The Government last week announced a resettlement package offer would be made to 23 Afghan interpreters currently workingwith the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Bamiyan….
Former interpreters have been excluded from the offer but will be looked upon “sympathetically” by the Government if they apply hrough the normal channels, Prime Minister John Key said….
So what are these normal channels?
Having little funds and no support, first they have to get out of the country. Diamond Kazimi reports that two of his relatives have done this. A cousin got to Germany and his brother managed to reach Canada. Applying for refugee status, he was told by the Canadian authorities told that the New Zealand government should be dealing with this. Diamond Kazimi himself was only able to reach New Zealand after a serving New Zealand soldier sponsored his travel here. Without this sponsorship he would never have made it. He then had to enter the country posing as a temporary visitor, the only way he could legally get entry into New Zealand.
What could be called “normal” about this?
Normal channels for refugees are a series of difficult hurdles especially placed in their path by the border authorities of the countries they wish to enter. For those with meagre funds, or lacking sponsorship, these hurdles more times than not are insurmountable.
A disgrace. Diamond Kazimi has appealed to the NZ media to take up the cause of the interpretors and other support workers left in Afghanistan to face the wrath of Taliban for working for us.
Does anyone else see the comments made by Key as American in style? (We got what we wanted from you so screw you). Perhaps I’m biased. I do sound a little bitter when I read that back.
These people should be given priority to at the very least have their cases looked at, and frankly I don’t see why we shouldn’t bump the quota for a year to accommodate them and their families. Where is the compassion? Key REALLY hates beneficiaries of any kind huh.
Key (like so many from the Right) knows nothing of “compassion”, just don’t expect it from him. Key hates people, full stop – human beings are an impediment to getting on with making money and being an ego-driven hedonist. All of those overseas holidays must make him very “rusty”, by the way!
This should have been thought of when we started with the coaltion in Afghanistan.
Why can’t those people continue as interpeters, 3 months on in Afghanistan, 9 months off in Aoteoroa ?
We talk about reconstruction, surely helping them and their families get a good education and experience of a more evolved society would be one of the best reconstructive things we could do?
(No offense to the people on the ground in Afghanistan but Soldiers are not University Lecturers)
How about Dual NZ / Afghan citizenship for instance ?
To apply a “Letter of the Law” approach to this is not “Good Civilised Behaviour” on Johny Sparkles behalf.
Yet another strike on the ledger of Gnats’ policy M8’s!
Aye they did. I have the utmost respect for Simon Upton for driving it through.
I can recall having some fun at an election meeting where a Nat MP was trying to criticize the decision to ratify the Kyoto Treaty by pointing out that they were the ones to actually negotiate NZ’s involvement.
Upton and Shipley should be exhumed and a seance held on Campbell Live, with their mortal remains on display and interrogated, to divine what they make out of this Administration’s nonsense.
This lot would be in good company with the likes of Tex Slampacker in Ben elton’s ‘stark’ ordering endangered species like baked swan whilst obliterating another piece of wilderness.
Finally Nationals starting to do what it needs to do. Now it needs to keep going and do what needs to be done (as long as it avoids a coalition deal with winstonfirst)
A word of advice: the fuckwit of the year prize will not be won by a climate change denier: you will need to find something more original to demonstrate your idiocy.
OTH wonder whether there is a misunderstanding of terms of reference. There is no denying of a global climate change going on, however even the scientific community is split about absolute cause.(don’t forget the sun!) Yes, we all can do our bit to lessen the effect and NZ has done well. And yes, National should not sell the power stations which give us an edge.
But also to consider is the issue of commercialization of carbon credits via Kyoto protocol. Just another vehicle to make money? A way of distorting measures by manipulation value vs cost? Once measures of cause/effects are outside the rigorous scrutiny of the scientific community, it will be difficult to know what is true and what is false. We have had too many of those examples of corporate greed in the last 2 decades. Secondly, the biggest polluters do not participate. So that will distort the “value” straight away. Just saying….
Did you read the article? Familiar with Intellectual Ventures at all?
Yup, and so what! – But wait on, the insurance industry will sort out “climate change”..
Hint: the reason I don’t take you seriously has nothing to do with your little tanty lower down.
Trying to trivialise/divert/avoid, with cutesy little words such as “tanty”, only serve you highlight what a tweezer you must be, even online you transfer via your words!
Appreciate the compliment BTW – Hint , Its not about being taken seriously, if thats something your narcissistic side craves, perhaps you need to get back on those meds again!
“So what” – do the words “patent troll” mean anything to you?
Still trying to spin what I said about insurance companies? Let’s recap: “…of all the responses to climate change to date, insurance companies refusing to cover certain areas is perhaps the strongest…”
Do you see why I don’t take your comments seriously?
I just wonder whether you have read my comment. By all intend and purposes you are the one making the world a meaner place (see your own comment below) with you inability to discuss an issue without being offensive when you encounter deviating opinions.
Get a grip and grow up. Yes and here is a list of scientist who have some serious questions:
Scientists questioning the accuracy of IPCC climate projections
Scientists in this section have made comments that it is not possible to project global climate accurately enough to justify the ranges projected for temperature and sea-level rise over the next century. They may not conclude specifically that the current IPCC projections are either too high or too low, but that the projections are likely to be inaccurate due to inadequacies of current global climate modeling.
Freeman Dyson, professor emeritus of the School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study; Fellow of the Royal Society [9]
Richard Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan professor of atmospheric science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and member of the National Academy of Sciences[10][11][12]
Nils-Axel Mörner, retired head of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics department at Stockholm University, former chairman of the INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution (1999–2003), and author of books supporting the validity of dowsing[13]
Garth Paltridge, retired chief research scientist, CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research and retired director of the Institute of the Antarctic Cooperative Research Centre, visiting fellow ANU[14]
Philip Stott, professor emeritus of biogeography at the University of London[15]
Hendrik Tennekes, retired director of research, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute [16]
Scientists arguing that global warming is primarily caused by natural processes
Scientists in this section have made comments that the observed warming is more likely attributable to natural causes than to human activities. Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles.
Khabibullo Abdusamatov, mathematician and astronomer at Pulkovo Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences[17]
Sallie Baliunas, astronomer, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics[18][19]
Ian Clark, hydrogeologist, professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa[20]
Chris de Freitas, associate professor, School of Geography, Geology and Environmental Science, University of Auckland[21]
David Douglass, solid-state physicist, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester[22]
Don Easterbrook, emeritus professor of geology, Western Washington University[23]
William M. Gray, professor emeritus and head of the Tropical Meteorology Project, Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University[24]
William Happer, physicist specializing in optics and spectroscopy, Princeton University[25]
William Kininmonth, meteorologist, former Australian delegate to World Meteorological Organization Commission for Climatology[26]
David Legates, associate professor of geography and director of the Center for Climatic Research, University of Delaware[27]
Tad Murty, oceanographer; adjunct professor, Departments of Civil Engineering and Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa[28]
Tim Patterson, paleoclimatologist and professor of geology at Carleton University in Canada.[29][30]
Ian Plimer, professor emeritus of Mining Geology, the University of Adelaide.[31]
Nicola Scafetta, research scientist in the physics department at Duke University[32][33]
Tom Segalstad, head of the Geology Museum at the University of Oslo[34]
Fred Singer, professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia[35][36][37]
Willie Soon, astrophysicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics[38]
Roy Spencer, principal research scientist, University of Alabama in Huntsville[39]
Henrik Svensmark, Danish National Space Center[40]
Jan Veizer, environmental geochemist, professor emeritus from University of Ottawa[41]
I am no scientist but I do have an open mind to ALL opinions and even more so if these are from recognized scientists of international reputation. And lets not forget astute academic organizations. Have a good look before you start getting into your next tantrum.
I get the feeling somehow you work here for a particular interest? Democratic exchange of comments seem to be not in your forte either.
You are just plain rude and as I see it, you discriminated yourself from being taken seriously.
You are not an academic of any stature by what I gather from your comments because the ones I have met have had open minds to other peoples opinions without reacting in the way you do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_and_celestial_effects_on_climate
FW: “Just plain rude” – but swallowing destructive and transparent lies and then parroting them as some sort of “honest opinion” is just fine and dandy and oh so democratic?
Hypocrite.
PS: yes, Muzza, I decline to pick up your Tar Baby, and raise you a tin foil hat.
Actually free-speech, an open mind, questioning everything and searching for understanding, regardless of whether you agree or not, are some of the cornerstones of so called democracy!
As such your use of the work hypocrite towards FW, is wrong!
Destructive, is what attitudes such as yours are, not FW, so you are projecting wildly again. I’ve explained that to you before, whose ideas are more dangerous, the open or the closed mind!
You understand so little, and jump down others so hard, that the mind boggles just how scared you must be of anything which might challenge your self righteous view of life, and may lead you to have to ask hard questions yourself!
Hey, look at that, a list scientists and not a single one a climatologist. BTW, do any of them know that they’re on the list? And did you also know that there are about 30,000 climatologists in the world, 99.9% of which agree that climate change is being caused by human action?
Climatology is itself a branch of physics, but it is often highly dependent upon other sciences.
Thus if one is to understand various aspects of of the science of climatology, one will oftentimes need to understand the results and methods of various various other sciences. For example, climatology is highly dependent upon the study of radiation and how it interacts with matter: this is afterall a large part of the basis for our understanding of the greenhouse effect. Climatology depends upon chemistry insofar as it must understand the formation of ozone – one of the greenhouse gases. Climatology depends upon geology insofar as it attempts to identify the principles governing climates by learning lessons from deep geologic time. Climatology depends upon meteorology insofar as its results will be dependent upon the variation of precipitation or the dependence of various aspects of the climate upon temperature.
I am no denier that something is wrong. I have been growing up in the northern hemisphere with lots of snow during the winter and seasons to recognize. This is not happening anymore and has a huge impact on the farming community because the lack of freezing of the ground which causes an increase of infestations of bugs that weren’t there before. Health issues coupled to that are on the increase. Not to mention the catastrophic thinning of the permafrost in the arctic circle. There is no doubt that deforestation does play a big part as does CO2 emissions. The list goes on. However, there are other voices that point to an cycle of worming and cooling of the planet too. What I question is the apparent certainty coupled with an almost immediate commercial solution. This makes me suspicious whether we are being made ready to be fleeced once more under a different pretext.
I personally do not belief in a commercial solution but in a technological. So the scientists who currently put themselves out there to hurry through the money wagon are the ones I am particular wary about.
“…the scientists who currently put themselves out there to hurry through the money wagon…”
Transparent and destructive lies. Did you make them up or are you just repeating what you’ve read without thinking or fact checking? The arrogance to call people who have fact checked and taken the time to learn the difference “rude” – because your wickle feelings got hurt.
“Technological solutions” – let’s hear about them. Oh, oops, you didn’t fact check that little howler either.
Solar energy, tidal energy, electrical cars, etc….. The possibilities are endless and most likely the horizon is brighter for the younger generation rather then the older who can be (not all though) stuck in their paradigm.
Rude is your behavior, even in this online facility and I am surprised that this is actually OK.
As to fact finding missions, I think you have a very selective way of presenting them and thus my observations.
I will regard this issue as closed. As so many things in NZ no point of persevering.
Hey Precious, obviously you don’t like my tone. Well I don’t like your implied weasel accusations of scientific and financial malpractice (“…the money wagon…”), especially when scientists and their families receive death threats.
Or have you got a specific allegation of actual malpractice? If so name names, or drop the hypocritical pretence that you’re Snow White.
What exactly is this “money wagon” that reputable climate scientists are said to be on while a denier like Plimer believes the Sun is a ball of iron and is on the board of mining companies? Or Monckton who is flown around the world to spew his tripe, all paid for by foundations with words like liberty and free enterprise in their names? I suspect I know which are the climate prostitutes here, and I suspect many of them are on your list.
Money wagon? I was unaware there was much money to be made in supporting the international scientific consensus. The only people who make money out of climate change are the deniers who get handouts from big business to push their bullshit uphill
What its going to target the owners/controllers of the biggest polluters – Nah it wont!
