“We see a real opportunity to cut carbon pollution,” said one of the White House officials. “And I think one of the most important and relevant points is that today we already set limits for arsenic, mercury and lead, but we let power plants release as much carbon pollution as they want.”
Scientific American
Political leaders from around the world give their reaction.
From the European Union:
After a number of important speeches from President Obama and Secretary Kerry, Europe has been eagerly waiting for the US to set out concrete steps. So this plan is a most welcomed step forward and, if implemented, it can put the US on a path towards a low carbon future.
Connie Hedegaard EU Climate Action Commissioner
“I very much welcome President Obama’s renewed push to tackle global climate change,”…..
“The plans set out are positive steps that will create further momentum for international climate action.”…..
(this will) “help give the world confidence that it’s possible to win this fight, if we fight it together”.
José Manuel Barroso President of the European commission
From the United Nations:
It remains vital that the United States as the world’s largest developed economy is seen to be leading serious action to deal with climate change, both at home and abroad….
…..”This US climate action plan must also be leveraged into fresh, high-level political consensus among countries that will smooth the way for faster progress in the international climate change negotiations under the United Nations.”
Christiana Figueres UNFCCC Executive Secretary
From Britain:
“President Obama is right when he says tackling climate change is a moral obligation and also right when he says cutting carbon pollution will help spark business innovation and create jobs. I welcome his Climate Action Plan. It’s a decisive step by the world’s second largest emitter and demonstrates the growing global momentum toward tackling the threat of dangerous climate change. The UK will work closely with the US on energy efficiency and low carbon technologies, and on securing ambitious global action on climate finance and emission reduction. We will also keep up the pressure elsewhere, including in Europe. The EU should adopt a 50% emissions reduction target by 2030 in order to help secure a global deal in 2015.”
Edward Davey UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
From the Pacific Islands:
“US President Obama’s announcement represents a positive step on climate change and we hope it translates into even more constructive engagement at the international climate negotiations, particularly when it comes to dramatically reducing greenhouse gases in the next few years, which is essential to keep the seas from washing over some of the world’s lowest lying island nations.
“However, we are painfully aware that coastal erosion, ocean acidification, degraded reefs and fisheries, droughts, floods, and relentless storms represent the new normal for many vulnerable communities. Therefore, any adequate response to climate change must also address permanent losses and damages stemming from the crisis.” Ambassador Marlene Moses Permanent Representative to the United Nations for Nauru and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States
From the New Zealand Green Party:
“We need to be supporting international action on climate change not obstructing it.
“New Zealand is not doing its fair share.
“The National Government is stuck in the past examining the scientific consensus, to quote President Obama, ‘we don’t have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society’.
“While Obama is stepping up action, National is stepping up pollution….
Under National, New Zealand’s net emissions have hit a record high and are continuing to grow.
“Last weekend’s storm, and this summer’s drought are a preview of the legacy we will leave for our children if we do not act now.
“We can make a difference, we can prepare, we can work internationally for binding targets, we can reduce emissions at home; but we need to start now,”
To date their has been no response to Obama’s speech from either Labour or National. And I think neither can we expect one.
Time for David Cunliffe to fill the gap perhaps? If Labour keep up its silence… Might we see ia press statement from Cunliffe to make up for the missing leadership sadly lacking in his own party?
I also notice that so far there has been no post on Obama’s speech from anyone at The Standard
Why is this?
Does nobody have any opinion on Obama’s speech?
Or could it be, that The Standard authors (consciously, or unconsciously), don’t want to acknowledge or bring attention to the uncomfortable fact that National and Labour’s policies are generally in alignment on further increasing CO2 emissions through more and riskier oil drilling and coal mining etc?
[lprent:
Firstly – What speech? I heard a brief mention on it on the car radio on my late return home last night. Looking at the timestamp on the news story and allowing for date lines, it would have been when? late in the day yesterday? We aren’t a news service, nor are we journalists and we tend to work hard on things other than this blog.
Secondly – Authors write on what they wish to and when they want to – as is stated clearly in the about and the policy.
Thirdly – I see that there was a post scheduled for this morning at the time you wrote that comment. I’d guess that it was written late last night. It gives Anthony’s opinion (which is what we are here to express) on the speech. Changes in policy direction usually take time to digest because the detail is important – not the headline.
Fourthly – You are banned for a week for again trying to tell us what we should be writing – read the policy. ]
“The National Government is stuck in the past examining the scientific consensus, to quote President Obama, ‘we don’t have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society’.
Kennedy Graham Green Party Spokesperson for Climate Change
What Graham has said for the Nacts, could, painfully, be just as easily be said of Labour.
I can’t even bear to listen to the man at the moment. He has no credibility left at all, imo. How can you trust that what he says in a speech is what he really means after Guantanamo not being ended, drones in Pakistan, NSA spying, Bradley Manning incarceration conditions etc, etc? Not to mention people living in tent cities and the nation having to subsidise Walmart pay with food stamps.
All I’d expect from this speech is that he’s trying to change the topic, not that he might mean what he says. So no, I don’t have an opinion on the speech, but I have a very negative opinion about why he might be making in right now, and I can’t believe he means a word of it.
Thats right Mozza, Jenny et al have not done their homework into the General Electric (GE) backing of Obama, and what this means to that company’s NUCLEAR power plant production revenue streams, and control of the *energy market*!
Its why we are in this mess, because people like Jenny, have NFI, what they are contributing to!
I wonder if the Obama’s ephinany on US emissions has anything todo with the discovery of massive quantities of shale gas via large scale fracking. Is converting their coal burning to gas burning much better?
That too – I forgot about the fracking in the credibility stakes.
Biggest shale gas boom since whenever, isn’t it? Apparently it’s better than oil for climate change emissions, even more important is the shift from coal to gas. Although apparently the U.S. is displacing, rather than reducing, it’s emissions through coal exports.
Obama, like many of the names who have quoted above, Jenny, Barosso et al, is a criminal, who does exactly what he is told, by those who put him in power!
kia ora jenny, 2 things strike me about the whole obama thing;
firstly i think your enthusiasm for it is more about the position he holds talking about what he is talking about.
secondly and more importantly you seem to be desiring equal leadership, concerning climate change, to be shown in this country.
GINETTE McDONALD: He came up to me and said, “Ginette McDonald, do you know who I am? My name is Paul Scott Holmes and I am a great broadcaster!”
JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha! Did he say that, Paul Holmes? ….[Long pause to indicate mourning]…. Peter Sinclair was cerebral. He wrote some very insightful columns.
GINETTE McDONALD: How smart he was and how vulnerable! What a sacrifice it is to be a public figure!
MORA: We could riff on THAT for the next ten minutes!
….Several minutes later….
MORA: Mahhh-vellous! I’ll never forget your interview with Sir Elton John! He ADORED you!
….Later….
GINETTE McDONALD: I think the young are completely mahhhh-vellous!
—-Eight Months to Mars, Afternoons with Jim Mora, Radio NZ National, Monday 11 February 2013
Yes indeed. I have tried listening to this stuff for as long as I can bear, in the hope that something useful might be discussed. But always I have to end by either switching off or changing to another channel, before my brain dissolves.
