IMHO Jacindas rise through Labours ranks to leader has been engineered by some very, very clever tactics. Andrew, with guidance and support set the party up to become a potential winner with Jacindar in mind some time ago. Her obvious -“to the backroom planners,” skills have been carefully kept up their sleeves until being unleashed these last few weeks Cloth caps off to all of you..
It’s got that look about it, and rather well done when you look at it from that angle. If you’ve read and understood Sun Tzu’s Art of War you will appreciate it even more. A lovely bait and switch.
lol…only credible if you believe Labour plan that far ahead, are organised enough t implement it …..oh, and control the votes of the districts and unions…..yeah,nah
Yep the look of happy realisation on everyone’s face from JA down shows that this was an unknown that has paid off. Big ups to JA – she alone has accepted the weight on her shoulders and she’s away, carrying it up the hill. We either help her or get out the road imo. That’s if we want a change of government of course.
Yeah, on steps of Reserve Bank NZ. The State is planning to erect a statue of a Hobbit with BROWN SKIN! Nazis are on to it. The Bolsheviks with be there throwing food, which is sure to attract big crowd of homeless folk. Looks like the poor bankers are going to get caught in the middle of it!
However, in this case Marty was aware of the report, thus there was no need. I wasn’t talking to everybody in this instance, I was replying directly to Marty.
By not speaking out on their policy short comings and telling people to get in behind and help her, you are accepting a lowering of the bar, Marty. And you are also encouraging others too. Can you not see that?
Moreover, by running down others (calling them naysayers, etc) and implying they shouldn’t speak out (claiming there is no justification) comes across as a bit standoverish. Bully boy.
Sure (deleted) lol – because you aren’t worth it chair. Your 2nd rate arguments, temperment and political nous are just not my cup of tea. Mate, you are a slimespinning bullshit artist who pretend cases for the ‘true left’ whilst putting the boot into labour every chance you get and then saying you’re doing it because you are voting Green. I. don’t. believe. you.
Sorry Pat, true. Refering to San and The D as both bots. But didn’t want to be toooo direct. Is it ok to call bots bots, or do we get points on our base-ball cards.
Amazing, only bloody bill was too weak to take the challenge and he got the piss taken out of him in that article. What an awesome confluence of stars have conspired to give us this wonderful situation.
Duncan Garner: After nine years in power, why is National’s report card so full of fails?
“Because the list of blind spots for National is too long. If this is success then our standards have slipped.
We have families living in cars. I saw one woman and her two kids the other night at the top of my street. It’s not how we do thing in New Zealand. Except now it is.
We have a Government that is too hands off. Let the market sort it. But markets fail. Markets don’t build emergency, social, state and affordable houses.
Governments, in partnership, lead and build. National utterly failed this group of struggling and increasingly bewildered and powerless New Zealanders.
The Government now buys entire motels to house the homeless and English says that’s a good thing, it’s unprecedented. Sure is. It’s National’s emblem of failure. The gap between the haves and have-nots appears starker than ever.
National also packed the immigrants in to the rafters in record numbers. Wages as a result have been suppressed.
They also forgot to plan where everyone will live. More than 140 people arrive in Auckland every day, sadly housing is provided for just 80 of them.
The poorest Kiwis have been squeezed to the sidelines. Auckland needs 14,000 homes built a year to meet demand.
After nine years of National the past year has seen just 7000 homes finished. Our infrastructure is creaking. The average price of a house in Auckland is more than $1m.
Good luck. First home buyers should be marching in the streets. They face renting for life. Or buying in Huntly or Levin.
National is also ambivalent on climate change, dirty rivers and our waterways. Action is needed now, not another kick for touch.
Polluters should pay. Get this into law. They do in Britain. Emissions have reduced. Why the free pass for our polluters?
Yes the headline numbers around the economy look good. And they are. But the family tree underneath is stressed and in some instances broken.
Over the next 28 days ask yourself this question: Am I living that promised Brighter Future?”
He did make a couple of odd comments about Labour in there.
Decade of deficits? Didnt Labour get to surplus only to spend it in 2008… like National are doing now? There is a reason Nats dont want to cool.immigration and housing because factor those into cpi and inflation and the truth of their management and many lives is laid bare.
Decade of deficits? Didnt Labour get to surplus only to spend it in 2008… like National are doing now? There is a reason Nats dont want to cool.immigration and housing because factor those into cpi and inflation and the truth of their management and many lives is laid bare.
The NZ governments spending capacity is unaffected by the surplus/deficit situation. As a currency issuer it can always afford to buy everything for sale in NZ dollers. The question of what gets funded in the budget and how much is one of values but never capacity.
Garmer doesn’t mention NZ government net debt that between 2008 and 2016 has risen from 5.4% of GDP (when Labour lost power) to 24.6% of GDP.
Net government debt at 2016 was $62 billion. If the Nats had kept the ratio the same as that bequeathed it by Labour debt would only be $14 billion.
The Nats always try to blame the $48 billion gap on the GFC and earthquakes, but after insurance inflows and the EQC the earthquakes cost less than $20 billion and NZ came out of the GFC largely unscathed.
THE FACT IS THE NATS HAVE BORROWED TO GIVE LOWER TAXES (or not increase or impose taxes) mostly to the better off. The first thing they did after winning in 2008 was to give tax cuts of over a billion a year to the better off. They also stopped contributions to the Cullen Fund (adding more billions to the $48 billion gap) leaving future governments to pick up the tab.
This is not sound or fair management of the economy; major fail.
The first thing they did after winning in 2008 was to give tax cuts of over a billion a year to the better off.
That’s not precisely correct. It lost the government a billion dollars of income but they actually decreased taxes upon the rich by quite a bit more than that. The difference was put upon the poor via higher GST.
Mike Hosking’s views and attitude dangerous to TVNZ’s integrity
‘To TVNZ: Hosking cannot speak our native language correctly. He didn’t apologise after making a mistake. He has not acknowledged the damage he may have done and for that.
After blaming the Māori Party for his own flippant remarks, can we really say he deserves his position as a TV commentator or the privilege of hosting our election debates?
TVNZ, Hosking’s poisonous attitude is dangerous to your company’s integrity. Get him off.’
True, but what’s more interesting is that these last two quoted articles are the top stories under the main story about the disastrous Afghanistan mission.
So three terms of the bad-cop seems to be enough. Let the good-cop deal with a tsunami from falling house prices. Remind us how good the bad-cop really was? Noooooooooo, the darkness has taken me. See the light, see the light, see the light!
National launch their campaign in Auckland this weekend, will be very interesting to see how many turn out compared with the thousands that flocked to see Jacinda last weekend.
Wonder if National will be renting a crowd? Wouldn’t put it past them.
Still reeling after list Mp Maureen Pughs supporter (maybe her campaign manager) assured my 12 year old that he was happy to swim in rivers where cows were shitting and she should have no problem with it as well. What a muppet.
Unfortunate gnat name with that story. I have so wanted to get Pugh and English (heh that goes together nicely) signs down over here – smug smiles and all but they are reminders of what we don’t want so all good. Sick of not seeing the new labour ones – come on Damien the election is just about here.
Marty, the new labour signs have just gone up here over the last few days and they look fantastic, no doubt they will go up down the coast soon as, maybe even this weekend.
Turns out Pugh has had two signs defaced here. “No Thanks” spray painted in large black letters, polite and to the point. She’s not well liked at all.
She said yesterday that she hadn’t set up an office in Motueka this election because she was sick of her office being vandalised during the last election.
It wasn’t me who broke her window, but I will raise my hand for taping up notices pointing out she was never in her office and questioning her record as mayor of Westland. Sure the notices snowballed as others decided to write down their feelings and tape them onto her doors and window, but thats not vandalism that is information sharing 😀
Marty she turned up to meet the candidates in collingwood wearing sparkly shoes, the farmers were not impressed.
Yes I heard the Collingwood crew had some head scratching going on. In the bay I want the new labour sign – maybe today cos it’s a good day for the market here.
Does anyone know if this is true?
NZ is increasing it’s military force in Afghanistan by 30%. It is putting in 3 more soldiers to increase it’s “non-combatants” to 13 !
