Would like to know more about rotting and dangerous hospitals that came to be like this under Nationals watch. Why am I having to put up with all this crap about Curran and Hirschfield? Listening to the Esp and Melissa Lee now. Tedious.Espiner beating it up like crazy.
Yes, they should give the Nats labour and NZ Firsts questions too to ensure they spend 100 percent of their time explaining and losing.
I fear this government is under delivering for the left and nowhere near cynical enough about the media. They are being eaten slowly.
Labour so far are underachieving at being a “warm, caring, “inclusive” gentle, transparent government as jacinda promised us, as she fought the election by saying this at her town hall speech but we still await for this and achieve these promises.
It appears the MP,s inside her caucus is letting her down as we saw happen with Donald Ttrump also but trump removed “ineffective politicians” and now surprisingly his approval rating in a poll today was at 42% and the report says this is a string signal he is being now accepted by the voters.
Perhaps Jacinda needs to have a crisis meeting with her caucus and play back her first speech at Auckland’s town hall at the start of her election time and tell her ministers to listen to her speech every day before parliament and honour her promises we voted for?
New ministers in a new government always make these small basic mistakes.
You could see even Bridges fluffing his responses to questions, making basic mistakes in his early days. As hes on a steep learning curve for his new job.
I remember Joyces parting comments when asked recently about the ‘things that went wrong’- he was being truthfull when he said ‘Most you dont hear about’
Its war without guns…and an unequal struggle at that…all governments are prone to errors.
What are the differences between this and the previous admin that are concerning power?
Nobody said democracy would be easy, in fact it would appear from disengagement levels that it is becoming too difficult for many but even so it remains the best of a range of poor options.
Nobody said democracy would be easy, in fact it would appear from disengagement levels that it is becoming too difficult for many but even so it remains the best of a range of poor options.
This assumes that we have a democracy rather than an elected dictatorship that resembles the oligarchy of the US.
Radio New Zealand
NEW ZEALAND
27 Mar 2018
Carol Hirschfeld resigns over meeting minister: ‘There are serious questions here’
1:37 pm on 27 March 2018
This was definitely a ‘parting attack’ by Steven joyce as he today says goodbye in parliament.
The timing was staged here, and this flurry from the right wing news hub breakfast show host Duncan Garner just laid it on so heavy in today’s breakfast show to confirm he was part of the plan to hit back at Carol Hirschfeld and RNZ at the same time just to raise the ratings for TV3-newshub you can bet.
The top man CEO of RNZ is a National plant and needs to be shoved under the bus as does the head of the board of RNZ Richard Griffin.
Seriously, labour need to review all the appointments National made to boards, ministries etc as they have stacked them with sycophants who will try to bring down the government.
Correctly said there national have sacked every corner of government organisations with National “sycophants who will try to bring down the government”
Jacinda needs to do what David Langey did when he entered as a first time PM in 1984 as he went on a big hunt to remove all “impediments” when he went on “The great Qwango hunt” to remove biased groups and advisors/committees.
Jacinda needs to show ‘leadership’ and use her Caucus to do this now.
Yes , make strong positive changes, go on the front foot, or sit back and get creasebound with no runs on the board until your innings is over. God I hate cricket.
If Ardern even tries, watch the right-wingers cry foul over the importance of an impartial public service. But I agree… she should and, I believe, she must otherwise it’s a death by a thousand cuts.
The public service will play the coalition government with everything they’ve got. I’m already hearing word about information being withheld by senior civil servants from their Ministers – can’t verify it yet though.
Steven Joyce using MBIE “employment rules’ was behind all the funding cuts to certain media platforms if they did not pull into line on ‘refraining from broadcasting negative issues of the National party – (we were tipped off )
But if labour tried this the right wing would howl wouldn’t they now?
I would expect her caucus (Jacindas) is busy doing just that cleangreen but all this takes time. Firstly they need to do full reviews of everything as you cant trust the previous government.
Some of those national sycophants you refer to will be protected for now with employment agreements and contracts. Some of these agreements will lock them in for years and some would have been purposely signed just before the election so it will take some time to get rid of these sycophants.
Correct. The idea of a non-politicised public service is dead and buried.
It is long past the time that alongside their party list political parties published a list of senior government appointments where they will be replacing person X with person Y, similar to the way a whole list of Republicans give way to Democrats and vice versa in the USA.
By examining such a list, by looking at who will be allowed to stay and who will be made to go and who will replace them, voters will be much better informed as to how radical an agenda a government actually wishes to enact when in power.
Look, the corporate media hate RNZ. The idea of a publically funded competitor doing real journalism and showing up their click bait bullshit drives them nuts and drives up their costs, because they have to employ journalists and do journalism to compete with RNZ. They are going to lay it on thick in this case to try and stop an extra 38 million going to public broadcasting.
This is the extent of Curran’s f**king idiocy – she has politicised RNZ’s funding and she has given powerful enemies of the governments policies a stick with which to beat a policy they hate, and they won’t need to be asked twice. The MSM loud-mouths Hosking, Garner, all of them will bay like the pack hunting bullies they are and milk this for all it is worth.
Why did she feel she had to go behind Griffin’s back? She’s the Minister, just call him in for what would be the first in a series of ‘tough conversations’. Explain the vision for RNZ, then explain why she doesn’t believe he’s the person to deliver it. Then ask him what he plans to do to convince her that he can. Let him fluff around for a while, then say “I don’t think this is working Richard”.
I agree but when we wrote to Clare Curran to discuss our public concerns with her CEO and staff including the chair, she wrote us saying the 1996 Broadcasting Act prevented her from getting involved in RNZ operations.
That is where the problem is as National have been allowed to keep their act current and labour must change it now.
Shall I place the letter from Clare curran we received on 15th February 2018 on this website now showing this anomaly ?
To have that kind of intestinal fortitude and leadership requires good chess moves.
This minister is sadly reactive not proactive. Her use of a supporter to “Find the lay of the land” has backfired badly. She should have asked them all to submit a written plan going forward.
Now she is fighting them alone. She’d better regroup quickly. Griffin is well named.
All she has done is “put them on notice” by her clumsy moves, and removed a friend at court.
Mycoplasma Bovis is set to cost the taxpayer via compensation and the whole package to stop further spread of this disease — $60M and counting.
Ok so how did this disease enter the country? With the Van Leeuwen dairy group being the 1st farms found infected, how/why were cattle still moved without testing? Why the initial secrecy as to which farms were infected so neighbors and other cattle buyers were not helping the spread? Why didn’t the National Govt/MPI hit this hard and prosecute transgressors hard?
Can we trust all the farm owners to be honest about their losses? We know some farmers are cruel to their animals which can sometimes result in the death of the animal. So these could now be lumped into the cull figures and at $1000-$2000 per animal it would be very tempting to slide those other ear tags into the mix.
#2
The media bs beatup over Clare Curran and Carol Hirschfeld.
Seems to be getting headline treatment and we even have opinion pieces front page from the likes of Brigitte Morten of all people……………… sigh!
Meanwhile the whole saga of Finlayson V Kim Dotcom slides awaaaaay……
Meanwhile the whole saga of rotting hospitals slides awaaaaay………..
Meanwhile the whole saga of willful neglect of infrastructure by National slides awaaaay…………
Labour needs to up their game in the whole PR battle, they’re currently getting a right shafting
You are doing a passable imitation of a right wing troll Cleangreen.
Why all the negativity? Governments take time to bed in and the media was always going to be against them. For me the Jacinda crew still represents a breath of fresh air after 9 repressive and regressive years.
Twyford’s housing announcement was good, with more to come.
The budget will reveal a change of direction from the old mob.
The whole sorry saga regarding the outing of the litany of lies told by the General and NZ Defense forces re the killing of civillians during Operation Burnham.
………………….. sliding awaaaay
1) after the disease was identified, the farms were locked down. Then MPI traced or tried to, every cattle movement off farm in the months preceding that and tested those “ new” herds. New positive farms also could not/ cannot move stock.
Re Mycoplasma Bovis, Minister of Agriculture, Damian O’Connor made a Ministerial Statement at the beginning of yesterday’s sitting of the House at 2pm to update the House on the action being taken to deal with this crisis. (No oral questions were requested/scheduled to be asked in Question Time on this subject.)
Responses to this Statement were then made by Nathan Guy (N), Winston Peters (NZF) and Gareth Hughes (G); followed by a further reply from O’Connor.
Here is the Hansard draft transcript of the above;
Videos can be also be watched on the Parliament website in the Watch/On Demand section. Here is just the first, O’Connor’s Statement. the rest are also in this section.
why are we paying for this rort (mico plasma bogus) and why did the gnats pay for indian dairy owners security when they didn’t give a stuff about many of our chch earthquake victims plight
We hear fuck all from MSM or even RNZ so they need to be an active investigative media as we used to have with “close-up, and other shows from the 2000-2005 time.
#2
The media bs beatup over Clare Curran and Carol Hirschfeld.
Seems to be getting headline treatment and we even have opinion pieces front page from the likes of Brigitte Morten of all people……………… sigh!
Meanwhile the whole saga of Finlayson V Kim Dotcom slides awaaaaay……
Meanwhile the whole saga of rotting hospitals slides awaaaaay………..
Meanwhile the whole saga of willful neglect of infrastructure by National slides awaaaay…………
Labour needs to up their game in the whole PR battle, they’re currently getting a right shafting
Reply
John up North 4.2
28 March 2018 at 9:30 am
Hah!
This one too!
The whole sorry saga regarding the outing of the litany of lies told by the General and NZ Defense forces re the killing of civilians during Operation Burnham.
True if you have the choice of having a “willing media to cover your matters that are occurring in our own backyards.”
As of today we on the east coast HB/Gisborne have been without a full time reporter on staff at RNZ to cover all our “matters that are occurring in our own backyards.”
See our story on 9.3.1.3
Oh good grief. Now we have the drip who just keeps dripping. Hosking just jumped on the bus breathing righteous hell fire and brimstone. I must say hes a tedious little bore.
The more I think about it, the more Clare Curran’s imbecility pisses me off.
The wrong person – as in, the competent one with integrity – has resigned. The moron who jacked up the meeting and then clumsily tried to hide it then threw Hirschfield under the bus survives. Government just got a little bit stupidier. I hope Hirschfield gets the press officer job going on the ninth floor.
Labour’s big plan for using RNZ as a counterweight to the knee-jerk right wing reaction of the corporate MSM is clearly being opposed by the right wing revanchists who oversee RNZ, and Curran’s complete idiocy as a minister has given round one to the reactionaries. I doubt it is fatal, Griffin is a goneburger in April anyway. But the political losses are much higher now.
How can a ‘competent one with integrity’ tell big fat lies about a meeting? Can you see the error that leads to your confusion on this point
It was in a very public place no need for a cover up about how it was arranged and even saying it was agreed for a place and time is small cheese , maybe just a telling off.
“I hope Hirschfield gets the press officer job going on the ninth floor.”
In the circumstances it would be the least Jacinda Ardern could do for Carol Hirschfeld – if she wants it of course. No matter what the official story turns out to be, it’s Carol who has been unfairly up-ended on this one.
She lied for months to her bosses and this lead to them misleading parliament. It’s hard to see how Labour could employ her at this time given that, and given that the lie involved one of their own Ministers and she was working for a govt broadcaster at the time.
I suspect she’s been shafted here, but we don’t know the full story. On the face of it, I can’t see how Labour could employ her with integrity. But then there’s not explaining why CC still has her Minister’s job.
My suspicion too. I am sure Carol Hirschfeld would have told Clare Curran at some point that she was going to have to tread carefully with her bosses – or something along those lines. So, surely Clare Curran could have borne that in mind with her subsequent utterings. From what I’ve read she appears to have done the opposite.
I’m sure I read somewhere he actually rang her which in my view is worse. Lee claims she was surprised at the call but thought it was probably a courtesy call. I suspect it was more a politically motivated call.
Griffin told the Herald he rang Lee at the same time the media statement was released as a matter of courtesy because she had asked a series of questions around the meeting.
I would like to know who he advised inside the government, and whether he personally rang them – as a matter of courtesy.
Griffin will not give a … whether he should or should not have called Melissa Lee – such niceties do not apply to Griffin in his mind. (He described employment law to me in those terms (niceties) many years ago.)
Melissa Lee has a question to Curran at Q11 today – “MELISSA LEE to the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media: On how many occasions has she met with Carol Hirschfeld since becoming Minister?”
However, I am pretty sure that Bridges asked the same question of the PM under Q2 – but was only half listening.
Griffin will not give a … whether he should or should not have called Melissa Lee – such niceties do not apply to Griffin in his mind. (He described employment law to me in those terms (niceties) many years ago.)
So he doesn’t give a [shit] about calling a member of the Opposition Nats and talking, but he fires Carol Hirschfeld for talking to the Minister.
And don’t lets quibble about the white lies Carol told because I suspect there was a good reason she felt she couldn’t tell him the truth and it would have gone beyond any RNZ protocol. Silver tongued bosses can be tyrants behind the scene. I’ve had first hand experience.
Griffin is a very slippery customer – no integrity, only expediency. And his days at RNZ are now very numbered – five weeks until 30 April. So he has nothing to lose – he will just throw every spanner he can find into the works.
As I said in 9.4 below, I fully understand why Herschfeld held off telling Griffin and Thompson that the meeting was pre-arranged – she knew it would be used against her by Griffin to get her out of RNZ. That is how he has operated in the past.
Clare Curran was out of the starting chogs after the election on her promise to begin a truly free of interference media platform RNZ+ commercial free of funding by corporates policy balanced media for public to use as their voice of the people.
Since then She has not even made the RNZ available to our NGO which is a community advocacy group available to us for media press releases from our NGO on maters that HB/Gisborne communities are concerned about.
Clare Curran has failed us in HB/Gisborne on the matter of our loss of our rail six years ago and since we all have made great strides to find a way to restore our rail service but we cant get our story told over RNZ so our public media is failing us.
