@logie97 – I had a wee glance at the newstalk link, yuk and pathetic. And as for Veitchy on Sunday another yuk and pathetic. I’m afraid this sort of tacky journalism is very much a reflection of MSM in NZ
Cannot imagine what people accessing the Newstalkzb site from overseas to get some insight into New Zealand News and current affairs would think.
(Wonder how Leighton Smith would rate the standard of writing on his own beloved channel).
Anyone read this, this morning…Dotcom’s secret donation to Banks
“John said, ‘Wait a minute’,” Dotcom recalled last night. “‘It would be good if you could split it up into two payments of 25 [thousand dollars], then I don’t declare publicly who made it’.”
“Last night, Mr Banks said there would be nothing wrong with his telling people how to give anonymously.”
heh. I liked this bit – “Mr Banks said there was no issue in his stay in Hong Kong. He paid for every aspect of the trip himself.”
Now, is it just me, or is that potentially misleading? Shouldn’t that more accurately read ” Mr Banks said there was no issue in his stay in Hong Kong. He paid for every aspect of the trip that required payment himself.”?
The way it’s worded, he could theoretically have accepted ‘gifts’ from Dotcom and still claim that he paid for everything that he had to pay for but mask the fact he got stuff for nix.
for example the Herald article states pretty clearly that DotCom sent his own limo for Banks in Hong Kong http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10802016
“He arranged for his limo to collect Mr Banks from the airport and later to drive him to a helicopter pad for a trip to Macau.”
very generous actions from a guy Banks only spent twenty minutes with and cannot recall discussing a fifty grand donation with. How fucking stupid does Banks think people are?
oh yeah forgot where i was for a moment there
the country that voted the NActs back in, maybe Banks will be fine after all.
You know what. Banksie’s responses are going to piss Dotcom and his wife off even more. And I’m betting that Dotcom has a small, very competent, and highly paid team who keep these kinds of detailed historical matters on file for him. Down to the date, time and kilometres travelled in the limo in HK, as well as what was said to the driver along the way.
Banks has fucked this up, he needed to get back on side with Dotcom, and has instead gone completely the opposite way.
Of interest would be what Banks got up to on His visit to Macau, Macau being the world capital for gambling with a bigger dollar turnover for gambling than even Las Vegas,
A side question. With all that cash flooding through political campaigns, is there ever the temptation of politicians to siphon off money to themselves? How would they do that? I suppose the first step would be to declare a random number of donation of the same amount as anonymous, then each donator won’t know if there cash had got to the purpose they donated it for. Not thinking of any particular politicians alleged behavior recently in the news.
The last line of your comment, a quote from Banks outta the Herald sez it all as far as the over-bloated sense of entitlement held in the minds of the likes of Banks goes don’t it???,
Banks seems to think that the Law was written specially for the likes of Him and the likes of those who would give Him campaign funding to hide the source of that funding from the public,
It might take a few months sitting in a cold jail cell for Him to wake up to the fact that if HE(Banks), knew where the coin was coming from the Law sez it aint anonymous…
John Banks understands the law says small donations can be anonymous, so he simply sees all donations need to be small. Personally $25,000 is not a small amount of money and i never have been convinced that one single donation to any political party should be anonymous.
My understanding is the ‘small donations’ are anonymous to ease administration etc. At least that is the usual propoganda behind lies like this. It is a scam written by the past scammers to aide the future scammers. Pure and simple and i will never be convinced it is anything else.
You either proudly and openly support a party or you don’t.
Political candidates are required by law to declare donations if they know who made them. Failure to do so is punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment and up to a $10,000 fine.
A vacancy is automatically created if any MP is convicted of an offence punishable by two years or more, no matter what punishment they get
It’s hard to see how Banks can hold onto his seat, though I’m sure the right will pull out all the stops to drag this out and play for time.
And the moral of the story is that the Labour caucus needs to get rid of Shearer right now. This could easily bring the next election forward by a year. Unfortunately, morality is not the Labour caucus’s strong suit.
Ironically, given the whole non-politician game he’s playing, Shearer couldn’t look more like one with his continuing to lie about there being no problem in the leader’s office line. Looks like another cheap polly desperately trying to hold onto power. Doesn’t bode well for any chance of him steppping down for the greater good.
edit: this is a reply to comment 2 and the article contianed in it.
I don’t think we’ll be heading to a general election soon, unless another Nat MP goes after Banks does. It’ll just be a byelection for now. But Labour does need to get it’s sh*t together otherwise the Greens will be leading the opposition into the next election.
Labour’s leadership issue are providing a distraction from NAct’s problems. While the NZ Herald is front-paging the Banks-Dotcom donation, Stuff and the Dom Post are second-paging Shearer leadership rumours, with nothing about Labour or NAct on the front page – though maybe the Dom Post is just slow and had today’s edition organised early last night…?
+1 Carol, and yeah I noticed that on Stuff – well, noticed that wasn’t there on Stuff. Two negative Shearer stories and one about Collins’ defamation case. Nothing at all about Banks – I suppose that’s because Key’s office hasn’t issued a press release yet…
“While the NZ Herald is front-paging the Banks-Dotcom donation, Stuff and the Dom Post are second-paging Shearer leadership rumours, with nothing about Labour or NAct on the front page – though maybe the Dom Post is just slow and had today’s edition organised early last night…?”
—-Absolutely not an coincidence Carol – It is obfuscation, nothing more than that. APN/Fairfax , its not really competition is it! No it is very easy to “collaborate” when there are only two players, and its not like this news will have only just broken. I would ask what the timing was trying to hide!
The DomPost editor is a she I believe and has been there for a while. But you are right she is fully NAct’s puppet. She put a piece in the paper a wee while ago to say they were fully committed to impartial journalism, that made me laugh out loud, it’s like John Key saying I’m committed to telling the truth.
look at the maelstrom of issues National are battling with, yet all you see in the Dom are questions on Labour’s leadership, dancing puppies and who may or may not have their own tv show
Participants:
Shaun Davison
Prof Grant Gillett, of the Otago Centre for Bioethics
Maryan Street – Labour Party list MP
John Kleinsman – director of the Wellington-based Nathaniel Centre, the New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre
Associate Prof Colin Gavaghan, a specialist in medical law and ethics
Thomas Noakes-Duncan – post graduate Otago theology and religion doctoral student
At no time. I don’t think anyone will want to go there, and certainly nowhere near a majority will want anything like that. Many things that are legal are not compulsory.
Scaremongering against the worst that might happen is a tactic to try and build opposition to a moderate and sensible modificaztion to what is allowed now. It’s quite unclear at the moment.
And here was me thinking that euthanasia was simply the ultimate efficency that the neo-liberals could think up for the Humans after their usefulness as a tool in the economic equation had been exhausted,
I obviously don’t live in the same effete rarified world that you seem to occupy, we seem to live in parallel dimensions on the same planet at the same time,
I personally know of old people who have had their life savings and their property removed from them by their own children by pretext and in situations where the law is powerless to intervene,
If you care to conduct some research through Grey-Power I am sure you will be aquainted with any number of such cases,
Changing the law to allow euthanasia will simply ensure that any number of these old people wont only be relieved of their possessions but also be relieved of their lives as well…
Sensible euthanasia law won’t change oldies being ripped off by unscrupulous people at all, they are completely different things.m And sensible euthanasia law would not change the legalities of murdser either.
You’re confusing giving people a carefully checked right to choose how to end their own lives when the end isn inevitable becasue of terminal illness, and extremes of abuse. I don’t know if that is deliberate or through ignorance.
