British Press Coverage of the Referendum – London, 20 September 2016
Was press reporting of the referendum campaign fair? Did Leave and Remain get equal and due coverage?
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford has teamed up with media insight specialists, PRIME Research, to examine the output of the 9 national newspapers across the 4 months of the highly charged and divisive campaign.
Their study, to be launched at the European Parliament’s office in London, reveals that 6 of them favoured Leave, with debate dominated by a limited number of voices. The research shows that highly polarised press coverage may have been significant in setting the terms of the debate.
The findings were discussed by a panel including people from both sides of the campaign.
Hashtag for the event: #EURefMedia
Tweet #EURefMedia
This kind of misses the point about balance in the media. You don’t need equal coverage of all sides of a discussion but you do need room for them to be aired.
You should address the analysis and critique presented by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford, together with others. Both sides are represented in the presentation – almost to the point of pedantry. What emerges, at first reading, was the almost dominant role played by News Ltd …
News Limited does not control all the media in the UK. Not even close. If you want alternative views you can get it from the BBC, The Guardian, The Mirror, The Independent, ITV, etc, etc.
Sure its obviously trolling I mean what advice could, arguably, one of the most popular Labour leaders, a leader that won three elections from a 2% preferred PM start possibly give to Andrew Little, a man that’s managed to lose two electorate battles (in winnable seats) in a row and only just managed to get in on the list by the skin of his teeth
(No Paul its not trolling but if it makes you then keep clamping your hands over your ears)
C’mon Paul cheer up, NZs getting better, why it wasn’t so long a go someone used to post on here in the mornings about waking up in a neo-liberal nightmare
They’ve stopped posting that so it must mean NZ isn’t a neo-liberal nightmare anymore 🙂
Have faith in the here and now of Andrew’s world PR. If that huge bloc of non-participants and dis-enfranchised were to be mobilised, it would cancel out those flaky middle voters. I think Andrew is gearing up for a Jeremy type renaissance. So keep watching PR
Or James they are not voters for anyone because no party represents them. But if any party was to resonate, they could change the nature of scrapping over the so-called middle ground. Fresh ideas James?
In your efforts to entice the non-voter you run the serious risk of annoying your existing voter base and either making them vote for the other side or not voting at all.
Which is why in all probability it’s a zero sum game.
Your definition makes any policy shift a zero-sum game, because any policy shift automatically alienates some voters who were attracted to your pre-existing position.
But with a couple of million eligible voters, the probability of any policy shift being a “zero sum game” is minute – the overwhelming probability is that any policy shift will have a positive or negative effect on a party’s total votes.
Your brave call for inaction is just more of the same friendly tory advice we’ve grown to know and love…
They actually increased their share of the vote from 1.08% to 1.42% of the vote, and from 24168 votes to 34095 votes. Nationally they did ok, they just failed in Te Tai Tokerau.
“if any party was to resonate”
The only resonating I’ve heard from the Labour Party lately was the sound of Andrew Little banging his head on the wall after the release of another poll result.
There is an amazingly long reverberation period. I think the object being banged on the wall must be hollow.
You haven’t seen teenagers and young voters trying to clamber their way into an overcrowded Little meeting have you, like they did to Corbyn’s constituency meetings?
Cunliffe was the only Leader who came close but the rightwing/careerists successfully shut him down here, unlike in the UK.
Yes but the 18-24 year olds supposedly voted 55-45 for Owen Smith. I think this may have something to do with the fact that most people in this age group didn’y vote/weren’t registered and the better-off (Blairite) types are more likely to be registered.
There is a lesson here for the Lab/Gr bloc here. Get a registration drive on for the young voters NOW.
“You haven’t seen teenagers and young voters trying to clamber their way into an overcrowded Little meeting have you”
YES I HAVE CV. JS since you asked and all that. When Little came to Motueka, the venue was packed, standing room only. There were teenagers and kids there, all wanting to talk to him, and he made the time for those kids, and the kids appreciated it so much.
So basically current Labour isn’t remotely interested in what the majority of people want, You have to admire that sort of blunt honesty.
Having said that, not sure if it’s a great idea for the leader of the second largest political party to be so dismissive of the people who make up the bulk of the voters.
By your ‘logic’ Labour’s job is to represent Gnat voters.
The simple truth is, having won dirty by betraying every facet and principle of democracy RWNJ trolls crave the validation they could only obtain if the Left sold out. The Left are gradually realising however, that the pendulum has swung too far, and that there is no centrist niche for them.
Labour isn’t interested in what you want – you should take your sociopathy to ACT, where it is not extraordinary.
The problem Labour faces is that National have moved over and occupied a portion of the centre left. The more right leaning National voters either vote ACT or hold there nose and tick the blue box anyway.
Labour used to be a 40%+ party, Little has surrendered that notion with the MoU with the Greens.
I do believe Andrew Little wants to take Labour further left…he says one thing when addressing the faithful (further left we are going) and another when its to the general public (that we are centre left).
Little and Labour need to make up there minds, as the status quo has them stranded in no-mans land.
Maybe another pasting for Labour come 2017 will be the catalyst needed?
NZ has had a discontented mob of floaters for the last three or four decades. They flirted with NZF and with United Future. They deserted the Gnats under Bill English – but the relentless media and social media campaigns temporarily attached some of then to the disasterous Key Kleptocracy.
As the results come in, and ‘Labour did it’ loses currency as an excuse for non-performance they will desert Key – many have left him already. There are numerous wedge issues that are bleeding popularity for this government – chiefest among these is the immigration/housing debacle. The government is resigned to losing this issue, hence the appointment of the gibbering idiot’s gibbering idiot, Nick Smith.
Key is looking down the barrel of a resounding defeat – followed by a sudden flight or a lengthy period of incarceration. As befits the worst government NZ has ever seen.
There are no votes for Little on the right – those far enough right to believe the rubbish about the Gnats drifting centreward will of course vote Gnat – those who are concerned that their children are obliged to flee the country to have any hope of owning a home will not.
Things are coming to a head, and the real outcome of the ‘rockstar’ technical growth period cannot fail to disappoint.
Labour will reach high 30s without any trouble – it’s mid thirties now. NZF will consolidate over 10% with disenchanted Gnats. The Greens have a solid 14% or so. The Gnats are toast – except that no amount of marmalade will make them palatable.
Take one look at the Labour polling over the last ten years and you will see a pattern of steady decline. The near record low result of 2014 could well be lowered again in 2017. Already talk on the Left is how to unite Labour/Greens and NZF and not of how to outpoll National. Moving further to the Left to consolidate the 20% would mean not a single List MP.
@Puckish. Who knows if Andrew Little even said that? But if he did hopefully he takes Clarks advice… because the 64% of Kiwis own their own homes. That is a very large group that if Labour get that wrong again, will cost them the election.
Non home owners are well represented by the Greens and other parties, no point competing with your partners for the 36% because even if you capture all those people (and many do not vote at all) you will still not have enough votes to win the election.
Democracy is about putting policy to help the majority who then vote for you. Once in power you can then go back and help minorities.
I’m not advocating Nat lite policy btw. Last election Labour seemed to signal austerity for workers and Kiwis homeowners and gave the corporates, super rich, spying, wars, dirty politics and and foreigners the thumbs up (or ignored those issues). It was schizophrenic Labour policy. Sadly this did not impress voters and now we are stuck with the Natz destroying our country for another 3 years.
Hope Labour actually think it through and not so busy advocating for non homeowners and the homeless, they haven’t worked out that their housing policy does not really seem to have policy to help homeowners. (Crashing property 40% might not be considered helpful).
Likewise Labour might be so busy attending every obscure event under the book of people who are not going to vote for them, that they fail to focus on those that don’t form part of a lobby group or hipster. The plain middle class Kiwi family who has a job (probably insecure), has a family, has a house and votes.
Suggests Green voters are probably amongst the better off (the old cliché of the rich housewife voting Green while hubby votes National probably isn’t too far off) as they seem to do all right in more upmarket areas
but I agree with you that you have to get into power first, which seems obvious, but there seems to be a viewpoint that winning is almost a dirty word
This will come as a shock to you (and you won’t believe it anyway) but we don’t have a troll network set up where we decide en mass the topic of the day and who posts what
However if it has been posted before then it was probably someone as gobsmacked as myself that Little would dismiss the advice of a three election winner
You don’t have a troll network Puckish Rogue? Really?
Andrew Little is Labour’s leader, clearly he is his own person, and it’s his call how he wants to runs things, like having an MoU with the Greens, which Helen Clark probably wouldn’t have done if she were the leader today.
It would make things more efficient though, less double ups on postings, more double teams on unpopular posts…kind of like the days of old when political parties urged their members to ring up talk back
“Andrew Little is Labour’s leader, clearly he is his own person, and it’s his call how he wants to runs things, like having an MoU with the Greens, which Helen Clark probably wouldn’t have done if she were the leader today.”
You are dead right Leftie…Helen Clark did not need a MoU with the Greens, because under Clark Labour were able to still poll in the 40’s (of course until John Key took her out…but Labour were still in the mid 30’s in the dying days of the Clark administration).
Now anything that does not have a 2 in front of it IS good news for Labour.
Incumbents always poll higher Chuck and do you not understand MMP? Since polling is what you based your argument on, what was Helen Clark’s and the Labour party’s polling prior to becoming the government? She lost the 1996 GE and was at one point polling at just 2% prior to winning the 1999 election.
Considering there people on here that are absolutely convinced that Winston will go with Labour/Greens and that its John Key under pressure not Andrew Little, I’d suggest there are people that’ll believe anything
Why not Puckish Rogue? Winston supported Labour last time, in fact he has defended the previous Labour government in recent times. However, he hasn’t supported the Nats in almost 20 years, last time he apologized for it in 1998. And clearly you haven’t been paying attention to what Winston Peters is saying and how he says it. He’s furious with John key and the National government, he wants them out.
You’re in denial, John key is under pressure, particularly when it comes to the housing crisis. The Nats are on the backfoot on an increasing number of issues.
“advice from the Secretary General of the UN”
Really? I didn’t think Ban Ki-Moon would have even known who Andrew Little was.
I can only assume that John Key has had a word with him.
Look how Politifact is biased against Donald Trump:
When Bernie claims that Black youth unemployment is over 50%, Politifact says the claim is “Mostly True.”
But when Trump claims that Black youth unemployment is over 50%, Politifact says the actual number is more like 17% so Trump’s comment is “Mostly False.”
look how zero-hedge conflates the 17-20 age group with the 16-24 age group (i.e. including many who are either still in school at the lower end and many who are in established employment at the other end).
Classic case of false equivalence.
If politifact were truly biased, you guys wouldn’t need to make this shit up.
Yes, very convincing McFlock: Black 16 year olds and Black 21-24 year olds therefore have an unemployment rate which is only a small fraction (one fifth? One sixth?) of Black 17-20 year olds.
Because when you include Black 17-20 year olds the unemployment rate shoots up from 17% to 51%.
Actually, yeah, there is usually a peak of unemployment in the late teens. For example, if you look at the US BLS data, there’s a twenty point difference between the combined rate for African American 16-17yo and 20-24yo. Now, those are the BLS numbers that differ from Sanders’, but politifact did look into that (see below).
If you looked beyond zero-hedge you’d find two points: firstly, the very specific phrasing Sanders used to describe the group he was talking about, and secondly that the Sanders camp, when approached by politifact, could point to the source of his figure (which used slightly different criteria to the BLS). Politifact pointed out issues with his use of terminology (unemployment vs underemployment being one possibility), but found that his numbers were reasonable and his general point was correct.
Trump’s camp didn’t respond, so politifact doesn’t know whether he just made up the numbers, slightly confused his terminology, or actually has a source to back his shit up.
So politifact were left with trying to reverse-engineer his numbers, and the closest they could come up with was the widest employment-population ratio, rather than any conventional assessment of un- or under-employment.
But you don’t want to look beyond the hand-reared bullshit zero-hedge provided you, because anything else might not suit your preconceptions…
Slam dunk? Seriously? Try to avoid using pwnage type language eh?
Fact of the matter is that both Sanders and Trump said that Black youth unemployment was over 50%. Sanders got a pass for it from Politifact, Trump got a fail for it from Politifact?
And why? Because Trump included African Americans up to 24 years old when he should have said twenty years old instead, like Sanders did.
No, Sanders was much more precise about whom he was talking in respect to age, ethnicity and education level, and his campaign provided evidence to back up his claim.
Trump just made a bald statement that was accurate by no conceivable measure, and his campaign did not provide any evidence to support it.
Only to a blinkered moron would that difference be a “technicality”. But then admitting to “technicalities” is as close as you ever get to admitting you’re outright wrong, so it fits that you’d use the same transparent passive-aggressive bullshit to defent your oompah-loompah overlord.