WTF, are we really the laughing stock of the World?
Has Sue Bradford replaced herself with a stunt double on leaving parliament?
National Security are shitting themselves. The rebellion has teamed up with the hobbits and has a cave network stretching the full length SH1! The State is helpless. If they evict hobbits, the loss of tourism will bring down the whole system!
Do you mean don’t blow her cover? She put the Greens on the map, but she out-grew the map. Then I liked her again. Folk like her are no good locked up in parliament. Glade Catherine D is free again. Sitting on the motor-way certainly did it for me. (that was the link, bit sloppy sorry) I would truly love to see her backed with a hobbit collaboration. Though I’ve no idea what she’s doing these days. That’s the blessing of being under cover I guess 😉
Rooster crows, sun to rise.
Decades pass, clucky Govt sits,
Wild chicken, hiding all the eggs.
Solving light rises in the East.
Labour know it in the 30’s ‘n’ 40’s.
Which came first, the money or the loan?
Thanks Cinny. It’s good to see. I still cannot resolve complete non-violence (as logical conclusion to non violence is lack of self defence: victims having a moral (non-violent) authority over Nazi prison guards in Auschwitz didn’t help their cause, when led to the gas chambers). Hopefully we, as humanity, can use non-violent methods against violent extremism.
Make no mistake, their violence is the everyday reality for the targets of their prejudice. Turning up in numbers might stop a hate-march but it won’t stop the lower-level street violence and discrimination.
Thanks for the link Cinny, I was busy this morning but just tried to watch it. The sound quality was horrendous with constant feedback – may try again later when I’m not on headphones.
Bradbury has a review of it, but he seems to be very biased towards Morgan – apparently he did well here (but then according to Bradbury, he also won the Māori TV debate too; something no one else noticed, I’m sure it has nothing to do with the banner ad TOP has taken out on TDB).
Arseholes never miss an opportunity to exercise their malice – immigration checkpoints will remain active during the evacuation. So the undocumented are left with the dilemma, do they stay at risk of their lives or do they evacuate at risk of getting nabbed and deported.
“As the election looms, the Sustainable Business Council Election Manifesto has revealed many leading New Zealand businesses are uneasy about the gap they see between the prosperous and the poor, and they see action on climate change as a priority.”
My reading of the article linked above and the manifesto linked within is of a quite explicit rejection of National’s leadership of our society and environment. It also aligns closely with Labour and Green intentions.
The members of this organisation are our top companies, so really interesting that they have come out like this.
Don’t forget the lie that the National Party encourages its followers to repeat to one another: no-one in the “real world” supports left wing policies.
The Sustainable Business Council just delivered yet another rebuttal of the lie. Not that that will stop the National Party spreading it. As DtB is fond of pointing out, if they didn’t lie about everything they represent, they’d never get elected.
It’ll be interesting to see how National respond to this, will they suddenly embrace climate change and sustainability (shit, that’ll be entertaining on KB and sewer) or do they tough it out and try and say Sustainable Business Council are deluded.
Either way, I think they are fucked. Both approaches are going to loose them votes.
Spent the last 2 weeks trying to get builders to pay their accounts for materials. There is a large amount of stress and poor cash flows with spec houses not selling and very few “design and builds” out there.
Hate to be the next govt as there is so much pent up stress within the industry(i image that other sectors within NZ are in a similar situation), and the Fletcher situation is just 1 large embodiment of this.
Not to worry, should Labour lead the next govt- National will have an out in 2020 as all the countries issues will be Labours fault … again.
I hope my observations are wrong, but this has been building up for over a year, it hasn’t presented itself in a manner that most can see.
There is a pile of cash flow pressure in the industry currently, a lack of skilled workforce to get through the workload and fast rising overhead costs have blown out pricing done 3-6months prior. It’s not pretty out there and it doesn’t take much to tip a reasonably large company over especially if they have financed large amounts to buy machinary to facilitate growth.
The lack of traditional 3-4 year apprenticeship training over the last 15 years or so is really hitting home now.
Damn near a generation of skills haven’t been passed on and there is some really shoddy work going on due to people not knowing better…
Pathetic is really the only description of this. It’s nothing new, just a tepid re-heat of the existing situation. A tired, out of touch government on the way out.
The freedom camping and AirBnB thing is starting to really piss people off down here. Hotel operators have had enough of paying full rates and compliance while the cowboys skim off the cream. Heard of a situation where a hotel is very quiet while the AirBnBs down the street are full and non-compliant, private investigators in the bushes with cameras, the whole nine yards. Hotel also can’t get staff because there’s no rental accomodation.
AirBnB should not be confused with Freedom Camping. Entirely separate issues.
Having said that I agree that AirBnb is an issue too-I live near Wanaka. The QLDC is able to do something about this through its rating policy and monitoring.
The extent of it getting beyond them IMO, and the 90 days / year threshold for consent makes it really hard to enforce quickly.
My conflating of the two issues was to point out that this government has badly mismanaged tourism, about the only thing they are doing well is destroying the industry’s value proposition and turning New Zealand into a destination for low value mass markets.
Backpackers are usually well-educated middle class people who spend hundreds of millions of dollars in our economy and then come back as yuppies 15-20 years later and spend oodles. That is if they have had a good experience here in the first place. Hassling them is not consistent with this.
The mismanagement I’m talking about is that tourism yield per visitor has gone down since 2008. We’re getting more visitors, but getting much less out of them. Also, the freedom camper is a subset of the backpacker market and the ones that are causing problems are a very small subset of visitors in vans.
National’s brain fart doesn’t say anything new, as I said it’s just stating what’s already happening, and missing the real issues . It also seems aimed at existing National voters which looks a bit desperate.
I get that freedom camping by tourists rankles with many. Although given the number of kiwis who are proud of doing similar on their OE, that does seem a bit churlish. Of course, no one wants their local public spaces to become open sewers, but I’m with BG that the answer to this is more facilities.
What concerns me is that anti-freedom camping laws are also anti-homeless laws. If people are reduced to living out of their cars, then a spot fine backed up by threat of legal action for noncompliance isn’t going to help matters. Only allowing vehicular habitation to those who can afford; a camper with contained toilet, means the poor who can’t afford such luxuries are the target. Maybe if buckets with chemicals in them were counted as self-contained toilets and available from foodbanks that might help? Though that brings the problem of spillage and question of where they can be emptied.
Otherwise, these are just vagrancy laws under another name.
I don’t suppose it would be possible to do both. You know, build more loos and compel their use. Of course the burden of building is going to fall on relatively few ratepayers.
LOL, ohh so we’ll have magic pixies patrolling Bill’s 10 billion worth of new roads that look like they are going to be paid for from the magic money tree
Henry Cooke is making things up again in the Herald today. He says:
“The Green Party’s late entry into the scene on Thursday, breaking an unspoken deal they had with Labour….”
Wrong Henry, there was no deal. The Greens withdrew their candidate as a favour to Labour, the sole reason being to give Greg O’Connor a better chance of beating Peter Dunne, and so reducing the Right’s voting power by one in parliament. When Dunne ran for the hills there was no longer any reason for the Greens not to have a candidate, so they are now treating Ohariu the same as all of the other electorates. Cooke is here:
What is most worrying is that the usually superb Gordon Campbell got the Ohariu situation wrong on his blog. Perhaps, like Vernon Small and the rest of the MSM, he has an anti-Green bias and would like to see them gone?
Labour will not be able to form a genuinely progressive government if the Greens fall below 5%. The MSM knows this.
Bearded Git
Even saying; “The Greens withdrew their candidate as a favour to Labour”, is overstating the amount of deal-making. More; the GP saw that it was in their own interest to not stand a candidate, but now that Dunne is no longer a factor have got the candidate from 2014 back to boost their profile.
Gordon Campbell has not had an anti-Green bias in the past, If anything he has pro-Green sympathies than he tries to keep in check in the pursuit of journalistic integrity. His piece reads to me as more a warning about feeding self-fulfilling perceptions of vulnerability rather than an attempt to kick a party when it is down.
Also the MOU, as I understand it, ends on Election Day.
