The tikanga of mana is at stake. We will not stand idly by and allow the mana of the Minister of Education, the Honourable Hekia Parata, her people, our people to be manipulated and trampled on. We, Dr Apirana Mahuika, Sir Toby Curtis, Sir Mark Solomon, Raniera Tau, Willie Te Aho, Awanuiarangi Black, Tiwha Puketapu, Naida Glavish, Sir Tamati Reedy and Pem Bird caution NZEI that they are putting their hard earned excellent reputation earned over a sustained period of time on the line and for what purpose?
The International Summit is the most prestigious educational event on the world calendar, a huge coup for our Minister of Education, Hekia Parata…
“The event brings together education ministers and leaders of national teachers’ federations and teachers’ unions from jurisdictions that, according to the OECD’s 2012 PISA survey results, have high-performing or rapidly-improving school systems”
I hope National gets the answers to the three questions whic are the focus of the summit
“The three questions that this Summit will focus on are:
How can high quality teachers and leaders be attracted into and retained in schools of the greatest need?
What are the levers for achieving equity in increasingly devolved education systems?
How are learning environments created that meet the needs of all children and young people?"
I can’t work that one out, they haven’t really explained why they are upset, they have only said that they are upset…. and into such a vacuum goes ………
But whenever the word “honour” appears in the speech of someone uppity or otherwise then one should be very wary. “Honour” is but an empty tub which will hold whatever is tossed into it ..
Who they represent anyway? Not the ordinary Maori , surely. Aren’t they all Maori aristocracy? You know, those people who have done well for themselves from the settlements that were supposed to benefit many more people than they did in reality.
Every child deserves a chance in life, but more than one in four Kiwi kids live in poverty. That inequality is the biggest hurdle to educational success.
The Government is putting millions into highly paid “new roles” for some principals and teachers, but ignoring child poverty. It has rejected a living wage for low paid support staff such as teacher aides, who directly support students with the greatest needs.
If you agree that tackling inequality must be the #1 priority in New Zealand, and that there must be a Living Wage for Learning for kids and education workers, come and join us to show your support!
Will be nice if we can have a warm-up piece today on The Standard, alerting peeps to the nationwide TPPA demo tomorrow? Sorry, I haven’t got much time at the moment to draft a piece but I have lotsa suggestions and a big mouth.
Doesn’t have to be a long, original piece for now but just a general announcement or notice pointing people to the various places around the country tomorrow at 1pm:
“After four years, the corporate deal of the century – aka the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement – is still being negotiated in secret.
“The TPPA puts our sovereignty at risk, violates our democratic right to decide our own future, and wastes taxpayers’ money that should be spent on social, not corporate, welfare.
“It needs to stop. Now.”
As I thought I heard or read someone saying: make it big as it may be our last time to do this!
Done, but even something straight forward is not that quick. I think some of the links are not working that well – then I got an urgent personal email that needs attending to.
I’m speechless – very sad and disturbing. There are some excellent people in that group, including one of the authors of Te Whariki, the fabulous ece curriculum. I want to know where their voices have been as they’ve watched the systematic destruction of our education system under this government. No use talking about mana now, we’ve already shamed ourselves
And the eroding of the education system doesn’t stop at 16. Did you know for instance, that if you only give a party vote, but leave the electorate vote blank, that the ballot paper is void?
Te reo kupapa. They are probably looking at starting iwi charter schools. A few of them must still be going for knighthoods. Thank god that a new generation of leaders is growing, that has nothing in common with this sad lot.
The Carter Holt Harvey price-fixing case raises a question: what has happened to the proposal to make cartel behaviour a criminal offence? The company was fined $1.85 million by the High Court for price fixing in the Auckland commercial timber market, though its actions were described as being at the lower end of offending. The bill proposing criminal sanctions for serious cartel offending has been stuck in Parliament for almost a year and the Government has shown no interest in passing it. It seems unlikely anything will change before the election.”
from MBIE website
“The Minister of Commerce introduced the Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2011 into Parliament on 13 October 2011.
One of the principle objectives of the amendment Bill is to introduce criminal sanctions for hard-core cartel behaviour.
Hard-core cartels are formed when rival firms agree to not compete with each other by fixing prices, restricting output, allocating markets or rigging bids. Cartels allow firms to raise their prices above the competitive level without fear of losing customers to rivals. This increases the profits of cartel participants but does not benefit consumers.”
Introduced by Simon Power… and then he left… and then it languished under… Steven Joyce and Craig Foss
” Commerce committee report
On 13 May 2013, the Commerce Committee tabled its report on the Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. ”
Sanctions proposed
“The penalty regime
The bill introduces criminal sanctions for individuals and companies. For an individual, the maximum sanction would be seven years’ imprisonment. For a body corporate, the sanctions are the same as the current level of sanctions: a fine set at the greater of either $10 million or three times the value of the commercial gain, if it can be ascertained. If the gain cannot be ascertained, the sanction will be 10 per cent of annual turnover.”
”
Craig Foss
14 May, 2013
Select Committee reports back on Cartels Bill
Commerce Minister Craig Foss today welcomed the Commerce Select Committee report on a Bill to encourage pro-competitive collaboration.
The Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill promotes economic growth by enabling pro-competitive collaboration between firms, while also deterring hard-core cartel conduct.
“This Bill forms an important part of the Government’s Business Growth Agenda and our ambitious goal to increase the ratio of exports to GDP to 40 per cent by 2025,” says Mr Foss.
“It will enable collaborative arrangements that can help businesses innovate and tap into overseas markets. This will be a welcome change for New Zealand’s export industries.
“At the same time the Bill takes a strong stance against hard-core cartel conduct like price fixing and bid rigging and introduces criminal sanctions for egregious behaviour.
“These activities will not be tolerated and anyone engaging in them will be treated the same way as tax evaders, fraudsters and other white collar criminals,” says Mr Foss.”
“..will be treated the same way as tax evaders, fraudsters and other white collar criminals..”
generally ignored..?..unless un-ignorable..?
..and does anyone think we will ever see any words/actions of/on (from any party?) on the (depending who you talk to) $1.5 billion – $5 billion in criminally-evaded taxes..?
..each and every year..?
..can i offer a possible path to a solution..?
..a carrot-stick themed ‘solution’..?
..how about offering a three month amnesty..?
..wherein the guilty can come forward..and just have to pay the taxes owing..with no penalties..
..and after that amnesty-period lapses..
..promise task-forces/going gangbusters over all those caught..
..(with tandem ramping-up-penalties legislation..?..)
..i reckon that’d flush out quite a bit of that ‘criminally-avoided’ tax revenue..
..(and we do need the money..eh..?..so we can start to put things right/prepare for the future..)
..(and of course..those in this govt who we look to do this are foss-the-hapless..
..and the pompadoured-one..dunne…
..so..we’ll get s.f.a. action on this from these two clowns..
..that you can take to the bank..)
..(and just practising my psychic-abilities here..
..i’m gonna make the call that a majority..(and by quite a margin..)..
..wd be from the rich/elites..
..most of who vote in their wallet-interests..
..and tick national/act in the ballot-box..
..so for only this reason..foss-the-hapless/dunne will not offend their support-base..
..that is far more important..than trying to claw back all that nicked money..)
For some reason I haven’t been able to access the home page of The Standard for a few days, although I can go to subsidiary pages like this one. Is this happening to others and if so, does anyone know why?
Try pressing Shift+F5 to force a cache refresh on your browser. I saw that on my table this morning as well probably because I wasn’t able to load the page at the Pickering lecture yesterday.
‘National has developed a media network incorporating the Whale Oil website, Kiwiblog and commentators Matthew Hooton and Michelle Boag.
They have been feeding the media appetite for short, sharp crises to fill online news space.
It is Labour’s job to counter National’s influence over the news agenda. But it does not have many of its own partisans in the media; the left-leaning website The Daily Blog does not have an audience to compare with Whale Oil.’
His round-up also mentions the planned pay-wall at the herald, which I haven’t seen confirmed as definite (although I probably have just missed it) previously. It starts later this year.
Amusing. For some strange reason we never get mentioned in any of the mainstream media unless they absolutely have to. I guess it is because we don’t act like news media because of our focus on being a internet forum – ie comments.
BTW: does anyone else have problems getting any comments on the NZ Herald articles? As far as I can tell, none of mine since about 2012 have made it through. I guess they don’t like our ocassional posts on them 😈
Not mentioning The Standard was a major omission from Drinnan. The Daily Blog seems to have scant connections with Labour so was an odd inclusion in that context.
”The Daily Blog seems to have scant connections with Labour so was an odd inclusion in that context.”
While I agree the Standard should have been mentioned, it’s not just about Labour.
Unlike the largely homogeneous right, the left has developed a healthy pluralism of parties.
The issue is a lack of decent left-wing pundits in the media cycle.
Good point. But there are a number of authors over there who have Labour membership. Me for instance.
It could have been a simple editing mistake. After all both of the sites start with the word “The”. 😈
But I suspect that it is pretty deliberate. There are sites that the news media never likes to mention. For instance the Transport blog and this one. We’re somewhat harder to spin as being the clowns of the internet.
Bryce Edwards does like linking to your site a bit eh?
The Daily Blog attempts a popular appeal – Standard talks to itself IMO.
The Daily Blog comments are less nutty.
He was challenged on it by other journalists too. Odd and superficial. Some traditional journalists don’t give much weight to people using pseudonyms, I don’t know if that’s why he thinks TDB is more significant.
I don’t know how Bryce chooses his links but he seems to be including more and more sources for his links, he used to be more selective. I look for different angles on things. Writing blog posts is quite different to commenting on blogs – mickysavage is a good example of that here, his approach is quite different to what it used to be. He’s now someone I look out for.
gee..pg..imagine if you did something like commentaries on q-time..or something..
..edwards-the-younger would link to ya so much more than even he does now..eh..?
..he’d be all over you like a rsh..
..and with yr observational-powers/quick wit..
..i’m sure such a commentary from you wd b a treat..
(and cd u discount the persistant/ongoing rumours that the heavy/serial-linking to yer exercises in the fatuous/irrelevant/boring/bleeding-obvious..by edwards-the-younger..
..are down to full-body-massages..followed by a beard rubdown..?
..administered by yr (fill-blank) self..?
..and while we are at it..
..have you ever owned/touched/read a copy of mein kamp…?
..wot with yr own ‘struggle’..eh..?
..he too..was misunderstood/laughed at..in the early days..
..but he showed them..!
..eh pete..?..
..and do you currently have any plans/desires/aspirations..
… to annex invercargill..?
..(nb..the above is all ‘rumours’..unfounded-suppositions..
The Daily Blog attempts a popular appeal – Standard talks to itself IMO.
Not really. We talk between activists on the left and to the people interested in activists on the left – it is in the about. Obviously something John isn’t into. I guess his view of media is more about entertainment than effectiveness (at least that is what I see when I read many of his stories).