Hi McFlock, you are a perfect example of “passive aggressive bullshit.”
The point was how biased Politifact is. The main difference between Trump and Sanders was that Trump referred to the age group 16-24, whereas Sanders referred to the age group 17-20.
That’s a big MEH. And I am not surprised that the Trump campaign isn’t interested in dealing with Politifact.
Dude, if I’ve appeared passive then obviously I need to use smaller words for you. I thought my contempt for your lies was pretty explicit, unlike when you make shit up and then, when it’s pointed out that you made shit up, pretending that the difference is a mere technicality.
There were several differences between Sanders’ and Trump’s statements. Agegroup, education, availability of source data, and reported proportion.
Once again: Sanders precisely identified his target group, and provided a source so that politifact could identify his misuse of terminology (under vs unemployed). Trump made a blanket statement about “African-American youth” – he didn’t even say he was using the US-standard 16-24 age bracket for “youth” (in NZ it’s usually 15-24). Who knows what age group he meant. In the absence of any supporting information from the Trump campaign, the convential criteria applied. And according to those, he was waaaaaaaaay off.
The plain fact is that you do not have enough information from which to draw your conclusion. Again. Politifact didn’t “simply say” what you want because it would be at best as far off the mark as trump’s original statement.
If they’d known what was in trump’s brain when he once again mangled reality, politifact might have given him a slightly higher grade. But it’s like any evaluation: if you bung in a wrong answer and don’t show your working, you’ll get zero marks.
“Statistics isn’t real math. You should know that.”
It is, it’s just frequently abused by morons who want it to demonstrate things that don’t match reality. So they either stretch what the numbers actually say, or just outright lie. Trump probably did the latter in this case, rather than the former, but we’ll never know because apparently his supporters don’t like having his facts checked.
No, statistics is not real math. Mathematics is real math, yes statistics uses some of the results provided by mathematics, but it’s not real math.
Further, it’s quite clear to me that the BLS data shows that the combined 16-24 year old age African American group has an unemployment rate in the 20-something percent range.
That’s not Trump’s 59% number but it is way different to the low 17% number that Politifact chose to run with.
Again Politifact gave Sanders a thumbs up while they gave Trump a thumbs down – because Trump used a 16-24 age range instead of Sander’s 17-20 age range.
Both candidates were making the exact same point about African American youth unemployment being far too high.
But it’s like any evaluation: if you bung in a wrong answer and don’t show your working, you’ll get zero marks.
Well, it’s sure not math when you try it. It is, however, entertaining.
What, by your idiotic averaging of different rates, might be a 5% undercount by politifact is still hugely different from Trump’s 36% overcount. And that’s if the denominator populations and unemployment rates are the same for each year of age – they’re not, which is why averaging the two-two year teenage cuts gives a different result to the four-year 16-19 cut. But all that difference in averages shows us is that the populations are different and that therefore your averaging is invalid.
Both candidates were trying to make a similar general point, true. One made a qualified statement about a narrow demographic sector and was able to provide supporting evidence for their claim. The other just made shit up and provided no evidence whatsoever. So one got “mostly true” and the other was lucky to achieve “mostly false”.
What you refuse to believe is that if Sanders had made the same broad-brush comment as trump, but with the 51% figure, and then refused to point to his evidence for making that claim, politifact would have called bullshit on him and said it was false. The trouble with your blinker is that they don’t seem to have a problem calling Sanders comments “false” when the evidence points to it.
Yes, Trump’s at a whole other level of bullshit, but we already knew that.
“It’s amazing how stupid your comments are.”
Yes, but I’m trying to explain simple math to a simpleton who thinks that simply averaging rates across populations provides logical inferences, so I really have to dumb the comments down into bite-size chunks.
Sir Geoffrey Palmer has outlined a new constitution for NZ. It’s something I think I can get behind. I’m pleased this is being thought about before the Queen dies, because I can see us becoming a republic pretty rapidly afterwards and NZ politicians tend not to do so well with long term planning.
I thought that since Ovid was talking not being able to skip a generation then the next in line would be Prince Charles and since CV was talking about the royal popularity then it was rather pertinent to bring up some of the Princes scandals since it would have a bearing on whether NZ becomes a republic
Ed VII waited for years until he was about 60yo to be the King, after his long-reigning mother moved on to the Pearly Gates. And then he ruled for around 9 years and 3 months; that’s like three electorate cycles in NZ’s current timing and good luck to pro-republicans in agitating for change.
At the rate healthy and strong Lizzie is going, Charlie will still have to wait for a while and he may not rule for a very long time when he is in the seat.
Wil and Kate are consistently and visibly fronting the news, e.g. being the darling family of four presently visiting Canada. No doubt, they will continue to be on the news and the Palace will be happy for them to do so when cute Georgie’s grand-daddy is on the throne.
Big favour to ask posters on TS, will you support a petition being run by Sumofus.org please? The petition is to put pressure on big corporations like MSD Animal Health, that profits from shocking horse blood farms, to cut ties with that cruel and inhumane industry operating in Argentina and Uruguay. The more people that sign, the better.
“Neoliberalism’s goals are not merely privatization and the decimation of unions and the social safety net. It also seeks to manage the social order and ensure the continued political dominance of the ruling class by absorbing social threats.”
Absolute unquestioning propaganda disinformation tripe on Kathryn Ryan RNZ this morning on Syria blaming the Russians and Assad for the bombing of the relief trucks
…(no talk of the Israeli interest in the Golan Heights ( see NY Times)or the mass of evidence of a US drone strike on the trucks or the anti Assad terrorists in the area)
…I think Roth couldnt believe his luck at not being questioned on his blatant propaganda
“Conflicting narratives and competing agendas – this is the tragedy of the Syrian conflict. Western media coverage is focused on forcing political outcomes. In the process, the truth is often overlooked and even denied. Another casualty of war.
CrossTalking with Jonathan Steele, Scott Bennett, and Daniel Lazare.”
It clearly wasn’t the US not withstanding your ridiculous assertion about drone strikes. Such strikes are carefully controlled. So in this instance there would have to be a large scale cover up about it. Anyone in the military doing the cover-up would be prosecuted. The senior officers would be disgraced.
Obviously it would have to be covered up from President Obama, Sec State Kerry and Sec Def Carter. None of these people would lie about a drone strike.
And if it was the insurgents, it was not an airstrike.
Really? Multiple nations have full radar tracks of who and what was in the area at the time.
So the “truth” is out there somewhere, but that’s largely irrelevant in this information-media war.
I also note that the UN and also NATO Sec Gen Stoltenberg pulled back from original reporting blaming Russian airstrikes, saying that there was not yet enough information to ascertain what had actually happened.
Anyone in the military doing the cover-up would be prosecuted. The senior officers would be disgraced.
The US military is not the only American agency (or even American-allied agency) with armed predator drones in the area; but I’m sure you knew that.
Military Industrial Complex does not do cover-ups…
Politicians don’t lie…
The worst type of dishonesty is that which is internal to ‘the-self’
Once the state of internal deception is complete and any associated ‘guilt’ has been bypassed, there is only one direction for the human spirit to decend to
Serves me right for listening to Hooten and Whatsisname.
Corbyn only won leadership contest because of votes from Labour members (Whatsisname managed to deliver that in a sort of sneering dismissive fashion)
Those members (apparently) didn’t even vote Labour at the last general election.
They are merely members of a cult.
NZ doesn’t have the same numbers of people with left political ideas and so the NZ Labour Party is safe from any kind of ‘hard left’ take-over.
NZ Labour has chased the ‘missing million’ really hard over previous election cycles and would be ‘exhausted’ if it ever caught up with them.
And liberals wonder why NZ Labour is kind of fucked? If whatsisname in any way reflects dominant thought within the Labour Party hierarchy, then (just to spell it out lest a PLP wallah is reading ts this morning) the Labour Party is fucked, dear wallah, because of you.
Yeah Whatsisname is a buffoon, and only speaks for himself. Wish the likes of Whatsisname and another rightie, Josie Pagani stopped implying that they speak on behalf of the Labour party, because they don’t. Their commentary is damaging to the party, and that’s why they do it.
You have to believe me when I say it was an unfortunate accident. Although…that’s two weeks in a row, since I seem to recall ‘whatsisname’ claiming that the latest polls were confounding reality.
I just noticed a correlation between corrupt governments and getting information. The more corrupt the government the longer it takes anything to happen.
2.5 years, that’s some delay… perhaps we should petition to Ombudsman to investigate why it took the ombudsman 2.5 years to start looking into it?
Or should we just line the lot of them up and ask our army to dispense with them as they see fit. We do still have an army don’t we? They didn’t sell it or chuck it on the stock exchange for all our millions of mum and dad investors.
R R We now have a new ombudsman. The last was a shocker and the Nats got away with “murder”. Funnily their replacement has not been so kind. Obviously a bad choice. But we can now have confidence in a reasonable investigation by a competent person.
Richard Rawshark the Office of the Ombudsman has been badly underfunded for a number of years and thus severely stretched staff-wise. I think that has had a lot to do with the delays.
If you’re interested in a scientific angle on corruption I’d recommend this recent paper in Nature entitled Intrinsic honesty and the prevalence of rule violations across societies.
Nature 531, 496–499 (24 March 2016) doi:10.1038/nature17160
The actual paper is only accessible to subscribers but the abstract is clear enough, for example:
The results are consistent with theories of the cultural co-evolution of institutions and values8, and show that weak institutions and cultural legacies9, 10, 11 that generate rule violations not only have direct adverse economic consequences, but might also impair individual intrinsic honesty that is crucial for the smooth functioning of society.
Paraphrasing this: a corrupt government leads to more dishonest citizens.
Apparently others including I/S, as well as Newstalk ZB have lodged complaints on this matter to the ombudsman:
Back in 2014, John Key admitted that his staff were “briefing the bloggers” and using them as a backchannel to plant stories in the media. A number of people (including myself) were interested in this and lodged OIA requests for the details. The PM rejected these requests by playing the “hat game”: the information was held in his capacity as the leader of the National Party, not his capacity as a Minister…
When I originally complained, I had argued that the PM had not established that the briefings were not given in an official capacity… bloggers were being briefed by staff employed by Ministerial Services – that is, paid by the public. If that is the case, then that would make them definitively official information.
There has been much discussion around the unacceptable difficulties facing first home buyers in Auckland and elsewhere in New Zealand.
One option that I see as being potentially politically palatable to both sides of the debate would be to allow owner occupiers the ability to claim for both interest deductions and maintenance costs to their owner occupied home.
Currently the status quo only allows for landlords to claim such costs.
If the option were floated to allow owner occupiers to claim say, a maximum of $10,000 per annum in maintenance costs, and say $20,000 per annum in interest costs, these could be factored in by lenders to assist first home buyers more when purchasing a property.
The flip side of course, is that at the same stroke of a pen, landlords would not be able to claim these costs as part of a “business”.
When the inevitable “anti-labour brigade” becomes vocal, a simple rebuttal would be to simply point out that landlords could shift their mortgage(s) onto their own owner occupied property and claim such costs back on their own homes.
All such a proposal would be aiming to achieve is making it a more attractive proposition for people to own their own home, rather than allow landlords to claim such costs (maintenance and interest) at the expense of renters and first home buyers.
Coupling such a policy with the removal of LVR restrictions for first home buyers would go a long way to re-establishing communities, and providing kiwis with security and the ability to more easily afford a property.
Such a policy would be a game changer for a party brave enough to upset the status quo.
It would be much simpler for the govt to provide a guarantee to first home buyers that the interest rate for a mortgage will be below 5% (maybe 4%) for at least 5 years. I appreciate that in a sense this is also a guarantee to the banks, since if rates generally rose, they would be the ones getting the money.
It gives certainly to first home buyers. At 5%, interest on a $500,000 mortgage is $25,000 and at 4% is $20,000. Clearly affordable for a wide range of families. But 7% it would not be affordable for many families.
The guarantee only costs the govt if rates go above 5%.
Thats exactly the system used in Holland for a long time. Although I think they are looking at changing it shortly. But when I was there that was how it plays out. When you get your mortgage, they (the bank) calculates your “tax refund” (you can claim interest) when working out how much you are allowed to borrow. Works well or has worked well over there.
Not sure if the NZ market would be ready or willing to accept something like that though.
BM – The government already gives landlords far more than that each year anyway. What’s the difference in giving it to owner occupiers as opposed to landlords?
