This is a really crappy article but it highlights the problem with modern consumer culture and how it’s destroying the world.
One of the more astonishing figures from the book was that our fiber consumption has leapt from 10 million tons to 82 million tons [annually] in the last 60 years. It’s far outpacing population growth.
I also get into the waste that’s created. We throw away 68 pounds of textiles per person per year. On top of that, we’re using thrift stores and charity shops as dumps for an incredible volume of clothes that we don’t wear anymore. [The average charity shop is able to sell a mere 20 percent of what comes in.]
US centric but, sheesh, that’s a lot of waste and shows, once again, the irrationality of our profit driven free-market society.
Well, the US leads the way in the throw-away consumer culture. I think there’s something similar in NZ, but maybe not to the same extent.
I know a few US women who, after visiting NZ, described Kiwis as “dowdy”. i.e. this was a comment on the kind of clothes we wear. But this probably has something to do with the fact that fashionable clothes are more expensive here.
But this probably has something to do with the fact that fashionable clothes are more expensive here.
Not just fashionable clothes. Basics such as reasonably priced underpants and socks that last more than a couple of washes are not easy finds in this country.
Decent shoes are ridiculously expensive in New Zealand compared to Stateside. I have my shoes shipped over, but that’s not so cheap, so thank goodness there are still shoe repair outfits here when the heels wear down and the soles get a bit thin.
“Reasonably priced” is somewhat subjective to one’s financial positon, but Farmers still sell the Holeproof brand of socks, around $18 for one or two pairs depending on style and type. Choose wool/nylon 50% : 50% blend for socks (and colour) that will last ten years or more, though pick a size larger, because the first time they see a dryer they’ll shrink.
For a “more reasonable” price in Auckland, go to the Bendon Outlet stores. Once they were on Barry’s Point road in Auckland, or Fox Center Northcote, and disappeared briefly, but have now re-emerged at Westcity Mall at the end of the NW motorway or at Botany Town Centre out East. Holeproof turn up there and also various other quality brands to chose from at heavily reduced prices.
Saturday/Sunday Market stalls selling imported socks, 3 or 4pairs for $5 – $10 are a hit-and-miss situation, mostly cotton blends, but also worth a go for the colour/pattern selection. Pakuranga, Avondale, Glen Innes, Manurewa, Otara, Henderson and Mangere markets all have sock stalls regularly. Those markets also have high quality (cleaned, pressed, well presented) second hand clothes, usually something like 3 pieces for $10; Avondale especially has new imported brands you’ll recognise and quality Asian brands for “reasonable cost”. Get an pair of new average shoes there for around $10 – $20.
For new Shoes, also try Dressmart in Onehunga and get high end/reheelable for roughly half price and while you’re there, check out Shoetown just outside, on the Onehunga Mall. Also outside Dressmart Onehunga is Number One Shoes Outlet. Some cheap shoes in there, but as it’s end of line/out of season, the selection is limited. Also quality can be an issue, so inspect closely if you intend to reheel. Hannahs Outlet at Panmure/Mt Wellington turns up some good finds at good prices.
In my experience, the best reheel/repair place in Auckland is Gemmels on Symonds Street. They can’t fix some shoes simply because they are designed to be thrown out, but other than that, if you at least look to buy good leather in a shoe, you can continue to reheel for some years at roughly half the price of new.
For other high quality second hand clothes, try Save Mart, they are Nationwide. In my experience in Auckland, the best clothes selection is at Onehunga or New Lynn, but outlets are also at Northcote and Browns Road. Northcote has the biggest selection of shoes. Tonnes of womens stuff at all branches, good range of mens from $5.99 to $25 for designer labels. Also “retro and ethnic” at New Lynn.
Finding belts that last more than a month can be difficult. Best bet in Dressmart is Hallensteins or there is a belt stall near the donut stall. There you’ll pay $25 for durable leather in almost any style or colour. Also, Safety Protector shops carry the Taurus range of belts at around $25 – $30 a piece. Classic plain black or brown, single silver buckle – 100% leather.
Finding “reasonably priced” mens trousers can be difficult. Kmart often has many of Hallensteins range under a different label for up to half the price. On can pay $12 (on special) up to $25, where you might pay up to $75 elsewhere. The Warehouse occasionally has durable cheap underwear range, but again, it pays to estimate up to 2 sizes higher, because of shrinkage. Dye colours other than grey or black will run. Thermals are also there or at Postie Plus for around $10 a piece. Postie plus often has hidden gems ina ll things.
It all depends on personal taste. K-Road often turns up some good shoes and clothes, but it depends on your idea of “reasonable price”. As Carol’s friends pointed out above, in a country that openly condones jeans as formal wear, it’s easy to look well dressed, starting from scratch, for $50 – $100 total. Some people won’t be able to get those sorts of funds together all in one go, but shit, there’s only so much I can do. Not much is free these days and others will know better angles than me.
As the final trick for young players: Re-Dye your clothes. A popular thing to do, overseas, if you’ve ever been a backpacker. Much of what we buy never wears out, but colour fades. Go to Geoffs Emporium on Dominion road and get some washing machine dye. For $14 you can renew or change the colour of $200 pants or an armful of shirts, socks, T-shirts etc. Read the instructions on the dye! Just bear in mind the stitching on clothes is often polyester, even if the item is cotton, and will not take the dye. So black, grey, dark blue, green and brown all work well. But you’ll never get a light blue shirt to be black – it’ll have white/blue stitching. These dyes work well in the washing machine with no mess or damage to further washes, but if you’re an environmentalist, you might want to think about weighing up the use of dying chemicals against the waste of throwing out structurally sound clothes.
excellent! Thanks, Uturn. I’ve copied and saved your tips for future reference. While your tips are slanted towards males, I shop at some of the places you mention, and my dress styles tends towards “casual”, unisex-ish (trousers/jeans not dresses).
And I’ve had problems like belts and shoes not lasting. This is also true of a lot of women’s clothes as they are built for looks not durability. I did used to buy more men’s jeans & shirts in the past for this reason. But I’m quite small, and people seem to have got bigger – even most small men’s clothes are too big for me now.
I’d like to emphasise the value of the op-shop, and belts are a good example. The last belt I bought for five dollars is wide, thick leather, and will defintely outlive me.
I tend to haunt the jumper racks for thin merino garments which make an excellent thermal underlayer for winter. I’ve got plently myself, but friends are always grateful.
Just a note about dyeing. I often dye things, most recently some op-shop cushions. But nowadays I don’t dye anything that will need regular washing. I’m yet to find a genuinely colourfast dye, but if anyone else has I’d love to hear about it.
You should be able to get clothing dye in supermarkets. Small tins. Look in the washing section.
Think of op shops that support social needs in the community when buying clothes.. Buying things there is an excellent way to give a donation that gives back to you. There’s sure to be one not far away
or at a local church or centre once a week. Finding one that’s open when you’re around is the trick.
I bought some Katmandu socks @ 15 dollars a pair I have worn them less than five times they are buggered.These socks are for the serious tramper.
I will never buy katmandu ever again.
Atleast you know when you buy whare house stuff its not going to last that long but I have had a better run out of their socks,
It all depends on personal taste. K-Road often turns up some good shoes and clothes, but it depends on your idea of “reasonable price”
I found a perfect skirt in a charity shop on K Rd, I guess it depends on taste… I love ‘hippie’ type long skirts, lucky they’re not generally popular – and best of all – pockets!
I also found a perfect ‘office’ type skirt in KMart for $20.00…
Draco, interested in your thoughts on this new article from Gordon Campbell. Essentially pessimistic on peak oil and cleantech given new dirty oil extraction capacity into the medium term.
Funny that another article with the same title came out on the Wall Street Journal today. As Campbell mentions there has a proliferation of articles proclaiming the end of peak oil. The peak has shifted into the future yes, but on closer look not as far as many of these cornucopian pundits are making out.
Chris Nelder has a great article on a few of the recent end of peak oil articles:
It’s hard to say about unconventional oil – not enough data yet. IMO, it’s uneconomic both in purely economic and sustainability terms. Unfortunately, due to the fact that all costs aren’t factored into it’s production or use, it still seems viable and, also, it seems that the politicians have been brought over to the side of the fossil fuel industry. We’re seeing subsidies for clean tech stopped while subsidies for fossil fuels continue.
It seems that there is little to no hope that we will stop the actions that will drive the world in to cataclysmic climate change.
On top of that, we’re using thrift stores and charity shops as dumps for an incredible volume of clothes that we don’t wear anymore.
I wear clothes and use towels etc until they’re threadbare. I have taken some of my son’s out-grown clothes to charity shops, otherwise, I am a hoarder by nature. So, for once, not guilty! 🙂
…National will continue flogging off part of the power companies.
…Labour/Greens will continue to flog a dead horse petition?
There’s risks for all three of the larger parties. The success of the Mighty River float is crucial for National – and it’s also important for the country.
And Labour/Greens risk continuing to put a lot of resource into what could be an extended and futile post-legislation fizzle. There may be plenty of fight amongst political activists, but the wider voting population are much more likely to contune living their lives outside the bubble.
Your the one living in a bubble Petey full of self righteous justification and spin handed down by your masters warmed by the glow of victory, it’s really quite sad to observe.
You and Dunne will be regarded, just like NACT as people who sold our assets to enrich mates and backers to the disadvantage of today and future generations, you know no shame because you are a sell out who spends him time in the blogosphere not in the real world.
The real world where UF and NACT just made their backers the pay back the hollowmen demanded, serving the people Petey you and us know that’s a blatant lie.
+ 1 – exactly right tc – they have sold our assets as part of the payback. They will sell everything if they can because they are hollow inside and out. Well fuck them I say, it is not over yet!
And yet the media ignore the desperate attempt by NACT/UF to effectively bribe the iwi with shares, you know those shares that were meant to fix schools, pay debt, build roads and be the magic wand that cures all.
for Petey to understand that mickey would be to admit he understands the gorilla in the room, can’t let reality get in the way of more shonkey spin can we.
Oh thank you thank you thank you facile one Pete George. Everything you pompously tell us we never have a clue about. Until you tell us. Because you stood for parliament. And you’re an oracle near unequalled. Except for the perennial cabinet toady you call your leader.
Your contibutions to “debate” on this blog are limited to this – statement of either the patently obvious (you know…..”one party government is not good for democracy”), or, utterly predictable right wing wish-list, mouthed out as fact.
And on top of it you do it with terribly self-consciousness solemnity to conceal your narcissism.
You stood for parliament……….so bloody what ? You are sadly the most boring person in the universe, and I suspect, essentially thick.
How can someone (or people) in a top position in ACC have so little sensitivity to, or understanding of the situation of, rape and incest survivors? These ACC top dogs think so little of the survivors and their situation that they think $250 will buy their silence?
And how much influence did the minister have over this?
ACC has sent letters of apology to rape and incest victims whose privacy was breached – offering them $250 if they agree to stay silent
[..]
“When I got the letter and offer I just thought it was pathetic,” one sensitive claims client said yesterday. “I just wanted to vomit. It’s another slap in the face after all the things they’ve done.”
[…]
ACC said it was offering the money because the breach involved details of the clients being in the sensitive claims unit and that may have caused distress.
It finished by saying ACC “has your best interests at heart” and was committed to moving forward positively “following this regrettable incident”.
But the letters have drawn fire from several ACC clients in internet discussions and from the woman who provided a copy of her letter to The Dominion Post.
Several have said they will not sign a secrecy agreement with ACC.
Social Development Minister Paula Bennett is encouraging people who were abused as a result of the state being involved in their care, including placement with wider family or in foster homes, to apply for compensation.
Her comments followed the story of “Joanne”, who told Marae Investigates she was placed in the care of her uncle, a convicted rapist, after a family group conference in 2001 when she was 16.
She has alleged she was raped and contracted HIV.
Child, Youth and Family has now apologised to her and changed the vetting requirements in such cases.
[…]
The maximum that has been paid out to an individual is $80,000. Since November 2008, a total of $3.55 million has been paid out and 272 claims completed. Previously, 54 claims were completed and payouts totalled $375,500.
The Ministry of Social Development has said there is no legal obligation to pay compensation, but a moral obligation sometimes arose where its actions were deficient to a degree that resulted in loss or harm.
So a state department can be grossly negligent and there is no legal obligation to pay compensation… how mental is that?
mickysavage, what happened to David Cunliffe’s speech?
I thought that was a big, visionary speech for the future. It didn’t get a post-speech post here. Nothing in the media. Nothing on Red Alert. Nothing but a one of many ‘News’ listing in the Labour website.
I thought there should have been a major promotion of it. Is that yet to happen? Or is it not very important to Labour?
According to ministerial briefing papers obtained by RadioLIVE there is a catch to the Government’s promise of more jobs.
The Labour Department predicts 100,000 new jobs in the coming years, but the documents reveal they will largely benefit professional men, leaving low-skilled workers and women out in the cold.
[…]
“He is intentionally dumbing down the community by locking them out of higher education even though he knows that there simply will not be the jobs created for those people as part of his overall economic plan,” says Ms Turei.
The Department of Labour briefing paper says more needs to be done to ‘up-skill disadvantaged’ groups in society.
Violence begets violence. Poor dog suffered, the environment and residents where the drilling is planned could suffer. Then there will be more suffering, all for a hole in the ground.
People like me dont take shit from trolls. And we dont see property rights as absolute when they affect the rest of us. And people like me question why NOT who started the nonsense, we dont however condone all actions.
Well we know how people like you roll chris73 with more than 700 environmentalists, that’s one a week, killed over the past decade.
Among those mourned by the Council of Canadians and Blue Planet Project are:
Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez in Mexico
Mariano Abarca Roblero in Mexico
Beatriz Carino Trujillo in Mexico
Father Jose Reinel Restrepo Idairraga in Colombia
Kimy Pernia Domico in Colombia
Dora Alicia Sorto Recinos in El Salvador
Marcelo Rivera Moreno in El Salvador
Ramiro Rivera Gomez in El Salvador
Juan Francisco Duran Ayala in El Salvador
Across the world, our research found 711 individuals
reported killed in the past decade – an average of
more than one killing per week. Of these, 106 people
were killed in 2011 – nearly twice the death toll in
2009. It includes those killed in targeted attacks and
violent clashes as a result of protests, investigating
or taking grievances against mining operations,
logging operations, intensive agriculture including
ranching, tree plantations, hydropower dams, urban
development and poaching
No not just Peter Dunne, but every aspirational idiot, every fat cat 1%er, every “I am better than you” person who voted for this scabby bunch of theives. Dunne is just another bland faceless “me firster”, dont give him any credit. Others enabled his position.
So when you know your fellow citizen voted NACT tell the bastards what they have done, why your power bill is going up and you cant feed the children. Tell them they are to blame for voting the bastards in.
PS When somebody screams poverty ask them did they vote? If not why not? They are to blame as well.
PPS When some lefty MP tells you that they cant make statements like “nationalise” etc, tell them that we dont vote them in to be toothless (and useless).
This morning I reflected that the world has not changed significantly since last night when another larcenous act was perpetuated against the citizenry of NZ. The theft is slow and corrosive, at stake is our security, our childrens future, our freedom (such as we have left). We are I note in a class war.
In reality we have been constantly in a class war and always will be. The reason is because we humans constantly want what we dont have, and somebody else does. The tempo of our wars increase as the gap between those who have and those who dont have widens. Last nights legislation merely signals an escalation: the violence level was raised because one side had a narrow firepower advantage. The response will be that the other side will try to close the firepower gap. But that is not enough.
What the Left currently does not have is generals with the knowledge that they really are at war facing battle hardened focused foes from the Right. The Lefts generals need to throw off the amateur gentlemanly manner and harden up. For too many years the Left has allowed their own generals to come from the Right, bringing Right wing tactics to bear. It has not worked.
Those “Left” generals who think the key to victory is holding the centre need to notice the blitz has gone around this point and attacked from the flanks. Plodding up the middle wont work, victory is for the swift, and at the moment its the Right. The Left needs to recognise the gravity and extremity of the fight, and make a stand. To date the stand has been feeble, the goal fuzzy. Time to lay out the strategy and commit to total victory. They are taking all we have, we are going to take everything they have. Unconditional victory.
I think with the Labour party the gloves have been well and truly off for quite a while (who was the labour pres that went to oz to dig up some dirt on John Key?)
Could that be one of the reasons the Greens are becoming more popular?
reposting in Open mike because i would genuinely like an answer
Q: Can the Governor General do anything?
I admittedly am a bit fuzzy on where those largely ceremonial powers start/stop. Which is why i ask questions of others who know these matters more accurately than I. ( something many people would do well to try) Ceremonial position aside, does he not have some power here? Perhaps if he thought of all his brothers in arms who fought and died for New Zealand and what they died protecting, then he could be a brave soldier and refuse to allow the act to be accepted by the Crown?
