You can’t make this stuff up!!! Apparently Disney employees are being encouraged to donate to a fund (tax deductible) to lobby politicians for TPP!
Just another chapter and extension in corporate welfare!! Not just taxpayers bail outs, not just not having to pay corporate tax, but now Disney employees are being asked to fund on behalf of it’s employeer Disney to lobby for TPP!
No doubt that those employees who don’t will be scrutinised. It reminds me of Enron when employees were encouraged (or coerced into funding the shares of Enron and driving the share price up).
“DISNEY OFFERS TO DEDUCT CONTRIBUTIONS TO ITS PAC FROM EMPLOYEES’ PAYCHECKS, TO LOBBY FOR TPP”
Kiwis were all shocked when it was found that oil companies deduct money from it’s minimum wage zero hours contractors (formerly called employees) when they get customer ‘drive offs’. But wait, more to come, it now appears that under TPP and with globalism, companys like Disney are passing a hat around to it’s minimum wage zero hours contractors to contribute to Disney’s own tax deductible lobbist activities!!
Disney is an ugly organisation where executives pay reflect how much they can blag rather than any ‘value’ they generate.
Iger the CEO was asking employees to chip in for copyrights also, he got over $40m last year alone.
Walt would be proud of his empire today being an ardent anti communist patriot, god bless America ain’t she great. Not too sure what he’d make of their over 18 activities in porn etc these days though.
“It might seem inconsequential, but Malcolm explained that this easy-to-miss edit actually has huge implications for criminal penalties. In the provision’s November form, it exempted countries from applying criminal penalties that it had listed, except in circumstances that actually damage the copyright holder.
After the legal scrub, however, the list of exemptions for countries is much smaller, forcing countries to pass criminal laws against copyright infringement even when the copyright holders aren’t harmed.”
My interpretation of that is, under TPPA copywrite is criminal and the police have to prosecute it at taxpayers expense even if no one is harmed, against the current system of it being a civil claim and the company spending money doing it!
Disney have been aggressively expanding their IP holdings with Pixar, lucasfilm, marvel etc so this is a logical extension for the big media companies to protect their assets by jailing offenders.
Disney and Hollywood productions are experts at appropriating other peoples serious works of literature , books and creative ideas and turning it into schmaltz and sensationalist comic effect appealing to the lowest common denominator …and totally lacking in the subtlety of the original….( I put Lord of the Rings in this category)
imo the world would be better off without Disney and Hollywood….so by cracking down hard and becoming illegitimately the intrusive intellectual copyright thought police….maybe they will consume themselves and be the author of their own greedy demise and people will ignore them and turn to other international productions of greater artistic and inspirational integrity ( hopefully)
If someone dubs in a translation of a foreign film he will become liable for a criminal conviction even though no harm was done to anyone. Might even advantage the producer.
This is a good example of the use of “harmonising” processes between countries as outlined in TPPA. Pretty drastic!
it may actually turn people away from Hollywood and give an impetus to other countries which have very creative film industries…and films which have been neglected…and which provide their own translations into English eg some Danish films are brilliant
That was pretty funny. Take-home message seems to be that the majority of Upper Hutt City Councillors are not very bright and have too little to do with their time.
The awareness that local councils don’t have the authority to opt out of international agreements entered into by central government isn’t a matter of ideology, it’s a matter of having more than a couple of brain cells to rub together.
Ok, so if there are any manufacturers in Upper Hutt who want to sell their products overseas under the terms of the TPPA, they will have to relocate to another city? That sounds logical.
The WTO advances warnings of the horrors coming under TPPA …
“The World Trade Organization is giving some environmentalists a reason to say “I told you so.”
On Wednesday, the WTO, the international body that enforces trade law, said that India’s solar power subsidy violated trade rules.
The program — which has helped India’s solar industry get off the ground and become one of the fastest growing in the world — required new projects be built with parts made in India.
Despite India’s argument that the local product requirement was crucial to India’s meeting its commitment under the Paris Climate Agreement, the WTO ruled that requirement unfairly discriminated against U.S. solar manufacturers.
This is exactly the kind of decision that has many environmentalists worried about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the sweeping and controversial trade agreement President Barack Obama signed in February. ”
It’s the WTO that’s made this ruling, and the TPPA is irrelevant to it. NZ has been a member of the WTO for decades, and obtained a similar ruling a few years back to stop Australia blocking export to Australia of NZ apples. So, it the TPPA really does bring us the kind of “horrors” that accompany belonging to the WTO, I’m going with “meh.”
Well this has been a week of “comfortable” 0.5yr/interim results from players in the NZ electricity industries e.g. Contact – Meridian – MRP – Vector.
These result are so inconsistent with the reality of flat – pending declining electrical energy demand – an over capacity of production – consequent closure and sale of plant and land – minimal productive investment. Also revelations of over-supply risk aka Manapouri.
Great levels of storage in the lakes.
All should result in significant end-user costs.
But no ! – because the model of fake competition and requisite investor dividends is wrong.
A previous NZ Government engineered the market thusly .
Can a subsequent NZ Government re-engineer the market to correct these evident anomalies ? – would they risk the litigation ?
That is – subsequent to TPPA bondage.
BTW – this is what the developers are really building in Auckland – not exactly affordable and not exactly to the taste of most Kiwis. But the Auckland council wants to add another level to it (3 level mansions) in the central Auckland suburbs, and is so surprised that neighbours are not that keen! This is the ‘affordable’ housing rout. It is a fiction!!! Click on link and scroll down to see what is really being built with the ‘relaxed zoning’ and ‘relaxed character’, soon this style of housing to be even higher and invade central Auckland suburbs further.
Rare Brand New 4 + 2 Bedrooms Luxury Home in Albany
What a wonderful location, it sits on a quiet street in the centre of hot suburb Oteha. This is a super-sized 6 bedroom luxury modern home with floor area exceeding 330m2. Everything has been finished to very high standard and detailed designs. Very generous on space in each part of the house. One large open plan lounge with easy flow to neatly finished outdoor area. Extra family room located on the top floor also connected to a large private outdoor deck, giving the best privacy for the family. A small beverage bar right beside the family room, so convenient! 4 double bedrooms upstairs with 1 ensuite. 2 more double bedrooms with self-contained living areas and shared bathroom. Ideal for extended family. Elevated and north facing, allows it to gain most of stunning views among the neighbours. Three heat pumps have been installed to give maximum comfort.
4 minutes walk to local Seville Shopping Centre
Reserve and playground just outside the driveway
5 minutes drive to Albany Shopping mall
6 mins drive to Browns Bay beach and township
2 mins drive to motorway on-ramp
Previously around Albany the houses were likely to be 1960’s 100m2 bungalows, value approx $400k that first home owners could have afforded. New ‘developed’ houses are now exceeding 330m2 – and the likely cost will be over $1million. So before anyone starts going on about affordable housing from the ‘relaxed’ standards and zoning – have a good look at what is actually being built in Auckland both on the green field and in the suburbs and SHA. What I would call McMansions. There is no increased public transport so that’s 60,000 new cars on the road per year from migration.
The idea that South Auckland residents will be moving into these new developments (which are larger and more expensive than existing housing stock) is laughable.
Those advocating it, are actually removing affordable houses to make way for someones idea of a mansion.
And high rises as social housing normally descend into slums real quick. The worst examples in the UK of slums are high rise social housing.
The best way to have an integrated society is to actually (like state homes) have social housing in expensive areas with other social economic groups in similar houses. But the government has sold these off, pocketed the money and now pulling the line that by removing character standards and allowing ghetto 3 story mansions of 330m2 built by private developers it will help housing.
It is not just baby boomers who are taking the properties from the poor but the left love to abuse them – wonder what would happen if Bomber called Asians Selfish – probably cause an outrage against the outrageous racism!!! But ageism against Kiwi baby boomers is fine.
Having a serious debate about migration in NZ is somehow now akin to asking the Jews to give Palestinians a go! It is the elephant in the room that politicians and councillors and media commentators refuse to acknowledge.
The fact that the Waatea Estate episode about housing did not mention migration as a factor in property prices, the boom and zoning, and transport speaks volumes.
+1 you make a lot of very valid observations, sadly I fear the conversation will never be considered…NZ in 2016 is not the egalitarian society we were in the mid 20th century…..much to our cost…(and before anyone points out things were not equal for Maori, that is a given)
+100…”The best way to have an integrated society is to actually (like state homes) have social housing in expensive areas with other social economic groups
this is the way egalitarian New Zealand used to be when Jonkey nactional was brought up in a state house
…”Having a serious debate about migration in NZ is somehow now akin to asking the Jews to give Palestinians a go!”
Palestine was taken over and renamed Israel…the Palestinians were run out of their own country
Chooky, your comment ” the best way to have an integrated society etc” is absolutely correct. The early state houses were built with exactly that intention, in desirable areas too, the premise being that Jack deserved good areas/views/sunny aspects as well as his master.
Poorer Kiwis are being displaced as we speak in Auckland and it is not the baby boomers displacing them….. If anything I am seeing baby boomers moving out of Auckland.
Affordable housing is also being displaced as we speak in Auckland – often replaced with large McMansions…
I don’t care if NZ has more migration, I just think NZ should be a bit more selective. For every new migrant there is a new job created that pays NZ taxes and a new house created for them surplus to requirements. Otherwise they are displacing a local job and a local home. There should be zero property investment allowed by new migrants for 10 years and entrepreneurs should be actually creating sustainable things like software and patents.
I also think it should be compulsory for new migrants to have some sort of integration of Kiwis values such as valuing the natural environment, how to be more sustainable and so forth. They should also be tested on treaty of Waitangi issues. (Every migrants I know believe Maori are bludgers and don’t understand why the government is giving them so much land and money). (They read the herald). There should be some moral and social criteria.
eg. A person I know who was a coloured South African was interviewed by secret police under Apartheid. They later saw the same secret policeman who interrogated him, in Whangarei – he had settled in NZ when Mandela took over! You are a white South African in the secret police under Apartheid – no problem have a job in our police force, NZ immigration can’t foresee see any problems!!
The more salient way to start the conversation about lack of housing supply into Auckland/Christchurch and the impact of migration is to talk about the imagined relocation of a small NZ town to those cities every year.
eg. Given the closure of Pike River for example, would it be reasonable to relocate the population of that community to Auckland? The answer would of course be no. Not until the current situation with housing was resolved. And this is purely in terms of practicalities – it has nothing to do with anti-immigration or racism.
There is actually NO ‘public transport’ in the Auckland region.
There are 10 private bus companies, 4 private ferries and a French multi-national operating and managing Auckland’s trains.
Auckland Transport (AT) will not reveal how much public money is being paid in subsidies to these private passenger transport providers. (I’ve asked ).
Why should the public subsidise that which we no longer own, operate or manage?
If the private sector are so ‘efficient’ why do they need public subsidies?
Where is the ‘cost-benefit’ analysis which proves that public subsidy of private passenger transport is a more ‘cost-effective’ spending of public money than Auckland Transport providing bus, ferry and rail services ‘in house’ through public ownership, operation and management ?
Quite possibly the stupidest comment you have made on here.
I find it surprising that someone whois running for mayor of Auckland does not understand how public transport subsidies work.
I suggest you hop on over to http://www.transportblog.co.nz and ask Patrick nicely how it works and save yourself the embarrassment of getting roasted on here.
Given Penny’s militant stance in favour of personally freeloading off the rates contributions of every other Aucklander, shouldn’t she be at the ACT conference doing a stand up comedy routine on how to avoid personal responsibility? They’d be rolling in the aisles. If they had aisles in the back of Seymour’s car, that is.
I’m defending my (and effectively YOUR) lawful rights to ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ local government.
Don’t YOU believe in transparency regarding rates spending?
Don’t YOU agree that that the following information regarding spending by Auckland Council and Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) should be available for public scrutiny?
* The unique contract number.
* The name of the consultant or contractor.
* The (brief) scope of the contract.
* The start and finish dates of the contract.
* The dollar value of every contract (including subcontractors).
* How the contract was awarded (direct appointment / public tender).
How can you ‘follow the dollar’ – if you don’t know exactly where the dollar is being spent?
How can ‘prudent stewardship’ and ‘fiscal responsibility’ be exercised – if ‘the books’ are not open, and this information is not publicly available for ‘line by line’ accounting?
“How can ‘prudent stewardship’ and ‘fiscal responsibility’ be exercised – if ‘the books’ are not open, and this information is not publicly available for ‘line by line’ accounting?”
Therer are these things called auditors. Sure you’ve heard of them. They read the line items so the rest of us don’t need to.
Penny Bright is for ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ local government, and for the ‘Rule of Law’ to equally apply to Auckland Council and Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs).
Penny Bright is for ‘opening the books’ and ‘cutting out the contractors / consultants’ – unless a cost- benefit analysis proves that is a more cost-effective use of public money than in-house provision under the ‘public service’ model.
Penny Bright is opposed to the commercialisation and privatisation of public services, and has a proven track record going back to 1997 when the universally hated Metrowater was forced upon the citizens and ratepayers of Auckland City Council.
Penny Bright vigorously and consistently opposed the Auckland Supercity (for the 1%) from Day One – 5 September 2006 – the date of the ‘failed Mayoral coup’, when the four (then) City Council Mayors all ganged up against Mike Lee and the ARC, (on behalf of BIG business) to push for an Auckland ‘Supercity’.
Penny Bright helped to stop the Wellington proposed Supercity.
Penny Bright has vigorously opposed the TPPA since 2010.
Penny Bright opposes road tolls and user charges for public services.
Penny Bright opposes the sell off of Auckland Council assets.