This poll is a concern and the flatness of the past polls is a concern. Between now and the spring the Caucus need to reform itself dramatically. It is possible.
As Toby Manhire suggested in the Herald last week “..the promotion of an MP who had served his time would project strength, evidence of the leader’s vaunted experience in conciliation..”
I’d add to that the early retirement of Goff, King and Mallard coupled with the appointment of new managers in Shearer’s office who are NOT selected by Grant Robertson. Shearer has to stop what he is currently doing. It is not working. He needs to create a new team.
Cunliffe seems to be more focused than ever on his portfolio. He continues to show that he can engage with business people and issues as well as with the workers, consumers and the disenfranchised. His recent contributions to debates in Parliament show he is more centered than ever. Cunliffe looks like a guy who has learned from whatever was done to him last year. He has demonstrated that he can swallow a rat, and get on with folk in the beltway as well a burbs.
Shearer has the choice: to continue as is or to make a change.
Go on Shearer, make the necessary changes, now, refresh and position yourself to get our score out of the low 30s and into the 40s.
Your last chance.
Don’t confuse Obama with Gandhi: Norman Finkelstein
At UBC on January 21, 2009, the day after Obama’s inauguration, Norman Finkelstein gave a short speech about his research into the life and works of Mahatma Gandhi. He claims there is no comparison between Gandhi, who gave up his life to a cause he believed in, and Barack Obama, who is merely a clever politician coasting on a wave of change that he didn’t work to create.
So today in Christchurch we will hear how Brownlee will lump a giant great dull convention centre right onto two of the very best blocks of CBD Christchurch so that all manner of private business can do private business. Brownlee will require the ratepayers to pay for these private businesses.
Why don’t private businesses pay for their private business? I thought Brownlee and his ilk believed in user-pays and the free market and not corporate handouts or picking winners? Why do they force elderly ratepayers to pay for them?
Secondly, a lumpen great convention centre is completely the wrong thing to place in that location. White elephant city here we come…..
i despair.
and so do countless others – witness the decaying hole of the donut city.
Christchurch central city rebuild is failing. I hope I am proved wrong.
When the work is complete, and Christchurch looks like the National Party, and violence and crime flourish, will it be too late to tear their monuments to greed and corruption down? Of course not!
Well that’s kind of what is hoped for – that given the time it will take to bring these giant monuments to fruition and given that time and tide and new and different governments and councils will come and go and shoulder and shove and pull and push these projects all around and they will get variously dumped and amended and shrunken and expanded as the will of the peoples dictate.
That is the hope.
But when all you have is hope you have nothing (sorry JK (kirwan that is)…)
Apparently Lancaster Park, I mean Jade Stadium, oh I mean AMI Stadium, whatever the f… its current corporate tag is…. is not even bloody broken. It is apparently structurally sound and the only problem is that from one end of the field to the other the stadium drops 200mm.
That’s about 8 inches. About $45million to repair so the rumour goes. Why not leave it at that? And don’t tell visiting teams as we will then get the downhill advantage….
He certainly is a lot more fluent than Dave.
David Cunliffe should be and is ready to be the Leader of Labour, I didn’t really think so last year but he’s certainly developed a bit more humility and lost the arrogance and pompousness.
I guess having your colleagues lining up to kick you in the nads does that, tends to make you reassess your approach and how you do things.
Well, it’s a bit of a back-handed compliment to David Bennett, for knowing all the loopholes that needed to be ended, having specialised in fiddling farm accounts in the past.
Clearly David is a criminal mastermind…..according to the police.
Disregarding the new evidence, the crown story is just daft:
22 yr old David gets up, shoots 4 of his family in the house and then pops out to do the paper run as an alibi. Gets back home just in time to hide behind the curtains and snuff the old man. Then he just has to leave a wee note on the computer to implicate dad and then finally ring the police and turn on the water works.
Or as you suggest ,
An elderly man gets up , puts on his sons’ clothes and glasses, shoots 4 of his family. takes off his sons clothes, puts the bloodied clothes in the washing machine,
Changes his clothes, goes into the front room, logs on the family computer, types a note obsolving the son ,whos clothes hes just worn ,while murdering his family.
Shoots himself ,the guns’ mag falling out of the gun and landing on its edge beside Robin Bains’ ‘hand.
Robins. body found with no blood on him ,except his own.
David, who is found with his siblings blood on him. cant remember how he knows his family his dead, or why he waited 20 mins to ring an ambulance.
Sounds like something a defence lawyer would come up with.
It wouldn’t wash as an Agatha Christie novel.
Alternatively, dad wants to shoot his entire family except for one son. Equally bizarre.
Fortunately, we don’t have trial by TV or blogosphere.
Meanwhile, a relative of mine has to avoid watching the news for the next few days because every time pundits spout opinions (based solely on TV reports or the internet, which compete for the award for disseminating the most utter BS) or cheer their particular team, it reminds her how much she misses her friend, even after all this time.
Some folk try Agatha Christie whodunnits, others just don’t bother with hiding a murder-suicide. Arguing that one or the other could not be done because it sounds “just daft” in the cold light of day in my opinion shows a marked under-estimation of (to quote WSBurroughs) “just how far human kicks can go”.
I still have one question. What is the first thing most men do first thing after the get up? Have a piss . . . amirite or amitire?? So, how is it explained that Robin Bain didn’t empy his bladder before setting about murdering his family?
Don’t get me wrong, I believe this whole thing has been yet another ongoing, ochestrated miscarriage of justice perpetrated by, if not corrupt, then bumbling police officers aided and abetted by officious bureacrats and their babmboozled and indifferent politicians. Milton Weir . Kevin Anderson, Phill Goff, Crusher Collins, Peter Doone, Peter Robinson, Jim Doyle, Kim Jones, N C Jaine, B P Duncan . . . “when honor and the Law no longer stand on the same side of the line, how do we choose?”
I still have one question. What is the first thing most men do first thing after the get up? Have a piss . . . amirite or amitire?? So, how is it explained that Robin Bain didn’t empy his bladder before setting about murdering his family?
I would have thought that the body would have all sorts of overrides to normal biological functions when one was about to commit mass murder.
The full bladder, therefore victim, argument has no evidential weight.
This always supposes improbability Robin slept and committed crime soon after rising without emptying his bladder.
What evidence is there that Robin may not have had a sleepless night contemplating shooting his family or woke well before the shooting. In such scenarios he could easily have started with a partially full bladder and accumulated further urine during the activity of shooting his family.
I have not studied this David Bain case – but the thing that has always been the BIG question to me – is MOTIVE?
What MOTIVE did David Bain have to murder all these members of his family?”
The link you posted Penny goes to the review of the case that is damning of the police. We will never know who killed the Bain family, because the police didn’t do their job properly. What was the motive for that?
We will never know who killed the Bain family, because the police didn’t do their job properly. What was the motive for that
An excellent question, Weka!
Dunedin, moreso than many NZ cities, has a very dark history, one which includes police, politicians etc, being tied to organized, and underaged crime, and various other sadistic goings on.