Changing the law to allow euthanasia will simply ensure that any number of these old people wont only be relieved of their possessions but also be relieved of their lives as well…
PS,as far as knocking off the rellies goes what is allowed now is NOTHING,there’s nothing ‘unclear’ about that its called by the law MURDER, or, MANSLAUGHTER,
So, allowing for a law change that lets the rellies be dispatched from the mortal coil early aint a moderate modification and if there were any sense or morality in doing so I am sure that better minds than ours in years gone by would have formulated ‘sensible’ laws to allow such…
Gods, I hate to be in agreement with Pete George here, but … you don’t think elderly people get “bumped off” by unscrupulous relatives right now?
Pretending that voluntary euthanasia has anything to do with a law which clearly spells out conditions and scrutiny around allowing people to make decisions themselves about the ends of their lives is basically dishonest, bad12.
What you seem to be saying is that seeing as there appears to be plenty of those who are engaging in the early dispatch of their elderly relatives now we should have a law which codifies the easy efficient dispatch of those elderly rellies,
The second paragraph of your comment is incomprehensible to my small tired brain,I never received any tuition in Mumbo Jumbo during my limited education perhaps you could try a re-write in basic English…
My brain isn’t working ’cause it’s a Saturday: if Labour/Greens just went super-low-key, and allowed Goldsmith or whoever National stand to go basically unchallenged, thus rendering the National/Act agreement void … what policies would this affect by not allowing National to say “Oh no, we have to do this ’cause it’s in our agreement, we’re not rabid free market lucrephiles at all!”? Obviously charter schools is one, but that’s already underway so they can claim the trial is a Total Success and carry on …
Because its a competitive tender, quite possibly lowest conforming price. Also the contracts are made so large that only huge companies have the means to take them on. This is a mistake as small firms can often do a better job at a lower price if the contracts are of an approachable size. I know that a s,all firm is able to be around 25% cheaper and won.tproice gouge variation work.
1) Why didnt local firms get the tender – Can’t see anything in the article that indicated it was not. Non tender procurement at AKL Council require special committee sign off, and will be available in meeting minutes etc in council website – More interesting questios would be,
” Who was the work with previously, and what is the difference in the cost of the work awarded to Downer?”
2) Why doesnt the council just bring the work in-house. – Auckland Transport is CCO, it has been segregated off, has its own IT infrastructure, and support services. The reader can speculate why this was done, and where it might be heading. So far as bringing it back in house….not going to happen under the current arrangements!
We don’t have (m)any local firms big enough, Aussies have bought them all. A large part of the Aus investment in NZ has been buying into the service sector that supports councils and govt. It’s a very lucrative market and the Aussies are no fools when it comes to business. The new PPP school in Hobsonville has a maintenance contract to another Aus company.
Councils won’t bring it back in-house, the CEOs & upper management would have to earn their pay then. Can’t have that.
(if we had a council with a conscience and any sort of competence they’d break the tenders up into smaller job lots so the Kiwi sub-contractors who end up doing the work anyway will be able to tender for the work directly)
Funnily enough I know of one that has due to the frustration of dealing with the likes of Downers… Interestingly several contracts now cost less than they did between six or nine years ago even though the scope of work has barely changed.
I am also aware that there is significant price gouging going on within contract variations with council officers signing off on work which is costing @ 3 times the industry average even though the are allowed to seek an alternative price if they the feel the quoted price is two high. I have seen one accepted variation price where the council was paying $250m3 for topsoil to be supplied and spread. (Usually this would be around the $100 mark give or take $10)
Funnily enough there are some council officers running around in some pretty smart gear supplied by said company…
In the case of parks and playgrounds, I dont see why the community itself shouldnt be ‘contracted’ to maintain them through domain boards (as is the case with smaller councils).
Don’t count on it. I used to work for one of the local “small” outfits that did work for ACC, WCC and SCC. The big problem seems to be that the small firms want to be paid at the end of the work/week and the council wants to pay them every 6 months and for the company to carry all the expenses in between which, of course, small companies/sole traders can’t do.
What amazed me was the fact that they were able to state Ayman al-Zawahri, was the new leader almost immediately after the story made up about OBL having been killed…
No mention of the fact that AQ are in Libya, Syria, Egypt and being used as the “freedon fighters, Free Syrian Army, Lybian Rebels”, and the like….
“US intelligence officials say almost a year after the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda is essentially gone, but its affiliates still present a threat to the US homeland”
— Yes of course they are now gone, this from the same people who seemingly could not stop the 911 attacks. If I were in America I would be rather nervy about the officials stating that “its affiliates still present a threat in the US homeland” – Better step up the police state , quick fast!
Of course Im sure that most are aware the seal team who staged the “event”, are pretty much all dead in two seperate chopper episodes, one at the “event”, another during a later “event”!
It was called immediately after the original “event” that this would be used as Barrys re-election plan!
Shearer appears to be on his way to oblivion. The Mount Albert by election with foot in mouth disease Melissa Lee already had tell tale signs of Shearer’s ineptness at debates and this trait has more or less remained for Shearer after being installed as Leader of the opposition. His supposedly “ground breaking” speeches were an unfortunate lurch to the right and for me, this alienated more left voters. Glad those speeches sank like a stone. I think the credibility of the people who masterminded Shearer’s rise and strategic direction must be called into question! It is unfathomable that National is still polling so high despite the fiascos they have been embroiled in. It is more a reflection of an inept opposition than anything else.
The question now, I think is, will the subsequent blood letting in the labour ranks allow Cunliffe to shore up enough support for a good tilt at the leadership? He was the obvious choice for some of us from the onset of the race but the idiotic right faction of labour had won out to install a dud of an opposition leader. Also of equal importance, will the bid for a new leader result in the electorate coming away with a strong sense that Labour is unstable and in a state of constant flux? Transitioning to a new leader with perceived minimal in fighting will be so critical to its electoral success. Hopefully, cohesive policy ideas and strong selling of the messages will follow under new leadership.
Grant Robertson is capable and has proved to be very effective in the house but I somehow think that New Zealand is not ready for a gay opposition leader let alone a gay prime minister. So his time might come but perhaps in the distant future?
I wonder if there are any left field alternatives to Cunliffe or Robertson but they are the most obvious front runners? Perhaps Cunliffe as leader and Robertson as deputy will result in a dynamite duo that will send National scurrying for cover?
Andrew Little???, I would say no,while Andrew has the unblemished credentials of the left I don’t see Him as having the presence,(at this time),needed in a Prime Minister,
Both Cunliffe and Robertson have a good amount of that undefinable ”it”,the personal and television presence capable of holding the attention of viewers/listeners for the length of time needed for the message being delivered to sink in,
Either way round Cunliffe/Robertson, Robertson/Cunliffe there obviously has to be a change sooner or later as, sadly, Shearer seems to not have the mana to move voters in any direction except to maybe have them asking who???,
Its interesting that the point of Robertson’s sexuality has been introduced to the discussion, being one of the decreasing number of hetero males in this world when asked if I would consider changing my vote back to Labour on the strength of a Cunliffe/Robertson ticket,(or vice versa),I would have to say yes and sexuality doesn’t enter my thoughts at all,
My view is that if they are going to again change Leaders, Labour need do so sooner rather than later…
Let Andrew Little do a full term as an MP first eh (something Shearer never got); don’t kill off good talent by putting it in unwinnable situations that they do not have enough experience for.
Little may not have what is normally expected in PM “presence”, but then neither does Shearer, and to be frank, focussing on “PM presence” is what has led our style of politics down the garden path to the compost heap. Little is a lot closer to anything Left, than Cunliffe. If Cunliffe became leader, he’d only be part of a pointless holding pattern for Labour. Andrew Little’s brusque, matter-of-fact attitude when on the attack could also win a fair bit of average man support and if the old crew want to maintain the eloquent theatrics of parliament, well there are all the other MPs for that. Being short and to the point might even make him look more in control by comparison.
It may be a moot point though, since finding necessary internal support for him is unlikely and unless Labour experience a road to Damascus moment soon, the Labour party will be an exhausted political power in a few years anyway. Their inexorable move to the Right has reached the point of no return.
