Can you believe this?
The government are doing this – despite a housing crisis.
Uncaring, greedy…….
Some tenants living in the hundreds of state and council homes north of Wellington that have been put on the market are worried about what the sale mean for their future.
The Government and Horowhenua District Council have unveiled a plan to sell 364 houses across Horowhenua and Kapiti, including 151 Housing New Zealand homes in Levin, 21 in Foxton, 70 in Otaki and seven in Shannon.
Almost all of the houses are occupied and their tenants are mostly elderly, single people or single parents.
this government and its ministers seem to have no concept of what it’s like to fear your home being taken off you, the stress of not knowing if you’re going to be forcibly evicted, the humiliation of being at the mercy of those who have the power to move you on, and break up families and communities
everything this government and its compliant district councils are doing – or not doing – in regards to housing is seeding a disaster for the future, not just for state tenants but also for the next generation of New Zealanders who won’t be able to afford to buy their own home
I find it particularly depressing to hear decent people so quickly buying-in to the meme pedalled by this government, that all these reports are a media beat-up
uncaring and greedy is too kind…
I’d add one or more of these: ‘incompetent, unaware of reality, in denial, living in their comfortable bubble, complacent, arrogant, dismissive….’
My God…..it’s like they’re being picked off…….’cos they’re poor and ain’t got their own house. Vultures are circling. In this OUR New Zealand. OUR New Zealand didn’t used to be like this. Some bastards gotta be brought to account !
Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster) 2
Donald Trump has chosen Pence as his running mate – an extreme right wing religious nutter!
Hillary Clinton picked Kaine for VP – a pro-war, pro-Wall Street establishment neocon.
Bernie’s supporters walked out of the DNC en masse!
If Trump wins, expect to see the whole country lurch to the religious right, because I don’t believe Trump has the ability, understanding or the patience to govern. His task will be ‘to make America great again.’ Lol
If Clinton wins don’t expect any of Bernie’s platforms to be implemented. Clinton, with her best friend Bill advising her, will not move against those who own her. Errh!
It may be a wasted vote, but if I was an American, Jill Stein would get my nod. The lesser of two evils is still evil – but Jill stands for everything that needs to be changed in the USA.
[Because of the regular misuse of the word ‘establishment’ for the purposes of trolling and abuse, it has been added to the mod list. That means comments that use the word will be held in moderation until released. It might be appropriate for neo con to go in there too if it is also going to be used in ignorance and out of context. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Kaine TRP]
And that stadandesters must conform to some new form of Politically Correct newspeak that is divined from up on high?
I would have thought neocon and neoliberal were in essence interchangeable after 40 odd years, especially when we have a liberal elite who have given up on a socialist programme.
Is it no longer true that the established hierarchy can and indeed has a name?
One thing about free speech, is you have to hear a whole lot of stuff you don’t like, and some of it may even offend you.
Are you serious? Moderating comments for misuse of a word…
“‘Words’, he said, ‘is oh such a twitch-tickling problem to me all my life. So you must simply try to be patient and stop squibbling. As I am telling you before, I know exactly what words I am wanting to say, but somehow or other they is always getting squiff-squiddled around.”
(Just thought I’d use that line for the first and only time. I find it sneering and belittling, kind of like ‘Zip it, sweety’. But it has its fans here at TS so I suppose it’s OK.)
No coup, Adam. There has been a tightening up on abusive language for a while now. One troll in particular has been regularly misusing neocon and other similar phrases to stifle debate. So, for the time being, some words will drop comments into moderation. They’ll quickly be released if the words are being used in context, or moderated appropriately, then released, if they are not.
Read the policy (top of the page) if you are confused about how the Standard is moderated.
Can you give a list of the new words you have deemed abusive, I know policy says words, but I’m at a loss at what they are.
Is the subtext of your message another move in your public fight with Colonial Viper?
That has become truly a tired affair for the rest of us. At this point I wish you two would either copulate, or get into a right proper ruckus – teeth and all. Rather than this snippy affair that has gone on for months from both sides.
I’d like to clarify things a bit as someone who has access to the backend as an author. From what I can see, this is a decision that TRP has made on his own. There hasn’t been any discussion in the moderators’ forum. So please don’t assume this is anything other than TRP’s action.
As an author and moderator, I think it’s a bad move, the words chosen, the reasons given for the decision, and the fact that it was done unilaterally but presented as being something that the people who run the place agreed on.
It is possible that TRP has talked to other authors offsite, including Lynn.
From my experience in the front end of the site, I would say that TRP brings lots of good things to TS, but he also does some daft shit and some down right damaging shit. I would put this in the latter category (daft and damaging).
I would guess that you are right adam, that this was triggered by something to do with CV (but I haven’t looked that closely). And yes it smacks of authoritarianism. The irony there is that TRP has his own history of frequently winding up people by using political words as pejoratives. So yet another example of crazy making.
Judging something to be trolling is often very subjective. But TS traditionally has managed that quite lightly and really only premoderated words like N*zi or Tr*ll, which are well known trolling/flamming words in the internets. Premoderating words like ‘est*blisment’ is ridiculous and makes TS a laughing stock in the political blogosphere.
Having said all that, there has been a tightening up on moderation this year, and that appears to be getting good results. But the things that have changed that have made the difference, IMO, are the moderations that are clear and concise around just stepping in quickly and shutting down flame wars. I don’t see TRP’s moderated words as contributing to that and will probably just make things worse as they add to the culture of bullying and misuse of power.
btw, you can probably circumvent the premoderation by adding in asterisks. eg est*blisment. Of course TRP can then go and add ‘est*blisment’ to the list, but it’s a long word with lots of permutations, so have a play around with it.
I’d also suggest for the braver amongst us that we start using the word est*blisment as much as possible (knowing there is a risk of backlash). Or even without the asterisk. People power and all that. Plus the action deserves all the ridicule it can get. Fight back I say, but do it in a fun way.
(I don’t have the same level of author permissions as TRP so I can’t see the full range of tools that he has access to. I also can’t for instance release comments from moderation unless they are in one of my own posts).
Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster) 2.1.2.1.1.1
Wow! What a backlash about my (I thought) rather innocuous comments, which no-one has bothered to read – fixating on the bold at the end!
Perhaps I got the rebuke because, a day or so ago, I commented that I was with CV on the Trump/Clinton thing.
For what it’s worth, and being very careful not to use the proscribed words, I still think Trump will win – though God help us all if he does.
Both Trump and Clinton carry too much baggage (banned word?) into this campaign. Clinton’s is political, Trumps apolitical. But, again, for what it’s worth, I’d still vote for Jill Stein if I was an American.
I read what you said Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster). I liked what you said. It was the bold at the bottom, which flummoxed me.
What for the use of the word copulation and the the word ruckus? In my defense, both were and are the most humors terms I could find, rather than reach for gutter idioms.
Or at my overall discontent with an on going fight between two authors at the standard that creates an ongoing quandary for all who have to witness it?
I’d assumed it was a comment suggesting stronger moderation in relation to the idiotic, damaging and on-going spat between trp and CV. But then, it could be read in a number of ways. Maybe Ad will clarify.
Thanks, Ad. From the start, the site has tried to encourage open debate, while discouraging abuse. The levels of tolerance fluctuate and in the early years there was an almost anarchic approach (Robinsod is the exemplar for that, worth looking for his or her’s contributions for some cheap laughs when the search function comes back).
For me, the penny dropped around the time I wrote the ‘Broken’ post. So I’ve kept an eye out for words, terms or phrases that are being deliberately used in abusive ways. Happily, most commenters accept the moderation without complaint and quickly find other ways to express their opinions that add to the mix rather than close debate down.
“Thanks, Ad. From the start, the site has tried to encourage open debate, while discouraging abuse.”
Man, I was lucky to get away with what I did last night, strong abuse,………………I thought I might have been flying pretty close to the wire. Better keep my head down from now on.
I agree if one simply took the author of the post above and simply believed what he said about kaine most would think he was an evil bastard …read the wiki info and presto he isnt .Im a bit supprized anyone would need instruction regarding the word establishment tho i mean would i be in trouble if i said hillary was establishment ?
There’s no problem with the word establishment. However it has been used in conjunction with other pejorative words which have been intended to insult or abuse.. The mod filter isn’t sophisticated enough to scrub out phrases or combinations of words so it’s been caught up. However, it’s only caused a moments delay for half a dozen comments, so no harm done.
There’s no problem with the word establishment. However it has been used in conjunction with other pejorative words which have been intended to insult or abuse. The mod filter isn’t sophisticated enough to scrub out phrases or combinations of words so it’s been caught up. However, it’s only caused a moments delay for half a dozen comments, and the use of similar abusive phrases seems to have diminished as a result. So, better conversations, more intelligent debate. That’s what we all want, right?
Ten minutes isn’t ‘a moments delay’ – and that happened for at least one comment.
There was (and still are) a handful of perfectly okay comments sitting in trash. Now sure, they may have wound up there for some really weird reason (it duplicates from time to time for some reason) or just because a commenter deleted their own comment because…well, moderators don’t ever throw comments into trash. Right?
Anyway. I did manage to save the Robert Reich link that someone else had tried to post. Can’t imagine why they’d post it and then delete it (ie -send it to the trash folder) during their edit time, but hey….
Honestly can’t see where the ‘better conversations’ or ‘more intelligent debate’ is, as a result of essentially flaming everyone. But again, hey….
No worries, Bill, thanks for your thoughts. I was trying to find a soft way to moderate abuse, but clearly that’s not going to work if too many people have objections to the concept. I’ll just ban instead, though I’ll probably give a warning first, unless it’s excessive abuse.
There seem to be sneaky agendas here. I take voices passive aggressive threats as being completely unnecessary – weak personal qualities exposed – he’ll probably threaten to beat me up again for that one though.
As for cv – he is not left – end of story. Too much trumputin bullshit – he’s like trump a trojan – cv the bloody Trojan nzfirster now imo.
It’s a real dilemma when you have an otherwise fairly functional group of people with a common purpose and one of them thinks it’s about doing what they want as an individual. I don’t know the solution to that, and I’m not sure a majority vote would sort it out tbh. The impression I have is that everyone has pretty full lives and are reluctant to put energy into it, especially as there seems to be history of people having to leave.
It’s a major stumbling block to getting new authors IMO.
Hi Marty Mars, I’m afraid your gut reaction is totally on a tilt.
Trump wants to raise trade barriers, wants to bring manufacturing back from China to the USA, wants to reneg on free trade deals like NAFTA and the TPP, wants to stop spending on big wars and wants to spend on new infrastructure throughout the USA.
That’s way more left than the Democrats.
Putin has created a capitalist economy where the billionaire oligarchs are strongly reined in, where the resources of the country are heavily regulated/owned by the state, where a pension is available to every Russian, where tertiary education and public healthcare is broadly available and either free or reasonably cheap.
That’s way more left than the Democrats.