Rather like it being, the Adelaide of NZ, if you will!
so, they want to intercept Skype? 1/3 of all internet traffic. Good luck with that Amy and co.
(You better you better you bet).
Seven Sharp characterize Assange as an “albino weasel”. Really?
DHB’s fail to meet safety stds (Health Quality and Safety Board).Only a 1/4 to a 1/3 of all DHB’s “doing enough” to prevent falls, infection etc.
RB seriously considering restrictions on low-deposit loans, first-home buyers not exempt. “Something has to be done to prevent damage (wreckage) to the financial system.”
This morning around the time on Morning Report about 7.45am that radionz reads out the headlines of the main papers I thought I heard that the Waikato Times had an item on spending by the NZ Forces likely to go into drones etc. I haven’t been able to track this down. Did anybody else hear the full mention, very short, or have seen it in a newspaper? I would like to look at it, hear it further.
In my day Joe, we believed everything that authorities told us. (Almost.) Now we should doubt everything that authorities tell us. Skills learnt to predict the bad guy in a stirring”whodunnit” will nowadays be focussed on real authority figures selling real misinformation. My brain hurts.
Message to Christine Rankin …
A Doz size 7 eggs are on special at New World for $3.99.
That’s great aye Krussy?
That means the kuds can live on weetbix and milk for breakfast (at 57cents?); noodles for lunch; and egg and toast for dinner for the next week.
Well I know mine couldn’t possibly have, but as you know Krussy Rankin seems to know better.
(i.e. basing her experiences of a couple of decades ago transposed on today’s reality).
They’d probably have to be raw eggs as well, given the lack of electricity.
So little birdies on the twittery grapevine saying things about how that there Auckland Council voted 10-7 that they weren’t interested in some deal involving no skycity and some pokies and a convention centre so that’s a thing.
The comments list seems to becoming overwhelmed with some material from Gaza GPJA.. And Karol’s one on Women receiving awards also extra long, the wording of headings if too long is hard to read.
Remember last year? When ABC were using Garner and Gower to dump on Cunliffe … all off the record, whispering in the dark, using the TV3 twins to push their self-serving agenda.
It’s on again. But this time Shearer is the target. Remember there are no real Shearer supporters, they were Parker supporters a couple of weeks before the leadership ballot in 2011, they just wanted a front man, and Shearer got the nod.
Turns out he’s not up to the job (who could have guessed, eh?) so they’re leaking into Gower’s ear (eww) and tonight on TV3 they got him to do their work – it’s their usual method. And the next idiot who says “Non-story! MSM!” try and think for a moment … who’s feeding him? And why?
Shearer will be dumped by the people who put him there. Next up, Robertson.
Yes. But don’t they need to put it to a full membership vote? They may try to go for someone like Andrew Little, or Jacinda Ardern. They are short on options.
But I thought Gower was supposed to have pretty much made everything up last time to make headlines? But this time he’s being fed?
Or maybe last time “ABC” fed gower the idea of a Cunliffe coup in order to discredit cunliffe, (who didn’t need discrediting if he wasn’t planning a challenge), and this time they’re feeding gower the idea of a caucus challenge because, well, whatever.
Or maybe gower realises his paycheck rests on taking unwary comments and blowing them out of proportion. Where’s the benefit in flagging a challenge months down the road? There is none.
Got that.
The reports gower was making last year about Shearer’s leadership facing a possible challenge within months were complete falsehoods spread by confidential sources. The reports gower is making right now about Shearer’s leadership facing a possible challenge within months are complete truths spread by confidential sources.
Did you see the story? Long, detailed quotes. Not somebody caught off guard, but somebody planting.
I said (and you ignored) Garner because it was his blog that started it all last year. A blog that was brought about by senior Labour MPs attacking Cunliffe – anonymously, of course.
Funny thing about anonymous attackers. You never know what was the actual quote and what is the intermediary’s little bit of editorialising. Sometimes they’re 100% accurate, sometimes it’s all just an invention by the intermediary, usually it’s somewhere in between. The point is, you can never know.
If s/he said the complete opposite, you’d be right. But if the reporter is the only one with recordings or notes of the meeting, there’s a lot of room for misinterpretation that wouldn’t ruin come to light.
And if a journo does burn a source who is expendable, what could the anonymous source do?
unless he got something slightly less clear cut, but he now has the lens through which everything can be interpreted and the mp is therefore no longer needed.
I mean, the difference is whether they had lunch for an hour and gower drew together disparate lines and placed less emphasis on qualifications and equivocations, or had a 2 minute chat in the john where the mp wasn’t interrupted at all and spoke straight into the recorder.
No, the difference is the quote marks. And it doesn’t matter if Gower is ignoring all the kumbayah stuff they may have said. They also said this stuff, to Gower, (and Dannat TVNZ). It’s deliberate that they said this stuff, it’s something they chose to do, to get a story like this.
I’ve been “quoted” in the paper once or twice – different hats back in the day. Just in the local pages, nothing earth shattering. Quotation marks seemed to be largely similar to the role of the target in the Texas Sharpshooter analogy.
And that’s without the interview style “would you say something roughly along the lines of xxxxxx?” “yes”.
What is the problem with someone saying that Shearer has to either demonstrate that he can get his performance right or step aside?
What is the problem with telling the media?
The Membership and the public would like to know that the Party leaders are taking the continual poll paralysis seriously.
The sooner the Leadship issue is opened to a proper debate the better.
But according to the “Shearer’s a patsy” theory, doesn’t that mean that I’d be undermining shearer at this time so Robertson can take the leadership?
But of course your justification for that delusion is even more tenuous than CV’s guess: it consists solely of amateur-hour content pattern analysis. Even a political news editor would regard that as a bit thin.
By the way, your content analysis is as mistaken as your trend analysis.
There has been one Labour MP who has been providing information to Gower. This goes back a long way ….. Gower himself has mentioned in passing the name of that MP when I was with a small group of people a few years ago.
Labour leader David Shearer has been put on two months’ notice by his own MPs – if the poll ratings don’t improve, his leadership will be challenged.
A Labour MP told 3 News today that Mr Shearer had until spring – two months away – to pick up his and Labour’s performance.
The MP, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “The caucus is just really flat. It’s not panic or anxiety just yet, but a couple more bad polls and it will be. David’s got a couple more months. A change in leadership cannot be ruled out before the end of the year.
“Spring time is when people will get really nervous, just over a year out from the election. We don’t want to get into the “Goff-zone”, where it’s too late to change the leader, but you’ve got someone in there the public just don’t want -the phone is just off the hook.”
It is rare for Labour MPs to speak so openly of leadership concerns.
The MP who spoke to 3 News is not a loyal supporter of leadership rival David Cunliffe. That makes the comments more significant as it shows there are broader concerns in the caucus about Mr Shearer’s performance.
Meanwhile Mr Shearer was on the by-election battlefield of Ikaroa-Rawhiti with Meka Whaitiri, Labour’s candidate for the seat.
There he vowed to be the Labour leader come the next general election.
3 News
let’s refresh everyone on the basis you have for saying that Robertson and I are “old friends”. I said:
The only relationship I have with Robertson is that he was present of the students’ association at about the same time I started uni.
