Open mike 26/12/2015
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- It’s Time to End Gender-Based Violence at Work
Everyone Deserves Safety and Respect at Work November 25 marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This day reminds us of the urgent need to take action against gender-based violence in workplaces across Aotearoa and the globe. C190 is the Path to Safer Workplaces ILO Convention ...5 hours ago - PM Luxon is house proud as David Seymour continues to push the edges of social division
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Luxon Is That Job Interviewee That’s All Sunshine And RainbowsCraig McCulloch (RNZ) has an unbeatable report this morning on Luxon’s reflections of his first year as PM.Allow me to replicate:On ...5 hours ago - Monday 25 November 2024
Maritime workers are joining opposition to the government’s plans for resuming live animal exports on the basis that the country “would benefit from being seen as a kind of modern and progressive exporter”. The TEU is slamming a proposal that would end an invaluable timber machining apprenticeship programme, while the ...6 hours ago
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“Look, I don’t really live with regrets,” Luxon said in one of the interviews marking his first year as PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, November 25: The news: COP29 ...9 hours ago - Team of One
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10 hours ago - A visitor from the Hawkes Bay rides AT’s buses & trains.
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The gift that keeps giving: David Seymour has now opened a split in the coalition over the future of National’s promise to build a new medical school. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / TheKakaKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and ...3 days ago
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Hi,Watching New Zealand from afar offers a strange perspective. It can be a good thing — distance from Aotearoa helped keep me sane while I reported on abuse at New Zealand’s biggest megachurch over the course of a year. It helps fuel my silly podcast. But it can also be ...4 days ago - This is bad news
The speech yesterday by Treasury’s Chief Economic Advisor warning that the books are in worse shape than forecasted looks like it’s part of a softening-up process for either more cuts or a longer wait to get back into surplus. The speech was a highly unusual public preview of Treasury’s Half-Yearly ...4 days ago
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6 days ago - How should we talk about change?
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Hi,So there’s a bunch of new stuff on the Webworm store (www.webworm.store) — just in time for the Holidays. Read more ...6 days ago - Trying to defuse the tension
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7 days ago - Kaamos: Accepted
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Hi,If I was to accurately sum up my mental state over the week, I’d just say that I got a huge fright from my own shadow.I’d nipped out for an 11pm neighborhood stroll, just to calm down after a day of stress and screens. The Cure and Fazerdaze’s new record ...1 week ago - We Are Not Listening
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On Tuesday, sick of government stonewalling, the Waitangi Tribunal issued a rare court order, ordering the Minister of Health to release unredacted documents within 48 hours showing its reasoning for disestablishing Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority. The government's response to the lawful order of a court? Yeah, ...1 week ago
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Yesterday, under cover the the biggest political fight of the year, National quietly - covertly, even - introduced anti-foreign interference legislation. The bill is the product of a years-long work-program aimed at countering shit like this and this, and there's unquestionably a need to do something to counter foreign states' ...1 week ago
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Louise Upston has revealed her diminished vision for vulnerable youth against a backdrop of snubbed advice, scrapped priorities, shifted goal posts and thousands more children projected to fall into poverty. ...4 days ago
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National Government’s backward-looking climate policy has seen New Zealand fall seven places on the Climate Change Performance Index to 41 out of 63 countries measured. ...4 days ago
- Release: Simple reason for drop in emergency housing
When the Government says it has reduced the number of people in emergency housing, what it means is it is stopping people from accessing it in the first place. ...4 days ago
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The Government is turning its back on children by not only weakening child poverty reduction targets, but also removing child mental wellbeing as a priority focus in their Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy. ...4 days ago
- Release: A historic win for Samoan communities
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The Government has taken a giant step backwards by reinstating live animal exports. ...5 days ago
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National’s repeal of Labour’s smokefree legislation has taken New Zealand further away from achieving a Smokefree 2025 and a smokefree generation. ...5 days ago