The Daily Blog comments are less nutty.
That is because they are extremely and silently censored (which is why they are so few). It conforms to the same ethos that NZ Herald follows in their comment policy so I can see why he’d feel more comfortable with it.
But he is right, we primarily exist to allow the left to talk amongst each other whereas The Daily Blog is designed to allow some people on the left to present a ethos to a wider public. Of course you’d have to ask yourself which is more effective at a political level.
That’s a good point on censorship at The Daily Blog. Discussion is obviously not a priority there.
We’ve had a few wee skirmishes here about moderation but I’ve said elsewhere a number of times at least it’s all out in the open, I’ve never been secretly censored here . It seems to be common practice at TDB and it’s happened to me. Martyn seems to be trying to be an alternative to MSM but he mimics their strict opinion and message control. Like anywhere that’s his call.
When the outcome is that one party is publicly humiliated and earns a reputation for banality that follows him to this day, that’s not a “skirmish”. It’s a rout.
Mine get published about 60% of the time, but take a couple of days to get through moderation even if I am posting within the hour after an article is published.
The reason The Standard is not mentioned is not “strange” at all. It is however quite stupid.
It’s purely because the authors here are pseudonymous. The MSM like to be hypocritical in having their own (completely) anonymous editorials, but won’t deign to mention TS because apparently you have to have a publicly identifiable name otherwise your opinion somehow doesn’t mean anything.
Makes no difference for legal liabilities but the journo’s are so in love with their late 20th century fetish for individual fame (spurred by TV) that they have forgotten the whole of the 19th/20th century journalistic ethos and why it was there. The only residual is the editorials.
Drinnan should have also included Rachel Glucina, the Herald’s gossip columnist – and friend of Slater’s who is also deep in with the smear campaign against KDC. But probably she is too close to home, being a fellow Herald columnist.
Yep. It seems to me that they must have sat down with the powers that be. Slater was told to stop being such a dick and tone things down and Glucina was told that she was going to get out of the socialite pap news and start breaking stories. She has further .com news in her latest column at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/personalities/news/article.cfm?c_id=72&objectid=11227811
Lolz more snide innuendo from the Herald(National Party disinformation service),shows just how much the Beehives 9th floor lives in fear of the bloke,(i have the sneaking suspicion that the 9th floor have a private investigator/SIS on the road sniffing out DotComs ‘back-story’,
Laughable is the pic of DotCom in the ‘Kraut lid’, who would have thunk it, a German lampooning a German,(i have been hanging out for DotCom to do a full on Sergeant Shultz while live on the TV news),
The pic down the bottom of Rachel Glaucoma’s column of the Kohanga Kids having fun with Trev is a total cutey…
well..that disempowering of a past demon by mocking..
…was part and parcel of that show..?..surely..?
..(the war was recent enough for most watchers..at most only one generation removed from the actual conflict..)
..(disclaimer:..i have ‘loved’ a german..and my son is half-german..
..and ..as an aside..i think he was speaking for his savvy-generation..when he instantly called ‘bullshit!’ on the false equivalence of the dotcom/mein kamp story/beat-up..)
..and surely..of far more prurient-interest wd be the off-stage lifestyle of the lead actor in hogans’ heroes..bob crane..?
Yes i have had the odd look on the Doktor’s(Edwards),daily roundup of politics via the Herald online and on most occasions, even when there are multiple posts running on a topic at the Standard Bryce chooses to not mention this instead directing readers to the branches of the sewer,
People are ‘lead’, often easily, the Doktor, dare i say with deliberation???, doesn’t mention the Standard too often, in my opinion, simply as a means of keeping people from reading the Standard, if His links consistently direct people to ‘wail-oil’ and ‘kiwi-smog’ then if they have no knowledge of the Standard they are likely to keep going to those sites if they are seeking further knowledge of ‘political happenings’ than that which is provided by the mainstream media,
To a certain extent, in a cutting off the nose to spite the face exercise, the political parties of the left spend no amount of energy mentioning the Standard, ala Slippery the Prime Ministers major ‘Slurp’ directed in Blubber boy and ‘wail oil’s’ direction recently choosing instead to promote their own web-sites which have far less debate and thus tend to be pretty party-centric and, again in my opinion,are a bit of a bore,
In an ideal world, in the interests of growing ‘the left’ we would see Labour/Green/Mana websites prominently displaying links to both the Standard and the Daily Blog,(having not looked for a while i do not know if any of them do this now)…
The Bryce Edwards round-up started as a chronicle of topical political stories and columns, including issues simmering away in the regions, and off-beat bloggers. It covered many different stories and issues in one edition. However, now Edwards is trying to capture/create the narrative, and each one is overly long, and too focused on beltway media/topics.
As Karol pointed out recently, Edwards even took to Twitter to commission pieces from bloggers on a set topic! This is media as echo chamber, rather than reflecting the actual confusion and complexity of life.
And Edwards focus is very much about politics as a game – party strategies, headline grabbers, polling issues, etc. – little about close examination of policies.
Amusing in the Herald’s online version this morning is the befor and after of Colon Craig said to have been dieting in preparation for the 2014 election,
The befor version,(much to my surprise), looks remarkably like a run of the mill picture of a normal human being,
The ‘after’ one tho gives me a picture that could be used as an example of Colon having been kidnapped by aliens at some point in time and whisked off for a quick ‘probing’, seems ‘the probe’ must have been set to ‘suction samples’ when the aliens ‘must watch’ favorite TV show came on inter-galactic TV and they left Colon on the ‘table’ for too long while they watched it,
The mad staring eyes remind me of ‘speed’ addicts strung out on what the medical profession used to prescribe to tired overweight Mums back in the 60’s,(but that’s another story)…
The Parliament is in recess until April 8th,(i think), so unless Labour are planning to release major policy there isn’t much happening to get them into the news,
David Cunliffe was in the far North on Monday or Tuesday and i should imagine that any number of MP’s will be out there in the electorate holding meetings with ‘interest groups’ something Helen Clark did with zeal befor becoming Prime Minister,
i should imagine that Labour release a flurry of ‘press releases’ on everything of interest, or not, on a regular basis, media apathy or bias would then account for such not seeing the light of day,
Hopefully either David Cunliffe and/or Grant Robertson are preparing a series of questions that skewer Slippery the Prime Minister, at question time to keep the PM’s ‘gifts’ to charity, the National Party, firmly in the headlines once the Parliament resumes…
I hope they don’t let collins and parata, oh and adams off the hook. What’s happened to bennett, is she keeping her powder dry? Just saw in comments in herald that ‘frannie’s columns were like love letters to shay key’. So sad, but so true. She needs to get out more.
Well, at least some MPs will be out here in the electorate. From today’s item:
‘The entire Labour Party caucus will descend on Wairarapa on March 31. All 34 Labour MPs will visit Wairarapa to meet with locals at afternoon venues to discuss development, jobs, health and housing.
Labour leader David Cunliffe describes the event as an “away caucus”, to hear the voice of the people first-hand.
“I believe government must act with the people, not for the people. That can only be achieved by getting out and about, not sitting behind a desk at Parliament.” ‘
I hope they are smarter than the Green Party were a few years ago. They held a conference in the Wairarapa. It was over the weekend and they went up from Wellington on Friday night.
Being publically enthusiastic about public transport they all went up on the evening train. They got there early and took most of the available seats. Thus when the people who travel on it every day after working in Wellington got there no seats were left and the regular passengers had to stand for the trip. The Green Party never thought to tell the Railways ahead of time so that more carriages might have been added.
I know two people who were on the trip, both of whom were, until that time, Green Party members. They resigned and as far as I know they never re-joined.
I can’t imagine that the Labour MPs will be travelling on the train of course. I hope they don’t take a taxi each and at least will share some.
Glen Innes had the highest capital gain on three-bedroom houses with an annualised 18.9 per cent, and Mount Wellington had the best gain on apartments at 16.2 per cent…
Is that the impact of the new mini fletchers town for the first home buyer with 650k? Or the sell off of state houses?
“An old, old Soviet story repeating itself,” Boris Akunin, a novelist who signed the opposition petition, wrote in an email when asked about the war of words.
“It’s just that under Stalin, if a prominent cultural figure dared to protest he’d be shot; under Brezhnev he’d be imprisoned; now he just risks losing state donations and having to travel economy class — but this often proves enough,” Mr. Akunin wrote. “It’s a fascinating sight to watch people make this moral choice.”
Auckland Mayor Len Brown has been accused of acting with a conflict of interest at a council committee meeting today.
Veteran anti-corruption campaigner Penny Bright was attempting to read out letters from the police in regard to a complaint against Mayor Brown, but he refused to let her speak and ordered security staff to remove Bright from the venue.
Speaking later from Auckland police station, Bright told InvestigateDaily that the mayor had taken direct action on a matter he was directly implicated in, and she believed he had a clear conflict of interest in trying to prevent members of the public from speaking about him.
Bright being removed. PHOTO: Cr Dick Quax
(Photo: Dick Quax)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM PENNY BRIGHT
(“The letter from Police that conflicted Auckland Mayor Len Brown tried to stop me reading at the Auckland Council Governing Body meeting Thursday 27 March 2014 “)
“I have discussed this matter with Graham McCready, and am considering taking a private prosecution for assault against the security guards, and Mayor Len Brown as a party to the assault,” says Penny Bright.
“If you think that I am going to put up with being censored and assaulted – now twice within 5 weeks – for attempting to expose corrupt conflicts of interest at Auckland Council – THINK AGAIN!”
“In my considered opinion, Auckland Council is rotten to the core with corrupt conflicts of interest, but I will NOT be silenced as an anti-corruption ‘whistle-blower’. ”
Still want to defend Auckland Mayor Len Brown ????????
I was merely pointing out the likely result of the battle you are choosing to fight.
I suspect that the len brown “conflict of interest” is a pile of bunk, and that your removal by security staff was done with proper legal authority and without striking or doing you bodily harm (crimes act s56 if I recall correctly from my security days). But most of all, I suspect that the rates reporting requirements you are choosing to lose your home over will not substantially change the practise or effectiveness of democracy (or lack thereof) in Auckland.
Not that I care too much, being at the other end of the country.
Okay kiddies.
Homework for the weekend is getting out your pens and papers and writing to your MP’s and asking why charter schools are getting taxpayer money.
If they dont reply then write letters to your local newspaper telling on them.
Its time to make the wonks start earning their money!
It seems that the upcoming rallies against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) that will be happening all over NZ tomorrow are effectively being ignored by mainstream media?
FYI!
SAT 29 MARCH: JOIN THE NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION TO STOP THE TPPA
It’s not likely to have been much more than a minor factor in the year to February 2014 visitor arrival numbers, despite the speculative analysis in the article.
