Two right wing parties were expected to win a relatively victory after a year of setbacks for the ruling centre-left government. The large, traditional party of the centre right (the Peoples’s Party or PP) was led by a supremely confident but gaffe-prone individual who struggled to connect with the electorate. PP’s running mate was Vox, a neo-liberal party of the extreme right, which campaigned against an allegedly “woke” government unduly influenced by feminists and trans rights activists. Vox was also calling for lower taxation & employer-friendly labour laws.
Meanwhile, the centre-left government of Pedro Sanchez was accused even by its own running mate Sumar of (a) doing too little to address the country’s social problems, and (b) clinging to power for its own sake.
Sumar’s leader Yolanda Diaz happens to be Spain’s most popular politician, and she attracts support from across the political spectrum. As the Labour Minister in the Sanchez government, Diaz has also been widely praised for raising the minimum wage substantially, and for granting the workers in gig economy firms the full rights of employees, via a model piece of legislation that the European Union is widely expected to adopt next year.
He goes on to make the point that the media switched from focus on govt problems to focus on opposition credibility which produced a feeling of revulsion in the public enough to collapse the rightist support base relatively.
Relevance to here is indicative. The media focus will always be on controversy (sensation rules) but quiet days can switch their focus to future prospects, and the public mood often reflects that. Floating voters are always seeking a better option, so their collective shifts are relative to feeling averse to either or both left & right at the time. When left & right compete for centrists, their simulations tend to be transparent to floaters & you get a lack of gravitating towards those poles. Hung parliament in Spain resulting – maybe headed thataway here too…
He was paying people using Newscorp cash to covertly film gay and straight men having sex with them so he could use the tapes at a later date to extort and blackmail them.
This is the logical conclusion of the era of the Murdoch press, and shows how corrupt the UK right wing tabloid media is.
Your faith in the BBC is touching but misplaced. Novara have also covered the story, very carefully, professionally and with their usual intellectual honesty.
Actually I don't have a lot of faith in the BBC, I thought they would likely cover it if it was a verified story because they are in opposition to GB News.
I will look up Novara myself.
I am not saying he didn't do thes heinous crime, just due process and all that.
is a New Zealander, something that makes me deeply, deeply ashamed
Likewise here – and long before this story came to light.. Ashamed, but not surprised because this country has plenty of little Dan Woottens running around – heading I sense for a gleeful victory in October. He is definitely one of us.
Well this just keeps getting worse for Kiri Allan. You should not leave the scene of an accident. She wasn't that drunk as she was under the old 400 limit according to reports.
Why do you think that she can't leave the scene of an accident?
As far as I can see the only requirement, provided that no-one has been injured, is that you must notify the owner of the vehicle she damaged, or the police, within 60 hours.
There doesn't seem to be any requirement to stay there.
that's my understanding. Only issue I can see is that her car was apparently still in the middle of the road. I think there would be an expectation of making sure that wasn't a hazard to other motorists.
I guess if your in the middle of a break down and have just done something that's going to finish your career, your smashed car blocking a road is probably not even in your thoughts
yep. Her judgement seems majorly impaired, and I don't think she is being give good advice (or she is ignoring it). I read her FB post and it's about her and her feelings. This is understandable but it's appropriate for people close to her, not public announcements from an MP in government.
I have just had a look at the photo of the crash and there certainly is a major blockage. I wasn't thinking about that. The only way to get past would be to get your wheels onto the cycle lane as it blocks both vehicle lanes on the road.
"From the damage to the ute I doubt that her car could be driven though. I'm not sure what she is actually required to do in that case."
If you had an accident and your vehicle was blocking the road, normally you would call police and wait with the vehicle for it to be towed.
Unless of course, you were over the limit and should not have been driving, in that case people often abandon their vehicle and make a run for it, and deny they were the driver.
The legal requirement appears to be to notify the owner of any damaged vehicles or property "as soon as possible" [from your link, above]
If no one is hurt, you must give your name, address and plate number as soon as possible but no later than 48 hours after the crash to:
the owner or driver of any other vehicle that’s been damaged
the owner of any property that’s been damaged.
As soon as possible, with a parked car, would be door-knocking the adjacent houses, to find who it belonged to. The first door would have found them.
She seems to be in breach of the road code.
However, that's only a minor issue – and (all other things being equal) wouldn't have raised a ripple in the papers [e.g. if her car had lost traction in the rain (not speeding), or if she'd been distracted, and hit the parked car (all too common in our local supermarket carpark)]
I get the horrible feeling that the opposition and media will not be satisfied until they have hounded her to death. This is more than a lack of empathy its a complete lack of compassion. We are very lucky the only harm was to a couple of cars.
She has been through treatment for stage three cervical cancer, I surmise there is a medically induced menopause with its severe mood swings, a host of physical complications including cognitive changes. Forty percent of stage three cervical cancers do not survive beyond five years, try living with that threat every day.
Being moralistic does not suffice in these types of situations. While no medical expert, a friend of mine with lung cancer which spread, bought 5 years of life so far by paying for very effective Keytruda (now on Pharmac list for cancers other than just Melanomas).
Doctors warned her of “chemo brain” which sounded rather patronising, but they were right, mood swings, doing weird stuff and the constant existential overlay of “my time might be up”.
Kiritapu has multiple issues to deal with by the sounds of it, so while you do not have to applaud her for not calling a cab–at least don’t put the slipper in.
There's certainly no more room for doubt about the motivation of those who want to keep this going (like Jester, above).
If the motivation is the public interest (i.e. "holding to account") then all of the following would be legitimate …
1) Demanding the Minister go … but it's already happened.
2) Demanding the ex-Minister quit Parliament … but it's already happened.
3) Demanding that she be charged, and subject to the same judicial process as the rest of us … but it's already happening.
4, 5, 6 etc …) Demanding that the PM front up. Demanding a debate in Parliament. Demanding that Kiri Allan make a statement, including an apology. And so on.
All of which has already happened. Those are the facts, and all in the public domain.
So what exactly do they want now from Kiri Allan? Pitchforks? To achieve … what?
Morgan Godfery writes an excellent column ruing the relentless spotlight on Kiri. Obsever at 3.2.2 has summed it up so well and I take my hat off for Godfery too.
That sentence reduces a relentless, three-day news cycle to its essentials.
From Monday morning to Wednesday afternoon, journalists were fighting to break new angles on the most controversial political story of the year: what were the particulars of Kiri Allan’s mental distress at the moment of the crash? And did the Prime Minister know enough, in hindsight, to make a better decision for her wellbeing and her career?
On the morning of July 24, as the major media outlets were publishing live blogs, the frenzied coverage made constitutional and news sense. But stepping back from that initial coverage, it’s worth asking whether the punishing drive for new information and new angles made ethical sense…..
If that had been a National minister Labour would be rolling out similar criticisms
Labour's chances of regaining power now are Zero.Unless National have a high profile scandal hidden away.highly unlikely remember when Mike Williams shot over to Melbourne in the hope of digging some dirt and it backfired. Labour is going to be an opposition party for sometime.
"Labour's chances of regaining power now are Zero"
I don't think you should buy into this Nats/Act framing Tricle. A couple of ministers have made mistakes and another has a mental illness problem.
Meanwhile 17 other ministers are beavering away doing a lot of good stuff running the country. The economy has come through Covid and the Ukraine war induced contraction and two massive flood events in a reasonably healthy state. Inflation is now almost under control, the housing market has undertaken a much needed price-fall, state houses are being built, the minimum wage is moving towards a livable wage, many people have been taken out of poverty and more money is being spent on public transport and climate change. The health system has been reformed, RMA reforms are almost ready to go and the Affordable Water reforms are moving forward.
National's game, aided by the MSM, is to portray this a government as being in chaos, when it is anything but.
This is such a transparent beat-up. For example, Stuff has now hired Tova O'Brien to stick it to Labour.
Kiri made mistakes before the careless driving etc situation. The speech at Radio NZ. Alledged reports of bullying by two senior public servants, which is unusal. A suggestion of a badly handled conflict of interest over Mein Fong, Posting about her distress about her relationship on FB or twitter two weeks ago, was another sign of not being able to maintain boundaries.
Jan Tinetti, mislead the house and failed to correct and it went before privledges committee
Michael Wood conflict of interest and misleading PM about his shares being sold when they weren't.
Stuart Nash, say no more.
David Parker resigning from Revenue a clear FU to Chris Hipkins.
Meka Whiteri. Walked.
As a Labour/Green old chum of mine message me "the wheels are falling off".
I would be hard pressed to think of a cabinet that has had so many problems/resignations in such a short space of time…….happy for someone to provide other examples
I go along with most of what you say BG and I think it is a shame that Hipkins didn't take the opportunity to 'blood' a new minister. Especially with a view that they 'hit the ground running' post Oct 14th.
His excuses, close to an election etc can play into a narrative that the election is already lost, shallow talent pool etc.
That anyone, other than a journalist, sees government determined by the public appearance/reputation of the politicians, rather than the policies and governance is depressing.
It would mean gotcha journalism and character assassination dominate.
Thank you psych nurse. I had daymares. Nightmares with my eyes open, full panic sweats and shakes about "what might go wrong" with driving a car, flying, any trigger, until hormone treatment and then "I was back".
My aunt who had breast cancer could not have the treatment. She lived with bad nerves for years.
So yes, being on your own during one of those is terrifying, Kiri reached out to Willie, but he wasn't physically close enough to help, and it all just "piled up".
The mistakes she has made are being blown out of proportion to suit certain views and narratives. These reporters need to take a breath and show some humanity, but unfortunately some are like Seymore, opportunists.
This is more than just “mental health” issues. I think that she has been “found out” and those around her are no longer accepting some of her behaviour, so she’s got nowhere to go.
Ive seen this happen to bullies before, people start seeing them for what they really are, and stop putting up with their BS. So the bully has nowhere to go so they “collapse” in order to gain control and to not be held accountable for their actions.
There were allegations of previous unacceptable behaviour directed at public service employees, now it appears that she has been bullying junior MP’s.
she has been pulled up on her behaviour and is now having a hissy fit to avoid being held accountable.
The explanation of the impact of cancer treatment on someone is made and you remain fixated on the Inquisitor mode, about the character of the person … we can only now presume … political agenda and ignore the spam.
Wow!! So Terry, do you know who is complaining? Or do you jump at every rumour to add them to the actual mistakes?
So she has got nowhere to go. according to you.
That is not true. Her local people and many of us are rallying to help her to recover. Your senario is all guess work and glaring falsehoods. Kiri has been held accountable… but you seem to have a twisted view of things Terry.
The key measures are that Te Huia will be using its Electronic Train Protection (ETP) system in the Auckland area and its locomotive engineers are doing extra training and are getting support “to navigate the complexities of the Auckland metro rail network”.
This has assured Waka Kotahi that safety risks have been addressed and the prohibition notice can be lifted, director of land transport Neil Cook said.
….
“We are pleased that KiwiRail is taking the urgent action required to prevent further incidents.”
