I’m tired of self-flagellation, so let’s give credit to Joyce and ‘National’ for running an effective campaign.
The branding of Harry Holland in ‘51 is easily demolished – suggesting that the interests of beneficiaries and billionaires are the same.
I noticed a full-size poster at my bus stop saying “The Film Industry Thanks You” featuring a minotaur-like human with horns, what appeared to be unused props, and an attractive young woman facing the camera.
Remembering Weta’s involvement in NZ politics to change industrial legislation, it troubled me.
When I went to take a digital image of it a few days later, it had gone.
Then, at a pre-election candidates forum in Miramar a young intellectual type piped up about the ‘film industry’.
Straws in the wind, perhaps – but I would be interested in any other crowd-sourced observations of the ‘National’ Party campaign
Dear media. The causes of Labour’s election performance are complex and multifaceted. Can you stop treating New Zealanders like a bunch of idiots and start a more complex discussion about what happened?
Wayne Brittenden’s Counterpoint just now on Radio NZ furnished a nuanced and fair analysis of the election. Pointed to the fact the Labour Party is to the right of Rob Muldoon on economics, in a piece that critiqued the notion of ‘the centre ground’ and how far right it has been pushed.
The left = bad, regardless of facts with the MSM who wag their tails on command as DP has shown. Dumbing down is part of the strategy.
Any who oppose the rights powerful allies such as academics, industry bodies, support groups etc will be smeared, mis represented and outright lied about if thats what it takes.
Failure to deal with this reality and counter it will continue to cost the left dearly as the MSM will continue unaffected as evidence suggests with DPF and Hooten not even having a breather and straight into it again.
Quit living in an ideal construct and figure out how to deal with reality, it aint fair but then life is not fair so why expect it from our corporate and govt owned media.
Any who oppose the rights powerful allies such as academics, industry bodies, support groups etc will be smeared, mis represented and outright lied about if thats what it takes.
And that is exactly what we saw here: DPF attacking an academic with lies.
dead right Mickey. But why oh why are the”media” fueling the “every body for Robertson “campaign.
Because they want a new target for vilification.
The old story
” Lets attack DC because he’s married and got 2 kids… oh wait”.
” Because he’s intelligent and got a Harvard degree and no commercial experience….oh wait”
” Because he lives in a 2 million dollar house in central Auckland…oh shit that’s avg price there”
” Because he comprehensively lost the caucus vote…what? 18-16…bugger”.
” Because he grew up poor and played rugby.. hang on”.
” Fuck it ..OK who’s next”.
Robertson…Oh Yeah, PAYDIRT!
Anyone interested in who benefitted in the SCF was bankrupted and bailed out under Govct guarantee might want to read this. Am I reading correctly — that ACC and Crown Asset Management are deeply involved in this schmozzle ? Registered away from NZ taxes in Caymans ?
And wasn’t George Kerr reported as receiving $100 million of govt guarantee funds from his very belated SCF bond purchases ?
Stinky much ??
“Investors in a secretive private equity partnership are rebelling against its manager, enigmatic Kiwi businessman George Kerr, as scandal threatens to engulf the $240m fund.
The Torchlight Fund, now domiciled in the Cayman Islands, was formed in 2010 to invest in distressed assets such as South Canterbury Finance.
The identity of its partners has never been formally disclosed but Fairfax NZ understands they include New Zealand government entities Crown Asset Management and ACC, whose estimated respective exposures stemming from the South Canterbury collapse are about $30m and $2.5m.”
Not happening under national, move on as they’ve used numbers in the house to defeat an attempt before and will if needed again.
Now of course a high calibre well funded investigative team with a prominent MSM outlet could…..uh oh hang on a tick does anyone else see an issue here.
of course .. but this from the Stuff link I posted offers some little hope .. ASIC not so easily silenced as our msm or sfo …
“On Thursday the Australian Financial Review reported Van Eyk’s Sydney offices had been raided by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission as it investigates alleged irregularities at its fund management division.”
This present Government will not want an investigation in to Kerr’s ties with SCF because I bet they invested in Kerr via ACC and NZ Super . Torchlight was formed in June 2009 — just ready for SCF to announce its loss $$$( but underlying profit ) ….
The bigger problem under the GG was not highlighted , follow your noses or google and then you will understand – SCF was small fry as a liability but a goldmine of assets.
$Southbury invested in irrigation infrastructure and by 2009 the present Govt were secretly planning funding on a grand scale of irrigation. Secret cabinet papers were gained by NZ Herald under OIA – showing just that.
Hubbard’s Southbury supported large schemes, Hunter Downs, Central Plains, etc etc … and he was taken out of the picture. By 2012 the Canterbury Irrigation Schemes were worth a reported $5billion to the Canterbury economy alone…
The true value of the Hubbard empire was far in excess of what the paper figures portray and were sold of undervalue in cases that were highlighted to media. Scales a value of $4 a share sold to Direct Capital for $2 – DC sold out 80% for a cool $180million just recently, There are many more and others hide under a cloak of secrecy. Face Finance bought by GE and interestingly it was GE that pulled funding last minute for Helicopters NZ and forced Hubbard in to the breach. They buy FACE Finance and now specialise in aviation and increased their assets by a cool $600million…..
Aorangi was NEVER insolvent – Hubbard placed equity in well above what was required… that has proven to be so based on the managers own reporting and the fact the investors have returned 99% funds less $12 million in fees alone for Aorangi.
Easy to use the media to destroy a man and his reputation – Stat Management is a very dangerous law that is open to political abuse… a court order should have been required – in that case Hubbard would never have been in Stat Management , the $60million so called fraud transaction out was actually the money he put in… the original fact sheet was wrong. When the Regulators realised that mistake (the Stats reversed this transaction out of Aorangi at the start) they should have acknowledged the mistake – they did not , instead continued on as if Hubbard was the thief… and destroyed him along the way with the spin via MSM.
This only touches the surface – it is an absolute shameful event from beginning to end. BUT Allan Hubbard was trialed again with SCF (even when dead and unable to defend himself) and most likely in Oct it will be confirmed to be “All Allan Hubbard’s fault”….
Got a phone call to renew my Labour membership last night at 9.30pm. Had already done so online and told Fraser House as such. Said that I’d rejoined just so I could vote back DC because as a gay man myself, Robertson leaves me cold and I couldn’t see how he could appeal to the redneck rugby playing non urban voters. Coupled with the fact his electorate vote went down, as well as only getting third in the party vote in 2014, how he could claim to represent Labour was unthinkable.
On the bright side, membership is only valid till Dec 31 so if Robertson unfortunately manages to win, at least I don’t need to worry about renewing my membership on Jan 1 2015.
We had booth by booth results available and online within hours of polls closing. Our current paper based system is efficient, traceable, auditable, re-countable.
Can someone please confirm the cut-off date for new members wanting to vote for the Labour party leader. “Keep Cunliffe as Labour Leader” on Facebook is saying it was 11.30pm yesterday. ??? Thanks.
Lurgee, they’re joining up because they genuinely care about the Labour Party and the future wellbeing of New Zealand – and they wholeheartedly believe that David Cunliffe is the best man to take on John Key in 2017, having had the benefit of three more years’ experience.
The Facebook page supporting him has over 4,300 likes already, and it was only set up a week ago.
Surely that’s a good thing, driving up the membership of the Labour Party? Why are they ‘carpetbaggers’ as you suggest, just because this upsetting election loss has motivated ordinary people to act? They’ve realised that if the Labour Party is to survive, they need to get involved as supporters and volunteers.
Shouldn’t the members ultimately determine the future of the Labour Party, and its policies, not the MPs who represent us? That’s why they demanded constitutional changes last year, after decades of being ignored.
I’m entirely in favour of membership choosing the leader. It should, IMHO, be an equal vote. Why should the votes of caucus count for more than the votes of an ordinary member. It’s not a very socialist idea.
But I still find the idea of people joining a party just so they can vote in an election deeply worrying. Obviously, you’ll disagree as the sign ups seem to be favouring Cunliffe and your handle suggests you might be a bit partisan.
I recently read this quote by GB Shaw: “Newspapers are unable to discriminate betweeen a bicycle crash and the collapse of civilization.” Shaw died in 1950 – the media has been a problem for a long time. One of the problems lies in daily publication; it tends toward an ADHD mentality that robs issues of their necessary depth.