Also, the problem with these kinds of campaigns is that it’s difficult to establish if they create new arrivals or simply shift timing or, much less tangibly, just add yet another minor reason for visiting with a correspondingly limited marginal effect.
Let us not forget that the reason New Zealanders know so much about Dotcom is because he is the target of a major investigation by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Few other organisations on the planet possess the investigative capabilities of the FBI and even fewer are as sensitive when it comes to institutional failure and humiliation. But, failure and humiliation are precisely what lies in store for the FBI should Dotcom succeed in delaying the extradition procedures initiated against him by the US Attorney-General long enough to allow an electorally successful Internet Party to negotiate favourable political interventions on his behalf.
I would have thought that promoting this as a deliberate aim of the Internet Party will not help their current efforts to distance the party from Dotcom.
And Chris promoting deliberate political intervention in an extradition as a condition of supposed coalition support is quite astounding.
I’m confused. Which party do you think Trotter is speaking on behalf of? I thought Trotter saw himself more as a fairly independent leftie commentator and analyst – one that often provides critical views that often upset other lefties.
It looks to me like he is talking on behalf of a general left, but I don’t think promoting a party’s electoral aim as to politically intervene in an extradition will help the Internet Party nor the left.
The Internet Party are trying to establish a perception of independence from Dotcom, that is hard enough already without political/legal deals being promoted as a deliberate aim.
If I was Labour or Greens or Mana I’d be wanting to have nothing to do with any suggestion like this. Russel Norman is one of the more astute politicians on the left, and he saw the dangers Dotcom and his party posed to the chances of the left.
Best you stop now then Pete. That’s two comments from you in this thread in which you – by your own standard – promote the IP’s electoral aim as to politically intervene in an extradition.
The fungal algae called ‘Rock Snot’ is known to attach itself to many things as a means of travel and is thus able to move from place to place and pop up in places gaining a toehold only later to infect the whole area…
…. and in other matters ……
Does anyone else think (given NZ’s search and rescue capability, 6 x P3K2’s et al) that its contribution to MH370 is actually rather fuckin pathetic?
I’m of the belief that the NZ Defence Force’s future lays in peaceful contributions – such as search and rescue, responding to natural disasters, etc.
We seem to have given JUST enough to earn this miserly gubbamint some Browlee points (covered in shit as they inevitably are), and JUST enough to earn the Philistine itchim smetchim smoozim ideologically, parrot fashioned ‘learnings’, kaholic, commoditised principles-for-sale, red-dirt brown-eyed Jonkahism a few points on the ‘ta-neshnool- stage?’.
It is rather pathetic though …. I mean these fukwits run the gauntlet (due to PS cutbacks) with bio-diversity (think PSA, etc., etc., etc.) daily – and they do so with ‘Defense’ (which should actually JUST be devoted to CIVIL defense).
But this single Orion – with crews that appear to need close to 24hrs to change over is fucking pathetic.
It’s especially so, since of all the world’s capability ….. NZ (along with OZ – to actually a LESSER extent) are accustomed to the 40’s latitude that till now has been on the agenda.
But yeah, but nah, but yeah but nah – not worth it aye. wod ear va …. snot gunna make goldin boiii look sgoood es scccchhhhmoooxin in a fifrint hemsphere.
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If National causes yet another by-election to be held in Tauranga, not only will it cost the taxpayers another unnecessary $1m for the taxpayers after Simon Bridges called it quits earlier in the year, but National will also pay a big price in terms of its reputation and integrity. A ...
Representing Pakeha Racism: The important thing to remember about Rob Muldoon, and the racist policies with which his name is associated, is that he drew his power from the hundreds-of-thousands of anxious, angry, and yes – racist – Pakeha who voted for him, and that his most effective campaign slogan was: “New Zealand the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The U.S. Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act by a single vote on Sunday, August 7. The bill, headed to the House of Representatives within days, includes by far the largest and most consequential measures to reduce domestic climate pollution in the nation’s ...
I remember feeling anxious before making the phone call, although not at anxious I might have expected. But what sticks most in my mind is how the phone call ended. It was the late 1990s. I was deputy editor of the NZ Listener and I had to ring a guy ...
National is dripping “blue blood” again. The revelations over Sam Uffindell’s violent assault indicate that the National Party under Christopher Luxon hasn’t quite shed the toxicity and internal damage of the last few years. The crises besetting the party have recently been well documented in journalist Andrea Vance’s new book ...
Most of us believe in redemption and atonement… But the timing, the nature and the semantics of Sam Uffindell‘s apology for his role in a gang that beat a younger kid (reportedly) with wooden bed legs, has left much to be desired. The victim seems pretty clear about the motivation ...
Yesterday the news broke that newly elected National MP Sam Uffindell was asked to leave private Auckland school King’s College at the end of his fifth form year after being part of a group that viciously beat a younger student one night. There are many elements to this latest political ...
You’ve got to wonder why the National Party knowingly hid information from the public about their newest MP, Sam Uffindell. Surely they must’ve realised that their secret would eventually leak into the public domain. New Zealand is far too small for cover-ups of this kind to be effective.Despite his violent ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk With high energy prices and increasing urgency to reduce fossil fuel burning, it makes sense to get the most out of every gallon of gasoline or kilowatt-hour of electricity. A previous post showed that charging an EV costs around $1.41 per gallon ...
Back in the 1990s, Tony Blair rebranded The British Labour Party as “New Labour”, to try and draw a line under past failures. It’s as if Christopher Luxon is attempting to follow suit, and launch “New National” at the moment – a party that’s fresh-looking, has made some big breaks ...
Back in June Sam Uffindell was elected to parliament in the Tauranga by-election. Turns out he's a bully who beat a kid with a bed-leg at school: The National Party’s newest MP, Sam Uffindell, was asked to leave his exclusive boarding school after viciously beating a younger student late ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Electoral Amendment Bill. Submissions are due by Wednesday, 31 August 2022, and can be made at the link above. The bill improves disclosure of party finances, lowering the declaration threshold to $5,000 and requiring parties to disclose their annual financial statements. ...
Laughing With The Poor Folks - Or At Them? Christopher Luxon took rapper LunchMoney Lewis’s lyrics at their face value. “Bills”, as heard by Luxon, is a cri-de-cœur from a hard-working man determined to pull himself and his family up by their own bootstraps. It simply wouldn’t occur to him ...
On the rare occasions when it ever gets asked, the public keeps rejecting tax cuts as such, as a policy priority. It keeps saying it wants tax levels to either stay the same or be increased, so that public services can be maintained, or even (perish the thought) improved. In ...
Europe has been baking in a heatwave, of course. Not so much this part of the world, which benefits by still being in Winter (though let’s just say I am not looking forward to January 2023). Not that it’s been a particularly cold Winter – we haven’t had one ...
The Wagner Group is a private military company – effectively mercenaries. It has been used for the military activity of the Russian Federation in various parts of the world. Currently, it is operating in Ukraine and apparently has a reputation as a very brave and effective force in the ...
I have said this in other forums, but here is the deal: PRC military exercises after Pelosi’s visit are akin to male gorillas who run around thrashing branches and beating their chests when annoyed, disturbed or seeking to show dominance. They are certainly dangerous and not to be ignored, but ...
From July 7 to 26 we tried something new on our Facebook page by sharing one Cranky Uncle cartoon each day for 20 days in a row. There were two reasons for doing this: firstly, we wanted to ensure that at least one post would get published each day while I was ...
Too many commentators on current price pressures have not understood that this time it is very different from the 1970s. Their prescriptions may accelerate inflation.The New Zealand economy is experiencing an external price shock arising from the Covid pandemic and the Ukrainian invasion compounded by related supply chain difficulties. It ...
During the years of the Key government one hardy perennial of political journalism was that whenever the Labour Opposition would suggest a policy alternative to the status quo, the hard bitten response from the Gallery realists would be “But how’re you gonna pay for it?” National in Opposition has been ...
In The Wizard’s Garden: George Dunlop Leslie, 1904IT ALL SEEMS so long ago now, and, to be fair, in human terms, 48 years is a long time. New Zealand was a different country in 1974. Someone unafraid of courting controversy might say it had achieved “Peak Pakeha”. Although the Labour Government of ...
Proximate Cause: Tellingly, it was Helen Clark who was seated close by when, earlier this week, Jacinda Ardern delivered a speech carefully crafted to keep New Zealand’s dairy exports heading China’s way. Photo by PolitikPURISTS WOULD ARGUE that New Zealand’s foreign policy should not be determined by who its Prime Minister ...
We have a new clip out of The Rings of Power. It sees Galadriel and the affectionately nicknamed Gigwit* venturing into dark places in search of evil. At fifty-odd seconds, it also constitutes the longest single piece of show dialogue we have seen thus far. *An acronym. “Galadriel Is ...
Rising To The Challenge: Te Pāti Māori is reassuring the angry and the alienated that in 2023 voting will make a difference. Aotearoa is changing. Pakeha – especially young Pakeha – are changing. The racism is still there, of course, heightened, it would seem, by the prospect of Labour, the ...
"CAGW." A thing? With its provocative title and remarks grounded in respected published research, the perspective Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has caused a few ripples reaching into popular media. "Endgame" and "catastrophic" lean hard in the direction of "pay ...
In the past there's been a few interesting data points about the New Zealand Intelligence Community's desire to covertly manipulate public opinion through media and academic mouthpieces. In 2015 the Council for Civil Liberties revealed the existence of an NZIC "Strategic Communications Group" tasked with persuading the public that spying ...
Inflation is through the roof, and "coincidentally" so is oil company profiteering. UN Secretary-General António Guterres calls it what it is: grotesque: The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has described the record profits of oil and gas companies as immoral and urged governments to introduce a windfall tax, using ...
What on earth is going on with the main opposition parties at the moment? Both National and ACT have been making numerous flip-flops and miscommunications, clearly indicating that they aren’t a viable alternative to the current Labour led Government.Of particular note is the duplicitous reasoning given for why they support ...
A ballot for two member's bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Housing Infrastructure (GST-sharing) Bill (Brooke van Velden) Prohibition on Seabed Mining Legislation Amendment Bill (Debbie Ngarewa-Packer) Ngarewa-Packer's bill looks likely to start a shitfight with Labour, and not just because the ...
As you might have noticed, I have an on-going interest in working my way through old and intellectually influential reading material. Occasionally I even share my thoughts on it, which allows me to take a break from my generally-dominant Tolkien analysis. Well, today I thought I would take a ...
Golriz Ghahraman's Electoral (Strengthening Democracy) Amendment Bill will probably face its first reading today. And three months after it was introduced - pissing on the "as soon as practicable" requirement of Standing Order 269 - it has received a section 7 report from Attorney-General David Parker stating that its proposed ...