Last month Government’s Regional Development team came to Gisborne to release the policy and Shane jones said he has not heard from any party about a rail plan and RNZ prevented us placing our case before him so again we say;
Clare Curran is failing us.
Read the story again please as it needs to be told by the media not just in a local rag.
February 27, 2018
gisborneherald.co.nz
COLUMN – Shafted by Eastland Group lobbyists
by Gillian Ward Published: February 27, 2018 2:14PM
Gillian Ward is Chairwoman of the Gisborne Rail Action Group
Re: Mixed Signals — Minister yet to receive strong case for Wairoa to Gisborne rail line, February 24 story.
The Minister actually has received a strong business case for reinstating the rail line between Wairoa and Gisborne. In response to his request in November, a proposal was delivered to him two weeks ago. So, it is very disappointing that in the national launch of the Provincial Growth Fund on Friday neither restoration, nor a feasibility study, was announced for the Wairoa-Gisborne railway line.
Rather than being let down because of the lack of a “strong case”, the Gisborne residents who have marched and signed a petition requesting that the government restore the rail line, and businesses who need rail to move their fresh produce to Napier’s export container port, have been shafted by a small handful of Gisborne business leaders.
These few people who should be representing the best interests of the region are instead conflicted. They are focused solely on the expansion plans of Eastland Port, and planning for large profits, and they have the ear of the politicians.
Rail freight of containers of fresh chilled produce destined for export from Napier’s container port will provide flexibility, be competitive, and offer security of freight transport with an additional land transport option for our isolated region. Huge container ships and multiple container cranes handle enormous stacks of containers at Napier Port’s deep-water port.
Eastland Port on the other hand has a totally different situation, being located in a silty river mouth, which is carefully dredged to attain the depth required for log ships, while minimising disturbance of sensitive marine habitats. There is much less capacity to handle containers.
Hon Shane Jones is aware of this conflict of interest, and although he has stated that, “There’s political will to back rail”, he would prefer that the community sort out our priorities, rather than the government imposing decisions.
Mayor Foon has stated that Gisborne needs all the transport modes — roads, rail, coastal shipping and air transport. The residents and business community have indicated, with a march of 2000 people led by Mayor Foon along Grey Street to the Railway Station in April 2012, a petition of 10,480 signatures presented by Mayor Foon to Hon Anne Tolley at Parliament in May 2012, fundraising $11,000 for BERL Economics to review KiwiRail’s May 2012 analysis of the economics of the railway line, public meetings, letters to the Gisborne Herald editor, articles in The Gisborne Herald, presentations to the District Council, as well as business case analyses of the commercial viability of the line, that reopening the railway line would be well-supported by the community and businesses.
It is a small city characteristic that influential leaders can be conflicted, wearing more than one “hat”, and the aspirations of the Gisborne community to restore our other land transport option have been well and truly undermined by a few people determined to scuttle these aspirations.
Gisborne had to campaign hard to be included in the Government’s national rail-building effort in the late 1920s. It was a hard-won battle and a challenging line to complete, but the rail line was opened in 1942 amid jubilation from the Gisborne community.
Now that we have the line, it is a gift from an earlier generation. The cost to repair the storm damage is minimal compared to the value of the asset. Imagine the cost to build a railway line through the Wharerata hills now!
Please Minister Jones, hear the voice of the Gisborne community and filter out the noise from the Eastland Group lobbyists!
Many here have extremely SHORT memories, the most important issues of the day haven’t even been mentioned, nada, yet this media driven nonsense of nothing is the highlight and even has a dedicated platform to discuss.
How many cows will be put down, and why
Finlayson’s debacle
Russian spies?
Oh, Aussies cheat, when they can.
And the bid one, Why are our Hospitals in such a poor state and how are we going to fix them?
I was being tongue in cheek on that suggestion last night. !. I don’t think Herschfeld would actually want that job – a thankless one and all consuming and pretty below her experience, and a teenage daughter to consider.
There is no way she could be appointed to that position now; or any similar position until a little time has passed to allow the dust to settle.
I gather that Herschfeld was really loving her job with RNZ and was looking forward to what seems to be ahead for RNZ etc. Given this but with Griffin as Chair and Thompson as CEO, I do actually understand her trying to maintain her position.
Re Curran, I believe that the PM is caught in a catch-22 situation at present, but that in the not too distant future we will see Curran out of that Ministerial role.
A change of Minister at this time could be disastrous. In the next few weeks, the Budget proposals in respect of RNZ+ and the other changes proposed to NZ on Air etc must be completed, (eg by mid-April).- together with the overall Budget. It is absolutely the worst time of the Government year to make changes to Ministerial appointments.
In that same time period decisions need to be made on the next Chair of the Board of RNZ. Hopefully this will not be to roll over Griffin, but to appoint someone else more aligned to the Labour Party campaign proposals on public service media.
In fact, the one good thing to come out of this situation might be the fact that it has brought into focus the distance between Griffin’s views and those of the new government.
After the last two years in HB/Gisborne being left without a local reporter (by National Government design) after the election I asked Clare curran to sack Paul Thompson over this and she refused.
I received a letter from Clare Curran that did not impress me.
Beaded git challenged me as to why I was so negative.4.1.1
I am tempted to place the letter on this social media site but will refrain for now but will say Clare Curran made great efforts to give a “legal interpretation as to why she cannot “influence the public broadcaster ” due to the 1996 RNZ broadcasting Act??????
Well Ms Curran said effectively that this toxic Act for not permitting any hands on by a minister of Broadcasting was set-up by the last round during the national Government in the 1990’s so why did labour never ever make this RNZ a more ‘independent media then??????
Now we still have National Party selected people like the CEO of RNZ Paul Thompson who is a National plant and needs to be shoved under the bus along with his partner RNZ Chair Richard Griffin and get some unbiased balanced minds to run the public media like Carol Hirschfeld is or Kim Kim is?
As a ‘old white man’ I am starting to believe with Julie Anne Genter over getting rid of the old dead wood.
I’ve never been impressed with Curran. Ardern is probably keen to keep her in place because of the Dunedin connection and as a woman minister.
Agree totally about Griffin and Thompson. These guys are probably on cast iron contracts. It takes time to change these things.
It is obvious the Right’s strategy is to make out that the Lab/Gr/Nzf coalition is incompetent. Granny Herald has its orders and is following them assiduously. Don’t buy into this.
Thanks for the understanding here as we have been shafted by these national Party planted Chair/CEO guys and it is up to Clare Curren to finally play tough with them or give the job to who ever will carry the peoples wishes for a free fair coverage of our local issues as we are frozon out of RNZ as of now and this is wrong.
Me too. I’m prepared to accept she may have had good intent, but the naivety just astounds me. Especially when she could have recalled the very tricks gNats used in order to stack the deck in the PS.
Probably half the Thordon bubble, most of MoBIE and other snr PS would have been showing off their ‘threads’ at the time.
Even worse if she thought this would be the perfect place for ‘a chance encounter’.
If she didn’t understand the gNats can’t stand CH (let alone her husband) and will seize ANY opprtunity (no matter how hypocrotical), I don’t think by now she ever will.
Over on TDB btw, Frank McSkasey puts in in a bit of perspective, but it’s a stretch if you think any of that will make a diff.
JACINDA (as someone else has suggested) needs to have a bit of a crisis meeting (in trendy language – a ‘war room’), and come up with something that is bold in each of the portfolios. RNZ+ doesn’t need to die in fact it could be the opportunity to go for something even better.
Similarly on matters such as the promises made re HCNZ that have been rolled back a little.
Similarly on matters such as the business of Immigration (so far, both I L-G and Chris FF are prepared to rely on the advice of ‘their officials – i.e. those having a vested interest in preserving a status quo) EVEN THOUGH no doubt, some of them are nice blokes
Similarly resolving the issue of worker exploitation and slavery (the manager of the Labour Indpectorate perfectly prepared to tell us all there are ‘sufficient’ numbers of Inspectors JUST BEFORE the last election.
Similarly ……… (health)
Similarly ……… (education)
Similarly ……… (infrastructure and NZTA’S wisdom)
AND no doubt other little gems of wisdom. I can well remember (for example) when some sage did away with a division called ‘treaty compliance’ in order to be more fishint n fektiv, then another sage who was part of Tau Henae’s Maori Dev Commisions who simply ( having access to a Minstry’s servers) simply went on to reword and recycle existing advice.
Btw….that sage went on to deprive prisoner’s right to vote.
I mean FFS…..EVEN Winnie’s bro (one of them at least), understood the magnitude of the problem.
I kind of despair really.
Jacinda: it really IS time to come up with something bold. These little tiny weeny steps and mis-steps are not going to cut it.
I realise that pholossphically you’re not into nastiness and you are into principle and being ‘nice’
BUT it really is time to understand (get yourself some learnings) the magnitude, intent, and volume of your opposition
I think the biggest problem is that the left do not really understand the lengths that the right will go to to hang on to their power – they suffer from the delusion that most people are decent, really.
20 years ago I was running a small building company – we got taken to the cleaners by developers and lost everything – home included. They used more dirty tricks than I could have believed possible a human could stoop to and in the end we just had to walk away. I tried to explain to my friends how it had happened and just got blank looks – no-one else I knew (apart from people in the building industry, many of whom had suffered similar treatment) could credit that behaviour that low could operate successfully in what they thought of as a civilised society. I just gave up trying to explain.
I think this attitude is still prevalent on the left, despite 30 years of neoliberalism providing plenty of evidence to the contrary. They persist in seeing many of the worst operators as mistaken but fundamentally decent, somewhere in there. Wrong!!!!
Well of course it did, but my real point was the naivety most of us have about the intentions and lack of ethics shown by the greedy and power hungry who will stop at nothing to get what they want. This government is being hit with a barrage of ghastliness now, and I’m not sure all (including Curran) have a real understanding of what’s coming at them
I think this attitude is still prevalent on the left, despite 30 years of neoliberalism providing plenty of evidence to the contrary. They persist in seeing many of the worst operators as mistaken but fundamentally decent, somewhere in there. Wrong!!!!
That is what many said about jhonkey and he lasted 3 term bullsheritng and lying his way out of everything and then finally he realised I’m one of the most hated men in new Zealand I better leave. Hooray!
I watched the TV3 late news last night.
They had a piece on the protesters at an Oil and Gas conference in Wellington.
The protesters were gaily piling up large heaps of material in order to block up all the emergency exit doors. That is how the TV announcer described it anyway.
About five minutes later we had a story about the fire at a shopping centre in Russia where at least 64 people were killed. They were unable to escape because the emergency exits were blocked.
I hope the New Zealand Police are collecting all the TV footage this morning so that they can identify and charge all those who were protesting at the conference and who were deliberately putting several hundred people’s lives in danger by blocking the doors. That is a very serious offence in my view and deserves a great deal more of a punishment than just a slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket.
Any lawyer care to say what is the most serious offence they could be charged with and what a likely sentence might be? I presume that charges like wilfully endangering peoples lives exist?
Protesting is of course acceptable. What these protesters were doing is not.
I haven’t seen the footage. One would assume that the building owners did have normal fire safety plans. If the protestors were doing something dangerous that’s not ok, but I’m not going to assume alwyn is telling the truth on this. It’s possible that the protest organisers did have a strategy that included not putting people at risk if there was a fire.
They’re not my friends (do you really have to be such a dick?). I did watch it and I can’t tell if that is a fire exit or not. If it is, it was a stupid thing to do (as I have already said).
Oh. Not your friends? Fitzsimmons was in the crowd on one of the TV clips of the demo. and a friend told me he saw two of the current Green MPs there. I thought that was your preferred party.
I withdraw and apologise for trampling on you reputation for probity by linking you to that lot.
What lie did I tell about the exit?
If you are going to make such ridiculous accusations please be specific. Otherwise I can only assume you fit your own description of being a “sniveling little weasel child”
I am not trying to start a flame war. I am simply pointing out that you are making wild accusations with no evidence ever being produced to back them up.
Oh do grow up alwyn, your it’s ok to protest, then smug fake shrill is tiresome.
No one was hurt, except you. You got offended once again that your worldview is actually utter crap. So you make shit up to justify getting in a huffy.
My guess is you will take this as offencive, and well quite simply, it is. Your suppose to be offended. I get offended every time you spin lies to make yourself feel better.
I havent seen the footage, they have every right to protest but if they were blocking emergency exits that is incredibly dumb.
It doesn’t matter that no incident happened but they put people at potential risk by doing it.
Emergency exits are there for a reason.
Your issue is with Alwyn but if they did block emergency exits then that is wrong. Had something happened and I am sure a legal person here can answer what would the charge be.
I just watched the footage. It’s obviously a back door. Whether its an emergency exit as TV3 claim, I can’t tell. Don’t emergency exits have signs saying that is what they are and to not block them? If it is an emergency exit, I agree it was stupid.
And let’s not forget this is a conference that is either in denial of CC or doesn’t care. That’s not theoretic deaths from a potential accident, that’s actual deaths we are responsible for.
My justification for saying that is that you can go to google maps, search for “TSB Arena wellington”, click on “satellite” view instead of map, and zoom in until it goes to Streetview. You can actually see the door they were blocking on the south side of the building. No “fire exit” notices at all.
I hope your photo’s were more up to date than what I just had a look at. The date of the photos was given as being just over 3 years ago when I used your method. Things have been known to change after that long
I certainly hope they clean up their rubbish a little more often than that. What date do you get on your Streetview pictures?
Actually I shall be down there on Saturday. I might try and find the spot.
You can see the fire exit signs on the doors they were banging on, but the camera shot is too low to see if the door they were blocking had a similar sign (the signs on the doors were about half a foot above head height).
I’m not aware of too many conference venues that have single-width external-handled doors right next to a loading bay roller door as fire exits for auditoriums, though. Dicks found empty pallets next to the loading bay around the back, blocked a service door. Might or might not have been an official fire exit for kitchen staff – camera shot was too low to tell.