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Today, the Justice Select Committee has decided to officially open submissions for the controversial Treaty Principles Bill. ...6 days ago
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Today, Hīkoi mō te Tiriti arrived in Wellington, with thousands gathering to march in unity against the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...6 days ago
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...2 weeks ago
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Today, the Green Party stands alongside the survivors of abuse in state care and faith-based care as the Government issues an historic apology. ...2 weeks ago
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The Green Party has written to the Speaker of the House requesting he enable a personal vote on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
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The Green Party is alarmed by the Government’s move to exclude a journalist from covering this week’s apology for the survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care. ...2 weeks ago
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For tomorrow’s apology to survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care to hold any water, the Government must not pursue the same policies that drove the abuse in the first place. ...2 weeks ago
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Concerns about the tobacco industry’s ability to interfere in government policy making remain, despite the inability of the Office of the Auditor-General to investigate the Government’s decision to halve the excise tax on heated tobacco products. ...2 weeks ago
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The Climate Change Commission’s latest advice indicates Aotearoa needs to be stepping up on climate action. ...2 weeks ago
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The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...3 weeks ago
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The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...3 weeks ago
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I see the Herald is trying again to make Max Key relevant. Article about him pining in Hawaii for little girlfriend. Complete with photo of the back of daddy’s head while watching the sea. Why????
The herald appears to have decided some time ago that it’s easier and cheaper to be a broadsheet version of the woman’s weekly with a couple of cut and paste jobs from overseas journalists/real newspapers to maintain the illusion that they are still a real newspaper.
Pieces on max key are about identifying with the non voting youth to eek a few more votes out for daddy’s side.
It’s about being a messenger for the rulers with position pieces like this, smear, dog whistling, repeating CT spin handed out by NACT and being a willing player in the dirty politics caper.
If the backers wanted granny to do serious pieces it would so what you see is exactly what is required of granny….dumb it down and pass on this govts BS without any serious critique including the facade of Key and family being ordinary kiwis.
Fortunately the girl child is in Paris furthering her “artistic career”, so we are spared the details of what she wears, and what the gossip columnists think she feels.
The Herald is the National Party Daily Tabloid, it complements 7 Sharp and Mike Hoskins who preaches National Party Propaganda.
The Herald now sources its news from Twitter and Instagram feeds from ‘celebrities’.
Why?
Because…
1. it’s easy to get hold of
2. It’s clickbait.
3. The Herald’s owners and editor want a dumbed down populace.
@Paul
4) They don’t employ any journalists anymore.
to Paul at 1.2 “The Herald’s owners want a dumbed down populace” So did, as I heard in one of his tetchy comments, Rob Muldoon.
Because Granny Herald is an appalling partisan rag with all the integrity of a balsa wood chair. Also today we have one of their infamous anonymous editorials basically saying, “Hooray! The fat German should bugger off to the US! We can trust the Americans to deal with him fairly… no, really, we can, honest.”
And then we have John Roughan, who opens his mouth and causes the entirety of God’s creation to simultaneously shriek in anguish. Seriously, whenever I read anything by him I’m overwhelmed with a desire to punch myself repeatedly in the face for being such a hopeless masochist. And yes, I do appreciate the irony of that statement.
real journalism takes real money. which nobody in news has got much of anymore.
Don’t give The Herald any oxygen at all, don’t look it up or subscribe to it – I confess I sometimes look it up online and each and every time I think, “you stupid bugger why do you bother its just crap”. They haunt us on the phone to re-subscribe and again I just email them a letter explaining very plainly why they are just crap. I believe the Herald is struggling for subscribers so if enough people do this it will be like Channel 3 bleeding slowly to death. Death by lack of blood and or oxygen, how nice. Just like “no name” I have decided to give our leader a “no name” for a title for this year. It feels like a huge weight off my shoulders. Why give the little s…. even his name – “no name” sounds really great – it could start a trend!!!!