The local governments.
You are in dreamland Draco, like your comment about cashless society, you are so deluded about the results that will come from these, and given your comments are usually sensible, I am a little surprised at your naievity over this!
By decreasing GHG emissions.
Ok, and how many people do you think will be saved by the altuism of those currently ruling this planet of ours ?
What its going to target the owners/controllers of the biggest polluters – Nah it wont!
It’s not supposed to – for that we need other regulations. What it’s supposed to do is decrease GHG emissions.
You are in dreamland Draco, like your comment about cashless society, you are so deluded about the results that will come from these, and given your comments are usually sensible, I am a little surprised at your naievity over this!
It would require the move to a more democratic and accountable system than we have now but it could be done. People saying that it can’t be done because of the PTB are just as much in the way of the needed changes as the PTB.
Ok, and how many people do you think will be saved by the altuism of those currently ruling this planet of ours ?
The people presently ruling this planet don’t have an altruism – that’s why they need to be removed from those positions of power.
No one owns the “Air”, but no one has worked out the real cost of Air pollution.
If land for instance can be valued at say $100/m2 then how bout the same for Air?
$100/m3 say ?
So your average 2litre car eminates 2m3 of air for every 16 revolutions ……
That’s 500m3 of polluted air for every minute of cruising at 4000rpm.
1 hour trip = 30,000m3 of polluted air.
I know “Air” is a huge resource, that cleans itself, but …..
Yearly Average hours per Domestic car in Aoteoroa = 2 * 365 = 730hrs
730 * 30,000 = 21,900,000m3 per car per year.
Yearly Average hours per (2litre) Business vehicle in Aoteoroa = 8 * 350 = 2800hrs
2800 * 30,000 = 84,000,000m3 per car per year.
(Even at .001 cent per m3 that’s a lot of money per vehicle)
Then you add all the industry …..
The currenly accepted rate of carbon produced per kilowatt hour of power is 1.5 pounds of carbon/KWh.
The average city uses 3,000KW(Lowish Estimate) per capita per hour ( 😮 )
We really need to stop producing so much Carbon methinks.
Scientific Fact No One : “You can’t breath exhaust fumes M8!”
I would suggest the whole thing needs correction. I started reading it but decided you had no idea what you were talking about when I hit the line “so your average 2litre car eminates 2m3 of air for every 16 revolutions”
For your information there is one turnover of “air” every 2 revolutions, at least in a four-stroke engine which I would think 99.9% of petrol powered cars are.
Thus 16 revolutions would mean 16 litres of air.
There are 1000 litres in a cubic metre. You wouldn’t get 2m3 but 0.016 cubic metres.
I glanced at the rest but decided that if you go so badly wrong so quickly why bother reading it.
I did note however that you appear to think a business car is driven 8 hours per day, 7 days a week and 50 weeks per year.
When I was working. and visiting customer sites I would have received a rap on the hand if I had been driving more that about an hour per day. The only cars that would do anything like your times would be taxis.
So NZ and it’s farmers carry on as climate change criminals while the rest of the world does there bit to address global warming. why would anyone buy our dairy products and meat when they can buy climate friendly produce.
But the rest of the world arn’t “doing their bit”.
We can be “leaders” and feel all warm and fuzzy while our economy collapses around our ears because our products become too expensive or even cease to exist (dairy).
And what also happens is that China just keeps pumping out our annual CO2 output in around two days (and that output is increasing). Please explain again why we should flaggelate ourselves while the rest of he world continues on its merry way. So we can puff out out chests and say look at me, look at me?
“I’m surprised people are not filling their boots,” one market participant said. “People seem to be having a tough time believing the market is credible.”
That would be because the market isn’t credible as the government keeps undermining it. Markets are a social construct and if the rules end regulation needed to maintain them aren’t in place then the market doesn’t exist.
Speaking of fuckwits … about ten days from now, this guy is going to really regret this tattoo, whoever wins the US election.
“I want young people to know that it’s O.K. to be young, and it’s O.K. to be a Republican. You don’t have to be rich or elderly to be labeled as a Republican, and I want everyone to know that.”
Yes, you could, by showing me the evidence that supports the delusional policies you have learned to parrot.
Everywhere we look, these delusional policy settings destroy lives and make the world a meaner, worse place. That is why I call you a fuckwit: all you’re doing is regurgitating the lies you believe.
It’s “easy” to show me I’m wrong: all you have to do is show me the evidence. When you can’t, of course, you’ll start clinging to your beliefs even harder.
So, you think that National need to continue to make the world a nastier place?
Okaaaay…
EDIT:
Here, have a short bit of reading. It’s about economics and how what most economists say is complete bollocks and not supported by actual historic fact.
Devotees of Amphetamine Aynnie may well blather on about their appreciation for philosophy, but unless we are talking about a charter school, they’re not likely to get a look in. Curricula aren’t just thrown together.
In any formal study of philosophy you have to start with the basics. After that, Ayn is only really fit as a bit of raw meat for the young pups to tear apart.
Imean, give anyone a week on epistemology basics, and then start explaining A=A’.
I’m not saying this government is going to do it, or of they do it, implement it well. What I am saying is that having it be a Randian indoctrination process is not anything we need to worry about.
Rand is a cul de sac. You can only get there by taking that one specific turn. If you start from anywhere else; if you start with epistemology, or Phil of language, or metaphysics, or the history of phil, or (as is most likely) syllogisms for dummies; then you won’t take the corner. You’ll stand there at the corner, looking down at the philosophical detritus, and ask only, “Who are these people, and why are they saying these things?”
I take your point that Rand is a cul-de-sac, but that is no consolation to Greenspan’s victims. I don’t think you can discount the possibility that Rand in schools isn’t on some twisted agenda, especially now we’re to give tax-payer dollars to faith schools.
In this circumstance, the schools in question would probably talk about “teaching our philosophy”.
If you have an example of them saying that, then sure; but all I can see in that article is them talking about teaching philosophy.
the texts in the photo look fine, from the pupils comments it looks like they are getting a 100 level intro into ethics and logic. I’d be surprised if they weren’t doing a bit of metaphysics, simply because those questions are really good for teaching about propositional logic.
I don’t see any evidence for concern based on what is being proposed.
Honestly, you sound a bit like them thar freaks banging on about how if we teach the kids about evilution it’s actually a plot to make them think they are animals in order to groom them for the gays.
Teaching kids philosophy is a good thing. It’s an inoculation against poor thought. Fuck all people bother with it at uni, and even fewer keep their hand in by taking time to read some now and then. We are poorer for that.
An exposure to at school, (I’d start em at about age 10 if I had my druthers), would save an awful lot of bother later.
By the time kids leave secondary school, they should be able to identify basic logical errors, construct and identify syllogisms, and know the difference between is and ought, and why it matters.
Quote:
” Beneficiaries and other strugglers have been informed that the state’s handup will be withdrawn if they do not observe certain rules about what they spend, where they live, what they ingest and when their kids go to school.
So it was surprising, to say the least, to see that National Education Minister Hekia Parata is promoting a bill that would tie the hands of educators who might want to drug-test school students or introduce drug-sniffing dogs to help weed out the dealers and users. ”
2) And another example:
Lindsay Mitchell points out research that shows we are spending a disproportionate amount of money preventing domestic violence when the majority of violence is men on men where very little money is spent. http://www.truth.co.nz/index.php/truthsays/667-right-on-october-18
Quote:
“His [Prof John Langley] research found the rate of serious assaults increased 50% from 2003 to 2008 and there was “no evidence of recent abatement”. Listening to him interviewed on Breakfast television I was almost relieved. Not because NZ isn’t getting safer but that someone is at least able to paint an accurate picture and convey it to us. He also expressed concern that most of the prevention focus was on domestic abuse, yet over three quarters of the serious assaults were men on men.
” Beneficiaries and other strugglers have been informed that the state’s handup will be withdrawn if they do not observe certain rules about what they spend, where they live, what they ingest and when their kids go to school.”
– I agree with this, its all part of the social contract but now the recipients have to live upto their end of the bargain
So it was surprising, to say the least, to see that National Education Minister Hekia Parata is promoting a bill that would tie the hands of educators who might want to drug-test school students or introduce drug-sniffing dogs to help weed out the dealers and users. ”
– I don’t agree with this at all. I’m the type of right-wing guy that thinks everyone should be subject to the same rules. ie Slam bene fraudsters and slam tax dodgers. We need to get drugs out of schools (well as much as it can be done)
Lindsay Mitchell points out research that shows we are spending a disproportionate amount of money preventing domestic violence when the majority of violence is men on men where very little money is spent.
– Good luck championing that
I’m guessing your “opinion” about it comes from parroting some right wing bullshit that you didn’t even bother to fact check.
“In political philosophy the social contract or political contract is a theory or model, originating during the Age of Enlightenment, that typically addresses the questions of the origin of society and the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Social contract arguments typically posit that individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the ruler or magistrate (or to the decision of a majority), in exchange for protection of their remaining rights.”
You see how there is precisely zero in there about the obligations of the individual? Can you see how the definition you have been duped by doesn’t gell with reality?
“individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the ruler or magistrate (or to the decision of a majority”
– like the freedom to decide what they can and can’t spend the money given to them?
– like the freedom to decide what they can and can’t spend the money given to them?
What specific rights we have are always up for negotiation. Look at history. Things that at one time that are considered by a society to be vital for the pursuit of happiness, are at other times, and in other societies, considered anathema.
What is the same is that in in any stable society, the rights that we have are protected by some overseeing authority, of one form or another. that authority retains its legitimacy as long as it is seen to be protecting the rights that the society, (in aggregate), considers appropriate.
As to your example, there are very few societies in which you have absolute freedom to do what you will with your money. Otherwise, legitimate Murder Inc companies would be far more common.
Lindsay Mitchell is a mental midget, but I can see how you would still look up to him, CB.
The number of victims affected directly or indirectly by domestic violence makes it a greater problem than man on man violence. Neither form is acceptable, but while violence in a pub carpark directly affects those involved, violence in the home affects everyone in the home and flows onto the next generation.
getting back to TRP’s comment about Lindsay Mitchell:
Not to mention the victims of family violence being locked-in with their attackers of an evening. Domestic violence is a completely different animal. If Ms Mitchell doesn’t see a difference she is indeed a vaccuous, moral and intellectual midget.
She also fails to realise that different problems require different solutions. And, indeed, the first step to stop males fighting each other might very well be to stop them beating their partners.
And one of the big factors involved of the majority of domestic violence incidents, is that someone with more physical (and possibly social) strength/power attacks a weaker one.
Male-on-male violence tends to be between males who choose to be in particular social environments – pubs etc. Domestic violence, is in the place where people live.
Personally I am uncomfortable with the way that principals want to conduct such invasive measures, ie drug testing, drug dogs, search after search after search and so on. There seems to be a wanton disregard for students civil rights in our school.
Walsh and his mates are better off calling for a comprehensive D and A education program in our schools. In the USA you have the students going through metal detectors when they walk into school in the morning, under the watchful eyes of security guards. I would hate for that to happen here.
I’m actually surprised that principals or teachers would want any part of it. I’m wondering how much of it is just a beat up, maybe to divert attention from hungry kids.
Seems the guilty plea is what stitched it, but wonder what the catalyst was that lead to the plea!
This has much more consequence than what it appears at face value, and does the same apply to the medical/mental/parma industries where drugs are issued to children, or is that type of experimentation deemed acceptable?
Yeah, mobilise the ski mask boys and go gung ho into a family home but oh noes!, rather than full blown class A production under way you find a brown man cooking up oil out of a heap of cabbage.
The ultimate goal of the anti gay-marriage lot is the repeal of the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986. Louisa Wall’s bill is just an excuse for them to kick up a fuss.
Interesting that they are also the same people who go on about ‘nanny state’, it seems OK for nanny state to kick down the bedroom doors of consenting adults.
