Occasional Standard comment leaver Matthew Hooton has written a very interesting article on how implausible it is that National did not know about Sabin’s difficulties and the incompetence involved if this is true is just too outlandish to be believed.
His conclusion is that if and when the true story emerges there will be significant damage to National and brand Key.
In its attempt to win the Northland buy election, which is looking unlikely National may cause itself significant damage in the near future. That feeling of third termitis is getting very strong …
Keys comments about not being arrogant after blagging a narrow recapture of treasury benches at the GE look more like self appraisal than directed towards his sock puppet ministers.
It’s an epic piece of arrogance and stupidity to not dump Sabin for the likes of anyone, even osborne, in northland for the GE and all this would have been avoided.
Methinks Matty and others would be more incensed about the unnecessary nature of this by election and the risks to further sellouts however he does have kids so maybe it’s a bob each way.
Makes very interesting reading. When (and I notice Hooton uses the word WHEN) this issue is exposed, it will surely be the death knell for Key and his government.
Another point is this. Is Mike Sabin able to cast a vote this weekend? Or is he residing in a place where such an option is no longer available to him?
Thanks for the link MS. Matthew has become more explicit and more credible as a Commentator and less apparent partisan. I wonder whose strategy it was to throw a blanket over Sabin?
Can I respectfully ask your opinion, if on the chance, [deleted]
[lprent: What part of the rules about suppression orders don’t you understand? We can’t publish this comment nor anything like it.
I’m going to assume that you put this site at risk inadvertently. So you’ll just get auto-moderated for a while until we’re sure you won’t do it again. ]
The origins are well known and published here months ago, Bradbury has become quite the charicature and lost perspective along with plenty of credibility IMO.
the oday saga didn’t help – the shrapnel flung pretty wide and Mana supporters have been pulling bits out for a while now – used to that though – scars – bit like that bit in Jaws.
Lynn makes a single comment correcting what he perceives as an inaccuracy in Bradbury’s post. Is this a bitch fest? (but yeah, Bradbury responds with an ad-hom and heavy comment completely devoid of meaningful response to the point that Lynn raised).
The man who’s just back from a ban (what was it for this time?) decides to call the main admin/moderator on ts a censor, despite the fact that Lynn rarely censors anyone apart from for reasons of potential defamation.
It isn’t hard to find. Just type Bomber into the search, set to posts and freshness.
We republished some well-warranted criticism of Bomber from Rob Salmond in June last year where Bomber was being a bit of a political fool in his pursuit of self-promotion, and was busy claiming credit for everything that was being done on the left except for what he was actually doing.
All this, you understand, comes from the excellent starting point of wanting to replace the current government with a united, powerful left-bloc of Labour, the Greens, and Internat MANA. Yet the analysis is designed to split the left, not unify it; and the recommendations would help the left lose, not win. Top work.
Later that same month, after Bomber attacked The Standard and me in a post, I responded and had the comment ‘moderated’. So I republished it here.
The content of it will be familiar because it is exactly the same subjects I’m pulling him over the coals for now. Bomber has neither dealt with them nor presumably thought about them.
I’m not particularly well known for being kind when I think someone is being a fool. Which is exactly what you are doing with this recent ABC bullshit.
Or the strange way that you think a relatively conservative electorate will warm to the IMP this election (I think that they will be lucky to get 3%. I will be amazed if they got 4%).
Or the idea that Labour would not stand a candidate up North when Labour always stands candidates in all electorates and has done so for nearly a hundred years. If I were the IMP, I’d be running a strong campaign in both north and the equally winnable rotorua area where Annette Sykes has a damn good chance.
In the end IMP got 1.6%, lost Te Tai Tokerau, and didn’t win Wairakei. As far as I can see, mainly because they didn’t focus on doing the legwork in winning the election and instead wandered off into the types of politically irrelevant ranting that Bomber prefers. It may work in the media, but it is hell on political relationships.
In TTT that attitude from IMP activists attacking Labour activists, Labour, and Kelvin Davis resulted in pissing off grassroots Labour activists enough that they did do the work and booted Hone out of the seat. I haven’t seen Labour activists quite that vindictive about the results of their efforts for quite some time. I am sure that Bomber and those who read him had quite a lot to do with that.
For some reason people don’t like being attacked and they react against it. This appears to be a lesson that the profoundly self-centred arseholes like Bomber, Pat O’Dea, and apparently the Mana party don’t appear to have learnt well enough yet. I suspect that if they persist in their irritating attacks on people and parties on the left for much longer then many on the left are going to wind up irritated like me and those volunteers in TTT.
But I guess that is what has been happening as the readership over at TDB steadily drops compared to 2013 and 2014. It appears that Bomber is now trying for a very select micro-market in the left rather than across the broader left. Somehow I don’t think that is a winning political or media strategy….
But anyway, what has been happening is that Bomber or his sockpuppets attack TS, authors here, me, or says some complete crap about something on the left. We respond in kind pointing out why he is talking complete crap. Rather than deal with the issues or informing himself to deal with them, Bomber starts sulks and throwing out more stupid fantasies. It is a pain in the arse to waste time like this. But false meme development like this is something that needs to be dealt with early rather than later.
sorry I can’t let some of what you have written stand without a slight rebuttal – because as you say, “false meme development like this is something that needs to be dealt with early rather than later.”
labour won TTT – good on them, the PUBLIC help from the other parties was important – Maori Party, National, NZ First. Labour activists didn’t do it all on their own, not even slightly. Mana dropped the ball, IMP failed, Hone didn’t fire for many reasons, fuck even the right blogshere got in behind davis when he tried to set up the attack site. Perhaps these labour activists are going hard up north now – or maybe they are running courses around the country to get the rest of labour fired up after the dismal and shocking drop in their support at the last election – let’s hope so. I’ll say again good on labour for winning, they really socked it to the left wing Mana leader big time.
Spokespeople for a political party are NOT the party – the party is made up of many people who support the ideals and kaupapa. Slamming (rightfully) spokespeople that get up your nose and then extrapolating that to a party doesn’t make sense.
The family feud going on is just meat for the opponents – reminds me of a family feud a while ago down my neck of the woods, it was called Eat Relation Feud and it devastated communities just before the real enemies turned up.
The problem is that once you start to unfairly annoy and irritate people, they will tend to seek retribution. Others will jump on board.
In the case of Pat, that he prominently diversion trolled on this site and wrote disparaging inaccurate posts about this site at TDB with the “climate change spokesperson for Mana” tage everywhere. That means that it it is rather hard to not transfer the dislike to the party. If the party was concerned about it, then they should have damn well educated him about what he could do with their name. In the meantime I will assume it was done with their implicit support. That is what being a spokesperson is for.
Yep well we actually agree and I think you know that. No one likes something they believe in and are giving their energy to to be disparaged – no one – not Labour activists nor Mana activists and I think you understand that too because you’ve mentioned it a few times in the old bold. Anyway good to hear you’re getting some quieter time for reading and relaxing – hope you stay well. Kia kaha
I think its a perfect example of why the left fails so often….and im a leftie!!!….everyone wants to score but no one wants to play as a team………epic fail
Agreed. You are left with a problem though. If crazed people like Bomber start attacking other people and parties on the left, what do you do? You either stay silent as they steadily wind up their strategic insanity, or you respond.
Labour basically chose the first strategy and simply didn’t respond to the politically incompetent attacks by the likes of Bomber and some of the more idiotic Mana supporters.
However I’m not a person who ever allows people to inaccurately attack whatever I am guarding. So when someone like Bomber attacks TS with complete bullshit and lies like a right wing blogger, then I respond with some acerbic accuracy. If he repeats then I will keep escalating with increasing damage until I either get a desist or what I consider to be a reasonable operating meme.
It looks to me like Kelvin Davis and his team of volunteers operated on the ground in exactly the same way. Mana has effectively been politically destroyed for the moment because of some of their foolish supporters.
further to that ‘nipping memes in the bud’ practice extolled/advised above..
1)….i wd just like to note that the most vicious/virulent attacks on mana were in this forum…
..and by more than one –
– and claiming that ganging-up in ttt against harawira as a victory of sorts confirming the content of that slagging is beyond a bit rich..eh..?
..and still extolled as something that was good to do..?..(!)
2)..weka – above – (who positively gloated in delight when i was banned)..refers to the second meme i wd like to nip..
the reason for my/that banning..
..i was accused of making things up..
..i was accused of being deliberately ‘malicious’ in my making up ..
..i was accused of deliberately bringing the standard into legal/financial peril – on defamation grounds..
..now had what i said been untrue/made-up – those accusations (tho’ over-stated) – could have had some credibility..
.but the fact of the matter is that what i said..-that nash had been given a monthly-salary in the yr before the election by his rightwinger-supporters –
– was completely true and accurate..
..and in fact was just a repitition of a comment i heard made by trotter on the panel on rnz – (to a huge audience..)
..which brings up the question:..why the fuck was i banned..?..i am/was entirely innocent of everything i was accused of..
..and yet a person who posted the rnz link confirming the accuracy of what i said was called ‘retarded’ by prentice..(!)
..and a two week ban stood – because he said that the charges of maliciousness/and trying to bring the standard into legal/financial peril still stood..
..how the fuck cd those accusations have any grounds at all – when what i said was provably true..?
..and for me – those unfair/unjust/inaccurate accusations/banning rankled all the more –
– when post my banning – people who actually did what i was accused of -and continue to do – by naming s…. – were just given a tsk tsk..!..(!)..(see weka @ 16.1 in this thread..(!)
..given all these facts/this comparison – how the fuck in any way was that banning of me not a screaming injustice..?
..and is it just a coincidence that that banning came at the beginning of an election-campaign..?
…as was the last time i was banned on what i also thought were specious/trumped-up charges –
– as in the election ’14 campaign..
..(hope that answers yr ‘why were u banned?-question – there – weka..)
As far as I could see the “attacks” on Mana were responses to brainless mana supporters attacking people who were making perfectly reasonable comments like “Internet Mana are only likely to 2-3% countrywide party vote”, “Hone needs to concentrate on winning Te Tai Tokerau”, “Labour ALWAYS puts up candidates in every seat” and “Bad idea for Internet Mana to attack Labour supporters”. I know that I said all of those things and was attacked by various fools for bursting their bubble with reality warnings.
Perhaps if the lunatic fringe of the politically naive had listened rather going completely ballistic in response to realistic advice, then the Labour Maori activists in TTT wouldn’t have made it their mission to kick Hone out of his seat.
I know that my view on Mana has shifted from amused toleration eighteen months ago. It now pretty much consists of how soon will it die (and can I help in the process). The way that their supporters whine and attack everyone else on the left is pretty intolerable. It appears to be a party that has been killed by their nutty and completely erratic supporters… Like you, bomber, Pat O’Dea, and some others.
It is a pity because there are a whole lot of people inside and supporting Mana who are effective proponents for the left. But they are being drowned out by the fools.
I agree tc. Gave up reading Martyn Bradbury some months ago for exactly the reasons you outline. His long standing championing of Stuart Nash is just one example of questionable political judgement.