I agree about the Robertson/gay comments. It has no relevance whatsoever to the job and sadly only reveals how conservative Labour supporters have become by suggesting it is an issue. It’s another case of Labour giving up the advantage to, what I’m fairly sure is, a small minority in NZ. Realistically, even the most rabid right-wing bigot wouldn’t give a shit if your policies made him rich. I mean, of all the things you can promote about a candidate, the best they can come up with is “…he could be the first gay PM…”? Yeah, that’ll stop our assets being stripped.
Cunliffe has the personal backing of a lot of the hardest, smartest and most experienced activists around the country. And he won’t be afraid to call on these activists to help break the Labour Rut the party is experiencing at the moment.
Further, Cunliffe has the best economic grasp in caucus IMO. Transitioning from neoliberalism will be very difficult and you do not want someone in the leadership spot who has very little idea of what that will entail.
Finally, only a few in the Labour caucus have thought through extensively what peak oil and peak resource extraction actually means for NZ this year, next year and the year after. He has.
Finally, Cunliffe can speak and speak very well. Both of the cuff, and from experience as a senior Minister. Vital in times ahead.
I’m totally biased as a former West Aucklander, but I completely agree. More to the point, narrow down Labour to people who have a few terms behind them, but weren’t elected before people who will be able to vote in 2014 were born, for Christ’s sake, hold or recently have held an electorate (though I await the day a list-only MP becomes PM) and your other choices are:
Clayton Cosgrove
David Parker
Parekura Horomia
… not a lineup that fills my soul with glee (though I think Parker would make a great finance backup for Cunliffe).
When Shearer was made leader and Robertson was made deputy I thought that this combo was too similar as both have strengths in humanitarian work. I wanted Cunliffe to be the leader due to having “the best economic grasp in caucus” as you put it.
There are two main problems in NZ, economic direction and poverty. Cunliffe needs to replace Shearer as leader and Shearer needs to be made deputy. Both deserve these positions as both are the most experienced in these roles; economic direction has to be strong to support and eradicate those living in poverty.
“My view is that if they are going to again change Leaders, Labour need do so sooner rather than later…”
Yes bad12, the sooner the better. A lot of us were saying the same thing this time last cycle, but they didn’t listen. Did they fuck.
Wonder if they’ll listen now.
Cunliffe has sound Labour principles, the ability to express them quickly and simply, a proven track record of campaigning, a detailed understanding of policy, a sharp wit, a good head for numbers, a lot of heart, and a bit of mongrel too.
Unfortunately these are considered “negatives” in current Labour strategy circles.
Cunliffe has sound Labour principles, the ability to express them quickly and simply, a proven track record of campaigning, a detailed understanding of policy, a sharp wit, a good head for numbers, a lot of heart, and a bit of mongrel too.
I’ve asked so many times that I have lost count by now, but never had so much as a **** off in response – someone please tell me, what do you all have against Shearer? As I pointed out and I was ignored every time, quotes of his supposed right wing views were false as a link to his real speech showed. So someone tell me, why is Shearer considered so awful? I really would appreciate an answer.
At last, a response! Thank you… 🙂
Others positively despise him, from what I read here, and I can’t fathom why, given that, as I’ve previously said, he was massively mis-quoted here…
I don’t know that I’ve seen people express anything that would suggest they despise him – I’m not sure he arouses that level of emotional response. I think what you’re seeing is people who don’t much like the type of politics they think he represents.
The type where instead of campaigning on your principles and policies you campaign on being the most cordial bloke, the type where you don’t speak your truths in case someone disagrees with you.
But that’s not despising the man – as far as I can tell most people who come across him seem to think he’s very nice.
I think that’s the key phrase there. Part of the problem is that even Standardistas go by what the msn says about Shearer, not what he actually says!
He’s my local MP and he certainly is strong in campaigning for people in his electorate.
I don’t dislike Shearer, but I do prefer Cunliffe. Cunliffe has been my electorate MP, and he also works hard for the people in his electorate. We only have what they say, as reported in the MSM, but also as on Red Alert etc.
Cunliffe isn’t perfect either, but I think it was a VERY big risk to pick a leader who is so inexperienced. I’m not totally clear what Shearer stands for but Cunliffe has been very clear on what he stands for, and comes across very well in interviews on radio or TV.
Shearer may turn out to be a good leader, but it still remains uncertain and risky, IMO.
Shearer may turn out to be a good leader, but it still remains uncertain and risky, IMO.
Carol, don’t you think that playing into the hands of the media and the RW by demanding his removal is equally risky? AFAIK, in fact I think I read something to this effect just today, it’s the Greenies here who want rid of him. As I’ve said, I don’t trust them, too many are blue-greens..
Yeah, shut up, Carol, Vicky’s experience and opinions are objective truth and anyone who disagrees is just a hater, and probably a man!
After all, if there’s anything you can really say about the non-Labour-aligned writers at The Standard, it’s that they (we) are just pawns of the mainstream media and secretly support National. *sincere nod*
Yeah, shut up, Carol, Vicky’s experience and opinions are objective truth and anyone who disagrees is just a hater, and probably a man!
Sigh… here he/she is again! Feeling bereft of attention are we deary? I was asking Carol’s opinion, not yours, I want to talk to the organ grinder not the monkey…
Yes, Vicky, I’m sure your question, which served chiefly to push your own personal views about Shearer’s leadership, was completely sincere and not in any way a “shut up or I’ll tell everyone you’re just a pawn” manoeuvre.
And I’m not sure how Carol can be my organ grinder, since I don’t think we’ve met …
And finally, it’s getting a little embarrassing how you keep thinking calling me “him” is a clever move, and definitely not convincing anyone in the “look how little I care about QoT” stakes.
Me, I just keep ridin’ ya because your lack of depth is funny and it’s Sunday evening.
“Both Cunliffe and Robertson have a good amount of that undefinable ”it”,the personal and television presence capable of holding the attention of viewers/listeners for the length of time needed for the message being delivered to sink in…..”
I think Cunliffe has more “it” than Robertson, particularly the way he has handled the last few months.
This is shaping up to be a remarkable rerun of the first term of opposition in many ways. Questions about Goff destabilised Labour for three years. Goff as leader, and the strategy the leadership team doggedly followed (and continue to follow) were disastrous. Everyone knew it. It fed continuous leadership coup rumours and was pretty embarrassing to watch. Now we have a new naked emperor who appears to be (I’m sure completely legally) in some kind of altered state of consciousness, and the same group-think team baby-sitting him.
Transitioning to a new leader with perceived minimal in fighting will be so critical to its electoral success.
Okay. Sod all the back stabbing and shitty behaviour that tends to mark power struggles. But if there is an effort to get a new leader up and running while presenting a facade of civility then doesn’t that just play into the hands of behind the scenes politiking?
I’d rather have robust debates right out there in the public arena on the grounds that it’s far more ‘honest’ and neuters the back room power brokers to some extent or other.
I havn’t been a Labour supporter for some time. My hope is that the Greens become the left party of record.
But. From outside. Cunliffe and Robertson appear to be the only credible leadership possibility.
Closely supported by some of the excellent youthful talent coming up.
There needs to be a cleanout of the right leaning dross, including Pagani. I don’t even know why he is even in Labour. Maybe a National party plant?? 🙂
Perhaps us lot, the ex-Labour vote are being way to pedantic in our focus upon that party,and, perhaps being just more than a little spot mischievious to boot,
Should Labour hold firm to the recently selected Shearer/Robinson leadership then perhaps We, looking in from outside the party should except that as the modern Labour party representing a left vision that ‘we’ cannot connect with,
Obviously tho some 30% of the electorate do make that connection and my belief is that such support is garnered mostly from within the middle class of our society, in reaching that conclusion one has to remember that such occupations such as nursing,teaching,and,(even)being a wharfie in the scale of wages and salaries can now be considered to be middle class,
Those of us who either left Labour or had Labour leave us who remain politically switched on have moved to the Green Party who in any post-election negotiation only need adhere to their policy’s and principles to in effect move Labour to the left,
Bill. I agree. There has to be ideological and political blood spilt for the electorate to be convinced of true renewal and not just another beltway, stage managed transition to the face of the day.