Kiwirail should have invested in the new safety equipment that NZTA asked for, right back at the business case for Te Huia. They were quite happy to shell out for new station and track in Hamilton.
I see Blinken has dropped in for a few hours and no doubt our pm will be fawning all over him personally i'd have sent a junior office clerk an maybe shouted him a cup of instant at the local pie cart similar to how the Chinese treated him recently !
Blinking Blinken, there have been a number of US officials and delegations roaming around the Pacific lately…what could they possibly want…
I recall during the sirKey years when the “Hobbit Act” and Kim Dot Com raid were on the go, non commercial American planes were spotted at Wellington Airport. They always come sniffing around.
The revelations were remarkable for two reasons. The first is that it marks the first chink in what has been an impenetrable unity of the Labour caucus since 2017. And second because it is an account of an MP unhappy about something that well predates Chris Hipkins’ prime ministership. In other words, unfixed problems under the leadership of former prime minister Jacinda Ardern. The fact that at least some caucus members are now feeling aggrieved enough about it to speak to media belies a greater tension that appears to be setting in among the Labour ranks over a number of issues.
Note the banal framing: Labour will be desperate to plug caucus leaks. One swallow don't make no summer, as an illiterate Englishman might say. Can anyone actually plug caucus leaks?? Experience tells us no: the tendency to leak under sufficient pressure is as likely in National as in Labour. Leaks happen regardless of witch-hunting endeavours if the motive is sufficient. Btw I wouldn't blame Luke for that banal framing – more likely blame his editor – a level up the media hierarchy.
The most significant dimension revealed by the leak seems to be the victim specifying abuse spanning two years, with implied tolerance by powers that be – yet with no mention of any victim complaint. Smoke without fire again.
Its not overly suprising really, youve got a whole bunch of mp's who have come to the stark realization that theyll be looking for a new job shortly. A fair portion of them will be feeling aggreived for real and imagined reasons. A small portion of them will have a big enough chip on the shoulder to try and do damage on the way out.
When Grant Robertson calls a press conference at Parliament, and calls Chris Hipkins a corrupt, criminal politician, and releases secret recordings of their phone conversations, and then marches off to the Wellington police station with the media in tow, to lay a complaint against his own leader …
then yes, Labour's internal "leaks" will be just as bad as National's.
So, a very long way to go. One dripping tap, and one dam bursting flood.
Yeah but Nationals implosion happened in opposition. They kept their shit together right up until Bill English left in 2018.
Labour has started imploding in government. After just 5 and a half years. It's unreal.
At first it looked like Jacindas retirement had created a post Helen Clark esque leadership vacuum in the party with Hipkins unable to fill it.
Increasingly, it looks the other way around:
Jacindas lack of leadership and discipline over her cabinet created a mountain of problems and a bunch of lazy, fast and loose, entitled ego driven MPs and bad behaviour to go unchecked.
All these problems were allowed to go unchecked under Ardern and as soon as a leader who tried to actually lead his caucus in a traditional style, the shit hit the fan.
The internal problems labour faces ATM is because Ardern was hands off. She was another Lange who let her cabinet run circles around her.
There is no defending Ardern, all of these problems should have been managed by her, years ago.
Now labour has an arrogant, divided caucus that can't focus on anything but themselves, two months out from an election.
If they are imploding this badly in government, god help us when they do the usual post government opposition implosion.
Nash leaked Woods lied plus two retirements and a defection.
Now a Minister in strife.
Face it 6 hard years have caused fall out. As Chris Hipkins is finding, managing in a constant state of crisis is very demanding.
I don't think we would do any better with Luxon's sorry lot, plus Seymore playing holier than thou with his no human rights no treaty, and probably a failing narrow benefit system falling apart as they tell us "there is no money", except what they find for tax cuts contracts for mates etc.
Stuff has noticeable lurched to the right since the soft coup that saw Caitlin Cherry jump before she was pushed. The opinion attacks on Labour from their political staff have become much more aggressive. That sort of thing only happens with an email about an editiorial direction change and warnings about job losses amongst the luke warm if they paper doesn't turn revenue falls around.
They've brought in Tova O'Brian who it seems is the angel of death who appears when a news organisation moves to the right and then inevitably fails.
Yet Tova's first for Stuff this morning seemed to lack pizzazz.
inevitably fails
Another Belfast cowboy along with Van Morrison?? Well, cowgirl presumably…
Boucher moved with her family from Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Christchurch, New Zealand, when she was about three years old… On 25 May 2020, Nine Entertainment agreed to sell Stuff to Boucher for NZ$1… In July 2023, Boucher stepped down as CEO and became executive chair and publisher. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinead_Boucher
So if Stuff has no stock exchange listing I assume she's sole owner still, more of a media baroness than cowgirl. In regard to chronic failure in capitalist enterprise, could be worth noting that the Post combined the mid-19th century Evening Post with the early 20th century Dominion about 20 years back. Evidence of continuity.
three power centers — Netanyahu, the far-right, and the ultra-Orthodox — align on the need to kneecap the courts to enact their agendas. It is the courts that could send Netanyahu to jail and that (on occasion) issues rulings constraining the settlement movement and protecting the rights of Arab citizens and more secular Jews.
The court system, in other words, is the barrier standing between Israel and a more authoritarian future. Without its oversight, “the government could … rig future elections, for example by banning Arab parties from participating — a step previously proposed by coalition members,” the Israeli public intellectual Yuval Noah Harari writes in theFinancial Times.
Here is a well balanced piece on the bogged down, and increasingly untenable Ukraine counter offensive… Did the US know the Ukraine offensive might fail, and if so, when?
This also begs the question of whether Washington will recognize when it must start pushing for an armistice.
"As the Quincy Institute’s Anatol Lieven has observed many times, Ukraine has already achieved a great victory that very few believed possible when the invasion occurred in February 2022. Russia has suffered staggering military losses, its international reputation is in tatters, and its forces have been stopped and pushed back far short of their original objectives."
"An armistice like the one that halted the fighting in Korea seventy years ago has been held up as a model for how the current war could be brought to an end. The Korean War also offers us a cautionary tale of the perils of overreaching, as the advance towards the Chinese border led to Chinese intervention and the prolonging of the war at great cost to all parties. Trying to recapture all territory held by Russian forces runs the risk of both Russian escalation and Ukrainian exhaustion, and Ukraine might end up with less than what it has today."
Of course with ultra war hawks and open Russia hawks like Blinkin and newly Biden appointed acting deputy secretary of state Victoria Nuland in the room, this only sane option seems tragically unrealistic…as these people are obviously insane.
Or maybe we could leave the definition of victory up to the Ukrainians rather than some random American think tank?
I'm pretty sure they're more than capable of defining their own military and foreign policy objectives without our help. And that when they do, it will not involve a half-assed truce that results in large chunks of their county being occupied by the Russians.
We have to remember that to the Ukrainian people, this isn't just a distant conflict that's going to end when the West gets bored of it: it's a struggle for national survival against a bellicose neighbor who has a grim historical record of straight-out mass murder.
And, on the subject of apt historical analogies, sitting around and letting autocracies gobble up their other nations in the 1930s while telling them they weren't worth fighting over turned out really well, right?
I don't understand how the progressive left has grown so soft, so cowardly, and so far up its own arse that it would support a morally bankrupt quasi-dictatorship for fear of soiling its own hands.
None of our values are worth anything if we aren't willing to fight for them.
As for the counteroffensive and it's purported failure: ces't la guerre
The Ukrainians will never take back any more significant land from the Russian now.
The progressive Left is mainly pro a negotiated end to this conflict because they are some of the few out side observers that seem to be willing to acknowledge/comprehend the awful and tragic series of events, that were heavily guided and funded by outside actors (we all know who they are) that finally led to this totally avoidable war.
No matter what you or I think, the fact of the matter is that all Super Powers demand boarder security…the USA, UK, France, China would have all done exactly what Russia is now doing had a hostile military alliance moved on to their boarder…that is just a fact.
So the question you should really be asking is why the USA/UK via NATO intentionally backed Russia into a corner when they all well knew that any Russian leader would have gone into the Ukraine with that provocation?
As the Head of the CIA warned of himself….
"The former US ambassador to Russia, William J. Burns, who is now director of the CIA, warned in a February 2008 embassy cable that Ukraine constituted a security “redline” for Moscow.
The confidential State Department cable was titled “Nyet Means Nyet: Russia’s NATO Enlargement Redlines” (“nyet” is Russian for “no”).
Burns cautioned that the issue of NATO membership for Ukraine “could potentially split the country in two, leading to violence or even, some claim, civil war, which would force Russia to decide whether to intervene.”
"What would have been the down side of Ukraine being a neutral country?"
Not what russia wants. Russia wants to build their empire and subjugating Ukraine is a non-negotiable part of the plan. Nonsense like trying to dictate the foreign policy of your independent neighbour, is merely a means of war and conquest by other means.
"An armistice like the one that halted the fighting in Korea seventy years ago has been held up as a model for how the current war could be brought to an end."
Worked out great for the population that remained trapped in North Korea. Mass starvation, utter poverty and absolute suppression and abuse by the state. Plus compulsory worship of a clown dictator. Sounds lovely for them! But the Ukrainians don't seem so keen to sign up for that.
Voters with a brain that would not be lonely if gifted another, will get exactly what is potentially on offer here. The key strategic political task in 2023 is surely to exclude Natzos and Act from office, so that there is opportunity to finally kick Rogernomics arse in 2026.
Turnout is King–and if the previously alienated young new gens climb on board the TPM & Green train there will be an upset Election result on October 14. The MMP negotiations will be interesting indeed.
"The key strategic political task in 2023 is surely to exclude Natzos and Act from office, so that there is opportunity to finally kick Rogernomics arse in 2026."
Dare to dream…I tautoko what you say but would add a severely diminished Labour too. A once in a lifetime opportunity with a majority MMP government and all we got was incremental tinkering.
Parker and Robertson are no-one's fools. Hipkins' Captain's Call (to not implement meaningful tax reform), to chase a few rich folk's votes to the detriment of thousands deserves to see Labour lumped in with the Nats and friends.
Will that position be cemented into Labours election Manifesto ?
Or do we wait until THIS leader is overthrown to allow for any changes and how does anyone then know what they are voting for as we see some policies are on the basis of a leaders call/whim ? and who knows who will be leading Labour in the future and what leaders calls they will make in opposition/government !!!
To be fair, the Labour party have had two leaders and no overthrows in the last six years, compared to seven Nat leaders – although a couple of those had very short tenures, possibly indicating "trouble at mill"
I hope the devout Luxon adopts Bill English's (2017) election campaign commitment to cut the number of Kiwi children living in poverty by 50,000 over the next three years, and another 50,000 in the three years following – that would be awesome.
Counting placeholders like Nikki Kaye (1 day) and Shane Reiti (5 days) – seems a little disingenuous.
The substantive total: English, Bridges, Muller, Collins, Luxon is pretty much equivalent to the last time Labour were in opposition: Goff, Shearer, Cunliffe, Little, Ardern.
All good B – knew you could be relied on to counter this inveterate lefty's view.