We do need publicly funded news media outlets with a robust mandate to not treat the public like idiots. The health of our democracy depends on it. Living in China, and looking at NZ, it’s very clear to me that propaganda does have a power to influence our minds, and the only way to avoid its power is to be seriously paying attention to what’s going on – which no one can do about everythng all the time.
I came across a sharply pixelated example of how propaganda works, in Russell Brown’s Hard News post on Sep 24:
“….Gower’s conduct in the press conference made me uneasy.
He shouted at Cunliffe, a lame-duck leader with no good answers, for the answers he wanted. And then he barked: “Just say it — stop being tricky!”
“Tricky”. It’s hard to over-emphasise quite how loaded that word is. “Tricky David Cunliffe” is an attack line conceived and cultivated by Cunliffe’s National Party opponents over the entire time of his Labour leadership. There can barely be a National minister who hasn’t deployed it: The first few Google results for the phrase turn up Todd McLay, Amy Adams, John Key and, naturally, Whaleoil. Its organised use had a lot to do with shaping the popular perception of Cunliffe. It would not have had meaning without Cunliffe’s missteps, but it was a very successful political strategy.
For these reasons, it’s a line that a journalist simply should not be using.”
And Cunliffe’s reply? …”Nice Try Paddy ” was ok by me but I think the general public would have preferred a ‘Muldoon’ type of reply to Gower’s obnoxious disrespect and egotistical rudeness.
I would have said, “F*ck off Gower you little creep!” but that’s why I wouldn’t make it as a politician or a diplomat.
It’s also an interesting chicken-and-egg situation, since some of Cunliffe’s “missteps” that initially got the idea of trickiness into the mainstream consciousness (e. g. the intial Best Start announcement, the Dongha Liu letter) are only really missteps in the context of the media reaction that was constructed around them.
Yeah but on top of that, he does occasionally drop the ball. Such as setting up a trust to protect the identities of his financial backers or not communicating better with Goff in the 2011 election campaign.
Some think these things are examples of serious character flaws; I don’t. I simply think he’s clumsy sometimes. That clumsiness could become a major liability if he were seeking a third or fourth term as PM, cos you know he’s gonna hand his opponents something they could build a serious attack around. But fuckit, if you obsess too much about the enemy it puts you off your own game.
I hear what you’re saying, but Clark, Goff, Key, English… even Cullen managed to put their feet in it at times. Key’s probably the most clumsy, in fact (“We’d love to see wages drop”, Tranzrail shares, anything to do with the appointment of Ian Fletcher, “That’s one scientists opinion and I could probably find other experts to back up mine”, “Gay red shirt”, “Trotie”… he’s a veritable Mr. Magoo), but it doesn’t count against him. Key has a solid reputation and even a very long string of frequent gaffes doesn’t really seem to have endangered that. Cunliffe, once generally viewed as a person of substance, would also not be damaged by the odd bit of clumsiness.
Key’s gaffes are not seized on by the media.They love ‘gaffes’ by anyone on he left. In their desperation for scandal headlines they salivate, enhance and exaggerate any slight mistake by Cunliffe and gloss over any of Key’s.
Or maybe it’s the editors who are further up the right wing food /money chain do the changes to the journalists original copy giving it a right wing slant.
People are saying a lot of negative stuff about Grant Robertson. I’ve had personal experience of the guy and my impression is that he’s decent, superbrainy and he could be a good leader of the country. While he’s a good public speaker, he aint super-presidential, but then Labour shouldn’t bee seeking to follow the crowd in its approach to politics – that’d be like a good honest family restaurant emulating McDonalds to get more people through the door. You compromise your essential character and you’ll never be McDonands anyway.
Personally I’ve never seen evidence of anything like an ABC faction. A bunch of MPs dislike Cunliffe; that’s life. Some of these MPs have been attacking him through the media in a disgusting, cowardly manner, thereby undermining the party. Even worse, by undermining the party they’re adding to the suffering of the people the party needs to get into power to serve: The quarter of a million kids who live in poverty, low wage workers, the wider precariat, the small businesses who need a supportive policy environment in which to prosper – this is why their actions are decidedly hateful. Personally, I don’t believe there’s a faction, and I don’t believe there’s a conspiracy. I believe there are individuals, some of whom deserve to be evicted from the party they owe their careers to.
I believe that Cunliffe should retain the leadership of the party, though resigning and reapplying for his job after such a poor election result is actually a healthy step. He really does need to seek a new mandate.
If he wins he’s in for another three years of vicious, often nakedly dishonest (in the vein of helping a wifebeater who then gives labour a $100,000 donation that doesn’t exist) attacks by National, aided and abetted by MSM. The only way to avoid that fate would be if he was supported by the media or if he had a Muldoon/Clark type personality. So basically, he can’t avoid that fate. Neither could Robertson. I have to respect these guys for putting their hands up for one of the country’s shittiest jobs.
Back to Grant. New Zealand is a grievously divided country. We need guys like him around to help bring us together – he’s a conciliatory, broad church kind of leader with a deep, genuine sense of empathy. He has made the Wellington Central electorate his own because he’s competent and he impresses the fuck out of people he meets. I certainly believe that identity politics has been a three-plus decade blunder, supported by people who somehow manage to be simultaneously triumphalist and dangerously insecure. Grant supports gay issues, but in no way are his politics narrow, sectional or self-absorbed. If anything, I see him as old school left.
Well said Vaughan.
I don’t see Grant as the enemy of the left, I just do not think he is experienced enough to be the leader of the Labour Party yet.
I agree that whoever gets in will be subject to unrelenting, biased attacks in the MSM, and I am surprised Grant wants to put himself through that.
Nor would I wouldn’t have blamed David for giving up – but I am glad he hasn’t.
..is that robertson is not able to perform in parliament..
..for yrs i have watched various national party entities just wave him away..
..whereas when cunnliffe stands up..
..you can hear a cracking sound as nattys stiffen their spines..
..a reinvigorated left and centre..(as in fix poverty and look after the middle class..i.e. policies that will get the missing million out to the voting booths..and heads-up!..raising the pension age isn’t one of them..
..what is so complicated/difficult about that..?..)
..this re-focused labour..led by cunnliffe..
..is what terrifies the right the most..
..this is why the concerted attack on him by corporate-media..and the abc’ers..
..is so torrid/fervent..
..and this is why they must be ignored..
..it is all fucken spin..
..corporate media and the right..working in concert..
..(i’ll say it for cunnliffe)..’fuck them..!..eh..?..’)
I can go along with most of what you say. Except that word “centre”.
Appealing to the middle. Fuck that, we’re left.
Like Steve Jobs said, don’t worry about giving people what they want, cos by the time you’ve figured out what people want and put it on the market, they’ve moved on. You have to figure out what people want before they know they want it. That’s actually leadership.
We have to be sensitive to the people we’re seeking the privilege of governing, but honestly, we’re the ones who are thinking policy and politics 24/7. We have to do the hard graft of figuring out what policy best suits the country, and then take it to the poeple and communicate our vision to them in a responsive, two-way process.
Simply put, it’s our job to attract the centre leftwards. In a dialectical process.
Only just watched that post caucus video, Far out.
Shearer breaks ranks to talk and causes part of this feeding frenzy and then swans over to New York, plays the outsider and says today ‘oh’ it’s too distracting this leadership talk. I really just wanted to help review what went wrong. Stunning irony.
Hypocrite.
None of the candidates have acknowledged the party members and what they want. “I can unify the party, I can beat Steve Joyce in the house, I was the former leader…”
the failures to achieve are all over the place and none of this is “secure or stable”.
We are a broad church, but I am Labour. Coyle is very unimpressive.
Hipkins: Very impressive. It will be interesting to see where he and Parker go.
If the message Hipkins put forward today came from his senior colleagues then Labour would look like a professional government ready party.
I want to see a room where Robert Reid and Hipkins are in the room and both have got their obvious skills and guns turned on Key and National.
Coyle? Seems poisonous to me. As Robert Reid pointed out criticised the party during an election campaign from the position as its representative on television. Unimpressive.
Reid is right, the liberals and those in working poverty need to find a way to unite. Also like many liberals- just because you grew up in poverty in a much kinder era doesn’t mean you understand what is like there now.