There does seem to be a ghoulish desire to kill off the Greens. Almost lije the Press Gallery do not like a mirror held to them either. All the blind eyes turned, shallow reporting…
With Houston and Austin directly in the path of the new category 4 hurricane Harvey, the strongest storm to hit the US since 2005 could not come as a more brutal reminder of the weather and the climate to this US administration.
Actually category 4 cyclones (as we call them) in historical terms are two a dime as the Yanks would say, so the chances of this administration seeing anything untoward is very remote. Even so, they are going to occur with ever increasing frequency but I doubt that will have much effect on them either. Deniers cannot see past the end of their noses because anything further is beyond their brains’ ability to cognate.
Tim Murphy @tmurphyNZ
Turns out those who said this mad election had one more explosive convulsion to come weren’t wrong. Could be soon. #motherofallscandals
1:16 PM · Aug 26, 2017
Tim Murphy
“You can strangle the rooster but the dawn will still come”
Kim Young Sam
“CoroDale 9
26 August 2017 at 8:27 am
Riddle Time
Rooster crows, sun to rise.
Decades pass, clucky Govt sits,
Wild chicken, hiding all the eggs.
Solving light rises in the East.
Labour know it in the 30’s ‘n’ 40’s.
Which came first, the money or the loan?”
Only a memorandum of understanding could qualify? Especially now that bow-tie has bowed out?
Lord, I remember when Brian Edwards was going to stand for labour in Mirimar, I think. Out came the news that he was ‘living in sin’. Hugely shocking back then – he had to withdraw.
So what can this new scandal be? Overdue library books??
Well, if it were about Todd Barclay’s criminal behaviour and the corruption stemming from it, it could hurt a lot of senior National Party pondscum, and that would fit the metaphor rather well.
Or it could be about Jacinda’s affair with Winston and James Shaw and Marama Fox. No, wait, that’s only four cards.
Yeah I read that, and if Bradbury knows what it is he’ll blab before Monday. The fact that he hasn’t already is a good indication that he has no clue. I won’t be surprised to be wrong about that too.
Brian Edwards DID stand for Labour in Miramar, he did not withdraw. He managed to lose the safeish Labour seat despite a swing to Labour nation wide.
He was living with another woman while still married, as the front page of Truth pointed out. The electorate took a dim view, but whether of his reputation or his TV persona, only they know.
Royal Flush – a set of cards that a player has in a card game (such as poker) that are all of the same suit (such as diamonds) and are the most valuable cards (the ace, king, queen, jack, and ten) in that suit.
Does a suit pertain to a particular political party and does it involve a lot of money changing hands in a clandestine manner?
I guess, although it hasn’t been retweeted that many times, so hard to know how much it’s gone beyond the people that would have picked it up quickly on Monday morning anyway. That against a bunch of people wild speculating and presumably mostly getting it wrong.
We are dealing with politicians, so we can’t really trust any of them.
So it doesn’t leave us with much choice. We can either work with what they commit too. Or we can think they are all full of shit and leave them to it. Waste of time commenting on policy if it’s all bullshit.
And when it comes to trust, Labour also have a lot to make up for. They are distrusted by a number on the left and on the right.
That flavour of bullshit you did just there is what we call a “false equivalence”.
Thing about most of the criticism of Labour from the left that I see is based on perceived holes in their policies, or matters of interpretation. Whereas national are less than outright liars, the actual truth is irrelevant to them, They’re bullshitters, like you.
We’re discussing the trustworthiness of policy promises.
My assertion regarded what I saw, being that it is the perceived shortcomings in policy that Labour is criticised for, not the truthfulness. It is my observation. You are welcome to show a “left wing” comment that says a Labour policy is an outright lie.
That is not equivalent to just being a load of bullshit.
Oh, so now you’re claiming that it wasn’t false equivalence, you merely shifted the goalposts so that you could bring Labour into it.
You’re so full of bullshit it’s hilarious.
In an argument as to whether Labour need to match national policy promises, your new goalposts are irrelevant. Labour don’t need to “up their game” simply to match promises that no sane person would trust.
If national promise unicorns, Labour don’t need to promise unicorns with rainbow farts. They just need reasonable policies that show they plan to govern competently.
You are the one claiming false equivalence. I never did.
I extended the discussion on trust to overall trust to show National isn’t the only one to have voter trust issues.
You seem to have forgotten Labour has just upped their game ($8 doctors visits) thus not only matching Nationals policy, but also bettering it.
And as for social housing. Not only do labour need to up their game because National is offering more (which Labour should find embarrassing) it may also cost them votes and may be problematic in the up and coming leaders debate.
On a side note,10,000 homes compared to 1000 state homes indicates to voters where their values sit. As a comparison, Hone is offering to build 10,000 state homes.
Additionally, and more importantly, Labour need to up their game in this area because what they’re offering is vastly insufficient. As you can see in the earlier link I provided you.
A number from the left haven’t regained the trust lost from Rogernomics ….
And fuck isn’t it annoyingly obvious on this blog’s comments threads every day. It isn’t 1986 any more, get over it. In the actually-existing Now, the one in which the 4th Labour government is 27 years in the past, you have two choices in this election: continuing the existing National-led government or replacing it with a Labour-led one. The Chairman’s perfect government isn’t on the menu – pick from the two options available, and keep in mind that “no vote” equates to “I choose to continue the current National-led government.”
If a person can be trusted it does not automatically follow that this person will be trusted. This choice is influenced by personal bias & prejudice (heuristics such as ‘common sense’), ignorance and false beliefs, irrational fear or desire, mental apathy & laziness, to name just a few. The point I want to make is that many people are projecting, psychologically speaking, when it comes to politicians (and many others for that matter). This includes projection of hope, which may be an important factor in the recent rise in the polls of Labour.
The Guardian is more than just MSM, they use words like; inimical. (survived two paragraphs and checked a paragraph or two, skimmed, and two more links, hoping for meat, but just got stuff like this:
Then please allow me to predict a little paradox to their statement and general tone: If our next govt was to, “back fiscal spending with state cash”, the action would not be inimical from internal economic factors (though I’m sure their supply-n-demand hypnosis would claim otherwise). It would be inimical from the external hand of our neo-liberal God-Fathers. And it would be the anti-thesis of liberty on their minds. Our currency would be sent to the time-out corner, for even thoughts of competing with their totalitarian control.
But genuine thanks for posting a link which is totally on-track regarding the next government’s inimical options. Points out just how big the challenge is, when even the mighty Scottish Guardian…
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Eric Crampton writes – A fashion industry group is lobbying for protections. They make the usual arguments and a newer one. None of it makes sense. An industry group says it pumped $7.8 billion into the economy last year – that’s 1.9 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. ...
In December 2006, Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government in a coup. He ruled Fiji for the next 16 years, first as dictator, then as "elected" Prime Minister. But now, he's finally been sent to jail where he belongs. Sadly, this isn't for his real crime of ...
Don't like National's corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" law? Aotearoa's environmental NGO's - Greenpeace, Forest & Bird, WWF, Coromandel Watchdog, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, and others - have announced a joint march against it in Auckland in June: When: 13:00, 8 June, 2024 Where: Aotea Square, Auckland You ...
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
Asia Pacific Report Barangay New Zealand’s Rene Molina has interviewed the country’s first Filipino Green MP Francisco Hernandez who was sworn into Parliament yesterday as the party’s latest member. This is the first interview with Hernandez who replaces former Green Party co-leader James Shaw after his retirement from politics to ...
An Australian Strategic Policy Institute report says Pillar Two could raise the industry to state of the art capability - or "crush" it "under the weight of the globe's biggest player". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marlene Longbottom, Associate Professor, Indigenous Education & Research Centre, James Cook University ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the violence experienced by First Nations people in encounters with the Australian carceral system. It also contains references to ...
“Instead of following along countries that are investing in death and better ways of killing people faster, we need to invest in life and in making Aotearoa a fair, just and equitable place where everyone has what they need for a dignified life.” ...