Yes it messes in our self-determination but we are not a Republic yet. If it is a tool in the box, let’s bloody well use it and ask the GG to protect Aotearoa.
“Get ready for every future appointment to be former ministers who veto everything their former party doesn’t like.”
that is a short cut to thinking and i personally believe we have a fairly robust and attentive parliament where this would not become the norm.
I sincerely believe the GG discussion is worthy of debate if it allows a return to the house of this Bill, perhaps forcing National to actually consider the thousand plus submissions opposing the bill not just agree with the handful that supported it.
A true democracy should always be mindful of how its future is crafted but not be afraid of using the tools at its disposal to affect change upon that future. Even if some tools are sharper than others, and the potential of injury is severe, the skill of the craftsman is the issue and this highlights the question, ‘can the GG do anything?’ i have many tools i use sparingly because they have limited application but not using them can be the difference between doing a job properly and hashing out a piece of inferior work.
or has NZ fatally become a speak much say nothing do even less society
You really want the Governor General to effectively become a veto for anything they don’t like?
No, what I would like him to do is refuse assent to the law as it’s obviously against the will of the people. In other words, an actual considered position that has moral authority.
Because otherwise it’s arbitrary. In fact, that’s the point of all law – it has to be justified. So that would be another reason for the GG to stop the law as all of the reasons that NACT+UF have put forward have been proven to be bollocks.
Because at the moment it’s only because you are saying it is.
Nope, all polling shows that asset sales is against the will of the people. The referendum will most likely prove that.
Just seems the start of a very slippery slope to me.
“No, what I would like him to do is refuse assent to the law as it’s obviously against the will of the people. In other words, an actual considered position that has moral authority.”
So the guy that complains NZ is a dictatorship now wants to vest veto power into a figure who is not beholden to the public and cannot be removed from office by public vote?
Good point Draco, like the ‘Anti-smacking bill’ or buying back Kiwi Rail, or selling Spring Creek Mine to an American conglomerate, or selling Wellington Power to a Hong Kong conglomerate……..or are they only allowed to step in when a ‘Right-wing’ party does something that is ‘obviously against the will of the people’?
Thanks draco, I have the general info, I was hoping there might be someone out there with a working knowledge as to how it applies and how best to move on it. It is a parliamentary thing that Jo Citizen has no part in as far as i understand it.
I have to admit I am a little shocked at the lack of interest in the subject.
It seems like no-one can be bothered actually stopping the sale
just happy to be seen looking like they are trying to.
Sent off some emails, which will no doubt end up in spam boxes.
Will send off a few letters but i understood notice to the GG had to happen within a short (unknown to me) time frame of the vote on the relevant Bill.
So the guy that complains NZ is a dictatorship now wants to vest veto power into a figure who is not beholden to the public and cannot be removed from office by public vote?
People are looking at all available means to restrict the progression of the Asset Sales. Our GG has certain powers, every now and then something happens where perhaps those powers should be applied, but applied with the due concern, consideration and respect that the situation calls for. This is one of those times.
I am not a fan of having a soldier as our GG but he is and we must work with the strengths a soldier has. A sense of duty and a wish to defend one’s country being paramount in their arsenal. I am trusting that our GG is someone who will consider fairly if the Government is defending New Zealand with this bill. If the intervention from the Queen’s Representative became a more common occurrence then that would be a question for that situation. Like all laws, it is the people that use them or abuse them which dictate their legitimacy.
Those I have spoken with on this agree that asking the GG to return the MOM Bill to the House for further debate is a valid request in this divisive situation. A request that is only asking that the Submissions on this bill be properly considered as they suffered a deliberately truncated process and the support was outweighed by those against by a factor of 99-1. This is nothing but asking for the NZ Parliament to properly follow its own procedure. Something this Government has chosen not to do on a regular basis.
TC, you also ignore the fact no-one is calling for new powers. You simply choose not to acknowledge what is there on the books already. NZ is being abused again, but by all means lay back and take it, that is your right.
‘Reserve Bank Governor-in-waiting Graeme Wheeler was once touted as a potential World Bank president and gained fame for telling his boss, Paul Wolfowitz, to resign during what was seen as a civil war at the World Bank.
Wheeler’s appointment to take over at the central bank when Alan Bollard steps down on September 25 was welcomed yesterday, even though many had expected deputy governor Grant Spencer to win the top post.
Spencer may be disappointed and it is not clear if he will stay at the central bank, given Wheeler may serve at least one, possibly two, five-year terms. Wheeler has a strong international reputation, especially in world financial markets.
He takes over what is arguably one of the most important roles in the economy as the sole final decisionmaker on monetary policy: what to do with official interest rates and when.
Wheeler resigned as managing director of the World Bank in 2010, after 12 years at what is effectively the world’s most important aid agency.
The World Bank borrows from institutions on international markets, including New Zealand, and lends to developing countries, especially for big projects. ‘ ( more on the webpage )
In yesterdays Herald Slippery the Prime Minister indicated that He will have to seek legal advice after calls from groups of Doctors and Nurses to ban duty free cigarettes,
Legal advice???, yeah Slippery sez that it’s getting to the point where SOMEONE is going to take to His Government over such things as rack raising of taxes on tobacco products,and, proposals to ban things like duty free cigs,
From here it looks just as likely that Slippery has woken up to the fact that there are 600,000 users of tobacco products in New Zealand and should discrimination in taxation force them into a ‘Grey Power’ type political advocacy organization His Government and any other proposing discriminatory taxation of tobacco addicts will get a caning,
Or,
Slippery is aware of the fact that many of the 2 million who pass through the International Arrivals area of our airports and therefore are allowed the small joy of some duty free cigs are very likely to be the well heeled National voters returning from faraway exotic places where they have been busily spending their tax cuts, (apparently 75% of tax cuts for the rich are spent in ‘other’ economy’s),
But what of tobacco usage??? having taken an interest i have begun the dig for FACTS and my initial finds are both startling, (perhaps an indication of why Slippery fears being sued) and from the stuff i have read on the web it sure as hell proves that if you tell the masses a big one often enough sooner or later they will believe you,
Specially if your a Doctor, Nurse, or oft reported entity with imposing letters like ASH,
Fact (1), 10% of those who smoke will get lung cancer,
Fact (2), 15% of those who get lung cancer will have no link to actual or passive smoking,
Fact (3), 50% of those who get lung cancer are those who gave up smoking,
fact (4), those with a specific gene anomaly are 30% more likely to get lung cancer,
fact (5), those with a double gene anomaly are 70% more likely to get lung cancer,
fact (6), in the UK 8% of lung cancers are directly caused by the work a person does,
fact (7) lung cancer has become more prevalent as people live longer, the average age of those who get lung cancer is 65, in the 1930s the average life expectancy was 57 so not many lived long enough to develop a lung cancer,
Rather than put up all the links to these little gems of info the Google is, Why don’t all smokers get cancer…
A fellow student on a course I did in the UK, used to use a similar argument in favour of heroin – ie most users can use them for a major part of their adult lives without any significant ill affects.
Aha, i grew up on the streets of Wellington during the ‘Heroin years’ and know many people working in professions who used the drug,
The operative word of course is ‘use’ as opposed to abused where the more overt ‘junky’ type user simply used the drug to get out of it all the time if possible,
From the statistics it would appear that those who actually start smoking and stop at some time during their lives are the most at risk of developing lung cancer,
To strangely twist that stat a little would have our Government rack raising the taxes on tobacco products with the stated aim of preventing people from developing lung cancer in effect actually raising the chances that they will by 40 odd percent…
Yawn, your wee snivel of abuse as an indication of your intelligence and ability to debate would leave you sadly lacking in the former and at village idiot level in the latter,
Smoking gives you lung cancer???, not even, 90% of those who use tobacco products will not get lung cancer,
Of course if 90% of those who you are trying to discriminate against don’t get the lung disease you claim the product causes then you have to up the ante and make claims about such things as heart disease and strokes,
After the millions and millions of dollars spent on advertising campaigns to attempt to fill the users of the product with fear i was inclined to the opinion that smoking the product hugely increased my chances of developing lung cancer,
Having an inquiring mind has lead me to have a good read of what is on the web about such and my initial response is one of mirth at the obvious CON of the lung cancer statistics and the laughter would be ongoing except for the fact that i use the stuff and don’t like to be discriminated against by any Government via the taxation system on spurious grounds,
Heart Disease and Strokes and their supposed links to the use of tobacco products need a good looking at coz if ‘they’ will bulls**t us all over lung cancer ‘they’ will quite happily do so over heart disease and strokes…
‘Tobacco is the only consumer product that will kill half its users when used as intended.’
One in two long-term smokers, who do not quit smoking, will die early from a smoking-related illness. Smokers are twice as likely as non-smokers to die when they are in middle age.
It’s not just lung cancer that makes smoking bad for you.
Indeed, but it is an interesting point about perception vs reality. The major risk from smoking is heart disease, but the meme and hollywood cliche is lung cancer.
Additionally, tobacco has a dose-response like any other exposure, down to undetectable risk as somewhere like 3 cigarettes a day ISTR. So the numbers of smokers might be relatively static, but the mortality rate will decrease as the effects of excise increases etc take effect (lower consumption per smoker).
And of course if you want to talk “kills if used as intended”, try camembert, soft drinks or fish & chips, other great causes of diabetes and heart disease. So smokefree are probably fibbing a bit there. But then I’ve long figured that the ash-zealots were just as economical with the truth as the tobacco industry ever were.
Aha, as i have become ‘interested’ in the claims made by the tobacco kills lobby a good look into the other kills by tobacco is warranted,
Go on, bet you like i really believed the tobacco use causes lung cancer one right???, but, the truth of that little piece of mis-information is that 90% of tobacco users will not get lung cancer,
So there is hardly a proven link between tobacco use and lung cancer, the other stuff, throat cancer, stokes, heart disease i plan to check out and add to the ‘discussion’ later,
Given that 3 different studies have pointed to a specific abnormality in a persons Genes as the prime indicator of developing cancer it then becomes clearer why only 10% of tobacco users develop lung cancer, and, why certain populations such as Maori in this country’s case are more prone to develop the disease, ie, the Maori population are more closely inter-related than the European population,
Obviously i will be looking for whether the same altered gene is a feature inherent in those who develop the other ‘smokers diseases’ as well as the veracity of the highly unlikely claim that smoking kills half of those who use the product, an extremely glib and emotive claim where most of those supposedly killed by the product are in fact at the end of their life anyway….
“So there is hardly a proven link between tobacco use and lung cancer, the other stuff, throat cancer, stokes, heart disease i plan to check out and add to the ‘discussion’ later”
Even though big tobacco admitted smoking was positively correlated with incidences disease tried to cover it up and why the overwhelming scientific consensus is that tobacco is positively correlated with lung cancer, throat cancer, heart disease and emphysema?
It has been known for almost 50 years that tobacco use can be linked to cancers of the lung and head and neck.
Eighty-five percent of the cases of head and neck cancer found each year are associated with tobacco use. Long-term smoking that begins before age 30 also increases the risk for developing colorectal cancer.
Smoking contributes to cancer development by causing mutations in genes, impairing lung function, and decreasing the effectiveness of the immune system.
The longest follow up of the ill effects of smoking in relation to coronary disease was probably the framingham cohort which we now base many of the risk algorithms on in relation to assessing a persons risk of suffering an adverse event.
Paul Brennan, who led the IARC study, says he initially believed that the risk of getting lung cancer was elevated by the genetic predisposition to become addicted,
”The Genes made you more likely to smoke, made you more likely to smoke more, made you less likely to give up, and therefore, more likely to develop lung cancer”,
But His research showed, that in fact, the gene appeared to independently increase a persons risk of developing the disease–with no link to addictions,
When Steffansson’s team applied the stats to the incidence of lung cancer, it found that individuals with 2 copies of the altered gene had a whopping 70% greater chance of developing lung cancer, those with 1 copy had a 30% higher risk,
Smoking alters genes which then go on to cause cancer OR as the above from 3 different 2008 studies say, a copy of an altered gene gives people a 30% higher chance or 2 copies of the altered gene increases the chances of cancer whether or not the person uses tobacco products…
My Grandfather had Bowel Cancer, was given 1 month to live, 18 months later, when he was on his last legs, he developed Pneumonia and passed away. This was counted as a smoking related death!
My Aunty developed motor neuron disease, it quickly crippled her to the point where she could no longer speak, she also developed Pneumonia and passed away. This was also classed as a smoking related death!
Before you spout bulls**t statistics, please realise how flawed the collation of data relating to deaths is in the overall picture. This is a topic I get very emotive over as I watched these diseases that are completely unrelated to smoking, decemate my close family members lives. Due to the fact that it was the Pneumonia that ‘finished them off’ we cannot do anything to stop them being added to these statistics which would now say 100% of my close relatives that have passed away did so due to smoking.
which would now say 100% of my close relatives that have passed away did so due to smoking.
Exactly! Someone working at Stats told me some years ago, that all deaths from respiratory causes are coded as smoking related… That makes me wonder if the death of my baby brother at 6 weeks from pneumonia, was coded that way? (Which would of course be absurd. Given it was 1957, probably not, but you never know..)
Can I ask how old were your Grandfather and Aunt when they died???, and, did either of them smoke???,
What i have gathered so far from my internet reads is that what smokers are being tagged with is ‘end of life diseases’, and, i get the feeling that especially in the case of of heart related deaths it is in fact the major killer across the whole of the aged population and people are dying of these heart related diseases at around the same age, 65 onwards, whether or not they smoke,
So it is spurious of the health statistics to show that a 65+ who smoked died of a smoking related disease of the heart when 80% of the 65+ who die of a disease of the heart in the same year who did not smoke are simply heart attack or heart disease statistics,
One has to ask if everyone intends living forever, i pick my own lifespan to be in the realm of 65 t0 80 years and if i do reach that 80 figure i will have been smoking 20+ a day for 67 years,
It is in fact between the years 65 to 80 years when 90% of us die whether we use tobacco products or not and as we age and weaken then it is obvious that we will all be at higher risk of catching and surrendering to all diseases even cancers whether or not we use tobacco products or not…
b12, That’s not how it works. It’s a multi-discipinary approach.
What happens is the population scientists look at the rates of different conditions in populations who smoke vs non-smokers. They notice that smokers tend to die earlier than non-smokers. Further researchers note that ony half of smokers die earlier than non-smokers, but the average life-shortening is by 20-odd years.
Meanwhile scientists examine the contents of smoke, and note a number of chemicals that are associated with higher incidences of different conditions when in other exposure scenarios, e.g. hydrocarbons.
Other scientists examine the biological mechanisms of various conditions, and how they form and affect the body.
Then people get all the stuff together, note that we have observed relationship, physiological plausibility, and decent biochemistry to back it up. Smoking is indeed bad, m’kay?
But then we have people looking for a specific cause for their illness or relative’s death (mum had a heart attack, it must of been her smoking. Or her husband’s. Or that smoker she passed in the street). But you can’t really attribute an individual death to smoking (unless a cigarette down the back of a couch called a fatal fire :)).
We also have policy advocates muddying the waters (in both directions), for example I saw news reports of a study a few years back claiming something like 288 NZers a year died from passive smoking. Turned out the NZ “study” extrapolated from a european study, and the numbers were so small the confidence interval was five miles wide. I could see those guys doing the old “all xxx is caused by smoking” when attributing smoking-related harm, just like big tobacco did the opposite.
“unless a cigarette down the back of a couch called a fatal fire”
Yep. My family has experienced that – one dead and the survivor being in hospital for 2 years, over 30 skin grafts and 50 operations, ACC for 30 years, deformed, scarred, deaf from the ensuing stroke and meds and disabled for life. Bugger all the health-related stuff (which, btw I agree with) smoking is dangerous. Smoking kills and disables. Sorry folks, it’s personal.
Aha, i see your point,honest!!! and then after all of this ‘the thin puff leads to the short huff’, along comes genetic science and POINTS OUT that X specific gene, (from memory 15), when it has developed x specific ANOMALY will mean that the person so afflicted will be 30% more likely to develop cancer WHETHER OR NOT that person has ever used tobacco products or been exposed to them in any way,
Should that specific identified gene have x as xx as the anomaly then the person so afflicted will be 70–80% more likely to develop cancer and again the abnormality in the gene makes no discrimination about whether a person has ever been exposed to tobacco products,
So, it becomes easier to see when we add in the science of genetics why 50% of the pesky little smokers aint dying off at the same rate as the other 50% and why the lung cancer one is such a huge flop in terms of quantifying the harm of tobacco usage, (hell even an unbeliever like me entertained the idea for a while that i was merrily puffing my way to a bad case of black lungs),
The heart disease one tho from the little i have ascertained is pretty spurious, i will happily admit that the use of tobacco products could be one of many factors. BUT, the cause??? no way,
In the US 83% of all deaths are from ‘heart disease’, 17. something % of Americans use tobacco products,
Almost from the day we are all born we start laying down in our various arteries,veins,and, heart valves the plaque that will eventually cause our tickers to malfunction in various ways and eventually kill us,
Now smoking may help that process along, but cause it, nah!!!living does that…
My personal belief is that tobacco, particularly unadulterated tobacco, is on the line between preventing actions that cause harm vs preventing less healthy personal lifestyle choices.