Don’t overlook the fact that as the mortgage reduces, so does the interest component. Could also have it linked solely to “one owner occupied property during your lifetime” reducing over a seven year period as well so;
First Year: Up to $20K interest costs, up to $10K maintenance costs
Second year: Up to $17K interest costs, up to $8500 maintenance costs
Third year: Up to $14,500 interest / $7000 maintenance
Fourth year: $12K interest / $5500 maintenance
Fifth year: $9k interest / $4000 maintenance
Sixth year: $7k interest / $2000 maintenance
Final year:$4k interest / $1000 maintenance
Total costs: $121,500 over a seven year period, per owner occupied household.
There will always be a rental class. There are 1.6 million houses in NZ and close to 500,000 of them are rental properties.
Assume that EVERY single one of those 1.1million properties that are not a rental property are owner occupied with a mortgage, this would only cost ~$133 million over a seven year period. If there is no mortgage, then only the maintenance costs would be claimed. We already hand back close to $1.2bn to landlords each year, for no appreciable benefit to society. This proposal has far more value to society and community than the current status quo.
If you move house during the seven year period, it will not reset from the beginning. All that would happen is the remaining years would be transferred to your next owner occupied home.
So if you moved house in the fourth year, then it would only be the last three years you could claim for.
Much in the same manner that Kiwisaver only lets you borrow money for “one” first home, this would be the same scenario.
Good to see Little coming out against Clark. The party does not need middle way – it needs to provide an alternative.
They said Brexit wouldn’t happen. It did.
They said Corbyn was unelectable. He wasn’t.
They said Trump would go nowhere. How is that working out?
They say Labour should regain the middle ground. Is now the time to lose our nerve?
Go boldly into the future.
Don’t listen to the past. Or the polsters. Or the neo-lib greeders.
Paul Plato had a lot to say about people like you a few thousand years go, an allegory about some dudes living in a cave, school your self up on it in between your daily doom mongering website trawling
ffs Corbyn is unelectable in a general election not in a overt take over of the Labour Party by the trade union and hard left nutters His election simply reflects Uk labour silly constitution of which nz labour is following suit Pauls a troll ( just to get that in)
Seriously history is not kind to Blair ( Iraq and all that ) but at the time he was one in a generation and extremely polished performer, charismatic and liked across the board, similar to Trudeau in Canada Corbyn has nothing on Blair at his peak
What Corbyn might lack in charisma he makes up for with policies. Labour in NZ hasn’t learned what it needs to do when it doesn’t have an inspirational or charismatic leader.
SHOCK NEWS>>>Andrew Little finally shows us all he has a decent set of kahunas and tell’s the queen of centrist’s Helen Clark to fuck off.
Helen of course, wasn’t bothered at all, as she has her new bestie John Key on speed dial, and they just loveeee to talk.
Turn Labour Left.
#Puckish Rogue – So you quantify a leader by their length stay in power, and not in their usefulness in the construction of a fair and equal society for all citizens?
Typical centrist political analysis, flawed, outmoded, and ultimately of no long term use to a healthy progressive society.
Helen Clark’s legacy is secured. Sure, she didn’t cure everything, or “turn Labour left” whatever that means to you.
Any leader-wannabe can write cheques with their mouth that their ass can’t cash.
The trick to altering the country is to promise, and deliver. She said what she was going to do, promised it in writing before the election to everyone, and delivered.
In my view Helen Clark was trustworthy. She was straight up. I didn’t like her neoliberal leanings but maybe that was just a sign of the ideology of the times. She at least was left of Phil Goff. She bought in interest free student loans and I think many people were better off when she was leader.
Yeh just the sort of progressive socialist thinking that got us National Health, Women’s Voting rights, State Housing etc…oh no that’s right, the centrist ideology and free market thinking haven’t achieved anything like that, no their legacy have left us where we are today… $500, 000 affordable homes for working class hospital cleaners in South Auckland, trade deals with counties that allow companies and corporations to treat their workers workers like slaves, all the while crowing in the corner to the will of the middle class…yeh real progressive thinking, glad you are so proud that legacy.
#Chuck-If the the socialist ideology of building a fair and equal community and country for all citizens is an old ideology, so what, do you really think the belief that a society based on these most basic of human principles has a shelf life? are you really that cynical?
The Clark type centrist free market ideology was just a softer version of the centre right, both set on ultimately the same path, only Helen’s path takes a little longer to get you there.
I for one believe we can do better than that on the Left, we have done better, and we will do better, but we must turn left.
Turn Labour Left.
Adrian – I think you need to look at who has been in power for the last 8 years and it is not Helen Clark. Can’t recall million dollar houses in Auckland being normal 8 years ago… Also I think most workers were better off 8 years ago…. The environment was better 8 years ago… etc etc.
The right wing spin of mimicking left ideas, homelessness, climate change, working for families etc has been very successful for the Natz. Post Truth politics and John Key a natural at lying has been good to confuse the left with ideology and what works, how to communicate it, and what is real.
Maori has gotten worse off under National, but that’s ok because Johnny K will lie to their face and give them a few bribes they feel that is better than Clark who (rightly or wrongly) told them straight what she was going to do and then did it. Look at the Maori statistics from Clark to Key and find out whose planet they were better off in.
On Planet Clark there were boundaries not to be crossed. If only the media were moaning on about energy lightbulbs again.. those were the days..
Well, I’m pretty confident that nothing short of revolution would satisfy you.
Since what you want is one great big ideological lurch after another, then you may as well be Roger Douglas or Robert Muldoon. That’s why we have MMP here: to stop extremists like you and Roger Douglas having their way in this country again.
There will never be another Michael Joesph Savage government, or Roger Douglas reform movement, while we have MMP.
I like that, the person advocating for a fair and equal society for all being labeled as the extremist on a left wing forum…funny and sad at the same time.
Well it certainly wasn’t the New Zealand Labour Party that did any of those things.
The Party didn’t even exist when they started.
National Health. All hospitals were funded by the Government by the 1880s.
Women got the vote in 1893.
The first state rental houses were in 1906.
None of those had anything to do with the New Zealand Labour Party did they? That didn’t even exist until 1916.
Next try?
Firstly while the Liberal government did built a small amount of state houses, they only built 126, so not exactly a high priority for them I would say.
However the first Labour government built over 30,000 so lets not get to pedantic on this question shall we, I think most people would accept that Labour initiated and maintained State Housing in the terms understood today.
Secondly, National Health.
From what I understand, what there was of ‘National Health’ prior to the first Labour Government was wholly inadequate and largely affordable for the needs of the poor and working poor.
Hence under the first labour Government, the introduction of;
Free inpatient treatment for the whole population-1939
Free maternity care
Free outpatient treatment
Free medicines and drugs….
I could go on but you get the point.
Thirdly, well you are right, Woman did get the vote in 1893, though the suffragette movement was at least partially inspired by the burgeoning European and American feminist movements, which where themselves inspired by the Utopian Socialist’s, so I guess I will give you that one.
Two out of three ain’t bad though. ( I would’ve probably argued two and a half out of three, but haven’t got the time).
Good try but no banana.
You made a completely general claim that
“Yeh just the sort of progressive socialist thinking that got us National Health, Women’s Voting rights, State Housing etc”
As I have pointed out they didn’t get us those things. We had all of them already.
Claiming that “Labour did more” doesn’t cut it. You claimed that Labour started it, didn’t you?
After all, in nominal terms I could probably claim that the current National Government has spent at least 50 times as much on State Houses as the first Labour Government did between 1935 and 1949.
Have to disagree with you there pal,
What I claimed is that we have state housing because of Labour, end of story, as I pointed out, and I am sure you well know, Labour actually built and maintained the state house infrastructure that (only just) exists today, no one else built it.
The same is true for the National public hospital infrastructure that
(again only just) exists today, fully implemented and brought to a functioning reality for the citizens of the country by Labour, what existed previous to the first Labour Government would not be recognized today as a public health system, however what was left after that period of Labour governorship is pretty much what we have now.
Your last point, I don’t believe I have described my arguments in nominal terms, just pointing out that these two things exist in their forms known to us today only because of the socialist minded first, second and third Labour governments, sure the ideas might not have been original, but a Socialist Labour was the original and only builder of these things in the substantive way we know of them today, and that is because they where the only political party in NZ with that social conscience built into it’s core ideology.
You are of course at liberty to keep to those beliefs.
The problem is that on the evidence I gave you went too far.
If you had claimed that Labour introduced the first large scale state housing program you would have a case.
If you had claimed that Labour greatly extended the state health system you could make an argument for that.
You didn’t though. You claimed that without Labour they would never have happened at all.
That is false.
On the Woman’s voting rights you haven’t got a leg to stand on. Everything that exists now came in 1893.
OK if I was to accept your position, then you tell me what other political Party would or could have delivered State housing and Public Health on the scale Labour has in New Zealand, as an actual part of their political ideology?
I don’t believe I have gone to far, in fact I will go further, I believe only a socialist left governance delivers these type of social programmes as part of their core ideology (well used too anyway).
The trick to altering the country is to promise, and deliver. She said what she was going to do, promised it in writing before the election to everyone, and delivered.
Yes that went well didn’t it. Put the Labour Party in debt for years.
BTW given that according to you Labour delivered on its promises to the electorate, how come the electorate has rewarded Labour with 3 (about to be 4) terms in the wilderness?
UNLESS of course, Clark didn’t deliver what the country wanted, she simply delivered what was required to win 2005.
Labour was in government in the 2000s generally not because of its policies but because Clark’s modicum of charisma was the best on offer at the time. In 1999 she was up against a National Party in disarray. In 2002 it was English who’s inspiring as toenail clippings. Heck, in 2005 she almost lost to Brash. There’s been no-one since and unless Labour stops competing for the centrist vote they’re going to lose in 2017.
I would rather lose in 2017 with a centrist and win in 2020 with a socialist, than have a centrist win both times, if that what it would take to get real left wing progressive into the beehive.
Four times in a row, and National won’t care why they lost again. Same effect. It takes a real spectacular ideological selfishness to work against the political good because the perfect wasn’t happening.
@Adrian – if the Natz win again, the country will be totally different by 2020. Land and assets stripped, water ways polluted, a political MSM that rules all messages, academics & more socially minded forced out of jobs for the Paula Rebstocks, TPP taken over our country, the treaty gone in real terms, welfare system gone in real terms to private social providers and corruption rife.
You are cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Better to try for centre 2017 (and Labour is not centre anyway as they have partnered with the Greens) and then vote more socialist 2020 just to make sure the Natz don’t make it back.
Labour are not perfect obviously but more people need to vote for them and even if you don’t vote for them and choose Greens or someone else then you still don’t have to be so against Labour as it is also helping the Natz.
Put your anger and despair into posting against the Natz. Labour is still better than the Natz.
Labour’s approach has failed since the late 1980s. The Clark years were due to the nats’ weaknesses rather than anything Labour really stood for over that time. Labour therefore needs to change its wider policy position. They need to be honest and upfront about it and they need to do it now. The message needs to be that Labour stands for a caring and compassionate society which the destruction of began around the time of the Fourth Labour government and then completely killed off in the 1990s. Labour needs to acknowledge the part it played in all of this because people at the moment do not trust them, which is understandable because the closest they’ve ever come to renouncing its nasty uncaring past is to say “we’re a different party now”, which doesn’t wash because it’s not backed up by action. The Clark years are an example of that.
This isn’t going “further” to the left because they haven’t moved since the late 1980s. Labour needs to convince the public that it’s about compassion and that human beings shouldn’t be judged in economic terms. This is the only way they can really beat National. The change must begin now, and if that means winning in 2017 then all the better. They need to have the courage to change in this way. Labour’s refusal to do this and instead to continue trying to guess what it thinks people want is destined for failure. It’s been proved that what ever Labour’s doing now doesn’t work. Restablishing itself as a party that cares about people not only must happen if they want to be relevant again, but that’s the only direction they can go. I think Labour’s been underestimating the public’s appetite for this kind of government and if they’ve got the guts to change they’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Given Israel literally wrote his AIPAC speech, it’s hardly surprising Trump has shit all over Palestinian aspirations.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Sunday told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if elected, the United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the campaign said, marking a potential dramatic shift in U.S. policy on the issue.
During the meeting that lasted more than an hour at Trump Tower in New York, Trump told Netanyahu that under his administration, the United States would “recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel.”
While Israel calls Jerusalem its capital, few other countries accept that, including the United States. Most nations maintain embassies in Tel Aviv
Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in a 1967 war, as capital of the state they aim to establish alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
“Trump agreed with Netanyahu that peace in the Middle East could only be achieved when “the Palestinians renounce hatred and violence and accept Israel as a Jewish State.”
That does my head in, both Israeli’s and Palestinians are subject to generations of hatred and violence towards each other, drummed into them by their ancestors.
As well since military service is compulsary in Israel, it’s a wonderful opportunity to effectively make sure all citizens are brainwashed and anti Palestinian.