Yes, Kaye's 1-day stint was a stop-gap response to the trouble with Muller, while Reti's 5-day reign smoothed over the Collins/Bridges stouch/meltdown.
Kaye’s gone, but can’t rule out Reti having another go in future. He may only have been in parliament less than 9 years, but that's still more than three times the experience of the current leader of the opposition.
Trying to imagine more into it than that is bound to fail.
Yes, but our imaginations can sometimes be quite furious
I would say that if Labour loses the election, Hipkins will be rolled.
… If he [Hipkins] fails to do this [win the election], then there is no need for compromise, and he's out.
… Will Hipkins remain? Or will he be rolled by the left of the party…
… If so – who's the next leader?
Yes. I'm imagining what would happen to a defeated leader of a Government.
History is on my side…… More often than not, they are gone as leader within a year (in fact, the only exception that immediately comes to mind is Shipley – I think she lasted another 2-3 years)
What is interesting in this case, is whether Hipkins would be rolled, even if successful (success defined as in making a left coalition possible). His stated policies on tax are antithetical to TPM and GP – and there is clear division within his caucus, with a left-wing of the LP closer to the GP, than they are to Hipkins on some issues.
Yes, of course it's speculation – as is every other comment on TS about what might happen in October.
If you think the speculation is wrong – and Hipkins is safe as houses as leader of the LP – then make your case.
See the comment below.
If you don't like making a case for the respectful centrist – perhaps you'd like to make one for the unabashed leftist.
Or is it only fun challenging the centrist?
It always amazes me the way the hard-core left (and the hard-core right, for that matter) – seem to require their political heroes to be on pedestals – and decline to allow them any human reactions or emotions.
BTW – thanks for continuing to link to a very minor and rather incidental description of a natural human reaction – by my estimation, you've increased its circulation by 500%. Was that your intention?
And, still no reaction or challenge to exactly the same comments about the chances of Hipkins being rolled from the leftie…. Not very principled at all…..
And again, thanks for the continued promotion of my original comment.
You're welcome – always happy to highlight obvious fabrications, such as "Clark's fury", in this age of disinformation/misinformation – however “very minor and rather incidental“.
Disinformation
Information that is false and deliberately created to harm a person, social group, organization or country.
Misinformation
Information that is false, but not created with the intention of causing harm.
Malinformation
Information that is based on real facts, but manipulated to inflict harm on a person, organization or country.
It always amazes me the way the hard-core left (and the hard-core right, for that matter) – seem to require their political heroes to be on pedestals – and decline to allow them any human reactions or emotions.
Are you now suggesting I've declined to allow Helen Clark (my "hero"?) "any human reactions or emotions"? That would be a truly bizarre twist.
You, a self-described centrist, fabricated "Clark's fury". You've provided no objective evidence to support your odd (for a centrist) mischaracterisation.
Maybe one or both of us is/are mistaken about "fury" and/or "centrist", but (imho), with 'centrist' comments like yours, who needs NAct. Just the impression I get from some of your comments – I could be wrong.
Given parties make compromises in forming coalitions, a leaders word has more impact than the manifesto.
In this case it would seem to mean under Hipkins, Labour could only be a minority government with G and TPM providing little more than confidence and supply to keep NACT out.
Or Labour roll Hipkins immediately after the election (assuming that a left coalition has a mathematical chance), to allow a closer relationship with GP and TPM. Sounds pretty cynical…..
Meanwhile from Q2 in Parliament today it seems Labour maybe set to announce the removal of GST on fresh food as part of their last gasp attempt to regain the election initiative.
Anyone who’s ever been to the UK, ordered a sandwich and been presented with the eat in or take away question knows how fraught that policy is. Of course everyone says take away and the immediately takes a seat instead. 😂
It'll almost gaurentee I won't vote labour , it's just dumb policy, over complicated overly expensive, is chippy calling all the shots?? Wothout listening to his minister's?
The Ugly Australian brand originator, John Howard demonstrating he was not and is not shit-lite.
First stating the good fortune of Oz (those aboriginals) to have been settled by the British (white pride our voice is better keep their voice quiet – they should be grateful)
Mr Howard is one of the most influential conservative figures to throw his weight behind the No campaign, but his own legacy on Indigenous affairs remains controversial.
His government weakened First Nations land rights, suspended Australia's racial discrimination act, and refused to apologise to the Stolen Generations – tens of thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were taken from their families by the government until the mid-1960s.
His pupil Dutton
warned that the vote would have an "Orwellian effect" on Australian society, by giving First Nations people greater rights and privileges.
It is a claim that has been further distorted online – and debunked – with social media users suggesting the vote would divide Australians into "settlers" and "original custodians" resulting in a "two-tier government".
Howard claimed it would prevent a repeat of his 2007 Intervention
Mr Howard defended the policy in his interview on Wednesday as "a good old-fashioned dose of proper governance".
He also claimed that if the Voice succeeds, it could prevent the government from intervening in Indigenous communities when it is deemed necessary.
If you want Terry to see and (possibly) reply. Then you should use the "Reply" feature (bottom right hand corner of the comment box).
S/he is most unlikely to see this stray comment 12 major comments later.
You can always (well, within 10 minutes) delete a stray comment and have another go.
I've found that refreshing the site, or exiting my browser and opening it up again seems to re-set the replies to go where they should.
Is this actually important though? I mean if the credit rating companies are not open to just buying a better rating (as they have shown previously they are open to). But ultimately if your a large financial firm then lending to the govt is the only place you can lend to which also itself issues the repayments. You can spend or invest that instead but then this adds risk (and presumably pays more return) and another large financial firm ends up with the same dilemma. Some central banks have even demonstrated negative interest rates don't inhibit govt borrowing (these result in lending at a nominal loss, and this lending still happens).
There are ways to manage debt without cost or with low cost, but whether one could sell that approach when running a high OCR because of inflation – it's a lot of change and the economic mainstream is conformist, except when something different is required to save the system.
I suspect your under a misapprehension here. If the govt spends without draining the excess reserves created, or creates surplus reserves via QE or similar, then the effective OCR falls to zero (financial institutions don't need to borrow reserves, the OCR is irrelevant). Govt borrowing serves the purpose of allowing the RBNZ to maintain a higher OCR. The follow on impacts on inflation are the sketchy part, with multiple countries implementing such policies without being able to even get inflation up to target bands over the course of a decade.
There are ways to manage debt without cost or with low cost,
but only if this is seen as necessary out of GFC, or the pandemic when
something different is required to save the system.
But generally this is opposed by the economic mainstream at other times, and more so if there is inflation – and the orthodoxy is to manage this with a higher OCR.
Inflations cause is very relevant to the question of if using the OCR to target inflation is a sensible policy. The evidence seems to suggest the high OCR policy has extended the inflation (regulated prices such as energy prices are often tied to base returns on investment) and shifted the burden to prices impacting low incomes (such as rents).
Lest we forget back in 2008 National campaigned on tax cuts, but because of the economic decline of the time (Bollards high OCR to stifle house inflation) and the looming GFC on top of it, this was found to be unaffordable.
So Key decided it could be still be done. if there was an increase in GST to 15% …
Sometimes you despair. You really do. Fresh off leading Labour to its ugliest election result since 1990,* Chris Hipkins has decided to misdiagnose matters, because the Government he led cannot possibly have been wrong about anything. *In 2011 and 2014, people were willing to save Labour’s electorate ...
“But, that’s the thing, mate, isn’t it? We showed ourselves to be nothing more useful than a bunch of angry old men, shaking our fists at the sky. Were we really that angry at Labour and the Greens? Or was it just the inescapable fact of our own growing irrelevancy ...
Jerry Coyne writes – This article from New Zealand’s Newsroom site was written by Julie Rowland, the deputy dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland as well as a geologist and the Director of the Ngā Ara Whetū | Centre for Climate, Biodiversity & Society. In other ...
Ain't nobody gonna steal this heart away.For the last couple of weeks its felt as though all the good things in our beautiful land are under attack.These isles in the southern Pacific. The home of the Māori people. A land of easy going friendliness, openness, and she’ll be right. A ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.MondayYou cannot be seriousOne might think, god, people who are seeing all this must be regretting their vote.But one might be mistaken.There are people whose chief priority is not wanting to be ...
Alan Bollard, formerly Treasury Secretary, Reserve Bank Governor and Chairman of APEC, has written an insightful book exploring command vs demand approaches to the economy. The Cold War included a conflict about ideas; many were economic. Alan Bollard’s latest book Economists in the Cold War focuses on the contribution of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The Minister of Defence has returned from Noumea to announce New Zealand will host next year’s South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting and (wearing another ministerial hat) to condemn malicious cyber activity conducted by the Russian Government. A bigger cheer from people who voted for the Luxon ...
The suppression of individual thought in our universities spills over into society, threatening free speech everywhere.Elizabeth Rata writes – Indigenising New Zealand’s universities is well underway, presumably with the agreement of University Councils and despite the absence of public discussion. Indigenising, under the broader umbrella of decolonisation, ...
Now that he’s back as Foreign Minister, maybe Winston Peters should start reading the MFAT website. If he did, Peters would find MFAT celebrating the 25th anniversary of how New Zealand alerted the rest of the world to the genocide developing in Rwanda. Quote: New Zealand played an important role ...
It must have been a hard first couple of weeks for National voters, since the coalition was announced. Seeing their party make so many concessions to New Zealand First and ACT that there seems little remains of their own policies, other than the dwindling dream of tax cuts and the ...
It’s Friday again and Christmas is fast approaching. Here’s some of the stories that caught our attention. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt covered some of the recent talk around the costs, benefits and challenges with the City Rail Link. On Thursday Matt looked at how ...
Amsterdam to Hong Kong William McCartney16,000 kilometres41 days18 trains13 countries11 currencies6 long-distance taxis4 taxi apps4 buses3 sim cards2 ferries1 tram0 medical events (surprisingly)Episode 4Whether the Sofia-Istanbul Express really qualifies to be called an express is debatable, but it’s another one of those likeably old and slow trains tha… ...
Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro arrives for the State Opening of Parliament (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:New Finance Minister Nicola Willis set herself a ...
Sometimes one gets morbidly curious about the oddities of one’s own legal system. Sometimes one writes entire essays on New Zealand’s experience with Blasphemous Libel: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2017/05/09/blasphemous-libel-new-zealand-politics/ And sometimes one follows up the exact historical status of witchcraft law in New Zealand. As one does, of course. ...
Don’t expect any fiscal shocks or surprises when the books are opened on December 20 with the unveiling of the Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU). That was the message yesterday from Westpac in an economic commentary. But the bank’s analysis did not include any changes to capital ...
It is quiet reading time in Room 13! It is so quiet you can hear the Tui outside. It is so quiet you can hear the Fulton Hogan crew.It is so quiet you can hear old Mr Grant and old Mr Bradbury standing by the roadworks and counting the conesand going on ...
It looks like the new ministerial press secretaries have quickly learned the art of camouflaging exactly what their ministers are saying – or, at least, of keeping the hard news out of the headlines and/or the opening sentences of the statements they post on the home page of the governments ...