MARIAMENO KAPA-KINGI, TPM MP FOR TAI TOKERAU This Government will not waver in its mission to exterminate Māori. CHRISTOPHER LUXON Oh well look you know I don’t think that hard-working Kiwis want to hear language like that. It’s just really unhelpful rhetoric. My Government is genuinely committed to advancing outcomes ...
The body positivity movement started with women confronting the unrealistic expectations and unrepresentative portrayals of them in media and advertising. Men weren’t part of it … their bodies hadn’t been sexualised to the same extremes and they didn’t really need it. But now that’s changed. And in a warped sort ...
The New Zealand comedy legend takes us through her life in television, including the time she hugged Elton John and the unshakeable legacy of a girl named Lyn. In 1981, Ginette McDonald stood on the stage of Auckland’s St James Theatre and directly addressed Queen Elizabeth II. It was a ...
An essay by Lily Duval from the just-released anthology Otherhood: Essays on being childless, childfree and child adjacent.I was 22 when my friend Alice gave birth in the living room of our pokey Addington flat. She laboured in the blow-up pool for hours. Garish fish swam along the inflated ...
Ella Borrie on the best books about motherhood she’s come across so far. Over the past few years I’ve been drawn to books about motherhood. I’m fascinated by the joys and horrors of becoming a parent. The question of children also feels more pressing than it used to. It’s like ...
Out of gift ideas for mum? You can’t go wrong with a bottle of toilet cleaner and a new squeegee. Emily Writes is the writer and editor of Emily Writes Weekly. This week marks five years since I published a post on The Spinoff about Mother’s Day marketing titled ‘A ...
My husband is posted overseas for 12 months and I’m armed with an expensive, newfangled vibrator. Will I miss him? The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.A few days after my husband leaves, a new sex toy arrives at the front door. Nestled ...
Jaimie Baird’s new book Here Today Gone Tomorrow is a record of four decades of graffiti and street art in Wellington, told through more than 1,200 photographs. He spoke with Joel MacManus about what inspired the book. How did you first get interested in photographing street art? I remember ...
Editor Madeleine Chapman looks back at a busy week where food of all political leanings dominated. Sometimes you’re just going about your week thinking you’ve got a good handle on what might be coming as far as news topics and then someone (usually a politician) says something so ridiculous that ...
A banner notification alerts me to the fact that I’ve received an Instagram message from @felicity.loves. She always comments on my posts. I shouldn’t have opened the message, but clicked on the notification before rationalising this. OMG! Are you in Wellys? X I debate not replying, but Instagram will inform ...
In Melbourne’s hardscrabble western suburbs where AFL – Aussie rules football – is a state religion, Callum Donaldson has been quietly grafting away, four months into an odyssey that he hopes will take him to another promised land: the NRL. It was a solid 2023 for the softly spoken 20-year-old ...
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Pacific Media Watch Television New Zealand Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver has been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to investigative journalism and Pacific communities in a ceremony at Government House, reports 1News. She has been the Pacific correspondent for 1News since 2002, breaking many ...
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By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Authorities in the small town of Boulouparis have commemorated Armistice Day on May 8 with a new memorial honouring New Zealand soldiers who were stationed in New Caledonia during World War II. The ceremony took place in the township on the ...
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Failing to anticipate the complexity of the consenting system is being cited as the the current builder's shortcomings, an Infrastructure Commission review says. ...
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350 Aotearoa is calling the Environment Select Committee’s decision to allow oral submissions from just 40% of individual, unique submitters who asked to speak to the committee ‘a disgraceful blight to democracy’. ...
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IMHO Jacindas rise through Labours ranks to leader has been engineered by some very, very clever tactics. Andrew, with guidance and support set the party up to become a potential winner with Jacindar in mind some time ago. Her obvious -“to the backroom planners,” skills have been carefully kept up their sleeves until being unleashed these last few weeks Cloth caps off to all of you..
Multi Choice Response
A) BAU
B) Think I’m missing your point.
C) Was that post from a bot?
D) Why am I responding to that?
It’s got that look about it, and rather well done when you look at it from that angle. If you’ve read and understood Sun Tzu’s Art of War you will appreciate it even more. A lovely bait and switch.
lol…only credible if you believe Labour plan that far ahead, are organised enough t implement it …..oh, and control the votes of the districts and unions…..yeah,nah
Yep the look of happy realisation on everyone’s face from JA down shows that this was an unknown that has paid off. Big ups to JA – she alone has accepted the weight on her shoulders and she’s away, carrying it up the hill. We either help her or get out the road imo. That’s if we want a change of government of course.
We require more than a change of Government, Marty. So why don’t you stop accepting a lowering of the bar and help us achieve that?
Are rumors true that the Nazis are planing a march outside the Reserve Bank? Tidy dog owners may be able to help.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-26082017/#comment-1373743
Yeah, on steps of Reserve Bank NZ. The State is planning to erect a statue of a Hobbit with BROWN SKIN! Nazis are on to it. The Bolsheviks with be there throwing food, which is sure to attract big crowd of homeless folk. Looks like the poor bankers are going to get caught in the middle of it!
Chairman I’m not interested in your bullshit – i don’t believe what you say sorry.
You’re free to believe whatever you like, Marty. But do refrain from calling “bullshit” unless you are prepared to substantiate it.
Nevertheless, do tell us, do you also think the Salvation Army report is “bullshit”?
Asks for substantiation of bullshit allegation, then provides it with random, imprecise, passive-aggressive segue.
“Then provides it with random, imprecise, passive-aggressive segue.”
No, it was a question actually.
I was trying to establish what Marty is running around crying bullshit over.
Because the sallys have only ever written one report?
But the answer to your question is simple. Your comment.
I’m not (a bullshitter) and I do (provide links).
However, in this case Marty was aware of the report, thus there was no need. I wasn’t talking to everybody in this instance, I was replying directly to Marty.
So at best that removes “imprecise”.
Good for you.
Marty knew which report I was referring too.
And if you were more informed, perhaps you would too.
My comment was a question and it wasn’t bullshit, so hell knows what you are on about. Are you on the turps?
If you weren’t a bullshitter, you’d provide links so everyone would know what you’re talking about.
You are overlooking the fact it was a genuine question and not a passive-aggressive segue.
I don’t believe you.
No chair just you are the bullshitter bullshitting about bullshit. Clear enough noddy?
“No chair just you are the bullshitter bullshitting about bullshit.”
Really? Where is this “bullshit” you’re asserting too, Marty?
You said I accepted a lowering of the bar in your first comment to me upthread – that is bullshit and a lie, completely made up and fabricated.
By not speaking out on their policy short comings and telling people to get in behind and help her, you are accepting a lowering of the bar, Marty. And you are also encouraging others too. Can you not see that?
Moreover, by running down others (calling them naysayers, etc) and implying they shouldn’t speak out (claiming there is no justification) comes across as a bit standoverish. Bully boy.
Sure (deleted) lol – because you aren’t worth it chair. Your 2nd rate arguments, temperment and political nous are just not my cup of tea. Mate, you are a slimespinning bullshit artist who pretend cases for the ‘true left’ whilst putting the boot into labour every chance you get and then saying you’re doing it because you are voting Green. I. don’t. believe. you.
“Because you aren’t worth it chair.”
It’s not about me, Marty. It’s about doing what’s right.
Marty, you called me a bullshitter, yet you didn’t refute my comeback that showed you up for what you are.
I rather vote Labour, Marty, but can’t bring myself to accept their lowering of the bar. Hence, I’m trying to do something about it.
If you think discussing policy is putting the boot in, you need to harden up. I haven’t even got my boots on yet.
Like i said before, Marty, you’re free to believe what you like.
Mr Chairman, your concern trolling is always a bore.
+1 to Marty and McFlock.
This is the literal exemplar of publicity you can’t buy:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11909313
Great stuff!!
lol….another fan (and vote no doubt)
C) Bot
?…wrong thread perhaps?
Sorry Pat, true. Refering to San and The D as both bots. But didn’t want to be toooo direct. Is it ok to call bots bots, or do we get points on our base-ball cards.
+ 1 yep so great to see the leader of labour like this – i thought we had more winter but spring is here thank the gods.
to marty mars at 2.2 : Bring on summer!