Enjoy the rest of your holidays if you are lucky to not be working. Keep away from the Boxing Day sales as well – another entity which needs to be starved of oxygen. I have just had a wander around my rustic garden, breathed in the new air of the day, watched the birds pecking in our vegie patch and thank God for small mercies. So many of us do not even get that opportunity and for them I have sadness in my heart and hope life will eventually get better in this country. I am forever an optimist – I am a Saggi and they are optimists so they say.
To connect two of your thoughts.
Your ideas on the Herald and Boxing Day sales.
Pope Francis attacks consumerism
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/25/pope-francis-midnight-mass-vatican-catholic
The Herald promotes consumerism
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11566098
This is worth some quiet pondering….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/75443924/international-tourism-overtakes-dairy-to-regain-top-spot-as-our-biggest-export-earner
I’d think the majority of tourists come here largely because it’s safe and because the natives are friendly. No Government of the last thirty years can take any credit for that.
It’s ironic really, that our economy is surviving in spite of our politicians not because of them. Without that tourism revenue we’d likely be a third world country by now.
Sadly we don’t have a government known for its quiet pondering.
Sadly in spite of the money, it seems sad that our clean green country is being swamped by spectators. This helps destroy the very quality that they come to look at. But how fragile is Tourism. A blink and they stop coming leaving facilities and people unemployed. Prefer a production economy.
And the Herald celebrates our being bought out by foreign billionaires….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11565728
Spectators and property speculators – that’s us. And tourism as the main industry in a country is more indicative of a slide toward third world status than something to brag about.
More rivers in Canterbury unsafe to swim in
I’m pretty sure that we’ll find that the farmers in the area are quite happy now that other people don’t have a say in how their environment is kept.
That’ll help bring more tourists in.
Clean Green NZ.
What a joke!
Look! The Minister of Tourism can always find a scientist to say that it is perfectly safe to swim in that river – The scientist may be retired and in receipt of a large envelope with money from an anonymous donor – but hey! It’s safe!
JK can take all the credit for the huge growth in the Tourism Sector after all he is Minister of Tourism?
Inasmuch as he could fairly take the credit for the growth in other sectors? Like unemployment, crime, road deaths? He is after all the Minister in charge of other Ministers.
Well if can if he want’s to take credit for “crashing” the NZD from 0.85 to 0.65 against USD. That’s all that’s making tourism work right now, and why it was bloody hard work for the previous 5 years. When our dollar went through 0.70 US it was like the lights came on.
The best thing a government can do for tourism is a low, stable exchange rate.
So key is responsible for the rise of the Chinese middle class, who make up most of the new tourists to nz,??, Interesting theory!!
@ Tautuhi (3.2.4) – Funny that isn’t it? Because the very same Minister of Tourism doesn’t do holidays in NZ!
Instead he prefers propping up the local economy in Hawaii, vacationing at his luxury apartment on the island of Maui, doing chit chat, informing and playing golf with the US President!
What will FJK do when Obama leaves his position late 2016? Wonder if he will bother finding out where the next President takes his/her holidays?
Donald Trump in South Florida for Christmas
http://www.local10.com/news/trump-in-south-florida-for-the-holidays
Approximately 3m tourists last year, one third from Australia, most Ausies say, after visiting NZ that the scenery is beautiful but very expensive.
@DH
Sadly, in many respects, we are already a third world country, resembling a banana republic.
Don’t be silly leftie, while we certainly have a less than ideal government we are in no respect a third world country by the current definitions.
http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/third_world_countries.htm
@tinfoilhat
“less than ideal government” doesn’t go far enough to describe the abject failures of the self serving Key National government who have woefully let the people and country down, and badly. We have gone backwards not forward. Open your eyes to the mess this country is in, my initial comment is not silly at all.
” low economic development, high levels of poverty, low utilization of natural resources, and heavy dependence on industrialized nations” coupled with an unprecedented level of government debt, not to mention that we should be doing way better on infant mortality than what we are pretty much describes New Zealand under the Key National government, wouldn’t you say?