Jerusalem is a tug of war over religious holy places, whose god owns what and who was there first? Which country can capitalise on the tourism of religious places of significance? The priorities of money, power, religion, control, just another day in the world of Netanyahu.
“A senior Clinton campaign aide offered a summary on Sunday evening on the Democratic nominee’s meeting with Netanyahu.
“Secretary Clinton stressed that a strong and secure Israel is vital to the United States because we share overarching strategic interests and the common values of democracy, equality, tolerance, and pluralism,” the aide said on background.”
Maybe USA and Israel also have media control as common interests?
Given Israel literally wrote his AIPAC speech, it’s hardly surprising Trump has shit all over Palestinian aspirations.
Unfortunately Trump is looking for political allies and for donations; he is short of both. And there is no more powerful a lobby in DC than the Israel lobby.
TDB just realised that Spinoff & Gen Zero are more of a right wing, young Natz rag – after Spinoff endorsed Nat lover, Ralston for the council elections.
Left and right are not the only propositions to vote on.
If you knew anything about Auckland Council politics, you’d understand that. You’d also be able to put up some actual coherent reason to defend Lee’s track record of voting this term. But you didn’t bother, because you are lazy.
The strategy for Auckland Council in the coming term is pretty simple:
a functioning, progressive Council, that works with the government.
No one of those three elements is enough, and all are necessary in Auckland for this Council to work.
AD you are crazy if you think that Auckland council taking on National party policy is going to help Auckland.
Ralston is best known for his ‘long lunches’ and cronyism, I don’t think this approach is going to turn around Auckland. Ralston’s approach is perfect for those who want to get ‘special treatment’ from the council. However there is enough of that going on already both in the council and government.
What has Ralston even done for Auckland to beat Mike Lee?
Lolz his mrs seemed to be paying attention as the outgoing PM of NZ chaired the UN meeting
“She liked my gavel work. She thought it snappy. Not too loud. Not too quiet. She’d give me high pass mark for that.”
NZ media are the only ones giving Key any coverage of his visit to the UN last week. International media aren’t mentioning anything about him, why is that? Maybe they weren’t as impressed with is gavel work as his mrs was.
Interesting RNZ used such a blatant propagandist to tell us about Syria.
Richard Miller of the Interpreter has form.
He is managing editor of The Interpreter,writes “Under The Black Flag” column at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
According to its own blurb ‘The Interpreter is a daily translation and analysis journal funded and presented by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. In addition to covering political, social and economic events inside the Russian Federation, it chronicles Russia’s war in East Ukraine and its intervention in Syria in real time.’
All of these are basically CIA front organisations.
Shame that Campbell is now acting as another CIA media channel.
He should interview Dr Stephen F. Cohen instead, Nation Contributing Editor, and Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies at both Princeton University and New York University.
That was interesting, thanks for posting Paul.
James Miller from the Interpreter talking about Syria, USA, Russia to JC. For reals CIA front organisations? Can’t seem to trust any media these days.
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
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 ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
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. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Foreign investment proposals with implications for Australia’s strategic or economic security will face tougher scrutiny, under a policy overhaul to be announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday. At the same time, the government ...
A Waitangi Tribunal inquiry report has warned government that a repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act could cause harm to children in care. ...
The Treasury has published today three new papers covering government consumption multipliers, automatic stabilisers and the impacts of global shocks on New Zealand’s economy. ...
Asia Pacific Report The Pacific state of Hawai’i’s House of Representatives has joined the state’s Senate in calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, becoming the first state to pass such a resolution, reports Hawaii News Now. In March, the Senate passed a ceasefire resolution with a 24–1 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Ferrie, A/Prof, UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research and ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Technology Sydney PsiQuantum The Australian government has announced a pledge of approximately A$940 million (US$617 million) to PsiQuantum, a quantum computing start-up company based in Silicon Valley. Half ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia Cameron Prins/Shutterstock If you spend a lot of time exploring fitness content online, you might have come across the concept of heart rate zones. Heart rate zone training has become more ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Eugene Doyle He is the most popular Palestinian leader alive today — and yet few people in the West even know his name. Absolutely no one in Gaza or the West Bank does not know him. That difference speaks volumes about who dominates the media narrative that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Will McCallum, PhD Candidate – School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University Earlier this year, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of not supporting Operation Sovereign Borders – the military-led border security operation that has “closed Australia’s borders ...
By Melyne Baroi in Port Moresby A Papua New Guinea MP, Peter Isoaimo, who had been ousted by the National Court in an alleged bribery case, has been reinstated by the Supreme Court on appeal. A three-member Supreme Court bench found that the National Court had erred in finding that ...
Publisher Chris Holdaway reflects on the unique project of collecting the work of the late, terrific poet Schaeffer Lemalu. One of the nice things you can do as a truly independent publisher is to make the books that writers want to make, whatever they happen to be. That’s how I’ve ...
Those profiled in the stamp series served on overseas deployments from 1995 onwards, and all have been awarded theNew Zealand Operational Service Medal. ...
Last night’s dismal poll result for the coalition government shows the limits of trying to govern as an opposition, argues Joel MacManus. There’s a quote from the American political activist Barbara Deming: “Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people’s minds, the thought ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shireen Morris, Associate Professor and Director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School, Macquarie University Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock Foreign interference in Australian democracy poses a growing risk to our national sovereignty. It refers to coercive, corrupt or ...
A defendant charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining by deception in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme. Sentencing has been scheduled for 14 August 2024. ...
What to say when pesky journalists ask gotcha questions like ‘can you name a single book you’ve ever read?’ and ‘did you read it, or did you just see the movie?’This week, Act Party arts spokesperson Todd Stephenson foolishly agreed to an interview with Newsroom’s Steve Braunias regarding his ...
Explainer - What will a ban on cellphones in schools achieve? Can students use them during lunch breaks? And what happens if you need to contact your child? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodi Rowley, Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, Australian Museum, UNSW Sydney Jodi Rowley, CC BY-NC-ND In winter 2021, Australia’s frogs started dropping dead. People began posting images of dead frogs on social media. Unable to travel to investigate the deaths ...
In the year ended March 2024, 0.4 percent of home transfers were to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship or a resident visa, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wasay Majid, Research Assistant , University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau New Zealand’s accommodation supplement scheme is facing scrutiny, with Social Development Minister Louise Upston recently saying “there is merit in considering whether the current settings are fair and sustainable long-term”. The ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor The first prime ministerial candidate has been announced in Solomon Islands and it is not Manasseh Sogavare. The man of the hour is Jeremiah Manele, the MP for Hograno/Kia/Havulei constituency in Isabel Province, who served as minister of foreign affairs in the last government. ...
Protesting the removal of bins by leaving piles of your dog’s shit for others to deal with doesn’t make you a hero – it’s precious and entitled behaviour. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve stood on the shoreline of Auckland’s Cheltenham beach, desperately trying to scoop increasingly liquid dog shit ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon will be alert to the factors driving the dire polling, but won't be waving the white flag just yet, RNZ political editor Jo Moir writes. ...
Writer, teacher and academic Vincent O’Sullivan died on Sunday 28 April. Here we gather tributes from friends, colleagues, and students who remember his extraordinary contributions. I went down to the garage tonight. There was a bird shrieking out in the bush, in the dark, maybe a kākā. Miraculously, through the ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a burnt-out corporate escapee explains how she gets by ‘working as little as possible’. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 31 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Contractor in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Schmidt, Professor of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney Albert Russ / Shutterstock The icebreaker of many a barbeque conversation is something like “what do you do for a crust?” “I teach chemistry at university,” is what we usually reply. Then silence. Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asher Flynn, Associate Professor of Criminology, Monash University Shutterstock Sexual harassment is often considered to be a person-to-person act, but new research shows Australians are also experiencing and perpetrating workplace harassment in large numbers through technology. Our latest study shows one ...
A petition signed by more than 16,500 people, demanding the government take stronger action to halt the genocide of Palestinians by the State of Israel, is being presented to the House of Representatives today by Hon Phil Twyford. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University jenmartin/Shutterstock April has been a bad month for the Australian environment. The Great Barrier Reef was hit, yet again, by intense coral bleaching. And Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek delayed ...
Winston Peters might not give a ‘rat’s derriere’ about last night’s poll, but it revealed the unusual absence of a honeymoon period and little payoff for the government’s action plan approach, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco de Jong, Lecturer, Law School, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Details released by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Official Information Act reveal New Zealand officials have been considering involvement in AUKUS from the outset. ...
The government's treatment of Māori raised eyebrows, with countries saying New Zealand needed to do more to reduce health, education and justice inequities. ...
The age of criminal responsibility was one of numerous human rights issues raised during Aotearoa New Zealand’s UPR. Other key themes were racism and discrimination, the disproportionate representation of Māori in prison, and to uphold the UN Declaration ...
In a sitdown interview ahead of his final day at Parliament this week, the former Green Party co-leader tells RNZ about his lowest point during 2017's rough election campaign. ...
Is the fringe radio station really in a financial crisis, or is it just running a hyped-up donation drive? Fringe internet radio station Reality Check Radio was launched by the anti-vaccine mandates group Voices for Freedom in March 2023. For the next year, it undertook probably the most aggressive promotional ...
Above the Fold: On Monday, the biggest Māori screen production company faced down the biggest funder of Māori content at the High Court. It was an incredibly tense moment – then, just as quickly, it resolved. Duncan Greive breaks down a strange day in the screen sector.Yesterday morning, Māori ...
He won everything and he earned a knighthood and he was a senior literary figure to the point that he was a living monument to himself until his death in the weekend at 86, but there was something about Vincent O’Sullivan that flew under the radar, that was independent and ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 30 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s a ride that’s lasted almost 30 years for mother and daughter BMX riders Nancy and Toni James, and the next stop is the World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Almost 27 years ago, Nancy and her husband Gerrard took their oldest child, Daniel, to the Waitākere BMX Club. ...
When it comes to talking about the Government’s controversial fast-track consenting process, political scientist Richard Shaw refers to the famous Chinese sci-fi novel Three-Body Problem, while RNZ’s In Depth journalist Farah Hancock talks about zombie projects. Shaw is referring to the three-party coalition Government and how the proposed legislation is ...
Opinion: The debate over single gender versus co-educational schooling has long been controversial. I went to a co-ed school and was inspired by a remarkable woman who was my maths teacher, and because of her deep knowledge and passion for the subject, I knew that maths was definitely an option ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia The rate of women killed by their partners in Australia grew by 28% from 2021–22 to 2022–23, according to new statistics released today by the Australian Institute of Criminology ...
Ministry of Disabled People employees were promised a permanent role, but were told to start packing three weeks before their fixed term contract finished, says a former employee. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Blakers, Professor of Engineering, Australian National University Clean Energy Council / Neoen As Australia’s rapid renewable energy rollout continues, so too does debate over land use. Nationals Leader David Littleproud, for example, claimed regional areas had reached “saturation point” and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan C. Walsh, Sessional Academic, The University of Queensland Arrest for witchcraft (1866) by John PettieNGV, CC BY-NC In recent decades, governments the world over have increasingly taken action to address the dark history of witch-hunting. In western Europe, memorials to ...
By Mark Rabago, RNZ Pacific Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas correspondent The US Department of Justice is being urged to condemn and cease its reliance on the “Insular Cases” — a series of US Supreme Court opinions on US territories, which have been labelled racist. Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kara Dadswell, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Victoria University Ask your son or daughter, niece, or nephew to draw you a picture of a sport coach. They will most probably draw a man. Why? Our latest research published in the Psychology of Sport ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Rinehart, Professor, Child and Adolescent Psychology, Director, Krongold Clinic (Research), Monash University Shutterstock/Brian A. Jackson “Charlie” is an eight-year-old child with autism. Her parents are worried because she often responds to requests with insults, aggression and refusal. Simple demands, such ...
Unelectable Corbyn Elected Again!
Reporter Jonathan Pie lays into the media’s treatment of Jeremy Corbyn.
Brilliant.
What a class act.
Labour in New Zealand, please note…..
Further evidence of what Jonathan Pie refers to in his critique of the British media.
Dennis Skinner
The legend gives his view on recent events
Jeremy Corbyn has Won!!!!!!! He’s won it!!!!!
Thanks Paul for all of the above clips. Refreshing and optimistic.
A message to British Labour Party members 🙂
https://imperatorfish.com/2016/09/26/unity-2/
Seconded
Really like this guy.
An excellent example of how to circumvent those mercenary, thieving pharmaceutical companies. Long live “Four Thieves Vinegar”.
http://tinyurl.com/zjxvfea
And reading the Canary for your news is an excellent example of how to circumvent those mercenary propaganda outlets of the corporate media.