There are still some good posts on the Daily Blog by a few of the other contributors, but they have become so few and far between I seldom check the site now.
The trick with reading TDB these days is that the; “Deconstructing Headlines” section is Bradbury’s personal playground (I personally quite like some of his turns of phrase, but wouldn’t usually quote him as a information source). If you can’t be bothered with his stuff, then you’re best to stick with the; “Setting the Agenda” & “Guest Blogs” sections; which are mostly Bomber free zones. Frank Macskasy, Selwyn Manning, Latifa Daud, Diane Khan, Keith Locke, Jessie Hume & Chris Trotter are usually worth reading. Even Curwen Rolinson is interesting for a NZF insider viewpoint. The Daily Gallery is mostly a collection of Malcolm Evans cartoons these days which, with only occasional meme images. I tend to avoid Nash and O’Dea posts though.
After the election and over the holidays there was a distinct drop off in quality with Bradbury seeming to be doing everything by himself for a while. ScarletMod is doing a better job of moderation, usually stating the reason for a comment deletion or redaction rather than just disappearing them (the only one I’ve had vanish of late was one that commented a bit too much about a “Prominent New Zealander”, I’ve taken to copying them to my wordprocessor as a precaution though). But TRP is correct that the moderation has been much better than on TS than TDB.
However, I have noticed of late that there is a lag between making a comment and having it appear on a thread. This makes it impossible to edit out flawed phrasing which wasn’t evident before seeing it in the finished format (eg I should have shortened some sentences in the above comment). So I’ve had to take to copying comments to my computer when posting here too.
Yes, I agree there are a few of the other contributors worth reading. I’d add Susan St John, Mike Treen and Kate Davis to your list. I seldom read Chris Trotter these days.
However, the reason I have gone off reading the Daily Blog isn’t just about Bradbury, it is also the design of the blog. I much prefer the layout of The Standard. I find it very easy to quickly check out what new posts have been added and run my eye down the comments roll at the side to see who is talking about what. The selection of feeds is also useful.
TDB and TS do have quite different layouts, and it is a lot harder to find old comments on TDB. But I do like the star-rating and up/down voting comments system there, for when I am too tired to be able to form coherent sentences or do the requisite research to back up my views.
Karol is doing good work over on her own blog (though I do miss her contributions to the hurly burly of TS). For example, the most recent post:
Last September the Law Society of New Zealand reported on various forms of human trafficking of men and women to New Zealand who worked in conditions of slavery. This includes exploited Filipino workers in Christchurch,, women forced to be se workers in exploitative conditions and
foreign men – largely from Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand – [who] are subjected to forced labour conditions aboard our foreign charter vessels in New Zealand waters. Alleged conditions include confiscation of passports, imposition of significant debts, physical violence, mental abuse, excessive hours of work and sexual abuse.4
There is less publicly available information about domestic slavery in New Zealand. It is something that slips far more easily under the radar than many of the above reported types of cases in NZ. However, there have been a handful of publicly reported cases.
Which I was re-reading in light of this article in the ODT:
The Associated Press this week published the results of a year-long investigation into the fishing industry in Indonesia and Thailand, which found slaves – mostly from Burma – were being forced to fish for little or no pay and even imprisoned in cages while on land…
Journalists followed the catch as it was distributed in trucks to a number of buyers including a supplier to Thai Union Manufacturing.
According to the AP, Thai Union exports thousands of cans of cat food products including Fancy Feast, Meow Mix and Iams.
Your headline includes a false equivalence, Phil. LPrent is not a censor. He’s remarkably tolerant of dissenting views and usually responds with words rather than bans. Ok, often abusive words, but you get my point. Bradbury, on the other hand, actively removes entire comments that conflict with whatever bollocks he publishes. Perhaps you haven’t experienced it personally, but if you disagree with him and post a comment saying so, even in the most reasonable language, there’s a high likelihood it will simply disappear.
As to the reason for the spat, I think there’s a huge clue in the blog site rankings. The pressure of having to pretty much write the whole blog himself and watching it lose readership month after month appears to be doing Bomber’s head in.
“does anyone else wonder what the origins of this ongoing bitch-fest are..?”
No, not me phillip, not really that interested.
I have little respect for Martyn Bradbury and only lasted about 6 months as a reader and commenter on his site before he got all personally petulant and pouty towards me and I got sick of his hyper sensitive moderating style. I can’t be bothered with his unappealing personality traits, such as his fragile ego. (I won’t go into all the others)
If Lynn wants to call Bradbury out on his BS (and I believe Lynn does have a finely tuned BS detector and has way more sharps than Bradbury) that’s fine, it’s his business and he’s entitled to respond.
Besides there’s far bigger buckets of popcorn going around this weekend!
The origins? Bradbury talking crap as usual. He’s really quite a nasty little man. Others on his blog are far better, but he’s so far up his own bum I usually don’t bother.
Sadly no one has akshully had the strength to force the moment to a crisis though, so National continue to believe they have no accountability, and integrity is such an old fashioned word these days
Transparency, or should I say the lack of surrounding Mike Sabin’s resignation looks likely to cost National the Northland seat. Should this occur then its the start of a political death spiral of firstly John Key and the National led Government. I’m going to call it, a loss on Saturday and then the wider New Zealand public learning of the nature of Sabin’s issue’s will force John Key to bow out of politics.
It appears election night 2014, and a further 3 years was Key’s political zenith, and now less than 6 months later brand Nationals share price has peaked, the market has realised the stocks were overvalued, with the Sabin coverup some speculators are smelling a ponzi scheme, the whiff of which signals a National share price collapse. In order to stabilise the National brand and share price. A board meeting will be called which usually results in the CEO’s resignation, think Bernie Madoff.
Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of Key. I say yes.
@ Skinny – yes. I think the King John reign is coming to an end. A controversial end to boot. And an end which will also see the end of the long anticipated knighthood for Key. Oh dear, what a shame, never mind!
agree totally…. how ever the rub is that Key wont give a shit anyway,,,,hes got millions and cares even less about the billions he will leave us in debt…..it would be most excellent to be able to pin his arse to wall in all sorts of ways……having a sullied reputation will not faze him either.
“Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of Key. I say yes.”
One can only hope so.
I won’t start celebrating until all the votes are counted though and we know for sure what the path ahead looks like.
Steven Joyce said (RNZ) that the Nat’s internal polling has Osbourne higher that the 3News and Colmar Brunton polls but still less than Peters. That polling bloody better reflect the actual outcome tomorrow. If it does, then yes, it may well be the beginning of the end.
PS: Edit: The Hooton article micky posted suggests it’s just a matter of time:
“The risk for Mr Key is that if the full Sabin story becomes known in a week, a month, six months or a year, it will look as if his government covered it up not just through a general election campaign but then again through the by-election as well. The clock keeps ticking.”
Yes in desperation Joyce called up Ryan trying to peddle the same old snake oil recipe, just using a different label. “Our internal polls say we are close a lot closer”. Deifying the stats of 4 other independent polls, knowing in elections a certain number of voters like too back the winning candidate, no science just that simple fact. Then when Ryan asks what’s the figure? he goes all silly and says ” I can’t possibly revel the figure.” His high pitched screeching was worst than our lunatic budgies, who incidentally started screaming their little heads off when they heard his voice chance to a shrill lol.
A High Court judge has now allowed suppression of the man’s name until the trial starts.
Allegations are of physical conduct of a sexual nature – of the touching and rubbing type.
He had been remanded on bail until April 20…
Both the NZ Police, represented by Brian Dickey, and the media organisations, represented by Tania Goatley, opposed the suppression.
I am surprised that the Police opposed the suppression, you would usually expect them to protect one of their own. Perhaps it is true that the alleged victims of this PromNZr also oppose name suppression. Peters’ proposal of a bill to prevent abuse of name supression seems very timely (with the Northland byelection in its final week).
As far as I know, if the victims of such acts want suppression, it happens automatically. Therefore the victims want this public. I can imagine on what grounds, apart from future knighthoods, that suppression has been ordered.
Last year a friend and her close relative went to the Police about an attempted rape. It was a sickening situation and the lives of some of those family members have changed forever.
The Police have been very supportive of the victims and been absolutely thorough in their investigation. It doesn’t sound like there is anything at fault with their processes. I’ve heard every twist and turn of it from my friend.
When the alleged offender’s name suppression was due to expire (expire? you know what I mean) and his lawyer wanted it extended, the Police opposed it. They wanted the name suppression lifted, and it was, a few months ago. No one in the press picked up on it.
The alleged offender is an ex cop, and had worked previously for many years in the region that the offending took place. That’s all that I will say about this case.
It’s not appropriate for me to convey to my friend my surprise and relief that the handling of their case has been nothing but professional and they did not seek to protect one of their own, but that’s something that has been privately reassuring at least.
Hearing her story has restored a small amount of faith I have in the Police (and then the Roastbusters report crapped all over that feeling). Perhaps it is possible that they won’t always tolerate criminal activity amongst their own.
Of course we don’t know if this is “one of their own” at all, it could be anybody but as TC says, maybe a real “bad egg” they feel the public has a right to know the identity of.
The fact that the police supported the lifting of the suppression order suggests to me that the alleged offences – whatever exactly they were – are regarded as within the upper levels of seriousness. It would also suggest to me that the victims – and/or their care givers – did not request continued suppression. This is just speculation of course but if true, then it brings into question… why did the judge choose to continue the suppression order?
All good points thanks Anne. And, yes, it would be interesting to know what reasoning the judge had to continue with name suppression, given the points of speculation.
@ Kaplan – can’t open page. Message says ” Page not found. Page does not exist” I have found similar situations trying to open links over the past few days of this week, all referring to the same issue!
Coincidence? The time worn old cynic in me thinks something sinister afoot!
The owner felt that it was in the public interest for a number of them to be free to all today – including my column on Mike Sabin and John Key, and this one about the Prominent New Zealander.
Hooton I wouldn’t pay to read Coleman’s ( if he still owns it) rag, especially after reading your attack National lite dross. Manning smoked your arse in his column. Speaking of smoking, Barry must have been smoking dope with you to allow such say nothing news, Christ stay off the pot before the next edition please.
@ ScottGN – The Natsies botched the byelection, long before now.
Such as the last quarter of last year, when Key decided to indulge himself in his usual deception and cover ups of the Mike Sabin issue, hoping it would go away and never see the light of day! How wrong he was, because the longer it remains hovering in the air, the more difficult the situation is going to get for Key & Co! So difficult in fact, I
doubt he will be able to slide his slimy way out of it! Watch him squirm then! Bring it on!
The Guardian wins the right to publish what should not have been secret. The monarch-in-waiting’s letters to ministers. It only took 10 years and still the powers that be insist these letters should be private.
Okay – random post time (that’s allowed at Open Mike right?).
* Shuffles onto stage*,
* Clears throat*
Ahem, can you hear me at the back?
So – last night I had the weirdest dream (promising start already) . . . I dreamt that I left work midway through the day, to go to a speech, held in a barn across the road . . a speech made and attended by all the posters and collaborators here at The Standard.