Yep, if you want an example of Stuart Nash’s mind set then this is an example. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11820250
Then again he and seven other Labour party MP’s also joined the block voting by NZ First and National to prevent a first reading of the Greens bill for cannabis reform, but hey published advocacy for corrections department inmates having no rights and inciting scalping must be a new low for a politician who now is the minister of police. Shame on him.
“No one was hurt, except you”.
I wasn’t there, so it wasn’t likely that I would be hurt anyway.
You have an interesting viewpoint though. Nobody was hurt so it’s all right.
Do you think it would work if I was to drive at 180 kph on the Motorway out of Wellington? When they post me the speeding ticket I can say that I didn’t actually have an accident so they should just drop the whole thing.
Do you think they will agree and nothing further will happen?
Like hell they will.
In the meantime why don’t you just lie down and have a little nap. You’ll no doubt feel ever so much better afterward.
Alternatively you don’t really have to read what I say. It isn’t compulsory you know and if it plays hell with your digestion you really shouldn’t bother.
I won’t be hurt by your ignoring my pearls of wisdom. After all I don’t really want to cast those pearls before swine.
It was a protest. It’s supposed to be disruptive and force a closure of the event, not just ask nicely if the people could just please have their conference somewhere else.
“It’s supposed to be disruptive and force a closure of the event”.
Of course it is. But do you really consider it to be acceptable to risk killing a few hundred people if things go wrong?
If that is OK perhaps they should have just set fire to the building. That would certainly have the effect you desire wouldn’t it?
As it is the people wouldn’t have even known that you might have put their lives at risk. Still, you don’t really appear to care.
“Nothing of importance was blocked”.
And just how do you determine that?
Are you really saying that TV3 were lying when they said Emergency exits were being blocked?
Or are you the one that is lying?
Considering the Police were between the protesters and the exits, do you hope said Policemen/women are also identified and charged with blocking the exits?
Please don’t pretend you care about the 64 or so people killed in the Siberian shopping centre fire.
“It isn’t a fire exit”
How did you determine that? It certainly seems to be such a certain viewpoint, even if it is somewhat hard to see why TV3 should deliberately get it wrong?
I was thinking of going down to the waterfront to see on Saturday but if you have already done that I won’t have to bother.
Read McFlocks answer up above. And if you can’t actually take the time to read what other people have said on somthing you post, then you really need to take the time to look at yourself and how you operate.
I did read it adam.
And I tried to look at Google maps to see for myself.
And I also replied to McFlock asking about what he saw.
If you look you will see it.
You see, and you would understand this if you had bothered to “actually take the time to read what other people have said”, that the photos I found were just over 3 years old.
Now, given that you seem only to happy to pontificate on the subject how do I find up to date images?
After all, if I thought that nothing changed in 3 years I would think that Russel Norman and Meteria Turei were still the leaders of the New Zealand Green Party.
Now, please tell me. How do I get reasonably current photos on Google?
Reclad the north, south and east elevations. The new cladding and paint will match the already re-painted west elevation of the TSB Bank Arena and Shed 6.
Remove the amphitheatre at the building’s south end to eliminate leaks and to revitalise this area which will link with the new Children’s Playground being built in Frank Kitts Park.
Remove all stair access to the uppermost deck areas on the south elevation improving safety in this area.
Remove tiles and leaky membrane on the balcony walkway and deck. They will be replaced with a new membrane and suspended tile system.
Replace the main egress stairs on the south elevation for improved water proofing details and non-slip surface.
The western and north sides of the TSB Bank Arena, home to Capital E and commercial tenants, do not need works done on the exterior façades.
I have no idea whether the building is the same as it was then. Why don’t you provide proof that it hasn’t?
I don’t really think that 3 year old photos would be particularly good evidence though. I assume McFlock had access to more recent ones. Otherwise I’m sure he would have told us about the age of the information in the photo. I would like to know how he gets more recent data than I could manage.
I’m sure he will enlighten me. He really is a reasonable fellow on these matters.
The multiple exits, they double as fire escapes, are used to disgorge a full house of 4k en masse for the after match dash into to Courtenay Place, Cuba St, etc.
The PEPANZ conference has about 500 attendees so it’s not as though a kerfuffle at the exits posed any risk to life and limb.
You appear to be the true rarity in this discussion. You actually know something about the topic.
A couple of very brief questions then.
Were the doors (or door) that TV3 showed having material being piled against emergency exits?
Was TV3 correct or making it up when they described them as Emergency exits?
Are they marked as being such doors?
The fact that everyone can normally get out through the main exits isn’t really the point is it? After all emergency exits are only meant to be used if the main ones are impassable for some reason and the last thing you want is for people to head toward such doors and then can’t get through them.
If they weren’t marked as such then TV3 were obviously wrong to describe them as being for emergency egress. If they were intended for such use they should never be blocked, regardless of how few people were actually in the room.
Also, there’s a longer shot in the three news piece that shows the ground outside the door being blocked. No paint indicating “keep clear”, as I’ve seen with other fire exits next to parking areas or places where goods are routinely stacked.
As you point out, there is a possibility that sometime in the last three years or whatever the museum identified a deficiency in their emergency signage and put a sign up that was just out of the 3news shot. Until you or some other Wellingtonian pops down to check, it does seem that if it is indeed a fire exit then there was nothing to indicate that to the people outside. Who were being dicks, yes, but possibly not the calibre of dicks that would serve tory purposes.
You made shit up alwyn and part of that was to accuse people, some of who have spent 40+ years activism promoting the rights and dignity of human beings. You accuse them of trying to kill people by blocking doors.
It’s a disgusting lie, manufactured to support you selfish world view. I hope you get that, but you probably keep whining like the Tory *&^% tard that you are.
It seems to me that Helen Clark is setting herself up as a self appointed mentor to Jacinda Ardern. To quote from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12021261 “Jacinda was let down. She should have been told. Immediately, actually. And then events would have taken a different course,” Clark said.
“And I cannot understand why she was not told. Unbelievable.”
Asked what she would have done if she had not been told, the former prime minister said: “If you get out the book and ask ‘what would Helen have done?’ … draw your own conclusions.”
Of course Helen has a wide range of policy options to offer, from Rogernomics to regarding the SAS as her private secret army hired out to the Americans to please them then giving refuge to queue jumping doubtful genuine refugees boat people from the Tampa to please the United Nations, all part of her resume for the job she wanted. Maybe she is just looking for another job, an ambassadors position perhaps.
I am now realising the memory of when National cried foul back some several years ago when they ordered the head of a maori TV network resign as he was found to be a labour Party member, so do you recall that hypocrisy?
Here we see national party ‘parachuted in’ heading RNZ now so we are truly fucked if national did this systematically by “installing their puppets all over government agencies now left to trip up labour every day?
Taurima wasn’t the head of a Maori TV network.
He was responsible for the production of Maori and Pacific Island programs at TVNZ. He was also a front man on Q&A.
He wasn’t forced to resign because he was a Labour Party member.
His problem was that he held Labour Party meetings and used TVNZ resources on TVNZ premises. That is an absolute no-no as TVNZ are required to be politically neutral. It was also TVNZ management, not the Government who told him he had to go. The then Government, correctly, kept well clear.
I suggest you read this which is a Law Firms interpretation of the rules for Public Servants in Election Year.
It shouldn’t take you more than a couple of days to get through it. I assume you have a friend who can tell you what the big words with more than two syllables mean. https://minterellison.co.nz/our-view/dos-and-donts-for-public-servants-in-election-year
Friend of Weka’s are you? She throws lying around with gay abandon too. Never does explain where it was supposed to have happened of course because I can, and do, demonstrate that it isn’t true.
However perhaps you have some reason for your drivel. What is it?
It doesn’t matter what Taurima was, the point is there is too many national sycophants in government jobs and others hierarchal positions why do you think it is so hard to make traction.
Interesting. Winston asked a question,(ruled out of order) which was it right that the Leader of the Opposition described himself as a Crown Prosecutor when he does not have such a Certificate ?
Naughty Simon.
“I am advised by the NZ SIS, and so has the Prime Minister been, that there is no individual here in New Zealand that fits the profile of those being expelled by other countries and that is people within the embassies in other countries. If there were, we would have taken action a long time before Salisbury.”
Peters said New Zealand’s Five Eyes security partners were consulted.
Opposition and Media condemn the action taken by the Government yet if Australia could find only two, it is no wonder that “”People in the Five Eyes have consulted with us on our decision, understand our decision, and did so before the decision was made.”
After the Prime Minister – citing MFAT advice yesterday – swore to the world that there were no Russian operatives in New Zealand, Winston Peters – using the far more appropriate SIS intelligence, just flatly contradicts her.
There is Russian intelligence activity in New Zealand, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has confirmed.
In answer to a question in Parliament today, Peters said: “The NZ SIS advise us it is aware of Russian intelligence activity in New Zealand and where it is seen, appropriate action is taken.
“I am advised by the NZ SIS, and so has the Prime Minister been, that there is no individual here in New Zealand that fits the profile of those being expelled by other countries and that is people within the embassies in other countries. If there were, we would have taken action a long time before Salisbury.”
Absurd hair-splitting.
Where the Fuck is DPMC coordinating intelligence and Ministerial briefings?
There is no walking this back. This is a briefing diasster that makes Ardern look like a total naive idiot to the world: The PM looks SparklePony, Minister FOreign Affairs looks like Realo, public service look like complete dorks.
Jesus Prime Minister start rolling out some pre-budget Good News. You look like a fucking idiot.
No, Ad. It is not “Absurb hair-splitting”. I don’t want to call you an idiot, but calm down.
The agreed approach to expelling Russian intelligence operatives is in respect of only one category of these – “undeclared intelligence staff (or agents)”.
Andrew Geddis on the Pundit Blog has done the best job I have ever seen of explaining this category of intelligence operatives. Here is the link and an excerpt:
(Sorry for the long quote but it is necessary to give the whole explanation)
And so the action that obviously was agreed behind the scenes was to kick out the “undeclared intelligence agents” that each country has identified as working out of its various Russian diplomatic posts. Exactly what is meant by an “undeclared intelligence agent” is then very important, as it is the key to why NZ acted (or, didn’t act) as it did.
An undeclared intelligence agent is not an ordinary diplomat who gathers gossip, monitors news media and attends cocktail functions in order to report to their government at home what is happening in NZ. All diplomats do this – our embassy staff overseas just as much as Russian embassy staff here. So “collecting information for your government” does not make someone an undeclared intelligence agent.
Instead, an undeclared intelligence agent is a member of a country’s secret service who pretends to be a diplomat in order to actually undertake covert operations in the country to which they are posted. They are really spies who are pretending to be diplomats so as to get the benefits of diplomatic immunity should they get caught spying.
Because these two things are not the same, they are not viewed the same in diplomatic interactions. A country kicking out a diplomat because they actually are an undeclared intelligence agent is a lesser deal than is kicking out a diplomat proper, because the “diplomat’s” country knows that they’ve basically been rumbled misusing their diplomatic privileges.
So, that’s the level of response that the UK’s various friends collectively decided was warranted – not kicking out “real” diplomats (which is a major step) but kicking out spies-in-diplomats-clothing (which is a lesser step). Which then is a problem for New Zealand.
Because it appears that we don’t have any Russian undeclared intelligence agents on hand to kick out. This claim has, I know, been met with ridicule by many. I mean, it’s Russia! We all know they spy all the time on everyone!! And New Zealand is so very, very important that they must spy on us, too!!! Please? We need the validation … .
Except – maybe there just aren’t any down here at the bottom of the world. And even if there is some undeclared intelligence agent kicking about in the Russian embassy, our SIS doesn’t know who it is. Nor do our overseas intelligence partners, apparently, because we asked them and they couldn’t finger anyone either.
I know that we have had Russian undeclared intelligence agents as defined above on occasions in the past and recall at least one instance when they have been expelled very publicly. I also know that there are times when it is in fact ‘useful’ to leave them in place in some instances. For example, to be able to expel them en masse as in the current situation to send a message.
The PM was pretty confused/confusing in her initial language, but she is probably on a steep learning curve. Peters obviously understands the situation with his longer experience – hence his explanation in the House yesterday under Question 8.
Note – was editing the para re Question 8 in the House near the end of the above but then ran out of time. Was editing this to say that Peters’ explanations were only slightly clearer and got lost in the ‘noise’ around the whole issue evident throughout this question. A minute or so in Peters seeks to clarify that expulsions were only being applied to ‘undeclared’ agents; and then later this:
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Far too late—we’ve been doing that from day one. But we want to make it very clear that what we’ve been challenged by, in terms of the Opposition and the media, is often demonstrably false. For example, 40 percent of the European Union, like New Zealand, have made no expulsions. But no, no—we hear from the media that the European Union has does this and so has everybody else. Well, in the end, Australia found two. We’re a much smaller country, and we haven’t found any yet inside the embassy in the way that, abroad, they did.
Blimey! Hooton’s putting the boot in. Touting a one term government under Ardern. What’s his problem? Apart from breathing. Is he not worried at all about the Health Scandal left behind Si Bridges Bestie Cut Your Spending Coleman. Does he not want to write something cutting about that. Plenty of material there. Far more dangerous and detrimental to sick helpless citizens than any of the lesser SCANDALS that he is so SCANDALISED! by.
The AM Show Duncan when one is the smallest tuna in te Waipu river one does not give A big tuna the pukana because all the other big tuna are pointing the finger at that tuna . The big picture is we are on our own side we show the world we are not puppets like our Nuclear free stance know.
After all one of the finger pointers is not going to say we will take your apples .
Wow Toyota changing there business model my dad can’t use a compute he will have to get the mokopunas to help him but good on Toyota for innervating to deliver more value to them and there customers.