There's an interesting select committee report out today, from the Petitions Committee on the Petition of Conrad Petersen: The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA). The petitioner raises some concerns about the slowness of the IPCA process and its lack of oversight, and suggests some solutions. The committee doesn't seem keen ...
Today is a Member's Day, but likely to be a boring one. There's no general debate today, and instead the House will move right into the third reading of the Canterbury Regional Council (Ngāi Tahu Representation) Bill, which will add unelected, inherently conflicted Ngai Tahu representatives to ECan. Then there's ...
That gormlessly glum picture of Christopher Luxon in Samoa graphically tells us what kind of image New Zealand would be projecting abroad if there’s a change of government next year. The glumness is understandable. For months, National and ACT had been dog whistling to the bigots who oppose the creation ...
There is no corruption in New Zealand. At least that’s what authorities want the public to believe. For decades now our system of political finance regulation has been portrayed as highly rigorous, ensuring our politicians cannot be bought. Unfortunately, that’s just not true. Although politicians and officials have claimed tight ...
Pundits have come out of the woodwork to defend the Greens co-leader, after he was stripped of his leadership last week by unhappy party members. The defences have all stuck to basically the same script: Shaw is a successful leader and minister who’s handed the party big victories in politics ...
Meghan Murphy talks with Batya Ungar-Sargon the author of Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy. The book charts the trajectory of journalism in the US as it shifted from being a blue collar occupation producing the penny press for the masses, to a profession for Ivy League university ...
Co-Leaders? The uncomfortable truth is: not the Army, not the Police, not the Spooks, and not even a combination of all three, could defeat the scale and violence of White Supremacist and Māori Nationalist resistance which the imposition of radical decolonisation – or its racism-inspired defeat – would unleash upon ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson and Jeff Masters Torrents of rain that began before dawn on Tuesday, July 26, gave St. Louis, Missouri, its highest calendar-day total since records began in 1873. And the deadly event is just the latest example of a well-established trend ...
Completed reads for July: The Prince, by Niccolo MachiavelliFaust, Part I, by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheFaust, Part II, by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheParadise Lost, by John MiltonParadise Regained, by John MiltonThe NibelungenliedAgricola, by TacitusGermania, by TacitusDialogue on Orators, by TacitusThe Gods of Pegana, by Lord DunsanyTime and the Gods, ...
A couple of weeks ago the High Court exposed a loophole in our electoral donations law, enabling corrupt parties to take in unlimited amounts of secret money and explicitly sell policy to the rich. Pretty obviously, this is unacceptable in a country which wants to call itself a democracy, and ...
This morning, National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis managed to get top of the bulletin news coverage by pointing out that some Kiwis living abroad might receive the government’s cost of living payment. Quelle horreur. What is the problem here? Inflation is a global problem, and Kiwis living abroad may be ...
Beyond Fixing? The critical question confronting New Zealanders is whether we any longer have the resources to repair our physical and human infrastructure?WHO WILL MAKE the New Zealand of the next 50 years? We had better hope that, whoever they are, they make a better job of it than those ...
Today’s speech by Jacinda Ardern to the China Business Summit in Auckland was full of soothing words for Beijing. The headline-grabber was Ardern’s comment that ‘a few plans are afoot’ for New Zealand ministers to return to China – and that the Prime Minister herself hopes to return to the ...
Rule-Breaker? It is easy to see why poor James Shaw found himself brutally deposed as the Greens’ co-leader. By seeking the responsibilities of leadership – and exercising them – he violated the first rule of Green Party governance. Then, by accepting the limitations of the Green Party’s electoral mandate (7.8 ...
After the incredibly sad story about the deaths of over 50 Ukrainian POWs in a Ukrainian missile attack on the prison they were housed in (see Over 50 POWs killed. A military accident or a cynical war crime?)I came across the heartwarming story about another Ukrainian POW. It’s about a ...
British mercenary Aiden Aslin, now a prisoner in the Donetsk People’s Republic, expressed real concern that he may die from the Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk. He has experienced many missile attacks that came close to the prison.Is he still alive? Understandably, we are always shocked about the losses ...
Politics is largely reported as theatre: tragedy and comedy, thriller and farce. Andrea Vance captures it all very successfully in Blue Blood. But it is the politics of personality, not of policy – of the impact of government on the people’s wellbeing. Even so, we can see from the book ...
This year the government finally got its clean car feebate scheme into place. But there's a problem: it's been too successful: Transport Minister Michael Wood will shortly review the cost of the fees and rebates in the Government's "feebate" scheme after the runaway success of the policy has meant ...
Given how the pandemic has disrupted the sporting calendar, no-one would begrudge our elite athletes their chance to compete at international level. What with the war in Ukraine and the cost of living, there are also not many ‘good news” stories out there. So… I suppose the strenuous efforts the ...
Everybody Having A Say: Democracy commands us to look outward; it demands our trust; it tells us what is expected of our humanity; it elevates the collective above the self; it celebrates the things we have in common; it defines our morals and values; it calculates what we owe one ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to ensure that as a nation which produces enough food to feed 40 million people, everyone in New Zealand can put an abundance of nourishing, nutritious kai on the table. ...
Following months of work by the Green Party and community and environmental organisations, Parliament will have the opportunity to pass legislation to protect public conservation land and waters from mining. ...
New evidence released today by Alcohol Healthwatch shows there’s never been a better time for Parliament to pass Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick’s Alcohol Harm Minimisation Bill. ...
We’re helping more Kiwis into work, to help support whānau, grow our skilled workforce and secure our economy for future generations. During our time in Government, we’ve delivered record low unemployment rates, as well as a steady fall in the number of New Zealanders receiving a main benefit, and we’re ...
The Green Party once again calls on the Government to ban bottom trawling on all seamounts following the release of an industry white paper on so-called ‘sustainable’ trawling. ...
Urgent reform is essential to ensure disabled people have equal access to the care and support they need, the Green Party says in response to a new report that challenges politicians to fix the current system. ...
COVID-19 is here to stay and so the Government needs to put in place long-term protection measures, including mandatory ventilation standards, the Green Party says. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to overhaul the Recognised Seasonal Employers scheme in the wake of revelations of shocking human rights violations. ...
The Green Party is calling for a cross-party commitment to guaranteeing at least a living wage and safe working conditions to people seeking employment, instead of continuing benefit sanctions. ...
The Green Party is once again calling on the Government to announce its support for a moratorium on deep sea mining, and to support a member’s bill going to select committee. ...
The Government must take steps to ensure that the way we build our homes is helping to meet New Zealand’s climate change targets, the Green Party said. ...
The Government’s employment initiatives led by the Ministry of Social Development must guarantee liveable incomes and fair working conditions, the Green Party says. ...
New Zealanders deserve a health system that works for everyone, no matter who you are or where you live. Our Government has a plan to make this a reality, and we’re taking the next steps. We now have thousands more health professionals, such as doctors and nurses, working in New ...
During her time as Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern has navigated New Zealand through unprecedented times. Through it all, she’s become known as someone who leads with kindness, compassion and strength, while keeping the wellbeing of Kiwis at the heart of her approach. To celebrate five years of Jacinda leading the ...
Since taking office in 2017, our Government has worked hard to lift wages and make life more affordable for New Zealanders, as we move forward with our plan to grow a secure economy for all. ...
The Government must use the opportunity of the Electoral Amendment Bill in Parliament to close the loophole in the political donations regime, the Green Party says. ...
Thanks to political pressure from the Green Party and the more than 900 personal stories of birth injury and trauma delivered to Minister Sepuloni, more injuries have been added to the ACC birth injuries bill. ...
Supporting New Zealanders is at the heart of our approach as a Government, and we’re working hard to tackle the big issues Kiwis are facing. While long term challenges like child poverty won’t be solved overnight, we’re putting in place policies that make a real difference for New Zealanders. Here ...
As-salamu alaykum, Tena tatou katoa, Thank you all for being here today. To the Afghan human rights defenders and your family members, welcome to Aotearoa. And thank you Your Excellency for hosting us all here at Government House. We have with us today from Afghanistan, human rights advocates, journalists, judges, ...
It’s my great pleasure to be able to speak with you about a really positive move for the Build-to-Rent sector. As you know, we announced changes last year to help steer property investors way from the existing pool of housing and toward solving New Zealand’s grave housing shortage - by ...
· Tax changes aimed at growing quality, secure rental supply · New and existing build-to-rent developments exempt from interest limitation rules in perpetuity, when offering ten-year tenancies · Exemption to apply from 1 October 2021. The Government is encouraging more long-term rental options by giving developers tax incentives for as ...
The Government has marked another milestone in its push for better rural connectivity, welcoming the delivery of Rural Connectivity Group’s (RCG) 350th tower. Waikato’s Te Ākau, which sits roughly 50 kilometres out of Hamilton is home to the new tower. “The COVID 19 pandemic has highlighted the ever-increasing importance of ...
Biosecurity co-operation topped the agenda when Australia and New Zealand’s agriculture ministers met yesterday. Australia’s Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Senator Murray Watt met with his New Zealand counterpart, Damien O’Connor, Minister of Agriculture, Biosecurity, and Rural Communities in a conference call, which had particular focus on foot and ...
People could spend less time in hospital, thanks to a smart new remote device that lets patients be monitored at home, Health Minister Andrew Little says. “Technology has the potential to really change the way we do things – to do things that are better for patients and at the ...
Concrete steps to clarify inclusive, evidence-informed teaching practices Strengthen capability supports along the professional pathway Enhance partnerships between the education system and whānau, iwi, communities Embed equitable additional learning supports and assessment tools that help teachers effectively notice and respond to the needs of students Improved student achievement is a ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to strengthen global prevention, preparedness and responses to future pandemics with seed funding for a new World Bank initiative, Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. “We cannot afford to wait until the next pandemic. We must all play our part to support developing countries ...
A law change to ensure that forestry conversions by overseas investors benefit New Zealand has passed its final reading in Parliament. Previously, overseas investors wishing to convert land, such as farm land, into forestry only needed to meet the “special forestry test”. This is a streamlined test, designed to encourage ...
International tourism recovery well underway with higher level of overseas visitor arrivals than previously expected UK and US card spend already back at pre-COVID levels Visitors staying in New Zealand longer and spending more compared to 2019 Govt support throughout pandemic helped tourism sector prepare for return of international ...
The Ministry for Ethnic Communities has released its first strategy, setting out the actions it will take over the next few years to achieve better wellbeing outcomes for ethnic communities Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities Priyanca Radhakrishnan announced today. “The Strategy that has been released today sets out ...
The Prime Minister has officially opened the Hawke’s Bay Regional Aquatic Centre today saying it is a huge asset to the region and to the country. “This is a world class facility which will be able to host national and international events including the world championships. With a 10-lane Olympic ...