The big dairy co-op Fonterra had some Christmas cheer to offer its farmers this week, increasing its forecast farmgate milk price and earnings guidance for the year after what it calls a strong start to the year. The forecast midpoint for the 2023/24 season is up 25cs to $7.50 per ...
Michael Bassett writes – Many of the comments about the Coalition’s determination to wind back the dramatic Maorification of New Zealand of the last three years would have you believe the new government is engaged in a full-scale attack on Maori. In reality, all that is happening ...
Mary Robinson asked Al Jaber a series of very simple, direct and highly pertinent questions and he responded with a high-octane public meltdown. Photos: Getty Images / montage: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR The hygiene effects of direct sunshine are making some inroads, perhaps for the very first time, on the normalised ‘deficit ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Appointed by new Labour PM Jacinda Ardern in 2018, Cindy Kiro headed the Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG) tasked with reviewing and recommending reforms to the welfare system. Kiro had been Children’s Commissioner during Helen Clark’s Labour government but returned to academia subsequently. ...
It seems even our transport agencies don’t want Labour’s harbour crossing plans. In August the previous government and Waka Kotahi announced their absurd preferred option the new harbour crossing that at the time was estimated to cost $35-45 billion. It included both road tunnels and a wiggly light rail tunnel ...
Hi,Paying Webworm members such as yourself keep this thing running, so as 2023 draws to close, I wanted to do two things to say a giant, loud “THANKS”. Firstly — I’m giving away 10 Mister Organ blu-rays in New Zealand, and another 10 in America. More details down below.Secondly — ...
Yesterday saw the State Opening of Parliament, the Speech from the Throne, and then Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s dream for Aotearoa in his first address. But first the pomp and ceremony, the arrival of the Governor General.Dame Cindy Kiro arrived on the forecourt outside of parliament to a Māori welcome. ...
Probably not since 1975 have we seen a government take office up against such a wall of protest and complaint. That was highlighted yesterday, the day that the new Parliament was sworn in, with news that King Tuheitia has called a national hui for late January to develop a ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). War, conflict and climate change are tearing apart lives across the world. But these aren't separate harms - they're intricately connected. ...
These dire woeful and intolerant people have been so determinedly going about their small and petulant business, it’s hard to keep up. At the end of the new government’s first woeful week, Audrey Young took the time to count off its various acts of denigration of Te Ao Māori:Review the ...
The new white supremacist government made attacking te reo a key part of its platform, promising to rename government agencies and force them to "communicate primarily in English" (which they already do). But today they've gone further, by trying to cut the pay of public servants who speak te reo: ...
Buzz from the Beehive The biggest buzz we bring you from the Beehive today is that the government’s official website is up and going after being out of action for more than a week. The latest press statement came from Education Minister Eric Stanford, who seized on the 2022 PISA ...
There was another ETS auction this morning. and like all the other ones this year, it failed to clear - meaning that 23 million tons of carbon (15 million ordinary units plus 8 million in the cost containment reserve) went up in smoke. Or rather, they didn't. Being unsold at ...
This isn’t news, but the National-led coalition is mounting a sustained assault on Treaty rights and obligations. Even so, Christopher Luxon has described yesterday’s nationwide protests by Maori as “pretty unfair.” Poor thing. In the NZ Herald, Audrey Young has compiled a useful list of the many, many ways that ...
New Zealand’s dairy industry, the mainstay of the country’s export trade, has been under pressure from rising costs. Down on the farm, this has been hitting hard. But there was more positive news this week, first from the latest Fonterra GDT auction where prices rose, and then from a report ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In their rush to discredit the new government (which our MainStream Media regard as illegitimate and having no right to enact the democratic will of voters) the NZ Herald and Newshub are arguing ACT’s Deputy Leader Brooke van Veldon is not following Treasury advice ...
Even many young people who smoke support smokefree policies, fitting in with previous research showing the large majority of people who smoke regret starting and most want to quit. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere on the morning of Wednesday, December ...
Well it didn’t take six months, but the leaks have begun. Yes the good ship Coalition has inadvertently released a confidential cabinet paper into the public domain, discussing their axing of Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs).Oops.Just when you were admiring how smoothly things were going for the new government, they’ve had ...
A wave of new and higher fees, rates and charges will ripple out over the economy in the next 18 months as mayors, councillors, heads of department and price-setters for utilities such as gas, electricity, water and parking ramp up charges. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Just when most ...
Hi,Kiwis — keep the evening of December 22nd free. I have a meetup planned, and will send out an invite over the next day or so. This sounds sort of crazy to write, but today will be Tony Stamp’s final Totally Normalcolumn of 2023. Somehow we’ve made it to ...
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 ...
The electorate has high expectations of the new government. The question is: can it deliver? Some might say the signs are not promising. Protestors are already marching in the streets. The new Prime Minister has had little experience of managing very diverse politicians in coalition. The economy he ...
Nicola of Marsden:Yo, normies! We will fix your cost of living worries by giving you a tax cut of 150 dollars. 150! Cash money! Vote National.Various people who can read and count:Actually that's 150 over a fortnight. Not a week, which is how you usually express these things.And actually, it looks ...
When this government came to power, it did so on an explicitly white supremacist platform. Undermining the Waitangi Tribunal, removing Māori representation in local government, over-riding the courts which had tried to make their foreshore and seabed legislation work, eradicating te reo from public life, and ultimately trying to repudiate ...
Buzz from the Beehive Maybe this is not the best time for our Minister of Defence to have gone overseas. Not when the Maori Party is inviting (or should that be inciting?) its followers to join a revolution in a post which promoted its protest plans with a picture of ...
A Maori Party post on Instagram invited party followers to …. Tangata Whenua, Tangata Tiriti, Join the REVOLUTION! & make a stand! Nationwide Action Day, All details in tiles swipe to see locations. • This is our 1st hit out and tomorrow Tuesday the 5th is the opening ...
The RBNZ governor is citing high net migration and profit-led inflation as factors in the bank’s hawkish stance. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere on the morning of Tuesday, December 5, including:Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr says high net migration and ...
Willis has accused labour of “economic vandalism’, while Robertson described her comments as a “desperate diversion from somebody who can't make their tax package add up”. There will now be an intense focus on December 20 to see whether her hyperbole is backed up by true surprises. Photo montage: Lynn ...
The City Rail Link has been in the headlines a bit recently so I thought I’d look at some of them. First up, yesterday the NZ Herald ran this piece about the ongoing costs of the CRL. Auckland ratepayers will be saddled with an estimated bill of $220 million each ...
Is this the most shambolic government in the history of New Zealand? Given that parliament hasn’t even opened they’ve managed quite a list of achievements to date.The Smokefree debacle trading lives for tax cuts, the Trumpian claims of bribery in the Media, an International award for indifference, and today the ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis late yesterday stopped only slightly short of accusing her predecessor Grant Robertson of cooking the books. She complained that the Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU), due to be made public on December 20, would show “fiscal cliffs” that would amount to “billions of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The year was 2015. ‘Uptown Funk’ with Bruno Mars was at the top of the music charts. Jurassic World was the most popular new movie in theaters. And decades of futility in international climate negotiations was about to come to an end in ...
As a heads-up, I am not one of those people who stay awake at night thinking about weird Culture War nonsense. At least so far as the current Maori/Constitutional arrangements go. In fact, I actually consider it the least important issue facing the day to day lives of New ...
Strong Words: “We do not consent, we do not surrender, we do not cede, we do not submit; we, the indigenous, are rising. We do not buy into the colonial fictions this House is built upon. Te Pāti Māori pledges allegiance to our mokopuna, our whenua, and Te Tiriti o ...
Some days it feels like the only thing to say is: Seriously? No, really. Seriously?OneSomeone has used their health department access to share data about vaccinations and patients, and inform the world that New Zealanders have been dying in their hundreds of thousands from the evil vaccine. This of course is pure ...
Buzz from the Beehive After $21.8 million was spent on investigations, the plug has been pulled on the Lake Onslow pumped-hydro electricity scheme, The scheme – that technically could have solved New Zealand’s looming energy shortage, according to its champions – was a key part of the defeated Labour government’s ...
If those elected to the Māori Seats refuse to take them, then what possible reason could the country have for retaining them?Chris Trotter writes – Christmas is fast approaching, which, as it does every year, means gearing up for an abstruse general knowledge question. “Who was ...
The coalition party agreements are mainly about returning to 2017 when National lost power. They show commonalities but also some serious divergencies.Brian Easton writes – The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he ...
The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out – for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable ...
As Deb Te Kawa writes in an op-ed, the new Government seems to have immediately bought itself fights with just about everyone. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere as of 10 am on Monday December 4, including:Palau’s President ...
Let’s begin today by thinking about job interviews.During my career in Software Development I must have interviewed hundreds of people, hired at least a hundred, but few stick in the memory.I remember one guy who was so laid back he was practically horizontal, leaning back in his chair until his ...
New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he left off. Peters sought to align ...
Auckland’s city rail link is the most expensive rail project in the world per km, and the CRL boss has described the cost of infrastructure construction in Aotearoa as a crisis. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The 3.5 km City Rail Link (CRL) tunnel under Auckland’s CBD has cost ...
The first big test of the new Government’s approach to Treaty matters is likely to be seen in the return of the Resource Management Act. RMA Minister Chris Bishop has confirmed that he intends to introduce legislation to repeal Labour’s recently passed Natural and Built Environments Act and its ...
Time to revisit something I haven’t covered in a while: the D&D campaign, with Saqua the aquatic half-vampire. Last seen in July: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2023/07/27/the-song-of-saqua-volume-ii/ The delay is understandable, once one realises that the interim saw our DM come down with a life-threatening medical situation. They have since survived to make ...
A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 26, 2023 thru Dec 2, 2023. Story of the Week CO2 readings from Mauna Loa show failure to combat climate changeDaily atmospheric carbon dioxide data from Hawaiian volcano more ...
Affirmative Action was a key theme at this election, although I don’t recall anyone using those particular words during the campaign.They’re positive words, and the way the topic was talked about was anything but. It certainly wasn’t a campaign of saying that Affirmative Action was a good thing, but that, ...
It was at the end of the Foxton straights, at the end of 1978, at 100km/h, that someone tried to grab me from behind on my Yamaha.They seemed to be yanking my backpack. My first thought was outrage. My second was: but how? Where have they come from? And my ...
There’s no news to be gleaned from the government’s official website today – it contains nothing more than the message about the site being under maintenance. The time this maintenance job is taking and the costs being incurred have us musing on the government’s commitment to an assault on inflation. ...
Don’t you sometimes wish they’d just tell the truth? No matter how abhorrent or ugly, just straight up tell us the truth?C’mon guys, what you’re doing is bad enough anyway, pretending you’re not is only adding insult to injury.Instead of all this bollocks about the Smokefree changes being to do ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Friday Under New Management Week in review, quiz style1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. ...
Like earlier this year, members from our team will be involved with next year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The conference will take place on premise in Vienna as well as online from April 14 to 19, 2024. The session catalog has been available since November 1 ...
