I wonder if it would be possible to get a petition going to have the ‘Left Leaning’ column, which ostensibly provides one of the few spaces for the voices of the left in our largely right-leaning media, to be written by someone who is, I dunno, a bit left? Even centre would be a step in the left direction.
One way of dealing with problems is to get into government, but that’s not all I’m doing, I work off the net as well.
Today I’m also working on doing something about problems, like NARK, Child Matters, and here’s a really neat thing that I’m helping promote at the moment: chatbus.org.nz
I’d prefer if UF got 6 seats at the expense of National and Act too.
No doubt you want this outcome as well so you can swan off to Wellington and suck up the nice salary and pension scheme.
Unfortunately for you, they’re not likely to get more than 2 seats, and only then if Dunne can take his seat which isn’t exactly the safest in the country.
Gawd on Q&A they have three right wingers, Tamihere, Phil O’Reilly, and some woman who thinks the Spirit Level has been discredited, discussing the book. O’Reilly thinks that not growing “is just madness”. And Holmes admitted he diid not understand an interview with one of the authors of the book.
although we don’t really need the MSM’s facile version of ‘balance’…we need critical discussion and a media able to use facts and figures to force people to move on from their little PR platitudes.
MS – surely in a global sense with more and more countries and modern type consumers coming onstream there must be net global growth to cater for the increased number who demand consumerables. More connected countries means more efficiencies in resource utilisation surely.
Do we as a global connected society simple say too the rest i.e africa, etc too late, you missed the boat but we’ll take your resources though.
Now good points from Q+A
– discource on envirnomental impact and increased awareness and contribution from agri sector.
– need for a socital discusion around social inequality and at what slope do we ‘float the boats’.
-good imput on crime and how to lessen impact on society and police resources.
MS – surely in a global sense with more and more countries and modern type consumers coming onstream there must be net global growth to cater for the increased number who demand consumerables.
Orlov put it very well: Mother Nature does not change its behaviour due to price signals.
There will be no more global net growth because the physical world system cannot support exponential growth any longer. And our financial system cannot support exponential growth (of debt) any longer.
And the main constraint: cheap oil. There is virtually none left.
yes CV i agree totally peak oil, lack of eco stability etc etc…There must and will be a shift from oil for energy to oil for consumerables only at some point but limiting factors are availability of govt cash reserves and willpower (both in very short supply ). I wonder if the extreme right ,who can read the same signals as the left, havent a plan for after as well. Use cheap energy and resources and then via science / techno use their system liquidity and cash in / control the next phase of development.
I see two paths – social democratic slow adaption to the next growth/ developement phase via govt control and constructs or a sole bought out /leveraged mega-private sector society without any public controls or direction at all.
The societial arrangement surely isn’t all that relevant, its the one we choose.
Centralizers want to control resources, but its turning out that the solutions
to our world crisises, food, population, climate, resources, energy, is more
ant like. The ‘central’ of an ant colony is a egg producer, nothing more
nothing less. Government in the new networked local centric world will\
not be the centre. So you could be right, depending on who you ask
the world could look owned by mega-private ‘queens’ yet still be slowly
adapt to the next growth phase. The right could be right, government is
the problem, and the left could be right that businesses are not the engine
of society. That when we all conform our behavior – think local act
globally – then we will survive. Think of it like this, why do you
drive within the white lines. Well the council makes the best road
in between the lines. The lines aren’t there to contain you, its your
choice to stay within the lines, its in your interest since others
stay on the other side of the line and so you gain safety by
staying within the line. This is when government should be,
drawing lines, measuring if they work, and keeping us from harming
ourselves and prospering. But government does not do this anymore,
the right believe its their right to get very very rich and exploit,
the left believe its there right to decide what society should look like,
what we need is neither the right or the left, we need to trust people
and provide the people networks to faciliate their personal growth,
and everything will come right again. We just have too many sociopathic
control narcissists in power and in the media, and we will all pay
dearly for their needy attention disorders. clip of Key dressed in drag
at a gay festival.
yes but each region or country is on its own economic pathway with its own pace of economic evolution. stability, security and consumerism would appear to be necessary factor that allow for a sucessful adoption into the western paradym…oh and the McDonalds too.
We all know the rational for USA etc to support or invade non connected or misaligned strategic countries such as iraq…and dictate to other countries adherance to internation regs that allow free trade or movment of capital.
We IMO need every country connected and functioning so we can face the challenges ahead over the next 50-100 years.
The only viable long term solution is a ‘next way’ economic system that will manage the transition from a Neolib / Socialist matrix flipflop to a more balanced, globally connected social democratic govt where we still have room for capital investment in a limited private sector.
My thoughts would see the rise of workplace co-ops ( as the new work unions ) expanded SOE / Public sector sphere that provide control / influence on wages and worker condition ( the expanded public sector would provide a balance to the private sector ). Erodicate the concept of traditional model of ownership of housing and control the price of land as this cause market created bubbles and artifical instabilities.
Why not a complex ‘rent to own’ scheme where need is meet by the state…The real nominal cost of a new average house build is far far lower than present values.
At present our economic system is chaotic, full of contridiction, lack of coordination and simply inefficient in a holistc sense. resources are being misused and wasted.
What right does 1500 billionaire individuals have to live a utopian dream when the billions upon billions of the global population starve or eck out a miserable existance?
There is no such thing as a private sector or, for that matter, a government sector – there is only society.
At present our economic system is chaotic, full of contridiction, lack of coordination and simply inefficient in a holistc sense. resources are being misused and wasted.
Yep, there is a massive misallocation of the worlds resources caused by the capitalist paradigm.
I can’t remember the name of the woman either but ….OMG!
Our binge drinking culture is a product of children coming home and watching Home and Away where people meet at the local bar for drinks?
That’s it! Pissed teens are gathering on the North Shore for riotous parties because they saw it on Home and Away! Well, that’s easily solved.
Let’s axe Home and Away and replace with something safer….like Cheers.
Going by the discussion of The Spirit Level, I don’t think any of them had read the book.
Their problems with the theory had been covered and refuted in the book.
They were not even listening, the prof said inequality measure was a flag indicating
poor economic outcomes for rich and poor. Rich parent are just as likely too be
uneducated enough to stop their kids getting immunized, for example.
But the ost conceited media was laid law on entrepreneurs, that was a shocker
for myopia.
inerestingly the balance is alreay presnt at grassroot levels…’the spirit level’ and its insight are being discussed at various levels or sectors such as in ECE.
Q&A is another soapbox to ensure Ellis pockets a circa million p.a. Package from his nat mates and masters.
due to a lack of a public broadcaster providing balance and objectivity we get this one sided approach…..look across the Tasman where ABC and SBS set a bar the others follow or just don’t get watched when it matters.
They enjoy jumps in ratings when major events occur as people know they can be trusted….whereas here it’s reality tv and jokers like Holmes, Espiner, garner and associated sycophants.
I dont know about the rest of the country but round here the Labour Party candidate and his team have been working away for over a year and I think they have avery good chance of toppling the incumbent National party and dispatching them with a very healthy majority for Labour. Locally Labour is seen as the can do party and the chances are looking better every day.
“Yes you’re right. There is this famous exchange at the G* a year or so back between Gordon Brown and Angela Merkel where Brown asks why Germany weathered the GFC so well and Britain had just plummeted into debt. Merkel answered “Because Germany still makes things Mr Brown!””