Penny Bright is opposed to ‘democracy for developers’.
Penny Bright is campaigning against corrupt corporate control.
IT’S OUR AUCKLAND!
It’s time to take it back from BIG business, property developers, overseas investors, speculators, and money-launderers!
So, even though anyone can ride the buses and trains, Auckland doesn’t have public transport because all the buses and trains are privately owned/operated.
On the other hand, the Mayoral limo, which the public can’t ride in, is public transport because the city owns it.
Penny,
Presumably AT does provide an overall amount of the subsidy.
By the way there are some fundamental fallacies in your reasoning about the cost of public transport. Virtually nowhere in the world does the fare box cover the actual cost of the service. So there is always a subsidy from ratepayers or taxpayers to the actual users. This is the case whether the providers are owned by the Council or by the private sector.
I would have thought, you being a Mayoral candidate, that you would know this, or at least give an impression that you do. Because unless you do, it makes your request for financial accountability look foolish. And unlike the rest of us are on a rates strike because of it, though presumably you will ultimately pay rather than loose your house.
There’s more financial accountability in New Zealand local government than anywhere else in the world.
Anyone who wants to wade through all the full volumes of the LTP, RLTP, and Annual Plans, can do so.
No other business in New Zealand the size of Auckland Council has anywhere near the degree of scrutiny and reporting detail Auckland Council has as routine.
As an aside I think part of the problem is that it’s so damn hard to get. This sort of stuff should be easily available on the internet. Shouldn’t need to ask for it.
So there is always a subsidy from ratepayers or taxpayers to the actual users. This is the case whether the providers are owned by the Council or by the private sector.
True but the subsidy is greater when the service is provided by private providers. It’s greater by the amount of profit that the private providers take.
Language is effectively a democracy. If the illiterates who think lose is spelt loose become a majority, the literate have to suck it up and admit defeat. We aren’t far off that point if blog posts and comments are anything to go by.
It’s a tough one for people who were apparently taught to spell things phonetically if unsure. They struggle with words like lose because of words like hose and dose.
If everybody would just agree to spell it looz the problem would be solved.
Well, yeah – telling schoolkids to try and spell English phonetically was a dumb idea from day one. There wouldn’t be a language on the planet less suited to trying to spell words phonetically. Among native speakers, English spelling is tough for dyslexics and people who don’t read unless they have to – maybe Wayne’s dyslexic, but my money would be on the second one.
I believe Wayne is a born & bred Kiwi but not all TS commenters are. In any case, Wayne’s spell-checker is probably set to automatically change “lose” into “loose” as the former is much worse than the latter, for an ex-Nat 😉
In my view Sacha – there would be more public benefit if the public were not subsidising private passenger transport providers and the ownership, operation and management was brought back ‘in house’ under the public service model.
You have no idea about how public transport works, and it’s embarrassing.
How many years have you been in this game?
Do you need to be told what the cost of the annual opex alone for a private vehicle using the motorway system is? Try figuring out what an actual subsidy is on all modes before you open your ignorant gob.
I have learned Wayne – to presume nothing and check everything.
AT declined to answer my LGOIMA request regarding public subsidies of private passenger transport providers on the grounds that this information was ‘contractually confidential’.
Honeybees have been dying in record numbers, threatening the continued production of nutritious foods such as apples, nuts, blueberries, broccoli, and onions. Without bees to pollinate these crops, the environmental ecosystem–and our health–stands in the balance. Have we reached the tipping point, where the plant-pollinator system is due to collapse?
There was no way to calculate that–until now.
Using statistical physics, Northeastern network theorist Albert-László Barabási and his colleagues Jianxi Gao and Baruch Barzel have developed a tool to identify that tipping point–for everything from ecological systems such as bees and plants to technological systems such as power grids. It opens the door to planning and implementing preventive measures before it’s too late, as well as preparing for recovery after a disaster.
The tool, described in a new paper published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, fills a longstanding gap in scientists’ understanding of what determines “resilience”– that is, a system’s ability to adjust to disturbances, both internal and external, in order to remain functional.
Now that’s going to have some interesting consequences – especially once they turn it on the economy.
There was no way to calculate that–until now. Wow! A breakthrough…a eureka moment?
Our tool, for the first time, enables those predictions. Sounding like a eureka moment!
“Statistical physics has found that you can crunch down all of these millions of parameters and components into one number–the temperature,” said Barzel. “We take it for granted now, but that was a tremendous scientific achievement.
Oh. So all the millions of parameters people knew nothing about were cunningly ignored by the people who knew nothing about them as people concentrated on what they could observe and (eventually) measure…hmm.
As the water heats up, those parameters and components continually change. Measuring those multitudinous changes over time–a microscopic approach to assessing the water’s state–would be impossible. Uh-huh.
Statistical physics has found that you can crunch down all of these millions of parameters and components [from any complex system] into one number–the temperature,” But..but…the impossibility of tracking all those millions of components and parameters…or even probably agreeing on which ones are relevant…
“Once you identify the relevant parameter that controls the system’s resilience, you can begin to tackle how to manipulate that resilience–how to enhance resilience or restore resilience, Roight.
So if only we could know everything about something we could reduce that complex everything into a simple something. Hmm. Like a number. There’s a wee detail in there…can’t quite grasp it. But hey, great. Apart from never being able to know everything about something [that’s the detail!] and therefore being unable to reduce the unknown to a known….fantastic!
I’m picking the “temperature” always pans out to be 42 btw 😉
DARPA has been sponsoring X-prize type competitions for totally autonomous humanoid robots. This is only a small step beyond the best achieved in the competition last year. Since Google bought Boston Dynamics, I’m not sure they’re still bothering to enter the competitions anymore.
So good and so well worth a read as usual. JMG talking about politics over there
To my mind, it’s far from accidental that for the last few decades, every presidential election here in the US has been enlivened by bumper stickers calling on voters to support the presidential ambitions of Cthulhu, the tentacled primeval horror out of H.P. Lovecraft’s tales of cosmic dread. I’m sorry to say that the Elder God’s campaign faces a serious constitutional challenge, as he was spawned on the world of Vhoorl in the twenty-third nebula and currently resides in the drowned corpse-city of R’lyeh, and as far as I know neither of these are US territory. Still, his bid for the White House has gotten further than most other imaginary candidacies, and I’ve long thought that the secret behind that success is Cthulhu’s campaign slogan: “Why settle for the lesser evil?”
…What the insurgent candidacies of Trump and Sanders show conclusively, in turn, is that the lesser-evil rhetoric and its fixation on “realistic” politics have just passed their pull date…
…To a very real extent, Hillary Clinton’s faltering presidential campaign is a perfect microcosm of what Spengler was talking about in his cold analysis of democracy in extremis. Her entire platform presupposes that the only policies the United States can follow are those that have been welded in place since the turn of the millennium: more government largesse for corporations and the rich, more austerity for everyone else, more malign neglect for the national infrastructure and the environment, more wars in the Middle East, and more of the fantastically stupid policy of confrontation—there really is no gentler way to describe it—that has succeeded, against all odds, in uniting Russia, China, Iran, and an assortment of smaller nations against the United States, by convincing their leaders that they have nothing to gain from a US-centric world order and nothing to lose by challenging it…
Well, I did what I was told and read it. Must admit my brain started to ‘short out’ towards the end but it paints a sense of extreme dissonance which also applies elsewhere including NZ. There are the two opposing responses coming from “ordinary people” in the US. The more intelligent and rational have gravitated to Bernie Sanders and the less intelligent, ultra conservatives to Trump. In NZ we have the “missing million”.
Yes I wonder who will pull through the pack here – key hasn’t got it for sure – maybe we’ll slide through the middle but a trump win will invigorate the edgy political characters I think.
Yes I wonder who will pull through the pack here –
With Phil Goff having announced he will not be contesting the next election, there is an opening for Micheal Wood of the Labour Party. He is expected to get the Mt Roskill candidacy and anyone who has heard him speak will be aware of his talents and pulling power. Moreover he is highly intelligent and a solid performer. Definitely leadership material and someone to watch closely in the coming years.
Michael Wood is a steady performer but gets his shot at Goff’s seat due to being a loyal long term Labour establishment player, not having challenged the Labour caucus in any material way, and after having stood as a candidate many times for Labour in other seats over the years.
GREAT news John Palino is apparently standing as yet another Auckland Mayoral candidate!
SO many pro-business / pro-Supercity 2016 Auckland Mayoral candidates!
Keep splitting that vote ….
Looking forward to comparing the proven track records of all the other Auckland Mayoral candidates, when it comes to defending the LAWFUL rights of citizens to ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ local government in Auckland?
I’ve put my freehold house on the line to defend these LAWFUL rights.
What have any of the other Auckland Mayoral candidates done?
I note that fellow ‘Independent’ Auckland Mayoral candidate Phil Goff (currently the Labour MP for Mt Roskill), supports the TPPA, road tolling, and PPPs.
Is this now the position of City Vision?
(Who have endorsed Phil Goff as an Auckland Mayoral candidate?)
“While City Vision is yet to make a formal Mayoral endorsement decision, we believe that we could work collaboratively with Mr Goff to build a better Auckland”, says Waitematā Local Board Chair, Shale Chambers.”
For example, their pamphlets hit on things like the peril of too much Chinese investment, the pervasive threat of Zionism, Israel’s “holocaust” in Gaza, the perfidious influence of Cameron Slater and National Party pollster and commentator David Farrar in New Zealand politics, the sovereignty-destroying TPPA and, of course, the fact that John Key is a rootless money man whose allegiance is to international finance and not the people of New Zealand.
It has to be said that the overall themes and prose style of their literature shared much more with the anonymous commenters on the Left-wing blog, The Standard than the centre-Right, Kiwiblog. Of course, the more usual economic xenophobia was leavened throughout with heavy dollops of racism, which stands in stark contrast to your garden variety left-liberal – who usually considers racism to be the most grievous sin in the book.
TPP
So this is why Key is trying to rush the TPP through our Parliament.
USTR Lawyer Says TPP Designed To Accommodate U.S. Certification Requirement
The entry-into-force mechanism of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was specifically designed to protect the ability of the United States to carry out its domestic requirement that the president not allow a trade agreement to enter into force until he has certified that each trading partner has complied with its obligations that take effect immediately, according to the lead U.S. lawyer on TPP.
Could Congress change a final TPPA text, even if the President had Fast Track authority?
A majority of members of the US Congress could insist on changes to the TPPA, even with Fast Track. They did that, for example, with the Korea-US FTA, which President George W. Bush signed in 2007. When it became evident in 2011 that the deal as signed could not be passed by Congress, President Barack Obama demanded additional concessions from South Korea related to trade in auto and agriculture products. If Korea had not agreed, it could have faced renewed pressure to make those changes as a precondition for certification.
i have a vision.
it is of aotearoa being a food producer second to none.
this produce is organically grown.
the conversion time is 8-10 years.
this can be labour intensive.
all labour used starts at a living wage rate of $18 an hour.
this will occur until a ubi is established (4-5 years).
while we have a new minimum wage there will also be a maximum wage of 10 times the lowest wage in the organisation.
a financial transaction tax will be started which will replace gst and all income tax below $40,000.
trucks are gonna be taxed at an eye watering rate for the privilege of using the roads.
taxed so hard that they will cease to be viable and the majority of freight will be moved by rail.
these taxes go into rail investment and public transport
big investment in solar farms as well as providing incentives for citizens to install solar on their whare.
all new homes must have water tanks and solar installed.
ok, its all a bit rushed as i am about to celebrate a fiftieth.
the idea is to start to build a resilient aotearoa where people and their needs come first second and third.
welcome all nay-sayers, but coming at me from a balance sheet angle will fall on deaf ears.
hi ad, sorry about belated reply (needed a full day and a half to repair from 50th).
i had made a comment on a thread here on the standard about being sick of posts bagging the opposition rather than painting a picture of a bright future.
therefore the money i was referring to was metaphorical.
perhaps put up or shut up would have been more appropriate.
in answer to psycho milt below:
if you are happy with billions of our dollars going overseas to the foreign banks,
happy with charter schools being paid bonuses regardless of performances, overnight bailouts of sth canterbury finance,
the slashing of mental health budgets,
below par, frozen food moved from tauranga to dunedin to feed the elderly and infirm..
then i think we will talk past each other all day.
the point is that with a financial transaction tax, we are able to use some of the massive profits from banking to help the people.
Land of the free and their highest impartial moral authority .. ha ha ha ha ha!
Dow Chemicals Would Rather Pay Out $835 Million Than Face the Supreme Court Without Scalia
Dow Chemicals this week settled a billion-dollar lawsuit after determining, essentially, that it had no chance in front of a Supreme Court without Antonin Scalia.
Dow was challenging a 2013 order that required it to pay $1.06 billion as part of an antitrust suit concerning the sale of urethanes. (The company was accused of price fixing with four other companies but refused to admit liability; the other companies settled for a collective $135 million.)
But Dow, which was set to argue before the Supreme Court once the Court had decided a similar case, dropped its appeal today and settled with the plaintiffs in the case for $835 million. What inspired this change of heart? According to Bloomberg, it was the death of Scalia.
Scalia, of course, was not exactly a fan of class actions. Which is great news for the plaintiffs and terrible news for Dow, which was hoping the Court should reduce the award as part of a referendum on class action suits.
Are the comments Donald Trump made about Princess Diana nearly 20 years ago, (and other comments he has made about women), going to come back him and bite him on his political posterior – as it were?