The Associate Minister of Education, Aupito William Sio, has today announced the recipients of the Tulī Takes Flight scholarships which were a key part of last year’s Dawn Raids apology. The scholarships are a part of the goodwill gesture of reconciliation to mark the apology by the New Zealand Government ...
96% of estimated menstruating students receive free period products 2085 schools involved 1200 dispensers installed Supports cost of living, combats child poverty, helps increase attendance Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti today hailed the free period products in schools, Ikura | Manaakitia te whare tangata, a huge success, acknowledging ...
The Tourism Industry Transformation Plan outlines key actions to improve the sector This includes a Tourism and Hospitality Accord to set employment standards Developing cultural competency within the workforce Improving the education and training system for tourism Equipping business owners and operators with better tools and enabling better work ...
Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications Dr David Clark welcomes Google Cloud’s decision to make New Zealand a cloud region. “This is another major vote of confidence for New Zealand’s growing digital sector, and our economic recovery from COVID 19,” David Clark said. “Becoming a cloud region will mean ...
A package of changes to NCEA and University Entrance announced today recognise the impact COVID-19 has had on senior secondary students’ assessment towards NCEA in 2022, says Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti. “We have heard from schools how significant absences of students and teachers, as a result of COVID-19, ...
Te Reo Māori tauparapara… Tapatapa tū ki te Rangi! Ki te Whei-ao! Ki te Ao-mārama Tihei mauri ora! Stand at the edge of the universe! of the spiritual world! of the physical world! It is the breath of creation Formal acknowledgments… [Your Highness Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II and Masiofo] ...
The Government’s commitment to combatting firearms violence has reached another significant milestone today with the passage of the Firearms Prohibition Order Legislation Bill, Police Minister Chris Hipkins says. The new law helps to reduce firearm-related crime by targeting possession, use, or carriage of firearms by people whose actions and behaviours ...
Minister for Veterans, Hon Meka Whaitiri sends her condolences to the last Battle for Crete veteran. “I am saddened today to learn of the passing of Cyril Henry Robinson known as Brant Robinson, who is believed to be the last surviving New Zealand veteran of the Battle for Crete, Meka ...
Legislation to repeal the ‘Three Strikes’ law has passed its third reading in Parliament. “The Three Strikes Legislation Repeal Bill ends an anomaly in New Zealand’s justice system that dictates what sentence judges must hand down irrespective of relevant factors,” Justice Minister Kiri Allan said. “The three strikes law was ...
Work is under way on preliminary steps to improve the Government’s support for survivors of abuse in care while a new, independent redress system is designed, Public Service Minister Chris Hipkins says. These steps – recommended by the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry – include rapid payments for ...
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki Online Forum 77 years ago today, an atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Three days earlier, on the 6th of August 1945, the same fate had befallen the people of Hiroshima. Tens of thousands died instantly. In the years that followed 340,000 ...
An agreement signed today between the New Zealand and United States governments will provide new opportunities for our space sector and closer collaboration with NASA, Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash said. Stuart Nash signed the Framework Agreement with United States Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman. The signing ...
An agreement signed today between New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the United States’ Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will strengthen global emergency management capability, says Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty. “The Government is committed to continually strengthening our emergency management system, and this Memorandum of Cooperation ...
New Zealand will remain at the Orange traffic light setting, while hospitalisations remain elevated and pressure on the health system continues through winter. “There’s still significant pressure on hospitals from winter illnesses, so our current measures have an ongoing role to play in reducing the number of COVID-19 cases and ...
Streets will soon be able to be transformed from unsafe and inaccessible corridors to vibrant places for all transport modes thanks to new legislation proposed today, announced Transport Minister Michael Wood. “We need to make it safe, quicker and more attractive for people to walk, ride and take public transport ...
More young minds eyeing food and fibre careers is the aim of new Government support for agricultural and horticultural science teachers in secondary schools, Agriculture and Rural Communities Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. The Government is committing $1.6 million over five years to the initiative through the Ministry for Primary ...
Kākāpō numbers have increased from 197 to 252 in the 2022 breeding season, and there are now more of the endangered parrots than there have been for almost 50 years, Conservation Minister Poto Williams announced today. The flightless, nocturnal parrot is a taonga of Ngāi Tahu and a species unique ...
The relationship between Aotearoa New Zealand and Malaysia is to be elevated to the status of a Strategic Partnership, to open up opportunities for greater co-operation and connections in areas like regional security and economic development. Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta met her Malaysian counterpart Dato’ Saifuddin Abdullah today during a ...
With additional trains operating across the network, powered by the Government’s investment in rail, there is need for a renewed focus on rail safety, Transport Minister Michael Wood emphasised at the launch of Rail Safety Week 2022. “Over the last five years the Government has invested significantly to improve level ...
The Foreign Minister has wrapped up a series of meetings with Indo-Pacific partners in Cambodia which reinforced the need for the region to work collectively to deal with security and economic challenges. Nanaia Mahuta travelled to Phnom Penh for a bilateral meeting between ASEAN foreign ministers and Aotearoa New Zealand, ...
Kia ora koutou Firstly, thank you to the President of the Criminal Bar Association, Fiona Guy Kidd QC, for her invitation to attend the annual conference this weekend albeit unfortunately she is unable to attend, I’m grateful to the warm welcome both Chris Wilkinson-Smith (Vice-President, Whanganui) and Adam Simperingham (Vice-President, Gisborne) ...
Extension of Aotearoa Touring Programme supporting domestic musicians The Programme has supported more than 1,700 shows and over 250 artists New Zealand Music Commission estimates that around 200,000 Kiwis have been able to attend shows as a result of the programme The Government is hitting a high note, with ...
Minister of Defence Peeni Henare will depart tomorrow for Solomon Islands to attend events commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal. While in Solomon Islands, Minister Henare will also meet with Solomon Islands Minister of National Security, Correctional Services and Police Anthony Veke to continue cooperation on security ...
The Government is partnering with Ngāi Tahu Farming Limited and Ngāi Tūāhuriri on a whole-farm scale study in North Canterbury to validate the science of regenerative farming, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. The programme aims to scientifically evaluate the financial, social and environmental differences between regenerative and conventional practices. ...
52.5% of people on public boards are women Greatest ever percentage of women Improved collection of ethnicity data “Women’s representation on public sector boards and committees is now 52.5 percent, the highest ever level. The facts prove that diverse boards bring a wider range of knowledge, expertise and skill. ...
I am honoured to support the 2022 Women in Governance Awards, celebrating governance leaders, directors, change-makers, and rising stars in the community, said Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio. For the second consecutive year, MPP is proudly sponsoring the Pacific Governance Leader category, recognising Pacific women in governance and presented to ...
Today Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash turned the sod for the new Whakatāne Commercial Boat Harbour, cut the ribbon for the revitalised Whakatāne Wharf, and inspected work underway to develop the old Whakatāne Army Hall into a visitor centre, all of which are part of the $36.8 million ...
New Zealanders are not getting a fair deal on some key residential building supplies and while the Government has already driven improvements in the sector, a Commerce Commission review finds that changes are needed to make it more competitive. “New Zealand is facing the same global cost of living and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND Australia’s top economists are divided about how to tackle ballooning inflation of 6.1% that’s forecast to climb to a three-decade high of 7.75% by ...
ANALYSIS:By Shailendra Singh of the University of the South Pacific In Fiji’s politically charged context, national elections are historically a risky period. Since the 2022 campaign period was declared open on April 26, the intensity has been increasing. Moreover, with three governments toppled by coups after the 1987, 1999 ...
RNZ Pacific The Queen’s Representative in the Cook Islands, Sir Tom Marsters, has confirmed Mark Brown as the Prime Minister. In a statement issued from Mark Brown’s office, Sir Tom said he was “satisfied” that Mark Brown had the majority of the MPs elected to Parliament. Following the final count ...
Former list MP Aaron Gilmore, who resigned in 2013 after he used his position as a threat to a hotel employee, says there has been "outrageous behaviour" by those in Parliament. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pasi Sahlberg, Professor of Education, Southern Cross University Federal Education Minister Jason Clare and his state colleagues met in Canberra on Friday.Lukas Coch/AAP Last Friday, Australia’s state and federal education ministers met with emotional teachers, who spoke of working on weekends ...
Despite an 11th-hour rush of nominations for this year's local body elections, Local Government New Zealand says the numbers could still be too low. ...
A political analyst says people who would have voted for Leo Molloy in Auckland's mayoral election may now turn to Efeso Collins, because both candidates have working-class appeal. ...
Podcast - After one of the fastest political downfalls in New Zealand's history, Political Reporter Katie Scotcher examines how both major parties now face bullying accusations. ...
The government has unveiled what it is calling a radical plan to overhaul reading, writing and maths teaching after two decades of sliding literacy rates. ...
ANALYSIS:By Russel Norman, executive director of Greenpeace Aotearoa Only people power can ensure genuine enduring progress on climate and people need to know the truth if they are to act on it. For that reason greenwashing is the enemy of progress on climate and where you stand on ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai says he will seek a further extension from the Governor-General for the return of writ for Southern Highlands provincial seat which has faced protracted delays in counting. He said any discussions and talks of “failing” an election and calling for a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Madeline Taylor, Senior Lecturer, Macquarie University Shutterstock Australia’s energy ministers on Friday voted to make emissions reduction a key national energy goal, in a major step forward in the clean energy transition. Federal, state and territory energy ministers agreed to ...
Labour MP Gaurav Sharma has launched another broadside at his own party, posting a lengthy statement on social media that details his interactions with Parliamentary Service and the Labour whips. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Wadham, Director, Open Door: Understanding and Supporting Service Personnel and their Families, Flinders University The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide has released its interim report after more than 1,900 submissions and 194 witnesses. It includes recommendations considered so urgent ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mathieu O’Neil, Associate Professor of Communication, News and Media Research Centre, University of Canberra GettyImages Donald Trump derided any critical news coverage as “fake news” and his unwillingness to concede the 2020 presidential election eventually led to the January 6, 2021 ...
The Government’s esteem for science and science-based research findings can be gauged from a press statement released by the Ministry for Primary Industries. The statement gives a progress report on a New Zealand Forest Services’ partnership with a marae-based tree-growing project and its grant of nearly $500,000 over two years ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stan Karanasios, Associate professor, The University of Queensland Rob Hampson/Unsplash On August 9 2022, Australia’s COVIDSafe app was officially decommissioned, and all its features removed. People were encouraged to uninstall the app. Reports of its closure have made international news. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Paddy Nixon talk about this week in politics. They discuss Australia’s relationship with China as tensions rise over Taiwan, the inquiry into ...