I personally hate liberalism. But have found it easy to work with liberals in Labour. To paraphrase Stanley Hauerwas, the key to building friendship is to find meaningful work to do together. Labour represents nothing if not an opportunity to do meaningful work – to do good for the country, and especially its most vulnerable.
To be honest, I haven’t always found it in myself to refrain from bitching at liberals and their ideological excesses on facebook. I’m not proud of that…
If I was to join the labour party with the intention of voting in the upcoming race how would a new comer filter out the bs and learn the the pro’s Cons of the contenders.
same way you did at the general election. Same way you usually judge people and their intentions. I’m sure there will be a lot of information put forward in the campaign.
Here are the just released details of the Labour Party Review. The two people conducting the review will be announced this coming week. It is proposed to have it largely completed and reported on by December.
The review of the 2014 campaign will include reporting on
• party and electorate vote variance;
• electorate and hub performance, including enrolment, persuasion and turnout;
• the targeting approach;
• list and electorate candidate selection and performance
Looks comprehensive. Result will depend somewhat on the two people conducting the review and who they take submissions from, but I am cautiously hopeful.
My sentiments too Karen.
Just as important is: who will they take submissions from? This, in itself, will give a clue as to how serious they take the review and whether they are conducting it in an objective/inclusive way. For example: if they choose well known Labour members/commentators like Josie Pagani, Deborah Mahuta-Coyle and even Mike Williams, then I will have my doubts as to the authenticity of the review.
* They should also have a look at the delays in finalising policy that were a problem with timing releases.
They often came at awkward times because a policy that was expected would suddenly get bumped. This was apparent in that often the policy would be just a press release and the all important detail didn’t get released until days later. It was also quite evident that there were variants between what people were talking about and the later details.
All signs about late detailing and too many hands involved very late in the process. Policies need to be settled a week or weeks ahead and then have the complete package at release. Otherwise National exploits the holes in MPs understandings
* The campaign was always susceptible to a late interruption because it was designed to come to culmination. It got disrupted by outside events, just as it has been in at least 3 of the last 5 elections.
* Campaigns are 3 years long. Perhaps Labour should start operating as if they are. What you do in the first two years is just as important as the final year especially in terms of getting working teams and systems. That didn’t happen the last term or in the previous one.
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Last month the government was celebrating another surplus. Meanwhile, children are starving:One in five children are living in households where putting food on the table is a struggle, according to a new report from the Ministry of Health. It found ...
Show Me The Money! The alternative to state funding of infrastructure is, of course, to fund it by taking on massive amounts of private debt. On this issue, at least, Auckland mayoral challenger, Tamihere, has some solid points to make. ...
If we are to avoid making the earth uninhabitable, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to practically nothing over the next decade. But that will still leave us with the problem of the carbon we have already emitted, which ...
Former Waikato DHB CEO Nigel Murray allegedly misused public funds, spending more than $120,000 of public money on unjustified travel. He was forced to resign and the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation. But despite the SFO finding that the ...
Jeremy Corbyn, we are told, is being advised – not least by his deputy (as well as by some of his would-be successors) – that he must come “off the fence” on the Brexit issue if he wants to bolster ...
The End of Life bill has been read a second time and is now heading for the House for further debate. Personally, I support the proposal. I don't ever epect to take advantage of the Bill's provisions myself, but as ...
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.read more ...
Below is a translation of the editorial in the June 24 round of weekly workplace bulletins issued all over France by the revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvriere. Last Saturday, 8,000 people took to the streets of Belfort (eastern France) to ...
Why hasn't Parliament followed the lead set by our local authorities and declared a climate emergency? The answer is the National Party:The Prime Minister’s admission that she is open to the idea of declaring a climate change emergency is nothing ...
Back in May the government released its Zero Carbon Bill. While much of the bill was welcome, there was one big exception: it contained a secrecy clause, requiring the Climate Change Commission to maintain secrecy over practically everything it does. ...
by Phil Duncan This past week has marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Stonewall Inn riots in Christopher Street, New York, the event generally regarded as kicking off the gay liberation movement. Quite a few articles have ...
Southland - land of coal-burning dairy farmers - has become the first region in the country to explicitly vote against declaring a climate emergency. Their reason? They didn't want to "devalue" the word "emergency". Its an argument addressed powerfully in ...
New Zealand has a problem with police chases: officers going after fleeing drivers like rabid dogs, without any consideration for proportionality or public safety, often with fatal results. And according to an in-depth article in the Guardian today, the UK ...
The first full week of the firearms buy-back and amnesty has produced a strong turnout as events roll out nationwide for the first time. “Momentum is slowly starting to build as community collection events are held across the entire country, ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
Media statement on behalf of Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie and Donna Marie Tai Tokerau Hall: Māori Television has admitted publishing false allegations about former High Court justice, Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie, and his wife, Donna Hall, and it has ...
Announcement today by the Prime Minister of further gun law reform is being shrouded by fear, so that scrutiny of the law is seen as an affront to the victims of the horror attack in March. The Prime Minister acknowledged ...
Misgivings about the practicality and cost of a firearms register is likely to dominate feedback from rural areas on the second round of proposed Arms Act amendments, Federated Farmers says. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ organisers Sophie Handford and Raven Maeder delivered a clear message to over 600 local government mayors, chairs, chief executives and councillors at the recent LGNZ conference : make climate change a priority. ...
The Police Association, Te Aka Hāpai backs the government’s emphasis on public safety as the driver of its second tranche of amendments to New Zealand’s firearms law, announced today. ...
The growing housing shortage crisis about more than supply and demand- it is about inequity. Recently released analysis by Kiwibank shows that last year’s “severe” shortage of housing has worsened, with the shortfall growing from 100,000 to 130,0000 ...
One of the country’s largest district health boards has a severe shortage of hospital specialists, says the senior doctors’ union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is joining opposition to possible regulations on the strength of nicotine vaping liquid. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “The Government would certainly benefit from regulations on the strength ...
The Meat Industry Association (MIA) is calling for significant changes to the Zero Carbon Bill with a new analysis using the Government’s preferred modelling indicating that the proposed methane targets are excessive if all other gases go to net zero. ...
Victoria University Feminist Organisation and ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa, in conjunction with the VUW Feminist Law Students, Organise Aotearoa, Fem Force, and with the support of VUW Student Association announced they are sponsoring a march ...
With the Government's firearm buyback scheme starting to draw over 30,000 police man hours away from fighting crime, the safety of law abiding citizens is being compromised. ...
Social Credit Party leader Chris Leitch is calling on the sale of Westland Milk to Chinese company Yili to be put on hold pending an approach to the Government by Westland Milk for funding assistance. ...
Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa seems intent on ensuring the Government’s vaping legislation will heavily target flavours and nicotine levels – a move that would be completely counterproductive to helping Kiwis quit smoking and achieving ...
A new website has launched in response to recent RNZ reporting about Police in Dunedin unlawfully entering people’s homes and breath-testing them. “I was disgusted when I saw what they cops were doing in Dunedin. Their behaviour undermines all of ...
The Head of the New Zealand Maori Council has called for the Government to hold an immediate investigation into the global cosmetics company Sephora after they were caught dumping waste hundreds and thousands of waste paper products embedded with ...
Hundreds of whanau and Maori leaders gathered at a hui in Mangere last weekend where they voted unanimously for an inquiry into Oranga Tamariki. The historic meeting called for a child welfare framework to be developed by Maori, for Maori. ...
Simon Shepherd: The government says its agreement with farmers, that they should pay for agricultural emissions, is historic. But there's no agreement on how. One proposal says farmers should pay a 5 per cent emissions tax. Another suggests farmers ...
The O’Brien Institute for Public Health at Calgary University has just released their report on fluoridation. This institute has, up to now, been staunchly in favour of fluoridation. However, yesterday, with regards to fluoride’s effect on the brain, ...
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...
Kia Anga Mua Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi (KAM) has reached a pivotal milestone following a hui yesterday at Waitangi with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Government spent $133,530 on producing its ‘Wellbeing Budget’ document, a cost blowout largely driven by spending on graphic design and photography. The $133,530 price tag compares to $86,268 ...
Kahungunu Māori Language Awards. Nominations closed on 5 July 2019, and were judged by the Senior Management Team of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. The judges wish to acknowledge the very high calibre of all nominations received making it a very ...