Donald Trump Said A Lot Of Gross Things About Women On “Howard Stern”
In the hours of audio reviewed by BuzzFeed News, Trump ranks, rates, and degrades women.
posted on Feb. 25, 2016, at 12:11 p.m.
Donald Trump’s rise toward the Republican nomination has been fueled, in part, by his candid and often crude style — more Howard Stern, say, than Mitt Romney.
And the roots of Donald Trump’s rhetoric come, in fact, in part from The Howard Stern Show. Trump appeared upwards of two dozen times from the late ’90s through the 2000s with the shock jock, and BuzzFeed News has listened to hours of those conversations, which are not publically available.
The most popular topic of conversation during these appearances, as is typical of Stern’s program, was sex.
In particular, Trump frequently discussed women he had sex with, wanted to have sex with, or wouldn’t have sex with if given the opportunity. He also rated women on a 10-point scale.
“A person who is very flat-chested is very hard to be a 10,” he told Stern in one typical exchange.
Women make up a majority of the American electorate, and any of dozens of Trump’s remarks would be considered a severe blow to most candidates for public office.
Trump has, in the Republican primary, proven largely immune to the backlash that the laws of gravity in politics would predict, but there are also suggestions that he has a deep problem with some women voters: 68% of women voters held an unfavorable view of Trump in a Quinnipiac poll released in December.
In a Gallup poll also released in December, Trump had the lowest net favorable rating out of all the candidates among college-educated Republican women.
And should he win the nomination, his comments are sure to become ammunition for Democrats against what they have long cast as a Republican “war on women.”
Trump has a history of making crude remarks toward women. He reportedly said of his ex-wife Marla Maples, “Nice tits, no brains,” and more recently, he has called Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly a “bimbo” and a “lightweight” and said she had “blood coming out of her wherever” during the first GOP debate.
The focus of Trump’s attentions when interviewed by Stern was commonly female celebrities — movie and television stars, recording artists, models, and media personalities.
Trump, in more than one instance, expressed his admiration for and attraction to Diana, Princess of Wales.
Months after Diana was killed in an automobile accident in 1997, Trump told Stern he thinks he could have slept with her, saying she had “supermodel beauty.”
In a different interview in 2000, Trump said he would have slept with her “without hesitation” and that “she had the height, she had the beauty, she had the skin.” He added, “She was crazy, but (these are minor details)?”
…….
______________________________
(In brackets because of incomplete cut & pasted quote – not sure if that’s the exact wording ..)
An interesting read. But what a sacrifice when at the end is the list of Key failures yet which do not deter Hooton. Power at any cost eh Matthew?
And what a misunderstanding about Education.
Will read again tomorrow and find the speech of the Act leader to compare it with.
“…. And this is seriously the sort of economic assumption that Labour and the Greens have been using to say the TPP would be bad for New Zealand. So keeping those lunatics away from office is absolutely paramount.”
he continues
‘Well, we have a prime minister who is applying the median voter model more rigorously than any other I can think of anywhere in the world. And, as Labour heads ever more to the extreme left, John Key will follow them, because that’s what the median voter says to do. It’s not his fault that Labour’s not playing the same game. The median voter model says Labour should head to the centre but they’re not. But, given that, the median voter model says John Key should allow them all the way to the extreme left and that is what he will do left unchecked, because that’s what the model says he should do. So Act’s role is to have enough gravitational pull on the right to try to at least slow John Key’s inevitable and logical drift to the left, eventually maybe even stop it and keep him in a steady state or – here’s hoping – one day even pull him slightly back towards sound policy. Of course we all know this, and we’ve talked about it for years.”
and as to resource access?…
“And you have a leader who can identify a long-term, important contemporary issue. Because how New Zealand its natural resources like water comes down to three options: 1) You can just make it a free for all and the resource will be polluted and depleted, but Act has never been an anarchist party. 2) You can ration them by queuing like the Soviet Union did with bread and advantage existing users over newer innovative ones, but I guess it is fair in its own way. 3). Or you can ration them through pricing, so that those who have the best idea to maximise the value of the natural resources are the ones who get them. And of course, when it comes to natural resources, not a single other party in parliament is going to opt for the only non-Soviet option, which is the third one. So let’s see how your new focus on the environment goes.”
but despite his well known promotion of the polls M.Hooton is concerned…
“It is easy – and I’m enjoying it – to mock Andrew Little’s motely crew. They really are hopeless. But if they get 25% of the vote, which seems about right, and Winston and the Greens get up to 12.5% each which is possible … well, that’s a government, perhaps with some strange arrangement around the prime ministership like Winston Peters has sought before. And John Key knows this.
And John Key knows also that bizarre things happen in our increasingly bizarre election campaigns, and there will be some surprise that will threaten his hold on power. He probably also has the personal awareness to realise he’s not the cool new kid on the block anymore. If anything, now, our high quality media has decided that’s Max. But, remember, when John Key became prime minister, Max was a kid at King’s Prep up the road. Now, he’s DJ Max who gets to date models. And John Key himself looks older. The TV news, which used to always have a still shot of him smiling and waving, now uses a still shot of him scowling. And if you’re voting for the 1st 2nd or 3rd time next year, he’s not cool.”
so in summary…corporate paymasters worried, time to rally the troops, the risk of defeat is increasing and must be avoided at all cost…..and to hell with whats in the country’s best interests as long as “Im all right Jack”
Pining for the past, ideological purism, “an enemy of welfarism and sloth”, struggling for political relevancy, desperate for more influence (power) = potentially dangerous territory.
I thought the speech was borderline incoherent, poorly structured, lacked vision and imagination, and it more sounded like a pep talk for zombies than a morale-boosting strategy proposal for politically-astute people of more than average intelligence.
TBH, I quite like David Seymour, possibly because he’s indeed ideologically pure; I respect that.
Those making submissions on the TPP might like to skim read the Hansard of the Australian Joint inquiry: Treaty tabled on 9 February: Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement 22 Feb 2016 #Hansard transcript
Some hard questions were asked in Australia. I seriously wonder if the NZ Road Show will allow the same sort of questioning, and not just be a Government Circus Act.
Tiwai Point's electricity contract is up for renewal. And as usual, they're sticking their hand out, demanding a government subsidy, and threatening to close if they don't get one:The owners of the aluminium smelter said on Wednesday that there were seeking talks with the Government amid a strategic review which ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzEveryone is going on about reducing our carbon footprint, zero ...
So, it turns out that the ACT Party - which previously called itself "the liberal party" - is financed by Nazis:ACT Party leader David Seymour says his party will not return a donation from Mike Allen, a Christchurch businessman who sells mock "Make America Great Again" hats to fund advertising ...
Just in case you don’t have a seven-year-old boy in your house (in which case this will be obvious) a well-known brand of breakfast cereal here in NZ is currently coming with All-Blacks stats cards. Perfect for finding out your favourite rugby player’s height, number of caps, and how much ...
Over the past month we've heard some horrificstories about bullying in the police. The police's response? Try to bully people into silence:The police have told a whistleblower to retract his statements to RNZ about being bullied or face legal action. The demand came just hours after Police Commissioner Mike ...
Today is a Member's Day, which should see the final part of the committee stage of David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. The big question today is the referendum clause: will it be necessary, or can the bill pass without it? While the majorities for his amendments during the ...
One of the key arguments used by trans ideologists is that some male-bodied people (ie men) are women because they ‘feel’ they are women. To make this hocus-pocus sound a bit more credible, some will argue that such men have a ‘female brain’. But this is thoroughly anti-scientific too. . ...
Canadians went to the polls today in parliamentary elections, and appear to have re-elected blackface wearer Justin Trudeau. Unfortunately, they use first-past-the-post, and they've provided a perfect demonstration of how unfair this system is:PartySeats% Seats% VoteLiberal15746.4%33.1%Conservative12135.8%34.4%Bloc Québécois329.5%7.7%New Democratic Party247.1%15.9%Green Party30.9%6.5%Other10.3%2.4% [Results from Elections Canada] Yes, the Liberals got fewer votes ...
A few days ago, a friend sent me a link to a health-related FB page that had published a post from a homeopathist, offering homeopathic “vaccination”¹ against measles (using something called a “Morbillinum nosode” at a “potency” of 200C, which I’ll explain shortly). I followed the link, left a comment ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This year marks the 20th anniversary of the La Gabarra massacre. The community organised an event to remember the most well-known of the horrendous heart-breaking events that befell the communities of this area of the municipality of Tibú: the massacre carried out on August 21st 1999. ...
There was another police chase in Christchurch this morning, resulting in a crash which killed one person and injured five more. Because someone died, the chase is being investigated by the Independent Police Conduct Authority. And based on previous reports by the IPCA, we know how it will go: the ...
Just a month ago we saw the biggest protest in a generation as people marched to demand stronger action on climate change. A core demand of the protesters was to strengthen the Zero Carbon Bill's target to net-zero by 2040. So what is the government's response? Judging by the ...
Back in 2010, I wrote about the strange tale of the zombie ants, which do the bidding of their fungal overlords. (They’re not an isolated example; a range of parasites change their hosts’ behaviour. See here and here for example – though as you’ll find, the toxoplasmosis story may be ...
Shouldn't That Be: "Wrong White Crowd"? Rather than apportion guilt, would it not have been wiser for the makers of Land Of The Long White Cloud to accept that the Pakeha of 2019 are not – and never will be – “Europeans”? Just as contemporary Maori are not – and ...
One, Two, Many Truths: With the collapse of “actually existing socialism” in 1991, the universities of the West found themselves saddled with a new mission. With their ideological competitors now soundly defeated they were no longer required to demonstrate the superiority of capitalist values. Their job now was to cement ...
by the Council of Disobedient Women We call on the Council of Trade Unions to show some fortitude and take a stand with your sisters. Unionists know that there is a material world, otherwise workers could simply identify out of poverty. They could declare themselves Well Paid. Why stop ...
I spent some time reading the Regulatory Impact Statement and Bill of Rights Act advice for the government's odious control order scheme today. I am not impressed with either of them. Starting with the RIS, it is built on some pretty questionable assumptions. For example:Unless individuals have been convicted of ...
#NoFly: Walking the talk on climate change, by Shaun Hendy. BWB Texts, 2019. Reviewed by Robert McLachlan In June 2018, Swede Maja Rosén founded We stay on the ground with a pledge not to fly in 2019, and a goal of persuading 100,000 other Swedes to join her. In August, ...
We all know that NZ First is a party of and for old people who hate the young. But they've topped their previous pedophobia with a proposal that all young people be forced to do 100 hours community work:NZ First wants all young people to do 100 hours of community ...
A couple days ago the NZ Herald published a story with the headline, “Science says Bella Hadid is world’s most beautiful woman“, and followed up with the ridiculous statement that Supermodel Bella Hadid has been declared as the world’s most beautiful woman following a scientific study into what constitutes as ...
A Sustainable Proposition: With as much as 18 percent of the electorate declaring itself “undecided” about who to vote for, there is obviously plenty of space for a party like former Green Party member, Vernon Tava's, about-to-be-launched "Sustainable NZ Party" to move into. The most hospitable political territory for such ...
Keir Starmer has hinted that Labour might vote in favour of the Johnson government's shoddy deal, with the proviso that a second referendum is attached:Speaking to BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, he said: “We will see what that looks like but it makes sense to say that by whatever ...
In 1994, I was the editor for an issue of Planet magazine focused on cannabis, its culture and the prospects for the end of its prohibition. Part of that issue was an interview with 'Ringo', an experienced cannabis dealer.I recently posted my essay from that issue, and I figured it ...
Dr Helen Waite, sports sociologist and former elite athlete, on the invasion of women’s sport by men and the anti-scientific and misogynist ideology used to rationalise it. ...
As Brexit comes to a grisly conclusion (perhaps) people on all sides are saying intemperate and uwise things. Some, like the Daly Mail, have been doing it for years.People as normally level headed as Jon Lansman are calling for automatic deselection of MPs who vote against a (likely) Labour three ...
I've got one source saying more Labour MPs than expected are mulling whether to vote for the deal - including names who were not on the letter to Juncker and Tusk— Emilio Casalicchio (@e_casalicchio) 17 October 2019 I've compiled a list of possible reasons why Labour ...
On Wednesday, the government was loudly telling us that it needed to legislate to allow it to impose "control orders" - effectively a parole regime, but imposed without charge, prosecution, conviction or real evidence - on suspected terrorists because they couldn't be prosecuted for their supposed crimes. Today, it turns ...
On Monday, the Hit and Run inquiry heard from NZDF's former director of special operations, who claimed that the defence Minister knew everything about the Operation Burnham raid. Today, the inquiry heard from that (former) Minister - and it turns out that he didn't know nearly as much as NZDF ...
Yoga gurus and cult leaders – I’ve seen a few. Two weeks ago, I unknowingly joined an alleged new-age cult at the Kāpiti coast, together with a giant kraken and some neatly dressed pensioners who would make any book club proud.They were among the two hundred people of all ages ...
The last decade has seen a trend of increasing weapons availability to police. Assault rifles. Tasers on every hip. Guns in cars. And following the march 15 massacre, pistols on every hip, all over the country. At the same time, its also seen an increase in the abuse of force: ...
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy preparing for our summer paper on Science Communication. Looking for something amusing about ‘risk’ in science, I came across this neat xkcd.com cartoon about why so many people come knocking on my door (or phoning me, or emailing me) desperately wanting ...
by John Edmundson The International Socialist Organisation (ISO) have recently reposted a February article, by Romany Tasker-Poland, explaining ISO’s position in the “trans rights” debate. It is available on their website and on their Facebook Page. The article sets out to explain why “socialists support trans rights”. It reads more ...