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So now according to iwi leaders we teachers are supposed to shut up and say nothing even if we see the continual eroding of our education system.
http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/nzei-protest-action-tramples-honour-our-nation/5/185968
From the above:
The tikanga of mana is at stake. We will not stand idly by and allow the mana of the Minister of Education, the Honourable Hekia Parata, her people, our people to be manipulated and trampled on. We, Dr Apirana Mahuika, Sir Toby Curtis, Sir Mark Solomon, Raniera Tau, Willie Te Aho, Awanuiarangi Black, Tiwha Puketapu, Naida Glavish, Sir Tamati Reedy and Pem Bird caution NZEI that they are putting their hard earned excellent reputation earned over a sustained period of time on the line and for what purpose?
The International Summit is the most prestigious educational event on the world calendar, a huge coup for our Minister of Education, Hekia Parata…
Un-freaking-believable.
so much for the value of children…
is the summit not open to everyone?
“The event brings together education ministers and leaders of national teachers’ federations and teachers’ unions from jurisdictions that, according to the OECD’s 2012 PISA survey results, have high-performing or rapidly-improving school systems”
I hope National gets the answers to the three questions whic are the focus of the summit
“The three questions that this Summit will focus on are:
How can high quality teachers and leaders be attracted into and retained in schools of the greatest need?
What are the levers for achieving equity in increasingly devolved education systems?
How are learning environments created that meet the needs of all children and young people?"
I can’t work that one out, they haven’t really explained why they are upset, they have only said that they are upset…. and into such a vacuum goes ………
But whenever the word “honour” appears in the speech of someone uppity or otherwise then one should be very wary. “Honour” is but an empty tub which will hold whatever is tossed into it ..
Agree. It appears to demand respect on the basis of lineage rather than actions, of which I am wary.
I’m sure that you’ll find that the National Party is quite happy with this sort of arse licking from Maori leaders.
Who they represent anyway? Not the ordinary Maori , surely. Aren’t they all Maori aristocracy? You know, those people who have done well for themselves from the settlements that were supposed to benefit many more people than they did in reality.
The conference is in Wellington today and tomorrow.
It wasn’t that easy to find info on the NZEI protest – it’s for a living wage, and precedes the TPPA demo tomorrow in Auckland, and is at the same time as the TPPA demo in Wellington.
From the Daily Blog:
So the protest is looking out for the children and the iwi leaders are looking out for their status…….
I know where the respect goes ..
+1
+1
Will be nice if we can have a warm-up piece today on The Standard, alerting peeps to the nationwide TPPA demo tomorrow? Sorry, I haven’t got much time at the moment to draft a piece but I have lotsa suggestions and a big mouth.
I have kept thinking that this morning. But too much coding and too many comments for moderation for me to do it.
Doesn’t have to be a long, original piece for now but just a general announcement or notice pointing people to the various places around the country tomorrow at 1pm:
http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/march-29-nationwide-day-of-action-against-the-tppa/
“After four years, the corporate deal of the century – aka the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement – is still being negotiated in secret.
“The TPPA puts our sovereignty at risk, violates our democratic right to decide our own future, and wastes taxpayers’ money that should be spent on social, not corporate, welfare.
“It needs to stop. Now.”
As I thought I heard or read someone saying: make it big as it may be our last time to do this!
Done, but even something straight forward is not that quick. I think some of the links are not working that well – then I got an urgent personal email that needs attending to.
Let me know if there’s any other errors.
It was great. Are you sure you and lprent are not machines? And you both helped sort out their links in the process too.
Yes, I was thinking about it, while trying to get on with some other things in my life that need attending to.
Ugh…how divorced from the people that they purport to represent can that list of iwi ‘leaders’ get?
Give them time and I’m sure that they’ll make their way to Planet key.
I’m speechless – very sad and disturbing. There are some excellent people in that group, including one of the authors of Te Whariki, the fabulous ece curriculum. I want to know where their voices have been as they’ve watched the systematic destruction of our education system under this government. No use talking about mana now, we’ve already shamed ourselves
And the eroding of the education system doesn’t stop at 16. Did you know for instance, that if you only give a party vote, but leave the electorate vote blank, that the ballot paper is void?
Not many people are educated to realise that.
Te reo kupapa. They are probably looking at starting iwi charter schools. A few of them must still be going for knighthoods. Thank god that a new generation of leaders is growing, that has nothing in common with this sad lot.
The Internet Party already has a burgeoning membership… and Jokyhen and his inner circle will no doubt have access to all the registrations as well.
Ooops. As Hagrid might say “I should na said that.”
From the NZ Herald this morning
“Cartel questions
The Carter Holt Harvey price-fixing case raises a question: what has happened to the proposal to make cartel behaviour a criminal offence? The company was fined $1.85 million by the High Court for price fixing in the Auckland commercial timber market, though its actions were described as being at the lower end of offending. The bill proposing criminal sanctions for serious cartel offending has been stuck in Parliament for almost a year and the Government has shown no interest in passing it. It seems unlikely anything will change before the election.”
from MBIE website
“The Minister of Commerce introduced the Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2011 into Parliament on 13 October 2011.
One of the principle objectives of the amendment Bill is to introduce criminal sanctions for hard-core cartel behaviour.
Hard-core cartels are formed when rival firms agree to not compete with each other by fixing prices, restricting output, allocating markets or rigging bids. Cartels allow firms to raise their prices above the competitive level without fear of losing customers to rivals. This increases the profits of cartel participants but does not benefit consumers.”
Introduced by Simon Power… and then he left… and then it languished under… Steven Joyce and Craig Foss
” Commerce committee report
On 13 May 2013, the Commerce Committee tabled its report on the Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. ”
Sanctions proposed
“The penalty regime
The bill introduces criminal sanctions for individuals and companies. For an individual, the maximum sanction would be seven years’ imprisonment. For a body corporate, the sanctions are the same as the current level of sanctions: a fine set at the greater of either $10 million or three times the value of the commercial gain, if it can be ascertained. If the gain cannot be ascertained, the sanction will be 10 per cent of annual turnover.”
”
Craig Foss
14 May, 2013
Select Committee reports back on Cartels Bill
Commerce Minister Craig Foss today welcomed the Commerce Select Committee report on a Bill to encourage pro-competitive collaboration.
The Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill promotes economic growth by enabling pro-competitive collaboration between firms, while also deterring hard-core cartel conduct.
“This Bill forms an important part of the Government’s Business Growth Agenda and our ambitious goal to increase the ratio of exports to GDP to 40 per cent by 2025,” says Mr Foss.
“It will enable collaborative arrangements that can help businesses innovate and tap into overseas markets. This will be a welcome change for New Zealand’s export industries.
“At the same time the Bill takes a strong stance against hard-core cartel conduct like price fixing and bid rigging and introduces criminal sanctions for egregious behaviour.
“These activities will not be tolerated and anyone engaging in them will be treated the same way as tax evaders, fraudsters and other white collar criminals,” says Mr Foss.”
“..will be treated the same way as tax evaders, fraudsters and other white collar criminals..”
generally ignored..?..unless un-ignorable..?
..and does anyone think we will ever see any words/actions of/on (from any party?) on the (depending who you talk to) $1.5 billion – $5 billion in criminally-evaded taxes..?
..each and every year..?
..can i offer a possible path to a solution..?
..a carrot-stick themed ‘solution’..?
..how about offering a three month amnesty..?
..wherein the guilty can come forward..and just have to pay the taxes owing..with no penalties..
..and after that amnesty-period lapses..
..promise task-forces/going gangbusters over all those caught..
..(with tandem ramping-up-penalties legislation..?..)
..i reckon that’d flush out quite a bit of that ‘criminally-avoided’ tax revenue..
..(and we do need the money..eh..?..so we can start to put things right/prepare for the future..)
..(and of course..those in this govt who we look to do this are foss-the-hapless..
..and the pompadoured-one..dunne…
..so..we’ll get s.f.a. action on this from these two clowns..
..that you can take to the bank..)
..(and just practising my psychic-abilities here..
..i’m gonna make the call that a majority..(and by quite a margin..)..
..wd be from the rich/elites..
..most of who vote in their wallet-interests..
..and tick national/act in the ballot-box..
..so for only this reason..foss-the-hapless/dunne will not offend their support-base..
..that is far more important..than trying to claw back all that nicked money..)
a 3 min animation..and i gave it a must-watch rating..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/27/everything-wrong-with-humanity-animation_n_5037496.html
For some reason I haven’t been able to access the home page of The Standard for a few days, although I can go to subsidiary pages like this one. Is this happening to others and if so, does anyone know why?
Try shift+ refresh
Try pressing Shift+F5 to force a cache refresh on your browser. I saw that on my table this morning as well probably because I wasn’t able to load the page at the Pickering lecture yesterday.
worked thanks!
Interesting John Drinnan piece in the Herald today on what Labour’s up against in the media:
‘National has developed a media network incorporating the Whale Oil website, Kiwiblog and commentators Matthew Hooton and Michelle Boag.
They have been feeding the media appetite for short, sharp crises to fill online news space.
It is Labour’s job to counter National’s influence over the news agenda. But it does not have many of its own partisans in the media; the left-leaning website The Daily Blog does not have an audience to compare with Whale Oil.’
His round-up also mentions the planned pay-wall at the herald, which I haven’t seen confirmed as definite (although I probably have just missed it) previously. It starts later this year.
Amusing. For some strange reason we never get mentioned in any of the mainstream media unless they absolutely have to. I guess it is because we don’t act like news media because of our focus on being a internet forum – ie comments.
BTW: does anyone else have problems getting any comments on the NZ Herald articles? As far as I can tell, none of mine since about 2012 have made it through. I guess they don’t like our ocassional posts on them 😈
Not mentioning The Standard was a major omission from Drinnan. The Daily Blog seems to have scant connections with Labour so was an odd inclusion in that context.
”The Daily Blog seems to have scant connections with Labour so was an odd inclusion in that context.”
While I agree the Standard should have been mentioned, it’s not just about Labour.
Unlike the largely homogeneous right, the left has developed a healthy pluralism of parties.
The issue is a lack of decent left-wing pundits in the media cycle.
Good point. But there are a number of authors over there who have Labour membership. Me for instance.
It could have been a simple editing mistake. After all both of the sites start with the word “The”. 😈
But I suspect that it is pretty deliberate. There are sites that the news media never likes to mention. For instance the Transport blog and this one. We’re somewhat harder to spin as being the clowns of the internet.
Bryce Edwards does like linking to your site a bit eh?
I asked John about it.
He was challenged on it by other journalists too. Odd and superficial. Some traditional journalists don’t give much weight to people using pseudonyms, I don’t know if that’s why he thinks TDB is more significant.
I don’t know how Bryce chooses his links but he seems to be including more and more sources for his links, he used to be more selective. I look for different angles on things. Writing blog posts is quite different to commenting on blogs – mickysavage is a good example of that here, his approach is quite different to what it used to be. He’s now someone I look out for.
gee..pg..imagine if you did something like commentaries on q-time..or something..