Frankly, if in 20 years we are all lentil munching vegetarian tofu suckers with forced exercise routines and no alcohol or tobacco – I’d probably want to shoot myself. Not much exaggeration if any, either – I like the little joys in life, even if they might be bad for me.
Aha, your right there, i had a quick read of part of a study which says exactly that as far as tobacco usage being as much a preventative action as a causative,
I was speed reading at the time,(nah i hadn’t just piped a point),and now can’t remember the page i was reading that from,
I can see the point tho, along with all the other bits and pieces tobacco has quite a good supply of one of the poisons, arsenic i think, so it’s easy to envisage the users immune system being at heightened levels of activity after a smoke of tobacco,
It, tobacco makes a great pesticide, a few leaves soaked in 3 litres of water for a few weeks and then sprayed upon plants prone to be eaten by the bugs works a treat…
My Grandfather was 67, and my Aunty was 42. Both of them were smokers up until diagnosed, which is why (as far as I know, although Vicky32 may be on to something) they were classed as passing away from smoking related illness.
Heart Disease and Strokes and their supposed links to the use of tobacco products need a good looking at coz if ‘they’ will bulls**t us all over lung cancer ‘they’ will quite happily do so over heart disease and strokes…
That interests me greatly, as I was misdiagnosed with a TIA in January, simply because I am a smoker. Having been told to quit, as smoking causes strokes, I asked Dr Google what the mechanism is, only to learn that there are two contradictory mechanisms, which can’t possibly both be true! That caused me to wonder if either of them is true!
My GP actually apologised for the misdiagnosis, and as I was on clopidogrel for only 3 months, no actual harm was done…
”But there was a flipside. 40% of those who had CT screenings had an abnormal result that lead to additional testing, and 16 premature deaths occurred because of interventions prompted by the screening, such as needle biopsies of the lung, 6 of those people didn’t have lung cancer”,
Naughty smokers wouldnt have got dead by medical misadventure if they had just quit the fags right,
Well nah, 50% of those who get lung cancer HAD quit,(apparently well befor the diagnosis)…
Replying to my own post from yesterday – I just checked TIA symptoms on a website (as I’d been following Bad12’s google ideas) and discovered that of all the symptoms of a TIA I had – er, none of them! What on earth were the GP and the neurologist thinking? Were they so blinded by the smoking thing on my record? (I had a chance to check my record, and discovered that half of it’s wrong, I recommend everyone asks their GP for the chance to check.)
For one thing – halve the number of cigarettes you say you smoke. This is because health professionals automatically double what you say. 😀
Yeah us tobacco junky’s are terrible aint we, a full on 90% of us WON’T get the big bad bogie, lung cancer,
So damn, we are all doomed to die from every other ailment that just happens to be the prime causes of death for ALL those who don’t partake of the tobacco products,
It takes so damn long tho right, hell it takes so f**king long for the stuff to kill us all tho, take little old me for instance, (man sailing on his ego trip), i will have by the time i get to 65 been smoking tobacco products for 53 years,
Why did i choose to mention the age of 65 you might ask, and, i would have to reply because that is the average age where Lung Cancer is detected in Humans,and, the American Medical Association says that 83% of those who will die of Heart Disease will be 65 years of age or older,
Remember that Heart disease thingy another of the ‘supposed’ diseases of smoking, could it just be, and, it looks increasingly more so the more i read, that as a matter of convenience and because it suits them and their masters to do so, if a person dies of ‘heart disease’, (and one hell of a lot of us do), and they also happen to smoke tobacco or had done so previously then the ‘convenience’ is to simply blame the consumption of tobacco products…
4,000 people dying each year can’t be wrong! addicts can come up with any and many excuses
So it would seem, can wowsers! 😀
The number is actually 400 not 4000, but aside from that, 400 is coincidentally the number of people adversely affected by vehicle exhaust!
If you don’t believe me, then tell the Herald, that’s where I got those statistics…
“Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in New Zealand, accounting for around 4300 to 4600 deaths per year”
From: http://www.sfc.org.nz/infohealtheffects.php
But hey, by all means take your health advice from an anonymous internet poster who gets his information from Google than 50+ years of research study and hard data
I already told you, from the NZ Herald! It really helps if you read with attention…
Here’s another ‘anonymous’ internet poster for you (except that of course he’s not anonymous).
(I think you’re underestimating how off piste someone gets when they are misdiagnosed because health professionals have their knickers in a knot. Hours at the neurology clinic, unnecessary drugs, a scary pack for ‘stroke patients’, smug anti-smoking nurses phoning at inconventient times, you name it.) http://d1002391.mydomainwebhost.com/JOT/editorials/vol-1/e1-4.htm
It’ll take more than that to convince to take up smoking again.
Silly! No one’s asking you to!
All I am asking is that you stop bullying, and feeling superior to, people who smoke.
Alcohol however, is fine and normal it seems. My GP’s nurse counselled me to ‘cut back on my alcohol intake’ when she rang yesterday – and was amazed when I told her that I never drink alcohol. That’s cos everyone drinks alcohol, right? Er no, not everyone drinks…
Fact (1), 10% of those who smoke will get lung cancer,
Fact (2), 15% of those who get lung cancer will have no link to actual or passive smoking,
Fact (3), 50% of those who get lung cancer are those who gave up smoking,
fact (4), those with a specific gene anomaly are 30% more likely to get lung cancer,
fact (5), those with a double gene anomaly are 70% more likely to get lung cancer, fact (6), in the UK 8% of lung cancers are directly caused by the work a person does,
Or where they live! An ex-b/f has just been diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, related to the lovely asbestos ceiling in his childhood home. He’s always been an anti-smoking fanatic, how ironic. He’s the only person I’ve ever known with lung cancer.
fact (7) lung cancer has become more prevalent as people live longer, the average age of those who get lung cancer is 65, in the 1930s the average life expectancy was 57 so not many lived long enough to develop a lung cancer,
Yeah you are SO right there, i could and maybe should have put in fact (8), 1% of those who develop lung cancer will do so as a result of radon in the soil,usually where they reside.
I didnt think that one was of that much importance seeing as it’s only 1% of lung cancers and i didn’t want to give you all info overload,
The Google for all that is ”why don’t all smokers get cancer” and 1 through to 8 were gleaned off of the first 2 pages…
Posted this on the privatisation page but thought it might get a hit here:
So I have a couple questions maybe someone can help me with. There’s alot of Rhetoric thrown around on the asset sales and I am fundamentally against transferring our dividend flow into the 10% of kiwi’s investing in the stock exchange. However I feel like there has been alot of seemingly unfactual statements from the blogs I read. Power prices will jump, we will lose infrastructure etc.
It is my understanding that power prices should remain competitive in the mixed model, even in the private model (I know that’s based on a larger market in the USA though). Also the infrastructure for our grid is owned and maintained by Transpower, correct?, on the right they claim that power has increased 7% a year for however long failing to mention that the increase is “apparently” due to Transpower upgrading the Grid due to be complete in 2015. I’m guessing that power prices won’t fall back 7% after 2015 and this will lead to increases in the MOM’s profits as Transpowers charges decrease. So I can’t assume that prices will rise, but more transpowers charges will drop and the Government won’t be able to be held accountable for no drop in power rates as they would have been.
Lastly on Cambell Live, Key mentions that our Kiwisaver and Super are heavily invested in Aussi Stocks. Is it not prudent to move them into our markets. It has been said that this is in essence a NZX bailout, but economically doesn’t it make sense to grow this exchange when Aussi growth is about to plummet on the back of China’s financial elephant in the room later this year?
Also worth noting, nowhere in the SOE law does it mention that these companies are owned for the good of the people. They are stated to be run as profitable as possible and AirNZ seems to show that their model has been much more profitable than the previous model.
I welcome these comments getting pulled the F*** apart. As these are just a collection of points I can’t decide on
To answer the part about whether SOEs are for the good of the people or not:
Originally, the state often used the organisations they owned to control unemployment or address health issues – a social security initiative, if you like. For example, our current ACC has its birth around the turn of the twentieth century in the Workers Compensation Act. By 1972 it had developed into no-fault cover in place of people suing their employers for personal damages and became the Accident Compensation Act. Then in 1987 Rogernomics came along and decided everything had to make a profit and that resulted in staff cuts and claim restrictions – a contradiction of its purpose.
Air NZ, too, was once called Tasman Empire Airways Limited. Established in 1939, the UK government withdrew in 1953 and Australia pulled out by 1961. In 1965 it was under full NZ government ownership and was renamed Air NZ. There is also a company called Kordia, that sixty years ago was the transmission and operations of what is now known as TVNZ.
This is to say that the history of what we now know as profit driven corporate companies had their genesis and development in the collective efforts of NZders looking out for and supporting NZders in business, private life and especially health. They just didn’t magically appear on April 1st 1987, which is where the idea of profit, above all, was first stamped on them.
This is why people like Phil Goff said (yes, somewhat ironically) in last election’s debates (and I’m paraphrasing here), “John, you don’t own these things”. No individual owns our SOEs and no individual or small group has the right to sell them. Unless John key and friends are over one hundred years old, and started these companies withth eir own money and efforts, or worked them with their own hands, they are really just opportunist corporate raiders. I doubt that surprises anyone. Changing the name on a historic company, or restructuring it, or part owning it, doesn’t eliminate the original purpose – as much as pollies of all colour have tried. Even deciding to turn them to tools of profit was a gross conceit. Modern media doesn’t examine where these companies came from and people generally don’t ask.
Cheers man, as a 24 yr old with no background in political studies I have very little knowledge of our countries history prior Helen Clark really. I have read a enough recently to have learnt the greatness of Savage, and essentially that most of our countries greatest policies/achievements that we claim to be proud of seem to come from Labour governments.
I don’t really understand what they were doing in the 80’s though.
I definetly think selling them is a crazy no-win situation, but I do think there is alot of off topic or irrelevant banter thrown in. “We will pay more for power” can easily be ignored by the general public as tarrot-reading. 120 million for the sale and the loss of 150 million in dividends a year is abit harder to ignore. Or atleast if found that in discussion.
I think it’s worth remembering, National got in because of peoples fear of the economy to a degree. And even though alot of people are against the sales alot of them are still afraid and really believe National have the best economic record. Whether or not this is true, bashing them with idealogical left rhetoric is not going to get them on your side long term, they are still right and they still think wealth trickles down.
National got in because of amnesia. It only took from 1999 to 2005 for a large proportion of the electorate to lose its memory and forget exactly what the National Party is.
We only escaped their incompetence in 2005 because Brash is so phenomenally incompetent it couldn’t be ignored, but Bill English’s incompetence is at least a match for Brash’s.
Now the chisellers have their wallets open, shovelling tax-payer dollars in as fast as they can, for the next two years. And the electorate is reminded what the National Party is.
@Kotahi
National got in because the left ran a completely weak and ineffective anti asset sales campaign prior to the election and failed miserably to engage the voting public who stayed away from the polling booths in their tens of thousands.
Consequently I have no sympathy for the left who are whining on about the Nats not having a mandate when clearly they only have themselves to blame for their own laziness and poor performance on polling day.
As a young member of society, you can’t expect young New Zealanders to know the finer details of previous National or Labour governments. We aren’t taught this at school and our Parents will only speak of their own beliefs. As someone who wasn’t able to vote until Clarke’s last term I have only recently learnt more about our political history, and find it a crock to claim amnesia against the whole voting public.
This only really applies to the younger of us really, the majority should have known.
“If you end up with a boring miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on television telling you how to do your shit, then you deserve it.”
― Frank Zappa
If you take it too literally I guess the amnesia analogy falls over, but consider the fact that the same set of people (plus one parachuted-in smiley-wavy guy with no previous form) that were turfed out in 1999 were able to form a government in 2008. They’re displaying exactly the same bleedin’ useless incompetence as last time. If you can think of a better term than electoral amnesia let’s hear it.
The National Party has recessions when the rest of the world is fine. Amnesia.
That’s a great quote from a legend and true. That’s why i’m here, if I followed my parents views I’d be at the NZHerald site. But past political history is a huge amount of information to handle and not part of my working or social life, so you’ll have to forgive my ignorance. I for one didn’t know that the 1999 National members are still the main crew behind Key.
I would publicly state that I think National has gone off the rails the last 7 months on nearly ever issue.
But Cunliffe is saying some great things. I am hopeful that the country isn’t going to be to bad by 2014.
Give or take a few they are essentially the same crowd – and frankly most of the time it’s only the faces that change anyway – the apparent innumeracy and grasping sense of born-to-rule entitlement mixed with hatred and suspicion of the “other” abides.
Any book dealing with NZ politics could easily carry the subtitle: “Cleaning Up After The National Party.”
Yeah because the fourth labour government didn’t drop the ball or anything and its not like any of that term are still hanging around (there really needs to be a sarcasm emoticon)
In the seventies global oil supplies were at risk, there were carless days and no-petrol weekends, inflation was 15-20%, wildcat strikes were commonplace, consumer goods & travel cost a lot more, houses cost a lot less
National PM Muldoon ran up huge foreign debts with Think Big projects, froze wages and prices, and stayed on friendly terms with apartheid era South Africa. This ruined the 1976 Olympics and the led to the infamous 1981 Springbok tour protests.
Muldoon also cancelled a retirement savings scheme introduced by Labour that would be worth tens of billions today, and would have eliminated any reason to sell state assets.
Labour was open to desperate measures when the coutry was in crisis in 1984, and mad idealogues like (ACT party founders) Roger Douglas and Richard Prebble went overboard with deregulation, destroying our productive industrial base, and selling assets off cheap to dodgy asset strippers like Fay, Richwhite (Jones, Fletcher also did well)
This nearly destroyed the LP but the National government that followed (1990) was even worse, so Helen Clark was elected in 1999 on a far more moderate platform, akin to Blair’s Third Way. And now at last the LP seems to have figured out that, in economic and social terms it was all bullshit and a return to egalitarian Kiwi values is the way of the future.
(Ironically if we had kept the Think Big projects in state ownership they would have paid for themselves by now and would be a great income stream for NZ)
and earlier you asked what happened in the 80’s?
treasury lied to Labour, who had been hijacked by neolibs who decided to sell a bunch of stuff that didn’t have to be sold to pay debts that didn’t really exist. Lots of people up and down the isles stayed very very drunk and took a lot of very interesting drugs for a few years and everything basically went to crap according to a well scripted plan that resulted in workers being reduced to serfs, any nz business worth a dime forced out so imports could increase and economists were elevated to demi-god status regardless of whether they could actually count.
We also made some great films, music, art, folk tried to play sport in strange places and we managed to tell the USA to shove their bombs anywhere but here
remiss of me not to mention property market insanity, the taciturn allocution of land disputes and realisation that a language which should always have been there was finally allowed into NZ schools.
all in all a hell of decade
can’t help but feel this decade is shaping up to be a slightly different beastie.
Also in the Eighties
* half the world boycotted the Moscow Olympics because of a war in Afghanistan
* 1981 Springbok Tour ripped the nation in two
* Rainbow Warrior sabotaged by France because of greenpeace nuke protests
* School Certificate/UE replaced by incomprehensible NCEA system
Urban rascal Media(murdoched) and money was the reason the left didn’t get in if not for the cup of tea National would have coasted in.
If people had known that this election was going to be so close more would have turned out and trickle down would have become trickle up.
Ah but the teacup was important so National has a far-right partner to “blame” for charter schools and asset sale. Hence John Banks still not called on his obvious law breaking across the board. But are you saying the cup of Tea brought their vote down. I don’t think so.
The cup of tea was a media blowout to right supporters that I know. The effect of the tea-tape seems to be a higher level of scrutiny on the Governments subsequent gaffs. I think these were probably always there last term, just not picked up by mainstream media.
I personally think we were under some psych conditioning through media reporting (biased landline polls etc). If you tell the public for three years that John Key and National are preferred leaders by huge margins, you can’t help but think this effects the less intelligent of us valuing the power of their vote. Hence, low turnout.