British Press Coverage of the Referendum – London, 20 September 2016
Was press reporting of the referendum campaign fair? Did Leave and Remain get equal and due coverage?
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford has teamed up with media insight specialists, PRIME Research, to examine the output of the 9 national newspapers across the 4 months of the highly charged and divisive campaign.
Their study, to be launched at the European Parliament’s office in London, reveals that 6 of them favoured Leave, with debate dominated by a limited number of voices. The research shows that highly polarised press coverage may have been significant in setting the terms of the debate.
The findings were discussed by a panel including people from both sides of the campaign.
Hashtag for the event: #EURefMedia
Tweet #EURefMedia
Watch the film of the event.
IFRAME: https://player
This kind of misses the point about balance in the media. You don’t need equal coverage of all sides of a discussion but you do need room for them to be aired.
You should address the analysis and critique presented by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford, together with others. Both sides are represented in the presentation – almost to the point of pedantry. What emerges, at first reading, was the almost dominant role played by News Ltd …
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-05-23-uk-newspapers-positions-brexit
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuters_Institute_for_the_Study_of_Journalism
http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/
http://www.adweek.com/lostremote/study-social-media-overtakes-tv-as-main-source-of-news-for-18-24/56685
News Limited does not control all the media in the UK. Not even close. If you want alternative views you can get it from the BBC, The Guardian, The Mirror, The Independent, ITV, etc, etc.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/84636485/Labour-leader-Andrew-Little-dismisses-Helen-Clarks-advice-about-commanding-the-centre-ground
If I was running for election and Helen Clark offered me advice I’d thank her very much but I’m sure Andrew Little knows what he’s doing
And I think you know you are trolling.
Dull, dull, dull…….
Sure its obviously trolling I mean what advice could, arguably, one of the most popular Labour leaders, a leader that won three elections from a 2% preferred PM start possibly give to Andrew Little, a man that’s managed to lose two electorate battles (in winnable seats) in a row and only just managed to get in on the list by the skin of his teeth
(No Paul its not trolling but if it makes you then keep clamping your hands over your ears)
Your snide and puerile comments are so welcome on this site.
C’mon Paul cheer up, NZs getting better, why it wasn’t so long a go someone used to post on here in the mornings about waking up in a neo-liberal nightmare
They’ve stopped posting that so it must mean NZ isn’t a neo-liberal nightmare anymore 🙂
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Probably a good idea you have a nap 🙂
It would be funny if not so sad Paul that you hold this view (its trolling).
On one hand a very successful Labour leader offering some common sense advice to one of the worst* Labour leaders.
*Lets see if Little can beat Cunliffe’s 25% next year.
Have faith in the here and now of Andrew’s world PR. If that huge bloc of non-participants and dis-enfranchised were to be mobilised, it would cancel out those flaky middle voters. I think Andrew is gearing up for a Jeremy type renaissance. So keep watching PR
Ahh the missing million. And they are all labour voters.
Or James they are not voters for anyone because no party represents them. But if any party was to resonate, they could change the nature of scrapping over the so-called middle ground. Fresh ideas James?
It’s a zero sum game at best and for a major party to continue to head down this route, just reeks of desperation.
Outright majority for National looking highly likely.
It’s the very opposite of a zero sum game to entice people who didn’t vote to vote.
Yep
In your efforts to entice the non-voter you run the serious risk of annoying your existing voter base and either making them vote for the other side or not voting at all.
Which is why in all probability it’s a zero sum game.
Your definition makes any policy shift a zero-sum game, because any policy shift automatically alienates some voters who were attracted to your pre-existing position.
But with a couple of million eligible voters, the probability of any policy shift being a “zero sum game” is minute – the overwhelming probability is that any policy shift will have a positive or negative effect on a party’s total votes.
Your brave call for inaction is just more of the same friendly tory advice we’ve grown to know and love…
Why didn’t Mana or the Internet Party energise them in sufficient numbers at the last election?
Cameron Slater, MSM, Dirty Politics, Neo-Liberal, VRWC, Crosby Textor, Land Line Polls, Stupid Voters
or the moment of truth debacle.
Or – people just didnt think they were worth voting for.
They actually increased their share of the vote from 1.08% to 1.42% of the vote, and from 24168 votes to 34095 votes. Nationally they did ok, they just failed in Te Tai Tokerau.
“if any party was to resonate”
The only resonating I’ve heard from the Labour Party lately was the sound of Andrew Little banging his head on the wall after the release of another poll result.
There is an amazingly long reverberation period. I think the object being banged on the wall must be hollow.
Little is much lower voltage than Jeremy Corbyn.
You haven’t seen teenagers and young voters trying to clamber their way into an overcrowded Little meeting have you, like they did to Corbyn’s constituency meetings?
Cunliffe was the only Leader who came close but the rightwing/careerists successfully shut him down here, unlike in the UK.
Yes but the 18-24 year olds supposedly voted 55-45 for Owen Smith. I think this may have something to do with the fact that most people in this age group didn’y vote/weren’t registered and the better-off (Blairite) types are more likely to be registered.
There is a lesson here for the Lab/Gr bloc here. Get a registration drive on for the young voters NOW.
“You haven’t seen teenagers and young voters trying to clamber their way into an overcrowded Little meeting have you”
YES I HAVE CV. JS since you asked and all that. When Little came to Motueka, the venue was packed, standing room only. There were teenagers and kids there, all wanting to talk to him, and he made the time for those kids, and the kids appreciated it so much.
OK that was just in July? Nice one, maybe there is a momentum there behind Little that I haven’t seen down here in Dunedin.
So basically current Labour isn’t remotely interested in what the majority of people want, You have to admire that sort of blunt honesty.
Having said that, not sure if it’s a great idea for the leader of the second largest political party to be so dismissive of the people who make up the bulk of the voters.
Some may consider that a bit suicidal.
By your ‘logic’ Labour’s job is to represent Gnat voters.
The simple truth is, having won dirty by betraying every facet and principle of democracy RWNJ trolls crave the validation they could only obtain if the Left sold out. The Left are gradually realising however, that the pendulum has swung too far, and that there is no centrist niche for them.
Labour isn’t interested in what you want – you should take your sociopathy to ACT, where it is not extraordinary.
If the left considers the center to be all national voters then the left is well and truly fucked.
The dawning of a golden age is upon us.
No – what you call the centre would vote for ACT – all less than the margin of error of you.
Centrism doesn’t run to trolling on opposition sites – that’s a fringe behaviour.
The problem Labour faces is that National have moved over and occupied a portion of the centre left. The more right leaning National voters either vote ACT or hold there nose and tick the blue box anyway.
Labour used to be a 40%+ party, Little has surrendered that notion with the MoU with the Greens.
I do believe Andrew Little wants to take Labour further left…he says one thing when addressing the faithful (further left we are going) and another when its to the general public (that we are centre left).
Little and Labour need to make up there minds, as the status quo has them stranded in no-mans land.
Maybe another pasting for Labour come 2017 will be the catalyst needed?
NZ has had a discontented mob of floaters for the last three or four decades. They flirted with NZF and with United Future. They deserted the Gnats under Bill English – but the relentless media and social media campaigns temporarily attached some of then to the disasterous Key Kleptocracy.
As the results come in, and ‘Labour did it’ loses currency as an excuse for non-performance they will desert Key – many have left him already. There are numerous wedge issues that are bleeding popularity for this government – chiefest among these is the immigration/housing debacle. The government is resigned to losing this issue, hence the appointment of the gibbering idiot’s gibbering idiot, Nick Smith.
Key is looking down the barrel of a resounding defeat – followed by a sudden flight or a lengthy period of incarceration. As befits the worst government NZ has ever seen.
There are no votes for Little on the right – those far enough right to believe the rubbish about the Gnats drifting centreward will of course vote Gnat – those who are concerned that their children are obliged to flee the country to have any hope of owning a home will not.
Things are coming to a head, and the real outcome of the ‘rockstar’ technical growth period cannot fail to disappoint.
Labour will reach high 30s without any trouble – it’s mid thirties now. NZF will consolidate over 10% with disenchanted Gnats. The Greens have a solid 14% or so. The Gnats are toast – except that no amount of marmalade will make them palatable.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2016/01/labour_in_roy_morgan_polls.html
Take one look at the Labour polling over the last ten years and you will see a pattern of steady decline. The near record low result of 2014 could well be lowered again in 2017. Already talk on the Left is how to unite Labour/Greens and NZF and not of how to outpoll National. Moving further to the Left to consolidate the 20% would mean not a single List MP.
National still holds the record low: 20.93% (2002 GE).
Opinion polling, that you hold so dear, shows John key and National are trending downwards.
Do you realize it’s MMP and not FPP?
@Puckish. Who knows if Andrew Little even said that? But if he did hopefully he takes Clarks advice… because the 64% of Kiwis own their own homes. That is a very large group that if Labour get that wrong again, will cost them the election.
Non home owners are well represented by the Greens and other parties, no point competing with your partners for the 36% because even if you capture all those people (and many do not vote at all) you will still not have enough votes to win the election.
Democracy is about putting policy to help the majority who then vote for you. Once in power you can then go back and help minorities.
I’m not advocating Nat lite policy btw. Last election Labour seemed to signal austerity for workers and Kiwis homeowners and gave the corporates, super rich, spying, wars, dirty politics and and foreigners the thumbs up (or ignored those issues). It was schizophrenic Labour policy. Sadly this did not impress voters and now we are stuck with the Natz destroying our country for another 3 years.
Hope Labour actually think it through and not so busy advocating for non homeowners and the homeless, they haven’t worked out that their housing policy does not really seem to have policy to help homeowners. (Crashing property 40% might not be considered helpful).
Likewise Labour might be so busy attending every obscure event under the book of people who are not going to vote for them, that they fail to focus on those that don’t form part of a lobby group or hipster. The plain middle class Kiwi family who has a job (probably insecure), has a family, has a house and votes.
Well sure the media do lie but unless there’s a correction issued by Andrew Little I think its fair to assume he did say it
It takes a bit to go through but this:
http://www.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2014/e9/html/e9_part8_party_index.html
Suggests Green voters are probably amongst the better off (the old cliché of the rich housewife voting Green while hubby votes National probably isn’t too far off) as they seem to do all right in more upmarket areas
but I agree with you that you have to get into power first, which seems obvious, but there seems to be a viewpoint that winning is almost a dirty word
Puckish Rogue, didn’t another troll already bring that up the other day?
This will come as a shock to you (and you won’t believe it anyway) but we don’t have a troll network set up where we decide en mass the topic of the day and who posts what
However if it has been posted before then it was probably someone as gobsmacked as myself that Little would dismiss the advice of a three election winner
You don’t have a troll network Puckish Rogue? Really?
Andrew Little is Labour’s leader, clearly he is his own person, and it’s his call how he wants to runs things, like having an MoU with the Greens, which Helen Clark probably wouldn’t have done if she were the leader today.
It would make things more efficient though, less double ups on postings, more double teams on unpopular posts…kind of like the days of old when political parties urged their members to ring up talk back
Could make for some good times 🙂
“Andrew Little is Labour’s leader, clearly he is his own person, and it’s his call how he wants to runs things, like having an MoU with the Greens, which Helen Clark probably wouldn’t have done if she were the leader today.”
You are dead right Leftie…Helen Clark did not need a MoU with the Greens, because under Clark Labour were able to still poll in the 40’s (of course until John Key took her out…but Labour were still in the mid 30’s in the dying days of the Clark administration).
Now anything that does not have a 2 in front of it IS good news for Labour.
Incumbents always poll higher Chuck and do you not understand MMP? Since polling is what you based your argument on, what was Helen Clark’s and the Labour party’s polling prior to becoming the government? She lost the 1996 GE and was at one point polling at just 2% prior to winning the 1999 election.
Heck PR, should I cancel the weekend retreat for our troll group?
The crayfish and eye fillet steak has already been ordered 🙂
That dam Leftie is on to us!!
You just know there’s a couple of people on here that will ackshully believe that 🙂
Why would anyone here believe you two when Nicky Hager and Blabbermouth Lusk have put the facts into the public domain?
Considering there people on here that are absolutely convinced that Winston will go with Labour/Greens and that its John Key under pressure not Andrew Little, I’d suggest there are people that’ll believe anything
Why not Puckish Rogue? Winston supported Labour last time, in fact he has defended the previous Labour government in recent times. However, he hasn’t supported the Nats in almost 20 years, last time he apologized for it in 1998. And clearly you haven’t been paying attention to what Winston Peters is saying and how he says it. He’s furious with John key and the National government, he wants them out.
You’re in denial, John key is under pressure, particularly when it comes to the housing crisis. The Nats are on the backfoot on an increasing number of issues.