..edwards-the-younger would link to ya so much more than even he does now..eh..?
..he’d be all over you like a rsh..
..and with yr observational-powers/quick wit..
..i’m sure such a commentary from you wd b a treat..
(and cd u discount the persistant/ongoing rumours that the heavy/serial-linking to yer exercises in the fatuous/irrelevant/boring/bleeding-obvious..by edwards-the-younger..
..are down to full-body-massages..followed by a beard rubdown..?
..administered by yr (fill-blank) self..?
..and while we are at it..
..have you ever owned/touched/read a copy of mein kamp…?
..wot with yr own ‘struggle’..eh..?
..he too..was misunderstood/laughed at..in the early days..
..but he showed them..!
..eh pete..?..
..and do you currently have any plans/desires/aspirations..
… to annex invercargill..?
..(nb..the above is all ‘rumours’..unfounded-suppositions..
..not likely to be a ‘fact’ amongst it..eh..?..
..a total multi-orifice pluck..
..much like wot u always ‘pen’..eh..?
..wot edwards-the-younger serially links to..
..by you..
..eh..?..)
Not really. We talk between activists on the left and to the people interested in activists on the left – it is in the about. Obviously something John isn’t into. I guess his view of media is more about entertainment than effectiveness (at least that is what I see when I read many of his stories).
That is because they are extremely and silently censored (which is why they are so few). It conforms to the same ethos that NZ Herald follows in their comment policy so I can see why he’d feel more comfortable with it.
But he is right, we primarily exist to allow the left to talk amongst each other whereas The Daily Blog is designed to allow some people on the left to present a ethos to a wider public. Of course you’d have to ask yourself which is more effective at a political level.
That’s a good point on censorship at The Daily Blog. Discussion is obviously not a priority there.
We’ve had a few wee skirmishes here about moderation but I’ve said elsewhere a number of times at least it’s all out in the open, I’ve never been secretly censored here . It seems to be common practice at TDB and it’s happened to me. Martyn seems to be trying to be an alternative to MSM but he mimics their strict opinion and message control. Like anywhere that’s his call.
“Skirmishes”. 😆
When the outcome is that one party is publicly humiliated and earns a reputation for banality that follows him to this day, that’s not a “skirmish”. It’s a rout.
standard talks to itself…
and WO doesnt?
i guess mr drinnan can just relate more to the commenters at wo, which speaks volumes.
All of my comments to the NZHerald have been published.
I guess it must be personal then. My charming personality isn’t working? 🙂
Mine get published about 60% of the time, but take a couple of days to get through moderation even if I am posting within the hour after an article is published.
i don’t always check back..but none published to date..that i’ve seen..
..i think i’ll open a ‘comments not published by the herald’ category…@ whoar..
..cd b some humour to be milked from it..
..my latest was to trevett..having a long haw-haw..!..at her holding the death-rites over any mana/dotcom alliance-lite deal..
..i checked..that clearly failed whatever tests/guidelines are used..
(rule 3..comments must not mock columnists..(no matter how deserved such mocking may be..)
The reason The Standard is not mentioned is not “strange” at all. It is however quite stupid.
It’s purely because the authors here are pseudonymous. The MSM like to be hypocritical in having their own (completely) anonymous editorials, but won’t deign to mention TS because apparently you have to have a publicly identifiable name otherwise your opinion somehow doesn’t mean anything.
Ah that could be correct. That is silly.
Makes no difference for legal liabilities but the journo’s are so in love with their late 20th century fetish for individual fame (spurred by TV) that they have forgotten the whole of the 19th/20th century journalistic ethos and why it was there. The only residual is the editorials.
Drinnan should have also included Rachel Glucina, the Herald’s gossip columnist – and friend of Slater’s who is also deep in with the smear campaign against KDC. But probably she is too close to home, being a fellow Herald columnist.
Yep. It seems to me that they must have sat down with the powers that be. Slater was told to stop being such a dick and tone things down and Glucina was told that she was going to get out of the socialite pap news and start breaking stories. She has further .com news in her latest column at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/personalities/news/article.cfm?c_id=72&objectid=11227811
Lolz more snide innuendo from the Herald(National Party disinformation service),shows just how much the Beehives 9th floor lives in fear of the bloke,(i have the sneaking suspicion that the 9th floor have a private investigator/SIS on the road sniffing out DotComs ‘back-story’,
Laughable is the pic of DotCom in the ‘Kraut lid’, who would have thunk it, a German lampooning a German,(i have been hanging out for DotCom to do a full on Sergeant Shultz while live on the TV news),
The pic down the bottom of Rachel Glaucoma’s column of the Kohanga Kids having fun with Trev is a total cutey…
is hogans heroes ok cos we know its mocking germans????
well..that disempowering of a past demon by mocking..
…was part and parcel of that show..?..surely..?
..(the war was recent enough for most watchers..at most only one generation removed from the actual conflict..)
..(disclaimer:..i have ‘loved’ a german..and my son is half-german..
..and ..as an aside..i think he was speaking for his savvy-generation..when he instantly called ‘bullshit!’ on the false equivalence of the dotcom/mein kamp story/beat-up..)
..and surely..of far more prurient-interest wd be the off-stage lifestyle of the lead actor in hogans’ heroes..bob crane..?
..whoar..!
V interesting… doesnt mention herald editorial choice to put labours economic policy announcement on p21 does he?
He forgot to mention the herald!
Yes i have had the odd look on the Doktor’s(Edwards),daily roundup of politics via the Herald online and on most occasions, even when there are multiple posts running on a topic at the Standard Bryce chooses to not mention this instead directing readers to the branches of the sewer,
People are ‘lead’, often easily, the Doktor, dare i say with deliberation???, doesn’t mention the Standard too often, in my opinion, simply as a means of keeping people from reading the Standard, if His links consistently direct people to ‘wail-oil’ and ‘kiwi-smog’ then if they have no knowledge of the Standard they are likely to keep going to those sites if they are seeking further knowledge of ‘political happenings’ than that which is provided by the mainstream media,
To a certain extent, in a cutting off the nose to spite the face exercise, the political parties of the left spend no amount of energy mentioning the Standard, ala Slippery the Prime Ministers major ‘Slurp’ directed in Blubber boy and ‘wail oil’s’ direction recently choosing instead to promote their own web-sites which have far less debate and thus tend to be pretty party-centric and, again in my opinion,are a bit of a bore,
In an ideal world, in the interests of growing ‘the left’ we would see Labour/Green/Mana websites prominently displaying links to both the Standard and the Daily Blog,(having not looked for a while i do not know if any of them do this now)…
The Bryce Edwards round-up started as a chronicle of topical political stories and columns, including issues simmering away in the regions, and off-beat bloggers. It covered many different stories and issues in one edition. However, now Edwards is trying to capture/create the narrative, and each one is overly long, and too focused on beltway media/topics.
As Karol pointed out recently, Edwards even took to Twitter to commission pieces from bloggers on a set topic! This is media as echo chamber, rather than reflecting the actual confusion and complexity of life.
And Edwards focus is very much about politics as a game – party strategies, headline grabbers, polling issues, etc. – little about close examination of policies.
there is a bit of that about..eh..?
..the (seemingly) deliberate ignoring of some relevant publications – by some publications..
..funny that..
..eh..?
..sometimes ya really wonder ‘why?’..
Amusing in the Herald’s online version this morning is the befor and after of Colon Craig said to have been dieting in preparation for the 2014 election,
The befor version,(much to my surprise), looks remarkably like a run of the mill picture of a normal human being,
The ‘after’ one tho gives me a picture that could be used as an example of Colon having been kidnapped by aliens at some point in time and whisked off for a quick ‘probing’, seems ‘the probe’ must have been set to ‘suction samples’ when the aliens ‘must watch’ favorite TV show came on inter-galactic TV and they left Colon on the ‘table’ for too long while they watched it,
The mad staring eyes remind me of ‘speed’ addicts strung out on what the medical profession used to prescribe to tired overweight Mums back in the 60’s,(but that’s another story)…
Even more disturbing:
http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/nation-certain-this-picture-should-be-used-but-unsure-how/
😈
Puts me in mind of that old show
Land of the giants…
He does look like he’s in a Guillermo del Toro film.
Yes!
was that shot..late at nite..?
..in western springs park..?
..whoar..!
Nice!!! look at the two faces one side light the other dark…
Reminds me of this…
https://twitter.com/TerrifyingPosts/status/418486573546881025/photo/1/large
Doesn’t the new Colon bear a striking resemblance to Frank Spencer?
Ha ha ..colon……. snort.
and allusions to anal violation and drug abuse …. haha ha
well, if you add “by aliens” to the end of that, it does seem to have the necessary juxtaposition for comedic composition.
Surely not that funny requiring a series of Ha ha’s,a wry smile would have sufficed…
Is it just me or has Labour made absolutely no impact this week?
I was kinda waiting for some electrifying education policy given most of the worlds education leadership are in town.
Why are we leaving the field to Dotcom for a whole week? Come on Cunliffe the field is open.
Yes, but on the other hand, no major cock-ups from Labour this week, which is nice.
The Parliament is in recess until April 8th,(i think), so unless Labour are planning to release major policy there isn’t much happening to get them into the news,
David Cunliffe was in the far North on Monday or Tuesday and i should imagine that any number of MP’s will be out there in the electorate holding meetings with ‘interest groups’ something Helen Clark did with zeal befor becoming Prime Minister,
i should imagine that Labour release a flurry of ‘press releases’ on everything of interest, or not, on a regular basis, media apathy or bias would then account for such not seeing the light of day,
Hopefully either David Cunliffe and/or Grant Robertson are preparing a series of questions that skewer Slippery the Prime Minister, at question time to keep the PM’s ‘gifts’ to charity, the National Party, firmly in the headlines once the Parliament resumes…
I hope they don’t let collins and parata, oh and adams off the hook. What’s happened to bennett, is she keeping her powder dry? Just saw in comments in herald that ‘frannie’s columns were like love letters to shay key’. So sad, but so true. She needs to get out more.
Well, at least some MPs will be out here in the electorate. From today’s item:
‘The entire Labour Party caucus will descend on Wairarapa on March 31. All 34 Labour MPs will visit Wairarapa to meet with locals at afternoon venues to discuss development, jobs, health and housing.
Labour leader David Cunliffe describes the event as an “away caucus”, to hear the voice of the people first-hand.
“I believe government must act with the people, not for the people. That can only be achieved by getting out and about, not sitting behind a desk at Parliament.” ‘
Link: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/wairarapa-times-age/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503414&objectid=11227278
I hope they are smarter than the Green Party were a few years ago. They held a conference in the Wairarapa. It was over the weekend and they went up from Wellington on Friday night.