As for NZ First – their economic stance including willingness to nationalise key assets and ban foreign ownership is way more Left than Labour.
Further, Putin, Trump and Peters all understand the critical importance of *economic sovereignty* and all three are willing to act on that understanding.
That’s way more Left than most of the other political parties in NZ.
“Trump is far more Left economically than the Neocon Globalist Status Quo.”
Cool. I haven’t heard what his policies for redistribution of income and lowering societal income are. I guess you can help with that. Any idea what his taxation policies for the avoidance and minimisation schemes of the top 1% are? Is he going to strengthen trade unions and ensure fair labour laws – pay, safety etc.?
He’s going to ensure that there is massive working class employment in rebuilding the US manufacturing and infrastructure base, bringing back jobs from overseas.
He’s not going to rely on modern Lefty methods of handouts.
BTW Clinton is the oligarchy bankster candidate. She’ll protect the 0.1% exactly like Obama has.
“He’s not going to rely on modern Lefty methods of handouts.”
And the 1%?
What are are the plans for upskilling the workforce for these massive projects (maybe he’ll import skilled labour for less than it would cost to upskill?). And again – pay and conditions. I quite like that old-fashioned lefty way of ensuring people who can work get decent pay for decent work i.e. a fair share. No word on how those who can’t work in paid employment are going to get a share of the economic pie?
btw, this is about how Trump is or isn’t a lefty, not where Clinton stands.
Trump might have some economic thoughts (policies?) that sound left or leftish. But his thoughts around social issues, as far as I can tell, are very, very much to the right.
The same basic template, though not as extreme, applies to Peters.
You’re right that the establishment left has, for the most part, abandoned what we used to think of as left leaning economics.
But for fuck’s sake CV, if the economic choice is between a greater or lesser role for the state (orthodox parliamentarian leftism) or a greater or lesser role for the market (orthodox rightish parliamentarianism)…then unless Trump is going to expand the role of the state in health care and education etc…ie – have the state do all of those things that an orthodox leftist programme would call for, then he’s no more ‘left’ then fly.
What Trump actually wants is to bring the shitty low wage/ zero protection environment that’s been developed overseas by US corporations, brought back into the US. There are bugger all unions left to fight a workers corner and I just can’t envisage Trump making any good change to Labor Law in the US. Can you?
At least Clinton might be forced (reluctantly) to back a living wage and such like and she certainly won’t go all Mussolini on anyone giving her and her administration shit. Trump will be looking to have wages set by ‘the market’ (code for letting employers fuck workers over with impunity) and I suspect he could well go all Mussolini on matters.
Yes, he sounds as though he might be more isolationist, and that could be a relief for many people the world over. But at the same time, he’s saying he’ll deal with terrorists who link themselves to Islam. Short of dropping a nuclear device on Riyadh, I can’t see how he squares those two things off. Can you?
“But I’m sure he has comprehensive staff training programmes within his own casinos and hotels.”
I wonder if he’ll open up a Trump technical training school, similar to the Trump University?
Anyway, about the 1%, tax, and employee rights etc…
I guess I don’t agree with your inference that economic nationalism is solely a left-wing political concern, that the objectives and expectations of that economic nationalism are the same, or that it was the sole, or event the main basis of left wing politics.
Claire equates the excess of men in the Labour Party with JKs elimination of pests.
This is a poor analogy, Claire. Balance is not the same as elimination.
This article reflects badly on its author. WO no longer required?
Claire is getting desperate as the Tories continue to fall in the polls and fail the country.
FYI Damien O’Connor is not a list MP and he won his electorate easily just like the term before last. This time it was the biggest win for him yet, and the Nat candidate he was up against was a woman, Maureen Pugh, he wiped the floor with her. Actually I wonder if Pugh has an investment in the 1080 factory? Last I heard she had interests in a helicopter company, I guess they will be busy making $ from dropping the poison. Hey Maureen where are the missing millions? Still under investigation is it? Mhmm… we will get to the bottom of that http://www.greystar.co.nz/content/blowtorch-pugh%E2%80%99s-record
Continue to fall in the polls ? Did you actually read the last poll ?????
Also most people think the country is going in the right direction- so I think you comment about failing the country whilst universally accepted on this forum (by the lefties anyway) might is out of step with the rest of the population.
Comments were allowed on this dopy article, so I commented early this morning.
Not a single comment had been published by close of play Thursday.
Granny’s up to her old tricks again.
Whatever the causes or apparent justifications for war…. starving hundreds of thousands of men, women and children, is well into the realms of war crime:
Seige by Syrian regime on Aleppo tightens….
Government troops have repeatedly used sieges to help starve rebel-held cities into submission. Human rights groups fear the tactic will be deployed in Aleppo, where up to 300,000 people are living in areas under rebel control.
Food will run out within weeks, a group of 24 aid agencies working on the ground warned, and regime bombing raids have targeted several of the few remaining working hospitals in those parts of the city.
The West didn’t start it, Assad did by bombing and shooting his own people during the Arab spring. And you actually know that, though it does not suit your narrative. That in turn caused the armed insurrection. Only then did the West, and others (Iran) get involved. But the civil war was well underway by then.
I am sure some of the western arms supplied to various anti-Assad factions will have ended up in the hands of ISIS, since in 2012 to 2014, the anti -Assad forces were highly disparate. It is not obvious that various western countries, including Turkey had a good idea of the nature of the various factions.
Modern civil wars seem to have many more factions that in the past, where civil wars looked like two states at war (US Civil war, Spanish civil war, etc).
The West didn’t start it, Assad did by bombing and shooting his own people during the Arab spring. And you actually know that, though it does not suit your narrative. That in turn caused the armed insurrection. Only then did the West, and others (Iran) get involved. But the civil war was well underway by then.
bullshit Wayne.
Syria is in the middle of its worst drought in 1200 years (climate change). Hundreds of thousands of impoverished farmers fled their failing land and headed into the cities, causing massive social instability that the west was happy to contribute to. (Producing detailed plans to destabilise the Assad regime has been a key goal of the USA for at least a decade).
This link is to a 2006 US Gov cable describing the “vulnerabilities” of the Assad regime and how they can be “exploited” to overthrow Assad.
Yes, Assad managed the resulting protests and civil unrest badly leading to hundreds of civilian deaths.
At which point the west decided to go full scale regime change, allowing thousands of Islamic fighters to infiltrate into Syria via NATO partner Turkey, and funding and arming these Islamists in a 5 year long fight to try and depose Assad.
The US did the same to Afghanistan by the way to take down the USSR. They have form and expertise in this.
In Syria the US gave the nod to its ME allies to do the same particularly: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey.
And 400,000 dead Syrians later the West is still keen to keep fighting Assad right down to the last Syrian.
But there’s a problem now Wayne. Turkey is distancing itself from its former pro-ISIS stance. Which means that the Islamic Rebels in northern Syria are about to find their lifelines back into Turkey cut.
The West didn’t start it, Assad did by bombing and shooting his own people during the Arab spring.
Considering the US has been wanting to get rid of Assad for some time now because he wouldn’t let through the pipeline that they wanted it’s a serious question as to just how much the US pushed those protests in the first place:
In the section on Syria, Bensaada focuses on a handful of Syrian opposition activists who received free US training in cyberactivism and nonviolent resistance beginning in 2006. One, Ausama Monajed, is featured in the 2011 film How to Start a Revolution about a visit with Gene Sharp in 2006. Monajed and others worked closely with the US embassy, funded by the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). This is a State Department program that operates in countries (such as Libya and Syria) where USAID is banned.
I don’t think so.
Do you still believe the west’s propaganda?
Wonder if you’d continued to follow Goebbel’s arguments In 1943?
Anyway, here’s a refresher for you on what really has been happening.
Draco, my point in commenting was to shine the spotlight on the horror of war – not to start a pointless armchair dingdong
I have no tolerance whatsoever for people supporting Assad on whatever grounds. He should have stepped down in 2011 and this war might never have been fought.
There are over 1 million people in 52 besiged communities in the country, 49 of them are under seige by the Assad regime, 2 of them by the rebels, and 1 of them by ISIS while the Assad regime denies them aid.
Also I have no tolerance at all for people who argue the semantics, and don’t seem to be moved by people being bombed, shelled and starved into submission – as the daily reports and photos from journalists risking their lives show us, as the streams of refugees into Europe tell us, as the 24 aid agencies in Aleppo are documenting.
I find it incredibly depressing to read the bullshit partisan arguments being trotted out about who caused it all and who is worse than who, and that we are all being conned by propoganda. All sides in the Syrian war have killed and are continuing to kill. The forces with the most tanks, heavy artillery and aircraft have killed and continue to kill the most.
The US and Russia are now both directly involved in the war and both of these countries have entreated with Assad to step down. He must – that is the only way forward.
He should have stepped down in 2011 and this war might never have been fought.
Or, more likely, it would have been a hell of a lot worse. And all of the reports I’ve seen show that a majority of Syrians support Assad. If it was taken to elections, Assad would be voted back in.
Would you still be calling for him to step down then? I’m pretty sure that the US and their lickspittles would be.
Also I have no tolerance at all for people who argue the semantics, and don’t seem to be moved by people being bombed, shelled and starved into submission
And I have no tolerance for those idiots who demand that we act emotionally as it’s the wrong thing to do as it never solves anything. It has a tendency to start wars rather than end them.
The US and Russia are now both directly involved in the war and both of these countries have entreated with Assad to step down.
Last time I looked Russia was still supporting Assad and the US wants Assad to step down so that they can create a power vacuum and place another puppet government there. As they did with Iran (1953) and Iraq (1960s, 2000s).
if much of the world’s media haven’t shaken your belief in Assad, and clearly you trust the evidence that he’s highly popular, despite 5 years of destroying most of the cities of his country, and given his track record of murdering thousands of unarmed civilians to quell protests in 2011, there’s probably not much a random blogger called locus can say that will alter your views
I remain convinced that if Assad had stepped down in 2012 and Morocco had led the UN proposed democratic transition of power this war could have been averted. Your statement that this would have allowed the US to step in to create a puppet government is no less of a supposition than mine. Irrespective of who might be right, in 2012 the Russians and Chinese voted down the UN resolution for Assad to step down, despite clear advice from ME experts that the end game of this would be civil war in Syria.
I think now is not the time to argue rights and wrongs – there will be plenty of evidence uncovered in the future to bring many to trial for war crimes. Nor is it the time to be partisan about Russia or the US.
You are very much mistaken if you think you can take the emotion out of engaging effectively to stop further bloodshed, end this war and rebuild people’s lives
Morena, last night I took 3 kids to meet the next Prime Minister of NZ, they were impressed. Kids pick up on vibes, Andrew Little took the time to talk to the kids, kids felt comfortable with him straight away, he was great with them, no pretending required, wonderful human being he is.
