Iâm about to give the nicest man on Earth another chance. Counting down â 25 minutes to Mora
He wasn’t too nice this afternoon. He repeated the most flippant putdowns of Edward Snowdon, very like a loyal and dependable Soviet commissar deriding one of those dastardly Jewish doctors in the late 1930s.
Yep – I had to give up M. I tried – even got past some reasonable music (disappointed tho’ – I was hoping for a bit of Sympathy for the Devil).
The guy would be the best advertisement for whoever manufactures Valium I’ve ever come across.
The (70’s drugged up housewife’s) choice, and definitely the nicest man on Earth.
I think I can safely give the guy a miss for another few months.
Really? Peter Dunne is in private discussions with just a political party over questions of security?
Surely every word that man is saying about security “negotiations” should be on the public record.
This issue is not about doing deals.
As for Key’s pushing another TINA*, he just happens to be a party leader who is in the position of Prime Minister at a given moment in time. What makes him think he is the authority?
And trust him? He couldn’t even remember how many Tranzrail shares he had.
This is not a party political issue that is being discussed. The security services belong to all Enzeders.
* (TINA was Thatcher’s name – There Is No Alternative.)
I agree, Logie97, that the security services – and their rights or not to spy on NZers – are, or should be, of interest to all NZers.
I find Dunne now being in private discussions with Key etc over his position on the GCSB Bill incongruous with his stated position just a few days ago. Do they have more that they are holding over Dunne – or is he just out to preserve his job regardless of principles etc? Both are also possible.
Thanks to NRT*, I have also just read this Stuff article re Henry having access to Vance’s movements in and out of Parliament from her security card records the day before her article.
“The journalist who was leaked a sensitive report on the nation’s foreign spy network had her movements tracked by a government inquiry.
The MP forced to resign over the leak, Peter Dunne, said inquiry head David Henry detailed to him the movements of Fairfax journalist Andrea Vance in and out of the parliamentary precinct. …”
All very confusing – this issue is not over yet. The dots are just not connecting …
the turning worm.
Watched Dunne trying to get his points across in the debate on the Psychoactive Substances Bill, while being baited by Banks. When did Banks become a friend to man’s best friend? A Beagle Boy indeed. Did you know SAFE were denied the opportunity to make submissions, and the committee is unlikely to adopt Mathers’ SOP, which Banks supports; LDSO tests are obviously not excluded under the legal regimes in South East Asian countries where these substances are likely to be tested.
Just a prediction:
That bastion of the 4th Estate (‘Stuff’ – an appropriate name if ever there was) reports the media is being drawn into David Bain blame game http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/8851997/Media-drawn-into-Bain-blame-game.
I’m now even more uncertain as to his guilt, and I’m not even sure that is the point. I’m waiting for this to become even more politicised to the extent that various counsel and supporters will soon find they are denigrated publicly – probably even including by the junta.
Yes, “the media are being played”.
According to Asst. Police Commissioner Malcolm Burgess, this new theory is only one in “isolation from a vast body of evidence”,” which one piece of circumstantial evidence does not outweigh”.
Unfortunate the entire matter sadly.
Robertson is half the problem. He backed and supported Shearer so that Cunliffe would not become leader. It was clear from the start that Shearer was a lame duck and not up to the job. As soon as Farrar and Hooton and Slater started supporting Shearer the alarm bells should have gone off.
Robertson played the factional game at the time even though he knew that Shearer would fail. Besides do you think that he has what it takes to win an election? He lost the party vote to the Greens in his electorate ffs.
For his careerism and because of his inability to do the job he should never be leader.
Time to start afresh. Cunliffe is the only one who can do the job. If MPs are going to stand in the way they should have their career path drastically altered. Anyone, repeat anyone, who makes a decision based on personal interest should go.
Totally agree Mr Burns Robertson and those who actively supported Shearer in my view.
Firstly if they backed Shearer because they thought Shearer was going to be an amazing leader they clearly have no idea what qualities a leader should have and two after being given a chance Shearer has failed to connect with voters and thats his job.
Thirdly by voting for Shearer over Cunliffe, Shearers voters totally disregarded grass roots members opinions during the membership contest.That being the case those Mp’s who voted against their LECs wishes and those who bullied members need to go. Those MPs have no credibility to work in the best interest of the Party or to represent its members.
Its time for a big clean out in Labour and sorry wont cut it.
Who is the most gifted member of caucus and who is the best match for Key. There is only one answer. There only ever was one answer. That is why Farrar, Slater, Hooton and Boag were running up flags for Shearer in such an overt way. They had their own ABC club.
They threw Shearer in at the deep end on his back story and it was never going to be enough. To expect someone to walk in to that job with virtually no apprenticeship was crazy. It would be like arranging for a builder to build your house without any proper training and experience. To my way of thinking they did Shearer as much a dis-service as they did Cunliffe. Shows they weren’t really thinking of either the party or the country.
What it really shows, if your theory is right, is that the decision makers in labour are completely dim, and can be outwitted by Nat spin doctors. Why would anyone want to put such numpties in charge of a country?
If cunliffe had won, they’d still be concern-tr0lling about challenges from shearer or robertson or mallard. And Key would still be saying cunliffe is in trouble and might be facing a challenge before the end of the year.
McFlock, the difference would be that Cunliffe would accept that the blogosphere is a legitimate part of the Labour consensus. He is an inclusive person. Perhaps that comes from his upbringing in vicarages around the country.
Imagine! A Labour leader in the 21st Century who actually recognises that the blogs are part of the wider democratic process and who does not fear their power!
I look forward to a Labour leader and a Labour Prime Minister who can look both the membership and the public in the eye comfortably, whether in TV debate or on The Standard. Cunliffe has the balls and the ability to argue, (and/or charm), with whomsoever. Cunliffe will move us to a plane higher and firmer than the current swamp.
Unfortunately the member for Wellington Central, (3rd to the Greens), has driven in the wedges that divide the Labour Party. He’s pulling Shearer’s strings like something from Machievelli’s ‘The Prince”, but unfortunately for the Party he has only read the Reader’s Digest version. He lacks the skill and subtlety of a real player and cannot help but reveal his control freak behaviour in the clumsy way he operates. We only have to look at the failure of Red Alert to see that in action.
This is the sort of messianic drivel that just sets âthe faithfulâ up for more heartbreak.
Rubbish. You have taken a quote out of context to the rest of the comment and tried to set it up as some sort of religious revival claptrap. Because Just do it’s views don’t fit in with yours… you discredit and belittle them. It’s a trait of yours and it’s not smart. Grow up!
My wariness at such imagery is from hearing people say similar things about Jim Anderton (among others). The person never matches the unreal expectations. If people don’t like me calling them on it, they can get stuffed.
You are right, CGV.
Cunliffe will unite the party again. Cunliffe has a majority in the Caucus, when you remove the four imbiciles who took graft from Skycity. Those four are politically dead. And Cunliffe always had the most members and Unions.
We can have a leader who never sold out and who talks properly to your mother or to your companys managing director. That should be the basic standard for a Leader. We should not be entertaining a fellow that asks us to pay for hs elecution seasons.
Why thank you. Beneath the surface of every cantankerous cynical Nuclear Power Station owner lies the heart of a leftie environmentalist just dying for Labour to get its stuff together.
But it could be one hell of a sabotage job. Started by the ABC faction and Paddy Gower, and kept up by Hooten Farrar and Slater. Labour ended up with a lame duck and has LOST a year due to this distraction. One can only imagine what could have happened if the ABC faction were shown he door after the last debacle of an election. But they weren’t they just stayed on sucking the life out of the Labour Party. The treatment of Cunliffe was despicable and it drove me from being a life time Labour supporter, to voting Green, and unless something radical is done to A: Get some good policy out that they will support. I was dismayed when Robertson said they were only going to do the power company and everyone else was safe to continue the pillaging. Chris Trotter said it better.
“Grant Robertsonâs statement of 24 April made everything much clearer. According to Grant the energy policy was a one-off, and the business community could rest easy that far from being the harbinger of Labourâs wholesale repudiation of neoliberal ideology, the energy policy was an aberration. No other deviations from the norm were planned, purred Robertson:” http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/06/26/okay-okay-im-un-surrendering-replace-shearer/
B: Listen to the membership they paid their fees, they walk, hammer, post,phone, etc etc every election. Yet they are still being treated like shit, and they are leaving too.
C: Get some new blood Labour is supposed to be a left party, but it is being ruin by dinosaurs with out dated thinking and even more out dated fuckups, I mean if you wanted to go to the Rugby. Well you are paid enough, (so as you don’t need to visit the ‘Enemies’ box.) Buy your own Tickets.
D: Just show some common sense. Shearer is not working, and Labour is on track for a bigger beating than last time. And NZ cannot afford 3 more years of Keys megalomania, and sell it all attitude. And I notice they are after the councils to start selling their assets like the port and Airport shares to pay for covered stadiums and the rail loop. That tells me they must have people just slavering at the thought of all these shares being gifted to them by a compliant government.
TV3’s Paddy Gower was explicitly clear that the detailed notes he took from a Labour caucus member were well outside the “Cunliffe camp” as he put it.
Despite the constitutional rule changes, the membership do not count. Either the media or the caucus need to call clearly for change of leaderhship. Hasn’t happened yet.
In fact caucus show all the signs of just doing another Goff and simply strapping themselves to ride the bomb straight into the ground. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-Haaaa!
robertson..?..really..?..you reckon he is the best hope that labour has got..?
..(as noted above..)..did you miss his craven promise to the elites/current-power-paradigm that ‘electricity’ would be the only reform that a labour govt would do..?
..f.f.s..!..isn’t just that a neon-sign/loudhailer telling you that robertson is part of the problem..?
..and i hafta say..having done commentaries on q-time @ parliament for some years now..
..i have probably seen more of robertson in action than most..
..and in that forum..he has generally not impressed..
..(up against ryall in health he was particularly hapless/ineffectual..)
..and using impressions taken from that same window into parliament..
..the only one from labour that makes national/the right sit up straight and pay attention..
..is cunnliffe..
..they are particularly nervous about his follow-up questions..and his ability to instantly pounce on any contradictions in their answers to his interrogations..
..because ‘interrogations’ are what they are..
..and this is a skill that cunnliffe has..
..and that neither shearer nor robertson have..
(n.b..i have never met cunnliffe..and have been snarky about him in the past @ whoar..and i have not voted for labour since the rightwing revolution..
..so i have no party-faction-agenda/barrow..tho’ i do yearn for a labour that returns to its’ roots..
..and does what it was set up originally to do..eh..?)
..robertson is just a leader of those in labour who have still lost their way…
..and making him shearers’ successor will likely guarantee a defeat for the left in just over one year from now..
..much as continuing to cling to the wreck that is shearer will do…
..a labour party/govt led by the nose by the rightwing faction in labour..(who ‘nudge-nudge’/wink!-wink!’ robertson leads)..
..will be as big a disaster for those suffering the most..
..as was the last clark/labour-led govt..
..that bow/promise to the elites to do nothing to rock their boats from robertson –
+2 three meke.
I’ve never really understood why Helen decided to have a cuppa and a lay down in the third term and do absolutely sfa – when there was a golden opportunity to further roll back a bit more of the damage that the Nats had done during the 90s.
