hoskins in the making definitely had a “gotcha” moment with Little. I don’t think little has problems in answering I think his main problem is he hasn’t a strong commanding voice. However wasn’t the little arseole smug about it, it was written all over his dial that said, ” aren’t I a clever little shit.”
Tried a similar exercise with Metiria Turei this morning didn’t he, and boy didn’t he come a cropper, she shut the little prat well and truly up and was he fucking pissed off about it his face was like thunder.
The budget runup is far from easy.Budget 2025 day is Thursday 22 May. About a month earlier in a normal year, the macroeconomic forecasts would be completed (the fiscal ones would still be tidying up) and the main policy decisions would have been made (but there would still be a ...
On 25 April 2021, I published an internal all-staff Anzac Day message. I did so as the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, which is responsible for Australia’s civil defence, and its resilience in ...
You’ve likely noticed that the disgraced blogger of Whale Oil Beef Hooked infamy, Cameron Slater, is still slithering around the internet, peddling his bile on a shiny new blogsite calling itself The Good Oil. If you thought bankruptcy, defamation rulings, and a near-fatal health scare would teach this idiot a ...
The Atlas Network, a sprawling web of libertarian think tanks funded by fossil fuel barons and corporate elites, has sunk its claws into New Zealand’s political landscape. At the forefront of this insidious influence is David Seymour, the ACT Party leader, whose ties to Atlas run deep.With the National Party’s ...
Nicola Willis, National’s supposed Finance Minister, has delivered another policy failure with the Family Boost scheme, a childcare rebate that was big on promises but has been very small on delivery. Only 56,000 families have signed up, a far cry from the 130,000 Willis personally championed in National’s campaign. This ...
This article was first published on 7 February 2025. In January, I crossed the milestone of 24 years of service in two militaries—the British and Australian armies. It is fair to say that I am ...
He shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.Age shall not weary him, nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun and in the morningI will remember him.My mate Keith died yesterday, peacefully in the early hours. My dear friend in Rotorua, whom I’ve been ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on news New Zealand abstained from a vote on a global shipping levy on climate emissions and downgraded the importance ...
Hi,In case you missed it, New Zealand icon Lorde has a new single out. It’s called “What Was That”, and has a very low key music video that was filmed around her impromptu performance in New York’s Washington Square Park. When police shut down the initial popup, one of my ...
A strategy of denial is now the cornerstone concept for Australia’s National Defence Strategy. The term’s use as an overarching guide to defence policy, however, has led to some confusion on what it actually means ...
The IMF’s twice-yearly World Economic Outlook and Fiscal Monitor publications have come out in the last couple of days. If there is gloom in the GDP numbers (eg this chart for the advanced countries, and we don’t score a lot better on the comparable one for the 2019 to ...
For a while, it looked like the government had unfucked the ETS, at least insofar as unit settings were concerned. They had to be forced into it by a court case, but at least it got done, and when National came to power, it learned the lesson (and then fucked ...
The argument over US officials’ misuse of secure but non-governmental messaging platform Signal falls into two camps. Either it is a gross error that undermines national security, or it is a bit of a blunder ...
Cost of living ~1/3 of Kiwis needed help with food as cost of living pressures continue to increase - turning to friends, family, food banks or Work and Income in the past year, to find food. 40% of Kiwis also said they felt schemes offered little or no benefit, according ...
Hi,Perhaps in 2025 it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the CEO and owner of Voyager Internet — the major sponsor of the New Zealand Media Awards — has taken to sharing a variety of Anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories to his 1.2 million followers.This included sharing a post from ...
In the sprint to deepen Australia-India defence cooperation, navy links have shot ahead of ties between the two countries’ air forces and armies. That’s largely a good thing: maritime security is at the heart of ...
'Cause you and me, were meant to be,Walking free, in harmony,One fine day, we'll fly away,Don't you know that Rome wasn't built in a day?Songwriters: Paul David Godfrey / Ross Godfrey / Skye Edwards.I was half expecting to see photos this morning of National Party supporters with wads of cotton ...
The PSA says a settlement with Health New Zealand over the agency’s proposed restructure of its Data and Digital and Pacific Health teams has saved around 200 roles from being cut. A third of New Zealanders have needed help accessing food in the past year, according to Consumer NZ, and ...
John Campbell’s Under His Command, a five-part TVNZ+ investigation series starting today, rips the veil off Destiny Church, exposing the rot festering under Brian Tamaki’s self-proclaimed apostolic throne. This isn’t just a church; it’s a fiefdom, built on fear, manipulation, and a trail of scandals that make your stomach churn. ...
Some argue we still have time, since quantum computing capable of breaking today’s encryption is a decade or more away. But breakthrough capabilities, especially in domains tied to strategic advantage, rarely follow predictable timelines. Just ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Pearl Marvell(Photo credit: Pearl Marvell. Image credit: Samantha Harrington. Dollar bill vector image: by pch.vector on Freepik) Igrew up knowing that when you had extra money, you put it under a bed, stashed it in a book or a clock, or, ...
The political petrified piece of wood, Winston Peters, who refuses to retire gracefully, has had an eventful couple of weeks peddling transphobia, pushing bigoted policies, undertaking his unrelenting war on wokeness and slinging vile accusations like calling Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick a “groomer”.At 80, the hypocritical NZ First leader’s latest ...
It's raining in Cockermouth and we're following our host up the stairs. We’re telling her it’s a lovely building and she’s explaining that it used to be a pub and a nightclub and a backpackers, but no more.There were floods in 2009 and 2015 along the main street, huge floods, ...
A recurring aspect of the Trump tariff coverage is that it normalises – or even sanctifies – a status quo that in many respects has been a disaster for working class families. No doubt, Donald Trump is an uncertainty machine that is tanking the stock market and the growth prospects ...
The National Party’s Minister of Police, Corrections, and Ethnic Communities (irony alert) has stumbled into yet another racist quagmire, proving that when it comes to bigotry, the right wing’s playbook is as predictable as it is vile. This time, Mitchell’s office reposted an Instagram reel falsely claiming that Te Pāti ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
In a world crying out for empathy, J.K. Rowling has once again proven she’s more interested in stoking division than building bridges. The once-beloved author of Harry Potter has cemented her place as this week’s Arsehole of the Week, a title earned through her relentless, tone-deaf crusade against transgender rights. ...
Health security is often seen as a peripheral security domain, and as a problem that is difficult to address. These perceptions weaken our capacity to respond to borderless threats. With the wind back of Covid-19 ...
Would our political parties pass muster under the Fair Trading Act?WHAT IF OUR POLITICAL PARTIES were subject to the Fair Trading Act? What if they, like the nation’s businesses, were prohibited from misleading their consumers – i.e. the voters – about the nature, characteristics, suitability, or quantity of the products ...
Rod EmmersonThank you to my subscribers and readers - you make it all possible. Tui.Subscribe nowSix updates today from around the world and locally here in Aoteaora New Zealand -1. RFK Jnr’s Autism CrusadeAmerica plans to create a registry of people with autism in the United States. RFK Jr’s department ...
We see it often enough. A democracy deals with an authoritarian state, and those who oppose concessions cite the lesson of Munich 1938: make none to dictators; take a firm stand. And so we hear ...
370 perioperative nurses working at Auckland City Hospital, Starship Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre will strike for two hours on 1 May – the same day senior doctors are striking. This is part of nationwide events to mark May Day on 1 May, including rallies outside public hospitals, organised by ...
Character protections for Auckland’s villas have stymied past development. Now moves afoot to strip character protection from a bunch of inner-city villas. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories shortest from our political economy on Wednesday, April 23:Special Character Areas designed to protect villas are stopping 20,000 sites near Auckland’s ...
Artificial intelligence is poised to significantly transform the Indo-Pacific maritime security landscape. It offers unprecedented situational awareness, decision-making speed and operational flexibility. But without clear rules, shared norms and mechanisms for risk reduction, AI could ...
For what is a man, what has he got?If not himself, then he has naughtTo say the things he truly feelsAnd not the words of one who kneelsThe record showsI took the blowsAnd did it my wayLyrics: Paul Anka.Morena folks, before we discuss Winston’s latest salvo in NZ First’s War ...