My question would be, what changed? What did National do to seriously upset the media enough to make their last 7 months hell?
We aren’t under psych conditioning, the average voter is confused and bored by policies and economics.
Like newspapers, an election campaign has to be pitched at 8 year old comprehension levels.
And you can’t beat a high profile, smiling personality that people think they can trust.
Well for starters the power price increases weren’t all due to Transpower charges and they won’t reduce those later either, those increases are fixed. Transpower has invested more money in infrastructure, the higher charges reflect what they require to get a return from the investment.
Secondly the AirNZ ‘model’ was a taxpayer bailout of a private business, there isn’t a shred of evidence to suggest that AirNZ is in any way advantaged by the minority private shareholding. It shows only that the state runs an airline better and more profitably than the private sector does. References to AirNZ by Key & co are downright dishonest.
Thirdly Kiwisaver providers invest in whatever markets give them best returns for least risk. There are no guarantees that the NZX will provide that even with the SOEs listed. The Kiwisaver providers may buy the shares now & then sell again later. If the NZX isn’t performing then it has some fundamental faults and artificially boosting it with a taxpayer bailout won’t solve the underlying problems will it. We gave the NZX a whole bunch of our assets previously, why would a few more make a difference when the first tranches didn’t?
And etc etc.. none of the arguments for hold up to scrutiny.
So essentially, they are empty promises that aren’t binding or infact relevant to the argument National are making.
AirNZ seems to me like they are a much more well run company now to me though. Consistently regarded as one of the better airlines in the world etc. Surely this a benefit to the 51% stake the government holds?
I don’t agree in throwing the NZX a bone, but wouldn’t these 4 companies listing on the NZX boost our domestic economy with the transactions going through them? Wouldn’t that be a good thing with our two biggest markets grinding to a halt?
The Govts argument about AirNZ is that the private shareholding has contributed towards it’s success since it was bailed out by the taxpayer. That, if it were true, would add weight to the argument that we should give the private sector a shareholding in the SOEs. I’d give them 10 points for gall but it’s pure spin because there simply is no evidence that the private shareholding has advantaged AirNZ in any shape or form. They’re just bullshitting.
AirNZ is well run now because the state put up cash to take it over and brought in better management practices. It doesn’t follow that a minority private shareholding is beneficial.
How would it boost the economy? I’m pretty certain that trading in shares doesn’t contribute to GDP and that’s just gambling anyway, we’ve already got casinos & horse racing & lotto & TAB why do we need more? We already get the dividends from the SOEs so I can’t see how transferring some of the dividends to the NZX will benefit the economy. The SOEs pay tax already so there’s no gains there. Where are the benefits?
You are correct. That’s all I can say.
I was under the belief that shares effected the economy directly by effecting the amount of $ coming through the country. In essence like how the USA manage to hold their economy together by having oil purchases done in $US around the world. But the benefits of holding onto them by far outweigh the gamble that the NZX is, thanks for your rational response.
One of the arguments does warrant a reasonable inspection, that of increasing the amount of people investing in shares. The argument from Key is that getting more people involved in the sharemarket will bring more interest in shares and boost demand for the likes of rights issues and IPOs. That does benefit the economy.
The core role of the sharemarket is to act as a vehicle for private business to raise capital and the NZX has been an abject failure at that. Actual share trading doesn’t really benefit a business much at all, they’re not getting any capital out of it that’s just gambling by share traders. The SOEs get nothing from this float. An increase in its share price enables a business to borrow more but that’s not necessarily good for the economy.
It’s hard to accept that argument however because previous history doesn’t support it. We’ve already been down the road of floating SOEs on the sharemarket and it didn’t lead to the conclusion Key & co say this will lead to. If anything it will just starve the NZX of capital, it’s going to soak up a good few $billion of capital much of which might have been invested in shares anyway.
I agree that some of the arguments against are also wrong but IMO the weight of evidence is very much on the side of those opposing the sales.
The share-market is supposed to be a way for businesses to raise needed cash. Neither the SoEs nor the government are in such a position. The SoEs are doing quite well thank you and the government never needs to borrow – it can just print the cash and/or raise taxes.
What the share-market has become is a gambling arena where people speculate on the prices of the shares and nothing else. Basically, betting for untaxed capital gains.
(a plagiarised comment)
The stock market is [supposed] to facilitate the trading of securities. The societal good of that is that it frees up and allocates money to companies that are producing more value , or doing it more efficiently. This is a way to reward smart companies and incentivize new technologies.
This [high frequency trading] shit has nothing to do with any of that. They’re gaming the system for a purpose to which it was never meant to be put and further, they’re endangering everyone else while they’re at it. Those are just the facts.. Greed has located a positive feedback loop and is exploiting it in a predictably greedy fashion.
The thing is, this is obviously reckless and has nothing to do with free markets. It’s as if we threw away any concept of a social good except the servicing of the impulses of richest greediest people our society can produce.
Greed is an innate flaw in human thinking under most circumstances. It’s not some magic rocket fuel that impels society towards greater wealth and innovation. That’s a bullshit narrative told to you by drug addicts who don’t want to be separated from their drug . And nothing more.
The thing is, the fanaticism on the right is also in a positive feedback loop with the right wing noise machine. Even though their economic deregulatory policies cratered the economy, they are taught how to deny that fact by the right wing noise machine. This clears them to vote more of the same into office.
We’ve effectively turned our economy over to people with a a group of compulsive gamblers and risk junkies. This is a completely different thing than supporting risk taking entrepreneurs.
Societies live, grow and die. They die because they become captive to an entrenched minority who games the social cultural political system and secures for itself some positive feedback loop that reinforces their power and permits them to write the rules of society to their personal, narrow advantage. Thenceforward, at every decision point, their local, short terms needs are serviced first and in our case, almost exclusively.
We may be living in a dying society that will catastrophically implode . Our refusal to address global warming in more of the same dynamic with the oil and coal companies finding a positive feedback loop in their campaign contributions and right wing noise machine.
You have to understand that rational thinking and reasoning about even the basic, obvious facts of the world does NOT come naturally to people. As proof of this I offer a recent story about an ongoing cause for mass murder in Africa- Penis Shrinkage Through Sorcery.
I ‘ll link to the Reuters story because otherwise you might suppose I am accidentally reporting satire.
As Warren Bufett says “should he consider buying into any airline please dial 111”.
Whilst I like to fly AirNZ I would not touch them as an investment, but the Energy companies for a long term investment – bring it on.
If I wasn’t saving to leave the country I would be spending the $1000 to get some shares in Might River. Sounds like a very low risk investment.
Say what you will about a 24yr old graduate having to leave the country to substantially pay off my loan. National haven’t come to the table on that one.
Urban rascal
Good luck with your overseas plans or hopes. Hope when you come back something good will have come from all this thinking and blogging politically.
I think you’re mad. Having five identical power companies on the NZX is a recipe for disaster in the longer term. We’ll end up with some getting into serious financial strife & some expanding and we won’t know which until it starts happening.
Seriously, surely no-one can expect the share price of each company to follow exactly the same path. All it takes is for one megalomaniac CEO who wants to make a name for him/herself and all bets are off.
Personally I’d probably buy NZX shares if I was going to buy any, they’re the ones who look to benefit the most with all the ticket clipping.
footrot with out AirNZ air travel would be dearer tourism would decline and the main reason Dr Cullen bought the airline was high value exports.AirNZ by far has the biggest cargo carrying capacity.
Other progressive govts like Singapore also realise the long term advantages.
Once again the invisible hand of the Market definitely doesn’t Know best
Anyone read Bob Jones’s column in the Herald. It’s curious timing in light of the youtube hit about the overweight US woman on the school bus being taunted by a bunch of kids…
I remember the overweight kids at school. I can also remember the bullies who picked on them and I know which of the two I see in that article. Seems money & knighthood don’t a gentleman make.
@DH
I read Sir Bob Jones’ narcissistic misogynistic rant about overweight female civil servants in Wellington’s CBD yesterday and it confirmed for me that anything this man comments on is vacuous tripe from an old codger who spends his money on pretty young girls from Bulgaria.
skinny does not always mean healthy, in many cases it is quite the opposite.
look at the All Blacks and Silver Ferns. big strong Kiwis beating the world.
If you stop smoking you’ll gain some weight Vicky32.
Boy that article by the old crook Bob Jones is a complete disgrace! He comes across as a dirty old man slavering over a young Bulgarian girl and stigmatizing people with weight problems because he’s dissatisfied with his shriveled up old impotent white body. Yuck!
These human hippos are self made and ridicule may inspire them to unmake their degrading situation. It’s not hard. Just stop stuffing yourself with rubbish.
Jones fails to understand that insulting fat people will only make them look for further comfort in food. The main problem is the subsidized processed and fast food industries, whereby people are brainwashed into buying food that is unhealthy for them.
Of course Jones fails to mention this at all because it goes against his capitalist running dog belief system. The sooner he pops his clogs the better.
The following was sent to Herald by Eden – I will keep you posted on the response.
Dear Editor,
I am writing to complain about Sir Bob Jones’ article ‘Roll up, roll up – see the skinny freak’.
Weight-based discrimination is a significant social problem and a human rights issue in Aotearoa New Zealand bringing distress to the lives of many hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders. We see this first hand with the resulting difficult and disordered relationships with food, eating and body image amongst those who face discrimination.
Sir Bob Jones fails to get the important health promotion message through that we all need to live actively and eat a range of nutrition regardless of shape and size and that we need to be using a far wider range of determinants of health, rather than just weight or for that matter relying solely on Sir Bob Jones’ personal aesthetic preferences!
In a country which already struggles with high levels of size discrimination and appearance bullying, publishing an article like this is irresponsible. This is an issue at a grass root level and at a public policy level. The Youth ’07 Survey found that that appearance bullying is the most prevalent type of bullying in New Zealand schools, alongside sexuality. In addition, our Human Rights Act allows for protection of many forms of discrimination, but for those who discriminated based on size, shape or weight, there is no protection under the law.
The outrageously fat phobic comments in the article are shaming and scientifically incorrect. The implication that all those people who have a BMI which sits in the ‘over weight’ or ‘obese’ categories are unhealthy is unfounded. In fact the members of our All Blacks team, held up as the epitome of health and fitness, all fit into these BMI categories.
Sir Bob Jones’ assertion that “ridicule may inspire them to unmake their degrading” is completely contrary to the research which shows that bullying has a negative impact on body image and on the uptake of physical activity. In fact, the better someone’s body image is, the more likely they are to partake in physical activity, regardless of shape of size. Sir Bob Jones would be better of focusing on boosting body image, rather than promoting hatred and discrimination.
Eden – Specialist in Eating Issues and Body Image since 1990
Peasant farmers are a dying breed in the “third world” as the big corporations are a) buying up all the farming land and b) flooding the market with cheap food driving the remaining farmers into poverty forcing them to sell. Charity doesn’t help on that latter point either.
And the developed world is also heading in that direction as well, as we loose control of our land and assets under the WTO, IMF, and World Bank agendas of the Globalisation of Poverty. (But you know that already Draco. 🙂 )
Question being asked in the House about the legitimacy of the Asset vote. Just caught the end of the debate but it seemed that there were questions about the rightness of Dunne’s vote being given by proxy. Lockwood has closed it down but…. Mmmmm?
Last night Andrew Williams (NZF) tried to get the Assoc Speaker (Eric Roy) to agree to a personal vote on the MOM legislation after the final vote at 61/60. He requested a personal vote under Standing Order 141 which apparently provides for a personal vote when a party vote is very close. Roy turned down his request, but Williams then today asked Lockwood Smith as Speaker to give an opinion etc on the possibility.
There was a interesting discussion on this with National obviously opposing, but the course of the discussion included reference to having to have 25% of Members of a party being physically within the precinct of Parliament at the time of the vote in order to allow all votes by that party to be counted. By implication rather than direct speak, what was being referred to was the exercising and counting of votes by the one man band parties (ACT and UF) when neither Banks or Dunne were in the House at the time of the MOM votes. Who knows where Banks was but we do know that Dunne was not presumably in the precincts of Parliament at the time but at a funeral (mother of Dunne’s son’s girlfriend according to Stuff). Pretty sure Favell was actually in the House at the time of last night’s votes, so MP’s negative votes were OK.
I was interrupted towards the end of today’s discussion but think Winston raised a theoretical situation of some sort and asked Smith to provide a later opinion on that, but happy to be corrected. Don’t have time right now to rewatch.
In National’s probable populist favour is:
– the car crushing
– coming down harder on beneficiaries
– reversing decision on school teacher numbers
– getting tough with the ACC Board
– continuing dominance of the political discourse
In Labour’s probable favour is:
– base supported with Cunliffe’s 2 speeches within the poll
– Shearer tracking better and sounding a little smoother
A little surprised at NZ First, since they had their conference in that time, and Greens have profiled well on Asset Sale story.
Labour have such a long, long way to go up after their utter shellacking last time. But (sigh) at least they are gonig up. Labour won’t beat them in 2014 unless they have a champoin who goes toe to toe with Key, every major time, and also develop a superior populist gene to National.
This speech is the first time I have seen a real intersection between Labour and the Greens. Can anyone recall a more thorough, more grounded speech from a New Zealand elected politician?
It doesn’t actually mention the Green party, but it nails their political economy namely: that there is no return to the way of life that we are in, we must change, and it still won’t be enough.
Surely it is time for Shearer to admit that the Greens are Labour’s most likely coalition partners, and start using this as a philosophical basis for a coalition discussion.
There are plenty of smaller parties to eat, rather than each other.
Well the private finance initiatives (PFIs) in the UK to build health infrastructure are all turning to custard (that is, if providing cheaper health services, rather than transferring wealth, was the aim).
A senior Conservative has attacked some private finance initiative deals on which the NHS now relies for much of its new infrastructure as “indefensible”, as the government prepares to take the unprecedented step of effectively letting a trust running three hospitals to go bankrupt.
The former Tory health secretary Stephen Dorrell carefully did not put the blame on his own party, which first introduced PFI in the 1990s, for the crisis facing the South London Healthcare NHS Trust, which is likely to be placed in a form of special measures after accumulating a deficit of £150m.
Ministers are blaming an “unaffordable” PFI deal signed under Labour, which enthusiastically took up the model, as they prepare the trust to be placed in the “unsustainable providers regime”.
And this is not the only NHS trust in trouble due to PFIs. Not that our government will pause for thought before using PFIs for schools.
QT today in The House. Winston to Paula Bennett (on behalf of her Associate Minister Turia – a concept Bennet seemed to struggle with at times). He did her over like a dog’s dinner.
And didn’t Paula look peeved. Collins and Bennett are often spiteful during question time and it was OK with me to see Paula looking defensive and a bit out of her depth for a change.
MY head hurts, can some one please explain in simple language why this happened given that Peter Dunne Proxy vote carried the Asset Stripping Bill ????
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
This is a really crappy article but it highlights the problem with modern consumer culture and how it’s destroying the world.
US centric but, sheesh, that’s a lot of waste and shows, once again, the irrationality of our profit driven free-market society.
Well, the US leads the way in the throw-away consumer culture. I think there’s something similar in NZ, but maybe not to the same extent.
I know a few US women who, after visiting NZ, described Kiwis as “dowdy”. i.e. this was a comment on the kind of clothes we wear. But this probably has something to do with the fact that fashionable clothes are more expensive here.
Not just fashionable clothes. Basics such as reasonably priced underpants and socks that last more than a couple of washes are not easy finds in this country.
Decent shoes are ridiculously expensive in New Zealand compared to Stateside. I have my shoes shipped over, but that’s not so cheap, so thank goodness there are still shoe repair outfits here when the heels wear down and the soles get a bit thin.
“Reasonably priced” is somewhat subjective to one’s financial positon, but Farmers still sell the Holeproof brand of socks, around $18 for one or two pairs depending on style and type. Choose wool/nylon 50% : 50% blend for socks (and colour) that will last ten years or more, though pick a size larger, because the first time they see a dryer they’ll shrink.
For a “more reasonable” price in Auckland, go to the Bendon Outlet stores. Once they were on Barry’s Point road in Auckland, or Fox Center Northcote, and disappeared briefly, but have now re-emerged at Westcity Mall at the end of the NW motorway or at Botany Town Centre out East. Holeproof turn up there and also various other quality brands to chose from at heavily reduced prices.
Saturday/Sunday Market stalls selling imported socks, 3 or 4pairs for $5 – $10 are a hit-and-miss situation, mostly cotton blends, but also worth a go for the colour/pattern selection. Pakuranga, Avondale, Glen Innes, Manurewa, Otara, Henderson and Mangere markets all have sock stalls regularly. Those markets also have high quality (cleaned, pressed, well presented) second hand clothes, usually something like 3 pieces for $10; Avondale especially has new imported brands you’ll recognise and quality Asian brands for “reasonable cost”. Get an pair of new average shoes there for around $10 – $20.