I have no recollection of what the speech was about.
I do remember Winstons ‘Force for the North’ bus parking behind us to hide us from public view so we could continue our discussions in relative privacy.
And I remember being singled out by the speaker as she recognised me from a community blog I was part of 14 year ago.
Then – realising it was 5:15pm and I had been away from work all afternoon, rushed back, only to find my office set up for a dinner party with members of the community and select V8 Supercar drivers in attendance.
Apparently Jamie Whincup was in danger of being disqualified from this weekends race due to a fuel disparity and I was distraught.
The End.
*shuffles back off stage*
You may all continue with your much more meaningful than mine posts now 🙂
This Saturday people in Christchurch get witness Cameron Slater getting knocked about for charity with proceeds going to Kids Can charity
So for those one or two people on here who don’t like Cameron Slater heres your chance to watch a fitter, taller, more experienced professional sportsman punch him in the face and a kids charity benefits!
Exactly, hes not popular in Christchurch yet hes going up against the “peoples champion” thats had fight experience, has incredible hand-eye coordination and is both younger and taller
Never get a better chance then this to see Slater get punched in the face
Politics based on integrity, transparency, honesty, being real, telling the fucking truth, instead of a staged macho shithead fight based on PR, dishonesty and power grabbing (the charity do or DP).
First will would gain an extra MP off the party list and National will would lose one vote in Parliament though it will would still have enough support to win a confidence vote.
Unless National’s support parties decide that they can’t support National. This years budget is going to be especially interesting.
I can get my head round this issue.
Just read Jane Kelsey’s take on the TPPA. This phrase bothered me: “Bilcon complained local officials had encouraged the project and called the review panel a “rare, cumbersome and costly obstacle” to its investment.”
USA Bilcon are seeking 300million compensation because the Canadian environmental committee turned down the American Bilcon application re mining.
So that is what our Government is signing up the TPPA for NZ.
No wonder they want to water down the RMA. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11423728
terrifying stuff. and absolute proof of Key and Groser lying to NZ on their way through the whole negotiation stages of it. It’s treason, but what can we do about it ?
Actually i’m serious, when [careful – MS] there’ll be a backlash against National, National will be punished and Labour will be returned in a land slide
perhaps not…..I reckon Labour voters are quite clever…..they didn’t like Labours policies so just didn’t vote…..yeah I know some went blue and green but personally they had better come up with some better ideas than last time or the same will happen again.
Written before Capaldi took over the role and resurrected the more edgy character traits as played by Troughton, Hartnell and latterly, Eccleston. Wish people would remember that it’s ‘just’ a kids programme btw…
Hmm. Certainly not as childish as TVNZ and TV3 news programmes…or the so-called documentaries that are foisted on us….or most of the rest of what is on TV.
But then, kids programme that it is, neither, arguably, is Dr Who 😉
One important thing about Doctor Who is that from the start, it has always shown that empires and civilisations, no matter how powerful and all encompassing, will arise and fall in their own time.
CR
True – I think that there are messages in Dr Who for us to take on board. And further everything we watch and do has reference to us and our society.
A lot of the stories are analogies for us, and allow our minds to encompass unthought of possibilites, at the conscious level. Anything that can be thought of, will be likely to have been done by someone, is possibly being done, or may be carried out in the future. So take care to critique what you think and see! I think we would have been happier if we had stayed just a little more intelligent than a dog.
Wayne Wright said although the operation would have been valuable to outside investors, “we wanted to protect the quality features and community-centric approach we’ve built up over the years.
“We’ve accepted the reality that commercially driven owners would be focused on returns to shareholders and likely compromise what Best Start stands for – improving children’s lives across New Zealand.”
A pretty special thing to do Wayne and Chloe Wright.
I’m a bit more cynical about this move by Kidicorp, Miravox.
You do know that charitable status allows them tax exemption, plus they’ll be able to ask for grants from philanthropic funding organisations. Which means that a former commercial outfit now has a “competitive” advantage over its still-commercial rivals.
It was more that they recognised that quality early childhood education does not mix with a shares, dividends and other commercial imperatives rather than the charitable trust per se. A light bulb moment for them, I was thinking 😉
Not many who capitalists/business people seem to understand that public goods and profit motives may be at odds.
Friends near Kerikeri know the full Sabin story, but won’t risk discussing it with their friends on email, only face to face. We do live in a five eyes state.
Does anyone know people who feel the same way?
People are modifying their behaviour (what they say, how they say it, who they say it to) as Snowden’s revelations become more widely known. In East Germany the secret police state there ended up created an environment stifling personal creativity, innovation and expression, leading to a stagnation of the country and its people.
Melanie
The 1080 thinker who I think years ago wrote a letter about it to Fonterra, has had every google visit observed apparently. Or perhaps anything with the right keywords. So until they can read our minds (think John Chrisopher’s The Tripods) it would be best not to open oneself to the suspicion of the fuzz.
Yeah – I’d be careful about putting it into actual words, even on email. Where I’ve done this, I’ve hedged it around with words like “speculation”, “rumoured”, “alleged” etc.
hi melanie, in contrast , i had a telephone (landline) conversation with a chum from nthland.
he was fairly up front, clear and concise with his understanding of what the former mp for northland is accused of. his source is very well placed.
he is by nature a cautious and careful person.
i will mention to him what you have expressed re 5eyes, when i see him in person in the near future.
Just a philosophical thought. A Scottish writer interviewed this morning about his book Maggie and Me is gay and has an extraordinary tale of his route out of small-town working class bigotry. A thoughtful chap with ideas that are empowring and interesting.
He talks about the stresses on young people who are trying to get on in the world and how there is an idea that there is a list of things they should have done by age 30. And it reminded me of a feeling I had that we are living in a parallel with the zeitgeist of the 1930’s – the period between WW1 and WW2 – when young people wanted to enoy themselves and cretivity seemed to blossom, and older people fstruggled to find stability and happiness and wanted to ignore signs that this could not be achieved.
Today a giant NASA balloon has been released from Wanaka and is to go high in the sky and above I think.
I suggest that people who are trying to get funds to provide compassionate help for those who are poor and disadvantaged should join up into an extended organisation just for similar groups, or somehow support one that is completely unaffiliated and does not receive any government money or contracts. Then that separate group will mock and parallel any expensive event of this balloon type in a demonstration. This would make a dramatic point about the way that money can be made available for curiosity science and other wonders for the wealthy, but not available to help the citizens of the world with necessities for living.
This group would now have mass balloon releases in this country and round the world from places where it would not interfere with aircraft flight paths, radar or bird migration. In the media attention they would be outlining ten things that need doing in their area that are well within our present scientific capabilities and needed for the human wellbeing, just requiring a small proportion of the funds spent on the latest Wonder of the World. When the now ubiquitious fireworks displays are put on for the momentary excitement of the blase’, the group would mass with displays of lighted sparklers and publicise a named needy cause at the same time, and this would be a structural need, not be for an individual charity supporting a group or individual with
needs. It wouldn’t be just another way of publicising fundraising for the blind, or MS, or Kayleene to advance her sporting skills overseas or to raise money for a child with rare medical problems needing overseas or groundbreaking surgery or treatment.
(This action could not be carried out against every expenditure, as some of the large amounts going on infrastructure result in permanent structures that aid tourism, cultural centres and so on which if they are available for the use and enjoyment by the poor as well as the wealthy, bring positive outcomes for years.)
The needs for funding extend from daily food and clothing, land with supply of water for food growing, controls on chemicals destructive to fertility of the soil and health of living beings from small to large, good, free seed and plant nurseries for cropping, action to slow global warming and find more sustainable living systems.
I like this idea GWS. Hopefully it should be clear to all that the mean spirited excuse that we “can’t afford” good things for Kiwis is just that – a mean spirited excuse.
I have to disagree with you on this one. Sure, you can publicity-jack any event you want, but this launch is simply not an example of an; “expensive event”:
The science and engineering communities have previously identified long-duration balloon flights at stable altitudes as playing an important role in providing inexpensive access to the near-space environment for science and technology…
NASA’s scientific balloons offer low-cost, near-space access for scientific payloads weighing up to 8,000 pounds for conducting scientific investigations in fields such as astrophysics, heliophysics and atmospheric research.
You may dismiss this as; “curiosity science”, and certainly curiosity is at the heart of all science worth the name. However, note the potential for; “atmospheric research”. Such balloons can provide essential data on the upper atmosphere while producing far less carbon emissions than conventional flight. They will be an important tool in combating the worst effects of climate change.
I assume that everyone has read this but just in case…
“Werewolf: The Myth Of Steven Joyce
Gordon Campbell: The myth of competence that’s been woven around Steven Joyce – the Key government’s “Minister of Everything” and “Mr Fixit” – has been disseminated from high-rises to hamlets, across the country…” http://werewolf.co.nz/2015/03/the-myth-of-steven-joyce/
If its a private email between you and the person receiving it then its got to be alright. There’s no difference between an email conversation and talking face to face. We can say what we damm well like when its out of public earshot.
Putting something on the internet is regarded as publication. A Tory judge could possibly stretch the definition of internet to include emails, but my lay opinion is that this would be pretty weak and likely to be overturned. If you wrote an email as an open letter and published it on a blog or on a local Facebook account, that might be different.
The doctor said he was too ill to send to hsopital. And he must have been out of his brain. Why isn’t there a special tranquiliser dart that a doctor can use to immobilise a highly excited person? Then he could have been cared for. It was obviously not just a case of letting him sleep off too much alcohol.
You can tell the quality of a police force by the methods they use with vulnerable criminals and others. You can tell the quality of a country and government by the way they treat vulnerable people while under government control.
(I heard this morning about the 1080 raid on a historical 1080 protester – ten or more policemen, 3 warrants, away from home for questioning from 7am to 6 pm, separated husband and wife I think at different establishments, and returned to a mess rubbish emptied over their kitchen bench, things all over the floor and the house left unlocked. No attempt at quality policing and responsible careful behaviour there.)
(I heard this morning about the 1080 raid on a historical 1080 protester – ten or more policemen, 3 warrants, away from home for questioning from 7am to 6 pm, separated husband and wife I think at different establishments, and returned to a mess rubbish emptied over their kitchen bench, things all over the floor and the house left unlocked. No attempt at quality policing and responsible careful behaviour there.)
The usual with no chance of any sort of apology or reparations.
I’m guessing that without knowing a persons medical history or what drugs the person had taken prior to the episode a doctor would loathe to sedate anyone in case of an accidental overdose
Why isn’t there a special tranquiliser dart that a doctor can use to immobilise a highly excited person?
– I’m guessing that without knowing a persons medical history or what drugs the person had taken prior to the episode a doctor would loathe to sedate anyone in case of an accidental overdose
I was answering this question, not sure what you’re on about
You need special mental health workers to attend in a situation like this. Joe Regular medical doctor likely won’t have enough hands on experience by themselves to deal with such a scenario successfully.
The quack who observed Sentry at the police station would’ve known the circumstances of his removal for detoxification and been aware of his self harm but didn’t bother.