"Auckland City Mission: 10% of Kiwis experiencing food insecurity", RNZ, 16 October 2019:About half a million people are experiencing food insecurity, according to new research from the Auckland City Mission. Food insecurity, or food poverty, is defined as not having enough appropriate food. The City Mission said over the last ...
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...
Would You Buy A Used Propaganda Video From This Man? Bridges and the National Party’s strategists have discovered that the ideas and attitudes considered acceptable by today’s editors and journalists are no longer enforceable. The rise and rise of the Internet and the social media platforms it spawned means that ...
There is plenty of evidence of the way the business mentality has permeated every level of society since the recrudescence of market liberalism 35 years ago. You only need to think of how citizens in need of help from their government, their state, their country, are now routinely described as ...
John MacCormickOver the last 40 years, New Zealanders – and people in other countries – have experienced big changes in the jobs they do and where they live and work. These changes include: a decline in manufacturing jobs an increase in jobs in ‘information-intensive’ industries (which are better paid ...
Nick Wilson, Leah Grout, Mereana Wilson, Anja Mizdrak, Phil Shoemack, Michael BakerProtecting waterways has the benefits of: (1) protecting water from hazardous microbes; (2) minimising cancer risk and other problems from nitrates in water; (3) avoiding algal blooms that are hazardous to health; (4) protecting mahinga kai uses (cultural ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women In a press release today Massey University announced it has decided to rebrand and reorientate after struggling to be a University for grown-ups. For some time the University has wanted to be a safe play space for wee-woke-misogynists who have been really badly triggered ...
After a brief dalliance with 'hard Revoke' it looks like the Lib Dems are changing ground on on Brexit, with leader Jo Swinson reverting to calling for a second referendum on Johnson's deal.The party has tabled an amendment to the Queen’s speech requesting that any deal brought back from Brussels ...
The government has decided that someone has done Something Bad. But despite their belief, there seems to be no evidence that they have actually broken the law. So the government's solution is to pass a retrospective law allowing them to be punished anyway, on a lower standard of proof. If ...
So, Judith Collins has done a Facebook rant about climate change, peddling the same shit National has been shovelling for the past twenty years: the impacts are overstated, there's no need to do anything about it, and its too hard anyway (oh, and its so unfair that people who peddle ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzThere is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...
I came across this song quite by accident. If it isn't one of Greta Thunberg's favourites - it should be.Video courtesy of YouTube.This post is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...
Last month, NZDF's shoddy coverup of what it knew about civilian casualties in Operation Burnham began to fall apart, with the revelation that a report on the matter, which NZDF claimed not to have, had been sitting in an NZDF safe for the past nine years. Yesterday, the man responsible ...
While many imagine that countries like the USA and Europe dominate space activities, in fact India is now a major player on this stage. It launches satellites for its own purposes and also commercially, and has constellations orbiting our planet and returning data of vital importance to that nation in ...
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...
For the past week, Extinction Rebellion has been peacefully protesting in London to demand action on climate change. The British government's response? Ban their protests:Police have banned Extinction Rebellion protests from continuing anywhere in London, as they moved in almost without warning to clear protesters who remained at the movement’s ...
An essay by Judith Collins MP reported on Carbon News yesterday seems to show an alarming shift in attitude within the National Party. Collins argues against the Zero Carbon Bill, the Paris Agreement, and downplays the magnitude of climate impacts. The Paris Agreement was adopted in December 2015 and ratified ...
When they were running for election, Labour promised to overhaul the Employment Relations Act and introduce fair pay agreements to set basic pay and conditions on an industry level, preventing bad employers from undercutting good ones. They followed this up by establishing a working group, which reported back in January ...
A list of indicators of bad science – many of these are found in articles promoted by anti-fluoride activists. Anti-fluoride activists have been pouring money into a scaremongering campaign warning pregnant women not to drink fluoridated water. They claim fluoride will lower the IQ of their future child. Fluoride ...
Nothing Left To Say: Labour's pollster, Stephen Mills, remains swaddled-up in the comforting myths of the 1980s. As if the experience of Roger Douglas’s genuinely radical post-Muldoon policy agenda was literally a once-in-a-lifetime thing – as much as the party could possibly absorb for at least the next 50 years.MEMO ...
The Royal Commission on abuse in care is very significant for the disability community. For many decades last century, thousands of disabled children, and adults who managed to survive, were locked away from families and communities. This was not for anything they had done, but for the perceived threat their ...
With an unfair voting system, uneven electorates and an un-elected upper house, the UK's "democracy" is barely worthy of the name. But now the government wants to make it worse:The government has been accused of suppressing voters’ rights with the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people after plans ...
Back in the 90's and early 2000's, the building industry was building leaky homes which should never have been granted consent. Now it turns out they've been building dodgy office blocks as well:New imaging technology has revealed hundreds of major buildings nationwide have defective or missing concrete or reinforcing steel. ...
Local body election results were released over the weekend, to joy or despair depending on where you live. In Auckland, Phil Goff trounced John Tamihere, who is muttering darkly about running for Parliament again (but which party would want him?) Wellington is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weta Workshop, except ...
How could government evolve over the next decades? Reports of democracy’s imminent demise are greatly exaggerated. However, satisfaction with political systems in many countries is low, so there is much to do for governments of all political stripes to improve relevance and trust. Digital technologies are seen as one ...
Two years have now gone by since the Friday afternoon when my university-student son and I headed out of our Barcelona flat to a nearby primary school, designated as a polling station for the vote that was to be held the following Sunday: the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain ...
Overruled: The joint decision of Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour) and his Associate Minister, David Parker (Labour) arguably the two most powerful ministers in Jacinda Ardern’s government, to grant OceanaGold the consents which Land Information Minister, Eugenie Sage (Greens) had earlier denied them, offers bitter proof of how hard fighting ...
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...
A Statement on Abortion Law Reform by the Council of Disobedient Women On the eve of bringing an end to antiquated, anti-women abortion laws Green MP Jan Logie intends to write women out of the Bill. With a stroke of the pen, the woke are aiming for total erasure ...
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...
The Ugandan government wants to murder gay people:Uganda has announced plans to impose the death penalty on homosexuals. The bill, colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” in Uganda, was nullified five years ago on a technicality, but the government said on Thursday it plans to resurrect it within weeks. The ...
Hassan Vally, La Trobe UniversityWho doesn’t want to know if drinking that second or third cup of coffee a day will improve your memory, or if sleeping too much increases your risk of a heart attack? We’re invested in staying healthy and many of us are interested in reading ...
Freedom Of Speech? The Säuberung (cleansing by fire) was the work of the German Student Union which, on 10 May 1933, under the watchful eye of the Nazi Reichminister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, consigned 25,000 books to the flames in a ritual exorcism of “un-German thought”. According to the logic of the ...
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...
New Zealand has prided itself for decades with regard to its lack of pollution, and all will be aware that the ‘100% Pure New Zealand‘ meme is under threat through land, water and air pollution of various causes. There is another type of contamination that the country also faces: light ...
New Zealand’s media is doing its part in Japan, reassuring those in the path of the storm that they won’t miss any rugby while away from their flooded homes. New Zealand sports reporters stationed in Japan for the Rugby World Cup have had the rare and heartwarming opportunity to inform ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is the only Cabinet member in favour of putting it all on green. As Finance Minister Grant Robertson finds himself with an enormous $7.5 billion surplus, the Government has begun intense, at times contentious conversations about whether to put the money on red or black at ...
by Susanne Kemp At the start of September close to 100,000 school teachers went on strike in Jordan. They demanded a 50% pay rise. A pay rise actually agreed to by the regime back in 2014. In early October, however, in the face of government repression and threats, the teachers’ ...
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New Zealand First MP Shane Jones has hit back at those who are upset over a change in approach to partnership visas. There has been a specific government directive to stop waiving requirements such as couples needing to have lived together for 12 months - a test Indian couples who have ...
The North Auckland Line rejuvenation kicks off with teams surveying the rail corridor and Northland construction contractors are showing interest in the project.KiwiRail provided an industry briefing for Northland contracting and construction companies about future work opportunities on rejuvenating Northland’s rail lines. The briefing session in Whangarei was held to ...
Journalist Andrew Dickens, reporting from the 2019 New Zealand First Conference, states that the Party once again proved “they are more than a sideshow”. In his op-ed article for NewstalkZB, Mr Dickens said he has always been an admirer of the Party, saying they are “a true centrist party”. “[NZ ...
New Zealand First's potential policy of compulsory community service for ages 15-19 years old has been getting support from those in the industry. A policy remit was passed during their recent Conference in Christchurch, gaining the support of a majority of its membership. Party leader Winston Peters has been talking ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says the Party hopes to decide it’s stance pill testing at music festivals "before the season of concern", with festivals generally held during the summer months. Mr Peters' comments come in an interview with TVNZ's Q+A and follow a remit from the party's youth ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says he has been told to be "alert" to potential cost blowouts for the light rail project in Auckland. Mr Peters said no such concerns were raised with him from ministerial colleagues, including Transport Minister Phil Twyford of the Labour Party. He suggested that ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters Leader of New Zealand First The Benefits of having New Zealand First in the Centre: Security, Experience & Balance 2.00pm, 20th October 2019 Ladies and Gentlemen Thank you all for your warm welcome to this, the party’s 26thConvention. Speaking on behalf of caucus colleagues, it’s great to ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Fletcher Tabuteau is travelling to the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu this week to continue toadvance important bilateral relationships in our region consistent with thePacific Reset. Mr Tabuteau will engage in a range of bilateral meetings and visit New Zealand development ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson departs tomorrow for events and meetings in Japan and Vietnam. While in Japan, he will discuss economic and fiscal issues including meeting with the Minister of Finance, Taro Aso, and Minister of Economic and Fiscal Policy, Yasutoshi Nishimura. He will meet with the Minister of Education, ...
The Government’s Housing Dashboard released today confirms record numbers of state houses are under construction and shows the Government build programme is gaining momentum. “After nine years of inaction, and a hands-off attitude from the previous government we’re starting to see things move in the right direction for housing,” says ...
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a ministerial statement relating to the Auckland fire. The Government is closely monitoring the situation with the fire at the NZ International Convention Centre and is thankful that everyone is now safe. Firefighters are doing an incredible job managing the fire and bringing it ...
The Government is investing in ambitious research that will digitise Te Reo, grow the low-carbon protein efficient aquaculture industry, help interpret environmental trends, and large data sets says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods. The four projects range from teaching Siri to speak Te Reo to crunching large environmental ...
A new education-to-employment brokerage service to strengthen connections between local employers and schools. Funding for more trades focused ‘speed-dating’ events to connect schools with employers. Promotional campaign to raise profile of vocational education. The Government is taking action to increase the number of young people taking up vocational education and ...
A Bill to improve prison security and ensure the fair, safe, and humane treatment of people in prison while upholding public safety has passed its third reading. Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says the Corrections Amendment Bill makes a number of changes to ensure the Corrections Act 2004 is fit for ...
Minister for Māori Development, Nanaia Mahuta, has selected Arihia Bennett MNZM, Chief Executive Officer of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, as the Te Puni Kōkiri appointed representative on the New Zealand-China Council. The New Zealand-China Council (the Council) was established in 2012 as a New Zealand led and funded organisation ...
Responsibility for processing the small number of Southern Response claims still to be settled will be transferred to EQC by the end of the year. “As claim numbers reduce, it no longer makes sense for the Crown to have two organisations processing the remaining Canterbury claims,” Grant Robertson says. “Since ...
Health Minister David Clark is encouraging Whanganui residents to take up the opportunity for free bowel screening, which can detect cancer early when it’s easier to treat. Over the next two years 12,000 Whanganui locals, aged 60 to 74 will be invited to participate in the National Bowel Screening ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio, heads to Oslo today to represent New Zealand at the sixth Our Ocean Conference, which is being hosted by the Norwegian Government from the 23-24 October. “The Our Ocean Conference mobilises real action on issues like marine plastic pollution and the impacts of ...
Two secondary-school initiatives are being expanded as part of the Government’s plan to see more young New Zealanders take up a trade to help close the skills gap. This includes the largest single increase in Trades Academy places in recent years. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris ...
Session 4: Pacific Connectivity – Youth, Media and New Opportunities Kia ora tatou katoa and Warm Pacific greetings to one and all. Representatives of Tainui, the local people of the land, or manawhenua – the indigenous peoples of this area – have welcomed you this morning in accordance with ...
The Government today announced its support for a project that could substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. The announcement was made as part of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s visit to Nelson’s Cawthron Aquaculture Park. The Cawthron Institute will receive $100,000 from the Government’s ...
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni has welcomed the first reading of the New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Legislation Amendment Bill. “Every New Zealander has a stake in New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension,” says Carmel Sepuloni. “They are our most common form of social assistance – nearly 800,000 New ...
Babies in Auckland aged six months and over can receive a free vaccination and children will all have access to vaccines, Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter announced today at Papatoetoe High School. The move comes as part of Government efforts to step up the fight against measles. ...
***Check against delivery*** Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here, and to have the honour of opening this important conference on behalf of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. Let us take the opportunity to acknowledge all the people who have helped make today possible, including our special ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash says the safety of frontline officers and members of the public will be the focus of a new trial of specialist Police response teams in three of our largest urban centres. Police have this morning released details of an initiative to be trialled in Counties Manukau, ...
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter welcomes leaders in the private sector taking action on closing their gender pay gaps to ensure a fairer workplace for all New Zealanders. Ms Genter today launched a new report, Addressing the gender pay gap and driving women’s representation in senior leadership, from the Champions for ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Feedback sought– Lyttelton commercial zone parking The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to remove on-site car parking requirements for new developments in the Lyttelton commercial zone. The proposal, by Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section 71 of the Greater ...