For new Shoes, also try Dressmart in Onehunga and get high end/reheelable for roughly half price and while you’re there, check out Shoetown just outside, on the Onehunga Mall. Also outside Dressmart Onehunga is Number One Shoes Outlet. Some cheap shoes in there, but as it’s end of line/out of season, the selection is limited. Also quality can be an issue, so inspect closely if you intend to reheel. Hannahs Outlet at Panmure/Mt Wellington turns up some good finds at good prices.
In my experience, the best reheel/repair place in Auckland is Gemmels on Symonds Street. They can’t fix some shoes simply because they are designed to be thrown out, but other than that, if you at least look to buy good leather in a shoe, you can continue to reheel for some years at roughly half the price of new.
For other high quality second hand clothes, try Save Mart, they are Nationwide. In my experience in Auckland, the best clothes selection is at Onehunga or New Lynn, but outlets are also at Northcote and Browns Road. Northcote has the biggest selection of shoes. Tonnes of womens stuff at all branches, good range of mens from $5.99 to $25 for designer labels. Also “retro and ethnic” at New Lynn.
Finding belts that last more than a month can be difficult. Best bet in Dressmart is Hallensteins or there is a belt stall near the donut stall. There you’ll pay $25 for durable leather in almost any style or colour. Also, Safety Protector shops carry the Taurus range of belts at around $25 – $30 a piece. Classic plain black or brown, single silver buckle – 100% leather.
Finding “reasonably priced” mens trousers can be difficult. Kmart often has many of Hallensteins range under a different label for up to half the price. On can pay $12 (on special) up to $25, where you might pay up to $75 elsewhere. The Warehouse occasionally has durable cheap underwear range, but again, it pays to estimate up to 2 sizes higher, because of shrinkage. Dye colours other than grey or black will run. Thermals are also there or at Postie Plus for around $10 a piece. Postie plus often has hidden gems ina ll things.
It all depends on personal taste. K-Road often turns up some good shoes and clothes, but it depends on your idea of “reasonable price”. As Carol’s friends pointed out above, in a country that openly condones jeans as formal wear, it’s easy to look well dressed, starting from scratch, for $50 – $100 total. Some people won’t be able to get those sorts of funds together all in one go, but shit, there’s only so much I can do. Not much is free these days and others will know better angles than me.
As the final trick for young players: Re-Dye your clothes. A popular thing to do, overseas, if you’ve ever been a backpacker. Much of what we buy never wears out, but colour fades. Go to Geoffs Emporium on Dominion road and get some washing machine dye. For $14 you can renew or change the colour of $200 pants or an armful of shirts, socks, T-shirts etc. Read the instructions on the dye! Just bear in mind the stitching on clothes is often polyester, even if the item is cotton, and will not take the dye. So black, grey, dark blue, green and brown all work well. But you’ll never get a light blue shirt to be black – it’ll have white/blue stitching. These dyes work well in the washing machine with no mess or damage to further washes, but if you’re an environmentalist, you might want to think about weighing up the use of dying chemicals against the waste of throwing out structurally sound clothes.
excellent! Thanks, Uturn. I’ve copied and saved your tips for future reference. While your tips are slanted towards males, I shop at some of the places you mention, and my dress styles tends towards “casual”, unisex-ish (trousers/jeans not dresses).
And I’ve had problems like belts and shoes not lasting. This is also true of a lot of women’s clothes as they are built for looks not durability. I did used to buy more men’s jeans & shirts in the past for this reason. But I’m quite small, and people seem to have got bigger – even most small men’s clothes are too big for me now.
Just bought ten pairs of white anklet sports socks for $11.50 at the Warehouse. $1.15 a pair or 57.5 cents each sock.
How long do you reckon they will last? I haven’t had much luck with bargain socks from the big red shed.
Thanks for the shopping tips, uturn.
What a useful thread.
I’d like to emphasise the value of the op-shop, and belts are a good example. The last belt I bought for five dollars is wide, thick leather, and will defintely outlive me.
I tend to haunt the jumper racks for thin merino garments which make an excellent thermal underlayer for winter. I’ve got plently myself, but friends are always grateful.
Just a note about dyeing. I often dye things, most recently some op-shop cushions. But nowadays I don’t dye anything that will need regular washing. I’m yet to find a genuinely colourfast dye, but if anyone else has I’d love to hear about it.
You should be able to get clothing dye in supermarkets. Small tins. Look in the washing section.
Think of op shops that support social needs in the community when buying clothes.. Buying things there is an excellent way to give a donation that gives back to you. There’s sure to be one not far away
or at a local church or centre once a week. Finding one that’s open when you’re around is the trick.
You should be able to get clothing dye in supermarkets. Small tins. Look in the washing section.
Not round my way.
From chemist shops generally, but I’ve never found one that is colour fast.
I bought some Katmandu socks @ 15 dollars a pair I have worn them less than five times they are buggered.These socks are for the serious tramper.
I will never buy katmandu ever again.
Atleast you know when you buy whare house stuff its not going to last that long but I have had a better run out of their socks,
I found a perfect skirt in a charity shop on K Rd, I guess it depends on taste… I love ‘hippie’ type long skirts, lucky they’re not generally popular – and best of all – pockets!
I also found a perfect ‘office’ type skirt in KMart for $20.00…
Draco, interested in your thoughts on this new article from Gordon Campbell. Essentially pessimistic on peak oil and cleantech given new dirty oil extraction capacity into the medium term.
http://werewolf.co.nz/2012/06/has-the-peak-oil-idea-peaked/
ad,
Funny that another article with the same title came out on the Wall Street Journal today. As Campbell mentions there has a proliferation of articles proclaiming the end of peak oil. The peak has shifted into the future yes, but on closer look not as far as many of these cornucopian pundits are making out.
Chris Nelder has a great article on a few of the recent end of peak oil articles:
Why energy journalism is so bad
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/energy-futurist/why-energy-journalism-is-so-bad/219
The politics of peak oil
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/energy-futurist/the-politics-of-peak-oil/326
One of my articles Seven Myths Used By Deniers To debunk Peak Oil, Debunked addresses the main arguments here: http://www.southernlimitsnz.com/2012/04/seven-myths-deniers-use-to-debunk-peak.html
It’s hard to say about unconventional oil – not enough data yet. IMO, it’s uneconomic both in purely economic and sustainability terms. Unfortunately, due to the fact that all costs aren’t factored into it’s production or use, it still seems viable and, also, it seems that the politicians have been brought over to the side of the fossil fuel industry. We’re seeing subsidies for clean tech stopped while subsidies for fossil fuels continue.
It seems that there is little to no hope that we will stop the actions that will drive the world in to cataclysmic climate change.
I wear clothes and use towels etc until they’re threadbare. I have taken some of my son’s out-grown clothes to charity shops, otherwise, I am a hoarder by nature. So, for once, not guilty! 🙂
What will happen now the asset bill has passed…
…National will continue flogging off part of the power companies.
…Labour/Greens will continue to flog a dead horse petition?
There’s risks for all three of the larger parties. The success of the Mighty River float is crucial for National – and it’s also important for the country.
And Labour/Greens risk continuing to put a lot of resource into what could be an extended and futile post-legislation fizzle. There may be plenty of fight amongst political activists, but the wider voting population are much more likely to contune living their lives outside the bubble.
Your the one living in a bubble Petey full of self righteous justification and spin handed down by your masters warmed by the glow of victory, it’s really quite sad to observe.
You and Dunne will be regarded, just like NACT as people who sold our assets to enrich mates and backers to the disadvantage of today and future generations, you know no shame because you are a sell out who spends him time in the blogosphere not in the real world.
The real world where UF and NACT just made their backers the pay back the hollowmen demanded, serving the people Petey you and us know that’s a blatant lie.
+ 1 – exactly right tc – they have sold our assets as part of the payback. They will sell everything if they can because they are hollow inside and out. Well fuck them I say, it is not over yet!
It is absolutely vital for the country that it does not go ahead. I really hope the Maori Council succeed in its attempt to inject the sale.
Have you noticed Petey that Tainui are not part of the litigation? Do you understand why?
And yet the media ignore the desperate attempt by NACT/UF to effectively bribe the iwi with shares, you know those shares that were meant to fix schools, pay debt, build roads and be the magic wand that cures all.
for Petey to understand that mickey would be to admit he understands the gorilla in the room, can’t let reality get in the way of more shonkey spin can we.
Oh thank you thank you thank you facile one Pete George. Everything you pompously tell us we never have a clue about. Until you tell us. Because you stood for parliament. And you’re an oracle near unequalled. Except for the perennial cabinet toady you call your leader.
Your contibutions to “debate” on this blog are limited to this – statement of either the patently obvious (you know…..”one party government is not good for democracy”), or, utterly predictable right wing wish-list, mouthed out as fact.
And on top of it you do it with terribly self-consciousness solemnity to conceal your narcissism.
You stood for parliament……….so bloody what ? You are sadly the most boring person in the universe, and I suspect, essentially thick.
Well, I hope Dunne’s ministerial post makes him happy. After all, that’s his reward for selling the country down the river.
How can someone (or people) in a top position in ACC have so little sensitivity to, or understanding of the situation of, rape and incest survivors? These ACC top dogs think so little of the survivors and their situation that they think $250 will buy their silence?
And how much influence did the minister have over this?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/7175176/ACCs-250-compo-for-breaches-pathetic-victim
If that’s the kind of compensation the government is offering, it’s no wonder Paula Bennett is saying abused people should claim:
So a state department can be grossly negligent and there is no legal obligation to pay compensation… how mental is that?
mickysavage, what happened to David Cunliffe’s speech?
I thought that was a big, visionary speech for the future. It didn’t get a post-speech post here. Nothing in the media. Nothing on Red Alert. Nothing but a one of many ‘News’ listing in the Labour website.
I thought there should have been a major promotion of it. Is that yet to happen? Or is it not very important to Labour?
Seems very odd. What happened to David Cunliffe’s speech?
It was discussed here:
http://thestandard.org.nz/robertson-and-cunliffe-on-the-environment/comment-page-1/#comment-486320
On Red Alert now.
Government promises 100,000 jobs? But for whom?
http://www.3news.co.nz/Govt-dumbing-down-community—Greens/tabid/1607/articleID/259213/Default.aspx
As Bomber tweeted:
https://twitter.com/CitizenBomber/status/217707477561651200
Why am I not surprised?
joyce on TV tonight was at his Narcissistic best laughing
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7175155/Pets-killing-linked-to-drilling-owners
Coincidence?
Violence begets violence. Poor dog suffered, the environment and residents where the drilling is planned could suffer. Then there will be more suffering, all for a hole in the ground.
Well good to see thats how people like you roll
People like me dont take shit from trolls. And we dont see property rights as absolute when they affect the rest of us. And people like me question why NOT who started the nonsense, we dont however condone all actions.
On the contrary trolls like you do the opposite.
I’d like to point out that calling someone a troll because you don’t like what they post doesn’t in fact make them a troll
Well we know how people like you roll chris73 with more than 700 environmentalists, that’s one a week, killed over the past decade.
Among those mourned by the Council of Canadians and Blue Planet Project are:
Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez in Mexico
Mariano Abarca Roblero in Mexico
Beatriz Carino Trujillo in Mexico
Father Jose Reinel Restrepo Idairraga in Colombia
Kimy Pernia Domico in Colombia
Dora Alicia Sorto Recinos in El Salvador
Marcelo Rivera Moreno in El Salvador
Ramiro Rivera Gomez in El Salvador
Juan Francisco Duran Ayala in El Salvador
http://www.globalwitness.org/sites/default/files/images/A_hidden_crisis-FINAL%20190612%20v2.pdf
Across the world, our research found 711 individuals
reported killed in the past decade – an average of
more than one killing per week. Of these, 106 people
were killed in 2011 – nearly twice the death toll in
2009. It includes those killed in targeted attacks and
violent clashes as a result of protests, investigating
or taking grievances against mining operations,
logging operations, intensive agriculture including
ranching, tree plantations, hydropower dams, urban
development and poaching
Wow, I’ve been a busy boy haven’t I. That explains why I’ve felt a bit tired lately.
Is it true that Peter Dunne has voted more New Zealand assets into foreign hands than any other single person in this country?
Probably. I can’t think how anyone would beat him.
It will probably be what he’s most remembered for. When people remember to remember him at all.
Well he was elected under Labour from 84 – 94 so he may very well be
No not just Peter Dunne, but every aspirational idiot, every fat cat 1%er, every “I am better than you” person who voted for this scabby bunch of theives. Dunne is just another bland faceless “me firster”, dont give him any credit. Others enabled his position.
So when you know your fellow citizen voted NACT tell the bastards what they have done, why your power bill is going up and you cant feed the children. Tell them they are to blame for voting the bastards in.
PS When somebody screams poverty ask them did they vote? If not why not? They are to blame as well.
PPS When some lefty MP tells you that they cant make statements like “nationalise” etc, tell them that we dont vote them in to be toothless (and useless).
This morning I reflected that the world has not changed significantly since last night when another larcenous act was perpetuated against the citizenry of NZ. The theft is slow and corrosive, at stake is our security, our childrens future, our freedom (such as we have left). We are I note in a class war.
In reality we have been constantly in a class war and always will be. The reason is because we humans constantly want what we dont have, and somebody else does. The tempo of our wars increase as the gap between those who have and those who dont have widens. Last nights legislation merely signals an escalation: the violence level was raised because one side had a narrow firepower advantage. The response will be that the other side will try to close the firepower gap. But that is not enough.
What the Left currently does not have is generals with the knowledge that they really are at war facing battle hardened focused foes from the Right. The Lefts generals need to throw off the amateur gentlemanly manner and harden up. For too many years the Left has allowed their own generals to come from the Right, bringing Right wing tactics to bear. It has not worked.
Those “Left” generals who think the key to victory is holding the centre need to notice the blitz has gone around this point and attacked from the flanks. Plodding up the middle wont work, victory is for the swift, and at the moment its the Right. The Left needs to recognise the gravity and extremity of the fight, and make a stand. To date the stand has been feeble, the goal fuzzy. Time to lay out the strategy and commit to total victory. They are taking all we have, we are going to take everything they have. Unconditional victory.
So come on Labour, get with the program!
“The Lefts generals need to throw off the amateur gentlemanly manner and harden up.”
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2012/06/labour-is-the-nasty-party-ctd-33/
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2011/10/labour-is-the-nasty-party-ctd-7/
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2012/02/labour-is-the-nasty-party-ctd-30/
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2011/10/labour-is-the-nasty-party-ctd/
There are other examples but I’m sure you get the point
Gloves off then.
By the way did you disinfect yourself after going over to Blubs site?
I’m with you bored. Gloves off.
I think with the Labour party the gloves have been well and truly off for quite a while (who was the labour pres that went to oz to dig up some dirt on John Key?)
Could that be one of the reasons the Greens are becoming more popular?
Even the stuff poll doesn’t think that NACT+UF had a mandate.
What the left presently has is generals who are almost as far right as the NACTs who just sold our assets against our will.
reposting in Open mike because i would genuinely like an answer
Q: Can the Governor General do anything?
I admittedly am a bit fuzzy on where those largely ceremonial powers start/stop. Which is why i ask questions of others who know these matters more accurately than I. ( something many people would do well to try) Ceremonial position aside, does he not have some power here? Perhaps if he thought of all his brothers in arms who fought and died for New Zealand and what they died protecting, then he could be a brave soldier and refuse to allow the act to be accepted by the Crown?
Yes it messes in our self-determination but we are not a Republic yet. If it is a tool in the box, let’s bloody well use it and ask the GG to protect Aotearoa.
You really want the Governor General to effectively become a veto for anything they don’t like?
Get ready for every future appointment to be former ministers who veto everything their former party doesn’t like.
“Get ready for every future appointment to be former ministers who veto everything their former party doesn’t like.”
that is a short cut to thinking and i personally believe we have a fairly robust and attentive parliament where this would not become the norm.
I sincerely believe the GG discussion is worthy of debate if it allows a return to the house of this Bill, perhaps forcing National to actually consider the thousand plus submissions opposing the bill not just agree with the handful that supported it.
A true democracy should always be mindful of how its future is crafted but not be afraid of using the tools at its disposal to affect change upon that future. Even if some tools are sharper than others, and the potential of injury is severe, the skill of the craftsman is the issue and this highlights the question, ‘can the GG do anything?’ i have many tools i use sparingly because they have limited application but not using them can be the difference between doing a job properly and hashing out a piece of inferior work.
or has NZ fatally become a speak much say nothing do even less society
No, what I would like him to do is refuse assent to the law as it’s obviously against the will of the people. In other words, an actual considered position that has moral authority.