From that you draw a long bow from “uni at roughly the same time”, through “actually spoke to each other at the time” all the way to “are friends” [present tense = “are friends now”]. And spout on as if it’s fact.
this would be the brilliant tactic of creating rumours of a cunliffe challenge because mallard didn’t want cunliffe to be leader, even though cunliffe was extremely loyal and in no way going to challenge.
No challenge = no need to purposefully create rumours.
But if there was a challenge, gower didn’t need mallard to make anything up.
The MP who spoke to 3 News is not a loyal supporter of leadership rival David Cunliffe. That makes the comments more significant as it shows there are broader concerns in the caucus about Mr Shearer’s performance.
That suggests to me the MP was a member of the broader caucus and not notably aligned at any point to either the Shearer or the Cunliffe camp.
That’s why I said at any point. The Robertson/Parker acolytes joined with the Shearer-ites once the deals were done. One faction leader got deputy and the other finance. I’m inclined to think this was someone who kept in the background during the leadership battle and its aftermath.
Great, more Labour MPs spilling their guts to news reporters. Also, I’m pretty sure that apart from a very few MPs, there is no actual “Shearer camp”.
EDIT ffs, this Labour caucus instability is Hooten’s wet dream planned well over a year ago, coming true. I’m just amazed though that none of us on The Standard spotted the plan before.
The leader is (usually) not in Parliament on Thursday – today he was campaigning in Ikaroa-Rawhiti. So it’s safe to talk to the gallery, cat’s away, mice play …
In unrelated news, Trevor Mallard *was* in Parliament today.
I can’t believe someone from Caucus chose to leak this to Gower instead of working within caucus to bring a resolution to the Leadership problem. Unbelievable, I don’t think we can blame Hooten for this, I’m afraid that Labour is seriously fucked if a senior member of caucus has gone to the media with this.
Who ever it is is putting their ambitions ahead of the Party’s (Its per emptive, Shearer is gone!)…they need to be outed. Clearly it is the same person who set up Cunliffe in November. This person is poisonous, Labour will never succeed with this person within its ranks IMO.
Hmmm, I thought the whole point was that Shearer was put in to prevent Cunliffe, and he would then later be rolled to get who the ABCs really want. At least that’s what the Standardistas were talking about last year.
Sorry Saarbo, but it’s a given that too many Labour MPs put their own careers ahead of the good of the party.
btw, Labour MPs playing bullshit internal politics and Hooton having his hand in things are not mutually exclusive.
Y’all know I’m neither a LP member nor list voter, so take this as whatever.
But this stuff hurts your party. From now till ‘spring’ Gower has been given an explicit narrative. All political stories will now be in the frame of “What does this mean for Shearer’s position as leader’.
You might think “So, what’s new?” and fair enough, but this has made it official. It’s a Labour party framing, the media don;t need to speculate that caucus is looking, they can state it all as fact.
So LP members should be writing letters and making calls to your mps, and letting them know that this anonymous sniping should stop, and that whoever is doing it should launch a challenge and get this ball rolling. You’ve got your new process, it will take time, but it needs to be put to bed, and that can only happen one way or the other through a vote. Untill the party wide vote happens, this story will run, and Labour will not look like a govt in waiting. That vote needs to happen as soon as possible.
Have the bloody NATs been taking lessons from the UK tories? Conservative Government has just announced a massive £100B infrastructure and social housing build plan…but none of it starts for at least 4 years.
This is more bullshit “things will get better in the future” BAU messaging.
So if Labour falls below 30% will people here finally admit, “hey we’re in trouble here” or will you be like bob dole who thought because his cousin friend in tempe was going to vote for him, hes still in with a chance.
Every 2 or 3 fortnightly Morgan polls I have a look at the trends. Basically I am ignoring jitter.
I essentially ignore the other polls as they happen so infrequently for each poll as to be useless because of their infrequencies and that they only seem to make and effort to get an accurate population sample close to the election – which is why they always have dramatic shifts then.
As far as I can see, most people here do the same. Reading the right blogs is amusing. Many if not most seem to largely ignore Morgan despite its sampling rate and despite the fact that it seldom shifts much leading into an election and is usually the most accurate. Instead they concentrate on the infrequent polls with piss poor track records.
I guess they are either credulous fools with little understanding of statistics, or they are credulous fools with delusions that the “big lie” technique keeps working.
in the roy morgan, I probably would. Especially if it was coupled with a noticable reversal in the trend (as opposed to a single 8-point drop from 37%).
You can relax McFlock. The true mean of support for Labour sits on or very close to 32%. It’s very unlikely that it will fall under 30%, except perhaps momentarily.
I get the impression that you pray it does dip below 30%, otherwise all the helpul advice for Labour you’ve offered here is just useless horseshit you’ve been spouting since feb 2012.
Either someone is manipulating iPredict to push their point, or there really has been backroom talk over the last few weeks and the leak is just it eventuating.
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
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 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 3 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
More details come out on Obama’s plan of attack to address climate change.
Obama’s climate plan will limit emissions from plants and trucks
Political leaders from around the world give their reaction.
From the European Union:
From the United Nations:
From Britain:
From the Pacific Islands:
From the New Zealand Green Party:
To date their has been no response to Obama’s speech from either Labour or National. And I think neither can we expect one.
Time for David Cunliffe to fill the gap perhaps? If Labour keep up its silence… Might we see ia press statement from Cunliffe to make up for the missing leadership sadly lacking in his own party?
I also notice that so far there has been no post on Obama’s speech from anyone at The Standard
Why is this?
Does nobody have any opinion on Obama’s speech?
Or could it be, that The Standard authors (consciously, or unconsciously), don’t want to acknowledge or bring attention to the uncomfortable fact that National and Labour’s policies are generally in alignment on further increasing CO2 emissions through more and riskier oil drilling and coal mining etc?
[lprent:
Firstly – What speech? I heard a brief mention on it on the car radio on my late return home last night. Looking at the timestamp on the news story and allowing for date lines, it would have been when? late in the day yesterday? We aren’t a news service, nor are we journalists and we tend to work hard on things other than this blog.
Secondly – Authors write on what they wish to and when they want to – as is stated clearly in the about and the policy.
Thirdly – I see that there was a post scheduled for this morning at the time you wrote that comment. I’d guess that it was written late last night. It gives Anthony’s opinion (which is what we are here to express) on the speech. Changes in policy direction usually take time to digest because the detail is important – not the headline.
Fourthly – You are banned for a week for again trying to tell us what we should be writing – read the policy. ]
What Graham has said for the Nacts, could, painfully, be just as easily be said of Labour.
And a month ago you were calling the greens climate change deniers and sellouts.
“Does nobody have any opinion on Obama’s speech?”
I can’t even bear to listen to the man at the moment. He has no credibility left at all, imo. How can you trust that what he says in a speech is what he really means after Guantanamo not being ended, drones in Pakistan, NSA spying, Bradley Manning incarceration conditions etc, etc? Not to mention people living in tent cities and the nation having to subsidise Walmart pay with food stamps.