Bill, I realize that you aren’t exactly a NZLP supporter and I must apologize for the moron journos at the herald and other places for brushing you and the other (left but not Labour party supporter) authors as being NZLP supporters. That includes whoever wrote the article in the herald this morning. They do have some pretty severe comprehension problems when they can’t encapsulate the left in a headline.
We have already had the leadership debate for this term. In my opinion, there is no electoral advantage in having challenges except immediately after an election. The only people who seem to get off on them are the rather excitable media, people who don’t campaign in an organized way, and hysterics on the right. That was an still is my view with both Goff and Shearer because in the end it is the party that should be making the running. A leader (like MP’s) is a representative of that party… The NZLP strategists damn near airbrushed Goff out of the strategy last election – and it still didn’t make that much of an impression on results. The lack of strategy on targeting par Ty votes was much more of an issue.
But I haven’t seen any authors associated with Labour calling for a leadership challenge or even any authors. Not that many NZLP commentators either – most of the noise is actually from people who aren’t their supporters. The NZLP leaning authors have been saying it is a bloody silly idea at every level. Which is what the posts have actually been about…
That isn’t to say that we won’t criticize any parties strategies. After all how else are the politicians going to learn to live with social media. And besides which, I think it is healthy.
Bit naive of David to let the Herald journos to spin him up that way this morning. But what the hell. If we aren’t irritating someone then we aren’t doing our task.
Aggrieved as I was with the leadership result, and I don’t mind being flattered by VP as a one of the Cunliffe core, I agree with you. We have who we have so make the best of it.
Here’s an interesting little piece that have been missed during the Qantas action across the ditch; I can only think of the parallels with POAL and Talley’s
It may not be a “good look” to you that National has had two white men at the top of their party for the last 2.5 terms, and it may not have been a good look to you that they have had very few women in their top 10 bench positions for most of that time.
But most NZers don’t really seem to care two hoots about that, as long as they think that the political party concerned has a strong grasp of the issues, and is doing a capable and competent job of leading the country.
Metiria Turei as co-leader ticks all the boxes.
Sorry Labour, but it’s time to learn that very large portions of the electorate definitely don’t give a shit about candidates who “tick all the (Left’s) boxes”. They just want to see competence, leadership and vision.
BTW I was a very strong supporter of the Cunliffe/Mahuta ticket, and remain so.
Lots of concerns for civil liberties here as governments and corporations will be able to (further) track everything you do, where you do it, and who you do it with.
Maybe cutting even more jobs, taking even more money out of communities and workers’ pockets, selling off even more productive assets and taking on even more bankers’ debt today to repay make tomorrow’s repayments to those same bankers will work.
I see David Shearer getting another pasting in the Dompost this morning.
By and large they are right.
He is tentative, has no grasp of the larger issues and is surrounded by a coterie of professional liggers who know the answer to everything but never achieve anything except holding onto their own jobs.
and they use too much soap.
A third of non-voters said they did not trust politicians, and a third said there was no point voting because polls had indicated the result was a foregone conclusion.
More and more reason to get rid of or change polling.
Aha,I have made mention of this befor,specially in relation to the I Predict type polling of NZFirst leading up to the 2011 election,
Commenting on another web-site at the time, I was constantly harangued by commenters from the right who claimed NZFirst could not reach the 5% of the party vote needed for that party to re-enter the Parliament,
My calculations of NZFirst support published on that web-site as 6.2%–12% of the party vote was based upon the %s of manipulation I detected on that I Predict web-site,
The 2011 election was conducted with that underlying message,(successfully) used by the ‘right’ throughout the campaign that it was a done deal, National would govern alone and voting NZfirst was a wasted vote,
The media polls leading up to 2011 simply reinforced that unwritten campaign and it is my belief that such media polling was,(and still is),focused upon using the margin of error in helping deliver the ”its a done deal” message to voters,
Simply by ascribing to National the high end of the % within the margin of error and ascribing to Labour/Greens/NZFirst the % as calculated from the low end of the margin of error is such a perception created,
Another 6% of those enrolled to do so did not vote in 2011, the Electoral commission’s research would tend to suggest that 30% of that 6% did not cast a vote on the basis of ”its a done deal” which in turn was based upon what i truly believe to be dishonest manipulation of those media polls,
In effect, I see a clinic full of cynics,trying to twist the peoples wrists,they watch every move we make,we are all included upon their lists,
Banks and his campaign donations, bus driver getting murdered anti asset sales march-what does One News lead off with tonight. The death of a former All Black. Sure it’s news but the lead story?
So looks like United Future are now polling people to see who actually support asset sales –
“We understand clearly that the only reason for our existence is to represent the voice of the people in our parliament. We believe that any party that is not constantly in touch with the views of the people is simply not doing its job. “…
Well, that was interesting. Popped over to the link and duly voted – result was 80.3% NO against asset sales, but not indication of how many votes that represented. Also there appeared to be only two comments – one in Oct 2011 and the other in Dec 2011. So this raises in my mind how long this poll has been running and how many people have voted as well as the obvious – will Dunne actually take note of the results.
Vicky, up-thread (have run out of reply buttons up there. I voted Cunliffe + Green Party for several years. If Cunliffe had been chosen leader I would have been more likely to look at voting Labour again.
One of the things that puts me off the Labour Party in general, is that they have spent too much time pandering to the MSM opinions, rather than standing up for their principles – too much neoliberal-style managerialism.
The Greens still are closer to their principles…. although not as much as they use to be. I will be chosing between Green and Mana next election (unless Labour does some big turn-around).
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
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Kiwibank
Surely this sort of journalism is not a reflection of the state of New Zealand’s MSM.
(not to mention the dreadful editing/proofreading)
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/opinion/political-report-april27-2012
@logie97 – I had a wee glance at the newstalk link, yuk and pathetic. And as for Veitchy on Sunday another yuk and pathetic. I’m afraid this sort of tacky journalism is very much a reflection of MSM in NZ
Cannot imagine what people accessing the Newstalkzb site from overseas to get some insight into New Zealand News and current affairs would think.
(Wonder how Leighton Smith would rate the standard of writing on his own beloved channel).
Anyone read this, this morning…Dotcom’s secret donation to Banks
“John said, ‘Wait a minute’,” Dotcom recalled last night. “‘It would be good if you could split it up into two payments of 25 [thousand dollars], then I don’t declare publicly who made it’.”
“Last night, Mr Banks said there would be nothing wrong with his telling people how to give anonymously.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10802016
It was discussed last night on the Banksie thread:
http://thestandard.org.nz/banks-secret-donation-from-the-wide-boys/comment-page-1/#comment-464394
heh. I liked this bit – “Mr Banks said there was no issue in his stay in Hong Kong. He paid for every aspect of the trip himself.”
Now, is it just me, or is that potentially misleading? Shouldn’t that more accurately read ” Mr Banks said there was no issue in his stay in Hong Kong. He paid for every aspect of the trip that required payment himself.”?
The way it’s worded, he could theoretically have accepted ‘gifts’ from Dotcom and still claim that he paid for everything that he had to pay for but mask the fact he got stuff for nix.
for example the Herald article states pretty clearly that DotCom sent his own limo for Banks in Hong Kong
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10802016
“He arranged for his limo to collect Mr Banks from the airport and later to drive him to a helicopter pad for a trip to Macau.”
very generous actions from a guy Banks only spent twenty minutes with and cannot recall discussing a fifty grand donation with. How fucking stupid does Banks think people are?
oh yeah forgot where i was for a moment there
the country that voted the NActs back in, maybe Banks will be fine after all.