I’m already super impressed with Andrew, he is a incredible speaker, and a born leader, he is the next PM of NZ, and on a cold winters night in Motueka there was standing room only a wonderful turn out. He took the time to go around and talk to everyone there, not just a few words, rather he took the time because he was genuinely interested in listening to the people. Thanks for coming to Motueka Andrew Little, hope to see you here again soon, keep up the good work.
That said, glad you went out and meet Andrew Little, Jens.
I’m glad you liked him, he is a very affable chap. Shame our media can’t give him more than a 5 second sound bite most days. I think more people would warm to him if he was given even half a chance.
You may have guessed I’m no supporter of labour, however the media have done, and continue to do a number on Little, and we should all try to redress that situation.
I’d encourage everyone who’s interesting in Auckland or housing to have a look at Matt’s excellent little taster over at TransportBlog on the independent panel’s version of the growth of Auckland, and how it will be accommodated:
New Zealand’s population is heading for 6 million in 30 years, and Auckland’s will be well into the 2 million. Regrettably, and to a degree that’s nearly unique in the world, Auckland is the biggest part of our society and economy. How this plan works really matters.
Silly question, historically Auckland and the Auckland region gets just over half of the country’s population. So if we move towards a figure of 6 million, would it not follow that Auckland population will probably be a city of 3 million, not 2?
Frightening to think Auckland will be a city of 2 million in thirty years. It’s struggling now, with the division between haves and have nots are quite stark, I can’t imagine that expanded as well, will be any good for a society.
Actually the percentage is slowly changing. Over the last thirty years it has gone from 30% to 34%, and is headed to 40% over the next 30 years. In fact Auckland needs to be planning for 3 million people since that will happen (or close to it) in the next 30 years. The city (Pukekohe to Wellsford) is already close to 1.7 million.
In many ways NZ will become like Queensland where the major city has nearly half the population.
“like Queensland where the major city has nearly half the population.”
Queensland has in fact the least concentrated population of the five larger (ie excluding Tasmania) Australian States..
About 43% live in Brisbane. In NW it is around 56% and in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia it is over 68% in each case.
Actually, it isn’t that unique. Lots of countries have a single dominant city. However, it is questionable if this is good for the overall country or not.
It seems the Greens and Labour broadly support the changes as well…
“Proposed changes to Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS) look promising, but should not overshadow that there is still an urgent funding crisis in CYFS, the Green Party said today.”
“The independent panel tasked with overhauling our child protection agency has come up with some useful solutions, but they will only succeed if the Government pays more than lip service to early intervention.” Labour website.
“We owe it, at least to the taxpayer, but absolutely to the people needing our help, to use every tool available to change lives,” said the deputy prime minister, Bill English, in a data conference this year. “Lives which are described by the data.”
The New Zealand government believes that increasing use of predictive modelling techniques based on personal data from beneficiaries (incorporating data from child, youth and family payments, work and income, and the criminal justice system) will help it identify the most vulnerable in society and intervene at an earlier stage so they do not become long-term or lifetime beneficiaries.
The government says in the four years since implementing the regime, it has saved the welfare system $12bn it would have otherwise had to spend in the future.
This model – called “actuarial valuation” – is what the Australian government want to emulate.
But poverty experts in New Zealand say the Australians are signing up to a system that is routinely harming, rather than helping, New Zealand’s most needy.
Similar to calling your political party “Labour”, it either sounds like 24 hours of excruciating pain, or being subjected to backbreaking work, either way a terrible name that is also dated.
Based on the results of this investigation, we want to be more clear about (1) how we expect people to behave, (2) where people can take complaints and problems, (3) what will happen when complaints are received.
Putting procedures in place is more difficult for the Tor Project than for other organizations, because the staff of the Tor Project works in partnership with a broader Tor community, many of whom are volunteers or employed by other organizations. It is not a traditional top-down management environment. I am pleased, therefore, to announce that both the Tor Project and the Tor community are taking active steps to strengthen our ability to handle problems of unprofessional behavior. Specifically, the Tor Project has created an anti-harassment policy, a conflicts of interest policy, procedures for submitting complaints, and an internal complaint review process. They were recently approved by Tor’s board of directors, and they will be rolled out internally this week.
In addition, the Tor community has created a community council to help to resolve intra- community difficulties, and it is developing membership guidelines, a code of conduct, and a social contract that affirms our shared values and the behaviors we want to model. We expect these to be finalized and approved by the community at or before our next developer meeting at the end of September.
I believe these new policies and practices will make the Tor Project and the Tor community significantly healthier and stronger. I want to thank everyone who has contributed to the work we’ve done so far, and also to those who will contribute in the coming months.
I am watching Paul Henry at the moment. Coming back into NZ and seeing the media here is jarring. I am not sure if people realise how much of a pro government propaganda tool the MSM is now in NZ.
It is Alice in Wonderland stuff.
Greens criticise state of rivers.
National allows farmers to plunder rivers for private benefit.
Greens criticise state of rivers.
National indulges in tokenistic effort to clean up rivers.
Greens criticise state of rivers.
Media criticises Greens for criticising wonderful government initiative that addresses their criticism.
….major claim to fame was giving the single digit salute to the 1981 International Year of Disabled Persons, which he saw as patronising and counter-productive….
So place your hard-earned peanuts in my tin
And thank the Creator you’re not in the state I’m in
So long have I been languished on the shelf
I must give all proceedings to myself
Yes we are well aware of it and even Natrad doesn’t (can’t ?) rattle anyone’s cage sufficiently anymore. Imo this is one of the biggest problems facing us – the power of the media is immense and it is being controlled by the right. The likes of Newstalk ZB, TV3,TVNZ, in fact all of the commercial stations, and all the corporate papers are all based on planet Key. Sorry – this is in reply to Sanctuary ( 11. )
Education consultant and parenting commentator Joseph Driessen talks about what parents of children who succeed at school are doing right.”
…not available yet…but well worth a listen, and bugger me if the solutions to the problem of poor engagement with learning are completely cost free. (In dollar terms)
Just returned from a week in Ozzie. The MSM media in Australia is far broader and deeper than in NZ. The difference is stark and very disappointing. We don’t know what we are missing. Our public media is disgraceful. TVNZ is a disaster and, sad to say, Radio New Zealand is on the same skids. I’ve switched off, and onto other Internet sources for quality information and news.
It is another failure of the neo-liberal paradigm where it’s all about ratings, entertainment and profits rather than informing people.
I do wonder if the percentage of the population that actually watches TV or listens to the radio is dropping. I know I don’t and I know that several others that read this forum don’t either.
Natcorp leader John Key needs to do the honourable thing and resign if the TPPA he undemocratically pushed so strongly upon us is rejected by the American’s.
With a 10% jump I would guess that is a very safe assumption, it still directly contradicts Stuart’s point though, so I thought it was relevant.
Stuart seems to be another one of these people that think that because this is National’s 3rd term, Labour just win by default at the next election… I don’t think it is quite that straight forward.
Because John Key has wrecked the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders therefore if he fucked off it would be good thing regardless of any other reason?
Sorry to burst your bubble, leftie, but I don’t love John Key and I’m not a John Key or National supporter and I in fact despise the guy, his politics and everything he represents. I do see, however, how you could’ve thought otherwise.
Silly naive Angela Merkel. She imposed refugees on Europe ( a Trojan Horse?) …and she didnt question the causes of the mass refugee crisis and demand justice for the refugees and their rights to be returned safely to their own countries, which have been ravaged by war… because she supports NATO and the USA ( who bombed the shit out of Iraq, Libya, and wants to get rid of Assad?..who created the vacuum for Isis?…and who has designs on destabilising Iran and Russia?)
‘Merkel’s open-border policies are destroying Europe’ – Willy Wimmer’
You are aware this government is slavishly copying the errors of neoliberalism, an ideology that has ruined the US and the UK’s citizens.
Instead of looking to the Icelandic model or the Finnish model or the Danish model.
But you know that.
And still support this incompetent, corrupt client regime of banker Key.
Shame.
As is usual the 1% doesn’t care about the costs, which they will promptly dump on to the rest of society while they scoop off the benefits all for themselves.
Listening to Susie Ferguson having a go at Andrew Little this morning on RNZ at being at odds with the Greens and their statement of lowering the house prices. She was obviously and determined to undermine and try to drive a wedge between Labour and the Greens at not being on the same page together. I thought what a bloody nerve, National are forever bringing up new ideas on the hoof where one Cabinet Minister doesn’t know one thing from the other Cabinet Minister and are not keeping themselves informed and “being on the same page”. Paula Benefit for one with her shifting and changing trying to get people out of Auckland or back again – whatever day she seems fit to pontificate on. The Minister of Everything is another with his chucking goodies to Northland left, right and centre without a thought of what he was doing. At least Labour and the Greens are separate parties and are entitled to have their differences.
If RNZ’s morning crew expended as much energy being fair to all parties it would be easier on the ears for everybody – its so darned obvious even a baboon would be able to see through it. Andrew Little should have just told her to shut her gob and give him a chance to speak and repeat what the Gov. says all the time – “well the government in power does it, why don’t you have a go at them as well about it”. Fat chance of that, he is too good mannered for that.
LAB/GR need to be showing off their new teamwork and co-ordination to the electorate.
Especially as the wedge driving has only started. Wait until 2017. National will have a tonne of wood wedges handy and a lot of sledge hammers to bang them in with.
Handled badly on both sides I think. The Greens for not giving Labour a headsup, Labour for Little slagging off the GP policy esp without understanding what it is.
Winston seems to be the only one ( I won’t call him “opposition” because you can’t tell with him) who does not let the interviewer derail what he wants to say. Time and again “our lot ” let the interviewer walk all over them . Why ? Is it just lack of media training ? I think it’s more than that. There just doesn’t seem to be anyone on the left in NZ who can handle the media.
I agree whispering kate. Andrew Little is too polite sometimes. He endeavours to get his point across politely then when the interviewer intervenes he gets flustered and starts repeating himself which only makes it look like he’s trying to spin a lie.
I’ve said it a hundred times and I still say it. He needs more media training.
(Wriggling around in the further recesses of my memory banks is a campaign from the early seventies for some sort of price relief on moisturisers and sunscreens. The argument was that the NZ climate was cruel on skin (and this was before melanoma became an issue) and there should be cheaper and more effective products available.)
And when Bennett was social welfare minister she lambasted claims that hygiene products couldn’t be purchased at the supermarket using a special needs grant for food. Her comments were made after an overzealous checkout operator refused to sell a packet of pads because they were going to be paid for using an SNG voucher. The only things that couldn’t be bought were alcohol and tobacco but the checkout operator decided to add hygiene products. Bennett waded in and said that wasn’t right.
Well, since then, the social security tribunal has changed that again by saying people cannot get hygiene products using the food SNG, nor soap or shampoo or any kind of personal or cleaning products. What’s interesting is that Work and Income defended the appeal despite their minister saying that people could use the SNG for this purpose.
Will try to track down the tribunal decision that contradicts what Bennett said. It’s appalling that Work and Income let it go to the tribunal in the first place if its position really was as Bennett said.