Yep – you’re probably correct DtB. I must have been blinded by devotion and admiration of her intellect not to have realised earlier.
That last (3rd) term was a shocker – in terms of laziness, stagnation, complacency and unwillingness to seize the opportunity to reverse the effects of that Ruthenasia era. Seems to me the current Labour scene queens are still in that mode.
I think Peters would have supported a large nation building infrastructure and public transport building programme. He would have supported enhanced healthcare for the elderly and for children. He certainly would have supported massive additions to trade training and skills for young people. And improvements to state provided low cost pensioner housing – a no brainer for Winston to claim credit for.
Just what I was thinking, David H. As a longtime Labour activist I’ve just about given up !
Hate what Key is doing to our country, but cannot bear the thought of voting Labour to get those old hack neo-libs back into power. What’s the alternative ? Greens perhaps !
That tells me they must have people just slavering at the thought of all these shares being gifted to them by a compliant government.
Yep, National are determined to turn us back into a rentier society where most of the people are dependent upon the rich for their well being, i.e, if you don’t please a rich person then your life will be a life of poverty. We saw this in the 19th century but the time most applicable is the time of feudalism.
National are busy taking us backwards several centuries.
Are you all still happy with the new leader election rules of Labour?
Not so much for the process of electing a new leader, rather the unintended consequence of the reluctance to dump an incompetent leader (aka Shearer) due to the uncertainty of who will replace him?
Does this turn the Labour caucus into a bunch of cowards?
Do the rules need to be modified so that the party membership and affiliates can initiate a leadership challenge?
Because from how I see it from the outside, Shearer is an incompetent leader who has very little support apart from the ABC crowd in caucus who are just enough in number to block a leadership challenge.
So you have the membership & unions and reasonable chunk of caucus who want a change but it can’t happen because of a sizable minority of has beens holding up the renewal process and no automatic leadership vote until after 2014?
But I thought that all righties all agreed that Shearer would be a wonderful leader. After all he did give a mango skin to some poor kids once and he did think that it was unfair that a guy painting his roof was receiving ACC. I mean even if the guy did not actually exist being willing to bash an imaginary benefit bludger would be the sort of thing the right would really approve of.
443,000 more people voted for National than Labour at the last election. Who are these people? The rich, some middle classes and aspiring blue collar workers. I wonder how many enrolled non-voters there were at the 2011 election.
That’s a lot of people. I wish they would start to feel angry rather than disinterested in what is happening. If they think not voting is a protest then I wish we could send them the message that voting is a more powerful protest.
“I wish they would start to feel angry rather than disinterested in what is happening.”
You make it sound like they woke up one morning a couple of years ago and decided not to care about politics any more. They didn’t.
They were taught, meticulously and repetitively, by several generations of politicians, that no-one in a position of power, whether left or right wing, gives a stuff about them.
And btw they’re not going to wake up tomorrow morning and unlearn it just because Labour’s middle-of-the-road fan club have decided they like John Key better.
You make it sound like they woke up one morning a couple of years ago and decided not to care about politics any more. They didnât.
They were taught, meticulously and repetitively, by several generations of politicians, that no-one in a position of power, whether left or right wing, gives a stuff about them.
and a clearer demonstration of that indifference/neglect from labour had to be their promise at the last election to bring sole-parents into the families tax-break/subsidy working parents get..
..(and here is the kicker/nose-grind..)..by 2018..
..(i kid you not..this was their election promise to those they have ignored for so long..and who now ignore them..this was the lure to get them back..what were they thinking..?
..and here is the bit to make you sob/despair..shearer/robertson dominated labour have since ditched this policy – as being ‘too radical’..
..’we are still a long way from home will..a long way from home..’.)
..so really..rolling shearer has to be a package-deal..
..make it a twofer…
..bundle up robertson at the same time..
..he also has had long enough to prove he isn’t growing into the job..
From the very moment he was appointed I knew that David Shearer lacked the qualities needed by a political leader. David Cunliffe has some of those qualities but if his colleagues don’t like or trust him, how can he be leader? At the moment anyway.
What about David Parker or Andrew Little?
And Shearer seems to be confident about only one thing: that he will lead the party into the 2014 election. Does he know something Patrick Gower doesn’t or is that pure spindoctoring?
BTW, for a fabulous insight into the nature of leadership and the skulduggery of politics I recommend the Danish TV series Borgen, available on DVD. It’s very relevant to Australian and New Zealand politics.
On TV 3 tonight, Gower cited Cunliffe, Robertson and Little as the ones to watch. Nothing he said indicated whether he was speculating or repeating what he was told, but it left me thinking that if a leadership challenge really is in the pipeline, Robertson might well try to persuade more than one left wing favourite to put their name forward, with a view to splitting the vote.
She may be considered a bit young to bear that level of authority. As CV said of Little, you can wreck people’s future careers by overburdening them too soon – some people think that is the case with Shearer, with regard to parliamentary experience.
Hi Maureen, it has nothing to do with liking and trust. It has everything to do with job security. If you look at who supported Shearer they are all people who had never won a seat properly. They had been given list positions or been given easy seats like mount Albert. Cunliffe has the mana of taking a seat from the Natz.
Cunliffe is respected and a real Trust comes put of that. Parker is not a winner ever. Little has not won a seat. They have not earned a possie on the stage.
Fracking ? See http://www.thedailyshow.com for extended interview with documentary maker Josh Fox on his “Gasland Part Two” for HBO. See people being able to ignite the water coming from their wells in USA heartland …
Thousands gathered to support Wendy Davis in Austin on Thursday night’s filibuster — this marvelous coverage warmed my heart, reminding me of how we used to be willing to do battle here .. the Repubs are such bullies; their skulduggery has to be seen to be believed, even to changing the electronic clock … wonderful reporting by the great Rachel Maddow … prepare to be ready to cheer for these brave and determined ones…. democracy alive in Texas …
But Rick Perry will be back again in a few weeks to try again … watch the interview that follows on the above report and believe the possibility of sea-change in Texas.
Because of yesterday’s day of jubilee, the other, less evolved primates in the Texas legislature are now free to redistrict an end to Davis’s meddlesome political career.
Thx for link Joe90 — they will get this strong woman to run for governor on the back of all this .. did you read the comments section ? Let’s see .. the people are awake and sea change can follow … ripples are the promises the waves make to the flood, and all that ! Wishful thinking ? nah.
Would there actually be any point changing leadership now?
We’re still a far way out, but I think you’d end up like Labour in aussie at the moment. Might as well ride it out with Shearer, wreak him, change leaders?
Yes, there has to be a point to it. Labour will lose under Shearer, almost no doubt about it. He can’t cut it. Cunliffe would be fresh, extremely capable and a brilliant and articulate communicator, likely the best in the House. The diff ‘twixt here and Oz ? We would not be re-selecting a previously-used leader. I dread the future for us all if Gnats get a third term; I seriously doubt we could ever recover from their massive harms.
Bugger the Labour Party… there will be significantly more munted and irrelevant people in NZ if we have another 3 years of Pinokeyo, the fat controller et al.
Would Cunliffe improve Labour’s prospects next year? Possibly. But the heart of the problem is that the Labour Party as a caucus and as an organisation, remains too far away from understanding what NZ needs. Which IMO I will put this way: 12 strong years which will rework the entire economy and set NZ right on track for thriving through peak oil and climate change.
Ride it out….like we did under Goff
Ride it out and let Nats in for another Term.
Ride it out and see our supporters go to e Greens and Mana and even NZ First.
Ride it out is not an option
Ride it out is not an option
Ride it out is not an option
Yeah, let us repeat the same mistakes.
Go Infusion. You are INSPIRED
Am I to understand from that link that they took thousands of reels of acetate and nitrate old films on a plane?
One reel in a car (or your house) would be highly dangerous.
The Nats Auckland Transport announcement; http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10893553
-CRL
-AMETI (east-west link)
-another harbour crossing- twin tunnels; 2025-2030
Despite pressure coming on from the council, and the Greens, total rail trips have to increase from 11M currently, to 20M per annum to have CRL brought forward from 2020 considered.
Along with the proposed double harbour tunnel. Key said that the Christchurch spend was all signed and sealed – unbreakable, but note nothing has been written in concrete about the CRL or the tunnel.
“An amateur litigant who has a court case against MP John Banks under way and plans one against MP Peter Dunne is now advancing the process against Prime Minister John Key.”
(Only found about this today).
It’s potentially quite a big deal.
I mean – whoever expected the DEFENDANT John Banks to end up in the dock, at the Auckland District Court?
A sitting MP, being held accountable in a Court of LAW, to the RULE OF LAW?
Far out!
Whoever may be next………………?
GREAT work Private Prosecutor Graham McCready!
______________________________________________________________________________
An amateur litigant who has a court case against MP John Banks under way and plans one against MP Peter Dunne is now advancing the process against Prime Minister John Key.
Graham McCready, a retired accountant, of Wellington, has filed informations with the Wellington District Court against Key alleging that he broke the Crimes Act by using or authorising illegal surveillance on internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom.
He has submitted the same informations against Government Communications Security Bureau head Ian Fletcher.
Deputy registrar Kevin Conroy has acknowledged the informations.
“I now have to consider the matter of the issue of summonses under the provisions of the Summary Procedures Act 1957,” he said.
He said he must be satisfied that the informations and summons disclosed an offence and there was sufficient information to fairly inform the defendants.
McCready is asked to provide a full written summary of the facts.
His case involves a section of the Crimes Act that prohibits the use of interception devices and says “everyone is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years who intentionally intercepts any private communication by means of an interception device”.
Key’s office had no comment.
McCready has previously taken private prosecutions against MPs Trevor Mallard and Banks. The prosecution against Mallard alleged assault, but the Labour MP later pleaded guilty to fighting in a public place in 2007.
In May, Banks pleaded not guilty to a charge alleging he filed a false electoral return in the Auckland mayoralty race three years ago. ”
______________________________________________________________________________
More information (copies of the actual ‘informations’) will be available soon – so you can read them for yourselves.
And as Judge Mills pointed out in the Wellington District Court at law, allegations stand or fall on their own merit, not on the character of the person making the allegations. An upstanding person may totally believe a wrong allegation Burglars don’t not necessarily commit treason.
Why is the system leaving it to a private individual to get John Banks into the dock?
This must leave you with a problem WRT John Key. Does he have an upstanding character with dreadful actions or vice versa.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! He’s living in Limbo!”
Another depraved few minutes on the Panel preshow.
Radio NZ National, Friday 28 June 2013
Jim Mora, Duncan Webb, Sally Wenley
If Red China during the very worst excesses of its crackdowns against “rightists”, “revisionists” and “capitalist running dogs” had had talk radio, this is what it would have sounded likeâŠ.
JIM MORA: It’s a quarter to four, and it’s time for Susan Baldacci and what the wooooooooorld’s talking about! SUSAN BALDACCI: Well today the world is talking about Las Vegas, Nevada, which is getting ready for the hottest temperature ever recorded in the world. MORA: What, on Planet Earth? SUSAN BALDACCI: They are expecting a temperature of— MORA: The hottest temperature on Planet Earth? SUSAN BALDACCI: Yep. It’s 142 Fahrenheit, or 56.7 celsius. MORA: We were talking about the Indian floods but this is a real crisis too isn’t it. SUSAN BALDACCI: It certainly is. The big worry would be if the power went out! MORA:Where was the previous highest temperature? SUSAN BALDACCI: In Australia, I think. MORA: Was it in Australia? SUSAN BALDACCI: Y-y-y-y-yes. MORA: I’ve been in 42 degrees once. But fifty-SIX degrees. That’s amazing! SALLY WENLEY: Oh yes. Amazing!