Hon Minister Poto Williams Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration MEDIA STATEMENT Tuesday 15 October 2019 Feedback sought – Hagley Oval The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal about Hagley Oval. The proposal was developed by Regenerate Christchurch ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has finally seen off John Setka from the ALP, with the militant construction union leader capitulating and quitting the party. Setka, who lost a court case he brought in his fight ...
New Zealanders will almost certainly face a referendum next year on whether to legalise voluntary euthanasia after a make-or-break vote in Parliament cleared the way. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Nationals leader Michael McCormack has admitted his party should have handled better agriculture minister Bridget McKenzie’s bring-forward of the planned dairy code. Some Nationals were furious when McKenzie suddenly sped up the code’s preparation in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra While the drought continues to hit the Nationals’ constituents hard, the party faces a testing terrain on a political level. In this episode of Politics with Michelle Grattan, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack acknowledges the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy – in the job for for just weeks after moving across from the department of infrastructure last month – has dismissed talk of spending big on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Downie, Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow, Australian National University It’s time we started talking about the principal opponents to action on climate change – fossil fuel industries. If history has taught us anything, it is when oil, gas and coal industries ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodie Grigg, Research Associate at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University My friends are taking ecstasy at raves and music festivals. Is it safe? — Anonymous Key points no drug use, including ecstasy, is 100% safe festivals can present ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Transport Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland Light Rail: Goff says it’s the Government’s call Richard Harman ...
It isn't the first time Tiwai Point's owners have warned they may close the aluminium smelter, but this Government is unlikely to be handing out financial assistance. ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says APEC will definitely still be held in Auckland in 2021, despite the destruction caused by the fire at the NZ International Convention Centre. ...
The headline said it all. Stats NZ has released 2018 census data on New Zealanders’ commuting habits and, guess what, we love a motorised polluter. “Car streets ahead for travel to work and education” was the heading. It should have been “cars rule, all other options drool”.New cycleways are under construction ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Liu, Chancellors Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Fashion and Textiles Designer, University of Technology Sydney The tech giants Amazon, Google and Facebook have all begun to use machine learning to give you tips on what to wear. Is fashion styling the next field ...
Prime Minister is meeting with officials at the scene of a massive blaze in Auckland's CBD. Watch a live video of a media stand-up with FENZ and the PM. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanessa Bowden, Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Newcastle It is becoming increasingly possible that sea-level rise of a metre or more will occur this century. You might expect this threat to preoccupy coastal homeowners. But many deny the need to act, for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chloe Watfern, Scientia PhD scholar, UNSW At Studio A, on the fourth floor of the Crows Nest community centre, a group of artists is working quietly. An occasional burst of laughter erupts from a corner of the studio. It makes its way ...
In response to Meghan Markle’s admission that she’s finding it a struggle to be a new mother in the media spotlight, columnists across the globe have banded together to launch a charity to support all those women who ‘have it worse’, Emily Writes can exclusively reveal.Meghan Markle – duchess, new ...
Will New Zealand’s largest construction firm have to write off yet more money over the troubled International Convention Centre project?Both Fletcher Building and SkyCity’s share prices have felt the impact of the devastating fire that has raged at Auckland’s half completed convention centre for over a day now. More than ...
The new and spectacular atlas We Are Here is page after page of haunting, hella beautiful visual data, each chapter introduced with an essay. This one, Lost in the Forest, opens the section on people. At some point in the 1990s, one of the creators of this book tried to impress ...
Kassie Hartendorp (Ngāti Raukawa) has been looking to Māori stories and storytellers to learn more about our gender identities before colonisation. There’s a lot to be read between the lines, she writes.Te ao Māori can be a very gendered place to be. In some settings, your gender can tell you ...
The Shouting Valley is a powerful group exhibition at the Gus Fisher Gallery in Auckland that interrogates and gives voice to the people caught between borders. But is the real paradox of this politically charged show the limit of what art can do? Lana Lopesi reviews. “What’s bad about borders?” asked ...
The future of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is under question again as majority owner, mining giant Rio Tinto, is reviewing the plant's future. ...
There will be another crucial vote for the voluntary euthanasia bill later today - whether or not a referendum will be held at the 2020 general election. ...
It was never intended that state owned enterprises should use their monopoly commercial or regulatory power to stifle competition, yet it is at least arguable that is what has happened says Peter Dunne. ...
Go Bus drivers in South Auckland will continue refusing to collect fares tomorrow as their protest continues with the intent of avoiding disruption to passengers while highlighting the need for fair wage negotiations with their employer, FIRST Union ...
Smoke continues to billow in downtown Auckland 24 hours after fire broke out in the incomplete complex.Shortly after 1pm yesterday came the first reports of a fire on the site of the SkyCity New Zealand International Convention Centre in central Auckland. That brought a massive mobilisation of emergency services, evacuations ...
He Kākano Ahau is a podcast by writer and activist Kahu Kutia (Ngāi Tūhoe) that explores stories of Māori in the city, and weaves together strands of connection. In episode one: the legacy of urban marae Tapu te Ranga.I grew up where the tarseal on the road crumbles away into ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Australians are divided over whether the nation’s universities have too many foreign students, according to the Australian National University’s ANUpoll, released Wednesday. In the polling, 52.8% said the mix between foreign and domestic students was ...
National's leader Simon Bridges says a bill imposing restrictions on people returning after fighting for extremist groups would only keep New Zealanders "half safe". ...
Alex Casey talks to Leigh Hart about the return of Late Night Big Breakfast, the finest morning TV parody show New Zealand has ever made. Late Night Big Breakfast is set to return to TVNZ in 2020 after a five year hiatus, creator and comedian Leigh Hart has confirmed. Filmed in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tom Gordon, PhD candidate. Sydney University Physics Education Research (SUPER) group, University of Sydney If you want to get good marks in your exams, there’s no substitute for study. So do past exams, go over your notes, read what you need to ...
Otago University academic Chris Brickell wonders whether his new book on LGBT objects ought to be the sort of thing bookshops would want to have on their shelves. ...
South Aucklanders from Mangere to East Tamaki will be riding their Go Bus services to work for free tomorrow morning, as FIRST Union bus drivers opt out of collecting fares for their employer in an industrial action designed to show the wider public ...
What do we make of the Air New Zealand decision to quit the Auckland-Los Angeles-London route? Nothing much as it simply reflects the changing dynamics of the airline industry. Gone are the days when Air NZ took the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 into the fleet and began flying Los Angeles, then ...
Was the SkyCity Convention Centre construction site at higher risk of fire than any other construction site or building? Alex Braae asks the experts.A fire at the SkyCity Convention Centre construction site has continued to burn this morning, after a night of lighting up the Auckland CBD sky.The fire, which ...
Sky City and Fletcher Building see another "material delay" to opening of International Convention Centre as fire still rages. Plan B needed for APEC in November 2021, says Goff ...
First it was KiwiBuild, now it’s Auckland’s light rail that’s looking increasingly shambolic. Jenée Tibshraeny from Interest asks what’s going on, and how thin is that ice that transport minister Phil Twyford is skating on.The Opposition’s latest attack phrase aimed at the government is set to be one of its ...
At last, a break in the clouds for NZ’s dairy farmers : Fonterra suppliers could be looking at a sharp lift in income, as the co-op revises its forecast range for the milk price to $6.55-$7.55 kg/MS.And the signals are strong enough to underpin projections the milk price will rise ...
Members of the Indian community are angry at an immigration policy change making it harder for to bring spouses to NZ - but Shane Jones says anyone not happy should "catch the next flight home." ...
On October 7, New Zealand’s Labour Party-led coalition government announced draconian class-based restrictions on immigration. From February 2020, the government will reopen the Parent Category visa nearly four years after the previous National Party ...
Organise Aotearoa joined a rally held by the Chilean expatriate community on Tuesday outside the Chilean Embassy in Wellington, following widespread repression and brutality against protesters by President Sebastián Piñera’s armed forces. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Shine, Robinson Fellow, University of Sydney Have you ever sat down to complete your morning crossword or Sudoku and wondered about what’s happening in your brain? Somewhere in the activity of the billions of neurons in your brain lies the code ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mehmet Ozalp, Associate Professor in Islamic Studies, Director of The Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation and Executive Member of Public and Contextual Theology, Charles Sturt University The five-day ceasefire negotiated by US Vice President Mike Pence and Turkish President Recep Tayyib ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne The unprecedented blackout of front pages by Australia’s newspaper publishers this week is a highly significant event in Australian political and media history. It represents the completion of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Hansen, Chief of Staff, The Conversation In recent years coconut water has left the palm-treed shores of tropical islands where tourists on lounge chairs stick straws straight into the fruit, and exploded onto supermarket shelves – helped along by beverage giants ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Petterson, Professor of Geology, Auckland University of Technology CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University A Greenpeace video of me plugging a trackless tram that went viral with 4 million hits has caused a few eyebrows to be raised over whether I think light rail is dead. So let me ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Asher, Associate Professor, UNSW Here’s the boldest idea the government’s inquiry into retirement incomes should consider but might not: no longer exempting all of the value of each retiree’s home from the pension assets test. The test would merely exempt part ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Sernack-Chee Quee, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Design, Architecture & Building, University of Technology Sydney 1973 was a remarkable year for Sydney, with the opening of two major cultural icons. The first was the Sydney Opera House. The second, possibly more important ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: In today’s edition: Serious ramifications likely from SkyCity fire, dozens of partnership visas being denied, and yet another police pursuit death.The fire at the SkyCity Convention Centre construction site has continued to burn overnight. Fire crews were forced to abandon the roof, ...
Orange-fronted parakeets will still get protection but some mohua populations miss out as DoC reduces the area of forest being covered by 1080 poison. ...
The main way small countries like New Zealand can lead on climate change is through our ideas. Policies developed here may help other countries with similar issues, writes David Frame. ...
By Rebecca Ananian-Welsh Australians picked up their morning papers yesterday to find heavily blacked-out text instead of front-page headlines. This bold statement was instigated by the “Your Right to Know” campaign, an unlikely coalition of Australian media organisations fighting for press freedom and source protection. A key reform advocated by a ...
Surrounding sites evacuated and one reported hospitalised in serious condition as blaze rips through two floors of the under-construction building in the Auckland CBDLast updated: 6.30pmParts of central Auckland have been brought to a standstill this afternoon after a major fire broke out shortly after 1pm at the Sky City ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Phil McManus, Professor of Urban and Environmental Geography: Head of School of Geosciences, University of Sydney In the wake of a shocking ABC report on the dismal end of many racehorses’ lives in slaughterhouses, many Australians are questioning whether the horse racing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mohiuddin Ahmed, Lecturer of Computing & Security, Edith Cowan University Machines and the internet are woven into the fabric of our society. A growing number of users, devices and applications work together to produce what we now call “big data”. And this ...
After an unusually nasty campaign for their country, Canada has gone to the polls. They’ve decided that Justin Trudeau will continue as prime minister, but just like in New Zealand, he’ll have to work with coalition politics. What’s happened?After a brutal and at times humiliating campaign, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has ...
“The Prime Minister must publicly support an immediate ban on Gay Conversion Therapy . If I was Jacinda I would feel morally obligated to give more confidence on where I stand, when I have asked for, and received, support from that community.” ...
New abortion law marks significant and needed progress for reproductive rights in New Zealand Amnesty International has today made its submission to the Abortion Legislation Committee in Wellington. The rights at stake in the legislation include the rights ...
Open Mike 27/02/2016 
Open mike is your post.