+1 OAB
You’d agree that advice from the Secretary General of the UN would carry a weight that advice from a leader handed her arse by Ponyboy might lack?
“advice from the Secretary General of the UN”
Really? I didn’t think Ban Ki-Moon would have even known who Andrew Little was.
I can only assume that John Key has had a word with him.
Make no mistake, Ban Ki Moon knows who everyone is. That’s why he got the job.
Please Mr.Key don’t insult the Russians on our behalf, you fuckn delusional child.
Wow, all the RWNJ out in force this morning….
+100 Nick it must be because the Right haven’t got a wonderful site like the Standard to comment/discuss on.
Look how Politifact is biased against Donald Trump:
When Bernie claims that Black youth unemployment is over 50%, Politifact says the claim is “Mostly True.”
But when Trump claims that Black youth unemployment is over 50%, Politifact says the actual number is more like 17% so Trump’s comment is “Mostly False.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-25/politifact-apparently-even-facts-are-subjective-and-based-party-affiliation
look how zero-hedge conflates the 17-20 age group with the 16-24 age group (i.e. including many who are either still in school at the lower end and many who are in established employment at the other end).
Classic case of false equivalence.
If politifact were truly biased, you guys wouldn’t need to make this shit up.
Yes, very convincing McFlock: Black 16 year olds and Black 21-24 year olds therefore have an unemployment rate which is only a small fraction (one fifth? One sixth?) of Black 17-20 year olds.
Because when you include Black 17-20 year olds the unemployment rate shoots up from 17% to 51%.
Actually, yeah, there is usually a peak of unemployment in the late teens. For example, if you look at the US BLS data, there’s a twenty point difference between the combined rate for African American 16-17yo and 20-24yo. Now, those are the BLS numbers that differ from Sanders’, but politifact did look into that (see below).
If you looked beyond zero-hedge you’d find two points: firstly, the very specific phrasing Sanders used to describe the group he was talking about, and secondly that the Sanders camp, when approached by politifact, could point to the source of his figure (which used slightly different criteria to the BLS). Politifact pointed out issues with his use of terminology (unemployment vs underemployment being one possibility), but found that his numbers were reasonable and his general point was correct.
Trump’s camp didn’t respond, so politifact doesn’t know whether he just made up the numbers, slightly confused his terminology, or actually has a source to back his shit up.
So politifact were left with trying to reverse-engineer his numbers, and the closest they could come up with was the widest employment-population ratio, rather than any conventional assessment of un- or under-employment.
But you don’t want to look beyond the hand-reared bullshit zero-hedge provided you, because anything else might not suit your preconceptions…
Slam dunk!
Slam dunk? Seriously? Try to avoid using pwnage type language eh?
Fact of the matter is that both Sanders and Trump said that Black youth unemployment was over 50%. Sanders got a pass for it from Politifact, Trump got a fail for it from Politifact?
And why? Because Trump included African Americans up to 24 years old when he should have said twenty years old instead, like Sanders did.
That’s not a “slam dunk” that’s a technicality.
No, Sanders was much more precise about whom he was talking in respect to age, ethnicity and education level, and his campaign provided evidence to back up his claim.
Trump just made a bald statement that was accurate by no conceivable measure, and his campaign did not provide any evidence to support it.
Only to a blinkered moron would that difference be a “technicality”. But then admitting to “technicalities” is as close as you ever get to admitting you’re outright wrong, so it fits that you’d use the same transparent passive-aggressive bullshit to defent your oompah-loompah overlord.
Hi McFlock, you are a perfect example of “passive aggressive bullshit.”
The point was how biased Politifact is. The main difference between Trump and Sanders was that Trump referred to the age group 16-24, whereas Sanders referred to the age group 17-20.
That’s a big MEH. And I am not surprised that the Trump campaign isn’t interested in dealing with Politifact.
Dude, if I’ve appeared passive then obviously I need to use smaller words for you. I thought my contempt for your lies was pretty explicit, unlike when you make shit up and then, when it’s pointed out that you made shit up, pretending that the difference is a mere technicality.
There were several differences between Sanders’ and Trump’s statements. Agegroup, education, availability of source data, and reported proportion.
Once again: Sanders precisely identified his target group, and provided a source so that politifact could identify his misuse of terminology (under vs unemployed). Trump made a blanket statement about “African-American youth” – he didn’t even say he was using the US-standard 16-24 age bracket for “youth” (in NZ it’s usually 15-24). Who knows what age group he meant. In the absence of any supporting information from the Trump campaign, the convential criteria applied. And according to those, he was waaaaaaaaay off.
Slam dunk was for mcflock not you – nothing but net. Feel free to censor me eh.
BLS Labour force survey – which is generally thought to significantly UNDERESTIMATE true unemployment:
African American unemployment rate
16-19 years old: 30%
20-24 years old: 16.3%
Looks like that Politifact 17% unemployment number that they chose to use is far too low.
http://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpsee_e16.htm
Well, that depends on the relative sizes of the populations, doesn’t it?
I like it when you try to math. It’s cute.
Looks to me like the unemployment rate for that 16-24 age group is clearly in the twenty-something percent rage.
Just saying that Politifact didn’t try very hard to identify the higher numbers that Trump may have been referring to.
Simply saying that Trump’s number is fairly close for only the 17-20 year old age group would have done it.
Statistics isn’t real math. You should know that.
“Looks to me like “… yadda yadda yadda.
The plain fact is that you do not have enough information from which to draw your conclusion. Again. Politifact didn’t “simply say” what you want because it would be at best as far off the mark as trump’s original statement.
If they’d known what was in trump’s brain when he once again mangled reality, politifact might have given him a slightly higher grade. But it’s like any evaluation: if you bung in a wrong answer and don’t show your working, you’ll get zero marks.
“Statistics isn’t real math. You should know that.”
It is, it’s just frequently abused by morons who want it to demonstrate things that don’t match reality. So they either stretch what the numbers actually say, or just outright lie. Trump probably did the latter in this case, rather than the former, but we’ll never know because apparently his supporters don’t like having his facts checked.
No, statistics is not real math. Mathematics is real math, yes statistics uses some of the results provided by mathematics, but it’s not real math.
Further, it’s quite clear to me that the BLS data shows that the combined 16-24 year old age African American group has an unemployment rate in the 20-something percent range.
That’s not Trump’s 59% number but it is way different to the low 17% number that Politifact chose to run with.
Again Politifact gave Sanders a thumbs up while they gave Trump a thumbs down – because Trump used a 16-24 age range instead of Sander’s 17-20 age range.
Both candidates were making the exact same point about African American youth unemployment being far too high.
It’s amazing how stupid your comments are.
Well, it’s sure not math when you try it. It is, however, entertaining.
What, by your idiotic averaging of different rates, might be a 5% undercount by politifact is still hugely different from Trump’s 36% overcount. And that’s if the denominator populations and unemployment rates are the same for each year of age – they’re not, which is why averaging the two-two year teenage cuts gives a different result to the four-year 16-19 cut. But all that difference in averages shows us is that the populations are different and that therefore your averaging is invalid.
Both candidates were trying to make a similar general point, true. One made a qualified statement about a narrow demographic sector and was able to provide supporting evidence for their claim. The other just made shit up and provided no evidence whatsoever. So one got “mostly true” and the other was lucky to achieve “mostly false”.
What you refuse to believe is that if Sanders had made the same broad-brush comment as trump, but with the 51% figure, and then refused to point to his evidence for making that claim, politifact would have called bullshit on him and said it was false. The trouble with your blinker is that they don’t seem to have a problem calling Sanders comments “false” when the evidence points to it.
Yes, Trump’s at a whole other level of bullshit, but we already knew that.
“It’s amazing how stupid your comments are.”
Yes, but I’m trying to explain simple math to a simpleton who thinks that simply averaging rates across populations provides logical inferences, so I really have to dumb the comments down into bite-size chunks.
Sir Geoffrey Palmer has outlined a new constitution for NZ. It’s something I think I can get behind. I’m pleased this is being thought about before the Queen dies, because I can see us becoming a republic pretty rapidly afterwards and NZ politicians tend not to do so well with long term planning.
[RL: Excellent link. Turned this into a post.]
Not with the sky high popularity of William, Kate and George.
The thing about monarchy is that you don’t get to skip a generation.
http://www.thefrisky.com/2009-06-25/the-ickiest-sex-scandal-quotes-of-all-time/
”I want to be reincarnated as your tampon.” – Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles 🙂
Strangely enough Len Brown and Colin Craig don’t get a mention
The snide comments continue.
Are you Jordan Williams?
I thought that since Ovid was talking not being able to skip a generation then the next in line would be Prince Charles and since CV was talking about the royal popularity then it was rather pertinent to bring up some of the Princes scandals since it would have a bearing on whether NZ becomes a republic
Plus its amusing 🙂
Ed VII waited for years until he was about 60yo to be the King, after his long-reigning mother moved on to the Pearly Gates. And then he ruled for around 9 years and 3 months; that’s like three electorate cycles in NZ’s current timing and good luck to pro-republicans in agitating for change.
At the rate healthy and strong Lizzie is going, Charlie will still have to wait for a while and he may not rule for a very long time when he is in the seat.
Wil and Kate are consistently and visibly fronting the news, e.g. being the darling family of four presently visiting Canada. No doubt, they will continue to be on the news and the Palace will be happy for them to do so when cute Georgie’s grand-daddy is on the throne.
Oh dear, he likes a lady’s private parts. That’s a sad waste of a public school education.
Yes, his tastes should have run more to the porcine I would have thought.
I’m more disappointed that the best he could come up with, given his educational background, was wanting to be her tampon
Even Colin Craig was more poetic…and less gross
Big favour to ask posters on TS, will you support a petition being run by Sumofus.org please? The petition is to put pressure on big corporations like MSD Animal Health, that profits from shocking horse blood farms, to cut ties with that cruel and inhumane industry operating in Argentina and Uruguay. The more people that sign, the better.
Thanks for this Leftie. Just signd and passed on these ghastly and extremely cruel practice details to my contacts for them to do the same.
Absolutely shocking!
Thank you so much Mary for doing that.
will do
Thank you so much Chooky.
Essential read
http://www.aaihs.org/the-fallacies-of-neoliberal-protest/
Very good – so how do we go about building a Momentum for NZ?
I think by never forgetting
“Neoliberalism’s goals are not merely privatization and the decimation of unions and the social safety net. It also seeks to manage the social order and ensure the continued political dominance of the ruling class by absorbing social threats.”
Absolute unquestioning propaganda disinformation tripe on Kathryn Ryan RNZ this morning on Syria blaming the Russians and Assad for the bombing of the relief trucks
…(no talk of the Israeli interest in the Golan Heights ( see NY Times)or the mass of evidence of a US drone strike on the trucks or the anti Assad terrorists in the area)
…I think Roth couldnt believe his luck at not being questioned on his blatant propaganda
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201817544/russia-correspondent-andrew-roth
“Washington Post correspondent in Moscow Andrew Roth on Russia’s role in Syria and reports about Vladimir Putin forming a new super spy agency.”
No wonder people are turning off the msm and turning on to RT where there is at least debate
‘The media’s Syria’
https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/360356-syrian-conflict-casualities-truth/
“Conflicting narratives and competing agendas – this is the tragedy of the Syrian conflict. Western media coverage is focused on forcing political outcomes. In the process, the truth is often overlooked and even denied. Another casualty of war.
CrossTalking with Jonathan Steele, Scott Bennett, and Daniel Lazare.”
The link for RT I really enjoyed their opinions, thanks. It’s helpful to get the story from different angles, rather than USA bias all the time
Listening Post did a fascinating summary on Syria and the media back in February, here’s the link if you haven’t seen it
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2016/02/telling-syria-story-media-battle-lines-160213061229328.html
Speaking of Israel, Hil’s and Trump have been meeting with Netanyahu – shudders
http://www.npr.org/2016/09/25/495376424/trump-pledges-to-recognize-jerusalem-as-israeli-capital-in-meeting-with-netanyah
Chooky,
Who else bombed them?
It clearly wasn’t the US not withstanding your ridiculous assertion about drone strikes. Such strikes are carefully controlled. So in this instance there would have to be a large scale cover up about it. Anyone in the military doing the cover-up would be prosecuted. The senior officers would be disgraced.
Obviously it would have to be covered up from President Obama, Sec State Kerry and Sec Def Carter. None of these people would lie about a drone strike.
And if it was the insurgents, it was not an airstrike.
Really? Multiple nations have full radar tracks of who and what was in the area at the time.
So the “truth” is out there somewhere, but that’s largely irrelevant in this information-media war.
I also note that the UN and also NATO Sec Gen Stoltenberg pulled back from original reporting blaming Russian airstrikes, saying that there was not yet enough information to ascertain what had actually happened.