You know what. Banksie’s responses are going to piss Dotcom and his wife off even more. And I’m betting that Dotcom has a small, very competent, and highly paid team who keep these kinds of detailed historical matters on file for him. Down to the date, time and kilometres travelled in the limo in HK, as well as what was said to the driver along the way.
Banks has fucked this up, he needed to get back on side with Dotcom, and has instead gone completely the opposite way.
Of interest would be what Banks got up to on His visit to Macau, Macau being the world capital for gambling with a bigger dollar turnover for gambling than even Las Vegas,
SkyCity by any chance have a casino in Macau???…
A side question. With all that cash flooding through political campaigns, is there ever the temptation of politicians to siphon off money to themselves? How would they do that? I suppose the first step would be to declare a random number of donation of the same amount as anonymous, then each donator won’t know if there cash had got to the purpose they donated it for. Not thinking of any particular politicians alleged behavior recently in the news.
It’s easy enough. Pay by cheque on the nod and wink understanding that the cheque will not be presented.
[sorry – you’re currently on a 2 week ban. — r0b]
The last line of your comment, a quote from Banks outta the Herald sez it all as far as the over-bloated sense of entitlement held in the minds of the likes of Banks goes don’t it???,
Banks seems to think that the Law was written specially for the likes of Him and the likes of those who would give Him campaign funding to hide the source of that funding from the public,
It might take a few months sitting in a cold jail cell for Him to wake up to the fact that if HE(Banks), knew where the coin was coming from the Law sez it aint anonymous…
Oh by the way,there is NO corruption in New Zealand, until a big smelly pile of it turns up on ya telly at 7 on a Friday night that is…
I just cannot believe the lack of any self reflection by Banks that this is Unethical Behaviour. What doesn’t he get?
John Banks understands the law says small donations can be anonymous, so he simply sees all donations need to be small. Personally $25,000 is not a small amount of money and i never have been convinced that one single donation to any political party should be anonymous.
My understanding is the ‘small donations’ are anonymous to ease administration etc. At least that is the usual propoganda behind lies like this. It is a scam written by the past scammers to aide the future scammers. Pure and simple and i will never be convinced it is anything else.
You either proudly and openly support a party or you don’t.
+1
From the article:
Political candidates are required by law to declare donations if they know who made them. Failure to do so is punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment and up to a $10,000 fine.
A vacancy is automatically created if any MP is convicted of an offence punishable by two years or more, no matter what punishment they get
It’s hard to see how Banks can hold onto his seat, though I’m sure the right will pull out all the stops to drag this out and play for time.
And the moral of the story is that the Labour caucus needs to get rid of Shearer right now. This could easily bring the next election forward by a year. Unfortunately, morality is not the Labour caucus’s strong suit.
Ironically, given the whole non-politician game he’s playing, Shearer couldn’t look more like one with his continuing to lie about there being no problem in the leader’s office line. Looks like another cheap polly desperately trying to hold onto power. Doesn’t bode well for any chance of him steppping down for the greater good.
edit: this is a reply to comment 2 and the article contianed in it.
I don’t think we’ll be heading to a general election soon, unless another Nat MP goes after Banks does. It’ll just be a byelection for now. But Labour does need to get it’s sh*t together otherwise the Greens will be leading the opposition into the next election.
Labour’s leadership issue are providing a distraction from NAct’s problems. While the NZ Herald is front-paging the Banks-Dotcom donation, Stuff and the Dom Post are second-paging Shearer leadership rumours, with nothing about Labour or NAct on the front page – though maybe the Dom Post is just slow and had today’s edition organised early last night…?
+1 Carol, and yeah I noticed that on Stuff – well, noticed that wasn’t there on Stuff. Two negative Shearer stories and one about Collins’ defamation case. Nothing at all about Banks – I suppose that’s because Key’s office hasn’t issued a press release yet…
True Carol,
But I can’t help thinking that this will become one destabilisation too many.
“While the NZ Herald is front-paging the Banks-Dotcom donation, Stuff and the Dom Post are second-paging Shearer leadership rumours, with nothing about Labour or NAct on the front page – though maybe the Dom Post is just slow and had today’s edition organised early last night…?”
—-Absolutely not an coincidence Carol – It is obfuscation, nothing more than that. APN/Fairfax , its not really competition is it! No it is very easy to “collaborate” when there are only two players, and its not like this news will have only just broken. I would ask what the timing was trying to hide!
And so far, from what I have heard, that’s exactly what they are doing!
And so far, from what I have heard, that’s exactly what they are doing!
Why? What’s Shearer got to do with Banks’ sins?
Is’nt the Dom editor a senior Nat advisor ? For all we know he was a Nat appointment to the Dom job , as the bloody rag reads like it.
The DomPost editor is a she I believe and has been there for a while. But you are right she is fully NAct’s puppet. She put a piece in the paper a wee while ago to say they were fully committed to impartial journalism, that made me laugh out loud, it’s like John Key saying I’m committed to telling the truth.
look at the maelstrom of issues National are battling with, yet all you see in the Dom are questions on Labour’s leadership, dancing puppies and who may or may not have their own tv show
At least the daily photos of John Key seem to have somewhat abated.
Eat your heart out John Clark 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GFELLK8htKM
Nice one, I like that and thanks for the link.
😆
Panel comments from the euthanasia debate in Dunedin this week: Euthanasia discussion – comments
Participants:
Shaun Davison
Prof Grant Gillett, of the Otago Centre for Bioethics
Maryan Street – Labour Party list MP
John Kleinsman – director of the Wellington-based Nathaniel Centre, the New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre
Associate Prof Colin Gavaghan, a specialist in medical law and ethics
Thomas Noakes-Duncan – post graduate Otago theology and religion doctoral student
At what point do you think such a law change will have an element of compulsion added to it???…
At no time. I don’t think anyone will want to go there, and certainly nowhere near a majority will want anything like that. Many things that are legal are not compulsory.
Scaremongering against the worst that might happen is a tactic to try and build opposition to a moderate and sensible modificaztion to what is allowed now. It’s quite unclear at the moment.
And here was me thinking that euthanasia was simply the ultimate efficency that the neo-liberals could think up for the Humans after their usefulness as a tool in the economic equation had been exhausted,
I obviously don’t live in the same effete rarified world that you seem to occupy, we seem to live in parallel dimensions on the same planet at the same time,
I personally know of old people who have had their life savings and their property removed from them by their own children by pretext and in situations where the law is powerless to intervene,
If you care to conduct some research through Grey-Power I am sure you will be aquainted with any number of such cases,
Changing the law to allow euthanasia will simply ensure that any number of these old people wont only be relieved of their possessions but also be relieved of their lives as well…
Sensible euthanasia law won’t change oldies being ripped off by unscrupulous people at all, they are completely different things.m And sensible euthanasia law would not change the legalities of murdser either.
You’re confusing giving people a carefully checked right to choose how to end their own lives when the end isn inevitable becasue of terminal illness, and extremes of abuse. I don’t know if that is deliberate or through ignorance.
Seconded!
PS,as far as knocking off the rellies goes what is allowed now is NOTHING,there’s nothing ‘unclear’ about that its called by the law MURDER, or, MANSLAUGHTER,
So, allowing for a law change that lets the rellies be dispatched from the mortal coil early aint a moderate modification and if there were any sense or morality in doing so I am sure that better minds than ours in years gone by would have formulated ‘sensible’ laws to allow such…
Gods, I hate to be in agreement with Pete George here, but … you don’t think elderly people get “bumped off” by unscrupulous relatives right now?
Pretending that voluntary euthanasia has anything to do with a law which clearly spells out conditions and scrutiny around allowing people to make decisions themselves about the ends of their lives is basically dishonest, bad12.