Tiwai Point's electricity contract is up for renewal. And as usual, they're sticking their hand out, demanding a government subsidy, and threatening to close if they don't get one:The owners of the aluminium smelter said on Wednesday that there were seeking talks with the Government amid a strategic review which ...9 hours ago
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz Everyone is going on about reducing our carbon footprint, zero ...11 hours ago
One of the key arguments used by trans ideologists is that some male-bodied people (ie men) are women because they ‘feel’ they are women. To make this hocus-pocus sound a bit more credible, some will argue that such men have a ‘female brain’. But this is thoroughly anti-scientific too. . ...16 hours ago
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by the Council of Disobedient Women We call on the Council of Trade Unions to show some fortitude and take a stand with your sisters. Unionists know that there is a material world, otherwise workers could simply identify out of poverty. They could declare themselves Well Paid. Why stop ...2 days ago
Keir Starmer has hinted that Labour might vote in favour of the Johnson government's shoddy deal, with the proviso that a second referendum is attached:Speaking to BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, he said: “We will see what that looks like but it makes sense to say that by whatever ...3 days ago
In 1994, I was the editor for an issue of Planet magazine focused on cannabis, its culture and the prospects for the end of its prohibition. Part of that issue was an interview with 'Ringo', an experienced cannabis dealer.I recently posted my essay from that issue, and I figured it ...4 days ago
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...7 days ago
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz There is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...1 week ago
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...1 week ago
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...1 week ago
A list of indicators of bad science – many of these are found in articles promoted by anti-fluoride activists. Anti-fluoride activists have been pouring money into a scaremongering campaign warning pregnant women not to drink fluoridated water. They claim fluoride will lower the IQ of their future child. Fluoride ...1 week ago
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...2 weeks ago
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...2 weeks ago
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...2 weeks ago
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones has hit back at those who are upset over a change in approach to partnership visas. There has been a specific government directive to stop waiving requirements such as couples needing to have lived together for 12 months - a test Indian couples who have ...12 hours ago
We're rebuilding our hospitals, protecting our oceans, and taking mental health seriously. ...5 days ago
Finance Minister Grant Robertson departs tomorrow for events and meetings in Japan and Vietnam. While in Japan, he will discuss economic and fiscal issues including meeting with the Minister of Finance, Taro Aso, and Minister of Economic and Fiscal Policy, Yasutoshi Nishimura. He will meet with the Minister of Education, ...10 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has finally seen off John Setka from the ALP, with the militant construction union leader capitulating and quitting the party. Setka, who lost a court case he brought in his fight ...5 hours ago
New Zealanders will almost certainly face a referendum next year on whether to legalise voluntary euthanasia after a make-or-break vote in Parliament cleared the way. ...7 hours ago
A los of support for the second round of gun law changes seems to boil down to the issue of fairness, writes Laura Walters. ...8 hours ago
After the leak of new transport proposals, critics say the Government risks falling victim to “airport derangement syndrome”. ...10 hours ago
It isn't the first time Tiwai Point's owners have warned they may close the aluminium smelter, but this Government is unlikely to be handing out financial assistance. ...10 hours ago
(Headline abbreviated, original headline: Have your say on the proposed changes to New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension) ...10 hours ago
The headline said it all. Stats NZ has released 2018 census data on New Zealanders’ commuting habits and, guess what, we love a motorised polluter. “Car streets ahead for travel to work and education” was the heading. It should have been “cars rule, all other options drool”.New cycleways are under construction ...11 hours ago
Air New Zealand has revealed it will axe its flagship Los Angeles to London route, resulting in the loss of at least 130 jobs. ...11 hours ago
As global economic risks continue to run high, there is increasing concern about the quality of debt in the corporate bond market. ...11 hours ago
The future of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is under question again as majority owner, mining giant Rio Tinto, is reviewing the plant's future. ...13 hours ago
It was never intended that state owned enterprises should use their monopoly commercial or regulatory power to stifle competition, yet it is at least arguable that is what has happened says Peter Dunne. ...13 hours ago
Otago University academic Chris Brickell wonders whether his new book on LGBT objects ought to be the sort of thing bookshops would want to have on their shelves. ...15 hours ago
What do we make of the Air New Zealand decision to quit the Auckland-Los Angeles-London route? Nothing much as it simply reflects the changing dynamics of the airline industry. Gone are the days when Air NZ took the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 into the fleet and began flying Los Angeles, then ...16 hours ago
Sky City and Fletcher Building see another "material delay" to opening of International Convention Centre as fire still rages. Plan B needed for APEC in November 2021, says Goff ...17 hours ago
The Sky City Convention Centre fire burns on this morning, with the Prime Minister planning to visit firefighters today. ...21 hours ago
Orange-fronted parakeets will still get protection but some mohua populations miss out as DoC reduces the area of forest being covered by 1080 poison. ...21 hours ago
Changes to how courts deal with meth-related offending can only go so far thanks to current laws. And that's how it's going to stay. ...21 hours ago
England's chirpy Aussie coach is in his element ahead of the World Cup semifinal. ...22 hours ago
Like the All Blacks, Kellie Bailey is hitting Japan this week at the top of her game - as a judge on the Olympic canoe slalom course. ...22 hours ago
David Seymour won't return a donation from a man who threatened to destroy mosques. ...22 hours ago
Sportsroom editor Steve Deane asks himself why he starts foaming at the mouth at the sight of a twit in a white shirt with a red rose on it. ...22 hours ago
The main way small countries like New Zealand can lead on climate change is through our ideas. Policies developed here may help other countries with similar issues, writes David Frame. ...22 hours ago
The hugely disproportionate number of disabled people on benefits is hidden by our low unemployment figures. ...22 hours ago
You can’t make this stuff up!!! Apparently Disney employees are being encouraged to donate to a fund (tax deductible) to lobby politicians for TPP!
Just another chapter and extension in corporate welfare!! Not just taxpayers bail outs, not just not having to pay corporate tax, but now Disney employees are being asked to fund on behalf of it’s employeer Disney to lobby for TPP!
No doubt that those employees who don’t will be scrutinised. It reminds me of Enron when employees were encouraged (or coerced into funding the shares of Enron and driving the share price up).
“DISNEY OFFERS TO DEDUCT CONTRIBUTIONS TO ITS PAC FROM EMPLOYEES’ PAYCHECKS, TO LOBBY FOR TPP”
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Disney_offers_to_deduct_contributions_to_its_PAC_from_employees%27_paychecks%2C_to_lobby_for_TPP/49313/0/38/38/Y/M.html
Kiwis were all shocked when it was found that oil companies deduct money from it’s minimum wage zero hours contractors (formerly called employees) when they get customer ‘drive offs’. But wait, more to come, it now appears that under TPP and with globalism, companys like Disney are passing a hat around to it’s minimum wage zero hours contractors to contribute to Disney’s own tax deductible lobbist activities!!
(More ideas for Peter Jackson, maybe!!)
Disney is an ugly organisation where executives pay reflect how much they can blag rather than any ‘value’ they generate.
Iger the CEO was asking employees to chip in for copyrights also, he got over $40m last year alone.
Walt would be proud of his empire today being an ardent anti communist patriot, god bless America ain’t she great. Not too sure what he’d make of their over 18 activities in porn etc these days though.
+1 TC
TPP undergoes stealthy changes that expand penalties for copyright infringement
https://www.rt.com/usa/332926-tpp-stealthy-copyright-changes/#.Vs6eLqLmfuw.facebook
“It might seem inconsequential, but Malcolm explained that this easy-to-miss edit actually has huge implications for criminal penalties. In the provision’s November form, it exempted countries from applying criminal penalties that it had listed, except in circumstances that actually damage the copyright holder.
After the legal scrub, however, the list of exemptions for countries is much smaller, forcing countries to pass criminal laws against copyright infringement even when the copyright holders aren’t harmed.”
My interpretation of that is, under TPPA copywrite is criminal and the police have to prosecute it at taxpayers expense even if no one is harmed, against the current system of it being a civil claim and the company spending money doing it!
Disney have been aggressively expanding their IP holdings with Pixar, lucasfilm, marvel etc so this is a logical extension for the big media companies to protect their assets by jailing offenders.
Bankstas roam free though.
Disney and Hollywood productions are experts at appropriating other peoples serious works of literature , books and creative ideas and turning it into schmaltz and sensationalist comic effect appealing to the lowest common denominator …and totally lacking in the subtlety of the original….( I put Lord of the Rings in this category)
imo the world would be better off without Disney and Hollywood….so by cracking down hard and becoming illegitimately the intrusive intellectual copyright thought police….maybe they will consume themselves and be the author of their own greedy demise and people will ignore them and turn to other international productions of greater artistic and inspirational integrity ( hopefully)
If someone dubs in a translation of a foreign film he will become liable for a criminal conviction even though no harm was done to anyone. Might even advantage the producer.
This is a good example of the use of “harmonising” processes between countries as outlined in TPPA. Pretty drastic!
it may actually turn people away from Hollywood and give an impetus to other countries which have very creative film industries…and films which have been neglected…and which provide their own translations into English eg some Danish films are brilliant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melancholia_(2011_film)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/77221956/Upper-Hutt-City-Council-votes-to-make-the-city-New-Zealands-first-TPPA-free-zone
Upper Hutt City Council votes to make the city New Zealand’s first ‘TPPA free zone’
That was pretty funny. Take-home message seems to be that the majority of Upper Hutt City Councillors are not very bright and have too little to do with their time.
Take home message is that the no voters couldn’t let better judgement override their right wing ideology.
The awareness that local councils don’t have the authority to opt out of international agreements entered into by central government isn’t a matter of ideology, it’s a matter of having more than a couple of brain cells to rub together.
Ok, so if there are any manufacturers in Upper Hutt who want to sell their products overseas under the terms of the TPPA, they will have to relocate to another city? That sounds logical.
The WTO advances warnings of the horrors coming under TPPA …
“The World Trade Organization is giving some environmentalists a reason to say “I told you so.”
On Wednesday, the WTO, the international body that enforces trade law, said that India’s solar power subsidy violated trade rules.
The program — which has helped India’s solar industry get off the ground and become one of the fastest growing in the world — required new projects be built with parts made in India.
Despite India’s argument that the local product requirement was crucial to India’s meeting its commitment under the Paris Climate Agreement, the WTO ruled that requirement unfairly discriminated against U.S. solar manufacturers.
This is exactly the kind of decision that has many environmentalists worried about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the sweeping and controversial trade agreement President Barack Obama signed in February. ”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/wto-tpp-environment-solar_us_56d09505e4b0871f60eb3e50
It’s comforting to know John Key has assured us that this sort of thing will never happen in New Zealand. I feel all warm and comfy now.
Well thank goodness with all this bad news about the TPP coming out Labour is definitely going to pull NZ out of the agreement. Right?
+1 rawshark-yeshe
Drastic but a good example of the ulterior motive of TPPA. Wonder if they will deal with such things on the Roadshow?
If this was Facebook I would tag Wayne on this…
It’s the WTO that’s made this ruling, and the TPPA is irrelevant to it. NZ has been a member of the WTO for decades, and obtained a similar ruling a few years back to stop Australia blocking export to Australia of NZ apples. So, it the TPPA really does bring us the kind of “horrors” that accompany belonging to the WTO, I’m going with “meh.”
rawshark-yeshe. I borrowed your WTO piece to back up on Pundit. Dear old Wayne is at it again.
happy to help with that !! 🙂
Well this has been a week of “comfortable” 0.5yr/interim results from players in the NZ electricity industries e.g. Contact – Meridian – MRP – Vector.
These result are so inconsistent with the reality of flat – pending declining electrical energy demand – an over capacity of production – consequent closure and sale of plant and land – minimal productive investment. Also revelations of over-supply risk aka Manapouri.
Great levels of storage in the lakes.
All should result in significant end-user costs.
But no ! – because the model of fake competition and requisite investor dividends is wrong.
A previous NZ Government engineered the market thusly .
Can a subsequent NZ Government re-engineer the market to correct these evident anomalies ? – would they risk the litigation ?
That is – subsequent to TPPA bondage.
BTW – this is what the developers are really building in Auckland – not exactly affordable and not exactly to the taste of most Kiwis. But the Auckland council wants to add another level to it (3 level mansions) in the central Auckland suburbs, and is so surprised that neighbours are not that keen! This is the ‘affordable’ housing rout. It is a fiction!!! Click on link and scroll down to see what is really being built with the ‘relaxed zoning’ and ‘relaxed character’, soon this style of housing to be even higher and invade central Auckland suburbs further.
https://www.facebook.com/lowndes.realestate/?
Rare Brand New 4 + 2 Bedrooms Luxury Home in Albany
What a wonderful location, it sits on a quiet street in the centre of hot suburb Oteha. This is a super-sized 6 bedroom luxury modern home with floor area exceeding 330m2. Everything has been finished to very high standard and detailed designs. Very generous on space in each part of the house. One large open plan lounge with easy flow to neatly finished outdoor area. Extra family room located on the top floor also connected to a large private outdoor deck, giving the best privacy for the family. A small beverage bar right beside the family room, so convenient! 4 double bedrooms upstairs with 1 ensuite. 2 more double bedrooms with self-contained living areas and shared bathroom. Ideal for extended family. Elevated and north facing, allows it to gain most of stunning views among the neighbours. Three heat pumps have been installed to give maximum comfort.
4 minutes walk to local Seville Shopping Centre
Reserve and playground just outside the driveway
5 minutes drive to Albany Shopping mall
6 mins drive to Browns Bay beach and township
2 mins drive to motorway on-ramp
“Not exactly in the taste of most Kiwis”.
Wrong.
Previously around Albany the houses were likely to be 1960’s 100m2 bungalows, value approx $400k that first home owners could have afforded. New ‘developed’ houses are now exceeding 330m2 – and the likely cost will be over $1million. So before anyone starts going on about affordable housing from the ‘relaxed’ standards and zoning – have a good look at what is actually being built in Auckland both on the green field and in the suburbs and SHA. What I would call McMansions. There is no increased public transport so that’s 60,000 new cars on the road per year from migration.
The idea that South Auckland residents will be moving into these new developments (which are larger and more expensive than existing housing stock) is laughable.
Those advocating it, are actually removing affordable houses to make way for someones idea of a mansion.
And high rises as social housing normally descend into slums real quick. The worst examples in the UK of slums are high rise social housing.
The best way to have an integrated society is to actually (like state homes) have social housing in expensive areas with other social economic groups in similar houses. But the government has sold these off, pocketed the money and now pulling the line that by removing character standards and allowing ghetto 3 story mansions of 330m2 built by private developers it will help housing.
It is not just baby boomers who are taking the properties from the poor but the left love to abuse them – wonder what would happen if Bomber called Asians Selfish – probably cause an outrage against the outrageous racism!!! But ageism against Kiwi baby boomers is fine.
Having a serious debate about migration in NZ is somehow now akin to asking the Jews to give Palestinians a go! It is the elephant in the room that politicians and councillors and media commentators refuse to acknowledge.
The fact that the Waatea Estate episode about housing did not mention migration as a factor in property prices, the boom and zoning, and transport speaks volumes.
+1 you make a lot of very valid observations, sadly I fear the conversation will never be considered…NZ in 2016 is not the egalitarian society we were in the mid 20th century…..much to our cost…(and before anyone points out things were not equal for Maori, that is a given)
+100…”The best way to have an integrated society is to actually (like state homes) have social housing in expensive areas with other social economic groups
this is the way egalitarian New Zealand used to be when Jonkey nactional was brought up in a state house
…”Having a serious debate about migration in NZ is somehow now akin to asking the Jews to give Palestinians a go!”