Interesting that they are also the same people who go on about ‘nanny state’, it seems OK for nanny state to kick down the bedroom doors of consenting adults.
No, it’s more like that they’re quite happy about having a nanny state as long as they’re the nanny and so get to force their own beliefs onto others.
People who go on about nanny state aren’t necessarily anti-gay or anti-gay marriage.
Yup, just yesterday the MC reminded everybody that a greenie nanny state would ban the kids shemozzle and all the while his events insurance was provided by nana ACC.
Ironically it was the MC’s beloved National Party that brought in all the PC greenie nanny state nonsense with the OSH legislation.
Last time I looked, the actual greenies were calling for some of that PC nanny state nonsence to be relaxed a little so schools could keep their pools open.
We spent a beautiful in day in Hunterville, knee deep in kids, eating $3 spit roasted porky sandwiches, and, come 1pm, drinking beer in the marquee.
They’ve tidied things up with an alcohol ban outside of the two outlets so I’d highly recommend the event as a family outing and an insight into rural NZ.
Because they’re fucking ignorant, if they knew their history as well, they’d know the same line of argument was used to attack inter-racial marriages and justify enslaving africans and native americans. Also there’s the environment of the churches they’re members of, which are most likely newer, charismatic evangelical ones that aren’t big on independent thinking and question traditional bullshit.
Is it apathy that middle New Zealanders do not care about whatever the Nats are doing to the country ?
Why are there no real demonstrations or marches, other than small bands of malcontents.
Where are the left leaders (other than Russell Norman) ?
As summer comes upon us are we to see less and less time given to the machinations of the Government before the summer recess.
Where is Labour’s visions to enable this to be digested over the summer ?
No wonder the Greens have taken the left lead – against Labour they are frightening and will do so to the horses unless Labour takes a lead to the middle class voters.
Or as said, are middle New Zealaders muddling along apathetically waiting for the golden summer -these are the real votes, particularly the women.
The Greens voters are effectively the latte drinking, white middle class, comfortably off, well educated, chardonnay drinking, mainly women not the real working people of this country.
Fix the housing affordability issue and many others ( Improved disposable income and the financial stress that is associated with this) greatly improves. But unfortunately any government is dependent upon maintaining the apathy towards politics, this will be maintained as long as there is the feeling that peoples wealth is increasing (home owners).
Introduce a CGT will not solve the increasing property and the exclusion of many, all that means is that the govt receives an increase in tax take (unless the bubble explodes ) http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/finance-minister-bill-english-video-5166774 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10843323
This year’s renewed 10-20 per cent surge in Auckland house prices to record highs has further focused attention. http://www.interest.co.nz/property/home-loan-affordability
My eyes tend to roll when I hear the term ‘red-tape’…can you expend on what you mean? What is the red-tape, what is it preventing and how do we get rid of it.
Bill English said on Q+A that we need more high density housing…he then said that this is difficult because we can’t just build because people’s right to having a ‘view’ would be compromised. So on the one hand, its get rid of the red-tape, and on the other, English is promoting red-tape.
What do you mean by red-tape?
There are current regulations in place that restrict what can be built. To change these would take time, plenty of time. Unless we allow Nanny state to intervene and to override due process, then who pays the cost to retrofit the infrastructure e.g. Road widths, sub base of roads are based on the carrying capacity of the road. Storm & waste water, water pressure, power, phone, gas capacity of an area which are based on no. of users.
opening more land would take 5-10 year to achieve in the planning then you have how these new areas dove tail into the existing infrastructure. We already have a growth plan being implemented for Auckland http://www.arc.govt.nz/albany/fms/main/Documents/Auckland/Aucklands%20growth/Auckland%20regional%20growth%20strategy.pdf
Many developments have covenants in place that have mim restrictions on size of dwelling, building materials, only one dwelling per lot which is in place to protect other residents.
One note when comparing historic house affordability one should remember that house sizes have increased, so the cost to build is greater in 1980 it was 150m, 10 years later 200m2. The cost to build this additional 50m2 would be $70-100k http://www.qv.co.nz/propertyinformation/KnowledgeCentre/Average+house+size+by+age10052011.htm
KJT (tongue in cheek) this aspect has been successful. Just look at the discount that is placed on mono plastered houses as to those “safe” B&T and other safe building materials and both the price and the time it takes to sell.
Agree with limiting the ability for banks to loan on property.
Also should property drop the banks will be safe all the lose attributed to would be born by the land owner or insurance company that the mortgage protection is held by.
No it won’t – it’ll push the costs up. Slightly cheaper houses, far more running costs.
Really want to drop house prices? Then do this. I’m sure you’ll find house prices dropping quite rapidly as people figure out that it’s better not owning.
Found this site ( http://votes.wotfun.com/ ) and a few interesting votes by Winston Peters. His reputation as a dick is kind of well deserved, it horrifies me that people plan to [seriously] vote for him next election. 😮
* Human Rights Act – Votes against
* Civil Unions Act – Votes against
* Homosexual Law Reform Act – Votes against
* Prostitution Reform Act – Votes against
* Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill (to allow gay marriage) – Votes against
* New Zealand Bill of Rights Act Act – Votes against
* Death With Dignity 1995 Bill – Votes against
* Crimes (Abolition of Force as a Justification for Child Discipline) Amendment [2nd Reading] Bill – Votes Against
* Care of Children Amendment Act – Votes against
Well I voted for him last election, mainly because he was such a rabble rouser. Now he has a lot of political power though, I am definitely going to disagree with his party (and vote for another); a quick flick through his party’s website and I am already in disagreement. Winston here ( http://nzfirst.org.nz/what-we-stand-for/constitutional-review ) argues to remove the treaty of Waitangi from legislation i.e. turn back race relations a hundred years.
Michael SchulsonWhen Shane Burcaw flies on an airplane, he brings along a customized gel cushion, a car seat, and about 10 pieces of memory foam. The whole arsenal costs around $1,000, but for Burcaw it’s a necessity. The 27-year-old author and speaker — who, alongside his fiancée, Hannah ...
We are very pleased to publish this submission is from Lucinda Stoan. She is a social justice activist, mother, and educator, based in Washington State in the US. This detailed and comprehensive source-linked overview of trans issues and what is at stake will be useful for many people, especially in ...
New Zealand's Underarm Banker: It bears recalling that the “independence” of the Reserve Bank Governor was for decades held up by neoliberal capitalists as the most compelling justification for passing the Reserve Bank Act. Interesting, is it not, how the ruling class’s support for the Bank’s independence lasted no longer than ...
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“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.” ― Martin Luther King Jr. A long and bitter court feud between former Conservative Party leader Colin Craig and Jordan Williams has been settled, with an apology and compensation from Williams. On Tuesday, Craig sent out ...
Some people seem to want to close down any critical discussion of the current research into the relationship between water fluoride and child IQ. They appear to argue that claims made by researchers should not be open to critical review and that the claims be accepted without proper consideration ...
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The government introduced a Racing Industry Bill today. As an urban who horse racing as pointless-to-cruel, and gambling as a tax on stupidity and/or hope, this isn't normally a bill which would interest me in the slightest, beyond grumpiness at more government money for a dying industry. But there is ...
Check. Check. One, two, three, four. Is this thing ON? Hello readers, I logged in last night (yeah, it’s been a while) to mark THE END of the landmark legal case, Jordan Williams v Colin Craig, which (gulp) reached The Supreme Court, in which New Zealand’s most-defamed man was suing the politician he ...
Before The Birth: Israel’s most fervent supporters set their clocks ticking in Biblical times. They cite the kingdoms of David and Solomon as proof that, in the words of the Exodus movie’s theme-song: “This land is mine.” The majority of Israel’s backers, however, start their clocks in 1933 – the year Adolf ...
In an unreliable, strange and confusing world, Public Address is proud to present a measure of comfort and stability by annually asking everyone what words or phrases sum up the year that's been – and then giving some of them consumer goods as prizes for being clever or simply lucky.Well, ...
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When it was revealed that NZ First had tried to enrich itself from public office via the Provoncial Growth Fund, the Prime Minister assured us that everything was OK as Shane Jones, the Minister responsible for the fund, had recused himself. Except it seems that that recusal came very late ...
Today is a Member's Day, and probably the last one of the year. After the marathon of the End of Life Choice Act, most of the bills up for debate today are uncontentious. First up is the second reading of Chlöe Swarbrick's Election Access Fund Bill. This will be followed ...
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has reported back on the government's odious and tyrannical control orders bill. As expected, the fraudulent select committee process has made no significant changes (partly because they couldn't agree, but mostly because it was a stitch-up from the start, with no intention of ...
Yesterday, the government released its draft Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill, which will be put to a non-binding referendum at the next election. I'm not a drug policy expert, but Russell Brown is, and he thinks its pretty good. And pretty obviously, it will be a massive improvement on the ...
As you're probably aware, the draft bill outlining the proposed legal cannabis regime to be put to a referendum late next year was published yesterday, and has already attracted a flurry of comment. It's notable that a good deal of the comment is about proposals that aren't actually new.A minimum ...
One of the big problems in New Zealand climate change policy is the government working at cross-purposes with itself. It wants to reduce fossil fuel use, but encourages oil and gas exploration. It wants to reduce transport emissions, but then builds enormous new roads. The problem could be avoided if ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzAccording to the United Nations, food shortages are a threat ...
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The government introduced the Education and Training Bill to Parliament yesterday. Its a massive bill, which replaces both existing Education Acts, as well as various other bits of legislation (including some which are still proceeding through the House). I'll leave the serious analysis to teachers and people who actually know ...
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While much of the NZ left has transitioned to postmodern and identity politics in relation to transgender ideology, there are some very good articles about that deploy Marxist methodology in relation to this subject. The one below is from the British marxist group Counterfire and appeared on their site here ...
by Daphna Whitmore At Golden Oaks, a luxurious country retreat in the Hudson Valley, pregnant women have the best care money can buy. From the organic food, personalised exercise programmes, private yoga instruction and daily massages Golden Oaks looks like a country lodge for the upper class. Set some time ...
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Writing in Stuff, Joel MacManus looks at what we need to do to meet the Zero Carbon Act's targets. The core of it:1. Convert 85 per cent of vehicles on the road to electric. 2. Eliminate fossil fuels from all industrial heating up to 300 degrees Celsius. 3. Double our ...
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“America the Beautiful!”, staunch defender of democracy, freedom and… a whole lot of despotic tyrants that play nice with what is called “the Washington Consensus.” America is indeed capable of immense good, but like any Nation, and most assuredly any aspirant to the mantle of Empire, great, immense evil. All ...
Image credit:The beginner’s guide to blogging 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 ...
1080 is used to control pests in NZ. Its use is contested by a noisy few. A new report claims high levels of 1080 in rats washed up on a beach. Flora and Fauna of Aotearoa (F&F) won’t name the laboratory that did their testing. It has sparked a hunt ...
What Kind Of Empire? The thing for Kiwis to decide is what kind of empire they want to belong to. The kind that, while offering its own citizens democratic rights, demands absolute obedience from its “friends”? Or, the kind that, while authoritarian at home, takes a relaxed attitude to the ...
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Pure Fear: Worse than Heroin, this drug’s addictive power was terrifying. People under its influence didn’t drift off to Elysium. Nor did it persuade inadequate individuals that they could conquer the world. No, this drug – pure crystal methamphetamine, “P” for short – unlocked the gates of Hell itself. It ...
As the rate of measles infection, and of deaths, continues to climb in Samoa, antivaccination activists infectious disease proponents seem intent on doubling down on their claims about vaccination. (Check pretty much any news-media FB post about measles & you’ll see exactly what I mean.) Unfortunately, some of them have ...
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Meghan Murphy is a Canadian writer and journalist She runs the Feminist Current website which she founded in 2012. She was a keynote speaker for the Feminism2020 conference in Wellington this month. When Massey University cancelled the original venue booking Feminism2020 was hosted in Parliament by MP David Seymour. Meghan ...