What you seem to be saying is that seeing as there appears to be plenty of those who are engaging in the early dispatch of their elderly relatives now we should have a law which codifies the easy efficient dispatch of those elderly rellies,
The second paragraph of your comment is incomprehensible to my small tired brain,I never received any tuition in Mumbo Jumbo during my limited education perhaps you could try a re-write in basic English…
Okay, I made a typo, but I’ll try again with small, easy words:
When. You. Say. That. A Law. Which. Allows. People. To. Make. Their. Own. Decisions. Is. Making. Murder. Okay. You. Are. A Liar.
Voluntary euthanasia has nothing to do with “codifying” murder of people who are old or terminally ill.
You might as well argue that we shouldn’t have a law on self defence, because that just makes murdering people easier.
An Epsom by-election: what strategy should Labour have?
Push the Conservatives to win.
My brain isn’t working ’cause it’s a Saturday: if Labour/Greens just went super-low-key, and allowed Goldsmith or whoever National stand to go basically unchallenged, thus rendering the National/Act agreement void … what policies would this affect by not allowing National to say “Oh no, we have to do this ’cause it’s in our agreement, we’re not rabid free market lucrephiles at all!”? Obviously charter schools is one, but that’s already underway so they can claim the trial is a Total Success and carry on …
‘Lucrephiles’, I love it! Describes the beasties to a t.
‘filthy lucrephiles’ even better (-or worse?!)
Downer DEI snaps up the Auckland Council facilities maintanance contract
My issues as follows
1) Why didnt local firms get the tender
2) Why doesnt the council just bring the work in-house.
Because its a competitive tender, quite possibly lowest conforming price. Also the contracts are made so large that only huge companies have the means to take them on. This is a mistake as small firms can often do a better job at a lower price if the contracts are of an approachable size. I know that a s,all firm is able to be around 25% cheaper and won.tproice gouge variation work.
1) Why didnt local firms get the tender – Can’t see anything in the article that indicated it was not. Non tender procurement at AKL Council require special committee sign off, and will be available in meeting minutes etc in council website – More interesting questios would be,
” Who was the work with previously, and what is the difference in the cost of the work awarded to Downer?”
2) Why doesnt the council just bring the work in-house. – Auckland Transport is CCO, it has been segregated off, has its own IT infrastructure, and support services. The reader can speculate why this was done, and where it might be heading. So far as bringing it back in house….not going to happen under the current arrangements!
Auckland Transport should do its work in-house — it being a CCO and all. It should even be able to purchase and operate its own buses.
We don’t have (m)any local firms big enough, Aussies have bought them all. A large part of the Aus investment in NZ has been buying into the service sector that supports councils and govt. It’s a very lucrative market and the Aussies are no fools when it comes to business. The new PPP school in Hobsonville has a maintenance contract to another Aus company.
Councils won’t bring it back in-house, the CEOs & upper management would have to earn their pay then. Can’t have that.
(if we had a council with a conscience and any sort of competence they’d break the tenders up into smaller job lots so the Kiwi sub-contractors who end up doing the work anyway will be able to tender for the work directly)
Funnily enough I know of one that has due to the frustration of dealing with the likes of Downers… Interestingly several contracts now cost less than they did between six or nine years ago even though the scope of work has barely changed.
I am also aware that there is significant price gouging going on within contract variations with council officers signing off on work which is costing @ 3 times the industry average even though the are allowed to seek an alternative price if they the feel the quoted price is two high. I have seen one accepted variation price where the council was paying $250m3 for topsoil to be supplied and spread. (Usually this would be around the $100 mark give or take $10)
Funnily enough there are some council officers running around in some pretty smart gear supplied by said company…
In the case of parks and playgrounds, I dont see why the community itself shouldnt be ‘contracted’ to maintain them through domain boards (as is the case with smaller councils).
Don’t count on it. I used to work for one of the local “small” outfits that did work for ACC, WCC and SCC. The big problem seems to be that the small firms want to be paid at the end of the work/week and the council wants to pay them every 6 months and for the company to carry all the expenses in between which, of course, small companies/sole traders can’t do.
More spin and BS for the sheep, about the mythical Al Queda
What amazed me was the fact that they were able to state Ayman al-Zawahri, was the new leader almost immediately after the story made up about OBL having been killed…
No mention of the fact that AQ are in Libya, Syria, Egypt and being used as the “freedon fighters, Free Syrian Army, Lybian Rebels”, and the like….
“US intelligence officials say almost a year after the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda is essentially gone, but its affiliates still present a threat to the US homeland”
— Yes of course they are now gone, this from the same people who seemingly could not stop the 911 attacks. If I were in America I would be rather nervy about the officials stating that “its affiliates still present a threat in the US homeland” – Better step up the police state , quick fast!
Baaaaaa
And as if by magic, the next story off the rank is how Barry played the patriot hero, by sending in the seals to take out Tim
Of course Im sure that most are aware the seal team who staged the “event”, are pretty much all dead in two seperate chopper episodes, one at the “event”, another during a later “event”!
It was called immediately after the original “event” that this would be used as Barrys re-election plan!
Almost as if its being scripted right!
Shearer appears to be on his way to oblivion. The Mount Albert by election with foot in mouth disease Melissa Lee already had tell tale signs of Shearer’s ineptness at debates and this trait has more or less remained for Shearer after being installed as Leader of the opposition. His supposedly “ground breaking” speeches were an unfortunate lurch to the right and for me, this alienated more left voters. Glad those speeches sank like a stone. I think the credibility of the people who masterminded Shearer’s rise and strategic direction must be called into question! It is unfathomable that National is still polling so high despite the fiascos they have been embroiled in. It is more a reflection of an inept opposition than anything else.
The question now, I think is, will the subsequent blood letting in the labour ranks allow Cunliffe to shore up enough support for a good tilt at the leadership? He was the obvious choice for some of us from the onset of the race but the idiotic right faction of labour had won out to install a dud of an opposition leader. Also of equal importance, will the bid for a new leader result in the electorate coming away with a strong sense that Labour is unstable and in a state of constant flux? Transitioning to a new leader with perceived minimal in fighting will be so critical to its electoral success. Hopefully, cohesive policy ideas and strong selling of the messages will follow under new leadership.
Grant Robertson is capable and has proved to be very effective in the house but I somehow think that New Zealand is not ready for a gay opposition leader let alone a gay prime minister. So his time might come but perhaps in the distant future?
I wonder if there are any left field alternatives to Cunliffe or Robertson but they are the most obvious front runners? Perhaps Cunliffe as leader and Robertson as deputy will result in a dynamite duo that will send National scurrying for cover?
Andrew Little?
Andrew Little???, I would say no,while Andrew has the unblemished credentials of the left I don’t see Him as having the presence,(at this time),needed in a Prime Minister,
Both Cunliffe and Robertson have a good amount of that undefinable ”it”,the personal and television presence capable of holding the attention of viewers/listeners for the length of time needed for the message being delivered to sink in,
Either way round Cunliffe/Robertson, Robertson/Cunliffe there obviously has to be a change sooner or later as, sadly, Shearer seems to not have the mana to move voters in any direction except to maybe have them asking who???,
Its interesting that the point of Robertson’s sexuality has been introduced to the discussion, being one of the decreasing number of hetero males in this world when asked if I would consider changing my vote back to Labour on the strength of a Cunliffe/Robertson ticket,(or vice versa),I would have to say yes and sexuality doesn’t enter my thoughts at all,
My view is that if they are going to again change Leaders, Labour need do so sooner rather than later…
Let Andrew Little do a full term as an MP first eh (something Shearer never got); don’t kill off good talent by putting it in unwinnable situations that they do not have enough experience for.
Little may not have what is normally expected in PM “presence”, but then neither does Shearer, and to be frank, focussing on “PM presence” is what has led our style of politics down the garden path to the compost heap. Little is a lot closer to anything Left, than Cunliffe. If Cunliffe became leader, he’d only be part of a pointless holding pattern for Labour. Andrew Little’s brusque, matter-of-fact attitude when on the attack could also win a fair bit of average man support and if the old crew want to maintain the eloquent theatrics of parliament, well there are all the other MPs for that. Being short and to the point might even make him look more in control by comparison.