I new the Media and the rest of the Papatuanuku world would blow the Australian Cricket incident up into hysterical hype thats why I’m saying drop it after they are human and I see a lot of cheating going on right in front of my eyes or can’t you see it Duncan.
World Vision has a good purpose but these charity’s need to become innovative teach the people how to become self sustainable with food and income there is a lot of ways this can be achieved innervation is a good thing Ka kite ano
The AM Show years ago when I was fishing out of Bluff we ended up with 12 dozen oysters each well they disappeared so I had only fish and scampi to take home.
I had my first surimi she could not believe that I had not had surimi before it was part of her cultures dishes it tasted very good with fresh fish and all .Ka kite ano.
P.S I like mountain oysters
(The mandatory preface) “so……” thanks SO much for having us JESSIE. STARDOM (as in the Jessie becomes the Afternoons. I mean I accept he’s probably the most gorgeous specimen that ever dwalked and could probably become the next Joolie Krusty eligible whatever.
Just as checkpoint could bcome the next ‘John campbell’ show.
Jesus…. they really don’t get it do they?
Frank(ly mcS)?…? They really don’t get it do they
PERHAPS they need a dose of an Aunt Daisy’s floor polish up their back passage.
Ekshully that’d be a bloody good cure for a ZB hosking and his bimbo bimbo where ya gonna goeeeoh.
( doubt even daddyo would risk his vintard trying to save ya)
Newshub Mike there you go our prison system are archaic ancient flogging horses for some political party’s used to stir up racial division just to get votes .
In a intelligent society both political party’s should listen to the humane advisors and change this system to one that educates the people and prepares them for employment and survival in a ever changing society . At the minute the prison system is a major hindrance on the people whom end up in its tentacles on there journey of life into a complete stop or reverse in there fortunes .
I look at the assets that the police displayed and confiscated from 25 people well one would find the value of those assets in one persons garage in a wealthy suburb and the price of the wealthy person House would cover the $2million dollars that was confiscated money from 25 people can you see the Hippocratic system . yes its good that the Drug PEE is taken off the streets but we need to teach these people that it is more profitable to get into a legal business than crime.
Ka kite ano .P.S my business would be flourishing if the sand flies were not defecating on it Kia Kaha
Newshub letts get this strait the only gang I have allegiance to is my mokopuna and my children’s future well being so if you hear any different disregard it as proper gander against ECO MAORI everyone that knows me knows this fact I still respect all though . Kia Kaha ka kite ano
The Crowd Goes Wild kia ora Wairangi Kopu staunch to League as you are I seen Tawera Nikau a few years back I was going to my lawyers office in Hamilton I just gave him the heads up .Yes many thanks to the NRL Australia for gifting the Warriors A Ladies League team ka pai why did you cut your hair ??????? Im thinking on growing mine and use my real first name my wairua is leading me in this direction I back all Teams as I am colour blind so I respect all I have my favourites .
But the kumra never tells how sweet it is Kai kaha Tana Ka kite ano
This is how state civil servants act after 9 years of shonky rule protect the money man at the expense of OUR beautiful Endangered Dolphins Maui there are only 80 left we should be pouring resources into saving these beautiful creates enough said here’s a link
Newshub there you go the first 3 story’s have a connection and that connection is Alcohol this drug does a lot of damage to Our society but so long as the big companies push this drug we will have a lot more carnage .
Yes boat people please keep our island wild life sanctuaries free from dangerous vermin rats stoats check your boats thoroughly as the animals and birds on these Islands are endangered .
I can remember not so long ago they were saying eggs dairy meat is bad for you what a sham to much of anything is bad for you coffee is in the lime light now Alcohol has cancer causing carcinogens to much Alcohol will kill you instantly why is this fact not advertised .
Kia ora Mike hope the weather is good. I wonder If someone has been putting a spin on things once again. How did the book go hopefully she sold out.
Ka kite ano
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Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
A listing of 24 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 26, 2025 thru Sat, February 1, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is global warming ...
Our low-investment, low-wage, migration-led and housing-market-driven political economy has delivered poorer productivity growth than the rest of the OECD, and our performance since Covid has been particularly poor. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty this ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.As far as major government announcements go, a Three Ministers Event is Big. It can signify a major policy development or something has gone Very Well, or an absolute Clusterf**k. When Three Ministers assemble ...
One of those blasts from the past. Peter Dunne – originally neoliberal Labour, then leader of various parties that sought to work with both big parties (generally National) – has taken to calling ...
Completed reads for January: I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson The Black Spider, by Jeremias Gotthelf The Spider and the Fly (poem), by Mary Howitt A Noiseless Patient Spider (poem), by Walt Whitman August Heat, by W.F. Harvey Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White The Shrinking Man, by Richard Matheson ...
Do its Property Right Provisions Make Sense?Last week I pointed out that it is uninformed to argue that the New Zealand’s apparently poor economic performance can be traced only to poor regulations. Even were there evidence they had some impact, there are other factors. Of course, we should seek to ...
Richard Wagstaff It was incredibly jarring to hear the hubris from the Prime Minister during his recent state of the nation address. I had just spent close to a week working though the stories and thoughts shared with us by nearly 2000 working people as part of our annual Mood ...
Odd fact about the Broadcasting Standards Authority: for the last few years, they’ve only been upholding about 5% of complaints. Why? I think there’s a range of reasons. Generally responsible broadcasters. Dumb complaints. Complaints brought under the wrong standard. Greater adherence to broadcasters’ rights to freedom of expression in the ...
And I said, "Mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone"'Cause I can't go outside, I'm scared I might not make it homeWell I'm alive, I'm alive, but I'm sinking inIf there's anyone at home at your place, darlingWhy don't you invite me in?Don't try to feed me'Cause I've been ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ star is on the rise, having just added the Energy, Local Government and Revenue portfolios to his responsibilities - but there is nothing ambitious about the Government’s new climate targets. Photo: SuppliedLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
It may have been a short week but there’s been no shortage of things that caught our attention. Here is some of the most interesting. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt took a look at public transport ridership in 2024 On Thursday Connor asked some questions ...
The East Is Red: Journalists and commentators are referring to the sudden and disruptive arrival of DeepSeek as a second “Sputnik moment”. (Sputnik being the name given by the godless communists of the Soviet Union to the world’s first artificial satellite which, to the consternation and dismay of the Americans, ...
Hi,Back on inauguration day we launched a ridiculous RFK Jr. “brain worms” tee on the Webworm store, and I told you I’d be throwing my profits over to Mutual Aid LA and Rainbow Youth New Zealand. Just to show I am not full of shit, here are the receipts. I ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump over Gaza and Ukraine.Health expert and author David Galler ...
In an uncompromising paper Treasury has basically told the Government that its plan for a third medical school at Waikato University is a waste of money. Furthermore, the country cannot afford it. That advice was released this week by the Treasury under the Official Information Act. And it comes as ...
Back in November, He Pou a Rangi provided the government with formal advice on the domestic contribution to our next Paris target. Not what the target should be, but what we could realistically achieve, by domestic action alone, without resorting to offshore mitigation. Their answer was startling: depending on exactly ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guest David Patman and ...
I don't like to spend all my time complaining about our government, so let me complain about the media first.Senior journalistic Herald person Thomas Coughlan reported that Treasury replied yeah nah, wrong bro to Luxon's claim that our benighted little country has been in recession for three years.His excitement rose ...
Back in 2022, when the government was consulting internally about proactive release of cabinet papers, the SIS opposed it. The basis of their opposition was the "mosaic effect" - people being able to piece together individual pieces of innocuous public information in a way which supposedly harms "national security" (effectively: ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to stand firm and work with allies to progress climate action as Donald Trump signals his intent to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Jon Kroll and Aimee McCammon have been appointed to the New Zealand Film Commission Board, Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “I am delighted to appoint these two new board members who will bring a wealth of industry, governance, and commercial experience to the Film Commission. “Jon Kroll has been an ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has hailed a drop in the domestic component of inflation, saying it increases the prospect of mortgage rate reductions and a lower cost of living for Kiwi households. Stats NZ reported today that inflation was 2.2 per cent in the year to December, the second consecutive ...
Two new appointed members and one reappointed member of the Employment Relations Authority have been announced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden today. “I’m pleased to announce the new appointed members Helen van Druten and Matthew Piper to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and welcome them to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Coates, Program Director, Housing and Economic Security, Grattan Institute Marlinde/Shutterstock Most Australians can look forward to a comfortable retirement. More than three in four retirees own their own home, most report feeling comfortable financially, and few suffer financial stress. But ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The weekend byelection in the outer suburban seat of Werribee saw the widely-anticipated slap-in-the-face to Victorian Labor, which is absolutely on the nose. The question is: to what degree were electors venting against federal Labor ...
Mediawatch -Trump's alarmed the world with trade tariffs, turning off aid and proposing to take over Gaza. But New Zealand's had diplomatic drama in the news too - with the media in the middle of it. ...
By Rachel Helyer Donaldson, RNZ News journalist New Zealand should be robust in its response to the “unacceptable” situation in Gaza but it must also back its allies against threats by the US President, says an international relations academic. Otago University professor of international relations Robert Patman said the rest ...
A Christchurch man who lost 55 relatives in three Israeli airstrikes on Gaza says his remaining family will never leave, despite a US proposal to remove them. ...
Asia Pacific Report A national Palestine advocacy group has hit back at critics of its “genocide hotline” campaign against soldiers involved in Israel’s war against Gaza, saying New Zealand should be actively following international law. The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) dismissed a “predictable lineup of apologists for Israel” for ...
ACT Party leader David Seymour said he wrote to police about the treatment of Philip Polkinghorne because it's an electorate MP's job to pass on the concerns of their constituents. ...
MEDIAWATCH:By Colin Peacock, RNZ Mediawatch presenter By the time US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on China and Canada last Monday which could kickstart a trade war, New Zealand’s diplomats in Washington, DC, had already been deployed on another diplomatic drama. Republican Senator Ted Cruz had said on social ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown says New Zealand is asking for too much oversight over its deal with China, which is expected to be penned in Beijing next week. Brown told RNZ Pacific the Cook Islands-New Zealand relationship was reciprocal. “They certainly did ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Byelections occurred on Saturday in the Victorian state seats of Prahran and Werribee. The Liberals gained Prahran from the Greens by a ...
A long time ago, Brian Turner wrote a poem in which, among the mountains, as he slept on a river flat … My speechless ancestors played like mice among my dreamsand he woke to the river running over my bed of stone. I have come to know that where a ...
Pacific Media Watch President Donald Trump has frozen billions of dollars around the world in aid projects, including more than $268 million allocated by Congress to support independent media and the free flow of information. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has denounced this decision, which has plunged NGOs, media outlets, and ...
Otago University professor of international relations Robert Patman says New Zealand should provide a robust response to Donald Trump's Gaza plan, and also "should stop tip-toeing" around Trump. ...
The new minister of transport has opened the door for public consultation on at least some of the speed limit changes the government said would be automatic. ...
Officially, they’re called ‘memecoins,’ but Kōura Wealth founder Rupert Carlyon says the crypto world has another name for them: ‘shitcoins’.In digital finance, that phrase is used for tokens that have no true value – in essence, a money-grab.A few days before his inauguration, US President Donald Trump launched his own ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. Guy Williams has made a whole show off the joke that he is a “volunteer” journalist. So getting publicly owned by David Seymour while trying to act as a journalist is a good and timely reminder not to underestimate the nuance and ...
Many of Sāmoa’s beloved dishes are the result of cultural collaboration, writes Madeleine Chapman. All photos by Jin FelletIf you ever find yourself at a barbecue in a Sāmoan home, there’s 99% chance that sapasui (chop suey) will be on the table. For the past century, sapasui has ...
The funnyman takes us through his life in television, including Jono and Ben mayhem, live Telethon flubs, and funnelling all those experiences into his new comedy Vince. There’s an inciting incident in Three’s new comedy Vince where morning television presenter Vince Walters (Jono Pryor) is visiting sick kids in hospital ...
People often claim they just want Waitangi Day to be a celebration. At Waitangi, away from the headlined political acrimony and the marae ātea, celebrating is what most people are doing. The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous ...
Is there anything more fashionable than a Māori get together? One of the best things about Northland is that nobody cares what they look like — probably because they’re all naturally more stylish than the rest of us, famously. Māori from the Far North, especially. In 27 degree heat, wearing ...
I’ve been in love with him since last July, but it’s only now in this tepid hotel room that I find myself wondering why. The first thing he does when we arrive is smoke a cone in the bathroom – he emerges, hacking up a lung, fists thrust into his ...
MONDAY“Name,” barked a representative of the lower orders.I regarded him with a look of stern disapproval, and told him from up high, “May I remind you that I have name suppression. I shall also thank you to ask with more respect as befits a former president of the Act Party, ...
Books of Mana: 180 Māori-Authored Books of Significance, edited by Jacinta Ruru, Angela Wanhalla and Jeanette Wikaira has just been released by Otago University Press. In this essay, Books are Taonga, Jeanette Wikaira explores her personal relationship to books and their value.For me, books are taonga. The knowledge ...
Get to know Tara, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Tara’s human for their support! Dog name: Tara Age: Two Breed: Mostly Border Collie and a little bit Catahoula Leopard dog If dog ...
Health NZ's CEO has resigned, but frontline healthworkers are sceptical that installing new leadership will make any difference to a system grappling with problems. ...
Health NZ's CEO has resigned, but frontline healthworkers are sceptical that installing new leadership will make any difference to a system grappling with problems. ...
Gail Duncan, Chairperson of the St Peter’s on Willis Social Justice Group, one of the organisations invited to submit on the Bill, says the Government’s actions are unprecedented. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amani Kasherwa, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, The University of Queensland In late January, a rebel group that has long caused mayhem in the sprawling African nation of Democratic Republic of Congo took control of Goma, a major city of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yee-Fui Ng, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University An ad falsely depicting independent candidate Alex Dyson as a Greens member.ABC News/Supplied The highly pertinent case of a little-known independent candidate in the Victorian seat of Wannon has exposed a gaping ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland Nik/Unsplash You might have heard that eating too many eggs will cause high cholesterol levels, leading to poor health. Researchers have examined the science behind this myth again, and ...