âŠ.[Long, vacuous pause]âŠ.
MORA: What’s Mr Snowden been up to? SUSAN BALDACCI: Arrrrrggghhhh. He’s not going anywhere! MORA Ha ha ha! SUSAN BALDACCI: He’s still in that transit lounge in Russia! MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! He’s living in Limbo! SALLY WENLEY: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! SUSAN BALDACCI: It looks like he could be going to Ecuador. MORA: Hmmmmm. Ecuador is being extremely aggressive, isn’t it! SUSAN BALDACCI: Yes, they are threatening to CANCEL the trade agreement they have with the United States! MORA: Why? SUSAN BALDACCI: Well, they are going to preemptively reject millions in trade benefits that it could lose by taking in this guy from his limbo in the Moscow airport. They say they are not going to be “blackmailed” by the United States. They want to show their “independence”. MORA: Huh! SALLY WENLEY: Huh! SUSAN BALDACCI: But President Obama has said they are not going to beg anyone to help them get this guy. MORA: Yeah, exactly. SALLY WENLEY: Exactly. MORA: And they said something about how they are offering to give the United States $23 million a year for “human rights training”. SUSAN BALDACCI: Yep, a government spokesman said :”Ecuador will not accept pressures or threats from anyone, and it does not traffic in its values or allow them to be subjugated to mercantile interests.” MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha! Good Lord! Ha ha ha! SALLY WENLEY: Ha ha ha ha ha!
See alsoâŠ.
No. 23 Jay Carney: “…expel Mr Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice…”
No. 22 Mike Bush: âBruce Hutton had integrity beyond reproach.â
No. 21 Tim Groser: âI think the relationship is genuinely in outstanding form.â
No. 20 John Key: âBut if the question is do we use the United States or one of our other partners to circumvent New Zealand law then the answer is categorically no.â
No. 19 Matthew Hooton: âIt is ridiculous to say that unions deliver higher wages! They DONâT!â
No. 18 Ant Strachan: âThe All Blacks won the RWC 2011 because of outstanding defence!â
No. 17 Stephen Franks: âPeter has been such a level-headed, safe pair of hands.â
No. 16 Phil Kafcaloudes: âTony AbbottâŠhasnât made any mistakes over the past eighteen months.â
No. 15 Donald Rumsfeld: âI did not lie⊠Colin Powell did not lie.â
No. 14 Colin Powell: âa post-9/11 nexus between Iraq and terrorist organizationsâŠconnections are now emergingâŠâ
No.13 Barack Obama: âSimply put, these strikes have saved lives.â
No. 12 U.K. Ministry of Defence: âProtecting the Afghan civilian population is one of ISAF and the UKâs top priorities.â
No. 11 Brendan OâConnor: âAustraliaâs approach to refugees is compassionate and generous.â
No. 10 Boris Johnson: âLondoners have⊠the best police in the world to look after us and keep us safe.â
No. 9 NewstalkZB PR dept: âNews you NEED! Fast, fair, accurate!â
No. 8 Simon Bridges: âI donât mean to duck the questionâŠ.â
No. 7 Nigel Morrison: âQuite frankly, theyâve been VERY tough.â
âšhttp://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15052013/#comment-633295
âšNo. 6 NZ Herald PR dept: âCongratulationsâyouâre reading New Zealandâs best newspaper.ââš
âšNo. 5 Rawdon Christie: ââŠa FORMIDABLE replacement, it seems, is Claudette Hauiti.ââšhttp://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13052013/#comment-632594âš
No. 4 Willie and J.T.: âThe X-Factor. Nah, nah, thereâs some GREAT talent there!ââš
No. 3 John Key: âYeah we hold MPs to a higher standard.â
âšNo. 2 Colin Craig: âOh, I have a GREAT sense of humour.â
âšNo. 1 Barack Obama: âMargaret Thatcher was one of the great champions of freedom and liberty.â
—John Key, Radio NZ National Checkpoint, 5:20p.m., Friday 28 June 2013. Host Mary Wilson let him get away with that unchallenged as usual.
Humbug Corner is dedicated to gathering, and highlighting, the most striking examples of faux solicitude, insincere apologies, and particularly stupid recycling of official canards. It is produced by the Insincerity ProjectÂź, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
More appalling humbugâŠ.
No. 4 Mike Bush: “Bruce Hutton’s⊠integrity beyond reproachâŠsuch great character⊔
âšNo. 3 Dean Lonergan: âYâ know what? The only people who will mock them are people who are dwarfists.ââš
No. 2 Peter Dunne: âWhat a load of drivel and sanctimonious humbugâŠââš
âšNo.1 Dominic Bowden: âItâs okay to be speechless.â
Given the embargo on promoting any candidate on election day, please do NOT make any comments relating to the by election anywhere on The Standard from midnight until after 7pm on Saturday. ThanksâŠ
RNZ has continued its look at the role of lobbyists by taking a closer look at the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Andrew Kirton. He used to work for liquor companies, opposing (among other things) a container refund scheme which would have required them to take responsibility for their own ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has left for Beijing for the first ministerial visit to China since 2019. Mahuta is to meet Chinaâs new foreign minister Qin Gang where she might have to call on all the diplomatic skills at her command. Almost certainly she will face questions on what role ...
TL;DR:The Opportunities Party’s Leader Raf Manji is hopeful the party’s new Teal Card, a type of Gold card for under 30s, will be popular with students, and not just in his Ilam electorate where students make up more than a quarter of the voters and where Manji is confident ...
When I was a kid New Zealand was actually pretty green. We didn’t really have plastic. The fruit and veges came in a cardboard box, the meat was wrapped in paper, milk came in a glass bottle, and even rubbish sacks were made of paper. Today if you sit down ...
Looking back through the names of our Police Ministers down the years, the job has either been done by once or future party Bigfoots â Syd Holland, Richard Prebble, Juduth Collins, Chris Hipkins â or by far lesser lights like Keith Allen, Frank Gill, Ben Couch, Allen McCready, Clem Simich, ...
Chris Trotter writes â The Crown is a fickle friend. Any political movement deemed to be colourful but inconsequential is generally permitted to go about its business unmolested. The Crownâs media, RNZ and TVNZ, may even âcelebrateâ its existence (presumably as proof of Democracyâs broad-minded acceptance of diversity). ...
Four out of the five people who have held the top role of Prime Ministerâs Chief of Staff since 2017 have been lobbyists. Thatâs a fact that should worry anyone who believes vested interests shouldnât have a place at the centre of decision making. Chris Hipkinsâ newly appointed Chief of ...
Feedback on Auckland Council’s draft 2023/24 budget closes on March 28th. You can read the consultation document here, and provide feedback here. Auckland Council is currently consulting on what is one of its most important ever Annual Plans – the ‘budget’ of what it will spend money on between July ...
by Molten Moira from Motueka If you want to be a woman let me tell you what to do Get a piece of paper and a biro tooWrite down your new identification And boom! Youâre now a woman of this nationSpelled W O M A Na real trans woman that isAs opposed ...
Buzz from the Beehive  New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti is hosting the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers for three days from today, welcoming Education Ministers and senior officials from 18 Pacific Island countries and territories, and from Australia. Hereâs hoping they have brought translators with them â or ...
Let’s say you’ve come all the way from His Majesty’s United Kingdom to share with the folk of Australia and New Zealand your antipathy towards certain other human beings. And let’s say you call yourself a women’s rights activist.And let’s say 99 out of 100 people who listen to you ...
James Shaw gave the Green party's annual "state of the planet" address over the weekend, in which he expressed frustration with Labour for not doing enough on climate change. His solution is to elect more Green MPs, so they have more power within any government arrangement, and can hold Labour ...
RNZ this morning has the first story another investigative series by Guyon Espiner, this time into political lobbying. The first story focuses on lobbying by government agencies, specifically transpower, Pharmac, and assorted universities, and how they use lobbyists to manipulate public opinion and gather intelligence on the Ministers who oversee ...
Nick Matzke writes –Â Â Dear NZ Herald, I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland. I teach evolutionary biology, but I also have long experience in science education and (especially) political attempts to insert pseudoscience into science curricula in ...
James Shaw has again said the Greens would be better ‘in the tent’ with Labour than out, despite Labour’s policy bonfire last week torching much of what the Government was doing to reduce emissions. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Green Party has never been more popular than in some ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler Poor air quality is a long-standing problem in Los Angeles, where the first major outbreak of smog during World War II was so intense that some residents thought the city had been attacked by chemical weapons. Cars were eventually discovered ...
Yesterday I was reading an excellent newsletter from David Slack, and I started writing a comment “Sounds like some excellent genetic heritage…” and then I stopped.There was something about the phrase genetic heritage that stopped me in tracks. Is that a phrase I want to be saying? It’s kind of ...
Brian Easton writes – Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go ...
This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War. While it strongly opposed the US-led invasion, New Zealandâs then Labour-led government led by Prime Minister Helen Clark did deploy military engineers to try to help rebuild Iraq in mid-2003. With violence soaring, their 12-month deployment ended without being renewed ...
After seventy years, Auckland’s motorway network is finally finished. In July 1953 the first section of motorway in Auckland was opened between Ellerslie-Panmure Highway and Mt Wellington Highway. The final stage opens to traffic this week with the completion of the motorway part of the Northern Corridor Improvements project. Aucklanders ...
National’s appointment of Todd McClay as Agriculture spokesperson clearly signals that the party is in trouble with the farming vote. McClay was not an obvious choice, but he does have a record as a political scrapper. The party needs that because sources say it has been shedding farming votes ...
Rays of white light come flooding into my lounge, into my face from over the top of my neighbour’s hedge. I have to look away as the window of the conservatory is awash in light, as if you were driving towards the sun after a rain shower and suddenly blinded. ...
The columnists in Private Eye take pen names, so I have not the least idea who any of them are. But I greatly appreciate their expert insight, especially MD, who writes the medical column, offering informed and often damning critique of the UK health system and the politicians who keep ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 12, 2023 thru Sat, Mar 18, 2023. Story of the Week Guest post: What 13,500 citations reveal about the IPCC’s climate science report IPCC WG1 AR6 SPM Report Cover - Changing ...
Buzz from the Beehive The building of financial capability was brought into our considerations when Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced she had dipped into the governmentâs coffers for $3 million for âprovidersâ to help people and families access community-based Building Financial Capability services. That wording suggests some ...
Do you ever come across something that makes you go Hmmmm?You mean like the song?No, I wasn’t thinking of the song, but I am now - thanks for that. I was thinking of things you read or hear that make you stop and go Hmmmm.Yeah, I know what you mean, ...
By the end of the week, the dramas over Stuart Nash overshadowed Hipkins’ policy bonfire. File photo: Lynn GrieveasonTLDR: This week’s news in geopolitics and the political economy covered on The Kākā included:PM Chris Hipkins’ announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but ...