Anyone noticed that Labour’s blog site ‘Red Alert’ is being rapidly taken over by trained trollers whose brief is to undermine the site’s owners and supporters? These individuals seem to work in loose groups, and bully their victims with repetitive criticisms and insults. I put much of the blame on the timidity of the MP owners who talk about the problem, but seem unwilling to take positive action to get rid of them. Genuine critics are welcome and make for healthy debate, but these narcisstic nasties are anything but genuine.
All I can say is: it will be to the site’s detriment, because soon there will be nobody of worth bothering to comment there – which I guess is the ultimate aim of the NAct campaign.
Haven’t properly visited for awhile, but always thought that ‘Red Alert’ would be a prime target for attack by trolls, whether coordinated by spin merchants or just a bunch of losers with an axe to grind. I think it was always going to happen sooner or later unless they switched comments off or engaged in very strict moderation.
always thought that ‘Red Alert’ would be a prime target for attack by trolls, whether coordinated by spin merchants or just a bunch of losers with an axe to grind
There’s both. It’s easy to tell which is which. The ‘losers’ are one man bands and, as you say, they have a bee in their bonnet. The professional spin merchants repeatedly attack the authors and commenters until – particularly in the case of commenters – they fall silent presumably cowered. Their lines are just too pat to be random.
I’m sorry but did you mention spud and witty one liners in the same breath?
Seriously though any swing voter that goes onto red alert and reads his comments are likely to think hes a bit…(not sure how to say this without insulting anyone) simple
I was responding to your comment in friendly jest. Spud his who he is. He’s of Pacific Island extraction and it’s part of his personality. He may like to use seemingly simple minded one liners much of the time but he isn’t simple, and contributes pertinent observations when he want to. Cmon chris73, live and let live.
NRT has removed the comments feature without much trouble. Personally I think having a forum for people to directly communicate with their representatives is a good idea. The trolls be damned!
They got rid of one and have threatened (too timidly in my view) to moderate or ban a few others but that’s all. They need a lesson or two from lPrent.
The problem is that a troll is a subjective term and if you’re going to start banning right-wing trolls will you then ban the left-wing trolls as well?
We have done it a number of times, booting people from all sides when required. There is a definite bias against rwnj’s. But I suspect that most of that is because the nj’s of other persuasions tend to value having the site available more – they amend their behavior when warned.
But we look much more at behavior rather than peoples philosophy. The underlying criteria is the good of the site as expressed in the about. You don’t do that by supression of alternate ideas. You do it by removing people who are incapable of arguing and have the flexibility of a badly programmed robot.
The fastest way to find out if someone is capable of learning is to stress them at a personal level. Personally I have decades of experience at how to do it, and query level access to a rather large database of whatever is said here makes it a hell of a lot easier. That is why I will sometimes start to torment people – I want to find out is they are merely automata.
All that being said, I have one major advantage at moderating on a site like this. I simply do not care about what others think about me. I am not a politician nor anything more than a member of a political party. The things that I consider as being crucially important questions are not those discussed here.
My involvement in the political sphere because of a sense of duty in constraining the ability of political people from screwing up too badly. Having open and public forums is a effective way to do it.
Getting back to Annes point about team trolling – I just don’t tolerate it. To me it is just evidence of a berserk reproducing virus type program, and programmers hate CPU gobblers like that. People will operate as individuals here if theydo not want to attract my attention.
Well thats what I mean, this site doesn’t allow it and red alert doesn’t allow it yet it seems to me that red alert is far more “trigger-happy” when it comes to banning people for being trolls
Getting the right balance is far more of an art than a science and it depends on how far the local comment culture is from what is wanted.
I was a *lot* more trigger happy when I was changing pattern of the comment culture here. But we’re also far more sadistic than a politician can be seen to be. That gives us far more options about how to modify behavior. We can do other things rather than banning, and those are frequently a damn sight worse.
Like the climate change deniers who spend vast sums to discredit the convincing science that supports it, there is an equivalent reaction to Wilkinson and Pickett’s research on income inequality. The panel on Q&A were very dismissive of The Spirit Level based on the interview with Richard Wilkinson but I wonder how many of them actually read the book and the data that supported it. http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.com/2011/08/spirit-level-deserves-attention.html
Last Wednesday it was revealed that the New Zealand superannuation fund holds 44,595 shares worth $2,082,736 in a Mumbai-based multinational company called Larsen and Toubro, which in partnership with the Indian Navy, is involved in designing and manufacture a fleet of nuclear-armed submarines for India. But that’s not all Larsen & Toubro (L&T) India’s largest engineering group gets up to…
Last Wednesday it was revealed that the New Zealand superannuation fund holds 44,595 shares worth $2,082,736 in a Mumbai-based multinational company called Larsen and Toubro, which in partnership with the Indian Navy, is involved in designing and manufacture a fleet of nuclear-armed submarines for India. But that’s not all Larsen & Toubro (L&T) India’s largest engineering group gets up to…
“THE HOLLOW MEN” the film, is on Maori channel tonight at 8.30 pm. Very pertinent especially now, the main players are still getting away with their shady, self-serving scams.
NZ loves to grow weeds! Evn when it finds a king crop, milk, it puts its whole weight
behind it and leaves a bit pile of cow shit floating down the water ways. Its always
so black and white. NZ needs to diversify, so that means we should ignore the
problem with all the weedy companies we have now, throw money at new start ups
with a now discreited consumer paradigm. Oh, what insipidness. Any farmer
does better with what he has, and that’s why we spend so much time with
jingoistic business mantras about new innovation. We need to seize the new
world economic reality, local, networked, low energy (or high energy where
its cheap – i.e. Here IN nz), but no with new roads, and less education we
are going to drive ourselves into a new growth phase.
Bit surprised to see Meth-Whore Barbie missed out. When I saw her on telly screaming about how she hates animals I thought she’d be fighting off the party list offers with a shitty stick.
John Key is one of our most popular prime ministers ever. It seems nothing Labour throws at him can stick. But even he can’t beat Peter Jackson when it comes to the popularity contest that is Google.
…
Figures show that in the last three years Key was well above Goff in terms of Google searches by name.
Hah, he was searched because people didn’t know who this Prime Mincer of newsland, robber baron, cheap wannabe comedian, agent of the NWO, buddy of Obama, John ‘Keys’ really is….
It was most probably people looking for overweight camp male catwalk models, with a greedy streak and an overinflated sense of self worth coupled with a deep and insatiable need for recognition and public affirmation – I’ve heard that that particular combo is harder to find and more popular than you would think.
For all you people with fingers poised above the search keys – you don’t need google to find out what this prick is like – just come to New Zealand, swim in our rivers of effluent and see the faces of the people whose lives he has touched (hint: you won’t see them at the RWC – begging is to be made an offense just in time for the big game)
…and thanks Jum for highlighting the fact it was on. I am glad not to have missed it, I don’t usually watch TV so thanks for the heads-up (and I know I should have seen it back then, but they were on their way out back then). Very timely to see the young Key so enthusiastically lying, and to observe the groups formed during the Brash/English takeover.
concur, thanks Maori TV. I really hope others watched, especially blind Key-followers.
Congratulations to Hillary Calvert for being, er, dropped from the ACT party list. Don Brash richly rewarded Clavert for her support during his putsch by cutting her out of the top 10 on the ACT list. Doesn’t say much for Brash and his commitment to reward loyalty. His purchase of the ACT Party was bad enough however, sorry Hillary, his project for take over of the party and stacking it with his mates is total. If that means you are a casualty then that is expedient for Brash.
And the ACT Party, man, you have to be white male and old to be at the top. Anyone not old, male and white need not apply. “Young” Don Nicholson is the youthful face of ACT. The only other party with such a similar homogeneous list of candidates is the Maroi Party and they are clear about who their support base is and even they have women at the top.