Being publically enthusiastic about public transport they all went up on the evening train. They got there early and took most of the available seats. Thus when the people who travel on it every day after working in Wellington got there no seats were left and the regular passengers had to stand for the trip. The Green Party never thought to tell the Railways ahead of time so that more carriages might have been added.
I know two people who were on the trip, both of whom were, until that time, Green Party members. They resigned and as far as I know they never re-joined.
I can’t imagine that the Labour MPs will be travelling on the train of course. I hope they don’t take a taxi each and at least will share some.
Possibly cos all they wld be asked about is mein kampf
Glen Innes had the highest capital gain on three-bedroom houses with an annualised 18.9 per cent, and Mount Wellington had the best gain on apartments at 16.2 per cent…
Is that the impact of the new mini fletchers town for the first home buyer with 650k? Or the sell off of state houses?
Same as the old boss….
.
“An old, old Soviet story repeating itself,” Boris Akunin, a novelist who signed the opposition petition, wrote in an email when asked about the war of words.
“It’s just that under Stalin, if a prominent cultural figure dared to protest he’d be shot; under Brezhnev he’d be imprisoned; now he just risks losing state donations and having to travel economy class — but this often proves enough,” Mr. Akunin wrote. “It’s a fascinating sight to watch people make this moral choice.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/world/europe/soviet-echoes-in-call-for-artists-to-back-crimea-policy.html
You won’t read this on the Daily Blog – or Whaleoil!
(I’m banned from commenting on both – seems neither Cameron Slater nor Martyn Bradbury can ‘handle the truth’? 🙂
Kind regards,
Penny Bright
FYI
27 March 2014
http://www.investigatemagazine.co.nz/Investigate/4922/len-brown-faces-conflict-of-interest-allegation/
Len Brown faces conflict of interest allegation
Auckland Mayor Len Brown has been accused of acting with a conflict of interest at a council committee meeting today.
Veteran anti-corruption campaigner Penny Bright was attempting to read out letters from the police in regard to a complaint against Mayor Brown, but he refused to let her speak and ordered security staff to remove Bright from the venue.
Speaking later from Auckland police station, Bright told InvestigateDaily that the mayor had taken direct action on a matter he was directly implicated in, and she believed he had a clear conflict of interest in trying to prevent members of the public from speaking about him.
Bright being removed. PHOTO: Cr Dick Quax
(Photo: Dick Quax)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM PENNY BRIGHT
(“The letter from Police that conflicted Auckland Mayor Len Brown tried to stop me reading at the Auckland Council Governing Body meeting Thursday 27 March 2014 “)
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/nzppsltd%40gmail.com/144e2c8f108b7d12?projector=1
“I have discussed this matter with Graham McCready, and am considering taking a private prosecution for assault against the security guards, and Mayor Len Brown as a party to the assault,” says Penny Bright.
“If you think that I am going to put up with being censored and assaulted – now twice within 5 weeks – for attempting to expose corrupt conflicts of interest at Auckland Council – THINK AGAIN!”
“In my considered opinion, Auckland Council is rotten to the core with corrupt conflicts of interest, but I will NOT be silenced as an anti-corruption ‘whistle-blower’. ”
Still want to defend Auckland Mayor Len Brown ????????
If wishart giving you coverage doesn’t give you food for thought, I reckon nothing will.
Seriously, you are probably going to lose your house. And you’ll moan about it, but it’ll be your own damned fault.
So you don’t support citizens LAWFUL rights to ‘open, transparent and democratically-accountable local government’ McFlock?
Penny Bright
Well you certainly don’t: in fact your determination to waste Council time and money impedes, not enhances, citizens’ lawful rights.
I have no idea whether you have a point or not.
I was merely pointing out the likely result of the battle you are choosing to fight.
I suspect that the len brown “conflict of interest” is a pile of bunk, and that your removal by security staff was done with proper legal authority and without striking or doing you bodily harm (crimes act s56 if I recall correctly from my security days). But most of all, I suspect that the rates reporting requirements you are choosing to lose your home over will not substantially change the practise or effectiveness of democracy (or lack thereof) in Auckland.
Not that I care too much, being at the other end of the country.
Death-row-inmate-freed-after-nearly-50-years-in-prison.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Death-row-inmate-freed-after-nearly-50-years-in-prison/tabid/417/articleID/337737/Default.aspx#comment-1307208415
This example alone shows a very good reason why death penalty should be banned in the world.
Okay kiddies.
Homework for the weekend is getting out your pens and papers and writing to your MP’s and asking why charter schools are getting taxpayer money.
If they dont reply then write letters to your local newspaper telling on them.
Its time to make the wonks start earning their money!
It seems that the upcoming rallies against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) that will be happening all over NZ tomorrow are effectively being ignored by mainstream media?
FYI!
SAT 29 MARCH: JOIN THE NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION TO STOP THE TPPA
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) .
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JOIN THE NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION TO STOP THE TPPA
Saturday 29 March, 1pm
Contact the organisers of your local event if you can help or
chris.zack if you want to start something where there is a gap.
Posters and leaflets, templates for placards, and other resources are
all on the website
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) or will be soon.
It would be great to have lots of colour and creativity – there will
be ideas from other international actions on the TPPA on the website
too.
Join the banner- and placard-making day in Auckland on Saturday 22nd.
Contact chris.zack
Protest Locations (from North to South)
Hokianga
Kohukohu at 1:00
https://www.facebook.com/events/498005333646108/ (
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karo.hohaia
Whangarei
Clock Museum, Town Basin at 1:00
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banjamin
Auckland
1:00 pm Aotea Square
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ben.bungy
Hamilton
Garden Place at 1:00
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kellyk79
Taranaki
Puke Ariki Landing at 1:00
https://www.facebook.com/events/181486005379363/ (
http://itsourfuture.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2af728ed394d2e3c92f383cd5&id=7bddaeb73c&e=400b29f860
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Tauranga
Red Square at 1:00
https://www.facebook.com/events/680840758623364/ (
http://itsourfuture.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2af728ed394d2e3c92f383cd5&id=229dc90ffb&e=400b29f860
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martins.3000
Whanganui
Silver Ball Sculpture on the Riverfront 1pm walk up to Majestic Square
https://www.facebook.com/events/230952810411676/ (
http://itsourfuture.us4.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=2af728ed394d2e3c92f383cd5&id=7313e76b50&e=400b29f860
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Palmerston North
The Square at 1:00
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sue
Wellington
Cuba Street, bucket fountain at 1:00
https://www.facebook.com/events/228635500656767/ (
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koruconsulting
Nelson
venue TBD at 1:00
https://www.facebook.com/events/643470822377621/ (
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gregfullmoon013
tomandgray
Christchurch
114 Cashel St at 1:00
https://www.facebook.com/events/605044852899708/ (
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suthy2
Geraldine
South Canterbury on the T junction of Cox and Talbot Street at 1:00
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Invercargill
Wachner Place @ 1:00
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More places in process of being organised. Email us if you’d like to
be involved: chris zack
Queenstown
https://www.facebook.com/events/697921693558864/ (
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Napier
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Timaru
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Dunedin
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/9879231/Hobbits-a-boost-for-NZ-tourism
some good news for the weekend 🙂
Are you one Puckish Rogue…
i wonder if the low end wages in tourism have gone up as a result… or in film in nz…
Well, here’s the TNZ report on the jan-March, 2013 effect of the campaign associated with the Hobbit trilogy.
It’s not likely to have been much more than a minor factor in the year to February 2014 visitor arrival numbers, despite the speculative analysis in the article.
Also, the problem with these kinds of campaigns is that it’s difficult to establish if they create new arrivals or simply shift timing or, much less tangibly, just add yet another minor reason for visiting with a correspondingly limited marginal effect.
Chris Trotter:
I would have thought that promoting this as a deliberate aim of the Internet Party will not help their current efforts to distance the party from Dotcom.
And Chris promoting deliberate political intervention in an extradition as a condition of supposed coalition support is quite astounding.
[Fixed your block quote – MS]
I’m confused. Which party do you think Trotter is speaking on behalf of? I thought Trotter saw himself more as a fairly independent leftie commentator and analyst – one that often provides critical views that often upset other lefties.
It looks to me like he is talking on behalf of a general left, but I don’t think promoting a party’s electoral aim as to politically intervene in an extradition will help the Internet Party nor the left.
The Internet Party are trying to establish a perception of independence from Dotcom, that is hard enough already without political/legal deals being promoted as a deliberate aim.
If I was Labour or Greens or Mana I’d be wanting to have nothing to do with any suggestion like this. Russel Norman is one of the more astute politicians on the left, and he saw the dangers Dotcom and his party posed to the chances of the left.
“Russel Norman is one of the more astute politicians on the left, and he saw the dangers Dotcom and his party posed to the chances of the left
My bold – is this a fact, PG – or is this your opinion? If a fact, please provide a link to verify this.
🙄
He’s speaking for himself.
He’s not “promoting” anyone.
And nobody cares what you’d do.
You have even less credibility than trotter.
PG has less credibility than a Coca Cola ad, hang on better add an ”in my opinion” or He will be demanding a link…
So writing about it = promoting it?
Best you stop now then Pete. That’s two comments from you in this thread in which you – by your own standard – promote the IP’s electoral aim as to politically intervene in an extradition.
Yes this thinking by PG is a revelation – speaking about a politician or party is promoting it.
“Chris promoting…”
🙄
Are there any depths to which this weasel asshole will not sink?
The fungal algae called ‘Rock Snot’ is known to attach itself to many things as a means of travel and is thus able to move from place to place and pop up in places gaining a toehold only later to infect the whole area…
…. and in other matters ……
Does anyone else think (given NZ’s search and rescue capability, 6 x P3K2’s et al) that its contribution to MH370 is actually rather fuckin pathetic?
I’m of the belief that the NZ Defence Force’s future lays in peaceful contributions – such as search and rescue, responding to natural disasters, etc.
We seem to have given JUST enough to earn this miserly gubbamint some Browlee points (covered in shit as they inevitably are), and JUST enough to earn the Philistine itchim smetchim smoozim ideologically, parrot fashioned ‘learnings’, kaholic, commoditised principles-for-sale, red-dirt brown-eyed Jonkahism a few points on the ‘ta-neshnool- stage?’.
It is rather pathetic though …. I mean these fukwits run the gauntlet (due to PS cutbacks) with bio-diversity (think PSA, etc., etc., etc.) daily – and they do so with ‘Defense’ (which should actually JUST be devoted to CIVIL defense).
But this single Orion – with crews that appear to need close to 24hrs to change over is fucking pathetic.
It’s especially so, since of all the world’s capability ….. NZ (along with OZ – to actually a LESSER extent) are accustomed to the 40’s latitude that till now has been on the agenda.
But yeah, but nah, but yeah but nah – not worth it aye. wod ear va …. snot gunna make goldin boiii look sgoood es scccchhhhmoooxin in a fifrint hemsphere.