1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. Under New Management 2. Which of these best describes the 100 days of action announced this week by the new government?a. Petulantb. Simplistic and wrongheaded c. ...
Sorry to say, the government’s official website is still out of action. When Point of Order paid its daily visit, the message was the same as it has been for the past week: Site under maintenanceBeehive.govt.nz is currently under maintenance. We will be back shortly. Thank you for your ...
Labour’s immigration spokesperson Phil Twyford is calling on the Government to follow the example of Australia and help New Zealanders’ close family members stuck in Gaza to escape and take shelter here. ...
The Green Party is urging the Government to recognise its commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi so our tamariki and mokopuna can grow up in an Aotearoa where their language is celebrated, their health is prioritised, and their whenua is protected. ...
By scrapping Aotearoa’s world-leading smokefree laws, this government is sacrificing Māori lives to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. Not only is this plan revolting, but it doesn’t add up. Treasury has estimated that the reversal of smokefree laws to pay for tax cuts will cost our health system $5.25bn, ...
Figures showing National needs to find another $900 million for landlords highlights the mess this coalition Government is in less than a week into the job. ...
Community organisations, mana whenua and the Greens have written to the incoming Minister of Oceans and Fisheries to call for the progression without delay of the Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana Marine Protection Bill. ...
"On behalf of the Labour Party I would like to congratulate Christopher Luxon on his appointment as Prime Minister,” Labour Party Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
NZ First has gotten their wish to ‘take our country back’ to the 1800s with a policy program that will white-wash Aotearoa and erase tangata whenua rights. By disestablishing the Māori Health Authority this Government has condemned Māori to die seven years earlier than Pākehā. By removing Treaty obligations from ...
Te Pāti Māori have called for the resignation of the Ministry of Foreign and Trade chief executive Chris Seed following his decision to erase te reo Māori from government communications. While the country still waits for a new government to be formed, Mr Seed took it upon himself to undermine ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon joined Cyclone Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell and Transport and Local Government Minister Simeon Brown, to meet leaders of cyclone and flood-affected regions in the Hawke’s Bay. The visit reinforced the coalition Government’s commitment to support the region and better understand its ongoing requirements, Mr Mitchell says. ...
New Zealand has joined the UK and other partners in condemning malicious cyber activity conducted by the Russian Government, Minister Responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau Judith Collins says. The statement follows the UK’s attribution today of malicious cyber activity impacting its domestic democratic institutions and processes, as well ...
The Government has begun the process of disestablishing Te Pūkenga as part of its 100-day plan, Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills Penny Simmonds says. “I have started putting that plan into action and have met with the chair and chief Executive of Te Pūkenga to advise them of my ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will be leaving for Dubai today to attend COP28, the 28th annual UN climate summit, this week. Simon Watts says he will push for accelerated action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement, deliver New Zealand’s national statement and connect with partner countries, private sector leaders ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins yesterday announced New Zealand will host next year’s South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting (SPDMM). “Having just returned from this year’s meeting in Nouméa, I witnessed first-hand the value of meeting with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security and defence matters. I welcome the opportunity to ...
The Government is committed to lifting school achievement in the basics and that starts with removing distractions so young people can focus on their learning, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. The 2022 PISA results released this week found that Kiwi kids ranked 5th in the world for being distracted ...
Today I met with Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to set out my expectations, which he has agreed to, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. Under section 16(1) of the Policing Act 2008, the Minister can expect the Police Commissioner to deliver on the Government’s direction and priorities, as now outlined in ...
New Zealand needs a strong and stable Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that is well placed for the future, after emission units failed to sell for the fourth and final auction of the year, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. At today’s auction, 15 million New Zealand units (NZUs) – each ...
With 2022 PISA results showing a decline in achievement, Education Minister Erica Stanford is confident that the Coalition Government’s 100-day plan for education will improve outcomes for Kiwi kids. The 2022 PISA results show a significant decline in the performance of 15-year-old students in maths compared to 2018 and confirms ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today departed for New Caledonia to attend the 8th annual South Pacific Defence Ministers’ meeting (SPDMM). “This meeting is an excellent opportunity to meet face-to-face with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security matters and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the Pacific,” Judith Collins says. ...
Putting more money in the pockets of hard-working families is a priority of this Coalition Government, starting with an increase to Working for Families, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. “We are starting our 100-day plan with a laser focus on bringing down the cost of living, because that is what ...
Most weeks, following Cabinet, the Prime Minister holds a press conference for members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. This page contains the transcripts from those press conferences, which are supplied by Hansard to the Office of the Prime Minister. It is important to note that the transcripts have not been edited ...
The Government has axed the $16 billion Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme championed by the previous government, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says. “This hugely wasteful project was pouring money down the drain at a time when we need to be reining in spending and focussing on rebuilding the economy and ...
New Zealand welcomes the further one-day extension of the pause in fighting, which will allow the delivery of more urgently-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza and the release of more hostages, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said. “The human cost of the conflict is horrific, and New Zealand wants to see the violence ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today expressed on behalf of the New Zealand Government his condolences to the family of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who has passed away at the age of 100 at his home in Connecticut. “While opinions on his legacy are varied, Secretary Kissinger was ...
Every child deserves a world-leading education, and the Coalition Government is making that a priority as part of its 100-day plan. Education Minister Erica Stanford says that will start with banning cellphone use at school and ensuring all primary students spend one hour on reading, writing, and maths each day. ...
I would like to begin by echoing the Prime Minister’s thanks to the organisers of this Summit, Fran O’Sullivan and the Auckland Business Chamber. I want to also acknowledge the many leading exporters, sector representatives, diplomats, and other leaders we have joining us in the room. In particular, I would like ...
Good morning. Thank you, Rosemary, for your warm introduction, and to Fran and Simon for this opportunity to make some brief comments about New Zealand’s relationship with the United States. This is also a chance to acknowledge my colleague, Minister for Trade Todd McClay, Ambassador Tom Udall, Secretary of Foreign ...
Good morning, tēnā koutou and namaskar. Many thanks, Michael, for your warm welcome. I would like to acknowledge the work of the India New Zealand Business Council in facilitating today’s event and for the Council’s broader work in supporting a coordinated approach for lifting New Zealand-India relations. I want to also ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has laid out the Coalition Government’s plan for its first 100 days from today. “The last few years have been incredibly tough for so many New Zealanders. People have put their trust in National, ACT and NZ First to steer them towards a better, more prosperous ...
A significant milestone in ratifying the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was reached last night, with 524 of the 705 member European Parliament voting in favour to approve the agreement. “I’m delighted to hear of the successful vote to approve the NZ-EU FTA in the European Parliament overnight. This is ...
A landmark Waitangi Tribunal report into injustices suffered by Ngāpuhi will strengthen the iwi's case as it looks to restart its stalled Treaty settlement negotiations, a hapū leader says. ...
In just 18 months, the Auckland-based YouTube channel has gone from working from home and out of cafes to a brand new multi-million dollar studio. Sam Brooks asks the trio how they pulled it off, and what they’re planning to do with it.On December 4, a video called “The ...
The Anika Moa Unleashed host unleashes her thoughts on After the Party, Paul Holmes, The Walking Dead, stalking celebrities and more. Anika Moa has a proud history of angering strangers online, whether it’s due to her tattoos, her love life, or something else entirely. When she sits down with The ...
Searching widely for ways to overcome deep opposition by fossil fuel nations to a phase-out of their products, the President of COP28 enlisted an ally while negotiators sought subtler language yesterday. “We have been asked by the UAE presidency to help find common language that will be acceptable ...
With a topic so universal, it’s almost always about something bigger. Consider the contents of your fridge. What kinds of fruits and vegetables are in your crisper drawer? How much did that block of cheese set you back? Where did you source most of this kai from? Are there ingredients ...
You can read the full story, plus see photographs from Craig McKenzie, in the November-December issue of New Zealand Geographic magazine, or on their website. The bittern’s eerie, booming call sounds like a lament, a tangi ringing across the marshes. Now, the birds themselves are in trouble. ...
Opinion: You may have been there, waiting your turn, wearing an ill-fitting hospital gown, surrounded by a flurry of staff, the smell of disinfectant in the air. If you’ve ever undergone surgery, you probably know the nervous, stress-laden pre-op feeling. What may come as a surprise is that ...
1. In the evening and in the night, I sit on the balcony and think of you. I can’t see the water but I know it’s there, soft and slow. We bathed in it that last day, you and I, when the dusk hung heavy as cloth of gold ...
Alex Casey unearths the origin story of an New Zealand icon – featuring a surprise cameo from an international comedy megastar. At first glance, the Facebook post from a Waipu cafe reads like any other heartfelt change in ownership announcement. “George and Amber have reflected on their involvement in our ...
This week on Their house, my garden, why my spinach plant has grown suspiciously tall, and how to deal with your own over-eager plants. Beginner gardeners would be forgiven for thinking a plant growing tall is reason to celebrate. We are, after all, the kind of species who mark door ...
Luxon drove the crumbling SH2 with a handful of MPs on Friday morning to reach the small town, gauge progress of its recovery, and learn what it needs from the new government. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bianca Baggiarini, Lecturer, Australian National University Last week, reports emerged that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are using an artificial intelligence (AI) system called Habsora (Hebrew for “The Gospel”) to select targets in the war on Hamas in Gaza. The system has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Johan Lidberg, Associate Professor, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University The most significant recommendation in the Senate inquiry report on the functionality of the Commonwealth FOI system is this: move the federal Freedom of Information (FOI) function from the Office ...
Analysis: The government was under attack on multiple fronts during a week of relentless criticism and then faced its first Question Time in Parliament, Peter Wilson writes. ...
Well, it’s 4.30pm on a Friday which feels as appropriate time as ever to say goodbye. The Spinoff’s live updates have come to an end, almost four years after they were first switched on. If you missed my explainer this morning of what’s going on, here it is. In short: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Di Winkler, Adjunct Associate Professor, La Trobe University Shutterstock A home – in the physical and emotional sense – is foundational to living an ordinary life with a feeling of inclusion. National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants with the highest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren Roberts, Conjoint Associate Professor in clinical pharmacology and toxicology, St Vincent’s Healthcare Clinical Campus, UNSW Sydney Veronika Kunitsyna/Shutterstock Red imported fire ants are a particularly nasty type of ant because they are aggressive, and inflict painful stings that may ...
Christopher Luxon says the new government is going to continue everything that the previous one put into place to help with the recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
Te Whatu Ora is continuing to investigate after a data breach that saw vaccine-related information shared online last week. The agency is liaising with the Privacy Commissioner and said it will make “any appropriate notifications” if individuals were impacted by the breach. “Alongside the work to identify the material allegedly ...
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Gordon Campbell did an excellent analytical report on Spain's election outcome and the new lie of their political terrain: http://werewolf.co.nz/2023/07/gordon-campbell-on-the-lessons-from-spains-election/
He goes on to make the point that the media switched from focus on govt problems to focus on opposition credibility which produced a feeling of revulsion in the public enough to collapse the rightist support base relatively.