Handling the profusion of names and TLDs is a relatively simple problem for a computer, even though it will require extra work to redirect hundreds of new names (when someone types them in) back to the same old Web site. It will also create lots of work for lawyers, marketers of search-engine optimization, registries, and registrars.
All of this will create jobs, but little extra value. To me, useless jobs are, well, useless. And, while redundant domain names are not evil, I do think that they are a waste of resources.
Don’t you just love the competitive free-market? It keeps costing more and more and more.
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Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
While New Zealand is at Alert Level 4, we're making sure that New Zealanders are kept informed and up to date with all the latest developments of the Government's COVID-19 response. It's been a shortened week because of Easter, so we're bringing you our weekly wrap a day early. ...
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister informed the nation that the Easter Bunny (and the Tooth Fairy!) were deemed essential workers. However, she made it clear that, due to the restrictions we are all facing at COVID-19 Alert Level 4, the Easter Bunny may find it tricky to get to ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs Hon. Ron Mark, Minister of Defence Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark today announced that New Zealand will provide a further package of assistance to Vanuatu, to support the response to Tropical Cyclone Harold. “Tropical ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced that New Zealand will enter into transit arrangements with a range of countries to make it easier for each other’s citizens to get home. “There are millions of people around the world stranded ...
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
The Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson has announced that urgent maintenance of turf and care for plants in non-plantation nurseries will soon be able to go ahead under Level 4 restrictions. “The Government has agreed that urgent upkeep and maintenance of biological assets will be able to go ahead ...
E tangi ana a Taranaki iwi, e tangi ana te ao Māori, otirā e tangi ana te motu. Mōu katoa ngā roimata e riringi whānui ana, mōu katoa ngā mihi. E te kaikōkiri i te reo Māori, e Te Huirangi, takoto mai. Takoto mai me te mōhio ko ngā ...
Today is day 15 of Alert Level 4 lockdown. And at the halfway mark I have no hesitation in saying, that what New Zealanders have done over the last two weeks is huge. In the face of the greatest threat to human health we have seen in over a century, ...
All driver licences, WoFs, CoFs, and some vehicle certifications, that expired on or after 1 January 2020 will be valid for up to six months from 10 April 2020, Transport Minister Phil Twyford has announced. “People shouldn’t have to worry about getting fined for having an expired document if driving ...
The Government has today released the report from the Public Inquiry into the Earthquake Commission chaired by Dame Silvia Cartwright. Minister Responsible for the Earthquake Commission Grant Robertson says the Government wants to learn from people’s experiences following the Canterbury earthquakes and other recent natural disasters. “Dame Silvia’s report documents ...
The Government has extended by two weeks till April 27 the amount of time priority groups, such as health workers and those aged over 65, have to get their flu vaccine before it is made available to the wider public. This year’s vaccination campaign is a key component of the ...
Communities stepping up to help New Zealanders stay at home to break the transmission of COVID-19 and save lives have received Government support, said Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. “Delivering groceries for the elderly who can’t shop online, providing data packs for low income families to keep them connected, and being ...
Across New Zealand 120 sites are taking samples to be tested for COVID-19. 68 community based assessment centres (CBACs) have been established to take samples from people with COVID-19 symptoms. Alongside this, 52 other centres including designated general practices, swabbing centres, and mobile clinics are now testing people for ...
The Ministry of Education is working with partners to develop a package of options so that students can learn at home when Term 2 begins on 15 April, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. Supports are also being prepared for households with children under five, to help parents and whānau ...
Māori Television to begin educational te reo programmes Ki te Ao Mārama – a new online learning space Thousands of hard copy learning packs ready for distribution Helpdesk and advice service for kōhanga, kura and wharekura Television, the internet and hard copy learning packs are some of the ways whānau ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced an initial package of support to help the people and the Government of Vanuatu respond to the impact of Tropical Cyclone Harold. “Our Pacific neighbours have been hit by a Category 5 Cyclone at the same time as dealing with the economic impacts ...
Tourism New Zealand to lead work reimagining the way tourism operates in post-COVID-19 world. Ministers to review International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy investment plan. The Government, industry and business are working together to develop a plan for how tourism will operate in a post-COVID-19 world, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis ...
More New Zealanders are taking up the chance to work in horticulture as the sector keeps New Zealanders fed and in jobs during the COVID-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our ...
The Provincial Development Unit is working through applications and projects to see where Provincial Growth Fund money can be repurposed for initiatives deemed more critical to fighting the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. “We need to be throwing everything we have at ...
The Government’s wage subsidy to protect jobs and keep workers and businesses connected during the lockdown has now supported over a million New Zealanders, with $6.6 billion already paid out. “We’re supporting businesses to pay wages, and stay connected with their workers so that we are all in a better ...
The Government is stepping up efforts to help protect New Zealand’s Pacific communities in the fight against COVID-19. Cabinet has agreed that $17 million will be allocated to support a COVID-19 Pacific Response Package, which will: Support Pacific health and disability services facing increased demand; Ramp up public health messaging ...
“Yesterday evening the Health Minister advised me of his trip to a beach during the lockdown and offered his resignation,” Jacinda Ardern said. “Under normal conditions I would sack the Minister of Health. What he did was wrong, and there are no excuses. “But right now, my priority is our ...
Last night as part of my preparation for the Epidemic Response Committee, I provided the Prime Minister with a complete picture of my activity outside my home during Alert Level 4. That included the fact that on the first weekend of the Alert Level 4 lockdown I drove my family ...
A range of support is being rolled out across New Zealand to help people look after their mental health during COVID-19 Health Minister David Clark said this morning. “COVID-19 has brought a lot of uncertainty into our lives and many of us will be feeling some level of distress or ...
The New Zealand Government has made arrangements to charter a flight for New Zealanders stranded in Peru to depart the country, following agreement with the Chilean government to allow the necessary transit through Chile, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. “Like many travellers around the world at the moment, ...
Hospital preparations for COVID-19 are well advanced says Health Minister David Clark. “Hospitals across New Zealand are repurposing buildings and training staff to get ready for COVID-19 patients. This gives me confidence that we are well prepared for any potential increase in COVID-19 patients needing hospital level care,” said David ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
The Government has stepped in to support vital air links to our offshore islands, the Chatham Islands, Great Barrier Island and Motiti Island, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. “As part of our $600 million support package to minimise the impacts of COVID-19 on the aviation sector, the Government has ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Education Minister Dan Tehan has warned non-government schools that if they fail to open for the next term they will face losing funding. He said on Thursday that “as part of the funding requirement” a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Remember how last year’s Easter felt bizarre because the country was in election-mode? How normal that seems, now everything is surreal, with the nation “holidaying” in this peculiar, unpleasant limbo. As we contemplate the grimness ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Michelle Grattan talks with MPs Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Victoria), Fiona Martin (Reid, NSW), Clare O’Neil (Hotham, Victoria) and Helen Haines (Indi, Victoria) about how they do their job during the pandemic. They discuss the operation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nic Geard, Senior Lecturer, School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne; Senior Research Fellow, Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne Following the emergence and rapid spread of COVID-19, several countries have succeeded in bringing local outbreaks under ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin Today’s chart shows the per capita level of testing performed in a number of countries. While the highest testing rate shown is Norway, we should note that Iceland has tested over eight percent of its population; too high to show on this chart. A ...
By RNZ News New Zealand has recorded just 29 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, but the prime minister says a decision on changing the alert level will only be made two days before the lockdown ends. It is the fourth day in a row there ...