Text and photos by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Colombia has lived through one week of protests against the economic measures taken by president Duque. What looked like a protest that would fizzle out after its first day on November 21st is still going strong. Part of the reason for the continuance ...
Around a million billion pass through you each second, almost all originating from our sun, but few of them are likely to interact with you enroute. I was reading in a physics magazine earlier in the week about the nature of neutrinos. These are extremely numerous elementary particles, but only ...
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I wrote this review a couple of years ago when I was still in the process of getting my head around the politics of transgenderism, and specifically the claim that intersex conditions lend support to the notion that sex is ‘socially constructed’. Since writing this review I have come across ...
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Today the death toll from measles in Samoa rose to 32. All but four of the dead were less than 5 years old. Absolutely terrible, heartbreaking, news. That statistic alone should be enough to give the lie to the common claim by antivaccination activists plague enthusiasts that “measles is a ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh It is late here in Bogotá, almost 11.30pm on Monday the 25th of November as I write this. The day began full of hope with yet more massive marches throughout the country, a mix of the International Day of Non-Violence Against Women and the National Strike. ...
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The feature below is the conclusion of A History of Economic Thought, whose author was a leading Marxist economist in Russia in the early 20th century, Isaac Ilyich Rubin. The book arose from a course he ran at Moscow University following the Russian Revolution. First published in Russian in 1929, ...
There are many thousands of asteroids with formal names, some humdrum but other more noteworthy (depending on your predilections). One of my favourites, the name of which I was involved in suggesting, is (2472) Bradman, named for the Australian cricketing great. As a minor planet (synonym: asteroid) spotter, I have ...
Tory manifesto: big on austerity, low on promise, non-existent on delivery. The Tories: the party so big on ambition they couldn't be arsed writing a manifesto. MLK: "I have a dream!"BJ: "I'll just have a nap." Labour: Broadband!Tories: Narrow minds! Labour have hope, dreams and ambition. The Tories will save ...
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Hong Kong has been protesting for six months for, demanding democracy, human rights, and an end to police violence. Today, they went to the polls in district council elections - a low-level of government with virtually no power, similar to community boards in New Zealand. But while the positions themselves ...
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Finally, governments seem slowly to be beginning to act on climate change. But its not enough. While they're publicly signing up to targets, they're planning to destroy the world by continuing fossil fuel extraction:The world’s nations are on track to produce more than twice as much coal, oil and gas ...
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Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Forestry The Government will further strengthen New Zealand’s wood processing sector as part of our focus on ‘value over volume’ in our forestry industry, Forestry Minister Shane Jones says. Minister Jones will today meet with forestry representatives in Northland to signal new measures to help the ...
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Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Conservation New Zealand First is proud to announce the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) has allocated $3.5 million to develop innovative predator control approaches which will reduce the need for repeated 1080 use. $19.5 million of PGF funding was announced for Predator Free 2050 Limited in February ...
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Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced further support as the Government of Samoa responds to a serious measles outbreak. “New Zealand will deploy a further 18 vaccination nurses, bringing the total to 30 working in Samoa over the next ...
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“I’ve spoken to Minister Faafoi, who has apologised for his poor handling of this issue,” Jacinda Ardern said. “I have confidence in Kris as a hardworking and effective Minister, but this should have been dealt with in a much clearer manner, and I’ve made my views on that very clear ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters met with Tongan Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa in Wellington today. The pair signed a Statement of Partnership setting out joint priorities for cooperation out to 2023. “We welcomed Prime Minister Tu'i'onetoa on his first visit to New Zealand as Prime Minister. Tonga ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash says his sympathies are with the family of a man who died after being shot by Police in Kurow. “Initial reports are that Police were called by a family member to help the man who was threatening to harm himself,” Mr Nash says. “However ...
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Work to look after nature and restore freshwater quality in Te Hoiere/Pelorus River catchment is getting a significant boost, thanks to new Government funding support Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage announced in Canvastown today. “Every New Zealander should be able to swim in their local river without getting sick, and ...
Eight Queen’s Counsel have been appointed under a process that includes the new criterion of a commitment to improving access to justice, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. “The new criterion was included this year. It emphasises that excellence and leadership in the profession can be seen through a wider, community ...
Onslow College in Wellington will get 20 new classrooms for more than 400 students, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. The much-needed investment will relieve growth pressure the school has been experiencing for some time. Seven existing classrooms which have deteriorated over time will also be replaced, bringing the total ...
More than 250 young New Zealanders will add international experience to their education, thanks to the latest Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia (PMSA) and Latin America (PMSLA), Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. This round of scholarships supports 252 recent graduates or current students to undertake study, research or internships ...
Consumers will benefit from a more competitive, transparent retail fuel market as a result of changes the Government will be making in response to the findings of the Commerce Commission’s study of the fuel sector. “We accept the Commission’s findings and, as the Prime Minister has said, we’re ready to ...
Five new cancer medicines have now been funded this year, meaning thousands of people have more treatment options PHARMAC has today announced that it has approved two new medicines for funding – fulvestrant for breast cancer and olaparib for ovarian cancer. This follows earlier decisions on advanced lung cancer treatment alectinib, ...
The Minister of Local Government, Hon Nanaia Mahuta says the Government will consider making changes to local electoral legislation before the 2022 elections to fix the problems that have arisen where elections are settled by a coin toss. The Minister says the recount process in the Murupara- Galatea ward at ...
New Zealand will sign up to new international maritime regulations to reduce ship emissions and lift air quality around ports and harbours, Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter announced today. Subject to completion of the Parliamentary treaty examination process, New Zealand will sign up to Annex VI of MARPOL, an ...
New legislation to transform our urban areas and create sustainable, inclusive and thriving communities will tomorrow be introduced to Parliament, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford said. “The Urban Development Bill gives Kāinga Ora-Homes and Communities the tools it needs to partner with councils, communities, mana whenua and private developers to ...
Today’s launch of He taonga te Tamaiti: Every child a taonga: The Early Learning Action Plan 2019-2029 provides the foundation for long-lasting changes to early learning, Education Minister Chris Hipkins says. “Early learning will be one of the Government’s top education priorities going into 2020,” Chris Hipkins said. ...
Major decisions made by the Government will now be considered under a climate change lens, Minister for Climate Change James Shaw announced today. “Cabinet routinely considers the effects of its decisions on human rights, the Treaty of Waitangi, rural communities, the disability community, and gender – now climate change will ...
Education Minister Chris Hipkins today announced the appointment of Māori education specialist Dr Wayne Ngata and Business NZ head Kirk Hope to the Board of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). Dr Alastair MacCormick has been reappointed for another term. “Wayne Ngata, Kirk Hope and Alastair MacCormick bring a great deal ...
The next phase of the Pike River Re-entry project is underway, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little says. “Fresh air will be pumped into the Pike River Mine drift this week, following acceptance of the plan for re-entry beyond the 170m barrier by New Zealand’s independent health and ...
New Zealand consumers will have greater certainty about their insurance cover when they need to make claims as a result of proposed government changes. “Insurance is vitally important in supporting consumers and businesses to be financially resilient when unexpected events happen,” Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Kris Faafoi said. ...
The Crown is providing an opportunity for the hapu of Ngāpuhi to rebuild its framework from the ground up for collective negotiations to deal with its historical Treaty claims, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little and Minister for Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The Crown is also ...
A Bill enabling referendums to be held with the 2020 General Election has passed its third reading. Justice Minister Andrew Little says the Act is important for upholding the integrity of New Zealand’s electoral process. “The Government has committed to holding a referendum on legalising recreational cannabis at the next ...
The first release of public information on the two referendums to be held at next year’s General Election was made today with an informative new Government website going live. Additionally, the draft Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill has been released, showing the strict controls on cannabis that will apply if ...
The Government is taking action to protect New Zealand from foreign interference in our elections by banning foreign donations to political parties and candidates, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Legislation will be introduced to Parliament this afternoon and passed under urgency. “There’s no need for anyone other than New ...
Governments and tech companies are holding a two-day workshop, hosted by YouTube/Google in Wellington, to test the Christchurch Call Shared Crisis Response Protocol. The workshop aims to refine and strengthen the response in the event of a terrorist attack with online implications. Companies, governments, civil society experts and NGOs will ...
The new independent Cancer Control Agency has formally opened today, delivering on the Government’s plan to improve cancer care in New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister of Health David Clark marked the occasion by announcing the membership of the Advisory Council that will be supporting ...
Small businesses who deal with government departments are set to be paid faster and have improved cash flow as a result, under a new strategy released today. The Government is backing recommendations from the Small Business Council (SBC) and has agreed to implement three initiatives immediately to support business and ...
The Education and Training Bill 2019, introduced in Parliament today, proposes the biggest education changes in decades and is an important step towards improving success for all our learners, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. “The Bill’s rewrite of education legislation is long overdue. Indeed one Education Act, parts of which ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio will travel to Bali to represent New Zealand at the 12th Bali Democracy Forum that will be held on the 5-6 December. “The Forum is a valuable opportunity for Asia-Pacific countries to share experiences and best practice in building home-grown democracy and fostering ...
A package of new and expanded technology and other tools will encourage responsible camping and help communities and local councils better manage freedom camping this summer, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. “Our Government has been investing to improve the freedom camping experience for everyone because we want to support ...
The government is laying the groundwork to understanding our genes – work that can help us tackle some of our biggest health challenges, like heart disease and diabetes, says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods. $4.7 million has been invested in the Genomics Aotearoa Rakeiora programme. The programme will ...
Nearly every state schools will receive a capital injection next year valued at $693 per student to bring forward urgent school property improvements, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. The one-off cash injection is the first project to be announced from the Government’s infrastructure package ...
The Government has decided to bring forward major investments in New Zealand’s infrastructure to future proof the economy. “Cabinet has agreed to a significant boost to infrastructure investment. I have directed the Treasury to help bring together a package of projects that can be brought into the Government’s short and ...
It is a great pleasure to be with you today in Whanganui. Like the Prime Minister I grew up with the TV clip of Selwyn Toogood booming “What do you say Whanganui, the money or the bag?” to an unsuspecting ‘It’s in the Bag’ audience. For those under the age ...
New Zealand’s newest Great Walk, the Paparoa Track, was officially opened in Blackball today by the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage alongside the family members of the Pike 29 and Ngāti Waewae. Local mayors and MP for the West Coast Hon Damien O’Connor were also in attendance. “Paparoa National Park ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark turned the first sod of earth on the infrastructure works for the new P-8A Poseidon fleet at RNZAF Base Ohakea today. “The Coalition Government’s investment in Ohakea will ensure the Royal New Zealand Air Force can manage, maintain and task the new fleet efficiently ahead ...
Civil Defence Minister Hon Peeni Henare today announced the establishment of the new National Emergency Management Agency from 1 December 2019. The National Emergency Management Agency will replace the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management. It will be an autonomous departmental agency, hosted by the Department of the Prime ...
New Zealand tertiary students with top grades and a passion for space will once again be offered the opportunity to work with the world’s best and brightest at NASA, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Recipients of the New Zealand Space Scholarship are nominated by the Ministry of Business, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further support to Samoa in the wake of an ongoing measles outbreak in the country. Additional medical supplies and personnel, including a third rotation of New Zealand’s emergency medical assistance team (NZMAT), further nurse vaccinators, intensive care (ICU) specialists and Samoan-speaking medical professionals, will ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says new data showing a sharp drop in the number of people who can’t afford to visit their GP is a sign of real progress. One year after the Government made it cheaper for about 600,000 Kiwis to visit their doctor, results of the New ...
Hell’s bells it’s Gone By Lunchtime, with Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire shooting the breeze on Kris Faafoi, Jason Kerrison, Winston Peters, NZ First donations, a cannabis referendum, and the year to come.Just when you thought politics was tucking under the duvet for Christmas, along comes the guy ...
Tis the season for hangovers, so we convinced some of New Zealand’s most experienced consumers of food and/or drink (OK, Spinoff staff and a bunch of chefs/hospo people) to share their tried-and-true culinary remedies.A hangover is a very individual thing. For some, it manifests as a splitting headache and extreme ...