Everything you missed from the third day of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard four hours of oral submission. Read our recaps of day one of the hearings here, and day two here. Parliament was quiet on Friday for the third day of hearings on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Jeffries, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology, Western Sydney University Tijana Simic/Shutterstock The news last week that three people in Sydney were hospitalised with botulism after receiving botox injections has raised questions about the regulation of the cosmetic injectables industry. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jens Blotevogel, Principal Research Scientist and Team Leader for Remediation Technologies, CSIRO Mino Surkala, Shutterstock Lithium-ion batteries are part of everyday life. They power small rechargeable devices such as mobile phones and laptops. They enable electric vehicles. And larger versions store ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edith Jennifer Hill, Associate Lecturer, Learning & Teaching Innovation, Flinders University Netflix Netflix’s new limited series, Apple Cider Vinegar, tells the story of the elaborate cancer con orchestrated by Australian blogger Annabelle (Belle) Gibson. The first episode opens with Gibson’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dee Ninis, Earthquake Scientist, Monash University Greece’s government has just declared a state of emergency on the island of Santorini, as earthquakes shake the island multiple times a day and sometimes only minutes apart. The “earthquake swarm” is also affecting other ...
Would like to know more about rotting and dangerous hospitals that came to be like this under Nationals watch. Why am I having to put up with all this crap about Curran and Hirschfield? Listening to the Esp and Melissa Lee now. Tedious.Espiner beating it up like crazy.
If the govt weren’t making stupid mistakes continuously you might get your wish.
Yes, they should give the Nats labour and NZ Firsts questions too to ensure they spend 100 percent of their time explaining and losing.
I fear this government is under delivering for the left and nowhere near cynical enough about the media. They are being eaten slowly.
Yes keep calm, carry on;
Labour so far are underachieving at being a “warm, caring, “inclusive” gentle, transparent government as jacinda promised us, as she fought the election by saying this at her town hall speech but we still await for this and achieve these promises.
It appears the MP,s inside her caucus is letting her down as we saw happen with Donald Ttrump also but trump removed “ineffective politicians” and now surprisingly his approval rating in a poll today was at 42% and the report says this is a string signal he is being now accepted by the voters.
Perhaps Jacinda needs to have a crisis meeting with her caucus and play back her first speech at Auckland’s town hall at the start of her election time and tell her ministers to listen to her speech every day before parliament and honour her promises we voted for?
I’m not sure you could compare Ardern to Trump in any manner whatsoever
New ministers in a new government always make these small basic mistakes.
You could see even Bridges fluffing his responses to questions, making basic mistakes in his early days. As hes on a steep learning curve for his new job.
I remember Joyces parting comments when asked recently about the ‘things that went wrong’- he was being truthfull when he said ‘Most you dont hear about’
Its war without guns…and an unequal struggle at that…all governments are prone to errors.
What are the differences between this and the previous admin that are concerning power?
Nobody said democracy would be easy, in fact it would appear from disengagement levels that it is becoming too difficult for many but even so it remains the best of a range of poor options.
This assumes that we have a democracy rather than an elected dictatorship that resembles the oligarchy of the US.
It assumes we have democracy insofar as it dosnt interfere with the pursuits of power
A good thread subject you started Ffloyd.
Cambo’s doing the hospital. Gyno gets the let’s not be accused of going easy on ourselves.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/353466/hirschfeld-resignation-there-are-serious-questions-here-bridges
Radio New Zealand
NEW ZEALAND
27 Mar 2018
Carol Hirschfeld resigns over meeting minister: ‘There are serious questions here’
1:37 pm on 27 March 2018
This was definitely a ‘parting attack’ by Steven joyce as he today says goodbye in parliament.
The timing was staged here, and this flurry from the right wing news hub breakfast show host Duncan Garner just laid it on so heavy in today’s breakfast show to confirm he was part of the plan to hit back at Carol Hirschfeld and RNZ at the same time just to raise the ratings for TV3-newshub you can bet.
The top man CEO of RNZ is a National plant and needs to be shoved under the bus as does the head of the board of RNZ Richard Griffin.
They should be replaced by Hirschfeld.
Seriously, labour need to review all the appointments National made to boards, ministries etc as they have stacked them with sycophants who will try to bring down the government.
Hootch
Correctly said there national have sacked every corner of government organisations with National “sycophants who will try to bring down the government”
Jacinda needs to do what David Langey did when he entered as a first time PM in 1984 as he went on a big hunt to remove all “impediments” when he went on “The great Qwango hunt” to remove biased groups and advisors/committees.
Jacinda needs to show ‘leadership’ and use her Caucus to do this now.
Yes , make strong positive changes, go on the front foot, or sit back and get creasebound with no runs on the board until your innings is over. God I hate cricket.
If Ardern even tries, watch the right-wingers cry foul over the importance of an impartial public service. But I agree… she should and, I believe, she must otherwise it’s a death by a thousand cuts.
The public service will play the coalition government with everything they’ve got. I’m already hearing word about information being withheld by senior civil servants from their Ministers – can’t verify it yet though.
Yes SM.
Steven Joyce using MBIE “employment rules’ was behind all the funding cuts to certain media platforms if they did not pull into line on ‘refraining from broadcasting negative issues of the National party – (we were tipped off )
But if labour tried this the right wing would howl wouldn’t they now?
I would expect her caucus (Jacindas) is busy doing just that cleangreen but all this takes time. Firstly they need to do full reviews of everything as you cant trust the previous government.
Some of those national sycophants you refer to will be protected for now with employment agreements and contracts. Some of these agreements will lock them in for years and some would have been purposely signed just before the election so it will take some time to get rid of these sycophants.
Correct. The idea of a non-politicised public service is dead and buried.
It is long past the time that alongside their party list political parties published a list of senior government appointments where they will be replacing person X with person Y, similar to the way a whole list of Republicans give way to Democrats and vice versa in the USA.
By examining such a list, by looking at who will be allowed to stay and who will be made to go and who will replace them, voters will be much better informed as to how radical an agenda a government actually wishes to enact when in power.
yeah because the united states is functioning so well at a bureaucratic level
Look, the corporate media hate RNZ. The idea of a publically funded competitor doing real journalism and showing up their click bait bullshit drives them nuts and drives up their costs, because they have to employ journalists and do journalism to compete with RNZ. They are going to lay it on thick in this case to try and stop an extra 38 million going to public broadcasting.
This is the extent of Curran’s f**king idiocy – she has politicised RNZ’s funding and she has given powerful enemies of the governments policies a stick with which to beat a policy they hate, and they won’t need to be asked twice. The MSM loud-mouths Hosking, Garner, all of them will bay like the pack hunting bullies they are and milk this for all it is worth.
Absolutely Sanctuary, a perfect summary.
1000% Curran has caused a huge problem.
Why did she feel she had to go behind Griffin’s back? She’s the Minister, just call him in for what would be the first in a series of ‘tough conversations’. Explain the vision for RNZ, then explain why she doesn’t believe he’s the person to deliver it. Then ask him what he plans to do to convince her that he can. Let him fluff around for a while, then say “I don’t think this is working Richard”.
AB
I agree but when we wrote to Clare Curran to discuss our public concerns with her CEO and staff including the chair, she wrote us saying the 1996 Broadcasting Act prevented her from getting involved in RNZ operations.
That is where the problem is as National have been allowed to keep their act current and labour must change it now.
Shall I place the letter from Clare curran we received on 15th February 2018 on this website now showing this anomaly ?
To have that kind of intestinal fortitude and leadership requires good chess moves.
This minister is sadly reactive not proactive. Her use of a supporter to “Find the lay of the land” has backfired badly. She should have asked them all to submit a written plan going forward.
Now she is fighting them alone. She’d better regroup quickly. Griffin is well named.
All she has done is “put them on notice” by her clumsy moves, and removed a friend at court.
100%
Things that have me thinking today.
Mycoplasma Bovis is set to cost the taxpayer via compensation and the whole package to stop further spread of this disease — $60M and counting.
Ok so how did this disease enter the country? With the Van Leeuwen dairy group being the 1st farms found infected, how/why were cattle still moved without testing? Why the initial secrecy as to which farms were infected so neighbors and other cattle buyers were not helping the spread? Why didn’t the National Govt/MPI hit this hard and prosecute transgressors hard?
Can we trust all the farm owners to be honest about their losses? We know some farmers are cruel to their animals which can sometimes result in the death of the animal. So these could now be lumped into the cull figures and at $1000-$2000 per animal it would be very tempting to slide those other ear tags into the mix.
#2
The media bs beatup over Clare Curran and Carol Hirschfeld.
Seems to be getting headline treatment and we even have opinion pieces front page from the likes of Brigitte Morten of all people……………… sigh!
Meanwhile the whole saga of Finlayson V Kim Dotcom slides awaaaaay……
Meanwhile the whole saga of rotting hospitals slides awaaaaay………..
Meanwhile the whole saga of willful neglect of infrastructure by National slides awaaaay…………
Labour needs to up their game in the whole PR battle, they’re currently getting a right shafting
Well said on #2 there John up North!!!
Labour are not good at PR at all and had better buy the best avaible help right now before their poll ratings sink.
#2
The media bs beatup over Clare Curran and Carol Hirschfeld.
Seems to be getting headline treatment and we even have opinion pieces front page from the likes of Brigitte Morten of all people……………… sigh!
Meanwhile the whole saga of Finlayson V Kim Dotcom slides awaaaaay……
Meanwhile the whole saga of rotting hospitals slides awaaaaay………..
Meanwhile the whole saga of willful neglect of infrastructure by National slides awaaaay…………
Labour needs to up their game in the whole PR battle, they’re currently getting a right shafting
You are doing a passable imitation of a right wing troll Cleangreen.
Why all the negativity? Governments take time to bed in and the media was always going to be against them. For me the Jacinda crew still represents a breath of fresh air after 9 repressive and regressive years.
Twyford’s housing announcement was good, with more to come.
The budget will reveal a change of direction from the old mob.
Just hang in there.
BG
My response on 9.5
Hah!
This one too!
The whole sorry saga regarding the outing of the litany of lies told by the General and NZ Defense forces re the killing of civillians during Operation Burnham.
………………….. sliding awaaaay
1) after the disease was identified, the farms were locked down. Then MPI traced or tried to, every cattle movement off farm in the months preceding that and tested those “ new” herds. New positive farms also could not/ cannot move stock.
Re Mycoplasma Bovis, Minister of Agriculture, Damian O’Connor made a Ministerial Statement at the beginning of yesterday’s sitting of the House at 2pm to update the House on the action being taken to deal with this crisis. (No oral questions were requested/scheduled to be asked in Question Time on this subject.)
Responses to this Statement were then made by Nathan Guy (N), Winston Peters (NZF) and Gareth Hughes (G); followed by a further reply from O’Connor.
Here is the Hansard draft transcript of the above;
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20180327_20180327_08
Videos can be also be watched on the Parliament website in the Watch/On Demand section. Here is just the first, O’Connor’s Statement. the rest are also in this section.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/WatchParliament/VideoDetail/198997
This issue has also been covered on most main media websites over the last few days. Just a few examples:
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/03/22-000-mycoplasma-bovis-infected-cattle-to-be-culled.html
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/102598044/more-than-22000-cattle-to-be-culled-to-stop-spread-of-mycoplasma
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/country/353409/mpi-calls-for-cull-of-22-000-m-bovis-infected-cattle
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12015937
why are we paying for this rort (mico plasma bogus) and why did the gnats pay for indian dairy owners security when they didn’t give a stuff about many of our chch earthquake victims plight
So right John,
We hear fuck all from MSM or even RNZ so they need to be an active investigative media as we used to have with “close-up, and other shows from the 2000-2005 time.
#2
The media bs beatup over Clare Curran and Carol Hirschfeld.
Seems to be getting headline treatment and we even have opinion pieces front page from the likes of Brigitte Morten of all people……………… sigh!
Meanwhile the whole saga of Finlayson V Kim Dotcom slides awaaaaay……
Meanwhile the whole saga of rotting hospitals slides awaaaaay………..
Meanwhile the whole saga of willful neglect of infrastructure by National slides awaaaay…………
Labour needs to up their game in the whole PR battle, they’re currently getting a right shafting
Reply
John up North 4.2
28 March 2018 at 9:30 am
Hah!
This one too!
The whole sorry saga regarding the outing of the litany of lies told by the General and NZ Defense forces re the killing of civilians during Operation Burnham.
The media are all over the Carol/Clare thing because they’re human. We all place emphasis on matters that are occurring in our own backyards.
100% David mac.
True if you have the choice of having a “willing media to cover your matters that are occurring in our own backyards.”
As of today we on the east coast HB/Gisborne have been without a full time reporter on staff at RNZ to cover all our “matters that are occurring in our own backyards.”
See our story on 9.3.1.3
Didn’t TEC parachute that dodgy VC into Lincn University’s perfect storm? [Trick comment…]
Oh good grief. Now we have the drip who just keeps dripping. Hosking just jumped on the bus breathing righteous hell fire and brimstone. I must say hes a tedious little bore.
The more I think about it, the more Clare Curran’s imbecility pisses me off.
The wrong person – as in, the competent one with integrity – has resigned. The moron who jacked up the meeting and then clumsily tried to hide it then threw Hirschfield under the bus survives. Government just got a little bit stupidier. I hope Hirschfield gets the press officer job going on the ninth floor.
Labour’s big plan for using RNZ as a counterweight to the knee-jerk right wing reaction of the corporate MSM is clearly being opposed by the right wing revanchists who oversee RNZ, and Curran’s complete idiocy as a minister has given round one to the reactionaries. I doubt it is fatal, Griffin is a goneburger in April anyway. But the political losses are much higher now.