The Guardian’s Pacific Project disaster video.By the Pacific Project Tropical Cyclone Harold lashed the South Pacific island of Vanuatu, ripping off roofs and downing telecommunications, before moving towards Fiji and Tonga. The powerful cyclone made landfall on Monday in Sana province, an island north of Vanuatu’s capital Port ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elyse Methven, Lecturer in Law, University of Technology Sydney The message to everyone during the coronavirus pandemic is to stay at home and only leave if you really need to for, say, food, health care or exercise. Police now have powers to ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Pat MacFie from Manaaki.This week we have another special podcast highlighting some of ...
NZ First leader Winston Peters today said he wants the election held on November 21, Radio NZ reported. He says he believes the health system would be under the pump in September with the winter flu season and the country potentially still dealing with the impacts of Covid-19. Prime Minister ...
New Zealand Rock Lobster (crayfish) are once again heading to China with the first small consignment being airfreighted last week. It was one of the first primary industry sectors in New Zealand to be affected by Covid-19, and as we now know, the sledgehammer that hit this industry was just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Bloomfield, Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, University of Notre Dame Australia Lockdown measures aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19 should actually help cut the cases of flu this year. That’s because keeping people apart to reduce the spread of coronavirus ...
New modelling from Te Pūnaha Matatini projects the impact of the lockdown, and what our next steps could be, Marc Daalder reports New figures from a team of mathematicians and scientists modelling the way Covid-19 could affect New Zealand indicate the lockdown has significantly dampened the spread of the virus. ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr about the latest retail spending data and the Reserve Bank's call for banks to step up as market-makers for corporate and local government bonds. In their latest daily 'Bernard Zooms out to lunch with Jarrod' video, Bernard Hickey and Jarrod ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Georgie Russell, Senior Lecturer, Deakin University This Easter will be especially challenging, with family isolation and many parents under financial strain, or other stressors. So, many parents will be looking to restore some sense of “normality” by welcoming the Easter bunny into ...
The Beths’ live-streamed concert yesterday showed that even in lockdown, music isn’t dead. Here’s why it worked, and where you can see Kiwis live streaming for the next week.Yesterday at 9am, Liz Stokes put a giant pineapple mask over her head and played the Animal Crossing theme on a trumpet ...
New Conservative Leader Leighton Baker has lived in and around the Waimakariri district since 1992 and is revelling in the opportunity to represent the electorate in Parliament after the 2020 general election. “Waimakariri is a diverse district with a strong ...
“Hard-hit councils, who oversee half this country’s public infrastructure, require financial support from central government that is tied to shared priorities through Urban Growth Partnerships,” says Paul Blair CEO of Infrastructure New Zealand. ...
Airways may close seven of its regional air traffic control towers because of a collapse in traveller numbers. The services under review are provided at Hawke's Bay, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Rotorua and Invercargill Airport as well as the airfield flight information services provided at Kapiti Coast Airport and Milford Sound ...
Proposals to expand the role of local councils into climate change mitigation under the Resource Management Act would add confusion, complexity and duplication, according to the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand (PEPANZ) and ...
As New Zealand enters its third week of Covid-19 lockdown, a just released set of modelling provides a flare of light at the end of the tunnel, reports Toby Manhire.On a day that the active case number decreased, it finds that “While New Zealand case numbers remain low, tracing, testing, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachael L. Brown, Director of the Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences and Lecturer at the School of Philosophy, Australian National University As they released the modelling of the COVID-19 pandemic behind Australia’s social isolation policies this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison ...
The latest in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersThese posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in the early ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jim Tognolini, Director, Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment, University of Sydney Following a meeting with states and territories, federal education minister, Dan Tehan said year 12 students were a priority, and were being sent a clear signal: “There will be no ...
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) is calling for an equal extension to all licencing regimes, following the Government’s announcement today offering motorists a six-month licencing grace period. COLFO says that like motorists, licenced ...
Dear Minister Jones, Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Adrian. I am an employee in the forestry industry, a Future Forester, a graduate of Canterbury University and, albeit very small, a forest owner. ...
As countries in Europe plan a tightrope walk back out of lockdown, the World Health Organisation warns it is too early to relax strict suppression measures in the fight against Covid-19, writes Peter Bale Two weeks into New Zealand's aggressive and early lockdown to combat the spread of Covid-19, voices ...
Consumers dramatically changed their spending patterns last month because of Covid-19 and the government ordered lockdown. Official numbers show overall retail spending using electronic cards fell a record seasonally adjusted 3.9 percent on the previous month. Stats NZ senior manager Sue Chapman said spending on eating out and accommodation plunged ...
A new $200,000 business subsidy package is being launched in Christchurch to help those affected by Covid-19. The ChristchurchNZ business support subsidy will offer eligible businesses up to $1000 each to seek professional advice. The scheme - funded by ChristchurchNZ, the city's economic development agency, will support small to medium ...
Large retailers have been quick to apply for government wage subsidies during the Covid-19 lockdown. The Warehouse has received $67.7 million to cover the labour costs of the shutdown of its Red Shed, Torpedo, Noel Leeming, and Warehouse Stationery chains, which between them employ about 11,000 staff. "The receipt of ...
A new report Quantifying the wellbeing costs of Covid-19 by the New Zealand Initiative shows how an economic hit of about 6.1% of GDP would be justified if it meant saving 33,600 lives during the Covid-19 pandemic. The figures, compiled by research fellow ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dougal Sutherland, Clinical Psychologist, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington The COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions of people to live under strict lockdown conditions, but the psychology of human behaviour predicts they will find it harder to stick to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Smillie, Associate Professor, University of Melbourne The coronavirus pandemic has caused tens of thousands of deaths around the world and pushed major economies into a tailspin. Beyond those impacts, almost all of us will face psychological challenges – trying to maintain ...
We asked Tony Baird, of Newsroom foundation supporter Vodafone NZ, to provide some insights into how New Zealanders have been using online and their smartphones during the first fortnight of lockdown. At Vodafone NZ, we entered new territory in this lockdown as New Zealanders have been turning to their smartphones and devices ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has launched a new campaign to temporarily reduce the remuneration of politicians, senior bureaucrats, and council bosses to match those voluntary and involuntary efforts in the private sector where pay is being ...
Analysis by Keith RankinWhat is Mercantilism?Keith Rankin. Mercantilism is the form of public policy that was dominant in Europe – especially Northern Europe – in the ‘early modern’ period; meaning in the period loosely between 1500 and 1800 (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries). In a political sense it ...
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency says legislative changes to driver licensing and vehicle certification requirements coming into effect tomorrow (10 April) will help drivers and vehicle owners safely navigate through the COVID-19 lockdown period and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Woolaston, Lawyer, Queensland University of Technology Never before have we seen how the human use of wildlife can yield such catastrophe, as we have with COVID-19. The current available evidence indicates COVID-19 was first transmitted in a wildlife market in Wuhan. ...
In a week alone there was an increase of about 10,000 people now relying on welfare to get by. As the number of benefit recipients rapidly increases as a result of COVID-19, Auckland Action Against Poverty is calling on the Government to urgently lift benefits ...
CEAC stands alongside Forest & Bird, Greenpeace, WWF-New Zealand, Generation Zero, EDS and Ecologic letter to Jacinda Ardern calling on the Government to transform the New Zealand economy to tackle climate change, save native species, improve freshwater ...
Better Public Media welcomes the announcement that the Ministry of Education will fund Television New Zealand and Māori Television to provide up to six hours daily of educational content for our children and students, beginning next week. It is ...