Relevance to here is indicative. The media focus will always be on controversy (sensation rules) but quiet days can switch their focus to future prospects, and the public mood often reflects that. Floating voters are always seeking a better option, so their collective shifts are relative to feeling averse to either or both left & right at the time. When left & right compete for centrists, their simulations tend to be transparent to floaters & you get a lack of gravitating towards those poles. Hung parliament in Spain resulting – maybe headed thataway here too…
Ain't happening here mate. They're too shallow, lazy poorly-educated and high on their imaginary celebrity.
Dan Wootten is a New Zealander, something that makes me deeply, deeply ashamed. This scandal could not be much worse.
https://bylinetimes.com/2023/07/24/martin-branning-his-first-victim/
He was paying people using Newscorp cash to covertly film gay and straight men having sex with them so he could use the tapes at a later date to extort and blackmail them.
This is the logical conclusion of the era of the Murdoch press, and shows how corrupt the UK right wing tabloid media is.
A completely heinous crime and the perpetrator of such acts should be in jail.
However where is the due process? Has Wooten been charged?
Do you realize he is crowd funding to sue the bylinetimes?
I checked the BBC website,no mention of this case there. I would have thought they would run with it if the story could be validated.
I am not saying he didn't do this. How would I know? But I would have more faith in the story if the police were involved, making statements.
I hope whoever did it (and it could be Dan) is found guilty and gets a very heavy sentence
Your faith in the BBC is touching but misplaced. Novara have also covered the story, very carefully, professionally and with their usual intellectual honesty.
Actually I don't have a lot of faith in the BBC, I thought they would likely cover it if it was a verified story because they are in opposition to GB News.
I will look up Novara myself.
I am not saying he didn't do thes heinous crime, just due process and all that.
Are the police investigating?
The BBC reported on the allegations last week.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-66240304
Thanks Joe90 and as the BBC report they are allegations.
Very, very serious ones.
Very, very
seriousdetailed ones.https://bylinetimes.com/2023/07/26/dan-wootton-paid-porn-stars-with-suns-depp-money-for-covert-catfish-sex-videos/
Likewise here – and long before this story came to light.. Ashamed, but not surprised because this country has plenty of little Dan Woottens running around – heading I sense for a gleeful victory in October. He is definitely one of us.
Well this just keeps getting worse for Kiri Allan. You should not leave the scene of an accident. She wasn't that drunk as she was under the old 400 limit according to reports.
Kiri Allan car crash: Police dogs tracked MP, she was located 500 metres from scene – report – NZ Herald
Why do you think that she can't leave the scene of an accident?
As far as I can see the only requirement, provided that no-one has been injured, is that you must notify the owner of the vehicle she damaged, or the police, within 60 hours.
There doesn't seem to be any requirement to stay there.
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/roadcode/general-road-code/about-driver-responsibility/crashes/#:~:text=If%20you're%20involved%20in%20a%20crash%20while%20driving%2C%20and,24%20hours%20after%20the%20crash.
that's my understanding. Only issue I can see is that her car was apparently still in the middle of the road. I think there would be an expectation of making sure that wasn't a hazard to other motorists.
I guess if your in the middle of a break down and have just done something that's going to finish your career, your smashed car blocking a road is probably not even in your thoughts
yep. Her judgement seems majorly impaired, and I don't think she is being give good advice (or she is ignoring it). I read her FB post and it's about her and her feelings. This is understandable but it's appropriate for people close to her, not public announcements from an MP in government.
I have just had a look at the photo of the crash and there certainly is a major blockage. I wasn't thinking about that. The only way to get past would be to get your wheels onto the cycle lane as it blocks both vehicle lanes on the road.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/justice-minister-kiri-allans-arrest-and-resignation-photo-shows-crash-on-evans-bay-parade-wellington/PZLIGJ763VEMRODL44SKEFMQVU/
From the damage to the ute I doubt that her car could be driven though. I'm not sure what she is actually required to do in that case.
"From the damage to the ute I doubt that her car could be driven though. I'm not sure what she is actually required to do in that case."
If you had an accident and your vehicle was blocking the road, normally you would call police and wait with the vehicle for it to be towed.
Unless of course, you were over the limit and should not have been driving, in that case people often abandon their vehicle and make a run for it, and deny they were the driver.
The legal requirement appears to be to notify the owner of any damaged vehicles or property "as soon as possible" [from your link, above]
As soon as possible, with a parked car, would be door-knocking the adjacent houses, to find who it belonged to. The first door would have found them.
She seems to be in breach of the road code.
However, that's only a minor issue – and (all other things being equal) wouldn't have raised a ripple in the papers [e.g. if her car had lost traction in the rain (not speeding), or if she'd been distracted, and hit the parked car (all too common in our local supermarket carpark)]
I get the horrible feeling that the opposition and media will not be satisfied until they have hounded her to death. This is more than a lack of empathy its a complete lack of compassion. We are very lucky the only harm was to a couple of cars.
She has been through treatment for stage three cervical cancer, I surmise there is a medically induced menopause with its severe mood swings, a host of physical complications including cognitive changes. Forty percent of stage three cervical cancers do not survive beyond five years, try living with that threat every day.
Being moralistic does not suffice in these types of situations. While no medical expert, a friend of mine with lung cancer which spread, bought 5 years of life so far by paying for very effective Keytruda (now on Pharmac list for cancers other than just Melanomas).
Doctors warned her of “chemo brain” which sounded rather patronising, but they were right, mood swings, doing weird stuff and the constant existential overlay of “my time might be up”.
Kiritapu has multiple issues to deal with by the sounds of it, so while you do not have to applaud her for not calling a cab–at least don’t put the slipper in.
Or call for her to be crucified and/or otherwise hounded…as some on the Kiri comments section did.
Disgusting.
I am going to call this a little hypocritical.
Many of this site continue to bring up Sam U…….the National Party bloke who
horrendously beat up another student when he was 16 years.
The charges against Kiri given she was Justice Minister are quite severe.
We pay her a salary of over $300000 to do this job. I think it is in the public interest to know what happened.
And as I have already said, I think most of the commentary has been kind and reasonable.
Huh? Hypocritical? What… are you on about? In my comment…I said about some who wanted Kiri to be crucified or similar.
At NO stage have I talked about Mr..Sam Uffindell. Ever.
You can apologise..
A bit absent-minded there.
https://thestandard.org.nz/nationals-culture-problem-2/#comment-1904616
Aha the respectful centrist. Well you think you are quite the trawler aye? I meant in this Kiri should be crucified related commentary.
As Anker was alluding.
Nope. Just correcting your conveniently faulty memory. Didn't require trawling – just a simple search.
If you meant in this thread, then you should say in this thread.
Your beef with Anker, is your beef with Anker – nothing to do with me.
Yep. A trawler. Respectfully Centrist ..of course. Had you sussed quite a time back.
Don't start a flame war.
If you have nothing useful to contribute – and have to resort to name calling – stay silent.
What? No flame war from me. And this from the person who has to go back to a comment nearly a year old.
Sad…
There's certainly no more room for doubt about the motivation of those who want to keep this going (like Jester, above).
If the motivation is the public interest (i.e. "holding to account") then all of the following would be legitimate …
1) Demanding the Minister go … but it's already happened.
2) Demanding the ex-Minister quit Parliament … but it's already happened.
3) Demanding that she be charged, and subject to the same judicial process as the rest of us … but it's already happening.
4, 5, 6 etc …) Demanding that the PM front up. Demanding a debate in Parliament. Demanding that Kiri Allan make a statement, including an apology. And so on.
All of which has already happened. Those are the facts, and all in the public domain.
So what exactly do they want now from Kiri Allan? Pitchforks? To achieve … what?
Morgan Godfery writes an excellent column ruing the relentless spotlight on Kiri. Obsever at 3.2.2 has summed it up so well and I take my hat off for Godfery too.
https://www.thepress.co.nz/a/nz-news/350042701/morgan-godfery-defence-kiri-allan-and-maori-women
If that had been a National minister Labour would be rolling out similar criticisms
Labour's chances of regaining power now are Zero.Unless National have a high profile scandal hidden away.highly unlikely remember when Mike Williams shot over to Melbourne in the hope of digging some dirt and it backfired. Labour is going to be an opposition party for sometime.
"Labour's chances of regaining power now are Zero"
I don't think you should buy into this Nats/Act framing Tricle. A couple of ministers have made mistakes and another has a mental illness problem.
Meanwhile 17 other ministers are beavering away doing a lot of good stuff running the country. The economy has come through Covid and the Ukraine war induced contraction and two massive flood events in a reasonably healthy state. Inflation is now almost under control, the housing market has undertaken a much needed price-fall, state houses are being built, the minimum wage is moving towards a livable wage, many people have been taken out of poverty and more money is being spent on public transport and climate change. The health system has been reformed, RMA reforms are almost ready to go and the Affordable Water reforms are moving forward.
National's game, aided by the MSM, is to portray this a government as being in chaos, when it is anything but.
This is such a transparent beat-up. For example, Stuff has now hired Tova O'Brien to stick it to Labour.
Do you think having a health issue is justification for driving drunk and crashing a car?
If not then don't you consider Kiri to have made a mistake as well as the two ministers you have referred to?
Kiri made mistakes before the careless driving etc situation. The speech at Radio NZ. Alledged reports of bullying by two senior public servants, which is unusal. A suggestion of a badly handled conflict of interest over Mein Fong, Posting about her distress about her relationship on FB or twitter two weeks ago, was another sign of not being able to maintain boundaries.
Jan Tinetti, mislead the house and failed to correct and it went before privledges committee
Michael Wood conflict of interest and misleading PM about his shares being sold when they weren't.
Stuart Nash, say no more.
David Parker resigning from Revenue a clear FU to Chris Hipkins.
Meka Whiteri. Walked.
As a Labour/Green old chum of mine message me "the wheels are falling off".
I would be hard pressed to think of a cabinet that has had so many problems/resignations in such a short space of time…….happy for someone to provide other examples
None of this makes Luxon remotely electable.
I go along with most of what you say BG and I think it is a shame that Hipkins didn't take the opportunity to 'blood' a new minister. Especially with a view that they 'hit the ground running' post Oct 14th.
His excuses, close to an election etc can play into a narrative that the election is already lost, shallow talent pool etc.
That anyone, other than a journalist, sees government determined by the public appearance/reputation of the politicians, rather than the policies and governance is depressing.
It would mean gotcha journalism and character assassination dominate.
Thank you psych nurse. I had daymares. Nightmares with my eyes open, full panic sweats and shakes about "what might go wrong" with driving a car, flying, any trigger, until hormone treatment and then "I was back".
My aunt who had breast cancer could not have the treatment. She lived with bad nerves for years.
So yes, being on your own during one of those is terrifying, Kiri reached out to Willie, but he wasn't physically close enough to help, and it all just "piled up".
The mistakes she has made are being blown out of proportion to suit certain views and narratives. These reporters need to take a breath and show some humanity, but unfortunately some are like Seymore, opportunists.
This is more than just “mental health” issues. I think that she has been “found out” and those around her are no longer accepting some of her behaviour, so she’s got nowhere to go.