High Court of Australia Judge, Justice Stephen Gageler, will address recent criticism of court judgment delays in Australia, at the University of Canterbury (UC) on 23 July at 6.15pm. ...
This summary is provided to assist in the understanding of the Inquiry’s proceedings but does not constitute the official record. The full Minute is available at the link below. ...
The Tertiary Education Commission is laying charges under section 292A of the Education Act 1989 against three individuals for making a false representation for the purpose of receiving, or continuing to receive, free tertiary education from a tertiary education ...
New Zealand food businesses today welcomed a trio of new food safety tools, designed to make it faster, easier and more affordable to follow the rules and keep consumers safe. ...
AUT research shows that Māori children are almost four times more likely than those of European descent to be placed out of home by child protection services ...
The Government announced today that grants of up to $2,500 for energy efficient heaters are now available as part of the Government’s Warmer Kiwi Homes programme. ...
Fonterra’s use of coal has been the target of numerous grassroots campaigns in recent years. Last year 350 Aotearoa affiliated groups, Fossil Free Aoraki and 350 Nelson launched a petition dismissing the dairy giant’s initial target of no new ...
Information sessions on proposals for The Medicinal Cannabis Scheme take place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch over the next fortnight. The sessions are open to anyone with an interest in learning more about the proposed scheme. ...
“Our children are our most vulnerable, most innocent victims and we do not want to see any more children harmed by these ‘known sex offenders’. The safety of our community must be the paramount consideration.” ...
“The announcement that Fonterra will immediately stop installing any new coal boilers or increasing capacity to burn coal is the signal that the biomass fuel supply industry welcomes” said Brian Cox, Executive Officer of the Bioenergy Association. ...
18 July 2019-- Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) today welcomed Fonterra’s commitment to build no new coal plants, a “no brainer” for the climate crisis the world faces. The group has been urging this transition for six years now and ...
The increase in demand for cage-free eggs is set to continue according to animal rights organisation SAFE, who says the egg industry should expect this and prepare. ...
Wellington, New Zealand – 350 Pacific made a formal submission to the New Zealand Government’s Environment Parliamentary Select Committee on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, led by the Pacific Climate Warriors (PCWs) based in ...
There used to be a school of thought on the centre right side of politics that the best way to neuter the Greens as a political force would be to let them have a spell in government. Then, according to ...
Today (18 July) is Nelson Mandela International Day when the United Nations highlights the importance of humane conditions of imprisonment. In New Zealand our prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. At 214 prisoners per 100,000 people, we have the fifth ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take legal action over the lengthy delay in implementing pay increases for teachers. Novopay announced yesterday that teachers would have to wait until 11 September to see pay increases that they won when they settled ...
EDS has filed its submission on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The Bill sets targets for greenhouse gas reductions, provides for the government to set a series of carbon budgets, and sets up a new, independent, Climate ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has identified an absurd case of mission creep at Wellington City Council: the decision to spend $21,750 on two Consumer NZ investigations into different brands of bike lights. ...
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...
The Department of Conservation continue to repeat the same old story about attacks on staff and how it is affecting their role in protecting our precious wildlife. NZ herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249704 ...
The government's silence on the fact that the country's second-largest milk processor is on the brink of becoming 25% Chinese Government owned has been deafening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Martin Parkinson, secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, has cleared Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop of breaching the government’s code of ministerial standards with their ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentForeign affairs – Australia Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Ardern in ...
Sam Brooks reviews the second season of Big Little Lies, which generated as much social media conversation as its first season did critical acclaim, for better and worse.Light spoilers for the second season of Big Little Lies.Big Little Lies felt like the ...
ANALYSIS:By David Robie Indonesia recently hosted a bold public relations window-dressing expo in Auckland presenting itself as a “Pacific” nation while attempting to provide an unconvincing impression of normality in the two Melanesian provinces known collectively as West ...
Taxing vacant land would be too complex to implement and achieve little - it would be better for the Government to push local councils to implement rates based on land value rather than capital value. ...
The Māori Affairs Select Committee has recommended that anyone wanting to use the word 'Parihaka' for commercial purposes must get permission from the Parihaka Papakainga Trust. ...
European politics is a strange business. Where voters can choose candidates, who disappear after the elections. Where right-wing governments nominate left-sounding candidates. ...
Ruby Porter’s debut novel, Attraction, is a lucid, layered story of three young women on a road trip across the North Island. It’s one of the best books we’ve read this year. Here, Ruby writes about her grandmother – who ...
ByRNZ Pacific West Papuan fighters have killed an Indonesian soldier in a renewed threat to Jakarta’s road project there. State news agency Antara reported the hit-and-run attack on Saturday took place in Nduga regency, where pro-independence forces are ...
In 2003 the Silver Ferns won the Netball World Cup, breaking the Australian Diamonds’ 16-year winning streak. In 2019, they’ve just done the same thing. Leana de Bruin was a rookie in that 2003 team, and talked to The Spinoff ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Associate Professor, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University A Perth man who pleaded guilty to distributing an intimate image of his ex-girlfriend without her consent has been sentenced to a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Piero Moraro, Lecturer in Criminal Justice, Charles Sturt University The Morrison government has introduced new legislation responding to recent protests by animal rights activists in Australia. The bill –named The Criminal Code ...
One of the many unspoken rules of British life is that when one is drinking at the pub with others, one buys rounds. For the naive New Zealander, it’s stressful AF, says Elle Hunt.At the pub one Friday night in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David King, Senior Lecturer, The University of Queensland Dry, moist, productive, hacking, chesty, whooping, barking, throaty. These are just some of the terms people use to describe their cough. While we’re deep ...
What if you could grow a house from seed or 3D print a new subdivision in a week? The housing sector is ripe for disruption – could technology be the magic bullet we need?Jo Aitken sounds like she’s pitching an ...
The architect of the incredible turnaround the Silver Ferns have enjoyed is now off-contract. So now that the World Cup has been won, how can Netball NZ keep Noeline Taurua on the books? Radio NZ’s Ravinder Hunia recounts the journey ...
By RNZ Pacific Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape wants Australia to close the detention centre it has been running on PNG’s Manus island for six years. According to Australian media, Marape has asked Canberra to give him ...
More must be done to tackle critical skill shortages in project management and leadership, the head of the Registered Master Builders Association says. ...
Fifteen tracks, 22 guests, one album. The Spinoff Music listens to Ed Sheeran’s No. 6 Collaborations Project and considers why each track really shouldn’t work – and the sometimes surprising reasons why they do.1. Beautiful People – KhalidKhalid and Ed ...
Emily Writes on her journey from reasonable trepidation to sweet love for the video game Minecraft.It was barely a week after I said to my sister “I don’t let the boys play any games” that my children’s Minecraft obsession began. ...
New Zealanders with life-shortening congenital conditions will have early access to their KiwiSavers after a man with Down Syndrome convinced the government to change the rules. ...
Sephora store employees may have swept some confetti down Auckland city’s drains on Saturday, and people got angry… at an entire generation. On Saturday, French cosmetics giant Sephora opened its first New Zealand store on Auckland’s Queen Street. Excited makeup enthusiasts ...
More than 20,000 Aucklanders don’t have access to regular showers or the ability to wash their clothing. Alice Webb-Liddall tags along on a shift with Orange Sky, who are giving homeless people back these basic needs.On an overcast Friday morning ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Senior Fellow, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University If the first week of the 46th Parliament was heavily ceremonial – dominated by the new governor-general, a raft of first-time MPs ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe University In a world run ragged by multiple crises and an unravelling of American global leadership, military confrontation in the Gulf poses risks ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Dalton, Conjoint Senior Lecturer School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle Over recent months, the news has been saturated with headlines claiming we’re experiencing a “killer flu season”. Researchers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, PhD Candidate – Wildlife Cameraman, The University of Queensland Last week saw the release of the rebooted The Lion King, an attempt to capitalise on the billion-dollar success of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Fenner, Associate Professor at UNSW Art & Design, UNSW Over the past few weeks, artists from around Australia have been creating small artworks depicting the endangered black-throated finch and sending them ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Campbell, Associate Professor, University of Sydney New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian made a “captain’s call” in recent months that raised the ire of many parents, teachers and education groups. She ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Beer, Dean, Research and Innovation, University of South Australia Australia’s biggest city is abuzz with news of yet another housing development declared unsafe for human habitation. This time it is apartments ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Many claim leadership positions around farming emissions, concerns rise about deported gang members in small towns, and superyacht predictions panned.Now apologies if you feel like this is repetition – we did ...