Amazing, only bloody bill was too weak to take the challenge and he got the piss taken out of him in that article. What an awesome confluence of stars have conspired to give us this wonderful situation.
Duncan Garner: After nine years in power, why is National’s report card so full of fails?
“Because the list of blind spots for National is too long. If this is success then our standards have slipped.
We have families living in cars. I saw one woman and her two kids the other night at the top of my street. It’s not how we do thing in New Zealand. Except now it is.
We have a Government that is too hands off. Let the market sort it. But markets fail. Markets don’t build emergency, social, state and affordable houses.
Governments, in partnership, lead and build. National utterly failed this group of struggling and increasingly bewildered and powerless New Zealanders.
The Government now buys entire motels to house the homeless and English says that’s a good thing, it’s unprecedented. Sure is. It’s National’s emblem of failure. The gap between the haves and have-nots appears starker than ever.
National also packed the immigrants in to the rafters in record numbers. Wages as a result have been suppressed.
They also forgot to plan where everyone will live. More than 140 people arrive in Auckland every day, sadly housing is provided for just 80 of them.
The poorest Kiwis have been squeezed to the sidelines. Auckland needs 14,000 homes built a year to meet demand.
After nine years of National the past year has seen just 7000 homes finished. Our infrastructure is creaking. The average price of a house in Auckland is more than $1m.
Good luck. First home buyers should be marching in the streets. They face renting for life. Or buying in Huntly or Levin.
National is also ambivalent on climate change, dirty rivers and our waterways. Action is needed now, not another kick for touch.
Polluters should pay. Get this into law. They do in Britain. Emissions have reduced. Why the free pass for our polluters?
Yes the headline numbers around the economy look good. And they are. But the family tree underneath is stressed and in some instances broken.
Over the next 28 days ask yourself this question: Am I living that promised Brighter Future?”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/96138164/duncan-garner-after-nine-years-in-power-why-is-nationals-report-card-so-full-of-fails
He did make a couple of odd comments about Labour in there.
Decade of deficits? Didnt Labour get to surplus only to spend it in 2008… like National are doing now? There is a reason Nats dont want to cool.immigration and housing because factor those into cpi and inflation and the truth of their management and many lives is laid bare.
Decade of deficits? Didnt Labour get to surplus only to spend it in 2008… like National are doing now? There is a reason Nats dont want to cool.immigration and housing because factor those into cpi and inflation and the truth of their management and many lives is laid bare.
The NZ governments spending capacity is unaffected by the surplus/deficit situation. As a currency issuer it can always afford to buy everything for sale in NZ dollers. The question of what gets funded in the budget and how much is one of values but never capacity.
+111
My point wias Garner got his facts wrong. Not the merits of running deficits
Garmer doesn’t mention NZ government net debt that between 2008 and 2016 has risen from 5.4% of GDP (when Labour lost power) to 24.6% of GDP.
Net government debt at 2016 was $62 billion. If the Nats had kept the ratio the same as that bequeathed it by Labour debt would only be $14 billion.
The Nats always try to blame the $48 billion gap on the GFC and earthquakes, but after insurance inflows and the EQC the earthquakes cost less than $20 billion and NZ came out of the GFC largely unscathed.
THE FACT IS THE NATS HAVE BORROWED TO GIVE LOWER TAXES (or not increase or impose taxes) mostly to the better off. The first thing they did after winning in 2008 was to give tax cuts of over a billion a year to the better off. They also stopped contributions to the Cullen Fund (adding more billions to the $48 billion gap) leaving future governments to pick up the tab.
This is not sound or fair management of the economy; major fail.
That’s not precisely correct. It lost the government a billion dollars of income but they actually decreased taxes upon the rich by quite a bit more than that. The difference was put upon the poor via higher GST.
Thanks draco
Mike Hosking’s views and attitude dangerous to TVNZ’s integrity
‘To TVNZ: Hosking cannot speak our native language correctly. He didn’t apologise after making a mistake. He has not acknowledged the damage he may have done and for that.
After blaming the Māori Party for his own flippant remarks, can we really say he deserves his position as a TV commentator or the privilege of hosting our election debates?
TVNZ, Hosking’s poisonous attitude is dangerous to your company’s integrity. Get him off.’
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/96152694/mike-hoskings-views-and-attitude-dangerous-to-tvnzs-integrity
TVNZ’s integrity is just nostalgia from when we where pure and innocent.
+1
True, but what’s more interesting is that these last two quoted articles are the top stories under the main story about the disastrous Afghanistan mission.
The tide does seem to turn at times.
So three terms of the bad-cop seems to be enough. Let the good-cop deal with a tsunami from falling house prices. Remind us how good the bad-cop really was? Noooooooooo, the darkness has taken me. See the light, see the light, see the light!
National launch their campaign in Auckland this weekend, will be very interesting to see how many turn out compared with the thousands that flocked to see Jacinda last weekend.
Wonder if National will be renting a crowd? Wouldn’t put it past them.
Still reeling after list Mp Maureen Pughs supporter (maybe her campaign manager) assured my 12 year old that he was happy to swim in rivers where cows were shitting and she should have no problem with it as well. What a muppet.
At Sky City?
Yesah, at the local casino to which Hosking is an ambassador.
Surprise, surprise…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/movies/news/article.cfm?c_id=200&objectid=10795401
TVNZ does sometimes act to stop Hosking.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10795215
Unfortunate gnat name with that story. I have so wanted to get Pugh and English (heh that goes together nicely) signs down over here – smug smiles and all but they are reminders of what we don’t want so all good. Sick of not seeing the new labour ones – come on Damien the election is just about here.
Marty, the new labour signs have just gone up here over the last few days and they look fantastic, no doubt they will go up down the coast soon as, maybe even this weekend.
Turns out Pugh has had two signs defaced here. “No Thanks” spray painted in large black letters, polite and to the point. She’s not well liked at all.
She said yesterday that she hadn’t set up an office in Motueka this election because she was sick of her office being vandalised during the last election.
It wasn’t me who broke her window, but I will raise my hand for taping up notices pointing out she was never in her office and questioning her record as mayor of Westland. Sure the notices snowballed as others decided to write down their feelings and tape them onto her doors and window, but thats not vandalism that is information sharing 😀
Marty she turned up to meet the candidates in collingwood wearing sparkly shoes, the farmers were not impressed.
Wondering where she is on the list this time
Yes I heard the Collingwood crew had some head scratching going on. In the bay I want the new labour sign – maybe today cos it’s a good day for the market here.
Gosh yes the “Clean Rivers’ sign would look super in the bay, was sure I heard yesterday they were going up this weekend.
Clean rivers signs up today aroubd Selwyn…
Maureen Pugh is 44 on the list. Pretty invisible so far in our part of the electorate.
Maureen Pugh sounds very frightened…
Who should I vote for? Poverty policy at a glance
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/08/who-should-i-vote-for-poverty-policy-at-a-glance.html
Does anyone know if this is true?
NZ is increasing it’s military force in Afghanistan by 30%. It is putting in 3 more soldiers to increase it’s “non-combatants” to 13 !
WTF, are we really the laughing stock of the World?
True
Recommended viewing
https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/the-valley/#
More a recognition of our logistical and planning nous than our ability to kill people I would have thought.
Why are we even in Afghanistan?
Competing for the International Fair Play Award?
Smiley face failed to appear..
Can anyone confirm, deign or spread this rumor:
Has Sue Bradford replaced herself with a stunt double on leaving parliament?
National Security are shitting themselves. The rebellion has teamed up with the hobbits and has a cave network stretching the full length SH1! The State is helpless. If they evict hobbits, the loss of tourism will bring down the whole system!
Leave Sue alone bud.
Do you mean don’t blow her cover? She put the Greens on the map, but she out-grew the map. Then I liked her again. Folk like her are no good locked up in parliament. Glade Catherine D is free again. Sitting on the motor-way certainly did it for me. (that was the link, bit sloppy sorry) I would truly love to see her backed with a hobbit collaboration. Though I’ve no idea what she’s doing these days. That’s the blessing of being under cover I guess 😉
Are you trying too hard?
Overreaching is the word you’re looking for perhaps?