Britain once risked a reputation as the weak link in the trilateral AUKUS partnership. But now the appointment of an empowered senior official to drive the project forward and a new burst of British parliamentary ...
Australia’s ability to produce basic metals, including copper, lead, zinc, nickel and construction steel, is in jeopardy, with ageing plants struggling against Chinese competition. The multinational commodities company Trafigura has put its Australian operations under ...
There have been recent PPP debacles, both in New Zealand (think Transmission Gully) and globally, with numerous examples across both Australia and Britain of failed projects and extensive litigation by government agencies seeking redress for the failures.Rob Campbell is one of New Zealand’s sharpest critics of PPPs noting that; "There ...
On Twitter on Saturday I indicated that there had been a mistake in my post from last Thursday in which I attempted to step through the Reserve Bank Funding Agreement issues. Making mistakes (there are two) is annoying and I don’t fully understand how I did it (probably too much ...
Indonesia’s armed forces still have a lot of work to do in making proper use of drones. Two major challenges are pilot training and achieving interoperability between the services. Another is overcoming a predilection for ...
The StrategistBy Sandy Juda Pratama, Curie Maharani and Gautama Adi Kusuma
As a living breathing human being, you’ve likely seen the heart-wrenching images from Gaza...homes reduced to rubble, children burnt to cinders, families displaced, and a death toll that’s beyond comprehension. What is going on in Gaza is most definitely a genocide, the suffering is real, and it’s easy to feel ...
Donald Trump, who has called the Chair of the Federal Reserve “a major loser”. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories shortest from our political economy on Tuesday, April 22:US markets slump after Donald Trump threatens the Fed’s independence. China warns its trading partners not to side with the US. Trump says some ...
Last night, the news came through that Pope Francis had passed away at 7:35 am in Rome on Monday, the 21st of April, following a reported stroke and heart failure. Pope Francis. Photo: AP.Despite his obvious ill health, it still came as a shock, following so soon after the Easter ...
The 2024 Independent Intelligence Review found the NIC to be highly capable and performing well. So, it is not a surprise that most of the 67 recommendations are incremental adjustments and small but nevertheless important ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkThe world has made real progress toward tacking climate change in recent years, with spending on clean energy technologies skyrocketing from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars globally over the past decade, and global CO2 emissions plateauing.This has contributed to a reassessment of ...
Hi,I’ve been having a peaceful month of what I’d call “existential dread”, even more aware than usual that — at some point — this all ends.It was very specifically triggered by watching Pantheon, an animated sci-fi show that I’m filing away with all-time greats like Six Feet Under, Watchmen and ...
Once the formalities of honouring the late Pope wrap up in two to three weeks time, the conclave of Cardinals will go into seclusion. Some 253 of the current College of Cardinals can take part in the debate over choosing the next Pope, but only 138 of them are below ...
The National Party government is doubling down on a grim, regressive vision for the future: more prisons, more prisoners, and a society fractured by policies that punish rather than heal. This isn’t just a misstep; it’s a deliberate lurch toward a dystopian future where incarceration is the answer to every ...
The audacity of Don Brash never ceases to amaze. The former National Party and Hobson’s Pledge mouthpiece has now sunk his claws into NZME, the media giant behind the New Zealand Herald and half of our commercial radio stations. Don Brash has snapped up shares in NZME, aligning himself with ...
A listing of 28 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 13, 2025 thru Sat, April 19, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. The formatting is a ...
“What I’d say to you is…” our Prime Minister might typically begin a sentence, when he’s about to obfuscate and attempt to derail the question you really, really want him to answer properly (even once would be okay, Christopher). Questions such as “Why is a literal election promise over ...
Ruth IrwinExponential Economic growth is the driver of Ecological degradation. It is driven by CO2 greenhouse gas emissions through fossil fuel extraction and burning for the plethora of polluting industries. Extreme weather disasters and Climate change will continue to get worse because governments subscribe to the current global economic system, ...
A man on telly tries to tell me what is realBut it's alright, I like the way that feelsAnd everybody singsWe are evolving from night to morningAnd I wanna believe in somethingWriter: Adam Duritz.The world is changing rapidly, over the last year or so, it has been out with the ...
MFB Co-Founder Cecilia Robinson runs Tend HealthcareSummary:Kieran McAnulty calls out National on healthcare lies and says Health Minister Simeon Brown is “dishonest and disingenuous”(video below)McAnulty says negotiation with doctors is standard practice, but this level of disrespect is not, especially when we need and want our valued doctors.National’s $20bn ...
Chris Luxon’s tenure as New Zealand’s Prime Minister has been a masterclass in incompetence, marked by coalition chaos, economic lethargy, verbal gaffes, and a moral compass that seems to point wherever political expediency lies. The former Air New Zealand CEO (how could we forget?) was sold as a steady hand, ...
Has anybody else noticed Cameron Slater still obsessing over Jacinda Ardern? The disgraced Whale Oil blogger seems to have made it his life’s mission to shadow the former Prime Minister of New Zealand like some unhinged stalker lurking in the digital bushes.The man’s obsession with Ardern isn't just unhealthy...it’s downright ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is climate change a net benefit for society? Human-caused climate change has been a net detriment to society as measured by loss of ...
When the National Party hastily announced its “Local Water Done Well” policy, they touted it as the great saviour of New Zealand’s crumbling water infrastructure. But as time goes by it's looking more and more like a planning and fiscal lame duck...and one that’s going to cost ratepayers far more ...
Donald Trump, the orange-hued oligarch, is back at it again, wielding tariffs like a mob boss swinging a lead pipe. His latest economic edict; slapping hefty tariffs on imports from China, Mexico, and Canada, has the stench of a protectionist shakedown, cooked up in the fevered minds of his sycophantic ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
One pill makes you largerAnd one pill makes you smallAnd the ones that mother gives youDon't do anything at allGo ask AliceWhen she's ten feet tallSongwriter: Grace Wing Slick.Morena, all, and a happy Bicycle Day to you.Today is an unofficial celebration of the dawning of the psychedelic era, commemorating the ...
It’s only been a few months since the Hollywood fires tore through Los Angeles, leaving a trail of devastation, numerous deaths, over 10,000 homes reduced to rubble, and a once glorious film industry on its knees. The Palisades and Eaton fires, fueled by climate-driven dry winds, didn’t just burn houses; ...
Four eighty-year-old books which are still vitally relevant today. Between 1942 and 1945, four refugees from Vienna each published a ground-breaking – seminal – book.* They left their country after Austria was taken over by fascists in 1934 and by Nazi Germany in 1938. Previously they had lived in ‘Red ...
Good Friday, 18th April, 2025: I can at last unveil the Secret Non-Fiction Project. The first complete Latin-to-English translation of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s twelve-book Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (Disputations Against Divinatory Astrology). Amounting to some 174,000 words, total. Some context is probably in order. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) ...
National MP Hamish Campbell's pathetic attempt to downplay his deep ties to and involvement in the Two by Twos...a secretive religious sect under FBI and NZ Police investigation for child sexual abuse...isn’t just a misstep; it’s a calculated lie that insults the intelligence of every Kiwi voter.Campbell’s claim of being ...
New Zealand First’s Shane Jones has long styled himself as the “Prince of the Provinces,” a champion of regional development and economic growth. But beneath the bluster lies a troubling pattern of behaviour that reeks of cronyism and corruption, undermining the very democracy he claims to serve. Recent revelations and ...
Give me one reason to stay hereAnd I'll turn right back aroundGive me one reason to stay hereAnd I'll turn right back aroundSaid I don't want to leave you lonelyYou got to make me change my mindSongwriters: Tracy Chapman.Morena, and Happy Easter, whether that means to you. Hot cross buns, ...
New Zealand’s housing crisis is a sad indictment on the failures of right wing neoliberalism, and the National Party, under Chris Luxon’s shaky leadership, is trying to simply ignore it. The numbers don’t lie: Census data from 2023 revealed 112,496 Kiwis were severely housing deprived...couch-surfing, car-sleeping, or roughing it on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on a global survey of over 3,000 economists and scientists showing a significant divide in views on green growth; and ...