Against all odds, the Silver Ferns have won netball's World Cup for the first time in 16 years. And fittingly, one of the legends of the game sealed their incredible victory. ...
What are you getting out of your daily commute? University of Auckland Associate Professor Kim Dirks considers the health implications for getting from A to B. ...
If Beijing’s actions have any bearing on what will happen when the agreement of ‘one country, two systems’ expires, the Hong Kong people are unlikely to succumb quietly. ...
Six things councils can do right now to make the ’emergency’ worth more than the paper it’s written on.Councils are declaring climate emergencies across the country, but with only a decade to cut carbon emissions in half, it’s time for ...
Newsroom literary editor Steve Braunias passes his verdict on the annual list of the 100 favourite books of New Zealanders who filled out a Whitcoulls form. ...
Orchestral music performance is an art form, but how do you engage with something you’ve never experienced before? Samiyah Alghamdi and Anna Knox attend NYO Celebrates in Wellington and unpack what they hear.The National Youth Orchestra and the National Youth ...
Open mike 28/09/2014 
Open mike is your post.
In the wake of the March 15 mass-murder, the government moved swiftly to ban semi-automatic firearms, weapons for which there is really no case for being allowed to own in New Zealand. and now, it has announced phase two of ...10 hours ago
I have been unimpressed with Western corporate media coverage of the tensions involving Iran in the Straits of Hormuz. They repeat the line that Iran is the source of current tensions, that it is a major sponsor of terrorism, that ...2 days ago
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Much like Tuvalu, the manmade climate change Cult love to tell people the Maldives is almost totally underwater. In fact the dishonest Maldives Govt d on the same bandwagon, believing they would receive billions of dollars aid from other Countries ...2 days ago
As the entry on Wikipedia shows (and no, one doesn’t necessarily have to regard Wikipedia as the be-all and end-all of truth, because it isn’t on a great many things, to agree with the following): “…a fallacious argument that concludes ...2 days ago
by Daphna Whitmore The story of how the world awoke to a big injustice is starting to be told. The Pacific Games held this month in Samoa is another chapter. On the podium was Laurel Hubbard, the giant transgender weightlifter, ...3 days ago
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...3 days ago
Something I missed: not only did Youth MPs declare a climate emergency; they also launched a campaign to lower the voting age to 16:Youth Parliament week in Parliament has seen the establishment of Make it 16, a campaign to ...4 days ago
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...5 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...5 days ago
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On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...7 days ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...7 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...2 weeks ago
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The first full week of the firearms buy-back and amnesty has produced a strong turnout as events roll out nationwide for the first time. “Momentum is slowly starting to build as community collection events are held across the entire country, ...18 hours ago
Media statement on behalf of Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie and Donna Marie Tai Tokerau Hall: Māori Television has admitted publishing false allegations about former High Court justice, Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie, and his wife, Donna Hall, and it has ...7 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Martin Parkinson, secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, has cleared Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop of breaching the government’s code of ministerial standards with their ...1 hour ago
Sam Brooks reviews the second season of Big Little Lies, which generated as much social media conversation as its first season did critical acclaim, for better and worse.Light spoilers for the second season of Big Little Lies.Big Little Lies felt like the ...6 hours ago
Cross-party consensus on gun law reform was a one-time wonder. ...7 hours ago
ANALYSIS: By David Robie Indonesia recently hosted a bold public relations window-dressing expo in Auckland presenting itself as a “Pacific” nation while attempting to provide an unconvincing impression of normality in the two Melanesian provinces known collectively as West ...7 hours ago
Taxing vacant land would be too complex to implement and achieve little - it would be better for the Government to push local councils to implement rates based on land value rather than capital value. ...7 hours ago
The Māori Affairs Select Committee has recommended that anyone wanting to use the word 'Parihaka' for commercial purposes must get permission from the Parihaka Papakainga Trust. ...8 hours ago
European politics is a strange business. Where voters can choose candidates, who disappear after the elections. Where right-wing governments nominate left-sounding candidates. ...9 hours ago
A decade on from his darkest hour, can the NZ First leader again defy the odds and keep his political career alive? ...9 hours ago
Ruby Porter’s debut novel, Attraction, is a lucid, layered story of three young women on a road trip across the North Island. It’s one of the best books we’ve read this year. Here, Ruby writes about her grandmother – who ...9 hours ago
By RNZ Pacific West Papuan fighters have killed an Indonesian soldier in a renewed threat to Jakarta’s road project there. State news agency Antara reported the hit-and-run attack on Saturday took place in Nduga regency, where pro-independence forces are ...10 hours ago
In 2003 the Silver Ferns won the Netball World Cup, breaking the Australian Diamonds’ 16-year winning streak. In 2019, they’ve just done the same thing. Leana de Bruin was a rookie in that 2003 team, and talked to The Spinoff ...10 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Associate Professor, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University A Perth man who pleaded guilty to distributing an intimate image of his ex-girlfriend without her consent has been sentenced to a ...10 hours ago
The second tranche of proposed far-reaching changes includes a gun register, tighter licensing rules, and five-year licences. ...11 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Piero Moraro, Lecturer in Criminal Justice, Charles Sturt University The Morrison government has introduced new legislation responding to recent protests by animal rights activists in Australia. The bill –named The Criminal Code ...11 hours ago
One of the many unspoken rules of British life is that when one is drinking at the pub with others, one buys rounds. For the naive New Zealander, it’s stressful AF, says Elle Hunt.At the pub one Friday night in ...11 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David King, Senior Lecturer, The University of Queensland Dry, moist, productive, hacking, chesty, whooping, barking, throaty. These are just some of the terms people use to describe their cough. While we’re deep ...12 hours ago
The government is planning an overhaul of biosecurity funding, but a lack of detail is making farming sectors nervous. ...12 hours ago
What if you could grow a house from seed or 3D print a new subdivision in a week? The housing sector is ripe for disruption – could technology be the magic bullet we need?Jo Aitken sounds like she’s pitching an ...13 hours ago
The architect of the incredible turnaround the Silver Ferns have enjoyed is now off-contract. So now that the World Cup has been won, how can Netball NZ keep Noeline Taurua on the books? Radio NZ’s Ravinder Hunia recounts the journey ...13 hours ago
By RNZ Pacific Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape wants Australia to close the detention centre it has been running on PNG’s Manus island for six years. According to Australian media, Marape has asked Canberra to give him ...14 hours ago
More must be done to tackle critical skill shortages in project management and leadership, the head of the Registered Master Builders Association says. ...14 hours ago
Emily Writes on her journey from reasonable trepidation to sweet love for the video game Minecraft.It was barely a week after I said to my sister “I don’t let the boys play any games” that my children’s Minecraft obsession began. ...16 hours ago
Sephora store employees may have swept some confetti down Auckland city’s drains on Saturday, and people got angry… at an entire generation. On Saturday, French cosmetics giant Sephora opened its first New Zealand store on Auckland’s Queen Street. Excited makeup enthusiasts ...17 hours ago
More than 20,000 Aucklanders don’t have access to regular showers or the ability to wash their clothing. Alice Webb-Liddall tags along on a shift with Orange Sky, who are giving homeless people back these basic needs.On an overcast Friday morning ...18 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ashlee Curtis, Research Fellow, School of Psychology, Deakin University The Victorian government introduced 24-hour public transport on Friday and Saturday nights in Melbourne from January 1 2016. Services mostly run every hour ...18 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Senior Fellow, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University If the first week of the 46th Parliament was heavily ceremonial – dominated by the new governor-general, a raft of first-time MPs ...19 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, PhD Candidate – Wildlife Cameraman, The University of Queensland Last week saw the release of the rebooted The Lion King, an attempt to capitalise on the billion-dollar success of ...19 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Fenner, Associate Professor at UNSW Art & Design, UNSW Over the past few weeks, artists from around Australia have been creating small artworks depicting the endangered black-throated finch and sending them ...19 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Campbell, Associate Professor, University of Sydney New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian made a “captain’s call” in recent months that raised the ire of many parents, teachers and education groups. She ...19 hours ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Many claim leadership positions around farming emissions, concerns rise about deported gang members in small towns, and superyacht predictions panned.Now apologies if you feel like this is repetition – we did ...20 hours ago
Against all odds, the Silver Ferns have won netball's World Cup for the first time in 16 years. And fittingly, one of the legends of the game sealed their incredible victory. ...20 hours ago
Forestry NZ challenges several claims made in Dame Anne Salmond's commentary in Newsroom last week, ‘Billion Trees policy being rorted’. ...21 hours ago
What are you getting out of your daily commute? University of Auckland Associate Professor Kim Dirks considers the health implications for getting from A to B. ...21 hours ago
Democrats face a real conundrum in the candidate they pick to run against Donald Trump. Peter McKenzie explains why. ...21 hours ago
If Beijing’s actions have any bearing on what will happen when the agreement of ‘one country, two systems’ expires, the Hong Kong people are unlikely to succumb quietly. ...21 hours ago
Jerome Kaino deserves to sit alongside the greats who retired from test rugby at the 2015 World Cup. ...21 hours ago
Six things councils can do right now to make the ’emergency’ worth more than the paper it’s written on.Councils are declaring climate emergencies across the country, but with only a decade to cut carbon emissions in half, it’s time for ...22 hours ago
The construction industry has a multi-pronged attack plan to fill desperately needed gaps ...22 hours ago
Newsroom literary editor Steve Braunias passes his verdict on the annual list of the 100 favourite books of New Zealanders who filled out a Whitcoulls form. ...22 hours ago
Businesses of fewer than 20 employees make up 97 percent of NZ's enterprises. But on the flip side, 10 percent go into liquidation. ...22 hours ago
Orchestral music performance is an art form, but how do you engage with something you’ve never experienced before? Samiyah Alghamdi and Anna Knox attend NYO Celebrates in Wellington and unpack what they hear.The National Youth Orchestra and the National Youth ...1 day ago
I’m tired of self-flagellation, so let’s give credit to Joyce and ‘National’ for running an effective campaign.