It’s OK if you don’t come out of lockdown with abs.We are living through the worst global pandemic since the Spanish Flu in 1918 and the beginning of an economic calamity that has already claimed the jobs of millions of workers the world over. Hospitals are full, schools are closed and many countries are in ...
One thing is abundantly clear, when this lock down is over, many tourism related businesses will be reliant on Domestic Tourism to stay afloat. But what will that mean from a Freedom Camping point of view? While it has been true, that many towns ...
The Government has announced that all incoming travellers will be quarantined away from their homes and families for a 14 day period, after a public campaign that received widespread support The Government has bowed to a public campaign led by epidemiologists and the National Party to have all returning New Zealanders ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet ...
New Zealand is has joined the ranks of countries experiencing a wave of sabotage attempts against mobile networks as false claims about 5G go viral, Marc Daalder reports Spark, 2degrees, Vodafone and the Rural Connectivity Group have all experienced threats or actual attempts of sabotage of cell towers in recent ...
Air traffic control closure sends COVID-19 shockwaves through regional airports Seven regional airports are shocked that Airways NZ, the national air traffic management organisation, wants to discuss the removal of air traffic control at their facilities ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters wants an election on November 21st. Peters told RNZ he fought for that originally as it's his long held position that summer elections are better. ...
The national lockdown was justifiable to protect the nation's intensive care capacity. But any prolonged lockdown and border closure will cause economic issues that lead to broader, indirect problems for our health and wellbeing, writes Professor Grant Guilford. In a caring society it is right that we do our utmost ...
She’s not a teacher or a fluent speaker – she just wants to practise with you. Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Yesterday we were counting things, today we’re counting people. We have different ways of counting each because people aren’t ...
A news item by Māni Dunlop, Māori News Director, has been posted on the RNZ website under the heading Government urged to put Māori at forefront of Covid-19 planning. “Forefront” means the position of greatest importance or prominence. One implication to be drawn from the headline, therefore. is that Māori ...
Women’s Rights Commissioner Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo is encouraging women to seek help immediately if they find themselves in an abusive situation during the COVID-19 isolation. Often, people who were already in an abusive situation will likely ...
COMMENTARY:By Georgie Bright, Australia associate director of Human Rights Watch Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the fragile health system in Papua New Guinea was underfunded and overwhelmed, with high rates of malaria, tuberculosis, and diabetes among its population of more than eight million. Access to hospitals is extremely ...
New home owners will pay tens of thousands of dollars more on their mortgage if they accept a six-month mortgage 'holiday' option. That’s money going to the banks. But should lender and borrower be sharing the pain? There’s always a nagging worry about holidays. They are fun while they last, but ...
An Auckland bus driver tells Leonie Hayden what it’s like to operate under alert level four, and the struggle to secure a safer work environment.Mike moved to New Zealand in 2001. “I’m a Kiwi now,” he says, “and a die-hard unionist.” He’s employed by a large New Zealand bus company ...
The 1pm briefing has become appointment viewing. But it is no substitute for transparent, timely information, even in such extraordinary times, writes Newshub investigations reporter Michael Morrah in this post originally published on Newshub.Like all journalists in New Zealand right now, I’ve been covering stories day after day, all of ...
The Chair of the Earthquake Commission, Sir Michael Cullen, has welcomed Dame Silvia Cartwright’s Report of the Public Inquiry into the Earthquake Commission, released today. “The Report lays out clearly the challenges faced by EQC in responding to ...
With 14 days before the lockdown period is - for now - set to end, big questions remain about how the country is going to be able to stamp out flareups of Covid-19. ...
Environmental groups from across New Zealand have written to the Prime Minister urging the Government to restore Aotearoa in the economic recovery after lockdown. Forest & Bird, Greenpeace, WWF-New Zealand, Generation Zero, EDS and Ecologic ...
We've published a Controller update on Government spending in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. On 25 March 2020, Parliament passed legislation in response to the pandemic authorising the Government to spend up to $52 billion in addition ...
‘It is sobering watching what a country can do if it wants to. Having been told for so long that nothing is possible. These are strange times down the back of the bus, John.’Read more Lockdown Letters here.Dear John KeatsFunny that it’s had to come to this. But when I think ...
By Kelly Vacala in Suva Fiji disaster authorities have lifted movement restrictions imposed yesterday during the height of Severe Tropical Cyclone Harold have been lifted and both Queens and Kings highways are open. However, Covid-19 restrictions remain. Category 5 Harold is now heading for Tonga after leaving a trail ...
The Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Education will be taking questions from the opposition in the Epidemic Response Committee meeting. ...
Today’s EQC report urges the country’s natural disaster insurer to prepare for the next “big one”. David Williams reports The Canterbury earthquakes killed 185 people, and damaged 180,000 houses, some of which still haven’t been adequately repaired. Or re-repaired. But they also did something else. They shook people’s confidence in the ...
KiwiSaver funds invested solely in ethical companies are outperforming other funds amidst market volatility. An analysis of returns for the first quarter of 2020 shows growth funds were on average down more than 12 percent, but growth funds that were ethically invested lost on under 8 percent. Conservative and balanced ...
An Auckland small business owner says he's paying full price for broadband in an empty factory and it is not fair. Steve has been wrangling with Spark for days arguing it should share in the pain of thousands of its customers. He runs a small manufacturing business with a handful ...
Paywave limits will increase to $200 to reduce physical contact with PIN pads during the Covid-19 pandemic. Previously only transactions of $80 or less were able to be completed without a PIN using a contactless card. After a pilot, Payments NZ will progressively roll out the new higher contactless payment ...
The Overstory, the winnner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, is an engulfing, worldview-shifting novel about climate catastrophe and hope, writes Susan Wardell. (Photographs are from a photo essay on kauri dieback by Michelle Hyslop; captions by Andrea Ewing). The year before last, I spent the month of January hugging ...
US death toll jumps 779 in a day; WTO warns global trade could drop by 13-33%; Trump says WHO biased towards China; WHO boss says finger-pointing just results in 'many more body bags'US toll surges: The United States is standing out in the Coid-19 numbers count with more than ...
By Sri Krishnamurthi, contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch After some weeks of heavy criticism of Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape’s government amid the Covid-19 pandemic, support for the administration has come from a surprising quarter – one of the media. Scott Waide is the Lae bureau ...
NZX50 back over 10k again as Mainfreight keeps its profit forecast with just single digit fall in sales, while Tilt Renewables' big payday helps Infratil pay a dividendPushing higher: The NZX50 finally managed to close above the key 10,000 level for the first time in almost a month, finishing ...