Simeon Brown, the National Party’s poster child for hubris, consistently over-promises and under-delivers. His track record...marked by policy flip-flops and a dismissive attitude toward expert advice, reveals a politician driven by personal ambition rather than evidence. From transport to health, Brown’s focus seems fixed on protecting National's image, not addressing ...
Open access notables Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region, Mu et al., Nature Communications:Global warming causes permafrost thawing, transferring large amounts of soil carbon into rivers, which inevitably accelerates riverine CO2 release. However, temporally and spatially explicit variations of riverine CO2 emissions remain unclear, limiting the ...
Once a venomous thorn in New Zealand’s blogosphere, Cathy Odgers, aka Cactus Kate, has slunk into the shadows, her once-sharp quills dulled by the fallout of Dirty Politics.The dishonest attack-blogger, alongside her vile accomplices such as Cameron Slater, were key players in the National Party’s sordid smear campaigns, exposed by Nicky ...
Te Pāti Māori are appalled by Cabinet's decision to agree to 15 recommendations to the Early Childhood Education (ECE) sector following the regulatory review by the Ministry of Regulation. We emphasise the need to prioritise tamariki Māori in Early Childhood Education, conducted by education experts- not economists. “Our mokopuna deserve ...
The Government must support Northland hapū who have resorted to rakes and buckets to try to control a devastating invasive seaweed that threatens the local economy and environment. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill that would ensure the biological definition of a woman and man are defined in law. “This is not about being anti-anyone or anti-anything. This is about ensuring we as a country focus on the facts of biology and protect the ...
After stonewalling requests for information on boot camps, the Government has now offered up a blog post right before Easter weekend rather than provide clarity on the pilot. ...
More people could be harmed if Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey does not guarantee to protect patients and workers as the Police withdraw from supporting mental health call outs. ...
The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. ...
The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...
Nicola Willis continues to sit on her hands amid a global economic crisis, leaving the Reserve Bank to act for New Zealanders who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In this election, voters are more distrustful than ever of politicians, and the political heroes of 2022 have fallen from grace, swept from favour by independent players. A Roy Morgan survey has found, for ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor The former head of BenarNews’ Pacific bureau says a United States court ruling this week ordering the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) to release congressionally approved funding to Radio Free Asia and its subsidiaries “makes us very happy”. However, Stefan Armbruster, who has ...
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on April 25, 2025. Labor takes large leads in YouGov and Morgan polls as surge continuesSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and ...
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 With just eight days until the May 3 federal election, and with in-person early voting well under way, Labor has taken a ...
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 Butter by Asako Yuzuki (Fourth Estate, $35) Fictionalised true crime for foodies. 2 Sunrise on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Taneshka Kruger, UP ISMC: Project Manager and Coordinator, University of Pretoria Healthcare in Africa faces a perfect storm: high rates of infectious diseases like malaria and HIV, a rise in non-communicable diseases, and dwindling foreign aid. In 2021, nearly half of ...
Australia and New Zealand join forces once more to bring you the best films and TV shows to watch this weekend. This Anzac Day, our free-to-air TV channels will screen a variety of commemorative coverage. At 11am, TVNZ1 has live coverage of the Anzac Day National Commemorative Service in Wellington. ...
Our laws are leaving many veterans who served after 1974 out in the cold. I know, because I’m one of them.This Sunday Essay was made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.First published in 2024.As I write this story, I am in constant pain. My hands ...
An MP fighting for anti-trafficking legislation says it is hard for prosecutors to take cases to court - but he is hopeful his bill will turn the tide. ...
NONFICTION1 No Words for This by Ali Mau (HarperCollins, $39.99)2 Everyday Comfort Food by Vanya Insull (Allen & Unwin, $39.99)3 Three Wee Bookshops at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw (Allen & Unwin, $39.99)
This Anzac Day marks 110 years since the Gallipoli landings by soldiers in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps - the ANZACS. It signalled the beginning of a campaign that was to take the lives of so many of our young men - and would devastate the ...
The violent deportation of migrants is not new, and New Zealand forces had a hand in such a regime after World War II, writes historian Scott Hamilton. The world is watching the new Trump government wage a war against migrants it deems illegal. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.This Sunday Essay was made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
A new poem by Aperahama Hurihanganui, about the name of Aperahama and Abby Hauraki’s three-year-old son, Te Hono ki Īhipa (which translates to ‘The Connection to Egypt’). Te Hono ki Īhipa what’s in a name? te hono – the connection to your tīpuna, valiant soldiers of the 28th Māori Battalion ...
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Pacific Media Watch The Fijians for Palestine Solidarity Network today condemned the Fiji government’s failure to stand up for international law and justice over the Israeli war on Gaza in their weekly Black Thursday protest. “For the past 18 months, we have made repeated requests to our government to do ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Michelle Grattan and Amanda Dunn discuss the fourth week of the 2025 election campaign. While the death of Pope Francis interrupted campaigning for a while, the leaders had another debate on Tuesday night and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Whatever the result on May 3, even people within the Liberals think they have run a very poor national campaign. Not just poor, but odd. Nothing makes the point more strongly than this week’s ...
The Finance Minister says the leftover funding from the unexpectedly low uptake of the FamilyBoost policy will be redistributed to families who need it. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Ghezelbash, Professor and Director, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney People who apply for asylum in Australia face significant delays in having their claims processed. These delays undermine the integrity of the asylum system, erode ...
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 Every election cycle the media becomes infatuated, even if temporarily, with preference deals between parties. The 2025 election is no exception, with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Hortle, Deputy Director, Tasmanian Policy Exchange, University of Tasmania For each Australian federal election, there are two different ways you get to vote. Whether you vote early, by post or on polling day on May 3, each eligible voter will be ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Mortimore, Lecturer, Griffith Business School, Griffith University wedmoment.stock/Shutterstock If elected, the Coalition has pledged to end Labor’s substantial tax break for new zero- or low-emissions vehicles. This, combined with an earlier promise to roll back new fuel efficiency standards, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University Once again, housing affordability is at the forefront of an Australian federal election. Both major parties have put housing policies at the centre of their respective campaigns. But there are still ...
After a nearly four year hiatus, New Zealand’s premiere popstar is back with a brand new single. It’s been a thrilling few weeks of breadcrumbing for Lorde fans, as the New Zealand popstar has been teasing her return to the zeitgeist through mysterious silver duct tape on her shoes, rainbow ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Meade, Adjunct Associate Professor, Centre for Applied Energy Economics and Policy Research, Griffith University Daria Nipot/Shutterstock With ongoing cost of living pressures, the Australian and New Zealand supermarket sectors are attracting renewed political attention on both sides of the Tasman. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erika K. Smith, Associate Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University This article contains mention of racist terms in historical context. Every Anzac Day, Australians are presented with narratives that re-inscribe particular versions of our national story. One such narrative persistently ...
“Anzac Day is portrayed as a day where the country can reflect on the horrors of war, the costs in human lives and commit collectively to never again allowing genocidal mass murder. We have to ask, is that really happening?” said Valerie Morse, member ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Parker, Adjunct Fellow, Naval Studies at UNSW Canberra, and Expert Associate, National Security College, Australian National University Australian strategic thinking has long struggled to move beyond a narrow view of defence that focuses solely on protecting our shores. However, in today’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University As Australia begins voting in the federal election, we’re awash with political messages. While this of course includes the typical paid ads in newspapers and on TV (those ones ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natalie Peng, Lecturer in Accounting, The University of Queensland Shutterstock For Australians approaching retirement, recent market volatility may feel like more than just a bump in the road. Unlike younger investors, who have time on their side, retirees don’t have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judith Brett, Emeritus Professor of Politics, La Trobe University Beatrice Faust is best remembered as the founder, early in 1972, of the Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL). Women’s Liberation was already well under way. Betty Friedan had published The Feminine Mystique in 1962, ...