The branding of Harry Holland in ‘51 is easily demolished – suggesting that the interests of beneficiaries and billionaires are the same.
I noticed a full-size poster at my bus stop saying “The Film Industry Thanks You” featuring a minotaur-like human with horns, what appeared to be unused props, and an attractive young woman facing the camera.
Remembering Weta’s involvement in NZ politics to change industrial legislation, it troubled me.
When I went to take a digital image of it a few days later, it had gone.
Then, at a pre-election candidates forum in Miramar a young intellectual type piped up about the ‘film industry’.
Straws in the wind, perhaps – but I would be interested in any other crowd-sourced observations of the ‘National’ Party campaign
Perhaps these ..
“An open letter from John Key”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11332789
http://yournz.org/2014/09/08/vote-positive-and-the-standard/
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
So average wages will increase several thousand over the next three years according to Mr Key. How will this come about?
Average.
Yep happening already.
Sky tv CEO
got a 7.6 per cent pay rise after a record net profit for the year to June 30 with a package of $1.8 million
That is an increase of 138k per yr.
Meanwhile, the lowest paid wages just went down by the rate of inflation.
Pete George is like a beached whale. He doesn’t get better with age. I wonder when he’ll get over the breakup of his relationship with The Standard?
Dear media. The causes of Labour’s election performance are complex and multifaceted. Can you stop treating New Zealanders like a bunch of idiots and start a more complex discussion about what happened?
Complex? Discussion? Media? You jest methinks.
Wayne Brittenden’s Counterpoint just now on Radio NZ furnished a nuanced and fair analysis of the election. Pointed to the fact the Labour Party is to the right of Rob Muldoon on economics, in a piece that critiqued the notion of ‘the centre ground’ and how far right it has been pushed.
The left = bad, regardless of facts with the MSM who wag their tails on command as DP has shown. Dumbing down is part of the strategy.
Any who oppose the rights powerful allies such as academics, industry bodies, support groups etc will be smeared, mis represented and outright lied about if thats what it takes.
Failure to deal with this reality and counter it will continue to cost the left dearly as the MSM will continue unaffected as evidence suggests with DPF and Hooten not even having a breather and straight into it again.
Quit living in an ideal construct and figure out how to deal with reality, it aint fair but then life is not fair so why expect it from our corporate and govt owned media.
And that is exactly what we saw here: DPF attacking an academic with lies.
+1
dead right Mickey. But why oh why are the”media” fueling the “every body for Robertson “campaign.
Because they want a new target for vilification.
The old story
” Lets attack DC because he’s married and got 2 kids… oh wait”.
” Because he’s intelligent and got a Harvard degree and no commercial experience….oh wait”
” Because he lives in a 2 million dollar house in central Auckland…oh shit that’s avg price there”
” Because he comprehensively lost the caucus vote…what? 18-16…bugger”.
” Because he grew up poor and played rugby.. hang on”.
” Fuck it ..OK who’s next”.
Robertson…Oh Yeah, PAYDIRT!
It looks to me like the political/media elite rushing to protect themselves from competing ideas, with the potential to weaken their power base.
not all bears @thelittlepakeha 14 mins,
“if I wanted good examples of charities that have had their funding cut by govt, whether just because or after criticism of govt,
where would be a good place to look? particular blogs?”
Anyone remember? I think we’ve had discussions here about this.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/10553642/Kerr-under-pressure-in-fund-revolt
Anyone interested in who benefitted in the SCF was bankrupted and bailed out under Govct guarantee might want to read this. Am I reading correctly — that ACC and Crown Asset Management are deeply involved in this schmozzle ? Registered away from NZ taxes in Caymans ?
And wasn’t George Kerr reported as receiving $100 million of govt guarantee funds from his very belated SCF bond purchases ?
Stinky much ??
“Investors in a secretive private equity partnership are rebelling against its manager, enigmatic Kiwi businessman George Kerr, as scandal threatens to engulf the $240m fund.
The Torchlight Fund, now domiciled in the Cayman Islands, was formed in 2010 to invest in distressed assets such as South Canterbury Finance.
The identity of its partners has never been formally disclosed but Fairfax NZ understands they include New Zealand government entities Crown Asset Management and ACC, whose estimated respective exposures stemming from the South Canterbury collapse are about $30m and $2.5m.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/10553642/Kerr-under-pressure-in-fund-revolt
There needs to be a in-depth investigation.
Read my comment here from Paul Caruthers video (The video is now taken down!!!)
and Sarahs reply
Very smelly.
thx dv .. a new, albeit bad, quality link ..http://www.openureyes.org.nz/blog/?q=node/5677
Not happening under national, move on as they’ve used numbers in the house to defeat an attempt before and will if needed again.
Now of course a high calibre well funded investigative team with a prominent MSM outlet could…..uh oh hang on a tick does anyone else see an issue here.
of course ! But from the Stuff lin k I posted, this could offer some little hope .. these
of course .. but this from the Stuff link I posted offers some little hope .. ASIC not so easily silenced as our msm or sfo …
“On Thursday the Australian Financial Review reported Van Eyk’s Sydney offices had been raided by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission as it investigates alleged irregularities at its fund management division.”
Thanks Yeshe
Do you know if there is a transcript of the Caruthers video?
Interesting that it was taken down.
Do you know how authoritative caruthers is?
Does anyone else think that Hubbards autopspy report is sealed is odd?
On further investigation I see that the Curruthers video on the Vinny Eastwood Youtube channel was collateral damage after a video describing Keys history turned up.
http://aotearoaawiderperspective.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/freedom-of-speech-curtailed-in-new-zealand-vinny-eastwoods-youtube-channel-shut-down/
This present Government will not want an investigation in to Kerr’s ties with SCF because I bet they invested in Kerr via ACC and NZ Super . Torchlight was formed in June 2009 — just ready for SCF to announce its loss $$$( but underlying profit ) ….
The bigger problem under the GG was not highlighted , follow your noses or google and then you will understand – SCF was small fry as a liability but a goldmine of assets.
$Southbury invested in irrigation infrastructure and by 2009 the present Govt were secretly planning funding on a grand scale of irrigation. Secret cabinet papers were gained by NZ Herald under OIA – showing just that.