Open mike 28/08/2011 
The pandemic has shown us how effective our public service is. They've pulled together a massive policy response, from a lockdown to economic support to healthcare to planning how to keep everything running when this is over, and done it in next to no time. They are heroes, who have ...11 hours ago
In 1968 Canadian sociologist Laurence Peter coined the phrase “Peter Principle” as a contribution to the sociology of organisations. It explains that in complex organizations people rise to the level of their own incompetence. That is, they get promoted so long as they meet or exceed the specified criteria for ...12 hours ago
The practice and business of music has been one of the sectors most gravely impacted by the virus sweeping the world. The emphatic nature of our government's response, necessary as it was, has slammed the industry and the people who work in it.There are New Zealand artists – Nadia Reid, ...13 hours ago
. . April 8: Day 14 of living in lock-down… The good news first: the downward trajectory of new cases appears to be a real thing. In the last four days, since Sunday, new infections have been dropping: Sunday: 89 new cases Monday: 67 Tuesday: 54 Today (Wednesday): 50 The ...15 hours ago
The anti-fluoride movement wants to restrict your reading to “just four studies.” They actively ignore or attempt to discredit other relevant studies. Image credit: Censorship in media. For earlier articles in this series see: ... 19 hours ago
Not Now, Not Ever, Never! The problem with Labour's leading activists is that there is never a good time for democratic socialism. Never. They are like Saint Augustine who prayed to the Almighty: “Lord, give me chastity and self-control – but not yet.” In the case of Labour "junior officers", however, ...20 hours ago
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As the world economy slides rapidly towards deep recession there are growing calls for a Universal Benefit coming from some leftists and rightists. Now Finance Minister Grant Robertson is saying it is on the table. This article by a French party Workers Struggle provides analysis of various forms of universal ...4 days ago
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Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...5 days ago
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We must root out the traitors among us! ...6 days ago
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Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 1 week ago
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Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs Hon. Ron Mark, Minister of Defence Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark today announced that New Zealand will provide a further package of assistance to Vanuatu, to support the response to Tropical Cyclone Harold. “Tropical ...13 hours ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...2 weeks ago
The Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson has announced that urgent maintenance of turf and care for plants in non-plantation nurseries will soon be able to go ahead under Level 4 restrictions. “The Government has agreed that urgent upkeep and maintenance of biological assets will be able to go ahead ...12 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Education Minister Dan Tehan has warned non-government schools that if they fail to open for the next term they will face losing funding. He said on Thursday that “as part of the funding requirement” a ...4 hours ago
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The Beths’ live-streamed concert yesterday showed that even in lockdown, music isn’t dead. Here’s why it worked, and where you can see Kiwis live streaming for the next week.Yesterday at 9am, Liz Stokes put a giant pineapple mask over her head and played the Animal Crossing theme on a trumpet ...12 hours ago
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Large retailers have been quick to apply for government wage subsidies during the Covid-19 lockdown. The Warehouse has received $67.7 million to cover the labour costs of the shutdown of its Red Shed, Torpedo, Noel Leeming, and Warehouse Stationery chains, which between them employ about 11,000 staff. "The receipt of ...13 hours ago
We asked Tony Baird, of Newsroom foundation supporter Vodafone NZ, to provide some insights into how New Zealanders have been using online and their smartphones during the first fortnight of lockdown. At Vodafone NZ, we entered new territory in this lockdown as New Zealanders have been turning to their smartphones and devices ...13 hours ago
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New Zealand is has joined the ranks of countries experiencing a wave of sabotage attempts against mobile networks as false claims about 5G go viral, Marc Daalder reports Spark, 2degrees, Vodafone and the Rural Connectivity Group have all experienced threats or actual attempts of sabotage of cell towers in recent ...15 hours ago
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters wants an election on November 21st. Peters told RNZ he fought for that originally as it's his long held position that summer elections are better. ...15 hours ago
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A news item by Māni Dunlop, Māori News Director, has been posted on the RNZ website under the heading Government urged to put Māori at forefront of Covid-19 planning. “Forefront” means the position of greatest importance or prominence. One implication to be drawn from the headline, therefore. is that Māori ...16 hours ago
New home owners will pay tens of thousands of dollars more on their mortgage if they accept a six-month mortgage 'holiday' option. That’s money going to the banks. But should lender and borrower be sharing the pain? There’s always a nagging worry about holidays. They are fun while they last, but ...16 hours ago
Today’s EQC report urges the country’s natural disaster insurer to prepare for the next “big one”. David Williams reports The Canterbury earthquakes killed 185 people, and damaged 180,000 houses, some of which still haven’t been adequately repaired. Or re-repaired. But they also did something else. They shook people’s confidence in the ...18 hours ago
KiwiSaver funds invested solely in ethical companies are outperforming other funds amidst market volatility. An analysis of returns for the first quarter of 2020 shows growth funds were on average down more than 12 percent, but growth funds that were ethically invested lost on under 8 percent. Conservative and balanced ...18 hours ago
An Auckland small business owner says he's paying full price for broadband in an empty factory and it is not fair. Steve has been wrangling with Spark for days arguing it should share in the pain of thousands of its customers. He runs a small manufacturing business with a handful ...18 hours ago
Paywave limits will increase to $200 to reduce physical contact with PIN pads during the Covid-19 pandemic. Previously only transactions of $80 or less were able to be completed without a PIN using a contactless card. After a pilot, Payments NZ will progressively roll out the new higher contactless payment ...18 hours ago
US death toll jumps 779 in a day; WTO warns global trade could drop by 13-33%; Trump says WHO biased towards China; WHO boss says finger-pointing just results in 'many more body bags' US toll surges: The United States is standing out in the Coid-19 numbers count with more than ...18 hours ago
NZX50 back over 10k again as Mainfreight keeps its profit forecast with just single digit fall in sales, while Tilt Renewables' big payday helps Infratil pay a dividend Pushing higher: The NZX50 finally managed to close above the key 10,000 level for the first time in almost a month, finishing ...19 hours ago
I wonder if it would be possible to get a petition going to have the ‘Left Leaning’ column, which ostensibly provides one of the few spaces for the voices of the left in our largely right-leaning media, to be written by someone who is, I dunno, a bit left? Even centre would be a step in the left direction.
In this particularly appalling piece, http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/blogs/john-pagani-left-leaning/5511201/Heres-how-we-stop-our-kids-being-bashed Pagani links to an even more appalling item written by Tony Blair, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/20/tony-blair-riots-crime-family which he says he found “moving”.
On a positive note: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10747833
Here’s what I think would be a realistic outcome from the election with a good balance of power that reflects the current state of politics.
National 56
UnitedFuture 6
Maori Party 4
Act 4
Labour 40
Greens 10
Mana 1
Explained more: Election Predictions
But Pete you won’t even declare who you are going to vote for. Why should we place credence in your views?
And ACT 4 ups but Mana only one? Is this a sign of right wing bias?
It’s got nothing to do with left right anything, I’d be quite happy with Act 1, Mana 1.
I rate Act 0-5 depending on Epsom and how much party vote they get.
Mana are a probably going to get one, ok, they could pick up one or two more on party vote but that would be at the expense of Labour.
Just listening to Sepuloni, I wish she wouldn’t talk in election slogans.
United Future 6??
hahha comedy central
Seconded! 😀
So let’s all play pull figures out of our arse.
And by no means should we discuss anything meaningful, like the country’s problems and what to do about them.
One way of dealing with problems is to get into government, but that’s not all I’m doing, I work off the net as well.
Today I’m also working on doing something about problems, like NARK, Child Matters, and here’s a really neat thing that I’m helping promote at the moment: chatbus.org.nz
I’d prefer if UF got 6 seats at the expense of National and Act too.
No doubt you want this outcome as well so you can swan off to Wellington and suck up the nice salary and pension scheme.
Unfortunately for you, they’re not likely to get more than 2 seats, and only then if Dunne can take his seat which isn’t exactly the safest in the country.
And do they even have 6 candidates????
Often on the net you see unwarranted ‘LOL’s but today I actually Laughed Out Loud after reading tory Pete’s mirthful post-UF 6? Harr effin harr!
only just read this UF6 – lol – hahahahaha
Gawd on Q&A they have three right wingers, Tamihere, Phil O’Reilly, and some woman who thinks the Spirit Level has been discredited, discussing the book. O’Reilly thinks that not growing “is just madness”. And Holmes admitted he diid not understand an interview with one of the authors of the book.
Where is the balance?
although we don’t really need the MSM’s facile version of ‘balance’…we need critical discussion and a media able to use facts and figures to force people to move on from their little PR platitudes.
MS – surely in a global sense with more and more countries and modern type consumers coming onstream there must be net global growth to cater for the increased number who demand consumerables. More connected countries means more efficiencies in resource utilisation surely.