Mmmmm.
Riddle Time
Rooster crows, sun to rise.
Decades pass, clucky Govt sits,
Wild chicken, hiding all the eggs.
Solving light rises in the East.
Labour know it in the 30’s ‘n’ 40’s.
Which came first, the money or the loan?
Imaginative response to a planned alt-right March in San Francisco this weekend… Turd Reich
Its’s interesting to see non-violence as a deterrent.
That’s hard case as, thanks for sharing.
Sans Cle, seen this on Al Jazeera?
“More than 2,100 people have “adopted a Nazi” in the US, raising more than $134,000 to help neo-Nazis and white supremacists “fund their own demise”.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/08/nazi-groups-countering-neo-nazis-170824072656258.html
Thanks Cinny. It’s good to see. I still cannot resolve complete non-violence (as logical conclusion to non violence is lack of self defence: victims having a moral (non-violent) authority over Nazi prison guards in Auschwitz didn’t help their cause, when led to the gas chambers). Hopefully we, as humanity, can use non-violent methods against violent extremism.
Make no mistake, their violence is the everyday reality for the targets of their prejudice. Turning up in numbers might stop a hate-march but it won’t stop the lower-level street violence and discrimination.
Leaders debate on The Nation this morning at 9:30 am
Edit: it’s just started
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows.html
Greens
Maori
TOP
Act
Mana Leaders debating
Thanks for the link Cinny, I was busy this morning but just tried to watch it. The sound quality was horrendous with constant feedback – may try again later when I’m not on headphones.
Bradbury has a review of it, but he seems to be very biased towards Morgan – apparently he did well here (but then according to Bradbury, he also won the Māori TV debate too; something no one else noticed, I’m sure it has nothing to do with the banner ad TOP has taken out on TDB).
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/08/26/the-nation-minor-party-leaders-debate/
When is the next round of polls due, anyone know?
Expecting a Newshub Reid Research in the not too distant future
An humanitarian disaster in the making – nearly half a million people living in more than two thousand colonias, and category 4 hurricane Harvey.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/11/living-edges-life-colonias-texas-161103082854630.html
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/torrential-rain-to-evolve-into-flooding-disaster-as-hurricane-harvey-moves-inland/70002548
Arseholes never miss an opportunity to exercise their malice – immigration checkpoints will remain active during the evacuation. So the undocumented are left with the dilemma, do they stay at risk of their lives or do they evacuate at risk of getting nabbed and deported.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/25/16205040/hurricane-harvey-checkpoints-immigration-border
Apparently the climate change cabal never miss an opportunity.
https://twitter.com/Forrest4Trees/status/901196241769558016
The Sustainable Business Council released its Election Manifesto yesterday,
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/25-08-2017/leave-no-new-zealander-behind-a-sustainable-business-election-manifesto/
“As the election looms, the Sustainable Business Council Election Manifesto has revealed many leading New Zealand businesses are uneasy about the gap they see between the prosperous and the poor, and they see action on climate change as a priority.”
My reading of the article linked above and the manifesto linked within is of a quite explicit rejection of National’s leadership of our society and environment. It also aligns closely with Labour and Green intentions.
The members of this organisation are our top companies, so really interesting that they have come out like this.
Don’t forget the lie that the National Party encourages its followers to repeat to one another: no-one in the “real world” supports left wing policies.
The Sustainable Business Council just delivered yet another rebuttal of the lie. Not that that will stop the National Party spreading it. As DtB is fond of pointing out, if they didn’t lie about everything they represent, they’d never get elected.
It’ll be interesting to see how National respond to this, will they suddenly embrace climate change and sustainability (shit, that’ll be entertaining on KB and sewer) or do they tough it out and try and say Sustainable Business Council are deluded.
Either way, I think they are fucked. Both approaches are going to loose them votes.
Spent the last 2 weeks trying to get builders to pay their accounts for materials. There is a large amount of stress and poor cash flows with spec houses not selling and very few “design and builds” out there.
Hate to be the next govt as there is so much pent up stress within the industry(i image that other sectors within NZ are in a similar situation), and the Fletcher situation is just 1 large embodiment of this.
Not to worry, should Labour lead the next govt- National will have an out in 2020 as all the countries issues will be Labours fault … again.
I hope my observations are wrong, but this has been building up for over a year, it hasn’t presented itself in a manner that most can see.
There is a pile of cash flow pressure in the industry currently, a lack of skilled workforce to get through the workload and fast rising overhead costs have blown out pricing done 3-6months prior. It’s not pretty out there and it doesn’t take much to tip a reasonably large company over especially if they have financed large amounts to buy machinary to facilitate growth.
The lack of traditional 3-4 year apprenticeship training over the last 15 years or so is really hitting home now.
Damn near a generation of skills haven’t been passed on and there is some really shoddy work going on due to people not knowing better…
I am in Rolleston in Christchurch. Today while walking the dogs we counted 42 homes under construction and about 5 which have been for sale since Feb.
Labour has just announced $8 Dr. visits for community card holders, among other improvements. More for the poor.
And a great populist media-catch that will ruin National’s weekend. Excellent work again from Labour.
Labour ready to overtake National in the polls.
So private/public partnerships are ok when the private partner is unemployed?
Quit screwing around Labour and fully fund healthcare for the poor.
Latest policy from National-freedom campers. Vans without toilet facilities will not be able to overnight less than 200 metres from toilet facilities.
Apart from being pathetic-there are surely bigger issues-this is very Nanny State. it is also probably impossible to realistically enforce.
The way to go is to build more facilities at rest stops to welcome our tourists, not hassle them.
We are looking at a dying regime.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/96183631/nationals-tough-new-crackdown-on-freedom-campers
Pathetic is really the only description of this. It’s nothing new, just a tepid re-heat of the existing situation. A tired, out of touch government on the way out.
The freedom camping and AirBnB thing is starting to really piss people off down here. Hotel operators have had enough of paying full rates and compliance while the cowboys skim off the cream. Heard of a situation where a hotel is very quiet while the AirBnBs down the street are full and non-compliant, private investigators in the bushes with cameras, the whole nine yards. Hotel also can’t get staff because there’s no rental accomodation.
This is another one from last week, https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/tourism-tensions-boil-queenstown
AirBnB should not be confused with Freedom Camping. Entirely separate issues.
Having said that I agree that AirBnb is an issue too-I live near Wanaka. The QLDC is able to do something about this through its rating policy and monitoring.
The extent of it getting beyond them IMO, and the 90 days / year threshold for consent makes it really hard to enforce quickly.
My conflating of the two issues was to point out that this government has badly mismanaged tourism, about the only thing they are doing well is destroying the industry’s value proposition and turning New Zealand into a destination for low value mass markets.
Backpackers are usually well-educated middle class people who spend hundreds of millions of dollars in our economy and then come back as yuppies 15-20 years later and spend oodles. That is if they have had a good experience here in the first place. Hassling them is not consistent with this.
The mismanagement I’m talking about is that tourism yield per visitor has gone down since 2008. We’re getting more visitors, but getting much less out of them. Also, the freedom camper is a subset of the backpacker market and the ones that are causing problems are a very small subset of visitors in vans.
National’s brain fart doesn’t say anything new, as I said it’s just stating what’s already happening, and missing the real issues . It also seems aimed at existing National voters which looks a bit desperate.
I get that freedom camping by tourists rankles with many. Although given the number of kiwis who are proud of doing similar on their OE, that does seem a bit churlish. Of course, no one wants their local public spaces to become open sewers, but I’m with BG that the answer to this is more facilities.
What concerns me is that anti-freedom camping laws are also anti-homeless laws. If people are reduced to living out of their cars, then a spot fine backed up by threat of legal action for noncompliance isn’t going to help matters. Only allowing vehicular habitation to those who can afford; a camper with contained toilet, means the poor who can’t afford such luxuries are the target. Maybe if buckets with chemicals in them were counted as self-contained toilets and available from foodbanks that might help? Though that brings the problem of spillage and question of where they can be emptied.
Otherwise, these are just vagrancy laws under another name.
I don’t suppose it would be possible to do both. You know, build more loos and compel their use. Of course the burden of building is going to fall on relatively few ratepayers.