Hubbard’s Southbury supported large schemes, Hunter Downs, Central Plains, etc etc … and he was taken out of the picture. By 2012 the Canterbury Irrigation Schemes were worth a reported $5billion to the Canterbury economy alone…
The true value of the Hubbard empire was far in excess of what the paper figures portray and were sold of undervalue in cases that were highlighted to media. Scales a value of $4 a share sold to Direct Capital for $2 – DC sold out 80% for a cool $180million just recently, There are many more and others hide under a cloak of secrecy. Face Finance bought by GE and interestingly it was GE that pulled funding last minute for Helicopters NZ and forced Hubbard in to the breach. They buy FACE Finance and now specialise in aviation and increased their assets by a cool $600million…..
Aorangi was NEVER insolvent – Hubbard placed equity in well above what was required… that has proven to be so based on the managers own reporting and the fact the investors have returned 99% funds less $12 million in fees alone for Aorangi.
Easy to use the media to destroy a man and his reputation – Stat Management is a very dangerous law that is open to political abuse… a court order should have been required – in that case Hubbard would never have been in Stat Management , the $60million so called fraud transaction out was actually the money he put in… the original fact sheet was wrong. When the Regulators realised that mistake (the Stats reversed this transaction out of Aorangi at the start) they should have acknowledged the mistake – they did not , instead continued on as if Hubbard was the thief… and destroyed him along the way with the spin via MSM.
This only touches the surface – it is an absolute shameful event from beginning to end. BUT Allan Hubbard was trialed again with SCF (even when dead and unable to defend himself) and most likely in Oct it will be confirmed to be “All Allan Hubbard’s fault”….
Media Watch and Wayne Brittenden are very good on recent events and the last weeks Election
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/20151331/mediawatch-for-28-september-2014
and this
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/20151343/wayne-brittenden's-counterpoint
Got a phone call to renew my Labour membership last night at 9.30pm. Had already done so online and told Fraser House as such. Said that I’d rejoined just so I could vote back DC because as a gay man myself, Robertson leaves me cold and I couldn’t see how he could appeal to the redneck rugby playing non urban voters. Coupled with the fact his electorate vote went down, as well as only getting third in the party vote in 2014, how he could claim to represent Labour was unthinkable.
On the bright side, membership is only valid till Dec 31 so if Robertson unfortunately manages to win, at least I don’t need to worry about renewing my membership on Jan 1 2015.
James Thrace +100…. a Glenn Greenwald …Grant Robertson is NOT
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/15/moment-truth-greenwald-dotcom-snowden-assange-new-zealand-john-key
Update on Petition….come on! ….sign up!… lets reach 10,000….lets try and give the Nacts a run for their money
…if it is not fraud …i am sure that it would have been, if they could have wangled it!
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Hon_Sir_Hugh_Williams_KNZM_QC_LLM_Recount_NZ_2014_Election_I_believe_it_was_rigged/?tDwgaib
this is quite funny imo..if it wasnt so serious!…(love the computer guy!)
A recount? What a waste of time and money
all election night ballot papers are recounted
http://www.elections.org.nz/news-media/preliminary-results-2014-general-election
Then why petition to have them done a third time? A waste of time and money.
Pretty compelling reason for us to stick with paper voting.
We had booth by booth results available and online within hours of polls closing. Our current paper based system is efficient, traceable, auditable, re-countable.
yes agreed!..no computers in the mix
Tells you everything you need to know about the way some people think. They can’t accept that people might have chosen not to support their party.
Can someone please confirm the cut-off date for new members wanting to vote for the Labour party leader. “Keep Cunliffe as Labour Leader” on Facebook is saying it was 11.30pm yesterday. ??? Thanks.
I hope it was yesterday, because it is quite unpleasant seeing a bunch of carpetbaggers joining up just to vote.
Lurgee, they’re joining up because they genuinely care about the Labour Party and the future wellbeing of New Zealand – and they wholeheartedly believe that David Cunliffe is the best man to take on John Key in 2017, having had the benefit of three more years’ experience.
The Facebook page supporting him has over 4,300 likes already, and it was only set up a week ago.
Surely that’s a good thing, driving up the membership of the Labour Party? Why are they ‘carpetbaggers’ as you suggest, just because this upsetting election loss has motivated ordinary people to act? They’ve realised that if the Labour Party is to survive, they need to get involved as supporters and volunteers.
Shouldn’t the members ultimately determine the future of the Labour Party, and its policies, not the MPs who represent us? That’s why they demanded constitutional changes last year, after decades of being ignored.
I’m entirely in favour of membership choosing the leader. It should, IMHO, be an equal vote. Why should the votes of caucus count for more than the votes of an ordinary member. It’s not a very socialist idea.
But I still find the idea of people joining a party just so they can vote in an election deeply worrying. Obviously, you’ll disagree as the sign ups seem to be favouring Cunliffe and your handle suggests you might be a bit partisan.
I recently read this quote by GB Shaw: “Newspapers are unable to discriminate betweeen a bicycle crash and the collapse of civilization.” Shaw died in 1950 – the media has been a problem for a long time. One of the problems lies in daily publication; it tends toward an ADHD mentality that robs issues of their necessary depth.
We do need publicly funded news media outlets with a robust mandate to not treat the public like idiots. The health of our democracy depends on it. Living in China, and looking at NZ, it’s very clear to me that propaganda does have a power to influence our minds, and the only way to avoid its power is to be seriously paying attention to what’s going on – which no one can do about everythng all the time.
I came across a sharply pixelated example of how propaganda works, in Russell Brown’s Hard News post on Sep 24:
“….Gower’s conduct in the press conference made me uneasy.
He shouted at Cunliffe, a lame-duck leader with no good answers, for the answers he wanted. And then he barked: “Just say it — stop being tricky!”
“Tricky”. It’s hard to over-emphasise quite how loaded that word is. “Tricky David Cunliffe” is an attack line conceived and cultivated by Cunliffe’s National Party opponents over the entire time of his Labour leadership. There can barely be a National minister who hasn’t deployed it: The first few Google results for the phrase turn up Todd McLay, Amy Adams, John Key and, naturally, Whaleoil. Its organised use had a lot to do with shaping the popular perception of Cunliffe. It would not have had meaning without Cunliffe’s missteps, but it was a very successful political strategy.
For these reasons, it’s a line that a journalist simply should not be using.”
And Cunliffe’s reply? …”Nice Try Paddy ” was ok by me but I think the general public would have preferred a ‘Muldoon’ type of reply to Gower’s obnoxious disrespect and egotistical rudeness.
I would have said, “F*ck off Gower you little creep!” but that’s why I wouldn’t make it as a politician or a diplomat.
Cunliffe has remarkable self control.
It’s also an interesting chicken-and-egg situation, since some of Cunliffe’s “missteps” that initially got the idea of trickiness into the mainstream consciousness (e. g. the intial Best Start announcement, the Dongha Liu letter) are only really missteps in the context of the media reaction that was constructed around them.
Yeah but on top of that, he does occasionally drop the ball. Such as setting up a trust to protect the identities of his financial backers or not communicating better with Goff in the 2011 election campaign.
Some think these things are examples of serious character flaws; I don’t. I simply think he’s clumsy sometimes. That clumsiness could become a major liability if he were seeking a third or fourth term as PM, cos you know he’s gonna hand his opponents something they could build a serious attack around. But fuckit, if you obsess too much about the enemy it puts you off your own game.
I hear what you’re saying, but Clark, Goff, Key, English… even Cullen managed to put their feet in it at times. Key’s probably the most clumsy, in fact (“We’d love to see wages drop”, Tranzrail shares, anything to do with the appointment of Ian Fletcher, “That’s one scientists opinion and I could probably find other experts to back up mine”, “Gay red shirt”, “Trotie”… he’s a veritable Mr. Magoo), but it doesn’t count against him. Key has a solid reputation and even a very long string of frequent gaffes doesn’t really seem to have endangered that. Cunliffe, once generally viewed as a person of substance, would also not be damaged by the odd bit of clumsiness.
Key’s gaffes are not seized on by the media.They love ‘gaffes’ by anyone on he left. In their desperation for scandal headlines they salivate, enhance and exaggerate any slight mistake by Cunliffe and gloss over any of Key’s.
Or maybe it’s the editors who are further up the right wing food /money chain do the changes to the journalists original copy giving it a right wing slant.
People are saying a lot of negative stuff about Grant Robertson. I’ve had personal experience of the guy and my impression is that he’s decent, superbrainy and he could be a good leader of the country. While he’s a good public speaker, he aint super-presidential, but then Labour shouldn’t bee seeking to follow the crowd in its approach to politics – that’d be like a good honest family restaurant emulating McDonalds to get more people through the door. You compromise your essential character and you’ll never be McDonands anyway.