To put it bluntly, if he’s on uppers and you give him downers, and the uppers wear off before the downers, you’ll John Belushi the dude.
Dealing with drunks, especially angry drunks, can make you see what you expect to see and overlook underlying medical conditions (not just drugs or mental health issues, but diabetes, stroke, epilepsy, hypothermia [Dunedin lol], and so on). Been there, fucked that up (not with the same repercussions, but there was an “oh fuck” moment or two).
I actually have issues with the doctor more than the cops in this case (although the cops should have checked regularly, too). It seems pretty obvious, but making a medical assessment through a window does not count as anything beyond “immediate danger” (i.e. the person is upright, not spurting blood or puking, and might be verbally responsive). If the person was too violent to complete a check, then the doctor should have been called back when the guy calmed down (only half an hour or so later).
There might also be other workload issues (no idea what else the police or doctor were dealing with) and the time of day might also be a factor alongside day of week and whether there were handover issues with a shift change, but it seems that almost all concerned assessed him through “the guy is a drunk dickhead” lenses. 999/1000 you’re right, but when you’re wrong…
“Over 30 minutes from 1.47am to 2.16 am, CCTV footage showed him falling and hitting his head on the concrete walls or floor of the cell 83 times, the report said.
Over the next hour, he hit his head about another 31 times, with his cell becoming smeared with blood.
A police doctor looked at Taitoko through the cell window at 3.21am, but he did not enter the cell.”
The Amazon contract, obtained by The Verge, requires employees to promise that they will not work at any company where they “directly or indirectly” support any good or service that competes with those they helped support at Amazon, for a year and a half after their brief stints at Amazon end.
[…]
The company has even required its permanent warehouse workers who get laid off to reaffirm their non-compete contracts as a condition of receiving severance pay.
And related: IMSI catchers, which are “pretend” cell phone towers that operate by tricking your cell phone into logging on to them, giving others access to all your details.
Allegedly for safety purposes for them and their families (noble), I wonder if this will also further obscure the number and nature of any casualties they have, after the defense forces being able to pick and choose which cases get investigated by the coroner. No photos. No grieving relatives. No stories about what we’re actually doing over there… just a silent loss that nobody is allowed to acknowledge or talk about.
Thanks for the link. That really seemed to go under everyone’s radar.
“I think it’s less to do with protecting our forces and their families and more to do with the posturing of the Government trying to over-emphasize the nature and degree of the threat that ISIS pose to New Zealand,” Massey political scientist Damien Rogers said….
the Defence Minister says not one of the 143 soldiers selected to go to Iraq has pulled out of the mission.
That’s; “selected to go” not “volunteered to go”, despite previous assurances.
Good luck Winston. The hopes and dreams of New Zealanders opposed to John Key/National are with you. As they are with the New Zealand Cricket Team at the MCG.
I saw Penny Bright (I think )on 6 News today, bravely holding a banner for Key, and getting told off too! but I am not sure if it was TV1 or 3.
Anyone got a link?
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Opinion: The impression from the carpark is very inviting. The area is well fenced but barred so there is easy visibility of loved ones. Inside, the spaces are welcoming and clean and staff are friendly and clearly comfortable. I am greeted by ‘Kim’. She has worked here for three years, ...
After the Christchurch earthquake, the then-national civil defence boss compared his experience to “putting a team on the rugby field who have never ever played together before”. Now, eight years later – and following a damning inquiry into the emergency response of cyclones Gabrielle, Hale and the Auckland anniversary weekend floods – ...
“I had just come off the end of a major robbery case which I had been working on for six months when I got a call on the afternoon of September 1, 1992, that some remains had been found at a building site in Devonport, so I drove over with ...
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Comment: Journalists are very good at telling other people’s stories, but they fall well short when writing about their own profession. Perhaps that is why it is so undervalued. Every successive poll on the public’s attitude toward journalism is more alarming than the last. In the last month we have ...
Opinion: A young Māori woman and her Pacific partner arrive at their local hospital by ambulance. She has gone into labour at just under 24 weeks, but the couple haven’t recognised the symptoms – and don’t know the risks of premature birth for their baby. By the time they arrive, ...
Behind closed doors, NZ First will be arguing fiercely against any watering down of the ministerial decision-making powers in the Bill The post Bishop backtracks after fast-track backlash appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report A Pacific civil society alliance has condemned French neocolonial policies in Kanaky New Caledonia, saying Paris is set on “maintaining the status quo” and denying the indigenous Kanak people their inalienable right to self-determination. The Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations (PRNGOs) Alliance, representing some 15 groups, said in ...
Koi Tū New Zealand cannot sit back and see the collapse of its Fourth Estate, the director of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, Sir Peter Gluckman, says in the foreword of a paper published today. The paper, “If not journalists, then who?” paints a picture of an industry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Foreign investment proposals with implications for Australia’s strategic or economic security will face tougher scrutiny, under a policy overhaul to be announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday. At the same time, the government ...
A Waitangi Tribunal inquiry report has warned government that a repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act could cause harm to children in care. ...
The Treasury has published today three new papers covering government consumption multipliers, automatic stabilisers and the impacts of global shocks on New Zealand’s economy. ...
Asia Pacific Report The Pacific state of Hawai’i’s House of Representatives has joined the state’s Senate in calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, becoming the first state to pass such a resolution, reports Hawaii News Now. In March, the Senate passed a ceasefire resolution with a 24–1 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Ferrie, A/Prof, UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research and ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Technology Sydney PsiQuantum The Australian government has announced a pledge of approximately A$940 million (US$617 million) to PsiQuantum, a quantum computing start-up company based in Silicon Valley. Half ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia Cameron Prins/Shutterstock If you spend a lot of time exploring fitness content online, you might have come across the concept of heart rate zones. Heart rate zone training has become more ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Eugene Doyle He is the most popular Palestinian leader alive today — and yet few people in the West even know his name. Absolutely no one in Gaza or the West Bank does not know him. That difference speaks volumes about who dominates the media narrative that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Will McCallum, PhD Candidate – School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University Earlier this year, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of not supporting Operation Sovereign Borders – the military-led border security operation that has “closed Australia’s borders ...
By Melyne Baroi in Port Moresby A Papua New Guinea MP, Peter Isoaimo, who had been ousted by the National Court in an alleged bribery case, has been reinstated by the Supreme Court on appeal. A three-member Supreme Court bench found that the National Court had erred in finding that ...
Publisher Chris Holdaway reflects on the unique project of collecting the work of the late, terrific poet Schaeffer Lemalu. One of the nice things you can do as a truly independent publisher is to make the books that writers want to make, whatever they happen to be. That’s how I’ve ...
Those profiled in the stamp series served on overseas deployments from 1995 onwards, and all have been awarded theNew Zealand Operational Service Medal. ...
Last night’s dismal poll result for the coalition government shows the limits of trying to govern as an opposition, argues Joel MacManus. There’s a quote from the American political activist Barbara Deming: “Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people’s minds, the thought ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shireen Morris, Associate Professor and Director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School, Macquarie University Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock Foreign interference in Australian democracy poses a growing risk to our national sovereignty. It refers to coercive, corrupt or ...
A defendant charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining by deception in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme. Sentencing has been scheduled for 14 August 2024. ...
What to say when pesky journalists ask gotcha questions like ‘can you name a single book you’ve ever read?’ and ‘did you read it, or did you just see the movie?’This week, Act Party arts spokesperson Todd Stephenson foolishly agreed to an interview with Newsroom’s Steve Braunias regarding his ...
Explainer - What will a ban on cellphones in schools achieve? Can students use them during lunch breaks? And what happens if you need to contact your child? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodi Rowley, Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, Australian Museum, UNSW Sydney Jodi Rowley, CC BY-NC-ND In winter 2021, Australia’s frogs started dropping dead. People began posting images of dead frogs on social media. Unable to travel to investigate the deaths ...
In the year ended March 2024, 0.4 percent of home transfers were to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship or a resident visa, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wasay Majid, Research Assistant , University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau New Zealand’s accommodation supplement scheme is facing scrutiny, with Social Development Minister Louise Upston recently saying “there is merit in considering whether the current settings are fair and sustainable long-term”. The ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor The first prime ministerial candidate has been announced in Solomon Islands and it is not Manasseh Sogavare. The man of the hour is Jeremiah Manele, the MP for Hograno/Kia/Havulei constituency in Isabel Province, who served as minister of foreign affairs in the last government. ...
Protesting the removal of bins by leaving piles of your dog’s shit for others to deal with doesn’t make you a hero – it’s precious and entitled behaviour. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve stood on the shoreline of Auckland’s Cheltenham beach, desperately trying to scoop increasingly liquid dog shit ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon will be alert to the factors driving the dire polling, but won't be waving the white flag just yet, RNZ political editor Jo Moir writes. ...
Writer, teacher and academic Vincent O’Sullivan died on Sunday 28 April. Here we gather tributes from friends, colleagues, and students who remember his extraordinary contributions. I went down to the garage tonight. There was a bird shrieking out in the bush, in the dark, maybe a kākā. Miraculously, through the ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a burnt-out corporate escapee explains how she gets by ‘working as little as possible’. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 31 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Contractor in ...
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A petition signed by more than 16,500 people, demanding the government take stronger action to halt the genocide of Palestinians by the State of Israel, is being presented to the House of Representatives today by Hon Phil Twyford. ...
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Winston Peters might not give a ‘rat’s derriere’ about last night’s poll, but it revealed the unusual absence of a honeymoon period and little payoff for the government’s action plan approach, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
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The government's treatment of Māori raised eyebrows, with countries saying New Zealand needed to do more to reduce health, education and justice inequities. ...
The age of criminal responsibility was one of numerous human rights issues raised during Aotearoa New Zealand’s UPR. Other key themes were racism and discrimination, the disproportionate representation of Māori in prison, and to uphold the UN Declaration ...
In a sitdown interview ahead of his final day at Parliament this week, the former Green Party co-leader tells RNZ about his lowest point during 2017's rough election campaign. ...
Is the fringe radio station really in a financial crisis, or is it just running a hyped-up donation drive? Fringe internet radio station Reality Check Radio was launched by the anti-vaccine mandates group Voices for Freedom in March 2023. For the next year, it undertook probably the most aggressive promotional ...
Above the Fold: On Monday, the biggest Māori screen production company faced down the biggest funder of Māori content at the High Court. It was an incredibly tense moment – then, just as quickly, it resolved. Duncan Greive breaks down a strange day in the screen sector.Yesterday morning, Māori ...
It’s a ride that’s lasted almost 30 years for mother and daughter BMX riders Nancy and Toni James, and the next stop is the World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Almost 27 years ago, Nancy and her husband Gerrard took their oldest child, Daniel, to the Waitākere BMX Club. ...
When it comes to talking about the Government’s controversial fast-track consenting process, political scientist Richard Shaw refers to the famous Chinese sci-fi novel Three-Body Problem, while RNZ’s In Depth journalist Farah Hancock talks about zombie projects. Shaw is referring to the three-party coalition Government and how the proposed legislation is ...