I am surprised they are not blaming the freedom campers for the dirty rivers
Exactly. Which magic pixies will be enforcing this?
LOL, ohh so we’ll have magic pixies patrolling Bill’s 10 billion worth of new roads that look like they are going to be paid for from the magic money tree
Sorry repeating myself, but if you care about the world as a whole you should read this.
So, well corporations are the enemy. They do deceit, and only worship money. They do not care about you or your family.
The biggest oil company lied for 40 years knowing that Global Warming is a major issue.
https://www.wired.com/story/more-evidence-exxon-misled-the-public-about-climate-change/
Henry Cooke is making things up again in the Herald today. He says:
“The Green Party’s late entry into the scene on Thursday, breaking an unspoken deal they had with Labour….”
Wrong Henry, there was no deal. The Greens withdrew their candidate as a favour to Labour, the sole reason being to give Greg O’Connor a better chance of beating Peter Dunne, and so reducing the Right’s voting power by one in parliament. When Dunne ran for the hills there was no longer any reason for the Greens not to have a candidate, so they are now treating Ohariu the same as all of the other electorates. Cooke is here:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96140935/doorknocking-through-the-most-interesting-electorate-in-the-country
What is most worrying is that the usually superb Gordon Campbell got the Ohariu situation wrong on his blog. Perhaps, like Vernon Small and the rest of the MSM, he has an anti-Green bias and would like to see them gone?
Labour will not be able to form a genuinely progressive government if the Greens fall below 5%. The MSM knows this.
Bearded Git
Even saying; “The Greens withdrew their candidate as a favour to Labour”, is overstating the amount of deal-making. More; the GP saw that it was in their own interest to not stand a candidate, but now that Dunne is no longer a factor have got the candidate from 2014 back to boost their profile.
Gordon Campbell has not had an anti-Green bias in the past, If anything he has pro-Green sympathies than he tries to keep in check in the pursuit of journalistic integrity. His piece reads to me as more a warning about feeding self-fulfilling perceptions of vulnerability rather than an attempt to kick a party when it is down.
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2017/08/24/gordon-campbell-on-the-greens-ongoing-problems/
Also the MOU, as I understand it, ends on Election Day.
There does seem to be a ghoulish desire to kill off the Greens. Almost lije the Press Gallery do not like a mirror held to them either. All the blind eyes turned, shallow reporting…
And the Confederacy loses again… one left hook at a time.
Never met a Colleen I didn’t like.
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Video-of-Racist-Woman-Beatdown-at-Coral-Springs-Hotel-Goes-Viral-441748103.html
With Houston and Austin directly in the path of the new category 4 hurricane Harvey, the strongest storm to hit the US since 2005 could not come as a more brutal reminder of the weather and the climate to this US administration.
Actually category 4 cyclones (as we call them) in historical terms are two a dime as the Yanks would say, so the chances of this administration seeing anything untoward is very remote. Even so, they are going to occur with ever increasing frequency but I doubt that will have much effect on them either. Deniers cannot see past the end of their noses because anything further is beyond their brains’ ability to cognate.
Let’s see. It’s a big hit in to Texas.
Texas has been turning blue forever. Believe it when I see it.
Journalist Tim Murphy on Twitter…
Tim Murphy @tmurphyNZ
Turns out those who said this mad election had one more explosive convulsion to come weren’t wrong. Could be soon. #motherofallscandals
1:16 PM · Aug 26, 2017
Tim Murphy @tmurphyNZ
Could be real collateral damage.
1:18 PM · Aug 26, 2017
Tim Murphy @tmurphyNZ
Replying to @cazz_h
Soon. This could be the Royal Flush of scandals….
Tim goes on to later say that the metaphor he used is not random. He adds that the news will likely break Monday.
Is Jacinda’s loo still not in compliance?
Yes! That will be it! I knew there was something lurking in the sewers that would arise to smite down the new hope!
Royal Flush – Kingmaker?
Nothing would surprise me, including if it turned out this isn’t about Bill English’s text messages.
Who’s out of the country apart from…John Key!
John Key smoked a spliff in the Queen’s loo at Buck House?
It was a Balmoral loo actually.
Yeah well, we shall see. Not getting my hopes up.
Yeah 😆
Momentwhimper of truth 2.0Someone suggested it could be to do with gambling?
Tim Murphy
“You can strangle the rooster but the dawn will still come”
Kim Young Sam
“CoroDale 9
26 August 2017 at 8:27 am
Riddle Time
Rooster crows, sun to rise.
Decades pass, clucky Govt sits,
Wild chicken, hiding all the eggs.
Solving light rises in the East.
Labour know it in the 30’s ‘n’ 40’s.
Which came first, the money or the loan?”
Peter Thiel?
between “collateral” and the cards, maybe someone’s been playing silly buggers with someone else’s cash.
Damage that hurts more than one party…
Only a memorandum of understanding could qualify? Especially now that bow-tie has bowed out?
Lord, I remember when Brian Edwards was going to stand for labour in Mirimar, I think. Out came the news that he was ‘living in sin’. Hugely shocking back then – he had to withdraw.
So what can this new scandal be? Overdue library books??
Well, if it were about Todd Barclay’s criminal behaviour and the corruption stemming from it, it could hurt a lot of senior National Party pondscum, and that would fit the metaphor rather well.
Or it could be about Jacinda’s affair with Winston and James Shaw and Marama Fox. No, wait, that’s only four cards.
Time will tell.
Tim Murphy tweet it wasn’t about Tim Barclay.
Plus Bomber reckons another scandal is breaking on Monday – or it could be the same one…..
Oh well that’s that theory blown.
Newsroom have been doing very good work. I’ll be surprised if it’s trivial.
Martyn Bradbury would not be able to contain himself until Monday.
Sean Plunkett reckoned it was about Barclay and the tapes. Murphy said Nah.
Yeah I read that, and if Bradbury knows what it is he’ll blab before Monday. The fact that he hasn’t already is a good indication that he has no clue. I won’t be surprised to be wrong about that too.
I still think that the overdue library books records could have a grim tale to tell. But do we now have enough good investigative journalists?
Or it implicates the Left and he is in church praying it isnt going to happen?
I assume it is the Left implicated?
Not necessarily. Some see Tim Murphy as wanting an end to the NACT government.
Brian Edwards DID stand for Labour in Miramar, he did not withdraw. He managed to lose the safeish Labour seat despite a swing to Labour nation wide.
He was living with another woman while still married, as the front page of Truth pointed out. The electorate took a dim view, but whether of his reputation or his TV persona, only they know.
Correction accepted. I remember being disappointed.. I would think it was the ‘living in sin’ thing that counted..
Does a suit pertain to a particular political party and does it involve a lot of money changing hands in a clandestine manner?
I’ll run with that line anyway. 😈
Maybe someone just wants a republic…
But that ain’t a scandal.
Are you saying it’s about Ardern’s call for a discussion on a republic?
Double Dipper is a monarchist. Or it’s a cryptic segue derived from the metaphor…or it means that every single party leader left will have to resign 😈
We have Royal Flush (royalties? Kingmaker?). We have Collateral Damage (Afghanistan?). We have Mother of all scandals (budget? Shipley?). 3 clues.
His parting comment was “I’ve said too much, I’ve said too little” (Andrew?).
The stuff before the fact is called “hype”. That said, I’ll stop speculating until something concrete emerges.
…except to say this: something concrete has emerged re: English’s text messages, Murphy says “no-one has” them. I take it that includes Dickson.
emerged today?
Not sure what the point of Murphy’s text was tbh. Apart from ragging on tweeps.
Looks like marketing to me.
I guess, although it hasn’t been retweeted that many times, so hard to know how much it’s gone beyond the people that would have picked it up quickly on Monday morning anyway. That against a bunch of people wild speculating and presumably mostly getting it wrong.
Maybe Murphy was also signalling to other media that Newsroom had the story and was running it soon.
Yep game playing.
You mean Honest Bill hasn’t asked his Telcom to retrieve his messages so he can be transparent????
Peters loves the flutter on the horses
Royal flush / top of the deck / they’re all involved?