What an idiot Curran is.
How can a ‘competent one with integrity’ tell big fat lies about a meeting? Can you see the error that leads to your confusion on this point
It was in a very public place no need for a cover up about how it was arranged and even saying it was agreed for a place and time is small cheese , maybe just a telling off.
Integrity isn’t being perfect. It’s also about what you do when you fuck up. This is a perfect side by side example.
Well, you’ve got a good point. Presumably Hirschfield was told by Curran she had her back.
Trusting a politician like Curran is naive in the extreme.
No one will trust Curran now. Her effectiveness as a minister is thus further diminished.
Yep. And I’m not even angry with CC, I’m looking at the Labour caucus and going wtf are you thinking?
“I hope Hirschfield gets the press officer job going on the ninth floor.”
Wouldn’t that be weird for her to get that job at this time all things considered?
“I hope Hirschfield gets the press officer job going on the ninth floor.”
In the circumstances it would be the least Jacinda Ardern could do for Carol Hirschfeld – if she wants it of course. No matter what the official story turns out to be, it’s Carol who has been unfairly up-ended on this one.
She lied for months to her bosses and this lead to them misleading parliament. It’s hard to see how Labour could employ her at this time given that, and given that the lie involved one of their own Ministers and she was working for a govt broadcaster at the time.
I suspect she’s been shafted here, but we don’t know the full story. On the face of it, I can’t see how Labour could employ her with integrity. But then there’s not explaining why CC still has her Minister’s job.
I suspect she’s been shafted here,…
My suspicion too. I am sure Carol Hirschfeld would have told Clare Curran at some point that she was going to have to tread carefully with her bosses – or something along those lines. So, surely Clare Curran could have borne that in mind with her subsequent utterings. From what I’ve read she appears to have done the opposite.
Well we now know that Griffin ( The chair of RNZ board) txted Nationals Melissa Lee to to give advance Warning of Caroles resignation.
Griffin should be sacked immediately ( yes he wasnt going to be reappointed in April) but you know ‘whats good for the Goose is good for the gander’
I’m sure I read somewhere he actually rang her which in my view is worse. Lee claims she was surprised at the call but thought it was probably a courtesy call. I suspect it was more a politically motivated call.
This. Because his first call should have been to his Minister. He should be sacked for this alone.
So much for novsurprises policy
Here is the item:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12021562
I would like to know who he advised inside the government, and whether he personally rang them – as a matter of courtesy.
Here it is – Stuff this morning. Lee says halfway down that Griffin called her a few minutes before he announced Herschfeld’s resignation.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/102652206/melissa-lee-was-given-a-heads-up-about-carol-hirschfelds-resignation
SNAP – but slightly different wordings.
Griffin will not give a … whether he should or should not have called Melissa Lee – such niceties do not apply to Griffin in his mind. (He described employment law to me in those terms (niceties) many years ago.)
I have now found this announcement by Amy Adams in 2016 which confirms Griffin’s appointment as Chair of the Board of RNZ Ltd was for two years from 1 May 2016, So – 30 April 2018 is the date.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/appointments-radio-new-zealand-board
Melissa Lee has a question to Curran at Q11 today – “MELISSA LEE to the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media: On how many occasions has she met with Carol Hirschfeld since becoming Minister?”
However, I am pretty sure that Bridges asked the same question of the PM under Q2 – but was only half listening.
So he doesn’t give a [shit] about calling a member of the Opposition Nats and talking, but he fires Carol Hirschfeld for talking to the Minister.
And don’t lets quibble about the white lies Carol told because I suspect there was a good reason she felt she couldn’t tell him the truth and it would have gone beyond any RNZ protocol. Silver tongued bosses can be tyrants behind the scene. I’ve had first hand experience.
I’ve had first hand experience with Griffin – and he is certainly silver tongued as well as silver haired, but also a total misogynist. I said more here yesterday – https://thestandard.org.nz/an-orwellian-minister-for-open-government/#comment-1466820 and also see the last sentence in this reply from Peterlepaysan –
https://thestandard.org.nz/an-orwellian-minister-for-open-government/#comment-1466827
Griffin is a very slippery customer – no integrity, only expediency. And his days at RNZ are now very numbered – five weeks until 30 April. So he has nothing to lose – he will just throw every spanner he can find into the works.
As I said in 9.4 below, I fully understand why Herschfeld held off telling Griffin and Thompson that the meeting was pre-arranged – she knew it would be used against her by Griffin to get her out of RNZ. That is how he has operated in the past.
Bullies appoint bullies
So “no surprises ” policy still sees things directed to National not Labour
Agreed weka.
Clare Curran was out of the starting chogs after the election on her promise to begin a truly free of interference media platform RNZ+ commercial free of funding by corporates policy balanced media for public to use as their voice of the people.
Since then She has not even made the RNZ available to our NGO which is a community advocacy group available to us for media press releases from our NGO on maters that HB/Gisborne communities are concerned about.
Clare Curran has failed us in HB/Gisborne on the matter of our loss of our rail six years ago and since we all have made great strides to find a way to restore our rail service but we cant get our story told over RNZ so our public media is failing us.
Last month Government’s Regional Development team came to Gisborne to release the policy and Shane jones said he has not heard from any party about a rail plan and RNZ prevented us placing our case before him so again we say;
Clare Curran is failing us.
Read the story again please as it needs to be told by the media not just in a local rag.
http://gisborneherald.co.nz/opinion/3251978-135/shafted-by-eastland-group-lobbyists
February 27, 2018
gisborneherald.co.nz
COLUMN – Shafted by Eastland Group lobbyists
by Gillian Ward Published: February 27, 2018 2:14PM
Gillian Ward is Chairwoman of the Gisborne Rail Action Group
Re: Mixed Signals — Minister yet to receive strong case for Wairoa to Gisborne rail line, February 24 story.
The Minister actually has received a strong business case for reinstating the rail line between Wairoa and Gisborne. In response to his request in November, a proposal was delivered to him two weeks ago. So, it is very disappointing that in the national launch of the Provincial Growth Fund on Friday neither restoration, nor a feasibility study, was announced for the Wairoa-Gisborne railway line.
Rather than being let down because of the lack of a “strong case”, the Gisborne residents who have marched and signed a petition requesting that the government restore the rail line, and businesses who need rail to move their fresh produce to Napier’s export container port, have been shafted by a small handful of Gisborne business leaders.
These few people who should be representing the best interests of the region are instead conflicted. They are focused solely on the expansion plans of Eastland Port, and planning for large profits, and they have the ear of the politicians.
Rail freight of containers of fresh chilled produce destined for export from Napier’s container port will provide flexibility, be competitive, and offer security of freight transport with an additional land transport option for our isolated region. Huge container ships and multiple container cranes handle enormous stacks of containers at Napier Port’s deep-water port.
Eastland Port on the other hand has a totally different situation, being located in a silty river mouth, which is carefully dredged to attain the depth required for log ships, while minimising disturbance of sensitive marine habitats. There is much less capacity to handle containers.
Hon Shane Jones is aware of this conflict of interest, and although he has stated that, “There’s political will to back rail”, he would prefer that the community sort out our priorities, rather than the government imposing decisions.
Mayor Foon has stated that Gisborne needs all the transport modes — roads, rail, coastal shipping and air transport. The residents and business community have indicated, with a march of 2000 people led by Mayor Foon along Grey Street to the Railway Station in April 2012, a petition of 10,480 signatures presented by Mayor Foon to Hon Anne Tolley at Parliament in May 2012, fundraising $11,000 for BERL Economics to review KiwiRail’s May 2012 analysis of the economics of the railway line, public meetings, letters to the Gisborne Herald editor, articles in The Gisborne Herald, presentations to the District Council, as well as business case analyses of the commercial viability of the line, that reopening the railway line would be well-supported by the community and businesses.
It is a small city characteristic that influential leaders can be conflicted, wearing more than one “hat”, and the aspirations of the Gisborne community to restore our other land transport option have been well and truly undermined by a few people determined to scuttle these aspirations.
Gisborne had to campaign hard to be included in the Government’s national rail-building effort in the late 1920s. It was a hard-won battle and a challenging line to complete, but the rail line was opened in 1942 amid jubilation from the Gisborne community.
Now that we have the line, it is a gift from an earlier generation. The cost to repair the storm damage is minimal compared to the value of the asset. Imagine the cost to build a railway line through the Wharerata hills now!
Please Minister Jones, hear the voice of the Gisborne community and filter out the noise from the Eastland Group lobbyists!
Jhonkey lied and bullsherted for 9 years so what is months of being mislead weka
Michelle
The voice of reason and sensibility.
Many here have extremely SHORT memories, the most important issues of the day haven’t even been mentioned, nada, yet this media driven nonsense of nothing is the highlight and even has a dedicated platform to discuss.
How many cows will be put down, and why
Finlayson’s debacle
Russian spies?
Oh, Aussies cheat, when they can.
And the bid one, Why are our Hospitals in such a poor state and how are we going to fix them?
Because John Key is not the yardstick for behaviour of our elected representatives. Some of want higher conduct than the gutter level he set it at.
I cannot see anyone advising Ardern to appoint CH to her team now. Althought, it is Labour, they are proving to be very slow learners
I know, it’s like people can’t see the massive problem for integrity appointing her into that role now would be. smh.
I was being tongue in cheek on that suggestion last night. !. I don’t think Herschfeld would actually want that job – a thankless one and all consuming and pretty below her experience, and a teenage daughter to consider.
https://thestandard.org.nz/an-orwellian-minister-for-open-government/#comment-1466769
https://thestandard.org.nz/an-orwellian-minister-for-open-government/#comment-1466791
There is no way she could be appointed to that position now; or any similar position until a little time has passed to allow the dust to settle.
I gather that Herschfeld was really loving her job with RNZ and was looking forward to what seems to be ahead for RNZ etc. Given this but with Griffin as Chair and Thompson as CEO, I do actually understand her trying to maintain her position.
Re Curran, I believe that the PM is caught in a catch-22 situation at present, but that in the not too distant future we will see Curran out of that Ministerial role.
A change of Minister at this time could be disastrous. In the next few weeks, the Budget proposals in respect of RNZ+ and the other changes proposed to NZ on Air etc must be completed, (eg by mid-April).- together with the overall Budget. It is absolutely the worst time of the Government year to make changes to Ministerial appointments.
In that same time period decisions need to be made on the next Chair of the Board of RNZ. Hopefully this will not be to roll over Griffin, but to appoint someone else more aligned to the Labour Party campaign proposals on public service media.
In fact, the one good thing to come out of this situation might be the fact that it has brought into focus the distance between Griffin’s views and those of the new government.
Yes Sanctuary
After the last two years in HB/Gisborne being left without a local reporter (by National Government design) after the election I asked Clare curran to sack Paul Thompson over this and she refused.
I received a letter from Clare Curran that did not impress me.
Beaded git challenged me as to why I was so negative.4.1.1
I am tempted to place the letter on this social media site but will refrain for now but will say Clare Curran made great efforts to give a “legal interpretation as to why she cannot “influence the public broadcaster ” due to the 1996 RNZ broadcasting Act??????
Well Ms Curran said effectively that this toxic Act for not permitting any hands on by a minister of Broadcasting was set-up by the last round during the national Government in the 1990’s so why did labour never ever make this RNZ a more ‘independent media then??????
Now we still have National Party selected people like the CEO of RNZ Paul Thompson who is a National plant and needs to be shoved under the bus along with his partner RNZ Chair Richard Griffin and get some unbiased balanced minds to run the public media like Carol Hirschfeld is or Kim Kim is?
As a ‘old white man’ I am starting to believe with Julie Anne Genter over getting rid of the old dead wood.
@cleangreen
I’ve never been impressed with Curran. Ardern is probably keen to keep her in place because of the Dunedin connection and as a woman minister.
Agree totally about Griffin and Thompson. These guys are probably on cast iron contracts. It takes time to change these things.
It is obvious the Right’s strategy is to make out that the Lab/Gr/Nzf coalition is incompetent. Granny Herald has its orders and is following them assiduously. Don’t buy into this.
Beared git,
Thanks for the understanding here as we have been shafted by these national Party planted Chair/CEO guys and it is up to Clare Curren to finally play tough with them or give the job to who ever will carry the peoples wishes for a free fair coverage of our local issues as we are frozon out of RNZ as of now and this is wrong.
Me too. I’m prepared to accept she may have had good intent, but the naivety just astounds me. Especially when she could have recalled the very tricks gNats used in order to stack the deck in the PS.
Probably half the Thordon bubble, most of MoBIE and other snr PS would have been showing off their ‘threads’ at the time.
Even worse if she thought this would be the perfect place for ‘a chance encounter’.
If she didn’t understand the gNats can’t stand CH (let alone her husband) and will seize ANY opprtunity (no matter how hypocrotical), I don’t think by now she ever will.
Over on TDB btw, Frank McSkasey puts in in a bit of perspective, but it’s a stretch if you think any of that will make a diff.
JACINDA (as someone else has suggested) needs to have a bit of a crisis meeting (in trendy language – a ‘war room’), and come up with something that is bold in each of the portfolios. RNZ+ doesn’t need to die in fact it could be the opportunity to go for something even better.
Similarly on matters such as the promises made re HCNZ that have been rolled back a little.
Similarly on matters such as the business of Immigration (so far, both I L-G and Chris FF are prepared to rely on the advice of ‘their officials – i.e. those having a vested interest in preserving a status quo) EVEN THOUGH no doubt, some of them are nice blokes
Similarly resolving the issue of worker exploitation and slavery (the manager of the Labour Indpectorate perfectly prepared to tell us all there are ‘sufficient’ numbers of Inspectors JUST BEFORE the last election.