It’s so bad inside that pensioners can’t bring in shopping trolleys.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/95092628/pensioner-told-by-work-and-income-guard-you-cant-leave-your-hat-on
national have taken every step to intimidate the unfortunate. Look carefully and there’s a juicy security contract behind those WINZ guards of course.
Thd ferocity of the attack by the corporate media pit bulls like Soper, Armstrong and Hosking on Metiria would suggest her comments were a real threat to the owners of this country.
And here’s the latest attack from the most vile of them all:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11895130
Well, aside from Hooton.
It would be better if they funded all beneficiaries to have access to internet/scanners and permit remote access for everyone. That way they could do without the guards/humiliation/lack of toilets/reception etc.
It would be better if beneficiaries never had to endure the human rights abusers at WINZ ever again. I don’t care whether they’re just following National Party orders or not.
Human rights abusers belong in court, not in offices.
So true OAB.
Yes indeed
Get rid of WINZ completely, have a UBI and have an Office of NZ Citizen Support which will be about citizens getting the help they need, and choosing what hours they are going to put in to help with NZ Social Infrastructure. All will be encouraged to do something they can manage, even an hour a week, and the able bodied and minded will be expected to do from 3-7 hours a week.
This would apply to all ages, and even to the bed-ridden or non-mobile who could do something small from home or hospice. If people want to live-long, then they can be integrated life-long in their society and not feel useless. This will be universal for anyone wishing to live in NZ full or part-time, and participate in public health ad other amenities whether they are receiving a pension or subsidy or not. Then the country has to recognise that all people drawing money from the government are contributing to society.
Parents will be learning at workshops etc. on human relationships, psychology, physical and mental oriented skills, child psychology through different ages, self-care and relief when needed, and efficient systems for running a house, also workshops on gardening, small woodwork and handyman jobs, and home focussed, cooking, cleaning, sewing and knitting. It will be called learned helpfulness, and be full of positive vibes. Parents without transport will be able to catch buses, jeepney-type or contracted taxis that come to the door, and make it easy to attend.
That would be a whole new start and the country would embrace its young people and parents. Most of our woe would go!
It used to be called “night classes”.
The money is not going to the guards though. They are at the bottom of the pile of any juicy contract. Unfortunately, some seek someone even less powerful to intimidate. They are just copying the bullying behaviour of the bosses.
I think that a lot of the guards came in after the WINZ murders by Tully.
(For which a poster on here called him a hero) (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02092014/#comment-878213)
WINZ do need to protect their staff – so it is not unreasonable that they have guards.
When I was young (18ish) I worked at what was then Social Welfare – (IT Side) – but was made to spend time at the counter to understand what it was like for customers.
I always remember the abuse a lot of staff received – sometimes from drunk or stoned people. When all the time trying to do the best they could to help.
I doubt that it has gotten any better.
Well James it would be fair enough to say that you aren’t well known on this site for your empathy towards the poor.
Perhaps they needed the courage that being drunk or stoned gave them to actually deal with what they are going through and with (pre-)WINZ.
No wonder people get frustrated when the people they are dealing with are actually IT workers rather than social welfare workers.
Yep nightmare scenario having some it dick trying to bullshit about what they aren’t entitled to.
I wasnt actually doing case work.
Have you watched I Daniel Blake?
They wouldn’t need to if they treated people with respect and actually helped them rather than abused them.
Any evidence that the people who were shot had treated Tolly badly at al?
IIRC, there have been two times over the last twenty odd years where WINZ staff have been killed. Both times was WINZ was refusing to help when the people actually needed help.
He was homeless – they screwed him around instead of helping him.
Well, the guards are effective against little old ladies. Wouldn’t have done shit against Tully, though.
But I’m not actually against guards on premises.
I’m against guards on the door demanding ID, receptionists who refuse to make an appointment when you’re in the goddamn branch and insist you call the call centre in order to make an appintment to speak to the person 4 metres away from both of you, long application forms, and a myriad of other pointless barriers placed between people in need and the assistance that can help them.
I didn’t know it was as bad as that. Government is doing its best it seems to keep the smelly humans away from the department offices that are supposed to help.
Eventually they will do everything through machines by machines and they can get on with whatever they think they should do with their time at the expense of our country if you can call it that by that time. More just a giant ‘waiting station’ or ‘people processor’.
Meanwhile, on Newsroom, by Bernard Hickey:
This is what Stuff should have top of the page on their site. Instead they discuss the mental health of David Bains Mum (as offensive as it is out of date and irrelevant), and the fact Turei didn’t have a job during university but found time for political campaigns. God. This fucking country and it’s media.
Yep or why they cant say how many people recieving assistance have committed suicide.
Those subjects in the media indicate the shallow intellect of this country. We seem incapable of reflection, and self-correction. The national intellect instead revolves around judgment of others who haven’t got money, those who are struggling and who complain (persons of no standing), getting things for ourselves and then getting more, and the latest style in the various ways of displaying our persona to others.
Taking an interest in politics indicates dissatisfaction with the status quo which has been established by our betters. How dare Turei take this tone! Who does she think she is? And she hasn’t complied with all the requirements and filled out forms correctly. Disgraceful. And thinks it important to gain skills for a self-supporting life and to guide her child to the same ways for being responsible, pleasant, practical and socialised people.
We are like deviant bower birds who have adopted the habits of the shining cuckoo which leave their eggs and rearing of young to greywarblers’ nests. In winter they fly away to warmer climes like New Guinea so they are just irresponsible. Really they are like those immigrants who are making use of us and ripping us off as they go.
With that summary in mind it is understandable why we are in our present hole,
short of nests.
Oh the inhumanity
I agree the hat thing is a bit OTT, but have no problem with the trolley given the Ashburton tragedy.
Probably could do with a proper area to leave them though
Remember Aramoana? Probably should have stopped all single white men from living in small towns.
+1
It’s called common sense.
If you want to over hype the issue, then we both can.
I take it you have no problem with groups of people running into banks wearing tinted crash helmets waving around sticks or making kindergartens open spaces where the public are free to wonder in and out playing with kids?
I definitely think WINZ shouldn’t let groups of people running into their offices wearing tinted crash helmets waving around sticks. But since you brought it up, banks should now not let people wear hats in banks nor let elderly people bring in their wheelie shopping bags. Good idea there Chris, put it out there and see how that goes down. Oh, and all people who want to go into a bank have to show ID and prove they have a good reason for going in there. And if they get angry about being expected to do all those things, then they’re be put in a register that is shared with all the other banks.
What you call ‘common sense’ is more the stupidity, bigotry and arrogance of RWNJs.I
Channel surfing last night and there was hooton on the banter soapbox doing what he does best.
Wonder if lusk and eade appear as slater and williams have, it’s quite a DP roll call.
It’s amazing the access Hooton gets. It really helps if you’re repeating the establishment line.
He gets all that airtime, yet a story about grandparents being humiliated by WINZ is shutdown.
Was Metiria’s questioning of the failing welfare state challenged by Hooton?
And Hooton was able to spout his toxic anti Labour anti Andrew bullshit like he does on 9 to noon. He gets it in then talks mildly about other matters on hand.
I think Banter is quite interesting in a basic raw way. Unlike the other smooth talk shows.
He’s now called “Michael Hooten” according to the listing. A new fun, loungy chat show bringing on a wringer who wants to demolish the Labour Party. I wonder what that does for the ratings..
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/banter
HUH
Hosking says news reading is an artistic pursuit.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11895125
So is he saying he makes up the news?
Thanks dv. Just listening to Hosking praise himself is spew inducing. How anyone can stand his superciliousness beggars belief.
There is no law that requires you to listen to him.
Are you really that much of a masochist that you have to torture yourself in this way?
Turn off the radio. Turn off the TV.
Get outside and sniff the flowers.
That’s exactly what I do alwyn. I was responding to dv’s link. We do not watch/listen to any of the commercial channels, and have not for several years because of their total toadying to the Natz ( which is precisely what they are paid to do).