When word went out that Prime Minister Chris Hipkins would be making an announcement about Stuart Nash on the tiles at parliament at 2:45pm yesterday, the assumption was that it was over. That we had reached tipping point for Nashâs time as minister. But by 3pm - when, coincidentally, the ...
Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go on to attack physics by citing Newton.So ...
Photo by Walker Fenton on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kaka for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on Riverside (we’ve moved from Zoom) for our chat about the week’s news with ...
In a nice bit of news, my 2550-word deindustrial science-fiction piece, The Dream of Florian Neame, has been accepted for publication at New Maps Magazine (https://www.new-maps.com/). I have published there before, of course, with Of Tin and Tintagel coming out last year. While I still await the ...
And so this is Friday, and what have we learned?It was a week with all the usual luggage: minister brags and then he quits, Hollywood red carpet is full of twits. And all the while, hanging over the trivial stuff: existential dread, and portents of doom.Depending on who you read ...
When I changed the name of this newsletter from The Daily Read to Nick’s Kōrero I was a bit worried whether people would know what Kōrero meant or not. I added a definition when I announced the change and kind of assumed people who weren’t familiar with it would get ...
There was a time when a political partyâs publicity people would counsel against promoting a candidate as queer. No matter which of two dictionary meanings the voting public might choose to apply â the old meaning of odd, strange, weird, or aberrant, or the more recent meaning of gay, homosexual ...
Photo by Joakim Honkasalo on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for the next hour, including:PM Chris Hipkins announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but which blew up ...
Even though concern over the climate change threat is becoming more mainstream, our governments continue to opt out of the difficult decisions at the expense of time, and cost for future generations. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Now we have a climate liability number to measure the potential failure of the ...
Thomas Cranmer writes Like it or not, the culture wars have entered New Zealand politics and look set to broaden and intensify. The culture wars are often viewed as an exclusively American phenomenon, but the reality is that they are becoming increasingly prominent in countries around the world, ...
Hereâs an analogy for the Stuart Nash saga. If people are to be forgiven for their sins,Catholic dogma requires two factors to be present. There has to be a sincere act of confession about what has been done, but also a sincere act of contrition, which signals a painful ...
Hereâs an analogy for the Stuart Nash saga. If people are to be forgiven for their sins,Catholic dogma requires two factors to be present. There has to be a sincere act of confession about what has been done, but also a sincere act of contrition, which signals a painful ...
Human Destabilisers: Russia now has a new strategic weapon â migratory waves of unwelcome human-beings. Desperate people with different coloured skins and different religious beliefs arriving at, or actually breaching, the national borders of Russiaâs enemies can wreak as much havoc, culturally and politically, as a hypersonic missile exploding in the ...
Hi,After Webworm contributor Hayden Donnell wrote his latest piece, ‘RIP to Millennials Killing Everything’, he delivered this exciting and important bonus content.It will make more sense if you’ve read his piece.David. Read more ...
Hi,Before we get to Hayden’s column — RIP to Millennials Killing Everything — a quick observation.There was a day last week where it had suddenly reached 10pm and I hadn’t eaten all day. Hunger had suddenly gripped me with a panicky all-consuming force, so I jumped onto Uber Eats and ...
We add some of the CMIP6 models to the updateable MSU comparisons. After my annual update, I was pointed to some MSU-related diagnostics for many of the CMIP6 models (24 of them at least) from Po-Chedley et al. (2022) courtesy of Ben Santer. These are slightly different to what ...
In a memorable Pulp Fiction scene, Vincent inadvertently shoots their backseat passenger in the head. This leads our heroes Jules and Vincent to express alarm about their predicament.We're on a city street in broad daylight here!says Vincent. We gotta get this car off the roads. You know cops tend to ...
Primary, secondary and kindergarten teachers are all on strike today, demanding higher pay and an end to systematic understaffing. While the former is important - wages should at least keep up with inflation - its the latter which is the real issue. As with the health system, teachers have been ...
So the teachers are on strike, marching across Aotearoa today to press their demands for better pay and working conditions.Children remained in bed this brisk morning, many no doubt quite pleased about a day off school. Parents perhaps taking the day off to look after the kids, or working from ...
After the Cold War the consensus among Western military strategists was that the era of Big Wars, defined as peer conflict between large states with full spectrum military technologies, was at an end, at least for the foreseeable future. The … Continue reading → ...
Dairy giant Fonterra has posted a 50% lift in net profit to $546m, doubled its interim dividend, and is proposing a return of capital of 50c a share, injecting a note of optimism into the nationâs dairy industry. Fonterraâs strong performance is against a backdrop of market volatility. It ...
Buzz from the Beehive The bothersome economic news today is that New Zealand’s GDP fell by 0.6% in the December quarter, weaker than market forecasts of a fall of around 0.2% and much weaker than the Reserve Bank’s assumption of a 0.7% rise. This followed the even-more-bothersome news yesterday that ...
Ouch: Hipkins’ policy bonfire has resulted in an expensive self-administered removal of a Budgetary foot with an explosive device. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Bonfires can be dangerous things when they get out of control. They also create a lot of smoke and heat and burn the grass. ...
* Dr Bryce Edwards writes – I teach a first-year course at Victoria University of Wellington about government and the political process in New Zealand. In âIntroduction to Government and Lawâ, students learn there are rules preventing senior public servants from getting involved in big political debates â as we ...
I teach a first year course at Victoria University of Wellington about government and the political process in New Zealand. In âIntroduction to Government and Lawâ, students learn there are rules preventing senior public servants from getting involved in big political debates â as we have recently witnessed with Rob ...
An issue of integrity has claimed the first ministerial scalp in Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ premiership. Police Minister Stuart Nash lasted mere weeks in the role after admitting in a radio interview this morning that he had called Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to ask him if police were going to ...
For some time now we’ve known that the cost and completion timeframe for the City Rail Link would increase. Yesterday we finally learned by just how much. Costs City Rail Link Ltd (CRL Ltd) today confirms it has submitted a formal funding request to its Sponsors â the Crown and ...
The Governmentâs decision to back peddle on lowering speed limits is hitting potholes. At this stage, although it is part of the Governmentâs reprioritisation efforts to free up money to alleviate cost of living increases, the speed limit change looks unlikely to do that. And it appears that it ...
The University of Otago – the oldest university in New Zealand – towers over my home city of Dunedin. When classes are on, something like a fifth of Dunedin’s population are university students. It is also the largest employer in the South Island. To say that this is a ...
Last weekend brought the latest instalment in Stuff’s bravura satirical series Of course you can afford a house! Just dig deeper!I love how much their appreciation of humour has evolved in just a few short years since the days when I would get to produce, for a few meagre dollars, ...
Australiaâs move to strengthen its defence capability with  five nuclear-powered attack submarines underlines how relatively defenceless New Zealand is in the Pacific. Kiwis may gasp that the Labor government in Australia recognises it must outlay $400bn on the nuclear subs, but this ensures that Australia is not exposed ...
Ironically, a repurposed Auckland Ratepayers Alliance placard (with a demand for climate action on the front) featured at the recent climate march. Voting ratepayers don’t want ‘bureaucrats in cushy council jobs’ borrowing or increasing rates, even when the need for investment is becoming increasingly obvious. So is council cost-cutting a ...
The quarterly ETS auction was held today. In the past, these have seen collusion by big players to game the price and force a dump of extra credits from the cost-containment reserve (essentially, trying to pick stuff up cheap now in the belief that it will be more valuable later). ...
Buzz from the Beehive Exempting bikes, electric bikes and scooters from fringe benefit tax looked like something of a sop for a Green Party that had good grounds to grumble after a bunch of climate change measures was tossed on to the PMâs policy bonfire. The combustibles included the clean car ...
Today is a Member's Day, the first of the year. Unfortunately it also looks to be a boring one. First, there's a two hour debate on the budget policy statement (somehow inexplicably "member's business", despite it being fundamentally a government thing). Then there's a couple of "private bills" - people ...
Most days, Chris Hipkins and James Shaw seem a bit like the Seals and Crofts of the centre-left: Earnest, inoffensive, and capable of quite nice harmonies at times. They blow gently through the jasmine in your mind, but you know theyâre never going to rock your world. Back in 2020, ...
The reflection gazed back at him. Pale and a little paunchy, he wasn’t a well man.He had a toga made from a fitted sheet and it kept bunching up under his armpits.His Laurel wreath was made from some Christmas tree branches he’d found in the shed, not a real pine ...
Yesterday we covered the government’s latest policy/delivery changes with a focus on light rail. But there was another important transport part of the announcement: The government will also intends to scale back its road safety plans. The programmes that are being reprioritised include: Significantly narrowing the speed reduction programme to ...
Unbridled Consumption: This civilisation we have built (we being the whole human species) is the most astonishingly wonderful thing homo sapiens has ever seen. We love it. We cannot imagine how awful life would be without it. And, we most certainly are not going to co-operate with anyone who advises ...
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 ...
Let’s start with the absolute truisms.Politics is the art of the possibleHalf of something is better than all of nothingLet us now consider these with reference to the Under New Management government.What is a supporter of progressive politics to make of the abandonment of various policies, as announced in recent post-cabinet ...
Chris Hipkins has surprised even some of his closest friends and backers with the bounce he has secured for Labour in public polls since he became Prime Minister. He has been put to the test since he took over from Jacinda Ardern in the top job, and has shown a ...
Buzz from the Beehive It was a big day for the stopping or slowing of a second tranche of government programmes, an exercise which Beehive publicists are pitching as measures to allow the Government to focus more time, energy and resources on âthe bread and butter issuesâ facing New Zealanders. ...
Last night there was a One News political poll which was welcomed by the left and will cause some concern in the opposition camp. A poll that showed no path to victory for ACT and National and which would likely result in another Labour/Greens government, possibly with the inclusion, or ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures youâve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
Weâre boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
âCabinet needs to do better - and today has shown exactly why we need Green Ministers in cabinet, so we can prioritise action to cut climate pollution and support people to make ends meet,â says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. ...
Biggest increase in food prices for over three decades shows the need for an excess profit tax on corporations to help people put food on the table. ...
The Green Party has today launched a submission guide to help Aucklanders give crucial input and prevent potentially disastrous Auckland Council budget proposals. ...
With calls growing for inquiries and action on bank profits, the Greens say the Government has all the information it needs to act now and put a levy on banks. ...
As large parts of Aotearoa recover from two of the worst climate disasters we have ever experienced, it would be a huge mistake for the Government to deprioritise climate action from future transport investments, the Green Party says. ...
The Green Party is celebrating the signing of a historic United Nations Ocean Treaty, and calls on the new Oceans and Fisheries Minister to urgently step up protection for Aotearoaâs oceans. ...
This year has seen a series of extreme weather events, unparalleled in New Zealandâs recent history. From Cape Reinga in the far north down to the Tararua Ranges, families and businesses across the country have suffered enormous loss and hardship. While the severe weather hasnât directly affected every part of ...
The new renal unit at Taranaki Base Hospital has been officially opened by the Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall this afternoon. Te Huhi RaupĆ received around $13 million in government funding as part of Project Maunga Stage 2, the redevelopment of the Taranaki Base Hospital campus. âItâs an honour ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little has marked the arrival of the countryâs second P-8A Poseidon aircraft alongside personnel at the Royal New Zealand Air Forceâs Base at Ohakea today. âWith two of the four P-8A Poseidons now on home soil this marks another significant milestone in the Governmentâs historic investment in ...