It may be a moot point though, since finding necessary internal support for him is unlikely and unless Labour experience a road to Damascus moment soon, the Labour party will be an exhausted political power in a few years anyway. Their inexorable move to the Right has reached the point of no return.
I agree about the Robertson/gay comments. It has no relevance whatsoever to the job and sadly only reveals how conservative Labour supporters have become by suggesting it is an issue. It’s another case of Labour giving up the advantage to, what I’m fairly sure is, a small minority in NZ. Realistically, even the most rabid right-wing bigot wouldn’t give a shit if your policies made him rich. I mean, of all the things you can promote about a candidate, the best they can come up with is “…he could be the first gay PM…”? Yeah, that’ll stop our assets being stripped.
Nah mate you’re 110% wrong on this.
Expand?
Cunliffe has the personal backing of a lot of the hardest, smartest and most experienced activists around the country. And he won’t be afraid to call on these activists to help break the Labour Rut the party is experiencing at the moment.
Further, Cunliffe has the best economic grasp in caucus IMO. Transitioning from neoliberalism will be very difficult and you do not want someone in the leadership spot who has very little idea of what that will entail.
Finally, only a few in the Labour caucus have thought through extensively what peak oil and peak resource extraction actually means for NZ this year, next year and the year after. He has.
Finally, Cunliffe can speak and speak very well. Both of the cuff, and from experience as a senior Minister. Vital in times ahead.
I’m totally biased as a former West Aucklander, but I completely agree. More to the point, narrow down Labour to people who have a few terms behind them, but weren’t elected before people who will be able to vote in 2014 were born, for Christ’s sake, hold or recently have held an electorate (though I await the day a list-only MP becomes PM) and your other choices are:
Clayton Cosgrove
David Parker
Parekura Horomia
… not a lineup that fills my soul with glee (though I think Parker would make a great finance backup for Cunliffe).
When Shearer was made leader and Robertson was made deputy I thought that this combo was too similar as both have strengths in humanitarian work. I wanted Cunliffe to be the leader due to having “the best economic grasp in caucus” as you put it.
There are two main problems in NZ, economic direction and poverty. Cunliffe needs to replace Shearer as leader and Shearer needs to be made deputy. Both deserve these positions as both are the most experienced in these roles; economic direction has to be strong to support and eradicate those living in poverty.
+111% Colonial V!
“My view is that if they are going to again change Leaders, Labour need do so sooner rather than later…”
Yes bad12, the sooner the better. A lot of us were saying the same thing this time last cycle, but they didn’t listen. Did they fuck.
Wonder if they’ll listen now.
Cunliffe has sound Labour principles, the ability to express them quickly and simply, a proven track record of campaigning, a detailed understanding of policy, a sharp wit, a good head for numbers, a lot of heart, and a bit of mongrel too.
Unfortunately these are considered “negatives” in current Labour strategy circles.
I’ve asked so many times that I have lost count by now, but never had so much as a **** off in response – someone please tell me, what do you all have against Shearer? As I pointed out and I was ignored every time, quotes of his supposed right wing views were false as a link to his real speech showed. So someone tell me, why is Shearer considered so awful? I really would appreciate an answer.
I don’t have anything against Shearer.
But I don’t have anything in particular in favour of him either, and that’s the trouble.
A bit like Steely Dan.
At last, a response! Thank you… 🙂
Others positively despise him, from what I read here, and I can’t fathom why, given that, as I’ve previously said, he was massively mis-quoted here…
I don’t know that I’ve seen people express anything that would suggest they despise him – I’m not sure he arouses that level of emotional response. I think what you’re seeing is people who don’t much like the type of politics they think he represents.
The type where instead of campaigning on your principles and policies you campaign on being the most cordial bloke, the type where you don’t speak your truths in case someone disagrees with you.
But that’s not despising the man – as far as I can tell most people who come across him seem to think he’s very nice.
I think that’s the key phrase there. Part of the problem is that even Standardistas go by what the msn says about Shearer, not what he actually says!
He’s my local MP and he certainly is strong in campaigning for people in his electorate.
Yes I chose that phrasing deliberately.
I have no doubt that he’s an honest, hardworking MP.
I don’t dislike Shearer, but I do prefer Cunliffe. Cunliffe has been my electorate MP, and he also works hard for the people in his electorate. We only have what they say, as reported in the MSM, but also as on Red Alert etc.
Cunliffe isn’t perfect either, but I think it was a VERY big risk to pick a leader who is so inexperienced. I’m not totally clear what Shearer stands for but Cunliffe has been very clear on what he stands for, and comes across very well in interviews on radio or TV.
Shearer may turn out to be a good leader, but it still remains uncertain and risky, IMO.
Carol, don’t you think that playing into the hands of the media and the RW by demanding his removal is equally risky? AFAIK, in fact I think I read something to this effect just today, it’s the Greenies here who want rid of him. As I’ve said, I don’t trust them, too many are blue-greens..
Yeah, shut up, Carol, Vicky’s experience and opinions are objective truth and anyone who disagrees is just a hater, and probably a man!
After all, if there’s anything you can really say about the non-Labour-aligned writers at The Standard, it’s that they (we) are just pawns of the mainstream media and secretly support National. *sincere nod*
Remember though Vicky, the media and the RW played a large role in installing him as leader. If Labour was ever playing into their hands, it was then.
Sigh… here he/she is again! Feeling bereft of attention are we deary? I was asking Carol’s opinion, not yours, I want to talk to the organ grinder not the monkey…
Yes, Vicky, I’m sure your question, which served chiefly to push your own personal views about Shearer’s leadership, was completely sincere and not in any way a “shut up or I’ll tell everyone you’re just a pawn” manoeuvre.
And I’m not sure how Carol can be my organ grinder, since I don’t think we’ve met …
And finally, it’s getting a little embarrassing how you keep thinking calling me “him” is a clever move, and definitely not convincing anyone in the “look how little I care about QoT” stakes.
Me, I just keep ridin’ ya because your lack of depth is funny and it’s Sunday evening.
“Both Cunliffe and Robertson have a good amount of that undefinable ”it”,the personal and television presence capable of holding the attention of viewers/listeners for the length of time needed for the message being delivered to sink in…..”
I think Cunliffe has more “it” than Robertson, particularly the way he has handled the last few months.
This is shaping up to be a remarkable rerun of the first term of opposition in many ways. Questions about Goff destabilised Labour for three years. Goff as leader, and the strategy the leadership team doggedly followed (and continue to follow) were disastrous. Everyone knew it. It fed continuous leadership coup rumours and was pretty embarrassing to watch. Now we have a new naked emperor who appears to be (I’m sure completely legally) in some kind of altered state of consciousness, and the same group-think team baby-sitting him.
Okay. Sod all the back stabbing and shitty behaviour that tends to mark power struggles. But if there is an effort to get a new leader up and running while presenting a facade of civility then doesn’t that just play into the hands of behind the scenes politiking?
I’d rather have robust debates right out there in the public arena on the grounds that it’s far more ‘honest’ and neuters the back room power brokers to some extent or other.
I havn’t been a Labour supporter for some time. My hope is that the Greens become the left party of record.
But. From outside. Cunliffe and Robertson appear to be the only credible leadership possibility.
Closely supported by some of the excellent youthful talent coming up.