We are a milk-powder
republicdominion of the British realm (not that the last bit does us any good these days) and we have to fork out for expensive visits by “you know who” to help boost the polling for he who shall not be named.Well I hope we’ve been a bit friendlier to Zahra Ramadani than Peder Duddon’s mob.
“Without that tourism revenue we’d likely be a third world country by now.”
I really don’t think so. We weren’t a third world country before the tourism boom and there is no reason why we can’t make a living in other ways. The push to industrial tourism was part of the neoliberal capture of NZ in the 80s as primary industry was disbanded and sent overseas. We don’t need tourism (at least not the kind we have now) and we certainly can’t afford it. Consider what will happen to the NZ economy in a big oil shock. Tourism in NZ appears to not even recognise that climate change and peak oil exist. It’s dangerous.
Evidence of climate change…..
New York at 74F/23 C
http://nypost.com/2015/12/24/its-the-warmest-christmas-eve-in-nyc-history/
London at 63F/17 C
‘The European ski season is suffering the consequences of the mild weather’
‘In Scotland, daffodils, usually a harbinger of spring, are in full bloom’
‘Weird weather confuses nature as wasps seen sunbathing’
Read more: http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Weird-weather-confuses-nature-wasps-seen/story-28420299-detail/story.html#ixzz3vMjUdxoc
Follow us: @WMNNews on Twitter | westernmorningnews on Facebook
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/weather/12057600/UK-weather-Christmas-storms-to-disrupt-travel-for-millions-live.htm
http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Weird-weather-confuses-nature-wasps-seen/story-28420299-detail/story.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11566225
It seems as if Paris was too little, too late.
Watch this film
Paris was about how bad it’s going to get in fifty years and beyond. Realistically it was already “too late” by 2000 or earlier, depending on how you feel about the survival of Arctic ecosystems.
And the other really big issue, population control, still isn’t getting anywhere near the attention needed.
Population control
Is there not enough war and ecomonic activity terminating lives at a fast enough rate for you, Andre?
Yeah, the population density of Monaco, for example, is off the scale, and don’t get me started on Vatican City!
The most worrying population explosion for the planet is in domesticated livestock, as George Monbiot highlights.
Given current polling and the complete inability of Labour/Greens to exceed 45% i suppose the hope of the Left is that NZF get over 5% and that Winston suddenly trusts the Greens. Wishful thinking. There is no certainty that Winston will even be alive in late 2017. What are the issues that will persuade 200,000 National voters to switch to Labour. Charismatic leader, Nope. Empty promises of jobs and houses for all. Nope.
Christmas is a time for dreams. Happy dreams folks.
what happens after the housing bubble pops?
the herd of clark-to-key swing voters won’t be unified anymore by their fantastical pursuit of real estate investment wealth.
i do hope that whatever capital they have left they’ll decide to plough into productive, healthy investment, but they have probably by now fried whatever imaginations they started out with.
links please.
“My noble African name is sacred”.
Citation please. No amount of earnest good faith Googling on my part can verify that statement.
Try looking under the Chitumbuka language.
In other words you don’t care to back up your assertion. Thanks, that means I can choose not to care about it too.
There also seems to be a conceptual problem as to why anybody would sow such utter bullshit whilst using as a pseudonym a name they hold sacred.
Indeed. I thought I might call myself ‘Siddhartha Gautama’ so that when I express some outrageous opinion and someone slaps me down for it by fucking with my handle I can claim that my name is too sacred to be attacked by potty mouthed mortals.
Nah, just claim that the name “Grant” is sacred somewhere on the planet and that therefore the slightest disrespect towards yourself is a hate crime.
Thankyou. Much easier..