Palestine was taken over and renamed Israel…the Palestinians were run out of their own country
Chooky, your comment ” the best way to have an integrated society etc” is absolutely correct. The early state houses were built with exactly that intention, in desirable areas too, the premise being that Jack deserved good areas/views/sunny aspects as well as his master.
Poorer Kiwis are being displaced as we speak in Auckland and it is not the baby boomers displacing them….. If anything I am seeing baby boomers moving out of Auckland.
Affordable housing is also being displaced as we speak in Auckland – often replaced with large McMansions…
I don’t care if NZ has more migration, I just think NZ should be a bit more selective. For every new migrant there is a new job created that pays NZ taxes and a new house created for them surplus to requirements. Otherwise they are displacing a local job and a local home. There should be zero property investment allowed by new migrants for 10 years and entrepreneurs should be actually creating sustainable things like software and patents.
I also think it should be compulsory for new migrants to have some sort of integration of Kiwis values such as valuing the natural environment, how to be more sustainable and so forth. They should also be tested on treaty of Waitangi issues. (Every migrants I know believe Maori are bludgers and don’t understand why the government is giving them so much land and money). (They read the herald). There should be some moral and social criteria.
eg. A person I know who was a coloured South African was interviewed by secret police under Apartheid. They later saw the same secret policeman who interrogated him, in Whangarei – he had settled in NZ when Mandela took over! You are a white South African in the secret police under Apartheid – no problem have a job in our police force, NZ immigration can’t foresee see any problems!!
+100
The more salient way to start the conversation about lack of housing supply into Auckland/Christchurch and the impact of migration is to talk about the imagined relocation of a small NZ town to those cities every year.
eg. Given the closure of Pike River for example, would it be reasonable to relocate the population of that community to Auckland? The answer would of course be no. Not until the current situation with housing was resolved. And this is purely in terms of practicalities – it has nothing to do with anti-immigration or racism.
[deleted]
[lprent: (sigh) ]
?
It might be that strange person who came here a few months back. Always commented under female names. Best to ignore.
+ 1
Yep. Cleared their comments out
The photo on this link of John Key is priceless! A real sitter for a “Caption This.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11592608
The elephant in the room?
HA!
Key’s nose nearly fell off today as he attempted to prevent it from growing.
“Who farted?”
Is Angus Gillies a ghoulish profiteer, or are his critics denying the conflicts in their own community? http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2016/02/who-speaks-for-ruatoria.html
There is actually NO ‘public transport’ in the Auckland region.
There are 10 private bus companies, 4 private ferries and a French multi-national operating and managing Auckland’s trains.
Auckland Transport (AT) will not reveal how much public money is being paid in subsidies to these private passenger transport providers. (I’ve asked ).
Why should the public subsidise that which we no longer own, operate or manage?
If the private sector are so ‘efficient’ why do they need public subsidies?
Where is the ‘cost-benefit’ analysis which proves that public subsidy of private passenger transport is a more ‘cost-effective’ spending of public money than Auckland Transport providing bus, ferry and rail services ‘in house’ through public ownership, operation and management ?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Quite possibly the stupidest comment you have made on here.
I find it surprising that someone whois running for mayor of Auckland does not understand how public transport subsidies work.
I suggest you hop on over to http://www.transportblog.co.nz and ask Patrick nicely how it works and save yourself the embarrassment of getting roasted on here.
So, now Penny Bright is:
– against climate change action
– against the Unitary Plan
– against affordable housing, and
– against public transport
Winner
Given Penny’s militant stance in favour of personally freeloading off the rates contributions of every other Aucklander, shouldn’t she be at the ACT conference doing a stand up comedy routine on how to avoid personal responsibility? They’d be rolling in the aisles. If they had aisles in the back of Seymour’s car, that is.
I know what you mean.
Has a politics more like Rick from the Young Ones, except she’s on Series 40.
So – you don’t support transparency in the spending of citizens’ rates monies, when it comes the subsidising of private passenger transport providers?
In my view – it appears you support corporate welfare.
I don’t.
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
You’re the worst recipient of underserved welfare I’ve ever seen.
You drive on roads, use public services, and don’t pay a cent for them.
So in my view, you stand for nearly everything I stand against.
You will lose. Again. And again. And again.
You haven’t been elected so much as dog catcher in your life, and you never will.
I’m defending my (and effectively YOUR) lawful rights to ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ local government.
Don’t YOU believe in transparency regarding rates spending?
Don’t YOU agree that that the following information regarding spending by Auckland Council and Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) should be available for public scrutiny?
* The unique contract number.
* The name of the consultant or contractor.
* The (brief) scope of the contract.
* The start and finish dates of the contract.
* The dollar value of every contract (including subcontractors).
* How the contract was awarded (direct appointment / public tender).
How can you ‘follow the dollar’ – if you don’t know exactly where the dollar is being spent?
How can ‘prudent stewardship’ and ‘fiscal responsibility’ be exercised – if ‘the books’ are not open, and this information is not publicly available for ‘line by line’ accounting?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
“How can ‘prudent stewardship’ and ‘fiscal responsibility’ be exercised – if ‘the books’ are not open, and this information is not publicly available for ‘line by line’ accounting?”
Therer are these things called auditors. Sure you’ve heard of them. They read the line items so the rest of us don’t need to.
Penny Bright is for ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ local government, and for the ‘Rule of Law’ to equally apply to Auckland Council and Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs).
Penny Bright is for ‘opening the books’ and ‘cutting out the contractors / consultants’ – unless a cost- benefit analysis proves that is a more cost-effective use of public money than in-house provision under the ‘public service’ model.
Penny Bright is opposed to the commercialisation and privatisation of public services, and has a proven track record going back to 1997 when the universally hated Metrowater was forced upon the citizens and ratepayers of Auckland City Council.
Penny Bright vigorously and consistently opposed the Auckland Supercity (for the 1%) from Day One – 5 September 2006 – the date of the ‘failed Mayoral coup’, when the four (then) City Council Mayors all ganged up against Mike Lee and the ARC, (on behalf of BIG business) to push for an Auckland ‘Supercity’.
Penny Bright helped to stop the Wellington proposed Supercity.
Penny Bright has vigorously opposed the TPPA since 2010.
Penny Bright opposes road tolls and user charges for public services.
Penny Bright opposes the sell off of Auckland Council assets.
Penny Bright is opposed to ‘democracy for developers’.
Penny Bright is campaigning against corrupt corporate control.
IT’S OUR AUCKLAND!
It’s time to take it back from BIG business, property developers, overseas investors, speculators, and money-launderers!
Penny Bright – WINNER.
Gosh that person loves the sound of their own name. They could get some help for that.
I can and will defend myself Sacha.
I respectfully suggest that you get used to it?
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Yeah I’d say ‘defend’ is yet another word whose meaning you fail to grasp. But I’m not expecting you to change your ways at this late stage of life.
Speaking of openness and transparency, care to tell us why you are a climate change denier?
So, even though anyone can ride the buses and trains, Auckland doesn’t have public transport because all the buses and trains are privately owned/operated.
On the other hand, the Mayoral limo, which the public can’t ride in, is public transport because the city owns it.
Great logic skills, eh. What everyone needs in a leader.
Penny,
Presumably AT does provide an overall amount of the subsidy.
By the way there are some fundamental fallacies in your reasoning about the cost of public transport. Virtually nowhere in the world does the fare box cover the actual cost of the service. So there is always a subsidy from ratepayers or taxpayers to the actual users. This is the case whether the providers are owned by the Council or by the private sector.
I would have thought, you being a Mayoral candidate, that you would know this, or at least give an impression that you do. Because unless you do, it makes your request for financial accountability look foolish. And unlike the rest of us are on a rates strike because of it, though presumably you will ultimately pay rather than loose your house.
There’s more financial accountability in New Zealand local government than anywhere else in the world.
Anyone who wants to wade through all the full volumes of the LTP, RLTP, and Annual Plans, can do so.
No other business in New Zealand the size of Auckland Council has anywhere near the degree of scrutiny and reporting detail Auckland Council has as routine.
Got some FACTS to back up your, in my opinion, fairy story Ad?
“There’s more financial accountability in New Zealand local government than anywhere else in the world.”
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Sure. Find me a city in the world that publishes its accounts with more detail than the LTP, RLTP, and Annual Plan.
Case closed.
So you can’t provide the facts to back up your, in my view, fantasy Ad?
Case closed.
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
You’re the one who made the claim now back it up.
As an aside I think part of the problem is that it’s so damn hard to get. This sort of stuff should be easily available on the internet. Shouldn’t need to ask for it.
True but the subsidy is greater when the service is provided by private providers. It’s greater by the amount of profit that the private providers take.
+1
Wayne, Lose not “loose”. Or, like brother John, are you seeking the common touch?
Yeah, it’s a Trump thing.
Language is effectively a democracy. If the illiterates who think lose is spelt loose become a majority, the literate have to suck it up and admit defeat. We aren’t far off that point if blog posts and comments are anything to go by.
It’s a tough one for people who were apparently taught to spell things phonetically if unsure. They struggle with words like lose because of words like hose and dose.
If everybody would just agree to spell it looz the problem would be solved.
Well, yeah – telling schoolkids to try and spell English phonetically was a dumb idea from day one. There wouldn’t be a language on the planet less suited to trying to spell words phonetically. Among native speakers, English spelling is tough for dyslexics and people who don’t read unless they have to – maybe Wayne’s dyslexic, but my money would be on the second one.
I believe Wayne is a born & bred Kiwi but not all TS commenters are. In any case, Wayne’s spell-checker is probably set to automatically change “lose” into “loose” as the former is much worse than the latter, for an ex-Nat 😉
So why Wayne – if the private sector is supposedly so ‘efficient’ – do private transport providers need public subsidies?
Why should the public subsidise that which we no longer own, operate or manage when it comes to passenger transport provision in Auckland?
Why is information about public subsidies of privately owned, operated and managed passenger transport not available for public scrutiny?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
There can be public benefit without public ownership.
In my view Sacha – there would be more public benefit if the public were not subsidising private passenger transport providers and the ownership, operation and management was brought back ‘in house’ under the public service model.
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
You have no idea about how public transport works, and it’s embarrassing.
How many years have you been in this game?
Do you need to be told what the cost of the annual opex alone for a private vehicle using the motorway system is? Try figuring out what an actual subsidy is on all modes before you open your ignorant gob.
What’s your definition of ‘public’ when it comes to ‘public transport’ Ad?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
I have learned Wayne – to presume nothing and check everything.
AT declined to answer my LGOIMA request regarding public subsidies of private passenger transport providers on the grounds that this information was ‘contractually confidential’.
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
US fires a warning to Russia.
The Herald is being disingenuous mentioning North Korea.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11596593
Want more information.
Use alternative media.
http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/2016/02/stephen-cohen-on-new-cold-war_23.html
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/did-russia-just-threaten-turkey-nuclear-weapons/ri12936
Meanwhile, China is using their “One Road One Belt” initiative to talk to countries about new trade, business and logistical/transport opportunities.
Researchers find the tipping point between resilience and collapse in complex systems
Now that’s going to have some interesting consequences – especially once they turn it on the economy.
Thanks, that looks bloody interesting.
There was no way to calculate that–until now. Wow! A breakthrough…a eureka moment?
Our tool, for the first time, enables those predictions. Sounding like a eureka moment!
“Statistical physics has found that you can crunch down all of these millions of parameters and components into one number–the temperature,” said Barzel. “We take it for granted now, but that was a tremendous scientific achievement.
Oh. So all the millions of parameters people knew nothing about were cunningly ignored by the people who knew nothing about them as people concentrated on what they could observe and (eventually) measure…hmm.
As the water heats up, those parameters and components continually change. Measuring those multitudinous changes over time–a microscopic approach to assessing the water’s state–would be impossible. Uh-huh.
Statistical physics has found that you can crunch down all of these millions of parameters and components [from any complex system] into one number–the temperature,” But..but…the impossibility of tracking all those millions of components and parameters…or even probably agreeing on which ones are relevant…
“Once you identify the relevant parameter that controls the system’s resilience, you can begin to tackle how to manipulate that resilience–how to enhance resilience or restore resilience, Roight.
So if only we could know everything about something we could reduce that complex everything into a simple something. Hmm. Like a number. There’s a wee detail in there…can’t quite grasp it. But hey, great. Apart from never being able to know everything about something [that’s the detail!] and therefore being unable to reduce the unknown to a known….fantastic!
I’m picking the “temperature” always pans out to be 42 btw 😉
Frak!!
That left me kinda disappointed the robot didn’t turn around and punch out the human.
Same. What a prick.
Gosh! Uneven ground and all. Only question is was it acting independently or under control off stage. If totally independent then double Wow!
DARPA has been sponsoring X-prize type competitions for totally autonomous humanoid robots. This is only a small step beyond the best achieved in the competition last year. Since Google bought Boston Dynamics, I’m not sure they’re still bothering to enter the competitions anymore.
I’m sure the Pentagon is only funding these initiatives in order to develop robotic disaster rescue teams and nuclear waste clean up crews /sarc
Tis the janitors’ dignity they’re thinking of.
So good and so well worth a read as usual. JMG talking about politics over there
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/2016/02/the-decline-and-fall-of-hillary-clinton.html
anyway I’ll end up quoting the whole thing – go and read it – I insist!!!
Thanks for putting this up in OM too, MM.