The US military is not the only American agency (or even American-allied agency) with armed predator drones in the area; but I’m sure you knew that.
Drone strikes are carefully controlled…
Military Industrial Complex does not do cover-ups…
Politicians don’t lie…
The worst type of dishonesty is that which is internal to ‘the-self’
Once the state of internal deception is complete and any associated ‘guilt’ has been bypassed, there is only one direction for the human spirit to decend to
How far has your spirit decended, Wayne?
Serves me right for listening to Hooten and Whatsisname.
Corbyn only won leadership contest because of votes from Labour members (Whatsisname managed to deliver that in a sort of sneering dismissive fashion)
Those members (apparently) didn’t even vote Labour at the last general election.
They are merely members of a cult.
NZ doesn’t have the same numbers of people with left political ideas and so the NZ Labour Party is safe from any kind of ‘hard left’ take-over.
NZ Labour has chased the ‘missing million’ really hard over previous election cycles and would be ‘exhausted’ if it ever caught up with them.
And liberals wonder why NZ Labour is kind of fucked? If whatsisname in any way reflects dominant thought within the Labour Party hierarchy, then (just to spell it out lest a PLP wallah is reading ts this morning) the Labour Party is fucked, dear wallah, because of you.
Yeah Whatsisname is a buffoon, and only speaks for himself. Wish the likes of Whatsisname and another rightie, Josie Pagani stopped implying that they speak on behalf of the Labour party, because they don’t. Their commentary is damaging to the party, and that’s why they do it.
Serves you right for listening to “Politics from the Right and the Hard Right”
Idiot accidentally explains Labour’s irrelevance and unpopularity:
Corbyn only won leadership contest because of votes from Labour members
“He only won because people voted for him. That’s cheating!”
Those members (apparently) didn’t even vote Labour at the last general election.
“Labour is attracting new members. This is a bad thing.”
They are merely members of a cult.
“They wear different clothes, they don’t look like me.”
NZ doesn’t have the same numbers of people with left political ideas and so the NZ Labour Party is safe from any kind of ‘hard left’ take-over.
“I don’t talk to people like that.”
NZ Labour has chased the ‘missing million’ really hard over previous election cycles and would be ‘exhausted’ if it ever caught up with them.
“I don’t talk to people like that, so fuck ’em.”
Thanks for the work Bill, but I’ve long given up on that Punch and Judy show.
You have to believe me when I say it was an unfortunate accident. Although…that’s two weeks in a row, since I seem to recall ‘whatsisname’ claiming that the latest polls were confounding reality.
Lol that said it all, excellent comment Rhinocrates, many +1’s
2 and a half looong years
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/ombudsman-to-investigate-john-key-over-blogger-contact/
Thank goodness we now have an ombudsman who knows what the job is!
I just noticed a correlation between corrupt governments and getting information. The more corrupt the government the longer it takes anything to happen.
2.5 years, that’s some delay… perhaps we should petition to Ombudsman to investigate why it took the ombudsman 2.5 years to start looking into it?
Or should we just line the lot of them up and ask our army to dispense with them as they see fit. We do still have an army don’t we? They didn’t sell it or chuck it on the stock exchange for all our millions of mum and dad investors.
/a whole lot of of sarke
R R We now have a new ombudsman. The last was a shocker and the Nats got away with “murder”. Funnily their replacement has not been so kind. Obviously a bad choice. But we can now have confidence in a reasonable investigation by a competent person.
Richard Rawshark the Office of the Ombudsman has been badly underfunded for a number of years and thus severely stretched staff-wise. I think that has had a lot to do with the delays.
If you’re interested in a scientific angle on corruption I’d recommend this recent paper in Nature entitled Intrinsic honesty and the prevalence of rule violations across societies.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v531/n7595/full/nature17160.html
Nature 531, 496–499 (24 March 2016) doi:10.1038/nature17160
The actual paper is only accessible to subscribers but the abstract is clear enough, for example:
Paraphrasing this: a corrupt government leads to more dishonest citizens.
Apparently others including I/S, as well as Newstalk ZB have lodged complaints on this matter to the ombudsman:
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2016/09/investigating-keys-dirt-machine.html
There has been much discussion around the unacceptable difficulties facing first home buyers in Auckland and elsewhere in New Zealand.
One option that I see as being potentially politically palatable to both sides of the debate would be to allow owner occupiers the ability to claim for both interest deductions and maintenance costs to their owner occupied home.
Currently the status quo only allows for landlords to claim such costs.
If the option were floated to allow owner occupiers to claim say, a maximum of $10,000 per annum in maintenance costs, and say $20,000 per annum in interest costs, these could be factored in by lenders to assist first home buyers more when purchasing a property.
The flip side of course, is that at the same stroke of a pen, landlords would not be able to claim these costs as part of a “business”.
When the inevitable “anti-labour brigade” becomes vocal, a simple rebuttal would be to simply point out that landlords could shift their mortgage(s) onto their own owner occupied property and claim such costs back on their own homes.
All such a proposal would be aiming to achieve is making it a more attractive proposition for people to own their own home, rather than allow landlords to claim such costs (maintenance and interest) at the expense of renters and first home buyers.
Coupling such a policy with the removal of LVR restrictions for first home buyers would go a long way to re-establishing communities, and providing kiwis with security and the ability to more easily afford a property.
Such a policy would be a game changer for a party brave enough to upset the status quo.
So the government/taxpayers gives home owners a 30k tax refund?.
It would be much simpler for the govt to provide a guarantee to first home buyers that the interest rate for a mortgage will be below 5% (maybe 4%) for at least 5 years. I appreciate that in a sense this is also a guarantee to the banks, since if rates generally rose, they would be the ones getting the money.
It gives certainly to first home buyers. At 5%, interest on a $500,000 mortgage is $25,000 and at 4% is $20,000. Clearly affordable for a wide range of families. But 7% it would not be affordable for many families.
The guarantee only costs the govt if rates go above 5%.
Thats exactly the system used in Holland for a long time. Although I think they are looking at changing it shortly. But when I was there that was how it plays out. When you get your mortgage, they (the bank) calculates your “tax refund” (you can claim interest) when working out how much you are allowed to borrow. Works well or has worked well over there.
Not sure if the NZ market would be ready or willing to accept something like that though.
BM – The government already gives landlords far more than that each year anyway. What’s the difference in giving it to owner occupiers as opposed to landlords?
Don’t overlook the fact that as the mortgage reduces, so does the interest component. Could also have it linked solely to “one owner occupied property during your lifetime” reducing over a seven year period as well so;
First Year: Up to $20K interest costs, up to $10K maintenance costs
Second year: Up to $17K interest costs, up to $8500 maintenance costs
Third year: Up to $14,500 interest / $7000 maintenance
Fourth year: $12K interest / $5500 maintenance
Fifth year: $9k interest / $4000 maintenance
Sixth year: $7k interest / $2000 maintenance
Final year:$4k interest / $1000 maintenance
Total costs: $121,500 over a seven year period, per owner occupied household.
There will always be a rental class. There are 1.6 million houses in NZ and close to 500,000 of them are rental properties.
Assume that EVERY single one of those 1.1million properties that are not a rental property are owner occupied with a mortgage, this would only cost ~$133 million over a seven year period. If there is no mortgage, then only the maintenance costs would be claimed. We already hand back close to $1.2bn to landlords each year, for no appreciable benefit to society. This proposal has far more value to society and community than the current status quo.
If you move house during the seven year period, it will not reset from the beginning. All that would happen is the remaining years would be transferred to your next owner occupied home.
So if you moved house in the fourth year, then it would only be the last three years you could claim for.
Much in the same manner that Kiwisaver only lets you borrow money for “one” first home, this would be the same scenario.
James, If you are keen, set up a time with Phil Twyford and work him through this.
Note he’s pretty briefed on this field already, so it will be a conversation that is worth your while.
Perfect time to refine policy now, rather than into 2017.
Good to see Little coming out against Clark. The party does not need middle way – it needs to provide an alternative.
They said Brexit wouldn’t happen. It did.
They said Corbyn was unelectable. He wasn’t.
They said Trump would go nowhere. How is that working out?
They say Labour should regain the middle ground. Is now the time to lose our nerve?
Go boldly into the future.
Don’t listen to the past. Or the polsters. Or the neo-lib greeders.
Or trolls.
Paul Plato had a lot to say about people like you a few thousand years go, an allegory about some dudes living in a cave, school your self up on it in between your daily doom mongering website trawling
Its a bold strategy
http://funny-lover.com/lalalala-i-cant-hear-you/
Just to clarify one thing:
“They said Corbyn was unelectable. He wasn’t.”
Most of us are talking about in the general elections. To this end I still think he us unelectable.
So – a little early to call that one just yet.
ffs Corbyn is unelectable in a general election not in a overt take over of the Labour Party by the trade union and hard left nutters His election simply reflects Uk labour silly constitution of which nz labour is following suit Pauls a troll ( just to get that in)
Corbyn has at least equal chances with the deadbeat Blairite hangers-on
Who do you see as being more electable than Corbyn?
Corbyn at least has the support of hundreds of thousands of new members; no one else in the Labour caucus can say that.
Dead beat X dead beat = dead beat squared. However I am with you on trump CV, he will win
Seriously history is not kind to Blair ( Iraq and all that ) but at the time he was one in a generation and extremely polished performer, charismatic and liked across the board, similar to Trudeau in Canada Corbyn has nothing on Blair at his peak
What Corbyn might lack in charisma he makes up for with policies. Labour in NZ hasn’t learned what it needs to do when it doesn’t have an inspirational or charismatic leader.
command and control economics is not sound policy
SHOCK NEWS>>>Andrew Little finally shows us all he has a decent set of kahunas and tell’s the queen of centrist’s Helen Clark to fuck off.
Helen of course, wasn’t bothered at all, as she has her new bestie John Key on speed dial, and they just loveeee to talk.
Turn Labour Left.
+ 100
So apart from Helen Clark how many three term Labour PMs can you name?
#Puckish Rogue – So you quantify a leader by their length stay in power, and not in their usefulness in the construction of a fair and equal society for all citizens?
Typical centrist political analysis, flawed, outmoded, and ultimately of no long term use to a healthy progressive society.
Helen Clark’s legacy is secured. Sure, she didn’t cure everything, or “turn Labour left” whatever that means to you.
Any leader-wannabe can write cheques with their mouth that their ass can’t cash.
The trick to altering the country is to promise, and deliver. She said what she was going to do, promised it in writing before the election to everyone, and delivered.
And yes, that really did take three terms.
In my view Helen Clark was trustworthy. She was straight up. I didn’t like her neoliberal leanings but maybe that was just a sign of the ideology of the times. She at least was left of Phil Goff. She bought in interest free student loans and I think many people were better off when she was leader.
Yeh just the sort of progressive socialist thinking that got us National Health, Women’s Voting rights, State Housing etc…oh no that’s right, the centrist ideology and free market thinking haven’t achieved anything like that, no their legacy have left us where we are today… $500, 000 affordable homes for working class hospital cleaners in South Auckland, trade deals with counties that allow companies and corporations to treat their workers workers like slaves, all the while crowing in the corner to the will of the middle class…yeh real progressive thinking, glad you are so proud that legacy.
“Yeh just the sort of progressive socialist thinking that got us National Health, Women’s Voting rights, State Housing etc”
Adrian you are stuck in the 1900’s, the world is a very different place now.
#Chuck-If the the socialist ideology of building a fair and equal community and country for all citizens is an old ideology, so what, do you really think the belief that a society based on these most basic of human principles has a shelf life? are you really that cynical?
The Clark type centrist free market ideology was just a softer version of the centre right, both set on ultimately the same path, only Helen’s path takes a little longer to get you there.
I for one believe we can do better than that on the Left, we have done better, and we will do better, but we must turn left.
Turn Labour Left.
Adrian – I think you need to look at who has been in power for the last 8 years and it is not Helen Clark. Can’t recall million dollar houses in Auckland being normal 8 years ago… Also I think most workers were better off 8 years ago…. The environment was better 8 years ago… etc etc.
The right wing spin of mimicking left ideas, homelessness, climate change, working for families etc has been very successful for the Natz. Post Truth politics and John Key a natural at lying has been good to confuse the left with ideology and what works, how to communicate it, and what is real.
Maori has gotten worse off under National, but that’s ok because Johnny K will lie to their face and give them a few bribes they feel that is better than Clark who (rightly or wrongly) told them straight what she was going to do and then did it. Look at the Maori statistics from Clark to Key and find out whose planet they were better off in.
On Planet Clark there were boundaries not to be crossed. If only the media were moaning on about energy lightbulbs again.. those were the days..