Not to mention why they’d post completely different explanations of it at the Sewer.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Zzzzzzzzzzz to your persistent and boring zzzzzzzzzz, if you are going use a put down some orinality pauly, please, we come here to entertained by wacky thoughts and deranged Fjk comment. Zzzzz is boring
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Does anyone know how to set up a campaign on givealittle?
I think we need to set up something that will provide Paul with lots and lots of the character “z”. His keyboard must be running out of them.
He needs more of them so he can continue with comments like “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz” which are certainly the most incisive, and intelligent, that he has made all year.
As insightful as the trolling by Red Delusion and others.
Winston is currently at about 11% heading to 15%, should be 20% + by next election time, people have had enough of the uneducated, attention seeking JK, Labour are the ones that need to get their acts together, they need to put a stake in the sand and say who they support in today’s society, rather than having a dollar each way?
“Coalitions: This is crucial, says Seymour. “Most people on the [political] Right don’t want to see Winston Peters destroy a third Government. “”http://i.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/75365336/Rising-housing-prices-in-2015-put-pressure-on-politicians
This is the meme that will grow in strength over the next 15 months to take Winston out.
“Winston is currently at about 11% heading to 15%”
As both Sabine and Grant would say “Citation please”.
As far as I can find Winston and his party are on about half that figure.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/75465142/Italian-shops-have-been-selling-cocaine-tea-for-years
So they’ve be selling a natural tea for years with no harmful effects but in stead of considering the pros and Cons of leaving things as they are they immediately ban it. Dim thinking pollies are the same the world over,!!
better ban those poppy seeds while they’re at it!
Did you no that if you crush half a kilo of poppy seeds and eat them you’ll not need to eat again for at least half a day. Merry Christmas. 🙂
ha ha. Merry day after Boxing Day to you too b 🙂
Found this Blue Rodeo video while looking for something else, song written for another Crosby/Textor Prime Minister – Steven Harper. But eerily relevant:
Do the loony left have a global dress code ?
razor or hair brushes also appear very unpopular 😀
Your potty training is showing dear. 😡
Hey disillusioned for your information as a socilaist This morning
I. Showered and as a looney I knew how to turn the fucking taps on
2. Shaved and as a looney lefty I used the correct end of the razor
3. Don’t own a hair brush as I am bald. but I find the towel works just as well .
But at lest my mother potty trained me more than can be said for that disgusting fucking hair pulling spiv you worshop.
Bald, but cute as!
the hirsute infidel
#gasp
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Nothing like a black leather jacket and a buzz cut to bring out the right in you a mate.
I’m guessing the left are more likely to be aware of The True Cost of fashion 🙂 – but they are usually well ahead of the game in that respect.
At least they don’t all dress like white collar criminals,
all you RWNJ’s like to dress like there’s a stick up your arse,
emulating your corrupt Wall St heroes
2015 in sport and nzpol – great snark by Greg Bruce:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11566135
One other thing disillusioned I agree with Paul
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
If Andrew Little fails to get Labour above 35% all though 2016 when does Grant Robertson host the barbeque. The only way to exclude the unions again choosing the leader would be depose the leader a few months before the election.
10% of people vote purely on wanting to be on the winning side, if Little gets labour to 35% key’ll be rideing a landslide to the bottom of the hill.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
@fisiani
Are you obsessed with Labour and Andrew Little? who couldn’t have won the leadership on the union vote alone. The unions didn’t choose the leader, and why exclude them? Labour was founded on the unions. The unions only have 20% of the vote. The remaining 80% is made up of caucus and the membership.
What’s your beef with the unions anyway? Don’t you believe that workers should have rights, and get a fair pay so as to be able to look after themselves and their families? Do you believe in slavery then, and think workers should be exploited and work for free?
Woody Guthrie – John Henry.
https://ia800504.us.archive.org/5/items/WoodyGuthrie129Songs/Woody%20Guthrie%20-%20John%20Henry.mp3
Woodie Guthrie archive (download/streaming)
https://archive.org/details/WoodyGuthrie129Songs
Where are you hiding?