Similarly ……… (health)
Similarly ……… (education)
Similarly ……… (infrastructure and NZTA’S wisdom)
AND no doubt other little gems of wisdom. I can well remember (for example) when some sage did away with a division called ‘treaty compliance’ in order to be more fishint n fektiv, then another sage who was part of Tau Henae’s Maori Dev Commisions who simply ( having access to a Minstry’s servers) simply went on to reword and recycle existing advice.
Btw….that sage went on to deprive prisoner’s right to vote.
I mean FFS…..EVEN Winnie’s bro (one of them at least), understood the magnitude of the problem.
I kind of despair really.
Jacinda: it really IS time to come up with something bold. These little tiny weeny steps and mis-steps are not going to cut it.
I realise that pholossphically you’re not into nastiness and you are into principle and being ‘nice’
BUT it really is time to understand (get yourself some learnings) the magnitude, intent, and volume of your opposition
“… I’m looking at the Labour caucus and going wtf are you thinking..?”
Curran has thus far operated with the reflexive secrecy of the incompetent. Perhaps she didn’t tell them.
I think Curran is just way out of her depth
I think the biggest problem is that the left do not really understand the lengths that the right will go to to hang on to their power – they suffer from the delusion that most people are decent, really.
20 years ago I was running a small building company – we got taken to the cleaners by developers and lost everything – home included. They used more dirty tricks than I could have believed possible a human could stoop to and in the end we just had to walk away. I tried to explain to my friends how it had happened and just got blank looks – no-one else I knew (apart from people in the building industry, many of whom had suffered similar treatment) could credit that behaviour that low could operate successfully in what they thought of as a civilised society. I just gave up trying to explain.
I think this attitude is still prevalent on the left, despite 30 years of neoliberalism providing plenty of evidence to the contrary. They persist in seeing many of the worst operators as mistaken but fundamentally decent, somewhere in there. Wrong!!!!
Sorry to hear all that. Must have sucked.
Well of course it did, but my real point was the naivety most of us have about the intentions and lack of ethics shown by the greedy and power hungry who will stop at nothing to get what they want. This government is being hit with a barrage of ghastliness now, and I’m not sure all (including Curran) have a real understanding of what’s coming at them
Yes JanM Many can’t accept the awful attitudes from seemingly nice people.
They DO NOT share our values. They DO NOT think as we do.
Their over riding mantra is to be “on top” “win” “do well” “Be the best” “get on” anything else is a anethema to them.
They don’t want others to co-operate…. that is communism don’t you know.
QFT
That is what many said about jhonkey and he lasted 3 term bullsheritng and lying his way out of everything and then finally he realised I’m one of the most hated men in new Zealand I better leave. Hooray!
I watched the TV3 late news last night.
They had a piece on the protesters at an Oil and Gas conference in Wellington.
The protesters were gaily piling up large heaps of material in order to block up all the emergency exit doors. That is how the TV announcer described it anyway.
About five minutes later we had a story about the fire at a shopping centre in Russia where at least 64 people were killed. They were unable to escape because the emergency exits were blocked.
I hope the New Zealand Police are collecting all the TV footage this morning so that they can identify and charge all those who were protesting at the conference and who were deliberately putting several hundred people’s lives in danger by blocking the doors. That is a very serious offence in my view and deserves a great deal more of a punishment than just a slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket.
Any lawyer care to say what is the most serious offence they could be charged with and what a likely sentence might be? I presume that charges like wilfully endangering peoples lives exist?
Protesting is of course acceptable. What these protesters were doing is not.
Did the protest organisers have a plan in the event of fire or earthquake?
Its not the responsibility of the protesters to have a plan, its the building owners and the occupants responsibility.
I haven’t seen the footage. One would assume that the building owners did have normal fire safety plans. If the protestors were doing something dangerous that’s not ok, but I’m not going to assume alwyn is telling the truth on this. It’s possible that the protest organisers did have a strategy that included not putting people at risk if there was a fire.
Have a look, and a listen, to this at about 1m 20s
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/03/three-arrested-at-protest-outside-oil-and-gas-conference.html
According to the announcer there were about 500 people in the building and they are “blocking fire exits”.
Of course you probably won’t believe it because it makes your friends look bad.
They’re not my friends (do you really have to be such a dick?). I did watch it and I can’t tell if that is a fire exit or not. If it is, it was a stupid thing to do (as I have already said).
Oh. Not your friends? Fitzsimmons was in the crowd on one of the TV clips of the demo. and a friend told me he saw two of the current Green MPs there. I thought that was your preferred party.
I withdraw and apologise for trampling on you reputation for probity by linking you to that lot.
Oh do grow up. You lied and got caught alwyn. Face the facts your spin is a lie to not hold the oil and gas industry to account.
Your fake pathos was cringe worthy, and the continued lies in the face of evidence, are just pathetic.
What have I lied about adam?
Evidence please you silly little boy.
You lied about the exit, and you lied about what the protesters did.
You are trying to start a flame war – you sniveling little weasel child.
What lie did I tell about the exit?
If you are going to make such ridiculous accusations please be specific. Otherwise I can only assume you fit your own description of being a “sniveling little weasel child”
I am not trying to start a flame war. I am simply pointing out that you are making wild accusations with no evidence ever being produced to back them up.
Oh do grow up alwyn, your it’s ok to protest, then smug fake shrill is tiresome.
No one was hurt, except you. You got offended once again that your worldview is actually utter crap. So you make shit up to justify getting in a huffy.
My guess is you will take this as offencive, and well quite simply, it is. Your suppose to be offended. I get offended every time you spin lies to make yourself feel better.
I saw it as well
Was pretty pathetically stupid of the protestors
There is a line that shouldn’t be crossed even if you are trying to make a point
Blocking emergency doors sits on the other side of it
Just another right wing lie. Any chance you could apologize for your lie?
Hey Adam.
I havent seen the footage, they have every right to protest but if they were blocking emergency exits that is incredibly dumb.
It doesn’t matter that no incident happened but they put people at potential risk by doing it.
Emergency exits are there for a reason.
Your issue is with Alwyn but if they did block emergency exits then that is wrong. Had something happened and I am sure a legal person here can answer what would the charge be.
I just watched the footage. It’s obviously a back door. Whether its an emergency exit as TV3 claim, I can’t tell. Don’t emergency exits have signs saying that is what they are and to not block them? If it is an emergency exit, I agree it was stupid.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/03/three-arrested-at-protest-outside-oil-and-gas-conference.html
And let’s not forget this is a conference that is either in denial of CC or doesn’t care. That’s not theoretic deaths from a potential accident, that’s actual deaths we are responsible for.
Not denying that fossil fuels well should be that fossils and will hopefully be phased out sooner rather than latter.
They have the right to protest but putting people at risk is what the media will focus on and the message behind the protest will get lost.
I agree. I hope TV3 weren’t telling porkies.
They were. It’s not a fire exit.
My justification for saying that is that you can go to google maps, search for “TSB Arena wellington”, click on “satellite” view instead of map, and zoom in until it goes to Streetview. You can actually see the door they were blocking on the south side of the building. No “fire exit” notices at all.
It even has empty pallets stacked beside it, lol.
Nice work McFlock!
I hope your photo’s were more up to date than what I just had a look at. The date of the photos was given as being just over 3 years ago when I used your method. Things have been known to change after that long
I certainly hope they clean up their rubbish a little more often than that. What date do you get on your Streetview pictures?
Actually I shall be down there on Saturday. I might try and find the spot.
Feel free to photograph the signs they put up when they changed evacuation routes in the last three years then.
Great work McFlock.
You can see the fire exit signs on the doors they were banging on, but the camera shot is too low to see if the door they were blocking had a similar sign (the signs on the doors were about half a foot above head height).
I’m not aware of too many conference venues that have single-width external-handled doors right next to a loading bay roller door as fire exits for auditoriums, though. Dicks found empty pallets next to the loading bay around the back, blocked a service door. Might or might not have been an official fire exit for kitchen staff – camera shot was too low to tell.
I hope someone has a serious talk to them about safety and about tactics.
100% Monty.
I recall the new police minister Nash saying “the NZ Police will now be a softer gentler police force than before” Really???? fooled me.
Yep, if you want an example of Stuart Nash’s mind set then this is an example.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11820250
Then again he and seven other Labour party MP’s also joined the block voting by NZ First and National to prevent a first reading of the Greens bill for cannabis reform, but hey published advocacy for corrections department inmates having no rights and inciting scalping must be a new low for a politician who now is the minister of police. Shame on him.
“No one was hurt, except you”.
I wasn’t there, so it wasn’t likely that I would be hurt anyway.
You have an interesting viewpoint though. Nobody was hurt so it’s all right.
Do you think it would work if I was to drive at 180 kph on the Motorway out of Wellington? When they post me the speeding ticket I can say that I didn’t actually have an accident so they should just drop the whole thing.
Do you think they will agree and nothing further will happen?
Like hell they will.
In the meantime why don’t you just lie down and have a little nap. You’ll no doubt feel ever so much better afterward.
Alternatively you don’t really have to read what I say. It isn’t compulsory you know and if it plays hell with your digestion you really shouldn’t bother.
I won’t be hurt by your ignoring my pearls of wisdom. After all I don’t really want to cast those pearls before swine.
Holy Pearl-Clutching False Equivalence, Batman!
It was a protest. It’s supposed to be disruptive and force a closure of the event, not just ask nicely if the people could just please have their conference somewhere else.
Nice one. But don’t expect self-righteous old alwyn to acknowledge anything.
“It’s supposed to be disruptive and force a closure of the event”.
Of course it is. But do you really consider it to be acceptable to risk killing a few hundred people if things go wrong?
If that is OK perhaps they should have just set fire to the building. That would certainly have the effect you desire wouldn’t it?
As it is the people wouldn’t have even known that you might have put their lives at risk. Still, you don’t really appear to care.
Stop lying.
Seriously are you trying to start a flame war?
Nothing of importance was blocked. You really need to get over this continued lying alwyn, it’s not good for you.
“Nothing of importance was blocked”.
And just how do you determine that?
Are you really saying that TV3 were lying when they said Emergency exits were being blocked?
Or are you the one that is lying?
That is exactly what I’m saying, you and TV3 lied.
And what evidence do you have for that wild claim.
You know the building do you?
Considering the Police were between the protesters and the exits, do you hope said Policemen/women are also identified and charged with blocking the exits?
Please don’t pretend you care about the 64 or so people killed in the Siberian shopping centre fire.
Physical items etc take time to remove. A human can move and the police are trained.
Trained in driving skills,
too soon??!?
As serious as an Attorney General effectively laughing at a citizens rights?
It isn’t a fire exit. Tv3 duped you as easily as the National Party does.
“It isn’t a fire exit”
How did you determine that? It certainly seems to be such a certain viewpoint, even if it is somewhat hard to see why TV3 should deliberately get it wrong?
I was thinking of going down to the waterfront to see on Saturday but if you have already done that I won’t have to bother.
Read McFlocks answer up above. And if you can’t actually take the time to read what other people have said on somthing you post, then you really need to take the time to look at yourself and how you operate.
I did read it adam.
And I tried to look at Google maps to see for myself.
And I also replied to McFlock asking about what he saw.
If you look you will see it.
You see, and you would understand this if you had bothered to “actually take the time to read what other people have said”, that the photos I found were just over 3 years old.
Now, given that you seem only to happy to pontificate on the subject how do I find up to date images?
After all, if I thought that nothing changed in 3 years I would think that Russel Norman and Meteria Turei were still the leaders of the New Zealand Green Party.
Now, please tell me. How do I get reasonably current photos on Google?
So your telling me the building plan has changed in 3 years. OK got proof?
My guess is like you just did you will reach for more spin, let’s call spin what it is, lying. So more lies from you, you really have to stop buddy.
It has.
Work plan
The western and north sides of the TSB Bank Arena, home to Capital E and commercial tenants, do not need works done on the exterior façades.
https://wellington.govt.nz/your-council/projects/tsb-bank-arena-recladding-of-exterior
I have no idea whether the building is the same as it was then. Why don’t you provide proof that it hasn’t?
I don’t really think that 3 year old photos would be particularly good evidence though. I assume McFlock had access to more recent ones. Otherwise I’m sure he would have told us about the age of the information in the photo. I would like to know how he gets more recent data than I could manage.
I’m sure he will enlighten me. He really is a reasonable fellow on these matters.
You’re trolling.
The multiple exits, they double as fire escapes, are used to disgorge a full house of 4k en masse for the after match dash into to Courtenay Place, Cuba St, etc.
The PEPANZ conference has about 500 attendees so it’s not as though a kerfuffle at the exits posed any risk to life and limb.
You appear to be the true rarity in this discussion. You actually know something about the topic.
A couple of very brief questions then.
Were the doors (or door) that TV3 showed having material being piled against emergency exits?
Was TV3 correct or making it up when they described them as Emergency exits?
Are they marked as being such doors?
The fact that everyone can normally get out through the main exits isn’t really the point is it? After all emergency exits are only meant to be used if the main ones are impassable for some reason and the last thing you want is for people to head toward such doors and then can’t get through them.
If they weren’t marked as such then TV3 were obviously wrong to describe them as being for emergency egress. If they were intended for such use they should never be blocked, regardless of how few people were actually in the room.
Also, there’s a longer shot in the three news piece that shows the ground outside the door being blocked. No paint indicating “keep clear”, as I’ve seen with other fire exits next to parking areas or places where goods are routinely stacked.
As you point out, there is a possibility that sometime in the last three years or whatever the museum identified a deficiency in their emergency signage and put a sign up that was just out of the 3news shot. Until you or some other Wellingtonian pops down to check, it does seem that if it is indeed a fire exit then there was nothing to indicate that to the people outside. Who were being dicks, yes, but possibly not the calibre of dicks that would serve tory purposes.
You made shit up alwyn and part of that was to accuse people, some of who have spent 40+ years activism promoting the rights and dignity of human beings. You accuse them of trying to kill people by blocking doors.