Yep it it’s clause 7b of his employment contract, how did he survive under 9 years of labour with this clause I dont know, he’s real smart or labour are real dunces
Hosking still justifying his pay rate whilst refusing to disclose it.
Gosh he is getting old now, wonder what he would do for a job if removed from media? Maybe that’s his issue, that he doesn’t know how to do anything else but talk shite and support the local casino.
There must be a fellow staffers who have a good idea what Hosking is earning so why don’t they leak it? I’m picking his annual income is well over $1million per annum – maybe as high as $2million – and that’s without the additional perks. And we’re paying the bulk of that salary.
Setting aside the law which is frequently an ass, there’s no doubting who is the real criminal and it ain’t Metiria Turei. Hosking is fleecing tax-payers of millions of dollars for third rate performances on TV and radio and imo that is a far more serious crime than Metiria’s 2000 dollars per annum all those years ago.
“setting aside the law”. That’s the problem Anne. Do we all just go about our lives, setting aside the laws we don’t agree with, or like or that inconvenience us?
Is that what you’d propose?
Sam C, that is what the vast majority of the well heeled do with rorting the system. They set aside the law by using lawyers and accountants etc.
Show me the tradie who doesn’t do jobs under the table and those who seek those savings etc etc . We are all guilty of it to some degree or other.
P*** off you sanctimonious prick
That’s an ad hominem attack.
That’s what National seems to do all the time.
Probably does not need the money, a bit like Paul Henery who we all miss.
Someone dead at a railway station in Auckland which means a 3 hour wait for usual travellers as services are shut down. This is an unacceptably long time when it prevents the running of mass transport. I am assuming that it is largely to conduct a police investigation and take samples and photos from the site. There has to be a police investigation but the time taken to deal with the matter is far too long. There should be an emergency team that can deal with the matter so that there can be resumption of normal and necessary activity for others.
I have been told that sometimes road accidents and consequent closures have lasted far longer than required for police to deal with it, and that the attitude has been far from as expeditious as it should have been.
So a body on the line is a hold up,a body on the line is usually a suicide, real hindrance for someone.
Right go for the emotional response. It is a very focussed one at any time, people are dying all the time and we don’t cancel the day and go home. What I am saying is the procedures need to speed up so people can attend to their work and other duties. Some of us have self-imposed duties to try and make the world a better place, and we have to get to work too. If we can get a change of heart in our government there will be less of these sad stats.
First World Problem/Moan I suggest.
Perhaps think about the deceased’s family who will want answers to questions about why he/she died.
Takes time to gather that evidence – real life isn’t CSI – don’t solve cases in 5 minutes; between ad breaks.
And if the deceased is no longer complete it takes time to locate and treat the remains with dignity.
3 hours is pretty good i would have thought – often roads are closed for 6-7 hours.
That is part of my point Rightly. Roads closed for 6-7 hours. Matters need to be attended to promptly. Also I have been told that in one case a road was left closed for hours after the important stuff was attended to.
In this case the body would need to be gathered up and handled carefully and considerately. Evidence gathered, 1 hour plus could hardly be avoided.
It needs to be kept to a minimum, the transport cleared as soon as reasonably possible. People are needed at work, they need work to get wages, the wages are earned by doing their job, and multiplied by hundreds, it is a great loss to businesses and individuals.
The more it happens, the more likely there will be more committing suicide or becoming stressed beyond return. Emotion and reason have to be balanced. It’s not something to be resigned and accepting about.
……..the topic I will focus on today, is the dangerous drift towards racial separatism in New Zealand, and the development of the now entrenched Treaty grievance industry. We are one country with many peoples, not simply a society of Pakeha and Maori where the minority has a birthright to the upper hand, as the Labour Government seems to believe.
I’m dizzy at reading this heady stuff from Don Brash in 2004. I’m looking forward to what Willie Jackson has to say on Saturday in Orewa Rotary. Ticket in handbag!
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0401/S00220.htm
Peroxide Blonde
You seem to be colour oriented. Why blonde? And peroxide, is that a healthy treatment? It might be cancer producing as hair dyes and chemicals are very quick to penetrate skin layers. Do you think we should all look the same, and have one standard hair colour? Should it be blonde? Does everyone of importance have to be blonde? So many questions.
What if I like my racial separation, culture and look? Your link goes back to 2004. Many things and thoughts have occurred since Don Brash’s speech then. Are you having trouble adjusting to the new thoughts? Life is full of adjustments and choices and somewhere people have to find something worthwhile to believe in, something that allows for everyone to be respected and honoured.
Do you feel that Don Brash speaks for that, or for you alone and your cohort? How is that going to bring about a happy society where all are respected? Don’t you want that, and if not respect then do you want happy society, and if not happy, do you want a society, and if you don’t want that what sort of crap do you want going on around you?
This article by Graham Adam about Paula Bennett and her unsuitability for her role as Deputy PM is very good:
http://www.noted.co.nz/currently/politics/why-paula-bennett-is-trouble-for-the-national-party/
Thank you Karen .Love the bit about Paula likes the way NZers give people a second chance. Doesn’t seem to apply if the person is in the Greens does it?
And also doesn’t apply if the people are:
Homeless
Poor
Solo mothers
Solo fathers
Disabled
In fact, it only seems to apply to rich people and National ministers.
It’s not just second chances either – Nick Smith’s been given more lives than a herd of cats.
A ha well Gareth Morgan is the man to deal with him. I know who I’d rather have, and a few less cats, perhaps with micro chips. I don’t know what sort of chip N Smith needs but please someone find one suitable.
Checkpoint did a great job last night with its story of the chaos in the ICU unit at Dunedin Hospital. Only 6 ICU beds, just increased to 8 and there will be 10 in 13 months time where I heard someone say they need 18. Morning Report continued the story this morning saying “bumping” (where an operation is cancelled at the last minute due to lack of resources) is co common it has become a joke in the wards.
Another news story doing the rounds yesterday (at least on RNZ) was a report that said that poor people in Auckland now pay more than 50% of their income in housing costs.
Chronic public (not private) health under-funding and a housing crisis. Surely Labour’s no-tax-cuts to help solve these issues coupled with the Green’s more humane benefit regime will resonate on 23rd September?
Coupled with a bunch of POME wankers who gutter the NHS, are now siting in admin and top managerial roles in our hospital system.
This is privatization by making the public system fall over.
They should be called on this rubbish, ever day.
From DTB and I take issue with the below about public servants. https://thestandard.org.nz/how-much-is-mike-hosking-paid-by-tvnz/#comment-1357478
‘Bumbling incompetence in management in public service’. Sounds like a spray of grumbling about everybody but ‘me’ being bumbling. I think it is a carry-on from the mantra of there being fat in the system, and cutting it out and getting a lean running machine will result in exponential gains in productivity etc.
When it comes to the public service try looking at Harrison and the psychopathic way she ran her manor. See below. ‘the caravan of love’. If the people could just get on with their jobs with adequate mentoring by managers they would achieve and be proud of their department’s efforts and effectiveness. All the rest is an excuse for ego-flashing.
Instead they can be prey to the machinations of human resources gurus with team building projects that bear no relation to their work. There are vanity projects meant to get compliance which can be expensive and involve considerable disruption to work and private life, going rock climbing for instance, something where you push yourself beyond your normal boundaries. Getting teamwork and compliance could be accomplished easier by giving them squaddie army drill and forming a marching team with flash uniforms performing at contests and high days an holidays.
Some business entities pay staff to do work day in the community for the community, but that is more private business. When you work in the government you are supposed to be doing that, so don’t have to put yourself out getting involved with the public in some helping way.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/94917859/Fraudster-Joanne-Harrison-and-the-Ministry-of-Transports-caravan-of-love
and
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/92621016/clandestine-rendezvous-plotting-revealed-in-joanne-harrison-transport-ministry-fraud-case
and
https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/6k2tpj/fyi_ministry_of_transport_has_put_all_the_joanne/
and
More in google under keywords – Joanne Harrison and team building in Transport
The public service has been degraded by the cult of neo liberalism and PR management and particularly the complete lack of trust in the public service workers and any agencies receiving government funds and input, The lack of acceptance of responsibility for proper and correct management of government, obssessive accoounting for every hour and every penny, unreasonably high targets, by targeting itself of chosen outcomes instead of overall performance to a mission and vision statement, and by the desire and determination of the neoliberal government to cut government to matchbox size and then set that alight, after its functions have been passed over to profit-making entities in the private sector.