Before Britain’s Got Talent: Champions hits our screens tonight, let’s take a fond look back at some of the show’s weirdest and most wonderful acts.Place your hands on your Golden Buzzer, because Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions kicks off this weekend. Champions is BGT bigger and better than it’s been before, ...
Following the raging success of the 2018 non-goat ethical Christmas gift guide, here for you today – responsibly wrapped in reusable gift wrap – is the 2019 list of ethical, sustainable, socially conscious, or charitable gift ideas to satisfy all kinds of family members and budgets.Budget Category: ‘Can we pay ...
Lime brought e-scooters to Auckland and changed the way we travel in less than a year. Now, the council is replacing it and Wave with three new contenders. Josie Adams goes to the Lime warehouse to say goodbye to the original scooters.In a warehouse in Eden Terrace, almost a thousand ...
Analysis - The government's first crack at cannabis legislation runs into trouble, a foreign donations bill is rammed through Parliament and a select committee refuses to listen to former NZ First officeholders. ...
Dr Ben Jansen is Oceania's leading prescriber of cannabis medicines, and a co-founder of the Hemp Foundation.org.nz “I’d like to thank the Labour Party and Chris Woodney. Thanks to his policy remit at Labours national conference, and Labours full support, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Soong, Senior Lecturer in Teacher Education Practice, School of Education, University of South Australia Australian 15 year olds were around three and a half years behind their counterparts in China in maths, according to the OECD’s latest results for education systems ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dimitri Perrin, Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology More than a year ago, the world was shocked by Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui’s attempt to use CRISPR technology to modify human embryos and make them resistant to HIV, which led to the birth ...
Cabinet minister Kris Faafoi has apologised to the Prime Minister for his messages to Jason Kerrison regarding an immigration case, but will not lose his job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Flinders University The decision to merge the Department of Communications and the Arts with Transport, Infrastructure and Regional development (dropping the “Arts” entirely) ends a year in which Australian politics has been deeply confused over its ...
A historic referendum on independence has been completed in Bougainville. Johnny Blades of RNZ was there. People in the autonomous Papua New Guinea region of Bougainville have voted in an historic independence referendum. The long-anticipated referendum is the ultimate provision of 2001’s Bougainville Peace Agreement, which followed a brutal, protracted ...
Dairy farmers had some Xmas cheer this week, as dairy giant Fonterra told them the forecast payout would be the fourth-highest-ever, at the mid-point of its farmgate milk price range. The $7.30kg/ms means the cash payout for the season will reach $11.2bn, a rise of about $400m from the earlier forecast. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland When you find dinosaur skeletons, how can you tell how old the dinosaur was? Like, if the skeleton is from a child dinosaur or an adult dinosaur? – Henry, aged 8. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) has had to clarify the law with Police and receive their reassurance that while the amnesty for ammunition was not extended to 20 December, Police will act as if it has been. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 We Are Here: An Atlas of Aotearoa by Chris McDowall & Tim Denee (Massey University Press, $70)Superlative ...
This week a petition with more than 15,000 signatures was presented at parliament to Nicola Willis, MP and opposition spokesperson for Early Childhood Education. Also attending were Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick and Hon Nikki Kaye. ...
It’s that time of year again when, for the third year running, a new A Christmas Prince movie is released. Sam Brooks was in front of a TV screen for the latest instalment’s debut on Netflix last night, and here catalogues the many stupid, wild, and wildly stupid things he ...
One of the most highly rated members of Jacinda Ardern’s Cabinet is under pressure over assurances given in relation to an immigration case. How bad could it get, asks Toby Manhire.There has never been a New Zealand prime minister more engaged with contemporary homegrown music than Jacinda Ardern. She’s forever ...
Kris Faafoi, Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media; Minister ofCommerce and Consumer Affairs;Minister of Government Digital Services; Associate Minister forHousing; MP for Mana.The latest allegations of a corruption scandal involving a Cabinet minister suggests this government is far too loose when it comes to providing access to power ...
The National Party cannot credibly critique the Government’s hikes to fuel tax while it refuses to commit to reversing these hikes, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “Simon Bridges has lambasted ...
Newspaper staff were among those to express dismay and fury during the frenzy of denunciations that followed publication of an ill-considered cartoon about Samoa and the measles epidemic. The Spinoffrecorded their reactions under the heading ODT cartoonist infuriates his colleagues with Sāmoa measles epidemic ‘joke’. It also reproduced the ...
New Zealand Police Association condemns comments made by People Against Prisons Aotearoa following the fatal police shooting of an armed man who had made threats of suicide. ...
A new poem by Harry Ricketts. The Writing Life You want to write.You want to be published.You want to be read. You want to be a cult figure.You want to be reviewed.You want to write. You want to win prizes.You want to be anthologised.You want to be read. You want to be taught in schools ...
As Christmas is near, it’s time to set the record straight on some of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of employment law that apply to the festive season. ...
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.Kris Faafoi immigration case Fiona Connor and Tova O’Brien (Newshub): ‘I’m on it bro’: Messages show Kris Faafoi offering help to ...
The Minister of Local Government Nanaia Mahuta has announced changes to prevent Māori wards being voted down by referendums are off the table, saying she believes such a change is not possible within the coalition. ...
It’s officially the festive season, and what does that mean? An office Secret Santa with a budget of $20 and you’ve picked your boss. Instead of settling for a bottle of average wine and a ribbon, follow our essential guide on what to get those unique workmates.At last year’s Secret ...
The shooting of a suicidal man in Southland shows that police armament is dangerous, says criminal justice group People Against Prisons Aotearoa. The shooting comes just over a month into the controversial trial of heavily armed police teams in 3 regions ...
The Prime Minister should deal urgently with reports Cabinet Minister Kris Faafoi offered to help a friend over an immigration case, National Party leader Simon Bridges says. ...
The families of top former All Blacks are likely to donate their loved ones’ brains to research so the effect of head impacts in sport can be studied. ...
A woman who went on a Tinder date with the man who murdered Grace Millane tells her story, and issues a warning to other women to trust their instincts when something doesn’t feel right.First published on Newshub.co.nzI went on a date with Grace Millane’s killer while her body lay in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gottfried Lechner, Associate Professor and Director of the Institute for Telecommunications Research, University of South Australia, University of South Australia Satellites are becoming increasingly important in our lives, as they help us meet a demand for more data, exchanged at higher speeds. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Terry Goldsworthy, Associate Professor in Criminology, Bond University According to the latest figures, homicides in Australia are at historic lows and compare well against international trends. So what do the trends tell us and why is the homicide rate in Australia declining? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy O’Rourke, Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture, The University of Queensland Welcome to the next article in our Designing Hospitals series, where we explore how architecture and design shape our hospitals and medical centres. Today, we look at what Indigenous people tell ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW The latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results are bad news for Australian students, parents, employers and policymakers. Pretty much everyone. Australian 15-year-olds are now below the OECD average in mathematics, and our results in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Clode, Senior Research Fellow in Creative Writing, Flinders University It is only mid-November but we have to walk early to avoid the heat. A northerly wind picks up clouds of dust and pollen, sending dirty billows across the paddocks. The long ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Changes coming to fuel market, anti-vaxxer arrested in Samoa, and banks told to hold more capital.New recommendations to increase competition in the fuel market have been made by the Commerce Commission, reports the NZ Herald. Their conclusion is that it isn’t competitive ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias. ...
An alliance of top researchers is trying to keep New Zealand ahead of complex health challenges from overuse of antibiotics, threats to freshwater quality and emerging infectious diseases. ...
The birthplace of the Labour Party is once again at the forefront of a new movement, this time harnessing the power of the collective to step away from coal towards a low carbon future.Blackball is a small place with a huge history. This week the town, 29 kilometres from Greymouth, ...
Life expectancy is increasing all the time, and now actuaries and retirement experts say young people need far more information on what they’ll need to do with their money if they live to 100. Don’t worry, we’re here to help. The message from the Retirement Income Interest Group of the New ...
German politician Joschka Fischer has had a remarkable career. From street violence and helping to set up the Green party, he matured into the foreign minister and vice-chancellor of a united Germany, serving until 2005. His understanding of power politics led him to support the use of force in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison said it with a straight face, and repetition for emphasis. “I’m very pleased, very pleased, with the performance of all of my ministers,” he declared on Thursday. This ringing if unconvincing universal endorsement ...
PARENTS AROUND THE WORLD PLEA FOR URGENT CLIMATE ACTION 222 parents groups from 27 countries have released a heartfelt joint plea calling on negotiators at this year’s UN climate summit – COP25 – in Madrid to push for ambitious and urgent ...
Government proposals to overhaul insurance contract laws should make the whole process of taking out insurance easier and simpler to understand for consumers, says Financial Advice New Zealand. ...
Despite New Zealand First lobbying hard at the Cabinet table, the Finance Minister says the case to move Auckland's port operations north has not yet been made. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Tomnay, Assoc. Professor / Director of Centre for Excellence in Rural Sexual Health, University of Melbourne Around one in six Australian women have had an abortion by their mid-30s. These women come from all age groups and demographics: some are mothers ...
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Today the Court of Appeal released their decision to allow Helen Milner (The Black Widow) to have the last remaining body samples of the husband she murdered, in an attempt to prove her innocence by trying to see if he had an underlying heart condition. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Pearse, Lecturer, Department of Political Economy, University of Sydney Federal Labor this week commemorated a dubious anniversary – a decade of climate policy failure. And it pointed the finger of blame squarely at the Greens. Labor claimed that had the Greens ...
The recent statement by Simon Tyler on behalf of the National Provident Fund and the Government Superannuation Fund, that environmental and social goals must be balanced with financial risk and reward, displays conceptual confusion about the role of ethical ...
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Open mike 28/10/2012 
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Afghan package decried as too little
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7873308/Afghan-package-decried-as-too-little
So what are these normal channels?
Having little funds and no support, first they have to get out of the country. Diamond Kazimi reports that two of his relatives have done this. A cousin got to Germany and his brother managed to reach Canada. Applying for refugee status, he was told by the Canadian authorities told that the New Zealand government should be dealing with this. Diamond Kazimi himself was only able to reach New Zealand after a serving New Zealand soldier sponsored his travel here. Without this sponsorship he would never have made it. He then had to enter the country posing as a temporary visitor, the only way he could legally get entry into New Zealand.
What could be called “normal” about this?
Normal channels for refugees are a series of difficult hurdles especially placed in their path by the border authorities of the countries they wish to enter. For those with meagre funds, or lacking sponsorship, these hurdles more times than not are insurmountable.
A disgrace. Diamond Kazimi has appealed to the NZ media to take up the cause of the interpretors and other support workers left in Afghanistan to face the wrath of Taliban for working for us.
Does anyone else see the comments made by Key as American in style? (We got what we wanted from you so screw you). Perhaps I’m biased. I do sound a little bitter when I read that back.
These people should be given priority to at the very least have their cases looked at, and frankly I don’t see why we shouldn’t bump the quota for a year to accommodate them and their families. Where is the compassion? Key REALLY hates beneficiaries of any kind huh.
Key (like so many from the Right) knows nothing of “compassion”, just don’t expect it from him. Key hates people, full stop – human beings are an impediment to getting on with making money and being an ego-driven hedonist. All of those overseas holidays must make him very “rusty”, by the way!
This should have been thought of when we started with the coaltion in Afghanistan.
Why can’t those people continue as interpeters, 3 months on in Afghanistan, 9 months off in Aoteoroa ?
We talk about reconstruction, surely helping them and their families get a good education and experience of a more evolved society would be one of the best reconstructive things we could do?
(No offense to the people on the ground in Afghanistan but Soldiers are not University Lecturers)
How about Dual NZ / Afghan citizenship for instance ?
To apply a “Letter of the Law” approach to this is not “Good Civilised Behaviour” on Johny Sparkles behalf.
Yet another strike on the ledger of Gnats’ policy M8’s!
An excellent idea…
And so it appears New Zealand is readying itself to leave the Kyoto Protocol.