Royal flush=leadership change=Paula Benefit fraud.
Well, since there are two scandals (according to M Bradbury) coming, my pick is that’s one of them.
Why are we assuming it is to do with nats? Wouldnt they have had the wallet out trawling for scandals since little was rolled/resigned?
Oh dear.
Worst couplet: “Three things taught me conservative love / Jesus, Ronald Reagan, plus Atlas Shrugged”
[…]
Worst couplet: “People want to go against the word of God and live alternative / the media wants to crucify conservatives”
[…]
Worst couplet: “After spending goes up, you gotta borrow some mo’ / borrowin’ from the Chinese like (Oh, my lawd!)”
[…]
Worst couplet: “I just want to make America great / I just want to have a Trump Steak on my plate.”
https://theoutline.com/post/2178/the-infinite-awfulness-of-conservative-rap
Sounds a bit Vogon…
Good to see Labour upping their game and outplaying National in this regard (see link below).
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/08/labour-announces-8-gp-visits-for-community-cardholders.html
Now we need to see them outplay National on social housing. National are offering to build 2000 state homes compared to Labour’s 1000.
regardless of whether what you say is true, national promises are worthless.
If you were more informed, you’d know it’s true.
At around 00:55 in the link below
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2017/08/the-housing-debate.html
Regardless if it turns out to be worthless, we can only work with what they commit too.
And like the $18 doctors visits, National have upped their game.
However, Labour have just outplayed them on the cost of doctors visits, now we need to see them up their game and outplay them in social housing.
There’s a joke going around Dunedin lately: “last election we were promised a hospital, and all we got were frozen meals trucked down from Auckland”.
Only a fool works with the promises of a proven liar.
We are dealing with politicians, so we can’t really trust any of them.
So it doesn’t leave us with much choice. We can either work with what they commit too. Or we can think they are all full of shit and leave them to it. Waste of time commenting on policy if it’s all bullshit.
And when it comes to trust, Labour also have a lot to make up for. They are distrusted by a number on the left and on the right.
That flavour of bullshit you did just there is what we call a “false equivalence”.
Thing about most of the criticism of Labour from the left that I see is based on perceived holes in their policies, or matters of interpretation. Whereas national are less than outright liars, the actual truth is irrelevant to them, They’re bullshitters, like you.
I’m not a bullshitter. And despite your bluster, seeing as you haven’t substantiated your assertion, it makes you look like one.
A number from the left haven’t regained the trust lost from Rogernomics and the grip the right within still hold today.
So much for your false equivalence fallacy.
We’re discussing the trustworthiness of policy promises.
My assertion regarded what I saw, being that it is the perceived shortcomings in policy that Labour is criticised for, not the truthfulness. It is my observation. You are welcome to show a “left wing” comment that says a Labour policy is an outright lie.
That is not equivalent to just being a load of bullshit.
Your initial assertion was directed at the lack of trust of National.
When I made this comment: “And when it comes to trust, Labour also have a lot to make up for.” I extended it out from policy to overall trust.
And then went on to say: “They are distrusted by a number on the left and on the right.” Hence, my point stands.
Oh, so now you’re claiming that it wasn’t false equivalence, you merely shifted the goalposts so that you could bring Labour into it.
You’re so full of bullshit it’s hilarious.
In an argument as to whether Labour need to match national policy promises, your new goalposts are irrelevant. Labour don’t need to “up their game” simply to match promises that no sane person would trust.
If national promise unicorns, Labour don’t need to promise unicorns with rainbow farts. They just need reasonable policies that show they plan to govern competently.
You are the one claiming false equivalence. I never did.
I extended the discussion on trust to overall trust to show National isn’t the only one to have voter trust issues.
You seem to have forgotten Labour has just upped their game ($8 doctors visits) thus not only matching Nationals policy, but also bettering it.
And as for social housing. Not only do labour need to up their game because National is offering more (which Labour should find embarrassing) it may also cost them votes and may be problematic in the up and coming leaders debate.
On a side note,10,000 homes compared to 1000 state homes indicates to voters where their values sit. As a comparison, Hone is offering to build 10,000 state homes.
Additionally, and more importantly, Labour need to up their game in this area because what they’re offering is vastly insufficient. As you can see in the earlier link I provided you.
lol Labour don’t need to do a thing you suggest (shifting goalposts included). But I’m sure they’d thank you for your concern.
A number from the left haven’t regained the trust lost from Rogernomics ….
And fuck isn’t it annoyingly obvious on this blog’s comments threads every day. It isn’t 1986 any more, get over it. In the actually-existing Now, the one in which the 4th Labour government is 27 years in the past, you have two choices in this election: continuing the existing National-led government or replacing it with a Labour-led one. The Chairman’s perfect government isn’t on the menu – pick from the two options available, and keep in mind that “no vote” equates to “I choose to continue the current National-led government.”
“The Chairman’s perfect government isn’t on the menu”
But it could be, if more were unwilling to accept Labour’s lowering of the bar and opted to vote for another party on the left.
If we can get Labour to up their game, that would be great. They don’t need to be perfect, but they do need to be a lot better.
Alternatively, if we want genuine change of more significance we need to get the Greens up higher.
So the question the left needs to ask is do we just want to change the Government or do we want more significant change?
To achieve this we need to apply more pressure on Labour and/or vote Green and help give them more clout.
Oh, BS.
There’s some politicians we can actually trust. They’re not in National or ACT.
You may (trust them). A good number don’t.
lol “a good number” 🙄
If a person can be trusted it does not automatically follow that this person will be trusted. This choice is influenced by personal bias & prejudice (heuristics such as ‘common sense’), ignorance and false beliefs, irrational fear or desire, mental apathy & laziness, to name just a few. The point I want to make is that many people are projecting, psychologically speaking, when it comes to politicians (and many others for that matter). This includes projection of hope, which may be an important factor in the recent rise in the polls of Labour.
Trust, like facts in general, aren’t a popularity contest.
“There’s a joke going around Dunedin lately: “last election we were promised a hospital, and all we got were frozen meals trucked down from Auckland”.
Only a fool works with the promises of a proven liar.”
Very good.
National have upped their game.
…by telling the same lies they’ve been telling for the last forty thousand years, with greater frequency.
Only Labour could lose to this gameplan.
I hope that the chairman does not realise that his cover failed ages ago. This way he remains harmless..
Paranoid much, Vino?
“Cover”, ha.
I admire your obtuse persistence. Little else.
Guardian on neoliberalism: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/aug/18/neoliberalism-the-idea-that-changed-the-world
The Guardian is more than just MSM, they use words like; inimical. (survived two paragraphs and checked a paragraph or two, skimmed, and two more links, hoping for meat, but just got stuff like this:
“Attempts to limit competition are treated as inimical to liberty.” (from neo-liberal perspective) https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot
Then please allow me to predict a little paradox to their statement and general tone: If our next govt was to, “back fiscal spending with state cash”, the action would not be inimical from internal economic factors (though I’m sure their supply-n-demand hypnosis would claim otherwise). It would be inimical from the external hand of our neo-liberal God-Fathers. And it would be the anti-thesis of liberty on their minds. Our currency would be sent to the time-out corner, for even thoughts of competing with their totalitarian control.
But genuine thanks for posting a link which is totally on-track regarding the next government’s inimical options. Points out just how big the challenge is, when even the mighty Scottish Guardian…
Oh, I read some more. (Could have better used my time in the cow shed.)
There was some flag waving for “real democracy” or something, and a bit of stuff like that, and this:
“…but from humanistic values such as public spiritedness, conscience or the longing for justice.”
Kinda seemed to be their conclusion.
Right, I’ll go check on the cows, see if they can’t offer me a few insights.
What my students and I conclude is that neo-liberalism consists of a corporate grab of the liberties that the enlightenment brought to citizens in a series of reforms, perhaps most notably the European spring. This is an impropriety in several ways, but perhaps most notably because corporations already enjoy the wealth and patronage of the most privileged classes. The investor/state rules adhering to the TPP are an example – claiming to limit the powers of government to regulate in the public interest effectively usurps the citizens’ franchise.