Aotearoa New Zealand will provide further humanitarian support to those seriously affected by last monthâs deadly earthquakes in TĂŒrkiye and Syria, says Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta. âThe 6 February earthquakes have had devastating consequences, with almost 18 million people affected. More than 53,000 people have died and tens of thousands more ...
Construction has begun on major works that will deliver significant safety improvements on State Highway 3 from Waitara to Bell Block, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan announced today. âThis is an important route for communities, freight and visitors to Taranaki but too many people have lost their lives or ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has today appointed Ginny Andersen as Minister of Police. âGinny Andersen has a strong and relevant background in this important portfolio,â Chris Hipkins said. âGinny Andersen worked for the Police as a non-sworn staff member for around 10 years and has more recently been chair of ...
Six further bailey bridge sites confirmed Four additional bridge sites under consideration 91 per cent of damaged state highways reopened Recovery Dashboards for impacted regions released The Government has responded quickly to restore lifeline routes after Cyclone Gabrielle and can today confirm that an additional six bailey bridges will ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta departs for China tomorrow, where she will meet with her counterpart, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, in Beijing. This will be the first visit by a New Zealand Minister to China since 2019, and follows the easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions between New Zealand and China. ...
Education Ministers from across the Pacific will gather in TÄmaki Makaurau this week to share their collective knowledge and strategic vision, for the benefit of Äkonga across the region. New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti will host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers (CPEM) for three days from today, ...
A vital transport link for communities and local businesses has been restored following Cyclone Gabrielle with the reopening of State Highway 5 (SH5) between Napier and TaupĆ, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan says. SH5 reopened to all traffic between 7am and 7pm from today, with closure points at SH2 (Kaimata ...
Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds has thanked generous New Zealanders who took part in the special Lotto draw for communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Held on Saturday night, the draw raised $11.7 million with half of all ticket sales going towards recovery efforts. âIn a time of need, New Zealanders ...
The Government has announced funding of $3 million for providers to help people, and whÄnau access community-based Building Financial Capability services. âDemand for Financial Capability Services is growing as people face cost of living pressures. Those pressures are increasing further in areas affected by flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle,â Minister for ...
Minister of Education, Hon Jan Tinetti, has announced appointments to the Board of Education New Zealand | Manapou ki te Ao. Tracey Bridges is joining the Board as the new Chair and Dr Therese Arseneau will be a new member. Current members Dr Linda Sissons CNZM and Daniel Wilson have ...
Fifteen Äkonga MÄori from across Aotearoa have been awarded the prestigious Ngarimu VC and 28th (MÄori) Battalion Memorial Scholarships and Awards for 2023, Associate Education Minister and Ngarimu Board Chair, Kelvin Davis announced today. Â The recipients include doctoral, mastersâ and undergraduate students. Three vocational training students and five wharekura students, ...
High Court Judge Jillian Maree Mallon has been appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal, and District Court Judge Andrew John Becroft QSO has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, AttorneyâGeneral David Parker announced today. Justice Mallon graduated from Otago University in 1988 with an LLB (Hons), and with ...
The economy has continued to show its resilience despite todayâs GDP figures showing a modest decline in the December quarter, leaving the Government well positioned to help New Zealanders face cost of living pressures in a challenging global environment. âThe economy had grown strongly in the two quarters before this ...
Aucklanders now have more ways to get around as Transport Minister Michael Wood opened the direct State Highway 1 (SH1) to State Highway 18 (SH18) underpass today, marking the completion of the 48-kilometre Western Ring Route (WRR). âThe Government is upgrading New Zealandâs transport system to make it safer, more ...
This section contains briefings received by incoming ministers following changes to Cabinet in January. Some information may have been withheld in accordance with the Official Information Act 1982. Where information has been withheld that is indicated within the document. ...
Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta reaffirmed her commitment to working together with the new Government of Fiji on issues of shared importance, including on the prioritisation of climate change and sustainability, at a meeting today, in Nadi. Fiji and Aotearoa New Zealandâs close relationship is underpinned by the Duavata ...
The Government is delivering a coastal shipping lifeline for businesses, residents and the primary sector in the cyclone-stricken regions of Hawkes Bay and TairÄwhiti, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan announced today. The Rangitata vessel has been chartered for an emergency coastal shipping route between Gisborne and Napier, with potential for ...
The Government will progress to the next stage of the NZ Battery Project, looking at the viability of pumped hydro as well as an alternative, multi-technology approach as part of the Governmentâs long term-plan to build a resilient, affordable, secure and decarbonised energy system in New Zealand, Energy and Resources ...
This morning I was made aware of a media interview in which Minister Stuart Nash criticised a decision of the Court and said he had contacted the Police Commissioner to suggest the Police appeal the decision. The phone call took place in 2021 when he was not the Police Minister. ...
The Governmentâs sharp focus on trade continues with Aotearoa New Zealand set to host Trade Ministers and delegations from 10 Asia Pacific economies at a meeting of Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Commission members in July, Minister for Trade and Export Growth Damien OâConnor announced today. âNew Zealand ...
$25 million boost to support more businesses with clean-up in cyclone affected regions, taking total business support to more than $50 million Demand for grants has been strong, with estimates showing applications will exceed the initial $25 million business support package Grants of up to a maximum of $40,000 per ...
80 per cent of 2021 Resident Visas applications have been processed â three months ahead of schedule Residence granted to 160,000 people 84,000 of 85,000 applications have been approved Over 160,000 people have become New Zealand residents now that 80 per cent of 2021 Resident Visa (2021RV) applications have been ...
The Lead Coordination Minister for the Governmentâs Response to the Royal Commissionâs Report into the Terrorist Attack on the Christchurch Mosques travels to Melbourne, Australia today to represent New Zealand at the fourth Sub-Regional Meeting on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Security. âThe Government is committed to reducing the threat of terrorism ...
The health and safety practices at our nationâs ports will be improved as part of a new industry-wide action plan, Workplace Relations and Safety, and Transport Minister Michael Wood has announced. âFollowing the tragic death of two port workers in Auckland and Lyttelton last year, I asked the Port Health ...
Bikes, electric bikes and scooters will be added to the types of transport exempted from fringe benefit tax under changes proposed today. Revenue Minister David Parker said the change would allow bicycles, electric bicycles, scooters, electric scooters, and micro-mobility share services to be exempt from fringe benefit tax where they ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will hold bilateral meetings with Fiji this week. The visit will be her first to the country since the election of the new coalition Government led by Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sitiveni Rabuka. The visit will be an opportunity to meet kanohi ki ...
The Government is introducing the Severe Weather Emergency Legislation Bill to ensure the recovery and rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle is streamlined and efficient with unnecessary red tape removed. The legislation is similar to legislation passed following the Christchurch and KaikĆura earthquakes that modifies existing legislation in order to remove constraints ...
Approximately 1.4 million people will benefit from increases to rates and thresholds for social assistance to help with the cost of living Superannuation to increase by over $100 a pay for a couple Main benefits to increase by the rate of inflation, meaning a family on a benefit with children ...
$1 billion in savings which will be reallocated to support New Zealanders with the cost of living A range of transport programmes deferred so Waka Kotahi can focus on post Cyclone road recovery Speed limit reduction programme significantly narrowed to focus on the most dangerous one per cent of state ...
The remaining state of national emergency over the TairÄwhiti and Hawkeâs Bay regions will end on Tuesday 14 March, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. Minister McAnulty gave notice of a national transition period over these regions, which will come into effect immediately following the end of the ...
The Government is today delivering on one of its commitments as part of the New Zealand Governmentâs Dawn Raids apology, welcoming a cohort of emerging Pacific leaders to Aotearoa New Zealand participating in the He Manawa TÄ«tÄ« Scholarship Programme. This cohort will participate in a bespoke leadership training programme that ...
Industry Transformation Plan to transform advanced manufacturing through increased productivity and higher-skilled, higher-wage jobs into a globally-competitive low-emissions sector. Co-created and co-owned by business, unions and workers, government, MÄori, Pacific peoples and wider stakeholders. A plan to accelerate the growth and transformation of New Zealandâs advanced manufacturing sector was launched ...
New Zealand will provide support for Pacific countries to prevent the spread of harmful animal diseases, Associate Minister of Agriculture Meka Whaitiri said. The Associate Minister is attending a meeting of Pacific Ministers during the Pacific Week of Agriculture and Forestry in Nadi, Fiji. âHighly contagious diseases such as African ...
The Public Transport Futures project will deliver approximately: 100 more buses providing a greater number of seats to a greater number of locations at a higher frequency Over 470 more bus shelters to support a more enjoyable travel experience Almost 200 real time display units providing accurate information on bus ...
All but six schools and kura have reopened for onsite learning All students in the six closed schools or kura are being educated in other schools, online, or in alternative locations Over 4,300 education hardpacks distributed to support students Almost 38,000 community meals provided by suppliers of the Ka Ora ...
A new health centre has opened with financial support from the Government and further investment has been committed to projects that will accelerate MÄori economic opportunities, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan says. Community health provider QE Health will continue its long history in Rotorua with the official opening of the ...
The new three year NZ UK Working Holiday Visas (WHV) will now be delivered earlier than expected, coming into force by July this year in time to support businesses through the global labour shortages Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says. The improved WHV, successfully negotiated alongside the NZ UK Free trade ...
It seems like only yesterday that we launched the discussion document Enabling Investment in Offshore Renewable Energy, which is the key theme for this Forum. Everyone in this room understands the enormous potential of offshore wind in Aotearoa New Zealand â and particularly this region. Establishing a regime to pave ...
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By Arieta Vakasukawaqa in Suva The installation of the Turaga Bale na Vunivalu Na Tui Kaba, Ratu Epenisa Cakobau, clearly indicates that Fijiâs traditional chiefly system still has a strong footing and chiefs still command respect among the countryâs citizens. This is the view of Dr Paul Geraghty, the University ...
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7.20 and all quiet on Open Mike, has everyone slept in? đ
Have cold, couldn’t get to sleep, watched tennis in the early hours, finally got a few hours sleep…. now…. blurgh!
….and 0820, and there’s hardly any traffic on the road in wgtn city
I was up at 5:01am but decided the shorter daylight hours justified my going back to bed.
Jenny copped a one week ban, and PG has been sulking for months.
Morrissey then?
Still undertaking the eenie meenie miney mo to ascertain todays “lairs of our time”.
catch a tiger by the toe
…when it bites ya head off… you’re bound to let go…
all good things must come to an end, and start all over again.(carry on stringing along fender, had Insomnia and only half-way through today’s shift).
I’m about to give the nicest man on Earth another chance. Counting down – 25 minutes to Mora
Iâm about to give the nicest man on Earth another chance. Counting down â 25 minutes to Mora
He wasn’t too nice this afternoon. He repeated the most flippant putdowns of Edward Snowdon, very like a loyal and dependable Soviet commissar deriding one of those dastardly Jewish doctors in the late 1930s.
Yep – I had to give up M. I tried – even got past some reasonable music (disappointed tho’ – I was hoping for a bit of Sympathy for the Devil).
The guy would be the best advertisement for whoever manufactures Valium I’ve ever come across.