Not satisfied with weakening it to the point of its demise, plans are now to take it out back and drown it in a bath tub.
Shame on them.
Thanks, Micky. I will add the link to my post that is scheduled to publish here in about an hour.
Is it possible the Natz are deliberately being idiotic about this?
Which Administration signed (rather than ratified) the Kyoto Protocol?
Aye they did. I have the utmost respect for Simon Upton for driving it through.
I can recall having some fun at an election meeting where a Nat MP was trying to criticize the decision to ratify the Kyoto Treaty by pointing out that they were the ones to actually negotiate NZ’s involvement.
Upton and Shipley should be exhumed and a seance held on Campbell Live, with their mortal remains on display and interrogated, to divine what they make out of this Administration’s nonsense.
This lot would be in good company with the likes of Tex Slampacker in Ben elton’s ‘stark’ ordering endangered species like baked swan whilst obliterating another piece of wilderness.
Finally Nationals starting to do what it needs to do. Now it needs to keep going and do what needs to be done (as long as it avoids a coalition deal with winstonfirst)
A word of advice: the fuckwit of the year prize will not be won by a climate change denier: you will need to find something more original to demonstrate your idiocy.
Word of advice – f-wit of the year award will not be won by anyone who denies that weather modification (control) exists…Lets take a look..
Looks like the “100 year storm” due to interrupt the US elections is well timed for Obama, innit!
I’m sure its just down to “climate change, and/or good old fashioned bad weather”!
I expect they have full control of your “mind” by now: you’re dancing to HAARP’s tune, eh. Damn those Illuminatii think of everything.
Are you saying, you think that it can’t be done then?
Sorry, I’m teasing: HAARP mind control is only effective when it has a strong signal to work with.
The tinfoil hat usually blocks it
Almighty Higgs Boson save us! 🙂
OTH wonder whether there is a misunderstanding of terms of reference. There is no denying of a global climate change going on, however even the scientific community is split about absolute cause.(don’t forget the sun!) Yes, we all can do our bit to lessen the effect and NZ has done well. And yes, National should not sell the power stations which give us an edge.
But also to consider is the issue of commercialization of carbon credits via Kyoto protocol. Just another vehicle to make money? A way of distorting measures by manipulation value vs cost? Once measures of cause/effects are outside the rigorous scrutiny of the scientific community, it will be difficult to know what is true and what is false. We have had too many of those examples of corporate greed in the last 2 decades. Secondly, the biggest polluters do not participate. So that will distort the “value” straight away. Just saying….
Oh, you mean there’ll be issues to work through like any policy? Well I never!
“…the scientific community is split about absolute cause…” Oh yeah? Says who? What part of Quantum Mechanics are you calling into question?
Bill Gates Hurricane Tamer?
I’d say playing about with, and controlling the weather patterns would be a cause for contention.
It’s been going on for a long time already, but as you can’t wrap your head around that, you flap around stuck on the same old track….
Maybe go speak with Bill Gates, Im’ sure he can explain it all to you!
Did you read the article? Familiar with Intellectual Ventures at all?
Hint: the reason I don’t take you seriously has nothing to do with your little tanty lower down.
Yup, and so what! – But wait on, the insurance industry will sort out “climate change”..
Trying to trivialise/divert/avoid, with cutesy little words such as “tanty”, only serve you highlight what a tweezer you must be, even online you transfer via your words!
Appreciate the compliment BTW – Hint , Its not about being taken seriously, if thats something your narcissistic side craves, perhaps you need to get back on those meds again!
“So what” – do the words “patent troll” mean anything to you?
Still trying to spin what I said about insurance companies? Let’s recap: “…of all the responses to climate change to date, insurance companies refusing to cover certain areas is perhaps the strongest…”
Do you see why I don’t take your comments seriously?
I just wonder whether you have read my comment. By all intend and purposes you are the one making the world a meaner place (see your own comment below) with you inability to discuss an issue without being offensive when you encounter deviating opinions.
Get a grip and grow up. Yes and here is a list of scientist who have some serious questions:
Scientists questioning the accuracy of IPCC climate projections
Scientists in this section have made comments that it is not possible to project global climate accurately enough to justify the ranges projected for temperature and sea-level rise over the next century. They may not conclude specifically that the current IPCC projections are either too high or too low, but that the projections are likely to be inaccurate due to inadequacies of current global climate modeling.
Freeman Dyson, professor emeritus of the School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study; Fellow of the Royal Society [9]
Richard Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan professor of atmospheric science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and member of the National Academy of Sciences[10][11][12]
Nils-Axel Mörner, retired head of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics department at Stockholm University, former chairman of the INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution (1999–2003), and author of books supporting the validity of dowsing[13]
Garth Paltridge, retired chief research scientist, CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research and retired director of the Institute of the Antarctic Cooperative Research Centre, visiting fellow ANU[14]
Philip Stott, professor emeritus of biogeography at the University of London[15]
Hendrik Tennekes, retired director of research, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute [16]
Scientists arguing that global warming is primarily caused by natural processes
Scientists in this section have made comments that the observed warming is more likely attributable to natural causes than to human activities. Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles.
Khabibullo Abdusamatov, mathematician and astronomer at Pulkovo Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences[17]
Sallie Baliunas, astronomer, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics[18][19]
Ian Clark, hydrogeologist, professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa[20]
Chris de Freitas, associate professor, School of Geography, Geology and Environmental Science, University of Auckland[21]
David Douglass, solid-state physicist, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester[22]
Don Easterbrook, emeritus professor of geology, Western Washington University[23]
William M. Gray, professor emeritus and head of the Tropical Meteorology Project, Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University[24]
William Happer, physicist specializing in optics and spectroscopy, Princeton University[25]
William Kininmonth, meteorologist, former Australian delegate to World Meteorological Organization Commission for Climatology[26]
David Legates, associate professor of geography and director of the Center for Climatic Research, University of Delaware[27]
Tad Murty, oceanographer; adjunct professor, Departments of Civil Engineering and Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa[28]
Tim Patterson, paleoclimatologist and professor of geology at Carleton University in Canada.[29][30]
Ian Plimer, professor emeritus of Mining Geology, the University of Adelaide.[31]
Nicola Scafetta, research scientist in the physics department at Duke University[32][33]
Tom Segalstad, head of the Geology Museum at the University of Oslo[34]
Fred Singer, professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia[35][36][37]
Willie Soon, astrophysicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics[38]
Roy Spencer, principal research scientist, University of Alabama in Huntsville[39]
Henrik Svensmark, Danish National Space Center[40]
Jan Veizer, environmental geochemist, professor emeritus from University of Ottawa[41]
Oh look, a list of deniers. Do you know how funny it is that you cite Lindzen, Soon, Baliunas, Christie, Svensmark and Spencer? Do you know why?
Have you registered the fact that these people all have their own unique version of what they say is wrong with established Climatology?
You haven’t even got a coherent narrative.
L(1-α) = εσT^4
Where L = solar luminosity
α = albedo
ε = emissivity
σ = Stefan-Boltzmann constant and
T = surface temperature in degrees Kelvin.
Remind me how “L” has changed over the last century. That’ll be good for a laugh.
I am no scientist but I do have an open mind to ALL opinions and even more so if these are from recognized scientists of international reputation. And lets not forget astute academic organizations. Have a good look before you start getting into your next tantrum.
I get the feeling somehow you work here for a particular interest? Democratic exchange of comments seem to be not in your forte either.
“International reputation” for incompetence and downright lying. FIFY.
“I’m no scientist” – no shit, Sherlock – is that how you managed to drop that howler about the Sun in your first comment?
Get as many feelings as you like, they won’t entitle you to your own facts.
So no word from you the weather control , or Gates’s procurement of the hurricane control patents???
Yeah thats altruism right there eh, its as obvious as your self esteem issues!
You are just plain rude and as I see it, you discriminated yourself from being taken seriously.
You are not an academic of any stature by what I gather from your comments because the ones I have met have had open minds to other peoples opinions without reacting in the way you do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_and_celestial_effects_on_climate
FW: “Just plain rude” – but swallowing destructive and transparent lies and then parroting them as some sort of “honest opinion” is just fine and dandy and oh so democratic?
Hypocrite.
PS: yes, Muzza, I decline to pick up your Tar Baby, and raise you a tin foil hat.
Actually free-speech, an open mind, questioning everything and searching for understanding, regardless of whether you agree or not, are some of the cornerstones of so called democracy!
As such your use of the work hypocrite towards FW, is wrong!
Destructive, is what attitudes such as yours are, not FW, so you are projecting wildly again. I’ve explained that to you before, whose ideas are more dangerous, the open or the closed mind!
You understand so little, and jump down others so hard, that the mind boggles just how scared you must be of anything which might challenge your self righteous view of life, and may lead you to have to ask hard questions yourself!
Hey, look at that, a list scientists and not a single one a climatologist. BTW, do any of them know that they’re on the list? And did you also know that there are about 30,000 climatologists in the world, 99.9% of which agree that climate change is being caused by human action?
Climatology is itself a branch of physics, but it is often highly dependent upon other sciences.
Thus if one is to understand various aspects of of the science of climatology, one will oftentimes need to understand the results and methods of various various other sciences. For example, climatology is highly dependent upon the study of radiation and how it interacts with matter: this is afterall a large part of the basis for our understanding of the greenhouse effect. Climatology depends upon chemistry insofar as it must understand the formation of ozone – one of the greenhouse gases. Climatology depends upon geology insofar as it attempts to identify the principles governing climates by learning lessons from deep geologic time. Climatology depends upon meteorology insofar as its results will be dependent upon the variation of precipitation or the dependence of various aspects of the climate upon temperature.
http://climate-change.wikidot.com/science:branches
No, they’re not and the sun has been ruled out as a cause.
Yep, a market system isn’t the best way to account for the cost of CO2e emissions. A flat tax would be far better.
I am no denier that something is wrong. I have been growing up in the northern hemisphere with lots of snow during the winter and seasons to recognize. This is not happening anymore and has a huge impact on the farming community because the lack of freezing of the ground which causes an increase of infestations of bugs that weren’t there before. Health issues coupled to that are on the increase. Not to mention the catastrophic thinning of the permafrost in the arctic circle. There is no doubt that deforestation does play a big part as does CO2 emissions. The list goes on. However, there are other voices that point to an cycle of worming and cooling of the planet too. What I question is the apparent certainty coupled with an almost immediate commercial solution. This makes me suspicious whether we are being made ready to be fleeced once more under a different pretext.
I personally do not belief in a commercial solution but in a technological. So the scientists who currently put themselves out there to hurry through the money wagon are the ones I am particular wary about.
“…the scientists who currently put themselves out there to hurry through the money wagon…”
Transparent and destructive lies. Did you make them up or are you just repeating what you’ve read without thinking or fact checking? The arrogance to call people who have fact checked and taken the time to learn the difference “rude” – because your wickle feelings got hurt.
“Technological solutions” – let’s hear about them. Oh, oops, you didn’t fact check that little howler either.
Forty seven joules per kilogram. Join the dots.
Solar energy, tidal energy, electrical cars, etc….. The possibilities are endless and most likely the horizon is brighter for the younger generation rather then the older who can be (not all though) stuck in their paradigm.
Rude is your behavior, even in this online facility and I am surprised that this is actually OK.
As to fact finding missions, I think you have a very selective way of presenting them and thus my observations.
I will regard this issue as closed. As so many things in NZ no point of persevering.
Hey Precious, obviously you don’t like my tone. Well I don’t like your implied weasel accusations of scientific and financial malpractice (“…the money wagon…”), especially when scientists and their families receive death threats.
Or have you got a specific allegation of actual malpractice? If so name names, or drop the hypocritical pretence that you’re Snow White.
What exactly is this “money wagon” that reputable climate scientists are said to be on while a denier like Plimer believes the Sun is a ball of iron and is on the board of mining companies? Or Monckton who is flown around the world to spew his tripe, all paid for by foundations with words like liberty and free enterprise in their names? I suspect I know which are the climate prostitutes here, and I suspect many of them are on your list.