“Ms Thompson said another woman tried to use a Winz supermarket card at the check-out at her local supermarket, and the card didn’t work.
“The cashier called Winz to find out why the card wouldn’t work, and found out it was because she had tampons amongst the items she was purchasing. She had to return them.””
So…not just at the discretion of the checkout operator….actually built into the system.
Especially when special needs grants come under a programme the minister has direct control over. Bennett says sanitary items can be bought with a grant issued to purchase items from a supermarket, and then when a beneficiary appeals a decision that’s inconsistent with what she says her ministry defends it all the way to the tribunal. Bennett’s a piece of work at the best of times. I’m still totally flabbergasted that she thinks it’s okay to put the poorest of people into $80,000+ of debt to meet the cost of emergency housing simply because “they signed up for it”.
“I’m still totally flabbergasted that she thinks it’s okay to put the poorest of people into $80,000+ of debt to meet the cost of emergency housing …”
In her world, ’emergency housing’ could also mean a cardboard carton in the park, or under a bridge, or perhaps in a (usually) dry stormwater pipe. Or a vehicle.
The Auckland Action Against Poverty group in Auckland said they were challenging those debts. I hope they’re successful. It beggars belief that people can end up with that kind of debt via simple operation of legislation that’s meant to help our poorest. It beggars fucking belief.
What’s equally distressing is that nobody’s that up in arms about it at all. It’s as close to the crime of the century as you’ll get but nobody seems to give a stuff.
In addition to this, what’s alarming in NZ is the current trend of shifting rules around how and when people qualify for social security into regulations. This has the effect of removing the necessary legal flexibility that allows need to be met regardless of differences in circumstances. The nature of regulations means that if circumstances don’t fit neatly into the tightly prescribed rules then it’s quite legal for Work and Income to say no. This is the main thrust behind the rewrite Bill currently before Parliament. The government says it’s about tidying up existing complexity etc and that there’s no major change but that’s a load of shite. The Bill is in effect another benefit cut – not necessarily by way of reducing rates but by giving the executive branch of government the ability to make binding regulations that make it legal to refuse people help. Labour began the trend when it axed the special benefit in 2004 and replaced it with the temporary additional support benefit, and then again in 2007 by introducing the ability to make regulations that overrode the statutory definition of income. This latest rewrite Bill takes the concept to dangerously new heights. Work and Income staff won’t be required to treat people badly in order to deny issuing help. They’ll be able to say no ever so politely and with a clear conscience because the law won’t allow any alternative.
Yes, I’ve seen the trailers and felt sad and angry. I think it’s on at NZIFF at the moment. Just viewing the trailers previously, it’s apparent at how NZ’s welfare rules are blending with the UK’s. It’s really quite sinister.
Watched “Where To Invade Next” by Michael Moore the other night. It’s mainly a comparison of a sample of how European states educational, health, and justice systems work compared to USA. A good Vs bad sort of comparison, very simple but there is an important message. One feeling I took away was a sense of growing alarm at how far we have come from our own equitable roots and have marooned ourselves in some vast ocean with no horizon, gradually floating towards the USA.
To me, it says alot about what we have allowed to happen to our society.
There is also a French film called Tomorrow that offers future solutions to the present economic structure to save our society and our planet.
Models to learn from were Finland ( education) , Iceland ( people’s democracy, France ( permaculture) , Bristol, England ( money system ), San Francisco ( waste), Copenhagen ( city design and transport), France ( a new industrial structure)
amongst other inspirational models.
Watch it when it comes to Wellington.
Well that’s just bad luck. There’s nothing you can do about that. Kind of like nature, you know, survival of the fittest, and all that, eh? It’s about nature. Nobody can fuck with nature.
Donald Trump has made restoring American jobs a centerpiece of his campaign, a pledge he reiterated last week when he accepted the Republican nomination for president: “I’m going to bring our jobs back to Ohio and Pennsylvania and New York and Michigan and all of America,” he said.
This month, Trump is bringing jobs to Florida, as he looks to hire 78 servers, housekeepers, and cooks at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach and the nearby Trump National Golf Club, Jupiter.
Of course! That’s why I included the links to the two party’s policies. I thought it would be good for the facts to speak for themselves. Great post, weka.
Don’t start with me either TRP, I’m not in the mood. I know how both you and CV get into these arguments and your reasonable on the surface comment is classic entry point.
Whatev’s. You’re in the mood to criticise me, but when I accept with good grace your position on this post, you go off on one. Lighten up.
[Banned permanently from this post for telling an author what to do, and picking a fight when already asked not to. I’m making note of the gas lighting too. Subthread moved to Open Mike – weka]
lol…can we have a video clip of a mud wrestling fight?…i bet weka would get a lot of fast pecks in and TRP would wallow around like a baby and splutter and shout
[lprent: Or I could just give my impression of a 5kg troll crushing hammer. Of course I’d need someone to use it on.. ]
No. I didn’t ‘set’ any ban length. I banned someone for six weeks and explained why I was banning them. That ban could have been for one week. It could also have been for six months. In the event, it was six weeks – a fairly arbitrary decision.
It is a hopeful sign that people throughout the Washington-dominated world are discovering the power of “nyet.” The establishment may still look spiffy on the outside, but under the shiny new paint there hides a rotten hull, with water coming in though every open seam. A sufficiently resounding “nyet” will probably be enough to cause it to founder, suddenly making room for some very necessary changes. When that happens, please remember to thank Russia… or, if you insist, Putin.
I’m reasonably certain that Trump will win the US presidential election. This will be a disaster in many ways for the world but I think it will also do some good as it will expose the complete failure and corruption of our Western systems. IMO, it will be the final nail in the coffin of capitalism.
Is there anyone else who’s getting fucked off with TS being the playground/battleground of a few likely suspects ? Comment after comment after comment all about them. Which is so childish and John Key.
Clever, erudite, no-ones’ fool, wah wah wah, but Jesus! they love fucking Donald Trump. I just don’t know……
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Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Can you believe this?
The government are doing this – despite a housing crisis.
Uncaring, greedy…….
Some tenants living in the hundreds of state and council homes north of Wellington that have been put on the market are worried about what the sale mean for their future.
The Government and Horowhenua District Council have unveiled a plan to sell 364 houses across Horowhenua and Kapiti, including 151 Housing New Zealand homes in Levin, 21 in Foxton, 70 in Otaki and seven in Shannon.
Almost all of the houses are occupied and their tenants are mostly elderly, single people or single parents.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/82526332/housing-new-zealand-council-plan-to-sell-hundreds-of-state-and-council-homes
this government and its ministers seem to have no concept of what it’s like to fear your home being taken off you, the stress of not knowing if you’re going to be forcibly evicted, the humiliation of being at the mercy of those who have the power to move you on, and break up families and communities
everything this government and its compliant district councils are doing – or not doing – in regards to housing is seeding a disaster for the future, not just for state tenants but also for the next generation of New Zealanders who won’t be able to afford to buy their own home
I find it particularly depressing to hear decent people so quickly buying-in to the meme pedalled by this government, that all these reports are a media beat-up
uncaring and greedy is too kind…
I’d add one or more of these: ‘incompetent, unaware of reality, in denial, living in their comfortable bubble, complacent, arrogant, dismissive….’
+100 Paul and locus
My God…..it’s like they’re being picked off…….’cos they’re poor and ain’t got their own house. Vultures are circling. In this OUR New Zealand. OUR New Zealand didn’t used to be like this. Some bastards gotta be brought to account !
We know them by the company they keep!
Donald Trump has chosen Pence as his running mate – an extreme right wing religious nutter!
Hillary Clinton picked Kaine for VP – a pro-war, pro-Wall Street establishment neocon.
Bernie’s supporters walked out of the DNC en masse!
If Trump wins, expect to see the whole country lurch to the religious right, because I don’t believe Trump has the ability, understanding or the patience to govern. His task will be ‘to make America great again.’ Lol
If Clinton wins don’t expect any of Bernie’s platforms to be implemented. Clinton, with her best friend Bill advising her, will not move against those who own her. Errh!
It may be a wasted vote, but if I was an American, Jill Stein would get my nod. The lesser of two evils is still evil – but Jill stands for everything that needs to be changed in the USA.
[Because of the regular misuse of the word ‘establishment’ for the purposes of trolling and abuse, it has been added to the mod list. That means comments that use the word will be held in moderation until released. It might be appropriate for neo con to go in there too if it is also going to be used in ignorance and out of context. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Kaine TRP]
Has a stalinist coup happened on the Standard?
And that stadandesters must conform to some new form of Politically Correct newspeak that is divined from up on high?
I would have thought neocon and neoliberal were in essence interchangeable after 40 odd years, especially when we have a liberal elite who have given up on a socialist programme.
Is it no longer true that the established hierarchy can and indeed has a name?
One thing about free speech, is you have to hear a whole lot of stuff you don’t like, and some of it may even offend you.
Are you serious? Moderating comments for misuse of a word…
“‘Words’, he said, ‘is oh such a twitch-tickling problem to me all my life. So you must simply try to be patient and stop squibbling. As I am telling you before, I know exactly what words I am wanting to say, but somehow or other they is always getting squiff-squiddled around.”
Agree with you guys. Watch out next week, Blairite, Sanders and Jill Stein will be thrown into moderation too..
Yes, dear.
(Just thought I’d use that line for the first and only time. I find it sneering and belittling, kind of like ‘Zip it, sweety’. But it has its fans here at TS so I suppose it’s OK.)
Frankly, I am falling over in near disbelief this night Thursday……
No coup, Adam. There has been a tightening up on abusive language for a while now. One troll in particular has been regularly misusing neocon and other similar phrases to stifle debate. So, for the time being, some words will drop comments into moderation. They’ll quickly be released if the words are being used in context, or moderated appropriately, then released, if they are not.
Read the policy (top of the page) if you are confused about how the Standard is moderated.
Can you give a list of the new words you have deemed abusive, I know policy says words, but I’m at a loss at what they are.
Is the subtext of your message another move in your public fight with Colonial Viper?
That has become truly a tired affair for the rest of us. At this point I wish you two would either copulate, or get into a right proper ruckus – teeth and all. Rather than this snippy affair that has gone on for months from both sides.
I’d like to clarify things a bit as someone who has access to the backend as an author. From what I can see, this is a decision that TRP has made on his own. There hasn’t been any discussion in the moderators’ forum. So please don’t assume this is anything other than TRP’s action.
As an author and moderator, I think it’s a bad move, the words chosen, the reasons given for the decision, and the fact that it was done unilaterally but presented as being something that the people who run the place agreed on.
It is possible that TRP has talked to other authors offsite, including Lynn.
From my experience in the front end of the site, I would say that TRP brings lots of good things to TS, but he also does some daft shit and some down right damaging shit. I would put this in the latter category (daft and damaging).