Well, I’m pretty confident that nothing short of revolution would satisfy you.
Since what you want is one great big ideological lurch after another, then you may as well be Roger Douglas or Robert Muldoon. That’s why we have MMP here: to stop extremists like you and Roger Douglas having their way in this country again.
There will never be another Michael Joesph Savage government, or Roger Douglas reform movement, while we have MMP.
And that is a very good thing.
+1
Sooner the extremists from both ends of the spectrum fuck off, the better.
If wanting a fair and equal country for all citizens makes me an extremist, then I wear that label proudly thank you.
that could be a problem ….if we are to adapt to CC impacts
I like that, the person advocating for a fair and equal society for all being labeled as the extremist on a left wing forum…funny and sad at the same time.
Well it certainly wasn’t the New Zealand Labour Party that did any of those things.
The Party didn’t even exist when they started.
National Health. All hospitals were funded by the Government by the 1880s.
Women got the vote in 1893.
The first state rental houses were in 1906.
None of those had anything to do with the New Zealand Labour Party did they? That didn’t even exist until 1916.
Next try?
Firstly while the Liberal government did built a small amount of state houses, they only built 126, so not exactly a high priority for them I would say.
However the first Labour government built over 30,000 so lets not get to pedantic on this question shall we, I think most people would accept that Labour initiated and maintained State Housing in the terms understood today.
Secondly, National Health.
From what I understand, what there was of ‘National Health’ prior to the first Labour Government was wholly inadequate and largely affordable for the needs of the poor and working poor.
Hence under the first labour Government, the introduction of;
Free inpatient treatment for the whole population-1939
Free maternity care
Free outpatient treatment
Free medicines and drugs….
I could go on but you get the point.
Thirdly, well you are right, Woman did get the vote in 1893, though the suffragette movement was at least partially inspired by the burgeoning European and American feminist movements, which where themselves inspired by the Utopian Socialist’s, so I guess I will give you that one.
Two out of three ain’t bad though. ( I would’ve probably argued two and a half out of three, but haven’t got the time).
Good try but no banana.
You made a completely general claim that
“Yeh just the sort of progressive socialist thinking that got us National Health, Women’s Voting rights, State Housing etc”
As I have pointed out they didn’t get us those things. We had all of them already.
Claiming that “Labour did more” doesn’t cut it. You claimed that Labour started it, didn’t you?
After all, in nominal terms I could probably claim that the current National Government has spent at least 50 times as much on State Houses as the first Labour Government did between 1935 and 1949.
Have to disagree with you there pal,
What I claimed is that we have state housing because of Labour, end of story, as I pointed out, and I am sure you well know, Labour actually built and maintained the state house infrastructure that (only just) exists today, no one else built it.
The same is true for the National public hospital infrastructure that
(again only just) exists today, fully implemented and brought to a functioning reality for the citizens of the country by Labour, what existed previous to the first Labour Government would not be recognized today as a public health system, however what was left after that period of Labour governorship is pretty much what we have now.
Your last point, I don’t believe I have described my arguments in nominal terms, just pointing out that these two things exist in their forms known to us today only because of the socialist minded first, second and third Labour governments, sure the ideas might not have been original, but a Socialist Labour was the original and only builder of these things in the substantive way we know of them today, and that is because they where the only political party in NZ with that social conscience built into it’s core ideology.
You are of course at liberty to keep to those beliefs.
The problem is that on the evidence I gave you went too far.
If you had claimed that Labour introduced the first large scale state housing program you would have a case.
If you had claimed that Labour greatly extended the state health system you could make an argument for that.
You didn’t though. You claimed that without Labour they would never have happened at all.
That is false.
On the Woman’s voting rights you haven’t got a leg to stand on. Everything that exists now came in 1893.
OK if I was to accept your position, then you tell me what other political Party would or could have delivered State housing and Public Health on the scale Labour has in New Zealand, as an actual part of their political ideology?
I don’t believe I have gone to far, in fact I will go further, I believe only a socialist left governance delivers these type of social programmes as part of their core ideology (well used too anyway).
Yes that went well didn’t it. Put the Labour Party in debt for years.
BTW given that according to you Labour delivered on its promises to the electorate, how come the electorate has rewarded Labour with 3 (about to be 4) terms in the wilderness?
UNLESS of course, Clark didn’t deliver what the country wanted, she simply delivered what was required to win 2005.
@ CV – well at least Clark was strategic enough to get in power and we did not have 8 years of Natz rule.
I think most people blame Labour for Rogernomics not the Clark years.
Labour was in government in the 2000s generally not because of its policies but because Clark’s modicum of charisma was the best on offer at the time. In 1999 she was up against a National Party in disarray. In 2002 it was English who’s inspiring as toenail clippings. Heck, in 2005 she almost lost to Brash. There’s been no-one since and unless Labour stops competing for the centrist vote they’re going to lose in 2017.
Do you believe Labour can win by going further left in 2017? or do you see this as being a more long term objective, like 2026 or there a bouts?
I would rather lose in 2017 with a centrist and win in 2020 with a socialist, than have a centrist win both times, if that what it would take to get real left wing progressive into the beehive.
Four times in a row, and National won’t care why they lost again. Same effect. It takes a real spectacular ideological selfishness to work against the political good because the perfect wasn’t happening.
@Adrian – if the Natz win again, the country will be totally different by 2020. Land and assets stripped, water ways polluted, a political MSM that rules all messages, academics & more socially minded forced out of jobs for the Paula Rebstocks, TPP taken over our country, the treaty gone in real terms, welfare system gone in real terms to private social providers and corruption rife.
You are cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Better to try for centre 2017 (and Labour is not centre anyway as they have partnered with the Greens) and then vote more socialist 2020 just to make sure the Natz don’t make it back.
Labour are not perfect obviously but more people need to vote for them and even if you don’t vote for them and choose Greens or someone else then you still don’t have to be so against Labour as it is also helping the Natz.
Put your anger and despair into posting against the Natz. Labour is still better than the Natz.
Labour’s approach has failed since the late 1980s. The Clark years were due to the nats’ weaknesses rather than anything Labour really stood for over that time. Labour therefore needs to change its wider policy position. They need to be honest and upfront about it and they need to do it now. The message needs to be that Labour stands for a caring and compassionate society which the destruction of began around the time of the Fourth Labour government and then completely killed off in the 1990s. Labour needs to acknowledge the part it played in all of this because people at the moment do not trust them, which is understandable because the closest they’ve ever come to renouncing its nasty uncaring past is to say “we’re a different party now”, which doesn’t wash because it’s not backed up by action. The Clark years are an example of that.
This isn’t going “further” to the left because they haven’t moved since the late 1980s. Labour needs to convince the public that it’s about compassion and that human beings shouldn’t be judged in economic terms. This is the only way they can really beat National. The change must begin now, and if that means winning in 2017 then all the better. They need to have the courage to change in this way. Labour’s refusal to do this and instead to continue trying to guess what it thinks people want is destined for failure. It’s been proved that what ever Labour’s doing now doesn’t work. Restablishing itself as a party that cares about people not only must happen if they want to be relevant again, but that’s the only direction they can go. I think Labour’s been underestimating the public’s appetite for this kind of government and if they’ve got the guts to change they’ll be pleasantly surprised.
“Further to the left’
You’re having a laugh!
Labour 2016 is way to the right of the National Party of the 70s.
Well of course, she did both. Delivered what the country wanted, and won three times. The two are related.
You can argue about why Labour hasn’t been re-elected for three terms. But the presence of Helen Clark isn’t one of them.
The presence of the gutless, leaderless, middle of the road, white collar caucus that she hand picked is.
Exactly, cowering to the perceived centre/middle class like beaten dogs.
I prefer the term “running dogs” but beaten dogs will do.
Given Israel literally wrote his AIPAC speech, it’s hardly surprising Trump has shit all over Palestinian aspirations.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Sunday told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if elected, the United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the campaign said, marking a potential dramatic shift in U.S. policy on the issue.
During the meeting that lasted more than an hour at Trump Tower in New York, Trump told Netanyahu that under his administration, the United States would “recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel.”
While Israel calls Jerusalem its capital, few other countries accept that, including the United States. Most nations maintain embassies in Tel Aviv
Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in a 1967 war, as capital of the state they aim to establish alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-netanyahu-idUSKCN11V0Q6
“Trump agreed with Netanyahu that peace in the Middle East could only be achieved when “the Palestinians renounce hatred and violence and accept Israel as a Jewish State.”
That does my head in, both Israeli’s and Palestinians are subject to generations of hatred and violence towards each other, drummed into them by their ancestors.
As well since military service is compulsary in Israel, it’s a wonderful opportunity to effectively make sure all citizens are brainwashed and anti Palestinian.
Jerusalem is a tug of war over religious holy places, whose god owns what and who was there first? Which country can capitalise on the tourism of religious places of significance? The priorities of money, power, religion, control, just another day in the world of Netanyahu.
“A senior Clinton campaign aide offered a summary on Sunday evening on the Democratic nominee’s meeting with Netanyahu.
“Secretary Clinton stressed that a strong and secure Israel is vital to the United States because we share overarching strategic interests and the common values of democracy, equality, tolerance, and pluralism,” the aide said on background.”
Maybe USA and Israel also have media control as common interests?
http://www.npr.org/2016/09/25/495376424/trump-pledges-to-recognize-jerusalem-as-israeli-capital-in-meeting-with-netanyah
It’s easiest to understand the political dynamics if you view the US as a serving colony of Israel, not the other way around.
Indeed
Good job, Joe
Other than the missing exert with Hillarys Isreali perspective, you’re getting closer to one of the root cause problems
Can you call it out?
Unfortunately Trump is looking for political allies and for donations; he is short of both. And there is no more powerful a lobby in DC than the Israel lobby.
Did you see RNZ running this propaganda?
TDB just realised that Spinoff & Gen Zero are more of a right wing, young Natz rag – after Spinoff endorsed Nat lover, Ralston for the council elections.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/09/25/must-read-sunday-from-good-guys-to-fall-guys-the-spinoff-and-generation-zero-fail-to-endorse-mike-lee/
Or maybe they know what it’s been like to observe Lee at work in Council and AT Board over the last term.
So are you endorsing Ralston too, Ad?
Is this some fucked up strategy to get the right in, to somehow help the left?
Left and right are not the only propositions to vote on.
If you knew anything about Auckland Council politics, you’d understand that. You’d also be able to put up some actual coherent reason to defend Lee’s track record of voting this term. But you didn’t bother, because you are lazy.
The strategy for Auckland Council in the coming term is pretty simple:
a functioning, progressive Council, that works with the government.
No one of those three elements is enough, and all are necessary in Auckland for this Council to work.
AD you are crazy if you think that Auckland council taking on National party policy is going to help Auckland.
Ralston is best known for his ‘long lunches’ and cronyism, I don’t think this approach is going to turn around Auckland. Ralston’s approach is perfect for those who want to get ‘special treatment’ from the council. However there is enough of that going on already both in the council and government.
What has Ralston even done for Auckland to beat Mike Lee?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11715831
Some good insights
Lolz his mrs seemed to be paying attention as the outgoing PM of NZ chaired the UN meeting
“She liked my gavel work. She thought it snappy. Not too loud. Not too quiet. She’d give me high pass mark for that.”
NZ media are the only ones giving Key any coverage of his visit to the UN last week. International media aren’t mentioning anything about him, why is that? Maybe they weren’t as impressed with is gavel work as his mrs was.
Its the kind of comment that endears him to the voters of NZ
Speaking for others as usual.
The arrogance…..
“Russia does not need to win these wars, it just can’t lose”
Interesting RNZ used such a blatant propagandist to tell us about Syria.
Richard Miller of the Interpreter has form.
He is managing editor of The Interpreter,writes “Under The Black Flag” column at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
According to its own blurb ‘The Interpreter is a daily translation and analysis journal funded and presented by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. In addition to covering political, social and economic events inside the Russian Federation, it chronicles Russia’s war in East Ukraine and its intervention in Syria in real time.’
All of these are basically CIA front organisations.
http://www.interpretermag.com/author/james-miller/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-miller-3411b845
Shame that Campbell is now acting as another CIA media channel.
He should interview Dr Stephen F. Cohen instead, Nation Contributing Editor, and Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies at both Princeton University and New York University.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_F._Cohen
https://www.thenation.com/article/who-is-making-american-foreign-policy-the-president-or-the-war-party/
That was interesting, thanks for posting Paul.
James Miller from the Interpreter talking about Syria, USA, Russia to JC. For reals CIA front organisations? Can’t seem to trust any media these days.
http://www.interpretermag.com/
Radio Free Europe is the many decades old US cold war propaganda station which is still going strong