Representative Democracy: the National party has heard of it.
But they *actually* represent an economic elite from a galaxy far far away
And once they go down that path how do you stop it going further?
Did you see the bit about the “will of the people” and “considered position”?
In other words, it has to be justified.
Why does it have to be justified? Because at the moment it’s only because you are saying it is. Just seems the start of a very slippery slope to me.
Because otherwise it’s arbitrary. In fact, that’s the point of all law – it has to be justified. So that would be another reason for the GG to stop the law as all of the reasons that NACT+UF have put forward have been proven to be bollocks.
Nope, all polling shows that asset sales is against the will of the people. The referendum will most likely prove that.
And out comes the non-argument of the slippery slope.
“No, what I would like him to do is refuse assent to the law as it’s obviously against the will of the people. In other words, an actual considered position that has moral authority.”
So the guy that complains NZ is a dictatorship now wants to vest veto power into a figure who is not beholden to the public and cannot be removed from office by public vote?
I call bullshit
Good point Draco, like the ‘Anti-smacking bill’ or buying back Kiwi Rail, or selling Spring Creek Mine to an American conglomerate, or selling Wellington Power to a Hong Kong conglomerate……..or are they only allowed to step in when a ‘Right-wing’ party does something that is ‘obviously against the will of the people’?
The GG could refuse to sign the law into being but I doubt if he would.
Thanks draco, I have the general info, I was hoping there might be someone out there with a working knowledge as to how it applies and how best to move on it. It is a parliamentary thing that Jo Citizen has no part in as far as i understand it.
I have to admit I am a little shocked at the lack of interest in the subject.
It seems like no-one can be bothered actually stopping the sale
just happy to be seen looking like they are trying to.
Sent off some emails, which will no doubt end up in spam boxes.
Will send off a few letters but i understood notice to the GG had to happen within a short (unknown to me) time frame of the vote on the relevant Bill.
Again:
So the guy that complains NZ is a dictatorship now wants to vest veto power into a figure who is not beholden to the public and cannot be removed from office by public vote?
I call bullshit
People are looking at all available means to restrict the progression of the Asset Sales. Our GG has certain powers, every now and then something happens where perhaps those powers should be applied, but applied with the due concern, consideration and respect that the situation calls for. This is one of those times.
I am not a fan of having a soldier as our GG but he is and we must work with the strengths a soldier has. A sense of duty and a wish to defend one’s country being paramount in their arsenal. I am trusting that our GG is someone who will consider fairly if the Government is defending New Zealand with this bill. If the intervention from the Queen’s Representative became a more common occurrence then that would be a question for that situation. Like all laws, it is the people that use them or abuse them which dictate their legitimacy.
Those I have spoken with on this agree that asking the GG to return the MOM Bill to the House for further debate is a valid request in this divisive situation. A request that is only asking that the Submissions on this bill be properly considered as they suffered a deliberately truncated process and the support was outweighed by those against by a factor of 99-1. This is nothing but asking for the NZ Parliament to properly follow its own procedure. Something this Government has chosen not to do on a regular basis.
TC, you also ignore the fact no-one is calling for new powers. You simply choose not to acknowledge what is there on the books already. NZ is being abused again, but by all means lay back and take it, that is your right.
bloody marvelous … now we have a Wheeler and a dealer to plunder NZ into the poverty wilderness. HELP !!!! Anyone else troubled by this ???
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/7174900/Who-is-the-new-Reserve-Bank-boss
‘Reserve Bank Governor-in-waiting Graeme Wheeler was once touted as a potential World Bank president and gained fame for telling his boss, Paul Wolfowitz, to resign during what was seen as a civil war at the World Bank.
Wheeler’s appointment to take over at the central bank when Alan Bollard steps down on September 25 was welcomed yesterday, even though many had expected deputy governor Grant Spencer to win the top post.
Spencer may be disappointed and it is not clear if he will stay at the central bank, given Wheeler may serve at least one, possibly two, five-year terms. Wheeler has a strong international reputation, especially in world financial markets.
He takes over what is arguably one of the most important roles in the economy as the sole final decisionmaker on monetary policy: what to do with official interest rates and when.
Wheeler resigned as managing director of the World Bank in 2010, after 12 years at what is effectively the world’s most important aid agency.
The World Bank borrows from institutions on international markets, including New Zealand, and lends to developing countries, especially for big projects. ‘ ( more on the webpage )
In yesterdays Herald Slippery the Prime Minister indicated that He will have to seek legal advice after calls from groups of Doctors and Nurses to ban duty free cigarettes,
Legal advice???, yeah Slippery sez that it’s getting to the point where SOMEONE is going to take to His Government over such things as rack raising of taxes on tobacco products,and, proposals to ban things like duty free cigs,
From here it looks just as likely that Slippery has woken up to the fact that there are 600,000 users of tobacco products in New Zealand and should discrimination in taxation force them into a ‘Grey Power’ type political advocacy organization His Government and any other proposing discriminatory taxation of tobacco addicts will get a caning,
Or,
Slippery is aware of the fact that many of the 2 million who pass through the International Arrivals area of our airports and therefore are allowed the small joy of some duty free cigs are very likely to be the well heeled National voters returning from faraway exotic places where they have been busily spending their tax cuts, (apparently 75% of tax cuts for the rich are spent in ‘other’ economy’s),
But what of tobacco usage??? having taken an interest i have begun the dig for FACTS and my initial finds are both startling, (perhaps an indication of why Slippery fears being sued) and from the stuff i have read on the web it sure as hell proves that if you tell the masses a big one often enough sooner or later they will believe you,
Specially if your a Doctor, Nurse, or oft reported entity with imposing letters like ASH,
Fact (1), 10% of those who smoke will get lung cancer,
Fact (2), 15% of those who get lung cancer will have no link to actual or passive smoking,
Fact (3), 50% of those who get lung cancer are those who gave up smoking,
fact (4), those with a specific gene anomaly are 30% more likely to get lung cancer,
fact (5), those with a double gene anomaly are 70% more likely to get lung cancer,
fact (6), in the UK 8% of lung cancers are directly caused by the work a person does,
fact (7) lung cancer has become more prevalent as people live longer, the average age of those who get lung cancer is 65, in the 1930s the average life expectancy was 57 so not many lived long enough to develop a lung cancer,
Rather than put up all the links to these little gems of info the Google is, Why don’t all smokers get cancer…
A fellow student on a course I did in the UK, used to use a similar argument in favour of heroin – ie most users can use them for a major part of their adult lives without any significant ill affects.
Aha, i grew up on the streets of Wellington during the ‘Heroin years’ and know many people working in professions who used the drug,
The operative word of course is ‘use’ as opposed to abused where the more overt ‘junky’ type user simply used the drug to get out of it all the time if possible,
From the statistics it would appear that those who actually start smoking and stop at some time during their lives are the most at risk of developing lung cancer,
To strangely twist that stat a little would have our Government rack raising the taxes on tobacco products with the stated aim of preventing people from developing lung cancer in effect actually raising the chances that they will by 40 odd percent…
sad 12 because their to busy getting mouth throat larynx and and raft of other cancers,
not to mention heart diseases and strokes.
Yawn, your wee snivel of abuse as an indication of your intelligence and ability to debate would leave you sadly lacking in the former and at village idiot level in the latter,
Smoking gives you lung cancer???, not even, 90% of those who use tobacco products will not get lung cancer,
Of course if 90% of those who you are trying to discriminate against don’t get the lung disease you claim the product causes then you have to up the ante and make claims about such things as heart disease and strokes,
After the millions and millions of dollars spent on advertising campaigns to attempt to fill the users of the product with fear i was inclined to the opinion that smoking the product hugely increased my chances of developing lung cancer,
Having an inquiring mind has lead me to have a good read of what is on the web about such and my initial response is one of mirth at the obvious CON of the lung cancer statistics and the laughter would be ongoing except for the fact that i use the stuff and don’t like to be discriminated against by any Government via the taxation system on spurious grounds,
Heart Disease and Strokes and their supposed links to the use of tobacco products need a good looking at coz if ‘they’ will bulls**t us all over lung cancer ‘they’ will quite happily do so over heart disease and strokes…
http://smokefree.org.nz/face-facts
It’s not just lung cancer that makes smoking bad for you.
Indeed, but it is an interesting point about perception vs reality. The major risk from smoking is heart disease, but the meme and hollywood cliche is lung cancer.
Additionally, tobacco has a dose-response like any other exposure, down to undetectable risk as somewhere like 3 cigarettes a day ISTR. So the numbers of smokers might be relatively static, but the mortality rate will decrease as the effects of excise increases etc take effect (lower consumption per smoker).
And of course if you want to talk “kills if used as intended”, try camembert, soft drinks or fish & chips, other great causes of diabetes and heart disease. So smokefree are probably fibbing a bit there. But then I’ve long figured that the ash-zealots were just as economical with the truth as the tobacco industry ever were.
Aha, as i have become ‘interested’ in the claims made by the tobacco kills lobby a good look into the other kills by tobacco is warranted,
Go on, bet you like i really believed the tobacco use causes lung cancer one right???, but, the truth of that little piece of mis-information is that 90% of tobacco users will not get lung cancer,
So there is hardly a proven link between tobacco use and lung cancer, the other stuff, throat cancer, stokes, heart disease i plan to check out and add to the ‘discussion’ later,
Given that 3 different studies have pointed to a specific abnormality in a persons Genes as the prime indicator of developing cancer it then becomes clearer why only 10% of tobacco users develop lung cancer, and, why certain populations such as Maori in this country’s case are more prone to develop the disease, ie, the Maori population are more closely inter-related than the European population,
Obviously i will be looking for whether the same altered gene is a feature inherent in those who develop the other ‘smokers diseases’ as well as the veracity of the highly unlikely claim that smoking kills half of those who use the product, an extremely glib and emotive claim where most of those supposedly killed by the product are in fact at the end of their life anyway….
“So there is hardly a proven link between tobacco use and lung cancer, the other stuff, throat cancer, stokes, heart disease i plan to check out and add to the ‘discussion’ later”
Even though big tobacco admitted smoking was positively correlated with incidences disease tried to cover it up and why the overwhelming scientific consensus is that tobacco is positively correlated with lung cancer, throat cancer, heart disease and emphysema?
You are taking denial to strange new heights.
Got any links?
It has been known for almost 50 years that tobacco use can be linked to cancers of the lung and head and neck.
Eighty-five percent of the cases of head and neck cancer found each year are associated with tobacco use. Long-term smoking that begins before age 30 also increases the risk for developing colorectal cancer.
Smoking contributes to cancer development by causing mutations in genes, impairing lung function, and decreasing the effectiveness of the immune system.
The longest follow up of the ill effects of smoking in relation to coronary disease was probably the framingham cohort which we now base many of the risk algorithms on in relation to assessing a persons risk of suffering an adverse event.
http://www.framinghamheartstudy.org/
Feel free to see what your statistical risk is with and without smoking.
http://cvrisk.mvm.ed.ac.uk/help.htm
”Smoking contributes to cancer development by causing mutations in genes”,
Does it really???.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm. ?
Paul Brennan, who led the IARC study, says he initially believed that the risk of getting lung cancer was elevated by the genetic predisposition to become addicted,
”The Genes made you more likely to smoke, made you more likely to smoke more, made you less likely to give up, and therefore, more likely to develop lung cancer”,
But His research showed, that in fact, the gene appeared to independently increase a persons risk of developing the disease–with no link to addictions,
When Steffansson’s team applied the stats to the incidence of lung cancer, it found that individuals with 2 copies of the altered gene had a whopping 70% greater chance of developing lung cancer, those with 1 copy had a 30% higher risk,
Smoking alters genes which then go on to cause cancer OR as the above from 3 different 2008 studies say, a copy of an altered gene gives people a 30% higher chance or 2 copies of the altered gene increases the chances of cancer whether or not the person uses tobacco products…
Broken link.
http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2008/pr183.html
I wouldn’t bother debating with BAD12 they’ve made up their mind and you won’t be able to change it through logic or the provision of data.
I just find it interesting that a couple of new studies is supposed to convince me that 50+ years of research should be discarded.
“they’ve made up their mind and you won’t be able to change it through logic or the provision of data.”
That could apply to more than just Bad12
My Grandfather had Bowel Cancer, was given 1 month to live, 18 months later, when he was on his last legs, he developed Pneumonia and passed away. This was counted as a smoking related death!
My Aunty developed motor neuron disease, it quickly crippled her to the point where she could no longer speak, she also developed Pneumonia and passed away. This was also classed as a smoking related death!
Before you spout bulls**t statistics, please realise how flawed the collation of data relating to deaths is in the overall picture. This is a topic I get very emotive over as I watched these diseases that are completely unrelated to smoking, decemate my close family members lives. Due to the fact that it was the Pneumonia that ‘finished them off’ we cannot do anything to stop them being added to these statistics which would now say 100% of my close relatives that have passed away did so due to smoking.
Exactly! Someone working at Stats told me some years ago, that all deaths from respiratory causes are coded as smoking related… That makes me wonder if the death of my baby brother at 6 weeks from pneumonia, was coded that way? (Which would of course be absurd. Given it was 1957, probably not, but you never know..)
‘…….Someone working at Stats told me some years ago, that all deaths from respiratory causes are coded as smoking related…’
They, or you, must have been mistaken as I can categorically tell you that this does not happen.
Someone told me once all types of fanciful tales
Can I ask how old were your Grandfather and Aunt when they died???, and, did either of them smoke???,
What i have gathered so far from my internet reads is that what smokers are being tagged with is ‘end of life diseases’, and, i get the feeling that especially in the case of of heart related deaths it is in fact the major killer across the whole of the aged population and people are dying of these heart related diseases at around the same age, 65 onwards, whether or not they smoke,
So it is spurious of the health statistics to show that a 65+ who smoked died of a smoking related disease of the heart when 80% of the 65+ who die of a disease of the heart in the same year who did not smoke are simply heart attack or heart disease statistics,
One has to ask if everyone intends living forever, i pick my own lifespan to be in the realm of 65 t0 80 years and if i do reach that 80 figure i will have been smoking 20+ a day for 67 years,
It is in fact between the years 65 to 80 years when 90% of us die whether we use tobacco products or not and as we age and weaken then it is obvious that we will all be at higher risk of catching and surrendering to all diseases even cancers whether or not we use tobacco products or not…
b12, That’s not how it works. It’s a multi-discipinary approach.
What happens is the population scientists look at the rates of different conditions in populations who smoke vs non-smokers. They notice that smokers tend to die earlier than non-smokers. Further researchers note that ony half of smokers die earlier than non-smokers, but the average life-shortening is by 20-odd years.
Meanwhile scientists examine the contents of smoke, and note a number of chemicals that are associated with higher incidences of different conditions when in other exposure scenarios, e.g. hydrocarbons.
Other scientists examine the biological mechanisms of various conditions, and how they form and affect the body.
Then people get all the stuff together, note that we have observed relationship, physiological plausibility, and decent biochemistry to back it up. Smoking is indeed bad, m’kay?
But then we have people looking for a specific cause for their illness or relative’s death (mum had a heart attack, it must of been her smoking. Or her husband’s. Or that smoker she passed in the street). But you can’t really attribute an individual death to smoking (unless a cigarette down the back of a couch called a fatal fire :)).
We also have policy advocates muddying the waters (in both directions), for example I saw news reports of a study a few years back claiming something like 288 NZers a year died from passive smoking. Turned out the NZ “study” extrapolated from a european study, and the numbers were so small the confidence interval was five miles wide. I could see those guys doing the old “all xxx is caused by smoking” when attributing smoking-related harm, just like big tobacco did the opposite.
“unless a cigarette down the back of a couch called a fatal fire”
Yep. My family has experienced that – one dead and the survivor being in hospital for 2 years, over 30 skin grafts and 50 operations, ACC for 30 years, deformed, scarred, deaf from the ensuing stroke and meds and disabled for life. Bugger all the health-related stuff (which, btw I agree with) smoking is dangerous. Smoking kills and disables. Sorry folks, it’s personal.