I would guess that you are right adam, that this was triggered by something to do with CV (but I haven’t looked that closely). And yes it smacks of authoritarianism. The irony there is that TRP has his own history of frequently winding up people by using political words as pejoratives. So yet another example of crazy making.
Judging something to be trolling is often very subjective. But TS traditionally has managed that quite lightly and really only premoderated words like N*zi or Tr*ll, which are well known trolling/flamming words in the internets. Premoderating words like ‘est*blisment’ is ridiculous and makes TS a laughing stock in the political blogosphere.
Having said all that, there has been a tightening up on moderation this year, and that appears to be getting good results. But the things that have changed that have made the difference, IMO, are the moderations that are clear and concise around just stepping in quickly and shutting down flame wars. I don’t see TRP’s moderated words as contributing to that and will probably just make things worse as they add to the culture of bullying and misuse of power.
btw, you can probably circumvent the premoderation by adding in asterisks. eg est*blisment. Of course TRP can then go and add ‘est*blisment’ to the list, but it’s a long word with lots of permutations, so have a play around with it.
I’d also suggest for the braver amongst us that we start using the word est*blisment as much as possible (knowing there is a risk of backlash). Or even without the asterisk. People power and all that. Plus the action deserves all the ridicule it can get. Fight back I say, but do it in a fun way.
(I don’t have the same level of author permissions as TRP so I can’t see the full range of tools that he has access to. I also can’t for instance release comments from moderation unless they are in one of my own posts).
Wow! What a backlash about my (I thought) rather innocuous comments, which no-one has bothered to read – fixating on the bold at the end!
Perhaps I got the rebuke because, a day or so ago, I commented that I was with CV on the Trump/Clinton thing.
For what it’s worth, and being very careful not to use the proscribed words, I still think Trump will win – though God help us all if he does.
Both Trump and Clinton carry too much baggage (banned word?) into this campaign. Clinton’s is political, Trumps apolitical. But, again, for what it’s worth, I’d still vote for Jill Stein if I was an American.
Hillary Clinton is the candidate of the Structural Status Quo.
You know it and I know it. The truth is bleeding obvious.
Not everyone can handle the truth however.
I read what you said Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster). I liked what you said. It was the bold at the bottom, which flummoxed me.
I would definitely encourage stronger moderation here.
What for the use of the word copulation and the the word ruckus? In my defense, both were and are the most humors terms I could find, rather than reach for gutter idioms.
Or at my overall discontent with an on going fight between two authors at the standard that creates an ongoing quandary for all who have to witness it?
I’d support banning lol, rotflmao or similar
Pretty damned pertinent piece (on a couple of levels) by Robert Reich.
http://www.salon.com/2016/07/25/hillary_doesnt_get_it_she_doesnt_need_to_move_toward_the_middle_she_needs_to_move_toward_the_anti_establishment_partner/
I’d assumed it was a comment suggesting stronger moderation in relation to the idiotic, damaging and on-going spat between trp and CV. But then, it could be read in a number of ways. Maybe Ad will clarify.
No, just generally here.
Adam you were fine.
Thanks, Ad. From the start, the site has tried to encourage open debate, while discouraging abuse. The levels of tolerance fluctuate and in the early years there was an almost anarchic approach (Robinsod is the exemplar for that, worth looking for his or her’s contributions for some cheap laughs when the search function comes back).
For me, the penny dropped around the time I wrote the ‘Broken’ post. So I’ve kept an eye out for words, terms or phrases that are being deliberately used in abusive ways. Happily, most commenters accept the moderation without complaint and quickly find other ways to express their opinions that add to the mix rather than close debate down.
Or you could just use Google.
20 Tips To Use Google Search Efficiently
“Thanks, Ad. From the start, the site has tried to encourage open debate, while discouraging abuse.”
Man, I was lucky to get away with what I did last night, strong abuse,………………I thought I might have been flying pretty close to the wire. Better keep my head down from now on.
Every one gets one free hit, Rosie. House rules 😉
Some people are candidates of the structural status quo, some people are supporters of the structural status quo.
It’s very easy for people to figure it out.
the prevailing political/social order too.
A particularly peculiar mix of odd orthodoxarians and aggravated authoritarians?
I agree if one simply took the author of the post above and simply believed what he said about kaine most would think he was an evil bastard …read the wiki info and presto he isnt .Im a bit supprized anyone would need instruction regarding the word establishment tho i mean would i be in trouble if i said hillary was establishment ?
There’s no problem with the word establishment. However it has been used in conjunction with other pejorative words which have been intended to insult or abuse.. The mod filter isn’t sophisticated enough to scrub out phrases or combinations of words so it’s been caught up. However, it’s only caused a moments delay for half a dozen comments, so no harm done.
There’s no problem with the word establishment. However it has been used in conjunction with other pejorative words which have been intended to insult or abuse. The mod filter isn’t sophisticated enough to scrub out phrases or combinations of words so it’s been caught up. However, it’s only caused a moments delay for half a dozen comments, and the use of similar abusive phrases seems to have diminished as a result. So, better conversations, more intelligent debate. That’s what we all want, right?
Ten minutes isn’t ‘a moments delay’ – and that happened for at least one comment.
There was (and still are) a handful of perfectly okay comments sitting in trash. Now sure, they may have wound up there for some really weird reason (it duplicates from time to time for some reason) or just because a commenter deleted their own comment because…well, moderators don’t ever throw comments into trash. Right?
Anyway. I did manage to save the Robert Reich link that someone else had tried to post. Can’t imagine why they’d post it and then delete it (ie -send it to the trash folder) during their edit time, but hey….
Honestly can’t see where the ‘better conversations’ or ‘more intelligent debate’ is, as a result of essentially flaming everyone. But again, hey….
No worries, Bill, thanks for your thoughts. I was trying to find a soft way to moderate abuse, but clearly that’s not going to work if too many people have objections to the concept. I’ll just ban instead, though I’ll probably give a warning first, unless it’s excessive abuse.
Maybe you authors should have a vote and let democracy decide the next steps. Seriously – this shitfight that is going on imo needs to be RESOLVED.
Not telling you what to do of course but I am asking. Non violent communication is a good model for resolving conflicts.
I can’t say I haven’t tried.
I know Bill.
There seem to be sneaky agendas here. I take voices passive aggressive threats as being completely unnecessary – weak personal qualities exposed – he’ll probably threaten to beat me up again for that one though.
As for cv – he is not left – end of story. Too much trumputin bullshit – he’s like trump a trojan – cv the bloody Trojan nzfirster now imo.
Anyhow good luck with it all.
It’s a real dilemma when you have an otherwise fairly functional group of people with a common purpose and one of them thinks it’s about doing what they want as an individual. I don’t know the solution to that, and I’m not sure a majority vote would sort it out tbh. The impression I have is that everyone has pretty full lives and are reluctant to put energy into it, especially as there seems to be history of people having to leave.
It’s a major stumbling block to getting new authors IMO.
Trump is far more Left economically than the Neocon Globalist Status Quo.
Putin is also far more Left economically than the Neocon Globalist Status Quo.
And NZ First is far further Left economically than National and Labour.
You need your bearings checked mate they are shot.
Classic – what a joke. Your slogans belong from another time they are hilarious – you have become a caricature little trumputin.
Hi Marty Mars, I’m afraid your gut reaction is totally on a tilt.
Trump wants to raise trade barriers, wants to bring manufacturing back from China to the USA, wants to reneg on free trade deals like NAFTA and the TPP, wants to stop spending on big wars and wants to spend on new infrastructure throughout the USA.
That’s way more left than the Democrats.
Putin has created a capitalist economy where the billionaire oligarchs are strongly reined in, where the resources of the country are heavily regulated/owned by the state, where a pension is available to every Russian, where tertiary education and public healthcare is broadly available and either free or reasonably cheap.
That’s way more left than the Democrats.
As for NZ First – their economic stance including willingness to nationalise key assets and ban foreign ownership is way more Left than Labour.
🙄
Further, Putin, Trump and Peters all understand the critical importance of *economic sovereignty* and all three are willing to act on that understanding.
That’s way more Left than most of the other political parties in NZ.
He will appoint an ultra conservative judge to the Supreme Court though.
yes weka, that’s undeniable.
And build a wall
Did you see the 8 foot steel and wire wall the Democrats built around their convention? To keep other Democrats out?
No. But what about this trumpwall, do you actually agree with that?
You’re not a real country if you cannot control the integrity of your borders and your seas. So the generic concept of the TrumpWall I agree with*
*PS it will never be built, he’s only trolling the Left Wing on this.
“Trump is far more Left economically than the Neocon Globalist Status Quo.”
Cool. I haven’t heard what his policies for redistribution of income and lowering societal income are. I guess you can help with that. Any idea what his taxation policies for the avoidance and minimisation schemes of the top 1% are? Is he going to strengthen trade unions and ensure fair labour laws – pay, safety etc.?
He’s going to ensure that there is massive working class employment in rebuilding the US manufacturing and infrastructure base, bringing back jobs from overseas.
He’s not going to rely on modern Lefty methods of handouts.
BTW Clinton is the oligarchy bankster candidate. She’ll protect the 0.1% exactly like Obama has.
What are his plans for people that can’t work?
Same as Obama’s. Let their unemployment insurance expire and throw them on the $140/month welfare scrap heap implemented by Bill Clinton.
“He’s not going to rely on modern Lefty methods of handouts.”
And the 1%?
What are are the plans for upskilling the workforce for these massive projects (maybe he’ll import skilled labour for less than it would cost to upskill?). And again – pay and conditions. I quite like that old-fashioned lefty way of ensuring people who can work get decent pay for decent work i.e. a fair share. No word on how those who can’t work in paid employment are going to get a share of the economic pie?
btw, this is about how Trump is or isn’t a lefty, not where Clinton stands.
He’ll elucidate on his plans more as the Presidential campaign gets going.
But I’m sure he has comprehensive staff training programmes within his own casinos and hotels.
Trump might have some economic thoughts (policies?) that sound left or leftish. But his thoughts around social issues, as far as I can tell, are very, very much to the right.
The same basic template, though not as extreme, applies to Peters.
You’re right that the establishment left has, for the most part, abandoned what we used to think of as left leaning economics.
But for fuck’s sake CV, if the economic choice is between a greater or lesser role for the state (orthodox parliamentarian leftism) or a greater or lesser role for the market (orthodox rightish parliamentarianism)…then unless Trump is going to expand the role of the state in health care and education etc…ie – have the state do all of those things that an orthodox leftist programme would call for, then he’s no more ‘left’ then fly.
What Trump actually wants is to bring the shitty low wage/ zero protection environment that’s been developed overseas by US corporations, brought back into the US. There are bugger all unions left to fight a workers corner and I just can’t envisage Trump making any good change to Labor Law in the US. Can you?
At least Clinton might be forced (reluctantly) to back a living wage and such like and she certainly won’t go all Mussolini on anyone giving her and her administration shit. Trump will be looking to have wages set by ‘the market’ (code for letting employers fuck workers over with impunity) and I suspect he could well go all Mussolini on matters.