There needs to be a cleanout of the right leaning dross, including Pagani. I don’t even know why he is even in Labour. Maybe a National party plant?? 🙂
Perhaps us lot, the ex-Labour vote are being way to pedantic in our focus upon that party,and, perhaps being just more than a little spot mischievious to boot,
Should Labour hold firm to the recently selected Shearer/Robinson leadership then perhaps We, looking in from outside the party should except that as the modern Labour party representing a left vision that ‘we’ cannot connect with,
Obviously tho some 30% of the electorate do make that connection and my belief is that such support is garnered mostly from within the middle class of our society, in reaching that conclusion one has to remember that such occupations such as nursing,teaching,and,(even)being a wharfie in the scale of wages and salaries can now be considered to be middle class,
Those of us who either left Labour or had Labour leave us who remain politically switched on have moved to the Green Party who in any post-election negotiation only need adhere to their policy’s and principles to in effect move Labour to the left,
Bill. I agree. There has to be ideological and political blood spilt for the electorate to be convinced of true renewal and not just another beltway, stage managed transition to the face of the day.
Bill, I realize that you aren’t exactly a NZLP supporter and I must apologize for the moron journos at the herald and other places for brushing you and the other (left but not Labour party supporter) authors as being NZLP supporters. That includes whoever wrote the article in the herald this morning. They do have some pretty severe comprehension problems when they can’t encapsulate the left in a headline.
We have already had the leadership debate for this term. In my opinion, there is no electoral advantage in having challenges except immediately after an election. The only people who seem to get off on them are the rather excitable media, people who don’t campaign in an organized way, and hysterics on the right. That was an still is my view with both Goff and Shearer because in the end it is the party that should be making the running. A leader (like MP’s) is a representative of that party… The NZLP strategists damn near airbrushed Goff out of the strategy last election – and it still didn’t make that much of an impression on results. The lack of strategy on targeting par Ty votes was much more of an issue.
But I haven’t seen any authors associated with Labour calling for a leadership challenge or even any authors. Not that many NZLP commentators either – most of the noise is actually from people who aren’t their supporters. The NZLP leaning authors have been saying it is a bloody silly idea at every level. Which is what the posts have actually been about…
That isn’t to say that we won’t criticize any parties strategies. After all how else are the politicians going to learn to live with social media. And besides which, I think it is healthy.
Bit naive of David to let the Herald journos to spin him up that way this morning. But what the hell. If we aren’t irritating someone then we aren’t doing our task.
Aggrieved as I was with the leadership result, and I don’t mind being flattered by VP as a one of the Cunliffe core, I agree with you. We have who we have so make the best of it.
Well said Ad-unfortunately.
Here’s an interesting little piece that have been missed during the Qantas action across the ditch; I can only think of the parallels with POAL and Talley’s
http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/up-up-and-away-how-money-power-works-down-under
Cunliffe/Mahuta.
It’s imperative we have women and Maori represented in leaderships positions.
Two men at the top is not a good look. So National.
Watch women and Maori finally give up on Labour if that happens and move over to the Greens.
Metiria Turei as co-leader ticks all the boxes.
It may not be a “good look” to you that National has had two white men at the top of their party for the last 2.5 terms, and it may not have been a good look to you that they have had very few women in their top 10 bench positions for most of that time.
But most NZers don’t really seem to care two hoots about that, as long as they think that the political party concerned has a strong grasp of the issues, and is doing a capable and competent job of leading the country.
Sorry Labour, but it’s time to learn that very large portions of the electorate definitely don’t give a shit about candidates who “tick all the (Left’s) boxes”. They just want to see competence, leadership and vision.
BTW I was a very strong supporter of the Cunliffe/Mahuta ticket, and remain so.
Yes, yes, yes.
Clark and Cullen were a formidable because of their ability, not gender.
Spain bans cash transactions in business
http://thedailybell.com/3814/Spain-Bans-Cash
Lots of concerns for civil liberties here as governments and corporations will be able to (further) track everything you do, where you do it, and who you do it with.
ahh, displaying the craftsmanship of incrementalism at its finest.
Same play that Monti is trying to introduce into Italy….
Yes this is the real stage setting attempts to remove cash…
It started in the Louisiana USA, with a ban on cash for second hand goods!
More bad news to have come from Spain in the last day.
25% unemployment (highest ever).
Back in recession.
Standard & Poors have down graded Spain’s soverign debt.
Maybe cutting even more jobs, taking even more money out of communities and workers’ pockets, selling off even more productive assets and taking on even more bankers’ debt today to repay make tomorrow’s repayments to those same bankers will work.
Or not.
Although it could be said it will stop business people fiddling the state of taxes?
I see David Shearer getting another pasting in the Dompost this morning.
By and large they are right.
He is tentative, has no grasp of the larger issues and is surrounded by a coterie of professional liggers who know the answer to everything but never achieve anything except holding onto their own jobs.
and they use too much soap.
‘Low value of vote, lack of trust’ key to poor election turnout
More and more reason to get rid of or change polling.
All the more reason to have democracy.
Making referendums binding would be a good start.
Aha,I have made mention of this befor,specially in relation to the I Predict type polling of NZFirst leading up to the 2011 election,
Commenting on another web-site at the time, I was constantly harangued by commenters from the right who claimed NZFirst could not reach the 5% of the party vote needed for that party to re-enter the Parliament,
My calculations of NZFirst support published on that web-site as 6.2%–12% of the party vote was based upon the %s of manipulation I detected on that I Predict web-site,
The 2011 election was conducted with that underlying message,(successfully) used by the ‘right’ throughout the campaign that it was a done deal, National would govern alone and voting NZfirst was a wasted vote,
The media polls leading up to 2011 simply reinforced that unwritten campaign and it is my belief that such media polling was,(and still is),focused upon using the margin of error in helping deliver the ”its a done deal” message to voters,
Simply by ascribing to National the high end of the % within the margin of error and ascribing to Labour/Greens/NZFirst the % as calculated from the low end of the margin of error is such a perception created,
Another 6% of those enrolled to do so did not vote in 2011, the Electoral commission’s research would tend to suggest that 30% of that 6% did not cast a vote on the basis of ”its a done deal” which in turn was based upon what i truly believe to be dishonest manipulation of those media polls,
In effect, I see a clinic full of cynics,trying to twist the peoples wrists,they watch every move we make,we are all included upon their lists,
Seems to work for them as well…
msn poll on private or public prisons was strongly in favour of public but over the day it began to swing to private.
any ideas kiddies?
Banks and his campaign donations, bus driver getting murdered anti asset sales march-what does One News lead off with tonight. The death of a former All Black. Sure it’s news but the lead story?
NZ news media are pathetic.
So looks like United Future are now polling people to see who actually support asset sales –
“We understand clearly that the only reason for our existence is to represent the voice of the people in our parliament. We believe that any party that is not constantly in touch with the views of the people is simply not doing its job. “…
http://www.unitedfuture.org.nz/do-you-support-john-keys-proposal-for-the/poll.do
78% Say
No
Will he listen?
What will the hair do?
Well, that was interesting. Popped over to the link and duly voted – result was 80.3% NO against asset sales, but not indication of how many votes that represented. Also there appeared to be only two comments – one in Oct 2011 and the other in Dec 2011. So this raises in my mind how long this poll has been running and how many people have voted as well as the obvious – will Dunne actually take note of the results.
The Secret Diary of David Shearer
http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/opinion/6822330/The-Secret-Diary-of-David-Shearer
Thank-you CV. Best laugh of the day.
Welcome Anne 🙂
The fishy smell is becoming more pungent by the day.
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/scent-of-fish.html
Vicky, up-thread (have run out of reply buttons up there. I voted Cunliffe + Green Party for several years. If Cunliffe had been chosen leader I would have been more likely to look at voting Labour again.
One of the things that puts me off the Labour Party in general, is that they have spent too much time pandering to the MSM opinions, rather than standing up for their principles – too much neoliberal-style managerialism.
The Greens still are closer to their principles…. although not as much as they use to be. I will be chosing between Green and Mana next election (unless Labour does some big turn-around).
PS: I haven’t been very active in recent threads debating Shearer’s leadership.
Ah, thanks, I understand! That’s what I wanted to know… 🙂