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He won everything and he earned a knighthood and he was a senior literary figure to the point that he was a living monument to himself until his death in the weekend at 86, but there was something about Vincent O’Sullivan that flew under the radar, that was independent and ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia The rate of women killed by their partners in Australia grew by 28% from 2021–22 to 2022–23, according to new statistics released today by the Australian Institute of Criminology ...
Ministry of Disabled People employees were promised a permanent role, but were told to start packing three weeks before their fixed term contract finished, says a former employee. ...
Occasional Standard comment leaver Matthew Hooton has written a very interesting article on how implausible it is that National did not know about Sabin’s difficulties and the incompetence involved if this is true is just too outlandish to be believed.
His conclusion is that if and when the true story emerges there will be significant damage to National and brand Key.
In its attempt to win the Northland buy election, which is looking unlikely National may cause itself significant damage in the near future. That feeling of third termitis is getting very strong …
http://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/sabin-clock-keeps-ticking-key
Very damaging for Key.
Keys comments about not being arrogant after blagging a narrow recapture of treasury benches at the GE look more like self appraisal than directed towards his sock puppet ministers.
It’s an epic piece of arrogance and stupidity to not dump Sabin for the likes of anyone, even osborne, in northland for the GE and all this would have been avoided.
Methinks Matty and others would be more incensed about the unnecessary nature of this by election and the risks to further sellouts however he does have kids so maybe it’s a bob each way.
chrs 4 the heads-up m.s..
@ mickysavage – thanks for the link.
Makes very interesting reading. When (and I notice Hooton uses the word WHEN) this issue is exposed, it will surely be the death knell for Key and his government.
Another point is this. Is Mike Sabin able to cast a vote this weekend? Or is he residing in a place where such an option is no longer available to him?
Thanks for the link MS. Matthew has become more explicit and more credible as a Commentator and less apparent partisan. I wonder whose strategy it was to throw a blanket over Sabin?
Hooton is just following the money, he can see Nationals term in power is coming to an end, so it’s time to start changing horses.
Can I respectfully ask your opinion, if on the chance, [deleted]
[lprent: What part of the rules about suppression orders don’t you understand? We can’t publish this comment nor anything like it.
I’m going to assume that you put this site at risk inadvertently. So you’ll just get auto-moderated for a while until we’re sure you won’t do it again. ]
If that happened we’d have more urgent problems to think about. For a start, we’d all be covered in crap from flying pigs.
does anyone else wonder what the origins of this ongoing bitch-fest are..?
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/comment-whoar-the-ongoing-war-between-the-two-chief-censors-of-the-biggest-leftwing-blogs-prentice-and-bradbury/
Let’s focus on the travails of the right this weekend, eh?
c’mon paul – we can both walk and chew gum at the same time..eh..?
..and this is ‘news’ – it went down yesterday..
The origins are well known and published here months ago, Bradbury has become quite the charicature and lost perspective along with plenty of credibility IMO.
@ tc –
– gotta link for those ‘origins’..?
..’cos i dunno what they are..
..and i am sure many others are in the same position at me..
..puzzled..
the oday saga didn’t help – the shrapnel flung pretty wide and Mana supporters have been pulling bits out for a while now – used to that though – scars – bit like that bit in Jaws.
Lynn makes a single comment correcting what he perceives as an inaccuracy in Bradbury’s post. Is this a bitch fest? (but yeah, Bradbury responds with an ad-hom and heavy comment completely devoid of meaningful response to the point that Lynn raised).
The man who’s just back from a ban (what was it for this time?) decides to call the main admin/moderator on ts a censor, despite the fact that Lynn rarely censors anyone apart from for reasons of potential defamation.
Looks like shitstirring to me.
it is sad the the two biggest ‘left’ blog aren’t friends – the micro reflecting the macro prehaps
seems like plenty of baiting going on – same as it always was
Maybe but misrepresenting what is going on doesn’t help either.
It isn’t hard to find. Just type Bomber into the search, set to posts and freshness.
We republished some well-warranted criticism of Bomber from Rob Salmond in June last year where Bomber was being a bit of a political fool in his pursuit of self-promotion, and was busy claiming credit for everything that was being done on the left except for what he was actually doing.
Rob called him on it.
http://thestandard.org.nz/polity-meanwhile-in-bomber-land/
Later that same month, after Bomber attacked The Standard and me in a post, I responded and had the comment ‘moderated’. So I republished it here.
http://thestandard.org.nz/bomber-a-sensitive-and-inexperienced-political-prima-donna/
The content of it will be familiar because it is exactly the same subjects I’m pulling him over the coals for now. Bomber has neither dealt with them nor presumably thought about them.
In the end IMP got 1.6%, lost Te Tai Tokerau, and didn’t win Wairakei. As far as I can see, mainly because they didn’t focus on doing the legwork in winning the election and instead wandered off into the types of politically irrelevant ranting that Bomber prefers. It may work in the media, but it is hell on political relationships.
In TTT that attitude from IMP activists attacking Labour activists, Labour, and Kelvin Davis resulted in pissing off grassroots Labour activists enough that they did do the work and booted Hone out of the seat. I haven’t seen Labour activists quite that vindictive about the results of their efforts for quite some time. I am sure that Bomber and those who read him had quite a lot to do with that.
For some reason people don’t like being attacked and they react against it. This appears to be a lesson that the profoundly self-centred arseholes like Bomber, Pat O’Dea, and apparently the Mana party don’t appear to have learnt well enough yet. I suspect that if they persist in their irritating attacks on people and parties on the left for much longer then many on the left are going to wind up irritated like me and those volunteers in TTT.
But I guess that is what has been happening as the readership over at TDB steadily drops compared to 2013 and 2014. It appears that Bomber is now trying for a very select micro-market in the left rather than across the broader left. Somehow I don’t think that is a winning political or media strategy….
But anyway, what has been happening is that Bomber or his sockpuppets attack TS, authors here, me, or says some complete crap about something on the left. We respond in kind pointing out why he is talking complete crap. Rather than deal with the issues or informing himself to deal with them, Bomber starts sulks and throwing out more stupid fantasies. It is a pain in the arse to waste time like this. But false meme development like this is something that needs to be dealt with early rather than later.
sorry I can’t let some of what you have written stand without a slight rebuttal – because as you say, “false meme development like this is something that needs to be dealt with early rather than later.”
labour won TTT – good on them, the PUBLIC help from the other parties was important – Maori Party, National, NZ First. Labour activists didn’t do it all on their own, not even slightly. Mana dropped the ball, IMP failed, Hone didn’t fire for many reasons, fuck even the right blogshere got in behind davis when he tried to set up the attack site. Perhaps these labour activists are going hard up north now – or maybe they are running courses around the country to get the rest of labour fired up after the dismal and shocking drop in their support at the last election – let’s hope so. I’ll say again good on labour for winning, they really socked it to the left wing Mana leader big time.
Spokespeople for a political party are NOT the party – the party is made up of many people who support the ideals and kaupapa. Slamming (rightfully) spokespeople that get up your nose and then extrapolating that to a party doesn’t make sense.
The family feud going on is just meat for the opponents – reminds me of a family feud a while ago down my neck of the woods, it was called Eat Relation Feud and it devastated communities just before the real enemies turned up.
The problem is that once you start to unfairly annoy and irritate people, they will tend to seek retribution. Others will jump on board.
In the case of Pat, that he prominently diversion trolled on this site and wrote disparaging inaccurate posts about this site at TDB with the “climate change spokesperson for Mana” tage everywhere. That means that it it is rather hard to not transfer the dislike to the party. If the party was concerned about it, then they should have damn well educated him about what he could do with their name. In the meantime I will assume it was done with their implicit support. That is what being a spokesperson is for.
Yep well we actually agree and I think you know that. No one likes something they believe in and are giving their energy to to be disparaged – no one – not Labour activists nor Mana activists and I think you understand that too because you’ve mentioned it a few times in the old bold. Anyway good to hear you’re getting some quieter time for reading and relaxing – hope you stay well. Kia kaha
I think its a perfect example of why the left fails so often….and im a leftie!!!….everyone wants to score but no one wants to play as a team………epic fail
Agreed. You are left with a problem though. If crazed people like Bomber start attacking other people and parties on the left, what do you do? You either stay silent as they steadily wind up their strategic insanity, or you respond.
Labour basically chose the first strategy and simply didn’t respond to the politically incompetent attacks by the likes of Bomber and some of the more idiotic Mana supporters.
However I’m not a person who ever allows people to inaccurately attack whatever I am guarding. So when someone like Bomber attacks TS with complete bullshit and lies like a right wing blogger, then I respond with some acerbic accuracy. If he repeats then I will keep escalating with increasing damage until I either get a desist or what I consider to be a reasonable operating meme.
It looks to me like Kelvin Davis and his team of volunteers operated on the ground in exactly the same way. Mana has effectively been politically destroyed for the moment because of some of their foolish supporters.
further to that ‘nipping memes in the bud’ practice extolled/advised above..
1)….i wd just like to note that the most vicious/virulent attacks on mana were in this forum…
..and by more than one –
– and claiming that ganging-up in ttt against harawira as a victory of sorts confirming the content of that slagging is beyond a bit rich..eh..?
..and still extolled as something that was good to do..?..(!)
2)..weka – above – (who positively gloated in delight when i was banned)..refers to the second meme i wd like to nip..
the reason for my/that banning..
..i was accused of making things up..
..i was accused of being deliberately ‘malicious’ in my making up ..
..i was accused of deliberately bringing the standard into legal/financial peril – on defamation grounds..
..now had what i said been untrue/made-up – those accusations (tho’ over-stated) – could have had some credibility..
.but the fact of the matter is that what i said..-that nash had been given a monthly-salary in the yr before the election by his rightwinger-supporters –
– was completely true and accurate..
..and in fact was just a repitition of a comment i heard made by trotter on the panel on rnz – (to a huge audience..)
..which brings up the question:..why the fuck was i banned..?..i am/was entirely innocent of everything i was accused of..
..and yet a person who posted the rnz link confirming the accuracy of what i said was called ‘retarded’ by prentice..(!)
..and a two week ban stood – because he said that the charges of maliciousness/and trying to bring the standard into legal/financial peril still stood..
..how the fuck cd those accusations have any grounds at all – when what i said was provably true..?
..and for me – those unfair/unjust/inaccurate accusations/banning rankled all the more –
– when post my banning – people who actually did what i was accused of -and continue to do – by naming s…. – were just given a tsk tsk..!..(!)..(see weka @ 16.1 in this thread..(!)
..given all these facts/this comparison – how the fuck in any way was that banning of me not a screaming injustice..?
..and is it just a coincidence that that banning came at the beginning of an election-campaign..?
…as was the last time i was banned on what i also thought were specious/trumped-up charges –
– as in the election ’14 campaign..
..(hope that answers yr ‘why were u banned?-question – there – weka..)