Personally I’ve never seen evidence of anything like an ABC faction. A bunch of MPs dislike Cunliffe; that’s life. Some of these MPs have been attacking him through the media in a disgusting, cowardly manner, thereby undermining the party. Even worse, by undermining the party they’re adding to the suffering of the people the party needs to get into power to serve: The quarter of a million kids who live in poverty, low wage workers, the wider precariat, the small businesses who need a supportive policy environment in which to prosper – this is why their actions are decidedly hateful. Personally, I don’t believe there’s a faction, and I don’t believe there’s a conspiracy. I believe there are individuals, some of whom deserve to be evicted from the party they owe their careers to.
I believe that Cunliffe should retain the leadership of the party, though resigning and reapplying for his job after such a poor election result is actually a healthy step. He really does need to seek a new mandate.
If he wins he’s in for another three years of vicious, often nakedly dishonest (in the vein of helping a wifebeater who then gives labour a $100,000 donation that doesn’t exist) attacks by National, aided and abetted by MSM. The only way to avoid that fate would be if he was supported by the media or if he had a Muldoon/Clark type personality. So basically, he can’t avoid that fate. Neither could Robertson. I have to respect these guys for putting their hands up for one of the country’s shittiest jobs.
Back to Grant. New Zealand is a grievously divided country. We need guys like him around to help bring us together – he’s a conciliatory, broad church kind of leader with a deep, genuine sense of empathy. He has made the Wellington Central electorate his own because he’s competent and he impresses the fuck out of people he meets. I certainly believe that identity politics has been a three-plus decade blunder, supported by people who somehow manage to be simultaneously triumphalist and dangerously insecure. Grant supports gay issues, but in no way are his politics narrow, sectional or self-absorbed. If anything, I see him as old school left.
Well said Vaughan.
I don’t see Grant as the enemy of the left, I just do not think he is experienced enough to be the leader of the Labour Party yet.
I agree that whoever gets in will be subject to unrelenting, biased attacks in the MSM, and I am surprised Grant wants to put himself through that.
Nor would I wouldn’t have blamed David for giving up – but I am glad he hasn’t.
and the bottom line i have noticed..
..from doing commentaries on questiontime..
..is that robertson is not able to perform in parliament..
..for yrs i have watched various national party entities just wave him away..
..whereas when cunnliffe stands up..
..you can hear a cracking sound as nattys stiffen their spines..
..a reinvigorated left and centre..(as in fix poverty and look after the middle class..i.e. policies that will get the missing million out to the voting booths..and heads-up!..raising the pension age isn’t one of them..
..what is so complicated/difficult about that..?..)
..this re-focused labour..led by cunnliffe..
..is what terrifies the right the most..
..this is why the concerted attack on him by corporate-media..and the abc’ers..
..is so torrid/fervent..
..and this is why they must be ignored..
..it is all fucken spin..
..corporate media and the right..working in concert..
..(i’ll say it for cunnliffe)..’fuck them..!..eh..?..’)
I can go along with most of what you say. Except that word “centre”.
Appealing to the middle. Fuck that, we’re left.
Like Steve Jobs said, don’t worry about giving people what they want, cos by the time you’ve figured out what people want and put it on the market, they’ve moved on. You have to figure out what people want before they know they want it. That’s actually leadership.
We have to be sensitive to the people we’re seeking the privilege of governing, but honestly, we’re the ones who are thinking policy and politics 24/7. We have to do the hard graft of figuring out what policy best suits the country, and then take it to the poeple and communicate our vision to them in a responsive, two-way process.
Simply put, it’s our job to attract the centre leftwards. In a dialectical process.
i included ‘centre’ because it has become such a loaded word..
..with this battle for labours’ soul being depicted as left vs. centre..
..where in fact it is progressive vs. neo-liberal/right..
..and labour have to focus on their message to that real ‘centre’..
..that progressive policies designed to see off poverty etc..
..will also be good for them..
..too my mind..it’s not difficult to do..
..the scare-tactics that will come from the right..
..must be countered/seen off..
Only just watched that post caucus video, Far out.
Shearer breaks ranks to talk and causes part of this feeding frenzy and then swans over to New York, plays the outsider and says today ‘oh’ it’s too distracting this leadership talk. I really just wanted to help review what went wrong. Stunning irony.
Hypocrite.
None of the candidates have acknowledged the party members and what they want. “I can unify the party, I can beat Steve Joyce in the house, I was the former leader…”
the failures to achieve are all over the place and none of this is “secure or stable”.
Watched that Q and A.
Robertson supporter:
“I am Labour”
We are a broad church, but I am Labour. Coyle is very unimpressive.
Hipkins: Very impressive. It will be interesting to see where he and Parker go.
If the message Hipkins put forward today came from his senior colleagues then Labour would look like a professional government ready party.
I want to see a room where Robert Reid and Hipkins are in the room and both have got their obvious skills and guns turned on Key and National.
Coyle? Seems poisonous to me. As Robert Reid pointed out criticised the party during an election campaign from the position as its representative on television. Unimpressive.
Reid is right, the liberals and those in working poverty need to find a way to unite. Also like many liberals- just because you grew up in poverty in a much kinder era doesn’t mean you understand what is like there now.
reid is like a breath of fresh air..
..showing up the concerted bullshit/spin for what it is..
..and yep..!..coyle is hideous..a grotesque..
..as if we needed yet another josie pagani..
I personally hate liberalism. But have found it easy to work with liberals in Labour. To paraphrase Stanley Hauerwas, the key to building friendship is to find meaningful work to do together. Labour represents nothing if not an opportunity to do meaningful work – to do good for the country, and especially its most vulnerable.
To be honest, I haven’t always found it in myself to refrain from bitching at liberals and their ideological excesses on facebook. I’m not proud of that…
If I was to join the labour party with the intention of voting in the upcoming race how would a new comer filter out the bs and learn the the pro’s Cons of the contenders.
same way you did at the general election. Same way you usually judge people and their intentions. I’m sure there will be a lot of information put forward in the campaign.
Is a purge necessary?
Who would go if either side won?
Several Cunliffe supporters have already lost list seats due to the election result, I believe.
@newsense mallard would be my choice its time he went the way of Tau Henare
Here are the just released details of the Labour Party Review. The two people conducting the review will be announced this coming week. It is proposed to have it largely completed and reported on by December.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11332997
Looks comprehensive. Result will depend somewhat on the two people conducting the review and who they take submissions from, but I am cautiously hopeful.
My sentiments too Karen.
Just as important is: who will they take submissions from? This, in itself, will give a clue as to how serious they take the review and whether they are conducting it in an objective/inclusive way. For example: if they choose well known Labour members/commentators like Josie Pagani, Deborah Mahuta-Coyle and even Mike Williams, then I will have my doubts as to the authenticity of the review.
I think Shearer is quite right to say the leadership contest should have waited until after the review.
Looks like an adequate frame of reference.
* They should also have a look at the delays in finalising policy that were a problem with timing releases.
They often came at awkward times because a policy that was expected would suddenly get bumped. This was apparent in that often the policy would be just a press release and the all important detail didn’t get released until days later. It was also quite evident that there were variants between what people were talking about and the later details.
All signs about late detailing and too many hands involved very late in the process. Policies need to be settled a week or weeks ahead and then have the complete package at release. Otherwise National exploits the holes in MPs understandings
* The campaign was always susceptible to a late interruption because it was designed to come to culmination. It got disrupted by outside events, just as it has been in at least 3 of the last 5 elections.
* Campaigns are 3 years long. Perhaps Labour should start operating as if they are. What you do in the first two years is just as important as the final year especially in terms of getting working teams and systems. That didn’t happen the last term or in the previous one.
Clare and the Viper
Who said peak cray cray ended with the election.
http://www.matthewbeveridge.co.nz/politics/clare-and-the-viper/
And to think, I knew you before you got famous lol
“you are not constitutional”
Eat your cake, comrade. Meet the revolution.
Haha! The NZ version is – kids in poverty can eat Pav!
I might have developed a green skin, but I’m still red blooded.
Wish you well, mate.
Whoever head hunted Clare Curran for parliamentary status made a big mistake. Maturity does not appear to be her strong point.