All I’d expect from this speech is that he’s trying to change the topic, not that he might mean what he says. So no, I don’t have an opinion on the speech, but I have a very negative opinion about why he might be making in right now, and I can’t believe he means a word of it.
And Jenny is aware, I take it, that Obama is advocating a massive reinvestment in NUCLEAR power. That’s how committed to conservation the man is.
It’s like being lectured on victims’ rights by Garth McVicar. Some people have simply no credibility at all.
Thats right Mozza, Jenny et al have not done their homework into the General Electric (GE) backing of Obama, and what this means to that company’s NUCLEAR power plant production revenue streams, and control of the *energy market*!
Its why we are in this mess, because people like Jenny, have NFI, what they are contributing to!
Whats the link between nuclear power and conservation, Moz?
I wonder if the Obama’s ephinany on US emissions has anything todo with the discovery of massive quantities of shale gas via large scale fracking. Is converting their coal burning to gas burning much better?
That too – I forgot about the fracking in the credibility stakes.
Biggest shale gas boom since whenever, isn’t it? Apparently it’s better than oil for climate change emissions, even more important is the shift from coal to gas. Although apparently the U.S. is displacing, rather than reducing, it’s emissions through coal exports.
then of course there are the tar-sands they are also going gangbusters for..
phillip ure..
Obama, like many of the names who have quoted above, Jenny, Barosso et al, is a criminal, who does exactly what he is told, by those who put him in power!
What part of that, do you NOT get!
kia ora jenny, 2 things strike me about the whole obama thing;
firstly i think your enthusiasm for it is more about the position he holds talking about what he is talking about.
secondly and more importantly you seem to be desiring equal leadership, concerning climate change, to be shown in this country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EaCr1aRits
in response to the first; the first minute of this clipsays it very succintly (if darkly).
secondly; dont look to wellington for leadership, it starts and ends with yourself
Luvvies on the Loose
No. 1: Ginette McDonald
GINETTE McDONALD: He came up to me and said, “Ginette McDonald, do you know who I am? My name is Paul Scott Holmes and I am a great broadcaster!”
JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha! Did he say that, Paul Holmes? ….[Long pause to indicate mourning]…. Peter Sinclair was cerebral. He wrote some very insightful columns.
GINETTE McDONALD: How smart he was and how vulnerable! What a sacrifice it is to be a public figure!
MORA: We could riff on THAT for the next ten minutes!
….Several minutes later….
MORA: Mahhh-vellous! I’ll never forget your interview with Sir Elton John! He ADORED you!
….Later….
GINETTE McDONALD: I think the young are completely mahhhh-vellous!
—-Eight Months to Mars, Afternoons with Jim Mora, Radio NZ National, Monday 11 February 2013
I’m amazed you listen to this stuff…
Yes indeed. I have tried listening to this stuff for as long as I can bear, in the hope that something useful might be discussed. But always I have to end by either switching off or changing to another channel, before my brain dissolves.
You listen to other channels??!!!
What the famous fair and balanced ZB?
I’m amazed you listen to this stuff…
It’s poetry, Paul. Poetry is what it is.
‘luvvies on the loose’..?
this example is happening now/today..a whole gaggle of them..
..in parts foreign..
http://whoar.co.nz/2013/commentwhoar-ed-local-celebs-go-on-charity-wheezeboys-own-adventure-but-was-it-actually-just-a-free-junketscam-of-sorts/
(excerpt:..)
“..ed:..breakfast television has reported how a gaggle of local celebs have been on a ‘wheeze’ of an adventure..”
phillip ure..
Hell Morrissey don’t your ears bleed listening to this this drivel.
This does not have to be hard.
This poll is a concern and the flatness of the past polls is a concern. Between now and the spring the Caucus need to reform itself dramatically. It is possible.
As Toby Manhire suggested in the Herald last week “..the promotion of an MP who had served his time would project strength, evidence of the leader’s vaunted experience in conciliation..”
I’d add to that the early retirement of Goff, King and Mallard coupled with the appointment of new managers in Shearer’s office who are NOT selected by Grant Robertson. Shearer has to stop what he is currently doing. It is not working. He needs to create a new team.
Cunliffe seems to be more focused than ever on his portfolio. He continues to show that he can engage with business people and issues as well as with the workers, consumers and the disenfranchised. His recent contributions to debates in Parliament show he is more centered than ever. Cunliffe looks like a guy who has learned from whatever was done to him last year. He has demonstrated that he can swallow a rat, and get on with folk in the beltway as well a burbs.
Shearer has the choice: to continue as is or to make a change.
Go on Shearer, make the necessary changes, now, refresh and position yourself to get our score out of the low 30s and into the 40s.
Your last chance.
Don’t confuse Obama with Gandhi: Norman Finkelstein
At UBC on January 21, 2009, the day after Obama’s inauguration, Norman Finkelstein gave a short speech about his research into the life and works of Mahatma Gandhi. He claims there is no comparison between Gandhi, who gave up his life to a cause he believed in, and Barack Obama, who is merely a clever politician coasting on a wave of change that he didn’t work to create.
So today in Christchurch we will hear how Brownlee will lump a giant great dull convention centre right onto two of the very best blocks of CBD Christchurch so that all manner of private business can do private business. Brownlee will require the ratepayers to pay for these private businesses.
Why don’t private businesses pay for their private business? I thought Brownlee and his ilk believed in user-pays and the free market and not corporate handouts or picking winners? Why do they force elderly ratepayers to pay for them?
Secondly, a lumpen great convention centre is completely the wrong thing to place in that location. White elephant city here we come…..
i despair.
and so do countless others – witness the decaying hole of the donut city.
Christchurch central city rebuild is failing. I hope I am proved wrong.
When the work is complete, and Christchurch looks like the National Party, and violence and crime flourish, will it be too late to tear their monuments to greed and corruption down? Of course not!
Well that’s kind of what is hoped for – that given the time it will take to bring these giant monuments to fruition and given that time and tide and new and different governments and councils will come and go and shoulder and shove and pull and push these projects all around and they will get variously dumped and amended and shrunken and expanded as the will of the peoples dictate.
That is the hope.
But when all you have is hope you have nothing (sorry JK (kirwan that is)…)
What they believe in is user pays for the poor and government handouts from taxing the poor to themselves and their rich mates.
Yep, it’s what happens when dictators take over.
Covered Sports Stadium, Indoor Sports Stadium, Convention Centre; a monumental Tory.
(Crown- 2.9B Council- 1.9B; Game, set, match).
what? * cough splutter choke croak ….*
next government and council please
overturn coming
Apparently Lancaster Park, I mean Jade Stadium, oh I mean AMI Stadium, whatever the f… its current corporate tag is…. is not even bloody broken. It is apparently structurally sound and the only problem is that from one end of the field to the other the stadium drops 200mm.
That’s about 8 inches. About $45million to repair so the rumour goes. Why not leave it at that? And don’t tell visiting teams as we will then get the downhill advantage….
Really, sheesh, where is the thinking?
… thinking thinking thinking ….
And Brownlee better steer well fucking clear of tossing a covered stadium into the mix. That will seriously bring down the house.