As far as I could see the “attacks” on Mana were responses to brainless mana supporters attacking people who were making perfectly reasonable comments like “Internet Mana are only likely to 2-3% countrywide party vote”, “Hone needs to concentrate on winning Te Tai Tokerau”, “Labour ALWAYS puts up candidates in every seat” and “Bad idea for Internet Mana to attack Labour supporters”. I know that I said all of those things and was attacked by various fools for bursting their bubble with reality warnings.
Perhaps if the lunatic fringe of the politically naive had listened rather going completely ballistic in response to realistic advice, then the Labour Maori activists in TTT wouldn’t have made it their mission to kick Hone out of his seat.
I know that my view on Mana has shifted from amused toleration eighteen months ago. It now pretty much consists of how soon will it die (and can I help in the process). The way that their supporters whine and attack everyone else on the left is pretty intolerable. It appears to be a party that has been killed by their nutty and completely erratic supporters… Like you, bomber, Pat O’Dea, and some others.
It is a pity because there are a whole lot of people inside and supporting Mana who are effective proponents for the left. But they are being drowned out by the fools.
I agree tc. Gave up reading Martyn Bradbury some months ago for exactly the reasons you outline. His long standing championing of Stuart Nash is just one example of questionable political judgement.
There are still some good posts on the Daily Blog by a few of the other contributors, but they have become so few and far between I seldom check the site now.
Karen
The trick with reading TDB these days is that the; “Deconstructing Headlines” section is Bradbury’s personal playground (I personally quite like some of his turns of phrase, but wouldn’t usually quote him as a information source). If you can’t be bothered with his stuff, then you’re best to stick with the; “Setting the Agenda” & “Guest Blogs” sections; which are mostly Bomber free zones. Frank Macskasy, Selwyn Manning, Latifa Daud, Diane Khan, Keith Locke, Jessie Hume & Chris Trotter are usually worth reading. Even Curwen Rolinson is interesting for a NZF insider viewpoint. The Daily Gallery is mostly a collection of Malcolm Evans cartoons these days which, with only occasional meme images. I tend to avoid Nash and O’Dea posts though.
After the election and over the holidays there was a distinct drop off in quality with Bradbury seeming to be doing everything by himself for a while. ScarletMod is doing a better job of moderation, usually stating the reason for a comment deletion or redaction rather than just disappearing them (the only one I’ve had vanish of late was one that commented a bit too much about a “Prominent New Zealander”, I’ve taken to copying them to my wordprocessor as a precaution though). But TRP is correct that the moderation has been much better than on TS than TDB.
However, I have noticed of late that there is a lag between making a comment and having it appear on a thread. This makes it impossible to edit out flawed phrasing which wasn’t evident before seeing it in the finished format (eg I should have shortened some sentences in the above comment). So I’ve had to take to copying comments to my computer when posting here too.
Yes, I agree there are a few of the other contributors worth reading. I’d add Susan St John, Mike Treen and Kate Davis to your list. I seldom read Chris Trotter these days.
However, the reason I have gone off reading the Daily Blog isn’t just about Bradbury, it is also the design of the blog. I much prefer the layout of The Standard. I find it very easy to quickly check out what new posts have been added and run my eye down the comments roll at the side to see who is talking about what. The selection of feeds is also useful.
I really miss Karol though!!
TDB and TS do have quite different layouts, and it is a lot harder to find old comments on TDB. But I do like the star-rating and up/down voting comments system there, for when I am too tired to be able to form coherent sentences or do the requisite research to back up my views.
Karol is doing good work over on her own blog (though I do miss her contributions to the hurly burly of TS). For example, the most recent post:
https://karolscribe.wordpress.com/2015/03/24/not-so-devious-maids-living-with-slavery/#more-481
Which I was re-reading in light of this article in the ODT:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/337409/nz-retailers-shocked-slavery-claims
Yep, The Standard is easily the best designed New Zealand Blog in my opinion.
Randomly, swordfish love your PB analysis
Ever use http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/
Seems to give better maps and better formatted info in dropdowns
Your headline includes a false equivalence, Phil. LPrent is not a censor. He’s remarkably tolerant of dissenting views and usually responds with words rather than bans. Ok, often abusive words, but you get my point. Bradbury, on the other hand, actively removes entire comments that conflict with whatever bollocks he publishes. Perhaps you haven’t experienced it personally, but if you disagree with him and post a comment saying so, even in the most reasonable language, there’s a high likelihood it will simply disappear.
As to the reason for the spat, I think there’s a huge clue in the blog site rankings. The pressure of having to pretty much write the whole blog himself and watching it lose readership month after month appears to be doing Bomber’s head in.
+1 TRP
+2 Critique the actions of both bloggers and the differences become clear.
but what to do – ignore and hope it all goes away, try and support – it just seems off.
This sounds ridiculous and improbable…but I think Bomber needs to ask lprent for some advice on how to move TDB ahead.
“does anyone else wonder what the origins of this ongoing bitch-fest are..?”
No, not me phillip, not really that interested.
I have little respect for Martyn Bradbury and only lasted about 6 months as a reader and commenter on his site before he got all personally petulant and pouty towards me and I got sick of his hyper sensitive moderating style. I can’t be bothered with his unappealing personality traits, such as his fragile ego. (I won’t go into all the others)
If Lynn wants to call Bradbury out on his BS (and I believe Lynn does have a finely tuned BS detector and has way more sharps than Bradbury) that’s fine, it’s his business and he’s entitled to respond.
Besides there’s far bigger buckets of popcorn going around this weekend!
Are we all going to be glued to the internet tomorrow night? 🙂
Hopefully dancing, after the votes come in……..
Should go and get some bubbly to put on stand by.
had to laugh that Key will be in Australia !!
The origins? Bradbury talking crap as usual. He’s really quite a nasty little man. Others on his blog are far better, but he’s so far up his own bum I usually don’t bother.
Sadly no one has akshully had the strength to force the moment to a crisis though, so National continue to believe they have no accountability, and integrity is such an old fashioned word these days
It’d help if labour kept at it in question time with their own attack lines and left the greens to do their own thing.
Transparency, or should I say the lack of surrounding Mike Sabin’s resignation looks likely to cost National the Northland seat. Should this occur then its the start of a political death spiral of firstly John Key and the National led Government. I’m going to call it, a loss on Saturday and then the wider New Zealand public learning of the nature of Sabin’s issue’s will force John Key to bow out of politics.
It appears election night 2014, and a further 3 years was Key’s political zenith, and now less than 6 months later brand Nationals share price has peaked, the market has realised the stocks were overvalued, with the Sabin coverup some speculators are smelling a ponzi scheme, the whiff of which signals a National share price collapse. In order to stabilise the National brand and share price. A board meeting will be called which usually results in the CEO’s resignation, think Bernie Madoff.
Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of Key. I say yes.
@ Skinny – yes. I think the King John reign is coming to an end. A controversial end to boot. And an end which will also see the end of the long anticipated knighthood for Key. Oh dear, what a shame, never mind!
John Key – THE END 🙂
agree totally…. how ever the rub is that Key wont give a shit anyway,,,,hes got millions and cares even less about the billions he will leave us in debt…..it would be most excellent to be able to pin his arse to wall in all sorts of ways……having a sullied reputation will not faze him either.
“Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of Key. I say yes.”
One can only hope so.
I won’t start celebrating until all the votes are counted though and we know for sure what the path ahead looks like.
Steven Joyce said (RNZ) that the Nat’s internal polling has Osbourne higher that the 3News and Colmar Brunton polls but still less than Peters. That polling bloody better reflect the actual outcome tomorrow. If it does, then yes, it may well be the beginning of the end.
PS: Edit: The Hooton article micky posted suggests it’s just a matter of time:
“The risk for Mr Key is that if the full Sabin story becomes known in a week, a month, six months or a year, it will look as if his government covered it up not just through a general election campaign but then again through the by-election as well. The clock keeps ticking.”
Yes in desperation Joyce called up Ryan trying to peddle the same old snake oil recipe, just using a different label. “Our internal polls say we are close a lot closer”. Deifying the stats of 4 other independent polls, knowing in elections a certain number of voters like too back the winning candidate, no science just that simple fact. Then when Ryan asks what’s the figure? he goes all silly and says ” I can’t possibly revel the figure.” His high pitched screeching was worst than our lunatic budgies, who incidentally started screaming their little heads off when they heard his voice chance to a shrill lol.
URGENT!!!
John Key will be in KeriKeri
Friday 27 March 2015
between 10am – 11am.
Penny Bright
Saw your sign briefly on the TV News last night Penny. Good on yer.
+ 1 yes onya penny I loved seeing that sign
+2
Gotta appreciate those who actually do something rather than merely talk:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/269684/john-key-heckled-in-northland
You should take a pink kumara and present it to Key.
give him a kumara allright……use ya imagination!!!
Some prominent New Zealander has managed to keep their suppression for a while longer.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/prominent-new-zealander-wins-name-suppression-appeal-vy-170671
Thanks Kaplan…………….
“Some prominent New Zealander”
I wonder who that is!….’The murky mystery and high level cover up of the well known unknown awful offender!’….(No, don’t tell! My ears are sealed!)
I am surprised that the Police opposed the suppression, you would usually expect them to protect one of their own. Perhaps it is true that the alleged victims of this PromNZr also oppose name suppression. Peters’ proposal of a bill to prevent abuse of name supression seems very timely (with the Northland byelection in its final week).
I don’t think they consider the individual to be one of their own but rather a very bad egg that needs to be made to answer the allegations.
long overdue housekeeping
As far as I know, if the victims of such acts want suppression, it happens automatically. Therefore the victims want this public. I can imagine on what grounds, apart from future knighthoods, that suppression has been ordered.
interesting the NZ Police opposed the suppression .. is that usual ??
Um, this is a bit difficult.
Last year a friend and her close relative went to the Police about an attempted rape. It was a sickening situation and the lives of some of those family members have changed forever.
The Police have been very supportive of the victims and been absolutely thorough in their investigation. It doesn’t sound like there is anything at fault with their processes. I’ve heard every twist and turn of it from my friend.
When the alleged offender’s name suppression was due to expire (expire? you know what I mean) and his lawyer wanted it extended, the Police opposed it. They wanted the name suppression lifted, and it was, a few months ago. No one in the press picked up on it.
The alleged offender is an ex cop, and had worked previously for many years in the region that the offending took place. That’s all that I will say about this case.
It’s not appropriate for me to convey to my friend my surprise and relief that the handling of their case has been nothing but professional and they did not seek to protect one of their own, but that’s something that has been privately reassuring at least.
Hearing her story has restored a small amount of faith I have in the Police (and then the Roastbusters report crapped all over that feeling). Perhaps it is possible that they won’t always tolerate criminal activity amongst their own.
Of course we don’t know if this is “one of their own” at all, it could be anybody but as TC says, maybe a real “bad egg” they feel the public has a right to know the identity of.
The fact that the police supported the lifting of the suppression order suggests to me that the alleged offences – whatever exactly they were – are regarded as within the upper levels of seriousness. It would also suggest to me that the victims – and/or their care givers – did not request continued suppression. This is just speculation of course but if true, then it brings into question… why did the judge choose to continue the suppression order?