That wasn’t me but DoublePlusGood.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95110555/metiria-turei-campaigned-for-political-parties-but-didnt-work-while-committing-benefit-fraud
The story continues…. I dont think that this exactly strengthens her argument.
Unless the Greens increase their vote by 2% on polling day, the result will be pinned on Turei.
Not unfair I think.
And if that Green vote is strong, James’ll be singing Metiria’s praises from the roof-tops.
It may happen – there’s this anomalous poll that’s been running recently that hasn’t resulted in the traditional Gower gotcha story:
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/07/new-zealand-election-2017-the-big-issues-have-your-say.html
The Greens have been doing uncharacteristically well – now a self-selected poll isn’t likely to be valid unless the numbers are very large – but Metiria’s stand is the best candidate to explain the result if it is not an artifact of poor sampling design.
Well of course she didn’t work you ass. She had a tiny baby. It’s a 24 hr job you know or perhaps you don’t know being an ignorant red-neck.
I won’t be wasting my time reading a crappy newshub (?) article but so what… if she did actively help out in a campaign. She probably stuffed envelopes somewhere with baby sleeping in her pram alongside her. Jesus, the bigotry and misogyny from these right wingers is mind boggling.
Even Mums with new born babes are allowed to go out and have a bit of social contact with other people.
Yep James and ilk I’ll have no fucken idea. Their paltry brains cannot compute probably because they are immature, sad, right wing wankers.
I have more idea than somebody who wont even read the link then makes false assumptions.
Yeah you probably aren’t sad are you – what a dim creep you are James.
No, really, you don’t.
Perhaps if you read it – she was actually standing for seats – not just stuffing envelopes.
Thats not just helping out.
Of course they are – and a good thing when they do.
Whats not OK is standing for parliament and committing fraud at the same time.
See – its the fraud bit that is the bad bit – you understand that right?
Political participation is a human right James.
You don’t lose it just because a useless far-right government dooms half the country to poverty.
oh, so HALF the country lives in poverty now, does it? Citation needed.
Home ownership is headed south of 50%.
This waster government has done nothing to deal with the trend – ergo half the country is in poverty or headed that way.
Try to keep up.
So not owning a home is now a sign of poverty, is it?
First I’ve heard of that being used as a measure. I’m trying to keep up, but it is difficult when you just keep making stuff up.
I’m not making stuff up – you’re failing to extrapolate from the data – NZ now has the most unaffordable housing in the OECD. And far from the best wages.
Even the meanest intelligence can join those two dots to conclude that not owning a home predicates poverty.
You might recall Shamu (the economist, not the anthropocidal orca) used to maintain that renting was fine and this obsession with owning your own home didn’t matter. He has reversed that stance, in one of those rare (vanishingly rare among economists) instances of observation overturning theoretical bias.
Try to keep up.
“Even the meanest intelligence can join those two dots to conclude that not owning a home predicates poverty.”
I disagree with your conclusion that not owning a home predicates poverty, which must mean I have no intelligence, according to you.
Cheer up – There may be a few abyssal flatworms that can still look up to you.
BWAHAHAHA
McGillicuddy Serious and ALCP campaigns are NOT the same as running for labgrnnat, by any stretch of the imagination.
Except, apparently, in a feverish tory’s warped little brain. Fuck, were you even being serious? Did you omit a sarc tag or smiley face, maybe?
So beneficiaries aren’t allowed to have lives? No agency to choose how they spend their time? Not allowed recreation? Pleasure? Fun?
The irony here in the latest round of righties feeling offended is that she chose to spend her time doing politics. Quelle horreur that beneficiaries might have a political voice. And of course they haven’t, which is why we are in the situation we are today as a country, where for the first time in 30 years the political class have stepped up and given the underclasses an actual voice not just talked about them.
“No agency to choose how they spend their time? Not allowed recreation? Pleasure? Fun?”
Of course not.
But you dont get to spend all your time going for government (which she was) then saying that she had no choice but to defraud the government for money.
If things were so dire that she had to defraud $ or her child was going to be hungry – then surely the choice to perhaps work as opposed to campaigning for government would have delivered a better outcome.
But – thats her choice – stand for the serious party – and not work and defraud the government.
She didn’t spend all her time going for govt. She had a baby, was raising it and going to law school.
“If things were so dire that she had to defraud $ or her child was going to be hungry – then surely the choice to perhaps work as opposed to campaigning for government would have delivered a better outcome.”
Yes, as I just said, you think that beneficiaries, esp solo mums, aren’t allowed to have spare time or consequently agency in how they spend that time or have fun or a life. You think that you should get to decide what is best for benes or solo mums.
Don’t worry, we get it, this has been the message for many decades now. It’s not new. Now that Turei is pushing back, it’s being exposed for the piece of shit values that it is.
This total denigration of Metiria by the right is to totally close down any analysis/discussion of the Greens humane social welfare policy. They will push this to the max. I’m surprised the Greens didn’t realise that this would happen, after all it is text book procedure to shoot the messenger.
Yes, and pretty sure they did realise this but decided it was worth the risk. That task now for lefties, progressives, and anyone who gives a shit, is to make sure the narrative gets changed permanently to one of beneficiaries are people too. There is so much in that that underpins all of neoliberalism.
+111
Solo mums can do what they want just don’t expect society to fund it beyond the necessities, if they want more take ownership of your own life and make the right choices You don’t have the right to unilaterally decide you are above the law or determine what you feel what you are entitled to Tough but thats life No one owes you a living
aka “it’s better to starve then bend the rules”. Actually, more like, it’s better for those people over there that I hate to starve than for them to be helped. Works both ways.
The starving narrative is bs weka and you know it, like she had no other choices to avoid starvation, granny and indeed loses dad was going to sit by and let that happen as one example, get real
If you think there are no kids and parents and other benes in NZ that don’t routinely go without adequate food and nutrition, you are either extremely naive or extremely stupid. Much more likely is you are just a bigot who doesn’t give a shit.
In Meteria case it’s BS, don’t extrapolate my point, please also desist with standard left wing attack lines it gets a bit boring and is not an arguement , you forgot, projecting, hating the poor, only the left care , racist homophobic, mysoginist ( just to save you the time)
At 9.3.1.1.3 you talked about solo mums. That’s what I am responding to.
If all you can do is post hatred against the poor, then yes I will keep pointing it out.
Boohoo poor red, can’t handle being called out on the narrow bigot he is. Boohoo, cry me a river.
Love how you know her situation 20 years ago better than she did and does, Red.
Self defeating there red. the necessities mean food and roof over your head. Which when national reduced the benefits by 25% meant the necessities were not covered. And she fudged it to get the necessities.
But sure live in you deserving and undeserving poor lala land. Where we have the western worlds largest homeless problem, growing poverty and the highest suicide rates.
No one owes you a living, so does that mean you support an end to inheritance laws?
To Red @9.3.1.1.3.
All I can say about your comment there is that you typify what is wrong with this Country.
Your total lack of empathy is telling.
Try walking a mile in someone else’s shoes for once.
defraud the government – what about apple? Not seeing you jump up and down about that. But a few hundred dollars, and it’s the end of the world. James go sort out your priorities mate, you’re in amoral land.
And sleep, James! Turei slept at times during the night when her baby was new-born, when she could have been seeking work!
Drag her into the courts, I say! Berate her for her idleness; sleeping when she could have been applying herself to lifting herself out of her self-made mire with a good yank on her boot-straps! James is right in thinking there’s no place in the ACT Party for Metiria!
It’s really interesting the media beat up against Meti, she’s fronted to questions by media, isn’t hiding, MSD are still to take action from a situation that happened near on 30 years ago, and on it goes.
Maybe since the law is so fickle on words, if Meti had described someone as a boarder rather than a flatmate, there would be no issue.