Yes, he sounds as though he might be more isolationist, and that could be a relief for many people the world over. But at the same time, he’s saying he’ll deal with terrorists who link themselves to Islam. Short of dropping a nuclear device on Riyadh, I can’t see how he squares those two things off. Can you?
shitshitshit…rant over. For now.
“But I’m sure he has comprehensive staff training programmes within his own casinos and hotels.”
I wonder if he’ll open up a Trump technical training school, similar to the Trump University?
Anyway, about the 1%, tax, and employee rights etc…
I guess I don’t agree with your inference that economic nationalism is solely a left-wing political concern, that the objectives and expectations of that economic nationalism are the same, or that it was the sole, or event the main basis of left wing politics.
CV Have been to Spec Savers lately?
What other words or phases have you got concerns about? You know the ones intended to insult or abuse.
“Claire Trevett: Rats! Labour caught in a trap of its own making”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11682586
Claire equates the excess of men in the Labour Party with JKs elimination of pests.
This is a poor analogy, Claire. Balance is not the same as elimination.
This article reflects badly on its author. WO no longer required?
Claire is getting desperate as the Tories continue to fall in the polls and fail the country.
FYI Damien O’Connor is not a list MP and he won his electorate easily just like the term before last. This time it was the biggest win for him yet, and the Nat candidate he was up against was a woman, Maureen Pugh, he wiped the floor with her. Actually I wonder if Pugh has an investment in the 1080 factory? Last I heard she had interests in a helicopter company, I guess they will be busy making $ from dropping the poison. Hey Maureen where are the missing millions? Still under investigation is it? Mhmm… we will get to the bottom of that
http://www.greystar.co.nz/content/blowtorch-pugh%E2%80%99s-record
Continue to fall in the polls ? Did you actually read the last poll ?????
Also most people think the country is going in the right direction- so I think you comment about failing the country whilst universally accepted on this forum (by the lefties anyway) might is out of step with the rest of the population.
Comments were allowed on this dopy article, so I commented early this morning.
Not a single comment had been published by close of play Thursday.
Granny’s up to her old tricks again.
Whatever the causes or apparent justifications for war…. starving hundreds of thousands of men, women and children, is well into the realms of war crime:
Seige by Syrian regime on Aleppo tightens….
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/27/dozens-dead-in-syria-bomb-blast-qamishli?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Email
Ah, so it’s only a fear and not actually happening.
If the West didn’t want a sectarian war in Syria perhaps they shouldn’t have started one.
Draco,
The West didn’t start it, Assad did by bombing and shooting his own people during the Arab spring. And you actually know that, though it does not suit your narrative. That in turn caused the armed insurrection. Only then did the West, and others (Iran) get involved. But the civil war was well underway by then.
I am sure some of the western arms supplied to various anti-Assad factions will have ended up in the hands of ISIS, since in 2012 to 2014, the anti -Assad forces were highly disparate. It is not obvious that various western countries, including Turkey had a good idea of the nature of the various factions.
Modern civil wars seem to have many more factions that in the past, where civil wars looked like two states at war (US Civil war, Spanish civil war, etc).
bullshit Wayne.
Syria is in the middle of its worst drought in 1200 years (climate change). Hundreds of thousands of impoverished farmers fled their failing land and headed into the cities, causing massive social instability that the west was happy to contribute to. (Producing detailed plans to destabilise the Assad regime has been a key goal of the USA for at least a decade).
This link is to a 2006 US Gov cable describing the “vulnerabilities” of the Assad regime and how they can be “exploited” to overthrow Assad.
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06DAMASCUS5399_a.html
Yes, Assad managed the resulting protests and civil unrest badly leading to hundreds of civilian deaths.
At which point the west decided to go full scale regime change, allowing thousands of Islamic fighters to infiltrate into Syria via NATO partner Turkey, and funding and arming these Islamists in a 5 year long fight to try and depose Assad.
The US did the same to Afghanistan by the way to take down the USSR. They have form and expertise in this.
In Syria the US gave the nod to its ME allies to do the same particularly: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey.
And 400,000 dead Syrians later the West is still keen to keep fighting Assad right down to the last Syrian.
But there’s a problem now Wayne. Turkey is distancing itself from its former pro-ISIS stance. Which means that the Islamic Rebels in northern Syria are about to find their lifelines back into Turkey cut.
Considering the US has been wanting to get rid of Assad for some time now because he wouldn’t let through the pipeline that they wanted it’s a serious question as to just how much the US pushed those protests in the first place:
“The West didn’t start it, ”
much of the middle east consider the crusades to have never ended
its all about where you put the starting point isnt it
I don’t think so.
Do you still believe the west’s propaganda?
Wonder if you’d continued to follow Goebbel’s arguments In 1943?
Anyway, here’s a refresher for you on what really has been happening.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/search?q=Mapp%2Bwar
I wouldn’t believe anything ‘Wayne the bad mapp’ claims about wars ….
This horrible [deleted] individual is prepared to join illegal wars where children get burned, maimed and killed …………. so NZ can get trade deals ….
Wayne is not only full of shit ……………… it’s really really bad shit.
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/search?q=Mapp%2Bwar
[Allegation deleted because it can’t be substantiated. TRP]
Ah, so it’s only a fear and not actually happening.
If the West didn’t want a sectarian war in Syria perhaps they shouldn’t have started one.
Draco, my point in commenting was to shine the spotlight on the horror of war – not to start a pointless armchair dingdong
I have no tolerance whatsoever for people supporting Assad on whatever grounds. He should have stepped down in 2011 and this war might never have been fought.
There are over 1 million people in 52 besiged communities in the country, 49 of them are under seige by the Assad regime, 2 of them by the rebels, and 1 of them by ISIS while the Assad regime denies them aid.
https://thesyriacampaign.org
Also I have no tolerance at all for people who argue the semantics, and don’t seem to be moved by people being bombed, shelled and starved into submission – as the daily reports and photos from journalists risking their lives show us, as the streams of refugees into Europe tell us, as the 24 aid agencies in Aleppo are documenting.
I find it incredibly depressing to read the bullshit partisan arguments being trotted out about who caused it all and who is worse than who, and that we are all being conned by propoganda. All sides in the Syrian war have killed and are continuing to kill. The forces with the most tanks, heavy artillery and aircraft have killed and continue to kill the most.
The US and Russia are now both directly involved in the war and both of these countries have entreated with Assad to step down. He must – that is the only way forward.
Or, more likely, it would have been a hell of a lot worse. And all of the reports I’ve seen show that a majority of Syrians support Assad. If it was taken to elections, Assad would be voted back in.
Would you still be calling for him to step down then? I’m pretty sure that the US and their lickspittles would be.
And I have no tolerance for those idiots who demand that we act emotionally as it’s the wrong thing to do as it never solves anything. It has a tendency to start wars rather than end them.
Last time I looked Russia was still supporting Assad and the US wants Assad to step down so that they can create a power vacuum and place another puppet government there. As they did with Iran (1953) and Iraq (1960s, 2000s).
if much of the world’s media haven’t shaken your belief in Assad, and clearly you trust the evidence that he’s highly popular, despite 5 years of destroying most of the cities of his country, and given his track record of murdering thousands of unarmed civilians to quell protests in 2011, there’s probably not much a random blogger called locus can say that will alter your views
I remain convinced that if Assad had stepped down in 2012 and Morocco had led the UN proposed democratic transition of power this war could have been averted. Your statement that this would have allowed the US to step in to create a puppet government is no less of a supposition than mine. Irrespective of who might be right, in 2012 the Russians and Chinese voted down the UN resolution for Assad to step down, despite clear advice from ME experts that the end game of this would be civil war in Syria.
I think now is not the time to argue rights and wrongs – there will be plenty of evidence uncovered in the future to bring many to trial for war crimes. Nor is it the time to be partisan about Russia or the US.
You are very much mistaken if you think you can take the emotion out of engaging effectively to stop further bloodshed, end this war and rebuild people’s lives
Morena, last night I took 3 kids to meet the next Prime Minister of NZ, they were impressed. Kids pick up on vibes, Andrew Little took the time to talk to the kids, kids felt comfortable with him straight away, he was great with them, no pretending required, wonderful human being he is.
I’m already super impressed with Andrew, he is a incredible speaker, and a born leader, he is the next PM of NZ, and on a cold winters night in Motueka there was standing room only a wonderful turn out. He took the time to go around and talk to everyone there, not just a few words, rather he took the time because he was genuinely interested in listening to the people. Thanks for coming to Motueka Andrew Little, hope to see you here again soon, keep up the good work.
Is that you Andrew?
Sheesh Puckish I know you guys do dirty politics as modus operandi.
But please don’t think everyone else does, it tiresome.
Not dirty politics so much as a lame attempt at humour
Epic fail then.
Try some new lines.
Here one for free.
Mooning over Little in Motueka…
That said, glad you went out and meet Andrew Little, Jens.
I’m glad you liked him, he is a very affable chap. Shame our media can’t give him more than a 5 second sound bite most days. I think more people would warm to him if he was given even half a chance.
You may have guessed I’m no supporter of labour, however the media have done, and continue to do a number on Little, and we should all try to redress that situation.
That’s quite good actually
Public speaking around NZ would be of huge benefit to him, Winny styles, rock on up with the P&A in a public place and go for it. Andrew speaks well.
My party vote didn’t go to Labour last election, however my person vote did, Damien O’Connor is super switched on.
Agree with you re the media Adam
Pr is tiresome. And puerile.
End of story.
P Rogue. Your reply to Jens comment is just plain juvenile and rude.
Is that you Munter?
sorries tis just me, Jens, no fluoride round these parts, it’s all good here
+1 nice one Jens 🙂
opening our paua shell up for ‘commercial fishing’
our Ministry of Primary Industry is doing good work then?
https://www.facebook.com/NativeAffairsLive/videos/470344439702723/
fuck is there anything that the National Party led Government will not sell?
….the truth?
that one they killed a long time ago.
No. National will sell everything and then blame the workers for the country being so poor.
If there are any workers left.
@Sabine, fuck is there anything that the National Party led Government will not sell?
nope.
Hope the don’t start on harvesting human organs for export soon.
First MSM will have the poor little Maori kid who needs a donation.
Then how we have so little donors in this country.
Then how we have too many prisoners and dying WINZ and student loan debtors and we could turn a profit from it.
Then get a report form an expert like Restock to recommend it.
Then once the public is fully softened up, sell the contract for prisoner/debtors organs and so forth to the highest offshore bidder…
How to make money from poverty, 101.
They know the value of nothing.
Walkout leaves large swaths of seating empty.