Do we as a global connected society simple say too the rest i.e africa, etc too late, you missed the boat but we’ll take your resources though.
Now good points from Q+A
– discource on envirnomental impact and increased awareness and contribution from agri sector.
– need for a socital discusion around social inequality and at what slope do we ‘float the boats’.
-good imput on crime and how to lessen impact on society and police resources.
Orlov put it very well: Mother Nature does not change its behaviour due to price signals.
There will be no more global net growth because the physical world system cannot support exponential growth any longer. And our financial system cannot support exponential growth (of debt) any longer.
And the main constraint: cheap oil. There is virtually none left.
yes CV i agree totally peak oil, lack of eco stability etc etc…There must and will be a shift from oil for energy to oil for consumerables only at some point but limiting factors are availability of govt cash reserves and willpower (both in very short supply ). I wonder if the extreme right ,who can read the same signals as the left, havent a plan for after as well. Use cheap energy and resources and then via science / techno use their system liquidity and cash in / control the next phase of development.
I see two paths – social democratic slow adaption to the next growth/ developement phase via govt control and constructs or a sole bought out /leveraged mega-private sector society without any public controls or direction at all.
The societial arrangement surely isn’t all that relevant, its the one we choose.
Centralizers want to control resources, but its turning out that the solutions
to our world crisises, food, population, climate, resources, energy, is more
ant like. The ‘central’ of an ant colony is a egg producer, nothing more
nothing less. Government in the new networked local centric world will\
not be the centre. So you could be right, depending on who you ask
the world could look owned by mega-private ‘queens’ yet still be slowly
adapt to the next growth phase. The right could be right, government is
the problem, and the left could be right that businesses are not the engine
of society. That when we all conform our behavior – think local act
globally – then we will survive. Think of it like this, why do you
drive within the white lines. Well the council makes the best road
in between the lines. The lines aren’t there to contain you, its your
choice to stay within the lines, its in your interest since others
stay on the other side of the line and so you gain safety by
staying within the line. This is when government should be,
drawing lines, measuring if they work, and keeping us from harming
ourselves and prospering. But government does not do this anymore,
the right believe its their right to get very very rich and exploit,
the left believe its there right to decide what society should look like,
what we need is neither the right or the left, we need to trust people
and provide the people networks to faciliate their personal growth,
and everything will come right again. We just have too many sociopathic
control narcissists in power and in the media, and we will all pay
dearly for their needy attention disorders. clip of Key dressed in drag
at a gay festival.
That’s what we’ve been telling them since colonisation a few hundred years ago.
yes but each region or country is on its own economic pathway with its own pace of economic evolution. stability, security and consumerism would appear to be necessary factor that allow for a sucessful adoption into the western paradym…oh and the McDonalds too.
We all know the rational for USA etc to support or invade non connected or misaligned strategic countries such as iraq…and dictate to other countries adherance to internation regs that allow free trade or movment of capital.
We IMO need every country connected and functioning so we can face the challenges ahead over the next 50-100 years.
The only viable long term solution is a ‘next way’ economic system that will manage the transition from a Neolib / Socialist matrix flipflop to a more balanced, globally connected social democratic govt where we still have room for capital investment in a limited private sector.
My thoughts would see the rise of workplace co-ops ( as the new work unions ) expanded SOE / Public sector sphere that provide control / influence on wages and worker condition ( the expanded public sector would provide a balance to the private sector ). Erodicate the concept of traditional model of ownership of housing and control the price of land as this cause market created bubbles and artifical instabilities.
Why not a complex ‘rent to own’ scheme where need is meet by the state…The real nominal cost of a new average house build is far far lower than present values.
At present our economic system is chaotic, full of contridiction, lack of coordination and simply inefficient in a holistc sense. resources are being misused and wasted.
What right does 1500 billionaire individuals have to live a utopian dream when the billions upon billions of the global population starve or eck out a miserable existance?
There is no such thing as a private sector or, for that matter, a government sector – there is only society.
Yep, there is a massive misallocation of the worlds resources caused by the capitalist paradigm.
I can’t remember the name of the woman either but ….OMG!
Our binge drinking culture is a product of children coming home and watching Home and Away where people meet at the local bar for drinks?
That’s it! Pissed teens are gathering on the North Shore for riotous parties because they saw it on Home and Away! Well, that’s easily solved.
Let’s axe Home and Away and replace with something safer….like Cheers.
BTW…..there is no bar on Home and Away!
Going by the discussion of The Spirit Level, I don’t think any of them had read the book.
Their problems with the theory had been covered and refuted in the book.
They were not even listening, the prof said inequality measure was a flag indicating
poor economic outcomes for rich and poor. Rich parent are just as likely too be
uneducated enough to stop their kids getting immunized, for example.
But the ost conceited media was laid law on entrepreneurs, that was a shocker
for myopia.
inerestingly the balance is alreay presnt at grassroot levels…’the spirit level’ and its insight are being discussed at various levels or sectors such as in ECE.
Q&A is another soapbox to ensure Ellis pockets a circa million p.a. Package from his nat mates and masters.
due to a lack of a public broadcaster providing balance and objectivity we get this one sided approach…..look across the Tasman where ABC and SBS set a bar the others follow or just don’t get watched when it matters.
They enjoy jumps in ratings when major events occur as people know they can be trusted….whereas here it’s reality tv and jokers like Holmes, Espiner, garner and associated sycophants.
I dont know about the rest of the country but round here the Labour Party candidate and his team have been working away for over a year and I think they have avery good chance of toppling the incumbent National party and dispatching them with a very healthy majority for Labour. Locally Labour is seen as the can do party and the chances are looking better every day.
Totally
I met the new MP for Otaki 3 weeks ago
Primo guy
Had good 30 mins talking with him
and he said from his meeting people in Levin- it highly likely Guy will lose his seat
made my day
Spotted in the Herald comments.
“Yes you’re right. There is this famous exchange at the G* a year or so back between Gordon Brown and Angela Merkel where Brown asks why Germany weathered the GFC so well and Britain had just plummeted into debt. Merkel answered “Because Germany still makes things Mr Brown!””
Anyone noticed that Labour’s blog site ‘Red Alert’ is being rapidly taken over by trained trollers whose brief is to undermine the site’s owners and supporters? These individuals seem to work in loose groups, and bully their victims with repetitive criticisms and insults. I put much of the blame on the timidity of the MP owners who talk about the problem, but seem unwilling to take positive action to get rid of them. Genuine critics are welcome and make for healthy debate, but these narcisstic nasties are anything but genuine.
All I can say is: it will be to the site’s detriment, because soon there will be nobody of worth bothering to comment there – which I guess is the ultimate aim of the NAct campaign.
Haven’t properly visited for awhile, but always thought that ‘Red Alert’ would be a prime target for attack by trolls, whether coordinated by spin merchants or just a bunch of losers with an axe to grind. I think it was always going to happen sooner or later unless they switched comments off or engaged in very strict moderation.
always thought that ‘Red Alert’ would be a prime target for attack by trolls, whether coordinated by spin merchants or just a bunch of losers with an axe to grind
There’s both. It’s easy to tell which is which. The ‘losers’ are one man bands and, as you say, they have a bee in their bonnet. The professional spin merchants repeatedly attack the authors and commenters until – particularly in the case of commenters – they fall silent presumably cowered. Their lines are just too pat to be random.
in the case of commenters – they fall silent presumably cowered.
err… in the case of some commenters- not all.