Now she is being slammed for doing voluntary work rather than paid work? Slammed for taking an interest in politics while studying because she realised some of our laws are archaic and wanted to take action to do something about it. How dare she! (sarc.)
Meanwhile… WHAT”S ON THE TAPES TODD? How’s that police investigation going? Why was the PM avoiding giving straight answers in question time yesterday? Why won’t you talk to media Todd?
QFT
The National Party supporters never question the actions of their own leaders which highlights their hypocrisy.
Glenys and Bill were talking about Todd. Todd took his recording to Bill to demand an explanation. Imo.
“Near on 30 years ago” would make it 1987. There you go, making shit up again.
You do understand that that particular language indicates that it’s not precisely accurate don’t… you?
Oh, wait…
RWNJ, is too stupid to understand basic language syntax.
Mhmmm near on 30 years ago Sam, almost 3 decades, more than 2 decades, so near on 30 years ago, closer to 30 than 20.
Sam, what’s on the tapes? Once it is disclosed what is on the tapes, the public will be shocked. True story, NZ is a small place, especially the south island, confidentiality agreement prevents me from sharing more. JS
@ James So she shouldn’t have been involved in politics because she was poor? You would have her working at McDonalds while paying for childcare for her baby-that is for a pittance.
She was working unpaid for the public good by being involved in politics-that is a job. All power to her.
So all those people who carry on about Turei faithfully declare all their taxable income to IRD then?
Im guessing some wont – but I agree that they should be prosecuted as well.
Dosnt make her actions right.
This is the level of ridiculous. James wants to prosecute the teenager who mows my lawns for doing cashies.
I would prefer to start with people that have committed multiple years of fraud and work our way down.
Sure, but you still want to go after the lawn-mowing teenager too. Because the rules are more important than the people.
Why not do it by scale James – the size of benefit ‘frauds’ is eclipsed by frauds like SCF and Apple’s tax evasion. Time is neither here nor there.
Whatever. Why the fuck didn’t she repay then go public. Fuck I’m so pissed off with fucking Turei !!!! I would normally vote Labour but the thought of this sanctimonious fucking fraudster in a Labour led governemnt really turns me off.
Gosh – big frothing frenzy.
Audit Gerry’s term with CERA and you’ll find enough fraud to give him a ten stretch – Collin’s illegal kauri exports likewise. So why make a fuss about Metiria now? Hasn’t offended in decades – and small potatoes anyway.
Did she break your meme?
Or is it that the Gnats’ record is indefensible and she’s the only one you’ve figured out how to attack?
And the solo Mums whose friends try to help out by paying them cash to do their housework.
again – I would prefer to start with people that have committed multiple years of fraud and work our way down.
Weak little James – let’s start with YOU.
James is perfect.
Yes – unless the facts and the law are involved – oh and courage, integrity and honesty – don’t want to mention those pesky concepts.
Value too, and moral relativity.
The IRS did that in the US for a while – turns out there’s a strong correlation between RW nutjobbery and tax evasion.
I’m with you on this one james. We’ll start with the National Party.
Hope your paying living wage to your lawn mowing teenager ie walking the talk and not avoiding paying tax to suppprt welfare system to keep your costs down
I do pay them a living wage.
No. Because I pay for their food and housing as well.
Prosecute everyone; only then can you be sure you’ve punished to ne’er-do-wells and skivers! ACT now!
Yes all of those tips, cash jobs, gifts etc.
Turei was trying to bring her income up to to a living wage so that she could support her baby-some crime that.
Or support the lifestyle she wanted and having a baby, that’s probably more closer to the truth and where she differs from the great majority of law abiding solo mums
I think you will find the majority after ruthinasia fudged the system. They had to. Another example of the economic disconnect from you lot. It’s outstanding how much in lala land you all are.
No issues with housing
No issues with homelessness
No issue with suicide
No issues with a welfare system paying below necessity
Just hate, and up on a pedestal telling the rest of us how to live.
What a great guy you are red, a great guy.
have u ever taken cash or a benefit that should have been declared and not declared it?
Red “probablicises”. A hush falls over the crowd. “Red’s problicising!” a small child whispers, awed.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11895215
Well – that came as a shock – or not.
Guess its smarter than a silly cup of tea.
Entirely as predicted. The Greens don’t stand in Ōhariū, National tell their voters to vote for Dunne.
Yep – at least National allow their voters to make a choice. Greens and Labour pull their candidate.
There is NO choice idiot – that is what billshitter is saying – vote THIS way if you want …
Marty mars,
At least try and be consistent.
The National candidate will be on the ballot paper, so people do have a choice. In contrast the Greens have actually puled their candidate in the expectation that all Green voters will vote for the Labour candidate.
So less choice on the left side than on the right.
Billshit.
The edict from Bill says it all – learn to read or listen please.
Must be awesome to be the National candidate who gets to play patsy while your leader tells the National voters in your electorate to vote for some other guy. It takes a character like Paul Goldsmith to do it – someone who could write hagiographies of John Banks and Don Brash obviously doesn’t have any requirement for self-respect. I should be surprised National’s been able to find a second candidate so lacking in standards, but for some reason I’m not.
What’s the name of the Green candidate that was pulled, and which electorate?
It would be very odd if Labour also pulled their candidate from Ōhāriu.
A message to the sheep of Ohariu and Epsom
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95119031/english-calls-for-tactical-voting-in-epsom-ohariu-to-elect-support-party-leaders
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_W19ZkFqGT-M/SWvN9B6coBI/AAAAAAAAAp0/5vZxk8xGxUk/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/Ram+harness+(SM).jpg
Don’t get the issue
It’s no different from the Labour working with the Greens or Maori working with Mana.
Neither the Greens nor Mana advocate incest.
http://www.spcs.org.nz/act-leader-jamie-whyte-stands-by-incest-comments-nz-herald/
I would never vote for ACT, but he doesn’t advocate incest.
Unless you want to post an article where he actually does
Unless you want to post an article where he actually does
I just did. in 12.1.1. Maybe you’d like to click on it?
It doesn’t advocate it
Unless I misread it. It says he doesn’t like it, but why should people intervene if between to consenting adults
“He said he was “very opposed” to incest.”
“I don’t think the state should intervene in consensual adult sex or marriage, but there are two very important elements here – consensual and adult”
Again. Where does he advocate incest?
He doesn’t. Morrissey just has a serious problem when it comes to distinguishing between his personal prejudice and rational analysis. It’s not an uncommon problem, but tends to make for obviously and woefully incorrect comments.
The bit where he says that the state shouldn’t intervene between consenting adults.
Where have Labour said don’t vote for our candidate vote for this GP/Mana candidate instead?
You don’t think not actually putting a candidate up so they don’t split the opposition votes is just as bad?
Where have Labour not put up a candidate?
They have worked with the Greens and and have agreed to not stand a Green candidate.
Unless you think this comes for free, then it is just as much collusion
Ok, so Labour don’t have any deal with any other party about not standing candidates or telling their voters to vote for other party’s candidates. Nor have they chosen to not stand in one of the marginal electorates. Glad we got that cleared up.
The Greens, who have almost never runs serious candidates in the seats, and afaik have never stood candidates in all seats, have chosen to not stand in certain seats for a range of reasons, including cost. But they have no deal with Labour and they haven’t told their voters to vote for other party’s candidates.
And you think this makes Labour and the Greens the equivalent of National telling its voters to vote for another party because that’s the only way it can govern?
Riiiight.
Just to make it easy for your. If Labour really did want to do this, they’d have put Kelvin Davis high on the list and told TTT voters to seat vote Harawira and they’d have done a deal with the Greens to also not stand in TTT.
Morrissey – Doctors, dentists, accountants, business owners, school teachers, lawyers, policeman/woman, social workers, nurses, retirees – these are some of the good people i know in Epsom that you refer to as sheep – who the fuck are you to smear these good people just because they don’t agree with your political view.