All good points thanks Anne. And, yes, it would be interesting to know what reasoning the judge had to continue with name suppression, given the points of speculation.
@ Kaplan – can’t open page. Message says ” Page not found. Page does not exist” I have found similar situations trying to open links over the past few days of this week, all referring to the same issue!
Coincidence? The time worn old cynic in me thinks something sinister afoot!
NBR articles are usually behind a pay wall.
The owner felt that it was in the public interest for a number of them to be free to all today – including my column on Mike Sabin and John Key, and this one about the Prominent New Zealander.
Hooton I wouldn’t pay to read Coleman’s ( if he still owns it) rag, especially after reading your attack National lite dross. Manning smoked your arse in his column. Speaking of smoking, Barry must have been smoking dope with you to allow such say nothing news, Christ stay off the pot before the next edition please.
Reading the Dom Post editorial this morning I even felt a twinge of sympathy for Osborne. Then I got over it.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/67520958/national-has-botched-this-byelection
No sympathy from me, you either win or GTFO
and yes if anyone in National had knowledge about the alleged allegations then National and John Key do not deserve to win the next election
@ ScottGN – The Natsies botched the byelection, long before now.
Such as the last quarter of last year, when Key decided to indulge himself in his usual deception and cover ups of the Mike Sabin issue, hoping it would go away and never see the light of day! How wrong he was, because the longer it remains hovering in the air, the more difficult the situation is going to get for Key & Co! So difficult in fact, I
doubt he will be able to slide his slimy way out of it! Watch him squirm then! Bring it on!
The Guardian wins the right to publish what should not have been secret. The monarch-in-waiting’s letters to ministers. It only took 10 years and still the powers that be insist these letters should be private.
Okay – random post time (that’s allowed at Open Mike right?).
* Shuffles onto stage*,
* Clears throat*
Ahem, can you hear me at the back?
So – last night I had the weirdest dream (promising start already) . . . I dreamt that I left work midway through the day, to go to a speech, held in a barn across the road . . a speech made and attended by all the posters and collaborators here at The Standard.
I have no recollection of what the speech was about.
I do remember Winstons ‘Force for the North’ bus parking behind us to hide us from public view so we could continue our discussions in relative privacy.
And I remember being singled out by the speaker as she recognised me from a community blog I was part of 14 year ago.
Then – realising it was 5:15pm and I had been away from work all afternoon, rushed back, only to find my office set up for a dinner party with members of the community and select V8 Supercar drivers in attendance.
Apparently Jamie Whincup was in danger of being disqualified from this weekends race due to a fuel disparity and I was distraught.
The End.
*shuffles back off stage*
You may all continue with your much more meaningful than mine posts now 🙂
You forgot the bit when Winny smiled so sweetly and asked you longingly, “Is that you, Condoleezza?”
You gotta leave the cheese and Pickled Onions alone before you go to bed!
This Saturday people in Christchurch get witness Cameron Slater getting knocked about for charity with proceeds going to Kids Can charity
So for those one or two people on here who don’t like Cameron Slater heres your chance to watch a fitter, taller, more experienced professional sportsman punch him in the face and a kids charity benefits!
What more could someone want
Not much charity in any of this, IMO.
Its all good, some good boxing, some side show boxing and some money going to charity so whats not to love
What’s not to love is what is not love- revenge, violence, hatred.
Slater is a worthless piece of shit
So buy a ticket and watch him get his beans
F#%k off
Ok tough guy 🙂
Sorry, wasn’t meant to be rude to you. Was meant in one of those friendly “f&%k off” ways.
Slater is unwelcome in the south island for good reason. I hate the prick personally
Exactly, hes not popular in Christchurch yet hes going up against the “peoples champion” thats had fight experience, has incredible hand-eye coordination and is both younger and taller
Never get a better chance then this to see Slater get punched in the face
I don’t think it has dawned on you that people might not give a shit what Slater does on his days off.
Fuck off back to Whaleoil and do your promo there.
No point preaching to the converted 🙂
So will you be ringside squealing? Or waiting out the back to give your boy a wristie?
I’m in the cheap seats with the boys, make as much noise as i like 🙂
And viceversa vice etc.
couldn’t be bothered.. can’t even be bothered fini
“What more could someone want”
Politics based on integrity, transparency, honesty, being real, telling the fucking truth, instead of a staged macho shithead fight based on PR, dishonesty and power grabbing (the charity do or DP).
Thats just a little bit too much to expect from some boxing
Ah, it’s lighthearted trole today is it?
I’ll see you at the boxing then, I’ll be the guy wearing the Whaleoil baseball cap so don’t forget to say hi 🙂
Are you completely stupid?
How about politics that doesn’t promote violence as the answer?
“The only poll that matters is the one on Saturday”…says Osborne!
And more here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/67521779/i-wont-pick-up-the-phone-john-key-dismisses-winston-peters
The only people that say that are those that know they’re losing
Quoting article:
Unless National’s support parties decide that they can’t support National. This years budget is going to be especially interesting.
Much mo’ money for Whanau Ora, methinks 🙂
Don’t forget that Peter Dunne will also be in a more powerful position
Yeah, but how much more cream can he drink?
He’ll milk this for as much and as long as he can
I can get my head round this issue.
Just read Jane Kelsey’s take on the TPPA. This phrase bothered me:
“Bilcon complained local officials had encouraged the project and called the review panel a “rare, cumbersome and costly obstacle” to its investment.”
USA Bilcon are seeking 300million compensation because the Canadian environmental committee turned down the American Bilcon application re mining.
So that is what our Government is signing up the TPPA for NZ.
No wonder they want to water down the RMA.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11423728
terrifying stuff. and absolute proof of Key and Groser lying to NZ on their way through the whole negotiation stages of it. It’s treason, but what can we do about it ?
This morning’s Tremain cartoon in the ODT is wonderfully relevant:
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/52aca146e4b06d986ca82df3/52c0ec1ce4b0f4346e9358a5/5513c739e4b0b1971d0b5fbd/1427359569078/osborneW.jpg
very good. If National win Northland what do they think is going to happen when the truth finally comes out? Or even if they don’t win Northland.
Labour wins in a landslide
idiot trole.
Actually i’m serious, when [careful – MS] there’ll be a backlash against National, National will be punished and Labour will be returned in a land slide
You heard it here first
sorry about that
Think about timing
perhaps not…..I reckon Labour voters are quite clever…..they didn’t like Labours policies so just didn’t vote…..yeah I know some went blue and green but personally they had better come up with some better ideas than last time or the same will happen again.
If whats being said comes to pass then its just a matter of how much Labour will win by and who they choose to go in to coilition with
Key’s role for USA as their main man in NZ will start to come to an end.
Paul C
Thanx for that. Good to see Trmain as god as ever.
On a completely unrelated subject. . .
Any Dr Who fans about?
“Doctor Who has evolved from a threatening anti-establishment figure, laments Eddie Ford, to a patriotic defender of the status quo. . .”
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/doctor-who-degeneration-of-a-time-lord/
I don’t know about that but Christopher Eccelston was definately the best Doctor
My two bobs worth?
Written before Capaldi took over the role and resurrected the more edgy character traits as played by Troughton, Hartnell and latterly, Eccleston. Wish people would remember that it’s ‘just’ a kids programme btw…
Next thing you’ll be saying is the Goodies were just a kids program…
Hmm. Certainly not as childish as TVNZ and TV3 news programmes…or the so-called documentaries that are foisted on us….or most of the rest of what is on TV.
But then, kids programme that it is, neither, arguably, is Dr Who 😉
It’s not Just a Kids’ Program. It’s part of the zeitgeist of the last and today’s century.
One important thing about Doctor Who is that from the start, it has always shown that empires and civilisations, no matter how powerful and all encompassing, will arise and fall in their own time.
CR
True – I think that there are messages in Dr Who for us to take on board. And further everything we watch and do has reference to us and our society.
A lot of the stories are analogies for us, and allow our minds to encompass unthought of possibilites, at the conscious level. Anything that can be thought of, will be likely to have been done by someone, is possibly being done, or may be carried out in the future. So take care to critique what you think and see! I think we would have been happier if we had stayed just a little more intelligent than a dog.
I think we wiped out all those other hominids…
exactly…..see the Cybermen are ruling the country…..
Kidicorp now a charity
A pretty special thing to do Wayne and Chloe Wright.
I’m a bit more cynical about this move by Kidicorp, Miravox.
You do know that charitable status allows them tax exemption, plus they’ll be able to ask for grants from philanthropic funding organisations. Which means that a former commercial outfit now has a “competitive” advantage over its still-commercial rivals.
It was more that they recognised that quality early childhood education does not mix with a shares, dividends and other commercial imperatives rather than the charitable trust per se. A light bulb moment for them, I was thinking 😉
Not many who capitalists/business people seem to understand that public goods and profit motives may be at odds.
Anyone who names a childcare juggernaut Kidicorp has questionable motives. I think they are weird.
Friends near Kerikeri know the full Sabin story, but won’t risk discussing it with their friends on email, only face to face. We do live in a five eyes state.
Does anyone know people who feel the same way?
There is a [careful! – MS]. Not sure what the deal is with email (legal or not?) but don’t see an inherent connection with 5 eyes.
[Careful! – MS] Not talking to others about it. But who knows how far a security and surveillance state might go in order to make a point.
Damn…thanks MS
People are modifying their behaviour (what they say, how they say it, who they say it to) as Snowden’s revelations become more widely known. In East Germany the secret police state there ended up created an environment stifling personal creativity, innovation and expression, leading to a stagnation of the country and its people.
Melanie
The 1080 thinker who I think years ago wrote a letter about it to Fonterra, has had every google visit observed apparently. Or perhaps anything with the right keywords. So until they can read our minds (think John Chrisopher’s The Tripods) it would be best not to open oneself to the suspicion of the fuzz.
Yeah – I’d be careful about putting it into actual words, even on email. Where I’ve done this, I’ve hedged it around with words like “speculation”, “rumoured”, “alleged” etc.
hi melanie, in contrast , i had a telephone (landline) conversation with a chum from nthland.
he was fairly up front, clear and concise with his understanding of what the former mp for northland is accused of. his source is very well placed.
he is by nature a cautious and careful person.
i will mention to him what you have expressed re 5eyes, when i see him in person in the near future.
Just a philosophical thought. A Scottish writer interviewed this morning about his book Maggie and Me is gay and has an extraordinary tale of his route out of small-town working class bigotry. A thoughtful chap with ideas that are empowring and interesting.
He talks about the stresses on young people who are trying to get on in the world and how there is an idea that there is a list of things they should have done by age 30. And it reminded me of a feeling I had that we are living in a parallel with the zeitgeist of the 1930’s – the period between WW1 and WW2 – when young people wanted to enoy themselves and cretivity seemed to blossom, and older people fstruggled to find stability and happiness and wanted to ignore signs that this could not be achieved.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/67521779/national-not-giving-up-in-northland-yet-steven-joyce-says
Keys usual tactics. Blames Winston for not wanting to do a deal, then makes it the voters fault for not turning out if they lose this by-election.