Isn’t politics a funny thing sometimes …
Following is a recent speech by David Cunliffe where he praises Todd McClay, compliments David Bennett and agrees with Matthew Hooton …
I kid you not!
The video is here.
He certainly is a lot more fluent than Dave.
David Cunliffe should be and is ready to be the Leader of Labour, I didn’t really think so last year but he’s certainly developed a bit more humility and lost the arrogance and pompousness.
I guess having your colleagues lining up to kick you in the nads does that, tends to make you reassess your approach and how you do things.
Well, it’s a bit of a back-handed compliment to David Bennett, for knowing all the loopholes that needed to be ended, having specialised in fiddling farm accounts in the past.
I’m afraid that for a Tory its actually a 100% sincere compliment, nothing backhanded about it.
You know what, Auckland’s support for the CRL is proof that we’d get better governance from referendum than we get from representatives.
The latest David Bain revelations………….
(Just posted this comment on the Radio Live facebook page).
“Seen this Sean Plunket?
I would have put this on your facebook page directly – but you seem to have ‘blocked’ me?
(Don’t you believe in ‘freedom of expression’ Sean? 🙂
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/twelve-reasons-worry-about-bain-case-lf-134942 ”
______________________________________________________________________________
I have not studied this David Bain case – but the thing that has always been the BIG question to me – is MOTIVE?
What MOTIVE did David Bain have to murder all these members of his family?
A bad day on the paper run?
DUH?
Penny Bright
Clearly David is a criminal mastermind…..according to the police.
Disregarding the new evidence, the crown story is just daft:
22 yr old David gets up, shoots 4 of his family in the house and then pops out to do the paper run as an alibi. Gets back home just in time to hide behind the curtains and snuff the old man. Then he just has to leave a wee note on the computer to implicate dad and then finally ring the police and turn on the water works.
Sounds like something from Agatha Christie.
Or as you suggest ,
An elderly man gets up , puts on his sons’ clothes and glasses, shoots 4 of his family. takes off his sons clothes, puts the bloodied clothes in the washing machine,
Changes his clothes, goes into the front room, logs on the family computer, types a note obsolving the son ,whos clothes hes just worn ,while murdering his family.
Shoots himself ,the guns’ mag falling out of the gun and landing on its edge beside Robin Bains’ ‘hand.
Robins. body found with no blood on him ,except his own.
David, who is found with his siblings blood on him. cant remember how he knows his family his dead, or why he waited 20 mins to ring an ambulance.
Sounds like something a defence lawyer would come up with.
It wouldn’t wash as an Agatha Christie novel.
Alternatively, dad wants to shoot his entire family except for one son. Equally bizarre.
Fortunately, we don’t have trial by TV or blogosphere.
Meanwhile, a relative of mine has to avoid watching the news for the next few days because every time pundits spout opinions (based solely on TV reports or the internet, which compete for the award for disseminating the most utter BS) or cheer their particular team, it reminds her how much she misses her friend, even after all this time.
“Alternatively, dad wants to shoot his entire family except for one son. Equally bizarre.”
Why? Surely not any more bizzare than shooting one or all?
“equally”.
Some folk try Agatha Christie whodunnits, others just don’t bother with hiding a murder-suicide. Arguing that one or the other could not be done because it sounds “just daft” in the cold light of day in my opinion shows a marked under-estimation of (to quote WSBurroughs) “just how far human kicks can go”.
+1
a shooter is likely to have powder residue on his hands, regularly; shooting birds for example.
‘
I still have one question. What is the first thing most men do first thing after the get up? Have a piss . . . amirite or amitire?? So, how is it explained that Robin Bain didn’t empy his bladder before setting about murdering his family?
Don’t get me wrong, I believe this whole thing has been yet another ongoing, ochestrated miscarriage of justice perpetrated by, if not corrupt, then bumbling police officers aided and abetted by officious bureacrats and their babmboozled and indifferent politicians. Milton Weir . Kevin Anderson, Phill Goff, Crusher Collins, Peter Doone, Peter Robinson, Jim Doyle, Kim Jones, N C Jaine, B P Duncan . . . “when honor and the Law no longer stand on the same side of the line, how do we choose?”
I still have one question. What is the first thing most men do first thing after the get up? Have a piss . . . amirite or amitire?? So, how is it explained that Robin Bain didn’t empy his bladder before setting about murdering his family?
I would have thought that the body would have all sorts of overrides to normal biological functions when one was about to commit mass murder.
The full bladder, therefore victim, argument has no evidential weight.
This always supposes improbability Robin slept and committed crime soon after rising without emptying his bladder.
What evidence is there that Robin may not have had a sleepless night contemplating shooting his family or woke well before the shooting. In such scenarios he could easily have started with a partially full bladder and accumulated further urine during the activity of shooting his family.
“The latest David Bain revelations………….
I have not studied this David Bain case – but the thing that has always been the BIG question to me – is MOTIVE?
What MOTIVE did David Bain have to murder all these members of his family?”
The link you posted Penny goes to the review of the case that is damning of the police. We will never know who killed the Bain family, because the police didn’t do their job properly. What was the motive for that?
An excellent question, Weka!
Dunedin, moreso than many NZ cities, has a very dark history, one which includes police, politicians etc, being tied to organized, and underaged crime, and various other sadistic goings on.
Rather like it being, the Adelaide of NZ, if you will!
http://www.critic.co.nz/features/article/631/dunedins-dark-past
There has been a massive cover up, it always was, with the reasons most likely becoming, *future conspiracy theories*.
“There has been a massive cover up,”
Got any evidence of that muzza?
Just saw this gif on facebook:
http://i.imgur.com/Auv6MSi.gif
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!!
Very funny
so, they want to intercept Skype? 1/3 of all internet traffic. Good luck with that Amy and co.
(You better you better you bet).
Seven Sharp characterize Assange as an “albino weasel”. Really?
DHB’s fail to meet safety stds (Health Quality and Safety Board).Only a 1/4 to a 1/3 of all DHB’s “doing enough” to prevent falls, infection etc.
RB seriously considering restrictions on low-deposit loans, first-home buyers not exempt. “Something has to be done to prevent damage (wreckage) to the financial system.”
Is David Shearer merely a ‘great-souled-man’?
New Horizon Poll out today on how Aucklanders view the government, titled Government suffers poor performance ratings on Auckland issues.
Also worth a read is the follow up commentary:
What happened to Government supporters in the performance rating poll?
Guessing they knew this was the case when they swallowed the dead rat before them, and made noises about supporting the CRL.
This morning around the time on Morning Report about 7.45am that radionz reads out the headlines of the main papers I thought I heard that the Waikato Times had an item on spending by the NZ Forces likely to go into drones etc. I haven’t been able to track this down. Did anybody else hear the full mention, very short, or have seen it in a newspaper? I would like to look at it, hear it further.
Maybe this?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8850279/Kiwi-drones-won-t-be-killers
Truthers!.
/
http://www.salon.com/2013/06/19/here_come_the_edward_snowden_truthers/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/my-creeping-concern-that-the-nsa-leaker-edward-snowden-is-not-who-he-purports-to-be/5339161
http://tarpley.net/2013/06/19/how-to-identify-a-cia-limited-hangout-operation/
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/06/25/snowden-an-exercise-in-disinformation/
How would we ever, actually know!