Ive seen this happen to bullies before, people start seeing them for what they really are, and stop putting up with their BS. So the bully has nowhere to go so they “collapse” in order to gain control and to not be held accountable for their actions.
There were allegations of previous unacceptable behaviour directed at public service employees, now it appears that she has been bullying junior MP’s.
she has been pulled up on her behaviour and is now having a hissy fit to avoid being held accountable.
Could you please link to this "hissy fit"?
And, in what way is she not "held accountable"? Do you follow the news, at all?
The explanation of the impact of cancer treatment on someone is made and you remain fixated on the Inquisitor mode, about the character of the person … we can only now presume … political agenda and ignore the spam.
But the unverified claims – back them up.
Wow!! So Terry, do you know who is complaining? Or do you jump at every rumour to add them to the actual mistakes?
There you go, regular as a clockwork bowel movement.
Shut up about this if you're serious, and go comment on something useful, like that post today about Labour's reneging…
Or are youactually just trolling?
Yes.
Yes here too Anne. Very concerning.
Te Huia is allowed back into central Auckland.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/waikato/132622712/te-huia-train-service-allowed-back-into-central-auckland
Kiwirail should have invested in the new safety equipment that NZTA asked for, right back at the business case for Te Huia. They were quite happy to shell out for new station and track in Hamilton.
But good patch for now.
Can't see why it was an issue. The chances of Te Huia encountering a working train on the Auckland network are next to zero.
I see Blinken has dropped in for a few hours and no doubt our pm will be fawning all over him personally i'd have sent a junior office clerk an maybe shouted him a cup of instant at the local pie cart similar to how the Chinese treated him recently !
Blinking Blinken, there have been a number of US officials and delegations roaming around the Pacific lately…what could they possibly want…
I recall during the sirKey years when the “Hobbit Act” and Kim Dot Com raid were on the go, non commercial American planes were spotted at Wellington Airport. They always come sniffing around.
Political diagnosis from Luke Malpass:
Note the banal framing: Labour will be desperate to plug caucus leaks. One swallow don't make no summer, as an illiterate Englishman might say. Can anyone actually plug caucus leaks?? Experience tells us no: the tendency to leak under sufficient pressure is as likely in National as in Labour. Leaks happen regardless of witch-hunting endeavours if the motive is sufficient. Btw I wouldn't blame Luke for that banal framing – more likely blame his editor – a level up the media hierarchy.
The most significant dimension revealed by the leak seems to be the victim specifying abuse spanning two years, with implied tolerance by powers that be – yet with no mention of any victim complaint. Smoke without fire again.
Its not overly suprising really, youve got a whole bunch of mp's who have come to the stark realization that theyll be looking for a new job shortly. A fair portion of them will be feeling aggreived for real and imagined reasons. A small portion of them will have a big enough chip on the shoulder to try and do damage on the way out.
When Grant Robertson calls a press conference at Parliament, and calls Chris Hipkins a corrupt, criminal politician, and releases secret recordings of their phone conversations, and then marches off to the Wellington police station with the media in tow, to lay a complaint against his own leader …
then yes, Labour's internal "leaks" will be just as bad as National's.
So, a very long way to go. One dripping tap, and one dam bursting flood.
Yeah but Nationals implosion happened in opposition. They kept their shit together right up until Bill English left in 2018.
Labour has started imploding in government. After just 5 and a half years. It's unreal.
At first it looked like Jacindas retirement had created a post Helen Clark esque leadership vacuum in the party with Hipkins unable to fill it.
Increasingly, it looks the other way around:
Jacindas lack of leadership and discipline over her cabinet created a mountain of problems and a bunch of lazy, fast and loose, entitled ego driven MPs and bad behaviour to go unchecked.
All these problems were allowed to go unchecked under Ardern and as soon as a leader who tried to actually lead his caucus in a traditional style, the shit hit the fan.
The internal problems labour faces ATM is because Ardern was hands off. She was another Lange who let her cabinet run circles around her.
There is no defending Ardern, all of these problems should have been managed by her, years ago.
Now labour has an arrogant, divided caucus that can't focus on anything but themselves, two months out from an election.
If they are imploding this badly in government, god help us when they do the usual post government opposition implosion.
Don't be naff Corey. Cut the hyperbole.
Nash leaked Woods lied plus two retirements and a defection.
Now a Minister in strife.
Face it 6 hard years have caused fall out. As Chris Hipkins is finding, managing in a constant state of crisis is very demanding.
I don't think we would do any better with Luxon's sorry lot, plus Seymore playing holier than thou with his no human rights no treaty, and probably a failing narrow benefit system falling apart as they tell us "there is no money", except what they find for tax cuts contracts for mates etc.
Why are you quoting their rubbish??
plugging non existent 'anonymous leaks' even harder. imo.
A bit like finding a “homeless man in MIQ”.
Stuff has noticeable lurched to the right since the soft coup that saw Caitlin Cherry jump before she was pushed. The opinion attacks on Labour from their political staff have become much more aggressive. That sort of thing only happens with an email about an editiorial direction change and warnings about job losses amongst the luke warm if they paper doesn't turn revenue falls around.
They've brought in Tova O'Brian who it seems is the angel of death who appears when a news organisation moves to the right and then inevitably fails.
Yet Tova's first for Stuff this morning seemed to lack pizzazz.
inevitably fails
Another Belfast cowboy along with Van Morrison?? Well, cowgirl presumably…
So if Stuff has no stock exchange listing I assume she's sole owner still, more of a media baroness than cowgirl. In regard to chronic failure in capitalist enterprise, could be worth noting that the Post combined the mid-19th century Evening Post with the early 20th century Dominion about 20 years back. Evidence of continuity.
.
https://archive.li/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sinead-oconnor-dead-obituary-200764/
56!, Jeez, that's terrible. She def spoke her mind. Lion & Cobra is an exceptional album. Damn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9HEn1pqq4g Sister Sinead by Kris Kristofferson
Sad. Too young
After tearing up the Pope's photo on Saturday Night Live in 1992, Joe Pesci threatened to "smack" her.
She responded along the lines of 'if you believe half the stuff said about him, I wouldn't be the first woman he abused'.
One of my all time favourite records is her album of reggae covers, Throw Down Your Arms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq9Ydinu3HU&pp=ygUkdGhyb3cgZG93biB5b3VyIGFybXMgc2luZWFkIG8nY29ubm9y
Someone ridden by many demons – as well as making unforgettable music.
One never thought she'd make old bones.
Hopefully her family and those who loved her can find peace with this tragic loss.
The Israeli triad:
This is from a rather good in-depth look at their threat to the Supreme Court : https://www.vox.com/2023/7/24/23805532/israel-judicial-overhaul-reasonableness
Here is a well balanced piece on the bogged down, and increasingly untenable Ukraine counter offensive…
Did the US know the Ukraine offensive might fail, and if so, when?
This also begs the question of whether Washington will recognize when it must start pushing for an armistice.
"As the Quincy Institute’s Anatol Lieven has observed many times, Ukraine has already achieved a great victory that very few believed possible when the invasion occurred in February 2022. Russia has suffered staggering military losses, its international reputation is in tatters, and its forces have been stopped and pushed back far short of their original objectives."
"An armistice like the one that halted the fighting in Korea seventy years ago has been held up as a model for how the current war could be brought to an end. The Korean War also offers us a cautionary tale of the perils of overreaching, as the advance towards the Chinese border led to Chinese intervention and the prolonging of the war at great cost to all parties. Trying to recapture all territory held by Russian forces runs the risk of both Russian escalation and Ukrainian exhaustion, and Ukraine might end up with less than what it has today."
Of course with ultra war hawks and open Russia hawks like Blinkin and newly Biden appointed acting deputy secretary of state Victoria Nuland in the room, this only sane option seems tragically unrealistic…as these people are obviously insane.
Or maybe we could leave the definition of victory up to the Ukrainians rather than some random American think tank?
I'm pretty sure they're more than capable of defining their own military and foreign policy objectives without our help. And that when they do, it will not involve a half-assed truce that results in large chunks of their county being occupied by the Russians.
We have to remember that to the Ukrainian people, this isn't just a distant conflict that's going to end when the West gets bored of it: it's a struggle for national survival against a bellicose neighbor who has a grim historical record of straight-out mass murder.
And, on the subject of apt historical analogies, sitting around and letting autocracies gobble up their other nations in the 1930s while telling them they weren't worth fighting over turned out really well, right?
I don't understand how the progressive left has grown so soft, so cowardly, and so far up its own arse that it would support a morally bankrupt quasi-dictatorship for fear of soiling its own hands.
None of our values are worth anything if we aren't willing to fight for them.
As for the counteroffensive and it's purported failure: ces't la guerre
The Ukrainians will never take back any more significant land from the Russian now.
The progressive Left is mainly pro a negotiated end to this conflict because they are some of the few out side observers that seem to be willing to acknowledge/comprehend the awful and tragic series of events, that were heavily guided and funded by outside actors (we all know who they are) that finally led to this totally avoidable war.
No matter what you or I think, the fact of the matter is that all Super Powers demand boarder security…the USA, UK, France, China would have all done exactly what Russia is now doing had a hostile military alliance moved on to their boarder…that is just a fact.
So the question you should really be asking is why the USA/UK via NATO intentionally backed Russia into a corner when they all well knew that any Russian leader would have gone into the Ukraine with that provocation?
As the Head of the CIA warned of himself….
"The former US ambassador to Russia, William J. Burns, who is now director of the CIA, warned in a February 2008 embassy cable that Ukraine constituted a security “redline” for Moscow.
The confidential State Department cable was titled “Nyet Means Nyet: Russia’s NATO Enlargement Redlines” (“nyet” is Russian for “no”).
Burns cautioned that the issue of NATO membership for Ukraine “could potentially split the country in two, leading to violence or even, some claim, civil war, which would force Russia to decide whether to intervene.”
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2022/02/27/us-nato-expansion-ukraine-russia-intervene/
What would have been the down side of Ukraine being a neutral country?
"What would have been the down side of Ukraine being a neutral country?"
Not what russia wants. Russia wants to build their empire and subjugating Ukraine is a non-negotiable part of the plan. Nonsense like trying to dictate the foreign policy of your independent neighbour, is merely a means of war and conquest by other means.
"An armistice like the one that halted the fighting in Korea seventy years ago has been held up as a model for how the current war could be brought to an end."
Worked out great for the population that remained trapped in North Korea. Mass starvation, utter poverty and absolute suppression and abuse by the state. Plus compulsory worship of a clown dictator. Sounds lovely for them! But the Ukrainians don't seem so keen to sign up for that.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300936903/te-pti-mori-lobs-grenade-into-the-tax-debate
wow
Helps us align with Australia where first $18,000 is tax free.
Sensible policy from Maori Party.
Yes, but Chippy says no………, Grant and David say yes, but Chippy says no.
Well there's a good answer to that but it will take October 14th to precipitate.
Well done Te Pāti Māori!