The (70’s drugged up housewife’s) choice, and definitely the nicest man on Earth.
I think I can safely give the guy a miss for another few months.
LAIRS OF OUR TIME
No. 1: Dr. Evilâs Secret Underground Lair
http://i26.tinypic.com/32zq4i0.jpg
lol excellent
Really? Peter Dunne is in private discussions with just a political party over questions of security?
Surely every word that man is saying about security “negotiations” should be on the public record.
This issue is not about doing deals.
As for Key’s pushing another TINA*, he just happens to be a party leader who is in the position of Prime Minister at a given moment in time. What makes him think he is the authority?
And trust him? He couldn’t even remember how many Tranzrail shares he had.
This is not a party political issue that is being discussed. The security services belong to all Enzeders.
* (TINA was Thatcher’s name – There Is No Alternative.)
I agree, Logie97, that the security services – and their rights or not to spy on NZers – are, or should be, of interest to all NZers.
I find Dunne now being in private discussions with Key etc over his position on the GCSB Bill incongruous with his stated position just a few days ago. Do they have more that they are holding over Dunne – or is he just out to preserve his job regardless of principles etc? Both are also possible.
Thanks to NRT*, I have also just read this Stuff article re Henry having access to Vance’s movements in and out of Parliament from her security card records the day before her article.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8853155/Journalists-movements-tracked-by-leak-inquiry
“The journalist who was leaked a sensitive report on the nation’s foreign spy network had her movements tracked by a government inquiry.
The MP forced to resign over the leak, Peter Dunne, said inquiry head David Henry detailed to him the movements of Fairfax journalist Andrea Vance in and out of the parliamentary precinct. …”
All very confusing – this issue is not over yet. The dots are just not connecting …
*http://norightturn.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/spying-on-journalists.html
the turning worm.
Watched Dunne trying to get his points across in the debate on the Psychoactive Substances Bill, while being baited by Banks. When did Banks become a friend to man’s best friend? A Beagle Boy indeed. Did you know SAFE were denied the opportunity to make submissions, and the committee is unlikely to adopt Mathers’ SOP, which Banks supports; LDSO tests are obviously not excluded under the legal regimes in South East Asian countries where these substances are likely to be tested.
All the political parties seem to forget that the entire political system belongs to all NZers and not to the political parties.
David Shearer = No Good Whatsoever
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10893243
Shouldn’t really find amusement in Labours woes…but its just so funny
Just a prediction:
That bastion of the 4th Estate (‘Stuff’ – an appropriate name if ever there was) reports the media is being drawn into David Bain blame game http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/8851997/Media-drawn-into-Bain-blame-game.
I’m now even more uncertain as to his guilt, and I’m not even sure that is the point. I’m waiting for this to become even more politicised to the extent that various counsel and supporters will soon find they are denigrated publicly – probably even including by the junta.
Yes, “the media are being played”.
According to Asst. Police Commissioner Malcolm Burgess, this new theory is only one in “isolation from a vast body of evidence”,” which one piece of circumstantial evidence does not outweigh”.
Unfortunate the entire matter sadly.
Looks like Shearer’s heading for the knackers: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8851945/Shearer-in-trouble-Key
Yes, the Shearer installation has been playing well for John Key and Nats.
Moving into the next phase now where Shearer The Awful can occupy the news for another two months.
What a bloody waste of all these months (plus another two months) with the majority of Labour caucus farking around with a hopeless seat warmer.
Arise, Mr Robertson. Pause no longer. Seek thy prize that now lies within thy grasp.
Robertson is half the problem. He backed and supported Shearer so that Cunliffe would not become leader. It was clear from the start that Shearer was a lame duck and not up to the job. As soon as Farrar and Hooton and Slater started supporting Shearer the alarm bells should have gone off.
Robertson played the factional game at the time even though he knew that Shearer would fail. Besides do you think that he has what it takes to win an election? He lost the party vote to the Greens in his electorate ffs.
For his careerism and because of his inability to do the job he should never be leader.
Time to start afresh. Cunliffe is the only one who can do the job. If MPs are going to stand in the way they should have their career path drastically altered. Anyone, repeat anyone, who makes a decision based on personal interest should go.
+1
+1
Totally agree Mr Burns Robertson and those who actively supported Shearer in my view.
Firstly if they backed Shearer because they thought Shearer was going to be an amazing leader they clearly have no idea what qualities a leader should have and two after being given a chance Shearer has failed to connect with voters and thats his job.
Thirdly by voting for Shearer over Cunliffe, Shearers voters totally disregarded grass roots members opinions during the membership contest.That being the case those Mp’s who voted against their LECs wishes and those who bullied members need to go. Those MPs have no credibility to work in the best interest of the Party or to represent its members.
Its time for a big clean out in Labour and sorry wont cut it.
The over-riding factor should be:
Who is the most gifted member of caucus and who is the best match for Key. There is only one answer. There only ever was one answer. That is why Farrar, Slater, Hooton and Boag were running up flags for Shearer in such an overt way. They had their own ABC club.
They threw Shearer in at the deep end on his back story and it was never going to be enough. To expect someone to walk in to that job with virtually no apprenticeship was crazy. It would be like arranging for a builder to build your house without any proper training and experience. To my way of thinking they did Shearer as much a dis-service as they did Cunliffe. Shows they weren’t really thinking of either the party or the country.
What it really shows, if your theory is right, is that the decision makers in labour are completely dim, and can be outwitted by Nat spin doctors. Why would anyone want to put such numpties in charge of a country?
Yes insider, that’s exactly the point. It’s exactly what many of us have been saying all along.
lol
If cunliffe had won, they’d still be concern-tr0lling about challenges from shearer or robertson or mallard. And Key would still be saying cunliffe is in trouble and might be facing a challenge before the end of the year.
McFlock, the difference would be that Cunliffe would accept that the blogosphere is a legitimate part of the Labour consensus. He is an inclusive person. Perhaps that comes from his upbringing in vicarages around the country.
Imagine! A Labour leader in the 21st Century who actually recognises that the blogs are part of the wider democratic process and who does not fear their power!
I look forward to a Labour leader and a Labour Prime Minister who can look both the membership and the public in the eye comfortably, whether in TV debate or on The Standard. Cunliffe has the balls and the ability to argue, (and/or charm), with whomsoever. Cunliffe will move us to a plane higher and firmer than the current swamp.
Unfortunately the member for Wellington Central, (3rd to the Greens), has driven in the wedges that divide the Labour Party. He’s pulling Shearer’s strings like something from Machievelli’s ‘The Prince”, but unfortunately for the Party he has only read the Reader’s Digest version. He lacks the skill and subtlety of a real player and cannot help but reveal his control freak behaviour in the clumsy way he operates. We only have to look at the failure of Red Alert to see that in action.
Cunliffe is not the man you think he is:
Cunliffe will move us to a plane higher and firmer than the current swamp
What rot. This is the sort of messianic drivel that just sets “the faithful” up for more heartbreak.
Rubbish. You have taken a quote out of context to the rest of the comment and tried to set it up as some sort of religious revival claptrap. Because Just do it’s views don’t fit in with yours… you discredit and belittle them. It’s a trait of yours and it’s not smart. Grow up!
My wariness at such imagery is from hearing people say similar things about Jim Anderton (among others). The person never matches the unreal expectations. If people don’t like me calling them on it, they can get stuffed.
You are right, CGV.
Cunliffe will unite the party again. Cunliffe has a majority in the Caucus, when you remove the four imbiciles who took graft from Skycity. Those four are politically dead. And Cunliffe always had the most members and Unions.
We can have a leader who never sold out and who talks properly to your mother or to your companys managing director. That should be the basic standard for a Leader. We should not be entertaining a fellow that asks us to pay for hs elecution seasons.
I totally agree with your summation Mr Burns.
When Shearer got the job as leader he promised to stand aside if he didn’t make a go of it… now’s the time for him to honour that promise.
Mr Burns – you seem to have had a personality change. No sarcasm, no support for the right. For once I agree with you.
Why thank you. Beneath the surface of every cantankerous cynical Nuclear Power Station owner lies the heart of a leftie environmentalist just dying for Labour to get its stuff together.
I think it’s just another side to his very complex personality, which has been hinting through in his past posts as well.
But it could be one hell of a sabotage job. Started by the ABC faction and Paddy Gower, and kept up by Hooten Farrar and Slater. Labour ended up with a lame duck and has LOST a year due to this distraction. One can only imagine what could have happened if the ABC faction were shown he door after the last debacle of an election. But they weren’t they just stayed on sucking the life out of the Labour Party. The treatment of Cunliffe was despicable and it drove me from being a life time Labour supporter, to voting Green, and unless something radical is done to A: Get some good policy out that they will support. I was dismayed when Robertson said they were only going to do the power company and everyone else was safe to continue the pillaging. Chris Trotter said it better.
“Grant Robertsonâs statement of 24 April made everything much clearer. According to Grant the energy policy was a one-off, and the business community could rest easy that far from being the harbinger of Labourâs wholesale repudiation of neoliberal ideology, the energy policy was an aberration. No other deviations from the norm were planned, purred Robertson:”
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/06/26/okay-okay-im-un-surrendering-replace-shearer/
B: Listen to the membership they paid their fees, they walk, hammer, post,phone, etc etc every election. Yet they are still being treated like shit, and they are leaving too.
C: Get some new blood Labour is supposed to be a left party, but it is being ruin by dinosaurs with out dated thinking and even more out dated fuckups, I mean if you wanted to go to the Rugby. Well you are paid enough, (so as you don’t need to visit the ‘Enemies’ box.) Buy your own Tickets.
D: Just show some common sense. Shearer is not working, and Labour is on track for a bigger beating than last time. And NZ cannot afford 3 more years of Keys megalomania, and sell it all attitude. And I notice they are after the councils to start selling their assets like the port and Airport shares to pay for covered stadiums and the rail loop. That tells me they must have people just slavering at the thought of all these shares being gifted to them by a compliant government.
TV3’s Paddy Gower was explicitly clear that the detailed notes he took from a Labour caucus member were well outside the “Cunliffe camp” as he put it.
Despite the constitutional rule changes, the membership do not count. Either the media or the caucus need to call clearly for change of leaderhship. Hasn’t happened yet.
In fact caucus show all the signs of just doing another Goff and simply strapping themselves to ride the bomb straight into the ground. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-Haaaa!
Spring is not far away.
robertson..?..really..?..you reckon he is the best hope that labour has got..?
..(as noted above..)..did you miss his craven promise to the elites/current-power-paradigm that ‘electricity’ would be the only reform that a labour govt would do..?
..f.f.s..!..isn’t just that a neon-sign/loudhailer telling you that robertson is part of the problem..?
..and i hafta say..having done commentaries on q-time @ parliament for some years now..
..i have probably seen more of robertson in action than most..
..and in that forum..he has generally not impressed..
..(up against ryall in health he was particularly hapless/ineffectual..)
..and using impressions taken from that same window into parliament..
..the only one from labour that makes national/the right sit up straight and pay attention..
..is cunnliffe..
..they are particularly nervous about his follow-up questions..and his ability to instantly pounce on any contradictions in their answers to his interrogations..
..because ‘interrogations’ are what they are..
..and this is a skill that cunnliffe has..
..and that neither shearer nor robertson have..