Or maybe the arguements presented are piss-weak and easily countered…
But at least you’ve still got your true believers like spud 🙂
He’s alright chris 73. I enjoy his witty one liners. Although even Spuddy boy has been silenced a bit of late…
I’m sorry but did you mention spud and witty one liners in the same breath?
Seriously though any swing voter that goes onto red alert and reads his comments are likely to think hes a bit…(not sure how to say this without insulting anyone) simple
I was responding to your comment in friendly jest. Spud his who he is. He’s of Pacific Island extraction and it’s part of his personality. He may like to use seemingly simple minded one liners much of the time but he isn’t simple, and contributes pertinent observations when he want to. Cmon chris73, live and let live.
Fair call, wouldn’t hurt though if he gave the emoticons a rest…
Agreed.
You havn’t spent much time reading Kiwibog.
Don’t blame you though. You leave feeling soiled.
NRT has removed the comments feature without much trouble. Personally I think having a forum for people to directly communicate with their representatives is a good idea. The trolls be damned!
Didn’t Clare mention that she was going get rid of the trolls?
They got rid of one and have threatened (too timidly in my view) to moderate or ban a few others but that’s all. They need a lesson or two from lPrent.
The problem is that a troll is a subjective term and if you’re going to start banning right-wing trolls will you then ban the left-wing trolls as well?
I have a recollection RA did ban one insufferably rude leftie not too long ago. Can’t remember is blogging name.
We have done it a number of times, booting people from all sides when required. There is a definite bias against rwnj’s. But I suspect that most of that is because the nj’s of other persuasions tend to value having the site available more – they amend their behavior when warned.
But we look much more at behavior rather than peoples philosophy. The underlying criteria is the good of the site as expressed in the about. You don’t do that by supression of alternate ideas. You do it by removing people who are incapable of arguing and have the flexibility of a badly programmed robot.
The fastest way to find out if someone is capable of learning is to stress them at a personal level. Personally I have decades of experience at how to do it, and query level access to a rather large database of whatever is said here makes it a hell of a lot easier. That is why I will sometimes start to torment people – I want to find out is they are merely automata.
All that being said, I have one major advantage at moderating on a site like this. I simply do not care about what others think about me. I am not a politician nor anything more than a member of a political party. The things that I consider as being crucially important questions are not those discussed here.
My involvement in the political sphere because of a sense of duty in constraining the ability of political people from screwing up too badly. Having open and public forums is a effective way to do it.
Getting back to Annes point about team trolling – I just don’t tolerate it. To me it is just evidence of a berserk reproducing virus type program, and programmers hate CPU gobblers like that. People will operate as individuals here if theydo not want to attract my attention.
Well thats what I mean, this site doesn’t allow it and red alert doesn’t allow it yet it seems to me that red alert is far more “trigger-happy” when it comes to banning people for being trolls
Maybe they’re a tad more… precious
Getting the right balance is far more of an art than a science and it depends on how far the local comment culture is from what is wanted.
I was a *lot* more trigger happy when I was changing pattern of the comment culture here. But we’re also far more sadistic than a politician can be seen to be. That gives us far more options about how to modify behavior. We can do other things rather than banning, and those are frequently a damn sight worse.
Like the climate change deniers who spend vast sums to discredit the convincing science that supports it, there is an equivalent reaction to Wilkinson and Pickett’s research on income inequality. The panel on Q&A were very dismissive of The Spirit Level based on the interview with Richard Wilkinson but I wonder how many of them actually read the book and the data that supported it.
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.com/2011/08/spirit-level-deserves-attention.html
anne..red alert red alert..bandits at 12 o’clock.
Super Fund Invests in Nuclear Weapons
Last Wednesday it was revealed that the New Zealand superannuation fund holds 44,595 shares worth $2,082,736 in a Mumbai-based multinational company called Larsen and Toubro, which in partnership with the Indian Navy, is involved in designing and manufacture a fleet of nuclear-armed submarines for India. But that’s not all Larsen & Toubro (L&T) India’s largest engineering group gets up to…
Shocking…
“THE HOLLOW MEN” the film, is on Maori channel tonight at 8.30 pm. Very pertinent especially now, the main players are still getting away with their shady, self-serving scams.
NZ loves to grow weeds! Evn when it finds a king crop, milk, it puts its whole weight
behind it and leaves a bit pile of cow shit floating down the water ways. Its always
so black and white. NZ needs to diversify, so that means we should ignore the
problem with all the weedy companies we have now, throw money at new start ups
with a now discreited consumer paradigm. Oh, what insipidness. Any farmer
does better with what he has, and that’s why we spend so much time with
jingoistic business mantras about new innovation. We need to seize the new
world economic reality, local, networked, low energy (or high energy where
its cheap – i.e. Here IN nz), but no with new roads, and less education we
are going to drive ourselves into a new growth phase.
ACT has released a list of rich white men from Auckland: http://www.act.org.nz/news/act-releases-its-party-list-for-2011-general-election
Bit surprised to see Meth-Whore Barbie missed out. When I saw her on telly screaming about how she hates animals I thought she’d be fighting off the party list offers with a shitty stick.
Where’s Cathy Odgers alias Cactus Kate? Is she the mystery no 3?
Haha I missed that nickname Meth-Whore Barbie, who does that refer too felix? I am pretty sure I will LOL at the answer 🙂
It’s a new nickname for a nasty old lady: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/outrage-act-mp-s-silly-little-chickens-comments-4218223/video
actaully ive met the ‘silly old lady’ on many an occasion – pleasant veneer with a smug superior interior, sums up anyone with money really IME.
Incredible, this is currently one of the top headlines on NACT PR webs—… er, sorry, Stuff:
Peter Jackson heads John Key on Googled list
Hah, he was searched because people didn’t know who this Prime Mincer of newsland, robber baron, cheap wannabe comedian, agent of the NWO, buddy of Obama, John ‘Keys’ really is….
It was most probably people looking for overweight camp male catwalk models, with a greedy streak and an overinflated sense of self worth coupled with a deep and insatiable need for recognition and public affirmation – I’ve heard that that particular combo is harder to find and more popular than you would think.
For all you people with fingers poised above the search keys – you don’t need google to find out what this prick is like – just come to New Zealand, swim in our rivers of effluent and see the faces of the people whose lives he has touched (hint: you won’t see them at the RWC – begging is to be made an offense just in time for the big game)
The Hollow Men is on Maori TV tonight at 8.30. Watch it and weep for our future.
Thanks Maori TV for screening it.
…and thanks Jum for highlighting the fact it was on. I am glad not to have missed it, I don’t usually watch TV so thanks for the heads-up (and I know I should have seen it back then, but they were on their way out back then). Very timely to see the young Key so enthusiastically lying, and to observe the groups formed during the Brash/English takeover.
concur, thanks Maori TV. I really hope others watched, especially blind Key-followers.
Congratulations to Hillary Calvert for being, er, dropped from the ACT party list. Don Brash richly rewarded Clavert for her support during his putsch by cutting her out of the top 10 on the ACT list. Doesn’t say much for Brash and his commitment to reward loyalty. His purchase of the ACT Party was bad enough however, sorry Hillary, his project for take over of the party and stacking it with his mates is total. If that means you are a casualty then that is expedient for Brash.
And the ACT Party, man, you have to be white male and old to be at the top. Anyone not old, male and white need not apply. “Young” Don Nicholson is the youthful face of ACT. The only other party with such a similar homogeneous list of candidates is the Maroi Party and they are clear about who their support base is and even they have women at the top.
OMG – Act really is the angry old white mans party (plus Cathy)
What’s in a Domain Name?
Don’t you just love the competitive free-market? It keeps costing more and more and more.