Money wagon? I was unaware there was much money to be made in supporting the international scientific consensus. The only people who make money out of climate change are the deniers who get handouts from big business to push their bullshit uphill
Who will the global flat tax target?
Who will handle this global tax?
How will this global tax “save the planet” – woops I mean save the humans?
It’s not who but what.
The local governments.
By decreasing GHG emissions.
What its going to target the owners/controllers of the biggest polluters – Nah it wont!
You are in dreamland Draco, like your comment about cashless society, you are so deluded about the results that will come from these, and given your comments are usually sensible, I am a little surprised at your naievity over this!
Ok, and how many people do you think will be saved by the altuism of those currently ruling this planet of ours ?
It’s not supposed to – for that we need other regulations. What it’s supposed to do is decrease GHG emissions.
It would require the move to a more democratic and accountable system than we have now but it could be done. People saying that it can’t be done because of the PTB are just as much in the way of the needed changes as the PTB.
The people presently ruling this planet don’t have an altruism – that’s why they need to be removed from those positions of power.
Really? Absolutely, completely 100%? When did that happen?
No, of course not 100% but beyond reasonable doubt.
You will disbelieve that though as it goes against your beliefs which no amount of evidence will ever change.
No one owns the “Air”, but no one has worked out the real cost of Air pollution.
If land for instance can be valued at say $100/m2 then how bout the same for Air?
$100/m3 say ?
So your average 2litre car eminates 2m3 of air for every 16 revolutions ……
That’s 500m3 of polluted air for every minute of cruising at 4000rpm.
1 hour trip = 30,000m3 of polluted air.
I know “Air” is a huge resource, that cleans itself, but …..
Yearly Average hours per Domestic car in Aoteoroa = 2 * 365 = 730hrs
730 * 30,000 = 21,900,000m3 per car per year.
Yearly Average hours per (2litre) Business vehicle in Aoteoroa = 8 * 350 = 2800hrs
2800 * 30,000 = 84,000,000m3 per car per year.
(Even at .001 cent per m3 that’s a lot of money per vehicle)
Then you add all the industry …..
The currenly accepted rate of carbon produced per kilowatt hour of power is 1.5 pounds of carbon/KWh.
The average city uses 3,000KW(Lowish Estimate) per capita per hour ( 😮 )
We really need to stop producing so much Carbon methinks.
Scientific Fact No One : “You can’t breath exhaust fumes M8!”
Sorry correction …
3,000KW(Lowish Estimate) should be …
3KW(Lowish Estimate)
I would suggest the whole thing needs correction. I started reading it but decided you had no idea what you were talking about when I hit the line “so your average 2litre car eminates 2m3 of air for every 16 revolutions”
For your information there is one turnover of “air” every 2 revolutions, at least in a four-stroke engine which I would think 99.9% of petrol powered cars are.
Thus 16 revolutions would mean 16 litres of air.
There are 1000 litres in a cubic metre. You wouldn’t get 2m3 but 0.016 cubic metres.
I glanced at the rest but decided that if you go so badly wrong so quickly why bother reading it.
I did note however that you appear to think a business car is driven 8 hours per day, 7 days a week and 50 weeks per year.
When I was working. and visiting customer sites I would have received a rap on the hand if I had been driving more that about an hour per day. The only cars that would do anything like your times would be taxis.
Fair enough multiply the numbers by four then.
Treasonous wretches.
So NZ and it’s farmers carry on as climate change criminals while the rest of the world does there bit to address global warming. why would anyone buy our dairy products and meat when they can buy climate friendly produce.
Key and his band of thugs should be strung up.
But the rest of the world arn’t “doing their bit”.
We can be “leaders” and feel all warm and fuzzy while our economy collapses around our ears because our products become too expensive or even cease to exist (dairy).
And what also happens is that China just keeps pumping out our annual CO2 output in around two days (and that output is increasing). Please explain again why we should flaggelate ourselves while the rest of he world continues on its merry way. So we can puff out out chests and say look at me, look at me?
What’s the carbon output in China per head compared to NZ?
That would be because the market isn’t credible as the government keeps undermining it. Markets are a social construct and if the rules end regulation needed to maintain them aren’t in place then the market doesn’t exist.
.
Surprise, surprise. National Ltd™ – 100% Pure Bullshit.
Chalupa – I wonder exactly what you believe really does “need to be done”? Probably best that you do not tell me.
Pushing ahead with the partial asset sales, more mining, shake up of the education sector just for starters
Yep, that’s pretty good, but a true fuckwit would go the extra mile. Come on, you can do it!
While looking for another group to kick and to bash, Natz has remembered they should also jail refugees:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7873306/MPs-cool-on-boat-people-jail-plan
Speaking of fuckwits … about ten days from now, this guy is going to really regret this tattoo, whoever wins the US election.
“I want young people to know that it’s O.K. to be young, and it’s O.K. to be a Republican. You don’t have to be rich or elderly to be labeled as a Republican, and I want everyone to know that.”
Reminds me of the line from the Dead Kennedys: “in a real fourth Reich you’d be the first to go.”
Yeah how dare he have a differing view to yourself…the cheek of the guy
Wow, so that’s what TRP’s comment looks like through blue-tinted spectacles, is it? Fascinating.
Dissent will not be tolerated. The party will be advised and you and your family will be transported for re-education.
I’m afraid I couldn’t possibly challenge a true master of fuckwitery like your goodself 🙂
Yes, you could, by showing me the evidence that supports the delusional policies you have learned to parrot.
Everywhere we look, these delusional policy settings destroy lives and make the world a meaner, worse place. That is why I call you a fuckwit: all you’re doing is regurgitating the lies you believe.
It’s “easy” to show me I’m wrong: all you have to do is show me the evidence. When you can’t, of course, you’ll start clinging to your beliefs even harder.
Where is your evidence to the contrary?
The suicide rate, the infectious disease admission rate, the unemployment rate, the wage rates.
So, you think that National need to continue to make the world a nastier place?
Okaaaay…
EDIT:
Here, have a short bit of reading. It’s about economics and how what most economists say is complete bollocks and not supported by actual historic fact.
I have one misgiving about philosophy in schools.
I have heard several people bring up this topic, and express great enthusiasm for the idea.
They were all victims of Ayn Rand. What better way to peddle her hateful lies than to make them part of the curriculum?
pfft.
Devotees of Amphetamine Aynnie may well blather on about their appreciation for philosophy, but unless we are talking about a charter school, they’re not likely to get a look in. Curricula aren’t just thrown together.
In any formal study of philosophy you have to start with the basics. After that, Ayn is only really fit as a bit of raw meat for the young pups to tear apart.
Imean, give anyone a week on epistemology basics, and then start explaining A=A’.
hahahaha.
“Curricula aren’t just thrown together.”
Check your assumptions. In the context of sane and effective education policy and pedagogy, “curricula aren’t just thrown together”.
You honestly think such sensible arguments have any traction with Anne Tolley or Hekia Parata?
“Not likely to get a look in” – you can say this with a straight face after the vandalism of National’s Standards?
I’m not saying this government is going to do it, or of they do it, implement it well. What I am saying is that having it be a Randian indoctrination process is not anything we need to worry about.
Rand is a cul de sac. You can only get there by taking that one specific turn. If you start from anywhere else; if you start with epistemology, or Phil of language, or metaphysics, or the history of phil, or (as is most likely) syllogisms for dummies; then you won’t take the corner. You’ll stand there at the corner, looking down at the philosophical detritus, and ask only, “Who are these people, and why are they saying these things?”
I think there might be a Chalupa that took a similar turn
“Not anything we need to worry about” – cf: Alan Greenspan and Glass/Steagel. You were saying?
What? Alan Greenspan and Glass/Steagel were the end result of teaching philosophy in schools?
how does that work?
It doesn’t; it’s a strawman.
I take your point that Rand is a cul-de-sac, but that is no consolation to Greenspan’s victims. I don’t think you can discount the possibility that Rand in schools isn’t on some twisted agenda, especially now we’re to give tax-payer dollars to faith schools.
In this circumstance, the schools in question would probably talk about “teaching our philosophy”.
If you have an example of them saying that, then sure; but all I can see in that article is them talking about teaching philosophy.
the texts in the photo look fine, from the pupils comments it looks like they are getting a 100 level intro into ethics and logic. I’d be surprised if they weren’t doing a bit of metaphysics, simply because those questions are really good for teaching about propositional logic.
I don’t see any evidence for concern based on what is being proposed.
Honestly, you sound a bit like them thar freaks banging on about how if we teach the kids about evilution it’s actually a plot to make them think they are animals in order to groom them for the gays.
Teaching kids philosophy is a good thing. It’s an inoculation against poor thought. Fuck all people bother with it at uni, and even fewer keep their hand in by taking time to read some now and then. We are poorer for that.
An exposure to at school, (I’d start em at about age 10 if I had my druthers), would save an awful lot of bother later.
By the time kids leave secondary school, they should be able to identify basic logical errors, construct and identify syllogisms, and know the difference between is and ought, and why it matters.
Isn’t that one of Ayn Rand’s pet catch-phrases? 😀
1) Another example of our current contrarian government:
Welfare drug testing vs making it easier to be undetected when dealing drugs at school
http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/opinion/7871734/Blind-eye-to-school-drugs-most-unusual
Quote:
” Beneficiaries and other strugglers have been informed that the state’s handup will be withdrawn if they do not observe certain rules about what they spend, where they live, what they ingest and when their kids go to school.
So it was surprising, to say the least, to see that National Education Minister Hekia Parata is promoting a bill that would tie the hands of educators who might want to drug-test school students or introduce drug-sniffing dogs to help weed out the dealers and users. ”
2) And another example:
Lindsay Mitchell points out research that shows we are spending a disproportionate amount of money preventing domestic violence when the majority of violence is men on men where very little money is spent.
http://www.truth.co.nz/index.php/truthsays/667-right-on-october-18
Quote:
“His [Prof John Langley] research found the rate of serious assaults increased 50% from 2003 to 2008 and there was “no evidence of recent abatement”. Listening to him interviewed on Breakfast television I was almost relieved. Not because NZ isn’t getting safer but that someone is at least able to paint an accurate picture and convey it to us. He also expressed concern that most of the prevention focus was on domestic abuse, yet over three quarters of the serious assaults were men on men.
” Beneficiaries and other strugglers have been informed that the state’s handup will be withdrawn if they do not observe certain rules about what they spend, where they live, what they ingest and when their kids go to school.”
– I agree with this, its all part of the social contract but now the recipients have to live upto their end of the bargain
So it was surprising, to say the least, to see that National Education Minister Hekia Parata is promoting a bill that would tie the hands of educators who might want to drug-test school students or introduce drug-sniffing dogs to help weed out the dealers and users. ”
– I don’t agree with this at all. I’m the type of right-wing guy that thinks everyone should be subject to the same rules. ie Slam bene fraudsters and slam tax dodgers. We need to get drugs out of schools (well as much as it can be done)
Lindsay Mitchell points out research that shows we are spending a disproportionate amount of money preventing domestic violence when the majority of violence is men on men where very little money is spent.
– Good luck championing that
You flatter yourself that you understand the social contract.
I’m guessing you don’t
I’m guessing your “opinion” about it comes from parroting some right wing bullshit that you didn’t even bother to fact check.
You see how there is precisely zero in there about the obligations of the individual? Can you see how the definition you have been duped by doesn’t gell with reality?
Or will you just cling to the lies you were told?
“individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the ruler or magistrate (or to the decision of a majority”
– like the freedom to decide what they can and can’t spend the money given to them?
Just that one particular freedom? Or are you reserving the right to make up any number of others as well?
Seems to me the left are picking and choosing what the freedoms are as well
Lame. You made the claim, you defend it.
The fact is no one on a benefit is “given” any money, any more than someone who works 50 hours is “given” money.
Thats true, I earn my money through the time, effort, skills and experience I bring to the company I work for.
Sure you do. And, my little hero, you do it all by yourself.