(n.b..i have never met cunnliffe..and have been snarky about him in the past @ whoar..and i have not voted for labour since the rightwing revolution..
..so i have no party-faction-agenda/barrow..tho’ i do yearn for a labour that returns to its’ roots..
..and does what it was set up originally to do..eh..?)
..robertson is just a leader of those in labour who have still lost their way…
..and making him shearers’ successor will likely guarantee a defeat for the left in just over one year from now..
..much as continuing to cling to the wreck that is shearer will do…
..a labour party/govt led by the nose by the rightwing faction in labour..(who ‘nudge-nudge’/wink!-wink!’ robertson leads)..
..will be as big a disaster for those suffering the most..
..as was the last clark/labour-led govt..
..that bow/promise to the elites to do nothing to rock their boats from robertson –
– was the magazine loading marks on his thumb..
..(is it too soon..?..)
phillip ure..
+2 three meke.
I’ve never really understood why Helen decided to have a cuppa and a lay down in the third term and do absolutely sfa – when there was a golden opportunity to further roll back a bit more of the damage that the Nats had done during the 90s.
’cause she wanted a 4th, obviously.
Would have been better if she’d gone all out but I don’t think she would have done so – still too tied to the neo-liberal dogma.
Yep – you’re probably correct DtB. I must have been blinded by devotion and admiration of her intellect not to have realised earlier.
That last (3rd) term was a shocker – in terms of laziness, stagnation, complacency and unwillingness to seize the opportunity to reverse the effects of that Ruthenasia era. Seems to me the current Labour scene queens are still in that mode.
It is what happens when you rely on Winston Peters for confidence. You can’t do left wing stuff any more.
Do you reckon MS?
I think Peters would have supported a large nation building infrastructure and public transport building programme. He would have supported enhanced healthcare for the elderly and for children. He certainly would have supported massive additions to trade training and skills for young people. And improvements to state provided low cost pensioner housing – a no brainer for Winston to claim credit for.
Just what I was thinking, David H. As a longtime Labour activist I’ve just about given up !
Hate what Key is doing to our country, but cannot bear the thought of voting Labour to get those old hack neo-libs back into power. What’s the alternative ? Greens perhaps !
Yep, National are determined to turn us back into a rentier society where most of the people are dependent upon the rich for their well being, i.e, if you don’t please a rich person then your life will be a life of poverty. We saw this in the 19th century but the time most applicable is the time of feudalism.
National are busy taking us backwards several centuries.
+1 too.
YES!
So, the journos wrote and published an entire story about one party leader on what an opposing party leader thinks is going to happen to the other?
Because key says so? Just before a by-election?
I mean, come on.
I have to ask Labourites a question.
Are you all still happy with the new leader election rules of Labour?
Not so much for the process of electing a new leader, rather the unintended consequence of the reluctance to dump an incompetent leader (aka Shearer) due to the uncertainty of who will replace him?
Does this turn the Labour caucus into a bunch of cowards?
Do the rules need to be modified so that the party membership and affiliates can initiate a leadership challenge?
Because from how I see it from the outside, Shearer is an incompetent leader who has very little support apart from the ABC crowd in caucus who are just enough in number to block a leadership challenge.
So you have the membership & unions and reasonable chunk of caucus who want a change but it can’t happen because of a sizable minority of has beens holding up the renewal process and no automatic leadership vote until after 2014?
But I thought that all righties all agreed that Shearer would be a wonderful leader. After all he did give a mango skin to some poor kids once and he did think that it was unfair that a guy painting his roof was receiving ACC. I mean even if the guy did not actually exist being willing to bash an imaginary benefit bludger would be the sort of thing the right would really approve of.
Shearer is a wonderful leader of labour :), don’t even think of replacing him
Why is it that righties are suddenly so interested in Labour’s leadership? From the PM down it seems.
because its funny.
I think D. Shearer is the right man for Labour. Keep him, please.
Just give your party back to the workers. All will come right after that.
How do they do that?
Nope, it’s for the members to take their party back off the caucus.
443,000 more people voted for National than Labour at the last election. Who are these people? The rich, some middle classes and aspiring blue collar workers. I wonder how many enrolled non-voters there were at the 2011 election.
~800,000
That’s a lot of people. I wish they would start to feel angry rather than disinterested in what is happening. If they think not voting is a protest then I wish we could send them the message that voting is a more powerful protest.
“I wish they would start to feel angry rather than disinterested in what is happening.”
You make it sound like they woke up one morning a couple of years ago and decided not to care about politics any more. They didn’t.
They were taught, meticulously and repetitively, by several generations of politicians, that no-one in a position of power, whether left or right wing, gives a stuff about them.
And btw they’re not going to wake up tomorrow morning and unlearn it just because Labour’s middle-of-the-road fan club have decided they like John Key better.
+1
+1
We need a party that gives them a reason to vote and we just don’t have one of those.
You make it sound like they woke up one morning a couple of years ago and decided not to care about politics any more. They didnât.
They were taught, meticulously and repetitively, by several generations of politicians, that no-one in a position of power, whether left or right wing, gives a stuff about them.
Hear, hear!
and a clearer demonstration of that indifference/neglect from labour had to be their promise at the last election to bring sole-parents into the families tax-break/subsidy working parents get..
..(and here is the kicker/nose-grind..)..by 2018..
..(i kid you not..this was their election promise to those they have ignored for so long..and who now ignore them..this was the lure to get them back..what were they thinking..?
..and here is the bit to make you sob/despair..shearer/robertson dominated labour have since ditched this policy – as being ‘too radical’..
..’we are still a long way from home will..a long way from home..’.)
..so really..rolling shearer has to be a package-deal..
..make it a twofer…
..bundle up robertson at the same time..
..he also has had long enough to prove he isn’t growing into the job..
..phillip ure..
This.
http://annesummers.com.au/2013/06/bullying-and-outright-treachery-are-the-new-normal-in-australia/
“truth, like decency, is no longer part of our political currency it seems”.-Anne Summers.
(Greens support for the ALP expires in September anyway).
âtruth, like decency, is no longer part of our political currency it seemsâ.-Anne Summers.
… nor, it seems is it a part of the Police agenda, or the judicial process (in relation to our Bain thoughts above)
From the very moment he was appointed I knew that David Shearer lacked the qualities needed by a political leader. David Cunliffe has some of those qualities but if his colleagues don’t like or trust him, how can he be leader? At the moment anyway.
What about David Parker or Andrew Little?
And Shearer seems to be confident about only one thing: that he will lead the party into the 2014 election. Does he know something Patrick Gower doesn’t or is that pure spindoctoring?
BTW, for a fabulous insight into the nature of leadership and the skulduggery of politics I recommend the Danish TV series Borgen, available on DVD. It’s very relevant to Australian and New Zealand politics.
Little maybe, but probably too soon. Parker no. Robertson no.
If you put Little up now, before he is properly blooded, you’ll be wasting what could be an awesome future talent.
On TV 3 tonight, Gower cited Cunliffe, Robertson and Little as the ones to watch. Nothing he said indicated whether he was speculating or repeating what he was told, but it left me thinking that if a leadership challenge really is in the pipeline, Robertson might well try to persuade more than one left wing favourite to put their name forward, with a view to splitting the vote.
The 3 Gower mentioned, had me musing on who the “anonymous” source of the “flat” caucus might be.
I’d have thought Jacinda Ardern would be in the frame as much as Little?
She may be considered a bit young to bear that level of authority. As CV said of Little, you can wreck people’s future careers by overburdening them too soon – some people think that is the case with Shearer, with regard to parliamentary experience.
Hi Maureen, it has nothing to do with liking and trust. It has everything to do with job security. If you look at who supported Shearer they are all people who had never won a seat properly. They had been given list positions or been given easy seats like mount Albert. Cunliffe has the mana of taking a seat from the Natz.
Cunliffe is respected and a real Trust comes put of that. Parker is not a winner ever. Little has not won a seat. They have not earned a possie on the stage.
test
Fracking ? See http://www.thedailyshow.com for extended interview with documentary maker Josh Fox on his “Gasland Part Two” for HBO. See people being able to ignite the water coming from their wells in USA heartland …
the contamination of the aquifiers in HB is a very real concern from this process.
Here.
So, today’s the day (tonight’s the night) when Christchurch City Council learn whether IANZ remove their permitting accreditation.
And the RB fear that the raising of interest rates will damage the ‘economic recovery’; what fragile coffers they must see.
Please watch this and be energised.
Thousands gathered to support Wendy Davis in Austin on Thursday night’s filibuster — this marvelous coverage warmed my heart, reminding me of how we used to be willing to do battle here .. the Repubs are such bullies; their skulduggery has to be seen to be believed, even to changing the electronic clock … wonderful reporting by the great Rachel Maddow … prepare to be ready to cheer for these brave and determined ones…. democracy alive in Texas …
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26315908/#52324859
But Rick Perry will be back again in a few weeks to try again … watch the interview that follows on the above report and believe the possibility of sea-change in Texas.
Democracy, sea-change, nah, wishful thinking.
Because of yesterday’s day of jubilee, the other, less evolved primates in the Texas legislature are now free to redistrict an end to Davis’s meddlesome political career.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/All_Things_Are_Connected
Thx for link Joe90 — they will get this strong woman to run for governor on the back of all this .. did you read the comments section ? Let’s see .. the people are awake and sea change can follow … ripples are the promises the waves make to the flood, and all that ! Wishful thinking ? nah.
Would there actually be any point changing leadership now?
We’re still a far way out, but I think you’d end up like Labour in aussie at the moment. Might as well ride it out with Shearer, wreak him, change leaders?
Yes, there has to be a point to it. Labour will lose under Shearer, almost no doubt about it. He can’t cut it. Cunliffe would be fresh, extremely capable and a brilliant and articulate communicator, likely the best in the House. The diff ‘twixt here and Oz ? We would not be re-selecting a previously-used leader. I dread the future for us all if Gnats get a third term; I seriously doubt we could ever recover from their massive harms.
I have to agree with you yeshe – if Labour do not win the next election, I fear it’ll be one seriously munted and irrelevant political party.
Bugger the Labour Party… there will be significantly more munted and irrelevant people in NZ if we have another 3 years of Pinokeyo, the fat controller et al.
Don’t worry yeshe, infused is getting a bit worried Cunliffe might become leader and biff it to his/her beloved NActs.
Would Cunliffe improve Labour’s prospects next year? Possibly. But the heart of the problem is that the Labour Party as a caucus and as an organisation, remains too far away from understanding what NZ needs. Which IMO I will put this way: 12 strong years which will rework the entire economy and set NZ right on track for thriving through peak oil and climate change.
Ride it out….like we did under Goff
Ride it out and let Nats in for another Term.
Ride it out and see our supporters go to e Greens and Mana and even NZ First.
Ride it out is not an option
Ride it out is not an option
Ride it out is not an option
Yeah, let us repeat the same mistakes.
Go Infusion. You are INSPIRED
Something good to report today.
Old films in NZ to be archived and cared for.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/8851761/Lab-deal-gives-rare-Kiwi-films-new-life
Am I to understand from that link that they took thousands of reels of acetate and nitrate old films on a plane?
One reel in a car (or your house) would be highly dangerous.
Holy crap…you might as well carry 100kg of incendiaries onboard.