We can’t, and have to draw our own conclusions!
In my day Joe, we believed everything that authorities told us. (Almost.) Now we should doubt everything that authorities tell us. Skills learnt to predict the bad guy in a stirring”whodunnit” will nowadays be focussed on real authority figures selling real misinformation. My brain hurts.
Maybe Naomi Wolf really works for the CIA. Or the KGB. Or the Al Qaeda!
That would not be any real surprise, Weka.
What all three? Busy woman I guess.
Message to Christine Rankin …
A Doz size 7 eggs are on special at New World for $3.99.
That’s great aye Krussy?
That means the kuds can live on weetbix and milk for breakfast (at 57cents?); noodles for lunch; and egg and toast for dinner for the next week.
they wouldn’t live on that mate.
it sounds like a recipe for enteric dysfunction.
i.e. diaorhea.
Well I know mine couldn’t possibly have, but as you know Krussy Rankin seems to know better.
(i.e. basing her experiences of a couple of decades ago transposed on today’s reality).
They’d probably have to be raw eggs as well, given the lack of electricity.
So little birdies on the twittery grapevine saying things about how that there Auckland Council voted 10-7 that they weren’t interested in some deal involving no skycity and some pokies and a convention centre so that’s a thing.
Don’t understand the point Pascal. As an out of Aucklander that is.
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/embarrassing.html
The comments list seems to becoming overwhelmed with some material from Gaza GPJA.. And Karol’s one on Women receiving awards also extra long, the wording of headings if too long is hard to read.
So the back-stabbing has begun.
Remember last year? When ABC were using Garner and Gower to dump on Cunliffe … all off the record, whispering in the dark, using the TV3 twins to push their self-serving agenda.
It’s on again. But this time Shearer is the target. Remember there are no real Shearer supporters, they were Parker supporters a couple of weeks before the leadership ballot in 2011, they just wanted a front man, and Shearer got the nod.
Turns out he’s not up to the job (who could have guessed, eh?) so they’re leaking into Gower’s ear (eww) and tonight on TV3 they got him to do their work – it’s their usual method. And the next idiot who says “Non-story! MSM!” try and think for a moment … who’s feeding him? And why?
Shearer will be dumped by the people who put him there. Next up, Robertson.
Yes. But don’t they need to put it to a full membership vote? They may try to go for someone like Andrew Little, or Jacinda Ardern. They are short on options.
Ahhh, yes they do. TRP, you asked me why I was still a member?
I’d always wondered that myself. Makes sense now.
makes it too easy for the bastards if you let them have it all their own way.
But I thought Gower was supposed to have pretty much made everything up last time to make headlines? But this time he’s being fed?
Or maybe last time “ABC” fed gower the idea of a Cunliffe coup in order to discredit cunliffe, (who didn’t need discrediting if he wasn’t planning a challenge), and this time they’re feeding gower the idea of a caucus challenge because, well, whatever.
Or maybe gower realises his paycheck rests on taking unwary comments and blowing them out of proportion. Where’s the benefit in flagging a challenge months down the road? There is none.
lolz Gower was being fed BS then, he’s being fed BS now, and thanks for repeating the BS McFlock.
Got that.
The reports gower was making last year about Shearer’s leadership facing a possible challenge within months were complete falsehoods spread by confidential sources. The reports gower is making right now about Shearer’s leadership facing a possible challenge within months are complete truths spread by confidential sources.
“Unwary comments”?
Did you see the story? Long, detailed quotes. Not somebody caught off guard, but somebody planting.
I said (and you ignored) Garner because it was his blog that started it all last year. A blog that was brought about by senior Labour MPs attacking Cunliffe – anonymously, of course.
Same MO.
Funny thing about anonymous attackers. You never know what was the actual quote and what is the intermediary’s little bit of editorialising. Sometimes they’re 100% accurate, sometimes it’s all just an invention by the intermediary, usually it’s somewhere in between. The point is, you can never know.
Nah Quotes are quotes. If a journo misrepresents an off the record quote they’ll never get another one.
If s/he said the complete opposite, you’d be right. But if the reporter is the only one with recordings or notes of the meeting, there’s a lot of room for misinterpretation that wouldn’t ruin come to light.
And if a journo does burn a source who is expendable, what could the anonymous source do?
An mp who has pretty much promised you two months worth of storyline is by definition, not burnable.
Paddy will be, quite rightly, wanting to follow this story up at some point.
unless he got something slightly less clear cut, but he now has the lens through which everything can be interpreted and the mp is therefore no longer needed.
I mean, the difference is whether they had lunch for an hour and gower drew together disparate lines and placed less emphasis on qualifications and equivocations, or had a 2 minute chat in the john where the mp wasn’t interrupted at all and spoke straight into the recorder.
No, the difference is the quote marks. And it doesn’t matter if Gower is ignoring all the kumbayah stuff they may have said. They also said this stuff, to Gower, (and Dannat TVNZ). It’s deliberate that they said this stuff, it’s something they chose to do, to get a story like this.
I’ve been “quoted” in the paper once or twice – different hats back in the day. Just in the local pages, nothing earth shattering. Quotation marks seemed to be largely similar to the role of the target in the Texas Sharpshooter analogy.
And that’s without the interview style “would you say something roughly along the lines of xxxxxx?” “yes”.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Shearer-put-on-notice-by-Labour-MPs/tabid/370/articleID/303006/Default.aspx
What is the problem with someone saying that Shearer has to either demonstrate that he can get his performance right or step aside?
What is the problem with telling the media?
The Membership and the public would like to know that the Party leaders are taking the continual poll paralysis seriously.
The sooner the Leadship issue is opened to a proper debate the better.
Btw, McFlock is a Grant Robertson tool.
But according to the “Shearer’s a patsy” theory, doesn’t that mean that I’d be undermining shearer at this time so Robertson can take the leadership?
But of course your justification for that delusion is even more tenuous than CV’s guess: it consists solely of amateur-hour content pattern analysis. Even a political news editor would regard that as a bit thin.
By the way, your content analysis is as mistaken as your trend analysis.
There has been one Labour MP who has been providing information to Gower. This goes back a long way ….. Gower himself has mentioned in passing the name of that MP when I was with a small group of people a few years ago.
Shearer should have a word with his deputy.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Shearer-put-on-notice-by-Labour-MPs/tabid/370/articleID/303006/Default.aspx
text version
Labour leader David Shearer has been put on two months’ notice by his own MPs – if the poll ratings don’t improve, his leadership will be challenged.
A Labour MP told 3 News today that Mr Shearer had until spring – two months away – to pick up his and Labour’s performance.
The MP, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “The caucus is just really flat. It’s not panic or anxiety just yet, but a couple more bad polls and it will be. David’s got a couple more months. A change in leadership cannot be ruled out before the end of the year.
“Spring time is when people will get really nervous, just over a year out from the election. We don’t want to get into the “Goff-zone”, where it’s too late to change the leader, but you’ve got someone in there the public just don’t want -the phone is just off the hook.”