Well, I did what I was told and read it. Must admit my brain started to ‘short out’ towards the end but it paints a sense of extreme dissonance which also applies elsewhere including NZ. There are the two opposing responses coming from “ordinary people” in the US. The more intelligent and rational have gravitated to Bernie Sanders and the less intelligent, ultra conservatives to Trump. In NZ we have the “missing million”.
Yes I wonder who will pull through the pack here – key hasn’t got it for sure – maybe we’ll slide through the middle but a trump win will invigorate the edgy political characters I think.
Yes I wonder who will pull through the pack here –
With Phil Goff having announced he will not be contesting the next election, there is an opening for Micheal Wood of the Labour Party. He is expected to get the Mt Roskill candidacy and anyone who has heard him speak will be aware of his talents and pulling power. Moreover he is highly intelligent and a solid performer. Definitely leadership material and someone to watch closely in the coming years.
https://www.facebook.com/mwoodnz/
Michael Wood is a steady performer but gets his shot at Goff’s seat due to being a loyal long term Labour establishment player, not having challenged the Labour caucus in any material way, and after having stood as a candidate many times for Labour in other seats over the years.
So, basically, he works well with others and doesn’t throw a tanty when something deviates from his narrow preferences.
Good to know.
R’lyeh is on the Challenger Plateau – not many orange roughy around it either.
GREAT news John Palino is apparently standing as yet another Auckland Mayoral candidate!
SO many pro-business / pro-Supercity 2016 Auckland Mayoral candidates!
Keep splitting that vote ….
Looking forward to comparing the proven track records of all the other Auckland Mayoral candidates, when it comes to defending the LAWFUL rights of citizens to ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ local government in Auckland?
I’ve put my freehold house on the line to defend these LAWFUL rights.
What have any of the other Auckland Mayoral candidates done?
I note that fellow ‘Independent’ Auckland Mayoral candidate Phil Goff (currently the Labour MP for Mt Roskill), supports the TPPA, road tolling, and PPPs.
Is this now the position of City Vision?
(Who have endorsed Phil Goff as an Auckland Mayoral candidate?)
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
“City Vision? (Who have endorsed Phil Goff as an Auckland Mayoral candidate?)”
they have?
link please, or retraction.
Found it for you. From their website:
http://cityvision.org.nz/news/media-release-city-vision-welcomes-phil-goffs-mayoral-announcement-and-prepares-for-2016-campaign/
“While City Vision is yet to make a formal Mayoral endorsement decision, we believe that we could work collaboratively with Mr Goff to build a better Auckland”, says Waitematā Local Board Chair, Shale Chambers.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/opinion/77118558/opinion-right-wing-resistance-agenda-reprehensible
For example, their pamphlets hit on things like the peril of too much Chinese investment, the pervasive threat of Zionism, Israel’s “holocaust” in Gaza, the perfidious influence of Cameron Slater and National Party pollster and commentator David Farrar in New Zealand politics, the sovereignty-destroying TPPA and, of course, the fact that John Key is a rootless money man whose allegiance is to international finance and not the people of New Zealand.
It has to be said that the overall themes and prose style of their literature shared much more with the anonymous commenters on the Left-wing blog, The Standard than the centre-Right, Kiwiblog. Of course, the more usual economic xenophobia was leavened throughout with heavy dollops of racism, which stands in stark contrast to your garden variety left-liberal – who usually considers racism to be the most grievous sin in the book.
A sad but amusing opinion piece
TPP
So this is why Key is trying to rush the TPP through our Parliament.
http://insidetrade.com/
http://tppnocertification.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Certification-memorandum.pdf
time to put my money where the mouth is.
i have a vision.
it is of aotearoa being a food producer second to none.
this produce is organically grown.
the conversion time is 8-10 years.
this can be labour intensive.
all labour used starts at a living wage rate of $18 an hour.
this will occur until a ubi is established (4-5 years).
while we have a new minimum wage there will also be a maximum wage of 10 times the lowest wage in the organisation.
a financial transaction tax will be started which will replace gst and all income tax below $40,000.
trucks are gonna be taxed at an eye watering rate for the privilege of using the roads.
taxed so hard that they will cease to be viable and the majority of freight will be moved by rail.
these taxes go into rail investment and public transport
big investment in solar farms as well as providing incentives for citizens to install solar on their whare.
all new homes must have water tanks and solar installed.
ok, its all a bit rushed as i am about to celebrate a fiftieth.
the idea is to start to build a resilient aotearoa where people and their needs come first second and third.
welcome all nay-sayers, but coming at me from a balance sheet angle will fall on deaf ears.
Kia kaha !!!
This resilience stuff is hot stuff, gsays.
Enjoy the celebrations!
Sounds great! Sooner we get there the better I reckon, and hopefully avoiding as much pain as possible.
How have you put your money anywhere?
I don’t quite understand you.
I think it was supposed to read “time to put the country’s money where my mouth is.”
hi ad, sorry about belated reply (needed a full day and a half to repair from 50th).
i had made a comment on a thread here on the standard about being sick of posts bagging the opposition rather than painting a picture of a bright future.
therefore the money i was referring to was metaphorical.
perhaps put up or shut up would have been more appropriate.
in answer to psycho milt below:
if you are happy with billions of our dollars going overseas to the foreign banks,
happy with charter schools being paid bonuses regardless of performances, overnight bailouts of sth canterbury finance,
the slashing of mental health budgets,
below par, frozen food moved from tauranga to dunedin to feed the elderly and infirm..
then i think we will talk past each other all day.
the point is that with a financial transaction tax, we are able to use some of the massive profits from banking to help the people.
Land of the free and their highest impartial moral authority .. ha ha ha ha ha!
Dow Chemicals Would Rather Pay Out $835 Million Than Face the Supreme Court Without Scalia
Dow Chemicals this week settled a billion-dollar lawsuit after determining, essentially, that it had no chance in front of a Supreme Court without Antonin Scalia.
Dow was challenging a 2013 order that required it to pay $1.06 billion as part of an antitrust suit concerning the sale of urethanes. (The company was accused of price fixing with four other companies but refused to admit liability; the other companies settled for a collective $135 million.)
But Dow, which was set to argue before the Supreme Court once the Court had decided a similar case, dropped its appeal today and settled with the plaintiffs in the case for $835 million. What inspired this change of heart? According to Bloomberg, it was the death of Scalia.
Scalia, of course, was not exactly a fan of class actions. Which is great news for the plaintiffs and terrible news for Dow, which was hoping the Court should reduce the award as part of a referendum on class action suits.
But alas, big plaintiff won this round.
http://gawker.com/dow-chemicals-would-rather-pay-out-835-mi…
Are the comments Donald Trump made about Princess Diana nearly 20 years ago, (and other comments he has made about women), going to come back him and bite him on his political posterior – as it were?
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/donald-trump-said-a-lot-of-gross-things-about-women-on-howar#.dfbZ6DXQ4
Donald Trump Said A Lot Of Gross Things About Women On “Howard Stern”
In the hours of audio reviewed by BuzzFeed News, Trump ranks, rates, and degrades women.
posted on Feb. 25, 2016, at 12:11 p.m.
Donald Trump’s rise toward the Republican nomination has been fueled, in part, by his candid and often crude style — more Howard Stern, say, than Mitt Romney.
And the roots of Donald Trump’s rhetoric come, in fact, in part from The Howard Stern Show. Trump appeared upwards of two dozen times from the late ’90s through the 2000s with the shock jock, and BuzzFeed News has listened to hours of those conversations, which are not publically available.
The most popular topic of conversation during these appearances, as is typical of Stern’s program, was sex.
In particular, Trump frequently discussed women he had sex with, wanted to have sex with, or wouldn’t have sex with if given the opportunity. He also rated women on a 10-point scale.
“A person who is very flat-chested is very hard to be a 10,” he told Stern in one typical exchange.
Women make up a majority of the American electorate, and any of dozens of Trump’s remarks would be considered a severe blow to most candidates for public office.
Trump has, in the Republican primary, proven largely immune to the backlash that the laws of gravity in politics would predict, but there are also suggestions that he has a deep problem with some women voters: 68% of women voters held an unfavorable view of Trump in a Quinnipiac poll released in December.
In a Gallup poll also released in December, Trump had the lowest net favorable rating out of all the candidates among college-educated Republican women.
And should he win the nomination, his comments are sure to become ammunition for Democrats against what they have long cast as a Republican “war on women.”
Trump has a history of making crude remarks toward women. He reportedly said of his ex-wife Marla Maples, “Nice tits, no brains,” and more recently, he has called Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly a “bimbo” and a “lightweight” and said she had “blood coming out of her wherever” during the first GOP debate.
The focus of Trump’s attentions when interviewed by Stern was commonly female celebrities — movie and television stars, recording artists, models, and media personalities.
Trump, in more than one instance, expressed his admiration for and attraction to Diana, Princess of Wales.
Months after Diana was killed in an automobile accident in 1997, Trump told Stern he thinks he could have slept with her, saying she had “supermodel beauty.”
In a different interview in 2000, Trump said he would have slept with her “without hesitation” and that “she had the height, she had the beauty, she had the skin.” He added, “She was crazy, but (these are minor details)?”
…….
______________________________
(In brackets because of incomplete cut & pasted quote – not sure if that’s the exact wording ..)
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Hampshire school calls police after pupil looks at UKIP website
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-35671519
Everyone out to protect their backs.
It’s another example of how out of hand things are becoming.
Mr Hooton’s advice to Act’s conference today: https://www.facebook.com/matthew.hooton.77/posts/981186271958320?pnref=story
An interesting read. But what a sacrifice when at the end is the list of Key failures yet which do not deter Hooton. Power at any cost eh Matthew?
And what a misunderstanding about Education.
Will read again tomorrow and find the speech of the Act leader to compare it with.
Ta. I don’t have the stomach for that.
Keep an eye on the enemy.
“…. And this is seriously the sort of economic assumption that Labour and the Greens have been using to say the TPP would be bad for New Zealand. So keeping those lunatics away from office is absolutely paramount.”
he continues
‘Well, we have a prime minister who is applying the median voter model more rigorously than any other I can think of anywhere in the world. And, as Labour heads ever more to the extreme left, John Key will follow them, because that’s what the median voter says to do. It’s not his fault that Labour’s not playing the same game. The median voter model says Labour should head to the centre but they’re not. But, given that, the median voter model says John Key should allow them all the way to the extreme left and that is what he will do left unchecked, because that’s what the model says he should do. So Act’s role is to have enough gravitational pull on the right to try to at least slow John Key’s inevitable and logical drift to the left, eventually maybe even stop it and keep him in a steady state or – here’s hoping – one day even pull him slightly back towards sound policy. Of course we all know this, and we’ve talked about it for years.”
and as to resource access?…
“And you have a leader who can identify a long-term, important contemporary issue. Because how New Zealand its natural resources like water comes down to three options: 1) You can just make it a free for all and the resource will be polluted and depleted, but Act has never been an anarchist party. 2) You can ration them by queuing like the Soviet Union did with bread and advantage existing users over newer innovative ones, but I guess it is fair in its own way. 3). Or you can ration them through pricing, so that those who have the best idea to maximise the value of the natural resources are the ones who get them. And of course, when it comes to natural resources, not a single other party in parliament is going to opt for the only non-Soviet option, which is the third one. So let’s see how your new focus on the environment goes.”
but despite his well known promotion of the polls M.Hooton is concerned…
“It is easy – and I’m enjoying it – to mock Andrew Little’s motely crew. They really are hopeless. But if they get 25% of the vote, which seems about right, and Winston and the Greens get up to 12.5% each which is possible … well, that’s a government, perhaps with some strange arrangement around the prime ministership like Winston Peters has sought before. And John Key knows this.
And John Key knows also that bizarre things happen in our increasingly bizarre election campaigns, and there will be some surprise that will threaten his hold on power. He probably also has the personal awareness to realise he’s not the cool new kid on the block anymore. If anything, now, our high quality media has decided that’s Max. But, remember, when John Key became prime minister, Max was a kid at King’s Prep up the road. Now, he’s DJ Max who gets to date models. And John Key himself looks older. The TV news, which used to always have a still shot of him smiling and waving, now uses a still shot of him scowling. And if you’re voting for the 1st 2nd or 3rd time next year, he’s not cool.”
so in summary…corporate paymasters worried, time to rally the troops, the risk of defeat is increasing and must be avoided at all cost…..and to hell with whats in the country’s best interests as long as “Im all right Jack”
Pining for the past, ideological purism, “an enemy of welfarism and sloth”, struggling for political relevancy, desperate for more influence (power) = potentially dangerous territory.
I thought the speech was borderline incoherent, poorly structured, lacked vision and imagination, and it more sounded like a pep talk for zombies than a morale-boosting strategy proposal for politically-astute people of more than average intelligence.
TBH, I quite like David Seymour, possibly because he’s indeed ideologically pure; I respect that.
“a pep talk for zombies” – heh.
Batten down the hatches.
Severe thunderstorm warning as heavy rains hit North Island
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/77344110/wet-and-sticky-weather-in-auckland-and-western-north-island
Those making submissions on the TPP might like to skim read the Hansard of the Australian Joint inquiry: Treaty tabled on 9 February: Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement 22 Feb 2016 #Hansard transcript
Biologics, ISDS discussed
link
Some hard questions were asked in Australia. I seriously wonder if the NZ Road Show will allow the same sort of questioning, and not just be a Government Circus Act.
Further in know your enemy: https://twitter.com/JudithCollinsMP/status/703503194878423040 (warning: contains visual smugness)
Jesus H. Christ! Well, I guess you did warn us…