Coleman shines a lamp on the poor record of safety in the NZDF and launches a “wide-ranging enquiry”.
Risk to the financial system, general price stability, due to the housing market may be greater than in the lead-up to the GFC
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10893435
“significant financial and economic damage could result”.
Auckland housing sprawls across prime, productive agricultural land http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10893444. sigh.
Had to happen.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/wikileaks-mole/
all for 5 Grand
The Nats Auckland Transport announcement;
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10893553
-CRL
-AMETI (east-west link)
-another harbour crossing- twin tunnels; 2025-2030
Despite pressure coming on from the council, and the Greens, total rail trips have to increase from 11M currently, to 20M per annum to have CRL brought forward from 2020 considered.
Not surprised the CRL announcement from National turns out to be a trojan horse.
Did anyone really expect much more?
Along with the proposed double harbour tunnel. Key said that the Christchurch spend was all signed and sealed – unbreakable, but note nothing has been written in concrete about the CRL or the tunnel.
Don’t know about a horse. I hoped santa would bring us a bridge – isn’t a tunnel in the shaky isles a bit of a pipedream?
Off topic I guess, but well done to steven adams for getting pick by the thunder at no12 in the draft.
Piñera, an intergenerational clan of thugs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/27/chilean-protesters-street-battles-police
FYI
“An amateur litigant who has a court case against MP John Banks under way and plans one against MP Peter Dunne is now advancing the process against Prime Minister John Key.”
(Only found about this today).
It’s potentially quite a big deal.
I mean – whoever expected the DEFENDANT John Banks to end up in the dock, at the Auckland District Court?
A sitting MP, being held accountable in a Court of LAW, to the RULE OF LAW?
Far out!
Whoever may be next………………?
GREAT work Private Prosecutor Graham McCready!
______________________________________________________________________________
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8845031/Litigant-launches-more-cases
” Litigant launches more cases
MICHAEL FIELD
Last updated 17:08 26/06/2013
An amateur litigant who has a court case against MP John Banks under way and plans one against MP Peter Dunne is now advancing the process against Prime Minister John Key.
Graham McCready, a retired accountant, of Wellington, has filed informations with the Wellington District Court against Key alleging that he broke the Crimes Act by using or authorising illegal surveillance on internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom.
He has submitted the same informations against Government Communications Security Bureau head Ian Fletcher.
Deputy registrar Kevin Conroy has acknowledged the informations.
“I now have to consider the matter of the issue of summonses under the provisions of the Summary Procedures Act 1957,” he said.
He said he must be satisfied that the informations and summons disclosed an offence and there was sufficient information to fairly inform the defendants.
McCready is asked to provide a full written summary of the facts.
His case involves a section of the Crimes Act that prohibits the use of interception devices and says “everyone is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years who intentionally intercepts any private communication by means of an interception device”.
Key’s office had no comment.
McCready has previously taken private prosecutions against MPs Trevor Mallard and Banks. The prosecution against Mallard alleged assault, but the Labour MP later pleaded guilty to fighting in a public place in 2007.
In May, Banks pleaded not guilty to a charge alleging he filed a false electoral return in the Auckland mayoralty race three years ago. ”
______________________________________________________________________________
More information (copies of the actual ‘informations’) will be available soon – so you can read them for yourselves.
Kind regards,
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption / anti-privatisation’ campaigner
2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate
Heavens to Murgatroyd!
Graham McCready: Convicted tax fraudster and blackmailer
Yes. Invaluable qualifications for spotting others who also have corrupted characters.
And as Judge Mills pointed out in the Wellington District Court at law, allegations stand or fall on their own merit, not on the character of the person making the allegations. An upstanding person may totally believe a wrong allegation Burglars don’t not necessarily commit treason.
Why is the system leaving it to a private individual to get John Banks into the dock?
This must leave you with a problem WRT John Key. Does he have an upstanding character with dreadful actions or vice versa.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! He’s living in Limbo!”
Another depraved few minutes on the Panel preshow.
Radio NZ National, Friday 28 June 2013
Jim Mora, Duncan Webb, Sally Wenley
If Red China during the very worst excesses of its crackdowns against “rightists”, “revisionists” and “capitalist running dogs” had had talk radio, this is what it would have sounded likeâŠ.
JIM MORA: It’s a quarter to four, and it’s time for Susan Baldacci and what the wooooooooorld’s talking about!
SUSAN BALDACCI: Well today the world is talking about Las Vegas, Nevada, which is getting ready for the hottest temperature ever recorded in the world.
MORA: What, on Planet Earth?
SUSAN BALDACCI: They are expecting a temperature of—
MORA: The hottest temperature on Planet Earth?
SUSAN BALDACCI: Yep. It’s 142 Fahrenheit, or 56.7 celsius.
MORA: We were talking about the Indian floods but this is a real crisis too isn’t it.
SUSAN BALDACCI: It certainly is. The big worry would be if the power went out!
MORA:Where was the previous highest temperature?
SUSAN BALDACCI: In Australia, I think.
MORA: Was it in Australia?
SUSAN BALDACCI: Y-y-y-y-yes.
MORA: I’ve been in 42 degrees once. But fifty-SIX degrees. That’s amazing!
SALLY WENLEY: Oh yes. Amazing!
âŠ.[Long, vacuous pause]âŠ.
MORA: What’s Mr Snowden been up to?
SUSAN BALDACCI: Arrrrrggghhhh. He’s not going anywhere!
MORA Ha ha ha!
SUSAN BALDACCI: He’s still in that transit lounge in Russia!
MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! He’s living in Limbo!
SALLY WENLEY: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
SUSAN BALDACCI: It looks like he could be going to Ecuador.
MORA: Hmmmmm. Ecuador is being extremely aggressive, isn’t it!
SUSAN BALDACCI: Yes, they are threatening to CANCEL the trade agreement they have with the United States!
MORA: Why?
SUSAN BALDACCI: Well, they are going to preemptively reject millions in trade benefits that it could lose by taking in this guy from his limbo in the Moscow airport. They say they are not going to be “blackmailed” by the United States. They want to show their “independence”.
MORA: Huh!
SALLY WENLEY: Huh!
SUSAN BALDACCI: But President Obama has said they are not going to beg anyone to help them get this guy.
MORA: Yeah, exactly.
SALLY WENLEY: Exactly.
MORA: And they said something about how they are offering to give the United States $23 million a year for “human rights training”.
SUSAN BALDACCI: Yep, a government spokesman said :”Ecuador will not accept pressures or threats from anyone, and it does not traffic in its values or allow them to be subjugated to mercantile interests.”
MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha! Good Lord! Ha ha ha!
SALLY WENLEY: Ha ha ha ha ha!
…et cetera, et cetera, ad absurdum, ad nauseamâŠ
LIARS OF OUR TIME
No. 24: John Key
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“…at the end of the day I, like most New Zealanders, value the role of the fourth estate…”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
—New Zealand prime minister John Key, pretending to be “disappointed” that parliamentary staff passed on information about a journalist’s movements as part of an inquiry into the leak of sensitive information.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8853155/Journalists-movements-tracked-by-leak-inquiry
See alsoâŠ.
No. 23 Jay Carney: “…expel Mr Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice…”
No. 22 Mike Bush: âBruce Hutton had integrity beyond reproach.â
No. 21 Tim Groser: âI think the relationship is genuinely in outstanding form.â
No. 20 John Key: âBut if the question is do we use the United States or one of our other partners to circumvent New Zealand law then the answer is categorically no.â
No. 19 Matthew Hooton: âIt is ridiculous to say that unions deliver higher wages! They DONâT!â
No. 18 Ant Strachan: âThe All Blacks won the RWC 2011 because of outstanding defence!â
No. 17 Stephen Franks: âPeter has been such a level-headed, safe pair of hands.â
No. 16 Phil Kafcaloudes: âTony AbbottâŠhasnât made any mistakes over the past eighteen months.â
No. 15 Donald Rumsfeld: âI did not lie⊠Colin Powell did not lie.â
No. 14 Colin Powell: âa post-9/11 nexus between Iraq and terrorist organizationsâŠconnections are now emergingâŠâ
No.13 Barack Obama: âSimply put, these strikes have saved lives.â
No. 12 U.K. Ministry of Defence: âProtecting the Afghan civilian population is one of ISAF and the UKâs top priorities.â
No. 11 Brendan OâConnor: âAustraliaâs approach to refugees is compassionate and generous.â
No. 10 Boris Johnson: âLondoners have⊠the best police in the world to look after us and keep us safe.â
No. 9 NewstalkZB PR dept: âNews you NEED! Fast, fair, accurate!â
No. 8 Simon Bridges: âI donât mean to duck the questionâŠ.â
No. 7 Nigel Morrison: âQuite frankly, theyâve been VERY tough.â
âšhttp://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15052013/#comment-633295
âšNo. 6 NZ Herald PR dept: âCongratulationsâyouâre reading New Zealandâs best newspaper.ââš
âšNo. 5 Rawdon Christie: ââŠa FORMIDABLE replacement, it seems, is Claudette Hauiti.ââšhttp://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13052013/#comment-632594âš
No. 4 Willie and J.T.: âThe X-Factor. Nah, nah, thereâs some GREAT talent there!ââš
No. 3 John Key: âYeah we hold MPs to a higher standard.â
âšNo. 2 Colin Craig: âOh, I have a GREAT sense of humour.â
âšNo. 1 Barack Obama: âMargaret Thatcher was one of the great champions of freedom and liberty.â
Humbug Cornerâš
No. 5: JOHN KEY
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“Yeah well the Greens’ answer to everything is rail, isn’t it.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
—John Key, Radio NZ National Checkpoint, 5:20p.m., Friday 28 June 2013. Host Mary Wilson let him get away with that unchallenged as usual.
Humbug Corner is dedicated to gathering, and highlighting, the most striking examples of faux solicitude, insincere apologies, and particularly stupid recycling of official canards. It is produced by the Insincerity ProjectÂź, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
More appalling humbugâŠ.
No. 4 Mike Bush: “Bruce Hutton’s⊠integrity beyond reproachâŠsuch great character⊔
âšNo. 3 Dean Lonergan: âYâ know what? The only people who will mock them are people who are dwarfists.ââš
No. 2 Peter Dunne: âWhat a load of drivel and sanctimonious humbugâŠââš
âšNo.1 Dominic Bowden: âItâs okay to be speechless.â
The Black Hole, of Kolkata
http://www.ibtimes.com/india-set-surpass-china-worlds-largest-coal-importer-use-power-plants-1327117 :India to surpass China importing coal to meet energy shortages.
IMF (Lagarde) on “Green Economies that respond to Climate Change will create jobs”
http://www.ibtimes.com/imf-director-says-green-economies-respond-climate-change-will-create-jobs-1326579
France officially in recession and heading towards 11% jobless rate
http://www.ibtimes.com/france-officially-recession-headed-jobless-rate-over-11-1324355
The sound of the other shoe dropping . . .
How much are the NSA and the CIA front running markets?
http://m.nakedcapitalism.com/nakedcapitalism/#!/entry/how-much-are-the-nsa-and-cia-front-running-markets,51cd441687443d6c8e580489/1
Given the embargo on promoting any candidate on election day, please do NOT make any comments relating to the by election anywhere on The Standard from midnight until after 7pm on Saturday. ThanksâŠ