It is rare for Labour MPs to speak so openly of leadership concerns.
The MP who spoke to 3 News is not a loyal supporter of leadership rival David Cunliffe. That makes the comments more significant as it shows there are broader concerns in the caucus about Mr Shearer’s performance.
Meanwhile Mr Shearer was on the by-election battlefield of Ikaroa-Rawhiti with Meka Whaitiri, Labour’s candidate for the seat.
There he vowed to be the Labour leader come the next general election.
3 News
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/Shearer-put-on-notice-by-Labour-MPs/tabid/1607/articleID/303006/Default.aspx#ixzz2XOu4ZQaZ
Flock off McFuck, you know full well that most people thought Trevor Mallard was leaking to Gower during the conference.
Please excuse him. McFlock is an old Dunedin and Otago uni friend of Grant Robertson.
That’s the sort of thing that should be called “doing a gower”, CV
Loyalty is a value underestimated these days, and it’s great that you are loyal to your friends. Good on ya mate.
let’s refresh everyone on the basis you have for saying that Robertson and I are “old friends”. I said:
From that you draw a long bow from “uni at roughly the same time”, through “actually spoke to each other at the time” all the way to “are friends” [present tense = “are friends now”]. And spout on as if it’s fact.
I think we can call that “a gower”.
Ummm.. I never knew that (on the same basis) Lyn was a close personal friend of R…
Nah….
this would be the brilliant tactic of creating rumours of a cunliffe challenge because mallard didn’t want cunliffe to be leader, even though cunliffe was extremely loyal and in no way going to challenge.
No challenge = no need to purposefully create rumours.
But if there was a challenge, gower didn’t need mallard to make anything up.
That suggests to me the MP was a member of the broader caucus and not notably aligned at any point to either the Shearer or the Cunliffe camp.
But it doesn’t rule the informant out from being a Robertson/Parker supporter.
That’s why I said at any point. The Robertson/Parker acolytes joined with the Shearer-ites once the deals were done. One faction leader got deputy and the other finance. I’m inclined to think this was someone who kept in the background during the leadership battle and its aftermath.
One fond of saying “a couple more”.
Great, more Labour MPs spilling their guts to news reporters. Also, I’m pretty sure that apart from a very few MPs, there is no actual “Shearer camp”.
EDIT ffs, this Labour caucus instability is Hooten’s wet dream planned well over a year ago, coming true. I’m just amazed though that none of us on The Standard spotted the plan before.
😉
It’s a classic “Thursday story”.
The leader is (usually) not in Parliament on Thursday – today he was campaigning in Ikaroa-Rawhiti. So it’s safe to talk to the gallery, cat’s away, mice play …
In unrelated news, Trevor Mallard *was* in Parliament today.
I can’t believe someone from Caucus chose to leak this to Gower instead of working within caucus to bring a resolution to the Leadership problem. Unbelievable, I don’t think we can blame Hooten for this, I’m afraid that Labour is seriously fucked if a senior member of caucus has gone to the media with this.
Who ever it is is putting their ambitions ahead of the Party’s (Its per emptive, Shearer is gone!)…they need to be outed. Clearly it is the same person who set up Cunliffe in November. This person is poisonous, Labour will never succeed with this person within its ranks IMO.
Hmmm, I thought the whole point was that Shearer was put in to prevent Cunliffe, and he would then later be rolled to get who the ABCs really want. At least that’s what the Standardistas were talking about last year.
Sorry Saarbo, but it’s a given that too many Labour MPs put their own careers ahead of the good of the party.
btw, Labour MPs playing bullshit internal politics and Hooton having his hand in things are not mutually exclusive.
Onya Edith.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-edie-windsor-doma-supreme-court-20130626,0,3126206.story
This labour party Gower thing.
Y’all know I’m neither a LP member nor list voter, so take this as whatever.
But this stuff hurts your party. From now till ‘spring’ Gower has been given an explicit narrative. All political stories will now be in the frame of “What does this mean for Shearer’s position as leader’.
You might think “So, what’s new?” and fair enough, but this has made it official. It’s a Labour party framing, the media don;t need to speculate that caucus is looking, they can state it all as fact.
So LP members should be writing letters and making calls to your mps, and letting them know that this anonymous sniping should stop, and that whoever is doing it should launch a challenge and get this ball rolling. You’ve got your new process, it will take time, but it needs to be put to bed, and that can only happen one way or the other through a vote. Untill the party wide vote happens, this story will run, and Labour will not look like a govt in waiting. That vote needs to happen as soon as possible.
Fuck spring.
So when will Labour give up on winning this election and concentrate on 2017?
“Three more years!, three more years!”
Have the bloody NATs been taking lessons from the UK tories? Conservative Government has just announced a massive £100B infrastructure and social housing build plan…but none of it starts for at least 4 years.
This is more bullshit “things will get better in the future” BAU messaging.
It is ‘pretend and extend’ creeping into policy promises.
So if Labour falls below 30% will people here finally admit, “hey we’re in trouble here” or will you be like bob dole who thought because his cousin friend in tempe was going to vote for him, hes still in with a chance.
I think you are right Brett. No-one on ts has ever speculated before now that Labour might be in trouble.
weka:
every time there is a poll here, it doesnt matter what it shows, everybody jumps
up and down and acts like its a victory for labour.
The only poll that counts is on election day unless that poll shows an increase for Labour in which case its an indicator of Labours resurgence
Brett Dale. Please attempt to pay more attention to what people actually say here, next time.
Every 2 or 3 fortnightly Morgan polls I have a look at the trends. Basically I am ignoring jitter.
I essentially ignore the other polls as they happen so infrequently for each poll as to be useless because of their infrequencies and that they only seem to make and effort to get an accurate population sample close to the election – which is why they always have dramatic shifts then.
As far as I can see, most people here do the same. Reading the right blogs is amusing. Many if not most seem to largely ignore Morgan despite its sampling rate and despite the fact that it seldom shifts much leading into an election and is usually the most accurate. Instead they concentrate on the infrequent polls with piss poor track records.
I guess they are either credulous fools with little understanding of statistics, or they are credulous fools with delusions that the “big lie” technique keeps working.
in the roy morgan, I probably would. Especially if it was coupled with a noticable reversal in the trend (as opposed to a single 8-point drop from 37%).
You can relax McFlock. The true mean of support for Labour sits on or very close to 32%. It’s very unlikely that it will fall under 30%, except perhaps momentarily.
I get the impression that you pray it does dip below 30%, otherwise all the helpul advice for Labour you’ve offered here is just useless horseshit you’ve been spouting since feb 2012.
Pretty amazing that iPredict hinted this last week.
https://www.ipredict.co.nz/app.php?do=contract_detail&contract=SHR.DEPART.2013
Either someone is manipulating iPredict to push their point, or there really has been backroom talk over the last few weeks and the leak is just it eventuating.
Interesting times!
El Pueblo Unido Jamas sera vencido!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhpSwSBbdxM
Viva el Chile, viva el mundo, viva Novo Zelanda, viva!!!
Libertad por Chile Y el mondo, especial por latin america!!!
Not taking sides, just detected info and downloaded, for others to research!