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2016/07/sanders-delegates-stage-walkout-protest-on-hillary-clinton-nomination/
I’d encourage everyone who’s interesting in Auckland or housing to have a look at Matt’s excellent little taster over at TransportBlog on the independent panel’s version of the growth of Auckland, and how it will be accommodated:
http://transportblog.co.nz/2016/07/28/unitary-plan-recommendations-revealed/
New Zealand’s population is heading for 6 million in 30 years, and Auckland’s will be well into the 2 million. Regrettably, and to a degree that’s nearly unique in the world, Auckland is the biggest part of our society and economy. How this plan works really matters.
Silly question, historically Auckland and the Auckland region gets just over half of the country’s population. So if we move towards a figure of 6 million, would it not follow that Auckland population will probably be a city of 3 million, not 2?
I was going by the Dept. of Statistics average growth projections for both.
Frightening to think Auckland will be a city of 2 million in thirty years. It’s struggling now, with the division between haves and have nots are quite stark, I can’t imagine that expanded as well, will be any good for a society.
A hard cap needs to be put on the Auckland population.
Auckland City has around 1/3rd of the population. That doesn’t appear to be changing in the projections.
The region is not the city by itself.
Yes, I stand corrected.
Draco,
Actually the percentage is slowly changing. Over the last thirty years it has gone from 30% to 34%, and is headed to 40% over the next 30 years. In fact Auckland needs to be planning for 3 million people since that will happen (or close to it) in the next 30 years. The city (Pukekohe to Wellsford) is already close to 1.7 million.
In many ways NZ will become like Queensland where the major city has nearly half the population.
I’d prefer it if NZ planned to develop the regions and so keep Auckland from growing so massively.
“like Queensland where the major city has nearly half the population.”
Queensland has in fact the least concentrated population of the five larger (ie excluding Tasmania) Australian States..
About 43% live in Brisbane. In NW it is around 56% and in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia it is over 68% in each case.
Actually, it isn’t that unique. Lots of countries have a single dominant city. However, it is questionable if this is good for the overall country or not.
More dominant than Paris, London, Moscow, or even Kuala Lumpur.
Melbourne is about right as comparator but it’s a state.
Which OECD or G20 countries have more than a third of their population in one main city?
Apart from Singapore…
We need to cap the population of New Zealand at 5 million. We simply can’t afford to let Auckland bloat past 2 million people.
THIS
I see that CYPS is getting a name change to Ministry for Vulnerable Children .
Yep that will fix it!!!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/faces-of-innocents/82526149/faces-of-innocents-cyf-to-be-shut-down-and-replaced-by-a-new-ministry
i wonder how many days of $ 2000 pay the Dame Rebstock got to charge to come up with this name.
And who gets to define ‘vulnerable’.
Just think… all that money for reorganisation, rebranding and refit… that could actually be spent on the children.
+1 Jones. How to see a clusterfuck – rebranding exercises take place…
At least the Nats will have to ‘own’ this one, no blaming Labour. (Personally I don’t see what diference a new logo will achieve).
If you think its just a rebanding exercise then its clear you have not read any detail.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/all/files/Q-and-A.pdf
It seems the Greens and Labour broadly support the changes as well…
“Proposed changes to Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS) look promising, but should not overshadow that there is still an urgent funding crisis in CYFS, the Green Party said today.”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1604/S00088/cyfs-changes-should-not-overshadow-the-funding-crisis.htm
“The independent panel tasked with overhauling our child protection agency has come up with some useful solutions, but they will only succeed if the Government pays more than lip service to early intervention.” Labour website.
http://www.labour.org.nz/cyf_report_should_only_be_the_start_of_reforms
“Barnardos welcomes recommendations on care of vulnerable children”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1604/S00101/recommendations-on-care-of-vulnerable-children-welcomed.htm
“IHC is welcoming the news that children with disability will finally get equal treatment when going into out of home care.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jul/28/new-zealand-experts-warn-australia-data-driven-welfare-abuses-and-brutalises
“We owe it, at least to the taxpayer, but absolutely to the people needing our help, to use every tool available to change lives,” said the deputy prime minister, Bill English, in a data conference this year. “Lives which are described by the data.”
The New Zealand government believes that increasing use of predictive modelling techniques based on personal data from beneficiaries (incorporating data from child, youth and family payments, work and income, and the criminal justice system) will help it identify the most vulnerable in society and intervene at an earlier stage so they do not become long-term or lifetime beneficiaries.
The government says in the four years since implementing the regime, it has saved the welfare system $12bn it would have otherwise had to spend in the future.
This model – called “actuarial valuation” – is what the Australian government want to emulate.
But poverty experts in New Zealand say the Australians are signing up to a system that is routinely harming, rather than helping, New Zealand’s most needy.
nope just stuff.
i hope you are right, i don’t have a lot faith in natz planning ability.
but we will see.
Terrible name. Reeks of Victorian despair. Sounds like something out of Dickens, it’s that dated.
Similar to calling your political party “Labour”, it either sounds like 24 hours of excruciating pain, or being subjected to backbreaking work, either way a terrible name that is also dated.
Many businesses and other groups could learn from this:
I am watching Paul Henry at the moment. Coming back into NZ and seeing the media here is jarring. I am not sure if people realise how much of a pro government propaganda tool the MSM is now in NZ.
It is Alice in Wonderland stuff.
Greens criticise state of rivers.
National allows farmers to plunder rivers for private benefit.
Greens criticise state of rivers.
National indulges in tokenistic effort to clean up rivers.
Greens criticise state of rivers.
Media criticises Greens for criticising wonderful government initiative that addresses their criticism.
Alice in Wonderland.
Sanctuary -28 July 2016 at 9:36 am said, “I am watching Paul Henry at the moment…”
Why?
It happened to be on where I was staying, I only watched like ten minutes, may God have mercy on my soul.
Sanc- You are forgiven my child.Say 3 ‘hail henrys’…Godel
I agree with Rodel,
Why?
I mean, I know sado masochism is all the rage, but Paul Henery – that just crosses the line…
“….but Paul Henry – that just crosses the line…”
But it’s nice to be a lunatic!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WGVgfjnLqc
Thanks Rosmary, that was a great!!
You may be interested in Drury’s bio….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Dury
….major claim to fame was giving the single digit salute to the 1981 International Year of Disabled Persons, which he saw as patronising and counter-productive….
Respect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6isXNVdguI8
So place your hard-earned peanuts in my tin
And thank the Creator you’re not in the state I’m in
So long have I been languished on the shelf
I must give all proceedings to myself
“I must give all proceedings to myself”
as echoed in the rather brilliant movie…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_I%27m_Dancing
….Inside I’m Dancing….where the lead characters do the ‘hold out the bucket for the poor crips’ thing, then bugger off to the pub to party.
Thanks for the link joe90. Been a very long time since I heard that song.
Oh my yes.
Yes we are well aware of it and even Natrad doesn’t (can’t ?) rattle anyone’s cage sufficiently anymore. Imo this is one of the biggest problems facing us – the power of the media is immense and it is being controlled by the right. The likes of Newstalk ZB, TV3,TVNZ, in fact all of the commercial stations, and all the corporate papers are all based on planet Key. Sorry – this is in reply to Sanctuary ( 11. )
Poor old Natrad….sad to see what was good journalism now having to hang on by their collective fingernails.
However…a few much welcome giggles this am with KR’s interview with UK Correspondent Dame Anne Leslie…
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201809961/uk-correspondent-dame-anne-leslie
And currently, a topic dear to mine own heart,
“11:25 Helping your child succeed at school
Education consultant and parenting commentator Joseph Driessen talks about what parents of children who succeed at school are doing right.”
…not available yet…but well worth a listen, and bugger me if the solutions to the problem of poor engagement with learning are completely cost free. (In dollar terms)
Just returned from a week in Ozzie. The MSM media in Australia is far broader and deeper than in NZ. The difference is stark and very disappointing. We don’t know what we are missing. Our public media is disgraceful. TVNZ is a disaster and, sad to say, Radio New Zealand is on the same skids. I’ve switched off, and onto other Internet sources for quality information and news.
^^^^
THIS
So very very true. And I only watch ABC kids! NZ kids don’t know what they are missing.
It is another failure of the neo-liberal paradigm where it’s all about ratings, entertainment and profits rather than informing people.
I do wonder if the percentage of the population that actually watches TV or listens to the radio is dropping. I know I don’t and I know that several others that read this forum don’t either.
Natcorp leader John Key needs to do the honourable thing and resign if the TPPA he undemocratically pushed so strongly upon us is rejected by the American’s.
Why?
Because its the only way the left will beat John Key?
The left don’t need to beat John Key – his failure to meaningfully react to the housing crisis has destroyed him.
Hmm: http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/6902-roy-morgan-new-zealand-voting-intention-july-2016-201607211639
I’m sure that’s just a rogue poll that we can safely ignore. Right?
With a 10% jump I would guess that is a very safe assumption, it still directly contradicts Stuart’s point though, so I thought it was relevant.
Stuart seems to be another one of these people that think that because this is National’s 3rd term, Labour just win by default at the next election… I don’t think it is quite that straight forward.
Because John Key has wrecked the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders therefore if he fucked off it would be good thing regardless of any other reason?
Sorry to burst your bubble, leftie, but I don’t love John Key and I’m not a John Key or National supporter and I in fact despise the guy, his politics and everything he represents. I do see, however, how you could’ve thought otherwise.
+1 Skinny – only JK needs removal for lying an cheating too as well as selling us out.
Natcorp leader John Key needs to do the honourable thing and resign if the TPPA he pushed so strongly is rejected by the American’s.
Testing the establishment.
pretty sure that that went into moderation but got releaseed quickly, but the asterisked one below didn’t, so just testing again.
Testing the establishment.
Testing the est*blishment.
Good on ya Weka!
The (insert forbidden word here) needs ALL the testing it can get!
Cheers Rosemary! Ridicule and parody seem the order of the day 🙂
Silly naive Angela Merkel. She imposed refugees on Europe ( a Trojan Horse?) …and she didnt question the causes of the mass refugee crisis and demand justice for the refugees and their rights to be returned safely to their own countries, which have been ravaged by war… because she supports NATO and the USA ( who bombed the shit out of Iraq, Libya, and wants to get rid of Assad?..who created the vacuum for Isis?…and who has designs on destabilising Iran and Russia?)
‘Merkel’s open-border policies are destroying Europe’ – Willy Wimmer’
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/353568-france-germany-terror-attacks-wimmer/
The good thing about NZ is that we can see what’s happening in Europe and we can learn from their mistakes
Whether we do is another matter entirely
Well, this government certainly seems to be determined not to learn as it ties us ever more closely to the foreign policy of the US.
You are aware this government is slavishly copying the errors of neoliberalism, an ideology that has ruined the US and the UK’s citizens.
Instead of looking to the Icelandic model or the Finnish model or the Danish model.
But you know that.
And still support this incompetent, corrupt client regime of banker Key.
Shame.