So brave. So smart. Such a rugged individual.
Thanks for the lolz.
On the basis of their employment status? How about they refrain from burning your neighbourhood to the ground and you count yourself lucky?
– like the freedom to decide what they can and can’t spend the money given to them?
What specific rights we have are always up for negotiation. Look at history. Things that at one time that are considered by a society to be vital for the pursuit of happiness, are at other times, and in other societies, considered anathema.
What is the same is that in in any stable society, the rights that we have are protected by some overseeing authority, of one form or another. that authority retains its legitimacy as long as it is seen to be protecting the rights that the society, (in aggregate), considers appropriate.
As to your example, there are very few societies in which you have absolute freedom to do what you will with your money. Otherwise, legitimate Murder Inc companies would be far more common.
Really just pointing out that freedoms means different things to different people especially with different political leanings.
+1
Stunning insight there. People with different political beliefs, have different ideas about things political.
Political freedom comes from having a say in your own governance. Anything else is BS.
Lindsay Mitchell is a mental midget, but I can see how you would still look up to him, CB.
The number of victims affected directly or indirectly by domestic violence makes it a greater problem than man on man violence. Neither form is acceptable, but while violence in a pub carpark directly affects those involved, violence in the home affects everyone in the home and flows onto the next generation.
I never said I agree or disagree with his comments, what I meant was whether its right or wrong you won’t be changing the attitude any time soon.
Much like theres less money spent on prostate cancer then breast cancer
Isnt she a she?
Dunno, TRP used “him” so I assumed hes a he
Because you’re quite new to this whole politics thing, have only been commenting on blogs for about a week and have never heard of Lindsay before.
Yeah seems legit.
I merely changed my handle from chris73 to Chalupa Batman (The League is the best comedy on TV at the moment)
Sorry if I don’t know everyone, I’ll preform 10 hail marys and sin no more.
I guess changing handles is a constant necessity when you spout as much embarrassingly stupid guff as you do.
If I was worried about changing handles why would I announce it? Kinda make it redundant don’t you think
Everything you do here is redundant, Chalupa.
Funny.
I hadn’t picked the gravatar thing, and thought CB was a new tory dickhead, all idiocy and arrogance. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…
She is indeed a she.
getting back to TRP’s comment about Lindsay Mitchell:
Not to mention the victims of family violence being locked-in with their attackers of an evening. Domestic violence is a completely different animal. If Ms Mitchell doesn’t see a difference she is indeed a vaccuous, moral and intellectual midget.
yeah, she is.
She also fails to realise that different problems require different solutions. And, indeed, the first step to stop males fighting each other might very well be to stop them beating their partners.
And one of the big factors involved of the majority of domestic violence incidents, is that someone with more physical (and possibly social) strength/power attacks a weaker one.
Male-on-male violence tends to be between males who choose to be in particular social environments – pubs etc. Domestic violence, is in the place where people live.
Personally I am uncomfortable with the way that principals want to conduct such invasive measures, ie drug testing, drug dogs, search after search after search and so on. There seems to be a wanton disregard for students civil rights in our school.
More often than not, it’s about reassuring the school community that there are NOT drugs at school.
Plenty of upper crust parental types dabble.
+1 millsy,
What’s the difference between a Starbucks or McDonalds on/near campus and some kids trying to be successfull?
It’s one thing to educate them in the evil aspects of drugs etc.
It’s another thing to sentence them to prison at the age of 12.
Walsh and his mates are better off calling for a comprehensive D and A education program in our schools. In the USA you have the students going through metal detectors when they walk into school in the morning, under the watchful eyes of security guards. I would hate for that to happen here.
So true bud, how can we deal with an “Underground” culture in schools?
Not easy, but those kids should at least keep it off campus, for their own sake.
They are getting busted, the Gnats’ wouldn’t know about it otherwise.
I’m actually surprised that principals or teachers would want any part of it. I’m wondering how much of it is just a beat up, maybe to divert attention from hungry kids.
Although there’s more to this travesty the underlying crime appears to be smoking weed while brown.
http://www.wanganuichronicle.co.nz/news/woman-gave-baby-drug-via-breast-milk/1599493/
Seems the guilty plea is what stitched it, but wonder what the catalyst was that lead to the plea!
This has much more consequence than what it appears at face value, and does the same apply to the medical/mental/parma industries where drugs are issued to children, or is that type of experimentation deemed acceptable?
Or maybe just don’t smoke dope while breastfeeding?
Gotta add gettin drunk too that one M8.
Heard of alcoholic fetal syndrome ?
Maybe we should punish all those Mothers as well huh?
Or maybe raise the drinking age so they’ll understand the evils?
Yeah, mobilise the ski mask boys and go gung ho into a family home but oh noes!, rather than full blown class A production under way you find a brown man cooking up oil out of a heap of cabbage.
That’ll have a huge impact on class A producers.
Why are anti gay people so fuckin dumb?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10843389
I reckon it’s the other way round, Brett – dumb people are anti-gay (or anti-whatever).
How you doing anyway?
Tim Minchin tweeted this.
The ultimate goal of the anti gay-marriage lot is the repeal of the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986. Louisa Wall’s bill is just an excuse for them to kick up a fuss.
Interesting that they are also the same people who go on about ‘nanny state’, it seems OK for nanny state to kick down the bedroom doors of consenting adults.
No, it’s more like that they’re quite happy about having a nanny state as long as they’re the nanny and so get to force their own beliefs onto others.
Thats true for the other side as well
so you acknowledge that National create a nanny state as well?…what’s your argument then?
People who go on about nanny state aren’t necessarily anti-gay or anti-gay marriage.
Just thought I’d put that out there
So what? That’s not what millsy said, it’s the inverse of it.
Your strawman is an idiot.
Yup, just yesterday the MC reminded everybody that a greenie nanny state would ban the kids shemozzle and all the while his events insurance was provided by nana ACC.
Sounds like a lot of fun (the shemozzle that is not banning it)
Ironically it was the MC’s beloved National Party that brought in all the PC greenie nanny state nonsense with the OSH legislation.
Last time I looked, the actual greenies were calling for some of that PC nanny state nonsence to be relaxed a little so schools could keep their pools open.
We spent a beautiful in day in Hunterville, knee deep in kids, eating $3 spit roasted porky sandwiches, and, come 1pm, drinking beer in the marquee.
They’ve tidied things up with an alcohol ban outside of the two outlets so I’d highly recommend the event as a family outing and an insight into rural NZ.
“Why are anti gay people so fuckin dumb?”
Regarding the people holding those signs…English is probably their second language, and their English is way better than my second language.
Because they’re fucking ignorant, if they knew their history as well, they’d know the same line of argument was used to attack inter-racial marriages and justify enslaving africans and native americans. Also there’s the environment of the churches they’re members of, which are most likely newer, charismatic evangelical ones that aren’t big on independent thinking and question traditional bullshit.
Not dumb just fucking fascists.
Is it apathy that middle New Zealanders do not care about whatever the Nats are doing to the country ?
Why are there no real demonstrations or marches, other than small bands of malcontents.
Where are the left leaders (other than Russell Norman) ?
As summer comes upon us are we to see less and less time given to the machinations of the Government before the summer recess.
Where is Labour’s visions to enable this to be digested over the summer ?
No wonder the Greens have taken the left lead – against Labour they are frightening and will do so to the horses unless Labour takes a lead to the middle class voters.
Or as said, are middle New Zealaders muddling along apathetically waiting for the golden summer -these are the real votes, particularly the women.
The Greens voters are effectively the latte drinking, white middle class, comfortably off, well educated, chardonnay drinking, mainly women not the real working people of this country.
Putting profits before people in the alcohol industry has a long history in NZ: http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/nz-alcohol-industry-triumphs-again.html
M7.7 – 139km S of Masset, Canada
Ten minutes later
M5.8 – 154km S of Masset, Canada
Fix the housing affordability issue and many others ( Improved disposable income and the financial stress that is associated with this) greatly improves. But unfortunately any government is dependent upon maintaining the apathy towards politics, this will be maintained as long as there is the feeling that peoples wealth is increasing (home owners).
Introduce a CGT will not solve the increasing property and the exclusion of many, all that means is that the govt receives an increase in tax take (unless the bubble explodes )
http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/finance-minister-bill-english-video-5166774
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10843323
This year’s renewed 10-20 per cent surge in Auckland house prices to record highs has further focused attention.
http://www.interest.co.nz/property/home-loan-affordability
Opening up more land for subdivision. and reducing council red-tape will generate the greatest reduction in the cost of housing.
My eyes tend to roll when I hear the term ‘red-tape’…can you expend on what you mean? What is the red-tape, what is it preventing and how do we get rid of it.
Bill English said on Q+A that we need more high density housing…he then said that this is difficult because we can’t just build because people’s right to having a ‘view’ would be compromised. So on the one hand, its get rid of the red-tape, and on the other, English is promoting red-tape.
What do you mean by red-tape?
He means freedom from oppressive red tape and regulation in places he doesn’t live where it won’t affect his own views or property values.
There are current regulations in place that restrict what can be built. To change these would take time, plenty of time. Unless we allow Nanny state to intervene and to override due process, then who pays the cost to retrofit the infrastructure e.g. Road widths, sub base of roads are based on the carrying capacity of the road. Storm & waste water, water pressure, power, phone, gas capacity of an area which are based on no. of users.
opening more land would take 5-10 year to achieve in the planning then you have how these new areas dove tail into the existing infrastructure. We already have a growth plan being implemented for Auckland
http://www.arc.govt.nz/albany/fms/main/Documents/Auckland/Aucklands%20growth/Auckland%20regional%20growth%20strategy.pdf
Many developments have covenants in place that have mim restrictions on size of dwelling, building materials, only one dwelling per lot which is in place to protect other residents.
One note when comparing historic house affordability one should remember that house sizes have increased, so the cost to build is greater in 1980 it was 150m, 10 years later 200m2. The cost to build this additional 50m2 would be $70-100k
http://www.qv.co.nz/propertyinformation/KnowledgeCentre/Average+house+size+by+age10052011.htm
Really. Like the reduction in red tape which caused leaky homes.
That was supposed to push down house prices too, if I remember rightly.
The best way to reduce house prices is to limit the ability of banks to push up speculative housing investment, AND supply state housing.
Prohibiting land sales to non residents would help also.
KJT (tongue in cheek) this aspect has been successful. Just look at the discount that is placed on mono plastered houses as to those “safe” B&T and other safe building materials and both the price and the time it takes to sell.
Agree with limiting the ability for banks to loan on property.
Also should property drop the banks will be safe all the lose attributed to would be born by the land owner or insurance company that the mortgage protection is held by.
No it won’t – it’ll push the costs up. Slightly cheaper houses, far more running costs.
Really want to drop house prices? Then do this. I’m sure you’ll find house prices dropping quite rapidly as people figure out that it’s better not owning.
Found this site ( http://votes.wotfun.com/ ) and a few interesting votes by Winston Peters. His reputation as a dick is kind of well deserved, it horrifies me that people plan to [seriously] vote for him next election. 😮
* Human Rights Act – Votes against
* Civil Unions Act – Votes against
* Homosexual Law Reform Act – Votes against
* Prostitution Reform Act – Votes against
* Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill (to allow gay marriage) – Votes against
* New Zealand Bill of Rights Act Act – Votes against
* Death With Dignity 1995 Bill – Votes against
* Crimes (Abolition of Force as a Justification for Child Discipline) Amendment [2nd Reading] Bill – Votes Against
* Care of Children Amendment Act – Votes against
Interesting site, thanks. And feel free to repost about Peters lots prior to the next election 😉
Well I voted for him last election, mainly because he was such a rabble rouser. Now he has a lot of political power though, I am definitely going to disagree with his party (and vote for another); a quick flick through his party’s website and I am already in disagreement. Winston here ( http://nzfirst.org.nz/what-we-stand-for/constitutional-review ) argues to remove the treaty of Waitangi from legislation i.e. turn back race relations a hundred years.