It’s a disgusting lie, manufactured to support you selfish world view. I hope you get that, but you probably keep whining like the Tory *&^% tard that you are.
Are you the fire monitor alwyn?
It seems to me that Helen Clark is setting herself up as a self appointed mentor to Jacinda Ardern. To quote from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12021261 “Jacinda was let down. She should have been told. Immediately, actually. And then events would have taken a different course,” Clark said.
“And I cannot understand why she was not told. Unbelievable.”
Asked what she would have done if she had not been told, the former prime minister said: “If you get out the book and ask ‘what would Helen have done?’ … draw your own conclusions.”
Of course Helen has a wide range of policy options to offer, from Rogernomics to regarding the SAS as her private secret army hired out to the Americans to please them then giving refuge to queue jumping doubtful genuine refugees boat people from the Tampa to please the United Nations, all part of her resume for the job she wanted. Maybe she is just looking for another job, an ambassadors position perhaps.
Like Key for Bridges?
Weka
I am now realising the memory of when National cried foul back some several years ago when they ordered the head of a maori TV network resign as he was found to be a labour Party member, so do you recall that hypocrisy?
Former broadcaster Shane Taurima
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11836352
Here we see national party ‘parachuted in’ heading RNZ now so we are truly fucked if national did this systematically by “installing their puppets all over government agencies now left to trip up labour every day?
Taurima wasn’t the head of a Maori TV network.
He was responsible for the production of Maori and Pacific Island programs at TVNZ. He was also a front man on Q&A.
He wasn’t forced to resign because he was a Labour Party member.
His problem was that he held Labour Party meetings and used TVNZ resources on TVNZ premises. That is an absolute no-no as TVNZ are required to be politically neutral. It was also TVNZ management, not the Government who told him he had to go. The then Government, correctly, kept well clear.
Correct he was ‘Presenter’
Thanks for the correction Alwtyn.
Now go get some national trolls please.
alwyn
” TVNZ are required to be politically neutral”
So how did Hoskings manage to stay there for years then, not what anyone would refer to as Neutral, or are you lying again
Touche
I suggest you read this which is a Law Firms interpretation of the rules for Public Servants in Election Year.
It shouldn’t take you more than a couple of days to get through it. I assume you have a friend who can tell you what the big words with more than two syllables mean.
https://minterellison.co.nz/our-view/dos-and-donts-for-public-servants-in-election-year
Friend of Weka’s are you? She throws lying around with gay abandon too. Never does explain where it was supposed to have happened of course because I can, and do, demonstrate that it isn’t true.
However perhaps you have some reason for your drivel. What is it?
To provoke your pompous arrogant cacklemush?
Mike Hoskings is not a member of the National Party therefore he is politically neutral ?
It doesn’t matter what Taurima was, the point is there is too many national sycophants in government jobs and others hierarchal positions why do you think it is so hard to make traction.
Still making the sounds of REASON, keep up the good work, you deserve a chocolate fish.
This is not sarcasm.
Interesting. Winston asked a question,(ruled out of order) which was it right that the Leader of the Opposition described himself as a Crown Prosecutor when he does not have such a Certificate ?
Naughty Simon.
A lovely shot across Bridges’ bow. Nice one. I am sure it will be brought up again in the near future. LOL.
Perhaps his certificate is with the 10 bridges he lost
Russian Spies: Peters Foreign Affairs Minister
Opposition and Media condemn the action taken by the Government yet if Australia could find only two, it is no wonder that “”People in the Five Eyes have consulted with us on our decision, understand our decision, and did so before the decision was made.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12021937
Watching the General Debate in Parliament, a National speaker criticised the Labour PM for not expelling Russians.
Seated next to her was former defence minister, Mark Mitchell.
He was reported in Newshub, “Former defence minister Mark Mitchell told media he had never been made aware of any Russian spies here.”
First, do they not see how easily they are seen to be so two-faced?
Secondly, why was this enormous hypocritical two-facedness not hammered by a government speaker.
Shane Jones was next up and in his self-absorbed grandiloquence, missed the opportunity.
The problem partly is, as the Speaker warned, too many people reading their speeches and not actually debating.
After the Prime Minister – citing MFAT advice yesterday – swore to the world that there were no Russian operatives in New Zealand, Winston Peters – using the far more appropriate SIS intelligence, just flatly contradicts her.
There is Russian intelligence activity in New Zealand, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has confirmed.
In answer to a question in Parliament today, Peters said: “The NZ SIS advise us it is aware of Russian intelligence activity in New Zealand and where it is seen, appropriate action is taken.
“I am advised by the NZ SIS, and so has the Prime Minister been, that there is no individual here in New Zealand that fits the profile of those being expelled by other countries and that is people within the embassies in other countries. If there were, we would have taken action a long time before Salisbury.”
Absurd hair-splitting.
Where the Fuck is DPMC coordinating intelligence and Ministerial briefings?
There is no walking this back. This is a briefing diasster that makes Ardern look like a total naive idiot to the world: The PM looks SparklePony, Minister FOreign Affairs looks like Realo, public service look like complete dorks.
Jesus Prime Minister start rolling out some pre-budget Good News. You look like a fucking idiot.
But Bill English was OK with his Chinese spy trained Chinese MP?
You bloody crack me up!!! LOL
Hooten sums up the current cluster**k of a government well at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12022002.
And it’s going to get worse.
Lipstick on a pig ?
No, Ad. It is not “Absurb hair-splitting”. I don’t want to call you an idiot, but calm down.
The agreed approach to expelling Russian intelligence operatives is in respect of only one category of these – “undeclared intelligence staff (or agents)”.
Andrew Geddis on the Pundit Blog has done the best job I have ever seen of explaining this category of intelligence operatives. Here is the link and an excerpt:
(Sorry for the long quote but it is necessary to give the whole explanation)
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/my-spy-boy-told-your-spy-boy-im-gonna-set-you-flag-on-fi-yo
And so the action that obviously was agreed behind the scenes was to kick out the “undeclared intelligence agents” that each country has identified as working out of its various Russian diplomatic posts. Exactly what is meant by an “undeclared intelligence agent” is then very important, as it is the key to why NZ acted (or, didn’t act) as it did.
An undeclared intelligence agent is not an ordinary diplomat who gathers gossip, monitors news media and attends cocktail functions in order to report to their government at home what is happening in NZ. All diplomats do this – our embassy staff overseas just as much as Russian embassy staff here. So “collecting information for your government” does not make someone an undeclared intelligence agent.
Instead, an undeclared intelligence agent is a member of a country’s secret service who pretends to be a diplomat in order to actually undertake covert operations in the country to which they are posted. They are really spies who are pretending to be diplomats so as to get the benefits of diplomatic immunity should they get caught spying.
Because these two things are not the same, they are not viewed the same in diplomatic interactions. A country kicking out a diplomat because they actually are an undeclared intelligence agent is a lesser deal than is kicking out a diplomat proper, because the “diplomat’s” country knows that they’ve basically been rumbled misusing their diplomatic privileges.
So, that’s the level of response that the UK’s various friends collectively decided was warranted – not kicking out “real” diplomats (which is a major step) but kicking out spies-in-diplomats-clothing (which is a lesser step). Which then is a problem for New Zealand.
Because it appears that we don’t have any Russian undeclared intelligence agents on hand to kick out. This claim has, I know, been met with ridicule by many. I mean, it’s Russia! We all know they spy all the time on everyone!! And New Zealand is so very, very important that they must spy on us, too!!! Please? We need the validation … .
Except – maybe there just aren’t any down here at the bottom of the world. And even if there is some undeclared intelligence agent kicking about in the Russian embassy, our SIS doesn’t know who it is. Nor do our overseas intelligence partners, apparently, because we asked them and they couldn’t finger anyone either.
I know that we have had Russian undeclared intelligence agents as defined above on occasions in the past and recall at least one instance when they have been expelled very publicly. I also know that there are times when it is in fact ‘useful’ to leave them in place in some instances. For example, to be able to expel them en masse as in the current situation to send a message.
The PM was pretty confused/confusing in her initial language, but she is probably on a steep learning curve. Peters obviously understands the situation with his longer experience – hence his explanation in the House yesterday under Question 8.
Video https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=199069
Hansard https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20180328_20180328_08
I hope that helps but I also suggest that you read the whole Geddis article to put the above into context.
Note – was editing the para re Question 8 in the House near the end of the above but then ran out of time. Was editing this to say that Peters’ explanations were only slightly clearer and got lost in the ‘noise’ around the whole issue evident throughout this question. A minute or so in Peters seeks to clarify that expulsions were only being applied to ‘undeclared’ agents; and then later this:
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Far too late—we’ve been doing that from day one. But we want to make it very clear that what we’ve been challenged by, in terms of the Opposition and the media, is often demonstrably false. For example, 40 percent of the European Union, like New Zealand, have made no expulsions. But no, no—we hear from the media that the European Union has does this and so has everybody else. Well, in the end, Australia found two. We’re a much smaller country, and we haven’t found any yet inside the embassy in the way that, abroad, they did.
Next week, Queen Elsa of Arendelle, you’re hired!.
/
Blimey! Hooton’s putting the boot in. Touting a one term government under Ardern. What’s his problem? Apart from breathing. Is he not worried at all about the Health Scandal left behind Si Bridges Bestie Cut Your Spending Coleman. Does he not want to write something cutting about that. Plenty of material there. Far more dangerous and detrimental to sick helpless citizens than any of the lesser SCANDALS that he is so SCANDALISED! by.
The AM Show Duncan when one is the smallest tuna in te Waipu river one does not give A big tuna the pukana because all the other big tuna are pointing the finger at that tuna . The big picture is we are on our own side we show the world we are not puppets like our Nuclear free stance know.
After all one of the finger pointers is not going to say we will take your apples .
Wow Toyota changing there business model my dad can’t use a compute he will have to get the mokopunas to help him but good on Toyota for innervating to deliver more value to them and there customers.
I new the Media and the rest of the Papatuanuku world would blow the Australian Cricket incident up into hysterical hype thats why I’m saying drop it after they are human and I see a lot of cheating going on right in front of my eyes or can’t you see it Duncan.
World Vision has a good purpose but these charity’s need to become innovative teach the people how to become self sustainable with food and income there is a lot of ways this can be achieved innervation is a good thing Ka kite ano
The AM Show years ago when I was fishing out of Bluff we ended up with 12 dozen oysters each well they disappeared so I had only fish and scampi to take home.
I had my first surimi she could not believe that I had not had surimi before it was part of her cultures dishes it tasted very good with fresh fish and all .Ka kite ano.
P.S I like mountain oysters
(The mandatory preface) “so……” thanks SO much for having us JESSIE. STARDOM (as in the Jessie becomes the Afternoons. I mean I accept he’s probably the most gorgeous specimen that ever dwalked and could probably become the next Joolie Krusty eligible whatever.
Just as checkpoint could bcome the next ‘John campbell’ show.
Jesus…. they really don’t get it do they?
Frank(ly mcS)?…? They really don’t get it do they
PERHAPS they need a dose of an Aunt Daisy’s floor polish up their back passage.
Ekshully that’d be a bloody good cure for a ZB hosking and his bimbo bimbo where ya gonna goeeeoh.
( doubt even daddyo would risk his vintard trying to save ya)
Newshub Mike there you go our prison system are archaic ancient flogging horses for some political party’s used to stir up racial division just to get votes .
In a intelligent society both political party’s should listen to the humane advisors and change this system to one that educates the people and prepares them for employment and survival in a ever changing society . At the minute the prison system is a major hindrance on the people whom end up in its tentacles on there journey of life into a complete stop or reverse in there fortunes .
I look at the assets that the police displayed and confiscated from 25 people well one would find the value of those assets in one persons garage in a wealthy suburb and the price of the wealthy person House would cover the $2million dollars that was confiscated money from 25 people can you see the Hippocratic system . yes its good that the Drug PEE is taken off the streets but we need to teach these people that it is more profitable to get into a legal business than crime.
Ka kite ano .P.S my business would be flourishing if the sand flies were not defecating on it Kia Kaha
Newshub letts get this strait the only gang I have allegiance to is my mokopuna and my children’s future well being so if you hear any different disregard it as proper gander against ECO MAORI everyone that knows me knows this fact I still respect all though . Kia Kaha ka kite ano
The Crowd Goes Wild kia ora Wairangi Kopu staunch to League as you are I seen Tawera Nikau a few years back I was going to my lawyers office in Hamilton I just gave him the heads up .Yes many thanks to the NRL Australia for gifting the Warriors A Ladies League team ka pai why did you cut your hair ??????? Im thinking on growing mine and use my real first name my wairua is leading me in this direction I back all Teams as I am colour blind so I respect all I have my favourites .
But the kumra never tells how sweet it is Kai kaha Tana Ka kite ano
This is what was on youtube when I opened it good sounds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Dg-g7t2l4
Happy Easter to all be safe in all your journeys Kia kaha ka kite ano
This is how state civil servants act after 9 years of shonky rule protect the money man at the expense of OUR beautiful Endangered Dolphins Maui there are only 80 left we should be pouring resources into saving these beautiful creates enough said here’s a link
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11999834
Newshub there you go the first 3 story’s have a connection and that connection is Alcohol this drug does a lot of damage to Our society but so long as the big companies push this drug we will have a lot more carnage .
Yes boat people please keep our island wild life sanctuaries free from dangerous vermin rats stoats check your boats thoroughly as the animals and birds on these Islands are endangered .
I can remember not so long ago they were saying eggs dairy meat is bad for you what a sham to much of anything is bad for you coffee is in the lime light now Alcohol has cancer causing carcinogens to much Alcohol will kill you instantly why is this fact not advertised .
Kia ora Mike hope the weather is good. I wonder If someone has been putting a spin on things once again. How did the book go hopefully she sold out.
Ka kite ano