Voters with a brain that would not be lonely if gifted another, will get exactly what is potentially on offer here. The key strategic political task in 2023 is surely to exclude Natzos and Act from office, so that there is opportunity to finally kick Rogernomics arse in 2026.
Turnout is King–and if the previously alienated young new gens climb on board the TPM & Green train there will be an upset Election result on October 14. The MMP negotiations will be interesting indeed.
Last one out please turn the lights off
"The key strategic political task in 2023 is surely to exclude Natzos and Act from office, so that there is opportunity to finally kick Rogernomics arse in 2026."
Dare to dream…I tautoko what you say but would add a severely diminished Labour too. A once in a lifetime opportunity with a majority MMP government and all we got was incremental tinkering.
Parker and Robertson are no-one's fools. Hipkins' Captain's Call (to not implement meaningful tax reform), to chase a few rich folk's votes to the detriment of thousands deserves to see Labour lumped in with the Nats and friends.
Here you go, cannot see details on the mechanisms of the wealth tax
https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/07/27/te-pati-maori-time-for-wealthy-to-pull-their-weight-on-tax/
When asked about the TPM tax announcements today, Chippy confirmed there will be no wealth tax is any Government he leads.
Bold of him to assume he has a choice. Unless he's happy being leader of the opposition, of course.
"Chippy confirmed there will be no wealth tax is any Government he leads."
I can see a win-win solution to that…
I can see Labour getting 20% if Chippy is rolled.
Less about rolling Hipkins but Labour may end up being grateful for 20%, Nats too.
HMS Neo-Liberalism is listing…
I admire your optimism
If the math works post-election…and it means being government or not being government…
..hipkins could be rolled during coalition negotiations…
Will that position be cemented into Labours election Manifesto ?
Or do we wait until THIS leader is overthrown to allow for any changes and how does anyone then know what they are voting for as we see some policies are on the basis of a leaders call/whim ? and who knows who will be leading Labour in the future and what leaders calls they will make in opposition/government !!!
To be fair, the Labour party have had two leaders and no overthrows in the last six years, compared to seven Nat leaders – although a couple of those had very short tenures, possibly indicating "trouble at mill"
I hope the devout Luxon adopts Bill English's (2017) election campaign commitment to cut the number of Kiwi children living in poverty by 50,000 over the next three years, and another 50,000 in the three years following – that would be awesome.
Counting placeholders like Nikki Kaye (1 day) and Shane Reiti (5 days) – seems a little disingenuous.
The substantive total: English, Bridges, Muller, Collins, Luxon is pretty much equivalent to the last time Labour were in opposition: Goff, Shearer, Cunliffe, Little, Ardern.
Or was that "trouble at 't mill" as well?
All good B – knew you could be relied on to counter this inveterate lefty's view.
Yes, Kaye's 1-day stint was a stop-gap response to the trouble with Muller, while Reti's 5-day reign smoothed over the Collins/Bridges stouch/meltdown.
Kaye’s gone, but can’t rule out Reti having another go in future. He may only have been in parliament less than 9 years, but that's still more than three times the experience of the current leader of the opposition.
Well, in that vein, you can't rule out Parker (after all he's only stated that he didn't want the leadership) or Robertson (likewise).
Opposition parties often go through leadership strife. They're trying to re-invent themselves, after a swinging electorate rebuff.
Trying to imagine more into it than that is bound to fail.
Yes, but our imaginations can sometimes be quite furious
Yes. I'm imagining what would happen to a defeated leader of a Government.
History is on my side…… More often than not, they are gone as leader within a year (in fact, the only exception that immediately comes to mind is Shipley – I think she lasted another 2-3 years)
What is interesting in this case, is whether Hipkins would be rolled, even if successful (success defined as in making a left coalition possible). His stated policies on tax are antithetical to TPM and GP – and there is clear division within his caucus, with a left-wing of the LP closer to the GP, than they are to Hipkins on some issues.
Yes, of course it's speculation – as is every other comment on TS about what might happen in October.
If you think the speculation is wrong – and Hipkins is safe as houses as leader of the LP – then make your case.
Imho it's pointless making an alternative case to a respectful centrist's imaginings – as pointless as expecting an explanation for "Clark's fury".
Not that one’s needed
See the comment below.
If you don't like making a case for the respectful centrist – perhaps you'd like to make one for the unabashed leftist.
Or is it only fun challenging the centrist?
Would that be "the centrist" who described Clark's reaction to Shipley being Aotearoa NZ's first woman PM as "Clark's fury"?
Imho, there's value in challenging regressive right comments* on TS. Misinformation and misrepresentation can also be a bit of a worry.
Your definition of 'centrist' may be broader than mine – time will tell.
So, not challenging the same comments from the Leftist.
Makes it clear just how principled you are.
Thanks, I do try to give an honest account of myself, and despise ACT.
Imho, "Clark's fury" makes it clear just how centrist you are.
This exchange began when you took exception to the way I took exception to Herodotus’ comment @13.3 – makes you think?
It always amazes me the way the hard-core left (and the hard-core right, for that matter) – seem to require their political heroes to be on pedestals – and decline to allow them any human reactions or emotions.
BTW – thanks for continuing to link to a very minor and rather incidental description of a natural human reaction – by my estimation, you've increased its circulation by 500%. Was that your intention?
And, still no reaction or challenge to exactly the same comments about the chances of Hipkins being rolled from the leftie…. Not very principled at all…..
And again, thanks for the continued promotion of my original comment.
You're welcome – always happy to highlight obvious fabrications, such as "Clark's fury", in this age of disinformation/misinformation – however “very minor and rather incidental“.
Information that is false and deliberately created to harm a person, social group, organization or country.
Information that is false, but not created with the intention of causing harm.
Information that is based on real facts, but manipulated to inflict harm on a person, organization or country.
https://www.undp.org/eurasia/dis/misinformation
When even the lefties are saying it …..
https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-27-07-2023/#comment-1961954
Are you now suggesting I've declined to allow Helen Clark (my "hero"?) "any human reactions or emotions"? That would be a truly bizarre twist.
You, a self-described centrist, fabricated "Clark's fury". You've provided no objective evidence to support your odd (for a centrist) mischaracterisation.
Maybe one or both of us is/are mistaken about "fury" and/or "centrist", but (imho), with 'centrist' comments like yours, who needs NAct. Just the impression I get from some of your comments – I could be wrong.
"..that's still more than three times the experience of the current leader of the opposition"
No,no,no,no…there was this airline. Here, let me tell you about it [deep breath in] …
Given parties make compromises in forming coalitions, a leaders word has more impact than the manifesto.
In this case it would seem to mean under Hipkins, Labour could only be a minority government with G and TPM providing little more than confidence and supply to keep NACT out.
Or Labour roll Hipkins immediately after the election (assuming that a left coalition has a mathematical chance), to allow a closer relationship with GP and TPM. Sounds pretty cynical…..
Meanwhile from Q2 in Parliament today it seems Labour maybe set to announce the removal of GST on fresh food as part of their last gasp attempt to regain the election initiative.
Anyone who’s ever been to the UK, ordered a sandwich and been presented with the eat in or take away question knows how fraught that policy is. Of course everyone says take away and the immediately takes a seat instead. 😂
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300937166/nationals-nicola-willis-claims-shes-been-leaked-labours-tax-policy
If it's not just nat shit stirring,
It'll almost gaurentee I won't vote labour , it's just dumb policy, over complicated overly expensive, is chippy calling all the shots?? Wothout listening to his minister's?
Labour has a death wish.
I really hope they dont, it's such a stupid idea.
It adds huge amounts of admin to what is a broad and simple tax.
The wealthy reap by far the biggest benifit in dollar terms.
Also lets be honest the duopoly will turn it into extra profit margin.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/10/uk-retailers-not-passing-on-tampon-tax-savings-to-women-report-says
Have to wait and see if the policy eventuates – but if it does it's an indication that the leaks from the Labour caucus are not one-off.
Would it make me a bad person if I hoped labour was leaking bullshit stories to willis to make her look like a screech 🦉!!??
Only you can know 😉
“Bullshit stories”
Him indoors had that thought!!
The Ugly Australian brand originator, John Howard demonstrating he was not and is not shit-lite.
First stating the good fortune of Oz (those aboriginals) to have been settled by the British (white pride our voice is better keep their voice quiet – they should be grateful)
His pupil Dutton
Howard claimed it would prevent a repeat of his 2007 Intervention
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-66309637
Howard is, and always has been SHIT.
@ Terry (3.2.5) … and your factual evidence for your comment is …?
If you want Terry to see and (possibly) reply. Then you should use the "Reply" feature (bottom right hand corner of the comment box).
S/he is most unlikely to see this stray comment 12 major comments later.
Yes I know. But something went wrong when I first posted it. Second time posting it ended up here at 15!
You can always (well, within 10 minutes) delete a stray comment and have another go.
I've found that refreshing the site, or exiting my browser and opening it up again seems to re-set the replies to go where they should.
Why not just drop GST on everything from 15% to 10%? It's so much easier and requires far less admin that excluding some items but not others.
GST revenue is about $25B (2022) – 25% of total tax.
A reduction of a third, without a lot of new taxes, would have immediate impact on our credit rating.
The total for food is less than $3B of the GST revenues.
Is this actually important though? I mean if the credit rating companies are not open to just buying a better rating (as they have shown previously they are open to). But ultimately if your a large financial firm then lending to the govt is the only place you can lend to which also itself issues the repayments. You can spend or invest that instead but then this adds risk (and presumably pays more return) and another large financial firm ends up with the same dilemma. Some central banks have even demonstrated negative interest rates don't inhibit govt borrowing (these result in lending at a nominal loss, and this lending still happens).
There are ways to manage debt without cost or with low cost, but whether one could sell that approach when running a high OCR because of inflation – it's a lot of change and the economic mainstream is conformist, except when something different is required to save the system.
I suspect your under a misapprehension here. If the govt spends without draining the excess reserves created, or creates surplus reserves via QE or similar, then the effective OCR falls to zero (financial institutions don't need to borrow reserves, the OCR is irrelevant). Govt borrowing serves the purpose of allowing the RBNZ to maintain a higher OCR. The follow on impacts on inflation are the sketchy part, with multiple countries implementing such policies without being able to even get inflation up to target bands over the course of a decade.
As I said
but only if this is seen as necessary out of GFC, or the pandemic when
But generally this is opposed by the economic mainstream at other times, and more so if there is inflation – and the orthodoxy is to manage this with a higher OCR.
Inflation cause is a separate topic.
Inflations cause is very relevant to the question of if using the OCR to target inflation is a sensible policy. The evidence seems to suggest the high OCR policy has extended the inflation (regulated prices such as energy prices are often tied to base returns on investment) and shifted the burden to prices impacting low incomes (such as rents).
But,but how would you pay for tax …cuts!
That's a Key…issue.
Lest we forget back in 2008 National campaigned on tax cuts, but because of the economic decline of the time (Bollards high OCR to stifle house inflation) and the looming GFC on top of it, this was found to be unaffordable.
So Key decided it could be still be done. if there was an increase in GST to 15% …