The sheep are the ones who allowed themselves to be herded to vote—against all their better instincts—for the likes of such reprehensible, comical characters as Rodney Hide and the disastrous Jamie “Lock Up His Sisters” Whyte. I doubt many social workers, nurses, teachers or indeed anyone who is compos mentis would have obeyed the cup of tea directive.
That’s high-grade bullshit, for two reasons:
1. Epsom is a very rich neighbourhood. It’s unlikely voting ACT goes very much against the instincts of many of its wealthier residents.
2. National supporters in Epsom are unlikely to feel dubious about satisfying the request “Please vote for the ACT candidate so that National gets an extra MP.”
Those poor bastards in epsom – ‘its not fair we vote for rubbish, we get rubbish and we are told off by the unwashed, unwaged and unworthy – what about us? Has anyone given a thought for how tough it is with 3 cars and only 2 drivers – why won’t someone fix that problem. It’s racist is what it is’.
The 8th synthetic cannabis death in a month. Fricken hell do something, poor kids are dying.
What’s the bet in a couple of weeks there will be a watered down drug action plan announced that doesn’t do anything but is spoken highly of in the medias.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11895225
Twitter lolz.
“Potentially the greatest thread in the era of the Trump presidency” – Obama
https://twitter.com/GCSB_spy/status/889973598361763840
Oh, God! I laughed out loud while also feeling shame for taking pleasure in cruelty against the cognitively-challenged.
I wish I’d kept the tweet the other day about how many people googled Scaramouche.
That was the first thing I thought – “Oh, like in Bohemian Rhapsody. Oh, wait, that was Scaramouche.”
Trump could use a Rafael Sabatini superman about now.
I’ve been thinking about Diana and her boys. It really struck me how they had suppressed much emotions around the death of their mum and that by talking about that had helped them remember her and consolidate the loss and carry on with life. Imagine now being those boys and your mother had killed herself. There are a lot of kids, parents, siblings and friends dealing with the sudden loss of their loved ones. So much stuff to work through – the guilt, sadness and fear. How many people receiving assistance have killed themselves? No one counts them so we don’t know. How many kids dealing with the suicide of a parent who was receiving assistance? We don’t count them, we don’t know.
Interesting critique of the New Zealand Greens here.
Essentially, in Wellington they are great at getting elected, but really poor at getting anything Green actually done.
A Green credibility problem.
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=101313
Dos muy estúpidos músicos puertorriqueños
You’ve probably heard that Spanish pop record “Despacito” over the last few weeks, by a couple of Puerto Ricans called Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi. It’s the most popular piece of Latin nonsense since the gorgeous “Ketchup” song of fifteen years ago—indeed it’s now the most played song ever, in any language.
Among those who have heard it are supporters of the democratic government in Venezuela. One of them had the inspired idea of doing away with the inane original lyrics and turning it into an anthem of hope and support for democratic values…
http://www.nbcnews.com/video/remix-of-despacito-from-venezuela-s-president-nicolas-maduro-1008281667983
Great idea, right? Improving a piece of dreck, recycling a piece of meretricious rubbish like “Despacito” is part of a timeless and honored tradition.
Sadly, however, the perpetrators of the original were not happy. Both Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee have unleashed blimpish and confused outbursts against the democratic Venezuelan government: “Your dictatorial regime is a joke,” claimed Fonsi—or was it Daddy Yankee?—and the other one (Fonsi? Daddy Yankee?) claimed that “the Venezuelan people are crying out for their freedom.”
So what motivated these two Puerto Rican pop-putzes to indulge in the most absurd display of bewilderment since Jared Leto and Kevin Spacey declaimed at an awards ceremony? Well, just have a look at Daddy Yankee’s murky past: he’s a self-declared “Christian”, and a Republican, and voted for John McCain in 2008. You can be sure he’s a Rump supporter as well. He hates democracy…..
http://hollowverse.com/daddy-yankee/
Luis Fonsi doesn’t seem to have any ideas about anything. I’m pretty sure all the energy of this anti-democracy rant comes from Daddy Yankee, and that Fonsi just follows his lead.
There are many thoughtful and well informed Puerto Rican commentators, such as Juan González, Ululy Martinez and Oscar Lopez Rivera. However, as is so often the case, the Puerto Ricans getting nearly all the publicity at the moment are—thanks to the political choices of the media—two unfeasibly ignorant, lazy, and stupid ones.
Jim Rogers predicts worst crash in his lifetime is on it’s way
Currency-issuing governments can keystroke their outstanding debt into oblivion
That’s a really important point. It means all that ‘debt’ upon a government’s books can be written off instantly while making no difference to the economy.
Who actually writes the bile that Hosking reads in his NZH column and video?
Why does he say at 2min08 “I hope I’m reading this right” if he wrote it himself? http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11895130
And to be picky, the absurd heading
Mike Hosking: Metiria Turei should know – knowledge of a crime is a crime itself
means that a hell of a lot of criminal lawyers must be committing crime. By this measure Bill English is probably a criminal too.
Bill English Is, “a criminal”. He rorted his accommodation allowance.
Something that would get most people sacked, and probably reported to the police.
Is this the start of the end of the combustion engine?
With Britain following France’s lead, it won’t be long before it is adopted by the entire E.U. as well so long as Merkel can withstand the pressure.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/25/britain-to-ban-sale-of-all-diesel-and-petrol-cars-and-vans-from-2040
Note also London is imposing a 10 Pound charge on hundreds of thousands of older vehicles – because they are far more likely to be more polluting.
Can we expect any party in New Zealand to propose such a move?
2040, bit late by then. If I buy a petrol car in 2039 someone will still be driving it 20 years later.
Oh my – wanting to grow hemp – bad, medical cannabis – bad, and a side issue – will lose election. Purposing somthing that will not help one bit – election winner.
The sad part is people will swallow that crap whole.
Maybe, when we’re all living in Auckland.
Winston just asked in QT, if National were preparing to sell Transpower. WOW!
Denied of course by Joyce. Letter tabled.
Q6. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all his statements; if so, how?
Winston’s question:
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=196207
“Finance Minister Steven Joyce denies plans to sell off Transpower.”
Who knows. Might be a long term plan though Joyce says businesses are always putting up propositions. Mmmmm..
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11895459
Little was terrible this morning on breakfast with Jack Tame, the man has trouble putting coherent sentences together or thinking on his feet Surely the simple answer to Tame line of question to catch angry out in regard to what will dropping 30000 in immigration have on our GDp would have been, “nothing as per capita nothing will change” , little was right it was a stupid question but he got owned by Tame with a even more stupid lack of an answer and could not shut it down, beyond stuttering every labour policy and mother pie statement as an answer, must do better, epic fail
Right winger concern troll offers lefties advice about how to win election 🙄
Red’s bored and Red’s boring.
Bored people bore people.
The green party is doomed.
dad4 – you’ve stumbled into a decent blog-space here, accidentally, I’m sure and you’ll be feeling insecure and not a little bit alien!
Quick! Get back to Kiwiblog before you catch something! This place is awash with rational thinking and consideration: scoot!
Now now Robert, no need for the hasty. Seeing d4j back here has made me come all over nostalgic.
me too! (well not really).
RedLogix – my heart too, skipped a beat at the signature on the 7:53pm comment, and while I stand in awe at the elegant simplicity of dad’s comment, unencumbered as it is by any weight, depth or value, I clearly remember the path dad’s comments, when in train, take; the inevitable downward, pride-defying spiral that always ended with a graceless splat-landing and banishment by the moderators to place where dull mischief foments and flippery-feet flap.
Doomed I tell ye- Doomed! 👹
Actually, it was Tuesday morning Red Tuesday the 25th. I saw that and I have got to agree, that little obnoxious prat, another Hoskins in the making definitely had a “gotcha” moment with Little. I don’t think little has problems in answering I think his main problem is he hasn’t a strong commanding voice. However wasn’t the little arseole smug about it, it was written all over his dial that said, ” aren’t I a clever little shit.”
Tried a similar exercise with Metiria Turei this morning didn’t he, and boy didn’t he come a cropper, she shut the little prat well and truly up and was he fucking pissed off about it his face was like thunder.
Tame has been groomed for this role for years.