The German 1% wanted cheap non-unionised workers. Now they have them.
yes but at what price?…time will tell at what ‘cost’ to society
As is usual the 1% doesn’t care about the costs, which they will promptly dump on to the rest of society while they scoop off the benefits all for themselves.
too true
Listening to Susie Ferguson having a go at Andrew Little this morning on RNZ at being at odds with the Greens and their statement of lowering the house prices. She was obviously and determined to undermine and try to drive a wedge between Labour and the Greens at not being on the same page together. I thought what a bloody nerve, National are forever bringing up new ideas on the hoof where one Cabinet Minister doesn’t know one thing from the other Cabinet Minister and are not keeping themselves informed and “being on the same page”. Paula Benefit for one with her shifting and changing trying to get people out of Auckland or back again – whatever day she seems fit to pontificate on. The Minister of Everything is another with his chucking goodies to Northland left, right and centre without a thought of what he was doing. At least Labour and the Greens are separate parties and are entitled to have their differences.
If RNZ’s morning crew expended as much energy being fair to all parties it would be easier on the ears for everybody – its so darned obvious even a baboon would be able to see through it. Andrew Little should have just told her to shut her gob and give him a chance to speak and repeat what the Gov. says all the time – “well the government in power does it, why don’t you have a go at them as well about it”. Fat chance of that, he is too good mannered for that.
LAB/GR need to be showing off their new teamwork and co-ordination to the electorate.
Especially as the wedge driving has only started. Wait until 2017. National will have a tonne of wood wedges handy and a lot of sledge hammers to bang them in with.
Handled badly on both sides I think. The Greens for not giving Labour a headsup, Labour for Little slagging off the GP policy esp without understanding what it is.
Neither of those things were necessary.
Winston seems to be the only one ( I won’t call him “opposition” because you can’t tell with him) who does not let the interviewer derail what he wants to say. Time and again “our lot ” let the interviewer walk all over them . Why ? Is it just lack of media training ? I think it’s more than that. There just doesn’t seem to be anyone on the left in NZ who can handle the media.
agree about Winston…why he will probably get my vote
Not a lack of media training; a lack of belief in their party’s principles.
It helps that journos are afraid of Winston – they don’t try as much shit.
Suzie Ferguson.
Just another spokesperson for the establishment.
The liberal chattering class have failed society.
Chris Hedges.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2hImYfdl5pE
I agree whispering kate. Andrew Little is too polite sometimes. He endeavours to get his point across politely then when the interviewer intervenes he gets flustered and starts repeating himself which only makes it look like he’s trying to spin a lie.
I’ve said it a hundred times and I still say it. He needs more media training.
Hopefully Andrew mentioned all that stuff. It would be a shame if he sat there spluttering.
Natrad also expands on the unaffordable feminine hygiene products story…
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/309591/girls-using-'telephone-books,-rags'-as-sanitary-products
with pictures…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePIY1EdZJG8
(Wriggling around in the further recesses of my memory banks is a campaign from the early seventies for some sort of price relief on moisturisers and sunscreens. The argument was that the NZ climate was cruel on skin (and this was before melanoma became an issue) and there should be cheaper and more effective products available.)
And when Bennett was social welfare minister she lambasted claims that hygiene products couldn’t be purchased at the supermarket using a special needs grant for food. Her comments were made after an overzealous checkout operator refused to sell a packet of pads because they were going to be paid for using an SNG voucher. The only things that couldn’t be bought were alcohol and tobacco but the checkout operator decided to add hygiene products. Bennett waded in and said that wasn’t right.
Well, since then, the social security tribunal has changed that again by saying people cannot get hygiene products using the food SNG, nor soap or shampoo or any kind of personal or cleaning products. What’s interesting is that Work and Income defended the appeal despite their minister saying that people could use the SNG for this purpose.
I would dearly love to see a link to this….not that I don’t believe you….but it should be on the record somewhere.
Are there media articles or any other documentation?
(Because it is exactly this sort of bizarre shit that disappears…poof! Gone! Never happened!)
((And quick….because They will get in first…suggest you do a quick copy and paste into a word doc if you can;t easily download a file.)
Regards, the othertinfoilhatwearer. 😉
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11110932
Will try to track down the tribunal decision that contradicts what Bennett said. It’s appalling that Work and Income let it go to the tribunal in the first place if its position really was as Bennett said.
“Ms Thompson said another woman tried to use a Winz supermarket card at the check-out at her local supermarket, and the card didn’t work.
“The cashier called Winz to find out why the card wouldn’t work, and found out it was because she had tampons amongst the items she was purchasing. She had to return them.””
So…not just at the discretion of the checkout operator….actually built into the system.
Bennett was bullshitting.
Especially when special needs grants come under a programme the minister has direct control over. Bennett says sanitary items can be bought with a grant issued to purchase items from a supermarket, and then when a beneficiary appeals a decision that’s inconsistent with what she says her ministry defends it all the way to the tribunal. Bennett’s a piece of work at the best of times. I’m still totally flabbergasted that she thinks it’s okay to put the poorest of people into $80,000+ of debt to meet the cost of emergency housing simply because “they signed up for it”.
“I’m still totally flabbergasted that she thinks it’s okay to put the poorest of people into $80,000+ of debt to meet the cost of emergency housing …”
In her world, ’emergency housing’ could also mean a cardboard carton in the park, or under a bridge, or perhaps in a (usually) dry stormwater pipe. Or a vehicle.
No sign up required.
It’s all about choice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msvOUUgv6m8
The Auckland Action Against Poverty group in Auckland said they were challenging those debts. I hope they’re successful. It beggars belief that people can end up with that kind of debt via simple operation of legislation that’s meant to help our poorest. It beggars fucking belief.
“It beggars fucking belief.”
Don’t try to understand it….your brain will turn inside out.
What’s equally distressing is that nobody’s that up in arms about it at all. It’s as close to the crime of the century as you’ll get but nobody seems to give a stuff.
This film is amazing. A mirror image of what happens here in NZ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahWgxw9E_h4
In addition to this, what’s alarming in NZ is the current trend of shifting rules around how and when people qualify for social security into regulations. This has the effect of removing the necessary legal flexibility that allows need to be met regardless of differences in circumstances. The nature of regulations means that if circumstances don’t fit neatly into the tightly prescribed rules then it’s quite legal for Work and Income to say no. This is the main thrust behind the rewrite Bill currently before Parliament. The government says it’s about tidying up existing complexity etc and that there’s no major change but that’s a load of shite. The Bill is in effect another benefit cut – not necessarily by way of reducing rates but by giving the executive branch of government the ability to make binding regulations that make it legal to refuse people help. Labour began the trend when it axed the special benefit in 2004 and replaced it with the temporary additional support benefit, and then again in 2007 by introducing the ability to make regulations that overrode the statutory definition of income. This latest rewrite Bill takes the concept to dangerously new heights. Work and Income staff won’t be required to treat people badly in order to deny issuing help. They’ll be able to say no ever so politely and with a clear conscience because the law won’t allow any alternative.
Yes, I’ve seen the trailers and felt sad and angry. I think it’s on at NZIFF at the moment. Just viewing the trailers previously, it’s apparent at how NZ’s welfare rules are blending with the UK’s. It’s really quite sinister.
Watched “Where To Invade Next” by Michael Moore the other night. It’s mainly a comparison of a sample of how European states educational, health, and justice systems work compared to USA. A good Vs bad sort of comparison, very simple but there is an important message. One feeling I took away was a sense of growing alarm at how far we have come from our own equitable roots and have marooned ourselves in some vast ocean with no horizon, gradually floating towards the USA.
To me, it says alot about what we have allowed to happen to our society.
There is also a French film called Tomorrow that offers future solutions to the present economic structure to save our society and our planet.
Models to learn from were Finland ( education) , Iceland ( people’s democracy, France ( permaculture) , Bristol, England ( money system ), San Francisco ( waste), Copenhagen ( city design and transport), France ( a new industrial structure)
amongst other inspirational models.
Watch it when it comes to Wellington.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NUN0QxRB7e0
And for those in the provinces?
They made their choice when they moved there so I’ve got not a jot of sympathy.
What if you were born in the provinces?
Well that’s just bad luck. There’s nothing you can do about that. Kind of like nature, you know, survival of the fittest, and all that, eh? It’s about nature. Nobody can fuck with nature.
Thanks Paul.
I’ve seen this film.
It is brilliant.
Bennett, Smith, Key and company are ruthless ******** to allow WINZ to be a carbon copy of the UK model.
Work and Income should make all their staff see it.
Yeah, he really does care.
/
Donald Trump has made restoring American jobs a centerpiece of his campaign, a pledge he reiterated last week when he accepted the Republican nomination for president: “I’m going to bring our jobs back to Ohio and Pennsylvania and New York and Michigan and all of America,” he said.
This month, Trump is bringing jobs to Florida, as he looks to hire 78 servers, housekeepers, and cooks at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach and the nearby Trump National Golf Club, Jupiter.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicagarrison/trump-seeks-more-foreign-guestworkers-for-his-companies
Of course! That’s why I included the links to the two party’s policies. I thought it would be good for the facts to speak for themselves. Great post, weka.
Don’t start with me either TRP, I’m not in the mood. I know how both you and CV get into these arguments and your reasonable on the surface comment is classic entry point.
Whatev’s. You’re in the mood to criticise me, but when I accept with good grace your position on this post, you go off on one. Lighten up.
[Banned permanently from this post for telling an author what to do, and picking a fight when already asked not to. I’m making note of the gas lighting too. Subthread moved to Open Mike – weka]
lol…the giants fight
LOL! It’s like watching two mastodons bellowing at each other across the primeval swamp.
Go Te Reo! No, no, get ‘im, weka!!!! How THRILLING this is!
lol…can we have a video clip of a mud wrestling fight?…i bet weka would get a lot of fast pecks in and TRP would wallow around like a baby and splutter and shout
[lprent: Or I could just give my impression of a 5kg troll crushing hammer. Of course I’d need someone to use it on.. ]
You could ban TRP permanently from the site for being a NZ First supporter?
[Bill has set the ban length for telling lies about an author at 6 weeks. Only warning. TRP]
No. I didn’t ‘set’ any ban length. I banned someone for six weeks and explained why I was banning them. That ban could have been for one week. It could also have been for six months. In the event, it was six weeks – a fairly arbitrary decision.
The Power of “Nyet”
I’m reasonably certain that Trump will win the US presidential election. This will be a disaster in many ways for the world but I think it will also do some good as it will expose the complete failure and corruption of our Western systems. IMO, it will be the final nail in the coffin of capitalism.
hey Ms Viper
someone agrees with you
https://theintercept.com/2016/07/26/russian-intelligence-hack-dnc-nsa-know-snowden-says/
Is there anyone else who’s getting fucked off with TS being the playground/battleground of a few likely suspects ? Comment after comment after comment all about them. Which is so childish and John Key.
Clever, erudite, no-ones’ fool, wah wah wah, but Jesus! they love fucking Donald Trump. I just don’t know……