Aha, i see your point,honest!!! and then after all of this ‘the thin puff leads to the short huff’, along comes genetic science and POINTS OUT that X specific gene, (from memory 15), when it has developed x specific ANOMALY will mean that the person so afflicted will be 30% more likely to develop cancer WHETHER OR NOT that person has ever used tobacco products or been exposed to them in any way,
Should that specific identified gene have x as xx as the anomaly then the person so afflicted will be 70–80% more likely to develop cancer and again the abnormality in the gene makes no discrimination about whether a person has ever been exposed to tobacco products,
So, it becomes easier to see when we add in the science of genetics why 50% of the pesky little smokers aint dying off at the same rate as the other 50% and why the lung cancer one is such a huge flop in terms of quantifying the harm of tobacco usage, (hell even an unbeliever like me entertained the idea for a while that i was merrily puffing my way to a bad case of black lungs),
The heart disease one tho from the little i have ascertained is pretty spurious, i will happily admit that the use of tobacco products could be one of many factors. BUT, the cause??? no way,
In the US 83% of all deaths are from ‘heart disease’, 17. something % of Americans use tobacco products,
Almost from the day we are all born we start laying down in our various arteries,veins,and, heart valves the plaque that will eventually cause our tickers to malfunction in various ways and eventually kill us,
Now smoking may help that process along, but cause it, nah!!!living does that…
The leading cause, probably. Not the only cause.
My personal belief is that tobacco, particularly unadulterated tobacco, is on the line between preventing actions that cause harm vs preventing less healthy personal lifestyle choices.
Frankly, if in 20 years we are all lentil munching vegetarian tofu suckers with forced exercise routines and no alcohol or tobacco – I’d probably want to shoot myself. Not much exaggeration if any, either – I like the little joys in life, even if they might be bad for me.
Aha, your right there, i had a quick read of part of a study which says exactly that as far as tobacco usage being as much a preventative action as a causative,
I was speed reading at the time,(nah i hadn’t just piped a point),and now can’t remember the page i was reading that from,
I can see the point tho, along with all the other bits and pieces tobacco has quite a good supply of one of the poisons, arsenic i think, so it’s easy to envisage the users immune system being at heightened levels of activity after a smoke of tobacco,
It, tobacco makes a great pesticide, a few leaves soaked in 3 litres of water for a few weeks and then sprayed upon plants prone to be eaten by the bugs works a treat…
My Grandfather was 67, and my Aunty was 42. Both of them were smokers up until diagnosed, which is why (as far as I know, although Vicky32 may be on to something) they were classed as passing away from smoking related illness.
That interests me greatly, as I was misdiagnosed with a TIA in January, simply because I am a smoker. Having been told to quit, as smoking causes strokes, I asked Dr Google what the mechanism is, only to learn that there are two contradictory mechanisms, which can’t possibly both be true! That caused me to wonder if either of them is true!
My GP actually apologised for the misdiagnosis, and as I was on clopidogrel for only 3 months, no actual harm was done…
The risk of TIA is raised in smokers as is the risk of numerous cancers.
A overview for the general public is attached below.
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/2010/consumer_booklet/pdfs/consumer.pdf
Heres a bit of how smoking might kill you,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/…03…lung-cancer…smokers…/1
”But there was a flipside. 40% of those who had CT screenings had an abnormal result that lead to additional testing, and 16 premature deaths occurred because of interventions prompted by the screening, such as needle biopsies of the lung, 6 of those people didn’t have lung cancer”,
Naughty smokers wouldnt have got dead by medical misadventure if they had just quit the fags right,
Well nah, 50% of those who get lung cancer HAD quit,(apparently well befor the diagnosis)…
Replying to my own post from yesterday – I just checked TIA symptoms on a website (as I’d been following Bad12’s google ideas) and discovered that of all the symptoms of a TIA I had – er, none of them! What on earth were the GP and the neurologist thinking? Were they so blinded by the smoking thing on my record? (I had a chance to check my record, and discovered that half of it’s wrong, I recommend everyone asks their GP for the chance to check.)
For one thing – halve the number of cigarettes you say you smoke. This is because health professionals automatically double what you say. 😀
4,000 people dying each year can’t be wrong! addicts can come up with any and many excuses
Yeah us tobacco junky’s are terrible aint we, a full on 90% of us WON’T get the big bad bogie, lung cancer,
So damn, we are all doomed to die from every other ailment that just happens to be the prime causes of death for ALL those who don’t partake of the tobacco products,
It takes so damn long tho right, hell it takes so f**king long for the stuff to kill us all tho, take little old me for instance, (man sailing on his ego trip), i will have by the time i get to 65 been smoking tobacco products for 53 years,
Why did i choose to mention the age of 65 you might ask, and, i would have to reply because that is the average age where Lung Cancer is detected in Humans,and, the American Medical Association says that 83% of those who will die of Heart Disease will be 65 years of age or older,
Remember that Heart disease thingy another of the ‘supposed’ diseases of smoking, could it just be, and, it looks increasingly more so the more i read, that as a matter of convenience and because it suits them and their masters to do so, if a person dies of ‘heart disease’, (and one hell of a lot of us do), and they also happen to smoke tobacco or had done so previously then the ‘convenience’ is to simply blame the consumption of tobacco products…
So it would seem, can wowsers! 😀
The number is actually 400 not 4000, but aside from that, 400 is coincidentally the number of people adversely affected by vehicle exhaust!
If you don’t believe me, then tell the Herald, that’s where I got those statistics…
400? Where did you get that figure?
“Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in New Zealand, accounting for around 4300 to 4600 deaths per year”
From:
http://www.sfc.org.nz/infohealtheffects.php
But hey, by all means take your health advice from an anonymous internet poster who gets his information from Google than 50+ years of research study and hard data
I already told you, from the NZ Herald! It really helps if you read with attention…
Here’s another ‘anonymous’ internet poster for you (except that of course he’s not anonymous).
(I think you’re underestimating how off piste someone gets when they are misdiagnosed because health professionals have their knickers in a knot. Hours at the neurology clinic, unnecessary drugs, a scary pack for ‘stroke patients’, smug anti-smoking nurses phoning at inconventient times, you name it.)
http://d1002391.mydomainwebhost.com/JOT/editorials/vol-1/e1-4.htm
“already told you, from the NZ Herald!”
yes, but can you link to it?
No, or I already would have.. Are you going to bother to read the article I did link to, or is your mind already firmly made up? 🙂
I read the article but indeed, a single article from 1999 does not overturn 50+ years of research.
It’ll take more than that to convince to take up smoking again.
P.S. every other metric puts deaths at 4000 – 5000 per year so the Herald must have it wrong
there is a sucker born every minute
Silly! No one’s asking you to!
All I am asking is that you stop bullying, and feeling superior to, people who smoke.
Alcohol however, is fine and normal it seems. My GP’s nurse counselled me to ‘cut back on my alcohol intake’ when she rang yesterday – and was amazed when I told her that I never drink alcohol. That’s cos everyone drinks alcohol, right? Er no, not everyone drinks…
I drink heavily and used to smoke heavily
(I very rarely smoke now – but I don’t consider myself a “smoker” any more as I have broken the addiction part).
I have never bullied or felt superior to smokers.
Or where they live! An ex-b/f has just been diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, related to the lovely asbestos ceiling in his childhood home. He’s always been an anti-smoking fanatic, how ironic. He’s the only person I’ve ever known with lung cancer.
Thanks for all that info! 🙂
Yeah you are SO right there, i could and maybe should have put in fact (8), 1% of those who develop lung cancer will do so as a result of radon in the soil,usually where they reside.
I didnt think that one was of that much importance seeing as it’s only 1% of lung cancers and i didn’t want to give you all info overload,
The Google for all that is ”why don’t all smokers get cancer” and 1 through to 8 were gleaned off of the first 2 pages…
Posted this on the privatisation page but thought it might get a hit here:
So I have a couple questions maybe someone can help me with. There’s alot of Rhetoric thrown around on the asset sales and I am fundamentally against transferring our dividend flow into the 10% of kiwi’s investing in the stock exchange. However I feel like there has been alot of seemingly unfactual statements from the blogs I read. Power prices will jump, we will lose infrastructure etc.
It is my understanding that power prices should remain competitive in the mixed model, even in the private model (I know that’s based on a larger market in the USA though). Also the infrastructure for our grid is owned and maintained by Transpower, correct?, on the right they claim that power has increased 7% a year for however long failing to mention that the increase is “apparently” due to Transpower upgrading the Grid due to be complete in 2015. I’m guessing that power prices won’t fall back 7% after 2015 and this will lead to increases in the MOM’s profits as Transpowers charges decrease. So I can’t assume that prices will rise, but more transpowers charges will drop and the Government won’t be able to be held accountable for no drop in power rates as they would have been.
Lastly on Cambell Live, Key mentions that our Kiwisaver and Super are heavily invested in Aussi Stocks. Is it not prudent to move them into our markets. It has been said that this is in essence a NZX bailout, but economically doesn’t it make sense to grow this exchange when Aussi growth is about to plummet on the back of China’s financial elephant in the room later this year?
Also worth noting, nowhere in the SOE law does it mention that these companies are owned for the good of the people. They are stated to be run as profitable as possible and AirNZ seems to show that their model has been much more profitable than the previous model.
I welcome these comments getting pulled the F*** apart. As these are just a collection of points I can’t decide on
To answer the part about whether SOEs are for the good of the people or not:
Originally, the state often used the organisations they owned to control unemployment or address health issues – a social security initiative, if you like. For example, our current ACC has its birth around the turn of the twentieth century in the Workers Compensation Act. By 1972 it had developed into no-fault cover in place of people suing their employers for personal damages and became the Accident Compensation Act. Then in 1987 Rogernomics came along and decided everything had to make a profit and that resulted in staff cuts and claim restrictions – a contradiction of its purpose.
Air NZ, too, was once called Tasman Empire Airways Limited. Established in 1939, the UK government withdrew in 1953 and Australia pulled out by 1961. In 1965 it was under full NZ government ownership and was renamed Air NZ. There is also a company called Kordia, that sixty years ago was the transmission and operations of what is now known as TVNZ.
This is to say that the history of what we now know as profit driven corporate companies had their genesis and development in the collective efforts of NZders looking out for and supporting NZders in business, private life and especially health. They just didn’t magically appear on April 1st 1987, which is where the idea of profit, above all, was first stamped on them.
This is why people like Phil Goff said (yes, somewhat ironically) in last election’s debates (and I’m paraphrasing here), “John, you don’t own these things”. No individual owns our SOEs and no individual or small group has the right to sell them. Unless John key and friends are over one hundred years old, and started these companies withth eir own money and efforts, or worked them with their own hands, they are really just opportunist corporate raiders. I doubt that surprises anyone. Changing the name on a historic company, or restructuring it, or part owning it, doesn’t eliminate the original purpose – as much as pollies of all colour have tried. Even deciding to turn them to tools of profit was a gross conceit. Modern media doesn’t examine where these companies came from and people generally don’t ask.
Cheers man, as a 24 yr old with no background in political studies I have very little knowledge of our countries history prior Helen Clark really. I have read a enough recently to have learnt the greatness of Savage, and essentially that most of our countries greatest policies/achievements that we claim to be proud of seem to come from Labour governments.
I don’t really understand what they were doing in the 80’s though.
I definetly think selling them is a crazy no-win situation, but I do think there is alot of off topic or irrelevant banter thrown in. “We will pay more for power” can easily be ignored by the general public as tarrot-reading. 120 million for the sale and the loss of 150 million in dividends a year is abit harder to ignore. Or atleast if found that in discussion.
I think it’s worth remembering, National got in because of peoples fear of the economy to a degree. And even though alot of people are against the sales alot of them are still afraid and really believe National have the best economic record. Whether or not this is true, bashing them with idealogical left rhetoric is not going to get them on your side long term, they are still right and they still think wealth trickles down.
National got in because of amnesia. It only took from 1999 to 2005 for a large proportion of the electorate to lose its memory and forget exactly what the National Party is.
We only escaped their incompetence in 2005 because Brash is so phenomenally incompetent it couldn’t be ignored, but Bill English’s incompetence is at least a match for Brash’s.
Now the chisellers have their wallets open, shovelling tax-payer dollars in as fast as they can, for the next two years. And the electorate is reminded what the National Party is.
@Kotahi
National got in because the left ran a completely weak and ineffective anti asset sales campaign prior to the election and failed miserably to engage the voting public who stayed away from the polling booths in their tens of thousands.
Consequently I have no sympathy for the left who are whining on about the Nats not having a mandate when clearly they only have themselves to blame for their own laziness and poor performance on polling day.
That’s hardly surprising. You don’t strike me as someone to whom sympathy comes easily.
I’m not talking about the left however, I’m talking about the electorates ability to forget what the National Party is.
As a young member of society, you can’t expect young New Zealanders to know the finer details of previous National or Labour governments. We aren’t taught this at school and our Parents will only speak of their own beliefs. As someone who wasn’t able to vote until Clarke’s last term I have only recently learnt more about our political history, and find it a crock to claim amnesia against the whole voting public.
This only really applies to the younger of us really, the majority should have known.
“If you end up with a boring miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on television telling you how to do your shit, then you deserve it.”
― Frank Zappa
If you take it too literally I guess the amnesia analogy falls over, but consider the fact that the same set of people (plus one parachuted-in smiley-wavy guy with no previous form) that were turfed out in 1999 were able to form a government in 2008. They’re displaying exactly the same bleedin’ useless incompetence as last time. If you can think of a better term than electoral amnesia let’s hear it.
The National Party has recessions when the rest of the world is fine. Amnesia.
That’s a great quote from a legend and true. That’s why i’m here, if I followed my parents views I’d be at the NZHerald site. But past political history is a huge amount of information to handle and not part of my working or social life, so you’ll have to forgive my ignorance. I for one didn’t know that the 1999 National members are still the main crew behind Key.
I would publicly state that I think National has gone off the rails the last 7 months on nearly ever issue.
But Cunliffe is saying some great things. I am hopeful that the country isn’t going to be to bad by 2014.
Give or take a few they are essentially the same crowd – and frankly most of the time it’s only the faces that change anyway – the apparent innumeracy and grasping sense of born-to-rule entitlement mixed with hatred and suspicion of the “other” abides.
Any book dealing with NZ politics could easily carry the subtitle: “Cleaning Up After The National Party.”
Yeah because the fourth labour government didn’t drop the ball or anything and its not like any of that term are still hanging around (there really needs to be a sarcasm emoticon)
A history lesson for the young or obnoxious
In the seventies global oil supplies were at risk, there were carless days and no-petrol weekends, inflation was 15-20%, wildcat strikes were commonplace, consumer goods & travel cost a lot more, houses cost a lot less
National PM Muldoon ran up huge foreign debts with Think Big projects, froze wages and prices, and stayed on friendly terms with apartheid era South Africa. This ruined the 1976 Olympics and the led to the infamous 1981 Springbok tour protests.
Muldoon also cancelled a retirement savings scheme introduced by Labour that would be worth tens of billions today, and would have eliminated any reason to sell state assets.
Labour was open to desperate measures when the coutry was in crisis in 1984, and mad idealogues like (ACT party founders) Roger Douglas and Richard Prebble went overboard with deregulation, destroying our productive industrial base, and selling assets off cheap to dodgy asset strippers like Fay, Richwhite (Jones, Fletcher also did well)
This nearly destroyed the LP but the National government that followed (1990) was even worse, so Helen Clark was elected in 1999 on a far more moderate platform, akin to Blair’s Third Way. And now at last the LP seems to have figured out that, in economic and social terms it was all bullshit and a return to egalitarian Kiwi values is the way of the future.
(Ironically if we had kept the Think Big projects in state ownership they would have paid for themselves by now and would be a great income stream for NZ)
urban rascal Why does your handle link go to a commercial IT service? deleted.com
sorry, I don’t know. First time posting, that has been sitting in the website caption all day. Thought it was default haha.
and earlier you asked what happened in the 80’s?
treasury lied to Labour, who had been hijacked by neolibs who decided to sell a bunch of stuff that didn’t have to be sold to pay debts that didn’t really exist. Lots of people up and down the isles stayed very very drunk and took a lot of very interesting drugs for a few years and everything basically went to crap according to a well scripted plan that resulted in workers being reduced to serfs, any nz business worth a dime forced out so imports could increase and economists were elevated to demi-god status regardless of whether they could actually count.
We also made some great films, music, art, folk tried to play sport in strange places and we managed to tell the USA to shove their bombs anywhere but here
remiss of me not to mention property market insanity, the taciturn allocution of land disputes and realisation that a language which should always have been there was finally allowed into NZ schools.
all in all a hell of decade
can’t help but feel this decade is shaping up to be a slightly different beastie.
Also in the Eighties
* half the world boycotted the Moscow Olympics because of a war in Afghanistan
* 1981 Springbok Tour ripped the nation in two
* Rainbow Warrior sabotaged by France because of greenpeace nuke protests
* School Certificate/UE replaced by incomprehensible NCEA system
Urban rascal Media(murdoched) and money was the reason the left didn’t get in if not for the cup of tea National would have coasted in.
If people had known that this election was going to be so close more would have turned out and trickle down would have become trickle up.