LGBT workers have been at the forefront of Baristas Rise Up, a movement advocating for low-waged service workers and baristas. . .
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/gay-lesbian-bi-and-trans-struggles-are-class-struggles-too/
Today a giant NASA balloon has been released from Wanaka and is to go high in the sky and above I think.
I suggest that people who are trying to get funds to provide compassionate help for those who are poor and disadvantaged should join up into an extended organisation just for similar groups, or somehow support one that is completely unaffiliated and does not receive any government money or contracts. Then that separate group will mock and parallel any expensive event of this balloon type in a demonstration. This would make a dramatic point about the way that money can be made available for curiosity science and other wonders for the wealthy, but not available to help the citizens of the world with necessities for living.
This group would now have mass balloon releases in this country and round the world from places where it would not interfere with aircraft flight paths, radar or bird migration. In the media attention they would be outlining ten things that need doing in their area that are well within our present scientific capabilities and needed for the human wellbeing, just requiring a small proportion of the funds spent on the latest Wonder of the World. When the now ubiquitious fireworks displays are put on for the momentary excitement of the blase’, the group would mass with displays of lighted sparklers and publicise a named needy cause at the same time, and this would be a structural need, not be for an individual charity supporting a group or individual with
needs. It wouldn’t be just another way of publicising fundraising for the blind, or MS, or Kayleene to advance her sporting skills overseas or to raise money for a child with rare medical problems needing overseas or groundbreaking surgery or treatment.
(This action could not be carried out against every expenditure, as some of the large amounts going on infrastructure result in permanent structures that aid tourism, cultural centres and so on which if they are available for the use and enjoyment by the poor as well as the wealthy, bring positive outcomes for years.)
The needs for funding extend from daily food and clothing, land with supply of water for food growing, controls on chemicals destructive to fertility of the soil and health of living beings from small to large, good, free seed and plant nurseries for cropping, action to slow global warming and find more sustainable living systems.
I like this idea GWS. Hopefully it should be clear to all that the mean spirited excuse that we “can’t afford” good things for Kiwis is just that – a mean spirited excuse.
greywarshark
I have to disagree with you on this one. Sure, you can publicity-jack any event you want, but this launch is simply not an example of an; “expensive event”:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC1503/S00004/nasa-to-launch-scientific-space-balloon-from-wanaka-nz.htm
You may dismiss this as; “curiosity science”, and certainly curiosity is at the heart of all science worth the name. However, note the potential for; “atmospheric research”. Such balloons can provide essential data on the upper atmosphere while producing far less carbon emissions than conventional flight. They will be an important tool in combating the worst effects of climate change.
So Key tells Northland I don’t give a stuff about what you vote
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/67521779/i-wont-pick-up-the-phone-john-key-dismisses-winston-peters
Key will be picking up the phone to the Maori Party.
I assume that everyone has read this but just in case…
“Werewolf: The Myth Of Steven Joyce
Gordon Campbell: The myth of competence that’s been woven around Steven Joyce – the Key government’s “Minister of Everything” and “Mr Fixit” – has been disseminated from high-rises to hamlets, across the country…”
http://werewolf.co.nz/2015/03/the-myth-of-steven-joyce/
Anyone know if breaking a suppression order by email is illegal?
You could ask these guys I guess
https://forms.police.govt.nz/forms/contact-new-zealand-police/10?about=general_enquiry
Don’t give too much information though 😉
Concern trole
If its a private email between you and the person receiving it then its got to be alright. There’s no difference between an email conversation and talking face to face. We can say what we damm well like when its out of public earshot.
Not only illegal – but punishable by fine of up to $100,000. Not something to undertake lightly !
Putting something on the internet is regarded as publication. A Tory judge could possibly stretch the definition of internet to include emails, but my lay opinion is that this would be pretty weak and likely to be overturned. If you wrote an email as an open letter and published it on a blog or on a local Facebook account, that might be different.
Filthy disgusting thugs let a young man beat himself to death in a blood-smeared room.
No charges to be laid. No disciplinary action to follow.
Nothing to see here. Carry on.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/67527642/police-failed-sentry-taitoko-who-died-in-custody
The doctor said he was too ill to send to hsopital. And he must have been out of his brain. Why isn’t there a special tranquiliser dart that a doctor can use to immobilise a highly excited person? Then he could have been cared for. It was obviously not just a case of letting him sleep off too much alcohol.
You can tell the quality of a police force by the methods they use with vulnerable criminals and others. You can tell the quality of a country and government by the way they treat vulnerable people while under government control.
(I heard this morning about the 1080 raid on a historical 1080 protester – ten or more policemen, 3 warrants, away from home for questioning from 7am to 6 pm, separated husband and wife I think at different establishments, and returned to a mess rubbish emptied over their kitchen bench, things all over the floor and the house left unlocked. No attempt at quality policing and responsible careful behaviour there.)
The usual with no chance of any sort of apology or reparations.
I’m guessing that without knowing a persons medical history or what drugs the person had taken prior to the episode a doctor would loathe to sedate anyone in case of an accidental overdose
Engaging the community mental health crisis team was too hard?.
I’m guessing that being a crooked thuggish sociopath surrounded by a bunch of similar fuckwits, who gives a fuck about some wasted black kid?
Why isn’t there a special tranquiliser dart that a doctor can use to immobilise a highly excited person?
– I’m guessing that without knowing a persons medical history or what drugs the person had taken prior to the episode a doctor would loathe to sedate anyone in case of an accidental overdose
I was answering this question, not sure what you’re on about
You need special mental health workers to attend in a situation like this. Joe Regular medical doctor likely won’t have enough hands on experience by themselves to deal with such a scenario successfully.
The quack who observed Sentry at the police station would’ve known the circumstances of his removal for detoxification and been aware of his self harm but didn’t bother.
Everyone is different. Too low a dosage can have little effect, too high a dosage can be fatal.
To put it bluntly, if he’s on uppers and you give him downers, and the uppers wear off before the downers, you’ll John Belushi the dude.
Dealing with drunks, especially angry drunks, can make you see what you expect to see and overlook underlying medical conditions (not just drugs or mental health issues, but diabetes, stroke, epilepsy, hypothermia [Dunedin lol], and so on). Been there, fucked that up (not with the same repercussions, but there was an “oh fuck” moment or two).
I actually have issues with the doctor more than the cops in this case (although the cops should have checked regularly, too). It seems pretty obvious, but making a medical assessment through a window does not count as anything beyond “immediate danger” (i.e. the person is upright, not spurting blood or puking, and might be verbally responsive). If the person was too violent to complete a check, then the doctor should have been called back when the guy calmed down (only half an hour or so later).
There might also be other workload issues (no idea what else the police or doctor were dealing with) and the time of day might also be a factor alongside day of week and whether there were handover issues with a shift change, but it seems that almost all concerned assessed him through “the guy is a drunk dickhead” lenses. 999/1000 you’re right, but when you’re wrong…
yep that doctor – fucken hell
“Over 30 minutes from 1.47am to 2.16 am, CCTV footage showed him falling and hitting his head on the concrete walls or floor of the cell 83 times, the report said.
Over the next hour, he hit his head about another 31 times, with his cell becoming smeared with blood.
A police doctor looked at Taitoko through the cell window at 3.21am, but he did not enter the cell.”
Fuck the corporates.
The Amazon contract, obtained by The Verge, requires employees to promise that they will not work at any company where they “directly or indirectly” support any good or service that competes with those they helped support at Amazon, for a year and a half after their brief stints at Amazon end.
[…]
The company has even required its permanent warehouse workers who get laid off to reaffirm their non-compete contracts as a condition of receiving severance pay.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/26/8280309/amazon-warehouse-jobs-exclusive-noncompete-contracts
the handbook for cellphone-surveillance gear (likely used by our spooks..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/heres-the-top-secret-stingray-manual-ed-this-is-the-surveillance-tool-used-to-interceptmonitor-cellphone-calls/
And related: IMSI catchers, which are “pretend” cell phone towers that operate by tricking your cell phone into logging on to them, giving others access to all your details.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI-catcher
Tests
Is this where National’s National Standards are taking our young?
best political one-liner of the wk..
it came from dita de boni in the herald..
..where she said of bill english:..
‘..Like his colleagues he is adept at rolling a turd in glitter..’
(heh..!..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/dita-de-boni-kiwis-hoodwinked-over-state-housing-ed-bill-english-is-described-as-adept-at-rolling-a-turd-in-glitter/
I think I overlooked any comments on this in the last few days:
Kiwi soldiers in Iraq to have identities kept secret.
Allegedly for safety purposes for them and their families (noble), I wonder if this will also further obscure the number and nature of any casualties they have, after the defense forces being able to pick and choose which cases get investigated by the coroner. No photos. No grieving relatives. No stories about what we’re actually doing over there… just a silent loss that nobody is allowed to acknowledge or talk about.
McFlock
Thanks for the link. That really seemed to go under everyone’s radar.
That’s; “selected to go” not “volunteered to go”, despite previous assurances.
enlightened-treatment of heroin addicts passed into law..
..in kentucky – of all fucken places…(!)
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/kentuckys-new-heroin-law-marks-a-culture-shift/
A Saturday morning option for Christchurch folk looking for something to do?
( Seeing as the Friday Evening session is already over. )
http://www.futurechristchurch.co.nz/news/victoria-square-meet-the-project-team
Northland by-election % result prediction:
Post YOUR predictions/ % guesstimates here just for fun:
———————–
On 6 March 2015 at 5:26 pm I predicted:
Mark Osborne : 38%
Winston Peters : 36%
Willow-Jean Prime: 21%
Total Valid Votes 22,000.
————————-
Two fays later, on 8 March 2015 at 10:38 pm I said:
Mark Osborne : 38%
Winston Peters : 44%
Willow-Jean Prime: 13%
Total Valid Votes 21,000.
———————
Two days ago, 26 March 2015 at 3:19 pm I predicted:
Winston = 58%
Osborne =32%
WJ Prime =09%
Total Valid Votes 21,000.
—————
Now, today, on the eve of the election day, on 27 March at 9:33pm, I am guessing:
Winston = 59%
Osborne =32%
WJ Prime =08%
Total Valid Votes 28, 000.
——————
HERE below is the advance photo of the winner. Take a look!
http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/1823/821
——————-
Now Post YOUR predictions / % guesstimates to show your political antenna just for some fun.
Whoops, the correct link is here:
http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/1823/821/original.jpg?w=600&h
Good luck Winston. The hopes and dreams of New Zealanders opposed to John Key/National are with you. As they are with the New Zealand Cricket Team at the MCG.
Anyone notice in the below pics that it is John Key doing most of the actual campaigning while Osborne stands in the background with a goofy grin.? “Hoss” indeed…
I saw Penny Bright (I think )on 6 News today, bravely holding a banner for Key, and getting told off too! but I am not sure if it was TV1 or 3.
Anyone got a link?
Found it here:
The clip is from 8:09 to 11:45. I think she (?) is at about 9:10.
Dont forget the NSW vote as well!