Ah but the teacup was important so National has a far-right partner to “blame” for charter schools and asset sale. Hence John Banks still not called on his obvious law breaking across the board. But are you saying the cup of Tea brought their vote down. I don’t think so.
The cup of tea was a media blowout to right supporters that I know. The effect of the tea-tape seems to be a higher level of scrutiny on the Governments subsequent gaffs. I think these were probably always there last term, just not picked up by mainstream media.
I personally think we were under some psych conditioning through media reporting (biased landline polls etc). If you tell the public for three years that John Key and National are preferred leaders by huge margins, you can’t help but think this effects the less intelligent of us valuing the power of their vote. Hence, low turnout.
My question would be, what changed? What did National do to seriously upset the media enough to make their last 7 months hell?
We aren’t under psych conditioning, the average voter is confused and bored by policies and economics.
Like newspapers, an election campaign has to be pitched at 8 year old comprehension levels.
And you can’t beat a high profile, smiling personality that people think they can trust.
A Con man ropata
well yes. 🙁
Maybe pysch is a loaded word, but I would say that an 8 year old would be heavily swayed by loaded polls in the media in the lead up wouldn’t you?
yes many people view politics the same as sport and want to back a winner, and not “waste” their vote
aka. “Idiotocracy“
+1
Well for starters the power price increases weren’t all due to Transpower charges and they won’t reduce those later either, those increases are fixed. Transpower has invested more money in infrastructure, the higher charges reflect what they require to get a return from the investment.
Secondly the AirNZ ‘model’ was a taxpayer bailout of a private business, there isn’t a shred of evidence to suggest that AirNZ is in any way advantaged by the minority private shareholding. It shows only that the state runs an airline better and more profitably than the private sector does. References to AirNZ by Key & co are downright dishonest.
Thirdly Kiwisaver providers invest in whatever markets give them best returns for least risk. There are no guarantees that the NZX will provide that even with the SOEs listed. The Kiwisaver providers may buy the shares now & then sell again later. If the NZX isn’t performing then it has some fundamental faults and artificially boosting it with a taxpayer bailout won’t solve the underlying problems will it. We gave the NZX a whole bunch of our assets previously, why would a few more make a difference when the first tranches didn’t?
And etc etc.. none of the arguments for hold up to scrutiny.
So essentially, they are empty promises that aren’t binding or infact relevant to the argument National are making.
AirNZ seems to me like they are a much more well run company now to me though. Consistently regarded as one of the better airlines in the world etc. Surely this a benefit to the 51% stake the government holds?
I don’t agree in throwing the NZX a bone, but wouldn’t these 4 companies listing on the NZX boost our domestic economy with the transactions going through them? Wouldn’t that be a good thing with our two biggest markets grinding to a halt?
The Govts argument about AirNZ is that the private shareholding has contributed towards it’s success since it was bailed out by the taxpayer. That, if it were true, would add weight to the argument that we should give the private sector a shareholding in the SOEs. I’d give them 10 points for gall but it’s pure spin because there simply is no evidence that the private shareholding has advantaged AirNZ in any shape or form. They’re just bullshitting.
AirNZ is well run now because the state put up cash to take it over and brought in better management practices. It doesn’t follow that a minority private shareholding is beneficial.
How would it boost the economy? I’m pretty certain that trading in shares doesn’t contribute to GDP and that’s just gambling anyway, we’ve already got casinos & horse racing & lotto & TAB why do we need more? We already get the dividends from the SOEs so I can’t see how transferring some of the dividends to the NZX will benefit the economy. The SOEs pay tax already so there’s no gains there. Where are the benefits?
You are correct. That’s all I can say.
I was under the belief that shares effected the economy directly by effecting the amount of $ coming through the country. In essence like how the USA manage to hold their economy together by having oil purchases done in $US around the world. But the benefits of holding onto them by far outweigh the gamble that the NZX is, thanks for your rational response.
One of the arguments does warrant a reasonable inspection, that of increasing the amount of people investing in shares. The argument from Key is that getting more people involved in the sharemarket will bring more interest in shares and boost demand for the likes of rights issues and IPOs. That does benefit the economy.
The core role of the sharemarket is to act as a vehicle for private business to raise capital and the NZX has been an abject failure at that. Actual share trading doesn’t really benefit a business much at all, they’re not getting any capital out of it that’s just gambling by share traders. The SOEs get nothing from this float. An increase in its share price enables a business to borrow more but that’s not necessarily good for the economy.
It’s hard to accept that argument however because previous history doesn’t support it. We’ve already been down the road of floating SOEs on the sharemarket and it didn’t lead to the conclusion Key & co say this will lead to. If anything it will just starve the NZX of capital, it’s going to soak up a good few $billion of capital much of which might have been invested in shares anyway.
I agree that some of the arguments against are also wrong but IMO the weight of evidence is very much on the side of those opposing the sales.
The share-market is supposed to be a way for businesses to raise needed cash. Neither the SoEs nor the government are in such a position. The SoEs are doing quite well thank you and the government never needs to borrow – it can just print the cash and/or raise taxes.
What the share-market has become is a gambling arena where people speculate on the prices of the shares and nothing else. Basically, betting for untaxed capital gains.
(a plagiarised comment)
The stock market is [supposed] to facilitate the trading of securities. The societal good of that is that it frees up and allocates money to companies that are producing more value , or doing it more efficiently. This is a way to reward smart companies and incentivize new technologies.
This [high frequency trading] shit has nothing to do with any of that. They’re gaming the system for a purpose to which it was never meant to be put and further, they’re endangering everyone else while they’re at it. Those are just the facts.. Greed has located a positive feedback loop and is exploiting it in a predictably greedy fashion.
The thing is, this is obviously reckless and has nothing to do with free markets. It’s as if we threw away any concept of a social good except the servicing of the impulses of richest greediest people our society can produce.
Greed is an innate flaw in human thinking under most circumstances. It’s not some magic rocket fuel that impels society towards greater wealth and innovation. That’s a bullshit narrative told to you by drug addicts who don’t want to be separated from their drug . And nothing more.
The thing is, the fanaticism on the right is also in a positive feedback loop with the right wing noise machine. Even though their economic deregulatory policies cratered the economy, they are taught how to deny that fact by the right wing noise machine. This clears them to vote more of the same into office.
We’ve effectively turned our economy over to people with a a group of compulsive gamblers and risk junkies. This is a completely different thing than supporting risk taking entrepreneurs.
Societies live, grow and die. They die because they become captive to an entrenched minority who games the social cultural political system and secures for itself some positive feedback loop that reinforces their power and permits them to write the rules of society to their personal, narrow advantage. Thenceforward, at every decision point, their local, short terms needs are serviced first and in our case, almost exclusively.
We may be living in a dying society that will catastrophically implode . Our refusal to address global warming in more of the same dynamic with the oil and coal companies finding a positive feedback loop in their campaign contributions and right wing noise machine.
You have to understand that rational thinking and reasoning about even the basic, obvious facts of the world does NOT come naturally to people. As proof of this I offer a recent story about an ongoing cause for mass murder in Africa- Penis Shrinkage Through Sorcery.
I ‘ll link to the Reuters story because otherwise you might suppose I am accidentally reporting satire.
[reuters.com]
DH
As Warren Bufett says “should he consider buying into any airline please dial 111”.
Whilst I like to fly AirNZ I would not touch them as an investment, but the Energy companies for a long term investment – bring it on.
If I wasn’t saving to leave the country I would be spending the $1000 to get some shares in Might River. Sounds like a very low risk investment.
Say what you will about a 24yr old graduate having to leave the country to substantially pay off my loan. National haven’t come to the table on that one.
Urban rascal
Good luck with your overseas plans or hopes. Hope when you come back something good will have come from all this thinking and blogging politically.
one can only hope.
ur yes they did you got a huge tax cut /sarc
I think you’re mad. Having five identical power companies on the NZX is a recipe for disaster in the longer term. We’ll end up with some getting into serious financial strife & some expanding and we won’t know which until it starts happening.
Seriously, surely no-one can expect the share price of each company to follow exactly the same path. All it takes is for one megalomaniac CEO who wants to make a name for him/herself and all bets are off.
Personally I’d probably buy NZX shares if I was going to buy any, they’re the ones who look to benefit the most with all the ticket clipping.
footrot with out AirNZ air travel would be dearer tourism would decline and the main reason Dr Cullen bought the airline was high value exports.AirNZ by far has the biggest cargo carrying capacity.
Other progressive govts like Singapore also realise the long term advantages.
Once again the invisible hand of the Market definitely doesn’t Know best
Urban Rascal at 10.40 am.
Hit that enter button and put one or better two paragraphs in this length comment. It’s a brick to swallow as it is.
can’t edit it for some reason…
Anyone read Bob Jones’s column in the Herald. It’s curious timing in light of the youtube hit about the overweight US woman on the school bus being taunted by a bunch of kids…
“Roll up, roll up – see the skinny freak”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10815435
I remember the overweight kids at school. I can also remember the bullies who picked on them and I know which of the two I see in that article. Seems money & knighthood don’t a gentleman make.
@DH
I read Sir Bob Jones’ narcissistic misogynistic rant about overweight female civil servants in Wellington’s CBD yesterday and it confirmed for me that anything this man comments on is vacuous tripe from an old codger who spends his money on pretty young girls from Bulgaria.
no wonder his daughter went off the rails.
i like big butts and i cannot lie
skinny does not always mean healthy, in many cases it is quite the opposite.
look at the All Blacks and Silver Ferns. big strong Kiwis beating the world.
Absolutely true… I would love to gain about 5kg, I simply can’t, and it’s not for want of trying… 🙁
If you stop smoking you’ll gain some weight Vicky32.
Boy that article by the old crook Bob Jones is a complete disgrace! He comes across as a dirty old man slavering over a young Bulgarian girl and stigmatizing people with weight problems because he’s dissatisfied with his shriveled up old impotent white body. Yuck!
Jones fails to understand that insulting fat people will only make them look for further comfort in food. The main problem is the subsidized processed and fast food industries, whereby people are brainwashed into buying food that is unhealthy for them.
Of course Jones fails to mention this at all because it goes against his capitalist running dog belief system. The sooner he pops his clogs the better.
Easier said than done, but we’ll see! 🙂
The following was sent to Herald by Eden – I will keep you posted on the response.
Dear Editor,
I am writing to complain about Sir Bob Jones’ article ‘Roll up, roll up – see the skinny freak’.
Weight-based discrimination is a significant social problem and a human rights issue in Aotearoa New Zealand bringing distress to the lives of many hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders. We see this first hand with the resulting difficult and disordered relationships with food, eating and body image amongst those who face discrimination.
Sir Bob Jones fails to get the important health promotion message through that we all need to live actively and eat a range of nutrition regardless of shape and size and that we need to be using a far wider range of determinants of health, rather than just weight or for that matter relying solely on Sir Bob Jones’ personal aesthetic preferences!
In a country which already struggles with high levels of size discrimination and appearance bullying, publishing an article like this is irresponsible. This is an issue at a grass root level and at a public policy level. The Youth ’07 Survey found that that appearance bullying is the most prevalent type of bullying in New Zealand schools, alongside sexuality. In addition, our Human Rights Act allows for protection of many forms of discrimination, but for those who discriminated based on size, shape or weight, there is no protection under the law.
The outrageously fat phobic comments in the article are shaming and scientifically incorrect. The implication that all those people who have a BMI which sits in the ‘over weight’ or ‘obese’ categories are unhealthy is unfounded. In fact the members of our All Blacks team, held up as the epitome of health and fitness, all fit into these BMI categories.
Sir Bob Jones’ assertion that “ridicule may inspire them to unmake their degrading” is completely contrary to the research which shows that bullying has a negative impact on body image and on the uptake of physical activity. In fact, the better someone’s body image is, the more likely they are to partake in physical activity, regardless of shape of size. Sir Bob Jones would be better of focusing on boosting body image, rather than promoting hatred and discrimination.
Eden – Specialist in Eating Issues and Body Image since 1990
Just saw this headline on Stuff: ‘Whales need to sleep around’. Well, I’ll beef hooked!
TRP funniest joke today
If this company can’t finally get its act together and fulfil its potential, it would be better to break it up and let the ambitious farmers move ahead at the required speed.
— Yes Fran, sell it all!
muzza so we can be all peasant farmers like the third world.
Peasant farmers are a dying breed in the “third world” as the big corporations are a) buying up all the farming land and b) flooding the market with cheap food driving the remaining farmers into poverty forcing them to sell. Charity doesn’t help on that latter point either.
And the developed world is also heading in that direction as well, as we loose control of our land and assets under the WTO, IMF, and World Bank agendas of the Globalisation of Poverty. (But you know that already Draco. 🙂 )
Question being asked in the House about the legitimacy of the Asset vote. Just caught the end of the debate but it seemed that there were questions about the rightness of Dunne’s vote being given by proxy. Lockwood has closed it down but…. Mmmmm?
Here is the link to the full discussion/video today on this – http://inthehouse.co.nz/node/13588
Last night Andrew Williams (NZF) tried to get the Assoc Speaker (Eric Roy) to agree to a personal vote on the MOM legislation after the final vote at 61/60. He requested a personal vote under Standing Order 141 which apparently provides for a personal vote when a party vote is very close. Roy turned down his request, but Williams then today asked Lockwood Smith as Speaker to give an opinion etc on the possibility.
There was a interesting discussion on this with National obviously opposing, but the course of the discussion included reference to having to have 25% of Members of a party being physically within the precinct of Parliament at the time of the vote in order to allow all votes by that party to be counted. By implication rather than direct speak, what was being referred to was the exercising and counting of votes by the one man band parties (ACT and UF) when neither Banks or Dunne were in the House at the time of the MOM votes. Who knows where Banks was but we do know that Dunne was not presumably in the precincts of Parliament at the time but at a funeral (mother of Dunne’s son’s girlfriend according to Stuff). Pretty sure Favell was actually in the House at the time of last night’s votes, so MP’s negative votes were OK.
I was interrupted towards the end of today’s discussion but think Winston raised a theoretical situation of some sort and asked Smith to provide a later opinion on that, but happy to be corrected. Don’t have time right now to rewatch.
Anyone want to comment on the latest Roy Morgan poll?
I’m sure someone will spin as great news for the left
In National’s probable populist favour is:
– the car crushing
– coming down harder on beneficiaries
– reversing decision on school teacher numbers
– getting tough with the ACC Board
– continuing dominance of the political discourse
In Labour’s probable favour is:
– base supported with Cunliffe’s 2 speeches within the poll
– Shearer tracking better and sounding a little smoother
A little surprised at NZ First, since they had their conference in that time, and Greens have profiled well on Asset Sale story.
Labour have such a long, long way to go up after their utter shellacking last time. But (sigh) at least they are gonig up. Labour won’t beat them in 2014 unless they have a champoin who goes toe to toe with Key, every major time, and also develop a superior populist gene to National.
Red Alert now has David Cunliffe’s Titirangi speech published.
http://blog.labour.org.nz/2012/06/27/the-dolphin-and-the-dole-queue/#respond
This speech is the first time I have seen a real intersection between Labour and the Greens. Can anyone recall a more thorough, more grounded speech from a New Zealand elected politician?
It doesn’t actually mention the Green party, but it nails their political economy namely: that there is no return to the way of life that we are in, we must change, and it still won’t be enough.
Surely it is time for Shearer to admit that the Greens are Labour’s most likely coalition partners, and start using this as a philosophical basis for a coalition discussion.
There are plenty of smaller parties to eat, rather than each other.
Hope everyone has posted a scathing remark here..
Are you for or against partial sales of state assets?
Well the private finance initiatives (PFIs) in the UK to build health infrastructure are all turning to custard (that is, if providing cheaper health services, rather than transferring wealth, was the aim).
And this is not the only NHS trust in trouble due to PFIs. Not that our government will pause for thought before using PFIs for schools.
QT today in The House. Winston to Paula Bennett (on behalf of her Associate Minister Turia – a concept Bennet seemed to struggle with at times). He did her over like a dog’s dinner.
And didn’t Paula look peeved. Collins and Bennett are often spiteful during question time and it was OK with me to see Paula looking defensive and a bit out of her depth for a change.
MY head hurts, can some one please explain in simple language why this happened given that Peter Dunne Proxy vote carried the Asset Stripping Bill ????
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10815942
A formula is used to determine the number of proxy votes a party can have.
Conveniently for NACT UF Sharples couldnt cast a proxy.
California city of Stockton, pop 291,000, set to go bankrupt
Yep. When the debt based financialisation of the real world economy pops, this is what you get.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bankruptcy-only-choice-left-stockton-set-become-largest-us-city-chapter-9